Yahtzee Party 2006

So I figured I had some time on my hands and I should post about yesterday. We had the Jessie/Baby A/ Yahtzee party at Grandma Baker's yesterday and it was a day full of fun if you ask me. I really enjoyed myself. The Yahtzee tournament was a lot of fun... although I must say that there needs to be some safety net put in place for Yahtzee beginners such as myself lol. I was eliminated in the first round which made a whole lot more sense when we got to the final round and realized that I was put up against the winner and the runner up of the whole tournament... Brenda's mom and Brenda! Congrats hunny :) It was all good fun though... Jessie made it to the second round and Brenda played her mom for the championship which she lost... oh well... second place is not soo bad lol. They made up a plaque for the Baker Family Yahtzee Tournament which was an awesome idea and a wonderful tribute to Grandpa Baker. I really enjoyed spending time with everyone Baby A is one adorable baby and Jen we need to chill more often... and for the record... I REALLY like Mark. I hope everyone there had as good a time as I did. The cake was beautiful... It was made at Wegmans complete with a picture of Jessie holding baby A at this year's penguin days. Jessie got an absolutely beautiful outfit that I am sure she will be wearing on Easter with my family provided that it fits. A good time and a sincere thank you to everyone in Brenda's family because I can't believe just how welcome you make me feel every time that i am there. Love to you all....

Grrr... Easter

Ok so for those of you who know me you also know that I dislike Easter emencely. Well the easter maddness continues for me. I am really nervous and worked up right now and since nobody is home except for me and the 6 year old I figured the blog was my next best outlet. I was sitting around tonight thinking about all that is going on and I realized.... IT'S EASTER SOON!!!! Ok so why don't I like Easter... here is the list of the top 3 Easters in my lifetime (In Chronological Order) ...

8th Grade: The night before Easter my Grandfather (Mom's Dad) gets sick... prognosis not so good... he manages to pull through but still the most tramatic event in my life thus far.

9th Grade: Easy Easter... need I say more if you know me you know what this is in reference too!

Sr. Year of College: The day before Easter my Grandfather (Dad's Dad) Passes away.

So needless to say I am not too fond of the holiday. Well this year all good things on the horizon... it's the sunday before Jess and my Dad's birthday, I am scheduling a trip home for a couple days after Easter, I will be starting my full time job with the YWCA that week. All good things... so needless to say I wasn't thinking much about the bad... well while I was sitting here alone tonight worrying about my nana... my great-grandmother who is having surgery tonight and who has been in and out of the hospital on what seems like a pretty regular basis lately I realized... "SHIT EASTER" it's just a bad omen that's all. That is now what Easter means to me in my life.. the realization that something bad is going to happen. That there will never be an Easter without a tragedy. Well as you can well imagine it made me pretty upset to even think about it and now I am sitting here thinking to myself... should I plan to go home earlier, what should I do, why hasn't my mother called with an update yet? I'm really glad that we have planned to stay home for Easter instead of going to Bren's mom's or currently my mom's we are just planning a quiet Easter in North Tonawanda with Aunt Ellen, Uncle Ken and family. A part of me really just wants to tell Brenda she needs to go into edukids and make sure that she can get that monday off and head down to my mom's on saturday instead so that I can be home for Easter and make it down to Jersey earlier to see Nana. Although I do realize that this is not as easy as I wish it was. I just want to know what's going on, I just want to have an Easter that doesn't feel like it's the end of the world. I want to be 6 again when Easter meant baskets full of candy, egg hunts, and family... not where it means... oh shit what else could possibly go wrong right now... yeah I know there's nothing like a pessamistic attitude but sometimes you just can't help it. For me... Easter is that time when it just can't be helped. grr....EASTER!!!!!!!

