Madness In My Method

Farewell

Mon, 26 Dec 2022 02:39:25 GMT

Elise did not make it to tomorrow.
She passed away despite the life support system at around 5:30pm.

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One More Christmas

Sun, 25 Dec 2022 21:51:44 GMT

We are having to say goodbye. Her family will be taking our girl Elise off life support tomorrow.

Such a wonderful, brave woman who I have known since she was a young girl. We were told 30 years ago that she might not make it multiple times, and she proved them all wrong every time. She has lived through Type 1 Diabetes and multiple transplants and hospital stays, but she always kept going. She got into fitness competitions and was keeping herself strong and positive, no matter how often life dealt her a bad hand.

She has been greatly loved, and she will be greatly missed.

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The Good and the Willing

Sun, 25 Dec 2022 13:42:56 GMT

I took mom, middle nephew, and his girlfriend to Lightscape at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens Friday night despite the 20-something temps. Mom and I were bundled like snow creatures, nephew tried to brave the cold without additional bundling and was then complaining, and girlfriend being from Nebraska felt right at home. We had pasta and butter cake at Zoli's and did a quick Trader Joe's run afterwards. It was fun and freezing.

Unfortunately, we got bad news that my sister's best friend and our adopted family member is in ICU. She has had multiple seizures that we're not sure what from and is now in an induced coma. This woman spent more time in hospitals when she was in grade school and into her 20s than not, and I can only hope that she will pull through this just as she has so many other issues that she has faced down. She is a beautiful woman, a doting mother, and lightens up any room she walks into. She knows the value of life and I know she will keep fighting for it.

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Update

Mon, 15 Aug 2022 13:49:37 GMT

It's almost been 2 months, but they have been busy months.

( Nephew's Vacation and House Stuff )

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Rest Peacefully, Uncle

Tue, 05 Apr 2022 02:56:37 GMT

My dad's elder brother passed away on March 14th. I only just found out today, as my dad and his elder brother were not very close. My other uncle, dad's younger brother, informed my dad the Friday before that he wasn't doing so great, and that dad should give him a call.

I feel sad for my cousins losing their father. I'm a bit annoyed my dad didn't at least give him a call that weekend. I'm strangely not that sad, but I wasn't very close to him. I'm sure it'll hit me like a ton of bricks soon enough.

William Michael "Mike" Griffis

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Thanks the 4-day Weekend

Thu, 25 Nov 2021 14:17:26 GMT

I'm both working and not working today and tomorrow.

I have off technically from both contracts and holiday pay coming, but I still have at least 4 hours of work remaining for one contract (I decided to go home early Wed) and a few hours to do for another contract that could technically wait until next week, but I don't really want to put it off.

Then off to the family homestead for afternoons, today to help Mom make the dessert salads, tomorrow for the actual family dinner.

I *think* I might be able to have the weekend off, but I REALLY need to tackle the atrocity that is my bedroom.

I other news, Day 2 on New Contract, during an all-accounting-staff meeting, I totally impressed the CFO and internal auditor who just met me for the first time, and I had a couple people do that thing I see in movies where they come up to me after the meeting and tell me how awesome my presentation was. It was....weird. I just told them about one of the month-end close programs we use at Old Contract, nothing special. CFO texted my supervisor afterwards about hiring me on. She's been trying to hire me on for months now, lol.

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Because Weekly Updates Seem To Work

Sun, 17 Jan 2021 15:50:16 GMT

My nephews are feeling fine, and the middle one is back at school and passing his classes again, unlike in the fall when he could only be bothered enough to wake up and check in to class and then fall back asleep on his bed.

My dad was sick, and now he's feeling better. The same with my sister and her boyfriend.

My mom is still pretty sick and still had not texted me that she has received her COVID results from her Tues test.

Hell week is mostly over. I have a couple things I need to gather and submit on Monday for the auditors, but otherwise I should be good to start my January processing. This is better than in December when I only had 12/28-30 available for processing due to vacation and holiday time-off I needed to take.

And....I woke up this morning with pain in my leg again, a little further down than before. Last week the pain was directly next to my knee. Now it's a few inches lower, near the top of my calf.

