I was sitting in the lobby, waiting for my eldest son to finish up his OT appointment. Willy Wonka was spinning on the DVD player, and I was half-watching whilst preventing my youngest son from systematically dismantling the lobby, brick by brick. He can't help it, really. It just comes naturally to guys like him.
Anyhow, I'm asking him to "please stop harpooning the goldfish" when I hear Mr. Wonka greet one of his guests at the front gate. Her name? Veruca Salt. I know that name...
And then yes, the proverbial light bulb flickers on above my head (along with the "No shit, Sherlock!" cartoon bubble). There is a 90s alt-rock band also named Veruca Salt, so my tiny melon finally makes that connection, only a couple of decades behind as usual.
Oh, and for the record, my son was not harpooning goldfish. He was hovering dangerously close to the tank, unintentional malice gleaming in his eyes, always an accident waiting to happen.
You may now return to your regular programming. Which is pretty damn scary, if you believe in The Matrix...
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Best...day...evar!
My youngest son turned 5 on Tuesday, and boy, what a day! Let me recap it for you, and then you can decide if it's the kind of day you dreamed of when you were under 10 years of age:
Wake up by or before 7am (he was wide freaking awake when my alarm went off at 7:15am). Open your first present of the day - a Webkinz Lava Dragon - and eat two bowls of Fruit Loops, which you personally selected to be your special birthday breakfast treat the day before.
Now that you have enough sugar coursing through your veins to sustain the average teenager for a week, you get to open more presents! First is a special collector's tin with two new Bakugan inside, followed by the just-released Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story for your DS. One "aunt & uncle" sent you $10 cash - maybe you'll play the ponies today?
You are extra smug because your older siblings have to trudge off to Guantanamo Bay - I mean elementary school - for the day, but you don't go to school on Tuesdays. Bonus! So you get to spend your birthday at home with your old man, playing with all your new birthday loot as well as the usual distractions: video games, TV, running around outside, and dreaming up get-rich-quick schemes.
Next, you head off to the local soccer center to have your weekly footie session. You do a good job not picking up the ball with your hands too much, but you are otherwise not focused and really don't have your head in the game. You're kind of tired, a little hungry, and ready to go home NOW.
When you get home, your grandparents show up with a Happy Meal for your lunch. You happily down your chow, show the old peeps your stuff, and yes, open more presents! A Hot Wheel and a Target gift card? Score! When are we going shopping, daddy?
You wear out your grandparents, play a bit more, and then it's time to go fetch big brother & sister from the bus stop. Of course you wear your birthday crown (why yes, you DID celebrate your b-day at school on Monday) and flash your megawatt smile as much as possible.
Time for an after-school snack with the sibs, take in a little more fun, and then head off to Bellevue so the sibs can attend their Tuesday appointment. Your busy day catches up to you finally, as you climb under the chairs and doze off for 10 or so minutes. Daddy wakes you up, but you're not fussy because it is time to go pick up mommy and go to Red Robin's house!
Traffic is a bit sucky, but you cope with it well enough. When you get to RR, your other grandpa is there waiting for you - hooray! You power down a bowl of mac & cheese, mandarin oranges, and a few of daddy's taters (are you gonna eat those fries, dude?) - but no dessert. Say what? Oh yeah, right, you have a Cold Stone ice cream cake waiting at home - schweet!
Triple chocolate death is served (chocolate cake, chocolate ice cream, chocolate ganache) and a good time is had by all. You open your last round of presents - a LEGO Star Wars tank - and put daddy to work on that bad boy.
Your day ends with you crashed in mommy & daddy's bed, clutching your Lava Dragon, and dreaming LEGO Star Wars and Bakugan dreams. I don't know what else you could have done to top that, except maybe have a Pump It Up or Chuck-E-Cheese party with twenty other screaming 4 and 5 year olds. Heh.
I don't know how he did it, but the little man managed to turn his big day into a 12 to 14 hour nonstop par-tay, complete with multiple present sessions, his favorite meals, and time spent with most of his favorite family members. If I was 5, I like to think I would have enjoyed that day as much as I think my little Taz did.
