I Bet They're Going to School in RUSSIA!

So Mark called me a little while ago from school and told me I needed to come pick him up. He said he had something with his tonsils or something. So I told him to get his gear together and I'd be right there.

When I got to the school, I told the office staff I wasn't going to bother signing him out yet, since there was a good chance he wasn't coming home. I explained I was going to check him out and also lay down all the rules about coming home sick (which basically means you're IN bed, ALL day, with absolutely no electronics at all including GameBoy, movies, PS2, computer, etc. Soft gentle music like Yanni might be acceptable to facilitate napping.)

He arrives back at the office and I checked. He's got some swelling in a lymph node, but absolutely no pain or tenderness, no fever. It just feels weird to him that he's got a bump on his neck. So guess what? I made him get his butt back to class.

Office staff was impressed that I did not coddle him. Miss G happened to be in the office at the same time (her dad was my fourth-grade teacher, she was Mark's fifth grade teacher, I mentored her when I was in high school and she was in grade school) and she wasn't surprised at all. We both grew up in educational households, after all, and you didn't miss school unless you were near death or contagious. And even if you were near death, you tried to go until they sent you home for vomiting all over the classroom. I'm not *that* bad, but my rule of thumb for keeping a kid home is they have to show one of three things: significant fever, vomiting within the last 12 hours, or contagion. Fortunately for me, my kids are remarkably healthy and rarely exhibit any of these. I can count on one hand the number of times Mark has vomited IN HIS WHOLE LIFE. Come to think of it, Kira, too, but she *does* get more colds than Mark. Although still far less than most other children. I can take no credit for their awesome immune systems, I consider it a freak gene like their height. (Mark is 11.5 and he is less than an inch away from being taller than I am, and he's about the same height as his dad. We have no tall people in our families going back three generations, so I have no idea where it's coming from.)

On the way home sans sick child, I got thinking about when I was growing up, and we had a particular school superintendent who was very reluctant to ever call a snow day. He was actually quoted as saying (and my dad heard him), "I bet they're going to school in RUSSIA today!" as he refused to consider that it might just be better to not risk busses sliding off icy roads and go an extra day in June.

This is greatly contrasted with the snow day we had last week in which there was NO SNOW. Now, that was really TOO cautious. I mean, there should at least be *some* precipitation evident. There's always the option of calling a half-day and sending the kids home early.

It gets me thinking about how much of our generation coddles its children to an almost excessive degree. I got an email forward the other day that talked about all the "risks" we took when we were growing up, and yet we amazingly survived. (you know, drinking out of a garden hose, riding in the "way back" of a station wagon, playing in the neighborhood all day long without cell phones, etc.) What the hell has happened to us? I know that a lot of things that we are doing now are legitimate in protecting our children (I will never advocate repealing seat belt laws, for example), but on many things aren't we going overboard? Our kids are overprotected *and* overscheduled, and I think it's stunting a lot of our creativity and gumption. We are becoming a nation demanding the right to happiness instead of the right to pursue happiness. We blame everyone in the world for our own failures, except ourselves. We put the responsibility for our personal safety on others (see also: overly litigious) instead of taking care. When we were kids, if we fell out of a tree, we picked ourselves up and kept going. Now, the kid's parents sue the person who owns the tree because it wasn't clearly posted as a potential danger. We blame the coach if our kid doesn't make the Little League team, instead of telling our kid that they need to work harder.

I'm not faultless in this new attitude by any means. I'm *very* protective of my children. I like knowing where they are all the time, what they're doing. I schedule playdates and encourage the kids to be involved in organized activities (particularly sports). My kids have all the electronic gizmos that their friends have, including an XBox AND a PS2, as well as a GameBoy each and an iPod nano. (But to my credit, they average probably about two hours a week doing all of these electronic things combined) I hope my kid makes all the teams, and I was pretty excited that he got to play on the school basketball team without even trying out. But I also support the coach when he keeps Mark on the bench to put the better players in, and I don't demand equal minutes, although I would like him to at least see a little play time. When Mark doesn't meet the requirements for a homework assignment, I support giving him a lower grade, not allowing him to re-do it to give him a second chance.

I want my kids to be self-starters, who understand that life isn't fair, the world doesn't owe you anything, and that if you want something, you'd better be willing to work hard to get it.

