Status:

Sunday evening.

Pondering a semi-large work-related decision. (Not changing jobs, just possibly worksites.) There are pros and cons, as is the way of such things. To change would involve working closer to home and potentially saving money on after-school care; to stay would include me keeping my SWEET office with a whole wall of floor-to-ceiling windows that I've occupied for the past year.

Going to work this week, but should not be too stressful. Summer work is calmer. Not as much breathing down of the neck. Thinking about using the money I earn to get an iPhone.

No wine tonight - dieting again, GD it all - but a quiet house is nearly as intoxicating. The OG has gone to Girl Scout camp again, and the YG has uncharacteristically agreed to bedtime this evening without a fight. It's only The Man and I, and we are slumped into a silent stupor on the sofa.

(Oh, and on the subject of the OG: How, WHY is it that she can drive me bat guano crazy for days on end during the summer, but when she leaves for camp, I miss her HORRIBLY and cannot WAIT for her to come back? Sadly, I'm sure what's going to happen is that I'll be so completely excited to see her on Friday when she gets back, and then we'll be in a fight in like the first five minutes.

Just got through with the first four episodes of Battlestar Galactica from Netflix. I am enjoying it so far, I must say. It's Star Trek mixed with Lost, with a bit of a Joss Whedon sensibility to it. (Reminiscent of Firefly, of course, but without quite as much whacked-out syntax.) I am highly amused at the phones with cords, and the dot-matrix printers, and the odd hexagonal shapes of all their paper. In any case, I'm still interested, and that's saying something these days.

Saw The Hangover last night on a real date night with The Man. It was very funny. Zach Galifinakis is one of the awesomest comedians on the planet. I need to sit down and watch all of his specials, like, right now. And, I dearly love Ed Helms, and am glad to see he can handle a big leading role in a movie. Afterwards we went to this place, which is a fairly new and happenin' little place Karla May showed us to downtown that specializes in "old cocktails," like Harvey Wallbangers and the like. (I like the "Bees Knees," which involves Tanqueray, lemon juice, and honey.)

And...oh, yes, I am MELTING. Because it is ONE HUNDRED AND EFFING SIX DEGREES out there every day this week. (I like the heat, man, but this is kinda sick. It's like living in a kiln.)

Do you wanna watch my vacation slides?

Another one from Silver Dollar City:

This coffin has been there since I was a kid. It's right outside of "Grandfather's Mansion," an old-school tilty house. (As a side note, I can apparently no longer go into a tilty house. Perhaps the Meniere's Disease has taken its toll on my central nervous system, but I was sick for HOURS afterwards.)

You know, as far as amusement parks go, SDC is one of the best. Though it has most of the ride conventions of your generic Six Flags - e.g. roller coasters, water rides, "kiddie areas," et al. - it also has actual hills and trees, and some semblance of Ozark-y culture, such as the peanut brittle making pictured in the last post. (Oh, and BY FAR the best amusement park food you will EVER have. Like, real pies, and big huge wok pans filled with sweet potatoes and sausage, or fresh green beans, corn, and grilled chicken.

And the rides - especially the new ones - are, in fact, pretty high quality. The old ones touch my nostalgic heart, but they're pretty cheesy animatronic stuff, truth be told. However, the OG and I were absolutely terrified - and I am not one to be easily swayed by rides, mind you - by one of the new rides, which is nothing more than a ginormous barn swing. THAT GOES ONE HUNDRED FEET IN THE AIR and OH MY GOD do not EVER look straight down at the ground from that height as you are hurtling towards it.

Anyways, though you may have an impression of Branson as the Fat White Redneck Vegas - and you would not be entirely wrong - there are many reasons to stop in. I highly recommend spending a day at Silver Dollar City, eating at a little old diner in town (as opposed to "on the strip,") and going to this particular waterslide, which has been in business 34 years. Strange; I actually remember the year that it opened.

Once again, kickin' it la escuela vieja. Cut into the side of the hill, and you slide down on mats. Again, hasn't changed one iota, but it's still pretty damn fun, and you don't get waterslide wedgies.

There's The Man, looking hunkalicious at the end of the slide. I must have misplaced the photo of me in my bathing suit.

After SDC, we went back to Fayetteville, where The Man covered a track meet, and I went with the girls and Trish and her boys to another of the kick-a sculpture parks.

I swear, I TRY to get her to pose normal.

After Fayetteville, we drove to Kansas City. Here's a shot from the SECOND amusement park of the trip, Worlds of Fun:

...and a snap of tiny baby Sara, the newest addition to the kid cadre of my closest friends:

Connie and Brian and The Man and I took an overnight trip to Columbia, MO, home of our alma mater. Here's Connie in the bizarro (but nice) northwestern-themed hotel we stayed at:

This is the front of the house Connie and I lived in in 1990:

Does it look nice? Well, it was abjectly NOT; it was disgusting. The carpet was so horrifically, monumentally filthy (deep down filthy, not not-vacuumed filthy) that if you spilled water on it and tried to dry it up, the towel would turn BROWN. And there was a basement of epic freaky proportions; it had tiny, dark, unlit portions behind doors that locked from the INSIDE. And I'm not even going into the wolf spiders.

Aaah, but I loved it. I miss college.

After seeing many awesome old friends - Trish, Erin, Connie, Anita, and even Tom and Sue Savage - and my mother and sister and extended family for a week, we headed back to Austin, and shortly thereafter took our now-annual trip to Port Aransas.

See? I didn't JUST drink, I did occasionally make contact with my children. With a drink.

This is my Big Head picture (for Karla) on the dolphin cruise out into the Gulf:

Because one should always wear a tiara; even while swimming:

Or just walking around the house:

A'ight? We square? We caught up now?