Wake up by or before 7am (he was wide freaking awake when my alarm went off at 7:15am). Open your first present of the day - a Webkinz Lava Dragon - and eat two bowls of Fruit Loops, which you personally selected to be your special birthday breakfast treat the day before.
Now that you have enough sugar coursing through your veins to sustain the average teenager for a week, you get to open more presents! First is a special collector's tin with two new Bakugan inside, followed by the just-released Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story for your DS. One "aunt & uncle" sent you $10 cash - maybe you'll play the ponies today?
You are extra smug because your older siblings have to trudge off to Guantanamo Bay - I mean elementary school - for the day, but you don't go to school on Tuesdays. Bonus! So you get to spend your birthday at home with your old man, playing with all your new birthday loot as well as the usual distractions: video games, TV, running around outside, and dreaming up get-rich-quick schemes.
Next, you head off to the local soccer center to have your weekly footie session. You do a good job not picking up the ball with your hands too much, but you are otherwise not focused and really don't have your head in the game. You're kind of tired, a little hungry, and ready to go home NOW.
When you get home, your grandparents show up with a Happy Meal for your lunch. You happily down your chow, show the old peeps your stuff, and yes, open more presents! A Hot Wheel and a Target gift card? Score! When are we going shopping, daddy?
You wear out your grandparents, play a bit more, and then it's time to go fetch big brother & sister from the bus stop. Of course you wear your birthday crown (why yes, you DID celebrate your b-day at school on Monday) and flash your megawatt smile as much as possible.
Time for an after-school snack with the sibs, take in a little more fun, and then head off to Bellevue so the sibs can attend their Tuesday appointment. Your busy day catches up to you finally, as you climb under the chairs and doze off for 10 or so minutes. Daddy wakes you up, but you're not fussy because it is time to go pick up mommy and go to Red Robin's house!
Traffic is a bit sucky, but you cope with it well enough. When you get to RR, your other grandpa is there waiting for you - hooray! You power down a bowl of mac & cheese, mandarin oranges, and a few of daddy's taters (are you gonna eat those fries, dude?) - but no dessert. Say what? Oh yeah, right, you have a Cold Stone ice cream cake waiting at home - schweet!
Triple chocolate death is served (chocolate cake, chocolate ice cream, chocolate ganache) and a good time is had by all. You open your last round of presents - a LEGO Star Wars tank - and put daddy to work on that bad boy.
Your day ends with you crashed in mommy & daddy's bed, clutching your Lava Dragon, and dreaming LEGO Star Wars and Bakugan dreams. I don't know what else you could have done to top that, except maybe have a Pump It Up or Chuck-E-Cheese party with twenty other screaming 4 and 5 year olds. Heh.
I don't know how he did it, but the little man managed to turn his big day into a 12 to 14 hour nonstop par-tay, complete with multiple present sessions, his favorite meals, and time spent with most of his favorite family members. If I was 5, I like to think I would have enjoyed that day as much as I think my little Taz did.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Family's First Tent Camping Trip!
We have one of those freaking huge family tents that's been sitting around in a closet for at least the past three years. It was a 10-year gift from Nintendo, my wife's previous employer. Our youngest son is almost five, so we decided it was finally time to use the aforementioned tent.
The scene: Lake Easton State Park. This park is a mere hour's drive from The Shire, which is always nice. The kids didn't even get the chance to ask "are we there yet" or request a restroom break. We arrive, check in, and head to our site. The clan goes to locate the nearest bathroom and water spigot, and I busy myself setting up the tent. It's a nice one, and my only real complaint is that it lacks privacy flaps on the front doors. You know, the upper half of the doors are mosquito nets, and in most tents, there are zip-up flaps on the inside of the doors for privacy. But the rain fly works just as well if you let the front down, so no big deal.
