Saying good bye to summer, finally!

Well not really, its still in the upper 80s by 4pm but its cool in the mornings, like upper 50s and the is Texas so we'll take what we can get. At the beginning of summer we purchased a bubble machine for the kid and let her have at it, the dogs loved it. OK the big dog loved it, the Roxy could care less, being the grande dame, and the little dog having less than 1 brain cell, had no clue and just wanted back in the house. Such a lap dog. So on the plate for today, pics of the happy bubble day months ago at the beginning of summer. Thank god summer is almost over, now if the holiday season would hurry up and go away I'd be happy. I like Halloween and Thanksgiving (as long as my brain doesn't explode, again) Christmas can drop off the face of the earth and never been seen again and I'd be one very happy woman. It's the holiday that brings out the worst in people and with this recession it's only going to be a mega downer this year. Don't bother getting on my case about using the R word, denial won't make it go away. Go ahead and rip on me about being the Grinch, bring it, I'm used to it, it doesn't make me like the holiday any more than I already don't. December 26th is a good day, don't deny it, it's a day of relief just like April 16th, don't lie to me.







Corbin, trying to get back in and on the couch where he thinks he belongs...

Hey I got a troll commenting!

I must be getting popular. Or something. Oh shush and let me feel popular, it's good for my imaginary ego. Really now if that person thought my last post was negative they obviously have not read a damn thing I've written other than that last post. Moron, read more, speak less and maybe you'll sound like you have a brain cell in your head. Ohh did I just criticize a reader?! Maybe I'll scare them away! Oh darn, my bad. And they posted as anonymous, the weenie. Hahahaha damn I can't believe my hubby lets me out in public sometimes. Ya'll do know I've mellowed with age right? I used to be flat out mean, now I'm just considered mildly ornery. People you shouldn't hide from me, if you comment I always go find you and comment back, and I'm never mean, honest yes, mean no. Well unless you want me to be and yeah I take requests.

So BRING IT, I am so ready.

~~~~~~~~~~~~Giving it up~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now just look at that face? It's it just adorable? Little bastages, I swear the things you do for the little boogers. I've been volunteering with The French Bulldog Rescue Network for over 2 years now as a foster parent and Review crew person. We don't foster much any more for reasons I won't reiterate and I have some issues with the administration of said organization. Basically it's your typical large rescue organization, it's run by a bunch of women that behave like a sorority. Or like that popular group of girls in high school, do you remember them? The bitches? Oh yeah, looooved them didn't you? Yeah, me too. NOT. They have long lost sight of the good of the dogs and that bothers me and a few of the other volunteers too. One of my favorites being the woman in charge of the review crew, E. She's a grandmotherly type who has been around and in charge of the review crew for 3 years now and has honed and refined the system as we now know it. I help her out and back her up when she needs it, taught her Excel because she was doing it all by hand and driving herself insane poor dear woman.

So that you have an idea of what the hell I'm talking about let me tell you how it goes down, we have dogs that come in, owner surrenders, strays, rarely a dogs that comes in from a shelter (frenchies don't often get dumped), and they get fostered for a minimum of 2 weeks to be evaluated, while being fostered they go up on the foster page. Usually longer. We get them up to snuff and then they go up on the Available Page for a minimum of 2 weeks, sometimes longer if they don't get enough good applications come in. Some dogs are harder to place than others, behavioral/medical issues what have you. Old usually isn't a problem, these are highly desirable dogs. Once we get enough applications the dogs go on to pending and the applications are sent to the review crew (I'm one of those people, there are 12 of us across the nation) and we go over the applications.

Now here's where it gets kinda funky. There can be anywhere from 15-300 applications depending on the popularity of the dog. The review crew doesn't actually pick the home for the dog, all we really do is weed out the crap applications. The good applications then go on to the foster parent who picks the actual home and then the Board of Directors approves the home (and there's a lot of hoops to jump too, it's a loong process). Back in the day, before the present incarnation of the "Powers in Charge" of FBRN the review process was slooow, dogs would go up on the available page for MONTHS and people applying would give up and go buy a dog after waiting for waay too long. This was the main reason E took the job that she did. She went in and streamlined the process, made it so it worked and did the job and got it done. No one else wanted to do it and do it every single week all year long. She gets shit for it too. People quit on her, they don't turn in their picks for the week, they don't tell her that they aren't going to turn in their picks or that they are going to be late, it's bad. Then she gets complaints that the process is too slow, that it's biased, that it's not fair, so on and so forth. It's a blind process, none of us on the review crew have contact with each other and we don't know what each others picks are. Right so then she gets tired of this after while. Damn ingrates. It's not like any one says Gee thanks for the great job you're doing. No no they just bitch and moan and then demand that she do things their way. Which won't work and will jack the system. That works and took 3 years to get right. Hello people like we don't know what the hell we are doing and you do. Not your job back the fuck of. Ingrates. She does it for the dogs, not the sorority.

