An oldie but a goodie

No, not me (well...)

Got this in my mail today. I have seen it before, but I still like it:
(parenthetical comments mine)

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.
(My SIL told me once she was worried because after she concieved but before she knew, she had tied one on. She talked to her mom about it, who told her, "Don't worry, honey, for the first three months you were swimming in gin.")

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.
(Man, it was a different world back then...)
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.
(still do on a hot day, but don't let the hose run over an electric fence)
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because...WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.
(at my house I had to check in be home for supper or there was hell to pay, but then it was back outside)
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
(Sprained ankle)
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all,
(PONG!)
no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no
lawsuits from these accidents.
We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them !
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
(Some of which caused the problems that we're bitching about here...)
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned
HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!
(liquor, drugs, prozac...)
And YOU are one of them!
CONGRATULATIONS!

(Maybe this explains a lot...)

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

***

So, the Twins did not disappoint last night. William came down and flopped on me flopped on the couch, and we had a lovely ballgame coma. Train them up young...

Gonna go and work on a few bags and boxes before rehearsal. I'll let you know if I unearth any treaures.

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.

Tagged, and a rant.

1. Crap! I've been tagged by Kelly. I have to come up with ten things about myself, starting with the letter "C", so I burned one by using Crap!
2. Committed. Either should be or am, married 15 years to Captain Video, and lovin' (mostly) every minute of it. (Two Loverboy references in one week? Isn't that one of the signs of the Apocalypse?)
3. Children. Things 1-4, Three daughters, one spoiled son. All those little mamas. Poor kid.
4. Countrified. Live in this part of the world for this long, and that's what you become.
5. Character. As in "Lack of..." or "She's quite a..."
6. Creative. At least I hope so. I teach community ed workshops in the performing arts, hopefully I bring something to the table.
7. Chanteuse. A hifalutin' word that means I am a singer, and I've been told I don't suck at it, either. It does make me think I need to find a slinky dress and a smoky piano bar to sing in, though.
8. Contests. Of the talent sort, where I do the aforementioned singing, and usually pay a few bills with the returns. Alas, my kids are learning this bad habit from me.
9. Cold. Hate it. That's why I live in Minnesota. Go figure.
10. Crazed. Obvious: school's out, kids are home all day, so are the neighbors' kids.

Yay, I made it! In celebration, I will tag John over at Daynotes on a Budget. I will refrain from sticking him with "Q" or "X" (I had a hard enough time with "C") and assign him the letter R. Go, man, go.

Today's rant is brought to you by our fine creditors who outsource phonebank jobs to people in India who cannot speak English. I'm sure they are fine, intelligent people, and some of them even have a relatively firm grasp of the language; however, when their speech is so heavily accented that I cannot even discern that they are horribly mispronouncing my (or my husband's) name, it is obvious to me that an English-speaking switchboard is not in their skill set. Now couple this with a computer dialing system that leaves me shouting "Hello!" into the phone multiple times before it even recognizes that I have answered the phone, and you get one irate mama when rung at 8:30 in the morning. At least those poor people on the other end of the phone are learning some more creative language to add to their vocabulary. I'll now hop off my soapbox, and go take a nap.

Lovin'it

After being interviewed by the school administration, the eager teaching prospect said:

Let me see if I've got this right. You want me to go into that room with all those kids, and fill their every waking moment with a love for learning, and I'm supposed to instill a sense of pride in their ethnicity, modify their disruptive behavior, observe them for signs of abuse and even censor their T-shirt messages and dress habits. You want me to wage a war on drugs and sexually transmitted diseases, check their backpacks for weapons of mass destruction, and raise their self esteem. You want me to teach them patriotism, good citizenship, sportsmanship, fair play, how to register to vote, how to balance a checkbook, and how to apply for a job. I am to check their heads for lice, maintain a safe environment, recognize signs of anti-social behavior, make sure all students pass the state exams, even those who don't come to school regularly or complete any of their assignments.

Plus, I am to make sure that all of the students with handicaps get an equal education regardless of the extent of their mental or physical handicap. I am to communicate regularly with the parents by letter, telephone, newsletter and report card?

All of this I am to do with just a piece of chalk, a computer, a few books, a bulletin board, a big smile AND on a starting salary that qualifies my family for food stamps! You want me to do all of this and then you tell me . . . I CAN'T PRAY ???? YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING.

Bye bye MamaBob

We had a lovely afternoon of nothing in particular around here. Picked up yard debris, moved a big tractor tire to make a sandbox for Thing 4, pulled some weeds, sat in the sun, got the neighbor kid to do some bike fixing, helped Thing 4 work on the fine art of tricycling, lit a fire in the pit, and just generally took it easy. Not a bad day at all.
Sadly, I believe we are now a one cat family. Thing 1 came in just devastated that one of the neighborhood kids said they thought Mama Bob was laying on the side of the road. Our cats tend to go walkabout now and then if they are let out, and we were just starting to wonder about her whereabouts. I went over to see for myself, and the poor kitty looked as if it had been there much longer than our cat has been gone, but I don't know what a few days in the summer sun does to the decomposition process. I couldn't really tell. The color was off, but that may be sun-induced. Hubs checked, too, and he thinks he saw some familiar markings on the nose. The kid who reported it had seen it a few days earlier, and specifically mentioned the bob tail (which I could not discern), so I fear the worst. All Things old enough to realize were very sad, but Thing 1 took it especially hard. Poor baby. We have only ever buried one kitty and our old wheezy cocker, Bandit. Several kitties have gone walkabout and not returned, but one can hold romantic fantasies of their better life with a new family they adopted (usually due to overcrowding at our house.) One kitty is plenty, but we are sucker parents and someone will come home toting a stray eventually. Those who read the old blog may remember the tale of how we rescued this poor, soaking wet kitten from the cinema parking lot, and brought it home, and christened it very unoriginally "Bob" because of its stub tail. We tacked "Mama" onto Bob's name after the first of three litters of kittens. She will be missed, if she does not prove us all wrong and come moseying home, wondering what all the fuss was about. One can still hope for miracles. Failing that, hubs assures the kids that she is now in the land of Eternal Mouse.
***
A mouse went to heaven. After a few days he bumped into Saint Peter, who asked how he was enjoying it.
"It's great," said the mouse, "but its so big! Could I have a pair of roller skates to get around better?"
Later, a cat went to heaven. After a few days Saint Peter checked with him.
"It's great here!" said the cat. "I especially love the meals on wheels!"
***
Tomorrow is another two-job day, so I'd better go get my things, and Things, in order. Good news is, I'm getting hours; not so good is the fact that I won't have another full day off until next Thursday. Be careful what you ask for...

Oh what a beautiful day

It is more spring than summer out. It is 72, sunny, with a light breeze. What the hell am I doing sitting here?

Insert clever title here

The weekend that was, hmmm, let's see. Car got vandalized with black spray paint Friday night while I worked at the bar, but hubby got it cleaned up with goof off today, and we had a lovely visit with the chatty deputy who came to take pictures. Saturday I slept in a bit, then was awakened by Thing 2 bearing breakfast in bed. Too cool. Shortly thereafter, we met up with Grandparents from my side for early birthday lunch at the coffeehouse for William, as they will be out of town for the big day. Which leads me to planning what we actually will do for his birthday. He's still little enough that I don't have to do much besides find a cake and invite relatives. Worked last night, then helped Hubs tear down from a DJ gig. Had the day off today, and pretty much lounged and lazed it away after church. I suppose that means I should get my butt up and get something done.

Workin' for the weekend...

Ahhh, a bit of Loverboy for nostalgia lane. How totally 9th grade. Sad but true, worked this morning, and will work and likely close the bar tonight. Tomorrow, Job #1 from 3-11, then, amazingly, Sunday off!! Whatever shall I do with myself? (answer: not answer the phone when they call to see if I'll work!) A two-job Monday to start off next week, nursing in the morning and bartending a retirement party later.
In the "Why the hell did I rack up more student loans for this unfinished teaching degree?" department, I did not get a form rejection letter, but rather a form "continue the application process" letter from the local Technical College, for a library tech/tutor position that sounds right up my alley. Requesting lots of prayer from y'all in the job department. Hopefully, I'll be able to cut back to one job before too long!
Thing 1 enlisted the help of Thing 3, and I came home to a nice and tidy main floor today. Hooray! Brownie points for the Things! Thing 2 ran off for a sleepover, so she has custody of Thing 4 while I goof off and hopefully catch a nap before becoming a barfly. Speaking of which, I hear some ZZZZZZs calling to me. Ta!

