Sorry, I have no cute kids to show off. Right now I find the whole thing kind of sickening, but just wait until my niece is born in November - then I’ll probably turn into one of those crazy aunts. 
Just another exciting day off today. Maggie made a new friend at the park, a Lab/Great Dane mix puppy. I cleaned the bathroom, and swept the dust bunnies out from under the bed.
EC,lieu,bumba, cute [grand]kids.
Tel, enjoy the flight.
Here is your MMP cliff notes, rosie: Fire! Kids! Church Hymns! Whale breath!
YOu left out mophandles with plastic heads and sweaty firemen.
I had my compensation review today: 3.5%. Woo hoo! That’s twice as much as last year and I’m officially at 104, from the standard MMR of 100. At least this year, I didn’t get any nasty comments about my raise being more than I deserved (they brought me up to midpoint last year, finally, hence, the whole “you didn’t earn or deserve this much of an increase but we have to give it to you” line.)
Ah, well, I’m leaving as soon as the increase takes effect. Actually, we didn’t get letters this year, so I’m waiting to see my actual paystub at the new rate before I give notice. I’d hate for there to be yet another “mix-up” in payroll when it was too late for me to do anything about it. I’m not the only one employing that strategy. Every August/September, people leave in droves after comp and promotions are announced and become final. The term (voluntary and not) list is much, much longer in September than any other month.
oooo! sweaty firemen! where can I get some of my own?
btw - speaking bunnies . . . 
Alluv them there kidlets are kewt as can be!
(I must be channeling swampus).
Now daughter comes home from field hockey, crying. I am telling ya–I’d give alot to drink.
She usually plays forward and is being made to play defender. Oy. I told her that coach prolly wants to expand her skill set, since they lost 3 defenders this season. Reason doesn’t work–why do I try it?
I need chocolate.
I wallpapered the DR today (just the one, water damaged wall). Now all I need is to paint the trim and dado and I am done with the DR (well, 90% done).
HEE! rosie that was funnnnnnnnnnnny!
Rigs if you’re channeling me, then you must be feeling f-aaaaaa-bu-lous!
I’m back from wakin’ the dead. HAH! I crack me up! Let me tell ya, it was wall to wall lil’ ol’ churchladies! I overheard snippets of conversation discussing the food that has been and will be brought over to comfort the bereaved. From what I gather there will be fried chicken, N.O.T. salad, deviled eggs, cakes, pies and casseroles to comfort the dearly departed’s loved ones for weeks to come! Nuttin’ like southern churchlady cookin’ when somebody is bein’ funeralized.
After I left the funeral home, I drove by the church site to see what’s been happenin’ since I last saw it on Sunday. The foundation is being poured. The fittings for the steel beams appear to be all in place too. I’m hoping to see some steel start to be erected <snerk> before the end of the month. I also checked out the holding pond that’s been dug. That is one hyuuuuuge hole! It’s flat round these parts so holding ponds are a must for water runoff and such. The cool thing is holding ponds attract ducks, egrets and the like. I like the idea of wildlife hangin’ out at the church. Just seems right, ya know?
I was naughty over the weekend - I didn’t do my stretches. My therapist chided me today. I picked a bad day to be naughty - she was PMSing. But she was nice to me, and she got me pretty stretched out. So that was good.
I forgot to tell about the weird phone call I got yesterday. I was making some of my world-famous sketty sauce (OK, then it should be world famous…) when the phone rang and I saw my daughter’s name on the ID. YAY, I thought, as I picked up the receiver. But the voice I heard was her BF. For a split second, I thought something horrible happened. :eek:
Nope. Nothing horrible happened. He just wanted to chat. With me. For no reason. So we chatted for a little bit. Then I went back to making sketty sauce. Weird.
Right now, my baby is auditioning for Halloween Horror Nights at Universal (which is where said BF works) - I hope she gets it. Then she can quit Steak-N-Shake. Fingers crossed, everbody!!
I want ice cream. In case you were wondering…
Ooh, ice cream! I want a Dove bar. Or a Drumstick. Or any ice cream, really. Thanks a lot, fcm.
No sweaty firemen for me, thanks. Rosie, you can have my share. I got dibs on any sweaty firewomyn, though. 
