SPQ - the look

I loved HRH's theory on tanning - except for the skin cancer issue, are your really thinking you will look 23 when you are 65?

She follows a schedule of getting the 10-4 sun prime hours, with little 1 hour breaks for lunch, a nap under the umbrellas and then showering and taking a nap until its time to go out for dinner!

I know that I probably need to be donning my Gidget/Annette Funicello /Barbie-When-She-Still-Had-Dark-Hair swimsuit and working on my tan lines for my get-away in 2 weeks. My theory is that this bathing suit is SO UGLY that it won't matter what my body looks like because the hideousness of the suit will detract from whatever flaws my bod has!

Today we have to go to my friend N's house and move some boxes for her and we are getting a free hot tub out of the deal! She is selling her house and the old geezers who bought it don't want the hot tub, so she told us that if we help her move and help her take out the hot tub, that we can have it!

And - my boss called me to officially tell me that I will be teaching self-contained next year. Then I got the unsolicited low-down that the gossip about the new 4th grade teacher being a friend of the central office staff is not true.

Got quite a bit done today, gathered up all the boys' stuff for court, scanned and uploaded pictures for the track website -- just no housework!

Mullet-boy meets the Lucilles and gets "Lucilled"

I introduced SPQ to some of the Lucilles last night at R-Bar. MyPoolBoy went because he made the finals of the poker tournament. I read a few excerpts and they hooted and hollered and made a fuss over who was going to read it next. We got a good discussion about how we were going to accommodate taking the Lucilles to the next level to elevate us to where we were smack in the middle of SPQdom and we decided that we will be needing our tiaras for the Port Aransas trip AND we simply must go shopping for skank-wear for one night of clubbing on our trip. Felix & BagLady are going swimsuit shopping on Thursday I think, but I already have my fabulous Annette Funicello/50's Barbie when She Still Had Black Hair bathing suit that my stepmom and I found at a vintage store.

Well, we were sitting there and generally small-talking and we got into a mullet discussion (MyPoolBoy was out of the tournament at this point, but he had gone to sit down with some of the coaches at another table). So we were pointing out to BagLady, who had no clue what a mullet was, that her boyfriend H, had a mullet -- I was describing a mullet that Thunderduck had seen where the guy had the "party" in the back and the front "business" was a bowl-cut, Moe-Stooge-style -- Thunderduck called it a "Bowl-let". Ok - so I digressed -- anyway the other mullet-sporting soul in the bar was this guy who in weeks past had a wind-blown type style (if you could call it style) that we always chalked up to inebriation/carelessness/apathy/bad genes. BUT - tonight he had gone all out (or at least made a minimal effort) and COMBED IT. And it was a mullet -- Lo and behold he came over to us and introduced himself and starts hitting on BagLady (we think -- he was really talking to all of us). Anyhoo --- he asks us all our names and BagLady and Felix told him their real names but I told him my name was Tammy! I was really in an SPQ mood. Well, drunkenly we start laughing and he catches on - smart little bugger - and says that's not your real name. So I said, "No, my real name is Lucy - or Lucille - but I hate it." Everyone kept a straight face - and he went for it. SO now I think that Lucille can be used as a verb. (As in, he was Lucilled - or BSd, as it were - by a Lucillle/SPQ) About that time MyPoolBoy saw what was happening and came and "rescued" us by sitting by BagLady in the booth so that mullet-boy would leave us alone.

I also used the word 'debaucherous' in our conversation last night and everyone came unglued. Sometimes my vocabulary just rears its ugly head in the strangest situations.

AND - we looked at the SPQ chapter on the 5 men you must have to see if our guys had more than one quality. We decided MyPoolBoy has 2 out of 5 -- dancing and sex because he can't/won't fix stuff, I definitely can't talk to him, and although he goes to the checkout to pay for stuff, we are basically broke and right now I am the major bread-winner --- he's a kept man!

After a bit we noticed our waitress was awol and we all needed another round. I started tapping dots and dashes out on the table with my empty Smirnoff Ice bottle - to everyone's glee that it wasn't THEM making a big noisy scene - and got AWOL's attention. I told her that it was my new code -- S's Outta Smirnoff -- SOS -- see, she'd been Lucilled also!

Alas, when we got home and I was putting on my pajama pants I got my foot hung in the crotch part of the pants because they are loose -- the left foot -- the sprained ankle -- and I fell -- not only did I re-hurt my ankle trying to catch myself as I fell, but I also skinned by knee because I basically tripped over my pj pants. What a klutz.

Anyway -- today is going to be a bit stressful - the boys have court and MyPoolBoy has a biology paper due. And I still need to clean house because my nephews are coming next week! Oh and I have to scan and upload some pictures for the track team to the website - so I'm gonna have to move the scanner into here and hook it up! I'll get on later and do my chapter review for SPQs Book of Love.

Sweet Potato Queens / Lucilles

Oh lord, have I ever found my psychic twin! After reading a couple of southern humor books from the library I discovered one called "The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love" by Jill Conner Browne. I now know that I am not the only tiara-coveting, cat-eye-rhinetone-sunglasses-sporting, prom-dress-at-a-meeting-wearing, silly-drunk-and-too-loud-with-all-your-girlfriends woman out there. In fact, this book actually came out in 1999 (the year I graduated college) -- so I had been the "Technology Princess" for a couple of years, thus proving that my twin was out there writing a book and living here in TheSticks I never even knew it! So, I read through the book and I thought she had been spying on me and my friends (the Lucilles) because, by golly, no one can get bawdy and debaucherous the way we can! Anyway -- I really have resolved that I am not going to let MyPoolBoy get me down any longer. In fact, I confronted him today and told him that he was too negative and it was getting to me. He actually listened and apologized -- we'll see..... Ok, so here's the deal: I am going to write the quotes from the book that struck a chord in me the most so that I can review them every so often. I also need to get ahold of my own copy of the book as well as the sequels. There's even some CDs by Kacey Jones that have songs like "Never Wear Panties to a Party" and "You're the Reason Our Kids Are Ugly". I had to laugh really hard. I've set up links on my Yahoo Bookmarks and will probably post them here somewhere.

Ok - so in the intro I really laughed at or related to:
1 The fact that she declared herself queen (like I declared myself the Princess)

2 The instance where they bought ball gowns at Goodwill and wore them in the parade (me and some of the Lucilles wore prom dresses to a faculty meeting right before homecoming one year, complete with tiaras and toilet-paper sashes emblazoned with slogans like "ARD Queen" "Technology Princess", etc.)

3 The quote from Delta Burke/Suzanne Sugarbaker in "Designing Women": "There's just nothing better in life than to ride around on the back of a convertible with a crown on your head." And Browne follows it with "Words to live by." Well said.

4 Her spiel on the Miss America pageant and that the scholarship part is crap. She acknowledges that everyone just wants that crown - "Call the thing a beauty pageant, and be done with it."

5 I can do "the wave" too!

6 Laughed at the chunking of sweet potatoes from the float and the story of her softball champ friend being a little too zealous at her chunking. (My Lucille friend MrsRodney fits this description!)

7 Browne acknowledges that many of women's day to day activities and organizations are thankless.

8 The only reason she was never a Golden Girl of Alcorn State was that she was not born black. "It's a bitch, but there you are." Adding that "Brown fat just does not look as bad as white fat." And then goes on to compare it to a pork chop: when raw and white it is globby and unappealing, fried it is brown and golden -- I need to tan, see?

9 The discussion about Real Live Majorette Boots had me hooting. First of all, I had majorette boots - not the kind the SPQs wear, but I was a majorette, so there you go. BUT Her Royal Highness's advice for those who did not is good advice for anything in life (and why I think I started wearing tiaras in the first place). Pretty much she chides you that if you grew up wishing that you had a pair of those boots to dress up in as a child you shouldn't whine over it NOW: "Hell, you're full- grown now. If you don't have Real Live Majorette Boots at this stage in your life, it's our own g*d* fault. Quit whining about it and go get some!"

10 Calling the kids "Tater Tots" was pretty funny. My friend Tammy (her REAL name, not her SPQ name) in high school and I called each other taters. When we graduated and got married and had kids we called them "Tater Tots!"

11 Their hangout, Hal & Mal's is a must-see for me the next time I am in the vicinity -- I am dying to see the Elvis shrine in the men's room! I figure H&M must be their version of the R-Bar -- I wonder if they've ever been locked in?

SO I have decided that the Lucilles are SPQs of a sort (and my stepmother is an honorary Lucille -- she personally bought me my high-heel acrylic hooker-looking "Bingo" shoes). There is a place on the SPQ website to start your own chapter. We would definitely qualify.

Dumbo's Mother & giftedness

. and my ankle still hurts
So I'm all emotional and crying and stuff (or in my case, NOT crying, cuz I have to always be so tough or it pisses a certain someone off).

Anyway, I was sitting outside reading and listening to the radio and someone requested the song "Baby Mine" by Bette Midler from the movie "Beaches." Well, I went along reading and then as I listened I realized it was the song from "Dumbo" when his mom gets locked up and he goes to see her and my heart just tightened and broke right then and there imagining the cartoon images in my mind. I started to remember that when I cried at movies as a child or teenager it was always scenes like this -- Bambi's mother dying did not get me as bad as Bambi calling out her name over and over. They tell me that I cried at the end of "Frosty the Snowman" because Frosty left the kids. Today, I get really upset watching cop shows and unsolved crime shows that involve kids. It just now really hit me that I have always had a very strong maternal instinct, I guess... or a really strong emotional bond with kids that are abandoned or hurt. There's nothing wrong with that, really, it just never really was as clear to me as it was last night and this morning.

