Summer is here

And it's a little early. Yesterday's high was around 100 degrees, depending on which local news report you believe. It was a record-breaker any way you looked at it. The temperatures are a good 10 degrees higher than normal for early June, which doesn't bode well for the summer ahead. Sigh.

I HATE summers in Austin. Even though this is my 14th summer here (I can't believe I've lived here that long), I still haven't adapted to the heat and humidity. By the time August rolls around, the tempteratures will stay in the high 90s long after the sun sets.

So I'm stocking up on my outdoor time now, while I can. Last night, after the kids were in bed, I sat on the front porch and enjoyed the relatively balmy 80 degree weather. I listened to a podcast on my iPod and just watched the world go by, ignoring the laundry and paying work that were waiting inside.

This morning, I was early for an appointment, so I stopped at a hip coffee joint on South Congress Avenue and drank some iced tea while I checked e-mail and caught up on the headlines. The weather was perfect, but I could tell it wouldn't last long. By the time I walked to Ella's school to meet her for lunch, I was regretting my decision to not drive.

I am not looking forward to this weekend. The weather forcast is the same - hot, humid, no rain in sight. This weekend is the Danskin Triathlon, and I'm working on the race for the 10th year, and probably last, year. I've told the race director that I can only be at the site on Friday for the site build and Sunday for the actual race, but I'll probably still end up out there on Saturday for some reason or another. At least the site is at Decker Lake, so I can jump in the water to cool off if I need. But on race day we're going to have the racers drop like flies in the final hours. Some of the women are out there for three or more hours, and it will be HOT by then. I plan to spend as much time as I can in the medical tent in front of one of the cooling fans.

For the rest of the summer, I'll either be hiding inside and letting the kids vegetate in front of the TV or floating in our neighborhood pool. Anything to escape the heat.

Take Your Time

It's OK, really, I didn't have anything better to do than wait for roadside assistance to send a tow truck to my house.

Several hours ago I went out to look in my trusty and beloved car (said without a trace of sarcasm) for something. My automatic door unlocker-thingy didn't work, which I initially thought was due to the thingy's having a dead battery. I used the actual key to unlock the doors and noticed an odd ticking noise. So I tried to start the car. Nothing happened - not even a clickety-clickety of the car trying to start.

So my neighbor came over and tried to jump it for me. We let his car run while attached to mine for at least five minutes, and mine still didn't start. The neigbhors have offered me use of one of their cars (the husband rode his bike to work today), which I will take them up on.

However, before I go anywhere I have to wait for the tow truck to arrive. Hyundai offers free roadside assistance, and they are kindly sending a tow. But since I'm not stuck on the side of the road somewhere, I'm apparently a low-priority case. I've had two automated calls from roadside telling me that that the tow truck will be here in an hour and no sooner.

This puts a major hitch in my day. I have to drive down to RunTex to pick up shirts for the Danskin race committee. Then I have to deliver those shirts and two boxes of volunteer shirts to a t-shirt printing place that is in so far-south Austin that it might as well be San Antonio. I was hoping to make the trek south long before afternoon traffic starts, but it looks like I might not be so lucky. I'm trying to figure out how I can ditch at least one of the children while I run this errand.

And I'm not even going to think about what is going to happen to my schedule tomorrow if my car is still in the shop. I have a sitter coming so that I can go to meetings and run errands. I may have to cancel if I can't get around.

This is honestly the first problem I've ever had with my rolley-mobile. I love my little Hyundai. It runs like a top, at least it did until today, and does everything I ask of it. This is in sharp contrast to B's BMW, which seems to have constant problems and to always be in the shop. Last month alone, he took it in for a new transmission, which would have cost us $7,000 had the car not been under warranty, and for a broken rear window. Just goes to show that expensive cars aren't always better.

In the meantime, I'm sitting here waiting, waiting, waiting.

Reading update

One of the good things about being so sick recently is that I've had a lot of time to read, mostly because I've spent so much time in bed.

I just updated my reading blog - Plenty More Books Inside - with the books I've finished in the past month or so. I do have two that I'm still working my way through - one is a biography of Edith Wharton, the other is a bio of Einstein. They are both pretty dense, so it may be a while before I finish them. Plus I keep getting distracted by other books and by articles in The New Yorker.

