planetary misalignment

Fortunately, M made it back home in one piece. There was some confusion because the flight before theirs was delayed and they ended up taking off a little late as well, and this time only had less than an hour to land, get off the plane and change terminals for the next one. They sprinted through DFW but they made it and their plane even landed a little early. So M had a ride home and we went to a work party. A little awkward because most of the people I feel I know the best didn't go (!) but it was pleasant enough that we stayed for three hours.

So M is home. She forgot her retainers, and left them in a plastic bag on the bathroom sink. She had texted about this situation earlier in the week, and I, not wanting anything to happen to them, had put them on a shelf in the bathroom closet. Fast forward to last night, and me with a headache and stiff neck on the couch, and she can't find them. Annoyed, I dragged up to show her what a fool she can be, always unable to find anything, even when it's right in front of her face. Only it's not there.

And at the same time, I have B telling me he left the $50 he got for his birthday on his dresser and it's gone and I'm thinking, just great, I have this cleaning lady that I'm not all that happy with, they use more cleaning supplies in one day than I think I have ever used in a lifetime of self-house-cleaning, they dumped a bucket of bleach-cleaner on our blacktop driveway, and now they are stealing money and throwing out retainers? But fortunately I did find the $50 in his top drawer, although he had "already looked there."

But no such luck with the retainers. Not good. I cannot even imagine how this happened, as these cleaning ladies have no business in that closet anyway. Did the bag get knocked to the floor and thrown out? Did they knock it down or did one of us? Did the dog get hold of it? But why is it just nowhere? Of course garbage is already collected. M happens to have what was supposed to be a regular checkup on Tuesday, but now I am going to have to call and find out what happens in this case. As if it's not bad enough that she forgot and didn't wear them for a week, now they are gone and can't be worn until they're replaced. I hope they don't need to take new molds, but they might. I'll have to wait till tomorrow to find out. Not the end of the world by far, but what a nuisance. And let me not talk about the cost :-(

As for B, he is done with camp. He has two weeks until he starts school and one book left to finish for summer reading, but he has all of them to review. I wish they would give them assignments over the summer instead of tests. It's much easier to judge preparedness when there's something he has to turn in than when he just says, yeah, I read the whole book. I'm trying to find tests and study guides online but not all of the books are commonly used, so I have only found help for one or two of the four.

M has a bunch of school stuff going on, too. She has to go this week to get her parking spot assigned, and she goes Friday for her driving test ::fingers crossed::. She missed a meeting for one of the clubs she is in and I'm annoyed about that because it was on a Tuesday and she could have gone. They did a makeup but of course that was last week and she wasn't here. And there's an orientation she is supposed to work due to her being in the club, and she won't be able to get off work at the beach for that, since she's already had so many days off and most of the college kids are out of the rotation by now. Plus she has packets of work for her AP classes that she hasn't finished, as well as the common app, which I think she needs to get started on, just in cases she decides to love one of these schools she will be visiting over the next two months and has to apply quickly.

But in other news, my job limps along. I don't hate it, so that is good, but sometimes it can be ridiculously unmanageable and other times unbearably slow. I did get a small raise but that's sort of had the effect of my being told to take time off when I need it! :-) Hopefully this will change after the summer ends, and the workload will stabilize and/or pick up. I need to start increasing my income! Oh, and sadly I will be officially resigned from my substitute teacher status effective next week. I couldn't string them along, as they would notice that I'm never available to work. Molly is hanging in there with her health although it is coming up on time to have her tested again. Another expense.

marinated cat, anyone?

So, who read the news on the cats last week? Poor cat, ill-tempered, greedy, wasteful, and ungrateful, was marinated and packed into the trunk of the car. Of course this story is not funny, but the thing is that the cat looked just like Rusty! I can't seem to resist the urge to suggest to Rusty that perhaps he would get me some salad oil and some crushed red pepper. To which he usually responds with a murr and jumps up onto the bathroom sink just as I am about to take out my contacts, demanding that the water be turned on for him.

