Daily Newspapers

Sunday morning....I get the paper from the driveway, pull out all the ads and junk I don't read, and settle down with a cup of coffee. It doesn't take long to read it, because most of the news has been on the internet already. I do the crossword puzzles and I'm done. Then it all goes into the recycling pile.

It seems to be a big waste of paper. I'm tempted to cancel the subscription. Yes, I'll be contributing to the death of print.

I'm curious: what's your opinion on the newspaper?

Declining Mental Function

I saw this in the news the other day:

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Declining mental function is often seen as a problem of old age, but certain aspects of brain function actually begin their decline in young adulthood, a new study suggests. The study, which followed more than 2,000 healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 60, found that certain mental functions -- including measures of abstract reasoning, mental speed and puzzle-solving -- started to dull as early as age 27. Dips in memory, meanwhile, generally became apparent around age 37. On the other hand, indicators of a person's accumulated knowledge -- like performance on tests of vocabulary and general knowledge -- kept improving with age, according to findings published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging.

So according to this article, at 37 you lose memory. At 27, mental speed.

I think we can go even further back. Roll back another 10 years. What about age 17? That's when you lose the ability to remember anything your mother has told you.

Or age 7? You lose the ability to pay attention (at least in the second grade classes I'm in).

Bus Tours

Living in a tourist location, we get a lot of bus tours going through town.


The Wine Country tours are very popular. Cycling tours are appearing more and more. The large generic tour buses are an everyday fixture. Just this morning one was parked outside the school! No, they weren't touring the school, they were photographing the church on the corner.


But the craziest tour I have seen is this: the Repo Home Tour. I am serious. I saw one of these parked downtown last Saturday.

What's the craziest thing you've seen lately?

The Good, the Bad and the Economy

Here's the "Bad" and the "Economy" part:

For 8 months in 2008, the Handy Husband was asked to participate in a voluntary salary deferral. The company had high expenses due to an ongoing lawsuit. They promised to repay the deferred salary at some future date, and offered $1 in stock options for every $1 of salary deferred. We looked at it as a forced savings plan, and he deferred 10% the first month and 20% for the months after. Happily for everyone, the lawsuit was settled to everyone's satisfaction and the deferral was stopped in October. However, by that time the economy was in the toilet so he has only had one month's deferral repaid so far. Now, because of the economic situation, they are asking for another voluntary deferral. Following the example of their board of directors, they are asking for 40% for two months from those who are able. Ouch. That's almost half. We can manage, by paying only the minimum on credit cards and the home equity line, but I hope it doesn't go on longer than two months!

In addition to that, I learned yesterday I am definitely being laid off as the school plans their worst-case scenario.

Here's the "Good" part:

At least he has a job! There's a lot of interest in the company's new product from parties that will be getting stimulus money. So their sales should take an upturn within a couple months.

As for me, I will also be the first aide rehired if the school scrapes up any additional funds.

But wait, there's a silver lining, and it's truly Excellent:

We are getting a big tax refund!!! W00T!!! The first thing I thought was: I can get the rest of my windows!

P.S. I'm not blogging this to get sympathy. We'll be fine. I just wanted to talk about what is really happening. The Bad and the Economy are happening everywhere. There are so many folks in a worse situation. One of my co-workers -- I just heard through the grapevine today her husband was laid off a few days ago. I assure you all, the Handy Husband and I are focused on the Good and the Excellent.

Non-Live Blogging Spring Break [Out]

"I went to a place. I'll be back at a time. Signed, People."

That's almost a word for word (to the best of my meager memory) quote of a note Frank left me some time last year. At that time it was a joke. Now it's the truth.

He went to a place. Lake Tahoe. "I threw a snowball when I got here." He went snowboarding. "I fell." "I did a face plant."

He'll be back at a time. First it was "Tues/Wed." Then it was "Wed/Thurs." So I called him tonight (Wed.). "I'm in San Francisco. I'm at an Expendables concert. I have a place to stay."

OK, bearing in mind that I went to L.A. a lot in the late 70s without telling my mother about it, I guess I'm lucky to have these small tidbits of information. Although I know what I did [stalk Barbra Streisand's house, visit her sister's bakery, see James Caan at a mini-mart], which wasn't so bad at all.

