The Crab Chronicles

Our Lady of Sunburn

I woke up with a wicked sunburn on my shoulders. My plan was to lounge under the umbrella and read all afternoon yesterday, but it was so hot I found myself venturing out to get wet, and then a brief swim with Michael, and today I realized my stupidity in thinking no sunscreen was needed on my shoulders. Aaaargh!

Alesia's face and chest got a little red. She tans so beautifully, it's rare to see her with sunburn or even a red tinge, but she was definitely burned yesterday. I had asked her if she put on sunscreen and she said yes. She and Mike have been giong to the pool in the late afternoon when the burn level is lower.

For me, being able to spend more than 15 minutes reading is such a delicious luxury. Before I had kids, I spent hours and hours reading. I used to find an author I liked and read everything they had written - like Diana Gabaldon. As TV degenerated into the reality-show mess it has become, I found myself watching less and less TV in favor of reading a good book.

I would however spend a lot of time watching shows like A&E's America's Castles. I never missed that show. I still have very clear mental pictured of Mark Twain's house, and the Frank Lloyd Wright house in Chicago, etc. I find houses fascinating.

This is close to my "dream house" - a Victorian with a wraparound porch:

THINGS NOT SO PLEASANT TO PONDER:

I was absolutely horrified to learn that a kangaroo attacked a zookeeper at the Atlanta zoo yesterday. Here's the link: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/living/stories/2008/07/29/kangaroo_zoo_atlanta_attack.html

NOW do you understand why I have a morbid fear of kangaroos?! Any 6 foot tall, 141 lb. giant rat will scare the crap out of anybody!

I am pondering how to cut my spending and live more frugally. I hate to ponder this. I am not a person who is extravagant in any way. I detest clothes shopping and rarely buy clothes. I don't buy much of anything "extra" except the occasional book. I have become a faithful Goodwill shopper. However, I blow too much money on things like eating lunch at work every day, and trips to the movies.

Another small extravagance is that I don't skimp on plants and things for the yard. So I am pondering growing my own seedings next spring and saving money on that. That way, at least, I could save money on flowers and veggies, which are my main hobbies in the warm months - which means March - October, here. I am also planning another compost area.

If you have ideas on good companies to order seeds from, let me know.

My resistance to sound money management stems, I am sure, from the fact that my father was such a fanatic about money. Every January he would announce dramatically "We spent TOO MUCH money on Christmas and we're going on an austerity program around here!" This "program" meant chiefly that he would yell at Mother about the grocery bills and any items of clothing she purchased. After he died, she went out and bought a whole new wardrobe, and Bruce and I applauded her on that. She also had to learn to balance a checkbook and deal with finances, which Dad had never allowed, but she did a great job.

[NOTE: I posted a review of Journey to the Center of the Earth on my Scribblerchick blog. Check it out!]

A Day At the Lake

I took a vacation day today, to spend some time with the children before they start back to school on August 11.

I slept late [7:45, whoopee!] and got up and schlepped all over the yard, watering plants and deadheading petunias. Next year I will try and find geraniums. Petunias are pretty but deadheading isn’t pleasant. Mom was right.

I had to help Mother with some financial stuff and eat some breakfast, and it was about 11:30 before we could get away. We went to the Clayton County International Park. It’s a really nice park, south of Atlanta. Takes about 45 minutes to get there. They have bike trails, tennis courts, picnic tables, etc. It’s where the Olympic volleyball events took place in 1996.

We went because they have a man-made lake and a trampoline in the lake. Alesia and Michael thought it would be cool. It wasn’t that great, the kids reported, because they couldn’t get much bouncing done.  However, there was a big water slide they enjoyed, and a little kiddie play pool area that was cute.

I spent the afternoon dashing into the kiddie area to stand under the giant water-spouting mushrooms and cool off, then I’d go back to my umbrella table and read.

I don’t recall ever going to a man-made lake like that. The beach sand is too perfect – like a movie set or something. Hot as blue blazes, too.

Michael felt very self-conscious at first, and didn’t want to swim. After a brief dip with Alesia, he came back and threw himself into a chair near me. He sat and pouted. “Everyone is LOOKING at me!” he complained.