I'm also tempted to leave my vacuum cleaner plugged in, just to see if he can turn it on and if any neighbors will call 911!

Anyway, on to the more mundane. We bought a car today! Kevin has been obsessed with VW Jettas for years now, and they have the cutest little miniwagon which suits all of our needs and guess what? It was being offered at 0% financing!! So we haggled a little, always a horrible experience, and we were ready to walk out when, lo and behold, they came back with an offer we couldn't refuse (so we were probably robbed in the end, but left feeling as if we were the robbers).

We have only driven it on one adventure, and we were almost killed when a fool turned right into the lane we were in, I guess she didn't see us down so low, from where she sat up in her SUV. But it handles so well that we were able to survive the misguided driving. Now all that's left to do is to return the Honda. What a pain. I hate leasing cars.

Tomorrow begins M's big week away at camp in Colorado. She has an early morning flight and won't be back till late Saturday afternoon. Thankfully, the cough has gone on its own and she is ready for the challenge. And she just lined up her third college 'official visit,' so that's about all I think that we can fit in. These visits are going to eat up entire fall weekends, Fridays included, and although they're an important part of this process, they also take away from her study time.

And in other news, B enjoyed another week of tennis camp, and I took Friday off from work, which was much enjoyed. My boss is away and things were very slow. Of course I don't get paid when I don't work, but the thought of sitting there for five hours just trying to stay busy seemed incredibly unappealing after two days of cleaning up loose ends. I was just done with it all, and I needed a brief respite! So I hung with my friends, Molly and Pompom, and M and B were both home as well.

back to the working world

That's how it was this morning for all of us: Kevin back to his job, M and I to ours, and B to his tennis camp again, for the next two weeks. He is wiped out, as am I. My boss has only a vague understanding of my outside responsibilities, so when I told him I would leave at 2:30, he chose (as usual) that time to give me a list of the things he still needed done, and then to close his door for a meeting with a colleague. Anyway, I managed to get out at 3, got gas and got to B around 3:15 or so so that wasn't too bad. Tomorrow M has a doctor's appointment at 2:30 so I have already told him I MUST leave at 1:30. I think B is going to do the extra clinic after camp so I won't have to get him until 6.

As for M, she has developed a cough, because of course she would do that before heading off to the high altitudes of the Colorado mountains for the week. She claims she feels fine but we'll see what the doctor says tomorrow at what was supposed to be a regular checkup.

Otherwise to report on the weekend travels, one of the schools emerged as a favorite while we were up there in Boston. But it's still early and lots can happen to change that so I won't get too excited or report on anything definite just yet. But everyone there was very nice, the campus was nice, and the coach was as well. So M will head up for a visit with the team later on in the fall. Now we have to visit a couple of Pennsylvania schools. Nothing south of that Delmarva area ever ended up working out, and for now there are enough to keep us busy. If nothing pans out by November, we'll broaden our horizons a bit. For now, it's the greater Northeast.

This is about all that's been going on lately! Trying to choose colleges and plan for college and decide which car to buy or trade in have been the dominant themes outside of Molly's status, which is still unchanged so that's a good thing. The Honda dealer crashed my car into a parked car while it was in for an oil change so they had me bring it in to be fixed which was a whole debacle because their loaner system is substandard as was the cleanup job they did on the car after they repaired the dent, which doesn't really make me want to buy another Honda from them! Although we are considering buying this out at the end of the lease. We'd pay for the car for eight years total but the payments would be less than $300 a month.

And in other news, it is time for me to fetch M from her beloved job in the swells. The surf has been rough lately with the tropical storm heading up the coast, and we went down for an hour yesterday to look at (and some to go in) the waves. It's been beautiful down there these past several weekends. I have been enjoying my morning strolls along the boardwalk every Saturday and Sunday! I'll miss those while she is away next week.

slow down please!

Time is just moving way too fast now! With M and Kevin just back, now she has to work a bunch of days in a row so I can take her up to Boston to look at some schools at the end of the week. I will have to take off two days myself, which is something I really haven't done in months, aside from when we went to Florida. I'm actually nervous about that part, and it's also time to start thinking about how much money I will actually make in the fall when I increase my hours.

