paternity update

8-29-13

Update!!!!

They are his kids! Oh. My. God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Apparently 7 years ago or so, they had broken up for a little while. Grant slept with this married chick. She got knocked up, but assumed they were her husband’s kids. Something made the husband get a DNA test when they were 4 (Um, I am guessing she cheated a lot and the kids look like some other dude, but this is just me thinking). Well, the DNA confirmed it. Apparently he kicked the shit out of her (the worst part of the story) and left her. She got in touch with Grant and told him the news.

They live in North Carolina and I guess have not had a lot of contact with them until recently. They will be flying out in Feb, which is really cool. I like that they are keeping them in their family. That says loads.

Alicia didn’t want me to tell anyone, but we have been chatting now and she understands why I asked Grammie, etc.  She isn’t even mad at me. Phew! Either way, it is out there now, and she knows it was her fault for posting the pic. She also understands that she screwed up by posting it. It happens.

Either way, talk about crazy!!!

truck loading

8-28-13

Garage cleaning is actually kind of fun.

I had Ken bring me down a couple of boxes and I started diving in to a bunch of other things I could reach. One box had all of my old trophies. I tossed all of them. I did at least take a picture of the Daily Breeze trophy, but that was the only one that seemed like it needed to be remembered.

I tossed a lot of other things along with determining which boxes we had gone through years before and they just need to go into the truck today. I also just started in on Ken’s work bench area and made a box. I am putting anything in there that looks like it might be something to keep and tossing anything else. We have to return the truck tonight, so we are going to get as much over to Steve this afternoon and then return it. We can get the truck again next week.

Ken managed to unload the POD into the garage yesterday. It means they can pick it up now. And, it means I don’t have to unload it. LOL!

Ken also started to pull off the wood on the house that we are replacing and then painting. We are chipping away at everything!

Soccer practice was a lot of fun. Holy crap this is a great group! They all seem fearless when it comes to the ball. They all were full of energy and didn’t ever complain.  They actually WANTED to run more! YAY! I am very optimistic about them. Perhaps as coaches we will win a game finally.

It is a busy day for home. As I mentioned, loading the truck is a priority. We also then have to have time to UNLOAD the truck. I told Ken he can start putting in some of the boxes we already determined were keep boxes in there.  I also really feel we need to concentrate a bit on the garage since there may be yard sale items in there.

Well, I guess it did bruise. I just found a nice swollen part on my knee where I smacked the dash board in the van. Ouch.

My good black bra broke. Lame.

Reports Delay

8-27-13

Late start, but I suppose it still works, right?

Practice was canceled last night. Lou, the coach, had heard reports of thunder storms, so he opted to not take any chances. It worked out ok, though, since we have so much to do and a night off from soccer is welcome right now.

Ken painted the ceiling in the living room. I painted around the window. I also cleared off my desk and we were able to move the desk into the truck.

I packed up a lot of the bathroom. Holy crap, you would think I was some kind of beauty school drop out based on the quantity of hair color supplies I have. I spent some time combining bottles and tossing old product out and then packed it all in a giant box. I figured I could get by on what I left out.

Ken is over at Steve today, unloading the POD which was delivered there. Our garage will be full, but it will all be boxes, so that is ok. We have a lot of unloading of that to do, but it isn’t as crucial.

The kitchen floor has been scheduled to start on Friday. Yay! I wish I knew when the plumbers will start.

Our current garage is daunting. Ken has indicated that perhaps just putting everything in boxes and sorting it out later is in order. I am fine with this. We need to clear it out. Although, I would like Ken to go through some of it to see if anything is yard sale worthy.

Our potential renter came by again last night to show his buddy. I think he was getting a second opinion. We have told him that really, they can do whatever they want to the house in terms of upgrade as long as when they decide to move out the house is in the same or better condition when they leave. I think this was a major selling point, and he was showing his handy buddy to see if the place was worth while.

We have soccer tonight. This is Dax’s practice. It should be fun, especially with it being the first real one. We are going to do a lot of warm up and I think a mostly fun drill for the night that will help them work on ball skills. I also would like to see them scrimmage to see how they work together. Should be cool.

I think this week I should attempt to paint Steve’s kitchen in the couple spots. We also need to paint the ceiling in there, so perhaps we should look into that. It would be good to paint pre-floor, although I think we should be ok either way.

Once the kitchen floor is done, this weekend I am hoping to shelf paper everything so I can start putting some kitchen things away. I figure there are gobs of things I don’t use daily that can be moved over and put away. That being said, I think working at Halldale is priority right now.

That being said, I think when I get home I will dive into the garage. I can probably get quite a bit packed up before we go to practice. I swear, it all seems like a never ending pile, though. Sigh.

Lowe's

8-26-13

Ouch.

Ok, so I am a little sore this morning. We did a lot of work over the weekend. As it stands now, our “living room” is now in our old bedroom. The living room is panel free (aside from a couple small ones high up that we need to cut since it looks like they are behind the banisters). We will get new panels this week to put them up. We might also be leaving it as hardwood. We spoke to a potential renter yesterday whose daughter has severe allergies and carpet is just asking for a harder time. We told them if they want to rent, we have no problem getting the floors redone instead. They really love the place what with the size and it being next door to a long-time friend (the guys have known each other since they were 5!) and down the street from parents and another set of friends. I liked them a lot and hope that they rent.

The concrete stairs were removed from the family room at Steve. Matt and my dad got a jackhammer and did most of it. I got to man the hammer for a bit, which I gotta say was freaking AWESOME. So much power. I loved it.

My mom sanded and made the cutting board look like new. It is gorgeous now. She is going to do the oil on it sometime this week.

The kitchen floor will go in this week.

The POD will be picked up from Halldale and moved to Steve on Tuesday. We then have one week to unload it into the garage since they pick it up next week.

On Friday night we picked up the vanities, the medicine cabinets, the tub, the new panels for the family room, tiles for the bathrooms, and insulation for the family room. Holy fuck, it was a lot of stuff. We were at Lowe’s for something like 3 hours. It was nuts.

