Re: Camping Trip

Some things are not as much fun with children.

More later...

It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time

Today, if I can get my shit together, Peanut, the dog, and I will be driving four hours north to go camping in a national forest campground that doesn't have showers for the holiday weekend. Big Daddy doesn't get home until very late tonight from the Great White North (that would be Winnipeg--he gets all the glamour assignments), so he will be driving up tomorrow. Oh, and the weather report is for highs around 60 degrees with intermittent rain.

In theory, this will be relaxing.

I'm Not Saying Anything

Ok, you know all those people in the suburban part of town that voted against a new elementary school on land the district already owns so that the current area school wouldn't be incredibly overcrowded?

They are the ones that will be redistricted to ease overcrowding because the referendum didn't pass. Meaning their kids may have to leave their neighborhood school and be bussed all over creation.

I'd laugh except I'm sorry for the kids.

More Fun With Stats

Of all the searches that have found my site, I'm most confused about how "drunk mamas gone bad" got here. Between pregnancy and nursing, I haven't been well and truly drunk in years. Sounds like another t-shirt logo, though.

O Fair City

I'm not loving my city right now.

First of all, the school board lost two of three requests in a referendum for more money today. I know this is not unusual in most places, but here there is a history of people approving this sort of thing. My tax bill would have gone up over a hundred dollars if they were all approved, and I still voted yes. I actually heard one opponent on television complain that Madison was one of the highest spenders per student in the state (not THE highest, but up there), and he said, "isn't that enough?". Do you not understand that we have excellent schools because we spend money on them? Class sizes are about to go up, fewer staff members will be in each school valuable and popular music and enrichment classes are going to be cut. What the hell is the point of approving the maintenance budget request if you don't seem to care what happens inside those buildings? (Don't worry, Anna, the schools are still going to be way better than where you are).

The other thing that annoyed the hell out of me is the city waste management enforcement. When we moved into our house, there were suspended acoustical tile ceilings throughout the entire first floor, and large fluorescent light fixtures in the living room. I felt like I was waiting in the doctor's office when I sat on my couch. It seriously looked like this (Why did the sellers do this to a perfectly nice plaster ceiling? The husband used to work for a company that installed suspended ceilings. I have no explanation for the lighting). We finally got around to pulling it all down and painting several months ago, but hadn't gotten around to disposing of the construction detritus. Our fine city will pick up, for free, waste from "minor home improvement projects", according to its website, and even recycle the metal. So we put out the metal framework and the two light fixtures (minus the bulbs-I am aware we have to pay to recycle those) for pickup Friday after I went over the website to make sure they would take the stuff. Apparently I missed something. The light fixtures were listed under "appliances" along with refrigerators and air conditioners (why ever did I not think to look for them there?), as items that we needed to pay to have removed. I found this out first because the trash collectors left a copy of the regulations, with the specific area highlighted in blue marker, and the business card of the code enforcement officer, in my door. Then, they came back that afternoon and labeled the fixtures with big black marker with our address, just to make sure we didn't try and pull a fast one. Finally, today I got a letter in the mail from the city, informing me in no uncertain terms that they most certainly will NOT pick up these fixtures unless we pay the fee and get the sticker to put on them, and if they are still out there next week we'll be facing a whole world of hurt (we picked them back up Friday night). You'd think we had a yard full of smoldering old tires and junk cars by reading this letter. I feel like I should be wearing a scarlet letter V for Violator of Ordinance.

Have you ever seen hippie fascists? Welcome to Madison.


And believe me, I am perfectly aware of what time it is and would LOVE to be asleep. Perhaps someone could explain to Peanut why this is so important, as she isn't listening to me. At this rate, she won't have her allowance until she's 42.

Obvious

This blog came up on a search of "illustrations of bad thinking".

That's what we're all about here, after all.

It Doesn't Matter Why

As of today, my husband T. will be known in this blog as Big Daddy. Maybe in real life too.

We will now return to our temporary posting hiatus. Thank you.

I Can't Believe I Am Writing This-Updated

UPDATE: We found him. Physically he's okay. Mentally/emotionally, not so much. He's getting help, though, and he'll be ok in time. Thanks for everyone's concern, I appreciate your emails.

My little brother is missing. No one has heard from him since nine a.m. Sunday morning, when he called my grandfather to tell him he was leaving to go back to his home and job in Northern Wisconsin, about three hours away. He's a radio DJ and the news director for his station, and he had an interview to do at Noon that day. He didn't show up for it, and didn't show up for work yesterday or this morning. His cell phone is off, and there have been no messages, no clues. He met a woman last weekend at a wedding that he really liked and was really exited about, but she hasn't heard from him either. He doesn't have a lot of financial resources - he shares a credit card with my mother, and it hasn't been used.

I can't believe this is happening. It happens to other people, other families. There is no good excuse for this that anyone can make anymore. Car trouble? He would have reached someone by now, even if he was out of minutes on his phone. The best case scenario we have now is that he somehow flaked out and decided to take a break from everything, but if that's true he was showing no signs of it before he left. If that is what happened, he obviously needs help too.

His name is Andy. He's a good man. Please keep him in your prayers.

I Know Some People Will Not Be Surprised

Thanks, Betsy!

Sociopath You are 71% Rational, 14% Extroverted, 57% Brutal, and 57% Arrogant.

