Hello and goodbye

The girls and I, with our only night off of the week, went to visit an aunt that is in town until Friday. We only got to see her for a couple hours, but the girls enjoyed it. Tomorrow, it's back to fencing and baseball business.

The thanks that keeps on thanking

On the heels of the praise-snowball that started with a letter of appreciation, followed by a letter of appreciating the appreciation, then a news article on my business unit's intranet site... my team has been elevated to corporate intranet top story. All of this really from one instance of thanks. Not that I'm not thankful for the thanks and all the after-thanks, but sheesh.


I guess I should at least say thanks for thanking us so thanking much. And thanks!

A busy day like few others

The morning was busier than most because it was picture day, so the girls had to dress nicer (instead of wearing uniforms) and fix their hair better. After I dropped off the kids from school, I went by the store to pickup supplies for a project Darby is working on, then went to work.

Later in the day I left work early to pick Darby up from school (at dismissal rather than from aftercare), and then I took her back to work with me. This gave her two extra hours to work on her school project before softball practice.

After work, Darby changed into play clothes and we headed to practice (Shelby was already on her way to fencing). Practice was probably the longest we've had all year, almost two hours, but Darby continues to show noticeable improvements.

After practice I took Darby to my dad's house so she could eat and then get back to work on her project (instead of sitting in the car for the 40-minute round trip to get Shelby) while I headed of to pickup Shelby from her mother's (where she went after fencing).

Once I had Shelby and once we picked up Darby we went home and continued to work on Darby's project, which is due tomorrow. This is a massive project that we've been working on and off for weeks, but have realized we missed some things as we've tried to bring it together. She is STILL working on it.


Behavioral Disarray Sidenote: Darby is grounded again. After having improved on her last report card (from the previous progress report), I had eased up on some things with her. Apparently that was a mistake. Not a week later I'm told by her teacher that she has been lying about getting her work done (trying to stash it in her desk like no one will find it), and she as six (6!) tallies already just two days into the week.

Shelby is near grounding as she has also been lying to the teacher. The last couple days she's not had any homework assignments written in her notebook (very unusual). She's been telling the teach she lost her assignment notebook, but really she just left it in her bag. Then she was telling me that there was just no assignments. Also, the teacher found several incomplete papers in her desk while looking for Shelby's assignment pad. She only has one tally for the week, but I'm thinking she should have more. Though the teacher says she won't be having recess all week because she'll be catching up with her school work.


On the good news front, it's bonus time at work, and I got my notice today. I was pleasantly surprised. If only I could keep more than half of it (darned taxes).



UPDATE, 30 MARCH, 2:13am
Darby just went to bed. She is going to be so cranky in the morning. It was 1:30 before we could finally say we were done with her project, but then she had regular homework to finish...

Practice makes... well, much better

At softball practice today, Darby played really hard. I don't think I've seen her play that hard ever. It helped that half the practice was first- and third-base fielding drills. I think she's really finding her groove. The season starts next week (last week was the pre-season tournament), and she has two or three more practices this week (though the team may play a tournament this weekend), so maybe she'll really have it together for the season.

7 7 7

Today, Shelby is seven years, seven months, and seven days old. If you're the superstitious type, maybe that means something.

Old faithful no more

Everybody that knows me knows I'm a gadget guy. But that passion has unfortunately never spilled over to my TV watching habits. Some day it will, but what I want costs so very much more than I can imagine spending on anything other than a small vehicle. So I settle for the cheap stuff. My two largely wothless (but prior to today functional and reliable) TVs date back to 1992 and 1995 (i.e. older than my children), and were not appealing enough to the burglars that otherwise had their way with my things back in November.

Well, of late the oldest of my TVs, a 13" tube I bought for $175 at the time, started to fritz out on me. It was a drag to have to contemplate a new TV, but I certainly got my money's worth.

So did I got out and spend a fortune on the biggest baddest TV available? Digitial cable ready? High-def? LCD?

No.

