Well, wouldn't you know it...

... guess what night, of all nights, the kiddo would be throwing massive protest bed fits and the daddo would be losing his patience with her impeding mommie-o's ability to devote 100% of her brain cells to the premiere of Lost. Yep, I just answered that question. The night of the premiere of Lost - a night I have only been waiting a mere 9 MONTHS FOR.

But, whate'er... I think I got the gist of it. Sure I missed some clues and nuances, but I always do until I start reading recaps and message boards and co-opting the impressions reported therein as my own. Tonight was solid. Didn't leave me going OMFG-WHATINTHEHECKNOW... but it was an enjoyable way to ease back in and get reaquainted. Just a few quick sketchy observations follow:

• Flash-forward is post island/pre Jack's meltdown. Jack's l'il vodka orange pick me up suggests a path to Christian-dom, but how'd he know instantly that was Hurley on the Cops like TV coverage? I know his Camero was referenced last season in the Cheech Marin eps, but if I was pouring Vodka after escaping a madhouse Island, I don't know that '71 camero flashing on my TV would connect me to Hurley instantly.


• Perhaps it's because I just watched We Are Marshall, but Jack post Island - pre-beard joining Hurley for a round of Horse at the mental institute could have been assistant coach whatshisname.


• "The Oceanic 6" We've accounted for Jack, Kate and Hurley now off the island - the other 3?? Presumably one of those could now be in a coffin per season finale. And I suspected Sawyer was one last season when Kate left Jack saying he'll be waiting for me, but who knows. That was a very interesting shift of alliances when Sawyer went with Locke and told Kate he was doing so to 'keep survivin' like he always does.'


• Yeah, I sobbed AGAIN when our gang was notified of Charlie's demise. And yes, I jumped when he showed up to visit Hurley at the asylum.


• How great was it when Ben calmly said "with your permission Jack, I'd like to go with Locke"?


• So Hurley and Jack (in the time it took to grow his beard) do come to decide they need to go back to the Island to help those left behind.
  
• Jack all shifty asking Hurley if you told them what we did??? Is what we did just leaving the rest behind, or something more sinister?


• The cabin w/ rocking chair guy/Jacob and the whisperers fuh-reaks me out! Was that Locke's eye Hurley saw or some one else inside? It was Locke who heard "Jacob"(who still reminds me of Voldemort when he's first regaining his physical presence) say "help me" at the end of last season right? What's that picture on the wall that reminds me of those dogs playing poker paintings??

Lost, Lost, Lost, Lost...

...Lost, Lost, Lost, Lost. Yeah, that's about all I can think about today!

Introducing...my new niece!

D-D-D-D-D-Dora! The dog, not the Explorer. Yeah, Dani and Pepe (aka: Carter) may not be quite there on the kid front, but they are now the proudest of parents to doggie Dora. Leila's first maternal cousin - yea!
No one's quite sure her breed, but research suggests she's at least part Louisiana's state dog, the Catahoula hound (or the Cousawatcha hound as I continue to call her) and she's cute and good natured as can be 5 days into her adoption.)
And for the record, if one ever wants to have movie star blue eyes - simply use the red-eye reduction feature on their camera software! Neither Dani, nor Pepe have baby blues and yet, behold:
It's miraculous!

Yes, We Can!

Guess what tee-shirt I was wearing all day today? Oh, yeah, Obama '08 baby. I know it was simply a bedtime delay tactic, but my daughter just stayed up to watch his speech. We were on my bed with the lights out - both in our pjs (did I ever have a life?) - she had a book in her lap and a few minutes in she held it over her head and started shaking it. Took me a second to figure out why she was doing that, then I realized she was shaking it in concert with Obama's supporters waving their change signs. Love it. I've said before that we Williams' train 'em young. She then pointed out another book to me and said "get it, get your sign". I started to wave it and she said "no, put it in your lap until Obama says it again." She also clapped along and chanted "yes, we can" when appropriate. Ugh - Hillary's coming on now - that's my cue to go put on an episode of the Tudor's.

Bear with me!

I'm having to multi-task and blog at 10:39 p.m. here while watching Nip/Tuck and listening to the hubby toss and turn in bed waiting for me to turn off the multiple screens.


