early preview of the halloween costume

give me the camera, originally uploaded by bookemdano1978.

Many of you know how much Ross and I love holidays, especially Halloween. We thought that you might like a sneak preview of Elliott's costume.

This year, he's going to be a baby. WIth a spoon. And a bib that says "baby's first halloween".

Isn't it scary?

Not In Our House; The Augie Curse!

I hope that all of the Cub fans that wore blue and painted their faces and paid for tickets at Chase Field enjoyed getting spanked two consecutive nights by a bunch of rookies and role players.

$300 MM for a bunch of guys that give up gopher balls and go 4 for 26.

Props to the dbacks pen even if Valverde is a kook.

How this team is in the playoffs is a mystery to me, but they just keep winning by playing the right way. Even fill in Augie Ojeda is tearing it up (Cubs fans should remember him).

It make take another couple of games, but we are off to the NLCS (along with the Rockies). Nice work NL West (best division in baseball) and nice work to two teams with homegrown talent - I love how all of the east coast broadcasters that have focused on the Cubs and Phillies are now scrambling.

The picture doesn't do it justice

ouch, originally uploaded by bookemdano1978.

Ross is a good dad. He really does his fair share of baby duties and most of all, he gets up with Elliott in the night. I appreciate that more than he'll ever know.

Early in the morning on Thursday, as he got up with Elliott, Ross crashed into a small ottoman in the room. He hurt his toe. Not just any toe but his defective, scary, looks like the top has been chopped off toe.

He needs some sympathy and he's not getting it from me. Please, feel sorry for his nubby toe and his very dry, very scratchy feet.

Customer Service, Part Deux: The unwanted visitor at the table

As if things can't get any worse. I obviously have cooties. As I mentioned to Ross a couple of weeks ago, you all better start rockin' the "FBP" because apparently I am a carrier. Or I have leprosy without being able to see it.

Today, I attended a conference in Provo on differentiated instruction. Yes, an education conference and it was good enough that I'll actually go back tomorrow. I got stuck in a terrible traffic jam on my way to Happy Valley and though I wasn't late, I cut it pretty close. As I walked into the ballroom I realized that my tardiness may have cost me a seat as the room for the workshop was full, maybe 600 people or so squeezed together like sardines. I started scanning for an empty chair in one corner of the room and as I worked my way across saw that right in front of me was a table with empty seats.

There were 10 seats at the table and 4 of them were being saved by stuff. I took one of the empty seats. Big mistake. Little did I know that the other 6 seats were being saved by invisible stuff. I should have smelled the marked territory, but I didn't. As the conference got started, the 4 saved seats showed up and soon their friends followed and guess what, there weren't enough spots to rest all their cutesy, groupy butts because I took one of their chairs. I thought nothing of it until we were told to discuss a couple of questions with the people seated at our table. As I turned to discuss, all the women of whom were now scorning me for being a loner and taking one of their seats looked at me and then turned away, allowing me to have a discussion with their hair and shoulder pads.

This happened all three times we were told to discuss. I finally found someone else to talk to but she was stupid. I told her that I work for UEN and she asked me if I could help her find a new reading specialist for her district. Um, sure! That's what I do. I'm my own monster.com, I walk around with people's resumes, and am all about content literacy. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

After lunch, I sat somewhere else.

Customer Service

First and foremost, Elliott is finished with his helmet. After 3 months he improved from a 12 mm differential to a 6 mm one. The goal was 5 mm or smaller but at this point, we'd be keeping it on him for another month for 1 mm. That's the good news, no more helmet. Elliott and I were very pleased. Yeah!

Though happy to have the helmet off we are, the experience at the doctor's today was less than pleasant. I was completely positive that our appointment today was at 1:00 pm. I checked my planner and thought I read 1 pm. We got to the office of the plastic surgeon who has been supervising our helmet experience and I checked us in, noting that we were 10 minutes early and would be happy to wait. The first receptionist ignored us, pretending not to see us at her desk. Maybe her multi-colored spikey hair was in the way. The second receptionist, let's call her Big Boobies, looked at her schedule and told us that we were supposed to have come at Noon. Big Boobies wasn't nice about it. Neither was her clone, Bib Boobies II, at the other desk. I'm not sure who was at fault, me or them but regardless, Elliott and I were 50 minutes late for our appointment. All the helmet kids were gone and replaced by women seeing the doctor for, you guessed it, new boobies.

Now, I realize that I made an error, and I apologized profusely. Boobies I and II were not in any way receptive to my apology. Neither was Boobies the Bombshell Nurse who took us back to a room or Boobies the Head Measurer. (They must all get a discount) I'M SORRY WE WERE LATE! Apparently, no one is every late to the plastic surgeon's office. They squeezed us in (no pun intended) and I think because they were ticked off at me, told us that Elliott graduated! No more helmet. That was nice. The doctor however, told me to schedule an appointment for 6 months from now to check on his progress and the small dent in the back of his head. As I went to the front desk, the Boobies were no wear to be found. Elliott and I just left w/o making a follow-up appointment.

Here's the thing that bothers me. I readily admitted that I made a mistake. I was as cordial about it as possible. They could have told me that I needed to reschedule, or as nicely as possible told me that they'd get us in. Or, they could have called the day before like all other good doctor's offices and reminded me, avoiding the error in the first place. I just don't understand why people who are in the customer service industry are so rude sometimes. I realize that, unlike all the women (and it's only women) who work for the plastic surgeon look like the just stepped off of of "Doctor 90210" and I am a lowly house wife with an 8 month old helmet baby who spends less time making herself presentable for public outings than they do putting on lip liner, but holy cow! Be nice! Why is it so hard to be nice? It's your job. You are the receptionist! You receive people! Be hospitable!

Good grief. At least we don't have to go back. Yeah!