A break in the weather

Amazing when the temp can drop 10 degrees in half an hour and it's STILL hot. Taking a cue from Miss Bossy I decided to be entirely too productive on such a hot day, and moved furniture around. Since our Little Dutch Girl went home, the kids have wanted to swap up rooms, but never clean them. I hovered over them to get the job done today, while gleaning toys and clothes for the church rummage sale in the process. I simply bagged up everything in one bedroom, and shoved it into the extra room, where I will (make the kid) deal with it one bag at a time, at my leisure. Then I moved William into the room, which is primary colors, so all his toddler toys and Superman stuff fits right in. Nothing gets taken into the room without immediately finding a home. The excess will either go in the dumpster or on the rummage sale. I got most of the big work done today, now I can do the rest in little bites.
I moved things downstairs, but never poked my head outside until about 20 minutes ago, when I took the poor old crib out to the junk trailer. The breeze has kicked up, and there are stormd rolling in from the Dakotas. I am now ready to flop upon the couch with a water bottle and watch the Twins. Hope your night is as pleasant (unless they piss this eight-run lead down their collective leg, in which case I hope your night is better).

It's not the heat, it's the humanity...

Enough to make a good German girl like me say "Uffda!"

Statement as of 4:40 AM CDT on July 30, 2006

***
... Heat advisory in effect from noon today to 8 PM CDT Monday...

The National Weather Service in Twin Cities/Chanhassen has issued
a heat advisory... which is in effect from noon today to 8 PM CDT
Monday.

.Hot... Humid weather is expecte to continue into Monday evening
with day time heat indices between 105 and 108 both this afternoon
and again on Monday afternoon across a broad stretch of central
and southern Minnesota along with part of western Wisconsin. The
comination of these two very warm days... along with expected low
temperatures on Monday morning around 77 to 78 will make this a
very dangerous period for those unprepared for the heat.
***

Really isn't so bad for me, but to listen to everyone moan about it. The extreme heat in this part of the country usually doesn't last more than a few days at a stretch, and usually nor more than a total of a couple weeks. Same with the really bitter cold, but you inevitably get choruses of "Cold enough for ya?" that last longer than the cold does.

I managed to weasel an extra half-day off for some family TLC time. Multiple project deadlines and hectic work schedules are making for a bit of stress hereabouts. Hopefully we can just stay out of the studio altogether today and just chill the heck out (literally as well as figuratively). I think we'll sit inside and watch movies and pray the heat doesn't knock out a power station somewhere. Got fridge, got AC, got fans, need power!

I'm off now to wait for the rest of the family to get home from church (I am Not Skipping; I just got off work!) Enjoy your weather wherever you are.

It's Friday already?

HTH did that happen? The weeks fly by. Workin', rehearsin', nothin' much new happening aside from Thing 4 deciding to throw himself from a bunk bed and get a head wound. After the initial screaming and bleeding it turned out to be superficial and he is busy causing mayhem as per usual.
It's hot, I'm lazy, this post is lame, but here it is. I'll post again if anything intersting happens.

Some days you're the hamster, some days you're the wheel

In the "WTF was I thinking?" department, I am having a BLAST doing the Shakespeare thing, but I am already sick of the driving. Side note: for those of you readers who are LHS alum, if you checked out the MND pics in the previous Shakespeare post, you may recognize one or both of the Dan Smiths in the photos.
Word on the street is that the Battle of the Bands fell far short of breaking even. Sad to say, the fine townfolk where I work are not known for supporting community events. Not that the Goose Capitol of the USA is so much better, but when we did try to put together a 125th celebration a couple years back, people at least supported us by showing up.
guess this one is short and pithy, but its back to Job 1 in the morning, and more bard by night. Hey, that'd make a good band name: Bard by Night. I'll jot that one down with Skeeter Freak and Ethereal Teeth for consideration when I decide to go big time. Maybe I'll just stick with the All-Jones We're Better Than You Band.

Crickets?

