Still floating on the happiness of seeing classmates and the old alma mater this weekend! It was a small school and most people lived on campus, so there was and is a sense of community that I really treasure. It is lovely to periodically see a random assortment of these people I met several decades ago, to swap stories of the old days and compare notes about what's happened since then. My class won't be in the 50 year alumni club for a good long while, but we are now the people we used to call "old." We find this hilarious.
There was a situation elsewhere in my travels that involved finding a GIANT COCKROACH outside a restaurant, reporting it quietly as a public service, and then watching two grown men squealing and chasing and smashing the roach, which both thought was the biggest they had ever seen eew eew eeeeeewwww, and one also confessed that all bugs freak him the heck out.
Back at the homestead, there was a crisis yesterday. Mama Cat escaped daughter's room -- maybe she needed a little time off, maybe she wanted to explore, who could blame her? Mama Cat scared the living bejeepers out of resident cat Spot, who retreated to a secret bunker. Mama returned to her babies within a reasonable time, as this mama predicted. Yes, I got an emergency phone call about the breaking crisis, at the airport. This, too, hit my funny bone because [a] not a crisis, and [b] cats do what cats do, and [c] nothing I can do from the airport, gotta go, sorry!
OK, back to work. How's it going for you?
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42 comments:
Sounds like a great reunion kathy. Good thing you were there to rescue those guys from the Big Scary Bug!
Yes, cats do what cats do. :)
AW: we had a city-wide shared service yesterday that went really well. We included interactive fun-stations (some of which included glitter *shudder*) and lots of food, so it was a win from the start.
W: the organizing of said event felt like those high school group projects where you end up doing all the work because no one else is stepping up. It all worked out, but still...
Well, I assume nobody made you participate in the ~shudder~ glitter part.
Glad it went well, Sue! and maybe next time less will be on your shoulders.
Eeek, glitter! Run! Sorry for Group Project Syndrome.
W: Three days in a row in our swimsuits. Birthday party (pool), birthday party (lake), church trip to waterpark. We managed to not get sunburned until the waterpark yesterday. It's just moderate, but widespread. :(
AW: This waterpark is literally in the middle of nowhere. A little, teensy town with no stoplight and a huge waterpark. Cracked me up every time I thought of it. They are obviously on to something--a good crowd was there.
Bathing suits = Yaaaaay!!!!
W: Pouring rain/thunder/lightning today, with a temp of 14c/58F this morning. It is June, right?
AW: The biggest chuckle of the day is that the roof at the church isn't leaking. Not a drop. Remember the bucket brigade of last fall? Property committee had someone do a quick patch job at the time. Now we've contracted a roofer to replace the whole thing at considerable cost.
No leaks.
The work starts next month.
Ya. It still needs to be done, but it's hilarious. It's kind of like calling to see the doctor and waking up on appointment day feeling fantastic.
Sue, it sounds like we've decided to share our terrible weather with you! So kind of us.
W: IT IS FIREPLACING SUMMER, AND IT IS COLD AND WET OUTSIDE ALL THE TIME. The whole city is starting to resemble a lake. Camp starts on Saturday, and apparently Camp Town is just as bad. We're starting to get some serious cabin fever in this house, since this new neighbourhood is 100% mud, since most people are still waiting to get landscaping and driveways.
AW: Mr. Q's last week of school!! ! *Kermit arms*
Ugh. 100% mud does not sound fun at all. Your city made the morning "Worst of the Weather" segment - definitely not Kermit Arms material. :(
On the other hand, yay for the last week of school!!!!!!
Esperanza, yay swimsuits and water parties! Sorry about the sunburn -- sending aloe.
What is with the floods and cold and mud for our northern Pixies?
Yay for end of school, QWP!!!
Sue, glad the patches held. And heck yeah, irony! But buckets or worse, my dear, will not be part of the future. :)
Kathy a, I have no idea what's up with the weather up here! The funny thing is that I live in a region that borders on being semi-arid, and this weekend (or was it just yesterday?) we had the entire month's average rainfall. We are NOT set up for this amount of water.
Send your clouds to California, before we become known as the spontaneous combustion state!
Boy, do I have whines, both great and small this week!
Great whine -- My aunt was sent to the ER early last week with blood clots that spread to her lungs. Turned out (they think) that the clots originated in the legs and WENT THROUGH THE HEART to the lungs. They said "too many clots to count", and she's damn lucky she's alive. So, my mother and I made a quick blitz trip to CityOfMyBirth to see her. The upside of it is that she is much better, on meds and out of the hospital. God was looking out for her...we cannot even contemplate another death in the family right now. So Huge Whine for stress and hospital, Even Larger Anti-whine for pulling through and to modern medicine.
