RAIN!

12-7-09

Why does such a nice day have to be ruined by cramps!! I suppose at least with cramps, I can take something.

It is raining out. I love it! It is supposed to rain all day, and most of this week. All kinds of happy making.

It was a pretty good weekend overall. We did a lot of stuff. On Friday night, Bobby was coughing a bit and it was determined that overall, our whole house had this small cold. Nothing extreme, just lots of stuffy noses that still persist right now. We tried to get to bed kind of early due to the sick, and the fact that Ken had tournament stuff the next day.

Ken got out pretty early (45 minutes earlier than he planned!) on Saturday. Bobby had not even gotten up yet. I knew I had a full day ahead of me. I had wanted to do a lot of cleaning. Lucky for me, the boys decided they wanted to watch Pinocchio. This meant the boys and the dogs were super content for the length of the movie. They didn’t move! It was awesome! I took advantage of the quiet and I cleaned the heck out of the kitchen. I also cleaned the boys’ rooms, the bathroom, and worked on laundry. I was quite pleased with my progress. It was not even 9! I was doing great! The laundry and our bedroom was going to take the longest, but I was ahead of schedule.

Of course, then I got the call.

Every tournament year, I am kind of on call for any emergency. Sometimes I need to go get pizza. One year, I ended up working the snack bar for a while. Sometimes it is just to get change. This year, I got the text: BBQ not working! Ken has this little grill that they use to make the hot dogs and hamburgers (this grill was one that Baby Bobby and I ran out looking for years ago on the night before the tournament). Well, for some reason, it decided it wanted to be put on the disabled list. This mean Ken had crap loads of meat, with nothing to cook it with. So I texted back the offer to bring him our large BBQ. The response was yes. It was a little after 9. The tournament started at 10. I had two little boys, still in jammies. Hell, I was a mess since I had been working. So I quickly had the boys go get dressed. I then set out to figure out how I was going to get the BBQ in my van.

It seemed like it would be simple. I have gobs of room, the BBQ is not that big, right? Wrong. In fact, the little trays on the sides would prove to be a huge pain in my ass.

I searched frantically for a screwdriver that would work. I could not find the right kind and settled on what I had. I am sure I managed to strip the screws a bit, but after a lot of fighting, I got them out and removed one of the trays. I lifted the thing and then determined, it could not just stand up in the van. CRAP!

I did some more maneuvering, and I managed to shove it in there, nasty BBQ particles all over the back. All the while, I was also running back and forth from my car to inside to do everything from wiping butts to throwing myself together. I was pretty impressed, though, since all in all, all of this chaos got us on the road about a quarter till 10. Not too shabby!

We got it down there, and Ken had maybe 2 seconds to say hello as the opening ceremonies were about to take place. We turned around and headed back home. We did try to stop at my parent’s house, if only for Dax to pee. Unfortunately for Dax, they were not home. Luckily, he was able to hold it.

We got home, where I turned the boys and the dogs loose in the yard. I can tell you, I have never been happier to have a yard, dogs and boys. All three of these factors make for happiness. The boys love the yard and the dogs. The dogs love the boys and the yard. The yard makes for happy boys and happy dogs. All of this makes for happy mom!

I did bring them in order to feed them. The boys, not the dogs. They eat at night. LOL! I then put them down for a nap. In reality, it was “quiet” time since neither of them slept. But I did take advantage of the down time to watch my 90210.

After this, I let the boys come out and I put them to work. I had them put away their laundry, and I put away all of what I had done so far. It was a monstrous pile of clean clothing that I had to work through. The boys were a great help.

I knew we would need to head back out to the tournament. Let’s face it, Ken’s truck was packed full when he left, and he had not factored in a BBQ, so I knew my van was needed. I had been under the impression the tournament was over at 3, so I figured if I headed down a little after, I would be safe.

I got there about 3:45, and they were not done with matches. The boys and I went up into the stands and watched for a while. Ken was the announcer guy for the whole thing, so he was quite busy. I had the boys try to yell to him, but of course he didn’t hear them. So I started texting him. A lot. Finally, he really looked at all of his texts. He then starts talking on the microphone, telling the crowd that he certainly was getting a lot of texts. He makes the joke that it is either Bean on Twitter, or his wife. He then spots us on the top of the bleachers and points us all out. I told the boys to wave and smile, and they did. This lady next to us then says to us, “Oh, you are the ones he has been talking about all day!” That was pretty cool!

We went down and found out that there was one more 3 minute match, then judging and the whole closing ceremonies. So I drove the boys up to Poliwog park so they could play at the new playground. It was nice! It is the same style as the new one at Anderson Park. But what made this cool was the gobs of balance equipment. They loved these little stools of varying sizes that they liked to crawl across. There was also this wiggly balance beam they enjoyed. I will have to take them back. I had made the mistake of heading out without my sweatshirt so I was freezing. I had taken a shower before we left, and I put on jeans, a tank top and a hat, with the intent on putting on a sweatshirt before we left. But I was warm after the shower, so I completely forgot. Thankfully, the boys were dressed warmly.

