November

[dancerjodi]

Good things:
Flavored Coffee
Mild fall days
Colored leaves
Toddler logic
Impending travel plans

Halloween: we had a great time! We brought Mina around to trick or treat at neighbors/friends nearby that we knew, save for some houses in between that were clearly excited for Halloween (tons of decorations, folks sitting on the porch and giving out candy). Mina had a blast showing off her costume, saying "trick or treat" and seeing kids in their costumes. I went that boring/healthy route and gave out goodie bags with Annie's gram cookies (Halloween branded) and organic/100% juice lollipops. At least it wasn't toothpaste, right? I felt better about things being healthy/organic and free trade. And the goodie bags were super cute too! We survived with no eggs, toilet paper and no candy bowls stolen, so I guess we did good? We had around 50 or so kids. At 8:30 or so we shut off the light, and left the bag of remianing lollipops on the porch for the night.

Work: Busy as usual. Next week is my annual review, which will be conducted by our Chief Medical Officer since I am sans boss still. The old bossman filled out the paperwork and wrote up his thoughts before he left, so at least his input is what will drive the discussion. Layoffs are coming, though our area has been told we should be OK. We are very understaffed as it is.

Home/Dance: We are spending the weekend with my family for Mom's 60th birthday in the White Mountains of NH (sharing a huge condo near North Conway). I'm excited to go - we've done a lot of all visits to that area which we were not been able to manage with Mina last year.

Kid: Mina once again regulated herself for daylight savings. In the spring she started waking up SUPER EARLY and after a couple of days we realized that daylight savings was the following weekend. This time, she did the opposite. She was staying up SUPER LATE and waking later. With the time change, she was back to her normal schedule. I'm a bit terrified this week because Brian will be at a conference next week in Vegas from Monday night through Saturday morning! I'll be a single Mom for the week. Brian usually does the daycare drop in the morning since I need to be at work early, so I'm going to be coming in a bit late each day (thankfully I happened to have no early meetings scheduled for next week, otherwise I'd need to miss them). I have to get out of here on time each day to pick her up on time too (no calling Brian if I'm stuck in traffic and running late, so my back-roads/traffic avoidance-fu will be handy). I'll also have to miss dance classes. I know we will be fine, but it is definitely hanging heavy over my head. He is going to miss her hardcore, and she will be missing him. It is going to be an easy/heat and eat meal and take-out kind of week.

Health: our eating has not been great lately (see comment above next week's menu). Convenience/schedules intervene with the ideal meal.

Money: I haven't been great about tracking spending (related to the convenience issue noted above with food). We have the cash, but we have had timing issues between salaries deposited and bills paid (paid some bank overdraft fees, despite having money in a linked savings account). We need to finally meet with someone to set up a will/trust/all of that stuff. Lots of boring financial housecleaning to do, particularly going into the holiday season.

Geek: We dropped Mina with my sister last Saturday morning and did a Make a Wish troop out in Central, MA (a little boy undergoing treatment for Lymphoma). Then we headed to Rhode Island Comicon. We had fun and it was social, but it was odd being there so late in the day on Saturday. The troop was important though. Nobody else had signed up! We spent the night, attending the afterparty (a friend's Kiss tribute band, Kissnation from NYC, was playing) and then slept over at the hotel. Of course, we had to be up and out by 10 the next day to drive back to NH for Mina. I really don't like convention center cons (compared to hotel cons). I love the random/social aspect of just wandering around and finding friends in the lobby or the bar. Not being a drinker, I'm not looking for the drunken room party. RICC did at least have this 'after party' concert, but it was a separate ticket ($30, crazy). I think there is a lot of promise with this con. We'll see where it goes. We are going to be social at Supermegafest on Saturday night (have a sitter starting at dinnertime) but aren't actually going to the convention. Arisia is on the fence. If anything, it would just be Saturday during the day. We'll be having a small gathering for Mina's birthday the Sunday after.

Comments

[sajuka.livejournal.com]

I'm a bit terrified this week because Brian will be at a conference next week in Vegas from Monday night through Saturday morning! I'll be a single Mom for the week.

It's funny, Larissa and I were discussing the other day how one can't avoid being a single parent at some point (she has a friend who would actually go live with her parents for a week rather than single parent). It's crazy, but you'll make it through :)

[roaming.livejournal.com]

Good to keep track of you at least from a distance. Glad life is pretty good, if not under complete control. Who can do that? (heh, well, you guys have managed that in the past. But it's hard to keep going perfectly.)

We need to do All That Stuff too about wills, revocable trusts, etc., We keep "forgetting" to do it. sigh.