Thursday, November 28, 2013

a whole decade!!

I was thinking about it, then decided to actually look it up and I was right.  As of yesterday, I have been officially blogging for an entire decade. My very first blog post was November 27, 2003, which happened to be Thanksgiving day. Of course, back in those days, I don't think blogging was actually a term yet, we just called in online journaling.  Things were a bit different for me back then as well.  I had four kids still living at home, the oldest one was only 11.  We lived in a much nicer and bigger house in a town an hour and a half drive away from where we live now.  I dealt with dogs, cats, hamsters, gerbils and various birds in the house and a giant basement playroom full of toys.  GI Joes parachuted off my roof using Walmart bags, Barbie had prom in the living room and I regularly stepped on Legos as I walked down the hallway.  Oh, the good old days...I don't miss them.  I'm so thankful for my grown and nearly grown children, though I do wish my away from home kids were here with us today.

I spoke to Angel #2 this morning, she's not doing anything special for the holiday besides having a potluck at work. I'm not sure where Angel #1 even is.  He called a week ago saying he was leaving Kuwait and didn't know where he was headed next, so I think he's out on the ocean somewhere.  It would be nice to receive a Thanksgiving call from him, but I'm not holding my breath.

Anyway, happy Blogiversary to me!

It snowing here at the moment.  It's not our first snow of the year, we had that ages ago.  The first snow that stuck was about a week ago, we've had snow in the driveway for quite awhile now.  The plows went past the house twice this morning before 8, they were doing more sanding/salting than plowing, trying to keep things non-slippery for the holiday on the road crowd.  There's nothing worse than greasy roads on a holiday, I always worry about everyone going to and from when the weather's bad.  Welcome to winter, people.



Monday, November 25, 2013

Deer Hunting Widows Weekend

The Dr Who 50th anniversary special was pretty awesome.  They even brought together all 13 Doctors, both alive and dead in one of the final scenes, which was pretty stinking incredible.  Though I didn't cry at spots like my neighbor Becky did  She's a bit more emotionally invested in the Doctor than I am, apparently.  We made Dr Who munchies like Tardis Pizza, Ood sweet rolls, fish fingers & custard and washed it all down with sonic screwdrivers...none of which make sense to non-Whovians, but the rest of you can well imagine how fun the table was.

After Who-fest, hubs and I went to a deer hunters widow comedy show.  This was the opening day of deer hunting season, the guys all go to deer camp while their wives go out on the town with friends.  Hubs doesn't do much  hunting, so we went to the show together instead.  We also brought along my friend Monica from work and met my other friend Connie, along with her brother & sister at the club.  It was a great time and we'll probably go again for the Valentine's day show they're having in February.

It looks like our barn kitty, Tuna, is feeling  better from whatever was bothering her last week.  I'm pretty hopeful she'll be all right after her drooling fit.  Poor little thing is so lonely up there in the hay mow by herself though.  She was all by herself last winter and never wanted us to leave when we went up to feed her.  After she had her kittens, we decided to keep one so she wouldn't be lonely again this year, but now that Bana died, she's all alone again.  I'm tempted to pick up one of the free, fixed cats that humane society gives away, they're the feral cats that are caught, but can't be tamed for house cats.  They give them to people for their barns.  My fear is that Tuna won't get along with the other cat (or vice-versa) and she'll be even more miserable than she already is.  Animal dynamics are so confusing.

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

 Jeanie_C said...
"... the boys were goofing around during practice and Kyle received a severe concussion."
I want to know the rest of this story.
Well Jeanie, you had boys, so chances are you won't have too hard of a time filling in the blanks.  Last fall, either during or after practice, depending on who you talk to, the boys were wrestling around in front of the school.  One of the boys had Kyle and somehow dropped him on his head.  They didn't realize anything was wrong until that night when Kyle came out of his bedroom and told his parents there was water running down his bedroom walls.  Since his room was bone dry, his folks knew there was something going on and it turned out that the drop on his head gave him a really bad concussion.  Last year was a bad year for concussions on the cross country team, not only did Kyle receive one, but Joel received two, one when he staggered into another kids as they were crossing the finish line and they knocked heads really hard and the other one during practice when he was driving  his car to the big hill where they practice at and his brakes went out and he got in an accident.  I think the cross country team had more concussions than the football team that year.  Who knew XC was such a dangerous sport???

Hubs found our little barn kitty, Bana-katta-lotta dead up in the hay mow yesterday.  We suspect she got into some rat poison since there wasn't a mark on her.  This morning, our other barn kitty, Tuna Catterole was drooling and slobbering real bad, so I think she got into the same stuff that killed her daughter.  I'm hoping she'll be alright, she's a sweet little cat, but I'm not too optimistic.

