McCain's real reason in picking Palin

City folks are dumb

This flyer reminds me of the time my great aunt called the police when she saw an armadillo in her yard--she thought it was a dinosaur.  

The Greatest Show on Earth

I think this title is debatable.  Of course, who doesn't like dogs dressed in costumes walking on their back legs.   The four of us attended (only b/c Audrey was free), and Maggie and Megan.  

The worst part was feeling violated after asking for a sno-cone from one of the roving vendors.   Mark gets two, one for Maggie, one for Ali.  It's pretty loud, so when Mark asks how much, he thinks he just didn't hear the guy correctly.  Mark hands him a ten.  The guy keeps waiting.  Mark asks me for another ten and tells me, I guess it's $15 for both.  The guy still has his hand out.  Now Mark is really confused.  I give the guy another ten and ask, how much?  Keep in mind, the tickets were $25 each.  The sno-cones were $15 each!!!!

Mark starts cussing, and I'm shhhing him.  Ali immediately says, this doesn't taste good.  Well, at least it came in a fancy, battery-powered, flashing cup.  

Trendy, and we didn't know it (sigh)

People say this all the time, but when I say it, it's true.  When we named Ali "Alison," we only knew one Alison, and she didn't go by Ali.  In fact, she was a closeted "Amy."  (That's for another post.)

Well, fast forward almost five years, to the first day of Pre-K.  I kid you not, this is Ali's class:

Alison "Ali" Moore (the best Ali, in my opinion)

Allison Morris, who goes by Allison

Ally S.

Alexandria, who goes by Allie 

It's so bad, the teachers tell me that they need something else to call Ali.  That's her name, I don't know what to do for you.  Her middle name is Elizabeth, so "Ali E." doesn't really roll off the tongue.  Feeling pressured, I tell them that my mom once called her Ali Beth, and now, that's her pre-school name.

I wish I had just said, try Olivia, it was our backup name.  I'm having visions of the 6 Jennifers and variations of the name in my 40 member pledge class.  Jennifer, the number one name of 1975.  

Sorry, sweetie, we thought we were being original.

Odd man out

Megan and Alison are in Montana. I didn't go. I'm sad. I bet you guys are having fun. You better not prank call me.

The things you can learn at pre-school

At our house, we use the word "toot" when someone does a certain bodily function. "Ha Ha, somebody tooted" or "Daddies have the stinkiest toots." Today, in the bath, I commented when Audrey tooted. Ali informs me, however, "in the Panda class (classes at her schools have animal names) they don't call it that, they call it a fart."

I'm so glad we switched the girls to that nice church pre-school.

On-line angst

Facebook is my new obession. I have to resist the temptation to check my page when at work. Speaking of work, though, some of my new friends are also people I supervise, which I have a sinking feeling will somehow lead to something terrible.

My newest Facebook conundrum: Rejecting friends. Is it possible to "ignore" a friend request? Example, dorky dude from high school that finds me 15 years later in cyberspace. I rationalize that if I ignored someone for 10 years through out elementary, middle and high school, is it any surprise I would continue that practice?

Another problem, breaking up with friends on Facebook. Like, are you allowed to kick someone out of your friend circle? When you first start Facebook, you're all greedy about your new friends--confirm, confirm, confirm. Then, just like the boys you "dated" in college, you wish you had been more selective. There is one early confirmed friend that I have (no one that would read this blog) who clearly has a more social cyber life than real life. He/she is so busy on Facebook, it totally clogs up my newsfeed. Do I really care which TV fan groups this person joined? Do I care what he/she thinks about every photo all of his/her other friends posted? (I just realized that while I am trying to protect this person's identity, I don't have any guy friends.)

For now, I guess I will will be more selective and ignore people that I would normally ignore in real life, and just tolerate those who think we are friends. Ah, Facebook really is like real life!

Texas Riveria

"What's that smell?!?" And so began our brief vacation in Galveston. My kids really like the idea of "the beach" better than the reality. Ali's always talking about "going to the beach!" But the first time we took her, she refused to put her feet in the sand. When we made her stand in it, she promptly vomited.

This time around was much better. No vomiting. In fact, Audrey truly does seem to like it. Ali doesn't love it, but managed to tolerate it. Of course, minutes after wading in to the ocean, er Gulf, she starting bawling about water in her eyes. "It burns! IT BURNS!!!" That's just the oil residue, honey. Don't worry.

All in all, it was a good dress rehearsal for our multi-day trip to Port Aransas with the Bramszewski's in September.

Great motivation tool or compulsive shopper?

Target has done me in again. As I was killing my lunch hour, I strolled through the ladies' workout apparel. That's when it hit me, what I need is to spend lots of money on snazzy new workout clothes. Mind you, the last time I worked out, we had two fewer (less?) people in our family. So what! This is what has been holding me back, I decide.

I bought two stretchy, brightly colored, "breatheable" (does that mean I will be able to breath better when I'm wearing them) shirts and a brightly colored workout bra. I guess the color-coordinated bra will be important when I take off my shirt at the gym.

To justify my purchase, I went for a walk/trot tonight. My feet hurt now, so I probably need to buy some new high dollar tenny shoes!

If only they acted this sweet

Here are a couple of recent pictures from our photo session. It is amazing how sweet they can look. My girls are such good actors!