You are the Sociopath! As a result of your cold, calculating rationality, your introversion (and ability to keep quiet), your brutality, and your arrogance, you would make a very cunning serial killer. You care very little for the feelings of others, possibly because you are not a very emotional person. You are also very calculating and intelligent, making you a perfect criminal mastermind. Also, you are a very arrogant person, tending to see yourself as better than others, providing you a strong ability to perceive others as weak little animals, thus making it easier to kill them. In short, your personality defect is the fact that you could easily be a sociopath, because you are calculating, unemotional, brutal, and arrogant. Please don't kill me for writing mean things about you! To put it less negatively: 1. You are more RATIONAL than intuitive. 2. You are more INTROVERTED than extroverted. 3. You are more BRUTAL than gentle. 4. You are more ARROGANT than humble. Compatibility: Your exact opposite is the Hippie. Other personalities you would probably get along with are the Spiteful Loner, the Smartass, and the Capitalist Pig. * * If you scored near fifty percent for a certain trait (42%-58%), you could very well go either way. For example, someone with 42% Extroversion is slightly leaning towards being an introvert, but is close enough to being an extrovert to be classified that way as well. Below is a list of the other personality types so that you can determine which other possible categories you may fill if you scored near fifty percent for certain traits. The other personality types: The Emo Kid: Intuitive, Introverted, Gentle, Humble. The Starving Artist: Intuitive, Introverted, Gentle, Arrogant. The Bitch-Slap: Intuitive, Introverted, Brutal, Humble. The Brute: Intuitive, Introverted, Brutal, Arrogant. The Hippie: Intuitive, Extroverted, Gentle, Humble. The Televangelist: Intuitive, Extroverted, Gentle, Arrogant. The Schoolyard Bully: Intuitive, Extroverted, Brutal, Humble. The Class Clown: Intuitive, Extroverted, Brutal, Arrogant. The Robot: Rational, Introverted, Gentle, Humble. The Haughty Intellectual: Rational, Introverted, Gentle, Arrogant. The Spiteful Loner: Rational, Introverted, Brutal, Humble. The Sociopath: Rational, Introverted, Brutal, Arrogant. The Hand-Raiser: Rational, Extroverted, Gentle, Humble. The Braggart: Rational, Extroverted, Gentle, Arrogant. The Capitalist Pig: Rational, Extroverted, Brutal, Humble. The Smartass: Rational, Extroverted, Brutal, Arrogant.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 53% on Rationality You scored higher than 17% on Extroversion You scored higher than 61% on Brutality You scored higher than 64% on Arrogance

Link: The Personality Defect Test written by saint_gasoline on Ok Cupid

More Fun With Stats

And to the person who repeatedly has been searching for "okay to jog with implants" on Google and getting my blog: Yes, it is ok to jog with implants. Supermodels and famous actresses do it all the time. Invest in a quality sports bra, and you'll be all right.

Jeez.

How To Raise A Reader

She hugged her book today. I'm not too worried.

Why I Haven't Been Here

I have a funny post coming, I swear. I've written it in my head, I just need time to get it down. These are the reasons why I haven't yet:

• Peanut is on her FOURTH molar in five weeks, which means no sleep for either of us.
• She is still suffering from nerve pain at her surgical sites, which causes me head pain.
• T. has also been causing me head pain, but for different reasons that would require and entirely new blog to write about.
• We've had another round of doctor and allied health-professional visits for Peanut, in additon to the regular therapy appointments. It's nearly a full-time job.
  
• We moved my grandfather into an assisted-living facility, and even though my father did most of the big stuff it still required a lot of time and energy from me, with more to come as we ready the house for sale. Yes, he's very happy there.
• My house is falling apart piece-by-piece. And don't even ask about the lawn.

Peanut was officially found to have a speech delay, due to oral-motor problems (in other words, the muscles in her mouth aren't working right). This is probably fixable, with time and effort. Speech therapists being in short supply (anyone looking for a new career with excellent job potential, go into speech therapy), we can't actually see one even for a consult until July unless we pay out-of-pocket, so we are getting some information on home therapy for her based on the report done by the occupational therapist. She's young enough that we think it will be ok until her name comes up on the list for regular speech therapy. The stuff we do for her has actually helped, as she started saying a consonant sound she hadn't made before.

And the first book she asked for? The Feelings Book by Todd Parr. She next asked for her favorite, Counting Kisses by Karen Katz. This morning, she very much was interested in Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale by Mo Willems (the same guy who did Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, which I think is one of the funniest kids books I've read). The illustrations are gorgeous -- cartoon figures on a backdrop of sepia-toned photographs of streets in Park Slope, Brooklyn. This is where T. and I fell in love, so I am especially partial to it. Anyway, she is wanting me to read to her all the time now, and I couldn't be happier. It's time to go dig out the library card.

Surprise!

So we went in to the doctor this morning for Peanut's cast change, and I jokingly asked the doctor, "Hasn't she had enough of this? She's been in a cast for ten weeks". He said, "How long?" The med student said, yes, since her surgery, and the doctor thought a moment and answered, "Well, no, she doesn't need a cast anymore then".

The blue marks on her foot are from the orthotics person marking it up to make his mold for her new KAFOs. She will have braces she wears to bed that keep her legs bent at the knees, and she will have other braces to wear during the day to keep her legs straight so she can start standing. Her stitches will dissolve on their own now that they are out in the air.

Tonight, a bath. Then, we will find a swimming pool.

Maybe She's Actually My Child After All

I have all kinds of crappy things going on right now but none of those things matters because tonight Peanut picked out a book by herself and asked me (in her way) to read it. I know she's probably done this before, but tonight was the first time it was so obvious, and so much a choice instead of I'll-play-with-whatever's-handy that it made me completely joyful.

I have this theory about kids that every time they do something that you think makes you as happy as you could ever possibly be, sooner or later they top it.