Lori's Life

Jeffrey Coale - 2996 Tribute

2010-09-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

I kept meaning to post up my 2996 tribute from last year, but of course forgot this morning. Then I received this comment from Jeffrey Coale's sister, Leslie, which just absolutely made my day:

I am Jeffrey's sister. Thank you so much for sharing his life with so many people. It seems that the world has forgotten the tragedy of 6 years ago. I am heartened by your blog and the comments posted in response. Thank you.

Intro borrowed from Kami, who said it so eloquently:

Back in July, Dale got an idea to have one blogger each cover each of the victims of 9/11. (No matter how you feel about what happened that day, these people were indeed victims.) He set out to get 2,996 bloggers to cover all of the victims, and he exceeded his goal. I am honored to be a part of his project.

Imagine having this view as your workplace.

That’s what Jeffrey Coale saw each day when he went to work as Assistant Wine Master at Windows on the World, the restaurant that occupied the 107^th floor of the North Tower, One World Trade Center. A job where he had taken a huge reduction in income in order to further his dream of owning a restaurant.

He lost his life on September 11^th at the age of 31.

Jeffrey’s dream to own a restaurant began in college. He took training in cooking and restaurant management. Those skills help, as does money. And so he went at it methodically: working for a number of years as a very successful government bond trader, while at night, he attended classes at the French Culinary Institute.

After some time he quit trading and took a job as an apprentice chef at the Louis XV restaurant in Monte Carlo. Next, he returned to New York to work at the Alain Ducasse restaurant. Wanting to refine his understanding of the wine side of the business, he then took a job as an assistant wine master at Windows on the World.

"He left really good money to make $10 an hour at Windows," said Leslie Brown, his sister. "But Jeff never settled for something. He followed his passion."

On visits to his parents' home, he would sometimes cook a special meal.

"He would send me out for all these special ingredients," his mother Joan said, "and he would make fun of my old pots and pans and utensils." Her son had become such an expert chef, she said, that "I would cook family favorites for him sometimes, and I'd get nervous and burn things."

From A Tribute to my Brother by his sister Leslie Coale Brown

”He had a generous heart, a kind soul and a creative intelligence. He has friends around the world. And if you were Jeff’s friend you were special. While he was never mean, Jeff didn’t waste his time with people who weren’t genuine. Jeff rarely did anything he didn’t want to do; I think this is why he was able to experience so much in life, because he was not motivated by guilt or peer pressure. He didn’t waste time feeling bad.”

“And the only sense I can make of why Jeffrey’s life would be called so short is because of the effect it will have on so many people. He touched many lives and my hope is that now because of knowing and losing Jeff your lives will be different. Maybe someone here now won’t be afraid to dream big, maybe someone will realize how short life is and start living it differently. Maybe you will change jobs, or appreciate your family more. Each of us has a responsibility to live life with a little more passion and joy in honor of a life cut short. Try to be the person Jeff knew you were capable of being.”

His mother, Joan Coale had given her son a special gift of her own shortly before Jeffrey’s death: her mother's diamond ring. It was intended for his companion, Margaret Rosenblatt, with whom he lived in Greenwich Village. "He was waiting for a special time to give it to her."

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Earlier this year, a number of former Windows on the World staff opened Colors, a co-operative restaurant in Manhattan that serves as a tribute to their fallen colleagues and whose menu reflects the diversity of the former Windows' staff.

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Having Jeffrey Coale’s name assigned to me was quite moving and apropos on a number of levels. This project of researching his life reiterated my feelings to truly urge everyone to follow their passions and dreams. Oftentimes life can be short and you really must make the most of it.

Within weeks of Jeffrey’s death several surviving coworkers had followed his ‘lead’ and left unsatisfying relationships and/or jobs. I only hope that those who read this and may be in similar positions will gather some strength from this.

For your viewing pleasure....

2008-04-30T16:35:00.001-07:00

Meg's school has a "Mr. Foothill" contest each year. This is one of the performances.

I seriously have to give this kid credit. He did an awesome job. Be sure to catch the end.

Great.....

2008-04-28T10:10:00.000-07:00

While doing the paperwork to pick up our rental car in San Diego, the clerk asks us why we're visiting. Just being chit-chatty. We tell him we're going to visit SDSU. He then says "Oh, yeah. We've got alot of people working here who used to go there"

FABULOUS!

All I can think of is my kid working at a rent-a-car joint after 4 years of college.

Decisions

2008-04-25T14:36:00.000-07:00

So, guess what? Last week Megan lost her virginity!

Airplane travel virginity that is! I know, everybody who hears this can’t believe it, but seriously, none of our kids have ever been on a plane. When you’ve got 3 or 4 kids depending upon the circumstances it gets pricey to do air travel vacations.

Anyhow, it’s getting down to crunch time in our household as far as deciding where Megan’s going to college next year. She’s been so busy with sports and other activities that we hadn’t ever gone to visit campuses. We figured we’d do that once we knew where she was accepted.

One of the final 3 schools is San Diego State. I’ve been to San Diego once as a small child so it was actually really nice to visit and I’d recommend it easily to anyone visiting California. It’s just beautiful.

We visited some of the local touristy areas and attractions and also visited the school. The size of it initially really put us both off. (There are about 36,000 students there). When we went for the official tour and presentation on the second day it became obvious it was a lot more manageable that we originally thought just walking/driving around the campus.

Today she went with her dad to go visit Cal State Chico, which, despite it’s reputation as a huge party school, has an excellent liberal arts/teaching program (what she wants to do).

My personal choice, for many reasons - not only that she’ll be closer to home, is for her to go to St. Mary’s college. It is just half an hour or so away from our house, but she’d live on campus. It’s a much smaller school, just 2500 students and unlike a lot of the state schools, the average class size is 20, virtually all classes are taught by professors and not grad students. I personally think she’d do better in a smaller environment.

So we have to wait and talk about all the options over the weekend and then decide. I will do my best to not be my pushy self and hold things in check.

Oh, and here’s my $.02 on private vs. public schools from this experience. If your child is interested in a private school, even though they’re more expensive, I’d encourage applying. Many of these schools have much more endowment/scholarship money to distribute to students that what the state/public colleges and universities have to work with. Megan got an awesome honors scholarship/financial award package to St. Mary’s which would let her go there for less that what we’d pay for either of the state schools.

Just tell 'em the other guy looked worse...

2008-03-26T13:28:00.000-07:00

On Saturday Jessica and Brandon were ~~fighting playing~~ roughousing (there's a Mom word, if I ever heard one). At some point she pulls up her knee and nails him in the face.

Let me tell you, one starts to feel self-conscious taking a kid into a store with that bruise on his face. I'm a bit glad that they're out on Spring Break right now, so he's not going to school looking like that.

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We had a nice Easter. I made Brandon get dressed up as a trial run for a big party we have to go to in June. He looked so adorable. But still managed to dig in dirt. Typical.

And just in case you didn't know, boys can make guns out of anything!

Sigh

2008-03-20T21:44:00.000-07:00

Tonight Brandon and I were going to play a game of Uno and we decided to raise the stakes a little. If I won, we would go get him a haircut this weekend and if he won, he'd get $5 and I would have to drive him to ~~HELL~~Toys R Us. Originally, my proposed win would have gotten me a big kiss and hug every day for a week, but apparently an unwanted haircut is more acceptable to a 9 year old.

Don't you know that kid won the game in two turns.

Most likely to......

2008-02-26T18:12:00.000-08:00

Last night was Megan's basketball banquet - a dinner they have for the players and parents at the end of each season. The coaches of the various teams will talk about the season, the players and give out awards.

Megan's coach decided to have some fun and gave them each a Star Award. This was meant as a more fun presentation even though she did talk about each girls basketball skills.

So, here's what Megan got:

I laughed REALLY loud! So perfect. I might have to agree - here's a pic from her birthday after a usual practice.

What induced laughing hysterics

2007-12-03T15:16:00.000-08:00

Weekend

2007-12-03T15:09:00.001-08:00

This pretty much sums up my weekend - basketball, shopping, basketball.

Oh yeah, and the HOURS I spent on Saturday & Sunday nights cleaning up our ~~family room~~ Brandon's Dumping Ground. This year I am bound and determined to actually purge and clean it up instead of dumping things into tubs and putting in the garage.

I decided that I would pack up gallon bags of Lego pieces and sell them on eBay. I think I have 8 bags so far. Do you know how fun it is picking out Lego pieces from a tub of other plastic toy crap? Yeah, I know. Life of a rockstar.

Hope you all had a good one..

Doesn't Share Well With Others

2007-11-26T17:39:00.000-08:00

I'd been carrying around a gift certificate to See's Candies for close to a year now. One day last week I was at the mall and thought I'd treat myself for my birthday. So I got a box full of all my favorites. I'd been eating a couple pieces each day, but last night I opened the box and it looked like THIS:

For those of you who remember The Flintstones, the following "MeeeeeaaaaGAN!" was alot like Fred yelling "WiiiillllMA!"

I would pretty much give my kids the shirt off my back, but the last time I'd had some, that box was like half full. Mommy, no happy.

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On another note, I am so freakin' proud of myself! I've actually shopped for and wrapped some Christmas gifts and presents for Kim's upcoming birthday.

Same Shit, Different Year

2007-11-19T16:58:00.000-08:00

Yep, it's my birthday again. Hell, I am FORTY-FIVE!! How did I get this old? I actually don't really feel old, but I definitely get more and more aches and pains as time goes on.

Here are some pics from the archive for your enjoyment. Note I look like a dork in the last two.

Paul the Turkey

2007-11-15T11:46:00.000-08:00

All the 4th Grade classes at the elementary school do this "Turkey Talk" presentation each year where they have to write a story/speech about their turkey and then "dress" him without using crayons or markers (be creative!) This is our third and final Turkey Talk for our family.

Paul the Turkey - by Brandon

My turkey is Paul, the President of all turkeys. He has a house made out of sticks. Paul has a pet llama named George. Every day he rode his pet George, but one day he got busy and forgot to ride his llama and George the llama ran away.

The next day Paul was going to ride his llama but someone told him that George was missing, so Paul got in his limo and he drove around looking everywhere for George.

He was nowhere to be found. Paul would not give up, so he kept on looking. Eventually Paul did give up and go home.

When he came home he found George sitting on the TV.

The End

Adjusting

2007-11-12T16:48:00.000-08:00

The last few months have been sort of hard for me with regard to Megan. Being a Senior in high school, plus all her activities has been keeping her super busy and rarely home. Which, of course, is understandable. It’s what teenagers do. I guess I should consider myself lucky that she started driving so late that she was actually home more often last year.

She’s sort of been working on college stuff, with a fair amount of pushing from me. At one point I was so fed up with her not doing anything, or committing time to it that I said I’m just not doing ANYTHING on it until she puts in some effort.

Then the next day while relating this story to a guy I work with whose daughter just started college this year, he tells me that I better push (he had to do it repeatedly) or else I just may end up paying more in the long run if she misses deadlines.

I hate that I have this feeling like the second she graduates or starts college it’s like I’m losing her. I really know this isn’t true, but I feel like it. A lot. And then I start to get angry with her for no reason. Or stupid reasons.

I know it’s should be obvious that our jobs as parents are to get them ready to be adults and independent, but how come no one tells you it’s so hard to let them go?

I did feel better this week, when talking to the mom of one of her basketball teammates. She says that she gets all emotional every time she thinks of her son graduating and things going on this year. So I know it’s not just me.

And I did manage to hold it together at “Senior Night” (last home game the seniors play for volleyball) this week. They have a little ceremony where they introduce all the senior players and their parents.

And here are her senior portraits that we’ve settled on and I finally got off my ass and actually ordered. I love the first one and am sort of ‘eh’ on the other, but she likes it.

