As I start this, I haven't thought of one

I've pretty much ignored politics today. It's getting so every time a campaign ad comes on, I mute the TV or change radio channels. So far the phone calls haven't started, but it won't be long.

N had me called from the school's clinic as soon as he got to school. He was throwing up in the background when I was on the phone with the school nurse. K and I had to get him. Because he said he had chest pain, trouble breathing when barfing, and dizziness, I took him to the doctor's. They were great and got me an appointment only an hour from my call. I had quite a wait, though, because they ran out of rooms. They did a strep check (negative) and concluded it was just a stomach virus. Hopefully no one else will get it.

I had a plumber come this afternoon to fix the leaky drain pipe in our kitchen sink. I found it this weekend when I was looking at my bottle of bleach and found it damp, sitting in a little pile of sludge. Fortunately, it was a slow leak so I never had to change the bucket we put under the pipe (barely any water in it even today), but that means we've had this leak for a very long time.

J had a Daisy meeting last night. She had a good time for once. I think it helped that this time she had a uniform (I finally got around to getting it for her) like the other girls, and a friend who used to go to her school last year joined the troop. She had to join a troop at another school because there weren't any parents willing to be leaders at her school. Her friend switched to a private school, and they didn't have a troop there, either.

I think N is going with a friend and his dad to a Cub Scout camp out Saturday. We're not going. Mr. K is too busy, and I'm just not up to taking all the kids camping by myself. I think the pack will do another campout in the spring, and if it is at the same place, I'm planning to do that again, and I hope Mr. K will go, but if he won't, I'll work on finding the ambition to do it by myself.

If anyone is curious about what a plumber costs here, I spent $98 for the first 30 minutes, $28 for the next 15 minutes, and $27.11 on parts, for a total of $153.11 to fix a very small leak. It darned well better leak again. Unfortunately, a lot of my piping needed to be replaced or moved because I had to get rid of a chrome pipe thing that was in among the PVC. My dishwasher drain connection ended up moved. I ended up getting a $7.66 discount from that price because I paid the plumber on the spot.

The reason my plumber is so expensive is that I used a plumbing company that actually shows up when they say the will or they call to reschedule. I sometimes use a guy who retired, and his prices are excellent, but he shows up when he gets good and ready. We're glad someone actually does what they say because when you have rentals, you don't want to make your tenants wait around for undependable people. We use this company for plumbing, electric, and heating/cooling. They don't come cheaply.

I've tried two other "real" plumbing companies in the past, and they also came when they said. Each time they had assistants in training, and the plumber was very rude and mean to his assistant. We don't treat people like that in my house, so we've never used those companies again.

Sarcasm

My last post was pure sarcasm, in case no one could tell.

I've been pretty depressed about the future of my country. Here's a link to a diatribe by one of my favorite radio talk show hosts.

http://michaelsavage.wnd.com/?pageId=2154



I don't even like the candidate for whom I'm going to vote because he's too socialist and one-world government.

Neighborliness, Fairness, Patriotism,and Justice

From each according to his abilities to each according to his needs.

Geocaching

The kids and I tried geocaching yesterday and today. Yesterday, Mr. K was working on a rental house so I took the kids to the park alone. N and I tried very hard to find the first cache, but we couldn't. Then J went down by the pond in one direction while K took off down the path back to the car the other direction. J wanted to explore the area but not look for geocaches. K wanted to leave. I compromised and gave up on the first cache and didn't go to the second one. Instead we explored the area the direction J wanted to go. Then we went back to the car and drove to the playground area (a huge park).

Today, Mr. K agreed to watch J and K while N and I tried again. In the end, he decided to come with us, but he took the girls off on an exploration mission while N and I tried turning the pavilion (a picnic shelter) upside down we were certain it was hidden at. Eventually Mr. K and the girls came back to the pavilion. We all searched for a little bit, and finally, I was poking around at a small, red reflector that was above the sign on the pavilion that held the pavilion schedule. It came off in my hand, and a tiny plastic bag with a folded roll of paper, which was the cache log, fell out. It came off because it was only held up by magnets. We had found the cache!

It was a micro cache, and probably not a good choice for beginners. Once we logged our names onto the sheet of paper and returned the paper and reflector, we went to the next one.

This one was little off the path in a brush pile that had some fallen trees in it. Once I got to the area the GPS indicated was my destination, all I had to do was look around for a brief bit. It was sort of buried under some wood chunks in an ammo box. This one was a regular cache, so we traded some trinkets for trinkets. Unfortunately, J picked up a stuffed animal (turtle) in a plastic bag. It turns out, he's special. He has a travel bug attached, and he came from California. His owner wants him to go to Ocean City, Maryland, get his picture taken on the boardwalk, and return him back to California. (I found all this out by logging onto the travel bug site and typing in his dog tag number once we got home.)

J is sad to have to give him up, but she understands her stuffed turtle is on a mission. We have to help him get to Maryland. I think what we'll do is take him to a park about five miles north of where we got him (Maryland is the next state to the north). We have to log in where we found him and where we leave him so his owner can check on him.

Anyway, after the trinket exchange, we signed the log and left for the last geocache we found today.

It was by the tennis courts, so we had to drive to that area. It was actually up in the woods behind the courts. We had given up the trinkets we had brought with us in trade at the previous cache, but we found a couple nice, new tennis balls in the woods. We saw someone else had that idea, when we opened the cache. The kids got pure junk there. When I planned the trinkets I'd bring, I had forgotten each kid would want something. I brought one trinket per cache in which we were searching, not realizing the first cache was too small for trinkets. Next time I'll know better.

Anyway, I remembered I had a camera at that final cache, and I got a picture of the kids, which I put at the flickr site. Theyr'e sitting in front of a pile of wood. It was covered in the wood.

We'll be trying again at another park either tomorrow (the kids have a half day of school) or next weekend. It was fun, but I certainly preferred having Mr. K there (which he won't be tomorrow). Having him there helped J and K keep busy. I'm so glad, though that they were with us at each find.

Brenna in her Castle

There's my baby in her castle. Mr. K built it out of a cardboard box for J to keep her Webkinz in, and it didn't take Brenna long to find it. She likes to go in there to get away from everyone.

Spanish Class again

A couple weekends ago, I got a call from the lady who taught the Spanish class I took at the church this past winter. Because of high demand, she's offering Spanish 3. We don't know why I wasn't sent a list of classes, but I wasn't, along with several other people from the Spanish 2 class.

It started last Wednesday and will last eight weeks. I have class again tonight. There are a few people from the class I took before, and some new people. One lady is an ESL (English as a Second Language) from N and J's elementary school. She needs to know Spanish better to speak with the parents of the students.

I ran into her at the elementary school this week when I was there bugging the cafeteria people about J's account. She told me she was trying to see if anyone else would prefer the class be taught in Spanish. I'm fine with that. I'll follow enough. I guess she'll ask the teacher tonight to see if she's willing.

I made dinner early to have time to get the kitchen cleaned up before I leave. I'd better go do that.

I'm wondering as a mother of two little girls...

How many pairs of pink socks do I have under my roof?