VD, Monkey Kentucky

Valentines Day (VD) is coming up. For the kids, the teachers make a huge fuss about how the kids need the exercise of writing names out and doing them. I was looking at Valentines last week at the store (we always wind up making them) and Dash said, “I don’t want to give out anything with hearts on them. No pink.” Guy Smiley and Superhero chimed in their support and beat their chests, “We’re men! Yeah, we hate pink! No hearts! Nothing that smells pretty!” I stopped them before they started pumping their armpits! I bought a packet of printable business cards and my husband is helping them create cards with jokes on them and Darth Vader with a Daisy graphics and in the “from line”, each dude’s name. No personal Valentines. We’ll punch holes in them and slip them over the stems of Tootsie Pops. I don’t like New Year’s or Valentines Day—they are Mandatory Fun Days. Peaches went to Costco and bought some candy bars by the gross and Zsa-Zsa is making her home school friends some cupcakes. This makes me crave raw broccoli. All this sugar! (Am I sounding like Willy Wonka’s dentist father?) Dash commented how nice it would be if Mandarin oranges were still in season and he’d put stickers on them saying they were from him. You know—I don’t like VD. I have always had an aversion to it and I’d rather go to bed on 13 February and wake up on the morning of 15 February having escaped any form of VD.

Happy Chinese New Year—this is the year of the rat! I don’t get into astrology but I still enjoy reading the descriptions at Chinese restaurants. I’m a Capricorn Monkey. Speaking of monkeys—have you heard of Hannah Montana? Billy Ray Cyruses’ daughter plays her in a show that is actually cute. Anyway, I told Sprite that he is Monkey Kentucky. He ran to Zsa-Zsa and declared his new name and said, “Ook-ook-ook!” He is four and likes to harass her. “Moooom! He’s ruining my show!” First Boom-Boom could do the dance with High School Musical (making it uncool) and now we have Monkey Kentucky.

I cannot be confidential and say what I also want to say other than that I am raising some great kids. I am the mother to some really great kids. While I was spazzing out at my 18 year old's stage, she is like a rock, steady in making the right choices.

He Arrived! The Plumber Arrived!

I don't know the damages-- it was expensive though. But the house is warm again and the kids resumed running around!

The Water Heater isn't Working

The plumber is coming today. He gets paid overtime. Why does this only happen on Friday mornings when my husband insists he can fix it, then gets home at 4:30 and says he can't so he calls the plumber who of course can't make it till late Saturday afternoon?

To the kids this means bottomless mugs of hot chocolate and snuggling under blankets. Life is good!

Exhausted

I am so damned sleepy!

The cold is almost over.

It is -38 right now. It is freezing.

I went to music class today. I am really going out on a limb and exiting my comfort zone with this class. I feel exposed.

I am not a linguist. I am already failing LING II. I suppose as we grow we also set aside things that we are not good at and pursue other things. That was partly why I was relieved for Steve to suggest that I drop Russian. It requires concentration which I do not have time to do. I love the class. I love breaking down sentences-- seriously, it is amazing to break them down and see why they mean what they do. It just requires time to sit and think about the rules and how to apply them. I will never bother my husband again about "doing nothing" when he says he has been thinking about some math equation.

I went to my first caucus the other night. It was a blast. I was sick but I was glad I was there. I changed parties. I am writing a story about the event. I have the utmost respect for the organizers-- they expected 200 at the most and got ONE THOUSAND people. We had to go across town. It was interesting-- they think the press is against them. Just like the conservatives think that. What if the one newspaper in our town just has bad journalism due to a lack of competition?

Connection Down!

My husband went out on a business trip the night before last. Within a few minutes of him leaving, the internet connection was broken, then the furnace died and the house got really cold. He is a computer geek and creates software. Things break in his wake even though he does a good job with them. I wonder if he is like that spoon bending guy who bends spoons with his mind when he leaves tables while my husband perhaps breaks things, but he counters that he is such a great guy that people break things right after he leaves just to get him to go back!

I was in withdrawal until they fixed the connection this morning. Communication makes us human and I was less human for 32 hours.