Loves me some rain

It is gloriously cloudy and even rainy.

I am sad to say that a beautiful thunderstorm was wasted on me this morning while I was in the basement on the treadmill with the tiniest of windows to spectate.

I love me thunderstorms when I don’t have to worry in the least that the monstrous tree in the yard is going to fall on my house and kill us all.

The only downside (and it’s Very minor) is that the ice cream social is this afternoon for Mr. Boo.

/shrug

So they’ll be eating ice cream in the cafeteria.  We can make that happen.

*****

In other kindergarten news, we received an email from the school yesterday informing us that Mr. Boo’s teacher is stuck in China with visa issues and won’t be here until September 21.

Granted, in dealing with foreign countries, there are some that bend and some that don’t.

But if it weren’t for that darned convention mucking things up, I would expect that principal to be on the phone with Coleman or somebody to make a big ol’ stink about jeopardizing America’s future by not allowing a kindergarten teacher access to the country until two weeks plus after school starts.

If the media can bring the world to a halt over two little girls stuck with their grandparents in Georgia, why can’t a fit be made over a Teacher not being allowed into the country???

I love getting all worked up about the little things.

*****

Mr. Boo was throwing a fit this morning (after being good when he first woke up…then I actually spanked him when he locked his sister out of the house.  “I don’t care if you lock her out for a minute, but if I have to come from a different part of the house after hearing her whine for five minutes, then you’d better Stop with the locking out of the house.  grrrr.”) because the Bits gets ice cream for her last day in her current room at dayschool AND will get ice cream at Mr. Boo’s school.

NOT. FAIR!!!!!!!!!

Nope.  Neither is the fact that you’ve spent the past week and a half playing miniature golf, tennis, swimming, biking, eating ice cream every single day and hours and hours of Wii (which, apparently, Santa had Better get here for Christmas, since Mom said it might be too expensive).

Life Isn’t fair and you’d better get that through your little head that sometimes You will get things the Bits doesn’t and sometimes the Bits will get things you don’t.

Darned life lessons.

*****

Rumbles of thunder!

When the talking weather heads said this would clear out and we would get more rain this afternoon!

Yay!

(Stupid talking weather heads.)

*****

I think I’m off to do an email chain to my good friends Lap and Logic.

I don’t seem to be able to see any open time in the foreseeable future for a get-together, which means that I just need to get something on the books and tell the Ba that he’s on urchin duty.

Make it happen!!

ak

Zoloft or the crazies?

I am exceptionally crabby today.

I don’t think I started out that way (except I was kind of disappointed that I only walked this morning instead of running).

But the ‘9am Tuesday meeting’ that tptb set up, that they haven’t made on time since pretty much the first time they set it up…that the co-workers Insist on starting at 9am, just to prove a point.  I pissed and moaned this morning, remembering Last week’s ‘point proving’, where the Mentor showed up right as we were finishing up and we had to go back and reiterate everything the rest of us had already gone over and the meeting time doubled.  I HATE meetings.  HATE, HATE, HATE.  They generally accomplish Nothing.

So this morning, I pissed and moaned again, and was overruled and we started and the Mentor called in around 9:10 to say that the meeting was going to be at 9:30.

Which it was, (along with ‘treats of contrition’, for some reason we can’t figure out, other than ‘I once again can’t bother getting my butt in here by 9am’, except maybe because of Bossie-poo and the fact that Mentor supposedly had to drop off a child at driver’s ed), and it was absolutely, totally more worthless than the meeting we had started without them.

I’m beginning to really dislike Tuesdays.

*****

I’m actually getting a bit concerned about the fluctuation of emotions that I am getting more and more unable to control.  (Hi Mr. Boo!  It’s definitely hereditary.  And learned.  hrmpf.)

Sunday, I got around to making the final arrangements for the Princess World Tour, only to find out that the reason it was ’so cheap’ was because they had not added the dining plan (Which I was Certain I had added).  And suddenly, the trip became $671 more than I thought.

And I literally Freaked. Out.

Is it a freak-outable offense?

It shouldn’t be.

But it just seems like every single, little, tiny thing turns into this big, giant monster in my brain.

The Mom has decided that I need to get on Zoloft.

Thanks, Mom!

I hate drugs.  Hate them.  Especially those that are meant to keep me ’stable’.

