Well, it's Girl Scout Cookie time again, and I am steamed. This year, some of the Little Brownie Bakery Lemon Chalet cookies have been recalled, not for safety issues but because some of them "tasted funny." It seems they used some rancid coconut oil or something in the baking process. This won't make you sick but rancid oil is not pleasant. I should know; I've accidentally cooked with rancid cooking oil before and actually SERVED the food before I realized. Fortunately the people that ate it thought it was marvelous and wanted to know how I got that unusual flavor. I ate some after the party to try to figure out what they were talking about and, EEWWW! So I never cook with oid now without checking it first, even though I don't think I got caught that time.
Well, they have recalled about 10 different lot numbers and it affects only 6.5 % of the LCC's (that's Girl Scout for Lemon Chalet Creme) nationwide. But of course MINE are all in one of the affected lot numbers and I suspect it's the same with my whole troop. So now I have to turn them all in (which amounts to close to 2 cases, or $84 worth) and get replacement cookies. The problem with this is that one of my big deliveries is tonight. The girls are going with us to the SCA business meeting and we are delivering about four or five cases of cookies (the SCA people are very generous and many are former scouts, so we have sold a good many to them). About four or five boxes of the LCCs are for the SCA people, so I won't be able to give them theirs and will have to either substitute something or get up with them later. Unfortunately I don't see some of these folks every month, so I expect I will be spending quite a lot in gas to put this right.
I have actually eaten (well, not me personally but my family, which means me in large part) two boxes of the LCCs and they were fine. Not as good as I remembered (and a customer who already ate hers says the same thing) but not rancid by any means. I would know the taste of rancid oil, seriously. Of course, without opening them I can't tell you about the other boxes I have.
Well, I have two boxes that belong to someone down the street who is a former leader on top of it. We made two attempts to deliver, IN uniform and on one attempt someone looked out the blinds (I saw the fingers) and did not open the door. It looked like a woman's hand, not a teen or kid. I also called and left a message and heard nothing, not even "I don't want them any more." Now they are recalled so I am trying to just return those. I can always fill the order out of my replacements IF I can even get the lady to take them, but it really ticks me off. We are on the hook for $7 of those cookies because they pre-ordered them. Not the troop, not the council--us personally. And this is one of our neighbors and former leaders. I know people are broke but really, can't she find a way to come up with $7 dollars? I would wait until payday, I really would. What is going on is: (1) someone ordered them without her permission and they don't need them but she doesn't want to tell us that; (2) they can't afford them because they are much harder up financially than anyone knows, but she doesn't want to tell us that either. Believe me, I am not very happy with her right now. If she would just call us back and tell us it was a mistake and they don't want them, or make up some reason like the recent recall, I would be fine with it. Just call us and tell us what to to with your frigging cookies!!! [Are we allowed to use this word on Blog.spot.com????]
One year we sold door to door in a neighborhood and sold about 60 boxes. When we went to deliver, there were at least 14 boxes that we could not deliver. One guy ordered 6 and then told us to come back later. We came back twice and no one was home. Two gave us numbers that turned out to be bad; one moved. Anyway, 14 boxes was more than a case, or about $47 worth. We were able to roll these over into a booth sale and sell them but I was really ticked off and I said that we would not sell door to door again unless it was on our street. But every year even on our street we have one "problem customer" who either doesn't pay or we can't get ahold of them or we have to make about 6 attempts. This year we only did part of the street, 6 houses and we STILL have one.
Lately the girls and I are selling most of our cookies to people in the SCA or at ALL Con. This is a convention for science fiction and fantasy fans, and the SCA is kindly allowing us to participate as part of our demo booth and sell cookies. We will probably sell over 100 boxes here if we do it for three or four hours. At least I hope so. The economy was bad last year and at regular booth sales we were selling maybe 20 per hour or 60 per door (like at a grocery store or something). At All Con we could sell 60 in about an hour and a half, even though they didn't sell as well as when the economy was good. This year the economy is worse though. I sure hope we can sell them, including the LCCs.
Recalls are funny. Last year there was a peanut butter recall that didn't affect the GS cookies (in that none were recalled). However, the people in the Western councils who sold earlier got stuck with a lot of Tagalongs and Do Si Dos due to the recall. Now I told my cookie mom to go light on the Do Si Dos and get the Tagalongs because the young singles and college students love those and they don't care much about recalls. We ended up overstocked on Tags and short on Do Si Dos. But a woman from Amarillo told me at All Con that she could have traded me cases of Do Si Dos for some Thin Mints because she was STILL overstocked on those!
On top of everthing, the cookie mom wants the money on March 10 and All Con is not until March 13. She doesn't really have to pay Council until the end of the month; she just wants to wind it up before Spring Break. I don't really know what to do. The cookies I need to pay her for cost over $800 (cash and checks only) and I just won't have all of that until we finish selling cookies at All Con. I can give her what I have (although I would like to keep some of the change back), but I can't give her money I don't have. I didn't know about this when I ordered the cookies or made the plans to sell at All Con so I am really in the soup right now. The other leader is going to talk to her and I can pay the other leader that evening after All Con (because I don't want the money in my house over Spring Break or in my bank account--I just want to turn it over so it doesn't accidentally get spent or something). I am not a happy camper right now. I am supposed to work the March 8 booth sale so I am hoping that if the troop doesn't have much in the way of cookies left to sell, maybe I can sell some of the personal ones there and just not have too many for All Con. They didn't sell well at my husband's office this year either. Everyone is just broke right now.
Well, now we have a recall. They are going to replace the cookies. But my question is, what if they still won't sell after the recall? I really don't want to be purchasing two cases of LCCs. I like them and everything but I don't need 24 boxes of them. That means that I will have to sell all my personal cookies instead to pay for the LCCs that I am getting stuck with.
Fortunately I still have plenty of Thin Mints. Liquid gold. I never met a thin mint I didn't like. They sell like hotcakes. They sell themselves. I have been way overstocked on them every year because I always go heavy on them (they can be easily traded to other troops for the other varieties which is why I do this). I have NEVER had any left over. Even Samoas, which are wonderful and sell well, sometimes sell slowly, but never the Thin Mints.
So wish me luck! If you want to buy some cookies and keep me from being in trouble with my cookie mom let me know. They offered me this job and I should have taken it because then I would control the payments and deposits and I wouldn't be in the soup like this. Just couldn't handle it with DI and Thinking Day and Gulf War and such all happening within the same three week period. My life is already a mess.
But I am really pissed off at Little Brownie Bakers this year for using the rancid oil. The Fort Worth Council, which uses another baker and sells a BETTER variety of lemon cookie, doesn't have this issue. Maybe it's time to move to Arlington.
Wish me luck on my crown today. My appointment is in 30 minutes and I still need to shower. I'm in denial. My husband was supposed to take me because of my dental fears but he had to go in to the office because his laptop wasn't working right and I have a really bad feeling that I will be trying to drive myself home in the rain by myself from this appointment, feeling really awful, and have an accident or something. It's not really that far like the root canal appointment but I am a terrible driver in the rain especially when I am all shaken up by something. And I sure hope his damn flexible spending card works today because I know I don't need THAT hassle either.
So I am really not a happy camper, just a neglected dental phobic today. Maybe I should just conveniently forget the appointment and reschedule for a different day. Seriously thinking about it.
Ok, after a brief delay I'm back. I did indeed cancel the appointment and reschedule for Weds. morning. My husband has to be here that day because we have to take Amelia for another endocrinology appointment on Weds after school (4:30 appointment downtown) and we have to deliver some GS cookies to an SCA person who is ill right now and can't come to business meeting.
Now that the appointment is cancelled I have gone back to what else I am doing today (making chicken soup with homemade stock, getting the most out of my $5 Wally World Chicken). Seriously, I bought a whole chicken for under $5 at Wally World and roasted it. We ate dinner and I ate at least two lunches, and my husband ate a lunch from this chicken (it was big and took about 90 minutes or so to roast). Then I made stock this morning from the carcass (four 750 ml containers). I used one, unstrained, for the soup today with the chicken pieces peeled from the carcass, which also would have made a nice dog snack (you can't give chicken bones to dogs; they splinter). Anyway, now I am making veggie/chicken soup with about $8 of veggies from Wally World and one container of chicken stock and some water, and I am boiling some pasta to put in it too so it will be chicken soup with noodles (so maybe the kids will eat it and some vegetables). My whole house smells yummy. I hope to go watch the exhibition ice skating which is taped from Sat (while I was cropping) and do some Gulf War sewing in my pjs and take a shower about 2 pm. Sounds like a great day here in Pleasant Valley instead of a dreaded dental day.
I think I also would like to curl up on the bed with the Arabian Nights to see if I can find an appropriate story for the kids to dramatize at Warlord. Oh, some days when I am here all by myself with just my computer and my kitchen and my stuff, I am as happy as a clam! Especially if I can put all that damn Cookie Mess out of my head. See, I really am not a frustrated former lawyer, but a domestic goddess.
Since I cancelled my dental appointment, now I don't have to go to Scouts and Business Meeting all doped up (good idea since the moms are supposed to handle the cookie money) and I can enjoy the mediterranean buffet at Dimassi's (folks in the DFW area, this is an all you can eat buffet for $12 and it is delicious. I do hope they charge less for the small fry though, because I really don't want us to pay $48 for dinner tonight).
Pleasant Valley Mom, thinking of relocating to Arlington for the Girl Scout Council and looking forward to a few blissful hours in front of the ice skating show, if I can forward past all the damned skiing.