I wimped out again. I spent a whole $128 on a 20" flat screen CRT from Walmart. But hey, it's an upgrade from the tiny screen I had in my room previously. And if it lasts half the years of the last one, I'll still have gotten my money's worth.

Ice ball and dress shopping

Darby had a 11:30am game this morning and I have to say, it bit big time. The temperature was 45 degrees, with a 35 degree wind chill. We all wore winter coats (reminder, IT'S FREAKIN' SPRING!), multiple layers, and I brought a nice warm blanket. I made Shelby stay under the blanket the whole time (in contrast to her freezing her butt off the night before), but there wasn't much I could do for Darby. She had to get there and play in those terrible conditions. I could tell by the end of the game that she could barely feel her hands.

After the game I took the girls to a nice lunch, and then we went dress shopping. They needed Easter dresses, which would double as baptism dresses for next weekend, and I still needed to get Darby a first communion dress.

We did finally find a nice dress for Darby's communion. And though it was cheaper than the one she originally wanted back in January, the one we got is a much better looking dress in my opinion. In addition to that dress, we did find two others for the next couple of Sundays, as well as shoes for both of them. I spent over $150 on dresses and shoes today. And then I went and spent twenty more.

After dress shopping we went to the movies. We saw Ice Princess, which was reasonably entertaining and surprisingly mostly-wholesome. It was a Disney flick afterall. The girls really enjoyed it, not that I would have expected otherwise.

When pitching machines attack

I had to leave work early to fight traffic so I could drive across town to pickup Darby from her mother's (kids had no school today). It took me almost twice as long to get there than usual. We barely made it to warm-ups on time, but Darby was better prepared for the weather tonight. Unfortunately Shelby was not. I thought she was staying at her mom's, but they all decided to come to the game, only Shelby had a light jacket, and I didn't know to bring something else. She about froze out there. But then so did I and I had more layers.

Darby had a bit of a confidence blow during the game because the pitching machine went on the offensive. First, she got hit on the thumb, which split her thumb nail. But she was very strong and stayed out there to finish her at bat. As soon as she got in the dugout she was crying her eyes out and I saw that her thumb was bleeding. Once more she was tough and went back out on the field to play her position. Her next at bat, she was again accosted by the machine. This time a ball went wild and hit the outside of her left foot near the ankle. But my tough little girl continued her at bat and return to the dugout in tears. "Why does it keep attacking me?" she said. I reminded her that for the opposing team the machine had pitched into the dirt several times before it hit her.

The amazing thing about Darby's night was not just her toughness, but the fact that she continued to make good defensive plays after both incidents. I was very proud of her this evening.

Promoted and Stomped

Another one of those hectic evenings. The ex-wife picked up both girls and took them to Shelby's fencing lesson while I got food for Darby and met them at fencing. Darby had to eat while Shelby was fencing because she had a game following. After Shelby's fencing, Darby had to get changed into her softball uniform and we headed to the game.

At fencing, Shelby had a skills test and was promoted a level. With this promotion, she has completed the Apprentice (green) level and is now a Musketeer (blue), so she got her blue ribbon and a green patch for her uniform to signify her completion of the green level. Here's a pic of her with her new ribbon and patch. A tournament has been announced for next month, so I've put it on the calendar (for April), though we haven't registered yet, but I don't see why we wouldn't attend.

Darby's game was a late one, which always makes things interesting (it was 8:20 before we even got started). Shelby's fencing is on the West side of town and Darby's ballgame on the East side of town. And since the girls are slated to stay with their mom tonight, after the game I had to take Darby to her mom's (where Shelby went from fencing) back on the West side of town.

