a camping we will go - pt II

B made coffee while i went off to attempt a normal morning routine. i brushed my teeth then splash ice cold water (it never did warm up) on my face. for breakfast B fixed bacon, eggs & leftover potatoes. in my sleep deprived state i agreed to stay another night.

we went back to town, kmart specifically, to get a[n artic weather appropriate] sleeping bag for me. B also looked for tent heaters, but no dice. before we left though we hit the bathroom where they had glorious warm water. i couldn't believe it had only been 24 hrs since i felt that warmth. what i would have given for a full size tub in there!

then we went over to pick up another day's worth of food - hot dogs, deli potato salad & cinnamon rolls for the next day's breakfast.....healthy camping food.

we attempted to find a camp ground/hiking area that we were told the vw couldn't handle. for the most part they were wrong, we went up almost the entire mountain but then the road got muddy & we figured we were lucky to have made it as far as we did. so we went back to camp & hiked around there.

Z stopped at pretty much every single spot that had snow wanting his picture taken. B started just making "clickclick" sounds after about #30....
Z also decided he loved picking up kindling & burning pinecorns....um, that would be pinecones, but for some reason with him the end up 'corns.

after our walk we took a good look at the tent, i hadn't noticed but B realized not only did we have a mesh roof (with a nylon cover) there were flap/vent things ALL around, so at best the temp in the tent was in the low 30s - SEE why i was freezing my patootie off! & the 2nd night was supposed to be even colder - yah!

we took the nylon cover off & put a sheet over the tent, then replaced the cover hoping an extra layer would help insulate. then we strapped this & that every conceivable direction so the vents wouldn't open with the wind. i wasn't as cold the 2nd night although i think it was a colder & i'm pretty sure at one point a little snow fell, that or heavy rain....

the next morning we had our coffee & cinnamon rolls then packed, packed, packed everything into the car. we had a big ole tool box in the trunk bc of the possible ghetto house trip which took up too much space (not to mention the extra weight); for a minute there i thought we might have to strap Z to the roof of the car. you've seen cars with stuff packed so high they can't see out the windows? yeah, that was us for one measly 2 night camping trip.

we went tubing in the slush, Z had a blast. the days were nice so the snow was melting fast.
although i probably made it sound bad, i think our 1st camping trip was a success & we'll do it again, we still have the cub scout one if not sooner with friends.

B's so sweet, he told me afterwards that the main reason he wanted to go was so i could experience it, the 3 of us, bc he knows how uncomfortable i am being out of my element in front of others.
i told him he planned a bad camping experience so now anything else will be better!

ghetto house updates

you know how on your taxes it asks for your occupation? i'm thinking of changing my title to slumlord. i wonder what they do with that info?

anyways, i got an email from wife-tenant the other day letting us know the garbage disposal wasn't working & that the sink was draining slowly. i contacted a plumber, he said he would make contact & get back with me before doing anything. we assumed most likely the garbage disposal was kaput, but of course there was an off chance the tenant had caused it.

the next call i got was from the plumber that all was taken care of & the tenant had paid, although they were surprised. he was positive foreign matter blocked the blades, tripped the switch so it longer functioned & then the sludge built up causing the slow drain.

then a day or 2 day later B got a call from husband-tenant. an urgent call that summer was on it's way & they had no cooling options. i thought the window unit was in, but B told me they had him remove it bc of the draft. this was thursday morning & had an open schedule so h-tenant said he would check on scheduling & get back with us.

we assumed, beings he initiated the call, in a flurry, that the call back would be soon. or in a few hours, but thursday came & went. we packed up ready to hit the road & waited.....ok, we got camping stuff together (next post) & jammed everything in the car.

friday morning we said screw it & headed for big bear. we even took the north route, thinking there was a remote chance the tenant would call last minute. but nope. it wasn't until after 5pm he finally called back saying sat wasn't good for them, but how about sun?

due to RUSH, then wait, wait, wait, wait for that reply......B told him we had plans & wouldn't be able to make it up there for a few weeks. surprisingly h-tenant asked if B thought he could hook up the cooler. B walked him through it all over the phone, told him to call back if he had any problems & he said he would give it a try in the morning.

he did call, but he got it! so yeah, they have cool air & we didn't have to go.
but we still will have to make a trip up there soon before it gets much hotter, but hopefully not so last minute.

Z the mad scientist

[if you're want kids, or are considering having kids you shouldn't read this. if you have kids, or know you don't want kids, share in my glory]

this actually happened a few months ago, it's just taken awhile for me to get the nads to share it...

when we moved to the desert, Z had just turned 3 & was still in the early stages of putting sentences together. in case you've never lived in desert, unless it's freezing out, the cockroach population exceeds the human population. so in the mornings at ghetto house, Z would get up, come get me out of bed, then walk me around the house to show me all the dead roaches. we're classy, we sprayed, so at least they were dead.