On a lighter note, I have a rather Windy Whine -- I don't know what the hell I ate, but I had some serious gastro-intestinal difficulties last night. OMG, the gas! Have you ever seen a pressure cooker at work? With the little jobbie on top, rocking merrily back and forth, emitting gouts of steam? That was me last night -- sending out odiferous clouds of concentrated evil directly from my bottom! Thank God nothing was in the blast zone, or I would have catapulted them/it back to the Stone Age. My God, the horror.
KLee
KLee, I'm sorry to hear about your aunt's health troubles, but I'm so glad to hear she is doing better now. What a scare!
I laughed out loud at your Cloud of Doom story - sorry. :) I hope the horror is under control today.
Klee, I'm so sorry about your grandma's health problems, and so glad the doctors are fixing it!!!
Sorry something crawled up your colon and died, but so glad you told us about it!!
Sue and Liz, I'm so glad the humor of the Gastro Woe made you laugh. It is better today, thank everything that is Holy. I am grateful that I had a place to "vent" about it, pun intended.
Seriously, I am so grateful that my aunt is recovering. Thank God for modern medicine.
KLee
KLee, so glad your aunt is doing better. How scary! And how lucky they figured this out.
As for the other, passing [heh] this informative article about a product, including some words from Supreme Court Justice (now retired). You're welcome. ;)
Kathy a., thank you for the amusing, yet informative, article. I was not aware that personages as illustrious as our Supreme Court Justices were even ATTUNED to the critical problem of exploding cows, much less sending out letters highlighting this menace. Makes me feel safe to live in 'Murica.
Devotedly yours,
KLee
Clearly there is no diminishing rate of return on fart humour. And that is a good thing!
W: Insomnia - it vexes me. It fireplacing vexes me. Want. To. Sleep. Gaaaaah!!!
I'm very thankful I woke up this morning to jokes about farts. They are always best.
KLee, that's so scary about your aunt! I'm glad they caught it and the doctors are dealing with the clots, because that is terrifying.
AW: I went to a lovely high school grad last night.
W: disappointing/worrying news about a young woman I mentored a few years ago.
QWP, sorry about the disappointing and troubling news. Hope things improve (although between the lines, it sounds like perhaps there were longstanding concerns?).
Modern tech: My beloved is something like 10 time zones away in a less-developed country, and he was like "oh, no problem, we'll just skype," and yadda yadda. He set skype up on an old internet enabled phone at my end, and then he is complaining that he's not getting all these IM's I sent, and it turns out his fancy new phone -- even though it can make outgoing calls at the end of the earth -- is not picking up these messages (he must use the laptop). Also, he can't receive calls from me on that phone. And I guess he sees the emails, too, but only on his laptop (heavy sigh). His own tech genius solutions are not working as planned, in other words.
I was anxious about this trip because he's responsible for SIL, who is a mess, and plan for the worst, right? Fortunately, no crisis there so far! Knock wood, waving garlic.
KLee, thanks for the giggles. One of the funniest parts of Baboos learning to swim is the amount of air they end up swallowing. And well, it's gotta come out one end or the other...
Sorry for the tech glitches with Beloved, kathy a. I hope his time away is very boring on SiL's part.
Utah and Indiana, two more wins TODAY for same-sex couples, and for human dignity. They are falling like dominoes, these states that have banned or refused to recognize gay marriage.
It'll take a while for all the legal kerfluffle to work itself out in various locations, but the issue is pretty much settled after SCOTUS declared DOMA unconstitutional. There are still skirmishes, but no courts are going the other way. It is a thing of beauty, to see fairness, equality, love unfolding -- like one of those time-lapse photos of a flower blooming.
W: Baboos grumpy from overly active social life over weekend. So we stayed home today. Now they are both grumpy/bored. Seeking a balance...
With apologies to Tom Petty...
He's a good dog
Loves his master
Loves biscuits
And face kisses too
He's a good dog
Crazy about cuddling
Loves blankets
And his siblings, too.
It's a long day
Working with the crazies
And a gone wife
Still trying to move out
But I'm a bad man
Cuz I didn't clean the basement
I'm a bad man
For letting in bugs
And I'm Flea....
Flea Bombing...
