Spider Grace!!

I love Fred!!!

I have gotten TOTALLY hooked on a station on XM Radio named Fred.

I love Fred.

Truly.

Now, keep in mind I went to Carolina in the 80s. If you had even the vaguest inclination towards alternative music, going to Carolina in the 80s (and I guess now, for that matter) was the place to be. Between WXYC and the local music scene (Cat's Cradle et al) there were tons of opportunities to take a mild preference for alternative music and turn it into a fetish.

And, it's always ticked me off that the Triange can't support a commercial independent radio station. Nashville has one that I listen to online a bunch, and that's OK, because Nashville is Music City USA, after all. But dang it, I even ran across on in Wilmington recently! What is wrong with the world when WILMINGTON has better radio than the Triangle?

So when I ran across Fred in a friend's car, I thought it was cool. Then I borrowed said car this weekend, and got to listen to Fred for many hours, and got addicted. Fred is billed as "Alternative Classics". Well, yeah, but it's so much more!

For example, yeah, they play Guadalcanal Diary, but they played Cattle Prod! They play Elvis Costello, but they played Oliver's Army, not Alison! So, it's not just the classics, it's also the obscure songs by the classic artists!

I'm a happy camper...

Two Brushes with Fame

But no combs with infamy (sorry, yesterday was long, June's been interminable, and I'm a little punchy).

So, I was a bit out of e-touch yesterday, so this morning I'm spending a lazy Sunday morning in bed catching up on Facebook, blogs, email, etc.

And I discovered that some of the folks I know are kinda famous!

First was Bruce, newly elected Moderator of the Presbyterian(USA) General Conference (I hope I got all that right -- I'm a Methodist myself), and Trina's cousin, who now has his very own Wikipedia entry (under the category 'religious leaders', no less!)

Second was Trina herself, who apparently rules Google with her webmaster self.

The funny thing about Trina's e-fame is that she blogged about the original Google search where she found her name. By the time I googled the same search, I got not only the hit for her resume, but ALSO her blog entry! So now she's double famous!

Sweet!

Reflections from a Water Park

My, isn't that an artsy-fartsy, fru-fru (or phrou-phrou?), intelligentsia sort of title?

Anyway, we FINALLY got around to having Peter's birthday party yesterday. Yes, Peter, who was born in early April, didn't get a party till late June. Sorry. What with one thing and another plans were made, they were changed, weekends worked, then they didn't, and finally we decided we'd just take a few friends to the local (ok, in Greensboro) waterpark.

Random observations based on our day:

• 10-year-olds, who are pretty much the epitome of instant gratification when it comes to most of life, will happily wait an hour in a line for a ride that takes 30 seconds
• The minimum number of electronic devices for a car trip with children is N+1, where N is the number of children in the car
• Satellite radio rocks
• There are VERY many people in this world who should NOT wear bikinis
• The water park pizza that tastes GREAT at 4pm when you've been in the sun for two hours doesn't taste so great at 9pm when you're back at home
• Stubbed toes stink as badly when they're on your child as they did on you
• Renting the cabana is a given if your group is larger than about, oh, two
• Most people, to my cynical amazement, actually follow the rules! High school boys, though, are the exception

We had a great day; no rain, tons of fun (till the stubbed toe), and Peter declared it a good birthday party!

A Smart car!

I Love These Guys

If you've had a bad week (and, apparently, you have a weird sense of humor like I do), check out these guys

Make me laugh so hard I cry!

Well That's Nice

It's been a long and stressful week for many reasons, and I'm tired.

But just a minute ago, I thought I heard a little cheep-cheep noise, so I looked around, and sure enough, there's a little chickadee/thrush/phoebe kinda bird outside my window!

S/he is just hopping around, eating something (bugs, presumably) off the windowsill, and making sweet little chirping noices.

Ah.......nature.....

Fun!

Tonight Grace's swim team swam against the Exchange Cyclones. Most of the pools have a coach's relay after the meet is over; Exchange takes it a step further and follows the coach's relay with a parent's relay!

