Calling all racoons of WyCo...

Attention fellow racoons! Word on the street is that Mathgeek is preparing for her annual visit to Camp Naish. Mathgeek, you know, the woman who hates our kind. Who is so easily spooked it's like stealing candy from a baby to get her going (or, in our case, more like stealing candy from a sleeping camper). Last year she was at Naish for two nights for Webelos camp. For those of you new to the area, we got her good. The first night, we had 10-20 of us swarm her campsite as soon as they called for lights out. The scouts were all in their tents, but many of the adults were out in camp chairs chatting for a while. By casually walking past them, nearly brushing their legs as we went, we got more than just mathgeek a little spooked. Then, just rustling around in the wooded area right outside her tent all night assured that she wouldn't sleep a wink all night when she finally did go to bed. The next night she was so jumpy she ended up sleeping in a minivan. THAT was awesome, folks! Thanks for all of your hard work in orchestrating this manuever.

So, this weekend she is only here for one night, with her younger scout. This is a night you won't want to miss. It's also a night we need to get right the first time, since we won't have another crack at her for quite a while. I am calling a planning meeting on Thursday night, right after sundown, to map out our strategy for assuring that she'll be sleepless for weeks. Any and all racoons in western Wyandotte County are welcome. Not sure yet which campsite she'll sleep at, so we'll be assigning teams to the different campsites to make sure we're covered.

Also remember that our friends on the other side of the state line were kind to her in June. From what I hear, they were so tame that they waited til the wee hours to hit the campsite, and then rooted around in the trash and promptly left. No terrorizing, no ballsy close encounters. For shame. Let's show those Missouri 'coons how it's done! LET'S DO THIS!

Sometimes it's okay...

to judge a book by its cover. Or, more to the point, a wine by its bottle. I bought this beauty a few months ago, and actually said out loud as I picked it out that it was okay if it wasn't great, because I absolutely loved the bottle. I can be superficial that way. In this case, it wasn't a bad choice. Pretty light and tasty summer wine, as long as it's drunk very cold. Now I need to decide what to do with my beautiful bottle.

Pinky went on another scout campout this weekend. Boating, with tubing, plus a sailboat lesson. Had a great time - he has never had a chance to do anything like this before. I was with a mom friend yesterday whose son had called her that morning from the camping trip, just because he missed her. Would Pinky ever do that? Heck no, not unless something were seriously wrong. Part of me was envious, but the more rational part recognizes it's a good thing that he goes and has such a great time that he doesn't miss us. He still wants to come home and have a quick snuggle and tell us all about it. That part I don't want to change. Ever.

Meanwhile Curly and I had a nice weekend together, while velodude racked up some miles on the bicycle. Cub scouts had a great visit to a WWII air museum, very hands on, boys even got to get up and move some of the controls in one of the planes. Later yesterday, I asked him to pick out a board game he wanted to play, and he chose one that we had brought home from my father's house last summer. The Magnificent Race. It never became a classic, but I have fond memories of playing it with my folks. It's mostly luck, not strategy, which is good for Curly at this point, because he beat the living daylights out of me without my having to throw it, which I really don't like to do unless he's really feeling low. He was so excited about the game that he forced Pinky to play tonight, in his sleep-deprived delirium. Pinky won, but happily, Curly was not frustrated by this. It's so nice when they get along.

In other news -the stuff that is consuming us right now (emotionally & monetarily?)- the drywallers should be done sanding our family room on Tuesday. Then we get to clean up the mess, prime & paint, and lay a new floor, which we purchased on Saturday, ka-ching! All because of a stupid flood caused by the city's inadequate rain runoff ditch system adjacent to our backyard. Ah yes, my other new hobby, pestering the city every time it rains. Confused? Velodude's been blogging about it, but the beginning of the saga goes way back to mid June.

Gypsy Girl

I love it when kids get the words of songs wrong. Especially when they're as old as Pinky, because then they're really embarassed when they find out the correct words. I wish I had written some of the other ones down in the past year or so. Tonight as we cooked dinner, he was singing softly to himself, and then it got a little louder... "Don't you know that she's a gypsy girl..." It took me a minute to realize that he was attempting to sing "Jesse's Girl", that classic (ugh) Rick Springfield song from the 80's. He was mortified when I gave him the correct lyrics. And then I was mortified that I KNEW the correct lyrics. Ah, Rick Springfield...that takes me back just a few years, to a sort of double date with velodude, laggin, and her (now) hubby car-man. Alcohol was involved, and we wound up at velodude's apartment going through his music, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Ended up in an album toss onto 16th St. in Lincoln, and I'm quite sure that Mr. Springfield's album was the first to go, with good reason. Good times.

No hotdogs were killed in the making of the rainy camp weekend, but Curly still pronounced that we both smelled like hot dogs when we got home. After my long-awaited shower, I went for some snuggle time with him and I got the quote above.

