Apples and Oranges

Yesterday, I got a phone message from Wifey, while I was knee deep in problems at work. On the phonemail, she was asking when I would be getting home. She was informing me that the Girl was in the midst of a massive meltdown in the back of the van. I could hear the WAAAILING coming from the back of the van and onto the phonemail message.

Basically, Wifey took the Girl out of after-school care to both get haircuts (apparently, it matters more for girls than for boys with mohawks). Afterwards, it was a trip to a high end store to buy the Girl's yearly cheerleader outfit. We have season tickets to the local college's women basketball games. And for each game, the Girl eagerly dresses as a cheerleader. And each year, we have to buy a new outfit, as the girl is just sprouting.

As they walked into the store, the Girl spotted a teddy bear. She asked for it. Wifey, in an attempt at a teaching moment, asked "Well, you can have the bear or the cheerleading outfit. Which one?"

Of course the Girl chose the bear. She's no dummy. She knows Momma is eventually going to buy her a cheerleader outfit because the shortness of her current outfit is one in which pervs would be salivating over.

Ahem.

Then Wifey, said NO. And marched the Girl out of the store. And then in the van, the WAILING began.

You have to realize that the Girl, being the first kiddo, has about 50+ stuffed animals on her bed.

And, the Girl knows how to push Momma's buttons.

I had a talk with her in her bedroom when I got home. You know, "Blah-blah-blah....you are acting like a spoiled kid. Blah-blah-blah, that had better not happen again."

Sunday, Wifey has to take the Boy to a schoolmate's birthday party. I asked Wifey if she was cool with me taking the Girl to buy her cheerleader outfit. Cause....I wanna know if she would pull that crap with me (which she won't).

Wifey said sure, good luck.

[For some reason Wifey is still under the weird impression that the Girl behaves the same with both of us]

And then Wifey added, "Well, I'm trying to teach her a lesson. I told her that if she cleaned her room and did all her chores, well...then I might go back and buy her the bear."

Caramba woman! Are you listening to yourself?!

And that's why the Girl knows she can get away with all that crap.

Tandoori Chicken

Many attempts to make this dish. It all came out bland. i.e. grilled chicken with a hint of.....cumin.

But if you google hard enough, you can eventually find a good recipe.

The ingredients (not all shown):

1. cardamon
2. cumin
3. coriander
4. ground cloves
5. cayenne
6. salt
7. pepper
8. lemon juice
9. diced garlic
10. diced ginger
11. yogurt
    

Mix it all together
Add yogurt. I bought this funky yogurt that turned out to be too dry. It had the consistency of paste. I had to add some milk (just guessing that it would be cool) to get it to "move". It has to actually be able to ooze in order to marinate the chicken.
Then take drumsticks, take off the skin, cut slits into the meat to help the marination. No pictures of the "after" since I was wearing gloves and didn't want to get chicken "parts" on my camera.
Put into a bag, pour in the marinade and let it sit for 24 hours. At this point, I'm very tempted to add red food coloring to give it that "restaurant" look. But when I do, the food comes out pink, not "radioactive red".

24 hours later, out of the bag and about to be grilled.
After grilling. It doesn't look that pretty, but the spices worked out just fine. Even Wifey said, "Well, maybe a bit more spice next time".
Always a critic, and never the cook.

Finally found a decent recipe.

Bio Me, Bio You - **Updated

OMG, I'm going to cause a stupid meme to occur. But if you don't participate, then I hate you (wait, are those words from a certain angry red-headed blogger? Hmmm).

Today, I was reading someone's blog and I had been trying to guess their bio (story of their lives) based on what I could read through their blog.

I got so confused I finally left a comment on their blog asking, "Hey, could you give a generic bio on there so I can understand parts of this?"

Ummm, they might be working on it since they are in a different time zone.

And then I thought, you know...sometimes people ask me odd questions. It's obvious because.....G-A-S-P they have not read my blog from cover-to-cover*.

Hmmmm, maybe I should post a bio. Maybe this would help summarize me in 10 bullet points or less.