Heritage Hills (our pool) managed to field 3 relay teams. That's 12 parents who were willing to get in the pool and risk making fools of themselves in front of their kids, their kids' friends, kids from the neighborhood, kids from church, kids from school, kids from sports teams.....

Yeah, tons of kids.

And, yes, I was one of the twelve! It was tons of fun; Heritage Hills won overall, and my relay team came in third (of 5 teams). Peter got some video with my phone (it's sad when your 10 year old knows how to work your phone better than you do), but he was across the pool from me, and it's dark, so I won't be posting it.

But now I'm hoping we start it at OUR home meets!

Mmmmm, Steak!

I grilled steak tonight!

Without burning it!!!

Yay, me!

Our 15 minutes

Grace and I are famous!

So, we're not pictured in our fame, but famous nonetheless!

A Big Ol' Shout Out, and Whoosh again

So, various levels of thoughts sent through the ether:

• Ecclesiatical ongrats to Bruce!
• Long-time-coming (WAY too long, IMO) Congrats to Pete and Richard
• And good karma wishes to David

And, yes, that huge time-wasting pit of doom that I downloaded earlier this week is, indeed, just that. I started playing at 4:30; I looked up and it's 8:30, I've only barely eaten, Dazzle is hungry, its the bottom of the 4th in the UNC game, and Carolina's down 2-1.

But now having mentioned both the big ol' honkin' waste of time AND the UNC game (as well as sending good thoughts to friends and family), I can tag this post tons of ways. 'Cause it's all about the tags...

At least I can laugh at myself.

Does this, remind y'all of anyone?

What was I thinking????

A couple of friends have been telling me for about three years now that I should play WoW (World of Warcraft), a fairly popular RPG. I've been resisting, for the main reason that I was pretty sure that if I started, I'd get hooked.

Well, I was bored tonight, so I downloaded a free 10 day trial.

WHOOOOOSH

That's the sound two hours makes as they speed by....

He's got chutzpah!

Peter is spending this week at UNC's basketball camp. The shirt he wore the first day pretty much sums up the experience: Eat. Sleep. UNC Basketball. They play about 6 hours of basketball a day, not counting pickup games, and there are no parents around to say, "No, don't eat half a large Dominoes pizza at 9:00 at night!", so he's pretty much loving it.

One of the cool things (besides the pizza at 9pm and easy access to Mt. Dew at Ken's Quickie Mart) is that many of the counsellors are current or former UNC players and coaches. I went to a practice last night; Steve Robinson (current UNC assistant and former FSU head coach) was there, as was Warren Martin (former UNC player).

Now, Warren Martin is a large man. Skinny, but tall. Really tall.

Martin was refing Peter's game last night, and made a call Peter apparently disagreed with, so he turned to Martin, all 4-foot 8 of him, and argued the call. With a 7-footer.

He lost the argument (for SO many reasons), but you've got to admire the chutzpah!

Happy (Late) Father's Day

Here's a picture of my Dad and my Uncle Bob with their assorted kids, from spring of 1967. Dad is on the steps with Kathy and Dick next to him; my Uncle Bob is on the stoop. My cousin Avery and I are the Babes in arms (or carrying case, in my case!)




It never ceases to amaze me how YOUNG my Dad looks in old pictures! He still looks really good, but he looks about 12 in this picture, not old enough to have three kids! And, yes, for the record, he was probably about 6 months shy of his 34th birthday in this picture.

He's also got the same look that he frequently has in pictures when he's with his (infant children): a look of mingled pride and amazement, as if to say, "this is really cool, but how the heck did it happen!?!" Silly Daddy!

Of course, as we aged he frequently had the "Oh, Lord" look....

Anyway, Happy Late Father's day, to my Dad and all the other fathers out there!

No Lizard Did All This.....

Last night I'd made plans to meet Grace and the babysitter at the pool rather than at home. We were going to eat there, and I was going to get some lap-swimming in (and also cool off in th 90-degree heat!).

So, I ran home real quick after work to throw on my swim suit, scooted down to the pool, and had a lovely evening. Finally, about 7:30, I managed to drag Grace out of the pool, and we headed home.

When I opened the garage door, though, there was all this junk in my garage! More than normal, I mean, and in the spot where I park my car!

