Since somebody chastised me on Twitter (Hi Sara) for mentioning these without giving the recipe, and I been stalling on posting because I really wanted to move away from political posting, I figured I would share what is our typical Sunday Morning breakfast in the Autumn, Pumpkin Pancakes.  

Ingredients.

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 tbsp butter (melted)
• 1 cup nonfat milk
• 1/3 cup pure pumpkin

Look, I am not any big fan of bailing out a bunch of Investment Bankers and banks.  Fine, I am not a fan of the idea at all.  And I am not going to spend too much time on the negatives, the golden parachutes, idiotic CEO pay scales, and the like.  These have all been well documented and hammered home on virtually every blog and Tweet on the subject.

However, in all the negativity on the subject, something has gotten lost, and I don’t think (well I know, but I didn’t want to overstate it) many quite understand the gravity of the situation, and why it wasn’t just an “easy” decision for lawmakers to just tell these companies to, “go ahead and fail,” or  ”you made your your own bed.”  It just isn’t, as much as we would like to think it is, to untie these situations from the rest of the economy because of the scale of it all.

A car dealer not far from my home, Bigelow Motors, had been in business for 66 years.  It had weathered upturns and downturns many times over the years, but they were basically forced to close their doors this past week.  The reason?  They lost their line of credit.

In my own business, there are times that I need credit to cover the time between when I secure the supplies I need and the time my client pays me.  Without that line of credit, I am seriously hampered in what I can do and what orders I can complete.  

This is a common way of doing business for companies big and small (only the size of the line of credit changes).  From small corner delis that need to cover stock to mega corporation deals, there is very little that is done “in cash” because income and outlay do not always line up nice and neatly.

Obviously, the impact on business also affects employment as well.  Everybody at that car dealership I mentioned earlier is out looking for a job now.  Unemployment is up all over the place, and would only get worse as businesses need to either cut back or shut down because they are not able to conduct business as usual.

So, just understand, it was not a “no-brainer” to just vote this bill down. (Well, it was in that crazy first draft sent over from President Bush, but that was pretty much obvious to everybody except I guess President Bush and Treasury Secretary Pauson).  Is it ideal?  No.  Did it have to be as quickly as it was?  Unfortunately, Yes.

While people joke around now about how it hasn’t fixed everything already, this plan it going to take time to actually start having an effect, so even now we are still in crisis, but everyday that it waited is more time until implementation takes effect, and the more business that are apt to fail if this wasn’t passed in some form.

What I think a lot of people are shocked with, it that they got a good look at how Washington works.  The sort of wheeling and dealing (and pork additions) that happened here goes on constantly.  It is “how things work” and while this is no secret, it was clearly (and expensively) on display here.

I guess what I am trying to say here is, that I am not saying you shouldn’t be angry about what is going on.  I sure am.  But be angry at the right people, for the right reasons.  Look to former Texas Senator Phil Gramm and his slipping in of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act (CFMA) that enabled things like the Enron collapse, and the bundling of “derivatives” that helped make this mortgage crisis possible.  Be angry that this same Phill Gramm is on John McCain’s short list to be Treasurer of the United States.  Be angry at those that politicized this process and demanded pork for their vote.  But don’t take a “yes” vote in and of itself to be the whole reason.  This really wasn’t an easy situation for anyone to swallow, and there are valid reasons to have voted for the bailout.  The damage has long since been done, and now it needed to be fixed to keep the situation from getting worse.

On a day to day basis, people fret over small details.  As highlighted by the show Bridezillas, in many cases this gets highlighted (and quite intense) during particularly stressful times (like getting married). We worry about the wrong flowers, or somebody is 5 minutes late.

How would you have liked to have had THIS to be your wedding day?

Just a reminder that no matter how bad something seems… it can almost always be worse.

I just need to survive.  That is my mantra for the next couple of weeks.

Wenesday, LatteGirl had her first Piano Recital (which went off very well thank you very much).

Tonight, she is “testing” to try and move up to a yellow belt in Karate.

As part of her birthday present LatteGirl wanted her room done over, which is something TheWife has wanted to do for a while anyway, but just to add to the fun, TheWife scheduled that done this week as well.  (Please don’t even get me started with the fact that with this make-over things like Winnie the Pooh pictures are on the way out to make room for Hannah Montana posters)

Next week is LatteGirl’s  birthday, and dance recital in the same weekend.  She follows that with finals.  FINALS!?!  When they hell did they start having final exams in second grade???

Ah well… sleep is highly overrated anyway.

OK, not really… but now that I have your attention, let me tell you what happened this past weekend. It was Saturday, a relatively warm, cloudy day here in New Jersey. Like every Saturday for the past few months, my routine was the same, I would go out on my back deck, enjoy a cup of coffee and my morning cigarette (yes, I know… don’t go there), the dogs run around the yard, and then I get ready and head off to the gym. So like every other Saturday morning, I knew exactly what the condition of the yard was (mostly I note whether I will be mowing or doing yard work that day). Nothing was particularly amiss or out of the usual.

