too hot!

7-23-09

I slacked hard yesterday. I got home early with the intention of working on the house. It was too fucking hot. I did, however, get the car stuff taken care of. I went down to the mechanic and paid the bill and then while waiting for the AAA guy, I started the process of cleaning out Barnum.

I had brought along 2 trash bags. One for keep, one for trash. I got through the bulk of the car, but there is still things like the drawer under the seat which had some of my CD’s, and the beach toys in the back of the car. Although, really, most everything is in neat boxes or bags, and ready to come out.

I also repacked my fancy diaper bag with all the provisions that has been scattered through the car and put it in my van. I also put all the grocery bags in one of the bags and also moved that to the van. I was quick to also put my mommy cat hanging from the rear view on to the new car. Even though I spent only maybe 20 minutes of bagging, and I wasn’t tired or anything, I noticed the quantity of sweat dripping down on my head. It looked like some kind of bad special effects. It was awful since it was getting in my eyes and it was just distracting. Of course, it was like 95 degrees out, and I was working inside a dark colored car that had been out in the sun and there was no air flow. I found myself appreciating my new white car since even after having been in the sun all day, you got in and it wasn’t sweltering. It might help, too, that there is more air to heat up so it takes longer. LOL!

As I started the pack up process, I did get a little choked up at the idea of getting rid of the car I first brought my babies home in. This was truly our first real family car. Of course, we now have a roomier family car, but it is still crazy to think.

The car got home and from there I picked up the boys. I had given them the choice of going in the pool, or going by Daddy’s work to see the Star Wars Lego. The plan was then modified to include both. We went o Daddy’s work and the boys enjoyed seeing all the different Star Wars kits. Bobby especially liked getting up close to all of them.

When we got home, we had some dinner and then the whole family got in the pool. It was so nice. Super warm, but not too warm. Good cool down for the day.

We did have some issues yesterday, though. This would be thanks to Monarch.

Monarch has been testy the last week or so. Not sure if it is heat related, or he is just cranky, but he has been going after all of the other cats more than normal, taking swipes at us when we walk by (always claws in) and just being a pill. He still is uber affectionate and sweet, but he can be so damn annoying with this streak of mean. Well, yesterday, before we headed to Ken’s work, Bobby was playing with Monarch. Bobby sometimes can get a little rough, but normally Monarch loves the crap out of Bobby. I don’t know what took place, I did hear the scream.

I came running to find Bobby in hysterics indicating that Monarch had scratched him. There was no evidence on him that actual claws hit skin, but I know that it is reasonable to assume he hit Bobby, even if it was just his paw. It spooked Bobby something awful. I had to put Monarch in a “Time Out” to show Bobby that hitting is wrong. I assumed this would be the extent of it since lord knows, Bobby had gotten way worse treatment from the cats in the past. Pixel once scratched his face up pretty good.

We got home from the class and Bobby stood in the entry way, refusing to come in further because Monarch was on the desk. Dax and I walked past Monarch, who hardly looked up, with no problem. Bobby started screaming, sweating, freaking out to levels I have never seen before. He would not walk past him. Finally, Monarch moved, and Bobby, no joke, sprinted to his room to put his backpack away. He was scared to death. Every time Monarch would come in the same room, he would make sure he was up high or no longer in said room. It was ridiculous. Look, understand irrational fear. I have it in boatloads, but this was above and beyond anything I had seen. I decided that he just fell off the horse, and he needed to get back on.

I picked up Monarch, who was so happy to be getting attention, and brought him towards a shivering Bobby, demanding that he pet the cat. The first couple times, he ran off screaming. Then he finally reached out and scritched Monarch, who luckily purred a bit as if he recognized he had screwed up with his best bud.

Bobby still was unconvinced that they were past this issue. Bobby asked me several times to put Monarch in another time out, despite him having done nothing to deserve it at this point. Bobby was at the dinner table, and could not bring himself to come outside to go in the pool (which he wanted to do more than anything) because Monarch was by the front door. Mind you, this was not in Bobby’s path at all, but he just couldn’t do it.

Finally he did manage to get outside, and when he was in his room after, getting ready for bed, I brought the cat in his room and placed him on his bed. Bobby was nervous at first, but seemed to recognize this as a peace offering since Monarch promptly rolled over on his back, begging for belly scratching. He was still not 100% by bed time, but we may have made some progress.

He seemed out of sorts, anyway. He got up at one point right after we put him to bed and he asked me where his blanket was. I told him it was in his room in his backpack, so he ran in to get it, came back out to tell us he had found it, but that he needed help with his covers. We told him to try doing it on his own, to which he pouted and cried. He sulked back into his room, not closing his door, yelling from his bed that he didn’t want to close his door. He claimed he was scared and came back out. We kept arguing with him when finally I stood up with such force that he ran. Ken said he has never seen Bobby run so fast in his life. He watched him dive into bed on the monitor, and I closed the door behind him without us even making eye contact. Clearly, we pissed off Mama. Ken went in a smidge later and explained that he needed to quit the whining, and good news is, kid was asleep in like 15 minutes, so clearly a little tough love was the answer.