But seriously, I just don’t get it and it’s driving me even More nuts.

*****

Other than totally freaking out, I don’t have much.

That seems to be taking up most of my time (other than sitting on the couch unable to do Stuff except fight with the urchins over Johnny Test or Anthony Bourdain)

It’s a glorious existence…

ak

Silly girl

I am a silly girl.

The dollar section at Target both rocks and sucks.  Hard.

It’s amazing to me that they can sell a lot of that stuff for a dollar and I can’t help but think of the small children all over the world making this crap so that we can spend money on frivolous stuff.

But the urchins love it and dragged me over last night.  One pair of Hello Kitty socks for the Bits.  (I think that makes about fifteen pairs of socks, most of them Hello Kitty, that we have from the dollar bin.)  Batman tatoos for Mr. Boo.

And I found these darling, smiley flowers.  Which are so ridiculously happy and whimsical and ridiculous that I just had to buy them for all the girls in the office.  (Um.  Except I forgot ‘the other side’ aka acctg and Elise’s daughter, so I ran back out this morning to buy more.)

And even though many people thought the same thing I did, the initial reaction is still a giggle and a smile and doggone it, we need more whimsical, ridiculous crap that makes us smile.

I will need to take a picture.

But I probably won’t.

Get to Target and pick up a bouquet for friends who need a smile before I go back and clear all of them out.

*****

My feet and legs hurt today.

So I threw off the cute sandals and went downstairs and pulled out the granny sandals.

Except that the granny sandals, while looking like granny sandals aren’t in the Least bit comfortable.  The straps are on the verge of painful.

Which means that now, not only do my feet still hurt, I look crappy, too.

/snort

*****

I forgot to mention that last Friday(? or sometime last week), I finally got around to calling The Mom, as I knew she would be getting crabby even though I can’t get the urchins to talk to her and I had nothing to say.

She had just gotten home.  From St. Louis.  Because she finally decided to do something and got a wild hair and grabbed her best friend and went to see a plastic surgeon.

The Mom is getting a face lift.

Which left me positively speechless.

I have this Thing with surgery.  I have no idea Why, I just Do.  I wish there was less of it.  I wish we could deal with small boobs and wrinkles and coffee-stained teeth.

The Ba was a bit shocked as well and commented, “Your mom is the youngest looking 68 year old I know.”  (Which isn’t totally true, but it was an exceptionally nice comment and really, she Does look wonderful and in no way needs a face lift.)

She said it’s not a ‘real’ face lift, but apparently they just make a cut on the sides and then I stopped listening, as it sounds like a face lift to me.

So, she goes to Eastern Europe, comes back and has the face lift and then we go on the Princess World Tour 2008.  Then she goes to Africa for a month.  Then here for Christmas.  Then Mexico for butterfly watching.  Then Japan.  Then Nepal and Tibet.

She claims she has OCD.

I’m not sure What she has.

*****

I’m quite excited, as I have procured tickets for Boogie Wonderland and the BoDeans for us and Suzanne and her husband.

I first sent the link to the Ba who immediately came back and said, “can’t do dat”, which was batshit and I asked why.

Entertainingly, he hadn’t actually Looked at it, but responded that he saw ‘church’ and ‘Columbia Heights’ and immediately shut down.  /snicker

Those Catholics, boys and girls.  They know how to throw a party.

I have no idea why the BoDeans would play at a Catholic outdoor festival, but Suzanne probably hit the nail on the head when she commented that those Catholics have a lot of money.

So, for fifteen bucks, I’m going to hang out outside in Eagan (oi.  Only because it’s a Long Drive Home.) and drink beer and listen to two of my favorite bands.

Life Is Good.

*****

I’m going to go back to work and keep looking at my smiley little flowers and giggle and hope that the rain that they’re threatening does actually show up (I’m welcoming the clouds, if nothing else) and also hope that if it Does show up, it’s not going to show up sideways and soak my house with the open windows.

It’s always Something.

ak

More sun and heat

Well, good.

I think I’m finally scraping myself out of overwhelming funk.

There’s still a gabillion things to do, but I’m not going to let them push me into the abyss of insanity.

