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

Okay, so... let's see... I went to see an orthopedic specialist two weeks ago about my knee. Verdict, yes, I banged it up good and proper, I also have osteo-arthritis in my right knee (not unexpected, considering the way I've injured it in the past), and... at some point will need intervention. I'm too young and active for knee replacement, he could do surgery to clean out all the crunch stuff in there, but it would come back eventually (also true), or there's an injection he could give me after the inflammation and irritation calms down in my knee called "Synvisc One" that would basically replace the fluid that lubricates and cushions the joints in my knee. He's had good results with that one, and it turns out that the mom of one of Mr. Impossible's team mates has had it and said, "OMG, Auntie... get it. It's wonderful. I can move, I can walk, and it doesn't hurt!!"

You know... I was doing pretty well there for a long time. I mean, I was able to run and play with my kids, and while stairs were tricky at times, mostly, things with Rice Crispy Knee were good. Until now.

So for the time being, Dr. S. gave me a steroid injection in Rice Crispy Knee to calm down the inflammation and help with the pain, and advised me to stay off of it as much as possible, no stairs, no bending it, no kneeling, no lifting, etc., and to use a crutch when I needed to walk around.

Okay, cool, I can do that, and I promise, I've been very, very good. Very good. Except, I haven't told my mom about it because... really, she would freak for no good reason, and right now, I just can't see the point of upsetting her. Really. Besides, I really, really don't want to hear the "Marching Band Ruined Your Health, And So Did Drum Corps, If You'd Only Stayed In Swimming And If You'd Only Gone to Bellaire High School, You'd Be So Much Better Off" lecture again. I got a five year break from that one, but now that she has Alzheimer's, she doesn't remember settling that one so... it's being recycled. Yay.

Last week, the Impertinent Daughter turned... sixteen.

*incipient freak-out*

Have I mentioned how awesome my daughter is? May the 4th is her birthday, it's Star Wars Day, and "The Avengers" came out in the theaters. TRIPLE BONUS!!! So... we took her to San Marcos for dinner at her favorite Chinese restaurant, where the Impossible Son got this in his fortune cookie...



If you can't read it, it says, "About time I got out of that cookie!"

After that, we went to the theater where I'd pre-ordered tickets and got in line. And hey, I just have to say, I really like this "ordering movie tickets online" thing, because the show was sold out!! It was awesome!! Yes, yes, I know, welcome to the 21st century, Auntie.

I learned a valuable lesson that day, too. The Impertinent Daughter is absolutely NEVER allowed to ever, ever, EVER drink Mountain Dew again. As far as she's concerned, it's a controlled substance. OMG... one of her friends gave her a can for her birthday, and she was feeling tired when she got home from school. She wanted to stay awake for the movie, she said, so she decided to drink the Mountain Dew with her snack. This is around 4:30 p.m.

Holy Mackinoly, y'all, that child was wired for sound!! I mean, seriously, she talked nonstop (except when she was eating, and even then it was a close thing) from 4:35 until 1 a.m.!!!! EVEN DURING THE MOVIE.

I would shush her so I could hear the dialogue, and I'll say this for her, unless her enthusiasm got away from her, she mostly kept her voice really soft and quiet, which had irritations of it's own, because I couldn't hear her well enough to understand her!! And she tried valiently to be quiet in the car on the way home after, but... chatter chatter chatter!!! At least it mostly made sense!!

"The Avengers" was ... awesome by the way!!! Just... oh, yeah, gonna go see that again just so we can catch what we missed the first time!!!

The Impossible Son had a soccer game Saturday, and didn't play like himself at all. By Saturday evening, he had a fever of 103 F (39.4 C). That was fun. Turned out to be a virus that's blasting its way through town. The Impertinent Daughter fell victim to it Sunday night, but her temperature didn't get as high as the Impossible One's did, thank goodness. Mr. Impossible missed Monday, and Miss Priss should be back at school tomorrow.

