Fool me once ....

Can you believe I did the paper route again? With a different trainer of course... which went ok. I can't believe the contrast actually. I'm still not able to do the paper route however (good-bye $1,000), there's no way I would be able to do it in 2 hours, and she agreed. So that's that. Nothing too horrendous happened, Levi did puke all over her car --- but comparing what I went through the day before, it was nothing. And... I just can't resist

Rachael's monstrous, horrendous, intollerable, not very good day.

If you could not tell by the title... this might be a rather whiny and long winded post. You've been warned.

Such a horrendous day can only truly occur if only proceeding a day of extreme elation and expectation. We thought that the windows of Heaven (finally) opened. We've been waffling in uncertainties for a year and a half. Settled into a bogus house. We thought our trial of patience was over! Apparently Heaven just wanted a little fresh air. So yesterday, Jeff was accepted into a PhD Program, I got a job as a newspaper carrier, and we thought we could rent and eventually buy a townhouse from a co-worker of Jeff's. We thought we had our life for the next 6 years roughly set out. And the stupid reality of it all: it all depended on a paper route. I can do a paper route right? The paper route begins at 2:00 pm, . My "trainer" called at 1:45 pm and said she would meet me at 2:00 pm at the Shell station. Ok, I load up the boys, I pushed Levi's nap back so he would sleep during the route, brought my activities for Seth, we were off and arrive at the Shell (Cnex station) at 2:00. At 2:45 I call the manager and ask if there's been some sort of miscommunication because my trainer is not there, he calls his assistant, my trainer, Sharon. He calls me back and he says that she says "be there in a few minutes." 15 minutes later she arrives. So to start off the delivery route, I'm late and my kids and I have been waiting in the parking lot for an hour. Character Sketch: Sharon Brief side note, I believe that physical attributes, or appearance, are intricately linked to a person's personalities and mental capabilities. A disciplined person will not be found routinely in their pjs with their hair not combed or teeth not brushed in public at 12:00 at McDonald's. I understand their are exceptions blah blah blah. Still I believe your physical appearance is an indicator to other inner attributes. Back to Sharon -- -I first heard Sharon, she was hacking (a chain smoker) -She had 3 purses that appeared to be filled with junk (later I find that it mostly was, since she left said junk in my car) -She had one shoelace tied around her ankle in a knot over her black sweatpants/leggings -She was unhealthily large (I should have taken the van, not the corolla) -She was missing her top 4 teeth What did I get myself into? I was not surprised to find that my trainer did not know the route, could not read small print (a necessary ability when looking through 8 pages of addresses), and had the undesirable tendency to blame everyone else when things were going wrong .... "Nathaniel should really be training you" ...(aren't you his assistant, what is your job then?!) .... "I have to share the company car" .... (then why did you tell me to meet at 2:00 and not show up until 3:00?!) ... A very undesirable trainer. She also needed to stop to pee twice in 3 hours (I later find when I come home she peed on my toilet seat! Oh the inhumanity), and was unable to put newspapers in the tubes comfortably ... "You really should be doing this as if I'm not here" ... (We're running an hour behind! And what do you think you should be doing!) So I have/had a country route ... Nathaniel told me once I knew the route it would take me 2 hours. (LIES AND DECEITS - more on Nathaniel later). It took 2 hours to do the houses that were in town (the manufactured home communities and the houses along Davis Way). It's about 5 now, my kids have been in the car for 3 hours and need dinner, and I haven't even started the country part of my country route. I call Jeff at work and leave a message to come home a bit early to watch the kids while I finish the remainder of the route. His phone dies, I have to come home and instant message him. 5:20 we're back on the road and we deliver to houses on Old Wawawaii road ... or "Wa-na-ny" as Sharon pronounces it. Then we struggle for an hour on SR 194 and old country club road. We still really haven't gotten into the long country roads, but it's past 6, it's dark, she can't read at all, and keeps dropping her flash light. We're wandering aimlessly trying to find these houses she doesn't have a clue. I notice that I've spent about 15 dollars already on gas. This route is definitely not worth it to me if I'm not even making an income. Nathaniel calls. In my frustration during my conversation I make a wrong turn and start driving out to Lewiston ... "This isn't the way to Pullman!" "Nope." (why didn't you stop me?!) ..I drop Sharon off at the shell station, and decide the best thing would be to go home, eat dinner, and google these houses. Oh, brief recap to phone conversation: Nathaniel asks, "Why haven't you been using the map?" "What map?" I state. Sharon: "Oh, the wording was too small on those." We had a map all along!!!! While we were struggling to find these houses ... oh my gosh ... Gas station. I'm so ready for Sharon to leave and I go home. I have no idea what is wrong with this woman. She was banging on the top of my car for like 5 minutes, was she killing a spider? was one of her purses slipping off the top of the car while she was trying to grab the other two? pen out of ink? Honestly, I didn't inquire. I was done. (please.... just leave......) So I come home sobbing, I'll my frustrations just pouring out of me. It's 6:30, Jeff makes me a peanut butter sandwich and Seth gets me a glass of milk. Seth insisted I have milk to make me feel better. So a little after 7:00 we start out again on this paper route. Jeff drives and the boys are once again stuck in the car. I have 3 pages left of my route. An hour passes, we're almost out of gas, we're in the dark in the country trying to find obscure houses on dirt roads, and we haven't even completed the first page. And we were not going treacherously slow either. As if I wasn't done before, I was done. 8:30 we come home and I leave a message to Nathaniel saying how I felt mislead about the paper route, that there was no way I could ever do this route in 2 hours, that there was no money to be made with the amount of gas that it required, and that I was done, and sorry that I could not finish the route. So I'm out 45 dollars. ... 30 dollars that I needed to pay upfront for insurance, and 15 dollars for gas. I would have received my 30 dollars back after a year of faithfully completing my contract. I feel like a fool, that I was rushed into this. I feel like Nathaniel completely conned me in some regards. I feel like I've been learning too often from my mistakes, can't I just do something right the first time? Ever? once in a while? please? So my "2 hour route" Took about 6 hours in all yesterday, and I had about 2-3 hours to go. Names changed to protect the "innocent"

