What Struck Me

Another of our cheap kitchen knives broke last night, so it was time to get some real knives. Went to Amazon and bought a Wüsthof set. I’ve had my own household for 19 years and I’ve never had nice knives before!

Of course, I can’t go to Amazon and buy only one thing. We needed new measuring cups, since somehow we’re down to only two, the 1/3 and 1 cup sizes. Kinda annoying when you want to measure 1/4 or 1/2 a cup. So, I tossed some Oxo measuring cups into the cart.

In my saved for later section I found the cd Duke by Genesis. I wore out my LP crying over this album my freshman year of college, but I can’t find the song Please Don’t Ask on iTunes, so into the cart it went.

As fun as it was to fill up my cart with those items, I wasn’t done. I finally broke down and got what’s been at the top of my wishlist- Adobe Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements! In the back of my brain, for most of my adult life, I’ve planned to organize my photos and videos into some kind of cohesive, narrative format. When I was in college playing on the new computerized video editing set up, I thought, gee, this only cost about $10,000, some day I’ll have one of these for myself (this was in 1985…)
Fortunately for me the price (and amount of hardware necessary) has shrunken considerably! And the consumer end stuff is just about as good as the pro stuff. The only things missing are things I don’t need anyway (like time code. I don’t need time code for my home movies. Hmm, actually, maybe it does do time code?)

I’ve finally got the right tools (well, once Pat clears about 100 GB of music off my hard drive!) Now all I need is the time! And honestly, that’s always been the hardest thing to come by.

Shockingly, it’s snowing outside. We’re supposed to have a meeting here tonight and Pat doesn’t want to cancel - he figures if people want to show up, they’re welcome to. Of course, he’s not the one who has to straighten up the place and scrub the bathroom for potential guests that probably won’t show.

Had a coupon from DSW for $25 off that I got back in August, which expired today. So I headed over there not wanting to lose $25. Very little in the way of shoes I could wear now- considering the snow- so I thought maybe some running shoes (my sneaks are too heavy to break into a jog on the treadmill, if I’m ever so inclined) but they were seriously lacking selection. So I ended up with a pair of sandals from Merrill, you know, those sports sandals, actually they’re slides.

I just hope I remember that I bought them when it gets warm enough to wear them.

Went out Friday night to a BAR to hear a BAND and drink BEER! It’s literally been years since we did that! My friend is dating the guitarist so a small group of us went to see him. Had a blast. Had too much beer, too. Beer is not South Beach friendly.

Somehow, I still lost half a pound over the weekend.

Went to the dentist for a cleaning and check. The most SADISTIC hygenist cleaned my teeth! First she jammed this humongo xray thing in my mouth, repeatedly. They use a computer so they don’t use films, which at least were a little flexible when they were in your mouth. This was a piece of metal covered with plastic, OWWWWW.

Then she started with the waterpik and it made a high pitched SCREECH which literally hurt my ear. She saw me cringe at one point and said “is it the noise?” and I said “ahesss” which means yes when your mouth is stuck open, but she ignored me and keep going. Meanwhile the thing is spraying water all over my face, and she’s trying to towel scrub me off with that cardboard bib thing.

Finally that’s done, then came the metal pick. Dig dig dig scraaaaaaaaaaaaape. You’ve all been there…

On to the toothpaste, that nasty gritty stuff, which still makes my mouth feel like I was eating sand. My teeth… and my gums… are all shiny now. Just a little bit of blood when I rinsed and spit.

FINALLY she was done. The dentist came in and poked around and said I was fine, except, maybe, well… and he took a picture of one of my teeth and showed it to me on a little tv screen. He said the tooth is cracked and since it has a big filling he’ll have to dig it out and cap it. And this will cost me $450 after insurance. For a tooth that’s not bothering me? Uh, no. I’ve been told many times over the years to have this or that fixed before it starts to hurt- I never have- and I haven’t needed a root canal yet. So I’m playing the odds this time too.

They printed out the picture of my ugly tooth and stuck it in my file. I was thinking of asking for a copy to post here, but I’ll spare you.

