At 9:45 pm last night, the phone rang. It was [relative], asking Mr. E and I for [extremely burdensome favor]. [Extremely burdensome favor] involves extra child(ren) in our household for an undetermined amount of time. It is due to [extremely complicated and only tangentially related legal issue]. Extra child #1 is 10, female, [a relative], and has [comparatively minor problems]. Extra child #2 is 10, male, unrelated, and likely has, due to no fault of his own [major, possibly dangerous issues].
Sigh. This was supposedly only a "you are one of several possibilities that we are exploring" phone call. I said yes to child #1 and absolutely not to child #2. My compassion for child #2 is limited when he poses a possible danger to my own baboos.
[Possible] arrival of child #1 would be next week sometime, just before the Baboos and I are scheduled to go to completely different relatives' house. We are leaving our house because the kitchen is getting a minor overhaul, and we would be without kitchen services for about a week and half. Yeah. Fun timing.
So, pixies, what are your whines? Redact them if necessary--it's kind of fun. Like Mad Libs. (she tries to convince herself).
I hope to be able to post an update saying this was much ado about nothing. That is often the case with [late-night phone calling relative].
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45 comments:
hoo, man, esperanza. you already win. i bet there's a heck of a story behind all that.
but i think you struck a very generous balance, offering to take one -- when really, you have your hands full already. think you are paying a lot more attention than the caller; and who knows, this could forge a lifelong bond with your preteen relative. the baboos are cuteness itself, after all, and 10 is a good age for "helping." xoxo
perhaps there is someone on the caller's list more suited to a preteen boy? someone with a similar-aged boy? i really did not mind extras similar in age to my kids; they distracted one another, and decent enough behavior resulted.
also, i knew more about what to expect with a boy similarly aged to my own. even the most challenging one -- long story, unhappy family life, ADD, bad divorce in progress -- listened to me. never, as the mom of little ones, would i have expected to be able to handle such a kid. [my birth family was all girls.]
big fat AW: i passed all the tests! just got the mam, and i don't have to do an extra just in case exam, even. despite lumpy breasts and my sister's cancer.
i'm not sure how to count this, but today was my adventure with the accountant who saves my life yearly, tax-wise. self-employment sucks. spent the weekend wading through fading, wadded receipts, calculating the percentage of home utility bills attributable to the home office, writing it all down and adding it up, etc. etc. etc. a few pieces are missing, not my fault, but as always, my guy was encouraging. even though i'm the worst excuse for a CFO who ever walked the planet.
((((esperanza))))
You're in my thoughts and prayers - all of you.
Funeral tomorrow for the dear family friend who died on Thursday. I'm as ready as I'll ever be. I think the service will honour him as it should.
AW: Weekend of Ridiculous Church Business meeting was not entirely awful. It even included a few laughs.
W: It would be really nice to have an actual day off. I had planned on taking Wednesday/Thursday to start making up some overtime from last week and Presbytery weekend.
Problem: Burial service re-scheduled for Wednesday. Nothing I can do about it, so I'm just rolling with that.
Problem the Second: Chair of Advisory to Advisor committee (the committee that made baby Jesus cry last week, and I asked *specifically* not to be created) wants to meet me at the church on Thursday morning to help with some office stuff. Our secretary is away until March 11th. Ugh.
Yes, I know, it's my own fault for saying yes to meeting him. But honestly, I was a little blind-sided in the middle of a "busy-weekend-grieving-funeral-planning" mess.
AW: So far, the day off thing looks good for next Monday.
Yay kathy a for passing all the tests!!!
As for the tax stuff, I'm so horribly inept at the whole numbers thing. Wish I could help!
((( sue ))) about the grief and overload and meetings you do not want. xoxo
Yay, kathy a! Congrats on the good grades!
Sue, whew. Definitely next Monday. Lent is coming, maybe you're heard. You need to rest up.
I forgot till you reminded me. I have the Weekend of Ridiculous Church Business coming this weekend. Fun, fun.
kathy, I hear you on the taxes business. Ministers are considered self-employed, too. If you think that makes no sense, you are correct. We pay someone else to worry about it; it's not worth the strain on our two-minister marriage.
waaaah. i've wrecked my shoulder muscles and it huuuuurts. think it is a combo of stress and over-use of the mouse, which sounds extremely stupid, but these doggies are all clenched up.
AW [i think]: daughter asked me to comment on her draft thesis.
Sorry about the shoulder kathy - hope it's better soon. I think it's great that your daughter asked you to review her thesis. It speaks volumes about how much she respects her mama.
