I told hubby we should have bought new furniture this year!!!

(Go Sox!!! I knew you could do it.)

pretty pretty links

Hi, remember me!

OK, first thing's first. I would like to say:

GO SOX!!!

ok, got that out of my system. ;)

Hm...what else to write about? I've been kind of in a funk lately, which is why you haven't heard from me. I don't know what it is--I love fall, it is my very favorite time of year--but I think I am just overwhelmed, trying to juggle everything. So what better way than to deal with everything but to stay in bed late, not leave the house, and only shower when the kids complain?

OK, OK, kidding. I do try to shower once a week, at least. ;)

No really though--I've taken on too much stuff and I can't keep all these balls in the air. Got to learn to say no! And a several of my "things" keep me in close working relationship with people I don't like very much, which is stressful. Grr.

What I need is to get off my behind. Get organized. Get de-cluttered. Clean my dang house. I can't drop any of the balls neatly until the end of the school year so I just have to keep up and, God help me, not say yes to any-freaking-thing else. Haha, which is kind of funny since I'm looking to add some more Zumba classes to my schedule. I tell myself that doesn't count because I love my Zumba classes but let's face it--it's still more stuff. But I know from experience that trying to juggle in a cluttered, messy, energy-sapping environment is a lot harder than doing it in a peaceful zen garden.

Not that I have one of those.

But I could clean my dang house.

So tonight, after work (which I will not stress about or be grumpy for, even though I am not supposed to work on Thursdays because I teach Zumba on Thursdays and had to get someone to fill in for my class tonight) I will go to the store and buy myself some soy milk. I will come home and make myself a yummy soy pumpkin spice latte in a very very cute Starbucks halloween mug, and I will dig in to my house. Tonight: the kitchen and dining room. Tomorrow: the mess that has swallowed my desk. Early Saturday morning: the bathroom.

And so help me if I come home from working all weekend and my hard work is puked all over. That is the worst part of trying to clean! I come home after working so hard at home and working so hard at the j-o-b and stuff is tossed on my desk, dishes are sitting in the sink, toothpaste is all inside the bathroom sink and the last person to go didn't flush... Things like that are what get me so funk-y and down and then I don't do anything until it builds up so I don't know where to start so I don't do anything so it builds up so I get funk-y...

Fortunately I have some secret weapons. Or, y'know, not so secret:

1. Loud Zumba music.
   
2. an MP3 player for when loud music is not an option
3. yummy-smelling cleaning products
   
4. fresh air--I open the windows, even if it's 45 degrees out. It's SOOOO good, dontcha think?!

And I am going to throw things away.

Oh yes.

If we don't use it, out it goes. Maybe I'll find some things for ebay. Or freecycle. Or Big Sister Big Brother. But it's going. Dave Ramsey, the financial guy we follow, says to sell everythinig that isn't nailed down until the kids are afraid they're next. :) Well, the kids probably don't have to worry--we're kind of attached to them--but they'd better hide their favorite toys cuz Mama's on a rampage.

And then? When I'm finally done cleaning for the night? I'm going to work on ideas for my nanowrimo novel. Because I will finish this year, dammit. Provided my overworked, underpaid laptop doesn't bust down like last year.

So that's tonight. I'll probably be up forever but if it gets me ahead? Even a little? It's worth it. I just hope I don't get sucked into watching the Sox beat the crap out of the Rockies play because if I let myself sit down to watch it, I'll never get up again.

I'm in geek heaven because November 1 (which is only 16 days away, people!) marks the start of NaNoWriMo, or, National Novel Writing Month.

For those of you not in the know, NaNoWriMo is an opportunity for literary-minded people to write a 50,000-word novel. So those of you who have always said, "One day...one day I'll write a novel!" can now put an end to the "one days".

The writing is fast-paced and crazy, which is great for people (like me) who tend to over-analyze to death the stuff they've written. See, when you only have a month to finish your novel (that's 1667 words a day, people!) you don't have time to sit back and criticize yourself!

So pick up a pen and a ream of paper, or set up your computer somewhere where there is easy access to the coffee maker and the bathroom. Lock the door. Count down to 12:00:01am, November 1 and start writing until your hands hurt.

Then meet me at the local coffeeshop. Preferably one with free wifi. For, you know, email breaks.

