Weekend on the horizon...

We're getting ready to head into fall, which steps things up around here a bit. When the neighborhood crops start to come out, Hubs will head back into the field to do soil sampling. It is an annual gig for him, that he mostly likes. The days are long and tiresome from bumping around muddy fields in a pickup with a hydraulic soil probe, but he can pack up whatever books on tape or other iPod treats he likes for his own entertainment. Hours will pick up at Job 2, as the locals will start staying home and our tourists will start coming for hunting. Today and tomorrow are two-job days, but I switched and got Sunday off completely, so it all comes out in the wash.
The sugarbowl has caused some buzz offsite as well. Just to prove he does pay attention to what I have to say (!), Hubs asked if I wanted one for myself. I said no, but he started wondering where the one wound up that they had when he was a kid. In the process, we found out his mother doesn't have it, but would like one, so it's of to eBay!
The kids have the day off school here, so all are sleeping in except the one I packed off to feed the wolves at Yellowstone. I wish we could take more spur-of-the-moment trips like that. Our Black Hills foray was great, but it seemed like i spent longer planning and organizing the dang thing than we did on the trip. Don't tell anyone, but I kinda groove on the planning stuff, but not so much that I wouldn't like to just jump in the car and take off once in a while. Now I must do just that, but I'm only going as far as work, so no adventure there.

Hold on, we're swerving all over the place today...

Since I haven't written in a couple of days, I have all sorts of little, mostly insignificant, sometimes noteworthy thoughts, feelings and impressions floating around in me noggin. One may think I have no other outlet than to spew these things all over you, my loyal audience (I hear you rustlin' around out there behind the crickets); however, Hubs and I have managed to get in some quality conversing lately, about stuff other than (as well as, this is real life, you know) kids' schedules, bill paying and the like. Often, though, stuff just flits through my mind that I would like to explore, when there isn't someone to talk to older than three who is not affected by geriatric dementia or occupied by work matters. So that's when you get treated to my blather, dear interweb, or sometimes even after, when I thought the conversation yielded blogworthy tidbits of it's own. Some of these are related, others completely random, and maybe someone other than me out there will find them interesting (show me the comment love, if so. Amen!)

***

Had a couple of completely nostalgic moments this week. The warm fuzzy kind, for me, and one for Hubs.

I was fixing a cup of coffee for a resident who takes hers with sugar. I cannot put sugar in coffee without a visual impression of this sugar holder: and a really warm feeling about the place I used it.

I was a tail-end baby; I am separated by my blood siblings by 16 years. My folks were older, and so were their friends. Such folks were Hank and Hannah. They were a lovely NW Iowa Dutch couple, married nearly 40 years at that time. Hannah was the eptiome of a Grandma, although I never made the connection until years later, because my Grandma was plenty different than most. Hannah was pleasantly plump, had an easy laugh, and a houseful of crocheted items to dress it up. Her home was always neat and pretty, but I never felt scared to mess it up by playing. Hank had an infectious chuckle and wire-rimmed glasses that fascinated me. He could also wiggle his ears. It was the. coolest. thing. EVER! As I got older, my mom's unknown-at-the-time neuroligical disorder made her isolate herself, and my dad by proxy, from their friends. While they still were getting out and about, however, we would sometimes go to Hank and Hannah's for coffee. Sometimes my mom and I even walked down there ourselves (small town, and stay-at-home moms and grammas. Wow.) Hannah always had good toys (including the Tupperware lock blocks--I'm seeing a definite pattern here) and would tell me and Mom about her grandkids, especially KayLynn, and Loren and Leroy, who were close to my age. I wouldn't set eyes on them until years later, but I always felt like I knew those kids. Inevitably, we would sit at the kitchen table for coffee, and I was always offered some, just like a grownup, and they would pass the Tupperware sugar bowl. There was always laughter, and easy chatter, and those brief, too-few moments of my childhood are treasures. I take cream these days, but if I even think of sugar in coffee, I feel the warmth around that table, and I smile.

