Sunday randomness

-dear neighbor who always leaves your garbage can at the curb I have once again resisted the temptation to knock the can over..is is so much effort to walk it to your house and then back down to the curb once a week...like all the rest of us do?
-dear lady in the grocery attempting to shop with 4 kids in tow thanks for reaffirming my decision to only have the 1
-dear parent who was no where in sight while your 2 boys were acting stupid and running around in the grocery maybe you should have stuck with none or maybe just control the 2 'ya got
-does it not figure meet the teacher day would be on the afternoon I will be out of town? not that 2-3 in the afternoon is a golden time for me anyway... much thanks to MIL for being able to pick up my slack
-dear work I do regard having to come in for an hour long meeting today as ruining my entire weekend. I have been at this job for over a decade and then some these meeting tend to be the exact same meeting no really the exact same meeting. and trust me they stopped being fun when alcohol was banned several years ago

summer camp

I always wanted to go to summer camp in a desperate sort of way growing up I remember pouring over my Ranger Rick magazines reading about all of the summer camps with cool activities in all sorts of places around the States. Alas it never happened of course I never quite considered the costs surrounding summer camp which is the safe bet why I never got to go. I would love to live vicariously through my son ands send him but again money is involved. He goes to a perfectly good day camp of sorts but it is in a daycare facility which means we only have a few summers that he can attend due to age requirements, two in fact I think. This camp has a set pricing schedule you pay monthly with only one week credit for vacation so side projects can be cost prohibitive for instance his week of basketball camp we paid for both camps that week. Once he is old enough we will have to look at variety of other camp alternatives and hopefully we will be able to swing a sleep away camp option at that point.

over scheduling

not a fan where my son is concerned for many reasons all the PC ones of course but the oft left out in fancy schmancy articles about how we are screwing up our children is that if he is over scheduled it makes me over scheduled..well even more over scheduled than I already am. I am also not a fan of him sitting in front of a television or computer screen every afternoon not that we allow that during the school year anyway but I digress. As he gets older he has more interests, interests I like to encourage, interests that will over schedule us this semester perhaps. He takes taekwando twice a week, CCD once a week, we are going to let him try baseball again this fall contingent of course upon his school work if it starts to suffer he will get pulled out again just like last year and last but not least his new found love of swimming with new classes starting in September. I am tired just thinking about it all especially when you add in my full time job, school, laundry etc etc etc
and yes I know I am whining over just one kid those with more than one God Bless 'ya I have no idea how you do it!

calorie "bombs"

who is walking into to any fast food establishment with the idea of getting a healthy meal? these lists are goofy and if you are stupid enough to think your eating healthy at the majority of fast food place you are dippy.

what age is the magic trustworthy age?

what is the golden number when children can be left home alone to fend for themselves? I have never left my 9 year old home alone for any amount of time in spite of the fact I think it would be okay and at that age I was babysitting home alone in someone elses home and responsible for their children no less. I believe there are laws now about that sort of thing, there might have been way back when too but no one paid much attention as far as I could see. We were not exactly latchkey kids growing up my grandmother lived in a mother-in-law apartment attached to our house and she was in residence most of the time but not all of the time and in the mornings my brother and I were responsible enough to get ourselves fed, dressed, lunches made etc...not once did we set the house on fire, let in a stranger or miss our ride to school. I do recall more than one sick day being left home alone to fend for myself. Again nothing earth shattering occurred. I am bemused by the David's Mom as she will not leave my 15 yr old nephew (Z) home alone even for the 1/2 hour it is taking her to pick up David. Z has given her absolutely no reason not to trust him for at the very least a 1/2 hour all by his lonesome never mind those time during the school year we get him overnight because no one would be home till 10 at night. I can't imagine that at 15 we won't be able to trust C home alone although knowing his father's and other various and sundry uncle's past histories he might not be left alone till he's 35
I should add MIL is particular about who is or is not in her house anyway so the fact she won't leave Z is not so very strange. It still amazes me after all these years we have finally been allowed a spare key to her place.

I never win anything

except today I did! I won a trivia contest on twitter from Buddy's BBQ! yippee! I won 4 tickets to a Smokies Game and a $10 gift card to well Buddy's of course.
Today was a good day now only if I could set my sights higher and win oh I don't know maybe the lottery or something now that would really make my day

sometimes bigger is not always better

okay you yes you get your mind out of the gutter I am talking about grocery stores here.
They built a fancy schmancy new Kroger complete with furniture, toys, linens and blenders fabulous to be sure but overall the selection of foods not so great. And not so great as in I cannot do a full and complete weekly shop at their store. Don't get me wrong they have some decent international foods, the Gorgonzola potato salad is to die for, they have a sushi bar for Pete's sake and they are great with wooing me mailing coupon after coupon suckering me back into the store only to leave exasperated because I will need to make at least another trip to another grocer to complete my list on any given week. Just down the road Ingles has put in a fancy schmancy new grocery store too with guess what..a better variety of food no towels or plates and silverware and not a couch or bunk bed to be seen just food and really really great selection of food....
Novel idea huh?

operation go on a real vaction is in effect

okay our goal is Disney.
yup that's right the big rat no no the other big rodent not that big rat.
I see a yard sale or two and some ebay auctioning in my future to help fund this expedition. School is out May 21st and I want to be in Disney May 24th. This is totally doable and I am opening up a special savings account for the fun and frivolities on Monday!

you'll break a hip

MIL has a birthday coming up a birthday she shares with a certain pug by the name of Oscar but I digress...
Normally gifts are not so very elaborate but this year she has requested a bicycle. My first thought being of course just how much do you think we have to spend on your gift? 'cause a bike is not in our budget. I work with bike geeks bikes are not cheap. Delving more into the matter she had found a simple one at Wally-world completely affordable as we could go halvesies with David's brother JJ. So get a phone call form MIL JJ does not think she should get a bike because and I quote "you could break a hip" really?!? that's the first thing you go for you could break a hip????
Hell she could break a hip falling out of bed which is how my grandmother broke hers..she could fall on a stick and poke her eye out too
whatever
after birthday update: JJ got her the really practical gift of a magnum of champagne which hopefully she wont drink while riding her bike or she really will break a hip

such a slacker

my big plans for a vegetable garden yes well it did not happen and to top it all off I managed to kill my basil plant. Trying to reconcile the fact that I may have inherited my mother's black thumb...no really she could kill a plastic plant....am now considering the topsy turvy gardening club it looks idiot proof