Fast and Furious, a review

New model. Original parts.

Have ya'll seen the first one? Faboo I just loved that movie, like I said, I'm a closet grease monkey and can appreciate these things. The second and third one? Waste of time. Didn't even have the same cast in them and without Vin don't even bother talking to me. Waste. O. Time. Now we have the new model original parts, everybody from the first now in the fourth. About time. And do you just love that car in the pic? Yummo, love me some muscle car.

This one has everything in it that you'd expect. Fast illegally modified cars, muscle cars included. Gawd I love me some muscle car. Yeah I know, I'm Asian and should love the imports but really, nah. Don't forget the bad guys, drug dealers, illegal guns, hoochie girls, lots really. Very unrealistic since there were like 200 emaciatedly skinny girls mostly naked in shoddy parts of the city watching illegal car racing. Not one fat chick to be seen. Totally unrealistic. Trust me when I tell you, we got fat chicks in L.A. and they don't hide at home.

The plot line, pretty darn good considering it wasn't anything new and novel. The cars scenes: ROCK. Makes you want to go find yourself some souped up ass hauling car of some sort. It's also one of those movies you want to see on big screen. I watch previews and determine which ones we'll see in the theaters (precious few times we get to go without the kid) and which ones we'll just rent on dvd. This one was determined to be a big screen-er very early on. Oh yeah, fast cars and Vin Diesel? HELLO. I am not into big guys. I am not into big guys with muscles. At all. I like tall lanky men, brunette please. For Vin I make an exception. I wouldn't kick him out of bed for eating crackers. Shh don't tell the Hunney I said that. There were tons of skinny ass hotties with fake boobies in the movie anyway so the guilt factor is real low.

They managed to blend it all really well, flesh out the relationships better, and, I love this one, leave it open for a 5th sequel. The only character I didn't like much was Michelle Rodriguez's, she was just too ghetto for my taste. The good news? She's barely in this one. It's a tale of history, revenge, passion rekindled, all with no sex scenes and LOTS of speed demon driving. There's a disclaimer about 'do not try this at home' or rather 'on regular streets'. It comes way late though, like at the end of the credits late. It was my only complaint about the movie, they should have put that disclaimer sometime when people were actually in the theater to see it right?

But that's it. Other than that I think most people who like fast cars and Vin will love it. Just look at the car in that photo. Damn that's a hot car...

Loving

Stephanie over at Chocolate and Whine had a post up of things she is loving. It's a good positive step for her, she's been having it rough and sometimes it's hard to see good things when you are wallowing in the bad. Ever notice how much easier it is to wallow in the bad? One of the many bad qualities we have as humans I think.

Anyway she invited us to follow and list the things we are loving. I'm going to go one step further and include my variation on some of the things she listed too...

Summer
Damn I had forgotten just what the heat is like in Texas. We've had warm days on and off for the past month at least but they really were just warm days. In the 80's mostly and here that's just spring. We had one day last week where you walked outside and BOOM it hit you like a wall. And I thought "Oh yeah, now that's what I'm talkin' bout!". That's summer in Texas. Lots of people don't like it and I know there are days where it is annoying but it feels good. Like a huge warm bankie and your skin tingles. No I didn't always like the heat but I've lived in the snow belt for a bit and I'll take the sun, even the raging heat, anyday. BTW, for whatever reason (Mother Nature is pms-ing?) it was ass biting cold today damn it.

The smell of spring
The smell of spring in every place I have lived has been different. Maybe that's because the native plants in So Cal, Nor Cal, Metro Washington DC, and Texas are all completely different. Surprised? I didn't think so. Seriously, like big time. Here in the hill country of south central Texas it smells like grape Kool Aid, no lie. It's the Texas Mountain Laurels that are just a wonderful plant that thrives in our desolate climate and still manages to produce these scrumptious flowers that bloom in falls and look like wisteria but smell like grape Kool Aid. I love them. Occasionally you get a whiff of jasmine too, it does well in our area. They are all almost done blooming (as are the Redbuds, gawd I love those blooms), soon it will be the crepe myrtles. They don't have any smell that I know of but they sure do look pretty. Make a huge mess but look pretty in the mean time. They don't do as well here as they do in the true south but they do well enough.

As long as I'm on smells I'll let you know about one of those strange ones I always had a thing for. I don't know if I spent too much time as a vet tech or I'm just odd. Probably both actually, but I love the smell of those corn chip dog feet. Strange much? Yeah. I've loved my dogs throughout my life (tyrannical as they all have been) and when they are content and lying on me on the couch/bed/someplace they are so not allowed to be, they get warm and happy and smell like corn chips. It's their feet, I know it but it's still a happy dog smell so I like it. It's a dog person thing I suppose. BTW, not all dogs have the same smelly feet. I've noticed that german shepherds don't have feet that smell like corn chips. Another reason they are not my preferred breed I suppose. That and the hair, gads.


