"Certified"

As a requirement of the new softball league Darby's team is joining, I had to attend a coaching clinic this evening. I had to take a short test and am now a member of the National Youth Sports Coaches Association. Not sure that means much, but I have a little membership card to make me feel special.

More trouble for Shelby

Shelby is NOT having a good week. She's walking better, but not behaving better. She got another tally today (making it six on the week), and a note was sent home saying she was disruptive and disobedient in class. She had incomplete classwork to do, and she had 25 sentences to write for her disruptiveness. It took her most of the night to do all that writing.

One down

We had a pizza party at work today as a farewell to my aforementioned departing employee. Still haven't filled that spot yet, but hope to do so soon.

It seems like so long ago

It was really just last Summer, though it may as well have been a decade ago, as it will never be the same again. In watching all the very sad coverage of what New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast are going through, I started thinking about what seemed like way-back-when, and how good a time I had when I visited New Orleans. I can't believe it was just fifteen months ago. I doubt it will be anywhere near "normal" come fifteen months from now.

The way things are going, it almost seems like they're going to have to just pour dirt over the whole city to fill-in the bowl, bring it all up to sea level, and then just start all over with a brand-new city. New² Orleans?

My sympathies to all who are suffering in those parts. I can't begin to imagine your pain. I'm a little perturbed that donation links have not appeared on major web sites for this disaster as quickly as they did shortly after the tsunamis last December.

More suffering for Shelby

Shelby has had a heck of a last two days, injury-wise. She had her giant splinter incident yesterday, and then today when I picked her up she was doing this very-strange-to-see-much-less-describe double-limp thing as she walked. She showed me that both of her shins were bruised and swollen. I then learned from a teacher that she had a serious fall on the playground, and that the school nurse had checked her and kept her under observation. Poor girl.


I had difficulty maintaining sympathy for her, though, because I learned she had lied to me about how much homework she had the last couple days. Her teacher left me a note about work not turned-in and I noticed in her assignment book that she had forged my initials by her Monday homework assignment (yesterday she said she "forgot" her assignment book, so I was not able to see the assignment much less sign it). For her deception, she has lost all snacking priveleges for the week (for starters). She was also sent to bed early since she couldn't even do today's homework (she "forgot" some key materials necessary to complete the work).

Splintered

Picture for a moment the classic lion with a giant thorn in its paw. That was Shelby this afternoon. Near the softball practice field there is a wooden trailer parked and many of the non-ballplaying-siblings have been using it has a make-shift performing arts stage. For some crazy reason Shelby decided to go barefoot on this thing, and not too long afterward paid the price.

I heard the shriek, ran to her location, and saw the 2-inch wooden splinter sticking out the side of her heel. At least a half-inch of the thing was visible under a layer of skin. Of course, it doesn't help that Shelby is borderline obsessive-compulsive, as she was staring at the thing, continuing to scream, clearly not able to get over the shock of a two-inch piece of wood impaling her foot.

Knowing I would never be able to get her calm enough to ease that splinter out of her foot, I walked up to her, grabbed her foot, and immediately just yanked the thing out of her foot, which got an even louder scream out of her. But that wasn't the worst of it. In my camera bag I keep bandages and hand sanitizer for various kid uses. I put them both to use on Shelby's wound and she let out her loudest scream of the incident as the alcohol-based sanitizer enveloped her injury.

I carried her over to where the other parents were sitting, where she sat most of the rest of practice. I don't think I have ever seen her sit so still during a practice. But I'm pretty sure she won't be playing on that trailer anymore.

Glad I topped-off

My first thought of the morning was to fill up my gas tank. But I didn't have time. Then, during a lunch-time visit to the local Sam's Club, the cashier suggested we get gas on the way out as they were about to raise the price by twenty cents a gallon. You should have seen my simultaneous jaw-drop/head-slap.

Fortunately, on the way home, there were plenty of places that hadn't raised their prices yet and I got me some I-can't-believe-I'm-calling-it-cheap ($2.46) gas. I thought maybe I was overreacting, but later noticed that Steph, who's in the business, cited a 22-cent hike at her employer's fuel facilities.