First day on the new job was fine - as well as 4 hours of watching ethics and your benefits and you videos can go...followed by a couple hours reading annual reports etc. b/c I won't have a computer for a week - welcome (back) to the government! My cubical does have a lovely video of the Capitol dome though! That's something...


Weekend was fine - nice to have the 3 days certainly. Got my Yoga buzz on Saturday morning then met Faith, Mary and baby Campbell for lunch. Looked at houses and took the kiddo for a haircut Sunday. Dined w/ the refreshed from their week in Antigua parents Sunday night. Groceried, got ready for the new week/job/life, and Taqueria Poblano'd it for dinner with Dani and Pepe (aka Danielle and Carter) Monday and that was about that.


And just for the record - unflattering picture of me, but whatev' - this is still where I stand politics-wise:

I'm way too angry and frustrated with the Clintons for further commentary - you know, "a picture speaks..."


And finally, OMG!!! Heath Ledger is DEAD??!! I'm a dozen so years removed to have that River Phoenix devastation, but what a shocker. He was awfully talented. And hot. And young. And poor baby Mathilda!


Right, going to sleep right about nows...

This is KILLING me...Bwah!HaHa!!!!!

I can't figure out how to embed it, but OMG, too funny! Probably had to watch the original on Gawker yesterday (or on the Abrams report or probably any other entertainment media in the past 24 hours...) but splicing in Will Smith with those facial expressions = GENIUS.

http://www.iklipz.com/MovieDetail.aspx?MovieID=095ee98e-24d3-4d48-bcff-8ecf45fabca8

House Hunt

OK, now that the job transitioning is actually taking place, we have exactly 6 weeks to find ourselves a new roof for our heads. And I think I have just about determined that I am not a big fan of major adult decisions - specifically, do we take the plunge into home ownership? I kind of like signing away my monthly rent check and being able to call someone to take care of repairs, pests (oh, the pests! I think I might be able to handle anything after the past year's mouse genocide at 800 Bashford Lane. Anything but spiders. Or cockroaches/waterbugs...Or house centipedes...Or Sprickets - commonly known as cave crickets, but we always called them Sprickets growing up for spider/crickets...), etc. but I know full well that there is no return on continuing to do that in the long run.

So I finally did contact a loan officer this week to at least have some sense of what we qualify for, and the good news is that we do indeed qualify. Said lender graduated from my high school 5 years after I did, reminding me, as I'm too frequently reminded, that I am old, and probably should have some equity by now! And the connection with him was made because the realtor we hope to deal with if we do grow up and decide to buy is my old high school gym teacher. It's a small world after all! I'd forgotten she was doing real estate part time now, and we ran into her at an open house just before Christmas.

The loan we're qualified for would cover a small three bedroom row house in the Warwick Village section of Del Ray with a finished basement and smallish patio/yard. I'm not looking for much more (though that would limit our offspring to 2 for certain) - just begging to have a living room of my own - I know the toys would migrate, but if their primary home was a nice basement, I'd be ever so thrilled. Could probably get slightly more bang for the buck further out in Fairfax, but we really want to stay in the City of Alexandria. I was assured that we were actually well qualified for a higher loan, but the mortgage then creeps toward unmanageable. Under these terms, we're looking at $1,000 more than we pay in monthly rent, which we may be able to do w/ our salary increases, but there would go what little entertainment budget we have. Sparing the change for my wine and Starbucks addictions may just tilt me back to renting...

Miscellany

So I've been on this major high from cleaning out my office for the past week or so. There was just something very rewarding about tossing entire drawers worth of paper into a dumpster with the promise of starting something fresh ahead. Now I am looking at one banker's box - just one sole box of work product I thought might be worth archiving - on top of an empty filing cabinet. One box contains 6 & 1/2 years worth of work. Is that kind of pathetic? Not really. It actually just kind of provides me with a great visual for why I'm moving on!

