Raise your hands

How many of you had to check the dictionary to make sure I spelled "bated" correctly in yesterday's post?

Bated Breath

I know you are waiting for the post, complete with pictures and vivid descriptions of tropical places from the cruise. You'll have to wait a bit longer. We took the laptop with us (even though we didn't spring for internet service ($.75/minute!)) on the ship, so I worked on a travel log and it's not ready to post yet. I still have yet to download pictures. The Girl tends to hog the laptop when she can so I'll need to commandeer it tonight to finish my post.

But, first, back to paying work and the stuff I have to finish like yesterday!

We're back on land, and paying for meals again....

4 gate changes, an hour and a half delay, a life boat drill, and we're off!

I'm not sure I'll have time to do a full post before sailing, but I wanted to remember to wish you all a Merry Christmas before we left.

Merry Christmas.

Now, if you'll please sign in in the comments, you'll be one less person I'll have to remember to greet face to face. ;)
 

My Contribution

I made this for our office potluck. The pan was empty by the end of the day. Which was good because I hate that anxiety, the one when you wonder if the others will like your dish.

Evidently, I'm Creepy...

...according to my daughter and her friends because I took a picture of them while they waited to play for their winter concert.

I just can't seem to get through to her all parents take pictures of their kids, and to prove this point, I asked her if she noticed the hundreds of cameras present at the concert the other night.

But, Noooo, I am the creepy one.

Sheesh.
 

More about Earlier

Here's the aerial view of the new office building under construction and the old building. This picture is from Google Maps and is about three years old, but it's all I have. My cube is about where the red arrow is so you can imagine my view.

 

Weekend Round-Up

One of the springs that holds up the garage door broke a month or so ago. I was so good about buying replacements. But then the weather was so bad I didn't get to install them. It was cold on the weekends or warm on the weekdays but dark by the time I'd get home to attend to the job. Then, when I had the time, I found out I needed another part from the hardware store. Grr.

Yesterday the weather was fine, in the 50's, and I got a part from Lowes, and finally got the new springs up. The door had been operating on one spring for so long one of the guide wheels had gotten out of the track, but a good whack with the hammer fixed that.

We're going on a cruise Christmas week (can anyone give us a ride to the airport?) and while we're gone, my neighbor/walking buddy, L's out of town guests will stay at our house. That means we have to clean it. Dan and I took off work on Friday and started to tackle some of the neglected areas. He did a fabulous job on the spare bedroom, I got a lot of laundry knocked out. For some reason, in our house we don't use dressers. We pile clean clothes on top of them. I hate that habit but that's how I am. So I spent some time clearing off my dresser, got some stuff hung up, socks put away. The rest is now in a pile on the floor. Sheesh. Maybe I'll re-learn the art of putting clean clothes away. Yeah, right.

I started to work on the shower in the master bathroom. Criminee. It hasn't been thoroughly cleaned since we canned our cleaning service. I tried the automatic shower spray, which helps except when Kevin finds it fun to play with. I got the Comet cleanser and made some progress but it's not done yet. I want to coat the tile with Rainex when I'm done so it won't get so scummy so quickly.

And while I took Friday off, look what they did!

From 12/8/08

From 12/9/08

From this morning.

For comparison's sake, this was taken on 9/19/07 before the landscaping was put in, and before the start of the demolition of the old building.

Question of the day

What's the best candle scent to mask the smell of Comet cleanser?

Things that make you go Mmmmm

Do you have a cute list?

I'm not talking about a list of people you're "allowed" to cheat with, a lá Ross and Racheal. Just a list of people, in my case, guys, I find cute.

I'm not adding George Clooney or Brad Pitt. That's like saying I breathe air. Duh. I'm not adding Pierce Brosnan, either, he leans more to the handsome side than cute.

Here's my list, in no particular order:

Scott Foley

Tony Realli

Kyle Chandler

Josh Holloway

My Honey

I'm sure there's more, I know I'm forgetting some. My mind's gone mushy, I need some air, is it warm in here?

Who's on your list?

Again with the boring post

I skipped my quilt bee meeting last night in favor of my water aerobics class. I didn't have a project to take and I'm still trying to get in shape, so I opted for the workout. The classes might be working their magic because I successfully piggy-backed Kevin down a flight of steps the other day without my knees hurting. Funny sight: 5'7" mom carrying a 6' son.

