The Good & The Bad Around Chez Sluggy Lately

Here are some updates on things going on around Chez Sluggy that aren't a full post worth.

* The Senior Recital was good.
The stage was decorated for the Holidays.

College Boy before his first piece.  He was so nervous....can you tell? lolz

This is his friend Emily, who he had his recital with.  Performance majors get a solo recital but tech and ed students share a recital.

Here is College Boy and Emily performing one of their duets.

Preparing to take their bows with the accompanist Linda.

Relieved it's all over with finally!!!

College Boy with his flute profession/teacher, Mrs. Christine Moulton.

Another photo of the performers.

College Boy and Emily.

Another pose with a borrowed flute(I bet he would have sounded even better with his own flute)but it needed repairs.

 The proud mama......

 And the proud papa......

* Hubs got a phone call from his brother in SC yesterday.  It's only been two weeks since his sister moved there and there is already trouble in paradise.  They are butting heads.  The brother isn't helping matters by telling her "I told you so" about decisions she had in the past.  And he is being not very compassionate with her otherwise.  It's two old people(68 and just shy of 61)who are set in their ways and use to having their own way and living alone having to make concessions.  Hubs told them they need to work it out.  If the brother throws her out she'll have to go to social services and/or a homeless shelter.  She has problems beyond getting along with her brother(a touch of ungratefulness for what folks have done for her)and she can't come here.  Our plate is full but I can't help but have a worry in the back of my mind that things will get ugly before they get better(IF they get better).

* Christmas is quickly closing in on us.  Hubs picked up College Boy on Thursday(another long ride in a cargo van for him).  Daughter finished up exams Friday evening and now her back is giving her problems again.  She is trying to fit an injection in before the end of December(which would be better on our insurance than having it done in January).  This means more medical bills for us. 8-(
I still don't know when the eldest son will be arriving to spend Christmas with us yet.  Next weekend or ???  This will be the first time since 2012 I think since all three kids have all been here for the Holidays.  Daughter moved in 2013 and I don't think eldest has been home for Christmas since then either.

* I haven't made any cookies yet for Christmas!  Last year I went on a cookie making binge and made 7 different types........

Lemon Gooey Butter Cookies
Coconut Macaroon Cookies
Peanut Butter w/PB M&Ms Cookies
Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies
Italian Ricotta Cookies
Butterscotch Cashew Cookies
Chocolate Chip w/M&Ms Cookies

So many cookies and I ended up throwing out so many!  I guess we aren't big cookie eaters here......well, Eldest wasn't home so that was one less muncher to take care of them.

Last year's Cookie Tray.

* I hit Weis(PMITA)Markets on Friday and Lord!, there goes the December budget. lololz  I don't think I can face tallying up my food spending for the month now.  It's probably not as bad as I think it is(or not?lol).  At least I have my rolled coins, rebates and post coupon envelopes to add and offset this extra spending.  I did pick up a few deals.....Eight O'Clock coffee after stacked Qs and BOGO were $1.24 a bag, more Hershey's Crunch Layer candy for $1 a bag, 2 lb. Hatfield slow cooker roasts were on sale $5(Reg. $8 each)and two that had Tuscan Herb marinate in them had $3 off instant stickers so those cost me $2 per roast($1 per lb.).  I also got a "special deal" on a bag of Huggies diapers....on sale for $6.99 this week and I had stacked $3 in Weis bookletQ and ManuQs so suppose to be $3.99.  I guess I had clipped a digital Q on Weis' website because that came off too(and explains why the register wouldn't take my ManuQ and she had to manually put it through), so another $2 discount making them $1.99 OOP.  I can sell these for $5.50 locally so a few extra bucks to throw at the food budget when I do.  Woohoo! ;-)
I also got baby back ribs for $3 lb.(half price for us locally)which I am cooking up tonight for dinner.