"bug, bug, bug" he would say & point them out so i could put the evil in the trash. [i loathe roaches]

so, Z has this thing that he likes to make "bug killer", although we no longer live in the desert & don't have the roach problem [it's spiders now remember?] he still finds great enjoyment in creating it. it's completely innocuous; handsoap, shampoo, water, leaves, grass, dirt, maybe a cigarette butt, air freshner, etc. it's something he likes putting together & putting on ants or whatever's crawling around the yard.

however, we've always told him his creations are not allowed inside the house.
a simple rule right?

one day i go into his room & it stinks, i mean really, really stinks BAD. i went & opened the window, took his hamper outside to air out & took all his dirty clothes to the garage. when i went back later it still reeked like you wouldn't believe & i couldn't figure out what the heck was making it smell so awful.

i started looking around & i promise you, ALL DAY LONG you will never, ever, ever, ever, EVER guess what i found.
he's 8 remember....

i'm pretty sure you can guess from the aforemention stuffs that it was a batch of bug killer....however, this batch had a new ingredient. actually it was 2 new ingredients, can you guess now?

well, to start off slow, he'd peed in a cup, well, it was a baby food jar, so now i think you can guess what the 2nd ingredient was.

yes, it was poo.
in the baby food jar.
then there was a big log on the floor next to it under his dresser.

now THAT was awesome to find.

new years

a few days after christmas we were out shooting rockets, besides the little science kits, that was Z's favorite part of the holiday.

right in time for new years holiday we were contacted by the tenant again. about the fridge, again. this time he said it wasn't cooling properly, that they food was going bad & he'd gotten a thermometer to check it, & yeah. so we had to go rush fridge shopping again, figure out when & how to get it there & when & how to get the one there back here.

we were done with the place where we had gotten the 2 fridges & knew we were getting something new. we'd hoped to just contact the home depot & have it delivered but you know nothing is ever simple, they only did curbside delivery & our tenant is SO NOT mr. handy at all.

so it came down to getting the fridge & spending new years in the desert. i can't complain, it went well, we were with R & family, but it was not at all what we planned. not what R planned either, it was more of a hey, we're coming up tonight & can we stay with you? great friends aren't we?

it was a nice visit though we ended up staying 2 nights & hanging out. the boys played wow, the kids played whatever, danced & looked for ghosts & the women cooked & watched movies.

more ghetto house chaos

we had already been going back & forth about fridge #2; they said it was leaking, internally, not water but a fluid, but then it stopped, that it was going into a drip pan in the freezer & it was probably 'normal'. we told them to disconnect the water line but never got a response & from 200 miles away we decided to just let it be.

a few days after thanksgiving we get another call from the tenant - yah, this is great! this call was to let us know the water line to one of the toilets was leaking, so we told them to turn it on only when needed & friend R would go over & take a look at it. before R even made it over to check out the line they called again bc there was no electricity in the living room.

GAH!

so then there are a few million phone calls between B, R, the tenants, me & the electrical/plumbing service company bc I scheduled service but then the guys decide to look at it first & i just want everything fixed & i was stuck in the middle of it.

R was able to fix the toilet that night - YAHHHHH!!!!

the electrical stuff was afu'd & R waved the white flag suggesting we contact the service company. i was completely thrilled one problem was solved, the only thing was when i called the service company back & left a message no one returned my call. then i called the tenant & he wouldn't call me back either, so then of course i fly off into left field worried that maybe the house burnt down in an electrical fire.

hey.....i wonder what the insurance payout would have been on that?

turns out the tenant went out of town for a long weekend & late monday afternoon i got a call from the service place it was all fixed up & the bill was less than $100 - SWEET! i was worried the whole house was going to have to be re-wired or some other craziness. of course i didn't get the electrician's breakdown so i wrote down whatever the heck he said, repeated it to B, who tried to explain it to me but whatev's, it works, it's up to code, we are done!

yeah, i know....

but really, not much has been going on....
i mean other than the usual, it's december, so there's that chaos. we got the tree on friday, yah, got it in the house sat & decorated on sun, talk about pacing ourselves...yes, we did. pics planned for tomorrow night, guess i should start looking at card samples to have a few options ahead of time.

um, Z, well, yeah, the past 2 weeks he's gotten in a lil trouble at school. not much, 2 orange cards previous week, 2 orange & a red last week. actually it was a double red, bc he's good like that. nothing big though, just his usual not listening, not following directions, on his own programs, talking instead of working. so yah, it's not like he's bitten anyone lately....the teacher's agreed he's improved, he's approached normal inappropriate behavior so there's still lots of room for improvement.

