Friday, April 13, 2012

rain = no need for sunglasses :(

so today . . .  it rained.

it rained.  here i am, with brand new prescription sunglasses...  and it rained.

the cosmos hates me...

Thursday, April 12, 2012

new glasses = a big smile :)

so today . . .  i got new glasses :)  actually, i got three pair of new glasses :) :) :)

i've had issues with my eyes since i fell and broke my glasses a couple of year ago.  before that, i would get my eyes checked, get a pair of glasses, wear them until i noticed i couldn't see anymore, and then lather, rinse, repeat...

but that cycle was broken when i fell and broke my glasses last year.  my new glasses just didn't seem to work as well as the old ones.  but the problem was, i had my glasses made at a different place than i had the exam.  so, who to blame?  were the glasses made incorrectly?  was the exam faulty? or was the prescription written incorrectly?

 i sort of have my suspicions...

i sort of think that perhaps there was a mistake with the prescription.  but by the time i realized that there was maybe a problem with the glasses and i wasn't just adjusting to a new prescription, it was too late to get anything done.  and i really loved the glasses, so i learned to live with it.  but i was determined that when i was ready for another eye exam, i would get both my exam and glasses at kaiser (where i have insurance.)  then, if there was a problem, i could get help.

so, i made an appointment for an eye exam at the beginning of march.  my plan was to keep my frames (which i love) and just get new lenses.  i had the exam.  i was the first appointment in the morning, because i am convinced that my eyes are worse in the morning.  the doctor said there wasn't much change.  this should have been my first clue that things were not going to go smoothly...  i know i have trouble seeing, especially close up, so when he said there wasn't much change, i should have realized that something was wrong.  but it was early, my brain wasn't really percolating yet, and i needed to get back to work.

i went out to see what it was going to cost to get new lenses, only to discover that my insurance benefit wouldn't kick in until november.  november.  that's seven months away!  and that wasn't the only problem.  the bigger problem was that i only have this one pair of glasses, and since kaiser sends their glasses out for lenses, i would be without any corrective eyewear for two weeks.  which is just impossible.

clearly, i needed a new pair of glasses.  right now.  i took a few minutes to look at kaiser.  i pulled the frames off that i had seen the day before (apparently the woman i helped decided to go another way...)  i asked about the price, and decided nearly $600 was too much for a back up pair of glasses.  because, again, i really like the glasses i have!  i needed another solution...

i scoured the internet.  i checked out target (did you know they have an optical department?  i'm telling you, target has EVERYTHING!)  i found glasses i liked, but the prices were still too high.  and then i saw an ad for glasses at sears. (SEARS has an optical department?!?!?)  it was a screamin' deal for two pair of glasses.  so i went in.  just to check it out...

and i met danielle.  danielle is about 12 years old, and contrary to my previous experiences, didn't wear any glasses at all!  i asked danielle about the special and she explained it to me, finishing with, "look around!  see what you like, and let me know when you are ready for me to figure out the price for you."  ok, i could do that.  because while sears does have an optical department, it is about the size of my bathroom, so it wasn't going to take long...

i was by myself.  shopping for new glasses.  this is usually not a good idea.  except, i have very definite ideas about what i like, so even when someone else is with me, i am pretty much just looking for them to say, "oh yeah, i like those."  danielle was able to fill that need for me, and by the time i was done, she had written up an order for two pair of glasses and a pair of prescription sunglasses (which i have never, ever had before!  good bye fit-overs!) and all for less than it was going to cost me for one pair of glasses at kaiser...

(to be fair, these are not designer frames, and one of them was on clearance.  but i like them.  and did i mention that i also got sunglasses?!?!?  they aren't sparkly.  but, i can take them to the oc swap meet and have the lady who does the very expensive phone covers encrusted with swarovsky crystals add some bling for me.  which is my evil plan for saturday morning... and it is only an evil plan, because i am not telling rollie that i am going.  he has to work on saturday, so he can't go.  and i'm taking diandra, which means it will be fun.  but i don't want rollie to be sitting in meetings, thinking he would rather be with us at the swap meet and feeling all bummed.  so i'm just not going to tell him we are going until we get back.  and that is why i have to label my plan as evil...)

but i had to go home and think it over.  it seemed like a good deal.  and i would finally have an actual pair of prescription sunglasses with non-glare coating on both sides of the lenses--a major benefit when you have to deal with the califoria sunshine nearly every day!  but you know me,  i needed time to percolate, process, and ponder...

