Not much to say

Three papers in a row out on time. I wonder if I'll ever be satisfied with a paper. My advisor said that when he was editor at his paper, he couldn't even look at it after a couple of days because he could only see the mistakes.

Kelsey had another soccer game tonight. She scored a goal! Go, Kelsey!

She missed last week's game because of dance. She had an absolute fit about it, saying she would choose soccer a hundred times more than dance. She was utterly livid, punching the air and having a tantrum fit for a two-year-old.

Kayleigh is getting her homework done earlier in the day, which is making for much nicer evenings.

I can't believe how big she is getting. When she wears shoes and I don't, we're about the same size.

Fall and funerals

So. Wednesday. Uh...

I can always tell when it's fall because I go out and buy hot drink mixes like instant cappuccino and odd-flavored teas, Kelsey comes into our bed three or four times a night, and I start thinking about buying new furniture. Never fails. Fall is upon us.

I flicked on the TV this morning, and they were showing Steve Irwin's massive funeral at Australia Zoo. (He was at Australia Zoo the day I was, but I never saw him.) I was shocked when I heard he died, but not surprised given the risks he took. Kelsey was very upset because he died on her birthday. Anyway, I hadn't really been fazed by his death. I never paid much attention to him. But seeing the funeral clips got to me, little Bindi so easily reading that piece of notebook paper, tracing the words with her finger, and Terri having to keep it together, holding Bob in her lap. I'd hate to have my grief so publicized. It's hard enough to suffer the loss of the love of your life, and with your family so young.

Australians seem very proud of how "Australian" Steve was. I wonder how they feel about him marrying an American.

When we were at Australia Zoo, whoever was holding the microphone in the croc show asked who was from America. When I raised my hand, a guy going past said, "American?! Achh!" He held out his hand to me and said, "Here's a ticket. Go home!" So much for that reputation of being such nice people. What a dick. I wonder if he'd say that to Terri. Fortunately, he was the only Aussie ass I met.

I think everyone should travel a lot. Get out of what's normal to them to find out that there are lots of normals in the world and that those normals are OK, too. Easier said than done, of course. When I went to Mexico when I was 16, I thought it was bizarre that most people wanted everything to be the way it was at home. Why bother going anywhere? There's more to travel than a nice view. And there's more to the world than my little way of doing things.

It's just as annoying, though, when you go somewhere and people scorn you because you don't do things the way they do, as though you're handed a rule book to memorize when you step off the plane. Of course some things are serious cultural infractions. But little things just don't matter.

Oh, dear. I feel a serious rant coming on. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. I've done enough of that recently.

How about those Packers, huh? You know, Soldier Field is a little closer than Lambeau...ha! I'm kidding! I'm no fair-weather fan. But I'm saving myself the disappointment and not watching the last nail get pounded into the Packer coffin. These things cycle. Ten, fifteen years, man, we're gonna kick some ass.

Fun times

Instead of getting our work done, we had a family day on Saturday.






Kelsey had her first soccer game. She was delighted and a little scared.







After soccer, we went to Ski-Hi, a local apple orchard. We bought some apples, some carmel apples, some cheese curds. We had a good time just hanging together.










They have a sense of humor at Ski-Hi. A bench next to a sign reminding you to put out your cigarettes.




A crate of nasty apples that they used to sell as deer apples, but that's illegal now, so who else would you feed but your horse?

Sheepish

It has come to my attention that my daughter reads my blog...previous entry edited.

I'm better today.

I don't want people coming to the conclusion that I'm always bitchy. I'm not. And I'm not stressed out over my job. I really enjoy my job. Certainly I wish people did their work on time, but that's something I'll have to deal with forever.

Anyway, anyway--I'm better today.

If you were gay that'd be OK, I mean, cuz, hey-I like you anyway...

I hate it when books or TV shows are inconsistent. I hate it when they change the core of a character or rewrite history. It's flocking annoying and totally cheap.

So, I'm supposed to be making dinner. Flock that, too. None of us look like we've missed too many meals.

My second paper came out on time today. Wow. Two in a row. My advisor says it's a record. It's not a great paper. The design diva made a crap page, and we didn't have time to change it. I didn't write my news article until the day before it went in the paper. I didn't even give it to an editor. I am the editor. Besides, they would have made me change something because it was crap, and I didn't have time to change it.

I'm in a foul mood. Oh, well. I'll go listen to Avenue Q's "It Sucks to Be Me."

So much for Wednesdays

I just have to deal with the fact that I am irregular person. In so many ways, but not in the way that requires high-fiber cereals, thank you very much.

So, it's Thursday already, not Wednesday. I didn't update my precious blog on Wednesday. Flog me.

I broke my cell phone yesterday. I was trying to reach my keys and balance my backpack and my phone with a couple of fingers. It didn't work. The phone fell on the blacktop and made a terrible noise and spewed itself all over the ground. I tried to put the battery back in and turn it on. Very funny.

Fortunately, because I am such an irregular person, I had a spare phone in my dresser at home. So I had a new phone working in no time.

I am avoiding writing an article. I've done an excellent job of procrastinating. I piss around doing everything – anything – but write the bastard thing. I just don't know what I'm doing and I can't get started.

Ah, well. I better try again. I can procrastinate later.

It's not even Wednesday

Does anyone else smell onions frying?

I stopped taking my medication (One of them, anyway - ha!) about a week ago. It's a nasal steroid. When I don't take it, I can smell things. When I do take it, I can't. Out of laziness, I didn't take it for a couple of nights, then I deliberately didn't take it. I felt like shit for a while, but then I felt better again. And I can smell again, which isn't always a good thing.

Do you know how good food tastes? Wow. I've been delighting in everything that's been going into my mouth. (Don't even touch that one.)