It has been unusually quiet hereabouts. I packed Things 1 and 2 off to church camp on Monday. Things 3 and 4, while remaining busy, have been surprisingly well-behaved. They do frequently drag neighborhood children through the house while Hubs and I are in various stages of consciousness and undress (unfortunately never at the same time, as tasty as that fodder would be for juicy blogging {how far can I carry this metaphor, anyway?}). The poor neighbor kids must think this is the naked grouchy parents' house.
I have started to hear cicadas on a regular basis. It always makes me slightly sad. I associate that noise with the end of summer, yet it feels like summer's barely begun.
We're gearing up for a fairly unremarkable weekend here as well. I'll be working downtown. We may be in for a busy weekend at the bar, as the now-annual "Battle of the Bands" is Saturday, and they managed to book Little River Band for the finale act. LRB songs really make me feel my age. I remember most of them from K-Tel compilation album commercials. We'll probably see more than our fair share of Lonesome Losers in the Bar after the concert. Sunday after church will be a quick drive to the lake to fetch the absent Things home, perhaps with a drive through Willmar to visit Target boutique. Now, in the remaining time I have before I head for the den of not-quite-so-much-iniquity I call Job 1 (for real iniquity, head to the other end of main street, we're pretty tame on the north side) I need to get something accomplished around the house to bolster my own feelings of self-worth. Or something.

Shake a spear

I've gone and done it again. I dragged my neighbor into another Shakespeare in the Park production in Marshall. The last one was Midsummer Night's Dream. It was a great time. I just wish we didn't have to commute 40 miles to take part. We're playing Beatrice and Benedick, respectively, in Much Ado About Nothing. Great to see old friends, meet new people, and just keep the creative juices flowing. It's mommy's little sanity break. This will be fun, and we're carpooling to save gas, as well as hitting the casino on Mondays to get our free $5, which goes right into the tank. All in all, it should prove worthwhile, suffering for the art.

Wool in July

After spending the first half of the week living like a vampire, I tagged off on swing shift with Hubs. After I got back onto a daylight schedule, I had my mother-in-law hack most of my hair off. It is far cooler, and I'm fairly pleased with it, although I plan to have her tweak it when I bring the next kid in. Paige had grandma shave hers quite short, and she's absolutely adorable. I'll get pics up as soon as hubs turns over the camera. I've told the kids they will have no tattoos nor pierce anything other than ears under my roof, but their hair is fair game. It will always grow back.
Friday we farmed out all the kids and cruised into the big City. Hubs had a free ticket to the Twins game with the boys. I tried to organize a reciprocal girls' night, but found only one taker. I met my dear friend, and Thing 1's godmama, Joyce, out in front of the Metrodome, and we wandered aimlessly around downtown Minneapolis and played catch-up. We gave ourselves a tour of the new Guthrie Theater, hopped the lightrail down to the Aquatennial block party, then just walked around downtown before returning to the dome at the presumed end of the ballgame. Turns out they were tied in the bottom of the ninth, so we took the ninth inning discount, found the boys' section, and sat behind them for the remainder of the game, where we apparently became foul ball magnets, ducking at leat three in one inning. (Twins over Indians 3-2 in the 10th). We took Joyce home, went to Kyle's aunt's in a NW 'burb, then rose far too early and went to the Minnesota Scottish Fair and Highland Games in a far southern exburb. To say it was miserably hot would be an understatement, but the men in kilts were doing so poorly wearing wool, I can hardly imagine what it must have been like to be a sheep. The three hours I served as a volunteer in the ticket booth were actually the most comfortable. There was shade and a breeze. We had a lovely time with people we are coming to know as friends over the years, but the heat and blessed/cursed wind (kept us cool, beat us down and tipped things over) were very draining. Also, Farmington is so far south of the metro that it took us an hour just to go back in and then head out of the cities in a different direction. The river and other highways made it impossible to simply head west. It's a great event, but I am hoping TPTB will find an affordable venue that is available earlier or later in the summer. There will always be weather or scheduling issues, but the three years that the Scottish community has been locked into mid-July have been opressively hot without exception, and twice the wind has been a detrement as well.
Today it was almost a relief to work an eight hour shift in an air conditioned building. My legs ache, probably from walking around Minneapolis in bad shoes. I think I shall find some tylenol and a cold beverage and put my feet up. Hope your evening is as pleasant.

Rock Lobster

As long as I can remember I have lived a hop, skip or jump away from a state park. Through high school, I climbed all over Blue Mound and hopped the border to Palisades, where we carried on in such a manner as I would never allow my children. In college, we snuck into Brawner Lake for swimming before it was annexed to Camden, where we also hiked and rode horseback with some townies. After college, we met family there as a central point, and discovered its a sweet little panfish spot. Today, when the kids were nagging to go swimming, I tossed 'em in the car and we lit out for the beach at Lac qui Parle. There was a beautiful breeze, and a few other families had the same idea. There were some other kids to play with but no crowd. I specifically went to get some sun on my legs, which resemble the underside of a bullhead in color, but instead found my shoulders and back another seafood color: lobster red. Forgot I was wearing a sport-back tank and missed a bit with the sunscreen. My legs are still pasty white, though. The upshot of all this is that it's nice to be able to just grab the swim bag and hit the door without packing for a 3-day excursion. William fell asleep at church tonight in the high chair, he was so wrung out from swiming an playing hard. I need to go sleep hard now in preparation for a graveyard shift. The rest of you enjoy this beautiful evening. No, go on. Don't mind me. Really. I'll be fine.

