I survived the two Seders.  Woke up this morning to a kitchen that looked like ‘Nam!  Shayna was great about it and, in her very professional work clothes, started washing her grandmother’s china.  Although she said that she would do the rest after she got home, those of you who know me know that I can’t just look at something out-of-place without messing with it, I did all the rest before I took the kids to school.  After working all morning, my house is back to  “normal.”  [Keep your editorial comments to yourself!]

I took Ela to school a bit early today because she had earned a bonus in her classroom.  Her teacher gives out rewards called, “Big Ones.” [again, keep your comments to yourself] You earn these like money for doing well on tests, volunteering and not being a jackwagon.  You also can lose them for exactly the former.  You can spend them in all sorts of fun ways.  One of the ways is that you can really save (took Ela until this week – and she’s a really good student) your big ones and buy breakfast with the teacher and can also invite a friend to join you.  A couple of weeks ago, Lily, one of Ela’s best friends, invited her to have breakfast with Ms. Fanselow – her teacher.  This week was Ela’s turn to reciprocate.  Ela had pancakes, eggs and bacon and Lily had pancakes and bacon – all from McDonald’s!  What a treat!  Ela was very proud and had a great time. She was also honored to be asked by her friend to join her the first time.  Ela has a good friend!

Now it’s back to housework and going to the gym!  I’ve got dirty laundry piled to the doorknobs in the hampers and the washer, albeit as close to a commercial washer as you can get without a pocket full of quarters, can only do so much at a time.  Man, I can see my evenings for the next couple of days: DVR; Mythbusters; piles of folded laundry; going to bed at midnight.  I was going to go to the gym today, but I woke with the worst headache I’ve had in years.  For that matter, I haven’t really had a headache for at least a year anyway.  Usually when I feel like crap, I just go and it works itself out, but today…felt like death warmed-over.  After de-assing the kitchen and dining room, I took Penny (our puppy-dog), 3 Advil, shoved the dog in the crotch of my arm and went to sleep.  Pain went from a 9 to a 3 within an hour.  I think it was the dog; not the Advil.  Then I got up again and upgraded all of the family’s Apple products, cleaned the basement and vacuumed the entire house.  BTW, there’s one thing I hate about HEPA vacuums: they clean so well that they make you feel like a total pig.  The damn thing fills up with this fine dirt and hair.  Eew, I’m living with this stuff???

Oh crap!  Ela just told me her tooth is really loose!  I have to put on my tooth fairy hat now.  Later!

Passover today; getting ready to go to our friends/neighbor’s house for tonight’s seder.  No bread or pasta for a week…the hardest part is not missing it, but is being aware enough to not just eat stuff that you’re not supposed to eat without thinking about it.  Generally, failure occurs on the 3rd day as you start going about your normal life and you cram a zone bar in your face after a workout – BOOM! You’re going to hell – oh yeah, no hell – we have the privilege of suffering here. Preparation has been a little stressful, but not too bad. Just lots to do without dropping important things like laundry and cleaning the house.  The second seder is at our house, so the big push comes tomorrow.

Been a few days off the blog here…It snowed this morning.  REALLY??? WTF?Okay, in the grand scheme of things, I’d much rather get more snow than be in Houston and sweating my mother-loving ass off for 9 months out of the year.  It was sort of pretty and so what, it’s a little cold.  I have a theory about cold vs hot:  When it’s cold, you can always add another layer or hat or something and that’s okay; with hot weather, you can only take so much off before you get arrested for indecent exposure and depending on what you look like, indecent exposure can have varying degrees.  Some people make me a little woozy fully dressed God forbid if they had to take it down to the Froot of the Looms!

Yesterday was soccer day for the kids.  Ela’s game (thank you!) was cancelled because the fields were way too muddy.  Ben’s game was moved to his same location but the other side of the property.  It was still pretty muddy, but not nearly as bad as last week.  Last week was the pits (pit in more than one way).  My car still smells of a combination of [me], dirty dog, and wet stank feet!  This week we just got a tiny bit muddy and it wasn’t as hot, so the smell wasn’t as pervasive.  We also knew to bring our boots so that we didn’t ruin our shoes.  I spent hours on the patio spraying shoes with the water hose last time and the water coming out of the hose was REALLY cold!  My fingers are still numb.  Benjamin’s loving his soccer games – albeit they aren’t really games.  The coaches get the kids together and do a few “exercises.”  They run around the field and try to dribble the ball or stay away from the coaches just to get them thinking about technique, then the kids are divided into teams of 3 or 4 and they go play an informal game.  Ben scored an uncontested goal on his own goal, but nobody said anything because it was an awesome goal!  Man, he drove up the field and fired that ball like he was made out of C4 explosives!!!  These kids’ games are WAY more fun than pro sports.  I never laugh so hard at pro games.  They are happy, spirited and funny as all hell!