After her doctor's appointment tomorrow, I shall retire to the couch with pillows to prop up Rice Crispy Knee with an ice pack and not do one damn thing until the kids get home from school!!!

Played in a scrimmage against my son's U10 soccer team last night, Parents versus Kids, and had loads of fun. The score was even, and I think the kids learned a lot. It's one thing to tell the kids, "Spread out!" and "Move up!" and "Watch your man!" And it's another thing to SHOW them.

Heh.

Did pretty well, until nearly the end of the game when my knees decided to close shop. "We're done!" they said, and promptly vamoosed, and Auntie went all in a heap to the ground. Fortunately, muscle memory does not fail, and I rolled right up to a sitting position. If my knees had not left the building earlier, I would have come back up to a standing position! Gave the Impossible Son heart failure, though. "Mom! Mom!! Are you okay? Do we need to call 911? Are you dead? Mom?? Mom? MOM!!!"

Because I was laughing so hard, I couldn't talk!

There were a lot of funny moments. Like when The Husbandly One scored a goal and whipped off his shirt to come running down the field, arms in the air with his shirt streaming behind like a flag. One of the kids turned and looked at me and said, "Coach THO is a pretty hairy guy, Auntie!"

I laughed and said, "He's my own personal shag carpet!" and then laughed even harder because... hee... SHAG!!

*is inappropriately amused*

One of the other dads had a handicap. His three year old son wanted to play, too, but he's too small, both in age and in size. So, he scooped his son up and at first tried to play with Wee-Man on his hip. Nope. So he tried a princess carry. Nope, that didn't work, either. He finally just lifted him up to his shoulders, and Wee-Man just hung on for dear life, giggling madly while his dad went galumphing up the field after the ball.

Yes, "galumphing" is a word. I say so.

The Impossible Son threw himself dramatically to the ground at one point, saying, "I'm so TIRED!" and I pulled him up and said, "Hey, how do you think I feel! I'm old!"

One of his team mates danced by and said, "You're not old! Now my mom is nearly 28... that's OLD!! You're not even close to her age!"

I didn't have the heart to tell her I'm 47, and struggled to keep a straight face. One of the other moms on the team, who is five years younger than me, was laughing hysterically, and said, "It must be the lighting out here!"

Well, you know, to a ten year old, anyone over the age of 20 is positively ancient.

And I toe-punched the ball on a goal kick, instead of hitting it with the inside of my foot, as I had intended. The Impertinent Daughter rushed up to me and said, "Mom!! No toe-punching! You're going to hurt yourself!!"

She was right...



Not pretty, is it. It split the side of my toe, too, and yeah, still hurts.

The things we do for love, right?

*goes off to look for more ice*

Something sort of... deja-vu-ish about today.

Yesterday, Mr. Impossible got stung by a bee during a make-up soccer game. He got fouled, knocked over, and landed on... a bee.

Yay.

Popped a Benadryl in his mouth, put baking soda on it, and crossed my fingers. The swelling went down, and he seemed fine.

Then, this morning... hello delayed reaction!

*head-desk*

Oh, and the Impertinent One? Yeah, running a fever this morning, so... she's home, too.

Did I mention the doctor's office was completely double-booked by ten minutes after 8 this morning?

*grumblegrumblegrumble*

Hello? Can someone stop this roller coaster, please? I'd like to get off now, kthnxbai!

So, we're walking out of the San Marcos Library, and the Impossible Son says, "You know what I hate about super models?"

Okay, I thought, That's a bit of a non-sequiter! I'm used to those, though, thanks to the Impertinent One. "No, what do you hate about super-models?" I said, curious.

"They complain too much!" He skipped along next to me and frowned up at me. "Always complaining!"

"Oh," I said, nodding thoughtfully. "Spend a lot of time around super-models, do you?"

He grinned and started running for the van. "None of your beeswax!" he shouted over his shoulder.

"Hey!" I said, catching up. "I'm your mother! I have a right to know if you're hanging out with super models!"

The Husbandly One and the Impertinent Daughter stared at us with puzzled frowns. "What's going on, Mum?" Miss Priss asked.