I'll be the redhead with the laptop, the huge coffee cup and the bags under her eyes.

It's almost one in the morning. I was just lying in bed, completely unable to sleep. It might be all the things I have to do, circling around in my head.

Or...it could be that Diet Rockstar I drank a few hours back. Hm...maybe.

So while I was lying in bed for some reason I was thinking about my j-o-b. You know, the one I can't mention online under penalty of death.

I was thinking specifically about people who get paid a straight salary or hourly wage, as opposed to people who work for comission.

See, my company pays us REALLY good money to do what we do. It's ridiculous how much money we make, really. Not that I'm complaining! See, I make the same amount of money whether I'm working my rear end off trying to make mucho dinero for the company, or sitting around making photocopies.

That makes me a happy employee (I like my easy job, and I'm well paid!) and a competent employee (I've been there forever because they pay me too well to leave!) and it makes the customers happy because they get to deal with happy competent people, but it doesn't make me a very motivated employee.

We have a bunch of programs (that were not in place when I applied for the job, but whatever) that we're being tracked on. So if we're one of the lowest locations in the region for any given program, we get flack. But if what I just said about getting paid the same no matter what I'm doing is true, then why should I work any harder to reach our program goals, just for the bosses to say, "Good job. Now this time get this many."?

So then I look at people I know to be commission employees. Like at cell phone kiosks, retail clothing stores, that kind of thing. If you've got money, maybe you like shopping here because the employees are very attentive, and very careful to remember your name and what types of things you like to shop for. Maybe they even have your number so when something you might like comes in, they can hold your size and call you in.

But if you don't have money, like me, these kinds of employees come off as pushy, irritating, and self-serving. These kinds of employees make me want to yell, "Back off! When I want something I promise, I will come get you!" And I always feel like as soon as I walk in, they jump over each other to get to me first, and they're probably brawling while my back is turned. :)

So here you have highly motivated employees who don't seem too happy (that is, underneath their perfected customer-is-my-life's-joy facade), who annoy the customers, and who have a generally high turnover rate.

Nothing about this post is supposed to be particularly intelligent or persuasive--it's way past my bedtime y'know--it's just what I was thinkin about while I was lying awake, eyes refusing to shut.

shut down orkut

Hey y'all:

There is this website called Orkut. I won't go into what it is but read up on what's going on with it here: click here and click here

And then click here to sign an online petition to get rid of it: petition

It's about protecting our children, so please check it out.

Thanks.

time off

So I just got back from my retreat this weekend, and I have just one word.

Aaaaaahhhhhhh.

I love my annual women's retreat. It comes right after the most hectic time of year at the Tragically Unhip household--right when summer is over and school starts and we're all trying to work out our new routines. Right around now is when I'm just about to go over the deep end--and then comes my weekend away.

Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh.

So yeah. It was fun. We had a speaker, as usual, but this time it was my favorite speaker so far, Priscilla Shirer of Going Beyond Ministries. She spoke the first time I went to this particular retreat too, three years ago. She's a very engaging speaker--nothing is worse than a speaker who has a good message to give but who loses the message through a haze of too-quiet mumbling and foot shuffling. So yeah, she's good. I want to check out one of her bible studies sometime.

There was so much other stuff to do. I climbed a huge new rock wall and almost got to the top of the hard, jutting-out side! I could reach around the ledge and grab on...but then what?! :)

I shot guns: a .22 and a shotgun. I'm pretty accurate with the .22 (at the mind-boggling distance of about 20 feet, hehe) but bad with the shotgun, which kicks. I mean, the guy said there are a hundred bb's in the cartridge, and I only managed to hit the target with two. Anyway, I do have to say that rifle ranges are a good stress reliever! And archery, which I also did and which I also stank at. :) I could hit the target (which, again, was a mind boggling TEN feet away) but that's about all I could say about that.

Lets see, what else. I was wearing my Zumba instructor jacket all weekend so finally my bunkmates asked what Zumba is. I told them and they wanted me to show them. Wouldn't you know I just happened to have my music and a CD player in the car, so w had a mini Zumba class in the bunk, and again after playing volleyball that night.

