Barnaclebutt

Marc is making us give up television. To be fair, when we decided to cancel Dish I was on board with the plan. Our family watches vast and massive amounts of stupid television and none of us really have the self control to turn it off and do other things.

First of all, blogger is being very weird this morning.

post edit* I started writing this like a month ago when I had just finished OM, but then my computer and blogger conspired against me so the post languished in my draft section until just now when I found it and decided to try again...because Jonathan deserves a post.

Second, LOOK at my little OMers at the regional tournament last Saturday! Jonathan's team of 10 and 11 year old boys took on the problem "Return to the Gift of Flight."

They had to make six different aircraft that completed six different flight plans like "touch down and take off" and "drop something onto a target," and they had to used at least four different propulsion systems. Complicated? Yes.

Because they are crazy. And I wish I had never said I would coach. It is a sad, sad moment.But then every year an OM miracle happens and they, using massive amounts of duct tape, manage to get it together. This year we had helium dirigible that was powered by a blowdryer too!

Generally I am not a competitive person, but my boys came in third place out of 10 teams. If they had got second they would have moved onto the state competition. They missed second place by three lousy points and I am convinced they would have got those points except one boy's paper costume blew away while he was walking through the parking lot and he couldn't retrieve all of it. I know I shouldn't be, but I am bugged. The most ridiculous part of that sentence is the fact that actually going to states would be my own personal hell. But making sense was never really my strong suit.

Last Saturday Maddie went to her Junior Prom. Really. Yes I am having a hard time digesting that my baby girl is old enough for a prom...with a date...looking like this:

I am sad because part of not paying an even bigger chunk of taxes was making a contribution to our 401K thingie. And for some reason, like we are poor planners, I wasn't planning on it. But then Marc said we had to do it anyway even if I had all kinds of vacation fantasies for that money.

Paige and I spent the morning on the phone discussing how our children are not really responsible with money. We decided that actions must be taken. We considered many many possible actions but since we are both basically lazy moms we didn't really settle on an exact plan.

Definitely I should be doing something besides blogging. I could set up quicken, fold the baskets of laundry in my room, or mop (I REALLY ought to mop). I could wash the dog or clean up the breakfast room. My room needs to be dusted too. Probably you have stuff to do besides read blogs, so I guess that makes us even. I suggest we both concentrate on ignoring unpleasant tasks and enjoy our computer time!

I spent a bunch of time today trying to make my family room bookshelves look good. It doesn't seem like it should be that hard, but all my attractive tasteful looking books are in the living room built ins and the books that are left to make their way in the family room are the sad, tatty paper backs that I can't stand to part with. It's hard to make them look good even with candles and creative color coordinated stacking. I love The Man Who Ate the 747, obviously I can't part with it, even if the cover does look like this: