You must be living right Bruce. :)

I should go away more often.;)

Thats great - good friends comin thru when you need 'em. One of the best things life has to offer.

Finally, I figured out the VLOOKUP function in Excel. After trying too hard, I found it was quite simple. Which is ironic and annoying but that's another thread. :)

We had our Br Bright, Be Seen day today - staff and children all in bright clothes. Some of them went to an awful lot of effort, to great effect. I had my dyed-fuschia hand decorated t-shirt on, with hi-vis stickers and glitter rainbows, so I felt a real part of it. Although most people commented on the flashing strap I simply bought from the local bike shop. Ah well, no accounting for taste.

It's made me come home with a big smile on my face anyway.

I beat an A rated fencer in my pool yesterday... he won the tourney but I beat him. :) 3 hours of mountain biking today, one of the hens hatched out a single chick Friday, and the buck is enthusiastically servicing a doe as I type.

I didn't get the job in Utah for ski patrol. They claimed some bullshit about how phone interviews are difficult even though I was very qualified and it would actually technically be a step down from my past EMS leadership position. Screw them. The silver lining is that in thinking I was leaving I've been hanging out with some old friends a lot more, and it's convinced me that being around good people is more important than living somewhere pretty just for the sake of living there. So I'll be in Northeast Ohio for a little while longer, and for the first time in 10 years I'm pretty okay with that.

The kids are going back to school and jobs. The stress in this house is decreasing. Oh, and I am finally starting to clean up my study.

The hardest and most tedious thing I did today was crack open some pecans while I had a load of laundry in the washer. And I did both just because I felt like it. It was a big day full of nothing I had to do and nowhere I had to be. Simply awesome.

Make sure you tell people when you're going away next and what else needs doing around the house. :)

Nope, they have to figure out what they think needs doing. One of the guys ripped his exhaust system off on that stump so it might have been a revenge motive, but that was 6 or 8 years ago. ;)

I'm currently sitting on a patio overlooking the Pacific ocean in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and reading the Cellar. I hope everyone had a good holiday.

Bastid! Hope you are having a good time.

The Ward Forum I chaired this evening only had 15 people at it (hurrah: much easier to chair) because of the weather. And thanks to some overly enthusiastic weather warnings from the communities dept we had to bring the meeting in at under 90 minutes.

Consequently, I am now snuggled up in my house, with a fire burning and Pilau chewing happily on a new toy.* I don't have to get up especially early tomorrow: so I can have a late night, if I so choose, guilt-free. Meanwhile the view from my window is of a winter snow scene. Overlaid with the reflection of my room and the living-flame fire.



* a solid rubber, angry Pepparami.

Hmmm, that sounds downright cozy Dana. Im jealous. (I would love to have a fireplace!)

yay Emma :)

Nice name there.

No new crises made me happy. Well happier than I was. It's Monday -whaddya want? Blood?

Hub and I just finished clipping and grooming 6 steers for a preview steer show this weekend. Only 5 more to go. My work and life is a bit weird. :3eye: I hope the kids showing have fun :D

...and i just got an email confirming my kid's class won/earned the maximum amount in a fundraising drive I spearheaded. I had thought it was close and we might take second place at the last minute, but it ended up being a landslide in our favor :D

Very few people know what the hell your talking about, but I can totally understand the scale of the job, and your sense of accomplishment. :D

By clipping, do you mean trimming their nails?

The DVD successfully ripped and burned. Copy protection be damned, ha HAH!!

Haircut.

My beautiful children are making me happy today. I love them so much it hurts.

That's so beautiful, and makes my submission seem somehow shallow...


Tonight's council meeting is SNOWED OFF!!!!

Fuck yeah!

This makes me happy. Indeed, it makes me positively gleeful. Hurrah, huzzah etc.

I don't think it's shallow to be glad about not going out in the snow Dana. lol I'd probably be glad too (after I got over the novelty of snow in the first place).

I know what yer talking about. Sounds like a happy thing to me!

Today, I made a child happy.
I found a toy a child thought was lost.

Not much in the scheme of things, but H can be "difficult" sometimes.
He was genuinely upset.
And he was so happy, and thanked me so formally and politely (words) and so genuinely (grin) when I found it.

He'll be back to his rambuctious best next time I see him, but for a couple of minutes a plastic fish solved every problem he had in the world.

Those are the moments, eh Sundae? :) Is "H" your assigned child?

Sadly, I don't even know what "my" child looks like yet :(
I can't be introduced to him in case my Enhanced CRB uncovers something that my basic CRB doesn't cover - like the fact I'm a raging paedo. I do completely understand of course, it's just frustrating in my circumstances.