All the reading has taken away from my knitting time, which is bad. I have a half finished pair of socks for Lily that I've been working on since March.

Today's laugh

My friend tcooke sent me a link to this, and I just cracked up. I don't think a "We regret the error" notice in the paper could make up for such an error. Can you imagine this poor woman going to her kids' school and having people who saw the first notice but not the retraction looking at her.

My neighbor has a friend who was recently accused of soliciting. The woman was standing outside the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema downtown talking on the phone while waiting for her movie-going partner when an Alamo staff member came up to her. He asked her if she had been soliciting his patrons. She was so stunned she didn't even know what to say. She finally asked why he would ask her such a thing. His response was that someone had complained about a woman standing out front soliciting men as they went in the theater, and since she was the only woman standing outside, he assumed it was her.

I'm surprised she didn't deck him, right then and there, for such a thing. But I don't have a lot of self control like that.

Another Love Thursday item

Here's another reason I love my husband.

He got me a new cell phone a few weeks ago - I had asked for one because the one I had was a hand-me-down from his office and didn't work well. This new phone doesn't have many bells and whistles, which is just fine by me, but it does allow me to download ringtones.

I got really excited and said, "Yay! Now I can get the Jimmy Shea song." B just looked at me funny until I reminded him what I was talking about. Back during the Salt Lake City Olympics, there was a cell phone ad featuring US Skeleton team member Jimmy Shea. During the ad, various people sang "Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy Shea. We're calling Jimmy" to the War song "Low Rider." I used to sing along, which drove B nuts because it would get stuck in his head and he'd end up humming the tune.

This morning, as I was leaving the house to go watch Ella in a play at school, the song "Low Rider" started playing in my pocket. I fished out my phone to see that it was B calling me. He had downloaded the song and put it on my phone for me. Now I giggle every time my phone rings.

It's little things like this that keep a marriage going.

Love Thursday

For the past two years, Lily has taken Creative Movement classes at Ballet Austin from the divine Joan Wolff - except Lily calls it "ballelet."

Lily loves ballet more than any other activity we've ever tried with her. When she first started taking the classes, she'd wake up each day and ask "Is I going to ballelet today?" I love this picture from last week's class - you can just tell how much fun she is having.

Lily's last Creative Movement class was last Thursday. Technically, she's supposed to move on to pre-ballet, but I'm not sure how she'll handle that. Apparently, Miss Joan is going to teach a Creative Movement class for kindergarteners one day a week for those who aren't ready for the next level, and we may put Lily in that class. But it won't be because she's not ready to tackle more challenges, but rather because she can't bear the thought of leaving Miss Joan.

Twice in the past month Lily has come out of her room, long after bedtime, sobbing about how she doesn't want to be in a different ballelet class. It breaks my heart that she is so upset about something she loves so much.

So I guess I'll see how the summer goes and talk to Lily when it comes time to register. Maybe then she'll be ready to move on.

I am too old for this!

Last week my right ear started bothering me. It was plugged up and causing some mild vertigo, so I started taking Sudafed, which usually does the trick when this happens. Not this time.

My ear felt worse and worse over the course of the weekend and my left ear starting hurting in sympathy, so yesterday I called my OB's office to see if they could help. After getting a lecture from the appointment secretary about how I really need to have a GP, she scheduled an appointment for me with one of the nurse practitioners yesterday afternoon.

It turns out that if you want to entertain medical staff at an OB's office, go in with an ear ache. Two nurse practitioners and one medical assistant took turns looking in my ears, which hurt a lot.

The verdict? Two ear infections, one possibly ruptured ear drum (which would explain why I can't really hear out of my right ear), and a possible sinus infection. After three more lectures on finding a GP, they turned me loose with a prescription for antibiotics.

Our pharmacists laughed at me when I went in the prescription. They both said they rarely if ever see adults with ear infections.

When I got home and told B the diagnosis, he said, "Way to take care of the problem before it got worse!" Then he laughed. I decided not to point out how often he does things like this.

I don't remember having ear infections as a kid, other than the rare case of swimmer's ear. And Ella is the only one of my kids who has ever had an ear infection. So how do I get one as an adult? I'm stumped.

FAQs, Part II

I've been getting questions via e-mail and comments, so I figured I'd answer some of them in this fashion.

