Monday after Christmas

Drive to Kelly and Bob's later today. Visit and then drive home again. Then Christmas will really be over.

What then?

Pull weeds out in front, re-seed the lawn. Get the fountain wired correctly. The usual stuff.

Take the decorations down again. Put them away.

Need to do a partial water change on both aquariums.

Could stand to go through the tool chest and scan photos and get rid of clutter.

Things are surprisingly cleaned up and thinned out.

Made a delicious Christmas dinner last night. Was thinking about making a pumpkin cheesecake this morning.

Come home from visiting and watch the last ABC Monday Night Football game.

Spend the rest of the week relaxing and cleaning things up.

Time to get Cassidy out of bed and possibly into the tub before we leave...

Not too excited about driving back to Orange County again today.

I'll be happy to be home this afternoon. Stay at home the rest of the week.

Flynn wanted to see a movie. Maybe we'll do that tomorrow.

Cassidy gave me a funky little clock with a football on it that she found herself. Isn't that sweet..?

Wednesday

Only Wednesday..? Wrapped gifts all day on Monday. Made Santa caps for the stuffed monkeys. Finished that after wrapping more gifts yesterday. Made turkey tacos for dinner last night. Delicious.

Diane was over on Sunday again. Made cinnamon rolls and then ham sandwiches. Made chocolate chip cookie bars. Stayed awake for most of the football games on Sunday. The MNF game I was going to watch in the big bedroom and fell asleep immediately. Apparently it was a real blowout.

Warm yesterday and the day before.

Planning on making a turkey today, the solstice. Have ham leftover from Sunday. Prepare and cool and strip the turkey meat. I bought canned yams to try and prepare those with marshmallows along with dressing and mashed potatoes and rolls and cranberry sauce on Sunday.

Saturday I'm supposed to drive Diane and the kids to her parents house for Christmas Eve. Maybe I'll see what Kelly and Bob are doing, Kelly invited me over there. Somehow kill several hours, then collect the kids and Diane and drive Diane home and then finally go home.

Sunday we stay at home.

Monday drive to Kelly and Bob's house again and exchange gifts. Drive back home again.

So next Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday we have off without interruption. The kids return to school on the 3rd of January 2006. I think.

The Christmas lights are up, we got a Christmas tree and it's nicely decorated, I love the "Shiny-Brite" ornaments I found on eBay... the house is decorated, our few Christmas cards are in the mail... to Toni, Kelly, Diane's parents and the Rosses. I don't send out any Christmas cards, really, I don't know anyone. I do like to save and display Christmas cards from past years. I sewed Santa caps for the stuffed monkeys. That cracks me up.

Monday 6:05

Oh, boy, another week. Sigh.

What You Need For Thanksgiving

Turkey
Stuffing
Mashed potatoes or other potato dish
Yams of some kind
Gravy
Green Jello salad
Cranberry sauce
Coca-Cola
Egg nog
Bread of some kind. Yeast rolls are perfect.
Pumpkin pie
Apple pie

Saturday

Tired. Worn out. Took the kids on a walk earlier. Worked in the garden for hours. Flynn helped trim some of the bougainvillea. I arranged some half-bricks under the bird feeder and some bricks along where the morning glories and moonflowers are planted. Tied up the tomatoes. Further trimmed the lemon and lime trees. I want to have throw grow along six wires running the length of the garden towards the back. Espallier the trees.

I'd like to train the bougainvillea along the house. It's an exuberant grower. I just need to direct it and keep it trimmed so that it grows where I want it to grow. Same with the trees. The lime tree has grown but the lemon tree seems smallish. They're both trimmed to three branches each. Very tidy.

The strawberry plant I'd grown from seed has berries now, tiny strawberries, very cute.

Would still like to do something with the front area. Took some cuttings from an impatien growing alongside a houseplant type of fern and stuck those in a planter box. Amend and clean the front area and plant those out there. Impatiens ought to do well in that area. Need to remove a shrub that died. Trim the bougainvillea more when I have more trash space to put all the trimmings somewhere other than the walkway. Trim the lantana. The lantana does not smell nice. Tie some of the bougainvillea branches onto the house. Keep after it.

I could get after the weeds growing out in the very front area. I put some bricks there to serve as a walkway a long time ago and they could stand to be tidied up a bit. As could the bricks in the back near the air conditioner. Could also extend those. If I had more bricks and sand. Get those things eventually. If we keep this house. Hopefully we will.

Anyway. Worked in the garden. Good and tired. Garden looks nice. Best garden I've ever had.

Monday

Initiated a withdrawal from my IRA at Solomon Smith Barney. Money to exist on for a few months.

I can hear the trash truck outside. Wonder if they'll pick up the pallet the fountain was delivered on?

I think that the fountain is leaking. Should have used clear silicone sealer.

Going to call and order a replacement "flow adjuster" for the pump in the fountain.

That was the weekend, huh? Went by very fast again.

Watched football yesterday. Napped. Napped, napped, napped. Baked. Baked, baked, baked. Made fudge, which didn't quite set. Made a pumpkin pie. Made a cherry pie. Baked some oatmeal-chocolate-chip cookies.

Baked a chicken on Friday night. Fixed hot dogs and cowboy beans for lunch on Saturday. Made cheeseburgers for dinner on Saturday. Made a big breakfast on Sunday, managed to incinerate the bacon I'd bought. Sausage links, bacon, hash browns with eggs cooked into them (kids didn't approve of that idea). Toast.

Changed eight gallons worth of water in the big tank today. Didn't have any water left over to do a water change in the small tank.

Gift wrap order arrived on Friday, doesn't seem like $300 worth of gift wrap, bags, ribbons, et cetera.

Did they take the pallet or not? Trash is picked up.

Bought Cassidy a used videogame on Friday, bought one for myself called "Killzone" which I looked at but didn't play much of.

Last Thursday we went to a Girl Scout pre-meeting @ Graziano's.

I think I'll order that replacement part for the fountain pump now.

Feel better having initiated a withdrawal from my IRA. Several months worth of money to live off of.

Tuesday.

Nearly ten in the morning.

Took the kids to McDonald's, took Cassidy to school, took Flynn to school. Went to the market. Bought drinking water, fish water, little bottles of water for the kids. Bought milk. Napkins. Cream and light corn syrup to try making fudge again. Bought regular white bread. Bought hot dogs. Bought sweetener for coffee. Bought a different brand of little apple juice boxes.

Feel stunned and sad. Big time. Last night I napped on the couch instead of watching the football game. Same on Sunday, mostly I just napped. Can't get enough sleep.

Finished playing "Return to Castle Wolfenstein" which I'd had since August. Playing "Blasto" again. Just want to be distracted.

Sooner or later I'll need to tell the kids that Grandma Peggy is dead. Is "no longer with us." That we won't see Grandma Peggy again. Very sad. Very, very sad.

Everything seems empty. Profoundly empty.

More rain on Tuesday morning

Kind of a surprise. Just sitting here. Played a video game for a few minutes. The house is clean enough. I may clean the floors later.

After Diane was over yesterday afternoon I sat on the couch and fell asleep hard. Weird. Woke up at 6:30. The Rams were ahead 10-0 but the Colts came back and won by a 25-point margin.

Depressed, angry, sad... worried. Have to tell the kids that Grandma Peggy died. That we won't see her any more. Just stabs or waves of sadness.

Oh, God. I feel sad. I feel so sad.

I feel sad and lonely. Dropped the kids off. Mailed Sydney's birthday card. Now I'm at home.

Another Monday

Rain yesterday, thank God. Fire in the fireplace for the first time in months.

Get up, get clean, shave, dress, get the kids up and ready to go. Put the trash out for collection.

Need to organize bills and money this morning once the kids are at school. Ten after seven now.

So now I'm on my own.

Diane is stopping by at 2 to see Cassidy, she's unsure if she can stay late enough to see Flynn.

Toni called last night for a bit. It was good to talk to someone.

Need to mail Sydney a birthday card.

Bought that on Friday.

Mom Died.

Bob called and told me. Kelly and I had a feeling something was not right.

Hasn't quite hit home yet.

Making fudge. Keeping distracted. How do I tell Flynn and Cassidy?

Turn

Fight with some Zionista on The WELL, Diane in fucking DRUG REHAB, kids started their schools again.. fucking stressed out lately a bad week.... seems like two weeks....

Clear turn for the worse.

Zionista!

Joined The WELL, located a virulent Zionist who mined my blog for the most hurtful thing they could find in short order. Pissed me off. Didn't surprise, me, however. I$rael has a bizarre hold in US foreign policy, and even questioning why that is can just about get you lynched. Much less wondering about the allegiance of government workers. I$rael is a foreign country. But it seems to RUN this country. Asking why is like walking around with two golf clubs held over your head in a lightning storm.

Very unhappy that a discussion group turned into a personal attack. Oddly enough, the kind of underhanded attack Jews have a reputation for throughout history. The Khazars appear to have invented public relations. Enough of that.

Buried my blog, linked the former URL to Mossad's website.

Got today off to a bad start. Makes me want to pursue the matter. Why does I$rael have so much influence in the US? How is that possible?

The attack on me was to prevent discussion. To eliminate even thinking about what's going on. "The Jew cries out as he strikes you." Really pisses me off.

Angry.

Cassidy wanted to get the mail yesterday (after Flynn had asked to), so today I let her get it. She dragged her feet, Flynn and I are sitting there waiting and waiting. I asked her if she could get it done a bit faster. Then she said she wanted to run home, to which I said "No." I got more and more frustrated. I'm still furious. Compared to Flynn, she's been nothing but trouble since the day she was born. Obstinate, argumentative, unappreciative. Today was one of those days when it came to a head. I'm spending my life doing THIS..? I'm so fucking angry I can barely see.

Really angry and unhappy.

Filing

Labeled and semi-organized most of the files in the filing drawer. An accomplishment. Things are actually pretty much organized.

Made a backup today using one of the two backup drives. Edited a whole bunch of stuff earlier, all the text files, half the graphic files. Threw all the image files into iPhoto. Have a big folder of individual text files exported from StickyBrain, which was dead slow lately, a real stone. Using the Spotlight feature in OSX is faster.

