Barometer Scoop

Here we are, back from our week in the Caribbean sunshine. We started the week by saying “Hello” to the water and finding loads of Sand Dollars and even a large Conch Shell. There’s nothing like looking into the turquoise blue of the Caribbean while your son is racing up and down the beach thrilled with every shell he finds…we even noticed tiny shells that had extraordinary colors. The Frigates (or Pirate birds) and the Pelicans were flying overhead, and all seemed right with the world.

Sigh…then it was off to the Welcome Party, excessive drinking, loud music, dancing, meeting up with relatives and friends and all out revelry – yee ha! JM blew soap bubbles to keep things interesting. Later we took a drive down the Mayan Rivera and saw some very nice Hacienda’s and scenery. We took a day trip to Isla Mujeres where JM & I went snorkeling & saw some awesome coral, colorful fish, and sea turtles. JM also swam with a (Nurse) Shark, because Sharks are cooler than Dolphins!
We rented a golf cart and cruised around the island to the lighthouse, which sits on the Eastern most tip of the Island (which is also the Eastern most point of Mexico) where there is also a small Mayan ruin. JM and I climbed around the cliff for a while and watched the waves crash into and up on the huge rocks. It was an impressive site. Then we cruised down to the other end of the Island were we ran into some large fishing boats from Texas and North Carolina (the Migration and the 5 o’clock Somewhere were there) that were searching for Sailfish and Marlin. JM hung out on the beach for a while while Kokomo and I had a few drinks and checked out another lighthouse.

JM attended a Piñata Party so now we have a boatload of Mexican Piñata candy to go with our Halloween and Christmas candy. We went to Margaritaville a couple of times, watched ParrotVision, had Cheeseburgers in Parrotise, and various frozen concoctions. They even hosted a kids party that kept JM entertained while Kokomo & I had Margaritas & shopped.


The rest of the week was spent hanging out at the pool or the beach where we were swept away in a mini tsunami on our last day (really)…. the surf was high anyway, then a wave about 4-5 feet high came up and swept me out of my chair and JM all the way up into the Cabana Boy Cart at the Sea Wall (he was wearing his life jacket, and thought it was pretty cool). The kid enjoys the thrill of the Sea…and after being “swept away”; he stood up a raised his arms over his head in triumph!

The only downside of the week was that the Air-traffic controllers in Cancún decided to take a morning siesta putting all flights out of Cancún 2 hours behind schedule. Which means that after arriving at the Aeropuerto two hours early, we were treated to the hospitality of gate switching and long lines during our extended visit at Mexico’s busiest Aeropuerto. Of course, they provide for our convenience, a variety of Mercado’s and Duty Free shops to separate us from any renegade Peso’s that might be lingering in our pockets, which; in my case they were successful at.

Ahh well, JM had his portable video game handy so he was entertained. We all tried to keep a positive attitude and we arrived home safely and that’s all that really matters.

Now, it’s time to start planning the next phlocking.

That Explains A Lot...

Your Personality Is Like Acid

A bit wacky, you're very difficult to predict. One moment you're in your own little happy universe... And the next, you're on a bad trip to your own personal hell!

What Drug Is Your Personality Like?

....or maybe not.

Isn't that the definition of Parenthood?

Who do these people think they are trying to figure out who I am with five questions?

Oh well, sometime these quizzes are kinda fun.
I'm packing today so I can go to Mexico tomorrow & I'm in my own little happy tropical universe...listening to Radio Margaritaville, dancing around the house as I waste away...go figure.

Thanks CruiserMel, hope you get your Carribbean fix soon, too.

What's In A Name?

Surfer Girl is trying to name their baby.

She doesn't know if they are having a boy or a girl yet. She says she's been having strong "boy vibes", but she wants a girl. Obviously, as long as the child is born healthy, everyone will be grateful.

But, back to names. Surfer Girl will have a sonogram in about two weeks that, hopefully, will reveal a healthy child and also will give her a peek between the legs. Either there will be an appendage or there won’t. This information will make SG and her DH’s decision considerably less confusing…maybe.