* The cards for Sonya are starting to roll in.  Not too late to contact me and send her a note still.  I want to get these boxed up and sent our the day after Christmas I think, so she gets them in time for her Birthday. 
Consider sending her a cheery note your Christmas Good Deed.  You just don't know how much doing this will help until you've been in a dark place yourself. 
Email me for the address where to send a card.

Ok, I need to go check on dinner and put Chester out.  That dog is turning out to be a snow demon....he LOVES racing through the snow!!

When he isn't sound asleep upside down in his doggy bed......... ;-)


Sluggy

Guess How Many Cars We Now Own!?

If you said 4, you would win the prize!

Oldest son came home for a few days.....ok, technically he was here for 2.5 days from the moment he stepped into the house Sat. night, until he left a few minutes ago.

I put the blog on auto-pilot mostly for the last 5 days because we've been dealing with buying another car.
Ugh.....didn't we JUST BUY ANOTHER CAR?!?!

This one if for oldest to use this year at school and then he will "buy" it from us when he leaves school, gets a job and can afford his own insurance policy.

So we've been busy finding a car the past 5 days.
And here is what we got.....

 A 2002 Hyundai something or other.
Yah see how interesting I am in cars?
I can't even remember what it's called.lol
* I've been informed it's a Sonata....thanks TANNER!

Anyway, we got a good deal from a local dealer we trust.  Out the door it was $5650 with tax, tags, registration and they give a 90 day warranty.
And it has 53K miles on it.

Technically this car didn't cost Hubs and I anything. The car and the extra in insurance for the next year  for it was all taken out of oldest's college fund $.  It's technically his car....we just hold the paper on it until he is graduated and working.  The remaining college money was divided into 2 halves and he gets 1 hunk to live on this semester and the other hunk to live on next semester.  And then the money is gone and he is on his own.

I also have been cooking.
Oldest wanted some barbecue so Sunday was spent on the porch with the smoker for a good piece of time.  We had his birthday meal out Sunday night at a steak house.
Monday he ran errands and packed, then we had the barbecue for dinner and the cake I baked him for his belated 21st bday....

Here's the backup shot with him pretending he just blew out the candles.....

What a ham.....

We sat down and went over his money situation and gave him half of what is left in his college fund.....Jan. he gets the other half and then the Bank of Mom & Dad is closing his account....permanently!lol

I printed out a budget form and when he gets back he and his girlfriend are going to sit down and budget the money.
I impressed upon him how good it would be to live on less than he had left for the next 4 months and to throw some money each month into a car account in case the car needs a repair, because we are NOT paying for anything else.  I hope he takes my advice.

Anyway, he was out the door bright and early this morning so he can get back to school for his girlfriend's birthday on Wednesday and to get settled into their new digs, buy groceries, get his books for this semester, etc.
But not before I could load him up with 2 big boxes of food/toiletries/laundry detergent from the stockpile too.

So that's what I've been doing the past 5 days.....when I wasn't going to Rite-Aid.

I can't wrap my head around the fact that we own FOUR CARS.  One for every licensed driver in this house.....until #2 son gets his license later this year.....eeshh!
Anybody want to come pick me up after I faint dead away when I get our next car insurance bill?!

What's going on in your life?

Sluggy

Company, Meals, Shopping, Gardening & Other Foolishness This Week

My week hasn't gone as I had planned.
First off, the Nephew has been staying with us since Tuesday.
He's not a big imposition but I've had to be more structured with him here.
I just chased him off the tv for the 2nd time this week.  He has a penchant for those MTV and VH1 shows I can't stand.....you know, the Jersey Shore, Mob Wives, Celebrity Rehab, Sweet 16, Cribs, etc.  All those unreality shows where he can sit and be a voyeur into other people's lives...other people who aren't living "real lives", and dream that he'll be just like them when he grows up.
Yeeesh.....

He's 17 and still doesn't have a learner's permit and blames it on other people in his life.
So the first day I drove him to the DMV to get a permit book so he can study and go take his permit test.
He put the book down about an hour after he got it and hasn't studied it since.
Somehow I think those 'other people' in his life aren't the ones keeping him from getting his license.....

