Dinner wars

So tonight The Huz and I went head-to-head with dinner menus.

He in the right corner with his version of his mother's chicken and dumplings. Me in the opposite corner with canned beans and porch pork and buttered toast triangles.

Dinner unraveled a bit like this.

Me: "I'm not eating THAT." pointing to the chicken and dumplings. (*I* happen to have a major dumpling phobia that goes W-A-Y back.)

The Huz: "That's ok. CU-3 and 4 like it."

Me, spooning out some warmed up canned beans, looks around as CU-3 starts yelling "I want what she's having!"

Heh.

I arrive at the dinner table with now two servings of brown beans. CU-4 is already at the table with his chicken and dumplings before him, waiting to say grace. He takes one look at what CU-3 and I are having and starts making grabbing gestures towards our dinners.

I turn to The Huz "I guess he wants some ..." I say with just a bit too much glee. I get the look.

There you have it fashion lovers, Chicken and Dumplings, ZERO. Mom's specially canned baked beans 1!

In response to Nat

Nat started something good, IMHO - I've not attended to my randomness, and like her approach.

Feel bored with myself. Hell yes. Though, right now I'm see-sawing between wanting to flat out weep and get mad. PMS swings or over tired, over-stressed, over-drawn, over-everything.

It's been a rough week. The Huz still hasn't recovered from his wisdom teeth being removed Monday afternoon. And we have a snow storm coming in Monday, which means I might have to drag 1/2 the family to their destinations AND pick them up again at the end of the day.

Saturday was a good but bad day running from event to event (volunteered at the artisan sale in the morning, the library event in the afternoon, and back to the artisan event for clean-up. In between child care, cake, music, groceries and a horse drawn trolley ride). I'm bagged.

Sunday it's the same thing, but different. Church, hardware store, drop-offs to vendors who loaned stuff, and a trip to pitch things to Chez Vincents. If there's still gas in my tank, I'll trot some photographs over to Patrick John Mills Contemporary Art Gallery for a show that's opening up this week.

Maybe, just maybe I'll get lucky, the road will stay clear, people will stay out of my way as I run frantically about, and I'll make it home with enough time to get the vacuum cleaner out and take care of the dust rhinos, push a couple of loads of bedding through, and find the outdoor Christmas decorations.

Barring that luck, maybe Monday's storm will be a doozy and I'll be told to stay at home!! Here's to wishing.

Oh so punny

I wish I could lay claim to these puns, alas, I'm not that funny.

So, to the original authors, I tip my hat to you all.

1.The roundest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.

2. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.

3. She was only a whisky maker, but he loved her still.

4. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class because it was a weapon of math disruption.

5. The butcher backed into the meat grinder and got a little behind in his work.

6. No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.

7. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.

8. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.

9. Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.

10. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

11. A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.

12. Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

13. Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other, 'You stay here, I'll go on a-head.'

14. I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.

15. A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: 'Keep off the Grass.'

16. A small boy swallowed some coins and was taken to a hospital. When his grandmother telephoned to ask how he was, a nurse said, 'No change yet.'

17. A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.

18. It's not that the man did not know how to juggle, he just didn't have the balls to do it.

19. The short fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium, at large.

20. The man who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.

21. A backward poet writes in-verse.

22. In democracy it's your vote that counts. In feudalism it's your count that votes.

23. When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.

24. Don't join dangerous cults, practice safe sects!

Slow news day

These days I'm easily distracted and, well, I'll confess, irritable.

It's not because I'm NOT out cavorting, making art and picking up mongo along the way. Well, I wish that was the reason because that would more easily explain my longer and longer absences from the blog as well as some of the long winded complaining I've been doing here.

The reality is sooo much less interesting. Full days of French training (for which I am sooo freaking frustrated because I STILL can't correctly conjugate various tenses), followed by house hold home work, school home work, blah blah blah. It just gets too boring to speak of.

When I get my free time, make that IF I get my free time, I cruise other people's blogs, as their lives and their stories and even sometimes their problems that they post about are much much more interesting then mine. And I'm way ok with that. Sure beats overindulging in other past-times. Besides, I don't know that I'd have the time to do any of that!

So, Monday I turn a corner. I'm back at work. I've lined up meeting with my clients (these are other departments) and I sure hope they're looking at December as a month to get things done, 'cause I am. I've eaten my Wheaties and I'm raring to get back to the old 8 to 4. Oh my life was so much less complicated then!

34 days left

Yesterday I met up with CU-2 on the play ground.

"35 days left until the big day" she said.

"Huh?" I replied. I just finished sprinting the route that normally takes The Huz about 30 minutes to complete (darned alarm clock didn't go off!) I had little clue about what she was saying.

"35 days until Christmas. Are you excited?" she prodded.

"Um, no."

Not sure if that was an acceptable answer. It's the only one I had at the moment. Now with 34 days, I'm still not excited. So far, in my French class, another student's wife already has their tree up and the house decorated. My ex has his orange-tinsel tree up (officially as of November 1!) Not us.

I've been taking a more laid back approach to the season for the last couple of years. Our tree has been going up later and later. In fact, I remember one year that The Huz had to do most of the decorating himself, as the kids and I had spent most of our energy making a paper-chain garland for the tree and then pooped out on the couch to watch cartoons.

Here we are November 20th with 34 days left (actually 33 days and 31 minutes to THE BIG DAY). There's no snow on the ground, I'm in a windowless classroom for eight hours a day, and with the rest of my "free time" I'm hitting the books (the kid's, not mine), or vaching a bit in front of the TV or radio. There's not a lot of external influences to point out that we're going through the seasonal change.

I return to civilian life for December. Maybe things will be different then. Goodness knows I need to get the lead out. I've got packages that have to be put together to go State side and out West and they need to put in the mandatory storage time with Canada Post!

