N. GA Restaurant Review

I keep forgetting to do this - since like December.

Best New Restaurant in N. GA - Thai Dish, Spout Springs Road, Flowery Branch

We just got a little strip shopping center across from the Publix store, and out front for months was a sign saying "Coming Soon: Thai Dish". Now, I have become quite a connoisseur of Thai food in recent years, and we have an excellent one down the road in the Kroger Shopping Center, Green Tea (Patrick Dempsey eats there when he's visiting friends over in Chateau Elan), but hey, two options is always better than one, so I eagerly awaited the opening. Finally, it came; I was next door at the drug store, and I ran over and grabbed a menu to take home, and got a peek around inside. Nice dining room - colored walls, dark tables and chairs with nice accents on the tables (might've been candles - it was 4:00 in the afternoon, and nothing was lit yet). I told the guy at the counter that I wanted a menu, and that I would call as soon as I got home Friday night - I couldn't wait to try it. The guy was very nice.

I got the menu home and spent quite some time looking at it; I couldn't believe how extensive it was. Although, to be fair, I usually get Thai food for lunch, so most of the places I go for my weekly lunch out at work probably have a very limited lunch menu; one place only has 2-3 things that aren't sushi or seafood, and for those of us that don't eat seafood, that's not much variety. So Friday arrived, and after perusing the menu for the 10th time, I decided to try the Himalai - cashew chicken, with the 2-star option for hot level (out of 5). The guy on the phone was very personable, and was happy to answer my questions about the menu, and said "Okay, good, see you in about 10-15 minutes!" I went to pick it up, and it was done right as I walked in the door. They had only been open not even a week yet, so there wasn't much going on in the dining room - you know how it takes a couple of weeks for people to get to a new place. I got the food home, and opened up the little plastic box, and was pleasantly surprised; all of the veggies were julienned, and it was so pretty, and the cashews were huge! I scooped out some rice, and piled some himalai right on top, and sat down to enjoy.

Man, it was absolutely perfect! The veggies had the perfect crispness to them, despite how thin they were cut; the chicken pieces were all tender and had big bits and little bits, and the cashews, well, they were huge! I love cashews! The hot was perfect, too - I hate food so damn hot that you can't taste anything; I like spice for flavor, not with the intent to burn all taste buds beyond recognition. After a few bites, my nose was running, and my lips were burning, but my mouth was in heaven! I went back to the box for seconds, and then the boys walked in; I had to let them have a little, but let me tell you, I wanted to eat the whole thing.

We have been back several times since, and have not been disappointed yet. We have added Thai sweet & sour to our list of favorites, and I've sampled a soup or two - all delish! I want to actually eat in the dining room one night, just for atmosphere, if nothing else. They seem to have a full house now on Friday and Saturday nights - that's good. If I had any complaint, it would be that the portions could be a tiny bit bigger for the $10 price tag on most of the entries, which come with only steamed rice. But that is part of why I want to eat in, to see if the dining room portions are more reasonable; carry-out containers only hold so much, and I'm sure they don't want people complaining about spills and such if the pack them.

So if you find yourself in the Flowery Branch area, and hungry for something different, stop by the Thai Dish - there is sure to be somehting on the menu to please anyone's appetite for adventure!

Rating: 5 Margarita glasses out of 5 (perhaps they should be sake cups?)

Today's Pollen Count: 3120

Not much going on lately - soccer games, end of quarter/end of year fun & games at work, etc. Indoor soccer at the Boys & Girls Club finally ended; we are the Champions, and we didn't get booed this year. The Final game went down to a shootout again, just like last year; man that was a good game. We're glad it's over, though - just too much going on. School soccer will be done this time next week - we have 1 more regular game, Monday, then the school tourney; I bet we'll be out of it pretty quick.

It was pretty embarrassing this past Saturday. We had a game way the hell down in Peachtree City, and I had my usual tag-alongs. Well, they finally won a game, and to celebrate, Monish invited the whole team over to his house to hang out - his dad is an oncologist = cool toys. So Big Kid piles into their van, along with 6-7 others, and there are 3 kids left that won't fit, so I volunteer to haul them back and take them to Mo's. It was my two Mexi kids, plus the Canadian kid. Apparently, I have the Foreign car. Anyway, on the way back, my two regulars I guess have absolutely no fear of being themselves in front of me, so every time we had to come to a stop, and there happened to be another Mexican in a car at the same stop, they would hang out the windows and yell "Hey, Beaner! Beaner, Beaner!" (as well as writing their cell #s on their hands and waving at all the girls). I couldn't believe they were using the word beaner - I haven't heard that since my cousin used to always make beaner and wetback jokes. I guess the Hispanics use that word to each other like black people use the N word. I was trying to not laugh, and I told them not to do anything to get the Driver shot - they said "That beaner ain't got no gun". To which I replied "This is Georgia - everybody has a gun". It was an odd hour and a half. Oh, and the Canadian kid played drums all over the inside of the car on the way back.

I have been getting my Relay for Life orders done and delivered; I did all of the single strand sets (5) and to their owners last week, then got 1 set of Twisters done and delivered this week. I was almost done with the 2nd set of twisters last night, but the margaritas were calling so I stopped; she will be gone all next week. Crap - I should've just finished up and brought them in today, so she'd have them. Oh well, she'll get them when she gets back. As soon as I get those done, then I have 3 multi-strands to do, and Relay for Life orders are complete.

On the stitching front, I haven't really worked on anything except stash enhancement - been beading. I have two of Patricia Allison's Seasonal dragons coming, and 2 Long Dog Samplers, and I joined a silk thread-of-the-month club - I got my first order the other day. I love silk - threads, clothes, whatever. I also joined a hand-dyed fabric-of-the-month club form Silkweavers, and got my first delivery of that - it is the perfect piece of fabric, in shades of blue, to do a dragonfly design I just acquired. I am going to add some of the new DMC Light Effects flosses to it, too. I am seriously considering, now, doing my Scarlet Quince unicorn with DMC floss; I don't have time or energy to drive all over GA, looking for needlework shops that have selection, to do my DMC-to-silk conversions, and the cost would just be so very high. It's nice if I can add silks to these smaller projects, but something this big, especially with my concerns of keeping it clean for the massive amount of time it will take me to complete it; if I do it in DMC, I know I will be able to wash it, with no worry of bleeding, since I have never had one do so yet. And I really just want to start it; the fabric is gridded, just waiting for a frame to put it in and me to kit up the threads. I really need to finish the Castle first, though; maybe once I get this little Dragonflies...Oh My done, I can switch back and forth on the castle and unicorn, until I get the castle done. Depends on how swamped I get with beads this fall. I haven't put in a stitch for 2 weeks because of beads, so this fall might never see me stitching. We shall see.

I have been wrapped up in a couple of Yahoo stitching groups - they are the reason for all of this stash enhancement I have been doing. I cannot believe that I don't know anybody else personally that stitches; at least, thanks to the internet, I can talk to people who are even more obsessed than I am with it. I have this one particular designer, Martina Weber of Chatelaine Designs, whose work I just absolutely love; her designs are so unique. But she uses so many different kinds of specialty fibers and beads (oh, yeah, I need more beads); her kits are $$$$. A couple of the really intricate ones are over $200 for the whole deal - chart, fabric, fibers, beads. I just can't justify spending that much money on something I don't have time to work on. They are beautiful when done, and I will eventually have at least one, but it might have to wait until I'm not having to buy cleats every 12 weeks, and school clothes, and all that. I have also added a Multiply site to my list of web ventures; one of the groups created a Multiply site so we could post pictures of our works all in one place, but I want to get my page together, as well, just so I have another place to put pictures & stuff. Webshots is getting full, and if I ever get my retail site up, a lot of that content will not be anywhere but on the retail site. In my spare time.

As you can tell from the title of this post, Allergy Season Has Arrived. WHOOOPPPIIIEEE! It doesn't bother me too bad, though there was something out there week before last that hasn't been around for several years that had my head totally messed up, and achey and fatigued. It's gone now, whatever it was, but Little Kid's trials with pine pollen are just beginning. Fortunately, it is raining every few days this year, so far, so hopefully we won't break the 6000ppm mark this year, and maybe we can squeak through one more year without him turning into a giant booger with hives. It's hard on the kid that likes to be outside that outside is poisonous to him for 6 weeks out of the year, especially when we make him stay in so he can stand to go to practice or a game. Maybe he'll grow out of it before long - they say people's allergies are constantly changing, so it could happen. Come on May!!!

That's about it for now. A lot going on, but not a lot worth relaying. Soccer, beads, thread, laundry, dishes - SSDD.

Death in the Family

I hate our neighbors. When we bought our house, the builder told us no one would ever build on the lot next to us, because the whole subdivision drains into it. SO of course, a couple years after we were there, another builder bought the land and put a house on it. Then a huge family moves in; mom, dad, group of kids, animals. And they have a school bus. Ordinarily, that would not be a big deal, but you have to realize that this driveway is so steep, I do not see how that bus is ever going to come up out of there, and daily? I guess they managed it, but I don't know how many times they had to replace the transmission in it during that time.

Right after they moved in, the dad planted a whole bunch of little pine tree seedlings along our property line. And then he began this huge garden structure along the length of his driveway - you know, the timbers and raised planting beds and all that type of stuff. The shovel lived in it for almost a year, and he only got about 15'long and 5' high when he quit the first time. A couple years later he finished it, but to this day, there is like one lone lily living in all of it. And the pine trees are all grown up to where the power line comes off the pole at the street and runs to their house - he planted directly below that line, and I'm sure he will be quite indignant when the power company comes and hacks all of his stupid trees down.

The dad knows almost as much about mowing and lawn mowers as he does about flower gardening; there is a spot of grass out by the street, where the storm drain is, that is the only flat spot in either of our yards. 85% of that spot is on our side. He has his mower set to the lowest possible setting, so basically leaves just the dirt when he's done - you know, so he only has to mow 2-3 times a summer - and he butchers that spot down to the dirt. We leave ours pretty tall, so it stays thick (if you can get grass to grow on a hill made of GA clay, you better not mess with it more than necessary), so Grass Slayer next door leaves this huge bald spot in our yard every time he bothers to mow. And he has two dead riding mowers in his yard - I guess he can't push them to the garage.

