Well.. while it may not seem like it, I HAVE been up to things other than updating the colors on my blog and playing Guitar Hero World Tour. I *HAVE* been a bit of a space cadet though.. so I haven't really been sharing many blog bonding moments with you all.

First of all.. Happy Anniversary Mom and Dan! We had a great time spending Christmas Eve and morning with you guys and hope we can do it again sometime. Maybe someday, we'll actually have a room for you and you won't have to camp out in the back yard!

Other stuff.. Benji has spent most of the holiday break from school either being sick with an ear infection (flared up on Christmas Day) or with a rogue virus or two. He also is on a sleep strike. I'm sure that it's because our daytime schedule is out of wack with him not having been to school for two weeks. I totally feel for his daycare providers next week.. he's going to be a bear! The good news is that his development seems to have made a huge jump.. maybe it was all the birthday cake!

He's saying all sorts of words now (like "stupid", "hola", "ru" (Ruth), "Mommy" (instead of just MaMa), "I eat it", "no nemo", "nemo no", "no nemo no", "nemo no nemo" (catching a trend?) and lots of "ohhh noooooo's".. very dramatic.

I'm doing well.. no major complaints. I've decided to go back to work full time. It is a tough pill to swallow, but given the economy and the fact that things were already really tight.. well.. I want to keep ahead of the gang. This coming Monday will be my first time back in about six months.. I should be one cranky mom on Sunday.. watch out!

The other mom is doing well.. she's tired. Two weeks of vacation will do that to you.

Oh well.. I had planned on sharing a few pics from my fancy dancy new camera, but I didn't bring the cable and my card reader can't handle the high capacity card.. doh.. so I'll have to do that later. I also have more things to finish with the blog layout (there's a surprise).. given that my home computers are crap, i may pull an all nighter with some system install and norton disks.. fun fun fun! That's how I roll...

Last night we went out with a friend and her twins to "Mariachi Night" at our local family-run Mexican restaurant.. we had a blast. The kids all loved the band.. especially Maddie, who clapped and asked for more music after each song. Benjamin refused to eat his dinner, but was ok with snagging Riley's avacado slice and some of his leftover cheese quesadilla. Luckily Riley was more interested in eating tortilla chips and eventually putting the basket on his head. Maddie was the little princess.. daintily dipping her tortilla chips into the salsa.. that kid can certainly pack away the salsa.. and I don't think she got a drop on her. Riley managed to pour a half of a bowl of salsa on his lap, but that was relatively well timed as I was just walking by him to go "borrow" a diaper from the twin's supply because Benjamin figured that it was an appropriate time to fill his pants.

In the end.. I think we all managed to eat our dinner (except for Ben) and as the clock struck 6:45pm.. it was enjoyable to watch all three kids lose their minds at the same time. Actually.. the gradual decline of Maddie and Riley was only really visable to their mom.. they hadn't started screaming or throwing things... unlike our little redheaded ball of fury. Seconds after the twins left (with mom, of course).. Ben and I headed out to the parking lot to offer some relief to the other patrons. Shiela stuck around to wait for our payment to go through and we headed home.

It was a great evening. It's so nice being out with someone with kids that are the same age as Ben.. especially when going to a restaurant that was filled with other kids that are all just like Ben. It seemed that everyone got a chance to pick up a toy that was chucked from another family's child across the aisle and smile politely while handing it back just to have their own child chuck something toward another family. Some may call it chaos.. we call it a relaxing Mariachi night!

If I tried to explain how I know Jim Burns, I'd probably lose everyone about halfway through the convoluted story that defined my college days. The long and short of it is that I met soulmate #1 on the internet in 93. I have trouble making friends in person.. it goes along with the whole "people scare me" thing and the fact that I have a slight twinkle of agoraphobia (hense the "people scare me" thing). Bill and I dated for about a year before I was officially introduced to the rest of his college friends. They all (most of them) went to school at the University of Delaware. I went to the University of Hartford. So while I still refer to these guys (and girls) as "my college friends" we actually never attended school together.

Anyway.. I got this email from Jim this morning (one of the "Jesters".. our little posse of people who were all mostly from various stages of geekdom, band dorks and theater nuts.. we all clicked.. well.. most of the time). Jim was one of the guys that always "got" me.. he wrote a poem once (i told you that we were all geeks) that was called "veil of melancholy" and it was basically about how I hid behind my hair.. i only wish that had pushed me to get counseling for the whole agoraphobia thing a decade earlier.

anyway... I've seen Jim a half dozen times since we graduated college and everyone went their separate ways (some of us at least). Over the years, Bill has kept me up to date on who is living where and some of the basics of everyone's life.

Anyway... (have I lost you all yet? or are you all confused how my soulmate #1 was a guy.. that's for another blog).

I guess Jim and some of the guys he's working with are putting on an internet tv production called "The League". It launches on April 1 officially, but they have a little teaser out now.. so I thought I'd link to it. Jim is the guy with the short hair.



Their site is The League

(for inquiring minds.. Shiela is Soulmate #2.. the numbers indicate chronological order only of course... and she is freakishly similar in personality to Bill.. weird. They like each other too which is even stranger.)

Btw.. Jeff.. if you read this.. send me a scan of the original Jesters gathering from the pool hall.. i'll post it..