11 yr old boy free to a good home

First, please let me tell you. I am 40. I have a college degree from an excellent school. I am well-traveled and consider myself to be well-versed in many different subjects. I am pretty good at Jeopardy, excellent at Wheel of Fortune and kick butt in Scrabble.

Scene: aforementioned ADULT mother and 11-yr-old son playing Scrabble.
Chase: Mom? Is alined a word?
Mom: Yep. (I looked it up AFTER THE FACT to make sure, and alined is another way to spell aligned, just FYI. I tried to get through that loophole, but alas)
Chase: Ok. (grinning slightly)

Please take a look at the top row in this picture and observe the word alined crossed with the word EQUATOR. Observe the triple word score under the T in said word.

Now look at the score sheet. An obscure rule that we follow here in the STQ household is that if you use all 7 of your letters in one turn, you get a bonus of 35 points. Let me help you with the math. Equator netted the little darling 17 points. Times 3, that is 51. Then you add the 7 points from alined to get 58. Then you add the 35 bonus points, and we are, my friends, at 93. For. one. stinkin. word. What was the final result you ask??

You will see that one side says 201 points. That side is MY score. The other side says 253 points. That, my friends is my ELEVEN-YEAR-OLD SON'S score.

This is what a cheeky little 11-yr-old looks like when he spanks his mama at Scrabble.

Feel free to come collect him at any time. He is currently sitting on the curb with all of his worldly belongings in a trash bag. We do not tolerate such disrespect in the STQ household. :)

Da Wind! Da Wind!

I feel like Tattoo from Fantasy Island pointing out the obvious to Mr. Rourke! It's windy here in Lost Wages today, um, I mean, this week, um, I mean this month, um, well, it's just really freakin' windy here a LOT! Honestly, I'm surprised there is a single palm frond or leaf left on a tree anywhere here in Southern Nevada. And our pool pump has gotten all plugged up for the umpteen billionth time, so the handy dandy pool vacuum simply sits in one spot on the bottom, being useless. Our landlords COULD have some doodah installed so that wouldn't happen, but they refuse, so we are manually scooping plant life out of the pool on a regular basis (the horror!!).

Loved the pool last summer, but I don't think I'll miss it much when we move.

Yes, I said the M word.

Hide the children's eyes.

I guess I should have warned you that this blog had adult content today. Sorry to be so graphic in my language. My apologies if I offended anyone.

Cause MOVE is a 4-letter word, don'tcha know. At least, it is to me. Thankfully, this MOVE is simply across town. To another house that doesn't have a pool. I think we will miss the hot tub the most - with the nice cool evenings, you can often find me and Divine Hubby soaking in the tub with a glass of merlot. We have actually put "hot tub" as a budget item, in that we are saving to purchase one so hopefully by next Winter/Spring, we may actually have one of our own.

So, the point of this blog entry is just to say hi.

Howaya?

Howrthekids?

Gladtoseeya.

Nothing earth-shattering (thank goodness), no big moves or life changes (and for this, I will thank GOD) to report. We here in Las Vegas are enjoying the beautiful 75-80 degree weather, no 'midty, crystal-clear blue skies and oh, yeah, the WIND. Hold on tight Chase, we're going outside!!!

So no one got arrested.

A rolicking good time was had by all and no one was arrested.

Well, maybe this one prostitute we saw, but that's a WHOLE other story!

Five of my college sorority sisters came in for the weekend and we had SO much fun! It's funny - a couple of these women I had neither seen nor talked to for nearly 20 years. But, when we all got together, it was like no time had passed at all. We sat up talking until 3am, we ate at least one meal entirely off of the appetizer and dessert menu at a swanky restaurant, we drank multiple fruity, girly martinis, we laughed and laughed, and we enjoyed being together. We told stories about people and events most of us had forgotten about, we reminisced about the good and bad times we went through together, we recited our pledge class order multiple times, we saw a TERRIBLE Vegas show that made us all deathly afraid of bunnies, and did I mention we laughed?

