Just another day in Paradise

Well, one thing my life is not - boring! I learned a couple new things today. 1) The dryer works a whole lot better if you actually turn it "on." Duh. Yes, I put in the wet clothes, went upstairs, & turned on the timer. When I heard the beep-beep, I did my duty and ran back downstairs. Only to find out the dryer wasn't smart enough to read my mind and turn it's own little self on. 2) The dishwasher works a whole lot better if you actually put in the soap "before" you run the cycle. Double-Duh. Yes, I loaded the dishwasher and ran the cycle. Oh, wait, it gets better. Ravie wanted to help Mommy. So she emptied the dishwasher and put all the dishes away. The well rinsed but not soaped dishes. ......sigh..... "thanks, Angel."

Then there was the hover disk problem. The kids have been having a wonderful time with their hover disk. This thing is basically a 3 foot diameter mylar balloon with a circular wire spine. It's a wacky thing. It's like a giant mutant frisbee and you never know where it's going or how it will get there. I've fished it out of the shrubs, knocked it off the roof and rescued it from the trees. Again and again and again. So today it happened. Ravie got it stuck in the big tree. The one she calls Lookout Scout. (Lookout Scout because she loves to climb it and can "see the whole front yard." You can also see the whole front yard if you stand BESIDE Scout, but why should I point out that mere fact to her? I allow her to climb about 4 feet off the ground before my Mommy-alarm goes off. I know 4 feet is heavenly to her. I dread the day 4 feet will no longer be high enough.) Anyway, the hover was at least a good 20 feet up. So I grabbed the purple thing. It's like a ball except that it's not. It's like a collection of handles melted together. Really, it's a pool toy, but the kids just love to toss it around the front yard since we haven't opened the pool yet this season. After several tosses I had to find something else to get the purple thing out of the tree. At least it was stuck much lower than the hover and the rake provided success. I then attempted rescue with some sticks but they were too light. I ruled out large rocks due to sharp edges. Then I decided on the bat. Now, how hard do you think it is to get a bat stuck in a tree? Apparently not hard enough. And what appreciation did my efforts gain me from my precious offspring? "Oh, no! But I LOVED that bat!" I replied that all our problems would be solved when Daddy gets home. After all, surely a 6'4" superman can get a couple of toys 20 feet up. And if he couldn't, at least he could become the complaint department. So Dear ol' Dad gets home and joins in the recovery efforts. And promptly gets the purple thing stuck in the tree. We finally get the hover down from the tree so the kids could promptly get it stuck on the roof again. Joy.

I made the mistake of leaving my cell phone turned on today. Sure 'nough I get the call. "Is Jody there?" Apparently Jody is a popular guy and unfortunately my new cell # is his old cell #. And apparently Jody ain't bright enough to let anyone know this. Anyway, today when I repeated yet again that this is no longer Jody's phone #, the guy was dumbfounded. Then he actually asked the question - "well, what's his new #?" What? Do I have some cosmic "kick me" sign on my communication portal? Haven't I suffered enough with our home phone? How many times have I answered my phone only to hear "is this Brenda?" Another popular phone customer without the ability to let all her little phone buddies know that she changed her #. And yes, her old # became our new #. I got all kinds of calls for good 'ol Brenda. I knew when her kids were absent from school because they would leave a message on my machine. I knew when she didn't pay her bills because I got the calls. I even had a nice long conversation with her ex-MIL one day when she called me. Don't have a clue who the woman was, but we had a nice visit. I kept thinking maybe Brenda would slip up and actually call me so I could give her all her messages I'd collected. And it's probably better that she hasn't. Somehow I get the feeling that Brenda is the type that would not bother to take the Malborough out of her mouth before telling the cop to kiss her .....well, let's just clean it up here and say "tush."

I've worked up to an hour daily on the treadmill. The key to it is to entertain yourself. So I've been listening to books on tape. I usually listen to Anthony Robbins, but the last couple of days I've had a joke tape from the library. It's good, mostly clean, silly and fun. Unfortunately, my treadmill also has a sense of humor. It likes surprises. Like today. I was on minute 48 when it just stopped dead still. Now, treadmills are like "you-know-what." You CAN NOT just suddenly stop. And just like "you-know-what," if you do suddenly stop you can end up with bodily harm.

I'd better go get my beauty sleep. Tomorrow might be just like today....................