which i did, for over a week, until danielle called to remind me that the sale would be ending in two days!  so i quit percolating, processing, and pondering, and talked it over with rollie.  we made a decision (which included the sunglasses-yay!) and the order was placed.  which meant i had to wait.  again.  i am terrible at waiting...

i woke up this morning feeling the anticipation that new glasses always brings.  i went to work, and then i dashed to sears as soon as i clocked out.  danielle wasn't there (which is probably just as well.  she keeps telling me how i HAVE to go see 'the hunger games,' because it is 'the best movie EVER!!')  but i was still able to pick up my new glasses.  all three pair.  and i do think the prescription is better, even if it is only a little bit different...

i certainly hope that these glasses work for me, because once again, i had my eye exam at one place and puchased my glasses at another place.  and i did this mostly because i needed glasses now and kaiser has shut me out until november and sears had such a sweet deal.

but next time... next time i am going to get my act together.  next time i am going to keep track of when my insurance benefits actually benefit me.  next time i'm going to get my exam and my glasses at the same place. next time i will take someone with me to offer a second opinion...

... because now that i have my new glasses at home, i am kind of wondering if a purple sparkly frame was really the best choice...

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

the tv saga continues... but with renewed hope!

so today . . .  i got an email back from samsung.

"Dear Samsung Customer,

We apologize for the inconvenience you have experienced with your Samsung product.

Your request for service has been forwarded to an Authorized Samsung Service Center who will be in touch with you shortly.

Please visit our web site to track the status of any service tickets you have registered with Samsung.

You can also chat with one of our agents to follow up with your service request.

Thank you for being a Samsung Customer

Sincerely,
Rajiv Mehta
V.P. Samsung Service Operations"

i think this is good news.  if they weren't going to cover the damage to the tv, surely they would have told us by now.  surely they wouldn't be kicking this on up the food chain just to finally tell us 'no.'  they've seen the pictures.  they read my letter.  i think this whole warranty thing is going to be the answer!

so i am encouraged.  i am starting to see visions of a 59 inch plasma tv on my family room wall.  without a big crack in it!  i am thinking that i might be able to read the information from shopping tv when i am cooking in the kitchen.  (ok, cooking is maybe a little bit of an exaggeration.  maybe it would be more accurate to say 'when i am preparing food...'  or eating food...)   i am hopeful that we will finally have a tv that is big enough to cover up the damage that the previous owners left on the wall over the fireplace, (which really doesn't matter, because i know that it is there, and one day i am going to have to spackle and paint it anyway... even if no one can see it behind the giant tv...)  i am grateful that i won't have to go back to walmart and try to convince a suspicious customer service person that i didn't impale that giant screen with an ice pick (because that is what it looks like, although it is probably damage from a forklift.)

so thank you samsung!  i look forward to hearing from you...

... i think.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

drugs for the patients? or for the parents...

so today . . .  our doggies were at the vet.  all day.  they had their teeth cleaned...

i know, this sounds crazy.  we've never had any of our dogs' teeth cleaned.  ever.  but milo has really, really bad breath.  and we can't trim mia's nails, which are getting dangerously long.  and both pups need their shots because it is time to renew their licenses.  so when we got a sale flyer from the vet just down the street from us advertising a doggie dental special, we decided to take advantage of it.

our dogs don't have a regular vet.  they are healthy beasts, and usually i just take them to petco for their shots.  but they are getting older, and when we moved to within a mile of a pet hospital, it seemed like a good idea to find a doctor for our pups.  because as they get older, if they have health problems, it would be nice to be able to take them to someone who knows them.  so taking them in to get their teeth cleaned was really only an excuse.  we needed a doggie doctor.

when i called last week to get an appointment, i was informed that before the dental procedure could be performed, our pups needed a pre-op appointment.  ok, i could understand that.  they were going to go under a general anesthesia, so it made sense that the vet wanted to be sure that they were in good general health first.  since the facility is only 3/4 of a mile from our house, we decided to walk the pups to their appointment.  our hope was that they would be relaxed and a little bit tired when we got them there.

it didn't work.

milo took two steps into the waiting room and hit the brakes.  i mean, he HIT THE BRAKES!  i have never seen him do that before.  one second he was walking happily along, and the next second his claws were spread out, his rear end was in the air and his head and shoulders were planted on the floor.  he was not budging!  i called.  i coaxed.  i pulled on his leash.  he didn't move.  i finally had to pick him up and carry him in...