The little boy is having a grand time with the aunty and cousins.  (Except from the sounds of things, aunty is getting most of the babysitting time.)  And I feel exceptionally guilty, as I’m leaving work at 5:00 sharp and was less than a minute from home at 5:39 last night when I get a phone call asking where I was and if I remembered that we were meeting at our house and not theirs.  Because we had agreed upon a 5:30 arrival.

Therefore, I will be leaving at 4:50 from now on, to assure that I am on time.

I’m hopeful this will be the last imposition I have to make on family for extended babysitting duties.

I’d better start checking for next summer Now.

*****

I’m having lunch with the ex-VP on Friday.

I don’t know why I felt so odd about that.  Boy Wonder called him yesterday just to check in and told him to call me.  I feel like I’m in 7th grade…If he Likes me, he’ll call me.  Unless my bff tells His bff that I like him and then… Lord.  I’ve just been of the feeling that if he wants to contact any of us, he knows where to find us.  Until then, he’s probably networking and job-hunting.  Which is exactly the case.

However, I have his son’s DVDs of Lost, Season 1 (which I’ve now had for probably six months and STILL haven’t found time to watch, fricken fracken) and his son leaves for college…Saturday.

So, I gave him the option of just stopping by to pick them up or meeting for lunch.  And he chose lunch, so…

There ya go.

Now if he can just get a job and bring a few of us with him…

*****

We’re under two months before the Princess World Tour 2008 and I Still haven’t gotten around to making dinner reservations.  (Or getting The Mom information on paying for the darned trip before she heads off to Eastern Europe.)

I did manage to schedule Mr. Boo’s assessment with his new kindergarten teacher, bought tickets for the Great Minnesota Get-Together (Really?  I did not grow up in a state where we went to the State Fair), sent off information for the after-school program and contemplated getting money together for the Ice Cream Social.  (We are inviting you to the school under the title of “ice cream social”, to meet teachers, see the classrooms, etc., but you will have to support the PTO by Buying the ice cream.  And pity da foo’ who didn’t pay attention and doesn’t bring money, cuz you know that if your child is the only without ice cream….)

I feel Somewhat caught up.  Except I think I need to get the evil rat-mutt back in to the vet to see if there is something that can be done for him that won’t cost a gabillion dollars.  He’s still fine, but sleeps a lot.

We’ll see.

*****

Wow.

This is even less interesting than I thought it might be when I decided, “I should write something today.”

Go figure.

*****

We’ve been fighting with the urchins over tv programming.

I did get them to watch a bit of diving, but that’s pretty much it.

Last night, I was really needing to lose myself in the Twins and Anthony Bourdain.

After going back-and-forth with “TURN ON SPONGEBOB!!!”, I took myself downstairs.

Within ten minutes, the rest of the family was imposing on my solitude.

But at least we had the Bose system to drown out the piano that the urchins felt the need to bring right in front of the tv and then we were treated to any number of culinary treats that they brought over from the kitchen.  (“What can I bring you for dinner?”  I’d like some chicken.  “Oh.  We’re out of chicken.  We had hundreds of people last night.”  Then bring me what you have left.  “What do you want?”  heh.  It was pretty entertaining.)

But I did get to watch what I wanted to watch, which was a bonus.

The Ba and Mr. Boo went to bed at 8:30 and the Bits and I stayed up for a while longer.  Put her to bed and got sucked into Million Dollar Listing (is that right?) on Bravo.  Damn, all their ‘reality’ shows are the same.

I gotta tell ya…That Hollywoody/California lifestyle is just so out of my realm of understanding.  (And reality, for that matter.)

I’m perfectly content with my little midwestern existence, thankyouverymuch.

But it did get me to bed past my bedtime and caused me sleep like a rock, so that is a good thing.

Did I mention that the alarm is still going off at 4:50am and I’m still working out every morning?  (Although I have been slacking on weekends.  Whatever.)  Some mornings, (like this morning), I just don’t feel like running, so today I only did two and a half miles of walking and did some floor work.  And I’m happy to say that I am officially down five pounds since I started in June.  In a perfect world, I will lose five more, but my realistic goal is to lose three more, which will take me down to what I weighed when I got married.  (I think.  If not, then I only need to lose one more pound.)  This will not be the end of the world if it doesn’t happen.  I’m quite thrilled with where I am and feel good and that’s really all I was looking for.

