The Big DumpTruck

I'm off to play a little t-ball with Junior with his old teammates. We planned on an 8:30am start to beat the heat. So the heat can stay beaten until we're done!

Also, can someone please invent a towel that cleans itself? I feel like I'm just always washing the danged things.

"Weekends Were Made for Michelob"
God, when's the last time you had that jingle in your head? Well it's there now! And if you aren't nice to me, I'll give you a few others. And don't think I won't do it!

No strong plans for the weekend. That's okay, we're saving our cheese money for Florida. Have I ever explained the concept of cheese money? It's very simple. Cheese money is the extra money you have available to blow on fun stuff. The concept was invented years ago by myself when I was trying to convince Mr. Dump to take a road trip to Vermont. You know, just for fun. I told him the reason we "needed" to go was because I wanted to go to buy Vermont Cheddar cheese - that I had saved up "cheese money". Now we use the phrase "cheese money" to refer to budget excess that would allow us to do something fun - go to a museum, go to an amusement park, visit the Vermont Country Store to buy some cheese. You know, cheese money.

I want you all to feel free to go out and use this handy phrase in your everyday lives.

You'll have to forgive my obsession with Disney right now, but I'm so ready to be there that I'm not letting little things like the trip being three months away deter me from planning and just constantly thinking about it.

Today's thoughts are about Universal Studios. I think Junior would get a real kick out of going to Universal to see all the Nickelodeon stuff that he regularly sees on television. If they are in production, he might actually see sets and/or a show. That would be too cool. On the other hand, the Studios is a different "park" than Islands of Adventure, and both have their own tickets, and I just don't think we have the time or money to do both. Would he like Islands of Adventure? I'm sure of it. I know my brother-in-law is all over the whole Spider-Man thing. IOA has a big Marvel Comics section.

So, those of you who've been, thoughts?

Link to Barak Obama's speech from last night. Keep your eye on this guy, he'll be running for President sooner than you know.

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/0,,SB109096386879275460-H9jgINklaV3oZ2obIKIb62Im4,00.html

I'm sure someone will bring me down a peg or two, but allow me this small parental gloat, would you?

My kid is good at math.

I laugh when I call him Doogie, but deep in my heart, I want him to go to college at 16 even if it means two fewer years in which to save money for tuition. If he gets into college at 16, I'm pretty sure he'll qualify for a scholarship.

It started when he was about 20 months old (I think that's how old he was at the time, I can check) and he could count to thirteen. Sometimes he missed seven, but not often. That's pretty good for a 20 month old.

So he starts first grade in September, and the other night he was adding together two four-digit numbers. Actually, he did a six-digit number too. We stuck with those you don't have to carry anything over to the next column, just to get him used to doing it. He's so cool. I was not a math person. Math people go far in life.

He's better at addition than subtraction, but he has potential. He understands the concept, I just think he's got more addition memorized. Throw out six plus five and he'll quickly give you back an eleven. Without using fingers and toes! So if this is normal for a 6-year-old kindergarten graduate, I'm sorry I took up your valuable time. But I'm still pretty proud of him.

In a related note, I'm suddenly disturbed by the fact that Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius, is in the same public school classroom as the stupid kids. If he's THAT smart, does he really belong in the same class as Sheen and Carl? Do Miss Fowl's math lessons actually stimulate his brain at all? You can see how this would bother me.

Windows are overrated, really. They couldn't finish fixing my car today so when they finally gave it back at about 5pm they said they needed it again next Tuesday. At least the window is shut and doesn't need electrical tape and a Shaws bag to keep the weather on the outside. They tell me there's a pair of pliers in there keeping the window up. That makes me feel good.

I have no idea how much it's going to cost, given that they worked on it and didn't finish it. Hourly. *shudder*

By next Tuesday that will be the right side of the car. I wonder if the left side of the car will last until I decide to buy a new one...

I got to and from work today with little or no problem. I mean, traffic was a bit heavy, but lately it's been like that daily anyway.

So I'm at work, happy as a clam (oh, can you just feeeeel the joy?) thinking to myself "thank the Good Lord I don't go in or out of Boston on a daily basis."

In other news, the rear passenger window on The Vehicle bought the farm last night. That'll teach me to put it down. That window has been a problem for over a year now. I had the front one fixed, but not the rear, and it slowly got worse and worse. I will also point out that in the winter, the front driver's side window often needs me to help it along, usually by pulling up on it with all my strength. But the back one died last night, and I was forced to work out some electrical tape-shopping bag combo to plug the hole up. Rain is expected tomorrow, you see, and I'd rather not end up with a back seat full of mold.

Cross your fingers that it's easy and cheap to fix. I'm not thrilled that this is the 2nd time I've had to pay to fix one of the windows on this thing.

Well, the only mention of the standoff in Lunenburg in the Telegram was a little mention. No shooting. I don't know what the crowd was talking about, but according to the news he allowed them in and he was just sitting on his couch. He had been threatening to kill himself with a gun.

So either the Telegram doesn't have all the details (entirely possible) or the lady who said she heard 7 shots was hearing something else. And there's no mention of children being hostages. Very odd that there were 27 cruisers if there wasn't more going on.

Well, I'm glad it ended well. Oh, and it wasn't the house where the people were sitting.