Moving again (!@#$%^&**!)

Well, many thanks to eDataRack for booting us, due to too much traffic?? Maybe if they could secure out the spambots, we wouldn't have this issue. Argh. Anyway, firestormfilms.com is moving back to Network Solutions, and the ol' Saucy Goose is returning to blogger for simplicity's sake. We will return to regular programming as soon as I have anything interesting to blog about.

Sauce for the Goose

Sauce for the Goose


Hmm. Lovely little splat of html at the top of this. Anyway, my friggin' domain host is tits up at the moment, so watch this space for any further developments.

Update

Below I was posting for a teaching journal, but I wound up emailing it.

My regular blog is at:

http://firestormfilms.com/b2evolution/index.php?blog=2

Come visit!

Day 2

Today was a more normal schedule, punctuated by a lunchtime fire drill (faulty sensor) at the junior high. I got to call up my nursing skills and help haul a wheelchair down the stairwell.
Mrs. E did review in English 12, and approached the 7 periods in Literature from a couple different "learning styles". She did some nice concrete charting and some artsy poetry writing (haiku: still math-y enough for concrete thinkers.) She ends each class as they file out by calling out "I care about you." Cool.
The day went much quicker at junior high with normal class periods!. The seventh graders did group work with homonyms and homophones. It took the whole period for most groups to complete two worksheets, front and back, but all in all they did seem to work well together and grasp the assignment. The eighth graders read a newspaper article for comprehension. I did this because Mrs G. was called out of the room. We did some basic q&a, but I felt at a bit of a loss as how to wrap it up. We have one really smal section of 15, and one of 26, the other nicely in the middle. Its really interesting to see the different dynamic in the groups.

Day One

Once again traveling between two teachers of different styles. It helps to have a bit of history with Mrs E. Mrs G rocks. She looks like she's having fun even when the kids are irritating her (and she tells them!)
Its end of semester so at the senior high this week is all wrapping up and review.
I'va already found a couple new ideas to steal (thank you Harry Wong!) Both teachers keep a stack or box of folders for their students where handed back work is kept until the end of the term, fending off questions about missing grades or lost asignments. Mrs G said she got the idea from Mrs E.
Hard to learn the first day because it was a homeroom day, which this district does once a week. Everyone I encountered in the staff room seemed to feel homeroom was a wasted effort and a bunch of busywork. This month is careers, others are character and another "C" which escapes me at the moment. The eight (!) class periods are rearranged and shortened to create the homeroom block (30 min.). Must say I prefer Monte's 20 minutes every day, 'tho they were probably wise to move it to later in the day for attendance issues.

moving day

I think its official. My blog is moving to the home server. If you come directly here, you should go to firestormfilms.com/family to find the link to the new homestead. Hubby even wrote something relatively recently!

Plodding along.

What's new around here?

Kids have taken turns being sick. So far, I seem to have sufficient antibodies.

Buying a camper. Just in time for gas prices to go up. Jeez. The kids have slept in it already. Might actually take it out sometime soon.

Kyle is swamped with editing projects.

Got the tree taken out with the help of our own personal Eldon.

More adventures with lawn mowing.

Otherwise, pretty boring around here.

Zombie rock

Night shift last night. Blearg. I actually felt pretty good all night, up until about 45 minutes to the end of the shift. I had a decent nap, but it always seems to take longer to get up and running when my schedule goes wonky.
I picked up a home health client as well
I have all sorts of grand plans to be productive this week. I pulled Geordi's carpet out and put it on the clothesline, fully aware of the weather forecast for 7 days of rain (which turned out to be 9/10 days of rain). However. It's old, hand me down carpet, and I felt rain and fresh air would be just fine before we set up her new room. We now have a forecast of 7 days of sunshine, so I should be able to get it back in soon.
The little projects around here pile up and intimidate me, but I keep plugging a little at a time, and try not to get down.
I should be off and running by now. Just one more cup of coffee...

Dance-o-rama

The aforementioned change of address is coming, but everything is now usurped by the Dance Extavaganza!!! Not only do I have 3 kids dancing in 2 shows today, but Firestorm Films is the Official Videographer of Puttin' on the Ritz Dance Studio, so we will be on camera for 6 hours, and Kyle will be editing for at least 3 weeks (37 dancesx4 camerasx2shows=hell). Blech. Coffee, tylenol and valium will become commodities here.
Now I have girls showering so I can do their hair, so I'd best get at it. Grandma normally does it, but her arthiritis gave her problems on picture day, so she bowed out. She's been doing it since the 12-year-old was three, so I think she's ready for a break. Off we go like a herd of (really cute and frilly) turtles.

Boom boom boom boom

I am writing out of sheer habit of sitting at the computer with my coffee. I have no internet service at the moment, and I don’t know quite what to do with myself.
Storms rolled through last night, loud, nasty windy ones. We had a substantial power outage for the first time since we bought this house. It went out about 1:30 this morning and came on sometime around 7:30. The freezer items are still stiff, but we lost a lot of the fuzz off the freezers. The only other time we lost power here was when the Granite Falls tornado took out a station upline, but they had us rerouted and back up and running within 20 minutes or so.
Kyle and I went patrolling window, lit some candles and found the flashlight (where it belonged, for once!) and sat listening to the radio and enjoying the show. I got to use my makeshift daybed on the porch and watch the clouds and lightning pass over to the east. When all the streetlights are out, it’s amazing how far light travels. There was very little traffic during the brunt of the storm, but when a car did come, especially the sheriff with his spotlight, you could see the light in he trees and on the street for a long time.
The windows in this house are so old and brittle that they fall out of the panes and crack if you look at them too hard, but they all stood up to 75 mph wind last night. I may have to go out and take a peek at the shingles.
One of the trees I was planning to take out anyway snapped in half and landed very nicely between the house and the shed. I was quite impressed God took the time to do that for me with everything else keeping Him so busy these days. Now I’ll be able to take the rest of that one out myself and not hire a tree service. Yay!
It has been so wet. Sunday was the first sunny day in a while, and we did not take the opportunity to mow. Storms rolled through Monday night as well, but we probably could have mowed by evening time yesterday. We didn’t, of course, and then this storm drenched us again. So far it’s just cloudy out, but we’ve been so thoroughly soaked at this point I’m starting to grow fins. I checked the weather channel Monday; it was partly cloudy that day, then every day until next Tuesday had showers or thunderstorms in the forecast to some degree. I’ll go check on TV in a bit, assuming we have cable. The cable and internet have some sort of partnership here in town, but I don’t think they’re actually the same company.
I still haven’t found my weed whip, so I’ll call in the cavalry. Once it dries out I can mow a fair amount of the yard, but the building lines look like jungle.
The internet is back now, so I’ll post and be done with it. Then I’ll get to work…
PS. Watch this space for address changes. Kyle discovered a blogging app on the hosting package from ou ISP, so I may give that a whirl. Or I may leave well enough alone. Who knows. He may actually write again soon.

More of the same

Had to battle a slow sewer drain again this morning. Luckily, today I was alerted to the slowage in the floor drain by the nice clean overflow from the water softener cycling, so we were able to avert any nastiness. This time Mark was able to knock the drain loose with just the hand snake, so it was quick and cheap.
Got a little more purging of junk done today. Since Mark was in his "handy" clothes already, he fixed a couple of drawers and installed a new screen door for me. Slow and steady around here. Hopefully we will get Geordi moved into her own room next week, then finish painting the hall. Then begins the scary basement cleaning project. I want to clean and beautify the basement as much as possible without any structural work, so we can move the arcade down there but have it be nice enough to actually use. We've been slowly moving junk out of storage. The goal is to pare down from four storage rooms to two, so we can use the others for games and actual shop space. Tedious work, that. Now off to bed so I can get at it in the morning again.

Random serendipitous quote

"If by a 'Liberal' they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind; someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions; someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad; if that is what they mean by a 'Liberal,' then I'm proud to say I'm a 'Liberal.'" (John F. Kennedy)

Need to rest from vacation...