Now, as an adult the same kind of scenes will make me tear up, but the last movie that I really cried at was "Shine." Hard to explain unless you know the movie and see the scene I'm referring to, but I'll try. This guy is a piano genius and gets exploited, more or less. As he grows older he starts to lose it and turns into a bum, pretty much. A woman finds him and realizes who he is and tries to introduce him back into society and having him come along with her to play piano at her parties, etc. She realizes that the piano is his escape and joy. However, he is still not mentally all there and the scene that got me was when he was mingling at one of the parties, he started to babble a little and someone mentioned the planets or the solar system and he immediately started rattling off the names of the planets and facts about them. Almost RainMan-like. It upset me so much I started to cry. Seems pretty dumb on the surface, but I realized why almost immediately -- that is the kind of thing that happens to ME in my brain when people are talking or I am reading or watching tv -- I make all these connections to facts that I know in my brain and then I can't just enjoy the conversation or the book or the show or whatever. In the movie he was deemed a little crazy because he just let those thoughts blurt right on out -- I hold them in, and I imagine all the GT kids that are truly at that level of giftedness do too. It boils down to a burden of self-censoring. What "average" people don't get is that the torture of giftedness is not that we are "smarter" than everyone else, but that we have to constantly hold in so many random thoughts on details that probably are insignificant to other people just to conform to society's norms!

And on top of that I have to hold in my emotions.

Captain Pessimist

Ok, so here it is 4:45 and it has not rained since I finished my blogging this morning. Seems that MyPoolBoy is Captain Pessimist and managed to single-handedly derail the track meet for the entire PeytonPlace Track team! His conversations with other parents and the coach convinced them that it was freakin' doomsday thunderstorms predicted for all day today here and out of town-- what can I say but BS!
Just further proves how negative he is!

Rain/Track Meet cancelled

So we are all up at 7 am and it starts to rain nonstop and it is headed toward the town where the track meet was scheduled. We called the coach and they are bringing the bus back because it doesn't look like it is going to stop today.

MyPoolBoy made a 40 on his statistics final -- hmmmm funny how that happens when you don't bother to do the last 5 chapters until 13 hours before the test. He had the nerve to call me when it was over and say "if you had started helping me sooner, maybe I could have passed it" Ummmm -- who already HAS a college degree? This is not MY class! I give up.

Finished another book from the library - that makes 3 in 2 days. So far I've read "Theodora's Diary" (cute -- supposedly there is a sequel called "Theodora's Wedding") and I read "Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing" (which really had nothing to do with hunting and fishing, but as near as I could figure they were hunting and fishing for men). The one I just finished was "Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man" by Fannie Flagg (I remember here being on Match Game back in the 70s when I was little -- I heard she also wrote "Fried Green Tomatoes") I still have 2 more, but I am going to have to get me a reading list on my Palm so I can do an interlibrary loan or something to get the books I want to really read.

Got this picture concerning the Bird Flu hitting Floriday from my step-dad. I've seen it before, but this time I wrote a pretty good response:

"This is not even remotely funny. How dare you make light of a situation that is so serious? I am personally distraught over the senseless inhumanity! To think that these poor creatures have been subjected to an incredibly horrific demise! Not to mention their habitat -- somewhere there is a trailer park without its charm - without its bright colors to greet you -- without its joy. Shame on you, you middle-classer! I am going to fly my Dale Earnhardt flag at half-mast on the CB antenna on my truck on blocks in my yard. I'm have to go find a clean mason jar -- I need a drink of Boone's to take the edge off this situation!"

Man, I love those pink plastic lawn flamingos!

Me vs. MyPoolBoy -- this is scary

ME

You Are 12% Sociopath

You're empathetic, loyal, and introspective. In other words, there's no way you're a sociopath... but you can spot one pretty easily!

Are You A Sociopath?

MyPoolBoy

You Are 52% Sociopath

You're not a sociopath, but you're very prone to antisocial behavior. Other people's opinions matter little to you. You live your own fringe life - for better or worse.

Are You A Sociopath?

A commentator & a nag/rag about impatience

Someone actually read my blog... I practically never click on "Moderate Comments" but I decided to check (cuz I usually have spam stuff in there) and someone had left a comment back in the middle of May. So now I have a kind of odd feeling that I may come across as a real "B" or nag, but I have talked myself into remembering that this is my outlet for all the stuff that I can't say out loud -- hence the title of my blog.

Ok, so on to my gripe for the day -- I twisted my ankle Tuesday at the track while helping the kids move the high jump pit mats. I was carrying the back and couldn't see where I was going, and I stepped off the track and my foot went totally under me and my ankle twisted. It is swollen as all get-out. Anyhoo -- You would think that I would get to rest and stay off of it right? Oh H3LL NO. Tuesday night, MyPoolBoy is about to have a caboodle of kittens cuz he wants to go play in the poker tournament at our hangout....ok, I agreed, I can ice my ankle and prop it up and be fine -- but without asking me he invited Felix over to have brisket that he cooked in the smoker (found it at a thrift store for 9 bucks -- cheap father's day gift!). So I am frantically limping around with l trying to get the house straightened up and clean the back porch/yard -- of course he had class from 1 - 5 and she was coming over at 5:30 so guess who was doing this? Just another example of him not putting me before ANYONE else. Ya know? How about a phone call to ME before inviting someone over to just say, hey, how is your ankle? Do you feel up to company? (NO)
Well, today it is still swollen and hurts a little, but not as stiff, but I didn't stay at the track with the kids this morning. AND MyPoolBoy is still in bed asleep even though he has 27 hours to finish 5 chapters of statistics and take a final. He is a horrible procrastinator when it comes to school work -- and I hate being on the brunt end of his wrath when things don't go smoothly (well, duh, don't wait till the last minute).
I also have decided that yes, he is a bit of a spoiled brat.... He got pretty much everything when he was growing up and he has A) no patience to wait and save to get the things he wants, B) no desire to take a cheaper or used model of something, and C) no patience to get something LATER -- it all needs to be now -- well guess what honey -- all your buds that are getting their feet on the ground and getting to play golf and have nice houses probably didn't have 2 arrests for not paying their bills because they lied to their wife and I bet they haven't had to wrangle financing on their home that they "forgot" to pay (for 6 months) and almost lose their house because they lied to their wife about that, too. He puts on such airs/pretenses and it pisses me off -- he acts like we are freaking rich and buys "toys" that just sit in the yard and rust after he uses them once -- I couldn't even tell you how many Dremels we have. He talks a good game though -- He goes on and on about all he is going to do to fix up the house (that still has concrete floors after 10 years!) but all he does is talk -- Granted right now he is going to school, but ya know what? I have a hard time buying that excuse when he is LAYING IN BED ASLEEP AND HE HAS 5 CHAPTERS TO DO IN ONE DAY BECAUSE HE HAS PUT IT OFF FOR WEEKS!

Impatient is definitely the A #1 word I would use to describe him. He is miffed at MonsterInLaw right now because he wants the little bass boat that his dad had (since his dad died, no one is using it). Well, MonsterInLaw told him yesterday that she might just sell it because she doesn't think that we can afford the insurance and the tags -- well that made MyPoolBoy mad, but good cow, I can't even get him to put the tags on my car. Now his car was always fine, but let me just drive around waiting for a ticket -- he seems to have no clue how much of a nervous wreck it makes me to get behind the wheel -- at one point I had no left turn signal and a brake light out and no insurance and the tags out (still are) and it is not inspected. Ok, he got pulled over in his suburban and got a ticket for the insurance, so now we have insurance (woulda been cheaper just to get the insurance in the first place, duh) He fixed the turn signal cuz MonsterInLaw finally griped at him enough -- apparently my griping doesn't count -- and he sold his suburban, but do you think he will go spend $35 on the tags that have been out for 17 months (yes, over a year!!!!!) NO, but he'll go spend $15 on ice cream with the boys even though we have ice cream in the freezer. Anyway, back to the original point -- MonsterInLaw is right, and I'm not taking his side in the whole boat thing -- if he can't take care of the car and the house and the trailer (that we still don't even have a TITLE paid for yet) then does he really think that we can expect him to take care of a boat, too?

Good, lord, our lives are a mess! All I want is to be a respectable RESPONSIBLE citizen and I am married to this brat-child. If someone gave us a million dollars tomorrow to take care of our financial obligations, you can bet that MyPoolBoy would find some way to NOT pay anything and use all the money to PLAY.

Back from the Reunion

Well, I will have to say that there is nothing like control top underwear to make you look like you aren't as fat as you really are! I was able to wear a denim tank dress to the reunion and not look half bad -- in fact everyone told me that I was one of the only people that they recognized without having to look at the name badge! We ended up going to the Friday night mixer because MyPoolBoy's class (cross-town rival school) had their location double-booked and so the reunion committees decided to combine the two at our location. It really was great for us so that we didn't have to choose between the two. We just skipped the Saturday events so that we didn't have to go our separate ways.

