Just pick a dang time and stick to it.

You know how I don't like it when the clocks change?

Yeah. I hate it. I don't like change. I will now be throwing myself on the floor tantrum style. What? It works for some people.

Quitter

Over the past week I have been talking myself into quitting. I’m not a quitter. I hate quitting. Because to me, quitting = failure. And I am scared of failure more than anything ever. You know what though, it’s a personal issue and it doesn’t transfer to other people, because it’s not like I see people quitting things and think they’re failures, so I don’t know what it is. I just have really high, possibly unrealistic standards for myself. So while I go around telling people that they should quit things that make them crazy, I keep on with the crazy making in my own life because I don’t want to be a failure.

One time in college I took a class called differential equations. And if you ever have to take a class with a name like differential equations, I highly recommend doing it at a community college if you can. For one thing, you can make a C and when it transfers to your college of choice, it’s pass/fail and doesn’t effect your grade point average. I had been burned previously by teachers with accents I couldn’t understand, so I chose a Dr. Wilson for my differential equations class – thinking he’d be better suited for my understanding that a Dr. Chen or Dr. Too-many consonant-and-not-enough-vowels would. Well, Dr. Wilson sucked and for the record he also had an accent, but it was Austrailian or something. He sucked hard. He sucked so hard that even as I struggled through the course, I was headed for an F, not a D or a C, but an F. I had to do what’s called a Q-drop. Where Q=quit. And I felt like I was walking around with a giant Q on my forehead for the next week or so.

Well, as it turns out, Dr. Wilson HAD sucked so hard that out of a class of 24 people. 19 Q-dropped. 19! 79% of the people in that room had decided that this guy sucked so hard at teaching that rather than sludge through and teach themselves and make it out the other side, they’d consider the money spent on tuition as a lesson learned and try again with someone else. And of the ones left? Half made Ds or Fs, which in my major would have meant I had to take it over again anyway. I had made the right decision, but at the time it felt horrible.

And that’s what I’m doing right now. I am deciding not to take the home inspectors test. I have been looking over the practice stuff I have, and it is just too detailed and too code-specific for me to adequately study for the test and pass by the 18th. What was originally the optimal answer to my problems has become a much less sensible choice. So I'm giving up. I quit.

Monthly Newsletter #29

Dear Landon,

As you age, you are going to find that some months in your life really drag and some just fly by and the next thing you know, it’s a month later. It something I’m pretty sure you’ll study in physics. Anyway, this was one of those fast months.

You finally have a steady set of teacher at school. Well, kind of. The older women seem to be constant, and the younger girls don’t last long. We had yet another change in the younger girl a week ago and I asked what was up. Apparently 2 year olds make young girls crazy. And also it’s not just 2 year olds. Apparently they have a lot of turnover of the younger girls in the classes between infant and 2 ½ year olds. And it’s because you guys are wobbly, and you keep falling for no reason and they have to call your mom and tell her you fell if you hurt yourself, and they don’t have an explanation and they seem kind of stressed out about it. That’s okay, they can rotate a younger girl through every so often if they can keep the main teachers from leaving, that’s the main thing.

You have figured out how to melt my heart. You’re practicing it a lot, and seeing exactly what it will get you. The answer: a lot. Until you use it 14 times in a row, and then the answer: nothing. You have taken to saying “I miss you, Mommy.” And giving me a hug. Which is so cute when I pick you up from school and not so cute when I’m dropping you off for school. And this past weekend, I got you to say “I love you , Mommy.” I don’t think you know the meaning behind it yet, it took a little prompting to get you to say it. But you said it, and I’ll take it.

Apparently they talked about your home last week at school. One of the topics was what chores you do at home. And you do feed the cats, but a few nights I ago, I was trying to cook dinner and I set you up with a laundry basket and had you empty the dryer. And I think we’ve found your new chore! You were just slow enough at it, that it gave me time to finish up dinner, but not so bad at it that I wouldn’t have you do it again. It probably wouldn’t have taken so long if you hadn’t been so excited to see each article of your clothing. My personal favorite was the interlude where you found the rockstar shirt and came to show it off and do a little rockstar dance.

