Hassle

Please forgive the delay in new posts. The problem isn't lack of material; I'm fairly sure I'm just experiencing an id10t error. That means "user error". That means me!

I don't speak computer. My brain tends to run like a spider web or a fiber optics still. Computers are happy to find things for you provided you tell them what you're looking for and where to look. Alas (and at the same time thank goodness) my laptop can't seem to read my mind when I'm yelling that I want it to upload the pictures I just imported so that they could be added here. Then I realize that I just did that process while in the Guest User designation on my own computer, which means that everything will be lost when I log out and log into my own account. The reason I didn't get into my own account in the first place is because Damon is working on his Honda project for school and has several tabs open that he/I don't want to have to re-find. Ugh. Technology strikes again.

In the meantime, I'll try to figure out what to do about the photos I have from the art show for which Carrie entered both drawings and pottery, the first of three karate black belt tests, random Ohio sunrises, and our feathered friends at the feeder. 

That will go down around picking Liam up early from school to whisk him to the orthodontist because part of his let's-bring-your-lower-jaw-forward appliance came unglued on one side, and the laundry and grocery shopping and spring cleaning attempts and so on and so forth. I've already run around like a chicken with its head cut off this morning, trying to find items which will be dropped off at school when I hang out with my first graders on Friday morning. For each thing I found, there was something next to it that didn't belong there, so I played one of a mom's most often played games: Put That Thing Back Where It Came From Or So Help Me. Thank you, Mike Wazowski. If you have no idea what I'm talking about and need a tangent, click here and you'll understand my brain a little better. Maybe. I claim no credit for the Disney/Pixar/Billy Crystal/John Goodman brilliance; all I did was copy and paste the link. 

Anyway, I'm trying to round up clothes and shoes to be donated at the school, old sun- and eyeglasses to be dropped off at a business downtown close to where I'll also be donating used books; in general, I'm all over the place. To make things that much funnier, as I'm rummaging around to find old glasses, a handle of my great-grandmother's end table fell off. After three vain attempts to put the darned thing back together by hand, I realized I needed a screwdriver, which also was not where it belonged as it had migrated into the not-quite-put-back-together fireplace room. Found it, fixed the handle, found the glasses, thought, "I should be uploading pictures while I do all this since that takes awhile..." and here we are. Stuck. 

Now the dryer is done. Oy. Round three, ding ding!

Anyone else?

Anybody else passive aggressive in order to coerce obedience from the children in residence?

On duty

I came downstairs this morning just after six and ended up face to face with a certain Resident Middle Schooler with an oatmeal cream pie cookie in each hand, one partially eaten. He gazed at me a minute, maybe the slightest bit sheepishly, then held up the unopened cookie as he asked, "can I take this one in my lunch?" 

Maybe I'm hard hearted, but I looked him in the eye and replied, "It looks like you're already having dessert. I'd have said 'yes' if you weren't already having cookies for breakfast."

Wonder of wonders, he didn't complain, but put the unopened one back and didn't even finish the half eaten one until after he'd finished his cereal. Granted, I didn't check the pockets of his pajama pants so there's a possibility that there are other snacks stuffed away, but overall I was relieved with the amount of drama I didn't have to deal with before I'd even made coffee.

I'm pretty sure that my guardian angel was on duty and HAD had their coffee because I came to a full stop before I poured Damon's Cheerios into my full mug of coffee. Full stop. "Wait. That would be bad." As though my angel had slapped a hand over the top of my mug. 

Bos's angel was undoubtedly on duty this morning. We walk Damon out to the bus on leash, then once the bus is gone and we're turned around facing the house, I take the leash off and he runs a bit before we head in to give him his breakfast. I had him sit, like every time, and I turned his head towards the house and towards me three times. Then I unhooked him and he took off sideways, which was fine, but then stopped as if he was trying to decide if he should roll in something. I headed for him, and Cottonballs-For-Brains heads straight for the road.

Our stretch of road is at the very edge of the city limits, so the speed limit is 50 mph. This dumbhead dog ignored me calling him and circled right up to the edge of the road. The car that was coming was just slow enough that it didn't have to swerve as he finished his circle, or perhaps it didn't even see him, but either way he headed towards me with no apparent remorse. I clicked that leash back on and told him his morning run out front privileges have been revoked, which is a shame as he's too fat, but this dog just can not be trusted. I know he's not even two yet, but goodness, I sure hope he grows a brain! Fool. 

In other news, Thing1 has an art show tonight, so eventually there will be pictures of that extravaganza. Have a great day!

Now what?

Well, it was a close thing, but we survived "Spring Break". That's in quotes because we had three days of wind measurements higher than temperatures (and they were none too high, though mostly double digits, thank goodness) so I couldn't even boot the kids outside. Spring Break when it is still officially winter is baloney in my book, but since I don't run the world I guess we'll just have to deal. 

So here's how we deal. I order seeds. Lots of seeds, or as Carrie told Aunt Chris forever ago, "yotsa" seeds. If you click on the pictures you can see everything larger. I picked out multiple kinds of tomatoes, sugar snap peas, herbs like cilantro, basil, sage, and creeping thyme, some corn (Dada laughed at me), many flowers such as borage, zinnia, non-culinary sages, and marigolds. Now all I have to do is the Herculean task of cleaning off the bar so we can get seeds in trays and under grow lights. Nooooo problem... 

And I baked. These are Kamish of the Mandelbrot tribe. In other words, yummy almond bread that is crispy like biscotti. I'm trying very hard to not eat them all myself.

We played Settlers of Catan. Those of you who have played this are probably noticing that we have the expansion set going also. And some stray Legos. And a blank spot we named Oz which would yield whatever the person camping around it most needed. Needless to say the boys set up camp around Oz mighty quick!

There was even a Carrie sighting or two! I like this one as it looks like the kraken plant behind her is gonna get her!

Dada made pancakes for Fat Tuesday and then we had them again last weekend. Never enough pancakes, teehee!

And there were some naps. This is Damon in what I call my Cookie Monster blanket, sacked out in the big chair. 

There will be more photos because {unbelievably} the big kids are testing for their second degree black belts this spring. Test one is done, they all passed, photos eventually!