how's it feel to be frozen?

i've just returned from the dentist on the coldest day of 2006 so far. let me tell you, its freaking freezing out there. there is no way chicago is this cold, miss ellie. i turned one corner and the wind was whipping in my face so hard that it may have been the coldest i have ever been. for the record, the coldest i have ever been prior to this was at the top of sunday river getting off a chairlift and turning without stopping to get down the mountain as quickly as possible. only to find at the bottom that they weren't running any more lifts to the top of the mountain because it was too cold.

whenever i get that familiar wind in my face that is so cold that it hurts, i always think about mountain climbers - mount everest and the like climbers. how can they take it? i know that it is so much colder than what seems unbearable to me here at sea level, and i just can't imagine it. they have icicles in their beards for god's sake. anyway, i don't know why i am talking about mountain climbers. suffice to say, i think they are nuts.

the dentist was great. no outbursts and there was a very nice woman who hung out while i was getting my teeth cleaned and played with bridget. it was the best. i need to floss regularly though - especially while pregnant. ouch!

super troupers

this morning we decided to go and check out the fairly new ikea in stoughton. since our move has been postponed until after may at the very least, we couldn't take the clutter in bridget's room any longer and headed out for some cheap storage. michael and i have a rule about enormous, human-filled stores (costco/target/etc) on weekends which is that we want to get there when they open - usually 10 - get our stuff and get the hell out. we weren't that sure where stoughton was but thought it was pretty far so we left at 9. we showed up at 9:30 and were thinking that we should drive around a bit and check out the area until we noticed tons of people streaming in the place. it was amazing. a non-stop line of people a half an hour before the store opens, nowhere near the christmas season.

since everyone is getting inside the place we decide that maybe the 10 AM opening is just a guideline and not necessarily the law. we were wrong, but those swedes are pretty damn smart. the cafeteria is open and they have scrambled eggs, potatoes and bacon for 99 cents. yum yum.

we managed to make it through the place and keep the spending to a minimum. although once we finally move, we decided that bridget will get one of their fun little kid rooms and michael will get his office stuff there at the very least. i can hardly wait now. i'm sure when its time to actually go and there is a 1 to 2 month old in the picture, i won't be that excited about it but we'll see.

anyway, that's the scoop on today. not too much excitement but we will finally have order in the red room on hanover street.

clambake

there is nothing better on a cold and wet february day than a good old new england clam bake. alright, maybe its a little bit better on a hot and sandy july day but that's what we had today and it was so great. clam chowder - not necessary but good - mussels, steamers, corn on the cob and a 1.5 pound steamed lobster, all courtesy of legal sea food - my new favorite restaurant. and all for $34.95! you can't imagine the amount of mussels and steamers that were on the plate, it was completely insane.

sadly michael couldn't finish his. even more sadly, i could. our waiter came over and told him it was a valiant effort (as i was still going strong but nearing the end) so i told him that i wasn't that impressed. then he tells us that it is rare for people to eat all of the food. oh well, i guess being prego has its advantages. i swear to you that i could have eaten another tail. i wasn't even close to being full when we were done. so strange.

i've realized that when i was pregnant with bridget i exercised so that i could bust through labor quickly and have a quick recovery. this time i am going to the gym so i can eat like an animal. i have a serious candy issue this time around. i can't stop. this morning i went to cvs (on my way home from the gym) to buy michael some cough drops and as i'm paying i grabbed a hershey bar. not to eat right then. just so i had chocolate. for when i needed it.

mother of the year

this morning i found my little cherub standing in the running shower with her purple fuzzy PJs on laughing and saying "wowwowwow." i seriously walked out of the bathroom and into her room to get her towel and back - gone for 30 seconds tops.

its true what they say. ack!

master pimp

its true. i pimped my entire family tonight. including an unsuspecting niece. poor thing thought she was coming to stay in boston for some good old beantown fun. HA! it actually started out that way. we went out for dinner, we had plotted the hit on mike's pastry to be followed up at home by a movie. fun fun fun.

but then we chose the wrong street to walk down on the way home. the one that goes by the church. i noticed that there were people coming in and out of the church, which is fairly strange to see on a wednesday night. a WEDNESDAY NIGHT! oh crap, is ash wednesday. but is it? i had meat for dinner! i can't quite believe it so i ask this older north end woman who was coming out of church - is it ash wednesday? and she says - yeah, you can still go. just go in. i noticed that she really didn't get clobbered with ashes but hey, it happens. so, i look down at my watch and see that its 7 and figure that a mass must be starting and i inform the group of innocents that we're going.