They also have a mini van that they use for storage. It hasn't been tagged for years, and he'll park it up on the street, in that flat spot which is mostly ours, until Hall County Sheriff stops to remind him you can't have unlicensed vehicles parked there. Then he'll get it back down in the kudzu, until the next time he tries to sneak it back up to the street. And they have a huge white 1970's Cadillac in various states of disrepair; it is now home, after spending a few days on the side of the interstate - it parks where the bus used to be. I don't know why they just don't put a big-ass sign out in their yard that says "Hey, we're BLACK!!!!"

Their oldest child was selling drugs out of Wal Mart - he always seemed to volunteer to go out and get the carts and bring them in - usually after receiving a call or page. Don't know where he is now. Their other son is a member of a gang, became a teenage father, and may or may not be selling drugs when he is over there (I assume he lives with his gang/mother of his child?). I thought the daughters were okay; they were very involved in their church and school (they are Jehovah's Witness, BTW), and they were always pretty friendly towards us. I have no idea where they are now - I assume at least one still lives there, but we never see anyone over there, so who knows? A grey Mazda is sometimes parked on the flat spot when the van isn't being stored there, and I did see her try to get out of there without rolling it down the hill once, but that was a while ago.

When they moved in, they had a huge black dog, all hair; looked like a black Irish Setter - Gordon Setter? Something like that. That dog lived in the crawl space under the house for a while, and then they put it on 2' of rope and tied it to a tree in the woods (no water, that I could see). Then I didn't see that dog any more. Then they got one of those stupid ankle biters, a Pomeranian? One of those fru-fru dogs. She always ran lose, and always went in our garage and ate the trash if we left the door up. Then something happened to that dog, and they got another one. That dog ran lose almost all of the time, unless they tied her up to a tree in the woods. Then they got what was supposed to be a Golden Retriever; she might've been, but not totally. Her name was Maggie, and she became very good friends with our dog, Otto. Over the past few years, she probably spent 80% of her free time in our yard; Little Kid was always playing with her, and she would wait with him every morning to get on the bus. She barked at the cats, she ate all of Otto's food and drank all of his water. We are pretty sure she had a litter of his puppies, too - she had somebody's, anyway (there was a strange black dog hanging around for 2-3 days, and got in a couple of really bad fights with Otto, then we never saw him again, so I assume she was in heat then). We don't know what happened to the pups - we never saw them, just her with her teats hanging down to the ground and looking a little worse for wear. She was probably more our dog than theirs, since we paid attention to her, and she to us. She played with all of us, but I couldn't actually pet her unless I was sitting on the deck and she would come up there; if I was out in the yard, she would bark and pounce at me, but I couldn't actually touch her - Little Kid could, and think DH could, but not me. Anyway, I just started calling her our "other dog" or our surrogate dog. I even thought several times of either asking them if we could just keep her, or sending them a bill for dog food.

One day last week, as I left for work, and got up to the main road, there she was, and she just about got smashed by a bus. I rolled the window down and told her to go home, and she headed off that way. That night when I got home, she was out in the yard waiting for us, and as soon as rolled the window down and said her name, she trotted after us down the drive to the garage, which she just kinda started to do one day. She was all over the neighborhood all weekend - she supervised us packing up for games, carrying in the groceries, etc. The cats didn't even make a big deal about her anymore; she'd become a fixture. Yesterday morning, the phone was ringing just as I was starting to get dressed; DH called to tell me Maggie had finally gotten hit, up on the main road, and was dead. I hate those people. All they had to do was take a little bit of care with her, or any of their animals, for that matter, and they didn't, and now our other dog is gone. I'm not even mad at whoever hit her; she was totally stupid the way she would just run out in any road, though our street is not quite as bad as the main road. She chased cars, just ran for the heck of it, whatever; her time was coming to get hit, but I fully expected her to get hurt on our street, not killed outright up there on the main road where people fly at 50 or better. I hate those people that live next us.

She had been moved by the time we got home from work yesterday, but I really can't believe it was our lovely neighbors. DH thinks it was one of the guys at the shop on the corner - she was laying right by their parking area. I just can't see our neighbors taking the responsibility of moving her, although, I have no idea what happened with all of the other dogs, either. I was looking for a dirt patch in their yard, but since it is pretty much all dirt, I didn't see anything fresh-looking. I really hate those people. They are unofficially known as the "Black Jehovah's Witness Redneck Gang-members", BTW; now I need to figure out how to work in Animal Neglectors and still have it roll off the tongue nicely. I really hate those people; if they hadn't already done it once, and I could get away with it, I'd burn their house down, and maybe they wouldn't come back this time (the last time, they caught their house on fire because the builder failed to actually connect the fireplace to the chimney all the way up, so the fireplace/chimney went up - the second time they had ever used it, and they got a whole new top level on their house. They were gone for a year, waiting for that mess to get completed. It was nice then). I really want to know who took care of my other dog, and where she is, and I really want to go over there and tell them "No more animals". I would've called someone on them several times before, except that our dog isn't exactly "up to code", either; he's never been to a vet, for anything, and is probably the healthiest animal in the county. We haven't done the required shot(s); if he was an indoor dog, he would be "maintained", but as he's a smelly old outdoor dog who never leaves the yard (he's gotten lose 10-12 times in 12 years, maybe), we just have never bothered. You know, like in the old days, before Animal Rights people started dictating everyone's daily lives.

I hate those people next door, and I miss seeing that old yellow dog running around the yard. Now, if Big Kid won't go out in the woods with Little Kid, who will? She looked out for him, and Otto would probably just take off (he likes the school up the street when he's lose - lotsa kids there to play with). He's too old to train now, and we really don't have that kind of time. I want my other dog back.

When Seasons Collide

Surprise, another soccer post. It's just that soccer seems to be all-consuming right now, even though it has really just started. Big Kid has not yet finished his indoor soccer league, is in his 3rd week of Middle School ball, and has completed the season-opening tournament and Week 1 of club. Little Kid has completed Week 1 of Academy.

Big Kid is sick, as am I, but I am getting over it, slowly; I don't know if he is, or not. He whines every morning about everything hurting, but he seems to be okay to play and to be on the phone and the computer. HHHMMMM. It's a cold - suck it up - what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right? Of course, if the person across the hall from me at work would have the courtesy to 1) stay home when sick as a dog, instead of coming in here hacking all over the place, and 2) wash your hands, frequently, especially when sick (she tells people she doesn't believe in it - you know, like other 15-16th century peoples). If she hadn't contaminated the whole damn place, I wouldn't have been sick twice in 3 weeks, and I wouldn't have taken it home with me. I was really hoping, being in a new building with new air, we'd all stay well this season; apparently, I was expecting too much of my co-workers.

Back to soccer; Big Kid was out of school for 2 1/2 days last week, missed his Friday school game, but played both club games this weekend. We had no subs Saturday - were almost having to play one short, because we have kids who are hurt/going through the growth spurt knee pains thing. We played our toughest team Saturday, and held them 1-1. Sunday, we should've walked all over that team - they sucked - , and we were up 2-0 at one point, but we fell flat. The boys were all exhausted and couldn't run anymore. That game ended up 3-3, when it should've been 3-0 or more. We all got in trouble for letting the boys all play school ball. The stupid thing is, our coach said way last fall that he was going to call each coach himself and clear it so that they only participated in the club practices on those 2 days - not school and club both. But he didn't call any but his (surprise) and then with 5 schools to deal with, half of the scheduled games are occurring on practice nights, and if they try to make up the practices on other nights, then there are games for others on those nights. So basically, the games are okay at this point (that may change), but the boys are not supposed to be going to any school practices at all. It's way too much. One of the boys played 3 school games last week, after our 3-game tournament weekend, then 2 game weekend; that is entirely too much. But he also enjoys playing school ball more, so maybe he needs to decide if he comes back for tryouts this summer. I'm just curious what other Select teams do with the boys who want to play for school, too - surely they don't all disallow it? I have no idea, though I could see it at some of those bigger clubs. As far as soccer goes, college recruiters look at clubs, not schools, so to disallow school play makes sense; but do they? Maybe some school systems are a little more understanding and tolerant of the "real" soccer, and can accommodate the requirements; several counties don't have soccer in the schools (yet), so maybe that's the difference. I guess we'll think more about it next year, if we survive this year.

On the Hobby Front, I am now official - I got my business license last week. Now if the website was done... I only owe a couple more pieces of data, but they aren't relevant to the business part, so they can wait until what I've already done is up and published. I'm going to be really pissed if I have to renew the paper in December and haven't made enough money from the site to cover it. I had a show at work last Friday, taking orders for Mother's Day gifts, with 15% of the sales going to Relay for Life; it wasn't quite the turnout I was expecting, and I don't know if it was because the outside vendors that were in here a few weeks back turned every body off, or if there just wasn't interest. No idea, but I'm suspecting that it wasn't worth the time/trouble to organize; they'll end up getting $60 out of it for RfL, unless I top it off a little more - it depends on how much it will cost me to get all of the stuff in. Oh well, at least it was a tiny bit of exposure, and a few days later, people are still commenting about it. And I should be able to open the necessary business bank account, so I can get the website PayPal account verified. In case he ever needs to put the PayPal info up there. In case he gets that far.

In the meantime, I really want to be stitching, but I just have not had much time, being at games 4 out of every 7 days. I did join a monthly silk floss club from Stitching Bits and Bobs - I didn't get in on it in time for the last shipment, so I have to wait until the end of this month to get the first one - I cannot wait! Once school soccer is over, I see a lot more time for stitching, if I can ever get a handle on the laundry. I did manage to get my Scarlet Quince Unicorn fabric gridded; I've never done that before, so we'll see if it was worth my time - I don't see how it couldn't be, but with the projects I have done so far, I've managed without it. I would just assume that this being the long project I expect it to be, at least the gridding will help me figure out where I left off if I put it down for periods of time, as I am sure to do. Some of these folks have rotations with tens of projects going; I wish I had the space to do something like that, but just the amount of time taken to switch everything out, even once a week or every couple, is more than I feel I can spare now. I don't have room to keep stuff organized for more than the 1-2 that I have going now. That's a goal for when I am independently wealthy, I guess. I sure hope that's soon.