Panels will be the construction of choice this week. We will need to put up panels at both places. Once this is done, we can schedule carpet at Steve. I would like to do that since it will make that room done and then we can move some things in there.

Ken said we will start painting Steve ourselves. I am excited! I have the colors picked out for our room. I have to decide on the shade for the guest room. I need to paint in there first since then we can get carper down and make that a functional room to store some things in. Our room will be next.

Sadly, nothing can be done until this fucking electrician gets his ass in gear. He isn’t coming until at the soonest Wednesday. Grr…

Perhaps this afternoon we can load the truck with the couches and a couple other things. We would have done that Friday but the Lowe’s adventure ended up taking longer.

I sold the stove to an extremely excited couple so I feel very happy about this.

My body aches, but hopefully things will start moving along now.

Tonight Bobby has soccer practice so Dax and I will come along this time. There is a track around the field, so we are going to walk the track during practice. I figure I have 90 minutes in which I can do this, which is all kinds of good. This extra exercise twice a week is not a bad thing, and it will keep me stretched out.

I spoke to the sergeant at the South LA shelter on Friday. He was actually quite nice and we spoke for a while. I told him about the people at his facility, and he apologized profusely about them. They are new and he said partially due to my experience, they are doing some additional training this week to discuss how to talk with the public more. He also talked to me about the puppy, and I was able to offer some advice on proper listings and how truly they are not doing the dogs a service by listing them as something they are not. The puppy I was interested in ended up not being a lab but a Chihuahua, which as I pointed out was not what I had driven all that way for. I told him that even though yes, they may mostly have pits and Chihuahuas, they need to let us know this. Even if they say it is a mix between the two. He was shockingly receptive to my suggestions and told me he was glad we had spoken since they need this kind of feedback. I felt like I did a good thing.

We broke the news to our neighbors who were quite bummed. Maria was sad and her family said they would miss us. As much as I am ready to move, I will miss our neighborhood. It is a good group of people.  

Lessons

8-23-13

Breezer really needs to think before she decides to leap over a candle.

My angry email to several members of the Los Angeles Shelter board has resulted in an email back that has requested the Sgt of the South LA facility to call me today. I upset some people, and I am not done. I plan on elaborating more when I speak to someone. This isn’t about the dog anymore. This is about the whole system which has failed on too many occasions and results in a bad name for shelters, poor animal placement, and an overall lack of compassion that is crucial when dealing with animals and the public.

Dax is learning a hard lesson in friendship. A couple of months ago, while playing with Zack and Jessica, he slammed a door in Jessica’s face. I don’t know the details other than it was upsetting and they stopped talking to Dax for a while. Dax has since apologized and due to camp and house stuff, the boys haven’t been home as much, therefore you would think that these two kids would not hold a grudge against him.

This would be a bad assumption.

On Wednesday, the boys and I arrived home and we saw Anthony playing with Zack and Jessica outside. It was still kind of early so I told the boys to go try and play. When they went outside, Dax asked them from afar if they could come join them and were told no. This resulted in Dax coming inside in full tears.

I had Bobby go talk to them since I didn’t want to get involved. I can’t fight their battles. I also can’t force kids to be friends. This was something they needed to work out for themselves. I could guide them and advise them, but that was the extent of it.

Bobby reported back that they were in fact still mad about the door incident. They were fine with Bobby. It seemed odd that this one incident would taint their friendship, but I suppose wars have been started from less dramatic circumstances. I told Dax he should go try to talk to them if he really wanted to fix things. He and Bobby went out and I could hear their side of the conversation. Dax asked them why they were so pissed. It was a pretty long talk, but the outcome was the same. Of course, there was a little more information in that there may be some parental involvement, but this may be misinformation. Either way, I had to explain to both of them that not only do friends come and go, but that there is a lot more to friendship than they know yet.

The opted to play out front anyway, with their game plan of “impressing them”. I told them this wasn’t a great plan, but that this was their choice. I think that Zack may just be getting old enough that he was outgrowing a friend who is almost half his age. Ken thinks that they also might be lashing out due to the upcoming move. It is hard to say. Recently they have been waiving to me more when I drive by, which is hard to deal with in some ways. I don’t dislike these kids, but I am sad that they are not forgiving Dax. Then again, Dax needs to have some consequences for his temper.

Their play outside did seem to open some dialogue, but it would be some time before any active interaction takes place. Sadly, with us leaving, I don’t see them having enough time to patch things up.

I had considered taking the day off but I think I am glad I didn’t. I took apart a lot of the entertainment unit. I am going to use those shelves in the Catio at Steve. In fact, I plan on bringing them over today and setting them up. I also cleaned up a lot of other things with the intent to make my goal happen for this weekend.

Ken and the boys are picking up the truck today so that Ken and I can load it this afternoon. Once we get it all loaded up, we can stop for the day and we will bring it over to Steve tomorrow morning. We will most likely spend the day at Steve. On Sunday, we will most likely spend the day at Halldale since that will need work, too.

Maybe I need to take off a day next week. LOL!!! 

Crazy lady

8-22-13

So much to do!!

The boys were outside Steve, moving giant pieces of concrete to a pile. We had told them to do this, mostly to keep them out of trouble, and because let’s face it; there is nothing more fun to kids than to be allowed to throw giant rocks. As they tossed stones a pickup truck pulled up in front of the house where a woman started talking to the boys.

She told the boys to make sure to drink lots of water since it was warm out. It was cute, really, to have a random neighbor worried about the welfare of my kids. She asked them if their mom was around. I was right inside the door, so I popped out with my full smile and false confidence to talk to new people.

She called me over to the truck where she quickly gripped my arm in what seemed very affectionate, but unnerving in a lot of ways. She introduced herself, but I can assure you there is no way I can remember her name since I was spending too much time trying to figure out her angle.

There was a younger man in the truck with her, who almost looked embarrassed to be with her. This made me feel better if only because it was apparent she was just an over enthusiastic older lady. She then proceeded to give me advice.

“Don’t let the boys pee on slanted cement.”

My mind raced, wondering if perhaps the boys had decided to pee out front in a funny boy thing. I knew this was farfetched, but seriously, who introduces themselves and then proceeds to tell you to make sure your offspring doesn’t urinate a certain way?

