Month: April 2004

I came home rather bushed and wanted to get my sound system checked out for tonight’s event. However, after a relaxing bath I found the couch all too inviting. Amy was napping, the Sirens on the Couch called and Cathy joined me for a refreshing nap.

Then I had to pick Tommy up from school. On the way there, I played phone tag with one of my recruiters that wants me in a phone interview tomorrow morning. Tommy came out complaining of a headache and the urge to throw up so I recommended we not go to Star and instead go to the doctor’s office. He immediately felt better (I still believe he is down and I think Cathy nailed it with “allergies”). Arriving at Star I warned the instructor that Tommy was “edgy.”

After handing him off to the Star staff, I began 45 minutes of phone calls from the car. I confirmed with the recruiter that the phone interview would not intefere with the 11:30 IEP Cathy and I have with the school (if it goes badly, we may be looking at creating a class action lawsuit..what fun!). During the call the recruiter told me the interview was not really for the company he mentioned in the voicemail, but for a different company going through the first one. This raised a problem as my other recruiter has been pushing me in the 2nd company and it could look bad for me to be “double dipping.” Often hiring managers simply discard candidates that come to the same job from 2 different sources. I called my main recruiter and confirmed some details with him them began phone tag with the other to try to make sure it was truly a different position. Slipped a phonecall into the wife at some point there too.

Tommy did good on his ride threatening to throw up only once. The instructor nipped it in the bud explaining the social inappropriateness of talking about the urge to vomit and suggested that he simply say he is not feeling well and end class early. He quit talking about it.

On the way home I was pulling in for gas. Tommy says, “I need air.” So I stop the car in the road and tell Tommy, “Get out.” He gets out and leaves the car do open so I can’t drive out of traffic. I holler at him to close the door. Then I pull around the grassy median to park opposite of where I dropped Tommy off. When I see Tommy, rather than getting into the grassy part of the median he has sat on the curb, laid back in the grass and extended his legs and feet out into the road. I stop the car and yell at him to get out of the road. As he’s standing there I am talking to him and he just bends over and empties his stomach of the 20 ounce (.6 liter) bottle of Gatorade he drank earlier. This is a skill Tommy can do on demand so you never know if he’s up to something or really sick. I instruct him to go to a safer spot in the median with a nice manhole cover to sit on then I move the car to get gas. I look back and Tommy is spread eagle lying on his back in the grass! I holler at him “get up or I’ll call an ambulance!” The guys on the adjacent pump are confused but watching the whole scene. The station attendant happens to be passing by me to help another customer as I start to call Cathy and scolds me explaining that I cannot make a phone call due to federal law; I almost told him where he could shove the federal law or my cell phone, his choice.

Tommy and I make it home without any further incident and he is told to take a bath..brief whining then he goes.

After dropping Tommy off I run to McDonald’s but have to stop for cash first. Instead of using an ATM I turn in my instant lottery ticket for the $35 winning. I decide to use $5 to buy another ticket. While waiting for my food at McDonald’s I check the ticket and win $10! I’m 2 for 2! I can certainly understand how people get addicted to this kind of game.

I bring the food home for the kids and rapidly get ready for my evening.

Made it to Rocky Hill School by 8:30 and was setup, practicing and ready to go. A little rubber cement on my nose and a good fresh coat on the red ping pong ball assured that I’d have some laughs from the kids by throwing the ping pong ball up and catching it on my nose then balancing it there and taking a bow with the ball still on my nose.

The newspaper was there and I’ll be quoted in Wednesday’s Living section.

I began teaching first grader’s how to juggle. Of the many things that the phrase “herding cats” fits with this is certainly one! It’s much fun!

This was Rocky Hill’s 24th Clown Day. In Knoxville, apparently this is the only school the Ringling Brothers and Barney and Bailey Clowns visit. They always do a remarkable job and I enjoy getting to speak with them.

After teaching the children for an hour and 15 minutes or so the clowns showed up and did an outstanding performance with dogs, juggling, an acordian and remarkable bubbles blown with their hand.

The kids left for lunch and I got to speak with the clowns briefly (always a thrill). Then Amy and Cathy showed up and we got to interact with the clowns briefly until we started to get in the shot that the news was trying to film (we exited quickly at that point and joined Noah for lunch). Amy did good with the clowns. She didn’t seem scared as much as she did the bashful routine she does with strangers.

After lunch I found the first graders had started the next round of activites early so I rushed in to teach my next group. Obviously they were sugared up. The pre-lunch crowd was more focused on learning; the post-lunch crowd just wanted to throw things. There were several students that with some 1 on 1 time I could have had juggling 3 balls in no time flat.

During one of the breaks I actually got some guys and juggled all 5 of my crystal balls. It was beautiful. My pattern seemless. When I did mess up the rubberized gymnasium floor gracefully caught the crystal balls. I did a much better job than I expected. It looks like I’m juggling bubbles when I do it. Must add to the performance!

I enjoy Clown Day very much!

Nooooo! I didn’t win the PowerBall!!! My early retirement!

Amy sitting in my lap eatting a doughnut and chatting away. What a pleasure!

Amy is up and playing happily. I need to leave in 20 minutes and I’m not bathed, dressed (nor do I know what I am wearing), and my gear is not in place. I am unpracticed, un-mic’d, and nervous. I know I will excell. I always do. I need to give my art more daily attention and my gear needs freshening (new decoration, some replacements, etc). I should have 7 balls down by now but to do that I need to order roughly $50 in smaller bean bags.

I think I need to wake the wife.

This Morning

Stressing. I really should wake the wife and ask for her help. I need to stretch. Body sore. I should have laid my clothes out last night. My juggling gear should have already been in order. I go to bed too early and sleep too late all the time!

Blast my memory. A mom at Krispy Creme said we could take the report cards somewhere else for something else free.

Must do’s! Juggle and teach juggling at the school for clown day (morning and mid afternoon). (late afternoon) Prepare for casino tonight; ie. refresh my mind on terminology, test wireless mic with small speakers. Submit a resume. (evening) Mock casino; deal craps.

Last Night

I took Noah to soccer and practiced juggling. I went around the bend so that the kids couldn’t see me and be distracted. I still had enough of a view to be able to tell Noah to pay attention and ask him to quick karate kicking the other players (the 7 yr old boys love that game!).

Came home and prompted Tommy to get out of the tub which was a task. Spent time in bed talking to wife and eatting ice cream and watching Futurama.

Ok. TN got the PowerBall this week so yesterday I bought 5 computer quick picks. Today I got a card because I wanted to hand pick a couple of numbers (I’m not going to regularly play). I also bought a scratch and win card. If I am reading this right, my scratch and win card just paid me $35! That puts me up $29 on the TN lottery so far

Tired. Very successful trip downtown. Got lots of brochures for the zoo event, got questions answered about how to get tags for the car where we lost the title (which isn’t in our name), got addresses for all new businesses in the area over the past 2 weeks, collected my thoughts with a walk in the park, visited the Chamber of Commerce, cooked lunch, watched the History of Niagra (not all of the show); and am tired.

Amy is up. Cathy slept through her crying–I suspect tylenol sleep aid was necessary last night. I wish she could sleep better. Our friend Tim has suggested some exercises. She should get more details from him.

When I went down to get Amy she was yelling (gleefully) and jumping up and down in the crib. Her feet must have been grabbing 10cm (4 inches) of air! She is in a talkative fun mood as is typical in the mornings. She makes my day!

As I get her out of the crib, we take a moment to study what’s in the crib and she decides “nite nite” (her words for her blankie). Her ritual is that one thing must leave the crib with her. Out of the crib she takes a moment to identify the dog “Luscy” (Lucy) and “Mama, nite nite” (Mama is asleep).

She was wearing my house slippers (looking goofy as a clown) and saying “Dada shoes. Dadas shoes.”

Dog gone this girl is smart! She was crying for a cookie so I gave her dry cereal instead and she was standing in front of the utensil drawer and started asking for a spoon. “Dada, a sfoon. Dada, a sfoon.”

She is now in her play house yammering away. She spilled some cereal and cried out “Dada, a pill!” so I ran the rescue and put the pieces of cereal that spilled back into the bowl and she was quite happy.

I could go on and on. She is so much fun to be around!

A New Day!

Let’s start the day off with a PayPal donation link:

This Morning

Amy awoke at 12:30am and I couldn’t get her to settle. I tried putting her back in her bed after holding her and returning the lost pacifier, blankie (she calls it her “nite nite”), and juice but that nor the crib worked. She lay with Cathy and I for a half an hour then I moved her to the crib. She didn’t sleep well because she was up at 6 (I think she went back down) even though I turned the alarm off before it went off. Even though I frequently get up before the alarm, I still want one of these by Harris Communications.

I so wanted to sleep in today. I’m sorta thankful that I have responsibilities that make me get up. I wish I could get back to getting up and exercising. If we had carpet and it was kept clean, I would be more likely to do my stretching every morning and evening.

I am getting really strung. I have to get the art computer working again. I have to do finances today. I have to spend all day juggling. I really need to rent the snake for the pipes. I would like to help Cathy run around and empty the Project Linus boxes (Sarah says the one at school is full again).

Gave Noah Claritin again. I can’t tell if he is getting the sniffles or is having allergies again. He’s so laid back that it doesn’t seem to bother him either way.

The wife and I were just talking about the infamous “cough test” done in high school with the boys. She says “Nah! That didn’t happen” and I assured her that one day we went into the school nurses office 5 boys at a time where we were told to drop our pants and “cough.” I clearly remember the boy in front of me being asked “please move it to the left.”

Still don’t know what the test was for but its not a memory that fades easily. The wife says “you were sexually abused!”

Another documented related story.

The Jeep is fixed! Pictures later perhaps…