Life

No, I have not fallen off the face of the earth. School resumed; and we were going 24/7 getting ready. Getting up early, like 5:45 AM has taken it's toll on us all. The royal family was tired. And when I'm tired, I do not go on the computer. I think though I am getting used to the new schedule, so I will be back again. There is a lot of driving for us now, as we do afternoon pickup of the Princesses all over the place. I think the Prince and I drive about 35 miles a day picking up his sisters, and he's cranky for 80% or more of it! Hopefully when he is able to face forward he will be happier, as then he can watch movies. And movies we will have!

The lack of postings has also been due to the fact that our most beloved English bulldog, Winston Churchill, passed away unexpectedly. He was only 2 years old, and in great health as far as we knew. He went to sleep one afternoon, and never woke up again. His death threw us into a tailspin. Winston was Princess Nike's dog, and we have all had to work with her to help her get through this loss. We are all suffering. Princess Nike cries herself to sleep every night. She says the hardest thing for her is that she never got to say goodbye to Winnie as she called him. That is something I can't fix her, and that just hurts me right down to my heart. She loved Winston so very much, and literally would have (& did) anything for him. Princess Nike had completed a project on Winnie last school year. It is a large posterboard with photos and info about him. She kisses his photos everynight before bed, and falls asleep talking to him about her day. I end up crying outside of her bedroom as I listen to her. I wish I could do something to bring that beautiful smile of her's back, but I can never bring her baby back to her so I fail as her protector.

To add sadness upon sadness, the vetrinarians office called me yesterday to inform me that Winston's ashes were available for pickup. I can't go there to get him; I just can't. The unexpectedness of his death still rings loudly in my ears, and I am not ready to see final confirmation that he is gone. I have therefore asked the Duke to go and get Winnie for us. Thankfully he will. Winston was our dog for only 2 years, and people lose family members all the time. I understand that. I further understand that he was a dog, and not a person. You have to understand though, that he was loved and had the most unique personality...so it was easy to think of him as almost person-like. He snored; he slept on my favorite couch, even though he knew he wasn't supposed to; he kissed you when you felt down or when you just needed a little loving; he loved to go on car rides; when you left the car and came back he was sitting in the driver's seat, ready to take on the world; he loved people and all animals and was not unabashed in showing this love with tail wags and kisses, and he was playful with my children. Oh and he was handsome as all heck, if you find wrinkly faces and missing teeth your thing! In time we will heal. The pain is very real now, and Princess Nike faces it every hour.

Am I being dupped?

The dishwasher repairman arrived today. I must say he was rather odd. Best of all he did not repair the dishwasher. Yes, you read right. I am still eating off of paper plates. I have instituted a new rule in the house as well. If you dirty a dish, you wash it. That should cut down on the use of cutlery and dishes alike.

As for the repair man. Well, he's another story. Seems the man had to leave to meet "someone" at 2 pm, and left my home with my dishwasher in pieces. Yes, there it is again. First it was the van in pieces and now the dishwasher is in pieces too. I don't think I like where this theme is going. The repairman also told me that he is not sure if whatever broke the dishwasher is covered under the warranty. Say what?! He then packed up his tools, and left. Said he'd call me next week, and come by when he was in the neighborhood. WHAT?! Did he not notice that the royal residence has 6 residents who all use dishes, and that we like to eat on a regular basis?! Come on fella, let's get with the program. The Duke said I should call the warranty company to complain. I chose not to, as I was trying to use my feminine ways to get this strange little man to fix the dishwasher regardless of whether it was covered under the warranty. You know a smile. Some friendly chit-chat. Whatever it took! Now I don't know what to do. Call and start again with a new repairman, or wait for this guy to show up sometime next week. Did you forget there Mr. Repairman that school is back in session next week? I will be in the van driving to pick up the Princesses every afternoon. When will I find 2-3 spare hours? He obviously thinks I have way more free time on my hands than I actually have. I tried to persuade him to my way of thinking, i.e. scheduling an exact day and time with me prior to leaving, but he would having nothing to do with it. Where did he need to go in such a hurry anyway? Hmmm, maybe I don't want to know the answer to that question.

I'll just be glad when everything is fixed once and for all! I know I am not asking for to much, I just know it.

And so it continues

I guess the parts for my van are coming to the service bay via snail. In this day of overnight shipping, and instant messaging it seems that customer service has gone the way of the buffalo. I don't feel quite so bad now, seeing as I have a free rental car...but still you would think this could be done in a day. We have now finished day 6; albeit 2 days were the weekend. I'll give them that much.

The Prince, Princesses and I attended an open house for high school this morning. Princess Hollister is going into 9th grade in 2 weeks. I can not believe it! I am certain that just about every parent of a child entering high school says the exact same thing; and I shall be no different than any of those wise parents. She is our oldest child. It seems like yesterday she was rolling around in a diaper, and now she's off to high school with 2,200 of her closest friends. When did high schools get to be so large?! I graduated with a class of 52, and no, I did not live in the middle of no where. That is like the size of a small town, never mind a high school.

While I am dealing with the shock of high school, my baby girl will also be starting Kindergarten in 2 weeks. Princess Splish 'n Splash is officially leaving me. She has never attended daycare, so we have spent many an hour together these past 5.5 years. I quit working 4.5 months before she was born, and have never regretted it. It will be odd for me not to have her around. For the Princess it will be splendiferous, as she will be meeting new friends. I know she will love it...at least that's what I'm telling myself. So it will just be the Prince and I home together during the school week. We will be home for about 4 1/4 hours before we have to go and pick up Princess Hollister. I am looking forward to going to the park and other outings with him.

Tomorrow the dishwasher repairman comes. Alleluia! No more paper plates, and no more washing ten thousand dishes.

