For my daughter so loveth TV…

That she is currently watching Kenneth Braunagh’s Hamlet. Yes, and not just because it is what I had on. I asked her if she wanted me to change it, and she said no. She is eating her ham and watching a decent presentation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Hmmm… maybe there is an actress within her yet.

This has been a hard week. The first three months of babyhood are always hard, but this week I got a major dose of pain. I had the baby screaming inconsolably through doctor’s appointments and phone calls with the insurance company experience, the baby won’t settle while trying to study experience, the everything in the world is waking the baby up experience, etc. I am so tired I can hardly stand it.

However, this morning, I got to snuggle Marlena for about half an hour while Lee played with Oliver. Marlena actually held still and cuddled for half an hour, she is usually far to wiggly to make it so long. It was a really nice way to start the day.

We are still house hunting. I am getting nervous as we have to give 30 days notice, and we need to have a new house by the 11th of June. Ugh!!

House blues…

I hate renting the house in Red Bank!

It sucks. We have paid almost $30,000.00 in rent this year. This for a house that has no insulation, is expensive to heat, and is horribly laid out. A house we do not like. This paid to people who have failed to make the majority of the repairs we have requested, listed the house without telling us a week after the baby was born, and sent me an ALL CAPS angry email today. Why? Let me tell you:

Lee went on a business trip. He mowed the lawn before he left, and tried to mow it when he came back. (Grass grows like gangbusters here, so it is already nuts after a week.) When he tried to mow it, the mower failed. We emailed the landlord to have it repaired. A week later, they decided to drop by, but “were unable to get to the lawnmower because the fence blocked entry to the yard.” Granted, they have a key, the garage code, and our permission to come into the house any time they need to make repairs on the weekends, but somehow the fence gets in their way.

So what do they do? Send me an all caps bitchy email about how they are going to have to hire a service and take it out of our security deposit. This after failing to repair things like:
The bathroom door handle, which locks on its own every time you shut the door.
The laundry closet doors, which are now in the hall closet, having fallen down, again.
The front screen door, which sticks and is next to impossible to open, every single time you try and enter the house.
The bathroom drawers, which have no pulls, and can only be opened by pulling on the sides of the drawers. (I have broken my nails several times, painfully.)
Monkey’s room door handle, which also locks on it’s own. (I had to turn the handle around when she locked herself in her room, lock inside, and couldn’t get out. It is so much fun to remove a door handle when a freaked out child is screaming on the other side.)

Yes, after failing to make these fairly essential and inexpensive repairs for the entire tenure of our lease, they send us a threatening email after the mower breaks, and the lawn isn’t mowed. This after I have washed the floors in the living room with special wood soap to increase their shine so the house will show better, have cleaned and organized before each showing while caring for a brand new baby, and Lee has re-seeded the backyard so the lawn looks nice!!

I hate renting! These people are unbelievable! They have already violated the terms of our lease by failing to make timely repairs, and are now really pissing me off. I swear, if they try and take anything the slightest bit extra out of the security deposit I am going to sue them. NJ charges double damages to landlords who charge too much on the deposit, and I am so ready to recover.

New locks…

There’s a new Hair-do in town…

This time courtesy of a an excellent Italian hair-stylist from Brazil, Adalberto. He was charming, he was helpful, and he was wonderful! I went in seeking the common post baby short cut and left with a long bob “still capable of a pony-tail.”

Adalberto, Al as he is known by his clients, was insistent that I would regret cutting my hair too short for a pony-tail. “I have two children” he said, “trust me, there are times when you really need to be able to have a pony-tail.”

Who am I to argue with the voice of superior knowledge?

Anyway, I am very happy with the cut, and will be returning to Adalberto’s for the duration of my east coast stay.

Oh… and Luke sent me this link, it is really, really, really, cool. I urge you to view it. 500 years of female portraits in Western Art.

This is an amazing video, I suggest watching it. Whoever did this worked very hard!

Managing life with chronic illness requires savvy spoons