Stumbling Through Adulthood

1. Dh and Anne-Chloe are going to Reading PA for a weekend in February, to go on a ride on a train being pulled by a steam locomotive on the main line. This is a major deal, LOL. I'm so happy Anne-Chloe was willing and able to go with him: I'd have gone, of course, and probably had a great time, but I don't really-really want to go. They should have a great time!

2. I need a new bra (or two) but I don't want to go bra shopping, sigh. But I have to. I think I'll take light rail or a bus from work to dt Seattle and then get a bus back to dt Redmond. It's stupid that I can get from the uni to dt Bellevue, but not easily the 4 miles from dt Bellevue to dt Redmond. Can't wait for the light rail to go all the way there, rather than stopping at Microsoft.

3. My shoes, after spending almost a month going back and forth over the Tampa Bay bridge were finally returned to me, 2.5 months after I mailed them out. Since it was for a warranty claim, I'm going to try to see if the gal I've been chatting with on twitter will help me out. Because at this point, it looks like I had the shoes for five months and am complaining that they're trashed, but no, they were dead within three months! I just really have no idea why, at some point, in Redmond, they covered up the "to" address and shipping the package diagonally across the country. Make that make sense, USPS!

Things are not going well in our household right now with Linnea and homework.

Long boring post, sorry. More because I needed to write it than that anyone needs to read it.

She needs help with her computer science homework. She is refusing to listen to dh, who has many years of experience.

A major project was due on Friday. With her IEP she has the right to an extension, which she and her IEP coordinator requested, and it was granted. To Monday.

She jam-packed her weekend with events! with friends. Two birthday parties, one of them in Bellingham, 90miles north of here. One computer science project, 3/4 finished, one crafy project, t-shirts with iron on transfers for her and her "squad".

I bought the birthday gift. I bought the gifts for the gift exchange the one girl at the Saturday birthday party always does. I bought the gift for the kid that I can't stand whose bday was last week and who didn't have a party, but Linnea got her a gift because and was going to give to her at the Sat party. I bought the transfer paper. I bought the damn t-shirts.

I/dh refused, however, after a afternoon she'd spent at the Saturday birthday party (movie, mall, dinner, cake at friend's house) to take her to MIL's to get the iron-on transfers printed. She claims she asked dh to do it, he doesn't remember, but that doesn't mean it's our responsibility to rush her out to MIL's at 10PM to print stuff, and then probably do a half-assed job on the ironing part, because she's never done it solo before.

So she stomped off to bed, screaming at us.

She wasn't in a a better mood this morning, screaming at dh that she knew what she was doing, and the rest of the project would only take "about 30 minutes". Dh estimates several hours.

And then her friends came and she went off, not even bothering to say goodbye to either dh, who was right there, or me, who was in the shower (usually, when she's not pissed, she'll at least holler through the door!).

I'm upset and angry. Sometimes it seems with that kid that no matter how much we do, it is never enough.

I would have told her that she couldn't go today at all, but... her friend in Bellingham really needs the emotional support. College is hitting her hard, and she doesn't have the $$ to come home every weekend. Plus her parents just got a divorce, so she doesn't really have a place to go home to, at least not one that is familiar and where she feels comfortable. I truly like this kid, and we ok'ed the day in Bellingham weeks ago, long before we knew about this project.

Yesterday's stuff was predicated on having her homework done, but I was in the lab in Bellingham, and dh and her got into an immediate fight, I guess, about her project and how long it would take, and I think he let her go because he was too pissed off to work with her.

Dh doesn't yell at the kids much at all, and he yelled at her both last night and this morning. That pretty much tells me how much of a brat she was being.

This is a long un-interesting rant.

I grounded her for a month over text.

I'm even more annoyed because the Bing photo of the day is a sloth, and she HATES sloths and I was planning on teasing her with it. And because my stomach always feels a bit queasy when things aren't well with Linnea and me.

... Which is French for this and that.