So the question them becomes, at what point do you give it up? When do you thrown in the towel and tell them to shove it up their collective sorority asses? Because for the last, oh year or so it's been a struggle. Probably longer than that but for the last year it's been really bad. She's a foster parent too, she takes a lot of the hard medical cases that no one else will (you know, the ones that wear diapers), she's been turned down too which is very interesting. They'll beg and plead for a foster home for these dogs, she'll volunteer her home and they'll tell her no thanks. Why? As far as we can tell she's not one of the cool crowd. I'm not either thank God, buncha bitches, they treat me like something nasty they've found on the bottom of their shoes. I'm used to it though and that's why I no longer put up my hand when they beg and plead for a home for a poor soul of a dying medical case dog that needs a foster home. Can I care for these dogs? Hell yeah, I was a vet tech for 5 years, you name it I can do it but I'll be damned if I'll put myself out for those ungrateful bitches. They'd probably just turn me down anyway. Just for being associated in some way with someone they don't like....
When did it become a social game for these women and not an animal rescue organization? Will you look up at that face at the top and tell me this? BTW that's Cactus Jack and if I were into puppies (and I'm not, hate them ,won't own one oh hell no puppies are monsters, I only adopt adult dogs) I'd be all over Jack. He was one of the 7 puppies that came from a group of 12 dogs that were confiscated from a puppy mill front that was involved in a drug bust. We get them from all kinds of places let me tell ya. As of today he has only been up a week, he goes pending (applications stop) next Wednesday so if you want that beautiful face go run now and apply. So far he received a piddly few number of applications and I'm totally disappointed. I know where he lives and I so want to go and baby snatch his ass out of there. He is with one of those women, you know, one of them....

$2.99 a gallon read it and weep

That's all it took to steal the dh's thunder. He called on the way home last night, right in the middle of me trying to get through the dd's reading lesson. Very irritating since we were already running late. And you know how hard it is getting her through her reading lessons that late at night. He was trying to brag about finding gas at $3.06/gallon. He was all like "Guess what I just paid for gas? $3.06" In a neeneerneeneer type voice. And I so vainly replied "Yeah well I got it for $2.99" Oh yeah I saw the green through the phone. Yup he was a nice shade of chartreuse and I could tell over that phone line. He was down right indignant complaining that I stole his thunder, he even wanted to know where. Like I would make it up or something. Puhlease people. When was the last time ya'll saw gas at $2.99 a gallon? Do you even remember it at that price? I sure as hell don't. Crying shame too. Well there are a scant few reasons to live in Texas, the school systems (in my neighborhood at least) and the price of gas (here, not in Galviston). I managed to fill my tank for a record low price and I drive a 4Runner. It's been awhile peeps let me tell you, it's been awhile.

I have taken over

Apparently one blog wasn't enough. I guess I have the need to blabber too much. Oh that was not a huge surprise to all of you? Good gosh almighty. OK so that wasn't such a big surprise, I'm alright with that. The dh just could not keep up with the blogging would. He found it to move at a pace to fast for him or something like that. He asked me a week or two ago to change the face of his blog, redo the banner or something like that. So I did. But he never posts and so it seemed kind of futile. Poor lonely blog. And well you know I never seem to suffer form a lack of posts here right? Yeah. So. On occasion when I have something to say and it can just as easily go up here or there I might just pop it in over there.

Ya'll do know that the dh and I have known each other for over half our lives right? Technically we met for the first time in the 7th grade. We don't remember it though, he transferred out of our english/social studies class before the end of the year. The only reason I know he was in the class is because I found his report card years later (he didn't do so well in that class, I kicked ass being much more scholastically inclined). We actually really met up when we were 16 so we technically count it as 20 years that we've known each other. We know each other well enough that our moods practically synch up. When we go home at night and want to watch a movie we are usually in the mood of the same thing be it an Emma/Sense and Sensibilty night or Bones episode kind of evening. Creepy but that's where we're at in life.

So when I say that I know which blog posts will go on his just as well as mine it's more like I can run across an article in CNN and either forward it on to him, have him write a blog post on it (which he will probably never get around to) or I can just write it myself and post it. Since it's been so long since he's posted everyone has given up on visiting his blog it's mine now. I am going in incognito, I figure if I do it right most people will never know the difference. Hell if I didn't put this post up the dh would probably not even know I was hijacking his blog, he never visits it either.

Religon through the eyes of children

And sadly since I was raised with out religion I could not have said it better myself. Heck I love this summation (a forward that was sent to me by an old friend that taught me a bible study class as an adult):

A child was asked to write a book report on the entire Bible. I wonder how often we take for granted that children understand what we are teaching???
Through the eyes of a child:

The Children's Bible in a Nutshell

In the beginning, which occurred near the start, there was nothing but God, darkness, and some gas. The Bible says, 'The Lord thy God is one, but I think He must be a lot older than that. Anyway, God said, 'Give me a light!' and someone did. Then God made the world.

