::Slice of Life::

Good Timing

My friend Julie sent me this in an e-mail this morning. It sounds very familiar and I might have posted it before, but it was very timely today. 

1. There are at least two people in this world that you would die for.

2. At least 15 people in this world love you in some way.
3. The only reason anyone would ever hate you is because they want to be just like you.
4. A smile from you can bring happiness to anyone, even if they don't like you.
5. Every night, SOMEONE thinks about you before they go to sleep.
6. You mean the world to someone.
7. You are special and unique.
8. Someone that you don't even know exists loves you.
9. When you make the biggest mistake ever, something good comes from it.
10. When you think the world has turned its back on you take another look.
11. Always remember the compliments you received. Forget about the rude remarks.

 

Famous Picture Remake

I was going through my pictures from SF Pride and saw these pictures I took of Slam & AJ.  Slam wanted to recreate that famous picture from V Day in WWII where the woman is kissing the sailor.  So here is our version.  (I have photoshopped the heck out of them)

 

What a difference a hair cut makes

I was going through some pictures from the end of last year and found this picture of me and Elisa on a school Field trip.  It is similar to the one we took just after our haircuts.  What a difference.  Not that we looked horrible before but I think our new haircuts are way more flattering.    Just my opinion

Catchup on OPAM's

I realize I didn't post the April or May OPAM's.

April - Paint Bedroom - It took all month to finish it but I got the room painted and I love the color.

May - White woven table cloth.  This one is actually not finished yet.  I have it 3/4 done.  I am trudging along doing one strip at a time every week or so.  I hope to have it finished by the end of the year.  lol 
I took some pictures of it in various stages but I can't find them now. 

OPAM for June

It's almost the end but I am getting this one in before the months over.

This months project is finding some of my favorite pictures, blowing them up and hanging on my bedroom wall.  I want them in a square so I decided to do 3x3.  I am going to have them professionally printed on foam core but since that is not in the budget any time soon, I printed them out at home to see how they look.  I edited and printed during Elisa's party today. 

Here's what it looks like on the wall. (blurry cuz bad light)

and here is the layout design I created when I was trying to figure out the placement.

Favorite Posts

I started this blog on March 30th 2005, so I have been blogging for 4 years now.  I have gone through some very dry spells (like lately) but I have kept with it.  I have found it a great place to record all those funny things the kids did or special things that happened.  So today I went back to the beginning and read through my blog and found some posts that I especially liked.  And thought I would share those in case you missed them (all kids related of course).

Backwards pants
Rockstar lifestyle/your on my team
Holding Kisses
Pain Remover
Piano Master
Heart Beat
a+s= ??
Mrs. President
Where Mermaids Live
Cinnamon
I'd rather drink the purple medicine

 

 

Catherine Needs

Here's what I get when I type Catherine Needs into Google (try it its hilarious)

Catherine needs a sanctuary
Catherine needs your help
Catherine needs a Man (ROTFL)
Catherine needs TLC
Catherine needs to go shopping
Catherine needs numbers
Catherine needs no explanations
Catherine needs to back the F@%$ up
Catherine needs any work
Catherine needs realitically a 10 year strategy
Catherine needs to lay off the tacky shimmer
Catherine needs your continual, individual, financial support
Catherine needs are met
Catherine needs to look elsewhere


I think the list is pretty damn ironic. 

Frankie Funnies

2 funny Frankie stories from when I was taking Frankie to get her cast off.

In the car on the way there Frankie was telling me about her day. 

F - Zack is a really bad kid.  He gets his name on the board every day!
M - How often do you get your name on the board?
F - I only get my name on the board once a week.
M - Isn't that a lot?
F - Well actually most weeks I don't but if I do it's only once a week.
(Good save Frankie)
M - So what happens if your bad again after you have your name on the board
F - (Said very seriously) You get a check next to your name
M - And what if your still bad?
F - You miss your recess!!
M - And what if your still bad?
F - You have to go see Mrs. Tueber (Said in a very spooky voice)
M - And what if your still bad?
F - Then you get a citation!
M - What is a citation?
F - It means you have to move away and go to a different school.

