Just the Girls

Mr. K and N have gone to a Cub Scout campout this evening. They'll be back sometime tomorrow. I think it might rain on them a lot, so I expect we'll be hanging out the tent to dry.

I'm jealous of N. He's getting to spend the afternoon, evening, night, and next morning with his dad and no other family members. I haven't had the chance to since N was born.

I painted the girls' toe and finger nails. We got pizza for dinner. I got myself vegetarian pizza, which Mr. K hates, but Mr. K isn't here today. J and I made some puff pastry cinnamon/sugar swirls. They're all gone now.

We've played some cards and a modified version of bunco, a dice game. K finally fell asleep. J wants me to read Nancy Drew to her, but since she woke K back up a couple minutes ago, I'm making her wait until a) K is really deeply asleep again, and b) I finish making a post to this blog. Unfortunately, she's right next to me, reading everything as I type it.

Not sure what's up at my neighbor's house

As I mentioned in the past, my neighbor (the one with the beer in one hand and the cigarette in the other) lives in a shed in the back yard. When he quit working (the surveying business got slow a few years ago), he ran out of money to pay his mortgage, so he talked a friend from work (boss's brother) into buying the house at a price which gave him some cashing out of equity, and he used that equity to pay some rent for use of the house and to buy beer and cigarettes. Eventually the equity ran out, and my neighbor realized he had to go so he fixed up a shed in the back yard and moved in.

The house was a horrid wreck when my neighbor sold it to his friend. He had done nothing but trash it while he owned it. When his friend bought it, he brought lots of rubbish to the place in addition to what had been there before. I think he has a junk-hoarding complex. He's moved things like an old bathtubs and toilet and dead trucks into the yard. He's done a pretty good job of disguising the mess from the road, though.

The new owner actually has a cattle farm an hour or so away, but it saves a lot in gas to spend the night here, by where he works, than to drive home the nights he's in town. He goes home to his cattle once a week, though, to care for them.

With the slump in the real estate market, there's been a slump in surveying. He doesn't get as much work as he'd like. Also, cattle aren't selling for much, and during last year's drought, his grass dried up so he had to buy a lot of hay. I don't think he's making much money these days, and we think from something he said, that he might not be able to pay the mortgage by the end of the summer. We've noticed he's spending a lot more time there in the house (perhaps fixing it up?), and I see some new junk in the yard (perhaps tossed out of the house?). We think he's fixing it up a bit to make it easier to sell once he's foreclosed on, but we're just speculating.

My neighbor is trying to get social security disability, but he's been turned down. He got a lawyer who is trying again. If my neighbor gets his disability, he may be able to move back into the house and actually pay rent again. That might be enough for his friend to keep it.

If he fails at getting disability or if it takes so long that the house goes into foreclosure, we don't know how long he'll be able to hide out in the shed. If the house if vacant and the bank owns it for a long time, probably no one will no he is there.

If it is sold to investors quickly (not likely these days) to flip it, they might catch on someone lives in the back. If they don't catch on, once it is sold to someone who actually lives in the house, my neighbor will have to go because no one will put up with a man squatting in their shed.

We have no idea where he'll go. He has some sisters, but they've pretty much written him off (I don't blame them.) His mom is in a nursing home with some kind of dementia. His dad is dead and buried. His son is in Illinois and doesn't have much luck keeping a job.

Anyway, we have no idea yet how this will play out.

Saturday Night

It's Saturday night, and I'm home like always. It's a good place to be. I got my weekly grocery shopping done, and I got the kitchen cleaned up after dinner. Now I have a little time to use the computer.

We spent a couple hours at the political thing today. It was quite hot and humid. The kids and I got snow-cones. It was the first time they've ever had snow-cones. A marching band of people dressed in Scottish attire (kilts with the little purses in the front and knee socks) played bagpipe and drums to sort of start the official things off. I don't think K has ever heard bagpipes before. She held her hands over her ears. I wish I had remembered my camera. There was a lot of things I'd like to have had pictures of.

A lot of people came. I got hands full of literature. We didn't actually attend any sessions because with kids you just can't. The kids had fun throwing balls to dunk a kid in a dunk tank. K got a couple temporary tattoos.

Tomorrow we're going to church, having the kids' friends over (they're moving to Baltimore later this week), and we're going to try to defrost our chest freezer.

