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

So, after taking a year off, the Impertinent Daughter is now an art major at Texas State University (not to be confused with the University of Texas). And, as happens when one is in art school, she is progressing by leaps and bounds!

For example...



Now, for her university studies course, she's been asked to interview/follow around someone who actually works in her chosen major, with the idea of getting a realistic picture of what she can expect, and that's where y'all come in. I know there are more than a few of you who actually work as illustrators or professional artists in real life. If one of you would be willing to allow the Impertinent Daughter to interview you, that would be awesome! Comment here or PM me and thank y'all in advance!

The Husbandly One surprised me yesterday with a brand new MacBook Air!!!

I was not expecting a new laptop this soon at all. I mean, I was hoping for one, since my Vaio died such an ignominious death (and I'm still hoping I can recover the hard drive), but not expecting one at any time before my birthday... maybe. So... I'm really happy!

Writing while out and about has been difficult since losing the Vaio. In fact, the last two times at the library while the kids were at their summer Animanga Club meetings was... frustrating. Trying to use THO's netbook sucked, because... one, it's Windows, and two, THO spilled liquid in the keyboard and thus, some of the keys are sticky, plus it's only got a partial version of Windows 7 (it came that way, if you want the actual full OS... you have to buy it. Extra. Yeah.) so it runs a little slow and it doesn't like using Word. I mean, it will run it, but it considers Word a bit dodgy and thinks less of you for using it.

I admire the Husbandly One's fortitude in using the damn thing.

The second time we were at the library, I borrowed the Impertinent Daughter's MacBook, and realized only after getting to the library that while I had installed Word for Mac on it (at her request, since her school uses Windows), I had not yet installed Pages... and the files on my USB drive were for Pages. I managed a work-around and did fine after that, but that should be one of my goals today, to install iWork on her Mac.

I finally asked THO about taking the Vaio somewhere to get it fixed, because, dammit, I need something to write on, something portable!! Dammit!!

And it wasn't like yesterday wasn't surreal on its own, you know? The Impertinent Daughter finished up the classroom instruction part of the driving course offered at the high school (by an independent driving school) and came home much earlier than I expected, and hit her own version of the Wall of Fatigue. So I left her at home to take a nap, with a guardian little brother, and went for a blissfully peaceful grocery shopping trip. And I'm glad, too, because that's where the surreal part of my day started.

It started with an unexpectedly deep voice behind me saying, "Can I get that for you, Mrs. J?" when I was on my tiptoes trying to get to a package well out of my reach. And I turned around, fully expecting to see my usual Helpful Tall Shop Assistant... and discovered one of my daughter's friends standing there. And I realized three things.

1. He was VERY tall.

2. His voice has gotten deeper since I last spoke to him five weeks ago.

3. He's old enough to work at the grocery store.




Two weeks ago, he was in first grade, shyly introducing himself to the Impertinent Daughter, with pale blond hair and apple red cheeks. Last week, he was sitting on the sidelines of a soccer game, tears streaming down his cheeks as I cleaned and bandaged his bloody knee while his mom was gone on a snacks run for half-time because the parent who was supposed to have brought snacks forgot. Yesterday, he was in fifth grade and excitedly telling me how he was going to be in marching band when he started junior high.

There is no way he's old enough to be working at the grocery store!!! NO!!!

Later, I was grabbing a bag of sugar, and heard, "Hi, Mrs. J!!" And there was a girl my daughter has known since... third grade. And... no. Just... no.

I found yet another teenager that my daughter played youth soccer with in the paper aisle. And it just went on and on, all these kids that in my head are still... little... and they're not. And then, when I was checking out, again, a girl from my daughter's class at the cash register, and a boy sacking my groceries, and saying, "Hey, Mrs. J, let me get the ice for you so you don't forget it."

AAAAAAAAH!!!! STAHP!!!! NOOOOOO!!!!

*hyperventilating*

It was bad enough when I realized three years ago that I could no longer perv on the high school boy's cross country track team, because... it was now half populated with boys I had known since they were four and five. But now, they're... turning into people!!

Totally skewed my world view, man!!

My daughter pretty much laughed at me when I got home and related all of this to her, and I had to confront the fact that my daughter is a senior and will be graduating next MAY!!!

*more hyperventilating*

Then, I went to get my hair cut, and she went along with me, and as my uber-awesome stylist was cutting my hair, she started saying, "Oh... my God." She'd cut more, huff, then go, "Oh. My. God." Then a grimace, another huff, and, "Omigod." Then, "Oh, my fucking GOD."

After the seventh repetition of this, I finally said, "Uh... what's going on?" Because the last time I heard that, I was 18 and the lady who had been cutting my hair since I was 11 was ready to kill my hair.

Ms. Stylist grimaced and said, "Your hair is frustrating me. It's never frustrated me before! I've been cutting your hair a long time, Auntie, and I've never seen it do this."

"Do what?" I asked, stunned.

"Well... it's... baby fine, and so... thick... and it's just... every time I cut a section and start to move on, something pops out and I realized I missed something, and I have to go back and cut it, and then something else pops out, and... it's kinda making me nuts here," she said grimly.