Repotted the houseplants yesterday, got around to attacking the filing today. Impressive. Finally getting something done on wallpaper-type get-around-to-its. Go through the tool chest tomorrow and put photos aside, keep them in a box or album or something. Tired of scanning photographs into the computer. I have enough photographs. Unless they're really fucking something then I don't want to scan them in. I still have about five sketchbooks full of weird little bits and pieces to scan in someday. Or not.

It felt great to get rid of the videotapes and Dead cassettes earlier this year. You just don't need all that stuff weighing you down all the time, maybe you're never going to get around to it. So get rid of it.

Go through the tool chest and find manuals for stuff, file those. Set photos aside. Throw out clutter. It feels good to get rid of things and to get organized.

Didn't get much else done today. Grilled some chicken, which turned out very nicely. Chicken and rice and carrots and broccoli for dinner. Made fudgesicle ice cream.

Glad to have made a backup of the semi-groomed data. I feel somewhat organized. Glad to delete a bunch of old things. I'll be glad to get rid of more things.

Need to wrap Cassidy's birthday gifts. And arrange a cake and candles and cards for her.

It actually cooled off a bit this evening, I have the door and windows open. Very nice. I don't like the heat. And it hasn't been super-hot here yet.

So enjoy the cool evening while it lasts.

No word at all from Diane. No clue what she's up to now. Looking at some of the text files I deleted today I was surprised at how long ago I was unhappy with Diane. Long ten years.

Now I am raising the kids on my own. This is somewhat more than I bit off but so far, so good.

Go through tool chest tomorrow. Find anything and everything that important and file it. Set photos aside. Get the tool chest organized. It's the last bastion of clutter. Aside from a pile of clutter in the garage. And perhaps the kitchen junk drawer.

I would like to find time to go through all the holiday decorations and get them organized well ahead of time. And address the Christmas cards. And wrap the Christmas gifts. Get as many of the holiday chores done as far ahead of time as possible. Get the Christmas lights out and untangled and tested to put up the day after Thanksgiving. Make Christmas cookies ahead of time. Bake cinnamon swirl bread to freeze.

I'd like to find the granola bar recipe from Good Eats and make those for the kids for snacks.

It's quarter past nine. If I want to watch a movie, I should pick one out and go and watch it before I fall asleep again...

These are the two new plant containers that I bought yesterday after the beach at the small nursery in Poway. They were expensive. This afternoon I finally got around to transplanting the houseplants from the 1980s. They were completely potbound, split them into quarters. Some are cuttings from the houseplants Julia had in San Clemente.

Glad to get that accomplished, that was overdue. I'd last transplanted them in 1997, I think.

Went to the fish store today. Donated the huge collection of bottom feeders that had bred in the big tank since I first noticed the first baby bottom feeder back in February. Prolific breeders, to say the least. Glad to get that taken care of.

Preseason game on last night, grilled a delicious steak, had a baked potato and some grilled asparagus. Delicious. Really good.

It was fun building a sandcastle the other day with the kids. The tide came in pretty quickly. It was a rear-guard action, at best.

I should bring the shovel next time. Build up a central mound of sand fast. Maybe the folding emergency shovel. Make a huge central mound fast and then repair and/or decorate that. When I helped make those sand sculptures they had buckets of water that I helped lugged and then mixed in molds and let them set THEN took off the molds and carved away whatever they didn't want in the sculpture.

What else? I want to get after the tomatoes and heavily trim/remove them. They're getting a little ragged. I did buy some cilantro to make salsa with. The serrano pepper plant has a lot of little chile peppers on it.

Time to think about making dinner. Tacos? Salad? Pizza? Nothing?

 

Another Tuesday.

Picked up Flynn's registration packet. That feels like some kind of accomplishment.

The morning glory and the moonflower vines have reached above the fence as of yesterday and today. They're doing well. Nice to see them growing so tall at last. Looking forward to their flowering.

Looked at google.com/maps to see if I can take Flynn to middle school via Pomerado Road and it looks like that would work out better than driving down Paseo Lucido and slogging through the high school/middle school traffic. Drop him off near the tennis courts. Then make my way home as best I can.

Another hot day ahead. And somewhat humid. No plans for the rest of the day, really. Get the kid's school paperwork in order. Sift through the filing drawer. Get everything organized.

Open one of the hard drives and back everything up. My CDs and DVDs are gone. I have no backup. Better to make one now than wish I had.

 

Monday. Cloudy out.

I'm sure it'll burn off later. Put the trash and recycling out. Including all of my backup CDs and DVDs. Time to break out one of the backup drives and write what I have on hand to it. Have SOME backup.

Sitting here at the computer, drinking coffee. Kids are still asleep. I'd like to take Flynn for a haircut this morning and mail a letter @ the Post Office. And get some more water.

Rearranged the rocks in the big tank on Saturday. Happy with the arrangement. The fish seem happy. The fish probably have a limited range of emotion. If you stop and think about it.

Pick up Flynn's registration information tomorrow morning.

The tides are perfect for sandcastle building (tide coming in) on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Haven't been to the beach all summer.

Hall of Fame game on tonight at five o'clock. Watched the American Bowl game on Saturday afternoon. Tape delay. Pretty good game. I watched a scrimmage between Green Bay and the Bears, I think, on Friday. Not an actual football game, but close enough.

Football season beginning is like arriving at your destination, the end of the year. Preseason is just beginning. Like tomatoes ripening or something. Preseason football, Cassidy's birthday, school begins, Labor Day... the regular season begins.

School, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, end of the year. That great week after Christmas with not a lot to do. New Year's Eve. Then the begin of the next year.

Made some roasted chicken in one of the terra cotta bakers for dinner yesterday afternoon. Made some biscuits and vegetables. Very nice little dinner. Played a game of Clue and a game of Operation with the kids.

Get back to attacking the file drawer and get that organized. Scan in old photos and drawings and get rid of the physical clutter. Sift through the clutter I have on the computer now. I just don't need it.

Old drawings? Recycle them, make them into one standard finished format. When did I last draw anything? That was once so special and important. Find a home for the old drawings. Finish them off. Maybe do more with them.

We have only ONE RSVP for Cassidy's birthday, her pal Natalie. Going to be a small party. I want to take Cassidy to the party store so she can pick out party supplies that she likes. Hopefully more than one of her little classmates will RSVP!

Remove some of the flowers from by the black gate and plant marigolds there. I still have half a flat of white vincas to plant out. I could stand to trim more of the tomatoes, too. The two vines in the smaller bed haven't done as well as the ones in the main bed. Not sure why that is. Different soil amendment? Did I amend the small bed the same way I did the bigger bed? Next year (or in the fall) the way to go would be BIG trellises. Trellii. The tomato cages were engulfed by the tomatoes in no time, I haven't seen them in months.

Something else that needs trimming is the bougainvillea. Not satisfied with that area under the pine tree by Cassidy's window. The lantana could stand trimming. The lantana smells bad when you brush against it. Not pleasant.

Might as well wake up the kids, it's 7:30. I'd rather do the errands while it's semi-cool.

Drag the kids to the pool or something. Weary of hanging around the house 24/7. Going to the market is the highlight of my week, I get out of the house.

Sunday morning

Awake again. Kids don't want to do anything or go anywhere. It's getting too late to go for a walk without significant heat.

What is there to do today? Stay inside again. Clean more. Something like that.

I guess there's not much going on. An understatement.

I'd like to go somewhere and do something. Staying at home all the time is boring. Go check the tire pressure on the Prius. Run a sprinkler on the lawn. Dig out the Christmas decorations and untangle the Christmas lights.

Trying to eat not very much and drink even less. Made some salmon last night which the kids turned their noses up at. I've had worse food at decent restaurants. They'd like to subsist off of chicken nuggets and cheeseburgers.

I've gotta lose some weight. So that means living on rabbit food. And maybe one medicinal glass of wine a day. Hoo boy, that sounds like a party. At least ice water doesn't have much in the way of calories.

Go through the filing drawer. Iron that out. Get things put away. Scan in old photos and sketchbooks, get rid of that clutter one piece at a time.

The Dodgers play in an hour, 1:30 on the east coast, 10:30 here.

Ten years since Jerry Garcia died coming up this Tuesday. That was bad news. Moved to this suburban inferno without a job and Jerry Garcia died a couple of weeks after hitting the beach, here. Not good. Isolation and child rearing. Work, work, work. No wonder I learned to drink after we moved to San Diego. Not much left to do.

That's true of a lot of life @ this stage, not much left to do. Tie up the loose ends. Launch the mice off on their own voyages. Enjoy the embers, wait to die. Feed the birds in the backyard. Wait for the morning glory and the moonflower vines to make it to the top of the fence. They're growing quickly.

Throw out more stuff. More clutter. I just don't need it. Just get rid of it. It feels good to get rid of things that I don't need and don't use. Clean up my mess prior to death so that no one has to go through my clutter and get rid of things.

I found a Dashboard application that lets me see sixteen webcams at once, and while I was finding sixteen webcams I wanted to see I found one of the Newport pier. I really like looking at it.

 

Thursday. Later.

The too-long, ugly couch was picked up this morning by a surly, lower-class Salvation Army worker. Glad to see it go. Thank God that thing is finally gone. Something especially unsavory about a worn-out couch.

New planter arrived today. I want to transplant the old houseplants soon, they've been in those containers for years. Want to find some larger ones.

Basil seems to be drooping a bit after being transplanted yesterday. And trimmed back. It had doubled in size in a week. Loads of marigold seedlings up. I'm thinking about leaving those in the planter box and seeding the front area. Unsure where to put the large-ish flat of vincas I'd bought with Cassidy at Home Depot. Stuck some of them in the planter bed after I transplanted the basil. Found larger containers for the shrimp plants, two out of three survived thus far. They flowered one or two flowers apiece, but the effect @ this size wasn't all that shrimp-like. Pleased to finally have shrimp plants.

Cleaned part of the garage yesterday. There's one final pile of clutter I need to sort through and clean up.

Trimmed the lawn yesterday. Looks somewhat better. Didn't want to mow and cut it too short. Waiting to find the manual for the lawnmower. In the third or fourth drawer with other household-manual type clutter.

Ate the Greek salad I'd ordered last night from Borrelli's. Or Borrego's. Whatever the name of that place is.

The hard drives arrived today. Sort through that folder of clutter so that I have a complete data set ready to be backed up.

A lot of the iTunes songs needed to have their titles tweaked, stuff like that. Unsure that I'll ever get around to any of that, just copy the file of clutter, the iPhoto photos, the iTunes music and that ought to take care of it.

