Timelies, Bitches.

Can your mom come down here, vw?

Dear ikea:

In Sweden, apparently you have elves with little tiny fingers who put together shelves. We don't have them here.

Frustratedly yours, Me

You guys are gonna be so glad when I’m better and back to just bitching about school and tutoring and too much on my plate!

Yep.

Hey, guess what?! This morning (what, it's before noon) I got up and came out to the living room and looked out my window, and sitting on the edge of the garage across the street was the biggest raven. It was HUGE. Then it turned its head, and it wasn't a raven at all. It was a juvenile eagle sitting on the garage across the street, just looking around without a care in the world. The more I looked, the more I could seen the brown and gold mottling, which was just beautiful. Alas, I'm pretty sure that if I took a picture, it would have looked like a black blob on top of a black surface, so the word picture will haveto be enough.

Sometimes, I really love living here.

Persey was wonderful at the vet today! Everybody loves her and the sneezing should subside within a week.

Annabel threw our laptop off the couch on purpose. Because she wanted to sit on that cushion.

This happened while I was running errands. DH gave her a long time out and took away her TV privileges for the day, but...you know, this is the first time I think I've been truly angry at her, as opposed to just frustrated and/or stressed because she won't go to sleep or is acting up at daycare or whatever.

I know she's been given her punishment and understands that what she did was wrong, but I'm having trouble not lecturing her over and over on how she has to know this is bad because computers aren't toys to Mommy and Daddy; we both use them to work, and until the laptop is fixed we won't be able to work at the same time, and if we're wrong about the terms of the maintenance plan we're pretty sure we bought, we might have to pay a lot of money to fix it, and we don't HAVE a lot of money and so on.

Anyway. DH just left to take the laptop to Best Buy. I'm not as upset as I could be because I'm so obsessive-compulsive that I back up my manuscript to gmail every day that I work on it. And I can always write longhand if I have to until we have two working computers in action. But still. My daughter dropped a computer ON PURPOSE.

The good news: The maintenance plan will cover the repairs, so no charge to us.

The bad news: We're without a laptop for a week or so.

Since Wednesday, we've had a broken car, a broken heater, and a broken laptop. We only had to pay to fix the car, but still...things need to stop breaking around here.

Can your mom come down here, vw?

She just left. Sorry, I missed this. I'll have her come next weekend. Does that work for you?

Persey was wonderful at the vet today! Everybody loves her and the sneezing should subside within a week.

YAY!

Wow, Susan. I'm not sure what to say. I hope the computer is ok.

Mom is gone. I have clean laundry, a clean kitchen, and an organized craft room (formerly the dining room, but really, it doesn't look much like a dining room anymore). And now I crash.

susan, bad things come in 3's, no? If so, ithink you are good to go now.

Emily, not mad at all. Especially with all the blushy attention it has gotten me.

ION seems my car doesn't want to go on the little road trip to visit my uncle for the weekend. It was flashing the master warning light & only running on battery. So i am at the dealership. So any spare car~ma would be great.

She probably can't grasp the concept of your work yet, Susan, but I know how frustrating that can be. (Says the woman whose laptop still lacks a "q" key).

I know how angry you are (believe me). But any lecturing will probably result in a power struggle, with A resenting the laptop. We usually try to reinforce the rules with gentle reminders during conversations with the kids. For example, "We're always really gentle with the laptop because it can break," etc. when the kids are receptive to it.

That and we make extra sure to set it in a place where it won't be in the way or attract childish attention (our place is on one of the end tables or on the kitchen counter).

I'm glad it can be fixed.

I'd also like it noted for the record that I'm currently hiding from my kids while watching Becoming Jane on the laptop. They're downstairs playing with DH because they were driving me batshit crazy this morning.