And if you wish to join (I'm such a hypocrite!) just let me know if you've cooked up 10 bio-bullet points and I'll link to you (I'm a blog slut, see me post!)

My Blog Bio:

1. Met Wifey on bind date
2. Married two years later
3. Pregnant 1 year later
4. Had premie girl (5.5 months old, 1 pound, 1 oz) while on vacation in Hawaii. Wifey almost died.**
   
5. She lived 2 weeks.
6. Adopted The Girl one year later in 2004
7. Started blog in 2005
   
8. Underwent house renovation
9. Adopted The Boy two years later in 2007
10. Working on the chain gang at the Mega-lo-corp, a high tech company.

*Updated Bloggy Bios
Susan
Lori
Sarah
Nancy
Karen



*And for those of you who have, a lollypop is in the mail to you.
**I do want to wring the necks of people (and blog readers) who have the gall to ask if we would ever consider trying to conceive again. I always respond, "Uhh, no I don't want my wife to almost die again."

Sunday - It's always something

[Just mutter to myself, "It's just life. It's just life. Hohmmmmm....Hohmmmmm....It's just life]

The pictures are out of order, but I'm too lazy and just out of sorts to put them in the right order.

Now that it is cooler, in our parts, it's time to start the Attic project. The project is to clear up and dispose of junk boxes and debris in our attics. We have a full attic, and a side one that happens to be above one room to the side of our house.

Too many boxes are "out of sight, out of mind".

So, today I went up to the attic and took some pictures.

Old Mac box.
Lower part of our box from our big screen LCD TV. One of the reasons we have all the boxes are so that we can "send back" the product if it ever breaks. Yeah, that's really going to happen with a giant TV.

Christmas crap crud.

So I take this old Mac box down and see that I probably purchased this computer and have been holding onto this box since 1995. The computer is long-gone. I think I may have given it away to someone. Gee, I think I can finally recycle this box.

And then, here is the story of what happened earlier (before project Attic).

I took the dogs and the Girl for our early Sunday morning walk in the greenbelt. Upon returning from the walk, there was a big buck in our front yard (tons of deer just wandering through our neighborhood - a big driving hazard. And no, it is illegal to hunt within the city limits).

So as this big buck was hopping up from our below-street yard onto the driveway and I was stunned he was there and waiting for him to hop away across our driveway. I was very distracted and then I did this:



After screaming, "IDIOT!!!" at myself, I hustled the Girl and the dogs out of the van and into the house (so that the Girl wouldn't learn new curse words from me)

It looks bad, but actually it's not the first time I've come close to this. It's just the worst it's ever been. I think may have come close to doing this twice with the old Accord, it's just that this time, I couldn't nudge the van out like in previous times.

You can assume that at this point, I'm cursing up a storm and calling myself all sorts of names**.


But luckily, the axle did not get munged. The van is resting on a piece of body plastic.

The one thing about living in Texas is that you have buddies with big, monster, diesel trucks.

A call to one buddy went to voicemail. A call to another one got him live. He said he would be there around lunchtime (at the time of the munge, it was around 9:00). When I told him we weren't going anywhere since genius me had essentially blocked the driveway with a MINIVAN, he said he would come sooner.

And it was simple. He put a pull strap on the back axle, got his monster truck behind the van, we put it in neutral and he gently pulled it out in 5 seconds.

And to thank him, afterwards we had a bottle of a recent re-discovery at a liquor store going out of business:


And after my buddy left, I was left with a stone jigsaw puzzle, which is not as easy as it seems. The stones could be upside down or forward/backward.
After trying to guess my way through it for 10 minutes, I decided to go back to my computer and look for a recent picture I may have taken of the house/yard that might have part of that wall in the background.

I found one of the Boy searching for Easter eggs earlier this year. And this is where being a mystery buff and a nerdo engineer pays off:

Mark the picture with stone numbers:

Mark the stones not knocked over so I have a point of reference:

From the picture, determine which stone is which and mark them:

The Boy was helping me out. He's wearing the Girl's Dora bike helmet.
And the jigsaw puzzle put back together. I'm leaving the taped numbers up as I have to open it back up to put in fill dirt or grout.