Darby's 2nd-year getting-better-but-still-needs-much-work team faced a far superior 4th-year team, almost all of which were taller than Darby, who is the oldest on her team (all the other girls on Darby's team can play another season or two, whereas this is Darby's last season in this division [machine pitch], as she has to move up next season due to age). So we expected a stomping, which was the case score-wise, but to our surprise, the girls held up VERY well against the better team. As a team they got more hits than last night and scored a couple runs (which is good considering the sharpness of the opposition defense). Darby had a couple strike-outs, but defensively she did awesome. She had three put-outs herself over two innings, two of which were back to back, hard-hit grounders that she handled the way any quality third baseman would (she got high-fives from the opposition's third base coach -- maybe they're recruiting... that whole team moves up a division next season). She nearly caught a line drive and she narrowly missed several other grounders that were really shortstop plays anyway, and in general was doing all the things she needed to do without prompting by me or the coach (unlike last year), so I think she's finally finding her groove.

The weather was a factor both last night and tonight. It got pretty cold, but it didn't help that tonight Darby forgot her jacket AND gloves. I was personally freezing my bum off, and I had my jacket, gloves, and scarf, so I'm sure she was a bit chilly (at least she remembered her headband to protect her ears unlike last night). Well, we have another game tomorrow, so maybe we'll have everything together next time.

Triple-threat

Darby's first softball game of the season was today. It was technically forfeited because neither team had enough players, but they still played for the practice. Darby is playing and batting third, and she surprised everyone by having the first hit -- a triple (by virtue of overthrows but a triple nonetheless). She also made several excellent plays in the field. If she keeps it up, she may have herself a good season.

Report cards, ice cream, and... hot sauce?

The evening was looking to be quite hectic, but then Darby's game was cancelled due to weather (30-something wind chill and wet fields), which calmed things down a bit. After Shelby's fencing lesson I took the girls to dinner and ice cream as promised. I had promised them ice cream this morning if both of them got As and Bs on their report cards. So it turns out all the extra work I've had them putting in has paid off. Shelby's reading grade was border line and we've been reading a lot to get that grade up (which it was). And Darby had three Cs on her last progress report, so I've had her doing a bunch of extra work to bring those up and keep her from breaking her honor roll streak (which is still intact).


While at dinner (we had barbecue), I did one of the stupidest things I've done in some time with regard to the kids. Shelby got a burger (she's picky, didn't want BBQ), and she wanted ketchup on her burger, so I grabbed the ketchup, covered the whole bottom of her patty with it, and gave it back to her before I realized... hey, that's... not... ketchup. Right after I put the "ketchup" bottle down I noticed another bottle labeled ketchup, meaning I put something ELSE on her burger. Further evaluation determined I had put HOT SAUCE(!) all over Shelby's burger.

(enormous amounts of hot sauce on pickiest child's food... BRILLIANT!)

Those of you who know Shelby know that she is borderline obsessive-compulsive, and would claim to taste that one drop of soda in her water if you poured out a glass of soda and put water in it. So this was an interesting dilemma I put myself in.

I did the best I could to scrape the hot sauce off of the burger and bun, and then I put an excessive amount of ketchup in the area of the sauce to dilute the taste/effect. But of course that did little good, even if it really worked. The whole rest of the meal, any little nibble Shelby took of the contaminated burger she followed with a shriek in horror at how "hot" it was, she took a drink, fanned her mouth, and then ate fifteen french fries to "cool down" before her next bite of hot-burger. This was all even though I had Darby take a bite of the burger and let me know she couldn't taste the hot sauce. Everything I expected out of the situation came to pass, and it was all of my own doing. I eventually gave up (let Shelby not finish the burger I destroyed), and both the girls had their ice cream before we headed home. I wish I had some video clips to share those classic Shelby moments. It was a sight to behold in dramitization prowess.


So now it's the fourth quarter of the school year and Darby wants me to lighten up on her (not have her do so much extra work). Should I do that only to have to kick into high gear the last half of the quarter if she slacks off again, or should we press on with our more stout work habits? I'm still pondering...

Rushed and reviewed

What a long day. I had three meetings this morning (one of which was my annual review), followed by one of those impossibly busy days. After work it was a rush to school to pickup the girls so we could head to the batting cages. Darby's team was meeting there as their first game is tomorrow and they're in dire need of batting practice. It was after seven before we were done there and 7:30 before we could get dinner (I definitely would have done that differently if I knew how it would go down). Fortunately the girls didn't have much homework, so we didn't get to bed TOO late (like 9:20 or so). Tomorrow is report card day so we'll see if all my extra effort with Darby (to bring up her three Cs) has paid off or not.


