And So It Ends

Labor Day weekend. Whew.

Sorry for the lack o' post yesterday. The kids and I spent all day at the Maryland Science Center, playing and learning and touching and experiencing. It was fab. A wonderful way to round out the summer--we had a great time and didn't get home until the bath/dinner/bed/ cleanup rush. My poor computer felt so neglected! ;)

School starts Tuesday. We have a jam-packed weekend planned. Should be a fun one!

Hope all of you enjoy the official end of summer. I'll admit, as much as we're all ready for school to start, I'm going to miss my little boogers around the house. It's gonna be quiet in here! DS's new teacher called last night to see if we had any questions. Very sweet. And DD's teacher came to the house on Wednesday and spent about a half-hour with her. The kids are pumped. We're looking forward to a great school year.

We're having one more swim playdate with friends today. Then the whirlwind weekend, and then the bell rings.

Have a great weekend, gang! Happy fall!

Proof of Miracles

I bought an external hard drive, hooked it up, downloaded the software for system backups from Microsoft, enacted said software, and backed up my entire system, and it all worked the first time.

Did you hear that? The. First. Time. The exact way the directions said it would.

I mean sure, downloading the backup utility for some reason zapped Internet Explorer right off my computer, but that was relatively easy to fix. And not really the new drive's fault, right?

A new computer device worked the first time. Don't ever tell me there aren't paranormal events.

Close to Home

My neighbors put their dog down yesterday. She was a sweet oldish golden retriever. Saturday night, she collapsed. The emergency vet found cancer everywhere, and the family spent Sunday saying goodbye before having the vet come to their house yesterday and help her move on to whatever comes next.

It hit a little close, honestly. Their dog and the WDCL were the same age and I always thought she was way healthier than my beast. Hearing that she had to go and that it was just that fast rocked my world a bit. My heart broke for their family...I left a card for them, not knowing what else to do, and sent good thoughts down that way.

My kids took it pretty hard. DD burst into tears several times over the course of the day saying, "I don't want the doggie to die!" And DS drew several pictures of her, in his introverted, thoughtful way, and asked questions about putting dogs down (he saw the vet arrive at their house and quickly put the situation together) and if his friends were sad and if dogs go to heaven just like people.

I'm going to miss her. Honestly, I'm more of a dog person than a people person and she's been on the block for 7+ years. She's been at every party and happy hour I can remember and was the sweetest thing ever.

I'll tell you something else: WDCL can't figure out what happened, but she's been spoiled absolutely rotten since we heard the news around 6 yesterday morning. Even when she puked on my beige rug at 4:30 this morning. Hugs and kisses and cuddles and green beans (she loves green beans) and nuzzles and lots and lots of tummy rubbins.

If you have a good thought to spare, send it to my neighbors, would you? They're dog people like me, and their world is pretty empty this morning.

I'm off to the Lab Rescue website. Maybe we'll get that second dog after all.

Same As My Preschooler

Dear Michael Vick

Don't say you're sorry. The only thing you're sorry about is that you got caught.

Ugh.

Vacation Wrap-Up

Seven days at the lake. Holy cow.

• Got the living room and dining room painted. Including their massively high vaulted ceilings--we had to rent an industrial ladder. NOT fun.
• DH almost fell to his death (I'm kidding, but it was kind of freaky for a minute there) when his folding ladder collapsed under him. The ladder went in the Dumpster. Life's too short for faulty equipment.
• Saw "Daddy Day Camp." Poor Cuba Gooding. I swear...from an Oscar to a fart/burpfest with kids in the woods. Sorry, dude. Really.
• Boated. A lot.
• Ate way WAY too much. Detox starts tomorrow.
• Ran through the area corn maze and then, because it was slow, got a private guided tour of the dairy farm from the farmer--a terrific Mennonite lady named Alice. The kids milked a cow. We pet baby cows and baby lambs and horses and giggled at a renegade pygmy goat who rules the joint. Such fun!
• Saw wild deer and groundhogs and skunks and chipmunks and, on our last day, a real live baby black bear. Thrilling for us city folk!
• Got the chimney cleaned. Didn't get the cable internet fixed. Ah well. Wished, for the billionth time, for Comcast's demise.
• Bought a sweatshirt for me, a T-shirt for DH, and a few little toys for the kids, who were SUPER good while we painted and it rained for two days straight.
• Enjoyed my new camera once I got the pics off the old one. Let me tell you, the difference in quality between my old 5 mp and my new 7.1 mp cameras is amazing. Upgrade!!
• Scored a new Coach bag off ebay this morning. (**insert evil grin here**) My one yearly indulgence is a nice new handbag in the fall. I can't wait to get this one!
• Came home to NO CATASTROPHES!! HOORAY!! Major achievement for us, folks. Every trip, we seem to return home to disaster, from dead fish in the pond to a dead fridge full of food to a basement flood to you name it. Nothing this year! Huzzah!
• Put the kids to bed last night and curled up with my new Michel Richard book and read recipes and drooled all night long. Happy, happy me.