The Jeep
Again, I'm following Stephanie's lead on this, just with opposite taste. She loves her Corolla, I had to choose between a Corolla and the Jeep when I was buying the car. I tried to love the Corolla, really I did. I owned a 4 Runner and I think Toyotas are fabulous cars. The Corolla just did not do it for me at all. That drivers seat was the most uncomfortable seat I've ever felt in a car (I used to own a 1960 something International Scout so that is saying something no?) and it had no guts what so ever. I just could not go from a six-er to a four banger. I tried but no, I couldn't give up the power. I learned to drive in a truck, had a car for my teen years and it was a cute little car for a little teen girl. After that I had maybe 1 more car and then went back to trucks. None were 6 cylinders though. I didn't move into a 6 until I bought my first automatic in 2002 or so. Again, a truck. I didn't like the hubby's first Jeep, I was too pregnant and it is not made for short pregnant people. Oh lordy no.
I am not pregnant now so I have the pleasure of starting off on the right foot in my relationship with our new Jeep. Now mind you what I love most about the Jeep is not necessarily the Jeep itself. It's the Jeep courtesy. Everybody waves at you when you are in the Jeep. They start up conversations with the kid when she's in the back and the top is down. It's so cute and really fun. When other people in Jeeps (CJ's, not the hard top version either) pass you they always wave or give you a high 5 from a distance. It's like belonging to a club. Like owning a cool car rather than a minivan. It's so not the mom car I should be driving. For that alone I love it.

Going to grown up movies with my Hunney mid day
We don't get to do it often, we normally go with the kid because well, she's our kid and she's normally with us. My mother decided she wanted to spend this Saturday with her so the Hunny and I got a chance to go see grown up movies. It was Fast and the Furious, I have a thing for cars ya know. Given half a chance I'd be a grease monkey and I'd be a damn good one too. It was good and we loved the adult outside time together. I'll review it for ya'll soon, promise. It was good.

A Cowboy Angel

A blogging girlfriend of mine, Kim from Cowboys, Kids, and Sunsets, has posted lately of a tragedy in her close world. A young friend of theirs has passed. A husband, father, friend, cowboy and she is doing something to help out his wife and sons. A fundraiser, a donation of sorts to the family. Kim has created a beautiful glass pendant that comes with a poem written by A Cowboys Wife to commemorate him and his life. She calls it A Cowboys Halo and the pictures are of the front and back.

I just love this pendant, it's made of glass so I can actually wear it. FYI I am allergic to metal, it's a terribly annoying allergy that makes it impossible for me to wear earrings and most jewelry, oh and belt buckles too. This though, I can wear. Plus it's just beautiful and while I did not know Brad I know that his family needs all the love and support they can get at this point in their lives. I danced with death when I had my aneurysm and the support my family got from our friends was incredible. Our friend Candace gathered up all of the parents and got donations from them for food and gift cards for my hubby and kid while I was in the hospital and I tell you what, we could not have survived with out them.

For this I am posting her help for her friends on my blog too, getting the word out there. I encourage you to do the same, pass the link along to anyone you think might be willing to help. The pendant and poem is selling for $20 and Kim has the link on her blog. I'd do the link-y thing if I were computer savvy but alas, it's beyond me.

I finally went there

I avoided it for a good long time but it was on sale so I figured it was now or never. If you haven't noticed (and I don't know how you couldn't) I don't do anything to the pictures I post. It's not because I don't want to, it's more a lazy point. I'll take pictures, I used to even download the pictures. Now I just pass the camera to the hubby and have him upload them to his Photobucket account so I can access them on any computer in the house. I.E. I can sit on the couch with the laptop like the lazy ass I am and post from the reclining position. I know, it's bad.

The laptop I use is a wee little 15" Dell from, 2002? It's old. It has no memory, like 512 maybe? Not enough to put Adobe on, too big. The poor thing is going to kick off and die at any moment. It's battery doesn't last 5 minutes when unplugged so it's a laptop but it's permanently plugged in so not very 'portable'. Kinda sad excuse for a laptop but it's my fav. I love it to death and I will cry when it dies. Trust me, you'll hear it from whatever far reaches you are at when the time comes.

So Costco had a coupon last week, $30 off Adobe Elements. I have always known I need to eventually make the big leap form no picture modification whatsoever to whatever the hell it is people do to make their pictures look pretty. OK not really but damn it everyone else is doing it right? I actually mentioned to the hubby, not 1 day before I saw the coupon, that I would like to get it for my birthday (it's in May, one must plan ahead if one wants to get prezzies that one likes). When I saw the coupon it was like, oh hell just get it now because damn, $30 off? Hell yeah! I'm a girl, it was a sale, it had to be.

