Monday, September 24, 2007

teenagers

Today I am stupid because:

I can't decipher the Jostens graduation brochure any better than she can. Then, I can't figure out the Jostens website without sitting in the chair that she is occupying. (My back is speaking here.)
I insist that she wash her shirts that got fish tank water all over them (three days ago) in hot water.
Unlimited phone call time is after 9:00 pm. I actually enforce this.
I insist on hanging the velveteen and lace prom dress on the hangers in the closet instead on leaving it on her floor.
I won't buy her a car.

I refer you to the Zits cartoon from 9/18/2007: http://www.arcamax.com/pic/39813/253641

The other one is only mad at me because I made her go out to dinner.

Sunday, September 02, 2007

Frustrations


Life can be very frustrating.


It takes a lot of phone calls to place an exchange student. I'm calling people about whom I know very little (and yes, we check references and there is a criminal background check). There are a lot of reasons not to host, and I never know what is going to happen. But I got the last student placed three days before school started, and delivered to her host family the day before. So the first day of school I had no responsibilities. I shopped, ate lunch at the mall, read magazines with a cup of coffee, and went swimming in the river at dinner time. The second day of school I conquered the world. (I played Civilization III).


Then life started to unravel.


A thunderstorm rolled through the area. So we shut the computers off and unplugged them.


The next morning, the main computer with all the e-mails and financial info and exchange student data (e-mails, phone numbers) would not boot up. It also has a nice chair that doesn't make my back complain.


Saturday it didn't boot up either.


Sunday it still didn't boot up.


So acting on the theory that it always boots up when we take it to the people that fix it, we moved the computer to the living room, where it booted up.


Whereupon we took care of e-mails, backed things up, put necessary files on a jump drive, in short, made life easier to change computers. Then we moved it back into the office.


Where it booted up.


The photo is five years old. For my husband's 45th birthday, we made him a Bambi versus Godzilla cake. You can see Godzilla's feet and Bambi's legs underneath one of them.