Holy Shit

2007-10-30T20:22:00.000-07:00

One minute you're scraping out pumpkin guts and then start to (you think) feel the floor wiggle. (oh, I must be imagining it) then things start getting fun. Ceiling fixture swinging and things really moving. Earthquake.

I have to say I was a bit scared when one hit just awhile ago. It went on for a bit. Supposedly 5.6+ according to USGS and centered about 20 miles from here. No damage to us, but it sure was noticeable.

Somthing I hate...

2007-10-29T11:26:00.000-07:00

..... the way teenagers can say "OK" (oh-kaaayy) and totally make it sound like FUCK YOU.

What Comes Around ...

2007-10-26T20:27:00.001-07:00

OK, not the best analogy, but that's all I got.

Some time ago I'd posted an SPF about this 'neighbor', an older Asian guy, who lived a couple blocks away who had just this really weird/unsightly yard. This guy CONSTANTLY was rearranging these big concrete blocks and various artifacts in his front yard. After poking around for the pic tonight, I've given up.

Well. a few months ago we noticed that he wasn't out and no changes were happening to his yard. Sadly, we figured he'd passed away.

Last weekend Kim and I headed out early to hit the rummage sale at Jessica's school. The same rummage sale at which I'd dropped off a huge shit load of stuff from our house the day before. (Kim joking that we had to go buy back his stuff)

As we came back home to get the sleepers - Jess & Brandon. We saw a garage sale at this guys house. Of course we had to stop and look even though 'estate sales' sort of wig me out.

What this guy left behind, on some level, is my worst freaking nightmare. Yeah, it was cool all the shit he'd accumulated over the years, that now his family needed to dispose of. But at the same time I'm thinking of (ahem-someone) who has the collection bug, and I swear if that guy kicks it and I'm left disposing of the 20 bicycles in the garage, I will dig up his sorry carcass and DO SOMETHING REALLY BAD to it.

There were 'architectural details' like stair rails and cool moldings and all sorts of stuff like that that would fetch BANK at certain antique fairs/flea markets.

At any rate, *I* managed to squeek out of there with just one footed glass bowl. That was stored on a shelf in the guys back yard. And not just for this sale. Scary.

Long story long, I'd made my way to the guys back yard past this old, not noticeable old junky car in the side yard.

Apparently Kim was most interested in this 'junker' in the back yard as it turned out to be a '66 Mustang. That is mostly melted into the mud of the side yard. F-ed up engine, but body in good shape.

Of course, during the week, he stopped by when the son was at the house and has now arranged to purchase said Mustang. And now he just needs to figure how to get it out.

This is all pretty cool and I hope he gets it home and can restore it.

And do you know why?

Because as I was leaving work tonight, he said "Hey can you take home the hand truck so I can use it to clean out the garage this weekend?"

Hellee-fuckin-llujehah!!!!!!

I'll trade cleaning out the G-rage for that project car ANY DAY!!!!

Bags

2007-10-23T11:15:00.000-07:00

This morning I was talking to one of my coworkers about teenagers that I see at school events or at the mall that have designer handbags, particularly Coach bags. Even kids Jessica’s age – 13. While I love Coach bags, there is no way I’m buying one for my kid.

While we’re talking my boss walks by and then says “what kind of bags?” I said “Coach bags – they’re designer purses”

And he goes “I hear that Cooch bags are really popular. You can get them in Tijuana” and walks out the door. Totally straight face.

CW & I just look at each other and BUST UP laughing. My stomach still hurts. Neither of us think he realizes what that means.

Quickie Update

2007-10-09T19:35:00.000-07:00

Oh, look, see I *can* blog from work. At 7 pm. Pffft.

A few random haps in my life lately, in no particular order.

I got a promotion of sorts at work. No more Office Manager. Now Sales Operations Manager aka Sales Bitch to make sure sales folks are quoting properly and also maintaining various systems, etc.
Last week was hellacious what with helping Brandon with a huge class project the first part of the week, then remembering at 9 pm on Thursday that Megan's "Senior Ad"* for the yearbook is absolutely due the next day. All topped off Friday morning by Megan running her car up a curb and getting a flat. That I had to go deal with.
Then I was so unbelievably pissed off at everyone all weekend. I hate it when I get like that. I finally calmed down some on Sunday. Now I just sort of bummed out by the call thing yesterday.
Friday night I sucked it up and took Brandon and Jessica to the elementary school Fall Carnival (no Halloween Carnivals anymore in PC-Ville)

Saturday was Homecoming for Megan. Last one - thank Bob. Shopping with her earlier in the month was so much fun, that after semi-yelling at her in Nordstrom I went straight to the ATM, gave her $100 and told her to go shopping with someone willing to put up with her shit.

Sunday we went to Preview Day at St. Mary's College. I would really like her to go to this school as it's excellent, a great fit for and also fairly close. And $40k a year. Yeah, sorry about that. Hope you didn't choke.

That's about all I can think of right now.

*This brilliant ~~scam~~ idea that the school yearbook has cooked up whereby parents get to write some meaningful congratulations on graduating mush accompanied by pics of them when younger. And we get to shell out $100 for that fine privilege.

WTH?

2007-09-19T16:43:00.001-07:00

I was at Tarjay today and I saw THIS:

And this:

What the hell, people? It's SEPTEMBER! I've hardly finished back to school shopping.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

In other news, this work thing is seriously cramping my blogging fun. That and the fact that anyone can walk up behind me and see if I'm fuckin' around instead of working. Oh well.

Close Call

2007-09-01T21:23:00.000-07:00

Wednesday morning I got one of those calls you don’t want to get. Megan called me in tears and incomprehensible. I immediately knew she’d had a car accident. And all I’m concerned about is if she’s alright.

I told her to try to calm down. She did manage to get out that she’d talked to the person whose car she hit and that the school police resource officer had helped her exchange information. I headed up to the school and found her still in tears.

As it turned out she was stuck in traffic and the person in front of her was waiting to get into the left turn lane. People behind Meg started going around her and she got frustrated and also tried to go around the car in front of her. And then caught her mirror, hit the woman’s bumper and then, rather than stopping, continued to accelerate and scraped the side her car.

It actually turned out to be minimal damage to Megan’s car – she just broke off the mirror, which Kim fixed last night. He says she has a perfect teen car. Since her janky Saturn has plastic side panels they just bouce right back. Who knew?

We’re counting our blessings that this was a VERY minimal accident, but will hopefully help her to be more careful with her driving in the future.

It’s also been one of those parenting ‘aha’ moments. Sort of like realizing what unconditional love is after having a child.

When I crashed & totaled my mom’s car after having my driver’s license for just a few weeks, I thought they were going to kill me, but all they were concerned about was me. I now realize that as a parent your concern is for your child’s welfare and not that of the car.

Bad Mommy Moment #1542

2007-08-30T15:55:00.000-07:00

Forgetting to pick up your 4th grader on the THIRD day of school. Arriving 15 minutes late to pick him up in 100+ degree weather.

The look that boy gave me when I pulled up could have frozen the rivulets of sweat running down his face, even in that heat.

"Brandon, I'm SO sorry! I forgot to leave on time"

"Well "I'M SORRY" isn't GOOD ENOUGH this time!"

Sunday

2007-08-27T12:43:00.000-07:00

The last Sunday in August is one of my favorite days as it's the annual neighborhood garage sale day in a nearby town. There's a small area of Fremont, CA called Niles that every year has an antique fair/flea market on it's main street and many of the locals hold garage sales as well. It's a nice, contained area with loads of cute houses.

And my bonus is that there's a gal, coincidentally also named Lori, who always sells her designer plus size clothes for next to nothing. She must spend BANK on clothes. So I got a bunch of nice new stuff for me.

I got a grocery bag full of heels for Megan for a BUCK! (Note to self: stop enabling the shoe habit) Including a brand new pair of $100 leopard print pumps from Nordstrom.

Jessica and Brandon came along and actually managed to not fight the whole time.

Right before we left I got them ice cream. It was pretty hot and Brandon clearly couldn't keep up with "Watermelon Bomb". It dripped all kinds of nasty down his arm, onto his shirt and even onto his leg. Ugh, gross. You can bet there was a rinse down with a water bottle before I let that kid into my car.

Later we got Megan and tried for a quick shopping trip to Tarjay, but the princess was most disappointed with the selection of clothes.

And this, apparently, is what goes on in my car when I run into the grocery store.

They go back to school tomorrow! YAY!

Back to School

2007-08-20T15:39:00.000-07:00

As seen in the 'back to school' aisle of the grocery store.

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

2007-08-15T08:56:00.000-07:00

Last week we headed up to gorgeous Lake Tahoe for our annual family vacation. You know, the one where my folks rent a house for the week and we all go up and do whatever and have family birthdays. (We have FIVE people who have birthdays in late July/early August) And the one where, even though they had four months notice, some people couldn't get their shit together to come up all or just for a couple days.

I forgot to get a pic, but if you'd seen the bike rack on the back of the car, you could have guessed what we did. Kim's bike? Check. Beach chairs? Check. Most days Kim would take a 20 mile ride (gag me) and I'd take the kids to the beach.

No, Brandon does not have extra long fingers. This was just a weird effect I caught when he was waving his hand (to not take pictures of him).

Getting a shoulder massage. That lasted 30 seconds.

You can really see how clear the water is.

Played some mini golf. Brandon actually made a hole in one and it was the best thing ever to see the expression of disbelief on his face. But you know who won? Uh-huh, that's right.

Some birthday festivities.

All in all, a pretty good time. But damn, it's tiring being around my lovely offspring 24/7.

Now I'm back into the fire that is work. Today is my fabulous interns last day before going back to college. And I have a presentation to prepare for a meeting tomorrow. Oh joy. I so loooove public speaking.

Delete That!

2007-08-11T09:09:00.000-07:00

"It makes my boobs look huge!"

Dress for Success

2007-08-02T09:17:00.000-07:00

I have to think that Brandon will someday be a businessman of some sort. When he was younger he would make a 'store' on the family room couch and try to sell his toys and random stuff.

One day he went to work with Kim, who hooked him up with a bunch of neck lanyards from trade shows and a bunch of demo software cd's and Brandon made bling-bling necklaces out of them (hanging the CD like a big medallion from the clip) and then tried to sell them to people in the office for five bucks a pop. When one of the gals tried to negotiate with him, his final word was "Well, are you gonna buy one or not?"

The other afternoon we stopped in at Burlington Coat Factory after a brief visit to ~~Hell~~ Toys R Us. While Jessica was trying on some clothes I took Brandon upstairs to look at home stuff. Something in the boy's department caught his eye so we headed over to that section.

I was beyond surprised to see that they have a HUGE section of boy's dress clothes - all sorts of little suits and dress outfits with pants, shirt, tie & vest. Brandon started going on about wanting a tuxedo. Just for grins I grabbed this pin striped suit off the rack and had him try the jacket on. He looked so freakin' adorable, I wish we had some reason to get it.

Later that night he asked me why we couldn't get it. I told him I wasn't going to spend $50 on something that he had no place to wear.

"I can wear it to school and I'll look wealthy!"

Every Good Boy Does Fine

2007-07-30T10:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to my parents house to have dinner and meet with my mom's cousin and husband that are visiting from Norway. I'd last met these people when we went to Norway in 1976 - I was 14 at the time.

My mom's cousin must be in her late 50's/early 60's, but, damn, she looks fabulous. Still has that typical nordic blonde hair and just beautiful skin. One of the things that makes it nice to visit when the Norwegian relatives come, is that they learn English in school as a second language starting at a young age, so it's easy to talk with them. The downside is that my mom gets so used to speaking Norwegian when visitors are there is that she forgets to switch back to English when talking to us.

