TX didn't have the looting trouble that NOLA had after the hurricanes.......

I wonder why?

VIP Day

Today Anderson Elementary School celebrated their third annual Granparents/VIP Day. Sid and I both managed to go. This year the kids showed us what they do in their "special" classes: gym, art, music, computers and in the library. After all of that they can go out to lunch and then have the afternoon off. As I had to come back for work, Sheela and Sid are spending the day together.

Next week is Fall break here in Allen. For those of you from places where school starts near Labor Day, Fall Break is the kid's reward for starting school at the beginning of August. Since both kids have the week off we are going on a vacation. The plan is to drive down to Big Bend National Park and spend some time hiking and camping.

I was hoping to run some errands at lunch today in preparation for the trip, but I ended up giving blood at lunch. Now I need to go eat a huge lunch (really fast) so I can get a few projects finished at work before taking off for a week.

Cold Front

Yesterday the high here was 104 degrees, today it's only supposed to be 74 degrees. I broke out a long sleeve blouse and my favorite suede boots. I was tempted to wear the matching suede jacket this morning but by lunch time I know that I'd feel like an idiot. I can wait a few more weeks for jackets. Unfortunately we are supposed to make the upper 80s again tomorrow. Oh well, at least we have today.

Allen American

Sheela and her fellow Shooting Stars from last week's award ceremony got their pictures in our community newspaper this morning. She also received her award certificate, a photo of her being presented with the award, a gift certificate good for lunch for two at Chipolte (one of MY favorite places) and a "dog tag" identifying her as a Shooting Star. She added her school creed dog tag to the chain and is wearing them around her neck.

India

Today is leaving day for the Sharmas. They are flying out mid-day and wont be back until late February. They have promised to send us regular emails so that we can keep track of their trip.

We took Bello and the kittens out for some air....

I don't have many kitten shots, my camera doesn't do well in dim light or close ups. If its not a close up, the kittens are just a pile of multi-colored fuzz.




Bello didn't like having the kittens outside, so we took them back in but she stayed out for awhile and then took a tour of the kitchen.

Evaporation

Sunil found pictures of a boy doing an experiment with water in Sheela's science text book and asked if he could do it too. So he has filled a cup and a bowl with water, marked the starting levels and has set them outside for a few days. We are going to wait and see what happens. It's still pretty hot for the next day or two but we are expecting a big drop by the end of the week. I'm hoping that Sunil will be able to see a difference in how fast the water evaporates before and after the drop.

One step closer to fun.

Bello moved her babies out of the dresser drawer on Friday. Now they are lurching around on the floor like fuzzy, little drunken sailors. They don't "walk" but they move around in a very determined fashion. All of their eyes are open but one (not one kitten just one eye). They feel the need to sniff everything and are very pushy. They are also developing an adorable fuzz. In four more weeks they will be ready for new homes.

Saturday

Two soccer games, one music class and one picnic. This was a better plan than last week. The Hot Wheels and the Panthers both won today (not that we keep score, of course). I must say that games played in the 80 degree heat are more pleasant than the 100 degree games. Today is "Texas cool", cloudy and very windy. This is all that we are getting from Hurricane Rita. We are still hoping for rain, we are 10 inches behind this year.

The picnic is a family affair and will take most of the evening. I was rather hoping that we would have torrential rains and we'd all just go in our swim suits. But it looks like the rain is passing us by and an indoor location was found as a back up. Bummer.

The grading period ended last week for Sheela. She just brought home her first straight-A report card. Last year they used acceptable/unacceptable and the like instead of letter grades. Good job, Sheel!

Her lips aren't blue.....

Thunder brought home her school picture and she looks very normal (and quite a bit like herself). I'm pleased.

Pass on a Placement

Yesterday we were offered a Fostercare placement that I turned down. The offer was for a pair of sisters, one and two years old. Neither girl passed the "are they already potty trained" baseline test we are now using as our first screening tool. I didn't even ask if they would break up the set.

Shooting Star Awards Ceremony

This morning Anderson Elementary honored the recipients of the Shooting Star Awards for September. Sheela was nominated from her class (the teacher makes the nomination) based on Academics, Citizenship and Attitude. She is pictured here with the 2nd and 3rd grade winners. In addition to the certificate the kids earned an extra recess. My pictures from the ceremony were not very good but a professional picture will be sent home along with the certificate next week.