we've had troubles here at home with the not listening as well, so with a heavy heart we decided he just was not ready to attend the cub scout whittling project day. B & I spent quite a bit of time picking out the knife, making sure it locked open & had a short blade, but in the end we figured if he couldn't listen to his teacher in class, can you imagine how hard it would be for him to focus with a knife in his hand? with a bunch of other little boys with knives in their hands?

more than likely nothing would happen, but it was a good opportunity to drive home consequences to not listening or paying attention or Z's favorite, when someone says stop it equates to "hurry up & do it NOW"....

i cut back my visits to nana this past week as the week long on/off headache turned into a cough which then turned into a cold, it was fun.

oh & then there's the house, yes, the f-ing house, stuff going on there that keeps me from here. i think it's good now though. i HOPE!

the trial run

so the deal with changing nana's facility was 2 part, one that i can go see her more often but also so we could bring her to our house for outings. cousin ME took nana to her house once from the other facility & she warned me it was a lot of work for just a couple hours & it wasn't easy getting nana in & out of the car. so i knew i needed B to help me & his school schedule has been crazy, not to mention all the ghetto house fun.

as the month dwindled down & we got the renters situated, we planned on bringing nana over on saturday. unfortunately when we went to pick her up around noon she was still in her gown bc she'd had a rough night. she was having problems swallowing & chewing & when she woke in the morning her right side & the bed was wet either from vomit or drool bc she couldn't swallow. we stayed & visited with her for a bit & told her we'd be back the next day to try it again.

we showed up about noon again & this time she was dressed & in her wheelchair waiting with bells on; it was cute. it was kinda cold & rainy out, but she didn't mind. B & I got her in the house & then we had lunch. i had prepared abondigas the day before & homemade tortillas, the first thing nana said was "they aren't round". hahah, i had to tell her it's a lot harder than she thinks it is to make them round, she did say they tasted good though.

it was amazing how many things she remembered about the house although it's been about 9 years since she'd been here last. she remembered the fish tank & how we planned on putting a patio cover on in back. we attempted to go sit in the backyard but even though the rain had stopped some time ago it was too cold.

we ended up in the living room watching an old marilyn monroe movie. once it was over nana realized it was starting to get dark so she was ready to go back. it was a nice visit & a good trial run for thanksgiving.

ghetto house update

oh, yeah, i see i didn't write a thing about ghetto house in october....it was SO much fun i did my best to block it all out.

holy crap i hate being a landlord! oh my you have no idea how many phone calls i had to go through with people & yah, i'm not good with the phone, even with people i like a whole lot, even love, i'm just weird & awkward like that. it's not you, it's me, really.

we finally got someone to fill out the rental app somewhat complete, but then i couldn't verify any of his info; lived with inlaws & wife had no recent work history & i wasn't able to get through to his employer, so no dice.

then a gazillion more phone calls. yeah!

one more rental app came in, complete. all looked good, we did a credit check & although it took a few weeks to check all their stuff out we signed them up.

when i sent them the lease i wrote again to verify they knew the house did not include fridge [remember the story that didn't happen? ah, still makes me laugh & gag all at the same time...], but if they needed one we could talk about it. the discussion happened 2 days before move in & it went like this "you'll have a refrigerator for us right?".

dang, thanks for all that notice, it's not like we're right there or have a spare one sitting around. [ok, we actually do have a fridge in the garage, it's our old, old one, before the dead one. the non-freezer part freezes everything so it only holds drinks, so it's not like someone could use it for food.] so i spent a day going all over town looking for a decent fridge that wasn't too expensive.

i found one, B delivered & got a signed lease & i think a week later we got a call that it had some sort of alarm that went off. they could turn it off, but it would go off again. damn! so i went back to the place where i got the fridge & we got another one & a week later we swapped out fridges. fun huh?

we finally got to met the husband & wife, so that was good. they're from LA, but he's working on base now & they have a brand new baby, so she's going to be a stay at home mom. she doesn't seem to pleased with town, not that i can blame her, but i told her i was actually envious of her chance to stay home with her newborn.

a few days later we get a phone call that fridge #2 was leaking internally & they weren't sure if it's water or where it's going, so we told them to keep an eye on it & turn off the water line.