Turns out the shelf next to where I park my car had fallen; it's one of those standard wire shelf jobbies that are held in mainly by two screws, and apparently both screws decided to pull out of the wall.

It seemd a little odd, though, that the shelf would fail with no warning. The last time stuff got torn up in my garage, it was because a possum got trapped in there one night, and ripped the place apart trying to get out; he eventually hid in the plastic bucket I use for weeding (and, yes, I nearly had to sell the house when I found out there'd been a possum in my garage all night!).

So, steeling myself for the worst, once I discovered the mayhem last night I peeped into the bucket to see what creature might've destroyed my shelf and still be lurking.

And discovered one mildly terrified lizard.

I'm thinking he was merely in the wrong place -- he seemed pretty traumatized himself, so I'm assuming he was just enjoying a nice little nap when a half dozen paint cans fell all around him!

So, the lizard is now outside (unless he crawled back in last night), the paint is now stacked more or less neatly, and I have a new project for this weekend.

She Drives Me Crazy

And she does it deliberately, too.....But I don't think she's a Cannibal

I've set my NetFlix account up to have three profiles for the summer; one for me, one for Peter and one for Grace. This way they get their own movies to watch.

I told the kids that we'd set up their queues, but of course haven't gotten around to it yet; so this morning as G was getting ready to watch Bridge from Terabithia I told her I'd set up a few movies in her queue while I was at work. I knew that she wanted the new-to-me-first-to-her three Star Wars movies, so I said I'd put those in her queue.

The order in which she wants them to arrive?

Return of the Sith, Phantom Menace, Clone Wars. Yep, 3, 1, 2.

Only Grace, and only because she KNOWS it makes be quiver!

Hey, you look familiar

Peter's doing 4 camps this summer: Scout camp, Basketball camp, Tennis Camp and Handbell Camp. Tennis and Handbell are daycamps, but the other two are sleep-away camps.

Not only are they sleep away camps, they're essentially one right after another. This has been Peter's schedule for the past week: Tuesday was the last day of school, we went to the REM concert, then Wednesday he left for Camp Raven Knob with his Cub Scout den. They were there for four days, and had an absolute blast. He got home about 3:00 Saturday, had a full 24 hours at home, then today went to Carolina Basketball School. He'll be there till Thursday lunchtime-ish.

So, yeah, I'll have seen him about an hour this week!

Peter and Blake in their room at basketball camp

Perverse kind of day

You know it's going to be a backwards and perverse sort of day when you wake up grumpy and moody, Jimmy Buffet makes you MORE grumpy and moody yet The Cure cheers you up.

Suppose it could be worse. It could be The Smiths (or Morrisey, but what's the difference)....

Yum....

I love Twizzlers. Not the Pull-n-Peel Twizzlers, mind you -- they taste funny, and stick to your teeth (and your hands, for that matter).

But REAL Twizzlers, now that's a different thing. Yummy. Even when they're stale and tough, they're still yummy.

The more things change...

The more they stay the same! Or, something like that.

Last night I went to the REM concert here in Raleigh. This is the 5th time I've seen REM; sadly, I never got to see them in a venue smaller than Cameron (on the campus of that school 12 miles north of Chapel Hill); I was in the mountains when they were playing Page Auditorium or smaller, and I always seemed to go to The Cradle either the night before or after they would make a surprise visit.

But, I've seen them a ton. And, while the shows are always different, there's very definitely a pattern; I think mainly what the pattern is is that I am part of some huge REM demographic group that all (more or less) go through the same life-stages at the same time!

So, in the 80's when I saw them, the crowds were pretty much all college kids. We were cool, we wore black, there was a haze of cigarette (or other) smoke in the auditoriums, and the concert was merely the first of the night's activities, followed by parties, or bar trips, or something.

Then there were the 90s, when we took Adrianne to see them (her first "real" concert). She was pretty much the only kid there, there were still tons of college kids, some illicit substance use, and an awful lot of people who knew "The One I Love" and not much else.

