The Big DumpTruck

Okay, you can back off, cause I planted everything I bought, okay? Sheesh! See if I invite you over to eat any of our strawberries, assuming the plants actually bear fruit...

Look, if I come back in here and start typing before I've actually finished planing, you have my permission to kick my butt and tell me you won't read a word I've written for the rest of the week.

And then I can come back and say "God, you guys are so harsh!"

We took the kids to the drive-in tonight to see Shrek 2 (my step-kids hadn't seen it yet) and boy, is it COLD out there. Picture a parking lot full of kids sitting in lawn chairs in sleeping bags. The kids, not the lawn chairs.

Packed, this place was. Junior last outside for half the movie, his sister stayed out the whole time. We didn't stay for the 2nd movie, it's just too late for Junior. But there's nothing like the microcosm that is a drive-in movie theater crowd.

Somehow, I forgot to change my Sidekick last night. This thing goes through batteries like my son goes through grapes. And grapes go through him.

So it's not on today, because even though I thought I'd put it on the car charger during the commute, I unplugged it when I dropped Junior off at his daycare place because I didn't want to leave it on the seat, and then I forgot to plug it back in. Honestly, how can I be trusted to care for a child when I can't handle plugging in my phone?

Where's my coffee?

Our area has another plane crash, this time on the road beside the airport. According to the Worcester Telegram, a passerby helped get two men out of the plane, both alive at the time.

It gets scarier and scarier all the time to live within a mile of that airport, and I've lived within a mile of it my whole life. My parents lived on the take-off path, and I now live on the landing approach. I don't know which one is worse, given that planes have crashed near their neighborhood, and the big one last year was near mine.

Night 4 of thunderstorms in the wee hours of the morning. I'm actually getting used to it - probably because they haven't been as close to me as they have to some other areas in Mass.

But they pale in comparison to the backup battery in the 1st floor smoke detector getting low, prompting a quick chirp from said appliance every 1-3 minutes last night, starting at about, oh, 3am.

I wasn't about to stumble downstairs to replace the battery at 3am, given that I'd need to reach it, remove it, then figure out if I had the right kind of battery. The smoke detectors in our house are hard-wired, so it's not like I risked it not going off. Which would have been the case if I unplugged the damned thing until the sun came up.

So it turns out we did have a 9 volt battery in the collection, and it's back up on the ceiling being a silent sentry. God, was that ever annoying, though. I am sick and tired of not sleeping through the night - I mean, at least when it happens because the baby doesn't sleep through the night, you have the side benefit of having a baby. You know?

Sheesh, if anyone ever spots something broken here that shouldn't be (like, say, the archives?) could you just drop a note? Even if it's a comment to a post, I'll get it! And then I can fix it!

Thanks Mitch for being brave enough to drop me an e-mail, and in quivering voice, mention that my permalinks were hosed. Your Dunkin Munchkin is in the mail.

I know some of you sponsored my sister on the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, so I thought I'd show you a photo of her, and our best friend, at the end of the two-day 36 mile walk. It was in the 90's the first day, and raining in the 50s-60s the 2nd. Two weather extremes, neither of them conducive to a 36 mile walk, but walk they did, and apparently in the top 5% of finish times.

Thanks guys!

I have no right to complain about thunder storms, not with the destruction tornadoes brought over the weekend.

But two days in a row the booming woke me at 4am. Hey, God, I have to work, you know? And Sunday is my day off (sort of like yours). How am I supposed to have a day of "rest" if you wake me up at 4am?

So anyway, here's a quick shot of the rain on my cafe table. Looks better full sized, but this is a blog and you don't want to be downloading a 1meg image file, do you?

I have to believe that my sister was pulling my leg when she told me that my niece, 4 tomorrow, wanted a "Cali Ken" to go with her Cali Barbie. Cali being a series of surfer dude and dudette dolls. I had already purchased a princess bathing suite, princess sandals and a princess summer tote bag (speaking of PINK, as I did yesterday). But I wanted a little something more toy-like to add to this haul. Deb suggested the Cali Ken. Which meant I had to go into a store and buy it. *shiver*

Gah. Nice hair, dude. I also got him two outfits, cause really, maybe he'll get tired of the mesh tank top and want something a little dressier. Oh, look, little plastic boat shoes!