“You know, like the cows do.”

Ok, now I know this broad is bat shit crazy.

I nervously laughed with her, watching her driving companion roll his eyes and try to change the subject by complimenting my hair. I really think she meant well, but wow. Bitch be crazy.

We drove out to the South LA shelter so I could try to look at this 20 day old puppy. The pup was listed as available online and I had called once. The lady on the phone was super nice and said that they don’t adopt them out till they are 8 weeks. She said I couldn’t put my name on a list to adopt the dog, but I could keep checking in. I figured I should go down there to see if we could maybe see the dog. If the puppy wasn’t the one for me, I wanted to know if I was wasting my time or not.

Their facility is gorgeous. Too bad it is located on a hidden and rather scummy street. The customer service employee was super nice and directed us to the animal building. We headed over where there were 5 employees standing around. They didn’t acknowledge us, despite there being no one else in there. We stood there for a bit, still waiting on someone to help, but it was almost as though they didn’t want to deal with people.

Finally, one of the employees was heading out and he walked past us and actually asked us if we needed help. I showed him the print out from online and he went to go look up the dog. He was nice. The bitch who spoke to us, well, let’s just say perhaps she should be put down.

She told us the dog wasn’t available because it was still nursing. I asked if we could at least see the pup. She said no. There was no explanation. There was no sympathy. It was just flat out, no. We asked if they make exceptions since we would be more than willing to bottle feed. She practically interrupted us with this no. We asked why not and she simply said it was against the law. She offered no other explanation. She was rude, she was cold, and seriously, not the face the shelter should have.

I was told the dog is available the 27^th. She didn’t say which month, so I don’t even know if that means next week or a month from now (which technically would make more sense). Either way, I hoped that a mean dog there would bite her face off. Of course, then they would euthanize that dog, and that would be all kinds of sad.

I have emailed one of the executives I could find online, but today it is my mission to get this bitch in trouble.

We get Frank’s truck tomorrow, which means we spend the afternoon loading up. Since we are going to Steve Saturday morning to accept money from a lady who is buying the stove along with seeing the final chapter of my mom’s epic tale of Talbert and Jack and some magic crystals, we will be able to unload then.

It turns out Pergo will not work on my kitchen floor. It is slanted, so unless we want to spend gobs of money to correct that, we will need to look at something else. This means some form of tile. My mom and I will be looking at tile on Saturday.

Bobby has another soccer practice tonight. I also have to meet up with Jerry to sign some checks. Hopefully everything doesn’t take too much since I want to get some things done. Maybe I should take a week off. LOL!

Zombie soccer players

8-21-13

Creepers on one hand and Zombies on the other. Soccer will be gruesome this season.

I was more nervous than even normally for this soccer meeting. Most of the parents seemed happy, but one dad looked skeptical. Ken assured me he is a good guy, having known him from last year. He had just dealt with a coach last season who has now been blackballed from the organization. He seemed happy by the end, but it made me a little unsure of myself.

He was the least of my worries, though. There was a grandmother there that was standing in for her daughter, who is the mom of a player. Turns out the grandmother is a former board member. Her daughter also is. So are both husbands. Grandma was pretty disenchanted with the region. Oh, and by the by, her good friend was the former treasurer. She didn’t take it too kindly when I mentioned how much work I have done as the Treasurer in cleaning up the system. I did mention this BEFORE I knew she was friends with the old Treasurer. Sigh. She was pissy and cranky, and I really hope she her daughter isn’t a bitch, too. The good news is the kid is very sweet.

Ken got the family room mostly wired up at Steve. I think there are maybe a couple more boxes, but he put in all new boxes and even created a couple of new outlets, including another one to the catio. Hopefully the electrician has heard from the city on the grounding rod so that he can get things done ASAP.

Lowe’s is coming this morning to do the kitchen flooring estimate. Hopefully it is easy and they can get to work on it ASAP. I can’t put in the appliances until the electrician does the outlets in there. This is why I am anxious to get that part done. Once the floor is in, I want to put the appliances in. This will allow for some more space to open up in the garage so that as we move things over we have room. Plus, I can probably then start to populate the kitchen with some items that are not used as much and get my kitchen in order.

Hopefully Ken can talk to Frank today about his truck. I would like to get the piano and the storage bins over to Steve this week. The main goal for this week is to be moved out of our current living room so we can be ready for new panels in the current living room by Sunday’s end. It is actually a pretty realistic goal, so this is good.

Thankfully the whole weekend is ours to work on house stuff. No parties or soccer events. Woo!

My boss is driving me nuts this week. He is going over the agings and nitpicking all of these good accounts to try to find more money to collect. We are under the goal. He needs to calm the fuck down. If he didn’t just allow bad customers to have large deals, we would not be in this situation. Sigh. He also is just so incredibly out of the loop for the most part so he panics on things he knows nothing about. He is not making it easy for me to come in every day.

Zombies and Creepers

8-20-13

Bobby survived his first soccer practice.

I was glad that when he got home he wasn’t complaining or even really dead on his feet considering how much running I know they did. Coach Lou is hell bent on making sure they get in shape, which I agree with whole heartedly.  I should have had Dax do some running last night while we stayed home, but I had too much work to do.

We picked up electrical boxes yesterday so that Ken can do the wiring in the family room and bathroom today. Once the family room is wired, we can get the panels up. I picked out the carpet yesterday. Today when we go to Lowe’s we will pick up the vanities and other bathroom things. We are getting things moving. Slow, but we will get there. Ken thinks we can be in by Oct 1.

The school gets back today so I can take them the utility bills so they can be officially in the school. I am anxious to see what class they are in and to make sure all of that is in place.

Soccer practice tonight for Dax’s team. Thankfully it should be pretty simple. The kids can run around a bit and kick the ball while we talk to the parents about what we need for the year. We also need to pick a team name. Dax is thinking of suggesting the zombies.

Dax turns 7

8-19-13

The party was a success!