As I was coming home, TheWife calls me and says the our patio set is “broken” (I really must speak to her about her ability to understate a situation). I arrived home to find that the tempered glass top of our patio set had shattered into nothing but a chards of glass. I mean tiny. The pieces were so small that you could fit two or three of them on a dime. I found this quite baffling. Now granted tempered glass is supposed to break in a way that prevents thos huge sharp edges from forming, but in the past, I had only seen the tiny pieces at point of impact when something broke the glass, and the rest sort of hung together in a “sheet” of broken pieces. In this case the entire tabletop was completely in chards. I did my best Gil Grissom imitation (other than taking photos… dammit), looking for a cause. There were no rocks, sticks, branches from a tree or other projectiles within the rubble. The ring that protects the center hold where the umbrella goes had fallen straight down and landed on the leg of the table, so obviously the table came straight down, and not at some angle. There was no blood to indicate that a squirrel or other animal had landed on it crashing through. I even entertained the notion that since I live in the flight path of Newark Liberty International Airport that it was a case of “blue ice” and that in the midday sun, it had just melted… but even that would have left some sort of residue from the dye (and or contained waste…ewww). No, nothing seemed to fit.

The table, was one I had purchased from K-Mart a couple of years ago, one of their Martha Stewart line of tables. I was talking about it this week to somebody, and decided to look up some information on Tempered Glass, and at first found this article discussing how when tempered glass is compromised in some way that it can seem like it just “explodes.” Back into Google for a search of “Tempered Glass Exploding” and there… the first article up (at least at the time I did the search), was this little piece called, “Sounds of Summer: Martha Stewart Tables Shattering.” Turns out, this “phenomenon” that had struck our table was not at all uncommon.

There is apparently even a class action lawsuit that is in the works against Martha Stewart Living Omnipedia and JRA Funiture.  However, JRA Funiture filed Chapter 7 Bakruptcy (total liquidation) last year, so at least they are no longer the source (depending on inventories of course) of the tables, but it also means no recovery for the Class Action Lawsuit either.

I’d like to think that with JRA Funiture out of business that this is the end of the situation, but to be honest, reading how Sears (and/or Kmart) and Martha Stewart Living have not even (so far as I can tell) acknowledged this as a problem, outside of saying they will work with consumers under warranty, leaves me a little ill at ease with them, leaving me doubting whether I want to trust them again.  Problem is, at least the old sets were also farmed out under different names to other chains as well.  JRA’s funiture was also sold under the Hampton Bay name at Home Depot, as well as being carried by Sam’s Club, Target and Safeway. (Only Home Depot has has a similar report of an exploding table that I have been able to find so far).

If you have (or had) one of these sets,  if your table is still under warranty you can call K-mart Customer Service about it at 866-562-7848 (though K-Mart has not specifically said they will honor the manufacturer’s warranty) or Home Depot (who will honor the warranty) at 800-585-9969.  Other than that you are probably out of luck.  So what does this all mean?  I guess, most of all be careful if you are going to buy a glass top patio set from a discount retailer.  In my case, I am thinking a nice teak set might be in our future instead of risking it with glass again.

I could have sworn, I had talked about this before, but for the life of me, cannot find it in my archives. Oh, well… to summarize quickly… One thing we did very early with LatteGirl is start her on an allowance.

Now, to cover a couple of issues, I always see when the issue of allowance comes up. We GIVE her an allowance. We do not tie it to chores. Why? Because simply put, we do not provide her an “option” of whether or not she does the chores we ask of her. There is no, conversation like, “well if you don’t clean up your room, your not going to get your allowance.” which eventually (at least once) leads to the reply of “fine, keep you money” No. This is not acceptable, and hence we don’t connect them in such a way.

Now for those that argue, “Why should I pay them for breathing?” I can give you some other ways to look at it. First of course you can look at it as paying on installment the eventual therapy bills they will have as adults, and just consider this sort of a payment plan or savings account towards that. More seriously though, stop looking as it as paying them. Think of it in how much it can possibly save you. You are going to spend money on your kids anyway. This allows an easy to understand cap on some types of spending, as well as provides a way to teach financial responsibility.