***

Hubs' nostalgic foray has been humming around the back of his head for quite a while. His paternal grandma died the week after we married, and since then, her farm has been sitting empty. He has frequently wondered about the apples on the backyard tree there, as he can never get an apple pie like hers. Tuesday evening, we drove out the the farm, scavanged some apples and a branch, and had them identified at the local orchard as Red Barons. After sampling some the grower had on hand, Hubs concurred, and we have a bagful atop the fridge for pie making. I should do that later...

***

My brother and his wife dropped in for a visit Tuesday night, too. I felt a little guilty were so busy, but they stayed over and we got to spend some time together yesterday. I love to hear my brother's voice from another room. After an overseas stint (which we will revisit shortly) my brother and his wife were stationed in Omaha, and visits home got much more frequent. I would wake on a long weekend or holiday, and hear he and my folks visiting in the kitchen. It was always a sound I associated with vacations and fun.

While overseas, stationed in the Netherlands, my brother and his wife would send home packages with interesting, supersized comics in English with a little hero named Asterix. The whole family was immediately hooked. Years later, Asterix would show up in American video games and a cartoon, but folks in the US just don't get it, for some reason. When Bro returned to the area a few years ago, he camee to housesit for us, and we found him some Asterix books as a Thank you, since his and mine had been scattered away over the years. He now has collected most of them again, and has loaned them to my kids, who eat them up. Hubs recently found a copy of the 2002 movie, and we watched it on our big screen yesterday with the whole fam damily, and had a great time.

***

Hubs has cobbled together a home theater over the years that is starting to be company-worthy. We have all sorts of old sound equipment to rig together surround-sound, he painted out one side of a chalk board for screen, he uses the digital projector to show movies from DVD or VHS, and we have some old dual seats from the church basement for theatre seating. It's tucked into what used to be a tiny room with tinier windows, now a lovely little, easily-darkened alcove for comfy movie viewing.

***

I really like the word "dustbin" today, and I have no idea why it is bouncing around my subconscious. Speculation?

***

Need to go tote Thing 1's clothes to town for her. She is going with friends on a long weekend trip to Yellowstone. Cool. Have a great Thursday!

Arrrrrrrrrrr!

It's Talk Like A Pirate Day!!!!!

I am so gonna drive people nuts.

We do more before 9am...

Today could have gotten off to a very bad start, but I made some conscious decisions not to let it. I did get some snarking in on my kids, but that was quickly forgiven by a ride to school.
I thought I had set the alarm last night, but it's one of those dual jobbies and I set the wrong one. I rolled over and looked at the clock about 15 minutes after the kids should have been at the bus stop. I got 'em up, told 'em I'd give 'em a ride, and rode herd as they got themselves and Thing 4 ready. Luckily, I had set the church alarm, so dad was up and ready to take charge of Thing 4 while I went to town.
Our itty bitty town is about 6 miles from the town with school, work, etc. Even though gas prices are calming down a wee bit, we try to be conscientious about trips to town, so after I got the kids a breakfast treat at BK, I dropped 'em of and ran my errands. Having to tote them got me out of the house a lot sooner than if I had gone on my own. I will have to return, as paychecks weren't ready yet, but that means I can treat the kids to a ride home and the library after school while I get the oil changed, which is all good. One nice thing about small-town living: the qwikky-lube of choice is half a block from the library. For now, my groceries are bought and put away, I got errands run, and I've had a few minutes to nip around the web with a cuppa joe and a stanky candle burning. I should get up and moving before I lose momentum. In a minute...
I've signed up for a "pastor's wife" ring. I have been pleasantly surprised to find that next to women of great grace and inspiration, I find others with the same sorts of struggles, quirky sense of humor, and potty mouths as me. I'll do a linky thing when I get that kind of info and motivation. Until then, I'll just keep polishin' that halo...