And all the cute cats
living in my basement
have moved in
to the spare computer room
And all the bad men
are getting no sleep at night
because the good dogs
stay up and scratch all night
And I'm flea...
Flea Bombing...
I'm gonna creep down
Into the basement
Gonna leave my
Pets out in the yard
Gonna flea bomb
til the last one has expired
Gonna leave this
House for 'bout three hours
and I'm flea...
flea bombing..
We have a serious contender for style! Any other contestants?
Andy, hope this takes care of this << scratch, scratch >> problem. In case your conscience is bothering you, I firmly believe that fleas are a no-fault nuisance, occurring even in the best households.
Ok, thanks to that Dave Barry column from 1991, at which point I was a 9 year old ignorant of all the moral dangers that nipples may convey, I've now fallen down an extremely fun rabbit hole that started with "Supreme Court nipple exotic dancer" and ended with me laughing when the majority opinion by famed legal mind William Rehnquist decided that exotic dancing was only kinda sorta expressive, and therefore only sorta protected, meaning the State of Indiana can absolutely ban public nudity because nobody wants to see naked people in public, even if "public" means in a private business that one has to willingly seek out and pay to enter where no one else can see, because think of the children, I guess.
Justice Scalia upheld the nipple ban with his usual flair by arguing that since the state law didn't expressly state that they were trying to restrict freedom of expression, they obviously weren't, and the whole case never should have been heard, so take that, perverts.
Then Justice Souter chimes in with the great concurrence of "Look, strip clubs are icky and people who go there are bad people, so the government has to regulate nipple coverings to uphold our moral standards, and besides, if dudes see a naked woman, it always ends in rape or prostitution."
The fun continues with the liberal wing's dissent, which amounts to, "Yes, strip clubs are icky and demeaning to women and might lead to some crime, but seriously, it's expression and we shouldn't be offering exceptions to the first amendment, even if they are gross and demeaning to women. Girl Power."
I'm *extremely* disappointed Barnes v Glen Theatre, Inc. was not covered in any of my high school government, civics, or Indiana history classes. Also, it turns out my happy place might be in the center of a Venn Diagram of Landmark Supreme Court Cases, Indiana History, and Boobs.
I believe that nipple-phobia is also behind all the really stupid (ongoing!!) efforts of buttinskis and low-level clerks to yell at nursing mothers, make them go do it in the janitor's closet or something -- which isn't really "think of the children" at all. Sometimes the road to justice is rocky and stupid and filled with distractions.
I've been in the "I think I'm getting a cold" zone for over a week now. No better, no worse. That says not a cold, right? Allergies? No sneezing, itchy eyes, tingle in the tip of my nose like allergies usually bring. Hm.
Sounds like allergies. Sending non-allergic vibes. ;)
Andy for Style!!!!
Sorry about the fleas. We had fleas in an apartment I shared with a friend in university. It was like the big dog across the hall sent a little army of them to slay us. We declared victory eventually.
I agree re: nursing mothers. It's the irrational fear that on seeing an *actual* nipple, one will spontaneously burst into flames. And who wants the children to see that happening, right?
esperanza, maybe try an allergy med and see if it clears things up?
W: My favourite location of Famous Canadian Coffee Shop is being renovated. I only had to drive about 5 blocks to another location (seriously), but my whole day feels *off* somehow, you know?
Sue for Old Skool with that coffee whine.
Allergy med is helping, to a point, then it wears off way before it's time to take another one.
Esperanza -- @frin nasal spray? Eye drops? Local treatments, don't mess with the allergy meds.
Sue, hold on-- looking for my tiny violin. :) [but I do hate it when something I count on is closed.]
Andy for style! Sue for old school!
W: Muffin Man is in a day camp that is 25 miles away, which means (in my neck of the woods) anywhere between a 25 and 60 minute drive, and you can never tell which. So I've been not getting a lot of work done this week. So tell me again why I'm paying for day camp? Oh yeah. Enrichment.
AW: He met a kid he really likes.
W: The kid's moving to New Mexico TOMORROW.
Liz! Hate when that happens. Do they have plans to be pen pals?
Also, long trek for camp; but hopefully good for all if he is busy doing new things.
W: Sue's whine about that particular coffee shop is making me crave crullers from that place. (We do rarely have junk food, but now that I'm aware that we don't have the budget for it for the whole summer, it's all I can think about. I'm ridiculous.)
AW: my BFF is in an airplane, on her way to my house! And it's Mr. Q's second last day before summer vacation! And the weather has been nice enough that we can frequent the playground!