I think some of this is adolescent angst creeping in, and some is just his difficulty with any new situation. He was so nervous about camp he was a total pill for a couple of days, you may recall.

I pondered for a moment how to get him out of his funk. Finally, I said “Michael, you stick close to Alesia. Close, OK? All the time.”

He looked at me like I was nuts. “Why?!”

“Michael, your sister is a beautiful young girl. Nobody is going to look at YOU. They will be looking at HER. Stay close to her.”

He frowned, pondering this. Alesia giggled, “Yes Michael, I am so BEAUTIFUL!” she laughed. I glared at her.

Finally, he went in.

Later, Alesia got something to eat and I went in and swam with Mike a little, and his mood improved even more.

At almost 4, I was starving, and we left. We stopped at Wendy’s, which was the closest place. Michael ate an order of chicken nuggets AND a hamburger. Alesia ate a burger and fries. I had a burger. I couldn’t believe he ate all that.

We came home and crashed for a while, the kids in front of the TVs and me with my book. There’s something about being outside all afternoon, in and out of the sun and the water, that saps all the energy right out of a person. I was making everyone drink water, too. Mike drank two bottles on the ride home.

When we got home it looked like a massive thunderstorm was blowing up. However, nothing much came of it – some wind, a few drops of rain, some thunder and lightning. Not enough rain to do any good whatsoever. Drat.

As tired as I was and as late as we ate lunch, I just made some tuna salad for dinner, and gave the kids a cucumber and tomato salad. Nobody needed a big meal.

Back to work tomorrow. I need the rest.

Photos of the water park are below. The first one shows Alesia and Mike on the stairs at the top, fixing to go down the big slide, which they both declared was the best part.

A Mixed Bag

This will be a disjointed post, I fear, because there are a lot of things in my head, but not the ability to compose a cohesive essay, I'm afraid.

I should have responded to a comment about squash the other day, I think. You can take any sort of squash or zucchini or even bell peppers [I have personal knowledge of these], wash and chop them, stick them in a freezer bag, and freeze them. Thaw and prepare months later and they are fine, as long as you sealed the bag well. Freezing your own veggies has to be better than buying them, I feel sure.

However, Mother says that frozen veggies are better than what you buy in the produce section because they haven't been shipped thousands of miles. The veggies are usually quick frozen just after picking, when they are ripe.

I have an aunt who has frozen bread, and thawed out a few pieces at a time. I think that's fine, if keeping an entire loaf means it's going to get stale or turn green. We tend to take nearly-stale or stale bread we know we won't eat, and let Michael pinch it up and put it out for the squirrels and birds. It always disappears quickly.

There is controversy over at my son's soccer organization, and I was pretty stunned to learn of it the other day from a neighbor. Apparently the coaches were all let go last spring and they have a new crop, and there is a group of parents who got mad and left and just formed their own soccer league. We saw a guy on a busy street corner passing out flyers about it last Saturday, which was a little weird. I want to be neutral, like Switzerland, in this. However, I am not sure if I can. I want Alesia to have a sport she can enjoy, and the original outfit may not have enough girls in her age group for a team this fall. So I might want to switch to the league where she can play. However, then I don't know if I would want to switch Michael or not. If he could walk to practice at the middle school, it would be tempting. I don't know how this will all work out. I will admit I am apprehensive.

Last night, Alesia started off her movie viewing by sitting in her little chair, leaning back against the heavy coffee table in the family room. I was on the loveseat and Michael was on the sofa. After about 30 minutes, he wanted to come sit with me. So he sat snuggled up against me for a while. Remember, I had moved to the loveseat so he wouldn't feel crowded on the sofa. Then he decided to move back to the sofa. Then Alesia announced her back hurt, and she switched places with Michael. I stayed on the loveseat. Coco went from person to person, licking faces as much as possible. It was a relaxed evening.

The other day I did something really frivolous and went hunting around on YouTube for videos of old songs I like. I saved them to my Facebook profile, so now I can go on there and play them. [I know, most people just download old songs to their IPod but I am a techno-idiot, remember.] I get up every moning and check email to see if anything has come in from my brother in Iraq while I was sleeping. Today I spent a few minutes playing a video of a song I haven't heard in a while, and the song is IN MY HEAD blaring all day long!!! Arrgh! It's Todd Rundgren's Can We Still Be Friends. There's a little catchy piano riff in it that will NOT stop playing in my head. It's maddening.