so we're sitting there going through a full mass, thank you very much. bridget is hanging tough for the first half hour but then gets a little restless. and a lot tired. the priest kept referring to the "mass of saint peter's chair" and i'm thinking that this is a little strange but whatever, i guess i never knew that ash wed was also the mass of st peter's chair.

there is another little girl at the mass who is behaving perfectly. and she's dressed to the freaking nines. a dark velvet dress, patent leather shoes, the whole nine yards. i'm busy thinking that some italians sure are crazy about their holy days - at the same time as i'm hoping her whole family (of 12) doesn't notice my kid in her levi's, chuck taylors and football jersey. she and bridget were about the same size but she was talking so i decided that she was older. which is why - of course - she was so well-behaved. mmm hmmm. anyway, this little girl looks over at bridget who is getting a little excited, practically shouting wowwowwow nonstop - um, yeah, we go to church every week - and notices that i am saying "shhh" to her and decides to help and shushes her too. a few times.

so i'm a little annoyed at this point and thinking thoughts that you aren't supposed to think in church. i'm also starting to wonder if this little girl is none other than francesca - of bridget's christening fame. long story short on that one, bridget cried nonstop for the first time ever during the entire christening while francesca didn't make a peep. i really wouldn't have cared except that this was a major undertaking for francesca's family and they had hired a professional photographer and videographer. i cringe at the thought of the tortelli's watching francesca's big day on film to the soundtrack of bridget screaming bloody murder. back to today, finally bridget has had enough. rightfully so. michael takes her out into the entrance to hang until its ash time. at this point, the mother and one of the kid's grandmothers look over at me and smile - its too bad about your kid is the smile i get (in my paranoid and sensitive mind). but then my paranoia is confirmed as the mother's smile and gaze is turned towards her own kid and then to her husband as they share a little "we're so lucky" moment. i can't even begin to explain how pissed off this makes me and i spend the rest of the mass envisioning walking over, getting right in her face and asking how old her daughter is and explaining that bridget is only 17 months old and a VERY good girl. she is TALL for her age people! my location has no effect on my daydream.

anyway, the mass ends. no ashes. strange. okay, they're giving them after its "officially" over. then the priest says something about petitions to st anthony and how you can stay if you want or leave. clarissa and i look at each other - very confused - but we stay because GD it, i am getting my ashes! as i'm sitting there petitioning to st anthony that he help me find my lost mind, i look at the priest and see that he has NO ASHES. neither does the old school widow dressed literally from head to toe in black. i'm sorry but there is no way this is her first mass of the day. that's when it hits me. its not ash wednesday. its st peter's chair day.

now NEXT wednesday, that's ash wednesday. see you then francesca!

september spawned a...cher fan?

its true, its true. and i never would have known had it not been for weight watchers. you see they have this commercial. they play it about 50 times a day at my estimation and it is my favorite commercial out there because as it starts...

"you're standing on the edge of nowhere"
...bridget stops whatever she is doing, wherever in the apartment she is and runs to the TV

"there's only one wayee out, but your heart's gotta go there"
...she stands and stares. riveted by the sound coming from the TV.

now the beat comes in and the kid can't control herself. she's dancing a sort of axl rose meets george jefferson kind of dance and it is the best. it is so funny. and her face is deadly serious with her mouth open making a little O. i must find out the name of this song and buy the CD.

who knew i loved cher so much? and weight watchers.

oh jell-o

have you tried jell-o lately? i got some for bridget to try. fat and sugar free - since her nutritive (?) intake is much more important than michael's and mine. not to mention, she has this habit of sucking on her food rather than chewing it, so i thought it would be really funny to watch her as the jell-o exploded into little bits once she started the sucking. fyi - it was - although the best part was putting the jell-o in her mouth only to have her keep her mouth open with the jell-o just behind her little bottom teeth as she laughed hysterically at it jiggling around not knowing what to do. word to the wise mothers - have a video camera ready when you introduce jell-o to your kidd-o, you never know what kind of footage your going to get.

anyway, i had some myself and LOVED it. it is so freaking good. damn all you frat boys and girls that put vodka in the mix and destroyed my love of this tasty little treat. as a beer hater i would always be pretty excited about the idea of jell-o shots at a party. but i would always be disappointed, and actually struggled when it came time to shoot the jell-o. but i'm back. thank you bridgie bear.

the year of the curler

okay, okay, i screwed up. i didn't know that CNBC had officially become the Curling National Broadcasting Company. i also didn't know that NBC owned USA, and didn't think to check out CNBC and MSNBC. i was wrong wrong wrong and nbc is wonderful for giving me options. thank you to my 2 readers for helping me find my way to olympic happiness.

