Thursday, October 29, 2009

that didn't last long

The pig the kids caught on Tuesday night lasted about 6 hours. About 1am I woke up hearing the strangest noise and it took me a while to figure out what it was. Once I was awake and cognizant enough, I realized it was the piglet squealing like it was next in line at the slaughterhouse. Since I prefer sleeping to listening to pigs at 1am (or just about any time, if you want to know the truth) I gave hubby a helpful little nudge and told him he had to 'do something about that stupid pig'. He crawled out of bed sounding none too enthusiastic and 20 minutes later, he was back and all was quiet. I asked him what he did and he said he let it go, but he had to catch it first, which was no easy feat, those little buggers are fast. I guess I should have pulled myself out of bed and made use of the video camera, because I'm sure watching hubby running around in his underwear with a flashlight trying to catch a squealing baby pig at 1am would make for some wonderful viewing.

I don't think the guys who put on my tires on Tuesday did a good job putting my hubcaps back on. Last night we were driving to Bible Study and we heard an odd noise like something plastic hitting the gravel then rolling down the road. Angel #1 said, that sounded like a hubcap. I hadn't seen one on the side of the road as I was driving, though that's not to say there wasn't. The road is a narrow, twisty one perched on the side of a mountain with very few guardrails, so I spend most of my time trying to keep between the lines and not doing much looking around. Problem is, I'm not sure how many hubcaps were on my van in the first place but it won't be an issue any more, since now there aren't any on it. My van is a mess.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

oink

After a couple weeks of trying, we have success at the Daydreamer household. Well, I don't think of it as success, exactly, but many people in this house do. They (they being hubby, the boys and angel #4) have caught a baby wild pig. They have it penned up and I'm not sure what they're planning on doing with it. Is this something we're going to be eating eventually? I think so. But it's such a little bugger right now that we're going to be feeding it for quite a while before it'll make a decent pan of pork chops.

I got new back tire for my mini-van today. It so very seldom gets new things that I think it's over the top with happiness right now. The only new thing it usually gets is a new quart of oil every couple weeks because it leaks so badly. I know I feel more comfortable driving on our twisty, mountain roads on tires that don't have the steel belts poking out. Now, if we could only figure out why the brake light never goes off, we'd be golden.

Sunday we stopped by Costco on the way home from church to pick up a pizza for lunch. There is a sale on pizzas this month, so technically, we're supposedly saving money. But, as usually happens at Costco, our $7 pizza ended up costing us $109 at the register. You'd think after hitting the Costco buffet (aka free samples) pretty hard we'd be so full we wouldn't even be tempted by all those huge cartons of food. Not so! And, of course, since everything does come supersized, it doesn't take long to spend $100 at Costco anyway. The one redeeming thing when you spend a fortune on groceries is that they're groceries. You're going to eat them eventually. It's not like you dropped a wad on electronics or dvds or something that in the long run have no positive features like food. You need food to live, you can (usually) live without the boxed set of the 2nd season of Desperate Housewives. Then again, you can watch Desperate Housewives over and over again, you only get one go-round with a bag of cheese stuffed ravioli.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Yeah, I"m still around

It's been a while since I posted, but, in my defense, it's been a busy week. Tuesday morning, we found Angel #2's cat dead by the side of the road. NOT a good thing. Not only is she going to miss her best friend, but her cat was the best hunter we had and was the one catching all the rats. As much as I don't like finding dead rats lying around, I hate hearing live ones running around even more. We'll have to see if she wants another cat or not. Time will tell.

We had the Special Olympics Area Bocce Ball tournament today. I'm a unified partner with a girl named Apple. How we place today determines who we go up against in Oahu in December. Well, Apple and I placed 4th place, which doesn't sound too bad until you consider that there were 4 teams. Yeah, I placed dead last in the Special Olympics. I never claimed to be any kind of an athlete and I guess that just proves it. But, I had a great time, and that's what really matters. The silver lining is that, because we're the worst bocce team on the West side of the island, come the State Tournaments, they'll put us up against other sucky teams, so we may have a chance at a medal if we can get our bocce groove on.

Monday, October 19, 2009

good news!