GAH!

people are stupid

so i've spent the past few weeks figuring out how to be an active landlord now that ghetto house is about to be vacant. did you know there's all kinds of tenant protective laws but there isn't shit for the landlord...what can i ask, what can't i ask, can i get a credit report, how do we transfer information beings we're 200 miles away?

we didn't do anything with the moving out tenant, he'd been our neighbor for a year & we knew he was a bank manager, so we handed him the keys, signed a 2 year lease & hoped for the best. all but that 2 year thing worked out, which is funny as he actually wanted a 3 year lease.

i listed the house in the local freebie sheet & we got quite a few phone calls, some good some please lose my number. one woman sounded really promising, her & her teenage son moved to town bc of his special education needs while the husband lived wherever to run their own business. i sent the rental application to them & in response received "will provide confidential information at the appropriate time" & an application that was pretty much useless.

um, i don't get it, the point of an application is the applicant provides information, the originator verifies the information, seems simple right? so i sent them an email back & said i couldn't begin the verification process bc hello there's nothing to verify dumbass!!! they needed to complete the application. i also asked for husband's pay stubs/a w-2/accountant/bookkeeper/tax preparer's number/something/anything to verify their only source of income. i told them they didn't need to supply bank account/credit card/loan numbers, just names, balances & monthly payment & if all went well, after verifying a credit report we would need their DL & SS #s, this is all normal stuff.

i didn't hear back from them. i got a headache from this. what do people expect, i'm handing over keys to a house that we completely renovated!

the only other person that's shown quite an interest in the house is section 8 with 5 kids & a big f-ing dog. she's my stalker. i should have stopped her when i got the first call & she asked if the house was section 8, but i was so surprised & wasn't sure about legalities of it i didn't want to just say "no i don't want you & your 5 screaming kids & your big ole dog in my little, clean house!" so when she gave me the number to call & get info on section 8, i did just that.

i left a vm, they didn't call back. section 8 stalker did though. so i called section 8 again & talked with someone. i had to listen to a 15 min spiel about the glories of providing low-income housing options. yeah, that's not what i'm here for, i'm here to get someone else to pay my mortgage on a house i can't afford to sell, call me selfish if it makes you feel better....

i did find out the house has to go through a somewhat lengthy inspection process - SCORE! (to make sure you're not a slumlord, all about protecting the tenant i tell you!), but she also told me we don't have to rent to anyone we don't want to; that ultimately we decide who lives in our house (cue angels singing!). she also told me if you have a section 8 tenant & they can fall off the program yet still be on your lease - wtf? can you imagine the battle getting those people out of your house?

section 8 stalker of course called again & argued with me about the process; no, first we sign a lease THEN you have the house inspected. she also asked me about the credit report, why do i need one bc she doesn't have any evictions or anything like that. so i explained i needed to see payment history etc. & that's when she asks me if payday loan places count as credit history....honey, you & i ain't signing no lease for nuffin!

the 4th of july

while most people spend their 4th of july going to the beach, we went to the desert...rebels, i know! i guess all those dreams i've been having were somewhat right, minus the trailer parts.

we needed to go check on ghetto house, one of B's old co-worker's was having a BBQ, RW was back from Taiwan & the predicted high was only 102 - practically a written invitation from mother nature. so we went.

i wanted to leave early, but i should know better by now & we didn't get out of here until around 2pm. we showed up just in time for the BBQ (same one from last year) & surprised everyone. well, RW had a feeling we would be there & a quite a few other people from B's old office were there. it was nice to see the gang a year later.

it didn't get dark enough for the fireworks show until almost 9pm so the kids lite fireworks in the backyard bc they just couldn't wait any longer. the show was nice, we parked out in a dirt lot & listened to mexican music. no, it wasn't our music, but someone close to us had it on....

D kept on commenting how she couldn't believe we were listening to that instead of the national anthem or something. i told her it reminded me of being a kid, i just needed some drunk family members around, some shouting & burnt BBQ...& lots of beer cans of course....ah, childhood memories...
i'm glad Z's won't be like that.

after the show we visited another group of friends & then we went over to RW's house to hang out in the backyard. before we knew it all the kiddos past out except Z, he was wide awake loving it. he stayed up the entire time watching cartoons - after 2AM.

when we figured out he wasn't going to go to sleep & how late it was, we all decided to hit the hay. we stayed on base again, but a new spot (beings we're retired we were not welcome at the nice place).

the next morning we stopped by ghetto house. renter wasn't home, so we just checked out the yard, wasn't bad. we know he keeps the house cleaner than i do, so that's not a concern. (hey, at least i can admit it, i have 2 filthy boys...)

i owe you this one

i've lost the battle with the virus; the laptop will be terminated & hopefully will rise from the dead soon.

that along with my dad's issues & mom's surgery (she's good, i need to write about that too) life's been WAY TOO BUSY!

