Smellyann Strikes Again

The Gods Must Be Crazy

Okay, it looks like Typepad has totally revamped its posting software, so who knows how this is going to turn out?

The middle panel of my stripey blanket - finished at last! Onto the third and last panel. Whew. It's the blanket that never ends. I'm really loving the color play in this panel. It's working for me!

So after I woke up early this morning, I decided to grab a shower to officially start my day. I rarely shower first thing in the morning anymore, even though it used to be my must-do to get the day jumping. And it worked. I was ready for the day. Note to self: do that more often.

Chloë and I went to the bus stop and were greeted by, as you read, the smokin' grandpa of two little girls with whom we wait. So annoying.

I came home and fiddled around online for a little while until Jack joined me, and we shared a nice breakfast together. He was smiling and in a good mood, which made me happy in turn. Then while he played downstairs, I went up and started in on the mounds of clean laundry that needed folding and put away. I only got through about two or three loads before it was time to get back downstairs and put him on the busl though. Still haven't made it back up to finish, but I plan to after this...

Once Jack was in school and Sophie had  had her breakfast, we jumped in the car and headed to the post office to get some one-cent stamps. On the way there, we had a redeux of this incident: my mirror fell off the side of the van again. Augh! Irritating. Oh well, at least the temporary voodoo Rob put on it lasted almost two months. A man stopped at the P.O. to try and  help me, but he had no luck either.  You never know how much you depend on that thing until you don't have it.

Afterward, on a whim, I decided to get my nails done. I wanted a (yes, fake) French manicure for the cruise. I know, I have fat little sausage fingers. And yes, I know, it's more than a month 'til we leave, but I wanted to have plenty of time to get used to them so I wasn't stuck preoccupied with my stupid nails and enjoying myself less than I should be, y'know? I didn't realize it was going to take more than an hour and a half! Sophia was so patient and sweet while she waited all that time, and she was rewarded with a little bonus manicure of her own:

So pretty, so cute! Both her sister and her brother were jealous of her little treat when they came home and saw her cherry-read nails, so we'll have to rectify that situation for them when we get a chance. Jack keeps asking for green nailpolish, which I don't have, but maybe we can find some!

While we were at the nail salon, Sophie practically threw her dress over her head and shouted for the entire room, "Hey, I need to fix my panties!!" and all the techs (and I) laughed. Silly girl. No modesty there.

After Chloë put her leotard on, we headed out to her ballet class just as the first fat raindrops were starting to plunk down around the van. I love fat raindrops like that. Little did I know... before we left our neighborhood, the thunder and lightning came and kept coming with no reprieve. The rain was pounding down around us, and it grew so dark the kids were in awe of how fast it became 'night time.' Chloëped we wouldn't be "stroked" by lightning. They were all scared, especially the littlest one. She kept screaming when branches would fly around us. It was bad out there, especially with no side mirror!

The rain didn't let up once we got there, so I did something I've never done before: I left Chloë there and drove the little ones home to get them out of the rain, hoping Rob would be far enough on his route home to pick Chlo up in time. I  never should have left. The rain was driving down now, and then once we hit the highway, we were hit with hundreds of humongous hailstones (how's that for alliteration?). Sophie was really scared then. I pulled up to the house and carried the babies in as fast as I could, sending them upstairs to get dry clothes. I never did reach Rob on time, so we ended up going right back out again 20 minutes later to get Big Sis. No nap for the Littles; oh well, they're sleeping great tonight.  The return trip was much better, and the rain even stopped by the time we came home again. But if you were on the Atlantic coast today, you know something must have upset ye gods above!

Man, it is a PITA to type with these nails on! I'm constantly backspacing...

OH!! I forgot my biggest news: We are not moving to Pensacola this fall. Repeat, NOT going to Pensacola. Sorry, Gail. :( Rob's request for that duty station wasn't granted. Someone else filled the bill. So now we have no idea where we'll be living come this time next year. There aren't a lot of favorable choices for shore duty. There's Jacksonville, FL, which means a lot of long hours for him. It's a possibility. And there's Maryland, which is... not south of here! I don't want to find us inching North even a little bit. There are some sea duty billets in Japan and Southern California, which means, der, he'll be away at sea and he's supposed to be coming off sea duty now. So he's going to wait two weeks and see what new billets come out then. We shall see.

Anyway, after ballet, we decided to go out to a different Mexican restaurant for dinner. I'd redeemed some Coke Rewards points for a free $25 Restaurant.com gift certificate earlier today, and I know the Bob is always up for some yummy Mexican food. As usual, Jack ate nothing but tortilla chips, Sophia and Chloë had quesadillas, and I had my vegetarian fare. Rob loved his. Mine was eh, okay, but I think I should've chosen a different entrée. For the record, I think potato enchiladas are nasty.

I took a short nap when we came home, while Chlo worked on her homework, the Littles played, and Rob worked on my mirror. I'm glad it wasn't longer, so I'll actually be able to sleep tonight. Maybe even with the CPAP on. I'm still trying with that damn thing.

All right, hasta mañana.

Fin.

Chloë B. Jones

That's what I like to see. My little six-year-old daughter, in her jammies, cuddled up reading her Junie B. Jones book from her grandma, on the couch. The thrill of her being able to read is unrivaled and, so far, undissipated by time.

Evidently Junie B. has some surprises for Chloë!

So yesterday, we were supposed to go to the Silver Diner for a breakfast mystery shop. We didn't. We overslept. Surprise! The Odettes oversleeping? Nah. Never happens. So we'll have to do that tomorrow morning instead.