This morning I had to meet a guy at one of my rental houses to have him look at the drywall damage so he can prepare an estimate to fix the drywall in my upstairs and downstairs unit. The old, leaking tub made quite a mess.

After that we took cupcakes over to my neighbor's shed and celebrated his birthday with him. Mr. K took him a bottle of mead, and K brought him a tomato from our garden. J made him a card.

None

I have only one month until my community college class begins. I guess that means summer is almost over. I will start my class before N and J go back to school by about a week. I think it will be about two weeks before K starts preschool. I hope there won't be any tests that require my actual presence before then. That will be tricky. The lady who once in a great while has helped me out as a babysitter begins teaching at a Catholic school full time (kindergarten aide) this year. Her kids get half-price tuition there, so they're transferring there. She's getting her foot in the door because ultimately she'd like to teach their 7th or 8th grade history classes. She's watching my kids next month (still summer) while I have an eye doctor appointment.

Tomorrow morning I'm meeting a drywall guy at one of my rental houses. The upstairs tub leaked and destroyed the ceiling of the downstairs unit. I kept trying to get the leak repaired, but it kept leaking. The plumber concluded the tub was too rusted out to be fixed. I had to get a new tub and tub surround put in. This resulted in huge holes in the wall. I now need to get them fixed, and since the leak is supposed to be gone, I need to get the ceiling in the downstairs unit repaired. Fortunately the downstairs unit was vacant when I got the upstairs tenant. We didn't know there was a leak until she moved in and started using the tub. My downstairs tenant got put in jail, which is why she failed to pay rent and had to move out.

In the afternoon, we are going to a political event called Liberty 101

http://www.richmondteaparty.com/rsvpliberty.htm


I have no idea what time we'll get there, so we're not planning to attend any seminar in particular. They're supposed to have activities for kids, so that's mostly what we'll do.

Phone Problem

The last couple times it has rained, our phone went out. It came on a few hours later, when the lines dried out. I called for repair last Thursday afternoon. Today is when they came to fix it, almost a week later. Fortunatley the phone was only out for a coulple hours.

I wondered if it wasn't going out because of this open phone box in front of my house. The guy closed it but didn't think so. He said to call him on his cell phone when it is out next time because everything checks out okay right now. He needs it to be broken to fix it.

I am planning to try FIOS (fiber optic phone and Internet) out in the next few weeks, and that should fix the problem up once and for all, plus my Internet will go much faster.

Irritated by neighbor

My neighbor, Mr. T (the one with a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other who lives in a shed) came by my house this afternoon when I was playing my new Nancy Drew game with N and J. He asked me about having a party in honor of its being the 40th anniversary of our sending men to the moon.

I said I didn't feel like a party. He went away.

Later he came back and said he had invited all my neighbors, up to the corner (about six houses) to come to my house for a cookout this afternoon. He told them to bring their own food to put on the grill, and he didn't give them a time. I was quite annoyed with him. I hadn't planned on grilling today; I had planned to roast chicken breasts. We hoped everyone would ignore such a vague invitation from a drunken man. I asked him why he didn't at least give me some notice about a party I was supposed to host since I could have at least picked up something for the grill at the supermarket last night. He said it was spur of the moment. I asked him how that could be since he's known about the 40th anniversary of our landing on the moon for 40 years.

I had to clean up my house a little just in case, and Mr. K and Mr. T went to the store to get stuff to throw on the grill.

Only Mr. T came, thank goodness. It boggles the mind that someone would go and invite a bunch of people to my house to use my grill (which is very small) without asking me first and giving me at least a day's notice. It boggles my mind that anyone would invite people to use a charcoal grill without telling them what time the grill will be ready. I wonder if the alcohol is scrambling my neighbor's mind.

Trip to State Park Today

All of us made a trip to a state park today. It's about an hour away. We swam in the lake for a while, had a picnic, rented a couple canoes and had a short hike before we left.

Mr. K has never seen me steer a canoe. I've only canoed with him a couple times, and he always makes me ride up front. Because there were five of us, we needed two canoes. Mr. K took the girls, and I had N. N hasn't been in a canoe since he was two, so he didn't know how to paddle. I tried to show and tell him how, but mostly we were frustrated.

