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

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?