The continuing saga

My Braves haven't been playing so well recently. I had to turn the game off in the seventh inning last night because it got too pathetic. It's the top of the first inning and their opponents (Cincinnati Reds tonight) just scored two runs. I know my boys can do better than this. But enough about baseball.

I had some COFFEE this Afternoon!! With CAFFEINE! WEEEEEEEEE!!!

Twitch has been transferred to the store in Simpsonville (Arby's). It's an hour away. He has no car, no drivers license. He's got the learners permit, and has been driving Superman's truck with me in the shotgun position. I actually enjoy the drive, or have come to feel that way about it this week. I like it better when I drive. He's not too bad at driving, but he's new and nervous, and I like being behind the wheel when I'm in the car, you know? Today we took my truck, which is a piece of shit with a manual transmission which Twitch doesn't know how to drive. I like my truck better. The thing is, it takes an hour one way to get to Simpsonville and uses a bunch of gas. I drive back home, only to go back to get him six to eight hours later. That's a LOT of gas. Which costs a lot of money. He's helping with the expense, but not as much as all of it. I'm trying to get him to save so he can secure housing in that area. I've spent four hours on the road every day this week. I have mixed feelings about this.

The poor guy (Twitch) had to work ten hours today. I got there an hour before he got off, not realizing he would work that late. It all worked out well, though, because I'm easy that way. I needed some new shoes anyway and hadn't yet found a chance to shop. There's a shoe store half a mile up the road from Twitch's shop, so I wandered up there and had my favorite kind of shoe shopping experience. This is a representation of what I bought.

(One beer down) I asked the nice sales associate lady for those old fashion ugly Crocs. She said they only had that style in mens, which is fine by me. She showed me what they had, three different colors/styles. The camo print was an easy elimination. The other shoe was brown with a leather (or leather look) patch on the top of the upper. It was $15 more than the black ones. Though they had the brown in a size 7 (my size in mens shoes) and the smallest size black was an 8. I tried them both on, and went with the 8. Crocs are supposed to be kinda loose anyway, right? And it has that strap thing on the back that helps keep the shoe on. So it's all good. I told the friendly sales lady that ugly and old fashioned was kinda my style. You know, I'm so fashion backward. So I got a pair of shoes I like for less than $35 and took less than ten minutes to complete the entire shoe shopping experience. Yeah, that's how I like to shop. I feel good! (The caffeine and beer help. 'Bout to start on my second beer, so watch out!) 

After the wonderful shoe shopping experience I stopped by Starbucks. I don't think I've been inside a Starbucks in at least two years. I got myself a short "tall" black coffee, then went back to the Arby's where I bought the last chocolate turnover. Man, those Arby's folks have the best turnovers, and the chocolate is extraordinary. Been wanting one of those for a while now. 

Oh, and in other news, the weight loss thing isn't going so well. For example, there's an IHOP beside the Arby's. Twitch has had to be at work at 8:00 every morning this week, but Arby's isn't open for breakfast. Leaving home before 7:00 hasn't given me the opportunity to eat before leaving. So twice this week I had the Bananas Foster Brioche French Toast at IHOP. Oh boy.

I mean look at that. Who could resist? Who knew warm bananas could taste so good? 

I recommend them if you aren't trying to control your BMI. So good! I got myself a bowl of cereal before leaving this morning, so was able to forego the cost and calories of that particular temptation today. Then I had a chocolate turnover this afternoon. In my defense (which isn't a good defense, by the way) I had a V-8 for lunch. *sigh*

Half way through the second beer. Feelin' good! I haven't been drinking much recently, like less than a beer a day. Maybe two or three beers a week. So two beers has a bigger impact. Oh, further along on that beer than I thought: just finished it. Weeee! And now I don't even care that the Braves are playing like shit. My tongue is going numb. Nice buzz.

Superman is on his way home from work. Yes, it's 8:40 on a Friday night. He's been working a lot of long hours recently. The plant just had a power surge and he lost the PowerPoint he'd been working on for over an hour, so he's chucking the whole thing and coming home. I suspect he'll have to spend a couple (or more) hours at work tomorrow.

What else? I suppose I could update the Sproing drama. Yesterday was hell. Did I mention in my last post that he'd been before the judge on the ... wait a minute. Let me check the last post and see if you are up to date with his latest criminal activity. (insert Jeopardy "wait" music)  Nope. That last post was written before his latest criminal activity. Last weekend he stole Superman's debit card, took it to Wal-Mart and spent approximately $150. When this breach of trust was discovered, we called the police. Because DAMN! We live in the city, Wal-Mart is in the county outside city limits. So to make life more difficult (because damn) the offense has been divided between city police and county sheriff's departments. The theft of the card is a police matter, the use of it is sheriff's domain. He's had his arraignment with the city. We're waiting on the sheriff's warrant, when we'll have to see a different judge because fuck my life. The municipal judge considered putting Sproing in jail, but released him on a personal recognizance bond of $5000, with restrictions. The judge, bless his heart, wrote his direct phone number on our copy of the paperwork.  If the boy gives me any grief I can call the judge and he'll revoke Sproing's bond, sending him to jail until his June 5th court date.

Well, yesterday Sproing was being an ass, at which he has a special gift. I asked him to fold and put away the load of towels in the dryer. Oh. My. God. You'd have thought I asked him to donate a kidney. After the judge had a serious talk with him about doing the right thing and respecting his Mama. And it got worse from there. I finally told him that I was done, and would call the judge tomorrow. (Which was today, for the record) He kinda freaked. (What the fuck. What does he expect?) Then he (Sproing) asked to talk to the sheriff's detective who questioned him about the charge, a guy who used to be the resource officer at the high school. Evidently Sproing feels comfortable with the man. So I called the sheriff's department (at 9:00 in the evening) and asked for the detective to call me. Which he did. I'm impressed. He talked to Sproing, calmed him down. After the conversation Sproing was way more copacetic. He apologized and everything. So I had pity on him and didn't call the judge today. So far today he's been calm, but I've hardly interacted with him at all. He got home from school right before I left to pick up Twitch. When I got back I went to the beer and baseball, and Sproing is doing his thing away from my presence. So far so good. Tomorrow is Saturday and we'll probably have more opportunity to interact. Oh please oh please oh please let it be peaceful!

Sproing got the warrant from the city, which is what sent us to the municipal judge. He hasn't yet gotten the warrant from the county, though. Once he does, we'll have to go to another judge to repeat the process. I don't know how that'll work out.

Oh, and of course all this shit violates his probation with Juvenile Justice. I talked to his probation officer. She said she'd wait to see what the city and county do with him before taking any action. She thinks it'll work itself out without her having to interfere. You see, since he's 17 years old now, he's treated as an adult when he fucks up like this. DJJ is a secondary concern. Damn, I hate this. Sproing can be such a nifty guy. But he can also be a pain in the ass. As you have probably realized by now.

HA!! Braves won!! Finally. Maybe this portends good fortune for this weekend. In my life, not just for the Atlanta Braves. That'd be nice.

Today I've been in a good mood. Last night I felt like wringing Sproing's neck. Today I spent pretty much all day without Sproing, and got to drive my truck, which always makes me happy. I had a lovely almost three hour nap this morning when I got back from Simpsonville, finished my sappy gay romance novel, had a good shoe shopping experience, drank CAFFEINATED COFFee and ate chocolate yummies. And now the Braves have just won their game (yay, about damn time boys) and I've now had three beers. The buzz is strong in this one. Time to end this post, take a shower (because I'm kinda ripe) and kiss all over my husband who has finally gotten home from work. If there was anything else I meant to say in this post, well, it won't happen.

Until next time

This is gonna embarrass me so bad when I sober up

*giggle*
I've had a fuckshit day. Lots of meetings (OK, two) about Diva, with Diva. First one, we were terminated from one of the agencies that has been providing psychosocial services for us for a few years. That sucks.