I'm glad he's having a good time. I've been able to go hours, almost days, without fretting. That's a good thing.

But next week is my spring break. (The HH has to work.)

And I think I want to break loose. Break out. Break free. (Monday I have dental work. My sympathies to the Matron.) After that, my idea of breaking out is to get a massage.

Do you have any other suggestions for my spring break [out]?

Because I'm not really good at this break thing. Even the work break is looking freaky to me right now.

Separated at Birth?

Separated at birth? Or is this the perfect mate?

Photos from Yahoo News and mascotcartoon.com.

Shopping Expedition

Yesterday we made the trek to a bigger town. The reason? Ernest's growth spurt. I already talked about his shoe size. And since he also grew 4-5 inches and gained 20 pounds in the last year, he needed new pants desperately.

So we hit: TJMaxx - for size 16 khaki pants @ $16.99; Ross for size 18 Slim stonewashed black jeans @ $12.99, and Walmart for 2 pairs of size 29/30 (the smallest man size) house brand black jeans @ $10.50 each. LOVE THOSE PRICES!!! But the sizes? He's in that no man's land between boys' and mens' sizes where things are really hard to find.

We found nothing at Target, although the handy husband picked up some of what he called "manties" (briefs) for himself. I made him Google search manties when we got home -- and he's definitely not calling them that any more!

I know some of you (2 links there) have seen your share of odd people at Target. My trip to Target was uneventful, but I found my person at Walmart!


As we left Walmart, a woman with a cartload of bags came up to us. "Can you give me a ride to my motel on Broadway?" she demanded. I said, "No" I don't give rides to bossy strangers "Sorry, we're not done shopping yet." As we walked past her, she muttered something which I didn't catch, but the HH did: "You people in this town are just awful." Afterwards, we wondered to ourselves...how did she get to Walmart in the first place and why couldn't she get back the same way.

To reward ourselves for surviving 4 stores, we had a nice steak dinner at a great old restaurant.


How was your weekend?

Dreams That Need to Go Away

Ernest has quite a lot of a little trouble waking up in the morning. It doesn't help when he lies down again to pet the cat. This morning he said, "I just dreamed I was awake." He was really disoriented by that.

The Handy Husband was talking in his sleep, but doesn't remember what it was about.

And I've had some rather odd dreams lately.

1. I dreamed I'd lost Ernest at Disneyland. This was one of my classic frustration dreams. No one would help me. I tried to call him but there was no speed dial memory...I had to press the buttons on a teeny tiny phone (which Ben Stiller movie was that in?) and failed every time. It seemed like real life to me.
2. That same night there was a second frustration dream, but I don't remember it any more. It was probably worse. If I remember it, I'll update the post.
3. The next night....OK,this is really disgusting, so just imagine how I felt while I was dreaming it: I was "passing gas" but not from the place it would normally come from, it was from the female place. So I went in the bathroom, and literally gave birth to a giant yellow chile pepper, and some baby peppers. At this point I knew I was dreaming. But WHY about this??????

Please give me an unconscious night tonight!

What have you dreamed about lately ?

My Whiny Woe is Me Wednesday

I was going to write this whiny, woe is me post:

I woke up at 4:30 a.m. The handy husband was talking in his sleep. Most of it was unintelligible: "Mrrf, mrraf, what? Mrrk, mmrrrf, who are you?" I don't know what he was dreaming about. His alarm rang at 5:00, he left at 5:30 (lots of things to do at work.) meanwhile I am tossing and turning...dying to go back to sleep but unable to. At 6:30 I gave up and got up. At 8:00 I got a phone call from another aide. Sick kids, can I cover her upper campus recess and lunch duty? Ick - 8th graders. (Ernest is in 7th -- he doesn't count, but I hardly ever see him up there as he hangs out in the band room.) So I wondered, Will it be that kind of day? What will happen next?

But later today I saw this..."Everything's amazing and no one's happy:" (Thanks, Mrs. Brightside! And go here and read Barb's post.)



So I should really stop complaining. But I'm still going to leave the whine in there. Because it's a fine whine. Vintage.

