"I can hear nothing but somebody's art."

Geoff is rocking out on his guitar. I think he is playing "He's got the whole world in his hands" but I'm not sure he's doing it right. And Jessica isn't havin' ANY of it. On the one hand, I'd like to encourage his creativity and learning, as he plays chords and sings at the top of his lungs. On the other hand, I'm somewhat with the Jess... and one person's "art" is another's major headache.

So yeah, I've not updated lately. Been busy in the last week. We had the Ides of March (oooooh! Beware!) and then Guster day on March 16th (see the quote above and listen to "Jesus on the Radio" to understand. Or, just read the words).

"5 am, March 16th.
Jesus on the radio, you took a photograph of me
on your yellow bucket seat.
It's too high, it's too wide, You're so low you don't know
To get through, to go around
So don't look back, there ain't nothing there to see
Was once like you.
Can't say I recognize that face
in that picture that you keep
Its too high, its too wide
You're so low you don't know
To get through, to go around."

All good Guster fans recognize this as a national holiday.

And then we had St. Patrick's day. In years past we'd have a throw down of fun in all kinds of ways shapes and forms with Aaron and Michelle. Several years ago we made our now famous Aaron Go Bragh sign to celebrate the event. But now he's far far away and Michelle is in Maine and we haven't seen her in a long time. So I mourn the loss of that holiday fun-ness. Good times, good times...

Sigh. I miss him. We had so much damn fun it should be outlawed. I wish he'd come home to the close coast and bring that kind of fun insanity back into my life. But I have a feeling these years of happy go lucky craziness and photoshopping of pictures up are over. Meh.

---

So now Geoff is singing "She'll be comin' round the mountain when she comes," and something about she'll be drivin' her Subaru when she comes... At the end he says "yum yum." Which is cracking my shit right up. Oh my God.

Now, it's his own very original and interesting rendition of Blue Suede Shoes. He knows ALL THE WORDS! What the heck? Who taught him that? Thank God I tuned his guitar this afternoon or I think my head would explode by now.

---

Thank you to folks who have donated to the Jess going to Europe twice fund. So far you've donated 300 bucks, which is awesome. Thank you. Combined with some money from my sister I can pay for the deadline for Jess' London trip on time. Whew.

Now we focus on the Germany trip. You can still donate a couple of bucks. The donation box will be on the front page for probably most of the month of April.

People I don't even know donated $10 bucks here and $15 bucks there. Jay gave it mention on his blog, so I would hazard a guess that the people who I don't know most likely came via Jay... unless there are lurkers who've been reading my blog a while who just have never said anything in the comments over time. It could be possible...

regardless of how you got here or how long you've been here -- if you have donated... thank you. Jess will be writing notes for you shortly.

It's funny, but I did math recently (and my brain still hurts) because I was wondering how on earth I could make decent money but never HAVE money.

I realized that over the course of a year, about $19,000 of my salary goes to taxes. Nineteen Large. I know it is important to pay taxes and be part of a system that takes care of the important things like roads, highways, schools, government officials... alleged social security that I most likely will never ever see...

But I honestly don't know if I'm personally getting anywhere NEAR Nineteen Grand worth of services, for me or my kids. I didn't even do the math to see how much Doug pays because I don't want it to really make my head explode.

It kind of pisses me off because I could do so much better for my family with even just a third of that money back in my hands. Taxes piss me off so much so I won't even get started on that...

---

Right. So I started this last night but opted to go to bed instead, so I'm here finishing up this morning. Today we have a meeting at Geoff's school to see if we can get math help put back into his IEP. He's failing miserably and we would like to see some in-school math support for him. I'm not good with math (even fifth grade math) so I'm hoping that they can help him outside of the classroom and get things back on track by the end of the school year.

More later, yins.

MRI review...

Thank you for your mojo and prayers, kind thoughts and support in the last week.

I'm happy to let y'all know that the doctor reviewed her MRI (finally) today.

She is okay... she has a "high sprain" as the nurse put it. The recommendation is rest, ibuprofen and no running/jogging/sword fighting on stage and falling down. He wants to see her in a week and check how things are. But for the most part, no surgery, no physical therapy.

Just take it easy.

And she can do that, I'm sure.

I will have her take the knee brace on the trip with her if she feels she needs it, just to support the healing while walking all over London and Stratford. And in case she's sword fighting and slips and strains it again.

Horray! And there is much rejoicing.

Cleanliness

Geoff's teacher emailed me yesterday and said that he's having a rough time using appropriate language. Not in the "subject verb agreement" sort of way, but word choices and attitude.

He's been argumentative, disrespectful. He has been writing swear words on his hands and flashing them to other boys. She has found that every day she has to ride him to get him to do the littlest things, things that she should just ask once and have done, things that in the past he never gave push back on. She asked me to intervene and have a talk with him because she's at her wit's end.

It sounds familiar... I have the same problem with him a lot lately.

For example, I asked him to take a shower yesterday morning. He had already gotten himself dressed for school, at like 6am before I was out of bed. Having to shower meant he'd have to undress. And he didn't like that. All of a sudden I was treating him like a baby, not allowing him to make his own decisions, ruling and ruining his life. It was a disaster of epic proportions. All over a shower. It wasn't like I was beating him or making him do horrible things. It was a shower. A simple request.

