The Return of the Brain Sucker

TV. How do I love thee? Lost, The Bachelor and Wife Swap. Survivor, The Apprentice and HGTV and more - so much more- DVDs and Playstation. Ahhhh, bliss. I hope you enjoyed your rest at the repair shop my friend, you will be getting the workout of your life in these next few days.

Is it crazy to watch the repairman deliver the circuit boards with clasped hands and a giddy grin?

Considering the fact that said repairman was a minimum of two hours late (between 12-3 p.m. should not mean 5:07 p.m.) and was at our home for an hour and a half (making two phone calls to the office for "now how do you program the vertical to the blank with the whatsit and the hoogy?") And didn't bring the right torque wrench gizmo. And needed my husband to lift the TV. And upon screwing the back on to the TV caught a piece of the towel the TV was resting on which later had to be wrenched out. And had a strange, slightly unbalanced giggle.

Suffice it to say there was alot of eye rolling in the kitchen.

Picture Perfect

Little did Lisa know when she helped me out tonight that she'd have to look at Bill Belichick's mug every time she visited me. At least for tonight. I'm having trouble with the squishing down effect (the technical term :) ) of the picture in the header. But que sera, sera! Thanks Lisa!!

I think I'll be reposting my musical guilty pleasure. I miss it.

I present our president

Click here

A blog question

This blogging thing is making me crazy. I've spent much too long trying to get my sidebar back up where it belongs. Sometimes it's the pictures so I deleted the entire posts. Still no luck. Then I shortened the title of the last post and *zoom* back to the top. What-stinkin-ever.

Okay, I have a question and if it requires a super technical answer let me know because I'm not that techno-savvy. I want to be able to post pictures up where my title is. Hard? Please say no. Well, don't lie. But if it's super hard than I'll just stick with what I've got.

And now that I've done the little recommendation thing in the sidebar and even, sadly, updated it already - I've decided that I don't think I really like it. This is only because I've already deleted all of the other links I had. I can't imagine people were clicking on them anyway. Maybe I'll give it a day or two.

Bzzz..Slap....Bzz..Slap....Bzzz...Oww.

Apparently until it gets cold enough to kill the mosquitos we are under siege. They've threatened the town next door with cancellation of all fall sports until the little eastern equine encephalitis and west nile carrying sons of bitches freeze to death. Two people and three horses have died so far so it is kind of serious. Okay, maybe not kind of but actual serious. (And yes, it is necessary to use swears when describing them.)

Especially if you're made of mosquito food like me and the kiddos. Apparently our blood tastes like freshly buttered popcorn/chocolate chip ice cream/warm baked bread/turkey dinner with all the fixin's - All mixed up into one. We get chewed alive. All the time. My daughter welts up so badly I double check because it looks like an allergic reaction to a bee sting. We slap on the SuperDuper Outdoorman Deet Chemical bath and head to the park. Nothing like chemicals leaching into your system all evening.

Now this is progress....

Wicked fast clean (or mostly) floors

Plastic Containers for every damn thing

Fun with Shampoo and Soap

Wicked fast clean (or mostly) bathroom and camper

Less Ruined Clothes

I'm a big fan of progress. If I can save time and make life even one iota easier for myself at a reasonable price I'm there.

Although, with that being said, what I enjoy most of all is going up to Maine and camping where we have no electricity, heat, water or bathrooms (we have sort of a privy toilet right now, behind a tarp). The cabin we plan to build will have gas lights, a woodstove, a pitcher pump and an outhouse. So I guess I also enjoy a vacation from progress too. And to be truthful, I pack the squishable snacks in one of those containers, wipe the tables down with those fast wipes and when I come home I get stains out of the kids clothes and let them have fun with shampoo in the nice hot bath.

I make no sense.

So we careen off of the bridge straight into the Chicago River. One of us has been shot and one of us seems paralyzed. Good thing we're doctors because nothing fazes us. We calmly use the cell phone to dial 911 and tell them that indeed we're in a car in the river and BTW we're sinking. Then we hang up. Because we're doctors and nothing fazes us. We will not panic until there is virtually no air left in the car and then only for a second. ER. If I didn't love Maura Tierney and the Bend it Like Beckham chick so much I probably wouldn't watch it. But still I sometimes get sucked in for the catastrophe du jour. I have a friend who is an actual ER nurse and I've never warned her about all of the upcoming trauma she's going to have to deal with. I'll let her know that it's not uncommon for a tank to come on by and just start rolling over people and cars in the parking lot.

Actually, I really don't mind ER so much. It just gets so 'how can we out do the last big thing' that I get eye-rollie.

They don't call it School Daze for nothing

The boy/school situation has been partially fixed. He's bringing home work that's just plain not up to his abilities - incompletes and things like that. He told me that he's totally unable to concentrate in class. Kids are talking, out of their seats, asking him for help, etc. And at home, phew, the non-stop attitude.

Well, I call his teacher and ask her how he's doing in the classroom. Apparently, he's A-Okay in class behavior wise. She says this is one of the quietest classes she's had in awhile. I'm not sure if that means it's actually quiet or just quieter than what she's used to. He participates, volunteers to help out, read aloud or whatever. She thinks he's just having trouble dealing with the change of teachers from 1st to 2nd grade and the new environment. She's been teaching for awhile and according to her this is a very common occurance, especially with boys. And the work, according to her, he just has to deal with it.