Thursday

Ordered two pairs of Levis and a pair of shoes for Flynn. See if they fit once they arrive. It's surprisingly difficult to find a pair of jeans that fit, the sizing information is all over the place. I'm ordering a pair of size 8 shoes figuring that if he's not already that size, he will be soon. I had him try on a pair of jeans that more or less fit and ordered the jeans based on that information. See if they fit or not...

Hot this morning. Talked the kids into going on a quick trip out to buy bagels, haven't had bagels in ages. It is hot this morning. Swept up the side walkway. Put laundry away.

Woke up about 3:30 this morning and was up for about half an hour. Slept until 8. Was up before the kids.

What else is new? Not much.

The first day of post-summer school summer vacation

Today is the first day of post-summer school summer vacation, so I just sat down from 3-4 hours of watering and gardening. My knees hurt. The sign of a good time having been had, you know, when you're sore all over and you've gotten something done. Trimmed a bunch of plants, transplanted some tiny seedlings, pulled a bunch of weeds. Watered a lot.

I seem to have some species of Africanized dandelion growing everywhere this year. They grow about three feet a second. You can blind them with a shot from a Baring pistol and then finish them off with a machete if you know what you're doing. The roots can crack a foundation. Anyway.

Time for a glass of water and to see what time I can waste on the computer. No appointments or deadlines today.

The kids asked for pancakes so I made some pancakes. Out of buttermilk. The buttermilk recipe tastes better. I asked them what they wanted to do today and they said in unison "Nothing!" They're Great Indoorsmen of the first order.

Set the thermostat higher again. The air conditioning came on at 75 and then again at 78... it seems comfortable in here, don't need the air on.

Gardened and watered. Cleaned up a bit.

The Salvation Army will collect the old ugly couch tomorrow. I'll be glad to see it go. Ordered a small couch for Cassidy's room from Ikea, no idea when that will be delivered.

Ate a turkey sandwich with a sliced tomato from the garden and a sliced red onion. How delicious.

Looking at a Canon camera on amazon.com yet again. I like my little pocket camera, but it would be nice to have a "real" camera again. Although I sure took a lot of BAD photos with the "real" film camera I bought for the Maui trip. I've never taken so many bad photos in my life. I ended up with one good picture of Bob. That's a LOT of bad pictures. The Fuji Film underwater cameras were fun and I had better luck with them. That would have been a fun trip if Diane had stayed home.

Tempted by the Canon camera. I wonder if it's realistic to expect Diane to repay the rent I paid for her? I'd rather have bought the camera instead of paying her rent.

Bank the money. For the kid's education, for future expenses. Take care of the kids. I certainly wish that I'd invested more than I did in Apple stock back when. Diane invested in Lucent. Mine was a better choice.

I have a list of publicly-traded firms in the death industry. Boomers will begin to croak sooner or later and need death industry services. I don't see how it can miss. If they don't want to be planted, they'll want to be burned to ashes. There's money to be made disposing of the corpses of baby boomers, they'll be dying off in recording numbers. Get in front of that. So INVEST in those companies NOW!!!! Get around to it.

The camera is still very tempting, photos are the only thing I'm keeping as I weed out all of my possessions. And kitchen tools. I need to edit my photos I've taken. I ordered a couple of hard drives to back my data up to. Send one to Mom to keep and one to Kelly and Bob or Toni and Scott to keep offsite, just in case. Make incremental backups of new photos and music. Try not to acquire or save anything else. Buying the hard drives seemed economical and more practical than backing up to DVDs. Back it all up. Go through that folder of clutter I have. Drawings can go in iPhoto. So I'll have iPhoto data and iTunes data. And that's about all. My web pages (such as they are) are a convenient place to stick things, like this blog. Better than having dozens of little text files scattered throughout my backup disks. All of which are in the garage, btw, waiting for the hard drives to arrive and be filled. Goodbye, backup disks.

Looking at a wardrobe to keep my stuff in instead of the closet, which is crowded. Might get around to that. Order that from Ikea and wait for them to deliver it. The Prius isn't up to the job, and I don't want to rent a truck to pick furniture up.

I'd also like to get some lumber delivered from Dixieline and build another planter or two. Very pleased with the planter that's there now. Looks great to see bright flowers right outside the laundry room door.

I'm thinking about clearing out the front garden area by the black gate and planting marigold seeds there. They seem to grow without any problems. I'd also ordered three "Bee Balm" plants from Burpee which ought to arrive eventually. I had those in mind for that area, near the fence.

The lawn could stand to be mowed, but I don't want to cut it too short again in the heat. I really like the lawn. I even like the giant monster crabgrass I find growing in the lawn.

What else is new? Not much. Sift through the remaining, final stuff in the tool chest. Scan in photos that I don't have in digital format. Scan in photos and negatives. Get rid of clutter one piece at a time until it's all gone at last.

Tuesday -- summer school is out at last for good

Gail from MDM called last night, she's not coming to visit Tim or whoever that guy is that took up with a girl half his age. The girl ought to know better, and Tim ought to be ashamed of himself. Fucking outside your generation is just not suave. Anything over about a three-year difference in ages is just too much of a difference.

Took the kids to Nickel City for about an hour. My head starts to throb after being in all that noise. They seemed to have a good time. Something to mark the end of summer school at last.

I'd like to assemble the beach gear and mount an expedition to the beach tomorrow. Pack some sandwiches and ice down some soda pop and make a day of it, at least as much of a day as the traffic will allow. Check the tides.

...

Not great until the end of next week. On the 10th high tide is about about one o'clock. The 11th 1:30 and the 12th 1:45. It's the most fun to build a sand castle with the tide coming in.

It would still be fun to go to the beach. Maybe drive to Encinitas and look around there. I've heard it's a nice place. Well, I heard that from a guy I talked with on the train to San Diego back in 1978... I'd never heard of Encinitas.

What else? Moved the old couch out of the house after it became apparent that there was no graceful way to move it into Cassidy's room. I ordered her a couch from Ikea that will be delivered at some point. Rearrange her room again.

Grilled some chicken last night, very tasty. Made some rice and vegetables for dinner along with the chicken. Baked a chocolate cake for dessert.

Going to do something with the leftover chicken tonight for dinner.

Stopped at the market with Cassidy this morning and bought milk and water and bread. She got a doughnut. I bought some vanilla yogurt and some more frozen blueberries. Making yogurt cheese and having a scoop or two of that with frozen blueberries is a delicious breakfast. Not too heavy.

What else? I'm pleased and excited that it's OFFICIALLY summer vacation now. For three weeks. I hope that Flynn is sufficiently motivated to do better in school and not be invited back to summer vacation. Wait and see.

Sunday

Made pancakes, washed the Prius, watered the lawn and front garden, took a shower, washed the inside of the windshield and the rear hatch... did two loads of dishes and I'm doing a load of laundry...

Tired. Busy morning. All the keyboarding and copying files has tweaked my left wrist again. If I had a wrist brace, I'd be wearing it.

Dodger game comes on in twenty minutes... might watch that and take a nap.

Probably going to make grilled chicken for dinner. Maybe I'll make some chicken tacos instead. Or maybe both. Start pizza dough to have for dinner tomorrow.

Really surprisingly tired. Glad to not have anything to do this afternoon. Bathe the mice later on. And I have a mountain of laundry to put away. Why do I let the laundry pile up at the put-it-away stage? Must be something about putting laundry away that I dislike.

Did a partial water change on both tanks last night. Rearranged the plants and rocks again. I really like the arrangement in the small tank. The arrangement in the large tank is ok but ugly. I'd like to be able to make a partial dinosaur skeleton out of clay and get it fired and glazed and fired again to use as tank decorations -- like there was a huge dinosaur skeleton partially buried in the tank, just a section of ribs and maybe an eye socket on the skull visible, like those clever alligator stepping stones that were around a while ago in catalogs, one was the head, then a back section as if it was swimming under your lawn. Very clever. I love things like that.

Tired. I ought to go put the laundry away, however.

That's what I ought to do...

Friday

Friday. Hooray. Monday and Tuesday are all that's left of summer school.

Picked Flynn up this afternoon and we went to Burger King (lousy food) and then to the bowling alley. It was fun. I actually hit the pins most of the time without using the bumpers too much... then we stopped @ Plough Boys and the butcher shop and then headed home.

Whacked the blower to get it to work. I had Sears out in the springtime to check on that very thing. Fuck fuck fuck. It's erratic. I want the system to function without beating on its housing to get its attention.

e-mail to Boxington:

Well, what about the Sawdust Festival? 

http://www.sawdustartfestival.org/

If you're here the 2nd through the 7th it will still be open (until the 5th, I believe). Laguna Beach was once an "artist's colony" and is now chock-full of "executive homes" -- worker bees commute from inland valleys, I think. Anyway, the Sawdust Festival might be fun. What do you WANT to do when you're here? Is the DJF/190 thing going to be a major bringdown? Isn't 19 below the legal drinking age..?

If I might pry a bit, were you two an item or a proto-item or just pals or what? ie how disappointed/pissed off are you going to be when you hit our little border town?

Maybe just a posh seaside restaurant in Del Mar (pricey/exclusive beach town)..? Will you have a car? Driving is not a lot of fun here (or anywhere, I guess) -- but it's not Boston or San Francisco or a genuine nightmare.

Hemet is a pickup-truck type of town in the mountains. Oceanside is a hard area in San Diego right next to Camp Pendleton, the enormous Marine base which is the only land left open between the Mexican border and above Santa Barbara -- it's all one colossal suburb, basically. 

If you're going to visit Mexico, drive to Ensenada (it's all superhighway) and avoid Tijuana entirely. You'll need specific Mexico auto insurance if you drive across the border. 

There's an architecturally interesting shopping mall called Horton Plaza downtown, but it's just another grimy urban shopping mall. Balboa Park is interesting, lots to see and all kinds of special events. Wow, you're here NEXT WEEK!!! Maybe I can find a copy of The Reader and send it to you so you can read it on the plane. It's the best weekly city paper I've ever seen. The LA Reader is a seedy, ugly mess IMHO and similar papers in Alabama and Georgia aren't on the same level. It really is an invaluable resource. The daily paper in town is hysterically conservative with starch in its underwear. It's a Navy town, it's a border town... it never developed like LA and San Diego has never come to terms with that. It's a small town government shot through and through like you wouldn't believe with corruption. Having lived all my life in the satellite cities to LA, moving here ten years ago and realizing what a fucking backwater San Diego is was a genuine surprise and a real disappointment.  You'd think with two big universities and being a California beach town that they'd be more... *life* here.

