weekend mash up

From the time we start going to school, I think we become conditioned to school days vs. summer days. Once we've gone past July 4th, I feel like we've passed the halfway point of summer, and I start looking ahead to the next thing. But I'm trying to just enjoy the summer "daze".

Our California vacation helped. It really is good to get away from the same old same old and get a change of place. Now that we've been back, I'm feeling a bit restless, like summer's running out.

• Work at the testing center has been slow, as it tends to be in summer. During spring and fall semesters, we have a pretty steady stream of roughly 50% student tests, 50% professional tests. Summertime brings hardly any student tests - averaging about 1 per day. Unlike last summer, we are now fully staffed, and it feels like we comically step all over each other when something needs to be done. Someone often goes home early.
  
  
• On that note, the college DEI department introduced a "summer reading program" at the end of the spring semester. They provided a list of about 5 books for interested people to rank in order of interest. The survey was to determine 1 or 2 books to be read and discussed. 

I completed the survey, then heard a whole lot of nothing afterward. THIS week, we finally get the word that two books have been chosen, and looks like it will be a fall reading discussion. Oh great, just when things get busy :P .

But oh well, a free book's a free book, so I picked up my copy of [Different not Less]. Seems useful so far. 

The book should be useful for tutoring too. I'd say my most challenging tutees are the ones with unchecked ADHD *give me patience*

• And on that note, I've ended up with 3 college tutees and 1 high school tutee this summer, all very pleasant. A couple of them are REALLY lacking and should probably retake the prerequisite course, but God love 'em, they try.
  
  
• I've almost got my running back to where I was before being befallen with a bum foot followed by a foray into physical therapy. Back to where I was was still trying to get my stamina back after covid two years ago, but it's not awful. I'm glad to be chugging along. 

I also acknowledge that I've aged two more years since then, so I'll take what I can get.

I'm typing this at the downtown library. Just had to get outta the house - that restlessness. Strange mix of cute kids and unhoused adults at the downtown library... 

midweek check-in *YAWN*

The new assistant boss FINALLY started working this week. It was a good 2-month process from the time we stopped taking applications to getting through the hiring process to actually getting a person in house. She's fitting in nicely while we've been training her up. Classes start up again next week for the spring semester, so we'll be running on all cylinders shortly.

I've been feeling a bit restless with the downtime from tutoring and hoping my tutor schedule fills up nicely with the start of the new semester. I did get a lot of decluttering accomplished during the break. And I'm sure I can find more to purge. Seems like there's always more.

In other projects, I really want to get started on painting most walls of the house. EVERY wall is "rental white", as our house was a rental when we first moved here. Seems like a good after-purge project.

I'm off work today and have a few errands to take care of. It's crappy windy today, but wind seems to be the main weather phenomenon without rain and snow and whatever else the east coast is getting. I was reading reports of high risk for downed power lines and power outages in some parts of the country and thinking how we don't typically have that problem. Our powerlines are underground, so power outages are usually caused by some freak thing like a squirrel getting into a transformer box.

Now I probably just jinxed it, and our power's going to go out... Well, we do have a lot of neighbor squirrels.

Let you go

I've taken today and yesterday off of work since I'm still dealing with this dang cold. I feel okay, actually. I'm sure I could perform my "job duties as assigned" just fine, but I'm still a bit congested and scratchy and don't want to sicken my coworkers. Our work setting is an open "corral", so not much for social distancing. I explained to Boss that I wasn't quite fit for humanity just yet.

As such, I've been feeling a bit restless while holed up at home. But The Great Declutter of 2024 has been going quite well.

On Monday, I tried to drop a couple of bags of donations at ARC,  but they had stopped taking donations by the time I got there. Fine, I drove over to Goodwill, which turned out to be closed for New Year's Day.  So I came back home and scheduled a pickupplease.org truck. They're coming next Wednesday.

In the meantime, I've been working on filling up more stuff for the truck. I think I've gathered about all I care to donate right now, and the rest of the crap is going in the trash, unworthy.

