so don't ask if you don't want to know
Posts tagged kira
trying to post from droid
Dec 20th
Today was a great day…
Other than my laptop being completely fucked and pulling something in my lower back.
Took Kira to breakfast with Santa.
Got some of the outside decorating done.
Went to another “Slumber Party” and didn’t spend a dime.
Went to karaoke at Kirk’s with good friends.
Made it home safe.
Also got the car checked and oil changed this week for $5.
Found the free computer here at the complex to use.
Sent the money to Mom that I owed her.
Got hit on at Kirk’s by some guy who I probably wont call.
He seemed like an OK guy, just jobless and living in downtown Mesa, which usually sends up a “halfway house” vibe. There’s a pretty large contingent of pedophiles and other sex offenders living in downtown Mesa. But the attention was a little ego boosting.
G’night.
Vacation: What Else We Did
Dec 14th
Spent a couple of days at Dad’s until I just couldn’t stand the fleas anymore. Poor old guy. For whatever reason they don’t bite him so he didn’t notice how bad it was. I have flea bites on both legs and arms and across my chest. And Casey had to repair the toilet in the back bathroom too. Dad never uses it so the old thing just crumbled from the strain of all of us. Apparently all the guts just disintegrated.
- Dad is watching Hannity. I get extra points for keeping my mouth shut.
We’ve never agreed politically. We just don’t talk about stuff because every time he opens his mouth I cringe and laugh and he’s so damned serious about his opinions! Republicans.
We spent a couple of days at Mom’s too. She mentioned she had a TV in the trunk of her car so Casey tried to install it for her, but she decided that flat screen wasn’t big enough so they traded up. This comes from a woman who is so old school she never even had a VCR. Oh right, there was a new DVD player to hook up too. And what is the only DVD she bought in preparation for it?
- Someone kill me. Mom is jamming to Gaither Gospel Hour Christmas in the Country. Seriously, how did I come from these people?
Mom likes gospel. When the fuck did that happen?
We went back to Dad’s to finish up fixing the toilet:
- My father has provided my children with moonshine. Things are getting more interesting.
Strange night. Dad was uptight that I’d posted that and I tried to explain that anyone who follows me doesn’t care and would cheer them on and that nobody is going to hunt him down for breaking the law. Moonshine law? Who the fuck cares? Casey and Ginnie weren’t impressed by it anyway so after one drink we left. No, I didn’t try it.
As tourists, we went to the beach and watched these guys try to dig out a backhoe that had tipped over. Kira played (hands and feet) in the cold gulf water until she turned blue and we finally left. The next day we went to Mote Marine and saw sharks and turtles, jellyfish and a dead giant squid, manatees and dolphins. Kira’s convinced the dolphins were talking to her. Driving to Mote we passed some sand sculptures that had been there a while. Lots of pictures in my flickr feed so check those out.
Did another elderly breakfast thing. You have to do one of these sometime. You sit at long tables and eat stale donuts while they do park announcements, introduce visitors, sing some old songs and raffle off prizes. Three of them. Casey won $7 and Ginnie and I both won SBA dollars. Luck of the draw! Quaint. Casey went out to Bingo with Mom one night and to a casino on another.
The kids think Mom is great! She’s funny and nice and pays for everything, but they don’t have the history I do. Can I forgive and forget the years of verbal and physical abuse, being told everything I do is wrong and stupid, the sarcasm… and just accept her as she is now? I don’t know. My sister holds a grudge like nobody’s business but when it’s convenient for her she acts like nothing happened. I don’t think I hold a grudge as much as hold people accountable for their actions. If they own up I’m all about forgiveness. Food for thought.
Bill is the same, blows up in nastiness at the slightest provocation, hates black people, yells at Mom over his own inadequacies, etc. She keeps saying this or that food will kill him and I keep suggesting she let him eat whatever the hell he wants, preferably that which will kill him, hello?
- Raining again. The so-called sunshine state has sucked for sunshine this whole trip.
- Son, convinced Krystal is White Castle, has sidelined us in a cheeburger frenzy. After tasting, I’m not impressed.
- Interesting name for a salon: Whack-A-Do.
- 24 miles and we’re in Louisiana. Kids are debating New Orleans on a Friday night. It’s 40 degrees and raining so I vote no.