I can sometimes get the gist of what she's saying, but otherwise, every so often I have to say "MOM, English please!"

At one point I was in my old room (now the TV room) and was rummaging around in some old drawers and found some little blasts from the past.

First off my piano book from taking lessons when I was 8. Aaack! I STILL remember the teachers handwriting striking fear into my heart when she marked up this book. Needless to say I think I lasted maybe 6 months taking lessons.

In a weird coincidence sort of way, I found an old diary of my sisters from when we last went to Norway and visited these same people, (among many, many relatives). I was 14 at the time and my sister was 12. Megan grabbed this and started reading - particularly enjoying the parts about me being so mean to my sister. Jessica said she knows who she took after :)

And lastly this little gem - for 39 CENTS!

Happy Birthday Branflakes!

2007-07-23T14:44:00.000-07:00

My baby is 9 today!

9 years ago today one little boy was ready to GET OUT! There was no pushing you. Kim had to tell the nurse when she checked in that um, better get the doctor NOW.

I had always thought I'd only have girls and figured they're easier. Being a girl, and having no brothers, I knew what to expect. Let me just say that having a boy has been wonderful. It's so interesting to see their innate differences, like oh, how a boy, no matter how hard you discourage it, will make a gun or weapon out of ANYTHING.

You are the sweetest kid (most of the time) and I love that you still cuddle with me. I still haven't figured out how you can play video games and Lego and concentrate on finding random crap on the ground but can't quite master your 'math facts'. (A phrase I will be happy to no longer use, someday)

You are a crack up, even Mr. H said so. Total class clown. Although we can stop with the pen island joke now, mmkay? Boys and their toys....and we know what the #1 toy is, already.

About the last time he had chubby legs. Ooh I want to squeeeze them!

One of my all time favorite pics of him.

You are gonna be some kind of lady killer one day. I hear about it now, from time to time about the girls at school even though it makes you so embarrassed. I'll be beating the girls off you in a few years.

So have a wonderful day today even though we celebrated on Saturday with the family. You were happy to get your presents early.

And I'm saving my appetite for dinner at BK tonight. Yum. (not)

Almost 9

2007-07-20T16:08:00.000-07:00

Kinda hard to make the propeller hat look gangsta, but he tries.

It's always obvious when Kim arrives home in the evening as we can hear the front door open and then the sound of bicycle wheels as he rolls his bike in. (Yeah, I KNOW, but one or two live on a rack in the house - the rest are in the garage).

The other night he comes in and Brandon yells from his room "Hi Kim!!"

I say "Brandon, don't call your daddy Kim"

"Whatever, LORI!"

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Bonus pic of Brandon & T this morning for Crazy Hat Day at summer school.

Rockin' Girl Blogger

2007-07-16T12:10:00.001-07:00

Busy mommy Mrs. JDR was kind enough to nominate me for the Rockin’ Girl Blogger awards.

This is immensely flattering and also served to kick my ass in gear and actually post something here.

“Lori ~ Because she is a superwoman. I have images of her popping out of phone booths in blue suits to get all the shit she has to do actually completed.”

Completed? BWAHAHAHA! I’m supposed to finish things? I’m sure the other inhabitants of my house will be laughing their asses off when they read that!

I have actually finished some things lately. Namely my office move. I still of course have a shitload of boxes to unpack. And by the end of the week our new phone system should be in place. And then I hope to be DONE. FINISHED. No more surprise work projects.

The not so great thing about our move is that now I’m really in a bunch of cubicles whereas before I sort of had my own space that was just semi blocked off by partitions. People can easily walk up behind me and see what I’m doing on the ‘puter, so I’ve been a good girl lately at work and not blogging much.

Oh yeah, and well, I think all y'all's are pretty rockin' girl bloggers!

What a surprise......NOT

2007-07-02T15:57:00.000-07:00

From Reuters

Bush spares Libby from prison

Mon Jul 2, 2007 6:38PM EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Monday spared former vice presidential aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby from going to prison for 2 1/2 years for obstructing a CIA leak investigation.

"I respect the jury's verdict. But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive," Bush said in a statement. "Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Mr. Libby's sentence that required him to spend thirty months in prison."

Bush's move came after intense pressure from conservatives who demanded he pardon Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, and saw him as the victim of overly zealous special prosecutor.

My boy is BACK!

2007-06-28T10:12:00.001-07:00

While waiting for some movie to come on Show.time the other night I saw a preview for this new show that he's starring in - Californication. Gotta love that. LOTS of sex in it.

Oh, and if you didn't know of my ~~stalking~~ being a fan of him, you can read all about it here.

Fairtime

2007-06-25T17:01:00.001-07:00

Our local county fair opened on Friday. We're sort of lucky as it's right in our town.

After going out for breakfast Saturday morning, we were driving down the street adjacent to the carnival rides and Brandon says:

"Whoa! That looks like more fun than popping bubble wrap!"

I shit you not.

This came out like that in part because Brandon aka Mr. Scavenger II (as opposed to his father - Mr. Scavenger I) found a section of bubble wrap by a dumpster on the way to the car. And was busily popping while we drove.

If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space.--Anonymous

2007-06-22T16:24:00.000-07:00

No, I haven't fallen off that proverbial edge. Things have just been crazy-busy lately.

Random happenings in our household in the last few weeks:

Got me a new ride:

A Mazda5. I LOVE it. I know it sorta looks like another minivan, but it's really on a car platform so it's smaller and way more fun to drive, but still holds six people. And it gets about 30 mpg on the freeway. Got it in black w/black interior, so I'm getting a little more anal about keeping the inside and outside clean because it shows everything.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kids are all out of school. Which is nice because I don't have to deal with them in the morning, although starting next week Brandon is doing summer school, so I still have to take him. On a related note, that kid is IMPOSSIBLE to get up in the morning. Always a struggle. But don't you know he got up, on his own, at 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday. Unbelievable.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Work has been the most crazy. We're gearing up for our unplanned office move in two weeks and I've got all fingers crossed that nothing goes sideways between now and then. I got to spend the last few days at Admin training for our new CRM software. Made me thankful, once again, that I no longer have a 45 minute commute.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And we got another car. For Megan. Who just got her license yesterday. She paid for most of it and it is definitely a beater car. '93 Saturn. Looks good on the outside, but is a bit funky on the inside. And loud. Totally reminded me of my first car - a 70-something Pinto. Besides being happy to finally have her license, she's looking forward to 'decorating' it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm hoping to have a break this weekend from all the usual family stuff and end of school year and just chill and catch up on the goings on in all of your lives.

(While Kim does the network/phone wiring at our new office)

2007-06-05T12:08:00.000-07:00

"Hey Mommy, did you know that PEN ISLAND is the same as PENIS LAND?"

great

2007-05-29T11:43:00.000-07:00

Sunday afternoon Brandon and I met Megan after she got off work and we walked around the Antique Fair they were having downtown. How lucky am I that she actually likes to do that stuff?

Brandon, not such a fan, unless there's toys involved. After awhile we came to where the Pleasanton Museum is and Brandon started pulling me to go inside and look around. He'd visited on a field trip earlier this year and wanted to see it again.

Considering there are two rooms of stuff and one was having a quilt exhibition, it went by pretty quickly. In one of the cases Brandon sees an old Royal typewriter. He crouches down and says "COOL Mommy! What is that?"

"A typewriter"

"Is that like a computer?"

"Um, no"

Do I ever feel OLD!

Aaack!

2007-05-23T15:18:00.000-07:00

Stolen from JDR.

2007-05-22T13:12:00.000-07:00

Recently Brandon's friend T got a pool. One of those above ground types (we called them dough boys back in the day - no idea why). Last week they invited Brandon, Megan and Jessica to come over and go swimming.

Megan must have not shaved her pits lately and at some point T's little 6 year old sister says "Megan, you have an armpit mustache!"

Random shit

2007-05-19T20:37:00.000-07:00

Oooh, let's see:

New accountant started this week, so a fair chunk of my time is spent training her.

My regular work is piling up.

Our marketing person is leaving and I fill in as support in that department, particularly for trade shows (and that season is gearing up fast). Feeling guilty for when I found out she was going, all I thought about was how this would effect *ME*.

I think we've found a new office, so now I'm deep into arranging phone service, getting move quotes, etc. etc. etc.

I'm just about ready to start drinking on the job. The last few days I've had the worst anxiety upon waking, in my stomach.

For the last couple weeks I've been looking at getting a new-er/used car. Checking out different models and such. I think our van is on it's last legs.
This afternoon after Jess's basketball game we stopped to checkout one model. And I shit you not, after we got home and then I was getting ready to go to the grocery store, it started making some seriously odd noise in the tranny. And Kim suggested I not be driving it somewhere just then.

I ended up riding my bike to the store - so green of me! :)

Sports

2007-05-18T20:57:00.001-07:00

Those of us in the Bay Area have had our share of sports disappointments lately, what with the Sharks losing in the Stanley Cup playoffs and the Warrior's in the NBA playoffs.

Tonight Kim comes in to the kitchen and says "Tonight, we'll have a Bay Area team that will be a winner!"

"Oh? How's that?"

"The A's are playing the Giants"

(both local teams)

Junior Prom

2007-04-28T21:04:00.000-07:00

This event has been an eye-opener. Sort of, just a little bit, like a mini-wedding. What with all the prep and all. A scary, sort of letting go exercise for a mom. We definitely had a bumpy road today, but it all worked out. And so....

The end result of all the efforts. I was a bit happy that we found shoes and earrings at Tarjay for a total of $35, which, a little, eased the dress cost.

Meg with Chris, her date. He was so cute. And awkward. I've decided that awkward is good on a first 'date'.

The flowers that Kim's ex did for Megan were perfect. And she put them on a rhinestone stretchy bracelet that matched Megan's dress exactly.

She and her girlfriends having some fun.

Megan and S - BFF. Are they gorgeous or what?

And she still knows how to have fun.

Interview

2007-04-24T11:14:00.000-07:00

Tysgirl did an interesting interview/meme thing and so I said, sure, have at it with me. After getting it, I replied "Gee, couldn't you have asked something easy like the most unusual place you've made whoopee?" Guess not.

1. You find a genie in a bottle, what 3 things would you wish for?

Interestingly, this was the toughest question.

1) Enough money (and no I didn't figure out how much) to have a nice house, work less, not worry about putting 3 children through college, in succession. And buy shoes.

2) To be more healthy. All these aches and pains and chronic problems as you get older suck.

3) To be able to slow down and have more time for me (maybe that's tied to #1) and not always feel like I'm just getting by.

2. What makes you really angry?

Oooh, boy! Where to start? (Tip - Megan suggests I go to Anger Management at least every couple months)

I think ultimately it comes down to stupid people. There are way, way too many of them. And, yes, G.W.B falls into this category.

3. When is the last time you laughed so hard you couldn't breathe & what made you laugh?

Can't really recall the last time, but I have a few "go to" things from movies/tv.

a) Death to Smoochy. One of my favorite movies of all time. So, so wrong. This scene is HILARIOUS.

b) The scene in Along Came Polly where Ben Stiller is playing basketball with his buddy (who sucks ass at playing.

c) SNL Celebrity Jeoparday episodes with "Sean Connery". Particularly the one with David Duchovny (you know I love him) as Jeff Goldblum. "I'll take The Rapists for $20"

Yep, I'm twisted.

4. Do you have any phobias?

That would have to be snakes. I remember when I was a Senior in high school and was taking chemistry this ~~gd mf*ing asshole~~ kid who sat next to me had brought in something in a pillow case and then during class started to pull our this huge ass snake.

Even a few years ago Kim and I went to the East Bay Vivarium in Berkeley to get some mealworms for a science project for one of the kids. I had to leave after a few minutes. (Side note this is a pretty cool place to take kids)

Jessica inherited a class pet - lizard - a few years ago and that's actually gone a long way to easing the phobia a bit. The lizard, at least, is pretty cool.

