Mail Call

OK -- so I really only check the snail mail once a month unless I'm expecting something. The flaw in this plan is that sometimes people send me things as a surprise. So -- hey -- it's my birthday again!!!

I was looking for photos of Rob's Dad the other day for a project and found some photos from a trip Paul & Janelle took to LA a LONG time ago.

I think this was the trip when they wore the watermelon outfits to Knott's, but I haven't found any of those photos yet....

I had something that I wanted to rant about, but I can't think of it off hand -- it's probably because it's not late enough.

Pre-school is a fabulous thing. Jeremy has a great time. He wants to go to bed early so that he can get up and go to pre-school. He's learning his letters, finger painting, etc. Rob is also enjoying having some alone time three days a week. I still can't believe it's only $100 a month!

Oh -- NOW I remember!! Non-smoking sections at restaurants! Why do they bother? Yesterday we ate at Outback and the bar was on the other side of our booth. We were in the non-smoking section, but since there isn't any separation, we got tons of smoke. Ugh!!!!

It probably wouldn't have bothered me so much, except that I've got a tooth which is bugging me. Grr -- my dentist is out of town until Tuesday. I think I'll live, but I'll definitely be grouchy. The tooth that hurts already has a crown. So, I don't know what they'll do with it, but I'm sure it isn't going to be fun!

I made an appointment for Rob while I was at it just to share the fun!

OK -- the Office is on -- gotta go!

It's October, Do you know where your gloves, hats & boots are?

It's totally useless to watch the weather reports here. Apparently we live near the edge of the radar area. That combined w/ a small population and weathermen that are younger that some of my favorite socks makes for unreliable weather reports. So when they said we were going to get 8 inches of snow this weekend, I naturally ignored it. That usually means we'll get a few pithy flakes like the bits that fall out of TP packaging. Well, NOT this time! Peter & Jeremy made the snow angels in the back yard on Saturday. They also tromped all over the place and generally made a giant freezing mess!

Well, by Sunday am we'd gotten so much more snow that we couldn't see any evidence of Saturday's tromping. And this was wet snow -- not the powdery stuff we usually get. Despite my better judgement and not having thermals, I decided to shovel while Rob was at meetings this am. Happily I've lost just enough weight to fit into two pairs of pants. I decided that shoveling would count as working out. Well, Jeremy decided to help me. He brought his own shovel -- one that we use at the beach..... Anyway, by the time he and Peter managed to get their gear on, I was done shoveling and Rob came home, so we decided to build a snowman. We'll probably only get 1 or 2 more good snowman building snows this year, so we have to take advantage of the good stuff.

I was scrounging in the garage for snowman parts, when Rob remembered that we had a snowman kit from Christmas last year -- Thanks Emil!!! The snowman looks a lot better w/ those parts than the things I scrounged up from the garage! Peter decided that he needed arms, so he built some T-rex style snow arms. It was above freezing most of the day today, so we had to keep sticking parts back in & he probably won't survive tomorrow. It was fun anyway. I'm attempting to post a snowman making video -- it's kind of long & one of the neighbors down the block started up the snow blower, but I haven't gotten video editing software mastered yet, so it is what it is...for now...

The pipe is for blowing BUBBLES! Is there any other reason for a pipe???

So the other day I had the TV on mute and Peter saw John McCain on it. We really don't talk much about politics, so I was surprised that Peter knew who he was. Peter said, "Hey, that's John McCain. He's a good man." I asked him what he thought about the other guy & he frowned and said, "We can talk about that later," and went back to practicing the piano! Later hasn't come yet -- personally, I've been sick and tired of the election for months!

Welcome to the Dark Side

Hey – Janelle – saw the new blog! Now we need to start working on Bev & Cindy…..remember there is another…….a sister!

This was our 2006 family photo!

I’m going try to post a video using my b-day present….nothing bad happened, so it was pretty good as far as birthdays go.

I was traveling this week. Usually I read 3 books a trip, one on the flights down, one while there & another on the flights back. However, I loaded up on Aspberger/HFA books to read. The one I started on the way down is called, Thinking In Pictures and is written by a woman w/ Aspbergers. I only got through 100 pages on the way down, 0 pages during the week and 50 pages on the first flight back (blogging from SLC airport). The problem is that so much of what she says goes to my very core. It’s like she can see in my brain. It’s very unnerving and I’m not at all happy about it. Unfortunately, there a lot of good coping ideas in there for me and Peter, so I have to keep slugging along. It’s made me very anxious. Up until this diagnosis, I had myself figured out in my own mind and convinced myself that I was normal and everyone was odd. And really, I wasn’t all that different, so I told myself as I kept paddling down the Denial River – or was it the Clueless River? Anyway, I’m definitely on a different body of water now and I no longer think I’m in control and I don’t have a clear path, hence the anxiety. Grrr. I did find a couple of Alexander McCall Smith books that I haven’t read, so I’ll probably read one of those on the last flight and listen to Hunt for Red October. Of course, NOW I know that my Red October therapy is classic HFA…grrr!