I am knee-deep in Syberia in between packing and it is a fascinating, beautiful, mysterius game. And the puzzles are not too silly.
I wish I could play computer games. <pouts>
I’ve tried–#1 son got that game, Myst, and I couldn’t get past the pier!
I was a demon, waaaay back in Atari days–I played Burgertime for hours on end.
I can’t even do Yoshi’s story very well, never mind Animal Crossing.
I will now take my lameness off to bed.
Hi, folks! I’m in Atlanta for the night since my flight out of Roanoke was rather delayed. The airline put me up in a pretty nice hotel, though–and it has free internet, both wired and wireless. I’m using the wireless one last time since we don’t have it at home.
My clothes, alas, are staying at the airport. I knew I should have packed a change of clothes in my carry-on.
Hey babe! Sorry to hear it, but I suppose it’s one last night of freedom before you go home. Good luck.
Well li-li that’s a lot of husbands, but the crucial role, The Wife is played by you, so have fun! Guy friends are good to have, I have some good guy friends too, and skiffman has no worries. He has some women friends as well, but it’s a fairly tight circle we run in, so pretty much every one is friends with everyone else. Naming them sounds like fun though, I may have to work on that. I do have a male friend whom I refer to as either Frodo or The Hobbit, and he calls me Breezy, so it’s all good! I haven’t read either of the authors you mentioned, but I’ll look into it. I’m always up for author/book suggestions. I enjoy so many genres, Stephen King is my all time favorite, but have any of you read any of his wife Tabitha’s novels? She is very good, her Nodd’s Ridge series is a favorite of mine.
How old are you spats? I have a very pretty, amusing, sweet single daughter…
Ah Taters, I hope that all goes well this week with The Visitor. I think that keeping the family busy with activities is going to help. I don’t know if I have mentioned this before, but my grandfather and bio-dad always threatened to ask any boys I might bring around (back when I was a kid!) to take off their shoes and socks so they could make certain they didn’t have webbed feet. I never really understood the threat, but it kept me from bringing home any boys for a long time! As for boob smashing, I’ve had it done for a baseline, and I do regular self checks. It’s really uncomfortable, but not actually painful, at least in my experience. It’s worth it to have it done.
Hey fcm how did the firing go?
That is one of the tv series I would love to get on dvd BiblioCat, maybe once I don’t have the expenditures that teenagers require I will indulge myself! It bites that you have braces again, I told that to #3 and she looked rather horrified, poor thing. Her mouth was all kinds of bad, they pulled all four eye teeth, clipped her tongue, and put her braces on all on the same day. She was a sad little thing, poor baby. The Son is looking at the same ordeal. They both inherited my actual teeth, which is a good thing as I have excellent teeth (not such great gums), but they got the messed up placement as well as the tongue tie from their father. I think that skiffman has more fillings than teeth at this point, poor guy. As far as the firemen go, I know that I have said it before, but it bears repeating, just because I’m married doesn’t make me blind! Looking is allowed, touching isn’t! yum! hot young firemen!
Drae I have some pretty bad carpal tunnel in both wrists. Get yourself some wrist braces at the drugstore or Walmart, the kind with the steel bar up the inner side, and wear them at night. It helps a lot. I also wear mine, particularly the right, during the day if I’m hurting, and along with a few ibuprophen, it does help.
Good luck joining the firemen bobbio, and here’s the story: a couple of weeks ago it had been very warm for a few days, and some neighbors down the road wanted to know if they could light the banya. (Native steam bath) I said okay, because I like to banya but I don’t like to get it ready. So Sascha and her non-Native boyfriend brought up a load of wood from the beach, and she started to get the banya ready while he started the fire in the stove. I jumped in the shower, because I don’t wash without the skiffman, but I do steam and deep condition my hair. While I was getting cleaned up, the guy across the way came over and got my daughter (who is incredibly calm and level headed in an emergency, even though she won’t be 15 until next week) because the idjit boyfriend had left the stove door ajar, and not only was all the beach wood on fire, but so was the giant spruce next to the banya. #3 grabbed the hose, and the neighbor helped her put the fire out. When I went out to check out the damage and make certain the fire was truly out, I saw that the tree is scorched over six feet up, (all nice and resinous, that is so scary) and the fire burned quite a bit of the beach wood, and was licking the edges of the smokehouse. It could have been very, very bad. My daughter is so smart and mature. So, Mr. Whiteboy doesn’t get to light the banya any more.
