Life is short

I saw this video (it is short, about 4 min) and I really really want this guy to live. Some things hit you when you aren't expecting to be hit...this was one for me. http://video.aol.com/video/video-category/1973821

DO THIS

Hey all---everyone has at least ONE story about their in-laws that they need to get off their chest. Head over to this blog and post your best one--even the best inlaws are outlaws sometimes. http://inlawssuck2.wordpress.com

Really bad watchdog-free to good home

Please note the dog pictured below really really sucks as a watchdog.

While we were sleeping peacefully last night(including the lazy K9 above) S2 was the recipient of a very loving tradition of TP'ing. For those of you that are not aware of the tradition it is when a group of jovial youth purchase roll upon roll of toilet paper and decorate your home in the festive manner shown below.

The actual finished product is much more grand than I can show you here (at the risk of displaying photos of my house, but trust me there wasn't a bush left unwrapped). But let me tell you that S2 knew who did this and found out they used 48 rolls of toilet paper....thats A LOT of TP. Last night there was a girls team sleepover at one of the girls houses. S2 is very popular with the ladies and they all thought it would be fun to give him a day outside cleaning up--thanks girls. But as for Harley, having failed miserably to alert us...he will be spending some time in the naughty chair later today.

Feeling cold and other rants

I woke up freezing this morning. BigD stole the covers once again and Harley had decided that sleeping on my bed is waaay more comfortable than under the bed where he has been sleeping. I am sure it is because he was freezing too. I think if BigD could somehow steal Harleys fur he would have taken that too.

Actually I had a pseudofight with BigD last night as I was falling asleep. He came home po'd that S2 was at work--at a JOB--because he has missed school yesterday. He was mad that I let him go to work. Ok,...on the surface if you don't know the circumstances I could think he might be right. BUT, S2 only has to go for a few classes since this is his senior year and he has taken all of his requirements and he is home every day by noon. In the morning he woke up with what I will politely call, the grumbellies, (for those of you that have no idea what that is, it is a serious case of the shits) and because nothing is worse than having to bolt from class to have diarrhea in a gross high school bathroom, I let him stay home to be near our pristine toilet. By late morning he was feeling better (ie:empty), but the only class he would have been able to attend at that point was art. Nothing against you lovely artists but I thought missing one class probably wouldn't alter his life plans, so I let him stay home.

Now, he didn't need to work till 7 pm so from noon till 7 he chilled around here with me and took it easy and since my thinking is that his employer is counting on him being there, it is his responsibility to go, I let him go to work, honestly without much thought. BigD is of the mind that if you miss school you are grounded to home for the next 24 hours as a punishment. You know the old story of "wheniwasyourageinevermissedschoolforanyreasonanddamnityouhavetogo" blah blah blah. We completely disagree on this point.

God, I just realized I married my father-in-law.

Anyway, BigD (today the D stands for dickhead not darling) comes in ranting at me as I was falling asleep (he was at an outing for the day) that S2 has "no business out running around" HUH? apparently he didn't hear me say he was at WORK, so I repeated and he still says--and I love this... "what if one of his principals saw him working after he wasn't at school today"...I was momentarily stunned into silence then managed a very articulate "WHAT"? Now to really appreciate how ridiculous that is let me tell you that he has over 2500 kids in his school and there are 4 principals and I am sure none of them even know who S2 is much less would care where he was at 7 o'clock on a Friday night....especially since he was at WORK and not out getting hammered at some aftergame party.

Sometimes this marriage thing really sucks.

On a brighter note, today was a beautiful day. I live a part of the country where the weather gets very cold and changes from day to day this time of year and it is only a matter of time before the snow flies. Today was spectacular. I actually closed the office and took one of my magazines outside and relaxed on the hammock. I felt guilty for about 10 minutes then the other 50 minutes I was totally guilt free and had to force myself back inside. I took time to actually look at all my dying plants and remembered that I had taken pix of them a month or so ago so I will post for your viewing pleasure the following photos of what my flowers looked like before these 40 degree nights have sapped the beauty from them.

An example of my life OR do boys ever grow up??????

Yesterday was the home opener of the Cleeeevland Browns vs the Pitttttsburg something and S1 was invited to go....great seats...fun times ahead. S1 watches sports but has really never participated as he is more cerebral than physical. Anyway, about an hour before he was leaving he decided to hit the local clothier for some team apparel. He found a jersey, a hat and a bright orange ski mask. (the teams colors are orange and brown). Since it is 78 degrees here, raining and humid he knew he wouldn't need the ski mask until a later autumn game, but he has a rather wry sense of humor so he bought it anyhow. Here comes the "I am a stupid 18 year old" part..he put the mask on, with the hat over the top and drove home through a couple of neighborhoods, waving at people and yelling "go Brownieeees". When he came through the door dressed in his festive attire we had a little chuckle and shook our heads because, well, he was just being himself.