It's most likely the same clot moving down my leg. I'm not planning on another ER trip unless something gets really worse. I left a message to notify my PCP of the change, which they probably won't even hear until Monday, and who knows if they will request me to do anything. I've already scheduled a blood test to narrow down the anemia that showed up on my blood work, but the soonest that will be happening is Jan 29th thanks to so many other people needing tests right now.

Four More Days left on the Special Added Offer to 2020.

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The Last Day of Fucking 2020

Thu, 31 Dec 2020 18:55:30 GMT

( Here Lies Sadness )

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Pieces of Me

Fri, 09 Oct 2020 22:47:39 GMT

( Puzzles and Games and Vacations, Oh My )

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There Are Flies On The Windshield

Sun, 05 Apr 2020 13:44:22 GMT

You know it's bad when the call is coming at 3am.

My schizophrenic uncle died last night.

He's the same one that I posted about, what ... a year ago maybe ... as being on his death bed.

Mom wants me to go with her to finalize the arrangements that luckily my grandmother set up for him before she passed away. They have a double plot where one casket is buried deeper and a second casket buried on top. My grandfather and another uncle are buried the same way in a nearby plot. She's trying to see if her brother (yes, in case you're keeping count, poor woman grew up with 3 brothers, 2 of which are now dead) wants to go with her instead, although I'll probably suggest I go. I just stopped by their place yesterday to pick up some mail and have already had within-3ft contact with my parents recently, rather than having my mom and uncle also within range of each other. I know how the six degrees of separation works, which is the entire point of the social distancing.

I hope this is the only death I have to face until at least the fall.

EDIT: I went back and looked, and it's been two years. He had been in and out of the hospital with various forms of pneumonia and levels of this side of death for just over two years. They will not be doing an autopsy due to all of his previous complications and him not having any symptoms of anything (still talking and watching TV, no complaints, etc.). Without any symptoms of COVID-19, they are not even testing for that. For all we know, it was a heart attack or brain aneurysm and had nothing to do with his previous issues. We've been on and off pins and needles for two years, and as a family we're not that morbidly curious. (Okay, yeah, pun was totally necessary that time.)

Also, my cousin is actually friends with the funeral director, so she's already talking with them by phone for the arrangements.

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Toga Party

Sun, 10 Feb 2019 15:49:04 GMT

Yoga cushions and bolsters just make me think, "Oh, look. It's a doggie bed for humans."

I promise I don't have a hate on for yoga. I sometimes feel like getting into yoga, although I think I'd be happier joining a gymnastics gym and doing calisthenics (which is essentially what my current workout entails, just in smaller measure).

I've managed to get a lunchtime routine going at work. Luckily, I'm in an office with just me and one other person for the most part, and we both are trying to monitor our eating, just in different ways. It means we've taken over the kitchen and don't have to worry about someone stealing our gadgets or food. As such, I've bought a George Foreman grill, glass bowls, cheese grater, etc., so that I can actually COOK something for lunch. My typical menu consists of a fillet of salmon cooked on the grill with a little balsamic glaze, a quart of veggies (which is a LOT of veggies) steamed in the microwave and then smothered in butter and cheddar cheese, and 2-4 cups of spinach salad with a creamy balsamic vinaigrette, 4 cheeses (a 3-cheese blend of Parmesan, Romano, and Asiago, and then some shredded smoked Gruyere or smoked provolone, depending on which one I bought), slivered almonds, and pine nuts. I've varied the tastes enough that I can eat this menu every single day and never get tired of it.

Although, I will still hit some of the food places around and just try to make better choices, like Chipotle salad with barbacoa, Olive Garden grilled salmon or salmon piccata, or Cotton Patch Cafe or Outback steak and veggies. I'll still sometimes splurge for a Dickey's brisket baked potato with all the fixings, anything Schlotsky's, or my stupidly favorite Cane's 3-finger combo, but for the most part, I'm trying to both save some money on my meals and see what I can accomplish with different food choices. I still love Mama Cuca's in south Arlington, which has hands down the best steak quesadillas I've ever had.

Man, I love food too much.

Speaking of food, I treated my mom and two youngest nephews to hibachi last night, and the OMFG!!! look on Littlest's face when the grill was set on fire was absolutely priceless. He's what I call an über-picky eater, which is typical toddler behavior, but he's 8 now and still acting like he's 3. It completely drives me up the wall with the highly limited menu he'll eat from (although he'll eat all the candy, soda, and desserts he can get his hands on). So, I was rewarded with him actually eating all the veggies, rice, beef, and chicken that was put on his plate, and not turning his nose up at it and then complaining of being hungry still, which is a much more common occurrence when we go out to eat with him. Overall, it was a great dinner.