Second meeting was at the high school to determine if all of her fuckups this year are due to her disability diagnosis. She has been suspended for 10 days total this year, which is some kind of limit. If the behavior that got her suspended is due to her being diagnosed crazy, which "we" determined was indeed the case (the school psychologist and her special ed teacher had this figured out before the meeting), then she can't be expelled from school. Poor little bitch. I suppose that's better, since if she was expelled she'd be home all day with jack shit to do except bother me. But the solution that was already in place before the meeting has her with an "abbreviated" day, only at school from the regular 8:30 start time until 12:45, at which time she comes home to bother me. She'll have four classes instead of her current six. Fuck my life.

Time for a new paragraph, although I forgot what I meant to say next. Hang on a sec, it'll come to me. Right, so here's what happened to push her suspensions to the limit. Last Tuesday she got into a fist fight with another girl in the bathroom at school. She actually had this fight prearranged (on Facebork) with the other bitch. (They are all bitches.) Diva's real name is Angel, the girl she fought is named Heaven (except spelled weird, with a "y" in there somewhere). True story. OK, now forget you heard her real name. Moving on - So she got in a fight, with a black eye to prove it (giggle). At lunch last Tuesday. Monday was the MLKJr. holiday so she was off that day, and the previous Wednesday was a half day because it was the end of the first semester, then Thursday and Friday were teacher inservice (non-student) days. She was home for fucking five days before going back to school only to be sent home for fighting halfway through her first day back. Fuck my life. And was home the rest of last week.

I don't do so well when she is home. It's hard for me to get anything done because her negative energy pervades the house. I end up hiding in my room. And I pretty much stay depressed and don't do anything constructive in my house. There are a lot of things I need to do in my house, cleaning and organizing and creating and culling the junk. Can't do that (because I'm crazy too) with the bitch in the house.

Also, got a call from the gynecologist about her today. She had her annual physical last week; they did an STD workup (or whatever it's called) because I told them she had been treated for Trichomoniasis and we needed to be sure the crud was gone. So today I learned from the nurse that Diva has Chlamydia. Either she's had unprotected sex (unsafe sex?) since the time she got the Trichomoniasis, or when she was diagnosed with that at the emergency room, they missed the Chlamydia. FML. I told her this afternoon that she has another STD, Chlamydia, and she shrugged her shoulders; "so what?" WTF?? I think she has no clue about how dangerous STDs can be. Or she just doesn't care.

Fuck. How am I supposed to bring her up safely if she's so damned careless with her life?

She wants to leave this town, never go back to that high school because the kids pick on her. Yeah, welcome to life, bitch. That's really not an option, but when we tell her that, she accuses us of not listening to her. No, honey, I am listening. I realize you want to leave this town, but that's not possible right now. She doesn't get it. She just yells that we don't listen. She cray-cray.

I talked to the resource officer at the school this afternoon, too. Because she got into a physical altercation with another student, the officer filed a report about it. He does that for every physical altercation. (Aren't you impressed with how well I spell "altercation" when I'm drunk? Though I am beginning to sober up some. Time for either another beer (a bad idea, really) or sleep (a good idea, especially this late when I have to get up early and take the bitch to school in the morning).) Which means she's on the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) radar again. Now, it'll take a fucking year for the court system to do anything with the case, by which time she'll have forgotten the incident. (I told you before that Sproing is in juvie jail-light now, right? Over a year after the first offense that got him before the court in the first place.)

It's been a rough day. Superman, being the super man he is, took me out to our favorite beer and pizza joint. We had a really good pizza, and I had two and a half really really really good beers. Hence the drunkenness. After getting home from that last meeting at the school I was very disgusted, downhearted, depressed, despondent. (Oh, and I've been eating my feelings for the past couple of weeks, threatening the progress I've made with the weight loss.) I decided I either needed some good beer (at a good beer joint, not at home because home is where the despondence lies) or a dose of my Ativan. Beer makes me feel happy, Ativan makes me feel pretty much nothing and puts me to sleep. Superman decided beer was the better choice. Don't know if it was, but I got really happy for a few hours. Then I came home and spilled my frustration out here on the blog and now I'm mostly disgusted. But it's late and I'm going to sleep very soon and that will be OK. I'll wake in the morning and... I got distracted by Bach's Toccata and Fugue and a beautiful organ.

And now it's time to brush my teeth and go to bed.

This post brought to you by Bell's Java Stout.

Isn't it lovely

It's a beautiful day! I love this weather. It's cool but not cold. We slept with the windows open last night as we have done most of this month, but last night is the first time I've felt like I needed a cover. The sheets were balled up at the foot of the bed and I was too asleep to get them, so I just snuggle with Superman and that worked well.

This morning we woke up gradually. I love doing that. It wasn't late, though we went to bed pretty late last night. I painted the shelf (I am painting a shelf that goes in the kitchen) for a bit, then showered. Once I was clean, dressed, and in my right mind, Superman and I went to our favorite pizza and beer restaurant. They serve brunch on Sundays. I had the Milk Stout curry chicken crepes. Oh, my, they were good! Last week we were there and discovered a new beer they have on tap, Wild Turkey Bourbon Barrel Stout. As long as they have that on tap I doubt I'll drink anything else. So good!

I am trying to make my kitchen look better. Though the kitchen has a few good characteristics, it is overall a pain in my arse. There is lots of counter space but it's in one long row. It's a long walk from where I do most of my food preparation to the refrigerator. And the walls have been ugly for a long time. Finally we are fixing that. Superman got the old wallpaper off the walls and I have painted them a cheerful yellow. Did I tell you about that? Don't remember if I've mentioned it. There's a narrow shelf along the wall in the narrow part of the kitchen. Superman built it as a pantry shelf, and it's wide enough to hold cans and small boxes. We hadn't finished the wood so it was bare, natural shelving boards. Superman had to take the shelf off the wall to remove the wallpaper, of course, and I painted the wall yellow-ish. But that narrow part of the kitchen doesn't get good light, and the yellow actually made the space seem darker for some reason. I don't know. Anyway, I decided to paint the shelves bright white before hanging them on the wall again. They are in the process of turning white. Right now the paint has to dry thoroughly before I can add the last coat. I hope it's the last coat.

Diva turns 16 the first week of December. Since December weather doesn't make for a very good outside party, she has decided to have a combination early birthday/Halloween party. That happens this Friday. She has done a lot for it already. There's still some cooking to do, as I told her that baking cookies three weeks in advance was not a good idea. The end of the school grading period is this week, and the kids get a day off school on Friday, so Diva has this party planned to take place this coming Friday in the Civic Center park. There is a fairly nice gazebo/pavilion thing there, and a couple of smaller picnic shelters in the park. We could reserve the large pavilion, which is way bigger than we need, for $100. Or we could show up and claim any of the shelters, even the pavilion, for free and for nothing on a first-come basis. Unless of course the large pavilion is already reserved, which I doubt it will be in the middle of Friday afternoon. The party is scheduled for 3:00, but of course we will need to get there early to set up. Diva has decorations she wants to put up; streamers, a banner, etc. No balloons as far as I know, but they might also make an appearance. Who knows what terrors lurk in the mind of that girl. So we'll do the birthday thing this Friday, and be off the hook for a big to-do in December. That suits me fine.

I don't really have anything to say. I've spent all this space, all these words, saying much nothing. Let's see if I can jot down a few other random thoughts.

• Oreo (the dog) has some powerfully smelly farts. 
• The water now runs cold from the cold water faucet. Our cold water has been warm for months now. 
• Autumn seasonal beers are my favorite of the seasonal stuff. 
• I've been drinking too much beer and eating too much not-good-for-me stuff that I've gained five pounds. Oops. Time to cut back.

Let's talk baseball for a few. Both of the league championship series are finished. We watched Boston Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers last night to win the American League championship. It was an excellent game in which a grand slam home run featured prominently. I haven't seen a grand slam in a few years, and the Red Sox managed two of them in this championship series! I love watching good baseball. Late last week the St. Louis Cardinals won the National League series from the L.A. Dodgers. Since the Braves didn't make it far into the post season, and the Pittsburgh Pirates finked out early also, the Cardinals were my next choice for Nat'l League champs. So I'm happy. And I strongly preferred Boston over Detroit, so that's good. No baseball tonight, but the World Series starts Wednesday evening. I am excited about that. Perhaps I'll abstain from beer until then. My waistline would benefit. Beer and baseball go so well together, you see. 