My thoughts on Vikings 16, Panthers 13

Love that "edit" widget. I was unable to view the end of the football game today, so I went to minnesotavikings.com. An hour and a half after the game, and they still had 13-13 posted. I thought we had tied during NFL regular season play, and I was absolutely perplexed. I was set straight at the church coffee hour tonite, and athough a bit chagrined, I feel much better about today's game. Way to go for the first Vikings kicker EVAH to throw a TD pass. Yay Childress for taking some risks. Time for the happy butt dance! (|) (/) (|) (\) (|) (/) (|)

In other news, with enough lighter fluid you can get soggy stuff to burn. Firepit should be nicely primed for further use next week. Seem to have developed a knack for writing sentences without subjects. Bad English teacher! Bad! (Those were interjections.)

A big interweb welcome to my newest Blogger buddy, the Cosmic Junkie over at the Cosmic Junk Drawer go over and leave him a warm fuzzy comment. He's single, girls!

With that, I'm off to herd the cats to bed. Night all!

Dang wormholes...

So after Job #2 the other night, I could not find my car keys. I have a very bad habit (though usually not at work) of tossing them on the floor of my car. Maybe TMI, but if you want a GEO with no bluebook value because its been totalled once already, has no exhaust system, and your need is that great, I'll even post directions to the blessed thing. Anyhoo, I thought that must be the case, as I could not find them inside, and I did not carry a purse that night. I looked thru the car. I went back and looked again. My boss offered me a ride home and while I waited for him I took a garbage bag and went through the car a third time on my hands and knees and gutted it. Yes, I know, if there is that much garbage in my car there is a problem; however, I have been doing this more often, and trying to police myself and the Things about packing out our junk (Hubs is on his own...) so it really isn't as bad as it has been. Anyway, again with the digression, I was on the flippin' floorboards of the car and no keys anywhere. So Hubs brought me to work with the spare keys yesterday, and lo and behold, when I walked by to check, there they were on the floor of the drivers' side, fully visible from the passenger side window. There.is.no.WAY. I could have missed them. Either someone is messing with me, or there is a wormhole under the seat of my GEO. I wonder where it opens out?
Thinking of wandering outside and lighting up the firepit. We've had thundershowers the past couple days, and while the sun is out and pretty today, it is decidedly cooler outside. I have a brushpile to pare down where the tree service dropped our tree earlier this year. Those aforementioned showers may make burning a bit of a challenge, but heck, I have a Sunday off and nothing better to do. Sounds like a lovely way to rest on the Sabbath.

A present for you, my best buddy ever

I tend to sit here and space off while watching my blue lava lamp, so I though you would enjoy it, too. Since I don't have a webcam (8 digital video cameras in the house, and no webcam...I can hook 'em up but they have power save and shut off after a few minutes if not recording) to point at my lovel lamp, I went and found you this, dear internet. It's not as realistic as a couple VR lamps I found, but it requires no download and is Mac-friendly. Enjoy!

A typical Thursday

Some non-sequitr-as-usual observations from around the Casa del Goose:

*Nothing funnier than a three-year-old boy belting our the lyrics ro Barlow Girl's "Never Alone" over milk and cereal at the breakfast table.

*Someone always has it worse than you, and can put your day in perspective in a real quick hurry. Wow.

*I have never lived in Texas, but I will still miss Ann Richards.

*Laundry sucks.


With that, dear interweb, I leave you to go organize my day, and get ready for the final performance of Much Ado, which happens to be a local road show, so I don't even have to haul my butt to Marshall.

See ya after strike.

Photobucket

This is a test post from Photobucket.com

What have we done to these kids?

I told Thing 1 (13) to go grab some movies to keep herself and the other Things (12, 8, 3)occupied during tonight's line-thru. She said, "Here's 3 we all like." She had The Breakfast Club, Dogma, and Braveheart. More frightening still, she's probably right, 'tho Thing 4 still likes cartoons. My poor, poor kids...

You may want to scroll down a few posts and work your way up...

castingcrowns
Originally uploaded by Gette.

...if you really care, that is. I am using flickr to post because Blogger is being a crabby pants. I have got to be missing something about posting more than one photo to a post, or something, but bear with me...