And oh my gosh, I just took a breath and wondered how I got from telling about Mark's lymph node to this big long rant. Rein it in, markira. :D

Hopping off soap box now to go do laundry. mk

Many Unrelated Thoughts

X is holding my lunchbox-sized freezer packs hostage. He is deliberately not sending them back to my house until I "return" his, which are NOT HERE. I think this is pathetic and petty. And really annoying.

Kira is once again getting herself ready early so that she can go out and clear the snow off my deck. She has a wonderful work ethic. It throws Mark's reluctance to help out into very sharp relief.

I just had a ladybug on my foot. It tickled.

My house is a sanctuary for wayward ladybugs. They invade my home in DROVES. Fortunately for them, I really like ladybugs. I do not, however, like the smell when you scare them and they pee on your hand before taking off. Potent little suckers.

There's a dance at school Friday night. Mark is going. He is currently trying to work himself up to ask a girl to dance. (well, at least one of three possible girls. Not that it's questionable whether they're girls. In that sense, they're DEFINITE girls. oh, shut up, markira) He seems to think that I am in doubt whether he's going to the dance, because last night he came in to show me the money he's bringing to "prove" he's going. His original game plan was to just bring enough to get in. I convinced him he needs to have at least enough to buy a girl a soda if it works out right. His theory was that he would just buy the *girl* a soda and he would drink out of the water fountain. That way it would show the girl he cared more about her. My thought was, she'd just think he didn't bring enough money. :D (but seriously, awwwwwww on his reasoning)

Still on the dance, Mark will not let me ask his teacher to poll the class to see who's going to the dance. Even though I explained that she could easily do it in such a way that it will not seem like I asked her. And also even though Mark really wants to know which girls are going, but will not ask them directly. So I promised I wouldn't ask. However, should she, say, read this on the blog and then do it on her own accord (hint, HINT), I would be keeping my promise and we'd still get the info. :D

Yesterday I was clearing out unnecessary items from the main bathroom, and I put a bunch of kid toothbrushes in Kira's bathroom medicine cabinet. (she has a teeny tiny half-bath built into her bedroom--it's the "kids' bathroom") So this morning Kira discovered them and wanted to open the Barbie toothbrush. I actually told her no, because she *just* went to the dentist and got a toothbrush from them. Said she could open it in three months when it's time to change the toothbrush. I'm tired of having the kids have several toothbrushes going at once, leaving them all over the place (including on the floor of their bedrooms. Seriously.). She was going to throw out the one her dentist gave her to open the Barbie toothbrush. I told her it was wasting. Over a TOOTHBRUSH. There are currently SIX unopened toothbrushes sitting there. I need to let it go. I actually feel pretty cheap having told her that.

What IS it with my inability to just let things go??? I am an incredible pack rat. And not even a neat, organized one. I have stuff PILED everywhere. Ro has seen the "playroom" (although the kids have not actually been able to PLAY in there for YEARS, and in fact are not even allowed to go in the room), and she is full of plans to help me organize a yard sale for this year. She has not, however, seen the third floor. And the garage. And the "barn chamber" (the second floor of the garage). She may run screaming away. I know *I* want to run screaming away just thinking about it. But how cool if I could actually GET RID OF THIS CRAP. sigh.

Ro's house is so pretty. It's smaller than mine, but everything is all neatly and beautifully placed (and if you think that little room off the dining area counts as a disaster, Ro, you are sadly mistaken. I'm telling you, you have not SEEN disaster yet. The playroom is EMPTY compared to these other places.). She doesn't have piles of STUFF all over her house waiting to find a home. I just love her kitchen. And her living room. And the kids' playroom, which they actually play in. And she has a FOYER. Sigh.

My mom and I are going to Augusta this morning. Mom is of the "hurry up and go so you can get back" type. She just called, and already wanted to know what time we were coming back. She started calculating time, saying we'd only be there an hour or two. I interrupted her to say that if she's going to be pressuring me on time, to not go. I'm not driving an hour up and an hour back to be rushed. I have places I want to go, and I'm going to take my time. I don't want to be gone all day, either, but neither do I want her bugging me about "how much longer?!?!" If I wanted that, I'd take my kids. :D

Well, any other thoughts that I was groping for have now retreated to the corners of my brain. So I guess I'm gonna go get cleaned up and ready to go. And grab all the crap in the upper hallway and stuff it into my bedroom and close the door so Mom can check out the improvements I've made to the bathroom without having to negotiate through a one-foot-wide path before you get to the room. Again with the need to get rid of crap. Sigh. Double sigh. mk

