More This and That

DH was listening to the idiot Octomom 911 tape when listening to Howard Stern last week. I haven’t heard it yet, but DH said that is was maddening to listen to because she was completely off her rocker. Screeching and wailing, freaking out, but the worst was when the idiot said that she was going to kill herself… in front of the other children! The 911 operator had enough presence of mind to tell her not to say that in front of her kids. What a freaking nutcase. Those poor children!

 

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Why do people ignore their dogs? Barkbarkbark in this neighborhood for hours on end, all over the place. WTF? And I don’t get mad at the dogs—not their fault—but their stupid owners’ fault. Stupid people.

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I hiked for nearly an hour in Pima Canyon on Thursday morning, about elevenish. I was astonished that so many people were there. More importantly, I don’t believe that the South Mountain trails are really too kid-friendly. Lots of jagged rocks poking through the surface after all the rains this winter, a constant incline, no shade, etc etc. Are parents really so stupid these days?

 

No, wait, don’t answer that.

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I got my hockey pants in the mail today. I have to return them. They just won’t work; my ass is just too fat and they’re made for men who put the waistband of their pants below their beer (or Warcraft) bellies. Not surprised.

 

Today, I went to the hockey shop (Behind the Mask) near my house and a really nice guy helped me size a helmet and adjusted it for me, and even gave me the proper size of face cage. I also bought gloves. I’m about ready to go.

 

While we were chatting and he was adjusting my helmet, I asked him if the new facility in Queen Creek has been good for them. He said yes, actually, it has. There’s been more movement, more demand, more interest in this area. I later told him that for me it was a wash – I’m dead between the two facilities (see previous discussions of) and CSC has the baby leagues I need for now.

 

I said that it should be looking up – I see more and more kids and adults blading around, more than I’ve seen for years. Sports associated with inline skates invariably follow.

 

My clinic starts Tuesday. I’m excited but apprehensive. Am I ready? No. Am I anywhere near the shape I need to be in for this? Hell no. Doing it anyway.

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Earlier this month, The Young Victoria premiered in London. In this movie, the real life Queen Victoria’s great-great-great-great granddaughter (hmmm wait *mutters* Victoria, Edward, (g) George, (g-g) George, (gg-g) Elizabeth, (ggg-g)Andrew, (gggg-g) Beatrice… OK, good), Princess Beatrice–colloquially “of York”, properly “of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”–had a cameo as a lady in waiting. Princess Beatrice has the bug eyes of the Hanoverians and actually very strongly resembles a portrait of Queen Victoria done when she was in her twenties. Anyway, there was good reason for this royal kid to be there.

 

Here are Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie flanking their mother at the premiere:

 

 

 

(Photo: Entertainment Press/Splash News)

 

These girls are the granddaughters of the Queen of the United Kingdom, nieces to the recently-awarded Best Dressed Man (Prince Charles), and have access to the finest stylists and clothes in the world.

 

So WHY IN THE HELL ARE THEY DRESSED LIKE CRAP???

 

This isn’t the first time, and for criminy sakes you would think they’d learn. These young ladies are twenty and eighteen, supposedly somewhat sophisticated, and old enough to know that you don’t wear crappy off the rack items (or things that look like them) that fit poorly and/or make you look decades older than you are. Eugenie’s too young to wear something that makes her tits look like they’re already migrating south like a sixty year old, and Beatrice looks ghastly in that shapeless piece of crap. Their mother has learned to dress well, and their Wales and Phillips cousins dress beautifully. So why the horrible choices? Damn.

 

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 Check out my recent entries at Meant to Be, my sister blog. Things are moving along.

I DID IT

I went and gone and done it…

I signed up for a hockey clinic!

I think it’s wise, considering that I haven’t played inline hockey in ten years, wise in terms of doing it before I set a skate on the rink in a league.

LOL! Pray for me. I’m excited.

Procrastination/is silly/you go around/willy nilly…

I’m pretty much doing everything except the Motion in Limine I’m supposed to do for my legal writing class, and then after that I have to start piecing my legal memo together. I did the depo summary earlier this afternoon–really an abstract, but my instructor is weird that way: she doesn’t know the difference between an abstract and a summary. Whatever; the abstract is a hell of a lot faster and easier, and I did a fine job, thank you very much.

Three weeks to go. It can’t go fast enough.

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I came home yesterday when DH poked his head into the garage as I opened the trunk. “Baby? I have a surprise in the living room.” He was even solicitous in helping me bring in the bags, which he rarely does. He was supposed to be out scouting for things, not buying. He looked awfully guilty, like a lil kid who has done something in contravention to what his mother told him not to do.

I was not surprised, therefore, to find a 42″ flatscreen in our living room. He got a screaming deal with an appropriate side story to go along with it (rude people who wanted TWO flatscreens at the center of it… who needs TWO flatscreens??)

He is not allowed to bitch about finances for the next year.