Dude, stop. Just go take a shower. Gah.

When I got home last night we had to have a huge sit down and have a huge talk. I find that when I sit with him and hash things out, find out what his side of the story is, sometimes he has a good answer which is reasonable and understandable. Sometimes he spews forth sheer gibberish and goofiness. Last night was a good example of a heart to heart that worked out well.

Geoff's trying to be "cool" with the other guys. He's finding that swearing gets a laugh, gets acknowledgment... and getting in trouble makes him a punk, and he enjoys that to some extent. By "dissin'" his teacher, he feels he gets power and recognition. Problem is, it's the wrong kind of recognition, and it is false power.

How to reach him on a level he'd understand... Hmmm. We've been over this a million times this year. Respect, Kindness, Politeness. His teacher isn't there to be dissed. She's there to teach. The more dissin' that you throw at her, the less teachin' she can get done.

I had to bring up Boy Scouts, because to be honest friends... that just ain't how a Boy Scout rolls.

We got out his handbook and had him recite the Boy Scout Oath.

On my honor I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country
and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake, and morally straight.

He has that memorized. I pointed out the Scout Law part and asked him to tell me what that is. He knew a few of the elements, but doesn't have them memorized. I asked him how can you obey it if you don't know what it is?

For the record, for those who don't know it, the Scout Law is:

A Boy Scout is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean and Reverent.

I broke it down to the "Clean" part. I asked Geoff specifically if he knew what they meant by "Clean."

"Do they mean Clean in a physical or metaphorical sense?" he asked me.

I actually tried not to laugh. This kid is too much sometimes with questions like that... but he knew where I was going with this.

Clean. In both the physical and metaphorical senses.

The Boy Scout handbook talks about how you can't avoid getting dirty when working hard or hiking, but that is the kind of dirt that washes off. But there is dirt that doesn't wash off, and that is the kind that comes from foul language and inappropriate thoughts.

We discussed foul language isn't just swear words. Foul language consists of "dissin' the teacher" and fighting with words when there isn't a need or reason to fight.

"Well, out of all of those those eleven things, I think I can be about nine of them. I don't know if I can be all eleven all the time."

Nine is a start buddy. Let's make sure "Clean" is one that you work towards immediately, and add "Obedient" to the list too. That'll make the day at school go so much better. For you and your teacher.

We spent about an hour going over all of the elements of the Scout Law. He decided he can't be thrifty because he has no money. I said that he should build a philosophy of savings when he has no money, so that when he does he knows what to do with it. I told him that there are things he needs to grow into, and having a strong and firm base or foundation is hugely important. You can't just BE an Eagle Scout... You have to start at the bottom and build.

Being a Tenderfoot is like being a foundation to a house. It is the rough part that has to be dug deep and fortified before a structure can be built up over it.

You can't plop a finished roof on a bunch of skimpy poles and think that it will stand.

We went in our basement and looked at the foundation of our house... the humongous boulders and rocks that someone put there in 1774 when this house was built. These are the original stones that hold up this house. I asked him to touch them, really think about the foundation he's building.

Make it a good and firm one. Learn now. Build later.

We went over the Boy Scout Slogan (to clarify, there is a motto, a slogan, an oath and a law. Four things they need to know. I just thought "Be Prepared" was all that was entailed. I was a girl scout, so this is all new to me...) which is "Do a Good Turn Daily."

A good turn is like "pay it forward." It is like spreading good karma. It is the Golden Rule to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It is be kind for kindness' sake and no other reason. Be brave to help others, not to glorify yourself. Be helpful because you CAN be helpful...

I asked if he'd done a good turn that day and he told me that the teacher asked them all to clean up the floor of the class because it had gotten out of hand.

"Did you argue with her?"

"No. I did it when she asked. Some of it was my mess but most of it was not."

"Did you only clean up your portion?"

"No, there was a lot to clean up so I helped clean up a lot."

"Did you ask for money or praise?"

"No. That didn't cross my mind."

Good. That's a good turn. Keep it up.

Hopefully this will stick, this long discussion and these concepts. He's a really good, fine kid... he's just trying to find his way. Is it the way of the Boy Scout or the way of the punk ass?

We can encourage and guide, but in the end... it's his choice.

Daylight Mess Me Up Time

As glad as I am to have the change in time a little earlier on the calendar, we once again find me dealing with the sleep schedule adjustment issues that come hand in hand with the daylight savings time.

It isn't as bad as the one that happens in October, but it still messes me up good. Yesterday I slept until 9am, which was REALLY 10 on the clock. By 10pm, which was REALLY 11 on the clock, I wasn't tired and couldn't fall asleep. It was just too early for me. Sometimes on Sunday nights I have a hard time falling asleep in the first place, because my brain starts processing the workday that awaits me. I think around 1am my body's time, which was now officially 2am on the clock... I fell asleep.

Jess woke me up at 6:30 so that I could get ready to take her to school and Doug presumed he would be the one giving her a ride, so now I find myself here with time to kind of wake up and get kind of acclimated to the day. Only it isn't working very well.

The only horror is that there is no milk or cream for coffee. Feh. Thank God we have some tea and honey. That should help until I can hit the road. I'd run out and get some but that means leaving Geoff alone and I don't like to do that. I'd really like to go back to sleep for an hour.

