wednesday 9.30

Good grief! The year is 3/4 over! Once again I have failed to get my taxes done in a timely manner. Gone are the days when they would be fine in early February. Of course those days I got a refund so there was incentive.





I have been waking up so achy. Time to flip the mattress. Though in my case rotate is all I can do with that 2 tonne king sized mattress.



I am getting a bit OCD with my calorie counting. I baked cookies today too took the time to enter in all the info to find that one cookie is over 100 calories. Trying to keep myself honest, I guess. It did keep from eating only one after my lunch.



Nice surprise this morning. It was cool, almost chilly. The weather channel said 62 but I don't think it was that cold. I didn't need a sweater.





I am done processing the zoo pics I took on the 19th. There are still to process from mosi. I don't recall being so behind but then I doubt I have taken so many I wanted to process and keep. (It's all done and they are posted here. Now onto bowling and more.)





Crud!

I was all set to get my paint today but made cookies instead, I decided to plan the trip on Friday. Hmm... I wonder how much the paint is? I know it's on sale for 25% off this week but how much is the regular price? I google. Sherwin-Williams doesn't have prices listed on their site. I google again. And I see some comparisons between Sherwin-Williams Harmony and Benjamin Moore Aura. Both are low VOC paints. I have preferred BM paints but they are more expensive and not local. Harmony does not get good ratings. Oh and see the prices? Harmony is $40 a gallon and Aura is $50 a gallon! Oh my! Now the reviews are from 2 years ago so maybe the formula has changed? I check Consumer Reports (thanks Stephanie!) and confirm that Harmony is still rated low. But what surprises me for recommended semi-gloss is Sears Easy Living. It should surprise me as this is what we had in our house growing up. Want paint? Go to Sears. And... it's cheaper and the reported VOC level is lower than Aura. Guess I will be picking out new colors tomorrow.

tuesday 9.29

Silly jibberish yesterday. See what happens when I unfocused. Well that is about to change. Seems there is some confusion about my dad's snowbirding plans. My sister seems to think he is moving down for good. See, my dad can be rather vague and evasive. He likes people to know only just enough. He has asked if I wouldn't mind him spending more time here. Of course I said yes. He mentioned to my sister the same and then went on to say something about not going back to Michigan! Oh!



In that case, I have decided to move my someday project of moving the bedrooms around to now. Currently, the boys share a bedroom, my dad has a bedroom and the middle room is the playroom for the boys. I am going to move my dad into the boys' room (it's slightly bigger) and then split up the boys into their own rooms. Ryan says he doesn't want his own room (he doesn't like change) but he has been complaining when he is using his computer and Andy is using his own and is too loud.



I asked Ryan what color he wanted gis room painted and he said yellow! But that's Andy's favorite color. Ugh.

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I walked around Lettuce Lake Park after my photo meet-up. There were 2 groups of school kids so I was slowed up a bit. I saw some big icky spiders. I tried to shoot them but it was breezy so they kept moving. The breeze felt good.

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I got some paint samples. Mostly neutral greens and browns but some yellow. I think I will paint one wall yellow in each of the boys' rooms. I need something darker to hide the dirt.

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Dad did return my email but he was vague and evasive. He said not to bother with the rooms but they really need the painting. I just wish I had started a couple of weeks ago. Three weeks should be enough time if I can stay away from Starbuck's. I did manage to stay away even though I drove by 4 of them today.

monday 9.28

(more zoo photos with slightly crazy talk in between)




I am one of those people who get more done when I have more on my plate. My grades in school were always better when I played sports or had a job. I scheduled my time better.



Now with no deadlines or such, I am a sloth. I need to make myself a project and set times to work. I need discipline. Why does that word look so ugly? Perhaps structure is better? Not really, it feels confining. Oh but that's why it is good. Ugh... I want to be free to flitter about doing a bit of this a bit of that but none of that stuff called work. If it was fun it would be called play.



I want to be one of the ladies who lunch then nap in the afternoon until dinner. Late dinner. Followed by drinks and lively conversation.



Oh good grief! Who am I kidding? I am no social butterfly. I would be exhausted after one day with all that idle chit chat.



OK, let's try another fantasy...



I would rather be travelling the world taking wonderful photography. Traveling where the mood strikes me. Meeting people, a few becoming good friends.

swaptember!

Swaptember is when the Florida Aquarium, the Lowry Park Zoo and MOSI allow members of one admission to the others. We got the annual park to the Aquarium in July. Looking back, it might have been a mistake. Though it is mostly indoors and nice to visit in the summer, it is a drive.