You may remember Todd wrote the catchy little song called "I Don't Want to Work I Just Want to Bang on the Drum All Day." There used to be a radio station here that played it every Friday at 5, as people were getting in their cars to start their commutes.

The other two songs I really liked and saved are "Life in a Northern Town" by Dream Academy [www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF9768pF6hA] and "You Get What You Give" by the New Radicals [www.youtube.com/watch?v=91WgM6dNLTE]. I think what I really like about both songs is that they came out in the 80's but they had more intelligence and less pop synth sounds than so much of what was popular then. When I listen to them, particularly the Dream Academy song, it makes me very nostalgic.

I don't know why everythign is green now. I can't change it. Yet another annoyance of trying to post...

Beware of Granite

I got up and watered outside, and it wasn’t at all hot. In fact, it was kind of overcast, and I was briefly hoping for rain, but none came.

We spent a rather leisurely morning, and then went to Sports Authority. For some unknown reason, Alesia was in a mood. She needs a new bike helmet, but got upset when I told her I wouldn’t pay more than $30 for one. This is like her third one in 4 years. They aren’t cheap.

Mike’s tennis coach said he should start using a grownup racket, so I found a good Wilson on sale for $54, which was a bargain. I now have two nice, barely used junior rackets which we can’t use any more. [Email me if you want to buy them…]

We get out to the car and I told Alesia to put the bag in the trunk, which she does, and then she SLAMS down the trunk lid, missing Michael’s fingers by a hair. She didn’t even look before slamming it shut. We’ve warned her about slamming things in cars and doing damage. So, I tried to control my temper in the car, but I scolded her. She immediately reverted to “I don’t care” mode, further ticking me off. I canceled a planned trip to Target, and we went home.

Mother and I tried to talk to her about her behavior but she barely cooperated. She acted completely unapologetic. I pointed out if she had slammed the trunk on Mike’s fingers she would have cut them off, thus ruining the one good hand he has. She acted like “No big deal.” It’s the inability to admit she does something wrong, or to say she’s sorry, that just ticks me off every time.

It really stung when Alesia said she wished I would spend LESS time with her and Michael. She doesn’t want me to pay attention to her or spend time with her. She wants to be left ALONE, she stated. I pointed out that since I work full-time, I reserve my weekends and evenings to spend with my children. That doesn’t mean she can’t see her friends.

A short time later, we were in the car getting sandwiches at Jersey Mike’s, and I suggested she call Elena about spending some time at the pool. So Alesia spent all afternoon with Elena at the pool. She was in a much better mood later.

Alesia still has no idea how to handle her emotions, and there are a lot of frayed nerves, I see. Feeling and expressing anger or sadness, not bottling everything up, is new for her, and I'm sure it's scary.

Michael and I relaxed for part of the afternoon, then ran errands. We hit the fish market and produce stand, then came home and unloaded, then went back to Kroger.

Michael was complaining about the heat at the produce stand, and the guy who sold me our fruits and veggies offered him an orange or an apple, out of the blue. Nice young man. I think he was impressed that I was driving my brother’s big, loud truck. Looks pretty cool until you see this fat, sweaty, grey-haired woman practically fall out, then have to heave herself back in. It’s not a pretty sight.

Mike got the free piece of fruit due entirely to the power of his cuteness, I am convinced.

After we got home from Kroger and unloaded the groceries, I was too tired to cook. So dinner was “fallout.” That means, everyone opens the fridge to see what will fall out, that they can eat. Mother had leftover beef stew. I had a hot dog and sun chips.

Michael and Alesia fixed their favorite wraps. This was comical to watch. They take large tortillas, spread them with mayonnaise, add ham or other lunch meat, plus diced tomatoes, and cabbage and pickles. Yep, cabbage. They love it. It’s a Russian thing, I think. Pretty nutritious sandwich, though. Michael’s wrap was more like a foldover and watching him eat was comical. His wrap kept dripping.