We give LatteGirl $1 per week for every year. On other words she is 7 now, so she gets $7 per week, but after the end of the month when she turns 8 she will get a “cost of living” increase. With that money we have set up 3 banks for her and (approximately) a third goes in each. So right now, $2.50 goes towards her college fund (and gets put into her 529 plan every other month), $2.50 goes into her “saving up” fund. These are for larger toy purchases she wishes to make outside of what she gets for her birthday or Xmas. The final $2.50 is for her “instant gratification” fund that she can spend (almost) any way she wants. She wants to buy gum, a candy bar or to get something from the Ice Cream Man rather than the ice cream in the freezer? It all comes out of her money. She learns to balance the “I want” against, “is it worth it?” Yes, she has made a mistake or two along the way (but who hasn’t… I still make them), but by and large, these lessons have really seemed to sunk in.

Which brings me back to why I started this post. Perhaps, she is learning a bit too quickly (for me anyway). I have gone out of my way to avoid certain toys. Some are hard and fast rules that we do not allow (i.e. Bratz) but others are things that I am just sort of trying to stall on. One of those items is a Nintendo DS Lite. She has enjoyed the LeapFrog Leapster, and I get the bonus of not only is it entertaining her, but she is also learning something while she is playing it.

However, lately I noticed she has been a bit more frugal than usual (her only real expense this year was that she finally decided to get her ears pierced… but that is another post), and saving some of her “now” money with her long term. Upon inquiry I was informed that since Santa didn’t come across with the DS, and she already knows she is not getting one for her birthday (her request was for another addition to her American Girl Doll collection), that she was now saving to get one herself.  Between her allowance and a few dollars she got slipped to her from my mother (Aany money she gets in the manner gets split between her 529 Plan and her “long term” saving fund. Yes, we have this covered as well), but between her sources, she is already better than half way to her goal.  And of course, she was quick to point out, that since it is her money, she is entitled to do with it as she pleases since it does not break the “Bratz Rule.”

I am going to have to add an ammendment to these rules and find a way to give myself more veto power.  She is learning her way around these issues far quicker and easier than I ever imagined.  I never thought I would regret teaching her money management, but while I am thrilled that she has taken to learning this so well, I can see this coming back to bite me.

I think I am

I’ve been stewing on this one a while, and while I have made mention of it before, it was always just more of an afterthought; but after encountering it yet again this past weekend, I think I have finally had enough.  By now I am sure most of you (well all three of you), are saying “get to the point” so I will.  Why is it that “everybody” (especially it seems older people, and for some reason very religious people) seem to have this particularly invasive idea that they have the right (or almost responsibility) to inquire about your reproductive plans?  Oh, and if that isn’t enough, then they are going to judge you on it based on what they have determined is the “right” thing.

When TheWife and I were first married, it was the constant (and somewhat typical) question of “when are you going to start a family?”  The fact that we waited 6 years was almost unconscionable to some people and family members.  I won’t even get into what my poor sister has to go through since she and her husband have opted to not have children.  For these people, can I just point out that people actually get married for reasons other than to start pushing out children.

Of course, fortunately the reason that we did not have a child right away was because of choice.  I know (both in real life, and many others that I have come to know through blogging) that haven’t because of medical problem.  This of course serves to act as a big slap in the face, and can (and usually does) open some painful emotions in people struggling to have a child, when these reproductive nazis…er… well intended individuals, come along and decide to poke their noses in and demanding answers.

Lately, the new question has come up about when are we going to have another child (now with the extra bonus of them reminding me that I am not getting any younger). The incredulous looks and shocked to downright snarky replies we get when we say we are done with one is a sight to behold.  You would think that I had just put an end to the chances of the human race’s chance of survival.  Then they begin the prodding, because they all need to know the “real” reason.  Is it physical problems?  Is there something wrong with LatteGirl that makes of afraid of another child?  Is it money? (because apparently when you have enough kids, you can live on love) Wouldn’t it be easier to have more if TheWife didn’t work?  (That one of course is insulting on assorted levels and goes into other issues I am not going to touch now)  They just cannot accept that this was the choice we made.  I had somewhat jokingly come up with the response of “We can only afford to raise and spoil one properly” just to try and head off the amount of time I would have to deal with their probing questions.   But to be honest, I am tired of using it as an answer, because I see no reason that I should feel compelled to answer.

The answer is “Just Because” and I am done with it.  LatteGirl is quite well adjusted thank you, and I know plenty of other only children at various stages of life to know that being an only child does not guarantee that they will not know how function in society as you seem to like to claim.  While I like to use the term, somewhat loosely “spoiled” she certainly isn’t.  She knows and has boundaries, she can play well with others, and is able to wait her turn, and doesn’t expect to always be first, just because that is “what she has always known” without competition from siblings.  I don’t question your choice to have more than one child, even if it means going beyond your financial means  (well, except for you Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar!!  17 kids?  WTF is wrong with you people?) .