Casting Crowns were the Saturday night headliners that brought us out into the damp and the mud, and they were the highlight for the kids and grownups both. If it hadn't been for them, though, we would have missed the other completely cool bands we saw there. For little miss "I don't listen to Christian rock" (and you know who you are...;)) there's some really edgy, hardcore, awesome music in the current batch of CC bands. Besides, anyone who listens to Def Leppard had to also have listened to "Honestly" by Stryper about a gazillion times.
Digression aside, these guys not only rocked off many faces, the lead singer is a great communicator as well. Told fun stories and made an impact, I think. Ok, off to haul all the little dancing girls.

But seriously

minijer
Originally uploaded by Gette.

This is how close we really were to Jeremy Camp.

Jeremy Camp...

jumbojer
Originally uploaded by Gette.

...is really big on the Jumbotron.

From these cool seats

woohoo
Originally uploaded by Gette.

Oh yeah...

Stellarkart

stellarkart
Originally uploaded by Gette.

Why can't I do more than one pic in a post? Hmmm. I'll dig deeper some day when I have more time. I should be doing this in reverse order... Anyway, this was our view of Stellar Kart

Superchic[k]

superchick
Originally uploaded by Gette.

After the kids' stuff, we went to see Superchic[k]. Good view of our view, and some mud.

Lifelight Pics via Flickr

viking
Originally uploaded by Gette.

This is new, and seems kinda backwards to me, but here goes. Thing 2 got a balloon hat at the kids' activity booth/balloon haberdashery.
(I can already tell this blogging method is gonna be clunky but Blogger will.not.let.me. post photos... I may go beta.

Another op'ning, another show...

Much Ado is off the ground and flapping. The weather is agin' us, as this is Shakespeare in the Park after all, and it's been overcast and cool. People that will freeze their heinies at a HS footbal game won't do the same to watch Shakespeare for some reason. I am wearing my longjohns under my costume tonite, even if it does make me look fat. Sounds like a cast excursion to Applebees after the show tonite too. Yay! I have a gift card to use up.

I attempted the lifelight picture post, but Blogger is being a crank again. Hmph.

Off for a little tubby time before the show.

Picture Time!!

Yesterday when I went for coffee with Bossy, I noticed while I was taking pictures that my screen read "full memory" so I thought I was using too much resolution and had filled 'er up. I did not realize my kids had filled my camera with a bunch of schlock pictures of things like toast, table legs and the cat. So, none of my coffee pics turned out, so I stole these brazenly from Bossy's site for those of you who don't go there. But you should. She's a hoot.
She snuck this one in while I was cleaning grunge of Thing 4. It's my new desktop.

















Thing 4 and Boo Bee driving somewhere. Dunno where they're goin', but they're cute as heck getting there.

Blogger is bein' poopy about pics, so I'll start a new post with the rest.

Wheeee!

Hubs had a night shift, so I cleared myself and Thing 4 out of the house and took a little drive to have "beverage of choice" (soft, it was before noon...) with Bossy, and share some idle chitchat while our two adorable children played in the Burger King habitrail. Yes I got pictures, but my dang camera is wonky so they'll be posted when I get all the rest of 'em ready. Then neighbor Al and I made a speed run thru thrift stores for last minute (oy!) Shakespeare stuff.
Now its off to dress rehearsal!

A day off...mostly.

Wow. Got to sleep in this morning. Had nowhere to rush off to work, visit or do something pressing. Took a leisurely trip to the Evil*Empire for school supplies (must visit the Death Star outlet in Marshall this evening, as ours was out of a couple things. Waited too long, I did...) On the way home we treated the Things to McDonalds and took them to the monstro playground to run a bit. The only "must do" event on today's agenda was a rehearsal we added in on Thursday. We bumped up the time, so I should be home relatively early. I'll be able to get my ducks in a row and get ready to roll into those two dreaded words in any theatre geek's vocabulary...
...Production Week.
I may be a bit scarce around here due to that, but bear with me. I'll put some pics up when they're ready.