mia, on the other hand, walked in and immediately went into panic mode.  she shook.  her tail was so far forward between her legs that it almost reached her neck!  she was panting.  she jumped up in rollie's lap and down on the floor and up in my lap and down on the floor.  she paced.  she panted some more.  she wanted to be held, but she didn't want to be held.

and this went on for half an hour, because it didn't take us nearly as long to walk 3/4 of a mile as we thought it would, so we were early.  of course.

once i got milo into the waiting room, he was fine.  there was another small dog waiting for their appointment, wearing the 'cone of shame.'  as soon as milo saw her, he started wagging his tail and whining.  suddenly he was mr. personality.  and then a big dog walked in, and milo went into 'who do you think you are? get out of my waiting room!' mode.  he went on point.  his tail stood straight up.  his hackles raised.  he barked!  repeatedly!!  and this obnoxious behavior continued with every big dog that walked in.  i finally took him outside.  which made mia even more nervous!

we couldn't win...

at last they called our name.  we walked into the exam room and met our new vet, dr. marchand.  he was very nice, and milo warmed up fairly quickly.  but mia was having none of it!  her tail was still between her legs.  she was still panting.  she had one eye on the door and one eye on the vet.  after a few minutes, he decided to complete milo's exam and then took him down the hall for his shots.  but mia was... let's just say, very resistant to any contact.  at all.  he finally managed to do a quick exam to make sure that she could undergo the dental procedure, and then said that maybe it would be best to just give her her shots while she was out for the surgery.  and then he gave us some tranquilizers for her.

a smart move on his part :)

rollie had to get up at 5:45 this morning to give mia her tranquilizer, because today was dental procedure day.  the tranquilizer was supposed to relax her so that she wouldn't be so anxious.  and on a normal dog, it probably would have worked, but mia is not normal.  mia likes to be in control and on alert.  rollie gave her 1 1/2 tablets, but she fought off that tranquilizer like her life depended on it.  and so, at 8:00 this morning we sat in the vet's office with a repeat performance of our first visit.

and then they came and took our pups.  i cried.  i cried!  i never cry.  and i knew they were going to be fine, and i knew this was something that needed to be done, but when i watched them walk through that door back to the surgery area all alone, i cried.  there was no way they could understand what was about to happen to them.  i was especially worried about mia, because we got her from the pound, so she had spent at least a few days in a cage, and i was worried that she would think we had sent her away, back to a cage.  and then there is milo... who just needs a face to lick and a lap to sit it.  he is always so happy and loveable.  he was not going to understand being all alone in a cage. 

our dogs don't go anywhere.  they are always at home.  together.  free!  when we go on vacation, we find someone to come and stay at home with them.  so i knew they weren't going to understand why they were all alone in a strange place.  i hoped that the vet gave them something to make them sleep all day... although seeing how mia fought the tranquilizers, i wasn't sure they had enough drugs in the whole place to make her sleep...

it was a long day.  i kept watching the clock and my phone.  i knew they wouldn't do the procedure until about 11:00, and dr. marchand said he would call when they started to wake up around 3:30, and so i waited and watched.

at 3:30 my phone rang.  the puppies were fine.  well, mia was fine.  milo had to have 6 teeth removed and was going to have to have an antibiotic for a week, but he had survived.  their teeth were clean, their shots had been given, and their nails were trimmed.  we went to pick them up and mia was sooo ready to go home!  milo just kept looking at me like, "don't ever try that again!"

my only hope is that their little doggie brains will forget today's ordeal.  because i know this is not their last trip to see the vet.  i know they are going to have to go back.  they will need shots again.  they will need their nails trimmed again.  and it is possible that they will need their teeth cleaned again...

maybe next time rollie and i should take the tranquilizers...