In review

So it's been about a year since the craziness of last year. For those of you who don't remember that would be the 5 funerals in a matter of 4 months. There was Brenda's grandpa, then my grandma, TJ, my grandpa, and then Masani's partner. So needless to say at this time last year things were a little rough. But it looks like we have made it and we are hoping that this year will be a little bit better... ok who are we kidding ALOT better. Unfortunately I do have some bad health news to report. So far this year Brenda's Grandmother has been diagnosed with alzheimers disease, my grandfather's sister (my auntie Sara) passed away a couple of days ago in South Carolina, and my Aunt's Chemo isnt' going so well. Unfortunately it looks like we might be in for another rough year and my thoughts are bombarded by the circumstances.

On a note about last year I was thinking about everyone and everything so I decided to go back and check my blog posts from the time and I found a comment that was posted a couple of months ago that I had never seen. Under the posting of TJ's obituary was a comment from his mother saying that she was searching the web for things about TJ and found my blog. She said that it made her feel really good to know that I was remembering him in it and that I should get in touch with her (which I fully intend to do now that I have found the comment). Now I find myself wishing that I had posted more than just an obituary because I do have many memories of TJ that I would have loved for her to read. Unfortunately there was so much other stuff going on that I neglected to do so at the time. I just want his mom to know if she is reading this that TJ is still and forever in our hearts and that that is something that will never change with time. RIP TJ we all love you and miss you tremendously.

First and foremost in my mind right now is my aunts health. She is by far one of the most important people in my life and she means more than the world to me. She has been fighting cancer for over 5 years now and she has proven to me just how much of a fighter she is time and time again. Some of my best memories of my childhood involve my aunt and I actually have a full photo album dedicated to all of the things we used to do when we would go visit her. When we were little Aunt Anne and Monique lived right outside of Boston and we used to go out to visit her on our school breaks and durring the summer. They taught me how to Ski ("this is the most horrible day of my life"), they taught me how to ice skate, they took us sleding, they taught me how to ride a horse, they influenced my mother to let us get a dog, and they took my sister and I to Zoom Flume in the Catskills for a weekend of "summer water fun." There are pictures of Sharon and I sleeping in our Raggedy Anne and Andy sleeping bags on their floor curled up with one of there numerous stuffed animals in hand. As of right now all I know is that the Chemo she was taking this time has stopped working and she is awaiting an appointment in Boston to find out what the next step in the treatment is and we are all waiting anxiously with her too. I really have to plan a trip up to Vermont to see her and I know that it has been way too long.

Mardi Gras... and the day after

Ok so let me start this post by saying that I do not regret going out for mardi gras at all but the day after was living hell...

Mardi Gras was a lot of fun this year. I guess it doesn't take a lot to make you happy when you spend most of your life at work and you never seem to see the light of day. It was good to see cousin Jen we need to hang out more often I miss you!!! Tara, Brenda and I set out to meet cousin Jen at Cozumel with me as the DD and all set for an early night of fun because I had to get up and be at work by 6:45 in the morning. So we were waiting for Jen and I was talking to the creepy, drunk guy outside cozumel who wouldn't seem to leave us alone. Jen came out and then he wished us all a happy Mardi Gras and we were on our way. We bar hopped alot trying to find people we knew with not much luck at all. Jen and I did manage to load ourselves up with beads though ;) If you want to see the pictures check out Jens blog at www.allthingsjennifer.blogspot.com then finally at the end of the night things got a little more exciting we went over to Roxy's for the second time of the night and found Shan, Angela, Jen, Jackie, Christina and a few others. Cousin Jen, Tara, and Jackie managed to get them selves T-shirts though I will leave it up to your imagination as to what they had to do for them :) Well seeing as Roxy's was our last stop and it is the first place we really knew anybody we ended up haning out there a bit too long and by the time I dropped everyone off at their houses and picked up J from the babysitters I only got about 3 hours of sleep. Which leads me to the day after Mardi Gras