I'd thought myself a minimalist, but still had much to answer for. For example:

• Handfuls of panty hose?? I rarely wear panty hose. Much of it must have been from my corporate working girl days 27+ freaking years ago. I've been schlepping that along each time we've moved?
• Extension cords. So. Many. Extension cords.
• Cinch sacks - from employee orientations and road race paraphernalia, cinch sacks are/were the handout of choice for so many. Be gone!

I also happily sold a couple of items through Marketplace: a fully waterproof backpack we hardly ever used and a double-wide computer monitor I haven't used since downsizing to just a laptop. Both items sold quickly and went to, I believe, good homes. 

• I met with a young "dude"  at a pizza place downtown to exchange the backpack. He plans to use it for rafting - perfect.
• A young dad met me in a nearby parking lot for the monitor. He said he has the same model already, so now he'll have double-double! 

Everybody's happy.

Lastly, I've been chipping away at this 1000-piece puzzle from step-MIL that we started on Christmas. Claude Monet. 

So much sky. So much water. So many pieces look alike. I hate/must finish it!  

Damn you, Monet!

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Linking up with [John] for Mama Kat this week for the prompt:

1. Share something that you worked on this week.

nothing to see here

I'm sitting in a Starbucks which is something I very rarely do. But I was feeling a bit stir crazy with nothing pressing to do, so I decided to come to this particular Starbucks near our house and check it out as a possible tutee meet place. 

A little reconnaissance mission, no "weather" balloons necessary.

It's gets a "maybe" as a suitable tutee place  - not too loud or distracting, decent parking. Tables a bit small. I had a Christmas gift card from Boss, so the overpriced obligatory beverage was free to me. It does seem a little busier than I expected since it's after 4pm. But I dunno what's typical, I'm not a member of the Starbucks crowd.

There is a middle-aged couple behind me discussing The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning and the woman's goal of early retirement. The man was talking about how he's worried about forgetting things, and  I became worried about eavesdropping on a personal conversation about the man's slip into dementia.

A little more involuntary eavesdropping reveals they're discussing an upcoming trip. He's worried about forgetting something for the ocean visit. PFFFFT.

A little boy of about 4 years climbed down his chair to deposit his and his (presumably) mom's trash. He maintained eye contact with me the entire trip, even while depositing the trash. 

Is there something on my face? You'd tell me, right?

loving ewe

Since succumbing to the crud that is covid, I've used my downtime to better myself. 

HA, LIKELY STORY.

I think I've increased my daily reading time a bit, but I've also spent some time watching what has turned out to be rather educational programming.

Clarkson's Farm, heard of the show? It's on Amazon Prime Video and hosted by Jeremy Clarkson, who is apparently well known for shows like "Top Gear" (I know not of it). Anyway, he becomes the owner of a 1,000-acre farm and decides to give it a go even though he knows nothing about farming. 

The show is both educational and entertaining. I particularly enjoy the bits about sheeping where the show follows Jeremy as he chooses and purchases nearly 80 sheep at auction, attempts to herd them with a drone (doesn't work), hires two rams to impregnate the herd, and then takes part in the lambing season.

WATCH SOME LAMBING HERE

I've learned some things like how sheep rams are basically sperm factories, ewes "need" to be part of a flock, sheep are surprisingly nimble, and ewes can be tricked into thinking another ewe's lamb is their own.  

I do now feel guilty about having eaten lamb and will likely never knowingly eat it again, but the show is well done and passes the time for the quarantined infirm like myself.

As far as my reading, I've been working my way through "Under the Banner of Heaven", Jon Krakaur's book about Mormon Fundamentalists and the murder of a woman and her child in the name of God. 

We lived for nearly 4 years in Utah among the Mormons. Polygamy was joked about, but it was also understood that it wasn't all joking.  

