Dust Everywhere

Josh took down the popcorn ceiling in Ris's room and there was a layer of white dust all over the entire house. Taj came by on Friday and finished Adam's room which looks great (if you like alien green that is). Ris still needs a little bit of trim work, but her room is pretty close to done also. Now we just need to clean up.

Mary's doing really well, although she said they are cutting back on the physical therapist because it is too hard. We watched tennis, but the finals were on Sunday when I had a meeting so I do not know if Blake pulled it off. The US Open starts today I think.

The new treasurer for our ABWA is not an official National member, so I wasn't allowed to turn over the books to him. (Yes, him--we have our first male member of ABWA--maybe that's why National "lost" his check.) That means I have to go to the bank again. I hate the bank. I hope this is the last time.

I should be doing more work for PTA, but it's hard to get motivated. Otherwise this feels like the calm before the storm--it's going to be a busy, busy year. TTFN

Dark Neon Green

That's the color that Adam is painting his room. He has cleared out most of his room and stuffed the closet and put down some drop cloths (actually stips of plastic) and there is paint on the walls, but it needs another coat. I think it is really dark, but Adam says it's light. He is too big for his twin bed, so we were looking a full size beds. There's so little room in his bedroom we were looking at the bunk bed that allowed space to move around underneath that they sell at IKEA, but when we actually did the math, he would only have a foot and a half from the bed to the ceiling so that wouldn't work. Then he asked if he could get a futon. Those things are so uncomfortable, but he says he likes it. So we got one--it's long enough and folds to a sofa size in case he needs the space in his room. It's narrower than a full size bed, so it should fit pretty good in his room.

Marisa got paint for her room too and Josh is going to remove her popcorn ceiling and paint the ceiling. I think the color she got is kind of dark, but again, I'm told it's light.

I'm starting to get clutter in my room--so far I don't have to go on Mission Organization, but I can so see that in my future.

If I ruled the world

I went on Amazon dot com to buy a book for the class that I will be teaching in less than a month--I was tired of waiting for the school district to come up with it. It costs $60, but Amazon tells me that if I apply for a credit card, I can get a $30 credit making the book only $30. Such a deal, who can pass that up. (The used books available did not say if they were the latest edition and it is a workbook that I'll have to make copies out of for the students so I didn't want to chance a used copy). Anyway, I fill in all the spaces and it says I need a password for Amazon, which I've forgotten, so I say I'm new. It knows my e-mail address and refuses to allow me to be new, so I say, I forgot and it lets me pick a new password. I put in the new password and now it starts all over again and I have to fill in all the spaces again. Long story not as long, it took all my info and then said the credit was temporarily not available.

I still want the book, so I order it.

Then I send an e-mail to cancel the credit card application. Today I get an e-mail back telling me that a different company will handle that request. So I call the credit card company and they tell me that they cannot cancel my credit card application--it's pending, so for my PROTECTION they cannot make any changes to it, including canceling it. I questioned how that protected me, when in fact it hurts my credit rating by having an additional card that I do not want and that I did not receive the promised credit for applying, but the very nice lady on the phone said that IF my credit card application is approved I will get a credit for future purchases at Amazon. Sorry, never shopping there again.

What gets me is that the woman was perfectly polite and poised telling me that there was not a thing I could do about it. I'll bet someone else has already run the card through a shredder and sent it back to them in a million pieces. I'll have to come up with something more creative.

So I got a call from the county responding to my inquiry about the inservice training for new teachers. The woman said that I had to call her to make a reservation for the times that I wanted to go to the training and I said, I'll tell you right now that I'll go next monday, but I can't go on wednesday (it was a two day course--this is in addition to the level 1 requirement). She got all flustered and said, you can't do that, you won't get paid to come on monday only. [GET PAID. I'm going to get paid for the time I go to all these crazy requirements. That is interesting.] So I say, fine, I'll go to the trainings in October. She said, you'll have to call me to make a reservation. Aparently there is magic bureaucratic juice generated when I place the call to her rather than simply tell her something when she's placed the call to me. Ay yi yi.

Humorous Speech

I have entered a humorous speech contest at Toastmasters. I was thinking I've got some relatively funny girl scout stories, why not. Then I couldn't think of one remotely funny girl scout story. Ok, my diet and my eating habits are the source of endless hours of conversation, surely there is a humorous speech in that. Nope, can't think of a thing. So then I decide to drop out of the contest. As soon as I make that decision and the pressure is off, I remember my Roseann and Dan Connors Estate planning speech. That is kind of humorous and it's already written and it will let this new audience know that I practice that kind of law and maybe they'll need an attorney for estate planning. Yeah, I can do that. I love it when a plan comes together.

