Today Steve and I bought a couch and 2 futons at Furniture Fair. (FYI they are "futons" in the American sense- they are foldout beds which can also be a couch.) Steve wanted 2 futons for the downstairs....wasn't so sure about it aesthetically speaking. The couch we bought for the LR is awwwwesome. The futons will be there Saturday, but the couch will take 6 weeks.

Couches come Saturday, the pods the next Saturday. We close Friday the 27th. I have packed up a lot of stuff here but much remains. Now Steve wants to buy a trailer (WTF????) from some guy Dan knows. That was news to me. At least I consulted with him about my hopefully pending trip to NYC. Still haven't bought tickets yet but I'm thinking of it. It's a lot of $$ for a few days in Manhattan but I think Micah would appreciate Ground Zero, Chrylser Bldg., the Guggenheim, etc. Micah said "it's OK if we don't go, Mom", but I would like to do this. This around everything else. Everything else is crammed in- moving, registering for schools, Nathanael moving to Iowa, orientation for parents at Grinnell. August is a busy month and I have saved my vacation days. As predicted Steve doesn't like the idea of NYC but then again he never told me about his trailer.

BTW this money to do all of this? Well part of it we are making, part of it from the hefty sum he borrowed from his 401K. When we have it all paid back he will be able to take it out for real if he wants. Now we are just borrowing from Steve. Part of this we have already, but yes a lot of it (big down payment and anticipate recasting once our current house is sold) came from borrowing from the 401K. He pays low interest to himself. We got locked in at a halfway decent mortgage but hopefully it won't matter TOO much once our Finney Trail house sells- after recasting, our payment will be LOW. :) Low enough that we can focus on educating our kidlings.

I am SOOOO freaking out right now.

Sometimes I google names of people I used to know...

Today in a spare moment at work when our AS400 was down I decided to google an ex-BF.

http://www.monm.edu/news/releases2006/rovinski.06-06-06.htm

Yes, that's him! Same smile but wow he looks older than when I knew him when he was 25. WOW I remember him differently.... OMG HE WAS KILLED IN IRAQ last year. I am sooooo freaking outtttt.....this just is making me flip, this is just making me flip! OMG he got involved in his church...

I was about 19 and he was about 25 when we dated.

This just knocks me over and I am just so freaking crazy now! We were close. Not a long relationship but wow, pretty intense, and even though that was when we were practically KIDS I still remember it well and I am so glad to see he went on and lived a great life and had an awesome wife and kids and got involved in a church and WOW OK I am still really, really freaking out. I'm sure his wife has NO CLUE I ever existed and why should she and she won't, but this is still WEIRD.

Just random thoughts today. I want to get a new camera, a decent one.

Getting ready to move. It will be busy here. Closing soon, getting packed. The owners of the house we're buying have come back and Dan and Sue have worked it out. They are an old couple and one of them has Alzheimer's, and it's difficult to talk to either of them, though they have a son who is their POA...still hard to deal with them...waited long enough. Latest closing date is July 27 but we're hopeful it will be done before then.

Nathanael on the way to Crowduck tomorrow with my parents and I will be worried the whole time, especially about the driving situation, so please keep this and them in your prayers. Safe trip.

I'm glad Dave & kids are going. I don't know about Maria and Jazmin.

We may be moving while he is there so he will come back to a new house and all.

Then in mid-August a Grinnell orientation somewhere in Wisconsin, then there's a parent orientation at Grinnell for a few days. During this summer I have also promised Micah a trip to NYC and Ground Zero, Chrysler Tower, Central Park, and a few other things he wants to see. He is still so interested in being a NYC Port Authority Cop. :) I have saved my vacation days at work so I will take them for these events. Then also in early August I need to schedule Micah to meet with the new school's counselor, assess with them the fact that I think he needs to redo 8th grade (and he agrees with me) and he will be with people closer to his age. He is just not ready for high school. Intellectually yes but we still have maturity issues. I have read up in Scientific American about the teen brain...a brain in transition from childhood to adulthood can do more kneejerk and compulsive stuff than a fully adult brain. (Tell me something I DON'T know.)

Now physically Micah is right smack in the middle of it all. His voice is about halfway, I think, to where it will eventually be. He eats about 5,000 calories a day and still has a 28" waist and weighs little more than 100 lbs. and is about 5'5". I think he has about 4-5 inches of growing left to do. His muscles are tight and strong and he has not an ounce of fat anywhere. His face is getting that long, angular look with the well-defined bones that men have. He will probably be about as tall as his brother, if not an inch shorter.

Nathanael is in excellent shape. He does a lot of exercise for parkouring purposes- pullups, situps, "hanging" situps, biking everywhere, balancing exercises. He has a nice little 6-pack and great cardiovascular stamina. He frequently complains at us because we can't keep up. He recently left his dad walking a bike up a big hill that Nathanael easily mastered. He complained about Steve being out of shape and I had to remind him that he is 48 years old and not 18 and no, he isn't one of those exceptional athletes that stays fit until they are 80.

Sorry for the run-on stuff. Unlike my older son, I don't really proofread before publishing. It's just blah blah blah...whatever I feel like writing...not polished or concise.

I also want to urge you all to get a copy of GAMES magazine- August 2007 issue- Nathanael won a "hidden puzzle" a few issues back. About 400 people sent in the correct answer, and a few winners were drawn at random. You will see his name in the puzzle winners section. OK so it's not like he's as famous as Ken Jennings but I'm proud and I bought 4 copies! (This is my favorite puzzle magazine because the others have a few good puzzles but they're way easy and this magazine's puzzles are varied and fun and just right. Some are really challenging but always FUN. btw Nathanael still hasn't received the free t-shirt which is his prize for winning. :)

OH btw, I think he COULD be a great Jeopardy contestant! I think college edition...that would be great- he could wear his Grinnell shirt to see Alex. I always researched getting him on kids', then HS edition, but auditions weren't nearby...should have researched it further because he took his academic team to 3rd - they would not have made 3rd without him- and placed ahead of many school teams of students whose parents pay something like 30K a year for their school tuition. :) Wow, that was a sentence full of prepositional phrases.

We and Grinnell got the results of Nathanael's AP tests. (He took 5 AP courses this year: calculus, biology, psycholoy, English lit, and Spanish.) He got perfect 5's on every exam!!! Cheez Whizz what a kid! It's NOT that he's smart or gifted in one or some things but in EVERYTHING.

Anyhoo, it might be a good thing he did not get summer work because he has spent this time making his font "Newt" ready to market...wanting to spend the first money he makes on an upgrade to his font program. (I WANT to just buy it for him anyway but I also want to let him have the satisfaction of making the money and spending it on this business.) He has been contacting people in the graphic arts and will be marketing on one of two main sites from which people buy font suites/packages. So he's about to go live with this font.

He then wants to market the same font in Cyril and get the rest of his fonts to marketable status. If you check out his page, he has links to his network. The font has been tweaked over the course of a year and he has sought advice from the best in the business. I just wish I knew how it felt to be THAT smart!

OPPOSITES DAY!!!!

OPPOSITES DAY Sept. 29, 1992 - what fun it was! Isn't it about time for another one?

GORE BLASTS BUSH FOR BEING SOFT ON IRAQ AND IGNORING WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

BUAHAHAHAHA! Yes, Al lays into Papa George for being best buddies with Hussein.

I vote by issue, not party, but this kind of inconsistency is one reason why I'm DEFINITELY not a DEMOCRAT.

It's not just the Inconvenient Doofus at fault here...see also John Kerry, Slick Willie, etc. etc. etc. kaFLIP! kaFLOP! Wheee, isn't this fun? Like a carnival ride.