GRADUATION DAY

I got pretty flowers from Hubby, for his graduation.  He got

a cool giant pic of himself from the school, his Fire Academy certificate

a t-shirt from Joe's Crab Shack (where his parents bought us

all dinner-yummy!), cards, $, a glow in the dark Swiss Army

knife, a super duper bright flashlight, and a special rescue

knife that does cool things like break windows and cut seat belts.

It was a very nice ceremony.  Standing room only.

There were a couple of speeches, and a couple of special awards given.  Then they called the class one by one to get their certificates.  They would come up on the stage, shake hands with one of the instructors, then get the certificate and shake hands with the head of the department.  And they would pause.  They would pose.  Holding the hand shake, facing the audience so their loved ones could take a picture and capture this momentous event in their lives.

Not Hubby.  He practically ran across the stage.

Hubby is the one in blue shaking hands and running

off the stage.  The yellow shirt is his dad, also trying to

capture the moment.  I don't think he did much 

better than I did.

Hubby showing off his certificate to his mom.

After the ceremony Hubby took my one nephew out to see the schools fire trucks they use for training.

I think he liked it.

Then we all headed over to Joe's Crab Shack for some tasty food.

Hubby got a cool card that plays Star Wars when you open it

and a snazzy Joe's t-shirt.

And of course the evening would not be complete without Surly Teenager being a silly.

Oh yeah...

I signed up for summer school.

I'm starting with Algebra.

If my brain survives that and I think I can handle school again, then I am going to start working on finishing my accounting degree.

I have already taken almost all of my general stuff I need, a couple of semesters at the junior college will finish that off. Then for Fall 2011 I can start at the big University.

Providing my brain hasn't completely leaked out of my ears by then.

It's been a long week

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I Got Off Track

I had been thinking about it for a while now. Earlier this week I made the decision that this weekend I was actually going to do it.

I was going to venture forth. I was going to explore uncharted territory. I was going to go where no man had gone before.

I was going to go jogging on an actual PATH, instead of just circling a track.

And I did it.

I am right this minute, sitting on the couch with a bag of frozen corn on my left knee and a bag of frozen green beans on my right knee. I can feel that my face is still a bright, beety red, but the pain in my right side has gone away.

I looked up the trail before I left the house to see how long it was. 1.9 miles. No sweat. I usually do 1.5 or 2 at the track. And once last year I did 3. No sweat.

A few minutes into the jog I had a major DUH moment. I thought to myself, wow, this is harder than a track. Well DUH. It's cement - not that nice springy stuff that tracks use. And there are HILLS. I didn't think about it not being flat. And as I was thinking oh thank goodness, DOWNHILL, I wasn't thinking about how coming back, that was all going to be UPHILL.

Also, now, this probably would be an obvious thing to most people, but it didn't occur to me at the time: That means 1.9 miles AWAY from the car. In order to get back to the car to be able to drive home, was another 1.9 miles.

And yes, I know, at any point all I have to do is stop jogging and walk. But then I wouldn't know how far I ran. And it was bad enough that I forgot to start the timer on my watch. I couldn't stand the thought of not only not knowing exactly how long I jogged for, but also not knowing how far I went.

So I just jogged the whole way.

That's right - 3.8 miles. That is further than a 5k (3.1 miles).

Like I said, I didn't start my watch, but I glanced at the dashboard clock either on the way there or when I got there, and I looked again after I got back and finished stretching. It took me about an hour. On average, that is incredibly slow. I think the average 5k time is about 25-30 minutes.

But I'm okay with that. I enjoyed the scenery. I saw a yard with 5 basset hounds. I saw pretty wisteria trees, and 2 rabbits. I smiled, waved and said good morning to 6 people. I listened to good music.

And I did 3.8 miles.

Oh, and, that 11:30 Pilates class I am supposed to go to? I don't think so.

I Found It! I Found It! I Found It!

Two iPod chargers have now been located.

The first one I found by clearing off the mountain of computer, um, "stuff"
that Hubby had piled on his desk. This desk has now been moved out to his
shop. Next to go will be his shelves and then the mountain of computer stuff.

The second charger, I found right where I had put it. Imagine that. It
was in the top of my lunch container, where I had put it to bring it home
from work.

Now if I could just locate that darn vacuum hose....

It Is Time....

to break out the rabbits feet, put on the lucky underwear, say your prayers, rub your Buddha belly, cross your fingers, perform your animal sacrifice, or just send happy thoughts....

Hubby has another oral board interview this afternoon, with Forest Hill Fire Department.

Gone

The Bermuda Triangle, a black hole...my family room.

I have missing items. All were last seen in the family room. And now, gone. Gone, gone, gone, GONE.

It started last year with the hose to my little shop vac. We have a big shop vac that we keep out side in Hubby's shop, and a cute little one, that I got for Christmas, that we kept in the house. It was in the family room one day. Sitting on the floor with it's cord wrapped around it, and the hose was detached and laying on the floor next to it. I can still see it clearly in my mind.

Now, there are going to be some people who will argue that if, immediately after use, it had been put back in it's closet, it would not have been sucked into the void.

Maybe, maybe not.

In this instance Hubby had been using it (which explains why it didn't get put up immediately after use!) and I confess, I purposefully left it sit there. I was curious to how long it would take it to get put away. I finally gave up and was picking up the entire family room. And it was gone. The hose was gone. Little shop vac sitting in the same spot, but no hose. I looked and looked and looked.

I still look for it to this day.

It has vanished. How can it have just vanished? It is a vacuum hose, for pity sake. It serves no purpose on its own. It's not like it is tiny. They are, what, a few feet long? And it's GONE.

The latest victims? Our iPod shuffle charging docks. That's with an "s", as in multiple ones. We had 2. I kept one at work so I could be sure my shuffle was always charged when I go walking at lunch time. The other one was kept at home on the desk. In the family room.

I took vacation the week of Spring Break. For some reason, and I can't remember the chain of thought that made me think it was necessary, I brought home the charging cord that I usually kept at work.

And now BOTH are GONE. GONE, GONE and more GONE.

My house is just not that big people! I should be able to find these things!