While Frankie and I were walking back to our car through the new parking structure at Kaiser, a car in front of us grazed another car as it went around the corner.  Frankie turned to me and said "I'm glad that wasn't our car".  "Me too!"

Fish Home

Frankie's first grade class was given an assignment to make a Home.  It could be for either people or animals, their choice.  Frankie decided to do fish.  We spent a lot of time making her fish home and she had very specific ideas about what she wanted it to look like.  Well, it turned out so great.  Many of the kids in her class said it was the best in the class.  She was so proud of it and she couldn't stop smiling.

 

Checking things off

I went back to review my 38 things before I'm 39 list and check off 6 more things.  Some were done a while ago and some more recent.

• Got new Hair Style
• Went to the driving range
• Took a dance lesson
• Painted bedroom
• Grow tomatoes
• Stop biting nails

I also changed a few things.  I am not going to be submitting any more pages for publication and I am not really into taking the NYIP lessons anymore so I removed those.  Still need to think of 2 new thing to replace them.

Still Here

Short list of the happenings around my house.

• Back to Mon-Fri schedule.  Yeah. 
• I have now lost 30.5 lbs.  !!  All my pants are totally sagging, but I want to get down to the next size before I buy some more.  I'm almost there.
• Frankie got her cast off - hallelujah.  She was so happy to be able to swim again.
• Still taking the dance classes.  Still having fun.
• I have made a couple new friends at the meetups that are really nice and we are now real friends not just at the meetups.  I have plans for the next 3 weekends with one or more of them. 
• Progress on the bedroom is null.  Just not a priority.  Things should finally be calming down and I can get back to doing what I want instead of all the things I "have to do".
• Girls only have 1 1/2 weeks of school left.  They can hardly wait. 
• Kari is going to be with the kids during the day all summer.  It works out great.  Instead of paying a daycare I give the money to Kari.  It gives her some breathing room on finding a summer job and the kids get to 1) spend the days with their mom instead of at daycare 2) go on play dates and 3) go to the activities we have been promising them all year they could do in the summer like Gymnastics and Dance classes.   And as a bonus Kari will mow my lawn once a week.  I am so glad that they kids will have a nice summer.  This will probably be the last summer they don't have to go to daycare since Kari graduates next June with her BA.
• I will get around to posting some pictures soon.  I will finally have some time to sit down and process and go through pictures from the last few months (and older). 

What's new with me

• Work is still busy but this week we switched from 10-7 schedule back to normal 8-5 (or 8:45 to ?? for me).  And after memorial day we will go back to the mon-Fri instead of Tue-Sat i'm on now. 

• I have a lead on a new job.  An ex-coworker mentioned a job opening at her company that I would be perfect for.  I am going to go to lunch with her to discuss more details before I apply.   I need to make sure the salary is "commensurate" and that they will be OK that I don't have a degree but do have 10+ years industry experience.  Somewhat exciting to think about a new job.  I have felt somewhat trapped in my old one and this gives me confidence that there could be something else.  Ironically I was just thinking yesterday morning that I needed to start thinking about how to make myself a better candidate for another job and wha-la the universe delivers again!!

• I finally got my co-worker Fred to take me to the driving range.  I didn't do half bad for my first time.  Although I didn't realize all the muscles that would hurt.  Who knew that it would make your tush hurt.  lol .  We are talking about going again next week.  I was just getting the hang of it when we ran out of balls.  There is sure a lot to remember.

