Jan 26thWords

I have one word for Shadowfever – WOW! A great ending to a great series.

The most overused words during the month of January – vitriolic rhetoric. Just typing them makes me want a shower and a ten-day dose of antibiotics.

Speaking of antibiotics, I was just hours away from making a doctor’s appointment for a sinus infection. But then I remembered B2 never took any of her antibiotics after she had her dental implant. So appointment averted and sinus infection is gone.

B2′s team lost their basketball game last night. B1′s team won by two points. It was an awesome game and if I was a fingernail-chewer, I’d have nubs right now. B2 had 1 pt. and B1 had 3 pts.

B4 got a letter from the school last week stating that he needed a haircut. So, do you think he actually handed the letter to me? HECK NO. The school called today and told me I had to come and pick him up to get him a haircut. I was driving B3 to the dentist when they called and then I was supposed to go to work. Well, that school is not “yankin my chain” like that. If they want the parents to actually get the haircut notice, they might want to follow-up with an email.

So, B4 has to sit in “in school suspension” until I pick him up at 2 pm to get to the dentist where he will get two teeth pulled. Now, he had to get these teeth pulled soon, but today was good day for me.

I’m moving along on the ghost story. I’ll update my word count after I type the red ink changes tonight, while B3 is a volleyball.

B3′s volleyball team hasn’t won one game this year. Not even a set. It’s painful and hubby refused to go and watch last Sunday. It’s not as brutal with the IPOD. They don’t seem to suck as bad to music.

Time to wrap this up and get moving. Have a wonderful day everyone!

Jan 21stGot the FEVER!

 It came yesterday, but I had to go to a basketball game. But tonight it’s just me, the book and my comfy sweatpants.

Jan 19thWoman Gone Crazy??

Someone found my blog while searching “woman gone crazy”. Okay GOOGLE, what are you trying to say?

I’ve had it with my wireless mouse. They work great for a few months and then they start to freeze up. This is the third combo of wireless mouse/keyboard I’ve been through. Of course, it freezes when one of the kids is trying to print something the morning before it’s due and they’re freaking out. It goes without saying that they should have tried to print it the night before.

My last trip to Best Buy resulted in a USB wired mouse and a wired ergonomic keyboard. Yep, it’s back to the stone age for me. I’m on the fence about this keyboard though. The space key keeps sticking and I’m getting a bruise on my thumb. I hope it works itself out soon.

I finally made a decent batch of fried chicken over the weekend. Now, I thought I could always make fried chicken . . . until the nanny who used to work for us when the kids were little made some fried chicken. Now that was fried chicken. Ever since, I’ve been trying to master her recipe and finally Sunday I achieved it. I fried twenty-two drumsticks, thinking it would last two meals. Hey, if I’m going to use that much vegetable oil I may as well use it well. It didn’t last for two meals, maybe a meal and an evening snack. The trick – garlic and Old Bay – just a touch into the wet batter and not the flour made the difference. Yes, I am Julia Childs!

Tonight B3 has volleyball and I have to do some laundry. I have to make a CVS run while she’s practicing. It’s a good thing I excel at multitasking.

I have a blog article and a column I need to get working on. I also need to type three handwritten pages of the ghost story. We’ll see.

Jan 18thHOW DARE YOU!!!

First of all, MR. KOJO NANTAMBU, Charlotte IS NOT A BASTION OF RACISM. YOU NEED TO TAKE THAT BACK! See article here.  You keep making an issue where none is.  Are the Jewish communities or the War Veterans protesting their holidays being used as snow make-up days. I haven’t heard.  All I’ve heard is your hateful speech about how bad Charlotte is. Char-Meck schools spends $1.30 for every minority student in CMS for every $1.00 spent on white students. Racists???? Really???? And now you’re asking for boycotts of national events to the Charlotte area??? Well, Mr. Smarty-pants, it won’t hurt me because my job isn’t in the restaurant, hospitality, travel or airline industry but many people do have jobs there. People of all ethnic backgrounds. You say you want to help minorities? I’m calling bullshit! I think you just want to be on the front page of the newspaper, get your ugly mug on television and your hateful speech on radio clips.  If you want to see a “bastion of racism” look in the mirror!

Jan 15thI Miss Blockbuster Video!!!

Am I the only one who doesn’t have their TV hooked up to the internet and a subscription to Netflix? The internet connection is right below the television, but it’s yet to be connected. I’m not even holding out for anything, I just haven’t done it yet.  Yeah, we bought a movie on demand, but it’s just not the same – for me anyway.

