How does a 33 yr old woman get strep throat when no one else in her family has it?

Well, according to my doctor, because I already have an upper respiratory infection and I have, in his words “been out in public recently,” there you have it.

Strep throat is for babies and college students, man. Moms do not get strep throat. I am fairly sure I caught it through e-mail from G. at the Burned Cheese Straws blog (click the link at right. I’m too tired to hyperlink.). I don’t think I’ve had strep throat since I was a freshman in college! I haven’t even had a serious sore throat since then. All my sore throats are from sinus stuff.

My kids are at daycare while I lounge on the couch. I am not used to feeling too crummy to do anything. It pains me to just lay around and veg–I don’t even feel like knitting or doodling. I dropped off the dogs at the vet this morning* and I really wanted to head to Tarjay for some tea towels for crafty projects (see Shim and Sons’ recent stuff–again, click link at right) since it’s the last day of March and I’m not buying anything crafty in April,** but I just can’t haul myself across town.

Back to the couch with hot decaf lemon tea for now. I can’t actually taste anything (or smell much, either–this a.m. I changed a filthy diaper and never smelled a thing), so I just turned down my favorite bakery cupcakes when my mom offered to bring some over.

You know, yesterday I got up, put on a nice black suit and went to work. I headed to the doctor at lunch with every intention of going back to work after missing two days this week for the boychild’s pink eye and beginning ear infection. However, when my strep test came back positive, my doctor said that I might end up with the upper respiratory for six to eight weeks if I don’t get serious rest, so here I am in my oddly silent house. Wugherty.

* The gorgeous girls are getting shaved for the summer. Apparently it’s good for itchy pooches (and Maggie T is itchy in the extreme) and it’ll help the slight indoor shedding problem, aka doghair tumbleweeds that really need vacuuming twice a day.

** When I told the Husband about April being “use what you have” month in the crafty blog world, he said, “All I want to know is whether or not crafty blog husbands have any duties.” I told him his duty is to just sit there and look pretty.

I am joining the “use what you have” month in April, but first (and, oh, this is so very very bad) I have to pick up a few things.

I need a jug of Mod Podge to decoupage something and I need a few more marbley composition notebooks to cover with paper and speaking of paper, I’m going to have to make a few color copies of my gifty3 paper (to cover notebooks, you see).

Sooo, I have to do a tiny bit of shopping this week to participate.

That can’t be good.

ETA: Half of the shopping accomplished today at lunch. But only half! More to go!

Also, I noticed just now that today is my blog’s 2 yr anniversary. I guess that means I should take it to dinner and offer up some sweet lovin’ afterwards.

ETA, part 2: man, am I slow. If I started this blog in March of 2003, then 2/27/06 was my third blogiversary. Good grief.

One: the boychild woke once last night between the hours of 8 p.m. and 7 a.m. I cannot remember what time he woke–I think it was between midnight and one a.m.–but I comforted him by picking him up and pat-pat-patting his back and rubbing it a bit and saying “sssssshhhhh, sssshhhhhhhh” and he clonked his head on my sholder and started mouth-breathing, so I put him down and he reached a fat starfish hand out to touch his soft blue bunny and was fast asleep.

I went back to bed in the guest bedroom (where I am sleeping as we try to gently nudge the crabcake into sleeping the night) and woke on my own at 5:30 feeling like a million bucks because it’s the most uninterrupted sleep I’ve gotten in the boy’s life. The dogs stood over me and stared down at me and I lay in complete fear of moving, because the second someone blinks in the a.m., the dogs go nutso with excitement. I made it until 6:20 and finally had to get up because a dog stomped on my stomach. What a swell, swell morning. I feel so rested.

Two: the conversation between McPantses and her father this morning:

McP: I hate skorts. (with great emotion) Princesses do NOT wear skorts.

The Husband: I think I saw Princess Diana wearing a skort in the 80s.

McP: Who is Princess Diana? (with great suspicious disdain)

The Husband: A princess in England.

McPantses: A real princess? (momentarily distracted from the whole horrible skort upset and fascinated by the notion that there might be real princesses)

The Husband: Yep. Your mother can explain.

McPantses: gives the Husband the fish eye.

I wish I’d taken a picture of the girl’s outfits this morning. I grabbed a khaki skort from her closet, along with a grass green long-sleeved tee that has hot pink stripes and a tiny hot pink pocket on one sleeve. McPantses likes to choose her own socks and after I told her she couldn’t rewear yesterday’s socks, she selected deep teal blue/white striped knee socks. Such a crazy outfit. I look forward to school uniforms next year, but I’m sure I’ll have to fight it out over McP’s tiny fashion habits–she likes to make an outfit more special by turning up the bottom of a shirt once or twice. She would choose a double fold at the hem, ideally.

