Oy.

Sorry about the delay in awards. A mentally ill relative in a distant county got arrested, so I spent about 5 hours yesterday trying to find out what was going on and arranging for bail. Still don't know exactly what happened, but assume it is another sign that she is a complete freaking mess. Also, she wants to move to live right near us again. Oh. Joy.

Emily wins the Old Skool Award for this gem: "My cell phone battery indicator is woefully inadequate. It goes s..l..o..w..l..y from full to -1 bar, sits there for a while and then--bam--it's dead (like not turn on, dead). The phone seems fine and the battery itself seems fine. I just have to remember to charge it as soon as it loses one bar. I mourn the loss of visual indication."

KLee wins the coveted Elevated Risk of Mullet Award, for: "Sarah, I think I've found that ~15 pounds you lost. I will gladly pay to ship it back to you."

The Best Anti-Whine Award goes to Sarah: "Some unbloggable things are AW. I am pretty chipper."

Whining Works Award to Days, who complained of pain, and voila, the pain went away. Here's to a reduction in those summer kidlet meltdowns, too.

Liz wins the Solidarity Forever Award, for bringing donuts to the strikers.

Happy Birthday to Jenevieve, who wins the Dog's Best Friend Award for adopting a sweet older pup. Only to have her heart broken when she discovered the dog may be considerably sicker than she realized. Sending love, and some scritches around the ears. (Not your ears.)

Bucket List Award to Sue, who is going to see her favorite group in concert! In Nashville! And congratulations on the other good news!

Happy Baby Vibes to JenR and her wee one! Fingers crossed that all goes welll and smoothly.

Cluesticks to KLee's possibly former friend, for creating an ugly situation with KLee in the middle, then hanging up on her.

Passing the refreshing summer beverages, and wishing all a good weekend.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Welcome to this week's Whiner's Ball! Bring 'em on, the whines and anti-whines, big and small. Bonus points for vacation reports!

AW/W/AW: Daughter got an apartment for her fall internship in DC! And I set up flights, hotel, am perusing a guidebook -- getting her settled will double as a big deal trip for me, the chance to finally see the sights (and maybe see a couple internet friends)! Yay! I'm so excited that I'm just singing LA LA LA LA about the costs. But I got great rates on flights, and teh Smithsonians are free, and there's great metro.

W/AW: It was a lovely memorial for my son's friend. Got to hug a bunch of young people I know; and they all needed the hugs. So did I.

Work is a little crazy now. I'm compensating with some serious doses of netflix, which is probably not entirely healthy, but so what.

What's new up your way?

First Rule of Wednesday Whining: Never Apologize for Whining at Wednesday Whining.

Listen up, folks. I'm here to give it to you plain and simple. This is a place for dumping our grievances, be they small, large, funny, sad, overwhelming, petty, or overwhelmingly petty.

You got a sadness? Bring it here. You got an annoyance? Bring it here. You got a funny potty training story? Bring it here.

That is what this site was started for and that's what we have kept doing week after week for over four years.

Now, that said, I am sending out the Cluestick Posse to give a cluesticking upside the head of Sue's bossy older sister. Sue, we have all been in these battles with various loved ones in our lives, and we all have your back.

Semicolons for Everybody! Award to Esperanza.

Esperanza also gets the Sometimes Short Anti-whines Speak Volumes for: "AW: Looks like I'll get to go fetch [the glasses] *by myself* on Thursday." And a (sorry, not real) gift certificate for one of these, for the diaper bag.

Jen R wins Elevated Risk of Mullet this week for: "I left too late for breakfast this morning and drove past my drive-thru options (star$$ and mc-golden-arches). The granola bar and candy I had at my desk have left me tired, crabby, and feeling a bit ill. Lesson for me: when pregnant, eat decent breakfast."

Kathy A. wins Style this week with her haiku to Jen R.:
"breakfast, glorious
breakfast; yummers in the tum
make it all better. "

Hugs to Jen R, for having 24 days left of pregnancy (but only 10 work days!), and sending condo-selling thoughts. Hugs also to Kathy A's son, and to his friend's family. Hoping Sue's husband's sore is all better. Esperanza, I hope your day out getting the glasses was all you hoped it would be.

That's it for this week!

Head meet Desk

I came here looking to see if a new WW post had gone up and then realized that I'm hosting!!

Hi! I'm Liz and I'm a nincompoop. [Hi Liz!]

So on the homefront: unpacking continues apace; my netbook's new updated version of Windows 7 (Starter) isn't playing nice with my anti-virus software; and my son's DSi XL is mine for the week due to an interesting confluence of forces having to do with carelessness, excitement, and the near-ruin of a $25.00 purchase of something he'd been begging for. Fortunately, everything turned out okay, but the lesson is being learned.

How's by you? Whines welcome, big, small, and in-between. Extra points for style, and/or the interesting use of semi-colons.

Party!

Better late than never, eh? Our own Liz points out that the 4th blogiversary of Wednesday Whining in this space was on July 11! Passing the cake and festive beverages with tiny umbrellas. This community has been lovely and fabulous through all the ups, downs, and whoopsies.

Congratulations to Liz, for accomplishing the dreaded house-moving operation!

The Old Skool Award this week goes to Days, who complains: "My "i" key works only intermittently these days. Phooey." Keyboard dysfunction is indeed a classic.