One of the first things I noticed about our site was the amount of litter on the ground. And by litter, I'm talking about small stuff - bottle caps, pieces of wrappers, things of that nature. I guess it's the Boy Scout in me, but I was taught two things: 1) Don't Litter! and 2) Always leave your campsite cleaner than you found it. And it wasn't just the stuff in our site - there was some on the nature trails, by the lake, in and around the restrooms. What is wrong with people? I must be getting old and grumpy now that I'm in my early 40s. But honestly, what is so fucking hard about using a trash can, or sticking your garbage in your pocket until you get back to camp?
Overall, we had a great time. The kids and the family hound had a blast, got dirty as all getup, dropped some hot dogs in the ashes of the fire, ate s'mores, and manged to not freak out at night in the tent. We were there just under 24 hours, which goes by too fast, but it was just right for the first time. Next time we'll go two nights, and see how that goes. And yes, the last thing we did before we got in the car and left was to make a thorough sweep of the camp site. It's easier to explain the "always leave your campsite cleaner than you found it" concept as "you need to pick up litter, even if it's not yours, because the animals who live here can't do it themselves."
It felt good to go tent camping, and it's been waaaaay too long (our last trip was about 13 years ago, pre-kids, holy schnikes!) so we were overdue. I hope to one day take everyone on a true back country hiking/camping trip.
The scene: Lake Easton State Park. This park is a mere hour's drive from The Shire, which is always nice. The kids didn't even get the chance to ask "are we there yet" or request a restroom break. We arrive, check in, and head to our site. The clan goes to locate the nearest bathroom and water spigot, and I busy myself setting up the tent. It's a nice one, and my only real complaint is that it lacks privacy flaps on the front doors. You know, the upper half of the doors are mosquito nets, and in most tents, there are zip-up flaps on the inside of the doors for privacy. But the rain fly works just as well if you let the front down, so no big deal.
One of the first things I noticed about our site was the amount of litter on the ground. And by litter, I'm talking about small stuff - bottle caps, pieces of wrappers, things of that nature. I guess it's the Boy Scout in me, but I was taught two things: 1) Don't Litter! and 2) Always leave your campsite cleaner than you found it. And it wasn't just the stuff in our site - there was some on the nature trails, by the lake, in and around the restrooms. What is wrong with people? I must be getting old and grumpy now that I'm in my early 40s. But honestly, what is so fucking hard about using a trash can, or sticking your garbage in your pocket until you get back to camp?
Overall, we had a great time. The kids and the family hound had a blast, got dirty as all getup, dropped some hot dogs in the ashes of the fire, ate s'mores, and manged to not freak out at night in the tent. We were there just under 24 hours, which goes by too fast, but it was just right for the first time. Next time we'll go two nights, and see how that goes. And yes, the last thing we did before we got in the car and left was to make a thorough sweep of the camp site. It's easier to explain the "always leave your campsite cleaner than you found it" concept as "you need to pick up litter, even if it's not yours, because the animals who live here can't do it themselves."
It felt good to go tent camping, and it's been waaaaay too long (our last trip was about 13 years ago, pre-kids, holy schnikes!) so we were overdue. I hope to one day take everyone on a true back country hiking/camping trip.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Yeah, but it's a dry heat, Sarge.
On Thursday, we had an indoor soccer doubleheader at WISC. First game started at 6:20 followed by the 7:10 tilt. I'm happy to report The Crew came away victorious both matches!
When it gets hot around here (like it was on Thursday), WISC turns into an industrial-sized convection oven. The field is housed in a rectangular warehouse made from mostly corrugated metal (steel? tin?) and it is just plain HOT in there. I was sweating within the first 5 minutes after kickoff, and as my wife likes to point out, I'm a goalie and I was just standing there.
The boys who had to do the actual running around and scoring did great! Everyone seemed to just be clicking, shots were hitting the corners, one-timers were beautifully struck, and the passing tape-to-tape, to steal a hockey term. No one passed out or pulled themselves due to the heat, so chalk one up for staying hydrated and also a well-timed sub rotation.
I was a little worried I would be sucking wind because I've been hiding in my air-conditioned house during Seattle's "Killer Heat Wave 2009!!!" but that was not the case. Like my mates, I played a great pair of matches, and felt good enough to even play a third (thankfully that didn't happen). I have to wonder if playing indoor was actually easier than outdoor - we were out of the direct sun, with the tradeoff of slightly higher temperatures indoors - at least I think it worked that way.
