Saturday, March 31

A 'happy' family picture


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Thursday, March 29

Today at the doctor

Today, my appointment was for 2 PM, got in to see the nurse at about 15 after 3, got to see the doctor at about 15 to 4, only to be told that they are going to make me an appointment with a dermatologist to freeze-off one skin cancer sore, and likely remove another bit of skin cancer from my ear lobe. Hopefully, after he does some research on at least one of my medicines (LDN), he'll write new prescriptions for it and all the others. If not... I'll do without. Life's too short to worry about it.
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Monday, March 26

Morning, afternoon, evening, and a picture

I didn't think it was going to be a very good day. I woke-up and just did not feel like getting out of bed. I knew my son was up though and that made me think I probably should get up. I managed to stay in bed about another 15 minutes, but then the trash truck came to pickup the dumpsters and was very loud, at least it seemed that way at the untoward hour of 9, freaking, 30 in the morning. LOL. I don't know exactly why I didn't feel like getting up, I just didn't care if I ever got up. It could've been because yesterday, being Rain's birthday and the emotional roller coaster of emotions had zapped my life energy. Or it could've been that AND the more than usual amount of chocolate I consumed in her honor. Whichever it was, I was depressed. However, once I did get up, dressed, and wondered out to the living room, my mood went up. That's when I noticed that my son, surprisingly, had cleaned the litter box recently. He had also emptied the dishwasher and took a shower. I was thoroughly impressed that he did all that just like I had asked the night before.

Later in the day my daughter and I did a little, emphasis on little, grocery shopping. After we got home from doing that, we went swimming. The water is still chilly, but not bad, especially knowing the hot tub is right there if the pool water gets to us. LOL. So we swam, hot tubbed, swam some more, and laid in the sun some to work on our tans. Since we didn't know exactly what time it was, just that it was around 5 when we left for the pool, we decided to come back to the apartment. it turned out to be about 20 minutes passed 6 O clock. Showers were taken, some hot dogs were boiled, and supper was eaten. We wanted to go to an unschool support group meeting at a place called 'Central Park' near an H.E.B. grocery store, else we would've had a more substantial supper. We went to said park, but since we didn't know who else from our group would be there, and we don't have everyone's face memorized, nor were we positive we were at the correct park, we didn't meet with anyone. The park was really nice though, so we wondered around. We watched some ducks and a goose play in the pond/lake, sat on a bench enjoying the fresh, warm evening air, then walked around the pond to a bridge that crossed over it. While on the bridge we looked over the edge and saw a bunch of turtles which we believe were all snapping turtles. That would certainly explain why there were so many "no swimming" signs. I tried to get a phone-picture of them, but it didn't turn out. There was a parking garage that has it's front/side covered in green plants/vines that was cool, so I took a picture of that. And with that I bid you a fond farewell to the day. Hope you like the picture below.

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http://ramblemans.blogspot.com/

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Sunday, March 25

Birthday girl

... was missing in body today, but her spirit presided. Today we watched the 'English' version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show in remembrance of Rain Milligan and her favorite movie and music. She preferred the English (British) version because unlike American movies, the British ones aren't prudish. Lots of things about it evoked emotional memories of my dearest wife who has passed into the free-est dimension. Every scene, every song reminded me and her daughter of her. She loved, Loved, LOVED this movie, and owned the music soundtrack on CD, so we decided it would be a great way to remember her, honor her, and dwell in the love she showed to us. As he says in the movie, "And I did" (cry). We also went to the store and got her favorite thing, for all of us... CHOCOLATE. Yum!! I loved her, miss her every day, and will never be the same again, but because of her... I'LL BE BETTER! 

Happy birthday, Rain (aka Renee'). Hope you're enjoying heaven!

Todd @ http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

Rocky Horror Picture Show - I'm Going Home

A tribute to my Rain.





Thursday, March 22

Pretty good day

... so far. I got up around 9:30 this morning in a pretty good mood. Not that I ordinarily get up in a bad mood, just that it's normally just another day, eh.

I got an email from ITT Tech saying that the assignment I turned in last night had been graded. So I went online to see what the grade was. I got a 99% out of a possible 100%. 1% was deducted because the teacher wants me to put my entire name on things that I turn in, rather than just the first initial of my first name and my entire last name. No biggie.

