what I did at summer camp

It's probably been around 30 years since I was last in Winter Park, Colorado.   Well, before this week anyways.  We just got back from a few days in the mountains, and I didn't turn on a computer the whole time.  Miss me?  Even notice I was gone?

We planned a family trip several weeks ago, and the stars actually aligned so that all five of us could hang out.  So I've been in and out of a mountain cabin for the last few days.  I'd like to say we enjoyed fresh air and sunshine, but various big wildfires out-performed the fresh air part.  Plenty of sunshine, though!

Obligatory sitting-around-on-vacation pic:

Don't mind the small blemish on my left shin.  I did a much better job on the right shin when we spent the day at Trestle Bike Park.  Trestle is a mountain bike resort with miles and miles of mountain bike trails.  The nice part is, you can ride a gondola to the top, so you're mostly riding your bike DOWNhill.  Weeeeeeeeeee!

Wolfgang is the most experienced mountain biker of the bunch and has been to Trestle before.  The rest of us noobs got to experience it for the first time.  

Meego and whatsherface.  Who wore it better?

It's one thing to snap a pic at the base of the gondola, another thing to get back down the mountain.  Just call me "hashtag slow and awkward"!  Nonetheless, I've got to say, it was fun!  Magnum and I stuck with repeatedly riding on one green trail in particular, aptly named "Green World".  It was great because it went for miles and miles without getting too technical.   

One of Wolfgang's friends joined us on Trestle day, so those two did their thing on the more advanced trails.  Meego and Chaco hung out with Magnum and me for a bit, but pretty much left us in the dust and did their own thing.  

And it wouldn't be a noteworthy day at the bike park without some body damage, right?  Meego was the first of us to do an over-the-handlebars move resulting in a bit of road hash and some bike blemishes.  But he was back to it in true 20-year-old fashion.  

Later on, Magnum hit a highly technical berm and ended up flying off the bike (translation:  he tripped exiting the gondola)

Finally, I attempted a particularly gnarly feature, and ended up sending it off the trail and into the foliage (translation:  I pulled my slow @ss over to let an adolescent pass me, and ended up dumping my bike).

Successful first trip to the bike park!

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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:

4. Write a blog post inspired by the word: damage

Silver Liningness Sunday

My dad.  The baby isn't me.
It's the favorite child

First of all, Happy Father's Day to all the good bloggin' dads out there!  And to my own dear soon-to-be 91 year-old dad!

My dad is no longer able to live independently, but his mind is as sharp as ever.  When we talk, he is understandably ready to "go", especially since my mom passed away.  He's not typically sad or angry, just very matter-of-fact and philosophical about feeling he's lived a good life.  During a recent conversation:

Dad:  I'm not sure why I'm still here.
Me:  You've just taken such darn good care of yourself.
Dad:  Yeah, maybe I should've been more foolish.

Words of wisdom?

Anyway, he's been a good dad to me.  He doesn't like "Hallmark Holidays", but I can wish him Happy Father's Day on this, my blog.  Also a shout out to Magnum, the daddy of the house!

 In other Silver Liningness news, Meego and I had baseball duty twice this week. Wednesday and again today.  Father's Day at the park was expectedly busy and a bit hectic, but the little kids were cute.  The team gave out free mitts to the first 1,000 kids and let them play catch on the field prior to the start of the game.  Very cute!  Lots of little kids, lots of dads and grandpas.

My vocal chords are now a bit shot as I was, as is typical, on one of the cash registers.  Four hours of "4 DOGS AND A PIKES PEAK NACHO ON 2!"  over the din of everything ballpark can ruin my singing talents.  Good thing I don't have any.

Sparse much?

Chaco continues to relocate to the apartment.  It's closer to the university and also closer to where he's working this summer than our house is.  Wolfgang will move in at the end of summer.







P.E.O was also this week, and I'm glad I've gotten back into it.  All the guys here lightheartedly tease me about this all-woman's "club" I'm in, but kidding aside, it's a good organization to be a part of.  ... Plus I just gotta get away from the testosterone sometimes.

And happy first day of summer!  It's currently quite hot here.  We're hoping it will somewhat dry up the backyard swamp still plaguing us.  The Great Ditch is helping, but we're still wary of things crawling up out of there...