Hopefully tonight I'll be tired enough to just put my head on the pillow and be that beyond tired person who can fall asleep before 11pm.

---

Jess had her MRI on Friday night. I waited for Doug to get home with her and actually fell asleep on the couch moments after they left.

They got home around 10pm and Jess regaled me with stories of her experience. Scary warning labels about lasers and blindness, loud noises, and how she got to use open MRI instead of get fed into a tube. Which she liked better.

It is now my duty to take the film to the doctor's office this morning and drop it off so they can read it.

I'm not sure why the MRI dudes didn't or couldn't take the film over, considering they're in the same general building complex area, but whatever. The packet is sitting in my car awaiting delivery... which means I should probably dress and be ready to go. Wait here.

Okay, I'm back. Showered, dressed, cuppa.

Not that I have anything particularly interesting to say... I am feeling kind of vapid and braindead. Perhaps I should just pack up and get ready. I have time to make my lunch for a change... should do that.

Right then. More later. Meh. Happy Mehnday.

A public thanking, an Arrow of Light, an ACL update

At some point back in October I stumbled across another blogger (thanks to Universal Hub, where Adam picked up one of his entries). I actually knew him. He lives here in my town and he is an assistant scout master for our town's cub scout pack. Or is it cub master? Cub master sounds like he needs a whip and chair and a funny mustache. The image kind of makes me giggle. I don't exactly know what he's called so I'll entertain the image of him in a 3-ring circus rounding up wild boy cubs, wearing weird pants and a top hat... (yes, I have an over-active imagination).

Jay and I worked on the cub scout haunted hallway last year to great success. It was a pleasure getting to know him through the scouts and through his blog... where he lets it all out where the kids can't hear him. He swears, rants about stupid idiots who can't drive in the snow, shares those priceless Dad Moments™ that one should never forget, and talks about his gun hobby.

Most especially entertaining to me was the post-Halloween Pumpkin Shoot at the range where he goes... everyone brought their Jack-o'-lanterns and had at it... that was awesome. Perhaps I'll get to a shooting range with him someday... I've always wanted to do that (I have a short list of things I'd really like to do and shooting is one of them).

He linked to me the other day and I owe him a thanks of sorts.

I usually hover at 40 hits a day, sometimes lower if y'all know I'm out of town. When I update, folks using RSS feeds come over and my hits go to about 60 the day I update. Well, yesterday's update combined with Jay's link over here skyrocketed my readership for that day to over 100. I must say I was kind of shocked and surprised. When I checked the traffic sources, 40 of my hits were right off his blog. No other mention of this journal anywhere in the last 7 years has resulted in that many visitors from a source.

So, thank you Jay. I return the favor.

A good deal of my readership is nothing like Jay.

Most of you are not conservative, not gun owners and a goodly chunk of you are, well ... not straight.

Which is interesting.

This journal seems to attract an interesting mix of folk instead of just one thread of philosophy. This is something I pride myself on. It's kind of a place where gay nurses of both genders, liberal lawyers, folk musicians, christian environmentalists, parents and non-parents, and gun nut dads and moms (yes, there is a gun nut mom who visits here) can come and read and point and laugh at me as I go through my daily drudgery.

Knowing full well that most of what I blog about is rarely specific to a single world view. For instance, dear, darling Maria, a lesbian mom blogger way out west, recently peed her pants in the doctor's office. I pooped my pants while sneezing. Together, we share our shame and laugh at ourselves. And you can laugh with us (or at us. Or towards us).

Maybe one or two of my six or so regular readers will come visit you, Jay. Hopefully they'll find your observations entertaining even if they don't agree. And if they do agree, hell yeah, a new blog for them.

And, if you're here via Jay's recommendation -- welcome. Nice to see you. Pull up a chair for some cowboy coffee You'll want to get around to patting that dog who is breathing heavily on your leg, pining for your attention. Hope you enjoy your visit.

---

I won't be seeing Jay too much in person now unless it is actually planned, or the boy scouts do something with the cub scouts.

On Sunday, Geoff finished cub scouts and bridged over to boy scouts.

It was a nice ceremony, and there were a few things that they did this year that they haven't done in the bridging ceremony in the past.

First, it is usually done on the same day as the Blue and Gold banquet. We eat, then go into the auditorium and do the ceremony. That didn't happen this year, the ceremony was held as a solo event. Which was nice because it only took and hour instead of like 3. It was also a little sad in a way because the younger cubs weren't there to see the older ones bridge. I always liked sitting there and watching the bigger kids, boys we've known for a few years through full pack events, complete their journey and go over. While I liked the smaller event, I wish there were some more little ones there. There were some... like Jay's son or siblings of the boys who were bridging... but there should have been more. My suggestion would be that they make it like a pack meeting, where the parents of the younger cubs don't have to sit through it if they don't want to... but the dens come with their den mothers and fathers, and watch the proceedings.

Another thing they did was the boys got to shoot an arrow at a target. Kind of like a little symbolic arrow of light of their own shooting. We went outside, and it was a beautiful late winter kind of afternoon with no wind, warm sun, lots of snow. Perfect day. The boys were jacked up and excited about doing this. Everything was perfect until one of the other boys jokingly said directly to Geoffrey, "if you don't hit the target, you don't get your arrow of light!"

