Mother's Day 2011

On the day before Mother's Day, Tracy "invited" the whole family to go to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. Everyone was actually pretty down with the whole concept... everyone but Evan. Surprisingly, a flower show... or going outdoors, isn't his idea of a good time. After we clarified exactly which Tulips were included in the festival, (Not those three flowerbeds, just behind the Dinosaur Museum) we set about making a day of it.

There was family togetherness in abundance...




Not sure why every group photo with these three ends up in a wrestling match.



There was this. Eden always has some of this on hand...

There were plenty of these...






The best part of the Tulip Festival? Besides that other stuff?
Maybe this... doughnuts and corn dogs.

Fifty dollars to get in + Forty dollars on lunch = One of the best days out together in a long time.

Business As Usual

It's a Saturday. The phone rings.

Hailey: "Mom, can I store my couch at your house?
There's no room at my new place."

Mom: "No. We don't have room for it at our house.
Are you sure it won't fit at Mike's?"

Hailey: "I guess we can try."

One hour later...

Hailey: "It didn't fit. We donated it to D.I. "
(Desert Industries... Like Goodwill)

Tracy (to Me): "Hailey took the couch to D.I."

Me: "What?!?!? We paid over $200 for that couch less than a year ago. Are we gonna have to go buy another one when she moves somewhere else? We could have stored it here.

Tracy (on the phone to D.I.): "Hi, my daughter accidentally dropped off the wrong couch just a few minutes ago. Can my husband come by and pick it up?"

Guy at D.I.: "Uh, I think it sold. Hang on..."
Guy at D.I.: "Yeah, we have it still but I had to go take it back from someone who just bought it."

Tracy: "Okay. My husband will come right away to pick it up."
Tracy (to Me): "Okay, they still have it. Will you go pick it up?"

Me: "Sigh...

Ten minutes later....

Me (talking to Guy at D.I.): "I'm here to pick up that couch that was accidentally dropped off.

Guy at D.I.: "Okay, let me go get my supervisor."

D.I. Supervisor: "Is this your couch?"

Me: "Yes."

D.I. Supervisor: "You know, we pretty much had to go take this back from the family that bought it. Actually, they had already paid. I had to give them their money back."

Me: "I understand. I'm really sorry. We're mentally unstable."

I load the couch back into the car and take it home. I lug the first piece around back and squeeze it through the door. While it barely fits through the back door, it doesn't even come close to fitting through the hall. The spare bedroom at the end of that deficient, dog-leg hallway is the only place it will possibly fit in our smaller-than-advertised house.

Me: "$#&%!"

Evan (on the couch, oblivious to my struggle): "....."

I load it back into the car, go inside and start watching TV. There's no way I'm going back there right now. The same people are definitely still working. The next day, Tracy and I leave for Las Vegas with my parents. The car and couch stay put.

Four days later... We're back in town.

Tracy: "You really need to do something with that couch. I need to go grocery shopping soon and there's no room in the back."

Me: "Sigh."
Me: "Maybe I'll take it to work."
Tracy: "That's a good idea."
Me: "Or it could sell it on KSL. At least we'd make some money back."
Tracy: "That's a good idea."
Me: Meh... I'll just take it back to D.I."
Tracy: "Sigh"

Two days later... It's Saturday again.

Tracy: "You really need to do something with that couch.
Me: "Uhhhhh!"..."Okay, I'll just take it back to D.I."

Ten minutes later... Driving to D.I...

Me (to myself): "This is ridiculous. Giving away a perfectly good couch. We'll just have to buy another one later."

30 Seconds later... Now driving toward my office.

10 minutes later, at my office, carrying the second piece down the stairs.

Nearby construction worker: "Hey, do you need a hand with that?"
Me: "No, I think I've got it. It's not that heavy, just kind of bulky."

15 Seconds later... I think I've gone down all the steps. I haven't. I roll my ankle and nearly shatter both kneecaps. Thank goodness they went with the cork flooring.

Me: &%#@!

The End...Or is it?
(I still have the couch)

Tracking Time

Last week, from an "hours-worked" standpoint, had to be in the top five all-time.

- On Monday, I went to bed at 2am.
- On Tuesday, I went to bed at 5am.
- On Wednesday, I didn't go to bed at all.

My days were full of meetings, my nights were spent trying to make headway on the presentations due the following day, three days in a row. A perfect storm or something...

I'm glad it's over now, and I sometimes really question my career choices. I'm 43 after all... and still pulling all-nighters. Not smart. And yet, in an odd way, it was a slightly satisfying experience. The particular variety of work I was missing sleep for is a kind that I'm good at. Do I want to be? Not sure... but it is what it is. Each project miraculously came together in time for the meeting and the clients were happy. Perhaps more unbelievable... I managed to keep my internal whining to a minimum. See, people can change.

Or can they?

Concurrent with my personal work-a-thon, I also waited for my iPad 2 to finally arrive. While I barely slept, my "magical" gizmo took it's sweet time seeing the world. I tracked every step. It took a six day, three city tour of China.. then Korea... next Alaska and finally... Louisville. Yes Louisville. Apparently they flew the device directly over my head some 1500 miles east where it sat for an extra day. Apparently it had tickets to the Kentucky Derby or something. All in all, my iPad had a much better ten days than I did. Did I cry about it? Sort of.