Busymom.net

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Hurricane Gustav - Three letters earlier than Katrina
2008-08-30 21:19:00
We're preparing the house again for New Orleans Friend and her family. As much as we enjoy seeing them, perhaps a potentially disastrous hurricane isn't the best way to get together for a visit. I guess it's time to resurrect the Jim Cantore Weather Channel Drinking Game. We'll see.
More About: Katrina , Letters , Hurricane

Easy come, easy go
2008-08-26 07:07:00
The kids have been in school a couple of weeks now, and Busy Boy (7th grade, can you believe that?) has been uncharacteristically doing his homework on his own, without complaint. We're trying to stand back and let him take care of it, so I have no idea if he's doing it right, but we'll take it. Busy Boy: "Aren't you proud of me for doing my work by myself?" Me: 'Yes, I am. I'm very impressed." Busy Boy (somewhat joking): "I guess I'm just growing up." Me: "I have to tell you, I miss a lot of things about you being little, but your screaming and yelling and not getting your homework done properly is not on that list. Oh, by the way, have you had a science test, yet?" Busy Boy: "I have one tomorrow. (Pause) Oh, I brought the wrong book home." Me: *sigh* Busy Boy: "Hunh, I guess my childhood is back."
More About: Parenting , Easy

Dog update
2008-08-24 06:35:00
Just thought I'd catch you up on stray Rottweiler central. There's good news and bad news. Bad news first, I guess. We were seriously considering keeping him. He's a great dog, friendly and very playful, has never been aggressive in any way, just a big, "I'm so happy to be here" kinda guy. Unfortunately, his enthusiasm killed our elderly cat. Or, at least we think it did. Both big dog and Oliver (the cat) roamed the side yard of our house near the kitchen door, our main entrance. We were going to take big guy to the vet to get him checked out before putting him in the back with the other dogs, so he stayed on the front porch or on the side of the house. We've been watching him very, very carefully and he never bothered Ollie at all except for checking him out by sniffing, and a few half hearted attempts to get him to play. Like I said he loves to play and often bounds around the yard for no special reason. And, that is a lotta dog to be bounding around. We thin...
More About: Pets , Update

Busy Mom Barometer - The "Wake me up when next week is through" edition
2008-08-22 16:49:00
Coffee of the Day: Maxwell House Listening to: WMVY Today's Mental Jukebox Selection: In the Ayer (a-a-a-ayer) (Has sound, because it's, you know, a video) (Shut up, and stop judging my earworms. I have a teenager.) E-mail spam subject line of the day: "Gypsies violate Paris Hilton" Reading: Lots of medical records. Wanting: It to be August 29th. Day job kicking mah arse. Writing: Not much, obviously. Wondering: When did this trend of companies telling me that a fee or something else distasteful is "for my convenience"? There is nothing convenient for me about paying extra money. Stop it. If there's a fee for something, just state it.
More About: Wake , Week , Edition , Busy

Need a Rottweiler? We have an extra.
2008-08-15 16:23:00
Big guy is still with us. We're going to put up some posters and call the Humane Society, but I doubt they'll have room for him. We'll take him to the vet to check for ID, but I'm not going to hold my breath about that. Well, I shouldn't hold my breath, anyway give the fact I haven't been breathing right since mid-July. Um, whatever... Anyway, I'm pretty sure he was dumped, we live out in the country, kinda and it's happened before. This is actually our second uninvited Rottweiler. Local folks? Ask around, post his picture. And if, oh, say you work in the media and have a popular blog? It'd be awesome if you'd help me out. (@nitweet, I'm looking at you)
More About: Pets , Extra

What's in a name?
2008-08-15 06:16:00
Me (watching Olympics): "I think I'd like to change my name to 'Nastia'". Busy D. (without looking away from the TV): "Get me something to eat, Nastia."
More About: Parenting

Help?
2008-08-13 03:55:00
This sweet boy has been abandoned at our house. We have 3 other dogs, we can't keep him. He's an older male, as nice as he can be. Still has an imprint from where someone removed his collar. Sorry for the bad cell phone picture, I'll put up more later. I'm taking a chance that someone local might respond. Please contact me if you'd like to know more about him.
More About: Pets

When code attacks
2008-08-13 00:51:00
Yes, I know my site is all horked up in IE. Stand by.
More About: Technical , Code , Attacks

Overheard
2008-08-12 21:48:00
"Why hasn't anyone found the secret Krabby Patty formula? They've been looking a long time." - Busy D. mumbling to himself while watching Sponge Bob
More About: Parenting

