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Thursday, June 30, 2005
The First Casualty

P has been wearing glasses since last summer. Initially, I bought her 2 pair, and encouraged the Donor to make a donation for a 3rd pair. Of them all, her favorite pair turns out to be the most expensive of the 3, and she wears the everyday...And today, was the last day.

Today, they became a casualty:



BROKE!!! Beyond repair. She goes for her annual eye test in a few weeks, and she'll have to wear one of her 'unfavorite' pair until the appointment. At the appointment, they have to dilate her eyes for the tests, and hopefully her crazy eye (her name for it) has improved. If not, she'll come home with a patch to wear over the opposite eye. She thinks this is a cool idea, because she can be a pirate.

Now we have to hunt for the extra pairs of glasses that I put away in case of emergency...I have NO idea where either pair are.
**********************************************************

This afternoon on the way home, P and I had our regular everyday conversation:

Me: Did you have a good day today?
P: Yes, I had a good day. 'Cept for one thing. I swallowed a button.
Me: What?
P: I had it in my mouth at nap time, and now it's gone.

I asked her the question 'did you REALLY swallow a button?' about 5 different ways. Each answer was the same...'I swallowed a blue button'.

I'm not sure what to do now. Do I take her to see her doctor at the World's Busiest Airbase? Prune juice? Check the 'specimen'? Can it get stuck, and if it did, how will I know?

Unlike the extra glasses, at least I know where the button is!


Posted by Margaret      8:28 PM      |

Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Break My Wallet

Last week, I notice that the rear driver's side tire of the hoop d'ville was a tad bald. I would have replaced the tire, had it not been only 3 months old. So off to the tire store where I purchased it for them to take a look at it.

After 2 very clean guys looked at it, they said that the tire was so worn because it looked like i needed new shocks (the 2 clean guys were suspect...who trusts a clean mechanic?). They proceded to point me in the direction of 'their' mechanic down the street...NOT!!! I think he was giving me the directions to his cousin's back alley garage. I DON'T think so!! Nothing but the best for Bruce...MY friend's back alley garage!!

Friday, I stopped by the shop that always take my money when they work on Bruce. There, I was informed that I did, indeed need new rear shocks (estimate: €273/$332). I made an appointment to drop the d'ville off on Monday at 8am. About a 10am Monday morning, I called to check on it, and was told that they will call when finished. About 10:45, the mechanic called and said that I would also need 2 new tires (DUH!!!). I told them it was ok (add €106/$129) to replace the rear tires. About 3pm, I received another call from the mechanic: Bruce needed new bushings on the driver's side (the cause of a thunking noise). Fine, I say, since they already had the car, it's better to get everything done now (add €100/$123). So, €479/$584 later, the d'ville is once again ready for unlimited speeds on the autobahn. Although I dipped into the retirement fund, and now have to work an additional 15 years beyond retirement age, at least I can drive REALLY, REALLY fast now.

Once again, I am convinced that BMW stands for Break My Wallet.
************************************************

My Statistics class is coming along great. I got an A on my first test. 3 more to go, and the term is over.
************************************************

After seeing the news the past couple of days, I have a question...are there sharks in the Agean and Mediteranean Seas near Greece? Most importantly, if there are sharks in the general area, how do they feel about Americans? Maybe the Embassy in Athens can answer my questions.

We leave for Greece in 10 days...if you are not already on the Permanent Postcard List and would like a postcard, let me know.


Posted by Margaret      9:00 PM      |

Sunday, June 26, 2005
Just a Bit of Advice

NEVER remove the battery from your laptop unless it's ABSOLUTELY necessary.
***************************************************

There are times that I am forced to bring work home from the place that pays me. For this reason, Uncle LeRoy has made a number of anti-virus software programs available for free to download onto home computers for those of us that are forced to pick cotton from home. I downloaded Uncle LeRoy's free version of Norton Anti-Virus to my desktop about a month ago, and since then, it has become extremely slow. So slow that I haven't turned it on in almost 2 weeks, chosing to use my laptop instead (I love wireless).


Last night (really this morning), I was shutting down my laptop, and for some reason, it froze. I tried Ctrl/Alt/Delete, the power switch, and even unplugged the power cord. Still it was froze, and would not continue shutting down. With all of the quick fixes not working...I did what any other uneducated person woud have done...I took the battery out for a few seconds. Little did I know that this was not the smartest idea. Why was this not a good idea you ask??