He split the Adam and made Eve. Adam and Eve were naked, but they weren't embarrassed because mirrors hadn't been invented yet. Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating one bad apple, so they were driven from the Garden of Eden. Not sure what they were driven in though, because they didn't have cars.

Adam and Eve had a son, Cain, who hated his brother as long as he was Abel. Pretty soon all of the early people died off, except for Methuselah, who lived to be like a million or something.

One of the next important people was Noah, who was a good guy, but one of his kids was kind of a Ham. Noah built a large boat and put his family and some animals on it. He asked some other people to join him, but they said they would have to take a rain check.

After Noah came Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob was more famous than his brother, Esau, because Esau sold Jacob his birthmark in exchange for some pot roast. Jacob had a son named Joseph who wore a really loud sports coat.

Another important Bible guy is Moses, whose real name was Charlton Heston. Moses led the Israel Lights out of Egypt and away from the evil Pharaoh after God sent ten plagues on Pharaoh's people. These plagues included frogs, mice, lice, bowels, and no cable.

God fed the Israel Lights every day with manicotti. Then he gave them His Top Ten Commandments. These include: don't lie, cheat, smoke, dance, or covet your neighbor's stuff.

Oh, yeah, I just thought of one more: Humor thy father and
thy mother.

One of Moses' best helpers was Joshua who was the first Bible guy to use spies. Joshua fought the battle of Geritol and the fence fell over on the town.

After Joshua came David. He got to be king by killing a giant with a slingshot. He had a son named Solomon who had about 300 wives and 500 porcupines. My teacher says he was wise, but that doesn't sound very wise to me.

After Solomon there were a bunch of major league prophets. One of these was Jonah, who was swallowed by a big whale and then barfed up on the shore. There were also some minor league prophets, but I guess we don't have to worry about them.

After the Old Testament came the New Testament. Jesus is the star of The New. He was born in Bethlehem in a barn. (I wish I had been born in a barn too, because my mom is always saying to me, 'Close the door! Were you mom is always saying to me, 'Close the door! Were you born in a barn?' It would be nice to say, 'As a matter of fact, I was.')

During His life, Jesus had many arguments with sinners like the Pharisees and the Republicans.

Jesus also had twelve opossums. The worst one was Judas Asparagus. Judas was so evil that they named a terrible vegetable after him.

Jesus was a great man. He healed many leopards and even preached to some Germans on the Mount.

But the Republicans and all those guys put Jesus on trial before Pontius the Pilot. Pilot didn't stick up for Jesus. He just washed his hands instead.

Anyways, Jesus died for our sins, then came back to life again. He went up to Heaven but will be back at the end of the Aluminum. His return is foretold in the book of Revolution.



And there you have it blog world, the best summation of the bible I have found so far, sent to me by and old friend of mine that used to be a Jehovah's Witness. She decided to step down after becoming disenchanted with the system a few years ago and has been dealing with the backlash since then and that is saying something.
Don't you love how the kid translated those teachings though, how neighbors wives were 'stuff', I LOVE that. Makes you wonder if the bible school teacher actually told the kids that the word was wife or, if for the sake of ease of teaching they actually explained to the younger kid that the word was stuff. Ah the perils of living in a society that was based on Puritanism. Retarded. I had to move closer to the bible belt too didn't I, gahhh.

So we couldn't find the plug

For the portable DVD player that is. So the kid had to actually converse with her mother for that whole ride up and back to Austin yesterday. And listen to Linkin Park and whatever other angry white male music her mother listens too at any given moment. I do take requests though but she, oddly enough, didn't make any yesterday. Did I mention she still going through that 'Prattling' stage? She's kind of fading it out but it's still there, drives me insane. Her dad can handle it better than I can so I was not happy to see that we had no cord placed in the bag with the dvd player. No, not happy at all.

So off we went and interestingly enough, the prattling did not start. What did start was a string of a few interesting conversations. 3 that I'll go over here, ones that kind of move her into big kid world, and she's only turning 7 this month, what the hell? So I'll start off with the most 'benign' or rather the shortest to tell.

She started babbling on about "A clean house is a happy house" over and over again in the back seat. Of course I'm going what the hell is she talking about because that is the most freakish 50's comment I've heard in awhile and it sure as hey howdy hell did not come from my house. We don't use those sort of anachronisms there. Especially since we break all those type rules, we had the at home dad for awhile, I majored in college in a 'man's world major' and work at a career that is predominantly male. The dh was a kindergarten teacher and was driven out because the principal didn't think a man should be a kinder teacher. To say that we have a slight role reversal in our household compared to the 50's would be an understatement. The 7th or 8th time that statement came out of the kid's mouth I had to ask her where it came from, it was driving me nuts. She himmed and hawed then I asked her if she knew what it meant.

