Sshhh...I'm savoring my last week of freedom

[i_calql8]

And you think kids are the only ones who enjoy summer vacation?

Life makes sense again...Cubs have taken 5 of their last 6, including a four game frikkin' SWEEP of the evil Suds in their own crib. *smacking lips together* It's just...too sweet. Hee hee hee hee...We were hanging by a thread to our NL Central lead, but now it's ballooned back out to a full 4 games. Cubs Magic Number: 47.

This coming week I head back to the hated confines of my high school. Thursday is my first official day back, and I still have to take the rest of my things from my old room to my new one. Then I have to put it all in its proper place. I actually have more places for my stuff than I did back in my old classroom, plus I actually have counters and cupboards.

I discovered a veritable golf course in my front yard earlier this week. Ground squirrels. I flushed as many holes as I could see--some of them took almost half a minute to fill--and I actually managed to flush one of the little suckers out of his hole. I used the nozzle to scoot the little beggar to the next yard, where hopefully he'll leave me alone.

#2 son got food poisoning from his last meal of chicken nuggets. No reversal of fortunes yet, just a very ragged-looking teenage kid.

I spent a good portion of the week bagging and boarding new comics I just received. I got a cache of 10 boxes of comic books from a friend, most of which are 70s or earlier. Lots of romance, funny animal, Archie, and war comics, but sprinkled in are some nice super-hero comics--so far I see two copies of Spidey #129, Iron Man #2-20, Atom #1, among others...I'll let you know once they're boxed and catalogued. So far, there's quite a bit of dross, but overall, it's a pretty sweet collection.

Trouble is, although I was supplied with over a thousand bags and boards, it only covers half the collection. I have to wait for more to arrive so I can finish the job. My comics store just can't supply me that many.

On the other hand, this is a problem I kinda like :-)

Our satellite remote went all verklempt, and so I had to venture into the satellite service's website. Last time, I had to undergo this ordeal by phone, which was soooooo much fun. This time, I had to come up with my account number...hard to do when you do your business online and get no paper receipts or invoices. Once I dug up one old invoice, the rest was easy. Wasn't even charged for the remote, because the online rep's records said that I had had the same remote for 4 years, and that was long enough for anyone (I did correct her on this, but she just said "it'll be our little secret"...yeah, hers, mine, and the guy who makes the transcript's).

Spouse and #2 son spent the week in Utah for a camp that teaches Shakespeare. I spent the time bagging and boarding, but also cleaning the sons' rooms, shovelling out months upon months of crap and putting it in garbage bags, stacking DVDs and VHS movies, books, and throwing clothes on piles for them to sort out later. I found over $7 in change, too...I'm keeping it...cleaning fee.

The clothes are the most daunting...I never know which ones are still wearable, and which are too small. In the case of #1 son, his more offensive shirts and ones with rappers on them, I think, will mysteriously disappear. *angelic face* "Why, your 'Tupac 4ever' shirt? I have no idea what could have happened to it."

Okay, Cubs and Suds win, Deadbirds lose. I got the cubs game preprogrammed into the remote before it melted down, too. Nice.

More later, dear friends.

Comments

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

Ya know, depending on the species of ground squirrel, scientists would pay good money for healthy animals. They're becoming a hot new species for certain types of research.

;-)

Probably more money in comic books though.

I loathe those rapper shirts, and our son's biological mother is one of those Tupac fans, so as he gets into his teens, she'll probably buy them for him. It's bad enough that she infected him with her adoration of Michael Jordan. At least we can point to Darrell Green and Art Monk as Hall of Famers now. I know, wrong sport. Listen, I'd rather he became a Cubs fan than a Michael Jordan fan.

[i-calql8.livejournal.com]

I loathe anything related to rap, the short explanation being that it requires little talent to be profane, materialistic, and misogynistic in verse. I tell my students "Rap is not music, it is talking to a beat. One gets the same effect reading Dr. Seuss, and without the parental advisory labels, too."

*waits to hear about the axe Miss etumukutenyak has to grind for Michael Jordan

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

Well, for starters, have you ever heard anything about MJ's charities or camps for kids or any public display of humility?

Nope, me neither.

Secondly, I watched/read about his behavior with Kwame Brown, a high school boy selected in the NBA draft by the Wizards. The poor child was bullied by MJ, just as the adults on the team were.

Thirdly, MJ elbow checked a team mate during a summer workout, and left him with broken ribs, necessitating a trip to the IL before the season even began. Who checks a teammate that hard -- and in the offseason?

He's not a nice man. If my son wants an athlete to look up to, he can start with David Beckham, Pele, Ronaldo, Zizou or Darrell Green. Even Gilbert Arenas would be sufficient.

Feh.

I am being used as a cat foot rest. It is time to go to sleep.

[i-calql8.livejournal.com]

Off the top of my head, Cubs deserving of praise in the humanitarian sense are Kerry Wood and Ryan Dempster. Both are grateful to having their lot in major league baseball, and give a lot back to Chicago. Plus, they're great guys.

So...who are these sports figures you mention? ;-)

I actually heard my cat purr the other night, for the first time. Spouse and #2 son were away, so she would quietly purr as I pet her under her chin. Hey, if it helps her leave me alone so I can sleep, I'm all for it.

