Sunday

I didn't post this video yesterday when I talked about TMA's show, so I'll do it today. It's a little snippet of one of their new songs.

Speaking of their new songs (i.e. the ones they went to Idaho this past summer to record), the recording studio has been sending rough cuts to the band members, and I've gotten to listen to them. They're good! I'm excited for this album to come out!

Okay, this next video could either be titled Our Cat is Kind of a Jerk or That Time My Life Flashed Before My Eyes.

Oh, and speaking of cats (Yes, I just used "speaking of" again. That's twice in the same post. Hey, nobody forces you to read here.), we keep finding parting gifts left by Cooper. You know how at the end of his life he couldn't control his bladder anymore? Well, on Friday night we discovered that he had peed inside Baylee's biggest drum bag. We didn't have time to deal with it before we had to leave for the gig, though, so she had to haul her equipment in it like that. And then today we realized he peed on The Art of Bop Drumming, which is Baylee's textbook for her drum lessons.  She had to go to her lesson and explain her lack of a book to her teacher, kinda like "the dog ate my homework."

Saturday

Last night we went to see TMA perform at a benefit concert. They did fine and it was fun.

Here's a picture I snapped of Patty and Mike before the bands started to play. I have to admit I'm kinda proud of it, because it's harder than you might imagine to get these two to look normal at the same time. LOL

And here's a cool one of Baylee that Mike took.

What I actually want to talk about, though, is what happened before TMA went onstage. See, TMA was the second band to play. The first one was a one-man singing/guitar-playing act. Right off the bat there are challenges that go along with that: 1) It's hard to do a one-man act under the best of circumstances. It's just you up there, so you have to work extra hard to maintain the energy of the room. 2) He went on stage at about 5:30pm, and there just weren't very many people at the venue yet. 3) Whoever organized the benefit gave the poor guy an entire hour to fill.

Anyway, so this guy, a 20-something year old, got up there, and he was fine. He was quirky and entertaining, and it was obvious that he has talent as both a singer and guitar player, but, like I said, there just weren't very many people in the room yet. Energy was low. Still, he was doing okay. Suddenly, though, maybe about a half hour into it, he finished a song, angrily threw his guitar down...and I mean that literally. He threw it down...and stormed offstage. Everyone was like, "Wait, what happened? Is this part of his schtick?"

After a little while the guy came back, but he immediately started ranting at the audience for "boring him." Is was weird and kinda scary. Mike, Patty, and I were close to the front, and I thought to myself at one point that if ever I was in a situation where somebody lost their mind and got violent, this was probably it. Once he was done berating the audience, he sat at the edge of the stage and ranted quite a bit more about politics.  A man in charge of the venue (I think?) even went up and gave the guy a hug to try to diffuse him. It worked, sort of, because the guy kind of rallied and at least finished his set.

There might've been other things going on with him...who knows...but I'll tell you something: I've been in that place where you're onstage and you've got a dead audience. I was part of a traveling troupe with Master Arts Theatre for 9 years. Do you think every performance we ever gave was a hit? No! Sometimes, through no fault of our own, it just didn't work. The dynamic wasn't right for whatever reason. Did we give up halfway through? Of course not! Sheesh! We powered through. Everybody knows that's what you're supposed to do. It's called professionalism.

PS: When we got home I told Drew what happened. His response made me smile, because his main concern after hearing about it was Baylee. He knew that she had a new friend there at the show, a girl who had never seen Baylee play before, and he was afraid that she might've gotten a bad impression. Isn't that nice of him to think of that?

By the way, it turned out that Baylee's friend, a very sweet girl named Hope, was fine. She said that it made a great story to tell.  lol

Friday

Tonight Mike and I are going to see TMA play a show. It's been a few weeks for me (They did a show recently that I didn't go to), so I'm looking forward to it.

Here's a recent picture of them taken by a Seattle-based photographer. I like it!

