Cats and kids

This morning, I walked the kids to the bus stop for a ride to school. This is Allie's fourth year and she's never ridden the bus to school, ever. She has always gotten a ride from one of her parents. But eventually, I'll get a job. And it probably won't be in town like I had before. So the girls will probably have to ride the bus to school, or I would be dropping them off at school too early. Thus the test run.

Allie, not unexpectedly, thought she was going to throw up. She actually did throw up from nerves on the first day of school, so I took her feelings today in stride. The school hasn't called me requesting another set of clothes, so I'm assuming she made it OK. If things went well, I'm going to have the girls ride the bus tomorrow also and then I'll go back to driving them until I can no longer do that.

When I got home, there were pieces of chalk on the kitchen floor and a cat on top of the kitchen counter. Last night, one of the cats ate most of Julia's only piece of chalk. Stomach ache, I guess. I picked up the pieces and put them on the counter when I saw them and now Simon the cat had obviously been at them again. Our cats are so bold about getting on the counter after we've gone that I've, at least three times, come back into the house to grab something immediately after stepping out the door and caught a cat on the counter.

I yelled at Simon and he jumped down. I picked up the chalk again, threw more pieces in the garbage, and put the last little piece that was left inside Julia's chalkboard box. Then I turned back and I had two cats on the kitchen counter!

That's when I noticed that Allie's bug cage was on the counter, with the large fuzzy yellow caterpillar inside that she caught and made a home for last evening. Oh! I get it now. Damn cats. Get off the counter!

It figures

We had our hottest day of the entire year so far on Tuesday. It got to about 91 degrees or so, so of course we used the air conditioning, hopefully for the last time this year. At about 8 p.m., I thought, gosh, I'm overheated.

I looked at the thermostat and the air was running, so I disregarded my feeling (no, I'm too young for hot flashes). About an hour later, I thought, gosh, I'm overheated.

Crap. The air conditioning was supposedly running but there wasn't any cool air coming out. Greg braved the vicious mosquitoes around the back of the house and tried some things, but no go. It was still about 82 degrees outside, so we had an uncomfortable night.

The next morning, a cold front had come through and it was only 72 degrees outside. Regardless, I called the air conditioning repairman. He said we were smart--always nice to hear. He said people whose air conditioning fails at the end of the season often wait until spring warms up to call for service, and then they have 100 or so service calls ahead of them.

Gregory, it was a dual capacitor, not a flux capacitor. $140 and we're good to go. No DeLoreans in sight.

School and essay questions

Allie went back to school today to start third grade. Julia starts kindergarten on Thursday, which I am frankly not at all ready for. And I'm the one doing an exam. I've decided to apply for a job with the State of Wisconsin and it requires a civil service exam of essay questions. It's only 3 questions, but each question has about 15 subsections, so I've been working on it all day.

Allie was so excited about school this morning that she threw up as we got in the car. Julia held her nose and complained while I bustled around getting Allie napkins and then emptying her "puke bucket" (as we so delicately call it--her carsickness bucket). She was fine in about two minutes--just nerves on an almost empty stomach.

I get to meet her bus in about 1/2 hour so I can hear all about her first day. How can it be September already!

Julia's dream

This morning Julia told me:

"Mommy, I had the greatest dream last night. I dreamed that I was sleeping with Allie in her bed and Ava's kitty was outside the window but her feet weren't touching anything. And then I saw that a big dragon was holding her. Then (Barbie) Mariposa came and she hit the dragon and it went away and Ava's kitty was OK. That was the coolest dream ever."

Request

"Mommy, can you please leave so we can play with the princess set?"

A request from Julia this morning upon arriving at daycare. The girls wave goodbye to me and they wanted to get it over with.

So not worth it

Greg and I went to the movies with the girls this weekend. Julia very much enjoys being contrary, so when Allie said she wanted to see the Star Wars clone movie, Julia immediately insisted she was not going to that and that she wanted to see Fly Me to the Moon. Julia's been taking this contrary tendency to the extreme lately, especially in regards to food choices. She never, ever wants the same thing for lunch that Allie does.

This is healthy assertion of her independence, right? Damn irritating healthy independence, but there you go.