I've owned it for a week now. It's still in it's box, downstairs even. I told you I'm lazy. There is a reason though, I can't figure out what computer I want to put it on. We have 2 desktops upstairs. "Mine" and "His" and they each serve their own purposes. Mine was hand built by me, it has no speakers so no one uses it. The kid and the hubby play games and that requires sound so they use his Dell. I use the laptop. My desktop is mainly there for storage of photos because that's where I used to download them all. I should really just get a 1T or 2T portable hard drive and download all of those pics huh? You'd think I'd just go with installing it on that computer but there's a catch. The hubby wants a newer computer to run the newer computer games that his Dell is too old and slow to support. I will then transfer all of those photos to the Dell.

See the dilemma? If I put the Photoshop on the Dell I won't have much access to it until the hubby moves up to a nicer pooter. He doesn't get one of those until he gets a new job with a 'real' paycheck.

I tell you what. When I get this thing on a computer I'll let ya'll know. Then you can totally make fun of me for having a Photoshop 3 versions out of date. Deal? Yup, this is me, get used to it.

I know I've talked about the old hood before

but there are just some times when you see something and it all comes back at you. I posted awhile back, ok maybe it was just this past February, about the old hood. It was, however, more of a criticism of how it isn't all that. That wasn't entirely true, it's kinda all that. Sometimes. I was on Facebook and an old classmate of mine, like really old, like elementary school old, like what omg almost 30 years ago old. Yeah I know, I am just that old. He had posted a steam of like 35 pictures of my old hood. And when I say hood I mean exactly where I grew up. Like I have baby pictures of me in the sand and on the jettys there.

Like most large cities there are neighborhoods in San Diego that are each very distinct. Since I had never been anywhere else as a child I did not know how wonderful and unique Ocean Beach was (we all call it OB, there's a bunch of different beach communities in San Diego). Ocean Beach is very small, it's the upper west side of a peninsula that is part of San Diego. If you have ever driven interstate 10 west it turns into interstate 8. The very very end of interstate 8 is where OB begins. And not far off from that is where you'd hit the Pacific Ocean. I'm talking like 6 blocks and then it's ocean. Back in the 70's it was a kinda of hippie place, the co op that existed back then that my mom and I stocked shelves at to earn groceries still exists but it's sleek now. Not the funky patchuli and wood place worked by stinky dread locked hippes that I remember. It is home to San Diego's last head shop, The Black. The owner actually lived 2 houses down from us for awhile when I was a kid. OB is so hippie that in 2001 Starbucks rented space there to open a store and it was seriously protested. Seriously. It didn't work though but then again neither did most of that hippie crap from the 60's and 70's. Go figure.

What I remember though is being a child of a college student and a working dad and everyone hung out and smoked pot. All the time. I didn't know parental types did anything else to enjoy themselves. All this kid-centric stuff we do out here in suburbia? None of that. The back yard bbq's served brownies that we kids couldn't eat. It was different but none of us kids knew it was different because we didn't know anything else right? I had forgotten how poor we were too until another elementary school classmate reminded me. He was talking about how he'd spend the day collection cans and it would get him enough money to buy dinner. And I thought, damn we were really poor weren't we? Ah well, you can't control your childhood of days past.

The up side was OB really was an amazing place and we had available to us some absolutely beautiful places to enjoy.

This is the OB pier, the longest pier in San Diego. This is the north side of the pier, all of OB's beaches are north of this pier.


This is the view of the south side of the pier, the tide pools reside here if you are there at low tide. I really have got to take the kid here someday, tide pools are awesome.


See here, this is further in the tide pools...


All those lovely crevices hide a variety of life form, see...


As you move further south in the terrain becomes cliffs, Sunset Cliffs to be specific. Not all are accessible by walking down from the pier. Sometimes you have to scale the cliffs. These areas have wonderful surf spots and beaches that are unknown to tourists and can only be reached because someone was nice enough to tie a rope to a big big rock that you could use to repel down the side of a rock formation. Yeah I know, just ready to hop down one of these cliffs aren't ya? It's worth it though, these places are lovely.
Here's a little blurb that explains the names of these little 'beaches':
Garbage Beach at Ladera Street is named for the large amounts of odiferous kelp among its rocks. Built-in stairs lead down the cliff to this beach. Beware; the descent is very steep. Two other beaches — No Surf Beach (Hill and Froud Streets on Sunset Cliffs Boulevard) and New Break Beach (south of Point Loma Nazarene College) — have no identified route leading down to the water’s edge. Trails to these beaches exist, but finding them can be challenging.
Challenging, hah, you should try it when you're dragging a 3 yr old and all of the crap one brings to the beach with said nugget. Precarious at best.



No place is without it's faults, growing up in OB was obscure at best. I just saw these photos and I swear it all cam back to me. We lived a 15 minute walk from this beach. I spent most of my childhood on this beach while my mom surfed, this beach could entertain me for hours. Good thing too.