Our weekend at Grandpa and Grandma D's lake condo can be deemed a success. The weather changed frequently, and we had our share of rain, but we had games, a DVD player, and an indoor pool that the kids were in and out of on an hourly basis. The girls spent a lot of time catching sunnies on the dock and commandeering the paddleboat when the clouds weren't dumping on us, and the sun was out for longer and longer periods as the weekend wore on. Sand was played in and boat rides were taken. My brother also found reason to question the sensibility of riding on the tube behind the boat on his stomach.
We finally found someone with a baby as good-natured as ours have been. Little Izzy (as the kids have dubbed her) was smiley and content for most of the weekend. Austin is a little card. He's every inch of four and showed great patience with the attention showered on him by his youngest female cousin. She was tickled with having someone littler to play with for a change, and unfortunately latched onto poor Austin.
Right now I have a happy giggly little boy here demanding my attention, so you kind people will just have to wait.

Ready, set, summer!

The family is gearing up for the first summer holiday. My folks have acquired the unit across the hall from their timeshare in Detroit Lakes. We last did this Memorial Day weekend 2 years ago. At that time I was hugely pregnant and my brother's daughter Isabelle wasn't even thought of yet, so the whole fam damily stayed in a 3 bedroom unit with a hideabed. This time, they got another unit to house all of us! We'll need it, too; I have 2 extrys for the weekend. Unfortunately, my sis is under the weather and won't be able to make it. :(
I could ramble on about the crappy weather, and all of our summer plans, but the thruth is that would simply be procrastination for packing and loading, so I'd better just get to it!

Cat magnets

How is it that the little girl with five kittens at home is the one bound to find a stray kitten in the park? *Sigh* Poor mama kitty...

Never underestimate the value of neighbors.

We have a great little town. Last week, one of the neighborhood parents gathered up all of the kids and took them to the ballpark for a pickup game. Last night we started the progressive bonfire. A different yard every week. Last night, due to crappy weather, we sat inside and lit a candle.
Its been raining in this part of Minnesota for the better part of a week. Today, the sun shone, and it had a very odd effect on our town. In the fifteen minutes immediately following the dismissal of the local churches, there was the noise of mowers starting all over town. We had other matters to attend to. All of the kids wound up returning home within about a half hour. We got to spend a little time with my folks as they returned my brood. As they were leaving, Kyle was called to Mark's rescue. He had borrowed Bob's riding mower, and had a blowout with the trailer on the way home. When kyle returned from that, he set to work to start ours for the first time this season. Like many others, we had missed the 6 hour window of opportunity to mow earlier in the week, so our yard looked more like it needed a baler.
Let it be known that my husband can set a Macintosh spinning to complete nearly any task worth doing; however, when it comes to mechanics, he is a bit challenged. He got the mower started on the first or second pull, but it let out quite a nasty squeal. The recoil had come unsprung. Kyle dismantled, adjusted and reassembled the unit in a time and effort that would have made the editors of Popular Mechanics smile.
Meanwhile, the neighbors, who actually enjoy mechanical tinkering, had toted their two mowers up to the old service station garage. A gentleman here in town uses it as a hobby shop, and there are all manner of dirt bikes, go-karts, mowers, snowmobiles, and classic cars in various stages of restoration there. The boys next door, single dad and two teen sons, were each manning a mower or trimmer of some sort that they had refurbished and fired up for the afternoon.
Our mower was now chugging along. The tires were quite worn, and Kyle headed off to put air in them. He did not expect them to drive completely off the rim, leaving a trail of reddish pink goo in his wake. We still don't know what that was. Deteriorated inner tube? Ancient fix-a-flat? Whatever, it was nasty.
It holds true that you can't look a gift mower in the mouth. Our pastor gave us use of an old riding mower in exchange for mowing the lawn at church. This is another side benefit of a small town. That mower eventually sputtered out. Another one, quite similar, lived in the shed across the alley from us, which happened to belong to pastor's brother. It was scrounged out and put into service. We also have a push mower that hasn't started in a couple of years, mostly because it hasn't been needed with the other. Cursory attempts were made to press it into service today, but soon abandoned. Defeated, Kyle went back in the house to attempt something constructive.
I kept on plugging through yard chores planned by Murphy himself. As Kyle could not get the mower going, I thought I'd at least get started with the trimmer. At least I would have if I could have found it. I then thought I'd cull some dead branches, but the bypass shears had apparently nipped off with the trimmer to yard-tool Vegas or somewhere else with better prospects than my shed or basement. I was now left with either the electric hedge trimmer or chain saw, either of which I would have gladly put to use if every single drop cord that we own was not neatly packed in a rubbermaid tub in the DJ van, which Kyle's DJ partner is currently driving. I finally busied myself throwing some yard waste into the trailer bound for the compost heap, and got the recycling out to the curb. Meanwhile, the neighbor was mowing my boulevard (tangent: I grew up calling the strip of land between the sidewalk and the street the "terrace;" in these parts, it is called the "boulevard." I am told in other parts of the country, it is called the "parking." Whatever you call it, the municipality tends to get cranky if you don't maintain it, but the same municipality doesn't let you plant or build anything on it.) I stopped to thank the neighbor, and shared the mower mishap with him. Before I finished the story, he had both riders up on blocks and was switching out parts to make a functional model. Kyle came back out and chipped in, and started mowing when Frankenmower was completed. I fed the kids, then switched off as Kyle ferried them off to church for King's Kids. Once again, the neighbor and his kid were tandem mowing, this time on my lawn. They continued alongside me and we got our four-lot yard mowed in about twenty minutes. I bought them a pop from our machine (another of my husband's clever trade acquisitions, I think he has $14.50 invested in it.) and met the family at church for coffeetime. I love my town.

Synchronicity better than Sting

Hubby and I have time without the kids this weekend. Its weird. And very, very quiet. We got some time to talk about plans, vision, doubts and questions. We also talked about watching for God's plan in things. So as we're flipping chanels, some singers stopped us on a worship service. It was a group we had seen in concert, well worth a second listen. The message that followed however, seemed to answer point for point some of the questions we had raised earlier. We've just got to keep paying attention, I guess.

Quiet time.

Kids do funny things to a person. I have always been a night owl. It's hard, however, when the bus comes at seven, so the kids are up at six, and they need someone to herd them along. Lately, Kyle and Mark, our friend/partner in crime, have been working evenings in the office. They are productive and cheerful, but they make it impossible for me to get anything done. I have recently taken to retiring early, then getting up insanely early to work on lesson plans or other projects. I absolutely hate rolling out of bed, though my body has acclamated to the schedule. Once I am upright, I really enjoy the quiet of the house while everyone else is asleep. The pre-dawn hush, then the slow awakening of the outside world brings a nice transition to my day. The birds are obnoxiously cheerful some days, but it forces me to adjust my attitude some mornings. Its hard to be cranky with incessant chirping in my ear; sometimes I just crack up because of the irony. The downside to all this is that I get tired so early in the evening. Now that there is more light, it should be easier for me to stay awake. I have accepted this shift to "morning person" with stoicism. I try to view it as a natural part of aging. I just know that if I want to stay up and play with the big people, I need to take a nap.

Unstructured time!

I hesitate to say "free" time, because I have so damn much to do, but I'm on my own schedule for a week. Woot! We've been spending little spurts of time on some rather large projects, and are finally starting to see some progress. I love it when that happens.
My brother just turned down a scholarship to attend the HDSA Convention in Atlanta. I was hoping we could attend as a family, but when we couldn't go, I still hoped he would go. He struggles enough with the limitations of Huntington's Disease, I feel he could get some real support from the people there. I went last year, and aside from having an absolute blast, I got a lot of great info and made some real friends. Oh, well, to each his own. Maybe next year.
Well, back to getting some of that work done.

Once more unto the breach...

We just filled out the paperwork for our 4th exchange student (in 5 years). It has become a rather nasty little habit, but all in all its been great fun. We're having another little Dutch girl. Hopefully we won' scare her off Americans entirely.
The weather is downright weird today. We've had glorious sunshine, overcast skies, pelting rain, sleet and even snow. Right now the sun is out again. Oh well, welcome to Minnesota. If you don't like the weather, it'll change in 5 minutes.
One week left in the student teaching experience. These last two weeks I switched to 6th grade. Its been a blast. They are so much fun.
To add to our list of "One more thing to juggle," the dryer is broken. The little switch that indicates the door is shut broke off, so it won't start. I don't mind hanging clothes out for the time being, but it means I have to think ahead and plan so I don't go to school nekkid next week. I have to work a night shift tonight, so I am bringing my laundry along to dry. My job has some perks! If I can get caught up with the backlog, I should be able to keep up. Whee!

