Wednesday, August 29, 2007

a wednesday outing














For today's reading enjoyment, everyone in my household will now be placed under harsh lights and outed to reveal a moment of their past week that they'd rather forget. I'll leave the Film Geek alone just this once. I've picked on him enough the last few days. (I reserve the right to change my mind if the mood strikes).




Sasquatch
- Last night was Parent's Night at his brand new High School. I didn't really feel like going but I did. You have to bear in mind that all through his Junior High years I approached these things warily, never knowing which teacher was going to put a contract out on my life. Or send in my picture for the cover of "Loser Parent of the Year" magazine. (Although my money was on his AP Biology teacher). It's not that we don't try, it's that he has a head like a concrete bunker and is fortunate enough to always know better than us. I learned a lesson last night in inflection. Always before the teachers have said, "Oh, you're Sasquatch's mom." Last night, every one of them, with a genuinely pleasant smile said, "Oh, you're Sasquatch's mom." That little inflection changes everything, doesn't it? It tells me he's trying. It tells me he's finally ready to take this seriously. It tells me we're only nine days into the year.



Gumby - Has joined the Sixth Grade Orchestra and will be learning to play the violin. He has been practicing diligently at every opportunity, and makes up in volume and enthusiasm what he hasn't yet learned in technique. At the same time he's decided that our bathroom "ghost" has now moved into his bedroom and is watching him while he sleeps. Last night he told me very excitedly that he'd figured out how to scare the ghost away. He's decided to play his violin for his visitor, you see. To hear him tell it, ghosts don't like music. As he said to me,"I bet I can scare it away forever with my playing." I'll bet you can too, sweetie.



Surfer Dude - Got so carried away eating Farmer's Market pear shaped yellow cherry tomatoes that he told me if it were legal he'd marry one. (They were amazing, I'll give him that. He and I ate most of the pint on the seven minute drive home). This from the kid who said (after attending our last lesbian wedding), "Mom, just once can I go to a wedding where a girl marries a boy?"


Yours Truly
- Was helping Sasquatch carry a dilapidated entertainment center out to the trash Saturday and lost my grip, causing it to slide down my shin with enough force to break it apart. The entertainment center, not my shin. However, it took a concave divot out of the Rotten Correspondent off and on from knee to ankle, causing me to hop around in my front yard with blood running down my leg and vile words spewing from my mouth. When the FG saw it he first looked nauseous and then said I should go straight to the ER, at which point I said..."On my day off? Are you out of your mind?" and went looking for clean cloths, hydrogen peroxide and Neosporin. Every time I hobble past him he bites his lip and keeps walking. Wise man.



On the good news front, I racked up my 5,000th visitor to this blog this past week. I can't remember exactly when I put the stat counter on, but it was very exciting to hit that number. So to celebrate I threw on the little country counter to your right to keep track of other fun stuff. It looks a little sparse now, but hopefully will bulk up soon. It could be quite interesting. Make sure to check it out.



And that's all I have for today, folks. Eat lots of cherry tomatoes, listen to some good lesbian wedding music and don't let ghosts carry entertainment centers out to the curb. You heard it here first. And I should know.

22 comments:

Jen said...

How to tell we're living in a modern world: "Mom, can I please just go to a wedding where a girl marries a boy?" We're not in Kansas anymore Toto. Or maybe we are...

Hope your leg gets to feeling better. If it helps, I probably wouldn't have gone to the ER for my leg either. But hospitals tend to bug me. All the needles and stuff.

And before you ask what I'm doing up, TFYO has caught another cold. Wheee.

code: vsdpit A vested pit?

Flowerpot said...

very impressive stat counter, correspondent, and congratulations on your 5,000th visitor! We are attending a civil partnership (I beleive the correct term) on Monday of some dear friends of ours. Dont know if they're having music though.

Akelamalu said...

I love the quote from your son re the weddings.

Ouch re the leg, hope it's getting better?

Congratulations on 5,000th visitor - I'm happy I'm one of them! :)

laurie said...

kids produce much better stories than dogs do. or maybe it's just the way you tell them!

(my favorite line: "on my day off? are you kidding?" i know that feeling. i don't even want to cross the border into minneapolis on my days off, let alone enter the newsroom)

the rotten correspondent said...

jen- another cold? welcome to the school system, mom. The good thing is that it eventually slows down and they don't get sick much anymore.

our little pocket of Kansas is quite liberal, to the point where the rest of the state doesn't like us much. heh.

flowerpot - you're right. they are civil unions or partnerships, not weddings. I've learned that my kids misbehave equally at either.

akelamalu - not as happy as I am that you're here! My leg is better, but it still hurts like an SOB.

laurie - to make you feel better later in the week I'll do some non-funny kid stories that will make you go home and kiss your dogs. This morning has made me think I should have stuck with dogs myself.

Dumdad said...

5,000 visitors - impressive. I think you started blogging exactly at the same time as me (March this year). I've just passed 4,000 so you win!

Incidentally, at the beginning I used Neocounter and liked it for its colourfulness and movement. But I think the figures can't be accurate as I racked up far more visitors with Neocounter than I did with the one I use now. Not that it matters a fig either way.

Incidentally, I accidentally misled you on my last post. Raymond Barre was never French president - he was a former prime minister. A slip of the finger from me and I plead tiredness after travelling most of the day before posting. In fact, it was your comment that alerted me to the error which I've corrected now.
Thanks!