Well, she loved the bathing suit and sandals, and the 4 books (Junie B. Jones) that weren't a gift - we were done reading them and I wanted to pass them along. Ken? Well, Ken eagerly awaits being released from his box. Isn't that just the way?

I realize that I don't need a mini iPod. I just want one because I can get a pink one and I've decided my life needs feminizing. I think having pink things will make me look younger. As in, maybe junior high age. I want to Lizzie Maguire my life, you know? But when it came time to add it to my Amazon Wish List I got all "well, it's not practical to pay 50 dollars less for 9 gig less space just to get a pink one.

So unless someone is going to buy me an iPod (and I know at least one of you out there must have some chump change out there to spend on little old me, right mom and dad?) I guess I'll just keep carrying around the pink one they had in the cool Apple ad in People Magazine last week. Sure it's just a little cardboard picture of one, but at least I look cool.

Well, I made the first of ? purchases at a garden shop today. I got my 2004 clematis (I allow myself one a year, I'm up to three) which is a Josephine Evijohill. I include this information because it turns out two friends of mine are "collectors" and they actually do want to know information like that. They refer to them by name, as in "My Josephine bloomed early this year." I will forget what ones I have within minutes of misplacing this little plant tag. But I like that these are so pretty and come up every year. I have a new appreciation for perennials, especially because all the ones I planted last year came back up and gave me no-effort flowers! I mean, sure, you pay more, but if they come up every year, well, what a bargain!

I'm not a green thumb, and I moved some plants last fall that either weren't perennials, didn't survive my moving them, and/or got eaten by something. When I finally pulled up the dead stuff, the bulb roots were mushy and rotten and full of little worms. Ick.

Anyway, it's yucky and wet out, and I guess will be for the next few days, so I may just go out in disposable clothing and get the new stuff planted.

Picked up a new [new to me, hadn't seen them before today] cool toy for the GameBoy.

Holy cow, they have actual episodes of Nick tv shows on GB cartridges. Full color, quality is great, considering. The sound is a bit shaky - I'd compare it with listening to an AM radio, but hot damn, for $20 I got 4 episodes of the Fairly Oddparents on one cartridge that we can use if we ever need a quick source of entertainment for The Boy while we're out somewhere.

Also have Dora, Spongebob, All Growed Up and Jimmy Neutron, with Sonic X, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles coming out this summer. And I'm sure others.

I am SO psyched...this is SO much better than those damned little personal video machines with the black and white proprietary DVD thingies. These play in color on a machine I already have!

Here's What Yahoo's Weather is telling me right now:

More Current Conditions
Feels Like: 45 °

I could have told you that. Man, it's positively wintery out there! I wanted to go look for some flowers to plant this weekend, but I have to tell you, it's drizzling and about 47 degrees. YOU go stand around looking at plants. I'll be here with my sweatshirt and a cup of coffee, thanks.

p.s. Saw Shrek 2 this evening. God, was it fantastic. No spoilers, just go see it. You know you want to.

In our league they call off the tee ball games if it's raining. I'm wondering if that means misting, or a heavy rain. And f there are thunderstorms in the area but not actual rain, do I want my kid standing in a field with an aluminum bat?

[Update: Okay, so now I didn't get the item when I was expecting it (this morning) and when I called DHL they basically told me they don't know exactly where the package is, so I should expect in Monday. Uh, HEY! I PAID EXTRA FOR OVERNIGHT YOU BIG DUMP APES! So now I have to call the company I ordered from when the item arrives so I can get a refund on my shipping. GRR.]


Not that the customer service call yesterday was bad, it was just annoying, mostly because the people on the phone really had no information at their fingertips. Maybe management doesn't want them to say anything that would imply a commitment to a specific schedule. If I'd been in a crotchety mood, I could have asked to speak to someone higher up, but as it is, the item shipped yesterday.

