Monday Musings, Mistakes, and Threats of Litigation

Today is a rainy day here. I have a sick kid home from school, a sick husband home from work, a fully-potty-trained toddler running around, and I'm feeling kind of blah. It's the kind of day where I want to just curl up and eat grilled cheese (which I can't) and drink Dr. Pepper (which I can't) and watch raunchy-humored, R-rated movies by myself (which I can't).

I've just started a month-long dietary clean-up. "Just" as in this morning. I'm already bummed out. Fortunately, I've done this program a couple of times in the past and know that the break-in period is a little less than a week...so I'm pretty sure I can tough it out. But at the moment, grilled cheese sounds so super appealing. Or tuna casserole. Sadly, dairy is on the wrong side of the list :(  So I'll content myself with brown rice and veggies and fruit and water...

Here's the awesome news...

I ran 7 hilly miles on Sunday! I have the best running partner in the whole world. We mesh :) We stopped to stretch every couple of miles, and we ran easy. It was divine. My calves seem mostly adjusted to the forefoot/midfoot strike deal, and the only part of my body that complained was my iliopsoas. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that's the main pain-maker. Of course, I'm also convinced I have ankylosing spondylitis... but I could be mistaken.

Speaking of being mistaken...here's a mistake I always make. And I now know I'm not the only one who makes this mistake... apparently Tony Stewart does, too.

       

This issue came up the other day when I saw RoseRunner's awesome tongue-to-nose trick. Does anyone else make this mistake?  Can anyone else do that trick? I've always wanted to, but my nose is too long.

I know that litigious, bald, music-industry-working, triathletes would never make this mistake, and I would surmise that my difficulty making this differentiation will be used against me in a court of law should "Dude vs. XL" ever actually go to court.

For those of you who are in the dark on this one, I've received a 'cease and desist' order regarding my XLBands...click the links to see the products in question. What I find most unfortunate is that I am not selling XLBands...in fact, my video shows you how to make them for free...

I am spreading knowledge to the masses...much like Johannes Gutenberg.

Furthermore, elitist Dudeband™ wearers must follow all sorts of crazy rules. XLBands have no such requirements, pretentiousnesses, or bullsh*t attached to their usage. While you may think this lessens the specialness of the item, au contraire. It makes a useful and life-changing item accessible to the world.

Like socks.

And much like socks, having a lawyer tell me to stop spreading the word about XLBands because the Dudeband™ dude is annoyed/jealous/greedy is akin to telling a knitter that she must 'cease and desist' knitting socks for her friends and family because the inventor of socks says so.

Dude...I am not profiting from the XLBand...the world is benefitting. Back off.

Or maybe buddy up.

Random Happenings

We had wacky weather the other day... pouring rain that turned into pelting hail!  

And produced this:

This happened right as we arrived at school... without raincoats and only one umbrella for 5 of us! And

 the umbrella broke!  

It was hilarious!  The kids were super troopers about it all... nary a whine nor a complaint... lots of giggles and smiles :)  

LOVE it when that happens 

... not the broken umbrella part; the kids having fun part ;-)

Right now my kids are On Break.  It is a 10-day long Break.  Must be nice...

I have written before about this school's penchant for days off.  This particular doozy is that whole "Ski Week" thing that encompasses the President's Day (or is it Presidents' Day... it is about two presidents, right?).  Oh, and while I am on the topic of President's Day... what the heck!!!???  Remember how I mentioned that I was going grocery shopping with all 4 kids in tow?  So we get all in the car (not easy) and they are all fighting and screaming before the car doors are even closed... actually before I even get into the car myself... I debate whether or not this is such a good idea.  But Monday is Grocery Day and we are down to a "cocktail onions and mustard" sort of situation... hmmm... what can I make with ketchup, unsalted butter, cornstarch and bacon?  We had to go.

It was closed.  

Yes, you read that correctly.  A humongous, big-deal-not-mom-n-pop, Whole Foods-ish grocery store was CLOSED for President's Day!  I laughed so hard.  The kids were concerned.  Is mom off her rocker?  So we headed to Trader Joe's and picked up what we could.  

They were perfectly behaved.  

I think the insane-lady laughter may have had something to do with that ;-)

We had lovely weather and headed to the park today to meet some friends.  It was a group of wee ones who are around Miss C's age.  The olders were not thrilled to be going to Totland *snicker, snicker* but since Miss C is forever being carted around to all their goings-on, it is only fair that they need to suck it up on occasion.

Here's Q-Man, all bummed out on the swings:

Baby X climbed to the top of the highest thing, 

setting off a toddler climbing frenzy as they all tried to imitate her... much to their caretakers' collective dismay:

And Miss C was happy to just hang :)

Big G was not there... he was home SICK.  Of course, it is vacation... someone has to be sick.

What would you do with four kids who were on a 10-day Break? And leaving town is not an option.
– we were going to do fun stuff like go to the Children's Museum, the local Little Farm and see the baby pigs, the zoo... but rain and sickness just don't really work with outings.  Today we made pudding and went to the park.  Tomorrow we are going to make teeny tiny cupcakes and who knows what else.


Did you have lots of holidays when you were a kid?
– we had some that other kids didn't get... Malcolm X's birthday, International Women's Day, MLK's birthday before it was nationwide... but that's because it was Berkeley ;-)  And I remember having Lincoln's AND Washington's Birthdays creating consecutive 3-day weekends.  I liked that.  But I'm telling you, my kids' school has WAY more days off than I ever had.