Today was my 11th annual jaunt to one of the local middle schools to judge [School Name] Project presentations. It's one of my favorite days of the year. All the 8th-graders in town have to do a semester-long project on a topic of their choice that culminates in a written paper AND a presentation in front of community members posing as judges. We rate them 1-to-4 on various things (not just the writing, or the actual speaking, but like 10 different specific things: tone of voice, extra 3D/show-and-tell stuff, ability to recover from errors, etc.) It's extraordinarily rare for me to give anyone a 1 for any part of it. Today was a LOT of 4s. And they were actually a pretty good collection of presentations this year. Some years I feel like I've stepped into Lazy Teenage Hell. Not much of that this time, thank God!

So here's the topics they presented today, with commentary as appropriate:

• Creating video games (a good start; he had some technical difficulties getting started, but he's obviously interested in the subject and juiced about studying for this career, so that always helps a lot)
• Computer programming (another job-related one; not too many people get excited about writing code, but this kid is one of them!)
• History of tractors (yes, really, chosen because he's "been driving tractors since I was, like 7, and my grandpa used to have, like, 48 tractors"--and it was actually fun to listen to him gabbling on about John Deere and Allis-Chalmers, etc.)
• Renewable energy (well done; I wanted to ask her how she feels about the current policies in D.C. but I didn't want to start WWIII in the judges' area....)
• New Orleans (we should all go, and here are some Voodoo chips and Mardi Gras beads--it's ALWAYS good to feed the judges!)
• Childhood in Nazi Germany (this was absolutely fascinating--the kid's babysitter/nanny when he was little was a woman who grew up in Germany during WWII; she was 7 when the war ended; he did an absolutely wonderful job integrating her stories with historical research)
• Jamaica (we should all go to Jamaica, which is a constitutional monarchy without a monarch where their favorite drink is rum; I think this is the first time they were allowed to do vacation destinations as a project, and I got two of them)
• History of [the city in which she lives] (barely phoned it in, and ended with "it was hard to find information because it's not a very big town"--my first question was "Did you GO to the public library?" Kid: "Oh yeah, I got a book there." Me: "I work there. We have file cabinets FULL of stuff about the city's history." I was pissed. Don't expect me to believe you started this project prior to May 10, dude!)
• Schizophrenia (nicely done, though she talked so fast I'm not entirely sure what she said--but she had a LOT to say!)
• Hockey history (first 6 professional teams; surprisingly interesting, despite my overall lack of interest in ice hockey)
• [state north of us] university sports (fun, and interesting reasons for doing this topic--neither parent went to college at this school--and he's stoked about getting an athletic scholarship there in a few years)
• How did WW2 start/end (ah the obligatory WW2 talk...yawn--seriously, kids, it's interesting but find a different angle--see above re growing up in Nazi Germany)
• Large animal veterinarian (another one that gets done often, though usually not specifically large animals--however, she raises pigs and her sister has horses, so she's motivated, and interesting)
• North Korean human rights (this was a split-personality presentation: the kid had a speech impediment and maybe some other, cognitive, issues, and he pretty much just read his slideshow to us; BUT he knew his stuff, he did research (he's not Korean), and it was topical and I learned a BUNCH of stuff from him. BRAVO!!)

LUNCH (I brought a cheese sandwich and walnuts and almonds and begged a bottle of pop from the teacher's lounge--and I read about books while I ate)

• History of basketball (another topic about which I have zero interest, but the kid made it fun to listen to)
• Animal shelters (yet another perennial--she didn't kill herself with research, but it was clearly presented and heartfelt. And there were no pictures of puppy mills, which was a blessing; there are usually horrible photos that go with this subject)
• Pediatrician (possibly the most professionally-done speech of the day. She kicked ass in terms of speaking and researching, citing sources in the speech itself, and just generally Doing It Right)
• Volkswagens (who knew there were VW hobbyists? And this kid is specifically into VW buses! He had me hooked--and then he started explaining all the engine specs...yawn...but his enthusiasm was palpable)
• Airplane piloting (this was one of those kids with the "modern" hairstyle that mimics the kids -I- went to middle school with 40 years ago; he wasn't all that into the whole academic thing, but he wants to be a pilot and has actually co-piloted a plane, so that was cool)
• Law enforcement (unfortunate: very quiet, pretty much never looked up from reading his notecards, obviously scared out of his mind; and he wants to be a cop)
• Cosmetology (she wants to do makeup when she grows up, or model; I know what you're picturing, and she's not any of those things, but she definitely has presence and poise)
• The Holocaust (what a way to end the day: a dispiriting and dispirited talk on genocide; I'll eat my hat if she did more research than opening her history textbook; too bad, really--she has a wonderful speaking voice)

And then we ran for the parking lot to beat the lines of parental cars. On the way home I stopped at Aldi's--where I had to be physically SHOWN where the refried beans are, since I still can't find them on my own because I'm apparently BLIND--and Walgreen's--5 Rxes for Beast.