I forgot to tell you something cute that happened at Cirque du Soleil. One of the things they do, and I think it's to kill time while they set up for the next act, is have one of their people entertain the audience, kind of like a clown. Except he doesn't wear silly clothes or have a weird, painted face or colorful hair. In fact, he looks like the other Cirque performers. It's just that his specialty is to do physical comedy, like a young, acrobatic Mr. Bean.

We happened to get center-aisle seats, so anytime a performer came out into the audience they were right in front of us.  Well, of course, this clown came out into the audience. He walked right by us, but when he got to Baylee he stopped, looked at her with a smile, and said, "Look at you!" in an overdone, admiring voice. It was so unexpected and ridiculous that everyone laughed, and Baylee turned red and wanted to crawl through the floor.

Drew said that his French teacher dresses and acts like a hip French woman, his geology teacher talks passionately about rocks in a really thick Italian accent, and his philosophy teacher throws tricky ethical questions out to the class and then lets the students go at it. Sounds like it's going to be an interesting quarter for him!

Finger News

Well, I had that appointment today with an orthopedic surgeon. He said that I tore the ligament in the finger (i.e. jammed it, but severely), and in order to have any use of it again (because right now I have none) I'll need to get physical therapy. He also said that it healed in such a way that it'll always look sort of misshapen, like a Quasimodo finger (my words, not his).

Tuesday

I'm so ready for Baylee to be finished with Driver's Ed, just because it tips her already busy schedule over into too much. For instance, today we had to get up early and get all of school done by around noon, because she had an in-car drive with a teacher scheduled for 12:30. Then she has the actual class in the afternoon. It just crunches our school day, and I like things to have a bit more breathing room.

Speaking of Driver's Ed, I let Baylee drive me to the store, and this conversation happened...

Me:  Okay, did you notice what you did there? That's what's called a rolling stop.
Her:  What?
Me:  There was a stop sign, and you didn't fully stop.
Her:  But there was nobody around.
Me:  I don't care if you're literally the last person on Earth. If you come up to a stop sign, you stop.

#ObeytheTrafficLawsEvenDuringTheApocalypse

It's possible I'm becoming a crazy cat lady, but look at this cute picture I took yesterday. Doesn't he look relaxed?

Monday (2nd Post of the Day)

Zach and Drew are both starting college classes back up again this week. Zach's taking a couple classes that have to do with architecture, and Drew's taking French 1, Geology, and Philosophy.  Hopefully it'll be a good quarter for them both.

You know how when you have a cold sore in your mouth you can't leave it alone with your tongue? Well, my finger is becoming kind of like that. I can't stop slightly bending it, just to see where the pain threshold is. It's like, "Does it still hurt? Yup. What about now? Yup. Now? Yup." I'm weird. (My appointment to see a orthopedic surgeon is on Thursday. Ugh. I have this feeling he's going to say something to the effect of, "You jammed it, doofus. Go home.")

Baylee's going to be on TV next month with the band! I'll tell you more about it when it gets closer, but it will involve playing in front of a live studio audience and doing taped interviews.

And here's Winston sleeping with his chin propped on the edge on the cat tree.

Sunday (But Posted on Monday)

Man, yesterday was fun, but reeeeaaaaalllllly long. I got up at 5:30am to get myself ready and clean the house from top to bottom, and then Patty showed up a little before 8:00. Mike made brunch for us, then I picked up Baylee and Mira (they were at Mira's house), and finally the five of us went to see the Cirque du Soleil Volta show. It was great, as we knew it would be.

To be honest, I liked Luzia, last year's show, a bit better, but it's like comparing one amazing thing to another. You can't go wrong.

The girls.

When we were inside the tent Baylee and Mira decided to buy themselves snacks. It was, hands down, the most expensive bag of popcorn and bottled water in the world. Like, it was legit highway robbery.

Afterward we got pizza, then finally we went home. Patty crashed on the couch for a bit. Doesn't she look cute?