All things considered, I'll be happy on gameday this week to play in cooler temps.
When it gets hot around here (like it was on Thursday), WISC turns into an industrial-sized convection oven. The field is housed in a rectangular warehouse made from mostly corrugated metal (steel? tin?) and it is just plain HOT in there. I was sweating within the first 5 minutes after kickoff, and as my wife likes to point out, I'm a goalie and I was just standing there.
The boys who had to do the actual running around and scoring did great! Everyone seemed to just be clicking, shots were hitting the corners, one-timers were beautifully struck, and the passing tape-to-tape, to steal a hockey term. No one passed out or pulled themselves due to the heat, so chalk one up for staying hydrated and also a well-timed sub rotation.
I was a little worried I would be sucking wind because I've been hiding in my air-conditioned house during Seattle's "Killer Heat Wave 2009!!!" but that was not the case. Like my mates, I played a great pair of matches, and felt good enough to even play a third (thankfully that didn't happen). I have to wonder if playing indoor was actually easier than outdoor - we were out of the direct sun, with the tradeoff of slightly higher temperatures indoors - at least I think it worked that way.
All things considered, I'll be happy on gameday this week to play in cooler temps.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
You want fries with that shake?
The advantage of taking Jennie for a walk after sundown is, of course, a much more comfortable walking experience. It's still warm and muggy, but it sure beats hot and muggy.
Anyhow, we're scooting along and I was struck by a random thought: If this kind of night was taking place say about 20 years ago, it was TOTALLY the kind of night where one hops on his motorcycle or jumps in her car and heads over to a place like Burgermaster or Dick's for a nice cold milkshake. And most likely this trip involves at least one if not more good friends.
I could see that scene in my mind's eye because it actually happened many times over. Sitting in someone's car or perched on our bikes, talking shit, laughing, joking, and just hanging out. I see a lot of kids hanging out at the Top Food parking lot, and I can't help but to wonder, why aren't you guys hanging out at (anywhere but a grocery store parking lot)? But maybe they don't care where they are, because they're hanging out with their friends and having a good time.
So if you haven't had a good laugh or at least cracked a smile about the times you and your friends used to cruise up and down the Kirkland waterfront, go dancing at your favorite club, or chow down on pizza or milkshakes, I highly recommend it. Doesn't cost you a dime, and is almost guaranteed to make you smile.
TK
Anyhow, we're scooting along and I was struck by a random thought: If this kind of night was taking place say about 20 years ago, it was TOTALLY the kind of night where one hops on his motorcycle or jumps in her car and heads over to a place like Burgermaster or Dick's for a nice cold milkshake. And most likely this trip involves at least one if not more good friends.
I could see that scene in my mind's eye because it actually happened many times over. Sitting in someone's car or perched on our bikes, talking shit, laughing, joking, and just hanging out. I see a lot of kids hanging out at the Top Food parking lot, and I can't help but to wonder, why aren't you guys hanging out at (anywhere but a grocery store parking lot)? But maybe they don't care where they are, because they're hanging out with their friends and having a good time.
So if you haven't had a good laugh or at least cracked a smile about the times you and your friends used to cruise up and down the Kirkland waterfront, go dancing at your favorite club, or chow down on pizza or milkshakes, I highly recommend it. Doesn't cost you a dime, and is almost guaranteed to make you smile.
TK
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Sure, I can laugh about it now...
Today was totally "one of THOSE days." You know the kind - where just about anything and everything goes awry. Nothing super crappy like the dog ran away or you got a speeding ticket or some heartless fucker ate the last Skinny Cow in the freezer. Just a slow but constant accumulation of things blowing up.
Around 4:10am, my daughter wakes me up because she has managed to tie her hair in a knot. How does one tie a knot in their hair in the wee hours? I do my best to de-knot her hair, and partially succeed. Later, I will find out that she got up again around 5 or 6 and cut out the offending locks with some scissors. Thankfully, she does a nice job and there are no huge clumps of missing hair dotting her precious scalp.