Kevin went to his gymnastics class again and seemed to love it. I'm so glad. I like it when he gets to enjoy things with other kids.

Here's a picture of Kevin in class last night. He's the blur in the red shirt ready to jump in the pit. Moments later he swung across on the rope.

I got a slew of Girl Scout vests to work on recently and got a lot of that done already so I don't have that hanging over my head. I wish I was in a quilting mood. I've so many projects to finish but I just can't get going on them.

More of the Same

I don't have much to say about the weekend. It was cold. I paid two boys, AM's son and his friend, to rake leaves. I was going to go over the yard with the lawn tractor to suck up the leaves but I couldn't get it started. It cranked, but wouldn't turn over.

I've got more pictures of the old office building deconstruction. After they knocked down the front corner they did a lot of the work on the back side so we couldn't see from our window. At the end of last week they moved around to the front again. We now can see what's going on, hence the pictures.



10/22/08









10/24/08









10/27/08









12/05/08









12/08/08

Kevin finally got tired and fell asleep early last night, he was out when I came back from my class.

At my water aerobics class last night we did laps around the deep end instead of just going back and forth. We did one lap each of:
jogging
cross-country skiing (keeping legs straight)
wide-leg frog (works the inner and outer thighs)
ankle taps, forward and backward (like a jog but you touch the opposite ankle with each stroke, works your abs)
alternating hurdles (like a jog but you stretch out your legs like you're jumping hurdles)
breast-stroke arms, no leg movement, they stayed straight down, toes pointed.
Then we put our "bells" under our knees and jogged around the pool and did other weight work.
We finished by standing on one bell and po-going. That was fun.

11:00 am Edit: I forgot to add that last night the instructor played dance-track versions of ABBA songs. Hard to dance and jog at the same time, but was fun trying.

If you click on the link you'll see six different sizes varying in resistance. I have a set of the dark blue ones which are 80% resistance. The lower the resistance the easier they are to use. I'm not sure how they relate to real world weights, but I am challenged with these and am not ready to try the 99% bells. The problem with the 80's is there is lots of foam which makes them very wide and jogging with them under my knees feels like riding a trike that's too small: awkward.

I got a guest pass for one of my local readers. If you'd like to join me next week, comment here, email or call me. (Mom? AM? Linna?)

I like this class and I am starting to feel and see its benefits. (My weight's not down but my legs are trimmer.) I just don't like how much time it takes to go to every week. I invested in the bells and float belt so I should sign up again, but I haven't decided yet. I've got a couple weeks to think about it.
 

Got Tired?

I was hoping Kevin would have been a bit more tuckered out last night, but he wasn't. He was still heading off to bed at 1:30. Sheesh.

I was hoping for an earlier bed time because Monday and Tuesday nights he had attended new activities. Monday night he started a new gymnastics class. It's a main-stream class at the sports center held once a week for 11 weeks. Since Kevin's not ready to do a regular class by himself I called for an inclusion aide to be with him. I had to drop him off early, his class started at 7:15 and my water aerobics class started at 7:00. I checked him in at the desk and told the gal he has autism and someone from inclusion was supposed to show up. We told Kevin where to wait since he was so early and I went to my class saying a quick prayer for everything to work out.

After my class I got to observe the last bit of his. They were on the trampoline. The boys were to do a series of jumps: tuck, straddle, pike, and turn. I saw the aide sitting with Kevin (yay!) while he awaited his turn. The instructor was great working with each boy at his level, and patiently showed Kevin what to do. He got the tuck jump down pat, but couldn't combine that with a straddle jump. Maybe next week.

After the class the inclusion aide introduced herself to me and said Kevin did well and tried everything and followed instructions well. I explained if Kevin doesn't follow a rule, write it down for him to read and usually he'll get it.

Last night Kevin went to his strength training class for teens and adults with disabilities. He'd missed the first class last week because he was sick, but fell right into the routine of the group when he got there. The instructor said he did well, did everything twice. Upon quizzing him on the way home, Kevin told me he did the treadmill, the bike, the stair stepper and used the weights. I asked what the number was on the weights and he said 10. Maybe he'll go to bed earlier if they give him 15's to use?

Rounding up November

Wow, I've got two weekends to round up. I'll try not to forget any of the good parts and summarize the boring bits.

In this Issue:

• Gadget Corner


• IEP Season


• He did What?


