Sundays with Stretchy Pants

Most nights, in the wee hours of  morning (you know, 12:10 am) this wee little one comes sneaking into our wee little bed. At first, she clings to the edge right next to me, but she slowly worms her way into a position that is more in keeping with her idea of her importance as the baby of the family. And we have a full size bed.

We are not reluctant family bedders by any means. It’s how we roll and we dig it. We used to have bigger beds, appropriate for all kinds of family bed configurations. We started with a queen, then a twin pushed up to the queen, then a full and a queen together, then back to just a queen when Lena and Liberty stopped coming in our bed every night, then we needed a new mattress and my in-laws were getting rid of a like-new full mattress, so we snatched it up thinking Maya’s just one kid, how much space can she take up? The answer is: As much as she wants.

We have always wanted a king size bed, but it has never worked out, what with being hopelessly cheap budget-minded and hopelessly afraid of having to move such a large bed. But now that we  have a house and that full size mattress is nearing the end of its life and we still have bedtime barnacles, it’s time to spring for a proper king size bed. Even Lena and Liberty like to have a turn sleeping in there once in a while, but that takes much planning and there just isn’t room for Bryan’s long arms and legs, plus either Lena’s or Liberty’s Bryan-in-miniature long arms and legs, plus me. Forget about princess wing-span joining in.

Also, evening family lounging is our favorite thing. It would be lovely if we could all cuddle up on the big bed and read books or watch movies or play games together like in the old queen plus full days. And it would be super lovely to not wake up with Maya’s elbow in my mouth.

A real one, not a fake homeschool one like we had yesterday where we went to the library for supplies and came home to camp out in front of the fire with books and movies and cinnamon bread. This here’s a real snow day with all of Columbus.

Bryan blew some snow into a hill at the top of our regular hill this morning when he was gleefully (yes, gleefully) snowblowing the driveway, he strategically placed a snow pile at the top of our regular hill. He’s nice like that.

Look, here’s a video:

GAH! There would have been a lovely video with subtitles and whatnot if I hadn’t been enraged by our new Flip Ultra video thing. I tried to put the videos into Windows Movie Maker, but couldn’t find the files. I asked Flip to tell me where they hid my files and they said, “They’re in that folder over there, I swear!” And when I opened that folder over there, they weren’t there, so I asked them again where did you hide my files? And this time, I cocked the gun and put it at their temple. Then Flip said, “Okay, okay, okay! We hid your files in a special place so you wouldn’t accidentally delete them! Don’t shoot! They’re in a magical place. Somewhere nobody can ever find them. Have you read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone? It’s like that. You have to go through a bunch of tests of strength and will to find them. We did it so you wouldn’t accidentally delete them! WE DID IT FOR YOU!”

Boom. (Don’t worry, I only shot him in the leg because I knew I might need more info.)

Let me tell you something, I have accidentally deleted so many important things over the years, I know exactly how to use the “restore” function on my computer, thank you very much.

Flip wants me to only use their software for editing and making movies, but guess what? They’re software is not what I want to use! I want to use my Windows Movie Maker! Turns out, it’s a Windows+Flip harmony issue, so I asked, “How do I get around your bullshit, Flip? Tell me now or I shoot you in the nut sack.” Do you want to know what he told me? Me, the person he thought was so techno-challenged that he had to hide my very own videos from my delete-happy fingers? These are the steps he expected me to follow (don’t read it, just look at the enormity of the thing and recognize that I don’t know what half those words are):

The 64-bit version of Windows Media Encoder has been updated so that you can install the encoder on the 64-bit version of Windows Vista. This updated version of the encoder includes the fixes that are described in this article. To obtain the updated version of the encoder, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/AllDownloads.aspx (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/AllDownloads.aspx)

Note To apply this hotfix on a computer that is running Windows Vista, you must have elevated user rights. We recommend that you right-click the hotfix package executable file and then click Run as administrator. Alternatively, you can run the executable file through a console window that has elevated user rights.

Before and after you install the hotfix, check the version number of the Wmenc file and of the WMEncEng.dll file to make sure that these files are updated. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2. Double-click Programs and Features.
3. Remove Security Update for Windows Media Encoder (KB954156).
4. Remove the current installation of Windows Media Encoder 9 Series.
5. Restart the system. Do not install updates.
6. Reinstall the Windows Media Encoder 9 Series. To do this, visit the following Microsoft Web site:
   http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5691ba02-e496-465a-bba9-b2f1182cdf24&displaylang=en&Hash=Q7YOichtn5uaPziFse1ENeP0pr3Zm3uDvElbQn2p9UGArhz5hMZIta1wqWhKm7czKB%2bzqI%2fM7a20p1YBh%2fuqIg%3d%3d (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5691ba02-e496-465a-bba9-b2f1182cdf24&displaylang=en&Hash=Q7YOichtn5uaPziFse1ENeP0pr3Zm3uDvElbQn2p9UGArhz5hMZIta1wqWhKm7czKB%2bzqI%2fM7a20p1YBh%2fuqIg%3d%3d)
7. Verify that the version number for the Wmenc file and for theWMEncEng.dll file is 9.0.0.2980.
8. Install the hotfix that this article describes.
9. Verify that the version number for the Wmenc file and for theWMEncEng.dll file is 9.0.0.3352.
10. Use Windows Update to reinstall security updates.
11. Verify that the version number for the encoder files is still 9.0.0.3352.