Hey! Hi! I have a blog!

Oh, god, I HATE dieting.

HATE IT HATE IT HATE IT.

Oh, for the days when I could just give up beer and desserts for three weeks and lose twenty pounds.

And, for that body I used to have - you know, that body I used to have when I thought I was fat? That body? I feel as though I would literally kill for it. (Well, maybe not a person, but...um, at least a goldfish. An old goldfish. That was depressed.)

Hey, everyone, I'm back. Re-blogging commenced. Sorry I'm depressed and fat.

It's been a busy summer so far. The Reader's Digest version: Right after school got out, we drove to Fayetteville, AR, for a lovely visit with Trish and Mike, and their two beautiful boys.

Here's the YG and the OG in a pretty Fayetteville park with a super-cool outside sculpture/playscape fixture:

We swung in to swingin' Branson, Missouri for a two-night stay at a hotel with! A waterpark! Right in the hotel! (And, we went to Silver Dollar City, wherein my children were finally met with the penance promised them after the twelve-hour car ride:)

Oh, sure, you laugh at us, in Branson, with you all off on your Paris or London jaunts. But did YOU get hand-made peanut brittle?

I didn't think so.

Tomorrow: Kansas City! And Port Aransas!

Glad to be back, everyone. I've missed this. Forgotten how therapeutic it is. I'd actually go on more this evening, but we're FINALLY FINALLY getting to watch Battlestar Galactica from Netflix, (starting with the mini-series; I've missed it all) and if I don't watch it now, my window is closed.

Must go get my geek on now...

Summer Hiatus

Not so's you'd notice - given my recent not-postingness - but I'm on a two- to three-week summer blogging hiatus whilst I deal with summer issues.

However, my summer resolution is to actually begin writing again, so look for me back at the end of June and beginning of July.

(Come to think of it, though, that'll be the part of my summer when actually NOTHING will be happening of earth-shattering interest to write ABOUT, so please look forward to a lot of "We went to the pool today. And, um, got a Jim-Jim's Water Ice.")

FRAK

My work is KILLLLING ME. This is the year that WILL NOT END.

Seriously, dudes, I have never worked from home, this much, EVER. We're talking nights and weekends, and through lunch. My wrists ACHE and my thumb is about to FALL the fuck off from typing so much.

And there is SO much pressure this year. Do you know - DO YOU KNOW - that this week, I will be in meetings, literally ALL day long on some days? And that someone is pissed in nearly EVERY single one of them?

Do you know that I had tears in my eyes at three different points in the day, at my workplace, yesterday? And that I thought, very seriously, about sneaking out the window of my office and just driving away, far away, where nobody could find me to bitch at me?

Ah, yes. I see it all clearly now. This is why our parents' generation took those little yellow pills!

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Oh, by the way, wine country was awwwwsome. Forgot my g.d. camera, though.

However, this was possibly a blessing, especially on Night One when we arrived, and John the Rogue Wine Pourer from White Oak Vineyard got me (and everybody else) EFFED UP beyond recognition.

It was seriously kind of sad, because the next day, when we were going on our actual wine bus tour, half of us - including Ms. Noxious, the birthday girl - were too hung over to have nearly as much fun as we should have. (I, however, had like Hobbit-style three breakfasts at our B&B, so I was pretty much fine.)

I really can't look at wine again yet, though.

NAPA, fools!

Oh, hellz yes, we are headed out for a SPANKIN good time, thanks to a free credit card miles ticket and a golden opportunity to head out to Ms. Noxious's 40th birthday celebration.

Good idea? Not in the slightest. Even on the cheap, it's not gonna be free, and we're broke as all get out. And, in six years on this job, I have never, ever, EVER been this busy.

But there it is. Plane ticket is in my hand. And I believe I have some things to drink about.

The Merry Merry Month of May

Hey, spring!

Fuck yeah! Except!

The slow morph of cool mornings (haw!) into warm (haw haw! Heat index of 102 tomorrow, bitches!) represents the most horrendous time of the year for me, work-wise. I'll attempt to blog here and there, but the next four weeks are going to completely murder me.

I know, I know, it's the breaks for having a job that allows me to take summers off. I'll take it; the reward is worth it. But this month never gets any easier. Sometimes - and this is between you and me, I swear, I'll kill you if you repeat this - I miss teaching...BUT, ONLY because, this time of year, with TAKS over and the kiddos pretty much in free-fall, THEY get to kind of chill and slack a bit. I, on the other hand, work on deadlines...and, my deadline coincides, pretty much, with the end of the school year. And eff me if they don't want everything done, right now, with a tidy bow on it.

Two large manila folders sit beside me, on my cool new aqua couch. I worked on the assignments contained therein last night, and I worked on them until 5:00 today. However, they are still not done, because of the constantly replenishing supply of meetings. And, they were due, um, yesterday, and today.

Am I working on them? Um...well, clearly, no. No, I'm not. I'm too fried. I can't even open them.

Please, somebody, reassure me that deadlines don't mean that someone is actually going to DIE if they don't see my hyperintelligent prose on a piece of paper tomorrow.

Because I'm gonna watch Jon Stewart now. I'm GOING TO WATCH JON STEWART, do you hear me, stupid fat manila folders?

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Hey, though, wanna see the spring pictures?

Cute, huh? Sears! And I didn't even kill them too much this time!

Gulp...look at that little one. Not quite so little anymore. In fact, tomorrow is...wait for it...KINDERGARTEN ROUNDUP. I am extremely thrilled - as she is also - but am so frakkin' sad, too. I will miss my chirpy li'l preschool cherub.

*sniff*