I've caught up on all the blogs but haven't had time to comment. I'm with ya, my peeps! :)

My Hands Are All Cramped Up, But...

So here's a lesson...

When your husband insists on holding your beloved Canon Powershot in the pocket of his life jacket, insist...insist...that you buckle the buckle yourself.

And when you head into the dock and you hear a plop followed by a stream of obscenities, don't even look. Because your PowerShot and all of your photos just hit the lake and it's going to take every ounce of lip-biting you have not to burst into tears right there at the pier with the kids and all your neighbors watching.

Later, when His Jackassedness has apologized a thousand times, fished your camera out of the drink, and you've called Canon on the phone and they've told you it's just shot, cross your fingers. Be nice. Tell him it's not the end of the world, even though your heart is breaking because you took some gorgeous shots of your kids on the water that morning and some great ones last week, and they're probably all gone. Don't curse at him like you want to. Don't kick him in the crotch because you never liked boats anyway and this just sucks. SUCKS DO YOU HEAR ME?

And then quietly nod when he offers to take you to Wal Mart right now. Don't jump up and down when you find a fantastic model for a way-impossibly-cheap price, and don't totally flip with joy when you find out it has no--NO--shutter lag. Just buy it, quietly thank him, and move on.

When you get home several hours later, after mini golf and dinner and ice cream, and you finally get up the guts to put the memory card from the drowned camera (which is still deader than Princess Diana) and it very slowly reads, try to just hold your breath without anyone knowing.

But when all but one of your photos pops up on the screen and you type like lightening to get them on your hard drive and save them as fast as you possibly can before the fluke ends and it zaps out again, and it works?

You can sigh and thank God out loud and clap your hands and be ecstatic...and enjoy the new way-nicer camera...and promise yourself that you will never ever EVER again let 300 shots pile up on your memory card without saving them to CD. Ever, do you hear me??!! And then quietly put the new camera in not one, but two Ziploc bags, and silently remind yourself to hold on to your own stuff on the stupid godforsaken boat no matter how nicely he offers or how bumpy the ride is. It's always safer in your own hands.

And uncross your fingers. It worked. My some miracle, it worked.

It's Called a Calendar

This is why I could never live up here, in a small town in the mountains.

Three weeks ago, I called a chimney sweep to schedule a cleaning. Fine, yep, can do Thursday, first thing in the morning. Great.

Three days ago, I got a message. "Mrs. F? This is the chimney guy. I have you down for today and I just wanted to see if that was still OK?"

Um. Today--at the time, at least--is Tuesday. We scheduled for Thursday. That's important--Tuesday, we were painting the room with the fireplace. Fresh wet paint + chimney cleaning = very bad idea. I called him back. Oh...Thursday. Good. No problem. Done.

Yesterday, I got another message. "We'll see you Thursday afternoon!"

Well, no. Morning. First thing. See, that's why I called you weeks ago and in the off-season. Cuz I really want first thing in the morning. So I'm not stuck here with two cooped-up kids on a gorgeous day. Mor. Ning.

Oh. Well. See, the guy who was supposed to clean your chimney has to be out that morning. You can't do afternoon?




(this is me being silent)



Um. I could call someone else in, I guess. Do you want me to?

That'd be great. Thanks for all your help.

So here I sit. Thursday morning. DH and DS are out on the boat, and DD is stuck here with me, waiting. With about 50 percent confidence this is actually going to happen.

The joys of homeownership.

DH called me a bit ago from the boat. "Is the chimney guy there?"

No.

"Yeah, well. He'll probably come over next Thursday. Just like you told him."

Har dee har har. Plbthth.