- 100 miles to Texas. Can’t wait! I just LOVE Texas! /sarcasm
- fucking Texas has the women’s potty locked for the night.
- Found potty. Switched drivers. At mile marker 822 now. *sigh*
- I’ll be passing @aranel13‘s house in a minute, too early again. Should we kill time til she wakes or fuggedaboudit?
So we left for home on Friday. Casey and Ginnie wanted to stay longer but Kira and I were done and it’s my goddamn car. We tried to meet up with @aranel13 on the way back through the Houston area but apparently she sleeps until noon or something. Hey, it was 8am this time instead of the 6am on the way out but still not late enough. We stopped at the Alamo for a while but drove straight through the rest of the trip.
- I miss my friends. Almost out of Texas and should be home late tonight.
- 50 miles to AZ! So tired. Love having multiple drivers.
- Quick shopping stop for fireworks at Borderline Outlet. Guy closed early so I called him and he reopened. Yay Droid!
- Hello Eloy. You look familiar. I do believe we are getting close to home.
- Home.
Vacation: Nawlins and Finally Florida
Dec 14th
So Friday morning we decided that as a treat for getting out of Texas we’d stop in New Orleans for lunch. Again with a couple of taps on my new phone we were directed right to where we wanted to go. Someone had suggested a nice restaurant around the corner from Bourbon Street, but we opted for the much cheaper pizza place next door.
Casey managed to find a drink and Ginnie and I enjoyed some of the old architecture before Kira got bored and started getting into trouble. Time to go.
- Stopping in Pensacola for the night. Can’t stands me car no more.
- Spent the night in Pensacola. Now if I can get these lazy slugs moving. I’m thinking about a more scenic route today.
- Kira practicing her evil laugh in Destin FL.
She’d been so good the whole time in the car. On the radio which was actually turned down pretty low because we were talking, someone did a muahahaha. Then Kira entertained herself for a good half hour muahahahaing to herself til she got it just right. We couldn’t stop laughing.
- There should be a law that it can’t be freezing cold at the Beach.
- For some odd reason this package of unscented baby wipes smells like old dead Budweiser.
- SmallChild has decided the lyrics should be “We will we will rock n pooh rock n pooh!”
So I’d been stupid. Really stupid. We discussed taking the scenic route down the Gulf side instead of staying on the Interstate. There are some beautiful little towns on that route around Panama City and Destin. It took us WAY longer than I had anticipated and then once we gave up it took even longer to find our way back to the highway. And the weather was horrible – pouring rain and fog. We got into Bradenton around midnight and Brittany begged us to let Ginnie stay with her so we had to find her place, drop Ginnie off and got to Dad’s quite late for him.
Got up and met Dad’s girlfriend Bonnie. I really like her. Then we all went to Sunday breakfast at Dad’s Eagles Club and then on to my sister’s to see the reason for the trip in the first place, Damien Gabriel.
Vacation: Texas Sucks
Dec 13th
This is gonna run long. I didn’t have internet for more than a few minutes the entire trip and there’s only so much I could do on my DROID.
- Aaaand we’re off! 8:58 AM Dec 2nd
- GirlChild driving now. 300 miles to El Paso.
- Stopping for dinner in Van Horn TX.
Lousy place, Papa’s Pantry. We walked in and though the place was fairly full, nobody on staff even came over towards the door. Do you seat yourself or wait there like idiots? Finally we were waved into a dark corner where the overhead lights didn’t work. Yeah, yeah we should have left, but it’s fucking west Texas and stops are few and far between. Slow unfriendly service, lousy food, unclean bathroom.
- Texas sucks part 3: GirlChild gets us pulled over for speeding. Cop searches all of us and unpacks the car.
This was ridiculous. It was like he was bored or something. There was hardly anyone on the road and he came zipping up behind her when she was passing a truck so she changed lanes without signaling just to get out of his way. So he popped her for that, for going 79 in a 65 and because I didn’t have a light on my license plate – I totally didn’t realize that one. He put Ginnie in his car, Casey off between the cars and had me in front of mine while poor Kira is shrieking in the car in confusion. We were all polite (my kids were raised watching Cops) and he still searched the car and then started pulling everything out of the trunk. And it was frikking COLD out there, snow on the ground and dark as hell. Asshole.