W: So. Other kids at the playground. They've all been nice and well-behaved, but all of the kids anywhere close in size to Li'l E keep getting overwhelmed and terrified by her, because she's SO DESPERATE to be their friend, and she gets right up in their faces, smiling and laughing, and trying to hug them. Only bigger kids, who see her as a sweet baby, want to play with her. None of the kids at the playground want to meet someone new! (Mr. Q is having the same problem out here. He and E go for walks, and greet everyone, and everyone gets all unnerved and doesn't acknowledge them. My poor, friendly husband and child.)
AW: at least we still live near our old apartment complex, which is primarily occupied by new Canadians. These families are also feeling alone and unnerved by this new place, and are eager to be friends. We're becoming friends with a Polish family, who are very new here, and frequent the same playgrounds.
Liz: that's so sad that MM's new friend is moving right away!
Esperanza: oh boy, have I been there. Maybe is really is the world's tiniest cold, and you're successfully fighting it off! (I've had that before.)
Andy's style entry is great!
A whine on behalf of Offspring -- boys suck! Seems that she broke up with her boyfriend of 4.5 years the other night. He lives in Oklahoma, which is about eight states away from us, and long-distance relationships rarely last even that long. Offspring said he no longer called her, wanted to Skype, or even text her. She felt it had been coming for a long time, but it still hurt. She wondered if she was being selfish for ending it, and I had to tell her that I didn't think it was in any way selfish to want the person who is your mate to be into you. Frankly, I wonder how much of the real "high school experience" she missed out on because she was unavailable through all four years....
Now, she's free to go off to college, and meet new people, and date someone if she wants. I'm glad that she will be free to experience all that will happen in the next year, but it's hard to see her hurting. She's spent a LOT of time with friends since the breakup, trying to keep her mind off of it. In this group of friends, there's a young man that she talks about a lot, and I'm thinking she may be attracted to him. And, it may have been one of the reasons that she was no longer willing to "settle" being a low priority for OklahomaBoy. I asked if she thought NewGuy would ask her out, and she said she thinks he might be gay. Though, that doesn't explain the sudden need to rush home and straighten her hair and do her makeup before heading out this afternoon to watch the USA/Germany World Cup match with him.....
If I weren't so tragically old and unhip, maybe I could figure these things out....
KLee, it sounds like that relationship had run its course. And better now than after she moves to college and is dealing with all of those changes, making new friends, finding her place.
Glad that Offspring has her friends to rely on now!
Yay for new Canadians QWP!!! Hopefully it won't take long for your family to be out of the "New Kids" category on your block.
I hear that tiny violin kathy a!! :)
Liz, I hope MM and his new friend can stay in touch.
KLee, so sorry about Offspring and her breakup. It's so hard to see them hurting.
W: A local pastor has had a family emergency in another province and needed someone to conduct two weddings next weekend. No problem, I said.
Ugh. Turns out she's done almost NOTHING with the couples in terms of planning the ceremonies. She's done the pre-marriage counsel piece, but both brides are in freak-out mode because they don't know what is happening for - you know - The Wedding.
Who the heck does that?????
Next week just got REAL busy. Plus, there is Canada Day on Tuesday. It will all work out, but I am just gobsmacked that she would didn't have the services ready a week prior to the rehearsal dates. That is not cool.
Oh, Sue. Well, then. I assume there is a standard outline for the ceremony, and maybe you can offer 2-3 options for each point not already planned?
This will mean really a lot to the families-to-be! And maybe your colleague is a last-minute person; or is it possible the family emergency has been simmering and just erupted? In any event, it is lovely for you to step in, and wishing the best to all. xoxo
QWP, yay for BFF visit! And making new friends! I think E is at an age where kids tend to "parallel play" -- many are not ready to engage directly so much, but they watch one another. This will even out in a while. xoxo
No, the emergency was very sudden and unexpected.
I understand that some people need to work on that term paper the night before it's due. Of course, my colleague is free to work as she sees fit.
But in this case, that's just rude. One of the couples needs an order of service to take to the printer. This isn't something they should have to do at the last minute - it could have been ready weeks ago.
Anyway - I'm just venting. It will all work out.
(((Sue)))
That is a puzzle, Sue. Sorry it's more than you bargained for.
AW: Sweet is rocking the swimming again this summer.
W: Mini, not so much. She could be doing just as well, if not better, if she would stop scaring herself. Patience, Mama, patience.
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