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Princess Entitlement came home for Thanksgiving (hub’s niece) from her snooty university. Long story short: if I were the parent paying $50,000 a year to attend said snooty school (not even Ivy League, mind you), I certainly would want to see my child being academically challenged. Princess said she’s bored and the classes are easy. Holy God. No wonder the kids are so useless when they get out of college.

Add to it she’s probably going to go Poli Sci as a major… and I have forgotten what foofy thing she’s doing for a minor. It’s not French, not even International Relations. I have a feeling she’s going to fizzle out.

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Plans for Vail are skimming along. The only bump in the road that made me fly out of the Radio Flyer wagon is that DH’s mom pulled a guilt trip on him, resulting in his arbitrary decision that we show up for Christmas Dinner. Um, no: two hours from Vail to Denver; sit in the airport for God knows how long; another hour (at least) in flight back home; another hour from there to get our crap and get to the house to let the cat out. And from there we’re supposed to drive another hour and a half up (and back) to listen to the b.s. of the aforementioned Princess and the weirdness of MIL’s niece? …God, no.

I didn’t take it well. I dread the day when concrete plans are in the works to move to NC. What is she going to pull then? I don’t dare think about it for fear of driving myself mad.

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I refuse to punish my nephew for the stupidity and weakness of his mother, so we sent him a combined birthday/Christmas present. She called to say thank you, but Hellboy has made no mention of gifts. Then, over the weekend, after four months of not really talking to me, Sis has decided to play nice. I’m not really interested. Until she straightens out her priorities and knocks off being  nothing more than a pawn, then yeah. Until then I have nothing to say.

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A couple of weekends ago, we went to lunch with some friends and their small children. The children were well behaved and enjoyable. “S” is a friend of DH’s and mine from hockey days. “J” is the wife he courted long distance. She does not like us (although she had an embarrassingly huge crush on DH to the point that we both felt sorry for S), and even DH is saying that enough is enough. There have been several incidents over the last few years, most especially the dinner where she had the shittiest attitude: she would not let me go and talk to the guys–I had to stay with her in the kitchen. When she went into the restroom, I slipped into the other room and had a moment to say hi to dear friend S. She came back and pretty much herded me back to the kitchen. That was not a good night, and similar incidents all night left a sour taste in both my and DH’s mouths.

But at lunch that day, she sat there, staring into space moodily, rebuffing any effort to break the ice, and she most obviously wanted to be somewhere else. She refused to join in the conversation with DH, S and I. This is not the first exposure to her rudeness, but it will likely be the last. Poor S gets to eat it; sorry, babe. It’s just not worth it anymore. It’s sad.

I do not believe in putting a choke chain on my husband; to me, it is the hallmark of distrust and disrespect. I know who I married and I trust him implicitly. As an example, if he wants to go to a titty bar (who has money and time these days?), I’m secure enough in myself to be good with that. I don’t really care. I encourage him to go and play with the boys–movies, pool, squash, mountain biking, whatever. DH has so many friends who wistfully sigh and opine that they wish their wives would allow them to do such things.

To watch our dear friend S go through this emasculation is sad. She’s the breadwinner; he runs his company out of the house around the children’s schedule. He cannot have any outlets without a) her express approval and b) some method of caring for the kids while he plays. She won’t just stay home with the kids now and again for his sanity; instead, he’s tethered to the children (while she’ll go out and play). It’s a shame, really, and the change in S is pretty obvious.

When I brought up hockey at lunch that day, his eyes lit up and the discussion following was animated. J was miffed and when S asked me to send the link to where I’m considering playing, there was a glint in J’s eye I didn’t like. I hope I didn’t cause any difficulty for him, but it just came up in conversation. I’m willing to bet that the thought of playing roller hockey again has him excited (his nickname when we all used to play was “Yzerman” lol… and yes he was that good)… but I think if J has anything to do with it and he tries to insist on returning to hockey, she’s going to cut his nards off and put them in a jar.

I feel so bad for the guy. Poor baby.

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This past Wednesday, I went to Dad’s and did Phase One of cleaning the store room. I was naive enough to think this would be a day project-oh hell no. Mom had stashed stuff in there from the forties and fifties, including my uncles grade school report cards. There’s a large pile of letters to and from my grandparents… and I had absolutely no time to read them. I will sort, categorize and go through them one day.

I found some letters and diaries of my mom’s that I discreetly stashed in my pile, and read when I got home. All the way back in 1965, she was gutted by the division and bullshit games in her family, and their apparent indifference to her and her huge responsibilities. “I might as well be dead to them,” she had written.

Sad to think that forty-three years later, her daughter knows exactly how she felt then. Some things never change, and patterns in families really do repeat.

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All right, back to work. I’m slacking and I know it. One assignment down, two to go.

More later.

