Snow Day!

Sort of. It started snowing as we left for school. It was coming down pretty hard after the middle school drop and it was a down right blizzard after elementary school. Yes, I have been begging for an excuse to put it into 4-wheel-drive since day one and I got my excuse this morning. Sadly, it was just because of one hill with a bridge on it. It took about 15 minutes to make it about 500 feet. I was able to watch car after car attempt it and realized that engaging full on 4x4 was no longer an option but highly recommended. That was the highlight of my day.

The school authorities decided to let school out early which promptly brought an end to our winter wonderland. There was barely enough snow left on the picnic table to comprise one or two loosely packed snowballs by the time we got home. They were however, enough to get my oldest child in trouble for sticking one of them down the pants of her younger sibling.

I had a brief scare this afternoon that could have left a huge, and I do mean huge, void in the blogging world. After checking email and such I came back to find a “blue screen of death” message waiting for me. Odd, I haven’t had any problems since the complete reload a couple months back. Then after a restart I came back to another rather cryptic message box “hard disk error”. Not good, so I figured I had finally been hacked or something died. It appeared that my hard drive had died since on restart it wouldn’t boot. It turned out to be a loose power cable into my hard drive, “phew!” That was scary though, I think it’s time for a backup of this old thing.

Then this evening was the Rosary for my wife’s grandmother, and as I’ve mentioned, legally my mother-in-law. I have a lot to say about the event itself that I’ll save for private conversations, probably over drinks with trusted friends. I don’t want to detract from her anymore than which has been done already. What’s important is that she was ready for this and I hope she’s doing well. Not many people execute their wills while living, give away all of their personal possessions (including their house), and deny medical treatment that might prolong their lives. She lived a long and difficult life so she was ready and told me so every time I saw her, including the last.

The most difficult part of it for me was that I was included and mentioned as surviving family. I felt that way about her and I’m sure she felt that way about me. What surprised me is that the rest of the siblings (quite a few) felt the same way. It was difficult because we are going through a divorce. I wanted to do more, but at the same time I thought I had already done all I could do. You had to be there, it’s probably not at all what you might be picturing.

Fej

Today

Today I didn’t slouch for five hours watching the Spongebob marathon cartoon thing on TV. Today, I did brush my hair before 6:00 PM and I did fix (purchase, whatever...) the kids and myself a proper lunch before 3:00 PM.

Yes, Saturday was a rare day for me. The kids even commented that I hadn’t spent that much time on the couch over the last several months as I did yesterday. No, I wasn’t sick. There really wasn’t anything better to do and cuddling with the kid’s for the afternoon watching TV, that I like too, was pretty nice. Yes, I’m just a kid still; the whole grown-up “dad” thing is all a farce.

Today however, I was back to my charade. I built a pretty massive custom ordered breakfast as usual, but then I was working on Christmas lights and the living room in no time. I have no creative ability when it comes to interior design. I can straighten out the coffee table when it’s crooked but if you ask me where else that it would look nice, a blank stare overcomes me. That stare took up a good hour or so of my day, but I persevered and just started moving stuff. Eventually, I couldn’t remember how everything was to begin with and had to find a place for all that crap. In the end, the living room is different, Martha Stewart would become ill at the sight of it I’m sure, but I think it turned out all right. The kids agreed so it must be good. (Ignore the fact that they voted for the two couches back to back in the middle of the room since it made jumping over the two so much easier.)

Then, I managed to pull the Christmas tree box from the rafters with great difficulty but without injury. We got it all put together. Initially I had great support from my kids but that quickly waned to impatience and fiddling with lights and other crap they weren’t supposed to touch before I finished putting it up. Then my younger daughter somehow cut her foot while jumping over the vacuum and much of the rest of the night was spent trying to find a Band-Aid. Once I found one, she miraculously recovered and it was bedtime.

I’m exhausted and need another four days to really be properly prepared for the upcoming week.

Fej

Another Quiz

I found this at Eden's. Have fun.





what decade does your personality live in?


quiz brought to you by lady interference, ltd


Fej

Shots with my Kids

I just did a sugar shot with my kids. Yes, they did bring it to me in a shot glass by the way. It wasn’t a full glass thank god, but it was a mix of the sweet and sour sugar candies they have left over from Halloween. Rough stuff, I’d rather do something 80 proof that makes me tired than something that makes them totally wired and turns my tongue green.

Okay, I think I liked the sugar shot better than the water and left over sugar shot they just gave me. Here is the really disturbing part: they chanted “chug it, chug it!” as I inspected the contents. Where do they learn this crap? No, it’s not from me...

