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...