BECAUSE I LOST ALL MY FAVORITES IN EXPLORER AND MY BOOKMARKS IN MOZILLA!! (I probably lost other stuff too, but it's not important right now)

Now I am trying to remember all the blogs I read regularly. I am using Google to aid in my search, googling bits and pieces I remember from the blogs to rebuild my blog lists. Do you know how time consuming that is...especially on a weekend??
****************************************************

Saturday afternoon, P informed me that Crazy Dog no longer likes his name that he came with, and they (she and CD) have chosen another for him. His 'new' name is now Michaelangelo. She has been calling him Michaelangelo since then, and not once has she slipped and called him by the name that is on his VERY expensive paperwork.

****************************************************

A couple of years ago, my friend in the Chair Force sent P this Pooh for her birthday. At the time, he was as big as P was:



This morning, after hearing Crazy Dog yelping, I went to check out what P was 'helping' him with this time. When I got to her room, Pooh was laying on the floor nekkid, and CD (in a streak of red) was running into his house, I asked P what she was doing to him, and she said she was 'helping him get dressed for the day'. After retrieving him from his house, I saw exactly how she was 'helping' him:



After I made her take the shirt off him, and put it back on Pooh, I once again gave her my 'CD doesn't like to wear clothes, so please leave him alone' speech. About 15 minutes later, I saw a streak of red going down the hallway towards the bathroom. I asked P to talk to me for a minute or two. I asked her why she now had the shirt on. She said, and I quote:
'You told me not to put it back on Crazy Dog. You didn't say that I couldn't wear it.'

Here she is in her new red shirt:


She says she loves it and she thinks she is going to wear it to school tomorrow.

**EDIT** Monday morning, when P realized that I was serious about her not wearing this shirt to school, she told me 'I thought we were friends!' I explained to her that friends shouldn't let her wear it to school, either. **/EDIT**
****************************************************

Congratulations to my cousin K, from ATL who signed her acceptance letter making her a first year medical student at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill when classes begin on 15 August!! Just what the world needs...another person whose blood runs Carolina Blue!


Posted by Margaret      8:30 PM      |

Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Mange and Me

Monday, P had to go to work with me because she had an appointment at 10am, and I'll be John Brown (don't ask) if I take her to the World's Busiest Airbase, go to work on my Dead Base, then go get her again, then go downtown to the appointment all with in 2 hours.

When she goes to work with me, she packs her bags like she's going to be confined. She packs the DVD player and movies, crayons, paper, coloring books, workbooks (to do her 'homework'), scissors, a blanket and music. After about 45 minutes, she was quite bored, so I asked her to please put about 15 files in the hanging file holders in the drawer:

Me: Do you want to help me put these away?
P: Yes.
Me: Put them in like this. *showing her which way the labels should face*
**after putting away 5 folders:
P: I'm tired now and the folders are making me sweaty. I need to stop now.
Me: Can you please just put the others away so they won't be on the floor?
P: I'll put the others in the drawer if you give me some dollars.
Me: Nevermind, I'll just finish it myself.
P: Ok, ok, I'll do it, but you just have to give me some circle money.
**after she put away 3 more:
P: I'm soooo hungry now!

I really hope this is not a sample of what she will be like when she becomes a tax paying citizen. If so, I might have to work for Uncle LeRoy until I have one foot in the grave.
****************************************************

P often asks me if she can comb or brush my hair. Usually I tell her no. Why do I tell her no, you ask??? Because the last two times that I let her play beauty shop with my hair, the comb tangled in my hair and I had to cut about 6 inches of my hair off to get it out.

Fast forward to Sunday evening:

P: Mommy, can I comb your hair?
Me: Yes, but remember not to get the comb tangled in it.
P: It won't get tangled in you hair, because it's a tiny comb. *showing me a comb about the size of her hand*
Me: Ok, stand on the couch behind me.
*after combing for about 4 minutes:
P: I was combing Chico's hair in my room, but he kept running away.
Me: Um...what comb were you using on him?
P: This tiny one. *showing me the comb she was combing my hair with*
Me: That is gross! That comb is dirty. You can't use the same comb on Crazy Dog that you use on my hair.
P: It's not dirty anymore, I took all of his hair off of it before I started combing your hair.

