Ottawa

Two games yesterday... lost both. Keeper Boy was in net for the morning game against Finland. It was a 7-2 loss, but Keeper Boy was awarded the hardest worker hard hat for his team. Pretty cool. The game yesterday afternoon was against a team from outside Toronto. Another loss, but definitely one we could've/should've won. We've pretty much been eliminated from advancing beyond our last game tomorrow. We will be heading home on Saturday in what sounds like awful snow through New York. Ugh.

Last night we went to the Ottawa Senators game. Good times! Ottawa lost to Colorado, but we didn't really care about the outcome anyway. :)

Today, no games. There is a ceremony tonight and an all-star game. Two of Keeper Boy's teammates are playing, so we will support them.

The pin trading here is amazing. Keeper Boy has collected a ton of very cool pins. His hat weighs a ton with all the metal. Ha ha.

Getting ready to head to brunch... maybe a museum this afternoon. We'll see.

Ottawa

Holy. Crap. It's COLD! We should've listed to the concierge this morning. When we asked the best way to walk to the Byward Market, he said, "walk to the corner, then hail a cab." We laughed and said we'd be fine walking. Problem was, with the wind chill, it was -30. Yes, that's celcius. When converted to farenheit, that's a balmy -22. Yes, MINUS 22. Oh. My. God. I think my legs are STILL numb... 12 hours later!!

Other events of the day included a lovely lunch at Tucker's and a fun "friendly game" with a local team on which there is a kid who used to play at the rink Keeper Boy currently plays at. Pretty cool. Some people from the teams have kept in touch, and this is the second year we've played this team in a pre-tournament "friendly game." Appropriately, the game ended in a 3-3 tie. And we all had dinner together afterward at a nice restaurant in the rec facility (which was amazing).

The Marriott we are staying in is great. Great location, great rooms, great ammenities. There are two kids zones on the fourth floor (along with an indoor pool and a very well-equipped workout room). This is a place that is obviously used to hosting youth hockey teams. The kids zones are stocked with gaming systems, sofas, a foosball table, a giant slide, and toys for younger kids. A separate kids zone boasts a six-hole mini golf course, an air hockey table, tabletop shuffleboard, and an area set up for shooting hockey... complete with a net, goalie equipment, sticks, and tennis balls. Guess where Keeper Boy has spent most of his free time?

Tomorrow we have a busy day... game at 11:15 against a team from Finland. How cool is that? Keeper Boy will be in net for that one. Another game at 4:45. And then we're going to the Senators/Avalanche game tomorrow night. Busy day...

Frankenfoot

The last bit of scab came off on Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas to me!! Today I wore my left sneaker tied just a tight as my right! Woo hoo! Next hurdle: real exercise.

Heard...

"You guys are the best parents ever! You take us to cool places like Canada and Pennsylvania!!"

Huh. I guess in J-Mav's mind, Pennsylvania ranks right up there with St. Thomas, Disney World, San Juan, and Alaska!

Thinking...

VDOT (or whomever is in charge of plowing our street) sucks.

So, it's been approximately 36 hours since it stopped snowing in our little slice of Northern Virginia. The final snow tally was more than two feet. As of 8am this morning, when I hiked to the end of my street to meet a co-worker who came to fetch me for work because I'd driven out of my driveway I'd promptly have been stuck in two feet of snow, STILL NO PLOW.

Every other road in our subdivision seems to have been plowed already. Except ours. There is historical precidence for this. I'm not sure why my street is discriminated against. I think I might need to figure out who to write a nastygram to. How fun! I haven't written one of those for awhile. :)

Frankenfoot

Frankenfoot is not so much. With the scabbing coming off, the scar flattening out, and bruising and swelling almost completely gone, my foot almost looks normal. As normal as a foot with a four-inch scar on the top of it will ever look, anyway. I no longer have any real pain, just some discomfort every once in awhile. It seems that the more scabbing that comes off, the less pain I have. That works for me.

I am still wearing my Mammoth Crocs or sneakers every day. I tried the heels again earlier this week, and even after just an hour, I could tell my foot was swelling a little. So I'll probably need to stick with the flat shoes for at least a few more weeks.

I think after the holidays, I'll be able to tie my sneaker tight enough to at least walk on the treadmill. I desparately need to do that. I'm still hopeful that I will be able to ice skate on the Rideau Canal (if it's frozen enough to be open for skating yet)... we'll see.

RIP Frankenfoot.

Let the wild rumpus begin!

We have the first inch or two of the predicted "15 to 20 inches" of snow we are to get between now and the wee hours of Sunday morning. This snow storm, while it may provide us with the white Christmas that has eluded us for the past many years, is just not happening at a convenient time for me.

At work, we are in the final stretch of a proposal cycle... I will be spending all day tomorrow on final editing and formatting in preparation for final approval on Sunday and production/shipping on Monday. That means while my family is out playing in said snow, I will be inside. Working. Which I've been doing too much of lately. Bleh.

More importantly, if we get all the snow we are supposed to get, we won't be going anywhere for awhile becuase we probably won't see a plow on our street until at least Monday. That poses a problem because we are supposed to driving to PA to my parents' house on Sunday for a big family Christmas dinner. I have been looking forward to seeing some members of my family that I don't get to see too often. Now, with each unwanted snowflake that falls, the chances of us making the journey to PA on Sunday become more and more slim. Bleh.

There is one bright point. Regardless of how much snow falls tomorrow, we will still be able to go to the one Christmas party we've been invited to. It's our annual neighborhood party. We simply need to step out the front door, turn right and walk across the yard, and walk into our neighbor's house. I think we have the shortest "commute" of all the neighbors!

I think we've already had more snow this year than we have all of last year... and it's not even the end of December yet. Lord help me. The kids are aleady not getting out of school until June 18... if it's this bad all winter, they'll be in school until July!

So anyway, if I wanted to have snow, I'd live somewhere like, say, CANADA. I live below the Mason Dixon line... technically, I live in the South, y'all. I don't need this. I like snow for about the first ten minutes of the first snow. That was two weeks ago. I'm done now. If I didn't see anymore snow this year, it'd be too soon.

And yet I'm looking out my window at what appears to be a surprisingly accurate forecast by the local weather people. And again I say bleh.

Gasp!

[GASP!] Don't mind my [GASP!] absence from the blog recently. [GASP!] I'm just drowning in [GASP!] editorial and desktop publishing responsibilities [GASP!] at work. Lots of proposals due [GASP!] between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I [GASP!] hope to come up [GASP!] for air soon! [GULP!]

Seen...

J-Mav came into my bedroom this evening and told me had to come out to the living room to see what he did to "make the glass people more fun." (The glass people would be our nativity set that we put out at Christmas time.)

This is what I saw:


His comment was, "well, there was a space and my guy fits nicely."

Wonder what the G.I. Joe guy brought to the blessed event -- ammo?

Frankenfoot

Saw Dr. G today for my final post-op check-up. He said everything looks good and I have no restrictions. That doesn't mean I can go out and run a marathon (not that I'd do that anyway). It just means there's no medical reason why I couldn't try. It'd be a little difficult, though, since the surgical site is still too tender to tie my shoe laces on that sneaker.

The scar is already flattened out, and the scabbing is starting to come off. Dr. G thinks it'll be a rather thin scar. Cool. :-)

He also told me I didn't do any damage by wearing heels to work yesterday. :-) My foot felt good, and the shoes didn't hurt, so I did it. Dumb. Frankenfoot still didn't hurt at the end of the day, but wow. My foot was a flippin' sausage! I could feel the fluid build-up in my foot. It was gross. It's still not back to normal today! No more heels for awhile. Sneakers and Crocs. My work pants will just have to drag on the ground...

Seen...

The tooth fairy left $1 and a note of her own...

Dear [J-Mav] ~
Lost teeth count, too.
Love, Tooth Fairy

Seen...

J-Mav left a note for the Tooth Fairy last night...

Dear Tooth Fairy ~
My tooth fell out. I lost it.
Love, [J-Mav]

A man of few words, my son. I'm surprised he didn't add a third sentence: "Please leave dollars."

Frankenfoot

The Tuesday after my surgery, I was feeling good. Not a lot of pain, just some aches. I got a little cocky and told the doctor that I was doing great! He said that was great and scheduled an appointment for this past Thursday to get at least some of my stitches out.

By the next day, my foot was starting to hurt more again. Mostly in the first several steps I would take after getting up. And the bruising. It was an ever-moving collage of purples around my foot.

When I got to the doctor on Thursday, I was hopeful that I would get all the stitches out. He took out half of them. Better than nothing. But then he was pressing on various spots around my foot and around the incision, and when he pressed on one certain spot, it hurt so much, I thought Dr. G was going to have to peel me off the ceiling.

His reaction: "Hmmm. That's not great."

He said the incision looked good and he didn't SEE any sign of infection, but because of my reaction, he was going to put me on 10 days of antibiotics. He had me schedule another appointment for Tuesday (tomorrow... or, technically, later this morning at this point) to get the rest of the stitches out and sent me on my way.

Well, by the next night, my foot felt like it had been replaced by a new and improved frankenfoot! The initial steps pain was gone and I could walk pretty normally without the surgical shoe on. It remained fine through the weekend.

And today. Today I wore a sneaker! Correction. Today I wore a PAIR of sneakers! Granted, I took the lace out of the one on Frankenfoot. But I had a real shoe on my foot and I was able to walk normally and pain-free! That's A LOT of progress from where I was mid-week last week, so I'm thinking there must have been something to the infection theory.

So, tomorrow I get the rest of my stitches out. And I can then take a shower without wrapping my foot in plastic! Woo hoo!! Happy Thanksgiving to me!! I go back to see Dr. G NEXT Tuesday, just to make sure all is healing up well, I guess. I would assume at that point I'll be able to resume all normal activity as is comfortable.

I NEED to get back to walking and doing some stuff on the Wii Fit. If I don't, I'm going to be living in yoga pants and my skirts with elastic waists...

Heard...

