whoa~

Hey! Another great day....why is it so great? "cause I had no idea that it was fall break at school and I had the day off. My students informed me last week that we did not have class today...what a break indeed...One of these days, I will have to keep better tabs on the school calendar...Once I put Tink on the bus when she did not have school....when the bus did not show up, I called the district to pick her up. After putting her on the bus, I looked at the schedule and had a meltdown.....She kept telling me that she had the day off, but I did not believe her.

Lesson learned....I ran after the bus and did not find her until an hour later when she was sitting in the driveway with her father after the bus turned around and returned home. Needless to say, I understand why people need antidepressants and anti anxiety medication...I totally get it....therapy would be a bonus too....

On another note...we had a meltdown as we received a letter from Buddy's landlord yesterday....gee, I wonder what she wanted? I will give you three guesses and the first two do not count.

That's right...she has been cited by the borough for trash strewn around the yard. There were three police citations rendered to the landlord. She may be losing her permit to rent her house to college students and therefore with the next citation, the guys will be evicted. But according to the lease, they will continue to pay rent, even though they have to find a new place to live.

Dad emailed her today and asked her to stay on top of the cool guys and keep him informed of further infractions.Honestly, I raised him better than this...I covered the use of a trash can, picking up objects on the floor, porch, and lawn, and caring for your environment. Do I blame him? Oh yeah...I do....in fact, as far as I am concerned, we are going to have a sweet lil meeting on Saturday when I drop by campus for the baseball scrimmage. I have an agenda and Tink will take minutes.

Obviously, these knuckleheads do not have critical thinking skills and cannot think past their next beer or party. I noticed on the letter from the landlord that all of the parents were notified...nice....now each guy will have the pleasure of muting the telephone as their moms and dads scream into it. Dad and I do not usually raise our voices, BUT this time, I might use some nonverbal communication tactics and shrug my shoulders as he tries to explain how well this open door policy is working.....

Do all guys behave this way? I don't think so. I generally keep my mouth shut when my friends share their stories of their kids being inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, engineering honor societies, and offered fellowships to discover new treatments for cancer. Should I mention that my kid can drink beer while standing on his head? After all, this is quite a skill as he defies gravity.

With that said, I am taking advantage of the beautiful weather and going for a long long walk to practice my speech on "cleanliness is next to Godliness" on Saturday. I may use PowerPoint and videos to make my point...have a wonderful day!

Movin' on...right?

Good morning! Raining....it's nice if you are a duck....

So, where did I leave off? Oh yeah....my amazement and puzzlement over the events and the decay of the party house as well as the relationship among four room mates....

As you know, the course of events are not acceptable and there are multiple issues that emerge from having an "open door policy" in college.

One~ Are you a cooler bunch of guys because you allow anyone through your doors?

Two~ Any of these knuckleheads who appear at your place looking for a  libation or five are not looking for long lasting friendship...They are seeking a free drink and somewhere to get black out drunk. After all, the famous sofa is quite cushy...

Three~ The open door policy has yielded a great deal of damage. Didn't your parents teach you that if you break something, then you have to pay for it? Aren't you happy that you worked all summer to be able to write a check for a contractor to fix the porch and window? Note to my kid: That's a lot of scones and cupcakes that have to be iced in the bakery......a week's paycheck...

Four~Don't you realize that anyone who is injured in the house can potentially haul you into court for damages?

Five~ Don't you know that your parents are going to have to bail you out of the pokey if you serve alcohol to minors? Or, if you are not of legal age, you can be arrested for underage drinking? Either way, there is the issue of bail money and lawyers....and most assuredly, the wrath of your families....

Five~ Won't your folks be proud of you when you are evicted by the landlord? You will then be legends at your university. If that is what you are seeking, you are close to achieving your goal.

Six~ Aren't we in college to study and move onto the rest of our lives?

 

Now that is off my chest, let's move onto what dad did....oh boy, I am glad that I was not on the receiving end of his wrath...He send an email to his son to be forwarded to his room mates. They have 7 days to report the damages to the landlord. if it is not done, he will report it and they face certain eviction. If he has to do it, then he forwards the photos to all parents for their input.
 