Fej

Blogging Stuff

Nails

We did nails tonight. Not mine of course, just my 2nd grade daughters. She has been obsessed with gluing on the fake nail set someone gave her. She insisted on getting some nail glue, but I overruled and insisted we get the stick on thingies instead. It was a lot of work and her right hand (the one I did last) looks a lot better than her left.

Thanksgiving

Over all, Thanksgiving went well this year. All went well at my parent’s house of course, I didn’t really expect any issues either. My mother-in-law usually does her dinner much later in the evening. The kids and I were the first to arrive of course and eventually my wife and sister-in-law showed up a little later. This year, Thanksgiving Day also happens to be our 12th wedding anniversary. I didn’t forget and neither did she so that made things a bit awkward. We certainly weren’t exchanging gifts or anything, it was just a bit uncomfortable.

To really fill everyone in on background items that would make the following clearer, it would be really long. If you have questions, email or comment.

By legal definition my mother-in-law is, uh, well I’m not really sure. Her grandparents adopted my wife at an early age. Her biological father has never been in the picture except for an awkward phone call a few years ago (initiated by us). Her grandfather (legal father) died about 4 months after we started dating. So, her legal mother (grandmother) has been very ill lately. She had chosen not to undergo any type of treatment and wants to die. She is succeeding rapidly.

At Thanksgiving dinner at biological mom’s, everyone is a bit glum given what’s happening. Then when the kids are playing around afterwards, biological mom starts bawling at the table. I don’t mean to sound insensitive or mean here, you are just missing so much information though. Anyway, my kids end up consoling her and doing a pretty good job. Then she leaves with my wife to check on her mother (my wife’s legal mother). We went home.

Today

Today we did very little. Other than a stop to the grocery store and McDonalds it wasn’t very exciting. We also stopped by to see my wife’s ailing grandmother. She is definitely on death’s doorstep, it was not a pretty site. I regretted bringing in my kids as all the information I had been told was that it was fine to bring them. It wasn't. She looked nothing like herself and was completely incoherent. She will pass on very soon. My kids were definitely affected but I suppose they need some exposure to this sort of thing too. She was a good woman and led a difficult life. I hope she can rest soon.

Sorry for the sad stuff, it’s a life blog though, so I need to write this stuff down.

Fej

Update

She did pass away last night. It is too easy to get carried away with your own life and forget, until it's too late, what an impact that someone had on your life.

Happy Thanksgiving

I wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving. Enjoy this time, and be happy that you can. Others are not so fortunate, mostly I’m referring to our soldiers overseas who can’t be here. The why they are there and how they can come back are not so relevant as that they know that we support them and wish them well.

Fej

I kissed a girl

It was basically Friday, except on a Wednesday. This meant that my mom was picking up the kids and I would probably be leaving work earlier than normal. I left even earlier than I had planned since my good drinking buddy and a few of her friends were already at Hooters. Yes, I left work early to meet three girls at Hooters for drinks.

This isn’t the typical group of girls you might be thinking of. One is a lifelong lesbian, another an undecided, and the third and established heterosexual woman that has strong attractions towards women. Anyway you slice it; I was in odd company, but good friends.

We didn’t hang long at Hooters before they decided we should go to the local topless bar. I was all for it for obvious reasons but more so because women always get so much more attention at those places than do men. It’s true that women get a lot more personalized attention at those types of places. One of the women was the same one that I was partially setup with a couple of weeks ago. Depending on how you look at things, it went a lot better this time. By the end of the evening, she assisted in my lap dance (from a girl they all picked for me) and kissed me on the lips before leaving. This may not sound like anything of importance to most folks. Unless you are just breaking into the dating scene for the first time in 13 years, like myself. Let’s keep in mind that my last date, well, it lasted about 13 years.

It wasn’t a real deep or intense kiss, but by my memory, it was the first from another woman in a very long time. We are all supposed to go out again on Saturday night. Things could get interesting.

Fej

Another Quiz

Thanks to the Queen of Giggles we have another quiz to go through today. I get such a kick out of these stupid things.

I'm worth $2,363,903.80! How much are you worth?

Surfing - BlogExplosion.com

I don't think this describes me well at all. The "natural psychic ability" being no exception. None the less, I like taking these silly quizzes. Thanks to Michelle of Chasing the Moon.

You Are From Neptune

You are dreamy and mystical, with a natural psychic ability. You love music, poetry, dance, and (most of all) the open sea. Your soul is filled with possibilities, and your heart overflows with compassion. You can be in a room full of friendly people and feel all alone. If you don't get carried away with one idea, your spiritual nature will see you through anything.

What Planet Are You From?

Not much.

