I've worn glasses since fifth grade and just got my nth new pair yesterday. I can't remember if I had new lenses put in my old frames during their reign but if I didn't, then I've had the same pair of glasses since I lived in Redwood City — we're talking 1999, people.

My new pair is totally HOT, makes my face look smaller, and is branded by Dolce and Gabbana. Monstro says they look techno. They make me feel like a blind Carrie Bradshaw — without all that pesky indiscriminate sex.

… and I'm saying that if “Reaper” holds up to be as funny, weird, and creative as the first act was, it's the best show of the new season. And it's GREAT to see that Leland Palmer's still getting work. I've missed him.

So far, it's a pretty good crop of freshman shows. “Journeyman” and “Bionic Woman” (!) are the best of the bunch that I've seen, but “The Big Bang Theory” was much funnier than expected. Of course, its pilot was directed by James Burrows, and heck, he made “Will and Grace” funny, so we'll see how it plays out from there.

Back to the tee-vee!

Here's what I did this week. We still need to put in the bio information for two of the partners, and a physical address for the contact info, but other than that, the site is done, the site is done. I shall be singing that for the rest of the day. Good thing Monstro and Lex are at school!

We didn't go to church today — turns out Lex was up all over the night and I just stayed awake between 2:50 and 5 a.m. Then he woke up for good at 6:45, but Monstro took that shift (thanks, Honey). We have been having a big issue with our church's non-compliance with nursery care (there's no problem with the woman there, just that they need another grown-up: two per room wherever children are present). I think I may have solved the problem during my sinus-earache-abatement scalding-hot shower; please cross thy fingers, I don't want to change churches.

Monstro's been working on his comps so today my mission has been to remove our son from the house so big daddy can get some reading done. He's reading Gibson's Pattern Recognition right now, a book I really enjoyed.

Another thing we've been working on is regular gym attendance. We joined the Y last Saturday and did cardio four consecutive days this week. I'm up to 40 minutes on the elliptical machine. Don't get excited — the machine's set on “fatty” — but I've burned more than 1,200 calories total this week.

I'm working on a Web site for a repeat client right now and if he doesn't start getting back to my there's no way the site will be done and up by Friday. Especially because he wants me to xfer the domain, which in my experience can take anywhere between 2 days and (no lie) six months. So we'll see. I read the mission statement to my friend Katie and she said it gave her goosebumps and made her want to cry, but in a good way. That's pretty good for a first draft, which makes me happy 'cause I wrote it.

(aside: my Powerbook's monitor is so dirty the apostrophes look like more dirt smudges.)

Speaking of writing, Living in Northampton and Amherst 2008-2010 is really taking off — the boy is settled into nursery school three days/week and starting next week, Monstro will take him and drop him off for two of those days until the end of the semester. We get these little half-sheet progress reports about him (Lex, not Monstro) every time and get to coo over his frequency and timing of BMs and what his favorite activity was that day. He's really figuring out how to hold an adult's hand while walking around, which is great — I even took him to Big Lots! today without using a shopping cart.

“I'll set you down but you have to hold Mommy's hand, OK?” I asked him as we looked at the rack of The Wiggles DVDs.

“OK,” he said.

And then he did! OK, I was just there for one thing, but even so, it was a breakthrough. Good stuff.

Earlier this summer my mom was in the hospital for a day in CA and then the next day I saw a woman who I not only swore was my midwife (to the point that I called her “Joanna”), but when she said, “No, Motormouth, it's Barbara,” it took me the better part of a week to realize who Barbara was and how I knew her. I felt really bad about this, but the boy and I ran into her at the recycling center today (see above re: removing the boy) and I was able to heartily apologize and explain the situation. Turns out she never got my note about watering my garden, which was OK because I only planted half a plot of herbs, anyway, and I haven't been there since before we left for vacation in early August. She was kind and understanding about my mental vacuity, so it was a good follow-up.