We called Uncle Hooter, Jenrie, and Spidey last night as this morning they boarded a plane to their new home (for the next three years) in Hawaii. While J-Mav was talking to Spidey, Spidey said something along the lines of:

"You can come over and play with me if your mom and dad say it's okay. We can go on the beach and make sand castles."

As though Hawaii is right down the street. I wish!!

Creepy Crawlies

We have issues with bugs in our office building -- particularly in the late afternoon when the sun hits the windows on the side of the building in which my office resides. The warm sun seems to bring out the flies. From where, I do not know.

Today the insects got a bit of an early start. I have been interrupted multiple times by various buzzing. Some buzzing (wasps) is more alarming than other buzzing (flies).

Here's today's tally (with more than an hour to go before I leave):
- 5 flies
- 3 wasps
- 3 lady bugs
- 2 very ugly beetle-looking things

Supposedly some kind of bug inspector is coming tomorrow to see if he can't find the source of our problem. (It's not just me... my boss's office next door has bugs, too.)

Anyone have a ginormous fly swatter?

Weekend update

What a great weekend! Friday night Keeper Boy had a sleepover at our Godson's house, and Hubby, J-Mav, and I went to Red Robin for dinner (J-Mav's choice). Hubby and I were rewarded for agreeing to the choice when we discovered the gingerbread shakes have arrived!! Score!! After dinner, we came home and watched the Caps game while hovered around Hubby's laptop since it was broadcast on CSN+ and we don't get that channel. :-(

Saturday I ventured out shopping with BFF. She was so good to me... dropping me off at the front door of The Cheesecake Factory and other various stores, and walking real slow wherever we went. Luckily we brought along a pair of crutches so I could still walk "normally" but not put my full weight on Frankenfoot. I think that helped A LOT because I lasted almost five hours!! We had a great afternoon.

By the time we got back to her house, Hubby and J-Mav were there (and Keeper Boy had been there for the sleepover). We all hung out and had dinner and watched the Caps game. J-Mav was going to have a sleepover on Saturday night, but decided he didn't want to stay. So we all came home after the Caps game was over.

This morning, Keeper Boy had a game against his old team. He was in net and they got pummeled. He was pulled part-way through the first period -- a first for him. The coach told him to get himself together because he was going back in at the beginning of the second period. He did and he played much better for the last two periods; however, you'd not know it by the final score. He was still beating himself up over some of the goals well after he went to bed, as he came downstairs to discuss them with me. Sigh.

Hubby did the grocery shopping again this week. I think I'll be able to resume that duty next weekend. :) After putting the groceries away, Hubby went into the office for a few hours. The boys played outside; I sat on the sofa and watched football. I grilled out for dinner. It was too gorgeous not to. Hubby had a hockey game tonight; I had my Sunday night shows to watch. Now, it's bedtime.

Great weekend!! Next weekend: J-Mav and I are headed to PA to see my niece's school production of The Wizard of Oz.

Seen...

Driving by the local Methodist church yesterday afternoon, I saw this on the sign board in the front (or something very similar... I'm not sure I remember it exactly).

God is a Redskins fan, so think of how much he must love you.

Frankenfoot

Update...

I just sat down on the sofa to prop my foot up. I haven't had my sock or special shoe off all day, and I didn't have my foot propped up much today, either. I might regret that. My toes are now purple, too. The toes themselves are a light purple. The base of my toes are a dark, reddish purple.

Pretty.

Frankenfoot

The forecast for today, Friday the 13th, is some swelling with a smattering of bruising and slight pain in certain situations.

Yes, my ankle is still more of a cankle.

Yes, the entire back, outer part of my foot is still a lovely shade of purple.

Yes, it has hurt more since Tuesday than it did the day after surgery or the four days right after that.

Yes, I'm still taking regular and copiuos amounts of Motrin.

So I guess I shouldn't have been bragging so much Friday through Tuesday that my foot didn't hurt. At all. In hindsight, that was probably because I didn't really leave the sofa nest until Tuesday morning. I doubt it's coincidence that Frankenfoot has been "talking" A LOT more ever since I resumed walking on it. It mostly feels better when I am able to sit or lie down and put it up. It mostly feels okay once I'm up and moving around a bit, unless I move certain ways or accidently kick something, which has happened on more than one occasion. It mostly feels really bad when I put my foot down on the ground after having it up, as the blood returns to the foot. And it mostly feels really bad when I first get up from sitting or lying down. But, Motrin helps and it's not unbearable pain. Just quick suck you're breath in pain, for the most part, and then it's better.

So Frankenfoot is doing okay, but there's definite room for improvement!

Thank you!

Today I thank all veterans past and present who do what they do (or did what they did) to protect the freedoms we enjoy every day.

Frankenfoot

Update... much Motrin today in response to the ice cube tray incident of last night. But feeling better than I did at this time last night.

Tonight when I sat down on the sofa to watch the Caps game, I kind of propped Frankenfoot up sideways on a pile of pillows such that my arch side of the foot was down and the outside part of the foot -- the side with the stitches -- was up. I guess I hadn't had it propped exactly like that since I got the smaller bandage because HOLY CRAP! My entire outer ankle is PURPLE!

Um, no wonder Frankenfoot feels like a big bruise... it IS!!

Seen...

A breaking news ticker went across the screen about a half hour ago announcing that John Allen Muhammed was executed.

One man held an entire metropolitan area hostage for three weeks in 2002, forcing schools to keep students inside for recess and making people afraid to get out of their cars to get gas, walk into a store, or let their children play outside. Tonight he paid for it.

Thinking...

Oh my HECK... it does NOT feel good to have an entire tray of already-frozen ice cubes fall out of the freezer right on top of where the incision is on my Frankenfoot.

Tinkering

Just picked a new template for my blog page. Got tired of the old one.

Frankenfoot

First off, this is what my foot looked like from about Noon on Friday until late this morning. The bandage was ginormous and wrapped all the way up around my ankle. It left a lot to the imagination about what was actually going on under there... but I wasn't allowed to peek until I went back to the doctor this morning. Like Christmas... do not open until...

So this morning I went to see my surgeon, Dr. G. I found that I was more nervous about this appointment than I had been about the surgery. OK. Maybe not MORE... but at least as much. What if the scar was huge? What if the bandage stuck to the incision and it hurt when he took it off? What if, what if, what if? Luckily I didn't have to wait to long to see the doctor once I got there, so I didn't have time to work myself up too much. :-)

He unwrapped what seemed like miles of ace bandage, tape, and gauze and revealed... FRANKENFOOT!

The incision, as you can see, IS quite large. Lots of stitches inside and outside. Turns out he found more than he bargained for when he got in there. First off, the cyst was growing toward my toes instead of toward my ankle, as he had thought. Second, it was under a tendon and pushing up on a muscle, making the muscle bulge. And lastly, as an added extra bonus, he found a bone spur under all of it, which is what likely caused the cyst in the first place. Ding, ding... we have a winner! Lucky me!

So it's a little swollen, a little bruised, a little stained with the stuff they clean the area with before surgery. In short, a little gross.

And what of all the "ink" you might be asking. Well, in pre-op, I was told to write "yes" on the ankle of the foot I was having operated on. When the doctor came in to talk to me before surgery, he initialed the top of my foot to confirm my choice of feet. I guess this is a CYA measure to ensure the doctor doesn't slice into the wrong foot. That would be bad. The smiley face... well, that was Dr. G making fun of me. He laughed at me when I took my Blackberry out to take a picture of my foot before he re-bandaged it. So he added the smiley face and told me to go ahead and take the picture.

Then he re-bandaged. Smaller and pink! Practical AND stylish. He gave me a choice of pink or green... both were the bright colors of the 80s. Perhaps I should've chosen BOTH and made my foot look like a watermelon? Anyway, this bandage stays on until next Thursday, when I got back to have at least some of the stitches removed. Still can't get it wet, which means at least another 10 days of shower aerobics and bagging and taping. And the oh-so-stylish shoe, which you can see in the picture above, is a new fixture in my life... at least for the next month or so.

And now Frankenfoot and I are back on the sofa. The sofa nest will be dismantled after today. Life resumes to mostly normal tomorrow. Back to work on Thursday. It was fun while it lasted...

Thinking...

It's pretty darn cool that I went out to lunch to two friends today wearing capri pants and flip flops. On November 9th. Yes, it's THAT warm.

Well, flip flop (singular) if you want to get technical... I suppose the surgical shoe qualifies as a sandal since it is open-toe. An extremely unattractive sandal, but a sandal nonetheless...

Survival

This morning I accomplished great things... I double-bagged and taped my foot/leg, got into the shower without killing myself, got showered, SHAVED MY LEGS (at least the parts that weren't covered in plastic and tape), AND got back out of the shower without killing myself. Quite an accomplishment, no?

Inventory

In no particular order, here are the things I have been surrounded with in my sofa nest for the weekend.

• Fleece blanket
  
• Pile of pillows
  
• Bottles of water
  
• Cans of Diet Coke
  
• Chapstick
  
• Catalogs
  
• Television remote (and DVD remote and cable remote)
  
• Notepad
  
• Bottle of Tylenol III
  
• Bottle of Motrin
  
• Dayplanner
  
• Laptop
  
• Cell phone
  
• Blackberry
  
• House phone
  
• Books (three of them)
  
• Tissues
  
• Pens
  
• Cupcakes
  
• Cookies
  
• Tootsie rolls
  
• Rice Krispie Treat
  
• Briefcase
  
• Purse
  
• Bag for trash and food wrappers

I think that about covers it. I can conquer the world from my sofa nest!!

Thinking...

Thank God for wireless Internet!

I have, for the most part, been sitting or lying on the sofa since about Noon on Friday. The "sofa nest" is well-stocked, and at a perfect viewing angle to the flat screen, but there's really nothing on TV during the day. Nothing. OK, today there was football.

So, I've caught up on the last two episodes of Grey's Anatomy, the last two episodes of Brothers & Sisters, and the last two episodes of Desperate Housewives. I've spent a lot of time on Facebook. I've done some Christmas shopping. I've read CNN.com. A lot.

I wouldn't have been able to do any of that without my laptop and my wireless Internet connection.

