Monthly Archives: September 2011

Happy birthday, Jake!

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I can’t believe how fast the time has gone.

The very first post at RtB, back in February of 2008, was about a sleepy little 6-month-old (6? 7 months? I don’t even know) who’d just awakened from his nap. Look at that round little face! Such a sweet baby. Well, that baby is four years old today. What a great kid. I’d tell you how incredibly perceptive, funny and intelligent he is, but you’d just say that was Grammie being biased. Well, I am, but — he is. :P And much of that is due to his parents providing him with lots of conversation, opportunities for discovery, books, loving discipline, and tons of hugs and kisses. That’s a good recipe, if you ask me.

So, whether he’s piloting a whirlybird,

or riding the open range,

or simply having a heart-to-heart with a sheep,

…he’s still just an all-around fantastic boy, and I’m proud to be his Grammie.

Oh, and I had to include this photo just because it’s ten kinds of cute. Justin and Dad getting the goat’s goat:

So I’m off to wrap presents, hit the grocery, and pick up Mavis for the party. (Poor Thriller is flat on his back with the flu and will miss the fete.) :-(

Happy Saturnday! Glad to hear from NASA that you avoided being flattened by a solid rocket booster.

Ratticus Nutticus

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Last night, I had a meltdown of sorts.

After two brief after-school rehearsals, I came home to look in on the Thriller, who is sick as the proverbial dog. After confirming that he was indeed still alive, I grabbed a quick dinner of yogurt and 3 cookies, changed clothes, came back downstairs, and sat down to my LIST (*hoo-ah*):

  • Wrap Jake’s birthday gift
  • Finish choreography for Hernando’s Hideaway
  • Go to Tractor Supply and look for flashlights
  • Go to grocery and pick up stuff for test-drive of Bob’s birthday cake
  • Call Daddy
I’ll give you one guess as to how many tasks were completed. Oy.
~
What did I do instead? I had a nice long conversation with one of my choir parents (a very cool lady). Then I read — and tried unsuccessfully to make sense out of — the Integration Guide for PayPal Express Checkout (for JECO, my present web project), and conquered the last available levels of Angry Birds (people, I own that game; I’m unstoppable). Now were those things on my list? Carp. To quote Lennon /McCartney: I’m a loooooozer.
~
I think I reached a point last night where, after two solid weeks of thinking about and doing almost nothing else except Dinner Theatre and JECO, and surviving on 2-5 hours of sleep a night, I fell off the merry-go-round. Maybe it’s time to divert my energy for a day or so, instead of running around like a crazed nut-butt. I think I’m krakking up.
~
Hey, I know — how about going to the county fair with the Js this evening, then relaxing for a bit at Jake’s birthday party tomorrow? That sounds like the ticket.
~
Anything fun on your schedule for the weekend?

Change is hard.

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I’ve just spent almost my entire quiet time this morning on Facebook, looking at (and trying to figure out) all the changes.

Change is hard, especially when you’re 39 years old. Can I get an Amen? :-) Just going through a list in my mind, here. Wow, a whole lot of changes for me in the last year or so. Incredible. Changes in my personal and professional life, changes in my family’s lives…

Changes are supposed to teach us something. My theory is that change is life’s growing pains. Remember when you were a kid and you’d be lying in bed, and your legs would ache for no apparent reason? That always happened to me (although not much after the 5th grade, heh). My mom would bring in some baby aspirins and tell me that she thought I was just having growing pains. The biggest issue is what’s on the other side of a growing pain. Most times, it’s wisdom, increased productivity, perspective.

Other times, it’s crap. HA

What are your changes doing to you? What have you learned from them? I covet your thoughts.

Since I’ve janked around on Facebook so long, I’m late for the shower. But it’s the day before the day before Friday, so yay!

BTTH XV

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Ya know…

What do you think would happen if I just decided that I didn’t want to take care of business? For instance, how about if I didn’t show up for a concert? Or if I blew off going to a gig to accompany a student and left him hanging with nothing? I’d never get away with it, that’s what. Yet, people apparently do just that on a regular basis.

I trusted one “professional” person to make sure the escrow account on my mortgage is overfunded (and of course, I pay extra to make it so), and for the second straight tax billing period, I look at my statement to see huge late fees because I didn’t have a sufficient balance to make my escrow payment. So I call them. AGAIN. I say, politely, “Um, remember the last two times we dealt with this? Could you check your records and see where I paid extra so this would be taken care of?”

Then I get the “Oh, yes. I see that here. Well, we have to charge the penalty this time, but we’ll be sure to adjust it for next time.” The double-talk, the end-runs around me, the quoting of rules and guidelines that make no sense: they love to lay it on in hopes that if they baffle you with enough BS, you’ll just say OK and go away. That’s about when I lost it last night. Dragging home at 9 p.m. after a decidedly less-than-stellar rehearsal which followed a day full of bad news on one front or another, only to find this familiar friend staring me in the face — it was about all I could take. Mama Fink went on the warpath. And I have the 3.5 hours of sleep to show for it.

The absolute bottom line is this: they don’t listen. You can explain your issue to them as if they were toddlers, after which they puke out hollow epithets like, “Yes, I’ll notate that in your account,” and “It’s all taken care of!” — then they forget they ever heard of you.

Someday, I am going to just let stuff like this go. Meh, it’s just inefficient people. No biggy…

Welp, today is not that day. BOOT to the head.

:P

What, again?

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Monday again? Arg. Where do the weekends go? The way of the dinosaur, alas.

Or should I say, YARRRRR!? It’s Rousseau’s birthday today, which always coincides with TLaP Day. Avast, me hearties.

It’s also the week of the County Fair. There is some unhealthy food in my future, as well as walking around with the Js, looking at animules and maybe taking a ride on the merry-go-round.

Rousseau. He’s 12. That makes him a senior citizen, like the Thriller. And RD. :P

This week, I’m going to test-drive the new Fanci-Fill cake pan I got for my birthday, since I’m responsible for providing the cakey goodness for Bob’s birthday feast, coming up on the 2nd. Hmmm, ideas. I found one that has yellow cake with chocolate ice cream filling and chocolate icing. That one might be the ticket. Or maybe chocolate cake with mint chocolate chip ice cream filling and cream cheese icing. Or perhaps: both. The possibilities, the possibilities…

Happy Monkday, fiends. Get bizzy!