I’m anxiously waiting for the upcoming 4-day weekend to arrive. Thursday will be all about excess, food, drink, and family, but that is exactly why I like this holiday. The rest of the weekend will be about, well, who knows, my weekends tend to run me, I don’t run them.

Tonight, our soccer team did not get crushed by a bunch of teenage kids. We did however just squeak by with a tie against a team made of mostly women. These were not your run of the mill women either. These were the knock your ass against the wall, pull on your shirt, arm, whatever they could grab, and could draw a penalty as well or better than anyone. We played well and since I made two of the goals (head swelling with extreme vanity here...) I feel pretty good about the turnout.

I miss my kids, they are staying with their mom tonight. I’d be yelling at the little ones to be quiet and go to sleep and be struggling to keep my oldest from losing it over homework about now. But I still miss it.

Fej

Wet Cat

It’s cold and rainy here now. My kids don’t want to go to school and I really don’t want to go to work. But we will and they’ll stay with their mom tomorrow night. My son is crying about that right now and that makes me hurt and feel good all at the same time. I’d rather like to think that we could put the past behind us and make it all work out. I know though, that I can’t do this. It would be wrong to her, the kids, and to myself. So, it reassures me that at least I must be doing something right in that he doesn’t want to stay over at her apartment.

My oldest child is cursing the cruelty of middle school and the failings of public education. God, did I really complain that much? I didn’t know that it wasn’t that bad, and hey, I learned didn’t I? Why can’t she be one of those kids that cruises on through, has her fair share of bumps and falls, but makes it out okay in the end? Sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself here. It’s just the first semester of the 6th grade, I don’t know if I’ll make it through a second time. And there are still two more...

Like I mentioned, it’s raining. It’s raining cats and dogs out there. Okay, it’s not. My dog is smart enough to hang inside. The two younger cats are also inside. The third and oldest cat though? Noooo. She spent the last couple of hours sitting outside in the rain. By choice mind you, there is a fully functional cat/dog door back there.

So, I’m walking into the kitchen and there she is sitting on the little window perch (inside finally). Before I can give her crap about being all wet she stands up, shakes wildly and soaks me thoroughly. I’m still talking about a cat here by the way. So to sum it up, I have one ADD dog (aren’t they all though?), one evil genius cat, one cat completely obsessed with water, and don’t forget the evil dwarf hamster. Then there is the 4-year-old baby cat that can’t do anything on his own and also needs attention 24-7.

Did I mention that I personally did not acquire any of these animals? I was coerced by three rodent obsessed children to take on the hamster, so it was still not my fault.

Refusing to take responsibility,

Fej

I was going through old photos and came across this. It was about 3 years ago but my son snagged a tub of ice cream just after a bath. This is me busting him in the act, doesn't he look worried?

Awkward Moment

I met a good-looking woman at McDonalds today. We introduced ourselves made brief conversation and then went on our individual ways. Before you draw any conclusions, let me explain a little further:

My wife’s Significant Other (I don’t think you can appropriately label the relationship yet) is staying over at night and been spending more time around her apartment. As most of you know, I’m all for it, hope it works out. My wife has also been watching his kids during the week. I guess his ex wife is paying her to watch them. About a week ago, when my wife was telling me this, she also mentioned that this woman works at the grocery store I go to all the time. I immediately feared that this was the same cashier I have been intentionally enduring extra long lines for. From her description I didn’t think so but I wasn’t sure.

Anyhow, today my wife and I decided to take the kids to see the new “Sponge Bob” movie. I’m a big fan, I’ll admit it. It’s always weird doing things together but the kids really enjoyed it. We picked her up at the apartment. Her SO was there with his two-year-old, I guess he was still in bed though. We left for the movie and then I dropped her back off afterwards.

I promised the kids McDonalds so there we were. The kids grabbed a table while I waited for the food. I first noticed the pretty girl walking out of the play area. Then I turned my attention back to our order. Looking back again she walks up to my kids and says, “Hey you guys, how are you doing?”

Her daughter runs up to me and says hi also, she had spent the night a month or so ago at my place already. That’s when we introduced ourselves and silently mulled over this awkward moment.

Fej

I'll be damned

“Uncle, if we are at a dam, is it okay to say we are crossing the damn bridge?” Says my nephew.

I knew what was coming next and still said, “Yes.”

Then it went on and on.

“Could we go to the damn bathroom?”
“Could we go to the damn gift shop?”
“Could we swim in the damn water?”

Etc. etc, fill in your own suggestions if you have them.

I’ll try to minimize my postings that are limited to my children’s fascination with foul language. Not that damn is real foul work by any means but they just love the freedom to say a normally bad word and get away with it clean.

