On dialup at my parents house. Please, Obama, get that broadband access to rural areas ASAP, thanks!

I didn't post anyplace else today, so here I am!

Here's my vent: holidays. The unconfirmed but probable schedule for holidays this year is that we have Thanksgiving and the day after (that IS confirmed), Christmas and the day after, and NY and the day after off this year. All good, except we'll have to work Christmas Eve, and my boss is very, very, Company First, and has already told us we are not allowed to take a vacation day because we will be SO BUSY at that time.

And, we won't be. Moving stuff online means we won't be, and even if it weren't online, NO ONE ELSE will be around that day, almost guaranteed. It's up to the offices at that point, and most are just going to close but waaah, employees will need to take a vacation day, but we are Not Allowed to use vacation for that day. It sucks. I'm doing a little sleuthing and am going to pitch that our front desk person (who started this summer, was married in July, and has a million family obligations AND is very devout in her Christianity) be able to take the day off, and that I can do a half day or work from home or something. The main thing that I would be doing is helping faculty navigate online grading, which I can do over the phone, and WOULD be doing over the phone, because NO ONE will be around that day. I KNOW this.

But, my boss will probably say no, because she doesn't even like that I take a lunch (no lie) and don't just eat cold spaghettios at my desk like she does every day. Again, not a lie. Even our student workers were shocked that we'd be working that day, and that none of them even expect to see ANY grades until after Christmas, let alone be able to see ALL of them. Anyway. Whine whine whine. Bedtime!

3 years of Ingrid & Chucky
Originally uploaded by gretchen04401

It’s NaBloPoMo Month! Which I plan on doing again, only because I have um, kind of a ridiculous number of blogs now — uhh, this one, ingrids @ vox, moblog @ LJ, Local Baby one, and now, one at my own domain name (myname.com), um, yeah. That’s a lot. So I’m going to try to post once a day at one of those five blogs. (If you want the addy to any that you don’t have, let me know.)

Halloween was awesome — Ing went trick or treating for the first time, and dave had to miss it because of work BOOO, but, never again. We’ve agreed that 10/31 is way too important for us — as a couple, and as a family — to be apart for the sake of OT. OT is great, for sure, but not worth missing such a big holiday if we don’t have to.

Ingrid was a peacock, and my parents came up to help man the house and trick or treating, and it went great. My mom and I did the block with Ingrid, and met some neighbors we hadn’t yet, so that was cool. We (I, since I’m the neighbor) also wink, wink’ed with the neighbors with Obama signs, so that was nice. Ing kept her costume on until the last minute, greeting trick or treaters in it up til the end.

Today, my parents took us all out to breakfast, and we got a late start, so Ing missed swim, but oh well. Dave went to work at 10:25, straight from breakfast (before the rest of us had finished even, but he had to go) and he’ll be back tonight by 11. BIG OT weekend, on top of last week’s big OT, so it will be a really sweet paycheck on Friday. Anyway. After breakfast, Ing took a nap, and after that we went out for her to get a haircut. Then, we went to Target, where her cousin (who is 22) called because she was in town and wanted to see her. We spent quite a while at their house, and then went and got lobster at the grocery store. Maine’s lobster industry is struggling right now, so there’s a big push to buy it, and man, I’ll take one for the team. Okay, so technically, I took two for the team. But they were softshell, so not very meaty.

Ing is in bed now, and I’ve set up the woodstove with the fire screen and a bunch of candles (some that allegedly smell like a fireplace, but I’m not so sure) and I’ve got a glass of wine. And the Roku playing Airline. I love that show. Just wish Dave were here….

Ing and I were home alone the other night, and I was making Cream of Wheat on the stovetop when the phone rang. I knew the phone was somewhere accessible in the living room, so I asked Ingrid to go get it for me, and she headed off to do that, but never found it. She came back OUT of the living room, though, holding her partially eate graham cracker to her head. I looked at her and sort of gave the “WTF?” look, and she said “Graham Cracker Telephone! Hello?! Hi Grammy. It dinnertine. blah blah blah” and had this whole conversation with my mom on her graham cracker telephone. Of course, she won’t talk to my mother on the ACTUAL telephone, but whatever.

She also likes going for walks after dinner, and now it’s dark at that hour, so walks are predicated with “Is it dark out dere? (yes) Is it cold out dere? (yes)” and then making sure her little baby has a blanket, we all have hats, and she has mittens. We see almost no one on our walks these days, probably because of the dark and cold, but I almost love it more that way. While I’m distanced quite a bit from public school right now, and NCLB bitching, etc, I have seen the No Child Left Inside phrase bandied about, and I just love it. Love Love Love. I was recommending the anti-homework book to someone last week, and talking about how kids with homework have so few opportunities to be with their families. Ingrid is learning on these walks — whether it’s investigating a slug on the garden edging by the steps, or looking for the moon or stars and talking about whether it’s full or not, or noticing the evolution of the beech tree on our path, as it ripens, drops its nuts, and then totally clutters up the sidewalk — that’s all way more important than some busywork word-search-for-science crap.

I am totally going to be That Parent, and refusing homework and raising a bigass stink about it if it’s pushed. Seriously.

Happier note: Ing will either be a peacock or a turtle at Halloween. I’ll keep you posted.

There’s a book festival this weekend, and one of the first events is a discussion on writing for children. As I am known to whine about, here, there, and elsewhere, I am really missing the writing life. I talk about it with Dave, and online, but it’s just this itch I can’t seem to reach to scratch. Pathetic, I know.

Earlier this week, Dave and I were talking about Ingrid and her love of books (seriously, the kid DEVOURS books, it’s her favorite thing to do, ever, if we took away every toy in the house and left books behind, she’d be THRILLED) and one thing led to another, and we decided we’re going to write HER a book, for Christmas. Dave is a pretty creative guy, and when he colors with Ingrid he always draws these little characters for her, and what we’re going to do is do a little illustrated book and scan it, upload to shutterfly, and have them print it. I think it would be a neat tradition to start.

The other session I want to attend is with one of the authors of “Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing our daughters from marketers’ schemes,” because it’s a topic I feel pretty strongly about. There are other sessions that I’d like to check out, too, with readings from local authors, signings, etc, and it just looks like a cool day.