Anyway, she was absolutely wiped out (of course) because they decided to go back to finals and stayed beyond the end of it, so they didn't get home until 1:30am. We went out for dinner last night, which was nice but it's packed in the summer, and a bit of a drive, so that also was tiring. And now she has to get up and do it again today. At least she was in bed by 10, but when I went to my room, she was on her laptop.

B thoroughly enjoyed his week at the tennis camp, wants to go back to it again. It costs more than I make in a week, so maybe one more week when M goes away will work. He still has a bunch of work to do to get ready for the return to school and I have to make sure he has all the clothes he needs. He has grown probably close to three inches this year, we'll see tomorrow because he has a doctor's appointment. I measured him last week and he was 66 1/2 inches, last year he was 64, so if the doctor's scale is in agreement that will be 2 1/2 inches. But this was a few days ago, and it could be the full three by now!!

Molly is also hanging in there, right now there has been no change. She is taking steroids and they have brought her appetite back without making her overly thirsty. I don't know if this will last, and I'm running low on the pills. I might cut her to half the dosage and see if that changes anything. Then she has to have the $300 test again :-(

And in other news, the laptop battery is about to die. I hear M is awake upstairs and I must get dressed and ready to drive her to work. Although the day had been supposed to be rainy, this has now been altered to a slight chance of showers in the afternoon. I was actually hoping for a bit of a gloomier day so I would stay in and get some things done! And it seems like every time she works, the sun is relentless. I think there have been two stormy days all summer so far.

and she's off!

B is back! He made it home without incident, although I must say, he is awfully skinny!! I guess he must have looked that way when he left, but it's shocking nonetheless. He went from being a round baby to a thinner child to a chubby cheeked steroid ten year old to a gradual transformation into what his father must have looked like at this age - a walking stick. We go to the doctor in a week for his annual check-up so that will be interesting. Last year he was 64 inches and about 105 pounds. I wouldn't be surprised if the 105 were still the case, just stretched out over a few more inches!

But he had a great whirlwind trip to the west coast. They didn't waste much of the time being idle!

And now M is milling about and packing for her trip to the meet. Kevin will go down and stay at a cousin's, caring for her ailing dog while leaving me to care for ours. M will stay with the team at the hotel, and they will all see each other at the pool. I'll be working although for the first three days the office will be quiet, with most of the workers out at the annual meeting. I'll watch M swim on the computer from there, and B will be doing a four day camp at the tennis academy.

Meanwhile, on the college front, things could get interesting or fizzle after this meet. M has had a couple of impressive calls this week, and she has been invited to an official weekend visit by one of the coaches. She had a fun run of lifeguard tournaments, and she did an ocean swim yesterday and was the first female finisher. She didn't ask her coach if it was OK, but of course he found out, he knows people everywhere, and she was worried about going to practice tonight but he didn't give her a hard time at all, just teased her a little and then said he heard she went really fast. So we'll see!

As for Kevin, he is on vacation starting now, for two weeks. He'll go to the meet with M, and then when he gets back, he'll spend some time with B. I, of course, will work. Although M and I may take another college-visiting jaunt later in the week up to Boston. It won't be long, possibly just one overnight.

And in other news, Molly continues her ups and downs with Cushings. I had her retested and she was still very low, so now she is still on the prednisone and will be retested in another month or so. But I'm not really sure what is going on because she peed on the floor in our room last night. So today I didn't give her the prednisone in the morning and she was lethargic and didn't eat again. Go figure. We gave her a whole pill then and she rebounded and came for a walk with us after the rain cooled things down. So it's one day at a time.

and he's off!!

So here I am, just me, PomPom and the cats. M is still up in bed, but she will soon get up to go do an ocean swim/run this morning. Kevin and B are on their way to the airport to catch B's 7:45am flight!!! I can't even believe it. He's all packed up, I got him two new bathing suits yesterday and tried to help him but he was very insistent that he must do all of these things by himself. He didn't want Kevin to get a gate pass and walk him to the gate, but he might not get that wish. I don't think either Kevin or I want him roaming the airport alone at 6am. His plane should land just before 11, so that's 2 for us. I'll try to keep busy all morning!

