Almost....

These would have been perfect except one of us had to closed our eyes. Aw shucks!

Am I Bi-Polar?

Pirates

Fish

Crypts

Mastodon?

Dinosaur

Recently the hubby and I went to a very popular event in the Hudson Valley called "Blaze". Over 4000 carved pumpkins lit up, touts the website. There were some pretty impressively carved specimens as well as delightful scenes, like of dinosaurs, an underworld, pirates, etc. See our pics here or check out the website http://www.hudsonvalley.org/

Little dinosaur hatching. Cute!

Footprints

OK...now I have to tell you that Santa isn't real. Don't read on unless you like spoilers and don't mind knowing the truth, even if it's ugly.

WARNING: UGLY TRUTH AHEAD

I was very dismayed to find out at the end of the Blaze tour that many of the pumpkins are not real, organically (coming out of the earth) grown pumpkins, but manufactured, foam "funkins". Still hand carved though, the attendant assured me.

This little fact completely ruined my enjoyment and Josh's (but his only slightly). It did not seem to affect our four other companions. In fact two of them even felt relieved that they were not real. (Go figure!!!!) I felt misled, cheated and fooled. Wish I hadn't known, because prior to that, I was delighted, amazed and mesmerized. Do I need anti-depressants? You be the judge.

Nice picture

of my husband and daughter.

Breakfast on the Continent

Don't these series of photos of Daze look like she's some kind of blond ingenue in Europe? They crack me up.

Flying Dazee

I love this picture that I took of Josh and Daisy. She's channeling Superman or a mannequin. I have no idea how she can be so straight and erect.

Highly amused

Who knew that 3rd graders of the Scarsdale public school district could have so much sensitivity to the zeitgeist and aptitude for political satire?

Posted on windows in almost every shop in Scarsdale village are paintings that either won or received an honorable mention for a Halloween themed contest. The content of two such paintings?

One channeled the Edvard Munch "Scream" theme, a pale faced creature with the signature "O" for lips and a look of pure horror. However, the subject was clearly a woman with glasses and brown hair. "Scarah Palin" is her name. "You betcha, I'll getcha" was her scary quote.

Another one was a bat with big, pronounced, girly pink lips. "A bat with lipstick is still a bat", it read.

What would Emily Post think?

While waiting in the doctor's office with Dazee, I noticed a very well dressed and groomed mom with her son. She had on makeup, designer shoes, held an expensive handbag and carried a few designer label shopping bags. She just seemed so pulled together that I was shocked by what was to follow. At one point, her son came up to dear old Daze and was either going to strike her or did strike her or roughly snatched a toy away from her - I don't really recall the details. What was impressed upon my memory is that his designer-clad mom quickly swooped in and struck him, in an effort to stop him in action. She felt a little shock or maybe even embarrassed at her own behavior but overall, I think she felt justified in taking that action. She profusely apologized for his behavior. I thought that the apology was misplaced. I really did not mind that her less than two year old kid was going to hit mine or take a toy away from mine, I think that's normal behavior. I think her hitting her kid was more shocking than anything. I'd much prefer to see a kid lose self control than a well-groomed adult. Disturbing!!!

White Collar Crime

I just got back from the A&P with my husband who attempted white collar shoplifting, used me (unbeknownst to me) as his accomplice and got caught.
He "bought" 2 cans of ultra-premium pasta sauce ($8 per can) by placing them into his cart. He then used 2 coupons to get them for free. As he scanned each coupon, he handed them over to me to give to the cashier. During this transaction, I was not allowed to chit chat with him. I didn't understand why he was being so grouchy. My attempts to make friendly talk was met with aggressive shushing and belligerent waving of the hands. Any way, then he scanned another coupon and asked me to give that coupon ($4 off) to the cashier. His criminal mind was trying to scam $4 from innocent parties. The $4 off coupon was for the sauces that he already got for free. He wanted them to pay him!!! He wanted his net to be 2 jars of sauce and +$4!!!
The cashier stopped him dead in his tracks, called him out on it. "What?! You got the sauce for free, you can't use another coupon!" she chastised. Josh wasn't even embarrassed. "So? I know!" he bellowed proudly and took the coupon back. If I were her, I would've ripped up the coupon and scare him a little by calling the cops. In any case, I wanted to bury my head in the sand.

Girly girl

Dazi actually looks like a girl when I put her into this adorable Peter Pan collar shirt.

My little girl is all grown up

I took Saydee to a dance shop to pick out a leotard for her upcoming ballet class. We ended up getting this sexy little number.

Another refurbished item to add to the collection.

Despite my neck problems and fresh from the anger of my husband's last post, I need to do a little venting by blogging. A few weeks ago, I asked Josh to get me a copy of Ferber's sleep book. For some reason, he made me think that he was going to get it from Amazon, but he needed to save up enough books to order $25 worth of merchandise for the free shipping. That was the reason I gave myself for why it had been more than 3 weeks before I received the book. Flash forward to today: 1 month from the original request - when I get handed a worn paperback, the cover of which I don't even recognize! I flip to the copyright page and was enraged to see copyright 1985!!! I wanted a newer edition of the book ... not this used stupid 30 year old edition. What is wrong with the dr. of cheap?!