For some strange reason I opted to take not only my nephew tonight but his 2-year old sister also. I normally limit who I’ll watch to those out of diapers and older. She really wanted to go with us though and we didn’t really have any plans. I figure, I’ve done my time with diapers and have absolutely no desire to ever do it again. I lucked out and she didn’t have any “big jobs”.

Fej

At fault but I don't care.

“So you were turning left.” I said.

“Yes, like I said, so anyway, the lady was sooo rude, and I made sure to make her aware of her behavior after the call.” My wife replied.

I finally got the full description of her car accident. She was at least partially and possibly entirely at fault if they can prove so. I though she was the one turning right, in which case she would have, had the right of way.

This was after finding out that her car would not be fully repaired for at least another two weeks. Also, after me informing her that my rental insurance expires tomorrow and after that we have to pay %100.

I could fire up the Jeep as she suggested and she “would be very careful” with it. HA HA HA HA!!! (To infinity.) Okay, that’s not going to happen. I could drive the Jeep and then she could drive the Suburban. (Refer back to the insane laughter I tried to invoke previously.)

She attracts car damage like she does everything else, with all her effort. Like I’d set her free in a 3-ton vehicle over 19 feet long. It would be disaster just after she backed it out. I’m not bashing on women drivers here, just my wife, she should be banned.

It’s Friday night, the kids are all over me, the couches (indoor trampolines), and attacking each other. I don’t care, I was given an early Xmas gift of JD. Please disregard any postings I might make in another couple of hours.

Fej

I called my own bluff through my pie-hole.

“Shut your halfwit pie-hole!” said my son from the back seat.

Now technically, there was no “bad word” violation. The intent is obviously bad but before I could begin to scold came,

“What is your pie-hole Dad?”

I replied, “Where do you put pie when you eat it?”

“Your mouth.” My daughter answered for him.

My son adds, “But you can put pie in your butt too Dad.”

Hysterical laughter followed for a few minutes. I didn’t even get the chance to explain what halfwit meant.


Calling my bluff.

We went to the middle school book fair this evening. My two elementary aged children had already got stuff from their book fair. I promised my oldest she could get something and figured I’d still have to buy something cheap for the other two. My younger daughter settled on a fancy pen but my son wouldn’t budge from some $8.00 non-book item. He had pulled a tooth out the night before and the tooth fairy had left him a couple bucks so I eventually bargained that if he pitched in $3 I’d get him what he wanted. Done deal.

As we drove off, I heard crying from the back seat. He didn’t want to part with the money he “had just earned today”. I called his bluff and said he either pays the $3 he promised or I return the toy.

I have a Battle-Bots mini-construction kit of some sort available if anyone wants one. Brand new still in the box, I’ll give you a deal...

There has been this lovely young woman at my youngest children’s school. I see her every now and then while dropping off the kids. I of course observe her as closely as possible while attempting to remain discreet. Who knows how well, it works, but it turns out she is the teacher’s assistant for my daughters class. I have more to say, but I’m too busy filling out PTA stuff and volunteering to help at the kids’ school (my daughter’s class to be more specific) right now. Gotta go.

Fej

A quick recap:

I made it off to work as usual and on time since the kids stayed with their mom last night. Nothing worthy of mentioning happened at work today. I did receive a phone call from my wife at about 9:30 AM though. She was at the Metro courthouse and needed me to come make pay a cash bond of $250 to keep her out of jail. She had missed her court date for a speeding ticket and then neglected to get it rescheduled. The trick was that I had to be there within 30 minutes. I was really tempted to not make it on time.

Today was also my oldest daughter’s Holiday lunch at her school. I made it early since I didn’t know where the cafeteria was. Then it dawned on me that once the lunch bell rang I was going to half to identify my child amongst 3-400 other similarly sized children. And I had no idea where she would be coming from. About 10 minutes after the bell, I finally spotted a dejected looking kid eyeing the parking lot across the schoolyard. It was my daughter and once I had finally got her attention she ran to me, very happy to see me. That was definitely the highlight of my day (week, month). I doubt she’ll be that excited to see me during school hours in a couple of years. She had thought everyone forgot about her lunch.

We had a good lunch and I got to meet a couple of her friends. Tomorrow is the holiday lunch for the little ones so I’ll be having turkey for lunch again.

Fej

I know exactly where I don't want to be...

So where the heck am I headed? I wish I knew. If the plant isn’t shut down with the doors chained shut in six months, I’m never going to believe another rumor again. It’s getting so bad that everyone is just dragging around the place, completely oblivious, or just holding out for that severance package. There isn’t a sole there with less than 5 years of service and most of them are people they rehired from previous layoffs. Most everyone else is 10 years and up. Now it’s rumored that they might stop giving non-exempt folks severance packages. That won’t affect me until some disgruntled nutcase brings a small armory into work one morning and starts shooting. I think it’s just an attrition tactic but they really need to be careful when screwing with people’s lives like this. Everyone who has ever been laid off from this place has received a severance package, why change it now?