I hit the Bread Outlet....9 packages of bread and rolls and 2 boxes of chocolate doughnuts and $10.67 poorer later we stopped for gas at Sheetz before heading home.  I tried to use my .70¢ a gallon points discount from Weis Markets but it didn't take.  The gas station cashier said I had to take my receipt up to Weis and get my refund there.
Bleh.  Another thing that doesn't work right.  Doesn't life just seem to be filled with stuff/procedures/routines that just don't work right?

Having the Nephew here necessitated me hitting Weis Markets again this week for some provisions so we combined the gas points refund trip with our shopping excursion to the grocery store.
The gas points malfunction seems to be a known issue and they have a 4 page instruction sheet at the CS desk to get you a cash refund without alot of fuss and muss.  I had my $10.83 cash refund in my hot little hand in no time flat.

As for the groceries....I had planned to get a Watermelon(on sale for $3.99), 2 blocks of Cabot Cheese($1.50 after Qs),2 packages of cream cheese($1.25 on sale) and a bag of onions for $2 this week.  They had nice red peppers for $1 each so I picked up 2(since I had to rethink my tentative meal plan this week with an additional mouth to feed) and I got a quart of whole milk for the quiche I was planning on making and added in a couple of bags of salad(BOGO sale) so I could offer some salads for lunches this week.  I needed something to make a quick late lunch that day, so I found some discounted fresh ground beef for just under $2 lb. to make some burgers on the grill for the 3 of us at home for lunch.

Here are a couple of deals I found as well.....

Turkey Kielbasa for $1 a package(near sell by date).  I bought 3 to put into the freezer.

I also had 2 $2/1 Hatfield IPQs to use by 7/30.  Last Saturday they had Hatfield bacon marked down to $2.99 and Ham Steaks for $2.50 but I didn't have those Qs with me, rats!
The marked down bacon packs were long gone, so I got 1 package of Scrapple for $2.99 so $.99 after Q.
Then I got this....

Over by the Ham Steaks they still had the 2 for $5 sign up, though it expired on Saturday.
So I threw a ham steak in my cart.
I went through the check-out and paid my $33.41 total, including the ham steak which rang up full price at $3.99.
I then headed to the CS desk since my ham steak didn't ring up the sale price hanging off the shelf tag.
Weis has a policy that if your item rings up incorrectly(not the sale price)you get your money back and get to keep the item for free.  They also give you back your money if an old sale hangtag is still on the shelf....I thought they just gave you the difference back between the current regular price and the old sale price sign but getting it for free is better, right?lol
So basically they gave me the ham steak for free AND they gave me an additional $2 off the rest of my order, for the Q I used on it's purchase.  Somehow that seems so wrong but they didn't deduct the Q since they will get that $2 back from the manufacturer when they turn it in.

So I spent $29.41 at Weis which turned out to be a 54% savings rate off of regular retail. 8-)

We started out the Meal Plan for the week....
SUNDAY--Ravioli, Garden Salad
MONDAY--leftover Pork Loin slices, Fried Yellow Squash, Mashed Potatoes
*Then things got rejiggered with the additional of the Nephew at meals.*
TUESAY--Rueben Sandwiches
WEDNESDAY--Chicken Fajitas
THURSDAY--Chicken Cheese Broccoli Rice Casserole
FRIDAY--Boston Baked Beans, Cornbread, Pickles
SATURDAY--Leftovers

So my quiche didn't happen this week.
Late Monday night, I cooked 2 small corned beef briskets in the crockpot and put in the fridge to cool Tuesday morning.  Then before dinner I took them out and sliced/shaved them on my mandolin slicer into deli slices for the sandwiches.  I also had the swiss cheese already and the 1000 island dressing.  I bought a loaf of rye bread for .89¢ at the Breat Outlet.
Wednesday I thawed 2 chicken breasts, used some old red bell pepper strips from the freezer, threw in 2 small leftover yellow squash I hadn't used on Monday, along with some of the onions and 1 of the red peppers I just bought Tuesday.  I also added 2 banana peppers from the garden to the mixture.  I used an opened bag of shredded cheddar and opened a package of multgrain organic tortillas I bought for .49¢ at the beginning of the month at Price Chopper.