It was a busy Saturday that started with a vet visit for Miss Luna. Her ear is in fact infected, but it is treatable for now (there is always a chance that the infection is from a resistant bacteria). I was happy to hear that the over the counter flushes we have used over the years are perfectly fine and in fact recommended. She also looks great aside from the ear issue.

Dr. Steinam also kind of looked over Lycos and was impressed at how well she is doing. We told him about her back leg issues and he said based on all the symptoms it is probable that she has nerve issues which are not treatable aside from just common sense. He was glad to hear she likes swimming and said to continue that. In reality, she is doing fantastic for her age and the fact that she still has a hearty appetite and gets around and seems super happy are all great signs. The ol’ girl still rocks!

Party time started at 11. It ended up only being Sabrina and Anthony, but Dax didn’t care one lick. He was just super jazzed about it being his birthday. The whole set up at Mulligans is nice. I like how they treated us and the package is quite reasonable when you get right down to it. The only real complaint is that their video games are all mostly 3 tokens and up. When you compare to places like Chuck E Cheese, who have all their games at 1 token, it does make a difference. Luckily, we didn’t have to spend too much time in there.

Dax was pretty devastated when right out of the gate he was told that the rock wall he had his heart set on was something he couldn’t do. Turns out, he was 5 pounds too light for the equipment. Thankfully he bounced back pretty quick, but still, I felt so bad!

We played a round of golf, we did the race cars and we even played some lazer tag (which I gotta say, was freaking awesome). I was all kinds of proud when in my first game of tag, I had high score! Yay! I know, it’s all about the kids, but dude, I kicked some ass.

After the guests left, the Brenans ended up going on the cars again, which was super fun. We also played another round of lazer tag before we left. It was a long day, being that we were there from 11 till about 6. We went up to Spires for dinner, and it was cute since Dax told the waitress it was his birthday. She ended up gathering the waitresses to sing to him. Cute! We also had forgotten about the gift bags that we were given from Mulligans so we had the bag of those with us in the restaurant. Since we had 10 bags, Dax went with Ken over to this one table that had a young kid and they gave her a bag. Very cool.

Sunday was busy, too. I went with my folks to Lowe’s where they told me that they would be paying for my kitchen floor. Wow! My mom said it was money coming out of her gambling fund, which my dad and I agreed meant she was serious! LOL! She wanted to get us Pergo, so this means that we will have a much nicer floor. She had started pulling out the old linoleum (both layers) and is going to finish that up on Tuesday. She will then have Lowe’s come out to do the estimate and then have it installed. Yay!!!! I picked out a simple one since I don’t want anything that clashes with the wood or cabinets. Now I need to wait for the electrical work to get done, which hopefully is this week.

This week is not as busy, despite having 3 soccer practices. Ken has agreed that he will take Bobby to his practices since they are from 5:30 to 7, which is just too late for my ass. This is ok as it means Dax and I will have our own time and we can do things like walk the dogs and other things. Plus, it allows me to be home to work on that house. Bobby’s first practice is tonight.

We met Bobby’s team last night. The parents seem a bit more competitive than I like, but it should be fine. Bobby is so easy going with these kids. Plus, he is beyond thrilled since his name suggestion was picked for the team name. Holy crap, you would have thought he won the lottery. Since they are green, he suggested the Creepers (Minecraft suicide bombers). It was voted as a win! YAY! I ordered myself a Creeper shirt from Think Geek and Ken has one, too, so we will be wearing those to games. Dax is hoping that his team (our team) will also be the Creepers. I am game for this since it will mean I don’t have to change shirts. LOL! Of course, as long as I am in green, I am fine. So I now have one coming that will be my uniform for 8 Saturdays.

We are hoping to get Frank’s moving van this week so we can move the storage containers and the piano over to Steve. The POD is pretty much full, so that will go over there soon, too. By moving that piano, we can really get the living room done.

Ken is taking Ittles to Dr. Steinam this morning. Hopefully he can figure out what her problem is with this chronic diarrhea. It seems better in some ways, but ultimately it needs to be treated. In other vet news, our balance there is now zero! YAY! Yes, we have been paying it off for some time now, but it makes me all kinds of happy that we don’t owe them back money anymore.

I feel like I have done so much this morning and it isn’t even 7. Emailing soccer teams, prepping a player roster, yelling at some customers, running a few reports. I am kicking some ass today. Hopefully this keeps up. I am shocked I am so energized. It was the first really hot night this summer and I didn’t sleep as well as I had hoped. Maybe my adrenaline has been refilled. I will take it!

better

8-16-13

At least I can say that I made it to work without incident.

Whatever evil fog was consuming me yesterday is gone. I feel significantly better. This may be due to me taking charge on something. Yesterday in the midst of my breakdown due to exhaustion and frustration I opted to take it all out on the garage.

I made the garage my bitch.

The goal was to pull stuff out. Anything being kept was going to end up in the POD. Everything else needed to be put in the trash or yard sale land. I paid the boys $5 a piece to help me. They hauled quite a bit of stuff to the various spots designated for the three categories. I stayed to the garage and tore through things, tossing clear trash and moving the heavier things like shelves. The result was 45 minutes of awesome. There are still items in there, but the bulk of it consists of a wall of Lego, and a wall of tools. There is also the matter of the vintage arcade games. Either way, I did quite a bit and I am proud.

Ken got home much earlier than expected, which was nice. I already had put dinner in the oven and was winding down. I did get a bit worked up again, trying to explain to Ken what was going on in the crazy that is my head. I was settled when all three of my boys gave me a group hug to calm me. Oh, and of course the rum and coke Ken made me helped, too.

My day is going to be slightly hectic. I have to clearly deal with my boss who seems to have a bug up his butt to get into my accounts. My accounts are some of the cleanest ones around, but he sometimes feels like he needs to know what the deal is.

When I am finally free of the work week, I am off to retrieve my kids from my folks. They have birthday boxes to find there, so I will be there for a bit. However, after, we need to go in search of Dax’s birthday cake. I have no idea what kind he wants, so it may be a challenge.

In the morning we are taking Luna to Dr. Steinam’s to look at her ear. We have been mostly treating it ourselves with moderate success. It is now time to get help from a professional. Hopefully it is just a matter of some drops.