Yoga. Do people really value it enough? After nearly 3 years, since just before Leila's birth (could be why she's such a flexible little thing), I returned to a general class at Yoga in Daily Life Saturday morning. And man was it amazing. Probably because it was just 90 straight minutes for ME without a chatterbox toddler or a grouchy husband hanging on. But it really is amazing to take that time to form a consciousness with each and every part of your body. Just that short time one day a week really makes me feel like I am walking out of there taller and straighter and more aware of all the abuses I put my body through the remainder of the time. Now if only I could follow through on my promise to wake up to do pilates a couple days a week I just might get back into my R&R jeans by springtime. Of course, when I returned home after 2 hours, Cesar took off to play golf for 5 because that is just totally the fair thing to do in our domestic breakdown!

Other weekend highlights included Henry Jones' 4th Birthday party Saturday afternoon - Leila can still hold her own with the big boys and had a blast treasure hunting. She wisely stayed out of Henry and Rowan's epic dart gun battle, however! Saturday night Cesar and I watched We Are Marshall, which is a lovely little three hankie film. I rented it for the Matthews (McConaughey & Fox), figuring if anyone could get me into a football genre film it would be those two together, but it really was quite a sentimental little film. Yesterday we house hunted, which was...depressing. Anyone have $749,000 to spare for our dream house? I'm trading messages with a mortgage guy now because we need to determine whether we can even buy anything. And if not, we need something new to rent by March 1st. Tick tock, tick tock.

NOT Staged (wink, wink)

Well, not really entirely staged. She did ask to hold Obama! And when asked if she likes Hillary Clinton or Obama, she does reply "I like Obama." Probably just because his name is more fun to say, but we do train them early in the Williams family. Her Papa will have her watching CSPAN any day now.


And yes, I realize that the poor child looks like a wiped out zombie with those raccoon eyes! We're getting ready to be forced into some sleep RE-training. We've got way too much "Mom, come here, I forgot to tell you...", "Wait, I need to go tuck baby Paula in...", "Cover me up..." "Take my covers off..." " I need a drink of water..." "I want Lullabies on..." "Not THOSE lullabies..." going on at the bedtime hour!

A Throw Back

I was just taking a few minutes to clean personal files and email off my work computer as I only have a week and 1/2 left in this gig (hooray!) when I came across this classic. This one tops the "only Carter Williams..." list for sure:


From: Williams, Carter [mailto:Carter.Williams@sablaw.com]
Sent: Friday, April 08, 2005 11:38 AM
To: Lisa Williams
Subject: Le Bon

We ended up drinking champagne in Simon Le Bon's suite at the Mandarin Oriental. The best exchange between me and Simon follows:

Me: So Simon, you've got to tell me the meaning behind the line: I smell like I sound, I'm lost and I'm found...

Simon: and I'm hungry like the wolf. Really Carter, the song is about sex. I smell like I sound is about sex, animal sex.

Me: Oh, I see.

It was a ridiculous night. Apparently Simon is arranging some floor passes for me and the people I was with. He said they'll be in my name at the ticket window, and after the show, he'll bring us back for a drink. He has my cell, and if I don't hear from him, I'm supposed to assume it's on.

Politics Schmolitics

So the highlight of my New Hampshire viewing last night was seeing James - I'm not a steelworker, but I play a damn hot plumber on TV - Denton directly behind John Edwards. Double the hotness, double the yum! I was looking for a pic from last night of the handsome handsome handsome James in that stunning blue "Steelworkers for John Edwards" sweatshirt, but haven't found one yet, so here's one from earlier in the campaign.

He's apparently been stumping with Cate Edwards for quite a few months now. How did I miss this? I knew the SarandonRobbinses were out there, and Kevin Bacon, and John Mellencamp... but I must have really been wrapped up in Obama to miss Mike Delfino himself.

And for the record, Edwards has been number one in my heart on message (and on looks) since 2004.

I half-heartedly give kudos to Hillary. I never wanted to see her crucified, but I was hoping for another win for Obama. Even a close win. Whatever the end result, it is still pretty exiting that the race remains an open book and that the charge is being led by a woman and a black male. I just hope they keep things civil and duke it out on substance and smarts.