Gotta Love 'Em

Ro had an eye appointment today, and her doctor happens to be X's wife's stepfather. (and Dr. L is probably in his mid-to-late-forties, fairly attractive, definitely doesn't look grandfather-ish age) So anyway, Ro had to bring her son along with her to the appointment. When they got there, Dr. L was very friendly and *immediately* started asking whether (my son) Mark behaved in school today, remarking how tall he was getting, etc. Nathan, who didn't know the connection, looked a little confused but just kinda let it go. Until the end.

As they were walking out, but before they actually left the office, Nathan "whispered" (which, knowing Nathan, was probably still rather voluble) to Ro: "Is that Mark's mom's boyfriend?"

Bwah ha ha ha haaaa. I love that kid. mk

Busy, busy!

Just a couple of quick highlights, I know it's been a WEEK since I've written.

* Kids had a four-day weekend over MLK Day. School had a workshop on Friday. Kids very excited.

* Student-staff basketball game on Wednesday. What a blast. The staff dressed up in 70's garb, including the most monstrously huge Afro wig I've ever seen on the middle-school science teacher. Mark got to guard his sixth-grade teacher, and he stopped her cold. Which was a good thing, because she scored at least 12 points in the game. But Mark was "like flies on sh#&," and "all elbows" she said. heh heh. He also got to shoot the technical, and made one of the two shots. Huge wave of applause, all for him. Way cool. He also shot in the fundraiser foul-shooting contest at halftime, got 5/10, lost to a fifth-grade girl. :D Teachers were taking the kids to school when there was a blank-out with the scoreboard, and when it came back on, the kids were suddenly ahead. :D In the last fifteen seconds of the game, the entire student team (which consisted of both the boys' and girls' basketball teams, probably 25 kids) came out on the floor and played. Bwahahahahahaaaaa. It was just a total blast, beginning to end.

* Apparently we couldn't just go from a four-day weekend to a regular weekend, so we had a snow day yesterday (resulting in a three-day weekend, sort of a step-down thing to a regular week). Yet, no snow. At all. The "huge storm" has not materialized.

* Which is a good thing, because I have to drive to Portland this morning (leaving in about 45 minutes, actually) to pick up Mark, who went to Boston for the weekend to SEE A CELTICS GAME. My friend Kimmie emailed me Thursday morning to see if she could pick him up and take him to one. She had two tickets at the level just above the floor (the loge). So when he came home from school on Thursday I told him to pack up, he was going to the game. She picked him up Thursday night, was taking him also to the Museum of Science (for education on the day he was missing from school! yeah, that's it!), and we're meeting at the mall in Portland for him to come back home, because she has a thing today. Of course, he ended up not even MISSING a day of school because of the "snow day." Even better. I can't wait to hear all about it. He called me yesterday afternoon after the museum, and they had gone to the OmniTheatre at the MoS, and he was all wild about that. :D Lots of excitement for him.

* I'm working on a re-decorating of my teensy tiny bathroom. It all started when I found an incredible little bathroom cabinet at TJMaxx on Wednesday, which I got a great deal on. Now I've also replaced all of the towel bars, installed some shelves in the vanity under the sink, put new shelf boards up on the walls, and have picked out a paint color to re-do the vanity to match the cabinet (it's a great color called "Black Rose.") Still working on what color the walls are going to be. Oh, have also found a *gorgeous* mirror for the bathroom, a bit of a splurge but it will totally make the room, I think.

So, that's some of the stuff I've had going on. I've really got to get a move on in getting ready to go, so I'm off. mk

Shopping with a Tween BOY

Two words: not. fun.

I had to take Mark pants shopping because pretty much all of his pants are too short. *He* claims he doesn't care, but darn it, *I* care, so he was GOING. I had to utilize pretty much my entire bag of tricks, including cajoling, reasoning, a little bit of yelling, and threatening to sew three inches of flowery material to the bottoms of all the pants that don't fit. And HE responds with his preteen arsenal of pouting, whining, MUCH rolling of eyes and complaining. Finally I just put my foot down and said Get in the car. Now.

So we arrive at JCPenney, and Mark starts laying down rules for me. We're in, we're out. NO looking around anywhere else. Pants and that's IT. Five minutes tops (excuse me while I convulse in laughter at that one. Five minutes? Is he kidding?).