11 am is the party at Mulligans. I guess they don’t get their wrist bands until after our time in the room for pizza, but that’s ok since I planned on staying there until Dax couldn’t move anymore from exhaustion.

Sunday, which is Dax’s actual birthday, is going to be spent working. I want to get the POD filled from garage crap. I would like to move the little storage sheds over to Steve. I would like to get a shit ton done. My folks invited us to Don Jose’s in the morning, but I may actually decline since I want more time to get things done.

I am still in pain from all this work. My neck still hurts from sleeping on it wrong.

I am pretty sure we didn’t order the Pogo stick Dax wanted for his birthday. This means I need to get him something today. I am considering stopping by Toys R Us or something on the way to pick them up.

 I am looking forward to the day in which I can sit on my couch in Steve for the whole day because everything is done. 

raw

8-15-13

There may be nothing worse than a disturbing dream you can’t shake.

It also isn’t a good morning when you almost get into a car accident.

Yeah, it’s one of those mornings.

My dream was one of those ones that truly crushed my past and present into one random stream. It felt like I was in my own honked up indie flick straight out of the 90’s. There was some interesting insight, though. I found that my mind had decided to merge Blockbuster with AYSO people, which was odd. I went to the MB store to go do soccer stuff, and it all seemed totally normal in the dream. Does this mean that I actually enjoy the soccer stuff since I loved working at Blockbuster? Or do I think I will remember it fondly when I leave it all behind? Will the people I meet be as important to me later in life as the BBV people are to me? So many questions that dreams make my head contemplate.

Always disturbing is the presence of Greg in any dream. I know that certain people have taken on a grander role in my dreams. Example would be that anytime Scott is in my dream it means that I feel stressed about time. I have chalked it all up jokingly, but now I think it has become dream law, that it was because he drove a white rabbit in high school, which turned him into some random Alice reference. That being said, what does this make Greg?

Of course, he could simply represent important figures in my past since this particular dream was that of my two “lives” merging unceremoniously. Seriously, my RC was in a blockbuster uniform which was quite entertaining. The real issue, though, was what was going on.

Brandy was there, too, although in the beginning she was more Angela than Brandy, but then was very clearly Brandy. At first they kind of switched back and forth. Either way, Brandy kept trying to make Greg and I talk. I don’t know why, nor did he seem to. I don’t even know if she understood and kept trying to get me to talk in general. I didn’t know how to.

She kept telling me that I need to open up more. I needed to confide in someone. It was almost frantic, and I didn’t know what to do about it. I told her that I didn’t know that I could have that person because I felt selfish venting. Brandy and Greg kept showing up at my house and between the two of them, they drove me a little nuts, trying to get me to somehow open up, but I don’t know what it was, but I do know that it was upsetting.

I suppose perhaps dreams are what happens in real life to some degree since I just contemplated not posting this because it felt too raw.

The car accident that didn’t happen really fucked with me. I was driving and this guy decided to just pull out in front of me from the cross street. I honked, but he just basically lumbered across the whole street while I swerved and attempted to not smash into him. He didn’t even look like he cared, and he certainly didn’t stop. It was freaky, and painful since I strained my neck from some tear down yesterday. Honestly, I am shocked I didn’t hit the guy.

I have too much to do and not enough control.

bathrooms

8-14-13

Let’s build some bathrooms!

We priced out some vanities and a tub along with a shower for the other bathroom. All of them came in under budget, which is awesome, so Ken is making some calls and placing some orders today so we can get those started. Yay!

We are meeting my folks at Steve today as they are doing a window estimate. Hopefully that can get started quickly. We need to find a stucco guy for the outside of the house as well. So many things that are getting me excited!

I am thinking that tomorrow afternoon while the boys swim I will start tackling the garage. Ken won’t be home until later, but I can at least start with some of the simple things like picking up the cans that have spilled and things like that. Mostly we need to start pulling things out, and I think I can manage that.

I may have over done it in my enthusiasm to get back into exercise. I pulled something in my leg from squats. No biggie. I will simply not do the squats today. I am hoping to still be able to get on the treadmill today, although it isn’t looking good what with me having a most likely long ass meeting scheduled for today. Worst case scenario I will just make a point of walking with Luna later.

As if this weekend wasn’t busy enough, Bobby’s team now has their first meeting on Sunday evening. On the plus side, I don’t have to cook dinner that night. LOL!

On Tuesday next week we will start having soccer practice for Dax’s team. Knowing Bobby’s coach, we will have practice on Monday and Thursday. Yeah, soccer 3 nights a week. I don’t mind too much since it is all scheduled for after times I would be working on houses. Plus, it forces me to exercise those nights. I figure on Bobby practice nights I will work with Dax. He and I can practice passing and kicking and do some running to get more in shape.

I wish I could just take a month off. I could do so much!!

the future is bright

8-13-13

And the walls came down!

Ken had to be at Steve much of the afternoon to be with the electrician. I opted to stay so I could work. I managed to move part of the blue couch into the temporary living room (AKA old bedroom) along with pulling down multiple panels from the walls after moving the piano a bit. I have determined, though, that I want my own Wonderbar. LOL! Ours was at Steve and boy could I have used it. Instead I used other random tools to get the job done.

Ken arrived home and he helped me with the panels in the entry way. It looks so strange there, now, what with it lacking in the dark panels. I am quite excited!

I need to go to Steve probably today with Ken because it turns out he will be handling some of the wiring himself, specifically in the family room. I need to consult with him on where we need outlets, etc. I am going to hopefully take over the cat tree when we go.

The next plan is to also start pulling crap out of the garage. We want to get out what we are keeping so we can put it in the POD. We also need to get out whatever else needs to be sold since the yard sale is the 31^st.

In non-house news, it looks as though a kid on our team may have an interesting figure for a father from my past. Once upon a time, in a land called Redondo Beach, a group of friends decided to go on a picnic. They set out for a park and found a nice large tree where they all sat and had a nice time.

It was at this point that there was an angry punk ass. He proceeded to pick a fight with the young man at the picnic. Sadly, the young man at the picnic didn’t seem to sense the right amount of danger and only ended up pissing off the punk ass further.