Five-ish years ago, after a many-year hiatus from concerts in general, we took Adrianne to an REM show again. This time it was for her 21st birthday; the show was actuall the night before, but by the time we got back to Chapel Hill it was after midnight, so we bought her her first legal drink. We were worried that we'd feel out of place at a concert, until we got there and saw all the mini-vans in the parking lot!!! At that show there were still lots of college folks, but TONS of people in their 30s who had very obviously left the kids with a sitter (as we had) and gone out to pretend they were still in college!

And then came last night.

Peter wanted to go to the show 5 years ago, but I had some issues with taking a 5 year old to a concert. He's 10 now, though, and I figured what better way to introduce him to the world of concert going than REM? Beats the heck out of the Jonas Brothers!!!! But, again, I wondered if I was going out on a limb...We went with my friend David and his kids, so I knew there would be at least one other 10 year old there, but I wondered if I was pushing it just a bit.

Um, nope. Once again, every other REM fan in the triangle apparently thinks exactly as I do!

I swannee, I think there were more teeny-boppers (whoops, I mean Tweens) there last night than there would've been at a Jonas Brothers show! It was great, though -- they were all there with there folks, and it was obvious that in most cases the music was something that they shared with their parents.

The band seemed to love it, too -- at one point they asked how many people in the crowd were seeing their first REM show (yeah, I was the ONLY one in my group who didn't raise their hand), and then followed it up with asking how many of them were born after 1981 (when Chronic Town was recorded). A large number of the crowd fell into that category, and while you could tell that the band LOVED the number of long-time fans who were there, they were equally excited about the number of "young'uns" that were fans, too.

And, yeah, it was a great show -- they were joined onstage for the encore by Don Dixon and Mitch Easter; Dixon produced their first couple of albums and they were recorded at Easter's studio. Dixon and Easter are both large influences in the alternative world, too, so it was WAY cool to see them onstage!

But, yeah, my days of a concert just being the first part of the evening are over...I got to bed at 1am, which is not that bad in the grand scheme of things, but MAN am I dragging today!

YAY

Whoo hoo!!! Peter is cast free! Again....

The Boys' Morning Adventure

Today's the last day of school; the kids are both excited and nervous, but eventually I got them out to the bus stop.

Then I hear Grace calling, "A little help here!!!" I go to the door to see what's up, and I see her bringing Jack (one of Kathy's kitties that I'm keeping for a bit) back inside the house.

Wait, BACK inside????? Jack and Dusty are both INSIDE kitties already, they don't GO outside!!!

Well, they do today. The kids didn't shut the front door well, and the boys decided to explore.

Now, keep in mind at my bus stop are usually about 6 or 8 kids, a parent or two, a dog, basketball games, and much yelling. I was expecting the boys to be long gone.

Luckily, though, they were not -- they did what most inside cats do when they get out: Freeze in amazement! Jack was already inside by the time I figured out what was going on, and I got Dusty in with more or less no problem. He was a smidge traumatized, but I think that was from me hauling him over the stoop bannister by the scruff of his neck! Poor boy -- he was just sitting smelling the trees and leaves, and Crazy Woman grabs his loose fur and tries to shove him through the spaces in a bannister!

It's always something when the boys are here.....

In case you were wondering

a 100 ft. CAT-5 ethernet cable will stretch pretty much anywhere I want to go in my house.

I know y'all will rest easier now that you know...

It's strep....

Peter came down with a fever Friday; by Saturday his stomach was upset, and by Sunday he had a rash on his torso. Classic Peter-symptoms of Strep Throat, so today he and I headed off to the doctor, and sure enough, it's strep:

I am NOT having fun!

Luckily, there's an injection that can be given for strep, because he has a busy week: REM concert Tuesday, Webelos camping trip Wednesday - Saturday, and then Carolina Basketball School Sunday - Thursday. I might see him when he's twelve or so.....

Peter and the Goth Girl

Last year, Peter and I went to the Release Party for the final (gasp) Harry Potter book. At the last minute, we brought along another kid, Evvie. The relationship, and story, get a little complicated (what doesn't in my life?), but basically Evelyn is Trina's (my SIL) cousin's eldest daughter. It gets further confusing because Evelyn and her sisters refer to Trina as Auntie; when Evvie and Peter were trying to figure out what relation they were to each other last year, I said "Just say cousins. Anything else is too confusing!"

