Yes, that's right. I am still here, and so is my entire family. Even my friend Doreen, who I most would have expected to have been raptured, responded to my text last night. So I guess now we wait and see. Maybe at work there will be some missing compadres.
Other than the cable phone, tv, and internet going out for an hour or so yesterday, and skies that alternated between threatening and bright hot sunny yesterday was a pretty ordinary day. I woke up with a headache from wine too late the night before, got a lot of laundry done, and took a walk with the dogs. Took B to tennis and hollered at M for not doing the cleaning she was supposed to do before having three friends show up to take her out for the evening. Three friends, might I add, who were very well received by our new guard dog!
And we look to the upcoming week, with Kevin off to Denmark. B is finishing up his time under math tutoring, as well as (should be) preparing for finals. M just has swimming and taking up space at school waiting for graduation (a month from now) and I will have to work although we're all off on Friday.
In other news, the newspaper just arrived, and me in my bathrobe. Abby is tall enough to reach the mailbox, I wish I could train her to go out and get it. I probably could, but she might eat any passers-by, and that just wouldn't be good.
Anyway, just wanted to weigh in and alert the world to my continued residency here; just in case anyone had any doubts.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
rapture watch
I've been neglecting my blog. Again, I guess nothing ever happens, or so many things happen but they just don't seem all that interesting. There are swim meets, warts, graduations, dogs, and monsoons. And then, there is the End of Days.
I heard on the radio this morning that the end of the world should reach us at around 6am Saturday. Of course, we don't know who will be raptured. The radio personality isn't too worried about the population of NJ dwindling by much; he figures we'll probably lose very few residents. Who knows, maybe he is right. I guess at this point all we can do is hope we qualify. It's not too clear what to do at this point, probably too late to mend your ways.
So assuming we are still here on Sunday, what does that mean? Back to work on Monday, back to the dog park, M has a swim meet, and B only has two more (four day) weeks of school before finals. He's only failing one class at the moment, but oh! what bad timing. It's religion.
Anyway, summer still isn't falling into place as far as trips and plans, but M will go to the national meet after all, but we worked it out so she'll only swim two of the four days. We will pay less, and she can come back and work like she wants to do. So she and Kevin (he gets to go after all so he is happy about that) will fly out with the team and fly home the evening of the second day. I figured, she's never made top 16 on her own, and if she does it this year we will gladly pay the penalty to change the flights!
B and I will stay here and do what we do. If all goes well, he will be volunteering at the big hospital near my office. He has had and passed his first TB screen, and he has to go again in two weeks. Then he has an orientation the night of M's prom, and I guess at that point he will find out where he can request. He says he would like to be in neurology. I know when M volunteered at the other hospital, you had to be 16 to be on the peds floors. I don't know if that rule will apply here as well. But he is pretty excited to do this job and I think (hope!) it will be good for him. I'm hoping he can do two eight hour days a week, and I can drop him on my way to work and pick him up on my way home. Then he'll do tennis camps scattered about here and there, and we have our trip to Boston. Still trying to work in Cape May! We never made it there last year :(
On the canine front (what happens to the dogs in the doomsday scenario?) Abby has been behaving well. I have a friend helping me with interventions and today we went to her house where Abby only barked at her a little when we went through the door and then she settled right in and made herself right at home. We also stopped by the dog park, where she now feels very much a part of the community, and she didn't bark at a single person, even when they petted her! She did poop in the tall grass though, and then I stepped in it. (ew) We also met a neighbor on our walk the other night and stopped to chat and she was fairly easy to calm after the initial woofing.
And in other news, our town is embroiled in chaos over development. They want to build 340+ homes just behind our hamlet (I think I have said this before) but now the golf course on the other side of the road sued for the right to build 200 houses on their property and won! So we are looking at 500 new homes to be built in an area of a couple of square miles. Pretty scary. And to think that we moved across town, doubled our mortgage AND our taxes for roads that will now be equally trafficked, but are less equipped to handle it. Hopefully litigation will tie it up for years so that at least when we go eventually sell our house, we will have some equity in it.
I heard on the radio this morning that the end of the world should reach us at around 6am Saturday. Of course, we don't know who will be raptured. The radio personality isn't too worried about the population of NJ dwindling by much; he figures we'll probably lose very few residents. Who knows, maybe he is right. I guess at this point all we can do is hope we qualify. It's not too clear what to do at this point, probably too late to mend your ways.
So assuming we are still here on Sunday, what does that mean? Back to work on Monday, back to the dog park, M has a swim meet, and B only has two more (four day) weeks of school before finals. He's only failing one class at the moment, but oh! what bad timing. It's religion.
