Renaissance Man

My son cracks me- he won't talk on the phone in front of people, doesn't like to talk to strangers, won't complain when the service or food is bad at a restaurant. But, for all that, he is awesome.

The other night he spent a good five minutes telling his father and I about a calculus problem involving the area under a curve. He went in to great detail, 90% of which his father didn't get, and about 40% I didn't get. He basically solved the problem verbally, telling us how he solved it on paper, line by line. Complete with "d(x)'s" and "d(y)'s" and integrating and limits, if you care about such things. I asked him later if he could see the problem in his head as he was solving it and he said yes, that happened to him all the time.
Last night we spent the ride home from wrestling practice with him quoting Othello. Complete with emotion, ad lib, and an explanation of the words to go with it.

My own Renaissance Man in the making.

Video Contest

I am cross-posting this from my blog, Shadowscope. Hopefully my wife won't kick my ass too hard when she gets up in the morning.

Payperpost and Rock 101One in Orlando are sponsoring a Most Exciting, Outrageous, or Embarrassing concert experience
video contest. This is worth $500 to the winner. They are picking the three videos submitted with the most views on
youtube, and one of those will be voted on wjrr.com the week of February 5th and the winning video will be played
there along with winning $500. This is my submission to the contest so please watch, rate, and comment over at
youtube, all of that good shit. Thanks to all that help out.

I'm going to leave this on top for awhile. At least until I get sick of looking at it or on the 5th which is when
the contest ends..

I have submitted this now, so please view and vote rate.

The contest is for a 30-45 second video and damn that is short amount of
time as I discovered. I don't talk particularly fast, so I barely get started and it's time to stop. My nine
year old enjoyed helping me make it though.

The concert itself was when Metallica opened for Ozzy Osbourne on July
30th 1986 on their Master of Puppets tour. A bunch of us got hold if tickets and made the roadtrip to Knoxville. We
made a banner and loaded up into several cars and went pretty early in the day hoping to get in some
trouble.

Apparently the band was staying at the hotel located adjacent to the
Civic Coliseum as we found out when we hopped the fence to the pool area. James Hetfield, Kirk Hammet, and Lars
Ulrich were all hanging out by the pool doing their thing. Rather than get the three of us that had jumped the fence
thrown out they let us hang out. We got some pictures of which I have one with myself, James, and a buddy. I
couldn't find the damn picture or I would have scanned it and posted it here. The one photo that is on one of my
404 pages was taken after the show. It seems like it was a million
years ago. Damn what a bunch of punks and idiots we were.

Most of the people that had gone to the show were there to see Ozzy.
Nobody knew who the hell Metallica was at the time except for the real hardcore metal heads, so we probably looked
like a bunch of idiots. It was general admission, so as soon as the doors opened, we tore into the coliseum, and ran
all the way to the stage to stake our claim. It was weird as hell. There were about a dozen of us, and a couple of
other people that ended up being in our area, all headbanging and thrashing, surrounded by everyone else who was
watching us as much as the show.

The guys in the band showed our banner up on stage, and we were suitable
impressed. James Hetfield had broken his arm in a skating accident so one of the roadies played guitar in his place,
and he sang. The roady did pretty well, so all was cool in my world. After they finished playing, I left. I had no
interest in seeing Ozzy drunk and stumbling around the stage, and after the energy of the opening act, Ozzy paled in
comparison to me. We hung out at Metallica's tour bus for awhile and got autographs, and then made the trip back
home.

My buddy Steve and I were pretty beat, I had been up about two days at
that point, so we pulled into a park and ride or something and slept until the next morning. All in all it was pretty
fun and occasionally I miss those days, then I wake up and realize, "what was I thinking"?

PayPerPost Concert

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tubes

At one point in my childhood, I was about 8 or so, my folks had a boat. We'd take it out to Lake Conroe, or Livingston, and putter around. Daddy would put a tire inner tube in the water, tied to the boat with a long rope, and we'd get in and hold on for dear life. No life jackets for us! Your legs would be slung behind you, you'd feel the sting of the water on your belly and face, but the glee we'd feel riding along at 100 miles an hour! Or maybe just 10 or so. The first time I rode the tube in a bikini I learned a valuable lesson about the force of water- cross your legs or you're going to lose a suit. My parents had a really hard time keeping a straight face, I bet. But they had a harder time getting me out of the water!