The parenting manual doesn't prepare you for days like this...

Wow. I'm bushed. My daughter will prefer her privacy repected, but she put me through the wringer today. Yikes. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.

Sometimes you just throw caution to the wind...

I was invited to New York by a new friend. We met on the set of the independent film that shot here in our little corner of the boondocks. We had a lot of fun, and did a theatre reading at the coffeehouse in town. She recently produced a benefit run of The Vagina Monologues off Broadway, and invited us out. I wanted to go. We couldn't afford it. I really wanted to go. My boss/friend said, "One of these days we should go off together and do something again." I told her about New York. We decided to go.
We flew out late on a Thursday and rode the subway for TWO HOURS to the Jazz on the Park Hostel on the Upper West Side. The next day we rode the subway to Ground Zero and looked around. Then we walked back up through the financial district, Chinatown and Little Italy before catching the subway back to the Hostel. We sat in the coffeehouse there and visited with people from all over the world until evening, then we went to Times Square when the lights were on. We walked around some more and found a cool Italian restaurant and had a late supper. Then we headed back to the hostel to watch the younguns party.
The next morning was terribly rainy. We called one of the shuttle services and hired a car and driver for two hours. It cost less than a bus tour, and we were much drier! We went to the Museum of Natural History for a little while, then back to the hostel to change. We took the subway to Soho and ate at the Soho Cantina. Mexican cuisine, to DIE for. Very, very good. Then we stopped for coffee and went to the pre-show Vagina Carnival! The show itslef was fantastic, and the little girls from Minnesota cleaned up on the door prizes, woot! After all that, we were invited to the cast party at Brother's Barbecue just up Houston. It was an awesome time. We rose early to discover our airport shuttle had overooked due to Daylight Savings time, so we hailed a cab and got a ride to JFK. It was great. We got there in plenty of time and did some airport shopping, then bounced back home via Detroit. Too bad the layover wasn't long enough to catch the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame. Oh well, next time out...
All in all, the trip was incredibly cheap as far as vacations go; less than $400 for my share of plane, food, and tickets, etc. I'd do it again in a heartbeat. It was a bit of a whirlwind, but it was so great. One more thing to chalk up in the list of experiences, under "drive a race car" and "audition for a VH1 special." Life's a banquet!

Dearth

Yeah, yeah... Life has been busy and posting has not been a priority. I had a lovely whirlwind trip to NYC for a long weekend. I will elaborate on that some other time. Right now I want to concentrate on surviving the last 3 weeks of student teaching, then two more classes.

Wonky servers

Our domain server went down over the weekend. All the files were uploaded for our main website, but the picture files from a few posts down were lost, and I'm too lazy to repost them right now. You'll live.
Planning for the week ahead. Oughta be fun. Two plays, kids' outings and other stuff. Makes me tired just to think about it, though, so off to bed!

Fun on a Saturday

If you want a good laugh, combined with a test of your vocabulary skills, try explaining the definition of the slang usage of the word "douchebag" to a teenager from Brazil.

Back in my place

So after my bitchfest yesterday, I start my daily round of devotions to be confronted by this...
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. —Psalm 103:2
The theme? Count your blessings. Translation: shut up and clean up your basement and be glad you have a house to maintain. *sigh* Yes, Sir.
I am exceedingly and publicly thankful to our friend Mark who did the grunting, lifting and shoving necessary for the sewer project yesterday. I am thankful that we were able to rent the $40 unit and do it ourselves instead of making the $150 service call. I am thankful that my basement floor is concrete. I am thankful that I have a working washer and dryer. I am thankful that we discovered the problem before it got out of hand. I am thankful that because I was home dealing with the mess, I got a phone call from an old friend that I otherwise would have missed.
I really do feel better now.

Misconceptions about Strong Women

There are a few drawbacks to being a strong woman. I think I qualify as one. Certainly I think most of my husband's family thinks I'm a dowright bitch.
I tend to run in a circle of strong, outspoken women. We frequently hear jokes about being domineering and headstrong. Even though we take it in good humor it gets a little tiring sometimes, at least from my point of view.
Being strong is not always a good thing. People just assume you can handle something. A couple of years back, a very strong friend of mine had a miscarriage. I asked her if she wanted a hug. Later, I could have kicked myself. I had to ASK? What the hell was I thinking? Because she isn't a delicate little flower, I thought maybe she wouldn't react the same way to a physical show of support. How stupid of me. That same friend is now dealing with a (successful) c-section that went septic. She's dealing with it just fine, by all appearances, but I'll bet she's sick and tired of having to.
I've about had my limit of things I can handle. I am working part-time and student teaching full-time. For which I don't get paid, by the way, thanks to everyone who's asked how much student teachers make. With Kyle's back being out, the housework, especially our laundry is way behind. I've been able to do about 2 loads a day, with help from the elder children. We kind of recycle the same clothes off the top of the heap as the bedding and extras pile up. Unfortunately, part of the heap winds up on the basement floor. This morning I went down to get clean clothes and discovered the sewer had backed up all over the basement floor. There are days when I've just had enough, and I want to go sit in the corner and cry. I don't have time for that. I have to try to run a snake before I call the rooter guy, because the last time this happened, he wasn't much help anyway. I'll call as a last resort before I spend $150. Then I have to wash laundry for hours, either here, if the sewer works, or at the laundromat.
Enough venting. Back to it. As soon as I go to the neighbors and use the bathroom.

Hooray for consumer debt!

There is a new-to-me minvan in front of my house tonight. Woohoo! I owe the bank more tonight than I did this morning. D'oh! Anyway, the Pontiac Montana is the new kid-hauler of choice. Time to hose off the Oldsmobile and put a "For Sale" sign in the window.

All's quiet...

Pretty uneventful of late. We had a pretty busy week brewing on the homefront, but happily it was a low-prep week for me at school. My students were working on performances and papers, so not a lot of "lessons" per se. It was to be a two-concert week for my kids, but two little sickos sat out one of the concerts. I worked a bit, so I felt busy.
Kyle had a frustratingly short reprieve from his pain, but now is as miserable as ever. At least we know now that steroid treatment works, so we can see what other options are out there along those lines. Its making all of us tired. He's unable to sleep much past 4 am on any given morning. Although the new memory foam bed is true to its claim that you can't really feel someone else moving around in bed, it doesn't do anything for hearing them. All in all, I've been pretty pleased with the new bed.
Better go now and herd the cats off to church.

Full speed ahead

This week is going to be a long one. I am required to be at school from 7:45 until 3:45 daily. Often I go early or stay late to accomodate make-up work or meetings. Tonight we had a band concert. Tomorrow is the Tuesday marathon; I stay in town, two older go to play practice, younger I meet at library, do shopping and errands until two back-to-back dance classes, then home about 7:30. Wednesday I work my "real" job 4-9. Thursday is a choir concert. Friday I work again, as well as Saturday and Sunday. Whoda thunk a Monday would look so good?

We started Thing 1's debutante training last weekend. One of the really cool things about a small town is cheap, accessible space. The town hall here can be rented for $35. T1 had asked if her dad would set up his DJ equipment in the basement for her birthday. For $35, he could set up the DJ stuff and I wouldn't have to clean my house. Bonus is that Kyle knows his music and clientele, and won't play filth for the kids. So my daughter got to throw herself a dance for her birthday. I came out cheaper than taking the 7-year old bowling with her friends. I'm thinking this will be the plan from now on.

Hubby and I went to see The Gaithers in concert Friday night. We got our money's worth. Four hours of gospel music. Wow. It was a great variety: some family singing groups, a few southern gospel soloists, a bluegrass group, and a couple of men's quartets, along with some awesome CC soloists. Well worth the cost of admission. I shake my head at our eclectic music tastes, though. Among the concerts I have seen in my life: Rick Springfield, Michael W. Smith, Quiet Riot, Alice Cooper, Blues Traveler, Ronnie Milsap, and now the Gaithers. My husband saw Deep Purple, Ozzy and the Scorpions at an outdoor festival. We've been to REO Speedwagon, REM, ZZ Topp, and stood in awe of BB King. We watched Kansas blow Lynrd Skynrd off the stage. What a long strange trip it has been, indeed.

