Big plans

I have four (count 'em! four!) days off, and big plans to go with 'em.

We've got a bed to build, an entire room to reconstruct, some glasses to order, a few movies to watch, and maybe even a bit of a field trip.

Also, Bob taught me two-handed Spades and...well, I've got a reputation to rebuild.

Just as I suspected

I "need glsses" in the sense that they'll probably reduce eye strain and headaches (which I don't consciously experience), and I suspect I'll see a difference in my vision as well. But I don't "need glasses" in the sense that the optometrist looked all shocked or lectured me like dentists do.

We actually only went in to Asembis to make appointments for eye exams, but the receptionist said if we could wait half an hour, they could see us both that same day.

We did have half an hour, and they saw us in less than that anyway. And they had Will & Grace on in the waiting room, so we were hardly going to complain.

Also?

Eye exams are frequently, including yesterday, two for the price of one. Half price is always nice. Turns out it was optometry, not ophthalmology (which I do eventually need) that we were getting apointments for, but the doctor had all the fancy machines, including my favorite, a cute little thing on her desk that read the prescription in Bob's current glasses as a starting point for his exam.

All for $3. Well, you know. $1.50 each, what with the special.

(I got a referral for the ophthalmologist's appointment I need, which will be much more expensive - about $30.)

For the glasses, we're going to give Zenni Optical a try. Eight dollar glasses, anyone?

People keep telling me, "I've been reading your blog." It's like they think they'll see something of substance here.

So, it turns out that spilling citronella oil on a quilt is a surprisingly poor mosquito deterrent. I woke up with more bites this morning than probably any other time since mosquito season began.

Curiously enough, mosquito season seems to have begun the very day tha Bob arrived. I'm trying not to hold it against him, but it's not a problem I've had to deal with before, so...

The girls (aside from having a lot of mosquito bites) have had a good week. They've been happy to go about their usual routines, but have also jumped at any chance to include Bob in them ... or run downstairs for a couple leaves of lettuce, or ask a question or deliver a cup of coffee, etc.

We shared a couple of meals and an afternoon or two, and everyone got along splendidly.

Now they're off for a week including, I understand, a trip to the beach. I've got a couple of days off this week as well, which will be nice.

For now, we have a pizza and a couple of beers and San Rafael's only Monty Python movie (The Meaning of Life), which is about my speed for tonight.

In case you were wondering

The collapse of 20 units of fully loaded cubic modular wireframe shelving - to the extent that not a single cube survived intact - will really take the wind out of a tidy apartment's sails.

Casualties:

One ceramic angel, about a tablespoon of citronella lamp oil (I look forward to an unusually mosquito-free night), many of the cubic modular wireframe shelf corner joints, and Julia's aplomb for about 15 minutes following the event.

Kids' minds: A peek at the process

I cleaned the parrot cage just now.

The clean newspaper I put in was one I found on a table at the pizza place and perused while the girls played in the play place when we went there on, apparently, January 24. (Yup)

The article now positioned squarely under the parrot's favorite perch is about stem cell research. I probably pointed it out to the girls at the time, although I don't remember doing so. It's been in the stack of old newspapers in the laundry room ever since.

Julia saw me putting it in, and said, "Quick! Before the bird poops on it! Who's that guy?" I told her he was a scientist working to help sick people.

"Yeah. Obama let him. And the other one ..."

"Bush," I prompted.

"The other one ... what was the first President of the United States?"

I told her the President before Obama was Bush.

"No, what was the first President of the United States?"

"The first President was George Washington."

"Yeah. And George Bush didn't let them and lots of people, I think lots of people died, and that was mean."

Like the box says: Real Brothers, Real Music, Not Really Naked.

Okay, so we saw the Naked Brothers Band movie, and I'm of two minds. It's a mockumentary about a kids' rock band. And by "kids" I mean younger than my kids - most of the band members are nine, and one is six.

I was pretty turned off at first by all the cutesy ways the kids, especially the six year old, played out adult stereotypes of rock musicians, especially since it was juxtaposed with stereotypically little kid behaviors like giggling at references to bodily functions and burping the alphabet.

The whole soda addiction/rehab bit aside*, we have a six year old coming on to a leggy, curvy, scantily dressed full-grown woman. She humors him in a little-boy way, but it's just skeevy to see this tiny kid parroting this "she's my girlfriend" stuff because it's his role, when he's clearly way too young to see this woman as anything other than a mother figure.

Toss in a few gratuitously horrid female characters, including an actual catfight, and I was pretty turned off by the first half of the thing.

Then it turned half decent and had an actual nice ending. Go figure.

And the music CD is quite a lot nicer than some of the other music the kids are into these days.

Tonight a friend is over and she brought Spirit (remember Spirit?), but it won't play in my computer. So they're watching the buxom, sex-starved tree instead.

Ah, children's entertainment.


* And by the way, no parent in the history of ever is going to buy a six year old going on a lemon-lime soda bender and sleeping as a result. Seriously, did nobody involved in the production of this movie have kids?

Let's pull that button back up to the top, shall we?

Steve's sister Michele fought metastasized breast cancer for 3+ years, culminating in a sudden decline over less than a week.

I made a small donation to Susan G. Komen for the Cure this afternoon, in hopes that by the time the Overlords are grown, people won't have to be losing sisters to breast cancer anymore. (The National Breast Cancer Foundation is another worthy organization.)

And of course, that little pink button there costs nothing to click, and actually generates income that funds free mammograms for women in need. The whole row of them down there is actually worth two to three minutes of your time.

Be careful out there, y'all

So, it's not a full moon and Mercury's not in retrograde, but you couldn't prove it by my office printer and Rasheed breaking a finger at school today and...well, me rear-ending a guy on the way home from work today (and then nearly getting sideswiped by one of the other parents picking kids up at the girls' school 20 minutes later).

Happily, I was able to cash in a good number of karma points (and it was at a stop sign, so there was no velocity involved), and when the other driver and I got out, he peered and rubbed at the scraped-but-not-dented marks on his bumper, shrugged, smiled, and drove off. All with no words exchanged and without putting down his sandwich.

I love people.

My bumper is way-scraped-but-not-dented and I was only 10 minutes late to pick the kids up (that's five kids today - two of my personal ones and three friendly interlopers). And I was already headed to being at least 5 minutes late to begin with.

Note to self: Begin building the karma back up soonest.*


* Having two children taking recorder lessons at school instead of just the one...that counts for something, right?

Overheard

J [Gets up and goes out to the living room]

R [Amazed]: Did you come here because you got my telepatía??

J: Yes.

R: What did I say?

J: You already know.

Funny thing...there's no funny things

I'd like to make some big, clever April 1 post, but I'm just not seeing it.

There was this big virus scare that I was sure was an April Fool's thing, and now I'm not really sure whether it was or not, but nothing in particular happened (that I'm aware of) as a result of it - which I suppose is a good thing.

I had little worms in my fruit at lunch today. They jumped surprisingly high for little legless things. But, they were real, so no joke there.

I asked my child to stop doing her homework and she wouldn't. No joke.

And, of course, when I try to think of outrageous things I could claim were true, my mind tends to come up with things that I consider outrageous, but of which I've already been accused or suspected, and to be honest, I didn't find that funny at all.

I guess it's just an unfunny time right now. Please take a moment to go give Steve some lovin' and I'm sure there'll be plenty of funny to be had another time.