You had your first ice cream truck experience. You probably wouldn’t have been so patient waiting for the truck if you knew what we were waiting for. And since you stole my teenage mutant ninja turtle ice cream with the gum eyeballs, you also had your first gum experience, where you spit it back out on the plate and looked at me like “what’s the point of it if you just spit it out?”

A few months in day care and a few months maturity and now, you’re able to play alongside Zoey. Not necessarily WITH Zoey, but near Zoey, while she plays with something else. Which is excellent news. It means if she needs to be babysat, we can totally do that!

Somewhere in the midst of the illness last month, your schedule got screwed up and we’ve been hard pressed to get you back on it. You are staying up much too late in the evenings and that’s not good for anyone. So that’s what we’ll be working on this month.

Love,
Mama

No Paparazzi

When Landon has enough of the picture taking:

Honest Scrap

I was awarded the Honest Scrap award by kbreints.

The rules for this award:

Choose a minimum of 7 blogs that you find brilliant in content or design. Show the winners names and links on your blog, and leave a comment informing them that they were prized with “Honest Scrap.” There’s no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon.

List at least 10 honest things about yourself.

1. I’m afraid of yeast.

2. Not like “Ahh, the yeast! It’s going to get me!”

3. But more like, “dang, I’m going to make this and it won’t rise and I will have wasted all this time and effort and ingredients and I STILL won’t have bread.”

4. The bread machine did not help in this matter one iota.

5. Iota is a weird word.

6. I turn people’s toilet paper over when it’s put on the roll wrong.

7. And by wrong, I mean pulling from under.

8. It should be over the top.

9. It’s a tough crusade, but I’m on it.

10. It makes me mad when I’m in a public restroom and cannot change the roll.

I may have cheated…on honest scrap. Seriously people, I couldn’t come up with 10 things, please do not tag me for those 25 lists. I can’t handle the pressure.

And now, I give you my seven blogs that I nominate. Except I don’t, because I’m a cheater, but also because everyone who I read is great. Or I wouldn’t read them. And actually, the thing is that if I nominate them and then they don’t do it, or they already did it, it becomes awkward when I show up at their door step and am like, “hey didn’t you want to put my award up on your mantle?” And they’re all “yeah, we diiiiid, but it didn’t match the curtains, so we’re keeping it in the basement with the mice.” Or worse, I don’t nominate someone and they get their feelings hurt and then when I come over for high tea, they’re all, “Hey, I have this spot right here for your award you gave…oh, you didn’t give it to me? GET OOOOOOOUUUTTTT!” And it just ruins everything, and I really love scones. So if you want it, it’s yours.

Better yet, you can say you want it in the comments and then I can edit this and when I have 7, I will pretend I just nominated you...no? Still cheating? You guys are such rule followers.

Bubbles

Pool Helper

Rain Play

Weekend Wrap Up

Except, there's not much to talk about.

As promised, pictures of the sproutlets.

Chives:

Dill:

Tomato [technically not a sproutlet, since we bought it already about 8 inches tall]: Also, it finally rained, so we played a little in the rain:

I don't know what he's saying the in the beginning when I ask him what's happening, he had been telling us about the rain, but you know the camera starts and all of the sudden he can't do what he's been doing for the past 5 minutes even one more time.

Anyway, he does say "run in circle" and "oh, what's that?" and "here."

We met up with another couple who we haven't seen in a long time to eat at the Melting Pot on Saturday night. I have been wanting to try it for a while, and it was excellent. Much better than I expected. We opted for the Big Night Out and it was a 4 course meal. It did take a long time, I think our entire time there was close to 3 hours. It didn't seem like 3 hours, but I think if it had just been the two of us, it probably would have. Anyway, great date night. I'd totally go again.

