The things in my head go ’round and ’round

It is that time of year again. Back to school. And if you read any of the blogs written by Mom’s, it is a time of bittersweet. Stay at home Mom’s get a breather from being on call 24/7 with their kids.

That is the sweet part. The bitter part is that they no longer are on call. Someone else has their charges for a few hours a day.

And the Mom’s get to spend some childless time thinking about their kids.

The curse of being a parent. When they are with you, all you think about is your kids. When they aren’t with you, all you think about is your kids.

Blah.

As a parent you have 6 years to teach them how to be independent, and play nice. And after that you have X amount of years to teach them how to do all of that and not need you any longer.

Well, not need you quite so much.

Love them kids. Just can’t eat a whole one.

Namaste.

Verizon has a catchy little commercial wrapped around that little phrase. Started out with the one geekly looking guy walking around with his telephone out asking

“Can you hear me now?”

And a lot of us bought it. Hook, line, and sinker. Me, and MLW included. See, a year ago we were with another cell phone carrier. And not happy. Seemed like we were being nickel and dimed to death. Rate increases, and we weren’t getting that great of reception. And then a few of MLW’s friends started talking to her about Verizon.

You see, MLW goes camping in the Fall with some of her High School classmates. In the mountains of Pennsylvania. All of her buddies were able to contact their significants without any problem. MLW had to borrow one of their phones to call The Princess and I.
That did not go over well. It was an inconvenience that did not need to be. So we started talking about changing carriers, and because I got a corporate rate from Verizon, we went with them.

Then we had to pick out phones. Me, I am not cool so I went with a Nokia flip phone. I works. It rings, life is good. But The Princess had to have a Strawberry Chocolate, and MLW had seen The Razr. That was that for them.

Until MLW found that her nifty, cute little phone got worse reception than what she had with the old company. So I called Verizon and told them our concerns. The nice lady on who answered the phone suggested that I take it to a Verizon store, or kiosk at the mall and have them do a “download”. And I did. Unfortunately, the nice young man at the kiosk told me that there wasn’t a whole bunch that could be done. That the Razr was a quick produced phone to match a competitor and would never equal the reception I get with my Nokia.

And I had to go back home and tell that to MLW. Not good. What was even more frustrating to her is that on our vacation last week, both The Princess and I had wonderful reception on our phones. While MLW had zip. So, she would have to use one of our phones to make any calls that she wanted to make.

Verizon, I am asking nicely. Please get me a phone that gets the reception that you advertise, is stylish, and I can afford for MLW. She is a hard working woman who has to put up with me on a daily basis. Let’s help the woman out, ok?

Thanks.

Namaste.

For Tuesday.

The things in my head:

I need to get a digital camera for myself. MLW has hers. The Princess has hers. I need one of my own. There. I said it, and I mean it.

Now if only I had the money to buy it.

Sigh.

We are leaving for North Carolina this coming Saturday. We should be leaving early Saturday morning, but due to circumstances beyond my understanding, I have have to work for part of the day on Saturday. That being said, MLW and The Princess along with her sidekick will be picking my up from work and we will be jetting down the freeway at warp speed.

If you are heading south on 95 this weekend, just get out of the way. It will be fine.

Which leads me to “The things that WILL NOT be in my head”. Namely music. I have been rhapsodizing about Ipods and the such lately, but in truth I have none. Again, MLW has hers, and The Princess has hers, but me? Nada. Zilch.

To be upfront, MLW did offer to purchase one for me not long ago and I demurred. I have my CD player for my truck, I figured that I didn’t need something to pour sweet music directly into my head.

I was wrong. I need something for this drive as I won’t be able to play the vehicles CD player without keeping everyone awake and bitching at me to TURN IT DOWN!!

I tend to listen to my music loudly.

So I have a couple of things to work on the next few days. Along with:

Tearing out the rest of the carpet in the living room.

Cleaning out all of the cupboards, and under the sink in the kitchen.

Cleaning out and moving the refrigerator from the kitchen.

Moving as much of the furniture out of the living room as possible.

Because while we are down in NC, gnomes are coming into our house and demo’ing our kitchen, and putting down wood flooring in our living room.

This is going to be interesting.

Namaste.

Well, not really the weekend but it is the only two days off in a row that I am going to see before I go on vacation.

Which is in TWO WEEKS!!!!

I would like to say that I can’t wait, but the reality is that I have to wait. Because the time off starts in two weeks, not today. Unless, of course, I fake some crazy illness and take the next two weeks off from work.

Speaking of a crazy illness. Those of us who have been paying attention have known that I had an allergic reaction to poison ivy. Did the whole ER thing, got the steroids, got the benedryl, got the shakes and the mood swings. For those who weren’t paying attention, specifically the people that I work with, I did not get an infection from a tattoo. Idiots.

The people I work with seem to be some of the most un-trusting folks that you can come across. I had to leave work early on Friday due to my leg swelling up. The patch of poison ivy on the back of my leg had soaked 3 sets of bandages through with lymph that my body was making to try and deal with the poison ivy. One of my co-workers thought that it would be a neat thing to do to start a rumor that I had an infection due to a bad tat. Then when I went into work on Saturday I had to show my boss my leg to prove to him that I did indeed have poison ivy.

This is the first time in 28 years of work that I have had to prove my illness to a boss. Just makes you all warm and fuzzy inside, now doesn’t it? Paranoid people make me crazy.

With that being said, I am going to go enjoy the day. MLW, The Princess and I are going to see a movie today. Something we haven’t done as a family in forever.

L8R

An internal MP3, as it were.

Hope everyone had a good Father’s Day. I did. After I got out of work.

We went to a chain restaurant called Carrabbas. This is the same chain that owns Outback restaurants.

We have eaten at Carrabbas a few times, and have yet to have a bad meal. Last night MLW and I had the pollo rosa maria. It was wonderful. I also had to indulge myself in a limonfresca. That too hit the spot after a hot day at work.

And to finish it all off we had ice cream with a carmel sauce and carmelized pecans. Man, life is good when you have good food, and good company.

And that is what is playing on my personal MP3.

Namaste.