Ken informed me that a babysitter is not a problem as he has a girl that works for him that is quite trustworthy and in need of some money that can handle it. I am sure the boys will be fine, as they have met her several times in the past. I should be able to feed them before we leave and then really, all she needs to do is Jammie them, put them in bed and read them a story. Pretty simple. She can let them play outside, too, when we leave, that way they get tired out. I don’t anticipate being out too late, as Tammy has told me it isn’t an all night affair.

I need to make my list for packing, and perhaps on Sunday I will go and find a pair of jeans. I think Torrid has a 50% of clearance sale this weekend. I think we could probably go to the Del Amo mall, where there is a Lane Bryant (maybe look at some bras, too?) and Ken could take the kids to the Disney store and the bear store, and really, just entertain them a bit. Or I can go by myself and get some stuff tried on quickly. We will see.

Lugging the car seats on the shuttle to the airport is going to be a pain. I assume we will drive there, park in one of the big lots, catch the shuttle to the terminal. I am hoping to keep the luggage to a minimum. Maybe 2 bags at the most. But to have two kids, two car seats, and two bags (plus Ken’s computer bag, and the boys will have their backpacks) that will be a bit of crap. The backpacks apparently will be the boys’ one carry on. I am taking nothing but my little wallet/purse since I don’t want a bunch of crap. Ken will have his computer bag on the plane. We check everything else. I guess it is only awkward for like 30 minutes.

It has been busy this morning, yet the time is dragging. I have a mellow day when I get home, so perhaps this is why. I have nothing pressing, nothing crazy going on for the first time in weeks, and the day drags. LOL!

My one excitement for the day was a bird rescue. This fledgling has decided that going under our front screen door is fun. She did it twice last week, and managed to get back out when I approached to open the screen for her. I had to close the door! Those times, she did not attract the attention of our feline population. Yesterday, she was not as quiet.

I saw out of the corner of my eye, Ittles going after something that started flapping. I realized it was our little bird, and I got Ittles away. I tried to open the screen, but the bird flew past me towards the back door. She got caught on the screen, so I figured this was good. I could get her while she was on that. Instead, she was so faking it, and went up to the windowsill.

I took the butterfly net and managed to coax her down to the top of the cat’s water bottle, and then carefully got the bird in the net. I then took her back out front to release her. No injuries to her or me! Poor little bird. Our porch has become such a local bird hangout, we now get cool exotic looking varieties I had not seen in the neighborhood before. One yesterday was this cool yellow and orange that, despite my lack of enthusiasm normally for birds, I was actually kind of jazzed to see it.

I don’t think I will be joining a bird watching group anytime soon, but it is cool to see all these birds so comfy with us there on the porch. I need to take some pics. The hummingbirds don’t mind when we sit on the porch, or even are out there watering. The sparrow looking birds are pretty brave, too, especially since they had their nests there. The more colorful ones are much larger, yet don’t seem quite as brave yet. It would be cool to set up Monarch’s camera on the bird feeder to take pics from time to time to see who shows up to feed.

BTW-what evolutionary purpose is it to have little kid fingernails so fucking sharp? Did mother nature think they would need to claw their way out of some kind of scary thicket? Last night, Dax was uncomfortable in the pool now that we had it up to capacity in terms of depth. So various times while out there, he was clinging to me. I can safely say even if he had let go, his little claws would still be in my skin and he would not float away. Babies have those sharp little nails, too. That is why they sell those little oven mitts you Velcro onto their hands to keep them from bloodying their faces with the Edward Scissorhands they are born with. I wouldn’t be surprised if I had scratch marks in my uterus directly after they were birthed. I know, I do keep them trimmed, but they seem to sprout like crazy within only a few days of the last trimming. I just don’t understand how something sharp exists on people that we are a little leery of allowing access to butter knives.

The boss is in full psycho mode today. He has not harassed me yet. Then again, I put him in his place pretty early this morning. Yesterday after I left, he opted to put poor Tammy through hell over this one order that was going to be paid with a wire. He wanted her to search high and low for this money. This morning, I come in and see the 13 emails concerning the order, and I send one quick email to the customer, who confirmed in 15 minutes that there is no wire, and that he is paying with a check, which has not been mailed yet. Why is it that the boss couldn’t just email the customer? This is a customer he has had no problems emailing 50 times before this point. Plus, the unit has been ready for a month and the customer just has not given us money. Why is it a pressing priority yesterday between 1 and 2 PM, when no money was even in route?!??!

Michael Jackson has a secret love child? Ok, I have a question, have celebrities gotten weirder, or have they just gotten worse at covering it up. Yes, I know we have reported it more extensively, but is that really what it is? Or has everyone just gotten all the more eccentric?