When we parked, Clint and I had a nice view of the best port-a-potty company name ever:

Work is Busy, Life is Busy

Last night I looked in the hanging pots (where we planted the tomatoes upside down and the seeds for chives and dill on top) and we have sprouts!! I'll have pictures on Monday. But here's one to tide you over of him doings some planting.

I put off studying for and taking my home inspection test for so long, that I have 3 weeks to study and take the test. And if I don't pass that time, I have 10 days to try again. So my brain will be in home inspection land for the next few weeks.

I have been thinking of not doing it at all, because of the whole insurance for it will be more than the income I make off of it thing, but if I get my license and let it be inactive, then when I do need it, in case of a lay off or something, I can find the insurance and it's full speed ahead (except that whole pesky housing market is down crap.)

In the interest of full disclosure the reason I started looking into it to begin with was because I thought I wanted to work from home, I thought I wanted to have Landon with me and just take him to mother's day out or something when I did an inspection. And I'm not really sure that's true anymore.

Half the problem was my job. I honestly hated my job. More than anything else, more than leaving Landon at day care, I hated my job. Seriously, cried tears of joy when I walked out into the parking lot on my last day. And now I have a new job. And I'm not doing what I want to be doing here, right now, but I have hope and my manager knows this and my manager is a good person and is doing everything he can to make sure my next assignment matches my skills. And even in this situation where I don't like what I'm doing, I am at least at a company that doesn't make me want to vomit when I walk in the doors.

The other problem was that I didn't think I wanted Landon in day care. But, now? Landon is thriving in day care. He is learning so much, and not just academic stuff, but he's learning about having friends. And talking to people. Things he wasn't going to be able to learn at home with me and things he didn't learn by going to a baby-sitter with only two other kids. And I just don't see how I could possibly pull him out of that.

Finally, I now make what I thought I might make per hour doing the inspections. And I don't have the responsibility of finding the work. I have a guaranteed 40 hour week, I park my car and walk in and the work is here. I don't have to hunt for it. If I could work a 20 hour week and make what I made now, hunting for the work wouldn't be a problem, but if I have to still work a 40 hour week AND hunt for the jobs, it would mean more like a 60 hour week. And that's not at all what I thought I was going for when I started this adventure. All of this of course also is based on budget we have now, which includes the debt we have, and if I can eliminate most of our debt, I can take a pay cut and we'd be fine. So this isn't an end all be all reason, it's revisitable.

Anyway, all this to say that I've come to a place where I decided, it's a good back-up plan. It's something I've already spent a lot of time and money on and just giving up at this point isn't in my best interest, but that if I fail, I will know I tried and I can move on with my life. And if I pass, I'm still not sure I want to follow through on it, but at least I'll have it in my back pocket if I need it.

Anyway, fair warning, light posting here for the next few weeks. Probably a lot of pictures, which I'm sure the grandmothers won't mind a bit.

Income tax refunds and you

I just did our taxes this past weekend, in fact, I always do my taxes around the second weekend in February, just after having received all my paperwork. Then, if I owe money (only happened once in a year when I didn't work at all and had some interest income), I wait until April 15th to mail off my check. (I always think of Señora Gomez (Spanish teacher in HS) on tax day, it's her birthday.) If I'm getting money back, I send it in immediately.

There are 2 schools of thought on income tax refunds.

The first is that if you get a refund, you are allowing the government to use your money interest free, and you are actually losing money, because you could have been earning the interest on it.

The second is that, come tax time, you absolutely under no circumstances want to have to pay a dime, because you suck at saving money and you're not sure you'll have it to pay.

I fall in the second category, so for my paycheck (the paperwork I filled out with HR), I always claim at least 1 less dependent than I have, advice I got from my dad that has yet to fail me. Actually, both Clinton and I are on file as single and none. And then we file our taxes married filing jointly, claiming ourselves and Landon and itemizing, we get a much larger refund and are able to do some things with that money annually, that we wouldn't normally get to do. I think of it as a savings account. Unfortunately it's a non-interest baring savings account, but it's a savings account none the less.