On the good news side of things, one of the Asperger books I got for Peter seems to be really helping him w/ the reading comprehension. It’s a story book written for kids Peter’s age w/ games in it to help them understand the story better. Rob is very happy with it. I’m supposed to find more like that……not sure it’s possible. Ugh!

I did manage to meet up w/ my very bestest friend from East/KW in Denver. She married a lovely man & is living happily ever after – Yaaaah!!! We all went through a corn maze. My favorite was the ADA signage in the maze. The path was definitely wide enough for a wheelchair…..but it was quite muddy. It’s a wonder the ADA act didn’t outlaw mud! Anyway we had a good time and the kids think we’re crazy! Hey – we ate a place I saw on the Food Channel – White Fence Farm. It was really, really good & they had a playground for the kids while we waited for our table. Why doesn’t everyone do that?

Speaking of food – I ate at a couple of really expensive places this week. One of them was really good (we should have gone to In-N-Out for the other). Anyway at the good one I tried quite a few new foods. The foie gras was actually really good – although I covered it in a TON of sauce, so it’s possible that I just like the sauce. I also had Mac & Cheese w/ white truffles. I tried a tomato gazpacho – that was horrible. I had salmon that was just amazing – it was by far the best salmon I’ve ever had. Even the spinach was good. Oh, and for desert I had a dish w/ warm chocolate beignets, homemade marshmallows and chocolate sorbet w/ a candied kumquat. If it hadn’t been a business dinner, I would have ordered a second dessert! I’m tempted to catch a flight back to O.C. so I can get more…..well, not so tempted after I think about the price. I think my dinner came out to $100. I’m putting everyone else closer to $150/head including drinks. Our environmental consultant was picking up the tab. They are definitely well paid! OK – gotta go catch my flight. Check out the Pack 94 blog – has photos of the last pack meeting and Rob wearing the Corn Head!

We're not in California anymore, Toto!

Yup -- that's the condo we sold for half a million! You see those pretty flowers out front? They were illegal!!! The association had clear rules that homeowners couldn't modify common areas w/out approval. I was on the board, so I could have gotten approval, but I didn't. Anyway, as I drive around I get reminded that we are no longer subject to wretched homeowners' associations. I thought I'd share some of those reminders. When I'm feeling down, I think of these, or I get onto my old association's web-site & read the board meeting minutes and think about how happy I am not to be dealing with it any more!

Signs that you've escaped associations:

• Easter Egg Lane -- No, that's not the name of the street, it's just my nickname. These five houses are on a well traveled street -- the first house is teal, the neighbor is mint green, the next one is lavender, then bright yellow & finally another teal house! No respectable association would have allowed any of those colors!
• The Libertarian -- When I was a kid, they put up a sign on the chain link fence. It was made of plywood and the letters neatly stenciled onto it: "LIBERTARIAN: Peace, freedom and personal responibility." Sometime within the last ten years someone decided to fix the typo and squeezed in the missing "S" in a different color. One side of the chain link fence was replaced with a rail-style vinyl fence and the sign hasn't come back. I'm pretty sure the Libertarian still lives there though. The shingle roof looked as if it was pretty useless, so they replaced it with a metal roof. It looks very nice, except that they didn't do the attached garage roof!
• The Zebra fence -- This just happens to be half a block from the Libertarian. They have a wooden 6' picket fence -- pretty standard around here. About a year ago, they did some work to the fence. They replaced half of the pickets. It's really easy to see that they replaced half of them, because they replaced every other picket. Since the original fence had weathered the old pickets are a dark brown. The new pickets are yellow in comparison. So even after more than a year, it's a striped fence!
• Unusual application of floor tiles -- Two blocks down from the Zebra fence, there's a house that recently installed vinyl siding on the exterior. However, from the ground to 4' high, they installed ceramic floor tiles on the exterior of the house. They are slate tiles and I think they were trying to go for a stone look, but really, it looks like floor tiles on the outside of the house.
• Lawn sculptures -- There's a mobile home that would be unremarkable except for the fact that they have two bronze birds (hawks or eagles) along their circular driveway and a 10' tall elk bronze at the front door. For the cost of the circular driveway and the bronzes, they could have put a down payment on a real house!
  

