i. hate. daylight. savings. time

Anybody else with me on this?

It messes with my sleep, and worse than that, it messes up my kids' sleep. Which in turn messes up my sleep even more. And don't even get me started on the sheer tedium of having to scour the entire house [both levels] and garage and even our back patio for every possible timepiece just so I can change it by one hour. Only a man could have come up with something this ridiculous. Thanks a whole bunch, Benjamin Franklin. You're a real smartie. Obviously you never had to raise kids or manage a household.

Maybe we should move to Arizona.

Nah. Way too hot.

why bother?

This morning Owen and I had a cleaning scheduled at our dentist. Although Collin had his cleaning done last month, he had the honor of accompanying us since he really has nowhere else to go! He came prepared with a backpack full of various cars and trucks to occupy himself, and as usual, was a very well-behaved little man.

Before we left the office, Collin was invited to choose something out of The Prize Basket for his stellar behavior. He chose the pictured paddle ball [with ball still attached at the time]. Within a few minutes of getting home, Collin informed me through the tears in his eyes that his ball had willfully detached itself from the string.

Of course I was prepared for the upset of having the toy fall apart, because they always do. But this time I started thinking. Why do companies even bother making stuff that can't even endure a few minutes of use? Has anyone ever had a paddle ball that lasted longer than ten minutes? I can tell you that none of my kids ever have! What is the point of making worthless cheap junk?

Don't get me wrong-I totally appreciate the fact that our dentist makes The Prize Basket available to our little ones to make a visit to the dentist more fun. It's just that it seems so useless to even produce stuff that promptly falls apart. Made in China? Most likely. Although the way things are going now, things coming from China are going to have to be more expensive just to bring them up to basic levels of quality control. Which probably will translate into less offerings at the dollar store and Oriental Trading Company. I love both of these places, by the way! It's not necessarily about how much you spend, it's about how you design and manufacture your product.

Anyway, I've had my fun. I've had my little rant and I'm over it now. It was fun feeling like Rush Limbaugh for a couple of minutes. I know in my heart that from the beginning of time, the concept of the paddle ball was probably never a sturdy one to begin with. It was a concept just waiting to get broken. Now I'm off to surreptitiously toss our paddle ball into the garbage before Collin sees it and remembers that it's broken!

procrastinating

Yes, I'm at it again. Usually I'm pretty good about getting things done, but I have to admit that I have days when I either a) don't stop moving all day and get everything done and then some or b) can't seem to even get started. This seems like a B day. It didn't start out that way, but then it got hot or I got lazy or something. Usually my A days come right after I've lounged about finishing up a book, but I finished reading my last book several days ago and had some A days that I've used up already.

But I digress. I'm supposed to be getting everything ready for Owen and I to go on our weekend to Sonoma sans little fishes. I spent a good portion of yesterday online, researching all the ways we could spend our precious time up there. Owen seemed to be more interested in the restaurants I'd uncovered-I can just see us now, doing nothing except moving from restaurant to restaurant, fielding triple digit bills as we go. Anyway, today I need to focus on other immediate concerns, like making a list of necessary info and a schedule for Grammie to use, and cleaning the house, and doing the laundry, and going to the store, and start thinking about what I need to pack, and, well, you get the picture. Not nearly as exciting as daydreaming about Sonoma, is it? Right. Well, it's off to work I go, since I really do want to have everything organized when we leave town.