Another stripe

Shelby got her classwork done today and so got to go to fencing practice. It was important for her to do this because they were testing today. She passed, and so got her third blue stripe. If she passes her next test she gets her red ribbon.

Deceitful

Shelby can be so darned deceitful at times. It's exhausting trying to keep up with her. There was a note from her teacher on Friday that said she had a bunch of incomplete classwork. Shelby told me repeatedly this weekend she finished it after school on Friday and turned it in. So I wrote a note back to her teacher saying that I never saw any work because Shelby said she turned it in, but that Shelby should give up her recess to complete the work if this was not correct. So it turns out Shelby was doing classwork at recess today. When I confronted her about it she admitted she didn't do it on Friday and flat lied to my face each time I asked about it. And then today when I picked her up she tried to rush to her classroom to hide something, but I made her wait for me before entering. When I got there I found even more classwork in her desk from today. I don't understand her sometimes. She'll do or say anything to get out of something and I don't know where she gets that from. It's frustrating. She was up most of the night finishing work.

No McPhee for me

I got me that much needed nap after all. My step-mother took the girls to see Nanny McPhee, which I didn't particularly want to see anyway. I considered taking the girls to see Eight Below today, to make it up to Darby, but I was pretty much useless after my sleep-challenges of last night. Even after my two-plus-hour nap, I'm not particularly energetic. This isn't a good way to enter a new week.

Shrieks in the night

Shortly after I put the girls to bed, I heard the most awful scream from Shelby. It was the kind of scream that made me feel like I should have been calling 911 while running to her. I don't think I've ever heard her scream quite that terribly.

Heart pounding, I ran to where the scream came from, the bathroom. She had her head over the toilet and I half-expected to see blood in the toilet or something similar to warrant that scream. She said she REALLY felt like she had to throw-up. She was crying. And trembling. I was actually relieved, and not just because she didn't throw-up. She insisted on staying in the bathroom, so I let her play her gameboy in there for about fifteen minutes to see if her tummy would calm down. After the fifteen minutes it took some further negotiating to get her back to bed, though with a trash can nearby, just in case.

So I didn't sleep well AT ALL. I kept having dreams that she was screaming again, so I'd wake up to nothing. Until it really happened. By five-something in the morning, I had gotten up so many times during the night that I had finally learned to tolerate/ignore the "dream". It took Darby, who had been awakened this time by the ruckus, to wake me up. Again Shelby was screaming with her head over the toilet. Again she did not throw-up. Again I had to coax her back to bed, though we'd be getting up in a couple hours. I definitely needed the sleep. And I could use more.

Doo-who?

When I picked up the girls from their mother's, they were begging to go to the park as it was decent out. I took them, though for only a bit as sunset was less than an hour off.

After the park, we went to a movie, though not without conflict. It was a choice between Doogal and Eight Below, and of course the girls disagreed on which to see. A fair-and-square rock/paper/scissors match earned victory and gloating rights for Shelby, who wanted to see Doogal.

I must say, what a strange flick. Not bad, but not quite good. Sorta funny (though behind-the-scenes clips in the closing credits account for most of the humor). Strangely overly laden with references for the non-kids in the room. While typically the older-kid-targeted movies have a few adult-friendly clichés to keep the adults from falling asleep, this movie was crazily overloaded with them. There were whole sections of dialogue that I'm pretty sure the kids could not understand. And I didn't feel like it was older-kid-targeted either (adding to the disparity), judging by Darby's apparent boredom during the movie, while Shelby stayed reasonably entertained.

I should have overruled Shelby on this one.

The best news all day

It occurred to me today that Spring is LESS than a month away. That is SO awesome. Considering the type of day it was and all.

All streaks must end

If streaks didn't end they'd just be called norms. Unfortunately, this streak was not destined to become the norm. Maybe the fact that two former New Orleans NBA teams (Jazz and Hornets) were playing each other in a city not called New Orleans was a bad omen. And so, for the first time in the four games I've been to this season, the Hornets lost. It was particularly a bummer because the loss wasn't respectable. They really LOST the game... Utah didn't win it, they just successfully avoided losing by capitalizing on Hornets errors.

The Hornets were in the lead by significant margins for more than three quarters. It wasn't until there was six-something remaining in the fourth quarter that Utah went ahead. But it wasn't like Utah stepped up the pressure or anything, the Hornets just started making ridiculous mistakes left and right, not the least of which was the fact that their shooting went bye-bye. Utah shot terribly the entire game, but they got away with it once the Hornet also lost their ability to shoot. Not that I claim to know squat about basketball. So no comment spam from you bball connoisseurs.


