AND...they're off!

Mary Jo had won some tickets to a VIP seating area at the racetrack so she invited us last Saturday. It only consisted of a roped-off area with free food but we all had a blast. We pooled our money for betting and somehow I got put in charge of placing all bets and usually picking the horses too. No, I don’t have any inside knowledge of track betting. In fact, I have never bet on horses in my life. I guess they figured I do a lot of gambling anyways plus they were all too busy drinking and hanging out. I was betting race by race and we were on 2 tracks timed roughly 20 minutes apart so it was getting kind of exhausting running back and forth…guess that’s the real reason they put me in charge hehe. We must have been doing something right because we came out about $20 ahead when it was all said and done…”right” meaning letting Sky pick some horses based on ones he thought he had petted and stats figured by me. We all know when it comes to any form of gambling, I will figure it out pretty quick…then become addicted…sigh. Yes we have been back once since then. We were ahead slightly until I thought I had a good jockey/trainer combo on a semi-long shot that didn’t work out.

Our fridge decided to stop working 2 days ago. We noticed containers of ice cream turning into soup. We did save some frozen items by putting them in Mary Jo & Keith’s freezer. You could hear the compressor thingie trying to switch on then clicking off immediately. Not good. Our landlord has left all appliances up to us so we had to go searching. We ended up finding the best price on a nice side-by-side at a place Dementia had warned me about but we had to do it because they gave me credit for it and then some…I know, I thought maybe they mixed up my SS# with someone else too and yes, I eyed the beautiful digital SLR I have so desperately wanted for forever but that will have to wait. We have to pay off this fucking fridge first. Yay, another bill that we don’t need but we are living out of our cooler until it’s delivered.

Happy Go Skateboarding Day!

We celebrated by stopping by the only official event in the city...a game of SKATE at the new spot. They had ramps set up and tons of people there. Sky had a blast learning to turn around on the ramps and Mau hurt himself.

Happy Summer Solstice too!

How's it feel to be 9? Fine.

Sky’s birthday was good. He didn’t mind not having a party too much. We took Jonah and him to the new Lawrenceburg skatepark. It was tempting to be dropped off at the casino while they skated. Just to tempt me more, Mau “forgets” where the McDonald’s is so we end up driving back and forth past the casino like 3 times. The skatepark was fun. I brought doggie so we walked all over and Jonah was getting the hang of skating after about an hour. He’s been borrowing one of Mau’s boards so that seems to help him. Since Sky was getting sort of jipped on his birthday due to non-paying employers, we stopped at one of the many fireworks stores and got a few goodies for that night. We can’t get away with much until closer to the 4^th so we kept it minimal (anything more than a decibal of 1 sends the child-hating lesbians that have a new baby into an uproar…they went off on Pastor Joe just the other day. This isn’t because of the baby, they’re just bitches.).

I was making cupcakes to celebrate Sky’s birthday with the neighbor kids when I heard the news that 2 teenage girls had stolen tractors from the park maintainence building and were chasing children around the playground area. Keith had his scanner on so we listened to the calls and we got the scoop from some neighbors. They knew who the girls were and told the cops but the cops didn’t care so the girls didn’t get in trouble. The next day I talked to my park worker friends and they said no major damage was done to the tractors and only minor damage to the grass but that one of the guys was in trouble for leaving the keys in them. Oopsie. So much for the excitement in the hood.

Sky got the money for a new bed from my dad and cash that he used to buy some attachment for a Super Soaker he got. Something about Max Infusion? Sounds good on these 90 degree days. Anyways, his bed was a hand-me-down and has seen its better days. The frame is barely together and now scratching up the floor, the boxspring has huge wads of stuffing coming out of it on a daily basis and there are springs poking through his mattress. It’s been time for awhile now but beds aren’t cheap…really, they’re not…and delivery is worse. We will be getting it next week hopefully and he’s very excited. We got him a little boombox and I made him some CDs. He’s been pretty happy about being able to jam to his own tunes in his room lately.

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag Skylar! The big 9.

You wanna make that 2 weeks? and other fun parental phrases...

School’s out for summer. Well, it’s been out for a week now. Sky has already treaded dangerously close to the edge of “grounded for the summer”. He’s very lucky that Mau’s work has joined forces with mine and decided not to pay him (mine is par for the course but his? He works at the freakin bank…you’d think they could correct it in a timely manner) or I would be able to afford a printer cartridge and start spitting out summer homework assignments. He’s also approaching his birthday on Monday and “no cake” has been threatened.

In the world of orthodontics this month, I am turquoise now and 100% powerchained. The assistant told me it was my life sentence now. Powerchains the rest of the way out for me. She said in adults, if they take them off, the spaces will reappear quickly so they just leave them on. I don’t mind…they are prettier than plain old ligatures. My rubber band configuration remains the same for now. In a week the overbite that was created has tamed considerably, bottom spaces have closed quite a bit, and you can’t even tell I ever had fangs. My teeth actually look pretty normal for once. See?

Metal mouth 

I'm shocked!

I had the rats out running around. I hear a loud “squeak squeak” and I see that Sibella has chewed the shit out of a lamp cord that was plugged in. Mau takes one look and says “Oh, this isn’t good.”. I feared a dead rat, possibly smoking. He picked her up and sat her on the floor so we could get a good look at her. She isn’t the friendly one so normally she would dart off but she just sat there swaying back and forth. We discussed options for about 10 minutes then Mau snapped his fingers. She jumped straight in the air then ran off. We put her back in the cage to observe her. She had blood around her eyes but not running down. I figured she had burns inside her mouth so I offered her a Teddy Graham and she quickly snatched it and ate. Hmmm. We observed some more and she seemed to be moving about more. I left her overnight expecting to find a dead rat in the morning but she was alive. She seems perfectly normal now and is back to her fiesty self. Shocking.