Facie’s Ramblings

It is pretty rare for me to write a post not even 24 hours after I posted my last one. But I read a supremely annoying article on Yahoo today (from the New York Times ), and I had to comment on it. Here is the link, if you want to read it for yourself. In the meantime, let me summarize: You can apparently do almost everything you would ever want to do (and things you probably did not even know were possible) with a smart phone. Therefore, you don't need a point-and-shoot digital camera, a camcorder, a GPS system, or a digital music player. And apparently the desktop computer and thumb drive have gone the way of the dinosaurs. Excuse me while I go throw out all of those things and go directly to nearest Apple store so I can buy a super-smart phone. I also need to burn my desktop computer, but how about if I finish this post first, okay? We have a quite-old desktop computer. This may be a bad example, because the computer is now at the point where it turns itself off several tim...

Wonder how many people will be enticed by that title?! As an aside, for some reason, my blog got 120 hits in a 24-hour period. No idea why. Since I discovered the stats tool thingy, I have averaged close to 500 hits a month; some days I get only a few hits, and other days this blog sees several dozen visitors. But 120 in one day? That is weird. Anyway, I had to share this recent shopping experience. First of all, I am not a fan of shopping. I am what several of my guy friends call a guy's girl; I would much rather watch a sporting event (football and hockey, mostly) than do anything girly. And when it comes to shopping (which, to review, I hate), Kohl's and Target are my two favorite stores because I am very anti-mall (all those stores just overwhelm me) and I can get almost everything I need at those two places anyway. So when I realized I had to buy a new bathing suit (thanks to the super-chlorinated, bathing-suit eating pool where Jordan and I swim), I knew a trip to Koh...

Holy hail, Batman! Although my neighborhood did not see hail the size of golf balls, as some people apparently witnessed, those pieces of hail in my yard were nothing to sneeze at. Actually, I missed the first wave of the storm. Jordan and I had been swimming at the pool for almost an hour after school when the sky grew dark. I thought I saw some lightening through the glass ceiling/sliding doors, but I decided that a few minutes in the hot tub would probably not kill me. After a few more flashes of light, I reasoned it was best to get out. I was not so smart, however, that I did not then proceed to take a shower; I had to get all that chlorine off us! As were finishing up, I could really hear (what I thought was) the rain. But by the time we dried off, got dressed, and gathered our things, the rain had pretty much stopped, and we walked outside to just a few sprinkles and a partly sunny sky, oblivious to what had happened. On the way home, I saw what looked like snow, however, on ...

I sent Jordan to school today (Friday) with turkey pepperoni. A smarter, less controversial parent would not have done so, but my kid wanted the pepperoni, and she is not doing anything wrong! And now that the kids know the Lenten guidelines, they really should leave her alone. Will they? Well, I guess we will find out. To follow up from earlier this week, the girls at Jordan's table (including Jordan) did meet with the principal on Monday, although no one admitted to taking the sandwich or seeing anything. Regardless, I consider the issue closed, and I hope whoever took it will learn something from this. One of the moms did email me asking what went on, as her kid was apparently upset by the principal confrontation. I emailed her back what I knew, saying that most parents would be concerned if their kid's lunch was taken. I also said it was good for the kids to hear the correct guidelines (of course, Jordan brought in the guidelines and shared them with the kids at lunch pri...

If you thought my last blog post went on, I am thinking this one is going to be worse. Ladies and gentlemen, Mama Bear is mad. As my alternate post title says, "Stop being mean to my kid!" I subbed for Jordan's class a few weeks ago, and it went rather well. However, she later told me that during the day one boy had told her to shut up, apparently because she told him to be quiet when he was talking when they were not supposed to be. Later, this boy apparently referred to Jordan as "Jordan the jerk." I never saw this happen, which bothered me (which once again shows how difficult it is for teachers to keep track of every student while trying to teach). Regardless, I told Jordan that some kids are simply not kind, kids are going to say mean things, probably much worse, throughout her childhood, etc. But when Jordan told me this is not the first time this boy has been mean to her, and I could see this was bothering her, I thought maybe I should not let this g...

Be forewarned: Keeping true to my blog title, the following is going to be quite rambling. If you are reading this, you are probably aware of some of the crap that has been going on with actor Charlie Sheen. I have kept up with it because one of my Facebook "friends" is the P-G TV critic, and he has been regularly posting Charlie-related tweets on Facebook. I am also somewhat interested in the saga because I know people who have struggled with drug addiction, and I have seen firsthand what that stuff can do to you. I can still see the scary face/eyes of someone I know when he was strung out, back about five years ago. Think of the darkest circles you have ever had under your eyes, and multiple that by 10. In fact, last year at the park, when a mother introduced me to her teenage son, he had the same look, and it scared the crap out of me. I wondered if I should say something to her, but ultimately decided not to, since I knew her only casually and worried I was wrong anyw...