Ela’s games are more structured, but they still don’t really keep score or use a dedicated goalie.  Ela is much more competitive than Ben is.  Her first season, she had the habit of stiff-arming other players – oops, wrong type of football.  She also has no fear; she will headlong into another kid before she backs down from the ball.  Ela is the entire package of “jump in with both feet.”  Maybe it’s “damn the torpedos.”  I dunno.

Back from the Seder. It was really nice. The food was great and the company was fabulous. Tomorrow’s my turn to run the show. Shayna’s home tomorrow, so it’ll be easier. She’ll be able to hold everything in her head so I’m not going nuts. She’s really good at juggling lots of balls in the air

Ela is having a sleepover with her friend Lily Kelly – sweet kid. Benjamin, on the other hand, is totally pumped up because he absolutely LOVES Lily. So, for sleeping arrangements tonight we have the giggly girls who go between laughing, needing water, whispering, getting scared of every little noise and emerging from the room with another excuse to not sleep, and Benjamin who is totally exhausted, clingy, jealous, trying to act grown-up and ending up acting half his age. So why do I need a knitting needle? I have a theory: if I take a nice long knitting needle and put in one ear and guide through to the other ear, I will give myself a rudimentary lobotomy – which should give me some peace. Yeah, it might be a bit messy, but I probably won’t even notice. Yeah, I know it’s not the right place on your head, but I bet it’s a hell of a thing!

We had some killer pizza tonight. Lou Malnati’s Pizza here in Highland Park is awesome. www.loumalnatis.com There are several locations throughout the Chicago area. If you get a chance, try it and you won’t be disappointed. They got this thing here called deep dish pizza, which I thought to be the Sicilian pizza that we got in NY. It’s not that. It is cooked in a deep dish, but the crust is relatively thin. They pile the stuff on the pizza and the high crust on the sides hold all the junk inside. It’s pretty good stuff. This place’s crust is made with olive oil and it’s crispy and has that lovely extra virgin (extra virgin – a topic for another blog – I got lots to say on that phrase) olive oil taste.

Okay, Bones (Benjamin) is finally asleep. I layed (lied, lain, lay – which one is it?) next to him in his bed and he passed out within 2 minutes. Man, was he tired! Ela is still awake. She’s convinced that the little light from cars passing the house that shines on her ceiling is/are ghosts. Boy was she pissed at me when I told her that it was just cars, “You don’t believe me!!!” No, I don’t…I’ve seen too many movies and ghosts do not show up like that. They aren’t that sneaky and show up as full body apparitions. Lately, they’ve been showing up in HD and 3D. Yeah, they’re hip too! Just because you’re dead doesn’t mean you have to be all gothic and old-fashioned.

Tomorrow is soccer day for Ela and Lily. Dawg, I hope they cancel the game. It’s raining pretty steadily, it’s cold, and the field is going to be a swamp again. I had to wash Ela’s uniform twice this week to get the mud out and practically had to take an oxy acetylene torch to it. I don’t know about up here, but from growing up in the south, all I could think about was ringworm and fungus in that mud. I threw her in the bathtub as soon as she got home. Maybe all that stuff dies off in the cold winter, but not down there. Ben’s field on Sunday was worse. My car still smells like a malange of wet dog and feet. I know I drive the “ghetto flyer,” but I really don’t need it to smell authentic.

Benjamin and I had a great time after I picked him up from school today, we went to a place called Baker Boys – a bakery run by two brothers. It’s a little place right by the Ravinia Metra stop. Bones and I stopped there to get dessert for tonight and tomorrow night (Movie nights at our house). While we were there, we got a half-dozen for desserts and Bones and I got a little cupcake each for right away. We sat and watched it rain from the bar stools they have in front of the shop windows. I like to watch Ben eat. He just takes is easy and slow. He savours every bite. I generally inhale everything I eat. It makes it hard to do portion control when you create a vacuum that just sucks everything within a half-mile into your head. Okay, I’m tired now and I think everyone is asleep. I haven’t heard a sound for at least 10 minutes – it’s quiet…too quiet. Maybe there is a ghost…wooooooooooooohhhh!