I'm too young to be this old

It's the morning after an all-day, outdoor, alcohol-free concert, and I feel like I've been on a three-day bender. Here and here are a couple of stories that describe the conditions as well as I can. All the walking, fresh air, and requisite jumping around has left me feeling like whipped puppy. By the time we got there, the clouds had broken up, and it was partly cloudy and pleasant, if you could deal with mud, and lots of it. You could tell we were in farm country; there were plenty of folks of all ages wearing barnyard work boots. No dummies there. There were also plenty of bare feet. It's an impressive setup. We got up close and friendly for Jeremy Camp and Casting Crowns. We had to haul the Things up onto our backs from time to time so they could see, but we were also strategically placded under the jumbotron so they could see when we were tired. An exta 65 pounds of kid will sink you about half an inch deeper into the mud, by the way. The concert was over at approximately 11:15-11:30. We didn't get out of the parking lot until 12:50am. The park is out in farm country that is rolling over to urban sprawl. Parking wound through recently devloped neighborhoods, but there was a pasture full of cows directly to the west of the main stage. I wonder what they thought of all the commotion. The parking lot was obviously in corn relatively recently, telling from the ruts and field stubble under the grass. Bits of shattered sporting clays and rubber shell wadding made me wonder exacly how recently the gun club gave up use of the property, as well.
We're going to enjoy a leisurely dinner with grandparents, then make our way home via Sprawl Mart for school supplies. I'll see how my pictures turned out when I get to my home computer. Have a great Sunday!

Off to the races...

Labor Day hijinks ensue! We had been planning to go to Sioux Falls for the Lifelight festival this weekend, but Thing 1's win at the fair altered that a bit. After discussion and negotiation, the Thing insisted that the rest of the family should not miss because of her, so she is going to the fair with G'ma. The rest of us are soon out the door to the other G'ma who lives closer to Sioux Falls, where we will enjoy an abbreviated version of the festival. The abbreviation is more due to the crappy weather than anything. We'll hang with G'ma if its soggy, then venture out into the rain for the headliners. Meanwhile, should Thing 1 win, we'll rocket back across the state to see her in the State Fair grandstand Sunday night. We'll amble back home sometime Sunday or Monday and gear up for the first day of school. I know, dear internet, that you have nothing better to do than wait here for updates, so I will keep posted on developments as I am able.

Video at last

Done and done.

I was freezing by the time Thing 4 performed so its shaky as heck. The quality ain't so great either, but whatta ya want for nuttin?

More Fair

Ok, so how do you make a killing at the fair? On a rainy day, you sell these buggers for $2 when the radio stations are hawking their logo-fied ones for $5:


So, where were we? Oh yeah, we split up for a bit, and the Things went on their rides while mama the pack mule dumped a load back at the car and picked up their stuff for the show. We saw some more sights, and did some more fair things.


All vendors at the fair are private contractors. This particular carousel sits in front of the grandstand in what is called "Carousel Park," oddly enough. It's been there for years and has nothing to do with the rest of the midway. There's one on the Kidway, too. There used to be a really old one in a permanent building, which you can read about here. It was very cool, and almost got the 86 due to the almighty dollar. Now it is fun to go visit at Como Park, another Saint Paul landmark.
We finaly got to our pre-show meeting. The first thing the stage manager told us was that the weather policy was to go on, rain or shine, unless there was lightning or severe weather, in which case we would break, wait it out, and come back after 15 minutes of all-clear. Almost as soon as he got this said, we were moved to the Eco Challenge building to wait out an incoming storm. It was just then that I realized I had forgotten Thing 1's CD. I knew I could walk to the car and get it if I had enough time, but the graciously sent me a golf cart to speed things up a bit, so Albert took control of the Things and off we went. Unfortunately, that's exactly when the weather hit the fan. We were forced to seek shelter in the main entertainment offices for about 20 minutes. I fretted about the Things, but they were busy checking out all the interactive exhibits in the Eco Challenge building and didn't even miss me. The sun broke back through, we got a rainbow for good measure, and on our golf-cart journey I got a mini-tour and some behind the scenes stories of the aforementioned storm of Skynrd legend. Nate, my golf-cart knight, treated me more like a minor dignitary than the PITA stage mom I felt like. Everyone at the entertainment office and Baldwin stage was pleasant and helpful, despite fielding phone calls and watching weather reports and dealing with all the different stages at the fair. They all get really big kudos from me.