While I am busy annoying people today, let us take a side rant here.  Why is it that people are against the use of condoms, or birth control because it “messes up” some divine plan, and that if “god” (or your personal choice of term) sees fit to bless you with a child, you should not “interfere” with this plan… but yet these same people seem to have absolutely no problem with fertility clinics and drugs that attempt to help in difficult situations (just to be clear, I do not have a problem with EITHER situation, I just don’t understand why messing with “the plan” is OK when you want to have a child, but not when you don’t).  Simiarly confusing to me is why there is nobody protesting, bombing or trying to shame men that go to a place that offers a vasectomy.  Doesn’t that mess with “the plan” as well?

What does this little side rant have to do with anything?  Well, it really all ties up quite nicely in the end… Stay the hell out of our choices.  My wife and I will choose what is best for us.  And the only reason I will give from now on is “Just Because!”

What is it going to take to stop people from packing a supermarket the day before a snowstorm, and shopping like they are going to be homebound until spring?  Does everybody just happen to need bread and milk the day before a storm?

Look if you happen to live in one of those places where the “corner store” is “follow this road five miles, make a left where old man Fogarty’s barn used to be, and head down the mountain,”  well then maybe you have some justification.  Or, of course if you are say advanced in years, where the thought walking on snow and/or ice instills visions of broken hips and nursing homes, well maybe you should prepare to be inside a bit longer.  I even understand everybody running to Blockbuster, because of the potential of kids at home for a snow day, and needed something to keep them occupied.

Other than that, honestly people, what are you thinking?  That the horse drawn carriage isn’t going to be able to get Bessie’s milk to the market? That old Mrs. Pumpernickel won’t be able to find enough fire wood to bake some bread?   Just why is it that this insane habit continues today?

I have always suffered from what is commonly known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (or S.A.D.)  In simple terms it is a form of depression that is basically believed to be brought on by a lack of sunlight, and a corresponding lack of serotonin.  In itself, it is a difficult thing to deal with, but the seeming lack of acknowledgment of its existence from far too many healthcare professionals makes it at time downright maddening.

But this isn’t about me.  I know I have it, I have my coping mechanisms, and when they don’t work, I now have people that I can go to that can help.  The reason I bring this up is more about the kids.  When I was young, S.A.D. wasn’t even a diagnosis that would come into play (at the time it was strictly considered a condition for places much closer to the Artic regions where sunlight becomes even more scarce or downright non-existant in the winter).  But just as bad, it is still overlooked often today.

As adults, we have more of a tendency to “know” when we are out of sorts and when we just don’t feel quite right.  Not necessarily always, but we do tend to know when something is at least out of the ordinary.  Kids do not have this mechanism (or perhaps experience) to recognize this or at least how to verbalize it.

Kidshealth.org has an excellent article which includes some things to look for in your child (this includes teens as well) and to be aware of.   These symptoms include:

• Changes in mood during winter months (admittedly, this can be a difficult one to recognize in teenagers, as their moods change often)
• Lack of enjoyment in activities that the child normally likes doing
• A lack of energy or unusual tiredness or fatigue
• Changes in eating habits (often associated with lots of simple carbs, and sugary “comfort foods”)
• Difficulty in concentrating  (Does your child tend to do better in the beginning and end of the year, but not so much so in the mid-year?)
• Less time socializing

This isn’t a checklist.  A child suffering from SAD doesn’t need to display all of these symptoms, nor do they need to obvious.  The changes can just as easily be subtle (depending of course on how severe the case is).  It may not simply be a case of “the blues.”

As you may have noticed (or perhaps not), my blogging hasn’t been quite regular. That was because we got quite a scare this past week, when our dog Sweetie got quite ill.

So, as to not create any unintended drama, I will say here that she is going to be just fine and is already well on her way to recovery. But, earlier in the week we were not quite so sure. It was odd at first, she wasn’t really showing any symptoms, but she refused to eat. She has done this before, so the first day, we didn’t worry that much about it, but on day 2, we began to get concerned. One day she would skip, but never too, and she was beginning to act a bit lethargic. We tried everything we could to get her to eat, something… anything. Dry food, wet food, treats, and I even went to the store and got some cheese. Nothing. Not a bite. She was still drinking, and would pop up with her usual vigor to go outside so we figured we would just call the vet the next day.  That nigh though, I new something still seemed not quite right, and she was asking to go outside frequently, so I decided to stay and sleep down in the living room.  Well try to sleep, as she continued to get me up almost exactly every 1/2 hour.  Then one time, I didn’t quite get to the door to let her out fast enough.  Blood.  Now I was panicked.

Off to the vet, and it still took a good 24 hours for a diagnosis, which sort of had us preparing for the worst.  She is 10 years old, and has never been the best health specimen in the world.   Through this and up through that first day at the vet LatteGirl was stoic and strong.  But she had assumed that Sweetie would be home from the vet when she got home from school.  She didn’t think much about it through dinner and getting her homework done.  Then she announced she was going to spend some time with Sweetie.  I pointed out that Sweetie was still at the vet, and a meltdown of epic proportions ensued.  She made TheWife stop on the way home from school the next day at the vet to visit Sweetie, but while that helped a bit, as she got tired, she once again melted down that night screaming how she wanted Sweetie home.