Little Kid turned 9 a week ago Sunday; we had just us together, after the day's soccer was over, of course, though Big Brother's team got a few Birthday whacks in before he managed to wiggle free. Big Kid's day is coming up - 16 days from now. I haven't gotten him one thing yet. I haven't had time. I don't even know what he wants, besides more games that he doesn't have time to play. I want him to get a haircut, but I don't see it happening. And an attitude adjustment; his teenagerism has been especially bad the past few days that he's been sick; well, I haven't been particularly pleasant, either - that's what happens when everyone around you is deaf and you have to repeat everything you say, when you've only got enough air for the first time. And no sleep.

Enough - I don't have time for this idle chatter! Games to watch, laundry to do!!!

Where does the time go?

Man, the past couple of weeks have been total chaos. I don't really have much to show for my efforts, either, which is pretty annoying. Work has been hectic, but it's been a bunch of testing for our planned system upgrades. I hate testing, because it is so open-ended; you start with a plan, and something breaks, then you wait for days for somebody you've never seen to fix it, then you either repeat the exercise, to prove it's fixed, or move on to the next step, and then it breaks again, and so on. There is no closure, no "done" to the process; even when the system upgrade is done, it's just a few weeks before somebody somewhere decides we need to add more stuff, so we get to test that against what we just figured out. Man, I hate it. It just seems like such a huge waste of time to me; I know it isn't, it has to be done, but it definitely is not my thing. It's a never-ending pile of failure. Sadly, I have the skills for testing and troubleshooting that kind of stuff, but I do not have the patience for it. Part of it is, it trickles down to me from the boss, but the actual communications about what is going on don't; 9 times out of 10, I don't have all of the information I need, so I either do 4x more than necessary, or totally not enough, or start in the wrong place. And all of the communications come out of the California office, so we have this huge time-delay thing that we have to contend with, and it just drives me totally insane. I am just such a do-it-now, don't-stop-until-you're-done person, that a 3-hour wait time is just about more than I can bear most days - and 3 hours is the best case scenario, and rare. Whatever, I guess; I get paid the same whether I am sitting and waiting for something to do it's thing, or actually getting something done.

I have been trying to get website stuff together and done the last couple of weeks. We are making progress. I have given my web guy a bunch of data; he just has to figure out how to put it up there the right way. I have some more to do; for some reason, I seem to be having trouble writing a bio for myself. The one here on the blog is okay, but I need something more detailed for my site, and I just can't seem to build on what I have. I need to do it in such a way that I toot my own horn without appearing to do so, which is tricky, and success probably depends entirely on the reader. And I want to tie in my cross stitch and AF stuff without distracting from the BUY MY JEWELRY message. Gee, I don't usually have trouble talking about myself (as I am sure people will agree); this ought to be a no-brainer.

Also, I volunteered to have a jewelry show here at work in March, to take orders for Mother's Day gifts, with 10% of each sale going to Relay for Life. So I've been planning that, which kinda goes in conjunction with getting the web stuff together; as I plan to be organized and open for business for this show, that gets me that much closer to having the finer details for the site worked out. I need to take an afternoon off in the next couple of weeks to go get my license done; what a big cash layout for a stupid piece of paper. And I need to get a PO Box, for contact info on the site, but I don't have the funds right now - they aren't cheap. That will come after the show, I hope. I have been making color samples for the show, which will also be photographed, as soon as I figure out how to display them. The multi-strand necklaces have a huge color choice - like over 100 colors, so that'll have to be a doc, which I made; I need to get some good glossy card stock to print that out on. I'm going to try the printer at work - my printer at home doesn't do the orange and reds very well, though the blues and greens look great. HMMM?? I figure this show will be a good indication of whether or not I'm out of my mind to try doing this business-thing. We'll just see what happens, I guess. Hopefully I'll get some interest in it, but also hopefully not more than I can possibly handle. We'll see.

I joined a new Yahoo cross stitch group, BAPXS, and let me tell you, I am one of a very few stitchers that only has one project going at a time. So, I have begun my Scarlet Quince design, Maiden & Unicorn: Sense of Hearing (sm). Now, by beginning, I mean I have bought the fabric - 22ct white Aida (hardanger fabric, I believe) - and have almost completed the gridding of it, into 10x10 squares - 1308 of them, to be exact. I have never gridded before, but I think it will probably prove to be a very useful tool; maybe if I had done that on my carousel horse, I wouldn't have screwed up the leaves in the border. Of course, I can't find that mistake anymore, so I guess it doesn't matter. If I can get it done tonight, I will put a picture of it up in my Webshots album. I am going to bring it to work so one of the girls can zig-zag the one long edge, since my machine just won't, and I don't feel like struggling with it to try to make it. Then DH will have to get my scroll frame built for it - none of the bars I can find locally will accommodate this huge thing. Then I will have to make extra-special effort to get to a needlework store, so I can start looking at threads; I really want to do this in silk, but I will have to do the conversion from DMC myself. My group has given me lots of insight on what to look at, it's just getting to a store that has what I need, since I don't have one in less than an hour's drive from home. It will have to be a "trip", and as outdoor soccer officially starts next weekend, I need another trip in my future. But it can't be done in any way other than in person, so hopefully one of the games will get me near a shop, and they don't mind boys in cleats being bored out of their minds for a couple of hours. If I can get DH to let me stay long enough to take care of it. Maybe it'll be a game where I am with Big Kid, and he's with Little Kid, and all I have to do is listen to Big Kid bitch and moan. Not sure that's better....

Speaking of soccer, we are already ridiculously busy with it. Big Kid made his middle school team (of course), so he is practicing that and outdoor Club soccer, and his indoor season isn't over yet, either, though they aren't practicing (everybody on the team is too busy at their other practices). The school team practices are good, in that they are doing things we aren't doing at the club, but our particular coach is working on his Master's, so on Thursday's, he can't have practice after school, so it is before school, at 6:30 am. So Big Kid gets up around 5:30, goes to practice, then school, then gets picked up and goes to practice with his dad and brother, then his practice is at 6:30 pm, and ends at 8:00. That is a long day, and hopefully he gets some homework done in there somewhere. And a lot of his games will be on Fridays, so with that practice schedule, he's going to be really tired for his "real" games on the weekend - he's on the school team just to get his picture in the yearbook, and the girls, I guess. Because he needs more girls chasing him around. My god, my son is a jock; how did that happen? I guess since I didn't really fit in any one particular niche in school, that it was possible I could produce a jock; it's just weird. And who knows if Little Kid won't follow right behind him; he might. Well, anyway, 4 months, and we'll be over for a few weeks. I look forward to the games themselves, but all the driving, and waiting, and weather, I could skip all of that. I assume it will be arctic next weekend at our big tournament; as usual, we have 8:00 games on Saturday and Sunday both (we have never not had the first game - do we have a sign over us that says we all like to get up and leave the house at 5:30 am on game day? I don't think so), so we'll go out and break up the frost for everyone else. Of course, maybe we'll be out there before the wind comes up, too, but standing on frosty ground for 2 hours sucks - once the feet get cold, the rest is lost. Oh, and by arctic, of course I mean 40 - anything below 80 is intolerable to me, you know. That's why I don't live in Ohio anymore....

Winter Work

Geez, it's been a while since I was in here for a post. Work has been pretty hectic, and I'm managing to keep busy at home, as always. I have been making great progress on my cross stitch project, TW's Castle Triptych; I've tried to spend at least an hour a day on it, though haven't the last few days, as I have a seed bead multi-strand necklace for myself, and one for someone at work, to get done. I just always see so much progress after having put a stitchery down for awhile then picking it back up. I guess when it gets to be slow, it is good to put it down for a bit and work on something else.

Soccer updates: Little kid's regular season is over after tomorrow night's game, then he has a championship tournament; I think they are sitting in 3rd right now. Big kid's indoor just started 2 weeks ago, and it is becoming quite the controversy. He plays at the Boys & Girls Club, with one of our Select players' dad's as the coach; we played there last year, and had a really good time. The issue is, we are the only team that plays there that has any white kids on it. It's half-Hispanic, including our coach and his son (sons, last year - his younger one was just not big enough to play with us this year, since the Big kids are starting those growth spurts), but literally, we are the only white people in the building, ever. And we are dominating, again. Last year, everything was okay, right up until the awards ceremony, where our goalie won an award for least goals against, and he got booed, and the team got their second-place trophies (our season was undefeated, but the championship game was late Sunday, after we all raced across Georgia from our 3rd game in the season-opening Outdoor tournament - we were wiped out, so lost by 1 to a team we had crushed during regular season play), and they got booed again. SO this year, as soon as we walked in, they knew who we were. It's been kinda tense, and after our first game, people were demanding, because of all of our training (available to anybody who wants to put up the money), we had to play up an age group. Well, Coach RC got us out of that, but last week, we played a team that were the champs last year, one age group below us, who are playing up this year so they can get some competition. They saw us, and tried to play their 7 against our 5. They got talked out of that. They lost, but at half-time, they found a really big kid to play defense, and second half, they dropped our goals from 9 scored to 3. He didn't help them score, but he did help keep us from scoring so many. So Sunday we got a call from RC, and he has to produce everyone's birth certificate now, even though they are all on record in order to register for the team. Whatever. I guess I can understand it to a degree; it is their turf, and we should probably play where the rich kids are playing (where Little Kid plays), but since half or more of our team is from their community, are they just being poor sports? I don't know. Something about bringing a gun to a knife fight comes to mind, but not sure what to do with that. Only time will tell, and if it gets rough, we will just not go, I guess. Outdoor and Middle School are about to collide, anyway; I see February being absolutely crazy, with Big Kid playing 3 places, and Little Kid playing 2 (when outdoor practices start). I'm praying for a few rain-outs - is that wrong?