And that's all the rambling I can think to ramble today. It feels a lot like naptime now, anyway, so there we go. 

Oh, Look at the Time!

As in, it's been a long time since I posted. I've been either busy, depressed, or hiding.

Tonight I had lots of beer. I drank all 5 of the remaining beers in the refrigerator.

We bought another refrigerator. It's a used one, only 10.5 sq ft. It sits in our bedroom. The original purpose of this refrigerator is to keep our beer safe from predation by the other residents of this household. Yes, someone (or more than one someone) has been swiping our beer. What cads! So I got a used 'fridge so we can keep our stuff secure behind the locked door of our bedroom..

There are too many people in this house. Twitch has an alternative situation that might (I hope!!) come to be. A friend of his has a place in Charleston SC and is looking for a third roommate. Twitch has already applied for jobs in that area online. I really hope he can move to Charleston.

The kidlets have been much easier to deal with this summer than in previous years. And actually Diva is sometimes pleasant! Can you believe it? Sproing is a pain in the ass, but I'm not letting it get to me much. Here's the thing: I went away for three weeks (you remember my trip to New England, right?) The separation helped the relationship between me and the kids. While I was away, Superman kinda let loose of the reigns a bit. He's not as strict as I am anyway. So when I came back it was easier to keep the looseness than to impose more restrictions. And I've loosened up on my give-a-shit. So they do whatever and I don't care.

Of course that's not entirely true. I keep tabs on them, and give some direction. But since I've loosened up they seem to be more willing to do what I ask of them. Most of the time. Diva more than Sproing (OMG!!) because he's a pain in the ass.

I've been on edge today. Why? I dunno. Had my period last week, so it isn't premenstrual shit. Maybe it's that my home is stressful. Could be, eh? OMG, the week before my period was hell. I was so cranky, and realized it was hormonal. Poor Superman. I tried to stay out of the way of the kids as much as possible. I recognize when I'm unreasonable.

Hey, lets see what this dog of ours looks like.

 His name is Oreo. I don't like that name, particularly, but that's what Sproing likes. It was what he was called as a puppy, when we got him. It's a name, so whatever. As often as not I call him "pup."

 He's more or less adorable. And bigger now than he is in these pics. He's nearly 6 months old now. He had his balls chopped off earlier this week, and starts obedience class later today. He's pretty smart, and very puppy-like. Weighed 45 lbs on Wednesday when he had his surgery. He's got a lot of Labrador in him, and some pit bull, according to the kid who gave him to Sproing.

Oh look! It's Superman! I like this picture. He's a cutie. I don't notice it when I look at him, but in these pictures he looks older than I perceive him to be. 

 And check out our produce! While I was on my trip this pair of squash was harvested from our garden. I had to get a picture of it to share with you, since it looks so much like a scrotum. I mean, am I right?

How fun is this? We didn't eat it. They picked it when I was away, and by the time I got home it was far from fresh. Oh well.

So, let's talk briefly about this garden thing. We planted green beans, squash, zucchini, and tomatoes. Here's the thing: I don't like squash or zucchini. Besides which, the zucchini plant died from some kind of bug infestation. We've eaten some of the green beans, though I've thrown out more than we've eaten.  I've also used some of the tomatoes. There are green ones on the vine which I'll harvest at the proper time.

So we planted this garden with things I don't like. WTF? I dunno. And Superman is too busy with work and stuff around the house to cook up any of this stuff.

I'm quite tipsy. I've been depressed most of the day, and decided I'd do the beer thing tonight while watching Braves baseball. Didn't have the first beer until the 8th inning, when we were leading the Cardinals 4-1. That was the final score, btw. After the game I continued with the beer. I'm dizzy and feeling smooth, but the headache is there, too.

So. Depression. Superman went to Georgia today to visit his family. Good for him. I'm glad he gets to do that. I hate that he's away, though. Sometimes he takes one of the boys (Diva isn't welcome in his parents' house after beating me up a couple of years ago) but this time he went by himself. So everyone else is home. They all drive me crazy. Wait. This paragraph was supposed to be about depression. OK, so I has it, the depression thing. I hate summer. Maybe things will be better when the kids get back in school. Their first day is Aug. 20th. Less than a month away! I need me time with none of these pariahs at home.

Let's talk about parenting. I've given up, sort of. Diva and Sproing are 15.5 years old now. They are responsible for their own behavior. They do what they want. I leave them alone. That's not entirely true, of course. I just try to keep things together with the minimum effort. I can't do any more than that. They've broken me. I just don't give the kind of shit that I used to.

It's officially Saturday. It's my brother's birthday today. He's 49. Hee hee hee. I can't wait to tease him next year. I'm two years older than he is, so anything I say he's already said to me. That's not why I started talking about Saturday, though. I haven't even opened my computer since sometime last weekend. All week I've been either watching TV (which I rarely do) or reading from my Kindle. I've read I don't know how many gay romance novels/stories. I read a straight romance today. It was weird. The two main guy characters fell in love with women. WTF is up with that? It's time for another gay story, or else something of high quality. I have a collection of E. M. Forster works on the Kindle.  The novel I read today was not well written, so I need something of quality to wash out my brain.

I have another book, a paperback, that I started earlier in the week. It's entitled The Hoarding Handbook. It's written for social service providers who deal with hoarders. It isn't specifically for mental health professionals, rather it is written by mental health professionals for others who deal with hoarders. I have read the first three chapters. It's good, I guess, but hard to read because I see myself in it. I got it so I might be able to help myself a bit with getting rid of the crap I've hoarded. It's a slow process, especially since I keep distracting myself.

OK, I'm going to quit this rambling and get ready for bed. It's high time I went to sleep.

Bridges, lessons learned, and other random adventures

Now that I have mostly caught up on my sleep and have wasted literally hours on facebork, I'll get back to telling you about my road trip.

First, Skippy. (Dammit, where is my camera??) Drats, I can't find my camera. I want to take a new, close-up pic of Skippy. Oh well, here's one of him showing off the little gift package I got when I checked into the hotel in Connecticut. As I mentioned in my last post, I got him at a little shop on the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP) on my way north.

Before I got on the BRP I stopped to eat at a Waffle House (WH), knowing that I'd soon travel beyond the range of that purveyor of comestibles. One thing I've noticed about Waffle Houses recently is that their employees seem to have better teeth. The old joke no longer applies. (That baby has more teeth than the entire third shift at Waffle House.)

There was a new guy working the WH the day I visited. He's a manager trainee, but evidently very new and that day he was learning the basics of waiting tables and calling out orders. Thankfully the crowd was light in the mid afternoon. All the gals working with him had to tell him how to call the orders to the cook. There is a protocol for that, you know. He was making a mess of it. His coworkers were very patient with him. The fact that he was young and cute might have influenced their attitudes. He was of average height, fit build without being either bulky or skinny, and had his blond hair in a buzz cut. I estimate his age to be 25. And he had red cheeks and the sweetest smile that made his eyes twinkle. He was very good natured about the whole fiasco. Really, the other gals carried the work very well as he stumbled along so it wasn't a fiasco at all. They called him Skippy. He did not wait on me, but I sat at the high counter with a front row seat to the show. I never saw his name tag clearly, but I think it said "Skip." So a couple of hours later when I bought my little black bear, his name had to be Skippy.

That happened at the beginning of the trip. From here I'm going to relate my experiences in reverse chronological order (mostly), mainly because I need to tell you about my night at the campground in New Jersey.