Monday, April 9, 2012

if you throw yourself on their mercy, how can they resist?

so today . . .  i am like a dog with a bone.  i just can't let it go...

it's the tv.  the new tv.  the broken tv.  it was such a good deal.  there has to be a solution...

yesterday while i was sitting on the couch, eating the universal "i've been sick and i don't want to throw up ever again" food, watching the small tv (ok, it isn't really small, it just looks that way now that i've seen a monster tv up there...) on the big wall, i had a thought.  i'm not sure it was a good thought, since my brain hasn't had anything to eat for nearly 48 hours, but still, it was a thought.  "why didn't we buy the extended warranty on that tv?!"

and then i sat up!  (figuratively.  my brain sat up.  my body was still reclining.)  "wait a minute," i thought.  "we didn't buy the extended warranty, but it came with a one year warranty.  maybe the warranty will cover the cracked screen!"  so when rollie started talking about filling up the back of the prius with the tv and taking it back to walmart, i said, "let's wait until i can contact samsung.  maybe this will be covered under the warranty!"  he looked at me doubtfully, but since his least favorite thing on the planet to do is to return something (especially a giant plasma tv with a cracked screen,) he gave in quickly and left me to it...

i had a plan.  so i came home from school today and called samsung.  i talked to a customer service guy who kept telling me how sorry he was that we were having this problem!  he kept putting me on hold to go check on things.  he finally told me to take some pictures and email them, and he would transfer them on to the service center.  and again, he was so sorry we were having this problem with a samsung product!

 ok!  now i was getting somewhere!  the only problem was, we had already boxed the tv up so we could return it.  but unboxing it was a small price to pay to get it fixed, right?  well, yes, but it still wasn't easy.  that tv is heavy and bulky, and lifting it up out of the box, and worse yet, putting it back in, was no small feat.  but we did it. and i had my pictures...

i took pictures of everything!  and then i wrote an email, included the pictures, and ended with this--"we have always had good luck with our samsung products and are hopeful that this situation can also be resolved in a positive way."  surely, i thought, they would not be able to resist my hopefulness.  surely they would take one look at those photos and think, "what a terrible thing!  how quickly can we send these nice people a brand new tv??"

yeah, i know, i live in a dream world...

but you just never know.  stranger things have happened!  right?

i guess we will see...

so now we sit and wait.  they said i would hear from someone within 24-48 hours.  i am hopeful that when i hear from someone, it will be to ask me when i will be home so that they can bring me a new tv.  one without a broken screen...

... because i'm not going to lie.  i am not really excited about the idea of having to load that thing back into the prius and hauling it back to walmart and convincing the customer service person that i did NOT break the screen after i got it home...

Sunday, April 8, 2012

it sucks to be sick... especially on the weekend...

so today . . .  i am sick.  as a dog.  and it's easter!!

i got sick friday night.  in the night.  you know what that means...  i spent all day yesterday trying to keep the stuff inside my body that belonged there, but my body was not very cooperative.  so i spent the day laying on the couch, unsuccessfully ingesting saltines and 7-up, and trying to stay awake.  because even when i am sick, i have a plan...

i had a plan for yesterday.  my plan was to get up early, go to the nursery and buy beautiful flowers to plant, come home and plant them, take a shower, and then spend the afternoon at angels stadium (collecting my free blanket giveaway and watching them win!)  none of these things happened, because i was sick.  as a dog.

so i naturally went to plan b.  which was to lay on the couch with my computer and work on the wedding album i am designing, catch up on my emails, maybe learn how to use a few of the gazillions of apps i have downloaded onto my ipad.  because just because i was sick, was no reason to waste a perfectly good saturday, even if i didn't get to buy plants or go to the ballgame or get my free blanket...

i thought i would accomplish all of this while watching tv on the new tv we bought yesterday for the family room.  we decided if our tax return would cover it, we would get a bigger tv for the family room, so i could see it better while i am in the kitchen.  (yes, sometimes i am in the kitchen!  especially now when i can watch tv while i am in there!!)  and also because when it comes to tvs, rollie thinks bigger is always better.  in fact, i had to measure the space to be sure he didn't come home with one that was TOO BIG FOR THE WALL SPACE, because that was a real possibility...  but this morning when rollie unpacked the tv and prepared to install it on the wall, he found a big crack across the screen!  which means the tv probably has to go back, and now rollie is seriously bummed, because we got a really, really good deal on this particular tv (with the crack... could there possibly be a connection?) and there is no way we can afford an unbroken tv of the same size.  which means, we are going to have to go smaller.  but now that he has seen how a really, really big tv looks on that wall, anything smaller is not going to make him happy...

stupid crack.