Oh yeah, because I'd set this day up in March, and last week Beast scheduled his cortisone injection into his lower back for this morning. So I took him over to the office for that, and he'd set up a ride to come home. I'm a horrible wife. But really: he's had something like 10 of these things now, and it's pretty much all show for the insurance company. Maybe it'll help with some of the pain, but it hasn't been much of a winning option yet (since 2011, mind you), so we all know the doctor will see him, post-cortisone, next week and (hopefully) schedule surgery for "soon" which realistically means June sometime. For those keeping score at home, this will be #2 on the lumbar region. The first time was in 2012 where he had a laminectomy, ablation, and other fancy words (the doctor told me immediately post-op that there was "scraping" of the nerve off the vertebrae--hurrah for technical jargon). Then he had similar stuff done inside his neck in December 2015, after the debacle of our vacation in October when he ended up in the ER waiting room for 9 hours in St. Louis.

He's in bed asleep, which isn't shocking at all. He warned me it was likely he would be. I have no idea if I'm supposed to wake him, so I probably will just let him sleep. Maybe the pain level will be such that he can actually rest for a change.

So, yeah. Just another day in the life of.

Facepalm

Sometimes people are dumb. The sad thing is that these answers aren't a lot different from those given by people in my grade...35 years ago. We are now adults, and I'm sure they haven't figured any more out since then. So it's not JUST kids that are dumb.

Some outtakes:

• We fought the Cold War to "finish war."
• There are 400 amendments to the Constitution. Nope, there are 24 apparently. Or 20.
• Our nation's capital is Austin.
• If the President and Vice President both die, the First Lady gets to be President.

Q: Who were we fighting in the Revolutionary War
A: Union v. Confederate
A: Ourselves (I guess this is true in the sense that they were British citizens fighting for independence from Britain)
A: Europe

Q: What is the name of the Vice President of the United States now?
A: Klenton

Q: What did the Emancipation Proclamation do?
A: Free Africans.
A: Emancipate us from England

However, if you are interested in sparking a conversation with someone--especially teens--don't talk directly to them. [also found at Teenagers are Ridiculous]

It's been forever. Again.

Last week was [Middle School] Project judging and I've been meaning to blog about that for a week. I even kept a list of the projects. So in the event that I put this off for another 11 weeks....here's the list and assorted comments.

• Club Feet (this was one of my [Anglo] Sunday School kids, a special request I made since he said it was ok for me to sit in; he didn't tell me he was presenting in Spanish! And he did pretty well--language was not the problem with this presentation; he just didn't do a lot of research, but he did answer questions well--also in Spanish--at the end)
• Improving Your Singing Voice ("everyone can sing!"--uh, no, not really, but I'm glad you're so enthusiastic)
• Foster Care to Adoption Process (yes, her family has done this)
• AMC--Congenital Joint Problems (this was the first time anyone has ever brought in a visual aid that was a person, in this case a sweet 6-year-old boy in a wheelchair who lives next door to the presenter; the presenter is the daughter of one of the secretaries at my therapist's office who came to watch, so that was weird, but fun)
• History of Soccer
• Forensics
• The Color Barrier in Sports
• Building Trades (a perfect example of a kid who is a lost cause academically who did a good job on this project because of his interest in it...)
• Extinction
• Mobile Gaming (...and the obverse: someone who is clearly interested in the topic, but skated through the work and tried to fake the presentation)
• Interior Design as a Career

Lunch (dash to BK for burger and GIANT diet caffeine beverage)