As you can see the day didn’t turn out quite as planned:

• I’m going to start the laundry
• hop on the treadmill and see if I can read and walk at the same time
• switch loads
• jump in the shower
• figure out dinner (ooh, I have leftovers, good!)
• read a little bit more (because I’m so ridiculously behind on my reading)
• pick up Nick if he needs picking up
• tell Nick and Andy they’re on their own foraging through the leftovers tonight
• take Tim to his Tiger Cub meeting
• come home and feed Tim
• run Nick to the school for his concert

So look at that. I’ve blocked out time for myself. Huh.

I got a phone call about 5 minutes into my treadmill walk that our plans for the Tiger meeting had to be cancelled. So, what to do? Why, have 11 boys and their parents over to my house to make a web site, of course! They had to do a communications requirement, and it was the last one they need for their Tiger badges. Since we’re running out of time (we have a short Cub Scout year) we had to get it done!

So instead of reading my book, etc etc, I cleaned the house (so much for trying to emulate Cat!) and put together a quick lesson plan on communication via the internet.

The all swarmed into the house at 5:30, begged to play games on the computers (uh, no) and very. slowly. typed. up. a. sentence. each. for. a. den. web. site.

I then fed them cookies and shooed them out the door.

Thankfully Pat went to Nick’s band concert and I was able to stay home with Tim, because he was so wired after all that there’s no way he would have sat through the show!

Tomorrow morning I have to go to the dentist for a checkup so the rest of the day will depend on how that goes I guess…

Been neglecting the blog. Been neglecting a lot of things that I do for fun, pity, ain’t it?

I was so incredibly irresponsible yesterday, I blew off helping in my son’s class! I got lost in what I was doing (that would be the taxes) then realized I had to run to the supermarket, and I just never made it to the school. I only felt a little guilty when Tim came home and said his teacher actually waited a few minutes for me to show before starting the reading groups. But I got over it (volunteer, remember? I never said I’d be there every freakin’ Tuesday.) Anyway, I wrote her a note, told her I’ll be there next week. Guilt assuaged.

This morning Nick says “I have my concert tonight.” Um, what concert? Oh, a band concert, he needs to be there in black pants and white shirt at 6:45pm. He thought I knew. I’m not really sure why he thought that, since he never told me and it’s not on the school calendar. Fortunately we can work around the other commitments we have tonight and get him there, and it even looks like we’ll be able to be in the audience. It’s also a good thing his black pants and white shirt (oh, and black shoes) from last year still fit. ‘Cause if they didn’t he’d be wearing floods tonight! Meanwhile, he’s supposed to stay after school today for a science program he signed up for, but we both completely forgot until after he left. I’m sure he’ll realize it at school- the question is, will he call me to tell me he’s staying, or come home? He’s a conflict-avoider, so I’m curious to see which path he thinks is the one of least resistance! Tempted as I am to call the school and remind him, he’s got to learn to take care of these things himself.

So, about those :ooimsomad: taxes. First of all, the brainiacs in HR at Pat’s company screwed up required withholding for NJ disability and unemployment insurance, or at least the reporting of it. Since he worked at two businesses and both took out that money, we’re entitled to a refund of the excess. After a few attempts at getting correct info we just took an educated guess at the proper numbers and sent it in. So, state taxes, filed.

Then I got all kinds of conflicting information on a certain amount of money, about whether it needed to be reported or not. In the end, I found out yes, it needed to reported on the federal return, but not on the state return. Unfortunately I found this out after I E-Filed the federal return :what:. Oopsie. It’s not a huge chunk of change, just a PITA if we get audited because of it. Maybe I should send in an amended return? I’m not sure how that works. One thing I do know- this is probably the last year I do the taxes on my own- anyone know a good CPA?