Like I said, fortunately this time, we have a happy ending.  Sweetie is back home, and LatteGirl is thrilled.  But I learned some interesting and valuable lessons through this ordeal.  I was reminded that despite her seeming to be 7 going on 21, that LatteGirl is still just child, and that meltdowns are still a way of life at times.  I was reminded, that we have had Sweetie here for LateGirl’s entire life, and she doesn’t know life without her.  When we got our Basset Hound earlier this year, part of the logic TheWife used on me was that Sweetie is not getting any younger, and that having another dog would (hopefully and theoretically) ease that pain a bit rather than having an “empty” home.  I am really starting to doubt that logic.

Another thing I learned is that co-workers can really lack understanding and compassion at times.  Now, I should already know this being a parent.  I work with a lot of young people, many single, and those that aren’t are…um… shall I say chauvinistic?   They have already shown me that they don’t “get” a father that does and “has to be home” for a child as much as I do.  When I say on a particular day I have to be home for LatteGirl, I have heard stupid comments like, “Oh, I didn’t know you were divorced.”  When I say I am not, I will inevitably get asked, “So then where is your wife?”  Thus is the mental capacity of the majority of people I work with on a daily basis.  So, I guess I should not be surprised, when I talk about being up all night with Sweetie or how the vet bill was going to run nearly a thousand dollars, they ask, “why would you do that?  It is just a dog.”  Very little short of the previously mentioned chauvinistic attitude really annoys me more than this.  And this is not tied to male or female.  I guess it is more like pet owner versus non pet owners.  I guess, unless you have lived with a pet for a number of years, you just can’t “get” that this animal is just about every bit as important a family member as anybody else.  I am sure those of you who have pets know exactly what I am talking about.  Those who don’t, well I am sure some of you understand.  For those that don’t… that’s fine… just try and understand it a little from the owners point of view.  This animal is a familiar creature in a person’s life, and losing it will emotionally hurt, so have a bit of compassion.  Because if you don’t, like one person in my office did, if you suggest to, “just throw it out and get a new one.”  You will hear (as he did), so really unpleasant things being said to you (at the very least).

The other thing I learned, is that it is not as stupid as some people think to get pet health insurance.  We use VPI Pet Insurance, but only because they were the first one we found. (Please note that this is not a paid link in any way shape or form, I linked it for your convenience)  There are more providers now, but we have just stuck with what we started.  But as I pointed out, this couple of days in the “hospital” plus medication, prescriptions, etc would run us darn near a thousand dollars.  We will be paying considerably less, thanks to having the insurance.  Much like your own health insurance, it may almost seem wasteful to spend what they charge these days for insurance.  That is, until something happens and you need to pay the bill without it.  I will tell you first hand it is worth it.

So, now we can resume our regular, insane rush to get everything for the holidays with full cheer ahead.

November 27th 19__ . I am not allowed to publish the year, despite the fact that she is a number of years younger than I am. She’s not vain about it… just doesn’t get why anybody would publish that fact to the world.

As I mentioned previously, she spent the weekend in the Catskills at a spa.  Tonight, LatteGirl and I took her out to dinner at her favorite restaurant, my mother is treating her to a 1/2 treatment at the Hershey Spa when we go there in a couple of weeks, and to top it off, I bought her the new Venus from Verizon Wireless.  I thought she should have a phone that looks at least half as pretty as she does.  But don’t tell her that, she thinks I got it because I am a gadget geek (which I am, but that is besides the point), which is fine.  Can’t have her thinking I still get all mushy all these years later.

Of course, the geeky gadget side of me likes it too.  Plus I will post a review of it, once I get a chance to put it through its paces… if she will let go of it for a few minutes.

OK, yesterday the Super Sized job my wife ordered began. Front Stairs Gone, Side walk Gone.

Now… here comes the rain! And it looks to planning on staying for a spell. Oh goody. The back door leads to the yard. Which we now get to trudge through the mud (thanks to the rain of course) to get in and out of the house.

There are plenty of “laws” that don’t exactly work every single time. But Murphy’s law? Count on it every dang time.

(Update: Link Fixed, sorry about that)

It has been one heck of a “weekend” around here, and I feel like I haven’t stopped since Tuesday night. Wenesday and Thursday were obviously all about the cooking. Which amazingly went better, and was more organized than ever. It turns out that I don’t actually have to run around like maniac. I can actually plan out times, and get everything on the table at the correct time, still hot and the earth will not stop spinning casting us all into outer space. Who knew?