This year's income tax refund, is paying for...windows! Actually, it's going towards the loan we got for the windows, but that's good enough. Or possibly towards an equal amount of a higher interest other debt.

Mmmmm Dats Good

Cheddar brocolli soup.

On Beyond Bovine #11 and #12 - Jalapeño and Green Beans

This weekend was...something...what was is...people were all worked up and wearing reds and pinks and...oh, that holiday we ignore. Valentine's Day.

Look - I've stated my case about V-Day before. You should show love for your significant other more often than once a year on a heavily commercialized day. And as a result, we planned a lovely dinner in for Saturday night, because holy God, you cannot get into a restaurant around here on V-day normally, much less on a V-day that lands on a weekend.

So Saturday morning we went to one of the farmers markets in Houston and found that, hey, this one actually kind of meets my needs. Except for the crippled lady who put her crutch on the INSIDE of Clint's stance, while he held Landon and therefore was not looking at his feet, took a step and nearly knocked her over. Uh - here's a lesson, don't put your crutch in the middle of someone else's feet. Whatever, I got some strawberries, and covered them in chocolate myself. There were a lot of greens, and I think next time, I may get some other stuff. It was kind of weird with the loud music and stuff, but probably worth at least another trip out there, hopefully not to run into crazy people trying to get tripped.

On to the trials:

These two are similar, because they fall squarely in line with everything I love about a low-carb lifestyle. They are wrapped in bacon.

# 11 - The jalapeño, Shrimp Brochette.

First you take your jalapeño, what sucks about picking jalapeños is that the heat is not something you can tell from the outside of the pepper. Supposedly the smaller or darker the pepper, the hotter, but actually, it has more to do with how much water it got while growing. SO just pick one that's nice and firm, not too much scarring. I generally go for a medium sized one.


You cut it open, remove the seeds. The white membrane stuff is where the heat is, so if you're particularly sensitive to that, you'll want to cut that out too, but the bonus to how I assemble these, is that if you like the flavor, but don't want it too strong or have an aversion to the crunch of the pepper itself, you can pull the pepper out prior to eating.


Cut it into strips. I generally get 4 to 5 strips out of each half.


Then you cut your cheese into small strips. Here I used a sharp white cheddar. I have also used cream cheese. They each have their pros and cons. Cream cheese is easier to work with, because it sticks together - where the cheddar falls apart, but the cheddar has a nice zing in the flavor.



Next, you cut your bacon into 3rds. Because I used thick bacon, I pre-cooked it a little - if I use normal bacon I just cut it raw. Also, this is the first time I used peppered bacon. And I just have to say. YES. DO THAT.

So then you take a cleaned, deveined shrimp, cut all the way down the back, as if you were going to butterfly them, but not all the way through the shrimp. Lay a pepper strip in the crack, and then a piece of cheese. Wrap in bacon and secure with a toothpick. If I was smart I'd have pre-soaked the toothpicks, because they do burn on the grill. If you use peppered bacon, pepper will get everywhere.

I dab each shrimp with a little BBQ sauce.

We had also made steaks that night, so the grill was already fired up. We put them on the pit, until the bacon is done and the shrimp is opaque. It shouldn't take long (a few minutes), and you don't want to overcook the shrimp.

If you don't like the pepper, when you take the toothpick out, you can grab the pepper by the end and just pull it out. It leaves a little flavor behind.

#12 - Green Beans - Bacon wrapped

I like fresh green beans in applications like this. I like canned green beans as a side, because I can never seem to get enough salt on them otherwise.

Green beans are not in season right now. They were kind of expensive. but worth it.

So the first thing you do, is talk to someone who knows something about green beans and ask them which end you're supposed to snap off and which end you're supposed to be allowed to leave intact. I didn't. So I cut both ends off, but I'm a rebel.