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Thanks, LJ!

Mon, 28 Jan 2019 14:07:42 GMT

LiveJournal sent me an email this morning titled "What was on your mind 10 years ago?"

It was my post dated January 24, 2009. It was about my dad's father dying, which was approximately one month after my dad's mom died. It was not a happy time for me.

So, yeah, THANKS LJ, for reminding me about sad times, you fucking douche.

That's the only problem with using 3rd party blogging/posting systems (including Facebook). They will prompt you with reminders of past posts when you are not expecting it, and those posts might not be something you feel like reliving at that moment in time. With real diaries/journals and self-made websites, you get to peruse the past at your leisure and when you are in the right mindset for such a journey.

------------------

Oh, and in other news, that uncle of mine that was knocking on death's door a few months ago? Yeah, he's still around, using a wheelchair to practically do wheelies in the nursing home he's in, but actually looking better than he has in a few years. That nursing home happens to be the same one my mom's mom was transported to for hospice care and was in for less than 3 days when she died, which was a whole other emotional time due to lots of things going on then, but I digress. We took some Valentine's candy that he's been asking for to him this weekend. He's upset that he doesn't have a room to himself and can't wait to get out of there into an apartment or something. He's still as mentally mature as an 8 year old, though, so some things never change.

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Artistic Adventures

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 19:10:09 GMT

Little Bit and I had some minor adventures yesterday.

( Lots of stuff to discuss )

I found out that schools have been teaching multiplication in a very strange way, which I just looked up and is called Two Digit Multiplication versus how I was taught which is called Vertical Multiplication, and it's confusing as fuck, and I can't for the life of me see how this new method is somehow winning over from the older, more compact and seemingly faster method. Also, that video says students won't have to use pen and paper to solve complex multiplications now and implies us old farts never faced real-world word problems when learning to do math. BULLSHIT! There's no way even I'm doing that stupid ass quadrant of smaller multiplications in my head and keeping those numbers in my head long enough to then turn around and add them up. I think I'd be better off making lines in order to never have to know how to multiply ever again. So, after being tested at Kumon, the tutors are recommending reprogramming that "new math" out of Little Bit's head and getting him into using the "old math" ways. Oh, and there's the Big-7 division and Multiple Towers, or some other such bull, in order to do the long division, which again the video implies won't require pen and paper to ever work out again. HA HA HA HA HA HA! Good fucking grief, this shit hurts my head. Why are we teaching this crap to the kids?

*Also, I bought a new car, which I hadn't posted about. Not much to say about it other than there's a new fancy gadget in our driveway. The Acura is now a family spare vehicle and will most likely become Eldest's car of choice when he gets his driver license in a couple months. He turns 16 in July, but he waited too long to start his driver's education class, and he's required to have a permit for at least 6 months as a requirement to getting his license, so he'll have to wait a couple extra months before he's official. That must be a change since 20+ years ago, because I took my driver's ed class in spring, then turned 16 on June 29, so I only had my permit for about a month before I had my official DL. (And I just realized my birthday is only 5 days away, sheesh where the hell did April and May and June go?)

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Atlanta

Wed, 28 Mar 2018 19:04:21 GMT

So, Mom and the boys are asking about going somewhere besides San Antonio this year for our annual summer vacation. Since we have Six Flags passes, we're looking at other cities with Six Flags, and the roulette wheel has so far settled on Atlanta, GA.

Now I'm looking at things to do while we're there. Feel free to provide suggestions.

One thing I found just zooming in on Google Maps is The Vortex, but of course it's just a bar with coronary bypass burgers and 21+ age restriction. (At least in San Antonio our hotel is right next door to a Brick House that is kid friendly until 10pm.) I just got a kick out of the facade, and with middle nephew being a huge Rick and Morty fan....well, maybe we could at least do a drive-by for a photo-op.

Mom mentioned the Coca-Cola museum, I found the Center for Puppetry Arts, and bossman recommends Stone Mountain Park, which looks huge, and I know the boys and I all like the high ropes jungle gyms.