Ken texted me when they were close to done, so we drove back down so they could load our car. We came down at the right time. It was before the crowd was leaving, so I had no mob of cars to navigate around, and as I pulled up to the back, they had just run out of room in Ken’s car. So they promptly put all the crap in mine.

We still had time to kill since I didn’t want to drive off in case there was something needed. So the boys ran around for like a half an hour. They were thrilled. Bobby saw some trash, and asked me if he could put it in the trash can. I enthusiastically told him yes, and had he and Dax find more trash. They both were on a mission and the cleaned up a lot of stuff on the campus.

I was quite bummed that we were outside only in how cold I was. I had hoped that Ken left his sweatshirt in his car. No such luck.

The even ended and Ken came out, luckily sweatshirt in hand. The funniest part was he wasn’t sure if it was his or not. I smelled it and knew it was his. Not a bad smell, mind you. It was good! I was happy and warm!

We decided to go over to Denny’s for dinner. Kids eat free!! Bobby ordered Mac and Cheese, which surprised us, but we felt it was good for him to order for himself and if he didn’t like it, he knew for next time. He didn’t care for it, especially since he is quite used to, and happy with, my mac and cheese. But after pointing out that the ice cream that he wanted (and really, I wanted) would not happen if he didn’t eat some dinner.

Sunday was busy and lazy at the same time. In the morning, we went bowling. We tried something new this time. Since Bobby and Dax were bowling with us, my folks reserved 4 lanes instead of 2, on the other side. So we didn’t have our normal neighbors, or our normal set up at all. Their reasoning was that the boys would make it all go pretty slow. See, I don’t care, Ken doesn’t care, I don’t think my mom cares, but it sounds like my dad, Matt and Freddie would. I was fine with more lanes, only since I didn’t realize what would happen.

We set it up where the Brenans were 4 on 2 lanes, and the Bowlbys and Freddie were 4 on the other two lanes. This meant that we were kind of separate. Kind of sucked, really. Since the boys needed our help on most throws, we didn’t leave the ball return. Dax did give up about half way through the first game, which is what we expected. Bobby bowled all of game one and two, and the second half of frames for Dax on the 1st game. On the third game, that left Ken and I, which meant for speed bowling.

Normally, even though yes, bowling mornings stress me out, the one thing I do enjoy is some of the socializing. I usually chit chat with my mom a bit, and I get to play with the boys. This way, I barely spoke two words to my folks. For two games, I didn’t see Dax. It was constant movement. On the plus side, there was not a lot of time for bickering with Matt. He tried to pick a couple fights in the beginning, but really, with us all being so busy, he couldn’t sustain them.

Ken pointed out the reason we bowl is not to bowl, but to hang out. The problem with this theory is that we keep score (Ken even has a spreadsheet) and they all pay attention to this. Hell, I am super competitive, but since the boys, I barely care anymore, even when I do well! So I don’t know how I feel. The boys were happy, and Bobby does enjoy bowling. I think the only reason he stopped is that Dax was playing with is little firemen guys, so Bobby wanted to play with his little policemen guys. So I think that yes, we will keep going for a little while like this. My mom seems to think we will all be less crazy after a couple weeks. To me, I was ready to stop bowling altogether, so on one hand, I am happy to have less stress of arguing and the boys are more contained. But Ken seems miserable with this new arrangement, so I feel bad. We will see.

After bowling, we headed out to Disneyland. We had a Fantasy Land Day. We took the train over, and then hit up all the fantasy land rides. We did Pinocchio first, since we had just watched the movie. The boys enjoyed it. We did Snow White next, which scared the shit out of Dax. The queen was all kinds of evil in his mind. We did Peter Pan next, which was less scary. We also did the carousel. I managed to climb my fat ass up on to a high horse. Pretty impressive.

We did not do Toad only because I was a little concerned Dax would find it upsetting as well. We instead did the Storybook boats. We also did Alice, which Dax said was awesome when he got off, which was impressive since this was the first non prompted response to something. Bobby loved the scary ones, and told me later he enjoyed being scared. He also liked the tea cups a lot.

We were going to do the monorail to the Lego store, but it was broken. So we took the train through the dinosaurs instead. Both of them were pooped, so I sat with them by a fountain in Downtown Disney while Ken ran down to the Lego store to check for these sets for Friday. We had truly tired them out.

Dax fell asleep on the way home, Bobby almost did. Unfortunately, when we got home, Bobby remembered they had not eaten lunch, so they both insisted on eating before nap. This meant they were refueled.

Although I should have been finishing the laundry, I instead sat around and played with the dogs. We let the boys out of their “nap” and watched some hockey. Between the dogs and kids running around in the small living room, I opted to release the beasts.

We all went out back. Ken and I sat and played ball with Lycos. Luna lies to crawl between Lycos’s legs and under her. It is great fun to watch.

