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November 28, 2005

the boys and their big tinker toys

Here, Brian and Jeff do, um, something with welders and steel. Can't really say what, cause I don't know, but they look pretty cool climbing on their new jungle gym.

Posted by mryonker at 06:01 PM | Comments (0)

November 23, 2005

sheepish much?

Al, in the foreground, and Brucie (white) and Hamilton (Black) are the resident sheep here on the mountain. They're letting me this close because they know they're about to get a pumpkin. Click through for more.

Posted by mryonker at 06:16 PM | Comments (6)

watch your whiskers

Here, the sage kitty Sandy shows us where the warmth is. I forget how wonderfully comforting wood heat is. It's lovely, and as my mom always says wood heats three times: when you chop it, when you carry it, when you burn it.

Posted by mryonker at 06:12 PM | Comments (1)

greetings from the mount

We arrived safely last night after the 10 hour drive. The kids were fairly well-behaved, if we ignore the moment when Jack dumped an entire extra large bag of Sour Cream and Onion potato chips all over the back seat and the other moment when Josh dumped an enire large box of Wheat Thins into his own seat. We read 7 chapters of Harry Potter's Chamber of Secrets and played hangman. During the last half hour of the trip we sang Christmas carols to fend off car sickness, as once we're off Route 19, Route 82 to Cowen is a narrow, twisty-turny, up-and-down lovely WV country road. When we lived here and traveled thusly (twisty-turny, up-and-down) on a daily basis, our stomachs and eustachian tubes could take it. Now our lame constitutions cannot hack it, and everyone but the driver turns green and hangs their heads out the closest window, fighting off the urge to hurl.

Or, as we did yesterday, we roll all the windows down to let the 30 degree air soothe us, and sing Up On the Rooftop for several rounds before making up our own verses.

Now at mom's, we sit close to the woodstove and the kids do crafts while I read National Geographic. We play rummy and argue good-naturedly about rules. Brian chops wood and mom makes Chex Mix. When I'm done with the NG, I'll get to the several books I schlepped down to read for exams.

More later.

Posted by mryonker at 11:02 AM | Comments (1)

November 22, 2005

almost heaven

Headin' south to WV this morning.

Catch y'all on the flip.

Posted by mryonker at 06:12 AM | Comments (2)

November 16, 2005

good mom, bad mom

good mom: makes french toast for breakfast on a !school day!

bad mom: drops monster toddler at sitter's an hour early so she can spend a quiet shopping minute to buy a new book bag

bad mom: leaves MT at sitter's for an extra hour so she have lovely soup and sandwich with a couple of fab friends

good mom: attends two parent-teacher conferences

bad mom: asks kindergarten teacher, when she mentions Jack's (Loud Boy) inability to use his "inside voice," if she thinks he might have a hearing problem

bad mom: wonders if LB's perpetual raised voice is a function of his parent's not paying him enough attention

good mom: takes Hannah to doctor for an earache

bad mom: waited four days before taking her, to make sure the ache didn't "go away on it's own"

good mom: unwraps Luna bar for MT and LB to split while hanging out in Wal-Mart waiting for the script to be filled

bad mom: doesn't prevent MT from picking up and eating large crumbs of Luna bar off Wal-Mart floor (to be fair--I just didn't reach him in time)

bad mom: returns glares of other women in Wal-Mart who witness MT's off-the-floor eating

bad mom: laughs when MT sneezes thick chocolate-y Luna bar spittle all over Wal-Mart floor

good mom: uses baby wipe to sheepishly clean chunks off Wal-Mart floor, so when someone else's toddler eats from it, it won't be TOO GRODY

Posted by mryonker at 09:33 PM | Comments (9)

November 10, 2005

how this day was good

I managed to not have to run this morning, as it was raining and cold. That's as good an excuse as any when you don't feel like going out in the first place.

I saw an entire rainbow--the whole arch--on the interstate. The backdrop, a wall of purple, urgent-looking clouds, made the sight all the more fascinating. I didn't wreck while staring at it.

I cashed in on my three free bagels from the Halloween run...and then proceeded to eat all three in the span of about 6 hours (breakfast, lunch, mid-day snack).

I locked myself out of my car (A-Freakin-GAIN; this is #3 for me THIS SEMESTER) and was able to break in with some random key on my ring. I swear, I don't know what this key is really supposed to go to, I don't think I've ever seen it before in my life. But I jammed in the lock and giggled it hard, and POP it went. Damn, I'm good. (Or, damn, I've had a lot of practice breaking into my own car.) And there's one excuse for having unknown, useless keys on your ring.