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State of Me

Thu, 08 Mar 2018 13:10:22 GMT

Still holding on precariously to sanity with 2nd job not quite done with layering on the madness. I figure about two more weeks and then I'll start to see the semblance of a regular weekly workload. Maybe. Hopefully.

I'm exhausted. I'm snapping at people and have lost all patience for anything. It's not just the two job thing, although that obviously is an added pressure. It's me thinking about future things. The uncle still in the hospital. The other uncle and aunt that I finally saw for the first time in a few years at the hospital. Dad announcing he'll finally try to retire before the end of this year. Mom always having back pain. I worry about them dying now, and what kind of pressure that will create for me regarding the boys and my sister. The idea of going back to grad school always hangs over my head.

Speaking of the uncle, he's now officially on hospice, although who the hell knows for how long.
( Details )

I'm chalking a good portion of my mental state up to the family side of things. Work stuff is busy, and drama-filled, but otherwise actually helping with my mental state as I knock tasks off of the to-do list. Waiting for someone to die and thinking about others around me dying, on the other hand, is no proper mental state for anyone. It's causing me to become a grumpy bitch, and I'm really not fit for social interactions right now, even though I know good social interactions are typically the cure. I'm just too worried I'll piss people off being bitchy instead of being comforted by their presence. Like I said, I've lost all patience - I'm too tired for that.

The end result is me having a hard time opening my eyes every morning and wandering the world with constant, massive jaw and neck tension. I think I've had some form of a permanent crick in my neck for the past two weeks now. I don't have enough Valium in the cabinet.

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The State of Me

Fri, 26 Jan 2018 13:22:27 GMT

I'm working a second part-time job that really wants me to be full time. PT job encroaches, at the moment, on FT job's hours, but most of that is because it's a company that I'm coordinating getting up and running. Being the spearhead of it all means that when someone thinks of something they call, text, or email me immediately. And there's also vendors calling and emailing at all different times. This will calm down once things are set up and start falling into place.

In the meantime, I'm trying unsuccessfully to get used to a new sleeping schedule and trying carefully to hold on to my sanity while having to multitask between two jobs.

I had a wonderfully busy weekend. I worked some Saturday morning at PT job, went to an estate sale Saturday afternoon, dodged All The Pedestrians while driving through the arts district of Fort Worth on a beautiful day, described to my friend the history of the Montgomery Plaza nee Wards, found an amazing sushi cafe down Camp Bowie Blvd, bypassed frozen custard in favor of mochi ice cream, and watched Over The Garden Wall as though it was my first time, even though I'd seen it before, because I couldn't remember a damned bit about it from my first watching.

Sunday...what did I do Sunday. I swear I cannot even remember now what I did Sunday, but it was just as packed. I probably did something with the nephews. Oh yeah, I remember. I was supposed to help them put together their new trampoline that my sister got them for Christmas, but they already had that taken care of by the time I got over there. I took the boys to Chan's Mongolian for dinner and then Mom and I watched Inside Man, and by then it was time to go home and sleep.

Oh, and Mom told me my schizophrenic uncle is in the hospital in ICU. He's probably dying, needs to have a lung removed with multiple tumors in it, has infected liquids all around everywhere, his heart isn't beating right, lymph nodes hard as rocks so much so that the doctor's needle broken when trying to get tissue for a biopsy. He's most likely to die of sepsis or heart attack, and right now we're just waiting for the doctors to tell us what they plan on doing for him next.

Seriously, why do we think we're better off as a society without euthanasia?

The double job front is keeping me occupied so much that I'm not thinking about my uncle, not that it would matter because I'm otherwise pretty numb about it regardless, and probably would be even if I had no job and all the time in the world to ponder it. I still am not ready to cry over him. I'll do that when he finally does decide to depart this mortal plane, and all that other poetry jazz-sounding stuff.

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Adventures in the Rain

Mon, 05 Jun 2017 05:15:42 GMT

Middle nephew that loves riding the big roller coaster rides with me asked if we could go to Six Flags today. He's learned from me the value of going to Six Flags on skeptical weather days, like cold, possibly rainy days in the fall, and scattered thunderstorm days like today.

