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!