ComicCon/Self-Challenge

Will is currently at Javits attending his first ComicCon with Mike today. I told him to bring me anything on X-Men. :-)

He and Mike actually went yesterday, and waited on line for over an hour before the Fire Marshalls announced that no more tickets would be sold. My heart broke for Will when Mike told me, because he was so excited just looking in at all the craziness going on. He didn't even say anything; he just quietly told Mike, "We'll find something else to do today." That actually makes me feel even worse than if he had blown a gasket. So I told Mike to just get tickets online and make sure he gets in today, and that's what he did. I'm so excited for Will, because I know as an adult, comic conventions are so much fun - imagine being 6, really getting into superheroes and then going to a place that's wall-to-wall comic books and people walking around dressed as superheroes.

Breaking him into geek culture is awesome. I'll have him dressed up like a Colonial Space Marine any day now...

On another note, I signed on for the Self Magazine Self-Challenge the other day. I sign up for it every year, and unbelievably enough, the only year I actually completed it was the year I was pregnant. It's three months of Self magazine challenging you to work out, eat right, and take care of yourself. Month one's challenges are to eat 1600 calories a day (I actually have to go a little lower, since I'm on Weight Watchers and trying to lose, not maintain), do three 30-minute cardio workouts three times a week, and three 20-minute strength sessions three times a week. This year, I'm going to do it and I invite my friends - and anyone else reading this - to join me. You can add friends to your profile (Self.com will e-mail them an invitation) and check each other's progress (no, we won't see each other's weight, just our workouts) and send each other private messages. It'll be fun, c'mon!

I was on a cooking rampage yesterday, check out Domestic Goddesses to see what I made. And yes, granola was most definitely on the menu. :-)

Girls' Month Out...

So we've been trying to get another girls' night out going since our last one before the holidays. And things keep coming up that we just add to the list of things we want to do - knitting lessons, cooking, tea parties, redesigning one another's apartment spaces, learning to bead/sew, you name it. So now we just refer to it as "Girls' Month Out" and laughingly add things to the list. I just told Stacey we have to get favors after reading the series of posts on her sister's bridal shower.

Which started me thinking (oh no, run for the hills!) - why shouldn't we? Shouldn't we celebrate the fact that we all take some time out of our insanity to enjoy one another's company? I think we need to find something cute and fun - or that could just be me making an excuse to add yet another cute espresso mug to my bulging cabinets. But I do think something is deserving to mark the momentous occasion of the Girls' Night Out once it finally happens.

And when will it happen? Maybe we should blog the evolution of the next Girls' Night Out, since it seems to take a Herculean amount of planning. I'm not being sarcastic here, it really is insane trying to get six or so women together who all work and have families.

What's the first step? Setting a date? And a backup date? Let's start planning!

Star Lucky

I wanted to write a little tribute to one of our family, who left us late this morning.

Star Lucky arrived at our home a few months shy of 3 years ago. He was barely a week old, having been found by my sister-in-law, Julie, in her father's backyard. He and a sibling had somehow been separated from their litter. His sister died later that day, but this plucky little thing survived and came to live with us. I was very pregnant with Alex and home on bed rest, so we spent a lot of time together in the early days. I bottle-fed him formula (yes, they do make formula for infant cats - imagine!) and found out that baby kittens don't know instinctively to use their bladders - so yes, I helped him figure that out too. I kept him in a cardboard box, filled with towels and a beanie baby, next to me as I knit and watched bad daytime television.

Will loved Star. He named him. I still don't know to this day where he got Star Lucky from as a name, but he christened him that and it stuck. Star helped Will get ready to be a big brother. He held him in his little hands, a perfect size for a child. He couldn't wait for Star to be big enough to sleep with him. And when Alex arrived, Will had a better idea of how to care for something little, even more little than he was.

Star shared Alex's crib, much to my consternation. He was fascinated by Alex and wanted to study him. After Alex outgrew his crib, Star moved right in, making himself at home. I swear, he never quite forgave me for taking down his bed when we moved Alex into the bunk bed.

Will finally got his wish with the arrival of his bunk bed. Will and Star commandeered the top bunk. Every night, after patroling the apartment, Star would jump up and settle in at the foot of Will's bed.

He was a little brother and a cushion (Alex would settle down on Star's flank to watch TV). He was a pain in the posterior to our older cat, Gypsy. He terrified our fish, staring for long stretches of time hungrily at their tank and tapping it with his paw as if to figure out how he could push through the plexiglass and play with the funny things zipping around in there.

There's so much more I could say, but I don't think I'm able to right now. For now, I'll just say that he was our friend. And for some reason that I'm not universally privvy to, he went to sleep this morning for good. He wasn't even 3 years old yet, but I guess, to paraphrase what my friend Spirit tells me, "he saw a light that looked really interesting to him, and decided to go take a walk to it." I hope he's enjoying a nice warm windowsill somewhere over there. But he's left a hole in our family that won't ever quite heal.

We'll miss you, big guy.

Sawyer, Sawyer, Locke...

It's "Badger, Badger" for Lost fans... http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/sawyer.php?funny

I just couldn't stop giggling.

More Granola...

I made more of Alton's granola recipe tonight. It's like nature's crack.

Nature Girl

After watching the granola episode of Good Eats on Food Network the other day, I have been consumed with the idea of making my own granola. I LOVE granola. I eat it with my yogurt or by the handful. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack - it's all good. But sometimes, the good stuff is darned expensive (The Baker, I'm talking about you and your $5.49 a pound Maple Pecan goodness!) . So I hit the Food Network site and found Alton's granola recipe.

Oh. My. God. Alton is a genius. Much like Han Solo with the Milennium Falcon, I did make some of my own 'special modifications' - check the Domestic Goddesses blog out, where I'll post them in detail.

I could seriously eat this entire bowl right now. But alas, I must not. I will let it cool down and put it in a giant bag, where I can dive in at my leisure.

I sewed up my niece's hat. Now I have to get around to putting the sleeves on the sweater. I have to do this soon, the shower is on the 26th. Grr. Hate the sewing part of knitting.