New Jersey is an odd place. For one thing, they don't sell maps of all of New Jersey on one map. I found an atlas (book) of every New Jersey county but that exceeds my NJ information needs. I was over halfway through NJ before I found a map I could use. The NJ roads and highways are different from what I'm used to. Busier, more commercial enterprises along the road. It was one long long long long series of strip malls from north of Trenton to Camden. I got off the Garden State Parkway where it intersects the NJ Turnpike and followed US-1 to US-130 which took me down the western part of the state. I got on a little two lane county road at one point that was quite pleasant. Otherwise, too much traffic. I had the address and directions to a campground in Clarksboro, but laws-a-mercy it was nigh unto impossible to find! I circled around, narrowing my spiral until I had to stop for directions. I hate doing that. But I finally found it! I felt so accomplished!

I was on the road for approximately 11 hours that day driving from Southington, CT to Clarksboro, NJ. The date was June 22, 2013, the day after the first day of summer, ergo sunlight stayed around late. I got to the campground at 8:00, maybe 8:30 and had plenty of light to set up my Conestoga. That was also the night of the supermoon (as near as I could tell) and I wanted to sleep outside that night.

As is typical of most campgrounds now, this place caters primarily to camper trailers and RVs. There were two tent camping sites beside a small cabin in a somewhat remote area away from any other campers. Shortly after I arrived a trio of young people, twenty-somethings, came to the cabin. One young man and two women. I didn't catch the guy's age, but the girls were 20 and 25.

They came to party. Oooh boy. Miss 20 yr old got an early start with hard liquor. The others were mostly drinking beer. They invited me to join them, which I did. Two other young men friends of theirs, Joe and Andrew (both HOT!!) joined them a bit later. I took a six pack over (because it's proper to take booze to a booze party, right?) and stuck to beer all night. Had my first taste of Bud Light Lime. Meh, OK but not spectacular. I had been drinking Third Shift lager, which I prefer. We were sitting around the fire ring in front of the cabin shooting the breeze and chillin' out. 'Twas quite enjoyable. Miss 20 yr old and the first guy went into the cabin (where the little refrigerator with the beer lived), turned out the lights, and got loudly frisky. Odd, but whatever. Afterward she kept drinking the hard stuff, and eventually became belligerent. First guy tried to calm her down, but she got violent with him. Joe and Andrew were getting uncomfortable, saying they were going to leave. They'd planned to stay the night.

And here's where I get stupid. (You see what's coming, right?) I don't have a lot of experience (OK, none) with violent drunks, but I can usually help sober people when they get out of hand. So I tried to calm down this little Miss 20 yr old. And she was little, probably weighs less than half what I do. I'm big, but not very strong. She was little, drunk, and very strong. With strong healthy teeth and good muscular jaws. Yep, I got beat up. The bitch bit me (broke the skin) in at least three places- my right side, right bicep, and left ring finger. She punched me in the chest above the right breast and in the back of my head. That happened a week ago, Saturday night last week. My finger and arm are still a little bit oozy and sore. The bruises all over have faded to a sickly yellow. Oh, she also got me in the jaw but not hard enough to bruise, thankfully. I bit my lip and cheek in the process, and that was sore for a few days. That's better now.

Lesson well and truly learned: stay away from angry drunk people.

After Joe and Andrew put bandages on my cuts they left and I went to my truck to sleep. After I minced to the bathroom. You know a person only rents beer. It gave the old kidneys a good workout. (Probably the liver, too.) I got to sleep pretty easily, but some time later was awakened by some noise and lights coming from the cabin. I peeked through my curtains and saw a law enforcement cruiser and two officers with flashlights at the cabin. Then I heard her yelling curses and insults. One of the officers said "Alright, now you're under arrest," to which she cursed some more. And low and behold if I didn't have to pee again. So I got up and made my way to the bathroom. On the way back I got a flashlight in my eyes, but no discussions ensued. When I woke up at 7:00 Sunday morning everyone was gone. So I packed up and went south.

I drove over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge (not the bridge-tunnel from the Norfolk area) which I've heard can be kinda scary for people with bridge allergies. Gephyrophobia. Bridges used to make me uncomfortable, but not so much anymore. Oh, I also crossed over the Tappan-Zee Bridge into New York (or was it New Jersey there?) That was fun. Of course on the way from South Carolina to Pennsylvania I crossed the New River Gorge Bridge, one of my faves. It was a bridge crossing trip. Sean and Jeffrey took me across the Hudson River a lot when I visited Breen Acres.

Sunday I drove to Richmond, VA to my cousin's house. She had a little baby girl two months ago and I wanted to hold someone else's baby, which I did. I also got to play with her precious two-year-old son.  I did not want her to know about by violent encounter, and thankfully the shirt I wore covered all my injuries except the deep cut (bite) on my finger, and that was easily explained as a camping incident. You know, I pinched my finger (between some bitch's teeth). I was exhausted and not up to extensive visiting, so I didn't contact any of my lovely blogger friends in the Richmond area. Sorry guys. Maybe next time. When I went to bed Sunday night I told my cousin not to worry about keeping the kids quiet, that I'd wake up whenever I needed to. I hoped to get a fairly early start on my trip back to South Carolina, but did not set any alarms or anything. And I slept until 11:00! Woah! I was tired! It made the trip home seem longer and hotter, getting that late a start, but I don't mind. If I was tired enough to sleep that long (at least 12 hours), I needed the sleep more than I needed to get home early.

I am back in The South(TM). It's hot and humid, just like summer in The South(TM). I hate it, but I'll try not to complain too much. There is baseball and air conditioning, so it's OK. I didn't watch Braves baseball the whole 2.5 weeks I was away. They did well without my supervision.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Convince yourself that everything is alright

For Nancy - Pete Yorn : Time Lapse Lettering from Bobby Roman on Vimeo.

'Cause it already is.

Nice message. Does it work? I dunno. Maybe.

I am preparing for a trip. I told you that last time, I believe. I made myself a new skirt and a dress or two. I say "or two" because the first one I made, well, the dress turned out OK before I "helped" it. I art-ed it up by painting it. It's made of plain unbleached muslin, so it was very plain and off white and boring. So I had some fun with craft paints. But the dress didn't fare so well. It looks like it was dragged through the mud. Doesn't matter much to me, really, because I made it with muslin as a test of the pattern. I'll use it as a house dress, just wear it at home when I'm hanging around doing home stuff.

Then I used the same pattern to make a dress with a blue and green checked seersucker cotton fabric. I'm wearing it right now. It works, it's comfortable, and it looks good (I think). So that's an overall win. I'm also going to use this pattern for some nice linen I bought a couple of years ago. That's the plan, anyway.

I have decided to try to do something creative every day. So far I've mostly sewed. I'd really like to get back into sculpture of some kind, but I'm working up to that. And there is a good bit of sewing I should do anyway. My wardrobe is... old. And worn. I have quite a few house dresses, or as I like to call them, rags. I rarely wear them when I go out anywhere. Most of them used to be fairly decent clothes but have been worn slap out. So I need some new stuff. So I sew. Diva and I went to the fabric store yesterday and I found (on sale!!) some pretty yellow fabric with a little flowery print. I bought the rest of the bolt (4 yards) and want to make a blouse from that, to match the skirt I plan to make from some yellow gauze stuff I have that looks like that picture up there.

Then there's the conestoga frame. I've used painter's drop cloth canvas to cover the conestoga in the past, but that stuff is very heavy. I'm not in good shape, folks. My muscles are weak and wimpy, so I need something a bit lighter and easier to manage. I made the roof portion of the cover last night. Now I need to set up the conestoga frame to determine how and where to attach the sides. I hope to do that this afternoon, but it looks like rain. I want Superman to help, also, because... well, because I want help.

We went to our favorite place, The Mill House, for brunch today. Today is the first day they've been opened on Sunday and have served brunch. As far as I'm concerned it was a smashing success. Mimosas, people. And savory crepes. And one of their specialties, Drunk shrimp and grits. The grits are actually polenta, and the shrimp are marinated in some kind of beer (I forget what) then they make a sauce with the marinade. It was extremely good. I had the curried chicken crepe which was even better than Superman's drunk shrimp and grits. After my mimosas (yes, two) I had a beer. So yeah, I'm feeling pretty good right now.