So, the top-off (I had a half-tank) was probably worth the effort.


Update, 30 August
I wasn't surprised to see the $2.65 or even $2.75 price tags on gas this morning as I drove to work. But I was somewhat startled to see a $2.89 while on the way home. At that particular location, the premium was $3.09. Ugh. I'd like to remind everyone that when I got back from vacation on July 30th (i.e. one month ago), gas was $2.09. It's one thing to go up that much over a few months or a year, but 30-days?

Another party for Shelby

We had Shelby's family dinner/party tonight, and she made out quite well as expected. Even more so on the weekend, since her kid party was yesterday (usually we have the two parties on separate weekends). I'm hoping to have pictures out there by tomorrow.

Shelby's tamer than expected birthday party

Shelby had a great time at her party, and most of my fears were fortunately not fulfilled. First, I thought I would be late to Shelby's party after rushing across town from Darby's ballgame. I did make it just in time, however.

Another fear I had was low attendance. Historically Shelby's birthday party has fallen on bad weekends, either during Labor Day or on the Saturday of the first OU game, so attendance hasn't been great (i.e. just a few kids). This year there were ten kids, and that's after several not attending due to unavoidable conflicts (two missed because of ballgames, three pulled out last minute because of parental custody changes, and one missed because of a cheer camp).

I thought surely costs would skyrocket because of the type of place we used (Incredible Pizza), but they ended up being fairly in-line with the last few years of parties.

Lastly, I figured the kids would be difficult to manage in the party room, given the buffet style meal arrangements, and the proximity to all the fun and games. While we had our share of incidents (i.e. Shelby's acquisition of extraneous, unconsumed food items), I never really felt stressed-out by any of it, and only a couple times did I have kids ask when they could play games.

Overall, I felt it went pretty well, and I know Shelby enjoyed herself, because she has already said she wanted to have her party at the same place next year.

Pulling a Milwaukee

After much discussion among the coaches, and then further talks with each player's parent one on one, we've decided to pull out of the fastpitch tournament and league at the ballpark we've been playing at for years now. That complex doesn't have a slowpitch leauge, but we're thinking that our girls need a middle-ground step in order to be competetive and to have any sort of fun. That last game today, not one of our girls was able to hit the fast balls pitched by the other team, and all we did was walk every one of their batters. We run-ruled our own selves by walking the bases loaded and then walking seven runs in. The girls were just standing around by the end of the game and clearly not having any fun. One half inning took 30 minutes, and max game time is only 70 minutes.


So, we continue practicing Monday, and we'll be joining the other leauge when they start play after Labor Day. If I understand correctly, as a coach, I have to take some kind of coach's certification course here in a few days. That will be interesting.

So it was worse than I thought

We got pretty well slaughtered in our two games today. Turns out the reason we didn't get slaughtered yesterday was because the other team heard we were new to fastpitch and so didn't use its best pitchers. We (the coaches) are thinking we've made a mistake.

I actually had to miss the second game in order to go to Shelby's birthday party, and I just knew I was going to miss something by leaving. And wouldn't you know it, I missed Darby pitching and catching a crucial fly ball.

Could have been worse

Well, we had our first game, and we lost. That wasn't too surprising, but we didn't exactly get slaughtered the way I thought we might. We played a team that was starting their third year in kid-pitch, so I felt we might get killed because of their broader pitching experience. But as it turns out, our pitching wasn't really too much off from theirs. A couple of fielding errors less, and might have hung in there.

The bad news is that we have five more games this weekend, three of them tomorrow. By the last game, I suspect we just might get a little beat-up, cause the girls will be quite worn out.

A further complication is that Shelby's birthday party is at the same time as one of the games tomorrow. So, I'll have to miss the game, Darby will miss her sister's party, and since the party is on the other side of town, I'll be rushing back and forth from game to party to game. I can't say I'm looking forward to it. And I'm sure I'll be maxed out on my kid exposure by this time tomorrow.

Out of time

We had our last practice tonight before our first game of the Fall season tomorrow. We split the team in half and played a scrimmage with ourselves to help the new girls understand the flow of the game. Pitching is still a very big issue.

