Four Day Weekend

A four day weekend, smack in the middle of October, is a beautiful thing.

We spent Day One doing absolutely nothing. Nothing at all. We didn't even take Marco on a walk. The highlight of activity was watching three episodes of Fringe back to back. I think I did a load of laundry...maybe not.

Day Two was a bit more active. The Girl and I experimented making mini stuffed french toast pockets for an outdoor cooking competition. The Boy and Man suffered through the taste testing for us like champs. They both kept coming back for more and more. Later, The Boy left for a weekend camp out with his troop. It was cold and rainy. I'm so glad they had a cabin and not tents like they were originally planning. The Girl and I spend the evening watching Once Upon A Time in Mexico because even though there's lots of guns and blood and explosions, that movie is a chick flick. Big time.

Day Three was another Cross Country meet for The Girl. This one will be remembered for the mud and the cold. It was a big sloppy mess the entire time. Kids had mud kicked up their legs all the way to their faces. This is a teammate of The Girl's who really got covered.

This is The Girl. Her shoes were entirely caked and then filled with mud. I thought they were ruined for sure, but a trip through the washing machine brought them back.

After a long shower and a rest, the three of us along with The-Other-Girl-In-Our-Lives took off on a Sweetest Day adventure. We went into Coventry to have dinner at the Mongolian BBQ. The wait was lengthy so strolled (More like sprinted. It was really cold.) up the road to Big Fun.

As I was taking this picture, someone knocked on the window. It was my sister and my BIL Jim in the neighborhood for the exactly the same reason as us! As Professor Horrible would say, what crazy wacky happenstance! (The reason shall be revealed soon.)

We tried to convince The Man that he should buy this fez, but he talked himself out of it.



It was still a bit of a wait at the restaurant when we got back. The girls were losing all hope.

Eventually we got our table and ate and ate and ate until we could eat no more.

Finally it was time to go the theater which was our true destination for the night. In honor of Weird Al's 50th birthday, the Cedar Lee was showing UHF. There was an accordion player who knew every Weird Al song and took requests.

There was a Wheel of Fish that everyone got to spin to win a prize. Here's The Sister with the soundtrack she just won.

When UHF first came out, we sat in practically empty theaters to see it. Seeing it in a room full of people who all love it and sing along was such a fun experience. And there was birthday cake too!

On Day Four (Damn, this is taking forever!) The Girl and I went to the before mentioned outdoor cooking competition. The cooking had to be done in a fire circle and you had to bring all your food and cooking supplies. We choose to make stuffed french toast, in little bite sized pieces, served with bacon and fruit. We wanted to do a tropical theme, so the fruit was kiwi, pineapple and strawberry.



Table setting to your theme was part of the competition.



Our dish doesn't look like much just sitting in a big pile, but it was tasty, even cold. That's powdered sugar in the coconut cup.

We didn't win the grand prize, but we did win the Yum-O Award which includes a giant bag of butterscotch chips and a huge box of Nilla Wafers. Strange prizes but better than the troop that won the over-sized bag of Cheerios.
Back to reality today. For the kids at least. I'm going for the five day weekend!

Tick Tock Flip

I overheard this in the room I was working in today.

Teacher's Aide: So now we have to do this page on clocks. You know clocks?

Little Zombie: Oh yeah. That's soooooo easy!

Aide: Okay! So what's this hand on a clock called?

LZ: The hour hand.

Aide: Good. And this one?

LZ: Ummm.... the second hand?

Aide: No, the second hand is this one. The skinny one. What is this hand called if it's not the hour hand or the second hand?

LZ: Ummmmm......

Aide: It's the one in the middle. It starts with an M....

LZ: OH! The middle finger!

To Logan

When I saw his name in the paper it just jumped out at me. I often say that I only remember the names of the zombies who give me trouble and was true of him. Logan gave plenty of trouble but just like all the quotes about him say he had a terrific smile and the warmest eyes. Once, at the end of the day, he apologized to me for being a pain all day. I'll always remember that.