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

;-) The first four are football -- excuse me, soccer players. Beckham is British, Pele is Brazilian, as is Ronaldo; Zizou is French (Zinedine Zidane), and Darrell Green is an American NFL player.

Actually, my son complained the other day that I hadn't told him the Tour was riding -- he asked about it on the last day. Oops. He kinda sorta got hooked when Lance rode his last Tour, so I should have reminded him. Ah, well, next year.

[i-calql8.livejournal.com]

Soccer? People in America still watch that? ;-)

Wasn't Zidane the guy who head-butted the ref at the last World Cup?

Yeah, Lance is a man, seriously...beating cancer and taking the Tour for the better part of a decade. I think he's pretty much earned my respect in perpetuity.

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

Zizou hit an opponent. Granted, the other player had been a huge jerk all along, and was fouling Zizou, and then flopped on the field following the head-to-the-chest routine.

[germankitty]

If I offer you homemade cake(s) again, would you be willing to fly over to clean up MY son's room, too? (You can keep any change he has lying around, too; with the exchange rate of the dollar vs. the Euro, you might even make more of a profit! *grins*)

My offspring is currently stuck in traffic driving away from this little junket, where he's spent most of the week since Wednesday; next week he'll be at a LARP about halfway to home. He graduated from high school in June 2006; I haven't been able to step into clean his room without risking life or limb since before then. *groans* I could REALLY use the help ...

As for athletes, Lance Armstrong may have been an idol once for overcoming so much adversity and his successes; however, he STILL hasn't cleared his name of doping suspicions, so ... I'd rather go with Beckham and his ilk. :)

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

I know people are suspicious of Lance Armstrong, but I'll just point out that he was allowed to use Epoeitin during his recovery from cancer, which was clearly picked up in routine screening while he was not racing. I think the allegations of doping are coming from people who (1) misunderstood what was said or (2) are deliberately stretching the truth into falsehoods. Sure there was the training assistant who claimed she was told to "dispose of the syringes", but first of all, it's not illegal to have syringes. There are medications that are allowed even on Tour. Secondly, if she actually suspected illegal doping, she'd have made more of a difference if she'd marched over to the Tour organizers with the syringes in hand, for testing.

He's not exactly the nicest fellow when he gets angry, so there's ruffled feathers all over. However, in one of those odd coincidences that life brings, one of my partner's cousins was a tri-athlete and extreme racer who actually knew Lance in his pre-Tour days, and is a fellow cancer survivor also works occasionally with him. He pointed out that Lance never failed a single test in 7 closely-watched Tours, unlike other riders. I think this indicates that he was a clean rider, and not that he slipped through while others got caught.

I know our host can calculate the odds that Lance would have been doping yet uncaught despite all the tests -- as stage winner, as maillot jaune, as Tour winner -- in seven Tours. Add in the testing off-season that all professional bike riders must have -- no choice allowed -- and I think the odds will be extremely small. Minuscule. After all, Michael Rasmussen was dismissed from the team simply for missing the required testing and lying about his whereabouts during that time. That implied he was deliberately avoiding the testing.

Finally, I'd take Lance over MJ any day -- Lance continues to work with charities and cancer patients. MJ hasn't done anything nearly as visible for anyone but himself.

Beckham is getting too old to be a playmaker on the field, but he's still a fine athlete and worthy role-model..and he never head-butted an opponent, unlike Zizou. ;-)

[germankitty]

Well, I'm willing to give him the benefit of doubt -- at least he wasn't a complete idiot about it like Jan Ullrich, who'd been suspended for getting caught using drugs even before the whole doping mess. It's gotten so bad, nobody really knows what or whom to believe anymore ...

IMO, they should have official event doctors dispensing certain medicines under strict supervision, like cold remedies. NOBODY's up to par in general with certain, suddenly-occurring infections, and I kinda doubt that any athlete could boost their regular performance with codein, say, when they're having the flu, so why not treat the symptoms at least? Oh well.

Agreed on Beckham as an athlete, but he's still a VERY good-looking guy -- and overall seems to be a devoted family man (except for that one lapse a couple of years ago). I even kinda like his soft voice!

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

Poor Jan Ullrich -- he never had a chance once Armstrong came back. I still think the Tour should have let Astana race, and seen if they caught anyone -- after all, they ended up catching Saunier Duval-Scott. I agree with your point about Tour doctors. There are official Tour docs, so I am not sure why they don't play a bigger role.

Anyway, Beckham's still got star power even in the US. ;-)

[i-calql8.livejournal.com]

Geez, I write about cleaning my sons' rooms, and all of a sudden, people think I'll just go to their houses to clean th--wait, did you say homemade cake???

[germankitty]

I did indeed ... I can offer you Danube Waves, or CreamCheese Cake, or Rehruecken (a chocolate-almond cake), or Obsttorte (fruit tart, usually eaten with heaps of freshly-whipped cream), or ... what's your fancy? (I once wanted to take Home Ec as my 2nd major to teach, so yeah, I'm GOOD in the kitchen, if I say so myself.)

Feel bribed enough yet to make it worth your while? *evil grin*