Year: 2004

* Picked up 10 yr old at school. She’s having difficulty with addition and subtraction of fractions and about to go onto multiplication and division and I’m racking my brain to remember least common denominators and such.

Political If you haven’t, you should look at http://www.bushin30seconds.org/ and read George Orwell’s 1984

This afternoon has been quite an adventure.

* Went to the bank to deposit an insurance check. Balance still negative but account doesn’t get closed until the 19th so I still have a chance to save it.

* Went to Nature’s Pantry. Doc Bro bought some ear candles for me but the customer service guy couldn’t find them. He was the first rudeish person I’ve ever run across at Nature’s Pantry. I asked, “Could they be at the register?” To which he replied, “No. We wouldn’t do that.” Vmails to the Bro and wife.

* Office Depot to get a bound pad of paper for the 13 yr old’s school work and erasable coloring pencils. At the check-out, I notice a table set up with a sign “Free Blood Pressure Check” Just what the brother ordered! First numbers come in at 178/86. 2nd numbers 143/86 pulse 72. Oh I remember the days of a 58 pulse everytime!

* Coming out of Office Depot channel 8 WVLT interviews me, unshaven and not at my most literate, for a 5:30 report they are doing on whether or not unlimited long distance saves money. I gave good commentary but wasn’t minding any of my actorial training. I am and probably always will be a theatrical performer instead of on camera.

* Brother’s wife is on the phone when I am passing Nature’s Pantry again so we go in and speak with Michelle who says “Oh, it’s by the register” (remember, “we would never put it there”?) So I’m prepared to have my ears vaccuumed. Looking forward to it. Maybe my hearing will improve 🙂

* Passing Am South I stop for their promotion and get the kids some B-97 promotional items, sign up for $1000 give-a-away and turn down a free checking account and a chance to grab money out of their money booth.

* Back to work

* Pep Boys contacted to correct UPS debacle.

Careful with insuring packages

Pep Boys sells Dad a scooter for the 10 yr old’s Christmas. It accidentally gets shipped to his house (damaged) so he insures it and ships it here. Pep Boys agrees to take it back but it UPS ships it from here to Dad’s house then sends a letter explaining that the package had insufficient packing and therefore they weren’t responsible for the damage.

So! Why didn’t the sales clerk look at the package, the description, the weight, and the insured amount and decline to insure it. I thought that if you “insure” something that you are accepting the risk and contracting to pay if the risk happens. Double-check before you waste money insuring packages!

Student Loans

BLAST! The wife’s student loans went into default a while back during her divorce or something. I worked with the collection agency and we’ve paid $550 per month for the past year to get back on good terms. The end result would be getting to refinance the $45,000 remaining at today’s interest rates. We missed the very last payment and have until tomorrow to make it up by Western Union or we have to do the whole year again and won’t be able to refinance until after the next election (with more than likely higher interest rates). This rots!

* Been working hard. Must break for lunch and a run to the bank soon. Want to incorporate some marketing as I go but don’t want to suit up.

* My cat gargoyle normally on the monitor has taken to insisting on my lap. This either means that its time to get a flat panel display, the liter box needs changing, or she needs food or water. I think I’ll assume its time to get a flat panel display.

* Dr Brother calls and gives me some advice for the dizziness over the phone. I’m very excited about his approach since my gp said that the only thing I could do was wait it out or do some time consuming expensive physical therapy. Besides, I like my bro’s more holistic approach.

* Starting to freak. It’s 10:49 and I haven’t begun programming. Setting aside all other distraction and programming now.

Wal*Mart to end our way of life

“KB Toys Follows FAO Into Bankruptcy” Is it just me or does anyone else recognize that in a few years we are going to be screwed to the Wal*? Once Walmart underprices all major stores out of business, the toy stores, the grocery stores, the sports stores, and we have only Walmart to shop from, the prices will shoot through the roof!

I’m off to buy Wal*mart stock…

Today’s goals: banking, work on the contracted web project, cook the chicken and beef jerfy, work on self web project

A New Day!

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

This Morning

* I actually get up! Did not return to bed. Granted, I didn’t get up until 6:30 but I did get up!

* Bathe the 7 yr old

* The kids are in jolly moods and I’m nice to them. No grumpies!

* Return from car pool to bury the cats 2 day old mole kill (in warmer weather it would have been fly food by now) then have a “sexual responsibility” talk with the 13 yr old-topics: cleaning up after that personal activity, tissues by the bed, not leaving seminal fluid about, disease–what fun!