Oh now then the conversation got interesting. Why you ask? Because she actually was interested in the answer. Now this is what shows a bit of maturity to me. Before she could care less what others were saying to her. She would be like "Whatever' and just go about her business of playing make believe. No no she wanted to know what the phrase actually meant. And I got into it. I went into the fact that the phrase was an old phrase, that it was used to cover up and make pretty things that were bad and homes that were broken on the inside but looked pretty on the outside. Oh yeah, I went off. She learned the phrase from my mother's husband this past weekend, the psycopath. He came from an absurdly broken home, his father was one of those that, when the teen daughter came home knocked up, he beat her within an inch of her life and then tossed her out. Yup, as children they gave them enemas as punishment. To this day my mother's husband has no idea what a happy home is, I made sure the dd knew that the phrase was a cover up and he could clean the house all he wanted but Gunny (the name they chose for him since he used to be a marine and all the other grandfather names were taken) had no idea what a happy house was. His home was broken, always had been, always would be. She seemed oddly fine with this. She doesn't get along so well with him all the time, probably because he's a bit off. Kids are good like that, they know when someone isn't quite right and nothing a person can do can cover it up in front of a kid. So now she doesn't believe that a clean house is a happy house and is better settled in a better understanding that her feelings that Gunny just isn't the same as everybody else. Because he isn't. I like to make sure she knows that. I had to go through my teen years with everybody trying to tell me that it was just me being a difficult teenager and that there was nothing wrong with that freak of nature. So not true, there is something wrong with him. It's not me, it's him. A clean house is a happy house, like he would know what a happy house was. The things he teaches my kid, where do they come from?

And that was the short conversation, want to hear the longer ones? OK this one's funny. The dd has been recently hung up on not being rich. Because we aren't and we managed to buy into a neighborhood where a lot of the people are (small home in big home neighborhood, good buy). She has a classmate that she's known since preschool (going on 3rd year together now) and we've been to their house once for dinner. Notice I said once and we've never invited them over to our house. There's a reason why. That girl (I'll call her M to be nice) is a little monster. Total brat. She back talks to her parents, doesn't listen, hits them, throws temper tantrums, the whole nine. It's bad. They are extremely sweet people, highly intelligent, college grads, mom's a stay at home mom, no other kids. They over indulge her and she doesn't take them seriously. I would not put up with the crap that she pulls, oh hell no. But they do. All last year in kinder they would ask the both of us "Does your daughter like school? Because M doesn't like it at all!" Well fancy that... this came as no surprise to us. She was a monster in preschool, not like that was going away in kinder. The public school system is not there to fix all the behavioral problems you created at home. No, that's your responsibility as a parent, duh.

Anyway M gets N's and U's and S's just about every day at school. For those of you that can't remember those are behavioral daily grades such as satisfactory, unsatisfactory, excellent, and the like. The dd, during this ride, randomly asked me, and I thought this was funny (and bitr you'll appreciate this question, with your lovely co-workers), if any of my co-workers behaved badly every day or several times a week. And I just knew she was talking about this girl in class or the other 1 boy with the same behavioral issues. So I told her that no those kids don't make it to real jobs. The system weeds them out. If those kids don't shape up that 1 of 2 things happen to them. Either they end up locked up at daddy's work or they end up dead or getting somebody killed (and then locked up at daddy's work). She thought about it for awhile, asked a few questions and took it all in. I don't think she thought I was making it up, I think she knew I was for real. I explained how people that make life difficult just can't fit in. I did sugar coat it though, I didn't mention the quantity of morons that slip through the cracks. We'll have to wait until junior high at least for that lecture.

So then she points out that they have money. Oh yeah this is the good part. This is the discussion we have that "Yes but are they happy?" and wouldn't you know it she knew the answer? She said no. She knew they weren't happy, she saw it every morning. Every morning, every single day M's parents sit with her in front of the classroom before school starts. No other parent has to do that. None. No other kid has a melt down in front of class as often as M does either. But that makes life easier on me when I get to explain to her that money doesn't make you happy. The dd is so fixated on money right now I can't even begin to tell you how irritating it is to me. She got it from my mother and her husband, he decided that the dd needed to understand the value of knowing how to budget so he went through these weird lessons obsession on money. Anyway so now she knows that money doesn't make you happy because M and her family is miserable and M is a total raging brat that no one wants to be friends with. Sadly this makes my life easier. Welcome to my world, where miserable rich people with social ineptitudes make my parenting easier.

The third discussion I'm going to save for it's own separate post. Because this one is way too long and the third discussion is longer and funny. I got to explain natural child birth to an almost 7yr old suburban child. She didn't believe me. It was funny. Something about apple seeds giving birth, I didn't get that one but whatever.

Hoop thief, and other tales of motherhood

Yup, that's my hoop you see, and notice I am not in it. I got the child her own hoop, a lovely pink sparkly, glow in the dark Kid-O from Hoopnotica but no, that wasn't good enough. Nope, she wanted mine, the travel hoop. I'm not sure why, it's bigger (not her size at all), heavier, and, quite frankly, clunky compared to a regular hoop since it comes apart. Who knows, kids are like that. You sit down to eat and they are worse than dogs, they will steal the food right out of your mouth and it doesn't matter if you have made them their own plate of the same food they want yours.