Showing posts with label Gulf War. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gulf War. Show all posts
Monday, March 1, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
And the Rain Rain Rain Came Down Down Down
I don't remember what song that line is from so if one of my faithful readers does, please remind me, "and the rain rain rain came down down down..." but it sure as hell is raining out here in North Texas. I hear that we are having more snow by Tuesday. I really need to get over to Dallas to see a friend and deliver some Girl Scout cookies and get some tips on what to do for Gulf Wars so I really hope that it is not doing this on Monday.
I don't like to drive in the rain. I did a 180 degree spin on Central Expressway the first year I lived here in my new 1985 Buick Electra, and I wasn't doing ANYTHING wrong. There was just a slick spot. Someone else had already spun out on the other side, and two more people also spun out and went to the other side as I was standing there like an idiot trying to protect my new car (I later found out that this is a good way, but not necessarily a good day, to die). Well, we are all young once and we all have that new car once in our lives. But to die over a Buick Electra? It didn't even have leather upholstery.
OK, I am going back to making hambone soup with lots of veggies (for Gulf War), and because the chicken in the soup I made for my root canal is too old, tough and freezer burned--the soup is fine but the chicken in it tastes like sawdust. I ought to strain it all out and give it to the dogs, really. But in my quest to empty my freezer of all stray meats and sauces to make room for Gulf War provisions, well, I just thought I'd give it a try. The freezer burned ground pork that had been in there for...i don't know, YEARS...did great in soup, but freezer-burned chicken? At some point I coooked this chicken and cubed it up and froze it so I would have something to throw in a dish somewhere along the line, but the dish never materialized and now it is garbage in my soup. Well, I should have some nice hambone soup later today if I can ever get the bone to fit in the pot. This is from the really huge ham that R bought on clearance, .99 cents a pound, the third weekend in January when I was on retreat. It's a 20 lb ham. Most of it got cooked and put in the Seal a Meal for Gulf Wars, but like a masochist I bought yet another of these hams at Wally-World the other day for about $2.99 a pound. I had one in my hands for $2.29 but it said "use or freeze by Feb 12." Should have bought the damn thing. It was probably fine especially if I cooked it this weekend. However, I like an idiot pointed it out to the meat guy (hoping to get it for less than $2.29 a pound since it was past the date) and he CONFISCATED it at wouldn't sell it to me. And for less than $1 a pound I decided to get the one that WAS NOT past the expiration date--it was Wally-World, after all. When they say it's not good enough to sell, they probably really mean it.
Must go and catch up on ice dancing now. I sent the kids upstairs with breakfast and a hole punch so my husband could sleep in since his 6 am work project got cancelled this morning. We ought to go to church but in this rain, I think not, and of course archery practice will be cancelled. I don't think there has been an archery practice all year--the weather has been just horrible for it: windy, cold, rainy and of course even some snow. I think at this point we will be doing our archery practice on the field at Gulf War. Well, I suck anyway and Amelia is much more interested in youth rapier so maybe we need to go in a new direction.
Pleasant Valley Mom, signing off and going back to bed
(Oh, the song is from one of the Winnie the Pooh Disney movies, probably the original! The one where it rains and they are floating around in the umbrella, like in the books. It just came to me.)
I don't like to drive in the rain. I did a 180 degree spin on Central Expressway the first year I lived here in my new 1985 Buick Electra, and I wasn't doing ANYTHING wrong. There was just a slick spot. Someone else had already spun out on the other side, and two more people also spun out and went to the other side as I was standing there like an idiot trying to protect my new car (I later found out that this is a good way, but not necessarily a good day, to die). Well, we are all young once and we all have that new car once in our lives. But to die over a Buick Electra? It didn't even have leather upholstery.
OK, I am going back to making hambone soup with lots of veggies (for Gulf War), and because the chicken in the soup I made for my root canal is too old, tough and freezer burned--the soup is fine but the chicken in it tastes like sawdust. I ought to strain it all out and give it to the dogs, really. But in my quest to empty my freezer of all stray meats and sauces to make room for Gulf War provisions, well, I just thought I'd give it a try. The freezer burned ground pork that had been in there for...i don't know, YEARS...did great in soup, but freezer-burned chicken? At some point I coooked this chicken and cubed it up and froze it so I would have something to throw in a dish somewhere along the line, but the dish never materialized and now it is garbage in my soup. Well, I should have some nice hambone soup later today if I can ever get the bone to fit in the pot. This is from the really huge ham that R bought on clearance, .99 cents a pound, the third weekend in January when I was on retreat. It's a 20 lb ham. Most of it got cooked and put in the Seal a Meal for Gulf Wars, but like a masochist I bought yet another of these hams at Wally-World the other day for about $2.99 a pound. I had one in my hands for $2.29 but it said "use or freeze by Feb 12." Should have bought the damn thing. It was probably fine especially if I cooked it this weekend. However, I like an idiot pointed it out to the meat guy (hoping to get it for less than $2.29 a pound since it was past the date) and he CONFISCATED it at wouldn't sell it to me. And for less than $1 a pound I decided to get the one that WAS NOT past the expiration date--it was Wally-World, after all. When they say it's not good enough to sell, they probably really mean it.
Must go and catch up on ice dancing now. I sent the kids upstairs with breakfast and a hole punch so my husband could sleep in since his 6 am work project got cancelled this morning. We ought to go to church but in this rain, I think not, and of course archery practice will be cancelled. I don't think there has been an archery practice all year--the weather has been just horrible for it: windy, cold, rainy and of course even some snow. I think at this point we will be doing our archery practice on the field at Gulf War. Well, I suck anyway and Amelia is much more interested in youth rapier so maybe we need to go in a new direction.
Pleasant Valley Mom, signing off and going back to bed
(Oh, the song is from one of the Winnie the Pooh Disney movies, probably the original! The one where it rains and they are floating around in the umbrella, like in the books. It just came to me.)
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Exhausted by Thinking Day and Ready to Drink
How much can you drink if you are already on codeine anyway? (1) Nothing; (2) One or Two drinks; (3) Three or four drinks; (4) Don't pull a Judy Garland! You have Destination Imagination tomorrow!
Somebody email me or FB me quick, before about 8 pm so I don't get it wrong.
Overdosing is so not cool when you are a mom, a Scout leader, and a Destination Imagination coach.
OMG, I am SOOOOOO EXHAUSTED! After completing my to do list yesterday with no codeine in my system after 3 am, we went out to eat and absolutely gorged ourselves, even though we knew there would be food at Populace. (There's always food at Populace. It's the SCA, for God's Sake! There may be people on diets and people who are overweight and people who have really strange eating habits or likes and dislikes, but there is ALWAYS food).
We went to Fish City because we didn't want to go over to Snuffer's (the girls had just come from there because they went on a field trip to see The Lightning Thief--they loved it but they complained because it wasn't like the book). Snuffers has THE BEST Cheddar fries in Dallas. They are even better than that racist Eskimo Joe's place in Stillwater, Oklahoma (have been there, too). They are AWESOME. They are gooey and rich and loaded with fat and grease, and you eat them with ranch dressing and bacon bits and chives and jalapenos on the side (if you have my digestion, anyway), and if you eat Cheddar fries once a day you don't need any other meals or calories at all, all day long. This is what I lost half a tooth on a week and a half ago but you know, Cheddar fries are even worth a root canal every once in a while. But we wanted to eat next to the road we were getting on to go to Populace so we went and spent $60 at Fish City.
Miranda no longer likes the kids' menu. I don't really blame her. How many chicken nuggets, hamburgers, mac n cheese and grilled cheese sandwiches can you eat in 10 years? They have fried shrimp but she prefers her shrimp steamed. She's actually a pretty healthy eater. Well, Amelia got a burger of course but then we got the FOUR Person Crab leg and shrimp steamed platter. I couldn't really eat the corn, sausage and potatos because of the temporary crown so some of that went to waste (couldn't really take it home because we were going to Populace and I didn't want it sitting in the car for three hours and giving us food poisoning--probably should have chanced it). Anyway, we ate and ate the Alaskan King Crab legs and shrimp and more shrimp, and I did eat a little corn, and we dipped it in butter and got slathered with it all over, and...sounds almost sexual. I had butter stains all over my shirt even though I put a napkin on fairly soon after starting. Even Amelia got into the spirit of it. She's grossed out by crustaceans but if you take the meat out she will eat the crab legs, so we did. I didn't absolutely eat every single bite (it was enough for four adults and we had 2 1/2 really), but I sure enjoyed it. $39 and I think we will be doing that again soon. If they are going to eat off the adult menu anyway most of the entrees are about $8 to $15 each so $10 each is not that bad. They also had happy hour and I was on codeine, and the mixer in the margaritas made me nauseated, so I switched to bourbon and coke. So I know you can have 1 codeine pill and one bourbon and coke and one maragarita without being (1) hung over or (2) overdosing. Not sure about how much more though.
When we finally got to Populace at Lady Elec's, they asked me how I was doing since the root canal (I had to miss Calligraphy and Illumination unfortunately because I was too doped up to drive, much less paint charters). So I said, "well, the drugs and the alcohol helped!" I think they were a little shocked since I am the MOC but I reminded them that I am off duty. I was having a GOOD time. We took some thin mints and some Samoas and I gave Fiona her cookies and had the girls thank her since she ordered a bunch (some for the freezer). I am telling you folks, if you buy a bunch and freeze those girl scout cookies you can have them all year long. Fiona bought 18 boxes and I think we are buying about 3-4 cases ourselves, and doing the same thing she is. This year we ran out of thin mints two weeks before we got our new cookies. It's a bit of an outlay this month with Gulf War and everything but I am telling you, we will be fixed for cookies all year long if I just hide a few around here so they don't get eaten so fast.