I'll put some yellow eye beans on to soak in a bit for Friday's dinner.  That night's dinner is totally from the stockpile/pantry.

I did some more picking from the garden the last few days....

The 1st photo was from Sat. and the 2nd photo was from Wednesday.
Hubs picked 2 more cukes Wednesday evening.  Because of this mountain of cukes, I have a gallon jar filled with this.....

Bread and Butter Pickles anyone? lol

Due to the 2 weeks of early humid and hot weather here, I also have this....

The First Turning Tomato of the Season!!
BLTs and 'Mater Sammiches are in my near future......

And I found the garden planting diagram last weekend shoved in behind my recipe sheets on the bookshelf.  Indeed yes, Hubs planted melons...I am guessing that means WATERmelons in the bed on the side of the house.  I have found cucumbers places that are NOT indicated on the planting diagram, so I am taking said diagram's voracity with a grain of the proverbial salt.
Wouldn't you? ;-)

Yesterday after I got out of the pool and did a bit of weeding on the back garden bed I saw this....

And then this, tucked waaaaaaaaaaay back by the deck railing....

2 more melons....in the back garden bed.....where there is NO indication of said melons being planted back in that bed.
?!?!?

I think Hubs is trying to gaslight me......
Well maybe not, at least until the kids are grown and outta the house.lol

Ok, I am off to debone some chicken, throw some rice into the crockpot and maybe take a quick nap.
I have already washed dishes, gone to Rite-Aid and used up my expiring +Ups, picked up #2 son's friend so they could hang out here for the day, run the Nephew off of MTV/VH1/LALA land, gotten Chinese food for everyone for lunch(and not a thank you from any of them...grrrr)and posted this.  I'm beat!

What frugal stuff is happening(or Not!)in your world lately?


Sluggy

The "Joys" of Parenthood.....or Not So Much

I just read an article about a study that was done on "Raising Children". 
Basically they have concluded that parents who think that the pros outweigh the cons of having kids and raising them to adulthood are delusional.
Yep, people with kids are delusional.
You can read the article HERE.

Frankly I can see where they are coming from.

I do know that if kids started out as teenagers, the world's population would be much less than it is now and alot more families would only have 1 kid! ;-)

What's your feeling on this issue?

Sluggy

Can I Breathe Now?!?!...Transformers, the Czech Republic, Kid Social Life & Mangled Cars

No matter how much planning I do and simplifying and organizing and doing things ahead when I can, it never fails that I end up with one crisis after another at the Holidays.
Something unforeseen always throws a big ol' monkey wrench into the works and the metaphorical wheels come flying off the cart!

Is it just me or does this happen to all of y'all too?

I don't think I would know how to behave it everything went smoothly and nothing came up.

I've been like a Jack Russell Terrier chasing his tail for the last few days.
It's been one thing after another with no down time whatsoever......I am plum wore out!

Nothing major, just the usual day-to-day stuff with some psuedo-major complications thrown in and then a big heaping pile of Holiday time stuff on top.

Why is is that every danged group, team, club, class, society and organization that your kids are a part of feel the need to hold some special event at the Holidays?  My kids aren't way over scheduled like most of the kids in this country are.....you know, the kids who are on 3 kinds of sports teams per season, take some kind of physical activity lesssons, then take music/art/theatre lessons every week, then belong to scouts or 4H or some other group, belong to a band or choir or chorus or are in a play, etc, etc., etc.
And then there are the religious affiliation groups/clubs they participate in.  No wonder the kids in this country are burning out and developing ulcers at 10 yrs. old!