But as it has become tradition, the three days following is TheWife’s time to get away from it all. Three days at a spa up in the Catskills of New York (are there other Catskills?), leaving me, LatteGirl and the two doggies. I thought keeping a child entertained would get easier as she got older. More able to entertain herself, and less of a need for Daddy for every activity. But with one small exception that does not seem to be the case around here. If anything, it has been the complete opposite. A few years ago, all I needed was a couple of coloring books, a Bear in the Big Blue House – Dance Party! DVD, and except for the possibility (OK, the it was highly likely) of having to rewind back to the beginning of the Bear Cha-Cha a couple of dozen times, I was usually good until lunchtime to get things done around the house.  That is apparently no longer the case.

We have been trying to keep LatteGirl more active and spending less time in front of the television.  Which is easy during soccer season, or when she has Karate or Dance lessons on Saturdays… of a normal two day weekend.  Now we have three days, and no organized activities.  She finished her homework in about an hour.  She spent another hour or so doing additional math and spelling work in some workbooks we picked up for her (she did this without prodding or coaxing, clearly proving she takes after somebody other than me).  She then declared she was bored, and needed some daddy time.

If it wasn’t for a holiday parade that her school marched in (and another mother took her to), I would have been in some serious trouble.  What did we manage to cram into three days?  Baking Cookies, Painting wooden crafts, we saw Enchanted, we saw Bee Movie, we went bowling, and we put up christmas decorations in the house.  Finally by Sunday afternoon she was finally ready to unwind a bit, and as we embarked on the Christmas decoration part of our weekend, we slowed our pace so that we could watch Frosty, Rudolph, Here comes Santa Claus, and of course Merry Christmas Charlie Brown.

I am so ready to go back to work and get some rest.

The Perfect Storm of Halloween Candy.  LatteGirl and TheWife made their way over to LatteGirl’s school for “Trick or Trunk”  (For those not familiar Trick or Trunk is sort of like an abbreviated trick or treat game.  Parents from the school all park in the parking lot, standing by their trunks (get it?) and the kids go Trick or Treating from car to car.  The good thing about this is that basically you (presumably) can trust all the candy that your kids get, and (yeah right) there is no need to go door to door trick or treating (this second part is a joke).  The bad thing is that this provides huges amounts of candy for the kids (that isn’t so bad), with them having to cover minimal ground to get it(this is where the problem exists).

So now LatteGirl had met up with her BFF from school and they “work the parking lot” together for candy as the mother’s look on.  (Don’t worry where I am, we will get to that in a minute.)  Afterwards the girls then want to “start” trick or treating, so the mother’s decide to allow the girls to hit any house along the way back from school to the BFF’s house.  That as it turns out is 1/2 mile away.  So by the time they finished they had not one but two large bags EACH, brimming with candy.

Meanwhile back on the home front, I sat patiently awaiting trick or treaters.  This has been a dying tradition on my block.  Unfortunately, there are far too many people on my block that don’t participate.  Thus leaving the block rather dark.  So the kids come less and less.  This year looked to be starting out differently, as we got about 10 kids within the first 1/2 after I got home from work.  But then… nothing.  It was like they all disappeared.  I could hear kids several blocks away.  I could see them walking down the main street.  But very few ventured our way again the rest of the night.  The few that did were handsomely rewarded with huge amounts of candy.  But even with that, I was left with quite a bit.

After sorting through the stuff that nobody like, TheWife and I each taking a plastic pumpkin full of candy to work, each we still have more candy than (I think) any one location (short of a candy store) should have at any one time.  So, what do you do with your “overflow?”

Every so often I get what I can best describe as a “Conservative Streak” that is so out of line with my normal liberal leanings, that I find it quite uncomfortable, and it leaves me unsure of what to really think. Such is the case when I read to day how the House of Representatives moved to expand Mortgage Protection.

Now my normal liberal way of thinking says that I should support anything that is going to help people out of a bad situation. And in general I do believe that. Rebuilding the areas worst hit by Katrina? Absolutely! Help an area after a Tornado wracks an area? Of course. But bail out some guy who took out a questionable mortgage deal, so he can get more house than he can really afford, and gets caught because that floating mortgage that enabled him to buy a house bigger than mine with more land than me has now gone up (as everybody but the sap that actually signed for this loan knew it would do)? Um… Hold the phone a moment will you please?

Look. I don’t want to sound mean. I realize that these are people we are talking about. People that could very well lose their homes. That is of course a very sad situation. It also hurts the economy, so I understand that there are some widespread consequences that lawmakers are hoping to stave off by this maneuver as well. But I have a hard time rationalizing how I need to pay taxes for my own home, and then watch my tax dollars go to help pay for somebody that is not paying their own taxes and mortgage. Not because of some natural disaster, not by act of war or terrorism, not because of changing boundaries or zoning issues, not even because of illness or even job loss, but because they got caught. They got caught trying to bite off more than they could chew.

