game day

It's Saturday and for some reason, I don't like to do much work on Saturdays. Maybe it's from growing up and having to "clean a room" on Saturdays. I mostly remember having to clean the bathroom which means washing the tile floor on my hands and knees and so much hair on the floor! (Five kids and 2 adults in one bathroom with do that.) After working (hard) for 5 days, I wanted a day to relax but Saturdays always meant errands since the stores were closed on Sundays. Anyway Sundays was for church.

Nowadays, I do my errands and cleaning (?) during the week so I don't have to take the boys out anywhere. Ryan prefers to stay home during the weekend. I might do a little work on Saturday mornings but I prefer to relax and read or maybe work on some cards. I do laundry but that doesn't seem like a chore since there is so much time in between the folding and putting away.

Today, I put on my iTunes set to 4 and 5 stars, my favorite music. I read and played solitaire while listening and noticed that although I remembered the songs, I didn't always remember the singer or group. Oh I getting old and not playing my music enough. Artists from the 80s were remembered because I could remember the video and the title info from MTv.

Later I was looking for some sheets. Didn't I have 2 more fitted sheets? Or did I thrown them away after they ripped? See the boys would jump on my bed and they managed to pop a spring out of the mattress. I didn't notice it because it was in a corner away from where I slept. But it managed to rip sheets. I tried to bend the spring back but it was too stiff so I finally had to cover it with duct tape. Yes, it looks retard but you only see it when the sheets and mattress pad are off. And lately I have just been washing the same sheet and putting it back on. It's my favorite red plaid. I had 2 but I can't find the other one nor can I find the red striped fitted sheet. The flat sheets are there so I must have thrown away the fitted sheets. So now I down to one favorite red plaid, which is getting mighty thin but is oh so soft and one red striped that I am not too find of.

Anyway, I looked in a drawer and didn't find the sheets but did find my round dice. They work OK and are more fun that accurate. I gave them to Ryan as he seems interested in dice these days. Then I thought about this game table cabinet I bought years ago. Here is a similar one. It just sat for years because I didn't want the pieces to be swallowed or chewed. But seeing as Ryan is at the age that he likes to play games, I showed him what was in the draws. Funny, they never were curious about it before.

Ryan dusted it off and I asked him if he wanted to play a game. Hours later and we have to play all four games that we have, chinese checkers, tic tac toe (Why do they call it a cat's game when no one wins?), backgammon and checkers. I can't remember the last time I played those games and have to look up the directions especially for backgammon. I tried to be nice and let Ryan win but I have to much competitiveness in me. And I found that Ryan is ruthless when it comes to knowing my playing pieces out of play. The gloves came off.

Now I am tired and have a headache from his squealing and evil laughter. It's too late for a nap.

boy on the bus

The Boy on the Bus : A Novel by Deborah Schupack

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars

Well, this was weird.


The bus comes to their house but Charlie doesn't get off. The mother gets on the bus to see why. She sees a boys that looks a lot like her son but is not her son. She doesn't say this out loud but remains on the bus with the boy for hours.


The sheriff comes and gets both the mother and son (boy) off the bus and has the father called who happens to be working in Canada.


The father comes home and isn't sure about the boy either. But he has been gone for months. They get the older sister who is going to boarding school and she is no help.


It's a very estranged family.


View all my reviews.

pms

I am craving carbs and have lost all motivation to work and clean and walk. UGH

i think i want an iPod touch

I have been using Palm PDAs since 2001. They have been great but lately I get so many errors when trying to sync. I even use the Missing Sync and it's not helping. I think it might be time to move to the iPod Touch especially since eReader has an app so I can keep reading my books that way.

Of course the problem is money. I don't have any. And I would really like the 32 gb but I think I could be happy with the 8 gb. I don't see this replacing my iPod so much. Then again...

So if I happen to find $229 to $399, you know where I'll be.

book reports, halloween costumes

Ryan has to do a book report every month. Each month, they are given a different genre of book to choose from. Last month it was fiction, this month it is biography. Not only do they have to do the book report, they have to give it orally! And there is the added feature of something creative combined with this all. Last month, they had to make a t-shirt design showing the main characters on the front and a scene on the back. (Ryan chose the book Matilda by Roald Dahl and since the illustration were not in color, his t-shirt had no extra color as well.)

This month, they have to choose a biography. I asked Ryan who he would like to read about knowing that there is a series of books his level about US Presidents. Ryan picked his favorite president, Richard Nixon. (I have NO idea why but interesting to note that Nixon was Gail's favorite president but seeing as Gail died before Ryan was 3, that knowledge was not passed from father to son.) Getting the book was easy. Here comes the hard parts. First of all, they have to write the report in first person narrative. Ryan has to pretend that he is the president! Can he even do this? And, AND! since the report is due October 31, he has to dress up like the character so he can walk in the book character parade.

Makeup and masks are not allowed which means Ryan has to wear a suit. He doesn't have a suit and I see no reason for him to own one in the next 8 years.

