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So yesterday I woke up to a flooded kitchen and dining room with no discernible entry for the water. It just seemed to have appeared there on the floor. It took three beach towels to cover the entire area, that's how big the puddle was - and the cats were NOT amused at the moat around their cat food area. It looked like someone had dumped a bucket of water in the middle of the floor, then tossed away the bucket.

This was at 5:30am. Too early to call the landlord, and I had to dash off to school. So, puddle covered, no visual evidence of a leak, I had to leave.

I came home, it appears to be trickling out from under some cabinets, right behind the dishwasher. It could not have been trickling the first night, there was just too much water, but now it's a trickle. Could not call plumber/landlord yet as yesterday was too late and today I must be in the office, so we have towels set in the area and they don't seem to be soaking much up. Just a trickle. Which is great until whatever happened happens again.

So it looks like plumber will have to come tomorrow or another day. Or maybe it will just stop all by itself, HAH! Like leaks always do.

SCHOOL: Love Love Love it. Reading load is intense. A novel a week in my global lit class and we're studying literature from India, which I LOVE. Average of 15 short stories a week in my Honors class and I love our professor. My graduate class requires around 5-6 16th century plays each week along with background chapters to read. So I was correct in assuming the graduate class would = Undergraduate class X 2. But I love all my professors this semester, I mean I REALLY love all of them. And though there's a lot of reading, there is not a whole lot of writing (except Graduate Class = 20 page paper). So it's going to be tough and intense, but I'm going to have fun.

Work is work. I love the group I work with - actually I really do, now that I think about it, it's small, but they're pretty awesome people. Most everyone else though, can suck it.

And I'm sure all of them who read this will just love that. Well, if ya don't like it, get your nose out of it. You were not invited.

Well, the day is starting off well!
My schedule this semester requires me to work from school on two mornings, but we weren't sure if I would be able to connect to my company's network from the university.

But I'm here, and I'm in! My schedule is going to work! Hurray! This is great news for 8am on a Monday morning.

I took Buffy school shopping today, and while standing in the doorway of Zumies with death metal blasting my ears at ungodly decibels, I looked over at Claires and figured getting my ears pierced would hurt a lot less than waiting for Buffy to pick out some over-priced clothes.

So I walked over and decided to get my one ear pierced on top, something I always wanted but just never got around to. Plus, Buffy would be shocked, haha. But guess what? Six months ago Santa Clara County decided that piercing ear cartiledge was considered a body piercing, meaning you can only get ear cartiledge pierced in actual body piercing/tattoo parlour type places. Which aren't really places I care to get my ear pierced in.

So instead, I decided to get my second set of ear lobe holes re-pierced. They healed over 15 years ago, as they were pierced in an odd angle and it hurt like hell to get studs through them.

So I picked out some 3mm white gold diamond studs and sat in the chair signing the papers. Suddenly I hear, "MOM! WHAT are you doing!!!" and saw Buffy standing there with a priceless look on her face - you just KNOW she knew I was about to embarrass her.

"I'm getting my nipples pierced," I said loudly, in front of several other 16 year old Claire's customers who Buffy probably knew, and I continued signing my papers.

"MOM!" Buffy hissed. "WHAT are you doing!!"

I told her to calm down, that I was just re-piercing my ears, and again I got this hilarious relieved expression on her face.

And then the lady pierced my ears, it didn't hurt a bit, and my ears are all sparkly and pretty now.

Picture to come tomorrow maybe.

But first... SCHOOL IN THE MORNING!!!! YAYYYY!!!! HURRAY!!!!!

Last weekend of summer vacation

Went to a wedding in Aptos yesterday, very low-key and FUN. Definitely had a lot of wine, I hate when they just come in little plastic cups, it's harder to keep track of what you drank then, and all of Scott's students kept bringing me more and more and more. But I'm feeling fine today - not sure about Scott, hahah. Anyway, we had a lot of fun, for sure.

24 hours from now I'll be sitting in class and I CAN'T WAIT. I'm excited about school this year, excited about my classes, and just feeling really focused. Our Literary Criticism teacher really beat us down last semester and had us doubting our abilities, but after taking my Modern English class over the summer I'm feeling much more confident. And being chosen as the one student out of all the university undergraduate english majors to serve on the Curriculum Committee is pretty exciting too. So I'm ready to go.

Buffy starts Tuesday, and she's also excited. To see her friends anyway. And her water polo practice has already started and she's happy about that. Today we go school shopping for clothes for her.