I think that the kids would flip if I had a friend I was going to hang out with. I'm not as concerned about them as I am about the eventually-going-to-be-ex-spouse, who is an inpatient once again at the local huge mental health facility. If she could be affected by my doing something earth-shaking, like going to lunch, I'd defer until next time. OTOH it could be a good excuse to drag the kids out to do something. I dragged them off to a museum and lunch a couple of times so far this year and it hasn't so much as slowed them down, much less killed them. 

I just wish they'd consent to going to the good tropical fish store in La Mesa, south of San Diego proper. Last year I started taking care of a goldfish my son had acquired for a Cub Scout project. I'd always been interested in getting an aquarium, and by the end of last summer I had a 40-gallon tank with many small colorful fish. I really like going to the good fish store. I think the kids just want to make sure that I don't have a good time.

Anyway. I'm in blog mode. Sorry for rambling. I will try and find a copy of The Reader and send it ASAP.



On Jul 29, 2005, at 12:15 PM, Gail Warnings wrote:
Old Town sounds fine with me. The Italian place is in Ocean Beach, 
the hippie-throwback section of town. Now, who is DJH? Did you meet 
them on the board or @ one of the conventions? Are they a Rochester 
alum, also?
You mean DJF? That would be DrvnkenJ@ckFlask, a/k/a Tim O'C0nnell, who apparently at 40 is having a relationship with 190 pr00f, a/k/a Meg@n, who is 19, after I had arranged to come visit him many, many months ago (what an asshole I am).  I met him at the first convention in Vegas, when I was still going out with T0ny a/k/a M@yhem.  I hate everyone who lives in R0chester, BTW-- no desire to get together with any of them.
Anyway, Old Town is good.  I'm glad it looks like you're available to get together-- I definitely want to meet as many people as I can while I'm out there. Maybe we could even get together with S@vage-- she is in Hemet but says she visits Oceanside sometimes.
San Diego I'm sure is beautiful-- everyone who has ever been there can't talk enough about how great it is and how the weather is perfect.


"If you don't expect too much from me, you won't be let down" Gin Blossoms
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Monday morning

Another sunny day. Another hot day in July.

I want to get some Rust-o-leum paint for the birdbath, which commenced to rust immediately. Metal wants nothing more than to be rust. So get some paint and find the wire brush and clean up the birdbath and paint it.

Trash is out. Dispose of the reddish hose once the trash can is empty. Too big.

I could stand to trim the bougainvillea. The empty charcoal bags are excellent for holding bougainvillea trimmings. I need to weed the front garden again already. The weeds grow at an astonishing rate during the summer. It's almost beyond belief. The tomatoes are like a jungle by this time. They could stand a major trimming, too.

The morning glorys and moonflowers are getting established. Slow to grow. They ought to look good once they're flowering on the trellis.

Cleaned the bird feeder. The fence is getting messy from bird poop. I'd like to improvise something to keep the birds from sitting on the parts of the fence where they might poop on the neighbor's side of the fence.

Planted some lavendar seeds yesterday. See if they sprout and grow. I'd like to plant some more cilantro. Kind of out of space again already. The serrano pepper plant is setting chiles. Ought to have plenty of tomatoes any day now.

What else is going on? Not too much. Clean the fireplace today. I'd like to order some more firewood soon. Get that delivered and stack it. I love having firewood. Not that we get so many freezing nights here in San Diego...

Cassidy's birthday is coming up. Middle school orientation and registration, which is looking like a disorganized clusterfuck of administrivia, then the beginning of school. Seven more years for Flynn until he's eighteen. Eleven years and one month for Cassidy.

I ought to move some of their college money into the Death Fund. I wish I'd followed my hunch about Apple stock before it climbed 400%. FOLLOW YOUR INSTINCTS.

I need to drag Flynn to a store and get some jeans that fit. He has a collection of jeans that don't fit right now.

Late July

Took Flynn, Cassidy and Chris to laser tag and then out for dim sum for Flynn's birthday. At home now waiting for Flynn to call for a ride home from Chris', they went swimming over there.

Flynn's presents that I'd ordered arrived on time and Cassidy helped wrap those yesterday. Some Lego sets and a cool toy that connects to the television and lets you battle Star Wars opponents with your light saber. He seems to be happy enough.

Diane's roommate called the other morning and asked if I knew where Diane was. I didn't, so I called around trying to locate her, a couple of police departments, several hospitals, et cetera. She was eventually located at UCSD Hillcrest and her neighbor was picking her up from there. Dr. Diamond called me that afternoon (very nice man) and brought me up to speed. Diane is back in Aurora Behavorial yet again. She became disoriented, was in two accidents and in her own words "was found wandering around." What the fuck is wrong with her, exactly? I expected her to get sick and die of some flavor or other of cancer, not fall apart into tiny pieces.

The end of the line was saying goodbye the night before her first ECT session. A beautiful warm night and a visit to a courtyard with high fences full of depressed people who were mostly all chainsmoking. I told her it was getting harder and harder to relate to any of what she was going through. She was hopeful about the ECT at that time.

I remember cancelling her ECT last July 13th. It didn't seem to be doing her any good and she was completely out of it for a day and a half. Frightening. I wonder if the cumulative effect of all the brain-chemical-tweaking drugs she's been given hasn't taken a toll of its own. Those drugs seem worse than whatever was afflicting her.

She seemed happy enough last Saturday, when she drove the kids to Doheny Beach near Dana Point so she could get baptized. I had no idea she was taking the kids that far. The weekend before that I believe she'd driven them to her parent's house in Mission Viejo. Someone had rear-ended her car on the trip home.

I certainly don't want the kids to be with her when she becomes disoriented. I don't want her to drive the kids anywhere. She's not well and I don't want the kids exposed to potential danger because she suddenly drops out of orbit or whatever terms you'd like to use for what happened.

Cassidy became frightened in the laser tag maze and we left after just a couple of minutes and waiting in the "vesting room." Laser tag looked like fun. The lasers seemed brighter than when I'd been with Flynn a couple of years ago.

Oh well. Glad that's over with. Go pick Flynn up from Chris' when Flynn calls. We were going to go with his friend Kody but Kody wasn't there when we went to pick him up.

Weighed myself on Thursday and hadn't lost any measureable weight. Arrgh. Frustrating. Maybe I have to go back and hit the treadmill twice a day and NOT EAT ANYTHING... God, doesn't that sound like fun?

The kids just like to slug around at home. So what? Take them along, throw them in child care, let them suffer. Exercise. I've got to cut out everything else but water... heated and filtered through coffee grounds, of course...

Glad Flynn's birthday is over. Mike and Pat e-mailed and said they'd come by tomorrow to get the kids. Hopefully Pat is doing better.

One week and two days left of summer school. I'll be glad to not have to get up and get the kids up and get Flynn to summer school on time. He showed me some of his math results the other day and on one test which made up 20% of his grade he got a ZERO. I was dumbstruck. What the fuck gives? I swear he expects an angel to come whisper the answers in his ear. It's a job to get him to use scratch paper. Drives me nuts.

Time to go set up a tape for Teen Titans. A new episode. The kids will enjoy watching it later.

 

Thursday

Diane was located @ UCSD Hillcrest being picked up by a neighbor. She was in two accidents yesterday. She's heading back to Aurora Behavioral this afternoon.

I'm not surprised. I'm not inclined to let her drive the kids anywhere, obviously. Or really watch them unsupervised, if she became disoriented. Who needs that noise?

Hot here today. Nothing going on. Weighed myself. Lost no weight at all! Lovely news. Uplifting.

So I've eaten nothing today. Two cups of coffee. Some water. That's it.

Exchanged the Playstation for one that (hopefully) works. Haven't hooked that up yet.

Cleaned the kitchen floor again. Cleaned some refrigerator shelves. Cleaned the rangetop.

Unsure what to do about Flynn's birthday. I wouldn't want to leave Cassidy with her even if she was available. I don't have room in the car to haul Flynn and his little friends and Cassidy to laser tag. Or do I? I guess that I do. Maybe I can drive Flynn and his friends down there and Cassidy and I can kill time elsewhere. Something to consider. I'm fairly certain that Cassidy is too young to go to laser tag. Was there a Toys R Us close by..? Investigate that. That would hold her interest...

Received a refill kit for a file folder labeling program, measured the sheets with my ancient pica ruler. Set that up in Illustrator. Label the file folders. Make things easier to file and to get at.

Tomorrow is Friday, tomorrow is Flynn's birthday. He'll be ELEVEN. Wow. He's more than welcome to grow up any time, now...

Diane's roommate called me. I called her folks. No one knows where she is. Not in either of two hospitals I contacted. No answer on her mobile phone. No mention of an accident in either local paper. I don't know where she is. Mike said she'd called them last night but didn't sound right, then hung up.

Wednesday

I was grilling some scallops last night and Flynn brought me the phone and said "It's an ex-roommate of yours" and it was Ms. Cou! Amazing! She is living in Hawaii with Pete. Wow, does that take me back. Sent her a couple of e-mails. Today is her birthday. She's FIFTY-TWO!!! I always think of her as being twenty-four years old. How did so much time go by? Amazing.

Took the kids to the pool last night, which was fun. Yesterday afternoon we went bowling. Haven't done that for quite a while. It's a fun kid activity.

Grilled some scallops last night with a nice tomato from the plants and some basil. The basil I tried to grow from seed didn't take off but the basil plant I bought from Home Depot is doing nicely. Made some scrambled eggs this morning with basil and another fresh tomato. I just love growing tomatoes and herbs I can use that are as fresh as they can be. Too bad we don't have room to grow corn. I ought to build another planter box or three. I love the planter box I built last fall. I like opening the back door and seeing flowers. Very nice. Very satisfying.

The first of the birdbaths arrived yesterday. Looks nice. The birds haven't gotten near it yet, but I like the way it looks.

I ought to get busy and label the file folders. Make that more useful. I could also wrap some Christmas gifts! Christmas cards arrived yesterday. I could address those now. Get Christmas attended to WAY, WAY ahead of time.

