Three hours later...

So yesterday late afternoon, I am instant messaging with my boss who works in San Jose, trying to answer question after question after question, while talking on the phone with a football parent about plans that need to be made, when I get a text message from G-Man...

Hey, I broke my nose last night, but don't worry, I fixed it...
But Coach says I have to go get it checked anyway so I can breathe when I run...

Say what???? You looked fine to me last night...

Yeah, so when you get home we need to run up to the med center...

So we did...and three hours after we got there, the doc looked at the x-ray on his computer screen and said...

Son, you broke your nose (see that line on the x-ray?), and you put it back just the way it should be. Good job. Now go home, stay there, put some ice on it to get the swelling down, take some motrin, get a good night's sleep and don't call me in the mornin, 'cuz there's nothing more I can do.

Whatever...

The Life (so far) and Adventures of...

After yesterday's post, I decided now might be a good time to blog a little about the life and adventures of LDBoy.

A side note....the pictures I posted from the Disney party were taken before the party got underway; at least that is the impression I got after viewing the video collage posted on YouTube

I am going to skip the early years because I believe that LDBoy's childhood creativity was stifled by having at least one of his parents holding the reigns..except maybe for the beer found in his locker in 8th grade; the New Year's Eve he left home to go to the store and just kept going to a much more exciting party; the F in Computer Information class in 11th grade because he was bored and decided to hack into the school computer instead of doing the assigned work...

Let's start about the time he dropped out of college and broke up with the then love of his life...

I think of this as the metal house era...you heard right - all metal (roof, siding, inside walls). LDBoy was renting one of a few metal houses built in the early 60's in CFO. It was on the corner of Grove and Hudson Drive, the one with the huge trampoline (for tanning and thinking and sleeping and kickboxing tournaments) in the front yard. All-in-all, living in a metal house was an adventure, especially during a thunder or rainstorm. Did ya ever try to sleep with rain beating down on a metal roof? But LDBoy never did sleep much. He was too busy working at starting his own web development business. It was during this metal house era that his business became successful enough that he could give up his pizza delivery job to work for himself... and he has never gone back.

Then there was what I call the glass house era. One of LDBoy's partners, and friend since kindergarten, lived in a huge house in Bath. He had purchased this house with funds he had earned as a young entrepreneur in high school. The house had lots and lots of windows - more windows than vinyl siding. And behind those windows was...the inside of the house. I got lost in there a couple of times trying to find my way to and from one of the bathrooms...not good. The outside featured a stream running through the front yard that often doubled as a garage or an office - depending on the weather, of course.

Two bachelors living in a glass mansion...not for too long tho, because, well, a couple of parties got a little out of hand and one thing led to another and lets just move on...

...to the lake house era. LDBoy had a business partner in North Carolina and another in New Jersey. North Carolina man used to visit Ohio and New Jersey quite often. Well, he decided to convince New Jersey Man and LDBoy to make the move to North Carolina. He found them a house to rent and off they went. The house was beautiful, with a dock right on Lake Norman (no boat, but a dock). There was a wooden stair case leading from the upper deck (off the sunroom) through the back yard to the dock - with built in benches and a grill area half way down.

The house was awesome inside as well...6 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, a huge kitchen and living/dining room. The finished basement included a game room, wet bar, built in 60-inch tv, walk out patio. Two bachelors living in a lake house mansion... I loved to visit. It was so quiet and peaceful.

But it had its downfalls. North Carolina man forgot to mention that the development was built as a retirement community - for NASCAR racers and Pro golfers and an assortment of old people...with money...who did not appreciate loud parties and 15 cars in the driveway and who definitely did not want their college-age daughters who were home for the summer to get anywhere near the new kids on the block...