on a bizarrely related note, michael was out in saint louis for work and post-dinner one of his customers took him out for drinks to none other than the saint louis curling club where he got to watch curling LIVE. there is more to the sweeping than meets the eye. the ice has little pebble-type bits on it and they sweep to steer "the rock" and change its speed. i'm ready to give it a shot. i think i'll be a natural since i am such a good homemaker. HA!

the best part is that he didn't even know about my little ranting blog but bought me a t-shirt from the club because he said it was so awesome. apparently curling is all the rage in st louis. not only that, it is an elitist sport. basically, the people who belong to the super swank golf and tennis clubs in the summer belong to the curling club for some winter entertainment. who knew that brooms, a rock and ice were hard to come by in middle america?

happy v'day kids

michael and i had our traditional valentine's day dinner last night. steak steak steak. its been too long. it was so freaking good. we had some polenta with spinach and butternut squash as well and i have to say, it may be my favorite meal. now if i could just add a half of a bottle of a big fat red wine, it would be perfect. next year it will happen.

tonight we are heading out to grendel's with bridget for a big old family v'day celebration. i will definitely be having some garlic bread with red sauce, i might need my own. yum yum yum.

i'll see if i can manage to dress bridget in some red and snap a few photos of her for your viewing pleasure.

here you go...what can i say? she isn't into posing for me. or sitting still for that matter.

why god, whyyyyyyy?

why is it that you can not watch the olympics live? it drives me insane. i can't stand that we are subjected to nbc's interpretation of what the public wants. i can assure you that i DO NOT want to watch figure skating. not singles. not doubles - oh excuse me, pairs. not during knee breaking years. not during michelle kwan heart breaking years. tell me about it tomorrow. show me the triple axels and the make-up and the falls then.

i understand that they bought the rights and all that crap but couldn't they have sold off other sports to other networks so that we could see it if we wanted to? i'd like to check out the biathalon and maybe even a little curling. okay, maybe not curling but i should have the option. infuriating.

nap wars

in an effort to break the habit of putting bridget to sleep while sitting IN her room, i've started sitting at the desk that is just outside of her room so that i can try and get something done. she can still check and see that i am here while she dozes off which was the general idea behind sitting and reading in her room. i actually loved sitting in there while she went to sleep. i got to read - a lot - and i got to watch her settle herself down.

the settling down is priceless. it ranges anywhere from kissing all of her animals and having conversations with them, to jumping up and down while holding onto the rail, to banging her head against the wall because she likes the sound, to twirling and ricocheting off of each side of the crib a thousand times, to saying MAMA over and over until she is gradually shouting the word only to drop it back down to her tiny little voice saying 'hi' when i finally give in and say 'yes?' she loves me the most at the end of the day and will give me loads of hugs and kisses from the crib because she knows that i am a sucker for them.

anyway, my point in mentioning this is that i am currently sitting at the desk outside her door sending her off to nap land. she has noticed that her diaper bag is now accessible inside her crib because the door is open so she is rifling through it pulling out diapers and anything else she can get her hands on and holding them high above her head while jumping up and down to proudly show me the contraband. she's good.

my tea's gone cold

bridget had her 3rd music shakers class today. she loves these classes. she kisses all the other kids and shakes her booty like its her job. she really is crazy cute dancing around. she's all business.

its grammy night. i used to be very excited for the grammies. do you remember when the moonwalk was unveiled? i do. i distinctly remembering needing to see it again because i wasn't quite sure of what i saw. somehow i don't think we're going to get anything quite so earth-shattering tonight, although they are certainly pushing the "what future great grammy moment will happen tonight?" and the "first there was elton john and eminem, then there was..." duet thing. i will hand it to the grammy people. eminem and elton was something else. i missed last year but i know that melissa etheridge was the talk of the town. will it be madonna in her olivia newton john "let's get physical" video tryout get-up? alicia and stevie duet? kelly clarkson squeaking - and i mean squeaking - out an acceptance speech? we're 30 minutes in and this is the best i can come up with - maybe i'll watch that george lopez show instead.

rule # 2153

the check that was cut and mailed on friday containing about half of our savings was NOT in today's mail. why should i be surprised? its not as if they have been honest and up front about anything with the house of horrors in bolton, so why start now when our money is at stake? i do not like these people. oh no i don't.