The weekend really went pretty well. Got to the campsite around 10 pm, it was not raining but had been earlier, pretty wet. Helped set up scout camp, then pitched my tent and made sure Pinky's group had their's pitched as well. Late to bed but didn't help my attempt at sleep, as I mostly listened to rain hit the tent. Saturday morning after breakfast, we got the word that MO Water Patrol had closed the river. Lots of rain in the past week, river was very high and very fast. The boys had been warned there was a chance of this, and they took it really well. We gave them option of going to town, visiting a fish hatchery and some other things, but they opted to stay at the camp area. I inwardly groaned at the thought of hanging out there with no planned acitivites for an entire day, but in the end it was fine. They had a big project on a hill by camp diverting a mini-creek to an area away from our tents, they hunted for crawdads in a bigger creek and out by the river, some of them swam in frigid ponds of overflow area, and late in the afternoon we convinced the campsite to let us use one canoe in the same area to show the first year scouts some canoe techniques. That's Pinky practicing his skills with one of the other dads. Notice the road leading into the pond, and the sign on the tree warns of flash floods. Yeah, the river was a little high. I did get wet this weekend, but not in the way I was dreading. While my selfish side was a little relieved, I have to say I wish for the boys' sake they'd been able to go out on the river. However, they managed to have a blast just being boys, getting wet and muddy, running wild. It was kind of cool to sit back and watch. Had a good time getting to know the adults a little better as well. Saturday night it poured, sometimes torrential. Tent held up, stayed pretty dry. Packed it up and headed home today.



Exhaustion is setting in, off to bed.

I'll be getting wet

Headed for a canoe trip this weekend. With Pinky and the Boy Scouts. (yes, scoutsuck has continued from cub to boy scouts). It's cool and rainy all week. I haven't been canoeing since high school at best. What in sam hell was I thinking? I asked 3 people separately if they thought I'd wind up in the water. All three said yes without hesitation. Then I find out I'm supposed to avoid going under the trees, because otherwise I'll end up with snakes in my canoe. Egads, can it get worse? Velodude gets to stay home with Curly. He might be disappointed that it will put a damper on his riding plans, but I'm sure he's got the better end of the deal.

I haven't written in ages. I wanted to write about Mexico, but time got away from me. I did love it. I want to go back. We all want to go back. Even velodude, whose fragile stomach didn't fare as well as the rest of ours while we were there.

Pinky wants a girlfriend. He has a crush. Today, said crush was quizzing him on who he likes right now. He called it "the worst thing ever". Then he wanted to borrow my cell phone to text her the answer tonight (he had told her he would). Ha! Not on my phone. We talked about the possible outcomes of this action, had I been the kind of mom to let him do it. The "no taking it back". The 2 possible outcomes. Was he ready for that? And, turns out he thinks he is not ready for that. Oh, the drama of 5th grade. I am just thankful that he comes home and talks about it.

That's all for now.

Mmmmm

This could be my undoing. My big vice. My crack cocaine. Okay, never done crack and never will, but in terms of highly addictive substances, this is it for me right now. Velo-dude came home from 'cross nats raving about it in December. One of his cycling buddies had returned from Belgium with a supply for everyone to try at the house they stayed at. A spread that tastes like graham crackers, he said. Friend went back to Belgium for 'cross worlds in January, and came back with an entire jar for velo-dude, his very own. Well, his very own, until he let mathgeek try it. I am in love. Velo-dude, please get it out of my sight. Every time I'm near the kitchen, I hear it calling me. Begging me to take another little scoop. And another. And another...

Speculoos is apparently a yummy little wafer-like spice cookie that's popular over there, and someone had the genius idea to take it and turn it into a buttery spread. And I can't even read the label to know how bad it is for me. How perfect is that? I am tempted to try to figure out how to get my hands on more, but I am going to try to resist the urge. But the crack, it is powerful stuff, I hear.

The Right Thing

Are veterinarians trained to say "you're doing the right thing" when you have to make that sad sad decision? I've heard it both times we've had to do it, and I hope they meant it. I think my father's experience last summer helped me to see the way through this one, but there will still be nagging doubts. I miss my girl, and I'm sad, but surprisingly, I think I'm doing much better than velo-dude. He is truly crushed, as is Pinky. Curly is vacillating between obligatory sadness and oblivion, with just a shimmer of realization coming through once in a while.

Goodbye to our sweet and goofy dorkasaurus. We love you.

The Talk

It's time. It's past time. It's I've-been-a-lame-mom-avoiding-the-topic-and-if-I-don't-get-on-it-it's-going-to-come-back-and-bite-me time. I may have already told the first half of this story, I don't recall...