Review-wise, that went well. I'll be getting a larger raise than what I've gotten the last few years, which is always appreciated.

Palm... Saturday?

The girls went to mass this evening instead of tomorrow because of a schedule conflict. I had forgotten it was "Palm Weekend" (has this month gone by fast or what?) or I might have shuffled things around.

Before hand we had gone to the book store to get a book for Shelby's upcoming book report. Shelby also got to rent a movie from Blockbuster via a gift card she got for Christmas that we just kept forgetting to use. She found the gift card in her purse and had been nagging me all weekend to put it to use. I need to find out if that's a profession of any kind. Nagging. She'd be really good at that. Even better, if I could get her into college on a nagging scholarship, that would rock.

Tourney-off, tourney-on

Shelby didn't make any fencing lessons this week because she was at her granmother's for Spring Break. Subsequently she will not be participating in the tournament tomorrow here in OKC. It's a shame because she needs to get used to the competition environment (so she's not so jitter like last week in Tulsa).

Darby had softball practice today, where we were told the pre-season tournament is next week and their first game is Tuesday (time to start checking the calendar folks). She has one of the best arms on the team, so they've been using her on third in practice. Hopefully they won't move her around too much like last season so she'll get used to how to play that position.

Again with those tires

So I thought I was done with tires for a bit, only to find myself in the middle of another "situation" this afternoon. Fortunately it was an indirect situation, rather than personally impacting as before.

On the way to lunch I was behind a vehicle with a VERY minimally inflated tire. Now, because of my trouble with tires over the last year or so, I find I'm generally quite paranoid about the air level in my tires. I'm always checking them and sometimes I find myself thinking they are low when really they're likely not. But in this case, as I was behind this minivan, there was no question. That tire was undeniably low, leaving me in a moral dilemma. Should I mind my business or try to somehow let this person know there was a problem. Well, this is from the guy who wouldn't spend ten dollars he found in his own yard, so naturally I followed the van until it pulled into a parking lot, and then I rolled down my window and let the lady who got out know about her tire situation. She was surprised to see how low the tire was and thanked me for letting her know.

You'd think I'd feel good about doing a good deed for the day. But as I drove away I felt guilty because I didn't offer to help.

Neglected voice

I worked late this evening (to make up for my missing a half-day yesterday while getting my tire fixed) and completely forgot that there was an election today. My little town had a mayoral election and I had intended to vote. I'm a little miffed at myself for having forgotten.

Tired of tires

The priority activity of the day was tire recovery (thanks to my recent trouble). I hit the dealership first, but they couldn't help me. They were booked through tomorrow. So I went to a nearby tire center instead. I explained that I needed my existing tire checked for damage and then it needed to either be patched or replaced. I was promised it wouldn't take long, but literally more than an hour later they were calling me to tell me that the tire was not recoverable and would have to be replaced. Problem was, they didn't have that model of tire on hand. So I asked if they could get it and they said they could call another store and have it brought over and that would only take ten minutes. But another hour later and I was still sitting there. Fortunately I brought my laptop in and could work on some things. Almost three hours and $150 later I was finally out of there with my new tire. The great part of all this? The tire that was replaced was the newest tire on my vehicle. It was only a year old and I paid $200 for it at the dealership last year when I had a sidewall problem with the original tire. So I'm out $350 over the last year for essentially the same problem. I'm definitely NOT liking this whole expensive tire thing.

Show me the cars

My dad and I went to the 2005 Oklahoma City International Autoshow today. That was fairly cool. The Jeep Compass was probably the coolest thing we saw, but it's just a concept car. The Honda Ridgeline is pretty neat, as is the MINI convertable, but in the I-wouldn't-mind-owning-one-of-these department (excluding the no-brainers like souped-up sports cars) is the fully loaded 2006 Subaru Tribeca. The front view is a little unpleasant, but I liked so much else about it. I must also say that I have a new found respect for the Chevy SRS now that I've sat in one.

