Look at that sweet face...

...now picture it with a broken nose.

We've all heard fast food can be unhealthy, but today C-Monkey experienced a freak fast food related accident we never saw coming. Arby's has a hand rail apparatus designed to keep their innumerable customers (3) in a nice, tidy line. We've told C-Monkey a zillion times not to hang on the rails, but he knew -- and we knew -- we were only saying that so the manager wouldn't yell at him (or more importantly, at us, and then spit in our food...we restaurant people really do that, you know; just watch the channel 2 news)

Anyway, C was hanging or swinging or something when all four bolts let go at the same time, the faux marble hand rail flew off, clocked him on the forehead, bounced off his nose, and knocked him on his keister. That TWACK! sound was the back of his head hitting the tile floor. There was no blood, just a tiny scratch on his nose and a wail that would give the Civil Defense siren a run for it's money.

While we took turns holding him, rocking and soothing him, we watched the bridge of his nose begin to swell. phopl took him to the baby vet, and sure enough, he has a broken face. He went to his dad's for the weekend, but I fully expect to see him on Monday sporting a pair of shiners. So the moral of the story is: be oh-so-careful out there in those treacherous fast food restaurants.

And we thought the only danger was the cholesterol...

I was at the local Chrysler/Plymouth/Jeep dealer yesterday, picking up Phopl, who's Dodge Intrepid has been in and out and in and in and in the shop for 13 months now. As I walked through the lot, a hopeful young man asked if I was looking for anything in particular. "Are you kidding?" I asked with sincere incredulilty. "I drive a Pilot."

Was that too snotty?

Looks like we made it

Only one more week of summer, and TheGuys go back to school. We bought new shoes and a sizable stash of Tony Hawk t-shirts. We spent a good long time selecting the perfect backpack -- which is better: Spiderman? Superman? Batman? Transformers? SpongeBob? Thomas the Tank Engine? Camo?...college students don't face such dilemmas. Now the real trial of summer begins: the effort to change the interior clocks of a 5- and an 8-year old back to Early Bedtime mode. TheGuys attend a school which starts at like 7:45, so unless they go to bed at 4:30 in the afternoon, there's no way they're going to get their recommended twelve to fourteen hours of sleep. Phopl aims for a 7:30 bedtime during the school year. So next week, she starts acclimating them to going to bed before the streetlights come on.

I'm just saying, God bless the good folks at Benedryl.

Useless blather for July 31, 2007

So welcome me to the new millennium. Yeah, it took me 7 years to get here, but I've been busy, OK? It's not like I haven't been journaling on a regular basis. I wrote one entry in January, and another in... um, March? If only I flossed that regularly. I tried to MySpace, but haven't really gotten into it. Rarely even check my page. I do miss Tom, though. So now I'm trying this. Do I just tell "you" about my life, my daily experiences and feelings? Alright, let's give 'er a try.


The bio: California born and bred; married 37 years; help the hubby run a restaurant; 3 daughters: Sarah -- phopl -- (single mom of 8 year old Robbie -- Mr Roboto-- and 5 year old Cameron --C-Monkey --...known as TheGuys), Krista -- The Princess Bride -- (newly married to Ryan), and Bethany --Lil B-- (cutie cutie pie pie). My girls and grandsons are the center of my life. Everything I do begins and ends with them. So if that stuff doesn't bore your toenails off, I invite you to read on.


Today The Princess Bride and I took TheGuys to the Long Beach Aquarium. We saw Nemo, Dorry, Gil, Peach and Mr. Ray...all the superstars of the fish world. It was Shark Week, so we saw and touched lots of sharks and sting rays. It's really true they're not slimy. More like wet rubber. Wiggly wet rubber. There were some HUGE lobsters and shrimp which I'm afraid I'll be seeing in my nightmares for years to come. TheGuys enjoyed it greatly until precisely 2 o'clock when their batteries simultaneously died. After that, we had to drag them to the final exhibit just to say we saw it all. They received their second wind as we entered the gift shop. T-shirts, a lovey for C-Monkey, and a shark for Mr. Roboto. Let's head for home. It was a good day.



We watched the video from the wedding. It's good to know I didn't just imagine that it was the loveliest wedding ever. The video proves it. Mr. Roboto's heart-felt toast and C-Monkey's break dancing were the highlights, but my beautiful daughters and hunka hunka son-in-law were wonderful as well.

Done for now.