Memorial Day - a Day of Reflection and Honor

As we head into this three day weekend, let's remember what it means. While we are enjoying a relaxing weekend full of graduation parties, bar-b-que's, and boating remember the millions in our history who have sacrificed themselves so that we could freely continue in a democratic society.

Stop and reflect on the colors of our flag - Red for courage, White for purity, Blue for honor. Memorial Day isn't just another day off from work, to sleep in. It's a day of reflection and thanks to those who sacrificed themselves for the cause - a cause bigger than themselves - a way of life.

Politics aside, whether you agree or disagree with our military involvement around the world I encourage you to join in at 3 p.m. on Monday, May 31, for the national moment of rememberance.

And if you see a member of our armed services, please take a moment to stop and thank them for what they do for us. If it weren't for them, you might not have the choice to agree or disagree with current events.

When Good Neighbors Go Bad

As many of you know, I am a hermit. I prefer it that way. I know a few people on my block and we get together fairly frequently for dinner, movies, drinks, etc. But we aren't all "up in your business". Days can pass without anything more than a text or random comment on a facebook page, or nothing at all. Just the way I like it.

Enter the neighbors across the street. For all I knew they were just like us, hermits who didn't venture out much. I vaguely knew what they looked like - didn't know their names. Didn't really care to. Just so long as they kept up their yard and stayed quiet, that's all I really care about.

Now, these this couple have dogs. I don't know what kind of dogs - some sort of english setter is what I'm guessing. They are pretty dogs. But, they are NOT controlled dogs. We'd heard reports from various folks on the block telling us that one of the dogs is aggressive. But we'd never had any experience with this. That is until recently.

As you know, the spousal unit is quite active. He's always running or biking, or doing some other physical activity that hermits like me think are senseless. The end of April, he was finishing a run when one of the dogs ran out and lunged at him in what we could politely refer to as an aggressive behaviour. If you are a runner or biker, you know that from time to time these things happen. You also probably know how to fend for yourself from said rabid dog. He yelled at it, kicked at it (didn't physically kick it, just made it think he would), etc. Dog went back home.

After his run, he went over and asked the owner to follow the leash laws. To which he was told (rather rudely) they would not. Since then he's had a couple convos about it, and found out that several other neighbors have also asked them to keep a handle on the dogs. I shot of a lengthy letter to my HOA reporting them for breaking ordinances - because you know, that's the passive aggressive type of thing I like to do. Fast forward to earlier this week.

Spousal Unit and Oldest Child are out running - she starts Cross Country conditioning in a few weeks. Don't want her to be too out of shape, so they've started running together in the evenings. This time dog goes after H. Now, I figure the hubs can fend for himself - but have a snarling, barking dog lunge at my child, and you've got problems.

The hubs confronted the neighbors again. Again he was told they wouldn't do anything about the situation. This time the speckled their response with profanity. Yep, for people who have such a pretty house, they obviously have no standard of decency.

So, last night Animal Control was by to take our statements. Another neighbor signed the petition. And at some point soon AC will be serving our lovely neighbors with a ticket. I have no idea how much the ticket will cost, but the AC officer informed me that if the dogs continued to run rampant in the street and jump on or at people they would loose their dogs. I don't want it to come to that. I have my own little diva dog over here that I'd hate to see anything happen to, but hopefully this will show the neighbors that we're serious and they need to get a handle on the situation.

BTW - these neighbors are known to report everyone in the neighborhood for stupid violations of HOA policies i.e. sign in the yard, grass an inch to high, etc. This should be an interesting summer.

This Shouldn't Hurt - You've Been Through Worse

First, let me say that I have a great optometrist office. In case you don't follow me on facebook, or if I haven't talked to you in a few days, you may not know that I am currently suffering an eye injury. Nothing too awful (although it sure felt that way Sunday night and all day yesterday). I have a corneal abrasion. These can be serious, but thankfully mine is located out of my field of vision so as long as I follow doctor's orders it shouldn't be more than just a healing process now.