How are you feeling?
Pregnancy-wise, I'm feeling much better. I'm in my 17th week and have turned the corner with the all-day sickness and exhaustion. I'm still pretty worn out by the end of the day, but I think that has more to do with my life than with pregnancy.

However, we've had a rough few weeks with illnesses and broken bones, and I'm in a bit of a funk, emotionally.

Are you getting more excited about the baby?
No, not really. When I think about it at all, it's to worry about how on earth I'm going to manage four kids when I can barely keep the three that I have under control. I'm very concerned about what life is going to be like.

One friend, while trying to cheer me up, told me about her neighbor, who has four kids. She said, "She's so organized with them. You should see them all get in the car - they come out of the house and line up and get buckled in without any problems." I know she was trying to make me feel better, but it didn't work. My kids already don't behave that way. As soon as I open the front door, Ella bolts to climb the tree, Campbell takes off for the neighbors' house, and Lily is tracking down Grey Kitty to play with her, leaving me to stand next to the car yelling, "GET IN THE CAR NOW!" Adding another child to the process isn't going to suddenly make me organized or my kids compliant.

How's B's broken heel?
Not much better. We're concerned that he may have been misdiagnosed. He definitely bruised the heel, but now that the bruise is gone, his heel doesn't hurt at all. Unfortunately, something is definitely wrong further up in his foot. He still can't put any weight on it, and it gets really swollen by the end of the day. He's calling the doctor today about going in to have it re-checked. He's worried that he's wasted three weeks waiting for the wrong thing to heal.

How's your new job?
It's going really well, at least I think it is. And the client sent me more work after I submitted my first few pieces, so I think that's a good sign. It's a very different kind of writing than I've been doing for the past few years, so I'm having to work different parts of my brain, which is a good thing.

Any names for the baby yet?
Nope. We still can't agree on anything. But the Drunken Housewife is sponsoring a baby naming contest for me. Hurry up and enter if you have thoughts on good names.

So is it a boy or a girl?
Mom, how many times do I have to tell you? We're not finding out.

Beware of boys with bats

I figured it would take longer for Campbell to inflict his first real injuries on a member of the household, but I'm not sure why I thought that.

Yesterday he managed to wallop me across the bridge of my nose with the Hello Kitty bat - I don't even know where this bat came from; I certainly didn't buy it.

I was sitting on the sofa reading, and he was walking back and forth from the coffee table, which he had pushed up so that it was almost touching the sofa, to the sofa. During one of his "leaps," he smacked me in the face with the bat. It may be a padded bat, but the blow still hurt - I swear I saw stars.

I yelled, "OWWWW!" as a reflex, and he just started laughing, which worries me more than a little. The bat is now put up, out of his reach, and he has to make do with a "light saber" made out of a foam pool noodle that Ella and Lily got at a birthday party.

I think we'll wait a while before buying him a real bat, like long enough for him to understand that it hurts when he hits his mama with one.

What were you thinking? Part 357

Last night, at about 8:30, I was working in my office and heard an odd noise from the kitchen. B was out in the garage, so I knew it wasn't him. I went around the corner to find Ella standing on the kitchen counter, reaching for the candy bowl, which is up on a high shelf. She froze like a deer in headlights when she saw me, then hopped off the counter.

When I asked what she was doing, she pursed her lips and wouldn't look at me. I asked several more times and didn't get any answer, at least not until I threatened her with being grounded after school today. She then fessed up that she was getting bubble gum for Lily.

Now usually it's Ella who gets Lily to go on stupid errands that she knows will probably get one of them in trouble - like coming out of their room after bedtime to ask some silly question. So I was stunned that Lily had conned Ella into doing something wrong.

I chased Ella back into bed, then went in and sat next to Lily, who had her covers pulled up to her eyeballs. When I asked her if she had sent her sister for bubble gum, she slowly nodded yes. I reminded her that a. bubble gum is a special treat, and b. she's definitely not allowed to have it in bed.

I then lectured both of them on the foolishness of this stunt and threatened both with grounding after school if they popped out of bed again for anything other than going to the bathroom. Amazingly, despite earlier claims of not being able to fall asleep, they were both out like lights when I went in to check on them five minutes later.

Sheesh. What will they think of next?