MyPoolBoy went to the golf tournament on Friday afternoon before the mixer (my dad was REALLY wanting us to come down, so he sent us gas money to make us "decide"). We used what we would have saved in gas $ to pay for MyPoolBoy's golf tournament. Well I bet their class will never be in the tournament again because they:
Backed over a fence with a golf cart
Accidentally hit a goose in one of the ponds with a golf ball and seriously hurt it
Had like 10 players at a hole at once

I will have to say that the whole thing was a good time for MyPoolBoy, though because he got paired with people from HS that he NEVER hung out with in HS (mostly because his friends were all too shy and introverted to hang out with this crew!) But MyPoolBoy got to come off being a hero because he is so used to playing these phenomenal courses around here that the course they were on was easy for him so he shot 11 under par. His team tied for first in the tournament. Not only that but he said that he is one of the only ones who has not gained a lot of weight, so he felt pretty good about how he looked. So when we got to the reunion mixer, he was in really good spirits and feeling good about himself...TRANSLATION: I got to enjoy a nice evening without any drama! And some of his golf partners told me that all he could talk about for the first hour or so on the golf course was me.... sometimes he does stuff that is so nice.

SOOOOO At midnight they started closing the place down and a bunch of people from MyPoolBoy's school that I had gone to elementary with were going over to one guy's house to continue the festivities -- and MyPoolBoy ACTUALLY WANTED TO GO! For 3 hours! 3 am may seem like a wild night, but we were some of the first people to leave -- who KNOWS how long everyone else stayed. I had to laugh because they were still 18-year-old jocks just in older bodies! MyPoolBoy and I stayed in the kitchen and talked for about an hour and we heard everyone yelling that one of the guys had stripped to his underwear and we all should come see --- we're thinking yeah, right... Well when one of their other friends finally showed up they come get him in the living room and pull him out to the back yard and sure enough -- he was out there in his undies shoving people into the pool!

Anyway we still did ok since we paid the at-the-door price for just the mixer through HIS school we saved $10 a person... I don't know why ours was so different. Also - got a $10 reimbursement check in the mail from a seminar that I attended about a YEAR ago. Good timing. We also sold MyPoolBoy's suburban and we are just toughing it on one car until we can get down to his mother's to pick up the truck that his dad left him. So we have payments coming in from this guy that MyPoolBoy sold the suburban to about every 2 weeks. AND they staggered MyPoolBoy's sub pay from the last of the year so he still will get a small paycheck at the end of June. Also - MyPoolBoy's mom told him that if he and the boys can come and do some roofing and other stuff for her sometime this summer that she will pay them what she would have paid the roofers and the workers. So that will help with July. All we have to worry about is August, but luckily, we will only have 2 kids at home this year....hopefully we can start managing a little better.

Q & A for a Healthy Life (LMAO)

At Last! Some dieting advice I want to hear!

Q: I've heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life. Is this
true?
A: Your heart is only good for so many beats, and that's it... don't waste them on exercise. Everything wears out eventually. Speeding up your heart will not make you live longer; that's like saying you can extend the life of your car by driving it faster. Want to live longer? Take a nap.

Q: Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables?
A: You must grasp logistical efficiencies. What does a lamb eat? Leaves and
corn. And what are these? Vegetables. So a kabob is nothing more than an
efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system.
Need grain? Eat chicken.

Q: Should I reduce my alcohol intake?
A: No, not at all. Wine is made from fruit. Brandy is distilled wine that means they take the water out of the fruity bit so you get even more of the goodness that way. Beer is also made out of grain.

Q: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio?
A: Well, if you have a body and you have body fat, your ratio is one to one.
If you have two bodies, your ratio is two to one, etc.

Q: What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular exercise program?
A: Can't think of a single one, sorry. My philosophy is: No Pain...Good

Q: Aren't fried foods bad for you?
A: YOU'RE NOT LISTENING!!!. Foods are fried these days in vegetable oil.
How could getting more vegetables be bad for you?

Q: Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around the middle?
A: Definitely not! When you exercise a muscle, it gets bigger. What do body builders do to get those enormous muscles??! You should only be doing sit-ups if you want a bigger stomach.

Q:Is chocolate bad for me?
A: Are you crazy? HELLO ...... Cocoa beans . another vegetable!!!

Q: Is swimming good for your figure?
A: If swimming is good for your figure, explain whales to me.

Q: Is getting in-shape important for my lifestyle?
A: Hey! 'Round' is a shape!


"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, Chardonnay in one hand and strawberries in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming: WOO HOO! What a Ride!"

Tight and tiring

Well, school is out and MyPoolBoy does not have any employment, so things are tight financially. He sold his suburban and has pawned some stuff and he IS going to get another sub check at the end of June, BUT I am so tired of him lying to people about stuff.

MonsterInLaw was on the phone with him tonight, telling him that ANOTHER one of his great-aunts was doing poorly health-wise (probably about to die) and he told her that we would be out of pocket all weekend but that we would have our cell phones -- then he told her that there was a track meet in Giddings on Saturday and that all the boys were going (Chunk is going with us) -- he completely left out that we were going to our class reunion in Odessa -- I guess because he doesn't want her to know that he is spending any money doing anything but going to school.

Also, he told me he needs to get a Father's Day card to send to her to put on his dad's grave because he thinks she'll gripe about him not doing it -- or else send flowers. I totally don't understand the guilt trip behind this at all -- "your father died, but I still expect you to go and spend money on flowers or a card so that I can go put it on the grave"

That's messed up, huh?

I am at the absolute fattest (not overweight - FAT) that I have ever been - embarrassing -- just in time to be a lot more than I weighed in high school to go to my 20th class reunion. I'm thrilled.

Graduation recovery

Ok, so Graduation night (morning after, actually) we had gone to TrainWreck's Project Grad to chaperone and we didn't get in until 5 am -- well, TrainWreck came home about 7 am because he had won a tv and wanted to put it in his room before going back to his friend's house. We were sleeping on the sofa bed in the front room and TrainWreck was making some noise as he got in -- and MyPoolBoy came totally unhinged! He started yelling, telling TrainWreck to just move out, pack his stuff and leave right then and there, so TrainWreck took off walking down the street and MyPoolBoy jumped in the car and chased him down -- almost hit him - crazy MF! Well, unfortunately/fortunately MonsterInLaw was staying with us and she saw and heard the whole thing.... hmmm what a sweet boy you've raised, huh? Maybe your daughter in law is not such a bi+ch after all.... maybe your baby is really an A--Hole. Pretty much everyone woke up after that and MonsterInLaw left pretty early. I slept the whole rest of the day, but at least I didn't come unglued and rant after anyone.

End Of The Year CD Gift

I made all the Lucilles a cd of the music we are most likely to get in trouble to. I included liner notes on pink paper (of course) with the following reminders of our good times together.
NOTE: All of these incidents are true - maybe some day I will get time to share them.

* Lucille - a song to sing when Howling at the Moon (You bi+ch you $lut you wh0re)
* Margaritaville - a song to sing when your drink floaty (Jose) goes down the river without you
* Redneck Woman - a song to sing when picking up guys named Rodney
* Brick House - a song to sing when you are up next for Karaoke
* Mustang Sally- a song to sing when making fun of administrators who drive Mustangs or when pretending to ride horses and rope cowboys
* Harper Valley PTA - a song to sing at the faculty Christmas party
* Girls Just Want to Have Fun - a song for the 80s girls to sing badly at the top of their lungs
* Friends in Low Places - a song to sing when you are asking for a job a R-Bar
* Ladies' Night - a song for the 70s girls to sing on the dance floor
* Jose Cuervo - a song to sing the next morning
* Jessie's Girl - a song to sing when you are slithering drunk across the top of a grand piano
* We Are Family - a song to sing to tell your friends that you L-O-O-O-V-E them
* Delta Dawn- a song to sing when you are peeing down your leg
* Brown-Eyed Girl - a song to sing when you are too drunk to remember the words to anything else (sha la la la la la la la la la la ti da)
* Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia - a song to sing when you pass out in the booth at Denny's

Need to write or I'll explode

Got to use a gift certificate that a student got me for a facial today. You'd think that would make me be all stress-free and happy, right? Well, I was until MyPoolBoy called as I was pulling out of the parking lot and started his whining about how he wished he could get one, no one ever gives him anything, he had a migraine all day, why don't I turn my car around and go back to the parking lot where he was waiting with Lurch? (mainly because I was trying to call Lurch at that moment and his phone interrupted that call, so I wasn't shirking what I needed to do, but by golly the world revolves around him and I stupidly must've forgotten it while I was de-stressing, so yep, I better tense back up and worry about his sorry butt again!) guilt guilt guilt guilt guilt guilt
It brought up an argument (of course) of how I always get to go on trips and get massages and facials and he hasn't been anywhere without me or the boys since his dad took him hunting in Ozona (B.S., because he went and played golf with some buddies since them, but whatever makes you miserable)

Anyway - I pointed out to him that the massage and facial were GIFTS from students (I left out the fact that he has had two massages in the past year from my sister Pepita who is a massage therapist, one as a gift and one WE PAID FOR) and my trips, well granted the San Antonio trips (the 2 that I've gotten to go on) cost us about $100 each year, but Scotland was a scholarship deal -- I had a 4.0 GPA and wrote a thesis so I EARNED IT. Would he be happier if I just didn't use them and let them go to waste so he didn't feel left out? Yeah, probably.

I swear he's jealous over my grades and how fast I got through college, too, and he gets pissed at ME if I don't help HIM do the same, but he doesn't want to do the work. I have yet to see him study until 3 in the morning and get up to go to work at 6:30.

