Ok...

I only got one review on my third chapter of Prefects Imperfect, BUT it was from a total stranger.  So there cannot be a pity factor.  Yeah!

DH has the week off, so we have done some things with the boys. 

Mom is starting to get over her cold.

College roomate, it seems, has NOT ditched me - she was just busy and sounded very happy to hear from me in the email I got today.  Go, K!

We got a good summer school teacher - the one from teh last two summers - for Braveheart.

 I finished the socks of doom.

We were able to get the car fixed.

The expo last week was really nice - small, but a good variety of things, and I think we got better treatment because it was not mobbed.  The little one got to see a real race car, I chatted for quite some time with a guy in West Virginia who gives woodworking classes to the disabled, and the special travel agency does not have camping vacations but did give me a nice travel bag with some stuff in it.  I got to speak to the people at the rehab hospital where we want to get BH tried out for something, and they wrote on a nice piece of paper exactly what I have to do.  We also got two mugs and ate a bunch of hard candy.

We went to look at furniture.  I preface this by saying that we have been married long enough to have worn furniture out, had we ever purchased anything but the couches and three ugly wall units.  We have replaced the couches once and will have to again soon as  the covers are getting large holes and the furniture is not worth slipcovering.  However, there has never been a bed with a headboard,  a real dresser for either of us,  The Elf is still in his crib.  BH has two put it together yourself tiny dressers that are as old as he is, and the bottoms have come out of the drawers so many times it probably is not worth putting them together again, besides which, they are not big enough for his clothes.  We are keeping a bunch of ours in the Elf's old pack and play...in other words, we are not talking about "We're bored and will throw out a ton of perfectly good furniture just to have a change."   We went and looked at Ikea and at Bob's.  I must tell you all that Bob's furniture has a little food area with free cookies, coffee, candy, and it looked like they had ice cream too.  A person with no AC could spend a fair amount of time considering the merits of Bob's furniture this summer, I think.  We might even buy some.

BH seems over his bronchitis, I thank you all!  and Deo Gratias.

We took a nice ride out to Greenport this week, and rode on the carousel.  BH has improved so much from his real horse riding that it was very easy to keep him on the horse - the only issue really was keeping his head from hitting the brass pole.  Real horses don't have those...  We also met a fabulous Irish Wolfhound out there.  Very hard to believe it WASN'T an animagus.

DH saw a picture of Wanda and said she was a good-looking dog.  Then I said "Oh, more pictures on the blog" and he came to look at those.

Um...what does it say about me that I can recognize someone else's dogs from the back, half hidden by grass?  As in, I tell DH - "That's a picture of my friend from the back."  and then, "No, that dog's not Wanda - that must be Dustin."

Someone did manage to convince her brother to go to the doc.

I needed backup and I got it.

I missed Andrea, but that's ok - it only goes to show that she's real!!!


Everyone else's niceness below.

This week has passed in something of a daze, but still, plenty of niceness to report.

Braveheart and I were up at the buttcrack of dawn yesterday on our way to see the doc, who confirms that BH is getting better, we are doing all the right things, and his lungs are now clear - just keep on going.

Deo Gratias.

Weight Watchers had more of the cappucino cream candies in.  They have a deplorable tendancy to inspire a certain windiness in one's lower half, but they are one point a package.  And they taste good.  Can't have everything.

I lost two pounds!

My Mom, who likes to dress her big dolly, (not that from this you should get the idea that my mother has tons of money to spend - I know people who spend more on one blouse than we spent on everything we got, but - she likes to buy me clothes for my birthday, because she knows I am not going to go out and buy them for myself, and she does not want me looking like a Mamarelle, even if I have reached the orthopedic shoes stage... So I got a really cute skort, two pair of Capri pants, two ribbed shells and three tops that remind me of something from Star Trek, all at Dress Barn.  She says if I get to thin for it I should throw it all out.  I think she is hoping I will.

I realized that I have this yarn I spent twelve dollars a bag on which is perfect for this top I wanted to knit.  If I purchased the recommended yarn (which don't get me wrong, is nice, but this bag I got, which was probably ten dollars a ball before being discontinuted, is also nice) at 7.50 a ball it would have been at least 75 dollars, plus shipping.  w00t!

I got to have a decent im session or half a dozen with a number of nice people this week, but especially Erika and Andrea

It finally stopped raining!

I got a thank you post from Snapestalon!

