Grab a chair and a couple of root beers...

The Husbandly One is whisking yours truly and the kids for a few days at the beach. We're headed for Rockport again, but minus the visit to the Mold Hotel.

This time, we're staying at Holiday Inn Express. It may not be picturesque, but it'll be clean, and I can breathe, two very important requirements in Auntie's Vacation Book. Maybe after we get to know Rockport better, we can try a beach house, and get away from the corporate stuff. I have very good memories of my Aunt Maud's beach house in Crystal Beach, Texas, which was washed away when Ike hit back in 2008. It wasn't ornate or overly full of conveniences. It was built at a time when "modern conveniences" meant a stove, a fridge, running water, and an indoor toilet.

It had an outdoor shower.

There was no ground floor, except for that shower, and an under-house patio of sorts where there were picnic tables and hammocks strung to catch the breeze. The second floor was one large central room, which had the kitchen, with a small table (because you mostly ate outside), and a "living area" that was mostly twin beds disguised to look like couches. And there was a small bathroom and shower just off the kitchen, and a large pantry that held not only food, but an endless supply of beach towels and blankets for the sand.

And on three sides of that main room was a deep, screened in balcony/porch. About two and a half feet up from the floor was wall, and then the rest of the way up to the ceiling was screen. There were canvas flaps rolled up everywhere to let down if there was rain, because... there were no bedrooms. You slept on that porch. That porch had nearly ten beds at intervals, mostly twins, but there were two full sized beds, and everyone slept on the porch with only the lightest of covers, because there was no air conditioning. You stayed cool by being out on the sleeping porch or out in the water. That was it.

Wow, I didn't mean this to turn into a stroll down memory lane! Anyhow, the basic gist of this is, we'll be gone for a few days, so... I'll be lucky if I get so much as a peep at the f-list!

See you when I get back!!

Toodle-oo!!

Auntie

Or maybe I should have titled it "The Angst of Auntie."

*sigh*

Where do I even begin? Life has been... difficult. And for the stupidest of reasons. I can't go fully into it, but suffice it to say, I think that the Husbandly One and I are going to be most definitely resigning our positions on the soccer board. The past five months have been... hard.

We have a person on the board who... if we had known ahead of time what we know now, we would not have voted him on. And one of the present board members, who has not been on the board as long as we have, has a great deal of... emotional investment in this person. Quite a few of us on the board think the person is... not entirely honest, and poses a serious risk to the board and the organization, but the board member is adamant that it is all lies, libel, etc, and has told us any move on our part to have this person removed would result in legal action against us.

There is nothing in our bylaws that will allow us to get rid of this person, save catching him red-handed with his hand in the cookie jar. Which I personally suspect is not long in coming.

In the meantime, THO and I are being accused of having a "personal bias" against this person, and THO has been told he has "control issues."

This, right in the middle of our trying to deal with the city and the issues with the fields (the city wants to "disk" our fields, which would totally and completely screw them up, not to mention wrecking the sprinkler heads on the irrigation system WE installed). We were going to resign at the end of this season anyway, because the Impertinent Daughter has gone as far as she can go in this league. We don't have enough kids to field a U15 and up team in the fall. We never have. So, that means we need to go to a league in San Marcos, or New Braunfels, or gods help us, Austin. And if we have to take one kid to practice in another town, it seems ridiculous to leave the other to play here. Might as well move both of them and not have to try to go to two different practices in two different towns, and then two different sets of games on the weekends. And if our kids aren't playing in the league, then there's really no point in us being on the board, since we will be basically running hither and yon anyway. There just won't be time for it. So, maybe this was our wake-up call that it's time to move on.

In other news, I have the sinking feeling that the 8th grade principal at the junior high is well on her way to some sort of mental breakdown. That or the sweet smiles I've graced her with whenever I'm at the junior high are finally shredding her nerves!

I quote from the Impertinent Daughter's journal on DeviantArt...

"I got nothing else to really report.

Oh, no wait... the principal is going all psychotic about the dress code again.