Later in the evening Patty and I watched that new Mr. Rogers documentary (It was wonderful and I highly recommend it!), and then I went to bed at 8:30pm, unable to keep my eyes open any longer.

Advice

Today I have a piece of beauty advice. It's likely the last time I'll ever give advice like this, since it's not really my thing, but here you go:

I don't remember where I learned this, but it's helpful to rinse your hair with vinegar every so often. It makes it soft and silky and takes away any product build-up. I just do it right in the shower. I get my hair wet, pour straight vinegar here and there on my head, rub it all over, then rinse it out. The only down side is that for about a day afterward you smell very faintly like a salad.

Friday

Just look at this cuddly guy. It's almost like he's a hugger.

On Sunday Mike, me, Patty, Baylee, and B's friend, Mira, are going to see Cirque du Soleil. I'm excited! Mike and I went by ourselves last year, and it was such an amazing show that we decided we had to take others with us next time.

Also I really want to bike ride on Saturday morning. I hate to admit this, but I haven't gone since that 100-mile ride. I don't even have an excuse. It just boils down to lack of a plan. When I was riding before, it was because I was following a training plan, and that took a lot of the "I don't want to" element out of it.  Now I feel a bit directionless. I'm not worried about it or anything, but it's about time to get a handle on it.

Tuesday

One thing about homeschoolers is they can tend to call everything their kid does "school," especially if they're accountable to the state for hours spent learning. Suddenly doing the dishes is "home sciences" and playing outside with the neighbors is "creative cooperation." I've never been like that, but it has occurred to me that Driver's Ed is the perfect thing for homeschoolers to get high school credit for. I think it's worth a half a credit, in fact. It's got classroom teaching and tests, labs (in-car drives with a teacher), final exams (the knowledge and driving tests required by the DMV), and lots of homework (driving with parents). I even asked South Ridge about it one time, but they said no. Weird.

Yesterday I made an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon. Ugh. It's so embarrassing that I'm going to see a specialist about something as silly as a finger. The only thing that could be worse is if it was a toe. 

Me...

Driver's Ed

Baylee had her first drive with a teacher this weekend. (It was supposed to be last weekend, but she rescheduled because of Cooper's death.) It went well! She enjoyed it and learned some things. Listening to her talk about it, though, made me remember how horrible my own in-car driver's ed experience was. It had everything going against it:

1. I sucked as a driver. 
2. They made students go out in pairs, and I was put with a popular boy who I was totally intimidated by.
3. The instructor didn't go out of his way at all to be friendly.

Oh, and get this:  One day, about halfway through the course, I woke up really sick, but I went to driver's ed anyway. I did a terrible job, because, like I said, I wasn't great at it in the first place, and on top of that I felt like death warmed over, so after our drive the teacher dismissed the popular kid and made me stay. Then he talked to me about how badly I had done and asked if everything was okay. I'm not sure why, but I lied through my teeth and said I was fine. Finally he let me go home, and that's when I told my mom I didn't feel good. She ended up taking me to the doctor, where it was discovered I had a fever of 102 and strep throat. lol Doh.

All that to say, I'm glad Baylee's experience has been better than mine was.

Edited to Add: I wrote that yesterday (planning to post it today), but since then she's gone out on a 2nd drive with a teacher and a couple drives with me. She needs to work on lane placement and smoothness, but overall she's not bad!

(Taken while we were parked.)

 

Misc. Pics

Yesterday I was out running errands, and I parked next to this awesome car!

Okay, I've never posted something like this before in my life, and I'm pretty sure I shouldn't be doing it now, but yesterday I took this picture. I just bought those pants, you see, and I like how they look from behind. Ahem. I'll just say that weight loss has been helpful.

I know that sweater doesn't really do me any favors, but I don't care. I like my sweaters big and slouchy, like my men. (I'm totally kidding! LOL But I do like cozy sweaters.)

And here are a couple more pics of Winston. Baylee bought that cat tree for him with her own money, and he's been enjoying it.  PS:  I've never felt a cat as soft as this one. It's like he's got rabbit fur.