All of this resulted in an actual fight. Punches were thrown, a scuffle took place. Of course, the best part was when they had pinned each other down in a rather compromising position. The punk ass kept telling the young man to let go of his hands, to which the young man would reply, “No, you’re gonna hit me.” This exchange was repeated several times. Truly, it was a stalemate. The punk ass was on top of the young man but had his hands pinned.

Said young man was Greg. I don’t know if we were dating at this point, but it was he, Angela, Trinity and I. There may have been someone else, too, but either way, it was pretty scary. I still hate myself for having not stepped in. The guy who had pinned Greg was Ronnie Nadeau. I think his son is now on my team. LOL!

In all honesty, it shouldn’t be a problem. Hell, I am guessing he won’t remember ANY of this random fight.  Either way, it is pretty entertaining to have something hopefully positive come out of this. I will get to coach this kid, which to me is a win!

I got to go back to the gym yesterday which was super happy making. I walked for 25 minutes, which flew by due to Breaking Bad. I am hoping to do it again today. I also ended up doing 100 squats yesterday. I am doing the squats at every bathroom break. I can feel it in my legs today, which is happy making. I didn’t get to do another walk last night, but I obviously did a lot with the house. I did take some time to play with Luna a bit, though, which seemed to make her quite happy.

School starts today at Halldale. I am so freaking excited that the boys are not. I will miss many of the people at Halldale, but my kids need to be in a better district. I was told by one of the soccer guys over the weekend that there was a stabbing at the end of the year over at the Junior High they would have been going to. A little girl was actually stabbed at recess. These are kids who aren’t even teens! This is why I am not one of the parents dancing this morning about back to school. I am one of the parents dancing about a better opportunity for my boys.

Adventure at the Wigwam Motel

8-12-13

Giant tee-pees are really funny!

We got out to the hotel later than I had hoped, but really had we shown up any earlier it would have been more waiting around there for check in. It worked out well that we arrived when we did since we only had to wait for about 20 minutes, which gave me lots of time for pictures of the grounds.

Wigwam motel is small. It has maybe 25 rooms, which means of course, 25 teepees. The pool was actually a perfect size for what we were looking for. It also was cool that we showed up when we did since we had the pool to ourselves for a little over an hour.

I swam with the boys for a long time, letting them crawl all over me in the process. They seem to feel the need to use me as a floatation device when I am in water. On one hand, you want to get annoyed and ask for your space back. On the other hand, I am happy that they want to be so close to me.

Ken and I sat at one of the tables in the pool area and went through our M*A*S*H trivia cards while the boys splashed about. A lady with her three kids showed up. When they left hours later it looked as though they were really just using the pool and not actual wigwam guests. There was one couple who did take a dip or two, but they most just opted to get some sun. One of the girls clearly didn’t plan on swimming so she had on a white t-shirt with no bra, which was pretty amusing that she was slightly nervous at first (it wasn’t exactly subtle) but then clearly determined that no one at the pool cared, so she laid out with her girlfriend on her back.

The boys swam for a few hours at which point they decided they wanted to get out and eat. We opted to order a pizza and hang out in the room, since after all, this trip was about the hotel. There wasn’t much on. Hangover 2 was on, and despite the clearly adult themes, we ended up watching that. Thankfully most of it was more over the top funny and not super inappropriate.

Dax opted to go swimming some more, so he and I went out and I hung out watching him while he splashed about. There were two other couples out there and I have to say it is always a strange juxtaposition when I find myself sitting with people I could see being friends with or chatting with maybe 15 years ago and instead I am now the lady with the kid. Dax was very well behaved, so no one batted an eye at us, so it was cool.

We found Avatar playing on FX so we were able to watch the last half of that, which was perfect since then we all fell asleep from a long day in the sun and water. We had also spent much of the morning working on soccer stuff, so it was time to sleep.

In the morning, the boys were up way earlier than we would have liked, but whatcha gonna do? I got up and ended up crawling into their bed and the three of us giggled and talked about the day. They both wanted to go swimming, so we had to wait until 9 for the pool to open. We ended up packing up and went out to the pool for about 45 minutes when it finally opened. The boys swam and it was a really warm morning so it was refreshing for them.

We went over to Denny’s for breakfast. We probably should have had food elsewhere, but the city of San Bernardino isn’t exactly thriving. There were so many abandoned buildings and restaurants. It was actually pretty depressing. There were so many boarded up houses. We even saw some for sale, and I just looked one of them up this morning. 4 bedroom place, 6000 SqFt lot, 1400 SqFt house, $90K. Yeah, you read that right. A house for less than $100K and HUGE! Truly, no one wants to live out there.

We went to the McDonald’s museum which was pretty damn awesome. It was clearly cheesetastic, but that is what made it awesome. It is the site of the very first McDonalds, and it had so much in the way of memorabilia which was really cool. We didn’t spend gobs of time there, but I am glad we went. We are actually considering sending them our complete mini beanie baby collection that we have so they can display it.

We came home in the afternoon and the boys went out in our pool since they were super excited to be able to swim again after the week long dry spell due to their ears. This allowed Ken and I to catch up on several episodes of New Girl. Sure, I should have been working, but it was late enough in the day that any project would have taken me late into the night.

The electrician finally comes this week and with that we also have to wait for the city to approve the new panel. Once that is done, he can get everything done. We now have to spend some serious time at the Halldale house. We have our yard sale planned for the 31^st, so I would like to get the boys’ beds out of their room so we can also put them out. I don’t have anything pressing for the next 5 days so I should be able to concentrate on this moving adventure again.

Dax’s birthday is this weekend, so Saturday has us at Mulligans much of the day. His actual birthday is Sunday, but I don’t know what the plan is for that day. It does mean a break in house adventures. I am just happy to have the party elsewhere since it means I don’t have to prep either house for party time.

I have been slacking lately but today I am going to the gym again. I have multiple things motivating me right now. I have decided that I need to get through all of Breaking Bad so that I can watch the season finale when it actually airs. This is my plan. It will be tough, but it just means I have to exercise more. LOL!

