02 december

01 december

Have you heard about December Daily? I kept reading about it and wanted to play along. I really don't do much for Christmas. Then I pulled out the advent calendars and realized that we do these every year. In fact, each boy gets his own so they no longer have to alternate days. So along with taking my regular photo of the day, I will be photographing the daily gifts. And maybe commenting about my day.

confessions of an addict

Years ago I read Freaks, Geeks & Asperger Syndrome: A User Guide to Adolescence. The author talked about Specialty Subjects. People with AS have their specialty subjects and can talk about them on and on to the point of obsession. But specialty subjects are not fixed. They can change and they do change. I see it in Andy. He will obsess about computers for a few weeks, then switch to Thomas stories.

I seem to suffer from this as well. Lately, I am a hooked on watching TV episodes on my iPad. It all started with Doctor Who: The Complete First Series. For years, amazon.com recommended this series. I finally downloaded the first season. That led to downloading Torchwood: The Complete First Season and renewed interest in Eureka: Season One & The Office: Season One. Then I added The Big Bang Theory: The Complete First Season and Community: The Complete First Season. I tried watching others but found they didn't interest me. Finally, I added Fringe: The Complete First Season, Warehouse 13: Season One and Alphas.

What started as something to do during the weekend has become a daily ritual. As soon as lunch is over, I begin watching one episode of each of the programs. I have caught up watching Eureka! Torchwood, Alphas & Doctor Who.

So many years I did not watch TV. There just wasn't anything good. Now I am back to watching hours of shows a day. Nothing good can come of this.

duke and seventh grade talent search

On the way to the dentist, Ryan pulled out of his backpack a sheet informing him of an invitation from Duke University Seventh Grade Talent Search to take the SAT or ACT in seventh grade. Huh? Had it not been for Bonnie, I would not have known about this program before hand. Two of Bonnie's nieces were invited and participated. One of them was invited to Duke University for a special ceremony. As it happens, I was on the phone with Bonnie at the time. She got excited and said "You have to make him do it!" I replied that I can allow him to do it but I cannot make him. Ryan is much better than me at being obstinate and cannot be forced into something like this. However, I asked Ryan if he wanted to do it and he said yes. Really? Had I been asked to take one of those exams in 7th grade, I would have freaked out and said no way. I hate long tests. The scores for the test(s) taken in seventh grade can count for later. How cool. There is no or little pressure now as compare to junior year of high school.

I got thinking about this. Our parents did not take those tests. Our generation all took the test and now we can compare ourselves to our kids. OK, I know this is wrong. I just can't help it. I am really proud of Ryan for getting the Duke TIP invitation. I don't recall and of my nieces or nephews getting it. It has been around since 1980. See, there I go again. Turns out that Matt & Joey got invitations. Matt did not accept the invitation but Joey did because his friends were doing it.

02 november 2011

Back pain and other excuses.

A couple of weeks back, I had a stomach ache during the night. It was mostly likely due to too many beans. Anyway, I usually sleep on my back. My ache was too uncomfortable so I switched to my side. The stomach ache was gone by morning but then my left hip started aching. I was thinking/hoping it would go away on its own. Instead it got worse. I started noticing a weakening in my left leg. My first thought was because I don't exercise. I started walking in the morning. My legs started feeling like jello. I thought it was because after month of no exercise, my legs were rebuilding muscle. The jello feeling in my left leg did not go away.

On Monday, I went to kick a ball and my left leg gave out. I was on my ass in the middle of the store and embarrassed. What the heck? Now I was thinking it was something worse. I have started watching House and think it must be some brain tumor. But since I am an ostrich type of person I am ignoring my fear in hopes that it will go away.

I went to the chiropractor yesterday. I told Doctor Burns about my legs. He asked about the weakness and knew what it was. Turns it out it is neurological but not the kind that requires surgery. He said it was sacral-iliac joint and described the pain and weakness exactly. I have had sciatic pain for years. That pain starts from the spine. This pain originates from the pelvis. It explains the other pains and symptoms. For now, ice and rest are required. And already my leg feels more stable. It is still weak and I read that this may take weeks or months. I hope not.

24 october 2011

Another week of not getting much done at least as far as cutting the clutter is concerned. I have no good excuses.

I did some scanning and filing but no shredding and no work on making paper packs.

My confession. I am watching too many TV shows. It started with Doctor Who and quickly expanded to Eureka, Torchwood, House, The Big Bang Theory, The Office, Community and now Fringe. It is my addictive personality. Once I get hooked, I cannot stop easily. Moderation does not make it into my vocabulary often enough.

I am noticing some muscle weakness where the back pain was running. Is it damaged nerve or just muscle atrophy from lack of use?

Of course, watching House only feeds the paranoia. I do not like going to doctors so I am trying to think what House would tell me if I showed up in his clinic. "You are overweight and sedentary, get some exercise." So I walked today. Only a mile. My legs felt like jello later in the day. If I can just get addicted to exercise...

I did go on a photo shoot yesterday. I will post about it later. It needs its own post.

17 october 2011

Don't sweat the small stuff.

Good advice. Last week, a lot of little stuff happened.