So, while a nice visit from my BFF yesterday made my day, and getting out of the house for a few hours today (for the first time since I came home from the surgical center) for my goddaughter's birthday party was awesome, I don't know what else I'd have been doing all weekend without the Internet!

I don't know how my dad did it all those years ago when he had back surgeries and had to be in bed for DAYS with no computer, let alone wireless Internet. Progress rocks!

That was that

I am home and snuggly ensconsed (sp?) in my "sofa nest" (and have been since about Noon). The surgery went fine. The only snafu was that since I was somewhat dehydrated (yes, I KNOW I don't drink enough water), the nurse couldn't get the IV in the back of my hand. The vein kept rolling/ receding/ something. (I'm sure I'll have a lovely bruise from that.) She was very nice, she just couldn't get the needle in my vein. She finally called someone else in, who had no trouble getting a vein on the side of my wrist (and I should think not considering how tight she had the piece of rubber tied just above my elbow). I was visited in the prep area by two anesthesioligists, an anesthesiology nurse, my doctor, and three other nurses. They wrote "yes" on my left foot and the doctor initialed it. Liability CYA, I guess. I've heard of too many people who had the wrong limb amputated! Anyway, I confirmed my name, birthday, and what I was there for about 17 times, and then I was walked back to my OR and Hubby went out to the waiting area to ... well, wait.

I laid down on the operating table, which was only about as wide as was and hoped I didn't do a big twitch while I was out or I might have ended up on the floor! They strapped my arms out to my sides and put something in my IV to relax me. Didn't feel any difference. Then she said she was going to put the actual sleepy stuff in there momentarily. Missed that part. :)

I was under "twilight" anesthesia, so there's always the chance that you'll wake up during the procedure. I did wake up toward the end and had a conversation with whomever with in the room. I really remember what we talked about, other than the fact that I made a comment that I could feel I had a sock on my foot so the bandage must not be too big. Some replied that, um, no... there was no sock and my foot was still numb. Oh well. In my defense all of this conversing was going on with my eyes closed.

Anyway, I was chatting away and the next thing I knew, I was in the recovery area. Guess I went sleepy again for a few minutes. The nurse asked if I had to use the restroom, and I did. Not shocking since they pumped a few liters of fluid in me during the 90-minute procedure. They put a lovely orthopedic shoe on my foot and I hobbled to the bathroom, where I almost fell into the toilet as I was still a little dizzy from the anesthesia. But all was well. When I went back, I got to sit in the rolling Barka Lounger. And I got pretzels and Diet Coke! I had joked with the doctor prior to surgery that I hoped my growling stomach didn't distract him from the task at hand! I was HUNGRY!

In the less than five minutes it took me to scarf down my bag of pretzels, the dizzyness went away and Hubby joined me. I got dressed, the nurse when over some stuff, and I sat in a wheelchair to be discharged.

So the verdict was that I did, indeed have a ganglion cyst in my foot. I didn't ask how big it ended up being. I need to ask him that next week when I go back for my follow-up. But he also found a bone spur, which he said is likely what caused it in the first place. So he shaved that down and removed the cyst. That's why it took longer than anticipated, I guess. But's all's good. I go back to see him on Tuesday for a follow-up. I have to keep the ginourmous bandage on until then. Fun, fun.

I have been sitting/lying on the sofa nest since about Noon. I ate, took a Tylenol III, read a few chapters of my book, read my email, read the latest People Magazine, took a codeine-induced nap, and now I'm watching Keeper Boy play Backyard Baseball on the Wii. J-Mav is playing at a friend's house.

We are going to order a movie on TV and some pizza and just hang in the sofa nest tonight. So far, I feel good. I've had my foot elevated all day, which I'm sure helps. I will likely take another Tylenol III soon. I decided there's no point in being a hero. I wasn't when I had children, and there's no need to be now, either. Not that this pain could be anything near THAT pain, but why deal with pain at all?

Still undecided about this weekend's activities... I think I'll remain on the sofa nest at least through tomorrow, which means I'll miss J-Mav's soccer game and end-of-season party, as well as Keeper Boy's hockey game against his team from last year. We'll see what Sunday brings. I may feel the need to fly the coop by then.

Cast of thousands

OK... maybe not THOUSANDS, but I have talked about a lot of people on here since I started, and in some cases, I've referred to the same person by different "code names." Oops. Anyway, here's the a primer... immediate family first, then alphabetical order.

• Hubby -- Obvious, I hope
  
• Keeper Boy -- Eldest son
  
• J-Mav -- Younger son
  
• K-Dog -- Four-legged daughter
  

• BFF -- My best friend
  
• BFF's Hubby -- BFF's husband
  
• Bro -- My brother
  
• D&G -- My youngest cousin on my mom's side and her husband
  
• Dad -- My dad
  
• GmaG -- My mother-in-law (also referred to as MIL in earlier posts)
  
• Jenrie -- My sister-in-law/Uncle Hooter's wife (also referred to as SIL in earlier posts)
  
• Mom -- My mom
  
• N -- My Godson
  
• Nanya -- BFF's mom
  
• RDM -- My eldest cousin on my dad's side of the family
  
• S-Dog -- Uncle Hooter and Jenrie's dog
  
• Spidey -- My nephew (Uncle Hooter/Jenrie's son)... also referred to as JGS in earlier posts
  
• Uncle Hooter -- Hubby's younger brother (also referred to as BIL in earlier posts)
  
• V -- My Goddaughter
  

Going, going, gone...

Well, though the Phillies pushed the series to Game 6, it just wasn't their year this year. The Yankees looked like the better team almost from the start of the series. So no back-to-back world championships for the Phils. Hopefully before spring training starts, the Phillies can tweak a few things (like finding a bullpen) and Ryan Howard can find his bat (he had a glimmer last night) and be right back to the show next year. Third time's a charm!

This is it

Well, today is potentially the last day I'll have full feeling in my foot. I hope not, but there's a pretty good chance I'll end up with some nerve issues from this surgery tomorrow morning... like maybe not being able to feel my pinky toe. Today is DEFINITELY the last day I'll wear anything but sneakers or my flat, black shoes for the next month. I should say, shoe, because I'm going to have a lovely "prescription shoe" on my left foot for a month.

I'm glad I'm finally getting this taken care of. While the cyst does not leave me in constant, excrutiating pain, it is annoying, dull achiness. Not constant. It comes and goes. However, it has come more than it has gone in the past three months. And any type of exercise with even just the slightest impact has become extremely uncomfortable (to include running, zumba, and even walking on the treadmill).

Needless to say -- with pretty much zippo exercise going on -- I'm not exactly rocking Weight Watchers right now (which is why you all haven't seen any updates recently). I won't be able to really do anything for at least a month, so I'm going to have to be really vigilant about what goes in my mouth. Sigh.

Anyway, no food or drink after midnight tonight. (I can have half a can of Diet Coke in the morning, but it has to be at least two hours prior to my arrival at the surgical center... i.e., by 6am.) Surgery is scheduled for 9:10am tomorrow and should last about 45 minutes. Right now I'm not nervous.

Heard...

[After seeing a minivan in the parking lot that looked like ours and was missing the same two hubcaps as ours is...]

"Look Mama, that van is missing the same two hubber caps as ours!"

Thinking...

The World Series is going to be the death of me. Every game since the NLCS started, I've sworn that I'm not staying up for the entire game because I'm so tired. Yet I've seen the bottom of the 9th in every game but one. I'm exhausted!!

In other non-flu-related news...

• Keeper Boy won the game he was in net for last weekend.
  
• I had a GREAT time with my BFF at the Redskins/Eagles game last Monday night.
  
• J-Mav lost another bottom tooth (his third) and has three others loose -- one on top that's VERY loose.
  
• My dad did not go home sick from visiting us -- for the first time in a long time. It seems he ends up with something after being here, even if no one here is sick.
  
• My foot surgery is set for a week from today (11/6) and I already have a prescription for some Tylenol with codeine. :)
  
• Our replacement four-remote charger for the Wii controllers FINALLY arrived yesterday. The original one was recalled because apparently some of them spontaneously caught fire. Yikes!
  
• Keely has been favoring her right, front leg off and on for the past week. Probably need to get that checked out now that all the humans are feeling human again.
  
• We bought a gas fire pit for our back patio!
  
• J-Mav and I are going to see our niece (C.) perform as the Wicked Witch of the West in her school play in November. We are VERY excited!
  
• Our Godson got a part in his school musical (The Music Man) as Salesman #4. Way to go, N.!!
  
• C. was accepted into what I think is her first-choice college AND offered scholarship money! Yay!
  
• I read this evening in People magazine that Andre Agassi not only had a hair weave, but he used to do meth! Holy crap! I might have to read his book that just came out.

What a week!

Hubby hasn't been to work since Tuesday morning. My house is a wreck. And I think my sister-in-law hates us.

Last weekend, my parents were here visiting. They came down to see J-Mav's soccer game and Keeper Boy's hockey games. Soccer was cancelled for the second week in a row due to rain (and tomorrow's not looking good, either). They saw Keeper Boy play on Saturday. Uncle Hooter (Hubby's brother, who is STILL stuck at Walter Reed) was here during the days all weekend, too.

Keeper Boy was complaining that the cough that started on Saturday was hurting his chest and that he had a sore throat. Didn't think TOO much of it. My parents left Monday morning. Monday afternoon, Keeper Boy texted me when he was off the bus and on his way home, as usual. But his normal, daily "On way" message was quickly followed by "Don't feel good." Uh oh. He called when he got in the house, as he does each day, said he didn't have much homework and that he was going to lie down and take a nap. That's when I knew SOMETHING was wrong. "Nap" is a dirty word to my children.

I was going to the Skins/Eagles game with BFF on Monday night, so I told Hubby that Keeper Boy wasn't feeling well and that maybe he should take him to the Minute Clinic to get the cough checked out. So I went to the game and Hubby and my two awesome kids went and waited TWO AND A HALF HOURS to see someone at the Minute Clinic, only to be told (basically) he has a cough; give him cough medicine.