My other more minor phobia is probably large crowds. Although that's something that's developed as I've gotten older.

5. If you could have one super power, what would it be?

Definitely flying. I have dreams where I can fly. I think it would be so cool. I don't know how I'd put it to good use, though.

Occasionally it might be good to have the eyes that just vaporize shit. But I think I'm pretty close to being able to do that now. ;)

2007-04-19T12:07:00.000-07:00

So, I survived Megan having Spring Break in Palm Springs (it actually turned out to be Palm Desert, but whatever). She and her gf spent most days at the pool. And most nights at the condo. During one of our calls I asked her what they were doing at night, as I figured this is where they'd get in trouble. As it turns out Palm Desert (according to her) is pretty much alot of gated communities and timeshare places like they were at, so most evenings they just stayed in and watched tv & dvd's. You should have seen the quiet "Yes!" along with the pump-arm action that went on on my end of the phone.

One evening they were wild girls and ventured out to the golf course that the condo was on and rolled down the hills. Which was apparently still quite fun for a couple 17 year olds.

They did take in some shopping in Palm Springs and Meg was amazed at the amount of 'fake' (knock off) stuff you could buy there.

This little vacation, coupled with our being away the week before was good for me. Pretty much I didn't see her for a couple weeks, with the exception of a quick visit at her friends house the night before they left, so I could ~~drop off the CHI straightener~~ say Hi & Bye and get a quick hug. I didn't get weird or anything with her gone like that, so I feel a teeny bit better about when she starts college.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On to this prom business. This year there was this new boy that transferred to her school and he's in her math class. I'd seen him post things on her My Space and I just got the feeling that he liked her. So I wasn't all that surprised when she told me he'd asked her. It sounds pretty sweet too -he brought her roses when he asked. And here's the 'but' - she likes him as a friend, not as a boyfriend. She's talked to him about it and she's paying for her ticket/dinner. It was a bit awkward when they started talking about the tickets as she asked if he was paying for her or if she should pay for herself. (IMO, if you're going as friends then I figure she ought to pay for herself)

It's so funny, though. This kid is from Tennessee and from what she's told me, I'm not all that sure they have proms there. OK scratch that, but I think he was a little clueless on the flowers/corsage thing. I told her I'd take care of ordering both. Kim's ex is a wonderful florist, so I know they have coordinating pieces.

Basically she's running the show, making sure the permission slips* are all signed, that he's getting a tux/suit, etc. Wonder where she gets that from?

*(and yes the parents have to sign them, along with the student for the expected behavior at the event)

Seattle

2007-04-16T10:39:00.000-07:00

Long time coming, I know.

Saturday morning started out with me not even packed yet. Shortly after I get out of the shower, around 8:30 a.m. someone calls. Kim hands me the phone. My mom.

She asks "Are you all packed and ready to go?"

[Uh, NO! I'm still cleaning the house and washing last minute clothes]

Me: "Not yet. Finishing up a few things. You're up early. Are you leaving the house now?" (they live an hour or so away)

Mom: "No, we're outside your house"

SHIIIIITTTT!!!

After getting them settled and having a trial run of the kid/school dropoff route, we finished up and headed out. Got to Seattle in the afternoon.

That night we went to dinner with some friends that had recently moved up there. Their kids are both in college now and so they recently sold their ~4000 sf house the valley and moved to a condo in Seattle. So beautiful, right by the water on Lake Washington. I could really see the allure of doing something like that. Much smaller place to take care of. No yard.

After we came back I had the first of several baths in the fabulous tub. That really fills from the ceiling.

Sunday we went to a little street fair I'd read about and then hit the Science Fiction Museum and Experience Music Project at Seattle Center. Before starting at the SF Musuem, we found the food area of Seattle Center and got something to eat. The Center has to be one of the best places to take kids I've ever seen. Besides the Space Needle there is a childrens's museum, science museum, kid's amusement rides and there was some special kids event going on. It was really ironic to be sitting in this huge food court area with a million kids running around (and the accompanying noise level), without our kids.

We really enjoyed the Science Fiction Museum. We're both partial to those kinds of movies and they had so much memorabilia in there. Plus one of the guys we work with collects and sells movie props & costumes and some of his things were in the museum.

The Experience Music Project was interesting but it had alot of interactive things and we were pretty beat by then, so we headed back to the hotel after a pretty quick walk through. Had a quiet dinner with a couple coworkers. I've learned NOT to go out partying the night before 'Day 1' where we sit and listen to the head honcho talk most of the day.

That night our dinner went spectacularly. Although we didn't have a drink server like last year, everyone had fun during the dinner and casino night.

The next night we hat tickets to a Mariner's game at Safeco Field. I have to say it definitely equals PacBell/SBC/AT&T Park (or whatever it's called this week) in San Francisco. I was tired/recovering from the night before so we headed out before the game was over, with every intention of crashing back at the hotel. But then we met up with a bunch of the sales guys and so we went out with them. Ended up getting back to the hotel at 1:30 am. YAY. I am so not cut out for this anymore.

Nothing exciting the last couple days, just went out for good food, walked around looking for gifts for the kids at Pike Place.

What I've learned from this experience is that it's basically like being the hostess for a large party that lasted 3 days. I was so DONE by Wednesday night. The hotel was truly fabulous. Everyone loved the hotel, the great food. I was complimented so much that it did make all the work worth it.

My folks managed to survive the week and said how well behaved all the kids were. Clearly, they were on their best behavior. My dad, of course, cleaned my whole kitchen while we were gone, which mortified Kim. But I suspected he'd do something like that. It's just his thing to do.

All in all, a pretty good week. But I don't want to do it again soon. Except maybe the baths.

Eating my words, or crow, or whatever...

2007-04-14T21:02:00.000-07:00

As you may recall, we started shopping for Megan's Junior Prom dress awhile back. That all came to a screeching halt due to our Seattle trip and then all this past week, she's been basking in the sun in Palm Springs with her BF during Spring Break.

She came back home yesterday and coincidentally I'd thought about the prom earlier in the day. I knew it was in late April, which didn't really leave alot of time left for shopping. After admittedly admiring her bronzed self (she tans SUPER easily, but is also smart about her face), I asked her when it was, etc. It turns out she was asked by a guy in one of her classes. And it's two weekends from now. Gulp.

She'd looked a bit it Palm Springs but didn't see anything. Her friends mom suggested we try this upscale shopping area (Santana Row) in San Jose as she didn't think many P-town girls shopped there. Thus avoiding the duplicate dress scenario. Theoretically.

We found this nice boutique that had a great selection.

And the perfect dress for Megan:

I, of course, was the one who found this style. Further enforcing my theorem that I can pick out the most expensive item in any given store.

But, oh, she looks FABULOUS in it. Absolutely perfect. Covers all the bad things and enhances all the good. And the color is actually a bit deeper than in these pics and looks beautiful on her. I won't tell you how much it was, but we went with it. She's paying for 1/3 of it. I'm hoping her dad will kick in too. And, admittedly we would have been freaking out next weekend (and she's working) to try to scramble for something else.

Next year, for Senior Ball, WE WILL NOT PROCRASTINATE!!!! Plus on the downside I did learn that we could have mail ordered it for considerably less. But I guess ya snooze, ya loose.

Texas!

2007-04-11T15:47:00.000-07:00

A coworker sent me this:

Prior to her trip to Texas , Buffy (a New Yorker), confided to her co-workers she had three goals for her trip to the Lone Star State

1. She wanted to taste some real Texas Bar-B-Que.

2. She wanted to take in a bona fide rodeo. And..

3. She wanted to have sex with a real cowboy.

Upon her return, the girls were curious as to how she fared.

"Let me tell you, they have a tree down there called a Mesquite and when they slow cook that brisket over that Mesquite , it's ooooh so good. The taste is unbelievable!"

"And I went to a real rodeo.Talk about athletes...those guys wrestle full grown bulls! They ride horses at a full gallop,then jump off the horses and grab the bull by the horns and throw them to the ground! It is just incredible!"

They then asked,

"Well tell us, did you have sex with a real cowboy?"

"Are you kidding? When I saw the outline of the condom they carry in the back pocket of their jeans, I changed my mind!"

Once again.....

2007-04-08T19:47:00.000-07:00

We've been home for a couple days. Alot of that time has been spent sleeping, on my part. Decompressing from the trip to Seattle. More on that later.

Today was fairly simple. Easter with the family. Central location so we didn't have a two hour drive. Coolio.

After I get out of the shower I see a card on my nightstand. From Kim, of course. Hmmmm, I think. An Easter card!

Noooooooooo!

Me: "Oh. FUCK. ME. AGAIN!"

Kim: "Are you OK?"

Me: starting to cry. "Shit, I forgot again!!!"

Kim: "Well it wouldn't be Easter if you didn't forget"

We first 'got together' aka let our feelings be known (and how) 10 years ago yesterday - the night before Easter. We've never celebrated whatever that date was back then, but usually the 'night before Easter' aspect.

I forget pretty much every fucking year. Not the usual guy forgetting, I know.

This card he got me this year was PERFECT! The best yet.

So, to Kim:

I love you with all my heart. The past 10 years have been a ride and I do hope the future is only better. Thank you for putting up with all my shit, those 9 or 10 crazy things.

Love,

Me

In 12 hours or so....

2007-03-31T06:52:00.000-07:00

I will be sitting my ass in this tub. In Seattle.

The last few days have been hell on wheels. A big THANK YOU and shout out to Suzie who personally delivered an award plaque to me. Albeit without cheesecake ;) The aforementioned ass thanks you.

The numb nuts who decided to schedule this (fabulously arranged) company meeting RIGHT AFTER our fiscal year end, really deserves to have his nuts numbed.

On a positive note, we met and grossly exceeded our sales number (during the last TWO days) so it's BONUS time!!!

My house still looks like crap and my parent are arriving in hours to watch the kids. Kim has been a freaking SAINT this week, cleaning, etc. and dealing with my BS. I've been a wreck. Woke up at 5 a.m. this morning and went to check in on the kiddo's sleeping and started crying, realizing that I will really miss them and this is the first time we've both been away from them for this long.

On some level, I'm sure everything will be fine. I hope you all have nice weekend. An d I'll be checking in with photos from beautiful Seattle!

Cheers!

2007-03-26T13:34:00.000-07:00

Label Whore?

Not much.

Yesterday we had the 'family' birthday party for the girls (only 2 months late). When the girls were little this was the 'spoil rotten the only grandkids in the family day'. Generally with all manner of toys, Barbies, etc.

What with the girls now being teenagers and moving on from those interests, it a was a bit different, but not so much. Less plastic, though.

Megan got these Nanette Lepore KEDS from my sister:

Super cute.

I was running around getting food ready and at some point go back into the living room and she's got this big silver Nordstrom box on her lap. I ask her if she opened it already and she nods yes.

"What'd you get?"

"Those jeans"

in my head {oh, HELL NO, Mom, you did NOT buy her those $200 True Religion jeans!)

Full price. From Nordstrom.

I give my mom this look like 'WTF were you thinking?'. Which she returned with 'It's my granddaughter, I can do what I want'

Megan had put the jeans on her list as she'd heard from a friend that they were selling them for roughly $100 at Costco. (Still more than I'd pay for a pair of jeans, but whatever)

I tried to convince her to return them and take the dough for a car. No go on that one.

Photo Session

2007-03-25T04:36:00.000-07:00

or trying to get that perfect group shot of your kids

While doing my picture scanning thing and going through loads of old photos I came upon a packet of prints from one Christmas years ago. I was doing photo Christmas cards that year. (One of the rare years I actually even sent cards)

Here was a packet of prints of the girls and most of them were complete and utter trash. Could those damn kids sit nice and smile at the same time? PULEEEEEZE?

