Taco Malo

So last night it rained again. But this time, we didn't have any rude awakenings or anything and slept completely soundly thorughout the night. And it was just as well for the evening we had.

Now, the same could not be said for Optimus Prime and his dramatic problems since when his apartment complex contracted out the fix on the roof, they didn't do it well enough, and their bedroom was wet yet again. He said he was fortunate in that he went to bed as soon as he got home or he wouldn't have gotten any sleep.

On another note, because I don't recall whether this whole bit with him and his family has been mentioned or not, they are not just screwed in their flood. They are buying a house, closing fairly soon, and will likely be moving out within the next week anyway to a house that is dry and won't leak on their heads. That whole mess is another long dramatic story in and of itself.

But we had our own mess yesterday that just sucked. We decided to go out yesterday and get the princesses the movie Enchanted because when we watched it on our movie night, they just loved it. So we went to Wal-Mart (in a torrential downpour, no less) and got back to electronics where we picked up the movie. In what should have been a flourish of joy and triumph, it rang a bit anti-climactic. Did they not want it after all? Did they not "get" what was going on? Not sure what the deal was there.

Before we left, I had to get some replacement 97 cent headphones because the ones I keep at work are quite used up and falling apart (they lasted quite a while for 97 cents). I also needed some guitar strings because of (insert long story here -- blah, blah, blah), so we went to toys (I don't quite understand why these are in toys, but then, where else would Wal-Mart put them?) to pick them up for under 4 bucks. Now, I spent all night stretching these stupid strings out so there's a prayer of them holding their tuning come Sunday morning, but that's my problem.

It was in toys that something happened (drama two) that I guess we should have suspected: the children went crazy. They wanted a little bit of everything and wanted it all right now. Of course, we try and spoil them the best we can, but given that they were getting a movie, there weren't going to be any miscellaneous toys, and the Queen called them on this. Given the choice between a movie and a toy, they all chose the movie.

Well, it wasn't a toy, exactly, but five bucks to get a toy with, and this brought up drama number three for the evening. Rock Girl is very bright, and she has figured out that if she buys nothing with her money for long enough, she can get something bigger, such as a video game for her Game Boy Advance. She plans to take any money she gets from her birthday and pool it as well, and while this is admirable, her communication skills need some work.

She told the Queen that she was holding onto her money so the Queen couldn't spend it. Huh? If we check the scoresheet, the money the Queen spends is spent on them. Last time she tried to save a little money for herself, she ended up buying clothes for them with it, and it is likely one of those things that had there not been the other dramas already.

But the worst was yet to come... We figured we'd stop at Taco Bueno (that would be the South Taco Bueno in Broken Arrow, if you're keeping score) on the way home and grab some food. They generally like Taco Bueno, but apparently the princesses were in quite the take-it-for-granted mood last night because they were very non-chalant over the whole thing still. So we got our food, made sure we had everything along with our salsa and pico de gallo and went home.

The princesses got theirs, and I sorted out ours, and that when it all went to hell. First thing the Queen noticed was that the pico de gallo looked funny, and when she opened it and gave it a sniff, it went in the trash. It was bad. Then she opened her Beef Taco Salad and found old chips, bland meat, and almost no lettuce, tomato, or cheese, not to mention it being made incorrectly anyway. She made an effort to eat it, but it wasn't any good either. That straw broke the camel's back, and she needed some time alone.

Times like those are especially hard for me because I can't do anything to fix it, and fixing stuff is just a guy thing to do. She watched a movie in our room which left the TV wide open for some Wii action if I wanted it, but I had to fix yet another shaft she'd gotten: Blockbuster skipped her movies at the top of the queue and sent one of mine. I watched it so at least one thing is cleared up....

Once she got some time to herself, though, we were able to talk and I held her for quite some time to do what I could. You know I don't like her to be unhappy, so I was all about her once she was able to calm down. Naturally, we slept curled up together, and a very sound sleep it.

Now, the bonus to all this. All of the rain we've been getting caused a lot of flash flooding with actually caused some of the schools to be behind high water, so school was closed today due to the high water. This allowed the Queen and princesses to sleep in and have a day to themselves. I hope they enjoy their movie.

And now for a drop of cruel irony... I've mentioned, I think, that my family likes to get together on Thursdays with us for dinner. Any guesses as to the choice for tonight? Go on. Make a wild, random guess. The Queen hasn't decided whether she'll be sick or not.

So to drop something amusing in the end, let me read something off the paper lid of my cup o noodles. This is the food that comes in a styrofoam cup with a paper lid quasi-glued to the top of the cup for shipping. You peel back this lid and put hot water in it. Step 2 tells you to do the following: "Close lid securely and let stand for 3 minutes." I look at this piece of paper and wonder exactly how I'm supposed to "secure" this lid to the top of this styrofoam cup.

So I set it on my desk and put a pen on top of it. It stays closed now.