This morning I called DHL (who now owns Airborn Express, apparently) to ask what their window is for delivery, given that I'm trying to organize someone to be there to sign. The perfectly lovely woman on the phone had all kinds of info at her fingertips, told me that for my zip code they deliver up until 5pm, but that I could leave a note saying I authorize him to leave it, sign the note, and the driver would take that as proof of signature. Oh my goodness, how freeing! If you have to leave the house for 30 minutes, you can! If you can't be home, well, as long as it isn't raining, you're set!

I love good customer service first thing in the morning.

I ordered something from a company last night, paying extra for shipping so it will arrive tomorrow, because there will be someone home to sign for it.

The item was listed as usually shipping within 24 hours, and I paid for overnight shipping, so I assumed it would ship today to arrive tomorrow.

Only their order status website just says "on or before the 21st."

So I got on the phone to explain that
a) if it isn't going to ship today I need to change the shipping address, and
b) if it isn't going to ship today, I don't want to pay extra for overnight shipping.

My goodness, I don't think what I'm saying is all that hard to comprehend. I was told they'd be happy to change the shipping address for me. "No, I don't want to change it now, in case it DOES ship today." I tried to ask if there was a time at which I could assume if it hadn't gone out, it wouldn't. You know, the old "order by 3 and we'll ship it today" thing. That was a hard question. I think I got her to commit to maybe possibly around 6pm.

Oy.

I'm still hoping it goes out today.

Junior made me give his arms a feel the other night. He learned how to do push ups [I have no idea where] a couple of weeks ago, and he wants me to check out his muscles.

"Wow, where did you get those!" I ask, trying to find a bulge on his skinny arms.

Without a trace of irony, or any attempt to be funny, he says "Well, I try to work out" like any trolling-for-females man you've ever met.

I tell you, if you're looking to be amused, you have to get yourself a 6 year old son.

Mr. Dump thinks he broke his big toe (an incident involving his foot and the stairs. I didn't see it happen). You know nothing good will come of this, right?

After every tee ball game I want to be able to tell people that Junior's team won, except they don't play real baseball rules (nobody gets out, everyone takes one base at a time) so who the hell knows who won.

I know that they're in it to learn the basics of hitting and fielding and just paying attention for the hour and a half or so that they are out there. Really I do. But what parent doesn't want to say "We won, and it was all because of the 4 errors the other team made when Junior blooped the ball out to the basic region where a shortstop would normally be!"

I guess we'll have a won/lost record to talk about next year when he's in the instructional league.

I think we're coming to the end of sweater weather for the next few months, so I'm taking advantage and wearing one at work today. It was only 53 when I left the house, so it was a perfect choice. Air conditioning will keep it reasonable inside, and actually, a little too cool for short sleeves (at least for me) so I'm going to leave the sweater on.

I really need to go shopping for some summery long-sleeved tops. I freeze in air conditioning in the summer.

In other news...I'm very proud to live in Massachusetts today, and I wish all the couples who are getting marriage licenses today a long and happy life together.

Now there are plenty of reasons why I think Adam's Boston Online website is a classy place, least of which is the fact that every time he links to me my traffic jumps up by tens of visitors (oh, to be popular!) But proving that he is a man among men, he's donating all the extra ad revenue he's picking up from people hitting his site from searching for information (or the video) of Nick Berg's murder to the Nick Berg Endowed Scholarship Fund at Drexel University.

That, my friends, is classy.

Visit his site for an address if you're interested in the scholarship fund.

My sister has to finish the avob walk today. I'm wondering if they made them sleep somewhere other than tents last night, given that a cold front came through with huge winds, lots of thunder and lightening and big rain.

After walking 26 miles in 90 degree heat, you know they needed their rest. I'm thinking she will never sign up for this again...

I'm wearing a little sticker that says "Be nice to me, I gave blood today". And you?

I think I'm going to milk this. The lady says no heavy lifting for 24 hours, so dishes are right out, wouldn't you say? "I'm sorry, honey, I'd love to sweep the floor, but the Red Cross lady told me I should put my feet up and eat cookies."

I didn't like that we had to sign up to post comments with anything but "anonymous". Nor did I like the idea that if Blogger was down, nobody would be able to post a new comment (Bill - that's basically what I meant).

So I upgraded from BlogKomm 1.6 to 1.7 (1.8 went back to beta because a few of us were having big problems with it doing multiple posts, etc.)