And now reading about the Fundamentalist's teachings while also learning about sheep farming, I notice many parallels between Fundamentalist Mormon women/ girls and sheep. 😳

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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:

4. Share something you learned in June.

fifty ways to leave your lover

Yesterday was a c-c-c-c-cold blustery day.  Another snowy Wednesday.  For some reason, our stormy days this winter seem to have all fallen on Wednesdays.  I have Wednesdays off from work and get a little stir crazy, so I braved the elements for an outing.

I walked to one of the university bus stops, and while I was waiting, I saw a person on a bicycle crash in the snow as he turned the corner about a block away from me.  He sat there in a heap, him and his bicycle, for about a minute - which is a rather long time to sit in a heap in the snow during a snowstorm.  I wondered if he was too injured to get up?  Should I leave the relatively warm bus shelter and check?

But he eventually got up and dusted himself and the bike off and started walking and pushing the bike in my direction.  Was he unable to pedal?  Was the bike too damaged to ride? Honestly, it appeared that he was playing it up a bit, hoping someone would notice - maybe make a viral tiktok?

He shuffled on by, and stopped, seemingly to reassess, a few feet from me.  Then he got back on the bike and started pedaling down a dangerous road in a snow-covered bike lane on a day of low low visibility.  No helmet, no lights.  Okay, so I feel a bit of solidarity with him as a bicycle commuter/ don't-use-a-car-unless-I-feel-a-need person.  But common sense says leave the bicycle at home.  I'm going to assume he made it to his destination... or got that video fame he wanted.

It felt good to get out, and I'm reminded that we're long past the lockdown days of early COVID.  I had a mask as they are still required on the buses - until March 18th it seems.  

Living in a college town means that public transit is relatively good, but I know that city buses are often seen in a negative light - thugs, druggies, homeless, etc.  I've seen very few questionable characters - usually from the druggie category - in my years of observations.  Most people I've ridden with are just going to work or to school.  

Then there's the routing and scheduling.  The bus doesn't go at the right time, or the stops are too far away from home.  Again, living in a college town helps - especially if one is going to or from the university.  Many paths to that mountain.

The transportation decision tree for me usually goes:

bike→walk→bus→car

or

orange→blue→pink→green from this lovely venn diagram 

Weather being the most common factor.

So yes, I'm pro bus even though I own a car.  Why add to traffic congestion just to transport myself and a few belongings? In fact, I sort of "make" myself drive the car somewhere about once a week, just to stay in practice.

I remember the bus driver in Colorado Springs who drove the route to the community college.  I would ride there to meet with tutor students, and he took it upon himself one day to mansplain to me how to go about buying a car.  

"Yeah, I have a car.  I've bought and sold several" 😒

One of my bicycle commuting cohorts had someone offer him money for a sandwich when he was stopped at a convenience store on his way to work one day.  They assumed he was homeless/ poor since he rode a bicycle.  He makes six figures.

I'm wondering how the current rising gas prices will affect driving habits if at all.  How high until it makes a difference?

from my cold dead hands

Like many others, we're in a deep freeze.  We've had a few inches of snow to go along with it, but for the most part, it's almost "too cold to snow".

Back when we lived and worked in upstate NY, some new-college hires joined my work group and a couple of them were from California.  They'd never seen snow before and were intrigued at their first "real" winter.  

It did take a while for them to acclimate as I remember them wearing long johns under their work clothes and whatnot.  During one particularly cold stretch, Lucy commented that she thought there would be more snow with such low temperatures, to which a seasoned upstater commented, 

"Nah, it's too cold to snow".

Lucy became incredulous that "too cold to snow" was a thing.  To this day, I think of her huge-eyed reaction every time it's too cold to snow.  

Despite our current low temperatures and the work of dealing with it, I felt restless (it's a day off work for me) and went out to be among the people.  I went to the university library to maybe get a book, but really, it was just an excuse to get out.  I know agoraphobia is a real condition, and sometimes I wonder if I have its opposite?  Would that be "goraphobia"?  ( I googled, that's not a word).  Recall that agoraphobia is...

ag·o·ra·pho·bi·a

/ˌaɡərəˈfōbēə/

Learn to pronounce

noun

extreme or irrational fear of entering open or crowded places, of leaving one's own home, or of being in places from which escape is difficult.