Thunderfoot

Sheela is pleased to announce that she now has a nickname. Apparently she has always wanted one. Her coach started to call her, "Thunderfoot" at practice yesterday and she likes it. Though she has consented to answer to just "Thunder" if we prefer it.

Team Photo - Hot Wheels

From left to right and back to front we have: Coach Tim and Coach Tommy. Travis, Ben, Grayson and Zach. Sunil, Gavin, Aidan and Koal.

Conscious Cats

The cats were awake yesterday, all at the same time. I'm still not ready to say that they were fun but it was a big step in the right direction. Bello let us take them all over the room to cuddle them (Sheela had a few friends over) but when she was ready for them back she came and picked them up by the neck and took them back to their box. Then she settled in to nurse.

Both the kids cleaned their rooms afterschool (and don't I feel better now). While Sheela was cleaning hers she found a book about cats and dogs from the book fair last year. We read the cat half last night. We were right, kittens all start out with blue eyes and they open on average around day 10. We have two open already and two that aren't there yet. Today is day 7. It may be two more weeks still before they can actually walk. At least two can push their bellies up off the floor for a few seconds.

C.S. Lewis

I finished reading The Horse and His Boy Sunday and almost finished Prince Caspian last night. I've been told a hundred times that I would like The Chronicals of Narnia but I'm pleased to see how much I am liking them. Even the gore and the bloodshed are gentle. When Sheela gets to a place that we need a new bedtime story I'll switch over to these. I think that she will like them and Sunil might too. I haven't read any chapter books to him yet and it's definitely time.

Who says kittens are fun?

My impatience is starting to show. I haven't seen a conscious kitten in at least three days. From my point of view they don't even wake up to nurse. They still can't stand and you have to put your head in their box to hear them meow. They are getting quite a bit larger and two of them can open their eyes (more or less). So I'm sure the fun stage is just around the corner.

Halloween already

Strangely two large teenagers came to the door dressed as clowns on Friday afternoon asking for candy. They seemed surprised to find anyone at home (or maybe the sari confused them) in any case Mommy said that we didn't have any and they went away. Weird.

I did take the kids to look at Halloween costumes today. I always enjoyed the costumes when we were little and the way I remember it Mom always made them and they were great! (How was that for a shameless bit of sucking up?) Sure we could make our own costumes now, but the ones that you can buy are so elaborate and cheap its hard to pass them up. They cost less than a lunch out in most cases. Sheela is leaning towards being a cheetah this year, she's been a cat at least once and a panther once. Sunil and Blake were tigers last year. It's becoming a family theme. Sunil wanted every costume that he saw so I'm not ready to commit.

Overload

The plan for Saturday was supposed to be:
10:30 Sunil's team pictures
11:30 Sunil's game
12:30 Sprayground/picnic at the park w/ Brenda, Jeremy and Jaden
1:30 Back to the house to see the kittens
2:30 Sheela's team pictures
3:15 Sheela's game
4:30 Back home
5:30 Birthday party (Sheela's friend)
7:45 Sleepover with a friend (Sunil along for an hour or two while we go out for dinner). Do you get the feeling we over committed?

Neither team managed pictures. The coach didn't make either game. Both teams ended up playing without any substitutes. Its way too hot for that. Worse than that we stayed at the park out in the sun from 10:00 to 4:30. We were all wiped. I was too distracted to keep score during Sunil's game but it was closer than I would have expected considering only one of our players was really playing (with two others clicking in occasionally). Sheela's team was ahead until the last minute but it ended in a tie, 7-7.

Sheela managed to complete her agenda. Sunil was asleep by 6:00 on the couch, this meant we didn't get to go out, so I was in bed by 8:30. But with the leg cramps from the dehydration I didn't get to sleep before Sunil woke up starving at 9:30. We ended up staying up until nearly midnight. He's so cute in the middle of the night. He can actually hear the sharks pushing the Sun up out of the ocean in the morning.

Today we got a well deserved rest. All in all it was still a good weekend.

Ready for work

I don't have much to say today. This was just an excuse to throw this picture out there. I've been told to have more of me. So here it is.

Oma and Opa... home again

Dad and Eileen are back in Florida for the winter. They've left the boat in the water and in Italy until they return for it in the Spring. I can't wait to see more of the pictures from their travels. They may even come out this way for Christmas! Welcome home, guys!