Chalk one up for Darby

While Shelby got her first tally within the first few days of school, Darby had been surprisingly tally free until today. She tells me she got a tally today for goofing around. At least she was honest about it up front, unlike Shelby, who lied and concealed her behavior until I asked her teacher.

Tooth Wallet Decay

The girls and I all had dentist appointments today. Shelby and I received clean bills of tooth-health, while Darby has two cavities that will prompt a second visit (and more time off school/work, not to mention an extra $140 out of the wallet) next week. But that wasn't the bad news.

The dentist noticed that, on one side of Darby's mouth, she has very little room for her overdue permanent canine tooth to come in. So he decided to take an x-ray, which confirmed all of his suspicions. Darby has a whole heck of a lot of teeth coming in and nowhere for them to go. He suggested we visit an orthodontist soon. Grrr. That's not exactly something I'd hoped to hear today, as I don't believe I can afford to follow that path to its conclusion.

This situation sucks further because Darby's teeth are generally quite straight, so I had, until now, been going about thinking that I wouldn't have to deal with appointments, equipment, invoices, and other miscellaneous hassle of the orthodontic variety. But then again, I had six teeth pulled by the time I was her age, in preparation for my own orthodontic assault.

So, on the (nefarious saffron) cusp of Darby's latest bout with tooth decay, we have learned that the decay of my wallet (or at least its contents, real and virtual) may follow soon thereafter.

Three generations

The aforementioned multi-generational photo we took in Arizona arrived in the mail today. Visit the photo album to take a look.

Hiring (again)

I noted last week that I'm losing an employee. This employee replaced the one we lost last year. So, the hiring post I put out there last year still mostly applies. All the same disclaimers are in force, but here's the newer job posting and application links.

So, you want to come work for me? :)


Okay, don't answer that.

Once you tally, you can't go back

My delusions of a tally-free first week of school were exposed for the fraud that they were this morning, when I learned from Shelby's teacher that she got three tallies last week, despite telling me that she hadn't gotten any.

When I picked her up this afternoon, I learned she had gotten another today. Supposedly it's all from talking. Hopefully that part is at least true, in which case it could certainly be worse.

Darby insists that she is still tally-free on the year. I'm hoping she doesn't domino the way Shelby has.

More moving

So much for that second truck. After two break-downs and other bureaucracy crud, my friend cancelled that second Uhaul and we made do with the one Uhaul along with trailers hitched to trucks. The "Great Uhaul Saga" is actually quite the tale, but it is not mine to tell.

Trouble was, without that second large truck, we had to make 60+ mile round trip a couple times. Throw in loading and unloading time, as well as lunch and dinner, and the day was eaten away (no pun intended) rather quickly. Before we knew it, we found ourselves unloading in the country darkness (different than city darkness), and being rained upon, with lightning flashes and a porch bug-light our only sources of semi-brightness. Not exactly optimal moving conditions.

It was 11:30 before I finally got home, which was quite a bit later than planned. I think all of us that showed up were a decent help (we got 98% of the big, bulky stuff), but I fear my friend may be rounding up the little stuff for days to come. Maybe that's not so bad in some scenarios, but the new owners of my friend's house take possession on Tuesday if I understand correctly, leaving not much time to finish up. And to think that they had garage sales, donated many items, and trashed much prior to packing the remaining contents of their 2900 square-foot former-house.

I really want to move, myself, but it's weekends like this that remind me of the many horrors moving entails.

Happy Birthday Shelby!

I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'RE EIGHT YEARS OLD!

Moving day

I helped a good friend move today. Or prepar to move anyway. He acquired a sizeable UHaul truck that we filled to the brim. He's getting another truck tomorrow. We'll fill that one, along with a trailer, and get everything moved to the new place, approximately 32 miles away (but out in the country and thereby inherently more difficult to get to). I don't remember the last time I sweat as much as I did today. My t-shirt was at one point completely drenched with Shawn-goo. Yuck.

