Someone has snuck in during the night and replaced my regular baby with a Fussbudget. This little baby is so cranky, I pulled a toy out that was actually supposed to be for Christmas to let him play with something new.

He didn't even want to play with the box.

Poor little guy. The grown ups are finally seeing the other side of the Sick that has lasted all week. He seems to be about a day behind, so perhaps by tomorrow he won't feel so bad, and then can just fret about his gums.

We are all sick, sick, sick, and Dex is teething on top of that. It is a snotty, droolly mess around here. I keep wiping things down with Clorox Wipes to try and keep the germs under control. Dex and I are scheduled to get flu shots next week, but I guess it wasn't soon enough. I know that the flu is not a cold, but I never get sick when I get a flu shot, so it must do something. There are no alligators when I have this banana in my ear either.

One of my favorite websites, Manolo's Shoe Blog, has spawned many new sites, the most recent and my current fave is Teeny Manolo, catering to all things Small Fry related.

Let me know if that link doesn't work. My old pal Tara let me know that my links don't ever work for her. I always check them, and they work for me, so I'm not sure what else I can be doing. I build the links in html, but perhaps I need to be using the hyperlink function Blogger provides.

In addition to Rock Band, we have some other new additions to our household (at this point the video game feels like a member of the family.) I came home from rehearsal two weeks ago to find some props for Steve's short film. In addition to some weird meat in the freezer and a container of meal worms in the fridge, there was a bag of live crickets and a bag of water with three goldfish swimming around left on the counter. When I fed Dex at 3am, I came out to find Schmedly the Cat on the counter staring down the bags. After the poor fish were living in the bag for a week, we decided to let nature run its course. Considering the fish were originally going to be nailed to a board as movie props, getting them a fish bowl and seeing if a very wimpy kitty cat ever did anything more than stalk them seems to be the more humane option.

Steve has named them Lucky, Lucky and Lucky.

We have a new video game in our house. Rock Band. It's Guitar Hero meets Kareoke, and rivals the Wii for Bestest Party Video Game Ever. (I still think talking and charades are more fun, but I do improv professionally)

I came home from Santa Barbara Tuesday night, the day of it's arrival, and Steve and our neighbor Helen had been playing for two hours. We've had friends over every night to hang out and play, and it has made this holiday weekend even more fun. I wish it had a bigger range of style of music, but I bet that will be coming in future downloads.

When you are the singer, you get to play cow bell. A nice touch.

So once again, I went to the mall with cash in hand to buy some clothes and came home empty handed. I did find one pair of jeans that fit, not awesomely, but passably enough for "clean out the garage/run errands/take Dex to the park" jeans. Not for "wear on stage/go out at night jeans" but I can wear pants for that. That they are from Coldwater Creek is depressing, but I soldier on.

Every store looks like it is from another dimension in time. And that time is 1972 Palm Springs. I love 1972 Palm Springs, but I can't dress like it's a cocktail party every day. I'm not sure when it all happened, but it was some time when I was pregnant. I know when I bought some clothes last fall things were normal. I honestly did not recognize Bloomingdale's. It looks like Warner Brother's Costume Rental House 1960-1970 aisle.

I did see two things on the rack at Macy's that I thought, "Wow! That would look great on me!" A plum v-neck lightweight sweater (Tahari) and a black coat(DKNY). The sweater was $249 and the coat was $525. Needless to say, I didn't even try them on. I cannot believe that I would have to go up to that kind of price point to find something to wear.

Lisa and I have been talking about a trip up to the outlet malls. I'm not sure it is even worth the gas, if it's just all of this stuff marked down, but at this point I'm grasping at straws.

I'm starting to think I'm just crazy, and have turned into a Boring Hausfrau. But then I see the Tahari sweater and know I'm right. Also, I checked out Talbot's and Coldwater Creek. There it was also ugly, but the kind of ugly I expected. Not ugly, just not clothes appropriate to my age. Lovely, if you are 60.