So for a mere $168 a year (only $8 more than the 15 x 9 mundane tent I want at Wally-World) you too can have a year's supply of cookies for FOUR people (at $42 a case or $3.50 a box) and help the Girl Scouts too. Call your local council today!!!!
Wow, I really do love Girl Scout cookies. I think I will keep my girls in Scouts through high school just so I can get cookies from them every year. Even if I have to sell them to myself, well, myself.
And no, I really don't need to eat all those cookies but they have no Trans Fats, remember? I didn't say they had no calories though and I wouldn't exactly describe Tagalongs as a health food. But they are high in protein.
So, on to bigger and better things. We did Thinking Day today and it was AWESOME as usual! This year I assigned topics to the girls and they went home and did research and returned with the research (typed in 24 point type for the presentation board) and photos. We arranged the board and they stapled the research on the board on Wednesday. Our country this year, selected by them, was Colombia. I think they picked it because one of the girls had parents who graduated from Columbia University. They were shocked to hear about the drug traffic. Well, this is what we did: we had coffee beans for the kids to touch and smell and a big bag of 100% Colombian coffee (yes, with Juan Valdez on it) from Wally-World. It was in a basket from Morocco but no one asked me about that. I decorated the table with a .50 cent Valentine's Day plastic tablecloth (got to Wally-World yesterday just as the V-Day stuff went to 75% off!!!) and with some yellow fleece left over from Amelia's cloak (I am washing and repurposing this for DI or other things tonight because some little urchin got some kind of sticky food on it at Thinking Day, oh joy). We had our presentation board (the same one I've used for four years) draped with black fabric stapled on (from Perth, only about $4.50 for some nice black cotton poplin). Guess what--the kids decided during DI to make a backdrop out of this same fabric, which I had just removed from said presentation board and put back in my fabric bin. It has a few staple holes but who cares? Then we had a number of rainforest type animals and turtles (since they are on the ocean in Colombia, or at least I think they are). We had photos printed out of the Colombian bird (Andean condor, ugliest bird you ever saw), Colombian orchid, and other rainforest animals. On our board we covered the flag, crest, schools, people and how they dress, houses, countryside, food (did you know they eat roasted ants and guinea pigs? They also eat plenty of normal food, soups, meats, vegetables and breads of course).
Fun facts about Colombia: They have a lovely archaeological park filled with hundreds of Pre-Columbian sculptures (a picture of one was with our SWAP of coffee beans in a bag). They have five kinds of bananas (we served banana chips on gold plastic trays for our food). They love soccer (our stamp was a soccer ball and some of our kids dressed as soccer players). They wear Western clothes and some traditional peasant skirts and head scarves (Amelia, myself and one other girl dressed this way and many of the girls wore old soccer outfits). They also love bike riding (Miranda dressed as a bike rider but took off her helmet and gloves and went as a tourist for part of the day, with water bottle and camera). So went spent Zero on costumes this year. We didn't match, but who cares? We had a peace sweatahirt on the table because many people in Colombia are disgusted with the drug traffiking and violence and wear the peace sign to symbolize "Peace in Colombia" and to show that they do not support the drug lords or their activities. We had two kids who were presenters and one to do the swaps, one do to the soccer ball stamps on the passports, and one to hand out the food. The girls switched half way so that they could go visit some other countries, and the ones working didn't really want to give up their jobs!! They loved presenting. It was hard to hear and it was hard to do all the presenting in only three minutes per country (the organizer of this event is rather non-intellectual so she doesn't want it to be too much work for her and her troop, so she keeps cutting our minutes--we used to have FIVE minutes but no longer). Anyway, we also had the Trefoils Around the World book from the 1950's that I had gotten for $5 from Amazon used books. It had old pictures of the old Colombian uniforms and the promise in Spanish and English, and information about the Girl Guide levels (which we were required to have this year). So it was REALLY cool. I would love to have taken my megaphone, earned for supurlative cookie sales, but that would have been really annoying and they would have shut me down.
It was AWESOME! Our kids went out to breakfast with the two main leaders and I went and set up. Then they got there, we practiced our roles, and we were ready to go. I told the two main leaders, who were going around with them, when to switch everyone out and insured everyone went to the restroom because we weren't getting ANY break until near the end (and group 1 did NOT get any break). They showed up about 9:45 and we were ready to go! They were very appreciative of all my hard work but the main thing I did was assign topics and gather stuff for the table, plus set it up while they were at breakfast.
The people in my service unit who run it really don't like me. They can't figure me out. I am an overachiever and I am not terribly fond of them either (I call them the Service Unit Nazi's, actually). It's not that they don't mean well or that they are bad leaders, far from it. It's just that (1) they always take the easy way out of everything; (2) they throw money at everything instead of thinking about the most economical solution sometimes (3) they are extremely rigid and never think of the out of the box solution. It's not that I am really smarter than they are (well, maybe so but I don't want to sound conceited--many of these ladies are highly educated and have responsible jobs, and they really aren't bad gals--they just treat me like dirt, most of them). In fact, when I got there at 8:45 several of them were already setting up and I asked if I could come in. The SU president said, well I don't know--you need to check with the organizer. I saw one of the TWO organizers (the other one, who I used to be in a troop with, doesn't speak to me, long story). Anyway, Leah said I could come in because I said, You know, my husband is helping me drop things off and he has other things he needs to be doing. So they let me in and R could unload the stuff with me and go on his way to the Saturday errands. So I set up by myself, not a big deal (with not a word from ANYONE except one gal that I do really like, whose daughter is on the DI team). Anyway, a few ladies who don't know my history with this group came by and talked to me, and I went around and discretely took pictures of others' booths while no one was there (because otherwise the kids are there and you can't see what's on the table and I am the Thinking Day Queen--always looking to improve our table or our presentation).
Sometimes I hate this kind of stuff in Scouts. They are all so snobby. You know, I am a really nice person and I am just devoted to my girls, and to making sure that OTHER girls enjoy the Scouting experience and learn something (even the daughters of the particularly bitchy ladies). But I just absolutely despise the way some of the adults behave. It's like being in high school or a sorority or something. I literally told the president of the service unit that I was getting out of the Scouting leadership role and the service unit this year, because the meetings conflict with the Steppes business meeting. You know, those folks in the SCA, they don't always agree with me or love everything I do either, but they are extremely appreciative of my efforts in the MOC area, even the ones who absolutely despise children (in fact, some of those folks are my biggest fans!) I have to say that I would do ANYTHING for those SCA people because they know how to treat someone who is working hard and trying to do a good job. They don't criticize; they don't always let me do what I want or put me where I want, but we work it out and it's fine. And the main thing is that I feel like my efforts are noticed and appreciated, and at the end of the day, isn't that all a person wants? A feeling of validation? A feeling that one's efforts are not in vain, and that if you dropped dead tomorrow, someone might actually miss you?
Someone told me I needed to be careful about what I said about the SCA on this site and I said, "WHY?" Because seriously, while no organization is perfect, I can't say enough about how wonderful, in general, the SCA people are. Of course there are conflicts from time to time and not everything is hunky dory for everyone, and sometimes people fight or are extremely eccentric about some issue or another, but that's OK. It's really a family. My friend who died, Rise Sheridan Peters (known in the SCA as Caitlyn Cheanledir in Atlantia, probably not spelling the last name correctly), anyway, she said it was like her family and I understand why. I haven't been in very long, less than three years, and I don't universally love or understand everyone but I DO understand that it does become a family, especially for a Virginia transplant like me who has very little family even in the state, much less in town (and anyone in state is my husband's family, not mine, and distant aunts and cousins at that).
So God Bless the SCA (or whatever deity you pray to), and God Bless Thinking Day, my absolutely favorite girl scout event. I can ignore the one-upmanship by the moms and I can ignore the snubs and just do it for the girls. They all had a blast, and that's the most important thing.
Of course, you all probably know the REAL reason I can't deal in the Scouts universe: no or very few MEN. I do much better in situations with MEN involved. I like men. No bullshit, or a different kind anyway. I even liked DI better when there were boys on the team. It's not that I'm man hungry or sexually overcharged or lookin for love in all the wrong places--I just get along better in organizations when there are men, and very smart women, involved. That's why I liked law school; that's why I like the SCA; that's why I liked my friends in high school; that's why I really like (not just love) my own husband. Men are cool. Men don't play the same games as women, and I can usually see through their games a lot sooner. Women are bitchy, and groups of all women are bitchier still. I'm sorry, but female
attorneys--the worst!!! Smart AND bitchy. But put them in a room with some men and they are OK. They tone it down for the men and they behave themselves.
So please, no more organizations for me that are all women. I learned this lesson in college in my sorority, and I am staying out of Scouts unless they need me to do something or I need to do something to keep my girls in it and earning their awards and so forth for their college applications. Give me a co-ed team, organization, or whatever every time. I'm not intimidated by those men and they won't condescend to me. And if they do I have a few little tricks for shutting them down, or at least ignoring them the way they ignore their own wives sometimes. Passive aggressive-just ignore them and do whatever the hell you want! It's actually not a bad trick and I learned it from--you guessed it, men.
Pleasant Valley Mom, exhausted, and ready to go watch the ice skating now
Somebody email me or FB me quick, before about 8 pm so I don't get it wrong.
Overdosing is so not cool when you are a mom, a Scout leader, and a Destination Imagination coach.
OMG, I am SOOOOOO EXHAUSTED! After completing my to do list yesterday with no codeine in my system after 3 am, we went out to eat and absolutely gorged ourselves, even though we knew there would be food at Populace. (There's always food at Populace. It's the SCA, for God's Sake! There may be people on diets and people who are overweight and people who have really strange eating habits or likes and dislikes, but there is ALWAYS food).