It’s to the point where the sun is just starting to rise when I get out of the shower now, so I’m somewhat concerned to my motivation once daylight savings time goes away (my notorious kick-in for needing more sleep, for some reason).  Maybe then I’ll switch back to evening workouts?

Stayed tuned for more exciting updates on this one!

*****

On our way in yesterday, the Bits and I saw a cobalt blue convertible  (The Bits is enchanted with convertibles.  And Beetles.  A Beetle convertible is the Holy Grail.  Except she really, really loves the Audi TT.  “I want a TT!!  I want a TT!!”) with a guy in a Stars and Stripes cowboy hat.  Made my day.

And this was after seeing the following bumper sticker:  Republicans:  We work hard so you don’t have to.

When’s that election again?

*****

That’s enough for now.

Work beckons.

Nuff said.

ak

The sadness

The CFO resigned yesterday.

Or at least that’s when the email from Bossie-poo was sent out.

I’m so very happy for him, as this place has really taken its toll on him, both emotionally and physically.

But I’m now firmly into pushing the office pool for the implosion date of the company.

They’ve brought back (boy…I So want to label him Clown-boy, but someone googled ‘bossie-poo’, which means that someone from my past is looking for me or…hmmm.  The last thing I need is anyone from here finding Here.) [name to come later, and really I should go digging, as I know that I had a name for him previously] to be the ‘Manager of HR and Accounting’.  Which is perfectly frightening, as when he was here as a worker-bee previously, he spent most of the day on the phone and net.

The general consensus is that tptb finally found their Yes-man, which prompted me to call the company lawyer to find out if, as an owner of the company, I can be liable for anything that may happen going forward.  (Luckily, the answer is no, as long as I’m not a director, which…Bwaaaahahahahahahahahahahaha!  Ahem.)

*****

Today is Mr. Boo’s last day at dayschool.

I’m not necessarily that sad, as I worry about his behavior and the perceptions of the teachers there.  And that’s one less-than-convenient drop-off and pick-up.

But I do love the teachers and even though I never really grew attached to the friends the way that I did at the previous dayschool, I know that Mr. Boo’s best friend and his betrothed will more than likely never be seen or heard from again.

And so it really hasn’t sunk in (with all the other shit that’s going on) that as of this afternoon, we’re Done.

*****

There was a time (ok, probably fifteen years) when I could cry on command.

I’d sit in my room with the radio on and play hours of solitaire and listen to songs that would make me bawl my eyes out.

Not for any particular reason, usually.  Just angsty, cathartic crying.

I don’t remember the last time I did that, but I really am feeling the need.

To just cleanse all the sadness and perceived wrongs and woe-is-me and just get all the shit out that should have been cleaned out a long time ago, but I just haven’t had the time.

Or the feelings.

Wonder when I can fit that into my schedule?

Better be after I get around to scheduling food/drink/merriment with Lap.

ak

Parenthetically heavy

Let’s see…

Mr. Boo is done with school on Friday.  (I know I should write ‘pre-school’, but that just seems silly, so I won’t.)

He doesn’t start kindergarten until September 4.

Which segues me quite perfectly into my tirade for the day!

We have received nothing (NOTHING) except the passwords for the online ‘blackboard’ which I guess is where you go to check homework assignments, grades and the like.

Nothing that tells us when school starts.  Nothing that tells us what room our child is in.  Nothing that tells us what he is supposed to bring.  Nothing that tells us about any events whatsoever.

Given that I stumbled upon most of the information for soccer and had to dig to find out more stuff about kindergarten after a little ‘entire school system card’ was mailed out (that I almost threw away) and the fact that Suzanne is the Queen of being on top of her childrens’ school stuff and has introduced me to the website, I went digging and have found the school calendar (which I actually did a Long time ago, allowing us to take another full day for the Princess World Tour 2008 [the Bitsy refers to Disneyworld like this, which irritates her brother to no end, so I Totally encourage her, heh.]), the fact that there is a ‘New Family Welcome’ (is this for ‘new families’ or does it include kindergarten ‘first time’ families, too?) on 8/20 and an Open House on 8/27, as well as the school supply list.

But how are people supposed to find out about this stuff?  I bumped into another soccer mom last night and she was totally caught off-guard when I told her we were school supply shopping.  She didn’t even know when school started.