Too bad I didn't have Photoshop back in the day. In this (and pretty much every picture of Jessica) one she had super red eye. We colored all the prints of this with felt pen.

This was the ultimate best choice that year.

Awwww. When I showed Jessica this one she grabs it and runs into their room to show Megan. "Look, I'm giving you some tongue!"

I'm not sure what happened here, but I Megan is rather enjoying it.

At least nowadays with digital it's easy to just shoot, shoot, shoot, hoping to get one great shot. But for me it still rarely happens. Especially when one little boy always wants to make a weird face.

In fact, I think unless you're Kristine and beat your kids every Sunday you'll probably never get a family photo as great as THIS.

Otitis media

2007-03-22T10:05:00.000-07:00

All you mommies of small (& big) children undoubtedly know what that means.

I've have been truly lucky that none of my kids have had issues with ear infections. Maybe one each as a small child. I know that having one makes the little kiddies very unhappy.

And now I know why.

Last Saturday morning I woke up with my ears feeling pluggy and hurting a bit. I wrote it off as after effects of going to see a band at a local bar with friends the night before. As the weekend progressed it got worse, but I just took a bunch of ibuprofen.

Monday I called the doc and got in late in the day. Sure enough. Ear infection due to all the congestion from my freaking allergies. (Oh and thanks Blue Cross for not covering the one allergy medication that makes me feel like I can breathe).

Even after 3 days of antibiotics it hurt like a mutha. I've taken so much ibuprofen I'd probably bleed out from a paper cut.

After another pain filled day, I stopped at the drugstore last night and ended up getting this to try:

That shit worked within 30 minutes! I highly recommend it to anyone.

This morning it's alot better, probably due to the combination of the drops and hopefully the antibiotics really kicking in.

Come for the food, stay for the pie

2007-03-16T10:49:00.000-07:00

Or, come for the bitching and stay for the pictures

On Wednesday night I had a major meltdown.

My boss had sent me an email about getting back to him on something I was working on. It was worded a bit tersely, but mostly I know (now) that it was my reaction that set me off.

Major, major bitchfest with me yelling at Kim about work, the fact that my parents are coming to take care of the kids in two weeks and our house is a disaster, etc. etc. etc. I am so fucking stressed about work, what with planning this meeting, setting up a new regional office in LA and all my other 'regular work'. And the fact that we keep hiring salespeople who come to ME for everything. Especially when they're new.

To give this some texture - we have doubled our employee count and tripled the number of sales people in the last year. Do you think we've added another admin/accounting person? Yeah, somebody who comes in ONE DAY a week to do AP, which wasn't even my responsibility. Have I gotten relieved? Um, NO!

We talked about hiring someone during my review. But now I realize I need to go talk to them about when this will happen. It really needs to be soon.

Side note - I loved TKW's analogy yesterday:

…you can only shake up a Diet Coke so long before that sucker just explodes…KA-BOOM…

So yesterday I came to work but was still so upset. I do not dig crying at work, so basically I packed my laptop and work papers and told him I was going home.

Do you think I actually did any work? Hell no. Watched some DVDs and TV and then instead of even doing needed shit around the house, I started pulling out old photo albums and scanning them. And scan them I did. For hours.

Perhaps not the best use of my time, but I had fun doing it and I think that's exactly what I needed.

So, now for your enjoyment:

Me and my homies. I think we were racing for pinks.

Out to dinner for my 5th birthday. Check out my mom's hair!

Nice outfits. I really must thank my mom for those fugly shoes.

Don't I look so happy with my sis? I don't know if this was before or after the time my mom found me walking down the hall with a knife. (No shit. Save that for another time)

My cousins apparently thought a RAT (named Ratfink) was a fun pet.

I believe this is Christmas 1971. Don't you dig my cousin's outfits? I know, our aren't much better. And yeah, my mom loved dressing us in matching outfits.

2007-03-15T13:45:00.000-07:00

No, I didn't take this. I just was trolling Flickr and found this lovely gem taken at one of the many car shows in town.

A CAR SHOW. Not a strip club.

Shopping

2007-03-12T11:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Megan and I had an hour to kill while Jessica had basketball practice, so we went to the mall so she could show me this dress she liked for her upcoming Junior Prom.

She tried it on for me and while pretty, it sits a little oddly on her hips. And it was $338*. Gulp! Her BF bought her dress the week before and it was $450. When Meg told me this I give her the "Are you shitting me?" look, along with "If you think I'm paying that much for a prom dress you got another thing coming, sister!"

We then headed over to Nordstrom (where BF got her dress - oh joy). Megan then tells me how they mailed her friend a handwritten thank you note, "blah, blah, if you need any help, blah, blah"

I said "Hell, they should come over and dress her the day of the prom for 450 bucks!"

Surprisingly, their selection was not so good. We go back downstairs and she has to go check out the Juicy Couture jewelry. And then over to the handbags. Again with the Juicy Couture.

$175 for a freaking terry cloth bag? Don't think so.

I look at my watch and figure hey, we've got a few minutes, we can go check out the dresses at JC Penney (hideous, unless you go for big & poofy). So, I try to hustle her out of handbags and into the mall.

As we exit she says "What, Mommy? You want to get me out of Nordstrom? Are you afraid I'm going to turn into a label whore**?"

Exactly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*thinking back to my prom 20-something years ago, I know my dress was about $100 then, so I suppose that's not outrageous, but it sure does seem like alot.

**at that moment, I was quite sure that I'd never heard heard that word come out of her mouth before

Ack!

2007-03-09T14:44:00.000-08:00

Guess what Miss Megan will be doing tomorrow?

Yes, indeedy, she'll be taking the SAT. Round 1, since apparently it's pretty standard these days to take it at least twice. It's hard to imagine this kid is now ready to take her SAT's.

What seems to add insult to injury is that she has to be at the school at 7:45 a.m. A time that she's hardly all that awake, particularly on the weekend.

Seriously Dumb Ass Move

2007-03-08T12:21:00.000-08:00

Talk about your lapse of judgment. This student at UC Berkeley stole the Nobel Prize medal awarded to Ernest Lawrence that was housed at the Lawrence Hall of Science, where the student worked.

I sort of can't get over how someone could do that. Just wrong, wrong, wrong.

More about it here.

Blonde Moment III

2007-03-07T14:39:00.000-08:00

Ever being the mom who loves to share her kids embarrassing moments, I give you the latest in darling Megan's series of Blonde Moments (Part 1 and Part 2, in case you missed 'em).

Recently the girls went to the movies with their dad. They like to buy little doodads out of the vending machines they have in the lobby. They both have few of these Tomy Peek a Pooh things. Megan was trying to get the Aquarius Zodiac one, but got the Scorpio one instead.

Since it's my sign she gave it to me. Jessica then had to tell me what transpired after she got it out of the machine.

J: "Why is there a lobster on it?"

M: "The lobster's the sign for Scorpio"

J: "Uh, NO Megan, the sign for Scorpio is as scorpioN."

I'll Take Potent Potables and/or Potpourri for $1000, Alex

2007-03-02T14:39:00.000-08:00

I need a drink. Or five.

I know you all have been wondering just where the hell has Lori been the last couple weeks? No doubt off having fun, scouting hotels in the great Pacific Northwest or something equally fun.

Oh, no. On top of my regular workload I've been the hostess with the mostest to first, a training class we held last week and then this week a sales training meeting for 7 new ~~frat boys~~ salespeople. Which required me to be here at 7:00 am everyday to setup food. The latter group could put away food like nobody's business. And doing new hire orientation with same group of ~~boys~~ men.

And planning our company meeting. We settled on a very cool new hotel in downtown Seattle. Not the one in the wine country. We decided downtown would be more centrally located, especially if people wanted to go out and party at night. Like the frat boys.

I'm now so sick of doing menu selections for meals. I know there are a few picky people in our company so someone will bitch about something.

So between extra long hours and work and then getting home, cooking dinner, maybe doing dishes, I am freaking BEAT and make it through maybe one of my backlogged Tivo shows before I'm done. Thus no blogging (since I'm really working at work) and too tired at night.

Actually our sales guys are a pretty fun bunch. Last night after I'd hit it, and by that I mean the hay, and not the current slang 'hit it', as in having sex, Kim slipped out and had a couple* beers with them ("since he had to go to the grocery store and oh, I thought, I'd just stop by to see if they were still at the bar" - Uh, huh)

Some of them were apparently VERY shitty wasted, so I got the scoop. Nice me, I made sure to put out the industrial size bottles of Tylenol & Advil this morning, along with their breakfast goodies.

*I was later informed by one of those guys that when your man tells you he had a 'couple' beers, you should cube that for good measure.

Weekend in Pictures

2007-02-20T14:05:00.000-08:00

My quickie trip to Seattle was great. And informative too. I would have been very disappointed to find out that I'd chosen Hotel X only to find out there is MAJOR construction going on across the street - noisy.

After visiting several swanky places downtown I headed out to what I thought would be a long shot location as it's about half an hour from downtown and figured the big wig would probably rather have it in the city. As it turned out, he's very much in favor of this type of place.

I arrived here:

And this was waiting in my room:

I had a bath with a view:

The next morning I headed back to the city and hit Pike Place Market.

The weather was GORGEOUS!

Where it all began:

I thought about buying one of these, but resisted.

Had a nice, brief getaway, but was happy to get back home. Oh yeah, and BONUS I got to fly First Class on the way back.

Another reason why I love this guy....

2007-02-14T21:07:00.000-08:00

The last couple weeks have sort have sucked 'round here. We're both SUPER busy at work and home life has generally sucked as well. A big round of teenage hormones run amok, etc. Plus we need to get the house in order for my folks to come and stay with the kiddo's when we go to Seattle in April. What with us now BOTH working for the same company, the annual company meeting is proving to be more of a challenge.

Anyhoo, I did actually buy a VD Day (as Kim, and lot of you out there, put it) card, but that was about it. So tonight I stopped at the store and got him a couple of beers he likes and some nice, dark chocolate.

I hadn't gotten anything for the kids so I picked up a few tubes of these:

And a few cheapo cards. I attached and distributed appropriately.

Then my evening went something like this:

Me sitting in bed, Oh so sexy in my jammie pants, tee and reading glasses. Having a nice glass of wine.

Kim is at work helping out some customer from Hell.

I've got at LEAST 2 hours of solid work to do tonight since I'm hitting Seattle on Friday.

So, round 8:45 Kim comes home. He comes in and starts taking stuff out of his bike bag. What do I see but a bunch of tubes of:

"What are those for?"

"The kids"

EXACTLY THE SAME CHOCOLATES I BOUGHT EARLIER. Seriously, almost exactly down to the particular type of chocolate per kid. White=Jessica, Milk=Brandon, etc.

I just had to laugh. We so often times think exactly the same thing at the same time.

I guess that's what makes the shitty times bearable. Having that connection.

Valentine

2007-02-14T16:19:00.000-08:00

Brandon and his BFF "T" are inseparable, particularly at school. They eat lunch and play together everyday. (When Brandon actually eats his lunch, but that's another post. Punk.)

A couple weeks ago I knew that T had been out sick that day and when I picked him up from school, I asked him who he ate lunch with.

"Ryan"

"Oh, is that a boy from your class?"

"No, it's a girl"

"Oh, really?

"OK, no, wait Mommy. So she has, like, every video game! Playstation 2, Playstation 3, XBOX. And she has as iPod and a CD player"

"Well, does she have a Playstation 4 or 5? Cuz I hear they're really cool" {joking} "How do you know she has all that stuff?"

"She told me"

"So, did you sit with Ryan or did she come sit with you?"