UPDATE 25-FEB: Paybacks
Today, in Utah, the Hornets defeated the Jazz 100-95. It was the least they could do to make up for the events of Wednesday.

Little lost Shelby

We stopped at a grocery store on the way home, where Shelby went and got herself lost. She has a TERRIBLE tendency to run ahead of me, despite my constant requests that she not do that. In this case, Darby and I stopped to pick something out when Shelby decided to keep going, even though I told her we were stopping. I presumed she was playing and waiting for us around the corner, but when we turned the corner she was gone. Obviously, I freaked, and Darby and I went running around the store looking for her. Turns out we were circling the store near the same rate, so we were not quite running into each other. When we did finally find her, she was crying quite a bit and clearly in a panic, so she just got a stern lecture from me, rather than the spank I swore she'd get once I found her.

Need a do-over weekend

The entire weekend was a waste. Entirely. Wasted. It hasn't gotten above 25 degrees and it has been snowy and icy every day. I have largely stayed indoors while the weekend ticked away, though the kids, away at their grandmother's, have had at least some fun...

Beisbol!

I'm finally ready to say happy new year. With spring training kicking off today, 2006 finally got around to getting my attention.

I would have been content with the start of the new baseball year all by itself, but imagine my amazement to see the possibility of the Marlins coming to OKC. Okay, after reading the article (PDF), I realize it's likely just an inquiry that won't go anywhere, but what an awesome possibility!

The booty

Well, the girls made out pretty well with Valentine goodies. Not shown in the photo are Darby's goodie bag (she dumped everything into her backpack) or her balloon. The pink dog and monkey are gifts from the girls' mother. The blue bear is for Darby FROM A BOY (grr).

I suggested to Darby that we post the bear on the wall of her classroom with a long knife as a message to all future gift-bringers, but she didn't like that suggestion too well.


The highlight of my V-day was vandalizing the hearts someone drew on a nearby whiteboard. I drew little cracks through all the hearts (nine of them). That garnered a few negative comments, but you know what? No one took the time to erase and re-draw the hearts, so I think I hit on a nerve of truth.

Give them strength

A friend called me today, very distraught. No names or details. But I have never before been speaking to someone on the phone and been so certain that it was the last time I would be speaking with them, ever. I was afraid to hang-up the phone because I thought they would do something terrible and drastic. I think I talked them down somewhat after about an hour of assurances, but I'm still very uneasy about the situation. I spoke with them twice more after that initial call to make sure the situation hadn't degraded. But I'm quite worried about the immediate future. My fingers are crossed that they'll have the inner strength to hang on.



UPDATE
They're okay! I finally heard back. So far, all is okay. My fingers are still crossed, but I think the worst is over.

Sneak peek at a new world

The girls have gone to private school their entire school lives. Five years for Shelby (K3 through 2nd grade) and six years for Darby (K4 through 4th). For reasons I'll not yet get into just yet, they're likely to go public school next year, a fact that has been a source of stress and trepidation for the three of us for some time now. Well, this evening there was an "open house" at their prospective new (and public) school, and it eased a number of concerns for me, and in particular for the kids. When we first got to the school, Darby literally looked like she was going to cry, but by the time we left, they both were pretty cheery and saying their new school would be fun. Shelby REALLY can't wait to go to the new school (I think mostly because one of the teachers we spoke with said there were no tallies), and Darby is just much less anxious about it now that we've been there. There are still a few hurdles to overcome, but we've taken those first few steps toward dramatically changing the world as we know it.

Pouring

Last night, I started considering some personal travel to Phoenix in March. Nothing else was firmly on the agenda at the time. This afternoon, however, things flipped around on me.

First, my father called to let me know my grandmother's health had taken a dive. She only has 5-10 days to live according to the doctors. He's traveling there on Friday to see her before she passes. I'm just glad I decided to take the kids out there in November, so that they were able to see her one last time. Anyway, if the doctors are correct, then there's some additional near-term non-cheap travel.

Not five minutes after my father called, I was notified of a likely work-related trip to South Dakota in March. If it happens the way it was briefed to me, I could be landing in OKC from Phoenix one day, and getting back on a plane for South Dakota the next.

So I spent most of this evening booking travel. I feel like a travel agent. My dad isn't good at the online thing, So I did the ticket shopping for him and his family. It took a few hours to get everything arranged, and then I bought my personal tickets for March (because the price had already gone up $80 in 24 hours).