Well the fist shift of the day at the YWCA was not too bad... kids were crazy as usual but nothing out of the ordinary. Then I headed to edukids where my lead teacher in the room was away for the week and if you have ever dealt with a room full of two year olds than you know that they need structure and consistancy or everything goes to hell. Well needless to say the consistency and the structure was gone with out the lead teacher there and the kids were more than a little wild. I guess it didn't help much that the girl who was subbing for us the day before decided to quit and not come back which left us short on our child to teacher ratio as well. Ok so I get through that part of the day and I am walking out the door talking to my boss when I told her that I actually went out the night before and was exhausted she said "See you are in that married with a child lifestyle and you just don't get to do those things anymore" wow another one for the list of things that make you feel old post right there. So I go on my merry way trying to stay awake and I get to the YWCA for my second shift of the day which is agian a little hectic. I told them that I was tired, that I hadn't gotten much sleep and that I might be a little grouchy thinking that maybe... just maybe they would send me home early and let the guy that they always send home early stay to his scheduled time... which is the same as mine. So I go about my business when a coworker pulls me aside and says "well Lori you have monkey's on your underwear don't you" Shocked and a little appauled I say yes and she says that there is a rip in the back of my pants and I should go check it out... red faced and embarrassed I go down to the bathroom to find that the rip was not as bad as she made it sound but alas you could see the monkey. So luckily I was wearing a sweater to work that day and I took it off tied it around my waste and went back to work. Told my boss thinking now she has to let me go home right?!?!? WRONG!!! she says well you can't tell with the sweater!! AHHHHHH Ok so didn't really want to go to the gym today cause I usually play with the kids in the gym and I didn't want to dissappoint them when I was down there and tell them that I didn't feel like playing with them today but low and behold guess who gets sent down to the gym. So sitting in the gym trying not to move too much cause I dont' want the kids to see the rip in the back of my pants..... and l stand up to do something, sit back down and hear.... rrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiippppppppppppp!!! "FUCK" back to the bathroom to find that the little rip up by my wasteline was now from my waist ban all the way down to my knees... in other words there was no longer a back to my pants. Get up go tell my boss now she has to send me home first this is like a liability right??? NO again she says well I really can't see it with the sweater like that. so I continue to work the day with my ass hanging out. (Meanwhile I think every single one of my coworkers asked me to see the rip because "it can't be that bad"... yeah right in your dreams). So push comes to shove and I sit sedintary for the rest of the day. 5:30 rolls around and my boss sends the other guy home and as a slap in the face as he walks out the door he says "Wow it's gonna be cold when you walk to the car later" and he leaves. GRRRRR.. so now I am stuck because there are only two of us left which is the minimum that we can have and then to top it off the mother of the student I who's always there the latest comes to get her late... so I walk out the door at about 6:05 and drive to go get Jessie at the gym only to find out that I am going to be sitting in the car waiting for Brenda to take her out and then waiting somemore til Brenda goes on her break so that I cna see her at least once the entire day and so by the time I got home it was around 8:30 got the kid to bed and was fast asleep by 9:00. And then miraculously the day from hell seemed a little funnier when i woke up!!!

Sorry I know it took me a long time to post this but I figured it had to go up :)

Funny as hell

This is so funny... I got it in an email but it needs to be posted..... (sorry Jenny)


THE CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL HAS ISSUED A WARNING ABOUT A NEW

VIRUENT STRAIN OF SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASE.

THE DISEASE IS CONTRACTED THROUGH DANGEROUS AND HIGH-RISK BEHAVIOR.

THE DISEASE IS CALLED GONORRHEA LECTIM AND PRONOUNCE "GONNA RE-ELECT HIM."

MANY CONTRACTED IT IN 2004 , AFTER HAVING BEEN SCR-WD FOR THE PREVIOUS YEARS.

COGNITIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF INDIVIDUALS INFECTED INCLUDE: ANTI-SOCIAL PERSONALITY DISORDERS, DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR WITH MESSIANIC OVERTONES, EXTREME COGNITIVE DISSONANCE,INABILITY TO INCORPORATE NEW INFORMATION, PRONOUNCED XENOPHOBIA AND PARANOIA, INABILITY TO ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR OWN ACTIONS,COWARDICE MASKED BY MISPLACED BRAVADO,UNCONTROL FACIAL SMIRKING, IGNORANCE OF GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY ,TENDENCIES TOWARDS EVANGELICAL THEOCRACY,CATEGORICAL ALL-OR-NOTHING BEHAVIOR,AND PRONOUNCIATION DIFFICULTIES.

