Back to school shopping

I hadn’t really planned on doing much back to school with Sweet Daughter … she had plenty of summer clothes to get her started, but she decided she wanted a dress for the first day of school. So off we went. First stop … she saw jeans she liked. IN HER SIZE. Several pair that actually fit. For half off, AND I had a 30% off coupon. I jumped on those. SCORE.

And it all went to hell from there. 3 ½ hours later, and having hit every store that had girls clothes in the mall at least once, we had nothing. What wasn’t inappropriate was just plain ugly. Most were both. SD finally looked up at me with a mixture of disappointment and hope in her eyes and said “Mama … will you make me a dress?”

So, off to the fabric store we went. She found a cotton print she really liked. And then she started describing in great detail, what she wanted it to look like. So, we sat down with the pattern books and started flipping through the pages until we found one that was very close.

“Mama? Can you add a ruffle?”

“Yes, Kitten.”

“Can you take that ribbon off, but add one here, and a ribbon sash?”

“Yes, Kitty Cat.”

(I *did* have to veto the ribbon color that neither matched nor coordinated nor contrasted with her fabric. When the dress was done, she agreed that her second choice was the right way to go.)

So we got home and I altered and tweaked the pattern while prewashing the fabric and ribbon.

And this is how it turned out. Not what I would have picked, but I’m not the one wearing it. SD designed this herself and she’s thrilled with it, and it’s appropriate … and I’m very proud of what she came up with.

 

Island Creamery

Sweet Daughter loves ice cream. It's her favorite thing to eat, so when she earns a "good behavior" report card*, we go out for ice cream.

Last school year, she saved up every single trip for when we went to Chincoteague, specifically for Island Creamery.

The first night she tried their Oreo ice cream. It was a hit. I had Snickers Cheesecake.

 

 

Day two: SD went with the tried and true Oreo. I went with Java Jolt sundae with hot fudge in a waffle bowl. This was "ice cream for dinner" night. Don't ask, it wasn't my idea.

 

 

Day three: They were out of Oreo! (HORRORS!) So SD went with vanilla and rainbow sprinkles. I went with Pony Tracks (fudge and peanut butter, and mini peanut butter cups).

 

 

Day four: Still out of Oreo, so again with the vanilla/sprinkles combo for SD, and I had Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream.

 

 

Last day? Oreo was back! YAY! And I had Iced Nirvana. I believe this is espresso ice cream with fudge and chocolate chips.

 

 

Yes. Four report cards and five trips. If we'd been there six days, there would have been six trips. You have your traditions, we have ours.

 

 

*As I've told SD, this is not a "bribe" or extortion payment. I expect her to behave well at school. That doesn't mean I don't appreciate the effort, and we can't go out and recognize the fact that she's a pretty darn good kid.

Summer

I can’t believe school has only been out for a month. Sweet Daughter and I had the opportunity to join my sister, most of her grandchildren (and a daughter-in-law!) in Chincoteague at the end of June. This is getting to be an annual event, and is probably the thing we look forward to most. SD just told me she enjoys it more than Christmas.

Check-in was on a Sunday afternoon, so we hied ourselves out the door with cooler, provisions and beach gear as early as we could so we could hit the beach before we went back to the house. I think we were on the road shortly after 7:00, and we didn’t forget the stuffed cats this year. It did, however, rain.

And rain. Most of the way, in fact.

Fortune smiled upon us as we got closer to the island and it cleared up.

 

We grabbed a bite to eat, and went to the beach. The weather at this point was stunning. SD got out the kite she’s been saving for the beach, and off it went. Literally. After about 10 or 15 minutes, it slipped right out of her hands. (Read: she was squirreling around because it wasn’t as exciting as she’d imagined.)

 

 

I must say, that kite was very well designed. It stayed airborne and moved downwind faster than I could run, and let me tell you, with an anguished SD begging me to save her kite, I managed a fairly tidy turn of speed.  I hoofed it across the sand, over the mini-dunes, and across the oyster shell parking lot, only to be thwarted by the marsh. (To the idiot in the parking lot that just stared as the reel of string danced past you while I yelled, thanks for nothing.)