Apparently same goes for a hoop, they want yours and it doesn't matter if yours isn't as pretty and doesn't fit. Whatever. I used hers for a bit and it works. A bit small for my hips but I made do. Plus the other people there always bring spares so I tried others out too. I'm going to break down eventually and buy a buncha irrigation tubing and tape and probably make a few of my own some day. If I buy one made by one of the other ladies they run about $45 a hoop so I might as well make my own right? I suffer from these issues, I get crafty because I figure I should make my own *insert name of what ever here*, be it cards, scrapbook, Ren Faire costume, quilt, hair falls (love those, so much fun to make), jewelry (I should take a pic of the bracelet I took a thousand hours to make, you guys will love it). It's something I'm terrible about, I will get crafty about just about anything rather then pay someone else to make it. Unless it requires some expensive piece of machinery, I will buy it from someone else then. Like the mama pads, I won't buy the press that puts the snaps in, not worth it.

Back to the Austin hooping trip, fun one this time, no stupid drivers or traffic, the kid had fun, there was an after hooping trip to Freddie's for food again (no entertainer this time, too late in the day) but the dogs were all there so the kid was still content. Oh and I didn't get pics but a few husbands came along (not mine, he was at work) and they were super hooping too, even on stilts...I know, no pics but I was hooping while they were. Maybe next time.

Oh and even more importantly I finally mastered the art of hip hooping! Hooping on the hips, not the waist, not so easy. Now this is a basic that has been eluding me for some time now and I have no idea why. Actually I have no idea why I can do it now. Maybe I just wasn't paying attention and that's all I needed to do. It was explained in detail on the instructional video but if you've ever seen the Hoopnotica girls, they are soooo skinny! They show their belly/hip region and point out where you should be pushing the hoop with your hips. But I can't tell because they have boy hips! Like 10 yr old boy hips. How in the world am I supposed to find the corresponding body parts on me?!?! Yeah, um, ah, no. I just could not find those parts. Rewind, play, try...hoop falls to floor. Repeat. And again. This was for like a month. Or two. Maybe 3, or 4. Skipped for a few months because it was kinda depressing, not like a complicated move or something, it was hip hooping for crying out loud. Now that I have it I am going to chalk it up to the fact that I was trying to figure it out using a skinny chick as an example and all the women I hooped with today are normal sized. Lord forbid...

On a lighter note, a movie review!

Yup, we figured we'd do something easy yesterday and picked something we couldn't go wrong with. Well sometimes the dh had been know to pick the occasional obscure movie that was complete and utter trash. One time he picked 3 in a row and he was banned from choosing a movie for a good year. I can't even remember all 3 of the movies, one was Ultraviolet and the guy walking out behind us after it was over was bitching about how he wanted those 2 hours of his life back. That was by far the most entertaining part of the movie. Oh it was so baaad.

But yesterday we decided on Appalosa, an Ed Harris flick. Can't go wrong with that one. At the very worst it might end on a sad note, like Unforgiven and all the other sad westerns. Of course westerns and country music are classically sad aren't they? Woefully going on about lost loves and the like? The movies always has either the hero or heroine dying at the end. Or both. Or both and all of their babies. Makes you just want to go out and marry a cowboy now doesn't it? Sorry, I digress. The movie, it was really good. And it was only a little sad. The good guys don't die (no, that's not much of a spoiler) and the heroine doesn't die but you don't really like her all that much either which is an interesting twist. Go Ed, he must have a few evil ex's or some other latent bitter feelings towards the female gender. Can't imagine why. A friend of mine always swears that 'Women are evil and Men are stupid'. OK Dan, if you say so. Stupid.

For those of you that love horses there are some cute ones in there, a very nice appy, at least I think it's an appy, paints are appys aren't they? I'm not up on my horse stuff, hell they change color names for dogs between breeds. Red for one is honey for another and lemon for the next, how stupid is that? Of course dog show people are freaks if you haven't noticed and those color names only make a difference to them. Anyway all the men in the movie look a little rough around the edges, which gives the movie a very realistic feel. They didn't sugar coat it and make it pretty, they made it a dusty real time western movie and that's what we really liked about it. Oh and it was funny! The language was not too harsh. I've seen some westerns where the language had so much swearing in it you lost the movie and I don't mind swearing at all so if it bothers me it's got to be a lot of swearing. Appalosa is a good move, if you've got the time go see it, it's worth the 2 hours. Plus it's got Viggo, all the ladies love Viggo right?

People are stupid

And I have less and less patience with them as I get older. Not that I can do any thing about it. Other than bitch about it on my blog. So I am going to bitch about it on my blog. Here's the news article:

All lanes of Interstate 35 in Buda are back open after a deadly accident last night.
At about 7 p.m. two vehicles collided – killing one driver and injuring his three passengers.
Daniel Guerrero, 41, of Kyle died at the scene.