So after giving us some other crazed up lecture and making everyone late for class, she released the boys but held the girls back. Then she told the custodians to close the doors in the cafeteria so no one could get into the cafeteria. At that point I was getting worried. But then she started on a rant about how the girls were wearing too low-cut shirts (I don't) and that we weren't supposed to do that and that we will get in trouble if we do. Then she started to complain about us wearing short shorts and told us again that we COULD NOT WEAR SHORTS THAT DON'T TOUCH OUR KNEES. Not even a CENTIMETER above the knee. No. Then she started complaining about how we use our jackets to hide low cut shirts or we hold our binders in front of our chests to hide the low cut shirts. I swear, if she could outlaw jackets from the dress code she would. And the way she went on about all of this made it seem like we were doing illegal drugs instead of breaking a few slight dress code rules. Ugh. I hate her so much. "

They were ten minutes late to their next class.

And this doesn't include the lecture she was giving the kids about talking, etc.

Oh, haven't I mentioned, the majority of the kids lunch periods is taken up with Mrs. Sees-Plots-Everywhere and Principal Noodlehead lecturing the kids from the stage? Oh yes, with microphones and everything. "You need to think about the decisions you make, you must make appropriate decisions or you will be left behind, or worse, find yourself in a place you never imagined." "There is too much talking and not enough eating going on in here!" "You need to change your behavior, blah, blah, blah, blah..." which is pretty much what it degenerates into. I am stunned every single time I walk into that school to hear one of those two women droning into the microphone or haranguing them for something: "you over there! You need to stop clumping up and stand on the blue line! Stand on the blue line for the lunch line, stop cutting and talking! Do you hear me over there? STAND ON THE BLUE LINE OR I'LL TAKE AWAY YOUR SWIM DAY PRIVILEGES!!"

This goes on every single school day, for all three lunch periods!! And personally? I think they are massively counterproductive.

The good news is... they are not going to be returning to the junior high in the fall. The bad news is, we have 30 more days of this shit to live through.

What I tremble to find out is... where are they going next? Because Mrs. Sees-Plots-Everywhere keeps getting removed from the junior high, then a year or two later, turns up at one of the other schools like a bad penny only to be removed by the virulent and furious insistence of the parents... whereupon they ship her back to the junior high.

Which means she'll be back by the time the Impossible Son makes it to the junior high.

Personally, I'm thinking of shooting an email to the school board president and saying something along the lines of, "I think Mrs. Sees-Plots-Everywhere is getting close to a mental breakdown. Her OCD is going into over-drive, and I'm worried for the welfare of the students. Granted, she's only got 30 more days to go, but enough is enough, get the crazy bitch out of there."

Of course, I would word it a bit more tactfully and diplomatically than that, being the awesome writer that I am.

I'm sorry, but spending ten minutes haranguing the girls about the length of their shorts, and whether or not they are wearing "low-cut" shirts is... too much time.

This is one of those times when small-town life loses its appeal.Life

I was awakened at the ungodly hour of 4:45 a.m. this morning, and now, here I sit, at 5:20 a.m., making a post. Why, you ask?

Because the Husbandly One, when setting his alarm last night, for some inexplicable reason, also set his clock one hour ahead.

O_o

Yes, it is his job to wake us both up in the mornings, since he is a light sleeper, and I am a notoriously heavy sleeper, even though I have the bizarre and utterly useless tendency to wake up 5 seconds before someone actually wakes me up. Dunno why, but I've always been that way. I have to be completely and totally exhausted for that not to happen.

Anyhow, I didn't notice this until after I had checked the weather, and looked at local news, and was about to log into LJ. The Impertinent One had asked me to get her up a little earlier than usual so she could shower, and I automatically checked the computer clock to see what time it was... and blinked when I saw it said, "5:15." Turn to the clock on THO's side of the bed. 6:15.

Okay, so maybe the computer clock is off? I look down, there's my cell phone, so I pick it up to check that clock. 5:15.

B'zuh?

