Another year older...

Not much to say. This year's birthday deviated from the standard Mom's Homemade Pie birthdays that I've had for years. Jer got a sitter and we went out for a nice dinner somewhere not too expensive. No embarrassing song and dance. Afterwards we wound up at Borders and I bought some books. Annual "present to myself". Heh.

Mikey started school this past monday. My days are now much quieter again. Audrey is like a different child when her brother is not around. But, as 3:45 rolls around... I need earplugs.

I'd been aiming to go back east this fall. High school's 15th reunion, college's 150th anniversary, and miscellaneous hanging out with family and friends. It looks like it will not happen. Car needs maintenance, Mikey needs me home to help him with his homework & studying, my anxiety level starts to rise when I think about traveling with a 4 year old, and... I just don't want to come home to a home that will look like it hadn't been cleaned in three weeks.

At any rate, I should head to bed. Blizz decided that the Mags GKP just wasn't for me and I got knocked offline. Now I am one of the many "random" people across the globe who cannot log into their particular server. Sure, I can go to one of my other servers and putter about on a low level toon, but I was in Mags... *sigh*

Speaking of Blizzard... I want them to make the murloc noise available in the US for phones. Almost everywhere else, but here...

My sinuses have been driving me crazy. I wonder if I've got a sinus infection.

Last Friday we took the kids to Schlitterbahn. Great place! Lots of water rides we could all go on. The park isn't one great big park, it's split into three sections. We started off by just doing a little raft ride that went around in a loop, just to get our feet wet. Then we started riding things.

I lost my SU hat on the Backsplash. I thought I had it tightly interwoven with my hair thingy and my sunglass strap, but apprently I didn't. Result in - hat lost and not turned in. We got kinda bored over there though, so we took the tram to the other half of the park. Lots of tube chute rides, and others just lazing about. We waited in line for about an hour for one that twisted and turned down a hill. At one point my foot caught the bottom and I was popped out of my tube. Oops. [However, I did notice that no one pointed and laughed, the waiting line was right there. That would have been SOP back east.] The tubes got stuck in one portion at one point. We'd gone down as Jerry holding onto Audrey's tube, then mikey, then me. I started out holding mikey's tube, but soon into the ride mikey said "mommy let go!" so off he went.

The bottom let out into a pool area. [The ride and pool were fed by the Comal River.] So we spent some time splashing around in the pool for a bit, then had lunch. Mikey took a solo trip down a body tube, then we took what was supposed to be a 45 minute "ride". It was half meandering, half fast, and had a "fork". Left fork was a chute that dumped you out into the Comal River. Right fork let you into a circular "river" thing to float around. We took the right fork and floated around it a couple times.

At that point, it was after 4, and my headache wasn't letting up. Jer went to return the kiddie tubes and I watched the kids while they splashed around in a kids pool for a bit. Time to go home, sleep off the migraine, then go to BT. And to find out just how bad my sunburn was.

HOLY SHIT. Instead of putting the sunscreen on my boobs myself (I walked around in just my bathing suit all day), I let Jerry do it. What self-respecting guy wouldn't enjoy massaging his wife's boobs? He skimped. My boobs were a bright red, as was a good portion of my shoulders and back. I actually had finger marks on the back of my biceps where I'd tried to put on sunscreen. That skin was white. Surrounded by red. Ouch. I spent a few days where I couldn't wear a bra b/c that stuff hurt. It's better now, and my nose is peeling... Audrey has a little peely nose too!

But Schlitterbahn is probably somewhere we'd go back to again. I've got photos, but they are on a waterproof film camera, and I need to finish it off and get it developed.

Doing the WiiFit is doing well. Jerry and I have this bit of competition going on. I get high scores and he tries to beat them. :)

This weekend I'm hoping to get my hair cut, get all the dead ends and stuff off, and then dying it this dark red I found. Got a lot planned for this weekend though (cleaning stuff *sigh*), so I don't know if I'll get around to it.

My HS class is having a 15 yr reunion this fall. Maybe I can fly back east for it and combine it with going to SU's 150th Homecoming Weekend the weekend before. Take Audrey with me and spend time with my parents. Hmm.

Oh yes. This note is for one person. I know you're reading my blog. Like you say, I am intelligent. The only thing I have to suggest is that perhaps you should have read it last year, instead of this year.

Ok, time to find my shoes and get ready to pick Mikey up from summer school.

I'm not really one for reality tv shows, but I was sitting here at my PC when Celebrity Circus came on. Now, I love the circus. The Real Thing, Circus of the Stars, Cirque Du Soleil.. I didn't really care that it was a reality competition, it's THE CIRCUS.

I was both impressed and disappointed by the contestants. Almost all of them put a lot of work and effort into their routines. Their routines themselves were simple, not the caliber that you would expect out of a professional, but the fact they worked very hard the past few months on it showed.

Except Blu Cantrell. Even her trainers commented on her lack of effort. In the end, it REALLY SHOWED and she had the gall to feel dissed by the judges scores. Sorry hun, you twirled by your arm once and your leg once on that thing (SpanishWeb). You didn't even climb up it or slide down, they moved the loop for you. Lame.

Kudos to the rest of the celebrities. The fact two of them went on to compete with bone fractures says something. Stacey Dash kicked some ass and Christopher Knight (remember Peter Brady?) on that high wire? OMG, I've been trying to do a high wire on the WiiFit and I SUCK. I can't imagine doing it 40ft above the floor. Still, it was amazing to see footage of the contestants when they started training for these, and then the final product. Wow.