Anyway, so Evelyn and her family were in North Carolina last summer for a Presbyterian conference; her Dad (Bruce, Trina's cuz) is a minister. Her Mom (who's job, I'm suddenly embarassed to realize, I have NO CLUE about!) was speaking at the conference, so they had to be here early, and Bruce decided to take the three girls on a Rock-n-Roll tour of North Carolina, totally forgetting that HP 7 was being released smack in the middle of it.

So, Peter and I stepped in, and took Evvie with us.

Now, mind you, I was really looking forward to this party. After years of waiting, Peter was finally reading the books, and I was really looking forward to the two of us going to the party.

Needless to say, once Evvie showed up, I became an afterthought! He will probably kill me for blogging this (assuming I let him read this post), but he developed a massive baby-crush on Evvie. Not a bad thing at all -- she's incredibly bright, and very funny kid, I already know I like her family, and she shows all signs of being incredibly gorgeous as an adult.

But she's become Goth! Ok, not really, she was playing a role in a school play. But, GOSH she does it well, doesn't she?!

I blame Auntie Trina -- I'm sure after introducing Evvie to Rockband and the suggestive lyrics therein, she must've had a hand in this.... :-)

Here They Are!!!

My new washer and dryer came today!!! Here they are:

Watching the guys who delivered and installed them made me very, very happy that that's not my job. These guys (Tim D. and his partner) were outstanding.

For those of you who haven't seen my house, I have a 2nd floor laundry room, coupled with a staircase that's at an angle with a 180 degree turn in the middle of it. They weren't happy when they got here! But they figured out how to get the new washer and dryer up, installed, and carted the old washer and dryer away, all in less than an hour, in 97 degree heat. Good delivery men amaze me.

And now Jack and Dusty have been released from the playroom, and are investigating the new appliances!

Long Live the 80s

Some 40-something type must be feeling nostalgic this weekend, because while channel surfing tonight I came across both All The Right Moves and Footloose

Boy, howdy, those movies are SO 1980s, and SO high school. It probably helps that I went to a school very near towns that were very much like the town in All The Right Moves. I didn't think about it too much at the time, but it's a little disturbing in restrospect that an entire town's psyche can rest on what 22 14-18 year old boys do with a football on Friday nights, but sadly, such towns do exist. And, yeah, I grew up with some folks who were convinced that various books, music, writings, and thoughts were sinful, so Footloose cuts a little close, too.

Random comments on the 80s in general:

• Boys wore REALLY tight jeans in the 80s
• The music didn't suck as badly as we all liked to pretend it did when we got to college
• Even if it did suck, I still know all the words, and can sing along at the top of my lungs ("Almost Paradise!!! We're knocking on Heaven's door....Almost Paradise, How could we ask for more! I swear that I can see forever in your eyes....."). Very scary.
• 80s hair, on the other hand, was either hysterical or horrible, and will remain so no matter how much time passes
• Very possibly only Kevin Bacon could wear black tux pants with a maroon shawl-collar dinner jacket and get away with it
• There were WAY too many prairie-style shirts and ruffles in the 80s

But it was a fun trip down memory lane. And I'm REALLY glad I'm not in high school anymore!

I Love Movie Night

Tonight was Movie Night, when I get together with Kathy and some other friend for a potluck and a movie. Tonight's movie was Lars and the Real Girl, a sweetly hysterical (or hysterically sweet) movie about a young man who has trouble with relationships, and the "special" girl who helps him grow enough to be able to recognize, give and receive love.

And, there was food, and wine! I made a meatloaf (YUM), Kathy brought The Celery Dish (yum!), there were chips and quacamole, and green beans in a vinagrette with fresh mozzarella, and margaritas. Good stuff!

And, best of all, it was a good stress reliver after a long week.

Silly Jack

I'm cat-sitting Kathy's two boy-cats, affectionately known as the velociraptors. I'm also at the moment working from home, because Peter's not feeling well. No fever, but he's wiped out, and sleeping on the couch at the moment.