NATURALISTS AND EPIDEMIOLOGISTS ARE AMAZED AT HOW THIS DESTRUCTIVE DISEASE ORIGINATED ONLY A FEW YEARS AGO FROM

A BUSH IN TEXAS---

Hello again

Hey so I haven't written in a while but I decided it was about time to update you all although I do admit that my life rarely changes much. So here are the major fronts:

The Home Front:
Well not much changed here. More problems with landlords (to be expected). Did a lot of cleaning yesterday so the house is looking pretty good. We went out and I bought Bren Rent on the first day it was released so eat your heart out world. The puppy is no longer really a puppy, he is full grown now and a year old (unfortunately the vet told Brenda that he may be full grown at a year but he won't mature until 2 so one more year of this puppy attitude) Jessie is doing well. We decorated as well as cleaning yesterday so there are new pictures of Jessie around. My family in white plains is doing well... I assume I must admit its been a little too long since I got down there. Nana is in rehab but she should be getting released on wednesday so that will make her happy. I guess that's really all that is new on the home front.

The Work Front:
Well there is some good news to report from this front. A couple of weeks ago I started working one day a week in the YWCA office and I must admit it is a lot different than I thought it would be but at least we are supposedly heading towards a full time position by next school year. I have written out a bussiness letter, two surveys, proof read a survey someone else wrote and made a bunch of phone calls to different colleges... all in a days work I guess. Edu kids is going well too. I love those little munchkins. I really enjoy working with the little ones. They are only 2 years old and they are sooo adorable and all. So besides the fact that I am putting in 11 hour days 5 days a week it seems to be going well. Money on the other hand is still tight.

School Front:
Well this front is unfortunately right where it was when we left off, no I have not graduated, I have a little more done on my thesis than I did before and my incomplete in nutrition has gone nowhere :( Sorry those 11 hour days are killing me if you think I want to come home to school work you would have to be kidding me. I did however finally make contact with my thesis advisor again and she said that she is willing to grade my paper as is because "she knows how incompletes just hang over your head and all" well I would gladly take her up on this offer if it wans't for two things A) My pride... I feel like I need to give this paper my all and I really want it to be good and to impress you know. and B) The only part that I am missing is my conclusion and we all know that I can not very well turn in a paper that comes to no conclusion so I guess I have a little more work to do before I get it graded. I am thinking I should be able to do what I need to do and contact her again at the end of this weekend or possibly the next at the latest.

This is a very important add in on the home front and I hope that some of you bloggers out there will see this before it is too late. The SUNY board and the University at Buffalo is trying to do away with the Women's Studies Department. They have already changed the name to Women in the Global Community and now they are in the process of firing all of the adjunct proffessors as well as many of the Graduate Student professors. Well these are the first steps at undermining and eventually eliminating the WS department as a whole from the UB campus. There is something that we can do however. The Women's Center is holding meetings about this issue and is right now focusing on trying to save our adjuncts. There is a petition cirrculating and there is also going to be a letter writing campaign and an email campaigne. If anyone is interested in more information about this or wants to help save WS at UB please let me know and I will try to get you in contact with the right people.

Ok well I guess that is all for now Please, Please, Please get involved in saving the WS department... I dont know where I would be right now without it and I know a lot of people who feel the same way. Please do what you can... every little bit helps. We can make a difference.

This one's for you Jen...

You're Sophia!

"Picture it. Sardinia, 1932. I was on a tour of the great caper factories. I was a cookie kid going through my piccata period -- a wedge of lemon and a smart answer for everything. Anyway, I was slicing an onion when, suddenly, a big basil tree fell. I don't have a story about taking advantage of a dead guy. I have a story about a Moroccan and a monkey. But that falls under the heading of lust." You're Sophia, the wisecracking know-it-all with a past as zesty as your famous marinara and a penchant for dating the famous (Picasso, Julio Iglesias and all three members of the Yalta Conference, to name a few).


Which Golden Girl are you? Find out now!