Walking In And Waiting

Optimus Prime was telling me a story today about a day when he was younger and they had a short day at school. Apparently this shortened day was unplanned, and rather than calling his mom to get a ride home, he and a friend opted to just ride the bus home so his mom didn't have to get out to get him. Well, he mentioned at the beginning of this story how he tended to step softly, unintentionally surprising people when he walks in. Well, on this occasion, he got home and walked in on his mom...

...eating the Nestle Toll House cookie dough. He says she wasn't a very good cook, but she tried as evidenced by the six trays of progressively lighter cookies, showing she was steadily figuring out how long to not cook them. I thought that was funny. What did you think was going to happen? She always told him not to eat raw cookie dough and ... busted!

Anyway, my sister-in-law, Padme (you know, Darth Vader's wife?... haha), is very pregnant with my first nephew at this point, and due to potentially complicating issues such as gestational diabetes, they induced her yesterday. Well, nothing happened. The pitossin (sp?) gave her a couple negligible contractions, but that's about it. So they took her off of it yesterday, and re-started it today, and still very little was going on. Last I heard at this point, they are looking to do a C-section later today if nothing further progresses.

Apparently, these complications could get somewhat serious, but as women who have C-sections don't ever have regular, natural birth later, it makes me wonder if they're still going to be able to have the 3-4 kids they were looking forward to having if she's going to be going under the knife every time.

I guess time will tell.

Not A Very Fun Week

So it's been awhile since I've written anything. It's not out of anything more than finding myself in a mundane path and feeling like there is nothing left to write about. This is, of course, rather silly since life always provides enough drama in anyone's life to make something interesting to write about. Such is the last week in the life of the Geek and the Queen. There is some measure of comfort in the anonymity of this blog since the Queen is taking one of these issues very personally where it isn't her fault at all, but just one of those things. It doesn't make enduring it any easier, though.

The first thing that happened was last Thursday when it was raining cats and dogs. We were getting the leftovers of Hurricane Ike here in Oklahoma which lasted a couple of days into Saturday. On Thursday, the Queen was getting the shopping done, so on Friday, when I had taken a personal day off to spend time with Queen and the Princesses while they were out of school, we could go and play all day without worrying about the shopping. But it so happened that in the parking lot of Wal~Mart, the Queen dropped her cell phone.

This was not an act of clumsiness, by any means. It was raining, she was juggling the umbrella and Sassy Pants, so when she turned a certain way, apparently the phone twisted right out of her pocket, and when it hit the ground, that sound was indistinguishable from the already pounding rain. Would it have been so bad if she'd noticed it right away and picked it back up? Probably not, but she didn't notice the phone missing until they had gone into Wal~Mart, done the shopping, and got back to the car. By then, the phone had been kicked under the car by someone who likely never saw it.

Well, she retrieved the poor drowned piece of personal electronics, and took it home to dry it out, praying it would work. I had tried texting her a couple of times during the day until later on when she called me, and I found out what happened. She was hoping it would just work, and she wouldn't have to tell me. Now, I'm not that mean, but she wasn't happy about dropping it. The phone doesn't work, so $50 was going towards the insurance to replace it (which she should be getting in the mail today). I was able to hack the phone to get the phone book and ringtones and such, but the games and such are not retrievable. That's how they make some of their money; you have to repurchase them. It wouldn't matter if I could have gotten at them anyway; they're usually sold to the specific ESN, and won't work on another phone -- kind of like buying something on iTunes, and then trying to play it on another computer...um, no I've never tried that...

The real tragedy that turned our world upside down happened on Friday. I was off already, and we had planned to hit the air and space museum in town because Rock Girl is all about space, and more recently, meteorology, so she loves going. The Socialite is more about art than science, but she has fun; and Sassy Pants just goes along. Anyway, while we were getting everything together, the Queen made a rather horrifying discovery: lice. The horror of elementary school was alive and well on The Socialite's head and our plans were toast.

The Queen called Moneypenny, who has dealt with this before, to find out how to deal with it. Wash everything, quarantine stuffed animals, vacuum everything, and pick through every hair on everyone's head. Our vacuum cleaner went belly up week before last, and we haven't had a chance to replace it yet, so Moneypenny gratiously leant us hers. Wash everything entailed the bedding off of every bed in the house (I had no idea just how many blankets those girls sleep with) along with the clothes that they seem to forget to take into the laundry room. Four or five large garbage bags of stuffed animals are currently camped out in our garage awaiting their 2-4 weeks. Vacuum everything means get everything cleaned now so it doesn't get sucked into the shop vac, and yours truly got the privilege of running the machine. And pick through everyone's hair takes hours.

This is what we did, though. Rock Girl didn't have any. Sassy Pants was minimal. I had none. I picked through the Queen's hair and I can't confirm she for sure had anything. The Socialite was the one who apparently found the nest because the poor thing was inundated. Insert the speech over not sharing hats, brushes, masks, wigs, etc. Every night, though, everyone gets checked again; every strand of hair is examined. It takes forever and wears everyone out. Their bath every few days (because little ones don't need to bathe daily) has turned into a daily routine since Friday. Their bedding is washed every day (we've stopped giving them their piles of blankets until this is over. Last night, I went over Sassy Pants' hair until she was so worn out that she was begging to go to bed.

So the Queen and I have been emotionally drained. But then, life threw one more curve ball at us. With all that's gone on, we forgot something. Last month, we had to pay something rather substantial which got the utilities behind a month. Well, we had gotten a nasty-gram over the water bill, and I'd planned to pay it on Friday. You remember Friday, right? The day the sky fell? Yeah, it didn't get paid.

So today, the Queen calls me (on my phone, of course, as she won't have hers until later today) and asks if I paid the water bill because it's shut off. Well, I know there's a fee to turn it on, and I thought it used to be $35 or something, so I call them to make the payment. Well, they want $50 to turn it on and another $50 to "bring our deposit up to date." That's $100 over and above the amount I needed to pay. You've got to be kidding! So on top of trying to catch up on two months of utilities, I've been hit with $50 for a phone, another $50+ for this lice thing, and now another $100 for forgetting the stupid water bill. Yeah, I feel sick.

And to top it all off, I forgot my lunch today...but I feel better for venting.