I need a separate section for vehicles & vehicle parts as landscaping:

• Old tires: On their side, they make a lovely retaining wall. Standing up they work as a front yard fence. Those really large tractor tires -- you know the ones that I could stand up inside? Lay them on their side in the front yard and you have a perfectly round planter!
• Old hub caps: Is your rail fence looking shabby? No problem - just attach fifty or so old hub caps for an entirely new look!
• Old wheels: If the junk yard is just too far away for you, you can weld together a few hundred old wheels in stacks 2 high for a front yard fence that will keep any toddler in the yard!
• Can't decide what to do with that broken down boat? Build a faux dock in your front yard and tie the boat right to it! You can decorate the boat for multiple holidays or even build a snowman in the boat!
• Wagon Wheels -- Just in case the fact that you've got to drive 300 miles to get to decent shopping doesn't remind you that you live on the Oregon, California & Mormon Trails, get yourself a few wagon wheels, plows & anything rusty for your front yard.

I know I'm forgetting some. If I missed your favorite, feel free to comment! Oh, the last time I checked, I saw a condo JUST like our old one selling for under $250K -- ouch!!!! I feel bad for the folks who bought our house, but not bad enough to give them any money back!

Adventures of the Upside Down Girl -- Next Generation

It occurred to me some time ago that I see the world differently from most people. I was told that it was because I was born in Australia and I'm therefore upside down. Well, it turns out that there is actually a more rational explanation than that: Asperger's Syndrome.

Some of you know that Peter's 2nd Grade experience was not good. After fighting w/ the school for most of last year, several NCSD employees suggested that Peter might have high-functioning autism. I knew that we had to get that checked out, or else the school district could use it as an excuse. Well, much to my surprise, once I started looking into it in great detail, I recognized Peter AND I recognized myself. (Aspergers and High-Functioning Autism are very similar.) The Dr confirmed the diagnosis today. The good thing is that now we can be more aware of what we need to do to help him learn the social, communication, creative writing, interpretation of literature, etc skills he needs. The crappy thing is that now I know that the things I struggle with will always be with me and Peter as well. Sigh! However, I do like a quote made by a successful Asperger lady: "If there weren't people like me in the world, everyone would still be sitting around the campfire socializing." Oh -- one more thing, it does run in families. So, if you are thinking to yourself, "this is just crazy -- Peter is absolutely normal. He does all the stuff I did." -- You probably have it too!

Boston!!!

We made it to Plymouth & saw this replica of the Mayflower. The exhibit was closed, but it was cool to see it. It looks very small compared to the cruise ships we saw in Florida! I would probably have stayed in England.....

Jeremy thinks it was a pirate ship, so I think maybe we'll bring out the eye patches for Thanksgiving dinner this year. Plymouth is approx 30 miles south of Boston. It took us 2 1/2 hours to drive that!!!! Holy smokes! There are a TON of people all over Massachusetts! It's very cute and pretty, but there are people everywhere!

This is Rob enjoying some driving tips from me. When I was in my classes, Beryl was nice enough to give him driving tips in my absence. After all, having Neverlost in the rental car is not enough. All that gal does is recaculate the route and say which way to turn, she totally ignores lanes, speed, smoothness, etc! So last week we had a rental car that barely fit 5. This week I'm in So Cal by myself and they gave me a 7 passenger Highlander. Oh well, that's better than the H3 -- what a joke! The H3 is a total disaster. It's got all the disadvantages of a Suburban w/ the comfort of a Civic!

Rob and Jeremy are imitating the statue in this photo. This is outside the Old North Church where Paul Revere & friends hung the warning lanterns. By the way, Paul Revere looks amazingly like Jack Black -- just in case any casting directors are reading........

The Old North Church still operates as a church, complete with the old funky pews! Each of the pews has a little brass plaque showing the sponser -- lots of historic names there. It also has the first organ in the new world.

We walked along the freedom trail. It's amazing how much of the old Boston survives. The other freaky thing is that there is about twice a much land in Boston now as there was when the colonists started building there. They leveled the hills and used them to fill in the harbor. They also used trash & whatever. The entire airport is on landfill. And a whole bunch of really, really tall buildings. I tried not to think about that as I was sitting in the basement of one of those buildings for 2 days........

This is the mystery retro photo.................shouldn't be too hard, since there weren't that many little boys born close together. I have a prize for the first one to post the right answer!

Chowder, Crab Cakes & Lobster Rolls, Oh My!!!!

We made it to Boston and the Crab Cakes are better than I had imagined possible! Rob & Grandma are sampling Clam Chowder every chance they get. I had a giant, fabulous Lobster Roll in Salem. Yes, THAT Salem!!! Everything is so old! And so close together! And flat!

During the Witch Museum program, Jeremy held on to me for dear life. Then when we left, he said that it wasn't scary at all! I had to download photos today because I've got a gazillion photos of really cute really old houses that Beryl thought were adorable. "Oooh, look over there", "Oh, get a photo of that one!", "Oh, how quaint!" I don't think the plane trip was nearly as bad as she expected, so she just might be getting the travel bug! Maybe 70 is the new 50.