Worshiping from afar

We are Sox fans. It's not that we want to be. We were born that way.



You don't realize how much a part of the landscape sports teams are until you change your landscape. Yes, the game was on each night the Sox played. It was a big thing in the playoffs when they were playing Cleveland. And it felt strange that while we were watching the playoffs, we were hearing fight songs from Cleveland instead of the stuff we are used to hearing from Boston.



But then the Sox won and we heard nothing. Nothing! Can you imagine? No recaps of Game 6. No wallowing in our 2004 win and the reverse of the curse. In fact, no mention of a curse was heard on the radio airwaves here in Dayton.



It was a strange silence.



At this point, I can admit, I'm not a big sports fan. It is really something I partake of more because I can't get away from it than that I have any particular interest in it. I watch playoff games and series games when the Sox are in because otherwise, my husband and I would not see each other, and because they usually knock off the air the most interesting shows. So, what else is there to do?



So I watched the games from afar this year. Not all of them. Usually only until 9 o'clock when my short sports attention span would quit on me. They were good games. Even a bit entertaining.



But again, there was silence the next day. No post-game recaps. No comparisons to previous series. No jokes in between news stories on the local news. No Red Sox day at school to support our home team. Of course, all of this is to be expected. After all, I'm not in Massachusetts any more. But, it still felt strange to not hear constant coverage of what Manny is doing and how Lester was having such a comeback after his health issues. Just silence.



Except for Jordan's Furniture. They made the national news on Public Radio. Leave it to Elliot to figure out a way to parlay the Red Sox win into national advertising for his regional store. Good ole' Jordan's Furniture and Underprices.



Go Sox!!

Amazon knows too much

I was just up at Amazon updating my wish list for Christmas.

I thought I was pretty cool. My music choices are pretty hip and new.

It was suggesting other music that I also like, even a book I was interested in buying.

but then it suggested ...


The Wisdom of Menopause: Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing During the Change, 2nd Edition
by Christiane Northrup

How? How did it know. I'm not some young, hip college kid into cutting edge music. I don't have a page on myspace.com. I'm a 40 something mother contemplating menopause. It's a little scary.

I love Mr. Clean

The magic erasers that is. Did you know they take black walnut stains out of off-white carpet?

I refuse to think about what is actually in these little wonders. They got my carpets clean, that's all that matters.

The tooth fairy gets impaled while retrieving a tooth

I've been very busy with work deadlines and not writing half the stories I want to write. But, I'll take a minute for this one because it is just too rich.

Last night, Lastborn was working on a loose tooth. He worked so hard, the tooth was bleeding quite a bit. This scared him. But he kept working on it. I told him that if he wanted to, he could leave it be a while, and try again later.

"But what if it falls out while I'm sleeping. Won't I choke?"
"No," I replied, always the voice of reason. "It's too small to choke on. More likely you'll swallow it. Then you'll have to wait until the next day when you poop to get the tooth to give to the tooth fairy."

He looked sideways at me, a little worried. Then he replied. "No way! Will you get it out of the toilet for me?"
"No!!! I don't do that."

Noticing that he looked really worried now, I offered him this consolation.
"Don't worry, the Tooth Fairy fetches teeth out of the toilet if she needs to."
He wasn't buying it though and he kept working on the tooth convinced that he had to get it out right now! And of course he did.

That's when it hit me. We just bought a loft bed for his room with a double bed underneath. The idea here being that we want lots of places for long distance guests to stay with us, he would love to sleep in a loft bed and we should have room for sleepovers as well.

What was I thinking? On top of this, the order got messed up and the mattress for the double bed never came. Instead, there's just a bunkie board. Not enough for me to walk on to get to Lastborn's pillow. Yes, his pillow is on the wall side of this behemoth contraption. And the bunkie board is a bunch of thin slats of wood on a wooden frame all surrounded by a cloth cover. Each slat is not strong enough to take the weight of a person standing on it. It's meant to have a mattress on it.

DH immediately saw the dilemma when he came home later and I told him that Lastborn was now sleeping with a tooth under his pillow.

"Well where did he put it?" he asked.
"Under his pillow of course," I replied.

DH rolled his eyes as if I should have come up with a better plan.
"I tried. I told him that he should put it at the foot of his bed so the Tooth Fairy could get it more easily, but he insisted that she can fly just fine to his pillow."
"Well, did you at least see where he put it?"
"Of course. I made him show me. It's in the middle of his pillow."
"Well, I'm not dealing with it," was all he replied. Then a minute later. "I can just see this. You're going to come crashing down while trying to find the tooth. We haven't even been here a month and we're already gonna end up at the emergency room."

Such faith.

So at bedtime, I fished a crisp dollar out of my wallet and climbed the stairs to Lastborn's room. I turned on the hall light and crept into his room. Very carefully, I stepped onto the frame of the bunkie board to approach the head of his bed. Suddenly a sharp jabbing pain hits my toe. It feels like I've just been stabbed with the end of a staple. I can't scream.

With the other foot, I step forward to position myself closer to his pillow. My right toe is still stapled to the bunkie board. It's fairly dark even with the hall light. There's just enough light to see outlines.

He's sleeping facing the hall, head centered right over the tooth. Not good. I reach my hand carefully under his pillow and then I think I see his eyes open. It's too late for me to duck down and with my arm wedged between the bars of his loft bed, I probably can't maneuver myself low enough to be hidden anyway.

"Are you awake?" I ask innocently.

After a pause, he says, "No." and closes his eyes again.