Thanks. Jerk. Geoff takes EVERYthing literally... and this boy KNOWS this. He LOVES doing shit like this to Geoff and I just want to smack him upside the head and ask him what the hell is his problem.

Geoff knew he wasn't going to hit it. So we had to spend a lot of time convincing him that they were indeed going to give him the arrow of light, that if he missed it's no big deal. Oy veh. When will he learn to take a joke? Never! And when will this other kid learn to keep his pie hole shut. Probably never.

So while we're dealing with Drama Geoff, one boy hit the target and the arrow bounced off. Another shot it (come to think of it, they're twin brothers... heh) and the arrow hit and stuck true. Everyone cheered like mad.

Considering that out of 15 boys those were the only ones who got close.

I thought the target was a little small and a little far away... I expected one of those humongous round targets filled with hay standing on a stand like we used to shoot at in high school gym class. I could hit that. Geoff could hit that.

Most of the boys either haven't shot bow and arrow before, or if they have it's been quite a long time. Geoff did it last summer... and while he got good distance, it took an arc off to the left. He eventually got it through his pointed little head that life was not over and he wasn't made of fail. About 2 years ago something like this would have ruined our day, our weekend, his life... but he managed to get past it and continue with the ceremony without doing a total nose dive into hysteria.

Maturity may be coming to him day by day, year by year, by golly.

When they handed out the badge for the arrow of light, they hand it to the parents, so we got to stand up with Geoff and receive it. It's a nice gesture, recognizing how much parents do to make sure this all happens and the boys complete their programs. That gave me warm fuzzies.

Then, the boys walk over a bridge and are welcomed to the boy scouts by the troop members. Most of the boys ROCKETED across the bridge so I didn't get a picture of anyone crossing. They should have been instructed that it isn't a race, Speedy Gonzalez. Slow down...no need to run. But in my heart of hearts I know why they ran. No, they weren't in a big hurry to become a boy scout... they're kind of embarrassed about doing this and just wanna get it over with. So I can't begrudge them.

Anyway -- the whole thing took less than 90 minutes... which surprised me. I thought we'd be there for days. It was over and done with, and tonight Geoff has his first boy scout meeting. Which has him completely pumped. "Mom, did you get the numbers for my uniform? Mom, why haven't you removed all the old stuff from my uniform. I'm not a cub scout anymore. Mom, did you fill out the application? Mom? Mom? Mom? Why are you drinking straight out of the giant bottle of wine and hiding under the bed? MOM!"

Kidding.

So I need to take a little jaunt over to the Scout Shop this morning and get all that jazz. It feels like yesterday when I bought him his blue shirt and his cub scout kerchief and slider. Wow. Tempus Fugit.

---

On the Jessica front, thank you for your kind words and your prayers. Keri, thank you for praying the rosary for her. Thank you all for advice and support. Elizabeth, I love that you liked this kind of injury to what your dogs have gone through, and then pondered the fact that the day after getting fixed your dog wanted to run and jump and play. Humans aren't quite as resilient, I think. And I doubt Jess will want to run and jump and play immediately after... if surgery is the final decision.

Her knee is in an immobilizer. She is comfortable when it is on and can walk about really well. When she takes it off, the knee hurts. She has a hard time with stairs, and getting up into the bus is a real challenge, so I drove her to school yesterday and Doug drove her today.

She got to ride the elevator in her school yesterday. Five Times! She was most excited about that. As only a 15 year old could be "Dude! I got to ride the elevator in the school!" Made of awesome.

Best thing is, yesterday she wore her "I do all my own stunts" t-shirt, which I found deliciously ironic. She got to her English class and her teacher took one look at her and busted up laughing.

"I bet you sure do!" she said, upon seeing Jess trundle into the classroom with her leg all immobilized. Nice.

Alright -- I gotta jet. Boy scout shop and work await. More later.

Anterior cruciwahcallit ligamadealie?

"Aaaaaaaaaa! ssssssssss. Aaaaaaaaaa! ssssssss. Aaaaaaaaaa!"
-Peter Griffin

Yesterday Jess fell down at school while in her theatre class. I guess they were miming/play acting with swordfighting. She wiped out and landed on her knee on a concrete floor. Ouch. She went to the nurse, they iced it. She went through the rest of her day and came home. We elevated it, iced it, gave her ibuprofen... told her that if she didn't feel better this morning that we'd take her to the doctor.

Well, she didn't feel better. And we knew she wasn't kidding because she's the kind of kid who doesn't let you know when she's hurt. She hides it and plays through the pain. She couldn't lift her leg or even sit because the pain was so bad. So Doug took her to the doctor.

Our doctor stuck a needle in her knee and pulled out a bunch of gunk and blood and said 'yup. You did something bad in there" and told her that he believes she has a torn ACL. X-rays and a visit to the orthopedist were ordered up. X-rays were inconclusive. So she'll have an MRI on Friday and we'll see how bad it is, whether or not surgery might have to be done or if weeks of physical therapy face her.

In the meantime, she's couchbound and in a knee immobilizer She can go to school and has to take it easy and elevate the knee whenever she can.