Fortunately canoeing is like riding a bicycle. I had no trouble steering; I just had trouble keeping up with Mr. K. It was a lovely day on to canoe. It was hot without being too hot, and there was a slight breeze. Sometimes the breeze made the paddling harder, but not most of the time. I think we saw three great blue heron.

Someday when N is older, stronger, and knows how to paddle, Mr. K and the girls will have trouble keeping up with us.

Trying to get my class

I've had a horrible time getting my class at the local community college. This summer I got admitted, and when I tried to take a class, I found it was full, so I didn't sign up for anything. I tried getting re-admitted, but it bombed out every time I tried on the screen that confirmed I am a Virginia resident.

I was told later by an adviser to get up at midnight on July 13 and register for my class as soon as it fall registration opened (midnight Sunday/Monday night). This is because I want a virtual (on-line) class, and they fill up quickly. I stayed up and tried this, but I could not get my account to show Fall 2009 class listings to choose from, only Summer 2009.

In the morning (before my brother arrived), I called and left a message for someone in the Enrollment office. After 6 p.m. on Monday, I got a call back. Everyone had been too busy to call me during the day because they were working with people who had walked in.

Apparently I needed to have my account re-activated, which that fellow was able to do over the phone. I immediately went to my account and found I could now get the Fall 2009 catalog. I picked my class and tried to sign up. Failure. It said I didn't have the prerequisite required for the class. I used caller ID and left a message for the guy who had called me back.

The next morning before 8 a.m., he called me back. He said he tried to reach me before the lines of walk-ins began. He had me e-mail him my request for the class, and he put me into it manually, with the condition I pay for the class by Friday or I'd get dropped. He told me I could pay for the class on-line with my credit card.

I tried to do that, and I found I couldn't. I got a message that I needed to set up a profile with the Cashier's Office. I called it and left a message (this was Tuesday still).

Today (Wednesday), 24 hours had passed since I left the message, and I still hadn't heard back. I tried calling the Cashier's Office several times, but all I got was voice mail. Finally I called the operator at the campus of the school I want to attend in the event I have to show up in person (the campus nearest me), and when she asked how I wanted my call directed, I told her I wanted to talk to someone who knew the layout of the campus who could let me know if I showed up in person on the campus, if there was a physical place I could pay the bill. I knew there was at the other campus, but I wasn't sure about the closer branch.

Yes, there was.

I loaded up all my little guys against their will this afternoon, and we went to the campus. Of course, all four of the visitor parking spots were full. That left me trying to choose between parking in a faculty staff spot, a student spot, a security spot, or a handicapped spot. I didn't have a parking pass for any of those categories (one is not a student until one pays for tuition).

I decided to do what I did the last time, which was park on the grass with some other cars who did the same thing. Last time as soon as I arrived, I asked security if that was okay, telling them I had no where else I could park since all four visitor spots were full. It was fine.

As I left my car, I saw a security truck. He pulled in next to me so I asked him if it was okay to park there. He said it was not. He'd been asked to make sure no one parked on the grass, and pointed out the tickets he'd placed on the windshields of the other cars. He said they were only warning tickets. He told me to park in the student lot because no one checks for parking stickers there. They only check in the faculty/staff/security lot and at another campus, they check in the nursing student parking lot. I thanked him and I moved my car to the student lot.

I found the Cashier's Office quickly, and I was able to pay my tuition, guaranteeing my spot in the class. The fellow at the window had no idea what I meant by being unable to pay on-line because the Cashier's Office needs to set up my profile. I guess I'll need to pursue that one day when the kids are at school and before I need to pay Winter tuition. I also got my student parking sticker. Tuition and fees left me just over $300 poorer.

I found someone to ask if there was a bookstore on campus, and there was. I asked if there were weekend hours, and she told me there weren't. (Darn! I'd have to take my misbehaving collection of three children). She warned me that I'd want to go now because the student financial aid money hadn't been distributed yet, so it was relatively empty there. Once the money was released, it was a madhouse.

I dragged the kids down there and prayed they wouldn't tear the place apart while I spoke with the guy who got my book. We survived without breaking anything, and I was an additional $150 poorer for a single math book.

I paid the kids off with ice-cream on the way home even though they weren't super good. They weren't too bad, and we survived. I got my class, and I'll have to see what it's like to take a class on-line.