We got back in plenty of time to watch the crew dry off the stage. We waited for the official all clear, and started up about 40 minutes late. Thing 3 performed in the middle of her division and was cute as a bug, but there was some really stiff competition. She had a blast on the big stage. Thing 1 was the very last act of the evening. There were two girls who sang and played piano, two boys who sanga nd played guitar, and an excellent dancer, who took second. Thig 1 waited for them to announce 2nd place and said, "I'm ready to go now." The look on her face was priceless when they announced her name. I wish I'd left the camera on, but I was shivering so hard the video is shaky as heck the way it is. Now to get it compressed and posted...

Argh! State Fair part 1

Yet another twit at work quit with no notice or call, and left a schedule full of hours to fill, so here I am working nights again. At least I get call-in pay. I hope it comes out of her check. I actually really like the night shift at my job. It's peaceful, the pace is easy, I do quiet things like cook and bake. I just hate doin' it in the middle of the night.
The state fair trip was soggy indeed. For most of the day we simply ducked into a building when it looked like rain was coming, and it worked pretty well. The kids got on their rides, they saw the sights and did the activities that really mattered to them. We had our neighbor's Hungarian exchange student, Albert, along for good measure. My neighbor works for the state Extension service, so "fair" and "fun" do not go together in her vocabulary. We would not want a foreign visitor to miss out on such an integral part of the Minnesota experience, however, so we have taken their students along on more than one occasion.
When we first entered the fairgrounds, we found the new Miracle of Birth Barn, around the corner from its old location and bigger than before. We strolled in to check it out, and were greeted by a laboring cow with protruding calf bits on the big screen. That was more of a cow than I cared to know, so we moved hastily on. I think the concept is awesome, especially for city dwellers who have no concept of the livestock life cycle, but I hung around enough friends' farms when I was younger to get a good feel for animal husbandry. No need to view it for recreational purposes. Thing 2 wanted to make a beeline for Little Farm Hands, but we had to make a couple dry building detours en route. Once we took care of that, it was time to check out rides until we got a rain squall, so we ducked into the Home Depot tent and built things. We took a couple laps in the trolley and checked out the Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom trailer. Animatronic Marlin Perkins, but no Jim Fowler. He was out wrestling hippos while Marlin was safe in the trailer, I guess, as always. No respect.
I have now lost the last half of this post TWICE, and am about to scream in frustration. **(&&*(&!!! Blogger!
To Be Continued when I am calm...

Learning Curve

I have spent most of the afternoon learning video encoding by trial and error, mostly error. I have to go to work soon, so I won't spend any more time on it today, but I should be able to get the kids' clips up relatively soon. I'll be posting a link where you can go download the movie to watch on your computer, so we don't have to fiddle with streaming video and other such technobabble.
I must go outside for some fresh air and sunshine before I hide out in the bar all night, so I shall post for you later, dear internet.

We have a winner

We are back from our foray to the State Fair, a bit damp around the edges but Thing 1 is victorious. I'll say only that I think I jinxed myself blogging about that storm, but I found out from one of the entertainment crew that it is the stuff of SF legend. Details and pictures later, I am shot, and a bit soggy, still.