Too cool lieu! Janine Turner has been gorgeous forever, I remember her from General Hospital. She’ll probably be 90 and beautiful! Oh, and you’re welcome. I check that page fairly frequently, I see we had an earthquake a couple days ago.
So anyway…#3 barfed this morning, The Son still has a nasty cough, and I need to call the skipper’s wife and get some money so I can outfit these kids for school, which I think begins the week after next. Yippee skippee!!! Time to myself!
Actually, with luck I won’t be by myself. I do not want skiffman to go crabbing this year, or codding. I am tired of never seeing him, he has worked so hard for the last 12 years. He cracked a rib and busted open a finger codding last winter, the finger is all wrong now, and I just want him home. I am going to try and keep him home this winter, there are plenty of land jobs he can do until halibut rolls around in the Spring. Wish me luck, I miss the old man.
I really need to come into the MMP more often to break up the monotony that is my zipping little life.
**Mr. Ujest ** has been in Germany since Saturday before last and will be returning on the 19th. It’s a long story of how his whole family ( parents, sister, her husband and 4 kids) were suppose to all go over in August for a family visit, but my MIL’s mom died in June so she didn’t want to go back over again after doing Death Duty stuff. My FIL hasn’t been back since we took him in 97 to see his family and my husband has more than a passing acquaintence with dealing with his dad’s wheelchair/handicap-transferring to wheelchair/dressing & undressing/bathing-if necessary/bowel programs/night time body shifting.) I have married a good, good man.
So, I gave my blessing back in July for him to take his Dad over and the engine in our truck promptly crapped out on us. $2500 for a new engine later ( oh YAY!) Airfares for August travel are $1000. Car rental is about $700 for two weeks. ( need a specific size car to accomodate a wheel chair without using a crow bar to get it in.)
His trip is a combo of doing his sonly duty for his dad, taking care of closing out his late grandmother’s estate for his mom and bringing stuff home, mending a family rift on the mom’s side of the family (Being Mr. Diplomatic, he did.) and, when he isn’t doing that, he is Mr. Social Butterfly by going to all the relatives, shirt tale relatives and Old Family friends houses for a Big Fat Homecooked Meal. And lots of beer.
He will have eaten better in the two weeks over there than he has in 13 years of marriage. Best of all is that it is FREE. ( The food and most of the beer. I’ve offset the savings by having my house full of kids and throwing a box of peanut butter Ritz crackers at them they start getting snarly.)
His best friend told him that he was going to be living like a rock star. He is.
Naturally, the first full day of no-husband, I was backing his Focus out of the garage and didn’t realize that the back door driver’s side was open. It caught on the garage wall. I stopped instantly, but the damage was done. Wrenched the door. To say that I was Majorly Bummed over this would be a minor thing. It was like an instant gray haze of depression and You Are So Fucking Stupid washed over me.
I also knocked the garage door off the trolley-doohickey. The wheels came out of the thingie. I knew it could be easily fixed, but I had such a funk over me that I knew if I even tried to put a wheel back into the track I would end up burning down the house somehow. My neighbor came over and fixed it right up in under 15 minutes. As a thank you I gave him the key to the barn. (Where all the tools and manly things are kept. Tool Pron.)
I silently blamed my son for leaving the door open ( he had gotten out to check to make sure our dog was in her corner open door crate in the back of the garage - where she always is when we leave, this dog knows the routine but he fusses.) He loudly blamed his sister, who was in the back seat coloring in her book and minding her own business. She in turn somehow blamed me for not telling her that I should tell her the door was open. I blamed my husband because if he hadn’t gone to Germany then he would be driving this car instead of me. The circle is complete. No one is at fault.
It isn’t worth repairing on a 5 year old car that we own free and clear with 120K on it. It was a little off on closing, but our Very Good Friend who knows about these kinda things came over and realigned it in about 10 minutes using a wood block. A bump shop would have charged me $400 just for the door fixing. The dent (buckle, really) would be another $500, which isn’t worth it to fix.