Oh, and guys... I've never been to a place where there were so many women that new so much about cars and that were eager to talk to me (if only to tell me everything they knew about the cars they were showing). So if that's your thing, you should go to the show next year (if you're reading this you've already missed it this year), as that alone was almost worth the price of admission.

Curveballs along the way (back)

Looks like my good-luck-with-flat-tires karma (see previous post) has finally run out. On the way back from Shelby's fencing tournament in Tulsa, I got a flat tire on I-44 about ten minutes outside of OKC. Fortunately my GLwFTK had one last gasp, for as sucky as it was to have a flat tire, I couldn't have asked for a better scenario.

My ex-wife was a few minutes behind me on the turnpike. As soon as I pulled over I called her to let her know she'd be passing me on the side of the road momentarily. She pulled over and we transfered the kids from my vehicle to hers. Once I got the spare tire out and verified that I had all the right equipment, she got back on the road with the kids.

I got to work on changing the tire, and while I was doing that a highway patrolman pulled up. I walked over to his car to let him know I had it under control and he said okay and that he'd hang out to make sure no one ran me over, which he did. So I finished changing the tire and twenty-four minutes after first pulling over I was back on the road, though driving much slower.

So why was that fortunate? Because it could have been so much worse. Originally the girls and I were going to stay in Tulsa longer to visit with friends. Had we done that, it would have been late, dark, and cold on the way back (instead of very sunny, quite warm, and with plenty of daylight left) my ex-wife would not have been behind me to divert the kids' attention (had that happened in the middle of the night with the kids in the car, scared about what was going on, it would have taken MUCH longer to change that tire), and I suspect my odds of having a trooper there to watch my back in that scenario would have dropped.

But the good timing ended there. After I hobbled back to OKC, I pulled into a tire place and what do you know, I notice they close at five on Saturdays, which happened to be the exact time displayed on my cell phone as I stood there staring at the closed sign in disbelief. Why was I in disbelief? Because the poor timing was my own doing. Just after I got into OKC, I pulled into a convenience store to get a beverage. My last thirst quenching occured more than two hours prior at that point, back in Tulsa. I forgot to get a beverage before I hit the road, then I had to change the tire, so I was a bit parched. But of course, had I toughed it out a little longer and gone straight to the tire shop, I might have made it. Darn the dry-mouth and my own impatience.

I'm trying to refrain from excessive complaining, though, because as noted, it could have been much, much worse.

Wired for Sword Fighting

Shelby had her first fencing tournament this morning. It was in Tulsa, so we got up early and headed up there with plenty of time to spare once we got there (though not without trouble on the way back). Shelby was pretty excited about the tournament all week, right up until she was facing her first opponent. There was only one other kid there that was Shelby's size, so she was pretty handily defeated by the clearly more seasoned fencers. By the time she faced the kid her size, she was pretty discouraged. She fought hard in what I think had to be the longest bout of the tournament (~10 minutes... usually they're around three or four minutes), but she still lost. She lost all six of her bouts, but I think she got some valuable experience and will do better next time.

I also posted some photos in the album. I was very fascinated by the way the suits and swords get wired-up for scoring.

If only she read the title

Darby had a school musical tonight. It was called Father Knows Best. She did well, though she said she was very nervous the whole time. She's not one for the spotlight. Here's a clip from the show.

Shelby had her last fencing lesson before her tournament in Tulsa this weekend. She won one of her two bouts. We'll see how it goes on Saturday.

Acknowledged

Last month, I noted a nice letter my boss received about my team, which brightened the day at the time. But technically, I don't work directly for the folks that were kind of enough to write that letter. Today, the folks I work for were kind enough to give the team another letter, acknowledging the first. That was pretty swell of them to do.