Poor kid. He gets really nervous when he's timed. Whether it's for a math test or racing to get into pajamas. And they time, like, every math test in that class. I'm cringing for him. I'm not entirely happy or unhappy with what she had to say. Part of me knows that he does have to deal with it. Nothing she's assigned is over his head. But still, he's my boy and I hate knowing that he's rushing, not working up to his potential (gag, I sound like such a crappy overacheiving parent here, so bear with me) and feeling overwhelmed and distracted in class. She says usually by the end of the first month they're feeling much more in their element but it might take the whole first quarter.

It's taking me this long to get back into the swing of things school-wise too. Balancing the homework with the play time and reading for fun vs. reading for school. Making lunch, remembering library books, sneakers on gym day, old clothes on art day, milk money, book orders, . Pathetic what I can find overwhelming, isn't it?

Here's Fred in my wedding shoes. With his WTF look on. For Kate, the newly minted adult.

These are the shoes that I love so much (plus the back leg of little dog Fred). They're a chocolatey brown suede. And pretty much beat up from the hugely wet day we had on Saturday.  

A nice shade of lime maybe.

Okay so color me green with envy. I'm trying so hard to be patient and ignore all things Star Wars when I see that Jennifer's husband has already gotten it.

Not that it matters because the TV that was picked up on August 31st is still - I repeat STILL- in the shop. Waiting for a part apparently. So in case anyone ever looks the at the things I'm watching links - the movies won't change until I get it back. And my netflix flix are floundering around like lonely souls on my DVD player patiently awaiting the return of their portal. Plus the fools who took my TV broke my overpriced cable that hooks the two up.

Weird Wednesday questions....

At least I got it done on the right day this week! Click here for your questions...

1. Which is cooler: robots or giant monsters? Why?
Duh. Robots. Giant monsters can think and therefore might decide that they really didn't want glog for dinner but instead - ME. Ahhhh!

2. If for some reason you needed to throw a porcupine, how would would you go about doing it? If you threw the porcupine agianst a wall would it stick better than a jellyfish would if it was thrown from the same distance?
Seeing that a jellyfish is not actually made of jelly I think it might *SPLAT*. The porcupine might stick really well to one of those fuzzy cubicle walls that offices are so fond of.

3. Until the unfortunate twist, didn't you think that Hansel and Gretel were quite ingenious for making a trail back home only out of bread crumbs? What would you have made the trail out of? Well, I probably would have used bread crumbs too. But if I have the benefit of knowing in advance that it might not work out for the best I would have to say spray paint.

4. Of what item in your grocery store's freezer section are you most afraid? How about in the fresh produce section?
Eggplants in the produce and fakey fruit salad in the freezer.


5. How much do you enjoy blogging in cubic joules per meter seconds squared?
7

I tried to do an audioblogger post today and right after I dialed it - kaput - the cell phone battery died. I guess it wasn't meant to be. *Sigh*

Tonight's the finales for both Big Brother and Amazing Race. I have to work and won't be home until about midnight. Ah the joy of the gainfully employed. A snippet of what I might hear tonight - "The width of the driveway remains 9 feet but the width of shoulders have been adjusted to 1 foot on either side reducing the amount of fill required for the project. Because of the reduction a water quality certificate from DEP isn't necessary." *Yawn*

My son is hating school this year and I'm finding myself at a loss for cheering him up today. It's getting exhausting, this finding the bright side of a boring day of school. I bought him a new pencil. I'm really grasping. He says it's boring. Well, only 10 more years to go kiddo. He's doing his homework in the morning before school so he doesn't have to do it when he gets home in the afternoon. At least he's thinking.

Wedded Bliss

It went off without a hitch. At least as far as I was concerned. No fisticuffs or confrontations. It was short and the words of the day were "Can I get you another drink?" Which was answered with a resounding 'YES!!' After many raspberry Stoli & Sprites and one very smooth Kamikaze we called it a day and drove to the newlyweds house for pizza and shoe removal. The shoes, which killed my feet, garnered many compliments and therefore were entirely worth the pain. But my girlie won the shoe pain competition with two blisters on her itty bitty pinkie toes.

The bride seems so very nice. Hard not to like her. But seeing as I was drinking, although not in the slurry 'iluvu' stage, I'll withhold judgement until we meet under more sober circumstances.

Off to bed, then busstop, school, work, busstop, school, home for dinner and homework, hockey and home. Ahhh....Mondays.

The key to a successful event. :) I am proud to say that I downed my very first shot at this event. A kamikaze. I am usually a pathetic sipper of shots. Finally, I can hang.  

My husband (in the cranberry vest - that was almost a cumberbund until my husband said 'Are you kidding?!?!?!' to his brother and got spiffy rental vest instead) and his brother, the prodigal son. 

My nephew, daughter and son. All dressed up and ready to crawl under each and every table to hide and scare the living daylights out of us. Whoopee!!! 

Babysitting

My husbands ideas for taking the kids off my hands so I can get some work done:

1. After I put in a movie (Mouse and the Motorcycle) and set them up he comes in the house and says "Mom's going to work upstairs, I'll be outside if you need anything."

2. Sitting in the big chair at the bottom of the stairs and telling the kids that he's not going to take them anywhere and what do they want to do? Color? No. Hmmmm. What can he do without leaving the chair? I know, tell my son - Don't do that. Don't sit on the furniture like that, why aren't you listening? Then start yelling.

My response....

1. What's easier coming upstairs to ask for a drink/snack/whatever - or going outside to find your dad while he finishes what he's doing before having to come in to play waiter?

2. Get your butt out of the chair.

Back to work....

Again, why do I do this to myself??

You are Terrorist Barbie.

*Which Barbie Are You?*
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Soteln form aontehr bolg

Aoccdrnig to a rseearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is tath the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a ttoal mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid des not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?

Thanks Jennifer!