Alesia’s wrap was perfectly done, and any excess tortilla pieces were carefully trimmed and fed to Coco. Coco will bite like a piranha for tortilla scraps, I learned.

Our movie tonight was an old thriller, The Jackal, with Bruce Willis playing an international assassin. Alesia and Michael kept being amused by his many disguises and changed hairstyles and colors. Alesia would exclaim “Look, now he looks like Steve Martin!” then “Now he looks like Uncle Bruce!” and “Now he looks like and old guy!”

Michael spotted a booby trap in one scene and solemnly informed us he had found the “granite.” We had no idea what that meant. We played back the DVD and he pointed to a grenade. The two words are close...

Family Viewing

Yesterday was such a weird day for the weather. When we woke up, there was a 70% chance of rain. Whoopee! I thought. As the day wore on, it was sunny. Not a cloud in the sky. Finally, around 3:30, when the kids and I headed to the movie, we got 10 drops of rain. When we came out of the movie there were huge, ominous black clouds in the sky. How much rain? Another 10 drops. Aaaaargh!!

We ran errands yesterday, and had lunch at Steak & Shake. Just before leaving the house, Alesia and I watched a program on HGTV. Now, I LOVE HGTV. If I had nothing else to do, I’d watch it all the time. It’s the best channel on TV, besides perhaps Food Network… The program we watched was about a couple who wanted to redecorate their home to make it more child friendly because they were adopting a 3 year old girl from Ethiopia. At the end, it showed some footage of the little girl in her new home with her parents. Wonderful story.

Later in the day, Michael and I watched another HGTV program together. Alesia was in the shower. This one was hosted by a smarmy type man who I did NOT like. He advised a young couple to decorate their dining room in turquoise, salmon, and black, and paint the ceiling black. What??! Michael was sitting there saying “That will look TERRIBLE?! Those chairs don’t go with that table!” It was funny. He was right, though. It just amused me that a child his age would have such discernment.

I must admit, I look at HGTV programs often and think, "What are you people DOING?!" Ack!

I took the kids to see a new film called Journey to the Center of the Earth. Excellent, fun film. It was like a thrill ride at Disney World, but I mean that in a good way. There was also a decent story.

I never read the original Jules Verne book, but it looks amazing. Jules Verne was a fascinating writer http://library.thinkquest.org/27864/data/verne/jvbio.html. My kids loved Around the World in 80 Days – the Jackie Chan version.

The movie was in 3D. Now, I had not seen a 3D movie in many years. They gave us clunky plastic glasses. The effects were sometimes disconcerting. It did appear that objects floated in the air, just out of reach. However, at times the action would move too fast and things would be blurry – at least for me. I don’t know about the kids. I have severe astigmatism in my eyes so that may be why my view wasn’t perfect.

Later in the day, we devised a new seating arrangement for watching movies in the family room. Alesia sat in a chair on the floor, one of those foldup things you find at Target. I sat on the loveseat and Mike had the sofa. He is getting so big that sharing the sofa with him is awkward – he likes to stretch out and put his feet in my lap. Not a bad deal, except when he gets excited and nearly kicks me in the face. The family room is designed to be long and narrow and it’s so awkward, trying to sit in there and watch a movie. If I could afford it, I’d just replace the sofa and loveseat with 4 nice Laz-E-Boy chairs…

This is our family room.

Squash and Us

I had a private email from a friend who reads my blog and she said Dick's Sporting Goods has trampolines on sale sometimes for $150. Her kids have had one for a while and no mishaps have occurred. Then Kikilia left a comment with a link that says they are terribly dangerous. Didn't realize I was making a controversial statement about the trampolines...

If I had small children or physically un-coordinated kids I would probably heed the advice of the experts, but I think my kids can use the trampoline responsibly, if I can scrape together the money to buy it. We will see.

My garden is doing well. When my friend Kate was over last weekend I showed her the garden, and she said "Dee, these are WEEDS!" pointing out a plant which was, indeed, a weed. I said "Yep, just yank it out. I just can't keep up with them all." Kate weeded my entire little garden while we talked. Now that's a friend. LOL

I kept hoping we would get some rain yesterday - it was overcast and looked like it - but we didn't. I need to go water this morning before it gets too hot.