actually, today bridget and i took a road trip with stacey and lola to west hartford to look at many houses. not for us, no, we are chicago bound at this point still. but, it was interesting. west hartford is super cute and the houses seem to be priced reasonably. sidebar - reasonable to a person from eastern massachusetts may be slightly skewed. i still think they were worth what they were asking for the most part. anyway, we had the luxury of working with another of the undead. okay, maybe a little harsh, but i think these realtors handed over their souls when they got their little business cards. it really isn't nice to mess with people making such an emotional decision such as where they see growing old happily.

i made a new rule today - do not work with a real estate agent that is older than 30. they spend their wednesdays praying at the temple of the brilliant mofo who concocted the notion of the "buyers broker." these old cupcakes who were bored at home once the kids went off to school (which i shamelessly aspire to experience) and therefore decided to go into real estate for a little extra dough are reaping the benefits of this phenomena. they do nothing - not even a little research - and expect to get a half-commission for driving people around and showing them houses. and what do the buyer's care? they aren't paying the commission anyway. its ingenious. and in connecticut it is mandatory that you have a buyer's broker. the mofo must be from connecticut to get such a special tribute.

papa don't preach

so i am watching danny aiello out the window. they are filming a movie in the north end and have been down in front all day. its pretty funny to watch. everyone - seemingly - sits around for 20 minutes, someone yells action and they do this 2 minute scene. 2 minutes might actually be a stretch. then they sit around again. its amazing. danny aiello seems like a nice guy though, he gets his picture taken will all of the north end crazies. and there are plenty.

on the other side of the fence, you would be amazed at the massive amounts of people who apparently do not work and can sit and watch danny a and crew do nothing for hours. as i write this, i realize that by default i am one of them. HA! i've learned not to judge mothers over the past year, does this mean i am not supposed to judge people now too?! what is this world coming to? anyway, i don't know if that one is possible, although it would be nice.

ACTION! you can't believe how loudly they yell that word, i can hear it back in the kitchen.

december 2005

wow, nothing since 12/1 - its worse than i thought. i don't know what happened but i lost the ability to stay up past 10, which more often than not, happened to be when i wrote this thing. so, sorry posterity, i know that this is for you and i've been a bum. here's a summary of the past 2 months...

12/2 - planned on blogging, but didn't
12/3 - planned on blogging, but didn't
12/4 - planned on... haha, just kidding.

actually, i don't remember much of december's first half beyond christmas shopping, making the conscious decision to wish everyone a Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays, getting everything ready to close on the house we bought, feeling tired after days of playing with bridget and providing housing for baby #2. if i remember anything else, i'll throw it in.

12/15 - auntie ellen has a BABY GIRL. agnes camille is born via C-section (ouch!) at 6:41 PM. it is very sad because i wake up at about 1 AM with the tell-tale scratchy throat and head rapidly filling up with goo and am not allowed to go and meet my new niece. for TEN DAYS! she is very very cute in the pics though.
12/19 - received a call from our attorney - which we now have as a result of buying a house (so weird) - telling us that about 1/3 of the garage and the driveway were not technically on our property. oops. and by the way, the bank won't be giving us any money until the title is fixed.
12/20 - michael and i do not sleep much and both decide that the house in bolton might be a bit much for us to handle. we want out.
12/21 - happy birthday mom and mom-in-law
12/22 - no word from the other house camp and our lawyer is getting PISSED at the non-response. as are we. we tell him that we aren't interested in the house anymore and want to get out of the deal if possible.
12/25 - merry christmas! bridget has a fun time ripping open her new presents and enjoying her last christmas as the sole heir to the family fortune. she is so good and cute that i want to eat her up. that's most days though, not just christmas
12/26 - we all drive down to NYC to meet bridget's new cousin. she is a little cutie pie and bridget gives her lots of kisses and only a few paws to the head - eek!
12/27 - our second anniversary - the kid to years married one to one ratio WILL end here. we get my brother to come and hang out with us in boston and go to grendel's for our old tuesday night out ritual. it was loads of fun.

the last week of the month goes by pretty quickly. we continue to hear nothing from the seller of the house and are seriously sweating it out until thursday night when we are told that they are opting to use the 30 days that the P&S agreement allows to fix the title problem. so now we get to sweat out another 30 days. great.

the other bit of news that happens this week is that michael gets a big fat promotion that involves us moving to CHICAGO. now we are desperate to get out of the house in bolton. talk about things happening for a reason. anyway, as i mentioned, we've got 30 days to sweat it out.

more tomorrow. i promise? the super bowl just ended and i am tired. i didn't think i cared who won but we did. michael picked the right little square on the big grid and we are $200 richer. woo hoo.