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Happy Candy-in-Baskets Day!! :)

Mar 23, 2008
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Quote for Tonight

Jan 31, 2008
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I need to post an update about school and other assorted stuff, but I also should be asleep already. I did want to post this verse from Ben Folds:

And now that the gig is up
The spell is broken
The fat lady sung
The president has spoken

These days that you were waiting for
Will come and go
Like any day
Just another day...

My trip to San Francisco was absolutely incredible :) I did not want to leave! Macworld was pretty sweet. We got our hands on the Macbook Air and it really is a sweet machine. Unbelievably light, fairly nice amount of screen real estate for such a tiny little thing. The keyboard is definitely something I could get used to. As always Apple seems to have hit the mark when it comes to design. The biggest thing missing would be the ability to burn cd/dvd and we have other machines in the house that could deal with that since most of my media get put onto iPhones or iPods anyway. I was really impressed with some of the third party vendors. If my screen on my iPhone didn't already have a tiny divot/scratch I'd have loved some of the new cases they came out with there.

San Francisco was easy to fall in love with. The weather wasn't all that warm, though copmpared to what I came home to it kicked ass. ;) You definitely need a coat or heavy sweater at night, but the days were really nice. We had no rain while I was there, and the fog was minimal, though you can see it in some of the photos.

Lots and lots of pictures from the main touristy type places like Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf and the food was excellent. We hit up all sorts of Italian in Little Italy, Hunan in Chinatown where I even liked the Sweet & Sour sauce on the chicken, and pizza- both New York and SF style that were really good. The time change was easily adjusted to (well, it made t so I wanted to go to bed at a "normal" hour around midnight instead of 3am back east.

We managed to head down to Cupertino to the Apple campus there, but the store was closed when we went so we just sort of walked around and explored a bit before heading back up the highway. The countryside there is breathtakingly beautiful even driving around the highways. I got to hang out with a really great guy who works for Apple professional support and we talked geek all weekend, something I haven't gotten to do with anyone in so long! We saw Lombard Street and Coit tower and the place we were staying with his friend who works at Expedia was walking distance to just about anything we'd want to see or eat. The Golden Gate bridge wasn't too scary to drive over, though we didn't go over the Bay bridge, but had a beautiful view from many different vantage points.

I was so glad to have the Canon with me! Thanks to Justin for lending it out so I could capture so many memories. I will definitely go back again! Many thanks to the hospitality of my friend D and his buddy N! Thanks for taking me in for the weekend and showing me the hot spots! I miss you guys! :)

"Cheese!"

Jan 8, 2008
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What month is this? January. What hemisphere? Northern. The weather is gorgeous. :)

For his smile...

Absolutely Quaking with Excitement! =)

Jan 8, 2008

I'm just doing a big Happy Dance right now, because I'm going to Macworld next weekend! :) Indeed, I absolutely could not pass up the opportunity. Free transportation to and from the airport in San Francisco, free place to stay, free Exhibit pass and cool people who work for Apple Server Support to hang out with!

I couldn't be more excited. Arrangements all fell into place for puppy care, school pickup for the kids next Thursday afternoon for a couple of hours before j picks them up for the weekend, and rescheduling a meeting with the attorneys for the following week.

I can't wait! :)

Life is what happens...

Jan 4, 2008
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when you try living it again for a little while, I suppose. :)

The kids headed off for their weekend at daddy's house today. I have scheduled maintenance on the Ody tomorrow morning (likely new brake pads necessary as there has been an interesting "whup whup whup" sound for a couple of weeks now), then lunch with a friend, and then meeting up with another friend later in the afternoon to catch up with her and see just how big her belly has gotten (I think she is due in March!). Then I have dinner plans. I really ought to scrub toilets and change sheets but somehow that seems a waste of a weekend ;)

The windy weather finally took its toll on our partially broken storm door and it went down the stairs with a noteworthy crash this afternoon. Who knew that storm doors weighed upwards of 150 pounds!? The glass didn't shatter, but the hinges are toast and the remaining screws that had been holding it precariously in place for a few months now were quite bent out of shape. I dragged it off the the side so we could leave in time to get the big kids from school, and j graciously offered to stop by tomorrow while I'm out to take a look at it and see if anything is salvageable. The trim around the front door is pretty loose so that will need to be repaired first. Ahhhhhh homeownership. :p

I managed to compile and install software all on my own (despite enigmatic error messages that only seemed to appear on Google in pages written in German) and then I had an enormously entertaining afternoon chatting with people online and being amused by the rapidity with which we can all stalk each other by IP address in under 60 seconds these days. Some things never change, though- apparently all one needs on IRC is a vagina and you get +v (hey is there a connection there?) within about ten minutes of actually talking in the channel.

