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I had to order this.

Actually, I bought two. One for Buffy and one for Spike.

Speaking of Spike, he is THRILLED that he gets to vote in this election. I'm thrilled for him. It's a good time to be eligible to vote.

.... !!!

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!

Go #17

Buffy again scored 2 out of 5 points in water polo today. She actually scored three, but she didn't hear the foul that was called on someone before she shot - that doesn't count.

The kitties are calling me to bed. I'm going.

When school started a month ago Buffy came home complaining that her friend was "the most spoiled girl in the world" because in the last six months her parents had bought her a (used) car, an iPod, a cell phone and a laptop.

Me: Does she get good grades?
Buff: Well, yeah, pretty good.
Me: I don't see anything wrong with that. She's 16 and doing well in school. I would do the same for you if you did well in school.
Buff: You mean I would be spoiled if I got good grades?
Me: Buffy, if you got all As and Bs I don't see any problem with getting you those same things. If we have the money and you are doing your part, why wouldn't I get you those things?

Fast forward a month. There's been no mention of our previous conversation. But Buffy has been working her little butt off getting her homework done, including getting extra help from her geometry teacher after school, and even blowing off water polo practice one day when she had too many projects due. At the moment she has a 2.33 gpa, but she's been doing everything she can to raise it.

Today I asked her about a disputed grade of "F" in computer class that she currently shows on the class website.

Me: What are you going to do about this grade Buffy???

Buffy: Mom, I talked to the teacher today. She just needs to enter the points from our homework and then it will be raised. I asked her to PLEASE hurry and enter them and she told me to "stop freaking out", that it's not a report card, but I TOLD her, "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND, this is a matter of ME BEING SPOILED!!!!"

It took me a second to process, and then I realized what she was talking about. For the last 2-1/2 years she has been grounded for various reasons and been doing poorly in school. One conversation with mom promising "stuff" and this kid has turned completely around.

I confirmed that the "spoiling" was still in the cards for a 3.0 gpa, but ONLY for a 3.0 or above. And then we had another talk about how continuing this work through college will ensure that she will be able to "spoil" herself when she grows up.

And today was her first game back on Varsity Water Polo (after being suspended for poor grades last year) and she scored three points for her team. The coach was thrilled. I had to work, but all her friends came to the game carrying signs they made with her number (17) and name on them. They said it was thrilling.

I have a very happy daughter today. And she's worked hard for that happiness. Good for her!

Just for the record, I DID do my homework and got it posted on time. Three minutes to spare.

It's now midnight - Monday starts in one minute. Blah.

...update?

Sorry, didn't realize I wasn't updating.

School's back in session, so you know, ya gotta cut me a break.

Kids are good, Buffy's grounded but nothing major, Spike is working really hard in his college classes which is a surprise, and I'm personally getting burned out with school. I'm just not thrilled with 2/3s of my classes, and they're giving me an apathy that's creeping in to the other 1/3. My favorite professor is going to give me a pep talk tomorrow or Tuesday to help me get back on track.

The pool is drained, and that made me sad. All the beach gear is out of the car as of today (but there's still some sand in it). I guess summer is over.

But our vacuum and lawn mower are both not working, so you know everything is as usual here!

Eh, we're happy. Just busy. And I thought I'd give you an update.

Back to not doing my homework I go.

GAWD I miss Big Brother already. I miss my Showtime Big Brother show to keep me company while I study. I don't WANNA study now.

That show is so not worth missing. But it kind of grows on you.

The one I wanted to win won, though I was happy with either of them winning. It was nice to see two guys who probably really will have a lifelong friendship end the game together, and they were just really nice people - no matter what was going on, no matter how much alcohol was consumed (and never really much by either of them) they always remained nice people. I will truly miss having them in my living room every evening on Showtime, though I'm sure Buffy will be happy to have something else on TV between 9pm and midnight. During the summer Showtime showed lots of fun and good times (and hate and evil vileness), but by the time school started most of the evil people were gone and there were just really nice people left. It's funny how they start feeling like family when you're used to hearing their voices in the background every single evening. To avoid sounding like a television obsessed Big Brother groupie, let me clarify that once school started, everything was quiet in the BB house, so Showtime was a good show to have on in the background while I read and wrote and studied.

So, Good Job Dan and Memphis. You both deserve much happiness.

If only all the Big Brother seasons would be as great as this one. The best part of the finale? Knowing that now April, Ollie, Michelle and Jerry all get to go home and back to obscurity and reality, where they really should all four stay. For good.