I miss loading the kiddos into the car and driving to the local Blockbuster. I miss them talking me into two movies and a video game when I told them before we even left the house that we were only getting one movie. I miss them begging me for candy and when I said no because we had a boat-load at the house, they’d ask me for a quarter for the gum-ball  machine at the exit. Heck I even miss finding those same rentals stashed in someone’s bedroom at 9 pm on the day they’re due and racing off to turn them in so I didn’t have to pay the late fee.

It was a short-lived weekend tradition that is now gone. Remember VHS vs. BETA and does anyone remember Erol’s in Northern Virginia? They were huge!

Sometimes I wonder if the internet has taken away as much as it has given.  As a teenager I used to love to go the music store at the mall and flip through the album covers just for the artwork. I remember being in 8th grade and the cover art for the Cars debut album Candy-O was shocking!

I’m feeling old so I’m going to stop reminiscing about the good ole’ days.

Today was typical – laundry, laundry and more laundry. I did take my truck to the car wash and I cleaned the crap out of the bathroom. I hadn’t cleaned it in two weeks and it was so gross I had to break out the super-duty scratch pad and a hard bristle toothbrush. No joke.

I also read a bunch of submissions for the Scruffy Dog Review. The quality of stories and poetry has been really good lately and I’ve turned down stories that only two years ago, I would have probably accepted.

B1 is home tonight. Let me clarify this – my seventeen-year-old is lying on the couch watching a movie with his twelve-year-old brother and thirteen-year-old sister. He’s not grounded or anything either. UHMMMM . . .  B2 went to a charity fashion show uptown with a friend and hubby is watching some game at a friend’s house.

Well, I’d better go check on the laundry. Have a great rest of the weekend.

Jan 13thFeeling better . . .

I guess. The nausea gone as are the chills. The stomach pain is still hanging around and I’m suspecting a gall bladder issue. The pain is always there, I’ve just lived with it, but yesterday was too much. I haven’t eaten much but grapefruit and tomato soup in a day and a half. I’ll see if it gets worse after I wolf down these two chili dogs!

I don’t want to go to the doctor. It will mean surgery. I’ve had two laser laps before and I HATE THEM! It’s actually a fast recovery but the gas they use to perform the surgery causes unbearable pain as it dissipates out of the body through the shoulders.

The ice and snow are s-l-o-w-l-y melting but at least the kids had school today, even if they were on a two-hour delay. Hubby couldn’t get to Mobile, Alabama so he took them this morning.

A funny thing happened at work . . . I seem to be getting caught up. Something’s wrong. I can’t put my finger on it, but the bottom is bound to drop out soon.

My truck is filthy and it smells like dirt. Tomorrow is payday so it’s off to the Auto Bell for me! I’m also out of washer fluid and my windshield is grimy.

Writing is going slow, but steady. I must get back into a routine.

This week is finals at the high school.  I’m surprised B1 has finals since all of his classes ARE IN THE GYM. Slacker. He does have an AP Government final. B2 is sweating her Biology Honors final, but she seriously doesn’t give herself enough credit. She’s a smart girl, regardless of how blond she is.

B1 got accepted into the Engineering Program at East Carolina University. We’re still waiting for his North Carolina State response which is due by 1/30 and Appalachian State response and then he’ll make a decision.

Well, I’d better get moving. Have a wonderful evening.

Jan 12thI’m hoping it’s viral

Something hit me today right before lunch and hit me hard. I’m achy, feverish and violently nauseous. I drove home and went straight to bed. I’m hoping it’s just a twenty-four-hour bug.

No reading, no writing, no nothing.

Jan 10thSlippin’ and a Slidin’

New Michelin tires – $850.00, Fill up gas tank – $55.42, Cost of gas on a 4WD for an entire year, just in case you might actually need to use it – $1,300,042.00 (kidding I don’t know how much it is), and not pissing your pants when you bust your ass on the marble tile floor in the building lobby – PRICELESS! I’m going to be really sore tomorrow and thankfully no one was around when I took the spill. We had about an inch of snow and of course school is canceled. It will probably be canceled tomorrow as well.

B4 has already texted me to go to a friend’s house and asked if B1 could drive. Heck NO! It’s still snowing and I’ll probably be leaving work at lunchtime. It’s suppose to start raining and icing over this afternoon. 

Good news is the latest issue of THE SCRUFFY DOG REVIEW is out! I had a few glitches with the upload but I think I ironed those out about 6 am this morning.  I think it looks pretty good. It’s turned into a monster at 92 pages.

I didn’t get to the ghost story as the SDR took up much of my weekend, tweaking, formatting, uploaded and repeat. Same with the mountain of laundry.

B3 had a volleyball game on Sunday.  She played well but her team is really, really awful. She never gets rotated out.