...unless it's Reese, who continues with the hide-and-seek.  *sigh*

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Silver Liningness Sunday

First of all, a big shout out to Mother Nature.  The weather is Gor-jous, just GOR-jous!  I ran yesterday morning OUTSIDE... in SHORTS!  SQUEEEEEEeeeeeee!

Chaco literally dropped by yesterday.  I was sitting here drawing shoes when I thought I heard Wolfgang return from his run.  Instead it was Chaco.  Apparently the March of Dimes was having some event on the college campus and decided to start by blasting through the speakers at 7:30 am right next to the dorms.  A local news personality purposely fired the crowd up to "wake up the college kids on Saturday morning!".  SO not nice.

It was such a nice day out, though, so Chaco thought he'd go for a hike (since he was awake at such an ungodly hour), and then he just ended up at our house.

Hung out, got sunburned, got me to take him shopping, played with the pets...









Magnum and I watched "Bridesmaids".  I grabbed it off the library DVD shelf.  I thought it might be too chick flickish for Magnum, but I've watched my share of guy movies in the name of motherly sacrifice, so I invited him to watch with me.

I would say that the movie as a whole is just okay, but there are some hilarious moments.  Melissa McCarthy steals the show.   I later learned that the guy who plays the air marshall is her husband in real life.





Wolfgang had another track meet where the relay team set a new PR.  Meego had his first track meet with the middle school.  They've hardly had any practice at all because so much has been cancelled from the weather.  They just sort of winged it.  Gotta start somewhere.

The rest of the week was good and productive.  I'm thinking the wintry weather is behind us?  Is it safe to say that now??
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Silver Liningness Sunday

Happy February!  Spring is just around the corner, right?

On that note, in better-living-through-boot-sales news, I nabbed another pair of winter boots this week.  I got some pac boots earlier in the season to keep my feet alive during the blustery crossing guard season.  They are warm, but cumbersome to walk in.  Since being quick on my feet is one of the dominant job responsibilities, I decided it was either my toes or the little pedestrians had to go.  Okay, it really wasn't that dramatic.  I found these boots on MEGA sale

Really, I think my house slippers cost more.  They're not quite as warm as the Frankensteinian boots, but warmer than my hiking shoes while being quite comfy and enabling me to walk with the style and grace that my customers have become accustomed  (PFFT :p).  And since I realize that this is the second week I've posted thankfulness regarding footwear, let's move on...

In movie news, we enjoyed Cowboys & Aliens this week.  I admit that I sometimes just go along for the ride in my role of sacrificial lone female with these Action Adventure movies, but I genuinely liked this one. The premise alone is just too fun, then there's the Daniel Craig factor - is it hot in here?

Chaco graced us with his presence yesterday.  Characteristically called me, saying he needed some things from the house.  "Some things" mostly turned out to be cash and a haircut.  He also accepted the spare webcam, saying he had some projects that could use one, but admitted that he mainly didn't want me to donate away a perfectly good webcam.  He's becoming my pack-rat dad more and more each day.

Today's agenda includes a bit of tuting this afternoon, then maybe I'll watch some Super Bowl commercials.   Happy Sunday!
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first room on the left

Our kids, God bless 'em, all share one big bedroom.  For the most part, it's all they've ever known and when they were younger, they seemed to prefer it. Technically, our home is a 4 BR but who actually uses all of the bedrooms as bed rooms?? 

So they have the large Master bedroom and the design motif is that of contemporary American barracks, from what I've seen of barracks.  And for the most part it works, they have the Man Cave to overflow into.

The problem for ME is that the room gets teenaged-boy-trashed x 3, and when I ask them to clean "the mess", they can all say, "It's not my mess".

Okay, fine.

I went ahead and took the first step for them.  I got all of this stuff off of the communal floor.  I've assured them that my days of buying their trash are over.

So it's helped.  Now they can better see what needs organizing {sheesh}.  Chaco is in there now going at it, Meego and Wolfgang will have their turns.  This has me in anticipation mode.  

See, a few weeks ago, we were packing up for our road trip.  Chaco appeared with a sandwich.  He'd found it in his closet.  

It was in a container since he'd brought it to school but obviously didn't eat it.  At least it wasn't furry and smelly.  Rather, it looked fine, but was the consistency of a cinder block - thank you, dry Colorado climate.  Note that this was about a month after his school year had ended.  

