. . . has been a little light, and will continue to be through this coming Wednesday. Attila the Hub and I are working on getting the house ready for what the social worker calls the "home vist," and we are calling "the inspection." Interesting little facts about this phase in the adoption process:

1) We have to pull credit reports on both of us, and I'll have to explain that I've used my own checking account (and credit cards) as a sort of wading pool, playing around because I know that whatever I do won't affect the family finances (until it finally did, drastically increasing the challenges when we refinanced the house—and I therefore had to stop acting liike a 14-year-old; this is always such a painful moment for the middle-aged:

Discussion about twenty years ago with my dad—

Attila Girl: Your parents were full of caveats when you borrowed their car.

Attila Dad: They treat me like I'm 16 years old.

AG: Why?

AD: Because I acted that way till I was in my mid-forties.

AG: When did you stop?

AD: A couple of weeks ago.)

2) I have clutter all over my house, which simply won't do because it makes the home less inviting, and creates all kinds of tripping hazards. Therefore I'm getting rid of what I can, and boxing up the rest to hide in storage. This process would be less tramautic if it didn't involve all kinds of self-flagellation: "how did I let these stacks of books pile up this high? And why do I even have these? I haven't even read half of them!" And so on: "Bad Attila Girl. Bad. Bad!" These questions, naturally, answer themselves: I let the piles get high because I knew someone was going to mentally abuse me when I started tackling them. And I need to stop doing this, because I certainly have no intention of treating my child the way I treat myself. Or the way I have treated myself historically, let's say.

I've been told that clutter stems from a mild form of ADD, or ADHD. I tend to think that in my case it's learned behavior, or possibly a genetic quirk: my mother doesn't acquire things so much as marry them—and her father was the same way.

But I must stop accumulating junk and dodging my bill deadlines. Maybe I'll start overeating, like the rest of my countrymen. Or I'll become a moonbat, and construct elaborate arguments as to why all my problems stem from Chimpy McHalliburton. But compulsively, substituting the new behavior for the old. I'll start a blog, and obsessively write entries when I should be sleeping. Oh, wait . . .

3) The standards for "baby-proofing" these days are so high that my husband is once again joking about how he shouldn't have survived his childhood, what with all those exposed electical outlets without little plastic plugs in them. We now have a "configure gate" (which is a little baby fence) around the upstairs fireplace, gates on our balconies, a gate at the top of the stair, and a baby fence that blocks off access from the bottom of the stair. And netting around the railing that surrounds the stairwell, as well as netting on the outside railings.

It does strike me as rather insane. But in our particular case, it's mandated. So there's no philosophical discussion to be had on whether all the baby-proofing in our culture is somehow an abdication of parental responsibility, a way to avoid supervising the child's play, and teaching him/her to stay away from dangerous things. In our case we have to do it to the nines, so our social worker will stay happy. (When the social worker is happy, everyone is happy.)

And now I'm off to sleep. Have a great day, and don't trip over any electrical cords—or strangle yourself on them. Don't try to swallow any buttons or coins. Okay?

Posted by: Attila at 04:22 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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What does everyone think of my spiffy new digs?

Posted by: Attila at 12:42 PM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
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1 Wow - love the new design! I may have to pry open my wallet for something this fabulous myself!

Posted by: Alisha at September 03, 2004 02:06 PM (GeJ1z)

2 Impressive.

Posted by: The Pirate at September 03, 2004 03:09 PM (0ZKi5)

3 Thanks. It was on sale. (Literally: the "Summer Skin Special" at Moxie Blog. I had to pay up front and then wait in line for a couple of weeks. Julie was my designer, and she did a wonderful job.)

Posted by: Attila Girl at September 03, 2004 03:49 PM (SuJa4)

4 This is beautiful. Julie did a wonderful job. And just FYI, it's not always a couple weeks, but it does take a little time to create custom designs as opposed to an out-of-the-box template.

Posted by: Joelle at September 03, 2004 04:25 PM (a/7CQ)

5 Very Nice.

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at September 03, 2004 04:45 PM (U3CvV)

6 I hope that didn't sound critical! I meant to refer to how in-demand you ladies are—and what a sweet deal I was getting.

Posted by: Attila Girl at September 03, 2004 06:05 PM (SuJa4)

7 Outstanding.

Posted by: Christopher Cross at September 03, 2004 09:12 PM (rMoMj)

8 Awesome design. I think Moxie gives the conservatives to Julie (just kidding). She did mine and did an equally great design. Glad to find you, keep up the great blog.

Posted by: Don at September 03, 2004 11:04 PM (pjexc)

9 I picked her solely on the basis of her designs: I pored over the Moxie site, picking out my favorites and figuring out whose use of color I liked best. I'm a sort of color junkie.

Posted by: Attila Girl at September 04, 2004 01:00 AM (SuJa4)

10 cool!

Posted by: Desert Cat at September 04, 2004 09:30 AM (c8BHE)

11 I should add that I love the graphic in the upper left. I know it's not quite you, but dang, it's compelling!

Posted by: Desert Cat at September 04, 2004 09:32 PM (c8BHE)

12 It was one of the more tame ones from Rion Vernon (his "Toon Pinups" series). My first choice yielded a really nice design that my husband vetoed, since the skirt was too short on the Toon Girl. I thought he was probably right (stalker insurance and all that) but it did make me wistful.