Want to lay blame somewhere? Lay it at the feet of these mortgage companies that came up with these “sub-prime” loans. Interest Only loans? Who plays that game? Somebody that is trying to flip a home for a profit? Well, that is why it is called speculation, let them absorb their loss. Somebody that was conned by a mortgage broker that this was an excellent way to get “more house for your money?” Well then hang the broker out to dry for swindling this hard-working individual out of their “American Dream” by convincing them to do the ill-advised, after all it was the broker that profited from these loans.

But please, don’t ask the hardworking men and women that work hard and find a way to pay their mortgages and taxes on time to foot the bill for somebody else’s mistake.

With the 3 day weekend, I took part of it for an opportunity to rewire (well technically unwire) my network, reconfigure and rename all the computers on the network.

TheWife’s new laptop machine is now “SnowWhite,” while LatteGirl’s Desktop is “KimPossible”  My old laptop has become “Mater”  (as in ‘Tah’-mater, but without the ‘Tah’)

Now the useless trivia question of the day, “What did I name my new Laptop?”

(hint for those that have paid attention, it is a character from my favorite Disney Movie.  Full Disclosure – you won’t find it by searching for “Favorite Disney Movie” on this blog, but I have mentioned in the past)

It is that time of year.  Back to School sales and the like reminding you that school is only “just around the corner.”  And that is bad enough.  But as LatteGirl has gotten more involved in other activities, I have noticed that a lot of them seem to coincide with the start of the school year.

So not only do we need to prepare for Back to School, it is also, back to Soccer, Back to Dance Class, Back to Karate, and so on.  Am I the only one finding this daunting?  Isn’t there a chance that they could, you know, spread things about a bit?  Maybe somebody start, oh I dunno, maybe the SECOND WEEK in September!  Is that really too much to ask?

Forget the Holidays, Labor Day Weekend is turning into my new version of “Black Friday.”

Oh, and while I am complaining about this, would it be too much to ask to have the stores run their back to school sales, somewhere closer to the school year?  Last Week of July?  First week of August?  Do none of these people consider that some people actually take vacations in the summer?

Now I understand there are those of you that plan ahead and don’t wait for the last minute, but to make room for all the back to school stuff, they have to close out their “summer sections” way too early.  And somehow, it has become impossible to find a pool toy or back yard game after 4th of July weekend.

I know, I know, I am all over the place.  But suddenly I feel like I am hunkering down to do battle with the “overscheduled” monster again, and I am just not ready.

And while I am at it… Where the heck did summer go?

OK, so I know I am not the only person who has had to face the following situation, so I could really use some advise on dealing with the situation.   You see, up until now, I have been “fortunate” in that dealing with the death of a friend or a family member up to this point has been relatively simple.

I have my mother, and my uncle, who when confronted with death have somehow managed to beat it back and lived well beyond even many doctors expectations.  And then on the other side, normally when dealing with death it has been a relatively short ride from “fine” to “ill” to “deceased.”  While is may sound cruel in some ways (I did call it “fortunate” earlier), the effects on those left behind tend to be less dramatic.

I found out over the weekend that TheWife’s step father was diagnosed with lung cancer.  But apparently this was overlooked by both himself and his doctors for so long, that not only is the lung cancer at an advanced stage, it has already metastasized to other parts of his body.  (I have a long rant I am working on as to why I believe this happened, but I will save that for another day).

Now of course, is it possible for him to beat the odds?  Sure, but with lung cancer, and the fact that it has already spread, it is certainly not looking good at this point, and his prognosis at this point is 6 – 9 months.

My mother-in-law had already arranged a family get together, and plans to keep it, so to me it feels like we are having a wake for the poor guy while he is still alive.  To say, I am uncomfortable would be an understatement.

I just don’t know what to do or say with anybody in this situation.  TheWife is still in a bit of shock, and trying to “distance herself” right now to keep her wits about her and to be able to start planning ahead.  But I don’t know what to say to her.  Or to my mother-in-law.  I don’t know how much his illness is affecting his outward appearance, so I can’t even decide (thank goodness I have a bit of time to do so) what if anything I should say to LatteGirl.  Being at a loss for words is not something I am used to suffering from, but right now, I’m stumped.

This weekend will our annual whirlwind of activity.  We already learned our lesson a couple of years back, and separated out (for the sake of our home) LatteGirl’s birthday party into two separate and distinct events.  One for the children, to be held away from our home, since the extra expense of having the party elsewhere is far less expensive both physically, mentally (and quite possibly financially when you factor in repairs) than having it at home.  Then Sunday, we follow up with the “family party” which is much more simple, at least by appearance than dealing with the children, but that is in fact really a fabrication.

