final friday!

Here it is, the last official Friday of summer as we know it. On Monday, Kevin will go back to work after what seems like weeks of vacation time. Megan goes to school on Thursday and Brian has his half day orientation, including school pictures, on Friday. Yesterday he had his first lesson on how to tie a tie, and he got a new haircut. I must say that he did look quite handsome!

I'm so glad that I did decide to postpone the MRI. I'd postpone it forever if I could. I really don't think that he needs any treatment based on how he seems to me, but if the MRI showed otherwise, we'd be forced to address it. ::knock wood:: Anyway. That will all be dealt with in a few weeks but for now, he is just having fun with the last days of summer. For his birthday, we went to a sold-out Blink-182 concert with Brian and his friend. Megan opted not to go at the last minute, and I wasn't able to find anyone to use the $50 lawn seat. I didn't realize I had paid that much for it until after I told her she didn't have to come. Had I waited a week, it would have been much cheaper, with the advent of 'no fee Wednesdays' through livenation.com.

So the concert was interesting. I've never been to a concert like that. It was packed, and since we had lawn seats we were sort of at the mercy of who sat around us. After refusing to sign a 'designated driver contract' that would have given us free sodas but we couldn't have had even one drink all night, we found safe seats in the family area, which doesn't allow any smoking or alcohol. Because it was so crowded, we stayed there for the entire concert, which meant we couldn't drink anyway! So that was our Catch-22. All sorts of craziness went on around us, like the garbage can caught fire and nobody noticed for about half an hour, perfectly respectable looking people were being removed from the seats and we didn't know why, and the lead singer of the band was quite a colorful character himself, cursing non-stop, sweating until his hair was plastered to his head, and spitting every few minutes, which you might not have noticed if not for the big screens on the side.

But it was a good concert and of course, Brian had a great time. I left early to go get Megan, who had told me she had no ride home from her friends, but then texted and asked if I could drive a girl home who lived right near us. I was a little afraid of how the traffic would be getting out of there, but even Kevin got out pretty quickly and he did stay until the end. Now our next concert will be the Bruce Springsteen concert in October!

Wilbur continues to do very well with his housebreaking, even with some bouts of messy diarrhea that get stuck to his white fur and cause him to run a few steps and then sit, no matter where he is. I have to throw him in the sink and wash him off when this happens, but yesterday I cut his butt fur and that seems to help. He's a really good dog, a lot easier to handle than a golden his age. But although Molly is tolerating him, she doesn't seem thrilled to have him here. Maybe in part because every toy she picks up becomes the target of his strongest desires. Although his new best friend and favorite punching bag is not Molly, but Rusty, the cat. I actually have a video of them playing, I have to upload it.

I shipped off my broken camera yesterday. I'm so disillusioned. This is about the third Sony Cybershot camera to have this happen. The lens motor breaks and the camera not only won't focus, but it won't work at all. I had to go through a series of reset tests with a guy on the phone, but thankfully this time the camera is less than a year old. The first two times they were older than that, just barely, but enough to put them out of warranty. And after a brief search, I was able to locate the receipt, so it's being fixed for "free," although I had to pay the shipping to the repair center. Although I love the camera, I don't know if I could buy another. They're not cheap, and they break! It's disheartening.

Oh, and speaking of Brian's birthday and of electronics, we got him a netbook from Costco for school as a birthday gift. It's so cute, small, and lightweight. He loved it, and it's so exciting that it's so small and sleek. Hopefully he will be able to use it to take notes in class.

Anyway, in other news, we are now under the watch of 'hurricane' Danny, who comes just in time for Megan's driving lessons. She's out on the second of the three now. I went with a specific school because I know the owner, but her lessons keep getting switched around, and the guy smelled like smoke, and kept smoking whenever they'd be somewhere that he could get out of the car. He even had Megan stop so he could get a bagel and coffee! That's kind of unprofessional, although of course she didn't mind. He told her he only lets the good drivers stop at the delis. Implying that because she is so good, she should be ready to try to pull into a parking spot. (and then wait in the car for him on our time) So she's out with that same guy today but she gets a different one tomorrow, and then she will have her permit. She'll either have that tomorrow or Monday, depending on when they can validate her permit. Oh, and I also found out that another school is $50 cheaper, and they use mustang convertibles as their training cars.