We were up SO late Saturday night, eating ice cream, dancing, playing volleyball with the group of girls that play every year, Zumbando, talking...til 3 am. I made some great new friends, which is pretty much my favorite thing to do! :)

After coffee on Sunday morning (one of my favorite things on this retreat--all the coffee, tea, and hot cocoa you want, 'round the clock. Genius I tell you.) I had to leave for work.

Hahaha! I laugh just thinking about it.

I was such a grouch at work that day. I'd had like 5 hours of sleep all weekend, and was tired and sore and dehydrated. At least it was busy, which means it went fast.

So that was my weekend. Oh, that and I killed a spider yesterday that was about the size of a small dog, and just as furry. When a spider is big enough to have FUR? That's scary. *shudder*

I hate spiders.

Now I'm off to catch up on all the housework that didn't get done over the weekend. Whee!!

quick post

I have a lot to write about--I just had a blast at my weekend retreat--but for here's something to tide you over until I get back from the bus stop with Devy.

some random observations from the tragically unhip household

1. It doesn't matter how many Zumba routines, kids' birthdays, song lyrics, gossip details, or job prodcedures I can memorize--if it is a dentist appointment, I will forget it.
2. The fake cobwebs we put up for Halloween are competing with the ones the spiders left...and losing.
3. It doesn't matter how long or hard I clean the house all week long--after a weekend of me working and the rest of the family home, it will just look like it did before.
4. Just because a diaper is cheap doesn't mean you should buy it. In fact, diapers are one of those things you should really splurge on. Unless, y'know, you like cleaning up that kind of stuff. Freak.
5. Babies can't digest corn.
6. Goldfish crackers make good last-minute coating for homemade chicken nuggets.
7. I feel guilty spending $30 on fuzzy warm boots I will wear all fall and winter, but it's way easy to spend the same amount on a Halloween costume my kid will wear once for about two hours.
8. I seriously need to hire some 12-year-old kid to teach me how to use my new cell phone. Seriously. How the heck do I text someone? Get my pictures from my phone to my computer? Change my voicemail message? Anyone??!

Craziness!

School is back in session, which means the Tragically Unhip household has been inundated with paperwork.

Cuz, y'know, it just wouldn't be school if they weren't sending home requests for volunteers for the school parent association (gag me), the library, the computer room, the school fair, the school store, the fundraisers, and the school walk; reminders to send payments for school lunches, school pictures, book fairs, and student magazine subscriptions (for which the teachers sign up the kids and then demand payment from the parents); memos on a thousand different school policies, and on and on.

Then, for parents stupid enough to provide their telephone numbers, there are the twice or three-times-weekly prerecorded telephone calls reminding parents of upcoming events. The upcoming events that we are also reminded of in the weekly emails we so foolishly provided addresses for.

When, exactly, do I start to just send my kid off to school without worrying about the homework she's going to bring me ?!

And now that two of the girls are in school, it's all doubled.

Sometimes I think those homeschoolers have got something.

Then the coffee kicks in. ;)

In other news...this weekend I am going away on my sweet, sweet annual women's retreat. Roughly 48 hours of no kids, no hubby, no chores, no diapers, no work...and I get to see my good friend Connie who, incidentally, I met on the retreat my first time there three years ago.

We always have such a great time--especially playing volleybally until the wee hours of the morning. Connie usually whoops my behind. I'm not too athletically inclined. ;) And there's crafts, a rifle range, archery, pedicures, quiet time, a talent show of some sort, and all the coffee and hot cocoa I can drink. All in the very beautiful mountain lakeside scenery of upstate New England in the fall.

Can't wait!!

people like me shouldn't blog, redux

I posted this on my weight loss blog but thought I'd bring it over here too. It's two! Two! Two posts in one!

Why do some people just have to try to bring other people down? Are they SO miserable?

That's it. I'm way too sensitive for this internet crap.

I was on YouTube browsing through videos looking for choreography videos for Zumba class. There was this one chick who make a whole series of videos on how much Zumba sucks/is stupid/should tell people they look bad in tank tops before letting them up on stage. She was so mean! I couldn't help wondering what she was doing there if all she was going to do was make fun of people.

Oh. You mean, like, maybe that is why she was there? Do people really suck that hard?