So after a year, back to Ohio it was. And the nightlife of Akron...and what was soon to become the stone/marble house era. Glass House Man, LDBoy, and yet another partner are currently renting a Stone House in West Akron. Stone on the outside that is - including two stone lions guarding the front entrance. And an enclave at the front entrance that must have been the home of a statue the Blessed Virgin Mary or Blessed (non-Virgin) Mary Phillipia ...I see a a Photo Joe moment in my future...

A previous owner redid the inside of the house. He left the upstairs bedrooms, servants' quarters, office, and attic alone. He also did not do too much to the first floor living room/dining room/kitchen and wine tasting area. However, the basement was completely redone, with lots and lots of marble. There is a game room with a pool table and lounging bed; a jacuzzi room with 2 lion head sprayers and a waterfall and a lounging bed. There is an 8 person shower room....8 shower heads - I counted. The three car garage is no longer a garage - it has been connected to the (previously) walkout area of the basement and completely transformed into a ballroom with a lounging area of course and a wall of mirrors and a industrial sized kitchen/bar area.

And this is where the Disney costume part took place which brought to light a few issues. This is a neighborhood of old people with old money. Many of their granddaughters attend the all-girls Catholic high school less than two blocks away. The three playboy bachelors have been warned that their activity will be monitored - 24/7 by video cameras installed in the neighbor's yards at aimed at their driveway all the time. All suspicious action will be reported to the Akron police.

Yes, the police visited the party several times just to let them know the neighbors had complained.

"But it's a Disney party - and the neighbors were invited, ocifer."
"Yeah, we know...Just tone it down a little - it is 3AM and these people have to get up for church in a few hours."

Which brings up yet another issue. There is plenty of parking across the street at the church - for overnight house/party guests and early morning God-fearing churchgoers. But churchgoers must have a special sticker on their car or something, because at 6:00 AM St. Holier than Thou Pastor comes to visit the newest members of the non-churchgoing (except for parking) community.

"I just want to show you the flyer I placed on your guest's cars. I hope they will all be in church this morning, because I will be upset if I find out they were using Church property as a parking lot while they participated in activities the Lord would not approve of..."

"Hey, everyone, get your costumes back on, we're going to church!"

Share the Magic of Disney...

My oldest son, LDBoy, is enjoying life...a lot. He is still single and not currently in a serious relationship (at least that I know about), so why not? Now is the time to have fun. I promise to blog about some of his adventures in a future post, but for today I just wanted to post a couple of pictures from his 26th birthday party last weekend. I must say his friends know how to throw a party. Of course, he helped a lot, too. He chose the theme - a Disney costume party. There was a professional photographer friend of his there who takes awesome pics. I have met Photo Joe before at CareBear's 21st birthday (which LDBoy also planned, by the way). Photo Joe set up a green screen - I do not quite understand how it works, but here is a pic of LDBoy after he removed the greenscreen and replaced it with a different background...

And here is a pic Photo Joe sent me that he calls Happy Family...Thanks, Photo Joe!

...and yeah, Pinnochio was there, too:)

Photo-op revisited....

I was relaxing tonight after a long day of work and school meetings and after Ballys (to work off the food forced down me at the last meeting of the day which was, I admit it, another one of our Mom get togethers - the real reason I volunteer so much to help with school events).

So I am sitting here chugging a glass of previously frozen wine and Stumbling the net when I came a cross a pic I had posted a few months back. Only this time, the caption was different - different enough to cause me to SWOOMN (shoot wine out of my nose).

No Corkscrew...No probblem:)

I do have a corkscrew or two or three; I sometimes have trouble locating one of them when I need it, tho.

Quite by accident, I discovered a way to overcome that lil problem next time. You see, Friday evening a I invited a few football Moms to my place to plan the team meals for the upcoming season. (We did not get a lot of planning done, but that is another story.)

On the way home from work I decided to stop by the local Big Bird grocery and pick up some munchies and drinks - yeah, the reason we did not get a lot of planning done...