Then I went to Michaels for a rare adventure: Black Friday shopping. I never go. Literally, never. But Rob just gave me that Cricut machine for an anniversary/Christmas present, and now the cartridges for it (and the machine itself, but let's not think about the $170 we could have saved if we'd waited just another week or if I could find the effing receipt!) were on sale. He let me get six cartridges! Lots of different fun fonts and shapes for scrapbooking. I'm so excited about it. Not Europe excited, but in the ballpark. So I went home and ordered a bunch of pictures (hey, I had 200 free ones coming my way, thanks to Coke rewards!), so I can use my new toy soon.

After that, we headed to the Ghent section of Norfolk for a Panera lunch shop. We heart Panera. Have you eaten there? You should. It's good stuff. I got a Tuna on Focaccia half-sandwich, broccoli cheddar soup, and a piece of French baguette for dipping into my soup. Rob got something with bacon and Gouda and turkey, and the same soup. The kids shared ours, since Rob had just stuffed them with pancakes while I was on my little shopping spree. I actually managed to get out of there without dropping any soup on my shirt, which seems to be an enduring challenge for me.

In the evening, we went out to Lynnhaven Lanes for some Xtreme bowling. Another mystery shop. Yep, I know. Broken record. Whenever we do the bowling shops, we follow pretty much the same routine: Sophie stays in the stroller, Rob bowls with Jack and I bowl with Chloë for the first game, then just Rob and I bowl against each other on the second game, and we get a small pizza combo. Last night was no different. Now, we are terrible bowlers, but it was a bit amusing last night when I bowled better with a six-year-old than on my own. I think I knocked down maybe 33 pins. Rob fared much better. He got into the 50s. We are quite a team. No wonder our minds are always in the gutter, eh, Stephanie? We can't get out of them!

Today, Rob had to stand watch. Ugh. My favorite words are, "I'm coming home early." Least favorite? "I have watch this weekend." Hate it! So he worked 0600-1400, and Jack woke me up at 7:30 to tell me Chloë was puking in the bed again. Again??! That's, like, the fourth or fifth time in a month. Rob's starting to wonder if her reflux is coming back. God, I hope not. I just think it's all the snot and goo and the coughing and coughing she's doing. I think I'm going to take my bottle of Clorox Sanitizing Spray and disinfect every surface in this house. It's been a bad month. I'm convinced I've moved on to pneumonia myself. Anyway, so I ran in and pulled her out of bed, sent her to my bathroom to finish puking, and assessed the scene. Not bad. I checked on my poor schweetie, heaving over the toilet, and then cleaned up the bedroom. Jack was pretty pissed when I sent him back to bed, but that's early for him.  Chloë crawled weakly into bed with me and fell sound asleep.

I didn't have the heart to wake her at 9:00 when the alarm went off for her auditions class at the acting school. I looked over, and she was snoring softly and completely knocked out. Nah. She's going to get her sleep.

Which is good, because we did make it to the acting school at 2:00 for her regular acting class - the last one, the "showcase," I thought, hardly anyone was there. They came from the back to tell me that there were no classes on Thanksgiving weekend. Oh! Really? I must have missed that. Well, good, because I hate sitting there for hours on my own, let alone with Sophie and Jack in tow, bored out of their gourds.

So we headed to Sears. I'd gotten a call that my glasses were ready and I could come pick them up. Yay! Clearer vision, here I come. I went from 20/200 to 20/400, if you must know how blind I am. :p When they say "read the sign on the wall," I say, "What sign?" So I read my report, since this was of course part of a mystery shop, and we picked up las gafas. (I'll be dropping some more Spanish on you between now and June, just so's ya know.)  Then we went around to housewares to see if I could find a new pre-lit fakety-fake Christmas tree, since the lights went out on our current one, and I don't want to deal with that BS this year. They had some, sure, but they were more than twice what I wanted to pay, and they ended up not having the one I chose in stock anyway. Rats.

And since Rob was asking me whether I wanted my cruise or Christmas lights put up - such is the amount he loves doing the lights - I thought I'd make it easier on him and find some battery operated Christmas thingies to put out in the yard. Cord, cord, cord, cord, cord. Nothing but corded stuff. We don't have any outlets outside, so I bagged the idea and left with just my glasses. And my babies.

Rob was home when we got home, so he gave the tots some food while I worked on my shop reports. Chloë wanted to make her own PB&J sandwich. It took  her ages upon ages, but the girl got it done. Whether she ate it or not is a different story.

After 6 pm, Stephanie and Tim came over to watch the kids while we went out to dinner at Phillips, at the Norfolk airport, for another shop. Only, when we got there, it was closed! Closed! During the time the shop said to be there. Odd, very odd. So we stared at each other, twiddled our thumbs, and decided to go to Moe's ("Welcome to Moe's!") instead.

We also heart Moe's. You get a huge, filling meal, and it's way not expensive.  We got our grub on, Rob fussed at the news for showing stuff about Kanye West's mother (who cares? he says. Who cares? I say!), and then we went to the movies. I had cashed in more Coke rewards points for two free AMC tickets, and I really wanted to see Dan in Real Life with Steve Carrell. It was a good flick! I blubbered for no reason for pretty much the entire movie, and we laughed. Worth what we paid for it, as Rob said. No, he liked it, too.

So that's about it. Oh, I forgot to tell y'all what Jack did/said at Thanksgiving dinner. He asked me if Christmas was after Thanksgiving. I confirmed that it was. So he pushed his plate away and said, "I'm done! It's Christmas time!"  Pretty fricking hilarious.

Fin.