so here's a little story from a few years ago that i thought i had mentioned before, but i couldn't find anything to backlink it to.

back when we were living in ghetto house we had a party one night. i don't remember the occasion, but a few of B's coworkers came by & we sat out in the back yard & ate & drank. a couple of the friends are lesbians, not that there's anything wrong with that, but it is pertinent to the scene.

early on, one of the women told me i was really pretty. i thanked her & didn't really think much of it, it was a nice compliment.

then as the evening went on she was saying to B "can i borrow her?"
it was funny, sweet.
hahaha
right?

shift to end of the night & only a few people are left & we're huddled in little group. i don't remember if i was talking to her or if she just walked up out of the blue but the next thing i knew was her hand was on my boob.

& she wasn't letting go.

it wasn't a honk.
it wasn't a quick feel.
not a caress.
not a joke.
total sincerity.

the woman had latched on for dear life.
to my left boob.

i was in shock.
first of all, my boobs have never, EVER been, well, you know, an attraction. next, there was a hand on my boob & it wasn't B's! it wasn't even another man's hand!

i couldn't do or say anything, so i just stood there completely silent in shock with a woman attached to my boob. so i looked over at B & he looked at me & i'm sure my face said something bc he looked down to see why i was paralyzed & yelled out:
"hey everybody LOOK"

& then i died.
but first i removed the hand.
then i proceeded to verbally annihilate B for not defending poor lil me! from a woman who is even smaller than i am. [a detail B thought i should mention - whatever!]

dreaming

geez, i've had some of the craziest dreams lately!

in one dream we were moving. i can't remember if it was to or from the desert, but heat was involved. we were in-between houses & packing our bags to go from one to the other. we weren't sure if we would stay the night or not, so we were gathering munchies & clothes & then there was my mom's dogs. for some reason i had 2 dogs & wasn't sure what to do with them; they puke in the car, but i didn't want to leave them alone overnight.

************************************************

another night i had 3 separate dreams where i was in a trailer, in the desert, in the summer. in one of them the trailer (my home) was parked right along the side of a busy road, like the 395 & someone told me i should move it back at bit. they then proceeded to just pick it up & move it like 50ft from the road.

in another one i was with one of my grandma's, there to take care of her. in my dream i woke up in the middle of the night bc although we were in a ghetto trailer, it had a sliding glass door in the bedroom & i didn't feel safe that we had left it open & i was mad at myself for not closing it & leaving windows open instead. i knew people had been scoping out the place & it wasn't safe so i didn't know why i had done that. then to top it off, i let Z stay in a separate trailer by himself & i was freaking out about him being alone.

the last one (although technically i don't remember the order) the trailer was somewhat bigger & i had met up with blogging friends. [ok, the term 'friends' is used quite loosely bc nobody knows me] but ANYWAYS, yeah, i met up with my imaginary blogging friends. it was fun to re-tell some of the stories we'd posted & details we'd left out. then i remember suggesting bc we were out in the middle of nowhere that we get dressed up & go to vegas.

***************************************************

then were was the mexico dream. i was with a group of friends (none of which i actually know) & it was some holiday or something & we decided to go down to mexico. just after passing the border we heard lots of cheering & such so we stopped to see what was going on, etc & then i hear someone calling my name.

in mexico
sans accent
an abbreviation of my name, so it had to be someone pretty comfortable with me.

i look over & see Uncle B & nana partying it up! my friends & i joined them & we had a good time. my Uncle even picked up the bill [solid proof that it was a dream].

***************************************************

another one in the desert - i dreamt we moved from ghetto house, but not back home, we just moved a few blocks away.


i think i'm scarred from last year's move, it's just weird how the timing is exactly one year.

trip to ghetto house

tuesday was supposed to be the baking day, but on monday night we got a call from the renter that the heater wasn't working. we had him try a few things, but no dice, so tues am we got up & headed north. when we left in july we knew there were a few things to wrap up, so the heater just made us stop delaying the trip.

the yard had just been mowed [we've been told he lets the grass go, like really GO] but the inside of the house was immaculate. honestly, i would eat off this guy's floor [something i would not do when i lived there! haha, well, it is all new flooring, so that does make some of the difference.] the house is decorated really nicely too [i'm jealous....& thinking of asking him to come decorate this house]. all in all we aren't going to complain about ugly yard when the inside is being kept up so nicely.
example: a soft blue sofa & a brown chair that has matching blue striping, the fabric from the chair is also used for drapery in the dining room.

