Strings and Books

Howdy. Have you guys checked out Ruth's Massive DeStash yet? Do that, then come back.

And I am excited to be included in Sophanne's traveling scarf project. I'm almost ready to pass my first section along...Ain't it purdy?

I've been struggling with my summer reading. I grabbed a couple of NPR picks and wasn't impressed with either one. I couldn't even get through the first 30 pages of the first one (Too Close to the Sun). It is a biography of Denys Finch Hitton (the guy Robert Redford played in Out of Africa). The story was painfully slow. The second book from NPR's pick list was The Thin Place. I finished that one, but it was really weird. I'm still not even sure what the book was about.

I've been thinking about reacquainting myself with some classic Greek mythology. I put a hold on a book from my local library and stopped in last night to pick it up. It was a kids book. I was in a terrible hurry, so I ditched the kid book and grabbed Homer's Iliad instead. Holy crap. What the hell was I thinking? I'll be lucky if I make it through the introduction!! Maybe that kid book wasn't such a bad idea after all.

What are you reading? Got any good suggestions for me?

It really does take a village to raise a child.

Over the last 6 years, my family has become the neighborhood house sitters. And that’s cool with me. I have no problem watering your plants, picking up your paper, collecting mail, feeding and walking dogs, shoveling snow, or mowing lawns. We always have keys to at least 2 of our neighbor’s houses hanging in our garage and have watched up to 4 houses at a time. I really don’t mind. In fact, I’m honored that they all trust us.

My husband and I want to start teaching our daughter about money, so we recently announced our retirement from the house sitting business. However, our six-(almost 7) year-old daughter is more than happy to take over the family business…for a small fee. She charges fifty cents a day (a dollar a day if you leave the dog at home).

Her first customers were out of town for 7 days. This lady has the most incredible wave petunias I have ever seen and they require watering twice a day when it’s hot. My daughter got up early every day so she could take in the newspaper and water the plants before school. After school, she watered again and carried in the mail. On trash day, she dragged TWO trash cans and TWO recycle bins to the curb, then toted them back later that afternoon. The child did an outstanding job and was rewarded with TEN dollars…more than twice her fee.

Thursday, B and J went out of town again. And they (B and J) had been watching J and J’s house. So now, my daughter needed to water B and J’s flowers AND J and J’s flowers. J and J would be home on Sunday.

This morning, J and J saw my daughter watering the flowers at B and J’s house and came over with a thank you card. When my daughter opened the thank you card, there was a $20 in it. I really wish I had known that was coming. I never would have allowed it.

I’m sure that B and J told J and J that my daughter would be taking over watering the plants for a couple days and that my daughter is earning money for Disney World. I’m sure that J and J thought that was cute and wanted to help my daughter earn money. Maybe $20 wasn’t that big of a deal to them. But it defeats the purpose of our money lesson.

How can my child learn the value of the dollar when she gets $20 for splashing water on a couple plants for a few days? Even the $10 that she got a few weeks ago is too much. They only owed her $3.50. Five dollars would have been acceptable, but $10 is too much.

I this is a great example of why “It takes a village to raise a child”. I need my “village” to help me teach my daughter about earning money. Money is not free—you have to work for it. And sometimes that work is hard, dirty, smelly (Mike Rowe), and sometimes we’d rather go play with our friends. But if you don’t work, you can’t have that cute little stuffed polar bear from Kohls.

Catch up

I found THIS on the outside of my office window today.

Crazy bug was 7 stories up and missing a leg! After I downloaded the picture, I found two months worth of snapshots on the camera--most of them had completely slipped my mind. Like this one...

We went to Fort Collins back in May to meet my sister-in-law. She and her husband were about to move from Wyoming to Tennessee, so we met them "half-way" at a city owned and operated park called "The Farm". Very very cool place...highly recommended. They have chickens, ducks, pigs, cows, horses, sheep, and goats. We spent $2 on a bag of oats and let my daughter feed the animals. She was petting one goat and a second one snuck up and ripped that bag of oats right out of her hand. Fortunately, she thought it was hilarious and laughed until her face turned blue.

I also found these pictures:

This year's Parker Country Festival was on Father's Day weekend. I think it was the 23 or 28th year and it just keeps getting better. They block of "downtown" and set up a carnival (rides, food, games, arts, crafts, beer, and bands). It is SO much fun. And this year, my daughter's girl scout troop was invited to participate in the parade. They were "Scouts on Scooters". What a blast. My daughter is the one sporting the "firecracker hat"!