Also, my last blood-related relative, an aunt, on my dad's side (besides my dad, my brothers and some cousins) died this past week. The funeral was Saturday. Of course MyPoolBoy gets on the phone and tells MonsterInLaaw and they get into a discussion about how many deaths we have had in our family in the last 2 months (his father, my grandmother, his great-aunt, my aunt, and also her son's mother-in-law -- my cousin had to bury his mother-in-law on Friday and his mother on Saturday). Anyway, MonsterInLaw tells him that his aunt (not blood-aunt) had a nephew on her family's side that died a few weeks before -- now, MyPoolBoy doesn't even know this person, but he decides to add it to the list of family that has died because he cannot stand that I might get some attention or sympathy from someone. Honestly, my aunt bought my prom dress, sewed for me every summer when I was little, and took care of me when my little brother was run over by a car when I was little. And here's MyPoolBoy-- poor little PoolBoy-- has a migraine because he's so stressed that his aunt's nephew on her mother's side died. wah wah wah SO I'm trying to grieve and trying not to cry because I want to be tough (can't be a girl in front of him because APPARENTLY I am in a bad mood too much -- well holy cow! my family is dropping like flies all around me!) and MyPoolBoy is griping. The thing that really burned my butt was when I was trying to pack for the funeral Friday morning and I turned on the closet light to find my black shoes. He got mad because it woke him up (at 6:30 -- everyone else in the house gets up by then, anyway, but he gets to sleep until after 7:00 - lazy jerk). I'm thinking HELLO my AUNT DIED and I need to pack for a funeral -- you are doing NOTHING to be supportive except to gripe that you have to teach all day and then have to drive all afternoon to take me to a funeral - ya know what? DON'T FREAKING GO! I don't need to feel guilty about being in mourning. I cleaned BOTH of MonsterInLaw's houses when his dad died AND packed AND shopped for funeral clothes for the whole family AND stayed for over a week at MonsterInLaw's house and he is bitching at me about the closet light and having to drive for one weekend? JERK!

Get off your lazy rear end and DO SOMETHING ... he keeps griping about his classes -- heck he's gotten 2 extensions for one of them and extra time for the other one's research paper.

Just a mess. What a big whiner baby. I'm tired of being married to a child.

Only 2 more days of school thank goodness. We have been watching movies because they dumped all the paperwork on us the last 4 days instead of spreading it out over a few weeks. I'm making a checklist for next year that I will keep in my handy-dandy pink notebook and set up some kind of timeline for starting earlier than they expect.

Found this picture -- thought it was especially appropriate since my aunt was a Scrabble wiz.
Kept hearing her voice as I was falling asleep Saturday night.

trapped

I have decided that part of my depression spiral is due to the trapped feeling/situation that I am in because of circumstances in my life. Financially, we are tight right now waiting to get MyPoolBoy through college and we are basically relying on my salary only and what he can bring in subbing (which we will not have this summer). And we have no insurance on him right now either, so that is a bit of a constant back-of-my-mind worry. MyPoolBoy doesn't have the inspection or tags on the car updated so I drive in fear of a ticket all the time. MyPoolBoy wants to finish school in a year, but that means that he has to find a grant or scholarship for the fall and spring and also that we will have to pay for this summer out of our pockets (with him not working !) Then Thunderduck called last night and his financial aid is only giving him $650 for the fall semester and the rest is going to be a loan - he seemed a little perturbed but I got a little miffed and told him that I had been trying for 7 years to get him and his brothers to keep their grades up and apply for scholarships - instead I filed the FAFSA and basic grant paperwork and they applied for nothing. SO they are getting pretty much nothing. I am sweating how to get MyPoolBoy through and now I have to worry about Thunderduck and TrainWreck also. If I was not married to a liar and we were not WHITE F-ING TRASH then we would not have our house mortgaged to what amounts to a loan shark company for WAY more than it was worth because of his bad choices a few years ago and instead it would almost be paid off and we would have some equity in it that we could get for college. Instead, I don't even have the option of selling it and getting a smaller place to make money for them because it is in such a state of disaster and disrepair because MyPoolBoy starts all these f-ing projects and never finishes them so we can't even sell this piece of crap - I AM TRAPPED.

And I sat and spent my Mother's Day:
A) cooking dinner for everyone cuz no one else even cooked lunch
B) filling out graduation invitations because TrainWreck has done nothing and all the family is wanting to know where they are!
C) crying because I feel so helpless at the fact that there is nothing financially I can do about anything
D) putting up with everyone else's bad moods and arguing and hatefulness toward each other
E) wearing my pajamas all day

I need out of here SO BAD and we can't afford for me to go anywhere or do anything for myself.
At least my weight is down but I'm still fat.

I AM TRAPPED

State Track Meet media blitz

Well, TrainWreck and his friend, Hercules, a were a media circus at the state track meet. The news stations and papers had heard about Hercules giving TrainWreck his triple jump spot at regionals and so after TrainWreck finished his last jump he had 3 newspaper reporters and 2 camera crews swarm him to get the story. Add to that the fact that Hercules fell on his last event - the hurdles - and got really banged up. It made for quite a evening for the 10 o'clock news, I'll tell you.

Got lots of scrapbooking to do! TrainWreck finished 8th but he got to go and he has this great story to tell about all the media attention now so it was cool.

Gotta go , Chunk has a baseball game out of town.

Article about TrainWreck in our local paper

No school today! Going to the state track meet! I think I'll make some t-shirts with the boys' pictures on them.
This is a really good article about TrainWreck and his best friend in our local paper. I emailed it to all my relatives!

'One Last Jump'

TrainWreck will make his debut at the State Track and Field Meet

BY J F
Daily Tribune Staff

For PeytonPlace senior TrainWreck it always comes down to one last jump.

One last jump to win the long jump at the Region IV qualifiers meet.

One last jump to win the triple jump at the Region IV track and field meet.

One last jump to qualify for the UIL State Track and Field Meet. It's the culmination of a season of work, of hours in the training room getting bandaged from scrapes and falls, of enduring the hot Texas spring afternoons getting his steps correct before he sprints down the runway.

One last jump to make good on a promise to teammate and best friend Hercules, who gave up his spot at the Region IV meet for TrainWreck.

One last jump.

So before he took his attempt, he was stopped by Head Coach K F.
"He gets it in my head, 'You can do it. You can do it,'" TrainWreck said "And then it just happens."
TrainWreck sprints down the runway, gets his steps right and flings his body forward as far as he can.
As he's running, one thought continues to play in his mind:
"I've jumped that far before, so I can do it again."
"I don't know, it's just..." he said as his mind drifts back to his winning leap of 44 feet and one-half inch at the Region IV meet. Then he dropped his gaze, smiled and said, "Yeah...."
TrainWreck is a track and field athlete. He participates in AAU track that starts in January and goes into the summer track season. He participates in the decathlon, the 200-meter run, the long jump, triple jump and high jump.
TrainWreck said he watched the decathletes and decided it was something he wanted to try.
"It's a lot of fun and a lot of work," he said. "My favorite event is the javelin. I'm not very good at it, but it's fun."
For the PackMules, he is entered in as many as five events: the 400-meter dash, the 1600-meter relay, the high jump, triple jump, and long jump.
At the District 27-4A Meet, TrainWreck won the long jump with a leap of 21'6".
He finished third in the 400 meters with a time of 51.36 seconds. That qualified him for the Region IV meet.
TrainWreck finished fourth in the triple jump, behind his best friend, Hercules.
Hercules was having a fabulous day. He, too, was entered in five events. He qualified for regionals in four of them.
But after he and F talked, the two decided it might be best for Hercules to concentrate on three events instead of four. So he decided not to enter the triple jump at the Region IV meet.
TrainWreck said Hercules told him of his decision not to participate in the triple jump soon after the district meet.
"He told me he wanted to concentrate on the hurdles and high jump," TrainWreck said. "The high jump was the same time as the triple jump. He thought four events was going to be too much. I told him that was cool. I was pretty excited."
The senior vowed he would join his friend at the state meet, if Hercules qualified for state in the high jump.
TrainWreck has been triple jumping for three years. He and Hercules took an interest when they saw teammate E T doing it.
F showed them the steps of the triple jump, and they were hooked.
"We were pretty bad to begin with," he said. "And 40 feet was far away. Now if I'm not jumping 40 feet, I'm having a bad day."
Hercules took a seat near the pit and waited for TrainWreck to begin his sprint for his last attempt at the regional meet.
"I knew as I landed it was a good jump," TrainWreck said. "All the coaches and my parents went crazy. It was kind of like, 'all right - let's go to state now.'"
After his last jump, TrainWreck and Hercules went to the pit to measure. TrainWreck landed backward and had jumped into the wind.
"It would have been 46 feet or so," he siad. "I love doing it. It's fun."
The favorite going in to the triple jump at the regional meet was A K , of T. An athlete has six attempts but can choose to take as many as the want at once or one round at a time.
K chose to take five at once and save the last one for the final round. He took the lead after his second attempt. TrainWreck had already jumped 43'3-3/4".
TrainWreck and K are friends. TrainWreck told K he would jump 44 feet that day.
"If you get a 44, I'll just give up,"TrainWreck recalled K saying to him before the start of the competition.
Because he already had the lead, TrainWreck got the final attempt of the competition. K finished with a leap of 43'7".
F said he told TrainWreck he had already qualified for state before the triple jumper went for his last attempt. TrainWreck wanted to win the event.
The son of MyPoolBoy and TheWhiteTrashPrincess, TrainWreck will be attending the University of Texas-Poor Boys to study sports medicine or kinesiology. He will likely run track and play soccer.
Older brother Thunderduck plays soccer for UTPB.
TrainWreck will be making his state meet debut Friday. He said he was close last year but had a bad day at district.
"I think it's an honor to go there and work hard and compete," he said. "I think it's hard to get to state. Knowing I'll be going down in history is pretty cool."
TrainWreck is the first Packmule to go state in his event.
No matter the order he jumps in, TrainWreck said he will go to the state meet with the attitude of being crowned the state's best Class 4A triple jumper.
"It's never over," he said.
"You still have a chance even if you're in last place."
As long as he has one last jump.

redemption and more omg!