We went to Fish City because we didn't want to go over to Snuffer's (the girls had just come from there because they went on a field trip to see The Lightning Thief--they loved it but they complained because it wasn't like the book). Snuffers has THE BEST Cheddar fries in Dallas. They are even better than that racist Eskimo Joe's place in Stillwater, Oklahoma (have been there, too). They are AWESOME. They are gooey and rich and loaded with fat and grease, and you eat them with ranch dressing and bacon bits and chives and jalapenos on the side (if you have my digestion, anyway), and if you eat Cheddar fries once a day you don't need any other meals or calories at all, all day long. This is what I lost half a tooth on a week and a half ago but you know, Cheddar fries are even worth a root canal every once in a while. But we wanted to eat next to the road we were getting on to go to Populace so we went and spent $60 at Fish City.
Miranda no longer likes the kids' menu. I don't really blame her. How many chicken nuggets, hamburgers, mac n cheese and grilled cheese sandwiches can you eat in 10 years? They have fried shrimp but she prefers her shrimp steamed. She's actually a pretty healthy eater. Well, Amelia got a burger of course but then we got the FOUR Person Crab leg and shrimp steamed platter. I couldn't really eat the corn, sausage and potatos because of the temporary crown so some of that went to waste (couldn't really take it home because we were going to Populace and I didn't want it sitting in the car for three hours and giving us food poisoning--probably should have chanced it). Anyway, we ate and ate the Alaskan King Crab legs and shrimp and more shrimp, and I did eat a little corn, and we dipped it in butter and got slathered with it all over, and...sounds almost sexual. I had butter stains all over my shirt even though I put a napkin on fairly soon after starting. Even Amelia got into the spirit of it. She's grossed out by crustaceans but if you take the meat out she will eat the crab legs, so we did. I didn't absolutely eat every single bite (it was enough for four adults and we had 2 1/2 really), but I sure enjoyed it. $39 and I think we will be doing that again soon. If they are going to eat off the adult menu anyway most of the entrees are about $8 to $15 each so $10 each is not that bad. They also had happy hour and I was on codeine, and the mixer in the margaritas made me nauseated, so I switched to bourbon and coke. So I know you can have 1 codeine pill and one bourbon and coke and one maragarita without being (1) hung over or (2) overdosing. Not sure about how much more though.
When we finally got to Populace at Lady Elec's, they asked me how I was doing since the root canal (I had to miss Calligraphy and Illumination unfortunately because I was too doped up to drive, much less paint charters). So I said, "well, the drugs and the alcohol helped!" I think they were a little shocked since I am the MOC but I reminded them that I am off duty. I was having a GOOD time. We took some thin mints and some Samoas and I gave Fiona her cookies and had the girls thank her since she ordered a bunch (some for the freezer). I am telling you folks, if you buy a bunch and freeze those girl scout cookies you can have them all year long. Fiona bought 18 boxes and I think we are buying about 3-4 cases ourselves, and doing the same thing she is. This year we ran out of thin mints two weeks before we got our new cookies. It's a bit of an outlay this month with Gulf War and everything but I am telling you, we will be fixed for cookies all year long if I just hide a few around here so they don't get eaten so fast.
So for a mere $168 a year (only $8 more than the 15 x 9 mundane tent I want at Wally-World) you too can have a year's supply of cookies for FOUR people (at $42 a case or $3.50 a box) and help the Girl Scouts too. Call your local council today!!!!
Wow, I really do love Girl Scout cookies. I think I will keep my girls in Scouts through high school just so I can get cookies from them every year. Even if I have to sell them to myself, well, myself.
And no, I really don't need to eat all those cookies but they have no Trans Fats, remember? I didn't say they had no calories though and I wouldn't exactly describe Tagalongs as a health food. But they are high in protein.
So, on to bigger and better things. We did Thinking Day today and it was AWESOME as usual! This year I assigned topics to the girls and they went home and did research and returned with the research (typed in 24 point type for the presentation board) and photos. We arranged the board and they stapled the research on the board on Wednesday. Our country this year, selected by them, was Colombia. I think they picked it because one of the girls had parents who graduated from Columbia University. They were shocked to hear about the drug traffic. Well, this is what we did: we had coffee beans for the kids to touch and smell and a big bag of 100% Colombian coffee (yes, with Juan Valdez on it) from Wally-World. It was in a basket from Morocco but no one asked me about that. I decorated the table with a .50 cent Valentine's Day plastic tablecloth (got to Wally-World yesterday just as the V-Day stuff went to 75% off!!!) and with some yellow fleece left over from Amelia's cloak (I am washing and repurposing this for DI or other things tonight because some little urchin got some kind of sticky food on it at Thinking Day, oh joy). We had our presentation board (the same one I've used for four years) draped with black fabric stapled on (from Perth, only about $4.50 for some nice black cotton poplin). Guess what--the kids decided during DI to make a backdrop out of this same fabric, which I had just removed from said presentation board and put back in my fabric bin. It has a few staple holes but who cares? Then we had a number of rainforest type animals and turtles (since they are on the ocean in Colombia, or at least I think they are). We had photos printed out of the Colombian bird (Andean condor, ugliest bird you ever saw), Colombian orchid, and other rainforest animals. On our board we covered the flag, crest, schools, people and how they dress, houses, countryside, food (did you know they eat roasted ants and guinea pigs? They also eat plenty of normal food, soups, meats, vegetables and breads of course).
Fun facts about Colombia: They have a lovely archaeological park filled with hundreds of Pre-Columbian sculptures (a picture of one was with our SWAP of coffee beans in a bag). They have five kinds of bananas (we served banana chips on gold plastic trays for our food). They love soccer (our stamp was a soccer ball and some of our kids dressed as soccer players). They wear Western clothes and some traditional peasant skirts and head scarves (Amelia, myself and one other girl dressed this way and many of the girls wore old soccer outfits). They also love bike riding (Miranda dressed as a bike rider but took off her helmet and gloves and went as a tourist for part of the day, with water bottle and camera). So went spent Zero on costumes this year. We didn't match, but who cares? We had a peace sweatahirt on the table because many people in Colombia are disgusted with the drug traffiking and violence and wear the peace sign to symbolize "Peace in Colombia" and to show that they do not support the drug lords or their activities. We had two kids who were presenters and one to do the swaps, one do to the soccer ball stamps on the passports, and one to hand out the food. The girls switched half way so that they could go visit some other countries, and the ones working didn't really want to give up their jobs!! They loved presenting. It was hard to hear and it was hard to do all the presenting in only three minutes per country (the organizer of this event is rather non-intellectual so she doesn't want it to be too much work for her and her troop, so she keeps cutting our minutes--we used to have FIVE minutes but no longer). Anyway, we also had the Trefoils Around the World book from the 1950's that I had gotten for $5 from Amazon used books. It had old pictures of the old Colombian uniforms and the promise in Spanish and English, and information about the Girl Guide levels (which we were required to have this year). So it was REALLY cool. I would love to have taken my megaphone, earned for supurlative cookie sales, but that would have been really annoying and they would have shut me down.
It was AWESOME! Our kids went out to breakfast with the two main leaders and I went and set up. Then they got there, we practiced our roles, and we were ready to go. I told the two main leaders, who were going around with them, when to switch everyone out and insured everyone went to the restroom because we weren't getting ANY break until near the end (and group 1 did NOT get any break). They showed up about 9:45 and we were ready to go! They were very appreciative of all my hard work but the main thing I did was assign topics and gather stuff for the table, plus set it up while they were at breakfast.
The people in my service unit who run it really don't like me. They can't figure me out. I am an overachiever and I am not terribly fond of them either (I call them the Service Unit Nazi's, actually). It's not that they don't mean well or that they are bad leaders, far from it. It's just that (1) they always take the easy way out of everything; (2) they throw money at everything instead of thinking about the most economical solution sometimes (3) they are extremely rigid and never think of the out of the box solution. It's not that I am really smarter than they are (well, maybe so but I don't want to sound conceited--many of these ladies are highly educated and have responsible jobs, and they really aren't bad gals--they just treat me like dirt, most of them). In fact, when I got there at 8:45 several of them were already setting up and I asked if I could come in. The SU president said, well I don't know--you need to check with the organizer. I saw one of the TWO organizers (the other one, who I used to be in a troop with, doesn't speak to me, long story). Anyway, Leah said I could come in because I said, You know, my husband is helping me drop things off and he has other things he needs to be doing. So they let me in and R could unload the stuff with me and go on his way to the Saturday errands. So I set up by myself, not a big deal (with not a word from ANYONE except one gal that I do really like, whose daughter is on the DI team). Anyway, a few ladies who don't know my history with this group came by and talked to me, and I went around and discretely took pictures of others' booths while no one was there (because otherwise the kids are there and you can't see what's on the table and I am the Thinking Day Queen--always looking to improve our table or our presentation).
Sometimes I hate this kind of stuff in Scouts. They are all so snobby. You know, I am a really nice person and I am just devoted to my girls, and to making sure that OTHER girls enjoy the Scouting experience and learn something (even the daughters of the particularly bitchy ladies). But I just absolutely despise the way some of the adults behave. It's like being in high school or a sorority or something. I literally told the president of the service unit that I was getting out of the Scouting leadership role and the service unit this year, because the meetings conflict with the Steppes business meeting. You know, those folks in the SCA, they don't always agree with me or love everything I do either, but they are extremely appreciative of my efforts in the MOC area, even the ones who absolutely despise children (in fact, some of those folks are my biggest fans!) I have to say that I would do ANYTHING for those SCA people because they know how to treat someone who is working hard and trying to do a good job. They don't criticize; they don't always let me do what I want or put me where I want, but we work it out and it's fine. And the main thing is that I feel like my efforts are noticed and appreciated, and at the end of the day, isn't that all a person wants? A feeling of validation? A feeling that one's efforts are not in vain, and that if you dropped dead tomorrow, someone might actually miss you?