So, I trot into the kitchen where THO is making himself some coffee, and I said, "Honey? What time is it?"

He stops right in the middle of the kitchen, looks at me like I'm nuts, and says, "Huh?"

"What time is it? Check the time on the microwave," I said encouragingly.

So he looks at it, frowns, and then... his whole body slumps. "It's after five?? What the hell...?" He checks the living room clock and yes, it's still after five. He smears his face around, then says, "I must have reset the clock when I was setting the alarm."

"Yeah," I said sympathetically. "I was wondering why I was feeling so stoned." I mean, I had to force myself into "bright-eyed and bushy-tailed" mode!

*an hour later*

He actually tried to go about his morning as usual, but while I was sitting here typing, he came in, stripped down to his boxers, tugged me away from the computer, and said, "We can't sleep, but we can doze for an hour, so... let's go back to bed!"

*grin*

Who'm I to turn down an invitation to bed with a handsome man?

I know this is going to turn into one of our funny family stories. Can't wait to see the expression on the kids' faces when I tell them what their papa did! When I'm a little more awake, that is!!

Yesterday was a pretty good day. The migraine is backing off (yay!), which is a huge relief, because my poor kids were stuck at home with a grouchy mom. It's spring break, so they're off from school. Not a good time for Mom to be curled up in bed with a blanket over her head!

The Husbandly One was off yesterday, because he needed to update the photo on his driver's license. I think the current photo is... over ten years old. That's all I feel safe to say, because I know it was taken after we moved here, and Miss Priss was just old enough to be walking. Yes, that long ago! So, yes, very much time for updating!

Anyhow, after he was done with that, we went to San Marcos to visit the library and turn in books. The manga section at the San Marcos Public Library has grown since we joined, but its growth cannot keep up with the Impertinent Daughter's voracious appetite, I'm afraid. That and there seem to be people who check the manga out... but never return them, so she's often stuck, either waiting for the next volume in the series she's reading, or skipping ahead, and knowing there's something she's missing. Putting holds on manga she wants to read will work... but only if the manga in question gets turned in!

After, we went to Academy, which is a sporting goods store for those who aren't in the know, because Auntie needed new shoes. I mean, come on, the sole was coming off one pair, and the others... *winces*.

Auntie is hard on her sneakers.

There was a pair I've had my eye on for a while, and I've been waiting for the price to go down, but... it just wasn't going down fast enough, and it's not like we couldn't afford them, but I do try to stick to a budget, you know? So, I had gone down the women's shoe aisle, found the shoes, and frowned when I saw that they'd only gone down to $59.99, and I wasn't so crazy about the color.

Then I remembered, hey... I've got small feet, and they have these shoes in boys sizes... I'll go look there!

So I did, and found a pair in my size and bonus, in a snazzy blue!! And... they were $29.99!! WOOT!!

Yes, Auntie is happy!

Last night, the local library had a "Mario Kart Wii" tournament for kids, so we went for the fun of it. We don't go to our local library much because, well... it sucks, as far as reading material goes. I used to think it was poorly funded, but then I realized that it sucks for the same reason book stores never last more than six months in this town.

No one in this town reads.

*shrugs*

Yes, I know, it's appalling.

*sigh*

But, they always have interesting events at the library, and we've gone to some of them, and had a lot of fun. This was no different. The Impossible Son has been excited all week about this, so he pretty much burst into the library when we got there. He signed up immediately, and the Impertinent Daughter only signed up after much discussion with us. She said she was feeling a little too full after dinner, and wasn't sure she should, etc, but after a couple of older kids had signed up, she finally decided to join in, and had a great deal of fun. It's different playing against other kids, rather than just your parents and your brother.

The Impossible Son won two games, but came in second on his last game, so he ended up coming in fourth over all. The Impertinent Daughter, however... won the whole damn tournament!!

*dies laughing*

Pretty good for someone who didn't want to sign up in the first place! She won a $20 gift certificate to WalMart and promptly spent it on... sketchbooks. But then, y'all already knew that, right?