Spike went to a tattoo convention in San Francisco yesterday. I threatened him with packing his bags if he came home with a tattoo. I can't stop him from getting one, he's 18 now, but I paid his entrance fee so I would not be very happy if that allowed him to get a tattoo. He wants a tattoo, he can get a job and pay for it all himself. He came home late last night so I haven't checked him out yet, heh, he better have it hidden on a very private part of his body or I'm going to find it. And he starts school in about 2 weeks.

I'm sad to see the Olympics go, I've enjoyed it more this year since maybe I was a kid. But two more years and we'll have the winter olympics!!!

I was just declared the Undergraduate Representative for the English Department Curriculum Committee at the university - which means I get to help decide what classes should be required for the major AND it gives me another line to put on my resume/graduate applications.

WOOOO!

Okay, I'm going to have an Olympic rant in a minute here, and bound to offend someone, so you'll just have to get over it.

I turned the Olympics on this morning to watch the gold medal match for women's water polo - underwater warfare, WOOOO - and very angrily watched the US team completely blow it. This was the only women's WP match I was able to watch this year and it was pretty disappointing.

I did watch the women's beach volleyball final last night, and LOVED it. I've seen most of their matches and have been pretty hooked. I don't really understand why the women's team wears uniforms that equal less than underwear from Fredricks of Hollywood yet the men's team wears actual CLOTHES, but whatever - if I had a body like theirs, I'd wear those outfits too. Or maybe even go naked, heh. Anyway, I really like the sport.

But now today we have, right after the fierceness of waterpolo... rhythmic gymnastics. And of course that's a sport that is somewhat of a joke anyway, but... seriously now. I sat and watched it anyway, wondering how this qualifies for an Olympic event and then... and then came the GROUP rhythmic gymnastics. Like synchronized swimming, only a much bigger mess and the potential to hang your own teammate with a jumprope.

So here is my rant, like it or not. This is not a sport, and it should not be in the Olympics. Period. I'm not saying the activity is not hard, I'm not saying that I could do it. But I can't do salsa dancing either, and the dancers from SYTYCD and even Dancing with the Stars are in better shape than these "gymnasts", work just as many hours, have stronger bodies, and are NOT in the Olympics. Why? Because ballroom dancing is not a sport, just like rythmic gymnastics are NOT a sport. And I'm going to sit here and include synchronized swimming while I'm at it. I live in the synchronized swimming capital of the USA (Santa Clara County) but it is NOT A SPORT. Difficult, yes, but not an Olympic event. Speaking of synchronized - the synchronized diving almost brought me to fits too, but at least it involves AN ACTUAL SPORT. I did four years of marching band in high school, and we were worked as hard as the football players (for some reason marching band requires running laps and pushups) but I don't see synchronized marching band in the Olympics. But hell, maybe they're already on a waiting list. I mean, marching in straight lines across a football field, creating perfect circles and even building pyramids while carrying and playing a tenor saxophone is not much easier than dancing with a hula hoop. I'm just saying.

As I'm writing this an equestrian event is on, another event I don't quite agree is fit for Olympics, however I don't know enough about it to rant. BUT - they just announced that one of the horses tested positive for an "illegal substance" and GOOD GOD, now we're drugging horses???? I hope I heard that wrong.

Speaking of, the whole Marion Jones thing just makes me so sick I want to puke, honestly. I feel so bad for her and am so furious with her at the same time. I'm a little more furious than I am feeling bad, that's for sure.

On the other hand, the actual female gymnast bodies look a lot less disgusting and body-builder-ish than in previous years. They just look like normal athletic teenagers. I remember always being so repulsed by the muscles and veins in those poor girls' legs, but something has changed - I hope they weren't actually giving those poor girls steroids - but whatever, at least they look normal now.

I'll end the rant here for now. No need to leave long arguing comments about your beloved synchronized gymnasts/swimmers/gardeners, etc, because this isn't an olympic forum, it's my blog. Deal with it.

I forgot to enter this here, but of course have not forgotten it here in my "real" life:

HAPPY 18TH BIRTHDAY SPIKE!
Yes, that's right, he made it to the ripe old legal age of 18.
I'm very proud of that boy.

Unbelievably, Buffy turns 18 eighteen months from tomorrow.
My job is almost done!

I hope Dara Torres is proud of herself and not the slightest upset that she got the silver medal (two of them!) because I have to say I didn't see any other 41 year old women at the pool with medals around their necks, not even any 41 year old men. She's awesome and I love her. Truly inspiring and my hero (of the moment).