If I get a serious case of mange, it's because P and the Crazy Dog have been plottin' on me! For this reason, P WILL be an only child...I can't have 2 of them plottin' on me!


Posted by Margaret      8:30 PM      |

Friday, June 17, 2005
Paddy Bread

The conversaion between the Eating Machine and me this afternoon:

Me: We need to go to the commissary to get a few things.
P: Good, we can get some paddy bread.
Me: What is paddy bread?
P: I'll show you when we get there.

We went into the commissary, and I followed her around looking for the elusive 'paddy bread'. About 15 minutes later, she found it. What is paddy bread, you ask?? It a package of hamburger buns. I asked her about the name of the bread:

Me: Why is it called paddy bread?
P: Because on SpongeBob, they use it on the crabby paddies.

I tried to explain that they were patties and not paddies, but I started to get a splitting headache, so I gave up. Once again, I am picking my battles, and now that I think about it, she DID crawl early!
**************************************************

P's friend J is with us for most of the weekend.

Her mom went on another shopping trip for crystal. I swear, it's an addiction. Once you start, you tend to want EVERYTHING in the set, and if you break or lose a piece, you MUST replace it. While attempting to replace the broke/missing piece, you realize that your pattern is OBSOLETE, so you must start the adventure again. I know a person with 5 different sets of crystal, each missing ONE piece. After the first set, the next 4 sets were replacement sets, each replacing the prior set which was now 'incomplete'.

We have no real plans for the weekend. Maybe we'll just wonder aimlessly around the city.
**************************************************

About 10 months ago, I loaned one of my brothers some money. He PROMISED he would pay it back in 6 weeks. It's now about 30 weeks past the deadline and I still have no cashola. I have asked him for the money 5 times. His latest 2 excuses as to why I don't have my fundage yet:
Moral of the story? Don't loan money to family. The closer the relation, the more likely you are to NOT get the money back.
****************************************************

It's now 10pm, and I am the ONLY sleepy soul in the house. It's gonna be a LONG night!


Posted by Margaret      10:15 PM      |

Monday, June 13, 2005
Disneyland Paris Update and Pictures

Disneyland and Disney Studios Paris was GREAT! P had a GREAT time (that's all that counts). Since our tickets allowed us to get into both parks all 4 days, I let P make the decisions as to when we went to the parks. With P making the decisions...we went to the parks a total of 9 times and the Hard Rock Cafe twice.

Breakfast with the characters Friday morning went better than expected. When we arrived, Mickey, Goofy, and Baloo were already walking around. P quickly retrieved her Disneyland Autograph Book from the bag, and went off in search of autographs (what's up with the Disney Character Autographs...who started it and why??).


More pictures of P with Disney characters here


We have gone to the park every year for the last 3 years, but this is the first time that we've spent more than a day there.
Each day was a mini adventure.

More pictures from Disneyland Paris here.

I tried to convince P that we should take the train into Paris to see the 'Apple' Tower. But she wasn't having it. She said that she has seen it 'lots of times' and didn't need to see it again.
***************************************************

During our train ride to Paris, we had another one of our 'conversations':

P: I can spell Baby Bop's name.
Me: You can? Can you spell it for me?
P: B-a-b-y B-o-p
Me: That's very good, who taught you how to spell that?
P: Nobody. Can you help me spell Baby Bop's brother's name?
Me: Sure, what's his name?
P: BJ
Me: Hmmm.....

I almost told her how she was once so advanced that she crawled at 4 months, said her first real word at 6 months (it was baby~AND she knew what it was), and walked at 8 months, but now I think she's starting to 'level off'~which I think is better than her 'leveling off' at 16 years old and STILL in the 8th grade. But I'll save the speech for another day.


Posted by Margaret      9:00 PM      |

Wednesday, June 08, 2005
Disneyland Paris or Bust

In an effort to maximize my potential as a world class procrastinator, I planned to pack everything on Thursday morning because I thought we were leaving at noon. Imagine my surprise when I checked our train tickets and saw that we were leaving on the 8am train (we'll get into Paris about 1pm)!!! I still had to do laundry! And pack.

Now I must go through my checklist:

Now the last load is in the dryer, and the bags are 90% packed. The Eating Machine took a bath and ate dinner #2, and is now sleep.