I'll just shut up now

So I get another call today from work. This time, things worked in my favor. If I work nights, I get to weasel out of my evening shift today and half of it tomorrow. Athough the vampire schedule is awkward, the night shift is also quiet enough to allow me time to get some of my paperwork done for school. I also got to stay for my grandma's birthday party today. She was surprised, and a good time was had by all. I left my 3 oldest swimming with their cousins and aunties, and I will return to pick them up tomorrow. So, after all my bitching and bitterness, things actually worked out fairly well for me. I think I'll go sit quietly in the corner and count my blessings. I do need to get about taking a nap if I'm going to work, tho. Nite!

What weekend?

The trouble with student teaching at 36 instead of 22 is that when I come home from school, rather than having an empty house to correct papers and work on lesson plans, I have a family to feed, children to not neglect, a husband who needs varying levels of attention depending on his pain these days, and sometimes a part-time job to go to. Where do I find the time?
Tomorrow I am missing my grandma's surprise 80th birthday party. I will make it for the family dinner. I made arrangements back in December for someone to cover my shift at work, We have a very informal system; no slips to fill out or requests. Unless we are working with vacation or something, we handle it ourselves. Unfortunately, the co-worker in question forgot and offered to work for someone else. I have called every other person on our payroll, and no-one can do it. This past semester I have had more conflicts on my scheduled weekend than I can ever remember. I have made all my plans for the upcoming summer according to my scheduled weekend. Last week, the gal incharge of the schedule for the time being called up and asked if I would switch weekends. Argh. I said no. I just made arrangements to take my kids to the family party tomorrow, and dump them off on my mom and sister so they don't have to miss the fun. Then I got a call from someone asking if I could pick up a night shift tonnight. The poor soul got an earful she probably didn't deserve. Nine more weeks and I can start job hunting.

Bleargh.

That about sums it up.

Ramble on

Busy round here. The school district gave us an oddly long president's day break. Thursday I succeeded at nothing beyond frustrating myself with the housework. Did a little bit of minvan shopping on Friday, while Kyle had his appointment with an orthopedist. After that, we left for the Cities and stayed with Kyle's auntie for the duration of the Scottish Ramble in Saint Paul. She joined us for Saturday, then we split the kids Sunday after church. It was a lovely time. The Folks from our clan and the Twin Cities Scottish community in general are a fun bunch. Came home Sunday night ands rolled straight into bed, then rose Monday to another day of household frustration. It seems like the more I do, the less it shows. I'm tired of being unable to walk accross my own floor without tripping.
The orthopedist told Kyle to start PT. Well, duh. The MD wrote a PT order as well, where the heck did that go? The therapist told him that his back injury so many years ago wasn't as serious as the fact that he's been walking for 38 years on one leg shorter than the other. It's knocked him way out of alignment. He's got lifts in his shoe and exercises. He rested much better last night, so its a start, anyway.
I am swamped with backlog correcting. I just got a batch of really fun papers from the 10th graders, though, so it's not so much like work. Better get at it.

Frustration

Well, I've lost this blasted thing twice in messy drive-by clicking accidents. Screw it. I'm busy. I'm tired. Here's the quick-n-dirty as opposed to the well-thought and witty: Student teaching is fun and challenging. We got a new bed. Its great. Kyle aggravated an old back injury moving out the old bed and had an ambulance ride to the hospital after keeling over from pain at 1:30 am. He's at home on serious drugs and had an MRI. No news yet. We're going to the Twin Cities all weekend for various charity events and Scottish Ramble. It should be fun. Now I'm going to bed. More later.

Back to blogger

Was not planning on this, but wound up here trying to leave comments for someone. We'll see how it goes.

Weeee're back! Hooray and hoopla! Let's see what's happened around here lately...

Thanksgiving was nice. I worked, but that was actually kinda fun, spending the day with the residents who chose not to go home for the holiday. Then I met my family at the in-laws, and we had a nice visit. Friday we left to have the first Christmas gathering of the year, with my side of the family. We took family pictures Saturday morning, so I look forward to getting those sent out. Later in the afternoon was presents and feasting. Check my homepage for pictures of sis and I in our Christmas thongs. We have such progressive parents! (these pics disappeared in a server dump. We had them on over our jeans. Ha ha, aren't we clever...)

For those of you who haven't heard, the first snowstorm of the season (not blizzard, you need more cold and higher winds to create actual "blizzard" conditions) dumped nearly 30" of snow on us. Luckily, I had the day off, so we spent the day digging out of the gunk the snowplow dumped in front of the cars, and doing some major house cleaning and plastic hanging. We also got to battle the basement floor drain. One of the joys of potty training is teaching the kid how much paper to use. Thing 3 still needs a little work in this area, as she clogged the main sewer line with paper. Yeeks.

Well, off to feed the brood. Take care.

I am sick to death of our domain being down!!! Argh! We're registered with Network Solutions and they haven't solved the (%&*& problem their tech guy caused in the first place!!! The idjit looked up the wrong name server IP numbers for our ISP. Because of the wrong numbers, our email is down, so they can't send us a confirmation email for the correction order. AAAAAAAAAH. Bloody nincompoops. Think we'll be paying register.com a little visit.

Last night we set the alarm and woke the kids about 4:30 to view the meteor showers. It was well worth it. The kids actually got up without much grumbling once we told them what was up. We had a nice time. We snuggled against the house on our third floor rug porch and looked skyward. It was a clear moonless night, out here in a tiny town with few streetlights, we had a perfect view. God really knows what he's doing.

OK, I have to try posting again. Crap.

Last night I stood in line for the first time in my life to see a movie. We packed the kids in to see Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It was worth the wait. They condensed it just a bit, but it was very true to the book and amazingly well done. The only complaint I have is that they condensed a bit too much on the kids' learning at Hogwarts. Harry Potter is a typical kids' book in that the kids solve dilemmas that the grown-ups apparently can't handle themselves, a common theme in children's lit. However, in the Harry Potter books, the author does a fairly nice job of building the characters up over the course of the novel so you can see how they learned the skills they use to solve the problems. They don't cover that aspect as well in the movie. Henson's Creature Shop does its' usual bang-up job on it's costuming and puppetry. Only gripe there is that the Goblins' hands were obviously gloves in that they could barely function, and were featured in rather close camera angles. It was a pleasant surprise to see ST:TNG's Rob Legato featured so prominently in the credits. Nice to know the crew is still working :). Anyway, highly recommended by me and my family. It does help to live in a town where you can take 4 kids and 3 adults to a movie for $24. And, wonder of wonders, our little bohunk theatre opened the movie, and will also be opening The Lord of the Rings. I am so pumped.

So that began our first family consumer night in a long time. I almost missed it. I was scheduled to work my last night at the hunting camp, but when I got there she said it was looking to be a very slow night, so I went home again and got to join my family at the movie. Anyway, the cinema is in the same congregate entertainment facility (ie: strip mall that houses less retail) as the bowling alley, so I wandered in to see if they had any lanes left for Rolling Thunder (bowling with disco lights and loudly thumping music), and, b'golly, they did for once, so we went right from Harry Potter to the Bowling Alley, and didn't get to bed 'til late. Thing 2 had a friend sleep over, and while she and the friend behaved fairly well, her sisters were obnoxious, and drew the wrath of the father on more than one occasion. I fear (?) we will have no sleepovers at our house for a while.

We used the nice weather today to move some of the Deadbeats' stuff out of the old house. I have come to the conclusion that these guys were just idiots. While packing today, hubby comes across a fannypack with Deadbeat #2's papers, bat pipe, scale, and stash holder, and his identification. *Blink* "Here, Officer, it'll be easier to book me for all this contraband if you just check my driver's license and fishing license there. The spelling's correct." I shake my head. No wonder he's divorced.