We got back from the road trip and a few days later the fire started.  A few days after that, the fire got downright nasty.  We each packed a bag and set it by the door just in case we needed to leave in a hurry.  Chaco didn't need to pack, though.  His road trip bag was still intact since he'd just shoved it to some corner of the barracks.  I'll admit that came in handy, but... yeah.  Sigh.

Last week, he was going to a LAN party and was packing up a daypack.

Found yet another cinder block sandwich.

You see what I'm up against here??  Note that, not only has he now found 2 long forgotten sandwiches, but no one else had noticed them in the meantime.  This occured even though they assure me that they "clean" the room every Sunday.  I think they are just making dusting and vacuuming noises, opening and closing a few drawers for effect.

When I was growing up, I had my own bedroom.  Yes, it was occassionally trashed and disheveled.  I recall one poor plant that died a slow death.  Is this slob karma coming back to haunt me?

Anyone else have slob karma?
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Thursday

I think part of a kid's education, along with reading, writing, and arithmetic, should be the mastering of domestic chores.  Each of our kids has been exposed to the variety of jobs that fall under "general upkeep". 

As I mentioned recently, Chaco can't iron.  None of them can actually.  I think Magnum might have some skillz in this area, having been in the army.  I've never actually witnessed it, however.   I guess ironing doesn't fall under "general upkeep" around here.   Because 98.654% of their wardrobes consist of clothes that don't need ironing, the kids got waivers on that workshop.

Laundry, however, is certainly general upkeep.  Years ago when  I was a new mom, another mom gave me the advice to do laundry every day "no matter what".  Laundry has a way of snowballing into huge piles of dirtiness if left unattended for too long.  I think it's safe to say that, except during camping trips, I have done laundry every day for the past several years.

Good mentor that I am, I taught the kids to do laundry.  It's not like we have to go down to the creek and beat our clothing against rocks and scrub them with our homemade soap of fat and ashes.  Technically, the washing machine is the family member that does the laundry.  What's the big deal?

And back to Chaco, he despises doing laundry.  I don't know why, but he'd rather clean a bathroom than have anything to do with laundry.  He'd rather clean the dog's bathroom than have anything to do with laundry.  Wolfgang and Meego put it right up there with cleaning a bathroom, human or dog.  Magnum thinks they should do it more often, but I let them pass on having to do anything with laundry.  I figure we've gotten to a point where they could pass a laundry test, they don't need to do it on a regular basis.

But the truth is... I'd rather just do it myself.  It's not that I love doing laundry, it's just that...

I don't like any of my male offspring - of which all of them are - handling my unmentionables for any reason.

not my unmentionables

I mean, I know we're family and all, but still. 

And yes, we could have them just do their own laundry, but that would require each of us letting our personal laundry piles build up to a suitable load size.  We didn't get that carbon footprint jar opener for nothin'.  We'd have to say good-bye to having our laundry done every day.  That would be difficult.  It's not like I have unmentionables for every day of the week like some people do. 

So I'm a proud washwoman.

What domestic chores to you "save" just for yourself?  Why?
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Silver Liningness Sunday

Happy Sunday! Time for a little silver liningness reflection...

First of all, this week I got a blogger award.  Now I know these things float around all over the blogosphere, but whenever I get one, I still get the warm fuzzies.  Sharing this one, however, requires a confession of sorts. 

I have another blog.

But, it's NOTHING to me!  I don't even refer to it as a blog.  It's just something that happened over the summer when I needed some.. some.. RELEASE.  

I had all these paintings and drawings laying around, and I wanted to have my own place to organize and categorize them, so I made this page for them.  That's all it was, I SWEAR.   But then some other artsy people started to visit, and so I started to visit their artsy places, and the few of us could just geek out on each others' techniques and ... well... there you go.  One of my "others" gave me this Candle Lighter Award this week. 


This award belongs to those who believe, who always Survive the day and those who never stop Dreaming, for those who cannot quit, for those who keep trying and if you’re in this catergory, you are Entitiled to this Award.

Anyway, I got it from my artsy friend, Cha, and I rather liked the sentiment behind it because sometimes, we can be our own worst critics.  I know I can, anyway. 