Her cousins showed up the next day, and much fun was during the rest of our trip - even if the boys were up between 6:00 and 6:30 every morning. SD mastered the boogie board in heavy surf.

 

Sand castles were made (complete with sand crab corpses as guards at the gate).

Souvenirs were purchased.

 

Sight-seeing was done.

 

 

 

Least favorite part? Sitting on this.

 

 

And my favorite part? Going back to the beach at sunset.

 

 





 

 

Can't wait for next year!

 

Let me 'splain.

No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

A week or so before Kidshoot, my computer did this:

The files are still there, but it's not worth fixing the computer.

Then, the week before Kidshoot, I looked at my kitchen floor. It is a temporary floor (I was falling through the 1970 vinyl-covered linoleum plywood) until I can afford to do a proper kitchen remodel. It looked like this:

Not good for mopping up spills. So I decided to do this:

 

It lacked ... something. So I did this:

 

Pro-tip: Make sure your square is really 90 degrees. Luckily I figured out it was off on the first square.

Then is was time to get ready for Kidshoot! And my thermostat stopped working. To make a very long, boring story slightly less so, it turns out there was water pouring from the front of my AC air handler under the house. It turns out it was wastewater from the kitchen sink. Since I wasn't sure what else might be draining through there, I had to ask my company to please only use the outside hose for washing. Geodkyt (AKA Shorter Half) graciously allowed us the use of his plumbing, because nothing says "Welcome to the South!" like telling your company they have to pee in your yard.

 

Some of us went out to dinner.

 

 

After dinner, we came back to the house. The guys played "show and tell" and took turns troubleshooting the plumbing problem. Bubblehead Les sat under the house with me at length and discussed possible options. Because, you see, the plumber I called wanted $750 to snake the drain from the septic field to the house if we dug up the cover for him. Oh, and don't forget to add the $100 emergency fee.

 

I woke up at 4:30 the next morning, mulling over the plumbing problem, and let me tell you, my blogfather is a prince of a fellow. As soon as I heard him stir, I made him get up and run all the taps in the house and flush toilets while I sat under the house watching for more water coming out of the air handler unit. Apparently it was only the kitchen sink -- and that meant we had working toilets! And then I let Jay make his coffee.

 

Kidshoot, by all accounts, was a rousing success.

 

From my Blogfather

Old NFO and more Old NFO 

T-Bolt

AGirl

(Please let me know if I missed anybody.)

 

And I want to give a special shout-out to AGirl's TSM for manning the grill with no advanced warning while most of the guys were busy packing up guns and cleaning up the range. It was very much appreciated.

 

Early in the week, my contractor came out and snaked my drain, for much less money. And then on Friday, I saw some "junk" at work. An old desk and a credenza.

 

So, on Saturday, I looked at my freshly painted wall ...

 

 

And I did this.

 

 

That was the end of Day 1. To this day, I do not know how I got that heavy desk top in my car, and lifted into place by myself.

 

Day 2. I move another Very Heavy Thing, the solid wood credenza. And got it primed.

 

 

 

I still have to frame in the opening somehow, and finish painting the credenza/cabinet. And find 4 1/2" on center handles for the two drawers.

My IT guy at work donated a light fixture from Goodwill to the cause. I rigged it up with a toggle switch and it's now doing it's thing ...

This was all done so that I could make sure I liked the layout before actually, you know, paying a lot of money to have a remodel done that I hate. So far, we both love the layout.

So, no computer, but my plumbing is fixed. I put a hole in my wall, but I have a counter top and much more usable space. Now, I just have to finish the painting so I can put everything away again. And thank Sweet Daughter for letting me borrow her computer tonight.

Check-up

Took Sweet Daughter in for her annual check-up this morning, and they started in with the questions …

"Any allergies?"

"How much milk does she drink? Whole? Skim?"

"How much time in front of the TV or computer each day?"

"Are there any guns in the house?"