Pam said...

congrats on ur 5000th visitor. my stat counter on my page says 100 something but my map says 300 and something...nowhere NEAR u or dumdad lol oh well...that's ok. i think i will live lol

OWWW! to the leg. i wouldn't have gone to the er/doc either.

there are liberals in kansas? wow! lol i would fit in...i'm somewhat of a liberal (and married to a conservative...drives me nuts sometimes) lol

Beth said...

Eeek on the leg. I realize how horrible it is to go to the ER when you work there (or even transcribe the notes from there) but that sounds truly wicked. I'm a big Neosporin fan myself.

Your kid stories are great. Have to dig in your archives to find out why they have those...ah...unusual names. So far Gumby is my favorite.

the rotten correspondent said...

dumdad - congrats on 4,000 visitors! I hate to think of how many of my hits are me checking in to see who has been by! I use site meter, just put the neocounter on this week because I thought it could be interesting.I'll keep an eye on it to see how it tracks.I didn't realize we started blogging at the same time. The creative winds must have been blowing in March.

ciara - I'm not sure how many liberals there are in Kansas, the nickname for our town is "the Midwestern Berkley". Tattoos, piercings, domestic registries, you name it. Most of Kansas really really hates us!

pixel pi - if I were off to that desert island Neosporin would be at the top of my bag. Hmmm....maybe a Thursday 3 topic.And you know what I'm talking about. Why would you ever go to an ER unless you HAD TO.
Here's the link for background on the kid's names...this should give you an idea...http://rottencorrespondent.blogspot.com/2007/03/cast-of-real-characters.html

the rotten correspondent said...

dang, that didn't work. Go to labels and hit the Sasquatch file. It's the one dated March 27, 2007 titled A Cast of (real) Characters.

Anonymous said...

Congrats on your 5000th visitor ... do you know who it was?!

I am intrigued that you buy tomatoes in pints in the US... ! How does that work?!

Jo Beaufoix said...

Hey sweetie.
I really enjoyed catching uo with you all on this post.

As for the leg, ooooooooooooooooooooooouch, yet and still managed to get injured with humour.

Fantastic.

code - mrrlhzq Is that the sound you made tring not to swear at FG?

the rotten correspondent said...

stratford girl - thanks for stopping by! You know, I thought at the time I should try to figure out who the 5,000th person was, but I didn't do it. And now I can't because sitemeter only goes back 100 visits and I'm past that. Darn it! For 10,000 we'll have a big party and take pictures of the unlucky visitor!

jo - oooooooooouch is right. I'm still hobbling. And yes, that is very near the sound I made at FG. Perhaps a little more hissing and spitting in mine.

the rotten correspondent said...

oops, sorry.
Stratford girl - the cherry tomatoes come in those little green pint baskets that berries also come in. This may be a US type thing and I don't know where the "pint" part comes in because that's a liquid measure. Oh wait a sec...I think they call it a dry pint. I have no idea why!

Kim said...

I think I know where you are. I used to spend quite a bit of time at the university library. It was about a half hour drive from Topeka. Am I right? Personally, I loved that town. Much better than the rest of bloomin' Kansas.

I laughed out loud at the violin story. My middle one played the viola in sixth grade. Pure torture. He gave it up and moved on to the guitar (on which he is actually pretty darn good).

Hope your leg gets better soon.

the rotten correspondent said...

kaycie - I think you've got it. Rabid basketball fans and garishly colored birds? Yup. I never set foot in Kansas until we moved here, but I LOVE THIS TOWN. (Sorry, still don't have the italics thing down!)

I keep thinking the violin thing will get better. Send me good thoughts.

Amy said...

You're a wonderful mom for letting your child bring a violin into your home. I simply said no. Drums yes, piano yes, flute yes, violin no. Music education is easy to come by, sanity is not. OK, I'm mean.

the rotten correspondent said...

amy - that's really funny because I said no way to the drums but was okay with the violin. Are there degrees of torture??

Pam said...

r.c.-older daughter is trying to do beginning violin..her second n third choice are cello and clarinet. she said she couldn't take drums cuz that's only for intermediate and advanced...i asked her how they were gonna have intermediate n advance students if they don't teach beginning drums lol but apparently u gotta have learned elsewhere *shrugs* all i know is i want music/song in my girls' lives...much better than cheer (tho they are doing that now) and it's something they'll always have

Susan said...

I did everything I could to dissuade a violinist here. She knew best though! I glad she won out becuase she plays a lovely violin at this point. Actually she took to it like a fish to water and even the first few months were not torturous. There aren't bad moms (well almost...), sometimes you just HAVE to say no!

Kim said...

Oh yeah, I got it. My former mother-in-law thought she was very funny when she bought me a pair of white tennis shoes with those lovely birds embroidered on the toes as a gift when we moved to Kansas. I wasn't really amused.

Actually, it does get better. The songs become somewhat recognizable after two or three months. I complained to my mother once about listening to him practice. She told me to shut my mouth because absolutely nothing could be worse than me learning to play the piccolo. She confessed to me that she used to wear ear plugs when I practiced, then tell me how much I'd improved. Hmph!

Good thoughts on their way from me to you.

laurie said...

funny, i started the dogblog in march, too.

and itals are easy. you just put an i between these brackets to turn it on: <> and an i with a slash in front of it inside the same brackets to turn it off

so it looks like this!