And that's when it dawned on me. My hair was coming back. The endocrinologist changed me off the Synthroid/Cytomel combo he had me on and put me on Armour Thyroid, because the S/C combo just wasn't helping. My hair was still falling out, I was still very fatigued, and just not getting better.

I knew my hair was coming back, and I was getting it cut because it was like wearing a wool mop on my head. And I knew it was getting thicker, because I was having to use heavier pony tail holders to pull it back. But... I didn't realize it had come back to the original texture of being baby fine and deceptively thick.

Ms. Stylist kept cutting and cutting, and fluffing and fluffing, and cutting more, and finally, she said, "Next hair cut, we're thinning this shit out!"

*dies laughing*

After we got home, the Impertinent One and I settled in for a "Bones" marathon while the Impossible Son went off to do boy things with his friend across the street, and the Husbandly One texted that he was going to have to work late.

Yeah, he was totally off buying my new SHINY!!!

*dance of joy, dance of joy*

Coolest. Husband. EVER.

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!!!

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!

Dear Bill Nye the Science Guy,

Thank you so much for teaching my children, especially the Impertinent Daughter, all about physics. You made learning science so much fun, and you also made it easy to apply what they learned.

In fact, my daughter learned a whole new way to apply the physics of centrifugal force! She learned that if you're running low on ketchup and want to get all that ketchup at the bottom of the jar to the top quickly, you can apply centrifugal force and this is what happens!!

( Click to see what the Impertinent One learned! )

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!

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...

The Impertinent Daughter has her first soccer game today. Her first game playing for her school, that is.

Remember how I said there were about 33 girls trying out for the 7th grade and 8th grade teams? Well... no one's been cut... yet. I think the coaches want to see how they do in this first game, and then decide.

*massive roll of eyes*

Miss Priss is going to play fullback and... middle sweeper?? I think that's the term her coach used. Oh, and forward. Her friend, B, is going to be goalie, which is a good thing, because while B may be the poster child for Stereotyping Blondes, she's a wickedly brilliant goalie. She's tall (meaning taller than me), thin, with excessively long legs that tend to fold up on her unexpectedly. She's very fast, can run forever, and you'd think she'd make an excellent forward or striker, because she's very focused and aggressive (on the field), but... there's the legs-folding-up thing. So, she's a goalie, and I have to say, in watching her play over the last four years, I've watched her do things she should not have been able to do.

Anyhow, this game should be interesting, simply because there's going to be about 16 girls sitting on the bench, and I think they play 11 v 11. Miss Priss said, "It's going to be weird, having subs." Because usually, playing in the rec leagues, we don't have enough kids on a team for more than one or two substitutes. She's gotten used to playing an entire game without a break.

Oh, and did I mention, she has to stay after school? They're not allowed to come home and eat and get ready, etc. They have to hang around at the school until the game starts at 5:30!! Meaning... they'll not have eaten since lunch. And no, the school is not going to provide a snack.

I should have realized, since the junior high is stupid about so many other things, that they'd be stupid about this, too. Apparently, they think the kids are going to either forget about the game and not come, do something vile to their uniforms in the interval between the end of classes, and arrival at the school for the game, eat something totally unsuitable and vomit during the game, or... hell if I know!!!

So, I packed a snack bento for Miss Priss along with her lunch bento. And if the coaches complain, they will bring the Wrath of Auntie down upon them. Because how the hell they expect the girls to play two 30 minute halves on NO FOOD since 11 a. m., I don't know. No wait... two 45 minute halves.

Sorry, I had to pause and let my blood pressure go down.

There are at least six girls on Miss Priss' team who have been in the rec league, that she's played on a team with at some time or other. I think I'll get together with their parents and see if they would like to approach the coaches with a "What the hell do you think you're doing??" argument, but phrased much more politely, and see if we can't rectify the situation. You know, along the lines of, "Do you want us to rotate and bring team snacks for the girls to eat before the game or during half-time? You see, we're pretty used to doing that, anyway, because our kids have been playing soccer for a long time..." yada, yada, yada.

Otherwise, I don't see how we can keep them from crashing, if you know what I mean! Otherwise, I'm going to find myself sneaking Miss Priss a Hershey bar or something to keep her charged.

*rolls eyes*

Oh, and yesterday's prank on THO was a huge success!! I waited until after I was sure he was at work, and I called him. He said he had set his phone on his desk, and when he heard it, he looked around, thinking, "Whose phone is that?"

One of his co-workers said, "THO, I think that's your phone."

He said, "No, it's not. Mine has a kind of samba ring-tone."

Another co-worker said, "No, dude, that's your phone."

He said, "Can't be. Where's that coming from?"

They said, "That's your phone!!"

He said, "Holy cow, that is my phone!" and answered it, but it had gone to voice mail at that point. He saw it was me and called me back, and I was laughing so hard when I answered it that he knew who had done it.

*dies again*

Then... as I said, I'd emailed friends and family to call him, and his phone rang all day long!!

I have to say, this is the best April Fool's Day prank I've ever pulled on him!!

Of course, he said, "Vengeance is a dish best served cold."

*dies laughing again*

We'll just see about that!!