Is that on sale?

Can I just say, DAMN. My shins hurt. I swear we were in target for hours and then we had to go back. Yes we went over 100 bucks. twice. Yes we had to go the fuck back after staples. The first time with all the clothes and supplies it was way over. It was like we went 3 times today, but we only went into it twice.. Is that 3 for 2?

Also can I just buy one red pen. Seriously I just need one. I don't need 50 or 15 or even 5 just ONE. No? fuck you I'm going to staples to pay as much for my one pen as I would have paid for 5 here. Is that a 1 for 5?

At pizza the onions were weird. Not rotted but tangy almost fizzy if an onion can be fizzy and a bunch of them I paid for just one topping of onions, but I think we got two. Are these onions 2 for 1?

Max asked me if the Swiss were so neutral why did they have any army? It's really a good question and one his fucking 7th grade teacher can answer him in Jr. High. I'm not gonna. We told him that they just made really cool knives. Lots of blades. Mine I think has like 18 or 20. Is that a 20 for 1?

Have I mentioned my shins hurt? Feet and ankles, too. And. AND. And we're not quite done either. Tomorrow the hunt for two pairs of jeans for Max and sweat pants to boot. I wish they had price protection on the growth rate of his shins. The boy has long legs. He grows. All the time he grows. He's going to be at least 5'10" if not sixfoot. For free. No extra cost on that height other than the many many pairs of pants and don't get me started on the fucking shoes. Next time Payless is doing 2 for 1 (or is that 4 for 2?) I'm going to buy his current size and then two sizes bigger for the next week. Six feet. He might be six feet tall.

That's a 6 for nothing. Now that's a bargain.

home computer

is dying... It's a bummer. I've thrown a lot of bad money after good on this one and this time it's just going to be about... letting it go. I'm of two minds. One of just getting the data (mostly images I've taken over the years) and being done with it. Junking it all. The other idea is to get a new case, new mother board, processors, and power supply and save the drives and the memory. I don't know. Boring post? yup.

A whole day of photography

I got to spend an entire day at the strobist seminar yesterday. Worth every minute and likely 3 times the price. Thanks to David for choosing Seattle for his seminar.

By all rights it should be a pony

So the kids knew we were going to clean today. Clean the house. La Casa de us. So at some point in my sleepy state about 7:30am I hear my door close. This is usually then closing my door so I won't hear the TV. Today the TV was off limits due to a incident yesterday morning, but whatever. I thought I was going to get to bust them for forgetting the punishment. I opened my eyes to find that my bedroom door was still open, but my bathroom door was closed. So OK fine one of them woke up and had to go and the other was hoggin' the bathroom. Whatever. This went on for a half hour and I heard some faint noises. Then I was all what the fuck? Crossing my bedroom I was pissed and I open the door and there is Max with the toilet brush Sam with a sponge. No longer pissed. Then they went onto the list the hour's worth of cleaning they had already done. I went at glanced in the hall bathroom. spotless.

I took them to breakfast and now I'm taking them to a movie. Really I'm cheating them they should get a pony. Course then they'd have to clean up after it...

My dollars worth

Max, Sam and myself went to the dog park today (along with the dogs). It's a concert today so they leave out these bogus signs about the one parking lot being closed, when it really closes at 2:00 pm and they start towing at 3:00 pm. Since I won't be that long I just park there anyways. This time it seemed they had turned the machine off so I couldn't pay. Tricky bastards. So I was getting set to go out when this old man got out of a park staff truck and then I was expecting the whole "don't park here" but instead he was cool and turned the machine on. I paid my buck and off we went.

It only takes a second. We were at the first water stop and we heard some yelling (not unusual at the dog park) then someone was calling for a cell phone because of a broken ankle. The kids and I went up and there was a lady laying down with people around her. I had my gps on (people mock the gps, but hey I knew exactly where we were.) I offered the coordinates to the guy on the phone with 911. I don't think they needed it because he had a new phone and they have gps's now that 911 can query. Whatever.

Woman's ankle well... it was gross, but not bleeding and we tried to calm her. Cell phone guy went to the parking lot to get the aid car. I gave him my card and Max and Sam rounded up our dogs and took them far enough away they weren't a problem. That turned out to be a huge help because I was one more adult that wasn't dealing with a dog and mostly I kept the dogs off of Jody. Jody was the lady with injury. Again I won't go into details but she was in a lot of pain. So we kept the dogs away (people are so fucking stupid. A couple of people actually kept playing fetch with there dogs until I told them to clear out. OK I might have yelled at them, but jesus h christ people this woman is in pain and you're fetching with your god damn dog? Also the dogs kept coming up to her and we kept pushing them away. Jody's own dog was not very happy about this.) She had one hand behind her head so I thought it would be good to have a pillow. So I yelled to the a fairly big crowd for a sweat shirt and a woman immediately gave me her fleece and her purse to make a pillow out of. Her husband then joined me with the dog pushing and we tried to make shade for her as well. Cell phone guy called me and reminded me to watch for shock and keep talking to her. After I hung up with him we kept telling her it looked ok (a lie to be sure) and that help was on the way. She started to shiver. So we elevated her good leg and then I was scared. I started looking for something that would make a blanket. Right then the aid car arrived. She must have calmed down because she stopped shivering. Not once did this lady who was in her 40's ever say anything more than darn. The paramedics were great they had to immobilize it and that really sucked for Jody. Lots of screaming and holding our hands (me and pillow lady's husband might have lost a finger.) Then there was a call for a cell phone so we could call 911 again. Some lady had seen the ankle in the crowd and had fained. She was sitting up and the guys working on Jody didn't move tey could see faining lady was up and talking so they just kept working on her. They finally got the vacuum splint on then the other guy and the two paramedics just lifted her on the stretcher. She was much calmer now that the ice had set in. Her friend took her dogs and was going to meet her at the hospital. It's kind of sad that her ankle was busted and they were getting set to haul her away and she kept telling us how to get to her insurance card. We told her that she could work that out later and right now just let the medics take care of her.

The kids did great keeping to the dogs and standing where I could see them. I didn't have to worry about then I could just help.

Fainting lady got a whole god damn fire truck. I had to clear some of the medic's stuff out of the way so the truck could get around the first unit. Apparently that isn't uncommon. They deal with fainters in the crowd a lot. Right as the fire truck came in I saw the old guy who had turned the machine on for me and I said to him, "Well I got my dollars worth."

The kids and I took the dogs and fetched a bit. The aid cars were gone by the time we took off for home. I was a bit shook up. Likely the 2nd grossest thing I've ever seen in my life and I hope nothing ever tops it.

[Update: Well a. I didn't remember her name right,but I'll leave her real name out anyways. I guess you can substitute "not Jody" above if you like. b. I'd like to say everything is going to be fine, but apparently according to the voice mail they just left me at work she really broke her ankle (in 3 places) and it will never be 100% again. In 10 days she'll have surgery to repair it, but the pain will never completly subside. Sad.]