First of all - wtf is going on with my weight? I ballooned up this week! The highest I have ever been! I have been doing TrimSpa and working out a little in the mornings and eating less - and actually getting more salads. Hopefully tomorrow it will go down since I walked all over town for 5 hours.

Well, my kids redeemed themselves on the field trip today. One of my volunteer moms couldn't make it because of work and the other flaked out and went to a hair appointment and did not meet us until the return trip back. SOOO I was walking 17 kids downtown by myself and they were SOOOO good. Then I started thinking back to the horrible field trip that we had a couple of weeks ago and realized that most of the problems were in Felix's homeroom that day. I also saw how out of line and noisy they were when we met up to eat pizza at the halfway point. My kids were fabulous and got compliments everywhere we went. I told them I was really proud of them, but I will probably take them for some extra recess when I get back Monday (going to the state track meet tomorrow!).

More omg! -- One of the teachers at our school has a son who was in shop when MyPoolBoy taught it the first semester. He had gone home and told her everything and she wanted to know if he was exaggerating because he told her a retired Mr. Rogers-y ex principal was the sub now. I told her no he really must of done something because they did not send him home for the rest of the day/week/whatever - they took his keys and he had cleaned out his stuff. She added the comment that it must be really bad to be our super this week because there had been a break-in at the high school and a bus had run into another one of our teacher's NEW CAR and did not stop at the scene! I told her that on our field trip it just got worse, because while we were visiting the police station the school officer held us in the lobby for a while because they were processing a 9th grader and we couldn't go in yet. He got a cell phone call (from our super) while he was standing there with us and I heard him say something about visiting with a sexual assault/sexual harassment counselor. OMG! And my student in alternative school apparently mooned one of the other students in class yesterday.

omg!

MyPoolBoy called me today from over at the middle school. A lot of kids from his shop class came to the room where he was subbing and told him that they fired the guy who was teaching shop now. The guy apparently pushed a kid down and called him a name because the kid told him to lighten up - after the guy had accused another kid wrongly of throwing a dodge ball at him. Anyway the guy had his room cleaned out and his keys turned in by 3:00. MyPoolBoy said they had called him in class to see if he could sub the rest of the week (which he can't because of a mid-term and the state track meet with TrainWreck). We were saying we don't know how someone could not figure out that you are not supposed to do that to a kid (certified or not - because MyPoolBoy said he thinks this guy is just a contractor with a bachelors degree).

Wildest Dream

Last night I dreamed that I caught MyPoolBoy in bed with another man - one of the VERY LARGE coaches at the school where he works. So I looked up on a dream interpretation site to see what it meant.
The betrayal/adultery part means that I don't trust him (DUH) and the homosexual part means that I feel that he does not love me as much as I do him. (DUH) The freaky part was that in my dream I was not shocked - just mad. I think that probably could mean that nothing he does to me could surprise me any more... he has hurt me in so many ways in the past, this was just one more thing of embarrassment that I had to endure because of him.

Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

TERRIBLE: For starters, we had our field trip to the IMAX and on the bus one of the boys got some dog crap on his shoe (the kids said it was under the seat). Well, he tried to scrape it off on the wheel well by his seat and when he did, his foot slipped and he got it on his ankle. So he put his feet up on the back of the seat in front of him to look at where it got on his ankle and he got it on the seat. Well, when he dropped his feet from the seat he got it on his knee on his OTHER leg. So he turned around in his seat and tried to lay down and see where it was coming from. When he did he got his foot up on the back of his OWN seat and consequently, when he sat back up , he got it on the back of his sweatshirt. One more turn around and he got it on his arm! I spent 20 minutes getting the body fluids kit and some Kleenexes and cleaning this kid up. Felix said she would have just let him sit there, but I was figuring since it was something that could potentially make him sick, we had to ATTEMPT to clean it up the best we could in case of a lawsuit. As soon as we got to our destination, I marched him into the lobby to the restroom and made him clean up the rest of the way while I went and washed my hands!

HORRIBLE: Anyway, the kids were very poorly behaved. Had kids tattling on each other for cussing, pulling leaves out of the plants by the benches outside and slapping each other with them, went into the train tunnel at the park (and got reported to us by a teacher from ANOTHER school), ran ahead of all the parents and teachers off the buses to go to the playscape after lunch. Just AWFUL - and embarrassing.

NO GOOD: To add insult to injury (practically literally) we are sitting and lunch with and the little girl across from us is sitting with her mother. The mom says something to the effect that the girl really loves her teachers this year and the little brat says "Yeah, but I love Felix more." This comes after the "vote" a few weeks ago to make graphs for your favorite subject and most kids voted science...of course they come over and tell me that they voted and Felix is their favorite teacher. I have just about decided to get out of the profession... I am going to work really hard this summer and get my language arts system/book ready to publish. I have to get out of this mess.

Oh and I nominated all the other 3rd grade teachers for Teacher of the Year (the other math teacher won) - I told everyone it was because A) they deserved it, but also B) every year the Lamar award in our district goes to someone who is about to retire or is about to quit -- as if it is an honor for the END of your career. My theory is that if you would give it to people when they are still young enough and get some encouragement by being recognized for a job well done, then they might not be looking for ways to retire early or go to another profession in the first place.

VERY BAD: When we get back to school I had an email from the soccer booster club rep that the cd of pictures I sent her last week didn't have pictures on it and she sent me a list of the ones from my yahoo photos that she wants. I came home STRAIGHT after school thinking that I would get it done quickly, but could not get the email to pull up here at home. SO I called her and got her to list them from her Sent mail. Got back on and started to find them all on my hard drive and the dad-gum burner software was locking up my computer. I finally figured out how to do it 2 hours later and got it done in like 15 minutes --- aggravating!

WHAT ELSE COULD GO WRONG: I got so pissed sitting and messing with the computer that all I could do was mull over the day's events in my mind and got a wonderful, usual negative response from my NON SUPPORTIVE husband instead of "that's ok" "I still love you" I got "I'll just go in and tell your boss tomorrow to not hire you back next year, that you quit" Yeah. ok. whatever @$$hole.

Ended up NOT getting as much housecleaning done as I wanted. T-minus 10 hours until the MonsterInLaw arrives. Expect more whining this weekend.

161.5# today and I got a sub for Friday that has actually done my class before - only 2 things that went right ALL DAY.

Wish list: I am wearing a white button down shirt and my khaki shirt and gator loafers. I NEED a good pair of khaki Dockers - my only khaki pants are cargo-type. Would be fun to have a grosgrain ribbon belt or two, also. OOOOOHHH !!!! SHOPPING PROJECT!!!! :-)

Power Hour

Your Power Level is: 68%

You're a very powerful person, and you know that all of your power comes from within. Keep on doing what you're doing, and you'll reach your goals.

How Powerful Are You?

This is odd to see. Me... powerful? I answered honestly on this quiz and I really figured I would come off as wishy-washy. I am just really tired tonight from cleaning house (alone) to get ready for MonsterInLaw to come visit.

. How anyone can sit on the couch and eat 17 chocolate chip cookies watching tv while another person is scurrying around to clean house for THEIR relative is just beyond me. Still have to do another load of laundry, clean the cat box, sweep the halls, clean the medicine cabinets in the bathrooms, and clean the tvs/computers. MyPoolBoy said he would do the dinner dishes. woopee - I'm underwhelmed.

I cut my hair last night -- after researching my face shape, eye color, body type, etc. I found a medium length style that is not far off from what I've been doing. Also read some more PreppyCafe and got motivated to not dress so slouchy.

.Hitting Bottom and a New Outlook

Well, we went to our usual hangout (MyPoolBoy and Felix and a couple of other teachers) on Friday afternoon before the thing at the library -- right before we left these guys from Pflugerville come in and start playing shuffleboard behind us and start talking to us. As we are finishing our drinks, another round appears - from them, so we HAVE to drink them, ya know? Then they pay out and leave and right when they are leaving ANOTHER round shows up - they had paid for more while they paid out.

So now we have missed Chunk's baseball game, missed our time to be at the library, and I'm getting pretty hooted. I started feeling guilty about the game and the library thing, and then went to the restroom and saw myself in the mirror - I looked like HELL - I had really let myself go the past few weeks - cuz I KNOW I've been depressed.

Anyway, I got down and MyPoolBoy got mad and left and sat in the car, so I said bye to Felix and we came home. MyPoolBoy fell asleep about 2 minutes after we got home, but I took a shower and blow-dryed my hair before going to bed. I woke up SO rested, better outlook and my feet didn't hurt. Actually, now that I think about it, they don't hurt this morning EITHER.

Gosh! I've been SO DEPRESSED! Anyway yesterday I woke up and fixed my hair - NOT in a ponytail- and put on a little makeup. I got all of TrainWreck's prom stuff taken care of, including making him a boutenneirre since he didn't have a date. I also organized all of Thunderduck's college soccer clippings and got a new scrapbook and ALMOST (except for a schedule, 8 digital pictures that I need to print and the banquet stuff) have it done. I mean all I have to do is glue in some pictures! I finished MyPoolBoy's dad's memorial scrapbook except for the obit (which I am waiting to get from MonsterInLaw when she comes down). I also almost finished my college graduation/honors scrapbook except for a copy of my invitation and I thought about making and printing a small version of my diploma.