Saturday

Now that I have adult kids I've noticed something: Once in awhile the tables turn, and instead of me getting after them, they get after me. For instance, a couple days ago Baylee came out of her room wearing a cardigan. "Do you like this sweater?" she asked Drew.

"It's cool," he answered.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I like it."

"Okay, good, because Mom says it makes me look like an aunt Susan."

Drew laughed aloud, but immediately tried to stifle it. Then, still holding back laughter, he said, "Mom! Stop being so judgmental!"

How many times as a parent have I been in that same position? I mean the one where I feel like I should be scolding instead of giggling. It's kinda fun to be on the other side!

Remember how I hurt my finger on a bike ride about a month ago? Well, it still hurts. Also, I can't bend it*, it's bulge-y at the knuckle, the joint clicks if I press my finger down on something, and once in awhile it feels pins-and-needle-ish. I know I should probably go back to see a doctor about it again, but I just hate doing that so much. It's awkward. They weigh you, they make you talk about what's wrong, and they examine stuff. And then ultimately there's the possibility that you're fine and just being a giant baby. Ugh.

 

It occurred to me that maybe you're wondering why I'm not wearing an engagement ring. I had one for many years, but one day I looked down at it and realized that the diamond had fallen out and gotten lost. I was so sad, but it was my fault, because I didn't have it regularly cleaned and taken care of. Maybe someday I'll get another one, but...eh. I'm happy with only a wedding ring, too.

*I've had claustrophobia since I was a child. Usually it's just a garden-variety fear of enclosed spaces, but now and then it comes out in weird ways. One of them lately has been in regard to that finger. The fact that it's stuck in one position (straight) makes me feel slightly trapped. I can laugh about it, but it's still sort of unpleasant.

Friday

I'm so tired today that I'm having a hard time not being grouchy. I just can't seem to get out of my summer nighttime schedule (i.e. stay up until I literally fall asleep holding a book), but I have to get up early, because now it's fall and school has started. Argh.

Baylee said that yesterday at driver's ed the teacher got up in front of the class looking somber, and he said, "Well, this is the first time in two years that the entire class...passed a test!" Everyone laughed and breathed a sigh of relief. Did you know driver's ed is full of tests? If you don't pass one you have to show up a half hour early to the next session and take it again. Anyway, like I said, they had their first test this week, and everyone did well.

Look what somebody posted on FB. I didn't say anything there, but I thought it was the dumbest.

First of all, I don't even think it's true for most women.  I bet most women do have people who help them and care about them. They're not islands. Second, the sentence "Nobody caters to her period" is just confusing. Punctuation matters, lady. Put a comma in there, so we don't think you're talking about having someone serve up tampons on a silver platter.

Wednesday

Here are a few more pictures of our new little guy.

And this happened.

Drew let a friend of his...a girl...cut bangs into his hair. Argh. I'm so annoyed about it, because I hate it. It looks ridiculous. On the bright side, it's not as bad as last year when he asked a different friend...a guy...to give him a homemade, stick-and-poke tattoo on his leg. That time I was furious for three days. Then I was mad again when he went swimming in Lake Washington before he had a chance to heal, and the tattoo site got infected, and he ended up having to take antibiotics.

Mike said that Drew is 1/3 of the way to having a hairstyle like a member of an '80's metal band.

Step 1: Cut bangs.
Step 2: Get a perm.
Step 3: Make liberal use of hairspray.

Voila.

 

Good thing we love him so much. (I mean Drew, not Joey Tempest.)

Tuesday

Did you know that it costs kind of a lot of money when your pet is sick and needs to be put to sleep? First of all, it costs $112 to have the vet administer the drug. Then if you want to have your pet cremated, that's another $56. If you want to be able to bring the ashes home, though, that's $196 instead of $56. Baylee and I had this conversation about it a couple days ago:

Her:  Why didn't we bring Cooper's ashes home?