• Autism
• Lego (the presenter is autistic, but his enthusiasm trumped his innate limitations in the speech-making department--and the timing of these two presentations was interesting)
• Cats (WTF, dude, WTF--so awful, and the kid is so needy and wrecked I just wanted to cry through the whole "presentation" during which he had his back to us for at least half of the time)
• Depression in Teens (again with the stellar timing, since the previous kid is all kinds of massively depressed)
• The Northern Lights
• Becoming a Preschool Teacher (she will be a delightful teacher!)
• Anesthesiology as a Career
• Make-a-Wish Foundation
• Nuclear Power (in spite of a serious speech impediment, this was easily the best, most enthusiastic, most seriously intense presentation of the day; the dude WORKED on it, and had a blast!)
• The History of Disney (kind of a mishmosh of the company and the studio and the family--not a great presentation)

This is my tenth year doing this, and every year I'm surprised, irritated, thrilled, saddened in almost equal measure by the snapshot of the kids I see. Even the lousy presentations are often done by really decent kids. In ten years, I think there've been less than 5 who have pissed me off to the point I wanted to flunk them on principle regardless of the merits of the project. In general, they are good kids, just trying to get through a pretty massive project and learning SOMEthing (even if it's just 'hey, I shoulda put in more work!'). And the teachers are always enthusiastic and positive; they just want all of them to succeed. It's kind of inspirational.


I'm not making promises about coming back. It seems like the kiss of death. But, y'know, maybe.

12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge

5 Life lessons you learnt in 2013 (29th December)

I'm still working on internalizing and living most of these, but they are the ones that I had to keep going back to revisit because they are HARD for me.

1. Detachment from drama is necessary. I've never liked drama, or dramatic people, but this year was a solid reminder that this is a wholly rational thing--drama isn't good for me.
2. Babies' births are everyday miracles. I watched one arrive this year, and it's pretty unbelievable. Another addition to the extended family looks like it will be arriving any day now, and I'm beyond excited even though I won't be there this time.
3. Grades in school do not indicate success in life. I hope. ;-)
4. Say no and mean it, and then don't feel guilty about it.
5. People, in general, are good and helpful and friendly. I think most of us have a much larger support system than we recognize, or utilize.

Click on image to play along

Upcoming stuff

Today and tomorrow promise to be landmark days for the LGBT community, regardless of what side of the debate people are on.

Poetry month is coming in less than a week. I'm stocked up with poems, but need to get them over here ready to post. This week is spring break, and that means lots of missing people at work, and Sparky at home, so I'm not confident I'll git 'er done, but I'm sure I can get it all worked out. Sure. Three worship services this week, one funeral that I may attend (or not, depending on work), and generally trying to get Sparky to clear out some of his childhood junk playthings...all done while trying to beat back the sinus infection/cold I have.

I'm also signed up for a graded course on RDA that starts April 1; the date is telling. However, aside from the humor and my personal (negative) feelings about RDA, this will be my first graded class in almost 25 years. Here's hoping I remember how to 'do' coursework, tests, and can functionally jet through this online class with flying colors and a passing--not "pissing"--grade.

Maybe I'll publish a poem after every assignment completed. ;-)

As for today and tomorrow, I'm really hoping the SCOTUS justices do the right thing. It seems so cut-and-dried to me, but so do a lot of other things they've ruled (badly) on. Off to work I go now.

Pride

One of the periods in my life of which I am most proud. Keep in mind that these performers are all 15-18 years old.

Even though the sound and video quality aren't up to 2012 standards, watching this makes me tear up every freakin' time I watch it. We rocked; we knew it, but we really had no idea how rare it is to be part of something this amazing.

College

Sparky had to call the registrar at his college this morning to find out how to access his grades. Yes, he's been there a full school year and never knew how to find them. So now we know the bad news. Essentially, MANY more rounded letters than straight-line letters.

And the other news? I filled out the FAFSA wrong, so I redid it using the correct figures from our income tax forms. Our taxes were filed at a particularly bad time in Beast's back-pain history, so he barely remembers doing them at all. And he had forgotten he got an extension for his dad's taxes, so remembering that put him in a funk.

In other news, I have entered nearly 1100 books into Goodreads in the past week. I've made it up to 1995 working forward and back to 2010 working backwards. Backwards is easier: I just copy from my reading blog. The older lists require me to retype stuff, and in several cases, I've found that I originally wrote down incorrect information (wrote author, wrong title, and/or typos of same). On the other hand, my inner geek is having a blast.

Time flies

On the heels of finding out last night that college friends of ours are now grandparents, I am on my way to take Sparky back to college. Trying to get all the crying done now so I don't embarrass him at school.