I am getting irritated without my email. We are in the process of moving our domain to the new ISP. Thought we could get by keeping our old mailboxes for a small fee, but the nice folks at the corporate office of our old ISP didn't agree with the prices set by the local dudes, who appreciate the business generated by Firestorm writing sites to be hosted on their servers, so we said "Thanks, no." and moved. However, Hubs had typed in some wrong numbers at the domain registration doohickey, and by the time he changed it, the old email was down, and therefore there was no valid email for the registry people to respond to, so they couldn't verify the change. Argh. So we had to FAX an internet company. Yikes. What's wrong with this picture? Anyway, email should be up again soon. *sigh*

Bruno has a friend here tonight from Finland, and they are having far too much fun with the new Karaoke CD-G machine (my early x-mas present--earns hubby back any points lost on that Harry Potter thing earlier) so I'd better go supervise...
G'nite!

I actually have come here a couple times over the past few days to update, only to discover I haven't much to say. Bummer.

Locally, the news we're paying most attention to is that of MLB threatening to contract two teams. If terrorism wasn't what it is at this point, I'd refer to it as such. Corporate terrorism. MLB saying "Give us what we want (new ballpark) or we'll take your team." A rough translation: "I'll take my ball and go home!" Friend John (as found in the Daynotes link thingy over on the side there) had a couple good posts on this issue in last week's blog, go check it out if you want some intelligent insight and interesting theory on the whole mess.

My biggest argument against building a publicly funded stadium is: we already done did that. It's called the Metrodome. If you don't like it, you should have planned it better 20 years ago, you twits!. Right now it's a perfectly functional building that doesn't rake in the revenues at the rate The Twins and Vikings want to see. Well, boo-farking-hoo. I'm still pissed about Met Center. The building was less than 25 years old, and they ripped it down after losing a hockey team because it didn't have enough LUXURY boxes, and would be more profitable as a parking lot and future development for Mall of America. Arrrgh! Then, the very next season, after women's hockey became "official " in the state of Minnesota educational system, they're bitching there's not enough Ice space in the metro area for college and HS kids to play hockey. Well, you just ripped down a major league hockey arena you idiots!!! There was so much more use left in that building. It just sickens me. I am not into waste. I am a fanatic about making sure my kids don't put too much food on their plate and wind up wasting it. Waste on that scale irritates me, and waste on the scale of Met Center just drives me up a tree. And I see it all happening again.

Well, got that rant out of my system. :) Now what? Almost done with job#2, and then we'll be spending lots of time cleaning here to make room for all the stuff that needs to be moved here from the old house as we finally sold it!!! Closing, God willing, Dec 19th. Woohoo! Didn't make what I wanted on it, but got it out of my hair, and one less payment! Yay! Maybe two. Gonna use any extra to pay down the furnace loan. Don't think there'll be enough to clean it up entirely, but will get it down to 2 or 3 payments left.

Well, off to get ready for the day. Educational inservice for work, so I didn't have to go in so early, but gotta get rolling now. TTFN

I have just written an utterly boring website for Glacier's Edge. I'm going to wait to post it until we get all settled in with the new ISP. I'm not sure yet if we're transferring the domain over or leaving it where it is. It seems as if Hubs may have more knowledge than the ISP guy. Oh well, one gets what one gets out here in the boonies.
I took a couple of images into photoshop to play with for the site, but wasn't getting the results I was looking for. Oh well, practice makes perfect, I guess. Just gotta keep practicing. Let's just say photoshop tennis is not for me just yet.

Back at it today. Trying to plug along on housework and make some lifestyle decisions as well. All while enjoying a nifty new cable modem! We've got some more coffeehouse shows in the works for Glacier's Edge. I'd like to bring them over to the town hall here, but until they get their repairs made, I'm not making any major plans. We had a little fire at Watson Town Hall that didn't do much structural damage, but it brought the need for asbestos abatement to the fore, then there'll be some cleanup and repair to do as well.



We really need to put some marketing and sales effort into Firestorm, but we can't find the time around getting the bills paid. Yikes.



Oh well, guess I'll qvit kvetching and get to work! :)

I've been reading through my posts of late. Boring. I'm feeling a bit inferior, as I have been reading some very witty and insightful blogs. *sigh* Guess we can't all wax philosophical all the time. I am pumped that the spellcheck thingy is back up and running, tho. Woohoo!

I grow weary of burning the candle at both ends, but it is allowing us to see a faint glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. I've gotten caught up on a couple of bills, and managed to stay afloat on the rest. Christmas should be a little less stressful as well. Now that deadbeat #2 has resurfaced, I may not be able to sell off his stuff, but we will still auction the real estate as planned, and that should clean up a couple of bills. Once we've gotten that done, we can take a few months to pay some other stuff down, then try for a refi after the tax refund comes. Hopefully the interest rates will stay down where they are for awhile.

I've been wondering if I'm just worn out because I'm working a lot, or wearing down from all the information overload. I'm so tired of hearing about anthrax I could scream. More people were actually affected by the e. coli outbreak last year. People are so wont to panic, and it's not entirely unjustified, but I've been trying to look at it from a fatalistic point of view. I could be struck by lightning or hit by a bus tomorrow. Or I could contract anthrax. Until then, I'll try to keep a positive outlook, hug my kids a lot, and protect them as much as I can without obsessing about the things that are out of my control. Right now they are gleefully chasing each other around the bottom floor of the house. It's loud and obnoxious, and I'll let them go at it for a while.

I wonder how all of this will affect them as they grow up. The Viet Nam War did not actually end until I was 7 years old or so, and I don't ever remember seeing it on TV or hearing anything about it. My brother was in the Air Force, and saw overseas action, but all I remember about his service career was when we'd visit him on base stateside. Now I know we have 24 hour news service that was unheard of back then, but you'd think I'd remember something about an event that was so socially and politically significant. But all I know is what I learned years later, in history class, from a social studies teacher who was a VN combat vet. My kids are bombarded with images of the new conflict. They have asked occasional questions, but seem to be fairly oblivious to what's going on. It probably helps that we live in a very rural setting, not likely to be ground zero for anything short of a grain elevator fire (which can be nasty, fermenting grain and dust can ignite in a rather colorful and destructive manner, I've seen it).

On an entirely different tangent, while browsing through a "Ripley's Believe it or Not" book at grandma's today, hubs showed me some interesting pics taken of spiderwebs. Some researcher somewhere wanted to find out how spiders' ability to spin webs was affected by exposure to controlled substances. Out of hash, LSD, and caffeine, guess which screwed up their webs more. Good ol' Jolt. I'll have to see if someone out there has posted those pics to the web. Funny. There was also a chicken pulling a baby carriage, but that's another story.

The first day of standard time is screwing me up. I hate when it gets dark so early. I'd probably also hate the Sun rising at 4 am in May, but I haven't yet figured out which would be the lesser of two evils.

Well, what I lack in substance, I may have made up for slightly in volume, so I'll log off and let hubby have the Mac back to tend to some auctions. Got a cool one up for a buddy's HO train layout. Fun. Lotsa neato details.

Getting my act together a bit. Got a surprise day off today, hauled my fanny into town to discover I didn't need to be there. So I've wasted most of it on a grant application. It really needed to be done, so I guess it wasn't really a waste, but I didn't get much done by way of housework. Oh well. I did get a nap, which is an unexpected luxury.

Finally heard from one of the renters, who apparently didn't realize the other one had skipped off Four weeks ago. Hello? Where the hell have you been? I haven't much sympathy, as this one is the one the realtors told me was being bucky about showing the home. As in he told them he'd had the place condemned. What a twit.

Well, off to walk to the pop machine for a breath of fresh air and a bit of caffeine before job #2. Nice to only burn the candle on one end for a day.

Wow, internet withdrawl. I have been hopping online only sporadically as I am only home between jobs for an hour and a quarter or so each weekday. Then Hubs decided to do some sorting of "work" and "home" Macs, so I have just plugged in and fired up the new machine for home, and sifted thru 78 emails. I am hoping to stay up for a bit online, soforth to sleep in a while in the morning.

I need to get my act together for Girl Scouts. It is going to have to take a back burner until November 14, when hunting season is over and so is the job. I won't have a full day off until October 28. Pew.