Play ball

Darby had her first softball practice today. She did pretty well, but it's going to keep us busy as we have learned that she has practice Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. Throw that in with Shelby's Tuesday/Thursday fencing and we're officially quite busy.

Cashless embarrassment

After getting Darby fitted for a softball uniform (I'm trying to forget the fact that we spent $150 on the uniform last year... the company went out of business... and we have too many new girls that can't get the old uniform, so it's new uniforms for everyone... grrr), the kids and I stopped by Dollar Tree to get a couple of school supplies. We really only needed two items, but while we were there we shopped around and picked up several more things. Only, when we were at the check out counter I discovered that I only had $3 in my wallet, so I had to put everything back except the two items we actually needed. They don't take check cards, and I don't generally carry a lot of cash, and I didn't even think to get cash when I was at the bank an hour before picking up my new check card... sigh. Of course, the whole situation was aggravated by Shelby not being able to let anything go, so she was griping non-stop because she couldn't get that extra thing she picked out.

So now I have zero cash in my wallet. How many days do you think I can go without cash provided I don't stop at another dollar tree? And how often more will I embarrass myself for not having cash?

Competition for the best value in family dining

Little Caesar's Hot and Ready pizza, at $5.40 (with tax), has long been considered (in this household) the best family dinner value around. Well, I learned of a place that gives LC a real run for its money, Fazzoli's (on Monday nights -- "Kid's Night"). The kids and I go there on occassion, but I didn't realize there was a Kid's Night. Well, tonight, I turned in a full lunch-punch card I had, so my meal was free. But I was expecting to still owe six or seven dollars for the kids' food. Imagine my surprise when the cashier says "$2.13 please". I immediately challenged her. Surely that must be wrong, I said. But she said it was correct, because kids were only $.99 on Mondays. Wow! I thought. We're going to have to spend more Monday's here or something. How's that for serious value?


While I know it won't typically be just a couple bucks to feed all three of us, the timing of me turning in that card worked out seriuosly well. But shoot, even if I didn't eat and just fed the kiddos at the FAZ, a couple of bucks for the both of them to fill-up even if just on bread sticks is a serious value. Parents of the world take note!

Pre-emptive financial self-trounce

When I got up this morning, I didn't think I would be rocking my own financial world. Imagine my surprise when I realized just what I was doing.

How about some history? Well, a couple of months ago, a few computers were stolen from one of my company's corporate offices in California. Some of those computers were from our stock department, and were known to have employee sensitive information on them, in particular bank account informaton. The company warned all of its employees immediately as a precaution, noting that it was unlikely the theives were aware what information was on those systems. Yet this morning we were notified that there have been confirmed cases of employee bank account infiltration, which set off alarms in my mind of course. While I knew that this didn't impact all employees, I also knew that I had made several past stock transactions and paid for them via EFT (meaning I provided them my bank account info), so I was quite confident that my bank information was on those systems.

So, what to do? The options were, asking myself if I felt lucky, thereby doing nothing. Or taking drastic (and painful) action by making changes to my banking information. Within minutes of getting the compromise notification, I was heading to the nearest branch of my financial institution (fortunately in the same building I work in), mostly to ask questions. I asked them if they could do something fancy like change my account number but link the old account to the new one, allowing inbound deposits, but not withdrawals. Turns out they're just not that sophisticated. They basically said I'd have to start over if I wanted to change my account number. So then I asked what it would take to fix things if I was compromised, to which they described a nightmare scenario, filled with terms like FDIC, affidavids, very painful, and eventually get your money back. I asked if it was "easier" to make changes now or after a compromise, and they said definitely now would be better.