Yeah. Not likely, eh?

It was a good break, with a few bumps, and he's definitely ready to be back there, but I will miss him, again.

Old haunts

I can't remember if I have mentioned that Sparky is attending the same college that Beast and I went to (independent of our wishes, by the way--he really wanted to go there more than either of us wanted him to). The school is about an hour from our house, so it's quite easy for him to get home and back on holidays, unlike either of his parents who were both at least 1000 miles from home and only got home on the Big Ones: Christmas and Spring Break.

We took him back last night after I got home from work, leaving the house at about 5:45 and dumping his stuff in his dorm room and heading to a nearby pizza dive establishment that also serves up a local specialty: p0nz@r0tti. It's inside-out pizza, deep-fried. Probably the worst food on the planet, and SO FREAKIN' GOOD (till you're done and spend hours burping...).

Amazing: biting into the crust was like biting into College. It brought every p0nz@ I've eaten right back to mind. Crazy-good. Also, last night was the first time I've ever finished one in one sitting. My eating, uhm, skills have increased over the past 30 years, I guess. hah

So we were enjoying the ambiance (ahem) and watching the people coming in to eat or pick up orders. There was a high school-ish aged couple that came in right after us with her little sister; they sat in the booth behind ours. There were families and groups of friends, some stereotypical people, some not-so. Mostly just a busy pizza spot for all intents and purposes.

This being the state that it is, a guy came in and ordered a (small) plastic cup of beer. I am not sure at all whether he ordered anything else, but bear in mind that this is NOT a bar, but every place in that state serves beer. It's required, possibly even state law (I think they have to serve milk too, FWIW, lol). He was clearly already off on his own little spirit-induced planet, which became extremely obvious when he began to play air-guitar licks along with the hard-rock station providing the background music.  This was baroque, visually noisy guitar-playing, very flamboyant. Sparky and I could barely keep straight faces.

Dude then offered his partially-eaten back of pork rinds around to the people behind him (two booths from us), then made a general incoherent announcement that he was willing to share: "Anibod' wan eni? Ann-nee-bod'?" At this point I noted that his beer was only down about 1/2" so he hadn't GOTTEN drunk on-site, but he was (as I told Beast) well past 12 sheets to the wind.

And then he noticed Beast. And Sparky. And came over to push Beast's shoulder and tell him that he could tell that Beast is "a grea' mutha-fuckin' dad!" then point at Sparky and say, "You oughdda be ... yer dad's a good fugg-kin' dad, I can tell! My dad was an asssssss-ho' but this guy....." prod, push "is a GOOD fuckin' dad."

Silence had fallen in the restaurant at this point. Everyone at all the tables was watching avidly from under their hats and half-closed eyes, ever-so-grateful this guy had leeched onto us instead of them, gauging what the chances are of getting out the door without him seeing them and following them out. No one moved.

Beast took it in good stride, keeping his eyes on the guy's face, but watching the rest of the room (that he could see) as well, agreeing with him, not encouraging him, but letting him ramble on. And ramble on he did, mostly in a language I don't speak aside from the frequent "mutha-fucks" and "bu'SHIT!" interpolations. Thankfully, he was so stereotypical of the area that I wasn't even in the room as far as he was concerned, so I could pay attention to the rest of the room (that I could see) and Sparky--who mostly looked shell-shocked but was following his dad's lead and nodding agreeably whenever the diatribe seemed directed at him--until Beast finally said, "Well, we need to get going." Another minute or so, and we were standing and putting our coats on and moving slowly towards the entrance. As soon as we stood, the high school-ish kids behind us were on their feet and moving, using us as shields to get out the door at the same time. I caught the girl's eye in the doorway and she said, "We were just waiting for you to leave so we could!" Yeah, they were the next in line to be 'advised' by this guy.

Sparky and I got to the car with Beast following a few seconds later; he had stopped at the kitchen door because he had been able to see the staff watching from there and wanted to let them know that the guy wasn't really hassling us, but he was right on the edge and could easily get to be a problem if he took something just the wrong way.

This sort of occurrence used to happen occasionally when we lived in the area; it was quite weird to have it happen again last night after living where we do now for 17 years. I don't think we've had to deal this directly with a drunk in eons. Maybe because Sparky was little for most of that time, but I think really it's a whole cultural thing; people around here have a whole different take on drinking than people in that area.