I got my big memory card (512Mb) for my camera in the mail this week, so now I can go kill my battery and play with it. I loaded a bunch of my jewelry pictures to my Webshots account; my website has made no progress, as my IT guy has been home sick for 2 weeks. I finished my turquoise and coral piece, and redid my earrings once; I'm still not really sure I like the earrings - they are monstrously heavy. Sadly, I really have nothing to wear my turquoise with. Just incentive for me to find something, I guess. Western wear is supposed to be big this year, so I should be able to find something. Something other than boots; I can find those all over the place, and they aren't cheap. I could have a different pair of boots for every day of the week (including boot-style shoes). DH got me a cool pair for Christmas a few years ago, but I don't wear them very often because they have almost 4" heels on them. I can't even drive in them, and I can't wear them with him, because then I'm taller than him, and we can't have that. I wear them to work occasionally, but 9 hours is a long time in heels like that (foot cramps suck). If they were 2-2 1/2", I'd wear them a couple times a week, at least. Maybe I'll get another every-day pair this year. Dillard's has the best shoe department out of any store I've ever been in; they have better stuff than just shoe stores do, including DSW. How did I get from memory card to boots? Oh, never mind.

Not much else going on; have a group bead buy going on, but I'm not getting very much. I am going to do myself a pearl and coral design, and other than some string and a couple of clasps for stock, that's about it, this time around. I've told a couple of people at work that I'm doing a buy, so if they want anything in particular, let's plan it now. There's a bead show here next weekend, but I don't really have any money to spend, so don't know if I'll bother, or not. Maybe just go look around; is that even possible? Just looking forward to reading books, cross stitching, and doing beads here and there. And waiting for warmer weather.

Oh, yeah, I started taking Pilates here at work. Since I have never done any organized exercise outside of Basic Training (almost 20 years ago), it's way past due. The very first day, I was a little achey, and today, I'm feeling it. Or to be more specific, my ass is feeling it. It's only been a couple of weeks, and though I don't feel my abs are much improved, I can already tell that I don't jiggle in some of the places that were jiggly before. My abs feel improved on the inside, but there is no outward appearance of change yet. Imagine a couple of months of this; I might actually make a difference. Once I get some groundwork with Pilates, and we get a trainer on staff, I'll start doing some weight training to compliment. But I will never, NEVER, walk on a treadmill. OMG, how boring can that possibly be? Why not just go outside and walk, where there's something to see? I could just never walk in place (and running is out of the question - I am not built for speed, I am built for cruising. Hello! I joined the AF instead of the Army for a reason). Anyway, just another thing to incorporate into my schedule, though this class is at lunch, so pretty good deal; no shower required after. Because I need a few more things to do each day before I go to sleep.

Now, just trying to keep everyone well. Little Kid went to the doctor last week; he said he got punched in the stomach the Friday before last, and was kinda whiney about it all that weekend, but we didn't really think much about it. Then he got sick, once, in the middle of the night on Monday (tomato soup - how do you get that out of carpet?), and was whiney each morning about it, and if his brother was picking on him. Again, we didn't pay much attention. Then Thursday, he was in tears shortly after I got him up, so I brought him to work, thinking I would get him in to the doctor as soon as I could get an appointment. As soon as we walked into my office, he threw up in the trash, so we left again right after I made his appointment. The doc thought he just might have a trauma to the sphincter muscle at the esophagus, so treated it like reflux - with Zantac - and it would either get better or worse. Well, by Saturday, he had diarrhea, but so did his brother. So was he really hurt from the punch, or did he just have a bug and it took that long to go through his system in all its forms, or both? I have no idea. He's been well the past 3 days, so whatever it was appears to be over. And pollen season will be here by the end of February - last year was rough on Little Kid, and we switched some meds around, but still didn't really find the magic combination. A couple more years of this, and we will be forced to move away from here; misery for 2 months is just not worth it, a lot of days. My back hurts all the time, but other than that, I think I am pretty healthy; I don't like to be around sickly people. I don't seem to have a lot of sympathy; genetics, or just can't relate?

Until next time, C-ya!!

What is News?

What passes for news in this country is getting totally out of hand. As I was watching TV last night, waiting for the new CSI to come on, our local CBS news shrunk the regular programming down, and added a second picture, of a church fire somewhere in Atlanta. This picture was larger than the regular program, although, thankfully, there was no one talking over the regular show, as well. About every 10-15 minutes, they would do that, updating the fact that the building was still burning. 1) What is the significance of this particular fire? Things catch on fire every day, but we don't see every fire covered on the 6:00 news, let alone as "Breaking News" during primetime. I'm not sure if maybe they weren't trying to go back to that church fire 30-some years ago, deliberately set, where those girls died, or more recent church fires; that's fine, but what if it was just a plain old fire? Do we really need to make controversy out of it as it's happening? 2) To what purpose do we keep getting updates? Are we all supposed to rush down there and help take care of it? We can all plainly see the fire crews doing their work in each of the live feeds; I'm pretty sure 98% of us would have nothing helpful to add. And the other 2% are likely to be in the way. Assuming any of us could even find it - I have no clue where it was. 3) The text continued to say, during each update, that the fire will be fully investigated. No shit? Wow, investigating a fire; what a concept! Uh, Retards, I think they pretty much do that with EVERY fire when we don't know how it started. I would assume someone DID NOT call 911 and say something like "I dropped a lit candle in a trash can, and now the church is on fire - please help!", so yeah, it's going to be investigated. Thanks, Captain Obvious. They did that another time, when there was a huge wreck on the interstate, and lanes were shut down (which, BTW, is pretty much a daily occurence here). First, the people that might need to know what's going on are sitting out there in the traffic and probably don't have TVs (unless that was what started the wreck, in which case, well, you had it coming, didn't you?). Second, in case someone somewhere was waiting for someone to get home from work, and they were really late, is it more likely they were in front of the TV than to be near a phone? Since I was like one of the last people in the Greater Atlanta Area to get a cell phone, I'm pretty sure 95% of the people involved were in communication with someone. And again, what was the point of broadcasting it, repeatedly? Are the cops and emergency people in need of assistance? Considering the shitty traffic, it's pretty unlikely that I would be able to get to them in time to help. I suppose I could have phoned in some help, if I knew who to call - "First, get the injured people out and off to hospitals. Second, have cops take pictures, talk to witnesses, collect what evidence you would ordinarily collect from a wreck, then get those vehicles moved off the road. Get traffic moving. WOOHOO - that'll be $500, consultation fee. Plus I want to be on TV." And how do they cover the cost of the fuel for the chopper hovering over it for 3-4 hours? It's called SAT-UR-A-TION, or my more favorite term, Maximum Density. Enough, people.

Then, after CSI was over, DH started flipping (as usual), and came across one of the news channels covering the mining disaster in WVa. Up on the screen was one of the notes one of the miners wrote to his loved ones in his final hours (I have no idea if it was by the one survivor, or one of the deceased). I about threw up; that is nobody's damn business! OH. MY. GOD. What bastard "newsperson" thought that would be a nice touch, to add a personal touch to the story? And what money-grubbing redneck family member sold out, and how much did they get? Getting new wheels for the doublewide, are ya? Going all out and getting the JD instead of the Mad Dog 20/20 or Thunderbird? WTF? And the other morning, when my favorite, Diane "I whine for money" Sawyer was covering the survivor story, they of course cut over to one of the bereaved family members, and the sound bite they decided to go with was her (didn't get a tooth count, though I'm pretty sure I saw some gaps) yelling "I'm gonna sue!!!"
Now don't get me wrong; I am very sorry that it happened, and the whole fiasco about the wrong news getting to the waiting families was inexcusable, but that's kind of my whole point here, isn't it? If somebody would have shut up for a minute, thought about what they were doing before they just had to pick up their stupid cell phone and start talking about something that was still unclear, as though it were clear, then maybe those families could have been saved all of that emotional distress. And why is it, when anything happens to anybody anywhere in this country, the first damn words out of everyone's mouth is "I'm gonna sue!"? Who knows, maybe were I in their shoes, I would do the same thing. No, I would probably wig out, but suing someone would not be my first impulse. In fact, I would probably have to be talked into it, and god knows I hate when people try to tell me what to do. Hello, they were coal miners, digging big freakin' holes in the earth, you know, underground. Cave-ins happen, and not everyone gets out alive. It's called an ACCIDENT. Now, if the mine could have been made safer by the owner, then yes, they do have some responsibilty to those families, which shouldn't take a lawsuit to settle. And by settled, I mean a dollar amount equivalent to the expected earnings of the deceased, had he lived and continued mining, plus some compensation for the loss. In the service, it's called Life Insurance and Hazardous Duty Pay; you know, those people that volunteer their lives every day, so dumbass hillbillies can sue people for their husband having to have a crappy job and an accident that just happens to be a very real risk to that job. Too bad service members can't sue the government every time one of them dies (you think the nat'l debt is bad now?). It's time to get a grip, folks. And thanks to the dumbass with the McDonald's coffee, who started all of this. If you have to be told the coffee you just ordered is hot, then you are too stupid to live, or drink coffee, for that matter, and should be shot immediately; your parents, too, and any siblings. I would say the same thing to those that use hair dryers in the bathtub, but they usually take care of themselves. Retards.

On the lisence plate of a Lexus SUV this morning: HYGENIE. What, exactly, does this mean? I'm sure, if the owner explained it to me, it would turn out to be quite clever, but on it's own? Are you actually a genie, who's name is Hy? Are you a dental hygenist, and thought it would be "cute"? You're driving a Lexus, so maybe you are a stereotypical dental hygenist who does tricks (if you know what I mean)? Vanity plates aren't cool if you are the only one who gets it. And they wonder why road rage has become so prevalent. Another one, this on a powder-blue Chrysler convertible: PRNSSS. I should note that this car, which I have seen weekly for about 2 years on the way to work, is driven by a middle-aged woman; she might be 40-something, maybe older (I drive too fast to get a good look), with the short, curly, frumpy hair, always high-necked clothes, big owl glasses; you know, librarian-looking. Okay, do you really want to be referred to as Princess? Maybe you actually are a princess, and have been exiled from your country, and are currently residing in Hall County, GA, waiting for the evil dictator in your country to either be overthrown by your personal Freedom Fighters, or choke on his dinner one night? Maybe it's just me, but I think that once you are old enough to... uh.. get a driver's license, you and others should not refer to you as Princess. Let me guess, you are divorced, and searching for Prince Charming, but all you are finding are frogs? I bet you talk about yourself in third person, too, don't you? Retard. Nice car. I have never seen the top down - doesn't want to fuck up the hair, I guess, even though I'm betting she has it washed and set twice a week, using Dead Man's Hairspray. Talk about being old before your time. Gotta run the air all year round, so that shit doesn't melt. Probably likes eating in cafeterias, too. Kill me if I ever get like that, even if I am indeed old, okay?