His 11-year-old passenger (son) has a broken arm.
The other passengers were taken to an area hospital with other injuries.
DPS officials said Luis Mendoza-Baldelamar of Alba, Texas was weaving in and out of the northbound lanes of I-35, when he struck the Jeep Comanche, driven by Guerrero.
Mendoza-Baldelamar was arrested at the scene.

So one stupid person and his piss poor driving/judgement killed a dad, broke the kid's arm, wounded passengers and probably jacked a helluva lot of other people's evenings (including ours) because he wanted to weave in and out of traffic on a Friday night during rush hour. I'm sorry, raving fuck head what? I don't know what they are going to do to Mr. Mendoz-Baldelamar but bets have it, it won't be sufficient. He probably won't even be sent to anything as harsh as the dh's prison, whatcha wanna bet? All that hell and mayhem that useless excuse for a human being caused and he probably will only get a slap on the hand. Our justice system is messed up like that, loop holes bigger than the air space in president Bush's skull.

Intelligent people like my husband spend years in college and end up in a crap underpaid job in a max security prison and pieces of crap that kill people and ruin the other's lives on their Friday night joy rides get off relatively free. I would really love to be able to see what eventually happens to that man. I can't of course, it'll take to damn long. The system will drag on forever, he'll go into some holding pattern for a bit, get let out on bail, come up for trial in a few years, everything will gloss over, then get let off on some sort of probation some time in 2015 when they system gets around to him. Bitter much? Yeah I am.

We drove the hour + up to Austin (Kyle/Buda is essentially the south end of Austin) and reached it at about 7:30 when traffic came to an immediate halt. Just a total screetching halt. It's a 3 lane freeway at that point and there was no getting over (we were in the fast lane). No one was getting off, not even the people in the slow lane. We then sat there for over an hour. All of us. Friday night on the freeway. There was no firetruck that came by, no ambulance, no life flight, there were a few police though. I'm guessing (since we were in the north bound lanes) that all the real emergency vehicles came from the other direction (Austin), lord knows there isn't jack didly south of Austin until you hit San Antonio and that's an hour south. So we didn't even get the entertainment of watching the emergency vehicles drive by. Eventually they got us routed off of the freeway onto the access road but by then it was 9:30

Interesting note here, the news says that the accident happened at 7:40pm, the dh said that because of the way traffic came to a halt and where we were located he thought we just missed being in front of the accident. You know what that means to paranoid little me? To me that means we just missed being part of that accident. Yeesh driving in Texas is like a full contact sport. Now think about that though, we left the house at 6:30 to be in Austin by 8, got to the accident scene at 7:30, got shuffled off the freeway at 9:30, turned around and made it home by, oh around 10:30. The dh was way tired and not driving so great by that time. And damn we were dissapointed that we didn't get to see the show. All that driving and nothing to show for it but to be witness to some moron and his mass destruction to some poor man's life and his kid's broken arm.

There are some really fucking stupid people in this world wasting the oxygen that we breathe. Too bad the elections aren't addressing something more important like that. Or that poor 90 yr old lady that felt so desperate that she shot herself. What is this world coming to people? Really now, where are our priorities? It's headlines like this one that make me ask why do you news people think we care about that shit? That is so stupid, get with it people.

Weekend plans, you have them right?

I'm getting over my cold so I am actually planning on dragging my hubby out for a wild and crazy evening out on the town. No really I am! All the way up to Austin, a city with a night life! We're dropping the kid off to go to the movies with my mom (yeah I know the evil one but she pre planned this one and asked to take her out weeks ago) and then zooming on up to see an acquaintance of ours do a hoop tease at a burlesque show. Don't open that link at work, well unless you want to see a striptease at work with a hula hoop involved. Yeah that's right I'm taking the dh to a burlesque show, shhh don't tell anyone I told you, you know how straight laced we are. HAHAHA ok yeah that's a hoot. I'll give you all an update tomorrow on how well it turns out. BTW that link isn't the actual woman we know, it's just an example of what a hoop tease is since it's not a well known art form. I mean really, burlesque is a recognizable word, hoop tease, not so much.

The rest of the weekend? Not nearly as exciting but that's ok. The dh has his first weekend day off in awhile so we're going to hang out on Saturday together, maybe do something, maybe not who really cares right? Sunday is another hoop day since it's the once a month get together of the Austin hoopers with the Hoonotica teaching and the dd loves going up there and then going to Freddy's afterwards to watch the performing guy and his dogs and juggling act. Yup Austin, twice in one weekend. Gah the driving....
But it's worth it, the hooping is fun and the people are great!

Where oh where do they come from?

