Friday Brain Dump and Public Service Announcement

1.  Do you know what today is?

National Doughnut Day!

Yes, it's a bacon doughnut.  He loved it.  And you know where bacon comes from, right?

Yes, anyway, Doughnut Day was too important for you to miss, so I'm letting you know.  I'll be treating the boys when we get the van back.


2.  Where's the van?  Getting new tires, thanks for asking.  *sigh*  I'm sure it was long overdue, but it's not something that's fun to spend money on, y'know?  And Kerry scared me!  He put the doughnut on (not the yummy kind of doughnut, but the little, undersized spare tire) and told me to drive it down to the tire shop and meet him there.  That means driving it down a steep hill.

The hill is even more exciting in the winter, but I digress...

The picture doesn't do it justice - it gains about 350' in elevation in a very short distance.  Normally, no big deal, we're used to it.  But I'm a little cautious about the doughnut (tire).  Right before heading down the hill I heard a strange rattley clunking below the van.  What if the doughnut wasn't on right?  What if it came off as I headed down?  What if little green aliens come and take us all away to a doughnut-less world?  (No, I'm not an over-reactor, why do you ask?)

I pulled over.  When Kerry changed the tire he left something dangling below the van - some little dingle-hopper cable thingy that secures the spare tire underneath the van.  (I would never have found the spare tire in a million years.)  So anyway, the dingle-hopper was successfully secured by looping it over something and I made it to the tire shop without incident.  Aren't you relieved?  I was.


3.  In other news... woke up to clouds this morning (no surprise, for June) and it rained for all of a minute and a half, so the boys are waiting to see if they can mow today.  (Oh, it just started again...  rats.)  We have a busy weekend coming up and the boys want to stay caught up on all their mowing jobs.  I could tell you it's because they're altruistic and want to keep their clients happy (which they do and they work hard), but the truth is, they really want the money.  

One of their clients fishes in Alaska all summer.  He has a large yard, none of which is flat and part of which is actually quite steep.  I've told them that he really doesn't mind if they don't mow every single week.  If it's too wet now, they can mow early next week and it will be fine.  Tate gave me a pained look, as if I was a bit slow on the uptake.  Mom, no mow = no money.  The man pays them fifty bucks a mow.


4.  They did some yard work for an older couple from our church earlier this week.  I hadn't realized how big the job was going to be when the man said he had some ivy he wanted pruned.  Wyatt and Tate worked flat out for two hours, and I helped them quite a bit too.  Around here, ivy is an invasive weed. It spreads like crazy and it will kill trees if you let it get away.  But this man likes his ivy and uses it as ground cover next to several little paths by a pond.  Well, smothering the little paths until the boys hacked it back into submission.  They worked hard and were well paid, so it's all good.  But at one point Tate looked me in the eye and said, "I will never plant ivy anywhere I live!"  Amen, son.


5.  Smells.  Also, just so you can get a feel for my world, (sympathy, anyone?) it's 8ish in the morning and I smell... hot dogs.  Huh?  Kerry has decided that he wants to have more protein for breakfast, so he went to the grocery store and asked one of the butchers to recommend a low-fat sausage.  (And speaking of pained looks...)  Kerry came home with some apple/chicken sausage, and offered to share.  No takers.  He's been cooking one up with some eggs each morning.  And you know what they smell like?  Cheap hot dogs.  Apparently they taste about the same.

And now for a gratuitous photo of Gunnar and Podger, to take my mind off mystery meat...

6.  Wyatt promoted at CAP.  And Tate should've, but for the second time someone screwed up Tate's paperwork.  Though CAP has been a wonderful thing in the boys' lives, it's certainly not perfect.

The boys have to pass four tests to promote, and after that they go before a promotion board.  All of which, Wyatt and Tate had done.  But no promotion for Tate.  And why not?

He got three different stories (which gets my hackles up... what's the truth?)
First they said they didn't have any paperwork showing that he passed his PT test.
Second, they said they had the paperwork, but it was too old - invalid.
Third, they said he was .2 seconds too slow on his shuttle run.

Well, wait a minute... the PT test has four components, of which you must pass three, so if he didn't pass the shuttle-run it shouldn't matter (he passed the push-ups, curl-ups, and sit-and-reach.)  Tate was told verbally that he passed (or he would've taken advantage of other opportunities to retest). AND he went before the promotion board (which shouldn't have happened if he hadn't passed all his tests).

I don't like to be cynical, but I'm not too happy about the situation.  The Mother Bear is coming out...


7.  Something is lurking behind me...  a job I need to do this morning.

See the piles?  Tomorrow is the big homeschool "recycle sale".  And I'm in the mood to get rid of share some things we're finished with :D  Everything in these piles (and boxes of books) must be priced, and loaded, and ready to go for tomorrow morning!

And, yes, I realize you could've gone a lifetime without seeing a photo of my laundry baskets, but what can I say.  It's motivation for me.  :D


8.  I almost put the pattern blocks into the sale pile, but I'm glad I didn't.  Because look what I found in the living room...

Yep.  He still loves them.

And what are you doing this fine Friday?