Part of me really, really, wanted to comment and point out that she's no prize-winner herself. The better part of me argued that that would just make me like her. So I totally started a flame-war on her butt.

OK, kidding. I kept my mouth shut.

And then I commented on this other video to tell the girl how great a dancer she was and I would love to try some of her moves in my class. Someone replied and said "whatever, Zumba sucks anyway, it's not real choreography" except they said it in the too-cool-to-spell-correctly way that all the hip kids do (gag).

Like I freakin asked you?

GRR!

I would never dream of trying to cut down someone I don't even know. It's bad enough being mean to people in person who you might legitimately have some kind of beef with. But anonymously online? Pretty tough when you're just some empty faceless voice, right?!

Life is hard. Instead of making it harder for each other, how 'bout we go through life buoying each other up?

Just a thought. Oh, and have I told you I like your hair like that? You look nice. ;) hehe

And oh yeah!! School started today! I'm such a bad mom--I forgot the camera, so there are no pictures of my baby Devy's first day of school. I'm going to dress her up in the same outfit tomorrow and pretend it's today. I kid.

But oh my goodness did I CRY like a big freakin baby when she got on that bus! She just...ran up like she has been waiting for this day for three years or something. Oh wait, she has. I remember so well the day Jo started kindergarten and it was everything I could do to keep Devy from climbing up into the bus behind her big sister. She was only 2 but she didn't care. She wanted to go to school!

Uh...Oh, there I go again. *sigh*

But!! I had a Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino today from Starbucks and while I don't think I'll go the frappuccino route next time--too sweet--the pumpkiny flavor and chilly air and the leaves that are omg already starting to fall made me all fall-ish. Yum.

i wanna be feared and despised when i grow up!

I had a dentist appointment this morning.

The good news is, not only did I actually go, as opposed to the last two or three appointments that I skipped, but only once did I get poked in a place that sent me jumping out of my chair. I thought it was going to be much worse. I credit God for listening to my desperate prayers while squirming in the chair waiting to start. Thanks God, you're the Man.

The bad news is, I have so many freaking cavities that the dentist's office has to call my insurance company to schedule the treatments. You know, so the insurace will cover them all? Yeah. That sucks.

The other good news is I got a prescription for Valium! Real live Valium! Because if it takes me three or four tries to go in for a cleaning, just imagine how nauseous I get when the words "root" and "canal" come into play!

Now I just have to get someone to take care of my kids all day so I can sedate myself before my Appointment with Hell.

In other news...T-minus 24 minutes and counting until Devy gets on the bus. Somebody hold me!

colors of fall

Signs that I am not ready to send the kids back to school:

1. I'm bothering to blog about it.
2. I still haven't bought school snacks because looking at anyting vaguely back-to-school related makes me all teary.
3. I'm pouting as I write this.
4. I refuse to go to sleep because when I wake up it will be one day closer to back-to-school and don't bother trying any of that "It's coming regardless of whether you sleep" logic crap.
5. There are large amounts of things not normally found in the Tragically Unhip household such as Pop Tarts (which suddenly come in delish ice-cream-y flavors like mint chocolate chip and cookie dough) and expensive sugary brand-name cereals and Oreos and five cartons of ice cream (although one is actually a box of ice cream pops, so there) partly because I want to give my children special treats--and we don't usually use food as reward around here, not healthy, don'tcha know--and partially (OK, mostly) because I'm all emotional and eat-y.

It isn't usually like this. Usually, by the second week of August I'm all, "Someone call the school! They've got to open early! Get these kids out of my house!!!" But this year I'm just not ready. I don't want my babies to leave me!!

Why? Well, I think there are a few things. For one, we had a great, fun summer. Last summer Bek was a little baby and I was overwhelmed and PPD and we didn't really do much or go anywhere or see anyone. This summer she's older, I'm healthy, we did lots of fun stuff, and I don't want it to end.

For another thing, this is the first year that Devy is going to school. She was my baby for four years before Bek was born, and now she's all...big. She's reading and writing and conversing and getting independent and where she used to be a little fraidy-girl princess, she's now braver and stronger and more sure of herself. And I put her hair up for the first time (ever!) today and I swear she looked 7, not 5. Not my baby.

...hold on...there I go...gimme a second...

OK.