I think this rude awakening, along with general tossing and turning, causes me to oversleep. I wake up at 8:10am, about 30-40 minutes later than usual. I go into Drill Sergeant mode, barking orders and herding the troops as fast as I can. Eat breakfast! Get dressed! Brush hair and teeth! Shoes and socks! Off to the bus stop! GOGOGO! We manage to make it to the bus stop with 5 minutes to spare.
My folks then arrive to watch Nik while I go to school to help out in Hope's class for the last time this year. Nik is not happy, and pitches a huge fit. Sorry about that, mom and dad.
Today at school, the 2nd graders were all launching their flying objects (no kits or other pre-made rockets, etc). There were some pretty neat creations, some nice tries, and a few duds. Hope assembled a balsa wood glider that I made using plans off The Intertubes (Google "chuck glider" and you'll get the general idea). I cut the pieces, and Hope glued them together and painted her plane. We did some test flights Monday evening, so we know it flies. But Hope couldn't quite grasp the launch sequence (hold glider by tail, hold rubber band launcher with other hand, and loop rubber band on notch under nose). She looped the band under the nose and then back over the glider, and held the launch stick behind the glider, so when she let the glider loose, the torque tore the tail off the plane. She took it pretty well, and only mostly blames me. After all the kids were done, I launched the backup plane I had with me, and it sailed straight and true for about 40 feet. It works, I tell you!
Head home to pick up Nik and head back to school to pick up Lukas, and then bring Nik to his last day of preschool. Nik decides he wants my folks to bring him to school, so I can go get Lukas and hopefully Nik will have a good drop off - sometimes he decides to have a fit, other days he can't wait to get to school. I have trouble getting the car out of Park and into Reverse. I blame Nik for hanging on the shift lever when he plays in the car, because that's just the sort of thing Nik is capable of.
After coaxing the car out of Park, I get Lukas and we get back into the car. (Cue up ominous car trouble music now, please). This time, I cannot for the life of me get the car out of Park. I was *this close* to snapping the fucking shift lever off the fucking steering column, but my calm side prevailed, and I consulted my owner's manual. What do you know, there's a little slot on top of the steering column that you can jam the key down into, and manually shift out of Park. Saved! This means I'm not dead in the school parking lot, but my car is still FUBAR.
Back home, I call the dealer and arrange to have it looked at today. Bonus! And the super-neato extended warranty (which has already been used at least once before) is still in effect. Double bonus! So my folks follow me to the dealer.
Whilst en route to the dealer, the school nurse from Nik's school calls. We start to discuss his ears, as he is suffering from a sudden earache from hell. I say we start to discuss this, because right as I'm telling the nurse about Nik's ear tube history, my phone dies. I had let the battery get low enough that a couple of calls drained it dry. Fuck! So the nurse calls me right back, gets my voice mail, and calls Tracy, who is then unable to get ahold of me. Sweet!
Thankfully, mom has cell phone so I can call the nurse back and tell her I will come pick up Nik ASAP. We drop the car off, head back home, and I pick up Tracy's car. My folks take Lukas back home and I go get Nik. When I get to school, he's in the fetal position with one of the teachers holding a wet cloth over his bright red ear. They take such good care of him - thank you, ladies!
On the way home, Nik announces his ongoing need for a large blue Bakugan. I decide it will aid my cause, since he might focus on it more than his ears. Also, I had promised him a new toy once school was over (today was his last day). On the way home from Target, the fuel light comes on. Gah!
No sooner do I get home when the school nurse at Hope's school calls. Now Hope isn't feeling well to boot. Nik decides that he has to go with me, I tell him no, he suffers a complete and total China Syndrome. I leave him at home screaming bloody murder (sorry again, mom and dad) and go get Hope. The upside of this turn of events? I cancel Hope's weekly trip to Friendship Group, so we don't need to drive to Bellevue and back in the middle of rush hour.
While all this is going on, Tracy is on the phone trying to get Nik in at his doctor's office today. Medical phone tag ensues, and the bottom line is we can't get him in until Wednesday morning. Now that the Tylenol has kicked in, Nik is in a happy place, so this is not an issue.