I’m so sad to hear about the shootings in Arizona and I hope the senator makes a speedy and full recovery. That guy needs to fry for what he’s done, especially for killing a nine-year-old girl. No insanity plea for him! What a selfish ass. “Yes, I’m going to make a name for myself and I don’t care which innocent life I have to take to get on the 6 o’clock news and into eternal infamy”.  What a selfish bastard!  I listed to her mother speak on the news last night and I tell ya, she’s handling the death of her daughter much better than I ever would. It’s so sad.

Well, since I’m leaving at lunchtime I suppose I’d better busy.

Jan 5thI’m such a slacker!

I’m such a slacker. I got home late from B1 and B2′s basketball game at South Meck and didn’t work out this morning. But I did yesterday!  B2′s team won but B1′s team lost. It was the worst I’d ever seen his team play.

B3 was supposed to have a laser procedure at the orthodontist this morning to cut some of her gum back from an erupting tooth so they could put a bracket on it and yank it down, but the tooth wasn’t quite where they wanted it to be and soooo, we have to go back at the end of March and try again.  I left work at 10 am to get her to the appointment, worked at the orthodontists’s office (love the free wifi!) and then finished up some stuff at home.

The gray skies today have my head pounding. Coffee and ibuprofen usually kills the pain, but not today.

I’m on the fence about Fed Ex. Sony shipped the playstation back requiring a signature at the time of delivery and I completely understand why they do. But Fed Ex’s first delivery attempt was at 8:55 am.

So I called their customer service number and asked them when the next delivery would be. I explained that I worked outside the home during the day and that an evening delivery would be awesome. The lady on the other end was nice, but refused to nail down a block of time when the driver could attempt delivery again. She only said that it would some time the following day.

I told her politely, yet matter-of-factly that UPS usually delivers residential packages in the evening when people who work outside their home are actually AT HOME to sign for deliveries and asked why Fed Ex couldn’t do the same.  Wouldn’t that make more sense? She said she understood but still couldn’t give me a time. So, I got a little irate and told her that it was unreasonable to expect people to take a vacation day from work just to wait for a delivery and asked her if SHE would like to have to take a vacation day to wait for a delivery. Of course she said no. I thanked her for her time and hung up. About a half an hour later my package arrive and I signed for it.  So, while it was a bit painful, I did get the service I wanted.

UPS has their own problems.  The company I work for recently switched from UPS to Fed Ex, but before Fed Ex went live and UPS was still transporting our stuff but knew we were switching, all of my international shipments coming from Japan and Europe mysteriously went on Customs hold. Coincidence? I highly doubt it.

The ghost story threw me in a little different direction yesterday and I had to do some research regarding 13th century Scotland. Of course I just hate researching historical events.

B1 and B2 have a basketball game tonight at a school which isn’t in the safest area in town. In fact there was gunfire at a football game there last fall. In the wake of the Nebraska school shooting today, I’m a little nervous. I can’t go because B3 has volleyball out at Carolina Courts, so they’ll have to ride the activity bus back. B2 will get back earlier that B1 even though the both play varsity, so I’ll be driving quite a bit.  I’ll be happy when they’re both back on this side of town.

I have what I’m calling “Shrinking Brenda” goals.  By the end of January, I want to be back in a size 8, by February be in a size 6 and by March be in a size 4. Right now I’m a size 10 but loose. Believe me, I have all these sizes in my closet. Having hypothyroid, I’ve found there is not much correlation between what I eat and how much I weigh. There are weeks where I could eat fast food everyday for every meal and not gain a pound and there are weeks where I could eat a pea and drink five gallons of water and gain 20 pounds. The smileys are my tracking mechanism. If I’m on goal, I get a smiley face and if not, well I don’t. Kind of the gold star thingy. Today I get a .

Jan 3rdBack to work!

Today it was back to the old routine for all of us, except B3 and B4. Of course B4 found a way to get grounded again. One of these days he’s going to realize that the “friends” he’s chosen aren’t really friends at all. Parasites, users, ticks. Darned that child!

Today started with 40 minutes on the elliptical. I took a two week break when the kids were out of school and man oh man did I pay for it this morning.

Hubby got up a 5:30 am to leave for the week and B1 and B2 had school. B3 chilled at home and B4 . . . well . . . let’s just say he’s going to watched like a hawk for a long time to come.

Day job was bad but please see Goal #3 to the left – I didn’t sweat any of it. Got some good words in on the ghost story.

B1 had an early basketball practice and then he’s going to the gym with his friends to play more basketball. I have to pick B2 up at 7 pm and then get B3 to volleyball at 7:30 pm. Everyone was on their own for dinner but there was a huge salad in the frig. I’m doing pretty good about watching the sugar, but then again, it’s only January 3rd.

Everyone has school tomorrow. Thank goodness, even though I detest carpool.

Nothing much else to report. I’m off to pack everyone’s lunch for tomorrow. Have a wonderful evening.