And this is how it starts ...

No. This is not cute. How he snuck his girlfriend in with him, I just don't know.They start so young now days!

It's Friday

Unlike Nat, I didn't get my hair cut today. Nor did I sign up for a half-marathon. I did listen to my husband torment some poor guy who was trying to sell us a Global Male (I was thinking of Jen's postings on the subject) and was hoping that maybe my husband was ordering one for my birthday, sigh.

The Huz finally hung up when he asked the guy at the other end of the telephone what kind of toothpaste he used, because he must have very good oral hygiene to be in his line of work.

Nevertheless it's Friday. I like Fridays, almost as much as I like Mondays. (And I usually love Mondays.)

This Friday CU-1 and all his troubles have migrated back with him to his other house. Regrettably CU-2 has gone with him. She's the most fun that can be packed in a 10 year old frame.

CU-1 has certainly given me a run for my money this week. Two notes from school, super shitty adolescent attitude and no NEW winter jacket or snow pants (his father claims they never came home with CU-1. Note: this is the third COAT since September that has gone missing.)

The end of this school year can't come soon enough.

Now it's Friday night. I've just synchronized the family calendar, complete with haircut appointments for 2/3 of the family, with my home/work agenda. Only two more calendars to synchronize. It's almost as good as cleaning out the junk drawer.

Also, I got notice that the big order for advertisement stuff for a December art show I'm participating in are on their way!

My discounted winter shoes arrived from LandsEnd this week.

CU-3 has an invitation to play with a neighbor down the street tomorrow.

And The Huz is virtually all mine for the weekend!

Wahoo and hip horray!

I'd like to set my hair on fire

I've previously threatened to:

- join the circus
- run away for up to 8 hours a day
- sell the kids at a yard sale or rummage sale

None of these are working. My latest alternative is to set my hair on fire.

CU-1 + formula for area + formula for perimeter + preparation for a test on Thursday = the title of this entry.

I think I'm going to lose my mind. And no, I'm not smarter then a Sixth Grader!!

(I think the French training is successful. I've reread this post (and edited it) three times finding many errors in my basic sentence composition and spelling. I can't remember how to *say* certain words in English now and my spelling is ... worse then usual! I'm glad for those tiny steps forward! My prof is going to love hearing this.)

Thank goodness for rainy days

Today was a mixed bag, weather wise. On again, off again rain. Wind in the afternoon cooled off the nicer-then-average afternoon. Not that I noticed that much today. I spent much of it in front of the computer screen trying to catch-up on some very very overdue home-based work.

I had people coming and going all day. The Huz went to help a friend out with an electrical problem, Child Unit 1 went off for art class and boomeranged back two hours later (escorted by The Huz who checked the dungeon to see if there were any extra bits and bobs he could use at the site.) Out goes Huz, followed by CU-1 again, followed by CU-3 who was called over to a friends for a play date. CU-2 moped around for all of 12 minutes until HER friend showed up and then both of them went over to a neighbors to play with their child for part of the afternoon. Whew. That left me with CU-4. Alone with him is just different. He's a good kid most of the time (like when he poured Huz's cold coffee on MY office chair!) and having him to myself is just different. We did the usual Mom son stuff. Made lunch, changed diapers and danced in the kitchen. Just before things got really quiet (CU-4 still takes naps and hadn't gone down for his yet), I got the call of home coming dribble of people reentering the house.

It was a most pleasant way to spend the day.

Critics, line up behind my mother

I thought it would be cathartic writing about the conversation I had with my mother this evening. Alas, no, as it's provoked an argument with The Huz.

The light version of it goes like this:

. I disappointment mother because I don't keep house well
. I disappointment mother because I am not tidy like her
. I disappointment mother because ( fill in the blank here ) and because I do not exert enough influence on The Huz to be everything else that I am not.

Because of the last one, we got into an argument about how he's feeling inept whenever I get off the telephone after one of these "pick me up" conversations with the Mothership. (I'd mentioned to him that in my self defense I told Mom that once she got done fixing her husband up, she could come over and start on mine. I was trying to be sarcastic. Alas, I don't think either one heard it.)

And, just for fun, I got criticized by The Huz for doing too much for other people (like walking a neighbors son to and from the same hockey program in which our children participate, or for baking cookies for our son's care giver.)

To end this post on a happy note, here is what I think has to be the world's easiest cookie recipe:

Pumpkin cookies
1 box of spice cake mix
15 oz of pumpkin

1. Open box and place in bowl.
2. Add 15 oz of your favorite source of pumpkin (canned or fresh, but cooked)
3. Mix.
4. Spray/oil cookie sheets.
5. Spoon lumps of cookie dough onto cookie sheet.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes.
7. Cool.
8. Eat.

This is also a sneaky way to get fruit and fibre into a kid's diet.

November

Whew. Made it.

Hallowe'en's over, about 52 days until Christmas, but who's counting.

Really, I'm not.

Everything is just sliding together for me. The reprieve weekend after this weeks first snow had me outside working for pretty much all of the day getting yard work done. Then, I came in just in time for supper to start doing the inside work. (Mostly of wrapping prezzies for birthdays that are coming up this week.)

I feel like the last month galloped by. This month puts me back in the classroom for the whole month again. I'm not sure how I feel about that. A lot of students don't want to go back to work after the month away. I'm just the opposite. It's not like I'm super busy at work, or that I super love my job. I like some of the things I've been doing and things are in a good space now. I think the greatest perk is that I have the ability to structure the day the way I want to, and not be told "oh it's break time now" or time for dictée.

It's just a month, and doing this activity has it's benefits (I hope).

Happy November.