I was outside a lot this weekend and apparently got something on/in my contact lens. (I hate the outdoors, and now I am reminded why.) My eyes were itchy when I took them out Sunday evening, but I really thought just getting the contacts out would improve them. It helped one eye - it hurt the other. As soon as the contact was out of my left eye, immense/excruciating pain began. I spent the evening with a series of compresses on my eye, and at one point debated if I should make Andre take me to the ER. I suffered through til morning and then called the 24 hour hotline at my optometrist's office. The doctor on call was nice enough to meet me at 7 a.m. to see what was going on in my eye. He confirmed that I did have a "corneal abrasion" a.k.a. tear to my  cornea. He medicated my eye and gave me some prescriptions for treatment and told me to come back today. Apparently corneal abrasions can be serious and they want to watch me pretty regularly to make sure no infection sets in.

So, today I go in and am being screened by the murse (yes, I mean murse, it was a man nurse - are they called nurses or assistants in an optometrist office?). Well, my murse is a nice guy. He's playing with child #3 and asking me how many kids I have, etc. He goes to put the dilating drops in my eye and says, "This shouldn't hurt. You've been through worse."

hmm.... it doesn't hurt, and having worn glasses/contacts since 5th grade I really am not afraid of anything going near my eye, but I though his comment was odd. Then he goes on to say "I mean, with three kids, you've been poked/prodded enough that a little dilation shouldn't be a big deal."

he he he... I thought of all kinds of dilation quips I could have made, but decided I'd just say them in my head instead of out loud. I hope I get the murse when I go back next week - he made my doomed vision a much more pleasant experience.

My Not So Handy Husband

I have to tell on the spousal unit... he wasn't what you'd call "handy" before we moved. However, since we've been out here he's taken on plenty of do it yourself projects. And, I have to admit, he's done a pretty good job with most of them. However, I've had two instances to laugh at him this week.

Rewind a bit to last fall. The Boy Scouts came around and winterized our sprinkler system. It was some sort of project for their troup, plus it was a fairly economical way to get this service done. And, since I'm typically a push over for nonprofit organizations involving kids we let them do it. Fast forward to about a week ago, and you have Andre de-winterizing the system. He tells me to pay attention to the sprinklers during the day to see if anything is acting up. Since we'd never had a system before we weren't real sure what we were doing... well, the sprinklers would pop up, but not water anything. We couldn't figure it out. We were getting ready to call someone and pay to have them look and see what "damage" the scouts had done.

Then, it hit me. Like a ton of bricks. Andre and I were taking a walk and I suddenly had a thought.
Me: "Umm... did the scouts turn off the water to the sprinklers?" Andre: "Yes. Why?" Me: "Did you turn the water back on when you reset the system?" Andre: stops walking, blank stare, odd smile creeps across his face "uh, we'll have to check that out when we get back home."

Crisis averted. Water turned back on, sprinklers working great now.

Now if only I'd been so thoughtful for the second instance. At some point during the winter, my neighbors were leaving my house and commented on how dark it was outside. Only our entrance light was working on the outside of the house. I commented that the other three bulbs had burned out and we'd replace them soon. Well, we went out to replace them and new bulbs didn't work. Since we are "garage people" meaning we are never outside after dark and always park in the garage, the idea of the lights has eluded me. Until Now. You see the warranty that came with the house is going to expire soon. We're quickly approaching the 1 year anniversary of the date we purchased this home, so the warranty we purchased will expire on that date. Since the cost of said warranty is no 3xs what we paid for it, we are not renewing. As you can imagine, I am getting my monies worth and having everything covered by the warranty repaired before it expires.

So, the lighting issue has been front and center on my mind. I got online last week and filed a claim for them to come out and fix it. Repair man comes out yesterday. He's outside 15 minutes, comes back in and says "You're all fixed up. That'll be $XX for your deductible." Me: "Umm... that was pretty quick" Repairman: "Yep. All your bulbs burnt up. And the middle one didn't have any juice runnin' to it." (Yes, I apparently had the one southern redneck repairman living out here, I felt like I was back in Arkansas.)

