Memnison Journal

Day three of the Sissy visit: pictures at Susan’s photo-blog.
Susan:
Today was the American Girl Place shopping spree. The girls got up and showered. Dash was a happy dog since she got to shower with me and then with the girls. I poked my head in the bathroom to see if everything [...]

Actually, it’s pretty bone dry in the basement, and just laying out the stuff so it can rapidly dry seems to be making a LOT of headway.  Yeah, it’s not going to be as neat to store, but the entire idea was to scan the suckers and pitch them afterwards, so that the only copy [...]

From Susan’s photoblog (Sunday)  (picture links here):
Earlier tonight we picked Meredith Ellen up from the airport.  Sissy is here for the next 6 days.  We’ve got manicures and pedicures, American Girl Place tea parties, New Years Eve Parties to cram into the next 6 days.
Meredith Grace was barely able to contain her excitement in waiting [...]

This was a very odd Christmas for me; some really high points and low points. Some old traditions unexpectedly brought back, and some things mucked.  Julbord and full holiday report after the cut:

Now comes the rush to the holiday…to children, it seems like it takes forever until Christmas, but I got news for ya, Kids - it’s a whole lot busier for the grownups, who have to make sure that everything gets done in the process…like fixing up the house, or shopping for presents, or hoping that [...]

Meredith stayed home from school on Monday (her birthday) sick, and we were nervous - she’d reported a tightness and pain in her chest, and THAT got our attention in a major way.   Luckily, though, she perked up considerably, and she’s doing much better.   She walked to school with her pals Melody and Cheyenne (twins, [...]

Silly daddy collects all sorts of pictures of Meredith’s past birthdays.  Meredith - happy ninth birthday, sweetie!
And for Meredith Ellen - just wait till we can all celebrate together later this month:

(the twins celebrating their 4 1/2 birthday together)

Today was Mere’s ‘family’ birthday party out at her great-aunt Marlyce’s house in Elgin, and we moved the time up somewhat because of the weather; it was getting slick and messy from sleet and snow.   And also, it looks like Mere is coming down with a cold.  She came home, and moaned and crashed very [...]

I’m noticing that a lot of my friends-list and others online - and the few I talk to on the phone (man, I am so housebound) - are going to take the holidays easy, cheap and local this year.  Our household will, as usual, trot out to Susan’s aunt Marlyce’s house and do the holiday [...]

Meredith’s 1st trimester in 4th grade just ended up, and she did very well.    She had a rocky spot with her advanced math class in regard to a few things - most notably statistics, my absolute downfall in math.  (My Eyes Glaze Over on that sort of thing, and I did wretchedly in a college [...]

Susan made a trip to the ER today, and got nowhere - the problem is that the pain from her knee is just eating her up, and she’s pretty much flat on her back, and she needs some serious relief.  The ER sent her home with a cane and some pain pills.
Since I’m worthless at [...]

This is to note that I’m taking a major break from the political posting and so on.  Mostly, it’s a matter of either real or percieved time, due to Fafiation.  (Right now, It’s 5:45 am, and my back is still killing me from sleeping on it wrong last night.)  I have a blue ton of [...]

More excerpts from the journal, this time from the day we actually adopted Meredith (the day after we got her).  Again, see some pictures of the day on Flickr - the picture below is something the Jiangmen paper later got out of the files of the orphanage when the paper was running that stupid ‘Dick [...]

It’s official that we will have a visitor for the Christmas - New Years holidays - the Harringtons bought Meredith Ellen a ticket to fly up here for a week, from the 28th to the 3rd.  Both the twins are rapturously happy.
The reaction, as I related it to Leigh Ann:
Mere: *huge amounts of excited squealing*
[...]

BBC report about Australian aborigines being upset about a how-to-play-the-digerridoo book for girls; apparently some folks consider the instrument a male-only device.
BTW, Mere is fascinated by a new Aussie tween series called Double Trouble; it’s the old sepatated twins story as per Parent Trap. but in this case, the twins are part Aborigine, with one [...]