My brother is coming!

I got a call this evening from my SIL, asking if they can come over around 10 a.m. tomorrow. I had to ask if she was joking. They live by Detroit, around 700 miles away. Apparently they took a family vacation in their car and didn't tell anyone in my family. They've been to Washington, D.C. and other places, and are staying tonight at a friend of my brother's in a lovely suburb just to the north of Richmond, so they are 20 or 30 minutes away right now.

They have their boys with them. I am so excited. We haven't seen them since last summer when I took my kids home to Michigan for a week. I told my SIL I'd have to spend the evening cleaning my house. She asked if I wanted her to come later in the day. I said NO! Then I'd have to spend that time cleaning instead of seeing them, and I'd like to have the excuse that I didn't have time to clean before they got here so they don't expect too much.

My cleaning style takes after my dad so I don't imagine my SIL expects too much. Last time they visited (six years ago), I still had nasty carpeting in my family room, and her littlest was a baby. She kept him in a playpen the whole time for fear of what he'd catch on my floors.

I can't wait to see my brother! Sometimes I miss him a lot.

Gone Fishing

We all walked down the road this afternoon and went fishing at the creek that crosses the road. All the fish were too small to keep, but we sure caught a lot! Mostly we seemed to catch baby bullheads. They sort of creep me out when I take out the hook because they are slimy and have barbs.

I guess the kids had fun. N didn't want to go because he thought the mosquitoes would be too bad, but they didn't seem to be, and he looked like he was having a good time catching fish. He did try to get some blackberries, but instead he got snagged on his ear by a blackberry bush.

I had to go buy worms because it hasn't rained in a while, and all the worms in our yard have hidden. We looked under logs and dug around and couldn't come up with a single worm.

White Acorn Squash

This is what the squash on one of my acorn squash plants looks like. Its seed came from the same pack of seeds as the other "Bush Table Queen" acorn squash seeds. It is obviously a different type. It has a white fruit, fewer fruit per plant, and larger fruit.

Regular Acorn Squash

This is what a regular acorn squash looks like. I grew it from a pack of heirloom seeds I got this spring called, "Bush Table Queen."

It's time for another branch of the military

While I don't know the history of the U.S. military, I know that before we had the Air Force, we had the Army and the Navy. I think the Marines broke off from the Navy, but I'm not certain. Anyhow, when air travel became practical, we got the Air Force.

Now we need to add a branch to our military, separate from the others but able to coordinate with the other branches. This branch will be our CyberStrike branch (it needs a better name).

Wimps and eggheads will find their home in the defense of our country. People who might otherwise not make the physical cut will be welcomed as long as they are the best computer hackers in the country, and are willing to work exclusively for the interests of the U.S.A. They will defend against attacks like we've been seeing from North Korea and China. They will keep our enemies from attacking our computer systems.

Next time we invade a country, they'll go "in" first, crippling our enemies computer systems even before we start dropping bombs.

We'll need a Special Forces within this group, though. These will be the most physically fit and best combat-trained. They'll be the ones who actually go into enemy territory to access the computer systems instead of hacking from outside the country of attack.

So, am I nuts or ahead of my time?

Weekend Over

I had a lazy day today. Mr. K has a bad cold and didn't want to go to church today, so I slept in until about 9:30 a.m. Then I went out for coffee and doughnuts.

I was up late last night. We had a bonfire in honor of Independence Day, and N and J had their friends (and the friends' parents) over. We made s'mores at the campfire. Our neighbor, Mr. T came over, too. He can never resist a bonfire.

During the day, I took the kids to the neighborhood pool for their Independence Day celebration. I think they had a good time.

My garden is going quite well. I've noticed one acorn squash plant that is producing white acorn squash. The seeds were all the same kind and from the same packet, so I don't know what is going on. Also, they were supposed to be an heirloom variety so I could save the seeds and grow the same thing next year. I've been using the flowers on one to pollinate the others so I've messed all that up by mixing the white with the rest. I'll probably get a picture of the white fruit it is producing.

Busy

I've been at my husband's office a lot lately, whenever he's got time between jobs. His office manager is re-teaching me invoicing (a lot has changed recently), and I'll be spending a lot of time at the office doing invoices and payroll because she's going on vacation.