For awhile all three boys were asleep, but then I had to move from the living room to the office because my wireless connection went goofy (ethernet cables may limit mobility, but they're pretty darn reliable), and when I got up I woke up Jack and Dusty.

They started playing, and at one point Jack picked up one of the little balls that they chase and started carrying it around. He was trying to get away from Dusty, but everytime he'd move, the ball in his mouth would rattle, which of course just made Dusty chase him even more!

Poor Jack was so confused -- he had a look of mild panic on his face, as if to say, "Why won't he leave me alone! I don't understand!" I finally took pity on him and took the ball out of his mouth, and lo and behold Dusty stopped chasing him and went back to sleep!

Silly boys....

Mean people suck.

Remember those bumper stickers? I think I need to get one made into a placard, or possibly "calling cards" that I can hand out when people irritate me: "Mean People Suck, and you're lookin' like a Hoover, babe!"

On my drive into work, there's a particular place where there are two very poorly synchronized stoplights; the first is where people turn to go to the Hospital and the second is where they turn to go to the Catholic school (and Good Lord, there are a lot of people who go there!!! Invest in a bus, folks!).

Frequently, the second of the two lights has not yet turned green when the first has, this couples with all the Catholics trying to get to school (again, splurge for a bus, folks) who back up the left lane, and traffic gets backed up to the first light (the two lights are less than a city block apart).

Now, I have a driving pet peeve: I HATE people who block intersections. That doesn't get you to your destination any faster, and it's really, really anti-social behavior. So, I try to always stop BEFORE the intersection, even when I have a green light, if traffic is not moving.

Well, apparently the world of right-turn-on-red people think that I'm stopping there to let them go. Twice now in the past week, with traffic backed up INTO the intersection, I've stopped early only to have someone from a side street pull in front of me, and FURTHER block the intersection!!!!

Memo to right-turn-on-red-lighters: If turning right on red will block an intersection, it's probably NOT the right thing to do....

Well, it's no XBox....

A few weeks ago, I was seriously debating getting a gaming system. I wound up not, because I know that summer is a costly time for me. My kids are suddenly not in (free) school, so my childcare expenses get about 4 times as costly. Not fun, and more to the point I just couldn't see spending the $700 that I knew I'd spend before all was said and done on a gaming system right at the beginning of the summer.

What a nice, responsible, grown-up decision. I should've been guaranteed an easy summer because of it, right?

Wrong.

A week ago, my dryer starting showing signs of dying (won't fully dry a load, breaker switch in the fuse box gets really warm). Now, it's probably in the 10-12 year old range, so he's had a nice long life. But I don't WANT to buy a new dryer! Moreover, because the washer is also old, also shows sign of nearing the end of it's life, and because I like things to match, I knew when I bought a dryer I'd buy a washer, too, and I REALLY didn't want to buy both!

But, sadly, clean clothes are kinda a must. And, yes, I know you can hang clothes to dry, but 9 times out of 10 my laundry routine runs something like this: throw a load of clothes in when I get out of the shower; let them sit in the washer all day, throw them in the dryer when I get home at night and throw another in the washer, put the dry clothes into a laundry basket and put the last load in the dryer before bed. I don't have TIME to hang laundry!

So, yeah, I've spent the last several days looking at Consumer Reports reccomendations, going from Lowe's to Home Depot, to Best Buy, to Sears, and back to Lowes, talking to people at work, and agonizing over this (Oh, and I've always gotten my W/D included in the houses I bought, so this is the FIRST time I've ever bought one!).

Well, finally tonight I bit the bullet and bought my new washer and dryer. I got a Maytag Epic 4.0 cubic foot washer, and the matching dryer. They got decent ratings from Consumer Reports, and I wound up getting a great deal on them: They were already $100 off because of a sale, then I got an additional 10% off the washer because it was an Energy Star appliance, and an additional 10% off the entire order because I used my new Lowe's card, AND they got me 12 months no-interest financing! So, all in all I saved about $400 or $500. Not too shabby.

But it's no XBox....

Oh, Puh-LEASE!!!

