Topic Stew

1) So I was 1 for 2 on who got booted in SYTYCD last night. I figure Rayven would be safe if she did full-on ballet. Alas, as Nigel pointed out, she did demi-pointe, and got booted along with her partner Jamie, who was my correct pick of the night.

2) My Wii Fit was delivered this morning. Can’t wait to get home and play with it all night. Despite night feeling well all day and into the evening, last night Denis and I stayed up late and battled each other in tennis and bowling. I’m now a Wii Tennis Pro with a ranking near 1,100. Trust me when I say it gets a LOT harder once you begin playing folks who have PRO rankings. Wow. I’m just shy of being a Pro at bowling, too. I think I’m in the high 800s right now and after a few games like I had last night I should hit Pro status tonight (I bowled an average of 172 last night over the course of several games). I also did my Wit Fitness Age this morning and once again was an age of 33. It was funny because I thought I did well, and then it suddenly said my Fit Age was up to 43. I was protesting to the TV when suddenly a big green “33” came down and booted the “43” out of the way. YAY!

3) Work has been quiet today. Mr. BIL was at a funeral most of the morning and wasn’t back by the time I went out to lunch. So because I had a nice quiet morning I was able to…

4) Work on our floorplans with a designer. Yep! A few weeks ago I posted some pictures of floorplans that I had been mucking around with. Well, I ended up getting in touch with the homebuilders who own the design, and after telling them multiple times that we are NOT building for many more years, the rep I emailed with said, “No harm in working on the plans during my spare time and getting your plan the way you want it with today’s pricing. Then when you are ready to build we can just update the pricing and voila – you can start building right away!” So that has been pretty cool. Denis and I pretty much chucked a fair portion of the things we were going to change about the house and are now streamlining it a bit to exclude wasted space. We’ve decided NOT to do a basement because there is no need – with the relatively easy changes we are making on the current plan, we avoid the need for one completely and thus save a LOT of expense that can go to other things.

5) Tomorrow there is a Scottish festival in Clover that we’ll be taking the kids too. We went last year and they were kind of too young to really enjoy it. One year later I think they’ll be into it a lot more. Once we’re done with that I want to take them to Michael’s for kid kraft time (if we get home from the festival in tme) and then take the to the pool. That should be enough activity to really tire them out. Heh. Because isn’t that what weekends are all about? Tiring out the kids so you can have a relaxing evening?

6) CootieGirl has been a royal pill about going to bed on time lately. To the point where we’ve had it up to here with her whiny, crying, stalling and fit-pitching. So last night I laid down the law, because reasoning with her doesn’t work (believe me, we’ve tried to reason with her). Her attitude was so bad that I told her that her punishment for not obeying me would be no bedtime story. She began crying, and I told her again WHY she wasn’t getting a bedtime story. As I got up to leave she said, “I want Daddy.” I said, “I’ll go get Daddy.” “And don’t tell him I can’t have a bedtime story.” I almost laughed out loud. “I WILL tell him that you don’t get a bedtime story, CootieGirl. And he’ll agree with me.” She began crying again, so I kissed her on the forehead, told her I loved her, and walked out of the room. Tonight before bed she’ll be reminded of the rules and the consequences of breaking those rules, and they will be strictly enforced. I predict the lesson will be learned quickly if/when she disobeys the first couple of times and that by tomorrow night she’ll be quick to obey.

7) CootieBoy misbehaved at daycare yesterday and his punishment was not being allowed to participate in Water Day today. And he was so looking forward to it. This morning as I deposited him in his classroom I said, “Don’t forget to be a good boy, listen to teacher, and be a good friend. If I get a good report from your teacher tonight, I’ll let you play Indiana Jones on the TV.” His eyes lit up. Nothing like the promise of addictive videogames to bribe a kid into behaving!! So we’ll see if he does well today.

That’s about it, really. Mr. BIL just left me an 11-minute dictation to transcribe. That’s about an hour’s worth of work, so let me get started.