I’m quickly reaching the point where I want to be divorced. I’m looking forward to this being officially over. I’m still slightly terrified of being single but I’ll deal with it. Like I ever get out more than once every two weeks anyway. I can barely look pretty bus driver in the face as it is.

I want to find a new job, but not in the same field. Engineering was never what I really intended to do and it does not help that I have the wrong degree either. Not many manufacturing places are looking for non-degreed engineers and even fewer government agencies are looking for Political Science majors with 11 years of manufacturing and engineering experience either.

Hey, at least uncertainty, instability, and a definite lack of a clear future are sure to make it exciting. Right? Well, maybe not for most people, but I’m sure it will be an interesting ride for me.

Fej

Dancing and cartwheels in the parking lot just before pulling my hair out.

Yes, I wanted to dance and throw a few cartwheels in the parking lot of my wife’s apartment as I pulled up. Ryan was there and there may still be some hope for them. It must sound really sad when someone gets so excited about his wife possibly finding a boyfriend. I don’t care. That’s how I feel. I reaffirmed that he is a nice guy. The first time I met him was on a Friday. I was supposed to have the night off but my kids called and asked that I come get them. He seemed like a good guy that night but I like everyone after I’ve had a few drinks...

His kids are a bit unruly but then whose aren’t. My wife and he were both smoking cigarettes when I arrived, normally not a problem, but they were inside with the kids. I let it go, since I had just finished the cartwheels and such. Come on! I’m trying to help them work out. Give me a break, I’ll get after them on the smoking part later.

We had to drop something off at my sister-in-laws on the way home and I had already left work later than normal. After I pulled the kids out of there it was almost 8:30 PM. I spent the next hour on 6th grade math and lunches. My oldest is a very smart kid. She has also inherited her mother’s lack of patience and my tendency to question the importance of seemingly unimportant tasks. So she spends about 30 seconds on her homework and then the next 45 minutes complaining about the cruelty of the world (more specifically, middle school math).

This is where I started pulling hair. Once she decides that it’s pointless, you can’t convince her otherwise and she is her own homework nemesis. This is also the same child who has read the entire Harry Potter series 4-5 times through (without asking her to do so).

Tomorrow the kids will stay with their mom. My weekly conference call with China will surely be painful and right after that is my 9:10 PM indoor soccer game. Hopefully it won’t be against another premier high school team. I’m sure I’ll be back, blogging (or complaining) sometime shortly after 11 PM.

Fej

This time I mean it...

Whew, I finally cleaned up. It’s always crazy here. We typically have a whopping three to four hours of consciousness each day at out house. About an hour in the mornings as I brutally rip my kids from their slumber and force-feed them breakfast. Then we typically get in around 7:00 PM and it’s bedtime at 9:00. I’m a push over so it’s usually 10:00 before everyone is asleep. Then I tend to my blogging habit until I go to sleep.

The point is that between homework, dinner, breakfast, and blogging, I don’t have all that much time to keep this place clean. Usually weekends are nuts too and we are driving all over town and going to games and birthday parties and every other sort of thing. On Saturday I fretted most of the afternoon that I had forgotten some sort of commitment. Today I expected something to come up but nothing did. I had no excuse left; it was time to tackle the house.

Things look much better. I sounded like a brutal dictator laying out the rules for keeping the living room clean and my kids paid about as much attention to my ramblings as they do anything else not remotely related to cartoons: “what did you say Dad?”

Fej

I am walking the fence as usual...

I came across this at DragonGirl's.



How evil are you?

New relative

I’m moving a little slower than usual today. I stayed out drinking and talking with a good friend from work last night. I wouldn’t say we were drunk but probably not too far off.

My sister-in-law had her baby yesterday afternoon. We went by to see them this morning. Everyone is healthy doing well. I suppose she would be a niece to me although I feel like a grandfather. This is my sister-in-law who has lived off an on with us for the last 7 years or so. I was the closest thing to a father she had during that time. After all the long talks I had with her about school and her future, she moves out last year and is pregnant 3 months later at 19. I hope I do a little better with my two daughters. They all seem happy so far and I just hope it continues to go well.

It’s cold, windy, and it might even snow later on. I don’t feel like doing anything but crawling into bed. I might just do that...

Fej

Where to begin?

At work, I’m busy and rumors are flying like crazy. Nothing new except that I’m busy.

