Calgon Take me Away ...

I'm sick again.  This time Michael brought it home and breathed on me and that was all she wrote.  Following the advice of my sister, I purchased Mucinex.  I am here to report that Mucinex is better than some other things I've tried, but my head still feels like it's three times it's normal size. 

Because I'm a giving person, I came to work today and I've been breathing on everyone here.

But what I want is a nice long hot soak in a Jacuzzi tub, with herbal scented water, and ... candles ... yeah, that's what I want.  I used to do that a lot.  I used to have little floating candles that I would nudge gently with my toes in the manner of little kids with rubber duckies and boats. 

If you try that, my advice would be ... don't turn on the jets.

Ask me how I came up with that bit of wisdom.

PS - Note to James - I didn't have any Lotus Root tea - but I had Pear/White Tea which I'm sipping with a spot of honey added.

Erm ... Happy Valentine's Day? 

And Happy President's Day!  And maybe I'd better say Happy St Patrick's Day - Erin Go Bragh and all that because I am apparently the least consistent poster on Xanga. 

But to catch you up a little - Tucker's egg survived.  He was disappointed because he didn't get to stand on the roof to drop it.  And he was further disappointed because he had wanted them to drop the egg alone from the roof, have it land in the box, and not break.  They dropped the whole box which he labeled "boring".  A little over half the class had eggs that survived, but he thought it would have been a lot better project if they could see the splatting instead of having it contained.  Oh, and the teacher kept his box.  I'm sure she filed it in the dumpster, but he was disappointed by that too.  Now I have to go get more dragon stickers so he can decorate something more permanent with them.  That's the part he was really sad about.

After months of promises at work, the new Executive Director delivered some excellent things in her first three weeks.  She got me on SALARY - and got me a raise up to $35k a year.  I just did the math and that's a 66% increase over what I was making before assuming that I was getting paid for 40 hours every week, which I didn't.  Since there were no paid holidays, or sick leave or anything like that, I was already down a considerable amount just from being off a week at Christmas, a couple snowed in days, and having flu.  SO the raise and being salaried is a very GOOD thing.

She also got me medical insurance.  Got me a position title (I'm the Program Director.)  And got me supplies I needed to do my job right.

But no one can get me out of the massive amount of work that the job has grown into.  I have had more than one 12 hour day between the time I put in at the office and the time I work doing research from home. 

Our CEO is determined to change the world, even if it kills me.   LOL 

But on the other side of the equation, I have recruited three totally awesome counselors into the program and one of them has been volunteering time to do the "grunt" stuff that piles up.  Since he used to be a White House intern writing papers, executive summaries, and doing industry analysis guess what I've got him doing now?  It's not his favorite, but I don't have time to read hundreds of pages a day and still do my other work.

So that's the story about that. 

I think about you guys.  I wonder if TwoBerry is playing in a Scrabble tournament.  I miss Judy's soothing images and wonderful inspiration.  I imagine what quirky turn of thought James has experienced that led to another profound blog.  I wonder whether the Pirate is sailing friendly seas.  I think about ZincWhiskers, Lucky Stars, and Daffodilius ... I don't know why but whenever I think of one of those my mind drifts on to the other two.  I've been thinking about Dawn'sEarlyLight ... I just want to know if she got that Josh Groban cd.  I've been thinking about RnboSpot and wishing that I could find an afternoon with decent weather to send the boys out on a photo safari. 

I could obviously go on, but the point is that I do think about you, I think about the writers, the dreamers, the doers, the mom's, the spiritual people, the atheists, the poets, the Princesses, the kids and the cranky people who make up my SIR and subscribers. 

Hugs to you all

 Eggonaut  o_0

So the teacher called me this morning and said, "Tucker's science project was due today, did he forget to bring it?"

No, he didn't forget to bring it, he didn't do it.  His Mom didn't know anything about it.  And no, we haven't spent the last three weeks testing our design.

But, but, but ... I sent home the green - you have to remember it was a LIME GREEN paper - almost three weeks ago. 

Let's see, that was the week that Tucker was home sick every single day with the flu.  No green paper, lime or otherwise, and I didn't know anything about this. 

Well, I'm sure it was written in his planner.

Look, I don't know if it was written in his planner (although I didn't see any note about anything except that he was having a bad day and asked to please sit in the dark closet) or maybe it was tattooed on his butt, which I also rarely see, but the bottom line is that I didn't know about the project.  When is it due.

Well, it was supposed to be due tomorrow, but the kids were supposed to bring it today for safety inspection.

Fine, what's the project.

We're going to drop an egg off the roof.  You design a container - can't use tupperware - and it can't be any larger than a 6x6 cube.  And the egg can't break.

Fine, it will be there in the morning.

Well, Mrs. Verrette, most of the parents have been testing their designs for weeks now.  (OH, I hate that tone of voice.)

Fine, it will be there in the morning, and our egg won't break.

>>>

I know that the teacher thinks I'm a loser mom.  I kind of don't care what she thinks.  The fact is that we can do a project like this with one brain tied behind our back.  Stopped off at the UPS store and bought the small cube container $1.36.  Went to Jo Ann Fabrics and got the 3 inch thick foam padding for a chair cushion $9.99.  Also picked up some really cool metallic dragon stickers - I'll let you guess why I was drawn to the dragons $.89.  I took long stips of batting from my quilting supplies (yes, I really do quilt in my spare time) and made a coil.  Placed foam in the bottom, then coil, then foam.  That egg won't be moving.  And $12.24 plus tax later - we have science project.  With dragons. 

PS - I checked the kid's planner - there was no note about the project.  So there. 

The kid is addicted to Doritos ... what can I say? 

Happy Wednesday Everyone

Super Sunday

My Super week started last Tuesday when a certain jet plane from D C landed in Denver. Cool Mary casually picked up her bag from the carousel and immediately started making my life an awesome place to be. First of all, she came primed with information from her pharmacist that I needed an antihistamine. Dayquil will only take you so far, and to get the rest of the way back to the place where every deep breath doesn't provoke a cough that sounds like you're dying of consumption - requires an antihistamine. Who knew?

Honestly, have you thought about the fact that we can buy stuff over the counter that our parents used to need a prescription, insurance, and a note from their pastor to obtain? And who among us has the phamacology degree that qualifies us to even shop the local Walgreens? Not me. After I've gotten past the vitamin aisle (and even that gets a little complicated for me) I'm lost. If it comes in a brightly colored box and has a generic version next to it, I'm sold.

But back to cool Mary. She is such an awesome best friend that I can't believe how lucky I am to have her in my life. She came to work with me for a little whle on Wednesday, long enough to help me put together some sales packets. Then she headed out to play. But came back bearing lunch because she figured out pretty quick that I don't usually get opportunity to stop for lunch

We have laughed, sat up as late as I can handle working on writing and comparing philosophies of fantasy realms and women's lives. (As late as I can handle has turned out to be somewhere after 8 but before 9 - I'm a wimp.)

Yesterday, we went to a movie and laughed some more.

Today the Super Bowl beckons. Neither of us are particular fans of Chicago or Indy so we are likely to be rooting for whoever has the ball at the time. But that's okay, that also means I'm less likely to have my son scolding me for squealing and hopping up and down.

We are out of peanut butter, but other than that we are all set to have a great day. And cool Mary doesn't leave until Tuesday so I'm planning to make the most.

See you after Tuesday.