Tuesday morning, I had two pre-op appointments in preparation for my foot surgery on 11/6. I had to take J-Mav with me to the first one. He was whiny and coughing when I got him up, but I figured he was just tired from being up later than normal the night before. In between my appointments, I took J-Mav to school. When I went to drop him off, he started crying that he didn't want to go to school. But he also told me nothing hurt when I asked him. So he pulled himself together and went into school. I went to my next appointment.

While waiting for my surgeon to come in, my cell phone rang. It was the clinic at J-Mav's school. He was sent to the clinic because he started crying in class. He had a fever of 100.7 and he was in the isolation room and I needed to come pick him up. I told them I was at a doctor appointment myself and that I'd be there as soon as possible. My doctor came into the room and we were discussing the surgery. My phone rang again. It was the clinic at Keeper Boy's school. He had briefly felt sick in class and had gone to the clinic. He had a 101 degree fever and I needed to come get him, too. I told them the same thing... that I'd be there ASAP... and finished my appointment.

I picked up Keeper Boy first because I figured he could sit in the car while I went in to get J-Mav. Keeper Boy was fine. Just a little tired. Didn't feel sick anymore. He said it passed very quickly. (Might've just been gas pain. Who knows.) We went to get J-Mav and my poor little guy looked so pathetic when I walked into the "isolation room." He was draped over a table with a surgical mask on, sleeping. He was very lethargic. As we walked out of the building, he said he felt sick. I got him in his seat and gave him a bag. He vomited on the way back to the house. (But that was the only time he ever got sick.)

J-Mav immediately went to bed and slept for more than three hours. Keeper Boy was fine. He worked on homework and projects most of the afternoon, and his fever was gone by dinnertime. I called the pediatrician and they wanted to see J-Mav because of his history with asthma. But they wanted to wait and see him the next morning to make sure the flu swab would come up positive when they gave it to him (if he had the flu). Then they could give him Tamiflu because he's considered "high risk." Keeper Boy didn't qualify for the medication, so I didn't bother making an appointment for him. They said fluids, rest, etc.

J-Mav was better after his nap, but still kind of lethargic. He ate a normal dinner, but not much of it. And he went to bed right after dinner. And after dinner, Hubby's eyes started looking glassy and he said he felt achey. Ugh.

Wednesday morning, I took J-Mav to the doctor, where his flu swab came back positive for Influenze A (of which H1N1 is a subset). They did a strep test, too, just in case. It was negative. We were told to use his inhaler ever four hours while he was awake as the biggest concern with kids with asthma is secondary pneumonia. Great. We left with a prescription for Tamiflu and a suggestion that Hubby not be in the office, either. So, we filled the prescription and went home. All four of us home all day on a week day. How "fun!" J-Mav proceeded to sleep for three hours again. Keeper Boy played outside. He was completely fine, except for a lingering cough, and just waiting out the have-to-be-fever-free-for-24-hours-before-you-can-go-back-to-school period. J-Mav was definitely feeling better Wednesday night, and his fever broke around bedtime. Hubby now had a very low-grade fever and a horrible sounding cough. And we found out that Uncle Hooter had gone to the doctor at Walter Reed after hearing the boys were sick, and he, too, tested positive for the flu. Unfortunately for him, he seemed to have it worse than my three boys. And he was put on quarters quarantine for 48 hours. Hubby was put on guest room quarantine for sleeping purposes. :-)

As a result of Uncle Hooter being sick, my sister-in-law (Jenrie) and nephew (Spidey) went and stood in line for TWO AND A HALF HOURS to get an H1N1 vaccination since Uncle Hooter is supposed to be going home next week and Jenrie is pregnant and Spidey is 4. This was additional stress on top of the fact that they're supposed to be moving to Hawaii in, like, two weeks, and though Uncle Hooter was released from physical therapy two weeks ago, he's still trying to cut through red tape and paperwork to get outta there. He needs a much bigger pair of scissors.

Thursday, Keeper Boy went back to school. J-Mav stayed home to start his have-to-be-fever-free-for-24-hours-before-you-can-go-back-to-school period. Hubby stayed home because he just kind of felt like crap -- and remained in guest room quarantine at night. I stayed home because my boss told me to work at home until I was sure I didn't have any cooties. Uncle Hooter stayed in his itty-bitty room at Walter Reed. J-Mav was DEFINITELY feeling better. He didn't stop talking from the minute he got up until the minute he went to bed. And there was absolutely no thought of a nap. None. At all.

We hemmed and hawed over whether we were going to send J-Mav back to school today. It almost seemed cruel not to. He was SO okay yesterday and his fever would be gone for well over 24 hours by the time he went to school this morning. On the other hand, one of the major things with the flu is lingering fatigue and we didn't want him to overdo it. On the other hand, today was the last day of the first grading period and he missed some quizzes and assessments this week. On the other hand, why not keep him home and make sure he's truly okay before sending him back next Wednesday (the kids have off on Monday and Tuesday). In the end, we decided to compromise. We'd let him sleep in until he woke up on his own and then we'd get him going and I'd take him to school late -- as long as the fever didn't come back or something crazy. Hubby decided he'd wait to see how he felt this morning before he decided if he was going to work at the office or at home (as he'd been doing the past two days, as had I).

The best laid plans do not always occur correctly. J-Mav was up and ready to go at 7:30 and was completely fine. He wasn't even really coughing. I think the inhaler has gone a long way toward clearing that up. (Maybe Keeper Boy and Hubby should be taking a few hits from J-Mav's inhaler!) Anyway, J-Mav ended up going to school on time. Keeper Boy went to school. Hubby stayed home again... more so people in his office wouldn't flip out and treat him like he had the plague than anything else. His fever was gone and he's moved into the head cold stage of this madness. And I... I escaped the House of Swine and went to the office for the first time since Monday! :)

I worried about J-Mav all day -- that we sent him back too soon and he'd be exhausted when I picked him up. No worries. He was running around on the playground when I got there to pick him up from aftercare, and he said he had a great day. Hubby is feeling better, but still has lots of sinus pressure. At this point it's just a moderate head cold, I guess. Uncle Hooter is off quarantine. His fever broke and he's feeling tons better from what he said tonight.

So, I think we have survived our experience with what was most likely H1N1. I think our experience was mild compared to what some experience. I think the kids rebounded faster than Hubby and Uncle Hooter. The doctor at Walter Reed thinks Uncle Hooter's case was worse because he'd gone running on Tuesday night and the virus became entrenched deep in his lungs. See, running is bad for you! ;-P

Tomorrow I need to clean the house. It is not used to having all of us here for so much time during the week (neither is the dog for that matter). I will disinfect all surfaces one last time to make sure we get rid of any stray germs. I don't feel the need to do this again anytime soon!

Somehow I seem to have made it through the week without getting sick (knock on wood), which is crazy because I always seem to get what the kids bring home, even if they don't actually show any symptoms of whatever little bug it is that they bring home. Not that I'm complaining...

I did finally get my flu shot today at the free clinic that was offered at my office. Nothing like being a day late and a dollar short! TGIF!!

Heard...

"Mom, how small do you think the tooth fairy is?"

J-Mav and I were eating dinner tonight with his two best buds and their mommies... a Thursday night thing we do after soccer practice. J-Mav told me that he bit his candy bar (a mini candy bar that was in his Lunchable today) at lunch and his tooth got really loose. Before I could really even respond (because my mouth was full), J-Mav said, "uh, mom... my tooth just fell out."

I don't know how small the tooth fairy is, but between the tooth J-Mav lost tonight and the other three that are loose, I hope he/she has BIG pockets!!

Thinking...

Between the crazy busy past week at work and the MLB playoffs, I'm gonna need to sleep for a week to catch up on some rest!

It had to happen sometime...

So last night Keeper Boy had a game. He was in net. Against his team from last year (the first of four during the season). With his good friend K in net for the other team.

Keeper Boy didn't seem to be nervous at all. He didn't really want to play against K; he'd have rather played against the other goalie on the team. The one who displaced him from that team. But that's not the way it worked out. What are ya gonna do?

While the 6-2 losing score wouldn't necessarily indicate it, Keeper Boy had a spectacular game. I wasn't sure how he'd do, but after he made a great save on the first shot he faced (the first of 42... yes, that's FORTY-TWO... as opposed to our team's 8), I knew he was fine. He was ON.

He made lots of great saves and the general concensus was that the score would've been a lot worse had Keeper Boy not kept the team in the game. Usually when other parents say that to me, I smile, but don't necessarily agree. But last night, I did. He really did have a great game. I was very proud of him.

So after the game, what did we do? We brought K (the opposing goalie) home with us for a sleepover and to hang out today. I don't think they stopped talking except when they were sleeping.

Sometimes friendship trumps rivalry. :-)

And they're off...

A new category to keep track of my parents (M&D) and my mother-in-law (Gma G) as they travel. :-) I should've started this over the summer!

M&D left bright and early this morning for a quick trip north. (Aren't you supposed to go SOUTH when it starts getting cold?!) It involves a motor coach, some trains, and a river cruise. They'll be back on Sunday sometime.

In recent travel news, Gma G just returned from an annual overnight trip to Frankenmuth, MI with her girlfriends. She's now back at work. And M&D spent four or five days last week at a cabin in Southern Virginia, and 9/20 - 10/4 traveling (Savannah, GA, Charleston, SC, and Ashville, NC). Once they return from (snowy) New England on Sunday, they'll be home for four whole days before they head down here for their first visit since the spring. They'll stay with us for a few days and then head out to my brother's house for a few days.

Thinking...

... it sucks that I had to turn my heat on when I got home from work today.

Love it...

I think if you add up the number of days my parents have spent at their house since the beginning of the summer, it MIGHT total a month. They are always off somewhere. Over the summer they spent many weeks at the shore and also traveled to Colorado for two weeks. This month is so busy for them, I can't keep track. They got home on Sunday from a two week trip to Savannah/Charleston/Ashville and were home a whole two days before taking off again yesterday for a cabin in southern Virginia. Later this month their doing a trip to New England, I think. And they're coming down here to see us and my brother's family at the end of the month.

How awesome is that?!?