So, I paid my deductible and called the hubs. After a good laugh at the fact that we could have saved the deductible and probably had a nice date night with the money instead, we decided that it was worth it since neither of us would have known how to fix the "juice" without electrocuting ourselves. Bulbs on the other hand, we could have replaced fairly simply. However, that may be the last time I call out a repairman based of the hubs' info. Next time I'll probably check the bulbs myself.

Robin Hood - Not Your Average Man in Tights

So, as promised we went and saw Russell Crowe as Robin Hood: The Untold Story of How the Man Became a Legend this past weekend. I must admit, it was much better than I expected it to be, and not at all like Gladiator. With it starring Crowe and Ridley Scott directing, I really expected it to be Maximus in Medieval Times. While there were a few similarities, they were few and far between.

This is NOT the Robin Hood you grew up knowing. It is a different tale, showing Robin fighting as an archer in the crusades and then returning back to England to an oppressive government. I don't want to give out details and ruin the movie for you, but there is no past history between Robin & Maid Marion... they don't meet until after his return to England. Also, there is not a return of King Richard in this film. You see, he was killed in battle and Robin returns his crown to England, giving it to the Queen Mum who in turn crowns Prince John as the new ruler.

The story line is also left open at the end making room for a sequel later. I don't know how there would be a sequel, and don't know that Ridley Scott is really into making sequels out of his movies, but there is definitely room at the end to extend this story into a sequel if they so choose. The actors did a fantastic job. Crowe, as always, delivered his performance superbly. Cate Blanchette was a fantastic Marion. Each of the actors embodied their roles. I don't think I would have recast a single person in the film.

I do think this is a movie for the big screen. There were not as many fight scenes in it as I expected - it follows a story line fairly well, and doesn't have as much action as the trailers would make you think. But when they do fight, Scott does deliver his trademark fights of epic proportion. All and all I give the movie an A. Not necessarily one I'd see multiple times in the theatre, but one I will probably purchase once it's available.

My Return to the Movies - and a Glimpse at Robin Hood

I don't typically do movie reviews... I leave that up to Audreya. She is the movie buff, I am the foodie. However; the spousal unit and I have been anxiously awaiting the premier of Robin Hood. So will be providing you a full report either sometime over the weekend or first thing Monday morning. I am looking forward to this movie for a number of reason, least of which is the fact that this will be the first movie I've gotten to see in a theatre since New Moon debuted. I am a huge fan of movie theatres and the experience that comes with them. What better way to get reaquainted than with an action packed film?


You see, we (the spousal unit and me) are big fans of both Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott. In fact, our favorite movie is Gladiator. I have to be honest, part of me is hoping this movie isn't a reincarnation of Gladiator in midevil times. After all, it is the same actor and the same director. And in the trailor there are some striking similarities. There are also actors that intrigue me... For instance Scott Grimes (a.k.a. Dr. Archie Morris from ER) will be playing Will Scarlett. It is hard for me to picture Grimes as anyone other than the geeky doctor/pathological sperm donor from ER. It's also hard for me to picture Will Scarlett as anyone other than Christian Slater as I think that was probably Slater's best role ever.

I am thrilled; however, by Crowe playing Robin. True, I grew up on Kevin Costner's portrayal. But really, Robin Hood should have an accent. And of today's leading men with accents there is no better than Russell Crowe for this Role. Hugh Jackman or Gerard Butler were people I briefly thought about, but decided Crowe probably is the most likely to fully embody the character. Plus, I'm more likely to pay attention to the movie with Crowe than fantasize about Jackman, ahhh... I digress.

I apparently am not smart enough to figure out how to embed the movie trailer. So in case you live in a hole and haven't seen the trailer yet, you can click here to see "trailer #3" it's the most action packed trailer.