Dorfus Wafflebutt

From my annoying and yet amusing email collection today we have excerpts from, "Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot Professor Poopypants" by Dave Pilkey, in which the evil Professor forces everyone to assume new names...

1. Use the third letter of your first name to determine your new first name:

a = snickle
b = doombah
c = goober
d = cheesey
e = crusty
f = greasy
g = dumbo
h = farcus
i = dorky
j = doofus
k = funky
l = boobie
m = sleezy
n = sloopy
o = fluffy
p = stinky
q = slimy
r = dorfus
s = snooty
t = tootsie
u = dipsy
v = sneezy
w = liver
x = skippy
y = dinky
z = zippy

2. Use the second letter of your last name to determine the first half of your new last name:

a = dippin
b = feather
c = batty
d = burger
e = chicken
f = barffy
g = lizard
h = waffle
i = farkle
j = monkey
k = flippin
l = fricken
m = bubble
n = rhino
o = potty
p = hamster
q = buckle
r = gizzard
s = lickin
t = snickle
u = chuckle
v = pickle
w = hubble
x = dingle
y = gorilla
z = girdle

3. Use the third letter of your last name to determine the second half of your new last name:

a = butt
b = boob
c = face
d = nose
e = hump
f = breath
g = pants
h = shorts
i = lips
j = honker
k = head
l = tush
m = chunks
n = dunkin
o = brains
p = biscuits
q = toes
r = doodle
s = fanny
t = sniffer
u = sprinkles
v = frack
w = squirt
x = humperdinck
y = hiney
z = juice

Baby Copperheads

A friend found a snake in her garage last night and another right outside of her garage. She lives her in McKinney (The Fastest Growing City in America) in a townhouse development on the edge of some empty fields. A neighbor killed the first one but the second got away. She and half her neighbors are afraid to go outside because there are so many snakes. I might have an issue with copperheads, but in general I prefer snakes to rats.

Where does the time go?

Sid and I have been married 14 years today. If I'd been thinking I would have scanned in some wedding pictures for the trip down memory lane. As it is this is the best I can do, this was taken two years ago at the company Christmas party. We wont do much celebrating tonight, after soccer practice and homework we need to clean up the house a bit. But we are hoping to get out Saturday night.

We have kittens.......

three boys and one girl. They were born while we were at work today, apparently with no complications. The girl is a miniature of her momma. Two of the boys look like Max (are those tabby cats?) and one is solid black. Bello lets us hold them for a few minutes at a time but mostly they are nursing. Brenda has agreed to take one, hopefully she and Jeremy will come over on Saturday to make their selection.

Magician

I'm helping to plan a large holiday party. One part of the entertainment for the evening will be a strolling magician. He auditioned for us yesterday. He was wonderful. There were only five of us at the screening so we got to see the up close show. He made coins appear and disappear from all over the room. He made tennis balls appear in a cup on the table. He managed to move my friend's ring from inside a card box to inside a sealed envelope (along with a card signed by another friend five minutes before). Even though I think I figured out about half of it I could never say I saw the switch take place. He's going to be a hit.

Praying Mantis

Sid captured a praying mantis the other day up at the warehouse. He took great care not to harm it during the capture and retrieval stage. Unfortunately that was first thing in the morning and it stayed in the car during the rest of his deliveries and meetings. Technically it was still alive when it got home but it was a close thing. It passed away shortly thereafter and has now been mounted in her permanent bug collection. I haven't had the chance to show her the praying mantis picture on Mom's blog.

Happy Birthday Mommy!

I was thinking that we would go out to dinner to celebrate but Mrs. Sharma is actually visiting Sushama for a few days. We will save the party for her return.

Ants

The ant population here in Texas is exploding for the Fall. Apparently the Sharma house was designated as a safe haven and they told all of their friends to come on in. Since they didn't tell me I arranged to have the exterminator come and spray. I thought he said that they would be gone in three days. Today is day six and the numbers are still increasing I called to discuss it further. Apparently it takes three weeks for them to really be gone, in the mean time they will continue to cycle. When their trails form up I'm supposed to scrub them out with bleach and it will take 2-3 days for them to re-establish the route.