I am so happy that they're doing exactly what they love to do in their retirement -- traveling! Since everyone has cell phones these days, I still talk to them every few days when they're out and about. Dad needs a new cell phone, though... perhaps I should try to talk him into a Blackberry so they can get their email on the road!

Strep update

I am happy to report that, this time, we were wrong. We never received a call from the Minute Clinic yesterday, which means the overnight strep tests were both negative. So maybe my kids aren't as "not normal" as I portray them to be...

C-A-P-S Caps! Caps! Caps!

The Capitals' regular season starts tomorrow on the road in Boston! Let's go Caps!!

My children are not normal

We walked into the exam room and the nurse practioner (Mary) assumed we were there for flu shots. Afterall, two healthy-looking boys who are bouncing around like maniacs because they've been forced to spend the last hour waiting their turn and listening to every Hoops & Yoyo card in CVS can't be sick. Can they? Well, I don't know. The jury is still out on that one. Results due today. So why then were we at the Minute Clinic on Monday night?

The short answer is because my children are not normal. The long answer follows.

I was driving home from work on Monday evening and replaying the morning's and weekend's events in my mind. Those events included the normal myriad hockey and soccer events (as you would expect). However, also included was a very late night vomiting incident from Keeper Boy on Saturday (he made it to the bathroom) and a right-before-it's-time-to-leave-for-school-just-ate-yogurt-and-drank-milk-for-breakfast vomiting explosion from J-Mav on Monday morning (he did not make it to the bathroom... at least the sofa is leather). Both were once and done. Neither had any symptoms other than the vomiting -- not even an upset stomach.

Either incident on its own could be rationalized and explained away. For instance, Keeper Boy had eaten greasy food twice on Saturday between all of his activities... way more greasy food than he's used to. And sometimes yogurt on an empty stomach is not a good thing.

But as I said before, my children are not normal. And as I was driving home on Monday night, I had an "oh my Lord" epiphany.

You see, both boys have had strep throat many times... Keeper Boy more than J-Mav, but they've both had it. They NEVER have the "normal" symptoms. Neither has ever had the tell-tale white spots in the throat. A slight sore throat, maybe; but no spots. Neither usually has a fever. Neither usually feels sick in any way. J-Mav just acts lethargic. But they have almost always thrown up. And usually it's a once and done situation. That's like our warning flag to take them to the doctor. Usually we are greeted with doubt. "But he has no symptoms of strep throat." I have always insisted on the test and every time it has come back positive. Every time. Sometimes the quick strep wasn't positive, but the one that was sent out to the lab was positive the next day. But always positive. The last time I took them for strep tests was the last week of school this past June. J-Mav's quick strep was positive right away. Keeper Boy's (two days later) had to be sent out to come up positive. They both ended up on antibiotics for the end of school and a little bit beyond. And you'd never have known that either of them was sick!

So that's how we ended up in the Minute Clinic on Monday night with two boys who couldn't have appeared further from sick. I got a call yesterday afternoon that the lab hadn't shown up on Monday night to pick up the day's samples, so they didn't go until Tuesday morning. I expect that if anything grew, I'll get a call at some point this morning. But I'm actually HOPING this time I'm wrong. Given our history with strep, though, we figured it was better to be safe than sorry. My kids just aren't normal.

Thinking...

It's a little creepy how the elevator sometimes (but not all the time) opens when you walk into the lobby of my office building. It happens too often to be coincidence, but I haven't seen a sensor anywhere. Creepy.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Surprisingly good movie!! We saw it last night in 3-D (and yes... both the boys left their glasses on for the entire movie). This is progress if you remember our experiences with the 3-D attractions at Disney World in January...

Seen... / Heard...

Last Tuesday, J-Mav and I had to do a weeknight run to the grocery store. We parked and saw a very strange site as we were walking into the store... a car that had a ginormous Cowboys star in the back window, AS WELL AS a large Redskins R on the back of the car.

J-Mav looked at it then said, "that's just not right."

Weekend update...

Soccer! Hockey! Uncle Hooter! Huh?

Hubby's little brother acquired the nickname "Hooter" many years ago. I won't go into the whole story, but it's a funny one. :-) Anyway, he had to report back to Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC) on Friday for a follow-up on his surgery last month. He checked in and proceeded to journey over to our house for the weekend. Needless to say, the boys were THRILLED!

But before the weekend of sports, we put Uncle Hooter to work. He and Hubby assembled J-Mav's new bed... the bed that came with the enourmously-less-than-helpful instructions... the bed we tried to assemble LAST weekend and couldn't even figure out where to start. Frustrating to say the least. Anyway, Hubby and Uncle Hooter figured it out and built a beautiful new bed for J-Mav. Yay! One step closer to the completion of the room makeover. :-)

Next on the agenda was J-Mav's soccer game. Due to it being a Jewish holiday, our roster was quite short. Of our 11 players, we had only six. But we made due and Uncle Hooter got a kick out of watching J-Mav play. J-Mav, knowing that Uncle Hooter played soccer all the up through college, even asked for some tips and pointers (and listened when they were given to him)!

From the soccer the field, we went directly to the hockey rink. Uncle Hooter, J-Mav, and I were able to partake in the organization's annual picnic prior to going inside to see Keeper Boy's team play. They were playing a team from Ashburn for which a few of Justin's former teammates play this year. It wasn't Keeper Boy's turn in the rotation, so he got to keep stats and watch, and I got to sit and talk to friends we hadn't seen in awhile. Keeper Boy's team won.

After the game we went to dinner with great friends (the family of one of the kids on the opposing hockey team) and had a fabulous time catching up while watching VA Tech win a great football game. Good times.

This morning Keeper Boy had hockey practice at 6am! Yeah, I didn't go. Neither did Uncle Hooter. Nor did J-Mav. There was some Rock Band competition, some chores, and some lunch. Then we all trekked up to Frederick, MD for another hockey game. Keeper Boy was in net and had a really good game! The whole team played awesome... for the first two periods. Then I think the 6am practice kicked in. There was a lot of standing around and not a lot of skating. We ended up losing by one goal that was scored in the last few minutes of the game. Kind of a heart breaker.

Went to dinner after the game (thanks, Uncle Hooter!) and then Uncle Hooter headed back to WRAMC and we headed home. The kids are in bed, Hubby has gone off to play hockey (his third rink of the day), and I am flipping between the Emmy Awards and the football game. Neither are really holding my interest.

We're all looking forward to having Uncle Hooter back with us next weekend!

Oh, and work...

I forgot to mention work in my last post. Work is good. Started the new gig the last week of June. I'm basically doing the same thing I did in my last job (overseeing proposal production, doing all the editing, and creating the look of the proposal responses), with one more direct report and a slightly different title: Technical Publications Manager. Sounds fancy, no?

The commute is about two miles longer (for a total of five door-to-door) and adds almost 10 minutes. That's the downside. Upside?

• Working for my former boss again, with most of my former team (who came over here with me from the old place)
  
• Closer to Target for lunchtime shopping
  
• Big company with a smaller company feel with regard to treating employees fairly
  
• Company that's actually winning new and repeat business regularly
  
• Flexibility
  
• Office with a window!
  
• Slight pay raise (always good)
  
• Fridge stocked with Diet Coke
  
• All Federal holidays off (not just the "major" ones)
  
• Top Secret clearance (as of last week)

Some are big things; some are little. All combine for a job I enjoy going to each morning.

Oh Where, Oh Where Has my Summer Time Gone?

Seems like it was just yesterday that I quit my job and had two glorious work-free weeks that coincided with the boys' last two weeks of school. And then we had the WHOLE summer before us with fun plans and things to do. And now it's done. Wow, that was quick! I did the summer wrap-up a few weeks ago. Here's what's happened since then...

Hershey Tournament
So the tournament wasn't great for Keeper Boy's new team. Three losses; one win. However, the coaching staff learned a lot about what worked and what didn't. (There was a lot to learn considering the team had exactly zero practices prior to the tournament). We had a great time and got to know the new hockey family. And, my aunt, uncle, and cousin surprised us by showing up at the game the day after I wrote from the tournament. It was their first ever live hockey game! Good times!

School
We're in week 2 and all is well as far as I know. J-Mav loves his teacher (he does magic!). And Keeper Boy isn't too overloaded with homework... yet. He did have a writing assignment on the second day of school, which didn't make him too happy. But he did well... at least on his second attempt, when he actually put some thought into it. J-Mav's Back-to-School Night is tonight; Keeper Boy's is October 1.

9|11
Eight years?!? Unbelievable. Remember that day like it was yesterday.

J-Mav's Room
Progress came to a screeching halt when the bed was delivered as we couldn't make heads nor tails out of the instructions for assembly. After sending an email to the company (and getting a response that basically said, "the instructions that came with the bed are sufficient to put it together") and then speaking to a representative from the company, we're going to try again this weekend. I mean, we didn't even know where to START! I believe I could make serious money re-writing assembly instructions for companies such as this one... if only these companies would realize/admit that their instructions SUCK!

Football!!
The NFL regular season has started. Woo hoo!! Both the Eagles and Cowboys won in Week 1, which makes our house a happy place. Keeper Boy is playing in a fantasy football league with his Godmother/my BFF (through her office). Keeper Boy named his team the Deadskins... I'm sure not a popular choice with Godmother's co-workers, who are likely mostly Redskins fans.

Hockey!!
The Caps are in training camp. I am attending a pre-season game with BFF next week. Yay!! There was a big article on the team's three goalies on the front page of the Sports section in the Post yesterday. Regular season starts in less than a month!!

School Band/Rock Band
Keeper Boy has switched instruments... he played clarinet last year, and did well. However, he didn't enjoy it. He had zippo interest in continuing with said instrument and was ready to quit band. He had always expressed an interest in percussion and, after seeing him rock the drums while playing Rock Band over the summer, we asked (with great trepidation) if he'd like to see if he could switch to percussion and stay in the band. His eyes lit up like Christmas trees and last night I signed a rental agreement for a "bell kit" (practice drum pad and bell set... basically a xylophone). Lord help me.

Accountability...

Still sucking, but going to start taking my sneakers to work and walking at lunch...

Hubby plans to do his first lifetime weigh-in tomorrow...