AW: about 700 people came to the service today to honour a great man. I can't even express what a privilege it is to be part of such an occasion. Sad, yes, but honoured. He will be missed.
AW: Our little choir ROCKED. They got the descant with absolute perfection. Gave me goosebumps.
((( sue )))
Sue, you are a blessing to his family and to your congregation.
Now go put your feet up.
I forgot my big AW of the week. The transition from crib to big-girl bed for Sweet has been completely painless.
Yea, Sweet!
Random Whinage:
My daughter says the new sheets for her bed are not soft like the old ones. Yeah the old ones were so soft, they ripped! I told her the new ones would be soft(er) in a few weeks but I don't think she believes me.
W: I think I may have eaten too much for dinner tonight.
AW: Veal scallopini, noodles, brussels sprouts. Ice cream. YUM.
W: I think I might possibly may have eaten too much.
Maybe.
yay, sweet! such a big girl!
emily, you're bringing back memories! my daughter had issues with things that were not soft enough. also, the seams in socks, tags in clothes, etc.
liz, your dinner sounds delish!
i applied hot packs, comedy movies, and wine to my shoulder last night, and slept. back to the hot packs this morning. AW: it hasn't migrated to become a tension headache.
US Tax document lesson of the day: If you earn less than $10 in interest, your bank is not obligated to send you a 1099 form.
W: Spent 2 hours last night looking for 3 "missing" 1099's before giving up and going to sleep. Realized the $10 rule this morning.
W the 2nd: Doc or no, you still have to report it as income.
W the 3rd: 3 accounts with less than $10 in income. Interest rates are terrible these days. And why do we have so many accounts? That's just silly.
AW: Bad interest rates for saving means excellent mortgage rates. We'll need that soon I hope.
I must be very tired because JenR's tax AW/W almost made sense to me. Numbers or anything having to do with numbers rarely arrange themselves properly in my brain.
I'll nominate emily for Old Skool for the "Three Bears" sheets - so hard to find the ones that juuuuuust right.
Yay Sweet!!
I'm glad your shoulder is feeling a bit better kathy, and that it hasn't become the ebil headache.
Liz - sounds good!
W: -34 Celcius for the burial service this morning. Translated that means it was bleeping cold.
AW: Thankfully, the family asked for a brief service at the cemetery, so we were only out there for about 10 minutes.
AW: Lunch with the family after the burial was lovely.
W: Now. I'm. Tired. Oy, am I tired. Feet are up, and I plan to do nothing for the next 24 hours. Except perhaps sleep.
Question: Does anyone know what kind of culinary delights one might prepare with quinoa? I have some and haven't the first clue what to do with it. Off to google world...
Treat it like you would rice for pilaf. Delicious!!
Sue--We make a delicious Quinoa Salad, which consists of cooking the quinoa for the normal 20 minutes, and adding cut up carrots, and some frozen corn kernels (about 1/2 cup) during the last 5 minutes. Then, in another bowl, we mix chopped up green onions, (about 6), an orange or yellow pepper chopped up, some roasted pecans, some currants (about 1/2 cup) and some parsley or cilantro. Mix in the quinoa/carrot/corn mix. Then stir in dressing, which we make with 1/4 cp canola oil, 2 teaspoons of honey or sugar, some fresh lemon juice, 2 teaspoons of raspberry vinegar, some minced garlic or garlic powder, some salt, and 1 teaspoon cumin all mixed together.
That's it. Super easy. Yummy. You can eat it warm or chilled.
<3 Neighbor Lady
Called to ER for family - check
Stayed with family after death announced - check
Stoopid church meeting for the weekend -check
Sunday/Monday worship and funeral prep - check
Tuesday funeral and luncheon - check
Wednesday burial in uber-freezing conditions - check
Crying - throughout the week, not checked. Tomorrow will be a week since B died, and aside from a few tears that I could wipe away un-noticed, none. I had to be composed and the "non-anxious presence" in the room (as my theology profs would say).
Crying tonight - pretty much completely check. Pass the tissues.
Dang, but I'm going to miss him.
oh, sue. i usually hold on through the emergencies, then fall to bits. you did the professional gig; now it is time for the personal. i'm so sorry for your loss. xoxo
Yep, Sue, it does catch up with a minister once she has time to sit down and catch up with herself. Be good to you.
(And, I thought Pillar did all the cooking--why are you asking about quinoa?)
Thanks NL for another good recipe!
I think I'm about cried out now. I'm just exhausted and taking tomorrow off (it's been so long since my last day off that I can't remember when it was - that's not good, right?)
esperanza - P does all the cooking. However, he looked at the bag of quinoa like it had been grown on another planet. He shook his head and said "If you can find some recipes, I'll give it a try, otherwise you're on your own here."