I wish my aunts were doing a little better with my grandmother's death, but it's their mother so it hits them harder. My grandfather is doing okay, but I am afraid he will go soon after. My grandmother was 90-1/2 years old! I am still having a hard time not remembering wonderful, loving thoughts about her, the only time I am really sad and cry is when I speak to one of my aunts. Thank you all for your good thoughts. My grandma was a pretty amazing woman - as are all grandmas! I know she is happy to see my mom again, and I know my mom is happy to see her - about as happy as my dad will not be happy to see his mother-in-law again, haha. I hope they're all getting along better in heaven than the remaining sisters are getting along down here on earth. Families. Gotta love them.

Wednesday night my grandma (my mom's mom) had a stroke, and we were told she had a 20% chance to live, but that if she ever regained consciousness she had a 0% chance of being grandma again. She wouldn't be able to walk, speak, or feed herself ever again.

Last night she finally passed away. We were upset and sad since Wednesday, but today is better. You can't be sad that someone lived a very very long and happy life. And we're happy that things didn't drag out over weeks or months. We don't have to wonder if she can hear us or not. It's just over. So we are grateful.

Just wanted to let you all know that that's what's going on, I won't be posting but I am okay and we will all be okay. My grandma's father sailed here from Italy when he was a teenager. My grandma didn't learn English until she was seven years old. She had four chlidren, all girls. She had seven grandchildren (six of them girls!) and I'm not sure how many great-grandchildren (but almost all girls). She lived an active life at home and traveled a lot with her husband and one of their daughters until the day of her stroke. She gave a lot of good things to the world. We will all miss her, but you just can't be sad.

Good bye Berkeley Tree Sitters. I guess now once you're done with your jail sentences you can finally go out and get JOBS and become productive members of society, maybe even actually make use of the degrees your parents paid TENS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS for if any of you ever actually graduated.

"Goddamn Hippies!" Eric Cartman

You all know me and Ms. Britney Spears have a major love/hate relationship going back many years (okay, it's all one-sided, WHATEVER!), and I missed the VMAs last night (but have Tivo set to record it tomorrow), HOWEVER, you cannot deny the happiness and life in this picture.

Ms. Britney, I didn't really believe you had it in you. Good one. I'm actually kind of proud of you right now.

Don't mess with my TV

I like to play tennis, I don't even mind watching tennis on television, but when it's time to watch Judge Judy or Big Brother I DON'T WANT TO SEE TENNIS ON MY TV!!!!!!!!

gah.

Today I have these horribly ugly bruises all up and down the inside of my upper arms. It looks like someone grabbed me and shook me real hard. They are actually the most horribly disgusting bruises I've ever seen but I can't hide them because it's summer and Hellooooo I'm not wearing sleaves.

What really happened is this.

Buffy and I went boogie boarding at Capitola Beach yesterday, and the waves were coming so fast and so strong that I was holding on to the board for dear life every time I caught one and was sent hurdling towards the beach at ungodly speeds while yelling "OH SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTT" as I tried to avoid all the little kids in the way. So that is where the bruises came from, squeezing the board so hard between my arms. "But... you're not supposed to be holding on like that, Mom," said Buffy when she saw the bruises. My reply: "I was scared."

But what happened in between actually catching the waves is the funny part. Because for most of the day Buffy and I floated out on our boards in the ocean while I teased her about sharks and slimy fish, and we untangled ourselves from the floating seaweed, and every once in awhile a nice calm little wave would come and give us a ride. But around 2pm the BIG waves came, and they came so suddenly that I could never recover from the first one.

So here we are floating, and suddenly Buffy says "MOM, Here it comes!" and she paddles away. By the time I looked behind me a huge wave was already curling above me and before I could get ready it slammed me under water and took off with my board which was hooked to my wrist so that I did about four summersaults underwater, the top of my swimdress pulled down, the skirt yanked over my head, and then the wave spit me out onto the beach still rolling around. Fat lady alert! Swimdress all inside out and over her head and rolling rolling rolling onto the sand!

I stood up, spit saltwater out of my mouth, and tried to get my board out of the water but TOO LATE, here comes another wave, meanwhile the back pull of the water is dragging me and my board back into the ocean. Tried to get settled and ready but it came too quick, tried to jump over the wave but instead was slammed back under water, summersault, summersault, top down, skirt up, the water pulling me and my board up onto the sand, spit out saltwater, try to get up, water pulls me and board back into the ocean.

Repeat.

Repeat, Repeat, Repeat.

Good grief, by the time I was able to get out of the ocean I was panting hard, the front of my swim dress was stretched out longer than the back, I have two scrapes right above each knee, one leg was bleeding right below the knee. The arm bruises had not appeared yet.