- #texassucks pt 4: After successfully dodging a dozen deer Son runs over some pteradactyl’s dinner.
Too funny, I was dozing and could hear Ginnie and Casey mentioning deer every few minutes when Casey suddenly swerved and hollered “What the FUCK was that?” and Ginnie was howling. He thinks it was a giant owl and I (who didn’t see a thing) expect it was more likely a vulture but either way it was trying to drag something huge across the road and Casey hit whatever the roadkill was. We laughed for hours over that one.
- #texassucks Unfortunate HOV turn dumped us into downtown Houston. Light rail stations look similar to ours.
We couldn’t figure out the HOV thing at all. There needs to be a Just Passing Through lane on interstates. Their HOV on the I-10 had three different acronyms with various tolls and we couldn’t decide if it was OK to use then figured what the heck why not, except at some point it emptied into downtown Houston street level. Thanks to my handy dandy DROID we turned the GPS/Google Navigator and got right back out again.
Hey big city sign people, make sure outsiders can figure out what your signs mean. Here in Phoenix that whole I-10 / I-17 / 51 / airport thing is completely confusing and I LIVE HERE. Especially since you can’t rely on direction as the left of the V actually goes north before it goes west while the right of the V goes west before it takes you north and crosses over the road you should have taken to continue west way back there! Anyway…
- Fuck Texas! We’re outta here!
Here’s where we started Day two.
I'm gonna be a great-grammi
Nov 21st
Except not really.
After losing the battle of the britches wherein SmallChild insists the jeans with the flowers fit her and I try to explain “fit” means she can actually you know, sit and climb up on the furniture, I was driving her to Chad’s for the day. She was rattling nonsense in the back seat and the monologue turned extra weird.
SmallChild: … cuz cuz I ate too much cereal and now I need to get the baby out of my tummy cuz dere’s a baby in dere and I gotta squeeze really hard and get it out so I can hold it and love it and eat more cereal later…
Me: What? (as I swerve to avoid the car I almost sideswiped)
SmallChild: … yeah Grammi I ate too much cereal just now and now I need to get the baby out of my tummy so I can show Casey (Chad’s daughter) but I can’t move cuz my pants is too small…
I guess I won the britches battle after all.
When worlds collide
Nov 12th
It freaks me out.
Twitter just started this listing thing. You can assign the people you follow to various lists. I got about halfway through and gave up.
Certain people are older Internet friends from the McCaffrey boards and BPOI. Some of those I’ve met in real life and a few are actual real friends now.
Certain people I’ve met through podcasting. Some of those I’ve met and are real friends, some are just fans (which is freaky in and of itself) and some I’ll never meet and really have no connection to, but follow because. A handful are writers I’ve met through podcasting who have become both semi-celebrities and semi-friends.
And then there’s the real life family, friends, kid’s friends, etc.
It’s weird enough when, because of some interesting banter or retweet, person A from list B starts following person R from list D.
Right?
This completely freaked me out today:
Katie Berry is one of my daughter’s friends we’ve known since Kindergarten. Seth Harwood is a published author and podcaster and cute as hell. They cannot know each other! Coincidence has made my mind explode.
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Kira’s vocabulary has exploded too. In the last few days she’s started say things like, “Just listen to me, LISTEN to me! Be very careful out there so the monsters don’t get you.” She’s so insistent. And today in the car when I asked her if she was going to behave in the store she answered with the most nonchalant “of course” I couldn’t help but burst out laughing. Casey’s friend Charlie tells me Kira got up at the crack of dawn the other morning and proceeded to (attempt to) wash her dishes.
At this very moment she’s dancing to Funky Town in Shrek 2. I wish my camera had batteries. Crap.
Just a few quick notes
Sep 29th
… for people who are actually paying attention.
Today is Kira’s third birthday. No her mother didn’t bother to call. We haven’t really mentioned the actual birthday to Kira. She’s hyped up for her party this weekend. At this age the party is the actual turning point, and Casey doesn’t even have a final plan yet. We’re so lame.
Did I mention Max will be home on leave again from mid-November through January? And completely out of the Army in February. Oh, ALONE. Apparently the sekrit fake mawiage didn’t make it. She’s out, lawyers have been consulted, she still hasn’t told her family. Oh well.