I have to get up in 6 hours, so it's off to bed for me!

Have a great weekend!!!


Posted by Margaret      11:26 PM      |

Monday, June 06, 2005
It's Gonna be a LONG Term

Tonight was the first day of class for the summer term. WHY DID I CHOOSE TO TAKE STATISICS???? Oh, I forgot, I NEED it to graduate. Even though it's just the first day of class, for a while, the teacher sounded like this:


Getyourcalculatorsoutandtrythisconfusingequation STATISTICS. Blahblahblahblah STATISTICS

I will miss at least 2 classes due to our trip to Greece. I really hope that after this class is over, not much damage done to my GPA.

Saturday, P and I went to the movies and saw Madagascar. P LOVED it! Even if you don't have kids, I recommend you find some to take to the movies, so you'll have an excuse to see Alex and the gang.
***************************************

In 3 days, we leave for 4 'fun-filled' days at Disneyland Paris and Disneyland Studios Park. As usual, I haven't started packing yet (and probably won't until the day we are to leave). We are taking the train, so I won't have to worry about gas, tolls and parking, all of which would cause me to dip into the retirement fund, or be forced to pick cotton for Uncle LeRoy for an additional 5-10 years.

If you want a postcard from the Mouse House, let me know! While at the park, maybe I'll play my 'Pseudo-Celebrity ' game that I made up. How do you play, do you ask?


  1. Find some unsuspecting park visitor
  2. 'Mistake' them for a celebrity and ask them to take a picture with you
  3. Get their 'autograph'

When I toss in my Gerglish (German+English), it works about 90% of the time. Maybe one of you will get a 'Pseudo-Celebrity' signed postcard!


Posted by Margaret      10:37 PM      |

Friday, June 03, 2005
My Bumpy Baby

Last weekend, while at Legoland in the 90+ degree heat, P broke out in a serious heat rash on her chest and back. Over the next 4 days, the 'bumpies' spread down her arms and got considerably worse, and P said they were 'scratchy all the time'. This morning her doctor at the World's Busiest Air Base was gracious enough to see P and her 'bumpies'. The Doc said P had dermititis (plus she's got eczema), brought on by an allergic reaction to the sun. She gave P 4 different prescriptions and sent us on our way.

P can't be allergic to the sun!! We go to Greece in a little over a month (and the weather in Disneyland Paris is supposed to be nice, too)! There is nothing in Greece but sun shine, a few ancient ruins, and the beach. I'll be John Brown (don't ask) if I stay in the hotel in Crete because she chose to be allergic to the sun (just kidding...i think). Maybe I can find one of these for her:


Photo courtesy of stupid.com

P should be with D this weekend, but because of his actions two weeks ago, he's forfeited his weekly visits and weekend visits for a while. Basically the German authorities said he's got some 'splainin' to do, and until he 'splains' his actions to the authorities, she can't be left alone with him. Also, the German Family Court said they don't care what the Chair Force said, it's not normal or ok for D to do what he did to P. Besides that, he feels that he owes me no explaination for what he did. I guess I'm supposed to just look the other way and not say anyting. NOT!!! So, it's just us this weekend and the Crazy Dog. We'll find something to do this weekend that doesn't involve the sun...because it's supposed to rain all weekend. The weekend might involve LOTS of movies for us and popcorn for P.

Speaking of movies...if you know anyone with a toddler that would to take 10-15 free Barney DVDs off my hands, please let me know~yep, they are absolutely FREE! No charge, I'll even pay the postage. There is one condition...they CAN NOT send them back!! P has over 200 DVDs, and we have agreed that for every new one I buy, she has to get rid of 2 DVDs (I think I'll sneak a few extras in, too).
*******************************************************************

Anyone have any suggestions as to where we should visit in August? I think we should go to Ireland, but P isn't impressed with the pictures I've found. She wants to go back to London to see The Lion King again (it's very much worth the money!). I guess there are worse places to visit...like Baghdad!


Posted by Margaret      8:25 PM      |



Name: Margaret
Location: Kaiserslautern, Germany by way of St. Louis, MO

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MARCH 05
PARIS, FRANCE

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KEUKENHOF, HOLLAND

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CHARACTERS AT DISNEYLAND PARIS, FRANCE

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CRETE, GREECE

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