Why do every single one of these entities have to have something going on at the Holidays?....Some thing that you have to "do" something for?......bake for, organize for, fundraise for, sell tickets for, donate things for, give money to, haul kids around for.
And each kids has multiple groups/clubs that need you to do for them.....and times the number of committments by how many kids you have and the demand on your time, energy, resources and sanity is MIND NUMBING!
And then add on top of all that, the things YOU as a family want to partake in/do/fund/organize personally and you just need to give up sleeping for the entire month of December to find the hours to get it all accomplished.

Am I the only one who just feels squashed like this at the Holidays??
Tell me I am not......please!


*Friday we got hit with a very large "car maintenance" list of repairs for Hub's car.
*We are dealing with some financial issues with a relative....again after he totaled his car.
*Running ragged toting #2 son to rehearsals/practices.
*Trying to keep track of the comings and goings of Daughter.
*Delivering fruit and candy orders from fundraiser.
*Spending time putting Rite-Aid pillage items away.
*Going through things to donate to the Salvation Army and the Food Bank.
*Standing in the excruciatingly long lines at the PO because people show up CLUELESS about how to pack a box(or pack it right there at the counter!)and can't decide on WHICH RATE to ship it!argh!!! For gosh sakes, step out of line and figure out what the heck you are doing BEFORE you get to the counter!
*Digging through the storage unit to find things I sold and forgetting to bring my flashlight!
*Daughter wanting cookies for her French class party.
*#2 Son wanting brownies for his Band Xmas party.
*Band parents wanting baked goods to sell at the School play....that makes 3 different baking chores within a 3 day stretch!
*STILL trying to get the Xmas tree put up.....we are on Week #2 now.lol
*Trying to keep up with the eBay work.   I got hit with a massive amount of sales yesterday(ok, so this is a GOOD problem to have!)so I was up until 4:30 last night packing orders that had to go out today.
*If I am selling and shipping stuff, I also don't have time to list new stuff to replace what I sold....but trying to list stuff anyway.
*Driving relative around to do his errands because his car is totaled.
*Having to work in a Cookie Exchange and Giveaway during this insanely busy time.
*Trying to throw together & or order our Xmas gifts.
*Getting Hubs ready for a business trip this week.

And this is all on top the usual chores....like cooking, cleaning, laundry, pet care, grocery shopping, errands, and of course!....running to Rite-Aid!lolol

Just to tell you how improbable my life is sometimes, listen to what happened this weekend.....
I sold a Transformers toy to a guy in the Czech Republic.  Stood in line for a full 1/2 hr on Sat. morning to mail it off to him.
Saturday night I realize at 2am that I shipped him the WRONG TRANSFORMER!!!
(I had 2 different ones for sale on eBay.)
So even though I am going to loose money now because I have to send him the correct one on my own dime, I pack it up and get it ready to go Monday morning and I go to bed.
Sunday morning after I get up, I go online to end the listing for the toy I sent him by mistake(since I don't have it anymore to sell).
And guess what???
I find out that while I was sleeping SOMEBODY in SPAIN bought it!
Seriously.....I have had that toy for 8 years and NO ONE has even looked at the thing on eBay.....I send it to the Czech Republic and suddenly, someone in Spain buys it!LOLOLOLOL


Yes, this is my life......


Luckily(I think I mean luckily?!lol), I do have a 2nd of that toy I sold.  So Hubs and I go to the storage unit Sunday and after ONLY going through HALF of the boxes there, we find it.....well, "I" found it. ;-)
But the package is less than perfect.
So I have to email the guy in Spain and tell him the whole sordid tale, and that I have another one I can ship him but the package is not pristine, if he still wants this one....and I hope that he is fairly fluent in English and understands what exactly I am saying, because I KNOW that my writing is ESPECIALLY understandable after I haven't slept for 3 days!!lol
And I send him photos of the item's condition.
And now I sit and wait....and wait.....and wait some more until he decides if he still wants it or not.