TODAY'S STATS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Change from last time: +2.2
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Change since starting WW: -26
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Pounds to goal: 16
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End-of-Summer Wrap-Up

Haven't posted in awhile...

Keeper Boy, J-Mav, and I went to the shore last week. A good time was had by all (after the remnants of the hurricane passed through the night we got there). We were busy for almost all of the five days we were there, and we all came home a few shades darker. Mom and I hit the annual sidewalk sale in Stone Harbor and did some Christmas shopping. The boys and I went to the beach/ocean one day. We visited with my grandfather, aunt, and uncle one afternoon and had dinner with them and went on a boat ride. We went to the Ocean City boardwalk one day and rented a surrey and walked the boards. And we hung out at the lake at the campground. Good times. Great weather.

We got home at midnight this past Wednesday, went to open house at J-Mav's school Thursday morning to meet his teacher for this year, did laundry and re-packed. Thursday night we left for Hershey, where we are at a hockey tournament with Keeper Boy's new team. We arrived late Thursday night, spent yesterday at Hershey Park and Chocolate World, and played two games today. We went 1 and 1 today, and we have a game tomorrow and one on Monday. The game tomorrow was the first time this group has ever played together in a game situation, and it showed. They lost 6-1 with Keeper Boy in net, but he played well and I like to think that his play helped a lot in keeping the score to just 6. He got the hard hat for the game for being the hardest working player, so that was cool. I know he just really wanted to play well and not let the guys down in his first game with them. We're getting to know all the new names and faces. Again. But it's all good. Seems like a great group of kids and a great group of coaches and parents.

Bonus for today was that my cousin D and her hubby G came out for the game. The EARLY game at 7:45am!! That's some good family! It was great to see them, AND they're coming back for tomorrow's game! Yay!!

Let's see... some random items...

• D and G are totally rocking Weight Watchers!! I didn't recognize them when they walked into the rink today! They've both dropped several clothing sizes and are still going!!
  
• Keeper Boy had his first "major" accident on his bike while we were at the campground... the pedal fell off his bike, and so did he. He got pretty scraped up.
  
• We got Keeper Boy on four roller coasters at Hershey Park yesterday, and -- more surprisingly -- we got J-Mav on three!
  
• My grandfather is still totally awesome at 96 years old; however, I was sad to see a marked decline from the last time I saw him. :-(
  
• Our Godson was almost totally back to normal just a week after his appendectomy. Kids are so adaptable!
  
• J-Mav is getting a room makeover. Hubby pulled up the carpet and laid laminate flooring, painted the walls, and put up new trim and baseboards. We are waiting for the new bed to be delivered. It's looking good!
  
• I can't believe summer is over and school starts on Tuesday.
  

Happy Labor Day!!

Heard...

So Keeper Boy's new hockey team sports a girl. She is a very good hockey player, and during this afternoon's game she was excellent. Apparently during intermission the head coach said to the team, "I want you all to play like a girl!" Silence. "Because SHE's getting it done." Or something similar. You go, girl!

Heard...

So my Godson had an unexpected appendectomy last Thursday. (Is an appendectomy EVER expected?) Anyway, Keeper Boy returned from Camp Grandma late Saturday night, and gave the Godson a call on Sunday to see how he was doing since he was released from the hospital on Saturday. I only heard the first part of the conversation, and only on Keeper's Boy's side, but it went something like this...

"Hey [Godson]... How ya doin'?... I heard you had surgery... So what's that all about?..."

Yeah. I had to walk away then because I was laughing too hard.

Accountability...

I am really sucking at this whole Weight Watchers thing as of late. I haven't tracked in I don't know how long, I haven't been exercising regularly, and I'm just not feeling good about myself in general, which makes me feel blah about the whole thing. BUT, I hope to get back on track.... School starts in a few weeks. Hockey is ramping back up. More of a regular schedule in the house again... hopefully that will help me.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Hubby reached lifetime two weeks ago!!

TODAY'S STATS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Change from last time: +2.6
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Change since starting WW: -26.4
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pounds to goal: 15.6
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Thinking...

My life is pretty darn blessed.

I follow several bloggers... a few are family, a few are bloggers I stumbled on in some random place or through other people's blogs. One such blogger is Fat Cyclist (http://www.fatcyclist.com/). I first linked to his blog through my IronMan cousin's blog. For more than a year I have read the fatcyclist.com blog (which is, at its core, about cycling) and followed along with his family's battle against the cancer that is slowly tearing his wife Susan from from them. This man, Elden (the fat cyclist), is a man I've never met; a man I never will meet. But I feel like I know him. He is an amazing writer, and an even more amazing husband/father/person. And he regularly brings me to tears. Today I read that the end of this awful journey is near for his family. Today my heart aches.

Update: Susan passed away the evening of August 5, 2009.

Thinking...

I could feed a small third world country with the money I've already spent on the boys' school supplies for the coming school year. And I haven't gotten everything on the lists yet!

Accountability...

Coming off vacation... I'm just sayin'...

Hubby had an appointment today, so he didn't weigh in. He plans to go tomorrow. Assuming he's still within an "acceptable" range, I think he has only one more week until he reaches lifetime!!

TODAY'S STATS
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Change from last time: +3.0
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Change since starting WW: -30.6
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Pounds to goal: 11.4
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CANADA TRIP - Day 6

Day 6 - Not in Really in Canada at All
Yesterday was Day 6; the last day of vacation. Compared to the day before, it was completely uneventful. We met my aunt and uncle for breakfast and then headed down to my parents' house. It took a couple hours. The boys disappeared into the basement (my dad has taped a hockey net to the wall down there and keeps hockey sticks and balls there for them) and we visited for a while with mom and dad. We all went out for a mid-afternoon late lunch/early dinner, and then Hubby and I headed home to Virginia.

We made very good time, and didn't even get too hung up on the beltway, even though we returned to town during rush hour. Bonus! We got home right around 7pm. We unloaded the van, and Hubby proceeded to load up his hockey gear and head to the rink for his game while I went to pick up K-dog from the kennel. Even without the kids we were going in different directions!

Today it was back to work. Vacation over. :-(

We received a dispatch from Camp Grandma and Grandpa. All is well. They went mini-golfing and to the Nike Outlet to get Keeper Boy a new pair of running shoes. I think a trip to the pool was on tap for earlier this afternoon. And Keeper Boy did well with his contact lenses this morning. He got one in and Grandpa got the other one in. One of these days he'll get both of them in by himself! He's just not there yet...

Foot update--for anyone who cares, my foot is pretty much back to normal and has been since Sunday afternoon-ish. It got better each day as the day wore on. Odd but true. I guess I just need to wait until the next time it happens. If it is plantar whatever, I think it'll come and go throughout my life. Not like I'm a stranger to foot issues. I've had my fair share. Just something else to add to the list!

CANADA TRIP - Day 5

Day 5 - Driving, Driving, and More Driving
I wrote this on my Blackberry Notepad somewhere in New York on Sunday evening...

Today has been spent in the car. Not on purpose; that's just the way it's worked out. We checked out of the hotel in a rain shower. We were going to try to find a little shop to get some inexpensice t-shirts and such, but we abandoned that idea when the shower turned into a monsoon. Instead, we drove toward Goalie Heaven, where we had to pick up Keeper Boy's catch glove around 1pm.

We had seen this intriguing and obnoxious looking store on our way to Goalie Heaven yesterday, so we thought we might stop and take a look around. The closest parking spot to it was about two and a half blocks away, though. We sat for awhile to see if the rain would let up. When it didn't, Hubby just drove up to the door and let us out. He then went to park the car. Good thing the boys insisted on keeping those silly ponchos from the Maid of the Mist Ride!

OMG! This store -- Honest Ed's -- was amazing! Not completely in a good way. It was like the world's largest dollar store. It covered at least a city block... probably two. It was three levels. AND it was Honest Ed's birthday. Well, it would've been if he hadn't passed away last year. But apparently that didn't matter. The city was still celebrating. There were police and news cameras and tons of people (who I think were mostly there waiting in line for the free hot dogs they were giving away). I can't imagine how many people might have been there had it not been monsooning outside!

Anyway, we wandered around for over and hour and left with a bag full of red, white, and maple-leaf covered schtuff -- all for less than $30 CAD. It's the kind of place where you need to be willing to dig through large bins of stuff to find something worthy. But judging by the bags people were hauling around in there, lots of people do lots of shopping there.

As an aside... everywhere we went in Canada we were asked if we wanted to buy a plastic bag for our purchases for 5 cents. I guess that's why we saw people carrying cloth bags around everywhere!

By the time we went outside, the monsoon had stopped and the sun was out. We picked up Keeper Boy's glove and started home about 2pm. We should've arrived at tonight's destination (Williamsport, PA) around 8:30pm, including a dinner stop. Instead, it's 10:30pm and we still have 50 miles to go. What happened?

Well... not too far outside of Toronto (before we even got to Hamilton), we got into a HUGE traffic delay. Turns out the QEW (expressway from Toronto) was closed because Lake Ontario had flooded it. We didn't want to venture off the road because our GPS doesn't have Canadian maps and we were working off a printout from Google Maps. So waited. And inched. And waited. And told the boys to knock it off and keep their hands to themselves. And inched some more.

What should have taken us about 90 minutes to get to the U.S. border took us almost four hours. Ugh. There was also a delay at the border crossing. There were three lanes of traffic going over the Peace Bridge into Canada, but only one going into the United States.

We did pretty well for awhile -- even saw a double rainbow -- and stopped at an Applebee's in Geneseo, NY for dinner. After that, more fun! A detour off the interstate and another monsoon. What a day!

We should be at our hotel in Williamsport in about a half hour (about 11pm), weather and traffic permitting. Right now it's looking good.

Tomorrow morning: breakfast with my aunt and uncle, then on to mom and dad's house to drop the boys off for the week...

Update: We did arrive at the hotel just after 11pm -- even though the road was closed and we were forced to exit one exit before where our hotel was. Luckily I'm familiar enough with that part of Williamsport that I could get us to the hotel with no problem. They had our reservation and I think we were all asleep by 11:30. We had a great breakfast with my aunt and uncle and made it down to Camp Grandma and Grandpa without further incident.