Someone told me I needed to be careful about what I said about the SCA on this site and I said, "WHY?" Because seriously, while no organization is perfect, I can't say enough about how wonderful, in general, the SCA people are. Of course there are conflicts from time to time and not everything is hunky dory for everyone, and sometimes people fight or are extremely eccentric about some issue or another, but that's OK. It's really a family. My friend who died, Rise Sheridan Peters (known in the SCA as Caitlyn Cheanledir in Atlantia, probably not spelling the last name correctly), anyway, she said it was like her family and I understand why. I haven't been in very long, less than three years, and I don't universally love or understand everyone but I DO understand that it does become a family, especially for a Virginia transplant like me who has very little family even in the state, much less in town (and anyone in state is my husband's family, not mine, and distant aunts and cousins at that).
So God Bless the SCA (or whatever deity you pray to), and God Bless Thinking Day, my absolutely favorite girl scout event. I can ignore the one-upmanship by the moms and I can ignore the snubs and just do it for the girls. They all had a blast, and that's the most important thing.
Of course, you all probably know the REAL reason I can't deal in the Scouts universe: no or very few MEN. I do much better in situations with MEN involved. I like men. No bullshit, or a different kind anyway. I even liked DI better when there were boys on the team. It's not that I'm man hungry or sexually overcharged or lookin for love in all the wrong places--I just get along better in organizations when there are men, and very smart women, involved. That's why I liked law school; that's why I like the SCA; that's why I liked my friends in high school; that's why I really like (not just love) my own husband. Men are cool. Men don't play the same games as women, and I can usually see through their games a lot sooner. Women are bitchy, and groups of all women are bitchier still. I'm sorry, but female
attorneys--the worst!!! Smart AND bitchy. But put them in a room with some men and they are OK. They tone it down for the men and they behave themselves.
So please, no more organizations for me that are all women. I learned this lesson in college in my sorority, and I am staying out of Scouts unless they need me to do something or I need to do something to keep my girls in it and earning their awards and so forth for their college applications. Give me a co-ed team, organization, or whatever every time. I'm not intimidated by those men and they won't condescend to me. And if they do I have a few little tricks for shutting them down, or at least ignoring them the way they ignore their own wives sometimes. Passive aggressive-just ignore them and do whatever the hell you want! It's actually not a bad trick and I learned it from--you guessed it, men.
Pleasant Valley Mom, exhausted, and ready to go watch the ice skating now
Friday, February 12, 2010
The Gulf War Meltdown, or Snow Days in North Texas
Six inches of snow on the ground in North Texas and I just can't catch a break! Boy, snow days sure exhaust this Pleasant Valley mom.
It started snowing last night about 2 am and I didn't even notice what it was doing when I was up doing my blogging thing. About 5 minutes after I quit, I went to get the girls up, and THEN I looked out the window. I no longer watch the news and I rarely watch the weather, but even I knew it was probably going to do something--but what?
Our school district won't make a closure decision until 6:45 and sure enough, I was back on line when the emailed update came through. The snow was pouring down. Robert decided to work from home. The kids got too excited to go back to bed but I made them wait until 8 am to go out (I tried to go back to bed but to no avail. Unlike the rest of them I get up between 4 and 5 am lately with no alarm clock--just like my mom used to do).
Well it snowed and it snowed and it snowed and it snowed. At least six inches and still coming down. It doesn't usually snow like that in North Texas. At 8:15 precisely the girls were ready to come back in. The snow was very wet and sticky, because the temperature was hovering right around 32 degrees. Also we have no waterproof gloves, boots or pants other than a pair of rainboots that are 2 years old. We don't ski or visit winter climates (doesn't agree with R's knees or my ecsema)so we don't have any ski clothes or other proper winter playclothes. Other than possibly getting some more rain boots (which I won't be doing today), our gloves and hats and things are quickly soaked in a snow like this. Amelia in particular doesn't last very long, poor baby! I don't even go out in it. R has some old waterproof gloves so he can clean off the car and such, but not me.
Our cars, of course, are BOTH in the driveway covered with snow because it's Destination Imagination season, plus we are still reorganizing our camping equipment and getting ready for Gulf War (we almost finished the reorganization last fall but Christmas intervened, and it's been too cold to hang out in the garage much lately). Hope it warms up by Saturday because we have a big event in Athens to go to (Kingdom A & S), and then there's also a DI work session on Monday! Pray for nice weather because I am just not going to allow six fourth graders to paint backdrops in my foyer (they might get paint on the fifty pounds of fabric sitting out there!)
We don't own a snowblower or a snow shovel because some winters it doesn't snow at all and it usually stays less than 24 hours. I don't know about this one though. I made R go out and move the van a bit and shake some of the snow off the trees, in a rare break from his work (I never saw someone work so much on a snowday!) I stood on the porch and in the back and took a few photos with the old camera, because I put the better one down in the house somewhere during DI practice this weekend, and now I can't find it. Maybe it's in the Scouts stuff from Monday--I literally just remembered as I am sitting here writing.
So the girls are literally soaking wet by 8:15 and I am putting the wet clothes in garbage bags because Thursday is the secondary laundry day around here. Monday is primary laundry day, but by Thursday there are 3-4 MORE loads of crap to wash, so Thursday is secondary laundry day. When I miss one of these days there is hell to pay until the next one. Since I got my fleece for Gulf War cloaks on Tuesday, I washed all of that stuff between Tues and Weds (total of 35 YARDS! Some of it is for blankets though). Anyway, I am doing about 15 loads this week with the extra fabric for Gulf War. And people wonder what I do all day?
Then I am freaking out trying to get some hot chocolate or grits or something down these little girls, and it's 8:20, and you know who is already up in the office working! So I am trying to get him downstairs to eat too so I can get some eggs cooked. R is the official breakfast cooker--he cooks eggs, pancakes and french toast and usually uses his cast iron skillets. I don't touch the cast iron skillets--they have bad karma for me. Every time I touch one of them, something happens and it gets rust on it that has to be polished off, so I leave them both the hell alone. That's what happens when you integrate someone else's pots and pans into your kitchen. Those damn things have been in my cabinets 17 years now, and they make fabulous food for him, but they hate me. They leave rust spots on my shelf liner paper just to mock me. "Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah! You can't cook with cast IR-ON!"
So, R FINALLY comes downstairs and agrees to fix some eggs although he reminds me about 40 times that it is a WORKDAY for him (yes, and I will be painting my toe nails and eating bon bons all day like usual, in between the 15 loads of laundry of course).
I am rapidly losing my patience with the three muskateers (my husband and the two kids) as I mentally tick off the things I need to get done before Saturday: finish making Valentine's cards with the new Cricut I got for Christmas (can't afford to buy cards since I just spent all that money on a die cut machine!!). Finish birthday card for Tanya for Sunday's birthday party (wrapped Zhu Zhu pets already at midnight one night this week). Cut out at least one clothing item each day for Gulf War using the patterns Viviana made for us. Sew something and finish something that will be used at Gulf War. Paint puzzles for MOC on Saturday because they need to dry by Friday. Paint black star on MOC floor cloth for tic tac toe game. Clean out MOC tubs for Saturday and get stuff together for Kingdom A & S. Get garb ready for four people (or at least three) for Kingdom A & S. Get SWAPS counted and coins rolled for Thinking Day Feb 20th (maybe kids can do this with supervision). Get Miranda to research her St. Valentine's presentation for Kingdom A & S. Bribe at least one child to do Environmental Contest, due Monday, with promises of money in allowance account (I keep their allowance account on paper so that I can make additions and deductions all the time without going to the bank). Work on presentation board for Thinking Day and see what is missing about the country Colombia from the research the Scouts already did. Oh, do six loads of laundry. clean bathrooms upstairs and make sure upstairs doesn't get trashed, because we have two girls coming over Sun night for a sleepover and we will be gone all day Sat. And I don't do housework on Valentine's Day. Call PTA mom re book presentations for Friday to find out what she will do if school is delayed start tomorrow.
The list continues: Call other mom re Destination Imagination t shirt order that is due Fri--did she get it? I left it under the front porch mat yesterday (chat with her 20 minutes about DI and Freecycle once I get her on phone--other mom never calls back--she actually went to an EYE appointment in all this mess--her hubby took the message but I bet he forgot to give it to her). You always have to call twice if the husband answers the phone--they never give the message to the mom. My husband is guilty of the same thing on more than one occasion. And if one of them does slip up and give the mom the message it's almost always garbled or wrong. In fact, I send this mom an email later for clarification purposes. I have learned the hard way in years past--these suburban husbands would never make it as receptionists. Their hearing has developed over time into "selective messaging" mode so they can tune out their wives.
More of my to do list: Iron and tag all consignment clothes--dropoff is Feb 19th, which is going to be a busy day since ARD meeting for Amelia is that morning and possibly rescheduled book presentations. Not washing the damn things again--they were washed when put in the plastic bins,stored in a closet, and they are clean enough. Need to print consignment tags while R is here so technical difficulties, if any, can be resolved. Sew some more for Gulf War. Feed kids and husband. Clean up after kids and husband. Cut out more clothes for Gulf War. Etc. Etc. Etc. I am really stressed out right now, you know????
So, I start to delegate. Husband is out of pocket; back in office because it's a WORKDAY for him. The girls want me to sit and watch Robin HOod DVDs. I say, I will after I cut out something for Gulf War and do some painting. Maybe you could help by hemming those little Viking dresses Viv made you? I can show you how. Major whining. It's our day off--we want to play and have fun. We don't want to sew. Sewing is work.