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What if I crave open or crowded places?  Leaving my home?  That "from which escape is difficult" does not apply to me, however.

Well, I wouldn't categorize my restlessness as "extreme or irrational", so I'm not concerned.  And I don't hate my home, either.  I'm just not much of a homebody, I suppose. 

One upside of campus mask mandates is a lessened chance of being recognized by any of Meego's friends who know me when I escape to the university campus.  God forbid we  have, "Hey, Meego.  Yur MOM's at school...", poor guy.

And really, it's actually quite pretty out, if one is dressed for it.  

when I grow up, I wanna be just like me

What were you doing ten years ago?  Where were you in life?  Were you happy?  What had you accomplished?  What were you looking forward to?

What do you remember from that time up until now?  Any regrets?

I just finished reading the novel, What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty.  It's the story of a woman, Alice (duh), who hits her head, goes unconscious, and when she wakes up, she's forgotten the entirety of the past 10 years and thinks she's who/where/when she was 10 years prior.










The plot seemed interesting and introspective.  She's told that she's actually 39 years old with three kids and going through a divorce rather than 29 years old, expecting her first child, and still gah gah over her husband.

She doesn't remember any of it.  Kids??  Divorce??  What would she discover?  What would she learn from the whole thing?  It seemed like a good book for readers to gain insight into themselves. Take us along, Alice!

I actually found it to be a pretty lackluster story - very "chick lit" and light with soccer momish characters.  Plus, I'm the type that is really bothered when story elements don't reflect true life.  For example, there's Alice in her 10 year time warp.  She doesn't remember ANYthing, yet the hospital just sends her on home, no follow up, no nothing.  She's separated from her husband, and they're working out child custody.  Husband and other family members know full well that Alice has just suffered a brain injury, doesn't know her kids, and has no memory of being a mom.  Yet they leave her alone to take care of her alien children - including drive them around in a big SUV - fresh off her TBI.  Every once in a while, someone asks, "memory back yet?"

I gave it 2.5 out of 5 stars - somewhere between "it was okay" and "I liked it".  It was okay and I liked it mainly because I wanted to follow along as Alice's last 10 years got pieced together.  Why did she seemingly hate her husband?  Why was she all fit and stylish compared to when she was 29?  Why won't anyone just sum these things up for her?

Well, I dunno why because it's not like there was some big sensitive revelation that couldn't just be summed up.  But that would've made for a pretty short book.

So, two stars and I added a half-star because I still liked the premise and the questions it invites.

Ten years ago, I was an elementary school volunteer mom, serving on the PTO.  I had just gotten into tutoring and teaching, working for a test prep company - a sidebar I thought would be quite temporary :P.

Meego was entering 4th grade, Wolfgang was just about to start high school, and Chaco had just finished "stupid freshman" year of high school.  I was pretty much in the thick of momhood.

Magnum still worked at the same company and we lived in the same house we live in today.  The house had a lot more stuff in it back then, though.

Now?  Everyone's an adult and the nest is practically empty.  Time to be me again.  But... who am I?

Sometimes, it does feel a bit like I bumped my head and woke up here.   I think I'm figuring it out little by little.  Although our roles in life change during our various "seasons", we're still ourselves at our cores.

On that note, I've been preoccupied today with sort of maybe trying to talk myself out of buying an appealing bicycle. It seems so ME at a pretty perfect time.  But do I really need another bicycle?

What will I decide?  Will I regret buying/ not buying it?

Ask me in 10 years.

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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:
2. Book review!

what I did for Christmas break

Christmas day was a lazy one.  It was super duper windy outside, so we all just hung out indoors ALL DAY.  Really, it was continuously gusting around 60 mph.  Several neighbors and I will be talking to the fence guy very soon.

In many ways, it was nice to be holed up in the warm house, since we'd spent the previous night, somewhat out in the elements.  We cooked and ate and cleaned up and lounged around and played board games and watched the Broncos lose.

