Strange Weather

The Strange weather has moved in. Yesterday the wind blew like mad, and then rain overnight. Today, it is cold and rainy with possibility of snow...Except for the fact it is now completely sunny. We even had hail for a bit. Where did it the weather go? I am actually hoping for a weekend of truly bizarre weather. It would be welcomed. The snow level may get down to 500 ft or lower. I am ready!

We received a cancellation notice that cousin's Jarrett's birthday party is being postponed until the 19th. I don't really blame them since the weather is supposed to be so funky. Can't hardly have a bounce house, pirate treasure hunt, and other pirating activities out in the rain and hail. We will hope for sunny weather on the 19th.

I took my dad to the chemo doctor yesterday. They did not give him a chemo treatment because his blood counts were so low. They put him on prophylactic antibiotics and two shots to stimulate red and white cell growth. He goes back next week and may get treatment if his numbers rebound reasonably. I think we both welcomed the break this week. His appetite has been good and I am really happy about that. I "get" to take my dad to JK Harris Tax Professionals in Oxnard next Tuesday. I am not looking forward to that in the least, but it needs to be done. My dad, is well, my dad. In 1994 he was working on the carnival circuit, filed his taxes, but then later was audited (for reasons unknown, or remembered at this point) and was then informed that he owed the IRS over $10,000 for that year! As my memory serves, it came that the IRS somehow got a report from dad's employer that year that dad made over $65,000! Hello, on a carnival circuit?? I don't think so! Anyway, Dad knew this was wrong, and being who he is, promptly ignored the IRS summons for the money. Now, over 10 years later (The IRS never forgets) they are insisting they get their money (They have a war to fund you know!) with penalties and interest and the like...So, the total now is almost 20K. Dad recalls that his employer at that time got ill at tax time and may have even passed and that his wife did the filing and books for the year. So, that may be what happened. I am thinking she reported her husband's income for the entire year under dad's social security number. We called the IRS and the lady was extremely nice and we have a mess of papers to wade through, get his 1994 taxes filed because he hasn't done those either. Cancer got in the way of that. Dad is going to sign over POA on IRS stuff to me. Will make life much easier. In the meantime he may start a minimal payment plan with the IRS to keep them at bay while we get all this figured out. I mean, no doubt he will owe them something, but I don't think 20K worth. They were threatening to levy accounts, so we have to get this taken care of finally. I have been begging him for years to do this before they do just take whatever they want. So, we shall see where this road goes.

No weekend plans for me right now. I think a lowkey weekend is in order. I need to work with Lydia more on her printing. She is slow at it and the teacher is a little worried about next year. She is thinking she may have more homework than the other kids next year because she won't be getting it all done in class. Hmmm, this sounds vaguely familiar (as in myself). I recall my mother telling me she had to wait after school for me while the infamous Mrs. Goodgame kept me in to finish papers. Finally, mom had enough and told the old battle-axe off, and said she wasn't waiting any longer after school for me. I think that is where my disdain for school started, and it only increased over the years until I graduated and then went to college. I liked college a lot. Most of my k-12 years were a waste of time. Oh yeah, I learned to read and write, and how to waste a lot of time doing NOTHING while in school. My disdain peaked in my 4th-7th grade years. Some of that had to do with my own dysfunctional family as well. I can't let the public school system take all the rap. I don't recall too many homework sessions spent with my parents. My dad was working late hours a lot on Radar systems and my mom had her first heart-attack when I was in 5th grade and life became a lot different then. She never quit smoking or feeling a bit sorry for herself and drowning that out with a bottle of cheap wine. So, I guess I figured if my parents weren't going to take an active roll in my education, why should I? And I didn't. It was strange, after my mom died, I was forced to grow up a bit quickly I would guess. I didn't miss much school after that, and my grades improved dramatically. I knew I was in charge of my own destination, and it was only me at the helm. Anyway, I digress. I just know that Mark and I need to be 100% active in our children's education if we expect them to take an interest in it. It is something we both feel very strongly about and intend to remain proactive in their education. So, that means, I need to work with her on her printing and her speed at printing this weekend.

Pictures!

Finally, thanks to some helpful advice from J, I have some albums online for viewing. You can find them here http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/masparlin/my_photos You will find a collection from the day I took half a day off work to take pictures at the beach, some kid pics, pics of my garden beginning to erupt, birthday party, and Valentine's Day.

The annual exam went fine yesterday. Said I was perfectly healthy. Now that I am the big 4-0, I have a yearly mammogram now. I have quite a few in the past, but not on a yearly basis. I have found lumps from time to time which have all been biopsied if they were suspicious at all. So, now I get yearly pics taken. It isn't a big deal really. I know for some women it can be quite painful, but for me it hasn't been. I asked the techs about it once, and they said the "smaller" women tend to have more pain than those on the larger side.

I am not planning much this weekend other than taxes. Hubby is going to clean out the garage, which is desperately needed. I think we are also going to build a little one room with bathroom apartment type thing for my dad out there. That will not be done this weekend. He needs a little more autonomy and I need my office back as well. We like having him with us, but this will be a better situation for both of us. It should take long to do, once set our minds to doing it. Our neighbors did it years ago and we would get them to help us since they know the best way to do it. We would add a window as well for some nice lighting for him. We would ask dad to pay for half of it, which I am sure he would be happy to do.

I got my notification today that my salary increase will be effective next payday (end of March)! I am happy about that, and then all the retroactive increases will come in April including a 3% COLA. So, all in all, it will be nice to get that coming in.

Tis it for today

Where have I been?

It has been half a month plus since I last posted? What a complete slacker. Honestly, it reveals how incredibly busy I have been the past couple weeks. I have had a few drafts started for the blog, but didn't get back to them in time and they were swiped by the byte nazi at blogger.

I have tons of pictures to post tomorrow. Won't have time today since work is crazy and I have my annual exam which is overdue. I am stunned I actually am thinking ahead and recall the first day of my last cycle. I don't know why but this question usually surprises me every time I go to the gyne. I usually never remember at all when my last cycle was, so I guess I am ahead of the game today.

Lyd turned 6 on Sunday the 26th. I can scarcely believe that is has been 6 years since she was born weighing in at a whole 1 lb 9 oz. That just seems like it must have happened to someone else these days or that I watched the entire thing as a movie rather than lived through it. We had her first real party. We missed last year because she was sick as a dog. So, this year she invited friends and classmates and we did the whole birthday routine. We got a huge bounce house. This was definitely the hit of the day. We also played games and did a pinata which the kids loved as well. We were threatened sporadically with fat raindrops but they would stop as quickly as they started. I was thrilled because I did not want to do all the games in the house. It was lots of fun, but lots of work as well. I KNOW why people rent places out to handle these things. We may have Andrew's party at the local kids museum in April. He will be five!

Work has been very crazy. It just seems that there is never any down time anymore. I am thinking of proprosing a week off of labs each semester so I can get caught up on stuff. They can do a lab that doesn't require support from the prep room such as molecular models or something. It would do me a week of good for that to happen. I hope they go for it. On the upside, I finally got a brand new monitor at work! I have been getting hand-me-downs. They are hand-me-downs for a reason. They suck and should just be tossed to the computer recycler. I am now sporting a 19" NEC flat panel. It is huge! It also takes up much less space on my limited computer desk, so that is a major plus.

I have been doing the Nordic Track exerciser, though not as much as I should be doing. I need to get back to it. I haven't managed to lose any weight yet though. Grrr. Perhaps birthday cake has something to do with that. I really do need to lose 40-50 lbs.