It's the 25th anniversary of the movie Bull Durham (one of the all-time great baseball movies), so the city of Durham, as well as the Durham Bulls, are kinda excited.

One of the things they're doing is bringing Kevin Costner, who played Crash Davis in the movie, back to Durham.

But not to do anything Crash Davis-ish. Nope, he's coming with his band to play a concert in the Bulls' stadium (which, incidentally, is NOT the one the movie was filmed in!). But, still, it would've been cool, and it was on the 4th of July, so it was followed by fireworks.

I briefly considered going, but decided I'd rather go to the ballgame the night before, when I'll have my kids, so I went out to the Bull website to buy tickets. Because of other people in the group, I needed 7 tickets. I've been to enough Bulls games that I now refuse to buy tickets unless they're under the roof -- there's always a really good chance of either rain or blistering hot sun, so the roof is a good investment.

So, I found the section I wanted, and there were three rows with open seats: Row Z had three seats, row Y had 5, and row X had 3. The automated progam gave me 3 seats in row X, three in row Y, and one in row Z. Not really what I wanted, 'cause who wants to sit alone at a ball game? So I went in and changed it to 5 seats in row Y and 2 in row X.

Nope, can't do that. The online ticketing won't allow you to buy seats if it will leave a singleton seat open.

Um, excuse me???? I got there first, I should be able to buy those tickets!!!!! You're going to charge my credit card immediately, before we know anything about injuries, rain, win-loss record, who's pitching, or ANYTHING, but you want me to re-arrange my seating preferences for a hypothetical couple who might or might not decide to come to the game at the last minute?!?!?!?!

Uh, NO!!!

Now, because tickets are cheap, I merely went back to the ticket selection screen and added another ticket to my order, and now I have a row of 5 and a row of three.

But still! This is stupid! Memo to Bulls: If someone wants to give you money for tickets, a month in advance, TAKE IT!

Sheesh.

An Evening with Peter

Peter is finishing up the school year with a project on the lighthouses of North Carolina. As part of the project, each kid had to pick a light house, write a report, and make a model of the lighthouse. The parameters for the model was it had to look like "their" lighthouse, and be between 1 and 4 feet, so it was pretty wide open.

The last time he had a project like that, Mom got all goofy and decided we'd use cake to represent RFK Stadium (really I just wanted the stadium cake pan). The dry run of a stadium-cake for a Super Bowl Party worked great; but of course the one the night before his project would NOT come out of the pan in one piece.

So this time I kept my mouth shut, and let Peter decide how to make his lighthouse. He decided to cover two oatmeal canisters in salt-dough colored white, grey and black (the colors of the Oak Island lighthouse).

The plan was to get it all done over the weekend, but then Carolina hosted an NCAA regional baseball series, and we got tickets to the games. So then the plan was to do it Monday night, but Mom's work interfered; we did get some done, but didn't get it finished.

So, Peter worked on it tonight while G was at swim team, then when his Dad came to pick Grace and him up, we all decided that Peter and I would grab dinner ourselves, finish off the light house, then I'd drive them both (Peter and the light house) over to his Dad's.

We had to wait for some paint to dry, so I told Peter that I'd be happy to go anywhere, including places on the other side of town.

This is one reason I love my son: He picked The Weathervane, the restaurant at A Southern Season! Not a typical 10-year-old boy's choice.

We sat in the bar, and he had a lemon soda and I had a glass of a really nice Malbec while we looked at the menu. We decided to share the special; seared scallops wrapped in prosciutto, served over roasted red and yellow tomatoes, with jasmine rice. I added on a Goat Cheese Toasts appetizer, and Peter had bread with olive oil to dip it in. Spectacular dinner, and while we waited for our food we played rousing games of categories (Peter beat me soundly every time), Rock-Paper-Scissors (I tended to win), and various other word games.

After dinner we scooted home and picked up the magazines in his room since his Granddaddy is spending the night tomorrow, and finished off the light house:

Peter's rendition of the Oak Island Lighthouse

Peter and his lighthouse

Что гречиха?

Or, WTC???

OK, I noticed in the email-sent-from-Russia that MY original email, which was included in the body, was in English, except for the header, where some stuff was in Cyrillic.