Last week to prepare

Darby had softball practice tonight. We have one more week before the pre-season tournament, and the season starts immediately thereafter. I think we'll be okay with hitting. Fielding is TBD mostly because we haven't settled into positions. Pitching is our big weakness (isn't it everybody's?). All the girls want to pitch, but not all of them have the goods. Darby REALLY wants to pitch, and we've been practicing her pitching outside of team practice, but the jury is still out as to whether she has the goods either. Though she's probably one of the better choices. Her technique is not bad. The bigger issue of the moment is the distance. She has to get that ball over the plate some thirty-five feet away. The other problem is she that she has a lot of infield experience and we'd seriously missed out during those games she'd be pitching.

The coaches have decided on a pitching-only practice on Sunday. Realistically we've probably only got two more full-team practices after that and before the tournament. I'm a bit worried, but in a lot of ways I think we're in better shape and have more potential than at the beginning of last season.

Mr. Wizard, put me back

Had I known what was in store, maybe I wouldn't have complained so much about my boring class. I got a call from Darby's piano teacher, who was out the last couple weeks on vacation and wanted to make up lessons. So she asked me to bring Darby back to the school at 6. Trouble was Darby had softball practice at 6:30. Neither of those would have been a big problem had I left work at a decent time. But since I left at 5:40, picked up the kids got a VERY quick bite that they ate on the way, and got back to the school just in time for Darby's lesson, things were a bit hectic. Yet even that wouldn't have been so bad were I not pulled in six directions at work in between the class and the getting out of there in a hurry. So heading out the door I was pre-frayed, only to enter directly into another fray-inducing scenario.

I'm just glad the it's all over (not that it couldn't have been worse). Unfortunately, much of what I dropped on the way out will be waiting for me with arms crossed when I get to work tomorrow.


In other kids news, we've got ourselves a miracle second straight tally-less day for both kids. Woo-hoo!

Mr. Wizard, get me the heck out of here

I'm in a two-hour (Revenue Recognition) class. We're 50 minutes into the class but we're only on slide 37 of 117. I'm sure it will work out just fine, but presently it seems like it will never end. The probably-quite-swell instructor's near-monotonal voice doesn't help with the sleepy-jeebies.

First day roundup

The girls report their first day of 4th and 2nd grades went well. Neither child got a tally, had homework/incomplete classwork, or reports any irregularities of any kind. This is all good because it will probably be the last day of the school year that all of those things coincide for both kids. I'm glad for a tame first day for them, and hope for many more to come (fingers are crossed).

Hump day indeed

I was greeted this morning with the resignation of one of my team members. Good luck BJ, but ARGH! It'll work out in the end, but it's yet another new wrinkle I would not have foreseen even just a few hours ago.

The morning's discovery was preceded by various first-day-of-school issues. Then I spent way too long passing out birthday party invitations for Shelby's upcoming 8th birthday. Since it was the first day of school, I wasn't familiar with what kids were in what classes. So I ended up going back and forth between several 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-grade classrooms way too many times. And it was all accompanied by the invariable pouty-face from the kids that didn't get invited. I hate being the non-deliverer of good news almost as much as being the deliverer of bad news. Those faces...

Orient This

It feels like Thursday. Like the week has gone and had its way with me for four long, hard days. But no. It's only Tuesday. Yet I'm already exhausted. And this evening's elementary orientation at the girls' school did nothing to help the matter. It occurred to me pretty much immediately that this is going to be a very tough year that I am not in least looking forward to. Who says back-to-school angst ends when you're out of school...

Shelby's 2nd grade teacher isn't new to us. Darby had her in 2nd grade and she is nice. She got to know us more than what may be typical because Darby broke her leg a few days before the beginning of 2nd grade. Has it been two years already?

Just a couple days ago, Darby was claiming to my step-mother that she was excited to start 4th grade. Today, when asked, Darby said she was scared to start school. Why the sudden change of heart? Because she met her 4th grade teacher, and knows she's going to have to work her butt off. Her teacher, while plenty nice, is clearly no-nonsense inclined and made her point by putting the parents to work during orientation. Usually you just leave your kid's bag of school supplies on their desk and their first activity of the school year is to put them up. Well, Darby's teacher had all the parents contributing to putting the bulkier items away, she said so that she wouldn't detract too much from class time, as they already have a spelling test on the schedule in less than a week. You should have seen Darby cringe.