And then three days ago I found out one of the most darling funny Christian women from my church at Chico, Shannon, is being treated for two spots of bone cancer. The same evening I read that e-mail, I saw a “While You Were Out” episode. Those have been on hiatus for-ever and so I switched over to the last 10 minutes. Mark Montano (who I met at BWI and was himself quite gracious) designed a bicycle garage for a man fighting cancer and at the end of the episode, presented him with a Livestrong Notebook, to help him track his medications, finances, and stay inspired with stories of survivors, too. I ordered one for my friend this weekend and she'll have it in hand by (at the latest) Wednesday. The funny-sad coincidence is, Shannon was the first person I ever saw wearing a Livestrong bracelet, and when I commented on it the first thing out of her mouth was, “Oh, here! I have two,” and she gave me the bracelet off her wrist. Her two boys, independent and unaware of the other's plan, each gave Shannon a bracelet on the same day.

The notebook was free but I threw in a $10 donation to cover the materials; plus, they're running a promotion where if you spend $10 on their site, they'll add 10 free yellow bracelets to your order. So on top of the notebook, her original gift to me will be rewarded par dix.

I'm hoping this cancer situation response will be met more favorably than my last one: No-returned-calls from one of my 2.5 remaining high-school friends for three months. Carlin, could you kick your brother in the *ss for me and tell him to freaking call me already, even if it's to chew me out??? Thanks.

OK, I have uploaded a recent pic of our little guy — look to your right. He's wearing an authentic Mexican wedding shirt (guayabera) that we bought in San Antonio. Pretty appropriate, considering the picture was taken at my father's wedding. One of the guests said our boy had “the best shirt in the place!” Love it.

Sorry for the lack of posts lately but I've been working. Updates on my book Living in Northampton and Amherst are going swimmingly — I even got to talk to the police chief in my town yesterday. And on the 11th I had a meeting with a repeat marketing client that ended with him writing me a check for many hundreds of dollars. Should help to keep the wolf from the door — at least until next week, when I head to the eye doctor. I'm thinking I should have just endorsed the check to the optical shop where I will need to purchase at least one, if not two, pairs of glasses.

So that's what's going on here. We're starting a new group on Fridays with the ladies and another couple Monstro knows from Warhammer 40k. Yes, we're getting geekier in our old age. I didn't think that was possible!

Huh. So Britney managed to show up to Vegas and open the VMAs. Too bad she forgot to wear clothes. She spent most of her performance looking like she was trying not to get sick. Hey, me too!

The great thing about the Internet is that people who you knew a lifetime ago can get in touch with you. Of course, this is also the major drawback of the Internet.

When I was single, I dated quite a bit. I met this one guy, David, at my buddy Brad's pool party. He became infatuated and sent me an acrostic poem. I don't remember what the acrostic was, though I do remember it was misspelled.

I sent him an acrostic poem of my own (the acrostic in mine was “TYPO?”). He invited me to lunch at Oracle, where he worked and also led the Oracle employee choir. After realizing he wasn't going to have the sopranos warm up, I never saw him again. You ALWAYS warm up the sopranos.

I blogged about it at the time (I think this was 2001). Hadn't heard from him in a dog's age until last week, when he invited me to join GoodReads.com, a book website.

“I'm writing Limericks now! (Clean ones only, I swear). Are you still the hot pool party chick you were when we met in 2001?” he asked in his invitation e-mail.

I wrote back: Yup, still hot — at least, my husband thinks so. Our baby thinks I'm pretty OK, too!

His reply? “Now that's one baby I'm jealous of! =-)”

Is he jealous of the baby's intimate knowledge of my netherregions, or the whole nursing thing? In any regard, I'm totally squicked out by the whole thing. And then he went on to say that he himself is MARRIED. What a slimebag.

I've never posted someone's e-mail address on my blog for for revengeful redress purposes, but I gotta admit, I'm sorely, sorely tempted.

(In the meanwhile, however, I'm enjoying goodreads.com and invite you to join — I'm listed there as Motormouth.)

What the h@ll happened to La Victoria Taqueria? We stopped there for some orange sauce on our way from the airport and it was closed! Is it gone for good???