I went back to babelfish ('cause I put the anal in Analyst) to see what that stuff translated into.

And it all translated more or less just fine. At least understandable. От was "From", Отправлено was "It is sent" (it was a timestamp), Кому was "To whom", and Тема was "Theme" (subject line).

So why did the first line not translate into something recognizable???

I hate it when stuff doesn't make sense!

Oh! Of course!

I just got an email from my friend David who's in Russia this week on business. Most of it was in English, but the first line was in ....

Well, I don't really know what language it was in, becuase the alphabet it used was Cyrillic (however that's spelled).

The line was: Ыщ Ш вщтэе куфддн рфму ешьу ащк ф.

Being a good geek, I went to babelfish to translate it.

Here's the translation:
[Yshch] Sh to [vshchtee] of [kufddn] to [rfmu] to [eshu] of [ashchk] f

Of Course! How silly of me not to understand!

Actually, I think Yshch is Elvish for Orc, but I didn't know Elves used the Cyrillic alphabet, I thought they used runes.... :-)

Ooooh, I want THAT

OK, for a geek, I'm not really that into gadgets. I lost custody of the stereo last August (mainly because not a single component did I buy!), and have yet to replace it, even with a cheap little boom box from Target. I have two TVs in my house, neither HD, only one hooked up to cable. The one that's hooked up to cable is 11 years old, the other one is probably pushing 25 or 30. My iPod is ancient and full. I have no gaming system.

But I WANT this:



It's a fridge with not only a built in ice-n-water dispenser, but a cable ready HDTV IN THE DOOR! HOW COOL IS THAT!!!!! And it was only a couple thou, which for a good stainless fridge isn't THAT bad.

But it would be really silly if the best TV in my house was not only in the kitchen, but in the fridge.....

Fun, and not fun

So, taken all in all, this has been a fun weekend. The kids and I went to a UNC ballgame Friday night (NCAA regionals), and Carolina beat the living STINK out of Mt. St. Mary's (what can you say about a school that has three punctuation marks in their name?).

Then Saturday we went to Burlington to see Dad, and go to the Twin Lakes Family Fun Day, celebrating their 25th anniversary. There were art exhibits, a craft show, carnival games, a fishing tournament, and (best of all in Peter and Grace's eyes), a Wii! Wheee! ;-). Grace caught a 15 inch bass in the fishing tournament, and Peter got his first fish ever, a nice sized little bream. They played Wii, and got snow cones, cotten candy, and all sorts of good junk!

After scooting home to drop Kathy off, we headed BACK to Cary to watch another baseball game. This one was much closer, but Carolina won again (YAY), this time 5-1.

But now it's Sunday, and things are turning not-fun. We all overslept, and therefore had to rush to make it to The Waffle Shoppe. We had to rush our breakfast to make it to Sunday School. I got called by my boss because bad code is killing servers, so I'm working while blogging (I think that's really what the Dwarves were doing in Snow White: "Blo-og while you work....do dee doo do de de dum").

And, sadly, I can find no reason for my dryer to not be working, but it's not. I've checked the lint trap, and everything else I know to check, and it all looks normal. It just won't dry a full load without cutting off. Oh, and the switch in the fuse box that controls the dryer gets really warm! Not a good thing, I'm thinking.

So, today Grace and I are blowing off all baseball (sadness), and going to look at new dryers. Yuck.

Perhaps not the best idea

I've gotten totally addicted to a word game on Facebook (Scramble). It's like boggle, but without all the noise, and you don't actually have to be in the same location as the people you're playing with. Good fun.

So, today I'm hanging out in my Sunday morning coffee shop, and see that I'm behind in a scramble game, so I decide to go play a couple of rounds. Each round in a Scramble game is timed; you have three minutes to find as many words as you can.

I'm also waiting for a couple of phone calls, and therein lies the problem.

Of course, one of the calls came when I was in the middle of a Scramble round! Grrr. It's not easy to find words, much less type, when one is talking to a 10 year old on the phone!

So now I'm blogging, which is good, because I just got another (this time unexpected) phone call!