yup

12-3-12

I missed my podcast this morning.

It is not the first time my car has been broken into, nor will it likely be the last, but this is the time where I am most bummed. I went out to my car Saturday morning to just put something in there and I noticed that my glove box was open. My soccer bag which had been on the floor of the passenger seat was now mostly gutted, with all of its contents thrown about. Mind you, I had nothing of value in terms of monetary items. In fact, when I was cleaning up the mess, I noted that truly I was pretty lucky that I tend to leave nothing of worth in my car lest someone chooses to break in. Sadly, it was not long after this happy thought that I noted the charger/iPod receiver being gone. It was my lifeline to listening to my beloved Hollywood Babble-On and any of the various tunes I wanted to listen to at any given time. Fuck!!

Grandma and Grandpa Brenan did not travel down to our town. Apparently they had a bad enough storm that they were worried that things would go badly in terms of power or other things. There was talk of Grandma not feeling well, etc etc. They also said that since there were no soccer games and it was a possibly rainy weekend, they would not come. Sigh. I mean, I guess that is fine and all, but they ended up going out and about on Saturday up there. They never come down this way, and honestly, it would be nice if they did more often. I wouldn’t mind so much if I didn’t feel such pressure that we have to come up more often, when let’s face it, it is much more difficult for us. Whatever, I am fine with it, just a little annoyed.

It did mean a mellower weekend in terms of running around. The boys played with their friends much of Saturday and Sunday. There was an incident on Saturday in which their one friend, Anthony had a minor freak out. He has some issues which cause him some socially awkward moments. This one started with all of the kids throwing tree seeds back and forth. It was all fun and games until Anthony asked them all to stop. This of course didn’t occur, and it resulted in him flipping out. I know that at one point Anthony chased one kid, and at another point (something I didn’t find out until last night) he tried to choke out Zach. The kids sent out the alert and Ken dealt with a spastic Anthony, while I tended to a crying Dax who was sure that he was about to get into trouble. All of the kids were distraught and unsure as to what to do. Ken had a heart to heart with the 4 (Anthony stormed off with his Gramma, who looked tired from dealing with these outbursts from him) remaining kids, and we walked them down to try and apologize to Anthony, hoping that he knew they were all still friends. Sadly, Anthony did not come out, nor did he come and play yesterday. In the past, these kind of incidents result in his absence for a few days, so I am not too worried. He is very much like Matt in a lot of ways, and in some ways, I suppose it is good for the kids to deal with it. I just worry about someone getting hurt.

Saturday night was truly awesome. We shipped the kids off with my folks, and Ken and I headed out to Hermosa Beach in search of my hard cider from Ireland. We found an Irish bar (it was not a pub by any stretch of the imagination, but it would have to do), and Ken ordered a Guinness and we asked if they possibly had any hard cider. The waitress looked sad when she said all they had was Magner’s, which was just what I had been hunting for. I was quite happy to have myself a pint of my nummy Irish cider. We hung out for a bit with our drinks and then headed down to Manhattan Beach to meet up with folks for Aaron’s birthday.

Aaron had invited only a handful of people. They were all people in his life that he feels are most important to him. Several years back, he also had decided to do a different style of birthday. Instead of expecting gifts from people, he has asked for only their presence at a dinner, and he gives gifts to these people.

This year was important to Aaron. Over the last year and change, Aaron has worked very hard at getting back who he is. He has lost weight, become more social, kicked his pain killer addiction and truly has become re-born. One of the ways he was able to keep doing this was listening to books on audio. He has been listening to books during workouts and down time as ways to keep moving. They have truly helped him. In addition to these stories, his friends and family have been there for him. Because of this, he wanted to extend his love of these books with those closest to him. He then presented us all with a gift in the form of a list of the audio books he has, and he personalized each of them with what books each of us would enjoy most. Oh, and on top of all of that incredibly personal and amazing idea, he topped it off with copies of these books in the form of audio files on new iPod Shuffles for each of us! It was an elaborate and incredibly touching thing for him to have done for the people he feels closest with. I was truly amazed and proud of him. Not because he gave me a Shuffle, but because he has gotten in touch with himself and has given us the best gift of all, which is to have Aaron back.

Aside from the gift giving, the night was so much fun. It was great conversation, especially from Judd who I have always known as incredibly funny, but he was on fire Saturday night. I wish I saw him more often. He was telling me how he just doesn’t understand how Ken and I do it, what with two full time jobs and two kids and no nanny. LOL! We may need to get to know them more and be mentors. So kidding, since we all know I am nowhere close to perfect. I did tell him my stress is assisted with meds, which made him laugh.

Everyone decided to head out, and as Ken and I were heading home, it occurred to me that really, I was surprised at the early hour. Sure, it was close to ten, but I was feeling pretty good. I suppose I don’t get out enough and it was cool being up. Ken and I drove around a smidge and then headed home after he got me a treat of a Wendy’s Frosty. We watched an episode of Firefly (a fantastic one, too!) and then it was time to sleep.

Ken had been asked to ref a game on Sunday morning by a ref friend of ours, so Ken headed out to that and the boys and I hung out. Bobby had homework and we had some housework to attend to. It went quickly when I thought it would be fun to head over to the Daiso store to look around for gifts for their street friends.

We didn’t find a ton of things, but we did pick up some nice, simple gifts for Zach, Jessica and Anthony. I also picked up some wacky Japanese gag gifts for my dad.

Ken got home and the kids played some while we worked on some laundry. I can’t just hang out at the house without wanting to do work, so I decided it was more relaxing for us to take the dog to the park. We headed out with Miss Luna to Redondo Dog Park.

The same guy who was there last week with the 3 year old Golden was there, and apparently is an idiot. I recognized him (I think I recognized his dog, first) and pointed him out to Ken. The guy was all happy to see Luna, and then asked me how old she was. Clearly, he didn’t remember this conversation from the week prior when he was shocked when I told him she was 3. He assumed 3 months, and I pointed out she was 3 years. He asked her name and then says, “Oh, there was a Luna here last week!” I sighed and said that it was us, and he looked skeptical. Oh well.

Luna wasn’t as foam faced, but there were less dogs. She did seem to get bored after just wandering the park for maybe 30 minutes, but that was ok with me. She likes to smell around, and she likes to say hello to people. She always looks confused at the pups who smell her butt, but she is mostly ok with it.

After that, we walked over to the kid park where the boys ran a bit. We didn’t stay long, but it was enough to allow them to get out some energy.

On the way home, we stopped at the store. I said we could check the Redbox for MIB 3, assuming it would obviously be rented out. Shockingly, it was available, so I was quite thrilled. It gave us a nice evening in which we ate dinner and watched a fantastic movie. Holy crap, that one was great. Loved it more than the 2^nd one, and it was certainly trying to even top the first one.

Dax was less weepy than on most Sunday nights. In fact, he never said to me about his lack of desire to go to school today. He did mention it to Ken, but it was a big deal for him to not say it to me. I will take it as a win. Granted, he may end up breaking down, but I will take any time he is calm.

I am pleased that we don’t really have anything on tap tonight. I need to take the movie back, which just gives me a happy excuse to ride up to the store. Oh, fuck. It just occurred to me that I have a phone meeting. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Oh well, so much for that. LOL!!