I ask myself these things sometimes. Because I'm just so freakin nosey. It's a girl thing I suppose, guys probably don't care. It's why I put the Live Traffic Feed in. In the beginning it was just a counter at the bottom of the page and I was ok with that. The dh put one on his blog too and it was a funny competition. Funny only because my numbers went up and his didn't. His didn't because he never blogged, the boob. Go check out his blog, the last post was a guest post, written by his wife. You want to know whats really funny about that fact? He is the super writing genius of the family. We have these damn tablets of paper all over the friggin household with not a single line of free space on them. They are all filled up by his illegible script. He's a lefty, I'd scan in some of his writing but I can't read it and I'm afraid of what I might be scanning in might say something horribly incriminating and maybe someone on the web might recognize some of it. I know, doubtful but you never know. He loves writing and does it just for the joy of putting down his thoughts. He doesn't even have people read it. The blog thing? Obviously did not do it for him. I don't know why, there are other guys that do it, blogging daddies are quite plentiful. Who knows, regardless, the count competition lost it's entertainment factor when he did not post enough to be a worthy foe.

The Live Feed Traffic? That has proven to be a bit more entertaining since it shows a bit on how random people get here. What I've found is that random people don't get here. People come to my blog on purpose. Alright I have friends in some odd places, I've got Summer who pops in once in a blue moon from India, an old co-worker who is in Perth Australia so that accounts for the out of country people. I was introduced to another blogger who had brain cancer whose blog I have commented on (nice guy) and one of his readers in Kuala Lumpur popped over here and I figured that out using Live Feed Traffic, cool trick. Apparently he did a lot of traveling and volunteer work prior to being diagnosed so the location of his friends was not an odd one for him, just me. I also have the occasional scrapping person pop back in to my back logs looking for my previous work, back when I was productive. Lord forbid.

So here's the thing, where did you come from? I have my friends. Some from San Diego. Sadly not many from that old life, the ones that I thought I would not lose touch with I rarely hear from. Others, like Anna, who I had never even been close with prior to moving, I've come to know very well. Odd how the internet works like that. We talk every day. On line. I have 2 people in San Antonio that read my blog and one of them is the dh, the other is Kim, hi Kim! Now here's the other funny thing, most of the other people that come here are regulars. Now you who comment, I love ya'll you're my crew, my uber regulars. But there are a bunch of lurkers out there who I don't know why they are here. My crew, yeah I know where they came from. Trailboss followed me over from P Dub many moons ago when I commented in her comments section. Did anyone else actually come over from me commenting on P Dub's website or did the rest of you horse people come over from me commenting on some other horse blog? Because if y'all haven't noticed in my insane boredom box at work that's what I've been doing. Living vicariously outside through outdoor blogs. Most specifically horse ones. The occasional Milkman's Wife because I just cannot believe one woman can raise that many boys, poor lady. Did you see that frog that lived through a full laundry load in her house? Yeah I don't think I could do that, I think I'd have noticed that in my laundry room. It's small and well, inside my house not a basement. Plus my front loader would have killed it I'm sure. That and the dogs would have gone ape shit in front of the door, some how they always know what goes on in that room, it's also where I store their dog food.

Childhood traumas, and all the rest of the stuff in your life

That you can blame on your parents. I can't stand my mother, I think I have mentioned that before, she's got issues. She moved out when I was 8 and my dad raised me, thank God. Dad was great, he's got his own issues (he's like a 5 yr old in a 65 yr old man's body but he's a bachelor, whatcha expect?) but he had to raise a girl on his own and he did a spectacular job. Could you imagine how trying that was in So Cal? Geez. Many props to him and, quite frankly, never had much for mom. Every once in a rare while she'd pop back into my life and I'd give her a chance. And, every single time, she'd fail miserably. She's just one poor ass excuse for a mother. She didn't want to be one but then she remembers once a year, once every three years, that she is one and felt obliged to show up and meddle in some fucked up manner. One year it was to try and shove a religion (I can't remember which one, neither can she) down my throat. That was funny. Something about she didn't want to go to heaven and not have me there with her. All I can remember was thinking that there was no way any God of any sort of religion was letting her freakish ass in any form of twisted heaven. Still my belief to this day.

Lordy I am totally off track today, my NAME, that was the point of this post. Nicknames to be exact. Did anyone out there have one that they just absolutely hated? I only had one. There are a ton that you can come up with for Michelle, none that are bad, or at least none that bother me any at all. I am so bad with names I don't get annoyed with people that get my name wrong, even the ones that call me Melissa, yes that happens, and no I don't care, I'll still respond. Call me what you want, I have a very tough skin and I don't take anything that personal. Oddly enough even with this fractious blog I have not received any flak. Why? I have no idea. Maybe I should create some controversy. Unless it takes effort, or involves politics, then I won't bother.

My issue is with the fact that I have always hated my middle name Elaine. You want to know why? Because my mom named me after an ugly creature. Specifically an ugly ass puppet from Mr. Roger's Neighbohood, Lady Elaine. A puppet that gives most children nightmares. It's true! She's featured on a blog called Traumafessions, your happy childhood ends here. If you Google her name she pops up under so many nightmares for 30 somethings I can't believe it, it's horrible. And here my mom thought it was a great thing to name her only child. What an idiot. Need I say more about what spectacular judgement this woman has? Since I was little she found amusement in calling me Lady Elaine (as an insult, it was her way of showing that she was better than me) and we had many a discussion on how I was not ok with being called that. Of course that didn't stop her. To this day the only reason she doesn't still use that name is because she fears confrontation. And I'm a grown up now. I'm a grown up now that LOVES CONFRONTATION. It makes people uncomfortable and they don't like it.