Crash Boom Crash

4:24 this a.m. brought a very loud thunder crash and rumble. I expected the little whimpers that soon followed, but not the second crash, which was William knocking over his dresser on his way to find me. The sisters that help put his clothes away and get him dressed had left enough drawers open to tip it off balance enough to let it go crashing over with a nudge. After dealing with all that commotion, and dealing with the kids who came out to see exactly what it all was, it took me about an hour to get back to sleep. I should've just gotten up to do something productive, but bed was too comfy.
There's a forescast of scattered t-storms for our fair trip tomorrow, but unless we get something really violent, it doesn't bother me a bit. There are plenty of buildings to stroll through, and the morning should provide plenty of partly-cloudy/overcast weather for rides and outdoor fun. Hopefully the storms will hold off for the girls' show, though. The stage is covered, but not the audience.
The best time I ever had at the state fair was in a raging downpour. We had swapped the 2 elder Things off with rellies while Hubs and I went to see Kansas kick Lynrd Skynrd all over the old grandstand stage. It had been misty and cloudy for the whole show, and I had 2-year-old Thing 3 crashed in my lap. We watched the nightly fireworks for awhile, then left to get the Things back. As we came out of the grandstand tunnel, the fireworks ended with a crashing finale, combined/confused with a huge crash of thunder, and the rain came down in an instantaneous sheet that stopped the throng of people dead in the tunnel and caused a comical backlog of humanity. We waited a minute, said the heck with it and made a dash for it. The rain was warm, the kids were giggling, and we splashed through the eight blocks of state fairgrounds to get to the bus to our park&ride. The rain came so fast that the intersections were flooded because the storm sewers were unable to keep up. Aside for those of you unfamiliar with the Minnesota state fairgrounds: unlike our more rural neighbors, the state fairgrounds site is in the middle of the metro, and has full curb and gutter utilities and paved streets. Had this happened elsewhere, we'd have been slogging thru mud and considerably less merry. As it was, I had one Thing tossed over my shoulder, covered with a rather useless blanket, singing "it's raining, it's pouring..." in my ear and making me laugh. Kyle pulled the other two in the wagon. We dripped along with the rest of the bus riders, and dashed back to our van, which was by now standing dead center in the middle of an empty university parking lot. As we ventured out into the streets, the water was up to the doors. In all the times we've been to the fair, I don't remember having so much fun as that night.
I am assuming we will not see such rain tomorrow, but I suppose I'll pack along some extra clothes, just to be safe.

Remodel

Dudes, go check out the overhaul at the homestead. Comment! (Please.)

More big wieners

Thing 1 is now officially representing Swift county at the Minnesota State Fair. I managed to get her in on the same day as her little sister-Rock! The Thing that didn't place in Chippewa County earned 2nd in her division, and the mom who placed 2nd in Chippewa got squat. Good competition, however, but I'm cranky that they placed entrants with backing vocals on their music (a big state fair no-no) even though they did not win. I'm mostly just jealous because there are a bunch of other songs I would have done if I had not stuck to the rules myself. Heck, I'll take a little cash and a pass on the State Fair trip. I'll post a little blog-alogue of our Fair trip.
Now, to do some directing of the Things in the Sunday-evening-before-garbage-pickup Opera. A typical scene:

Me: "Start collecting the garbage cans to go out."
Things: Silence
sound fx: Crickets chirping

Repeat at increased volume until I am screaming and the Things are wailing in misery.
Such fun.

Expounding

Well, I am home doin' the Day Off Dance (tm). Last week, I had several days off from work, but I spent most of my time working on stuff for church. The company was good, got lots of "feel good" stuff done, but not much around the house. I am off both jobs today (and on both tomorrow and Sat.) and rehearsal has been cancelled, so I am busy doing little jobbies around the house, grocery shopping, and takin' a few minutes to spend some time with you, my close personal friends on the internet.
Some comments and common themes on other blogs have led me to think of some further discussion on earlier posts...
Yes, the bus comes at 6:55 (officially-sometimes he's even earlier...). Our little town comes close to the beginning of our bus route. There are some busses that start picking up at 6:45. Schools start at 8:15 or 8:20 depending on the building. Love those rural routes. Not. I usually have to be at work by 7:00, so I just start rousting the kids after I have gotten myself upright and (relatively) sane. They hate it, but realize it needs to be done. They have friends on the bus, or books, so all is well.
I am guilty of doing some county fair jumping this year for talent show purposes. Part of it is sheer vindictiveness from placing behind entrants from Buffalo Lake or South Dakota in my own county. However, I have tried to stick to counties where grandmas live or the very next one to the north. It has allowed me to hone up my comparative county fair theology. My hometown fair was painfully small. They seemed to have a good slate of entertainment and activities, but I had that twinge of nostalgia, looking at the event and the place from grownup eyes. We ran wild at the fair in those junior-senior high years. New friendships formed with people you never spoke to at school, romances blossomed, glamorous hair bands swept away the hearts of adolescent girls on their whirlwind tri-state tours. The memories won't fit properly in that very small fairground.
I have no real personal ties to the Lyon County fair, except for friends and family that reside there. It seems to be a pretty good fair, though, hosting a variety of events, a well-stuffed 4-H exhibit hall, and full commercial buildings. The local fair, however, is struggling. The fair board has been trying some new things with varying success, but I feel they have been hamstrung by locking in to a M-W schedule every year. The commercial buildings are uncomfortably vacant. The next county to the north has similar population and size, but just seems to be more vibrant. I couldn't say if it's better placement, presentation, or what, but it just seems more lively. So there's more than you wanted to know about county fairs. Now on to state... Thing 3's win at the county level has moved her on to a performance slot at The Great Minnesota Get Together on opening day (mom's favorite!). The rest of us losers will try again Sunday at Swift County. The kids get a bang out of it, and frequently earn a little spending $, even if they don't win. Thing 1 has been reading original poetry with some success. She has great stage presence, which has been the aspect that puts her in the winner's circle, I think. The rest of us keep on singin'. I'll try to take some pictures, If I can get the Mac to recognize my camera. Might finally be time for a new one. Seems to work fine if I use the memory card, so I guess I'll just have to stick to that.
Y'all have a great day.

