My L. has always been a party-planner. While he’s not a fan of parties in general (too noisy, too many people, too much food), he likes to plan a party, especially when he can be in control of every single detail. But it’s been awhile since he’s shown any interest in planning any type of party, and we’ve been sad about this. Last year was a rough year for him, and he withdrew socially for most of it, and regressed quite a bit. This year is different, though, and we're keeping our fingers crossed, and watching it all unfold. [more]

Did you have spectacular fall weather like we had this weekend? I spent most of it outdoors, making up for all the sick, couch-ridden days from the weekend before. We raked, finally put away the Halloween decorations (it’s so much easier and exciting to put them up, isn’t it, then to take them down?), and T. and I spent some quality time in the hammock, watching the leaves spiral down from the blue, blue sky. I felt some of my old energy coming back—not all of it yet, but enough to make me feel like myself again, and not some recovering invalid. [more]

Back when I was a kid, sick days seemed a little golden, somehow, tinged with a magic to them, spun from something out-of-the-ordinary. It was never fun to be sick, but getting to stay home was like being given a chance to step back into those perfect days of very early childhood, when you could lie cocooned in bed, drifting in and out of sleep to the steady hum of household rhythms, or the comforting background of the television or radio noise rising and falling around you in waves and you waited. [more]

Irony
pronunciation: \ˈī-rə-nē also ˈī(-ə)r-nē\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural iro·nies
Etymology: Latin ironia, from Greek eirōnia, from eirōn dissembler
Date: 1502

the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning

OR

Spending weeks and weeks debating whether or not you should get the H1N1 vaccine for your children, making the decision to go ahead and do it, then finding out that you can't get the vaccine anywhere, even if you beg and plead, and wring your hands.

************ [more]

Yesterday I finally did what I had put off for two years--I skipped out of my office hours early (grouching all the way to myself about the work I needed to do) and headed to my OB/Gyn for that exam--you know the one--the one that's supposed to happen annually but the one we moms often put off because, well, we're awfully good about taking care of other people, but sometimes not so good about taking care of ourselves.

While I was there I learned two unexpected things:

1) My driver's license expired in August

and [more]