About 5 minutes after he got home, while he was waiting for his ride, a police cruiser pulled into the drive. Since BigD knows most of the officers in the area, I was certain that one was stopping by for something regarding work...welllllll it seems someone saw a masked crazy person driving down their street, took down the licence number and called the police. Hmmm, seems as though they were afraid that a store had just been knocked off by this orange hooded person. When the officer came to the door, knowing Big D, he was pretty certain that the car that came back to this address PROBABLY wasn't carrying a thief...just a stupid 18 year old boy/man. Sadly, this is the type of thing that happens routinely in this family. Do you think therapy would help?

Goin postal with 1 update below, and the conclusion

If any of you are mail carriers, married to a mail carrier or even like mail carriers you may as well stop reading right now because I am about to piss you off. I have had issues with mail carriers for a very long time. When we lived in our old house about 3 times a week I got someone elses mail. Our address was 255 and theirs was 225..ok, I can see how a mistake can happen periodically but 3 times a week??c'mon!! When I called the postmaster to see what the problem was he told me, and I AM NOT KIDDING, that sometimes they hire college kids on school breaks..HUH? So he was in essence telling me that college students couldn't read. (and by the way dimwit this isn't limited to times where illiterate students are working) The last time they delivered 225's mail to me it happened to be his tax returns from his accountant...and he is a doctor. SO, I called the beloved postmaster and told him that I am sure Mr. Doctor would not be thrilled to know that all his personal data was delivered to someone else (thankfully me, who would not open it). When he started to give me yet another stupid excuse, I told him that I think from now on I will open all the mail I get without even looking at the address label...after all, it must be mine as it was delivered to MY mailbox. He started ranting that it was illegal blah blah blah and I told him he had better start hiring some carriers that new how to count and could read the alphabet. The problem only slowed down after I talked to Mrs. Doctor and told her how often this was happening and she went ballistic. I love this woman. She ripped the postmaster a new one and after that it rarely happened. Then we moved. We are still "in the city" but not. We now have a rural carrier as we have no sidewalks and the houses are all on about 1 1/2 acres the carrier drives. I thought this would be a much better postal situation until I started getting my credit card bills delivered AFTER they had been opened. Yep, you read that right. They had been opened on the top 1/3 of the envelope, just enough to see the account numbers, amount due or whatever else was in that portion of the bill. The first few times I thought it might be an accident (machine malfunction or whatever) but then I started to get worried. I am obsessive about my personal data and began to get suspicious about our mail carrier "peeking" into my mail. Identity theft is a big concern these days. Well, we have a new postmaster, so when I placed my call about my concern I was sure that it would be met with concern and action from him. Yeah, right. He said he that it was probably an isolated incident (so obviously he wasn't listening to me). I told him that it seemed pretty ironic that NONE of the junk mail was ever delivered partially opened, just the mail with important account numbers or personal data. He had no explanation and chalked it up to "one of those things". And for this we are paying a stupid amount of money for postage. No wonder people don't write any more and are using on line bill paying! Now to get to the reason for my current postal rage. Our character, um, I mean carrier, is an odd duck. He refuses to get out of the truck to deliver a package or anything that won't fit in the standard mailbox. He sits in the driveway honking his horn. This is supposed to bring outside whoever is home to retrieve their mail. (Did I mention that he only has 3 teeth and they aren't even in useful spots--I guess his lack of dentitia shouldn't matter, but it really does round out the whole picture, and I wish I had a picture to share because I cannot adequately describe this individual) Yesterday as I got out of the shower just in time to see him pulling out of the driveway. Usually this would be no big deal but he left a little card telling me he had a certified letter for me ...from a very important client of mine...and I hadn't run out to the driveway naked to get it. Swell. I didn't sleep last night worrying about why on earth this account sent me a certified letter. I am very concerned that they may be changing to EMR and if they are, and I lose that account, I will be asking all of you for donations to fund my chocolate habit. The real kicker though is the standard issue postal service notice he left behind it states, and I quote, "we will redeliver or you or your agent can pick up, available for pickup after 9/6 at 8:30 am". Ok, now bear with me and tell me if I should not be confused. Is my letter on the mail carriers truck for horn honking delivery today, or is it at the local facility for me to pick up? Should I leave or should I stay? I just want to know that the damn letter says!!! I will post an update once I find out where it is and what it says. shit. UPDATE #1 Well I guess now I know the answer of whether it will be redelivered or if I need to drive to the main postal facility to retrieve it. The mail person stopped briefly at the mailbox, deposited two pieces of junk mail and sped off. Now I need to find the main postal facility and retrieve what I hope is not a sweet letter telling me that they love me but don't need me any longer. More to follow. CONCLUSION: I know where 0sam@ is hiding! Or at least I found the perfect spot for him where he would never be found. As it turns out my mysterious, loss of sleep letter, was at the sorting facility (which for those of you that don't know, is not a post office). I had to travel 3 separate deserted roads and finally at the dead end of the last road stood the sorting fortress. After parking I had to ring a buzzer, be checked out through one way glass, and questioned as to my reason for being there, all before the door was buzzed open. (Glad to know that my Targ*t bill is in such secure surroundings. ANYWAY~ after proving I was me I was handed a 9"x6" manila envelope. Since they were waiting to buzz me out of the building I waited till I got to the car to open the envelope. Its contents....two identical booklets outlining the policies and procedures of this care facility along with a letter for me to sign, basically stating that I won't hop online and talk about any of the patients. To really get the irony of this, this facility has been a client for over 3 years and this was never done before. All day long I have access to literally hundreds of patient files and I have never, nor would I ever, talk about anyone to anybody. A good example is when Big D came home and told me his coworker Mr.X had told everyone he has cancer. My response was "what a shame" and not "hey I knew that 2 years ago bucko". This mans cancer had metastasized and he was telling people now. I don't ever discuss any of my work with anyone. In fact many of my friends don't know who my clients are because it is none of their business. I am sure most of you have signed HIPAA papers at your docs offices and that is basically what this states. So, I lost a night of sleep for nothing, they still love me :)