"She came and sat with me"

I just smile at him.

"OK, time to change the subject. I don't want to talk about this anymore"

Personally, I think little Ryan's got his number, dropping video game names like no tomorrow.

2007-02-09T21:36:00.000-08:00

Every so often I just amaze myself with my own stupidity. Lately I've been working on arrangements for our annual company meeting. This year we're having it in Seattle and thankfully, not in the dead of Winter. This year is a bit more of a big deal as everyone in the company is traveling to the meeting; it's not near one of our offices.

So I've narrowed the hotels down to a few sites. Earlier this week boss #1 says "Why don't you go up there for a day and check them out?" "REALLY?!!" I said in my most ~~excited~~ professional voice.

Today I booked a flight up and back for next Friday. Then I started calling the properties to arrange appointments. Several of them offered to put me up overnight for free. I was telling Kim that I'd be gone most of Friday and straight off he asks me why I wasn't staying over.

"Well, I was just supposed to go for the day, but several of the hotels have offered to have me stay."

I get the look that says "Are you fucking STUPID?"

"You should stay over and come back on Saturday."

"But Megan has an important game Saturday night"

"Well, come back in the afternoon then."

Oh, OK.

So yeah, I changed my air ticket.

You think your job sucks?

2007-02-06T12:14:00.000-08:00

Read THIS.

ILOVEMYJOB.ILOVEMYJOB.ILOVEMYJOB.

Brain Dumpage

2007-02-01T16:01:00.000-08:00

On Monday morning I woke up feeling funky on both ends of the digestive system, if you know what I mean. And then pretty much spent a good part of that day in the bathroom. Couldn’t even keep down clear liquids.

Sherlock aka Kim, thinks it’s salmonella, as no one else has gotten sick and we’d all eaten the same thing the whole day prior, but I was the cutting up raw chicken the night before. And, yeah, I’m good about washing my hands, but I guess not well enough that night.

Tuesday and Wednesday I was careful with what I ate, until I was stupid last night and had a burger for J’s birthday dinner. Oh, fun, fun again this morning. I’m tired of my stomach hurting.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thankfully I did get in to work Tuesday and Wednesday since it’s that time of year of accounting/payroll people. 1099’s, W-2, all that shit.

And our fucking payroll service (rhymes with pay checks) screwed up our 1/31 payroll so bad that they had to redo it FOUR times.

On a positive note, I did get my quarterly bonus, some of which I spent on this:

And these:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Last night I told Megan, yes, she could go to Palm Springs with her best friend over Spring Break. With the parents/sister (I haven’t completely lost my mind). That will be interesting.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear New Employees:

You do not get on my good side by asking me questions that were directly answered in the FIRST paragraph of the email I sent you.

Dear Old Employees:

Do me a favor and actually read emails. I’d think you’d be more careful when it comes to benefits crap.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh and I don’t know what the fuck is up with Blogger lately. I can’t comment on a bunch of people’s sites.

I did crack up today, when Kami posted something about it and I thought "ooh, look, no ones commented yet. Maybe I can get in a “First Bitches!” ". But no, I can’t comment. IRONIC. I wonder who else thought that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lastly I’ll leave ya with my horoscope for today, which pretty much sums it up.

“You may be receiving recognition for a job well done, but you are so wrapped up in your emotional world that you may not realize how much others value you. You are a tough sell with respect to self-worth, and now you are questioning yourself in ways that reach toward the bottom of your soul. Don't climb so deep into your own well that you cannot see the light that shines from above.”

Another Teenager

2007-01-31T11:43:00.000-08:00

Holy crap! How can I now have 2 teens? Although, frankly, Miss Jessica has been an honorary teen (in attitude) for a couple years now.

So, Happy Birthday Jessica! The big ONE-THREE!

My how times have changed.

Cool 7th Grader.

You continue to grow into a great young woman. Sure we have our issues as you like to say. You continue to excel in school and in sports. And yes, no doubt you will kick Megan's booty at hoops one day.

Have fun as a teen sweetie and enjoy it while you can.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, a glimpse into my life, courtesy of Ms. J-Jay. (yeah I suck at using the video camera):

Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

Updated: Well, there were a couple of fairly good natured "I HATE YOU!"s last night. They, um, generally, get along well, although in the video Megan is very restrained and has this "I'll just stand here and smile while she's videotaping this and I just hope she goes away soon" look. To me anyway.

And yeah, she just turned 13, but she's 5'9" - the same height as Megan who is 4 years older.

2007-01-24T16:29:00.000-08:00

(Hate) Machine

Just amazing. You can find out more about this film here.

2007-01-21T18:23:00.000-08:00

Happy 17th Birthday Megan!!

Didn't have time to write a long post like last year. But I do want to say once again how proud I am of you. You've grown into a lovely young woman with a straight head and a good heart. Even if we do have our moments.

I will admit I've been a bit sad this year thinking it's just a year until you turn 18 and then graduate. Plus, I don't feel like I'm possibly old enough to have 17 year old!!

I love you,

Mommy

Weird

2007-01-19T15:28:00.000-08:00

I very rarely look at my StatCounter but for some reason today I just thought I'd take a peek. Sometimes I get a kick out of seeing what sort of search terms result in people coming by.

"female who like to sniff and taste other womens dirty stinky panties"

What? You missed that post? Too bad for you.

When I started looking at the Recent Visitor Activity it was weird because there were a bunch of people coming in directly to a picture my May 06 archive as a result of a Google image search. Alot, like 50 people in the last day. And from all over the place; worldwide.

So I start looking through the month trying to figure out which picture it is (damn Flickr numbered file names) and it turns out it's the pic of Brandon when he was dressed up as Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day.

Then I Googled BJA's name under images and sure as shit there's B's picture on the first page. Me no likey that. AT. ALL.

The rational side of me wants to just think that for whatever reason when people see the small pic, they think it's cute and click through.

The paranoid side of me thinks some weird perv put on his/her blog "hey do this search and check out this cute kid".

I dunno. There were a few other image search results, but usually one search result for one picture. I finally decided to take down that post, mostly because it was continuing this morning and really, it sort of freaked me out.

I told Kim about it at lunch and he seemed to think it's pretty innocuous. This from the guy who was trolling Flickr last night.

**************
ETA - I guess it was sort of pointless to take it down since I just realized the pic links direcly to Flickr.

Blonde Moment II

2007-01-17T13:29:00.000-08:00

The other day Brandon asked me "Why do we have a life if we're just going to die?"

[fabulous!]

"Well, so we enjoy our life and family while we're alive. Besides, most people live for many years. Some people even live to 100"

"Can we live to 500?"

"Not now, but maybe someday"

Cut to later in the evening and Kim, Megan and I are driving home and I related what Brandon had said earlier.

M: "Really? He said that?"

K: "You could have said that we're here to hopefully make a difference in the life of another person. Or change something for the better"

L: "Yeah, look at me setting such a great example for our kids"

K: "I guess you do hope that you have a positive effect on a child and not raise another Jeffrey Dahmer or Bundy"

M: "Bundy? Like on that TV show?"

(Married with Children)

WBW - Snow

2007-01-16T20:55:00.000-08:00

I'm so freakin' lazy. When the lovely TKW picks an ever so possibly recycled topic, I am so there.

So, from Dec. 2005:

TKW wants pics of us in the snow. Masochistic beyotch.

Here's me in late 79/80 on a ski trip my senior year in high school. Damn, my butt has never been smaller since - not like it's all that small, but in hindsight. Hee, I crack myself up. Crack! Hahaha. OK, I'll stop now.

Next is me during my inaugural trip to Norway when I a little over 1. Mom took me back to show off to all of the relatives.

Lastly, just HAD to share this pic of my Mom and friends in the late 60's/early 70'ss. Freaking Classic! I think she really had a thing for those white-framed shades.

Spell Check

2007-01-15T17:04:00.000-08:00

Kim says:
I can't get close enough for spell checker to fix, how do you spell "thourgholy"

Kim says:
ther-o-ly

Lori - says:
thoroughly

Kim says:
damn!!

Kim says:
so close but so very far

I think we know where Brandon gets his mad spelling skills. Not from Dad.

My $.02

2007-01-10T11:30:00.000-08:00

... on some things I've enjoyed recently.

I took Brandon to this on Saturday. Really enjoyed it. Ben Stiller always makes me laugh. Brandon now wants to go to "The Big Apple". He even asked Kim if they have toy stores there. Uh, yeah, just like the Mother of All Toy Stores. It sucks that they closed the San Francisco store a few years ago. Although I must admit that spending any significant amount of time on the first floor, listening to the "Welcome to Our World" song overandoverandover is enough to make we want to stick a fork in my eye, or stab someone in the neck a la SFG (that still cracks my shit up)

This movie was FABULOUS! I must admit that I'm a big musical fan, and I loved this movie. Waaay more than Chicago. And I know that everyone's been saying it, but Jennifer Hudson was awesome. And Beyonce was actually quite good as well.

I Love Everybody and other atrocious lies by Laurie Notaro

This hilarious book of short essays is my current potty book. (Come on, you know what I'm talking about). Anybody who has little patience for stupid people will love this. Particularly the title essay about her resolve to stop being "not a people person" and instead "Love Everybody". And then taking a trip to Costco.

******************

Everyone went back to school this week. Which is good and bad. I like it when I don't have to deal with the morning madness and can just leave the house and go to work. But at least with school there's more structure to the day and they're not calling me at work a gazillion times a day to ask some inane question or tell me they're bored. And I don't come home to find crumbs in my bed because SOMEONE ate toast in it while watching my TV. Not like theres not 4 other ones in the house.

Aftermath

2006-12-28T16:11:00.000-08:00

I've decided that the older I get the more relieved I am when Christmas is 'over'. At least the shopping/wrapping/preparing part. I'm sure that some people would laugh or cringe at the Excel spreadsheet I have to track who is giving what to whom. And to try to make sure kids are spent upon in an equal manner.

I've decided that next year, I'm giving each kid some cash and they will be required to pick/purchase/wrap the gift for their sibling.

Happy for a Playstation 2.

I think Brandon now has enough Star Wars toys to recreate any scene from all six movies!

Somebody got their letter jacket and is very happy.

And I got my BIKE!! Thanks to my folks/cousin who got me gift certificates for my birthday and Kim who paid for the rest as my Christmas present.

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-25T00:55:00.000-08:00

From me and mine to you and yours. Have a wonderful holiday!

PS I only had 2 presents left to wrap tonight (midnight+) after we go home from Christmas Eve at my sisters. Yay me!!

She makes me proud!

2006-12-20T10:21:00.000-08:00

Megan has this habit of informing me of special projects, or the need for buddy/Secret Santa gifts, etc. the night before said thing is due at school. When I picked her up last night at 9:00 p.m. after she returned from a basketball game, she tells me she needs gift stuff for today. Oh hell, no. I am not going to the store and besides I am barefoot (and it's in the 40's, but I was lazy and didn't put my shoes on to pick her up, K?) I said we could go this morning before school.

So we're at the store this morning and I'm choosing an oh-so-tasty-and-nutritious donut for Brandon to eat in the car. She comes up with her basket o' goodies and in there is a Christmas tin and in her other hand she's got a plastic tub full of cookies.

She explains "Well, I'm supposed to bring in homemade cookies that we're donating to poor families (like I'm sure they'll be thrilled to get cookies, but whatever) but I knew you wouldn't want to make them last night, so I just got this tin and I'm going to put the cookies in it so they'll look homemade"

YOU GO GIRL!! Mommy trained you well.

Gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling inside

2006-12-19T11:27:00.000-08:00

A couple nights ago I was at the grocery store and as I was leaving I see the President of the elementary school PTA yelling at her kids in another checkout line.