No, the real expense of the family party came this weekend, as I dedicated blood, sweat, money (and possibly even a few tears) in the pursuit of having a yard that is actually not embarrassing to have other people see.

Weeds cut, plants planted, pool officially completed, cleaned and opened.  Bar-B-que ready to go, everything that should be mowed was mowed, everything that needed to be taken out was.  Everything unsightly (by TheWife’s standards) either thrown in the trash, or at least stashed somewhere until after the event.

It is a similar pattern every year.  And like every Tuesday after Memorial Day, I am glad to be back at work to get a break from it all.  This year though, unlike years past, the work is actually completed.  No late night working out in the dark trying to get a few more tasks done.  Nope!  This year, I took on the yard, and for a change, I won.

I should probably be knocking on large blocks of wood right about now though.  Because I still have the always fun task(s) of “Some Assembly Required” and “Batteries Not Included” to contend with.

So, how was your weekend? Does Memorial Day “officially” mark your beginning of Summer?

When we installed our first pool I installed it with my brother in law. It took a bit more than a week (nights after work, and two weekends) to get it up and functional. And to be honest it wasn’t all that level.

This time however, after considering what my time is worth, the fact that I am older and less patient, I decided to have a professional install the pool this time. Needless to say he was able to get the job done in far less time (4-1/2 hours to be exact).

Now I was only too happy to get rid of our temporary pool that we had for two seasons after our original one upped and decided to just split. But I think I may have gone a bit overboard. The new pool is 18′ round. Which doesn’t sound all that big, but when you stick it in my yard… well…

Let’s just say that there isn’t really all that much yard left at all. I guess that is what I get for sticking too much to a city area where lots are small.

But I’m not complaining, because I know when we eventually get this sucker filled up (can I tell you, that some 23,000 gallons of water through a garden hose can take quite a while), LatteGirl will be thrilled.

I have already chronicled that she loves the water. So I know it will certainly get plenty of use. And since this pool comes with a 35 year warranty, this will be the last pool purchase, I ever have to make. (I certainly hope and expect that it will be anyway).

And who knows, if I am good, besides having the honor of cleaning and vacuuming it, maybe I will even get to use it once in a while.

I have been meaning to do this for a while, but have been putting it off for reasons, that at this time escape me.  Now, many things you read, emphasize the need to try and schedule a family dinner together.  To get the family in one place at one time in an effort to open communications.  And I am not going to knock that concept as I think it is a good one.  But I have been working on one that has been more easily incorporated into our family schedule.  Sunday Breakfast.

Fortunately, Sunday mornings are a break from our usual hectic schedule.  Nobody needs to be at work, at practice, at a game, or other activity under usually after noon.  (I can only assume it is to make sure that everybody has been to church first).  So Sunday mornings are as close to a lazy time as we usually get.  But that still didn’t always mean we sat around the table for breakfast together.  LatteGirl usually wanted to have breakfast while watching the Disney Channel, the wife usually opted for corn muffins and the Sunday paper.

But that all changed when I picked up a Mickey Mouse Waffle Iron.  With only a bit more effort than I was already doing, I turned Sunday morning breakfast into an “event.” I serve the Orange Juice in a Carafe, I will sometimes cut up some strawberris as a garnish to color the plate, make our special “Minnie Mouse Pancakes” (* LatteGirl, being the girly girl she is, always insisted in calling them Minnie Mouse insted of Mickey, and I use pancake batter, instead of Waffle Batter, so the come out softer like pancakes, rather than hard crusted like a waffle).  A little whip cream around the edges of the plate and we have something that looks more like you would get at Disney World.

For my girls, it is like having breakfast “out” at a restaurant, or like at the places we eat when we are on vacation.  So now everybody looks forward to having breakfast, and I get a “family meal” out of it, where we can sit and talk.

As an additional bonus, since LatteGirl is not a very good morning person, and tough to get to eat on schooldays in the morning. I started making a larger batch of pancakes than we need on Sunday.  The extras get put in freezer bags, and can be pulled out and microwaved indivudually for a quick breakfast.  It is cheaper (and healthier) than buying store bought pancakes or waffles, and she gets a “special” pancake for breakfast anytime.

Turns out that when you have leaky pipes on the second floor that tin roof on the first floor doesn’t like it very much. Even if you put something over it, as the last owners of this house did before we purchased it. Sooner or later, something like this happens.

Now in all fairness, we did buy this house as a fixer upper. But, I was younger and dumber then, and thought I could fix anything. As it turns out, so far, I have been pretty good at the fixing part. It just turns out to cost a hell of a lot more than I ever expected. I was able to locate some tin ceiling panels to replace these at a place called (conveniently enough) Restorations. But imagine my surprise when each 2 x 4 panel cost in excess of $40 each (plus shipping).

So how was YOUR weekend?