And speaking of other blogs, I wanted to share this great recipe I tried this week for pork ribs and saurkraut.  I got it from a food blog and I didn't save the link because I was pretty sure I could make it again from memory (I'm all about the simple).  I was looking for it this morning to link here.  There are a crap load of food blogs, let me just say!  If I ever find that recipe again, I'll give the link.

But anyway, the Real Food Project of 2012 continues.  My testers declared this recipe a keeper and I will make it again - from memory.

In movie news, I made it through Fast Five, the fifth  freaking  installment from "The Fast and the Furious" franchise.  I have now seen all five movies, and I'm pretty sure I've seen the first one more than once.  Vin Diesel aside, I know I am not the target audience for these movies.  I only mention it here because I think this makes me worthy of some award for testosteral tolerance. 

Yesterday, Chaco had some birthday money burning a hole in his pocket, so the five of us took a trip up to Denver for some big city slicking.  It was a nice little trip - weather-wise, traffic-wise, all-around-wise.  Well, except for getting pulled over by the Sherrif's department on the drive home, but that's for later...  Good thing for paint-a-horse rehab, and  now I'm better for it.
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new year silver liningness

Happy New Year! I've got a good feeling about 2012! Or maybe the theories about the Mayan calendar will ring true...

But at least it's been a nice holiday break.  And actually, the kids don't go back to school until THURSDAY, so there's still a few days of sloth left.  Despite that, we did manage to get in the first mile of the year at midnight.  It was a beautifully clear 25 degree night under a bright half-moon.

Fireworks popped off from all directions as we scampered around like weirdos - Chaco with the psycho balaclava.

So this past week was lull week, and I took full advantage by sleeping a little more, reading a little more, dealing with the house being trashed a little more.

We also enjoyed a few movies, so I will give my quick  At-The-Movies opinion summary:

Limitless was okay.  If nothing else, it has an interesting plot.  I will say, however that, apparently unlike much of the rest of the female population, Bradley Cooper doesn't do a whole lot for me. 

As a family, we watched Ping Pong Playa, which I actually rather liked.  It was a lot better than I expected.  I expected it to suck, though.

Never Forever was a drama about a woman who inadvertently becomes happier from actions meant to make her depressed husband un-depressed.  I thought it pretty good as it had an interesting theme.  The audience is in on her "evolution" mostly through camera-in-the-bedroom, so this is NOT one to watch with the kids.

Lethal Weapon (from 1987!) made it in as a token guy movie that I went ahead and sat through.  Young Mel Gibson in a monster mullet.  It stretchingly counts as a Christmas movie around here, much like "Die Hard". 

Soul Kitchen is German, so unless you speak the language, subtitle reading is required.  I enjoyed Every.  Single.  Minute of it. 

All in all, a nice rather low-key break to get charged up for the new year.  Happy New Year to all of my blog friends - I look forward to getting to know you even better in 2012!

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snow day

Okay, mark the calendars.  Yesterday  gets credit for being the first snowday of the school year.  I holed up in the house with the 3 kids as long as I could take it. 

Did I ever mention that Chaco built himself a computer?  For his birthday last year, he asked for some cash to purchase parts for this Frankensteinian computer.  He ordered the various components, assembled them, and now the two of them share a happy existence in what we all lovingly refer to as "The Corner".

My computer (well, technically it's my and Magnum's computer, but come on...) sits just a few feet away from The Corner.  It's on my gigadesk - my happy island drifting about in The Mancave.  I blog here, I paint here, I draw here, I shop here, I'm a girl here.  This is Girl Island in the country of Mancave.

BUT Chaco has some wonderfully deep, highly resonant, obnoxiously beastly, abhorrently foul, impressively balanced speakers in The Corner.  I love them when he streams music through them.  When he plays computer games?  Not so much.  Machine gun fire, explosions, yelling and swearing - all in beautifully clangorous surround sound.

Snow day became blow-stuff-up day.  Even with him sleeping in and the frequent breaks I forced him to take through threats of eviction, the battlefield was taking a toll on me and my sanctuary.  I found solace in hot beverages and a chilly arctic trek with the crazy dog.

Today is quiet again.  It feels almost sad at how quiet it is.

Just kidding.
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Silver Liningness

Happy silver liningness Sunday!  What a pretty autumn day it is here.  I had an absolutely BeaUtiful bicycle ride this morning. 