I'm also not dreading having MonsterInLaw come down for TrainWreck's track meet on Thursday, I've just resolved myself to clean the house and that's it. No dread, no anger, no depression. I really think I just needed to hit bottom and have some time to do nothing but piddle to get myself "rebooted" I am going to probably seriously stick to my 54321 routine again because I have been leaving out the 3 for Me REALLY BADLY and it was wearing me down. I have to put myself before I do something 4 Others and do a Take 5 at home or at work. I had been putting myself last to the point that nothing else was getting done, anyway! Depression is a sucky thing.

ok - so today I have to clean house, take Chunk to baseball practice, print a calendar, do TrainWreck's grad invitations, and do lesson plans - that's a 5, a 4, a 2, another 4, and a 5... gotta do some 1's and 3's! Me and God need to have room in there somewhere. Ok, so I'm off to find some Joyce Meyer and hit the kitchen!

PS - I also haven't gotten on the scale all weekend - not obsessing!

UPDATE: Joyce Meyer today was all about decluttering the negative things and influences from your life. God sure speaks when he has to!

I'm a Morning Person

You Are Sunrise

You enjoy living a slow, fulfilling life. You enjoy living every moment, no matter how ordinary. You are a person of reflection and meditation. You start and end every day by looking inward. Caring and giving, you enjoy making people happy. You're often cooking for friends or buying them gifts. All in all, you know how to love life for what it is - not for how it should be.

What Time Of Day Are You?

This makes sense...since I usually am such a morning person!

Am I Blue?

You Are a Blue Flower

A blue flower tends to represent peace, openness, and balance. At times, you are very delicate like a cornflower. And at other times, you are wise like an iris. And more than you wish, you're a little cold, like a blue hydrangea.

What Color Flower Are You?

I really probably would have pegged myself to be pink, but I'll agree with the I'm cold more than I wish! My husband leaves the A/C on in winter! Now if I could just get that peace, openness, and balance! One more day of TAKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Only the lonely

You Are Likely an Only Child

At your darkest moments, you feel frustrated. At work and school, you do best when you're organizing. When you love someone, you tend to worry about them. In friendship, you are emotional and sympathetic. Your ideal careers are: radio announcer, finance, teaching, ministry, and management. You will leave your mark on the world with organizational leadership, maybe as the author of self-help books.

The Birth Order Predictor

It is odd that this thing is dead-on correct about my traits, but off on the Only child part. I guess part of my upbringing, though, I WAS sort of an only child (at least being the only girl and when I lived with my Grandma) so it may explain why my attributes point towards that. It kind of reminds me of the song "Lonely Boy" from the 70s where the kid thought he was the ONLY one, and ends up being "lonely boy" HMMMM wonder why THAT wasn't my theme song.

News of the day and drama:
TrainWreck had lunch with the track coach at UTPB and interviewed - said he's on the team if he decides to go there.Thunderduck said tryouts with the soccer team looked good for TrainWreck, so the coach of the soccer team is probably going to get him over to fill out paperwork and stuff tomorrow.

When I sent MyPoolBoy a text message about it that just said "utpb track = yes" he called me and asked what I meant. I told him that TrainWreck made the team, the interview went well, and he said he wants to go there. He asked about scholarships, and I told him just the grant package that Thunderduck got was all I know of and he goes off on me bi+ching that we can't afford it, Thunderduck already owes X thousand number of $ (not true, I don't think) and he needs to just come home and forget it if they won't give him a full ride and go somewhere else. I told him that a full ride was out of the question because TrainWreck had not filled out any of the scholarship stuff I gave him to do and it was too late to do any bigger schools and MyPoolBoy gets all pissy. I THINK what may be the problem is that he's been bragging to someone that TrainWreck is going D-1 on a full ride and now he has to eat his words... and he's taking it out on me. Also - Thunderduck was talking to me on the phone tonight after he and TrainWreck got in from soccer practice. He said something about getting the old phone from our account upgrade instead of the new one that MyPoolBoy ordered. I told him it had been YEARS since I got a new phone so he should consider himself lucky. Thunderduck could hear MyPoolBoy griping in the background and he said "oh, great I guess I got him started" I coyly said "correct" and Thunderduck said "I bet you could say PINEAPPLE and he'd get a way to start bi+ching at you out of it" Well I died laughing - cause it is SO TRUE. Later tonight MyPoolBoy came and started the phone argument again, telling me how he was going to tell Thunderduck to take the old phone back, stop griping, and pay for his own phone (The testosterone was flyin' tonight, people!), etc etc I told him that Thunderduck was NOT bi+ching he was just expressing disappointment because I think that he thought he was getting the new one. Again with the griping. I just walked out and did laundry -- it is SICKENING how negative he is. And this is after I told him yesterday that I needed to surround myself with positive thoughts and positive thinking/environment. HE IS THE MOST NEGATIVE INFLUENCE IN MY LIFE - HE RUINED MY HAPPINESS OVER MY SON GETTING TO PLAY 2 SPORTS IN COLLEGE HE RUINED A FRIENDLY CONVERSATION I WAS TRYING TO HAVE WITH MY OLDEST SON AND HE RUINED THE ONLY RELAXATION I HAD AFTER SCHOOL WHILE I WAS TRYING TO GET READY FOR THE TAKS TEST TOMORROW.

btw - the TAKS test is tomorrow.

A BlogThing that is very telling...

You Have Low Self Esteem 72% of the Time

You tend to blame yourself when things go wrong, regardless of whether it's your fault or not. You're anxious to please others and rely too much on their opinions. Learn to please yourself first, and your confidence will soar.

How is Your Self Esteem?

I can't say that I totally disagree with this. I'm gonna add it to my journaling about who I am... I wonder if there are any more that are like this?

Who Am I?

This question was posed on the Oprah show & website on a series that she did about women "letting themselves go." It was meant in two ways - one, that they had gotten unkempt and overweight, but the second was more intriguing - it was what the first instance stemmed from... these women had let go of control of themselves to tend to all the other things (and people) in their lives.

Anyway, I checked out the steps that they took to get it all back together again, and much of it sounds very FlyLadyish! (THIS I can do!) It also reminds me of the old saying "Let go, and let God." I just have to let go of the OTHER stuff, not me!

SOOOO last night I resolved to move my blog feed to my yahoo page where I would remember to journal AND I also LET GO of helping MyPoolBoy with his statistics class - he keeps wanting me to bail him out or whatever, but I just never took stats so I was going through an online video series (13 hours long!) to learn stats so I could help him. NOW I see how ridiculous it was and this morning I am a little lighter in my step. If he fails or gets a W or I it is HIS fault. If he wants it badly enough he will turn off CSI long enough to watch those videos himself.

It also helps that I got a few days off for Easter and the district track meet to give me time to take this at a reasonable pace. On MyPoolBoy's birthday (last month) his father died and we spent spring break at the funeral, etc. 2 weeks later my grandmother that I lived with through high school passed away also. I had 2 days off of school for THAT funeral. And MyPoolBoy's great-aunt died the same day Grandma did, but we couldn't make THAT funeral.

TrainWreck made the Texas Relays in triple jump (no qualifying marks) and so we spent a day in Austin watching him do that. He also just won district in long jump and qualified for regionals in the 400m (that he had never run before!) and medaled in triple jump, mile relay, and high jump. The team missed placing for regionals by less than 10 points. It was heartbreaking because TrainWreck really wanted to triple jump at regionals, but at least he is the alternate, and who knows? maybe something will happen in the next 2 weeks!

More news - Thunderduck got a job at Sears in the automotive dept and is enjoying it, I think. He called the other day and said that the soccer coach wants TrainWreck to tryout with the soccer team on Monday (after Easter). The track coach also emailed and scheduled a meeting with him on Monday morning. SO I DO have some things to take care of for this situation! Transcripts, test scores, a profile sheet for track, and TrainWreck can't find his SS card. At least my dad offered to meet us halfway to pick him up and take him to save us some gas money.

Ok, so back to the question: "Who am I?"
I guess I can start with the basics (but they sound very much like the martyr-roles that I am supposed to be letting go of) I am a wife, mother, teacher, team-mom, scrapbooker, web designer, cat-lover, and family member. Those are the nouns. Maybe next time I can work on the adjectives and dig a little deeper.

My Theme Song - odd

Your Theme Song is Back in Black by AC/DC

"Back in black, I hit the sack, I've been too long, I'm glad to be back" Things sometimes get really crazy for you, and sometimes you have to get away from all the chaos. But each time you stage your comeback, it's even better than the last!

What's Your Theme Song?

Last Words

Your Famous Last Words Will Be:

"Nice doggy."

What Will Your Famous Last Words Be?

This is a riot! I could see myself dying in a freak dog-bite incident at age 119!

What kind of cookie am I?

You Are a Black and White Cookie

You're often conflicted in life, and you feel pulled in two opposite directions. When you're good, you're sweet as sugar. And when you're bad, you're wicked!

What Kind of Cookie Are You?

BlogThings - My Past Life

In a Past Life...

You Were: A Friendly Spice Trader. Where You Lived: Siberia. How You Died: Hung for treason.

Who Were You In a Past Life?