"Mr. Impossible complained about super models, and I asked if he made a habit of hanging around them without telling us and he told me it's none of my beeswax!" I said indignantly as I got in the car.

"Wow," said the Husbandly One. "That's disrespectful."

"Hey," said the Impossible Son with a casual shrug. "I have a whole secret life none of you know about! That's just the way it is. Deal."

Then later, as we headed for home, the Impossible Son piped up, "Hey, Mom, are you going to bake cookies today?"

"I'll see what I can do," I said with a sigh. "Why?"

"I want to take a few samples so I can go down to my secret lab and do more work on my formula."

"Formula?" said the Husbandly One. "What formula?"

"I'm working on a formula for mind control," said the Impossible Son, leaning back in his seat with his DSLite. "If I get it right and add it to Mom's cookies, it will help her plan for World Domination Through Cookies move forward! I'm like... her assistant. Like... a mad scientist, but... none of you are allowed in my secret lab, so don't ask!"

"Okay," said the Husbandly One dubiously. "Just don't blow anything up. I'm not sure our homeowner's insurance would cover explosions and damage from an underground secret lab."

Yes, the Impossible Son has a rich, imaginative life. I wonder if conversations like this are the reason behind some of the very strange looks we get in public? Heh, heh, heh...

This is what happens when you have two electric guitars in the house...





And that is your Awesome for the Day...

And yes, that is Miyavi in the picture on the door above the Impertinent Daughter's head!

Okay, the image quality totally sucks, but then, the video is on Photobucket!!. YouTube won't let me post this video with the music because of copyright issues. Same with Veoh. Oh well, I might look around and see if I can find a better host, but jays, that's a lot of effort for a rinky-dink video!

Anyhow, remember the drought last year, and the pictures I posted of how dry the soccer fields were? This is from the same day I took the photos. You can see the dust flying up as the kids run. Oh, yes, those fields were dry as a bone! I'm still not quite sure how we managed to have a soccer season, because the first half was so damn dry, and then the rains started and since there was little to no grass, the fields turned into soup! Still, you can see the Impossible Son and his team having an absolute blast playing in a scrimmage, and you know, the music totally fits.

Enjoy!

P.S. Y'all have no idea how long I've been trying to post this!!!

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!

Well, my iMac is now up and running, after a complete hard drive replacement. *sigh* And for Christmas, the Husbandly One and I decided to forgo gifts for each other, and bought an external hard drive instead.

Not that we didn't get each other gifts, anyway. I filled a basket with little flavored coffee samples, and a cool Christmas mug, as well as his favorite treat, a Terry's Chocolate Orange, and he got me Spirit Tracks for my DS. Heh. I'm currently in the top of the Snow Temple, battling Boss Fraaz, and it's got me... Fraazled. *snort of laughter* After he destroys the ice and flame torches, it becomes considerable harder to kill him, and it also doesn't help to have a nearly nine year old critic at my elbow. "Freeze him, Mom! Use your boomerang to collect ice from that spot he spit the ice at and hit him with it, so his flames go out! MOOOOM!! You MISSED it!!! No, no, now you have to collect the FLAMES!! The FLAMES, Mom!!! MOOOOOOOM!!!! YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG!!!!"

Is it any surprise that I sometimes play my video games while hiding in the closet?

And hey, I won Zelda Phantom Hourglass FIVE TIMES!! Doesn't that give me any video game cred??