Wolfgang went full-on cabin fever and cranked out this thousand-piece puzzle we received as a gift, in one sitting.

He admitted that the sky nearly did him in.

I took advantage and got in some enjoyable reading and contemplated future projects.  I decided I should know how to create animated gifs. Not sure why I decided that, it was probably a cabin fever suggestion.

So as the wind howled outside, I decided to learn something and thought of swirling clouds...

... or spinning ones

I suppose it's a start.  Of something not very big.
.

breathing room

Fall semester began this week for Chaco, Wolfgang, and me.  Meego had week 2 of school.  Magnum continues to bring home the bacon for us all.

I am so tired.

NOT from classes, however.  Those were the fun mellow parts of the week.  All that tidying and decluttering I was going to do during my end-of-summer break? It didn't quite pan out until this week.  It hit me with a vengeance.

I guess since Wolfgang was still temporarily living here, I couldn't really go hog wild.  But he pretty much got all moved and settled last weekend.  Then I felt that most anything left behind was free pickings.

My dad will readily admit that he's probably got some psychological "condition" that makes it difficult for him to throw anything away.  Plus he felt a need to always have a large number of any one item on hand in case one broke down.  I wouldn't put him on the same level as true hoarders, but borderline?  Our home was always clean, but full of stuff.

I remember going home while in college, and I'd mention needing a lamp or something. He'd say, "What color do you want?" and whip out an assortment.  And he's a math nerd.  I can't begin to estimate the number of calculators in the house.

So, I think from that, I went the other extreme.  I like space.  Lots of empty space.  The final frontier.

Having lots of stuff cluttered around puts me on edge.  It's like a constant discordant racket, I can't concentrate.  For instance, remember this?  On my desk?

Gosh, that was loud.  It's all been silenced and resides in here now.  

Was that SO hard?!

And once I got started, I just couldn't stop.  Yesterday, after the desk, I moved to the rest of the basement, the bedroom, the garage, the hallways... It was wonderful!  Everthing put into its appropriate place.

The trash and recycling dumpsters are full, and there is stuff in the front hall ready for those nice guys with the donation truck on Monday.  

So I'm physically tired but feel so much better now.  Still, a part of me worries that I might need some of that crap someday.

Not.

.

in the beginning

Approach the track.  Step onto it and feel the surface beneath the racing shoes.  I can't be still.  I unconsciously shift my weight from foot to foot.  I shake my hands and arms out.  Shake them again.  It's taking forever to line up. 

Finally the official takes her position, shouts "on your MARK!" ,*tick* tick* tick* my heart is pounding.  She raises the gunless hand *TICK *TICK *TICK... my heart is ready to jump out of my chest.   *BANG!*

I'm breathing hard even though the race just started, the adrenaline is almost too much.  I'm still so jittery.  Eventually, I'll relax... eventually...


I ran track in high school and starts always made me nervous.  I was a sprinter, so my races were all finished in a minute or less.  I loved the relays though.  I always got the anchor position on our team since (a) starts made me nervous, and (b) I was the fastest of the sprinters. 

My good friend Debbie always ran the start position because (a) she couldn't stand waiting for the baton to get to her, and (b) she was second fastest of the sprinters.

My other good friend Carolyn (of cow-tipping fail fame) always ran second or third position because (a) she was a strong and methodical sprinter, and (b) she was third fastest.

The final position was... was... whomever.  We only had three sprinters on our track team, and there were no 3-legged relays.  Sometimes Sherri the distance runner would jog up and hand me the baton.  Other times it was Anita the big shot-putter or similar. 

This always made for some interesting fun - especially for me because, unless something really strange occurred during the race, it was guaranteed that at least ONE girl would be ahead of me by the time I got the baton.  There was very little pressure on me, and having someone ahead gave me something to chase like the fake bunny at the dog track!

By the halfway mark, it's a comfortable lead, but I haven't settled down yet.  Is it too much speed?  The race is still young.