A name is something that you will live with all your life, most of it (God willing), as an adult. But you will probably hate it (and your parents for giving it to you) when you’re a teenager.

What does your name mean? Does it have a family history, religious, or ethnic reference; maybe you were named after a famous person or fictional character? Sometimes your name can have multiple meanings as Junior Mint’s name does. His name is, first and foremost a religious name, it means “bringer of light”, and is also the name of a famous heroic fictional character. There’s also little chance that other people will ask “what?” or “how do you spell that?” when he tells them his name. Teachers don’t pause and say, “I hope I don’t mangle the pronunciation of your name….”.

A name can build confidence. A person should be proud to put their name on a business card or a job application and feel confident they will not be discriminated against before they ever have the opportunity to meet you face to face.

Personally, I have seriously wondered about the monikers some celebrities (and no doubt their copycats) have inflicted upon their children. These people must think it's cute, funny, unique, individual or they are just mean, ala Johnny Cash: A Boy Named Sue. Regardless, these children must chart a different course in life. Those that are the children of celebrities have the advantage (among the associated disadvantages) of money to insulate them. Those of average folks have to fight it out and it’s often not pretty. I can’t tell you how many runaway kids I used to work with who had “unique” (or “trendy”) names. Bless their hearts.

I have enormous respect for the task ahead of SG and her DH in the next 3 ½ months as they make this very important decision. Kokomo and I had agreed on Junior Mint’s first name before he was born, but didn’t decide on his middle name until after he was born. Sometimes it takes seeing your child breathing in your arms to know the right thing to do.

Another Trip Around The Sun

Junior Mint turned 8 this week.

Over the weekend he took his friends for bowling and laser tag. They had a blast…so did Kokomo and I. JM threw a “strike” on his first ball…ever! How cool is that! I can’t say how well they did at laser tag…except that they didn’t get “killed”, so I view that as a success.

He said he got everything he wanted. A little cash, a new PS2 to replace his old broken one, a couple of Pirates of the Caribbean toys, a Hot Wheels track, and a couple of games for his PS2 and his Nintendo DS.

He also got his name on the marquee sign in front of the school announcing his Birthday and shared cupcakes with his classmates.

Ya know…it’s pretty cool to be a kid and have everyone pay attention to you, and be soooo excited about your birthday that you can hardly stand it.

And to top it off celebrating with JM refreshes my enthusiasm for life, not just on his birthday, but every time I see him smile.

Reach for the Stars

I met with Junior Mint’s "Quest" teacher this morning, (Quest is a program for bright students) and she thinks he’s awesome. *big grin* She told me that JM shows signs of being a “gifted” child, and went on to describe his art projects, storytelling and analytical abilities that he has shown in class during the year.

She was impressed with his ability to remove himself from distractions and work independently. We agreed that he has strong opinions and has a wealth of knowledge on a large variety of topics.

Do I need to tell you that I was one proud Mommy when I left that Conference?

You can never take too much time to read and talk to your child…it’s amazing the things that they are learning from you. Even seemingly insignificant questions can open huge doors in the mind of a child.


This meeting not only reinforced the work that JM has been doing, it reinforced that the time I and many others have invested in the details have been well spent.

8 Seconds

We’re hanging out inside waiting out the ice storm, and Kokomo is flipping the television between the Football playoffs and the Dallas Mavericks game. After getting distracted by his laundry and the Football game he quickly flips back over to the Mavericks game…thinking that he probably missed the finish, but nope. In the ~30 minutes he has been otherwise distracted only 8 seconds have elapsed off the clock. Wha??? 8 seconds???

It is absolutely amazing how long it can take to play a second of this game, especially as the clock winds down. They actually break the seconds down into tenths of a second. There are coaches time outs of varying lengths and commercial breaks, (otherwise known as "official time outs") in the last minute of the game that can draw out that minute into twenty. While they play the last 10 seconds of the game, I’ve got time to go to the bathroom, move the laundry from the washer to the dryer, fold the clothes from the dryer and still have plenty of time left over.