And there was the dilemma. How to answer? Do I tell her it’s none of their damn business? Do I lie? Instead, the professionally dressed (yes! A skirt and heels! On FRIDAY, none-the-less), middle-aged mom shot back with “Of COURSE there are guns in the house! How else am I going to keep her safe?”

There was a pause. And then through gritted teeth: “Are they locked up?”

“They’re secure.”

And then I asked SD to recite the 4 Rules.

“See?” I said. “Firearms are like any other tool in the house. Kids need to be taught to respect them, and how to use them with adult supervision, just like knives in the kitchen, or tools in the garage.”

When we got back to the car, SD said “I wanted to tell her all about my Cricket and my pellet pistol, but I didn’t think that would be a good idea.” Smart girl.

And while I don’t think I have a convert, I don’t think CPS is going to get called, either.

Kid Shoot 2013

We’re planning another “Kid Shoot” for the first weekend in June this year … an event we did last year to introduce kids to shooting with pellet guns. Sweet Daughter started out with a pellet pistol at age four and it was invaluable for her learning the Four Rules in a slightly less lethal environment than say, with a .22. Hearing protection wasn’t needed, and an adult could grab the barrel of the gun to keep control as necessary.

Almost 4 years ago!!

Sound like fun? If you act NOW we’ll break out the .22’s for the older kids … and the adults who are new shooters! What could be more fun than blasting away at reactive targets?

But wait! There’s MORE!! We have special celebrity guests! Dr.Mike, Cutler to the Stars™, will make another appearance this year (and will hopefully be prevailed upon to grill bacon-wrapped Vidalia’s again) all the way from North Carolina. In addition to Dr. Mike, we also have a special extra long distance guest … coming all the way from the Volksrepublik of Massachusetts … Jay G!

So, we have pellet-gun goodness! (and plenty of ammo)

The opportunity to bring new shooters to the range in a very non-stressful environment. (Unless Zombie Clown targets really bother you.)

Rock Star guests!

It’s also Open Carry weekend!

And there will food and drink, and possibly even a birthday cake for a milestone birthday.

The proposed date is June 1^st, with a rain date of June 2^nd.  We thinking about starting late morning, early afternoon. If the Shoot goes off as planned on Saturday, is there any interest in a BLOGMEET in Fredericksburg on Sunday with Michael W. and Jay G? Oh, and me, too, I suppose.

EDIT: Or we could do a blogmeet at a pub ... let me know if you're interested in any of this and we'll figure something out ...

EDIT AGAIN: I suppose I should give at least a general location, eh? About a half hour east of Fredericksburg, VA, and an hour south of Waldorf, MD, depending on the traffic.

A couple of notes from the weekend

I’m back home, mostly all in one piece. My ankles have taken to ballooning up to three time their regular size in the evenings. I’m hoping this is a result of many miles on hard floors and will rectify itself in short order.

I met a bunch of new totally fantastic people, and got reacquainted with old friends.

If, in Texas, you ask if a food item is spicy and they say “no”, consider the fact that they are outright lying or have differently calibrated taste buds. Or both.

I learned a new way to eat raw oysters … on a cracker with cocktail sauce. The preferred way ‘round here is to slurp them down with cocktail sauce (if you want to get fancy, put it in a shot glass) and follow with a shot of beer.

Of the 70,000 to 100,000 people that were at the convention this weekend, I didn’t run into a single rude person. And with that many people in one space, there will be collisions. Everyone I ran into was unfailingly polite.

I got to ride in a car with JayG while he dealt with Houston rush hour traffic, a GPS that would spontaneously turn itself off, a cell phone that kept beeping at him for no good reason, and a loud rattle coming from the back end of the car. It was almost poetic listening to his commentary switch from one irritant to the next without missing a beat.

Breda gave me my first ever manicure. Purple sparkle rainbow polish.

My favorite vendor quote of the weekend: “You know when you’re in a firefight, and you run your gun dry and the slide locks back and you don’t notice …?”

Sorry, dude. No frame of reference. I try really hard to avoid firefights.