in which i prove that my family is out to get me

"Hey, mom. Alex is on the phone. Can I go over to his house?"

Being that we just walked in the front door from my picking MyFavoriteKid up from school, "Well, okay...but can you walk to his house or ride your bike over or something? I don't want to go back out again. We just got here."

Kid leaves with phone, goes into his room. Couple minutes later...
"Mom, Alex has moved and so I can't walk there. It is too far. Here, talk to him."

Which I do...
and I get his new address, which is much farther away and across a rural highway that I'm not ready to have MyFavoriteKid cross on his own yet on a bike. And so I tell Alex that we'll be there in about 15 minutes or so, at which point Alex offers:

"Well, so you don't have to pick him up, my mom says we can just meet you at the school at the Open House at 6. You were going to go to that, right?"





(the empty lines are here in case I ever find a proper way to communicate to you that I had absolutely no frickin' idea there was an open house tonight)






I call the school, and they say they sent "word" home with all the kids today. Word???? Duh. Wonder what kind of "word" the parents of the kindergarteners received. Sheesh.

The office claims that in addition to "sending word" they also sent something home last week about the the little fundraiser bookstore sale thingy that would be open tonight from 6-7. I did receive that flyer, but I thought it was just something going on after a PTA meeting (the one I would have skipped....sorry if I am ruining your impression of me), so we sent in our order form in lieu of going to the sale in person. I surely did not think that the book selling thing was in conjunction with an OPEN HOUSE. Why would I ever think that IF THE ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE BOOK SALE DOESN'T INCLUDE THE STATEMENT "DURING THE OPEN HOUSE"???

Oooh, sorry. I am yelling, huh.

After this call to the office, I have MyFK going through his backpack, and although there was no sheet announcing the open house, I am just tickled to have found out that there were several other things in there I was expected to have reviewed and sent back. Things like helping out with the art fair (last weekend), or ways to express gratitude during Staff Appreciation Week (hint: it's the week that is now half over).


So my afternoon/evening/night? Fairly screwed up at this point. I am typing this fast and I hope it even make sense (and not too rant-y). I did let MyFK have the brief playdate at Alex's house this afternoon, even though based on the backpack burial of paperwork, I don't think he deserves it. But MyFK hasn't been invited to hang out with this kid in ages, an Ales has been refusing MyFk's invitations, and now we know why---he was moving.

But now I need to go clean myself up and get into proper school event attire (which is not even close to what I have on at the moment), pick the kid back up, supervise homework, water the garden, walk the dog, feed the kid (and myself I guess, too...wouldn't that be swift?), and get it all done in time to get to the damned open house.

Which I will promptly return home from and then deal with bedtime and cleaning up the house for the new housekeeper coming tomorrow. Yes I know. Shut up. I am cleaning for the cleaning lady. Stupid. But you would, too. You should see the place. It's not "dirty", it's just that all the surfaces are covered with clutter and knitting and dog hair and stacks of mail and mountains of folded laundry waiting to be put away, and if I don't take the time to clear off the surfaces, it will leave nothing for the cleaning lady to clean. Oh, and the kitchen. Let's not discuss the kitchen today, shall we? I've been catching up on other people's blogs for a couple of days (not my own, obviously), and I have been doing so in lieu of washing dishes, it would seem.

So here I am, not catching up again. But at least I am telling you that at 2:52pm instead of close to midnight. That is sort of an improvement, isn't it?

this time it's not my fault

You can blame it on my mother, like I do with other qualities about myself that I like to blame on my childhood ;-)

I did NOT begin writing a post for today last night, as I announced would be so wise of me to do (goshdangit I reallllly need to write about my favorite day in Boston which was like a month and a half ago). No. I went to bed and passed out last night, I was so tired. I just knew that I would get on top of things today. I just knew it.

Today ended up being super-busy volunteer/convalescent hospital stuff, and the small chunk of time I may have had in the afternoon went straight to helping MyFavoriteKid with homework. Then it was straight on to dinner.

MyFK and I have had dinner with my parents pretty much each and every Tuesday night since we moved up here last summer. "Tuesday Night, Family Night," we call it. It's usually dining out, but occasionally it is at one or the other's house. Tonight was an extra special treat. Sale on live Main lobster. Mom sprung (thanks mom!) and invited us over to her place. I brought the side dishes.

We started and finished dinner pretty early. I was about ready to head home and post, when Mom says to MyFK, "Go get that box, let's trip down memory lane!" This box she is talking about is a an ongoing project she and MyFK have tinkered with a bit lately. She she is basically beginning to divvy up the family photos.

Out comes "my" box, and all the while I am begging, I am pleading, I am complaining, I am insisting, "NO BOX". I am dying to come home and write about Boston. Out the box comes anyhow, and then we lose at least an hour tripping down memory lane.

Fine. I decide that if this is how my night is going to go, I at least have a trip down memory lane photo I'd like to write here about. I have my dad scan and email me a few of the photos. I get home and write a blogpost to go along with a photo of my mom and I together. Me at about age 1-1/2 in some funny little bonnet or hat that may have been hand knit or crocheted by I don't know who...and my mom....in the most perfectly perfect (yeah, sorry...it's just...well...perfect) late 1960's outfit EVER. These big ol' sunglasses and a cigarette and a faux fur jacket with these sort of plaid-ish, patchworky pants. It's amazing.

And at 10:30, right as I am about to publish the post, mom calls and says she doesn't want me to use the photo.

No sweat. I respect that.

Except now I have no friggin' post, and I'm too tired to finish the start the one about Boston 'cuz it will need a bunch of links and whatnot added to it, and I Want. To Go. To Bed. So let's blame my mom for pulling out the box, or for sorting photos, or for cooking a fabulous dinner, or somethinnnnng (and mom, you had best know I am kidding, for crying out loud), rather than blame myself.

So no catching up on past events (again), and no writing about something current that happened today either, and well.....here's a little token photo of me, to make up for it (?).



My favorite part is the skinned knee ;-)

it aint workin'

Today is not my day for catching up. Again. Lots of odd little time sucking events today, nothing major, but you put them all together and.....*poof!*.....the whole damn day is gone.

This is my post for today.
But as soon as I hit "publish" I'm going to start working on tomorrow's.
Maybe that's the trick?

slacker (mostly)

Gosh, what a lazy slacker-ish day I have had today.

I mean, I did do a mountain of laundry (TheMostImportant guy came over this weekend bringing many many loads of laundry with him--the machine at his place is out of commission). And I did hostess an overnighter for MyFavoriteKid that started yesterday, Saturday, at 9:30am and went until today, Sunday, until about 6pm.

Aside from that, I pretty much stayed in my room all day watching the boob tube.

First it was a disc full of Flight of the Conchords. OhMyGosh, so SO funny. It's my new favorite thing. But when the disc was over, I got immediately got sucked into a marathon of really really bad reality tv (a program I am too embarrassed to even name here). Now it is almost midnight, and I am watching back to back episodes of Ninja Warrior-20.

Help!


This next week I am just flat out keeping the tv off. That's that. And I am using this week to catch up on some overdue posting. Period. But for now, please excuse me....I've got to stop typing so I can see if Nagano and that one American dude can clear the 2nd stage ;-)

snaps on saturday

More Crazy Hot for you.....


There was an Art Fair/Silent Auction at MyFavoriteKid's school today. 90 degrees in the shade today, and they decided to include the kids doing a Jazzercise demonstration in the baking sun. The kids were troopers, but special kudos to the JazzerciseLady. She did three 10-15 minute sets with each of the different age groups!