Tuesday Tidbits

How can you have a peace conference, invite other Nobel peace prize winners, and exclude the Dalai Lama?

And on the homefront, Frank is going on SPRING BREAK. Unsupervised. Sigh. He is driving (in our truck) a group of friends to someone's parents' house at Lake Tahoe. Naively, I thought my parenting worries would go away when he was 18. Because when I was 18, I stopped worrying about what my mother thought. Now I know, it doesn't go both ways. (Not that I EVER did anything bad, except have a boyfriend. Who I am still married to, by the way. Well, I certainly turned that tidbit into something all about me. But as I always say, it's MY blog.)

OK, the rest of the tidbits are not serious.

I thawed some shrink-wrapped Costco salmon pieces in a bowl of water.
Ernest: "Are you trying to revive the fish?"
Smalltown Mom: "Yes, are they swimming yet?"

That paper Ernest had to write? He got an.....A.

Some third graders told me there was bird poop on their table. Let me tell you, I know what bird poop looks like. I've cleaned up lots of it. This was no bird poop. It was white frosting mixed with oreo crumbs. I should have grossed them out and tasted it, but you never know where it's been.



So how was your Tuesday?

The Junk Pile

I had a pile like this, although it fit into a much smaller box. Actually, I think it fit into a coffee mug. Eventually I threw it away. Guess what happened? We put the glass doors on an old TV cabinet and found we needed one of the things that used to be in the junk pile. C'est la vie.

Here's my new pile.


The item with the hand is a large button I picked up somewhere -- I should put it in my button jar. The gold key looks important, like it fell off of someone's musical instrument. The gold bead I have just identified as a bauble from a piece of my clothing. Sometimes, screws and things make their way home in the Handy Husband's pocket. But where did that big black hunk of plastic come from?

On the other hand, the dish of change lying around on my husband's dresser was worth $36. Yes, Thirty-Six. Real. Dollars. Whoo-Hoo. If only I could get my hands on Frank's change collection. I hear it fills up 3 Snapple bottles.

So what's lying around your house that you'd like to talk about?

Signs of Spring 2009

A week ago, we fought the brown thumb disease and planted some ivy geraniums in our long-empty hanging baskets.

It's time for me to change the seasonal artwork.

Here's the spring Chinese print.

But what to hang in the dining room?

Here are some of my watercolors.

Another acrylic from when I was 12.

Ernest has a couple of entries, too.

This beautiful one is framed already. The artist was my BFF's mother.

So what should I hang? I need a poll here.

Vote for my Spring Artwork! What should my spring artwork be? Lily Geranium Lupin Stream Fence Pointillistic Path Daisies view results

Universal Studios, or The Theme Park Photo Timeline

Our excursion on Monday was to Universal Studios. Little did we know, everyone else in the world had the same teacher in-service day off. Normally the lines are pretty short there (that's why I like it) but not this time. We had a good time, anyway.

We rode the new Simpsons ride for the first time. It is way cool. Don't click on this YouTube video if you don't want to see what happens. I warned you!







Going to Universal has become a family tradition that Frank and I started with our first trip in February 1998. (Short hair on both of us!)



Ernest first joined us in 2001.


We even got the HH to come along in 2007.


This year, we invited nephew McQueen.


Look at how fast those boys grow up. Ernest is significantly taller than me now. Sniff.

A Little Blarney for St. Patrick's Day

A highlight of our trip to Ireland was going to Blarney Castle. It was a long bus ride from Dublin, but totally worth it. And we were happy not to be driving on all those roundabouts.

Approaching the castle.

The white stuff on the ground?



Frost. Lots of it. It was COLD!




Wow.



You don't say:




Yep, all the way up there:



There was a warning...something about falling rocks. We didn't care.



The stairs going up were very narrow.

The handrail was a vertical rope.

Thank goodness for the rope.

The view from the top was incredible.

A good view of the frost from up here.

The Handy Husband made it too, even though he doesn't like heights.

He doesn't look too disturbed.



OK, here we go.



I assume the position.



And voila, I have kissed the Blarney Stone!
The Handy Husband chose not to.
I don't think he would have enjoyed hanging upside down like that.