And congrats to Michael Phelps too of course. I don't agree with this "Greatest Athlete in the World" title I've been hearing, but he certainly is without a doubt the greatest swimmer ever. I think it would suck to be a male US swimmer this year, knowing that if you beat Phelps you'll go down in history as the villain, but I still love Phelps and am proud of him. Buffy has had Phelps posters on her wall since before anyone out of the swimming community ever heard of him - the boy has ALWAYS been a great role model.

Ahhhh, I just love the Olympics. I shall miss the swimming events. But now it's on to track and field!!! Speaking of, I was shocked at the outcome of the women's marathon today - I've personally never seen anyone pull out of the pack so far so early and not bite it big time near the end (yeah, I'm a crazy person that actually watches marathons on TV). I thought there was no way she would finish first, but good on her.

What a great Olympics so far, eh?

Okay, I'm home! Now we rest for a bit, then I go right back to Aptos.

And The Crab Pot it was!

Seattle - Wednesday

Today we slept in until 9am and then had breakfast. Then we actually got in our car and drove (first time since we got here on Sunday night!) to the Fremont Area. We walked all around, took pictures of the artwork and statues, went to some silly shops and a really nice guitar shop, "Dusty Strings" which was AWESOME. We're probably going to go back to the shop tomorrow and go home with a nice percussion instrument or two. The kids actually want one of their beautiful wooden harps, but at prices ranging from $2000 - $4500, I'm thinking not. We also saw the Fremont Troll and took lots of pictures.

After a really nice lunch at Cafe D'Arte we drove over to the Woodland Zoo and spent the rest of the afternoon there. It's a really small zoo (compared to San Diego) but really beautiful, and I loved the nighttime animal exhibit. I dare say these animals generally look happier than those at the SD Zoo and their habitats also looked a little nicer. Not to take away from the SD Zoo, I'm just stating my opinion from what I've seen.

Now we're taking a rest, then we'll find a place for dinner (we're thinking The Crab Pot but we're still playing everything by ear), then who knows.

Tomorrow we're waking up early, going to do the Underground Tour, visit the Old Curiosity Shoppe, and start for home.

There are a few pics on Flickr, but the majority that we've been taking, and all the nice ones, are on my digital camera. We'll get those up after we get home. That is if Buffy doesn't leave the camera somewhere like she did today at the guitar shop. Oops.

Today we spent at Pike Place Market. We walked all over for FIVE HOURS. I am burning calories this week, that's for sure. All our legs and feet are aching, but we just rest for 1/2 hour or so and continue on. We're little Seattle Energizer Bunnies. We bought some watercolor paintings, tie-dyed T-shirts, chocolate covered cherries, dried flowers, cherry salsa, raspberry-jalapeno and peach-chipotle jellies, lots of specialty spices... and on and on. We continued on until we were dragging our bags as well as our poor little feet. I have a little tiny blister on one of my little toes - it's cute and doesn't hurt yet, haha.

Our tasting tour was great too, and I recommend that for visitors. If anything it takes you around the Market and brings you to some interesting places you may not have noticed - trust me, we walked that place for 5 hours and still never came close to seeing it all. During the tour we had fresh fried donuts, cheeses, piroshkies, coconut pie, clam chowder, some tea... I can't even remember it all. Buffy couldn't even eat all her samples.

We had dinner at Dos Amigos (wow, cheapest Mexican food EVER and very delicious!) and the kids decided to forgo the concert I had bought tickets for (only $10 each). We've managed to walk everywhere from our hotel, haven't got into the car once. But the concert is too far to walk to and the streets aren't really visitor friendly - lots of construction, lots of one-way streets with only tiny warning signs, we've even seen one car get stuck going the wrong way... I felt sorry for them. But anyway, Spike doesn't feel real comfortable driving the two miles to the concert. So they just went out walking around some more over by the Space Needle. I had no idea when I booked this hotel that we'd be able to walk everywhere, I feel really lucky.

Tomorrow is an open day, but we have ideas on our list: The Woodland Zoo, a walking tour of the Fremont area, the Underground Tour, the Pacific Science Center. We should be able to get 2-3 of those items in tomorrow.

For now it's time to watch the Olympics.