* With thanks to Lewis Carroll.

I received a thrilling package from across the pond from the lovely gal behind Oscarcat and I’ve enjoyed every bit of it, except one half of one chocolate bar that McPantses wrestled from me, but she really enjoyed that.

Here you can see the amazing yarn she sent, that I have already started into a little scarf–I unwound one ball a bit so you could see the neat texture and the gorgeous hand-dyed colors.

Note the papers. I’m in love with both sheets and plan to take them for huge color copies so I can wrap black marbley composition notebooks with the copies and hoard the paper. The floral reverses to red/white dots. She sent a matching long red/white dotty notebook with a red elastic band closing that I am also currently hoarding (much to my daughter’s dismay). There are two bars of specialty dark chocolate left, but I also received a second bar of the smaller one and the flavor was absolutely melt-in-your mouth. I nibbled at the larger bar when I took myself to see Woody Allen’s Match Point a few weeks ago (before Lent began). Right now, I am hoarding the chocolate until after Easter because I gave up caffeine and chocolate for Lent. McPantses thinks I’m terribly selfish for holding onto this chocolate, but I stunned her into silence when I threw a handful of m&ms in her direction and ran away to hide my own fine chocolate.

In fact, I hid the stuff so well that I only found it again last week. I unearthed the larger bar from beneath the “snacky” box in the pantry (plastic rubbermaid shoebox), but the smaller bar was gone, gone, gone. I found it this past weekend not far from its larger friend. Happily, the pair have been reunited into a safer pantry hiding place for now. Unhappily, we’re out of m&ms, so I’m not sure what I’ll bribe the girlchild with should she discover my secret stash again.

I took three pictures of the tiny felt rocketship, embroidered amazingly, I’m assume, by Miss Oscarcat herself. It’s just darling. I might consent to share that one with the girlchild–I think it’d made a very cute little pin for a jacket or a cardigan. I really want to keep it for myself, tho. The pictures didn’t turn out very well, so please squint at it for now until I have a reshoot in better light or with a better photographer or something. I want you to be able to see the tiny stitches and bits appliqued on there.

I’m so happy that I participated in this swap, set up by the very talented Rubber Sol. It was great fun packing up stuff and it was more fun receiving a super surprise in the mail. I received such thoughtfully chosen treats and every single one of them is a very welcome addition to my crafty and chocolately hoardy stash.

By the way, I received my treats very early, right around February 15, I think, before I’d even sent mine out, and I am very, very slow getting them online for all to see. I will add them to the flickr group and link to that group from here tomorrow.

It’s taken me about a month, but I think I have finally finished deleting the hundreds and hundreds of p-o-r-n spam comments that some vile weed posted on 2/21.

I cannot tell you how happy it makes me to remove the huge nasty listings of ick from posts about my kids, etc.

(Boy, this goes under the category of things that don’t go together, too!)

To the person who got here looking for laminated prayer tags, you should check out the ones that Julia Azar has. They’re gorgeous.

First, are you getting ready for Easter? For us, that means removing Valentine’s Day from the white wire tree and putting up the Easter things. Given my ability to accomplish things lately, I’m sure that’ll happen any moment now.

You’re going to need at least one set of these gorgeous blank nesting wooded Easter eggs for your house, but notice that if you purchase 3 sets at once, you’ll get a better price.

Now.

Some fool woman married Rusty Yates? Whyfore? Is he a tragic figure worthy of comfort and nurturing? Good Lord, no! He’s as much to blame (or, possibly, more) for his household’s tragedy as is his wife.

Excuse me, that’d be his ex-wife.

What a pig that Yates man is.

be able to drive my 5 yr old to the bookstore at 7 p.m. without riding 90% of the way there behind a car playing a graphic skin flick on the drop down dvd player’s screen danging from the interior roof.

Good freaking fresh hell.

I could see the movie in clear, throbbing detail, too.

I hate people.

We got a tee shirt in the mail today for McPantses–I opened her mail, which is scandalous, isn’t it? It came with a lovely card welcoming her to the school we like.

We got the acceptance letter yesterday. The other school stuff doesn’t come out for a bit longer. She’s going to this school. It’s what the Husband really wants and I am on board with it.

I haven’t blogged much in the past two weeks because I am overwrought with guilt over not having a picture of my wonderful, wonderful Gifty3 things yet. I promise to have pics this weekend and at some point, will recover enough to have something to say about something. Right now my brains are still leaking out my ears.