Well, the deadbeat renters left us with a houseful of abandoned property, so we plan to auction the whole kit and kaboodle as soon as it's legal. We found the property to be abandoned on September 27, so ASAP after November 27 we plan to have an auction. I wish I'd been able to do it this summer, but we'll hope for the best. We can have it at the armory where the weather is always good. I hope to make enough off the stuff in the house to pay off the unpaid utility bills and pay the fees for the auction. We'll be doing the real estate as well, as I am just sick of it and want to unload it.

We had a foster dog for a few days, but I am pleased to say that Orca the enormous drooling Saint Bernard has found a home. She was a very pleasant, well-mannered dog, but she is huge, and I have too many pets already. She was also abandoned by deadbeats in a different rental in town. She was trapped in the house for about 2 weeks until she finally broke a window to get out. Her head was bigger than her waist, she was so thin. A gentleman up the road has a farm with 2 St. Bernard's, so he is able to take on a third. Hooray!
Well, I am losing my stamina, and have a couple of other sites I want to check before I nod off into the keyboard. G'nite!

Whee! Half a day off. I don't have to work in town until tomorrow evening, so I get a little time to myself until I go out to the hunting camp tonight. Hubs has been the laundry king around here, so I hope to keep up with that stuff today. There's some dishes to do and some general picking up, but with a good head start I should be able to accomplish great things. I also have to get my girl scout schedule figured out. Yikes.

Now that I finally have a minute to post, I find myself woefully uninspired. I should get going on the housework thing. I'll be back tomorrow!

Wow, been a while, let's see what's up.
I have taken a second job at the Lac Qui Parle Hunting Camp. It's seasonal, 40 days until the end of hunting, but it should make Christmas a little more comfortable around here. Nice folks, decent food, a good time.

Last weekend we spent Friday night and Saturday mooching off my folks. Nothing like a weekend at home letting Mom take care of things. We went because the AFS exchange student there is from Brazil, too, so we hooked up for Saturday afternoon Pizza and small talk.

Well, I gotta fly out the door to sell potato klub at the Camp, but I wanted at least a token post so both of you out there who give a damn would know we're still alive. Hubs has a gaggle of pictures for his blog, but hasn't got them up yet either.

Woof. I am wiped. Here in the thriving metropolis of Watson, population 211, we have taken to having Saturday afternoon pickup softball games. Usually we have about 15-20 players, a few spectators, a bagful of communal equipment, a cooler of pop and a cooler of beer. We lost 69-17 or something like that, but a good time was had by all, and we plan to continue as long as weather permits.

My ever so thoughtful hubby bought me a copy of the Drunken Master for my Birthday, so I got to watch that last night. I don't know why I love Jackie Chan so much. I really don't go in for action movies. Maybe it's the sense of humor all his movies have.

Well, first Brownie meeting actually went pretty well. We talked a little about the events of the past two weeks, made a little patriotic button thing, and played some international games out in the yard for a "Play Around the World" try-it (Brownie level merit badges). When I was a Scout, and walked up hill both ways selling my cookies in a snow storm, Brownies didn't have badges, and didn't sell any product. That was for the older girls. We just got to be cute and "Do a good turn daily." Worse things could happen.

Just watched Shanghai Noon. Fun. I've loved Jackie Chan since all he made was overdubbed Bruce Lee wannabe flicks. I've an itch to see The Drunken Master. If you get a chance to see the Bravo Profile of Jackie, it's a good watch.

Argh! I clicked the wrong button and lost my post!!! Oh well, life will go on, and I shall compose more pearls of wisdom.

We had a really great party last night. A fun, mellow, good time. We had karaoke en mass, lots of food, and a really nice turnout. Makes me want to do it more than once a year...

I have run out of steam, and I must go correct my children. Tomorrows new adventure: First Brownie Meeting. I bet I'll have LOADS of new insights this time tomorrow...

A week since I last posted. I teased a friend of mine about not posting, and she was quick to point out my dearth of entries. After 911, I felt very small and insignificant. What right have I to an opinion on anything when such things are happening on the planet? But then again, I bugged Ann because I am pleased to read the news in her life. They are on a house hunt, which also may seem like small potatoes, but I derive great pleasure from following their personal adventure to carve out a home of their own. And if any one of you out there gain a smile from something I write, I am pleased to help!
This will be a short one, tho. Almost time to pick up the teenager from the activity bus (Only goes as far as the next town up...sheesh), and cleaning now in preparation for Saturday's party. That and short on sleep. The town fire siren went off at 1:30 am, and 'tho it was only moments before we could watch the firemen heading to the hall, that eerie wail in the middle of a clear, still, night, in light of recent events, made for poor sleeping afterwards. Neither one of us got back to sleep until well after 3. I don't know how all 4 kids slept thru that. But I'm glad they did.

So, I flip the TV to BBC America for my daily dose of Ground Force and Changing Rooms, and I wonder, "Why are they showing these two big smokestacks?" Of course, it only took a few seconds to come up to speed on the story, and watch the story unfold, and the New York City skyline change before our very eyes. So anything witty or profound I had to say today has been amazingly overshadowed. See ya later.

Tonight I discovered that reruns of "...Millionaire?" are much more fun when watching with someone who has never seen the show before. Especially the celebrity version where they get to cheat.

Getting Thing 2 to bed earlier has not gone very well, but after a rocky start on Tuesday, she's actually been getting up and ready quite well. Hope she keeps up the good work.

Apparently, you can take the man out of politics... After yesterday's visit from the governor (I cannot find the correct spelling of "gubernatorial"? on dictionary.com. I once met a parrot that had been taught to say "gubernatorial". So now whenever we mention Jesse, I think of this bird...) my husband got himself involved in a discussion of broadband communication in the boondocks, with the current state representative, former US Representative, and current mayor (who had "Broadband What?" stamped across his forehead). Then KSAX pulled him aside for an interview, and he got hisself a TV spot on the 10 o'clock news, which I, of course, missed. Oh well.

Three more days to go, then I get a couple off. Whee! Until then, off to bed.

Aaaii! My husband is taking the computer to town! I must post now or be forced to type on an old, serviceable, completely functional but PAINFULLY SLOW Mac 7200. Aarrggh!

The G4 is going to do DJ duty in Downtown Monte tomorrow as Governor Jesse makes a milk run thru town. Got to keep the crowds entertained I guess. My friend John does not have much love for the Governor. I haven't paid much attention to him lately. Previously, there have been ideas of his I haven't agreed with, but he's made his point. I wasn't too happy about no public funding for the Guthrie, but then again, he also gave no public funding to professional athletics, so he was consistent on that point. What I don't like about Jesse is how defensive he gets about stuff. When a reporter takes him to task about something he can get his hackles up so quickly, even if he has a perfectly valid point, he spoils it for me with the defensive sheild.

Hubs covered the first day of school in his blog. Great pic of Thing3 mourning Bruno's loss to the school bus. Everyone came home happy, but I think we have to try an earlier bedtime for Thing 2. She got ready for bed and settled in before 9 as requested, but she was still heck to get up. Tonight we'll try 8:30. If no improvement, 8 pm tomorrow.

Well, I suppose I should wrap this up and start slowly weaning myself from the keyboard. Baby steps. Baby steps.

Spent Labor Day doing manual labor, of all the silly things... Got things accomplished, 'tho. I dug window screens out of my closet that have been there since before we bought the place, and lo and behold, I actually found room for clothes! Amazing. I've been watching home and garden shows way too much lately. I have a lovely large living room, but there are doors, built-in cabinets or archways on 3 sides, and I'm having an awful time getting it arranged the way I like. I am also a bit limited on furniture. I hate to make the TV the focal point of the room. We tried not even having it in the living room, but we couldn't find a spot where the whole family could comfortably watch a movie together, or have friends over for the ball game or something. Way in the future, after we win the lotto, we plan to redo the basement. Then I can have a family room and send the kids and their TV and the hockey table down there.

I have developed a weird fascination for Christopher Lowell on the Discovery Channel, and so has my husband. It's like driving by an accident, you just can't help but watch. He's a huge fruitcake, but he seems to be having an absolute ball, faux painting and decorating with fabric. He's an absolute hoot.

Well, off to accomplish more great things.

Well, having a much better week now.

Made a quickie trip to Watertown Saturday and got my brother's internet connection set up. The devil's in the typos. And spelling... Now I can chat with my bubbie Don, if I ever catch him online.

