You are currently browsing the monthly archive for October 2004.
Daylight savings time starts again. We set our clocks back one hour. Good for me, I gained one hour of sleep.
R was going downtown and I asked him to bring Ryan to buy him a new pair of shoes. I coaxed Ryan to go as he really needed new shoes.
Mom: There’s a hole on the bottom of your shoe and they’re already getting quite small anyway.
Ryan: (threw his head back on the chair) But we have to go trick-or-treating.
Mom: You will be back home before we had to go trick-or-treating.
Ryan: But I want to buy new shoes in the Spring.
Mom: If you need new shoes in the Spring then I’ll buy you another one. If your shoes break any day now, then you’ll have nothing else to wear.
He didn’t go. I told him that he has to go next weekend before all the runners are gone in the stores and replaced by winter boots.
Ryland got a good scrubbing when I gave him his bath.
The kids and I left at around 5:30 pm. Reggie wasn't planning to come but Ryan said that he didn't want to share his treats with Reggie if he wasn't coming. That's why I think Reggie decided to come anyway. Ryland was dressed as Darth Vader, Ryan carried the Death's ax, and Reggie wore his Wizard hat. I wore my Witch's hat. I left R a bag of treats to give out, although I knew that he wouldn't open the door to the trick-or-treaters. It wasn't very cold that night but when we were halfway through the wind kept blowing my hat on my face. I just took it off. RK carried a UNICEF box and a few gave some money. We did the houses on our street, then we crossed and did a few more streets. We came home at around 6:45 pm. They got quite a lot of treats, sorted them and filled about 2 purple bins.
It was very cold, very bitter. When my taxi came at Superstore, a lady asked my driver if we could share the ride. I guess she must have been cold waiting outside. I couldn't understand what she was saying but she seemed like she was about to cry. She was going up the same street as I was and so I agreed. We dropped her off first. The driver asked me how much I usually pay for the cab. I told him around $5.50. He only asked for $5.00.
Ryan, Ryland and I had haircuts. After Ryland finished his turn, I checked out his hair cut and found libag behind his left ear. Oh, I hope Amanda didn't see that. When we came home, I reminded my children that they should scrub themselves, especially those hidden nooks and joints, when they take a bath.
A few days ago, I asked R to bring Ryan shoe shopping next time he goes out. R wanted to bring him now but Ryan didn't want to go. I told R that he's already tired anyway since he had catechism in the morning and they might not be able to get back before mass.
The Boston Red Sox won the World Series last night. The curse of the Bambino (Babe Ruth) was finally broken. The last time the Red Sox won the world series was in 1918. People believed that the baseball team was cursed ever since Babe Ruth was traded to the New York Yankees in 1920.
Ryan and I had a lightbulb moment that morning when we were watching the sports news. We were trying to figure out what the curse meant. We also learned that bambino is Spanish for baby (Babe Ruth). Ryan said, “That’s why Daddy calls Ryland bambino!” Oh yeah, of course, I thought. Then he shortened it to Bambi. It used to tick me off every time he called Ryland Bambi because that sounded like a girl’s name or Bambi the deer in the Disney movie.
There was a lunar eclipse last night. This was the first time that a lunar eclipse happened during a Baseball World Series. The eclipse wasn’t visible here since it was cloudy. The moon appeared red because of the dust in the air.
I attended the townhall meeting at work. I first met up with my friend Elaine and our other friend Chat. I was teasing Chat because she was starting a new position as a Claims Systems Specialist. She had also wanted to work at home but I guess she wouldn’t be interested now. One downside of working at home is that I can’t get promoted to a higher position. I will be stuck as a claims adjuster until I go back to the office. But that’s okay with me because working at home is easier and less stressful for me while I raise my young kids.
The meeting had a Halloween theme. The first agenda was about fraud, then about the quarterly results. There was a Jeopardy game afterwards. It seems that everybody has been a fan of Jeopardy since Ken Jennings started winning game after game. He has earned over $2 million and he’s still winning. After the townhall meeting, the Work-at-Home Staff had a meeting with Mike, our supervisor, and Jen. Jen and I used to be in the same unit before and she reminded me that I was her pass-up buddy. And here she is now, our Team Assistant. Talk about role reversal.
Char, one of the WAH staff and who was sitting next to me at the meeting, mentioned how her husband always complains when there’s no supper ready when he comes home from work. “What does he think I do all day at home? Lay around in bed the whole day?” Char complained. I was in the same situation when I first started working at home.
When I was still working in the office, R would get home before I did. He would start supper since I wouldn’t be home until 5:00 or 5:30 p.m. I used to pick up my youngest son at daycare after work. So when I started working at home, there was this adjustment period that we went through. He didn’t realize that although I was home, I was working. The first couple of days there was no supper ready when he came home since I was still working and I thought that he would continue doing what he had been doing before, prepare supper. But he was expecting that it would be ready since I was home. That’s when I started to ask the kids to do more around the house. I taught Reggie how to fry meat. Sometimes I would start preparing supper during my lunch break or cook the next day’s meal at night after supper.