We got rained on twice, once as soon as we arrived and again right after eating dinner. That second storm cell included a few park-wide notices of the weather service alert accompanying it, which the alarm sound over the intercom made Little Bit nervous for a moment. I had to pull up the radar on my phone and talk him through understanding that it wasn't a tornado warning, and that we were safer staying there than leaving and driving in the car TOWARDS the oncoming assault. We stayed in the restaurant while the bulk of the second storm passed, which had already started losing power once it reached us and was only a mid-level rain rather than the OMG pummel of doom it started out as on the other side of Fort Worth. The A/C was making us cold, so we were happy to start walking around in the light rain again once the storm subsided. There were puddles to walk through everywhere, and nephew, along with many younger kids throughout the park, were loving stomping and splashing in them. Some bigger puddles were unavoidable while walking through the wait-line corrals Luckily I wore sandals instead of socks and shoes. I know how crinkled my feet get when they're trapped in water-logged shoes all day, like they did when I was a teen and rode the soaking water rides first thing upon arrival on a hot, hot summer day.

Our drink spilled a total of three times - once on the table, once on him while we were on a ride, and once on my hoodie while it was sitting in the bin during another ride. Apparently the lid doesn't seal as well as it should. Luckily we were already thoroughly damp, so while the spillage added a level of soaking to our clothes, you couldn't tell while walking amongst the other water-drenched souls.

The park was emptying out by the time we arrived at around 4pm, so much so that I thought maybe they had decided to close due to the rain, but they stayed open the full day until 9pm. I think most people got in their fun in the morning before the rains started, but those dry folks probably also had much longer lines to stand in. There were absolutely no lines for us. The longest we waited for a single ride was The Justice League at maybe 30 minutes, which on a normal busy day is 2+ hours. I know this because the first time we rode it I got leg cramps from a 2-hr long line, and I've seen the corral be even fuller than that on some days.

We ate a churro and popcorn and carried around that Mr. Pibb in our free refill bottle. We rode the Batman ride with zero wait. We had a burger, chicken nuggets, onion rings, fries, a fruit cup, a fruit roll-up, and Pepperidge Farm Goldfish for dinner. Then we rode The Justice League and Runaway Mountain, the two inside rides we knew would for sure be open again once the storm passed over. Then we rode The Texas Giant twice, The Titan twice, and The Texas Giant another two times. Any other regular summer day, weekend or not, and ALL of those rides would have ~2 hours wait times.

In summary, 5 hours, a snack, a dinner, two water shows, and 9 rides, all for the cost of gas (since we have the season pass with meals).

At least I didn't have to worry about sunscreen.

The best parts about today were our conversations to and from the park. Little Bit definitely has a scientific mind. On the way out he asked about the myth that green skies always means tornado, and I explained super cell clouds, wall clouds, and light dispersion, especially during sunset, through such a gigantic super cell. He now knows green skies and tornadoes are correlated, but not causality - I would have shown him a Venn, but I was driving. We simultaneously debunked the rain-means-no-tornado myth. We also talked about vortexes in general, including dust devils, hurricanes, whirlpools, and even the smoke vortex you can see coming off the iron cooking slab at our favorite Mongolian grill restaurant. I discussed how the power source for some come from the heat coming off the ground/base of the vortex and some get their power from the top. Later, while riding The Texas Giant the second set of times, we enjoyed the sunset and the going-away thunderstorm clouds while the train was pulled up the main drop hill, and he commented to me that he understood the light dispersion stuff better while looking at the pretty sunset colors.

On our drive back, he asked me to clarify the magnets installed in the cars affecting stop lights concept. He was close, but not quite right. I told him about the grooves in the road and how the metal car disrupts the inductance, so we played Where's Waldo looking for the grooves at the next couple of intersections. I didn't go into as much scientific depth with that as I did the green tornado clouds stuff. Next time I hang out with him, I'll introduce him to henry.

But Wait, There's More!

He also asked about college, and if I went to college, and how degrees work. So we spent the rest of the drive home talking about undergrad Bachelor, grad Master, and post-grad PhD/MD/JD degrees.

Whew. What a day.