I've had this song in my head all day. I think it sums up how I'm feeling pretty completely.

Missing the Little Things

Back in August my purse was stolen. I didn't write about it then because it I so bummed out about the whole thing. It was taken out of my van during the night. And no, they didn't hurt the van at all because it was unlocked and all the windows were down and my purse was just sitting on the seat. So you could say I had this coming, but please don't. It's not like it's a secret that bored juvenile delinquents roam my neighborhood looking for trouble. Sheds, garages and cars had been broken into all summer. The feisty old lady down on the corner fought off teenagers with her soup pot who pushed their way into her house. She made national news.


A few summers ago my friend Denise got her purse stolen out of her car while we were hiking at Day Camp. That creep smashed her window to get it. I sat with her while the park ranger investigated the scene and wrote out the report. I helped her make the list of what was in her purse. It was the little things like the loss of an almost fully punched sandwich card and the coupons that caused her the most grief. That and loss of the purse itself. "Do you know how hard it is to find a good purse?", she lamented. I felt for her.


The morning I went looking for my purse and remembered I left it in the car, I had a sinking feeling before I even made it to the backdoor. I knew without looking that all the windows were down, the doors were unlocked and I left my purse on the passenger seat. By the time I got to the van I could only bring myself to peek in to confirm my fears. It wasn't there.


After that I went through the motions of searching the van all over and then searching the house, but I knew it was useless. The cop who showed up had nothing to offer. If it didn't show up in a neighbors' shrubs in the next couple of days, it was gone for good he said.


It didn't show up.


Just this weekend I found a purse to replace it. I've been carrying an old one that's just been okay. I also finally got a new wallet since I've just been using an old change purse for everything. All of the cards that can be replaced have been. I got a new purse brush and a cute box for my Tylenol. But I'm still missing the little things. The purse itself was my vacation purse that I added a button and a buttonhole to for our trip to NYC. It still had some souvenirs from NYC in there too. It had a 15% discount card for all copies that was still good until next summer. There were a couple of gift cards for book stores. Just when I think that I'm over all of it, something else will come up that I don't have because of the theft.


The biggest drag of it all was losing my phone. Not the phone itself, but the pictures on it that I never uploaded. I had that phone for three years and it had some great shots. I still don't have a phone which needs to be remedied. The Man has been sharing his phone with me, but I miss mine.


Here's one of the few shots of the purse that I found. I bought it only a week before we left and it was gone about a week after we came home. It had a short life, but at least it got a really fantastic vacation.

What you do with freedom

The evil zombie job is over. On Friday I had to train the sub who will be taking over that little corner of hell. More power to her! The word now is that the real teacher won't be back until after Thanksgiving. I wrote the new sub two days of plans and gave her a crash course in SmartBoard use. She confessed to me at the end of the day that she's fine with the curriculum, but she's never dealt with the behavior issues that this room presents. Yeah, well, welcome to the jungle.


This job has not left me unmarred. My skin is a wreck and I need to re-do my hair color ASAP to cover the gray. I'm not joking here. Two weeks should not do this much damage to a person. At least last night I didn't dream about it. The road to healing widens!


This weekend The Girl ran her 5K in 26:25. W00t! That same afternoon The Boy and I attempted to sell Boy Scout popcorn outside of Home Depot. It was a bust but we has a big goofy time together trying to get people to just look at us. Later that same night (after a long nap), The Girl went to Homecoming with some of her girlfriends.
While The Girl was at the dance The Man, Boy and I went to see Zombieland. (Fitting, no?) It was just what I needed. A movie that's funny and gross at the same time.


Yesterday the kids and I went with friends to a corn maze. I enjoyed the maze. The kids enjoyed pelting each other (and me) with corn.
As you move through the maze you find stations that give you clues to the final secret word which earns you a prize. We only cheated at the very end of the maze because we were too tired to go back and find the last clue to solve the puzzle. After two hours of wandering, I just wanted my prize and go home!


I didn't go to work today and I'm not going tomorrow. We'll see how I feel about everything by Wednesday. But I'm not holding my breath.