Cancelled again

The cancelled Saturday softball practice that was moved to tonight was likewise cancelled. We have less than two weeks until the pre-season tournament and we have SO much to do. It would be nice if the rain would stop so we could take care of business.

Party party

Darby had a sleepover birthday party she attended Friday night. She says they had manicures and facials, and lots of other girlie girl activities. She was supposed to then have softball practice this morning, but that was cancelled due to weather, so she called me and asked if she could stay longer.

I let her stay another couple hours before picking her up so that we could get some lunch and then head to another party. My friend Vicki recently graduated college and had a party with plenty of activities for kids and adults.

The kids got to swim for several hours (until the storms came), while the adults socialized, played card games, watched movies, and consumed alcohoic beverages (I skipped that last part). We were supposed to do boat rides on the lake, but the weather robbed us of that activity.

I'm pretty sure the kids outnumbered the adults at this thing, and I know there was more than a dozen kids at one point (there probably more, I didn't count). So I know my kids had fun, and in fact didn't want to leave when we finally got out of there, though it was quite past midnight.

Congrats Vick!

Is it over already?

Good-bye Summer of 2005. You were a pretty good one.

I know it's not officially over yet, and I know it's not even unofficially over yet (i.e. Labor Day), but with the conclusion of Summer Camp today, the Summer is all but over for us, and we must dreadfully prepare for the Autumn before us. For the next few days, it's nothing but going to bed early, trying on new uniforms, getting school supplies, and going to elementary orientation. And then the new school year will be mercilessly upon us.

I don't mind the first half of Fall so much, but it's all down hill after October. I'm going to miss this Summer, and I'm certain the kids feel the same.

Gifted?

I enrolled Darby in the "STudent Enrichment Program" (STEP) at her school today. It's by invitation only, and will consist of 18 kids max. Basically they stay in school another hour and a half or so three days a week to study subjects such as Latin/French, economics/banking, creative thinking/writing, etc. It will only cost me another $35/month over what I'm already paying (bringing the total to nearly $800/mo for both kids), and seems like it would be worth it to give it a shot.

The only thing I can equate the program to from my childhood experience would be the MG ("Mentally Gifted") program of the Philadelphia public school system. Those of us selected got to skip one day of school per week to work on various creative outlets from performing plays to making movies to taking photographs. I had to leave the gifted program when I entered the Catholic school system of Philadelphia, but I essentially replaced it with band/music activities that I feel equally contributed to the growth of my creative being.

So can we thank the MG/music programs of my youth for this blog? Maybe. But probably not. We can probably thank them for the rumors of photos of me in silly outfits. Not that I am confirming the existence of such photos.

Vacation photos at last (well, sort of)

They're not linked via the album yet, and I need to add some commentary, but they're way overdue, so here you go for now: Vacation 2005 Photos.

Shut up and play ball

He's going to ruin everything. Why can't he just shut up and play ball? Love or hate coach Reid, I don't think there's anybody that would dare say he didn't have a clue what he was doing. So for goodness sake T.O., please please please seal the lips, play your darnedest, help us get that overdue superbowl ring, and then go running off to Oakland for however much money you can get. You know it's our year, you know you want that ring, too, so please, with my appreciation, stop messing with the mojo.

Begin again

Seems like just a few weeks ago we were wrapping up the softball season. Oh, wait, it was just few weeks ago.

Well, it's time for the fall season soon, so tonight was Darby's team's first practice. Darby wasn't actually there as her grandmother came and got her yesterday, but I went to the practice anyway since I'll likely end up being a coach again. I thought we'd be short players, but the new head coach has been recruiting, so it looks like we'll have at least 11 girls this season.

This year the team starts "kid pitch", so it will be interesting to see how that goes once all of the interested girls start pitching at practice. Darby wants to pitch, and I worked with her this past weekend on her pitching, but there are a good four other girls that want to pitch also. It's too early to tell how that will go.