It doesn't get better than this...

So as you may know, my dishwasher is broken and my van was sent in for repairs. The van went in for said repairs last Wednesday morning. I never realized how unattached I would feel from the world while being vehicle-less for 3 days. The assistant manager at the service place finally took pity on me late Friday afternoon, and provided me with a free loaner car. He offered the car to me because my van is currently in "many pieces," and if he gave it back to me he would only need to take it apart again come Monday. Great, a free car. Never realized how much fun it was to drive a car versus a van until I got into this car. Although I do strangely feel as though I am scrapping the road, being so low and all. I naively thought this was the start to my fantastic weekend.

I attended a scrapbooking class on Saturday. It ran most of the day. I arrived home around 4, only to be informed by the Duke that he had made some repairs to my computer. Say what?! I never said there was anything wrong with my computer. What would make him think he needed to repair it?! As the sad story was told to me, it appears the Duke was sitting next to the computer and decided that it was making too much noise for his liking. He then opened the CPU up, and extracted the fans. He had decided that the fans were making it too noisy at my desk. Getting the theme here...my computer, my desk. Oh and did I mention that he is a self-proclaimed computer geek; and a software engineer! Might think this has a happy ending, but for me and my computer it does not. Well what happens when a powerful computer runs without fans, you might wonder? Let me tell you, as I now have real-life experience with such a situation. Do NOT remove the fans from your CPU. What the Duke accomplished was to eliminate the noise from my computer; as he fried the video card and thereby rendered my computer useless! Yet something else to add to my list of broken items. Broken cable box; broken dishwasher; broken van, and now a broken computer.

I do not ask for much in life. I enjoy my royal life. I scrapbook for fun, and love it. Do I go to the Duke's office and mess with his computer? No. I leave his life to him. Did he grant me the same? That's a big fat no. And through all this my computer was just blowing off some steam, and he killed it. It is as dead as a door nail. Maybe I'll just have to pay a little visit to the Duke's desk this week. You know, pay him a little favor back! I mean come on, is there no sanctity to this job of being a SAHM. My 30 minutes a day that I sneak in some computer time is all I need. He looked at me oddly when he detected my displeasure. Said I don't have a job, so why do I need a computer?! Don't think he'll be asking that question again anytime soon. I also won't be asking him to fix anything anytime soon either.

What next?!

Our cable outage continued on today. I have had to resort to googling Big Brother 8 spoilers, just to keep up with the show. I know, lame right?! What can I say, I'm addicted. At least it's a healty addiction. Now to add insult to injury the dishwasher is broken. When you go to push the on button; it just blankly stares at you. If you listen closely I think it may even be laughing at us. The Duke and I were both looking at each other, like this can't be happening. I can't even think how long it has been since I have my arms up to my elbows in dish detergent. Yuck! And just as with the cable company, the repairman can not come out until next Tuesday. Excuse me! You would think I lived in the middle of nowhere, instead of in the heart of paradise/vacationland. I am completely dumbfounded as to why it takes so long to get items fixed. Oh and lest I forget, my royal van has been in for service now for 2.5 days. Again, parts needed are no where to be found. I think if I started up a repair business for cable, dishwashers and vans that promised service within 24 hours, I would make a fortune! I know things come in threes, but come on this is a bit much. We are now using paper plates, and trying not to dirty anything that needs to be washed. How sad is that?! Now if only the stove would break, I wouldn't have to cook!

Big Brother 8

My daughters and I are HUGE Big Brother fans. Season 8 is no different for us. Every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday nights we are glued to the TV. Only problem is our cable is down. It went out this afternoon, and we have no idea when it is to be fixed. It seems the cable company doesn't give a fig that we are in need of a BB fix. They are completely oblivious of the effects we will suffer as a result of not seeing the show. We recorded last nights episode, but lost the cable while watching it. AAGGHH!! Why do cable companies have no heart?! Aren't these the very same people that gouge our pocketbooks each and every month for $150+? I believe we should receive immediate service when we would otherwise suffer withdrawal. How can I sleep when I have such burning questions on my mind such as will Eric be saved; will Jen be tricked by Evil Dick's plan, and will Nick's family send another plane overhead and spoil anymore of the show?? I need my cable, and I need it by tomorrow night. Please Mr. Cable Man, fix whatever you need to fix and make it quick!

Organization

I have this nifty system in my house of writing all of the appointments on a main calendar in the kitchen; one that the entire family has access to. Nothing gets missed that way, as we walk past the calendar 900+ times a day. Oh but wait, the Duke did miss an appointment. I called to reschedule his blood test today, and was informed that if he misses another appointment he will be fined $50. If he misses a 3rd appointment, the doctor will drop him as a patient. Well there's some great besdie manners for you! Now don't get me wrong. I understand the frustration with patients missing appointments; however, in this case it was not an appointment with the dr. that was missed, this was with a tech. The Duke missed a blood drawing appointment. I do not think this merits the same punishement, nor should it be remembered by anyone. I tried to train him to put his appointments on the calendar, but this seems to require too much effort on his part. I also suggested he give me his reminder cards, and I could enter them on the schedule. That too requires too much effort. I am not going to chase after the man to remember his appointments. I don't see him doing that for me. Hey, don't look at me like that. I'm not being tough. He's a big boy, why can't he remember his own dang appointments? I do. So I told the Duke to go to his rescheduled appointment tomorrow, and to schmooze the nurse so as to have the missed appointment not count. Why you ask? Because he's going to miss another appointment. He's a man. He can't help it...or so he tells me. This way he won't be charged $50, nor will he lose his wonderful doctor. Next time I'll have the doctor's office tatoo the appointment on his forhead, then he won't forget!