Riding to the rescue in yet another tragic case of undergarment dysfunction, Liz retains her crown as The Bra Queen, providing solid advice and support (heh!) for the afflicted. Liz also notes that festooning the household with drying bras is a great way to embarass the offspring. ;) The general consensus is that Victoria's Secret deserves a cluesticking for pathetic performance in appropriate undergarment fitting, and forgetting what it's all about; one suspects that "comfortable fit" is nowhere on the list of corporate business objectives.

Lemonade Out of Lemons Award goes to Esperanza, who finds an up side to the chicken pox: "Chicken poxy kids are getting me out of lots of stuff I didn't really want to do anyway. And people are bringing us food. Lovely!"

Heat Wave Award to all who have suffered from extreme temperatures this week, and particularly to Amy, whose air conditioning died. She reports: "One thing I have learned is that I am a muuuuuuch more pleasant person when there is A/C." Amen.

Intrepid Gardener Award goes to Neighbor Lady, who is bravely planning to replant for fall harvesting.

Sue wins the Family Dysfunction Sweepstakes this week, for her encounter with Control Overdrive Sibling, who is a candidate for the Amazing Relative Hall of Fame after telling Sue what time she was allowed to leave a family event. Runner up is Esperanza, for her close encounter with Must Always Be Right. Cluesticks to all Those Relatives; we've all got one someplace in the family tree.

Esperanza wins the Cabin Fever Award for extended parental duty with the Baboos, and the added misfortune of not much to do nearby when she did get relief. But she did manage a delightful afternoon out of the house, alone, and even some trashy summer reading (uninterrupted!) by the river. Yay!

Liz is on a roll this week, and she wins the coveted Elevated Risk of Mullet Award for her excellent backup plan for escape in one's own home, one that JenR approves and Days plans to add to her bag of parenting tricks.

Perils of Potty Training Awards go to Esperanza and Amy. All we can say is that kids are really individual in this area. And accidents happen even after official achievement of the goal; sometimes distraction or stress are behind them. Much sympathy from the Pixie Nation.

Hugs to Neighbor Lady, whose daughter is having some scary symptoms, and who is having some anxiety; and to Days, who feels out of the loop, and is having leg pain. We hope you both have fabulous getaways at the shore and the lake! Fingers crossed for Neighbor Lady's daughter, and for Sue, who is waiting on ultrasound results.

Have a great weekend, and we'll see you next week, when the fabulous Liz will host!

Moving On

Hi, Pixies! Looking forward to this week's crop of whines and anti-whines.

This week, my featured whine is trying to find temporary housing for my daughter, for her fall internship across the country. The internet is a glorious thing, bringing craigslist and websites galore, but ohmydog, I will be so happy when we can sign a lease and write a deposit check. We have serious sticker shock, since BigCity is so very expensive compared to her sleepy college town. We have become familiar with the metro system, walking distances, decent vs. iffy neighborhoods and suburbs, the devotion of landlords to long-term leases, and "sorry, that place is taken already."

AW: This is a Learning Experience for daughter, who is doing the heavy lifting on finding housing for the first time. AW: A friend in BigCity has been really helpful with neighborhoods, transportation, features, and other tips.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, my cousin got the last truckload to his new place this weekend. My son came to borrow nice clothes from his dad for a wedding.

Spot the cat is missing his late uncle Earl, and worrying his fur. But he has also gotten brave, and started chasing the senior cat around, which is pretty funny, except to her.

What's going on at your place?

Boxes, Poxes, Squawkses

Happy Birthday Week to Sue!

A round of applause for KLee, who wins the Best Anti-Whine Award for the excellent news that JF is away at his new job orientation! Congratulations to him.

Best wishes to Liz, who wins the PackPackPackPack Award for her superhuman pre-moving efforts. This award includes however many pitchers of margaritas it takes, and complimentary service from the Moving Fairies.

Esperanza wins the Pox Docs Don't Rocks Award; her poor Mini is afflicted despite vaccination, and "Dr. Google is a quack" for suggesting the case would be very mild. Sending an ocean of calamine lotion via Pixie Express. Yay for grandparental backup.

Rack Attack Award goes to Amy, who found a Perfect Bra for the big reunion event, except the underwire makes a noise described as "squick-squawk". We defer to the advice of the resident Bra Queen, Liz, to unload that bra and find another.

Sue wins the coveted Elevated Risk of Mullet Award for putting it this way: "Take it back and tell them it's talking to you." Runner-up for Mullet is KLee, who observes on the related topic of underwire hating that "gravity is a harsh mistress, and droopage is inevitable."

This Kid's a Keeper Award to Neighbor Lady, who warmed our hearts with this report: "Watching my 7 year old son doing the video game "Just Dance". Beyond cute!!!!!!! Of course if he thought I was actually paying attention, he would stop immediately. Having a laptop open on your lap makes it seem like you're doing important work, ya know?"

Back to Civilization Award to Sarah, who forgot she hates camping, but survived the experience anyway.

Free At Last Award to Liz, whose "terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad boss got canned..." Couldn't have happened to a more deserving fellow. ;)

The Cluestick Posse is saddled up and ready to deliver yet another message to the insurance industry, on behalf of JenR. They lose the paperwork, then have the gall to send a hefty denial of claim because they don't have the paperwork. This burns our butts.

Condolences to all who are suffering from the heat wave, sleepless anxious nights, loss of the spring chicken designation, headaches, less-fun family occasions, bra complaints, or any setback leading one to consider duct tape as a solution.