I pulled over on S Beech on my way home because the car sounded like it had a flat tire. Nope, no flat, just some sticks stuck in the wheel.

It snowed some icy-stuff, but nothing stuck and it wasn't treacherous driving home.

I stopped to have the hairy monster marching across my forehead tamed into something that vaguely resembles two eyebrows.

I haven't eaten ONE PIECE of chocolate since Halloween--over a week now. I also stopped drinking coffee (zingers instead), and have been really trying to cut out the sugar. I had a particularly bad run-in with a wicked cup of coffee last week that literally left me trembling, and I'm not sure if it was the caffeine, the sugar, the mixture of the two, or some other screwy thing (or combination of things) I ingested. But it was sucking--I couldn't even speak evenly, and my legs were all wobbly--so I figured I better give all the crap a break. I've been feeling rather splendid, kind of light and calm-y, and today, which maybe could have been crap, was actually rather good.

And now we gear up for a trek to Baltimore for an early Thanksgiving with B's family.

Does life EVER stop? Don't answer that.

Posted by mryonker at 10:17 PM | Comments (2)

November 07, 2005

wherein I seemingly embarrass my friends until they notice that *I'm* the one who came in last

The official results from the Bruegger's Bagel Halloween run are in. Well, official as you can get for this run, apparently.

13TH BRUEGGERS HALLOWEEN RUN
5 KILOMETER TRAIL RUN
never certified, never will be
Baldwinsville, New York October 30, 2005
administered by the Syracuse Track Club.

(yes, when you run with me, I post your time. :)
246 DEB PATTERSON 36 F 27:57 9:01
398 GALE C. JOHNSON 38 F 32:08 10:22
404 HEATHER SHEARER 30 F 32:19 10:26
405 MODELINE YONKER 29 F 32:21 10:26

I think it is high-larious that they spelled my name "Modeline."

Deb and I talked during our run this weekend about the bagel race and how really it can't be anything but a fun run--there is no way you can run your best on a course where you must wait to get in and then get stuck behind people because you can't pass.

Not that I did a whole lot of passing, but still. I did a little.

It's Deb's turn to find and register us for the next run, and she's getting a little crazy about it. She found a run called the "Last Chance" on December 17th. (I told her we should skip December!!) Here's a snippet from the description of the 8-miler:

"Run on beautiful snowy, icy trails. Fall down and get up. Step in ice water streams that have no safe crossing. Climb over, under and around fallen trees."

Gah. The problem is that I can't let her get crazier about running than I am, and if she's signs us up, I'm in. I suppose I should find some good plastic bags to wrap my feet in, eh?

Posted by mryonker at 09:36 PM | Comments (4)

November 04, 2005

samlanta

Greetings from sunny Atlanta, where I will, in T-minus 1 hour and 40 minutes, present on a panel on Maternity and Mothering. :)

So far my "vacation" has been pleasant. I flew in yesterday and ("boy are my arms tired!!") found my way to my hotel via MARTA. The place I'm staying is a swanky Regency, and I have a WHOLE king-sized bed to my little self. (I may keel over with delight.)

I met with a friend from undergrad last night and we walked a couple blocks to a great Indian restaurant, had some curry and sag wala and some merlot. We caught up, laughed a whole lot, and I realized how OLD we both are. Her son, who was 2 when we first met, is now in middle school.

Also and indicator of how old I am: I got back to my room at about 10, and after talking to B on the phone for a while, could barely keep my eyes open long enough to watch any TV. And I slept fitfully, somehow unable to get comfortable without having a toddler kicking me in the back and whumping me with his forehead.

B reported this morning, however, that Josh SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT. WTF. Geez.

This morning I walked the 6 or so blocks to the hotel where SAMLA is to scope out my room and make sure I could work the projector. Of course, the room had no projector, and the organizer lady, who was calm and not NOT unfriendly, told me there was never a request for one. She then said, after I smilingly showed her the emails I sent, that she would see what she could do. Whew. And now I've got what I need, and I'm set up to go. Now I just wait, and wish away the butterflies.

Posted by mryonker at 02:07 PM | Comments (1)

November 02, 2005

Chinye

Posted by mryonker at 03:49 PM | Comments (1)

hannah as chinye

Posted by mryonker at 03:45 PM | Comments (0)

halloween2005

Posted by mryonker at 03:44 PM | Comments (1)