Cleaned the floors yesterday. Everything is very clean. Delightful. The cleaner things are, the better I like them.

 

Monday, July 18, 2005 10:17 AM

Feel oddly frustrated and dissatisfied again. Got Flynn to summer school on time again. Put the trash out. It was all picked up. Put the rest of the big closet doors in the trash can. Glad to be rid of those, those never worked. Need to extract the smaller closet doors from Flynn's room and cut those up.

What else? I need to organize a birthday party of some kind for Flynn. I think that the laser tag place opens at one. Diane can watch Cassidy. I'll take Flynn and the boys to laser tag. Ordered a neat light saber toy for Flynn along with some Lego sets. Need to figure out if Chris can come along on Saturday. Arrange with Diane to watch Cassidy.

Maybe I ought to clean the refrigerator.

Cleaned Flynn's room, vacuumed, put things away.

...

It's Hot.

Not as hot as it's going to get.

Dropped Cassidy off at her little friend's house, pick her up at 11:30. I hope that she has a good time.

I don't feel satisfied. Gardened and kept busy yesterday while the kids were with Diane. Grilled lackluster steaks and some chicken from Stater Brothers last night.

Changed the aquarium water on Friday evening. After I'd heard from Diane. No word from her on Thursday. Assumed she's killed herself. Was disappointed to hear from her on Friday. Took the kids over there on Saturday morning. Cassidy had expected me to pick up her backpack, so after I mailed the second batch of BB shirts at the Post Office I stopped at home and got her backpack (with her swimsuit and cover up) and drove it back to Diane's. Aren't I nice? Stopped at Stater Brothers and bought some groceries, including a pound of beef liver which I boiled and cubed for her dog.

Ordered a pizza Friday night. Pepperoni, anchovy, jalapeno and cilantro. Excellent topping combination.

What else? Not a fucking thing. It's not warm enough to run the air conditioning. I feel frustrated. Something is stuck. What is it? No satisfaction.

Glad that the BB shirts are done and mailed out.

Took the kids and Cody to Cold Stone Creamery last night. They seemed to enjoy it. My tastes run more towards grilled asparagus and grilled shrimp these days. And salsa. We went to the drive-through Mexican place a couple of nights ago and I got three beef tacos with rice and beans. Really delicious. And I got a big tamarindo drink. Really satisfying.

Ordered some new clothes for Cassidy. An on-sale skort and top set, some pajamas, a nightgown and a bathing suit. I'd ordered both kids some new underwear last week.

Cassidy's school supplies and a rolling backpack are secured. I think that I'd like to find some thin self-adhesive label material I can run through the inkjet printer to identify her school supplies.

I made a new dish last night with some skinny Japanese noodles, pork, cabbage, carrots, green onions, garlic and tamari sauce. It turned out very nicely. Cassidy asked for more!!! A sure sign of success.

Called one of Cassidy's kindergarten pals to see if she'd like to play with Cassidy. Cassidy nearly died of jealousy yesterday afternoon when Flynn had his friend Cody over.

Flynn has been pretty unhappy about summer school. I keep reminding him to make an effort and avoid being invited back again next summer. You just have to get off your ass and do your work, Flynn, there's no point in sugar-coating that bare fact.

Yesterday I assumed operation of ByteBrothers since Mal was having trouble with his ISP and I had noticed a "Mailman" mailing list option on Hostway. Go figure.

What else is new? Nothing much. Cleaned the kitchen yesterday. Cleaned the dining room yesterday. Scrubbed the bathroom the day before that. I like things clean. The cleaner they are, the better I like them.

Finally removed the sweet peas, which were gorgeous all spring and half the summer, and planted some moonflower and morning glory seedlings. Dusted that area with "Corey's Snail and Slug Death" hoping to keep the seedlings from being devoured.

The tomato plants are loaded with tomatoes. I've only harvested a few, first on the 4th of July for pizza sauce and to put on cheeseburgers and then last weekend for more pizza sauce. I made some 24-hour pizza dough and grilled it in two rounds and it turned out VERY, VERY well. Incredible flavor. Cassidy picked off four pepperoni bits and called it a night. Arrrrrgh. Can't make her eat. But, God, that pizza was stellar, really outstanding, easily the best I'd ever made and one of the best pizzas I'd ever tasted.

What else is new? What else is going on? Well, we get up every weekday morning and take Flynn to summer school and then go and pick him up every weekday at noon. The middle school where he's attending summer school is a real anthill to get into and out of. Which I dislike. I do not like traffic at all. People turn into instant assholes as soon as they get in their cars.

I need to go to the market. We need more milk. And apple juice in little green boxes. I have some chicken on hand that I grilled last night. I'd like the kids to eat more fruit and more vegetables. I bought some red and green pears at Stater Brothers last week and they're just ripe now. They're truly delicious. Good flavor and good texture.

I sawed up the closet doors from Cassidy's room, which I've always hated. Those stupid little wheels they were supposed to hang on never worked. I replaced the wheels. I was happy to work in the July sun to chop them into pieces. It'll take a few weeks to dispose of them in the trash barrel. I need to chop up the closet doors from Flynn's closet next.

I'd like (if we keep this house) to remodel Cassidy's room to provide her with her own bathroom and to remove Flynn's closet. Ideally I'd like to move the water heater to give Flynn slightly more space. And a door into the garage would be really, really great. I would love having a door that opened into the garage.

I'd also still like to get the windows double-glazed to provide a better thermal barrier. And install a whole-house fan to empty the trapped hot air above Cassidy's room and hopefully also remove the trapped hot air in the garage.

Another big household wish project would be solar panels. Unsure if I'd have to get a lawyer to get the community asshole association to accept that notion. That's an expensive idea, about $15,000. But it would pay for itself and then some in about 10 years.

What else? Not much else. Just live day to day and raise the kids as best I can. They're growing up fast and seem to be doing ok. I'm disappointed that Flynn is in summer school. He has got to change his attitude towards school and homework. He's going to get broadsided in middle school, and I'm going to be busy helping Cassidy with her school work.

I finally removed the Queen Anne's Lace or heliotrope or whatever that huge flowering plant was that I'd grown by the black gate. It was past its prime. There's a cosmos that's still growing that's even taller than the plant I removed. It has yet to flower.

I'm surprised at how long the sweet peas lasted (and happy how good they looked!). Hopefully the moonflowers and morning glories will establish themselves and grow up the trellises I'd put on the fence for them.

I removed the last of the carrots from the planter boxes along with the dill, which had bolted. I planted some marigold seeds after deadheading the marigolds.

I had to put gas in the Prius yesterday. I think I fill it about once every three weeks, and then only about 8.5 gallons worth of gasoline. I was getting about 40 something miles a gallon. Better than the 15 mpg the Santa Fe and/or '76 bus were getting.

Time to go clean more or do something useful. Go and get Flynn in about an hour and a half.

Drag the kids to the beach eventually. Or to the pool. Or something. I need to get myself to the gym eventually, somehow. I stepped on the scale last Thursday and was disappointed to see that I'd GAINED weight. Jesus. Disappointing. If I expect to live to see the kids grow up I've got to reduce my weight.

 

Standing On The Moon

Took the mice to the Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park. From there we went to Dim Sum at a local place I read about in The Reader last week, it used to be a not-so-great seafood place. GREAT lunch, stuffed to the gills. The kids loved it. Major success.

Old Glory standing stiffly
Crimson white
and indigo
Indigo...

Standing here upon the moon
I watch it all roll by...

I feel like I'm at the top of the world more often than not. Life continues. The kids grow. They appear to be headed in the right direction. I am delivering the goods. I am trying my best and I think it's working. Another ten years or so and I will have made my effort.

But I would rather be with you
Somewhere in San Francisco
on a back porch in July
Just looking up at Heaven
at this crescent in the sky...

A lovely view of Heaven
but I'd rather be with you
A lovely view of Heaven
but I'd rather be with you
be with you

 

Monday, June 20, 2005 9:46 AM

Here I am. Monday morning. Nice day out. Feels like it's going to be on the warm side.

Dragged myself out of bed this morning, got ready to get the kids ready, went to school maybe slightly later than usual.

Yesterday was Father's Day. Cassidy gave me a lovely painted rock "to keep your papers from blowing away." Flynn gave me a book of coupons and made sure to tell me that they forced him to do it and that he wouldn't have done it otherwise. I congratulated him on making the gift meaningless. Diane gave me a hedge trimmer, which is weird. Do we have a hedge? Am I getting a small hedge for Christmas? Weird gift.

New couch was delivered yesterday, looks very nice.

Made some ribs, made some chicken enchiladas. Watched the Dodgers on ESPN at 5:30. Seven game losing streak. Ouch.

I've gotta attack Cassidy's room, it's a mess.

Mowed and edged the lawn on Saturday. Lawn looks good.

...

Thursday, June 16, 2005 5:29 AM

Sick. Monday I had a tight muscle on my right side and sneezed in the afternoon while I was watering the lawn and it snapped like a thick rubber band. I dropped the hose. It's somewhat better but it's painful when I sneeze. This morning I have a cold, it feels like. Monday night I slept without much in the way of covers and it was colder than I expected. I sure don't want to cough or sneeze.

I have to function and get the kids to and from school. Flynn has an end-of-the-year field trip today. Diane is going to pick up the kids about 2:30 this afternoon.

Tired, couldn't get up on time. Try and get better.

Saturday, June 11, 2005 12:55 PM

Unfortunately Diane called yesterday afternoon to arrange picking the kids up this morning, which she did. Not pleased about that. I was hoping that she was still in the hospital.

DirecTV appeared this morning (EARLY) to install a satellite box in Cassidy's room. Cassidy will be thrilled, I'm sure.

June Gloom continues outside. Cool, at least. But no sun.

Just sitting here. Got home yesterday and just sat here. I love my computer.

I'm glad that the Disneyland trip is over. It was mostly fun. It was a vacation. I think that the kids enjoyed it. I would have liked to have dragged them to see Tom Sawyer's Island but we didn't get around to that. And Cassidy probably would have liked It's A Small World, but Flynn and I both hate that ride. Really hate that ride.

It's just about one o'clock and I haven't done much. Laundry and dishes and the usual stuff. Mostly I'm just sitting here. I love sitting here on the computer.