Aside from the nerve-wracking, somewhat humorous aspects of all this, I just felt so sad for the guy. He probably isn't any older than Beast and me, possibly younger, and his life is so small. Sigh.

Sparky...didn't really say much. It probably re-confirmed his lack of interest in drinking, though. I hope. Thanks, God! :-)

Today, Beast is feeling horrible--sort of food-poisoned--and he's wondering if, while shaking the guy's hand goodbye last night, he picked up some kind of bug. The guy's hands were NOT clean; we discussed that last night in fact, and Beast went and washed up at the dorm when we dropped off Sparky. In any case, he's crashed out "watching" Scott Van Pelt on ESPN in his recliner under a blanket.



Oh, and our garage door spring broke over the weekend. It's been a very bizarre few days.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

In the next 2 hours, we will be packing up the last few things for Sparky and driving him to college.

In the next 8 hours, we will be unloading boxes and crates and schlepping them to his dorm room and meeting roommates and parents and RAs and all the New Important People in his life.

In the next 12 hours, the last apron strings will start fraying in earnest.

In the next 15 hours, our house will be back to two people (and a guinea pig, instead of finches and/or dog).

In the next 24 hours, I will start figuring out what I'm doing with the rest of my life.

And...GO!

{{gasp!}} An actual post!

Yes, it's true, I'm feeling moved to blog for realz. Mostly because I've actually been working my ass off (I wish) for a few days, trying to get ready to leave on our trip on Tuesday.

In line with this push is a renewed, or even new, effort to keep up on things around here: bills/receipts (entering them into Quicken), planning and making actual meals, generally not sitting around on my ass (see above). Sparky and I switched jobs a week or so ago so he is no longer in charge of dishes but has taken responsibility for running Roomba around the house as needed. I expect the novelty of that will wear off fairly quickly, but it is nice that I'm not nagging him about the dishes on the counter--I just take care of it myself. So there.

He is hours, maybe a day, away from finally committing to Pio U for college. We need to send in a deposit and he'll be set. It's nice that Beast and I will know our way around both the campus and the city in which the college is, but it is exTREMEly odd to think that Sparky will be hanging out in some of the same places we did nearly 30 years ago. Thirty years!? O.M.G.

In other news, I established for myself last Monday that kidney stones are pretty fucking painful. I'm still having some minor pain, but nothing -- NOTHING! -- like what I woke up with on Monday!

So I did a whole long blather about our trip at this point, but I'm going to cut that and make a new post of it.

My blood pressure was up yesterday

Yeah, no kidding. I'm pretty sure I'm in the 130/100+ range right now.

When I called to tell the attendance people this morning that Sparky would be leaving early, I specifically asked them to remind him NOT TO EAT LUNCH.

He got the early departure pass around 10, during Band.

He got the DO NOT EAT note...in the middle of lunch period. Two hours later. While he was eating.

So he couldn't have his wisdom teeth out today and we rescheduled for tomorrow morning at a different office.

That office is not covered by our insurance. Same doctor, same staff...not covered. Fortunately we figured that out before we left the building.

They re-rescheduled him for June 3 at which point I mentioned that he was going overseas on the 13th. While he'd probably be fine, if he was NOT fine, that would certainly make for a really really sucky trip. They scrounged around and re-re-re-scheduled him for next Tuesday. I have to say that the staff there was absolutely the most accommodating group of medical people I have ever dealt with. Astounding. I'm still a little shocked by it all, actually.

All of this because I forgot to remind him not to eat, and the attendance office couldn't find their ass in the dark with a flashlight, a map, and an extra set of hands. And because Sparky is an airhead, of course. Major league. But, really? If you're walking across the school--and the band room IS "across the school"--to deliver the pass for the end of the day, why not take the "don't eat lunch" note with you? I just don't get it. So I will be asking them on Monday to fully explain themselves and account for it.

I may be back in the principal's office talking to him too on Monday, because the last thing I want is for all of this to screw up Sparky's grades at the end of the year.

Finals start this Friday. Sparky has at least three presentations that were assigned this past week to do before the end of the year; two are due this coming week. One them requires him to bring in something affiliated with his assigned historical personage, who happens to be Thomas Jefferson. Cuz, yeah, don't we all have 18th-century crap laying around our houses?

