Wednesday, April 20, 2011

7 hour Boondoggle

Last week was L's spring break and I decided to take a breather from my usual mode of planning absolutely nothing and letting her stay in pajamas all week, and put some fun stuff on the calendar.  She went to the zoo, roller skating, and then we took our annual day trip up to the snow.

Normally, Rob comes along and does the driving and takes over on the slopes when my knees give out, but this time he had to work, so my friend, E, said she would drive and we would all go together; me, L, E, and E's son.

The kids were all dialed in in the back seat.  Playing games on their devices, then watching movies on the DVD player and they hardly noticed when around two thirds of the way there it started snowing.  We were aware of the possibility, but you know how those meteorologists are liars and just make things up to torture me, like telling me its going to be 80 when its really 95, and telling me there's a 30% chance of rain when the sun is out.  50% chance of snow showers usually means, "Clear skies!  Have a great day skiing!" but this time it actually snowed. 

The kids thought this was awesome.  They'd never seen snow falling from the sky before, just piles of it on the ground when their parents had respected the weather report and driven up there under blue skies.  But E and I are California girls.  In spite of her Ford Explorer, we were nervous about driving in snow, having to put on chains, or getting snowed in up there.  To the more experience snow person, this was probably nothing to get in a dither about, but we were going 40 and white knuckling it. 

Long story short, we didn't ski or tube, but we did let the kids play in the snow between the lodge and the parking lot for an hour, and then we drove home.  We left at 8 in the morning, were home by 4:30, and had a delicious lunch at Denny's.  Then the kids played Wii for the rest of the afternoon because 7 hours of games and movies in the car wasn't enough. 

I still had fun, though.  E and I had a nice long chat, and my burger was good.  And I crossed Wednesday off the spring break list.

Snow angels in the parking lot

 our view of the kids from the lodge.  Awesome parenting...

Monday, April 18, 2011

Banjo is my Bitch!

People, I may have solved the whole birth control pill mystery, but this remodel thing is sucking up every last bit of creative juice I have.  I have gotten whole educations in kitchen cabinets, appliances, flooring, windows, sky lights, you name it. 

I'm in a bit of a holding pattern now, though.  I may have to go check out some tile, but there are no decisions I need to make or research I need to do, so I can finally get back to the blissful world of laundry and making dinner.  Awesome.

I made a big push yesterday and cleaned up this joint, so I'm not as busy today as I thought I would be.  The laundry machines are workin' hard, and the dust is scared of me, as well it should be.  This afternoon I have to help L with her local history project that we failed to do over spring break.  Just completely forgot about it.  Probably because I was busy looking at pictures of built in media cabinets on the interweb.

You wanna know what I did yesterday?  I had been having trouble with my roomba (named Banjo.)  He started making a ka-chunk ka chunk sound and then would tell me I needed to clean the brushes even though the brushes were completely clean.  I retired him for a while, I just didn't want to deal, and yesterday I said to Rob, "Could you run Banjo, see if he makes the sound, and if he does, fix it?"  Sometimes, even I, feminist, former breadwinner and drip system installer, wants the nearest available male (or lesbian if she possesses these kinds of skills) to fix things. 

I really should know better.

He did turn on the roomba, it did make the sound and tell him to clean the brushes, which he did, twice, even though they were already clean, and then he did some yoga.  I got out of the shower expecting to see him hunched over the thing, screwdriver in hand, tinkering, or at least at the computer doing a little research on what could be going wrong, and instead I found him doing warrior pose in his shorts.

So I did the internet research, I took the whole thing apart with a screwdriver, I cleaned the little gears that the internet told me to clean, with a tweezer! and then I put it all back together and SUCCESS!  Some lesbian Rob turned out to be...

Monday, April 4, 2011

The Fog Lifted, The Angels Sang!

I figured it out, my darlings, I figured it out.

I don't know if you've noticed, but I've been a little out of it lately.  Uninspired, grumbly, tired, irritable, no zeal, no zest, no nothin'.  I haven't wanted to write this blog, and that hasn't happened in the whole TWO YEARS I've been doing this.  Those last few blog posts were dragged out of me by sheer duty to y'all and fear of losing you, and I started to wonder, Is this it?  Am I done?  Do I actually have nothing more to say?  The very idea that I will ever be quiet is ludicrous.  My yap is a force of nature bigger than myself, and I will never shut up.  Even if I'm boring your to tears, even if you've heard this one before, I always have something to go on and on about without the use of commas or personal filters.

So the other day, I'm hanging with one of my homeys, and all I wanted to do is go home and sit on my sofa and cry, and I figured out whats been afflicting me:

The pharmacy changed my birth control pills and sent me generic!  You wouldn't think that a little, blue, low dose pill could reek this much havoc, but mine is a delicate system, all kept in balance by these little honeys, and 18 days of the wrong thing sent me spiraling downward!  I haven't taken a pill since Thursday, and, man,  I am a whole new woman!  Or, at least, I'm the woman I was a few weeks ago.  If I was a whole new woman, I would have picked the model that likes to exercise and has smaller feet. 

Its great to be back, people!  I am awake!  I am smiling!  I am engaged with humanity!  I'm doing laundry, and going grocery shopping, and it doesn't suck as much as it did last week!  And I wanted to write again, which is truly a relief.  I've never had a hobby that has stuck until this blog, and I was really afraid that the well was dry.  But its not!  Halle - freakin - lujah!

Okay so here's the thing.  I keep saying "Have a good one!" to people.  Bagger at the grocery store: "Have a good one!" Mailman: "Have a good one!"  Daughter: "Have a good one!"  Every time it comes out of my mouth I cringe.  My mother used to say this to me as I was leaving for school in a sad attempt to be cool, and now I'm saying it. 

Today I actually said, "Have a great one!"  Must be another effect of the wrong pills; last week I wanted you to have a merely good one, this week I want you to have a GREAT one.  I have to stop, but it keeps flying out of my face!  What is a good substitute?  I don't want to say "Have a nice day."  It just sounds snarky.  So what?  I actually mean it when I tell the bank teller to Have a good one.  I'm a nice person.  I'm sincere.  I sincerely want her to have a good one.  A good what, though?  Day?  Lunch? Commute? Nooner?

I am accepting recommendations.  Have a good one.