So I look inline and fine cheap suits for $50 and up. I think about goodwill but don't want to hazard into those neighborhoods. I think again about just buying a suit figuring that it's about the cost of a Halloween costume. But first I check a nearby consignment shops and find a suit coat. I check more shops and find nothing. I had forgotten that there is a goodwill store not too far from me and I go inside. It depresses me and I want to go home and donate all of my kids clothes. I had see that Target carries suits online and went in to find only dress pants. OK, I'll get the pants and go back for the suit coat. What color was that coat? Fine, I get one pair of black pants and one pair of navy and will return the wrong color.

The suit coat is supposed to be navy but we will see in the light of day. But really, he is a 4th grader who will wear red & orange stripe shirt with blue plaid shorts.

Luckily, I don't have to worry about a costume for Andy as his class is doing some Alphabet book. But there are only 8 kids and I'm pretty sure there are 26 letters in the alphabet.

Loving these cool mornings.

Andy was getting dressed this morning. He had on his underpants and t-shirt then stuck his head out the patio door. After a few seconds, he turned to me and said, "What is it?" I knew what he was thinking.
"Is it cool?"
"Yes!"
"But it will get warm this afternoon."
He stared at me.
"Do you want to wear pants?"
"Yes!"
"But it will get too warm. Maybe in November you can wear your pants."
"And 2 shirts?"
"Yes, if it is cool enough, you can wear 2 shirts and pants."

He is the boys who likes to bundle up.

cinnamon

Who knew cinnamon could be healthy for you?

I recently read that adding cinnamon to sugar lessens the body's insulin reaction to it. I add cinnamon to my oatmeal. I added cinnamon to my apple slices and find that I like enjoys apples more this way.

I decided to check out if this is true and found a few articles about the benefits of cinnamon. This article from The World's Healthiest Foods even mentioned the sugar and insulin effect.

Of course it mentions not to overdo it as too much cinnamon can be toxic. But I doubt that it a problem with a apple a day.

countdown to poppa!

My dad is getting ready to come down for his winter visit. He is arriving later than he would have liked because his nephew is getting married this weekend and he is going to go. The wedding is in Indiana. Then he will drive to my sister's and spend a couple of three weeks with her family. I might see my dad before Thanksgiving. So now it's time to start cleaning!

Today I filled a large trash bag up with stuff that has accumulated in my bathroom. One baby-step to reduce the clutter.

youtube

Last year when my dad came down for his winter visit, he brought his laptop with the newly updated google earth. The new feature were youtube videos. Most of them were road videos taken while people drove from one place to another. There were some improv videos that were silly but mostly harmless. The problem is, the boys loved the videos so much that dad never got a chance to use his own computer. So I made the decision to put youtube on the boys' computers. So they watched their favorite videos over and over again. And over again.

Now I know youtube is not child friendly and there aren't ways to make only safe videos viewable. But the boys played the videos loud enough that I could tell what they were watching. And they pretty much stayed away from the questionable stuff. Ryan found old NASCAR videos and Andy got hooked on a kid named gluse who loves to ride in elevators. One of the features problems of youtube is that they suggest other videos. Andy found more elevator videos. But some of these users swore and Andy would repeat it. So I had to give him other words to say instead of damn and hell. (Poppa will not be happy to hear even darn and heck used but then again can't we blame him for this whole mess? )

Ryan found video game videos on youtube. He would watch someone else play rather than play himself. Oy! One of persons he chose to watch used even more colorful language. I was able to tell Ryan not to use those words before I heard him say them. He has a better understanding of bad language.

Recently, Andy found Thomas and Friends. We have the dvds but he likes watching the clips. I think he likes that he has more control and can start and stop without me yelling at him that he's going to break the dvd player. From there, he moved to Elmo's World and Teletubbies. Oh no! I thought those days were gone forever! Today he has found Simpson's Hit and Run on youtube. He first saw this in 2005 when we went to visit my sister and her (older) boys. It was one of the first video games the boys got for their GameCube. Andy thought it was fun to crash into things and get points for it. At the time, I thought it was harmless. And it a way, I like that he likes it as he is 11 and boys likes those sort of things. Frankly, I'd rather have him watch Homer that Teletubbies. At least until he understands the humor and uses it against me.

710 calories for lunch?!

I went to my favorite place for lunch yesterday, Tijuana Flats. I am avoiding fried foods which meant no chips, no crunchy tacos, no flautas and no chimichangas. I decide on the enhiladas thinking that the corn tortillas must be healthier than flour if I go with the burrito. I love corn but not corn tortillas, it's just a weird texture. I also get the "meal" which includes refried beans and rice. Yes, it was good. No, it wasn't great. The whole thing was 710 calories (not including my tea). I am not sure it was worth it.

I could have tried the "power light" which means reduced fat cheese and fat free sour cream. eh. I'd rather eat less of the real thing. And I will probably just go there less often which will also save some money.

(Sorry, Puffy. I know we all hate when Wanda would talk of nothing about her diet and exercise transformation, I guess I could whine about the economy and the presidential campaigns?)