Extreme Photography

I may need a new hobby.

Tuesday before last, the moon was gorgeous.  Low in the horizon, slight orange tint.  Gorgeous!

So, I put on the telephoto glass, extended my tripod out fully and proceed to walk down the first set of steps on our deck for a better vantage point.

I missed the last step.  Rolled my right ankle over my toes.  Not to the side.  Of course, if I am going to sprain my ankle, it has to be the weirdest type of sprain.  I won't have it any other way.

Good news is that it was just a bad sprain, no breaks.

Greater news is that I saved my camera.  Probably made my fall worse.

Bad news is that I missed a killer shot.

~R

I burned water

 I've said for years that I wanted a personal chef.  I think this is proof that I require one.  I forgot that I put water on the stove to boil.

I've heard people use the expression that they are so bad at cooking they burn water.  I've officially done it.  I'm that bad. 

I wonder if my pan is safe to use.  It was actually smoking. This is a comparison of what my sauce pans usually look like and what happened with the water incident.

~R

D = 33

The other day, Karmyn commented on my blog post about schedules that she was disorganized and couldn't get her chaos under control. 

I've decided that since I turned 40, I am always in some stage of discombobulation.  In fact, I should probably start each post with my number.  You know, like a sleep number, only mine would tell my discombobulation number.

Today...not so bad.  I managed to get everyone up, get to the soccer field on time, clean bathrooms, clean carpets and now I'm settled in for a relaxing night.

~R

What to Do, What to Do

I couldn't wait for all the hustle and bustle of our schooling days to wind down and now that it has, I'm feeling restless.  I actually miss all the running and seeing people.

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Why is it that the people I love being around the most, work?

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I'm looking forward to:

Homeschool Day at King's Dominion

My mom visiting

The pool opening

Summer camp for the boys (two weeks)

Family mini-excursions

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I need to be busy.  It looks like I will be spring cleaning over the next couple of weeks to keep busy.  That should hold me over until summer really kicks in.

~R

It's List Time

It's time for me make a list.  For whatever reason, the day goes by and I've done nothing outside the norm.

The norm being: cooking, cleaning, cooking, cleaning, running the boys to activities, cooking, cleaning, and catching up on Faceb00k.

Then I'm pooped so I sit down in my favorite spot and don't move until bedtime.

I have so many things swirling around in my head and with the nicer weather, I'm feeling like I can do anything.

So far the list is:  Knitting projects, cleaning the office closet so that I can get to all my stuff for organizing my photos to digital scrapbook, ordering gardening seeds and buying compost tea (Because as usual, I didn't make a compost.  Again.)

When I write that all down, it sounds so lame.  Where did my life go?  Oh well, with the sunshine comes renewed hope for more exciting adventures.

What are you doing to shake off the weather doldrums?

~R

When in Doubt

have a nightmare.

Yesterday, our schooling didn't go so great.  None of us had any energy and it all just felt blah.  Because of this, I started to doubt my ability to actually provide a decent education for my children.  I started to doubt my methods, my curricula choices, whether we should use wood or mechanical pencils.  It went bad really fast, I tell ya.

As I watched my young sons work on math, I started a list in my head of what I needed to do to get them in school.  Should they both go, should one go one stay home, where would the school place them grade wise.

When BN came home, I worried over it with him and then I got online and started looking at "curriculum in a box" thinking there's no way I can miss anything if I use one of those.

And then we went to bed and my last thoughts to BN were along the lines of, "How could they miss anything - they live life."  When I was in school, I would cram, cram, cram and then dump, dump, dump.  Sure I picked up lots of trivial information and can perform math computations without a calculator, but what did I really learn that was so important from a textbook.  And then I recounted folks who unschooled their kids who are now in college or already graduated and are now productive little American workers.

And then fell asleep and dreamed social services walked in my front door, only it was the door to a tiny apartment, not my house, that was in total disarray and it was the middle of the day and BN was taking a nap and I was showing the apartment to a realtor (why I don't know since apparently I didn't own it) and the clients were asking if the storage closet always smelled like food and I don't even know where the kids were because they weren't in my dream.

And then I woke up.