"Well, how about if you guys roll some more coins for me for Thinking Day? (Oh, good, they did finish that with R last night). Then, could you count these SWAPS (Some Whatchamacallits Pinned Affectionately Somewhere)." SWAPS are traded in Girl Scouts and each country has one for Thinking Day. Our country is Colombia. We need 270 for Thinking Day. Now, these were handed out to the 10 girls last week and they did bring them back, but several ran out of coffee beans and didn't finish their packs. A count reveals we have 242 so I am trying to get M and A to make the other 28. It's pretty easy: stick coffee beans and a label in a jewelry bag and add a pin. But M doesn't want to do the pins: "Mommy, will you do the pins for me?" So I do SWAP pins for 30 minutes with Disney Channel blaring in my ear.
Then I work on painting one side of these cool puzzles that Lady Stephanie Lillburn made. I want to paint one side to make them more colorful so they will appeal to the kids at MOC, but I want the edges and the other side left natural so you can see the wood grain. This is an interesting feat and as I am trying to do it mostly with foam brushes in my front foyer (yes, I am allowed to paint there and only me)--well, it's not the best job but they actually look very good. Try to get hubby's consultation on what to paint and how since he's the woodworker, but he doesn't want to come downstairs because of his knees and because he's WORKING. Painted mouse puzzle, pig puzzle, two small and one large dragon. After drying, I accented them with marker. They don't look totally professional--but not bad.
Then I cut out a navy dress for Gulf War. Kids are upstairs playing somewhere. I go back in the family room to put away the SWAPS, I change the laundry, yada yada yada.
Pretty soon it's noon and everyone says they aren't hungry (well, R says nothing because he's on a conference call). I am starting to lose it. I am working my ass off and everyone else is ignoring me, like I'm the maid.
I fix lunch for me and go lay down to watch a movie and maybe sew. M wants to go outside again. I get her bundled up and leave bags and stuff by both doors with instructions that coat is to be hung up and wet stuff put in bags. I fall asleep watching movie--I did get up at 3 am last night so I am pretty tired by now. Oh, let the doggies out and then get the clumps of ice off of them. Twice. Put away some laundry. M is yelling that she ran hot water on her feet and now she hurts--what time is it??? 2 pm????? Did anyone eat lunch???? There is wet stuff including coats all over the foyer. Water running in rivulets down the tile, and now the floor is trashed and I can't cut stuff out on it. Wet towels everywhere. Kid yelling upstairs. Hubby incommunicado.
I make M get dressed and A get dressed too. She apparently went outside and went through clothing set number 2 and now she is complaining that she has no clean clothes. I LOSE it because they are supposed to bring their own laundry down, and I am the one that did it this morning since I noticed that they hadn't put their clothes away from Monday and the hamper was full again with dirty clothes since Monday.
Kids find something to wear. I give them hot grits and hot chocolate--don't feel like fixing another lunch. R still has not eaten I don't think--not sure. I yell and scream at kids who won't sew and want to play all day. "Mommy," says Amelia, "why are you being so mean???" But I am on the warpath. They have trashed upstairs too and I don't have time to clean it tomorrow if they are in school. I make the go upstairs to clean up playroom, make beds. I show them how to clean the bathroom by cleaning the downstairs one and give them the bathroom stuff for their two bathrooms upstairs. That will keep them busy for a while so I can go work on laundry and take a shower.
I pile all of Hubby's laundry on his side of the bed. That way he has to put it away before he can sit down and watch TV. I am getting really pissed--there is so much crap all over the bedroom that I couldn't clean it if I had 10 days. I even stack up some papers and things he keeps moving around the room. My mom would throw them away but it's woodworking stuff so I don't want to do that. I spend an hour or more putting away my clothes and getting hangers for the laundry room, and changing laundry over etc. etc. Then, finally about 4 pm, I take a shower. Of course the shower really needs cleaning but I can't see that well in there without my glasses, so I ignore it. People banging on the locked bedroom door while I am trying to comb out my hair, with bathroom cleaning questions.: "Go ask Daddy!!!"
When Husband resurfaces I inform him that I am not cooking tonight but I am sewing instead. There is a steak thawed out and mashed potatos he can heat up plus salad. I am having soup (can't chew much until I get this dental work done which will probably not be until next week with all this snow). I tell him about steak and such. I go and play on computer for a while and read Facebook. I go and sew.
I tell all three of them that if they are watching TV, from now through Gulf Wars, I want them sewing something. I have HAD it. If they can't sew their clothes then they can wear them unhemmed and unfinished. R leaves me alone on the computer while he grudgingly cooks dinner (he conveniently forgets about the steak and does leftovers so he has less to clean up). Kids are hungry and whiny since I didn't feed them properly today, but they wouldn't eat when I offered, and you would think they could learn to fix a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or two.
Finally around 8 pm I get my way: Family time! H is sewing on his blue hat (after all, he told the girls this morning how the men sew in the SCA--so now I am making him do it!!!) Amelia takes to the sewing just fine and completes her hem but Miranda whines and only does about 3 inches. She is really really tired. We watch a few episodes of Robin Hood. I sew something else for Gulf War and actually finish it (it's only a cloth for my basket, but it's something!) I do have to help the other three-well at least the girls-- with the sewing as well, after all. All I have to do with R is keep handing him various magnification devices because he is having trouble seeing the navy thread on the navy hat.
It's still snowing, mixed with a little sleet. They actually cancelled school again for tomorrow. I've never seen it cancelled two days in a row. No book presentations; no Valentines' parties; no Lightning Thief field trip Friday afternoon. I guess we will be squeezing these into my "workweek" next week while I am trying to finsh Scouts and Consignment. It will be icy in the morning; in fact R says that there is no point in shoveling the snow away because it provides some traction if we need to get out. There will be a layer of ice underneath the snow on the driveway--he is actually correct about this, not just trying to get out of it. The road will be a solid sheet of ice though, and we live in the house on the hill. So we are not going anywhere for a while. Hopefully it will be clear tomorrow so we can go to Kingdom A & S.
Oh, Crap! I'm stuck with them all again tomorrow, and it's another WORKDAY for R. I guess I should get the bonbons and the toenail polish out. Oh, wait. I'm out of bonbons (what is a bonbon anyway?) and I haven't painted my toenails since spring 2009 (last formal pedicure). Remind me to write about how I am SO not a spa girl tomorrow.
Plesant Valley Mom signing off(exhausted and looking forward to maybe not doing anything much for Valentine's Day--except Gulf War sewing!!!) OK, do you see why the Tolkien discussion is STILL on the back burner????
It started snowing last night about 2 am and I didn't even notice what it was doing when I was up doing my blogging thing. About 5 minutes after I quit, I went to get the girls up, and THEN I looked out the window. I no longer watch the news and I rarely watch the weather, but even I knew it was probably going to do something--but what?
Our school district won't make a closure decision until 6:45 and sure enough, I was back on line when the emailed update came through. The snow was pouring down. Robert decided to work from home. The kids got too excited to go back to bed but I made them wait until 8 am to go out (I tried to go back to bed but to no avail. Unlike the rest of them I get up between 4 and 5 am lately with no alarm clock--just like my mom used to do).
Well it snowed and it snowed and it snowed and it snowed. At least six inches and still coming down. It doesn't usually snow like that in North Texas. At 8:15 precisely the girls were ready to come back in. The snow was very wet and sticky, because the temperature was hovering right around 32 degrees. Also we have no waterproof gloves, boots or pants other than a pair of rainboots that are 2 years old. We don't ski or visit winter climates (doesn't agree with R's knees or my ecsema)so we don't have any ski clothes or other proper winter playclothes. Other than possibly getting some more rain boots (which I won't be doing today), our gloves and hats and things are quickly soaked in a snow like this. Amelia in particular doesn't last very long, poor baby! I don't even go out in it. R has some old waterproof gloves so he can clean off the car and such, but not me.
Our cars, of course, are BOTH in the driveway covered with snow because it's Destination Imagination season, plus we are still reorganizing our camping equipment and getting ready for Gulf War (we almost finished the reorganization last fall but Christmas intervened, and it's been too cold to hang out in the garage much lately). Hope it warms up by Saturday because we have a big event in Athens to go to (Kingdom A & S), and then there's also a DI work session on Monday! Pray for nice weather because I am just not going to allow six fourth graders to paint backdrops in my foyer (they might get paint on the fifty pounds of fabric sitting out there!)
We don't own a snowblower or a snow shovel because some winters it doesn't snow at all and it usually stays less than 24 hours. I don't know about this one though. I made R go out and move the van a bit and shake some of the snow off the trees, in a rare break from his work (I never saw someone work so much on a snowday!) I stood on the porch and in the back and took a few photos with the old camera, because I put the better one down in the house somewhere during DI practice this weekend, and now I can't find it. Maybe it's in the Scouts stuff from Monday--I literally just remembered as I am sitting here writing.
So the girls are literally soaking wet by 8:15 and I am putting the wet clothes in garbage bags because Thursday is the secondary laundry day around here. Monday is primary laundry day, but by Thursday there are 3-4 MORE loads of crap to wash, so Thursday is secondary laundry day. When I miss one of these days there is hell to pay until the next one. Since I got my fleece for Gulf War cloaks on Tuesday, I washed all of that stuff between Tues and Weds (total of 35 YARDS! Some of it is for blankets though). Anyway, I am doing about 15 loads this week with the extra fabric for Gulf War. And people wonder what I do all day?