To my credit, throughout Penney's AND TJMaxx (which, might I add, is pretty much my favorite store after Home Depot, and yes I realize I am weird and did I mention TJ's had a new stock of purses in and I didn't even LOOK?) I stuck to the rules of only looking at boyclothes. (and menclothes, sigh...my little boy! sob, sob) (well, I *did* look at other boy clothes besides pants, but just hooded sweatshirts, which he loves.) (ok, a slight fib. I went to another department in TJ's to pick up a specific item, but I looked neither left nor right on my way there, just went straight to it, picked it up, straight back to Mark who was picking out pants)

OK, exiting the land of entirely too many parentheses.

Another battle ensued when Mark realized he had to actually TRY THE PANTS ON. ALL of them. He eventually gave in on it, of course, when I told him if he didn't I would start looking at ladies' underwear.

So we finished up our shopping trip with a total of four new pairs of jeans and a hooded sweatshirt. (and here is where I scream in delight about the amazing find at JCP: two pairs of jeans in SLIM for $1.66 each!!! one.dollar.and.sixty.six.cents. I was THRILLED.)

So after all of that, which wound up being about an hour and a half, we kind of staggered into the Chinese buffet for lunch, a little dazed and a lot exhausted. *He* perked right up at the sight of so much food. *I* just wanted to go home and collapse. (but after the buffet, though. I loooove chinese)

Watching him as he so excitedly went back for yet another plate (and hear this: my boy was going back specifically because he wanted "Oh boy! Cantaloupe!" although they were out and he settled for watermelon with a side of fried potato wedges, oh my), my heart was just overflowing with love for him. He really is such a good boy. He's just growing up so darn fast. He's less than an inch shorter than I am at this point, but in so many ways he's still so little, inside that gangly body with the big feet. It's easy to forget that he's only eleven. But "only" eleven when I remember him at six, at two, at newborn ohmygosh. That's when I look twice and am stunned that this giant creature was once inside me. My boy. My precious, precious boy. And this tidal wave of love just crashes over me.

But that DOESN'T mean I want to go shopping with him again anytime soon. mk

Let There Be Light!

Well, after four days of having no lights in the kitchen, trying to cook dinner in the dark, today was the day. Picked up Dad and all the necessary tools (wire cutters, wire strippers, wire, electrical tape, am I forgetting anything?), headed to Home Depot to pick out some new lights.

I was quite excited. The lights in my kitchen have never quite worked right, and for the longest time only one of them has been lit, and four days ago it finally died, too. I was getting new lights. That were wired correctly. (Much in my house was constructed and improved, being generous, insanely badly by someone blind and wearing mittens, whose tool chest consisted of a butter knife and a rock.) Anyway. New lights! Maybe even new panels! I was sooooo excited.

There are a LOT of lighting choices out there. It was narrowed down greatly because I currently have three four-foot shop-lights hanging above my dropped ceiling, and so I knew basically what I wanted. But within that area, what a selection! There are strip lights, shop lights, troffer lights, and each comes in at least a couple different baffles for different sized bulbs. We spent quite a bit of time there, and talked to a guy (who was very knowledgable and helpful, by the way), and finally, after much discussion amongst ourselves, we came up with a game plan, made our purchase and proceeded to my house.

And now my kitchen is very bright, brighter than it has ever been before!

The bulbs weren't screwed in right.

I swore.

mk

Cookie Time

Well, it's started. The Girl Scout cookie sales. We gave the girls all their information today at the meeting and sent them home with their packets. Our troop goal is to raise enough money for an overnight trip to the Children's Museum in Portland in May, when they're having a Space Day event. Since our troop gets to keep $0.65 of the $3.50/box price, we're gonna have to sell a loooot of cookies, I think. :D

We're also doing a program with Operation Gratitude called Troops to Troops. We're asking people to purchase extra boxes of cookies to send to the troops deployed overseas.

So anyway, now I have cookie sales to deal with. And of course, I am on Atkins, and cannot have any sugar. And I just looooooooove Thin Mints. sigh.

Anyway, we came home and sent emails to some friends, and have already gotten two orders (thanks Ro! you were first!). Both people included a box for the troops.

I can only say, thank heaven I am NOT the troop cookie mom. She is going to have a ton of work to do.