Thus, the request. My guess is that if I go into the kitchen and actually try to make anything, he will be all over me like a bad rash. He worries that any kitchen experience of mine will end badly - with loss of a digit or two at best, or burning the place down at worst. His confidence in my culinary abilities is....heartwarming, yes?
Sue, what a rough week. Hugs and, I hope, a massage coming your way soon.
Liz - yum.
KathyA - Hope the shoulder feels better. And your accountant sounds fabulous.
JenR - The $10 rule tripped me up last year. We had 2 this year and I wondered the same thing.
Esperanza - You're wonderful for even considering child #1 when life is going to be extra messy without a kitchen. And yay for Sweet! I hope we hit that milestone soon.
Whines: Yesterday was a series of small bad things. A woman honked at me in the carpool lane for stopping to let the bus out of the school parking lot. I think I could have worked on a committee project more diplomatically. I forgot Read Across America and my 1st grader was devastated. A client at work yelled at me for our newsletter announcing local success with gr0upon.
I think my whine is that they cumulatively made me feel bad. Especially the committee, which I think exposed a whole level of office politics that I had missed/ignored.
I am glad I came here - sorry I have been AWOL. Missed you all and the heavier whines, especially Sue's terrible week, have given me a better perspective. But today better be better!
Sarah at ratatat: what a rough day. Ugh. Anti-Whine accumulation is a terrible phenomena, which the scientific data refers to as "It. Just. Bites." I hope today is better.
In the Pixie-Mind-Meld department: Sarah at ratatat also wins!!! I have a massage at noon today that has been booked for over a month.
Timing is everything pixies. Timing.
Yay to massages!!
i think i might do that massage thing, too. hardly ever do.
JenR -- much sympathy on the tax things.
sarah -- yikes, bad day! sending thin mints!
well. something [unbloggable] happened yesterday, and it means some work for which i'll be timely paid, but oy oy. bad timing for [unbloggable] reasons. the [unbloggable] person who is the subject of this development will be unhappy. there is a 98% chance that the development will put us up against an [unbloggably bad] enemy [whom i know from unbloggable previous things].
this mad lib thing works for me! as an AW, yay, got some connections, some resources, some ideas!
kathy a - glad you found some connections. Unbloggables are ick.
AW: Happy Kitteh. Bought the three pak DVD set of kitteh videos so she can watch her birds and fish on the tv instead of the computer. The live-streaming hatching chicks were fine until she sat on the keyboard and brought up a bunch of incomprehensible screens.
W: I've turned into the kind of person whose only errand for the day(aside from the divine massage) is to pick up cat stuff. I'm only a few steps away from my own reality show.
omg sue. you bought dvd's for the cat. omg. you can never ever tell my sisters these things exist, because they think i'm insane having so many cats, and you KNOW what someone will sneak into my stocking as a joke present, don't you? i'm still recovering from the jingle dogs CD, which made the cats very very alert.
Pixies, keep on whining. I'm busy tonight and off to Festival Weekend of Church Busy Work tomorrow and into Saturday. Working on Sunday. Awards will come...sometime before next week.
No updates on redacted whine.
esperanza - no updates means things are holding steady - I hope.
My lips are sealed kathy a. - but the videos are pretty good. And Truffle loooooooves them.
Because Confession is Good for the Soul Whine: Okay, so the massage itself was absolutely heavenly today. But when the massage therapist left the room to let me get undressed and under the sheet on the table, I did something SO typical of me. ~sigh~
I took off my sock and it went flying across the room. I bent down to pick it up and hit my forehead on the therapist's desk. It was one of those "No I won't cry. I am a big girl" kind of hits. The one that make your eyes water even if you're not crying.
OUCH.
I started out face-down for the first 40 minutes of the massage. My forehead (thankfully) didn't bleed, so there was no DNA evidence on her desk, but it was throbbing pretty badly. I still focused on the massage and enjoyed it a lot.
Then she turned me over.
She looked at my face and said "Oh my goodness, what happened to your forehead???" I told her. She laughed. A lot. I'm guessing the whole office is twittering about it as we speak.
The goose egg will definitely result in multi-coloured facial tones over the next few days.
The best part: I came home and told hubby and he didn't even look up from the newspaper. That's how often I do things like this. Loser, much? Oy.
oh, Sue. Confession is good for your friends, because they don't feel so alone when they do things like that.
Oh Sue, glad the massage was good even if the goose egg will be with you a bit longer. The DVD for the cat is making me giggle.