Turn off your TVs, read a book (try something written before 1970), and do not, under any circumstances, go out there. They are everywhere, and they may not know it, but they are out to get you. You will be assimilated!!

(Yeah, I'm a geek; you didn't already know that?)

Christmas Survived

I can't believe it has been 3 weeks since I last posted; it feels like just the other day. In that time, we got hit with an ice storm, which wasn't supposed to be as bad as it turned out to be. The boys missed their last day of school, mainly due to power outages more than icy roads or whatnot. Ours was out for about 8 hours; kudos to Jackson EMC, as this is the longest we've ever been without power since we moved here, and that was a pretty short period compared to a lot of people. I thought for sure the boys would make up that day, either on Friday (still too many power outages, I think), or at least on Monday - we are still 2 days behind from the stupid hurricane/gas crisis days our governor thought would be a good idea. The big kid had finals that day; considering his grades, he probably needed the finals to help his quarter grades out. I wonder how that will work out? Public schools - what a joke. Maybe they'll make them all up at the end of the year, so they can actually be in school part of May.

I managed to get my bead order in, and was missing one thing, though not vital for Christmas gifts. Spent that entire Sunday and Monday furiously putting beads together; I had 7 things to make, start to finish. Saturday was out, as that was our company Christmas Party. By the time I got home from the store and got all that taken care of, I had enough time to lie down for an hour, then had to get up and get started on the Big Hair, to go with the fantastic red dress I got off of ebay this year. Oh, and I decided the night before that I didn't have any jewelry to wear with it, so of course, I had to make something; I whipped up 4 strands of red twister beads Friday night. Earrings I had, and a bracelet crossed my mind, but the kind I wanted to make I didn't have a clasp for (I used up all of my clasp stock), so I just didn't bother with a bracelet at all. All in all, it worked out well. I should've taken the time to get my hair cut, because it really didn't do what I wanted it to do - too much of it. If I wait 2 more weeks, it will be 1 year since I last had it cut (not counting when I trim the bangs so I can see where I'm going). It is just now starting to look raggedy, though, so I guess it's still okay. When I do go, a LOT is coming off.

I had my shopping all done, except for a couple of stocking stuffers and such, when I shipped out-of-town stuff on 12/19. Christmas cards went out on 12/17. DH took me and his bonus to Wolf Camera on 12/17, and I am now the proud owner of a new Panasonic DMC-FZ5. I have just begun to play with it, but it is really cool, so far. It has a macro feature, which is imperative for my bead pics, as well as the simple no-frills setting, which I will most likely use when I'm not taking bead photos. I have come to the conclusion that the lights I have in my light box are not the kind I need; everything has a yellow cast to it, which I thought I would avoid using halogen lamps. Apparently, I was wrong. I will have to get some full-spectrum bulbs of some kind, like the light I have for cross stitching, which is made by Ott. I am not sure that particular lamp will work for this - it is not very bright, but that may be just my perception. I need to try it, except that it's a big, heavy floor lamp, so it's not terribly easy to just move around the house when I need to. And as it was $200, I don't foresee me buying a second one. Maybe a smaller, desktop version, if it does indeed work better. Maybe over the coming weekend, I will have time to experiment.

DH did his Christmas shopping on 12/23 and 12/24, as usual. He actually got everything wrapped, too. Now why, if I was done so much earlier, was I sweating getting the wrapping done? I guess because I have to do all of my "Santa" stuff in secret. And on Christmas Eve, the eggheads went to bed at 6:30! I am not too sure what they were thinking, but they came out every 1/2 hour and asked what time it was, instead of just coming out and watching a movie with us or whatever until it was time to go to bed. Needless to say, they just got more and more wound up, and the little kid finally fell out about 10:30; the big kid was still awake, but he knows the secret, thanks to his dad, so I just closed the door and started doing Santa's work. I didn't get to sleep until after 1:00 am. And the eggheads were up, the first time, at 4:30!!! I wanted to cry. We sent them back to bed, but of course, they weren't going back to sleep. They came back out at 5, and told Dad that it was 6, so they came in my room (Dad always sleeps out in the living room on Christmas Eve, so he can "keep an eye on things"), flipped on the lights, and told me to get up, Dad said so. I yelled "It's 5:00, not 6:00 - go back to bed. Now." So they went back to big kid's room and made a bunch of noise for another hour, though I did manage to get a few winks in before they made me get up for real. And an hour or so later, it was all over.

Big kid has lots of new games and such, though I have since found out that I have to do some upgrades to his computer to get a couple of his new pc games to work; what a pain in the butt. And of course, he's hounding me every hour on the hour about it - I guess he thinks I keep processors and memory on hand, and it's free. I understand the disappointment in a new thing not working right out of the box, but when you have 10 new things, and 2 don't work, try working the other 8 before you ride my ass about the two, which can't be fixed right away regardless. Little kid got a Robosapien robot thing; it's pretty cool. He also had lots of Lego and Lego-like things for me to put together (DH says I buy those for me, not them - uh, I don't recall playing with them after I build them the first time, so I disagree), and DH got both of them air soft guns. Oh Joy. So now I have those damn plastic pellets all over the house, even though they have both been told 100 times, by both of us, to do that outside. They don't listen very well. And the weather outside has been off and on since Christmas, so they have been outside when possible; just not long enough.

I have another bead order coming tomorrow; I needed to replace all of my clasps, and get the missing items from my group buy, as well as order some Ornela hanks for multi-strand necklaces. One of the girls here at work has ordered one, for a new outfit she just bought, and I wanted a red one and a pearl-like one. I will be able to make the two turquoise necklaces I have been waiting on for over 2 months - hopefully have those done by the time I go back to work on Tuesday, after the New Year's holiday. I finally got a floor stand for my cross stitch scroll frame, and have jumped back on the pumpkins I put down when the beads got going; I plan to have that done before 2006 gets here - I'm damn close. I want to get back to my castle and get that done. I am going to give stretching my work a try - one of my Yahoo groups has a great guide on how to do it, so maybe I can save myself some sticker shock at the framers next time. I will try it first on these pumpkins, when I get them done, once I get some acid-free board from my framer. If that goes well, we'll see what else I attempt. It's taking me a little time to get used to the floor stand - DH keeps making stupid comments about me getting into my spaceship. We'll see what he says after I get him to make the necessary modifications to it; I'm betting he won't make so much fun of it then.

We seem to have lost a kitty in the last couple of days; KiKi went out Tuesday afternoon, and we haven't seen her since, though DH has called for her 1000 times, including not sleeping much Tuesday night. She's been gone for a couple of hours before, but not this long. I don't know how hard he has looked for her, but he knows she would go across the street, so she might be smashed up on the main road. Or someone could have her locked up; Ripley was catnapped by a crazy person in the neighborhood a couple of times (I wonder if those people are still there?), and was even vetted/fixed by the nappers, which was fine by me, but as they did it without my knowledge or permission, I wasn't about to pay them back, or thank them , to be quite honest. I guess when you take an animal into your home that may or may not belong to someone, and he begs to be let out (especially if he can hear his people calling him, and gets frantic), then maybe you should just leave well enough alone. Of course, they are probably those kind of people you hear about on the news; for whatever reason, some official goes to the house, only to find 100 or more mistreated/malnourished/diseased animals living in filth. Because the owner is crazy. There's a name for that, but I can't recall it right now. And it's not always little old ladies, surprisingly enough, though they seem to make the news and CSI episodes more often. Anyway, we keep hoping KiKi comes back. It's kind of a mixed thing, because the other feline residents were NOT happy about her being there, and were demonstrating their unhappiness in the ways male cats do, so her not being there right now seems to have calmed the other 3 down some; but then again, I think Booger has been looking for her, too, and though I have tried not to like her, because of all the crap with the other 3, she was kinda cute. For an ugly, cross-eyed, rat-like, clumsy old cat. All I can say is, if she does come back, she had better not have kittens - we were going to get her to the vet right after the holidays and get that taken care of, but didn't think it was of immediate need (not sure how old she is - maybe 6 months?). I've never lost a cat before - hell, I can't get them to go away, regardless of what I do to them. Just like the stupid goldfish from the fair 4 years ago that still won't die; their tank is so dirty right now, you can barely see them. They are still alive and well, as far as I can tell. Since when do 25 cent fish live 4+ years? I didn't sign up for that.

Since I doubt I'll get back here before, Happy New Year!!!

Christmas Crazies

Well, it's that time of year again; the weather is flaky, the roads are crowded, and people are just totally out of their minds. I did something this year that I have never done before - I went shopping early on Black Friday (day after Thanksgiving). I was up and out the door at 6:45 - DH about shit. It's hard enough to get me up to go to a game, or, you know, work, that early, but shopping, my least-favorite thing to do? And way back when, when I worked at the jewelry store, I swore I would never participate in Black Friday and do that to the poor sales people; people were always so damn nasty to us down there on Salem Avenue. "What do you mean you don't have any of the Doorbuster Specials? It's right here in your ad! I want to talk to your manager RIGHT NOW!!!!" For some reason, my reply about "when shopping in Cracktown, be careful what you ask for" didn't seem to make much of an impression with the screamers. But this year, I wasn't seeing too many deals, and I was in serious need of some deals - long list, small balance in my Christmas account. It worked out pretty well; I don't think there were any spectacular deals, but I did get done (except for 2 more gift certificates I need to pick up), and it was actually kinda pleasant. Of course, I was home by 9:30, and on the evening news that night, they were showing all the local knock-down, drag-out fights that occurred in local malls. Just reinforcement for my theory that people are retarded.