Tech-ing with Dad

The night before a day at the paintball field is usually spent
1) Gathering all needed accoutrement, both clothing and marker related, to make the day worth going. You forget your air tank, batteries, knee pads or cleats and forget it, you might as well turn around and go home. Forget your mask? Why did you even bother getting in the car? When we lived in San Diego our home field (the ones our friends own) was in Ramona. A 45 minute drive out to the middle of NOWHERE. You for get something you didn't even bother driving home. You just hung out with people and socialized because by the time you drove home the day was over so you might as well make some friends. We are 'seasoned' enough players that we no longer (normally) make big mistakes like forgetting our masks or cleats. Airtanks, well we have extras. And 2)The night before, after everything else has been packed up or set out, is then spent tech-ing the markers. Our paintball markers are electro, they kick ass but are also very sensitive and need occasional tweaking.

Our paintball markers of choice are AKA, mine is a red Featherlight Viking, his is a gray Excal. Mine even has a name, she's Valerian. His has been broken for going on 3 years now. We have a friend who is a higher lever of marker tech than the hubby is. The Excal has programming issues of some sort, in other words it's not some mechanical problem we can fix. On Saturday I finally got the hubby to re-assemble the Excal and I sent it on to California to get tuned up. Yay! That was the only thing keeping me from sending that marker off for 3 years. It's been in pieces and the wires would break if I just stuck it in a box like that. Our friend will fix it up nice though and it'll be awesome. The hubby had been using an 06 Angel Speed for the past year or so. He used Valerian 2 Saturdays ago (yes, I let him use my marker, yes I stayed home and watched the children for 2 Saturdays in a row) and has decided that it's time to go back to AKA. I suspect Valerian will be seeing a lot more field time which is good. Lord knows I won't be using her anymore. Brain surgery + paintball = bad.



So now when the hubby sits to work on his paintball stuff with tools the kid has figured out she can disassemble her toys with the same tools. They must have sat at that dining room table for 2 hours tech-ing. Please note, that is a lovely dining room table that has probably been used, 5 times in 3 years. Maybe. We have a breakfast nook with a table that seats 4. 5 if we drag in one of the tables from the dining room. As far as I'm concerned tech-ing on it is great, it's almost useful. I don't know about ya'll but with the advent of the breakfast nook I think we've made formal dining rooms a redundancy. Father-daughter tech bonding time? Makes the dining room worth it.

OH! I promised a picture of the kid without all of her front teeth. How do they eat!?

Master Peeps theater...

(the image is called Peep show and yes, I just stole it off the www somewhere)
Go, look, admire...
I just love what some people can do with candy
Cake Spy Master-Peeps theater
I also have an old fav, since I am a scientists and can appreciate experimentation for the sake of, well, experimentation. Behold, Peep Research:
Peepsearch
Scary results to say the least.
And have you seen what Bakerella has done with them recently? Ah the artistry!

Reviews!

A friend of mine runs/has a website, Comicsonline.com, which is less comics and more games/dvd kind of message board. He gets pre-release dvds and has a group of people review them and put their reviews up on the website. The dvds are free promotionals from the companies, oddly comic sellers don't do this so the 'comics' part of the forum isn't as prominent as you'd think from the name. The hubby and I have known this friend since high school and at some point last year we volunteered (he asked us maybe?) to review some films for the site. Some of these movies are mainstream, others are more obscure. All are free so it's no real hardship for us. We're movie freaks and well, we need little to no excuse to write (really obviously I don't) so this is a no brainer for us. We have had old things like the newly released digitally remastered Breakfast a Tiffany's (I'd never seen it and I didn't realize she essentially played a call girl, interesting) and new things that are absolutely horrid like Marie and Bruce. That was just an awful waste of 90 minutes. We last did Marley and Me which was cute. Nothing I'd go pay money at the theater to see but cute none the less. Oh and we reviewed the IRC Goth Cruise, I think that was our first. Kevin (the site owner) knew we were goth in high school, he picked us special for that one. We loved it, a total classic for anyone who has ever been in the scene.

Saturday night we watched movie another to review, The other end of the line. It was ADORABLE. Total chick flick but the hubby, you know I always say I married a woman. He loves chick flicks so it's all good. This one made up for the last 2 we watched and had to review that were terrible. I highly recommend this one to everyone out there. It's so funny even your respective other will find amusement in it. The story is about a call center girl in India (that does an amazing American accent) who has a client that she kind of falls for over the phone. She does not tell him she's in India, instead she says she's in The City. For those of you not from California, San Francisco is never referred to as SF, San Fran, or Frisco. Never. Ever. It is always called The City, capital T capital C. I have no idea why, even us Southern Californains who have no respect for Nor Cal call it The City. He ends up going to The City for business and asks if he can meet up with her. She accepts, goes there, wimps out and meets him accidentally after deciding to go home without seeing him. They hit it off and it's lovely and then, of course, it all falls apart because he finds out she was lying.