I liked going to the zoo. It was small and we could get through it pretty quickly. They have expanded the zoo a lot of the years. It is more than double the size. Now there are rides including a small rollercoaster and a flume ride. Is Busch Gardens too much competition? Andy started whining about 10 minutes into the visit. I am not sure if it was the heat or the fact that Ryan was leading. But Ryan always leads so I am betting on the heat. Andy was braver than Ryan and tried out the hurricane force wind machine. Ryan got upset/embarrassed that Andy covered his ears. He really dislikes when Andy does any of his autistic behaviors. He knows they are not normal but can't understand that it is OK to have some quirks.



Ryan loved watching them test the flume ride. Andy would have liked to go on the rides but not Ryan. When dad gets here, I will take Andy back so he can ride. I will get him a wrist band for unlimited rides.



In the past, we have had annuals passes to all 3. MOSI, which happens to be the closest, got used the least. They had only a small kids area and my kids never really enjoyed it. They did love the computers, when they worked. A couple of years ago, MOSI added a new building with kids in mind. It's called Kids In Charge. It reminds me of the science center in Toronto. Lots of hands on activities. Ryan happily wandered about for almost 2 hours. There is a bed of nails that fascinates Andy. But he wouldn't lie on it. He just wanted others to do it and he then likes to touch the nails when they come up. No, I wasn't brave enough. I didn't want to break the machine or bend the nails.



We finally left about 2:30. I think Ryan wanted to stay but he wouldn't say where he wanted to go. I asked the boys if they had a good time and they said they did. Would you rather go to MOSI or the Zoo? MOSI. Would you rather go to MOSI or the Aquarium? The Aquarium. MOSI memberships are on 20% off through September. Hmm...



I had forgotten my 8gb CF card but I had plenty of smaller ones. I didn't expect to go through my 4gb card but I did as well as another 2gb card. I started on a third card before we left. Uploaded over 700 images... slow.



The true measure of a good day... both boys sound asleep before 8:30.


(I still have lots more photos to edit and post.)

friday 9.25

So nice sleeping without chirps. Now we have snoring from Ryan and constant sniffles from Andy when he climbs in at 5:30.

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Ryan is back to waiting outside for the bus early. He went out at 8:10 and the bus doesn't come until 8:50. I was editing more zoo pics until he came in and wanted me outside as well.

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I am not usually so far behind with photo editing. (Ugh the music at TF sucks!) I am still working on my second trip to the zoo.

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thursday 9.24

Not starting out so good. The chirp! continues. I slept but I wonder if it affected my sleep. I feel exhausted. Grumpy. (Chirp is gone! It was another smoke detector sitting in a bin.)

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Two things are at odds with each other. My diet and my new fondness for hanging out at Starbucks. The program I use for my diet reduces the amount of allowed calories as you lose weight. Since spring, I have "lost" about 200 allowed calories per day. A venti non-fat awake tea latté is 200 calories. See the problem? I need to exercise more so I can indulge. Or I could switch to plain tea, only 32 to 48 calories depending on how sweet I want it.

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Bugger! I walked this morning. Just a short one before water aerobics. I stopped to take a photo and forgot to hit resume. Also, bad chemicals inhaled as I had to walk by a man cleaning the masonry wall. He had a mask on.

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Burning new music to disks. It just sounds better in the car than my iPod.

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Totally stuck my foot in my mouth at water aerobics.

All summer long when we went to the pool there was a creepy guy in a black speedo. He would come in wearing baggy jeans and a t-shirt then strip to his speedo. He never got in the water, just sunbathed and listened to his music. Sometimes he would slowly walk around the pool.

Two weeks I mentioned his to Colletta and she said he was her husband. I thought she was joking. She never mentioned his name said it in a way that I took for very dry sarcasm. (my specialty) I though she said something about the others teasing her about him staring at her.

Today... someone mentioned how we were only ones there. There were no ______ here. And I chime in "... and no weird guys in black speedos." Silence. I decide to let it drop. After we are done, Reneé comes over to me and says "weird guy in black speedo" really is Colletta's husband. Crap! What do I say? Apologize or just let it go?

This is why I don't have many friends. I say the wrong things at the wrong time and feel like a complete eejit long after the faux pas.

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And yet... I am no longer content to stay home. I am at Barnes & Noble. I had some chai. I am weak.

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I find out today that Andy can/is going bowling on Saturday for Special Olympics. His teacher says I signed the permission slip but I don't think I did. I have no record of it. So... do I let him go? It's all the way near St Pete. His bus leaves at 9:30 and gets back sometime between 3 and 5. (I found the permission this morning and signed it. Ryan agreed to go and watch Andy bowl. Or maybe just go and play video games.)

wednesday 9.23

It was rather moist this morning when I went walking. I am still struggling to find my groove.