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Busted

Sun, 26 Mar 2017 16:17:31 GMT

When I was about aged 21-23, I went with my mom and dad to the liquor store while we were out and about one day. My dad has had a large, greying beard for quite some time. When we got to the checkout counter, the cashier didn't worry about my dad, but with my mom and me in line with him, he asked to see our IDs for verification of age (21 is the age limit here in the states for purchasing alcohol). Maybe he thought my mom and I were both underage and that we had talked this nice older gentleman into buying booze for us? Neither Mom nor I had brought in our purses, because it was dad getting the alcohol, but the cashier wouldn't complete the sell to my dad until all our ages were confirmed. We went out to get our purses, brought them back in, holding up the cashier's line in the process (but that was on him), and showed him our IDs. Being old enough myself, and Mom being 20 years older than me, she couldn't resist making a funny comment about the matter with the cashier once he saw her date of birth, and then commenting to Dad about him being married to a young spring chicken, which of course made me roll my eyes and possibly gag a little. It wasn't the first time someone thought we were sisters and that she was closer to my age than expected. Being early 20s, I was at that age when I was quite used to being carded, and in fact expected to be carded and found joy when I wasn't, but Mom thought those days were over for her.

I now know how she must have felt.

Up until my mid-thirties I would still get occasionally carded for cigarettes (age limit 18). Since I've stopped smoking, I've stopped being able to test that perception.

Yesterday I went to lunch with a couple friends. They ordered their drinks while I had gone to the restroom. When I came back, I ordered my drink. The waitress thought for a moment and then asked to see my ID. Success!

So now I know, it's definitely in the genes. If my mom can get carded for alcohol into her early 40s, so can I.

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Mom + Phone Call, again

Sat, 11 Feb 2017 04:53:23 GMT

Eldest fell off his bike and is now having to be kept overnight in the hospital for a concussion. The two symptoms Mom told me about were constant throwing up and low oxygen levels, neither of which are a good sign.

I'm trying not to freak out. Dad's staying the night at the hospital while Mom is at home with Little Bit and Pipsqueak, since this is Pipsqueak's weekend to spend with his brothers.

So much for plans to take the boys skating tomorrow.

I'm done with their 3 scarves, so they'll each be getting a gift from me. I'll probably take them out for ice cream if Eldest has been cleared for such, although from the sounds of it he might end up just wanting to sleep a bunch. I also bought these TMNT cookies while grocery shopping the other day, since Pipsqueak is a huge fan.

I'm just trying to think of what else we can do for hanging out now. Most all recommendations for healing from concussion say avoid TV and games and cell phones, given how much the eyes and brain get involved, all three of which Eldest is addicted to. I might recommend he try an audio book, something that will keep his mind occupied, but which will allow him to relax his eyes.

Any suggestions on some good manga I could find in audiobook format?

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Post-Christianing

Mon, 26 Dec 2016 17:47:28 GMT

Just kidding. I think it was more of a mad descent into Heathenville, where the weather is mighty warm. I was telling friends and family since Friday that I no longer need to visit Australia to experience a summer Christmas. We hit 80-degrees yesterday, which is a nice spring day by my Texan standards (and most of Australia), but warm enough to get me close to that summer-xmas experience.

I'm working on creating a crochet mesh tube scarf for Dad. He's been asking Mom about finding him a knit scarf for winter. I've looked around, but most actual knit, masculine scarves in one of the colors he has requested is either difficult to find or kind of expensive, so I opted to snag some yarn and make him one myself. I decided on crochet instead of knit because it's easier and faster for me. This particular pattern with the waffle holes and being done in the round looked like it would go pretty quickly, and the double-layer result of the scarf should make it ridiculously warm. It feels wonderful being able to create something for my dad. He's not one to ask for nor really care about receiving gifts in general, so being able to make him something homemade is great.

I started the scarf Friday night while awaiting our friends coming over for a Christmas gift exchange and a birthday party. I spent about an hour or so Saturday working on it in between wrapping Christmas gifts for the boys and showing Ricardo around the Krampusnaucht event happenings in The Secret World. I then worked on it mostly non-stop before and after opening presents with the boys on Sunday, and all that afternoon and evening while watching Doctor Who's Face the Raven, Heaven Sent ("It must be Christmas."), and Hell Bent, just before the showing of The Return of Doctor Mysterio. It's now 5ft long, and by the time I'm finished with the 2nd skein, I should have the 6-ft length I'm going for.

(You hear that? That's the sound of me feeding my addictions. ALL OF THEM: Gaming, Doctoring, Stringworking, oh my!)