Posted by: Attila Girl at September 04, 2004 11:21 PM (SuJa4)

13 I see we've both spruced up our MuNuvian digs a little . Gorgeous stuff from Julie as usual

Posted by: goldie at September 06, 2004 08:41 PM (QjWqo)

14 Oh, no! I was just making sure that people knew that sometimes it takes a little bit, but I'm happy you did. Julie does beautiful work.

Posted by: Joelle at September 09, 2004 06:52 PM (a/7CQ)

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I need to spell this out once, now that I'm actually getting some traffic. When you're commenting on this blog, you need to show respect to the opposition. You may attack their ideas, but not them personally. Keep the conversation as civil as possible. If you would not say it in my living room, do not say it here.

That goes for both sides, and it goes for people I know in real life as much as for those whom I only interact with online.

Anyone who sees violations of this policy should let me know, and I will either delete the offensive comment, or leave its author to the tender mercies of my attack cat—and my other articulate readers. From this point on, anything that can be considered trolling will incur the risk of a smackdown (administered with a clear head and a minimum of Gross Personal Attacks—we're talking surgical strikes), and repeat offenders can definitely get themselves banned.

What this means in practice: if you're calling people stupid, idiotic, illiterate, or evil, you're not persuading anyone—and you're on thin ice. Use your thesaurus if you want to retain posting privileges: More honey, less vinegar. Thanks.

Posted by: Attila at 12:42 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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. . . will be light to nonexistent for the rest of the week, as I follow up on an intriguing job lead.

Details later. Meantime, check out my blogroll.

Posted by: Attila at 11:41 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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for the rest of the week. I'll be at my mother's, where it's all dialup-at-best. So I'm hoping the munuvians and the Bear Flag League will keep people so busy they won't notice I'm barely here.

Posted by: Attila at 12:58 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Thanks for finding my site by entering disgusting phrase combinations into Google. If I ever figure out how to capture your IP and match it to those searches, I'm going to send your information to the police.

If you're lucky.

Have a really special day.

Posted by: Attila at 11:40 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I'm supposed to be blogging over at Dean's World, but we're having technical difficulties. This actually makes for some anxiety, since my "shift" started several hours ago. I got home late after work and another commitment, and was raring to go. Instead, I'll have to wait until we get the whole "logging in" thing sorted out.

In the meantime, I'll blog here about all the things that jumped into my mind when I found out I'd be guest-blogging for Dean. Because of course the thing that enters your mind when you find out you'll be guesting at a high-traffic blog is, "I'll have to make an extra good impression. Maybe I'll try being ladylike this time."

As if it's a sort of job interview. And what, pray tell, is the electronic equivalent of wearing a turquoise microfiber suit with nude-colored pantyhose? (Interviews are the only time/place you'll see me in hose, BTW--otherwise, it's tights. But it's a damned snappy suit, if I do say so myself.)

I believe it's coming up with some sort of nude-colored pantyhose post. Something innocuous that won't offend people. One starts to make a mental list: mustn't blog about sex. Or roadkill. Or fire. No excrement. No menstrual blood.

Of course, someone who wants to hear from a chick named Little Miss Attila is probably expecting to hear about some or all of these things.

The shit and menstrual blood will have to wait. In the meantime, here's my Roadkill Post. more...

Posted by: Attila at 11:43 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Here's Kevin's original; let's see how that looks.

Posted by: Attila at 11:10 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Just a test for Kevin of Wizbang! Pay us no mind.

I'll do one for real once we science the dimensions out.

Posted by: Attila at 11:07 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Why is it that 50-75% of the time I create a new post I get an error regarding my pings, or my trackbacks, or some such? Am I being a bad Movable Type girl? Have I failed to make the proper sacrifice to the Gods of Real Blogs? Is my Blogger/Blogspot legacy following me around? Am I the Blogosphere's answer to Ted Kennedy--more past than present? Just wonderin'.

Posted by: Attila at 07:25 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Paging Dr. Joyner.

Well, at least it works for my own pix--which are more fun than any silly quiz.

Posted by: Attila at 07:19 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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My precious! My new blog isn't posting images, especially on lame-o quizzes. Hm. Wonder if it's a Movable Type issue. Don't make me come over to the Munuvian blog and beg for answers . . .

Posted by: Attila at 07:05 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I'm here at my brand-new blog, looking around at the fresh white walls and mentally arranging my furniture in the new digs.

Everyone has been soooo helpful and supportive; I know I'm going to be very happy here in Munuvia.

Oh, wait!--there's a perfect spot over there for the piano!

And comments! And categories! And a "search" function! And Madfish Willie is willing to help me!

Needless to say, the Ogden Nashery below is actually Pixy Misa, making a test post. But it's a good bit of Nashery. (Did you know O.N. actually put out a collection of poems that billed itself as A Golden Trashery of Ogden Nashery? Now you do, and your life is complete.)

Posted by: Attila at 08:05 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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