Anyhow, the iMac is running again, though the fan is now giving us fits. It speeds up, and then slows down, then speeds up, and slows down. I'm putting in a call to tech support to see if we need to bring it in again, or is this something we can deal with ourselves. *sigh*

This has been a strangely stressful Christmas, with only a few stress-free moments. Christmas Eve at my best friend's for dinner, Christmas day with the kids, in which we watched them tear into their gifts with big grins and didn't worry about hurrying them up and getting them fed, cleaned up, and dressed for the drive into Houston and Christmas at my sister's. Instead, we relaxed, took our time, enjoyed watching them discover the Nerf dart guns, the Nerf swords, the books, the video games, and their Asian snacks. Yes, you read that right. They love Ramune and Pocky, and whatever else THO finds at the little Asian market by where he works, and so we buy them every Christmas, and sometimes at Easter, too! I think this year, there were some little chocolate filled pretzels called "Pucca." The jury's still out on that one. Some sort of milk-flavored candy with a lemony back-taste that I'm still making up my mind about, and a cherry flavored gum that I want more of, and even now, I'm resisting rummaging in the kids' rooms to find. Miss Priss got some manga, and I found Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Demigod Files when I went shopping with the Tall Blonde, so that was in there, too. Mr. Impossible got a new DS Lite to replace the one that died last August, due to much abuse. It took the old one dying for him to understand why THO and I kept insisting that he put the thing down when he got frustrated. I will make a recommendation to any parents on my list who have purchased a DS system for their little ones, or who have kids who are a bit on the accident prone side; Nerf Armor. Nerf makes "armor" for the DS systems. It's soft, cushy, and more importantly, shock-absorbing. Buy this. Seriously. Your wallet (and sanity) will love you for it!

And the Husbandly One bought a PS2 system as a family gift, as well as a few games, most notably Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which the kids (especially Little Man) sorely missed after we replaced our PC with a Mac. As you can imagine, Harry Potter got played. A LOT.

After breakfast, and a morning of playing games, and just hanging out, we went to go see "Avatar" and were completely blown away. Went home, and all was well.

Saturday, however. *palm-forehead* Jays, I was so stressed out, because we were supposed to drive into Houston to the Blonde Sister's, and my asthma started acting up just to make things MORE fun, and the kids were squabbling, and oh, I just didn't want to go, but I sucked it up and got in the car, and we left. And yes, I know that sentence is all rambly, but you know, I think it describes the mood and feel perfectly!

However, we'd barely gotten 30 miles into the trip when the Impertinent Daughter piped up from the back seat with, "Um... I'm not sure if I unplugged the hot glue gun before we left. It's sitting on my clock radio, and I don't remember if I unplugged it."

I thought the Husbandly One was going to swallow his tongue. HE was stressed out, because yours truly was stressed out, and that was just... the icing on the cake. Because... we had to turn around and go back. Even after she frantically remembered that yes, she had unplugged the hot glue gun, the Husbandly One and I looked at each other grimly, each of us picturing the same thing: returning home Saturday night to a pile of ashes. Not. An. Option.

So, I dug out my phone to tell the Blonde Sister we weren't coming, knowing it would sound like the Lamest Excuse Ever, but... *shrugs* And why was this a problem? Well... it takes about 3 hours for us to get to Houston. We had left the house just after 11, and we wanted to be at the Blonde Sister's around 2:30 or so, and we were not planning on staying overnight. Returning home to check things out, and then getting back on the road would mean us getting to Houston sometime around 5, and then having to drive home that night. Driving home at night after such a stressful day is... exhausting. We've done that too many times as it is. So... once we were home, we were home. End of story.

And the damn glue gun was... unplugged. Naturally.

So... we went shopping instead, and picked up a few things, let the kids spend their Christmas money, that sort of thing. Got the Impossible Son some new sneakers, and got our usual shock of, "What, his shoes have been too small???" and stared at the new shoes on his feet, thinking they were just too damn big, until he took them off and we realized his feet were just too damn big, too, so, you know he's going to have a growth spurt soon... AAAAUUUUGGHHH!!!! WHERE DID MY BABY GO???

Obviously, the same place my wild fairy child went. *sigh*

Well, we'll probably go to Houston on New Year's Day and leave the presents for my great niece and great nephew there (yes, Auntie is old enough to be a great aunt, now), as well as my mom. In the meantime, I plan to enjoy the rest of winter vacation with the Husbandly One and my kids. Maybe we'll go see "Sherlock Holmes," today. That would be awesome!