She'll be okay, I'm sure. I'm not too worried about her being okay. What upsets me is the timing of this incident. In about 5 or 6 weeks, she's supposed to be on her way to London, where she will walk walk walk all over the kingdom and act, and play and cavort and enjoy. But... if she is unable to walk, unable to do it... under doctor's orders... well, she may not get to go.

And I throw up a little bit in my mouth when I think of this, for two reasons. First, it is hard to get a 15 and a half year old excited about things, and you should see how excited she is about this trip. Honestly excited. Not just a "yeah, that sounds kinda fun I guess" excited.

Second, I don't think I get the money I've paid to the trip thus far back. I would need to check with Keri. But it may be a loss of 800 clams, and that dizzies me.

For a kid who has made it all the way to almost 16 without getting hurt even once... why did this have to happen... now. Right now.

I suppose that if I could play our little game that we play called "It Could Be Worse" and I could come up with a list of things that could, indeed, be worse.

It could be worse... it could have happened while she was ON the trip.
It could be worse... it could have happened while she was ON the trip, and up on stage in front of an audience in Stratford.
It could be worse... a bone could have broken and split right through her skin and she'd be in the hospital now.
It could be worse... she could be ... dead.

I guess. It could be worse.

Anyway. Pray that the MRI shows that she's not all torn up. Pray that if she is, she'll be okay to go. Just send her some mojo... because even though she and I haven't discussed the "what might this have an impact on" discussion in regards to London, I know she's thinking it. So ... pray for the girl's knee and that good things come of it.

Sigh.

Happy Leap Year!

Ten days ago I started writing an entry. Time flies when you're completely distracted and there is nothing interesting happening in your life. A few key things went down this week, and you poor bastards deserve some sort of sasquatch sighting of me. So here it is.

Last week there was a chimney sweep in my house. I was disappointed that he did not speak in a Cockney accent and sing "Chim chim cheroooooo." He also was lacking a small boy with which to send down into the top of the woodstove pipe to scrub it "clean as a whistle, sharp as a thistle" with a huge pipe cleaner bristley thingie.

And he did not have a top-hat. What is this world coming to?

---

Today is Leap Year. Doug states that four years ago today on the last leap we went Geocaching in New Hampshire. Sadly I have no recollection of that so I have to go back here in the journal and see if I have an entry about it... I'm amazed at how he remembers stuff like that but totally forgets other things; as equally as I am amazed at the things I remember and forget.

Actually, come to ponder it, I think that the 2004 leap year was when I was writing on Journalspace, so I don't know if I even have a record of it right now. I don't think I've finished that section of the archives here, which reminds me that I need to get back to completing the archives.

Today is Jess' friend Frazier's birthday. I think he is ... four. Heh.

---

Geoff had "Survivor Night" at school this week.

Over the past few weeks the kids have been working on simple machines science concepts in school and this night was the culmination of their work.

He had been teamed up with two boys who live near us. They did the bulk of their work at school but did have one day when they had to work together outside of school during vacation week. The idea was to take the concepts of simple machines, and make a kind of Survivor themed island with a course of challenges where people had to then take these concepts of simple machines and build items to get through the Survivor challenges.

The two boys he was paired with are very handy and creative. Geoff did the typing and wrote the Taco Island Theme Song (yes, they were Survivor: Taco Island).

So if he gets an A on it, it is all thanks to the other two boys because in the end he was kind of Bobby Hill about it, but everyone around him seems to think he was really funny and creative. They had to present their course to people who walked up to them, so the other two boys described the six challenges and Geoff sang the theme song. He didn't walk anyone through any of the challenges, so I honestly have no idea if he learned anything...

He did, however, tell me that he will always remember W=FxD. Work equals Force times Distance.

Which means that yeah, maybe he took something away from it other than the theme song. Which he plays on his guitar every day.

---

Speaking of guitar, his lessons are going rather well. When he practices, he now is moving from chord to chord to chord, and it sounds like a song.

He makes up words, and plays all kinds of randomness. The other day it sounded like he was playing the beginning of "Satellite" by Guster. Which would be cool.

The one thing I don't like is that it is the FIRST thing he does every day... and that kid wakes up at 6am.

---

The kids had school vacation last week and I ate a vacation day spread over two days. Jess had a project for her German class where they were making a movie, so she had to go to other kids' houses and film a movie. It took four days for them to do (all day days) and they were under pressure of a deadline because two of the kids were going away for part of the vacation week. She got to write the script and kind of direct it, as well as play one of the characters. She was enthusiastic about it and full of stories every day that I picked her up. I guess it was a lot of fun. I have yet to see the finished product though...

Geoff had a birthday party at the end of the week, in a snowstorm. I left work to take him to it and had to call the mom in charge and ask her to go grab him so he wouldn't miss the party. It was at a laser tag place that just opened nearby, and when I got there I got to play too. It was a ton of fun. I think I should play laser tag every day.

Especially when I get to shoot these particular kids.

---

On the way to work yesterday I ran out of gas. Not in the metaphorical/spiritual way, like "I don't have the energy to do this today" kind of thing.

No.

I literally ran out of gas. Or, I should say my car literally ran out of gas. How does this happen when you are 41 years old and Should Know Better™? I wonder the same thing.