Today is C's birthday. He's 25. We were going to take him out for brunch for his birthday, but he had to work (he's a cook at Shoney's) until noon, but didn't get off until after 1:30. We were already at The Mill House, waiting for him to join us. Eventually we left, came home, and he was just getting out of the shower. So I told him we'd take him out for dinner, but he's going to spend the rest of the day with his friend Holly. Oh well, we'll take him out later this week. And I got to have a delicious boozy brunch with my Superman, so it's all good.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Since I have some sewing and other prep-for-my-trip work to do, think I'll post this, change into my house dress (or some shorts) and get to work.

Oh Hai!!

It's possible I'm a bit drunk. Not really drunk, just quite happy. Tipsy in a good way. Question: what's the difference between being tipsy and being drunk?

I suspect it's similar to the not-so-fine-line of what sex is. How do you define "sex" as in Having Sex. Is it not sex until there is some form of penetration? Oral sex is by definition sex, though, right? What about manual stimulation? Passionate kissing while being fully clothed, is that sex? There is not a fine line between what is ans is not sex. It's a continuum, or personal interpretation, or something that might make more sense if there wasn't so much beer in my system.

Have I told you recently that I really like good craft beer? No? Well, let me take this opportunity to let you know that I really like quality craft beer.

This is gonna ramble, if you haven't picked up on that yet.

Let me tell you about the Sproing-ster. OMG what a mess. So, did I tell you that he had an expulsion hearing last week? I think I did. And that he was assigned to the alternative school instead of being expelled. We went to orientation for the alternative program today. It sounds good to me. He starts on Thursday. We learned lots of things today. He will wear a uniform consisting of either sneakers or boat shoes/loafer type shoes, khaki pants, and a light blue button down shirt. I'm telling him that a white undershirt is also part of the uniform. Oh, and he must wear a belt. If he needs any more outer wear he may wear a plain blue sweater or sweatshirt, no designs, no pockets. Any overcoat or jacket he wears will be hung in the hallway. Seeing as how we've got warm spring weather now, that isn't an issue.

There are only 25 more days of school before summer break. This does not comfort me, dammit. I am SO not ready for these trolls to be home all the time. Already I'm looking eagerly forward to school beginning again in August. Hang on, let me look.... ah, yes, August 20th is the first day of the 2013-14 school year. Good Lord deliver me safely through the summer.

Diva will likely be in the 10th grade next year. Sproing will probably need to repeat most of 9th grade. He is more intelligent than she is, but not as willing to do what needs to be done. Have I indicated how frustrating that boy is? If not, take note: he is VERY frustrating.

I've been reading a lot the past few days. I have well over 100 books in my Kindle that I haven't read yet. I've read over 100 books so far. Most of the ones I'm downloading these days are fairly short things, less than 100 pages of text. I can go through a few of those in a day. Yesterday (Monday) I mostly stayed in bed and read. Today I had a lot of errands to run, plus taking Sproing to the alternative school then to his therapist at the local Mental Health clinic. I took my Kindle so I could read during wait times, which I did. Read a cute mermaid story, sort of a sequel to The Little Mermaid in which Ariel's (though in the story her name wasn't Ariel) great grandson goes on dry land and meets a Prandsome Hince Handsome Prince and falls in love, thereby breaking the sea witch's spell that will otherwise kill him. It was a lovely simple m/m mermaid story. I have concentrated on my gay romance collection. There are other genres of books in my Kindle, but this week I'm all about gay romance.

Wait. I just remembered that I started a post about Sproing and set it to automatically post sometime like early this morning. Which means it's probably already up. But I didn't finish it. I think it only has a couple of sentences. Hmmm, I need to check that, probably just delete it.

And it's time for me to go to bed. Tired. No significant nap today, just maybe 15 minutes. Now that I'm tipsy (or drunk, depending) I'm all kinds of sleepy again. With that I say Good Night.

Yes, I'm still here **With Update!

Hello my peeps! I've missed you. I have been kind of busy. Right now I'm in Florida again, this time with Twitch. Twitch is all over my nerves, too. He complains all the time and makes excuses for why he can't do whatever is suggested to him. I don't want to talk about him right now.

I'm very tired. It's quite late, and I've had a busy day. There are a few things I want to relate, but don't know how much I'll remember to say right now. But I really want to get something up here before you all forget about me. And right now I need my blog friends.

Sunday afternoon is the memorial "life celebration" party for my dad. I've been here since Wednesday. My brother Mike arrived today. My brother Jim lives next door to my step-mom's house, so he's always here. My Uncle John (Daddy's brother) was here when I got here, don't know how long he's been here. Yesterday my step-mom's son Tom arrived. It's very good for him to be here. He needs to see how his mom is. She's got Parkinson's and it's getting worse. Not sure what she needs, or what Tom and his brother Sam will be able to do. I'm concerned about her.

Just this evening (Friday night... I know it's officially Saturday, but I'm still working on Friday) we had some good discussion, processing as a family through Daddy's death. There will be more. Tomorrow (Saturday) is a day to prepare the house for the party. It's gonna be a big one, I think. Lots of people have said they're attending. Lots of details to iron out.

Light flew in to Orlando this evening. My Mama picked her up. Mama lives in the greater Orlando area, so she and Light are spending the night there at Mama's house and will drive up to Gainesville tomorrow. I'm looking forward to seeing my daughter. I guess I'm looking forward to seeing my mother, too, but really I want to see Light.

OK, lets get on to a few other things that have come to mind recently. Let's try bullet points, shall we?

• Had sushi for lunch today. Shopped at a Fresh Market store near the step-mom's house and picked it up from the deli counter. It is pre-packaged from "Sushi with Gusto" which came from, of all places, Greer, South Carolina. Greer is an hour north of Greenwood. So yeah, my lunch today that I ate in Florida was actually made close to my house and followed me down to Florida for me to eat. For the record, it was tasty. 
• The stores in Gainesville have much better beer selections than anything I've found in Greenwood. I got some Samuel Adams Cream Stout, which I am currently testing. And enjoying quite a bit, thank you. Yummy stuff!! I also tried Stella Artois today for the first time. That is available in G'wood, but I've never tried it before. It's OK. Definitely drinkable, but not remarkable. The Cream Stout is definitely remarkable! I got a whole 6-pack of it, so some should make it back home for Superman to share. I was able to get a "make your own 6-pack" from the Publix, which is where I added the Stella Artois. Also got some Magic Hat stuff, can't remember now what it is. Haven't tried it yet. And other stuff that looked good at the time but I forget about now that I'm not looking at it.
• I stayed in my step-mom's house the first night we were here, then moved to a hotel. My Uncle John had reserved a room for himself, but changed the reservations to my name for reasons I'm unclear about. Whatever. He's paying for it. As I said to Mike today, it's on Uncle John's dime, and he has more dimes than I do. It's a much nicer place than I'd have chosen, but I like it. Last night Twitch was with me. Tonight he is at his Uncle Jim's place sleeping on an air mattress in Jim's game room. I am blissfully alone. Did I mention that Twitch and I have had a bit too much together time this week?
• Light will stay with me for the next two nights. She goes back to Orlando with Mama, flies back home Monday afternoon. I'll check out of the hotel Monday and go back to step-mom's house. Her son Tom is leaving on Monday, so I'll get his bedroom I guess. I'm fine with that. I'm finer with staying in this hotel though. This is Florida, and all the people here are used to living here in this heat and humidity. The crazies leave their air conditioning set to nearly 80. It's awful. I can't change my step-mom's thermostat, of course, but here in the hotel I can crank the temp down to a more comfortable range. I'm finally blessedly cool! I fear I might freeze Light out tomorrow night. Though she lives in Pennsylvania, she prefers warmer temps than those that comfort me. First world problems. 
• I miss my husband. He's a wonderful guy, and right now he's too far away. I heard from him today. Work is beating his ass but not as much as the younger kids are. He isn't having a lot of fun. I wish he were here. 
• Man, I really like this Samuel Adams Cream Stout! 
• I told you last week about a puppy. Yes, we have a puppy. His name is Oreo. I took some pictures of him to post here, but I'm too tired to do that now. Also I think the dear deserves his own blog post. So stay tuned. Don't know when  that will happen. I have more to process here about my Dad's life celebration, like the fact that my ex-step-brothers are coming to town. 
• So, my dad has had three wives: my Mama was first, he left her for his second wife Mary who had three boys. Daddy and Mary got together when I was about 8 or 9 years old, and finally divorced when I was in college. I grew up with Mary's sons as my step-brothers. I have two new step-brothers now, but I barely know them. My dad married their mom back in the early 90s when I was married with two little kids. So when I think of step-brothers I think of Mary's sons. One of them, Dan, lives here in Gainesville. Hal lives in Greensboro, NC and Charles lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada now. Growing up with these guys, well, there's a lot of history. Some of it is ... kinda difficult. I haven't seen Hal and Charles in over 30 years. They are twins, and a couple of years older than me. Dan is a year younger than me. I've seen Dan a few times when I come to visit Daddy, but haven't seen the twins in, like I said, a very long time. A lot has changed for all of us. I dreamed about them last night. Both the twins will arrive in town tomorrow evening. We're all getting together for dinner and to go through pictures of Daddy and the family. There will be lots of pictures at the party, and we all get to pick out which ones to display. Together. I gotta tell you, I am nervous about seeing the twins. 
• Right now it's 1:30 in the morning. I am very tired. I had a dream about Hal last night that kind of upset me. Am I afraid to go to sleep now because of that? Or am I just stalling because it's what I do? I've had a glass of wine and a beer, but spread it out over the past three hours so I'm not feeling tipsy at all. Don't know it that's a good thing or not. But my head is beginning to hurt a little and I think it's from the tired not from the booze. And I have successfully written a blog post (in that it is written, not that it is necessarily a good post) which was my goal, so perhaps I should shut up now and go to sleep. 
• I still have stuff to process about my step-brothers, my Daddy, my Mama coming to my Daddy's death party (oops, I mean life celebration party), and probably some other stuff that I'm too tired to remember now. I hope to be able to ramble about some of that stuff here soon. Until then, I'm going to sleep now. Or something. 

