<thursday february 20, 2003 - 9:42 p.m.>

Gads is it really Thursday already? I don't have much to offer, other than this, Emma's painting of "Angry Daddy." I wonder what they think of us at daycare.

<sigh>

Oh, I have decided to cut out caffeine and carbs. Guess what, i've been crabby and have had a hummer of a headache for two days now. Related: I almost ran over the garbage can on my way to get my hair cut tonight. Pissed off because it was in my way, I leaped out of the car, grabbed the can and flung it across the driveway, cussing and huffing all the while.

If my neighbors saw me they surely now consider me to be a sociopathic garbage can hater.

I think the caffeine withdrawal is having an effect on my mental health. More later...

<saturday february 15, 2003 - 6:28 p.m.>

Sarah is finally out of the worst of it. She's a lot better today and is definitely on the mend.

We took her to the doctor's yesterday. We couldn't get an appointment, but fortunately our doctor had drop-in hours on Friday afternoon.

Mark raced home after work. En route to the doctor's we stopped to pick up our Valentine's dinner at Thyme and Again. (More about that later)

At the doctor's we waited with a few others. I was thankful that we weren't facing a waiting-room full of coughing hacking sickies.

Sararh began to wail as soon as she saw Dr. C.

"Is she normally like this?" he asked over the din.
"Don't take it personally, but it's just you."

It's true. She rarely cries. This was true even when she was a baby. She only cried when she had an urgent requirement.

So Sarah bawled and buried her head in my chest. This made for a challenging checkup. The diagnosis? Strep throat, an ear infection and a cold on top of it. Triple whammy. Poor kid.

We started a round of antibiotics punctuated with regular does of Tylenol. Unfortunately she's no longer so complacent about taking medicine. She fights it the moment she realizes what's going on. It seems like I end up with more on myself than is in her mouth. There must be some trick to this.

There are only 18 more doses of the antibiotic to go. Oh joy.

Earlier this week I took Emma to buy her Valentine's Day cards. In the car our conversation came around to worms. (?) This was probably because Emma had recently fed the worms that live in our basement. Fear not, they are contained in a vermi composting unit aka Worm Alcatraz. They have no hope of escape. (But maybe prison is the wrong analogy. Worm Buffet, there ya go.)

Emma picked one up in her hand and held it for awhile. (She used her bare hand, I use dish gloves to dig in the worm dirt.) We debated which side was the head and which is the tail. (For more information on this topic of worm biology, please refer to "Does a worm have a head.")

When she put it down we watched it disappear underneath the soil.

So, back to our conversation in the car. Emma was remembering how it buried itself in the dirt.

"But Emma," I asked. "How do they dig if they don't have any hands?"

She gave this some careful consideration.

"They dig with their noses," she said. "But people don't dig with their noses."

So we were at the mall, our goal was to find Valentines two days before Valentines. I wasn't holding out much hope.

When I was a kid I remember my mom buying large paper books of V-day cards. The perforated edges made them perfect for kiddy fingers to tear out. Where are these things now?

I was sad to see that the majority of kid's cards available are studded with commercial characters - Tony the Tiger, Buzz Lightyear etc. Why does everything have to have some association with a television or movie character? Answer: because the manufacturers believe they will sell more. They're cute, I guess, but perhaps I just lament the original artwork of yesteryear.

Another change in V-day, it looks like the candy business is honing in to new levels. It's gone beyond heart-shaped boxes of assorted chocolates.

In addition to distributing little cards, kids also have the option of doling out single-portions of sweets. I noticed lollipops, chocolates and assorted chewies. Each is individually wrapped and comes with a card to stick on it.

But now allow me to reveal what I bought for the girls to give out to their classmates: (1) The aforementioned chewies. ("Wow mom, there is a PENCIL INSIDE!" and (2) Barney cards.

<sigh>

I hate to admit this, but I think I may be turning into one of those people who insist things were better in their day, and everything new is brushed off as inferior. Brushe off with a snort of derision, no less.

The grownups V-day was nice. As per tradition we ordered our dinner from a local caterer.

Mark and I both had Creole Spiced Fried Shrimp with Lemony Mustard Dipping Sauce; and Baby Spinach Salad with Strawberries, Red Wine Poached Pears, Scallions, Ginger Lemon Vinaigrette. As a main course I had the Poached Filet of Salmon with Ginger Soy Broth, Sliced Water Chestnuts and Preserved Pineapple and Soba Noodles and Mark had Marjoram Scented Supreme of Chicken with Oven-Dried Peaches and Orange-Peach Sauce and Spaetzle.

I am sad to report that Mark's dessert was better than mine. He had the Chocolate Caramel Tartlette with Malted Milk Chocolate Sauce and I had an unusual Heart Shaped Almond Shortbread Millefeuille with Passionfruit Mousse, Papaya and Coriander Mint Jus. It was good enough, but I'm not sure about coriander as a dessert ingredient.

One-point-five glasses of white wine later I was falling asleep. Tired from Sarah's nightly wakings. I don't think I've recovered yet.

p.s. some new pics on the main page in case you missed them...

a.