Oh yeah, we are still waiting to hear about my car. Turns out to be some rear brake light switch that made things lock up (you cannot put the car into gear unless your foot is on the brake, and I guess this faulty switch said my foot was not on the brake, even when I was pushing the brake pedal through the floorboard at the time). It's a quick and cheap fix, but I still end up paying around $80-90 as my deductible is OF COURSE $100. Ah well, the car is fixed and ready for pick up.
I guess at this point in time, things start to smooth out. I gas up the car, pick up Tracy, pick up my happy car, and head home. Eat dinner, take Jennie for a nice, long walk, and watch all 3 kids fall asleep more or less right away at bedtime. It's a miracle.
So not total catastrophe, but just a seemingly endless series of "are you kidding me?!?" events that came at me one after another. All I really want to say is THANK YOU mom and dad for spending all day with us, driving around, watching kids who were sometimes nice and sometimes screaming, and for letting me use your phone. If you guys weren't around today, it would have been a total clusterfuck, I shit you not.
TK
Around 4:10am, my daughter wakes me up because she has managed to tie her hair in a knot. How does one tie a knot in their hair in the wee hours? I do my best to de-knot her hair, and partially succeed. Later, I will find out that she got up again around 5 or 6 and cut out the offending locks with some scissors. Thankfully, she does a nice job and there are no huge clumps of missing hair dotting her precious scalp.
I think this rude awakening, along with general tossing and turning, causes me to oversleep. I wake up at 8:10am, about 30-40 minutes later than usual. I go into Drill Sergeant mode, barking orders and herding the troops as fast as I can. Eat breakfast! Get dressed! Brush hair and teeth! Shoes and socks! Off to the bus stop! GOGOGO! We manage to make it to the bus stop with 5 minutes to spare.
My folks then arrive to watch Nik while I go to school to help out in Hope's class for the last time this year. Nik is not happy, and pitches a huge fit. Sorry about that, mom and dad.
Today at school, the 2nd graders were all launching their flying objects (no kits or other pre-made rockets, etc). There were some pretty neat creations, some nice tries, and a few duds. Hope assembled a balsa wood glider that I made using plans off The Intertubes (Google "chuck glider" and you'll get the general idea). I cut the pieces, and Hope glued them together and painted her plane. We did some test flights Monday evening, so we know it flies. But Hope couldn't quite grasp the launch sequence (hold glider by tail, hold rubber band launcher with other hand, and loop rubber band on notch under nose). She looped the band under the nose and then back over the glider, and held the launch stick behind the glider, so when she let the glider loose, the torque tore the tail off the plane. She took it pretty well, and only mostly blames me. After all the kids were done, I launched the backup plane I had with me, and it sailed straight and true for about 40 feet. It works, I tell you!
Head home to pick up Nik and head back to school to pick up Lukas, and then bring Nik to his last day of preschool. Nik decides he wants my folks to bring him to school, so I can go get Lukas and hopefully Nik will have a good drop off - sometimes he decides to have a fit, other days he can't wait to get to school. I have trouble getting the car out of Park and into Reverse. I blame Nik for hanging on the shift lever when he plays in the car, because that's just the sort of thing Nik is capable of.
After coaxing the car out of Park, I get Lukas and we get back into the car. (Cue up ominous car trouble music now, please). This time, I cannot for the life of me get the car out of Park. I was *this close* to snapping the fucking shift lever off the fucking steering column, but my calm side prevailed, and I consulted my owner's manual. What do you know, there's a little slot on top of the steering column that you can jam the key down into, and manually shift out of Park. Saved! This means I'm not dead in the school parking lot, but my car is still FUBAR.
Back home, I call the dealer and arrange to have it looked at today. Bonus! And the super-neato extended warranty (which has already been used at least once before) is still in effect. Double bonus! So my folks follow me to the dealer.