Molly continues to swing back and forth between lethargy and panting/drinking episodes. She pees on the floor if we leave her too long. I was supposed to start her back on the maintenance medicine this week, but I think I'll have them do that two hour test one more time, only because she still isn't really eating and she is wasting away to skin and bones rapidly. The drinking is a sign of Cushing's, and the lethargy is a sign of Addison's, so it seems strange to me that she would have both. The not eating indicates Addison's as well, but the drinking and peeing confuse that for me. I joined an online list about it, but all they really did was insist that my doctor wasn't treating her properly, so I can't ask them anything because all they do is tell me to go to another vet.

And with M, she is so busy that it makes my head spin. Between work and swimming and tournaments, there just is no time for anything! Yesterday she complained at dinner that her back hurt, this after she told me that she and another small girl tried to drag the lifeguard stand by themselves until two regular dudes on the beach came along and helped them. I am going to try to impress upon her that this is not a good idea!! And as far as the schools go, I guess we're in a lull. A couple of new schools have called, but they're not really schools she has interest in, and she hasn't had the chance to call them back yet, since she got her big Locks of Love haircut on Friday in her spare time. She sent off all her scores and info to most of them, so now we're just waiting to see what (if anything) they'll do, and we're planning a revisit to Boston in August.

And in other news, one thing I am missing this summer is my weekday beach time. Working every day has taken that from me! Although I am home in time to get down there by mid-afternoon some days, most of the time I am either too tired, have somewhere else to be, or don't get out in time to come home and pick up B and then head down. And the beach club can be so crowded on the weekends that it's barely worth going there when we have a nice quiet pool in the backyard. Also, having seen all these beautiful town beaches within a half hour's drive, I can't believe we spent so much time sitting on the dirty dingy one we belong to while the kids were little. These other ones are so much nicer and more kid-friendly because of the way the waves break and the ocean floor slopes. (ie not straight down like at our beach!)

And I guess that's about it for now.

long overdue: rain, sharks, college, work

The above about sums it all up. I have neglected the blog again, it is true. I'd promise to be better but I can't say for sure. There are so many minor distractions that I often just feel too tired to think too hard. This past weekend, my usual updating time, was spent at a swim meet. (Well, only in the evenings, but the days were spent rushing around because the evenings were to be lost).

Anyway, it rained!!! It didn't rain for weeks and then rained buckets on the night of the concert for which I had bought three tickets three months ago, which M took for herself and two friends. And it rained on the day when B said he would want to go to the beach. And it is raining again right now.

M said she had a lot of fun at work today. They swam out to the buoys, they played in the surf, and they paddled in the pond. People were getting stuck in the currents but there were no major mishaps. Half the day was somewhat sunny down there. But the scary part is the sharks! More seen just to the south. It's frightening. People claim to have seen them all up and down, but only a couple have made the news, and they try to downplay the ones that do. With all of these tournaments, they're way out there. And I thought the currents were going to be my major source of anxiety this summer!

As for college, it's the same old game. Trying to provide them with what they ask for, but not getting exactly the right documents from the school. Of course, I have sent whatever I can to the admissions offices, but the coaches want separate copies. I'd pay and have them sent if I could, but there is no code for that!

And the sadness again is Molly, who continues to deteriorate. She has been swinging back and forth between her panting and drinking episodes and her lying around motionless events. She falls down when she stands up because her legs are too weak to support her, especially on the ceramic tile. I cut the fur around her pads tonight so hopefully that will help her. Once she's up and walking, she does OK. Why is this always such a slow and helpless process with these pets? Most of the time, she still seems ok, just resting.

So that is about it for the 'big' news. In other news, B prepares for his west coast trip, which is to begin in just four days!!! I cannot believe it. His new shoes came yesterday (I ordered them online) and he has his fancy haircut. All we have to do is get him packed up and get his documents in order. I can't believe he's really going.