Well, Mark hasn't showered or eaten dinner (tonight is kind of a fend-for-yourself night....Kira's having yogurt with granola, she's not hungry after we made s'mores at Brownies today), I haven't eaten dinner, etc etc. Best go get that stuff taken care of. mk

Internet Withdrawal!

Holy cow, I've got it bad. Last night at around 7pm, my Internet connection freaked out and would only bring me to my ISP's home page. No matter what I tried, it just kept redirecting me. I ended up sending a message to my ISP from its contact page early this morning, asking what was up. Turns out there was some database glitch that was reading my account as unpaid, so they had disconnected me. I'm on automatic payment, and there's actually plenty of money in my account right now, so this was alllll mess-up on their end. They reconnected me immediately and the owner of the company first emailed me an apology, and then called to apologize in person. :D

But what's the "bad" part is how frantic I felt when I couldn't get online. I was a mess. I kept clicking and clicking and trying everything I could think of to get it back. It was awful. It was the first thing I did this morning when I got up. (well, after the bathroom, of course. I mean, there are some priorities in life, and did I mention I've been drinking about ten glasses of water a day???)

It's also a little scary to think of how much of my life is wrapped up online. I have a lot of things stored in my email account that I should probably be storing on my hard drive. Many people contact me solely by email, including my Brownie co-leader, who in fact had sent an email last night asking me to print something out for today's meeting. If I hadn't gotten my Internet back, I wouldn't have gotten the message OR been able to access the stuff she wanted printed. (www.colorasmile.org , if anyone's interested) There are also some projects I want to play with today, but they require research on, you guessed it, the Internet.

I couldn't even BLOG about my panic because I couldn't get to my blog! I mean, I suppose I could have done a word doc and just transferred it over eventually, but that's totally not the point.

But, I've got it back and all is well, so I can start to breathe in a regular pattern again. Eventually. Now that I can get my 'net fix.

Anyway. There's my little rant of the morning. I'm off to check sites. Later! mk

My Other Blog

Well, I've created another blog to keep up with my Atkins stuff, so I don't clog this one all up with boring stuff about weight and carbs and junk. I've put it on my blogroll, but here's the link anyway for anyone who wants to check it out:

markira's atkins blog

Not a lot else to talk about at this very moment, so I'm off to (sigh) do some laundry. ho-hum. mk

InstaResults!

Well, ok. Maybe my scale is screwed up or something, but it is telling me that I lost FOUR POUNDS since yesterday. I'm a little freaked at the magnitude of the immediate results of going on this diet.

And I'd forgotten a bunch of things about it, too. I remembered the carb withdrawal headache (which yes, has arrived), but I forgot about the bazillion trips to the bathroom the first couple of days. And the faint feeling of nausea as my body adjusts to the double whammy of consuming a great deal of meat & eggs, and getting all the sugar out of its system. And oh my goodness, the ketosis halitosis that is coming, if it has not yet arrived. I must warn Ro. Poor girl is going to be sitting next to me for two hours at a movie today (we're taking our kids, plus another friend of Mark's, to see Eragon). I don't want her asphyxiating in a cloud of ketones. :D

Also forgot about the feeling of "lightness" that comes with getting the carbs out. Not that I don't still feel fat, because I do, but somehow I also feel lighter. Less draggy. (although the *energy* hasn't arrived yet, that'll be another couple days, I think.) And as the weight that I've lost has been water weight, I feel less puffy. (and I can see it in my fingers. the less-puffiness. nobody else would notice, just me.)

Still to come is the energy increase. That'll arrive over the next couple of days, as the carb withdrawal is complete. The nausea will fade, also. And any remaining food cravings. Weirdly, on this diet where you can eat as much as you want (of the approved foods), you don't feel hungry. Often you have to remind yourself to eat. Truthfully. (I'm not there yet.)

I *have* noticed how snacking has become an automatic habit with me. How many times in the last two days I've not been hungry, but still find myself scanning for a little nibble of the carbohydrate variety. It's crazy.