I ought to re-join Frog's. Walk on the treadmill or swim daily. I am WAY TOO FUCKING FAT. I look bloated in photographs. The year we went to Hawaii I lost sixty pounds... then eventually regained them. I just lost interest in exercising, it didn't seem to matter.

I would like to last long enough to get the kids on their merry little ways in life. I've just gotta lose weight, seriously. Sigh. That sounds dead boring. It really does.

What else? Nothing else. It's very nice to be at home where it's QUIET. Drank some coffee over the past five hours. Ate a sandwich.

I don't want to go out. I don't like going out on Saturdays, too crowded.

Slept like a rock last night. The previous two nights sleeping next to Cassidy were not exactly restful.

Glad to have a weekend to recover after the mini-vacation.

And I am indeed happy to be back home again. Where it's quiet and there's space. Horrible full-stop traffic on the way home on the 5 at eleven o'clock on a Friday. There are too many people in California. New home developments ought to be burnt to the ground by angry residents. No one has money to build their own home. No new building until roads are quadrupled. Pave the whole fucking state or put a gate at the entrances. And I never want to see another stroller. Or wheelchair or fat person vehicle (FPV).

Or another misshapen Disneyland employee, half-witted and a neon testament to the decline in the gene pool and of society in general since about 1965, which I've decided was the high point of western civilization (tm). I remember Disneyland employees as being clean-cut and smart. These were misshapen and clueless, shirkers. The plants were not particularly well-kept. There was trash here and there. I picked up and threw out a couple pieces of trash along the way.

There was a disconnect between the Travel Office and the Hotel. Minor but annoying, particularly given how long ago the reservations had been made. The room was not impressive. Cassidy didn't like the water slide (what the FUCK?) and stupidly chose to say "help" when she hit the water, being pounced on by a lifeguard .5 seconds later (I was right there). She can swim when she wants to, but will always try and tiptoe. The pool is four feet deep. She tried a swim test and tiptoed three times. Not impressive. Really not impressive. Disappointed me. I will not forgive you, if you will not take the chance...

Ate at the Rainforest Cafe, which was good. Had some excellent soup and half a chicken "wrap" which was a little heavy. Had a couple of drinks @ The Lost Bar which was a highlight of the trip for me. It was nice and quiet and the bartender was funny and friendly. The next night I was by there earlier and there was an overamplified guitarist and no free space @ the outside bar. Sat on a planter some distance away and drank one drink. Took the other upstairs.

The kids seemed to enjoy themselves, particularly pushing the elevator buttons, which was a constant source of squabbling. And therefore delight.

The crowds got to me. People amble along like brainless cattle. Stop for no reason in the middle of a busy path. It reminded me of riding my bicycle on the boardwalk. By August I wanted to weld steak knives onto the handlebars to get through people who'd lope along at about .2 mph. "Can I get through here?" "Excuse me" "Are you fucking brain dead?" "What a great place to stop." "What the fuck are you thinking?" The crowds got to me. And then the parking lot drive home. Arrrrgh. Wasn't AIDS supposed to have cleansed the population by now?

It's nice to be home again. It's nice to be sitting still and it's nice that it's QUIET. The noise level throughout the trip was uncomfortable. I was glad to pack up this morning and head home. It's nice to be at home again. It was a fun trip but I'm glad that it's over.

There was a Japanese television channel that was fascinating to watch. NNK or NHK. On the trip to Hawaii there was a Hawaiian station that broadcast Japanese programming. Couldn't take my eyes off of it. Amazing visuals. My favorite was a program about everyday people's "sundries," or little knick knacks they collect, they'd meet someone on the street and follow them home and see their collections.

It's only 1:30. Seems later. Cloudy today, advanced June Gloom. God, I'm glad to not be at Disneyland any more. That thought just shot through.

 

Tuesday, June 7, 2005 8:48 AM

Cassidy woke up eventually and said that she feels better. I want to get her in the bathtub so that she can absorb some water. She didn't eat or drink much of anything yesterday.

Frustrated at not having left yesterday. Hopefully she is better today and we can continue with our plans to go to Disneyland. I don't want her to overdo it and end up sick again far from home.

Yesterday was oddly frustrating. I extended the reservation to include Thursday night so that the trip will be about the same as originally planned.

Happy and excited about the trip, but I'll be happy to be back home again after we're home again.

...

Try and get Cassidy in the tub.

...

Tuesday. Cassidy was sick Sunday night and all day and night Monday. Postposed our trip. Hopefully she'll be better today. Nothing else to do but wait for her to get better. Frustrating having planned the trip so long ago only to have Cassidy become ill. Very frustrating. Oh well. Another one of those things.

 

Ordered a new couch online. Excited about it. The old couch that Diane found somewhere for $75 is shot, has always been shot. I'll be glad to get it out of the living room. Stick it in Cassidy's room or the garage? I'd like to arrange someplace for the kids to play with their friends, maybe convert the garage into a place to hang out for them.

Friday. Hooray.

Pat and Mike will take the kids to the Pancake House or something tomorrow late morning. Cassidy has a birthday party to go to tomorrow from three to five.

Flynn has his friend Kody over.

Went to the market this morning. Bought some gasoline.

Picked Cassidy up. Picked Flynn up.

Drinking iced espresso. Tasty.

The new couch is about ten inches more narrow than the couch we have now. That will be a good thing. The new couch ought to be a big improvement.

 

Wednesday

Been busy lately. Memorial Day weekend came and went. Tried to not have any expectations, so I wasn't terribly disappointed. I was baffled when I presented the kids with banana splits on Monday night and they turned their noses up. Oh well. I enjoyed mine.

Enjoyed pulling weeds from the lawn one inch at a time on Monday morning. Need to mow the lawn again.

I gave Diane my string trimmer recharger since hers had been stolen and ordered a replacement for myself. THEN I realized that I'd given her my battery as well! So when my replacement charger arrived I HAD NO BATTERY. ARRGH. And Diane is hospitalized again. That was frustrating. Par for the course. Shrug it off.

Tried to barbecue some ribs on Sunday and BURNT them. Damn it. That was artless. Those were expensive ribs, too, and besides that I'd obtained some maple chunks to flavor the smoke. Try that again sometime once my alleged budget recovers.

Watched some old science fiction movies over the weekend. The best one was "The Abominable Snowman" which I've only seen a few times. Good dialog and they did the best they could with the cheap sets. Very atmospheric and understated.

Yesterday the kids went back to school. As they did today.

Last night at dinner (I made tacos) Flynn was humming a tune and Cassidy was following him, it was delightful. I was watching the colorful sweet peas in the rich end-of-day light.

This morning I mailed Diane's rent check and delivered two cartons of cigarettes to the mental health facility. I had paid her down payment for her automobile insurance not long ago.

Our vacation to Disneyland is around the corner, excited about that. Looking forward to it being over, though I think it will be fun. Check-in is at three o'clock. We could get there earlier and just leave our backpacks in the Prius. Go to Disneyland and ride some of the rides and things. Make the most of that first day. The second and third days we're there first thing and then head home the morning of the fourth day. After a swim. Check-out time is at eleven o'clock.

It sounds like fun. I don't know that Flynn is going to want to go again after this, he's getting older, and Cassidy hasn't been since she was a speck. We went in 2000, then went to Hawaii in 2002, then had the floors put in during 2003, then Diane lost her mind in 2004. Busy schedule. Once I got some money, the FIRST THING I DID was make these reservations, paid in full, for Disneyland.

I ought to go mow the lawn or do something useful. Like water outside. I like having the garden and lawn looking nice. The lawn could use a trim. I'm tempted to do the job with scissors to get it perfect. I'm pleased with the lawn. There are a couple of brown spots, did I trim it too closely? Have to reseed those when the weather cools down a bit, it's just warming up now. I've had the air conditioner on for part of the day off and on for the past couple of weeks. No real serious heat, just mild discomfort.

Quarter to five, do something for fifteen minutes and then contact Diane and let her know that her cigarettes were delivered. And that I don't have her current patient number. Not that I want it. Ten years with Diane was ample, really. Sad to say that life improved greatly when she was hospitalized initially. Her flipping out in October and leaving can only be seen as a good thing.

 

Wednesday Again.

Warm out, breezy. Been busy lately. Noticed a large spider lowering itself onto my desk earlier, grabbed its thread, it jumped onto the keyboard and then ran under the scanner. Not entirely comforting.

Things are mostly clean and picked up on my desk. Things are mostly organized. Put away, at least. I still have a ton of laundry to iron and put away.

Take Flynn to an ice cream social/orientation for middle school.

Was playing soccer with Cassidy inside. For a while. I love Cassidy, but she wants a lot of attention all of the time.

Washed the Prius earlier. Noticed that I had the air conditioning on. Turned it off. Hopefully I'll get better mileage now. Fuck the heat. Drive around with the windows down. I'd rather spend less money on gasoline.

Spoke to Diane several times over the past week. She's hospitalized again. I forget how many times this is. I'll call her again tonight and see if she needs anything.

Kind of looking forward to and dreading the trip to Disneyland. I'll be glad when it's over. It's been FIVE YEARS since we went to Disneyland, 2000. We didn't go in 2001 and we went to Hawaii in 2002. In 2003 we had the floors replaced and in 2004 Diane went crazy. I made reservations to go to Disneyland last September. I want to go while the kids are still young enough to enjoy it.

Took the kids to see the new "Star Wars" movie last Saturday. It was long and boring. Fuck Star Wars. The last "Star Wars" movie I enjoyed came out in 1977. It's all been downhill since then. I was glad it was over.

Go get Flynn sooner or later. He's never out until 1:50. At the earliest. OTOH, the high school traffic is pretty thick starting at 1:30. Wait in a solid line of traffic to get out of the street we're on. More great San Diego civic planning. Get the radio and tell Flynn to sit tight.

Trimmed some of the tomatoes yesterday afternoon. Staked a couple of them up. Been tending the garden more lately now that the lawn is officially established and growing fairly well. Haven't decided whether to hook up the timers and sprinklers for the trip to Disneyland or just water really well before we go.

Leave to get Flynn at about 1:45 and deal with whatever traffic there is at that time. There is no alternate route. And leaving twenty minutes earlier means killing a lot of time with Cassidy in the car.

Vacuumed a bit, washed the big bathroom mirrors. I have to attack that pile of laundry. Iron Cassidy's things, but everything away. I don't enjoy putting laundry away so it really stacks up.