Friends are a very important part of any woman's life. I love my friends, and due to my constantly relocating lifestyle, I have friends scattered throughout the US. (And one in Singapore - hi Deirdre!!) The fun part is that although your lives take different paths, and even if you don't see each other for years, or even decades - when you live WITH other people and share your life with them, you take right up where you left off. That, to me, is the importance of friends. Sharing your life and your experiences with other people - notably women!

So, cheers to Valerie, Debby, Cathy, Dea and Serena. Let's make it an annual event and include even more of our sisters and friends. Thanks for coming here and making it a memorable weekend for me!! I love you guys.

Girls' weekend

I am really looking forward to tomorrow. Five of my college friends are coming in for the weekend! I had to snort a laugh when my dad asked if they were all staying at my house. Um. NO! I'm not even staying at my house! I live in Vegas, baby, so we're all staying on the Strip.

Did you know that people who live in Vegas don't live in the Strip hotels? I didn't until I moved here!!! There are actually houses here...and schools...and churches...and grocery stores! Shocking news, I am aware. Although I wouldn't mind living at the Bellagio...or the Wynn. Hmmmm. Again, I digress. (Happens a lot, have you noticed??)

So my two college roommates and three other sorority sisters (yes, I was in a sorority, and you can stop laughing and making fun of me RIGHT NOW...) are showing up between 9am and 1pm tomorrow for a weekend of fun, frivolity, martinis, buffets and lots and lots of laughs. Maybe even a Cirque show or a massage but NO kids (well, one is pregnant, so we'll have to let Cathy bring her kid, I guess), NO husbands (ex or otherwise) and NO STRESS most of all. This is going to be a no-stress, no-pressure, no-responsibility weekend.

So, my friends, I'm off until next week. If I call you, will you post my bail??? Divine hubby has already said I'm on my own if I get arrested. And the way I remember some of these wild sisters of mine, it's a distinct possibility. (Just kidding, mom...)

I guess I'm on the right track!!

So, I think I have shared our newest obsession - we are big Dave Ramsey fans and have drunk the Kool-Aid in a big way. Most of my sentences start with..."well, you know what Dave would say...". I think I'm getting annoying, but hey, it's a gift.

Anyway, we are facilitating his Financial Peace University class at our church and really enjoying it. We started with about 50 in the class, and at week 5 (a gorgeous Spring day here in Vegas, I might add), we had 40 in attendance last night. Not too bad! Dave loves nothing better than a good catch-phrase, and one of his favorites is: "If your broke friends are criticizing you, then you're on the right track."

Well, my friends, we are officially on the right track. I have had more people than I can count tell me that we are in danger of ruining our credit rating, never being able to rent a car again, will probably never again own a house, what will we do in an emergency, and on and on and on. Now, I do not know if those friends are officially BROKE, to be honest, but they are certainly in love with credit and think if I don't share that love-affair, I'm a nut.

The way I look at it is this:
1. You CAN rent a car with a debit card.
2. You CAN get your money back if a debit card is used fraudulently.
3. You CAN have a financial emergency and pay for it with savings (we now have 3 months' worth of expenses saved in the bank, which feels really good, I'll tell ya!!)
4. Your credit will NOT tank as soon as you cut up the credit card.

And as far as buying a house goes - with all of the money we have spent getting in and out of debt over the past 20 years, we could have bought a house with cash.

We are renting here in Sin City, and have decided to continue renting. We may buy a condo or something in the next few years, but not a house. We're saving for our retirement house, and barring giant financial disasters, we will be able to pay cash for said house when we retire. No, it won't be a 4-story mansion with a media room, an upstairs maid and a home gym, but we will be able to afford a nice place in one of the 4-5 areas of the country we are considering. And if the house is too big, the kids might want to come back and live with us, right???

So, as I said - we have drunk the Kool-Aid. We do not have a credit card any longer. We still have a balance...but that will be gone soon. I walk around quoting Dave and his catch phrases and will probably continue to.

"I am an American and I refuse to participate in this recession."
"I'm going to live like no one else so later I can live like no one else."
"Broke is Normal. Be Weird."
"Debt is dumb, cash is king and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice."