Me:  Because it was expensive.  And, really, what do we need the ashes for?  They would sit on the bookcase collecting dust. It's better to remember him with pictures.

Her: No, I'd keep the ashes in my room, surrounded by candles, and I'd play "In the Arms of an Angel" on a continuous loop.

lol [eye roll] Best we don't have them then.

Monday

Well, I've got big news, which will prove once and for all that I'm crazy. We got another rescue cat. What happened was:

Baylee was having a hard time with Cooper's death, so I asked her if she wanted to go to the animal shelter to look around. I didn't believe we'd come home with anything. I was just thinking that it might help her think about another pet for sometime in the future. Mike decided to come with us.

The shelter was full of cats, including tons of kittens.

This gray one was my favorite. He was SO CUTE.

Of course, Baylee ended up wanting to rescue one, and she was willing to completely pay for it herself, so we said yes. She spent a long time looking at all her choices, and finally she decided on an adult cat. Both Mike and I were surprised she didn't pick a kitten, but her reasoning was that the kittens would have no trouble being adopted, whereas maybe nobody would want an older one. Long story short, she named him Winston and here he is.

He's huge and unflappable, and he made himself right at home.

I feel like a need to explain a couple things about this picture. 1. All the drum stuff is in the living room, because the carpets were being cleaned in the TV room. 2. Those are Mike's legs, not mine.

In other news, I woke up this morning with a sinus headache, but I was still planning to do school. Then I made myself some eggs for breakfast, smelled them, and promptly threw up (in the bathroom, of course). Now we're taking the day off. I'm pretty sure I'm not sick or anything, though. It's just a bad headache that made me feel ill.

PS: Baylee is simultaneously the best and worst person to be nauseated around. On the one hand, she was super kind and helpful this morning. She gave me a big hug and told me to go back to bed. On the other hand, ever since I got up again, even though I'm still not feeling great, she won't stop talking about what she's going to have for lunch, and she made a special point to tell me how much her new cat has pooped in his litter box.

Mike cleaned all the carpets this weekend.

I got random pictures of both Zach and Drew this weekend. Zach fell asleep like this when he got home from work yesterday.

And I took this lovely snapshot of Drew with the dog, and then realized there's a toilet in the background.

Friday, Part 2

I know it's not all about me, but this day has devolved into crap, and it didn't start out that great in the first place.

I had to get stern with Baylee right off the bat during school this morning, which took me by surprise, because we had such a lovely week together with no issues. She was working with middle-English period Scottish poetry, and, granted, it's difficult, but she wanted me to give her all the answers without putting any thought into it herself. I said no. I told her she needed to do it herself, and then we'd talk afterward and fix any mistakes she made at that point. She threw a fit about it, and I had to be a disciplinarian when all I really wanted was to drink my coffee in peace. Then she stormed off and did the work. Long story short, she ended up doing a great job and apologized for her attitude.

Awhile later we got the results of Cooper's tests and found out he has cancer, lymphoma, so today will be about loving him and tomorrow we'll say goodbye. We're all feeling pretty terrible, but Baylee's having an especially rough time of it (which probably also explains the attitude this morning, at least in part).

Something else happened, too, but blogging...unless it's totally anonymous...has it's limits. I can't always be completely forthright, because it wouldn't be fair to my family and friends. Suffice it to say I'm drained, sad, angry, and I have a headache.

Friday

I've got a couple things I could talk a little bit about today, but they're really disparate and probably shouldn't be in the same post. Hmm. Oh well.

The first is that Cooper is sick. He's been struggling for awhile now in different ways, but over the last week or so it's gotten bad. Mike took him to the vet a couple days ago, and she said it looks like renal failure. She did some tests to be sure, which I think we'll find out the results of today, but if that's what's going on we're going to have to say goodbye to our little guy.  Of course we're all sad, because Cooper has been part of our family for so long and we love him, plus he's just a really nice cat, but at the same time it's obvious his quality-of-life isn't good right now.