Splendor Odessi

Sheela and I went with the Sharmas to a dance program last night. This troop is from the state of Orissi (Northwestern India). The costumes were similar, but different, from the dancing that Sheela did and the dancers are mostly men instead of women. The older man that runs the school and i the head dancer came out first to dance the invoccation. When I think of male dancers I think of Mikhail Baryshnikov, not the fat, shirtless Green Bay packers fan with the green and gold "G" on his chest in drag. Honestly, once you get used to the diamond bicep bands, bracelets, necklaces and dangling earings the man was a wonderful dancer, they all were. But his costume was edged with green and gold and the stripes ran right up his belly. It was an interesting night and we had a good time. I wish I'd gotten a picture of Sheela in her Punjabi dress to show you. The one that she chose was burgundy crepe with lots of black bead work -- very sparkly.

Once again denial fails as a defense mechanism.

We kept saying that Bello's weight gain was good. She's been hungry a long time. Boy, she looks a lot healthier now. But of course she could not get her shots today because she is in fact very pregnant. We've been told that we have to bring her inside until she weans the kittens or we are dooming them to certain death. BTW - I did have Bello tested for a host of common kitty ailments and she's healthy. So we are spending the day kitty-proofing Blake's old room and moving her in to air-conditioned splendor. Let's just hope Bello takes to the litter box and Gina doesn't start peeing on everything to demonstrate her displeasure. While we're at it let's just hope there are only one or two extra cats tucked in there. This is going to be a long two months.

Soccer Season opens officially.

The Hot Wheels first real season game was not a total success, but as they don't keep score we can't say we lost.... exactly. Let's just say that the Vipers caught on a little bit quicker to the way the game works. Half of our team figured it out by the end and it got a little bit easier to watch.

The Panthers had a great start, again we didn't officialy win, but we did out score the Pink Ponies 13-0. Four of them were to Sheela's credit. She only spent one quarter in the goal.

Star of the Week...

Sheela has been nominated as the next "Star of the Week" at school, based on her "good citizenship" qualities. To that end she chose five pictures of herself with which the teacher will decorate her classroom. All of these are from last year except her Kindergarten picture.

Little Ceaser's Pizza Kits

Little Caeser's has found a new niche market for it's products, gone are it's days as a place to go in and pick up a pizza. Now it focuses on fundraisers. The pizzas and the crazy bread are now sold frozen as kits.


I bought a pack of personal size pan pizzas (one kit makes nine cheese pizzas), a pack of thin crust pizzas (makes 3) and a pack of crazy bread (also makes 3).



We made all nine of the personal sized pizzas last night. They were really good and the kids loved topping them themselves....



even Sunil. You can't tell from the picture but he prefers a cheese pizza. He put the pepperroni on so that he could remove it later.

Bathouse

This shows the bathouse on the front of the shed. It can hold a colony of up to 40 bats. I'm not sure what type, or types, of bats we have around the house now. They move pretty quickly. But I'm told that Mexican Short Tail, Mexican Brown and Mexican Free Tail are all common. I'd just about guess that all three are really the same thing but I haven't checked.

lyn....mother of Karin

not that I'm taunting you exactly... but check out the picture on my profile....

I changed the name of your picture to just "lyn" and reposted it. Now when you copy the url it's shorter than the magic 68 characters (the spaces in the title were the source of your problem... and the source of the %s). You can get the URL from the picture here (you don't have to re-do your original post). After you let me know that you've been here I'll change my picture back to one of me (or back to the picture of the family at least).

Insomnia.....

I like to think of myself as nearly a world class sleeper but I woke up at 2:00AM and was completely unable to go back to sleep. Normally I'd have grabbed a book and done some reading but I finished The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe before I went to sleep. I'm not ready to start anything else (I have promised to assist with the paperwork tonight and being in the middle of a book that I want to finish just makes me crabby). I gave up around 4:00AM and decided to go for a walk. It's still pretty humid (not to mention all of the automatic lawn-sprinkles were on) but it was a wonderful 70 degrees. I haven't felt that good outside in months. I walked to Celebration Park (the center of our soccer world and the sprayground) and then I walked back the other way to the donut shop. I timed my arrival for 5:00AM sharp and had to wait for the donuts to be glazed (she gave me a mini-kolache to hold me over). I brought back donuts and more kolaches for breakfast. The whole walk took a little over an hour - I saw only five cars (and one dog walker) the whole time and all of them were between the donut shop and the house. I gave up counting the rabbits - they were everywhere. I only saw one bat but I'm hoping that we are on the early edge of the migration. We just got the bat house up last weekend.... by the way it fits perfectly under the eave of the 12 pitch shed roof. I'll try to get a picture of the bat house tonight. Well I'm at work and it's time to get serious... I need to work fast today I may crash mid-afternoon.