Anyway, summer still isn't falling into place as far as trips and plans, but M will go to the national meet after all, but we worked it out so she'll only swim two of the four days. We will pay less, and she can come back and work like she wants to do. So she and Kevin (he gets to go after all so he is happy about that) will fly out with the team and fly home the evening of the second day. I figured, she's never made top 16 on her own, and if she does it this year we will gladly pay the penalty to change the flights!
B and I will stay here and do what we do. If all goes well, he will be volunteering at the big hospital near my office. He has had and passed his first TB screen, and he has to go again in two weeks. Then he has an orientation the night of M's prom, and I guess at that point he will find out where he can request. He says he would like to be in neurology. I know when M volunteered at the other hospital, you had to be 16 to be on the peds floors. I don't know if that rule will apply here as well. But he is pretty excited to do this job and I think (hope!) it will be good for him. I'm hoping he can do two eight hour days a week, and I can drop him on my way to work and pick him up on my way home. Then he'll do tennis camps scattered about here and there, and we have our trip to Boston. Still trying to work in Cape May! We never made it there last year :(
On the canine front (what happens to the dogs in the doomsday scenario?) Abby has been behaving well. I have a friend helping me with interventions and today we went to her house where Abby only barked at her a little when we went through the door and then she settled right in and made herself right at home. We also stopped by the dog park, where she now feels very much a part of the community, and she didn't bark at a single person, even when they petted her! She did poop in the tall grass though, and then I stepped in it. (ew) We also met a neighbor on our walk the other night and stopped to chat and she was fairly easy to calm after the initial woofing.
And in other news, our town is embroiled in chaos over development. They want to build 340+ homes just behind our hamlet (I think I have said this before) but now the golf course on the other side of the road sued for the right to build 200 houses on their property and won! So we are looking at 500 new homes to be built in an area of a couple of square miles. Pretty scary. And to think that we moved across town, doubled our mortgage AND our taxes for roads that will now be equally trafficked, but are less equipped to handle it. Hopefully litigation will tie it up for years so that at least when we go eventually sell our house, we will have some equity in it.
Saturday, May 7, 2011
month in review
Spring is finally here! It's a beautiful day, the birds are out, the boys are fishing, and M is at the beach for dryland training. We're going to church in a little while to set up some of the rooms for displaced families, a position for which I volunteered but have not quite figured out. But this will be my second time helping, and my first time "doing." And M needs her National Honor Society hours.
In M's world, school is almost over. She has one more AP exam to take, on Monday, and then she will consider herself "done with high school." (Even though her last day is over a month away.) Seniors don't have to take the finals in non-AP classes if their averages are A's, and she only has two non-AP classes, which she thinks are both A's. (one is gym) So she looks forward to the summer, her job, and orientation in July in Boston.
We're in a quandary over whether or not to go to the national meet. This year it's in Georgia, which will cause it to cost us well over $1000 for her, and another $1000 if even one person goes to watch. Not so good when we're trying to figure out how to pay the tuition for next year. Her coach-to-be said he doesn't mind if they don't do meets in the summer, he just wants them to train consistently. So she has to decide and we have to see. She thought of going for a couple of days but her coach may consider it all-or-nothing. She'd also lose a week of work pay in addition to the cost (as would I if I chose to attend). They want us to decide by the end of the weekend. This won't leave much money or time for a family vacation either.
As for B's summer plans, we sent off an application to volunteer at a local hospital. We were going to send in for a different one, but the paperwork was UNREAL, like he was applying for homeland security clearance. It was so cumbersome, and I would have had to pay for a two step TB test (so two copays instead of one.) The hospital we sent the paperwork to had only a one-sheet paper, and they said he would need that TB test but could have it done at their facilities. So we'll see what they come back with, they have actually been taken over by the group that uses the giant application, just haven't implemented it yet, I guess.
I actually had to write out an envelope even though it said one was enclosed. I sent that off thinking they were so disorganized, and this morning I found the envelope in one of my serving bowls on the bakers rack (Kevin thinks they're storage containers.) So who is disorganized now? Hope they still 'hire' B!
Also, he will do a couple of classes at the community college, one in writing and another in algebra review. He's been in this math tutoring center all year and while I'm sure it's boosted his math skills overall, lately it's not helping him with the tests in geometry. I think the tutors are more geared towards elementary math and possibly high school geometry skills are hit or miss, depending on what they actually remember. It's not part of the center's normal program. So next year I don't want to have to send him there, and I'm hoping a refresher course before the school year starts will give him that boost.