we worked on a few things on the house & Rob came over to help. it was so great to see him, he seems to be doing pretty well there although he complained about how boring the job was. they took the motor out of the heater & determined that was the problem so we went to a couple of places to find a replacement. although it's a track home, so all of the nearby houses initially had the same heater, it's not a part they keep in stock so it had to be special ordered. we went back to the house & did a little more work then headed over to R's for a little bit.

we stayed there about 2 hours then got on the road, i hate driving that stretch at night so i was anxious to get going. there's about a 20 mile section where there's no passing, which is fantastic when you're stuck behind a car that is going between 40-50 mph that brakes whenever a car comes in the opposite direction. or there's a little hill. or a dip. or a curve in the road. or fornoreasonwhatsoever!!!! it was insane, but to make it all the more enjoyable i had a semi in the backseat with Z. awesome....

i don't know what the deal was with the car in front of me & i certainly didn't get wtf the semi was doing riding my tail. i was surprised B wasn't telling me to just pass the car; i guess he's learned that i have this uncanny ability to make cops manifest out of thin air when i do stuff like that so it's just better that i don't do it. we made it home safely though.

self inflicted

it's fall, that means i'm due for a self inflicted wound (as in more than just a little one, that's...daily). so i looked through my archive was disappointed that i haven't documented the history. i'm really surprised about that because i KNOW i thought about writing about it....

alright, the history has to start somewhere, so here goes:
i don't remember if it was our 1st or 2nd year in the desert, i'm thinking it was the first when B was gone to maryland for 6 or so weeks & i didn't really know anyone. whenever B is gone, the house is on lockdown; i make sure all the window locks are fastened, door locks are in place as soon as we're home & sticks are in sliding glass doors. then before i go to bed i go around & make sure everything is STILL like that because i'm a little ocd about such things.

so i was in the kitchen, at the slider, in the dark & i bent down to make sure the stick was in place. (one wouldn't think such a dangerous action right? but this is me) there's a table near the space i was at & well, i bumped into it. okay, it was more than a bump, i just about knocked myself out. let's put it this way, i was glad i wasn't wearing my glasses because i might have broken them i hit the table so hard.

i went to the bathroom, tried not to panic as i rinsed the blood off my eyebrow, telling myself, lots of blood vessels there, it doesn't mean there's a large cut. i had a gash about 1/2-3/4 of an inch in my eyebrow. i debated on going to the hospital to get a couple of stitches, but Z was asleep & i didn't want to wake him & have to take him with me, so i decided to just leave it. my bangs covered it for the most part, but i looked like frankenstein if you knew where to look.
several years later, i still have the scar.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

i didn't think much of the episode until the follow sept/oct i again injured myself in a way that took at least a month to recover from. this time it wasn't as eventful, i was in the garage getting something & stepped around the lawnmower. somehow or another my little toe managed to get stuck on something somewhere; it hurt some, but was really surprised that i had a purple foot for several weeks.

*************************************************************************
3 days ago, we're still moving things around & i was on the search for the iron (for Z's cape). i was pretty sure it was in the hall closet, so i was moving things around on the bottom part & remembered i had an empty shelf on the top part so both doors were open, move, shuffle, move, stand, sit, etc. yeah, i found the iron & got some stuff better organized.

when i was done i stood up.
(sounds innocent enough, no? again, this is me)
i forgot the top door was open & when i stood up do you think i made impact or missed?

yeah, hit. hard.
i actually fell back onto the floor, hot & nauseous. i laid there for a few minutes, mad at myself, then i felt the bump on my head grow. i got an ice pack & sat on the sofa hoping it wouldn't get worse. i was concerned if it did i should probably go have it looked at; but if that was the case, i certainly shouldn't drive, B was at school & he didn't take his phone so i couldn't call him. i sat there for about an hour, chilling my head & gathering my wits (luckily there's only a few).

when B came home i told him about the progress on the cape & he said "that's it?" excuse me, i had to take a little break to fix my head!

bits & pieces

[i believe joan jett did a remake of that song, not sure]
not much going on around here...the boy continues to get up at 7am. i guess i shouldn't complain though, could be worse, there could be tears & a wake up battle every morning, right?
yesterday i got up about 7:45, i hadn't heard any sounds so i thought he was still in bed [only to scare myself when i found it empty]. he was already dressed, had breakfast & was sitting on the sofa wrapped up in a blanket. it must have been my semi-annual night of good sleep is why i didn't hear him...
& today i found him playing outside with the dog when i got up.
he also did better on night 2 of homework, so all is well on that front.

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the painting bug is about to bite soon. i'm looking around here, i want to do things, but its really difficult to commit to something huge [like redoing the ENTIRE kitchen] when i'm unemployed & B is schooling. so paint is cheap...although i cringe every time i look at the 18 year old linoleum in the kitchen, or find another frozen item in the refrigerator, or accidentally use the micro above the stove instead of the 1980s one on the counter [because the installed one is slower than cooking on the stove!!!]. somewhere along the line this house turned into ghetto house numero dos - wtf?