i tried to do the computer stuff, but i had no energy and no brain.  it was taking everything i had to keep from being "sick."  ok, so on to plan c--catch up on all the stuff my tivo had been recording.  i settled in with the remote (only now it took two remotes to operate the tv, because the better tv that was in the family room was now in the bedroom, and the inferior tv was in the family room, instead of the guest bedroom where it was headed.  and if you are planning to someday sleep in that guest bedroom, you should know that it isn't a bad tv--it just doesn't play well with tivo.  and since there is no tivo in the guest bedroom, it will be perfect there.  but it isn't perfect in the family room...  especially when there is a 59 inch plasma tv just sitting there in a box... with a crack in it... stupid crack!)  i watched one show, but had to keep rewinding it because i kept falling asleep.  i finally gave up and just went to sleep.  but my phone kept beeping with text messages and facebook updates.  and yes, i could have just shut the phone off, but rollie was at the angels game, without me.  what if he needed me???  what if he got hit in the head with a foul ball and was unconscious??  what if he had an accident on the way home???  so i left the phone on and just dozed...

when rollie got home (safely) from the game, i was still on the couch.  he gave me the terrible news that the angels had not won, but the good news that our friend dan, (who graciously used my ticket,) had also graciously given me the free blanket from the giveaway (and by graciously, i mean with many sighs and talk of what a sacrifice it was...)  i decided i had been up long enough.  i trudged up to bed and finally slept.  and didn't throw up!  i thought that was a good sign. 

but not good enough for me to accomplish my plans for today.  since i hadn't been able to keep anything down yesterday, i figured my plan b for today was going to mostly consist of trying to eat and drink and not get sick.  no church (on easter!!)  no ballgame (which they lost... i think i might be the angels good luck charm.  they are 1-2 this season, and they won the game i was at.  so, yeah, i think they should be paying me to come to their games...)  and no orange chicken (which was my plan for easter dinner, which was going to be eaten at the ball park, in the more than warm enough sunshine.)

my weekend was pretty much a total bust.  why i couldn't have been sick on a tuesday and wednesday, or wednesday and thursday is beyond me.  in fact, i am seriously considering being sick just one more day...  after all, i accomplished NOTHING this weekend...

...well, except for collecting my free angels blanket.
 thanks dan ;)

Saturday, April 7, 2012

friday, part 2

so today . . .  we went to our first angels game of the season.  (i know, i know, that is how the last blog started, but then i got sidetracked about the tv...)  we were so excited!

this was going to be a new experience for us.  we have never had season tickets to anything.  we have been to angels games before.  we know some people who have season tickets, and when they can't go, sometimes they give us their tickets.  and they have really, really good seats!!  our seats are not "quite" that good...  or even close.  but we think they are going to be fine.  they are on the top level just past third base, which is the side of the stadium we like.  and after 2:00 p.m. they should be in the shade.  at least, that is what they told rollie when he bought the tickets.  i hope that is true, or i will probably not be going to many day games...

but this was not a day game.  this was a friday night game (which meant fireworks at the end,) and the first game of the season (which meant a giant flag on the field, david cook singing the national anthem, and a military flyover.  i took video of all of this, but it is too big to use... now i wish i had just taken photos.)

 we were so excited.

we left an hour and a half early, and i didn't even complain.  not once!  traffic on the freeway wasn't bad, so it didn't take us long to get there.  we have this cool parking pass that lets us into a special parking lot, but we weren't sure where it was.  as it turned out, navigating the freeway traffic and finding the parking lot turned out to be the easy part...

the reserved parking lot was on the first base side of the stadium.  which was a bit of an issue since our tickets were on the third base side.  no problem, we thought, we will just drive around...  that turned out to be impossible!  there were sheriffs on horseback, little old guys in red vests and hats trying to direct traffic that didn't want to go where they wanted it to go (including us!) 

and then...  we ended up... in the tailgating section!!!  i didn't even know there was a tailgating section, but let me tell you, those people just sort of took over their part of the parking lot!  it was crowded with not just cars, but people as well... and those sheriffs on horseback.  who, btw, were going the wrong direction!

it was a nightmare.

one of the parking attendants finally stopped us and asked if we were lost.  "yes!" we said.  he stopped traffic and let us go in through an exit.  maybe he thought we were a traffic hazard, or maybe he just didn't want to see us go around one more time.  either way, it got us out of the line of fire and into a safe place...