Now to just get through a work day without yelling. It isn’t too bad so far what with me getting a box of oatmeal from the facilities manager. He orders the instant oatmeal for the company, but apparently no one eats the maple and brown sugar variety in the box, so he gives all those packets to me. We had a conversation once about them and I pointed out that the boys LOVE that kind. This has made it now that I no longer have to steal the oatmeal. They just give it to me. LOL!

Not much

8-9-13

I drove too much yesterday.

I had to go to the bank. Twice. I had to go to the store. I had to drive between the two places which were on other sides of town. I was not thrilled, but at the same time I got a lot of things done. I felt like my life yesterday was super packed with multiple genres of my existence. I had soccer happenings, work headaches, Steve work and mom duties. It was a jam packed adventure.

Today I will make it through work with hopefully minimal frustrations so that I may get home and prep for the trip. If I am lucky I will also have some time to watch more Breaking Bad. Holy crap, I watched the season 2 finale and was blown away (no pun intended to those of you who have seen it). I am anxious to keep watching.

Luna doesn’t know what to do with sleeping in a room in which she can see out the front window. She woke me up a couple of times last night with her growls at random passer bys. I would wake up to see her resting her chin on the window sill, watching. At least I know she was looking out for us.

Tomorrow I am going to put in the handles while Ken deals with the soccer stuff in the morning. I am really hoping his part of the meeting is quick since I would like to get on the road to the Wigwams quickly. The boys and I will drive Ken to Adams and then we will walk to the house. That should be fun.

Still happy

8-8-13

Only 2 more days till the Brenans take on the Wigwam!

I am really excited about Saturday. I think it will be really fun and different. Ken and I have talked about taking a long road trip some time in search of all of the random roadside attractions that are awesome for how bad they really are. The Wigwam motel seems right in this category.

Ken and the boys are heading out to Camarillo this morning for a class that Ken teaches for FLL. It is quite dull for the boys, however I have left my iPad so they both have things to play on. Most of the day is in the car, so that kind of blows, but luckily two days of this is rewarded on Saturday.

I picked up the rest of the handles for the kitchen at Steve. I have not installed them, but that is ok since we have gobs of time on that. LOL! The concrete was poured for the driveway section so that we have room for Ken’s trailer along with two cars. Yay! We may be doing the rest of the walkway, too, since it does sink on one side creating some flooding, which we don’t want. Hopefully the electrician is able to complete his work quickly.

When I get home, I am alone for a few hours so I think I will make chicken noodle soup. I also am planning on pulling down some more panels. Let’s see how ambitious I get. We also are going to move the living room into the new bedroom temporally so we can do the current living room. I need to pack up some items, and I am actually considering moving the cat tree over to Steve soon so it is out of the way. Next week we will hopefully get Matt to help with the piano.

Hell, maybe I will get ambitious this afternoon and move the couch on my own. We shall see.

It is funny how much Steve already feels like home, and yet it isn’t even furnished. I feel so happy when I am in there. I know I am where I should be.

My skirt seems too short today.

If I thought Luna would be allowed to go into the pool at the hotel I would bring her along on the trip.

I have a meeting this morning for work that although I don’t want to go to, I am glad it is being held. I get so frustrated at certain procedures around here and I do want to fix them but quite honestly it is annoying to even attempt to look into it. So when we got this meeting scheduled, it is hard to really bow out of the process.

Happy!

8-7-13

We. Kicked. Ass.

Over the course of two days, Ken and Andy gutted both bathrooms at Steve, installed a closet, installed 3 new doors and removed one of the kitchen cabinets at Steve in order to do electrical and put in the fridge.  Yesterday I spent the afternoon pealing wallpaper in the kitchen, removing the remaining shelf paper and handles, and then removed all of the panels in the family room. I am very sore today, but feeling rather satisfied.

I am happy that today brings an early bedtime since I really just want to be able to take advantage of my comfy bed for longer than I have been. LOL!

Steve now is prepped for the electrical work that starts today. Hopefully it isn’t too many ‘hiccups’ of issues. It sounds like as of right now, the thing that will put us over budget is the painting of the house due to some of the stucco damage. It was recommended to us that instead of a painter, we should hire a stucco guy since they can repair the damage and still paint the house as part of that. Hopefully it won’t be as bad as our one friend thinks, but he also is someone who is a general contractor, so he tends to know.

Today Andy goes home in the morning. When I get home in the afternoon we are heading out to Manhattan Beach for multiple errands. Ken has to create a lesson plan for tomorrow and Friday in which he and Aaron are going to Camario for FLL classes. During this time, the boys and I will hit up the Target there since we know they have the kitchen handles in stock and I need 3 more boxes.

I am looking forward to Saturday since I know the Wigwam hotel will be a lot of fun. I need to do some other research this morning to verify info on the area, but even if we do nothing but swim in the pool, I think it will be a good outing.

My next project at home is the living room. We will start dissecting it and have our temporary living room in the recently finished bedroom. This will allow me to pull down panels in there and then we can get the new ones up. I am excited to see what a difference this will make it how it looks. Nice clean white walls will be great for that room. Plus, pulling out the entry way will be cool to make it all uniform and matching.

In some ways I feel like we have done a ton. In other ways I see how much more we have to do. Even with all that lies ahead, though, I am happy to report that stress is no longer a factor. I just feel, well, Happy!

dinner with friends

8-6-13

I am tired, but it was worth it!

I got to have dinner with Alyssa and Sarah last night which was fantastic fun. It was nice to catch up with Sarah even more, what with us having dipped into it a bit last week. We went to Lazy Dog Café and were there till it practically closed. Hopefully we will do this more often as these are some fantastic people in my life.

On top of it being a fun friend day, it was productive, too. After work, we went to Steve to take some bathroom measurements. Andy and Ken ended up starting to take apart the bathroom. I don’t think they realized how much they were going to do, but within about 90 minutes, the bathroom was bare! They did amazing!