"out of network" delight

I spent the last couple days seeing any kind of doctor I could find, to help make my neck feel better. And I realize there are quite a few people besides MDs who call themselves "doctor". The physiologist (not an MD), calls himself doctor, the chiropractor - doctor, the Qi Gong massage therapist - doctor, and of course, my husband "Doctor of Love". Anyway, I started with the Qi Gong masseuse, who did make my neck feel pretty good - a satisfying treatment for $50 an hour. But the next day I went to a specialized clinic where they had many different kinds of doctors: mostly out of network, but one on staff who was in network. They agreed to charge me in-network prices whoever I saw. The best part about this practice, was that they generally catered out-of-network style to local professionals from high-end lawfirms - and there was no waiting! Ever! So I started with the physiologist, who basically gave me a massage on my neck and shoulders, offered a shot of Lydocaine (I declined), and took an x-ray. The next day, I showed up while all the "doctors" were busy, so (since there's no waiting) the secretary took me over to a table, hooked some electrodes up to my neck, which started causing involuntary muscle spasms in my neck ... which didn't hurt, it just felt kind of odd; and especially odd for the secretary to have hooked me up. Anyway, when the chiropractor was free, he came over and gave me another neck and shoulder massage, cracked my neck, and then sat me in a massage chair. I'm planning on going back for more tomorrow: I like the attention, and odd as it is, these treatments (which probably get billed at $300 to the insurance) are less cost to me than the $50 an hour Qi Gong massage.

Please note that this entry was written by Cassandra's ghost-writer, since "my" neck still hurts.

Pain in the neck

The advice I received from my blog post on what to do with my neck was to take a nice warm bath and drink heavily. I asked my co-workers for advice and I got either chiropractor or masseuse. I'll ignore the blog advice for now and take my co-workers'. Today I will see someone who will give me acupressure and tomorrow I have an appointment with the chiropractor. I saw a posting on Craigslist of a guy who is willing to give massages to (only) females for $25/hr. A good scam, I thought to myself.

Mortified!

Yesterday my dear husband watched both our kids while I worked. He took them to meet me at the train station on my way back from work. Dazie's face looked sun-burned, but most noticeable was black patches of dirt and grime all over her face. She looked like a homeless kid. Sadie, meanwhile was wearing only a shirt. That's right, no pants and no underwear.
How could he let them out in public like that?!

Need a new neck

I have a really bad neck ache. I don't know how I got it but it's driving me crazy because I've had it for a week. What really exacerbates it is working on a computer, picking up my kids and living or breathing.
Any advice?

Freak show

OK did y'all see Palin speak last night? I feel like shit today for staying up late to watch her but I couldn't miss it for the world.

I'm very upset that she and her husband decided to bring their infant son (4.5 months) to the noisy, brightly lit convention late at night and used him as a prop to pass around to various people. I think the poor boy should have been at home sleeping. Then when Piper, her 7 year old daughter licks her hand and pats down her brother's hair, I was in hysterics. Also, I can't believe they allowed her to hold him for as long as she did. What if she dropped him?

It's going to be an interesting election. I don't think I can vote for either candidate. I feel bad for Hillary. I can think of so many if onlys...She must be so pissed about the Edwards affair not coming out earlier, maybe she would've won Iowa and change the course of history.

Why doesn't Bloomberg run for president?

Faster, higher, stronger AND screwed over

For the last 3 days, I have been non-stop obsessed over the Olympics. I love watching any and all events - particularly women's gymnastics; I've been following the dramas, trials and tribulations of the US and Chinese teams.
Oh and I love the side dramas too:

1. substituting a cuter girl to lip sync the Chinese national anthem during the opening ceremony.
2. the Spanish team stretching the outside of their eye lids to mimic chinky Asian eyes
3. the poor dancer who was going to be the only solo dance performer among the synchronized masses, falling to permanent paralysis during a practice the day before the opening ceremony because of a faulty platform
4. as well as the thousands upon thousands of poor washed up Chinese Olympic hopefuls, raised in a government run sports camp that never make it - either end up with injuries, paralyzed and always with no other skills to fall back on.

(Some don't even know how to read!) They are separated from their parents at a young age, like 3. They're tortured on a daily basis and fed nationalistic propaganda with promises of fame and riches. Many get washed up at various ages (some as young as 8, as they're cast aside for more talented hopefuls), they end up disabled and/or impoverished. The Chinese are using a cruel numbers game on the race for Olympic gold. Nobody is approaching Olympic training this way so I can't see how in like 10 years, the Chinese will just win in every event. For every Cheng Fei, there are literally thousands who sacrificed their entire lives for unrealized dreams.

Still, watching the Olympians compete, it gives me such pride in the human body; what it can do with training and perserverance.

I'm generally lazy but I've been doing these intense 25 minute workouts every other day because it helps me sleep and keeps me sane. Tonight before I started my workout, I was ready to punch the wall but now I feel like giving my husband and the world a hug. I ran on an incline on a treadmill for 30 minutes straight. Then I did 4 sets of 50 modified sit ups. Now I'm ready for a cool shower and then I'm going to watch the Olympics. They really are torturing my sleep deprived mind and body by running events until 1AM.

Green Barley powder

Love love love love love my green barley grass powder/supplement. It tastes really bad, sort of like sawdust or grass, so I mix it with orange juice and it becomes palatable. It's been great for my digestion and I really believe in the health benefits.

In the background but not really

Here's a really nice picture of my friend and her son, although I've blotted them both out with blue happy faces (to protect their privacy and to further my point). What's really funny to me is that me and my children as well as her husband are part of the background (see red arrows). Normally people in the background are random folk that you would normally ignore should they show up in your photos. Well what happens if you know the background people? There should be a term for this.

Happy Birthday x2 Sadie!

Looking at how happy Sadie looked and felt at her birthday party makes my heart sing. She had been asking almost every day for the past few months in a hopeful voice, "Is it my birthday today?" or "When will it be my birthday?" And since my in-laws are coming to stay with us for a week, she can have another birthday party.