...but when you park on the third base side of the stadium and your tickets are in the top section on the first base side of the stadium, you have a loooong walk ahead of you.  trust me.  and so, walk we did... along with 44,106 other people...

we have decided that next time we will forgo any special treatment and park in the regular lot on the first base side of the stadium.

still, we got to our seats with plenty of time to spare.  but that worked out great, because since this was the first game of the season, there were lots of preliminary festivities.  (which i can't show you, because as i said, i took video instead of photos!!  next time i will know better...)  but i did get a few pictures.  this is our new superstar player. 

i think his last name is puhjoles.  don't ask me how to pronounce it--it's embarassing--but he is apparently a home run megahitter.  and he is from cuba (which, now that we have a cuban son-in-law, seems noteworthy enough to mention.)

puhjoles chose not to hit a home run tonight.  in fact, nobody was hitting much of anything. it was a slow game.  at the seventh inning stretch, the score was still 0-0.  i was beginning to doubt all the hype i had been hearing about our angels this year.  so far, i wasn't seeing any of it...

and then, there was the seventh inning stretch.  apparently david cook had left the building, because his was not the voice we heard.  instead, a young teenaged girl (who was pretty good,) led the whole stadium in "God bless America," and then, "take me out to the ballgame," followed by the traditional "build me up, buttercup!"  yes, it was quite an eclectic musical interlude...

and then... the rally monkey made his first appearance of the season.


the rally monkey comes out after the seventh inning stretch if the angels are behind.  and that thing is magic!  angels fans tend to be pretty laid back.  as a whole, they don't really get on board with the whole "let's make some noise!" stuff.  they will make a little noise.  they will cheer and boo according to what is going on.  but they are not the wild and crazy fans that some teams have...

...until the rally monkey comes out.  then the crowd gets loud!  (maybe it is because they have been drinking for two hours by then.  i don't know, but i choose to think it is more about cheering their team on to victory!)  people dance.  people swing their rally monkeys around.  people yell.  it gets crazy...

and the team scores.  not every single time, but often enough.  they score.  not only does the rally monkey inspire the angels to score, but he also strikes fear into the hearts of the opposing teams.  he is a double threat.  and tonight, he worked his magic, and we won.

not without incident though.  i got beaned with a cell phone...

i was sitting in my seat, minding my own business, eating nachos (because really, i go to the games for the food, freebies, and fireworks,) when something whacked me on the head.  at first, i thought it must be a stray ball, and i was wondering why it had struck my head instead of resting in rollie's hands!  because surely if a stray ball had come near us, he would have caught it... or at least knocked me out of the way... or thrown himself over me to protect me!  but there i was, with a knot on my noggin, and enough pain that i was seriously considering crying.  and the ball was still on the field.  don't ask me why someone's cell phone was flying through the air, or why it landed on MY head instead of the thousand other places it could have landed...  i kept rubbing my head.  i'm sure the people behind me thought i was a big whiny crybaby, but that thing felt like it had been dropped from outer space!  i'm telling you, if i ever get hit with an actual stray ball, i will probably just die...

then again, maybe not.  i was pretty darned brave when i broke my wrist!  let's just hope we never have to find out...

but i survived.  and the angels won.  and since it was friday night, there were fireworks! i told rollie when he bought these tickets that i probably wouldn't go to all the games.  i know there will be other people that he would like to take once in a while, and i am good with that--especially during those weeks when they play every single night of the week.  "but," i said, "i want to go to the friday night games.  all of them."  why?  because there are fireworks at the end on friday nights, and i looooove fireworks!!

especially on a night when we win.  although on a night when we win, more people stay for the fireworks, which meant that getting back to our car and out of the parking lot was a bit of an ordeal.  clearly we had parked on the wrong side of the stadium!  it felt like we were salmon swimming upstream to spawn (wow, two hunting and fishing metaphors in one day!  my oregon roots must be showing.)  but we finally made it back to our car and onto the freeway...

...which seemed oddly safe after navigating the stadium concourse and parking lots!

one game down, eighty one to go...

:)



Friday, April 6, 2012

friday, part 1

so today . . .  we went to our first angels game of the season.  it was so much fun!  we were so excited!!

and then our tax return popped into our bank account...