Yes, all in all, a good night for our little family. I'm pondering what to do today, though it looks cloudy and rainy. Maybe a movie? We'll just have to see!

Last night, the Husbandly One had his very own Wheezy. Namely me.

I woke up around 1 a.m. after a very disturbing dream about trying to get out of a very dark, very dusty house. Every time I took a step, clouds of thick, suffocating dust kept blowing up in my face, and I would try to breath, covering my face with my shirt, but it would fill my throat and start choking me, and I would struggle to breathe, and I couldn't find my way out at all! I kept bumping into things, more clouds of dust, more suffocating, until I woke up and realized that I was having a very hard time breathing.

Y'all... I haven't done that in YEARS! Not since I gave up feather pillows!

THO always wakes up when I do, he's such a light sleeper, and I guess I must have been mumbling and coughing in my sleep, too. I got up and used my inhaler, and tried to lay back down to go back to sleep but... nope. Seriously, I came very close to telling the Husbandly One to call the Tall Blonde to come sit with the kids so he could take me to the hospital in San Marcos. Thank goodness for water and Benadryl!

I guess I sat up for two hours or so, wishing very much that we had a recliner for me to sleep in (sometimes, when my asthma's acting up, I can't lay down to sleep), but finally, my medications were working and I crawled back in next to my cuddly THO and went back to sleep.

So, I wasn't really all that surprised to hit KVUE's weather page and find out that the cedar pollen count has exploded, and the humidity has dropped dramatically. In fact, we're under a red flag until tomorrow night for fire danger. Whoopee.

And yes, I have been a very good Auntie today and taken my medicine and stayed in bed, reading and playing the new Kingdom Hearts game on my little DS Lite, drinking lots of water, and all that stuff. Do I sound grumpy? I am!

Oh, and just to complicate things... the Impertinent Daughter may have mono... AGAIN. Yes, you can get it more than once. Once you have mono, the virus stays in your body forever, just like the chicken pox virus does. And it can reactivate. We won't know for sure until Monday, when her mono-panel comes back. Goodie.

It's just, she's been Limp Noodle Girl since Monday. I mean, seriously, guys, she's gone from running 2 miles every other day in her athletics class at school, and then racing around like the little terror she is with her brother after school, to curling up on the couch and falling asleep, or curling up in my bed to read or watch movies... and doing nothing else!! It was a very abrupt change. She's pale, and losing weight, too, because she just doesn't feel like eating.

Don't y'all feel sorry for the Husbandly One right now? Of course, he's got us both where he can keep an eye on us, so I know he's enjoying THAT part, but still... *laughs* Send him sympathy, y'all, he's got two high-maintenance Southern gals on his hands, neither of whom enjoy being still for long periods... and he's got to keep them both entertained!!

I just hope he comes through it with his sanity intact!!

ETA: I should probably mention that the Impossible Son has gone to spend the night with a friend tonight, so he has escaped the House of Limp Noodle Women at least until tomorrow!

Look at the Husbandly One's new tattoos!!

His first tattoo had faded badly (the tattooist had too light of a hand) and he has disappeared into the bright blue yonder, so... we went to the place where the Impertinent Daughter had her ears pierced, originally to have his tat touched up. However... we ended up decided to get a NEW version of the portrait tattoo, somewhat larger and on THO's back, and get a coverup tattoo over the original portrait.

He had the portrait done last week, and I had to wait for it to heal a bit before taking a shot of it. It's still a teeny bit red, and still has some flaky skin, but I couldn't wait any longer, so here it is...

( Click to see his tattoos!! )

The Husbandly One and I are both... well... geeks. Science fiction, fantasy, we read, we grew up on Star Trek, Star Wars, and all the stuff that childhood in the late sixties, early seventies entails. And there are certain phrases that we will bandy back and forth that make us laugh uproariously, but leave the Impertinent Daughter frowning and saying, "Er... what?? I don't get it..."