Today, Pete showed me a story he wrote and it was cute little story but there were spelling errors.  It occurred to me then that we would use those words for spelling today instead of the next chapter in our spelling book and it also occurred to me that if Pete were in a class all day, he wouldn't have time to write that story, or the comics he's written, or the movie he's written and will work on producing this weekend.  It also occurred to me that if he were in school, he'd get the same spelling words that everyone else crammed and dumped on a test and that the teacher, no matter how wonderful, would never be able to tailor her spelling test to my son.

And then I relaxed.

~R

I know I shouldn't gripe...

because it's free, but...

I just drove over to the library to pick up my long awaited Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris and was DENIED!

I had my little ID/change wallet instead of my big one that had my library card in it. The librarian stated I could not check out books without the card. So I waltzed (literally) over to the membership desk and asked for a new card.

I figured two dollars for a new card was less than the gas it took to get there, drive back home and come back.

I asked the membership clerk why I couldn't check anything out without a card and she said she didn't know. Normally, I would have demanded an answer. Get me the supervisor, get me my state representative, whatever. I mean you're listening to a woman who beat the IRS at their own game. But I wasn't feeling well.

It's not about the two dollars. It's the principle of the whole durn thing. I have items checked out sitting on the table at home. I had two items on hold and I held them by using my library card, at home, on the computer. Why couldn't they just use my ID?

When this head cold clears up, I will go back and get my answer. They can have the money - it's for a worthy cause. I mean how many places let you borrow stuff for free? But at least know why you are doing it and it better be for a good reason.

~R

Sing Along

BN and Me, 9-16-09

"Yes, I wear a muffin-top blouse, a muffin-top blouse, a muffin-top blouse. Yes, I wear a muffin-top blouse, so I can hide my fat."

Don't you love muffin-top shirts? It's sad that we live in a society where this style has become the norm, but it sure is wonderful for mommas who delivered 9 and 10 pound babies.

I will lose that baby fat. I mean, really, my baby is only five years old. Give a girl some time to recuperate, right?.?.

~R

Kick in the Ass

I need one. I can't get going this morning. We need to pretend do a little school. I want to call my sister and see if she wants to hang this afternoon.

Have I shared my favorite new curse word? It Fruitcake. I know it sounds benign but when you use like this..."where the fruitcake is my pen?" or "are you out of your fruitcaking mind?", it gets a little raw.

I like it. It rolls off the tongue quite smoothly. I use it A LOT.

Everyone say hello to my Mom. She came across my blog and unfortunately she'll see what a potty mouth I really am. Oopsie.

BTW, anyone have a mouse die in their wall before? I think one died in ours and it is starting to smell. I hear it can take a month to be rid of the smell. Ugh. The little fruitcaker!

~R

Me? A Serial Killer?

I have to get my ACL replaced.  Not repaired, replaced.  About three years ago BN and I left our children, for the first time, in the capable hands of my mother and my sister while we stole away to the mountains for a little couple time.

It was our first time staying in a bed and breakfast and we were going to ski the weekend away.  Yes, I said ski.  Get your minds outta the gutta.  Although there should have been plenty of that too.

So anyway, we arrived, we toured the bed and breakfast - sooo lovely and serene.  Then spur of the moment decided we would get in a little early ski time that evening.

So off we went and I made it down the bunny slope to the lift with no problems.  BN showed me the real bunny hill, apparently the 50 feet or so was a transition spot for one of the black diamond hills.  Who knew?  It looked like a bunny slope.

Anyway, next pass we went the "right" way and it was going fine until I came upon a cliff (BN said it was a small mound) and I pointed those skis inward at the toes as far as they would go and I leaned forward to stop the momentum, and suddenly I heard a loud *POP* and I was on the ground with my right leg bent awkwardly under me.

BN had already whizzed by me, so I crawled my way over to the side to get out of the way of all the toddlers, still with pacifiers in their mouths, sailing by and then BN and ski patrol were there to haul me off.

My doctor says we can do this one of two ways.  Remove a small part of a ligament from my knee to replace this shredded one or use one from a cadaver.

Anyone seen that movie where the guy gets a hand transplant and then starts committing murder.  At least I think that is how it goes.  I haven't seen it, but it makes me wonder about having a murdering knee.  There I am walking along and suddenly *KAPOW* to some unsuspecting passerby.

I just don't know.  Any cadaver users out there?

~R