Good Saturday Morning!

LittleDudesMom

Well-Known Member
:blizzard: Good Morning!


We are in the midst of a winter storm. I know that a number of our members were in the path of dangerous ice and I hope this morning message finds you warm and well.


Our snow didn't start until about 2.5 hours ago, but it's really starting to pick up and will snow until late tonight. difficult child is excited and has left me orders to wake him by 10! Snow gear is ready :snowing:.....Our temps are pretty intense and actually pretty rare for central virginia. Our high today is like 18 - that's very unusual for here. Wondering if easy child and her buddies will actually sled today or wait until the sun comes out tomorrow...


You all know what I'll be doing today.......stay warm - hope your Satruday is relaxing.

Sharon
 

Wiped Out

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Good Morning Friends,

Sharon-Enjoy the snow-I know how much you love it:snowangel:

We're starting off cold today-our high will be up to 18 degrees which is warmer than the last few days:frostbite:! I'm off to work in a bit then home to nap. Later we'll go to the club and I really would like to get some reading done. I'm reading a great book called The Help. Would love to finish it today.

Wishing everyone a peaceful day:winks:
 

Marguerite

Active Member
G'day, Sharons and all to follow.

LDM, I hope your kids get to enjoy the snow play. I'm jealous!

WO, cold weather is a wonderful time for reading. I hope you get to finish your book.

It's been hot here today, I had the air conditioning on in the car most of the day, it's been too muggy (humid & hot) with the windows down. Even tonight at 10 pm as we left mother in law's place, we stepped outside and it felt like Singapore.

Today (Saturday) was another busy but interesting day. Not too hectic, believe it or not.

I drove difficult child 3 to difficult child 1's house, they were heading to a training day for the medieval battle games group that difficult child 1 belongs to. Then I headed to easy child 2/difficult child 2's place to collect her. She had a job interview (sister of former boss) which we hoped could be brought forward because we also had an appointment in the city at the Art Gallery.
The job interview went well, she begins training with them on Tuesday. Another similar store in a suburb closer to her apartment, has her training on Monday. So hopefully that is two part-time jobs she has now. She's desperate for money, they have a pile of bills growing bigger.

She had dressed fairly conservatively for the job interview, although the black skirt she was wearing is a tad unusual for a shop girl, it looks more like something Morticia Addams would wear. But teamed with a plain t-shirt...

We left that suburb for the city. I'd idled the time in that town by buying a few kitchen needs for mother in law (a new bamboo chopping board to replace the ones husband confiscated). We had 90 minutes to go a distance that should take us less than half an hour. It took almost all that 90 minutes - Saturday drivers heading to the city not knowing where they were going. Frustrating. easy child 2/difficult child 2 changed her t-shirt for something prettier and a bit more Gothic. The tightly-laced black velvet corset finished the look.

At the Art gallery there were plenty of empty parking spaces. Turned out they were empty for a reason - someone in their infinite wisdom had decreed that for the nearby Opera in the Park this evening, the Art Gallery parking area could be made into a money spinner. No signs indicated it, but we were told we need to have booked ahead, and paid ahead, to park there. I threw a moderately polite tantrum and asked where the signs were, and what provisions there wee for disabled people who only intended to visit the Art Gallery. I probably could have bluffed my way to being allowed to stay there, but the Gallery security people directed me to a better spot, behind a barrier.

The meeting went well (in the Gallery). It was a play reading/audition, they wanted easy child 2/difficult child 2 for a particular role and it looks like she has the part. I was asked to read a few parts also (as were the others) and it looks like I might have the part I wanted also. We finished ahead of schedule so before we left, easy child 2/difficult child 2 & I wandered around the Art Gallery. I find it's always a shock to see the originals of famous paintings. easy child 2/difficult child 2 flitted from room to room, openly admitting she was more interested in the frames and in the clothing of the subjects in the older paintings. She's been reading up on clothing from various periods of history, from various places. I told her she needs to do more study, perhaps consider costume design once she's completed her child care studies. It was amusing watching her; even more amusing watching other people watching her. She does attract attention but is totally oblivious. A security guard wandered over as easy child 2/difficult child 2 floated down a marble spiral staircase. "Are you lost? Can I help you?" he asked.

I explained to him that easy child 2/difficult child 2 was exploring the architecture and was especially admiring the staircase. He looked surprised and a little disbelieving. Just then easy child 2/difficult child 2 appeared back up the stairs. "I LOVE this staircase!" she announced. "I want to take it home!"

An interesting game that easy child 2/difficult child 2 said she had read about somewhere - if you are taking children to an art gallery, tell them to pretend they could buy ONE painting that is on display. Regardless of price. They need to choose the one painting they would buy if they could. It's a fun pretend game, it can really relive the sort of boredom and intimidation kids sometimes feel in such places.

We didn't have long enough, the Gallery was closing. Abbey, if you read this, it was just up the road from where difficult child 3 took that photo for you. It's an amazing place.

We got back to the car, headed home via the Middle-Eastern pastry shop we stopped at a week ago. I bought a plate of baklava then headed back to our district, dropped off one child, collected another then headed home.

husband was at mother in law's place. We cooked dinner down there (fresh fish pan-fried with freshly tossed salad; tiger prawns with seafood sauce; baklava) then headed home.
mother in law just rang to let us know she was in bed (our new rule for her, until the alarm button arrives).

So it's been busy today, but still fun and uplifting. I enjoyed the play reading, I loved exploring with my daughter and each time I navigate the city these days and come out of it without getting too lost, I feel more confident about my ability to navigate even in the rabbit warren places. So yeah - a good day. difficult child 3 had fun too. I teased him a bit when I collected him (once I knew he was OK) - "Have you been fighting with your brother?" with mock severity. (They had been engaged in swordplay and other interesting medieval weaponry).