Finished digitizing and burning some DVDs with old camcorder videos on them. Will be glad to be rid of the old camcorder and tapes. The tapes are already in the trash.

Time to get Cassidy ready and go get Flynn. Go to his orientation this evening. Not looking forward to much of anything.

 

Wednesday afternoon again.

Warm out today. At home now. Dodgers played around noon today. And did not prevail. Too bad.

That was 4:30, now it's 6:40. Typed some of Flynn's homework. Bought tickets online for the new Star Wars movie on Saturday at nine in the morning. Hopefully there will not be any problems getting in the theatre after having bought tickets online. The local theatre didn't offer that service, this is for the Edwards Cinema in Mira Mesa that Diane likes to go to.

Talked with the attorney the other day. The meeting scheduled in May AND the one in June are both routine and I don't have to be there. Which was a great relief.

A packet arrived via FedEx today from Disneyland travel which I haven't opened yet. Also, my Nike shoes arrived today and they're really comfortable with much better heel support than the other shoes I was wearing. Much better support.

Also a copy of "It Came From Beneath The Sea" arrived today. I'm replacing all the old videos I have with DVDs if possible. DVDs take up less space. Glad to see the videotapes go. Glad to be able to find the movies I like on DVD without too much trouble.

 

Saturday

Drove the kids to Diane's this morning. Did some gardening. Dug out bits of volunteer turf and planted iceplant. I don't think it's the exact same kind that was had at the Granada Hills house but it's similar.

I'm waiting to go get Flynn @ Kody's house at eight. He's over there watching a movie. I had several beers earlier. Taking a break from alcohol. Not entirely thrilled about it.

Glad to have gotten what I accomplished done in the garden today. Planted that cutting of the fresh-laundry-smelling shrub. We have a new family next door to us. I briefly said hello.

I want to clean up more of the front area. I have a lot more iceplant. Not sure where I'll put that.

Planted four packets of "shade-loving flowers" that came all together. Planted them in the shady spot made by the pine tree. Stabbed myself with a bougainvillea trimming from last year or sometime. Laying in wait. Lying in wait. Lieing in wait.

Cassidy is playing the new Star Wars game. I bought myself a new game but haven't played it yet. Timesplitters 2. Sounded like fun.

What else? Moved the spoons and cookie sheets from next to the stove to under where the sweetener is. Also moved all the appliances I had out to that area. So the stove side of the kitchen looks a lot cleaner.

Diane took Cassidy to a birthday party at a nearby park this afternoon. She told me that she may be returning to the hospital again. No one seems to know what's wrong with her.

Dodgers aren't on television that I can receive tonight. Maybe I'll watch the computer version... little tiny video window.

Wait to go and get Flynn.

Friday the Thirteenth

Thank God it's Friday. Go get Cassidy in forty minutes.

Took the kids to school this morning, stopped @ Home Depot and bought two flats of iceplant, kind of like the iceplant we used to have in Granada Hills, some flowers, some other plants, some vermiculite and perlite for container plants. Some Miracle-Gro and some Superthrive.

It's warm out today. Noticeably so. I wish it stayed cool here all year long.

What will I feed the kids today? I want to eat salads and maybe some fish. I am too fat. Have to cut out alcohol. As much as possible.

Last night was Cassidy's kindergarten open house. Crowded. Glad that's over with. She was excited and very cute. The little negroid kids up on stage looked like future criminals. Flynn mentioned an "african-american" girl in her class had been caught stealing from classmates and from the teacher. Why is that not a surprise?

I ought to drag Cassidy to the market. Or stop @ the market on the way home from Diane's house tomorrow morning. Take the kids there once Diane wakes up. Cassidy has a birthday party to attend tomorrow afternoon near here. I ordered some markers and a nice sketchbook. And we found a birthday card. So that's all set.

So, anyway. Hopefully do some gardening this weekend.

Consider this

Half past noon

Deleted the trip.net accounts and canceled that service. Added an e-mail account for Flynn on spaceways.net.

Typed a list of e-mail addresses and then thought better of it. Why make it easy to have spammers get my addresses?

Go get Flynn eventually. Dodger game on television tonight. Mow the lawn tomorrow if it's dry enough. Plant the remaining bedding plants out in front and clean up the front garden in a big way. Get a hold of that project and drive it home.

I'd ordered a cargo net for the Prius and it arrived but I'm supposed to drill two 5mm deep holes in the sides of the new car. Not in a hurry to tackle that. I just need to make two holes for the provided anchors to seat in.

What else? Not much. Bought some small, thin pork chops to serve for dinner. Along with some broccoli and carrots and red potatoes. Nothing that will kill the kids, whether they think so or not. I want them to eat more vegetables.

Jonny Quest episodes

1. The Mystery of the Lizard Men
2. Arctic Splashdown
3. The Curse of Anubis
4. Pursuit of the Po-Ho
5. Riddle of the Gold
6. Treasure of the Temple
7. Calcutta Adventure
8. The Robot Spy
9. Double Danger
10. Shadow of the Condor
11. Skull and Double Crossbones
12. The Dreadful Doll
13. A Small Matter of Pygmies
14. Dragons of Ashida
15. Turu the Terrible
16. The Fradulent Volcano
17. Werewolf of the Timberland
18. Pirates from Below
19. Attack of the Tree People
20. The Invisible Monster
21. The Devil's Tower
22. The Quetong Missile Mystery
23. The House of Seven Gargoyles
24. Terror Island
25. Monster in the Monastery
26. The Sea Haunt

Rain on Friday morning

Looked like it had rained at night. Got home from dropping the kids off at school and it really poured for a few minutes.

Hard to get out of bed. Got Flynn to take a shower, gave Cassidy a bath this morning.

What is there to report? Not much.

Cinco de Mayo. Cool and overcast.

Got the kids up and to school. Went to the market. Bought groceries. Just basic stuff. Came back home. Put groceries away.

Bought some broccoli and red potatoes. And some small pork chops. And some apples. And bananas. Get the mice to eat some vegetables at some point.

It's chilly.

Some rain earlier. Can't spray paint the blower covers. Bought some rattle-can off-white paint at Home Depot before the market trip. They're a depressing dirty-Bandaid color. Also bought some cut-to-size filter material for the blower.

I have some bedding plants and flowers to plant. Planted a few of them out in front yesterday. Find homes for the rest of them. I'd like to clean out the front beds, they're badly overgrown and shaggy-looking.

I need to wash the car.

Washed the red sheets. Put those back on the beds.

Dragged the kids to Petco yesterday and bought some more small fish. One isn't doing well. The other ones seem happy enough. I'd like to get the rest of the neon and glo-light tetras out of the large tank and put them in the small tank. The small tank needs attention.

What else? Not much. Surprised by how cool it is this morning.

Wednesday. Overcast.

An Illustrator 7 Wow! Book arrived in the mail. Seems to have precisely the same stuff in it.

Dropped the kids off at school. Went to Home Depot. Bought some soil and some bedding plants.

Get those planted. The front area is in major disrepair, I've ignored it all year long. Been busy with the lawn.

Need to wash the Prius, too.

Garage looks better, sifting through leftover clutter in there. So glad to have gotten rid of all the stuff I've parted with so far.

Still need to sift through interior clutter. Get important things organized and get rid of the rest.

Illustrator book arrived

$0.46... Illustrator 9 Wow! Book -- had another one of these (similarly priced) which had the formula for isometric projection. Had a sheet that listed the formulae for various projections and managed to lose it. Difficult information to replace, it turns out.

Waiting for the Macromedia Studio MX 2004 package to be delivered. That was expensive. So was the graphics tablet and Painter. DO something with them. Now that they're no longer on my wish list DO something with them. Create something. Finish something.

Is there really any point to that any more? I wonder. What the hell, at least the graphics tablet and Painter aren't something I'm pining for. Maybe I'll do something with it. At least play with it. Is that wrong?

The electric guitar(s) didn't hurt me much. They made interesting sounds. If that six-string electric had a vagina I may have married it. But I wasn't playing them and I have no discernible musical talent.

Make small cartoon drawings. They're interesting and unusual. Not everyone does that. Have a little faith in myself.

I expect the sun to rise presently.

Finished ALL of Cassidy's ironing and got ALL of the laundry put away. Still have more dishes to do. Served the mice square noodles with chopped up roast pork from Saturday. Tasty.

Out of milk completely. Cassidy didn't want to consider going to the market last night, so that's that.

Had a dream about Frizzy and woke up remembering her.

Afternoon

Three. Putting a few things from the garage in the newly-emptied trash can. Keep the good stuff. There's so much to get rid of. You've gotta stop clutter at the door, just about. I can see why people use that trash can by the mailboxes. Don't even let it in the house.

Cleaned the kid's new game CD, it had gotten a smudge which kept it from working. Used the crank-based disc cleaner and it worked. Hooray. Everyone is happy again.

Emptied the dishwasher again. Filled the dishwasher again. Have a few more dishes to put away. Have a large pile of laundry to put away, I'd put away clothes this morning from a previously existing pile of laundry. I wish I liked putting away laundry as much as I like putting groceries away.

I like the whole grocery shopping things, planning meals or having certain things on hand to make meals out of or to feed the mice with that they'll actually eat. We don't run out of food and they are hopefully getting all the nutrients they need. It wouldn't hurt them to eat more vegetables. Or fruit. OTOH, they're not starving.

I could go weed part of the front garden area. Haven't touched that all year in favor of the lawn project. I wonder if the concrete block wall couldn't be extended further towards the street, at a lower level..? And maybe face it with bricks for show. Finish the front how? Face it with bricks. Incorporate the small steps? End with a low wall and leave space for parking? Or opening car doors?

If we keep the house. If we continue living here.

Make a third bathroom for Cassidy, entered through her room. A girl thing. Make the two rooms/bathrooms equal.

Fan for the attic area above the kid's rooms. Also for the garage, something to relieve the heat that gets stuck in there.

That place in Vista (?) for windows someone on the Community Association Board mentioned and recommended. Get at least Cassidy's windows double-paned/double-glazed against the summer heat.

The living room windows on the front door side, the dining room windows, too. Those are the windows the sun directly hits.

If we keep the house I'd like to look into solar panels. It's certainly sunny enough here to consider doing that.