In his letter, he also states that there are no more parties and again, parents will be notified if the current behaviors continue.

Lastly, oh boy....he stated that he and I will be making spot visits on weekends since we are the closest parents (three hours)  to campus. Yes, that means that we could potentially walk into a party that has been banned by him. And if so, he will make sure that the guys are locked out of the house. When does the fun begin for me? Oh yeah...never....I am the mom....

And if I may say so...I am not pleased with my son and his room mates. I knew that Buddy would tire of the open door policy but I am now trying to protect the four knuckleheads from themselves and their poor decision making. Yep, they are going to be furious with Buddy and his parents, BUT if I save one kid from a DUI or underage drinking, then I will have fulfilled my duties as a parent.

By the way....Animal House, the movie, was an exaggerated story. True, there are lots of parties and fun on college campuses, but these guys have to figure out what is fun and acceptable and what is over the top and inappropriate......

Lastly...what happened to focusing on classes and work outs? Ego aside...get yourselves to study hall or the library...

New Goals

Monday and the heat is on! We're getting ready for the annual family July 4th celebration which means that all sous chefs will report for chopping and mixing duties tomorrow afternoon in my kitchen. I learned something quite valuable this year...that if you spread out the duties of creating the food to one another and work together, the time goes faster, the work is more efficient, and you have more fun. Therefore, Big Sis, Buttercup, Cupcake, BP Grandmom, and Grandpop and Tink will arrive at the BPM home tomorrow for KP.

On the menu, food that needs prepping includes: cooking bacon and mushrooms for burgers, chopping fruit for watermelon fruit basket, chopping veggies for snacking and pasta salad, lemon squares, cupcakes, burger making, and potato salad. If I did this alone, it would take 2 full days but with my supportive team, the actual time spent in the kitchen will be reduced to 3 hours. AND they will get lunch!

Such fun! OK, maybe not a whole lot of fun, but more fun together than alone. PLUS I get to see my little Cupcake!

On to the big kid....yes, he is back from coaching at the baseball camp and in great spirits. On Thursday, he will see the surgeon again who will or will not clear him to throw. He took the day off from work in the hopes that he will get the green light to pick up a ball and wing it at something like a glove, person, or wall. I want him to be prepared, however, for the inevitable.

The inevitable is that he will try to overthrow to demonstrate that the arm is in good shape. In addition, he will not be able to find the plate initially because he has not thrown since early February. AND his velocity will be down. Therefore, I want him to act as if he is in air conditioning, which means that he stays cool at all times. The velocity and accuracy will come back with time. Muscles must be rebuilt and his timing honed. That's it...it sounds so simple, right?

Yeah, that's right. That's why I was such a dominate force on the tennis court when I came back from surgery. I mowed all the grannies down...yes?

Nope...as a matter of fact, two very old grannies schooled me last week as I could not do anything right. Was I upset? Yeah! Of course. These ladies were in their 70's and had me for lunch. Sure, I was totally bummed, yet realistic to know that I have to continue to work on my game. For example, Friday night, the heat was blazing. I was so prepared for the match. I thought I had everything that I needed. Except, I forgot one important hot weather tool....the rosin bag. Yes, I forgot it and could not get it out of my mind for the entire match. Rather than trying my best to play without it and adapting, my head kept wandering to where did I leave it? How could I be so stupid? Needless to say, after two hours of playing in the extreme heat, we lost. The answer to the next question is: "No, I did not lose because I did not have the rosin bag." I lost because I am a pinhead and could not get over something extremely insignificant to focus on what I was doing.

With this kind of knowledge of how a person gets when things are not 100% right, I will absolutely be able to understand my son's ups and downs over the next month as he works his way back to the mound. This year's goal is to start the games rather than come in relief. Hmmm.....It looks like I will have lots to write about as the year progresses.

With that said, it's time for me to grade a few more papers. Have a great day!

On your mark, get set, go!

Good morning! It's hot and juicy outside and already I need another shower...too much information, right?