I'm happy to announce that I sold another book. YAY! I tend to think of this one as my baby since it was and still is the book that I love the most. It was the second manuscript that I ever wrote and my first one set in the 1920's, so it's all full of ganstery goodness. It doesn't have an official name or release date yet, but it'll be about a year before you'll be able to read it. I'll keep you posted.

Yesterday I did orientation and training to be an official Special Olympic volunteer. I spent a couple hours at someones house, then last night I did a little online training and a quiz. Now, provided I pass the criminal background check (which I'm assuming shouldn't be a problem), I'll officially be in. Of course, with all that stuff in my head right before I went to bed, I spent the night dreaming of bocce ball and going to the state competition, which is in December. You'd think I'd have better things to dream about, wouldn't you? Heck, I'd even be willing to take playing bocce ball with Gerard Butler (or anything with Gerard Butler). Uh wait, I take that back. I don't think I told you the dream I had a month or two ago. I dreamed that there was an upstairs apartment in our house and Gerard Butler was renting it. I had to go into the apartment for some reason and, thinking Gerard wasn't home, walked in without knocking. He came out of the bathroom wearing women's underwear. Yeah, I could go a LONG time without having a dream like that one again. What the heck? I dream about Gerard Butler and he's a cross-dresser?!? Sometimes your subconscious can be evil.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

still full

Last night we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with a group of good friends. One couple had us all to their house and they made ALL the food. Now that's my kind of get-together. After pigging out on turkey, mashed potatoes etc, I'm still full.

Hubby took a 6am flight over to Oahu today to compete in the state level Toastmaster's speaking competition. He won the local one a couple weeks ago without even planning on doing it. We'd gone to the competition to lend moral support to the ones who were competing and when we got there, they asked hubby if he could compete in the speech evaluation category since there was only one contestant. Fortunately, it's not the kind of speech you have to prepare for, as it's a verbal evaluation of someone else's speech. So now he's doing the same thing at the state level. I'm not sure if this would qualify him for a national competition if he wins this one or what, I imagine I'll get the details when he gets home tonight. He's so good at public speaking I'm sure he'll do well. I, on the other hand, prefer to be part of the audience.

Friday, October 16, 2009

He's a happy boy

Angel #1 aka Scrooge McDuck, sold his car today. Actually, he just put the ad in Craigslist, I was the one who sold his car while he was in school. I was kind of surprised it sold, I forget that just because I don't want something around doesn't mean that someone else won't want it. And want it they did, and the Angel got twice what he paid for it. It was only a $200 profit, but any profit is good.

WE went pig hunting again tonight, though how he thought he was going to get a pig with a baseball bat while he was sitting 10 ft up in the air in a tree house is anyone's guess. He saw a pig, the biggest he'd ever seen according to him. He said it was the size of a short cow. We'll have to take his word for it since he was too scared to get out of the tree house to take the oinker on. Alas, no pork chops for us tonight.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

United Nations

Angel #4 loves her MP3 player and has been permanently plugged in since she got it yesterday. The problem is, she keeps singing along with the songs - not so attractive when her singing isn't being drowned out by the actual song playing. The curse of listening to music while wearing headphones.

Angel #1 didn't have anything to do at school today (long story) so he left early. I thought #2 had plans after school, so she wouldn't need a ride home, so all was good. But I was wrong, she DID have plans, but they included her brother dropping her and her friends off in town after school. So I got a phone call from her looking for a ride. Since I was already in town, I said I'd get her - then she said, some friends need a ride too. I jumped in Debbie (our car) and went to the high school and ended up having to cram 6 teenagers into a car built for only 5 (rather small) people. There were 5 girls crammed in the backseat. As I was driving I looked at who was all in there, Angel #2 and her best friend, both blue eyed blondes (or Aryan Nation Children, as a friend calls them), a typical-looking brown haired boy, a part Mexican girl, a Chinese girl whose family is 1st generation Americans and a girl who was wearing a sari-looking thing and looked East Indian. It looked like I was doing a pick-up at the United Nations. And where did I drop this culturally diverse little group off? K-Mart, of course. After all, they're all American kids, even if they don't look like the cast from Leave It To Beaver.