And now Wifey wants to know when we're going to fix the broken/loose body trim.

Caramba woman, it's just Sunday!

**BTW, I find that cursing yourself and calling yourself all sorts of names saves the wife the effort of doing the same to you later.

Cause and Effect

So, have you caused an overloaded water ferry to capsize lately?

There is a truism that I think of often, "What we most hate about other people is what we most despise about ourselves."

I've been thinking about this a lot recently.

• Why have I been writing about the Adoption T@lib@n?
• Do they expouse some thought that bothers me?
• That it bothers me enough that I write about it..in an almost defensive nature?
• Or is it that I'm a hardass that looks at the world through jaded eyes and I can't put up with naive people?
  
• Or do I get some sort of perverse joy in being the person who flagellates those people who are into self-flagellation? (here, let me help you with that whip)

Maybe all of the above.

But here's the rub. If I am cognizant of what I write, does it mean that I am not guilty? Or does it mean I can see my own guilt?

Anyhoo.

There was a GE commercial many, many years ago that showed how one person did something in their daily life that led to another person/product, that led to another person/product and on-and-on until the loop led back to the original person.

I have thought about that commercial in many ways - how we in the world are interconnected....that is if you try hard enough to connect the dots.

The think I've been mulling lately is the cause and effect of adoption. Other people have written extensive, soul-searching posts about this. The question comes down to this: by participating in adoption, am I causing the corruption in adoption?

My answer: Yup. But what can you do that doesn't eventually feed back into any corruption linked to adoption?

Let me back up just a bit.

Throughout my Mega-lo-corp employment, we have had yearly, mandatory training sessions where we have to learn about the prevention of accidental shipment of what the US government deems as high technology to restricted countries. Being a short-term employee of the Mega-lo-Defense-Contractor, I really knew how serious this stuff could be.

But early on the the Mega-lo-corp career, I picked up on two incidents that drew my attention. The first was the upcoming handover of Hong Kong from British rule back to China. So my conversation with someone at the Mega-lo-corp went like this:

Me: So, we probably have some of our computers over in Hong Kong right?

Other: Yeah probably. We've got some machines in the financial houses there, I think.

Me: But....aren't some of these machines classified under some export controls?

Other: Yeah, probably. Why?

Me: Well, this week when they hand off Hong Kong back to the Chinese......aren't those same export controlled systems going to be now sitting on Communist soil?

Other: Ummmmm.....

Me: What keeps the People's Liberation Army researchers from just walking in and grabbing one of our high end computers to use to help design better subs?

Other: Mmmm...well....I don't know. We can't control that. It's out of our hands.

And then do you remember the concept of apartheid? Back in "the day" when Nelson Mandela was still sitting in a cell on Robbin Island, South Africa was radioactive. No one could sell or buy (cough, cough except diamond engagement rings apparently) from South Africa. I know that the Mega-lo-corp prided itself by not having an official office in S.A. However, I came across some support notice talking about sending software fixes to the country of South Africa.

Wait a minute.......the Mega-lo-corp, being a good corporate citizen, prides itself about not dealing with the apartheid-loving government of S.A. However....we will sell computer systems to a computer re-seller, who then apparently turns around and sells directly to the South African government. Hmmmm, I wonder what a high speed computer system could do when it comes to people management and suppression. The Mega-lo-corp can say, "Hey, I have clean hands! We never sold directly to South Africa - as that is forbidden!"

So if I connect the dots just right, by working at the Mega-lo-corp, I've inadvertently helped China design better warships and planes that could help in the invasion of Taiwan - and wiping out my extended family back in Taiwan. [Sorry about that Mom!]

Or, by working at the Mega-lo-corp, I helped the (old, apartheid) South African government help round up dissidents by using our "re-branded" computers at police headquarters.

Gulp.

I didn't mean to.......yet when this sort of stuff happens, we just shrug and say, "After it leaves the factory, it's sorta out of our hands."

During our wait for the referral, we had the following conversation with the adoption coordinators:

Me: So this "donation".......?

Coord: Yes...ahhhh...yes the CCAA requires that you bring it in cash.