"Well, I'm just going to pull your covers up a bit" I say. Weak excuse. I reach up with my other hand over the bars and pull up his cover while reaching for the plastic baggie that holds the tooth with my right hand under his pillow.

Feeling very smart right now, I begin to retract my right hand from under his pillow, only to find that it's stuck at the elbow between the bars. A little wiggling and my now-bruised elbow is free and I slip the dollar under his pillow with no further interruptions.

Remember, my right toe is still attached to the bunkie board with a staple.

I carefully step backwards finding the frame of the bunkie board with my left foot. Slowly I detach my right toe from the bunkie board. and step onto the carpet.

The white carpet! Am I bleeding?

Thankfully, no. I limp downstairs to tell DH all about it. I'm very proud now. No crashing. No ER visits. No blood. But my toe hurts like hell.

Little Mound

I've been chomping at the bit to find some of the parks in town. There are many as most Ohio towns try to conserve green spaces for common use.

The Little Mound park is around the block from us and was first on my list to check out. This area of the state is well known for it's Native American earthen works. The one in our neighborhood is not one of the well known mounds, but it is still very interesting to see close up. Makes me want to journey to see the serpent mound.

Along with the big hill that the kids like to climb on and run down (I hear it's great for sledding in the winter as well), there is also a small play park. Swings, climbing structures and a couple of benches for mom. All in all it's pretty great.

Just a question for my readers: If you lived next door to a great park like this, would you invest in a swing set in your back yard?

Light switches

Most of this house has no overhead lighting. The kitchen has it and the hallways, but none of the rooms. The builder was nice enough however to make an outlet in each room controlled by a light switch. Some are controlled by a few light switches.

The problem is figuring out which outlet is controlled by the light switch so that we don't have to go stumbling into a room to find a light to turn on. It took us 2.5 weeks to find the outlet in the family room. We have found the one in Ken's room, but we are still stumped on all the other rooms.

How you know your a buckeye

Most of the time, the move seems to have not really happened. It's like I have a new house, but I still live in Tewksbury. I work in my house, so I don't get out much. And really, things aren't so different here. But occasionally, I will see a sign that reminds me I'm not in Tewksbury any more. I'll summarize.

Signs at the entrance to an interstate reading "No pedestrians or slow moving farm vehicles."
The RMV is the BMV.
No deposit, No returns.
Rush hour lasts about 10 minutes.
I bought wine at Walmart. And it wasn't half bad.
And the number one indicator that we aren't in Tewksbury anymore:
We went to a sports bar for lunch today. The football game was on. The bar was fairly full for a Saturday afternoon at 1pm. Every one was dressed in red, with Buckeyes logos on everything. Some people were wearing necklaces-red and white beads and then these huge brown beads. The brown beads were actually buckeyes (not the chocolate type).

And, yes, they had corn hole tables there.

The children have not yet picked up the twang (and don't let DH tell you they don't have one here), but I suspect that Lastborn will be able to turn a great twang by Christmas.

new math

Lastborn is pretty certain I'm 25 years old. I don't do a lot to dispel this myth, but I have never started this myth either.

Tonight, Lastborn asked me how old I was when I got married. I told him 24. He thought for a minute and said, "you've only been married one year?"

Yep that's right.

Then I thought for a bit and realized that I was indeed 26 when I got married. So that means I got married next year. This made him think for a minute and then he said, "Ah. You're a time traveller!"

I think he might have figured out that I'm not 25 at this point.

Neighborhood Life

Well, there are certainly a lot of kids in this neighborhood.

Next door is an 8 year old boy, and he has a step brother who visits some weekends. We don't see them much because both parents work.
Across the street there is a 10 year old boy, a 6 year old boy and a 9 year old girl. In the cul de sac across the street there is another house with a 12 year old boy, a 10 year old boy and a 10 year old girl.
At the end of the cul de sac is another 7 year old boy and his 7 year old sister. And there are a couple of other girls around the neighborhood.

Every day, kids are knocking on our door to play with both boys.

The 10 year olds all play in our back yard in the woods. It's the hot spot of the neighborhood. They would spend all day out there regardless of the weather. They come in dirty and tired and so happy. Currently, their project is to build a fort in the woods using sticks and branches. We will have to send pictures once they get the structure working.

Stepford

Maybe it's because kids are so well mannered in Ohio.

Maybe it's because most houses here are carpeted.

Maybe it's because this neighborhood is in the middle of a black walnut grove.

DH wanted to insist that the kids remove their shoes on entering the house. I think that's kind of rude to expect of visitors.

Every time a neighborhood kid enters our house, they either take off their shoes or ask us where they should leave their shoes. I'm amazed. And maybe a little scared.

The Trees are Alive!!!!

Remember I mentioned the beautiful forested lot on which our new house resides? Well, all good things come with a downside don't they?

Most of the trees are black walnut trees. And black walnut trees make walnuts. Yesterday, the boys and I spent the morning picking them up so that DH could finally mow our lawn and relieve the worries that the neighbors are experiencing.

My first idea was to send the boys out there to pick up the nuts. Firstborn did go out at about 8:30 and try, but the squirrels, suspicious of his behaviour, started throwing nuts at him. So, he came in quickly, giving up the fight.

It took us a couple of hours, and Lastborn, who has an easier time sitting on the ground (and then getting back up), became quite stained from the black walnut skins he was sitting in. We must have picked up three bushels and still there were more.

Too bad the kids don't like walnuts.

Just east of the center

Lastborn: I know where Ohio is on the map. It's just east of the center.