Thus far, I've got a good vibe about the season.

Texas, Over (Six Flags and all)

We got in last night at 1:50am, completing our whirlwind 36 1/2 hour Texan adventure. We were at Six Flags for 11 hours, so in duration it was a little shy of our Disney effort of a few weeks ago. It was also less costly and tactically a little smoother. Since the girls had free tickets and I had a discount ticket ($26.00 vs $41.99), just getting in was dirt cheap compared to Disney (even with the $9 parking fee). I'll take $35 over $148 any day. Not that I have any regrets about taking the kids to Disneyland. We were in line for parking right at 10am, which was park opening time, and were in the park by 10:24.

The girls' mother and stepfather drove down to Arlington, Texas to meet up with us at the park in the morning (instead of spending the night in town like we did), which helped with the fast-ride situation. Since Shelby prefers the slower rides, which limited our selection somewhat at Disney, we alternated Shelby duty while others rode the coasters. In my estimation, of the 9 roller-coaster-type (by my count) rides at Six Flags, we got to ride five. We were shooting for seven, but we were interrupted (literally).

Mother nature came along for the ride so to speak, causing park staff to close the rides on two occasions due to lightning. The first closure was only 20 minutes, and no precipitation followed. The second was quite a bit longer, was followed by rain, and forced many to leave the park or take cover in the theater buildings. That second closure also came as Darby and I were close to getting onto the "Titan", claimed to be the biggest and faster coaster in Texas. We were pretty annoyed because the same thing happened to us earlier trying to get on Batman.

The line situation was no better than at Disney in most cases, though I was quite surprised by the one exception, which was the Shockwave. We practically got right on to that one. The worst for us was a split between Batman (which Darby and I did finally get to ride... and I do mean FINALLY) and Spongbob (which Shelby rode with her mother and step-father). We were in line for Batman for at least an hour, though maybe a little more. Plus we were just in front of some very rowdy kids, which only made the whole thing watched-pot slower. As much as I wanted to ride Batman, if you told me we could have conquered the other four coasters we otherwise missed in the same period of time it took us to get through the Batman line, I probably would have opted for the coaster quantity over the Batman quality.

When it was finally time to go home, the girls fell asleep before we got to I-35 and they slept the whole nearly-four-hour drive home. Darby woke up as we turned onto our street and said, "Are we almost home already?" I was pretty cranky at that point, so I rolled my eyes and said, "yes, Darby, we're about to be home, and yes you got to sleep the entire time."

Of course, on the plus side, that was the lowest-maintenance long-drive I've ever had with the kids, though with my rampant tiredness I'm not sure I fully appreciated it at the time.

Going back for more

You might think after driving 1,164 miles less than a week ago (the trip back from AZ), that I'd have some aversion to making additional trips for at least a good long while. Unfortunately, circumstances have dictated otherwise.

You see, during the school year, the girls each participated in a reading program that had free Six Flags tickets as its prize for completing the program. And both girls earned tickets. The problem was that they're only good for a limited time. Knowing that they expired in August, when we got back from vacation, I checked the dates to ensure the tickets were still good. Wouldn't it figure that they were only good for one more week? I thought I had a couple more weeks at least.

So you might think, hey, you just took them to Disneyland, spent 14 hours there, and burned more than $300 in that timeframe, so that should be good enough for them, right? Well, not really. My problem is that they will never let me live it down if I don't take them to Six Flags after encouraging them to read all those books. Plus, I'd never be able incentivize them to do anything ever again for a reward. Therefore, I had no choice. I HAD to take them to Six Flags, THIS weekend.

So, after work today, I picked up the kids, we went by the house to get the bag I packed this morning, we got some dinner, and we hit the road. Four hours and two hundred miles later, we arrived in Arlington, Texas, and we can see the roller coasters of Six Flags from our hotel window. So, tomorrow morning, first thing, you know where we'll be.