And it's really been a good week all around, albeit a really quick one.  I guess time flies when you're having fun? 

Magnum's employee health plan gives us incentives for being healthy/being aware of how unhealthy we are.  It was health assessment time again.  All of my "numbers" were good!   My assessor even told me I "won the prize" for best BMI she'd calculated.  Okay, so she didn't give me an actual tangible "prize", and the people she'd been assessing were all pretty much middle-aged, desk-bound people... but I won "the prize", I'll take it.  And my cholesterol that was getting uncomfortably close to the "bad" zone, has gone down from last year's assessment.  Bring on the omelettes!

And speaking of assessments,  I've been doing some self-assessment type exercises too.  I went so far as to talk to a "life coach" (mainly because it was free), and she directed me to this website with a bunch of free (sensing a theme here?) questionnaires for helping to "find yourself".  And I learned stuff. 

For instance, I'm really not all as disciplined as some people seem to think.  I run, ride my bicycle instead of drive, practice math problems, etc. simply because I just like to!   No surprise to me, but we'll just let the others go on thinking... 

Magnum and I watched a fun movie:  Buddy.  It's Norwegian, so you have to read.  We really liked it - Two thumbs up!

On Friday night, I finally took a friend up on her offer to join her and some others for a girls night out.  She's been inviting me to join them for a while, and I've always had other plans.  I'm glad she persevered, though, and invited me again.  Such a nice break from the testosterone, and Magnum and kids got in some Man Time. 

And now, I'm going to go walk the crazy dog.  Because I want to.
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mega me

So, did you see that episode of "The Office" where Dwight constructs his Mega Desk?

Neither did I... BUT, I did however construct my own version of my own Mega Desk a few minutes ago.

It's all a part of my evil plot to slowly take over the Man Cave! AAAHHAHAHAHAHAHahahahahahahahahhahahaha.......

Update: In light of Jerry's (Duble's) comment, I've renamed it the Giga Desk.

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code of fire

A couple of days ago, I got suckered into going to the elementary school and cleaning out a store room with another PTO sucker. Apparently, a fire inspection is imminent, so this room needed some attention. Mind you, we were only cleaning out the PTO section of the storeroom.

Turns out my partner in grime is, like me, a clutterphobe, so we made very short work of our task. And I will say that the formerly jumbled shelves are now an efficient, tidy shrine of orderliness.

She, also like me, is a mom of all boys. She's got an extra one, though, a fourth one to contend with. So we talked about being moms of all boys. Yes, they are messy. Yes, they are loud. Yes, they are rowdy. Then there are stories we've heard of moms with girls. They could be weepy, they could be overly sensitive, they could hold a grudge forEVER, and yes, they could be bitchy.

I thought back to my school and work experiences, and just experiences with the different genders in general. Girls can be mean. Mean mean. Fortunately, I think I can say that I was never an active target of such meanness, but I've witnessed enough.

A few years ago, I had a temporary part-time job at that very elementary school. Most of the staff there is female. I couldn't help but notice the contrast in coworker dynamics between that and when I worked with mostly men.

Those women would be all flowery and nicey nice when in each others' company, but the minute one party left the room, the bitchiness and gossip ensued. I was rather shocked that this was the "rule" and NOT the exception. It happened on a daily basis.

Working with mostly men was so different. I find men to be more honest and upfront. Basically, they treat you like "one of the guys", grab your ass, or totally ignore you. So much easier to know where you stand.

I know there are exceptions, but I still wince when remembering the backstabbing and catfighting I witnessed during my short stint at that school job.

So my friend and I received profuse thankfulness regarding our decluttering prowess. We then left the building so someone could surely accuse us of something bad.
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need reinforcements

Okay, so back when my friends with young daughters were having to go off to see Hannah Montana or Miley Cyrus or whoever she is... Back when I teased about the High School Musical marathons and then even High School Musical on Ice....

Payback time today.

Today, I functioned as the requisite Parental Guidance for Meego at a showing of Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen.

Was it any good, you ask? Heck if I know.

I just know that I SO need a chick flick now! Maybe I can get some sort of quick fix over at YouTube!