Not a post
2008-08-12 06:20:00
If I were to write a post right now it'd be full of the same ol' shiite as of late. You know, back to school arriving like a freight train, summer reading not done, sports practices, third nipple, MIL here for a week, still sick. You know, all the usual stuff. So, I ain't gonna do it.
More About: Parenting , Post

PIC-0040.jpg
2008-08-10 21:09:00
.flickr-photo { border: solid 1px #000000; } .flickr-frame { float: left; text-align: center; margin-right: 15px; margin-bottom: 15px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Sent from Busy Mom's Blackjack

High School Freshmancal
2008-08-10 06:53:00
So, I'm officially the parent of a high school student as of yesterday. Ain't that weird? If you've been around here for a while, Busy Girl was in 3rd grade when I started around these parts. I thought it'd be more of a dramatic event than it was, really. It actually kind of snuck upon us, you know, one day you're all, "Hey, it's only July, I love summer, " and the next moment, you're all, "Omgwtfbbq, what day do they go back, again? Is it tomorrow?" Since she took a class this summer (for credit, not remedial), and has been going to various sports training and practices at school, her insertion into high school has been kind of gradual, and the first day wasn't so dramatic. The thing I hadn't really factored in to the whole "new experience" thing was my insertion into high school as a parent. I am just as much of a freshman as she is. There was a cookout at school the other night. I met Busy Girl there after volleyball practice and, when I walked up to the gr...
More About: Parenting , School , High School , High

Summer. Please report back to my office.
2008-08-06 08:27:00
Since droning on endlessly about being sick and, ZOMG the steroid crazies, isn't exactly curing me, I suppose I'll stop talking about it. Or, not. I really don't know because, see above: steroid. crazy. The voices are telling me to keep blogging about it, though. OK, OK, I'm better, but not all there, yet. Working on it, though. Likely a viral infection I just can't shake. My own doctor has yet to call me back in nearly 2 weeks. It's now turned into a bit of an experiment for me. You see, I'm only 43, left them more than one message (same day appointment requests go to the nurse's voice mail) explaining I've been in the ER twice, urgent care once and I need to be followed up because I might have a blood clot on my lung or I might have congestive heart failure (I don't) and they have YET to call back. I'm going to see how long it takes, if ever, to get a call. I did end up seeing a lovely new doctor and he's great and I'm gonna live eventually, so all is ...
More About: Parenting , Office , Summer , Report , Back

The White Trash Mom Handbook
2008-08-05 19:28:00
Today's a big day for White Trash Mom and Tacky Princess! The White Trash Mom Handbook is in stores TODAY! Seriously, you can get yours today! You have to hurry, though, it's almost time to go back to school, so you'll need to know how to navigate the muffia, how to fake it for the bake sale and what the "rest of us" wear to PTA meetings. Find out what all the famous people are saying about the White Trash Mom Handbook, so you'll be in the know. I'm not just saying this because Busy Mom Blog is listed in the book, I'm saying it because I've had the pleasure of meeting Michelle and Molly and they're fun to hang around with:
More About: Books

Not what you want to hear after doing camp laundry
2008-08-04 08:04:00
"Here's some colon pants." - my MIL handing me a pair of pants after she had finished washing 3 weeks of Busy Boy's camp stuff. After my initial surprise and horror, I realized she meant they belonged to his friend, "Collin" and she had taken them out of the stack so I could return them. But, now "eeew". I can hardly look at them.
More About: Parenting , Laundry , Hear , Camp

It goes on and on my friends
2008-08-01 05:07:00
OK, so where did we leave off In the Tale of Busy Mom's respiratory failure? Oh, yes, I was in Cincinnati, home of some delicious Graeter's Ice Cream. I tell you about that (I also still have to tell you about the rest BlogHer, but the statute of limitations in talking about that may have already run out) as soon as I can get my thoughts together, but overall, I was feeling pretty good, save a cough or two (or three, or four, or five...). OK, so you wouldn't have wanted to have been in the next hotel room over from me. Anyway, I came home Tuesday night and went to work as usual on Wednesday (yesterday) morning. I'm still a little wheezy in the mornings, but not too bad, so I felt fine to go to work. Actually, I've never really felt "ill" with any of this. I walked into my office, and started coughing, and pretty much never stopped. I went outside for a bit and felt OK, went back in and it started over. I called my doctor, and since Jesus Himself has to wait 6 weeks ...
More About: Friends , Sick

