Saturday, May 29, 2010

Yet another quickie


So, i was thinking all week that i wanted to write about last week-end because we went back to visit the "old house" which was where the Big Big Girl got bigger, where the Little Big Girl came home to and where we lived behind the now-Wife and her then-GF. Needless to say, lots of rushing back memory drama but nice and sweet. Awesome to see my old landlady. Cute to see the cottage again. We stalked the current tenants/harassed them until they let us in (not really. We just happened to be there when they came rolling up, mom in tow, and unleashed some of the Magnet charm on their collective selves. I swear, i'm glad i'm not normally in a position to have to resist myself/my Kid-peeps because it has got to be next to IMPOSSIBLE!) The girl who lives there now has planted all sort of serious vegetables in the front so there were cabbages and corn and strawberries. Cool. The boy and the mom were also super sweet, standing around jawing, inviting us inside. All-in-all a pleasurable little visit. Did get me thinking alot about the good ole days though. I miss that place. good times.

in other news, THIS week-end promises to shape up into a humdinger. First off, we have The Spark's best bud Little Lady K. here with us and she is fabulous! In mere moments we're going to be constructing some cookies then we're off into the world for some Ice Cream socializing with the Rock Star and her Mom, then further off to the Paly Altie hinterlands to watch us some quality tennis playing by the Little Lady in her fancy-pants "seeded" tournament sitch after which there will be BB-Qing and staying in an actual hotel! i know! Sunday = more of the same except i'm feeling like there may be some put-put.... Really, I know every week-end ends up pretty choice but this is really seeming like it'll be super extra awesome! I can't wait!

Friday, May 21, 2010

You know what i love??


I love it when I've just arrived home with kids in tow, tired after a freakishly long week, looking forward to a little quality down time with the Childrens only to have the phone ring heralding a conversation that goes something like this:

Me: Hello?
Nice person on other end of phoneline: Hi! this is [person from your daughter's chi-chi-uber-prep-school program]. I'm just calling to remind you about Boo's 4 hour test tomorrow morning.
Me: Excuse me?
NPOOEOP: Test. the 4 hour test we told you about at the mandatory Parent meeting two weeks ago...?
Me: Ah... oh, yes. of course. [NO freaking idea what this person is talking about]
NPOOEOP: O.K. well, we also sent an e-mail.
Me: Mmmmmhmmm. [Nope. didn't see that either]
NPOOEOP: K. Well it's at 7:30 so we're recommending that parents have their students to us by 7:15 at the latest...
Me: Excuse me??
NPOOEOP: Yes?
Me: 7:15 in the morning?
NPOOEOP: Yes.
Me: But it's Saturday.
NPOOEOP:[frosty, clearly we're more interested in your child's getting into a decent school than you are but for the purposes of this charade, and since we really do actually value/want to help your child to achieve her goals we'll murmur something noncommittal..] Um hm... If you'll recall it was covered in both the materials that were handed out as well as in the e-mail.
Me: Ah, yes. yes. right. yes. Got it. so. Tomorrow then. 7:30?
NPOOEOP: 7:15.
Me: Right!
NPOOEOP: Send her with a snack, please. The children tend to get hungry mid-way through.
Me: Rightey-o ["Rightey-o"??? Now I'm British???!]
NPOOEOP: Alrighty. we'll see you tomorrow!
Me: Yes! Yes, of course. thank you!

[hang up. poop.]

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Yay!


My Boo is back! where from you might ask. From far, far away where she's been on some "outdoor ed" overnight thingie her school has engineered to make persons like myself sad/get the not-so-wee ones out of their traditional classrooms for a few days so they can go commune with "pond vertebrates." Whatev. Alls i know is she's back and she looks good/healthy/happy, cetera, cetera. Whew! {Sheesh. at some point i really must learn how to handle this whole separation thing a little more gracefully!}

In other news, week-end was nice. had a grown-up date with The Little Woman wherein we attended a grown-up birthday at The Cheese School in SF and sampled (you guessed it!) cheese! Now this just happens to be hilarious because those of you who know yours truly know i have less than no use for most kinds on non-processed food stuffs but the Wife loved it so i spose that's what really matters. Plus, everyone who i've subsequently described the event to seems to think they would have enjoyed it as well so now really, i'm just sort of hoping I have other compelling qualities that might keep the Wife interested/wondering if this is one of those instances where we may just have to agree to allow "date stand-ins" you know, like taking separate vacations....Anyhoo, curdled cow-based emissions notwithstanding, outing was fun. subsequent hanging out in a relatively empty house with my cute Lady Friend = even more fun. Rest of week-end involving packing for overnight, acquiring Jamba Juice and just general hanging about = also delightful.

K. quick word problem:

if two family members who have not seen each other in sixty thousand years are walking down the street post-hamburger-french fry pigout and one young man, late-twenties driving a blue pick up truck, stops to honk/gesticulate/grin/wave what are the odds that he is:

a) one of those random crazy people who likes to honk at well-fed, recently reunited mother/daughter groupings

b) wanting the primo parking space that is about to be vacated by the satiated set

c) an "old friend" of my 12-year-old who hasn't seen her in awhile but remembers how delightful she was when last they hung out and wants to say "hello!"