The boys are out of school for the year on 12/15! Damn, why do I even bother sending them? They go to school between 11-18 days a month - no more. Wait, I think one month, they actually make it to 21 days. And they wonder why no one in Georgia (except SE Asian immigrants' children) can pass any of the tests. UH, maybe because they never go to school, and when they do, more time is spent on Good Touch, Bad Touch and Why You Shouldn't Join a Gang than on teaching math, English, social studies, science? I so wish I had the money to get my kids out of the public education system and into a good private school, which are pretty non-existent down here. There are lots of Christian schools, but those are no good, either; I just don't think Fire and Brimstone comes up on the SAT or any college entrance exam. We do have a new Catholic school being built right now down the street, and if I had the money, they would apply there. It is a sorry state of affairs, public education. I actually think mine was pretty decent, between the two systems I was in. Some of these teachers my kids have just absolutely astound me; how they ever got through college themselves is anyone's guess, and now they are passing on their retardation to others. Oh, joy! Of course, with the liberal bullshit being labeled as college education these days, I guess it's not really any surprise. It's not what you know and how you relay that information, it's how it makes you feel [insert a whiney Diane Sawyer here], I guess. Because I'm all about how people feel, you know. Bastards. What the hell happened? Some days, I think I should go finish my teaching degree, so there will be at least one voice of logic and reason out there, but in the current environment, just how long do you suppose I would last? Not very, I'll wager. It all comes down to picking my battles; the easier battle is teaching my kids myself, in my copious amounts of free time. Take the bits of information they are given and put them into context for them. I think that's what is missing in today's education - context. It's all trivia if you don't know how to use it.

Yesterday was Pearl Harbor Day; did you see anything on the news about it? I didn't. Of course, I don't watch the news, so maybe that's the problem. Anyway, my point is this: 52 years ago, 2 years after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, had we forgotten about it? Were we screaming to get our soldiers out of Europe and the Pacific? Okay, I wasn't there personally, but I don't think we were. So what the hell is the deal now with Iraq? Germany did not attack the US, but damn it, we had to go over there and take care of business, didn't we? Japan had it coming. Iraq didn't attack us, but the Muslim world did, you know, on 9/11. And when somebody is obviously being a bastard and killing people (see Saddam "Nutcase" Hussein) just because he can, somebody needs to take care of business. It's pretty obvious he's crazy, and his kids? Apparently, he had a crib sheet for the Reproduction Certification test. People keep harping on the no-WMD thing, because that is the only factor involved in the decision to go over there, again. We haven't found any to date; what, do you want to pull out and give them time to get their shit together, then go back and take care of it then, hopefully before they blow up half the planet? If they had managed to get them, and say they made a mistake with one, and blew up, oh, the Sinai Peninsula, for instance, who do you suppose would be expected to lead the clean-up and rebuilding effort? The Good Old USA, of course. Even though we could be reasonably sure that their booboo was meant for us, we would still be held responsible for making everything okay for them again. Mess, mess, go away; come back to blow up the US another day! Anyone who thinks there weren't, at the very least, the beginnings of WMD stockpiles, are in total denial of the world we live in. Just because we couldn't find any - how many times in a week do you lose a remote control, in your own house, placed by your own hand? It eventually turns up, unless your house elves were making a special point to dismantle it and hide/destroy the parts. People, we need to finish what we are doing, and in all reality, shouldn't the decision to leave things undone be left to the people, our troops, who would be doing the leaving? Nobody wants to go to war (well, okay, some of those gung-ho types, but I mean your every-day GI), but that doesn't mean it doesn't have to happen sometimes. The main stream media needs to get a grip. Every newscaster currently employed should look up the phrase "For the greater good", and write a 5000 word essay on what that means to them. Then they should be submitted to the world for judging, and the one voted the best gets to keep their job - all the rest have to become janitors (cleaning shit shouldn't be much more taxing then shoveling it). People kill me. Turn off your TV's, people!!! It's crap!!! Unless they create a Johnny Depp network, of course. All Depp, All the Time! UMMMM, Tasty!

Okay, that's not really what I had in mind for this post, until I saw it down in B&W. I don't think I said what I meant very well, but that's okay for now - that's what the EDIT button is for. The words may change at some point, but the gist is the same. We led them to the voting booths, and they voted all on their own; let us finish cleaning up, and we'll see if they can take care of themselves after that. And if they can't, well, I don't want to hear somebody in a few years' time screaming "Why doesn't the most powerful nation on earth do something to help these people? Are they too selfish?" Just like when the tsunami hit last year; it didn't matter what we did, the US was criticized. But when the hurricanes wiped out the gulf coast this year, who knocked themselves out to help? We had to rely on ourselves then (yes, we got donations and assistance from our friends, but the names and dollar amounts involved weren't front-page news all over the world, were they?), and I really think it's high time some other people start taking care of themselves. The US is damned if we do, damned if we don't, so why doesn't everyone shut up, stop pointing fingers and playing the Blame Game, and just take care of the business at hand? Bunch of freakin' babies.... Someday when I am President of the earth, I'll see what I can do with this situation. I'm takin' my toys and going home; you all can just play with yourselves. PPPFFFTTTHHHH!!!

On the home front, indoor soccer has already started. The little kid had his first game last week, and the big kid has his this weekend. We thought for sure they wouldn't start games until after the holidays; no such luck, it seems. That's okay - at least they are all home games, no day-long adventures to the Sticks. Little kid won his game, 6-0. I couldn't pay a lot of attention to it, though, so can't give you any specifics about it; I was sitting with all the chatty parents, and my obnoxious 12-year-old and his obnoxious 13-year-old friend. They played a girls' team, and those girls were pretty big, but they just couldn't finish any of their shots. I was a little preoccupied with freezing my ass off on the metal bleachers in the building - there is no heater anywhere in that building, and it was very cold and wet out. This week, I'll bring a blankie to sit on/wrap up in.

I have 20 finished bead projects laying on my table, and my light box is built and ready. Now, I just have to get the camera thing settled. DH borrowed his work camera (Big kid needed some pics for a school project, too, so that worked out well), a 2.1; no good. I got the color okay now, with the lighting, but there is no detail in the beads at all, just color blobs. So I borrowed my IT guy's 3.2 again, and tried them again; still, no good, same deal. So I broke out the antique film camera last night and finished off the roll that was in it. If I can get it processed and digitized in the next day or so, I'll know if that's the way I need to go for the time being. They sure looked good through the view finder. I just have to get them done this weekend, because they all have to be delivered/shipped/packed, whatever, early next week, so they can get where they are going before the Big Day. And I still haven't gotten my big group-buy bead order; it's in the mail, somewhere between CA and here, and I really need that ASAP - three gifts are in that lot, and uh, I need to put them together when they get here? Hopefully tomorrow or Saturday it'll be here, and I'll have what I'm supposed to have. Our buy lead has been MIA lately, and not communicating at all, due to a crisis at her work, so this whole buy has kind of gotten pushed to her back burner; it started 2 months ago or more, and here we are, 2 weeks before Christmas, and I don't have my stuff yet. It's not all her fault, as our supplier and PayPal both caused huge problems to begin with, and it's partly my fault that, because I had a large order, I got moved to the back of the shipping queue (I actually think that should be reversed, but that's just the way I work best - get the hard shit done and out of the way). The real test will be if the post office can get my box here, in its original condition; my post office is pretty consistant with the disappointment, so we'll see.

4" of snow in Ohio right now, and we are supposed to get sleet here; I have two little boys who think they won't have school tomorrow - see my paragraph above. What do I have to do to get to Arizona? I can live my life without ever seeing snow in person again. I guess it wouldn't bother me so much here, since it is short-lived, but people absolutely lose their minds when we get a "flurry" (and by flurry, I mean 3-4 flakes fall out of the sky somewhere within 100 miles of Atlanta). The news is all "Winter Storm Warning", updates every 15 minutes on nothing, and the stores empty out of bread, milk, and toilet paper (nothing to eat but bread and milk - where's the toilet paper coming in? Or is everyone here lactose-intolerant?). It's totally insane. It never occurs to anybody that it was 80 the other day, and it's not like the ground is frozen - let us get snow or ice or whatever; it'll be gone in a day or two. Though I don't like the ice storms; since all of the power lines and such are above ground here, they do more damage than what would happen other places I've lived. When you live on a giant piece of granite, what're you going to do?

Enough - I had a whole other paragraph all done, but I failed to save it; it must be your lucky day :)

One Season Ends, Another Begins

The 2005 Fall soccer season is over. Both kids played in the same tournament this past weekend, at different venues, of course. The little kids did well; out of their 8 games, they won 4, lost 2, tied 2. The big kids had kind of a rough weekend; they started out pretty good, winning their first game 2-1. It was so cold out there, it was unreal; it was 80 two days before, and it was in the 20s the morning we had to be out there at 7:15 - never fails. The reffing was horrible, again; there should have been at least 2 yellow cards and one red card, but the ref called nothing - NOTHING. The red card was after the ref blew the game-ending whistle; Rigo bent over to pick up a ball, and this goofy red-haired kid put his hand flat on Rigo's back and tried to push him to the ground, while the ref stood there and watched it go on. Rigo got up and pushed back, and the goofball backed off. But they were poor sports when we played them during the regular season, too. Then we had 5 hours to kill before warm-up for the second game, which we knew was going to be tough - we were going up against the state champs, a division higher than us, and they have 4 ODP players. And all of our new Athens people know them, so it was even more uncomfortable.

So game time finally comes, and of course, the boys have all been goofing around for a couple of hours, though they claim they aren't tired. The whistle blows, and I bet the other team had their first goal within a minute. We played pretty well the first half, holding them 3-1. Then our trainer, who hasn't been able to get to a game all season until now, talks to them at half time. Whatever he said to them totally whacked them out; they came out totally flat and lifeless. They ended up losing 8-1, they were all hurt, and we had the same ref we had had that morning, and he moseyed through most of the game with his hands in his pockets. It was really sad. Reffing did not help our game at all, but there were a lot of bad mistakes. My kid kept letting the forward get between him and the net - he'd think he was in one place, turn around to get him, and the kid would be off to the goal. At one point, my kid just totally plowed someone over, completely by accident, and he made the mistake of apologizing to him right then - the ref heard him, and blew the whistle; the kid took his free shot, and it went right in. So I think he knows now not to apologize for anything during the game - he can say what he wants when it's over, but during? If he'd not said anything, the ref, who saw it all, wouldn't have called it at all.