• keep club straight down from left arm with right arm slightly bent.
• keep club head perpendicular to the ball but tilted slightly back.
• Keep your feel equal distance from the ball
• keep your shoulder and hip pointed where you want the ball to go and don't move them when you swing
• bend your knees and don't move them during your swing
• keep back somewhat straight
• don't bend left arm but do bend right arm. 
• Swing with shoulders and hips not arms
• Don't use right arm hardly at all.  left arm should do all the work
• don't grip to tightly especially with the right arm
• look at the ball all the time
• and a lot more I can't remember

               A whole lot to try to remember.  lol 

• I went to a latin/ballroom dance class.  It was all lesbians so I felt very comfortable.  I wasn't the only first timer and everyone was very nice so I didn't feel like a total dufus when I was off step. I will definitely be going again.  Very cheap at only $10 a lesson.

• I have also joined a few meetup.com groups and gone to a couple of the meetups.  It was hard at first to go into a new group alone but I have gone to 3 meetups now and have 2 more this weekend and am having a great time and meeting a bunch of new friends. The first one I stood outside for 10 minutes trying to convince myself to go in.  And guess what they were just a bunch of normal lesbians and almost everyone there was a first timer also so I wasn't walking into a big group that already totally knew each other. 

• I am still working on getting my room cleaned up after painting.  I only have one section of floor left to clean the paint off of.  lol.  The next project (after finish the last side of the table cover) is to recover the chair.  I have a white sheet over it but white is definitely wrong.  It needs to be a blue/white patter or solid blue. I am considering a blue/white ticking fabric.  It is the fabric they used to cover mattress in.  It is thick and cheap and I love stripes.  I need to buy a little and check it out.

•  On the home front the girls are doing good.  Frankie did break her arm but it was a very slight fracture and hardly hurt her at all.  She fell of the high bar at school and we were a lot more worried about her back and chest and the arm was secondary.  She was really excited to get the cast at first because she could get the glow in the dark one and get people to sign it.  In fact she actually got the longer full arm cast instead of the one that stopped below the elbow because it would have more room for signatures.  lol.  She did change her mind when she realized she couldn't go swimming.  We haven't been able to find the cast cover we got Elisa last year and she only has another week and a 1/2 so she will have to suffer through.

• School gets out in the beginning of June and the kid are getting excited.  They are practically bribing the kids at school to keep good behavior for this last mong. 

So I am feeling pretty proud of myself for getting out there and trying some knew things and meeting new people and getting outside my comfort zone.  I just remember that things will only get better from here.  =)

Soooo Embarrassing

Is there anything more embarrassing than your car stalling in the turn lane and not being able to get it started.  People honking and glaring at you when they finally figure out that they should go around. 

So I'm sure you've guessed that's what happened to me on the way back to work from Family lunch at Elisa & Frankie's school.

But that's not the most embarrassing part.  The most embarrassing part is that my car stalled because I ran out of gas.   What a totally bonehead thing to do.  I haven't run out of gas in like 20 years (on the way to Monterrey with Bridgette and Tim to the Honorary Dyke contest).  The lucky thing was that just the other side of the intersection was a gas station.  I called work and one of the new employees (a big strong guy recently back from Iraq) came and saved me and pushed my car over to the gas station.  He promised not to tell everyone at work.  I would never ever live it down if they all found out.  =)

Still Going

3 Months and still going.  I started walking every morning on 1/13/09 and Monday was the 90 day mark.  I walk 7 days a week (keeps the momentum) and have only missed 13 days so far.  That is  85 % of the time. 

And I have now lost 23 lbs.  down 6 more from 3/9/09.  Yeah!!

The good treadmill is going bye bye on Sunday so I have to start using a cheap little non-electric one I bought off craigs list for $100.  Hopefully it will not suck so much I want to stop.  =)  I haven't even tried it yet. 

Old Treadmill

New Treadmill

Transition

Some of you may know already but I thought it was time to put this out there.  Kari moved out this weekend.  We separated in early January and are in the process of filing for a divorce.  It is sad and life altering but we are getting through it and doing our best to help the girls make the transition. 

I am sorry if this shocks some people.  I haven't really wanted to talk about it so I haven't shared any details.  I am also not going to share any details now.  Divorce is never pretty but we are trying to make it the least ugly we can.