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i have not made a single bit of tangible progress on Z's costume. i've thought about it a lot, conceptualized how i'm going to do it [no pattern, straight winging in...i know, i'm just WILD like that....or maybe stupid, whatever...semantics people...]. part of the problem is the only working space i have to set up the sewing machine is the dining room table & right now, that's homework central for both boys. so what am i supposed to do? work in the backyard? i mean, let's be honest here, neither one of them are really gung ho about homework in the 1st place [ok nobody is, but compared to average]. B's already dropped his speech class & is still complaining about homework & tests blah, blah, blah, wait until he takes a 200 level class!!! i'm so happy i don't go to school anymore lalalalalala.

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i FINALLY got this blog under my "sayittojustme" username. it wasn't that complicated once i figured it out, but it was a pain in the interim. so yah for me!

summer's almost over

time really has flown, B starts school on monday then Z starts the following week.
doesn't seem all that long ago that we were back in hell i mean, the sticks.

there's a few boxes in the computer room & garage that still need to be unpacked & there are a ton of empty boxes on the side of the house. at one point there was a box in our bedroom labeled "mbed-games & clothes"
WHAT?
should that read "games & costumes"?
when my mom came to visit i made sure to turn that box around....
when i finally got a chance to open it, really curious about what i was going to find...B's silly board games....nope, not sexy-time games, i'm talking on the order of RISK.

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we've been working on the yard a lot. when we bought the house we loved all the greenery, not realizing how much work it required [& made a vow to never again buy a corner lot house. fyi ghetto house is also a corner lot, shit happens]. after 4 years of simple maintenance we have tons of work to get it back to looking good. the landscaper we hired did a great job of keeping it in line, but everything is BIG, way BIG or um, dead....

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before we moved, i put Z's shot record in a very safe place [read never to be found again], so when we went to sign him up for school i had his entire medical record but not the little yellow card. [fyi, little yellow card is official, ENTIRE medical record is useless] while at the office B tried calling old school & the lady was a mess (she didn't even know her own fax # - LOST!!!). so lady at new school gave us a waiver, hopefully i'll find the record before the school year ends, i'm sure that will be sooner than old school will get their act together.

that which will not be admitted to (aka the biohazard story)

the setting: ghetto house, B's really been making progress on the kitchen, the appliances were all moved to the back patio, kitchen cabinets were sanded & painted, new faux wood flooring was put in, only the stove was returned.
(ie, the ikea table & fridge were still outside)

the timeframe: after my last day of work (thurs the 11th), we packed up clothes & food (including some from the fridge) for the trip. then we went to SD house, the beach, the ER, back to the beach, back to the ER, back to the beach, back to SD house. we also had delays in SD & didn't get home until mon afternoon.

B headed out to run some errands & i decided to go pull some hamburger meat out of the freezer to finally have a real home cooked meal of stuffed bell peppers. i walked out to the back patio & noticed seepage from the fridge.
[i am dumb & did not make the correlation to consider why such a thing was there.]

i opened the freezer door [surprisingly didn't really notice the smell] but saw a lot of mold at the bottom, then immediately shut the door. i knew i needed to open the fridge side to verify the settings were all where they should be, so i did, they were, then my attn was attracted by the full grown maggots i disturbed when i opened the door. [sorry guys]

so i call B & tell him [yeah, i was being completely selfish & figured if he was going to be pissed, better he take it out on the people who needed the a$$-chewing (his errand included getting paperwork we needed to move that should have been completed before we left!)]. he was surprisingly calm about it.

we don't know when it died, but we know by the time we found it, it was beyond repair. ok, maybe it could be repaired, but there's no way anything could ever get it clean enough that i would ever FEED anyone food out of it.

but we've been busy & it's been HOT, so it wasn't until today that we finally got rid of it. we certainly didn't want to bring it through the house, so that meant we had to get it through the side gate over a fair amount of grass. [in case you're wondering, that isn't easy] in fact, once we got it on the grass, it was virtually impossible for us to move & B ended up putting a rope around it, tying it to the back of the truck & yanking it to the driveway. [hell, if we ain't ghetto who is?]