Consciousness is nothing more than an epiphenomenon of neurological complexity.

Griffey is back and my veins are flat

After reading the news of Ken Griffey Jr. signing with the Mariners I had to say something. This has really got me excited about the Mariners upcoming season and about their future, as they finally got rid of Bill Bavasi seem to have a GM who values things that fans can get excited about. Even if the Mariners don't do very well, it will be good for them to have such a charismatic persona in the clubhouse.

Interestingly, in the picture above we see two players who had a chance to save the game from its current squalor. One has failed due to injury (though he has had a good career) the other because he just wanted too much.

In other news, I apparently have small veins in my left arm. I went to sell some plasma (I have to justify buying tickets to the Mariners opening game and the Sounders opening game somehow) and they turned me down! They said my veins in my left arm were just too small and to try again in a week after "lifting some weights"!!! It was pretty funny and I was laughing as the guy was telling me, I think he was confused. Oh well, such is life.

Seth the Builder

This is Seth's rendition of the Three Billy Goats Gruff; isn't it amazing? I was impressed. Do you notice that he tried to keep them color coordinated, varied the sizes of the goats, and made an ogre under the bridge? He is so visual, and I give Seth full credit, I didn't even prompt him on what to build! He just decided he wanted to reenact the Three Billy Goat Gruff story. I'm amazed at what I find when I leave my child alone to his own creativity for a while. Seth has many templates for various machines. These are his helicopters. He has cars, trucks, planes, he likes to make letters of the alphabet-- and he always has the same design, if you ask him to make you a car, it will be the same if you ask him to make you a car tomorrow. I also like how he keeps them color coordinated :) Here's a link of Seth on the palouse discovery science web page, it's been up for a while, but I haven't posted much over the last couple of months, so there it is. He's making a crater with a bowling ball. http://www.palousescience.org/default.asp?PageID=95

Happy Darwin Day!

Ignorance of evidence is not evidence of intelligence.

Engagement photos

During my internet reprieve I took engagement photos for my brother-in-law and his fiancee, and my brother's senior pictures. ... I can't find my brother's senior pictures (goes to show how organized I am with my pictures) but maybe I can find them later. They're in by no means professional .. for one, I need something better than a point and shoot camera, but it's a start.

Todd proposed to Rachel on this spot of the bridge

Oh, how I miss the ocean, aren't you jealous you didn't grow up here?

Update? Anyone?

Well, I'll just post a blurb now, and lets see how long it will take me to write another blurb. BUT now that we have internet again (hallelujah) it should be a bit easier. Sethy turned 3! On December 27th, but we had a Birthday party like ... the 17th? I don't know I'm so bad with dates and names and times, awful memory actually, anyways, so we had a birthday early for him. It was a ward activity, there were like 40 people that showed up! Between all the babies, toddlers, kids, and adults. I was quite impressed that our half-a-house fit us all, but it worked out. What did not work out is my camera decided to malfunction (the lens wasn't able to move) Soooo... not very many pictures. SO PLEASE IF ANYONE HAS ANY PICS (i don't care if they're of Seth or not) SEND THEM MY WAY. With that said, here are a few pics I did get. (Luckily my video camera was working fine so I was able to capture the mahem). So Seth's real birthday we spent in Minnesota. It was a family reunion! Jeff's mom and dad grew up in this small town in Chokio, so both sets of uncles, aunts , great grandparents, etc. There were more than 40 people! This kid sure is loved, but reallywho couldn't love Seth?