Turned out to be a much busier day than I had imagined this morning. But it's not like anything was gradual. Who turned the spigot to full blast?

Reunited, progressive, and undefeated

Two weeks after the saga began, I was finally reunited with my shotgun, the first time I held it in my hands in fifteen months. It's clearly been through a lot in that time. There were a number of knicks and scrapes on the wood that weren't there before. AND, it had clearly been fired since it was taken from me. When I first arrived to pick it up, I was quite weary about walking out of building and in front of the OKC PD HQ with a firearm in plain view. I inquired about that and felt better about it when they assured me they'd wrap it up. And wrap it up they did. In butcher-paper-like wrapping. So instead of walking around with a shotgun in plain view, I looked like I was walking around with a 2-foot sub. Perhaps just as bad an idea in front of the PD HQ.


After I picked up the recovered firearm, I went to the remainder of Shelby's fencing practice, where Shelby won all three of her practice bouts. She's making much improvement and getting more aggressive, which is good.


Speaking of improvement, the girls got their progress reports today. Shelby had a C, but that's an improvement over last quarter's 2 Cs and a D. Darby managed to bring her math grade up to an A, the first time it has been better than a B in a couple grade-levels, though she dropped her English grade down from an A to a B. So the trick is, can I get her English grade back up to an A while keeping the math an A?

Sympathy for the SeaHawks

Apparently, the best news of the day was Super Bowl Means Baseball is Near.

Being used to rooting for the underdog, I dared hope the Seahawks could do what the Eagles could not. But I found myself, for a second straight year, disappointed by the bird-team in green. There were even strange moments of deja vu as I screamed at the TV about the poor clock management. I almost had to cover my head in repeated shame. But enough about that, lest I start to convulse.


So what were your favorite commercials? I thought the Bud-roof commercial was pretty darn good. FedEx caveman was decent. The stadium/wave Bud commercial was quite neat, technically, but I think the "That killed him" commercial was probably the funniest. Burger King had the stupidest commercial by far, but there were many others that were a complete wastes of money. The year's big disappointment in my eyes has to be Pepsi, which is historically a decent superbowl commercial maker. This year was more like, huh?

Shelby has a pink mustache

Darby had some make-up piano lessons today. Though I remind her every Thursday when I drop her off at school not to forget about piano, she's done the opposite the last two weeks, so there we were making up for it.

Afterwards we got some lunch and spent a couple hours at the park. It was only 50 degrees and I had some reservation about the girls being out, but they literally begged me to go to the park. So we did, and though I was sure they'd get cold and want to leave, I had to practically drag them away after a couple hours. I stayed entertained myself by playing my longtime favorite Excitebike on Shelby's Gameboy.

I spent the evening rebuilding an old PC (with Windows 98!) to alleviate a PC bottleneck at my dad's. The little bro is online A LOT and for those times when dad just wants to look something up or check his gmail, the old PC is plenty fine. I can't say my motivations were entirely selfless. I got tired of hearing all the arguments about "who's PC it was anyway".


While I was working on the PC, Shelby asked me to look at the mustache she made out of clay. It was cute, so I snapped a photo.

Slapshot

The kids and I attended a hockey game this evening. I'm a little surprised that in all my years in OKC, tonight was my first Blazers game. But even more surprising was the distant sighting of a Flyers jersey in the crowd.

I was glad to see the Blazers pull out a win considering how badly they were beaten the night before. Both nights they played the defending league champs. So as you might imagine, it was quite the game.

A good time was had by most. Shelby, I'm sure, had fun, but I don't think she'll be attending future hockey games. As is typical for her, she got bored real fast. But it was Darby's second game in a few weeks, and I could see the both of us at several more games in the future.

Nice rock?

I'm told Darby had an emotional outbreak at school today because she wanted to take a rock from the playground and give it to her mother. They wouldn't let her at first, but after the outbreak, I guess the lady in charge of after care turned a blind eye to her placing the rock in her school bag. I haven't seen this rock yet, but it must be something to see.

GO SEE IT

If you haven't seen Glory Road yet, you need to go see it. It's a VERY good movie. If you thought Coach Carter was good, as I did, this movie will leave you stunned with its further goodness. I'm not saying it was the best movie I've ever seen, but it was the best I've see in awhile, and definitely one of the most well put together movies I've ever seen. I went in expecting a decent movie, perhaps a Coach Carter clone, but I walked away with much more, a rarity in movies these days.

Found!

They found the shotgun! But I won't be able to go pick it up until... I'm not sure when. Hopefully they don't lose it again in the interim.