And Jo, the oldest. She's 8. She's so great. I love talking to her, and she's not a little girl anymore. She's still young, of course, but you can see the young woman she's going to be. She's matured so much.

I am so, so thankful I get to stay home during the day to be with my babies before they're off to school. Cuz once they go to school it's like you're no longer their primary influence. Their number one concern is no longer whether they're pleasing you. The whole world comes into play. And it's wonderful, and I'm thankful that I can give our girls a solid foundation from which to launch them. It just stinks because sometimes it feels like that's it for me. I've done my job and now, because I work nights and weekends and don't get to spend much time with Jo during the school year, I have to release her to daddy and the rest of the world. Good thing hubby's there--what would I do otherwise?

Oh, the melodrama. I just had to get it off my chest. :)

Now I can concentrate on all the good things about school starting...like FALL!! My favorite season!! And pumpkins, ooh, and pumpkin spice lattes from Starbucks, and sweaters, and tights, and boots, and crunchy leaves, and the smell of fires burning, and HALLOWEEN! and crisp apples and apple picking! and cider and hay rides and haunted houses and hot cocoa... I love fall! Fall fall fall, fall fall fall...

From the archives

Because I'm too sore to think straight, here's "one from the vault" (and OMG if you get that reference? We are totally BFF). And I'll try to write a real post later:

Is there anything quite so disappointing as when you get a craving for iced coffee and then you get some iced coffee and it's all burnt and bitter and nasty?! Then do you go back and ask for a new iced coffee?

What if you were driving thru when you ordered it? Do you go to the nearest dunkies and say, Hi I bought this at the last Dunkies and it sucks so I would like another please? Or do you just open up a vein and stick the straw in so you get the caffeine without the nasty taste?

Today I took Miss D. and Baby R. to McDonalds for lunch. We went to the one with the new playground as a reward for the girls' being so good on our errands this morning. I needed caffeine so I tried the new Newman's Own iced coffee and it was gross gross gross. Burnt and yucky. So I threw it out.

Why did I do that? Isn't my money worth anything? I mean, really, why don't I just take the two bucks and chuck them in the trash? Why am I too embarrased to go up to the counter and demand that the minimum-wage person behind it make me a decent freakin coffee?!

See, now I'm all upset cuz I was forced to get my caffeine from a diet Coke. And it just isn't the same.

I love when you go to Dunkies or Starbucks on a hot sweaty day and you're on your way to work and it sucks to have to work on such a beach day and you get your coffee and it is the perfect balance of coffee, cream, and sugar and you sip it and all your cares just floooat awaaay.

You know, Mickey D's, I'm on a budget here and I cannot afford any more nasty coffees.

I should go work at a Starbucks. Have you ever had a bad coffee from there? I don't think I have. Although I hate when I forget to ask for it "with room," you know, for the cream. Anyway, I should go work there. Although I hear they pay for their WiFi, which kinda blows. I mean, did you not just pay $8 for a latte and now they want to charge for their internet too?

(By the way, I was going to link to the nice blogger who first made mention that Starbucks charged for internet use but now I can't remember which one she was. Just a little sign that I might be addicted to other peoples' blogs.)

When I have MY own coffeehouse one day it will have FREE internet use, and lots of yummy, perfect coffee for less than 8 bucks a cup. There will be no bitter-coffee-induced depression when you come out of MY place. So there

stop the world, i wanna get off

New designer eyeglasses: $300
Glitter paint for the girls: $5
Realizing you just set your new glasses down in the girls' glitter glue art: priceless

Agh, I'm so stressed. Why can't I be one of those together moms who is, like, organized and on time and with it and on top of things?!! I'd kill to be one of those moms.

Devy is starting Kindergarten in three weeks. THREE WEEKS. I haven't even registered her yet.

I agreed to help out as co-coordinator for the nursery and 2s and 3s room at church a while back because--well, basically because I was asked to and I was too chicken to say no because I was afraid that if I got a reputation for not wanting to do the dirty jobs no one wanted to do, I'd never be trusted with the fun stuff I wanted to do. Now you're probably thinking that it's pretty arrogant of me to label the position a "dirty job" because it might be right up someone else's alley and you'd be totally right. Unfortunately I wasn't thinking that way when it came up. And I'm also in charge of publicity for our moms group, which I admitted wasn't my calling but I was willing to help out. (If you're familiar with the concept of spiritual gifts you realize that some bells should have gone off--here I am with two ministries I feel no calling for.)