So yeah. Fun.

I hope your Saturday is fun, too.

Marg
 

Fran

Former desparate mom
Good morning everyone.

LDM, I knew you would be loving it. We have about 4 inches and it's coming down pretty steady now. I hear pings of ice hitting the windows. We went out to walk at midnight. I love a silent, dark, snowy night. Miss Lizzie is asking for boots next time.LOL. I'm getting geared up for skiing so I'll pull those ski stuff out and try playing around out back with the pups after coffee. Your easy child should go out there today while the snow is fresh. I'm sure she will meet a lot of cuties who are outside enjoying the snow.

WO, good luck with the nap and reading. I just finished The Reliable Wife. I picked it up at the airport and really enjoyed it. I didn't know what to expect as I hadn't read any reviews. I won't say anything more but I was pleasantly surprised. It's based in Minnesota. LOL.

Marguerite, good for you for getting the better parking space. Sometimes you have to be a squeeky wheel.
Your daughter sounds like a very good teacher for kids. I didn't get art for a long time. We need to teach our kids some basics of understanding art. Your daughter's approach is a creative way to go.
How is your m i l feeling?
I love Bakalava although a little of it goes a long way. You are making my mouth water.
We decided since we are snowed in to make homemade pasta. My mom will make the dough but husband and difficult child will do the muscle work of kneading and cranking out the pasta. Mom no longer can do any of that without chest tightness. She will be thrilled to supervise and for the guys to show interest. I'll make a new Bolognese sauce I found in the Williams Sonoma catalog.

I spent most of yesterday trying to nudge agencies along to do something productive with difficult child's case. Everything takes months and months to finish. The local community college can't take difficult child in it's compensatory ed. classes. Very strict guidelines for IQ and function. difficult child doesn't qualify but yet he isn't ready for mainstream classes. Once again he doesn't quite fit anywhere. Sigh. Anyhow, I think I shook the tree a little in hopes that we can move forward. He can't spend his life waiting then find out he ages out of everything.

Hope you all have a good day doing what makes you feel good and productive.
 

timer lady

Queen of Hearts
Good morning friends,

Sharon, enjoy your winter wonderland.

Sharon/wiped out ~ I've listened to that book; I now have it on my Kindle to read. It's a wonderful soul searching book.

Marg, I would love to explore the art galleries - the whole artist communities down by you. Sounds like a very good day for easy child 2.

Fran, I hope you will find someone, anyone to listen. Personally I had to step on heads to get someone who would listen - there are times I still have to do this. Of course, I did it very diplomatically.

It's bitterly cold here this morning but the sun is shining; sunshine can get me through almost anything.

I spent yesterday & last night going between my piano & my art table. I finished the initial sketch to a special painting I will be starting soon. Next step is to do some thumbnail sketches with color - need to get my palette right.

kt's friend will be coming over today; add to that I'll be interviewing a PCA. I'm not terribly excited about this young lady - she's pre-nursing. However, her experience to date is with the geriatric community, specifically Alzheimer's - a totally different monster than kt. Trying to keep an open mind before she steps foot in the door.

Have a warm, safe day. For those of you in the middle of the big snow, be careful driving & such.


 

Marguerite

Active Member
Thanks for reminding me, Fran - I made some pasta dough on Thursday, I have a little bolognese sauce left over from the lasagne I made (I used the pasta dough for that, tolled out into a sheet - you don't need to pre-cook the sheets when it's freshly made). We should eat that tomorrow. Maybe it's tomorrow night's dinner for mother in law. I could make that leftover sauce into ravioli, unless anyone has better recipes. Somehow I have never found a really good ravioli filling that the family likes.

I remember making home-made pasta (tagliatelli) for our church youth group. Just for fun the kids wanted to make the strands as long as possible, so we had the kids all in a line holding the l o n g strip of pasta dough to go through the cutters. It was about four metres long! It did make serving it up a bit tricky, until I got the scissors!

mother in law's still feeling very sore and bruised, still very unsteady. husband & I are still concerned about her state of mind, the doctor raised the spectre of slight dementia and we think he might be right. The doctor said that medications these days can slow or halt the progress of dementia, but we do need to get it checked out quickly. And discreetly.

Good for you, Fran, trying to get some college help for difficult child. I am shocked that they don't have a category to help kids like difficult child. I had to fight our dept of ed to make them put something specific in place for difficult child 3 and kids like him, because they had no special class for kids with high-functioning autism. They set it up, but by the time they did we had difficult child 3 placed in correspondence.

Did you know it's a blue moon tonight? At least according to modern interpretation which describes a blue moon as the second full moon in the same calendar month. But traditionally, a blue moon is a 13th full moon in a calendar year; usually the "odd one out" is the first, extra-early full moon coming in before Easter and Passover.

I'd better get to bed, I desperately need some sleep! It's after 1 am here!

Marg
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
It's warmed up to -7 (F) up here. It isn't too awful as there is next to no wind. It can get really awful up here: -25 with -40 windchills. Northern WI winters can be a bear to get through. It's our tradeoff for the nice (but too short) summers.

I've been up nearly all night. My gft (it's now official), bolted out the door about 7PM and didn't come home until 1AM. I was searching the house, driving around the trailer park looking for his corpse, and having a panic attack.

Then, when he finally came home (it was 13 below), he was shivering with cold and starving. I decided to wait until he thawed out before I throttled him.

Of course, it's hard to strangle a cat when you can hear him purring from ten feet away!

I finally wound down enough to get to sleep at about 6AM, and then my dog woke me up at 7:30 for a pee call.

I am going to try to go back to sleep once I wind back down a bit.
 
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