In animal news, Abby is doing very well except for her propensity to consume houseguests and people we encounter on our walks. She also enjoys a good terrorization of people who have just thrown out their poop bags at the dog park, when they spin around she seems to take it personally.
I'm becoming hesitant to take her, because although she never bares her teeth or lunges, she does bark very loudly and all her back hair stands on end. So tomorrow we're having a trainer spend an hour and a half with us to see if she can give us some tips on how to deal with it. I also suspect Sir Yapsalot is part of the problem. He just never shuts up and it's very obnoxious. But not scary at all. So that's why he's been allowed to get away with it. I wonder if the therapy session will end up more focused on his behaviors. Abby is very anxious to please, when she isn't afraid.
And in other news, our neighborhood is currently embroiled in a battle with the builder of a proposed mongo-development directly next to our little hamlet. The property, a former office complex which was rezoned for residential units, is going to house multifamily buildings which are totally out of character for this part of town. We have mostly two lane roads, no turning arrows at most of the intersections, and not really a large supermarket or school to handle the new influx of over 300 new resident families. Mostly what I'm worried about, traffic aside, is that this will cause a further plummeting of property values, which never seems to be accompanied by plummeting property tax bills. Good thing we weren't planning to try to sell the house anytime soon anyway because now it looks as if we will be stuck here for a while!
In M's world, school is almost over. She has one more AP exam to take, on Monday, and then she will consider herself "done with high school." (Even though her last day is over a month away.) Seniors don't have to take the finals in non-AP classes if their averages are A's, and she only has two non-AP classes, which she thinks are both A's. (one is gym) So she looks forward to the summer, her job, and orientation in July in Boston.
We're in a quandary over whether or not to go to the national meet. This year it's in Georgia, which will cause it to cost us well over $1000 for her, and another $1000 if even one person goes to watch. Not so good when we're trying to figure out how to pay the tuition for next year. Her coach-to-be said he doesn't mind if they don't do meets in the summer, he just wants them to train consistently. So she has to decide and we have to see. She thought of going for a couple of days but her coach may consider it all-or-nothing. She'd also lose a week of work pay in addition to the cost (as would I if I chose to attend). They want us to decide by the end of the weekend. This won't leave much money or time for a family vacation either.
As for B's summer plans, we sent off an application to volunteer at a local hospital. We were going to send in for a different one, but the paperwork was UNREAL, like he was applying for homeland security clearance. It was so cumbersome, and I would have had to pay for a two step TB test (so two copays instead of one.) The hospital we sent the paperwork to had only a one-sheet paper, and they said he would need that TB test but could have it done at their facilities. So we'll see what they come back with, they have actually been taken over by the group that uses the giant application, just haven't implemented it yet, I guess.
I actually had to write out an envelope even though it said one was enclosed. I sent that off thinking they were so disorganized, and this morning I found the envelope in one of my serving bowls on the bakers rack (Kevin thinks they're storage containers.) So who is disorganized now? Hope they still 'hire' B!
Also, he will do a couple of classes at the community college, one in writing and another in algebra review. He's been in this math tutoring center all year and while I'm sure it's boosted his math skills overall, lately it's not helping him with the tests in geometry. I think the tutors are more geared towards elementary math and possibly high school geometry skills are hit or miss, depending on what they actually remember. It's not part of the center's normal program. So next year I don't want to have to send him there, and I'm hoping a refresher course before the school year starts will give him that boost.
In animal news, Abby is doing very well except for her propensity to consume houseguests and people we encounter on our walks. She also enjoys a good terrorization of people who have just thrown out their poop bags at the dog park, when they spin around she seems to take it personally.
I'm becoming hesitant to take her, because although she never bares her teeth or lunges, she does bark very loudly and all her back hair stands on end. So tomorrow we're having a trainer spend an hour and a half with us to see if she can give us some tips on how to deal with it. I also suspect Sir Yapsalot is part of the problem. He just never shuts up and it's very obnoxious. But not scary at all. So that's why he's been allowed to get away with it. I wonder if the therapy session will end up more focused on his behaviors. Abby is very anxious to please, when she isn't afraid.
And in other news, our neighborhood is currently embroiled in a battle with the builder of a proposed mongo-development directly next to our little hamlet. The property, a former office complex which was rezoned for residential units, is going to house multifamily buildings which are totally out of character for this part of town. We have mostly two lane roads, no turning arrows at most of the intersections, and not really a large supermarket or school to handle the new influx of over 300 new resident families. Mostly what I'm worried about, traffic aside, is that this will cause a further plummeting of property values, which never seems to be accompanied by plummeting property tax bills. Good thing we weren't planning to try to sell the house anytime soon anyway because now it looks as if we will be stuck here for a while!
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