Still kickin'
2008-07-29 15:20:00
My wheezy self is still alive. I'm on the mend (mostly, I think). The party was a success, I did end up being able to go downstairs without dying, but I think you've probably figured that out by now. I'm out of town briefly and I'll Cincinnati is outside my window. More later on that. Other than that, I try to act like a normal human despite enough steroids in me to put Major League Baseball to shame.
More About: Sick

What now?
2008-07-27 03:44:00
Today's episode of "W.T.F?" finds your heroine, Busy Mom, unable to go downstairs in her own home without having an asthma attack. And her teenage daughter is in the middle of hosting a party. With boys. Let us go back in time: Busy Mom woke up this morning feeling none better, and set out to Doc In Ye Olde Box (no, smartass, not the "box doc") where, after a 3 hour wait, the nice doctor says, "Sick! You are..." She gave Busy Mom a breathing treatment, 2 shots, 3 medicines, a chest x-ray (clear) and the proclamation that, "asthma that just pops up like that in an adult can be serious, get thee to the pulmonologist at once." Busy Mom reminded her that Busy Mom was actually sick last week with likely bronchitis and the first dose of antibiotics probably just pissed off said bug and that Busy Mom probably didn't have a pulmonary embolus, or cardiac asthma (the heart thing, what is with the heart thing? Am I really "that" age?). Doc in the Box sort of agreed, but admonished ...
More About: Parenting

My Friday night. Yours?
2008-07-26 05:51:00
.flickr-photo { border: solid 1px #000000; } .flickr-frame { float: left; text-align: center; margin-right: 15px; margin-bottom: 15px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }
More About: Night , Friday

Cause I can hear me breathe, it's time for me to leave
2008-07-25 01:17:00
Seems I didn't cough much after last night's post because, well, in order to cough you have to be able to move air in your lungs and all and the BlogHerbola virus doesn't let you do that. I went to bed around 11:45 or so and woke up 20 minutes later feeling mighty, mighty funny. And not in a blog with a lampshade on your head funny, either. My right lung felt very, very tight and I was making funny noises when I breathed. I have an inhaler, and it helped somewhat, but not for very long. I got out my stethoscope (I used to be a real nurse, I haven't always pushed papers, ya know) and decided, "Well, that ain't right." I tried to sleep some more, but no dice. Every time I did fall asleep, I'd wake up 15 minutes later gasping for air. I took a shower around 4am and drank some hot tea. At least I was clean and hydrated while I was dying short of breath. Thinking I might have pneumonia or fulminating pulmonary edema or something, I decided to go see the doctor around ...
More About: Time , Hear , Leave , Sick , Breathe

Vapo Feet
2008-07-24 07:25:00
As my Twitter peeps are painfully aware, I have a nasty cold and the coughing is out of control. It even caused me to lose my dinner, actually. You're welcome. I have ransacked the cabinets, and have taken pretty much one of everything I can find, including some 5 year old cough medicine with codeine. No idea why it was still in there, but I thought it was worth a shot. No dice. Time passed and things actually got worse. My coughing is now starting to make my brain rattle inside my head. In a fit of desperation, I just broke out the Vick's Vaporub and put it on my feet. I have coughed twice. ADDED: Sorry, had to close comments. Spam Dammers
More About: Parenting , Feet

Lands' End free shipping code
2008-07-23 06:28:00
The good folks at Lands' End have sent me a free shipping code for you, dear readers. They've got lots of cool stuff for back to school, and summer stuff is on sale. I don't get anything if you use it, but you are more than welcome to buy a gift for me if the spirit moves you. Anyway, here ya go: FREE SHIPPING CODE: Good from July 24-30 Code : BACKPACK PIN: 2784 ADDED: Sorry, had to close comments. Spam Dammers.
More About: Shopping , Free , Shipping

BlogHer 2008 - The San Francisco Edition
2008-07-21 21:47:00
I have opened and closed Movable Type several times, not being able to quite organize my thoughts about the weekend at BlogHer. Additionally, I thought about not even writing this because you can find any number of BlogHer 2008 recaps most anywhere, and I know from experience that it gets old to read about it when you weren't there. I thought long and hard, and then I thought some more. Then I remembered some words of wisdom I once heard: "Eh, screw it. I'm doing it anyway." Of course, those words were what landed that particular philosopher in the Trauma Unit at work, but that's neither here nor there. Last Thursday, Lindsay and I took our in-marginal-health selves to the airport, because nothing says, "Hey, new friends!" like hurling and wheezing all over them. We chatted the four hours to San Diego away keeping one eye warily out the window (it was her eye, because like I'm really going to put one of my eyes out the window at 10,000 feet?) for Arizona because the p...
More About: San Francisco , Edition , Francisco