I’m a Texas girl, raised on Football. Basketball was never on my radar. What’s with all these different time outs of different lengths in Basketball? I asked Kokomo how many each team gets, and what lengths they get and he just looked at me with his eyes glazing over and said “I don’t know”.
(I’m sure he does, he just didn’t want me to make fun of it in this post.)

Kokomo also rolled his eyes at me when I told him I was going to blog about this, but he wonder’s why it’s hard for me to watch 82 regular season basketball games even if the Mavericks do (currently) have the best record in the league. I dunno, if they get back into the playoffs I’ll watch, but they better not choke again like they did last year in Miami.

Ok..rant over, pour me some boat drinks and I'll kick back & oogle those finely tuned bodies till I pass out...

Ice Storm

Why is it when we get “winter weather” in North Texas it can’t be snow? Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not asking for more cold weather, in fact I absolutely abhor cold weather. But my attitude about it is that if it’s going to be cold, cloudy gray and spitting nasty stuff from the sky, it may as well be fluffy and white.

One of the reasons I live in Texas is so I don’t have to experience “winter” as many folks do. We usually get one or two hard freezes a year, and maybe one “winter weather” event. As far as I’m concerned, it only needs to get cold enough to kill the mosquito’s.

Watching the weather people standing along the highways scraping ice off of their eyelashes is just abusive…and funny as hell. Those folks should get hazardous duty pay. No self respecting Police Officer would stand on the side of a highway with people who have been living in drought conditions trying to drive on frozen precipitation!

It’s a good thing I don’t have to be anywhere, my son is plugged into his computer games, we’ve got plenty of DVD’s and sports to keep us entertained, so I’m just going to stay inside and turn up the Caribbean rhythms to create some virtual sunshine.

Feel free come back and visit me in August when I’m complaining about how many days we’ve had over 110°.

Already gone...

There are still Christmas decorations hanging around the house, but my mind is already somewhere between the Port of Indecision and Southwest of Disorder.

We are heading to the Caribbean at the end of the month and I’m spending my time imagining my feet in the sand and sipping Piña Colada’s.

Unfortunately, I have spent all day fighting with iTunes converting my WMA files to MP3 files or whatever kind of iFrackinfiles an iPod uses. Do I need to confess how many music files are on my computer, and why I like the WMA format better?

After I get it all sorted out, I’m definitely going to be kicking back on the beach snapping my fingers at some cute Cabana Boy to fetch me cold boat drinks, & listening to my well thought out tunes and contemplating the devil who is Steve Jobs and his new iPhone.

I think I'll start on the boat drinks now.

Timeless...

Just a quick entry to acknowledge that today is my sister's Birthday.

She went forward in the search into the Great Mystery nearly thirteen years ago.
I know she is scouting a trail ahead of me and I am rejoicing in her journey, though there have been days I would have liked to share with her.

Lighting a candle in your honor today dear sister. You are always in my heart.

Surfer Girl Fare You Well

Ok, so Christmas and my daughter’s wedding are over. Everyone has returned to their respective ports o’ call, and with tomorrow night’s National Title game, I will consider the Season officially over.

The wedding was very nice. The only people who noticed what went wrong were those that did the planning. I’m sure it’s great fun to collect Wedding and Christmas gifts at the same time! I still have some things I got for wedding gifts. Ooooh, that was a loooong time ago. Anyway, she was still carrying her bridal boquet the day after the wedding - how cool is that!

Our (nearly) 8 y/o son was the ring bearer. He thought that was pretty cool, kinda like Frodo charged with carrying the Ring of Power. He was so proud to dress up in his suit and tie. He wanted to see everything that happened during the ceremony and had to crawl onto the platform with the Bride and Groom to get a clear view of them lighting the Unity Candle. But hey, he did dance with his sister, his mother and grandmother at the Reception.

Now, if I can just learn how to work all the new toys we got for Christmas I’ll be ready to head to the Caribbean at the end of the month.