And now I'm kinda burning out, slacking off on the things I should be doing, and gaining a reputation for starting things and not finishing them. So now that I want to teach Sunday School (and yes, actually feel called to do it), my intentions are being doubted. I don't blame anyone--I've certainly given plenty of reason for people to doubt me--I'm just mad at myself for putting myself in this position.

So now I'm stressed cuz I have things to do that I don't want to do and that I've put off for so long that I need to do them now and on top of that I have other things that I do want to do and other things, like, oh say, cleaning my house, that need to get done...I've been up more nights lately trying to cram more hours into each day--it sucks.

I know I'm whining and that everyone else is busy and all but I should know better than to let myself get into these spots by saying yes to everything and yet I did it anyway.

Can someone just, like, take over for me for a little while? It's not all bad, there are some good things. I have good friends, great kids, plenty of fun things mixed in with the stress things. You can just be me for a while. I'll be back in, say, October. But, sorry, you're not allowed to share the hubby. He's mine.

post secret

Have you ever checked out Post Secret? That's the site where people send their deepest secrets--the ones they've never told anyone--and they get anonymously posted on the site. Sometimes they're happy secrets, but they're mostly sad (and then there are the ones I think/hope are just sent so they'll get posted). They make me want to find these people and hug them. But then, that would defeat the whole anonymous thing.

New ones are posted every Sunday, and today's was in the form of a movie. Check it out: post secret

such a dork

Do you ever find yourself saying "It bugs me when..." or "One of my pet peeves is..." and then thinking Gee, I kinda say that a lot. Maybe I need to lighten up.

Well, anyway. One of my pet peeves is when I go to a place that says "Open til Midnight" and I get there at 11 and I just got out of work and I'm starving and I have a lot to do and need some caffeine so I order a bagel, toasted, and a latte, but the bagel toaster is shut off for the night and the latte machine has already been cleaned so I have to settle for just nasty burned iced coffee and a stale sliced-but-not-toasted bagel instead and still have to pay the same amout I would pay for good food at 8 am.

I mean, I know you want to go home. But if your sign says you're open til midnight then I should be able to get what I want until midnight. And if you have to stay til 1 am to close up afterwards, well, that's what you're getting paid for isn't it?

Is it because not a lot of people come by for that sort of thing so late at night? Well then, why are you open so late? Is it because you get a lot of coffee orders that late but not much else? Then, maybe your sign should be "Open til 10. Just-coffee from 10 to midnight." Then you could just make it drivethru only from 10 to 12 because no one needs to go in to order just-coffee.

Is it just me?

Oh! And that reminds me of another thing that irritates me! Earlier today I went to get an ice cream cone before work. (I know, I need to stay away from the fast food places but it was a crazy day.) And I was helped by this guy who helped me the last time I went for ice cream in this particular place. And the last time I was there for ice cream, I licked it and it went plop! right on the pavement so I went back inside and ordered another one and was very thankful the dude didn't make me pay for it because it was his fault.

Why? you ask?

Because he didn't push the ice cream into the cone. He just let the big round scoop of ice cream sit on top of the cone. I hate that. You can't do that! Because then, when you lick it, what happens? Plop!

So today I went in for an ice cream and I was so excited because they had coffee-Oreo which combines two of my all-time favorite flavors so I got a single-scoop cone and was helped by that same guy and I walked out to my car and licked the cone and sure enough--plop! And of course I looked into the cone and there was no ice cream in it.

I was about to storm into the store and give the guy what-for--and now, thinking about it and getting all mad all over again, I wish I had--but the complacent part of me was pleading with the angry part of me, convincing me that we really had to get to work and did we really need that ice cream anyway?

So your lesson for today, kids, is push the ice cream into the cone, and don't tell me you're open if all I can get is burnt coffee.

no sleep for me tonight

We've been having trouble with the air conditioning lately. Trouble as in, it's just not working. And we've called the landlord about a billion times, and he's called the A/C guy a billion times. Trouble is, we're on the bottom of the totem pole because for some reason that I've forgotten already, the landlord doesn't have to pay the A/C guy for service. So we get the shit end of the stick even when, oh, say, it's been 90+ degrees for like a week and there's no A/C.