I got the good news today that my 5 year old nephew is now out of the hospital after spending the last 4 days there fighting a particularly nasty version of H1N1. He went in late Saturday night and has been living in a scary antiseptic world where everyone who dealt with him was wearing a mask. I'm guessing he's happy to be back home in his own bed again, and so am I.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

birthday shopping

You're right, Jeannie, WE may be smarter, but Albert Einstein has it all over him in the humbleness department (I'm guessing Albert's grammar is better as well).

Tomorrow is Angel #4's eleventh birthday. She's been watching these how-to videos on Hulu called Howdini - it's an evil show that makes it look like it takes only 5 minutes to make really cute decorated birthday cakes. She couldn't decide between the panda bear cake and the mermaid, but finally decided on the mermaid. I was pretty thankful since it involves the least amount of cake sculpting and art skills. Sadly, I couldn't find Swedish Fish, gumdrops or reasonably prices fruit roll-ups (to wrap around a Barbie doll's legs to make the mermaid tail), so we decided to do the mermaid cake for Saturday when she has her party and just do a simple quickie cheesecake for the official day tomorrow. I was on the ball and remembered to buy birthday candles, we ran out for Angel #1's birthday in July and I resorted to breaking the candles in half so we had the required number of flames to blow out.

Yesterday, we were driving down the highway where part of the Ironman Triathlon took place on Saturday. For the past few weeks, they've had signs along the road saying Warning, Ironman Athletes in Training. Someone messed with the letters on one of the signs, making it say: Warning, Ironman Athletes in Pain. LOL What amazes me is that even after these people spent all day Saturday swimming 2 miles, biking 112 THEN running a full marathon, the very next day, some of them were right out there biking along the highway. Nuts, NUTS I say!

Hubby worked at the funeral home again today. He's learning new lessons every day. Last week, it was "never assume that just because something looks like a garbage can, it is". Today's lesson was "Just because that hill of dirt behind funeral home looks a little odd, doesn't mean it's not just a hill of dirt". I'm wondering if that last one is just wishful thinking on his part. Angel #1 had the day off school today and Hubby had him help him work at the funeral home - I think the Angel will be happy to go back to school tomorrow.

Oh, and one more thing. Isn't this the coolest turkey roasting pan ever? (yeah, I'm a kitchenwares geek)

Sunday, October 11, 2009

I thought I'd share

Quote from WE: If me and Albert Einstein had a conversation, his brain would blow up because I'm so smart.
So, now you know.

Friday, October 9, 2009

friends again

Jeannie, it looks like Blogger and Bravenet are speaking again - at least partially. You and Afton are still on the bottom, but Holliday and Francine popped right up on top today.

We ran out of milk today. I hate when that happens - I hate it even worse when your town is overrun with 1500 Ironmen and their friends and family and I have to dodge all their extra traffic to get around. It's bad enough they ride bikes while wearing Speedos, I hate not being able to get through a traffic light the first time. Oh well, it'll all be over by Sunday and life as we know it will be back to what I consider normal.

Yesterday, when the kid headcount hit 7 I escaped and headed out to work to get a little peace and quiet. When you consider a small engine repair shop quiet, it's time to get some mental help. By the time I got home, there were only 3 kids left, so I was rewarded for my clever escape.

We heard wild pigs outside last night. They were pretty close to the house, so the boys decided to do some hunting. They went after them with nothing more than a weak flashlight, a machete and a baseball bat. They didn't get anything, but they're making more elaborate plans for tonight. I just told them to be careful, our insurance plan doesn't cover pig attacks.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

brain fart

I wasn't thinking today - or maybe I've just had the fight beat out of me. Whatever it was, I agreed to have a few sleepovers tonight, which means that I presently have 6 kids instead of the usual 4. Though Angel #2 has had her boyfriend visit the last 2 nights, which is like having 3 kids around instead of the actual 5 because they tend to hide out from the rest of the family. Of course, that doesn't stop Angel #4 from spying on them or anything.