It wasn't scary though, it was fun. Only because I am an excellent swimmer and not afraid of the ocean. Every time I pulled my skirt down off my head I kept thinking "These beach people are probably having the time of their lives laughing at the fat lady rolling around in the water" but I didn't really care, I was having fun. And I'm much more athletic than I appear at the moment, so even when I was actually getting loose from the water I still kept running back out and trying to get back on the board - normal fat ladies don't do that, only crazy athletic fat ladies try to take on the ocean, heh.

Well, the ocean won. Beat me black and blue and sent me home bleeding with sand filling areas it didn't need to ever fill.

Good times.

Messing with The Buff again

Today I took Buffy to the drug store to get some cleaning supplies but I also got a couple bottles of Sangria, and then we passed through the Halloween aisle - because didn't you know that Halloween was just around the corner? or in another 7 weeks, close enough. Anyway, there were a bunch of wigs there, and they were cheap, so I told Buffy to pick some out. She said she didn't need any wigs. I told her well they're cheap, so why not? Plus, I already picked out two. She looked in the basket to see my white blond bob and my "perky blonde" wig. Her body language immediately started saying "Dear Lord, here we go again."

"What are you going to do with these wigs, Mom?" she asked, tiredly and suspiciously.

"I'm going to put them on, get a big glass of Sangria, and start cleaning the kitchen."

Buffy sighed.

Me: "Actually, I figured I would start impersonating Renny from Big Brother, so I need some wigs and sparkly eye shadow. You have any sparkly eye shadow I could borrow?

Buffy: No.

Me: Yes you do, that's all you have is sparkly eye shadow.

Buffy: No. I don't.

And she just stared down at the wigs in the basket as if her life had all come to this. She looked tired, so so tired.

And I laughed. And put the blue wig and another long blonde one into the cart.

We got home and it's too damn hot to clean the kitchen OR to wear a wig, but I'll get to it soon enough.

Or as soon as some of her friends come over.

Today I had good and bad news.

Good news is that one of my old friends from the journal writing days wrote me a very very nice note and email, and it was great to hear from her and I was thrilled to see she has a happy life now. In San Diego even! I'm so jealous!

But then I got a note on Facebook that Tom Nance was struck and killed by a truck while Tom was riding his motorcycle in Los Angeles yesterday. I met Tom at Cinequest last year, he was the writer and producer of one of my favorite films that year, Sherman's Way. I never knew him well, I became better friends with the director of the movie, and that is who let me know about his death. I'm really saddened by this news (and how ironic that I was just looking at his Facebook page yesterday and remembering him as a really nice guy!) because he was a REALLY talented man! Sherman's Way may or may not hit it big, but it was a really great movie, and written really well. It was a great story that I really enjoyed. So I'm saddened at the world's loss, and Hollywood's loss, and I'm really sad for my friend the director, as he had been friends with Tom for 30 years.

Death is always hard, unexpected death is even harder, and when it hits the young it's even worse. I really feel for my friend Craig for his incredible loss.

And happy to hear from my friend. And happy from my good day at the beach. But sad.

We've had a heat wave since the beginning of August and I'd be a melted puddle of fat and brains and warped textbooks if we didn't have that pool. I'm sooooo ready for summer to be over, but I don't want to say goodbye to that pool. It's been a lot of work, every morning I go out and scrub it down - gotta keep on top of that algae!!! - but it's been worth it. It's been worth every dime I paid, every chemical I've purchased, every hour I've spent dumping chemicals into it and scrubbing it down.

Beyond the heat, it's just been so great for my stress level. Every single day I go out for at least 15 minutes, no matter what, and sit on a raft with a school book or just close my eyes. It keeps me cool inside this house that's over 100 degrees, and it's just so relaxing. I recommend those little above ground pools for anyone who has a little space in their backyard.

So I'm going to miss that pool so badly when it turns cold outside. Guess I'll have to get my stress out by running again, haha.

But for now, it's 100 degrees. So tomorrow we're just hitting the beach.

Big Brother

Thursday's live show:

Nice to see April is still a hateful bitch. I had kind of forgotten about her hatefulness and the DEPTHS of her disillusionment. WOOOWWWWWWW. I'm SO glad she's finally off the show.

And I will miss me some Renny something fierce. She was an inspiration to women of all ages, no matter how kooky she was. So full of sparkle and love and class. And Sparkle!

I hope Renny kicks ass all over the place when she gets to the jury house. Starting with April.

Okay, so I had a dream last night. And it was a doozy.

I had the drug that caused people to turn into the Incredible Hulk. And I not only took some, but I also infected a large group of people, and together we were going to blow up San Jose.