Remember the corn plants growing up under the bird feeder? Lesleigh found what looks like an embryonic cob of corn on one of them. If it actually grows into corn, I'll suggest we leave it for the squirrels. It will be fun to see, though.

I had a request for squash recipes. Kikilia said she is overrun with squash. I wish that were true for me - I LOVE yellow squash. I've only gotten one squash out of 5 plants. Of course, 3 plants died from some sort of bug issue.

In the past, when I had lots of time, I have gotten fresh squash and washed and chopped it, then put it  in a plastic freezer bag and frozen it. I have done the same for tomatoes. Mother taught me to save the tomatoes, then you can make excellent marinara sauce in the dead of winter. We always dip them in boiling water for about 10 seconds because it makes skinning them easier.

When I fix squash I usually don't use a recipe. I wash it and chop it up and set it aside. In a heavy skillet I brown up a chopped onion in olive oil until it's crunchy, then I throw in my squash. I add a little butter, some Lawry's Seasoning Salt, garlic powder, freshly ground black pepper, and usually some parmesan or asiago cheese. I stand there or close by to tend it, because I like it crispy on the bottom.

Another way to fix it, which is easier, is to get some Lipton Onion Soup Mix, throw your chopped squash in a big plastic bag with the soup mix and olive oil and shake it well, then spread it out on a cookie sheet and run it under the broiler. You can add extra seasonings and cheese if you want, but you have to watch it carefully. Lipton makes several varieties of soup mix now.

If I have some extra time, I like to make squash cakes. That recipe is below, from Paula Deen. It's fabulous.

SQUASH AND ZUCCHINI CAKES

3 medium zucchini
3 medium yellow squash
1 cup toasted bread crumbs
1 cup shredded Parmesan
1/3 cup minced Vidalia onion
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 1/2 teaspoons dried Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 jar store-bought marinara sauce

Grate zucchini and squash with a fine grater. Press between paper towels to remove excess moisture.

In a medium bowl, combine grated zucchini and squash and next 7 ingredients. Shape mixture into 2-inch patties, pressing together firmly.

In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Cook squash and zucchini cakes 3 to 4 minutes per side or until lightly browned.

Place onto serving platter and serve with marinara sauce.

These are SO YUMMY!!

Remember I said we had lunch last Sunday with cousin Jan? Here's a photo she took and sent to us, below. I don't know why Alesia looks so grumpy - probably PMS.

Bamboos and Trampolines

Michael has had a busy week. He's been playing tennis a LOT. Today he had his second private lesson. Thankfully, coach moved him up to be able to practice with the kids his own age. He was practicing with the younger kids and getting impatient with them.

The coach commented in an email to me late this morning that Michael looks like he's having fun, and he's learning fast. Yay!

Alesia's summer school ended yesterday and so she walked down to the tennis courts with Michael, to watch. They callde me later and said the coach had showed her some basics, which is awesome. I am hoping she will go down there and practice some with Michael. It would be such good exercise.

When I got home yesterday, Mike and Alesia were at the pool. As soon as they came in the house and I got my chlorine hugs [I like that smell, actually] Mike gave me a kiss and said, sotto voce and very seriously "I cut down bamboos?!" Mother and I had told him he could only take his hatchet and cut down bamboos when I am there. It makes Mother nervous. I don't care if he cuts them - they proliferate like crazy in our yard and bug us all when they pop up in the lawn. We do want to leave enough of them to act as a privacy screen, though.

So Michael went to work and there are now bamboo fishing poles for all of us, seasoning. My brother had cut some bamboo poles when he was here last winter but the soccer team destroyed them, when they came over for a cookout. I love to fish - haven't held a pole in my hands in about 20 years, though. I hope we can go fishing when Bro comes home on leave.

Our movie last night was Bowfinger, the classic Steve Martin film. It's hilarious. Martin plays a small-time filmmaker who decides to make a film starring an action hero who won't agree to be in the film, so they film him surrepticiously. For more, see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0131325/.