Bell lap and the lead has grown even more.  It's hardly even a race anymore, yet I'm still a bit of a wreck.

The final sixty yards and my nerves have transformed to a bit of befuddlement.  I feel like I can finally relax.

"Is he just running really fast or is everyone else really slow?", I say to Magnum.

Wolfgang crosses the finish line first, nearly a hundred yards ahead of the next guy. 

His first track meet of the season was on Saturday.  There were two heats for the boys' 1600 meters, and he was assigned to the slower one.  He ended up 5th place overall.

He was happy with his race, but wishes he would have had someone to push him.  Maybe he would have broken 5 minutes.  As for me, I agree that he was in the wrong heat this time, but I don't know if my jitters can take a close race. 

They're actually worse now that I'm a mom spectator!
.

stay at home, mom

Hey gamers (yawn), how about that Fallout New Vegas?

Okay, I'm not a video gamer at all. However, my living situation requires that I am constantly in the know about the world of video gaming. I will say that I find it rather interesting that the video game world is one of the few that has hardly been affected by the recession. People will find ways to stretch their toilet paper stash, but don't take away the video games!

Anyway, yesterday was another big release date for a game lovingly named "Fallout New Vegas". As per usual with these big release games, Chaco had pre-ordered his copy, happily paying a premium in order to getting his on release day Tuesday.

Except it didn't show.... HORRORS!

I don't know, something happened with amazon dot com where a bunch of "guaranteed" orders were not delivered (I'm curiously monitoring the backlash). Now, here I was, under strict request to please, Mom, please!! be home to sign for the precious package on release day Tuesday.

So I made exciting plans to accomodate this request by cleaning my kitchen. That was Tuesday. Amazon dot com then sent further correspondence to explain that the copy was on it's way, would be overnighted and delivered by fedex on day-after-release-day Wednesday, a.k.a. today.

Once again, the strict request was issued for me to be here to accept the precious cargo that would be delivered "some time before 3 pm". Nice of them to narrow it down for me.

By 11 am, I was getting desperate to get out. It was a beautiful day. The dog needed her beauty walk, I needed to get cookies for my class later this evening - this is the high schoolers. I've learned that one way to a high schooler's brain is through their stomach, via junk food, but I digress. Nonetheless, I needed to LEAVE THE HOUSE! *music of foreboding*.

Shhhhh.... don't tell Chaco, but.... I left. SHHHHH!!

I went to the grocery store, got a few things, got some cookies. Upon my arrival back home, I had JUST backed into the garage when the fedex truck pulled up. I couldn't have synchronized it better if I'd planned it! I got it! I got the stupid video game!

oh SHEESH!
.

it only hurts if I breathe

I'm grumpy. I seemed to have somehow pulled/torn/cracked something in my ribcage and it's annoyingly annoying. The smell of Ben-Gay is not helping.

I'd been dealing with a slight tinge of something there for the past few days, then I did something as innocent as sit up off the bed, but I apparently did it all wrong, because I felt an audible "pop" and here I am now, all Ben-Gayed. Where did that product name come from anyway?

But, it could be worse. I can walk and talk and appear somewhat comfortable. There are just a few unmentionables that are out of the question at the moment.

Right. Bowling. You were thinking bowling, right?
.

because it's funner and easier than keeping fingerprints at bay

I'm still playing with my wall.

I used up all those old paints and then went out and bought some new. So I guess that defeated the purpose of the wall paintage to be a means to use up old paint.

It's not done yet. I'm waiting for the wall to tell me when it's done. I think it prefers this to ubiquitous smudgy fingerprints.

Kids helped some too. Can you find Meego's contribution in this section?

In other news, the 4th grade science fair project report has been completed and turned in. Meego never reached full death of all the batteries, but a couple were comatose.

Conclusion: LED light bulbs last WAY WAY WAY WAAAAY longer than incandescants.

better go and get your armour

Okay, SSSSSHHHHH, don't say anything, but [whispers] I'm feeling a bit... restless.