Media overload

So I'm sitting here with internet radio on iTunes, local broadcast radio on the daily "freebie" show, surfin' the net, Kyle watching History channel on the other side of the room. My head assplode. Now the freebie show is over, so I can take one stimulus out of the mix. No wonder our stress level is so high.
Well, the church block party went off despite the weather, but we were rather disappointed with how much of the community did NOT bother to come out and support us, despite the weather. We are thankful for all who did come, but have decided not to do it again next year. We'll put our efforts elsewhere.
Now I suppose I should write thank you notes...
We're winding summer down hereabouts. Trying to get schedules set so we don't panic when the bus starts coming at 6:55 in the blessed a.m. I've been doing laundry nonstop, trying to catch up on backlog, as well as examine who needs what and what doesn't fit anymore. My children are blessed with loads of family that loves to buy them clothes. Gotta learn to let go of some of it, even if it does fit, just to make room in the closet. Someone else can enjoy it. Well, better get back at it.

Book meme!

Call me a geek, but I think these meme thingies rock:


1. One book that changed your life: The Holy Bible

2. One book that you’ve read more than once: The entire Belgariad/Mallorean series by David and Leigh Eddings

3. One book you’d want on a desert island: Any/all of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

4. One book that made you laugh: How to Talk Minnesotan

5. One book that made you cry: While the Locust Slept

6. One book that you wish had been written: How to Find a Job that Pays $20/hr. to Sit on a Beach and Sip Little Umbrella Drinks. Written by me.

7. One book that you wish had never been written: quite a few forgettable Star Trek novels. Frequent response to the end of the book: "I wasted four hours on that?"

8. The book you are currently reading: The Power of a Praying Wife, Lucky

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read: God's Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It

10. Now tag five people: Gosh, I can think of a few, but who'll actually play with me? Carter, Ann?, Bossy,
Cliff,and Britmum
That should actually be a well rounded list of things that I will want to go read for myself after I see their ideas.

Here's a couple honkers for you

Meet the neighbors. Kinda noisy, and they bring about 100,000 of their friends by for a big party every fall.

Been busy here at the Casa del Goose. Getting ready for church block party, including rummage sale, so that's led to closet cleaning and other fun stuff. Nice to get done, tho. I've been avoiding the Mac and its time sink in order to keep making progress. More posting when the weekend is done. Whew.

Home again...

The Things and I went back to my home town yesterday to perform in the county Talent Show. Had a respectable turnout, and two of us placed in the money. Grandma videotaped and a good time was had by all. Got back around nooon today, did a speed thru at the grocery store, and am now kickin' back a little until Job 2.

The ladies at Crazy Hip Blog Mamas have decided its warm fuzzy time. You are hereby requested to leave a positive, warm fuzzy comment at any blog you visit this week, including this one (so get crackin'). Hopefully the warm fuzziness will spread like wildfire and flow out into real life. Couldn't hurt...

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.