Monday started with a service man coming to change the zap cap on the house. (We didn't get the notice about it until Wednesday.) The change was fine but would not restart. The power brick had to be reset which I did but it still didn't work. I figured I needed a new one until I saw the second reset button. (Why does it have two reset buttons?) Then my back started hurting.

Tuesday my car had problems starting. I think the starter may be going. But sometimes the clock on the radio resets when I am trying to reset it.

Wednesday and Thursday saw no new issues except my back pain would not go away. I did not make any progress with decluttering the house.

Friday I got my new iPhone 4S. Before then, I upgraded iTunes and Safari. iTunes could not find my library and I had to recreate it. I do not know what happened. I spent the morning reimporting my media. I lost the all the playlists, play counts and ratings. I really wish iTunes was like Lightroom in that it has a separate catalog file which can stay on the computer and be backed up hourly. Because I have too much media, it is on an external hard drive. By default, the iTunes library files stay with the media. But they do not get backed up hourly with Time Machine. It is not obvious which files need to be saved.

I took it all in stride. Mostly.

The iPhone 4S is nice. I miss the curved shape of the 3Gs. It does seem to have a phone signal in the house which the 3Gs rarely had. I gave my 3Gs to my dad but he seems non-plussed. Oh well.

09 october 2011

Since the garage sale is over for now, I am back to ditching the clutter. I have 5 boxes of books ready to donate as well as a large frame print. The print is in my car since I needed to get it out of the way for the sale.

Goals this week:

1 hour of scanning

1 hour of filing

1 hour of shredding

1 hour of making paper packs to sell

1 hour working in my office, general clean up/ditch/organize

Once I have have caught up with the scanning, I will start with Erin's book, Unclutter Your Life in Once Week.

Garage sale wrap up. It has been 2 years since my last sale, I thought more would show up. But then, like me, people have probably stopped scrap booking. Many people have to work and do not have time for their own hobbies. And as out kids get older, they aren't as fun to scrap book. How many soccer photos do you really need in a book? Only 5 shoppers. I was a little disappointed in how much I made but it was still good considering how few people were there.

I did like how it was contained to just people I knew and how I was basically done by 9 am. I did not get to cleaning the family room and people did move in there once they were done. Oops. I will do better next time.

In the part, Andy would ride his bike while I stayed in the garage. Since I wasn't in the garage, he missed this. So after I was done with my sale, I sat outside so he could ride his bike. If he does it once and enjoys it, it becomes a tradition.

I only sold a few books. It was probably not worth the effort to box them but now they are ready to go to the library as donations.

science projects

I hate them. I always put them off. I remember my first project in fifth grade. I did it the night before it was due while watching TV. It was clay study of the parts of the flower. I think my dad put more time into the project backdrop. (That was when they were made of wood and three dimensional.) I got an honorable mention. The next year, I copied one of my sister's projects and got a second place. I tried to copy her a second time and barely passed. Then I copied myself in the eight grade and got another honorable mention. I was lucky. In those four years, we had four different science teachers who didn't realize I was recycling my projects. I did do the work, I just wasn't original. I just didn't care.

Somehow, this apathy was passed onto my son. And the poor kid had to start early, in the third grade. We also share the tendency to procrastinate as well as not ask for help. In my case, I probably would not have gotten any help, just a lecture that I should have started earlier. In Ryan's case, he is worried about rejection so he won't ask.

I try to let Ryan do as much as the work himself. I get involved when I have to help with ideas and prod him along. I usually get frustrated with Ryan and my dad. My dad likes to chime in with complicated ideas. He doesn't understand that Ryan does have the drive or motivation to push himself to do more, to do his best. And Ryan will not say he doesn't understand so my dad thinks he has gotten through. The one year I let my dad type out Ryan's charts, Ryan got his lowest grade. He could not explain what was going on.

I do help Ryan with the presentation. Only because the artist in me cannot help it. I try not to do anything more than could be expected from him. I am sure other parents are helping out more than me. But Ryan has no interest in entering the science fair. He just wants to get it done and get a good grade.

All this leads us to this week when Ryan is conducting his experiment on water evaporation. He tried it last night and it was a failure. Ryan thought he would see results in an hour. He didn't see anything after four hours. The due date for the trial work is Thursday. A failed experiment is OK and acceptable but not to Ryan. He teacher is letting him rework and redo the experiment and turn it in a few days later. Ryan started this morning and planned to check the results this evening after 12 hours. I came home to see that my dad was checking every hour. I tried to explain that it wasn't necessary nor wanted since it was supposed to be Ryan's work and how could he get those readings while he was at school. This fell on deaf ears. Then I asked my dad if he was planning on getting up every hour during the night. He understood and stopped.

Getting Andy to do a book report seems so easy.

02 october 2011

Unclutter update.

I did well towards the process of getting rid of the clutter. I did an hour of scanning, an hour of filing, and an hour of shredding. I did not get any other tasks done from my goals.

The garage sale is Saturday so I am putting the scanning/filing/shredding on hold. I need to concentrate on preparing for the garage sale. I hope all the palm itching means the sale is going to be successful. That said, I volunteered to work at the school book fair two days, have an autism support group for parents meeting, and two other appointments this week. Oh well, what gets done, gets done.