So we went to the theater and Greg took Allie to the Star Wars movie while Julia and me went to the Fly movie, which was shown on an Imax screen in 3-D. Did I mention that it was $35.00 for the four of us? Yep, $22.50 just for me and Julia. And both movies sucked. Well, at least ours looked good. And Greg said Allie seemed entranced.

But overall? I think we should have gone to the (free) zoo again.

Greg's vacation

Greg's company has this wonderful program associated with work anniversaries. After you reach your 10th anniversary and at five-year intervals after that, if you take one entire Monday through Friday week off, you get an extra week off for free. Greg is now in the middle of his two-week "holiday."

We haven't killed each other yet.

Busy weekend

Allie had a friend for a sleepover this weekend, so we went to Ella's Deli for dinner on Friday night. The poor deprived child had never been there. It was carousel rides all around afterwards, then home. After a big breakfast on Saturday morning, we all went bowling, which was wonderful, especially since I got four strikes and Greg got none. It makes the Wii bowling defeat much less meaningful, trust me.

We had lunch out and delivered the friend to her home, then on Saturday afternoon, we bought school supplies for the girls. Needless to say, Allie's third grade requires a whole heck of a lot more supplies than Julia's kindergarten. Julia is showing just as much pride and excitement about her new backpack, crayons, and other items as she did about her birthday party supplies, which I can tell you is a considerable amount.

Yesterday, Allie went to a different friend's house for the afternoon and Greg talked online to Dan for quite awhile. Later I took the girls to the park and then Greg took them on a long bike ride. It's an awesome thing, now that Allie finally can ride without training wheels. Then Greg tried to teach them how to shoot baskets, which sounds like it was an interesting endeavor. After baths and watching some Olympics women's gymnastics in high def, it was bedtime.

I found out this morning that they were both trying to tumble and somersault on Allie's bed. Julia fell off. We heard the thud but she didn't cry--tough kid.

Summer

It's a beautiful day today. The sun is shining, the only clouds are big puffy white ones, it's not too hot so all of the windows are open, the birds are chirping, there's a light breeze . . . basically your stereotypical nice-as-possible summer day.

It's Friday. I hope you savor today for a few minutes and enjoy the coming summer weekend.

Healthier

This morning, I heard a ruckus in the master bathroom that suggested a party was going on. I seriously didn't know what the heck was occurring, so I grabbed the cordless phone and headed upstairs, even though I suspected it was just the cats.

Oh, indeed. This morning, Greg was ready to take his four vitamin tablets and capsules when he realized that we were out of Dixie cups. He walked away and left the pills on the bathroom counter. It took the cats less than an hour to jump up and discover some small and yellow things that looked like fun to bat around. And so they did.

When I found them, Rabies was crouched over a fish oil capsule, licking it and batting it around the carpet. Simon had another capsule under his paw, I think vitamin E.

They've both gotten quite the boost to their metabolisms today!

Over

Just a really quick update because Blogger is going to be doing an update in four minutes. My interview went fine. It sounds like I'm one of four candidates under consideration. I should know something about a second (and possibly third) interview by the end of next week, maybe. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks again for your good wishes!

Butterflies

A few days ago, I had my first mammogram. It was not fun. It was not godawful. It was one of those necessary evils of getting older, and I had put mine off a few years after I was supposed to have my first one.

Interviews are not fun. They aren't godawful. They're a necessary thing (I won't call them an evil). They're important. And despite my years of human resources experience, I have butterflies about today. Not great-big-leaping-in-the-stomach-fish, just butterflies.

Deep breath.

Feeling uninspired

I don't know what it is. Now that I'm not working, I'm not very motivated for other things either. I did gear up last week and cleaned all three floors of our house. That actually takes much longer than you would think because before you can actually wipe something, you need to redistribute the three tons of crap that's on top of it. There was more stuff going up and down the stairs (to places that seemed more logical than the original locations) than a freight elevator should be asked to handle. There was an occasion to clean for (there usually has to be for this household to tidy up). Julia turned 5 on Wednesday and my family came for her birthday party on the weekend.