As I feared...

the kids had a great time without me. Here are a few pictures from their trip to Bonham State Park.

The park was crowded but a last minute no-show meant that they managed to find a campsite.


The parks are so dry, even after all of the August rains, that campfires are forbidden. Hotdog and marshmellow roasting both had to be done over a charcoal fire.

The fishing wasn't that big a hit as the fish didn't show up but they gave it a try at least.

In addition to the fishing they managed a short hike and swimming in the lake.

Babysitting in style.......

Technically, I'm watching my friend's daughter for a week while she travels to Japan. In reality I'm lounging around the house, watching TV and eating ice cream after going out to dinner with my in-laws. I haven't seen my kids, her child or Sid since 5PM and they wont be back until tomorrow afternoon. Sid decided it would be fun to take all three kids camping at Bonham State Park. I wish him well, but I'm glad I don't have to share the last of the Rocky Road.

The Chronicles of Narnia

I bought the boxed set of the Narnia books from Sheela's school. Last night I read The Magician's Nephew. I remembered a lot less of this book that I usually remember. I must not have actually read it before. It was good and an easy read. I wasn't sure if Sunil would enjoy them. It may be a little bit slow for him yet. He'd enjoy the story but more the cliff note version. Sheela can probably read it herself, but there are a lot of references that she just wont get so we will add it to our list of things to read aloud. Now I have to decide if I should make her wait until I've read all seven books before we start. Decisions, decisions.

Blue teeth for eternity

Today is picture day at Anderson Elementary. Sheela let me help her choose her shirt last night. Solids look better than patterns. Words are distracting. Some colors wouldn't look good with the dark blue background that she chose. We wanted something that is identifiably hers.. so that she really looks like herself. Then we had to discuss the hair. She really likes it best pulled back in to a single ponytail, but then she looks like she has no hair in the photo. She doesn't want braids or two ponytails, she did not want me to pull back just the top. Finally she chose a simple headband. The jeans wont show. She was up early. She was dressed. She was ready. All systems go. Then I let her try the new gumball vitamins. Chewing them for 5-10 minutes gives a kid all the vitamins that they need for the day and they are both fun and fruity. She chose the berry flavor which apparently tastes terrible and stains your lips, teeth and tongue dark blue almost immediately. At least her lips will match the background.

Plano Hot Air Balloon Festival.... Coming Soon

Every morning I see at least one hot air balloon on my way to work. This morning there were two (but only one in the picture). We are on two weeks away from the balloon festival so the numbers could be increasing fast. I don't know if we'll get to go this year or not, it's already shaping up to be a busy weekend for us but I hope we make it. Last year we skipped and the two years before it was way too hot to be fun.

Love and Logic -- Take 2

Just about a month ago I suggested that anyone given the opportunity to take a Love and Logic seminar should jump at the chance. Well the opportunity came my way and I'm taking it. Normally these seminars are a one or two day event and cost a few hundred dollars, but one of my friends was offered a seminar by her daughter's school. The price is only $8.66. What a deal! Sid and I (and my friend) all signed up. The class is two hours a day for seven Thursdays. My boss is even letting me flex my time (I love my job!) Today's topic was "Raising Responsible Children". I enjoyed it and look forward to the rest.

Ozone Level Red

We had a few cooler days and people were beginning to be able to breath again, but we are going back in to the hundreds again today and the Ozone Level has been increased from Orange back to Red. This means that kids with asthma wont be allowed to go out for recess and the others have to come back in after just a few minutes. We are encouraged not to cut our grass or fill our cars up with gas until late evening. The elderly and medically fragile should not leave their homes. Sometimes it's hard to remember why I like living here.

Brownie let down

Sheela's Brownie Troop Leader has decided not to continue as a leader. Only two of the girls signed back up... of course one of them was Sheela. There is another troop already at the school but they don't have room for two more so we are just going to bail out. Now we need to figure out how to get our money back and how to get the rest of the patches from the leader. They didn't come in time for the ceremony last year.