Happy birthday, Son

here he is as a senior...

in Alaska, in the mountains

surfing with his sister

getting his 1st belt

turning 6

turning 3

mom and baby

dad and baby

Grandpa and baby

daddy and baby

1 day old!




18

Food, again

These hardy folks have been talking comfort food lately, and I thought I might weigh in. Whenever one of us kids did a really great job on something my mother would make us our favorite dinner. Mine was spaghetti and white clam sauce. She made the sauce from scratch. I continue the tradition with the following:

2-3 cans clams, with juice
1 bottle clam juice
garlic to taste
oregano, basil, parsley, salt, pepper
olive iol

mix together and simmer for 30 minutes and Wham! Good Eats!

We also used to have stuffed grape leaves. My sister and I would spend lots of time rolling those delicious treats. It was well worth it, I tell you.

Anyone ever had tripe? We would cut the tripe frozen, with numb fingers by the end of it. Then mix in onions and tomatoes and stew for a while. Mmm-mm.

My gross out food? Not sure. My mom would take hamburger meat, canned tomatoes, and pasta and make a gelatinous mass of it. I loved the stuff! Salt and pepper the hell out it and Damn! Good eats. My family now won't touch the stuff with a 12 and a half foot pole.

dryer woes- Be Gone!

I am so go-od! I am so go-od! I fixed the dry-er, I am so go-od!
(Dances around with arms in the air)

It was the thermal cut out thing. I figured out that it regulates the high end of the temperautre scale in the dryer. No regulation, no heat. Know regulation, know heat. (my apologies to all you bible thumpers)

The hubs was critical to the repair, he had to replace this, because I spazzed out at the last minute. Of course, he's got my back, and is always willing to do the dirty work.

It will take me days and days to finish the laundry

a surprise

I know this is a shitty picture, but here I am at 13. I thought I was fat and ugly. I was sooo jealous of my sister! My sister found some old pictures and sent some to me.

A lot of water has passed under my bridges, and I've learned many lessons. But I gotta tell you folks- It's a sad day indeed when I'm the sanest person in my family.

My aunts have some serious snakes in their heads, and my closer relations aren't much better!

Birthday bash

There are a lot of things my husband is good at, but surprise and stealth are not on that list. So imagine my surprise when I got home yesterday evening to find a surprise birthday party in the works for me! I was very very happy! My most favorite people showed up, we had really good food (cooked by my personal chef), excellent beer, and cake and presents. My favorite present is this. If this teaching thing doesn't work out I'm becoming an astronaut and going to Mars. I got lovely candles and sconces, whimsical wind chimes, a garden spike with jeweled bees and flowers, photos albums in sunny yellows and oranges, and a dozen long stem red roses that are perfect to behold, and the ever popular kitchen gadgets and dark chocolate. Can life get any better?

I am blessed that I have such a wonderful family and such incredible friends. One of my favorite thing to do is have friends over to my house for dinner and conversation, and I couldn't have asked for a better birthday. Thanks to everyone!

extrordinary

you know, I'd feel better if after I fixed the dryer it actually worked. I replaced the element, but that's not it. I'll bring home an voltmeter tomorrow to check the other thingies it might be. Wish I done that before I'd spent the $60 on the element.

I'm discovering that I'm much more capable than I thought. I can now do some minor appliance repair, feel pretty good about that. I can even do some simple repairs on older model cars, even if I have no desire to.

My new meds are kicking in, and the one I've reduced is working its way out of my system. I feel much more upbeat than I did even two months ago.

Better living through chemistry, indeed.

When I was pregnant with my oldest, lo though many years ago, I was thrilled. I'm sure I bitched and moaned- isn't that what pregnant women were supposed to do? But I loved watching him move around in my abdomen. He would press his feet against my skin and you could count his toes. When he was born, I was gaga over him. Probably drove my friends batshit talking about him. I loved to watch him sleep. When he hit 13, we decided that the old way of kings sending their children to live with other families was a pretty good idea. He was such a PITA for about two years, broke my heart. Now, he's turning 18 soon, and we get along fairly well. He procrastinates like crazy! He's so funny though, and smart, and cute.... there I go again.

I find myself very surprised that I'm old enough to an 18 year old child.

water

Don't know whether to feel sorry for this lady or laugh at the stupidity of it... but I sure smell a lawsuit....

MY EVIL TWIN

>


Get Your Cyborg Name

The bug on the windsheild

Sometimes we all get to be the bug, today's my turn. Didn't feel like a very good teacher today, I was very disappointed in my students. Gave a quiz over 9 vocabulary words, roughly 80% failed it. I told them the words, had them write the definitions, used those words in class for 4 days, even the quiz was matching. 9 words. I should go back to waitressing- much less stress, And I get pee breaks, don't get sued if the customer gets fat or smokes in his car, much less get bitched out about the customers poor eating habits like it's my fucking fault.
I always doubt my teaching abilities this time of year- I have to start the semester with electricity. I've got the basics, but I sure wish I had a deeper understanding of it. My textbook said

"A negative charge moving in one direction has the same effect as a positive charge moving in the opposite direction. Conventional current is defined a the current made of positive charge that would have the same effect as the actual motion of charge in the material"

Damn. Fuck. Shit. Electricity is the flow of electrical charges through a conductor, I thought. I quit, I'm too pissing stupid.

Thanks

When I was about 19, and very full of myself, I worked part time in a little seafood restaraunt. The owner was a bit of a crook, telling teenage girls and their parents he could help the girl become a model, stealing your tips on from the credit cards if you didn't watch it. If exuded creepiness, Dads probably wanted to beat his ass for looking at their daughters. Well, karma was definitely getting back at him. His cooks were stealing him blind, and the man had some serious 'roids. He would bring a newspaper with him into the bathroom and be gone a while. When he got back, his normal dark complexion would be pale, his shirt wet, and the top of his bald head beaded with sweat. I shudder to think what kind of crap he was taking that caused those symptoms.

Well, one of the cooks had a nephew, Mike T., that she introduced me to. We hit it off and dated for a while. His grandparents raised him, both his parents had been killed when he was small. He had burned his hands when he was young rolling into a campfire in his sleep. The doctors told hime he would never be able to open his hands all the way- they were wrong.

You'll remember that I had quit school a few years, okay 5, before and didn't go back. I was quite happy- working two jobs, burning the candle at both ends. Mike kept telling me how smart I was, what a shame it was I wasn't in school. I thought he was trying to butter me up and and get my pants off. Problem with him was he started calling me "his" and I damn sure wasn't ready for that. Anyway, just to get him to leave me alone about it I went and took the test to see what classes I needed for my GED, found out on a Thursday I already had enough to pass, worked that night and the next, then went Saturday morning to take the test. I passed.

Thing is, I would never have done it if it hadn't been for him. I treated him pretty shitty, in the end. I would like to say I'm sorry and thank him.

He played for the Florida Gators back then, and I sure hope his life is going great...

It's all about the perspective

When my oldest was young, about 4, we had an argument of sorts about apples. He thought there were only red ones. See, we ate on $40 a week back then and apples, red apples, were the cheapest fruit I could buy, so we ate read apples. He was convinced I was lying when I told him there were, indeed, other apples. It took an impromptu trip to the grocery store to convince him. He had only seen red apples, so that was all that existed.

Now, what are a 4 year old favorite presents? Right, boxes. Pete's Daddy once brought this huge box home and Pete was full of glee. She colored it, she drove it, hid under it, slept in it. But her favorite thing to do was to stand in it, upside down. Watch a little TV, talk to her family, sing, upside down in the box. This same child was also prone to sitting upside down in a chair, legs in the air, to watch TV.
Now it appears that Re-Pete is developing her own perspective.

What will they think of next?