This evening we walked back down to the Space Needle and had dinner at Sports Burgers (BBQ Chicken Sandwiches and Jojos for me and Buff, Kobe Burger for Spike) where we were able to watch three different channels of Olympics on the TVs. So we got to watch swimming, boxing, men's gymnastics and... synchronized diving? What the hell? Is this new or have I just not noticed it before?

BlueSleepy left a comment about The Crab Pot - and Spike had already found that place on the internet earlier today, but we didn't think we were hungry enough for it. We are going to try to fit it in sometime before we leave though, so thanks BlueSleepy for the confirmation!

Then we went up to the Space Needle for the Night View portion of our ticket. Very nice. We walked a bit around the little amusement park after, and the Pacific Science Center which we'll visit later on (there's a live butterfly exhibit where we are told you can walk in and they land on you).

Everyone is having a really good time, the kids want to stay an additional week to see more things. Seattle is so far a really big hit with them. Well, there was a little bit of time when Buffy tried hard to pull her disappearing act at the Experience Music Project, and was being quite a b-i-t-c-h about it, but that place is so huge there was no way I was letting her out of my sight - no matter how hard she tried. But except for that one bit, she's been really good and happy and cheerful.

Tomorrow we get up early for our tasting tour at Pike Place Market, and we'll be spending most of the day in that area.

Olympics

We have been getting some Olympics in too. Last night we saw Gymnastics and Spike got to see that awesome swim relay with Michael Phelps (Buff and I fell asleep) - as a swim family we obviously love Michael and all the swimmers and are so excited about all the races. Personally I love Dara Torres, for obvious reasons. We also watched water polo today while eating our greek food lunch. So we're not missing out on a whole lot. It's going to be a good week.

Seattle - Monday

Today we've done:

Top Pot Doughnuts
Duck Tour
Space Needle
Science Fiction Museum
Experience Music Project
Greek Food
Coffee Coffee Coffee

And it's only 5pm.
In Seattle there is a coffee shop every three storefronts, and Starbucks are located about every 50 yards, no kidding. But there are also about a thousand book stores here and books in every coffee shop, even the DOUGHNUT SHOP had a 20 foot ceiling with walls covered in floor-to-ceiling bookcases.

We're having a great time and Buffy wants to move here. But then again, she always wants to move to wherever we visit. Some pictures are on Flickr, but most of them are still on my digital camera until we get home.

We're in Seattle!

We made it, in 16 hours after sitting in traffic for 2 hours in Washington. You can see pictures at Flickr. I'm using my digital camera to take most of our pictures but sending camera-phone pics to Flickr so you can see real-time updates.

We're off to do the Duck Tour right now, then the Space Needle, then possibly the Market. We had a good night's sleep so we're ready to go!

And we're off! We're taking photos with my camera but I'll also send some by camera-phone to Flickr so ya'll can keep up with us.
:-)

Don't worry so much everyone, I am used to only getting 4-5 hours a sleep a night. I figure we can get our 3 hours, and take turns sleeping during the day while Spike and I trade off. So no one worry!

I'll have my camera so we'll take lots of pictures, and I'll take some with my phone so you can see them immediately.

Vacation almost here

So I don't know what possessed me to schedule a vacation during the Olympics, my very favorite time of (every two) year(s). We have the DVR set to record some of it, but with 8 hour chunks of broadcast it's going to be hard. We'll watch it in Seattle anyway, some of it. The opening ceremonies last night were INSANE. I LOVED them - but then again, I ALWAYS love that part. But I do think that China put on one of the best shows ever.

Today will be spent packing and shopping and packing and preparing. Then we get maybe two hours sleep (because I can't get to sleep before 1am and neither can Spike) and we're hoping to be on our way by 4am. Maybe Buffy can drive a little (HAH).

I bought Spike a pretty nice GPS system with bluetooth and everything, and having never had a GPS system before, I now totally want his. This is his present for his 18th birthday, and I didn't mind spending a good bit since for his actual graduation he only wanted a skateboard (it takes a while for a boy's brain to grow I guess). I had no idea these GPS things were so cool though. We drive around and it shows where every bank, restaurant, doctor's office, gas station, etc is???!!!!! AWESOME.

So we're taking it with us to Seattle and I think it will come in very very handy.

Anyway, I'm just procrastinating here. I have packing to do!!!

Here are a couple pictures.

His father was not-surprisingly so late he missed the entire thing, but managed to hide out by the gym door so Spike does not know. I partially blame the stupid less-than-24-hours notice they gave us, but I also give a lot of blame to his father who most likely didn't try to get off early. Whatever. I was there and my parents were there in spirit, I am sure. I know Charleen's heart was there and I know Jason's spirit was there too.