Next thing you need to do is bring a pot of water to a rolling boil. Throw the green beans in for a minute. Not long. Just blanch them. Then into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process. Or, if you're pressed for time, you can put them in the microwave in water for 1 minute. Still need to throw them in the ice water though.

Take 4 to 5 green beans and wrap them together in bacon, secure with a toothpick. Dab the tops with BBQ sauce (again with the soaking of the toothpicks in water.)

I have done these on the grill before, but last time they didn't turn out so well, so I put them in a 350° oven for 30-40 minutes.

YUM!!

Clinton removed the peppers before eating the shrimp. And has tried the green beans before and didn't like them. But they are the best green beans in all the land. Landon likes the green beans, but only as an hors d'oeuvre, so he can hold a toothpick, he does not like them on his plate. And we didn't give him a shrimp, because he's not 3 yet.

The Secret to Getting Good Customer Service

There's a certain phone company around these parts, they now handle our TV, Internet*, home phone, and wireless accounts. We like having all our eggs in one basket.

I have consistently had pretty poor customer service out of them when calling with any issues, and even in their store fronts, those people seem to be whacked with a stupid stick when they clock in**. I have stuck with them because I don't have to call them much, because mostly stuff works.

But I discovered through 4 customer service calls this morning, and the remembering of the final customer service call for the TV package we got. There is definitely a secret to getting good service.

I'm going to share it with you, in case you have to call BS&S***.

And please don't throw rocks at me, because I know how bad it sounds. But I also know how true it has been for me, and I will now and forever believe it.

It's this simple:

Ask to speak with a guy.

Their male customer service representatives have consistently done what their female employees said they were going to do, but didn't.

* - Why does spell check want "Internet" to be capitalized? Is "Internet" really a proper noun?

** - Actually there was one guy**** who knew what he was doing in a storefront in LJ. When we went there, I would rather have waited 30 minutes for him than get served by someone else. And he quit. And I will hate him forever for that.

*** - Pseudonym.

**** - See? GUY!

Shhhhhhhh, the universe is listening

I don't want to jinx it, so I'm just going to say: I DON'T feel a little bit better today. My throat is NOT a little bit less raw. And I certainly am NOT down to mild sore throatedness and a canker sore on the inside of my cheek that I possibly caused by biting the inside of my cheek while asleep.




Landon subscribes to the age old adage: "If at first you don't succeed, get a bigger hammer."

I guess that's one way to fix social security

Let the old people just die instead of treating them, because if the senate stimulus package passes? Beware that if your grandmother or mother or aunt or uncle comes down with something that the GOVERNMENT decides is not cost effective to treat? They're going to order your doctor to let them just DIE. And if they don't? If they instead stick to their hippocratic oath about, oh, I don't know, helping people? They're going to face penalties. And as they do it more and more often? They will face more and more penalties.

What you and your doctor decide to do about any given health problem? Will now also include an equation dictated by the GOVERNMENT about whether you are worth the cost or not. Good-bye experimental treatments. Good-bye advances in medical technology. Hello rising mortality rate.

Daschle actually has this to say about health-care reform: “[it] will not be pain free.” He also says that seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. WHAAAAAT? So my friend's Dad who just had a relapse of cancer, because he's older, maybe he should just accept it and die? NO. NO. NO. So, next time my grandmother, who's 92, is admitted to the hospital, instead of having a few months of re-hab, should just? Die? Because, she might not have that long to live anyway? It's not "cost-effective"? NO. NO. NO.

If the solution is more painful than the problem? It's not a problem. Or at the very least, this CLEARLY isn't the solution. I have some ideas regarding health care reform that are far less invasive of patient rights. Here's one off the top of my head. How about having one price for one service? If you accept $20 from the insurance company for XYZ, then you should charge a non-insured person the same $20, not $40. How easy is that? I'm not saying that the government should set the prices either, I'm just saying that within any given practice, the prices should be constant.