What to do?

We have lived in our home for 16 years and had a few neighbors come and go. From the time S2 (son#2--the boys will be referred to as S1, S2, S3 from now on:) was a very little guy he could be found running from our house to the next door neighbors house. They were very nice people with 2 daughters, the oldest being the same age as S2. As families we didn't socialize outside of being friendly neighbors and the occasional grill out on the deck. Mom is a very high ranking executive at a large corporation and dad has a similar position in a different company. (this isn't the reason we didn't spend alot of time together, we just had different life priorities) For awhile, when I was between careers, I did home daycare for other working moms. It was ideal for me as I was able to stay home with my kids and also able to make some money helping other moms that needed a safe, happy place for their kids. Most of the kids I watched had moms that worked part time (though there was an occasional one that felt my role was to raise their children but that is another whole post sometime) and it was a perfect blend of me having what they needed. Frequently when V's (the little girl that is S2's age) grandparents were away, (they were the ones that watched her while her parents were gone) she would come here and play. S2 loved it...she was his best friend and they spent hours and hours and hours on those day and on weekends running around, building forts, hiding in the bushes with walkie talkies pretending who knows what, skating, riding bikes, and on and on. One night when we were eating dinner I asked her what she wanted to do when she grew up. I was sure she would say she wanted to be important like her mom or a doctor like her grandpa but she got very quiet and said "I want to be a mom like you that can stay at the house" BAM. It hit me like a ton of bricks. This little girl had the best of everything but the one thing she wanted...her mom to be home and do the simple things like bake blueberry muffins. She helped me do that one day and was amazed that you didn't only get muffins from the gourmet market! At the risk of devastating her mom, I never told her what she said. Even if I had it wouldn't have swayed her to stay home, she was very ensconced in her executive roll and lived for it. Well, S2 and V were inseparable when V was at home but the parents decided they wanted to live closer to their employers so they moved when the kids were about 12. While S2 and V kept in touch it was difficult because they were too young for constant phoning etc and this was pre-instant messages and texting so they were pretty much limited to the occasional visit and began to lose touch. Once they reached high school, though in different cities, they regained contact and periodically chatted and got caught up. Well, a few days ago S2 found her on Faceb**k and left her a message. He was a bit caught off guard with how she responded. As it turns out, she is in a relationship with another girl. She is completely confident, athletic, popular (she has tons of photos with friends in her faceb**k, including several photos of her with her girlfriend in some intimate poses). S2 was stunned but quickly recovered and it really doesn't bother him at all. I on the other hand was not stunned as I always suspected even when she was younger that her life would take a different path than a lot of other little girls. It all goes back to the nature/nurture question of sexuality. My personal belief is that you are born the way you are. I do NOT believe one can "turn gay" or be swayed one way or the other...you either are or you aren't. I truly think that if someone could turn their sexuality on and off, nobody would choose to be gay, it is still too hard in this world. People are ostracized for being gay and I can't imagine anyone willingly choosing to be slurred, denied opportunities, told they are going to hell, etc. I am very proud of V for having the courage as a young woman to admit to being different than her peers. It had to be very very difficult and I can only imagine the day she told her parents. With the "perfect family" image they always maintained, this announcement had to be totally shocking to them. I would love to know if they have even told their friends...my guess would be that they have not and that makes me sad.