Our neighbor brought season 7 dvd's of Dr Who over on Sunday and Angel #4 and I have been having a Whovian film festival this week trying to catch up for the big world premier of the 50th anniversary special airing on Saturday.  We going over to the neighbors to watch it at her house (she's got a full sized Tardis in her son's bedroom) and planning on bringing some Dr Who related snack foods for munchies.  There's going to be a new Dr for season 8, which I'm a little hesitant about.  It's always difficult getting used to a new Doctor, but hopefully I'll soon love him as much as I loved Dr's #9, 10 & 11.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Letters and Panthers

Last night was the fall sports award ceremony.  The coaches got a bit long-winded so it lasted about an hour and a half, but the longest talking coach was the football coach and the guys had such a great season, that I guess I'll cut him a little slack.  Part of the problem is that the ceremony recognizes the seniors and there were a dozen seniors on the football team, and since each one was highlighted, he had a lot of highlighting to do.  Angel #4 received her first letter - apparently, football managers letter each year they manage, which no one thinks is really fair, but it's the way it goes, so she's got a letter under her belt.  Our homecoming court is decided based on how many letters someone has plus their GPA, so we were joking that this is her first step toward homecoming queen.  Since there are only 3 freshman girls who lettered, she's well on her way.

Also mentioned last night was the infamous pink night football announcer flub-up.  One football game was dedicated to breast cancer awareness, with raffles, the football players wearing pink socks, etc.  Trying to drum  up more business for the raffle tickets, the game announcer said:  this is  your last chance to buy raffle tickets for breast awareness.   Once he heard the crowd burst into laughter, he red-facededly corrected it to breast CANCER awareness.

WE's girlfriend won the Panther Award for girls volleyball.  The Panther Award goes to a person who may not be the best on the team, but who is an inspiration, a good team supporter and just a general asset to the team in terms of morale.  She definitely deserved it.  She's been in volley ball, basket ball & track all through high school, but she isn't very good (except in volleyball, but the coach is an idiot who wouldn't put her out on the court because she plays favorites).  Because of not being real good, she's never lettered in any of her sports.  Last night she got her first letter in addition to the Panther Award, we were all so proud of her.

WE didn't win any particular awards in cross country, besides lettering.  But as the teams co-captain, and a senior, he was singled out last night as well.  He and his fellow captain dressed to the nines in dress shirts, nice pants and even ties - and absolutely identically right down to their white belts.  The cross kids were all dressed up really nice and I was so proud of what an awesome group of kids they are.  WE even said the same thing on the way home, expressing  how much he loves the cross country freshmen (8 out of 19 kids on the team are freshmen) and what a cool group of kids they are.  One I was particularly glad to see walk out with both a letter and a most improved player award was a boy named Kyle.  Kyle's been in cross since middle school, he's a junior now.  He's always struggled and came in last in most of his races,but kept pushing on regardless.  Last year during cross, the boys were goofing around during practice and Kyle received a severe concussion.  He's never been mentally the same since and his parents have brought him to doctors all over the country in an effort to get him help.  As a result, things are just a little bit harder for Kyle since then, he has weird episodes where he just spaces out and he also gets frustrated because he knows he used to catch on to things much easier in the past than he does now.  Anyway, all last summer, Kyle's been out running, 6 days a week, every week.  Since the concussion, he's also struggled with dealing with heat, which made running all the more difficult.  He had a little bit of a problem with the first couple cross country meets, mainly because it was pretty warm outside, but as the season went on, he kept doing better and better.  Since last year's season, he's knocked 2 1/2 minutes per MILE off his time!  Is that incredible or what?  I know I was so proud to see him walk up there and get the MIP award, I can only imagine how his parents felt.

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

the doctor is NOT in

I am pleased to announce that finally, after 23 years, the voice hubs hears in his head is MINE.  I'm the cheap one in our relationship.  I try to find good deals, I do without if something isn't absolutely necessary and, if I give in to an impulse buy, they usually tend to be fairly economical and practical (except for peanut M&M's).  Hubs, not so much.  He tends to come home with some pretty crazy stuff sometimes.  There are times I think he goes to the dump and his truck is heavier coming out than going in, and I won't even talk about the four 1960's era beauty shop hair dryers currently sitting in one of our sheds.  Well, today he was telling me that he listened to me in a situation and didn't buy something and now he was regretting it.  What I asked what it was, he said it was the dwarf costume.  I didn't have a clue what he was talking about and told him so and he said that he didn't actually talk to me about it, he just heard my voice in his head telling him it was a stupid purchase, so he resisted the urge to buy it, and now, the next day, he was experience non-buyers remorse.  His buddy down in Hawaii had a bunch of costumes, the kinds with the big heads and stuff like they have at Disney World and he wanted to sell them.  One of them was Doc, one of Snow White's dwarfs and he really really wanted the Doc costume but passed by because of my voice in his head.  He had second thoughts the following day and went back to his buddy and by then, he'd sold the whole lot to some guy from Maui who picked them all up this morning.  Hubs is pretty disappointed - he had planned on wearing it while going through TSA at the airport. I, on the other hand, just sighed in relief.