We made the state fair on Tuesday. I don't know why I like it, but I do. Now I just have little projects to keep me busy. I think our overnite trip to the lake is off because one of the other girls at work has a sick son at the UofM hospital, so I'll be working some extra shifts.

Trying to get some stuff lined up for *erk* taking over the third grade Brownie troop. Ayiyiyi! Meanwhile, still planning for a musical in February. Off to town for errands and a stop at the dance instructor's open house. Ta!

I am uninspired today. Been keeping up with Housework (ick!). Did a voiceover for my crabby husband. He was great all weekend, then turned into a big 'ol crabbypants. I don't much mind doing a VO, but he never once asked. I "had" to do it, and when he was ready for it, thankyouverymuch. He really hasn't once had an unreasonable thing to say, but the way he decides to say it is driving me up the wall. Ack. OK, 'nuff bitchin'.

Still waffling on the fair thing. Maybe Sunday, maybe Tuesday, maybe not. We'll see. I'd like to go, but it's starting to be a hassle.

I'm a regular ray of sunshine tonight, so I think I'll go was dishes.

Well, I must admit I was sadly disappointed by the small turnout for yesterday's variety show fundraiser. However, the show itself went off without a hitch, we had a great time, and I looked pretty good in a spangly dress loaned to me by a 15 year old. Albeit, I had on the heavy artillery of supportive undergarments. I had the figure of a 15 yr. old once, about 17 years ago. She had a lot of 15 year old friends come to see her perform, so Bruno met a whole bevy of ladies his age. I don't know if he quite knew what to do with himself.
The Lesters came out for the weekend to perform for the show and help install a new tub surround. There are people you just don't get to spend enough time with, and these folks are some of them. She and I were college roomies for a time, we saw each other through growing pains and sucky breakups. We stood in each other's weddings, had kids close together, and they are Thing 2's godparents. They live 2 1/2 hours away, so we try to get together for a long weekend whenever we can. We kick back and relax, order pizza, yell at each other's kids, and don't feel pressed to "entertain". Can't wait for the next visit.
I'd like to get to the state fair this year, if only to take Bruno, but we'll have to see what the money situation looks like. Eek. Usually there's at least one concert we want to go see at the fair, but this year the grandstand lineup sucks, in my opinion. The only thing remotely interesting is Ringo Starr and his All-Starr band.
Well, off to bed and back to work in the morning. I'm almost looking forward to a straight 40 hour work week. Nice to get back to a "normal" routine for a little while. Soon I'll be itching for the next show...

Had a good day today. Things are coming together nicely for the Variety show. Too cool. Now all we need is an audience...
So far we've taken Bruno to Marshall (met the gran'ma's D and Lee, and Pa DeSchep), Willmar (shopping), and the county fair (lame-o). Tonight, Dan and Tracy have him at the demolition derby at the fair, watching the wanton destruction of motor vehicles. I imagine myself looking at things thru the eyes of a newcomer to America. What a bizarre thought, destroying functional vehicles for entertainment. Bruno comes from a large city, so I know he's no babe in the woods, but there are certain things that just must not translate. My friend Darla's adolescent son and his friends were suitably impressed by Bruno. I got a kick out of watching him field the "Twenty Questions" session with relative grace.
The girls and their friends continue to tinker on the playhouse. I was hoping they wouldn't be disappointed by such a junky old thing, but they and the neighborhood kids have been having a grand old time fashioning doors and screens and furniture out of old junk. They show some real imagination. However, they incurred the wrath of dad by ripping out the ratty old carpet squares (not a problem) and strewing them about the yard (problem). Ah well, live and learn. (I hope).

Wow. Busy day, flew by!
Bruno spent most of the day in Monte with Hubs's best friend Dan and his stepson, Jesse. Nice for him to get in a little guy time. The girls really missed him, tho.

Yesterday, I bought a junky old playhouse for my kids. So far, they adore it. Today I dug out some old paint and brushes so they could paint it. I had them get ratty old paint clothes on. I explained to them how oil paint is different than latex, and to be careful not to get too much on them as we had to use paint remover to clean it off. I told them I'd be back in a minute to check on them, and I'd help them clean up when they were done. I expected them to spill some and make a little mess. I did not expect my 7 yr old to cover herself from fingertip to shoulderblade in Red Devil brand Bermuda Blue oil based enamel. Literally. There was no mistaking this for accidentally brushing herself with paint, or spilling it on her arm (both excuses she attempted to use) She was solid blue. Then, she and her older sister came in to wash a little of it off, snuck into the bathroom, and coated both sets of faucets and the towel rack in paint. Not, "Oops, I got some paint on the towel rack.", but, "Hey look, I can paint with my bare hands! I get great coverage, too!" Meanwhile, their 3 yr old sister continued to paint the playhouse, and actually came out the cleanest of the three. There was great wailing and gnashing of teeth. I made a big point of explaining that they would not be punished for making a mess, but for not using their common sense. At what point, when you've dipped your arm in the paint, do you stop and think, "Maybe this isn't such a good idea?" And when you reach that point, shouldn't you stop there, and not continue on to the other arm? Argh! Now I know, the argument about common sense coming from the mom who let her kids paint the playhouse in the first place might ring a little hollow to some of you, but I haven't made any judgment errors resulting in bodily harm or accidental death yet. I thought it would be fun for them. I intended to be there to help, but they got ahead of me. Here I thought it was gonna be a "Fun Mom" day. Instead I spent three rounds of mineral spirits and soap on the kids in the tub, then mineral spirits followed by comet on the tub itself. There is no blue left in the bathroom, and some of it was blue to begin with.
Off to bed now. We had a lovely fire in the yard tonight. The weather finally cooled off enough to let us use the firepit comfortably. Several marshmallows were sacrificed, and I must now go to perform the ritual cleansing, or I'll go to bed smelling like smoke, with marshmallow gook under my fingernails. Nitey nite.

The weather has broken, and I can sit here and comfortably type. It's been stiflingly hot and smotheringly humid. We installed central air last year, but we have a big old house, with 9 ft. ceilings on the bottom 2 floors, and no AC fan can blow cool air this far up. The register is under the desk, so you get nice cool feet, but the rest of the loft up here is like an oven. Hopefully once the sheetrock is done and we get a couple of ceiling fans installed, we can regulate the temp a little better. But it's finally comfortable up here tonight.

Bruno caught his first Minnesota fish tonight, a lovely, huge freshwater drum (thats a sheephead to most Minnesotans) He took a picture anyway. Hubs's friend Dan took them out to the lake. He got a small reprieve from the giggle party. They were off at Bible school for a few hours.

Bruno put that bike kiddie seat on for me, so Thing 3 got her first ride on it tonite. After slight trepidation at the wobbly feel of the bike, she thoroughly enjoyed herself.

I've been keeping busy getting the variety show ready to roll, so I shouldn't spend too much time here. It's too late to do much more tonight. I'll have to try to talk to people live tomorrow.

Off to watch the rest of Mr. Nice Guy. I'm a sucker for Jackie Chan, ever since the old dubbed or captioned movies. This must've been his first attempt at an English language movie, and it sucks. The actors are SO stilted. You wonder where they got them. But the action sequences are typically Jackie funny. He must've spent hours choreographing them. Wap wap paf!

*Whew* It's been busy. We got Bruno picked up. Check Hub's blog (now defunct) for more details there. We decided to run in Thursday night to avoid traffic and driving into the sun. Spent a nice night in a decent hotel close to the airport for not too much money. I figured we'd have to pawn one of the kids to afford a hotel that close, but there are a few bargains to be had, with enough effort.

These past couple days have been a lot of introductions for Bruno. Yesterday he met most of the Monte folk, and today my (real) brother and his wife came over from Watertown. Now I'm trying to catch up on some housework, and some laundry so I don't have to go to work naked tomorrow. You all have a good night!

I have been a domestic goddess. Cook n' clean, clean n' cook. Running to the cities Friday am to pick up Bruno at the airport. Yikes. It's too dang hot up here to write much, but I wanted to poke my head in. Cole Porter will spin in his grave if I sing "Too Darn Hot"
All of Minnesota is abuzz with news of Korey Stringer's death. 27 is to young to die. I am very sad for his wife and 3 yr old son. Aside from being a Pro-Bowl Tackle, it sounds as if he was an all- around nice guy. We wore our purple today.