Scrawn II

As mentioned, the weather's cooled off. That means that more skin is covered. That means that shorts are being replaced by pants.

Now, I know a lot of parents that go do this big back-to-school shopping trip in the fall and stock up on the new school clothes. I don't. I prefer to wait until they start whining.

The whining has begun. And rightfully so.

They're whipping out their jeans and pants now that the weather's colder. Of course none of them fit, unless we were to live in a floodplain. Which we don't.

So, last night, after the musical chairs version of clothing sorting happened - salvageable Chaco's pants going to Wolfgang, salveagable Wolfgang's pants going to Meego - I was forced into a jeans shopping trip.

I learned that there are plenty of "Husky" jeans out there. Wolfgang and Meego are okay with their Regular sizes, but Chaco needs the slims. A major portion of his height is in his legs, so although he's 14, he needs size 18 pants. He needs size 18 inseam to go on his size 14 waist. "Husky" won't do.

And I thought finding jeans for ME was difficult.

Eventually, we found some - on sale even - WOOT! One pair of 18-slims on the shelf. I laboriously dug and found one more pair. I scarfed them both before some other lank happened by.

Ready to throw elbows if necessary.
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he ain't what he eats

One of Chaco's classes this year is "Modified Health". What is "Modified Health"?

It's Health class without the sex ed.

It seems that in order to work his preferred elective classes into the schedule, he landed in the sexless health class. He's fine with it as I guess he learned all he needs to know about the birds and the bees in middle school. His class is a relatively small health class he says - him, a few other schedule challenged, and some Mormons.

So the other night he had this homework assignment. He was to keep a food diary of everything he ate for a day and then go to this Food Pyramid Tracker and get an analysis. I went there just this morning to play around, there's so much to do!

But back to the homework. To use the tracker and get an analysis, one must enter everything consumed in a day. Then it spits out (no pun intended) this whole nutrition analysis and whatnot. I asked him first if he had written things down as he ate them, but he said he just remembered everything. Okay, fine. I remember having to do a food diary project once and actually found that I ate more than what I'd thought when I had to diligently write it down. I figured he might leave a few things out, but it would probably be okay for Modified Health.

So I curiously looked at his printout when he was finished. Geesh, it says like SIX THOUSAND calories consumed out of a recommended 1832. Okay, first of all, Chaco's a 14-year-old boy and that 1832 recommendation seems low, but SIX THOUSAND calories??!! In one day?!?

So I was asking him about what all he entered, and he walked me through his food day. I had to agree that, yah, it sounded like the stuff he goes through. I would just say that he might not have finished ALL of the stuff so his portion size might be a little off, but he pretty much had it. If anything, maybe knock off a thousand calories or so? Two thousand?

The thing that's so enigmatic here is that Chaco is maybe an inch taller than me now, say 5'6" and he has yet to make the needle on the scale hit 100 lbs. He is moderately active, but seems to require the diet of a Himalayan Sherpa. Each of our kids are of the non-husky, but Chaco is the classic ectomorph.

Despite my best efforts - buying whole milk, using real butter, keeping plenty of snacks around, etc. - he is the epitome of scrawn.

But I'm not doing the Supersize Me thing. That's just gross.

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update: Okay, I went and did the nutrient analysis thing for my day so far. It said I've eaten about 4500 calories so far, and I haven't even had dinner yet. I think it's a little off. Right?

Right?

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contraband

Stuffed Lumbers. I have approximately 80 of them hidden deep in the bowels of my house.

What is a stuffed Lumber?? Lumber is the elementary school mascot, remember? As in "Run With...." He's a wolf. Anyway, when we do Run With Lumber in the spring, there are prizes at stake.

Last year, we gave out these stuffed Lumbers as prizes. In order to win one, kids must be either the top runner or the top money earner in their grade. They're like little Lumber voodoo dolls.

Why do I have 80 of them hidden deep in the bowels of my house? Well, we got a price break for buying in bulk, so it looks like these will be THE prizes for the next few years to come. "But, why not stowe them at the school, as with the other PTO stuff??" you ask.

Truth is, we've done that with previous prizes, and they get STOLEN! Not by delinquent children, no - the teachers and other staff take 'em! ---- YEAH! That's what I said!

But think about it. They're cute, they're about the school, there's boxes of them. Who cares if I just take one?? I'll put it in my room! The kids will love it there! It'll be cute! I want one! I'm taking one! Who cares if I just take one??

So, we have to hide them. Hide them far away. There in my house bowels. SHHHHH! Don't tell. Last week the school counselor asked if she could have some. She's put together some "deployment boxes" for students at the school who have a deployed military parent. She wanted to include a stuffed Lumber in each box.

So I'm about to deliver them. It is a highly covert mission. I've got them stuffed into the Whole Foods bag shown above. I know if other teachers see me with a bag o' Lumbers, they'll want one, then word will get out.

Lumber voodoo dolls don't just grow on trees, people! Not only that, but they are special prizes for the elite few. If they start showing up everywhere in the school, they lose their exclusivity, their sparkle.

So I go to deliver the Lumbers. Pray for my safe return.

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my fellow citizens

I've begun voting.

Let me just say that I'm glad I opted for the mail-in ballot this go 'round. Dang thing is huge. All these ammendments to the state constitution. So I set aside time yesterday to sit down, Sharpie in one hand, Voter's Guide in the other, ballot in front of me, and began filling in bubbles.