Her family came looking for her in the US and it's the same hilariously embarrassing encounters of the worst kind like you'd expect. Little side humor that you get in movies like My Big Fat Greek Wedding (another great flick, if you haven't seen it do so). There are somethings that cross all racial barriers, family you'd like to hide in the closet being at the top of the list.

This is the trailer, I watched it after I saw the movie and I swear it is like the whole movie in micro form. If you think it looks cute here you'll love the movie. Well I think you'll love the movie any way.
Watch the trailer then rent it.

Guilty pleasures.....

I try to not splurge all that often. I try, it doesn't always work. We get Starbucks coffee every morning at work, delivered by the pharma reps so it's not like the practice pays for it or anything. It's only supposed to be for the providers (the doctors and the nurse practitioners) but they never ever finish the stuff. I sometimes partake because I kind of straddle the line between 'them' and 'us'. Your average medical assistant or any assistant in a doctors office has a high school degree and something like 6 months of training. And by training I mean they know how to take blood pressure and temperature, the rest they just muddle through and get to know what their doctor wants. Kinda scary huh? Since I have a college degree and years of experience at what I do I fall into a sort of middle ground. I am 'in charge' of the mass spectrometry department there, population 1. We'll eventually hire another person but I'd only be a supervisor to them by way of seniority and really nothing more. So when I feel like I want a cup of coffee I don't bother with the nasty stuff they brew for everyone else, I go for the Starbucks.

Mind you I don't normally drink coffee. At all. The hubby is addicted to it. Bad. He went to his mom's house for a week and after day 3 of drinking their coffee in the morning he was looking at his eyes in the mirror and realized he had dark circles underneath. Turns out she had switched to decaf and didn't tell him. It hurts you know, cutting a man off his addiction. Me, if given a choice I'll take decaf. Neither makes a difference for me, I just use a bit of coffee for taste. Did I mention that the box of Starbucks comes with a cup of creamer? Here's my usual coffee mix:

20-25% coffee
20-25% sugar
the rest of the cup is filled with creamer
then I heat it up for about 20 seconds in the microwave because the creamer is cold and liquid coffee candy tastes best hot.

I am lucky that no one else uses the creamer in any quantity of note because then I might feel guilty. Well maybe not but still. I don't know what the calorie content of this liquid is but I bet it's higher than it's caffeine content. I think I should be embarrassed about admitting I do this about 3 days a week but really, it's only bad if you add a donut. The hubby's favorite coffee drink is a Starbucks venti white chocolate mocha. Do you think that is a higher or lower caloric content? According to the website it clocks in at 470 calories, 170 from fat, 150 mg of caffeine. Wow. A regular blend coffee from there had 5 calories and 330 mg of caffeine. They don't list the creamer, huh interesting. They list milk though as 260 calories, 60 fat. I'm going to make a blind guess here that cream is going to be higher than that, whatcha think? Yeah. My mix seems to have the same caloric content as the hubby's but with higher caffeine content. Oy maybe I should switch to decaf before I become an addicted....

Last weekend

We don't have a lot of friends here, no time I suppose, so our rare weekends we have together (hubby has that stupid schedule of 4 days on 4 days off so it's not often) we don't really do much. This past weekend we were BOOKED. The hubby wanted to go paintballing with a friend from work (who brought his 12 yr old son too) and the last time they went they took his friend's 5 yr old daughter too since the wife was at work. I decided to be nice and tell them they could leave his girl with me and the kid so she didn't have to be bored senseless all day at the field. I can be nice. Sometimes. As long as the hubby doesn't get used to it.

So his friend and the family he belongs to came over Friday night to work on their paintball markers (those damn things always need work) and I got to meet them all. See, I invited a kid over to take care of her and I didn't even know her. It was a milestone ya'll, mark it in your calendars. The girls got along well and partied all night. Really, like until midnight when they left. She was dropped off the next morning when the boys came over to pick up the hubby and the girls played all day long. It was nice, I didn't have to do a damn thing really. Just an occasional feeding. Hell they were easier than the dogs. When the boys came home they took their kid, went home to clean up, then all came back over for dinner and hung out all night long. Their daughter wanted to spend the night and I volunteered to get pizza for everybody (I love Costco pizza, cheap and HUGE) so back they came for another all nighter. Yeah we were on a roll last weekend. The girls we managed to get in bed by 10:30, they were tired. We all stayed up a bit later since we were making their son a D&D character.

Oh yeah did I mention my hubby's co-worker was like his brother from another? Which is terribly funny. My hubby has another guy friend (known since high school think) that we refer to as the ex-wife because they are just like a married couple but since they are both married we had to come up with another title. This new friend fits same kind of role so now we call him the hubby's girlfriend. That's just wrong isn't it? Especially since they work at a prison together. See how wrong that is? So this new girlfriend, he's played Dungeons and Dragons too. So guess what? We are now starting a campaign. At least this time we'll probably be able to go all the way though it since they both have the same schedule and the kids aren't a problem. Girlfriend's son will be playing with us and the 2 girls will be occupying themselves doing whatever. As long as there's no blood I don't care.