Update: 
I survived the first night of get-together with all the family. Seeing the twins was a bit odd, and slightly uncomfortable, but for the most part very positive. The purpose of tonight's gathering was to go through photographs, picking out great ones of my dad to display at tomorrow's (technically today's) party. We found some great ones. Hal brought a bunch that his mother had taken from the years we were all together as that family unit. A lot of them were from building the big house out in the woods. Awesome stuff. I visited a lot of good memories from those times. Hal's stash also had photos from the Christmas we spent with my his mom's parents back in... hang on, let me figure it out... 1974 I think. I have a lot of very good memories from that visit. My dad had a lot of very old photographs from his parents' collection, some from their parents' generation even. Those were very early in the days of photography. There were some great ones of my grandpapa and his brothers as children and young men. I learned a lot about my grandpapa. I saw a picture of my grandmama when she was maybe 20 years old, one that I'd never seen before. I never knew her to look like that. It was a powerfully emotional evening, lots of laughs, lots of memories being tossed around.

Those in attendance tonight were my step mom and her son, who were mostly in the background because tonight's pictures were from before their involvement in Daddy's life. All three of my former step brothers were there; Hal, Charles, and Dan. Dan's S.O. Sunshine and their 3 yr old son Byron were there. Byron is the cutest and brightest 3 year old I've known in a long time. Light and Twitch were there, as were my Uncle John and his son, my cousin Jay. I haven't seen Jay, Hal, or Charles in at least 30 years. No, I may have seen Jay at my grandmama's funeral which was in 1996. Still, that was kind of a long time ago. And of course my brothers Mike and Jim were there. Jim's wife and 8 year old daughter were kinda hanging around in the background, but not in the thick of things.

It was fun showing my kids pictures of me when I was a kid. Light looks a lot like I did when I was in my teens. Actually, when my step brother Charles first saw her he wanted to call her by my name, she looks so much like he remembers me. My youngest step brother Dan is still very trim, but Hal and Charles have both developed quite the gut since our youths. I've probably gained the most weight, but it was a bit comforting that they are large now, too. And shucks, my brothers Mike and Jim are both fit and trim like years ago. They take better care of themselves than I do. eh. 

Random ramblings, and a teaser

Braves swept the Chicago Cubs in the three game series that ended this afternoon. Excellent pitching by the Cub's starting pitcher, a really tall, kinda sexy fella who's name is hard to pronounce (spelled Samardzija)   but who only lasted into the 6th inning. Things got better for the Braves after he burned out.

The game ended with the Cubs having 1 run, the Braves 5. Boo yah! Samardzija seemed to get really angry in the 6th inning when his pitching deteriorated. I don't know what's up with that. Yeah, he's sexy, but that anger isn't. (Do a Google image search of Jeff Samardzija for more pics of the sexy giant.) 

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Another thought about my father: the man bought 48 pairs of black socks the week before he went into the hospital. He was obviously planning to come back home.

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The trolls go back to school tomorrow. Spring break is over! Yes, I'm excited. Spring break is a trial run for summer vacation, though. In a few short weeks school will be over for the year and these young'uns will be home pretty much all the time, unless we can find a way for them to be otherwise occupied. Jobs would be good, though at 15 years old there are limited employment options for them. We shall see. Until then, I'm going to enjoy the hours they are in school.

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This week will be a good opportunity to do more sewing. I finished up one skirt and made a complete other skirt before the Delaware blogger gathering. Yay me. There's a dress pattern I've had in mind for a couple of years that I'd like to complete before I head back to Florida. I have had the fabric for it since, I don't know, 2010 maybe? But I need to make a sample from plain muslin first to adjust it for proper fit. I'd like to wear the dress at the Life Celebration party. Also, I got a haircut yesterday. I had the gal leave it a little bit longer than I'd prefer because I have to look like the daughter of the deceased in two weeks (two weeks from today, actually) and not like some hillbilly power dyke (no offense intended) in town for a rumble.

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I started this in the middle of the afternoon. It's 10:00 pm now and we haven't gotten as far as I intended. But of course now I can't remember what else I was going to say.

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I'm trying to cook more healthy meals these days, and eat less of the unhealthy stuff. I've found a great blog to help me out. It's Victor's husband's food blog, The Food You Choose. Tonight I made tilapia with greens and noodles. Except that I had flounder instead of the tilapia I thought was in the freezer, and I didn't make any noodles or rice or other starch to go with it. It was pretty good. I used bok choi and purple cabbage and  a little bit of shredded carrot for the veggies. It was colorful, pretty, and tasty. Superman liked it. None of the children would taste it. They are trolls.

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I have increased my beer consumption a bit, which is not helping the weight reduction. I blame the children. Mostly. The teenagers have been so damned frustrating today I'm about to wring their little necks. So tonight I'm drinking beer to numb the discouragement and resentment I feel concerning those trolls. They are trolls.

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Here's the tease: we have a new puppy. I haven't got pictures yet and I want to give him his own blog post for a proper introduction. Stay tuned. Perhaps tomorrow while those teenagers are at school I can get down to the business of  chronicling the introduction of a dog to the Java household.

Hair and death

Diva got a new 'do. She wanted me to share it with you. 

She hates this second picture because it shows her teeth. She says she has baby teeth, but they look pretty good to me. Of course, being the parent, I think they look good primarily because she doesn't need braces, so her teeth aren't as expensive as, say, Light's teeth, which look good now because we spent thousands on getting them straightened. 

These pictures were taken with her standing just outside her bedroom. This is her bedroom door, the outside of it. She "decorated" it herself without permission. It's ugly and tacky and pisses me off every time I see it. And I see it every time I come in the house, since it's opposite the foyer in the hallway.