Another post rated MPAA-17

2006-12-17T23:20:00.000-08:00

"The main ingredient in Astroglide is glycerin" (me thinking it was like silicone stuff I put on my hair)

"The airline security people should really be looking for this" "It's easy to just mix this with nitric acid and it make nitro glycerin"

"So, like I could have lit your XXXXXX on fire last night a blown up the house?"

I am so blogging about this...

2006-12-14T05:25:00.000-08:00

Megan – just click the back button right now.

Was that ever a mistake turning my kids on to my blog. Oh well.

*************************************************

Every so often Kim lets his facial hair grow out for a bit. This is a gross overstatement as this means he gets maybe a quarter inch mustache and goatee after not shaving for a week. This is all fine and sort of cute until one wants, umm, a certain kind of action. Then it’s a bit pokey and scratchy.

So the other night I was in bed, watching TV and I hear him in the bathroom with the shaver. As he comes out I say “Ooh, you shaved. Why don’t you come over here?”, partly joking as it’s pretty early and everyone’s still up.

He jumps on the bed and starts crawling up my legs. And then I notice his face.

He shaved everything except left a little bit, giving himself a Hitler mustache. As a joke.

I squealed and laughed and said “NO WAY are you doing that, looking like that!”

2006-12-07T16:38:00.000-08:00

If you've been around for a bit, you may recall that I tend to get just a little bit freaked out around the holidays.

For ~~what seems like eternity~~ about the last six years straight we've hosted Christmas Eve at our house for my family. Not a ton of people, mind you, usually 12 or so. But I consistently fall into this trap of procrastinating and then doing everything at the last minute. Particularly the house cleaning.

This year I resolved to start early and have been making some headway. But I realized that what I'm doing is really just freaking out (internally) several weeks earlier. I do like having people over and doing the cooking (cooking=good; cleaning=bad) and not having to travel and schlep home 500 lbs of plastic toy crap that the kids seemed to get each year. (I guess being the only grandkids, nieces, nephew, etc. has it's rewards)

My sister emailed me the other day saying she would be up for doing it this year. I replied that I was planning on it and let me see what we get done over the weekend. That night I talked to Kim about it and he thought that while we should still work on the house, it would be good to take her up on her offer. I think that what he was really thinking in his head went something like "Oh, HELL yes, let's go to Christi's house so I won't have to put up with this psycho bitch and her controlling YOU-NEED-TO-PUT-UP-THE-LIGHTS-NOW self for another three weeks"

So the next day I emailed her back saying that would be wonderful for her to have it and that I'd be happy to help with whatever food items she wanted.

It's like having a huge weight lifted. I mean, I am still decorating and working on the house, but I feel like I can relax about it. I can now fit in some fun holiday things, that I enjoy like maybe a trip to SF to look at the stores, make some cookies with the kids and actually wrap presents before midnight on Christmas Eve.

WBW

2006-12-06T11:01:00.000-08:00

This week TKW would like rejects of Christmas cards past.

Well, technically this wasn't even a Christmas card photo, but just an oldie Christmas Day photo from 1973 (yikes!). Note my mom's lovely black sparkly dress and my cousin Tim's outfit complete with that hair and the boots. My Aunt, seated, had on this Asian type dress that I remember wearing a few years later in a school production of The Mikado.

Office Gossip

2006-12-05T12:51:00.000-08:00

OK, not really gossip per se.

Yesterday I learned that I shouldn't talk smack about Kim not putting up Christmas lights on Sunday* to another male coworker. I think it took maybe 90 minutes for it to get back to him and also be spread to a couple other guys.

*Everyone knows this was the weekend to do it, right? This weekend or last. The empty shelves at Target surely confirmed it for me.

Question - what kind of lights do you use? Mini, Icicles or C7/C9? We've done the icicles for years but last year I wanted the retro C9 (big fatties) that I had as a kid.

**********************************************
It turned out that the lights were MIA aka MIG (garage) so we got some more yesterday and he put them up last night. And while he was out on Sunday (not doing the lights) he'd been shopping and picked up this for me as he'd gotten the kids all chocolate advent calendars. Yum.

It's Over

2006-12-03T10:00:00.000-08:00

Our winning season came to an end last night as we lost the State Championship match to Los Alamitos 25-20, 25-19, 25-21. Admittedly our team was very much considered the underdog team, especially as they were the defending state champions and now have held that title for 3 of the last four years.

As I overheard from a nearby spectator last night "I think these games are harder on the parents than the kids". On some level, that was very true. I'd been worried about how Megan and the rest of the team would take a loss, and even though there were some tears the girls all realize what a spectacular season they had. Megan very proudly wore her 2nd place ribbon after the game.

The Los Alamitos team was extremely strong - they have 4 players going on to play in college. The girl in the photo below was phenomenal. In the last game she started doing a jump serve that was practically impossible for our girls to handle.

Now we're on to basketball......and at least Megan can be happy to not have double practices.

2006-11-29T07:47:00.000-08:00

11/28/06 – Tri-Valley Herald

“….Win or lose tonight, congrats goes out to Foothill coach Dusty Collins and his talented group of players for one of the greatest — if not the greatest — single season in any sport, by any school, in EBAL history…..”

Last night was the Northern California Div. 1 Finals…..

YES! We won last night in a total nail biter/stroke inducer, depending upon which parent you were talking to. The match actually went to 5 games, with Foothill winning the final 15 to 12. The San Benito/Hollister team had a great squad. One of the few teams that they haven’t completely run over during the season. And that makes for some exciting volleyball.

I was on pins and needles during the match and Jessica nicely informed me that I scream ‘like a girl’. Uh, DUH.

So, Saturday we are off to San Jose State University for the State Championships against Lost Alamitos of So. Cal. The State Championships haven’t been held in Northern California for 24 (!!!) years. I’m taking that as a positive sign.

Road Rage - Mommy Style

2006-11-28T10:33:00.000-08:00

I’ll start this post out by saying in all my years of commuting to work, I rarely got as frustrated as I do on a daily basis during the morning drop-off-children-at-school-route. I am currently in the fabulous position of having one child each at elementary, middle and high school. Thankfully, they are all relatively close to one another.

All of these schools have very specific guidelines about where/how to drop your child off. There are generally painted curbside drop off spots and the idea is that you pull to the front-most open position, drop your kid and roll. Or, say, if you are coming from the North direction on Street A you turn in to Driveway X and if coming from the South, turn into Driveway Y.

Do you think people can observe and follow these simple rules? FUCK NO! OK, yes, the majority of the parents do it correctly, but those that don’t just screw traffic up for everyone else. At the elementary school alone there are 800+ students, so it doesn’t take much to interrupt the smooth flow of traffic.

At Brandon’s school there are 3 spaces, then a crosswalk from the main parking lot to the entrance and then about 8 more spaces after.

Today I just snapped. Admittedly I’d already had a shitty morning before we even got out the door. As I’m pulling into the driveway at Brandon’s school, there is a woman in an SUV in front of me pulling ahead into the 3 open spaces that are in front of the crosswalk.

And she stops in the first spot. Leaving me blocking the crosswalk. I tap lightly (really) on the horn as she does this hoping she will get it and pull forward. So I pull around her, pointedly look at her (also wanting to see if it was someone I knew). Freaking clueless. Is it going to kill little Susie or Bobby to walk the extra 10 feet from the front spot?

As she pulls out to leave I roll down my window and say loudly “Are you stupid?!” seriously doubting she’d even hear it. Backup lights come on and she backs up and rolls down her window. Greeaat.

“Am I stupid? Is that the way you talk in front of your kids?”

Me thinking - what I actually said, aloud in the car, when you stopped in that spot was ‘you stupid bitch’

“Wow, you sure set a great mommy example.”

“OH, FUCK OFF BITCH!” And I drove off.

How’s that for a good mommy example?

In retrospect, what really burns my ass is that she didn’t even acknowledge that she’d done anything wrong, just went after me for saying stupid in front of my kids.

And of course what I did wasn’t right either. Thankfully it was early and there weren’t many kids there yet to hear me.

Update: I related this story to Kim at lunch and of course, being the more level headed person he said that what I should have pointed out what kind of example she was setting for her kids by ignoring the rules. Dammit.

2006-11-27T15:46:00.000-08:00

GO see this movie! No matter what your age or whether you have kids. It was one of the best movies, kid or otherwise I've seen in quite awhile. It's a great story with a good message. And best of all the mom doesn't die/isn't dead like in all those Mouse movies :) Rockin' soundtrack too.

2006-11-21T13:24:00.000-08:00

The other day the lovely TKW posted:

"I have learned however that some things take time and cannot be sped up. For example, true love and a successful marriage take time, understanding, compromise, a good florist, and the ability to know when and for how long to hold sex back until the garage is clean."

I commented that I need this information. LIKE.NOW.

On Friday I had a little dumpster delivered so we could go through and dump things that we couldn't pass off as freebies on craigslist. We did pretty good filling it up.

Last night Kim and I were at the hardware store and he made some comment about cleaning out the garage and actually being able to park the Mustang inside it. I then told him about her post and my follow up comment. He laughed.

After I came home from Megan's basketball game* he says "Well, I looked through the garage for some stuff to put in the dumpster and at this rate we won't be having sex for a year!"

*yes, she is now playing 2 sports simultaneously as the VB season is running long due to their success.

Shiny Shoes aka Happy Birthday to Me

2006-11-19T21:54:00.000-08:00

Wow, just after my WBW post, Megan surprises me with my own shiny aka patent leather (OK there's nothing leather about these)shoes. So cute!

This year is the big 44! Yikes. Nice day, full of laundry (cuz I can't let that shit slide in a household of 5), Jess' b-ball games and further excitement on the volleyball front as we learned that Megan's team has the #1 seed in Northern California. A bonus as that means they'll play any further games at home. Other than the state championship. We sort of lucked out on that as apparently they haven't held the championships in Northern California in 32 years!! I'll take that as a sign :)

We went out to dinner tonight and I got a bunch of cute stuff, most notably a DVD recorder so I can burn DVD's of all the shows I've save on my TiVo. Yay!!!!

Oooh, yeah.....

2006-11-18T23:26:00.000-08:00

....that's what I'm talkin' about! 3 matches; won in 3 games each. Go Falcons!

Hardware!

A whole lotta happy girls.

2006-11-18T10:20:00.000-08:00

Someone recently posted a little funny that had a saying to this effect:

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; Teach him to use the Internet, and he won't bother you for weeks!

Jessica has taught herself how to use Photoshop, so this is a PS version of the saying. Last nights efforts:

I have to say, not bad for a 12 year old.

Lust at first sight

2006-11-16T16:49:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I picked up Kim's latest issue of Bicycling magazine and this is what I saw on the inside cover. I instantly thought "I'm getting that bike". The Electra Amsterdam.

It's not like we don't have a bunch of bikes at home, but really they're Kim's and I am not putting my butt on a road bike with less than 1" tires and a tiny butt seat. I do ride one of his mountain bikes occasionally with the kids. When I saw this I just loved it's vintage look. Plus the Electra bikes are designed differently than regular road or mountain bikes for a more upright riding position. This bike I can ride to work and not worry about getting chain funk on my clothes and it even has an old style 'skirt/coat guard'.

Anyway, I have my name down on a list for when they come in to my local bike shop and have asked my family to get me gift certificates for my birthday.

While showing Megan the picture the other day she suddenly turned into my mother.

"Mommy, you know you have a perfectly fine bike that you hardly ever ride. Maybe if you ride the other one and show that you're going to ride the bike, then we can see about getting it"

Pffffft!!!!!!!!

Get.A.Life

2006-11-16T10:26:00.000-08:00

I had to swing by Wally World this morning and I notice this bunch of people and tents, chairs, etc. along the side of the entrance. I wondered what that was about.

