I have no cute stories for you today.

Sorry.

Been waiting to be inspired, and it's just not happening. But, stuff is happening, just nothing very anecdotal or cute or funny.

So I'll just make a list of sorts. Take from it what you will. There will be NO FLOW and the grammar is going to be bad. Don't say I didn't warn you.
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Yesterday was Dr. B's birthday. I sent out an email to various area friends to meet for wings and beer if they wanted to come to Quaker Steak and Lube. 25 people showed up. We had no idea we had that many friends here. It was great. Dr. B was thrilled. (And to those who didn't show up, you missed a heck of a par-tay.)

Rowan has 5 teeth now, so she looks less like Vampire Baby. Waiting on #6. She's been really growing lately (30" and 21 lbs. 2 oz) and is looking really leggy. This is bizarre for the two stumpy people who are her parents. She's in the 75% for height and 50% of weight and head size. This is a relief to her ginormous-headed mother. Maybe she'll be able to wear hats someday.

But she hates hats. Rips them off her head and the heads of anyone in her reach who is wearing one. She also hates glasses and sunglasses. Sometimes, she hates her shirt and we find her topless. She has to wear some sort of diaper-covering item, because she has figured those out and likes to remove them and let her cheeks wave in the breeze whenever possible. She is like her father: she loves naked time.

I love the spray sunscreen for babies. I can put it all in her hair (no hats) and if you don't touch it, it dries eventually and doesn't plaster her hair down and make her look like a Guido.

Her latest game involves crawling at lightening speed while you chase her and screaming with laughter. She also likes tossing a ball over her head and behind her, and pushing her chair for her little play table around in a circle. That's pretty funny, too. She's eating everything we are (cut into tiny pieces) and especially loves ice cream. She's also big on chocolate graham crackers, but really makes a mess with those so they are confined to the high chair. She loves her fruits and veggies, and will leave the pasta/potato/rice starchy items and chow down on the green beans or red peppers. She loves black olives, too.

Our living room carpet smells really doggy. Tomorrow I am renting one of those machines to shampoo it. Maybe with next year's tax rebate we'll put down hardwoods in the living room. We now have a take-down shower head so it is my new shower head resolution to bathe the dog more often. (With a bucket, it just sucks, and I didn't do it enough this winter.)

We are choosing paint colors. For our bedroom, I think we're going to do a wall of chocolate brown with some sort of creamy beige elsewhere. The carpet is blue, and that has to stay. Our coverlet/bedding is a pale champagne color. May do a pink pillow or something for a pop.

The kitchen will be a pale peachy-beige (called "flan"). We're going to do the ceiling back to white and paint our cabinets. Bottoms will be a barn red ("bolero!") and the top ones will be some sort of creamy white. Not nailed down yet. Have to go into Sherwin Williams again. This is a pic from their color visualizer. The red wall is Bolero and the beige wall is Flan (it looks darker in our kitchen). Right now it is Handi-Tak Yellow and makes me want to gouge out my eyeballs with a cocktail fork.

Dr. B's folks are coming this weekend. They said they'd help paint, and they are bringing beer from "out west" as our friends here call where we're from. We love them so much. Heh.

Rowan's sleep patterns have been weird lately. Some days, 1 nap, some 2, some 3. Some days she wants to nap at supper time and then stays up really late. One night, she was up until 11. Some days, she won't sleep unless we drive. We ate supper 2 hours away last week just to get her to sleep, after hours of yelling (by her). I also sat in the parking lot at Walmart reading my book to get her to sleep at all the following day (again with the yelling until I had driven 2 blocks and then she was dead to the world). Then, weird days like today, she passes at 12:30 (I hadn't even given her lunch) and sleeps until 4. That's 3 and a half hours!!! She was so happy when she woke up, I put her in a fancy dress and took her for portraits. Can't let that opportunity pass. She even smiled for them!

I'm ticked at Bloglines. It's not working for crap.

I got milk at the Meyer Dairy. It tastes so good I can't stop drinking it. I have to go get more. I ran out of 2% and I'm afraid I'll like the whole milk too much. (We buy it for yogurt making and for Rowan.) I'm not just saying this because it comes in cool, refillable 1950's style glass bottles, either. Though that's a perk.

We got our school district taxes bill today. Ugh.

I love our library. I am reading a lot, and really enjoying it. Gotten into the Ursula Blanchard mysteries. Not as good as Cadfael, but Ellis Peters is dead so I'm out of luck on that one. I'd love some good book recommendations.

Lightening bugs are out. I love that, though it weirds me out a tiny bit. I keep seeing them out of the corner of my eye and thinking someone is sneaking up on me.

Walking Lucy the other night, our neighbors invited us over for burgers. I'd only met them once before. Really nice people. Our age, 2 kids (one is Rowan's age.) That was cool.

Went to a music festival downtown with friends and heard Chicken Tractor. What a name for a band. We ate strange nachos and tried to teach their son to drink from a straw like Rowan. We failed. But he's really cute.

Lucy needs to be shaved again, but I really don't want to do it.

I bought a hose and cleaned our patio really well. There was major crud between the fenceposts. It's much nicer now. We got a little gas grill and small patio set with our tax $, and I hung up some lights. It's all festive now! I love eating out there, and we do even when we don't grill. It's just so pleasant.

I think I'm going to color my hair. I can't deal with it anymore--it's so mousy. A friend's kid described it as "kind of tan". I don't want kind of tan hair! Never went back after the pregnancy, so I give up. Plus, it has pretty much stopped growing. I don't have any idea why, but it just isn't getting any longer. It gets bushier, but not longer. Very weird. Trying to decide if I should go blonder or get crazy and go red. But would I look too much like Cynthia Nixon? That is not my intention. (I used to get that a lot, that I looked like her. I don't agree.)

I put up new pics on Flickr. A few from the Hershey Factory tour (fake tour--plastic candy and pumped in chocolate smell while cows sang at you. It was rather trippy.) and some others.

I am finding more and more old friends on Facebook. Crazy. Neat, though. I just wish I could find my old college roommate. So if you know Jennifer Olson from Hibbing who is/was a pilot for Mesaba, tell her to look me up. (You wouldn't believe how many Jennifer Olsons there are in the world.)

I made Dr. B his favorite cake for his birthday: Yellow cake from a box with chocolate frosting from a can. I even did the layer thing so it looked JUST LIKE THE BOX. It doesn't taste that good, but I'm dutifully eating it anyway. What I do for my husband...

I am re-watching season 1 of Mad Men and eagerly awaiting season 2.

OK, it's late and I have a feeling she'll be up early, so I'm off to turn off the outside fairy lights and go to bed. Hopefully I'll be inspired soon and have some lovely little story to tell you, but for now, this is all you get.

Have a good Tuesday!