So now,

• I’m going to hop on the treadmill
• jump in the shower
• throw in a load of laundry

… damn, that’s not good time management. I should have started the laundry before I jumped on the computer. OK,

• I’m going to start the laundry
• hop on the treadmill and see if I can read and walk at the same time
• switch loads
• jump in the shower
• figure out dinner (ooh, I have leftovers, good!)
• read a little bit more (because I’m so ridiculously behind on my reading)
• pick up Nick if he needs picking up
• tell Nick and Andy they’re on their own foraging through the leftovers tonight
• take Tim to his Tiger Cub meeting
• come home and feed Tim
• run Nick to the school for his concert

No, wait, Pat can do that, he should be home by then. OK, then I just need to show up at the concert at 7:15 (after we drop Andy off at the scout meeting Nick is missing tonight…)

So look at that. I’ve blocked out time for myself. Huh.

I have got to find some great skills (time management skills…) My todo list doesn’t seem to be getting any shorter. Everytime I get something done, something else pops onto the end of the list.

:bummed:

In more pleasant news, I did have fun this weekend. Tim’s birthday party turned out fine, despite TEN people not bothering to RSVP. We had ten kids here, who ate cake, played pin the fin on the shark, did a craft, and survived a 2 hour old-fashioned birthday party. Amazing (sorry for the dripping sarcasm there.) OK, a couple kids seemed to need more entertainment than was provided, but I blame the parents :hahaha: . Pat took me out for dinner that night and I realized how long it had been since we’d just sat and talked without kids around!

Yesterday we went up to West Point to have brunch at the Hotel Thayer there, in celebration of Pat’s dad & step-mom’s 20th wedding anniversary, and his step-mom’s birthday as well. Food was good, a good time was had by all, but these people need to learn how to divide a check properly :vbg: .

Guess I’ll get back to lightening my load. Next up- the school papers pile, I know I’ve already missed a couple deadlines :doh: .

Assorted stuff going through my head today:

• Valentines Day- the first gift I ever gave a boy for Valentines Day was a small cake. They were selling heart-shaped :heartbeat: cakes at my high school as a fundraiser, so I bought him one. I just had no clue what to get him! I also remember inviting him up to my bedroom for the first time ever to give it to him in private (with the door open and my mom’s warning to come right back downstairs afterward…) I’m pretty sure he gave me a plaque (I know he gave it to me at some point, just not sure it was that day…) that said Our First Kiss on it. It was one of those Hallmark mushy plaques but it stayed on my wall until I married him. It’s still in a box with a bunch of other mushy stuff.
• The Grammys last night were the best I’ve seen in years. I don’t think I even watched them for ten years or so but I stayed up for the whole thing last night. Lots of rock :rocker:. Melissa Etheridge doing Janis Joplin was incredible and it was reassuring to see she’s obviously feeling just fine. U2 were great as always. Green Day blew me away. The opening montage with Los Lonely Boys was pretty cool.
  The duet with J-Lo and Marc Anthony completely sucked, and what was she wearing? I love Queen Latifah but she really needs better material to work with. I was barely tolerating the all-star Across the Universe (one of my all-time favorite songs) and then they went and actually changed the lyrics (”somethings going to change my world”??) which cinched it for me- it was just bad. Found out Springsteen won at some point for best male vocal for Code of Silence proving that it’s time for him to put a new record out already.
• I’ve got the email address that Andy gets college info sent to set up to come to my own desktop, figuring all the easier for me to help him sort through the ten-gazillion colleges, but it’s getting mail every 5 minutes or so. I hear the incoming mail bleep and get all excited, just to find out it’s some little college in Ohio desperately pleading for my son to click on their website. Again. At first I was hopeful that they’d all switched to email and our snail mail box wouldn’t be so full of these things, but nope, that’s full too. I have a shoebox full now and I’m moving on to a file box. And does he look at any of this stuff? No. Ack, there’s another one (heh, this one’s from Marist College, where I spent my freshman year. Someday I’ll have to tell that story…)
• We had a so much fun on Saturday night at a dinner dance sponsored by the PTO, despite the fact that it was sponsored by the PTO. I’ve really made some good friends around here, and those of you who’ve known me awhile know that wasn’t the case for a long time in my life- real life friends were few and far between. I wish I’d known then that all I needed was a winning personality and lots of gifts to hand out (just kiddin’!)
• I’m really hungry.