No matter what, Spike was well and truly happy, as you can see from the pictures.

Spike Graduates High School at 6pm!!!

So due to the school district's complete idiocy - and really, we've been through this idiocy for the whole four years so why not end on a really big note? - it was just confirmed this morning that Spike has a graduation ceremony to attend this evening.

It's such late notice that the only people able to attend are myself and Spike's father. Not his own sister, not his grandparents, not his godmother.

We received a letter yesterday, August 5, postmarked August 2 - remember these dates - stating that graduation would be at 6pm on August 6. However, to be a part of the ceremony, we were supposed to RSVP to his school by...

July 30. No joke. Letter postmarked on August 2, we receive on August 5, we're to RSVP by July 30.

And oh yes, "Parents will receive invitations in the mail." Really? Because I still haven't received any invitation and graduation is in two hours.

So all day yesterday I called Spike's school, no answer, and he even drove over there to find the office locked and closed. Rehearsal was this morning. I gave him the letter and the postmarked envelope and informed him that he was to tell them that he IS attending tonight whether they like it or not. After some negotiations it was confirmed that he is going to walk the stage this evening.

Granted, the kids graduating at this ceremony are kids who mostly screwed up during their four years - but who somehow managed to make everything up and finish everything that needed to be done in just a couple extra weeks. It took Spike less than one extra week to complete it all including three college classes that last semester. So you have 200 kids who were at one time screw-ups but who then got their act together and did double and triple work to make up for their screwing off...

and you give them no chance to RSVP? No chance to walk the stage?
ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

So anyway, with this late notice, Buffy is out of town until late this evening, Spike's grandparents have "dinner plans", and I was not able to reach his godmother yet, although she lives a bit away and has two small children to make arrangements for. (I'm not so sure the grandparents could not have found a way to make it, but with a couple hours notice I'm going to try not to judge today) - I mean, even Catalina was really upset that she was going to miss it.

"This is a lot of work just to get a stupid piece of paper," said Spike. And well, yeah... but it will be worth it in the end. I'm trying to keep the anger at the school at bay and just concentrate on the fact that Spike is actually graduating high school after a lot of hard work, and he turns 18 in eleven days. He turned out to be a really good kid and I'm super proud of him, and I know everyone else is too, whether they can make the ceremony or not. I bought him a GPS system for his car for his gift.

Only two more years of idiocy to deal with until Buffy graduates.

Buffy just left with her friend to Disneyland. Maybe she'll see Charleen there since Charleen seems to have DISAPPEARED OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH since her last vacation.
But anyway, I miss Buffy. Why did she have to start being such a good girl all summer and now I don't want her to go??

Spike left to sleep over at his friends. I'm not usually at this house with no one here. It's spooky. I made him feel properly guilty for leaving his mother all alone.
;-)

He graduates high school Wednesday. Of course, we still don't know WHEN OR EXACTLY WHERE the ceremony is, partly because the school system still sucks here, partly because a 17 year old boy apparently cannot find this information out. So I'm left wondering: Do I take the day off? Do I take the afternoon off? Where would I go anyway even if I have the time off?????????

Kids. < eyeroll >

We leave on our Seattle trip soon, so if anyone else has any ideas, get them in! I hear there's some humongous bookstore in Portland that I'm not supposed to miss, but I think it will be closed when we pass through on Sunday, and I'm not really sure the kids want to see the biggest bookstore in the world on their way home. But I have been assured that they will like it. So we'll see. Any other can't-miss stuff in Seattle?

And I'm out for now.

So... this is a really horrible movie. And yet we laughed. And mostly we hated ourselves for laughing. Because don't get me wrong, it was BAD. But they made it just funny enough in parts that I couldn't hate it or feel like I wasted my time.

Do I recommend it? NO!!!!

But when it was funny, it was really, really funny. It just really, really sucked in the parts in between.

edited to try to save Catherine from misery: This movie is not bad in a good way! It is bad in a bad way! There is truly NOTHING to recommend in it. Somehow we ended up laughing at some things, but mostly we really hated ourselves for thinking any of it was funny, because the movie really is really and truly BAD.
There, I've done all I can to try to save you all!!

edited again: Turns out both my kids loved the movie. Doesn't mean I was wrong, just means my kids have NO SENSE in their heads. Dumb! Dumb Dumb Dumb!!!

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