By Sunday night though we had to go to another party, a bbq at another friend's house. It was cool, I brought the cupcakes I had the girls ice when they were with me all Saturday. I used food coloring to make them pink, green, blue, yellow, and purple icing out of cream cheese frosting so the cupcakes were very psychedelic. Hey it was entertaining and they tasted the same. We brought over the hubby's paintball guns and a plethora of hoops to play with. In the pic he's teaching one of the kids how to shoot at the target, my hoops are laying all over the place (I'm hooping to the right you just can't see me) and the girls are plotting in the background. Girls do that.

This weekend seems to be looking much like last weekend only the bbq will be at our house on Sunday. It's the hubby's birthday so he may (or may not, who knows) go paintballing again. I may or may not have more than one girl child this weekend. All I know is that I'm planting my other 4 roses. We managed to fix the sprinkler line this past weekend that we broke while cleaning out the front flower beds the previous weekend. Every single time we work in that yard we hit something, the neighbors cable line, the sprinkler, the sprinkler line, the sprinkler wires, our yard is like a minefield 3 inches down. Why they didn't bury them a bit deeper is beyond me. We are now the masters of underground sprinkler repair. Necessity is the mother of invention. Or maybe learning by destruction, ya got me.

Sometimes they give up, and there's nothing you can do

We have a dog in rescue right now, a very hard case. The original foster parent gave him up to another foster parent that takes the hard cases. Ms. E is does of a lot of stuff in the rescue and has a really hard job. Her heart is totally in all of the dogs and the hard cases, the really sick ones especially. Puppies that have incurable heart problems, old ones so cranky they can't stop biting people or other dogs. In this case the dog has inflammatory bowel disorder (IBD). His tummy gets so upset he can't hold anything inside him long enough to absorb any nutrients. I've had a dog like this in the past. He wasn't such a bad case though. This poor guy got to his present foster home already emaciated, we don't know how long he'd been like this and ultimately, it doesn't really matter.

His present foster mommy hand makes his food and make sure he eats at least 3 times a day. I asked the all important question, that is, Does he want to live? Her answer was 'sometimes'. Not exactly what I wanted to hear but it isn't always. That was last week. Today she had even harder news, we don't think he's going to make it. He has once again stopped eating, he's anemic, and his intestines are filled with fluid. She says he smells awful. I think it's because he's dying on the inside. Kind of like what happens with parvo virus only in slow motion. Really, can you blame the guy for not wanting to live? He's in pain and the only thing that will save him (eating) is causing him more pain. And really there's no cure for IBD, it is one of those things where you find something they can eat, give them steroids long term to help with the inflammation, and hope for the best. We think this guy is just too far gone and his system will not stabilize.

We didn't want to see this prognosis. We were hoping we could get some weight on him and get him on to making him more stable. His foster mom right now is devastated. She just lost her own dog not too long ago and it's just too raw a time for her. But this is why we are in rescue and this is why she gets the hard cases. She is close enough to them to know when it's time to let go. No one wants to make the decision to put a dog down but we also don't want to keep it alive if all it is doing is suffering. This is why the first thing I asked her was if he wanted to live and why I was not thrilled with the 'sometimes' answer. Not all of the volunteers in rescue are experienced enough to know when it's time, that is why she gets the hard cases. It takes its toll though and one person can only handle so much. I wish this one had enough fight in him for the long haul but it seems as though he's too far gone.

These are the trials and tribulations of rescue and why the people you see in it are all crazy. Big hearts but really, we're not all up there you know?

Random observations (and whatnot)

So I have yet to get that picture of that HUGE hole in my child's front whreteethshouldbe space. We were busy yesterday trying to come up with her last homework assignment. They need to come up with a team name for their class during the field trip. Texas, where everything is related in some way shape or form to sports. We are bucking that trend though. She wanted to use the teacher's name, like Mrs. T's team or something. I told her she should call them Mrs. T's minions. She was talking about how the kids could get a bit raucous so that's where my idea came in. And yes, she knows what a minion is. We let her watch 1 Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode (YES WE DO watch it, own every episode too, don't even start with me) Once more with feeling, it's the musical episode. It has a demon and lesbian sex (no pictures though, just the suggestion) so it's not something we let her friends watch when they come over but it did give her an introduction to demonology. And less than normal couples. Yes, we have discussed the idea of homosexual marriage with her (we are proponents of it) so that she understands what they are talking about when bumper stickers say stuff like Marriage's biggest danger is divorce or somesuch. Those stickers make no sense to a 7 yr old kid without giving her some back story. OK and all this so that you know my kid is writing her teacher that she thinks they are obnoxious kids and should be called minions. If Mrs. T thought long enough about it though that would make her the demon. I like her, lets hope she just automatically dismisses our idea, yeah? OK yeah.