I got in the car yesterday morning and my "your running out of gas" light was on, which comes on when the car has about 60 miles left of gas in it. The little display hickey told me I had 30 miles until I was truly out of gas.

But.

That is usually just a suggestion. You can usually get another 10 after it goes to the zero mark. I figured, eh... I'll get gas on the way home. I have plenty to get me to the office, get me back to Swampscott to the gas station.

I just wanted to get to work. This week has been chaotic, that morning had been chaos. The bus was 10 minutes late because we got 3 inches of unexpected snow overnight, and I just didn't want to have to get out and deal with getting the gas... feh.

So there I was. It told me I have 0 miles when I crossed into Marblehead. I should have had ... at least 10 on the display, but it went from 30 to 0 rather fast. I was kind of nervous, because Marblehead has no gas stations in the entire town (it is true. Not a single one. No gas stations. They all went out of business).

I was at the point of no return. I was in front of my coworker's house about a mile from the office when the car stalled. I had just enough forward momentum going to coast into her driveway and float to the bottom.

Car dead. Car has no gas. "Green car needs food badly!" it moaned at me when I tried to start back up.

Oh well. At least I had made it into MB's driveway! I called the office, she came and got me.

I win at life, don't I?

On top of the running out of gas mess, I had kind of a "how many things can you possibly screw up today?" kind of day.

Yesterday was the kind of day when you think to yourself that it would probably just be best for you and the entire human race if you turn around, go home, get back in bed.

The problem with that is that if you actually DID do that, your house would inexplicably fall down around you and you'll be killed. So it is best to stay out in the world and fight the battles needed to get through the stupidest day ever.

It was an enormous relief to get home, eat dinner, get into jammies and watch Andrew Zimmern and Anthony Bourdain and Michael Palin programs on my Tivo.

---

Today it is about negative a million outside ( that translates to 10 degrees in meteorological terms. Not hyperbolic terms).

Our French toast alert is at Elevated right now... We are expecting about 6 inches of snow tonight. Winter is not yet over in Northeastern MA, whereas some of you are progressing to spring already. I'm done with winter usually in about two weeks. I'm ready for spring. We've already taken the dogs to Salisbury Beach twice, on two rather unseasonably nicer days... and I'm ready to be able to do that a lot more, soon.

Well. On that note, Geoff is off to the bus, I'm off to work. Hopefully today won't be too full of the stupid.

My Liberry? I has it.

Alright. So thanks to several suggestions, I got the iTunes thing ironed out. Right now I'm listening to They Might Be Giants, doing their Alphabet of Nations, and a wicked awesome cover of the Allman Brothers Band's "Jessica." With accordions and bari-sax. That's hot.

Not only does it now believe me that all my music is out on the external drive, it let me buy things and downloaded them to the external drive, and as you can see here from the picture... it believes I have playlists. Special thanks to everyone who gave either advice or empathy. Both were well needed. I feel whole again. I feel like I accomplished something. And I especially want to thank Mr. N for calling with his guidance. Everything he said made sense, and it was exactly what I did, and now... ta-daaaa! So thank you, Mr. Neutron. You helped save the day. Indeed. (Heh. a 20 year old inside joke gets play on the journal. Will wonders never cease?)

My question now is, for you super geniuses out there... I have two folders with a dat and xml file in each. Which copies do I delete? I'm thinking the ones in the external are the ones that I delete, because I brought those over to the C drive to restore the recognition... but I don't want to mess it all up again. Does it harm/hurt/destroy anything to just leave the copies there in the other place and just say "fuggedaboudit?"

Do tell. Either way, I can now listen to TMBG ABC! and rock out to "E eats Everything." Yes. Yes I can.

---

In other news, I had to eat half a vacation day today because my daughter needed to go to a friend's house to work on a project. As I've mentioned, we live in a regional school district. Her friend lives like 10 miles away, two towns over, on the other side of the Merrimack River. Hardly walking distance, on any day ... not to mention on a 35 degree day.

I never ever thought I'd say this, but I'm looking forward to the day when Jess will be able to drive herself places.

Which, frighteningly enough, will be soon. Once she turns 16 she can take driver's ed. I don't know how they do it here in Massachusetts, but I do believe they are required to take classes from "professional" driver ed schools. Doug and I can't just teach her and she goes and takes her test. Which is how I think it should be, but in Massachusetts they like to make it cost you, big time.

I constantly see these cars from driving schools all over the place, and for years I never remembered seeing any with kids in them... just older ladies who need to get their licenses now.

I don't even think the schools offer it anymore (anyone with knowledge of how this works in MA, feel free to edumacate me).

My guess is she'll have to take classes there and do stuff with some doughnut-eating jerk teaching her, instead of her dad with mad driving skills. He'd take her to a big parking lot and say "This is how you do donuts in the wicked snow, and this is how you floor it to avoid the cops. Don't forget, when you whip into some stranger's driveway, hide on the other side of the big minivan and turn the lights off and DUCK DOWN IMMEDIATELY."

Not that we've ever had to do that. Forget I told you that.

Anyway. So someday soon, probably within a year, the girl will be a licensed menace, erm, driver... and that will open the next can of worms of "what car will she drive."

Good lord... I don't even want to start thinking about that.