"let's go get a tv!" rollie said.

the first time rollie walked into our new house, before we knew it was going to be our new house, he said it knew it was the right one.  he said he just knew it when he walked in the door.  i sort of think he knew it when he saw the gigantic tv on the wall in the family room!  of course that tv did not come with the house, but i know rollie has had visions of a huge tv in that spot ever since that day.

but big tvs are expensive, and not in our operating budget.  income tax returns however, can sometimes cover non-budgeted and non-essential items like big tvs.  so the minute that return hit our bank account, rollie was ready to go.

i, of course, was a little slower to get with the program.  i kept thinking about all the other things we could do with that money.  rollie kept saying, no we couldn't, the money was for a tv--we had agreed.  and he couldn't understand why i wasn't more excited about it, since it was going in the family room which is where i watch most of my tv.  really, this tv was for me!

uh huh...

so off we went.  but our time was limited, because we had a baseball game to go to!!

he wanted to go to costco.  i wanted to go to walmart.  we decided to check out walmart first, then go to costco, then make a decision.  this is the way i shop.  it is not the way rollie shops, but for some reason, today he agreed to my methodology.  which turned out to be a blessing and a curse...

when we got to walmart, it looked like they were clearing out all their tvs!  the tv wall was half empty!  we had decided to get the biggest led tv we could afford.  it probably wouldn't be as big as we wanted, but we didn't have thousands of dollars to spend, so we would have to be content with what we could get!  we found a couple of possibilities to keep in mind as we went to costco.  and then, as we were walking out of the electronics department, we found a 59 inch plasma tv on sale for a ridiculously low price!  i whipped out my phone and started researching online.  rollie whipped out his phone and scanned the upc code.  his way was faster, and in a couple of minutes he discovered that this tv was selling for less than half of its suggested retail price!  bargain!  bargain!!  bargain!!!  but we showed great restraint, walked away, and went to costco to compare.

costco had a lot of tvs, but the one we would have wanted was about $400 more than the one at walmart.  we debated between plasma and led.  we debated the difference in price.  i did some more online comparisons, and we finally decided to get the one at walmart... if it was still there.

and it was.  now we were excited!  we paid for the tv, declined the three year extended warranty, and waited for a store employee to bring the big rolling cart so we could get that thing home!  rollie kept saying, "we are going to have to call diandra and have her come pick us up in the rodeo.  this will never fit in the prius!"  but i knew it would.  i had measured it!  they rolled it out to the car, and the walmart employee took one look at the prius and just shook his head.  "trust me," i said, "it will fit!  i measured it!!"  they both looked at me like i was a crazy person, but when dealing with a crazy person, i guess it is best if you give them what they want... so they picked it up and tried to put it in the car... and it wouldn't fit.

"no, wait!" i said, "you have to put it in straight, not at an angle!"  they still weren't convinced.  i could see it in the way they rolled their eyes.  but i knew it would fit.  did i mention that i had measured it???  so i went over to one side and helped them lay it down flat, and guess what?  it fit.  perfectly.

well, nearly perfectly.  we thought the back might stick out a little bit, but rollie moved a few things around inside the car and found us a couple of extra inches which is all we needed to get the back of the car closed.
while he was doing that, i was dancing around on the sidewalk, giving myself a thumbs up, and saying to anyone who would listen (and even some who didn't quite know what to think of me, including the walmart employee) "oh yeah! listen to the girl!! oh yeah!  listen to the girl!!"

we had bagged and tagged our tv!  and successfully put it in the freezer!  (not really!  it's a hunting expression!  it was actually sitting in the entryway...)  but since we had used my method of shopping (check out every possibility before making a decision,) rather than rollie's method of shopping (buy the first one you see and go home,) now there was no time to install the beautiful new tv...

..because we had a game to go to!

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

counting the days...

so today . . .  i've smacked myself in the head more than once.  it's just been that kind of day...

my class is falling apart.  i don't know what is going on.  maybe it is spring fever, although, when you live in the land of perpetual sunshine, spring never really disappears.  i mean, we haven't made the kids wear their coats outside more than four or five times all winter.  and even when we do, after five minutes, the fence is covered with tiny little coats that have been shed amid cries of, "but i'm HOT!!!!"

unless, of course, it is "raining."  just let a southern california kid feel a drop of moisture fall from the sky onto their skin, and they will carry on like they are going to die!! 

but i digress...

my class is falling apart.  it has been a wild and wooly year.  which is part of the reason why i haven't blogged too much about school this year.  my year has mostly consisted of trying to gain and maintain some kind of control with a group of kids that seem to be oblivious to the fact that i am actually in the classroom and in charge...  i don't like to yell, but i confess that i have had to raise my voice more than once or twice, JUST TO BE HEARD!!  i have a bell that has worked well with previous classes, but this class has not responded in the desired way to the bell, so the bell has been relegated to the closet...