Today's observations:

1) Baby Phat's small scrub pants are a true size small. Unlike Cherokee scrubs that are more of a m/L. Trust me, there's a difference.

2) During that time of the month I am a true size medium. I know, this is so stuff you want to know right?

3) The combination is kind of amusing. The fact that I find it amusing should bother me. It doesn't. Makes it harder to go pee because my hips are just way too wide for this pair of scrubs but at least my belly is not. Odd how that works....

4) Subject change, I find Jeep Courtesy to be fun. I love the fact that when I drive with the kid and the top down all kinds of people talk to her too. Driving with the top down is like putting up a sign that says "I'm cool, you want to talk to me because I rock". It makes little to no sense to me but I like it.

5) Did you know those converted mini coopers with the Red Bull can on top have Red Bull inside that they will chuck out the window to you if you want some? That shit is expensive, I'm surprised they aren't stalked more often. I saw one yesterday (from California no less ) with 2 little blonds inside (if I were tacky and brutally honest I'd say 2 ditzy blonds but I'm only slightly pms-ing today) and people were totally pulling up to them in traffic and getting all kinds of free Red Bull.

6) Red Bull should do that with Jeeps instead of mini Coopers, we'd have the corner on the cool market. They've done one as a VW but it was a hard top. They need to do it topless, that is where the cool factor is at.

Kinda scary the things I find entertaining isn't it?

Misc. ramblings....

I have a few posts in mind but really, what are they without pictures? So for those you'll have to wait, I'll have pics of the HUGE gap in my daughter's lack of front teeth soon (yeah, she lost another and can't eat worth a damn). Today you get my random musings, observations of nothing. Kind of like a Seinfeld episode (who the hell wasted their time watching those stupid shows?). First off, I got the kid to school on time. A first for this week, she was late yesterday. This is the norm when I take her to school, I'm a bad mom. I've been driving the Jeep with the top off because it's the only way I get any pleasure out of driving the pain in the ass. The hubby loves it, me not so much. I had him put the top up last night (because I'm short and it's a bitch to do when you're short) since they were calling for rain today. Mind you, it was 85 degrees and stupid bright and sunny yesterday. Freakin Texas weather. I guess I shouldn't complain though, others up in the Dakotas and whatnot are getting inches of snow. Screw that yo, I stick to the skitzoid sunbelt thanks. So I get the kid ready for school. She is putting on her shoes and I am looking outside. It's damn windy and kinda cloudy so I know weather is coming but that's why I had the hubby put the top back on the Jeep right?

By the time the kid finally gets her shoes on, yeah it takes awhile, it's raining. I let her go like 6 months with slip on tennis shoes and apparently tying ones shoe laces is not like riding a bike. You can forget.... Anyway it's raining pretty damn hard all at once. OK, it's Texas, we're used to this. We get in the Jeep, pull out of the garage (oh yeah, we use our garage for our cars, novel huh?) and get the kid the 1/8th mile to school, the rain is making odd sounds on the car. No really! I've never actually driven in hail before and certainly not in a soft top. The kid is squealing like she's being beaten in the back seat. Not sure why so I had to tell her to shut it. Annoying when you're in line behind 1000 soccer moms trying to drop off their children in the rain and hail. Because, as we all know, rain makes it so people, straight up, can't function. Morons. Soccer moms are bad enough drivers normally, no water needed. It was chaos. Good thing I was there early huh? I then go back home, put Jeep back in the garage but of course the hail is over. I get ready for work, leave and it's barely drizzling. I guess the parents were being entertained by mother nature only while dropping off kids and that was to be the end. I know this because I have been outside for lunch and you know what? It's beautiful out. 71 and sunny, should be 80 by 4pm. Hello, this isn't the Dakotas that's for sure. It'll be in the mid 80's until Saturday when it'll be 90. YEGAK. Ah Texas...

Moving on, I won one of those blog giveaway thingies. First time ever! It was through Primp and Tell. OK ya'll know I don't actually put time into how I look when leaving the house right? My hair goes into a pony tail (so I don't have to blow dry) and I wear scrubs every day of the week. Recently I have been considering wearing make up. Get out. No I'm serious. And we'll see just how serious if/when? I actually do it. Mid thirties and just starting to consider being girlie, what has the world come to? I do own everything I need btw, I just find my morning sleep to be precious and already get to work an hour later than most. Adding stuff to the morning routine will only happen if I don't have to lose sleep for it. Yeah, we'll see how that works out right? The thingy I won was a plumping lipcolor. Do ya'll know how big my lips are already? I may end up looking botoxed but I am still game for the adventure right? Plus these gals gave it to me for free so I have to give a shout out to them. I've read some of their back pages and I am going to try a few things out too. This eyeliner (I already bought it even, it sits there waiting for me to make the effort...) and I want to try this scrub too, mainly because the packaging is adorable. And last but not least this foundation, but I have a foundation love so it's going to have to be awesome. I went and got the magazine for this mascara deal but they didn't have the mascara. I'll have to go to some other stores it seems...