It was wonderful to have them visit and Julia got a ton of presents. She truly is spoiled rotten. My in-laws bought her (and Allie) all kinds of things the week before, then she got gifts from our daycare provider and her family, then she got a gift from us on her birthday, then she got more presents at her party. Quite the haul, it was. Where it's going to go, I have no idea. Actually, that's not true. Later this week or next week, this family is going to try to simplify. I want to open a closet door and have room to put something inside. After 10 years in this house, that's not the case right now. There'll be more on this project later.

In the meantime, I have to go shopping for interview clothes today. Yes, that does mean something. Wish me luck!

I'm free

Yep, as of noon today, I'm unemployed. After one final "screw you" from the powers-that-be, of course.

If you're reading this, you've probably said wonderful things to me about how stupid my old employer was and is (oh, you have no idea how stupid, but yes, they are) and how you're sure that I'll land on my feet in a much better place (that would not be too hard) and how you wish me the best of luck always.

Thank you. I appreciate every one of those comments, and I thank you.

I'm free.

Amazingly inspirational

For those of you who don't know, Greg and I are lucky to have wonderful friends who live in Yorkshire, England. Dan and Kerry are amazing people, though Dan is more than a bit bonkers. Why would I say such a thing?

I say such a thing because in about 5 hours (our time), Dan and nine of his friends are starting on a walk for charity that's going to take them 78 miles or so (mostly uphill, it looks like). They have a week, and I think you'll understand why I say Dan is crazy when I tell you that the first two days are 16 miles each (mostly uphill, did I say that?). Kerry has graciously volunteered for the task of schlepping the luggage around for all of these guys. Who says men pack light? Check this pile out.

Dan and his friends are taking on this amazing challenge (mostly uphill, did I say that?) to raise money for a charity run by a wonderful couple he knows after they suffered a tragedy and wanted to help others. They sound like terrific people. You can read Dan's further explanation and appeal here. This is a wonderful cause. Please, it's not too late to help by making a contribution. And if you just can't swing a contribution, please stop by Dan's website to check out their progress over the next week and to offer some words of encouragement. Please, about mile 31 of day 2 (of mostly uphill), they're going to need it.

Thank you!

So what's up?

Well, I'm just about ready to start applying for work. There are three positions that I'm aware of that I want to submit my resume for, but that document needs "The Greg Stamp of Approval." Since Greg writes for a living, I value his opinion (and proofreading skills). Last night, he took a quick look at it and said something about widows and orphans. I don't know what that means, but I'm sure Greg will bring everyone together into families without much trouble.

At my current job, every day is kind of an ordeal. I have things to do, they're not bad things, but needless to say I've lost my heart for it. I just want them to let me go. They recognize the knowledge I have in my head and that they should try to get that stuff passed on, but the way they've asked me to do that . . . Without going into details, I'm so discouraged by recent decisions that I certainly recognize our "relationship" has come to an end. I can't quit, or I won't get unemployment. At this point, I'm thinking I'll be done by next week--or maybe even this Friday, who knows. Just let me go, people!

Greg is starting a campaign for me to be released and it has a slogan: FREE DEBBIE! FREE DEBBIE!

Yay for breathing!

There's a letter to the editor in our local paper, talking about the victory the writer and others in our city have achieved. All of the full service restaurants in our town of 12,000 people are now smoke free. The writer says that he believes this is the first time a change like this has been accomplished in Wisconsin without having to pass a city ordinance.

Yay for Norm (the writer)! Yay for the other people who worked long and hard to get this completed. My family will no longer stink like cigarettes after eating Friday fish fry. We'll no longer have to try to explain to our girls that some people like to smoke right before and after they eat while they sit at the table next to us, even though, yes, they know it's going to kill them.

We'll probably have to walk through clouds of smoke to get in to the restaurant, but it's easier to hold my breath and hustle my kids through than to breathe it for an entire meal. Heck, we'll probably consider sticking around and ordering some of the delicious pie that a couple of our local restaurants are known for since we don't have to breathe other people's smoke.

Oops, opened a can of worms with that one. No, I'm not going into an obesity lecture (even for myself). I was kidding about the pie! Honest! One health issue at a time, people.

Ugh! - - - Ahhhh!

Outside is just not a good place to be these days. What with the flaming chunks of firecrackers, the mosquitoes, the very high humidity, the mosquitoes, and the heat--it just seems prudent to spend time indoors.