And my favorite one of all - and one I hope to scream into the phone on Dave's radio show soon:

"WE'RE DEBT FREE!!!!!!"

Hey one more thing before I jump off my soapbox...if you're at all curious about Dave Ramsey, he's holding a town hall meeting that's being shown at churches around the country on April 23 at 8pm EST. Check out his website to find a location in your area - it's free and it just might change the way you think about the recession. Who knows, maybe you'll decide to join us in not participating in it!!!

Paranoia firmly in check once again

When I went to bed last night, my paranoia was running high. Still no jobs on the Clark County website. I was almost certain that I was right. And ready to bust some heads over the issue.

I had a great self-righteous conversation with the head of sub services in the shower this morning. Full of "I did the right thing"s and "you have no right to"s and "you should be
ashamed"s and "I'm calling a press conference"s. I do some of my best work with scalding hot water cascading over my head.

Then I checked out the website when I got out of the shower. Full of boys' PE jobs, lousy with metal shop jobs at the correctional facility and rife with bratty elementary jobs. Luckily, I already had a job lined up for today, so I didn't have to choose from all of those lovely options. But that website told me that I'm not banned.

Whew.

I know, I know, no one who read my posting yesterday actually bought into anything I wrote. It was nutty, paranoid and out there, but that's how this particular blonde's brain works. When someone says they want to talk to me about something, I ALWAYS immediately figure I'm in trouble and start wondering what random sin I committed. It's funny. And pathetic, but honestly, that's my immediate response.

So, I narrowly escaped death and destruction once again, I'm pleased to say! I live to sub another day... :)

Cough cough wheeze and revenge

So, most of you know, I'm a substitute teacher. But do you know that I have suffered through AT LEAST 9,546 colds since October? Well, I have. And don't challenge my math. I'm a teacher. I'll put you in detention.

I'm getting another one.

You know, I take Airborne. I use hand sanitizer and wash my hands as often as possible. I take obscene quantities of vitamin C. I exercise. I (at least attempt to) eat right. I get 7 hours of good sleep every night. And STILL. I'm sneezing, sniffling, coughing and chewing gum to soothe my stupid sore throat. These little germ factories are killing me!!!

I told you all of that first because I suspect most of you are reading this because it has the word "revenge" in the title. Thought I'd whine a bit while I had your attention...

I think I am the victim of some nasty revenge from the Clark County School District. Remember the Aide I reported for being mean to the Early Childhood kids? Well, on Saturday, I got a letter that said "At my request" I was no longer able to accept jobs from that school. WHAAAAT? I have a job at that school this Wednesday, this Friday, next Tuesday and another 3 times already in April (with a different teacher - I'm not working with Miss Maggie again). I did not request any such thing. So, this morning, I called the Sub Services office and asked them to fix that. They "fixed" it.

I also noticed that there were NO jobs listed on Saturday. NO jobs listed on Sunday. NO jobs listed Sunday night. NO jobs listed this morning at 6..6:30...7...7:30 or 8. And there are NO jobs now.

Hmmmmm. Call me paranoid, but I've never ever seen a Monday morning where there weren't at least 3-4 jobs listed by 6am. So, I think there are two likely scenarios. One is that they are having trouble with their website. The other is that they have freakin' blocked me completely cause I'm a troublemaker. Now, I don't usually dispute the title of troublemaker, but as a teacher, am I not supposed to do what is in the best interest of the children? Do I not have a duty to report abuse if I see it? And it's not like I called Channel 8 and did a press conference about it on the 5:00 news. I went through the proper channels and did what I was supposed to do.

SO...if there are still NO jobs tomorrow morning, I'm going to trot my trouble-makin' booty down to Sub Services to see what the problem is. I'm not going to take this lying down and they are NOT going to squeeze me out for following directions and doing the right thing.

Say a prayer for me...I'm kinda concerned about this. As soon as I post this, I'm going to check again. Luckily, I'm already working four days this week...