Weekend Roundup

Ahhh… *sits down for the first time all day*

I think summer’s back is broken… not that the temps are out of the hundreds yet, but because the early mornings are now back in the mid-80s. It was 80 this morning at a 6:40a, and it was WONDERFUL. I would have gone for a hike, except that I had weeds and overgrown vines screaming for attention in the front yard. So I went for coffee at the aforementioned hour, went to Wally World before all of Guadalupe woke up, and not only sprayed the weeds and clipped some of the stuff in the front, but I also washed and waxed my car.

I am all kinds of awesome today.

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Progress is as progress does: I started out so well in the gym, and then Boss went into a week’s worth of conniptions that shot all plans, before and after work, to hell. Then school started, throwing me off even more. I have been skating at CSC on Wednesdays, and catch the occasional Pima Canyon hike now that the weather’s nicer. I haven’t been to the gym in about three weeks, and if I get through other stuff today, I’ll head up the street.

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I do not understand why a set of inline bearings are upwards of $40. I say “40″ because generally I’ve seen them between $35 and $43. So let’s take my rough average: 40/16=2.5. So $2.50 per bearing? Seriously? When it costs maybe $.50 to make them? What a fucking racket.

I’m looking for bearings so that I have dedicated indoor bearings vs. outdoor. I have the stock bearings in my new wheels to mess around on the Sport Court, and the dirt from the outdoor skating have trashed them. I have to get new ones for indoor.

And Dave wonders why I won’t commit to a league right now… I bought my hockey ‘girdle’ for $60 a couple of weeks ago. I got a stick and a puck last week to play around with. I have to parcel out the spending, and then league fees, too? Not yet. January, I promise.

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After five years in our house, we’re finally getting rid of the fuschia carpeting. I told the lady from the flooring place about it, and she didn’t believe me until I told her. When she came to measure, she walked in the door and stopped. She blinked and said, “Wow.” So we’re getting a mix of tile and carpet, and running the same carpet up the stairs and through the upstairs hallway. We’ll do the bedrooms at our leisure.

Better Half was thinking that we could do ~1200sf for under three grand. He’s on crack, especially since we have chosen some better materials than one might actually choose for a house that will be sold in the next couple of years.

Oh, I can’t wait–I have hated this carpet since the moment we first saw this house, but events conspired against us to change it. I’ll post before and after pics, perhaps make its own page. You will understand my joyous backflips when you see.

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All right, off to homework land. See ya later.

O RLY?

I had posted on a pretty much defunct roller hockey message board a couple of months back, “pretty much” translating to “no new posts since sometime in 2007.” On impulse I looked and there was a reply, saying that yes, indeed, roller hockey is returning to the East Valley.

All excited, I follow the link and I’m like, East Valley? Really? SWEEEEET!

The Barney Family Sports Complex (“”BFSC”) is opening soon in, of all places, Queen Creek. Queen Creek is barely in Maricopa County, folks. In fact, as it grows, it straddles Maricopa and Pinal Counties to the far south and east. When I was a kid, if someone talked about Queen Creek, it was as far as the moon, or Mars, or freaking Jupiter.

In any case, from the blog posts regarding the progress of the building, it’s a pretty ambitious project, and they’re planning on offering basketball, volleyball, indoor soccer and inline hockey. It’s nice to see that the family who owned the land for so long insist that something good for the community be built on what used to be their land, and the buildings look awesome. Bravo!

Those folks who have been traveling to Castle Sports Club or Rollerplex from the East Valley are reportedly ecstatic that they won’t have to go to essentially Moon Valley and the edge of the universe, respectively (personally, I just don’t see where it’s reasonable or sane to drive waaaaay the fuck out to 75th Ave/Bell–for the trouble, you might as well join a traveling league). However, unless one lives in south Chandler or west Gilbert or south Mesa, this new venue’s not really close to anything.

For me, it’s the devil or the deep blue sea: per Mapquest, it’s 26.58 miles (34 minutes) to BFSC, and 26.85 miles and 34 minutes to Castle Sports Club, both of these mapped from my house. I am in the dead middle between the two. Holy crap. Flip a coin.. in the end I’ll probably wind up at BFSC because a) it’s new and b) it’s in a much nicer neighborhood. For now, though, CSC gets me on Wednesdays to skate between classes since I’m out there anyway.

Hockey, Revisited

Man, it’s amazing how much time I got back after leaving a certain organization six months ago. I actually have time! Energy! Ambition! Thoughts! Wants! I never really realized how badly it was dragging me down until this past couple of weeks. I actually want to do things that I didn’t have the time or inclination to do.

So as a result of this burst of energy, I have something to work towards. I mentioned in my previous post that I had, once upon a time, played roller hockey. That is my goal to get back to. Nothing will happen for at least six months–first, school won’t allow it (i’m taking three classes in the fall), and I’ll be done in December, praise God. Secondly, finishing school not only clears up time but money for league fees. Third, I have to make my fat ass less fat and build a fitness baseline before I ever gear up.