They're waiting in line to buy a PlayStation 3 that goes on sale at midnight. And apparently some of them have been there for a day or so already. I imagine that there are a few die hard gaming people there along with the others who just want to get one to resell at 4x the price on eBay.

WBW - Birthday Style

2006-11-15T10:30:00.000-08:00

It's Birthday Week at TKW's house (Happy BD Sugar Daddy & Ducking!) Coincidentally, it's my birthday week, OK, day this weekend.

In yet another semi-recycling of previous posts, here we go. This was my 4th birthday. Clearly back in the day when people actually had birthday parties in their home and not at, as Tammy so perfectly put it, Birth Control In A Building, aka Chuck E Cheese, Pump It Up and the like.

This is me and my friends Allison, Julie and Amie. Notice the dark, dreariness outside? Yeah, November birthdays suck. No outdoor parties for you!

And here I am modeling one of my gifts from my Auntie. This lovely pink corduroy dress, complete with matching patent leather shoes, belt and bag. I looovved all things patent leather when I was little. I even loved buying cute little Mary Janes each Christmas and Easter for the girls when they were little. Maybe I really belong in Shiny Shoe Dallas. Come to think of it, my hair looks pretty blond and big here too. Hmmmm.

More about mememe

2006-11-14T12:25:00.000-08:00

Stolen from Tina

1. Do you sleep with your closet doors open or closed? Closed.
2. Do you take the shampoos and conditioner bottles from hotel? Depends on the brand and/or what it smells like.
3. Have you ever 'done it' in a hotel room? Uh, yeah.
4. Have you ever stolen a street sign before? No, but I did steal an X-Files location filming sign up in Vancouver.
5. Do you like to use post-it notes? Absolutely, but the standard yellow ones are boring.
6. Would you rather be attacked by a big bear or a swarm of bees? Bees – more chance of surviving, I think.
7. Do you always smile for pictures? I try.
8. What is your biggest pet peeve? Forgot to answer this first time, but see above. This drives me batshit. Take the old staple out and put a new one in when you need to add pages!
9. Do you sleep with your sheets tucked in or out? Neither – don’t use a top sheet, just the duvet cover.
10. Do you ever count your steps when you walk? No.
11. Have you ever peed in the woods? Yep. Do you think I’m walking in the dark to the scary campground bathroom?
12. Do you ever jump up and down to make your privates bounce? No! Don’t want my privates bouncing.
13. Do you chew your pens and pencils? No.
14. How many people have you slept with this week? Two. Kim and the occasional visitor aka Brandon.
15. Do you like popcorn from those big tins? No, not a big popcorn fan.
16. What is your "Song of the week"? “Not Ready to Make Nice” – Dixie Chicks. And no, I’m not a Country fan.
17. Is it okay for guys to wear pink? Yes.
18. Do you still watch cartoons? Sometimes – Spongebob and I used to love Pinky and the Brain.
19. What’s your favorite scary movie? Session 9. Filmed in an abandonded mental hospital. Freaked me the fuck out.
20. Your prom? Do you remember about it? Went to my Senior Ball. I remember we had dinner in the restaurant at the top of the Bank of America building in San Francisco. I learned the lesson of “NO white tuxes or of any color other than black”
21. Where would you bury treasure if you had some? Under the floor of my daughters closet, because you know no one is getting to the bottom of that.
22. What color is your cell phone? Silver.
23. Were you a boy/girl scout? Girl Scout, Campfire Girl, even a year in 4-H if you can believe that.
24. What is your biggest food weakness? Cheese.
25. Would you ever strip or pose nude in a magazine? Nope. Even if I were thinner, some things just ain’t in places they’re supposed to be, ya know?
26. When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper? No idea.
27. Can you change the oil on a car? Check and add, yes. Change – no. Like Tina said that’s what they made boys for.
28. Ever gotten a speeding ticket? Yep
29. Ran out of gas? Yes.
30. Favorite kind of sandwich? Grilled cheese.
31. Best thing to eat for breakfast? Eggs Benedict.
32. What is your usual bedtime? 9 – 10 pm.
33. Are you lazy? About some things.
34. Do you read the newspaper? Ads, comics, entertainment and food sections.
35. How many languages can you speak? One plus a passable amount of Spanish. I’ve also taken French, German and Norwegian. I can count to 10 in 5 languages.
36. Do you have any magazine subscriptions? Not currently. Pisses me off when they come out in the store before I get em in the mail, so I just buy them.
37. Which are better Legos or Lincoln Logs? LEGOS, although they hurt more when you step on them. Useless trivia note – did you know that Lincoln Logs were invented by Frank Lloyd Wright’s son?
38. Are you stubborn? Hell yes.
39. Who is better...Leno or Letterman? Neither, I’m sleeping dammit.
40. Watch an opera live? No.
41. Afraid of heights? Sort of.
42. Dance in the shower? Nope.
43. Dance in the car? Sometimes with Jessica.
44. Ever used a gun? Just trap shooting once. I’d like to shoot a handgun.
45. Explain what ended your last relationship? Many, many things. Jobs, finances, fighting constantly, etc.
46. Are you any good at math? I’m OK.
47. Do you ever leave messages on peoples answering machines? Sure.
48. Who did you lose your CONCERT virginity to? The Eagles
49. Any plans for Friday night? Ghost Whisperer. Pathetic, I know.
50. Do you re-use towels after you shower? Yes, couple times.
51. Some things you are excited about? I am determined to get our house in order before the holidays. And it’s my birthday this weekend.
52. Describe your keychain(s)? A ring with a sterling silver tag engraved with 459 on it. I won’t tell the girls what it means and it drives them nuts. It was a code between Kim & I.
53. Do you sleep with the door to your room open or closed? Open just a bit.

Too good?

2006-11-13T10:37:00.000-08:00

Megan's volleyball team has captured the league title for the 2nd year in a row after a 13 year drought. Last year was so exciting, especially the final game against our cross-town rival school.

This year, eh, not so. This year the team is so good that their record is 32-0 and every match with the exception of two was won in just 3 games. (They normally play best 3 out of 5). It makes the matches not all that exciting since they pretty much kill every team they play. Thankfully, from a spectator view, the last couple matches were a bit closer, and thus more exciting.

Megan hasn't gotten much playing time this year, which sort of sucks from my perspective as well. But she (and her benchwarming teammates) have a really good attitude about it. They're improving their skills tremendously and they know they'll get their time to shine next year.

This week starts the regional championships, which they should take easily. They've already beaten pretty much any contending team. They could potentiall go to the State Championships, which would be awesome.

"We don't make no lemonade, we only make the juice!"

For the redneck on your gift list.....

2006-11-08T12:17:00.000-08:00

Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

Found at Wally World, natch. Personally, I don't even think it's funny, but I'm not a hunting person.

Grossology

2006-11-06T12:41:00.000-08:00

Saturday afternoon we went to check out the Grossology exhibit at the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley.

Grossology: The (Impolite) Science of the Human Body—a “science in disguise” exhibit that turns the disgusting into the fascinating!

Hmmm, here we have examples of various bacteria that cause body odor. Squeeze the bulb and then smell and guess which one it is....

Yes, of course, I got ANUS aka smells like ASS!

Mommies take note of that green blurb in the upper right of the photo. Thankfully we've got baby aspirators.

Did you know that the sound your farts make is dependent upon how loose or tight your sphincter is? Low = loose. Here's Jess making variable toot noises.

The exhibit was pretty fun for the kids, I'd definitely recommend it if you're in the area or it travels to a museum near you.

At the Outdoor Science exhibit, Kim demonstated for the kids how the levees broke in New Orleans.

After they collapsed he says "Oops, time to call FEMA"

Air guitar on the earthquate simulator.

Halloween

2006-11-01T11:06:00.000-08:00

We had a pretty quiet Halloween. Every year we seem to get fewer kids. I think Kim bought 5 lbs of candy, so we'll have lots of leftovers.

Brandon was a Star Wars Clone Trooper. Thankfully we didn't have to have year #4 of some variation on the Grim Reaper.

Jess was a pirate. This year she went out with a bunch of friends in a nearby neighborhood. So Brandon went with his BF T. Also in SW gear.

This was the first year Megan hasn't gone out. She gave out candy dressed as a sweaty volleyball player. But she wasn't afraid to help Jessica sort her loot. Can we say anal?

Hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween.

PS - my stinkin' DSL has been out for almost 2 weeks at home, so while I've been by to check out peoples pages while I'm at work, I haven't been commenting much.

Blonde Moment

2006-10-31T11:03:00.000-08:00

Last night we're at the grocery store and Megan walks up to me as I'm waiting by the checkout. She sees one of those little magazines they have up there called Knitting for Babies.

"Mommy, do you think that's to teach babies how to knit?"

::crickets:: (me just looking at her)

"You know, like Knitting for Dummies?"

bwahahahahaha

"Oh"

Glittered Pumpkins

2006-10-30T09:50:00.000-08:00

For the Short Crafter Bus riders here's the scoop on how to make the glittered pumpkins from the MSL website.

I bought my glitter at Michaels. It's by a company called Stampendous and they come in glass jars. Don't freak at how small the jars are. My pumpkins were about the size of a softball and I used maybe 1/8 of the jar to cover one. The consensus at our house was that we liked the look of the Ultra Fine glitter better.

Glittered Pumpkins

Materials
Small pumpkins
Glitter (colors used in today's segment):
54. Sedona Sun
56. Pumpkin
72. Pink Champagne
61. New Penny
58. Brown
59. Teak
Paintbrush
Craft glue
Paper plate or newspaper
Brown acrylic paint

Technique
1. With a paintbrush, spread glue over the surface of a small pumpkin. Place pumpkin on a paper plate or newspaper to catch excess glitter.

2. Sprinkle powder glitter over glue, covering completely. Let dry for an hour, then shake off excess powder.

3. Coat stem with brown acrylic paint, let dry. Once dry, the stem can also be done in brown glitter.

Glittered Pumpkin Tips
It's easiest to do half the pumpkin and sprinkle with glitter, let dry, and continue other half.

There's no need to completely cover the bottom, since it's not seen.

Also, it's fine if your pumpkin has marks or mild blemishes, since you will be covering it with glitter.

Resources
Martha used Ultrafine Opaque and Ultrafine Pearlescent glitter, available at www.artglitter.com.You can buy Sobo glue in most craft or fabric stores, or at www.deltacrafts.com.

WBW - Halloween

2006-10-25T09:44:00.000-07:00

Ah, I'm so damn lazy, I just recycled from last year:

This week sick (I mean that in the ill sense of the work, you bad people) Mama Duck wants us to share pics of Halloween's past..

I think this was my favorite Halloween costume, EVER. My cousin Erin was living with my Aunt (her Aunt too) next door and did this outfit for me. I just love it. According to the notation under it in my baby book (Thank You Daddy!) this was 1966, so I wasn't quite 4, which is freaking hard to believe. I got to wear a bunch of her and my Auntie's jewelry.

A couple years later, however, it was another story. Erin and my Dad did my costume as a butterfly. I still remember this and I fucking hated it. The little purple fuzzy wrap and my lovely head accoutrement was made out of a BATH RUG! Ick! It was all stiff to wear around my body. My sis here is wearing a hand-me-down costume from when I was almost 3, so I'm thinking this is circa 1968.

Just this last weekend my Dad had to relate to Kim, while we were out to dinner, the story about the rabbit suit and how they got me all dressed up and ready to go and then I had to go pee and they had to take it all off. I actually think he 'cleaned' it up a bit, since I think I actually had an accident.

A bit more recent pic. This is from college days. Cross-dresser Lori. The funniest thing about this outfit was that before going to the party we were headed to, we swung by a restaurant than I knew my parents were eating dinner at. I walked up to their table and started talking to them and neither of them recognized me at all.