See a Problem, Work it out

So just when I thought I'd paid the last fee to be hired as a teacher where I'll make very little money for what's promising to be a pretty big job, I got a letter from the County stating that I needed to take a level 1 class in the first two years and level 2 plus phys ed within the first five years. The level 1 class is four hours a week offered incredibly far away (2 hour drive there in traffic and maybe 1 hour drive back if I'm lucky) and it costs $590. So much for making extra money at an extra part time job. So I'm all bummed out about how much time & money this is going to take when I remember that ABWA has a scholarship program for members. I'm the chair, so I'll have to get someone else to take it over (two birds, one less job, I'm liking this). I love finding windows. Of course, it's still a seven hour a week endeavor (not to mention the five hours I'll be teaching and the hours to get ready to teach oh, and being president of abwa & kiwanis, program chair pta, trainer girl scouts, publicity for glendale beautiful, sponsor chair for 2006--yeah, I'm a busy, busy camper.)

My house is getting almost intolerable. That hum in my room is going to send me over a cliff and now the dog has decided to sleep with Melody--waking me up all night long jingling her tags. I keep kicking her out and someone else keeps leaving the door open. Too bad you can't buy "hermedically sealed" at the hardware store. I'm mulling--there must be a solution.

Finally, the guy that did the TB test looked at my arm 48 hours later and said, we don't report redness, so I'll put down negative, but if you feel a bump, contact your doctor immediately. 4 days later it's still red and I swear that sometimes I feel a bump. Could I have hysterical TB?? I don't have that coughing thing that I would associate with TB, but I'm not a doctor. Gee whiz, I thought I was busy before, now I have to go to medical school.

Dog Days of Summer

When I look around my office--I have so much to do, but it really can all wait--I think, it's the dog days of summer. There's stuff to do, but it's just too hot to do anything. It's not that hot right now, knock on wood, but the feeling of heaviness of summer is still there.

Since July just ended, I've been thinking a lot about Christmas. I guess I like Christmas too much to limit it to it's alloted time and just like the idea of thinking about Christmas in July, but since I was too busy to think about Christmas in July, I'm thinking about it now. I don't like to say Christmas in August thought, it's just not the same.

I think I am officially hired as a teacher for the fall--I had to fill out a lot of paperwork for the school district and pay them more money (what kind of job costs more than you are going to make in the first month???) for another fingerprint test. I had to do a fingerprint test for the county for the credentials and now for the school district, because they are actually hiring me. I had to get a TB test. Luckily my doctor is on vacation, because that's where they told me to go and I would have paid $45 for my co-pay, plus for the test because it would be under my deductible. Since my doctor is on vacation they reluctantly told me that I could go to the County health department where I got it done for $5. Of course they don't tell you that you have to come back in 48 hours so that they can check it. That would have been another $45 co-pay for my doctor--it's a darn good thing she's on vacation.

Boy I have a lot to do. And I didn't play spider solitare at all on Tuesday, but stayed late on Wednesday to work on ABWA and ended up playing spider instead. I keep thinking I'll just play until I win, then I don't win for so long that when I do win, I'm so happy that I hit play again without thinking. How did people live before computers?

Is that your son?

I get that a lot from clients when they come into my office for the first time--Jackson is a pretty darn cute, so one of these days, I'll just start saying yes. My picture of the other kids isn't on the computer, so I just didn't get that many "are those your children" as I get "is that your son"'s.

This morning I picked up a client at her hotel in town and last night when I was driving home in my filthy car stuffed full of empty diet coke cans, I thought, maybe I should get the car washed. So I was up at the crack of dawn (Marisa or somebody started the dryer which always wakes me up and then I can't place the noise for a long time to make it stop and then I realize it's the dryer and it's not going to stop--ugh). Since I was up so early I thought instead of just de-littering the car, I'd go the extra mile and actually go to the car wash. Sometimest the car wash takes 10 minutes and sometimes it takes 40 minutes--so I made sure I had 40 minutes. First I got gas (I was really up pretty early) and then I had my 40 minutes to get the car washed. There was almost no one there so I was trying to formulate whether it was worth going back home or if I should just get there really early. You know how when you have nothing to do, you drag it out to fill up time--the guys that work in car washes do that. At 34 minutes I started getting worried that the guy would never stop wiping and circling the car. Each time there was something else that he was cleaning that was supposed to be cleaned. At 38 minutes, my client called and that's when they beepped the horn to tell me the car was ready. It's not even 9 a.m. and I'd already had my full dose of stress for the day.

Speech Night

Tonight I'm giving the Biggest Loser speech at Toastmasters--last week I was talking to a few members and telling them the subject of my speech and they were all shocked that I'd lost so much weight--they just met me in the last few months. The speech is suppose to inform and have a purpose, but I don't think telling people to eat only 1200 calories of junk food a day is the best diet to espouse. (v. 1. To marry. 2. To give one's loyalty or support to; adopt. I'm going with #2)

We're going a little crazy at the office these days. Jim who claimed that he was retired from trial work has four trials this month. I don't have four trials a year and he has four in one month that suddenly he wants me to help him cover. Well actually, he's only called me in on one, but that's enough--it is nuts. And just when I was getting completely adicted to spider solitare. Every one of my partners has walked in on me playing spider solitare--I just can't make myself stop. Today is a spider solitare free day--we'll try it for 24 hours and see how it goes. I might have to eat a cookie.