Then I am freaking out trying to get some hot chocolate or grits or something down these little girls, and it's 8:20, and you know who is already up in the office working! So I am trying to get him downstairs to eat too so I can get some eggs cooked. R is the official breakfast cooker--he cooks eggs, pancakes and french toast and usually uses his cast iron skillets. I don't touch the cast iron skillets--they have bad karma for me. Every time I touch one of them, something happens and it gets rust on it that has to be polished off, so I leave them both the hell alone. That's what happens when you integrate someone else's pots and pans into your kitchen. Those damn things have been in my cabinets 17 years now, and they make fabulous food for him, but they hate me. They leave rust spots on my shelf liner paper just to mock me. "Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah! You can't cook with cast IR-ON!"
So, R FINALLY comes downstairs and agrees to fix some eggs although he reminds me about 40 times that it is a WORKDAY for him (yes, and I will be painting my toe nails and eating bon bons all day like usual, in between the 15 loads of laundry of course).
I am rapidly losing my patience with the three muskateers (my husband and the two kids) as I mentally tick off the things I need to get done before Saturday: finish making Valentine's cards with the new Cricut I got for Christmas (can't afford to buy cards since I just spent all that money on a die cut machine!!). Finish birthday card for Tanya for Sunday's birthday party (wrapped Zhu Zhu pets already at midnight one night this week). Cut out at least one clothing item each day for Gulf War using the patterns Viviana made for us. Sew something and finish something that will be used at Gulf War. Paint puzzles for MOC on Saturday because they need to dry by Friday. Paint black star on MOC floor cloth for tic tac toe game. Clean out MOC tubs for Saturday and get stuff together for Kingdom A & S. Get garb ready for four people (or at least three) for Kingdom A & S. Get SWAPS counted and coins rolled for Thinking Day Feb 20th (maybe kids can do this with supervision). Get Miranda to research her St. Valentine's presentation for Kingdom A & S. Bribe at least one child to do Environmental Contest, due Monday, with promises of money in allowance account (I keep their allowance account on paper so that I can make additions and deductions all the time without going to the bank). Work on presentation board for Thinking Day and see what is missing about the country Colombia from the research the Scouts already did. Oh, do six loads of laundry. clean bathrooms upstairs and make sure upstairs doesn't get trashed, because we have two girls coming over Sun night for a sleepover and we will be gone all day Sat. And I don't do housework on Valentine's Day. Call PTA mom re book presentations for Friday to find out what she will do if school is delayed start tomorrow.
The list continues: Call other mom re Destination Imagination t shirt order that is due Fri--did she get it? I left it under the front porch mat yesterday (chat with her 20 minutes about DI and Freecycle once I get her on phone--other mom never calls back--she actually went to an EYE appointment in all this mess--her hubby took the message but I bet he forgot to give it to her). You always have to call twice if the husband answers the phone--they never give the message to the mom. My husband is guilty of the same thing on more than one occasion. And if one of them does slip up and give the mom the message it's almost always garbled or wrong. In fact, I send this mom an email later for clarification purposes. I have learned the hard way in years past--these suburban husbands would never make it as receptionists. Their hearing has developed over time into "selective messaging" mode so they can tune out their wives.
More of my to do list: Iron and tag all consignment clothes--dropoff is Feb 19th, which is going to be a busy day since ARD meeting for Amelia is that morning and possibly rescheduled book presentations. Not washing the damn things again--they were washed when put in the plastic bins,stored in a closet, and they are clean enough. Need to print consignment tags while R is here so technical difficulties, if any, can be resolved. Sew some more for Gulf War. Feed kids and husband. Clean up after kids and husband. Cut out more clothes for Gulf War. Etc. Etc. Etc. I am really stressed out right now, you know????
So, I start to delegate. Husband is out of pocket; back in office because it's a WORKDAY for him. The girls want me to sit and watch Robin HOod DVDs. I say, I will after I cut out something for Gulf War and do some painting. Maybe you could help by hemming those little Viking dresses Viv made you? I can show you how. Major whining. It's our day off--we want to play and have fun. We don't want to sew. Sewing is work.
"Well, how about if you guys roll some more coins for me for Thinking Day? (Oh, good, they did finish that with R last night). Then, could you count these SWAPS (Some Whatchamacallits Pinned Affectionately Somewhere)." SWAPS are traded in Girl Scouts and each country has one for Thinking Day. Our country is Colombia. We need 270 for Thinking Day. Now, these were handed out to the 10 girls last week and they did bring them back, but several ran out of coffee beans and didn't finish their packs. A count reveals we have 242 so I am trying to get M and A to make the other 28. It's pretty easy: stick coffee beans and a label in a jewelry bag and add a pin. But M doesn't want to do the pins: "Mommy, will you do the pins for me?" So I do SWAP pins for 30 minutes with Disney Channel blaring in my ear.
Then I work on painting one side of these cool puzzles that Lady Stephanie Lillburn made. I want to paint one side to make them more colorful so they will appeal to the kids at MOC, but I want the edges and the other side left natural so you can see the wood grain. This is an interesting feat and as I am trying to do it mostly with foam brushes in my front foyer (yes, I am allowed to paint there and only me)--well, it's not the best job but they actually look very good. Try to get hubby's consultation on what to paint and how since he's the woodworker, but he doesn't want to come downstairs because of his knees and because he's WORKING. Painted mouse puzzle, pig puzzle, two small and one large dragon. After drying, I accented them with marker. They don't look totally professional--but not bad.
Then I cut out a navy dress for Gulf War. Kids are upstairs playing somewhere. I go back in the family room to put away the SWAPS, I change the laundry, yada yada yada.
Pretty soon it's noon and everyone says they aren't hungry (well, R says nothing because he's on a conference call). I am starting to lose it. I am working my ass off and everyone else is ignoring me, like I'm the maid.
I fix lunch for me and go lay down to watch a movie and maybe sew. M wants to go outside again. I get her bundled up and leave bags and stuff by both doors with instructions that coat is to be hung up and wet stuff put in bags. I fall asleep watching movie--I did get up at 3 am last night so I am pretty tired by now. Oh, let the doggies out and then get the clumps of ice off of them. Twice. Put away some laundry. M is yelling that she ran hot water on her feet and now she hurts--what time is it??? 2 pm????? Did anyone eat lunch???? There is wet stuff including coats all over the foyer. Water running in rivulets down the tile, and now the floor is trashed and I can't cut stuff out on it. Wet towels everywhere. Kid yelling upstairs. Hubby incommunicado.
I make M get dressed and A get dressed too. She apparently went outside and went through clothing set number 2 and now she is complaining that she has no clean clothes. I LOSE it because they are supposed to bring their own laundry down, and I am the one that did it this morning since I noticed that they hadn't put their clothes away from Monday and the hamper was full again with dirty clothes since Monday.
Kids find something to wear. I give them hot grits and hot chocolate--don't feel like fixing another lunch. R still has not eaten I don't think--not sure. I yell and scream at kids who won't sew and want to play all day. "Mommy," says Amelia, "why are you being so mean???" But I am on the warpath. They have trashed upstairs too and I don't have time to clean it tomorrow if they are in school. I make the go upstairs to clean up playroom, make beds. I show them how to clean the bathroom by cleaning the downstairs one and give them the bathroom stuff for their two bathrooms upstairs. That will keep them busy for a while so I can go work on laundry and take a shower.
I pile all of Hubby's laundry on his side of the bed. That way he has to put it away before he can sit down and watch TV. I am getting really pissed--there is so much crap all over the bedroom that I couldn't clean it if I had 10 days. I even stack up some papers and things he keeps moving around the room. My mom would throw them away but it's woodworking stuff so I don't want to do that. I spend an hour or more putting away my clothes and getting hangers for the laundry room, and changing laundry over etc. etc. Then, finally about 4 pm, I take a shower. Of course the shower really needs cleaning but I can't see that well in there without my glasses, so I ignore it. People banging on the locked bedroom door while I am trying to comb out my hair, with bathroom cleaning questions.: "Go ask Daddy!!!"
When Husband resurfaces I inform him that I am not cooking tonight but I am sewing instead. There is a steak thawed out and mashed potatos he can heat up plus salad. I am having soup (can't chew much until I get this dental work done which will probably not be until next week with all this snow). I tell him about steak and such. I go and play on computer for a while and read Facebook. I go and sew.
I tell all three of them that if they are watching TV, from now through Gulf Wars, I want them sewing something. I have HAD it. If they can't sew their clothes then they can wear them unhemmed and unfinished. R leaves me alone on the computer while he grudgingly cooks dinner (he conveniently forgets about the steak and does leftovers so he has less to clean up). Kids are hungry and whiny since I didn't feed them properly today, but they wouldn't eat when I offered, and you would think they could learn to fix a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or two.
Finally around 8 pm I get my way: Family time! H is sewing on his blue hat (after all, he told the girls this morning how the men sew in the SCA--so now I am making him do it!!!) Amelia takes to the sewing just fine and completes her hem but Miranda whines and only does about 3 inches. She is really really tired. We watch a few episodes of Robin Hood. I sew something else for Gulf War and actually finish it (it's only a cloth for my basket, but it's something!) I do have to help the other three-well at least the girls-- with the sewing as well, after all. All I have to do with R is keep handing him various magnification devices because he is having trouble seeing the navy thread on the navy hat.
It's still snowing, mixed with a little sleet. They actually cancelled school again for tomorrow. I've never seen it cancelled two days in a row. No book presentations; no Valentines' parties; no Lightning Thief field trip Friday afternoon. I guess we will be squeezing these into my "workweek" next week while I am trying to finsh Scouts and Consignment. It will be icy in the morning; in fact R says that there is no point in shoveling the snow away because it provides some traction if we need to get out. There will be a layer of ice underneath the snow on the driveway--he is actually correct about this, not just trying to get out of it. The road will be a solid sheet of ice though, and we live in the house on the hill. So we are not going anywhere for a while. Hopefully it will be clear tomorrow so we can go to Kingdom A & S.