DD and I drove to the bank to deposit a refund check from the Missouri electric company for a whopping $13. Better than nothing I suppose. We now have $15 in the bank to spend. Woot! LOL. We do have some money coming later in the week though, and more next week. So we won't starve. LOL

After the bank we went to a park that has an empty tennis court that's no longer used for tennis. It looks like, judging from the litter lying around and holes in the chain-link fence, that it's primary purpose is a hangout for some people. We use it when we play frisbee there so that the wind doesn't blow it very far if we don't exactly aim it well to the other person. Today however, we used it so the DD could practice on her roller blades. She did alright. It was kind of windy, and we only have a cheap-o frisbee that sucks in the wind, so we didn't even consider it. It's all good though. While DD was roller blading, after about 5-10 minutes of just sitting there doing nothing, I decided to perform a little community service. I went and got a plastic bag out of the trunk and walked around inside the "court" and picked up all the obvious trash; mostly can tabs, but also a few pieces of plastic, some broken parts of boards and bottle caps laying around too. We then sat at a picnic table for a few minutes since it's such a beautiful day, then we came back to the apartment. See? I was going to write that we came home, but I hesitate to call it home because we'll most likely be moving out at the beginning of next year. Sigh.

Last evening my DD and I sat in the hot tub for a while, but not even 15 minutes because it wasn't hot, it was only 80*F (usually 100-103). Yesterday while we at the park, at least one of the apartment buildings lost electricity, plus the electric was off to the main water heater that provide hot water to some of the apartments and the hot tub's hot water tank. We'll probably check it out again tonight. Hopefully it's actually a HOT tub today!

Wednesday, March 21

Our park hour

We spent a little over an our at the Springwoods Park today. So far, it's our favorite park. There are tennis courts, a volleyball court, really nice play areas for the littles, and hiking trails around the park if you're into walking/strolling/whatever. I even did a little hula hooping with an over sized hoop, and didn't do too bad. Really enjoyed listening to the other parents talk. I didn't talk much because I don't know them well enough yet. I'm hoping to in time though. Last week at a different park, our frisbee broke in half and the mother who is going to replace it (broke while her son was playing with it) wasn't at the park we were today. Hopefully she'll be at next weeks park day, or she'll email me either for a mailing address to send it to, or one to pick it up at. I took some pictures, which you can see below. These are full-size.

Todd

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A squirrel that was obviously used to being fed by humans because it wasn't scared at all.

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Same squirrel, just a little closer, but it seems to be posing.

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Same once again, but this time it's just after I put my hand out as if to feed it, but it touched my hand with it front paws and startled me. lol

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There were a lot of crows which didn't seem too scared of humans either, but they never got close enough to actually touch.

The rest of the pictures are pretty self explanatory.

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This was just one of a few play areas. They are all really nice though.

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

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Saturday, March 17

Good day and colds

Had a good day. Played Frisbee @ a park w/DD & also worked out with her later, although we're both trying to fight off colds.

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

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Monday, March 5

Pictures of Mango and his new cat-tree

Thanks to FreeCycle of Austin, TX, Mango enjoying the new-2-him cat-tree. Sure, Twitch will probably love it too, but she's still sleeping on the back of the sofa. *smile*

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This is Mango checking it out right after we brought it in.

Mango checking out the new cat-tree

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Still checking things out.

Still checking things out

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I guess he likes it!

Mango sleeping on the cat tree. Apparently he like it!

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

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Sunday, March 4

Saturday, March 3

All schoolwork done. Weekend... to be continued. http://ramblemans.blogspot.com/

Okay. Every assignment that was due this week... Done. Final Exam for Contemporary Rhetoric (Argument)... done AND passed! Next class... "Image manipulation".
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"I'm planning on attending my 1st Procrastination Anonymous meeting tomorrow, or the day after."

Where Todd blogs

The other homeschool group

Friday, March 2

Thursday, March 1

Being both or Mr. Mom

I was just thinking that despite feeling like we should do more fun things together, as a family, I'm finding that time is less available to do things as dad when I also feel I have to play the part of mom. Things like keeping up with chores and also delegating (or remembering to) chores that I'd need help with. Now that I am the the family cook after 20 years of not needing to be, plus add in that one of the symptoms of MS is lack of appetite, it makes not only deciding what to cook difficult but also when to cook. Because the kids won't tell me that they are hungry until after they start getting really hungry, I get side-tracked with school, doing the financial stuff, chores, and trying to think of/find fun things to do with the kids, and then figure out how to pay for things that require funding. An arcade, putt-putt golf, or something along those lines, costs money. Basically I'm finding it unnerving not knowing if I'm doing everything good enough as a parent (bill payer, etc) because Rain took care of everything financial and cooked 99.9% of the meals. Now it's my job (I know that's not what I really mean) and I'm worried I'll fall down on the job, or forget something crucial. Yes, I know I can only do the best that I can, but still...

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com/

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The latest on our life

Well, I was going to write and update you on what we've been up to since the last time I wrote a blog, BUT, go and read my daughter's blog posts and that's pretty much what I would've wrote. The only thing I would add to hers is (see below):

All I've done today is make breakfast, drive to the bank, talk to a couple of people, come home, wash the bedding and make the same bed with cleaning bedding, and start washing the bedding on one of the other two beds.

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com