Really. I mean i get that my kid is da bomb but sometimes I wonder whether the twenty-five-years and up peeps might be better off finding folks their own age to hang out with... Just sayin'

Saturday, May 15, 2010

And the Pimpin' just won't quit!


me and the girls took The Truck down to San Joser today to get a Weatherguard Saddle Tool box (steel. white.) Can i just say... not only was the trip/price/seller-guy delightful/cheap/unbelievably cute with the short, black hair, crooked smile and and freakin' blue-green eyes(His brother had em too. I ask you...!), but seriously, everytime I forget how completely blessed i am, someone wanders into my life offering to sell me a great locking storage solution for a FRACTION of what it cost new then for no reason other than because he's a REALLY sweet person, goes ahead and spends close to an hour installing the damn thing for us. Plus he knew all about Junie b. Jones and Fancy Nancy! (don't even get me started on the incredible array of tools!) Seriously. I can't wait to meet my guardian angel cause i really owe him/her/it/them a very warm and heartfelt "Thanks, Dude! You rock!!" :-)

Friday, May 14, 2010

"Luckily, I had a piece of duct tape on my knee!"


Also, overheard recently:

"Hey! You just wrapped your gum in my snot!"

Gosh, i love having a 12 year old! k. so. the Dakota has been a bit under the weather of late -- nothing serious, just overheating earlier this week then making an extremely loud intermittent "sprinkler" sound THEN overheating AGAIN this morning... Quick, let's take a quick poll. How many of you out there would have taken this truck which we (royal we) claim to be "in love with" to the mechanic at the first sign of trouble (e.g. the initial overheating.)? Um, hm. And how many of you would have maybe let that initial indicator slip but responded to the clearly distressed loud, wet popping sound that caused both passerby as well as concerned security guard types to check in/recommend various hypothesis vis a vis what might be wrong? i see. Well, clearly you people are not me. Me, i turn the music up. I say, if it can't take a little coolant spurting out of a hole in the water pump onto on the engine then what the hell good is it??! I have however, been known to change my mind about things (and i really do love my truck -- plus, I have not entirely forgotten that the OTHER truck died due to lack of moisture. See! I can learn! ish...) so i actually did take it in today to get fixed. It's much happier now. I'm much poorer but happy as well.

in other news, i think i found a nice little (used) tool box for the back so i don't have to keep trying to figure out a way to some how move the camper shell from one truck to the other and/or carry around a whole lot less stuff. it's not to much but it's hecka far away. Still though, beats both of my other options which, clearly, are not things i'm even remotely capable of so.... Beside, I like it the back all open . Reminds me of The Homeland.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Oh! One more thing!


Check out my Ex-Baby-Nanny's latest!







She's awesome. :-)

seriously, where to begin


You know how you get a little behind with a thing and then the time comes when you actually have a chance to sit down and update the thing you were behind on but by that time it just seems like all the stuff you wanted to say isn't really relevant anymore and the stuff that is relevant or at least recent is just not as compelling as the other stuff so you're torn and you're not sure what to write an while you're sitting there not writing you're realizing that the window of time you've allotted yourself to just freaking write something is slowly inching toward closed so you sort of take yourself mentally by the scruff and you give yourself a good shake (because dammit, sometimes you're not above getting a little physical with yourself if that what it takes to make you listenfer chrissakes!)and you tell yourself, "Fer chrissakes, already, just freakin WRITE something!" so you do,(because, let's face it, noone likes getting yelled at. jeeze!) but it just doesn't seem anywhere near as interesting as all that stuff you had in your head and besides, now your water's boiling so you're REALLY out of time and you haven't actually written anything yet -- at least not anything anyone would be interested in reading so you just say F- it (Because, dammit, you're not above the occasional, redacted, swear word even if this is a family blog and you decide to just make a list of all the interesting things that have happened so at least you have a record of them someday when you're wondering what happened on that day, so long ago, when you thought you had nothing to say but still felt as if, probably that still wasn't really a good enough reason to not just freakin' write.

1) Happy Mother's day. i was sad yesterday. Mostly i missed my Big Girl. But also i got my feelings hurt. Also possible I was a little sulky about not having every single thing be the exact way i would like to it to be all the time (case-in-point, Missing-Big-Girl on Mom's Day)... Also possible I was just really tired. Who knows. I did have my Beautiful Little girl though so that went a pretty long way toward making things MUUUUUCCCCCH better. I'm fine now though. Just amybe need to learn to deal.

2) Big Little Girl had her birthday. Happy Birthday, Baby!!! You are awesome and huge and I love you sooooo mcuh it's scary. Really. Sometimes I wake up int he middle of the night terrified at how much i adore you. Plus sometimes i think I hear ghosts. Mostly though because I love you!!!

3) i am (AGAIN) infectious. And no, not the good kind. I hate (that's right, I said "hate"!) having coldsores. Really. Not the 24 hour party they're rumored to be!

4) My buddy, the Rock Star's mom got herself broken again and I'm sorry about that. I sort of want to wrap her up in cotton wool and keep her on the shelf but she's got this thing where she wants to be all independent or whatever...! Whatever... Feel better soon, Chicka. I'm only a stone's throw away if you need me to come over and open any jars or anything!

5) Work last week was rough. Nor horrible or anything just a little hard. S'over now though so I'm not dwelling....

6) got to go out to have some sushi with The Missus the other night. that was fun. Except the freakin' dishes wouldn't stay put. She was fien with it though. Possibly got her early sushi eating experience in N'Orleans or some place riddled with glassware that cruises like that....

{sigh} k. so i'm sure there's more but the water is really boiling now so.... More later I hope. we're all pulling for it at any rate!