Choices

When I hear about these things I have to wonder about their mind set. There has been one time in my life that I was so mad at my husband I could have done him harm. It was about 15 years ago. No, I'm not telling. But it was in response to something that had happened and not for my personal gain. I don't understand how someone can willingly take advantage of another to that person's detriment. It's wrong, simple as that.
And don't get me started about people hurting kids. I stopped listening/reading stories about parents killing their kids.
Sometimes, though, the line is blurred between right and wrong. Take for example, parents of mentally retarded kids. (Feel free to insert your own PC term here, if needed.) I have a cousin who's a few years younger than me. I haven't seen her in close to 25 years. I don't even know if she's still alive. Here's the point. She's mentally retarded and will never progress past about 13. That's a rough age at the best of times, and if you're lucky you grow out of it. You're just getting interested in your body, old enough to get pregnant, interested in the opposite sex, in a slightly more than rated G kind of way. In short, it would be pretty easy to take advantage of a girl in that mental state, and there won't always be someone there to protect her. I wonder if my cousin's parents ever thought about having her tubes tied. Or how much of a consideration it would be for the parents of children with special needs. Now, I'm not advocating as much as I'm wondering. A 13 year old has no business having sex or kids, whether their age in chronological or mental. Shit, I know it happens, but what if the parents could at least prevent pregnancy? This opens a very big can of worms.... What would I do if one of kids was in that situation? Would I wait to see if she was gonna act all promiscuous? No guarantee there. Too many assholes in the world. What if she thought she was "in love"- and don't tell me someone with a 13 year old mind set know jack shit about being in love!
Heard about that woman in the nursing home? She was severe and profoundly retarded, some guy took advantage of her, she ended up giving birth. Who the fuck is gonna take care of that baby? The girls family? Most likely the state.
I guess before you could make this choice you would have to decide who's interest you were best serving- yours or your child's.
Here is an example of the controversy this type of decision might start. The Ashley treatment, hm mm. I can see the parent's side of this, really. They want to be able to care for their daughter. I can see the ridicule those parents will be forced to endure too.
What's that saying- something about walking a mile in someones shoes?

Can you hear that?

Tick Tock Tick Tock

It's the passage of time.
Astroworld is gone...
in 23 days I'll be the parent of an Adult.
in 13 days, I'll be 40.
My youngest is 4, already she wants to know how many days till she grows up to drive.
Melissa Etheridge looks old
My middle one is a tween....

Where's my wine....

Wow

Taken by my frined in Alaska. This is part of her driving experience. She lives in Anchorage. I'm sooo going to visit
Wow.

Where's Willie when I need him?

Turn out the lights, the party's over,
They say that all good things must end...

And so it goes, I'm back at work today. This semester I teach some pretty neat stuff- electricity, color, Newton's Laws. But, it's also my least favorite stuff. Maybe it's because I hate having to teach math to the kiddos. Yeah, I know, they should know it.
Right.
I get to talk about space travel this semester, so that's fun. And the Theory of Gravity. Yeah, it's a theory. Anyone that wants to doubt gravity? Feel free to float away. Oh yeah, magnetism too. We bought this cool gizmo that shows the magnetic field of a magnet in 3D. Woot!

So, sharpen your pencils, tie your shoes, and get ready for the bell!

a view

how would you like to wake up to this view? Painted Canyon in Theodore Roosevelt Park

I like looking at the webcams here... I have friends and family that live near a few of these places and it's nice to think I'm looking a something they might be seeing. Rather sappy of me, don't you think? Don't tell anyone, it'll ruin my reputation.

counting the days

Re-Pete asked me this morning how many days would it be before she grew up. She's 4. She says she wants to drive. Damn. I say let her, she's probably do a better job than some of the shit heads living in my town.

Can it be that the vacation is over already? The week before Xmas was torture, but the last few days have just flown by.

Didn't get my dream car, but then again, if I had, what would I dream about?

To quote a really cool guy, Cool Runnings.

when you least expect it...

This reminds me of the time Pete was sick- she leaned over to pull her pants down to sit on the toilet and shot the wall behind her... Of course, I didn't clean it up..