What else was I going to tell you? I know, let's talk about death. We, Superman and I, are at an age where a lot of our older relatives are dying. Just yesterday Superman's Aunt Jackie died. Poor ol' gal has been hanging on by a thread for a while now. She got dementia and hung around for a while with that, but recently began deteriorating rapidly. Aunt Jackie is the older sister of Superman's mother, and the nicest of all the siblings. She got all the nice that her older sister missed. The oldest aunt is a sour, spiteful woman, and still alive. Superman says she's too sour to die. Preserved, as it were, with her sour attitude. Anyway, we may be taking a 500 mile round trip for Aunt Jackie's funeral. Not sure we're going, depends on a few things that depend, gas prices being one of those things. (I could rant about gas prices, but I'm sure you can find lots of other such rants most places on the internet these days.)

In other death news, the mother of my long-standing best friend from childhood died last Sunday. Her husband died last year (I don't remember exactly when, but I think it was within the past six months). Her name is Pat. She's a hoot. Graveside service and interment is Monday in Ohio, though they've lived in Florida since 1972? Early '70s, anyway. But the family is originally from Ohio, so that's where she's gone to decompose. Pat was like a second mother to me. Honestly, my mother was a bit nicer than Pat, but Pat was more interesting. She had a bigger zest for life. She was also a lot crazier than my mom. We found out years later that she was abusing prescription drugs that whole time, so that's an interesting twist. She was a good Catholic wife, had five babies, of which my girlfriend is number four. And five children was a bit much for her to handle, I think. Now, she might have gone crazy otherwise, but I suspect raising five children pushed her over the edge.

My friend posted on facebork last week that she was in the ER with her mom. I commented that I'd just had a dream about Pat. I'd just woken from a nap and logged onto facebork when I saw the post. While napping, I had a dream in which Pat appeared. Can't remember much about the dream, and Pat was, I think, a minor player in the dreamscape drama. And she was drunk. So I commented on the facebork post "I just had a dream about your mother. Aside from being drunk, she was fine." Well, my friend passed that message on to Pat, who had a hearty laugh at that. I am really glad that at least I got to help Pat laugh again before she died.

And I think I've mentioned that Superman's father is in really bad shape. He only has about half of one kidney left, the rest of his kidney parts having been surgically removed a few years ago. And that partial kidney is failing. And he refuses to go on dialysis. I don't blame him for that, though. I'd probably make the same decision were I in that situation. He's ready to die. And once he goes, my MIL will not hang on long, I think. Superman's brother who lives in the area mentioned that their mom seems to be losing her memory. Lordy, I hope she doesn't get the dementia that Aunt Jackie had. That will be ugly.

Although I'm not on death's door or anything, I'm coming down with some kind of ick. But not fish ick. My lungs are tight and heavy-feeling and my throat and right ear are beginning to hurt. Superman had these symptoms right after Christmas, spent over a week being too sick to do much. I'm trying to get lots of rest and drink plenty of fluids - and not beer, either! Speaking of which, I could have oatmeal and milk for breakfast: Highland Oatmeal Porter and Duck-Rabbit Milk Stout, both of which are currently in our beer crisper. But I'm not. I had some yogurt instead. And now I'm going to put that load of laundry in the dryer and go back to bed.

She's ba-a-a-a-ack

Of course I'm referring to Diva.
It's only for one night, so she says. She's staying with a friend, and the friend's mom and boyfriend want some "alone time" tonight. I totally understand that. So the friend is at grandma and grandpa's place and the only other place Diva can go is back here. But I am super pissed about it. More than pissed, I am angry. (There is a difference. After a couple of beers I can't tell you exactly what it is, though.)

So Tuesday of last week she declares that she is finished with us and runs off to her friend's house. She's been telling us for years (and I mean literally years) that she does not belong in our family. She started that shit when she was in kindergarten. More recently she says she hates us, hates the whole family, does not want anything to do with us. So, now that she's been with this other family for just over a week, she wants to waltz in here like the Queen of Sheba and assume all of the rights and privileges of being a member of the Java family. Like hell, bitch.

And really, she's been depending on us since she left. The family she's staying with is very poor. Not too bright, either, and I suspect not strongly motivated to do responsible things like get a job. I've met the mother, talked to her a bit, and she seems nice and all. But let's just say she and I don't have a lot in common. So we (and by "we" I mean mostly Superman) have been helping them out with groceries and such. But I'm in support of helping them support Diva. For one thing, it keeps Diva away from here.

Now that she's been gone for a bit over a week I have gotten very comfortable with her absence. And the threat of her presence unsettles me. A lot.

Superman took her to the skating rink this evening, which I thought was a bad idea. Bitch thinks she can resume normal operating procedures. But, Superman had promised to take Sproing to the movies which means dad's not here when she is. Bad idea. She and I... we don't do well together. As angry as I am about the whole mess, it's better for us not to be in the house together without Superman's Super-vision. ;-)

Don't remember if I mentioned it in the last post (I think I did) but it's come to the point that we are seriously considering terminating parental rights with her. "Un-adopting" her, as it were. I don't want to need to do it, but it is what it is. It's come to this. And her being here tonight after rejecting us like she did (and all the other shit she's done to ruin the family relationship - see 5+ years of blog archives) reinforces for me that yes, it's time.

I talked to our family doctor about all this earlier this week. Went to see him because I've irritated the tendons in my left arm again. Tennis elbow or something. Or maybe golfer's elbow. Depends on which set of muscles/tendons is inflamed. Anyway, (I ramble when I'm tired or drunk. Kinda both right now.) I was in the office about that and told him what's going on with Diva. Told him we're considering the termination of parental rights. He jumped on that fast. Essentially said "Well, it's about time!!" No, he was more politic than that. He's good at being nice. He was encouraging. Said we have gone above and beyond to help her, and severing the relationship is a good idea. He knows me pretty well. He's been our family doctor for going on 18 years now. He said "You need to not feel guilty about this." Yep, that's my chief hang-up with this decision. Tonight, though, I am oh so ready to drop her like a hot potato.

Third beer is out of the bottle and into my system. Not thinking or writing very clearly. Gonna go do something else. So long, and thanks for all the fish.

Mid December rambling

Listening to


at the recommendation of Victor. I recently discovered his blog, and boy, do I like it! I'm trying to add his blog to my blog list over there on the right, but Blogger isn't cooperating. Either that or I don't know what the fuck I'm doing. The latter is more probable.

As previously posted, Twitch graduated from college yesterday. Superman and I went to Charlotte for the festivities. We had a lovely time, but did not leave the city until nearly 10:00 last night. Two and a half hours (approx.) to get home, then I had some baking to do. I think I mentioned in a recent post that I have renewed my domestic efforts, vis. cooking and baking. I am baking all of our bread now. A couple of days ago I fed the bread starter and had rather a lot of starter to work with. As many people as we have eating all my bread, I decided to make a large batch. I failed to account for spending all yesterday away from home. Before we left home I put the dough in the bread pans for the second rising, hoping that it would rise slowly. This bread does rise much more slowly than typical yeast bread. But not that slowly. It over-proofed. Nevertheless, I baked all eight loaves when I returned home after midnight last night. I can only fit four loaf pans in the oven at once, and it cooks for half an hour. By the time the bread was all baked it was 2:fucking-late a.m. Fresh bread usually has a lovely rounded top crust. These crusts fell. The bread looks kinda pathetic. I cut one of the loaves fresh out of the oven, slathered butter on the end piece, and enjoyed. It looks a bit funny, the texture is too loose (don't know how else to describe it), but it tastes damn good! Four pieces of fresh buttered bread good. In related news, I'm not progressing well with my weight loss. This too shall come. Still, last time I checked, I've lost and kept off 30 lbs. Yay me!

But the point I attempted to make is that I am SO tired today! I got up before 8:00 to take Superman to work. He wisely went to bed soon after we got home. I was at least 1.5 hours behind him.

I recently bought myself a couple of long sleeved t-shirts. This is my current favorite.