Quiz from MySpace bloggers

1. SOMETHING PURPLE WITHIN 5 FEET OF YOU?
a purple fish on a seashell cross that l made in vacation Bible school

2. THE SEXIEST ITEM YOU OWN?
I think I still have some satin tap pants and camisole sets somewhere

3. YOUR NAILS WERE LAST PAINTED?
I don't remember, but the scraps of polish are still on them YUCK

4. THE WEIRDEST THING YOU'VE EVER HEATED IN THE MICROWAVE:
plastic goop stuff for the boys' arts/crafts

5. HOW MUCH JAPANESE DO YOU KNOW?
sayonara, kamikazee, domo arregato (however you spell it)

6. DO YOU LOOK GOOD IN YELLOW?
No

7. DO YOU SING?
Very well when I'm not sober

8. EVER DANCED NAKED INFRONT OF A CROWD?
NO

9. DO YOU SPIT?
no

10. IS YOUR HAIR LONG ENOUGH TO CHEW ON?
yes, but I don't - GROSS

11. LEAST FAVORITE COLOR?
brown

12. EVER HAD DIPPIN' DOTS?
no

13. EVER PLAYED AN INSTRUMENT?
flute, piccolo, saxophone, trumpet/cornet & French horn a little, taught myself piano

14. EVER HAD AN H2O MASSAGE?
no

15. DO YOU BELIEVE IN BIG FOOT?
no - if there were live ones why hasn't anyone ever found a DEAD ONE?

16. EVER BEEN TO A PALM READER?
not a real one - I'm too afraid

17. LAST PEZ DISPENSER YOU PURCHASED?
a Batman for my dad for Christmas

18. HAVE YOU HAD SEX IN YOUR CURRENT CAR?
no - its a standard-issue soccermom SUV

19. DID YOU HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND?
well, I at least had a BETTER weekend (no one died)

20. WHAT ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT RIGHT NOW?
finishing this stupid quiz so I can get my house clean

21. EVER HAD A BLACK EYE?
probably - I was such a tomboy as a kid

22. HOW IS TODAY GOING FOR YOU?
ok (better than yesterday)

23. ANY PLANS TONIGHT?
dunno

24. EVER TAKEN A PHOTO OF SOMETHING DEAD?
Dead alligator roadkill outside of New Orleans

27. DO YOU FIND SMURFETTE SEXY?
no

28. CURRENT DISAPPOINTMENT?
all the deaths in my family

29. DO YOU HAVE AN AIR FRESHNER IN YOUR CAR?
no - and it smells like a locker room in there

30. DO YOU HAVE PLANTS IN YOUR ROOM?
fake ones

31. IF YOU COULD DRINK ANYTHING RIGHT THIS SECOND...WHAT WOULD IT BE AND WHY?
I'm drinking a rootbeer out of my flamingo glass

32. LAST PIECE OF MAIL OPENED?
soccer banquet invitation

33. DOES ANYTHING HURT ON YOUR BODY RIGHT NOW?
feet - always

34. WHAT CITY WAS YOUR LAST TAXI CAB RIDE IN?
Edinburgh, Scotland

35. LAST ALCOHOLIC DRINK YOU HAD?
Newcastle ale

36. HAVE YOU EVER HAD A SONG DEDICATED TO YOU?
no

37. WHAT WERE YOU DOING AT 9PM LAST NIGHT?
watching tv

39. DO YOU EXERCISE AS MUCH AS YOU SHOULD?
of course not

40. DID YOU DO THE DEED ON PROM NIGHT?
yes

This freaked me out

You Should Weigh 155

If you weigh less than this, you either have a fast metabolism or are about to gain weight. If you weigh more than this, you may be losing a few pounds soon!

How Much Do You Weigh?

Luck O the Irish?

You're 40% Irish

You're probably less Irish than you think you are... But you're still more Irish than most.

How Irish Are You?

Hey, at least they gave me a nifty glass of green beer to put on my blog! MoonDoggie's last soccer game was tonight. Maybe I need to knock one back - feeling old and nostalgic.

An inspirational poem from Flylady

"When you come to the edge of all the light you have,
and must take a step into the darkness of the unknown,
believe that one of two things will happen.
Either there will be something solid to stand on --
or you will be taught how to fly."

Reason to Lose

Got our notifications the other day about mine and MyPoolBoys's 20th year reunions. I have fallen behind in my weight loss goal for this year (I wanted to be at 130ish by summer), but I think my emotions and stress haven't helped in my motivation -- well -- the reunion probably will. Not that I want to impress anyone at MY reunion, or even really at MyPoolBoy's -- I just want to look better than the psycho who was chasing MyPoolBoy during HS and made my life miserable since (I will probably never be over it and MyPoolBoy can't seem to understand why). Anyway, she had no room for anything but improvement so she is bound to look better than she did in HS and if she does, then I have to at least have maintained SOOOOOOO I am now back on track and wanting to get down to 140s by June 9th (That's about 1 pound per week -- very doable!) It also would get me on track to be 130s by the END of summer which would be ok for the float trip in July.

Soo gonna dig out the TaeBo and Firm tapes and try to find a way to get to use them in the mornings. TAKS is Tuesday -- get that over with and we'll be on our way!

My results from the Dr. Phil test

My sister-in-law sent me this - I scored a 35, so my range puts these as my resutls:

Others see you as sensible, cautious, careful & practical. They see you as clever, gifted, or talented, but modest. Not a person who makes friends too quickly or easily, but someone who's extremely loyal to friends you do make and who expect the same loyalty in return. Those who really get to know you realize it takes a lot to shake your trust In your friends, but equally that it takes you a long time to get over if that trust is ever broken. (hmmmm MyPoolBoy should really learn to see this side of me!)

Lightning Struck Twice

Last year a player got injured badly enough to go to the hospital at the soccer game. We joked and teased that at least this year I would not have to go home on the JV bus while the coach went to the hospital. Were we ever wrong. The varsity coach told me he really didn't think lightning would strike in the same place twice, but sure enough one of the boys broke his arm in the first half, and I was on the JV bus back from the same place again!

insane

Happy Birthday to Me

Your Birthdate: January 26

You lucked out the the skills to succeed in almost any arena. Put you in almost any business or classroom, and you'll rise to the top. You're driven and intense, but you also know when to kick back and cooperate. Your ability to adapt to almost any situation is part of what's going to make you a success. Your strength: Your attention to detail Your weakness: You can be a little too proud of your successes Your power color: Turquoise Your power symbol: Arrow pointing up Your power month: August

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Rough day - the kids at school were terrible.

. Holding my own

Well I started a new workout, devotional, and housecleaning schedule around the first of the year and have been pretty good about staying on the plan. I am down to 155-156 pretty consistently for the past few weeks, and I think if I really stay with it I could get down to 150 in a few months...I am not going to get in any rush to disappoint myself I'll just take what I can get as far as weight loss goes.

Frosty the Snowman parody

Here are the words my brother, ShallowHal and I wrote to "improve" Frosty the Snowman!

FROSTY THE WINO

Frosty the Wino
Was a jolly, happy soul
With bloodshot eyes and a runny nose
And tattered smelly clothes

Down through the village
With a brown bag in his hand
Stumblin' here and there
All around the square
Mumblin' things you can't understand

There must have been
Some liquor in
That bottle that he found
For when he put it to his lips
He began to dance around

Now Frosty the Wino
Might be a bum, you see
But with a drink or two
To celebrate the yule
He acts the same as you and me!

Empty Well

or blood from a turnip -- however you look at it, I'm drained emotionally.

First of all, we lost our files on our website so all work done since last year is flat-out GONE. Then today I get an email saying that our domain name has been sold off to someone else. So there goes my identity on the web.

Anyway, I tried my hardest this week during the holiday to do some stuff around the house and to get ME some ME time (scrapbooking, etc.). I did get SOME stuff done and feel like I got to unwind a little bit, but after having 12 teenagers take over the house Thursday night and leaving stuff lying around I felt back at square one yesterday and I spent yesterday morning and this morning catching up on dishes and laundry and picking up the living room and dining room.

Right when I'd get on a roll, MyPoolBoy would come in and "hint" that it was time for lunch or dinner and I'd have to drop what I was doing and cook a meal. (not to leave out the morning when he asked me if I was hungry for breakfast -- TRANSLATION: he wanted breakfast and I had to get out of bed and cook breakfast while he laid there and watched tv).

Then tonight MyPoolBoy gets all pissed because he doesn't have as many credits as we thought he did due to some problem with his govt class at OC and the one at CTC. Of course, I am blamed because I am the whole reason he took the CTC class, etc. etc. etc. I completely lost it. I just got in the car and drove off and parked and cried for about 30 minutes solid. They have no idea (especially MyPoolBoy) how much they are taking out of me. I jumped on MyPoolBoy when I got back because I am so tired of being his effin' cheerleader all the damn time. He wants constant success and constant reassurance and I just can't do it anymore...it is wearing me out. I told him since I had stayed up multiple nights typing his research papers while he SLEPT that I would at least appreciate a thank you or something. SOOOOO I've been exhausted working, dealing with his school, trying to keep up the house so that he doesn't have anything to worry about except college and he gets all pissy and does the whole typical overreaction thing that he is going to quit school -- it is just causing me more stress. CRIPES that sends me over the deep end....it's getting really old. More drama than any girl I know. The constant overreaction is so STUPID just STUPID he makes a total a$$ of himself.

Not to mention that I still have to get TrainWreck's stuff lined out for a website (that MyPoolBoy let lapse into nonexistence) to start getting track coaches to come look at him...poor Lurch and Chunk are getting completely ignored, or so I feel...so what do I do? I bend over backwards to pay attention to them and get sidetracked from what I want and need to do and end up feeling guilty and stressed even worse.