Whilst en route to the dealer, the school nurse from Nik's school calls. We start to discuss his ears, as he is suffering from a sudden earache from hell. I say we start to discuss this, because right as I'm telling the nurse about Nik's ear tube history, my phone dies. I had let the battery get low enough that a couple of calls drained it dry. Fuck! So the nurse calls me right back, gets my voice mail, and calls Tracy, who is then unable to get ahold of me. Sweet!
Thankfully, mom has cell phone so I can call the nurse back and tell her I will come pick up Nik ASAP. We drop the car off, head back home, and I pick up Tracy's car. My folks take Lukas back home and I go get Nik. When I get to school, he's in the fetal position with one of the teachers holding a wet cloth over his bright red ear. They take such good care of him - thank you, ladies!
On the way home, Nik announces his ongoing need for a large blue Bakugan. I decide it will aid my cause, since he might focus on it more than his ears. Also, I had promised him a new toy once school was over (today was his last day). On the way home from Target, the fuel light comes on. Gah!
No sooner do I get home when the school nurse at Hope's school calls. Now Hope isn't feeling well to boot. Nik decides that he has to go with me, I tell him no, he suffers a complete and total China Syndrome. I leave him at home screaming bloody murder (sorry again, mom and dad) and go get Hope. The upside of this turn of events? I cancel Hope's weekly trip to Friendship Group, so we don't need to drive to Bellevue and back in the middle of rush hour.
While all this is going on, Tracy is on the phone trying to get Nik in at his doctor's office today. Medical phone tag ensues, and the bottom line is we can't get him in until Wednesday morning. Now that the Tylenol has kicked in, Nik is in a happy place, so this is not an issue.
Oh yeah, we are still waiting to hear about my car. Turns out to be some rear brake light switch that made things lock up (you cannot put the car into gear unless your foot is on the brake, and I guess this faulty switch said my foot was not on the brake, even when I was pushing the brake pedal through the floorboard at the time). It's a quick and cheap fix, but I still end up paying around $80-90 as my deductible is OF COURSE $100. Ah well, the car is fixed and ready for pick up.
I guess at this point in time, things start to smooth out. I gas up the car, pick up Tracy, pick up my happy car, and head home. Eat dinner, take Jennie for a nice, long walk, and watch all 3 kids fall asleep more or less right away at bedtime. It's a miracle.
So not total catastrophe, but just a seemingly endless series of "are you kidding me?!?" events that came at me one after another. All I really want to say is THANK YOU mom and dad for spending all day with us, driving around, watching kids who were sometimes nice and sometimes screaming, and for letting me use your phone. If you guys weren't around today, it would have been a total clusterfuck, I shit you not.
TK
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Les Miserables
Whilst awake and channel surfing the other night, I came across the 1995 version of Les Miserables. I had previously enjoyed both the 1998 version with Liam Neeson as Valjean and Geoffry Rush as Javert, as well as the 2000 version with Gerard Depardieu, so I had to see what this one had to offer. The spin is that it takes place in France as the Nazis are sweeping in, and Fortin/Valjean agrees to spirit away the Jewish Ziman family to freedom. I'm not sure which version I enjoyed more, but they were all very enjoyable and I recommend them if you're in to the classics.
I have come to enjoy subtitled movies, most notably The Count of Monte Cristo miniseries from 1998, again with the aforementioned Gerard Depardieu. The 2002 movie was decent, but I would totally watch the miniseries over the movie.
If I had to pick between the two stories, I would choose The Count over Les for sure. If you're a hater of all things French (Freedom Fries lovers need not apply) don't bother, if you are sophisticated and cultured (unlike me) go for it.
What literary classics do you enjoy on the big screen and/or idiot box?
I have come to enjoy subtitled movies, most notably The Count of Monte Cristo miniseries from 1998, again with the aforementioned Gerard Depardieu. The 2002 movie was decent, but I would totally watch the miniseries over the movie.
If I had to pick between the two stories, I would choose The Count over Les for sure. If you're a hater of all things French (Freedom Fries lovers need not apply) don't bother, if you are sophisticated and cultured (unlike me) go for it.
What literary classics do you enjoy on the big screen and/or idiot box?
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