The kids stayed with their mom last night since today was Veteran’s Day and there was no school. I explicitly left their backpacks with her so that they could do at least some homework and prevent it all from piling up until tonight. I should have just left them at home, it would have saved me the trip to pick them up from her apartment tonight.

My sister-in-law has finally started going into labor. So my wife dumps the kids (without backpacks) at my moms. Tonight was my first indoor soccer (Evan-football) game so I had to drive across to town to that, and then back further across town to get my kids, and then back again to our corner of the earth, home. I bet if I bought a Hybrid, Geo, or Prius, I’d get a job within walking distance, quit soccer and I’d have no need to drive all over the State like I do now. Buy an SUV and you need to drive everywhere, go figure...

Speaking of soccer, I’m a bit bent. I decided to sign up for indoor this winter in hopes than my butt will be in a bit better shape next March when outdoor starts up again. So, my team of 30 + year old men signs up and hits the pitch (field, artificial turf, whatever…). We end up playing a team made of <18 year-old Varsity high school kids from the most notorious private school in the state. These are the guys getting scholarships to various universities (in a couple years) with energy and plenty of subs to spare, not to mention a coach. We are a bunch of beer drinking 18 + 14 years and up group who hope that our soccer playing makes up for the beer we drink. It didn’t go so well. For us. If you were a 16-year-old punk who has no reason to shave anywhere, it was a great night. No wonder there were so many parents there, their kids were probably not old enough to drive. I’ll be right back, I need to go get some more cheese to go with my whine...

To end the night: I picked up my kids from my parents later than normal, had to stop at my wife’s apartment for their backpacks, and then help get three kids through a week’s worth of homework in just over an hour. My sister-in-law never even went to the hospital, it will probably be a couple days before she has the kid. I walked the Gerbil, made three lunches, was glad to see feedback on my blog, and can clearly see that tomorrow night’s planned drinking will be screwed up one way or another.

Fej

Bus Driver

I’ve been dropping my kids off at school nearly every morning for the last three years. That was when we had them transferred to a school out of district. I was usually peeling out into the bus drop off area tossing them out with their backpacks close behind in hopes of them making it to class on time. Now this year I seem to have our loosely held schedules under a little more control. Today was the first day my oldest was late and that was because of extenuating circumstances. I’m sticking to that excuse anyway.

After I drop her off at middle school I have thirty minutes to kill until I can drop off the little ones. That thirty minutes is usually filled with arguments, complaints, absolute nuttiness, and conversations that only 1st and 2nd graders can really appreciate. Today was nothing different for the usual things but something did happen that was a bit unexpected.

Bus drivers as a rule are old and then a wide variety of the following: cranky, senile, impatient, asleep, odd, eccentric etc., you get the idea, we all probably rode on one at some point. Well, there is an exception to this rule and she has caught my eye off and on for the last three years. Through a bus window this woman appears to be young, very well kept, and darn right beautiful. I first noticed her when the kids started at this new school. I’ve always wondered what she looks like outside of the bus but she has never exited while I was around.

Anyhoo, I’ll notice her and she’ll ignore my existence and that’s about it. My guess is that she knows she is hot and tries to avoid the “Dad’s” starring at the pretty bus driver. Of course had she ever paid any attention in return I wouldn’t know what to do either.

For most of the mornings we usually spend it sitting in the Suburban. I’m listening to the radio and they are jumping all over the seats, crawling out the windows, rolling them up and down, and yelling and waving at teachers they know as they drive in. Initially we would hang on the playground but it’s getting pretty chilly in the mornings and my kids are wimps. The first bus to arrive is usually the pretty driver’s bus. I gave up paying much attention to her long ago.

In-between chasing my son around the car and brushing my daughter’s hopelessly entangled hair during the time before I can set them free on the playground, the pretty bus driver has a perfect view of us and our activities. The buses were already starting to pull out just before I sent my kids on their way. As the buses drove by I happened to notice the pretty girl. She looked right at me, smiled, and held the glance just long enough to make me wonder if I should have looked at all. I’m such a wuss.

Fej

Insurance Month

Insurance that would have happened anyway: It was open enrollment month at work. The 27% increase in premiums prompted a lot of us to seek out insurance outside of work. In my case it was a close call but I signed up through my job in the end.

First unplanned event: (Although I should have expected it) My wife’s most recent car wreck. I’ve already mentioned this previously but the car is still in the shop and it will be a week or so still until it is finished. The total is at a little over $4000 right now.

Second unplanned event: My recent car wash incident. The boss-of-the-boss-of-the-car-wash finally called me today and said I need to get two repair quotes. They came in at $780 and $1,100. Holy crow, I didn’t even think it was that bad. That’s an expensive car wash.