Monday

Did some more laundry, washed some more dishes. I do a lot of laundry and I wash a lot of dishes.

Go pick Flynn up in ten minutes or so.

Pleasant day outside, not too hot. Not in a hurry for the heat to arrive. Trash and recycling were collected and I was thrilled to see the mountain of clutter and garden waste go.

Lawn looks good, transplanted plants appear to be surviving for the moment. Clean everything up. Keep it all organized, keep on top of everything.

Received another notice about a court date, this one 2/3rds of the way through June. Is the May court date postponed? I thought the next date was May 24th or so.

I wonder if we'll get to keep the house? Worry about that sometimes. Maybe we'll have to move somewhere. Wait and see.

Saturday Afternoon

Drove the kids to Diane's house and got home about eleven. Trimmed the rose in the front, trimmed the pine tree, trimmed the bougainvillea, transplanted the shrub that smells like fresh laundry and planted a rose I had in a container. I think I dug it up from the front last spring or two springs ago. Cleaned up the corner area and added some outdoor soil I bought @ Home Depot the other day. Dug that in. Transplanted the volunteer tomato from last year which had been in the planter box. Transplanted a small tomato that had been growing under the larger of the two tea roses. Excavated the tenacious geranium which had been ensconced next to the stairs. Transplanted the smaller tea rose over a bit. Then I transplanted the other one. And watered outside. Took a shower and watered the front lawn area. Feels good to sit down.

Maybe I'll watch a movie and take a nap. Or I could start on dinner. Build a fire and brine the pork tenderloin I bought yesterday. I also have a whole chicken. I was going to roast the chicken tomorrow.

Have a lot of garden debris to dispose of.

I ought to brine the pork and start the fire... then watch a movie. Or not. I have ironing to do and Cassidy's clothes haven't been put away in a while. I get stuck putting laundry away for some reason.

Dozing off in my chair. My back hurts.

Friday Morning

LOTS of birds @ the bird feeder starting @ 5.45. Hungry birds. Many hungry birds. They've been EMPTYING the bird feeder once a day. I had no idea there were so many different kinds of birds around here. I've started buying the 20-pound bags of bird seed.

Friday. I need to get to the market today.

Mac OSX "Tiger" ought to arrive today
Have a new HD
Have a Firewire cable to digitize the camcorder tapes
Have new CDR media and cases
Graphics tablet and Painter on the way
Macromedia Studio MX on the way

At long last ALL the software I have on the computer is 100% legal. Aren't I a responsible citizen!

Donated $250 to Wikipedia the other night. It's tax-deductible. I like Wikipedia. Do I have them on my links page?

Ordering some clothes for Cassidy. She's wearing size 7 and size 8 clothes now. Her shoe size is about 1 1/2 or 2. Flynn is wearing a size 7 or 8 adult shoe now.

Posting through MacJournal 3.1, the new, improved version. Try this with an image and see what it does.

Heavy rain started just after I got home with Cassidy. Just pissing down. Lasted about half an hour, heavy rain. Excellent.

The license plates arrived for the Prius already so I put those on the car. Buying a new car was far easier than I'd imagined it might be.

I'm surprised at the cars I saw advertised in the newspaper that were the same price or less than the Prius, big SUVs or manly pickup trucks... I think the Mini Cooper was cheaper. But the Prius gets excellent mileage. And has a LOT of interior space. Quite pleased with the Prius.

Even though I may have to buy a third tank of gas... eventually.

Rain

Nice surprise. Pretty good rain, too.

Cassidy asked for her green umbrella while we were walking to school. She said that the clear umbrella with polka dots is too small. I had bought the green umbrella for her. Flynn said he can't find his umbrella. Again. I broke out the big automatic umbrella. Got to use the little rear-window wiper on the Prius.

Mac Office arrived in the mail yesterday, along with my license plates, which were a surprise, it took months last time to get the plates. So put those on the Prius later on.

I've been having a difficult time getting out of bed for weeks. Once upon a time I'd jump out of bed at the first alarm. Now I'm resetting the alarm time over and over again until it's nearly six o'clock. Yipes.

Made sausages and hash browns and toast for the mice this morning. A good breakfast.

Scan in the last paper clutter and drawings. Save the kid's artwork. Throw out more stuff. Found some books that got the boot last night. A few I'd like to keep. I threw out my copy of Deadbase. You can access Deadbase on the net, now.

I definitely get the feeling that life is a matter of taking care of the kids and planning for them than it is anything else. I'm excited about the Mac OS revision and getting to see another Dodgers game on television on Friday. I'm very pleased with the lawn. It's felt good to throw things out. Finally part with clutter which had become meaningless over the years. Whitney's notes. Everything goes.

Scan in a LOT of photographs. Then sift through the CDs and get rid of the first iteration of those. Keep photos and music. And drawings/artwork.

I'd like to do something with the drawings. Leave them in a nice complete set. What I saw, what I had to say. Someone might enjoy looking at them someday.

Develop a cartoon strip and submit that. I love to write and that would be an ideal outlet. Tons of money and a tiny bit of graphic design.

Something to consider. The Tiny Islands.

Tempted to get another graphics tablet and Painter. Kind of the final jewel in my software. Excited about winning the Macromedia Studio MX suite later today. Hope my bid is high enough. Retail is nearly $1000. My bid is about $600. The suite includes Flash. Always wanted to learn Flash. And it sounds like Dreamweaver is much better than GoLive.

Digitize the camcorder tapes and see if I can't digitize some old MNF games. Virtually all the movies I like are available on DVD, either commercially or as a hobbyist/collector DVD. DVDs are convenient. Less bulky than tapes. Glad to see the tapes go. The cassettes and tapes got out of hand long ago. I had lots of great stuff. Too much to possibly listen to. I found a web site that archives Dead shows and downloaded 841103 from the Berkeley Civic Center or some small room. Sounds great.

Last week I snagged "Real Cool Yule" and "Papa's On The Housetop" from a Dr. D. site and edited those using a demo version of Peak. I had a commercial copy of Peak for OS9. I wanted those two songs in particular from the cassettes.

Still raining. Pretty hard. Nice rain. I love rain.

What else? Need to look at some bills.

 

A lot of stuff arrived yesterday. New hard drive, CDR media, CD cases... looking forward to receiving a copy of the latest revision to the Mac OS, Tiger, on Friday.

Received a new Firewire cable, digitize the camcorder tapes and get rid of the old camcorder. Don't delete the support files this time, idiot.

Light rain this morning. Baking some sausages, making some hash browns. Feed the mice.

Bidding on a copy of Macromedia Studio MX on eBay. Ordered a couple of books on Flash and Dreamweaver, which sounds superior to GoLive.

Time to go attend to the mice and all that real-life stuff.

 

Monday

Expecting a Firewire cable to be delivered tomorrow. I'll use that to digitize the camcorder tapes. I'm also expecting a file cart with folders to be delivered tomorrow. Made a list of household accounts. Left the $20 filing cabinet out for the recycling. An actual filing cabinet will be useful to keep things organized.

Have several piles of bills and papers on the floor near my desk. I have virtually no clutter left at all. A drawer in the tool chest full of product manuals, another drawer full of photographs and negatives and slides. More photographs in other drawers. A LOT of photographs. A big drawer full of data CDs. But I've really been ruthless about getting rid of stuff this time around. The most productive cleaning frenzy I've ever been in.

The cassettes are going or gone along with a lot of videotapes. I've ordered DVDs of most of the movies I like well enough to want to watch again. Shitty science fiction movies aren't worth collecting or having around. I don't need all kinds of weird clutter. I don't need ANY weird clutter. I could have used a larger trash can.

I didn't put the trash can out last Monday since we were going to go visiting. So I put out some regular trash in a plastic trash bag. And some recycling. Today the trash can was full and heavy. Lots of videotapes and cassettes on top of it.

Looking forward to having the Firewire cable and getting the camcorder tapes digitized. Then get rid of the camcorder and the tapes. Looking forward to the filing cabinet arriving and filing all that stuff away once and for all, logically. I just don't need to save a bunch of weird stuff. And now most of it is gone. Get rid of stuff. Don't acquire more stuff. Have what we need and that's more than enough. No more clutter. Ever.

Scan in the photographs.

Have an external 80Gb drive arriving. The internal HD is nearly full. Amazing. Digitize more photographs. Get rid of the paper photographs.

Still have more cleaning to do in the yard and garden.

Expecting the newest revision to the Mac OS at the end of the week. Play with that next Saturday. Also ordered 100 blank CD-Rs and 100 cases. Go through old CDs and evaluate what I have on them, burn new CDs without the useless crap.

Go through the video games and get rid of the ones the kids don't play any more. Get rid of that clutter. Keep what we use and what we need. Get rid of the rest. We don't need a larger house, we need less clutter.

I set aside a few VHS tapes with MNF games on them, try digitizing those and burning them to DVDs. THEN GET RID OF THE TAPES. Definitely sick of seeing stacks of videotapes and/or cassettes around. Digitize it, takes up no real space that way. Maybe a DVD as a backup. No endless boxes of clutter. No one puzzling about what to do with this trash when I'm dead.

Nearly time to go and collect Cassidy.

 

Mowed the new lawn for the first time. It looks really good. The bare patches hardly show. I re-seeded those patches and added Kellogg's Topper sprinkled over the new seeds. Overall the lawn looks very good, I'm pleased. My suburban lawn.

Diane unfortunately showed up at ten o'clock this morning and collected the kids, they were going to have brunch @ the pancake house with Mike and Pat and then go to Diane's house. So I will collect them at six o'clock from there. I'd rather be at home on Saturday at six. Listening to Garrison Keilor on the radio and watching the Dodgers on television.

Bid on and won a copy of MS Office for Mac OSX. Didn't really need it but at least I'll have an OSX version in my name.

I seem to have erased the support files I needed to play a movie I'd made out of video clips from the ancient camcorder. I'll re-digitize those tapes and put it back together.

Yesterday I moved the blue ice chest out to the garage. The trash can is full of tapes and trash. I plan on emptying the blue ice chest into the trash can once the trash is collected on Monday. That will be it for the cassettes.

Maybe I'll find time this afternoon to attack the filing cabinet and the tool chest and try and get rid of more clutter. And the pile of stuff in the garage. Go through that as well.

Five hours and twenty minutes until I pick the kids up.