But, in the words of Rebecca Gray, where are the Former Vixens who are now Moms supposed to shop? I'm not looking at Forever 21 or Express or the Junior's department. I'm looking at Bloomingdale's and Macy's women's section, Ann Taylor Loft, and Banana Republic. Next stop, Loemann's in BH and Nordstom's.

Perhaps a letter to Tim Gunn is in order.

I have to agree with my young friend Marisol. Driving in Glendale sucks.

Yesterday I spent as much time trying to make one left turn as it took to drive all the way to Glendale. I'm not sure culturally why the citizens there drive crappy. It may be a general attitude toward their fellow man.

When I finally got to the store, the woman if front of me in the checkout line at JoAnn Fabrics just left her cart. Right there in front of the register. Picked up her bags and started to leave. It is customary in America to then push the cart out of the way so the next person can step up to the register. Perhaps even taking the cart with you to your car.

I called her out on it. "Ma'am! MA'AM! Are you finished with your cart?" Everyone in the store stared at her, and she turned around. She came and got it, and moved it about 3 feet. Hey, at least it wasn't in front of the register anymore. The cashier rolled his eyes and asked, "did she just dump it right there?" "Yup."

She was WAY too young to be called ma'am, too. Ha ha.

I'm enjoying this November more than I have previous Novembers in a very long time, perhaps since living in Boston, and I think it has to do with being outside during the day.

Before Dexter, November would always be a very busy month. I don't think I've ever been without work during this month in my entire adult life, necessitating that I be inside working hard and usually overtime. This means that I would be heading to work in the overcast dawn and heading home in the no Daylight Savings Time dark. November would always be a month of feeling rushed, knowing that the holidays were just around the corner, but not being able to get stuff done in the evening. Dark 7:30pm was much worse than Summertime Light 7:30pm. It was just going to get colder, darker and then it would rain.

This year, it's a little different, and I'm getting to enjoy the milky sunlight that is November, and I'd forgotten how nice it is. I'm still busy, but the hours are a little different and I'm glad to be outside at 10:30am. This week's job is alterations for the Spice Girls Tour dancers. When Dex and I went to pick up the clothes, we could hear the live music of them rehearsing in the next space, but we didn't see them. And it might have just been the dancers rehearsing. I didn't care. OMG. Spice Girls!!! Even if they are all old and saggy baby mommas now. Me too!

A little catching up...

The costumes for Jimmy Kimmel turned out totally awesome. Everybody looked great, and the band seemed to get extra camera time this year, and I'd like to think it was due to some colorful, easy to know what it is at a glance, gigantic cereal character costumes. I was particularly proud of the band leader's gigantic Cap'n Crunch hat. Made out of a solid piece of foam with fabric hot glued on it, it was a total Trash to Cash Kostume. But it looked fabulous on camera, and if I was the director in the booth, I would have thrown to a shot of it all the time too! Of course, I got no pictures of it.

I took Dex to the Pumpkin Fest in Pasadena which was delightful, and then to a party at my writing pal Sarah's on the Westside. We were a little out of our element there. He was the only baby, and I was the only one with a creative lifestyle and job. Sarah seems to be in a transition between her old stuffy life and a more relaxed attitude. I was talking to a woman, to whom Sarah introduced me as, "this is my friend who makes costumes and puppets!" who about ten minutes in says to me, "Oh! You make a LIVING doing that! You're so passionate about your work!" She worked in real estate, or so she said. I sort of edged away from her at that point.

Halloween itself was fun as well. I decorated the front of the house, and we had about 20 kids, around the same as last year. Probably the same kids as last year. We had to get a new fog machine, as our old one got a new job in rock-n-roll. The new machine crapped out halfway through the evening, so now I have to return it to Target. I hope to get my money back, or at least store credit, even though it is used. They have gotten very squirrelly about returns. I'm not taking "no" for an answer on this one.

The WGA writers' strike is set to go on Monday. It will be interesting to see how long it lasts. I've already seen audition listings for NBC promos that are very specifically non-union.

Here are some photos...

Some monster cupcakes. Beta version. I may never make normal cupcakes again.
















Our little bug.
















Sleepy bug at Sarah's party.
















Happy baby!