And on that note... I'm off to bed. With my happy iTunes liberry, and my happy ears. And my nightmares about driving teenagers.

Ooooh! Speaking of nightmares -- I've been watching the Sarah Connor Chronicles, you know, the new Terminator thingy. And while I scoffed initially "oh please, why would anyone want to watch THIS!" I've been watching and enjoying and loving it. And last night had my first really really bad dream about terminator dudes and their scary assed glowing red eyeballs. It only took like 5 episodes. And now I'm petrified.

Jerks.

Website Design Mistakes...

There has not been an update from me, mostly because when I'm in this seat I'm busy doing updates to the Rebel website. Last summer I volunteered to redo the site and maintain it and update it and stalk, harass and hunt down alumni for updates and information because Keri is awfully busy. She agreed and we put the thoughts to bed until after the turn of the year here. A few weeks ago, I started redoing the layout and getting content put together and having her review things in a preview section of her site. We've been taking our time, gathering the info, refining, discussing... doing the site slowly.

This morning found me about 90% done with the core content. I got up at 10, scared up some coffee, checked my blogs, did some reading, sent some mail, played some Scrabulous, and then I made some changes to the pages. I uploaded what I'd done to the preview section... only it wasn't the preview section. It was the main site. In essence, I copied over the old alumni, index and schedule pages, and found I didn't have a backup of the old look and feel.

Uh. Ooops. Okay. Cardinal rule number one -- always have a backup of the old site. Duh?

Yikes.

So after trying to restore what used to be there, I figured it was God's way of telling me to go ahead and push the site, and finish what was undone NOW. From 11am to 4pm I was a website whirling dervish, cropping photos, writing, copying, moving stuff around. Jeeesh. I sent emails, got more content from the alumni who had agreed to give me updates, and notified Keri that I needed her to bless what was done. She hopped on and read and proof-read and critique and revised, emailing me in bursts and spurts. Alumni updates started rolling in... more cutting and pasting. Editing. Whipping stuff up, moving stuff around.

It all sounds so exciting, doesn't it?

I would say the site is still 90% done, and it isn't what I would have pushed, especially the alumni pages... seeing as I need to do a bunch of graphics stuff for each individual i page so they all have a side curtain with their old Rebel pictures. Keri has those photos. Unless they are in one of the two boxes of photos I have here.

If you'd like to see the new design, layout, and overall coolness of it all (and wouldn't mind pointing out misspellings and errors and the like) do click here. Feedback is appreciated. I like the page, I like how it looks. It has pretty pictures, and if theatre is anything... it is visual. Large, face-focused photos really make it pop for me. And I am having fun doing it. I also had a blast talking to alumni and getting their feedback. I can't wait to get their photos done on their individual pages so each one looks like Darcy Fowler's (go to the alumni page and click on her name).

Good times.

---

So, with all this work I've been doing on that, I haven't really had a minute to do... this. And that is really rather okay because there hasn't been anything really interesting to blog about and I so hate boring the crap out of you.

The major updates are limited. Craig is doing well after his surgery. Thank you again for caring and asking and praying for him. Work is work, the commute is still the suck. But the weather has been kind lately so the ride is back to just boring and not boring and snowy.

We've rifled through almost another whole cord of wood, which makes me worried. I wanted to just have two this year but we may end up buying a third if the cold keeps up. Geoff's guitar lessons are going okay. While I know he knows three chords it sounds like he knows what he is doing when I listen to him play and, as he calls it, "jam out old school." He's so cute. I look forward to the day when he is actually playing songs that I can recognize instead of just strumming and being noisy.

I received a lot of good advice about fixing my iTunes problem, but have yet to apply my brain to getting such a thing done. I'm hoping tomorrow or Monday, when I have the day off, to have the moment to do so and fix all of our problems. And -- thank you everyone for your suggestions. When I fix it I will be sure to write exactly HOW I fixed it, so you can make note of it, lest you find yourself in similar straits.

I guess that's it. The kids are on vacation this week upcoming, and unlike last year we are not going to Florida. Although, I can dream. And it strikes me that it feels like yesterday when I typed up our post-road trip report from that adventure. Where did this year go?

Lost my Liberry, Update on my Nephew

I bought an external hard drive last night and I think I've permanently screwed up my entire life, or at least the iTunes portion of life. Unless you, dear reader, have any sage suggestions.

My PC is about 5 years old. It is full. All 70 gb of storage is full. I keep burning stuff to CD to back it up and get it off the PC. I finally said "this is stupid" and went out and visited Staples. I bought 350 gb of storage space for 99 bucks. Hell, a whole new computer with that much storage space would cost me a pantload of money. This morning, I started pulling content over into the fresh new drive. I cleared off about 4 gb of stuff and could already feel the hard drive on my ole beastie thanking me.

Unfortunately, I'd dragged over the entire iTunes directory for our iTunes liberry. No problem, thought I, I will just open iTunes and tell it where my liberry lives. I changed the c:/blah blah blah/iTunes/iTunes music/ directory to f:/my music/iTunes/iTunes music and thought "that's that!"

But my iTunes liberry is empty. I rebooted the PC. It is still empty. So I moved the liberry back and told iTunes that it is back at c:/blah blah blah etcetera, but it doesn't like that.