I was so tempted yesterday to go out and buy a trampoline. My kids have been wanting one ever since we went to Kate's house a few months ago and they got to bounce on her trampoline. The problem is money. A decent new one costs about $300. Used trampolines scare me. I fear accidents. Mother is not keen on the idea because she's afraid the oompa-loompa sized yard men we have will hurt the trampoline, when they move it to mow. They've banged up the soccer goal and garden hose, but not permanently. [I am more inclined to think the trampoline would hurt them, and they'd sue us. I have worked a lot of premises liability cases in 23 years as a paralegal...]

As I was driving home last night, though, I began to recall the nightmare last year when the kids started school. It was School Supply Hell. Every eyar it's like a brutal scavenger hunt to find everything. Michael had to take Kleenex and wet wipes last year, for instance. I thought in high school it wouldn't be so bad, but all of Alesia's teachers demanded she do her notebook a certain way, a separate binder for each class, plus special pens, calculators, etc. If I go to Office Depot, which is the mecca for school supplies, I can find almost everything if I am willing to fight the crowds. The prices there aren't great, though. Walmart won't have everything. The School Box won't have everything. I want to make one trip, and Alesia will forget to bring in the supply lists and I'll have to go buy them every day for a week or two. The total spent on these supplies will be in the hundreds of dollars! Aaaargh! What do poor mothers do?!

The trampoline will have to wait.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

FUNNY

Mother and I were visiting with Lesleigh last night and Mother recalled a funny story told by her friend Jeanie, who is a world-class musician and heads the music department at mother's church in Augusta. Jeanie left Augusta as a very young woman in the early 1950's, to go to New York and study at Julliard. She had never traveled much and was very intimidated by the city. Augusta Georgia is a not really a small town - but it was 50 years ago.

So Jeanie wanted to get a New York driver's license. She goes to the DMV to take the test, and fills out some papers and goes up to the counter. The patrolwoman at the counter looked at her and said what Jeanie thought was "Count to 10!" Startled and intimidated, Jeanie stuttered "One, two, three, four, five-six-seven-eight-nine-ten?!" The patrolwoman just shook her head and snarled, "No! I said Counter 10!"

LOL

Obsessed, That's Me

Two days ago I had a freaky, Oh My God what's happening? kind of moment on my way home. I get on 75 heading south towards downtown and I notice there are no cars on 75 northbound. None. For miles. I am so startled. I drive and drive, and try not to wreck while I rubberneck over to the northbound lanes.Finally, I see a police barricade holding back the northbound traffic. It's a parking lot over there.

I call my friend Brian, who is an event planner and knows all. "The president is in town," he informs me. Then today, I perused my favorite news site, Oddly Enough [weird news and photos and funny captions, what's not to love?!] and found this: http://blogs.reuters.com/oddly-enough/2008/07/24/whered-you-get-the-turkey-leg-mr-president/. So the pres was here! I believed Brian, but the photo of W at Dobbins Air Force Base was still a teeny weeny bit thrilling. I work very near Dobbins.

It's almost as good as the day I ate lunch near Evander Holyfield. I walked right behind him coming back from the bathroom! He's not very tall. [No, I didn't follow him to the bathroom, I'm not that weird.]

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

We had an interesting morning. Here's what I reported to my brother:

Since Mike had that bad episode last week where his arm was burning and he had to sleep with an ice pack, I wanted to get him in to see a specialist. Colleen arranged for us to see Dr. Allan Peljovich, over at Northside, who specializes in hands and lower extremities.

Dr. Peljovich was very nice, and very kind to Michael. He took an x-ray. There is no overgrowth of any size to warrant surgery and he likely will never need surgery – only about 5-10% of child amputees ever do. Dr. P said the pain occasionally and burning feelings occasionally were normal.

There is also some phantom pain and sensation in the missing hand and fingers, which Michael had never admitted to me before. Dr. P told Mike that’s totally normal and nothing to get freaked out about or worry about. He seemed relieved to hear that. He told me in the car later that the phantom feelings are sort of scary. Dr. P said the brain just doesn’t realize the hand is gone. I told Mike I had heard of that, about phantom pain in missing limbs, and it’s normal.

Dr. P also said to pay attention and when there is pain or burning or itching, to think carefully about what was happening a day or so before that, to try and know what actions to avoid. He said Mike can do anything he wants with the short arm, though, as long as it doesn’t hurt. That’s good because he uses it to get more power in his backhand when playing tennis. [There has been no pain or burning since he started playing tennis a lot, though.]