My van is still in the shop after over a week. The first two days I was using a loaner car, but since then, I've been driving hubs truck, the Deathmobile.  I don't like driving his truck, I'm not sure if it's because there's a hole in the floor and I can see the road rushing past beneath my feet, or if it's the missing driver's side door handle which necessitates opening the door with a wire, or maybe it's because the shifter knob comes off in my hand whenever I put the truck into 2nd gear, all I know is that I really want my van back.

Saturday night, Angel #4, Rent-a-Grandma and I went to the high school fall play.  They were doing The Oz Monologues and it was pretty darn funny.  I was even more impressed with the production when I found out one of the actors bailed out of the show two days before opening night and the kids had to improvise.  When it's the Wizard of Oz and the Tin Man bails, it's a pretty big speed bump, but the kids did a great job, flawlessly inserting into the play why the Tin Man was MIA and I had no idea it wasn't part of the original script until #4 told me about it afterwards.  Coincidentally (or not) the Tin Man was the exact same girl who bailed out at the last minute when she was supposed to sing the National Anthem with #4 before a volleyball game last month.  I'm sensing a definite pattern here.  I mentioned it to my friend, Connie, who directs the Senior play every year, so she'll know to keep Lexi out of any major roles if she doesn't want any surprises with that production.  All the talent in the world doesn't compensate for being unreliable.  Marilyn Monroe may have gotten away with it, but until you're Marilyn Monroe, it's probably best that you adhere to your commitments.

Monday, November 4, 2013

wow, what a week! Thank goodness it's over

In the past week there was some major craziness going on at/to our house.  It started on Monday morning when hubs picked up a lift so we could put a new roof on our house.  The original plan was he would put the new metal roof right over top of the existing shingles.  But, it turns out there were not three, but FOUR layers of shingles on the roof, the bottom layer we believe are the original cedar shingles from the mid-1800's when the house was built.  The shingles were just too thick and warped to evenly nail the 2x4's on to put on the metal roof, so the guys ended up having to scrape 2 layers off the roof so the new one could get put on decently.  So there was a little unexpected work.  They worked their butts off, especially hubs, and managed to put the last of the roof on Friday in the rain.  It also poured on Thursday, all told, about 4 inches in 2 days.  The chimney flashing and soffits aren't up yet, but the main part is up and looks all nice and red and shiny.   Since we had the lift, hubs wanted to get as much use out of it as possible, so after the roof guys would leave for the day, he'd keep on working.  By last night, we had the 4 windows in the upstairs bedrooms replaced (one of them was also probably pretty close to original to the house) all the top layer of oh so healthy asbestos siding taken off the sides of the house.  They also got the lower layer of cedar siding, the tar paper and some weird kind of paper layer torn off the top half our house - our house is a house of many layers, apparently.  Once we got down to the original logs or boards, depending on what part of the house we were doing, we put that house wrap stuff up as well as some board insulation.  That's only on the top half of the house, the bottom half will just have to wait until we've got the time.  While hubs and WE were doing that, Angel #4 and I spent a fun filled couple of days picking up tons of shingles, siding, tar paper and nails up out of the yard.  We don't have it all picked up yet, but we're getting there.  It would be easier if it wasn't so stinking cold and windy outside.

Hubs headed out to Hawaii this morning and I thought the craziness would stop for awhile.  Oh, how foolish I was.  We were about 5 miles from the airport when the transmission slipped out of gear in our van.  It got worse and worse and we were afraid we wouldn't get to the airport, but fortunately, we pretty much coasted to a final stop right in front of the departures entrance to the airport.  I got hubs on the plane and called the tow truck guy.  So yeah, I got to ride home in a tow truck this morning.  Not quite the plan.  The guy brought it to our local garage, but after looking at it, they decided it was definitely the transmission, so they had to continue towing it on to the transmission place where a mere 2 years ago, I spent $2500 getting a new transmission put in.  Hopefully they'll honor the warranty without any issues, and if I'm lucky, they'll even pitch in to pay for the $300+ towing bill I've got.  It looks like it'll probably be at least a week before I can even get the van back.  I've got a loner car from the garage, but I'm sure they'd like that back asap.  Our truck is currently filled with about a ton of shingles and crap - the landfill put the wrong closing time on their website, so when hubs showed up to dump the garbage from the house project, they were already closed.  The garbage is too heavy for me to unload on my own, so our only option is for WE and I to head to the dump at 7 tomorrow morning and get rid of it then so we've got a vehicle to drive.  There's also a trailer full of garbage that also needs unloading, that one will have to wait until Wednesday when the kids have a half day of school and WE can get one of his friends to help him empty that one out.  Sigh,  things can be so complicated.

But, on the plus side, my new roof is SOOOO pretty.  :)