What's Been Going On

Life's been busy and it's hard to find time to sit down and put any of our adventures/mishaps into writing.  (Though if you received Minh's holiday letter you got a whole year's worth at once.)  Anyway, here's a quick update on life-n-stuff:

• Tai just celebrated his second Christmas and birthday in the span of one present-filled week.  He's now a professional at tearing open gifts and officially has way too many toy vehicles.  You cannot walk through our living room without tripping over a backhoe, dump truck, or fire engine.

• Minh and I discovered Scramble (a word game on Facebook) and have spent a few recent evenings playing against each other.  It's a great way to spend time together, but not actually have to talk or even be in the same room.

• Baby Number Two now makes his/her presence know by doing back flips across my uterus several times a day.  We should be finding out the sex in mid-January (stay tuned...)

• Buttons has been without her dog-walker for over a week now, which has the effect of either (a) making me get my butt out and walk her or (b) making me not walk her and then feel very guilty about it, depending on the day.  Luckily, the young energetic dog-walker is due back next week.

• Minh and I have found the very best way to keep a house clean and tidy -- continually invite contractors and (even better) Realtors over to your place.  We did this weekly for about a month and the place looked fantastic.  After de-cluttering the place and talking with the Realtor about all the wonderful selling points of our house, I no longer want to move.

• Yes, we considered moving.  But the house we wanted is too pricey for our budget.  And yes, we considered massive renovations, but budget and time constraints have put that on the back burner as well.  It's looking like minor renovations will begin shortly.  Stay tuned for updates as we expand our living room and finish part of our basement.

OK, that's all I can think of for now.  I'll try to come up with some amusing tales of Life in South Hadley before too much longer...

Falling Behind

I'm keeping up at work, but falling desperately behind in my leisure activities.  I have a brand new book waiting to be read, a half-finished Netflix movie, and last week's episode of Grey's all waiting for me at home.  It's stressing me out.  

And here I am wasting valuable time at work.

Tonight I have to decide which leisure activity to "tackle" and get over with--taking into consideration the fact that I can only keep my eyes open for about 1 hour after Tai goes to bed. This is why it recently took me three sittings to get through WALL-E.  (Which is very good, by the way.  Please don't take my inability to stay awake during it as a poor reflection on the film.)

It's No Wonder We Love Our Neighborhood

We love our neighbors. They are friendly, helpful, and just downright pleasant. In the past we've relied on various neighbors for cat sitting, dog walking, pellet furnace filling, borrowed lawn equipment, and baby hand-me downs. And we like to think we return the favors whenever possible (at the very least we give them an annual event at which they can risk life and limb to de-clutter their woodsy yards).

Recently, we spent 48 hours in the Boston area for Thanksgiving and troubled one of our neighbors to feed not only our cats, but also the two cats next door, for whom we were responsible that week. He agreed without hesitation.

We returned on Saturday to find all four cats well fed, but also this on our front lawn:

If you can't tell, it's a four-foot-tall-light-up-mechanical-drumming-holiday-bear. It so tacky, right? Not the kind of thing we would ever put on our lawn. But there it was, all set up and waiting for us. Buttons barked at it and Tai fell in love with it right away ("bear! drum-drum-drum!"). So, of course, it stays. Apparently, our neighbor knew better than we did that we needed this thing. Our lives are now richer and more full of the holiday spirit. And I'm sure it will decorate our lawn each December for many, many, many years. Does this mean I have to apologize to my sister for making fun of her mechanical reindeer?

Increased Productivity

Well, since I promised, here is the review of the newest thing in hair care.  

I think it's working.  Minh is less distracted by my frizzies during staff meetings, which means he's more focused on his work, which means he's more productive, which means he'll most certainly be receiving a huge raise any minute how (just checking to see if Cate still reads this thing).

The thing that takes some getting used to with this new "system" is that there is no actual shampoo.  No, no, "shampoo" is now a dirty word (much like in Minh's first Christmas letter).  Instead I use the "cleansing conditioner" that does not strip my hair of its natural oils.  Bottom line?  My hair feels a little greasier than I'm used to.  But I guess the grease is what keeps the frizzies away, right?

My hair is indeed less frizzy, though I can't attribute it to any one part of the "system."   It could be the cleansing conditioner, or the leave-in conditioner, or the styling creme.  But it's certainly not the intensive hair repair mask or the texture balm because I have yet to use either one of those.  Yes, this "system" is really a bit much to handle.  Especially for someone who used a 2-in-1 shampoo for years.

I have since cancelled my membership in the system because I have more than enough styling creme and can buy the cleansing conditioner on amazon.com.  And I have never been comfortable with signing up for any "club" that will automatically bill me for my monthly supply of whatever.  I never even joined Columbia House to get my 10 CDs for a penny.

Would I recommend it?  Sure, if your frizzies are negatively impacting your life or the life of a loved one, go ahead and try it out.  But I think you can probably get away with just the basic bottle of stuff from amazon.