The second is that Zach figured out how to play that didgeridoo. He's actually the only one of us who can. It's a lot harder than it looks!

Finally, here's a first week of school report: I'm tired pretty much all the time, because I'm an idiot who hasn't changed my bedtime (ahem...1 or 2am), even though I have to get up a lot earlier now, but other than that everything's great. I'm especially proud of how hard Baylee's working on finishing off Algebra 2. She's flying through it, and should be able to start Precalc within the next month at this rate.

Also, Baylee started driver's ed and has already had three classroom sessions. It's the first legit classroom experience she's ever had in her life, which freaked her out a bit, but she's doing fine. She also scheduled a drive with a teacher for this weekend.

Tuesday, Part 2

One of the exasperating things about teen girls is that sometimes they get all bent out of shape about stuff that doesn't really matter (like the time Baylee went on a rampage because somebody [cough Drew cough] ate the leftover fried rice that she was saving in the fridge), but then other times they don't get appropriately upset about things.

Case in point: Today is Baylee's first day of driver's ed. She was sent multiple emails by the company, telling her where and when to show up and what to bring with her. She ignored them, which is why she didn't have the photo ID that's required for the first day of class. (Because she lost said ID somewhere in New Mexico while she was on tour.) She did order a new one in the mail, but she didn't have it yet. When I got after her about not handling this sooner, her response was a very blithe, "Oh well. It was God's plan!"

Uhhh...no. No, it wasn't. Sigh.

Fortunately, at the last second I found her new ID in a pile of mail that must've come while we were in Leavenworth. Or maybe it's unfortunate, because I'm sure she didn't learn her lesson.

Tuesday

Today was Baylee's first day of her senior year, and it went well. We both woke up and got an early start, and we got through everything easily. In fact, it was very easy for me, because she handled almost all of it on her own. LOL The only thing I did was teach math.

This is going to be a good year.

Monday

Mike said something nice today. He said that he's enjoyed these last five days with me, and that it's given him a taste of what life is going to be like when it's just the two of us. I agree! We've been basically without our kids for several days now, first because we were on a long bike ride, then because we went out of town, then because the kids were all working. It's been nice! You know how married folks sometimes find, when they finally become empty-nesters, that they don't have anything in common with each other anymore? That's not us.

Here's a picture of all the people that played at the last show Baylee was in. I think there were three bands. 

Oh, and Happy Labor Day! We're not doing much. Mike has a class and the kids are working, but I think we might barbecue steaks for dinner.

Sunday, Part 2

This past weekend Mike and I went to Leavenworth, WA, to visit friends. It was a little weird, because just about every other time we've made the trip it was as a family. This time, though, all the kids, ours and theirs, were busy with their own lives, so it was just the four parents. I'm not complaining. It was a lot of fun and really relaxing.

Some pics:

We've gone to Leavenworth so many times over the years, but I've never gotten a souvenir. This time, though, I got a t-shirt. I like the shirt and I'm happy to have it, but what I really like is this:

While we were in the shop I picked a size I thought would fit me, showed it to Mike, and he said, "That's nice, but you need one size smaller." To be honest I thought he was wrong, but I grabbed the next size down anyway, figuring it could be something to work my way toward. Today, though, I tried it on and it fit perfectly! Woo hoo! It's weird, because I haven't been actively dieting lately, but I'm in a smaller shirt size and had to go one hole down on my belt.

And speaking of sizes, now that the century ride is out of the way and this trip to Leavenworth is over, I'm finally dieting again. (In other words, I started up again today.) I'm excited to keep going and get to goal!

PS: I'm still going to ride, but it'll be less. I'm planning to go out a couple times a week in order to maintain a base level of around 30 miles. In January I'll re-evaluate and decide if I want to start training for some organized events.

PPS: I'm also thinking of adding in some lap swimming. I know Baylee would do it with me, which would make it more fun.