Fifteen Minutes of Delusion

It seems like last year I was driving the 50 miles to Dallas at least twice a week, and often even more. This year, I've managed to go for months without making the trip. So yesterday's Dallas drive was actually kind of a treat. While Kara was living in the condos, we met a family with a set of twins right about Anna's age, and the kids really got along well. So when Kara found that Noah and Olivia were back in town (and bored out of their minds) we decided to plan a Saturday afternoon excursion. I put the camera in the van, and managed to leave it there the whole afternoon. You'll have to settle for photos stolen from various sites around the internet. Our first stop was the Rock Barrell , a rock and bead store. Tons of rocks and minerals and fossils and beads. Anna and Olivia were in heaven. Noah enjoyed it too, I think, but seemed ready to go when Alyssa finally ran out of interest. We then went to the Galleria of Dallas - a huge shopping center on the north side of ...

It's finally here! The girls are gone! The house is quiet! School year 09/10 has begun! The girls got up pleasantly and dressed, and then sat down for a nutritious breakfast of toast and fruit. Alyssa was more interested in playing Lite-Brite. Then it was time for pictures. Both girls are just getting so big. Yeah, it's cliche, but it's true! Notice the pre-dawn glow in the background. We are so jealous of all the back to school pictures where the sun is up high enough to cast shadows. The bus garage said Alyssa's bus would arrive between 6:45 and 6:50, so she and I went outside to wait. And wait. And wait. Alyssa made the most of her waiting time by starting a rousing game of "Follow Me." After a number of cement trucks, diesel pickups, and full size busses caused false alarms, Alyssa's bus finally arrived at 7:10. Meanwhile, back at the ranch... Anna spent the morning watching Pokemon on TV. She was excited when she learned her bus would arrive after 8:0...

The Christmas Story Contest at LDSPublisher is over. The Editor's Choice winners aren't announced yet, but neither one of us got the votes for the Reader's Choice. Still, we both got some nice comments, and had fun writing. Here are the links to our stories: A New End Of It , by Don. Jaina's Christmas Magic , by Anna. Given that Anna is not yet twelve, I think she did a fantastic job on her story.

Thursday night, I went to the Middle School with Anna for her orientation and to pick up her schedule. She has all Pre-AP classes, which I like but she's not too excited about. She worries so much about not passing her classes, and yet all of her grades last year - even spelling - were in the 90s. I need to learn this kid some relaxing skilz. The biggest complaint about her schedule, though, is that all of her "fun" classes - science, band, and PE - are bunched up in the first three hours. Then it's language arts, social studies, and math. Although she likes math, so that shouldn't be too bad. We also picked up her PE clothes, found her classrooms, and traded her ankle-height locker with a little kid who couldn't reach his on the top row. Then we decided to go to Wal-Mart and get her school supplies. The PTO sells pre-packaged school supplies, which is convenient, easy, and, from what I've since confirmed, fairly expensive. The 7th grade bundle was being s...

Tucker boy is at it again. He needs an operation to curb his social life. The trouble with Tucker is that he's not completely domesticated. He comes and goes at will, and really doesn't have much of a schedule. Sometimes he's around in the mornings, sometimes he's not. Sometimes we don't see him for days at a time. This means he's a hard kitty to make appointments for. So the recent strategy is this: Get a big box, check the garage every morning, and if Tucker's there, put him in the box. It was a good plan, and almost worked. I found a great box in the attic. It's been there for a few years, but it was one of the few that hasn't been broken down. I brought it into the garage. This morning, there was rain. And thunder and lightening. The perfect kind of day for a kitty to come inside. Which he did. Now, Tucker likes to be petted. So all it took was a little bit of tuna and a few minutes of gentle petting before I made my move. Tucker wasn't happy...

We are now days away from the new school year, so shopping for school supplies has become a necessity. Based on last year's experience, I knew that I did not want to take both girls at the same time. No way! Fortunately, tonight Anna has a sleepover at a friend's house, so it was the perfect opportunity to get our fifth-grader stocked up. We headed out to Wal-Mart, and discovered very quickly that the big blue cardboard bins they set up in the aisle and filled with school supplies were no longer full. In fact, most of them were empty. For every item we found on our list, there were two we didn't find. Fortunately, I know that there are other places in the store where school and office supplies can be found, so after a little bit of investigating and a few creative substitutions we were able to get all but two things on our list. One item we still need to get is a pack of red pens. The other item is something that, based on the description, I have no idea what it is. But I ...