CANADA TRIP - Day 4

Day 4 - Goalie Heaven/Casa Loma
As has become the norm, today didn't turn out to be exactly as we had planned, but it has been a great day nonetheless.

We did set an alarm to get up and get down to breakfast a little earlier. Unfortunately there was no variety from yesterday's breakfast. That was fine... there's still plenty to choose from. After breakfast, we all got showers and then headed out to Goalie Heaven.

What is Goalie Heaven? Well, it's part of a hockey store (Toronto Hockey Repair Ltd.) in Toronto... it has TONS of goalie equipment. TONS. And Keeper Boy needed some. We found the store with little trouble, and got parking on the street right in front of the store. The owner, Fiorenzo, helped us personally and took good care of us. In little more than an hour, we walked out of there with a new blocker glove, chest protector, neck dangler, helmet bag, and skates. And the skates were "baked" to Keeper Boy's foot to make them more comfortable. And, he's fixing Keeper Boy's catch glove as we speak. We will go back tomorrow to pick it up before we leave. We think we got a very good deal on the equipment. I know we only spent about 50 - 75% of what I was thinking we were going to have to. He gave us a bunch of discounts because we were buying so much, I think. And he threw the helmet bag in at no charge. Can't beat that.

We had kinda blocked off the whole day to equipment shopping, but we were done before Noon. So we decided to go ahead to Casa Loma today instead of waiting until tomorrow. It was a pretty straight shot from where we were, and we found it with no difficulty.

What an amazing, beautiful, and ridiculous place! It's a castle built by Sir Henry Mill Pellatt on a hill in the middle of Toronto. It took 300 men more than three years to build and cost almost $3,500,000 to build at the time. (It was begun in 1911.) He and his wife lived there for fewer than ten years before he lost it to financial ruin. Parts of it were never finished.

We wandered around Casa Loma for a few hours marveling at the intricacy of the wood panels in the rooms, and the molding. Everything about the place oozes wealth. Underneath the castle, there was to be a swimming pool and a bowling alley. Each was started, but never finished. The bowling alley is now the gift shop. The swimming pool is ust there unfinished. There are turrets, acres of gardens, and secret stairways throughout the home. It's one of those places you wish you had free reign to explore.

We drove back to the hotel in some pretty good rain, driving down Carlton Street and the old Maple Leaf Gardens along the way. Keeper Boy thought that was pretty cool.

We've been relaxing in the room for almost an hour. Everyone had a snack and we have the Jays game on TV. Hubby is dozing (at least in between outbursts from J-Mav... he gets very excited over the silliest things sometimes). I think we're going to try a restaurant down the street for dinner. It specializes in southern Italian food. We're going to remain low-key tonight. We told the boys maybe we'd do a pay-per-view movie in the room. We'll see.

So now we have no plans for tomorrow, other than to go back to the store to pick up Justin's catch glove at 1pm. We'll have to look through the guide book and see if there's anything else we want to check out while we're here. If not, I guess we'll head south a little earlier than we'd planned.

We have a reservation at a hotel in Williamsport, PA tomorrow night. We will meet my aunt and uncle for breakfast on Monday morning before heading down to Mom and Dad's house to drop the kids off for a week at Camp Grandma and Grandpa. :)

Less than 24 hours left in this great city...

Later...
We ate dinner at the Italian place. Tretorria, I think it was called. It was good, but we probably would've done better to walk over to Yonge Street and pop into somewhere over there. The boys just had plain bowls of pasta. I had a panini. Hubby had a pizza. He said it was good, but he didn't seem over the moon about it. Oh well. After dinner, we walked down Yonge Street, over by the Eaten Centre, and went to a theatre to see Up (Pixar's latest movie). It was very cute. The kids (and us) enjoyed it. Afterward, we walked back and the boys went immediately to bed.

A few observations we've made about Toronto...
It smells like trash. Moreso in some places than others. This is a direct result of the trash strike and we have to assume it is not the norm; however, it's hard to ignore as it's an almost constant visual and arromatic assault.
It seems to be quite environmentally conscious. There are recycling bins everywhere. There are bike taxis. There are Smart Cars. There is lots of public transportation. Lots of people walking and biking around downtown. We have seen ads in the city, in the papers, and on TV for rebates on energy-saving and water-saving appliances. There are recyling bins in the hotel rooms. There are signs posted to turn lights off when not in use. The overwhelming thinking definitely leans toward "green."
It doesn't seem to be overly health-conscious. We haven't seen a lot of people running, or walking for exercise. We've seen several gyms and fitness centers, but not a lot of people in them. There seems to be a lot of people smoking. We haven't seen "health conscious" items on restaurant menus like you see in the United States. I don't know if it's because obesity is not an alarming concern as it is in the United States, or what. Maybe people get their exercise from toting around all the change in their pockets/purses. Because Canadian currency includes a $2 and $1 coin, it seems like we often get ALL of our change in coins. It does get heavy.
It's a modern city. There are a lot of young and "hip" people here. Fashion forward trends, extremely modern hair styles, progressive attitudes. It's an interesting contrast to the beautiful, historical architecture that is all throughout the city.
Rain boots seem to be an "in" fashion trend. I can't tell you how many people we've seen wearing rain boots. It's very weird.

CANADA TRIP - Day 3

Day 3 - Hockey Hall of Fame/Blue Jays Game
What a great day! Sports, sports, sports!

We slept in a bit and got down to breakfast just before it was ending. With full bellies, we headed back upstairs to shower and get dressed. Then we walked over to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

We were all very excited to spend the day wandering around memorabilia from all the hockey greats. We decided to start in the trophy room and work our way back down and through. We had our picture taken with the Stanley Cup and looked up all the Caps on the various other trophies. Ovie's name has already been engraved on his trophy haul from this past season. Very cool.

We wandered around the various areas of the HHOF and saw all kinds of awesome stuff. Keeper Boy sat in a replica Habs locker room behind Ken Dryden's pads. J-Mav tried his hand at being a goalie in an interactive game (as did Keeper Boy). J-Mav actually got a better score; however, in reality he didn't make any saves at all. If you even touched the puck a little, it counted as a save... even if it went into the net. Kinda silly, but they had fun!

Hubby tried his hand at making the call on an Ovie goal. Keeper Boy and J-Mav also shot on Curtis Joseph in another interactive game. They both scored once, I think. A good time was had by all. By the time we were done wandering, it was after 3, so we went out to the food court and grabbed some "lunch" and then went back into the HHOF store and wandered around for awhile. We each chose a souvenier and then we headed back to the hotel and rested for about an hour.

Tonight, we hopped in a taxi (my foot was bothering me too much to walk, plus it was raining) and went down to the Rogers Centre to catch a Blue Jays game. The Jays were playing the Rays. We had intended to buy the $9 seats in the 500 level. We just wanted to see the game; we had no stake in who won or lost. However, when we got up to the box office, there was a promotion going on. Apparently they have a few games during the season where they designate certain sections in right field (200 level) as "All you can eat" sections (including hot dogs, popcorn, chips, peanuts, soda, water, and nachos). The tickets were about an extra $15 on top of the normal $22 price. Considering the cost of stadium food and then fact that we had planned on eating dinner there, that seemed like a pretty good deal. Well, the seats were great, and I think we definitely got our money's worth. :) Among the four of us, we had nine hot dogs, two popcorns, three bags of peanuts, eight sodas, one water, and three things of nachos. By my calculations, that's probably at least $100 worth of nasty stadium food!

Unfortunately, the Jays lost in 10 innings and Keeper Boy now has a belly ache. Hallady pitched a great game, but he was pulled after the ninth and whomever the reliever was wasn't much of a relief. I did get to see two former Phillies play... Rollen and Burrell... one on each team. Oh, and it stopped raining so they retracted the roof after the third inning. That was cool, too! My foot felt okay after sitting for several hours, so we walked back to the hotel.

J-Mav was asleep before his head hit the pillow. Keeper Boy thought he was going to get sick, so he now has a trash can nearby as he falls asleep. I game him Tums... hopefully he'll feel better in the morning. He's not used to eating that much junk.

I am icing my foot while I write my blog, and then I'm going to hit the sack. Hubby is doing some work. We plan to set an alarm to make sure we get to breakfast a little earlier tomorrow morning. There was quite a lot of people there trying to get in under the wire just like we were. The plan for tomorrow is to go shopping for Keeper Boy's equipment. The shopping list includes a chest protector, skates, blocker pad, and neck protection of some sort. It'll be an expensive day. But it'll still be cheaper than buying it at home.

We have been observing that all of the trash and recycling recepticles around the city seem to be obscenely overflowing. And some just have tape wrapped around the openings and say "out of service." We were commenting that we thought that was odd and that it seemed to go against the grain of the city, as Toronto seems to be very environmentally conscious. There are lots of Smart Cars, Eco Taxis, and recycling bins in all hotel rooms and by almost every trashcan on the street. Tonight I heard from a friend on Facebook that there was a trash strike going on... he asked if it's still going on. I didn't know anything about it, but from what we've observed, I'd say the answer to that question is yes. It's a shame because this is a beautiful city.

More tomorrow...

CANADA TRIP - Day 2

Day 2 - Niagara Falls/Toronto
We awoke this morning (too late for the free breakfast at the hotel) to rain. Good thing we did the Maid of the Mist yesterday! Cloudy is better than rainy since you get wet enough from the falls themselves! We ate breakfast at a family restaurant next door to the hotel and then walked up the street a little. Nothing really to see. It's like someone took all the cheesyness from a boardwalk and plopped it near Niagara Falls. We went into the Canada Trading Co. -- I was hoping it'd be a neat store like the Alaska Trading Company was, but it was mostly junk.

We let the kids pick the last two things they wanted to do. Yesterday when we bought the tickets to the Guiness World Record Museum, we bought the ticket that was good for three admissions. There were five other places we could visit on the ticket -- a haunted house, a maze thing, a fun house, a playland, and brickland (Legos). They chose the fun house and the playland. Both were sufficiently cheesy, but they enjoyed them.