Visualization

I envisioned curtains across the sitting room to give Melody some privacy and Taj put up the pole (and somehow made it two inches longer) and the curtains yesterday--it works. Thank you Taj. I wanted to iron the curtains, but we'll have to save that job for a long weekend.

This weekend is the LAAC forum--I'm spending the night at the hotel to be there bright and early for the event tomorrow. Two years ago when I spent the night I had to go down and break up a fight at 7:30 a.m.. I hope that history will not repeat itself. We had a guarentee for 100 and we only have 67 signed up, so I'm a little disappointed but the 67 are a fun group anyway. I have so much work to do for ABWA and I know that Kiwanis is right around the corner waiting to spring on me. LITFL, surely make you lose your mind.

It's Official

The scale said 125--I have officially reached my goal. I heard yesterday that the additive to diet drinks actually trains your body to store fat cells better. Diets do that also, so my body (with all the diet coke I drink) is an expert at storing fat. The way to combat that is to raise my metabolism with eating more and exercise. Eating more is a scary proposition and I'm doing all the exercise I know how to do now. My knees don't hurt now as a rule, but that doesn't mean I'm ready to run marathons. So somehow, I have to stop losing weight, but also not gain any back. oy vey--this was supposed to be a good thing, reaching my goal.

I'm working on a speech called the Biggest Loser to impart my experience on a captive audience--Toastmasters. I'm trying to come up with the secret to my success, but all I've got is psychologically exercise was important to keep me focused, but that I didn't lose much weight until I controlled my calerie intake. I read a great line in Dr. Phil (maybe I've already shared it), stratigic planing beats willpower everytime. That's what I do, plan, plan, plan.

Elysa gave a speech about body image and when was losing weight enough--when was our body image acheived. I couldn't relate at all--I really think that I look exactly the same--I know logically that I am slimmer, but I think that I look exactly the same. So I was either in denial about my derriere before (it sure suprised me in pictures), or I have an anorexic's view of myself now. Who knows, who cares--I've reached the number that the book says I'm supposed to be at, so that's the main thing.

No title

I sit here for five minutes staring blankly at the title line trying to come up with the perfect title to go along with the happenings of the day, but I don't have time for writer's block, so today's blog is untitled. Or we can have a contest--name the boring blog of the day contest.

Yesterday I met with the teacher of the class at CV, that I will be teaching in the Fall at Hoover. She shared her outline, grading schedule, field trip plans, extra credit ideas and basically scared the umph out of me for two hours with all the stuff she does for her class which by the way she made up from scratch and basically I can do whatever I want to. OMG Two 2 1/2 hour classes per week to fill. And then on CNN this morning I saw an opinion poll from Pennsylvania that said 60% of the people questioned, thought creationism should be taught in school. The fact that one person thinks it is scary. I mean really--I went to Catholic School, I never heard of creationism. The bible was taught as stories from the bible in religion class. It shocked me as a child that some people believed that seven day stuff literally. 60% OMG

Toastmasters was fun last night--I heard two great speeches and one not so good. The not so good one was by a speaker that I was hoping to invite to ABWA, but now, I'm a little apprehensive. We talk about programs for ABWA and I think about all the stuff that I could present and then we talk about the newsletter and I think of all the great articles that I could write and then we talk about reviewing the standing rules and I've got lots of ideas for that too. We'll just rename the chapter to Kathy. Our past president is giving me lots of advice (and telling me not to submit anything to the newsletter and to leave programs to someone else and generally trying to make me stop going down the Kathy Chapter road). It's like a race horse wearing a bit. LITFL

Weather Watch

I heard that we were on Storm watch yesterday--they were predicting flash floods. We didn't have any weather here at all (sunny and hazy as usual), but apparently Los Angeles County is so big, that in the foothills (I thought that was us, silly me) they had quick and very heavy storms during the day. Only in California as the saying goes.

I need a place to put clutter in my room. There was nothing on TV last night so I went through the IKEA catalog cover to cover twice. On the second run through I found a children's chest that looks like it is just the right size and color for a whopping $12. That's my kind of find. Now if I can get a committment from myself to buy that and only that at IKEA, I'll be allowed to go. They also have a very cute crib that transforms into a toddler's bed and a very cool double bed that is raised off the ground so that you can have a desk underneath it and very nice quilts and pillows that I don't really need. I think that committment better be in writing.

Someone banged on our door at midnight last night causing Adrienne to call the police. They looked around the house and didn't find a prowler, but they did find black widow spiders that we need to take care of. Adam was up really early today--I think he wanted to warn the gardener about the spiders. And our refridgerator is really hot in the center--if the butter is too close to the side in the door, it melts. The internet site said that when it is hot in the house, the motor works harder and so it will get hot. Well it is pretty hot in our house--I sure hope that motor doesn't overheat. My vacation is nine months away. I think I need a ticker.