I am only about 2 rounds from finishing the socks-which-are-expanding-to-fill-twice-the-time-alloted.  Which means I will finally be able to start something else (I have been good)

On Ravelry some person I do not even know replied to a post of mine with a long, long post full of information he felt would be helpful, which I think is incredibly kind.

We will be posting our challenge fic today!  I have never written cooperatively with anyone before, so this was really an entirely new experience.  My partner is still speaking to me, so I could have done it worse...

I returned the sock book my partner already had and got myself a copy of Lace Style.

I have read a bunch of good fanfic this week.

I found the perfect publisher to submit stuff to last night.  Now I just have to write something...  >.< )

I have read some totally amazing posts by Lian.

I got the insoles out of my Sister Mary Walks-well shoes and am hoping the pelvic stabilisers now fit, as I certainly can't return them this way!

We went to the local parish festival.  This is a very nice festival, which manages to retain at least some sense of actual religion in between the 50/50 and the Ferris wheel.  I went on the crazy bus with House Elf, who has been alternately bribed and threatened with it all week since he saw the ride last week,  I went on the Ferris wheel with him - which was better than I expected, I took Bravheart on the tiny train that goes ten feet per hour, I took pictures of the House Elf driving the little fire truck ride...

Your niceness below, please!

So, today I got up knowing that Braveheart needed to see the doctor, since medicine, suctioning etc. was still not keeping his sats up the last few nights.  My parents came because DH needed to go to the doc and I needed to be able to drive him, and my father was in the house about two minutes when I heard him telling my mother he had never heard my son make noises like that.  She was able to calm him down because I already had the appointment to take him to.

Seems Braveheart has got himself a case of Bronchitis and wheezing, which used to be called Asthmatic Bronchitis.  So he needs antibiotic, twice or three times as much other medication as he usually gets, and really ought to stay away from other people who might catch it.  So he won't be going to his brother's little end of year program tomorrow after all.

The nicest part of all this is that when his brother did get home from school today he insisted on being "doctor House Elf"  This entailed trying to get his entire brother into the five inch long ambulance he got over the weekend. As this was obviously not going to work, the plan was retooled - teh ambulance drove onto the footrest of BH's wheelchair and led the way (very noisily) to the end of the couch which was Dr. House Elf's hospital.  He then informed us, after doing this many times, that he was a good doctor and his brother was going to be better and did not need to go to the doctor in the car.  Grandma craftily described it as a consult. 

He had noticed all the medication out on the counter.  He was worried about his brother.  So he took action.  That's nice.

I got a nice pm over at MNFF from a person whose story I had reviewed, thanking me for the review.  She looked me up and it seems she is also more or less my vintage and we have some interests in common.

I thought her name sounded familiar, so I went back and looked at my Moody story...sure enough, she had reviewed it almost a year ago.

Well, well, toss your bread upon the waters...

:-)

So friend who had surgery yesterday is reported to be doing well - Thanks to anyone who sent her  a good vibe!

And I ran across this link, which I think tells us where Spottedcat's muse might have been hanging out this long while - it is the right scale...

The Elf's eye is no longer as pink as it was.

I found the missing steel block, but then I couldn't find the hammer.  But then I found the hammer.

COTH has updated!  

I am within spitting distance of toes on the socks which take forever.

The house elf found a useful kitty that goes on the teapot and keeps the tea from dripping in the drawer of my desk the other day!

Natasha was really sympathetic about something that was making me sad last night.

Mr. Hotshot has been upgraded to the title of Mr. Grilled Cheese.  That has got to mean something good for the BLT...

The windshield wipers  on my car did not stop working till I got pretty much all the way home last night.

Braveheart and I saw some good stuff on the History Channel this week.

Vacation is coming.

I looked up stuff about Gettysburg - we may go to the reenactment this year.

And here is the very very very best part of the Nice report...

Braveheart actually managed to call me mom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday was perfectly exhausting.  One IEP meeting, then an hour on the phone trying to find out if this place took my insurance and a run out there with my son to get drops for pink eye, because my doctor was booked up.  Love my doctor, but diagnosing pink eye is not brain surgery - went for the shortest wait time.  Then on the way home I stopped to pick up the eye drops.  Somehow these simple things left me exhausted enough to go to bed at about 8, which is exactly what I did.

Today at noon central time a very treasured friend of mine is undergoing surgery for the third different thing in as many years.  If anyone has any positive thoughts or energy to send her way, go for it.  I am sure anything addressed to your concept of the divine for "Bravheart's feather friend" is sure to find her.