I got through the whole thing, just had a couple of issues I felt I wanted to sleep on. Now I've slept, and I'll bubble those in too. Afterwards, though, I was a little spent. A football game was on in the next room, and a timely commercial came on:





And I was kinda thinking that I just might feel a little better if these guys really did run things.
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Silver Lining Saturday part IX

Saturday tutor student rescheduled on me again at the last minute. Teenaged boys!! He was at his dad's (shared custody thing), and our meeting place was a bit of a drive from there. Did we say Saturday?? *exaggerated SIGH*

But that's okay, we've rescheduled and I'm sure he'll make that session, so how about this week's episode of Silver Lining Saturday:

Thankful for Season of Sneezelessness: The weather's been really nice lately. Fall is my favorite season. Not too hot, not too cold, just the right amount of "crispness" in the air. And I think we had a freeze. Goodbye allergies!

Thankful for Non-Navigation: As mentioned, the kids had yesterday off from school, so Magnum took the day off too to "do something". We decided to go for a hike. Just a simple jaunt around some National Forest land we'd not visited before (think of the foreboding "3-hour tour... a 3-hour tour..."). Yep, ended up getting lost.
To be honest, I was a bit bored until we got lost. Then we were having an adventure! We weren't lost with a threat of going all Donner party. We weren't lost and having to face a choice between dying or cutting off some limb. We were simply lost in the sense of "hmmmm.... I wonder which of these trails leads us back to the van." Worse case scenario would've been us just walking the 15 miles or so back to our house and going back for the van later. As it was, we thrashed around in the woods on a beautiful day for about 4 hours. FUN TIMES!

Thankful for Elemental Ease: Had a Parent/Teacher conference this week for Meego and all is good, plus I like his teacher. I didn't expect otherwise, but it's always nice to hear the good stuff. P/T conferences are optional for middle and high school, and Chaco and Wolfgang convinced me that they weren't necessary. Hmm... still wondering.

Thankful for Biblioliphic Banter: It was also the week of the elementary school book fair that I'd inadvertently signed up for 4 shifts then negotiated back down to two. It's actually a fun volunteer job. The little (K-2nd grade) kids just need people to help them fill out their "wish lists". Greedy little suckers, but cute all the same.
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James Blonde

Warning: The following video involves intense sequences of violent action and may not be suitable for children under 13 although some children under 13 were responsible for its production.

It's a 3-day weekend here. Kids are all out of school because the teachers need a break I suppose. The festivities kicked off yesterday afternoon with some friendly neighborhood film production. I told the producers I'd put it on the blog, and now you can feel sorry for me knowing what my home life is like...

It is rather violent, but just know that the guy who "wins" is supposedly the good guy. Presumably a James Bond type. Note the smoke screen from his tech vehicle in the opening few seconds- and yes, that's MY lawn he ditches the lit smoke bomb onto. Why Wolfgang is in the role of the totally inept and ineffective bad guy and the blonde kid from across the street is the good guy, I don't know, but then again, Hollywood James Bond is now the *horrors!* blonde what's-his-face.

It's not exactly Son of Rambow, which I do highly recommend by the way. But this blog isn't exactly... well... much either.

Note: No actual children were harmed during the filming of this video, but it remains to be seen if that holds true for the entire weekend.
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rambling randomness

The Debate

No, not that one... Thanks to everyone for the "to dye or not to dye" tips, comments, etc. I still think the color is too pastel for me, but maybe not so bad with jeans. Before, I'd usually worn it with light colored slacks or skirt, but just threw it on over my jeans for that blog pic. Maybe I'll leave it in Pepto Bismol, maybe I'll try Brandy's dye recipe, maybe I'll re-re-gift (to Beej?). Okay, enough of that...


Things That Make Me Go "Ho Hum"

Paris Hilton said something stupid.

Clay Aiken is gay.

Madonna's getting a divorce.


Cheatin'

Yesterday, I had this thing planned. I'd been looking forward to it, actually. After getting Meego's breakfast, I began to make my preparations, but... but... Magnum. He kept hanging around. Why wasn't he leaving for work?

See, I had to make this soup for a potluck. I'd chosen a hearty Vegetable Pasta soup recipe. It calls for a couple of zucchinis. Now, you know that Magnum is the family gardener, and he has nice zucchini, if I do say. I've always been quite satisfied with his zucchini. In fact, it had gotten to the point where it was almost too much zucchini for me to handle.

But lately, things had gone cold. The zucchini just wasn't happening as often. And when it did happen, the zucchini quality just wasn't as it was in earlier days. For the last month or so, we've actually had no zucchini.

So I got a little desperate. I just really wanted this soup. And I wanted it to be goooood soup. I let my own desires come first. I went out looking for zucchini. Yes, I admit it here, I got some store bought stranger zucchini.

I just couldn't bring myself to tell him - Magnum. I figured I could just have my way with the zucchini, then send it off to the potluck, and Magnum would never be the wiser. But why... WHY wasn't he leaving for work?!

Well, actually, he finally did leave. Just in the nick of time - when I just couldn't wait any longer. Just before I whipped out the stranger zucchini and started the full day of slow, slow, sweet 'n' slow cooking. All day long. And it was just right.

That soup.
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