We cleaned up the yard while the boys ran around. Bobby helped Ken with the trash cans and fixing some things. So Dax and I went to the grocery store to get a couple of things. Dax was so happy. He got to ride in the car cart. It is amazing how much easier it is to shop with one kid.

When we got home, Ken and Bobby were washing Luna. So I made the boys some dinner. Ken and I were not hungry, after having had a huge lunch. See, Ken had apparently overestimated how many pizzas would sell at the tournament. So we have quite a bit of pizza at home. We ate way too much. So we didn’t end up eating dinner aside from some light snacking.

Bobby got in trouble for not listening. He got sent to bed with no show. Luckily, he was so tired, in reality, he didn’t fight it too much. He passed out pretty quickly. Dax had been having some bad dreams the night before, so he was a little nervous going to sleep. Luckily, once we presented him with his other Bolt (he now had baby Bolt, his good Bolt which became Mommy Bolt to him, and Daddy Bolt, the one that talks), he was fine.

I feel like I neglected a lot of chores yesterday, but the Disneyland trip and hanging out in the yard was worth it. Besides, I have all week being inside in the afternoons what with the rain. So I think that I can work on it then. I am a little bummed we didn’t put up the Christmas lights outside on the house, but we can try to do that this weekend. I don’t want much, but the boys really just want something. I don’t blame them. It looks cool!

This Saturday Grammie comes out for cookie making and a mini Christmas with her. So the boys get a bag of toys early. I swear, little kids in this day and age are going to start assuming that Christmas is a 4 weekend holiday. LOL! I am hoping to do some Christmas shopping of our own this weekend as well. We don’t have much to get, but I would like to get it done. I need to get a couple things we can wrap for the boys to open, and then we will have Santa stuff. I also need to get things for my parents and brother, and all of the Brenan crew.

The bottom of my foot itches and it is driving me crazy!

I love seeing all the rain outside.

We have started basket training Luna. I had put together a basket area for Luna, complete with the blanket she has been using. She actually seemed quite happy with it, sleeping in it on Saturday. On Sunday, Ken started basically telling her to stay there. Once she has this down, it will be good for things like dinner. It will allow the dogs to be able to be inside the house while we have things like dinner. This will be dog number 3 that will get basket training. Panda and Lycos both enjoy their baskets. Ok, Panda doesn’t enjoy it now being that she is dead, but she did like it. Luna already seems happy with it, but also quite confused since she has been allowed to run around up until now. I don’t mind them wandering, but they also need to have a place we can put them when we need them to stay away from things like food. We need to do the crate thing, too, but as I was telling Ken, really, as long as they both sleep in their baskets at night and don’t get into stuff, I don’t care about crates.

My nose is so congested it is driving me crazy!

As if that isn’t bad enough, I am falling asleep.

I would like to point out that I NEVER liked Tiger Woods. You can ask Ken. I have always hated people like Tiger, Kobe, and even Michael Jordan. To me, those guys, sure, incredibly talented, amazing skills. But Michael Jordan for instance, seems like an arrogant prick to me. I felt the same way about Tiger. I don’t know what it is. Not all athletes annoy me like this. Like Magic Johnson, for some reason, never irked me. Shaq, same thing. Barry Bonds, wanted him to die in some tragic accident. A Rod? Don’t care. He doesn’t bug me. But I always knew Tiger wasn’t real. There was something that would finally come out to show he is an asshole. Sure enough, dude was a giant a-hole.

I need some hot chocolate. I am freezing! I have fixings for my hot chocolate for the boys. I even got mini marshmallows. Of course, they so are not going to appreciate it. Oh well. I will make a bunch so I can just heat some of the good stuff up in the mornings.

Holy hell, what a morning. I feel like everything retarded happened at once. I have a giant order they want to be able to release. Too bad for them the customer is crap. Then I had a set of 6 invoices all billed out with the terms saying due in March of this year, when it was supposed to be March of next year. Not a huge deal, someone just needs to credit them and rebill with the right terms, right? Wrong. They are asking me what the right terms are. Like I fucking know. I don’t bill this shit. I collect it. I didn’t make the sale. And if I did, I can guarantee you, I would have billed it right! Then, I had to get in a pissing contest with this one chick who doesn’t agree with our credit card policy. By the way, the chick? She is one of our own employees! And the same broad from last week that got into the fight with other chickadee over the wrong billings on another account. SO I can’t very well bitch this one out for being dumb, especially when I kind of agree with her on the policy, but dude, policy is policy, and they just (yes, it was multiple people) ignored the policy and did it the way they wanted to. What the hell??? Mind you, all of this happened in the span of like 10 minutes. It has been crazy!!

It is pouring out! The weather claims it is going to rain all day, stopping for like an hour, then starting back up again until like midnight. It is supposed to be cold, but dry tomorrow. Should be interesting to see what kind of damage all of this does.