OK, let me begin with the usual discussion as the big leftie is at school this week to help his college coach run a camp on campus. He got an "A" in 'Sandusky Training' which is tongue in cheek. It's a sad indictment on our society when teenagers and young adults are mandated to take pedophile identification and prevention seminars as well as need child abuse and criminal background checks. For each person who complains about this (I am talking to my son), if one child is saved from a vicious attack, then it will be well worth the three hours of "total agony" that he experienced listening to the statistics and methods of prevention. So, camp counselors....sit down and shut up...time to learn something.

Whew. Glad I got that off my chest....

It's time to give a BPM "shout out" to my favorite baker in the world (sorry mom).....It seems that the Baker has been given an award by a regional magazine of BEST TASTING CAKE! Dang, I knew it. Yeah, let me describe this cake in the only way BP mom knows how to: "OMG....ahhhh....yum...." That's right. I could take the single layer 6 inch round vanilla vanilla cake, a fork, and a cup of coffee and not get up from the table until the whole cake disappeared. That's is absolutely correct...complete gluttony. Thousands of calories....No stopping for air...inhaling every crumb until I fell from my chair in ecstasy. Too much? Yeah, probably. OK, I would clearly slice the cake and eat all of it in a day because nothing tastes better except for BP Grandmom's fresh strawberry shortcake.

With that said, she will be honored in July in the magazine and the best of the region's party. This will be the second party like that I will have attended. The first one was the best of Delaware party that I went to with my pal, Wildcat. She and I walked around a huge venue sampling the cakes, pizzas, sandwiches, and drinks that were considered the best in Delaware. When I left the party determined to come back again, I think the button popped off my pants. Once you are in the room with the best, you want to try everything....and I do mean everything. Some foods I spit out because they tasted like dirt, but most were well worth the calories and new pants size. And so, before I go to honor the Baker, I will consume only salads, eliminate carbs and sugars from my diet, and start training for a marathon.

Speaking of marathons, my good friend, the Marathon Runner is actually not a marathon runner. But she wants to be. As such, she has started a blog: where she is chronicling her desire to run a full marathon in November with her coach. This is a lofty goal. Loftier than my training so that I can eat vanilla vanilla cake goal. She wins the goal contest. My goal is purely emotional eating. She is working at improving her health through exercise and not sugar. Good for her....bad for me....

And so, it is time for me to read and grade some papers. I hope that you have a cool and breezy day....

To cruise or not to cruise?

Yeah! What a beautiful day in the northeast...low humidity...low temperatures...it's like the spring that we never had.

Last night we had a family meeting about a summer vacation. I wanted to take an Alaskan cruise in August before the kids return to college. I felt that a cruise would be relaxing. Further, by cruising through Alaska, it would be interesting too. As a family, we have  not had a vacation in years. I have never felt deprived, we just had other things to do during the summer. One year, Buddy and I were in Florida for a week. OK, technically, this was not a vacation, but it felt like it as we both did something that we love. He played ball at the Red Sox facility and I watched. How great is that?

And so, when we proposed the cruise, I got a "no way, nope...not going...I have to continue my rehab....got to get back to baseball." Hmmm.... Dude, the ship has a state of the art training facility where you can work out in luxury...all the food you can eat...sleep late...see interesting things...be with your beloved and supportive family. What gives?

After he said that, I made the executive decision: "OK, no cruise, no vacation. We are staying home."

Was I being a martyr? Did I want him to feel bad about ruining my vacation? After all, the three of us could have gone without him, but I was not having it. Let me be clear. This is not punishing him in any way. In fact, it is supporting my big leftie.

How so? Well.....it is not a family vacation unless the 'family' goes together. If one of us for one reason or another cannot leave, then none of us leave. We're a family and if that means that our vacation takes place in the backyard, gym, or mall, then so be it. We are going to be together. That's it.

Would Roseann leave without DJ (uh, yeah...probably)....but June and Ward would not leave for Alaska without the Beaver.

Am I sad that I am not taking my long awaited cruise? Nope. I can always go somewhere for a long weekend with Tink, Chill, Blue Devil, Scoob or Big Sis. Sometimes I take Grandmom and Grandpop to the beach. Not being at work is a vacation too.....

And so, the day begins with the promise of accomplishing lots of goals. No vacation plans, but who needs 'em? I'll use the money to paint the house.

Have a good one!