( Crochet Project Details Here )

I was well pleased with all the gifts I managed to give, and I was thoroughly surprised with all the gifts received. The biggest and best was a combined gift from Ricardo, Lili, and Fiona, of a Coca-Cola mini fridge to replace the mini fridge that previously died. That alone will make a ton of difference for our household as a whole. Ricardo helped get it in place and then Paco managed to take over swapping the door hinge to the other side for a proper fit in its new home. Tom managed to string a power cord through the recesses of the kitchen to get it up and running the next day when I wasn't looking. Oh, happy, joy, joy.

My second favorite gift has to be the replacement tea kettle Kevin picked out for me. That image doesn't do it's coloring justice. It's a brilliantly deep red that is absolutely gorgeous. I'm going to have to pay attention and keep it clean of the cooking gunk that managed to cover the last two kettles I've had.

Today Mom is bringing Eldest and Little Bit over to do some yardwork at our house. Eldest still owes money to Little Bit from his XBox One purchase back in late summer, in which Little Bit was kind enough to lend him half the money so he could get it sooner rather than later. Little Bit got his XBox One as a Christmas gift from Mom and Dad, since Eldest hadn't saved up enough yet to pay him back so he could get it himself. So now Eldest technically owes that difference to Mom and Dad, while money earned by Little Bit will just go towards his savings for other things.

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So THAT just happened

Sun, 18 Dec 2016 04:46:57 GMT

We planned a trip to Six Flags today. I got there wearing a short-sleeved t-shirt, carrying a sweater wrapped around my waist, and leaving a heavy hoodie in the car along with an extra skirt that I can throw over my pants for when the weather gets cold. I knew there would be cold this evening, but I was figuring on it being somewhere between 40-50 by the time we were ready to leave the park, and I *might* need the heavier coat when the sun set in about 6 hours.

As soon as I entered the gate I felt chilly and went to grab the sweater wrapped around my waist to actually put it on - it was gone. The park was FULL FULL FULL of people (it took us close to a full hour to exit the freeway and finally get past the parking gate for the park), and somewhere between the ticket counter, the baggage check, and the ticket gate (no, this isn't an airport, but you do get taken for a ride), the sweater had managed to untie itself and fall without my notice. Little Bit went back to look for me, but it was not found. I used my season pass discount to buy a light weight hoodie from a souvenir shop. It's not bad, but I just bought that now-lost sweater maybe two months ago. I was so upset that I have already managed to lose it.

We had purchased a locker to store the mid-temperature clothing that we brought in. However, within 2 hours we had retrieved everything from the locker AND made a return trip to the car for the heavier clothing.

Within the next two hours temperatures plummeted, and by dusk it was already 30 and we all became meat popsicles. Our faces were wind burnt from the cold, our fingers and toes were frozen, and Littlest One, whose birthday was today, still wanted to ride one more ride.

That was only the second ride of the entire evening that we managed to get to. We apparently spent more time in the shops and searching for each other (because we kept getting separated) than we ever spent in a queue.

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[emoticon]

Wed, 23 Nov 2016 15:03:04 GMT

The middle nephew spammed my Steam chat Friday night. I logged in today to check on a game and saw 24 missed chat messages. Goofball.

boy: Hello [happyface]
boy: I wish you were online right now.[poutyface]
boy: :/ Ugh...Im sooooo booorrrrdd.... :/
boy: Maaaaaaaaaaan..... :/ I wish you were here right now....Dang it... I DONT HAVE ANYONE TO TALK TOOOO!!!! DANG IT! [sadface]
boy: ...
boy: \(._.) / (( /
boy: Whoops
boy: \(._.)/ ( ( / \
boy: Hm....Nvm
boy: \ (._.) /
boy: (    (
boy: /   \
boy: [happyface]
boy: \ (._.)
boy: \ (   (\
boy: Whoops messsed up
boy: \ (._.)
boy: (   ( |
boy: |    \
boy: xD There we go! :D xD
boy: Hello
boy: ....Still not here....    :/
boy: Uggghhhhhh.......  :/
boy: [poutyface]

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Things To Do

Thu, 29 Sep 2016 14:46:58 GMT

Middle nephew's birthday is next Wednesday.

Eldest is away at a friend's ranch this weekend, then to that same friend's b-day party next weekend, then we'll have the Littlest One with us the weekend after that. Eldest promised we could sit down this weekend and learn some more Japanese, but I think he forgot about his ranch plans when he promised me that. I'll try to hit him up Sunday when he comes back home.