I hope the older people in your life are healthy enough to survive this. I don't know about you, but I think it's worth an email to your congressman to tell them that you actually love the older people in your life and would prefer that your parents' doctors be allowed to treat your parents as they see fit, without government interference.

It's a slippery slope. Next they'll be telling you that you can have 1 boy or 2 children.

Don't worry, I don't have mono

I know you were totally worried about it. I apparently present with enough symptoms to test for it though. And we're back to treat the symptoms. GAH!

I've only been at work a little over an hour. Today is not going to be a good day.

Me Hoeping

(I'm Helping)

I don't even know where to start. Except maybe to start at the end and work backwards.

I'm sick again. I swear to God, if I don't get well soon, I'm going to kill someone. My lymph nodes in my neck as so swollen and my throat hurts so bad, I feel like if I still had tonsils they'd be touching each other. I'm wavering between going to the work clinic and complaining until they give me some of their nifty throat deadening lozenges and just waiting it out and seeing if I'm still sick on Friday and going to see my real doctor. The jury is still out. I think I'll probably make a decision mid morning.

Yesterday we went to buy some herbs and tomato plants. The pots were apparently in Clint's way in the garage, and had to be moved. I already had a kickin' rosemary plant, but everything else herby I had was dead. So now I have basil, sage, thyme, and flat leaf parsley. And 3 different kinds of tomatoes. We planted 2 tomatoes upside down and 1 right side up. I also have seeds for chives and dill - but I honestly don't have a lot of hope for those two - My thumb is somewhere between brown and green. If someone else got it to be like 3 inches tall, I might be able to keep it alive, but I have very little faith in my nurturing from a seed abilities.

We also put some wooden stakes in a couple plants and wrapped them in some kind of plant binding stuff to keep them growing up instead of out.

Scarlett would like to know why we let him carry that stick around.

Saturday night I got a call from the fraud prevention department at Clinton's allowance bank. Someone got his debit card number and went on a huge spending spree. Like a total of over $2000. And they're going to get away with it, while we don't have to pay for anything that wasn't ours, the bank said it's too hard to find the people who do this, so nothing will happen. We're trying not to think about the AT&T guy who was in the attic the day before this spending spree and how he may have had access to actually get a card out of one of our old file boxes. They also said that the technology is such that it could have been anyone, because all they need is the number from the card and they can make their own card.

We had Shane power wash the outside of our house and all concrete. Which is awesome. Our house, by the way, is a cream and brown color and the brick is kind of a peachy pink - not green. Who'd a thunk it?

Which brings us back to Friday, when I worked most of the day on completing something that by the time I finished at the end of the day we got an order handed down from the client, that said "no, thanks, we want to wait."

And now, I think I'm going to call the health clinic, because I'm not sure I can take this much longer.

Wannit doooown

Landon flies his first kite, and decides it would be much more fun to crash it down. Unfortunately the wind isn't cooperating in that department.



UPDATE: Ear drama seems to be over. He was like a whole new kid this morning, so 3 doses of antibiotics down, 17 to go. Of course I'm pretty sure the Tylenol had a little bit more to do with the lack of cranky than the antibiotics at this point. Bonus, since he had no fever what-so-ever, he was allowed to return to school today! And maybe the antibiotics will finish off the cough he's had for a couple weeks.

Another milestone!

Landon has his very first ever ear infection!

I'm not nearly as excited about it as I seem. Please take the exclamation point with a grain of salt.

What I'm excited about is that we made it 2 years and 4 months without one. And this one? His doctor said that it was pretty red, but not terrible. Last night he was pointing in his mouth and crying, and I thought it was teeth coming in. This morning he was able to tell his teacher that his ear hurt, and he was consistent on which ear hurt. I don't even know how you people with non-verbal children figure it out.

Totally explains the crankiness of last night and this morning!

We have drugs.

He'll be fine.