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I just don't "get" the tattoos that look like you were bored in class and wrote all over your arms. Not that I really like tattoos anyway. I do appreaciate that some are beautiful and could be considered art. Connect-the-dot? Nope.

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I haven't heard one thing from my siblings and inlaws in regards to the album pages I did. Too little too late? Sure some compliments would be nice but what I really want to know if anyone cares. Should I bother continuing this?

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One more order. The plus side is that the recent orders have been small and no free shipping. Then again, it's mostly sale stuff and the $6 doesn't always cover the full shipping cost.

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Rather dull these days.

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Smoke detector started chirping last night. It was quiet enough and I slept. Tonight I heard it again. Ryan said it was OK but I knew it would bother me. I changed the battery. chirp! I removed the unit. chirp! I took the smoke detector out to the garage. chirp! It's in the ceiling and continues. chirp!

tuesday 9.22

Ryan is in a miserable mood. Making everyone else miserable. Happy Birthday. Bah!

I don't know what is wrong. He says doesn't want his bike. He says doesn't want gifts. I think he would have loved to crawl in my lap but I had to take a shower. He won't say but I wonder if he is feeling anxious about getting older. He wants to celebrate it and forget at the same time.

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TPF meeting today. More social this morning. I didn't get a chance to show my photos. Two new people today, Ross and Ana. He is a model photog and she is a doctor. She showed up to ask about cameras. I cringed but then realized she had a direction.

I am disappointed that I can't go this weekend to the car show. Rachel is busy.

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I packed a wrap for lunch then went to mosi. I paid for the membership then went to the Butterly exhibit. It was much smaller than I expected and the part where the butterflies were was locked. Disappointed.

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So I had to stop at Starbuck's to make myself feel better. I did only order a tall.

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Crud! When Ryan said it was a toddler bike I thought he was comme ting about the seat being low. But I got home and looked at the bike. It is smaller than Andy's. It's not a "toddler bike" but has 20" wheels meant for tricks. His current bike has 20" wheels. So I called the bike shop and the only one with 24" wheels is black (like Andy's) and a lot more money. Crap!

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A happy boy got off the bus today. And he wants to keep the bike. He opened his gifts and then sat down to play Sorry. Alone. Even though I offered to play. He got some money and was happy to put the $10 back in his bank. All is well.

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monday 9.21

Falling behind. Last week seemed to go so well that I got lazy and now I am behind. I have so many photos to edit, so many things I want and need to do. I hate this feeling.

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Disappointed in my latest buy from Shannon's. Somethings just don't last. I had to throw away a melon this morning.

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Disgusted at how much gunk had built up on my earrings. I hadn't taken them out of my ears in over a year. My left ear love has been itching. I took out my earring and hearly gagged at the build up. I tried hydrogen peroxide then vinegar and finally got them clean and sparkly with Charlie's Soap. I wonder if Wendy has this problem?

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Picked up Ryan's bike. I hope he rides it. He can be so fickle. I need to get home and wrap his gifts. Bother, they arrived too late. I'll have to do it tomorrow.

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Why did I think chai tea was decaf? Is doesn't affect me like regular black tea.

special olympics bowling

We were told that the class would be at the bowling alley from 10:00 until 1:30. I didn't want to sit there that long so I took my time getting there. I arrive about 10:45. It was crowded. One thing that I don't think about are the variety of dsiabilities. Andy has mostly been around kids with autism. I don't recall seeing any kids with downs or similar disabilities at his schools.

As I walked through, one boys was taking French fries left on the plates by those who had eaten and left. A group of high school (girl) volunteers looks shocked and giggled at him. It reminded me of the time when a 4 year old Andy did this at an outlet mall. The man whose fry he stole was European and felt it his right to smack Andy's hand. Yep, I was pissed but not at Andy.

After two passes through the bowling alley, I finally did spot Andy's teacher. She told me that the kids were outside waiting to come in. Apparently they did this in shifts. The behavior specialist asked about Andy wearing a size 8 shoe. Huh? No, she read that wrong. 10 1/2 please. Oh are they ugly these days. After the 90s fashion craze of wearing bowling shoes outside the alley, they have made the fluorescent! And Velcro!!

Andy was actually doing pretty well bowling until he discovered the foot foul signal. He thought it was fun to make the light go off and hear the buzz. He lost a lot of points that way. There were volunteers supposed to help keep order but they were mostly useless flirting with each other instead. There were 3 boys in our lane and they got to play 2 games. Everyone got a ribbon but they weren't award per lane. Andy got a 4th place ribbon which he wouldn't pin on. I don't blame him as they weren't safety pins! S got a second place ribbon and was very upset that he didn't get a first. T was mad that they wouldn't give her more food. Watching the other kids made me more grateful for mine.