The whole entertainment thing was sealed with a bow watching Louie Spence flirt with all the male contestants, AND telling one of the females that she had him looking at parts that a "man of his persuasion" typically does not look at.

I think I know what I'm watching next week... Gotta get my circus fix.

God save me from Summer Vacation.

Were my brothers and I ever like this? Nearly non-stop fighting and roughhousing. We have downstairs neighbors so I've been trying to keep their running around confined to our second floor, where only I'll be bugged by it. I'm gonna have to suck it up and go suffer in the heat and take them to the park.

Mikey starts his Summer School on Wednesday. That's two more days of them fighting all day. Two days of relative bliss (Audrey is an Angel when Mikey isn't home). Jerry had to work today and I've been nursing the headache. It's not like I can sit them to play the Wii; they fight over it (Audrey's angry screech is The WORST); and Mikey's been grounded from it all weekend. I had him turn it off Friday morning when I came downstairs and he threw a tantrum. There's no summer school on fridays though... Jerry gets this coming Friday off (since he worked today), the weather looks to be a scorcher, there's no SSI on fridays for kiddo, so we're looking at going to Schlitterbahn. I did, after all, go out this past week and get a new bathing suit.

I did the Sunday night ZA raid last week. Jerry came as well. The Raid Leader was short on people and asked me if I hated him too much not to come. I went. I also told him that I'd feel a whole lot better about him if he came and cleaned my apartment. :D I also got loot. Wheee.

There's no way I'm going tonight though. I'm too tired, I've been sitting here for 30 minutes and my back already hurts. The plan is to fold laundry and watch a movie.

The midnight raid is off to a good start. Our first night we got Rage down in Hyjal. Our problems with Anetheron seem to stem from inattention primarily.

Oh, Thursday night Jerry installed this virus called Vista on my PC. It's been rectified.

I used the WiiFit again last night. Wooboy. I think I'll be doing the Step and Advanced Step mostly (although the hula-hoop was a bit fun) for calorie burn. Some of the balance games to work on my legs, Yoga for flexibility, and some of the muscle workouts. Jerry started the WiiFit night before last... Two nights and he's already broken all of my records. Hrmph.

I should try to do some scrapping, or do some farming, but I'm just too "meh" about doing anything productive. I think it is time for some Law and Order and other general lazing about.

Good news and bad news.

The good news is that Michael technically passed the 3rd grade. Yesterday was his last day of school and his report card came home with passing marks. Cs & Bs. And a 90 in Science. The good news does go further in that he passed his Math TAKS on the first try.

The bad news is that he failed his second attempt at the Reading TAKS. In Texas, 3rd graders must pass both the reading and math standardized tests in order to be promoted to the 4th grade.

On the 11th kiddo goes to summer school for a month which will prepare him for his 3rd attempt at the reading TAKS.

Jerry and I have decided, that regardless of whether or not kiddo passes this third attempt, he will be repeating the third grade.

Why bother having him take the test then? Kiddo's reading comprehension is reprehensible. I have no fucking clue how he was managing 3rd grade reading back in Maryland. His reading comprehension causes problems with his math as well, as they do a lot of word problems. He was in specialized tutoring to prep him for his second attempt and his score improved very much. We are hoping that this month of reading focus will continue to build on that and get his reading level closer to the 3rd grade level it is supposed to have been. Taking the test again gives him more practice, and hopefully we can get through to him that speeding through it and being the first done is Not A Good Thing.

Also on the plan for this summer is to (finally) have him evaluated. Hopefully we will get some answers and a plan to help him.

Tea is good. Too bad the green tea tastes like grass. And smells like grass. *sigh* I've been lacing it liberally with the rock sugar, but I think I'm going to start using an artificial sweetener in it. At least the Haute Chocolate is spicy. I've been enjoying the new teas, even though they do cool down quickly in here if I use a mug.

So I am slowly trying to get my sleep pattern moved back to where it's supposed to be. Unfortunately that means pushing myself past being exhausted. I'm thinking tomorrow I'll be back to sleeping at night, instead of during the day.

I did get to take both my (undergeared) shaman and mage to kara runs last week. Made out like bandit. :D I'm really enjoying playing them at the moment. It's a refreshing change from the life of a hunter, or the life of a feral druid. Especially when you get a pally tank and my mage gets to just AOE crap down. Wewt!

I should be watching the latest episode of House that got recorded earlier, but here I am... in front of my computer...

The final count of books read for the first quarter of this year turned out to be 21. 9 of those were manga. Keep in mind that until I moved, I read so much more than this. 21 would be typical of a MONTH, not the total of four. So I'm trying to take time off of WoW to just sit and read. I've already turned Sunday evenings into TV night. I also try to read when I can... Like after a wipe, I crack open an easy-to-put-down book and read for a couple min. Hehe.

I've gotten fairly into the whole games and swaps things on PBS. The Sci-fi/Fantasy Elephant swap was tons of fun. I've also gotten into a buddy swap, WL swap, and a reminder list swap. That's in addition to my montly tea swap and manga swap. Hey, where'd all my credits go... *wink* Tons of fun! My WL buddy has some things on her list that I have on my own. I think I may buy some of those for her.

We still have to get me a new power supply for my PC. My graphics card needs more juice! I can already tell that it's running at less than optimal. Hyjal frame rate is low again. :(

Last week I got to play with Photoshop Elements a bit. Keep in mind, I hate learning out of a book. It's easier for me to figure it out and that way I remember. I had to put 5 pieces of a puzzle together. I figured out how to make layers and move them around. It was fun and I was very happy with myself afterwards. When we get my vid card more juice (and I get these freebie kits extracted and organized) I'll start using some templates to scrap, I think.