All right was that random enough for ya'll? Yeah once my brain gets more organized I will post about my busy ass weekend I had last weekend. Really it's Tuesday and I already feel like it's Thursday, that's how busy it was. And can I just say? I think this is going to be a loooong week.

I knew I’d never have her patience, role models part II

But it was at least something that I could set as a goal. Points for trying right? As I watched Tabitha interact with her children I saw what a mother was supposed to be. I had never really seen it before. My mother, from as far back as I could remember, had no patience with me. She would tell me I was mean. That I was a mean mean child and no one liked me because I was so mean and I didn’t socialize well. Can you see the vicious circle with this one? Tell this to a 5 yr old and they are going to be terrified to socialize. They are told they are a mean child that no one wants to play with well then they aren’t very likely to have the self confidence to go out and make friends now are they? So this was the example I had growing up. I didn’t go over to other kid’s houses much, my parents chose to raise me in a beach community. Partying college crowd had few to no children so I was limited in selection. There for I had no other parenting role models. When I started to hang around Tabitha more and more often I got to see her interact with her children and as much as she said her parents were less than stellar (and I’m sure they were) they must have either a) had a helluva lot more parenting skills than my mother or b) Tabitha somewhere in herself had the patience of an angel. I have no proof but I’m betting on the latter. We all have our shortcomings but as far as I’m concerned if you can be an awesome parent then you’ve made it in the world. And if you fail completely due to lack of trying you are a total waste of oxygen.

Tabitha would be with her son (the oldest) and he’d be wild or crazy and she’d just calmly talk him down. She didn’t chase him like a dog that got out, there were no threats of beatings, and even better, no insults. She’d always tell them that she loved them and hug them or kiss them or even better both. My first look at positive reinforcement parenting. Did I ever tell you guys that I (like my crazy dog) don’t like being touched? And no, my mother didn’t love on me, she didn’t let me sit next to her and snuggle, she’d get up and leave. I didn’t realize this until my dad told it to me like a few years ago. He was the only one I snuggled with because he was the only one that was willing to do it. To this day, even when getting off the phone, if I don’t say I love you to my mom she won’t. Sometimes I even surprise her like she doesn’t want to say it back but does so grudgingly. I stopped telling her that, no need to lie. In Tabitha I saw what people were supposed to do, love their children. So odd to me at that time. I didn’t dislike children back then, I just didn’t know what people were supposed to do with them. My dad was a love but the negative from my mom was so much more prominent. Poor dad, his mom didn't want to have kids either so he didn't have it much better growing up.

Regardless it was through these little bits of interactions that I saw what parenting should be like. You should be happy to have a child in your life, they are supposed to bring you joy at least some of the time. I knew she had it rough and at times it was very trying with school so it’s not like I’m saying it was all fun and roses. I knew they tried her patience daily, as did her husband (don't worry Trailboss, she eventually left that moron). The difference was that I never ever saw her lose her patience and take it out on them. That’s a rarity. We lose our patience all the time with the kid. We try not to, more now than ever but still, it’s hard. I don’t know how she came up with all that patience at that young age. She was in her early 20’s, I didn’t have patience with myself at that age. What little bits I learned from her are invaluable to me today. I think they gave me hope too, that if she could have crappy parents and be such a parenting success I too could get over the pathetic role model my mom was for me, look only at what my dad gave me, learn a bit of patience, and move on.

By the time I finally became a parent it was not due to a planned decision but keeping my baby was. And for that little insight I was given I will always be thankful. I will never have Tabitha’s patience but it is something I strive for. I don’t always succeed but such is life. As parents you are rarely going to 100% right, aiming for it is the best you can do.

These are her 3 kids now, I only met the oldest 2. Her youngest was born the year I left Maryland. It goes from oldest to youngest left to right, it was the youngest's b-day in this pic.



This is how the oldest 2 looked when I left MD. It's been awhile.

There was a button, so I clicked on it

Yeah, a button that said something like Adsense or somesuch, I wasn't really paying that much attention. Ads on your blog, ok I am not Dooce so I am not really one of those high traffic generating sites. I was game to try it though so I added them on. If they annoy me I'll take them off. Really, no skin off my nose and I'm all about trying something new. Do I make money off of them? Theoretically I think that's the point. Realistically I seriously doubt it. If they bother you let me know. I don't expect much from them but since they aren't in my way I'll continue to let them coexist. They annoy me though and they'll get the boot.