OMG, the smell was beyond atrocious, both B & I were gagging, we had even taped all around it but nothing could mellow the stench. as we drove to the dump, B was worried they wouldn't accept the fridge, that they may ask if it was cleaned out, etc.

i told him if they ask about the tape we can tell them it was in the garage & we had taped it for safety reasons. that if they didn't accept it, we'd have to go for a drive in the desert - heck all those drives we've been through we've always talked about perfect places to dump a dead body, why not a fridge full of rotting food? then we told Z he WAS NOT allowed to talk to the person who let us in; we knew if there was any delay our secret would be out.

as we drove up the lady at the entry point was outside of her hut, so B slowed down to give her time to go back in & hopefully not catch a whiff of our stench. she took a look at the back of the truck & asked "just household?" we said yes & she let us in!! [ok, we aren't very religious people but once we entered we said a bunch of "thank you God" & "God is good" statements because we were SO grateful! that woman has no idea what we would have given her to be allowed to dump that fridge.]

we drove over to the pile of regular trash & got rid of that, then headed over to the section where the appliances are. B attempted to go around back [to hid our secret] but there was a little hill preventing it, so we had to put it right in front. all the other fridges there were old, dirty & in poor condition, this fridge is a side-by-side & it's only about 8 years old , it stuck out in the crowd. we KNOW some poor soul is going to think it's a find that they can fix or have repaired [until they open it & possibly die].

as we drove off i told B we should have covered his license plates & that now we needed to go to confession. [he's not even catholic, but whomever opens that fridge is definitely going to curse us for a long, long time.] we showered as soon as we got home & washed all our clothes immediately because they reeked as well. i've tried cleaning the concrete, even putting concentrated cleaning directly on it but the stains remain.

B said something about how they could trace the fridge back to us from the serial #, i told him if anyone calls, we gave it away, this story never happened.

knock knock

Z hates talking on the phone. i'm not sure if it's just cell phones or if it's all phones, but not a talker [phone-wise that is, in person WOW!].

although LV fam called & left an adorable vm message singing happy birthday to Z, it's taken awhile for us to give them a call back. [slackers, i know, we haven't been busy at all, nor sick & dying of swine flu. speaking of, i'm still hacking like i've been smoking since birth.]

so i finally remembered early enough to give them a call. Z had been prepped for days. he talked with cousin G a bit, then G accidently hung up on him when trying to answer another call [gotta love 6 year olds who think they know it all. i can say that, i birthed the master of know-it-all jr, heehee!.]

so i call back, but then Z says he's done, but lil M wants to talk to him. so they chat for a bit & i'm in the kitchen trying to help B move the refridgerator to the backyard. [yes, you read that right, fridge, backyard; stove's out there too. remember to get out of the ghetto you have to go straight through it?]

then i hear Z telling knock knock jokes. i didn't hear much of it, but it was so cute to listen to.

last day of 1st grade

Z's a lot like me & we like to know what's going on, as in surprises for the most part are not welcomed. so for the past few weeks i've been prepping him on the end of the school year, us moving & warning him basically about how all the normal chaos around house is going to increase to a level no one is going to be happy about, but that's just kinda normal when you move.

last week of school, fine.
last 3 days, good.
night before last day, tears.

he said he wanted his 2nd grade teacher to be just like Mrs. P.
i asked him if she thought he was mean & he said no & that made me really happy & proud. that maybe there's a chance he does understand the punishments he received were in response to his behavior, that it was her job to make sure everyone in the class was treated fairly. he also told me he was really going to miss her & that's when he started to cry. i told him he should tell her that & it would make her happy.

i reminded him that we were moving & that we didn't know any of the teachers at his new school that he has yet to evacuate. i also told him good teachers like Mrs. P, he will always remember & i told him about Mrs. Sellers my 1st grade teacher. she was a small woman with white old lady hair & she wore the cutest black suits. [yup, 31 years later & i still remember that. i also remember leaving my crayons in my desk the last day of school & going back to get them but they had already been put in the trash. i was pissed, they were special color crayons.]

anyhoo, back to the og post - B & I went in to class right before lunch to take a couple of pics of Mrs. P with Z. she told me Z had told her he was going to miss her, i'm glad he did. she gave us his report card & he finally got a few 3s (as in 'meets grade level', the highest rank) on there!!!

as B & I left the school we ran in to lady principal & i told her "YAH-we're going to 2nd grade!" & she said "i hear it's just like disneyland!"

house updates

woo-hoo, we have a signed lease!

not only that, we a have a door to the backyard that works!!!
fancy huh?
it's beautiful too; french doors (you know, that OPEN) with mini-blinds inside too!
purdy!

closet doors were painted & hung in Z's room; so it's done except for a few touch ups, like that spot on the ceiling where the roller got away from me, oopsy! then clean up around the closet & window frame & that's it.

the kitchen is our final project, we bought paint for the cabinets & wood flooring.

ghetto house, prepare for your metamorphasis!