I was not sure what everyone liked to drink so I picked up a few different things that I liked so leftovers would not go to waste. A little Mike's, a little more Mike's (there's a lot of flavors now), some White Zin and some Reisling, and some Maragrita mix, and some honest Molson...

Note to self: Do not stop off for alcohol on the way home from a long, shitty week at work...

I found most everything in the cooler except for the Reisling, so I decided to throw it in the freezer for a bit when I got home.

Yesterday, I decided to be a good Mom and pick up LDBoy and take him to his grandma's for his birthday dinner. He was hung over from his Disney bday party the night before. I had not intended to make the long trek (110 mile round trip from my place) to my ex's Mom's even tho I was invited. I just had too much to do and I had taken the kids (and their Dad) to dinner earlier in the week. But for LDBoy....

And yeah - I wanted to see his new house....He does find the most awesome places to live, but I digress - again.

Anyway, I thought I could bring a bottle of wine that we did not drink the other night...now where did I put it? Uh-oh....mad dash for the freezer, too late....

The corks were out of the bottle - all in one piece. Unfortunately, most of the wine was out of the bottles too. Boy does my freezer smell nice - if you like the fragrance of Reisling, that is...

Beached...

When I was a petite child in the 1960's, bathing suits for the mature (fuller-figured) woman seemed a feat of engineering. They were built to hold in and uplift and they did a good job of it.

Today's stretch fabrics are designed for prepubescent girls with figures carved from potato chips. And today, as a fuller figure (i.e., fat) woman shopping for a swim suit - I have limited choices. I can go to the maternity department and choose a floral suit with a skirt. But then I would probably spend most of the summer chasing off little kids asking me if I am one of the hippos from Fantasia....

Or, as is my usual plan of attack, I can wander around every department store on the planet trying to choose from a wide (not physically) range of florescent rubber bands.

So last week, wander I did. I made what I thought was a sensible choice and decided to try it on - which was a battle in itself. The stretchy material had an extraordinary tensile strength. It seemed like something NASA would have designed to launch small rockets from a slingshot.

Anyway, I fought my way into the bathing suit, but as I twanged the shoulder strap in place, I realized that my boobs had disappeared! It took awhile, but I found one under my left armpit and the other flattened beside my seventh rib.

Without a bra cup to hold them in place, my boobs spread across my chest like a speed bump. It took a while, but I was finally able to realign my speed bump. Now for a look in the mirror...not a pretty picture. The bathing suit fit all right, but unfortunately it only fit those bits of me willing to stay inside it. The rest of me oozed out from top, bottom, and sides. I looked like a lump of play-do wearing undersized cling wrap.

As I tried to fit (cram) in all those extra play-do lumps, the prepubescent sales girl popped her head through the curtain. The look on her face told me I needed to try something different. So I spent the next hour or so trying....

• There was a cream crinkled suit that made me look like a lump of masking tape.
• And then a floral two piece which sort of made me look like an over-sized napkin in a serving ring.
• I looked like Tarzan's Jane in the leopard skin suit that featured ragged frills.
• The black lil number with a midriff gave me the appearance of a jellyfish in mourning.
• There was a bright pink one-piece with French cut legs - so French cut that I would have to mow and trim the law and then bring out the wax...

But finally, I found a suit that fit...a modest two-piece deal with a shorts style bottom and a loose blouse-type top. It was cheap, comfortable, and bulge-friendly - made for me.... I bought two - just in case (of what I do not know).

When I got home, I needed to try it on again, because I was so excited to find something I would be comfortable wearing to the pool or the beach.

That's when I saw it....the tag...and I had a very bad feeling. I know to always read the tag before I buy anything. But I was so excited to find something that fit that I never even thought about the tag....Is it dry clean only?...Is it 100% Cotton Lycra that will shrink 50% after one washing? Oh no, nothing like that...

"Material might become transparent in water."

YIKES!!!!

So, if you happen to be on the beach or near any other body of water this year and I'm there too....