I had a nice Valentines Day.

K brought me home flowers and a candy bar in the morning. All day I'd planned to give him the little gift I'd bought him at Target (a little candy tin), but when the time came I learned that J had lost it in her closet. She was hiding it for me, but I should have known better than to put anything into that Bermuda Triangle of her room.

While I was at work, I called and made a reservation at Osterio None's. I love that place. It turned out to be a good thing, too, because when we arrived there (after soccer practice in Burbank) about 7:30, it was packed!

Which is good, because I want restaurants I like to do well and prosper and stay in business, but it was crowded. K let me order, so we shared a spaghetti cruda and a pizza parmesana, and I had a glass of red zinfandel. We were remembering the time we went out for his birthday in Rome, and we ended up trading dinners and loving it!

I also made pop-up valentines cards for the whole family, since I had the leftover supplies from leading this activity for the Brownies. Plus, when J came home from practice, I had cut up some strawberries and heated some chocolate (so easy in the microwave), so we had a delicious red snack before we went out. J gets so into holidays that it motivates me to try to make things special for her. I know she appreciated it because she loves chocolate.

The kids stayed home and ate pizza when K and I went out. When we left she said, "Have fun you lovebirds!"

Isn't she the cutest?

This had been a strange and difficult basketball season.

I guess I can't even remember the summer, but everything seemed fine way back then. Coach A was the new coach, and he seemed young and cute dressing up for the games and having the team dress up too sometimes. It was like he was modeling himself after Pat Riley or Phil Jackson.

G started in the first scrimmage of the "season". Then coach started to not put him in. Then he didn't play in 3 games in a row. Then he got in and took a charge and got stitches.

Then he didn't play in 5 games in a row.

This was very hard for K and I. Everything seemed to shift before our eyes. Parents whose kids started to play more are friends of ours, and so that felt funny. Other parents started saying dumbass things like "We need a bench!" to people whose kids were sitting on the bench. Suddenly I was cheering a lot less, and caring about refs calls a LOT less. This is something we'd never experienced before, and so it was a shock.

In fact, it was a struggle not to go to the dark side and actually root for the other team because, after all, you didn't really want them to win if your kid wasn't playing. We didn't know what to say to the other parents after the games. In fact, we both got to the point where we couldn't even stand it anymore and vowed to not go to anymore games. But luckily we both got out of that mode of thinking before the next game.

Then there was the World of Warcraft aspect and K wanting G to work out more to be more competetive and G resisting because ALL he wanted to do was play that stupid game. And K not being able to not talk about it for even 5 freaking minutes! I may have mentioned, I told G he had to work it out with his dad because I didn't want to have to get a divorce over WOW.

Then our parents came out and he started to get to play more. Will we ever know why? Why did he stop playing him in the first place? And what about all the seniors who didn't get to play? What's the point of having a bench if they don't get any practice?

But all in all I'm proud of all of us for coming through it. G really took it the best of all of us. Neither K nor I actually stopped coming to the games, nor did we leave in the middle like another parent did one time. And gradually G got to play more and more toward the end of the season, so K's parents got to see him play a good amount. And he played well when he was in there, but it was hard for him to feel like he had to prove himself right away every time.

I think I feel the worst for the seniors. It about breaks my heart. This was a terrible season for them. A was a co-captain, and by the end was barely getting to play. I can see it maybe if the strategy was to win and so he couldn't play the seniors, but we DIDN'T win and in fact had one of our worst seasons ever. So the coach may be in trouble too, I don't know. My Dad said he was outcoached in the games he saw, so maybe this coach is really no good! I feel sorry for him, but I think he really screwed up this season for a lot of people.

But a couple of good things came out of it, hopefully. G is going out for track now (high jump), and that might open up more interests or options. I've stopped yelling at refs so much, to that's good. And I've become more determined to get G onto a traveling team than ever, since I can't count on High School to do jack.

After my parents left, the winds were crazy.

They left just in time. When the winds kick up, it's like living in a wind tunnel around here!Everything on the patio blew over, including the unbrella (in the down position) along with the table it was attached to!