I don’t have anything nice to say about Ginnie. I love her but I HATE everything she’s doing at the moment. She’s really pissing me off.
Actually, I’m not happy about anything in my life at the moment. Biding my time, hoping things will improve soon.
I keep getting meaner and meaner, more short tempered and bitter. I don’t know how to stop being taken advantage of. I need some me time. I need someone to be on my side. Seriously, I need someone to shake out this doormat.
Feeding time
Sep 8th
Ginnie brought home a couple of baby mice for the new snake. The first one was a beautiful grey one.
Kira: Oh that’s a cute mouse! Is the snake gonna eat it?
Me: Yep, say bye to the mouse.
Kira: Bye bye cute mousie.
Xena: *chomp squeeze*
Kira: Bye bye cute mouse. Where’s the other one?
Ginnie: Geeze Kira, let’s let her digest this one first!
Kira: Nooooo, I want her to have it now!
Ginnie: No, we have to wait at least til she swallows this one all gone.
Kira: Hurry up snake, you have to eat the ugly mouse now.
Good morning!
Sep 3rd
Meh!
(This is a test of the also-sends-to-LJ thing and if it works all is good with the world.)
Why is it I lay awake at night making lists in my head about all the things I’m going to do the following day and then wake up in the morning and do none of them?
Laziness?
I need to move my bed, get out my stepladder and tool box and hang my curtain. Right now it’s clamped to the top of the blinds. Tacky! I borrowed a drill/screwdriver last night so I now have no excuse. I also need to install a magnet bar in the kitchen for my knives. I’ve got to get them out of the drawer that Kira can reach before she takes a finger off. What else… oh yeah, hang the adorable doggie’s ass hanger for his leash. Thanks IKEA.
I’ve got to go to the grocery store.
I’ve got to go to Tempe Parks office to find out what I need to reserve space for PodCampAZ’s BBQ.
I’ve got to be home before noon because I’m babysitting for the night and I really don’t want to drag her around with me.
I should get started right after I catch up on all my Facebook farming…
I'm so busy
Sep 2nd
Damn, I’m going to be soooo busy this month! Even though I’m missing Dragon*Con this year, I won’t be sitting at home feeling sorry for myself.
Friday evening there is the usual #evfn. This week we’re back at Studio 5C. It’s a nice little gallery type place with a great patio for socializing and it’s right off Mill Ave if we want to carry on for the rest of the night. Plus, lots of people I kind of know through podcasting (and some I really do know) are gathering this weekend for…
The Deadpan BBQ Saturday afternoon-evening at my friend CJ’s house. Those are always lots of fun, and with no kids around this time I’m pretty sure it’ll be even better than before. Sunday evening is another Deadpan party, this time at the Tempe Palms hotel.
Tuesday evening I’m helping someone set up their recording studio and Wednesday night is our usual Evo@11 recording at Gangplank. Friday (11th) I’m going to my friend Dani’s for another “Slumber Party.” This time it’s a different presenter so we’ll have to see if she’s as funny as the last one.
My Dad turns 73 on the 13th. I wish he didn’t live so far away. He called me today while I was at IKEA so I was a bit distracted, but I had the hardest time explaining to him how my cell phone number stayed the same even though I’d moved. He just doesn’t get it. He wanted my new address so I’m standing there in the middle of the stupid store practically yelling it out for everyone to jot down. I was one of *those* people!
There’s a Brand-X T-Shirt Tweetup the following Thursday night. I’m still debating that one.
On the 18th I’m joining friends for my very first major league baseball game at Chase Field. I’ve never been so I can’t pass up this chance. After that I’ll be going to my very first Rocky Horror Picture Show! Thanks to the light rail I won’t have to do a lot of driving as everything is on the rail.
Yet another Can’t Stop the Serenity showing on the 19th. I don’t care what anyone says, it never gets old. Plus there’s a sing-along to Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog, so there!
And Kira’s 3rd Birthday is on the 29th. I don’t know what’s planned for that yet, but I’m sure we’ll do something. She’s excited. Practicing her three finger thing and asking where her birthday cake is already.
Busy, busy month and I’m sure there will be more adds to my calendar as I go along.
Plus that certain someone has said that September is a good possibility for a visit. We don’t communicate much so I’m not sure yet. Everything (except the slumber party) is something I could actually take him along and have fun. We’ll see.