That done, we hopped in the car right about Noon and headed to Toronto. It was an uneventful 90 minute trip, and we found our hotel with no problem. After we got settled in our room, we took off on foot and spent the next 8+ hours wandering. We went to the Eaton Centre because we wanted to go to the Roots Store. We were disappointed as we didn't find anything there. We wandered around the mall for awhile and then walked down to Wayne Gretzky's Restaurant. The boys and John had fun wandering around looking at all the memorabilia while we waited for our dinner. All of our dinners were great! And all of our desserts were great, too. Keeper Boy got the "99 Brownie" and it was a brownie that looked like a puck with the number 99 on it. I took a picture. He WANTED the 10-layer chocolate cake. We saw someone get that... no joke, it was AT LEAST 24 inches high. We told him Grandpa would've had to have been here to help him eat that!

After dinner, we walked a few blocks down the road and around the Rogers Centre (where the Blue Jays play) to the CN Tower. We payed the exorbinant fee to go up the tower. But the kids loved it, and we all walked on the glass floor. Hubby was just as freaked out this time as he was when we were here 8 years ago! After that we walked back to our hotel... about a 30 minute walk.

We covered a good amount of territory today on foot. The good news is that my foot actually felt better as the day went on. I iced it most of the way from Niagara Falls to here, so that probably helped. Hopefully it will continue to feel good tomorrow. :)

The plan for tomorrow is the visit the Hockey Hall of Fame (woo hoo!!) and then see how we're feeling. If we're up for it, we might go catch the Blue Jays game. Saturday will be reserved for equipment shopping. And we'll catch Casa Loma on Sunday before we leave town.

Lots of fun still to be had...

CANADA TRIP - Day 1

Day .5 - Travel
I'll count last night as Day .5 since we didn't leave until 7:30pm. We packed up after work and went to Subway for dinner with Hubby's brother and our sister-in-law. We got on the road and drove until Hubby was too tired to drive anymore. We had hoped to get to Erie, PA, but we made it only to New Castle, PA. That was okay, though. We pulled in to a Comfort Inn about midnight and got a good night's rest before heading out again this morning.

Day 1 - Niagara Falls
We arrived in Niagara Falls around 2pm after an exremely uneventful and quick drive across the border. We found our hotel and checked in. It's very cool... THREE beds, so no fighting among the boys when there should be sleeping!

We immediately walked down to the Maid of the Mist. We bought our tickets and got right on with no wait. We wore our very stylish blue, Maid of the Midst ponchos. I forgot to grab J-Mav's sea bands out of the car before we walked down to the landing, so I slyly got a plastic bag from one of the boat employees (just in case). The ride was great, the falls are just as beautiful as I remember them. The kids loved the ride and how close we were idling next to the Canadian Falls. And J-Mav was fine. I took lots of pictures... hopefully a few of them will turn out well. I thought I brought the cord to get the pictures off the camera, but apparently the cord I brought is for something else. I have no idea what. Doh!

After the boat ride, we walked down to the end of the sidewalk... to the place where Hubby and Keeper Boy had looked at the Canadian falls when they were in January. We stood right where the water goes over the falls and looked down. Very cool. And very wet!

Then we walked back to Clifton Hill (where our hotel is) and we went in the Guinness World Records Museum. Kind of cheesy, but there was some interesting stuff in there. The kids enjoyed it. Dinner at Ruby Tuesday's and now we're relaxing for a few minutes before we head back down to the falls for a concert, the falls illumination at 8pm and fireworks at 10pm.

Don't know what the plan is for tomorrow... we did everything today that we had planned for Niagara Falls. So we might just wander around a bit in the morning and head to Toronto after lunch instead of tomorrow evening.

One thing I need to do is find a drug store and get some ice packs. Something is really wrong with my foot. It started hurting this morning and walking around on it all day hasn't helped. It's a pain on the bottom of my foot, kind of where my heel meets the middle of my foot. I'm hoping it's not plantar facitis (sp?)...

Accountability...

I didn't go to weigh in last week because I was too swamped at work. The week before I gained. I don't remember what the exact numbers were, so I'm not posting the usual stats. I'll get back in the groove next week with the posting.

Hubby has successfully maintained for five weeks now, I think. Maybe four. I think he has two more weigh-ins before he becomes a lifetime member!!

Heard...

While getting ready to leave for our vacation...

"Mama, will we drive by Florida on our way to Canada?"

~ J-Mav

Accountability...

In my time between jobs, I didn't post for whatever reason... the following is a conglomeration of two weeks of weigh-ins. I don't expect this week's weigh-in on Wednesday to be so great, but maybe I'll be surprised...

Hubby has successfully maintained for two weeks (almost three now)... a little more than three to go before he becomes a lifetime member!!

TODAY'S STATS
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Change from two weeks ago: -2.4
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Change since starting WW: -33.6
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Pounds to goal: 8.4
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Another "trifecta" complete

Yesterday at lunch I was talking to a co-worker about the fact that both Ed McMahon and Farrah Fawcett died this week. I speculated on who else would pass this week since I subscribe to the theory that celebrities die in threes. I started composing this blog entry in my head. But before I actually had time to get online and write it, Michael Jackson died. Thus ended the speculation.

Michael Jackson?!?! Wow. I mean, he was only 50 years old!! I was thinking Patrick Swayze, Liz Taylor, maybe even Liza Minelli. Not Michael Jackson. Granted, he's looked a little (okay, a lot) frail in recent years. Certainly odd. But wow.

I admit that most of my thoughts of Michael Jackson in the last, oh, 15 years have been about how odd he'd become; how he was painful to look at; how he wasn't making great pop music any longer. If I'm being honest, I actually didn't think of him at all unless his latest gaffe -- dangling his kid over a balcony railing, showing up for court in pajamas, losing his Neverland Ranch -- was being widely publicized in the worldwide media.

But he was a great and ground-breaking musician. You can't argue that. Back in the day, I watched the making of the Thriller video over and over so I could learn parts of the dance. I had a Michael Jackson poster on my bedroom wall. I knew all the lyrics to every song on the Thriller album. I know I was not alone in those "achievements."

Michael Jackson leaves a legacy. Hopefully the tarnished parts will fade with time and he will be remembered for his artistic accomplishments.

Perhaps the only person today who is thrilled about Michael Jackson's passing is the governor of South Carolina...

Heard...

Sung to a sing-songy, unrecognized tune...

I am the ice cream man,
runnin' over fat kids with my van...

Go ahead... laugh and be offended at the same time. We were.

Where did we hear this, you might ask? J-Mav was singing it the other night as he got ready for bed. No, we don't know where it came from. Yes, we told him that it wasn't appropriate.

And yes... we came downstairs and cracked up out of sight and earshot of the kids because, while it was SO wrong, it was just so funny coming out of his little mouth. Goin' to Hell for sure...

Screeeeeeech...

The all-star team managed to play its game tonight through an annoying mist. It's always sad when officiating contributes significantly to a loss. Tonight was, unfortunately, probably one of those instances.

The boys contributed to the loss with plenty of fielding errors, but the ump (the LONE, large ump who didn't stray more than five feet from home plate for the entire game) blew two calls that definitely affected the score. One of our kids was called out at first when he was clearly safe, and a ball that was about two feet wide of the baseline was called fair in the top of the sixth, allowing the winning run to score for the opposing team. Terrible call.

Why there was only one ump is a good question. "Scheduling conflicts" was the official answer. All the other games we played had FOUR umps... a plate ump and one at each of the bases. And the officiating has actually been good. Not to say the kids would've won had those two calls not been made correctly tonight; however, we would've definitely had a better chance! The final score was 9-8, and Keeper Boy's all-star career for this season came to a screeching halt.

He has nothing to hang his head about. He had a GREAT post season. He was the team's leading hitter over the three games played. He'll tell you that tonight he batted for the cycle. He did have a single, double, and triple. The homerun is suspect, but we'll let it slide. He hit a solid single (maybe a double if the scorekeeper is feeling generous), and then kept running and made it home due to fielding errors. But hey, we'll take it!! :) He was SO excited!! That almost happened to him during the regular season one time. He hit a triple and the coach got caught up in the excitement and sent him home when he probably shouldn't have and he was tagged out at the plate. So maybe tonight made up for that. :)

Anyway, he also had some great plays in the field. He was the right fielder on this team. Not a position he is used to playing, but he has a great arm, so he is a strong outfielder.

The only positive to come from tonight is the knowledge that we now have our evenings free again! Woo hoo!

I think all around it was a great experience for him... and now we have yet another baseball cap to find lying around the house. Joy!

I thought things were slowing down!

Well, I thought things were supposed to be slowing down with hockey over and the end of baseball season being this past weekend. But that hasn't been the case. Keeper Boy was named to the All-Star Team, so that's been every night this week. It's a double elimination tournament. They lost their first game and won last night, so they're still alive. They're supposed to have a game tonight, but it looks like it will be a wash-out. Not sure what that does as far as the schedule.

To backtrack a little bit, J-Mav had his last baseball game Saturday morning. The kids did a great job, and we had a little party for them afterward. They each got a personalized baseball from the coach and a trophy. He had a great first season of baseball!

Saturday evening, we had the seasons end party for Keeper Boy's baseball team. It was a potluck cookout at one of the assistant coach's house. A good time was had by all. It was supposed to have taken place after the championship game, which was originally scheduled for Saturday at 3pm. However, the game was moved to Sunday afternoon after several games last week were postponed due to rain. So we had the party before the season was actually over because Keeper Boy's team made the championship game!!

They showed their opponent they meant business right from the start, scoring the maximum five runs in the very first inning. They never slowed down. Great hitting. Great defense. I think the final score was 13-4 or something like that. The kids got great trophies, and Keeper Boy got the game ball for being the game MVP!

The all-star tournament is to be over by 6/23; however, I don't know how rainouts affect that. We will pretty much be playing every night until the team loses another game. Then they're out.

I have been productive during my two weeks "off;" however, it is clear to me that I will not get everything done that I wanted to. Two weeks at home seems like a long time until you make a to-do list!