One that has really thrown her is when THO or I pop out with, "Brain, brain, what is brain?" at highly appropriate moments, and then fall apart laughing. "What's so funny about that?" she says, looking at us like we're nuts. Well, we are nuts, but that's neither here nor there.

So today, while the Impossible Son was playing at a friend's house, I got on Veoh.com and found the notoriously and infamously worst written episode of Star Trek ever put into production... "Spock's Brain."

Even the title sucks.

It is so awful, it's hilarious, in an entirely unintentionally funny way.

What gets me about that episode? If that's the script that actually made it to the point of being made... what the hell were the scripts they turned down like???

Anyway, she watched it with an air of disbelief, and burst out laughing at times. By the end, though, she got it. And will most likely die laughing with us when either THO or I quip, "Brain, brain, what is brain??"

It's a wonderful life...

I needed a profile picture for my Ravelry page, so the Husbandly One obligingly took one of my hands as I worked on a bag...



Yes, I have a bandaged finger. Blame it on excessively dry skin and leave it at that.

And here is the Husbandly One. He's letting his hair grow out, and I promised my mother a shot of him with his ponytail. *squee* He's getting ready to leave for soccer practice, as he has a 3v3 team for a summer tournament in July.



Why, yes, I do find him irresistibly sexy and mouthwateringly hot... why do you ask?

Yes, Random Auntie is random!

Y'all... I am SOOOOO evil!!

Last night, I put a ringtone on the Husbandly One's phone that says in a very swishy man's voice, "Pimp... pimp phone... pimp phone ringing," over and over again and all without him knowing it. And oh, wasn't it hard for Auntie to keep a straight face, or to keep from cackling with glee last night?

Anyway, in a little bit, I'm going to email friends and family to call him periodically throughout the day so it pops out with that ringtone constantly. Because... he doesn't know how to change it.

BWAAAAAA-HAHAHAHAHAHA-HAHAHAHAHAHA-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!!

ROFLMAO!!!

Hoo, hoo, hoo... oh, I am evil!!!

Happy April Fool's Day, y'all!!!

It has been three days, sixteen hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds since I last got kissed by the Husbandly One.

It has been three days, twenty two hours, 36 minutes and 16 seconds since I last got snogged silly by the Husbandly One.

I am not happy about this at all.

First off, the Impossible Son is better. In fact, he'll be going back to school tomorrow (YAY!!), and he got to play in the first soccer game of the season for his team Saturday morning.

However... the Husbandly One came down with the Bug From Hell Friday morning. And he had it much worse than Mr. Manzie did! In fact, at one point, he had decided to take a warm tub to relax his aching muscles and y'all, I thought I was going to have to haul him out of the bathtub all by myself! Now, I'm a sturdy gal, and I'm a lot stronger than I look, but hauling 160 pounds of conscious husband out of the bathtub is one thing... hauling 160 pounds of dead weight is a completely different story! Fortunately, he managed to stay conscious, and I did get him out of the tub, but it took a while!!

I had to call the league and tell them he would not be doing any referee work on Saturday, and I thought the Impertinent Daughter and I were going to have to coach his little U8 team through their first game, but he felt better enough Saturday morning to do that himself. However... he felt worse Saturday night, and today... well, he was a very uncomfortable THO.

I have a feeling he won't be going in to work tomorrow.

This, of course, is the reason for the moratorium on snogging. Which I miss very, very, very much. In fact, I am feeling very, very snog-deprived right now, and can't believe how dependent I am on them!! If he doesn't get better soon, I may start looking for other candidates!!

I know he doesn't want me to get this bug, and believe me, I don't want to, either! I have been washing my hands like a fiend to keep from getting this, and wiping everything he touches down. I haven't even slept in my bed, opting for a sleeping bag on the floor, fer gossakes! If I get this after all that... I am not going to be happy. Plus, it would make me have to wait even LONGER for a good, toe-curling kiss!!

I've already told him, ten seconds after he is officially declared over this bug, I am going to snog him breathless!!

Just... thought you ought to know.