Random Thoughts

Hmmmm... I'm not really sure what to write about today. I don't have many random thoughts swirling in my head but it's Thursday and I've missed several RTT's in a row so I feel like I should probably write something. Let's see....

1. *chirping crickets* Oh wait, I forgot to mention that we're now proud owners of a cello. Nicklas joined the Strings program at his school and he picked the cello to play. I called around about rentals and everyplace was out of 3/4 size except one place but it was really expensive. Like $150 for three months. That seems like a lot, no? So I decided to buy one on eBay since it was only $175. I figured it wouldn't matter as much if it got beat up. Except that when the cello actually arrived, it wasn't completely put together. The bridge had to be added and the strings needed spaced. (I didn't even know what a bridge was until this damn thing arrived in the mail.) So I had to take it to get serviced and I ended up at the expensive rental place where the owner looked down his nose at the cheap eBay cello and rolled his eyes. I think he was scared to touch it for fear that it would fall apart in his hands. He let me know that we needed new rosin and new strings. I told him we had extra strings and showed them to him - See lookie here, Mister String Snob. He rolled his eyes again and said "what are those?" I guess the eBay strings are just as bad as the eBay cello. He knew I wasn't going to fall for spending $150 on new strings so he decided that the current strings might be okay.

In all, I spent $39 to have him move the bridge, space the strings, and sell me new rosin. I really hope Nicklas enjoys playing the cello.

2. The Polack and I went to a Halloween party last weekend. I took some pictures with his phone so I need to transfer them to mine so I can do a post about all the cool costumes. We went as characters from Dexter. He was Dexter and I was wrapped in saran wrap. It was fun and I really enjoyed seeing so many of our Lafayette friends. The boys (as in the boys at the party, not my children) won the game of Flippy Cup but I don't think the girls feel like they can claim victory because two of our better players abstained due to pregnancy. And I stopped playing after the smoke break. (And I do want to point out that when I was playing, we were WINNING.) So some newbies played this year and they just didn't make the cut.

3. We took the kids to buy pumpkins on Tuesday. All the pumpkin farms in this area are closed during the week (what's up with that?) so we took them to the co-op grocery. (The Polack has a thing about buying Halloween pumpkins locally.) Nicklas picked a tall skinny pumpkin and Seeger picked the biggest pumpkin he could find. He is so excited about this pumpkin. He went on and on to the checkout lady about how that pumpkin is his and he picked it out and he's going to make a cool face to carve on it.

4. The deal between the Polack and I is that I clean out the guts of the pumpkin and he'll carve them. It works for both of us and is another example of our compatibility. (He likes chicken wings, I like chicken drums. He likes pepper, I like salt. He prefers folding the laundry, I prefer putting it away. It's a match made in heaven, I tell ya.) Seeger had the Polack put eyebrows on his pumpkin. He's very excited about the eyebrows and keeps asking me if I've ever seen eyebrows on a pumpkin before.

5. I just went back to reread some previous posts and I came across Lucy the Dog from May 5, 2009. I rarely go back and read old posts but it was very entertaining so I think I might feature one every so often from now on. It's just a small glimpse of the past.

6. Seeger apparently hasn't changed much from that post because yesterday he told me that he's going to draw a bunch of pictures of an ankylosaurus and then walk around Mimi's neighborhood and sell them for $10 each so he can make some money.

7. I can't remember if I mentioned this on my blog or not but a few weeks ago, Nicklas and the rest of the fifth graders went to Bradford Woods for three days of outdoor education. He was so looking forward to the trip - he's a camp kid after all - and I think he really enjoyed the experience (even though it rained for most of the time) but one thing he didn't like were the crazy boys in his cabin. There were 18 fifth graders and 2 high school senior boys to supervise. Apparently there wasn't much supervision because they didn't get to sleep until 2:30am both nights. And Nicklas heard from his friends that another cabin of boys never slept at all the first night. He said the boys were crazy and would do things like turn off the lights, strip naked and turn on the lights to reak the others out. Or they'd open shower curtains when other boys were trying to shower. Poor Nicklas didn't shower the entire time he was there. Overall though, he did enjoy the experience. He can't wait to sign up for Camp Tecumseh for summer 2012.

8. We have several visitor's coming to spend the weekend with us for the IU football game on Saturday and my house is definitely not company ready. It's not really dirty but it definitely needs picked up. I've been gone every night for the last several days and we weren't home last weekend so we haven't kept up things. It's probably the messiest it's been since we moved in. Hopefully I can get a bit of pick up time in tonight.

9. I didn't even make the bed this morning. I just threw the covers over the bed which is unusual because I almost always make the bed. But the late nights with teaching the class and the early mornings this week are taking their toll. I got up extra early yesterday, today, and I'm going to have to get up early tomorrow. Blech.

10. I just made a Domino's date that I'm very excited for. The Polack and I will go to a friends house for an evening of game playing. Yay!

11. I get to see the Nutcracker once, maybe two times this year. Double Yay!

Toodle-loo.