The stairs down were bigger, and had a real handrail.



And of course, there was a pub to warm up in afterwards.

Whoopee, a Day Off!

Calloo callay, oh frabjous day!

Ernest and I have the day off, due to a teacher in-service day.

Hopefully, we are heading off to do something fun. But I don't want to jinx it because the last time we planned this, something else came up.

No comments here today. Please visit my previous post and say hello to my Beloved Niece.

But I beg you, do come back tomorrow. For St. Patrick's Day I will have pictures from our trip to Blarney Castle.

Welcome to Multitasking Mom on the Go

My Beloved Niece is blogging again.

She tells the truth of her busy life with a sense of humor. This goes back a long ways. Like when she was 3, she came over to my house and told my mom how messy it was. And she was adorable. And we laughed over that for years, because it was the absolute TRUTH.

In the years since, she has been not only my niece but also my little sister and my best friend.

I know for a fact that she is an awesome mother. I know this because she practiced trained on my own children. She nannied Frank during that difficult summer of almost-age-3 when he refused to be potty trained. And later, she crazily still came back for more, nannying both boys (at ages 8 and 2) and literally saving my life when I was pinched in that sandwich generation. And not just a sandwich, but a Dagwood sandwich: (2 young children, working full time, commuting, an elderly mother and an even more elderly aunt who didn't know where she was anymore).

I was once more truly grateful when she and her husband decided to move back to our small town last year. When she talks about their garden...that's the house I grew up in but they keep a much better garden now. And a much cleaner house!

Anyway, she is Mom on the Go at Multitasking. Give her some bloggy love...you'll enjoy her and she'll appreciate your company.

And just so you know: Constant Comet = McQueen. Busy Bee = Mr. Thomas. Well, of course he's a bee. I have proof.

The Cost of Living, or is it Friday the 13th Already?

Strangely, our family maintenance costs have been really high this month. And it's only the 13th. Friday the 13th. Ba-ba-ba. Cha-cha-cha. (You know that soundtrack.)***

Every one of us, including the CATfor goodness sakes, has been to the dentist at least once this month. The HH goes back on the 20th for a crown or two. I go back in April (yay, I don't have to add it to March's bills) for the last 1/4 of my major mouth rework. Both boys had cleanings. Floss, dammit! I told them the cat had to have 3 teeth pulled because she didn't floss. (Even monkeys can floss.)

The cat: $223.75 for her exam + bloodwork, and $387.88 for the dentistry. ($611.63, added the old-fashioned way with pen and paper because it was faster than finding a calculator.) For the cat. Because she's 17 and a half and we love her.

And then there was the car: $256.32 for routine maintenance, and then unexpectedly $1303.95 for an incident with a box spring on the freeway. I've been "told" to call the insurance company about that one, but since the youngest driver was driving I'm not too sure about that. I'd rather they didn't know. Please don't tell!

***Ooooh, I've been corrected by YouTube. Look for the little info box that pops up:



So I think I'm going to have a really good Friday the 13th today because I'm not really superstitious. And because all this already happened.

The "10 Things I Like Beginning with The Letter..." Meme

I got this meme from Vanessa. Name 10 things I like,
all beginning with the letter she assigned me: P

In no particular order:

Pooh, my favorite thing to watch on a blustery day

Pickles...many kinds.

Pirates

Purple and Petals

Patchwork and Pillows

photo from PrimroseDesign.com (but I bought the pillow)

Pom and Perrier. Hey, where did that vodka come from?

It looks like it's time to make Oprah's Pomegranate Martinis.

Pearls --whether real or fake, you just can't have too many.

If you want to play too, leave a comment and I'll assign your letter.

Emo

There's hundreds of definitions of "emo" on Urbandictionary.com and I'm not about to read them all, but I don't think this is one of them.

This gas station in Ireland was Emo.

TeePeed

Saturday evening I noticed some taillights moving slowly away from our house. I opened the front door and this is what we saw.

We think it was some of Frank's friends. They have that type of sense of humor. And Ernest's friends can't drive yet.

My Norwegian aunts would have rolled it up and reused it. I'm just not THAT frugal.