Losing it

Ok, fine. It's not the useless garbage in my head causing me to lose my mind. I'll admit it. It must be caused by intergalactic gravitational pulls or possibly aliens. Yesterday, I am sitting at my desk, searching desperately for my motivation (how rude for it to go on vacation without me!!!) and my stomach starts growling. It is only 8:30, much too early for lunch hunger pains. I try to remember what I ate for breakfast and that's when it hit me, I forgot to eat breakfast. I had my coffee, no way am I going anywhere without that, but forgot to eat. I'm the type of person that when someone tells me they forget to eat, I only half believe them. NO ONE forgets to eat. At least not me. Until yesterday.

When I picked up my son from the extended day program at his school, I searched for his name in the book to sign him out. Only I couldn't find it. Because I was looking under my MAIDEN name. Which I guess is understandable since I've only been married for nearly 10 years.

Numbers, passwords

I can't seem to remember anything these days. Like what someone just said, where I am supposed to be, what I am supposed to be doing, my kids names when I am yelling at them. I know it has nothing to do with age or stress, it has everything to do with stinking technology!

It is telephone numbers and passwords and user names crowding out everything else. Home numbers, business numbers, cell phone numbers, pediatrician, day care, direct line to the elementary school's principals office. Then the fiasco we call 'internet security'. Each website has their own special little rules for user names and passwords.

User name must contain one uppercase letter, at least two numbers, must be longer than eight characters, and rhyme with xylophone. The crazy ones at work are the worst and they expire what seems like every other week. It took me 15 minutes trying to think of a new password that I wouldn't forget in the 2 seconds it took to write it down.

Invalid password. That has been used before.
Invalid password. Not enough characters.
Invalid password. Not enough numeric characters.
Invalid password. You misspelled.

But I won the battle, with ScrewYouPasswordMonster1234 finally accepted.

Escape!

This weekend hubby and I went to one of our favorite places in the world, the Inn Above Onion Creek. We've been there twice before, for our first anniversary and again two years later. It has been 7 years since we went last.

The Inn is located outside Kyle, Texas, which used to be a quaint, sleepy little town. Not anymore- new developments are everywhere. The town is located off I-35, close to San Marcos. It seems eventually Austin and San Antonio will connect.

Saturday, we drove through Wimberly, visited a winery in Driftwood, drove around Canyon Lake and headed back for the delicious gourmet dinners at the Inn. Sunday morning we hiked around the property after breakfast and then shopped at the outlet mall in San Marcos and finally headed back to reality.

Two nights of uninterrupted sleep, fancy meals with adult conversations, and reconnecting- everyone needs a place like that to escape.

Lost parent of the year award

Friday, as hubby and I were scrambling to pack for our trip this weekend (more on that later), I pulled the boy's school project sheet off the refrigerator hoping my mom could help him with it this weekend. Well, hubby finally reads it and instead of a due date of next Wednesday, it was due the previous Wednesday. I lost a week in there somewhere. Now I understand why the boy was telling me about everyone's project. And I felt this big.

He did complete it yesterday and I will send a letter to the teacher explaining it is his folks that are deficient. He's only in kindergarten and his parents are already screwing up his life.

Talk to the hand

Last night, the boy asks the hubby to hold out his hand towards towards his face and to say "talk to the hand". Now, I've been know to throw a little attitude around, but it's one of those do as I say, not as I do situations and it irritates me to hear it coming from my kids. Anyway, daddy obliges and when the boy gets the hand in his face and hears "talk to the hand", the boy responds with "Hi hand! How are you doing?".

TALK TO ME

Please!!

I moved to a new project. It is just me and several clients and we're behind locked doors. This is especially cruel to someone who thrives on interaction with others.

HELP!!!

Word gets around

I have a large circle of friends who are in some way (past or present) related to work. One of the members of this group still works here, along with his father. We'll call him "Jack" for illustrative purposes. As I am leaving for lunch today, "Jack" asks me about a particular girls-only party that I hosted several weeks ago, wanting to know what it was all about. Jack's daughter-in-law happened to be one of the guests at this party.

Still not sure how he found out about it, but I sure wasn't dishing any details.

Laredo, Texas

To mark the occasion of hubby's last flight with Continental Express, the kids and I flew out with him on his trip to Laredo. Let's just say, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

The kids seemed to have a great time. Between temper tantrums anyways. Between no naps, not being able to freely express themselves (i.e. scream) and the 2 am crying fit after the boy wet the bed, I'm glad to be home and glad to be at work.

It wasn't all bad. At lunch Saturday, the radio the restaurant was playing kept cutting in and out. The boy started up an impromptu game of freeze. We found a play area at the mall and the kids had a great time running around. The boy talked to some other boys his age briefly. When asked what the conversation was about, he answered that they wanted to play a game, but spoke Spanish. He couldn't understand what they were saying.

Saturday evening we took the kids to the planetarium at Texas A&M International University. Didn't know that A&M had a branch in Laredo, but obviously they do. The schedule on the website said it was about Saturn. Turned out it was a techno music laser light show. Not quite what I had in mind, but the kids insisted they enjoyed it.