I do love the children with behaviour issues though *
And oddly, they have always attached themselves to me.
The first being my Mum's friend's child, who tried to strangle my brother when they were both pre-school. I was 12.

H (the child mentioned above) definitely has "issues" and I can't always get through. So it was just wonderful to be able to do something for him. In fact I gave him a house point because he thanked me. Positive reinforcement.

* Please note these are children who have been assessed as having behavioural issues - "my" school has a specialist language centre, a speech therapist, a physical therapist, regular assessments from the child psychology team and plenty of things I don't know about yet. If the children are identified as having behavioural problems it's not in ignorance.

I found one of the "long lost library books"

Under the couch or the bed?

in a box with stuff dated last november, in the front room. I did find a not so long lost one under the sofa and none under the bed. those places are checked more regularly.

:) Have no fear, there's no malice in the label "behavioral issues." A diagnosed cause doesn't change the end result. The important thing is for people to know that traditional discipline--especially physical discipline--is not only ineffective for children with these types of underlying issues, it will probably make them worse. Finding the lost toy probably gave him even more relief than he showed you.

Thanks Clod, I know you get it, but I so often hear comments on the radio or read them in my parents' dreadful paper about badly behaved children being pandered to when really all they need is a good clip round the ear. I'm guilty myself of wishing some children could be seen and not heard in public places, but I certainly don't advocate a violent response. And the thing is, with many such children you can see the bad parenting in action. Whereas the parents of children who really have issue are calm and rational and give measured responses.

I was given a free copy of a cookbook to review. It still takes me aback when people believe me to be legitimate.

That doesn't go away, you know, just because you take a break from it. ;)

New user title for you:
Fiercely proud of my unmarried parents

Eggnog. Yet another sign God loves us and wants us to be happy.

Snowballs and snowmen. Tons of fun. Also snow forts -- we seldom muster sufficient snow expertise or sufficient drifted, lightly packed snow, period, to achieve a classic igloo -- in any snowy bit of the States. Which igloo is a snow shelter you ought not to warm the interior of much above 40 F, roughly 7 C. Which is a heck of a lot easier to deal with than -40 F or C, with wind.

But a snow-fort resists snowballs pretty darn well. It's cover in the snowball fights.

Sledding, tubing and tobogganning are fun rides down a slippery slope, but almost inevitably eventually get you wet and cold from snow getting in here and there in the excitement.

That said, I do not miss snow. Not at all. It was a nuisance to have to put on about enough clothes to make a space suit just to go outside. Glare ice on the road is bloody dangerous; driving on a snowy road is at least tolerable, being like driving in rain but 7 kph slower.

The letters L, L and S, now that they are gone.

Whew!

Made Grandad brunch.
Was so jealous of the smells that I came home and made a three egg omlette with cheese, onion and sage. Am doing stuffing scented burps right now.

Having a job to go to.

Being loved.

My friends and family.

Being loved.

(did I mention being loved?)

:)

Loving Shawnee.

The return of my sense of smell, after a course of steroids and 7/10 of a course of antibiotics

J's boy has found work at a local tires place.

I was able to assist him in the process of providing them a sample of clean urine at body temperature.

Why does a tire place need a urine sample? If somebody is fucking up on the job, fire them. If not, what they do on the weekend is nobody's business.

High tea?

They probably get a break on insurance, and maybe less liability if something goes wrong? I don't know.

But I do know this. Everybody who lives in colder climates should buy a box of hand warmers. These modern chemical warmers are really thin, and they get very warm and stay warm for hours. So what you do is, you throw a bunch of them in your car. That way they'll be there, when you need them. The box I linked to also has toe warmers, which you can actually stick right to your feet and walk around. I don't ski any more, but if I did, I'd stick these on, and the boots would stay warm and toasty all day. And the toe warmers get to just above body temperature, so they won't burn your feet. I haven't tried walking on them yet, but I will soon, because shoveling season is soon upon us.

I would like to buy a hand of box warmers. :lol:

They are also useful if you're going in for a vasectomy, like say yesterday and you don't want your junk up in your throat... just saying. ;) I also got to say, "So this must be where the phrase up in smoke comes from." during cauterization. I got a good laugh out of the nurse but the doctor was otherwise occupied.

Take their advice and soak in the tub. It helps.

Nature Girl

Very nice. Thanks. :)

Soak it in cider.

I DID ALL THE THINGS!

w00t.