Middle nephew wants to go to The Olive Garden for his birthday dinner. I also showed him colorful cake options we saw at the store while picking up the Angel Food batter I needed for last weekend, and he'd like to have one of those. I have the boys on my Barnes & Noble membership card enrolled in the Kids' Club thing they have, so I received his birthday free food gift coupon at the in-house Starbucks via my email. I'll probably look at taking him by there this weekend.

He loves riding the roller coasters with me, so I'm considering Six Flags with him this weekend. I think they should have their Fright Fest decorations up now, which also means there will be haunted houses.

The Texas State Fair opens this weekend, and that might always be an option.

There's an estate sale going on this weekend, and he tends to like to visit those with me.

Since his brother we be gone all weekend, I know he's likely to get bored on his own, but we have knitting we could do together (oooh, we could take the knitting with us to the Starbucks in the B&N - that would be cool), and I could get him to break out the game programming book again and we could play with that some more.

I got Mom and him watching the Battlestar Galactica reboot (this will be like my 6th time to watch through the entire series - this has all happened before...), and we haven't watched any of it in a while. (Eldest started watching the pilot with us, but then got bored and wanted to go play on his XBox with his friends instead, so he hasn't been watching with us.)

The best plan would be Saturday hit up the estate sale in the morning, then a nice lunch somewhere, then B&N with knitting for an afternoon snack, and then he could play with his knitting while I do some cross stitch the rest of the evening while we watch BSG. We could always do some game programming Sunday until say mid-afternoon, then head out to Six Flags until Eldest drags in and we can all try another Japanese lesson.

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Cow-Cow

Mon, 05 Sep 2016 03:19:10 GMT

We had to euthanize one of my family's cats today. Cow-Cow was 15 years old and used to be absolutely obese, hence her name. She was my sister's cat, and when circumstances came that she needed to find a new home, she was adopted into my parents' household about a year or so ago. She was a beautiful tortiseshell calico, who had grown so thin that I was always worried I would break a bone while petting her.

Eldest nephew acted nonchalant about us taking her to the emergency clinic; this is his way of dealing with death, as I had learned when my grandmother died a few years ago. Little Bit was sad and at first wanted to go with us, but then decided to stay behind. Dad started crying while holding Cow-Cow as mom and I got our things together. Mom and I took her in, and she was evaluated. She was 15, "legally" blind and walking until she would almost bump her head into objects (feeling them with her whiskers and eye lashes before her actual forehead in most cases, but still causing a jump-back reaction), and had arthritis that prevented her from jumping any longer, and only barely allowed her to make it up the one step into the kitchen and back down into the living room.

Saturday morning dad found her walking in circles, and more or less no longer responding to us calling her, which would previously get her attention and orient her in the right direction to us. She showed no signs of the typical head tilt found in ear infections and vestibular disease. I'm not sure why they didn't take her in to the vet yesterday, but when it comes to things like these dad leaves it to mom and mom leaves it to me. I felt a bit like she was waiting for me to be the deciding factor and to help discuss it with the boys. My sister saw Cow-Cow last weekend, and knew that it was getting close to time, so she had made sure to spend a few extra minutes giving her love even then. The vet confirmed our suspicions that she most likely had a stroke or some other brain issue, and that she was unlikely to get much better.

As per our family's usual wishes, Cow-Cow will be cremated and her remains will be brought home and placed with our previous pets.

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Study Bug

Sun, 28 Aug 2016 17:23:30 GMT

( Along with GRE lessons, I'm also learning Japanese with my eldest nephew. )

As another development, eldest and his friends started playing D&D. They've been playing the World War Z and the Walking Dead games that are based on similar RPG mechanics, but one of the boys has officially bought a couple of the D&D books, and they're branching out into that arena as a group. I'm such a proud geek aunt. I was initially toying with the idea of getting eldest into Pathfinder a couple months ago, so hearing of this new development thrills me.

Eldest is doing the math of the future in his head. He knows I'm trying to teach his younger brother programming, and he would like to learn to draw/animate anime, and he's really digging into the RPGs. He'd like it if the two of them managed to make their own games.

I'm thinking it's time to introduce him to Persona or some of the other visual novel type games. This seems to be the direction he's heading.

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