On this day in the 2005 Tropical Storm Season

From the NHC web site:

There are no tropical cyclones in the Atlantic at this time.

Birthdays

Yesterday was Little Boy's birthday. He made an invitation for his babysitter and her family to come to his party. It wasn't really a party; just some people over for cake and ice cream. They even bought him a couple of gifts, which was really nice of them on such short notice.

Today is Older Son's birthday. My in-laws gave us a car that's not exactly new-looking, that we are letting him take to school. For his birthday, we are thinking of having it painted. I'm researching how much it will cost today.

I made a chocolate fudge tube cake for Little Boy's birthday party. Older Son is not a fan of cake and ice cream. He does like cheesecake and lemon meringue pie; I think I will make him one of those.

I'm still cleaning up loose ends at work, from home. I'll be going in today, and probably again tomorrow, to go through some files and make sure they are all organized. Tomorrow is my last day.

Uncooperative

I have been spending my time working at home putting together documentation on what I have done. I have been writing memos, action plans, project notes, etc., and organizing them into nice neat folders so that my co-workers won't be left in a bind when I'm gone. I like my co-workers. They're nice people.

Today, I got a message on my cell phone from Catbert. The IT consultant would like to speak with me about a couple of our vendors. The consultant is going to pick up and finish one of the major tasks I've been working on.

I don't want to help the consultant. I feel no obligation to provide guidance and direction to the person who stole my job, and will be making double (minimum) what I did for doing it.

I haven't quite decided how I'm going to respond. I'm going to sleep on it. DH suggests that I ask the consultant to put his questions in a memo form, that I will then respond to. Then he can get the information he needs, but I don't actually have to talk to him.

Visitors

My in-laws are coming for a visit. They wanted to come visit and pick up their car, and they are leaving their older car for us to keep. Very nice of them! However, we sort of set the date before our vacation earlier this month. And then they never really confirmed. As of Sunday, they still weren't sure if they were coming.

Last night, they called and said "We're leaving tomorrow."

I suggested to DH that maybe if they waited a week, I would have free time to spend with them because my job would be finished, finito, kaput. I guess he wasn't as encouraging about that idea as I would have been, because they left today anyway.

They won't be here until tomorrow, which gives us a day to clean. Actually, it gives us about two hours to clean, since it's already 9:30. Between the last time I talked to them and the time they let us know they were indeed coming, my world kind of collapsed. Again.

My therapist says that if they have a clean room to sleep in and a clean bathroom to use, the rest can just slide. Life happens. I like that idea. But we'll probably clean the family room, too, anyway.

Unemployed again

This time I get to work for two weeks, followed by two weeks of severance pay. Whoop-de-doo.

The job has been eliminated.

It's been a long day. I'm drained.

Scary Thing

Yesterday morning, before checking out of the hotel, Daughter and Little Boy and Beautiful Grandchildren and I went down to the pool. I was not swimming, merely observing and photographing. I went to call DH from the house phone to remind him of something and turned to look back at the pool. Little boy was on his back, under water, struggling and could not get up.

I called to Daughter. She had her two kids in her arms, and was a few feet away. I told DH, "I've gotta go." I walked to the side of the pool, and then jumped in and picked up Little Boy.

He breathed immediately, and didn't even really cough, though he was kind of grayish and his lips were a little blue. A couple had come walking in to the pool area just behind me as I jumped in, and the man came rushing to the side, and picked up little boy and laid him on his side and talked to him. His wife handed me a towel as I got out of the pool. How did I get out of the pool? I don't even remember. The man was talking to Little Boy, who responded clearly and seemed to recover very quickly. DH came in within a few minutes. I thanked the couple profusely. The lady kept handing me towels. We went up to our room. DH went and got the big suitcase out of the car so I could get some dry clothes (I didn't have any clean ones in the overnight bag). While he was gone, I got little boy dressed, and then took him down to the kids' room to play video games.

When he got back, I started to tell him what had happened. And then I started to cry. And cry, and cry, and cry.

I think this is the most frightening thing that's ever happened to me.

When I was a little girl, my little brother fell over in the pool and within minutes my mom had him up. Little brother was a tantrum thrower, so he was used to not breathing (he would hold his breath until he passed out). But I couldn't have been more than five when this happened, and I still remember it very clearly (or as clearly and anyone can remember an event from forty years ago during early childhood). But my mother doesn't remember it at all.

I wonder if I will ever forget this.

Little boy says he will never go swimming in a pool again. I think, next year, though, we will get him swimming lessons.

We're Off!

DH is picking the route. I may post from the road.

Tis the Season

We are not evacuating. We're going on vacation. "A Day Out with Thomas" at the Kentucky Railway Museum with little boy. Future Nurse, Future Lawyer, and Beautiful Grandchildren, along with Husband 2.0 and The Scholar, will also be in attendance. Everybody I've given birth to will be there! I'm really excited about it. Then, on to a week at the parentals.

According to the National Hurricane Center Discussion (not sure if this will update with the site or not) Dennis is either heading up the Florida West coast, or straight for us, or somewhere in the middle. DH's employer is closing at 2:00 tomorrow. I will be very happy to have road behind me on Saturday a.m. If everyone's evacuating, though, it could be slow going.

Now to head over to Complicated Shadows to see if Randy is worried.

Husband 2.0

Husband 2.0 is a vast improvement over the earlier version.

Husband 1.0 was mechanically inclined, but he never finished what he started, and he always left a huge mess behind.

Husband 1.0 was really, really insistent that the front door needed to be moved ten feet to the right. He just wasn't going to be satisfied until he knocked a giant hole in my house. And then, he would've left it there, because he got bored and there's a wet t-shirt contest at the bar tonight and the bartender will give him beer for free.

Husband 2.0, on the other hand, works a problem through until it's resolved. Sometimes it takes a while, but he persists until the problem is resolved, or until it's clear a professional is needed.

And when Husband 2.0 is done fixing things, he doesn't write bad checks, get drunk, steal from his employers, occupy his down time with graphic porn, or teach the little boy to use profanity.

Husband 2.0 doesn't just fare well in comparison to 1.0, though. He has features that I never would have dreamed of finding in a husband. He's a great listener. He's handsome. And he's very, very intelligent.

All this, and all his teeth, too. Definitely a keeper.

Linking my buds

I have a bunch of buddies whose blogs I read every day. Compulsively. But I'm much better now.

Many of these blogging buddies link to me, but I don't link to them. It started out as a privacy thing (one or two of my buds didn't want linked). Now, I think it's mostly inertia. Plus, we all link to each other in one way or another. If you got to my blog, odds are that you arrived via one of my buddies' links, and you can find all the others by the way you arrived.

Posters from the other places I write (the DAMU, the bloggernacle) are not likely to wander over to my personal blog, because I don't use my blog as my URL in comments - I use the New Order Mormons web site. I try to keep my Real Life separate from much of the Mormon stuff, because if people were to read the different things I write about Mormonism in different places, they'd think I had multiple personalities. Let's just say that I'm conflicted.

For now, I don't plan on linking to my pals on my blog. But I love you guys, and I'm delighted that you link to me.

Can't Sleep

I had a late-ish nap this afternoon. I got plenty of sleep last night, so even though the nap was short, now I can't sleep.

Sleep is really important to me. It'll probably take me until Wednesday to get back on track.

Ugh.

Turn it on, turn it on again

Dave has enabled comments on a post looking for feedback on his new site design. So if you want to comment on the best Mormon blog out there...quick! Now's your chance!

I think this will be my last gushing hero worship post about Dave's Blog. It's linked on the side. You should read it. 'Nuff said.