I'm wearing it today. Coincidentally (on purpose) I'm seeing my therapist today. She likes this shirt, too. At this point my plan is to make it a shorter visit than usual with the therapist (tried and failed at that last week) so I can come home and take a well-deserved nap. Have I mentioned that I love naps?

I'm going in for a bit of surgery next Tuesday (the 18th). Sometime over the past few months I have developed a small hernia just north of my navel. I thought it was an umbilical hernia, but when the surgeon checked he said it was slightly above there. OK. He described it as a small hole in the integument.* He didn't use that word exactly, but I really like it. My belly fat pooks out through the hole when under strain. You know, the way hernias do. I suggested that since the fat was pooking out anyway, he might as well remove all that fat, too. He didn't think so. Shucks. The procedure for the repair is kinda cool. Rather than simply sewing up the hole, he'll put a mesh patch-type thing behind the hole to block it up, sort of like they repair small holes in tires these days. Superman says I'm gonna get a rivet. He also describes the hernia as like unto a turkey pop-up timer.
  It's a lot of fun to be married to that man!

During the pre-surgery tests and paperwork this week I learned that I'll be under general anesthesia. I suggested since it's such a small thing perhaps a local anesthesia would work. But no, they won't do that. In case things are more complicated once they get in there they want to have me already under so they can do what needs to be done. That's how the nice lady explained it. Whatevs. I actually kinda like being under general anesthesia. It's a fun kind of stoned, you know? I also like to have the minimum fuss and bother, hence the request for a local.

Seems there was more I wanted to ramble about, but it is now time for me to go see my Thurpist, so I must depart. Here's the post. Enjoy. (past tense, now, since if you've read this far, you've pretty much read it all)

* Epimysium

The epimysium surrounds the whole skeletal muscle. This is a dense layer of connective tissue. The fascia forms an integument around the epimysium.

I used to be interesting

I used to be interested. In life. I vaguely remember getting excited about doing things. I think I used to be excited about getting up in the morning and accomplishing tasks. But now I got nuthin'. I'm bored and lonely and don't like being with the two kids who still live with me. They suck the life out of me.

I still enjoy spending time with my husband. We went to lunch together yesterday and both enjoyed it very much. Then yesterday evening the kids came home and ruined a good day. Now Superman is grumpy and I don't give a shit about anything.

Think I have a bottle of Fuckitall in the fridge. Might indulge.

Family stuff and other miscellany

I got a bag of Terra chips at the grocery yesterday. I prefer to think of them as guilt-free snacking.

Of course they aren't really. But they're better than potato chips, I think. And they're yummy, considering they're vegetables.
The bag promises a complete serving of vegetables in every ounce! I don't generally like vegetables. I sometimes drink vegetable juice (like V8), a 12 ounce can, cold, chugged quickly. That's 2 servings of vegetables! But enough about vegetables.

We could talk about beer if you'd like. Did I tell you? Superman discovered a beer he likes. Corona. With lime. I'm as surprised as he is. One of my summer goals is to develop a taste for beer. It is working. My tastes tend toward the pale ales and an occasional lager. My current favorites are Shock Top and the Blue Moon's Summer Honey Wheat.

Before we get to the family issues, let's now discuss plumbing, specifically plumbing problems. I has them. This time it's the kitchen sink. This is the second time this year we've had plumbing trouble. Hopefully this time it won't cost $4500. (I like my new pipes.) Over the weekend the kitchen drain began to drain very slowly. For the past couple of weeks the drain has been emitting a foul odor. I thought it was the garbage disposer. I fed it a couple of limes (which we have for Superman's Coronas, see above) and that helped for an hour or two. When it failed to drain properly Superman, bless his heart, went under the sink to investigate. He removed the garbage disposer, took it out back and hosed it out thoroughly. He discovered that the cause of the draining problem is in the pipes behind the wall. Something is obscuring the pipes. We got new incoming pipes, but not drain pipes. He has a plumbing snake, which didn't work because the drain pipe makes two (he says) right angle turns. So he bought some chemical drain cleaner. He reassembled the pipes and applied the drain cleaner. It didn't help much. And that's where things stand now: not draining very well.

That's where things stand now because Superman left town. With Light. Yep, she moved out. She's now in Pennsylvania. She and Superman packed her van and our car, and on Sunday morning they headed north. After some 15 hours, they arrived in Indianapa. They drove slowly, what with being so weighed down. And Light's van gets absolutely horrible gas mileage above 60 mph. And they drove through some torrential rain, just as she and I did on our way home from Indianapa last month. What's with all the rain?

They left Sunday morning. I sighed deeply, but did not cry. Here's the thing: if I would go ahead and have a good cry and get that over with, I'd be OK. But tears weren't there, only sighs. And all day long I felt the weight of her leaving. She took one of our two black cats, the sleek one. We also have a fuzzy one. The sleek one, Samhain, is my nap cat. He's technically her cat,and she wanted him, and I was glad to have fewer cat. But he is my nap cat. He snuggles up to my shins or behind my knees when I sleep. Our fuzzy cat is not nearly as pleasant to sleep with. She likes to attack my feet with her sharp claws as I sleep.

So Light is gone. Moved out. On her own (sort of). And Superman is away for a few days. He is on his way home right now. In the meantime I am here with two 13 year olds.

The Children. Oh my. As I discussed last week, Sproing has been a royal pain. Superman and I had a heart-to-heart with the boy on Saturday. We restated our expectations of him and laid out a series of consequences (punishments) for misbehavior. He then spent half an hour alone in his room. Since then he's been wonderful. Since Superman left he has been helpful and pleasant and all those wonderful things he's capable of. I also have a box of candy from which he gets rewards if he behaves.

Diva has been OK. She's somewhat sullen, but not openly defiant. I can live with that. I told her that I will get her some new clothes for school (which starts in a week and a half!! Hallelujah!) only if she cleans her room and hangs up or folds and puts away all of her clothes. There are now a lot of clothes hanging in her closet. I haven't done a careful inspection, but there is still a lot of junk on the floor in her room. She seems to have a lot of clothes. She's a typical teenager in that respect. It doesn't look to me like she needs new clothes, except for maybe a few new undergarments. Of course she will insist that she gets some new duds for school, and I'm OK with that. But she isn't getting much, not nearly as much as she wants.

Sproing needs new stuff, too, but not too much. Some nice shorts, maybe a couple of shirts, and socks and underwear.

Sproing has new motivation to behave well. He has a girlfriend! He met her at the skating rink this weekend. Well, he's kinda known her for a while, but they got together at the skating rink. They're "going together" now. Around here that means they talk or text on the phone and chat on Facebook a lot. Of course he loses his phone and computer privileges if he acts out. Ha ha ha! This is so easy!

About the girlfriend business: this is different. He has occasionally mentioned something about a girlfriend at the skating rink before, but no one has ever really affected him until now. He really means it this time. I realized this was different when I saw the note he taped to his door which read "I love M____." The whole thing is amusingly dramatic. She almost broke up with him yesterday when another of his friends said something to her about something he said. She broke up with the last guy she went with after only one day. This "going with" thing is loosely defined. I'm not sure of all the rules. It's all very amusing. I am glad to see him participating in this social discourse. I doubt this relationship (as such) will last through the week. They plan to go skating together on Friday. This will be the all night skate event. If they are even still going together by Friday, I will be surprised if they are still together at 7:00 Saturday morning.

And Superman is going away again this weekend. His brother's birthday is next week, so he's going to the old homestead to visit all his family for the weekend. His dad is still alive. Perhaps his dad realizes that now that he's so close to the end, he gets a lot more visits from his children. Eh, whatever. I don't really mind. His dad is a good man. I don't get along with him, but he's a good man nevertheless. The rest of his children now live within half an hour of their old home except Superman. The folks want Superman to get a job around there so he also can move "back home." HA! I don't think he has told them he wants to move to Pittsburgh.

Alas, duty and the children call. Time to make a bit of lunch and nag Diva to fix up her hair and clean her room. The joys of parenting...