Excuses, excuses...

It's the week that ate my brain.

The kids have taken turns being ill enough to skip school, and I've been homebound with the Walking Whiney. Let me make a public apology to all of those parents out there that I haven't been nearly sympathetic enough as you recounted the rounds of cold/flu/consumption/etc. I hadn't realized how beneficial having one or the other or all of us occupied with activities/outings at least part of the week. We're all getting on each other's nerves, from too much togetherness. It has been really challenging not relying on the electronic babysitter. That, and I've had to fight the urge to smear lamb's blood on the doorway and run screaming down the street.

Also during this week: Bob has had multiple projects requiring the laptop during the day at work, as well as projects in the evening. There is something ironic about my desire to blog about non-consumption resulting in my craving my own computer.

The other missing piece: cyber-shopping. Nothing spells mid-winter pick me up like wandering the virtual aisles on-line, filling a shopping cart, and wandering away, never to actually complete the transaction. If I did this at retail stores, they'd up and take my Macy's card! And, interestingly enough, my first job (other than babysitting) was at a small grocery store in Tonawanda NY. When checkout lines were down, it was my job to collect all the abandoned groceries and return them to their rightful places. Like the one time an evil, evil woman had a huge order but when she realized it wasn't freakin' triple coupon day, she whipped the sheaf of coupons out of my hands and just walked out, leaving me with the Mother of all Voids. (Which would be a great name for an alternative band. I'm just sayin'.) So hopefully in the virtual shopping world, my egregious behavior doesn't smite the electronic equivalent of minimum wage workers.

Off for a fun-filled evening of preparing our taxes. The hits, they keep on comin'.