Small miracles

So I do all this bitching about working so much (poor me, poor me) and out of the blue, someone from Job 1 calls to see if I want this morning off, 'cuz she needs some extra cash for car repairs. Jumped all over that! Especially since I picked up a night shift on Sunday. So it's two nights at the bar (sounds like a fun weekend for someone else...) then three overnights at Job 1. Hubs and his partner are DJing tonight, so I sorta get a night out with the man. I'll bring him cokes and make "nudge-nudge-wink-wink" comments. Heh.
I went to a daycare auction yesterday. You wanna talk about venomous women shoppers? Boy howdy, they think an auctioneer hit the bidder twice, or wants to bundle two really good items, and you should hear the outraged shrieks go up from the crowd. Got some stuff for the church kids' group, a wagon for Thing 4, and a climber for the neighbor. I kinda like auctions. They're a lesson in irony. People won't pay $2 for a box of childrn's books or toys unles you bundle some together, but they'll pay more for an Evil*Empire cd player or turkey roaster than you pay for it new at the store. Duh. Almost got caught on that with my wagon, but its a Radio Flyer and not a Taiwan special, so I did OK. There are lots of 'em around here in the summer, and if I have time to kill and an itch for junk, I'll dig through the boxes on a hayrack to find a swell stainless electric frying pan (I HATE teflon) or some such. Last year I spent $2 on a stack of slide projecor items, since Hubs has been doing lots of slide to DVD work lately, but in the stack was an old Smith Corona portable that Thing 2 has adopted and had more fun with than most of her toys. Got a great vanity for Thing 1 for $10, too. I've been trying to be careful to clean out old junk before dragging home new.
Well, I do want to make some progress around the house before I go to work, so I gotta pry my ass off this chair.

Brats

After a night of bickering, blathering kids, this is how I feel:

They were fine for William's birthday party. We called all the closest relatives and headed for the new playground with some pizzas and cake.
Birthday boy made out like a bandit. Lots of Superman stuff for his new-to-him red and blue room, and a pirate ship (Arrr!) and a little bassetball game.

It was after they got home, all sugared up, overtired and punch drunk that I was ready to kill them (I can make more that look just like 'em). Somewhere between tired and overtired, their ears quit working. My head assplode.
He was really enjoying his pirate ship, but after he bashed his sister on the head with a little buccaneer the night began to unravel. In the ensuing mayhem, I couldn't get anyone to shut up, listen, stay on task or obey. Maybe I'm just cranky and need to go to bed, too. Think I'll try it.

What holiday?

Due to twits no-showing at work, my scheduled holiday to work lining up directly behind my scheduled weekend to work, and a pregnant co-worker being ordered onto bedrest, I am in for a stretch of days. I am not expecting a day off until Sunday, and have not had one off since last Sunday. Fortunately, several of them have been short-shift days, so I don't get too spaced out. Still got time to drive the kids to the pool or up to the lake to play in the sand, or just to laze around a bit between chores. Not a bad life.
Tomorrow evening we'll head for a little town across the county known for its July 4 doings to view some fireworks.
Wednesday, we will celebrate the third anniversary of the arrival of Thing 4. Three years of this has been alot of fun.

I added a pic of MamaBob in her natural habitat to her post, too. *Sniff*
Off to herd the kids.

Tagging guilt

Whoa! Major guilt. Thinking so hard to come up with "C" words and I didn't get Christ or church. Hmmm. I'm going to chalk it up to overthinking the letter and not let it cause a major crisis of faith. Maybe.

Bitchslap from out of the blue

One of our assisted living residents celebrated her 92nd birthday today with cake and a smattering of family and friends. As her daughter snapped a picture and said "Smile, Mom," I immediately had the image of a photo of my mother pop into my brain. In this photo, my mother sits in an ill-fitting horrid green dress, holding a birthday cake all alone. It would have been about the time I was 15. My mother was made a ward of the state after my father died, leaving little, which was quickly eaten by her medical expenses. The nuances of long term care, state medical assistance, and neurological disorders were beyond my scope of knowledge at that time, but where the hell was I, or anyone, on her birthday? Funny how one little trigger can wreck your day.