The third game went okay; we won it, but only by 1 again, but it was 1-0, and we got extra points for a shut-out; we made it to the finals, against the team that just beat our pants off the day before. Since we had some time again, and it was colder than we all thought it was going to be, I took the big kid and Rigo back to the house, let them eat and chill for awhile, did some housework that I wouldn't have gotten to otherwise, and then went back. When we got there, we found out they were behind by about an hour; great - they got all worn out the day before with all that time to kill. Finally, it was our turn, after the entire park watched the game on the field next to ours, which came down to PKs; it was very exciting to watch the bigger boys do that. We started the game, and I think our boys were pretty pumped up. At least we had a different ref, although from watching the game before ours, no more effective than our Saturday ref. The other team scored first, but then we came back and got our first one a couple of minutes later. And from then on, we dominated the game totally; the final score doesn't show it (2-1 them), but we kicked their asses all over that field. As usual, we had 4-5x more shots on goal, we just couldn't get any to go in. I think if we ever meet them again in regular-season play, we should take them. We know how to mark them now, because, in all reality, they only have 2 good players - one forward, #23, and one mid, #11, who is quite possibly one of the fastest players I've ever seen - he was everywhere. If we had our regular goalie in the net, and our back-up out there on the field where he belongs, we would've done better in both games against them. Hopefully our goalie's eye injury will heal perfectly fine, and it'll all go back together in the spring.

A couple weeks off, and then Indoor starts; both kids are playing (no one is playing basketball this year :{ ), but they are playing in different places. At least those are only 1 practice a week. Actually, that kind of stinks, because I really like having my Tuesdays and Thursdays quiet for a couple of hours each night - it's the only time I get anything done at home. And for the big kid, indoor, school (if he keeps his grades up and is eligible), and outdoor are going to overlap in February. At least it's all one sport, so we don't have to change clothes and shoes 42 times during a day. I think February and March are going to suck. Last year, we had to make special arrangements to have our indoor championship rescheduled, because our first outdoor game was away, of course, and all but 2 of our indoor players were on the outdoor team, too. And when we won, and the boys, specifically Tyler, went to accept their trophies, they were booed. The Mexicans did not like a team with all the gringos on it winning anything, even though we totally kicked everyone's ass, fair and square. Our coach, Ramiro, I think was really upset that his community did that to us, though, in reality, I could see how they wouldn't like us up there, taking the spotlight from them. Hopefully, we'll have a better reception this year. Our team photo is on the door, I guess because our team is a racially-diverse poster child.

I haven't worked on my cross stitch in weeks; I was going to work on it on my birthday, but I pretty much did nothing but lay around all day, and cook my own dinner, as usual. DH offered to take me out for dinner, after I made a point of reminding him it would be nice if I didn't have to cook, but I didn't figure it was in the budget by then, so never mind. I have been working on beads a lot. I finally got my amber/gold Ornelas done - that set turned out very cool. My HR person here at work wants 5 necklace/earring sets for Christmas presents; I have one complete, one 90% done, and the beads for the other 3 sitting there. Since I have to clear the table for Turkey Dinner tomorrow, it'll be a few days before I get back to them. My co-worker wants a set for a friend, too - I guess I'll cut her a break and just charge her the cost of the supplies. I am still waiting to get my group buy order; our buy lead has been absolutely swamped at work, with some horrible AOL failure that has her working 16 hour days. One of my eBay sellers said they were having all kinds of problems the last couple of weeks - she had no idea if she had rec'd a payment from me, then she had to find the invoice, and then her e-mails to me were missing the attachments - all kinds of fun. Our buy lead wanted to have everything shipped by this week - there have been no updates in over a week, so I have no idea where she stands - some were done/shipped, some were packaged (I was neither of these) and that was 2 weeks ago. I hate not knowing where things are, especially when I'm waiting on stuff needed to complete something. But I also just ordered my boxes, so nothing's moving until those get here, regardless. Thanksgiving being a little earlier this year helps, too - it's a whole week before December starts, so I'll actually be ahead after 4 days off. If only I had some shopping done - I'm usually close to done by now - I haven't done much at all so far. I am absolutely dreading having to go to the mall. And trying to find something for my parents? That's always such a chore.

The new Harry Potter movie is out; hopefully we'll get around to going to the Imax version of it this weekend sometime. Big kid wants to go Thanksgiving night - I don't. Maybe Saturday sometime. Last year, we went to the Gladiators hockey game on turkey night; that was fun, and they have a game then this year, too, but we were just there a couple of weeks ago. Maybe I'll start getting the Christmas crap out early. I'm not really looking forward to putting the tree up Friday; my next tree will definitely be pre-lit, though those totally don't have enough lights on them for me - 1000+ for 7 1/2' tree, people. The lights in the neighborhood dim when I turn my tree on. It's always nice when I'm done, but it's just so much work; it used to be fun, but now it's just work. Maybe I'm just more bah-Humbug than usual.

On the bright side, we are officially out of the old building today, and in the new building when we come back to work on Monday. My new office is so cool; it's twice as big as the one I have now. No windows, but being so low on the payscale here, that's to be expected. Our desks are cool, too - a nice u-shaped workstation with rounded corners; goodbye, government-surplus desk with the sharp corners that I am constantly banging my leg into. I am still wondering if they are going to supply us with stuff to hang our calendars and such up with; 3M has those removable sticky hangers - I'll get a few at Wally World this weekend and try 'em out. I would think, in a brand-damn new building, that they would stipulate that kind of stuff right up front, and supply the appropriate stuff to accommodate us. I just doubt the facilities folks have gotten that far yet - I think the buildings got done too fast for them. Of course, as many people as are involved in this whole process, most of which are from our California office, it's a wonder anything's getting done, besides having our Christmas Party menu changed, for the 3rd year in a row, by someone who won't even be there. For whatever reason, regardless of where we have the party, we must change one item to green beans every year, as per our California HR department. I certainly hope that drops the per-person cost drastically for them, because otherwise, why in the hell do they care what we eat? People just have to meddle, I guess. And where is it written that the poor red-headed step-child division must eat green beans every year? Is that a punishment of some sort? Hey, I didn't work for Scientific Atlanta, ever - I don't deserve to be punished for what they did - working for/with S-A people is usually more than enough punishment - see my boss. Eh, whatever.

Happy Turkey Day - Invite a Native American to dinner, and apologize profusely for what your European ancestors did to them. And enjoy your meal!!

Veteran's Day

American Veterans By the Numbers
24.5 million
The number of military veterans in the United States.

1.7 million
The number of veterans who are women.

9.5 million
The number of veterans who are age 65 or older.

2.3 million
The number of black veterans. Additionally, 1.1 million veterans are Hispanic; 276,000 are Asian; 185,000 are American Indian or Alaska native; and 25,000 are native Hawaiian and other Pacific islander. (The numbers for blacks, Asians, American Indians, and Alaska natives and native Hawaiians and other Pacific islanders cover only those reporting a single race.)

8.2 million
Number of Vietnam-era veterans. More than 30% of all veterans served in Vietnam, the largest share of any period of service. The next largest share of wartime veterans, 3.9 million or fewer than 20%, served during World War II.

16%
Percentage of Persian Gulf War veterans who are women. In contrast, women account for 5% of World War II vets, 3% of Vietnam vets, and 2% of Korean War vets.

432,000
Number of veterans who served during both the Vietnam era and in the Gulf War.

In addition,

383,000 veterans served during both the Korean War and the Vietnam conflict.

107,000 served during three periods: World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam conflict.

376,000 served in World War II and the Korean War.

6
Number of states with 1 million or more veterans. These states are California (2.3 million), Florida (1.8 million), Texas (1.7 million), New York (1.2 million), Pennsylvania (1.1 million), and Ohio (1.1 million).

$22.4 billion
Aggregate amount of money received annually by the 2.6 million veterans receiving compensation for service-connected disabilities.

$59.6 billion
Total amount of federal government spending for veterans benefits programs in fiscal year 2004.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Armistice Day Becomes Veterans Day
World War I officially ended on June 28, 1919, with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. The actual fighting between the Allies and Germany, however, had ended seven months earlier with the armistice, which went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918. Armistice Day, as November 11 became known, officially became a holiday in the United States in 1926, and a national holiday 12 years later. On June 1, 1954, the name was changed to Veterans Day to honor all U.S. veterans.

In 1968, new legislation changed the national commemoration of Veterans Day to the fourth Monday in October. It soon became apparent, however, that November 11 was a date of historic significance to many Americans. Therefore, in 1978 Congress returned the observance to its traditional date.

Tomb of the Unknowns
Official, national ceremonies for Veterans Day center around the Tomb of the Unknowns.

To honor these men, symbolic of all Americans who gave their lives in all wars, an Army honor guard, the 3d U.S. Infantry (The Old Guard), keeps day and night vigil.

At 11 a.m. on November 11, a combined color guard representing all military services executes "Present Arms" at the tomb. The nation's tribute to its war dead is symbolized by the laying of a presidential wreath and the playing of "Taps."

Unknown Soldier Identified
On Memorial Day (which honors U.S. service people who died in action) in 1958, two more unidentified American war dead, one from World War II and the other from the Korean War, were buried next the unknown soldier of World War I.

A law was passed in 1973 providing interment of an unknown American from the Vietnam War, but because of the improved technology to identify the dead, it was not until 1984 that an unidentified soldier was buried in the tomb.

In 1998, however, the Vietnam soldier was identified through DNA tests as Michael Blassie, a 24-year-old Air Force pilot who was shot down in May of 1972 near the Cambodian border. His body was disinterred and reburied by his family in St. Louis, Missouri.

Information Please® Database, © 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Busy, busy, busy

Well, busy at home, anyway. I go to work to get a break, it seems. My co-worker is back from her surgery; she's still complaining about her back, but differently now. God, whatever. I know, I'll probably end up with some ailment 10x worse, in retaliation for me being tired of hearing about it all the time, but damn; it's all we've talked about for 5 years. That, divorces, and stupid kids. It's a little bit of broken-record syndrome, I think.

Soccer updates: Little kid's season is pretty evenly spread between wins, ties, and losses. It's been pretty good, considering they mix up the two teams each week to get the line-ups. They are done with regular season, and only have the end-of-season tournament, weekend after next. The big kid has one game left, and then the same tournament as the little kid, though I am sure they will be at different venues - that's how my luck runs.