I could go on and on about Why I haven’t received any information about any ‘events’ and how those of us who work are supposed to find out about an event (where one will have to leave work early to attend) one week before and be able to attend, but I won’t.

Instead, I will just focus on the bat-shit crazy school supply list.

Back in the olden days (heh), we had our little school box, which we filled with a couple pencils, a box of crayons (didn’t we start with eight??), a little tiny bottle of glue (what’s a glue stick??), a little pair of scissors and one of those pink erasers.

Here is the list for Mr. Boo:

THESE ITEMS DO NOT NEED TO BE LABELED. THEY WILL BE SHARED.

1 pair of children’s “Fiskars” scissors, 5”, Blunt tip
1 dozen sharpened pencils
1 box of Crayola crayons (24 count)
2 boxes Crayola Markers, washable, classic colors, wide tip, 8/set
2 boxes Crayola Markers, washable, classic colors, fine tip, 8/set
2 boxes Crayola Markers, washable, bold colors, wide tip, 8/set
1 box Crayola Markers, washable, bold colors, fine tip, 8/set
1 box of Crayola Washable Watercolors, 16 colors
1 box of tissues, hypo-allergenic, 160 ct.
2 boxes of unscented baby wipes, tub, 80 ct.
1 bottle of hand sanitizer, anti– bacterial, flip top, 8 oz.
4 bottles of white Elmer’s Glue, washable, 4 oz.
4 glue sticks, washable, 1.23 oz.

So.

Let me get this straight.

IF there happen to be twenty children in his class, there will be one hundred forty BOXES of markers (that would be ONE THOUSAND TWENTY individual markers for those of you counting) for the year.

I remember the days when you had your own little box of items and, if you happened to be the one who used copious amounts of glue, or left your glue bottle open (remember those poor kids who had that awful liquid cement stuff with the red rubber top??) or broke all of your crayons, then Those parents had to go buy more sometime mid-year.

But now, *I* have to buy seven boxes of markers for those kids who haven’t yet been taught to replace the cap on a marker???

God bless one of the teachers at Mr. Boo’s current school, who told me when I was lamenting (ok, ok…Bitching) about this yesterday, “Who said you have to buy everything on the list?”

Suzanne also suggested that maybe this list was to be split up, (although at the top section, there is a list of ‘if your child’s name begins with…bring This), but if you’re supposed to have these the first day of school (Hell, who KNOWS?? And if you’re Not, where are you going to Find any of this stuff, seeing as how the section at Target was Totally picked over yesterday) you have little to no choice.  (Although again, WHO KNOWS????)

So, I took some liberties with the list and ended up with three boxes of markers (one I couldn’t find at all), two bottles of glue, eight pencils (because it was either that or a broken-open package of 64…really?) and I went hog-wild and got all four glue sticks.  (Mr. Boo loves the glue.)

I couldn’t for the life of me figure out where the hand sanitizer was, and the urchins were running out of steam, so when I remembered on the way out that it should be by the soap (we are not users of the hand-sanitizer), I put it on the Next shopping list.

But, for the moment, we are done.

Weeks early, even.  Yay, ME!

Now I just need to force myself to see if there is Any way to make those ridiculous dinner reservations for the Princess World Tour 2008.

bleh.

ak

What we did on our summer vacation

So, between work and a spur-of-the-moment trip to Duluth to see the tall ships (and soccer parties, birthday parties, laundry and who knows what else I do) I just haven’t been here to say hi.

Work is still really busy.  tptb are still insane.  So I guess all is the same here.

The Ba decided two weeks ago that he wanted to go to Duluth to see the big ships.  Something that was advertised back in March and rooms basically sold out immediately.  I told him I’d go if he could find a room.  Which, of course, he did.

So I have not been able to plan my evening with Lap (and Logic) nor could I go to Thing 1’s fabulous hot dog bar graduation party because I was up north in Duloot.  (As I like to call it.)

And, because I am still busy and there is no time to put into words all the cool stuff that we’ve been doing and did in Duloot, you get to go through all three (note that there are three, people!) albums of the best billion pictures of the gabillion that I took and you, too, can experience my summer vacation.

Now, on to figuring out when to fit Lap and Logic into my schedule!!! 

ak