Are they related?  To me they are today. Shayna’s been out of town for the last two days and she’s coming home for dinner tonight.  I decided to prepa a special dinner for her: BBQ’d skirt steak, asparagus and home-made mushroom risotto.  I started the marinade last night with soy sauce, white wine,lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, and cumin.  I made a 
Nice mushroom risotto this afternoon and will be garnishing it with burned-up Parmesan cheese. I’ve been soaking the hickory chips since this morning so that they will really smoke and add tons of flavor to the meat.  Sounds good, huh?

Now, the kids are both in their tennis lessons.  It’s cool because they both really like them. Ela actually is really good so far.  There are lots of girls in the class and teacher says that they tend to talk a lot, but they’re learning anyway.  They’ve both discovered the after sports snack. It was inevitable, but I’m trying to keep it at least a tiny bit healthy.  I’ve been getting them the sugar free Jello pudding cups.  Milk, chemicals and no fat – not so bad.

There’s the relationship. 

My head feels like someone painted it with dope. I was outside yesterday for several hours doing yard work and now I have a sunburn that’s making my nick itch and my bald head tight. At least it’s overcast today. 

Tomorrow, Benjamin’s school is having a “Parent’s appreciation breakfast” that I really should be at. My tendency is to not get out there and be social, but I know that it’s the wrong thing to do. I’m sure that I’ll enjoy it, though.  I always enjoy social events even though I fight tooth and nail to not go.

Okay, I’m home now and the steak was freaking amazing! I made little Parmesan bowls for the risotto and dribbled home-made BBQ sauce on it.

Got a lot Done today. First, the dining room needed to be finished. When we moved here, the room was mauve. I painted it dark blue and it was fine for about 6 months, then suddenly it was the wrong color again. I’m not sure when that happened, but things like that slip past me pretty often. Even though I bought the best paint out there (Benjamin Moore Aura), it still took three coats to make the blue hue go away. In order to save some time, I slopped over onto the lower moulding so that there were no drips on the paint line, so I needed to go through and re-trim the base and touch up the rest of the casings in the room. It looks great now. I cleaned up the room and put all the painting stuff away. Nice feeling to be done! [sidebar begin] I’m pretty sure I’m ADHD and one of the nasty side-effects is that you have problems finishing things. I mean like, really getting it polished-up done. Lots of little threads hanging around the ADHD’s life. I saw a video recently on this problem and am now looking to try to get some medication to limit the effects of this dealio. It might be interesting feel how the “others” live. [end sidebar]

Then, onto other more pressing stuff. Our insurance is weird; they only pay for certain stuff, so every time I, Shayna or the kids go to the doctor, I get like five bills for little things that the insurance will not cover. Annoying little bills because they just suck your time to fill out, pay and then ger reimbursed from the pre-tax account that you get with the insurance – it’s not the money because they’re only for like $5 – $50; it’s the time you have to invest in collecting the receipts and matching them up with the bills; then submitting the paperwork. Sheesh!

Okay, I got a ticked the other day because I didn’t get a Highland Park decal for my car. I spent the time and money getting the Illinois plates and thought that I had done my civic duty and responsibility – not so! If you have a car registered in HP, you have to buy a decal to BE in HP. If you are caught without one, you get a $50 slap on the ass. WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD! So, today, I went and got the sticker ($40/yr) and paid my welcome letter. I called the cops about the ticket and they told me I should have called City Hall to tell them that I was new to the neiborhood. Most places I’ve lived, they couldn’t have cared less hat I was in the neighborhood as long as I wasn’t a pederast! Last time I checked, I’m not on the list! Life’s been good to me, so far.

Next, to Ela’s school: she enrolled in a cool after school program that involves a guest poet for six weeks with the kids once a week! Ela came home from that really pumped! She has been showing a really creative side that’s just blooming.

It’s bed time for the kids now and Benjamin is waiting for me to join him. Peace out!