Miscellaneous Leila Updates

So I haven't written much about Leila recently aside from the tremendous spoilage at Christmas, now have I? I'll just throw out some random points about where we are character and development-wise below:

• She is smart as a whip and does her best to get the better of us. All the time.
• She has fully implemented the if mom says no, I go crying to dad and vice versa trick.
• She continues to resist naps at home, but so very clearly needs them. Some enforcement may have to come into play this weekend. Cesar says he is going to send me away and put her down b/c she has "already manipulated you."
• Continuing on naps, she started crying in bed last night, saying "I don't want to go to school tomorrow because they take a long nap there, and I don't want to take a nap!" I asked her teacher, Miss Sarah, if she had been napping at school and she said "oh, yes, the full two hours."
• And continuing on not wanting to go to school, she cried when I woke her up this morning saying again, that she didn't want to go to school: "I want to go to the playground with Mommy." I tried to coax out of her why she didn't want to go to school and this time, it wasn't the nap, it was "I don't like it when my teachers don't give me a sticker sometimes." I reminded her that, stickers are rewards for doing something good like listening well and participating in circle time. Then I offered to buy her some new stickers today.
• I didn't think I'd be a parent who would cave so easily to bribery, but see last line above.
• The temper tantrums still blow up at the smallest (to a parent) disappointments. Her grandmother Mimi sent her adorably kicky new shoes yesterday and since they're European sizes, they're just a mite too big, but should be perfect this spring. She saw the box they were mailed in this morning, threw herself onto the living room floor, kicked her tennis shoes off and wailed "we forgot to wear the new shoes Mimi sent!" I tried to rationalize with her that Mommy didn't want her to trip and fall running on the playground as she rolled and writhed all over the floor. Then finally said "hey, remember Mommy's coming home with new stickers for you today!"
• I'll be spending lunch buying stickers today.
• Back to bedtime - she's a master of delay tactics. I can finish bath, books etc. and have her in her room with lights out and lullabies on before 8:30, but as soon as I get her in the crib, she pops up and says she needs to go pee on the potty. Last night, it was twice on the potty w/in 15 minutes, and though I fully recognize it as a delay game, I can't rightly say "nope, pee in your diaper" when I'm supposed to be working on potty training.
• On potty training - bottom line is mom is lazy. She's been working on it at school for months and wearing daytime pull ups, but I haven't taken the time to just stay home with her for a couple days, let her run bare bottom or in undies and really see what it feels like when she needs to go, or has an accident. She gets it and will do both functions on the potty when I put her there, but I've been lax about making the final leap. We did put her in a pair of undies for a couple hours this weekend, and as soon as she ultimately did wet herself, she promptly asked to have a pull up put back on.
• She has a new found love for the Food Network. After her bath, she'll ask "is anyone on (the TV)?" because we got in the habit of watching a half hour cartoon special during the month + of holiday programming. And I'll say, no, no special cartoons on tonight. Then she'll counter "maybe a cooking guy is on....maybe Emeril?" It's pretty darn amusing.

I'm sure there are other fun/challenging details to report, but those are kind of the highlights for now.

Randomly Cracking Up

So a pop culture blog* I scan on occasion, referred to this photo from the Palm Springs International Film Festival as "evidence that Sean Penn is now officially a disoriented French intellectual." And I am officially cracking up right now. I am also cracking up at the line "Day-Lewis, meanwhile, was busy building a yurt and cobbling his own shoes at the end of the buffet."




I do love me some Sean Penn though. Daniel Day-Lewis too. And I am now reminded to add 'Into the Wild' to my netflix queue for whenever it may be released. I finally read the book this fall, knowing I wouldn't see it 'til DVD release, and it was a rather engrossing read as most of Krakauer's reporting is.












* http://www.mamapop.com/mamapop/2008/01/teeth-vaselined.html#more

Metro Fare Increase

We knew it was coming. We've read the proposals about it for months. But, ouch! My rush hour commute went from $2.30 to $2.80 this morning. That is .50 cents a trip and an extra dollar a day is not small change! If metro actually functioned smoothly and I didn't have a significant delay each and every ride due to doors failing to close, switch work (whatever that is), sick passengers etc... I might not mind so much. Oh well, I have no idea what if any transportation benefits I'll have at the new gig, so I'll just grin and bear it for now.

New Camera

I didn't necessarily need a new camera for Xmas (though my Canon's probably about due to conk out) but Cesar wanted to get me something for also helping him survive school. I would have taken jewelry, but gadgets are good too. Haven't had much time to play with my little baby pink cyber shot yet, but the drawing feature's pretty cool.