Esperanza - hang in there! And glad the unbloggable is staying quiet.
KathyA - loved your mad lib. I should print it and save. Sorry for the messy situation.
AW: having a bad day made the next quiet, regular day feel sweet.
Sarah at ratatat - glad you're having a better day.
True story: I told my goose-egg story to our choir director and one of our sopranos on the way out of choir last night.
Neither one of them so much as cracked a grin. Then I remembered - the choir director fell on some ice last year and cut her cheek. The soprano has done two face-plants this year. They both looked at me with that head-tilt that says "So that's the best you've got?"
I guess you had to be there, but it was hilarious.
Question for the pixies:
I seem to remember one of the pixies saying they were going gluten-free (maybe it was Kathy a?). My colleague's wife has fibromyalgia, and she is considering going gluten-free to see if it helps her symptoms. I would appreciate it if anyone could point me in the direction of some good resources for gluten-free living to pass on to them....
Thanks so much!
--Neighbor Lady
NL - that was me. I'm finding the gluten-free thing isn't as difficult as I thought it would be. I initially tried it as a "just in case" remedy for my headaches. It hasn't changed the headaches at all, but I do feel better overall when I eat G-free.
The best book I've found is "The G-free Diet" by Elizabeth Hasselbeck. It's in soft cover now. I don't agree with her on pretty much anything political or otherwise, but she knows her way around gluten very very well. Also, she makes it all sound so matter-of-fact and gives really good advice about how to deal with social situations where there may or may not be a G-free option available.
I would start there and then go to the hundreds of websites. I don't find the websites very helpful until I need recipes. The actual "how do I live G-free?" question was better answered in the book.
There are probably several other good books out there, but I can't recall the names of the others I borrowed from the library. I bought Elizabeth's book and have referred to it many times.
Just my two cents...
Thank you so much Sue---now I remember your comments about gluten and headaches--sorry I forgot it was you....
I really appreciate the suggestions--I will pass them on to my friend!!!
--Neighbor Lady
p.s. Hope your forehead feels better soon--I have *so* done that!
sue, count me in the whoopsie club, too. i acquire bumps and bruises on a regular basis. usually not goose-egg grade, but it's happened.
this may be related to the spilling food on my top thing; that is the reason i almost never wear white. i also don't do fashionable shoes, because of the increased danger of tripping over something when i'm thinking of something else, or blisters, pick one or both.
AW: Went today to replace husband's car that got totalled last week. Nice car. Not too expensive. A little over 100K miles, but has a sun roof.
W: Didn't REALLY want to spend the money.
W: Found out that the turtle we were going to get my son (the same kind I had as a kid) is no longer legal to buy...though it's legal to own.
AW: Got gerbils instead. I think they'll be a better choice generally.
kathy a - I *always* spill something on my shirt at dinner. All. The. Time. Stain remover was invented for me, I'm sure of it.
AS for the bumps and bruises, I tend to look like a seven day old banana much of the time. Sad, but true.
go, liz! we are all into old cars here. and while we didn't do gerbils, we did do rats [and my sister had hamsters], so i'm your go-to pixie on rodent matters.
umm, liz. you really want the gerbil cage to be escape-proof.
also, i'm not a gerbil expert, but you mentioned more than one? are you totally sure they are of the same gender? [it is easy to tell with rats, even young ones; surprisingly hard to tell in some other mammals.] anyway, the miracle of life can happen really amazingly quickly in some species.
I'm back, with an overdone brain. Too much listening to arguments made via Robert's Rules.
Awards tomorrow. Keep up the whining. And odd collection of advice-giving.
Can't help you with the rodents Liz. We were never allowed to have them as children, and our kids never wanted them. Good luck though!
esperanza - whomever this "Robert" guy was, I'm pretty sure that he did not know he was creating a tool of the, you know, Other Side. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. Good ole Bob just didn't know what kind of beast he was creating.
Cynthia at Pet Smart was absolutely certain that both gerbils are male.
They are currently in a 15 gallon fish tank with a clipped-on mesh cover.
Their names (as of this morning) are Spottie and Runner. Runner is all black and is lightning fast. Spottie is black with white tummy, paws, tip of tail, and little freckles between the ears.
They seem pretty happy.
KathyA, your advice to Liz re: gerbils made me laugh out loud. Literally. Can I find another cliche here? No.
As I am allergic to nearly all animals with fur, no gerbils or hamsters or rats here. But my uncle had them when I was about ~6. Awesome. Especially when they escaped and made my grandmother scream. She didn't scream that loud when she saw a (wild) mouse in the kitchen. Good times...
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