So yesterday we took the kids to see Wall-E. Cute, very cute. Fortunately, our kids are old enough that when they ask questions during the movie, they whisper instead of holler. And fortunately, they stay in their seats, unlike a little boy next to us who went wandering around the aisle more than he sat down. And fortunately, our kids (meaning Julia) just cover their ears when there's loud noise, instead of scream at the top of their lungs, which is what the aforementioned boy did. Fortunately, the theater surround sound mostly drowned him out. Mostly.

We ate a little bit of popcorn and drank some lemonade and enjoyed the show. No mosquitoes. No humidity. And no heat (in fact, I had on flipflops and my toes were cold!). We should do this every night!

Our Independence Day

Allie wanted to go see the city fireworks. Julia wanted to go see the city fireworks. Greg wanted Allie to help him set off our fireworks in the driveway. Julia was supposed to watch but she only watched one or two before she came in, holding her hands over her ears. Allie watched all of it, but said that the smaller fireworks were boring. I was in and out of the house watching some of them and towards the end, Greg was lighting things, throwing them towards the road, and neither he nor Allie were even looking at them. Isn't that the point? All of us got completely eaten by mosquitos.

Then it came time to leave for the city fireworks. Julia had to change her clothes because she had on a sundress and it was only about 70 degrees outside. She started crying because her head got stuck and then she remembered that she apparently burned her fingers slightly on a hot sparkler. She was horribly tired anyway, so I suggested that she stay home with me. It was a measure of how tired she was that she thought about it and immediately said yes.

Julia went to sleep despite the noise outside and about 10:15, Greg and Allie came home. They banged on the window of the living room to try to scare me. When they came in, Allie immediately got into her pajamas and she went off to bed. For about 3 minutes. Then she came out on the landing and said plaintively, I don't want this night to end!

About that time, Greg and I realized that Simon the cat was missing. Greg looked all over the house and became convinced that Julia had let him out earlier when she was watching the fireworks in the driveway and holding the front door open. I suggested that Greg get some leaves off our catnip plant and see if that rousted him. I think the leaves from our catnip plant could entice a dead cat (yes, we do have cat visitors to our garden). Simon did not appear but Rabies had a great time. Greg went outside with a flashlight, risking intense mosquito attack, and I checked the house again. We both realized that if Simon had gotten out, the fireworks would scare him to death and he'd probably be long gone.

I went into the basement and opened the door to the storage room and behold! There was Simon, eager to get out and get upstairs to the catnip. Today, our plans are to go buy collars for the cats. There's a pet store in Madison that has cats, dogs, birds, ferrets, lizards, fish, spiders, snakes, hedgehogs, crabs, etc. It's like going to the zoo without getting eaten by mosquitos. Ah, summer in Wisconsin.

Now on TV

Tonight, my family watched a new show called "Baby Borrowers." The premise is that five teenage couples who all think they're ready to have a baby are given individual homes in a cul de sac and their own vehicles. Then they wear an Empathy belly pregnancy simulator thing for two days and then they get real babies. The infants ranged in age from six months to eleven months and the kids got them for three days and nights. After the first day, one of the kids stays home with the baby and the other goes to work outside the home (and believe me, there were fights over who got to leave). The real parents could watch 24-7 on surveillance cameras and a trained nanny stayed the entire time in the house, but the nannies were told not to comment or intervene unless the child was in physical danger.

In future shows, the kids are getting toddlers, then preteens, then teenagers, then senior citizens. It was pretty interesting stuff. Some of the kids were just completely overwhelmed. The couples would start arguing over who had to take care of "it." Yes, they called the baby, "It." In most cases, the real parents ended up popping in to either chastise the kids or give them a pep talk (mostly chastising). Two of the girls just stopped trying to take care of the babies. I've read reviews of the show, and apparently in a future episode, a nanny has to step in when one couple decides to leave a toddler alone in a house.

Allie and I had a good conversation while we watched. She ended up saying that she doesn't want to get a baby (yep, she said "get") until she's at least 38, like me. Oh, boy. I told her that she can have a baby when she's younger than 38. After all, I had Allie when I was 34 and I think I would have been ready by 28 or so (I'm a late bloomer!). But I think now she's going to be checking the parenting credentials of future boyfriends!