Busy Extortionist
2008-07-11 18:17:00
Overheard upstairs at home last night: Busy Boy (age 11, until tomorrow) to Busy D. (age 6): "NO! I will not give you money to leave me alone!!"
More About: Parenting

BlogHer Bingo
2008-07-10 21:40:00
It's that time of year. Many blogs are abuzz with one thing - BlogHer. Some may find it interesting, others may not, That's not the point here. With more and more blogs talking about BlogHer, I've noticed a trend. There are common themes, words, phrases and ideas and I thought, "Hey, why don't we involve everyone?" Let's play BlogHer Bingo !* Print your Official BlogHer Bingo Card and cover a square each time you read the word or phrase in that square. When you get a whole row covered, stand up and yell, "BLOGHER!" Or not. It's up to you. * (disclaimer - I'm going to BlogHer and I'm really looking forward to it. I went last year and I liked it. I respect that people have lots of different feelings about it, this is a joke. Batteries not included. Professional driver, closed course. Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.)

Ending an e-mail
2008-07-09 05:09:00
I had to send an e-mail last week, and I stewed for the longest time about how to close it. It was a personal e-mail that needed more than a "See ya" or a, "Thanks" and a little less than "Love" but, not having a closing wasn't right either as I needed to convey the right balance of intimacy and casualness. Took me forever to decide. What do you use to close e-mails? I think "Best" or "Best Regards" is pompous, "Love" gives the wrong idea in certain situations, "Yours truly" sounds like a romance novel. "Yours 'til Niagra Falls?" "Smell Ya Later" works, but you know, not always. Am I the only person who over-thinks this stuff?
More About: Mail , Parenting , E-Mail , Ending

My weenie has a first name, it's B-U-S-Y-M-O-M
2008-07-08 00:24:00
July 7th, really? Seems that the globe-hopping lifestyle I lead cuts down on time to write at this here collection of pixels. Returned home from back to back trips, first to the beach and then to St. Louis for the Fourth of July. Oh, and I had a lovely dinner with the Linsdsay and my new friend, Tori in between trips. We made plans to paint San Francisco chartreuse during BlogHer next week. Next week? Um, yeah. Pack. Buy something to pack... Anyway, our annual visit to (sometimes reader) Fourladsnme's St.Louis home was a blast, as always. We went to a parade and party-hopped on Friday, eating more than our share of, well, everything. Saturday brought hurling (the game, not a consequence of Friday, silly) and a trip to Six Flags. More flags. More fun. More slaps to that guy in the commercial. The kids rode themselves silly on Batman, Mr. Freeze and the Ninja. The adults partook in a few rides, and I was very grateful that there were younger, less puke prone adults (...
More About: Vacation

Not a digital camera abuser, really.
2008-07-01 16:55:00
Knock on whatever, but our appliances have resisted their annual summer failures. There's every possibility that it's due to the fact we've had to replace darn nearly everything, but we'll take what we can get. However, the latest twist on busted stuff is that we've killed 3 digital cameras since last week. Seriously. No real explanation for any of them other than digital camera rapture. It was just their time to go, I suppose. I gots to have a point and shoot-ish digital camera before BlogHer. I have my lovely Canon Digital Rebel, but I'm not sure I want to carry that with me every day and I always keep a camera in my purse. I've taken to entering online contests to win a camera, but what is up with all of them being open to UK residents only? I don't live in the UK, but I take lots of pictures. Where for art the "Win a camera!" contests in the US? We didn't mean to kill them, honest. Great, now the digital SLR camera police are probably going to invest...
More About: Photography , Digital Camera , Camera

Scene from a long car ride
2008-06-30 21:21:00
Busy Boy: (Insert some injustice of life here, I don't remember what the problem was.) Busy D.: "Busy Boy, stop whining. You sound like me."
More About: Parenting , Ride , Scene , Long

Home again, home again
2008-06-30 02:27:00
Home from the beach. Yay. Despite a few missteps, a good time was had by all. One of the secrets of grown ups is that a vacation really isn't one when you're the parent, and double that when you're the Sandwich Generation poster child. The fun doesn't end, though, as the house is crawling with non-native children. Summer is exhausting for those of us who aren't teachers or students. Back to work tomorrow, as they are funny about wanting me to you know, be there.
More About: Home , Vacation