Third unplanned event: I decided to call my home insurance company to have an adjuster check out the hail damage. I was most concerned about the cosmetic damage to my fence. It looks all polka-dotta-ish. I met the adjuster this morning at my house. He was on my roof marking stuff off with chalk. I’m getting a new roof, new swing set, new lawn chair, new window screen on one of my front windows, and the back and top of my aluminum shed replaced. And I was worried about my fence... he said the markings will all blend together in a year or so. Holy crow.

Drive carefully, avoid car washes with open service doors, and pay those premiums...

Fej

Dirty car solutions

How do you prevent a clean car from becoming completely trashed right afterwards? One, don’t clean it in the first place so then it doesn’t really change all that much. Or just get rid of your car trashing kids.

No, I’m not going to do either. A dirty car will eventually drive me nuts and despite the crumbs, stains, stress, and spills I still love my kids. I do need to go clean up a ranch-dressing spill still on the floor in the back. Don’t ask how it came about, it’s one of those long drawn out stories and I swear I put the top on right.

I can no longer use my kids as a place to express my feelings. They rat me out every time. My parents know that I voted for Kerry and my sister wants to help me look for houses. The Kerry thing isn’t a big deal but I didn’t want to advertise that I’m looking to move. For one, it won’t happen for at least another year and two I don’t want my soon to be ex-wife hearing about it just yet. It will bring up old memories and just make matters worse.

I went to Wal-Mart a while back to pick up a CD, apples, dish soap, all by myself. It took a bit over 30 minutes inside the store alone. That doesn’t include finding a parking space and then trying to get back out of the parking lot.

Today we stopped at Target to pick up a “TechDeck” pack for my oldest daughter. I distracted my children with a bogus holiday display to check out a really pretty woman (yes, she was that pretty), then they went off to the toy isles, I found a shirt, I pulled them away from the toy isles, and we checked out. We were back in the car and on the road in less than 30 minutes. I hate shopping but love Target.

Fej

Hold your tongue?

As an update to the recent Cussing post, here are a few interesting things I learned from my kids tonight:

Hold your tongue (with your fingers) and say the following:

Apple
Bench
Ship
Foot (I know what they intended here but it doesn’t work as well as the others)

There was a couple more but you get the point. I give up.

Fej

Brakes and Laundry

Last night the kids all fell asleep before 11:00 PM. That’s rare actually because they know I let them stay up until 10:30 on non-school nights and they also know they can always squeeze another 45 minutes to an hour out of me. I wandered back into my room and checked a few web-sites out and then figured I was tired and went to bed. I never go to bed by 11:00 unless I’m sick or have to get up at 3:00 AM or something.

Then this morning, I found myself rolling around unable to sleep at 7:30 AM. If you only knew me better you would wonder too: what the heck is wrong with me? I am up between 6 and 6:30 AM normally on school days (thanks to the help of a network of alarms and backup alarms) but on weekends the kids know I don’t leave the bed before 9:30. That’s because I stay up way late and surf the net, put away laundry, and well... you’re reading it.

I had my haircut and had spent well over an hour at Home Depot before noon, on a Saturday. Then I finally changed the front brakes on the Suburban and cleaned it out. It’s amazing what the kids will leave behind in a car (especially a large one) in just one week.

My brakes no longer squeak, I spent a bit more than I had planned at the grocery store, washed just about all the laundry, and as I write this I’m trying to get my oldest to help out and put it away. Because she just wants to help out? To instill a sense of responsibility? Because I’m an evil slave driver? No, no, and with all three of my kids laughing hysterically, no. She desperately wants to earn $10 to buy some crappy toy she saw at Walgreens.

I should be happy that my 11-year-old still wants to buy toys and not makeup or outfits. I am happy, very happy, ecstatic when I see her peers. I should probably just give her the $10. Still, I think this is a time when I need to attempt to instill some sense of the value of money. She wants to fill the cats dish with water and then expect me to give her $10. Given the last 12+ years I’ve struggled to learn the value of money, I’d like to try and give her a taste of what it requires to earn a couple bucks. It’s not going very well.

Fej

The Bird

“Daddy?”

“What?”

“Does it count when you say bad words with other words too?”

“Yes, you are still saying a bad word.”

"Oh." With an unmistakable hint of "Damn it."

He is completely and totally obsessed. All he talks about is bad words and flipping people off. Please don’t think that this is some lame attempt at deflecting blame. I don’t cuss around my kids unless I’ve done something really stupid that results in me bleeding unnecessarily and I don’t flip anyone off at all. Despite all my efforts though, the pursuit of vulgar language and indecent gestures seems to be his main goal in life.