Angel #2 and I went shopping today, just the two of us, which doesn't happen very often. She usually would rather shop with friends, but, since I control the checkbook.... I bought her a few pair of shoes, she only needed a good pair for church, but Payless was having a buy one pair get the 2nd 1/2 off, so she got herself a pair of Converse-looking hightops as well. Then we headed to Walmart to do a little pricing on MP3 players. She's decided that she's going to have to pick $75 worth of coffee for the one that she wants. After shopping she did some picking today, so she's $20 closer than she was before. Since she uses an old cd player now, I figure we'll save a ton of money on batteries once she gets the MP3.

So, are any of my vast swarms of readers doing Nanowrimo next month? For those of you not in the Nano loop, Nanowrimo stands for National Novel Writing Month and it's held every November. The idea is to write 50,000 words, starting with word number 1 on November 1st and having the final word count by midnight on November 30. I've complete Nano for 3 years now - my book It Takes Moxie was my very first Nano project. So, if you enjoy writing and want a little kick start, consider giving Nano a try, it's a lot of fun.

Monday, October 5, 2009

all in a days work

Hubby is installing a new air system in the local funeral home. He's a bit creeped out by the whole thing and the people who work there are enjoying that fact quite a bit. Two women own the place and hubby has a hard time telling their voices apart. He was in the hall, thinking he was talking to Person A in another room, she told him he could go into a certain room but had to unlock the door first. He opened the door and there was Person A standing on the other side. After he was done screaming like a little girl, he realized he'd been talking to Person B.

Today, he was working on a unit in the embalming room, which he was sharing with a dead body. The poor guy was afraid to breathe through his nose for fear that he was going to smell dead person and was breathing through his mouth in quick gasps, which, he discovered, causes hyperventilation. He also thought he was at the foot end of the body when he was working, then glanced over to see the persons head instead. Not the best working conditions, to say the least.

At least if he passes out and falls off a ladder, he'll be in the right place. I suspect he really looking forward to this job being over.

Don't feel too sorry for him though, yesterday, he totally lost his husband of the year award. I was wearing a new skirt and he told me it made my butt look big. After 18 1/2 years of marriage, you'd think he'd know better by now. When I was telling some friends, who had just complimented me on the skirt, btw, what he'd said, one of them asked me if I told him that the skirt made his mouth look big. You just gotta love friends who are always ready to defend you.

next time I won't forget the seaweed

Thanks for the headsup about my blogroll Jeanne. I don't know what's up with that. I see it did the same thing with Afton - so I wonder if Blogger and Bravenet aren't speaking anymore?

Deb and Tanya, you've both got a very good point. I'm sure my kids are going to go on peanut butter strike now and demand something else, like deep fried pig skin or wasabi peanuts. I'm already in the doghouse because I forgot to pick up some nori when I was shopping. Yeah, I've become a neglectful mother who didn't buy her kids seaweed paper for their Spam musubis. Geez, when I was a kid, I would have considered it a punishment if my mom made me eat Spam and seaweed, my kids consider it a diet staple.

The kids have the next week of from school - it's the end of the 1st quarter, so they get a week off. It's also peak time for coffee picking, so I'm hoping they all go off to pick and make some money, with the added benefit of them not hanging around the house and bugging me. WE and Angel #2 picked on Saturday and each made $10/hour, not bad money for a kid, and it's much better than baling hay, which is what kids in Wisconsin have to do to make quick money in the summer.

And finally, isn't this just the greatest love story ever?

Friday, October 2, 2009

major shopping trip

Hubster and I did some big grocery shopping today. I hadn't done major shopping in a long time and our stores were getting low. We actually ran out of peanut butter on Saturday - the way the kids acted, you'd have thought we'd run out of air. We now have 8 jars of Skippy sitting on the shelf, so we should be good for a little while.

Hubby bet WE the other day that he couldn't be quiet for 24 hours. To give him a little inspiration, he told him he'd give him $1million if he did it. WE made it half an hour before he forgot and started harassing Angel #4. This is probably a good thing, since we didn't exactly have the million dollars to pay him if he actually did it, but it was kind of like betting that rain is going to fall down instead of up, 0% risk factor. If only the odds in Vegas were as good.