Birthday party!

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Vince hosted his after-school birthday party today.  First up – card games.  You know which one.

Next, Coke and Mentos geysers (no photos of that).

Then we launched rockets.  This, I loved.  I could launch rockets all day.  These had propellant that made that WHOOSH sound as they pushed off the launch pad and then a little pop to force out the parachute.  Then the boys would run after the rocket and try to catch it as it fell to Earth.

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At the rocket launch, I saw all manner of shattered phones living out the last day of their lives…  I can not believe that these phones still work, you can see the SUBSTRATE which all the electronics are layered on top of.

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Shaving cream fight.

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Pizza.

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Ver-monster (a Ben & Jerry’s inspired dessert).

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And happy birthday!

It’s 10:30 and I still have four extra boys in the house – where are their parents?!!?  I want to go to bed….

Hat

Mom has hand-knitted two hats for me already.  It is really good for the Winter time.  But, Spring is coming and I need another thinner hat.  The other day, I pumped my gas and inside the gas station there carried some hats. First, I didn’t like them, second it was about $7.00 dollars.
Today, I almost went to Walmart about 17 miles away until there was a garage sale along the road on the way home.  I found this one and it is $2.50 dollars.  I hand washed it.  Put it into the washer for spinning and dried it in the dryer.  10 minutes work and I think it is great.  Agree?

Vince is 14!

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Started the day with a special breakfast – burritos with bacon and tater tots.

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Thank you, Tony – for your hand-me-down Nexus 5 phone!!

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An enormous vinyl periodic table.  Vince is trying to memorize all the elements in order, he’s up to the 20 or so now.

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A raspberry pi!  So cool.

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Now on to the evening – meatloaf, a special request.

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Brownie cheesecake for dessert.

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Thumbs up!

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Happiest of birthdays Vince.  Lots of love, mom.

Weekend.

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We went to a dinner party on Saturday night.  I wish I got a photo of the dinner party, but I did not.  It was an interesting mix of people and the conversation ranged widely.  I did not speak very much, but I had a great evening.  The only photo I have is of Jeremy buying band-aids at CVS on our way to the party.

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Today, I spent the day with Edda and I studied.  Kind of.

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I haven’t spoken to Donald in a few weeks – so we caught up today.

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My Daily Routine

Getting up around 4:00 AM, having breakfast with milk and cereal, taking a shower and getting on the road. I arrive at my site office around 5:00 AM.  It is a 20 miles drive on winding country roads under pitch dark sky and, often, our small county police cruiser is on the road too just to check something out.

My lunch consists of three small oranges, two bananas and an apple.  The sandwich is general from McDonald’s. They are those on sale:  two breakfast biscuits for $3.33 or two combinations (chicken, burger or something else) for $5.00.  Of course, just bring one of them, not all.

Some snacks are in my drawer as reserved and I drink two bottle of water everyday, at least. After 10 hours of working, I arrive my home around 4:00 PM, dropping by the BI-LO if I need something, otherwise, just directly going home.

With not much to do in a small town and with anticipated extra income, I will work OT if it is offered but will not volunteering for it. Usually, it is 10 hours per week, either on Friday or Saturday depending on one’s personal schedules.  Most of our colleagues are scattered around the country. Some of them are in CA.  Of course, I am from WA.

For dinner, I put everything in a pot to boil without any spice, oil and salt.  I use only a couple of bowls and plates. Alone, no rice and no tea.  I try to have veggies all the time, an egg for at least within 2 days. I also have some Mom’s prepared food which I like and consume little. I don’t want them to run out sooner.

Besides that, my right leg is hurting due to the twisting done on the Sheets Farm attics 2 years ago.  It is getting worse.  Two weeks ago, I went to see a orthopedic doctor.  And I am doing physical therapy twice a week as the first step of treatment and checking.  This is getting into my schedule unwillingly.  Probably it is just a symptom of an old machine without enough organic WD-40 🙂

Snow!

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Last snow of the season.  Kids were hoping for at least a 2 hour delay.  They got NOTHING!  Everyone went to school today.

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Friday night dinner at my mom’s house.  Vince looking for hats to put on Edda.

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Many hats.

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The dogs love my mother.  I have never seen the dogs so happy.  Now they will have diarrhea for a week.

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Long life noodles to celebrate Vince and Edda’s birthdays.

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Thursday

Usually easy-going, Vince has been mad at me for days now. I’m always taken aback when he’s short with me or isn’t in a good mood.  I couldn’t figure out exactly what it was – was he secretly staying up too late? Was he really resenting me for imposing the unbelievably harsh (not) electronic curfew of 9:30pm?  But Jeremy finally pointed me in the right direction – Vince is having some difficulty in school that he didn’t want to reveal to me.

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I abandoned my gym (Gold’s) in town center in favor of the Rockville pool.  Sometimes you have to wait for a treadmill (usually the cutest little old lady going for a walk) and there is no Beyonce playing in the weight room, but I like that the clientele skews heavily towards retirees during the day and that there is actually a real squat rack.  I thought I would have to give up on Zumba classes (not that I actually went to any of them), but it turns out I can drop in on classes any day of the week.

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Jeremy took me out to dinner tonight at a new ramen place in town center.  Tasty.  I think we’ll go back.  Jeremy said it wasn’t as good as the hip place in Adams-Morgan, but this is Rockville.

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We also went to the library.

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