I hope everyone's holidays are going well, and that you all got everything you wanted, and maybe even something you didn't know you wanted, but were delighted to get anyway!

Love,

Auntie!

P.S. You know, my contribution to harry_holidays was way out of my comfort zone, but I was happy with it. And I'm trying very hard not to check it every single day to see how many comments its collected. But I will admit, I am looking forward to when I can post it with my name on it, and see what happens. *mischievous grin*

After breakfast, and much playing around with the new stuff

Oh, boy, was yesterday a long day!!
( Lots of photos to follow, for soccer and Halloween, so clicky to see, and beware, oh users of Dial-Up! )

Dunno if y'all remember this post, but it was one of the saddest days in our little family's lives. Henry's was a wonderful restaurant, very relaxed and family friendly, intimate, and the food was good. Plain, but really good, tasty... and that Belgian Chocolate Cheesecake was to die for! Let me tell you, it was totally worth the migraine!!

We made going to Henry's after trick-or-treating on Halloween an annual tradition, thought it's not like we didn't go there regularly anyway. I sometimes went there after dropping off the kids at school and ordered hot chocolate, or a piece of pie, and sat there with my notebook, scribbling notes on whatever plot bunny had bitten me that day for a couple of hours. It was just that kind of place. And when it closed, it really hurt.

It didn't go out of business. What happened was... the building's owner raised the rent. Henry's was doing a booming business, one of the few "home-cookin'" type restaurants in town that didn't serve barbecue, and I guess the building owner wanted some of the profits, but... they got a little greedy. The owner of Henry's wouldn't stand for it, and threatened to shut down if the price wasn't lowered to a more reasonable level. The building owner thought it was a bluff. And Henry's closed.

I guess the building owner thought it would be no problem for another restaurant to open and do a booming business. So, a little Tex-Mex place opened. Only problem is, we have Mr. Taco. We have Guadalajara. We have Maria's. We have another little place, I can't remember the name, La Plaza or something. In other words, the place is crawling with little Tex-Mex places, so... it closed after two months. "Rogelio's" I think it was called. Food was... okay. Nothing to write home about. I've had better at my friend's houses growing up. Another Tex-Mex place opened up and closed after only a few weeks. The building has been empty since.

So, Tuesday, the Husbandly One had the day off, because we had to go to the junior high and meet with the Impertinent Daughter's guidance counselor to talk about her four year high school plan. And after that was done, we had gone wandering around town, looking at what was new and what was gone. A new bakery has opened up, which we enjoyed immensely, and a couple of new shops have opened. And a few have closed. We walked the square and looked sadly at the building Henry's had been in. "Man," THO had said, "it sure would have been great to have lunch at Henry's today."

"Yeah," I said sadly.

*sigh*

So, today, I was reading the town newspaper, and was skimming through the sports page when I saw an ad at the bottom of one page that made me rub my eyes and look at it again, then pick up my reading glasses, put them on, and read it yet again.

Henry's Restaurant, open daily...

The picture was the familiar, and I wondered if it was somebody's idea of a sick joke. But as I stared at it, and read it over and over, it began to sink in.

Henry's ... it's BACK!!

HENRY'S IS BACK!!!!

Oh, YEAH, you just KNOW we went there for dinner tonight!!

*happy, happy, joy, joy*

There's been a few changes; the long counter with the bar stools is gone (oh, how I'll miss that!), and you can no longer see the cooks working in the kitchen (I'll miss that, too!), but the food is still good, the waitresses friendly, and it was like it had never been gone! It was TOTALLY AWESOME!!!

And if that's not enough to make my cup runneth over...

The Impossible Son did his homework... WITHOUT ANY PROMPTS OR REMINDERS FROM ME!! And you know what else? He did his math homework, it was all subtraction... he did it by himself AND ... HE GOT IT ALL RIGHT IN ONE GO!!!

*dance of joy, dance of joy*

I'm so happy for him!!! My son just totally ROCKS!!

*hugs everyone on her f-list in an excess of joy*