There's a Christmas Short Story contest going on over at LDSPublisher's blog, and both Anna and I have entered. Voting begins on Monday. Go over and read the stories, and then vote for us. I can't tell you exactly which stories are ours, but mine is the good one and Anna's is the other good one. Actually, I've been reading along as the stories were posted, and the quality of entries is quite good this year. We may win; we may not. But I know both of us had a lot of fun writing our stories. So set the AC to 60, brew up some hot cocoa, enjoy some late summer Christmas cheer, and vote for the stories you like best.

What could possibly better than a late summer pool party? How about two late summer pool parties, both on the same day! The girls had a Primary swim activity yesterday morning, and a friend party in the afternoon. I (deludedly) planned on getting a lot of errands and chores done while they were swimming and bobbing and playing away. Unfortunately, Alyssa's wire came loose from her braces, and I was called in early to do some emergency fix-it work. Why does this always happen on the weekend when the ortho's office is closed? I'm sure half of the Primary kids were traumatized by the way she screamed bloody murder every time I got close to her wire with the nail clippers, but eventually - with the help of the party's hostess - we got the wire snipped, and that was that. Fortunately, there were no problems the rest of the day. The girls had a great end-0f-summer Saturday, and despite it all I managed to get a few things done, too.

One advantage of spending the night in San Antonio was that we were able to get to SeaWorld shortly after it opened without getting up at 4:00 am. Yeah, that was a really big bonus. Tricia and Ella came with us on Saturday, and we had a great time. Early morning is all about rides, as the lines are short and sweet. We went on the Texas Splashdown as a group, since everyone could and would ride it. After that, Anna played carnival games with the smaller girls while Tricia and I rode the Great White roller coaster. We went twice in a row, as there was next to nobody waiting. It was a very smooth ride - I liked it. Couldn't get Anna or Alyssa to try it, though. Then Anna really wanted to ride on the Rio Loco again. I was dressed to stay dry (more or less) so opted not to go. Alyssa didn't want to either, and Ella was too little. So Anna and Tricia went together. They got soaked! Alyssa, Ella and I played in the shade and waited. We had a good time the rest of the day, watching the...

Last Christmas when I bought our season passes for SeaWorld, my plan was to do a summertime overnighter in addition to the handful of day trips. That excursion happend this past weekend. The girls and I drove down Friday, leaving around 7:30, which was much later than previous trips. I didn't have the energy to get up earlier, and one of the main reasons for doing an overnighter was to stay late at the park, so it was easy to justify a late departure. I was pretty much a cranky grouch the whole drive, but fortunately the girls didn't agitate me, so I was in a decent mood once we got there. We spent the bulk of the day swimming in the Lost Lagoon, which made the very hot day much more pleasant. The lazy river ride was our favorite, once we finally convinced Alyssa to get into the tube. She would not, would not, WOULD NOT try it, then once she did, she was hooked. (She's been like that since birth - we are constantly saying "Try, try, Baby 'Lyss.") There was a...

And life with the laughter of morning And starry nights Hawai'i rainbows mo' bettah, but we'll take what we can get. This was a beautiful full rainbow with a strong double that unfortunately had mostly faded by the time we found the camera. Look directly above the water tower.

I set out yesterday on what I feared was a fool's errand: secure a Texas State Inspection Sticker for our tired old minivan. Despite her faded red paint and habit of blowing tires, I like our van. She's very practical, proven to be quite reliable (aside from the tire thing) and works perfect for Kara, not having any odd smells or significant air leaks. So even if money weren't the issue that it is, we would be really hard pressed to replace her. Unfortunately, our van, bless her catalytic converter, has a bit of a smoking problem. During the Spring Car Fix-up Extravaganza, we had the auto shop see what they could do about the smoke. The tech said this model van had an issue with oil leaking into the cylinders, and that's just the way it is. We should probably get a second opinion one of these days. Maybe with our next tax refund. Anyway, the problem seems to have gotten progressively worse, and I feared it would result in a failed emissions test and a repair bill that ...