Sometimes my husband cracks me up. He came into the room, saying, "I know what came first: the egg." Thinking he had read something scientific, I asked, "Why?"
"Because I had scrambled eggs for breakfast, just had quiche for lunch, and we'll be having chicken for dinner."
If you ate the chicken and eggs together, you'd have a Mother and Child Reunion. (Seriously, Paul Simon named that song after a dish in a Chinese restaurant.)
Later...the handy husband had to leave me alone with the chicken on the barbecue for a few minutes, to deal with a minor plumbing issue...I fear I burnt it a little. Hey, barbecuing is HIS job. That barbecue is hot -- now I have a pink spot on my arm.
So here we are at 26! As with Frank's birthday, the year just flew by. Where did it go? I don't even have a decent picture of the two of us together this last year. That's always a problem when I am the one taking the pictures. I hope one of the boys will take a picture of us before we go out to dinner. We're going to Root 246. My niece recommends the chili dog, but I said "Chili dog? On my anniversary? I don't THINK so." Burp! And the kids? Although they have demonstrated that they are capable of cooking, they'll probably get pizza.
So President Obama and David Letterman were joking about a heart shaped potato? We had one, a long time ago.
Oh my, isn't little Ernest adorable? He was three and and a half. His talking Franklin toy was cute, too. Sometimes, Franklin would say, "I love fly pie!" And Ernest and I would crack up. Ernest would squeeze Franklin over and over, to get him to say the fly pie line and make me laugh. Sigh.
Last year I commemorated Frank's 18th birthday here, here and here. And now it's a year later. Funny how a year flies by.
The plans for the day include breakfast with the family (including cousins and grandparents), and dinner out at a Greek restaurant.
The cake? Once again, he said "surprise me." He really shouldn't do that -- it gives me far too much chance for mischief. So his cake this year...shh, don't tell him (I don't think he reads my blog)...isn't going to be a cake at all!
I know the schools are short money. I donated a lot in the spring, to help fund the music and art programs.
But it's getting a little draining.
Now it's the annual gift wrap fundraiser. I don't want any gift wrap or cookie dough, thank you very much. I'm trying to reduce the clutter, not add to it. Oh, the guilt. So I made another donation.
Next week, there is a spaghetti feed. After participating in one a few years ago (cooking pounds of spaghetti in the evening, delivering it to school the next morning, and eating it reheated that evening) I am a little squeamish about that, too. [I felt comfortable eating at Mr. Thomas's pre-school spaghetti dinner because I knew there was a professional in the kitchen!] Maybe another donation instead?
And yet to come, still more fundraising for the 8th grade trip. Each child is supposed to volunteer 20 hours of time for bake sales, car washes, etc. There is a RUMOR that if the child is involved in some other kind of community service, he/she can count those hours instead.
Hello? I hope so. Ernest has already amassed over 200 (TWO HUNDRED, that's right) hours volunteering at the zoo this summer. He's got a personal goal of another 75 to go by the end of the year, to reach a cumulative total of 500 hours over the last 2 years. Something nice will happen if he makes it! This is one motivated child.
Jenn is student teaching in first grade. And she was worried about shoe tying.
I started to comment on her post and it got too long..thankfully, that's what a blog is for!!!!!!!!!
My latest assignment as an aide is several [still waiting for a schedule!] first grade classrooms. We've had three full weeks of schools so far and I am FULL OF STORIES.
Quite a few of them still can't tie their shoes. And, I am sad to say, there have been a few second graders also!!!! Perhaps because they wore velcro too long? I think velcro is great for Pre-K and probably for Kindergarten. [But I don't know for sure -- maybe Mr. Thomas can give me the lowdown sometime.] One first grader consistently has untied shoes. EVERY DAY! ALL THE TIME!! Does he come to school like that? His brother was the same way last year.
Muddy shoes were an issue last week, until I moved the soccer goal! My 8th grader was disturbed when I told him I had been cleaning mud out of a 1st grader's shoes. "You shouldn't have to do that," he cried. Him with the elephant poo on his shoes.
So there are my shoe stories. How about you?
Anything interesting happening with shoes in your world? (Jen's found some more cute Crocs.)
Parents of young children, do not despair. Soon they will grow up and you will find yourselves with unexpected evenings free, although the timing may not be good.
We thought everyone would be home tonight. However... Frank's drummer friend called, said a really good guitar player was coming over and could Frank (bass) come too (35 miles away). So he's gone. And Ernest's friend called...could he come over...yes, he could eat there (because I haven't even started dinner yet). Ernest's riding his bike but we don't have enough C batteries for his bike light so he will stop at the hardware store on his way.
You'd think this would be a green light for a lovely romantic dinner, but ...I'm sneezing and the HH's car project has been enticing seducing bugging obsessing keeping him busy him all day and he is in the garage, all filthy and sweaty.