If you leave your name...

1. I'll respond with something random about you.
2. I'll tell you which song or movie you remind me of.
3. I'll pick a flavor of jello to wrestle you in.
4. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me.
5. I'll tell you my first memory of you.
6. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of.
7. I'll ask you something I've always wondered about you.
8. I'll tell you my favourite thing about you.
9. I'll tell you my least favorite thing about you.
10. If you play, you MUST post this on yours

As for least favorite things - why, really??? I agree  - you're all safe on that one.

Well, amusing things happened this week.  That's nice.

I did a little cyber stalking of old College friends.  One of them returned me call.  In fact, she returned it, and I am not 100 percent positive she remembered me to begin with.  In fact, I am not entirely positive that she remembers me all that well now, but she replied to my email too.  That was VERY nice.

I also found a blog belonging to the former friend one time boyfriend who stopped talking to me three years ago, in part because, he said, he wanted to be free to tell nasty stories about me.  Well, he specifically speaks about people from the past in one of his posts and no mention of me.  So I guess that was nice.

I have not been to the chiropractor in a an age, but my back is not too bad.  Clearly, what he did helped. 

All of a sudden, might have been this week, might have been last, the House Elf is drawing actual pictures, instead of scribble.

Eileen surfaced again, twice.

I finally got down pretty much to the toe shaping on one of the socks that hath no end...

I found a missing knitting needle while looking for another missing knitting needle, which I later found also.

Teacher told me House Elf is able to reason on a level beyond his age.

We got a lot of stuff done in the school this week.

I bought myself a bunch of little footlets to wear with my orthotics, which only really fit properly into the fugly running shoes...  But the footlets are cute.

I caught my elf dancing to the TV - pretty good imitation of the woman on Noggin, too.

My parents are back from vacation.

That's about it here - your niceness below.

it could get better.  It could get worse.  It could get funnier...

Shortly after the call from the nurse, one of Braveheart's people had to have a fight with her husband over the cell phone.  It involved soup.  I was spared some of the details by a call from my husband, with the following news:


http://www.nypost.com/seven/06112009/news/regionalnews/rite_is_wrong_for_son_of_con_173712.htm

Ok, well, nice to know that no matter how badly Jewish-Muslim relations are elsewhere, there can somehow be agreement between these two or three people involved and disciplined here... (And let me take a moment to say it does not seem to me like anyone named in the article is a shining example of anything they may consider themselves to be...)

If you are unmoved by the idea of a cell phones potentially loose in a jail, never mind knives and so forth, we can move on to the next call, which I took while wearing my "Los Angelos County Jail" shirt, figuring it was suitable to the day, as well as clean.  It was my mom, just back from her little vacation, asking me my opinion of the following:

http://www.startribune.com/nation/47529742.html

This is my old JHS. folks,.  I had to laugh.  Nothing ever happens there, and the parents were all up in arms, but really, it was very well taken care of and not, in the long run, such a big deal.  It sort of brings to mind the day back in 72 or 73 when a big political protest was staged there - kids put milk cartons upside down and stepped on them to protest the lunch lines in the cafeteria...

Currently it is 11:19.  I can't wait to see what the day brings next...and by the way, the shool nurse?  Parvo Virus.  Which I thought pets got.  Anyway, no one here is pregnant, no harm, no foul...

We have just had to have a tire replaced on one of our cars for the second time in 3 weeks. We are starting to suspect someone on the block is annoyed that we are parking on the street and doing this on purpose.

No one owns the spot in front of their home - it is a public street. Moreover, there is plenty of parking. Yet, some people get miffed if anyone parks in front of their house. We have the fire hydrant that services the whole block, so it is not like parking in front of our house is a choice. Right now till we get the van modified, we have three cars and one pretty much has to be on the street.

Considering how seldom we have had to get tires replaced before this, we are really wondering...

Oh - and just in case some of you people are not yet old enough to have this experience, stumbled upon the website of the choir of the University I attended undergrad. I was an outsider to that choir for 3 of my four years there - I dated one of the more infamous choir members, but didn't sing well enough to get in myself.

There I was looking at pictures of people I have not seen in anywhere from 15 to 20 years... remembering the clothing they had on, in one case remembering the shopping trip where it was purchased.

I can tell you all first hand that yes, almost 30 years later, you can still feel like an outsider... but I do have to look up Lisa. Who knows if I would have survived Watertown without her?