Sunday, March 29, 2009

Generosity 101


So today i was out battling nature (aka grass that was literally 2 feet tall!) and I'd just discovered that the grass was so high my puny weed-wacker thing was not only not going to have any appreciable effect in terms of making it any shorter but might actually end up just pissing it off... When lo and behold along came a neighbor. Not a particularly well-known neighbor, just a nice person i wave to occassionally when i'm out walking the dog or when I happen upon him and his son riding around in their tow-truck, off to thier next car-assist. I smile at his wife too. And I think his daughter made a "light-switch cover" at the "booth" I set up for the kids at our last block party. Really. Just a normal person out moving his truck on a normal Sunday. So, I'd just sat down to re-consider the situation when he strolled up, shaking his head. "Take you about a week." Was his opinion. I had to agree. We exchanged some other light-hearted banter about the "nice-ness" of the weather, after which he left to go finish moving his truck. I stood up again and after choosing a square inch to wreak my vengence on, fired up the weed-wacker... THEN lo and behold, back came the neighbor with his son and his daughter AND a really big, gas-powered weed wacker AND a strap-it-on-your-back leaf blower! Seriously. took the bunch of us about two hours to cut, corral, bag and haul fifteen MILES of grass. Then when we were finally done, they left. That's it. a smile "Bye." to my "Thank you guys SOOOOOOO much! You saved my life! You saved my week!! I. LOVE. YOU!" Nod and smile. then they left. sweet.

K. to recap, here's what i did today:

  1. woke up (got to sleep in a tiny bit, yay!)
  2. drove the little girl to a playdate
  3. got bagels to use as a bribe so the Bees would give me back the Big Girl
  4. mini-visit with the Bees
  5. got the Big Girl (Yay!)
  6. drove with the Big Girl to her drum lesson (we were early {gasp!})
  7. made a tiny little house for the Borrowers to live in
  8. photographed aformentioned tiny house
  9. walked Big Girl upstairs to her drum lesson
  10. went back downstairs and worked on some final edit stuff on some dumb paper I'm writing
  11. Met the Big Girl after her lesson finished
  12. stopped by work to do some dumb report (with the Big Girl, yay!)
  13. drove home
  14. drove the Wife to some Bike place in Alameda (with the Little Girl, yay!)
  15. drove home
  16. got a call from the Wife asking me to come back and get her. (Oops!)
  17. FIXED THE PASSENGER SIDE MIRROR ON MY TRUCK (by, mostly -- the little ones helped, myself!!!) (Yay!)
  18. decided to attack the grass before we get some sort of citizen's complaint ticket thing from the City of Oakland
  19. fell into despair
  20. was saved from despair by my saintly neighbor and his crew
  21. chatted briefly with the CP and her lovely peeps (they all looked very Great Gatsby this afternoon. cute.)
  22. came inside
  23. made dinner
  24. listened to a report the Big Girl is writing for school
  25. was impressed.
  26. Smiled alot
  27. ate
  28. put the Little Big Girl to bed
  29. had some juice (orange)
  30. am now sitting here typing with the Big Big Girl on my lap (Yay!)


Just plain blessed and happy and lucky and content = me!

Friday, March 20, 2009

Whoo hoo!


I mean, OF COURSE my Big Big Girl got a "call-back" to interview for the incredibly competitive summer education program we're trying to get her into... eh hem. (Yay!)

WTH??


First, just to clarify a previous post. the link I found/quoted upon was not actually a post put up by the actual Ex of my actual Wife. It was just one of those weirdly-close-to-what-I-was-suspecting co-inky-dinks that I stumbled upon in my mania. Upon further reading, the blog author in question appeared to be more in the early 20's vein (as well as in the Portland OR vicinity) than the players in my little drama. i just thought it was funny that I was all ready to be outraged and then found exactly the right fuel for my fire. :-)

In other news, someone threw a rock which hit my Baby Girl in the head yesterday! I know! She's fine but still, kinda makes me want to wrap her up in cotton while, at the same time going all Rambo on the other kid (aka: "Perp") and his or her parents, too!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

What do you do....


when you're trying to simultaneously be a grown-up, jealous and "responsive" to your pals all while indulging in a glass of wine? I'll tell you what you do. You forward the e-mail from your pal in Austin to your pal in Japan taking time to carefully insert "alternate readings" between the lines. You google "Wifey and me" just to see who else out there in internet land happens to be in love with your honey then get immediately and inordinately jealous when the THIRD flipping posting is this: "I know with [Wifey] out of my life and into someone elses I should probably learn how to move on. Still it feels like she's still mine. Just in a way that works better for both of us. She's happy. I'm happy. We still talk and connect and commune. I know she's there for me and if we don't touch as much at least I know she still needs me and wants me she just hasn't given herself the permission...." I'm tempted to log onto that person's otherwise anonymous blog and simply type "Step off, b**** you had your chance!" but am diverted by the next listing (4) which is this: http://cdbaby.com/cd/sharielf (I already sent away for the CD so line up on the left all those who want to borrow it...) Only to arrive back at my in-box greeted by pics from Japan by way of Nashville wherein an international debate has apparently been raging vis a vis my potential/predictive desire to possess these boots: from some store that some one saw on their way through the states away from Ibaraki back to Austin by way of Cali! Confused? You won't be after this episode of "My Life - the sleep-deprived years - Part 2!"

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

My friends are too cute to be mad at!


K. So the situation we will henceforth refer to only as "the Great Dismissal" has been downgraded from a full-scale offense to a minor (albeit whole avoidable) skirmish. Welcome back to the fold Angel-Baby, we missed having you to kick around!

In other news, the Wife is out "networking" (read playing tennis) with a bunch of dykes who are no doubt younger, fitter and/or wickier than I. I am o.k. with this because I'm pretty sure I'm better "between the sheets" than the whole freaking bunch of them put together -- seriously, why else would they be out smacking a ball around instead of exchanging digits; tension release if ever I saw it! -- plus I've got the deed to the cute kids so she really has no choice but to stay with me.

K. so just because i think this kind of drama is interesting, I'm trying to decide if I should be offended that my Ex who asked to "friend" me on Facebook ALSO "friended" her Ex before me who subsequently just sent me a note asking if I want to friend her (my Ex's Ex) as well. The Ex in question (mine) is practically married to someone else and I'm completely owned as well so it's really more intellectual wierdness than anything else but still....

Monday, March 09, 2009

DST. Hate it...!


O.K. so there are apparently people in the world who LIKE Daylight Savings Time. They're all excited about "having extra time to play with thier kids before it gets dark!" and to "get out and have a run" and other such nonsense. Whatev! Robbery my friends. Pure and simple. We have an hour stolen from us and we're supposed to be all happy about it??? And if that isn't bad enough, now we're supposed to shoulder some kind of betizzarre energy-offs burden by extending this insanity by a WHOLE MONTH! Whatev.... I'm just a little surprised this sort of unholiness is continuing to occur under "the new administration".....

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

A - Kid


My Big Girl got an "A" on her math test! Now this is across the board exciting however, in light of the fact that she was pulling a "C" in Math class and has been attending Math enrichment after-school tutoring it is freaking AWESOME. (She got an "A" on her science test too.) My big Baby-Girl rocks!