So I did it. After 15 years with the same account number at the same bank, I obliterated that history and started a new. And now I am left with the aftermath. I've been having to completely re-setup my online BillPay payees (they wouldn't transfer it over), contact all of my direct draft payees to give them new account info, AND I had to order new checks and a new check card. Not only that, but remember I just recently completed my taxes, so there is an inbound direct deposit due to my old account soon that I will have to watch for and transfer as soon as it hits so it won't be at risk. And lastly (I think), I have to change my direct deposit info with my payroll department, which could take awhile. Since they require a voided check, which I just ordered checks and won't have for a week, I won't likely make it before the next pay day (meaning more cash will be deposited into my old account that I will have to transfer). Only after tax refunds and direct deposit fixing can I even finish off and close my old account, hoping it's not compromised in the interim. In the unfortunate event it is hosed in this attemped-fix window, it would still leave me with a mess to cleanup in the form of bounced check type fees (since the account is now empty) and then credit report repair).

It took an hour and a half of paperwork doing at the bank to get everything re-setup, but I also opened long overdue savings accounts for the girls while I was there filling out paperwork anyway. I don't wish this mess on anyone, but I suppose it beats being compromised.


UPDATE, 8 MARCH
Continuing with my self-induced financial shake-up, I filed fraud alerts with the three credit reporting agencies. I also got temporary checks from the bank so I could get my direct deposit squared away.

Spring training

Darby's softball team starts practice on Tuesday (at least a week after everyone else started practice). Upon the conclusion of the fall season in October, the coach promised we'd hit the batting cages once a month during the off-season. That didn't happen, for reasons not known to me, but I wanted to shake Darby's hitting cobwebs prior to things getting underway, so I took her to the batting cages myself today. I put at least 100 balls through that pitching machine, and while some of them were high (prompting machine adjustment), she hit or nipped the majority of the balls she could swing at. I was very pleased (and surprised) at how well she did.

First we're shallow, now our speech is not protected?

As if it wasn't enough to be effectively called shallow, now there's this: Bloggers not protected by Constitution. I'm not sure I like where this is going.

The key transgressions...

"By his preliminary ruling, judge Kleinberg had refused to extend to the Web sites the same protection that shields journalists from revealing their unidentified sources or surrendering unpublished material."

and

"free speech protection applied only to legitimate members of the press and not to website publishers"

I'm not saying that I, or that us bloggers in general, are inherently defacto journalists, but that doesn't mean we couldn't be either. I think the precedent that may be set here is very dangerous.

Pacified

Upon the conclusion of Darby's latest bout with grounding, I planned to take them to see a production of Alice in Wonderland at a local family theater. But by the time we finished dinner and got to the area of the theater, it was about ten minutes until show time and I couldn't find the place. This is also not to mention there was no apparent parking that I could tell. I had the address of the theater, but no matter how many times I drove back and forth, I just wasn't seeing it.

After discussing it with the girls, we went with the backup plan. We went to a movie instead, to see The Pacifier. It's a Disney movie, so it had all the expected gratutious lameness, but it was pretty funny as well, so for me it leveled out from a dive, but the kids REALLY liked it. They laughed out loud quite often, and they're already asking when we can get it on DVD.


On the way into the movie, Darby and I were discussing her recent disciplinary forays. I told her that the next grounding would be for two weeks instead of one, and she about freaked. She went into this "oh, I HATE being ground" bit, which was good, because at least I know it has some effect (some people take better to groundings than others).


UPDATE, 6 MARCH
What an impression. I think Shelby has a new favorite movie. She was sitting there daydreaming in her room this morning and I asked her what was going on. Her response? I'm thinking about the movie, trying to remember it all in my head. A few minutes later she asked me... Do you think they'll come out with a Pacifier game boy game?

Good ridance Mr. Taxman

Last week, I finished up my dad's taxes, and today I finished mine. It's always such a releif. I'm also technically finished with my mom's taxes, but I'm having a technical difficulty I may have to resolve the old fashion way (in order to e-file you need info from your previous year tax form, which was on my computer that was stolen in November of last year).

BEWARE THE NEFARIOUS SAFFRON CUSP

That is all.

I made a point to talk to Darby's teacher this morning to see how she was doing. Her teacher reports that Darby is doing better this week (post-Monday, her only tally day, which came before my meeting with the teacher). We worked on and turned in her overdue book report on Wednesday, and I've been making her bring home her classwork for verification every day this week.