The Search for Footed PJ's

J has a love affair with footed pj's. Seriously. He would live in them if he could. Last fall I found a pair at Marshall's for $9. They were green fleece with weird little geikos all over them. That child wears them everytime they are clean... and I actually have to swipe them away when he's not looking to throw them in the wash.

In fact, it's not uncommon for him to have "lazy days" (what I always referred to as days when I wouldn't get dressed growing up, rather lounging in my pj's) when he's not in school. So, needless to say his geiko pj's now have no feet. His toes are sticking out. H laughs at him and calls him a hobo. Chaos ensues (because of course, J does not like to be called a hobo).

So being the wonderful mom that I am, I have been searching the internet far and wide to find replacement pj's. We are in spring. Most of the world is warm. Footed pj's are nowhere to be found. Well, I take that back... I can find them for $50/pair. hmmm.... I love my kids, but $50 for a pair of camo footed pj's seems a little ridiculous.

I guess he'll just continue to go around looking like a hobo until fall comes back around. Please don't report me to the bad mom patrol.

Bathroom Countertops Held Hostage

Isn't it just my luck that my renovations would be as ADD as I am? For about the last month we've been redoing various rooms in our house. As I've mentioned before, the floors in this place were awful. And the bathrooms were carpeted - which to me is just too bizarre.

So, we pulled up the carpet and have installed tile in each bathroom. Of course, it couldn't be that simple. New floors call for new paint, right? And, the half bath downstairs had a hideous vanity in it which also called for replacing. (Pictures will follow soon, I promise).

During the course of doing all this, we decided we'd go ahead with the second phase of the new floors: hardwoods in the downstairs. Eventually we'll need either new carpet or hardwood upstairs too, but having to live within our budget we are just doing downstairs for now. The downstairs floor is on order and hopefully within the next month will be completed.

Now, the plan in the masterbath was to put new floors and also redo the countertop. My new floors are black marble, and the new wall color is a light grey. Needless to say, the green laminate countertop that is in there doesn't quite match. So, the plan was to purchase a kit from Lowe's to refurbish the countertops ourselves. I read the reviews this sounded fairly simplistic and for now the most effective way to update both my bathroom and the kids bathroom countertops (theirs are a hideous blue) without spending a ton of money.

Well, that was the plan. Until Sunday. Sunday morning I was changing the trash bag in the kitchen when I noticed a leak. Yep, there was a leak under the sink. Got to looking around and decided it was from the dishwasher. Out comes the repairman on Monday. Guess what? New dishwasher needed. So, it looks like my bathroom countertops have been hijacked. Since nobody ever sees the upstairs bathrooms except for those of us who live here, we figure if given the choice a dishwasher is the more necessary part of life vs. new countertops.

So, long story short - my bathroom renovations are being held hostage until further notice. But my 10 year old dishwasher should soon be replaced by a new one. The hubs and I can stop yelling at eachother, or turning the TV up to high volume when dishes are being done. And possibly a sense of normalicy will follow. Or, as normal as can be for this family.

Just When I Thought I'd Heard It All...

I read this article. Really, you must read it. It is hilarious. Gives me one more reason not to watch porn. Because, you know, I could end up with a kid that's not my husbands. Seriously... that 3D stuff is very freaky. Apparently now it can not only jump off the screen at you, but it can also impregnate you.

All kidding aside, I think this speaks volumes of the stupidity running rampant in our society today. I am hoping this is an urban legend gone awry and not too many people actually believe this. But, hey, it was a comical read. And, I did need a laugh.

I have not died or taken a leave of absence...

I just currently am too ADD to finish a blog topic. I have started 3 new posts since last you heard from me. I just can't seem to finish one. Sorry! Maybe something fun and gossip worthy will strike tonight while I'm at a Junior League meeting. Some of the women are always good for a story - even if I have to creatively change their names to protect them. So stay tuned. I promise to return soon. :)