Uh…I don’t think so. All of that made me nauseous and disgusted. So I decided to shoot the bastard dead and go elsewhere for info.
Enter Jess Totdfeld’s comment on this post at technologizer.com:

I think I found the best work-around for the new Flip software.

My problem was that I couldn’t edit Flip / AVI videos in XP Windows Movie Maker. They needed to be in WMV or WMA format. Also, I don’t like this business of not being able to find my files. That’s crazy.

Here’s what to do.

1) Attach the Flip and think of it as an external drive.
2) Open the file with the videos in it and drag them to a file on your computer. You’ve just emptied the Flip and now have files you can see on your computer.
3) Download picasa.google.com . It is Google’s photo viewer. It turns out it is great for viewing videos on your computer too.

4) View your videos in Picasa. There’s a feature to trim the videos if you want. You can upload right to YouTube if you want as well or… export to a file. When it exports, it saves as a WMA file and saves within a minute. It also doesn’t seem to decrease the quality which I’ve seen happen with some other programs as well.

Hope everyone finds this helpful.

Oh, I did, Jess. I did find that helpful. So, so helpful. Except, I just opened Movie Maker and dragged them into there instead of messing with Picasa. Thank you, Jess. Thank you, thank you! Why isn’t that Flip’s answer when we ask them to help us? WHY? It’s such a good answer.

By the time I got it all figured out, I was bored of the video thingamajig and I didn’t spend any time doing anything to the sledding video, but here it is anyway. It would have been way better if I hadn’t spent the preceding 2 hours yelling at the Flip guy.

ETA: OMFG IT’S NOT WORKING NOW. Are you effing kidding me? I know this is you, Flip. I will kill you again. It worked when I saved it. It worked when I uuploaded it to youtube. It worked when I posted it to my blog. It worked when I published my blog, and now it doesn’t work.

ETA: OMFG IT’S WORKING AGAIN! I have such mixed feelings about this. I know you’re screwing with me, FLIP!

How convenient that New Year’s Day is on a Friday! Last year, my resolutions looked like this:

For lazy, loungy holidays and the people I get to share them with in real life, on the phone, and on the internet. I love my people.

I had a better quality picture, but I love that it’s almost noon and they’re in their jammies, lounging all over each other, playing pretend together. I should probably get in the shower. I know everybody at dinner will be thankful for that.

You guys, that was a bad flu. I think it was the H1N1, according to a chart that Kristen sent me, but we don’t have confirmation because we didn’t go to the doctor because there’s nothing they could do for us anyway, thanks to the fact the Liberty already has her very own handy-dandy nebulizer for breathing treatments, and the rest of us just needed ibuprofen. Lots and lots of ibuprofen. The ibuprofen was my best friend ever in the whole world. The ibuprofen took the pain and chills and heat away. I will name my next baby “ibuprofen.”

I couldn’t even watch tv, read, play with the internet, or eat very much. I had 3 review books just sitting here waiting for me to read them, but I couldn’t even lift them, let alone focus my eyes and then also think about what I was reading in order to write a coherent review. It was an extremely unproductive, painful illness. It was one of those where you find yourself re-thinking your last will and testament. I didn’t really like it much at all. After the sickness part was over, there was this extreme exhaustion that we just couldn’t shake. I took at least 1 nap every day for 10 days. I haven’t done that since having babies and toddlers. I miss napping with babies and toddlers. That was fun. Falling over half-dead because you moved around a little bit earlier in the day was not fun.

I was too wiped out to run the 1/2 marathon. I told myself the night before that I wouldn’t be running so I might as well just go to sleep, but that didn’t work because my nervous brain knew I was going to try to run it, so I had my traditional no-sleep-the-night-before-the-race, which is the thing I hate the most about races. The next morning, I was very weak after putting my d-tag on my shoe and pinning my bib number to my shirt so I said, “You know what? You’re dumb if you think you’re going to run this race,” and threw in the towel. But I did have enough adrenaline/drugs in order to go watch my sister complete her very first 1/2 and she did great! She kicks so much more ass than I do because she didn’t just run the 1/2, take a shower, and then sit around in stretchy pants all week. She ran the 1/2, took a shower, did her hair, put on make-up, and put on JEANS. Now Bryan is going to expect more than my usual post-race week of sloth if I ever run another one. *sigh*

I did really enjoy watching and yelling, “Lookin’ good, runners!” and stuff like that. That is, until Bryan and my niece and nephew got there and started making fun of me for cheering. Meanies. I think they were just jealous because nobody ever cheers for their lazy asses.

It was a too-short visit, but I’m glad they came. I didn’t really have my appetite, but when I think about all of the things we ate, it seems funny to say I didn’t have my appetite. I eat a lot of food and I get sad when I can’t eat a lot of food. Also, my mom visited for a whole week and she’s all about the eating out and feeding us snacks. I couldn’t even enjoy it and now I’m hungry. And sad.

As usual, this flu hit Liberty the hardest. She has lung issues and if we didn’t already own a nebulizer, we would’ve gone to the  hospital. Last night was the first night she didn’t need a pre-bed breathing treatment, and I’m sure she’s over it. Nevertheless, I will leave the nebulizer, her meds, and all of the little attachments for the nebulizer out all over the house for another 2 weeks or so because I always feel like if I put it away too soon, she’ll relapse. God hates it when I feel confident, so if I put it away, he’ll zap her, I just know it.