It doesn't believe me. iTunes doesn't think I have a liberry anymore. And I'm pissed.

I went to work and was hella busy previewing next week's content and saying "That's What She Said!" a bunch of times with My Girl C (oh, how we laughed), and getting kicked out of the conference room where I preview so folks can have a meeting, and didn't have time to sit and look up what the deal was. All told, I'm confused. I hope that I can re-convince iTunes that my liberry does indeed exist, and make it SEE my content.

And Like I Said... any sage advice is appreciated. Jess has bought like 40gb of music over the last 5 years (and I've bought like 10 gb). So yeah. I turn to the greater community of those who know more, and ask your guidance. Help a sista out.

In the meantime, had I not done that I could say I'm 100% fully stoked, pleased and satisfied with the little external drive. Damn. It is fast as a thumbdrive, and holds buckets of stuff, and I'm moving shit over there and dancing a happy dance of happiness. So all told, it's not a bad thing. I just wish I had noticed what I was doing before I did it.

---

Many of you have dropped taunting little emails over the past few days asking if I'm still alive or not after the Patriots' stunning loss to the Giants.

Well, first off -- it's just a game. I've ranted on that before, back with the Red Sox and Manny being Manny and being 100% right in his attitude that it is just a game.

Second, I'm sad they lost, but to be honest, it was a hell of a good game. Knowing my brother in law was totally happy with it made me happy. And life goes on. I'm disappointed, it was shocking because I totally thought the Pats were a better team... but no one expected this, and no one gave the Giants any credit. So kudos to them. There's always next year.

I enjoyed spending the last five minutes on the phone with my sister, watching it with her. Both of us were like "oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no!" and freaking out totally, but we were together, even though we were miles apart. It was fun.

---

On Tuesday I went to vote.

Many of you did as well, I'm sure. I had a really hard time picking who I wanted to vote for, and seeing as I'm still registered Republican (thought I'd changed to Unenrolled when we changed our address, but I found I was mistaken when I walked up to the check in desk) I was left with choices I didn't relish. I won't get into details... it's not important.

The thing that was really surprising for me was that I had to wait in line.

See, we live in a really small town. Usually by 7pm you walk right up, tell them your name (and I think it is criminal that you don't have to show ID to vote but that is just one person's opinion...) and you vote and leave. There are about 6800 people in my town.

All of them were on line at 7pm when I showed up. Or, it felt that way. The line snaked around the building and almost to the library. Shocking!

I've never had to wait in a line longer than five people to vote in the 12 or so years I've lived here. I was excited to see people out voting. Most of the time less than 1000 of the nearly 6800 people who live here show up to vote, so I was really pleasantly surprised and happy to see about 2000 people had come before me.

Waiting in line was worth it. Although, if it is going to be like this for the actual presidential election in November, I'm going to volunteer to help. The line could have been managed better, they could have set it up slightly differently so that the line snaked around the inside of the building and people entered the hall from the BACK door, so folks could stand inside instead of outside. I would like to make some suggestions to my town on how to do things a tad better, more ... efficiently. And seeing as the average age of the volunteers is 90, perhaps having a 41 year old helper will inject a little life into the process. Those oldsters, they're nice and all but man are they slow. That's why the line was so long... there were 5 people inside voting, 900 outside waiting... 30 booths empty.

I'm gonna help out. This much I know.

---

In other news, I owe you an update on our boy Craig, our nephew.

His surgery went very well according to a very long and I won't share it without permission email from my sister in law.

So thank you all very much for the kind notes and emails and calls and comments about the little guy. I'm so happy to know that the greater community out there was praying for him and loving him and lifting him up over those days.

Pray for his continued healing, and that he won't have to do this again. Ever.

And at the same time, give thanks that it even can happen, that surgery like this can be done in this day and age...

I guess that's about it. This weekend we have Geoff's final Pinewood Derby. His car is painted and drying in the basement. We add the final touches tomorrow and take it to be weighed at 6pm. Race time is at 9am on Saturday. Geoff is just a couple of weeks away from finishing his Cub Scout career, and will bridge over to Boy Scouts on March 2nd... He's achieved all the necessary goals to reach the "Arrow of Light" in Cub Scouts, and then some. I must say I'm truly proud of him for sticking with this. 19 months ago he wanted to quit, wasn't taking it at all seriously, wouldn't take care of his uniform or anything, and now he's really back into it... I have a feeling we'll go back and forth a couple times over the next few years, but I'm hoping he'll stick with Boy Scouts for a while. He says he wants to Eagle. I'll be happy if he makes it to Star. Really happy.

Alright then... I guess that's about it. I'm off to bed. I'm incredibly exhausted and have the startings of a cold with sinus infection (Doug is in full-blown sinusitis right now) so I want to get some sleep. Last night all of those storms that wrecked Tennessee and Arkansas and Kentucky hit our neighborhood. All we got were thunderstorms mixed in sleet, hail, freezing rain. Lucky for us. I was worried about Keifel and Vic in their little corner of Nashville. The thunderstorms made the dogs bark and bark, for hours... it started at 11pm and they were still freaking out around 2am. I think I slept a bit in between thunderclaps and barks, so tonight I'm hoping for a deep, restorative sleep.

More later.