In other news, it looks like blogrolling is having a problem - my menu on the right isn't loading all the way. Must be one of those days.

Do bumble bees normally make nests in storm doors? I'm asking because, well, apparently they liked ours.

If you were thinking of making a tax-deductible donation to the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, the Boston walk is Saturday (90 degrees and 200% humidity! And thunderstorms for the overnight tent-sleeping!) and my sister will happily accept your sponsorship.

I know some of you have already donated, or sponsor other people, and I think that's fantastic. I'm just trying to do a last minute boost to her numbers, because she has expressed horror at the weather report for the weekend. I told her to visualize souvenir stands every 15 feet so she can pretend she's walking around EPCOT. Which is, by the way, what I was doing last year at this time. And it was that hot and humid. [I just looked up last year's entry and apparently we were already home by the 13th. I thought we were there on the 15th, but I seem to have my dates all screwed up. Huh.]

Okay, back to your regularly scheduled program, already in progress.

I was reading an article last night that talked about the safest color car to own; as in, the colors that are easiest to see and are therefore least likely to be cut off or hit.

The colors? White and yellow.


White as in rental car and yellow as in taxi?


I have never been a fan of white cars, although I know people who love them so I'll leave them be. But yellow? Do any cars look good in yellow? I mean, a Beetle looks cute in yellow, but that's because it's a cute car. If you are in a yellow sedan, truck or van, you look like a taxi, construction vehicle or an employee of a delivery service - including the kind that delivers students.

I'm just not seeing [sic] yellow as a viable option. Yellow car owners, feel free to weigh in. But I'm guessing if there's a study out there on the % of each color car sold in a year, yellow is in the single digits.

Thought this was too funny not to share. No, I don't have any naming in
my future unless you count the endless stream of "stuffed-up friends"
that Junior adopts.
http://www.notwithoutmyhandbag.com/babynames/index.html

When I see "88" I think of the used Olds my dad bought back in the mid-80s. That thing was a tank. I drove it to college (St. Joseph College in West Hartford CT) one time, and I got this "Go ahead, cut me off, I'll run you over, [bad word]" attitude. I felt invisible, which is probably not a good thing when you're behind the wheel.

But what I don't think of is the high temperature for May 11th. Which is what my Yahoo weather is telling me. I think I need to face facts and find some more of my summer clothes. I really need to go shopping, too. Not for a lot, but some basics. I'm still wearing pants that are too baggy on me, and I need some summery stuff. Enough with the heavy dark clothing, right?

Hmmm. I can post new blog entries, read them and read comments, but I can't post comments from the sidekick. I can write and preview them, but the post button is missing. Very odd.

As was noted in some of the technology feeds (Reuters comes to mind) Google released an updated version of Blogger this week, which FINALLY includes internal commenting code. I think I'm going to do it, but it does change the structure of archives, etc.

One of the things I'm trying to figure out is if the comment text lives on my server or theirs. I think it lives right with the blog page, so that means on my server.

The other is how to manage individual *page* archives for a high-volume blog. It's not my preferred method of archiving, to be sure.
[Update: Well, that seems to have gone fairly well. Only time will tell.]

I wonder if it gives away my age to give my post that subject line. Raise your hand if you are under 30 and know where it comes from without resorting to Google. Uh huh, uh huh. I'm guessing 10% of you, tops, and that's because you're secretly so much cooler than your peers that your skin appears to be made of aluminum alloy. Or something like that.

Speaking of the under 30 crowd, I got Junior's mother's day card from his daycare place today, because he didn't go there after kindergarten on Friday. Inside the card was a piece of paper that resembled a mad lib, filled with Junior's answers to some questions. I'd like to tell you all that he announced to his teachers and the world that his mom is 24 years old. My God, I love that kid more than life itself. 24. Well, mentally, sure.

No snide remarks, please, I'm basking in the glow of Mother's Day.

Okay, we did the fishing thing today, once the rain stopped. Nobody got hooked at all! Well, except for two fish. I don't want the P E T A people all over my backside, so we'll just say that there was a bit of ugliness involving a now one-eyed fish. Nuff said. We were just doing catch and release. Mostly we were feeding them all a serious amount of worms. I was fascinated by the amount of "oooh, it took the worm right off the hook!"