Fourth of July pretty much marks the halfway point of summer break, and here I am feeling a bit stir crazy. I know because when I get this way, I start doing restless activities. Today? I pulled weeds. I mean I pulled bunches and bunches of weeds.

Remember how I told a while back about our backyard jungle? The one that became somewhat civilized after I placed a new weed whacker into Wolfgang's destructive hands? Well, whaddya know, the place doesn't stay cleaned up on its own.

Today, it was an all-out weed assault. Because I'm restless. How are weeds measured? Bevies? Bushels? Bunches? Barrels? Anyway, I pulled lots. Pounds, many pounds. Yes, the nature (pun intended) of my backyard allows for this.

We do have somewhat of a structure, if we can call it that, to our summer. We made a list. A to-do list like thing. A list of things we want to do over the summer, finances allowing. That last part? That "finances allowing" part? Kinda limits us *pffffffft*.

And we've checked a few things off the list - done some things more than once - and it's going well, I'd say. But still, here I am all restless.

I think I need help. I need some good cheap fun advice to use up these last precious weeks of summer break. I feel them slipping through my fingers.

I need a good brainstorm session. No criticizing.

Legality is negotiable.
.

now we're cookin'

<---A little Inuit, in his first pair of polar bear pants. What's cuter? The pants or the baby?? (Sorry, PETA).

It was cold here Sunday. "Blustery" might describe it. Snow, wind, temperatures in the teens putting the wind chill below zero. Magnum and Wolfgang had gone out to run an errand. I was here on the computer doing something highly important like facebook WordTwist or such with beej, Jerry, and Brandy when the inevitable happened. Yet another session of Grabass broke out in the living room between Chaco and Meego.

Now I know the whole boy thing. This need for "puppy time" on a regular basis. That doesn't mean I have to like it, especially after I've said it sooooo many times, "No grabass in the house! That's what outside is for!"

"HO-KAY!", I declared, "We're all going outside to take the dog for a walk!"

"B-B-B-But, it's cold outside", they replied.

"YEP! That's what jackets and hats and stuff are for! Bundle up!!"

So I forced Chaco and Meego out into the elements which also meant I was forced to be out there too. The dog loves it. I think she's immune to cold weather and wishes she were a sled dog. After a while, Chaco and Meego had sufficiently felt the consequences of their living room SmackDown, and we returned to the warmth of the house. Thank goodness, because I was freezing my butt off!

I noticed as we de-layered ourselves that Chaco's jacket was about a size or two too small. What the...? Didn't I just buy that jacket? No wonder he was freezing. Muahahahahahahah!

So yesterday, we went jacket shopping and found him a nice one. Can you say "After Christmas Clearance"? YAY! He's all happy because we had to go to the Young Men's department to find one that fit him.

This morning, 7:30, he tells me he's going to take the dog out for a walk. Oh, did I mention that school doesn't start back here until THURSDAY?! But that's another issue.... What? So early? In the cold? He wanted to put the new jacket through the paces. He wanted to go out. The colder the better.

Oh. Okay. To get them to go outside in wintertime, I just need to provide some warm clothing? That's the trick?

I'm learning.
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the call of the wild

It's getting colder and crisper out, and I feel in need of an adventure. We didn't have nearly enough adventure this past summer and now there's all this business of going to school and working. Can't we do that later? When we're old and sickly and can't do anything else?

We went camping once. Had a good enough time, but it was just once and just for one weekend. Plus, it was a bit of a probationary camp as in, "I don't wanna go camping with you guys if you're just gonna bicker about who does the work!" So we went. The bickering was at a minimum, but then *poof* summer was over.

So now I try to appease myself by reading about adventure or looking at pretty pictures of other people's adventures or setting adventurous wallpaper on the computer.... but it's not really working is it? No.

In the meantime, I did a little shopping today. I needed a new iron. The old one has become a hypocrit. It says "cotton", but it really means "delicate". Or it says "perma press", but it really means "wool". I can't stand hypocrits. I got a new iron. Got a new mop while I was at it. I look forward to using them both.

That scares me.
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