So today, FINALLY, the landlord comes over and says the guy should be here to fill up the coolant tank or whatever and he's dying the coolant so he can come back in a couple of days and see where the leak is. Sure enough there was a noisiness at the back of the house indicating that either a small plane had landed in our nonexistent backyard or a very obese air conditioning service man was trying to fix our unit.

Then said service man came into the house to ask where the filter was so he could change it. I told him I didn't know where it was but my husband had already (gotten sick of waiting and) changed it himself.

That was about 3:30 this afternoon.

It didn't hit me until just now, at almost 11:30 at night as I was just about to fall asleep:

A/C guy didn't knock, or anything, to get in the house. He just opened the door to our garage from outside, and then went through our garage and opened the door from the garage to the house, and came in.

This is not a happy thought when it's late and dark and your hubby and children are sleeping and all your windows and doors are unlocked because it's been so hot that you've been keeping everything open all the time.

I just ran up and down the house in lockdown mode, visions of news stories in which children are snatched from their beds by skeevy service people running through my head. I was somewhat comforted by the fact that this guy would never fit through any of our windows, until I thought of accomplices.

It's times like this when an imagination is a curse.

Now I can't sleep.

I can't wait to see my landlord. Man is getting an earful. Friggin walk through my house.

mind yer p's and q's

Is it just me...or is politeness way out of style?

It seems like everywhere I go nowadays, people don't look at each other. Don't smile as they pass. Don't say "excuse me" when they squeeze past you in the aisle at the store.

At my job there are a bunch of new hires--kids, all just out of high school. I smile, try to act friendly so they'll feel welcome in their new jobs, but apparently I am just too old and uncool to react to because they just stare straight ahead like I was Kimmy the Uncool Ghost.

And at the store! Just the other day I was looking for some stuff in Michaels and their aisles are really tiny and this kinda big tall lady squeeeeezed past me and didn't even acknowledge that there was another person in the aisle with her.

And at work the other other day I was helping one woman and there isn't much room at the counter so when she backed up to get away from the desk the other woman who was right behind her almost got stepped on and instead of saying "excuse me" she just gave the backing-up woman a rude look. When she came up to me I said "You could say excuse me," and she went off on how she wouldn't be stepped on by rude people. Is it just me? Is it too much to just be polite even if the other woman could have been more careful? I mean, the second lady was kind of up the first woman's butt--she was kind of asking to get stepped on.

So your assignment for today is to go out into the big wide rude world and go out of your way to put some politeness in it. Hang up the cell phone before going up to the clerk at the counter, rather than forcing her to guess what you want while you chat to your other party. Say excuse me even if the other person was wrong. Smile and make eye contact when you pass someone in the store aisle. Just be nice for cryin out loud!

I swear, it will make your life, and everyone else's, a whole lot better! Do it for me, OK? ;)

We just got a call yesterday telling us that the father of one of Jo's classmates was killed in a really bad car accident. He wasn't even 40.

The phone call was to ask if we wanted to donate to a group donation in the daughter's name. Then we got another phone call today asking if we wanted to come to a big birthday dinner for the daughter. I guess her dad was planning a huge bash for her.

It's so sad.

I want to do something for the family that's a little more personal, and that might help with with what they really need the most, like making dinners or taking Jo's classmate out with us to the zoo for the day or something. But I feel awkward asking, since we really didn't know the family besides Jo going to last year's birthday party.

What do you think that family needs most? Money? Food? Time alone? Fun time? Right now, I'm just praying for their peace.

i'm done!

Finally done with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and it was SO SO good. It ended just exactly the way I wanted it to.

I don't know anyone else who has finished it yet so I'm dying for someone to talk about it with. If you read the book and want to discuss, email me at kimberlypaine at comcast dot net and we'll chat. :) I'm reading it again, slower this time. That's how good it is--as soon as you finish you want to go back and do it all again. ;)

Well the downside of all this (besides no new HP books) is that I seriously have to go clean my house. Three days of reading nonstop except to pee and possibly eat means that my house is a total disaster. Fun fun!