• Teen Drama


• Thanksgiving vs. Mendoza


• High Def Rain

Gadget Corner

A while back on John's blog he got a comment from a fellow trucker who runs. I checked out her blog and she had written about a GPS pedometer. Since I walk every morning I wanted one. I want to know how far I really walk and how fast. I was thinking the $150 model would suit me fine. When I didn't get one for my birthday I used the Costco coupon for $40 off the model they have and got the $300 model for $160. I'm loving it, it's a fun gadget. It draws a trail where I walk and beeps at me when I drop below a 15:20 mile, which happens a lot when the three of us talk too much in the mornings. I've logged over 27 miles so far and end up finishing the 3.06-mile loop in about 44 minutes. Not too bad.

IEP Season

For some reason they wanted to change Kevin's IEP schedule from spring to fall. So last Monday I went in and met with Kevin's team. It was actually the first time I'd met his current teacher because the one who started the school year quit. The meeting was lead by the head of the Special-Ed department and not the new teacher.

Most of the plan was the same as last year, but I didn't think they had enough math concepts covered so I had comparisons added (less than, greater than, before, after) as well as a component of measuring. I also inquired about shop class. Kevin loves to put things together and I think with some supervised instruction, he'd do well. I'd like him to transition from pictorial instructions to reading and comprehending written assembly instructions. My inquiry was a general question, Is it possible in the future Kevin could take shop class, maybe next year? He's now signed up for Tech-ed for next semester. Ohmigoodness, that scares me and thrills me at the same time. He'll be in the regular-ed boys every-other day. I'm sure I'll report how that goes.

He did what?

Kevin caught a cold last weekend and by Monday night his voice was gone. We kept him home from school on Tuesday. Kevin hardly ever gets sick, Tuesday was his first missed day of school in several years. But that's beside the point. We don't stock a lot of liquid cold medicine for him since he doesn't usually need it, and had nothing to give him for all his symptoms except gel-caps. Which he swallowed without ceremony. I was stunned, Dan was shocked. We were both happy with this new skill.

Teen Drama

Applications for First Choice High (FCH) were due on the 21st by 2:30 pm. The application packet consisted of the form, copies of the 7th grade final report card and the first quarter 8th grade card, and an optional essay. I'm not sure how the whole thing went down but I found part of the packet for Fern's neighborhood friend on our kitchen counter on Saturday the 22nd.

I asked Fern why Amanda's application was in our house. She starts flipping out. "Dad was supposed to turn that in, Amanda's gonna hate me, her mom's gonna be mad at her and she's gonna hate me.....," talking fast and anxious like only teen girls can do. We can't ask Dan, who turned in Fern's packet on Friday morning, didn't turn in Amanda's. He was on a road trip to La Grange, KY for a college roommate's surprise 50th birthday party in another college friend's car and his phone was in his car parked at that friend's house.

No one specifically said to Dan, "here is Amanda's application, will you turn it in too, please?" But Fern swears we said we'd take it and knew about it. I left for work early that day and knew nothing about special requests. I turned it in to the high school on the way to the IEP meeting.

As it turns out, the head of the special-ed is good friends with one of the chairs of FCH and emailed her my story when I was there for the IEP meeting the following Monday. (FCH, is a special application-only honors program within the local high school.) In the mean time, I called Amanda's mom to explain what happened on our end and where the application was. She wasn't mad at us or at Amanda. It was her responsibilty after all. Amanda's not mad at Fern, and Fern is not mad at us. The FCH chair called me and accepted the app late anyway. Now, if Amanda gets in and Fern doesn't, heads will roll, baby, heads will roll.

Thanksgiving vs. Mendoza.

I'm still above my Mendoza line and am not happy about it. I get so close, then go and do something stupid like have cake at a birthday party Saturday night. Grrr. I'll be doing the "on the ball" class at the gym at lunch and I'll be back to my water aerobics class tonight. There were no classes last week, which didn't help the cause any.

High Def Rain

Three weeks ago I negotiated a fabulous deal with DirecTV for high def service and picked an install date of yesterday, it was the first Sunday appointment they had. I hate taking off work to wait for someone to maybe show up in a 12-4 window. The guy showed up at 2:00. Except it was raining. And the tech wouldn't climb up on the roof in the rain for an hour and install a new 40lb dish. Grrr. I complained and got free Show Time for several months. They are supposed to be coming back today and Dan, the great guy that he is, is going home to meet them when they call so say they are on the way. I bet they forget to call. Scattered showers in the forecast for the afternoon, too.