It's been a long time since I diarized. I had hopes to bore you all last Friday. It was supposed to be a work holiday, I wasn't in the office, but friends in the upper south had trouble keeping their patched system running, and trouble ftp'ing binary files as ASCII (Note, that doesn't work). Add to that getting thirteen year old ready at the very last minute for a trip to newspaper_girl's family cabin for Memorial Day, and driving all over northern Rochester for playdates and thrifting, and it made for a very busy Friday (and no diary).

The rest of Memorial Day weekend was busier than I liked. Eight year old's bff (the one she went to for a playdate) had a birthday party on Sunday, so more driving around.

Monday night eight year old has her last school exhibition of the year. She has to come dressed in a settler type costume. They're pricey on ebay and etsy, so once again, we made one. We made one about seven years ago for thirteen year old, it got borrowed and never returned. We went to Joann's over the long weekend to buy a pattern and pretty lavender calico fabric. Their patterns were on sale, so I bought a bunch of pirate type ones, too, we're planning on attending the Sterling Ren Fest on pirate weekend.

rib success

I did have some time with our grill (an old Weber). I tried cooking babyback ribs. I declare them a success. I started a fire on one end, briquettes and some chunks of maple, with the bottom vent underneath them open. The ribs went on the other end, with the top vent over them. Convection, see. They were tasty. I should try a brisket next, but there's only two of us that will eat it (thirteen year old might).

Vermin crisis

Vermin have infiltrated the Collective Garden. I've seen a woodchuck, others have seen wabbits, and one night something ate my beans and cucumbers. They've set up a Have a Heart traps, but given there's no shortage of wabbits and woodchucks, and people probably don't want more, it seems ineffectual. I'm sure the PD has silenced rifles and night vision scopes just gathering dust, someone should get out there and kill them. The latest plan (in addition to trapping) is to surround our garden with vermin netting.

Mrs. Ha has racked up more credits from Hard Knock University. She found out that there are big differences between working as a paraprofessional in a doctor's office, with other professionals and paraprofessionals, with set hours and no weekend work, compared to working in a discount retailer with employees earning pennies above minimum wage, shifting hours, and people with sketchy attitudes. The minutes of drama a week are approaching the take home dollars per week, so she's found other work more geared to her interests. No more discount retailer (after today).

Golf or no golf?

Last Saturday we had to go to the western exurb for a baby shower, the same niece that lost her baby 18 months ago. We haven't heard of problems with this one. They're a messed up couple, not married (at least to each other), not working and living in my sister in law's house. The uptight fuddy duddy in me thinks you should be married to each other when you have kids, and you shouldn't have kids if you can't afford it.

While the women were showering, the men were playing golf. I was supposed to be playing golf, but eight year old had a meltdown when we were getting ready to leave, so I missed that. I ended up drinking my PBR pounders during the shower, they weren't bad.

Dog Crisis

Saturday, the dog seemed okay, for an old dog. He could get around, maybe not as quickly as when he was a pup, but good enough for a 13 year old big dog.

Sunday night, after getting the kids in bed, we found him sprawled on the living room floor, panting in a puddle of drool. He couldn't move. I gave him some aspirin and water, and he felt a bit better, and climbed down to the basement.

A similar story Monday morning, the aspirin helps, but he still can't walk.

We took him to the vet Tuesday morning (I took the day off). The vet is thinking it may be osteoarthritis (an alternative diagnosis is abdominal cancer).  We're treating him with pain meds (Tramadol) and a NSAID (Metacam). It looks like the metacam may run us $250 a month. For those counting at home, combined income is down about $600, and expenses are up about $250. Budgetary crisis.

The doggy is groggy, his pain med (Tramadol, will look up later) is making him nearly a zombie. He can stumble around on level ground, but stairs are too much, so we're reduced to carrying him upstairs, downstairs and outside. The vet said he lost weight from three years ago, he was 80, now he's 64 pounds. Good thing, I don't know if I could carry an 80 pound hairy beast that doesn't want to be carried.

The NSAID appears to be helping, last night he was able to go upstairs and come back downstairs on his own.

Media news

I finished the third Narnia book, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I liked this one more, I hadn't already seen a movie about it, the snotty cousin shows some personal growth, and it's a travel story.

In other media news, we finished Paranormal Activity, a horror film in the vein of "Blair Witch", amateur video found after a tragedy. It was good, much more suspense than gore. It would have been better if the female lead (Katie Featherston) slept in less than a tee shirt and shorts, she is one actress that doesn't need a few sammiches to look good.

I'm sure it's totally unrelated, but after watching Paranormal Activity, our DVD player stopped working.

Sillybandz

The hot new trend among the elementary school set is Sillibandz, animal (and other object) shaped rubber bands. We (the girls and I) ended up driving around to three different stores looking for them Tuesday, they sell out fast. We did get a cowboy pack at the Parkleigh, the last one. I looked around the next morning, too, no luck.

Existential Crisis

Thirteen year old's bff is having an existential crisis, and taking advantage of her close friendship with thirteen year old to be a jerk to her. She's also trying to find a clothing style that fits her, her mom used to dress her in tomboyish New England style (khakis or jeans, a wildlife print tee shirt), but she doesn't want to dress to goth, too tomboyish, too girly, etc. She picks on our oldest for wearing pink (too girly), shopping at Plato's closet (used and too expensive, $8 jeans are not too expensive), wearing new Target clothing, wearing shirts with saying on them, ... . Our oldest is lucky, she's always had a forceful personality and definite ideas about her clothing, she was picking out her outfits at 18 months. Summer can't come soon enough, they need some space.

I did suggest she take her to the bins to shop. The bins are an unsorted thrift store (VoA maybe, Salvo?) in a catacomb like basement in a bad part of town (near Nick Tahoe's old restaurant). They take donations and dump them, unsorted, in 6x6x4 bins. You have to search through each bin, one might find a nearly new sneaker in one, and never find the match. One might also find dirty underwear, but the price is right, 50 cents per article of clothing. If you have the time, it's a very economical way to shop. Wednesday I wore a Columbia shirt from the bins, 50 cents.

In other wife news, Wednesday was our 15th wedding anniversary. There's nothing special planned today (unless my wife surprises me), but we are going to tap and mallet on tonight.

I finished Fellowship. Moria was too spacious, I always had the impression of a narrow, claustorphobic mine, and spacious areas were unusual. Lothlorien was unwordly, but could have used some green. On to the Two Towers.