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Silver Lining S-day, part XXXVI

This was wrong. ALL wrong. I didn't want to be in that place. YUCK pooey! Then I woke up and was all, oh whew, just a weird dream. THANK goodness! Doncha just love that feeling?

With that, time for another installment of Silver Lining Saturday! (on a Sunday).

First of all, in case no one has noticed, I've begun a new policy here for SLS day. A photo depiction of something good from the week. I sat down to do this entry and realized I had no such photo so snapped a quick one:

It's Chaco and Wolfgang shooting each other up via XBOX 360 in the Man Cave from earlier mention - as seen from the Mom Cave (a.k.a laundry room). I'm actually thankful we have such a Man Cave, inhospitable as it is to me at times.

Schools were out Monday and Tuesday of this week, and we had lovely weather to accompany that. Wolfgang and Meego and I took a very enjoyable bike ride together. I forget where Chaco was at the time. I do remember thinking that I wished I'd had the camera - would've gotten a good shot for SLS day.

Yes, the weather has improved from the recent snowiness. In fact, I had some good quality time with both Bella and Tessa (my bicycles) this week.

Yesterday happened to be an exception, however. Cold and drizzly for most of the day. The elementary school PTO had a Car Show/Yard Sale event (secretly dubbed "Cars and Crap"). It's too bad the weather wasn't better, but I'm thankful that I had not volunteered to work the thing and was not expected to since I am, after all, the Run With Lumber lady - Run With Lumber being this coming Wednesday.

On that note, all the Run With Lumber ducks are in a row. I just need to procure the ice cream. We even have a Lumber "volunteer". More on that later...

I went for a lovely run earlier today. Weather is back to nice. I was contemplating aloud whether I should wear shorts or capris for my run when Magnum piped up, "Wear shorts, show off your legs". For that, he gets major points.
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clubbed and drug

Kinda weird, I opened up my blog and saw these pictures of snow storming. You'd never know it now. It's practically HOT outside.

The kids have been out of school today and yesterday for "professional development" days. Tack on Friday's snowday and it's a veritable vacation week! And with it, Chaco and Wolfgang have been DIY-ing the Man Cave, making it even more of the Man Cave.

I've no problem with this Man Cave that has taken over the bottom floor of our house. There's a Playstation 2, and XBOX 360, a dartboard with darts, a nerf hoop, a table in the corner for building models, a big punching bag thing (okay, that's actually mostly mine), and now there are electrical cables running all over giving it the Geek Man Cave look.

The problem is, it happens to be the room where my.... er... the computer desk is. If I want to use the computer when 2 or more of the resident males are home, I must do so in the midst of the Man Cave. When no one else is home, the Man Caveness is hardly noticeable, other than the decor, that is. Oh, and don't pick up any of the reading materials if you're not prepared to be overloaded with V1agra, Lev1tra, phermone, and Asian mail-order bride ads. Popular Science? Who knew?!

When all 4 of the males I live with inhabit the Man Cave at the same time, it is truly inhospitable to any female. I intelligently avoid it at those times.

Yesterday, I needed to do some things on the computer. Girl things I suppose. And so I needed to not hear things exploding near me. I needed to not have cables being strung over, across, and through me. I systematically kicked them all out and declared this the "Mom Cave". It worked!

For about 15 minutes.
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ready for May flowers

Get out the woolies, we're having us a SNOW DAY!

Yeah, remember all that fun and frolic I was having back in February and March, galavanting and bicycling around in short sleeves and short pants? Well, perhaps Mother Nature's been stopping by to read here and realized she forgot our winter. April has been a b*tch.

All the schools are closed and I have no snow car. Magnum's been out of town this week for work and is scheduled to come home tonight, but I won't be surprised if he gets stranded somewhere. Looks like I'll be sleeping with the pillows again, and he's left the car in the uncovered parking lot at the airport, so he'll have some digging out to do.

So I'm off to have a productive day, all the while seeing that the kids are occupied in healthy endeavors.
Translation: I'm going to attempt to get some work done, and the kids better help out around here and be nice to each other without trashing the place or anyone getting hurt, or they'll all be cleaning the dog run.
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Silver Lining Saturday (on a Sunday), part XXIII

Whoo, yesterday just flew by and I never got around to Silver Lining Saturday, but fear not, the series has not been canceled. To make this a true silver lining entry, I'll point out some of the clouds:


I worked yesterday morning into the early afternoon. I gave the usual LSAT class another test, and they were joined by two MCAT classes wanting to take tests. So the usual Saturday morning tedium of proctoring a timed test was given a bit of a shot of adrenaline by making a more chaotic tedium of simultaneously proctoring three timed tests. I was glad for the change of pace and it was also good to get all of those students tested. I'm thinking it was similar to working the McDonald's drive-thru at lunchtime. Just guessing.