Faithful defenders!

Everyone knows I gripe and gripe about Jack and Jasmine. The bark too much, they dig up the yard. They chew the fence. They poop a least 10x what they eat. Today, though, they earned their keep. I'm sitting in the living room watching "Georgia Rule" (LiLo, Jane Fonda--it was a slow afternoon) with Audrey (I have no doubt Audrey will make LiLo look like a total angel in 15 years). Anyway, the dogs just start going at it. I look at the window to scream at them. They look like they are barking at each other, but it's different. They're barking at something on the ground. I leave Audrey inside and go check it out. From the deck, I can see this huge (at least a couple of feet long) python!!! Well, it looked like a python to me.

The snake is hissing at the dogs. I assess the situation from the deck. I'm screaming at the dogs to get away, but also "kill it, kill it!!!" I don't want them to get bitten by a poisonous snake, but I don't want it in the yard. I know sure as $hit I'm not getting down there to kill it. Of course, this is the one day in the ten years we've been married (I am not exaggerating) that Mark went into the office on a Sunday.

I think that maybe I can scare it off if I can spray it with the hose, but the hose is connected to the sprinkler. So I reel in the hose and start throwing the sprinkler at the snake. I think I hit it, maybe once. I finally get the dogs into the patio. Jasmine was pretty easy to corral--she must not like snakes, either. But Jack would have none of it. He was barking and was not going to let that snake get away. I finally shoo him away far enough from the snake that I'm comfortable getting to him, and drag him inside.

Now, I'm not sure what to do. I pick up Audrey, as if we are both sanding feet from a poisonous viper, instead of the safety of our kitchen. I run out the front, down the street to our neighbor. I pick our most manly, brave neighbor, Gary. Gary comes down to our yard with his shovel, but by the time he and his brother-in-law get there, the snake has escaped. At least I hope it has escaped.

So, while I bad-mouth my dogs all the time, I feel like today they really tried to protect their family. While nothing probably would have happened--after I described the snake to Gary, he concluded it was rat snake or garden snake that we shouldn't kill (thus I hope I did not break its back with the sprinkler)--I still think it was brave of my dogs.

So tonight, they get to bark for free. No yelling. Who knows it really could be a python this time!

Are you asleep?

Tired, but can't sleep. Already worried about how tired I will be tomorrow. Strangely, it is nice and quiet, I can surf the net, and no one is pulling on my leg screaming. Plus the kids are asleep, too. Maybe I will become nocturnal. If only work will cooperate.

Schadenfreude

Meaning "deriving happiness from others' misfortune." How great are the Germans that they have one word for that concept. Everyone I know (or at least everyone I'm friends with) derives some measure of happiness from others' misfortune.

Specifically, though, I'm talking about being extremely happy when you see people make fools of themselves, on purpose, on reality TV. Has anyone seen Wipeout!!! It's great. You must add a season pass to your DVR. Great, great, great!!!

I also recorded "I Survived a Japanese Game Show." It looks like it has great promise, and a 10 on the Schadenfreude Scale!

Trying Video

Ok, this is just a test. I'm trying to post a video from YouTube.

My new toy

So I did it. I finally caved and got a PDA/smartphone/crackberry/blow dryer. It's actually the AT&T Tilt. I had to have a phone that had an actual keyboard. My thumbs are too fat for the touch-screen keyboard on the iPhone. It took me about three days to figure out what a "QWERTY" keyboard was. If you don't know, type "QWERTY." See, a real keyboard, no double keys.

I'm also very happy to see that Alison has started her own blog. I am adding her to my favorite links. I wonder if she will post more than once a month.

I was thinking I wish my blog would just alert Megan and Alison when I actually post. I'm pretty sure no one is reading this any more b/c I'm so delinquent. Maybe it can be more like a journal for me.

Maybe with my new toy I can blog from the road. Ha!

Getting better with techmology

Part of the reason I don't do this very often is b/c I'm not very good at it. It takes me forever to figure out what to do. I look wistfully at the Hare girls' blogs, hoping to be as good as they are. Well, I'm getting better. Dutifully copying Megan, I have now set up a Flickr account. Also, related to my new techmology effort (Ali G, anyone?), I have set up a Facebook account. It was awesome! I open the account and I have 3 new friends immediately--Laurie Higginbotham, Alison, and Molly from work. Then I started surfing around to see who else is out there. I don't really keep up with anyone from my past--I'm more of a "now" girl, but since I grew up in such a small town and my sister still lives and teaches there, I still know of a lot of people from there. I start looking at all 50 people in my high school network. They are all at least ten years younger than me. Several of them I taught when I taught that one year. Most are still in HS. So, I'm thinking I might be too old for Facebook. But, I will try harder on the blogging.

Let's see if I can get that Flickr thing going and maybe you can see pictures of the girls.

The girls

OK, so I have been so horrible in posting photos, here are a few.

Vacations

So I'm getting all geeked up about family vacations. We have already booked a trip with the Olszewski's to Port Aransas the week after Labor Day (cheaper rates). We are now contemplating a trip with the Fredericks to Montana in August. We have never taken a plane trip with the girls, so that could be interesting. Maybe we can book the same flight as theFredericks. The moms sit together, the dads together, and the four girls running up and down the aisle. Fantasic!