What a nice surprise...finding all those pictures.

Truth Hurts

I’m sure I’ve mentioned that I work in a very small office (two people, including me). I usually wear jeans or even shorts to work, but Monday we had a visitor from corporate, so I had to dress up. I wasn’t sure if that visitor was going to be in our office today, too, so I figured I'd better dress up again, just in case.

My “dress-up” wardrobe is almost non-existent. I dug out a really cute 8-year-old sundress to wear on Monday. This morning, I was digging through my closet and could only find one other outfit that fit me—and it is tight! I said to my husband, “I look like a stuffed sausage!” My husband (being the well-trained husband that he is) replied, “No you don’t, hun, you look nice.” At which point my daughter chimes in, “Well—yeah, mom, you kinda do look like a stuffed sausage.”

I’ve never met a 6-year-old who lies about the way you look, so I squeezed into a girdle and committed to a day of discomfort. It’s 1:00 and my face is turning blue.

No...corporate didn't show up. My coworker is in jeans.

Priorities

It's been a long time since I've posted because I really don't have anything to talk about. Same shit, different day. But then today, on the way to work I heard a news story that threw me over the edge. I have to express my disgust...

The "news" was that a syndicated radio talk show host's contract was renewed for $400 million dollars. FOUR. HUNDRED. MILLION. DOLLARS. I immediately turned to my husband (we car pool now) and asked, "What the hell is WRONG with us?" FOUR? HUNDRED? MILLION? DOLLARS?

What kind of society is willing to pay a pompous jackass $400 million dollars to flap his trap and piss people off when there are millions in our country going hungry? We have citizens that can't afford to pay for life-saving medications and thousands of schools that are literally falling down while student share outdated text books. Our military personnel are fighting a war while their spouses stand in line for food stamps. And this son-of-a-bitch is making $400 million dollars. NO ONE, I don't care who you are, NO one needs $400 million dollars. Not even over an entire lifetime.

And this is only one example. Don't even get me started on the "stars" (sports, movie, or otherwise).

It makes me sad.

Newton's Law

Newton's third law of motion states: "To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." I find this statement proves true every time its tested. And it is curiously similar to the law of karma, yes?

All this nonsense has to do with the fact that I got a new bra. And may I say, "Holy crap...I feel like a new woman!" I'm walking taller and I feel beautiful. But I can't smile.

Same day I get my new bra (yesterday), I get a piece of lettuce stuck under my gum. Of course it's a piece of red-tipped lettuce and it's the red tip that got stuck. I tried to dig it out last night and managed only to push it down deeper. I mean to tell you that I have never seen anything like this in my life. This lettuce is WAY under my gum...front and center (of course). It looks disgusting and it's starting to swell. I'm afraid I'll need some DDS intervention on this one.

Today is my eight year wedding anniversary. We aren't exchanging gifts this year because we've booked a Disney World vacation for August. I know that it's sweltering hot and miserable, but with my daughter on year-round school, our options were limited. AND we'll be there for my daughter's 7th birthday. I'm so excited I can't stand it. We leave in 52 days.

Is it just me?

Seems lately that every time I turn around, I find a super hot guy.

A month ago I asked building management to install a fire alarm strobe light in my office (because we didn’t have one and we missed the last two fire drills). Yesterday this incredibly sexy man comes to my office to do the work. My office has this supervisor window, so I can see the entire office from my desk (I remind you that there are only two of us in this office and I supervise no-one). The guy is up on his ladder RIGHT outside my window A-L-L day. And he is OH-MY-GOD hot.

Today, ANOTHER hot guy shows up to work on my AC. Are you kidding me? This one is even better looking than the one yesterday. Where do these men come from and where can I get one?

And you’ve heard about my neighbors, yes? No? Well let me tell you…they are Greek gods. These 20-something brothers are about 6-foot, 4-inches tall with 6-pack abs, blond hair and blue eyes. They like to mow the grass with their shirts off. As a matter of fact--I like them to mow the lawn with their shirts off, too. I call them the “hot neighbors”. They probably call me the “creepy neighbor.” I’m damn-near old enough to be these boys’ mother.

I was reading a book with my daughter a couple nights ago about the importance of taking care of your skin (keep it clean, wear sunscreen, use lotion, blah blah blah). We got to the part in the book where they talk about why people’s hair color is different and why older people have gray hair. My daughter says to me, “Well, you’re old and your hair isn’t gray.” It was late and I was tired so despite the three thousand rebuttals that flooded my brain, I opted to leave that one alone.