Big kid played the rich folks last weekend; we figured we'd have that one in the bag, and we did, but it took getting to the second half to get us there. We won that one, too, 5-1. It was crappy park - I was surprised. Million-dollar homes all around, and here we were, playing in this little strip of dirt along the road. And porta-potties. It was kinda nasty.

Anyone watching Survivor: Guatemala? Does anyone else think Bobby John is dumber than a bag of hammers? I hope Steph makes it to the final this time - she has the worst luck. She has my luck. Oh, speaking of luck, mine was okay today; my favorite (favorite = the least sucky) radio station here in town has, on their website, ways to get points, which you can then turn around and use to enter sweepstakes for stuff. Well, I entered this morning for 4 tickets to a Gwinnett Gladiators game, and I won them!!! The only down side is, I have to go to the station to get them, tomorrow, Friday, the worst day to try to go anywhere in this stupid town. The game is tomorrow night, so I have to go tomorrow. I made up an hour and half tonight, so I will disappear from work around 10:00 to run down there. I need a little adventure, I guess. And a Friday-night hockey game will be worth it.

I spilled Mountain Dew all over my keyboard couple of weeks ago - I yell at the boys all the time for having food and stuff around theirs, and they are on their second keyboard - and there I go and spill, too. Though, in my defense, I rarely drink pop out of a glass, and I did knock it over, but I almost caught it 3 times before I finally spilled it for good. Now my T and S stick, though I keep cleaning the areas with alcohol. I guess I'm going to have to bust out and get new one. Damn it. I replace one or two more things on this computer, and it'll be all new again.

Tomorrow is Veteran's Day - Happy Veteran's Day to my fellow Veterans. We get breakfast at work, and someone among us will have to get up and speak. It's nice. I wish all companies in this country recognized their vets; it's a national holiday, after all. I would still rather have a day off, but food is good, too. And the big 3-8 is Sunday. All I can say is, I had better not have a bunch of laundry to do. I know I'll end up cooking my own birthday dinner, just like I have to cook my Mother's Day meal, too. That might be about all I can do though. I have reading, stitching, and/or beading to do, and there's no reason I shouldn't be allowed to spend the entire day on that. Speaking of beading, I finished a really cool multi-strand necklace in my amber Ornela seed beads. I've had to re-do the earrings a few times to get them the way I want them - one is done now, and I need to get the other one finished. I made them to go with my leopard-print shirt. Somebody at work the other day (maybe Rob? I don't remember now) said something shitty about women who wear leopard-print anything; I love that shirt - am I missing something? Is it possible that I pull it off better than others?

WOOHOO!! In the typing of this, dumbass Bobby Jon jut got voted out. The IQ on the show jut went up by 100 point, at least. Gotta go, time for CSI. You know, the one with Warrick Brown, aka Gary Dourdan. He hasn't had his shirt off for several seasons - I think he's due.

At last! I have my hour back!

I hate Daylight Savings Time; I was born during standard time, and I would prefer we kept it all year, and here they've gone and shortened it beginning in 2007. I mean, it's a nice idea, but does it really save energy anymore? I don't really care what time it gets dark at night - I have the same stuff to do each day regardless of the daylight. Time is time, and people can manipulate it all they want, but in the end, it doesn't really matter, does it?

Halloween is over for another year; it was kind of anti-climactic this year, for some reason. The big kid didn't dress up this year, and the little kid went Trick-or-Treating, but it just didn't seem to have the same impact this year. Maybe being on Monday made it weird this year. We got the outside lights plugged in that one day, and now it's time to take them down. I'll try to get them down and have them down for a couple of weeks before we get the Christmas stuff out. Man, Turkey Day is only 3 weeks from tomorrow. DH's family really wants us to come up there; I've told them I'm supposed to work that weekend, moving the computers to the new building and getting some very valuable OT, but I'm not sure I really care about it now. I kinda want to go up North for the weekend, but it's always such a hassle - 4 days of living in the car, arguing over who goes where when and for how long. I'm just not up for that kind of crap right now - there's plenty of stuff to argue about at home, no road trip required. I could use the money, if I stayed here and worked (not Friday - that's tree day). Eh, we'll see.

Speaking of road trips, we had a game in Savannah this past weekend, so we made a weekend out of it. We left Friday at noon (got the boys out of school early, including our soccer son, Rigo), and got down there in less than 5 hours, including 2 stops. The weather was great. The game was Saturday, and I had heard from a few people to expect the reffing to be bad, and that the park was in a bad area, to not keep anything valuable in the car. We got to the park, and everyone who was supposed to be there was there, and the one we knew wasn't coming was there, too! I guess they felt guilty. It was good to have him there - he's our best new player, and we would have missed him if he hadn't been there. So the game started, and right away, we knew the ref was going to be bad. By the end of the first half, we were down 2-0, and we had had at least 2 huge fouls IN THE BOX that were totally blatant and totally not called. The ref was chatting to the home parents, in the course of the game, and we were getting the shit knocked out of us. We came out for the second half, and really started playing well. We came back to tie it up, but the better we played, the meaner they got, and it was really getting out of hand. The Savannah goalie, on a couple of the goal kicks, took damn near a full minute to put the ball back into play (DH says the rule is 7 seconds); he was out there, moseying around inside his box, ball in hand, acting like he had all day, and you knew he was killing time intentionally. And the ref is down there joking and smiling with the parents, acting like, "You think that pissed them off, wait, watch this!" and one of our kids got a full forearm in the upper chest, in the box - no call. I saw two hands flat on my son's back and he went flying - no call. Of course, we're all jumping out of our seats and hollering, and their parents are being all stupid saying "What, you guys going to argue with everything?" Uh, yes, you stupid git, when somebody is getting hurt for absolutely no reason other than out of just pure meanness - that's not what this game is about. We scored 3 goals pretty much back to back, and that gave us a lead of 2, and it got really bad. DH and the ref got into it at one point, and DH said "Don't worry, we'll discuss it after the game". The ref ended up letting the game run about 10 minutes extra, I assume trying to let the home team catch up, which they would never have been able to do at that point - we were too hot by then. We (us and their parents, too) were wondering when he was going to call it, when one of the parents hollered out to the field "Hey, Carl, how much time you got left?"; Carl took a few seconds to try to figure it out, and he yelled back, to his buddy, obviously, that there were about 4 minutes left. Whatever; it didn't help. We won 5-3, they actually had a yellow card, but we had 2 bloody lips/noses, one almost broken leg, and the ref left so damn fast we didn't even see him leave. He called it pretty fair the last couple of minutes - I guess after he confronted DH, he decided he'd better get his act together, because we were on to him.

You know, when you are competing at this level, you expect some level of professionalism from the refs. This whole situation was totally uncalled for. It was the U-19 Savannah team that started all the crap up at our soccer complex a few weeks before that; the team had trashed the bench area, and the parents had trashed the stadium, and when someone asked them to pick up their mess, it turned into a big confrontation that ended up involving several cops. One of our people was in the act of calling 911 when one of the Savannah people threw water on them, and shorted out the phone. How stupid is all of this? And people wonder why soccer parents have such a bad rep - when people have to play dirty, at this age group, instead of playing the game, or have to be shitty afterwards because they are such poor sports, well, it's not really any wonder, is it? It makes me sad to be a part of it. In my personal opinion, I don't think the Savannah teams should be allowed to compete with us next year, after these two incidents (and probably more that we don't know about); they do not possess the proper attitude to be representative of the state and its youth athletics at this level. I am going to write a letter to someone at GYSA about that ref; as a paying parent, I expect, and believe I am in a position to demand, some unbiased (as much as it can ever be) reffing. That's what they'll get when they come up to our park - it's what I expect when I go to theirs. Otherwise, we'd stay home and play Rec ball, wouldn't we? Bastards.

Christmas is getting close - I am not ready. I am usually damn close to being done shopping by this time, and I really haven't even begun. I got the boys' lay-away at Wally World just last week, but haven't done anything else at all, except the 2 bead gifts I am making when my big order arrives. As usual, I have no idea what to get either of my parents. I have the gift for my Friend's mom almost done - I was working on it last night when I was rudely interrupted by people coming home from practice and expecting food. I'd like to get that finished up tonight - I'm not going to ship it for a few weeks, still, as I need to order my boxes still, and it's too far out yet (and I have to make another thing to go with it). My HR person here at work may order a few things, too; if so, I hope she has an idea of what she would like in the next couple of weeks, in case I need to order anything - time grows short. One of the girls that works with DH wanted to know about my stuff, too - I think it was a bit more pricey than she was expecting, though I was willing to offer discounts. Oh well - maybe next year. Actually, since I'm not really ready for business yet, I guess maybe less would be better. We'll call it practice for next year, I hope....

I would really like to get back to my cross stitching - I haven't touched the pumpkins since before we went to Savannah. I want to get those done, and get back on the castle. January and February are the two months that I really make a lot of progress - soccer is still going on (indoor), but no traveling, and the weather's not good enough to have me doing other things, so if I can get back to the castle by then, I expect to get a lot done, if not completely finished. At least it should be done by the time the boys are out of school, unless the beads really take off and consume a lot more time than I'm foreseeing.

I just ripped through King's DT VI - Susannah's Song. I really really like those books, and there's only one more, then I'm out. I still haven't seen VII in trade paperback yet - I have all of them in that format, so I've been waiting to get that one. I'm reading it as soon as I can get it. I checked Amazon a while back, and I think it's supposed to come out this month; I hope so. Diana Gabaldon's Breath of Snow & Ashes is out in hardback; I also have all of those in trade paperback, so I'll have to wait a year before I pick that one up. AT least I have a little breather, to catch up on the Nat'l Geographics from last year that I never got to; I am in the middle of November '04 now, should finish it tonight, then move to December '04. It was actually nice not renewing that this year, though I do really miss it. But they sent me a $15/year offer, and I couldn't resist at that price; I assume that'll pick up in January again. I wish I could pick up Archaeology and Smithsonian again, but that's just too much, especially when I have so many books I want to read, I have to maintain a spreadsheet listing them. Yes, I am AR. So?