Ernest had even more zoo volunteering to do this weekend: the ZooBQue tonight, and zoo theater tomorrow morning. So I said, I'll take you there, but we're spending the night so I don't have to get up so early on Saturday!
Just a few minutes ago we were IMing each other across the motel room and feeling very silly about that. And then the power went out! Now it's back on, but HBO has disappeared from the TV. This motel is much nicer than where the Handy Husband and I stayed last weekend! I've got pictures of that, I've just been too lazy to post them.
My plans for tomorrow: sleep late while Ernest walks to the zoo (we are THAT close!) at 8 a.m., shop, go out to lunch, and see a movie. It should be a nice day, and somewhat cooler. I know this because Ernest checked out the weather on his iPod.: "I love wi-fi SO MUCH!" he said.
Can someone explain to me why I have two teenage sons yet I am the one with pimples on my chin?
Why did my cat become addicted to turkey lunch meat, then inexplicably refuse to eat it?
And why, when I was perfectly happy to be laid off, did I not only get rehired but now have come across two other possible jobs? -- accounts payable at my husband's office, and administrative assistant at a local museum. (I am inclined to keep my status quo because I do love my summer vacations.)
My husband and I love concerts. His first, at age 14, was the Allman Brothers. He was my first took me to my first, Blue Oyster Cult. Both at Rob Gym, UCSB. (Sidetrack...Who else did we see there? The Tubes! Anyone remember The Tubes??? "What Do You Want From Life?")
So we were really pleased when our kids got old enough to drag along (we started them early, at 10 or 11), because let's face it: theme parks get old after a while. We've taken our sons to a lot of great shows, but it's been a while since our last major concert.
We were supposed to see Aerosmith last Sunday, but you know what happened.
Thankfully, seeing Green Day Tuesday night made up for that. Although, if I'd know we weren't going to see Aerosmith I would have bought more expensive (closer) seats for Green Day.
Frank had a ticket for the floor. (We had an extra ticket for a friend of his, who couldn't go, and Frank did not find anyone else to take the ticket. Maybe he should have asked harder.) The rest of us had real seats...because my feet get tired! I have no commentary on Frank's experience, except he didn't get trampled and he got back to the car before we did.
The show opened promptly at 8:00 with Franz Ferdinand, from Scotland. Not a group I'd ever listened to before, but they were great. There were random explosions (probably from testing Green Day's pyrotechnics) which made everyone jump, a toilet paper blower (I hope the folks who have TPd us don't get one), and even bagpipes at the end.
Green Day took the stage at 9:11 and they TOOK OVER. This was their last US show, and I have never heard a band express so much pleasure over their audience ("this is the most people we've had on the floor the whole tour") and their location ("Los Angeleez!"). Billie Joe said they were going to play all night and they did, literally, till midnight. So much for getting home early!
My husband says: "I loved the cadence of his voice and his crunchy, hard guitar." I don't review the music...it was great. You can find lots of clips on YouTube. These are from Tuesday's show. No doubt there will be more later.
The audio on this one is not great, but...what the heck...
This show was ALL ABOUT audience participation. I've never been to a show where so many people were encouraged to crawl up on stage. The security guards, instead of pushing people back, were pulling people up onto the catwalk to dance and prance. Some audience members got special treats: two kids were pulled up to be saved, a boy sang a whole song, and a supposedly 21-year old long-haired blond guitarist, after downing an entire beer, played on Jesus of Suburbia. He was so good, I thought he was a plant! But there's a video of another show, with someone completely different, so I think it's legit.
I met another mom in the frisk line (they were seriously patting us down). Her daughter was 11, it was her first concert, and the mom thought she was old enough to tolerate the "f-bombs." Yes, Billie Joe said FUCK a lot. Constantly! But not in an insulting way like Ozzy.
Summary: We had a great time, I hope I've written something coherent because I'm still functioning on less than 4 hours of sleep, and I'm surprised we couldn't find someone to take the extra ticket. "I don't like Green Day," was the common answer.
I say: "Keep an open mind and you might have a great time!"
Frank's mini is back home, all fixed. He washed the truck in preparation for our trip yesterday afternoon. Did I mention we saw Green Day last night????
I had a good day at school. Ernest's mood definitely improved. I picked him up early, because did I mention we went to Green Day??? Where the boys did their back-to-school shopping: concert t-shirts.
I'll post on the show later. It was great!
Now Ernest and I are going to drag our sleepy selves (only 4-4.5 hours sleep) to school.
And the first day of school ends... MY day was fine.
The ThirteenYearOld???? Comes home, procrastinates, complains, says he's forgotten how to write, delays, snarks, snaps, and is totally unlike the lovely person I kindly drove around all summer. This person? A stranger I don't want to know. Time for bed, because we have a really long day tomorrow.