You can't get water from an empty well -- I really need to be filled back up spiritually and emotionally. No wonder my blood pressure is ridiculously high. I'm just waiting to die or at least end up in the hospital so I can rest. They have no clue how bad it is.....and I think if they do, they just don't care because it would be too much effort to do something that mom will do later if you just let it sit long enough (including school & paperwork).
Must be nice to be an oblivious male a$$hole.

Office decor and Yahoo blog

First of all .
and bp was 130/80-something this past week
and weight is at 158# (dammit)

Went to Wally world and got some Mary Engelbreit material on sale in the remnant bin and I am going to cover the desk and my treadmill shelf and the office chair with it and put clear vinyl over the desk to keep it clean. Saw the librarian at the other Elem. had done this and it was very cute. Got some black/white check to do a valance on the window and some smaller check to cover the bulletin board and the stool. It ties the whole room together. I am going to go ahead and paint all the walls a lighter color yellow than is in there right now, but it already looks cute just draping the cloth over everything.
MyPoolBoy finished his science class last week, his last history paper today, and got the notes for his algebra final tonight at class. He is almost done with a whole semester! Next he starts speech during Christmas break and then does another semester starting in January. He will probably apply for the aide's job at my campus and hopefully will have time to study and test like he did this past semester at the middle school.
Thunderduck is coming home tonight - a day early -- we haven't told Chunk yet, though. We're going to let him be surprised!
took Lurch to get his late b-day present -- soccer gear. He really thinks that he wants to be goalie. TrainWreck and all the varsity guys he hangs out with took him over to the fields yesterday and shot goals at him and then took him to play Halo with them and hang out at TrainWreck's friend's house.
btw TrainWreck went and got a job at McD's just out of the clear blue -- kinda a good deal, now that I think about it because he will have some running around money since things are tight around here.
L8R = going to go on a quest for cookie dough

I Have a Groupie Story

I forgot I had a groupie story.... Tonight we were watching MTV w/ some show about 80s metal music and they were doing interviews with all these old bands about how they got the girls backstage. So, I will never tell MyPoolBoy this story because he gets jealous over nothing (and this is really practically nothing). Anyway, one of the bands was Quiet Riot. Somehow it brought back this repressed memory (or just old age forgotten memory!) of seeing them in concert back in our old hometown. My friend and I had gone downstairs between bands to get a coke from the concession stand or something and on our way we got called aside by the opening band who had just finished. We got to go as far as the dressing room door and got our ticket stubs autographed -- but we were both too chicken to go in! We just thanked the guys and said we wanted to get back to see Quiet Riot perform. Looking back -- DUH I coulda missed the concert and probably got to hang with the band later, but I was a nice girl with too much common sense.

WOULDA SHOULDA COULDA

I suck as a groupie.

Office

No not the Microsoft software group - I spent the day Saturday cleaning Chunk's old room (since Thunderduck moved out, the boys have done some room-switching). I kept Chunk's desk in there, MyPoolBoy moved my treadmill in, and set up some shelves for my yoga mat and a cd player. It's really nice. So I will eventually get my laptop back onto my treadmill and move the CJ and printer in there. The computer room will be strictly a craft room -- I think it will be nice to have a quiet closed off place to deal with bills or to exercise or work on school stuff. No more working from bed! I am not going to allow myself to NOT relax in my own bedroom. No more reminders of calendars and bills in the craft room. I will probably re-sub to the scrapbooking list and start working on that again regularly. I have GOT to reclaim my personal life!

Another Advertising Rant

I'm no dummy. I can tell when a man is writing what he thinks a woman wants to hear.

The Bounty commercial with the guy making the birthday cake -- well, takes the cake.
FIRST of all, he is holding a puppy. HOLY COW how unsanitary to have this damn dog in the kitchen while you are making my cake. What the hell is wrong with you, you MAN???

SECOND, Mr. Voice thinks that because he is talking all "I'm a white Barry White" that I'm supposed to swoon -- shut up, it's causing me to have an aneurism because my blood pressure is already elevated because you have a dog in my kitchen.

THIRD, OH NO YOU DID NOT JUST WIPE THAT DRY TOWEL OVER THE FROSTING YOU DROPPED ON MY COUNTERTOPS! Get some 409, that's why God invented it. Just spread the sugar mess all over my kitchen so that it gets the sticky all over the countertops and not just where you dropped it. Or maybe you were planning on turning the dog loose on the counter to lick/clean it up.

Apparantly we are supposed to be distracted by the too tight shirt on the guy who is wiping his mess all over the counter -- all that tells me is that the guy screwed up the laundry, too!

Hurricane Rita

Here we are in central Tx and I am surrounded by morons.

Last night, people were waiting in line at a gas station to save 5 cents a gallon on gas -- ok, folks, you have to get 20 gallons to save A DOLLAR! You're probably burning off a dollar's worth of gas just starting/restarting your car to move up in the line!

Now one of our grocery stores is out of bread, water, and eggs. OMG we're all gonna die because we live HUNDREDS of miles away from a storm. What idiots. Let me help -- THIS is a GLOBE...can you say GLOBE? Good. Now see this BIG state? That's Texas. See this star on Texas? That's Austin -- you are on the OTHER side of that star-- see how far the water is from the star? It would have to be a freakin category EIGHTEEN to hit us!

We had a tornado about 10 years ago -- we NEVER lost water and we only lost power for about a day. Why in the name of pete are some 40 mph winds and POSSIBLE thunderstorms turning people into braindamagedroolingdoofuslosers?

Hell, people, Oreos are on sale and NO ONE IS BUYING THOSE!!!!! There's plenty of beer left on the shelves, too! What kind of Texans are you to buy up all the bread and leave the beer????? If this had been an actual emergency, the Lone Star would be gone and women would be selling their first born children for a container of margarita salt.

Nope, no state of emergency, yet.
The local bar was selling 'ritas for 4 bucks each in honor of Rita.
What the hell do you need bread for if you have tequila?

Woman! --- PLEASE (an advertising rant)

Ok, I'm all sorry that heart disease is the #2 killer of children according to the American Heart Association's new ad -- but it must be hard to get a decent ad campaign on limited non-profit funds. This latest one was just not thought out.

Ok - starts with this woman showing pictures of her kids that she wants to put in her family Christmas cards. She goes on to show a picture of a little boy and says something like "we thought we would put this one inside with the message that we had written on his grave marker"
WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?! How morbid, woman. Thank goodness I'm not on your Christmas card list. Did this selfish (yes SELFISH) lady stop to think for a moment that we don't want to be reminded of HER GRIEF during the holidays? People usually have enough grief of their own to deal with. I'm sorry for your loss...don't push it in my face by sending me grave marker sentiments inside a holiday card - GOOD HEAVENLY DAYS.

AHA gets minor points for tugging at our heartstrings to support their cause, but loses way more points for pushing poor etiquette. I swear if I get any cards this year with stuff quoted from tombstones I'll hold them responsible.

Heat Wave

I've been flipping by the channels and keep hitting news stations that are going on and on about the "record-breaking" temperatures and "hottest day of the year"yada yada yada blah blah blah 105 degrees omg we're all gonna die. I'm sitting here thinking...you know down here in Texas we're all just kinda goin' 105 degrees? so what? I was in Europe a few years ago and was trying to explain 116 degree weather to a little Italian girl in the bookstore. by the time we converted it to celsius she just shook her head in disbelief and said "but people would DIE at that temperature" and we all responded "well, some people ARE dying"

anyway = I went back to the fitday stuff from 2 years ago when I was losing weight so well - I went and got some slimfast and smartones meals. No more of this eat 6 times a day bullshit. I was GAINING WEIGHT on that method. What a crock . I'm going back to what I know works - and I have the energy to work out when I do that.
Still no job for MyPoolBoy- the HS said they would interview him next week, so we'll have to wait and see.

Oh, and I got a letter today from Who's Who -- I am going to be in the silver anniversary edition of Who's Who of America's Women!

2 Absolutely Insane Ideas

Ok - I've been yoyoing between for 3 days now. I got this crazy idea while watching Celebrity Fit Club on VH1: I'm going to use the show as a model to chart my progress and set goals. Victoria Jackson is on this season -- she is a former gymnast, also and they have set her weight loss goal as 30 pounds. That's what I want to lose! I also found a MSN group that is doing the same thing, so I signed up. Then, while visiting VJ's website, I found a lot of photos of various places that she has done handstands. So inspiration for insane idea #2: since everyone always complains that I am always the one with the camera and that there are never any pictures of me on vacation, I will start having my picture made doing a handstand every odd place I get a chance. Then I can start a scrapbook of it -- INSANE !!!! I love it!

SO I'm off to lose my first 4 pounds - the goal that Harvey gave VJ for this week. I figure that I can try to hit about 1/2 pound per day.

On a personal level: they have moved MyPoolBoy's company's plant to Mexico -- we had ONE WEEK WARNING! So as of Friday, his last day, he is unemployed. The hopeful news is that there is a theater tech aide position open at the high school -- MyPoolBoy's references for that kind of job include one of the most prominent names in the business community here, the co-founder of the community theater, and the MAYOR of our town! It will be a cut in pay but if we don't have to pay for Thunderduck's insurance and we cut back in a few other places, we might can make the salary situation work. I know he would be happier in a CLEAN job for a change. PLUS theater is something he likes to do and he' d be getting his foot in the door to teaching -- if he can stick it out for 2 years he can get his tuition paid.

Alas, TrainWreck didn't qualify for the AAU Jr. Olympics again this year... but he got his feet wet on the Decathlon and I think he is a little more serious about setting goals for himself now.

ok...to the treadmill