I can add text like this:


or frames:
or just goof around like this:

Next step is to figure out the mp3 features - how to customize music for slide shows etc...

Doing an Obama happy dance this morning...

...and very tired from staying up way past my bedtime watching speeches and commentary. Do I really have to do this again as early as next Tuesday?

Notice has been given...

Phew! Relief. But still feeling slightly nauseous and appetiteless (appetiteless being not entirely a bad thing.) I just informed my boss of 6 & 1/2 years that I had 'rather suddenly' been made a job offer that I couldn't refuse. It went as well as could be expected, I suppose.


I got a pretty shocked deer in the headlights expression and a 'jeez Lisa, when do you have to leave..' for a moment there. I replied that because of the way the government pay periods go, I was expected to start January 22nd, so January 18th would be my last day. Said she would have hoped I could give 2 months (months!) for a big push on client efforts until she could get someone else in, but then it dawned on her that she could snag Morgan (the super intern) full time for her 3 days a week when she's back. Then she actually admitted that this was not a good place to be if you wanted to advance and do policy work, unless you wanted to stick around and start bringing your own clients in and that she didn't think Karin (the other Associate) cared, b/c this was all she ever wanted to do apparently (hah!) but she could understand why I wanted to move on...

So, since I did receive my official employment letter yesterday, I think it is safe to now announce that I will be joining the US Postal Service's Office of Government Relations as an Analyst later this month. Can I get a Woot!? I'll be overseeing response to Congressional inquiries, and while it might not be the most glamorous position, I'll get to once again use that side of my brain that knows how to write and edit, and enjoys doing so routinely.

Happy New Year to me. Now we just need to work on acquiring a new house and all will be good in the world.

Ugh. Back to the daily grind...

You know those nights when you have all good intentions of getting to bed early - I mean you even refrain from any wine - so you can start the new year at work refreshed and energized... your light is out at 9:30 (9:30!)... then you look at your clock and it's 10:45 and you realize that you haven't yet fallen asleep and your husband's tossing and turning and itching and flipping the TV on and off.... then it's 11:30 and you still haven't fallen asleep and your kid is coughing... then 1:00a.m....then 2:30 and you're fighting to hang on to your share of the sheets...then 5:00 and the alarm's going off for dear husband and the kid's periodically crying/whimpering in her sleep... Yeah, I had one of those last night.

Then you race-walk through biting wind gusts to get to metro to wait 10 minutes on the elevated platform for an overcrowded blue line...Needless to say, I'm just thrilled to be back at work this morning!

The holiday break was nice and actually seemed to run fairly long - probably in part because the kid only napped 2 out of 11 days, so we were on the go with her all the time. I got to enjoy two movies, as previously reported. Had the chance to visit with Massi and Carlo. Got NOTHING done in the house, aside from packing up two 70 Qt. bins of clothes Leila's outgrown. Emily and I - native Washingtonians who should know better - took Leila and Henry to the Natural History Museum last Thursday. And I say, we should know better because of the tourist horror - like the rudeness of a family who's only physical impediment may have been that they were a bit overweight, trying to force their way onto the elevator in front of our two strollers (I called them on it and they didn't even apologize), or parents letting their children old enough to know better just sit in the middle of heavily trafficked floors... But it was worth it because the banter between the two of them in the back seat on the way home had us in tears of laughter for a good 15 minutes. I seriously had to wipe my eyes to make it onto the 14th street bridge. Leila's retorts were a bit less sophisticated then Henry's, like "I'm going to tell your dad you said potty", but she was holding her own fairly well. Henry's best line was "I'm going to tell the Dr. to give you a shot and NOT give you a band aid."

And that's about it as far as the highlights go. Oh, and mom had a fairly decent gift haul too w/ her new pink Sony Cybershot camera, a couple new Coach bags from Aunt Nancy and her scrap sale, some $$ from the grandparents to be reserved until she's back down a size, and a sweet new flat screen High Def. TV for the family from Floyd and Carol. We haven't dealt with Comcast on the high def. front yet, because we're hoping we'll be moving within the next several months, but still, Shrek never looked so good even without that capacity enabled.