So, instead of taking the kids hither and yon whilst on Single Mommy Phase of life ( museums, parks, maybe a hotel overnight stay with an indoor pool.) we’ve rented movies and games. (I’m also not paying $150+ for a hotel room for an indoor pool in the summer when I have friends with pools or live on a lake that I can freeload off of. Honestly.)
Other than that and insomnia ( too much of a coffee-diet coke mainline to survive the day) things have been going pretty well.
Kids don’t start school until the first Tuesday in September.
Arg, how did that happen?I When I posted it was only page two, but after I posted it was on page four! I even refreshed and everything. :rolleyes:
Lots of prayers and good thoughts for Tater’smom, Taters and all Tatersisters And again, the mamograms really aren’t horrible, and they are important.
pugs prayers and good thoughts for your dad, too. I empathize, I have arthritis developing in my spine, along with the other stuff, and back pain is bad pain. I hope the doctors can give him some relief, and that he regains his strength and appetite.
I still recommend wearing the wrist braces at night Drae. That’s what the specialist told me. When I sleep I either sleep on them wrong and they hurt horribly in the morning, or I wake up with my hands crossed over my chest, totally numb from almost the elbows down when I don’t wear them. jme.
rigs it seems to be that time of the year when the male offspring become defiant. The Son and I had an incident today, and I made him cry. I didn’t mean to, but he was pitching attitude with me, and “accidently” knocking stuff over and making messes, and I lost my temper and raised my voice. This kid is weird, I could beat him black and blue (not that I have or would) and he wouldn’t bat an eyelash, but if I raise my voice in anger (and I don’t mean even yelling, just allowing my frustration and anger sound in my voice) he breaks down. He really is a wonderful kid, just a handful. It sounds as if your son is a typical high school kid, and you only need to tap into an interest for him to become involved in other than gaming. Maybe organized sports just isn’t his “thing”, maybe drama, SCA, some kind of art…oh, and now your daughter is having trouble. My kidlets are both acting stressed, I think maybe it’s just pre-school jitters manifesting themselves.
Oh, death by cuteness EC!!! What a little darling! And lieu, is that beautiful child yours? Have you got the shotgun dusted off, you’re gonna need it! Bumbagrandbabies are dollbabies, as is rosie’s nephew.
li-li if you aren’t going to share that wonderful bread, I think I might need the recipe, it sounds wonderful! Puh-leeze???!!!
tele my #2 came home three times before she found her niche. As I told her, be thankful for the learning experience, and for the ability to find safe harbor while you gear up for the next try. The very best of luck to you.
That’s a very big dustbunny db! Too cute to sweep up!
I sat out on the deck admiring my flowers while yakking onthe phone. I now have exactlu a gazillion mosquito bites. damn
Okay, ice cream and the end of the movie Hide and Seek and then back to reading The King of Torts before I fall asleep. G’nite Cool Kids, see y’all on the morrow.
Very well, thanks! I didn’t burn the house down, and my first batch of home made clay stuff is solid and ready for glazing. I partially glazed one dish, just for the heck of it, and this weekend when we go to see my mom, I’m going into Baltimore to the clay supply place to get a couple more colors of glaze, and maybe a clear glaze, too. Then next week, I’ll start colorizing my pieces with a vengeance!
Final day of training today. We’re ever so slightly behind. In fact, today, we’ll be starting on what was supposed to be the last unit covered on Monday. Meaning we’re more than 2 days behind on a 3 day class. Ya think we’re gonna finish? HAH!
In case anyone was wondering, I don’t want to be here… 
Can I go home now??
Dear teacher:
FCM is sick tired legally insane . Please excuse her from class PE human sacrifice .
Thank you
dogbutler
Just print this out. 
If da hubby says anything about the dent, you can tell him that it’s his fault for going to Germany and making you have to drive the car. I like it!
Ima use this. A very useful form.
I made it through most of the day without them yesterday, only put them on around 3:00 and for the drive home. The exercises seem to be helping a little, I suppose. I didn’t wear them to bed last night for the first time in a couple weeks. Nothing hurts this morning, at least, no more than usual, and it was so nice to not have to wake up in the middle of the night and readjust them. I’m on Celebrex today instead of whatever drug I was previously on–we’ll see how it goes.
Oh, and nine days left until vacation.