at any given moment, there are probably two girls arguing, a little boy doing ninja moves, one child hitting or pinching someone (or preparing to hit or pinch someone,)  a girl crying, "he hurt my feelings!" two children throwing toys that are not meant to be thrown, one child grabbing the ONE white trapezoid shaped lego from another child, who is yelling, "I HAD IT FIRST!!!" and then grabbing it back, while the other child yells, "HE TOOK MY LEGO FROM ME!!!!"   there will be at least two children fighting over the same book, maybe three, and one child taking forever in the bathroom... and you know what that means...  two children will be pulling the bin of wooden beads back and forth, both trying to get it closer to them, until the whole thing falls on the floor and beads go everywhere...

to be fair, there will be a couple of little girls and maybe a little boy who will be doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing... until they get hit with a flying toy or become the victim of the hitter/pincher or ninja boy.  and then, all bets are off...

outside play time is more of the same, only to the tenth power!  it is a constant battle to keep kids happy and safe amid out of control bike riders, boys who insist on playing power rangers and star wars, and girls who form exclusive groups or guard the slide so no one but their friends can use it.  if it weren't for the warm sunshine, recess would be a nightmare...

today i was standing on the edge of the playground, soaking up the sunshine, when chloe came running up to me.  "they won't let me play with them!" she said.  "who?" i asked.  "lucy and nigel.  they won't let me play with them!" she repeated.  "why not?" i asked.  "they just said i can't!!" she wailed.

there are times when i send kids back into the battle with instructions instead of solving the problem for them.  i want to teach them to deal with their issues on their own.  but sometimes, with some children, they just need a little help.  this was one of those situations.  "alright," i said, "come on.  let's go see if we can work it out."  we walked over to where the kids were playing.  "chloe said you guys wouldn't let her play with you." 

i do this a lot.  i just state what is happening and wait to see what they will say.  it makes them think.  which is what they did.  i was suddenly met with blank stares.  that's the look i get when they don't want to tell me what is going on. 

i picked the child who was most afraid of getting into trouble.  "nigel," i said, "what happened?  why won't you let chloe play with you?"  he looked at me with his big eyes and said, "because, there is already a sister, and chloe wants to be a sister."  "can't there be two sisters?" i asked.  "no," he said, "we already have a sister!"  the wide-eyed "am i going to get in trouble" look was now gone, replaced with a look of "duh!  how can you even ask such a dumb question?!?!" look.  "but you guys are just pretending.  lucy isn't really your sister either.  since you are pretending, can't you just pretend that there are two sisters?" i asked.


this is a tricky situation for a four year old.  he knows what he wants.  he knows what i want.  he knows that he doesn't want what i want.  but i'm the teacher.  i have the power to banish him to time out for the rest of his life (or at least the rest of recess, which feels like the rest of his life to him,) and so the wheels are turning... he is trying to decide what the right thing is to say that will keep him out of time out, but also let him play the way he wants to.  finally he gave in.  "ok," he reluctantly said, "she can be a sister."

yes!  victory!!  and i didn't even have to mention time out!  i turned to tell chloe that she can now play the game she was dying to play with the kids she was desperate to play with... and she was gone.

SHE WAS GONE!!  there i was, using my teacher powers to get her into the game, above the protests of the children who didn't want to expand the game. and she was gone.

i looked around and spotted her across the playground riding a scooter, amid the insanely crazy bike riders.  "CHLOE!" i yelled, "I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO PLAY WITH NIGEL AND LUCY!"  another blank stare.  "WHAT???" she said.  "I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO PLAY WITH NIGEL AND LUCY!  THEY SAID YOU CAN PLAY.  YOU CAN BE A SISTER!"  i'm thinking she will be thrilled!  i am thinking she will drop that scooter and hustle across that playground so she can "be a sister."  but she doesn't.  "BUT I'M RIDING THE SCOOTER!" she yells.  and then she takes off on the scooter in the opposite direction...
  
this is what i am talking about.  the drama.  the attention span of an ant. and did i mention the drama??

my kids are slowly killing me this year.  but the truth is, it is april.  we only have nine weeks of school left.  if i haven't gotten them whipped into shape by now, the sad truth is, it isn't going to happen.  i've tried my best, but some years are just like that.  individually, i like them all.  but together??

together, they may drive me to drink...

;)