While they worked on this, I replaced the kitchen handles with the boxes I had. We need 3 more boxes, but I was able to replace 24 of the handles, and it is amazing what a difference it makes. We also removed shelf paper in some of the drawers. Some were easier than others. LOL! This afternoon on my way home I will swing by Target to obtain more of the handles so I can put those in.

Ken and Andy were also quite productive yesterday, spending their time finishing the bedroom. They got doors installed and the molding fixed and the only thing left is the window, which had to be ordered so we will get that in 2 weeks. YAY!

I think today they are working on stuff at Steve. I know Andy and the boys have to be at Steve until the appliances show up. The 4 hour window is 7:30 to 11:30, so hopefully it is quick and not keeping them there all morning. Ken has some soccer meeting that is this morning, also.

I am wondering if perhaps we should go to Costco soon to get things like the toilets and garbage disposal. It would be nice to really get the one bathroom started in terms of being put back together. Then again, I think we are making amazing progress in what we have done.

so much

8-5-13

What a weekend!

I am glad that I played hooky on Friday. I was able to rest, which was needed what with the epic cramps I was dealing with. The period that had once again alluded me for 10 days past normal came on in full force so Friday was a good time to combat that and not work.

We did a lot in the course of three days. This morning the tally includes the purchase of the major appliances (less washer/dryer), a closet being installed, bedroom painted, family room at Steve cleaned up, trees and plants cut at Steve, electrician secured and various other basic domestic activities.

Sadly, there was one bad thing in the form of multiple ear infections in the house. Both the boys had severe ear pain to the point that we were trying to flush them out with peroxide. Sadly, this didn’t seem to help, so Sunday morning I took them both to Urgent Care where it was discovered that Dax had an infection in one ear, and poor Bobby had it in both. It was swimmer’s ear, so at least we know what it is from. The doctor was quite impressed with how polite and calm both boys were despite what was clear to be a lot of pain. I was shocked at how mellow they were since neither of them slept well due to the pain. They are not allowed to swim for a week, which essentially keeps them out of the pool until we go on our mini vacation this coming weekend. It is probably good I took them yesterday so that they could get the meds to clear it up for hotel pool swimming fun.

Andy came into town yesterday afternoon and we took him to see Steve. He loved it! YAY!! He was saying how much bigger it is compared to pictures and he said he and Scotty thought it was a great place based on what they knew. The picture painted to them of course was much more grim and Andy said much of what he could see was only good and potential galore.

Ken and Andy are going to work on installing new doors and door frames in the bedroom at the old place today. Hopefully they can also look into replacing the window in there, too. The closet obtained is awesome in there. We picked it up at IKEA and it looks fantastic! The house is coming along. The garage looks to be the biggest pain still, even over and above the living room. However, I think the living room won’t be as bad since it is most pulling panels, which isn’t hard and then putting up panels, which is probably less of a pain than painting. The biggest thing I need to do right now is make some arrangements to get the piano moved to the new place so that I don’t have to worry about moving that around during living room work.

Tonight I have plans for dinner with Alyssa and Sarah, which should be awesome. I made them at probably not the best time what with Andy in town, but then again, this just allows Ken and the boys to visit with him more.

I am hoping to install the new cupboard handles this afternoon. I still need to go pick up another couple boxes from the Manhattan Beach Target, but I think that I can start getting this aspect done. I am just pleased to have little tasks I can work on.

The electrician will not start until we get the approval from So Cal Edison to do some new box, which I think takes place on Wednesday. Then the work will take about 2 weeks. This sucks only in the sense that other things can’t happen until that takes place. Ken and Andy are also going to start in on bathroom demolition. I think today I am going to start pricing cheap sinks and vanities and things like that. Budget amounts have been given to me and it sounds like more of the bathroom will be done by us than by a contractor. Not a huge deal since we don’t want anything fancy.

Andy was saying how he and Scotty have been reminding the Admiral and his wife that they are not the ones who will be living in the place. Even they have noted that they make statements about what should be done based on how they would want the place to look, not how we would like it. We told Andy how their mom had wanted to paint the dark paneling. He was appalled. He pointed out how good it looks. I also love that he was telling me that paneling is way in these days. This comes from him and Scotty who watch HGTV constantly. I am so excited! I am cutting edge. LOL!!

I have a lot of pricing to obtain now. 

Steve

8-1-13

I think it is all catching up now.

I really could use a day of rest. I don’t know that I will have one for a while. Tonight we have the board meeting, which will be important due to the season almost being here. That being said, I am actually considering taking tomorrow off so I can at the very least sleep in and then get to work on stuff that matters to me.

Ken and the boys picked up the entertainment unit for the new house. Oh, and for the record, the new house has been dubbed “Steve”. We actually joked that perhaps we need to paint it in green stripes and make one of the hedges blue.

Our gardener’s people were at the place yesterday kicking ass on the vegetation. They removed all of the yucky plants in the front, including clearing the tree by the front door. They will trim the inner workings of Dax’s tree, too, along with removing the stumps in our backyard. I am very happy about all of this. It means I need to go get some new, pretty plants for the front. Of course, I won’t do that until we paint.

On the way to Steve yesterday, we passed a group of three kids, one of them sitting on the curb grabbing his knee in obvious pain. We went back and got out to help him. Poor kid. He had crashed on his skateboard, really scraping up his arm and injuring his knee. The kids all go to Hull, as we found out and I am sure they were quite confused at first, but when the boys got out, too, to see what was going on, I think they realized we were good and just helping. The injured kid was trying so hard not to cry, but I watched some tears escape. Poor darlin. It made me sad. We offered to drive them home, but they seemed ok with walking, even though the injured one was limping quite a bit. I am glad we could help, but bummed that in today’s society we all have to be so careful in terms of these kids not being able to openly trust grownups trying to help.

My allergies are acting up big time. My throat is in a sea of phlegm which is driving me nuts. I am starting to realize that I probably suffered from this back when I was a kid and I just didn’t know that it was simply standard allergies. I will need to be diligent for the next couple weeks on using my spray so that it clears up a bit. I can feel my throat hurting from all the clearing.

I just discovered that the boss is out tomorrow. This makes it significantly easier to bail tomorrow what with the new rules on how we need to call out. Woo!