My bike REALLY needs a tune-up now. Among other things, I have hardly any brakes left, front nor rear. I know this because I got in a lot of bike riding this past week with the mild weather we've been having. The weather is the main reason I haven't gotten the bike in for a good once over. The shop would want to have it for the day, and I just couldn't hand it over for that long. I figure if I get going too fast on the downhills, I can always use the Fred Flintstone braking method.

On a similar note, these mild temperatures have melted all the snow buildup in the yard, including the dog kennel, revealing her very healthy bowel function.

We had a knock-down-drag-out over XBOX privileges yesterday with Chaco. To help smooth things over, Magnum suggested we play a board game we got for Christmas but hadn't learned to play yet. It was fun, a real Norman Rockwell moment.

Watched a movie yesterday. Wanted. I thought it overdone and rather comic bookish, then I learned that it was adapted from a comic book. Aha. Just a Netflix movie, glad we didn't pay to see it at the theater. Still, Angelina Jolie is always good at playing the bad*ss.
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midnight madness

I don't typically stay up until midnight on New Year's eve. The guys do their male-bonding-through-video-games thing and then usually wake me for the fireworks. But yesterday, we went bowling and while there, got to talking about everyone's plans for the evening. I said I would stay up until midnight only if someone agreed to run a "Midnight Mile" with me.

To my surprise, everyone got on board. What?

So, there I was. Up at midnight, gathering the troops to go run the first mile of the New Year. Everyone survived, and Chaco caught it on a rather "Cloverfield-esque" video.

The movie is shaky, dark, ill-defined in spots, and, in general, poor quality and a bit nauseating. Naturally, with all of those attributes, I had to post a segment of it.

See if you can follow the participants. We were in single file and fartlekking. If you don't know that term, it's not as gross as it sounds. Anyway, shortly after the beginning, Chaco is in front and you'll see clear sidewalk. Next comes Wolfgang from the left in the 2-tone jacket. Next is me, mainly a shot of my feet. I'm wearing a beret - I thought it festive. After me is a pretty good shot of Meego looking rather like a moonwalking astronaut. Lastly is Magnum in a pair of light colored pants. Then Chaco does his fartlek back up to the front and the thing continues.

So that was us at midnight, just more of the same for another 5200 feet or so. Once we got back, everyone declared that they were fully awake after that mile and might as well stay up longer. What have I done...

You?
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weekend update

We braved the mall on Saturday. It wasn't that bad, really. The kids had Christmas money burning holes in their pockets and it would've been worse around here had we NOT gone shopping, know what I mean?

Sunday was a beautiful day here weather-wise. Such a treat for this time of year. I was out running in it for a while and sort of got lost in the whole whoopee-do-it's-such-a-nice-day until I thought the family might wonder where I was, so I stopped running and went home.

Later, Magnum, Meego, the dog and I walked over to the nearby park that is home to the BMX track. Meego bought himself a new RC car on Saturday and was eager to test it out on the whoomps of the track.

See, while the track was built and maintained for BMX, it has become a popular hangout for the RC car crowd. And I don't mean little kids like Meego, I mean grown men with their expensive gas-powered toys (really, they are still TOYS if you ask me), often with their female groupies in tow.

Our kids use the track for both bicycle fun and RC fun, but we remind them that the bikes have the right of way. Others don't always see it that way, and small turf wars can start between the bikers and the RCer's, but they usually coexist quite cordially. Sunday's crowd was pretty low-key. Mostly younger kids trying out new Christmas bikes. Meego drove until the batteries gave out.

In the meantime, Chaco and Wolfgang had gone to a friend's house. They arrived home several hours later with worn out voices. There must've been much loud racousness as they both sounded a bit like Oompah Loompah's.

"Thanks for sharing!" the friend's mom said as she dropped them off back home.

No problem. Thanks for taking the hit.
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