I went out for a few hours and ran into someone we used to hang out with quite a bit. It was nice catching up on all the stuff he's been up to in the past few months and we all waned poetic about 2007. A round of shots was had by everyone but me to ring in 2008- I celebrated with my usual 24 cups of diet coke. It seems like some sort of Twilight Zone was entered by an awful lot of us last year- it was determined that the bar is, in fact, haunted or cursed.

*yawn* This was a useless post, but I was still wide awake (maybe the 24 cups of diet coke actually is over the legal limit even for me!) and I realized I hadn't blogged in awhile. Perhaps because I didn't have anything interesting to say, as evidenced by this post ;)

Attorney Visit

Dec 19, 2007
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We met with our lawyers this morning for a few hours to talk about goals for the separation period, how things might evolve with custody and visitation over time, how to separate our finances so that j and I each control our own expenses and debt, and whether or not we might proceed collaboratively rather than litigating the case. J and his attorney refused service of the actual divorce filing with the hope that at our next meeting in January good faith efforts toward collaboration will have been demonstrated and I can then withdraw the petition for absolute divorce on fault grounds and commit to the collaborative process instead, which has several advantages for all of us.

The lawyers were very complimentary toward j and I and how well we communicated on the issues we chose to focus upon today. Both attorneys seemed impressed with what we accomplished in the time we spent together, and they are eager to work with us as a collaborative team, to get the divorce coach on board, and to get a financial advisor involved if financial software is unable to offer a workable plan for our current financial situation. I was up front about my desire to eventually revisit custody and visitation issues in the event we reach a place where there is absolutely no hope for reconciliation, and I also expressed my willingness to reconcile if the situation changes, as I still believe that would be the best decision for all of us for the future.

We accomplished a great deal of work today, finalizing the custody and visitation for at least the next 6 months, establishing a budget for each of us to use until the official child support and spousal support guidelines are drawn up and our accounts can be separated, making a list of home repairs and expenses that need to be taken care of and establishing deadlines for these issues. I was very pleased with the interactions between our attorneys, and I was relieved that there was no subterfuge evident.

It was a hard day emotionally for me, but nothing like I feared it might be. I was really only sad about discussions surrounding holiday gifts and the future of establishing two households for the children. I have been honestly trying to stay in the present and focus on what we have right now, but this discussion brought me back to the reality of a future apart and I worked quickly to get my focus back on the present. I am also fretting about the need for j and I to have contact to discuss household repairs over the next few days. I was eager to get to a point where he and I can have some real distance and avoid interactions that center on any issues that trigger anything resembling nagging or criticism. I believe he needs some space and some perspective. If every interaction we have revolves around the things that all married couples dread (money, home repairs, kids' expenses) with no positive interactions to balance those out like we used to have, it breaks down all remaining goodwill. And I can't repeat it often enough- we are in this for the long haul together, regardless of whether we're "husband and wife" or merely "mom and dad."

Dante's Wisdom

Dec 18, 2007
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O gifted men, vainglorious for first place,
how short a time the laurel crown stays green

A breath of wind is all there is to fame
here upon earth: it blows this way and that,
and when it changes quarter it changes name.

Jay said:
Ha ha.....among like a million other reasons. :POops....wait, there's Vista now. A million and one. read more
on And this is why we use Macs.
Abby said:
What a cutie! read more
on "Cheese!"
Heidi said:
I think once the finances are separate and his living arrangements are separate, we can cut out contact except in... read more
on Attorney Visit
Dale said:
I'm glad it went better than you expected.I think you make a really good point about it not being good... read more
on Attorney Visit
Abby said:
I'm glad the meeting went well...just wish you weren't going through all this. I'll keep sending strength your way. read more
on Attorney Visit

Closing a chapter, but not the book.

Trespassing by... permit?

Happy Candy-in-Baskets Day!! :)

And this is why we use Macs.

Quote for Tonight

San Fran

"Cheese!"

Absolutely Quaking with Excitement! =)

Life is what happens...

Attorney Visit

Dante's Wisdom

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Closing a chapter, but not the book.

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