Have you ever met one of us? There's not many of us out there. You know those skeletons in the closet that most people love to hide? I will whip those suckers out of your closet in the most public settings I can get you in and shake all the cobwebs off those suckers. Yup and then put them up on public display and have you talk about them. It gets you over the fear right quick. Mom hates that. It's like her worst fear. The good news is that t keeps her from pushing my buttons.

It also keeps her from calling me Lady Elaine. Fixed her little red wagon didn't I?

And this is where all of your childhood traumas will get you if you do not choose therapy, take that PBS.

We must be doing something right

Or at least there are no glaring defects to the public school system which is required to have meetings with parent/teacher conferences within 9 weeks of the beginning of the school year. Our first with the 1st grade teacher was this morning at 7:15. Amazingly we both made it. Well amazing that I was, the dh is good about being up for these things. If he remembers. If he fails he fails big, he'd just flat out forget, which he didn't, he was good.

Per the teacher we're doing well, the kid is on track, a bit ahead for her reading which is good. Teaching a kid to read is hard. I don't remember learning to read, does any one out there remember how they learned to read? I do remember that I learned to read early and I mean hella early. At my 4th birthday somebody (a college friend of my parents) gave me a Dick and Jane book (remember those?), I opened it and read it aloud, by myself, cover to cover, without pausing. The group of them looked at each other and said "Oh, we're going to have to get her the next level book aren't we?". Like I think I mentioned before, I was kind of an after thought in those days. No one really noticed me around or the fact that I was reading their college text books. They were interesting books, even to a 4 yr old. Stupid pot head college students.

Our kid, now we actually are trying to teach her how to read. Her teacher thoughtfully sends home these reader books with sticky notes on the front with specific chapters we have to get her to read every night. We find that as long as we have her do them before the 7:30 hour we're fine. After that is a bad idea. Her daddy has the hardest time with her after a certain hour, I can usually push it a bit later, not sure why but whatever works. She's really getting good at it and she can do it but dang it's frustrating when she starts making up the words. Ever teach a kid to read? Not an easy task by any stretch of the imagination. It no longer surprises me that so many people in the US graduate illiterate. Patience, it's not a virtue that many parents have a lot of and you need it to teach a kid to read. Teachers can't teach a kid to read all by themselves, you must teach a kid at home too.

As a side note, cause I can't write a blog entry without one, it's like those parents that brought the kids to the dh's 1 hour swim classes twice a week and expected them to be able to swim in 2 months. Not going to happen. They have to go to the pool like every day for months for that to happen. 2 hours a week isn't going to work. And the instructors tell the parents that from the get go and remind them that every time they come. Do they listen? No. Same with reading, teachers tell the parents, read with your child 15 minutes every night. Minimum. Do they? Who knows.

Add it to the rest of the stuff people know they should do and they don't. Excersize. Eat better, go to church, call your mother, walk the dog, dust the floor boards, clean the attic, put away the Christmas lights before Labor Day, did I digress again?

Sorry, we had confirmation today that the kid is doing well in school and not killing any kids in class. Yet. Oh, and she behaves like a little adult by correcting others quietly and doesn't lose her temper. I think that puts her on track to either be class president in high school or be the next class shooter. Either way we're pretty prepared. Personally I just want her to do well in math, none of the teachers ever mention math. What is this anti math bias? Don't they know her mom is a chemist?

It's October 1st

Don't ya'll think it's about time to turn off the a/c in the house? I mean really it should be time to at least turn it off. Maybe I don't need to turn the heat on but can I at least turn the a/c off? No you say? Why? Because I live in Texas you say? And just because it's 61 degrees when I wake up doesn't mean that it isn't 94 fucking degrees by 4pm yeah, I still need the damn a/c on, how stupid is that. Does any one remember when it is around here that we get to turn the a/c off because I can't friggin remember. It's been too long since I've had the thing off. Sad but that is the price we pay for living in the state of Texas, where we can afford to own a house and have a decent cost of living. Gas today costs about $3.29 a gallon and we don't have to drive all over town to find a station with that price and don't even talk to me about those poor souls in the south that have no gas in their stations. That's just criminal and I'm appalled at that state of affairs. I could start a whole different blog about how shocked I am at the government's behavior and the state of the nation's economics/politics but I won't. It isn't worth my time or energy, the bastards.

In the meantime I will bitch about the fact that I am not so patiently awaiting fall that is so slow in arriving. Hello autumn? This is Texas calling, we are here and you aren't. Could you move it along please? It's still fucking hot down here and my a/c is tired.