Well anyway, the kids will be home off the bus in a few minutes. I've just noticed how truly hellish the house looks, and Eddie's coming home with Mark. And Ro's meeting us here to go over to the movies together. Huh. I'm a total pig. Damn I hope this energy kicks in soon so I'll feel up to doing some major cleaning! mk

Here We Go

OK, people. I've started on the Atkins Diet. As of today. I am currently eating my lunch, which is a yummy salad with dark green lettuces, a little touch of cucumber, broccoli, celery, hardboiled egg slices, an aged romano cheese dressing, and a sprinkling of bacon bits. Dinner is planned: a grilled steak, which is already marinating (in Emeril's Lemon Rosemary Gaaahlic, which is amazing and totally my favorite marinade), and another nice big salad. Might even make sugar-free jello for dessert.

I've done Atkins before. It works while you're on it. I lost a ton of weight, looked great, had a lot of energy. The problem is when you go *off* the diet. You have to have a new plan in place and expect some slideback, because you WILL regain some weight while your body adjusts to the new plan. If you just flat-out go off Atkins (like I did), it's likely you will just regain all the weight, and possibly add more (again, like I did).

The hardest part about Atkins is the first three days. Adjusting to the new eating style, and also dealing with the KILLLLLLLLLERRRRRRRRR carb-withdrawal headaches. Oh my gosh, those things are horrible. But I'm ready for it.

The easier part about being on Atkins this time is that I don't have X around anymore. He wasn't particularly supportive about the diet itself, and he surely did not want it to interfere in any way with *his* life. I ended up making three different dinners every day: one for me, one for the kids, and one for X. That SUCKED. Plus every night after dinner, X would plant himself in front of the TV with a pint of Ben & Jerry's. Which was torture.

But enough negatives! I'm staying positive! I'm gonna start dropping weight! I'm gonna be a Hot Mom!

OK, I'm going to go finish my salad, have some water, and get ready to go to Mark's Geography Bee. Later! mk

Life in a Small Town

OK, there are some really fun parts to living in a small town. Like this morning.

The phone rings at 7:15am, and I answer.

It's the school lunch lady.

She was calling to apologize to Mark. Yesterday Mark had a dentist appointment, so he went to school late, and thus got his lunch order in late. He didn't happen to tell the office that he had wanted the PBJ entree, so he was down for a regular lunch. When he went through the line, he told Mrs. N that he wanted the PBJ, and she said she'd make him one and bring it to him.

And then she forgot.

So this morning, her waking thought (her WAKING THOUGHT!) was of this and that "Oh my gosh! Mark went home hungry!" And she felt so badly about it that she called. And today she's going to give him an extra meatball. mk

The Right Start to the New Year

So, New Year's Eve I went to Ro's house (not to celebrate, mind you, because really I think it's kind of bizarre to celebrate New Year's.... hurray! we survived the year! whooohoooo!). And finally around 2:30ish I headed home.

Winding around Rt. 235, I saw a flash across the road. Wasn't sure what it was, dog, coyote, something...looked in the field and saw a deer. Cool. Always like wild animal sightings. Saw a bear once when I was leaving camp. It was right smack in the middle of camp road. Totally cool.

Anyway, continuing on towards my house, I turn onto my road, which is about three miles long. About halfway down, I saw *another* deer running across this person's lawn towards the road. So I slowed waaaaaaay down (and I was only going about 25 mph to start with). The deer paused, then ran AT MY CAR. It bounced off the rear passenger side with a pretty good-sized THUD, and ran away. I was seriously freaked out. Worried about the deer. Worried about my car. Wondering what the *hell* I was supposed to do. Continued to drive.

And then ANOTHER DEER friggin' ran out across the road in front of my car! I yelled out, "WHAT THE HELL! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?!!?" It was like a deer convention out there, and I imagined they were all sitting around, drinking, you know, celebrating the New Year (hurray! we survived another year! whoooohoooo!), and some fool deer came up with the idea: "Hey! Next car that comes down the road, we all charge it! Me first!"

I did manage to make it the rest of the way home without further incident (like a little obstacle course of wildlife wasn't enough of an incident), and checked my car to find NO DAMAGE. At all. If I squinted my eyes just right, I could maybe possibly see something that could pass for a dent on the door, but it was faint and could have been there before. No blood. No hair. No indication that it ever happened. Deer ran away (I am praying that it was okay, nothing broken or anything), so there is nothing to prove that this was anything other than a hallucination on my part. (oh, GREAT. Not even a particularly *creative* hallucination!) I thought, Nobody is going to believe this one. But here it is, for your consideration.

What a way to start the New Year, eh? There's got to be a way to work this into my resolutions. Any suggestions? mk