Last spring, Pinky saw the first of "the movies", which was the boys' version of "what's going to be happening to my body", and hinting around at where babies come from but avoiding the topic of the dirty deed itself. I was all "anything you want to ask, feel free to ask me", and he was all "just one question, I get the stuff about what's going to happen to me, and I get the stuff about the baby in the girl's body, but I don't get how the boys stuff gets to the girls body". At which point, I transformed from the open, you-can-talk-to-me-about-anything-mom to a blabbering, awkward idiot. (don't ask me why I didn't anticipate it, I really am an idiot when it comes to this kind of thing). In the end, I gave him a half-hearted answer and put off the details until a later date, and something about getting a book. And that seemed to be good enough for him. Now at least 9 months later, I have had that nagging thought on occasion that I needed to finish the job, but never actually acted on it. Lame!

Meanwhile, there are 3 girls in Pinky's class that have been interested in boys as boyfriends for quite a while now (like since 3rd grade!). They make the rounds, have a boyfriend for a while, break up with him, etc. All very innocent, I don't even think there's been any hand-holding yet, although maybe so. This fall, Pinky was "picked" by C to be her boyfriend. R was the messenger, and told Pinky that she required an answer within 2 days. Pinky was a little confused, and must have asked what this involved, and R told him "it's really easy, you don't even talk to her for the first couple of weeks, and then you start talking to her". Okay, so there are rules. Well, Pinky actually wanted to talk to me about it, and we talked about C, about other girls, about how he felt about girls, etc, and in the end I told him that this was a decision he would have to make on his own, but that after talking to him, it sounded to me like he just wasn't interested in girls as girlfriends yet, and that was okay. I also talked to him about treating girls with respect, and that when he was ready for a girlfriend, be prepared to treat her like a queen, etc. So, in the end he told R to tell C that he wasn't ready for a girlfriend, at which point she announced that she wasn't ready for a boyfriend (um, she's gone through boyfriends like I go through red wine, but whatevs) and that was that.

Around November or so, Pinky started dropping hints that perhaps he'd made the wrong decision. I don't think he really liked C, but I think he is wishing he could have a girlfriend to see what it's like. The last time was when his class got a new student, right after Winter Break, and he said he had hoped it was a girl, and that it would be someone he would like (it was a boy, oh well). Sounds like he doesn't see any of his buddies that he's known since kindergarten as girlfriend material. Makes sense to me...could that mean he won't be doing anything about that until 7th grade, when he goes to middle school? I can only hope.

So, that brings us to yesterday. The movie "Titanic" was on tv for the gazillionth time. I don't love that movie, but Pinky does, so I left it on for a while. Of course, that happened to be right at the part where the guy paints the girl nude. Um, can I change the channel now? Yes, Pinky says, after which he states "dating is weird". What, I say? "Like, you know, how the boy acted all weird when he saw the girl naked. It's weird". Oh boy, here we go. In my mind I am planning a trip to the bookstore in the very near future to find that book. Out loud I stumble around a bit again (Curly is in the same room at this point, mind you), and then move on to the topic of girlfriends in general. I go to close the conversation with "Pinky, what is the one thing you must remember when it is time for your first girlfriend?" I am thinking "treat her like a queen". His response, on the other hand, was "Don't get her pregnant?". OMG. I think I'm going to be sick.

Off to the bookstore now. Better late than never.

Zebulon

Zebulon Montgomery Pike. American Hero. At least, he's one of the choices Pinky had for an American Hero, a 5th grade rite of passage in our school district. I am soooo glad this project is nearly over. Outlines, note cards, note pages, more notes, bibliographies, rough drafts, essays, biopoems, oral presentations...aaaghhh! I can't take it any more! He handed in everything today, and tomorrow is his presentation. I read in the list of requirements a sentence that clearly said "You may dress as your hero for your oral presentation." Now, when I see the phrase "you may..." I think optional. Pinky agreed it was optional, and things have been pretty hectic around here, with me working long days and weekends since Jan 1, for quarter and year end reporting deadlines. Also trying to put together the banquet which will send Pinky from cub scouts to boy scouts, and putting together something called an Arrow of Light for that, etc. So i had pretty much decided it was a no on the Hero costume, and Pinky was okay with that, he said some other kids were not dressing up either. Then I was talking to a fellow mom-friend, who pointed out that while yes, indeed it was optional, it was also worth 10 of the 100 points. WTF? How is that optional? So, yes, we scrambled to put something together this weekend. Mr. Pike is credited with discovering Pikes Peak, so he was a mountain man, great explorer of the West. We managed to throw together some very un-1807-ish clothing into something sort of passable. Hopefully he won't be too embarassed tomorrow. Surely some of the other kids will have last-minute costumes too? I mean come on, we spent $2.00 on package of boot shoelaces to tie his pouch on, that's it. I know someone else spent $25 on a clearance (clearance? yikes!) Halloween costume for theirs. Hope the grades are not positively correlated with the amount of money mom or dad was willing to spend. So, here he is, in all his glory. I'm still not convinced he was a hero, some suspicious and unresolved accusations involving Spanish spies, and he took his men on expeditions ill-prepared for the elements they faced, but oh well. He was a braver and more adventurous soul than me, so I guess I shouldn''t criticize.