He didn’t think a followup visit was necessary. We can just go back if there is a big issue.

The only awkward time was when the nurse was taking the medical history. She asked me what information I have about his mother and father and I said I have none. I also don’t have any medical to speak of, except for some notes in Russian in a little booklet. She also asked me about the accident which caused the amputation – even though I had written out an explanation which was perfectly clear. I think with any new doctor we see from now on I am going to ask them to talk to me privately about the history. Michael looked really unhappy when she was asking me about it.

When we were going home in the car I told Mike he needs to help Alesia this afternoon to get the house straightened up before Lesleigh comes over, and he sighed and looked at me and said “Lesleigh is family. Why are you so OBSESSED with the house, Mom?!” LOL

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I wrote up a review of The Great Debaters and it's here:

http://deescribbler.typepad.com/flick_pages/

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I just read that the water advisory was canceled. Woo hoo!! We'll be drinkin' some H2O tonight!!

Water Water Everywhere...

We are without clean water. DeKalb County has a “boil all water” restriction in place. I wasn’t sure if the link would work so here’s the scoop:

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga -- Officials in DeKalb County have issued a precautionary boil water advisory until further notice.

The advisory affects certain residents in north and central DeKalb County. The zip codes of those affected have been listed below.

Officials issued the advisory after the Scott Candler Water Treatment Plant lost power due to severe weather.

Officials said lightning struck the plant just before 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Officials said residents living in the following zip codes should boil water for at least three minutes before drinking, bathing, washing, or cooking: 30319, 30030, 30340, 30341 30345, 30033, 30329, 30084, 30087, 30083, 30030, 30002, 30307, 30306, 30079, 30021, 30032 and 30088.

Authorities said the boil water advisory may remain in effect until Thursday afternoon. [ACK!]

I didn’t much feel the effects, since I drink tea in the morning. We didn’t see the thing on TV about the restriction until Alesia and I were walking out the door. Fortunately, we have bottled water by the truckload in the garage.

I had already taken my shower and drunk my two full cups of tap water this morning [it’s, uh, good for cleaning out the system – yes I am the fearless Tap Water Drinking Woman!!] I have suffered no ill effects. Unless you count the green mold growing out of my ears… [LOL]

Mother's been boiling up drinking water in the electric kettle all day.

We went to Longhorn Steakhouse for dinner so we wouldn’t dirty up any dishes. We already had a dishwasher dull of dirty dishes and cutlery that Alesia forgot to run last night. At Longhorn, they served us bottled water and we ate off paper plates. We didn’t care. The grilled salmon there was excellent.

Fortunately, I work in Cobb County, so it didn’t affect me at work.

The kids and I watched a cute kid film called “Sky High.” I watched it because of Kurt Russell, who is still a babe, I don’t care how old he is. It’s a cute movie. I recommend it.

Storms in Georgia

We had a terrific thunderstorm last night. We lost electricity for about 15 minutes. Michael was having fun running around with the huge industrial type flashlight he got from Uncle Bruce. We took the pork roast out of the electric oven and put it in the gas oven. We gathered up candles.

Fortunately, the power came back on. No major damage to anything I could see.

When the storm was pounding us, I went out to the front porch and sat there for a little while with Alesia, watching it. We watched the sheets of rain pour down the hill across the street and move down to our yard. The yard was covered in pine cones. I told Alesia her Grandpa Tony [my dad] loved to watch a good thunderstorm - from the safety of a porch, of course.

The nice thing is we got some badly needed RAIN. It was 95 yesterday. My plants were all wilting, big time.

Our movie last night was The Great Debaters, about a small black college debate team that went up against Harvard in 1935. It was a terrific film. It opened up several discussions with the kids about  racism,  debate, civil disobedience - all great topics. It was a history lesson, but well acted and engaging. Denzel Washington directed and starred. I highly recommend it.

I finally got a minute to download Michael's birthday photos. They didn't come out too well, alas. It was morning in the dining room, which meant everything was flooded with light and we looked like washed out ghosts.