Because of the surgery, Sparky will miss at least a day and half of school, possibly more. He can't prep ahead for finals using study guides because the teachers have not handed them out yet. His history teacher has spent two weeks showing movies and now assigned this sudden project and will hand out study packets on Monday.+ + + + + And that's just this year. Earlier this week, he received his tentative schedule for his senior year and it is FUBAR. He asked for AP Calculus, AP German, Forensic Science/Anatomy, Band, Conditioning, Economics, Psychology, and College-Bound Comp/Lit. He got AP Statistics, Forensic Science/Anatomy, Band, Conditioning, Economics, Psychology, and Comp/Lit and a one-semester study-hall. Issues:

1. He is NEVER.EVER.EVER to have a study hall (we've told them this EVERY.SINGLE.YEAR) Shouldn't that be in his record at this point?
2. They swapped Calculus (which a science major is going to need) for Statistics. Uhm. No. FAIL
3. Band and AP German are scheduled at the same time. He really needs both for college, but he has already talked to the office and traded Band for German, technically. However, I will be talking to them on Monday about rescheduling one or the other class and generally pulling their heads out of their butts.

Gonna be a great Monday.

So, tonight, I'm back at work trying to get ahead (insert vomiting here) for next Tuesday and possibly Wednesday when I will need to be at home with Sparky because Beast isn't going to be around those two days.

And that, is about 40% of the reason my blood pressure--usually in the 110/60 range--is heading north. The rest is work, extended family, and general universal stress. I need some seriously major medication.

Communiqué from Admin

Best approximation of the handwriting, but much neater here than in the original:

DESCRIPTION OF PROBLEM: Made threatening statements to another student "kill you" Getting  to physical in PE class to agressive -- physical [play?]/actions towards other students

[my emphasis in red]

Problems? I've got a few. This is the best our school system can do? This is the skill-set of the people in charge of the teachers, not to mention the kids?

This does, however, explain why my son's penmanship fucking sucks. Look at what the expectations are!

At least I've beaten better spelling into Sparky's head....

Oh dear God

What ELSE could possibly go wrong today?!

By asking that, I'm probably gunning for two more tons to land on us. I'm not real sure I'd notice, if that gives you any indication of how deep it feels right now.

I hatehateHATE my son's school administrators right now. Am also furious at him for being an absolute MORON. But really, is it too much to ask for the administrator who promised to call "both parents" to actually do so?? No, let's just call the Dad; Dads are the Enforcers, right? Moms don't need to know jack.

The special topping on this whole thing is that I allowed my frustration to boil over onto Beast so now we have a problem to handle as well.

FML

Numb Butt

The longest-ever music concert made up wholly of at least a few marginally talented teens was tonight.

TWO
HOURS7:00-9:00...which really means 6:30-9:30 when travel time is included.

Way too freakin' long. Some of the music was too challenging, and much of the program was just disorganized.

To top it off, both Beast and I have to be out of the house by 6 a.m. tomorrow, and Sparky was gone today for 14 straight hours. He says he has no homework; I hope he's being honest, but to tell you the truth I don't care if he just collapses into bed tonight.

Double-booked

Today was all about Sparky. He field-tripped to the Giant City to the East to shop for Christmas presents at the Christkindlmarkt. He loves that--the idea is to use their German (hence class credit for shopping), and he really liked getting up later than usual (which he didn't, but that's normal). Then tonight we had two school-related meetings. We ended up splitting up and I attended the one about the ACT testing that is upcoming while the boys attended the one about the German exchange program next spring and summer.

His ACT pre-test composite is 28. The trip will cost $1850, and we are expected to host a German student for three weeks next spring in exchange for Sparky having a place to stay the following month.

So, there ya go: life starts heating up again. Whee.

In the short term, I have GOT to get the Christmas tree up one of these days. And cards...oy. Cards. sigh

Summation

Japanese beetles stink when they die. Maybe they stink when they are alive, too; I wouldn't know. {yuck}

We have discovered Beast's mother's wedding dress. And her teenage diaries.

I have a new phone. It's red, and square.

Allergy season has commenced. Corn is here.

Lack of sleep brings on the cranky, in everyone.

Ruka--the guinea pig--has apparently developed a tapeworm. He squeaks for food non-stop, whenever we're in the room.

V. {from work} died on Tuesday.

Sparky is section leader in band.

Beast is traveling for 8 days starting next week. And then again later in the month, too.

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