♥ We're redoing the railing on our deck. Because the moron builders built it using framing lumber, and on an ipe deck, with the plan being to have a glass railing, posts and top rails in ugly, knotty (and not in a pretty way) splintery framing lumber is not ok. I'm pissed, though. One things we had told the builders? That we did NOT want to be left with loads of projects. We were left with loads of projects.

♥ I spent almost 6 hours yesterday plating seeds in the laminar flow hood. I started out properly with good posture and with good technique. By the time I was doing the last few plates? Ha ha ha ha.... I was half sprawled on the bench, my elbow leaning all over the place etc. I just hope I don't get any contamination. I expect I will. I think I ever remember which plates I did last so I can check if those get icky. It was exhausting, and I probably should have spaced it out over a few days, my mistake. Again. Because I've done this before.

♥ I'm not even going to comment on Trump. I can't.

♥ I'm re-reading The Martian Chronicles. I last read it as a teenager... I hope it isn't too dated. I'm concerned in large part because Larry Niven and Roger Zelazny left me shuddering in horror at rereads, and I did love much of Bradbury. There really needs to be a good website with "OLD SF TO AVOID". Anyhow.

♥ I just read a trilogy and I can't recommend it, the books were The Queen of the Tearling, The Invasion of the Tearling, and The Fate of the Tearling. Book1 and 2 were pretty good, with some problems, but nothing unsurmountable and book 3 started out ok. Until the last two chapters, when she pretty much ruined the whole thing in a completely unredeemable manner. Here's what I wrote on goodreads:

To give an idea... I gave 5 and 4 stars to the two previous books of this trilogy. Up to the last few chapters, this one would have gotten a solid 4 stars. It kinda went out to the weeds from time to time, but it was still a pretty good book, and looked to be wrapping most of the storyline up.

And then, blam. The ending was a WTF moment of total mess, a ridiculous clown nose added to a perfectly fine bottle of wine. That sounds weird, right? Well, so were the last few chapters.

I don't know what to say. I'd love to recommend the series, but the feeling of being let down by the author is quite overwhelming.

I hate it when that happens. A lot less investment in this series than HP so it pissed me off less than Deathly Hallows and its Christian crud. Still, disappointing.

♥ School is ok. It's taking a long time. I changed research project early last July, so it hasn't been a year yet, and plants take a while to grow. That's the hard part. A long while, from seed to collecting seed to a new plant. Ah well.

♥ I also wrote a review on Flavor, by Bob Holmes. It's on my goodreads account. I'd love a few extra friends... If anyone reading here isn't already my friend on goodreads, of course.

♥ I am so tired of my kids being lazy bums and ignoring me. This is getting to be a serious problem.

♥ I am sending Linnea to rowing camp with Perry this summer. Most camps, the rare ones that take over 12 year olds, are one week, rowing camp is three times a week for about 6 weeks. Much better. I'm getting a bit tired of the sit in front of a computer or the TV thing. Because of her trip to Scotland/Ireland, she'll miss the first few days of camp, I might see if Perry's coach (who is running the camp) is willing/able to give her an hour of private instruction, or can tell us who at the club might. Not that I'm ever expecting Linnea to become a rower (though I think she'd make a great coxswain), but I want her to get out and do some stuff this summer.

♥ Annoying thing. When we buy milk at Costco, two gallons, I use a sharpie to write 1 or 2 on the top before one or both go out to the fridge outside. When milk #2 comes in, it's time to think about buying more. Well, someone brought in milk #2 before milk #1 and I bought more. Grrr.

♥ Also about fridges. Our new one is less than two years old. It's already having a hard time maintaining temp. Even set at 1C, it barely keeps food in the safe zone (at 4C according to my fridge thermometer) and at times has been up to 8-10C, meaning everything had to be moved out etc. We're currently watching and waiting, but I think an extended warranty claim for a repair is going to have to be made and I'm very annoyed. Major appliances should not fail in less than two years.

♥ I'm boring boring boring. Ugh.