We'll probably be there six or eight or ten hours. Who knows. But then we'll have to face that four hour drive again. I'd really like to catch the 2pm ballgame (Texas Rangers) as our hotel is between the Six Flags and the Ballpark in Arlington (pardon me, "Ameriquest Field"). But somehow I can't imagine the kids will say, sure day, let's get our hands stamped, go catch the ballgame for three hours, and then come back to Six Flags.

Goodbye Blazer of Glory (has it been 20 years?)

I moved here (Oklahoma) in June of 1991. But I left again as soon as I got here to tour the country with a Drum and Bugle Corps. When I got back in mid-August of 1991, I had a week until my first day of college. It was at that time that I learned from my father that I would be driving his 1985 Chevy Blazer to college instead of my step-mother's car.

I was very familiar with the Blazer from cross-country trips I'd taken in it with my dad when I was younger. And more recently at the time, it was the vehicle my dad and I drove to Oklahoma in when I moved here from Philadelphia. But, there was just one small problem. It was a stick. And I didn't know how to drive it.

So, I had one week to learn to drive a stick. And my father tells me to this day that the Blazer wasn't exactly the best vehicle to learn how to drive a stick for the first time with. I have many terrible memories of my one-week crash-course. But I didn't crash.

I did eventually get the hang of stick-driving (and until my most recent vehicle, had always insisted upon getting a stick when getting a new[er] vehicle). So all through college, while I lived with my father, I drove the Blazer. It wasn't a show-horse, but it was capable and reliable.

Several years later, my dad got a different primary vehicle, so he outright gave me the Blazer, so that, as I was married at the time, we could have two vehicles. I drove it for a few years as my primary mode of transport, until, in its old age, it started to have some trouble.

Finally, in 1999, it experienced a catastrophic engine problem. While it probably could have been repaired at the time (for non-trivial amounts of funding), I was newly divorced with two small children (they were 1 and 3 at the time... can you believe it?), so I wanted something undeniably reliable. I got my first Saturn at that time, and the Blazer, shamefully, sat in my driveway ever since.

My dad and I always intended to fix-up our old beast of burden and give her a new, good home, but we just never had the time. She literally rotted away before my eyes in the driveway. I figured I would be reserved to having it towed off for the scrap pile one of these years.

But then my ex-brother-in-law called. He's the car-fixer-upper type. And he offered to buy Blazer of Glory from me, fix her up, and give her a new, good home. However, he's called me three times now with such an offer. Never before was the offer fulfilled. Finally, though, he came, to save my dying old truck, some 20 years after my father bought it, and 10 years after it became my primary vehicle.

Today, he and two others arrived to tow Blazer of Glory off into the distance for new adventures. Fare thee well, BoG. You deserved better than I was able to give. I'm glad come morning you'll find yourself in a better place than my driveway. Though I must say, returning home this evening to that empty driveway was somber. The definitive end of an era. The closure of old bonds. Thanks for the memories.

Party on

It's that time of year. Birthday parties. We had one last night, we have another in a week, one for sure already next month, and who knows how many more once school starts.

And then there's Shelby's birthday. Can you BELIEVE she's going to be eight? Well, she is, in just a few weeks. Tonight we went to the place we'll be having her party to put down our deposit, so it's pretty much set. I'm filling out invitations tonight, and we'll be dispersing them soon. Shelby is SO excited. I, for many reasons, am not so much.

Almost swimming

The girls had a birthday/pool party tonight. I guess on swim days at summer camp they've been working with Shelby and she is finally very close to being able to swim well. She was so proud to show me what she could do tonight. I was very nervous because, against my recommendation, she didn't wear a lifejacket the entire time. She stayed on the shallow end, played with her friends, and practiced her swimming. She's getting there. But it's going to be awhile before I'm comfortable with her being lifejacketless.

Oh no you don't

Just when I thought we'd escaped the heat, having left the depths of Arizona behind us, I'm proved flat wrong as it was 100 degrees when I left work today. Bleh. Coworkers tell me that highs were in the high 70s/low 80s last week.

The kids hadn't seen their mother since we'd been back, so we met her for dinner tonight, and I showed vacation pics as well. Hopefully I'll get some of those online this week.