Oh well, doing our part for our fishy friends.

I've been given the heads-up that on Mother's day, we're all taking the kids fishing. Um, does that mean for Father's day we can go to the mall?

I don't really need anyone to make a big deal out of Mother's Day...I told Mr. Dump that I'd really like a set of drinking glasses, so we can stop giving our guests the Uno's and Applebee's kiddie cups that we've collected over the years. I'm hoping to end up with something good, but he is going to let junior help pick them out.

I can tell you this: I'm NOT touching any bait. And unless they end up with some shellfish, I'm not eating the catch.

Important stuff first: thank God the Sox won last night. We were about to drape black cloth over the mirrors. Let's hope they are back on track for at least the next few games.

Next up: My outerwear of choice today is a fleece button-up sweater-like garment. It's a nice dark raspberry color, reversible with a lighter shade of the same. I thought it would look nice and I could wear it inside, where the temperatures sometimes get cool in the afternoon. Except on the way in I kept thinking that the air vents in the car were letting in the scents of spring. And when I got to my desk I realized...it's my fleece. It smells like flowers. Not in a perfumey kind of way, but in a pollen kind of way. It smell like those big white lilies they put in bouquets that make me pray to God nobody gets flowers at work. Or paper whites. Some people like the smell of paper whites. I think they are pretty but the smell makes me want to run screaming. So that's what my clothing smells like. Fantastic. I took it off for now, I can't risk a headache developing before noon. (That's what will happen - massive headache.)

Does all fleece smell like flowers?

Why can't our jobs have a summer vacation like we used to get when we were kids? I'd be so excited right now because we'd be coming up on summer vacation...we'd all be running around with that excited anticipation you got around this time each year.

But no...no summer off. I'm so bummed.

I'm back at work and strep boy is spending some quality time with my parents. He's had two (three if you count this morning) doses of antibiotic, so I don't think he's particularly contagious anymore, but he had a fever until late yesterday morning so he couldn't go to school or daycare today (you have to be fever-free for 24 hours). Plus he still sounds horrible, and isn't eating normally, so I'd just rather he be able to relax at home (or at grandma's). Which is foolish because he doesn't really relax when he's there.

Product recommendation: I wish this had been out three years ago when he was just coming into the age where this would have easily been his favorite toy. And yet, at 6, he still thinks it's very cool. I like it because it's rugged, needs no batteries, and requires a little more input from him than one of those $10 slot car sets. This was on sale for $15 at Toyworks: Speedstars Maximum Thrills Raceway.

I wish the State of Massachusetts would hurry up and cash my income tax payment. It's really screwing up my checkbook. It's hard enough for me to not screw up my checkbook. I mean, why don't they just cash them all as soon as they get them? Wouldn't it make sense, so there's a greater chance that the money will actually be in someone's account?

In other news, I need to get my hair cut.

Junior has become my little outdoorsman. If he could play GameCube outside, he could die happy. Yesterday was tee ball in the morning, then a bike ride with his cousins in the afternoon, followed by a little pickup tee ball and then some basketball. Today he rode his bike a bit, and then, something I wouldn't have suspected, my parents took us to BJs where they picked up a kid's fishing pole and my dad (who has a fishing license) taught him how to cast down at Whalom. Amazing. He really got the hang of it pretty quickly, and we won't even talk about the driving rain. It was just not a day to be standing out there, but my dad was pretty into it, or he faked it very well. Now Junior wants to go back tomorrow.

Man, this is really pushing the limits of what his father and I consider a fun way to spend the weekend. I'll take him fishing as long as I don't have to bait hooks or remove them from fish (or humans). I have limits.

The following photos are of Junior airborn playing basketball, and the other is of the abandoned rollercoaster at Whalom. My camera batteries died right after I took these so I didn't get any pictures of Junior fishing. I'll get some another time.

Man, do I love maple syrup. Not that fake crap. That stuff should be outlawed. I'm talking tree juice, baby. Boiled tree juice. We chose Eggo homestyle waffles as our method of ingesting our maple syrup.

Game 2 of tee ball was a success.