The other day my son must have showed me five different hand configurations where the recurring theme was his middle finger up and some vaguely distinguishable but slightly different position of the rest of his fingers. All of them were unmistakably the “bird” still and he definitely knew it. Then he dove into, “What does it mean dad?”

So how do you explain “go F*&k yourself” to a six-year-old? My explanation was obviously not enough or blatantly evasive because he continued to ask me periodically throughout the day. As if I’d give him the pleasure of hearing it outright... He knows. He has spent too much time with people who don’t screen what they watch and listen too. He knows exactly what it means and uses it oh so perfectly with his older sisters when pushed to do so. Then, whether it was justified or not, they all get punished. Do I have any other choice?

%*&^$#!

Fej

Another day with Fej.

I almost forgot about the car wash incident until I walked by the damage this morning in the garage. Why do I have the nagging feeling that this won’t be one of those easily solved kinds of events?

My trash day was moved up to Thursday’s and thankfully I had set an alarm to remind me. It was nice also not having to run outside halfway dressed trying to beat the garbage truck to the curb. For the last couple weeks it’s been really close. If I leave it out all night someone will undoubtedly run it over or steal it (both have happened) or a dog will get into it. So, I leave it up to my keen ability to remember events like trash day and usually end up charging out of the house in shorts after hearing the truck coming around the corner. Now that Thursday is my trash day, the truck was nowhere in sight even as we left the house.

I’m actually spending 50% or more of my time at work in my new job. I was told about this well over a month ago and absolutely nothing had changed. Now, my first project has had some initial success and will probably keep me pretty busy for quite a while. Of course several things from my old department are now popping up too. I barely have time to watch stocks, read the news, check the weather, and ask me when the last time I played solitaire was? I suppose this is all good. It is, but in R&D they can pull the plug at anytime. At least in production support they wait until your current project is wrapped up.

The only downside so far is that I’ve had to do a lot of soldering. I actually had an operator take the soldering iron out of my hand while training a group of them on a new technique several years ago. My discovery was great. The customer and my managers were thrilled that I had fixed the problem. However the parts that I had added the solder to looked like they had been in some sort of accident. Anyway, the operator had watched long enough to realize what I was trying to demonstrate. I suppose they figured could save the part from being scrapped for cosmetic reasons and completed it on their own.

Yeah well, my new fixture may look like crap but it works. My skills haven't improved at all.

It’s going to be Friday tomorrow and I can’t wait for another weekend to flyby and be over before I know it.

Fej

Pretty Cool

I stumbled across BlogShares entirely by accident. I went ahead and signed up and it seems pretty interesting. If you are into blogging, then this is just one more way to let it suck up your valuable time.

Fej

Car Wash Woes

The stupid service door on the car wash opened up which, proceeded to scratch and dent my vehicle door as the giant machine cruised by. If I hadn’t folded in the mirrors like the warnings tell you to, I’m sure it would have ripped it right off. The attendants at the gas station were nice and sympathetic enough, I just hope the owner doesn’t try to weasel out of getting it fixed.

I stayed up late watching the election results. I went to bed hoping for better news than we got. I am however happy, that there doesn’t seem to be any heavy disputes over the results. Like them or not, at least they are decisive.

The dealership working on my wife’s car won’t call me back. I have to call them and each time it’s as if it was the first time I’d ever talked to them. The new service “specialist” I’m working with swore he’d give me a call fifteen minutes after we talked once he collected some more information. That was just before 2:00 PM. It’s only been about two week’s, maybe I shouldn’t be so impatient. They’ll eventually get me a quote...

I don’t think homework requires screaming at the top of your lungs and tossing heavy objects, so I better go check on the kids.

Fej

Update:

There is water everywhere under the kid’s sink. Apparently a fitting has cracked.

Individual time...

I had another night to myself. My wife is doing much better lately, or so it seems. Since tomorrow is Election Day, the schools are closed, my kids stayed over with her. I spent the night digging through the disaster area better known as my little one’s room. It is really bad. I finally have a chance to spend some time in there and I now feel like there is a dim light at the end of a very long tunnel. I’ll need a little more time but we will make some sense of that room and we will enforce some desperately needed discipline.

Other than that, I partially completed a load of laundry, fixed my lunch for the next four days (hamburger helper of course), and answered a couple of political reminder calls. The Republican Party is confused in that I’m voting more or less party line minus the presidential candidate. I’m sure everyone is just completely enthralled with this.

I am and that’s really all that matters. Time to myself is something that I’ll need to get used to and become more comfortable with. It’s going to take time, probably a lot of time. As long as the kids are okay, I’ll be okay with doing this. They’ll probably be fine with everything long before I am, but I suppose that’s a good thing too.

Fej