Me: Cash? We bring the donation in cash? We fly to China with $2500 in cash?

Coord: Oh don't worry, it's very safe! They have very few robberies of tourists in China.

Me: Umm, yeah...but we do this in cash?

Coord: Oh heh, yes...and they have to be in very crisp $100 bills.

Me: [Let's see...thinking back to years of watching Miami Vice.....$100 = the choice bill of drug dealers] And why is that?

Coord: Well, many of these orphanages are in very rural locations. And banking is a difficult task. So they find it easier if the donation back to the orphanage is in cash.

Me: [Hmmm...so Chinese money in a rural location, very difficult. But a crisp $100 US bill in a rural location, easy.] Mmmm. Okay, sure.

You really have to be a big believer in unicorns and ladybugs not to think that the stack of crisp $100 bills is not going to have a portion of it re-directed to people not directly associated with the orphanage.

Dudes, the moment we wrote the $100 deposit check with the agency, we became part of the corruption.

I find it interesting:

• Concerned folks sending links fretting about corruption and the very dark side of adoption have already completed their adoptions. I guess the unicorn died after they crossed the US Immigration line.
  
• Those who fret about the dark side are absolutely sure that their child is not one of the stolen children. It's someone else's kid, but not mine (whew!). Really?
• That the adoption of Special Needs kids is not ever mentioned in the same breath as corruption. Well, they say....errrr...it's SN! You know....it's a different situation...you know we SAVED THEM and so, it's not corruption or stolen children. Seems to me that the stack of crisp $100 is the same for SN as well as non-SN.
• That some people who write very in-depth reports on corruption and stolen children will also cheerfully congratulate you on your recent referral and in the same breath advertise their services in helping you with finding ads. Your child may be stolen, but let me help you with the fake finding ad.

Hmmmm, how many people have I pissed off so far?

So the question of how I caused a ferry in India/Malaysia/The Philippines to capsize comes down to what I want.

I am not willing to pay $65 for a polo shirt in the US. That is outrageous! The most I'm willing to pay is for that type of shirt is $32. In order for this to happen, the factory must be located in a Third World country where the workers have no concept of a minimum or living wage. And these people are poor and pack into an over-crowded morning ferry to take them across the bay to the non-directly-US-owned (not our fault they are paid substandard wages!) factory. And then as they ride in the over. the ferry capsizes killing many of the workers.

Hey, it wasn't me. I'm pretty sure my shirt was made by some other workers in another country on a different ferry.

Pretty sure.

Yeah, sorry it's a heavy one. But I only have so much time for typing and this bubbled up to the top of my fingertips. As always, know that if it sounds like I'm talking directly to YOU and about YOU, I must be. Delete Comment, is always my friend.

The Dog Story

It's hard to read the writing up above, which says:

Hawi got Abby she livb wi wh hrsistrs and bruthe
hr but hrswrinadifit kaj

Translated it means:

How I got Abby. She lived with her sisters and brothers.
Her brothers were in a different cage.

This is from her journal that the 1st graders keep and draw and write into.

It's Always Something

I didn't have a label for "House" and so I decided to use an existing one for this posting, "Renovation". And maybe, it's more appropriate.

The one thing about home ownership, unless you have a House Manager (like a Gazillionaire), is that it just wears on you. Yes, you have a place to call your own. No one can tell you what to do in your house (well, in theory). But geez, the paint is peeling. There might be a dark spot on the ceiling. Wait, is that scratching you hear not really squirrels on the roof but mice in your attic?

Sigh.

I can see why people get behind. Wifey and I watch a lot of shows about real estate and homes on HGTV. And when people go house hunting, I can see where people let things go. For me, my list of items I got to get to, in no particular order are:

• fix the very tiny leak that comes down from the chimney during heavy rains - I have to hire a chimney sweep to come sweep the chimney and re-caulk the opening. I have a severely pitched roof and getting up there is the equivalent of being up a 3 story house and it is muy-scary stuff to be up there.
• fix the glass tile in the shower - on average we have 1 glass tile "pop" out of the grouting every 3 months. We knew going into our remodel that the glass tile we chose might do this. I just take a very strong adhesive and glue it down. I just gotta find the time. So far 5 loose tiles.
• fix the scraped off roofing shingle - high winds and our tall tree branches caused a corner (the absolute highest point on our roofline) to be lose about 5 inches of shingle, exposing the wood. This is where you see on TV the home inspector pointing out some long-standing water penetration. And then you wonder why the lazy ass homeowner never fixed it! Well, the answer is that it's a 5 dollar fix, but you have to hire someone who is willing to go up that high (3 stories) to do a $5 fix. Which will turn out to be a $65 fix.
• call the tree bug guy to come out and give relief to my trees which are suffering from "scale". I was given the name last year by our tree guy and promptly lost the name and found it months later, too late to help the trees in Spring. Hey, Spring rolls around every year! How convenient!
• fix the security lights so visitors (and our babysitter) feel safer as they approach our front door in the dark. We live in a safe neighborhood, but I just like it when the sidewalk lights up (motion sensors) as people walk up to our front door. Oh yea, gotta write the electrician back.
• patch the walls where kids have run into corners with their bike riding indoors or where Abby gnawed on the walls as a pup being kept in the laundry room - sigh, I started this 1 year ago.
• protect the cable TV and phone lines where I constantly get them tangled with my weed wacker. OMG, if I were to cut the cable line, there would be no internet. Gah!
• replace the shredded window screens that a certain Blue Heeler loves to chew on. You bad girl!
• completely clear out and sweep the attic. Sigh. We had mice and squirrels in the attic. Paid top $$$ to have the attic and roofline protected (we had so many openings). Exactly one month after the year-long guarantee ran out, we had visitors come back through different openings. I swore during that one year to sweep out the droppings so we could accurately detect old vs. new visitors (the rodent guys can tell easily). Okay, second expensive visit from the rodent guys, additional protection, 3 year warranty. And the other day, Wifey thought she heard squirrels. Sigh. But now it's cooler and the attic isn't 110F. So, I have the "Attic Plan".
• Attic Plan - clean out the attic and photo document the changes for the blog.

Cause you know.....I'm not actually doing the house fix-up stuff, I'm just blogging about it.

(and serving chocolate ice cream at work)

5th fillup

I took this photo at the gas station just before I had to fill up my tank for the 5th time since driving out of the dealership (fully loaded) on July 24th.

I wanted to snap a photo before the bars shift to the left with the next tank-up.

The best mileage was the first tank, at 49 MPG, when I was driving very carefully because I wasn't sure what all the knobs did.

Some facts:

• The lowest mileage I've ever experienced has been 45 MPG
• I almost always park the car crooked. The hood has a shear drop-off and I can't get a sense of where the center of the car is at. Thus, when I try to park straight, I still don't get it right.
  
• I almost always park the car short. Again, because I can't really see the front end of the hood, I can't be sure how far I am into a parking spot. I actually end up using the cars to the left or right of me, judging where their door handles are in order to see if I should pull up some more.
• Nasty blind spots. I knew this going in. But if you think you see just a bit of something in the back corner of the blind spot, you probably have something there. Two sessions of defensive driving years ago have saved me from side-swipes (they did on the Honda as well).
• It is easier to get in and out of the car for the kids in the back seat, as compared to the old Honda. There is more room between their seats and the back of the front seats. Also, the door opening is bigger, thus easier for parents to reach in and help with the seat buckles.
• It does not accelerate very quickly. But then, neither did my 4-cylinder Accord.
• I'm having to fill the tank every 17-18 days. And as a family, we take this car instead of the mini-van when we go out about town on the weekends.
• People do give me envious glances.
• The cup holders and change holders (non-existent) suck. I never thought much about change holders, until I didn't have one.
• The very loud beeping when you are in reverse is very, very annoying. You want to get out of reverse as soon as possible.
• Limited trunk space. Yes, it is a hatchback, and in theory there is a lot of "air space", but if you fill it up, you can't see out the back of your car.
• Did I mention I spend about $25 on gas every almost-three-weeks?
• Oh yeah, the kids have already trashed it out.
  
• If you can't stand the grime, don't do the crime.
  
•