Yeah, you read that right. So I took the drug, and walked out of my room at the Fairmont (??) and down the street, with all the newly Incredible Hulkilized mob of people marching the other way, getting ready to do their damage. And I was sorry that it had come to this, but things were already set in motion, so there was nothing I could do. I knew I was going to have to live my life on the run, but I figured I could get to Mexico before being discovered (by walking there, I guess).

And then I slowly woke up, and as I opened my eyes and saw my bed and Pischina-Kitty sleeping next to me, I thought, "Oh good, I'm so glad I didn't decide to blow up the city."

So anyone wants to decipher that dream, you're welcome to it. Heh.

McCain's Bitch

Sorry to be so blunt, heh. It's my blog and I'll blah blah if I want to and all that.

So Scott and I have a friend who grew up in Alaska and his family still lives there, and we saw him at a sidewalk sale in Aptos this weekend. "So," I said, "What do you know about McCain's vice pres?"

"Well," he said, "I went to high school with her, my sister was good friends with her, she comes from a really great family..."

"WHAT!!! You KNOW her???" "Oh yeah," he said, "I told you, everyone in that town knows each other. In fact, we have a joke in our town, 'When you get divorced here you don't lose your wife, you lose your turn.'"

I had no idea he actually KNEW her, or even lived in the same town, I just thought he may know more about her actual politics than we might get from the news. As much as he liked her personally though, he made it clear that he would never ever ever ever EVER vote for her, and that no one even in his town understood McCain's choice as she has only been in office less than two years.

So anyway, he lived in a small town, and we all live in a small world. I'm now one degree from this woman, and only two degrees from McCain (*shudder*).

Okay, no more politic talk today, I have a paper to procrastinate writing at the moment. Politic talk will just drive me to write it.

Big Brother pt 2

So at least last night it seemed like Keesha and Renny are on to some of old Jerry's real comments. Still, the worst they could come up with to say about him was calling him a pervert, in response to him bragging about the Korean hookers he's been with. Yeah, that's right, I'd be hella proud if my 75 year old grandpa was bragging about his Korean hookers, yuppirs.

Okay, I have a couple things to say about this season.
First, the producers did a great job of casting this year - instead of a house of sluts, whores and imbeciles, they gave us a house of relatively intelligent, good people. And then what happened, like what happened in the first season, was everyone went slowly insane and suffered altered personalities. It was always the psychological part that fascinated me about Big Brother and Survivor. But in the end, I don't think you will turn too viscious if you don't have it in you to begin with.

And so you have people like April, who is probably a bit of a bitch in real life, turn absolutely insane and paranoid and then very visciously bitchy. If you only watch the show and not the internet feeds, you probably don't realize how big of a bitch she was, but she was so self-disillusioned and obviously insecure that you kind of forgive her for it - I'm sure she's nice outside of the house. Maybe.

But I don't have much tolerance for Jerry. And it pisses me off that CBS is showing him as the loveable grandfather, maybe a little dopey, and maybe a little crazy with his "Judas" remark, but mostly a sad old man who just misses his family.

He's not. He's the most viscious, disgusting, vile-filled houseguest of them all. And I just need to say this in case anyone has ANY intentions of voting him America's Favorite, because if you heard him on the feeds you would just vote him OUT. The saddest part is knowing Keesha is going to hear the things he said about her later - "golddigging cunt", "used up, saggy ass", "never going to fuck her way to the top" , etc. And then has the gall to give her hugs and call her "Baby" and give his sad old man act, "Just please talk to me", etc. That "sad old man" called Keesha a "golddigging cunt", Keesha, who can never quite bring herself to say anything bad about anyone, AND was the only one who befriended him and continued to talk to him as everyone else got tired of his bull and just ignored him.

I can't quite blame all this vileness on the house insanity, because he also had this to say about his son-in-law who is also his doctor:
"He sticks his finger up my ass, but he's married to my daughter, I tell him I don't know where that finger's been!"

It's been in your daughter. And you're thinking about that as he puts that same finger up your ass. That. Is Disgusting. And Gross. And I would be doing everything I could to get him out of the house and away from the cameras if I were his family. Maybe Ollie's right and his family won't be ashamed that Ollie was having doggie-style sex day and night on camera while he was in there, but at least he wasn't hurting anyone. Sad old Grandpa Jerry has something extremely viscious and uncalled for to say about everyone, and then walks around saying "I never got nasty in this game, I don't talk behind people's backs."

I'll tell Jerry like I tell my daughter: Just because no one in the house saw you do it, just because no one heard you, doesn't mean you didn't do it.

Do NOT vote to give Jerry any money.

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