The pool cover somehow blew ACROSS THE POOL! It was still rolled up, and was blowing up against the neighbor's house. I'd have liked to have seen that cover blowing across the pool. It must have been something.

My son the critic

Guy criticizes Disney constantly.

I think it's funny, of course, and do little to discourage it. He says that the Disney Channel is a dumping ground for all Disney's old shows. He says they should call it "Disney Barf".

Yesterday he saw a billboard for "Bambi II" and he couldn't stand it. He feels that Disney cheapens a classic by coming out with a straight-to-video sequel. He shook his head sadly and said, "There's nobody in hell because they've all gone to Disney."

He's in that teenager phase where he's critical of everything. I just think it's funny when Disney is the target. Ha, ha, ha.

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Josie got an "award" from the principle at her school for improved spelling. It included a coupon for a complimentary kid's meal when accompanied by an adult. So we (Mom & Dad were visiting) all went to Mimi's Cafe for dinner to celebrate her award, but I tried to tell her that "complimentary meal" didn't mean she'd get a complement from the manager. But she DID get a compliment from the Manager, plus a little pin!

So I guess I have to give her teacher credit for trying to be more positive.

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The reason I say "This is the 818 area code" on my message machine.

The other day I was waiting around at Josie's basketball practice (1.5 Hrs!) and my cell phone rang. I picked it up, and it sounded like a young girl on the other end. She said "Are you a hotel?" and I replied that no, I was not a hotel.

"Well, what are you?" she asked.

This question confused me. What was I? I was not a building, I knew that for sure. I didn't know how to begin to describe what I am. I sort of stammered out, "Well, I'm,...I'm... I'm a PERSON!"

She said OK and hung up.

About 15 minutes later the phone rang again. I picked it up again and was asked, "Are you a hotel?" Again, I stated that I was NOT a hotel. I was curious about this problem, so I asked her, "Where are you calling from?"

She was smart, tho. Smart enough to say,"I can't tell you that. But I'm looking on the internet and this is the phone number for a hotel."

So I asked, "Is in the 818 area code?"

She said, "No, it's 816."

So I said, "Well, this is the 818 area code."

And she said, "Oh, OK. Bye."

And I said Bye to her as well.

The Cheese incident

The other day we were getting ready to go to Guy's game, and I had to go back inside for Pepto Bismal as my stomach was hurting! So while we were back in the house, I told Josie to grab some string cheese, even tho she didn't want any, so she would have it if she got hungry later. She grudgingly got it, and we got into the car and drove away. We were almost to the game when a client called me, so I pulled over and asked Josie for a pen so I could write his address down. The cheese was on top of her backpack, but she opened the backpack to find me a pen. Later, when we were on the road again, she said she couldn't find the cheese. So I had her look and look, but she couldn't find it. So I turned her backpack inside out, but we can't find it! So now I have some cheese somewhere in my car going bad. Just what I needed, right?

Meanwhile, I have to help S cancel his escrow. Not the Christmas present I was looking for. I really hoped he would build those houses, as he could (we both could) have made some good money on those. But I tried to take it as cheerfully as possible, hoping that something else may work out with him in the future.

Winter Solstice
I can't remember how we got onto the subject, but the other day I was pointing out that Dec. 21st is the Winter Solstice, which means it's the shortest day of the year. Then yesterday when it got dark, Josie was saying "Why is it dark so early today?" and things like that, when I finally got that she remembered. Yes, honey, it was the shortest day of the year. Now the days will start getting longer and sunnier - so I'm hoping the new year will bring me lots more luck and success and sun into my life too!


Anyway, today is the 22nd - 3 days before Christmas and I've taken a double shift at work - probably just a part of the quietest time of the year (in terms of Floor Time action). Well, I got 3 good leads today!

Leads are just leads and you never know, but as I said, I'm expecting some good luck soon...

Horoscope 12/23: Daily extended (by Astrology.com)
Improvements are in the stars, starting with your mood. Let your annoyances go and embrace all that's calm and bright; you're going to be welcoming some gifts of both the material kind and those you can't grasp but which are even more meaningful. At the same time, you can begin to let go of some old emotions that have outlived their usefulness and make room for what's fresh and new. It's all occasion for much rejoicing!