Last Evening

* Seems we forgot to give the 13 yr old his medicine

* The 19 mth old splits her lip just as Mom is trying to get out the door for a Girl Scout training meeting on selling cookies (which none of the other generous mother’s would donate time for). I lose my temper not because it happened but because no one cleaned up the toys. It was an irrational and unreasonable response. It bugs me that I’m such a loose cannon now-a-days. I used to choose my battles so much more carefully.

* Chaos calms and the 10yr old gets on her home work, the 13 yr old settles in bed for reading, the 7yr old works on his Daniel Boone project and I join him for some Internet research. We print a 17 page document and staple it to look like a book (I was hoping this would engage him better than loose papers) and set him down to read it. He gets through most of it before I give him a break and send him to bed to read Yu-Gi-Oh..a book that reads right to left but is printed in English.

* Cingular text messaging was down so I spend 1/2 hour on hold to get tech support to tell me its down in all markets and they don’t know why. “Could be morning before its back”

* Call Dad to wish him a happy birthday. Find out my brother got his job in South Carolina. At least someone is getting employed.

* Wife returns and we discover the 7yr old didn’t make it (in the morning he remains strongly opinioned that he did not wet his pants)

* Evening of email, chats and tv with the wife. Strong dizzy spells in bed.

* 13 yr old stayed up well past midnight masterbating. Tired dense dad goes upstairs to see what the noise is about to have 13 yr old quickly jump from the bathroom to the bed onto his stomach only to ask a stupid question “why the hell are you naked?” to get a well deserved blunt answer of “I was playing with myself” — pause — “oh, do you need to change your sheets?” which was prompted by his statement of “I had to wash my hands.” You DINKS don’t know what you’re missing!

Afternoon of chaos

Good amount of programming started.

The Internet went berserk and email wasn’t coming through while we were trying to get ready to leave the house for doctors appointments. 7 and 10 yr old home from school and straight to car already holding 19mth old and 13yr old (yes, car…we need a van badly Donate here) Forgetting the check for the bank, we head to doc appointment 1. Dropping all others at office, the 7 yr old and I head to McCay’s for the freebie cultural papers to help the 10 yr old with her long term school report. Stomach still feeling poorly after the dizzy episode in the bath.

Long and short, the 10 yr old finishes and we leave the 13 yr old on his appointment and go to UT’s International House (wow! nice web page) for local cultural info..kinda draw a blank although its fun forcing the 10 yr old out of her shell. We get to the info desk and the lady says “Can I help you?” so the 10 yr old looks up at me with those longing eyes and I reply “It’s your report” and physically step away. She handles herself remarkably well speaking clearly and confidentally while silently cursing my existence. We head out for our first pee emergency and barely get the 7 yr old into the Marble Slab’s bathroom. Hmm. Delimia. Should we buy something? I almost buy the wife some ice cream but that would create a living nightmare amongst the kids. Off to Sonic for dinner then back to the doctor’s office and onto rush hour traffic and another pee emergency with no where to stop. We are in front of the Cherokee County Club and I debate letting him pee on the golf course. I allow social stigma to prevent me from stopping at the Green’s house and asking for the rest room. In hind sight had they refused I could have simply let him water their shrubs and we would have saved a wet pants. It was however a good lesson that he needs to take advantage of every stop and use the rest room because when the urge comes, he goes.

We thought we had made it when we pulled over in a church parking lot and he watered a tree then upon entering the car said “Thank you God”. It was adorable!

* well, off for some quality time with the wife then a return for some late night programming.

Dizziness

There has to be something physilogical about the dizziness. When I bath and put my head underwater it takes off bad. If I keep my eyes open and fixated on a static object its better but still there. Working on the facial on the ladder 24 feet up was trippy.

Baby Cognition

The 19 mth old continues to amuse and amaze me. She brought her soccer ball to me and I said “go put it on your slide” and she thought about it, then walked half way through the house to stand at the midpoint of the slide; obviously not good enough, after a brief pause she goes to the ladder, hefts the ball up to the platform then climbs up to put the ball down the slide. Fantastic!

* The local job I’d like won’t start interviewing for a week or 2. It sounds exciting! The timing on these things isn’t going well. I’ve contacted a local entertainment group to see if they have any work for me in the meantime.

* been procrastinating on becoming an Amazon affiliate. Now fixed. Application submitted. Granted, that distracted me from work which I am now getting back to.