Friday Brain Dump

Well, it's Friday.  Time for a mental download.  Although with all I shared yesterday, I'm not sure there's much left.  Especially, you know, being so old and all.  But here goes.

1.  Gunnar finished his testing yesterday, and Wyatt and Tate finished this morning before ten.  WOOT!  Now, if I can just keep them from killing all their brain cells, sitting mesmerized before the Eye of Mordor (the PS2, in the garage)...

2.  Local public schools are out today also, so neighborhood friends will be available.  Double WOOT!

3.  I may be over-reacting about this, but I think not.  What do you think?

A couple days ago Kerry offered to take Gunnar on a little bike ride, up to the neighborhood school (trying to get Gunnar more exercise, and more confidence on his bike - he's a bit shaky).  Wyatt and Tate were doing something else, but two neighborhood boys decided they would go along too (they're a couple years older than Gunnar).  As they were about to head out, Kerry found a slug in his helmet (the slimy kind, not the ballistic kind) and was delayed (ewwww) - told the boys to go ahead and he'd meet them at the school.

Except the older boys decided not to wait at the school and persuaded Gunnar to take off with them on the trails into the woods.  And when Gunnar couldn't keep up with them, they ditched him, all alone in the woods, out of sight or sound of anyone.  Let's just say that when he got home he was a little freaked out and leave it at that.

Of course, Mama Bear was ready to march over to the neighbors' and give them a piece of my mind (which I didn't) and Kerry - much calmer - wanted to avoid any confrontation, because it's unpleasant and probably won't accomplish anything anyway. But I asked him to at least call and speak to the parents, which he did.  Most of the time I try to let/help the kids settle their differences themselves, but if MY kids did that, I'd want to know.

4.  These little brain farts of mine are not ranked in order of importance, so here's a big one:  My mom got good news back from a test she had (some sort of biopsy of the cancerous lymph node).  She apparently got the lowest score possible for risk of recurrence.  AND got final results from a PET (I think) that showed NO other cancer, anywhere in her.  Biggest WOOT of all!  Of course, there are no guarantees.  Any of us could get cancer, and we're all gonna die.  (I guess that IS one guarantee.)  But we will celebrate good news when we get it!  This means - unless something else crops up - just radiation and no chemo for her :D

5.  I thought it was quite a coincidence that a friend of mine posted this ON MY BIRTHDAY.  Even funnier because of the way my family "does" birthdays.  We're big celebrators.  We "do" birthdays.  But not always (or even usually) ON the actual birthday.  We celebrate when it's convenient for appropriate and interested family members and friends to gather.  So your actual birthday may pass with little notice, and that's fine.

In fact, (I tell the boys), that means you're really important.  You're like a President!  For those of you old enough to remember *ahem* Washington and Lincoln's birthdays both used to be marked on the calendar twice, as in "Washington's Birthday" - the actual day, and "Washington's Birthday, Observed" - on a Monday, for a holiday.  So we may have "Gunnar's birthday", and "Gunnar's birthday - observed."  ;D

Anyway, enough about my family's obsession with birthdays.

6.  We are all about birds right now.  Before we finished breakfast the boys and I saw:  5 European starlings, 2 crows, 2 hummingbirds, 2 robins, a steller jay, and a flicker.  The steller jay was particularly pleased with the bird food we put out.  He really, REALLY likes the corn.  We also noticed that he appears to be banded.  Very cool.

7.  Gunnar and I have been busy.  We now have two feeders out with different kind of seed, two suet feeders, and two bird baths.  Making hummingbird juice next.

8.  There is no eight, but I like even numbers :D

Have a great weekend!