How It's Been

Yes, I've been whining a lot lately, and I just can't help it. I even tried sparing you the agony of it all by calling my stepmother for a good old-fashioned b--chfest instead, and she's on her annual October getaway with her girlfriends. I could call her cell, but I don't want to taint what is usually an excellent week for her. She has her own stuff going on and this respite is much needed. My dad has no tolerance for complaining of any kind. I can't say I blame him, and I wish I were more like him in that regard. (and what I would give for a fraction of his discipline and self control!)

In short, and without too much venom:

Somehow -- and nobody is fessing up -- a glass of water (left where it shouldn't be) got dumped all over Precious Daughter's schoolbooks (the ones I painstakingly covered in Con-Tact), drenching their newsprint-type pages. If it weren't for the blinkin' adhesive-backed plastic, I probably could have put them in a very low oven to dry, but instead I had to let Mother Nature handle the job, and she did it poorly. The pages are all wavy and rippled. I might have to replace one of them. We'll see. If I'm feeling particularly patient (Ha!!), maybe I'll try a low iron to smooth that one out a bit.

Chessie, that wretched beast, peed in the laundry. We thought we'd found a solution to this, but I guess not. Fortunately, a hefty dose of Oxy-Clean and very hot water are quite effective at removing the odor if you get to it quickly, and hopefully dark items won't fade.

Precious Daughter missed two days of school with an unexplained fever, which briefly reappeared Saturday and today. Last night The Oracle discovered the cause, a bright red bulls-eye rash on her ribcage. Guess who's getting bloods drawn for a Lyme test tomorrow?

My children's socks are vanishing. Out of four tubs of laundry, I have maybe ten kids' socks. Out of those ten I can form only two pair, and naturally they're of the type (low-rise footie) that are not permitted with the school uniform. I have six odd white socks. What happened to their mates? What about all the similar pairs that came in the multi-pair package?

I got ambitious (rare for me) and made an old favorite simply described as "ring of coconut fudge cake." It's a chocolate bundt cake with a cream cheese, coconut, and chocolate chip filling and topped with a chocolate glaze. It's been at least ten years since I've made it, and it was always a favorite for The Oracle and me.

I joked with The Oracle tonight that I should rename it the Fart in Church cake, because it went over about that well with our kids. They won't eat it. Precious Daughter picks off the glaze and leaves the rest. Mighty B. eats the glaze and the cake but leaves the filling. I can accept a kid not liking that Mounds-y middle, but for our chocoholic Precious Daughter to not eat even the cake part stuns me. On the bright side, The Oracle an I pretty much have all that cake to ourselves.

On a better note, The Oracle's job is secure for the next few months. I can't get into the details of it here, but some of you know the details just from talking with me. In short, he and his peers have had to deal with a hefty amount of bureaucratic flip-flopping. Things have recently been placed in the hands of (we hope) a sensible authority, and now The Oracle can sleep for the next month or so without too much worry.