Oh, Crap! I'm stuck with them all again tomorrow, and it's another WORKDAY for R. I guess I should get the bonbons and the toenail polish out. Oh, wait. I'm out of bonbons (what is a bonbon anyway?) and I haven't painted my toenails since spring 2009 (last formal pedicure). Remind me to write about how I am SO not a spa girl tomorrow.
Plesant Valley Mom signing off(exhausted and looking forward to maybe not doing anything much for Valentine's Day--except Gulf War sewing!!!) OK, do you see why the Tolkien discussion is STILL on the back burner????
Friday, February 5, 2010
Zombie Mom and the Dreaded Pay Day
Zombie mom here again. Yes, this time I truly do feel like Night of the Living Dead. I wish I could tell you that this is a hangover, but even I don't get hung over after a cranberry juice and vodka or two (good for bladder health or so they tell me).
I was a bad bad girl last night. No, I didn't stay up late pleasing my husband or anything fun like that. I was a bad bad girl because I stayed up late sewing for Gulf Wars and catching up on LOST and American Idol, WITH the light on because I needed it for sewing, while Hubby tried to sleep.
Gulf Wars is a big SCA Event down near Lumberton, Mississippi every spring. We have been in the SCA for 2 1/2 or so years and have never gone. It is a week-long melee battle or series of battles, but there are also classes, shopping, children's activites--you name it. For a WEEK!! Sometimes it does not coincide with our spring break but this year it does. The girls have been begging to go for more than a year so we are going to give it a try.
Now, this getting ready for WAR (in the middle of Destination Imagination, Cookie season and Girl Scout Thinking Day, not to mention the big spring Consignment Sale) is going to KILL me!!! I am literally working every minute of every day on something. Cleaning up the barbies, getting the stuff done to present the WAGGS patch, researching Coloumbian food for Thinking Day, talking people into buying cookies (hope I can talk them into paying on time too)..you name it but Supermom, who is turning into Zombie Mom by the minute, is doing it. A friend said I am overcompensating for not working as a lawyer. Well, I don't have time to see a shrink, but maybe she is right.
Another friend is kindly helping me by doing a lot of sewing of garb for the family. "Garb" is the name for the costumes that we will wear during Gulf War--at least one per day unless it pours rain like two years ago. Having been to Scarby over an extremely rainy Memorial Day weekend (but having a nice hotel at the end of the day, not a tent), I wholeheartedly agree--take all the clothes we have and then add as much as we can possibly afford to make between now and then. My friend works full time and takes on too much because she's one of these incredibly talented people, and maybe she is overcompensating for something in her life too. Anyway, I am doing the handsewing and I will help her in any way I can, but if I have to sew them together it will be a miracle if we are ready for Gulf War 2011. Seriously.
I am not a seamstress and I really hate sewing machines. I don't like noisy machines anyway, including vaccuums. I even dislike motorcycles and have never been on one (and probably never will). Leafblowers. Snowblowers. Ick Ick Ick. Hate noise pollution, HATE it. Only watch tv during the day or have it on if there's an ice storm or I am doing laundry; otherwise, I MIGHT listen to a little music, but I love silence. I have other reasons why I don't like sewing, mostly relating to the fact that my mom is a wonderful seamstress and I could just never get the hang of it (or felt like I couldn't, or felt like what I did wasn't good enough, so I gave up). I wish I could tell you that this was my mom's fault but it probably wasn't-- I don't specifically remember any criticisms at all, and in fact I remember her telling me after I took a class that I was a good seamstress and should stick with it. Since I did this class about the same time I took typing and I am a really excellent typist, she was probably right. I probably just deep down don't like the noise.
So Zombie Mom did hand sewing from 10 pm to 2 am on a gauze dress. Love gauze for the faire; hate sewing on it by hand. It's thin and light and my pins won's stay in it, plus I am not very good at hemming these very wide and long skirts. But it's an underdress for the girls, and it's in Ansteorra gold, and my friend even gave me the fabric, so I really can't complain. I just wish the damned thing was done this morning so I could move on to something that is easier for me to sew on. I started with it first because I knew I was going to hate it but I didn't think I'd still be working on it today.
It's also the Dreaded Pay Day. Now, Pay Day is nice because then you get money. But Dreaded Pay Day is tough because I have to run around like a maniac all day doing errands and using up my husband's paycheck before there isn't enough left to buy groceries. It's so much pressure!!! I think he really felt it last time when he got stuck doing all the Dreaded Pay Day errands while I was on Scrapbook Retreat. He had 9 errands to do, and no, they did not all get done--now, 2 weeks later, I am still doing them, AND getting fleece for cloaks and blankets, and going grocery shopping at Wally World (read Wal-Mart), and going to the liquor store (about time--this errand has been skipped for about three paychecks). And I have a church luncheon at 11 on how to keep God in my marriage (why? Did he leave? I thought three in a marriage was a bit crowded, as Princess Diana said).
Sorry to be sacreligious--I wouldn't be going if I didn't think it would be good. These luncheons at my church are excellent and good for the soul. And I don't have any objection to keeping God in my marriage, although I don't know if my husband wants him there. Is God there during sex? I am not sure I want to think of this in the middle of...well, anyway, time to sign off and drink some coffee.
Pleasant Valley Mom
I was a bad bad girl last night. No, I didn't stay up late pleasing my husband or anything fun like that. I was a bad bad girl because I stayed up late sewing for Gulf Wars and catching up on LOST and American Idol, WITH the light on because I needed it for sewing, while Hubby tried to sleep.
Gulf Wars is a big SCA Event down near Lumberton, Mississippi every spring. We have been in the SCA for 2 1/2 or so years and have never gone. It is a week-long melee battle or series of battles, but there are also classes, shopping, children's activites--you name it. For a WEEK!! Sometimes it does not coincide with our spring break but this year it does. The girls have been begging to go for more than a year so we are going to give it a try.
Now, this getting ready for WAR (in the middle of Destination Imagination, Cookie season and Girl Scout Thinking Day, not to mention the big spring Consignment Sale) is going to KILL me!!! I am literally working every minute of every day on something. Cleaning up the barbies, getting the stuff done to present the WAGGS patch, researching Coloumbian food for Thinking Day, talking people into buying cookies (hope I can talk them into paying on time too)..you name it but Supermom, who is turning into Zombie Mom by the minute, is doing it. A friend said I am overcompensating for not working as a lawyer. Well, I don't have time to see a shrink, but maybe she is right.
Another friend is kindly helping me by doing a lot of sewing of garb for the family. "Garb" is the name for the costumes that we will wear during Gulf War--at least one per day unless it pours rain like two years ago. Having been to Scarby over an extremely rainy Memorial Day weekend (but having a nice hotel at the end of the day, not a tent), I wholeheartedly agree--take all the clothes we have and then add as much as we can possibly afford to make between now and then. My friend works full time and takes on too much because she's one of these incredibly talented people, and maybe she is overcompensating for something in her life too. Anyway, I am doing the handsewing and I will help her in any way I can, but if I have to sew them together it will be a miracle if we are ready for Gulf War 2011. Seriously.
I am not a seamstress and I really hate sewing machines. I don't like noisy machines anyway, including vaccuums. I even dislike motorcycles and have never been on one (and probably never will). Leafblowers. Snowblowers. Ick Ick Ick. Hate noise pollution, HATE it. Only watch tv during the day or have it on if there's an ice storm or I am doing laundry; otherwise, I MIGHT listen to a little music, but I love silence. I have other reasons why I don't like sewing, mostly relating to the fact that my mom is a wonderful seamstress and I could just never get the hang of it (or felt like I couldn't, or felt like what I did wasn't good enough, so I gave up). I wish I could tell you that this was my mom's fault but it probably wasn't-- I don't specifically remember any criticisms at all, and in fact I remember her telling me after I took a class that I was a good seamstress and should stick with it. Since I did this class about the same time I took typing and I am a really excellent typist, she was probably right. I probably just deep down don't like the noise.
So Zombie Mom did hand sewing from 10 pm to 2 am on a gauze dress. Love gauze for the faire; hate sewing on it by hand. It's thin and light and my pins won's stay in it, plus I am not very good at hemming these very wide and long skirts. But it's an underdress for the girls, and it's in Ansteorra gold, and my friend even gave me the fabric, so I really can't complain. I just wish the damned thing was done this morning so I could move on to something that is easier for me to sew on. I started with it first because I knew I was going to hate it but I didn't think I'd still be working on it today.
It's also the Dreaded Pay Day. Now, Pay Day is nice because then you get money. But Dreaded Pay Day is tough because I have to run around like a maniac all day doing errands and using up my husband's paycheck before there isn't enough left to buy groceries. It's so much pressure!!! I think he really felt it last time when he got stuck doing all the Dreaded Pay Day errands while I was on Scrapbook Retreat. He had 9 errands to do, and no, they did not all get done--now, 2 weeks later, I am still doing them, AND getting fleece for cloaks and blankets, and going grocery shopping at Wally World (read Wal-Mart), and going to the liquor store (about time--this errand has been skipped for about three paychecks). And I have a church luncheon at 11 on how to keep God in my marriage (why? Did he leave? I thought three in a marriage was a bit crowded, as Princess Diana said).
Sorry to be sacreligious--I wouldn't be going if I didn't think it would be good. These luncheons at my church are excellent and good for the soul. And I don't have any objection to keeping God in my marriage, although I don't know if my husband wants him there. Is God there during sex? I am not sure I want to think of this in the middle of...well, anyway, time to sign off and drink some coffee.
Pleasant Valley Mom
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