That night, when we got back to the car, I was trying to buckle the girl into her car seat. It was dark, so I asked hubby to turn the overhead light on. He said it was out. The boy then stood up and said- maybe it's a clap on and proceeded to clap to turn it on. No, it didn't come on, but we got a good laugh out of it.

Both kids had a chance to sit in the cock pit and push a few buttons. And they got a real charge out of hearing their dad on the PA system while in flight.

Traveling

I am in Lake Charles right now for a work meeting. Hotel rooms are still hard to come by with most still shut down from damage due to hurricane Rita last September. The plant had 'trailer city' set up for months but is slowly sending the trailers back as the employees are able to move back home. Trying to find a room for this trip was terrible. Fortunately, there weren't any trailers available. Even more fortunately, the only rooms available are at the new casino in town- L'auberge du Lac. Tough assignment, but I'm handling it ok.

Hubby flew in yesterday evening to help contribute to the local economy. Our tally from last night- he was down $90 from playing craps, but I made $45 at Carribean Stud. We each had a beer, so that comes to $22.50 a beer. He flew back this afternoon and I think I'm done gambling for this trip.

The best blonde joke!!

Saw this on Chasing the Wind. The best blonde joke ever.

THE scale

I got a new magazine subscription in my stocking this year to Women's Health. It is a new spinoff of Men's Health, which is a much better magazine than most. In one of the articles, they recommended a scale to beat all scales. It is the Tanita BC-533 and measures much more than you'd ever want to know. Like total weight isn't enough, so there's body fat percentage, amount of fat surrounding your organs in your waist area (risk factor for heart problems), and a host of other things you never really wanted to know.

This evil machine arrived Wednesday on my front porch. I bravely stepped on. Hubby and I then had a good laugh at my expense. Next was his turn. Same reaction. The next morning, I woke up 45 minutes earlier to get my run in before work. The next day, hubby went for a jog, rode his bike, and lifted weights. We'll just call it a $99 wake up call.

Pennies

I have two letters to mail and a stack of now useless 37 cent stamps. Thinking I could find 2 cent stamps somewhere in my office building, I set out on my quest. Only to find 2 cent stamps are no where to be found. Next stop is the post office, which I will be bringing in a bag of pennies to pay with. I think it's only fitting.

Advertising out of hand

The naming of sports arenas and buildings is completely out of hand. When The Summit became Compaq Center, I refused to use the new name. Now we have Minute Maid Park (formally Enron Park), Reliant Stadium, and the Toyota Center.

Even the commercial breaks are now a commercial- "and now we break for the Ford moment". People are tattooing their foreheads for advertisements. And now, a town in Texas, has renamed itself Dish, Texas.

How much could I get for naming my kid James Coney Island?

Conception to reality

No, I'm not pregnant.

The contract for the mobile home park was finally signed yesterday. Now we're scrambling trying to find suckers to lend us money. Before the contract was signed, my stress level was about a 4 on a 1 - 10 scale. Stays pretty much in that range, with sharp peaks in the morning or if the kids get sick. Today it's a sustained 7 or 8.

Planning for something, low stress. Actually doing it, major stress.

Just like I'd imagined

We found the best place in town for riding bikes. It's the kind of place that if we were visiting from out of town, we'd wish we lived there to be able to use it. George Bush park, on the west side of town, has miles and miles of paved roads winding through trees and with long bridges ambling over streams. One route takes you to Katy, where you can hook up with an almost infinite number of routes. The other path takes you to Terry Hershey park, which has miles of miles of scenic routes. Having lived in that area, we used to ride on of the paths often but they have greatly expanded the park system.

So, Saturday we packed up the bikes and the kids and attempted our second family bike ride. The first being in our neighborhood, which with cars, sidewalks, curbs, and stop signs did not go very well. On the unobstructed bike path, the boy did great! We rode 6 miles Saturday afternoon and went back Sunday morning for another 6. The wind had picked up Sunday, so it took some coaxing to get the boy to finish Sunday, but he did. The girl kept herself entertained on the back of my bike by singing about the color of my shirt. It was all very enjoyable and we can't wait to do it again.

Happy Birthday!!

To Darkle! Happy birthday to you.....

Updates

Dad's still in the hospital, but doing much better. He hasn't had as much outside interest in his passing gas or bowel movements since he was a baby, I suppose. But it looks like tomorrow or the next day he'll be home. We kidnapped my mother last night and went to a nearby park and then dinner. It's the first time she's left the hospital since my dad went in almost a week ago.

The holidays are over and it's back to the grind as usual. The days of rolling out of bed at 7 to turn on the computer to start working are over as well. Sigh. It is nice to see my coworkers again, rather than just on instant message.

It looks like we've come to an agreement in the negotiations on a mobile home park and we're meeting to sign the contract on Friday. I am a little nervous as it is something I know nothing about. I imagine there's no better way to learn then when your entire future's on the line. Heh.