Heck, I should have just canceled the transaction and let him leave me a negative.
But instead I invest even more precious time in this suck-hole situation in the name of  "doing the right thing".
Sometimes it pays to just be an unethical heathen instead.....lol

I've run the relative to do their errands, gone to the PO again to mail the international packages I can't pay for online, hit Rite-Aid, hit the grocery store, gotten Daughter's Birthday Ice Cream Cake, I've reconciled my bank statement and fed & put out the doggies.
I am now going to sit down and relaxing for the first time in 3 days.....well, I will after I finish writing this post.
I'm cooking an easy dinner(leftover shrimp I had boiled and I'll add them to a side dish package of Noodles and Alfredo Sauce and heat up a box of frozen veggies)and then I may go take a hot bath and go to bed before 7pm.

And I will come up for air and breathe.

Sluggy

Wanna Trade?

So, would you like to trade days with me?
Let me fill you in on what days are like here.
Take my Thursday for instance.....

I got up after being serenaded for 2 HOURS straight by the dog with the largest case of separation anxiety known to man or beast.  This dog will howl non-stop if someone is not physically in the same room with him.  I can be in the dining room with the gate across(as the dogs are NOT allowed in there)with this dog not 2 feet away from me in the kitchen and he's STARING a whole through my head.  But because that gate is there, he will whine and whimper and then start the howling hysterics because he can't GET TO ME!
I am NOT an early riser, therefore once the kids and DH are out the door I am not downstairs with the hounds yet, so I get sung to every morning.  It is ANNOYING as hell but after so many years, I can block it out and sleep right through it.

So I'm up and dragging around.  Check the email, write a blog post to put up later in the day and then I do any eBay emailing/listing/photoing/packing/shipping I need to do.  Next is checking for deals on other deal blogs and check out what my favorite bloggy friends are up to.

I had a 1st class international package to mail yesterday so I was FORCED to go to the PO.  I like my PO, really I do.  It's a teeny tiny town and I am on a first name basis with the clerk Pete.  Pete is great and lifts my spirits when I get to chat with him.  I have been known to bring him a cup of Dunkin' Donuts java on occasion....hey, you want good service it helps to grease the wheels. ;-)
We use to have 2 clerks but Jim retired and the PO is hemorrhaging money so they are NOT replacing Jim.
Poor Pete....
So anyway I go in with my package and get in line.  Some guy gets in line behind me a bit afterwards.  Suddenly this guy is screaming into my ear!  Well, HE thought he was screaming into his phone, but HE was so close and within my 'personal space zone' and at the right height that his shouting went right past his phone and into my left ear.
"Yes, this is XXXX  returning your call. I can be reached at XXXX.  Please call me back when you get this message."
It's a small room at our PO and this asshole could have waited until he got back into his car that leave that message, dontcha think?
Geez.....
So I got to turn around and give him the look while I waited for the ringing in my ear to subside.
The woman in front of me in line(an older woman with a dour look on her face)shot a look back at old "Can you hear me now? Guy" too.  Then she turned around, and also invaded my personal space zone, and tugged on his arm.  I thought for a minute old granny was going to give him "what for" but she then said, "Aren't you Aunt XXX's son?....Don't you know my mother XXX?"
Turns out these 2 folks are some distant cousins or something.  I'm sorry I can't provide you with the play by play genealogy but I didn't take notes as they went on and on and on! figuring out just how they were related.  Seems their mothers were sisters tho from what I could tell as they shouted back and forth over me.  Then when they got to granny's mother I got to hear all about her 90 yr old mother's health issues....from the catheter to the ostomy bag to the other non-essential organ removable surgeries to needing skilled nursing care 24/7 and she was now living with granny lady and she has to have one of those monitor things on her when she leaves the house in case something happens to mom when she steps out to run errands.  And then we got to hear about how she retired finally from her job and then all these older relatives started getting sick and she is worn out from caring for them all.  Geez lady, can't you say NO to anybody??
It seemed like a year and a day but granny finally got her turn and left and I got my package mailed.

So I then get to have the highlight of my day.....going to the local grocery store and getting free dog food with my coupons!  I was in and out in 10 minutes.  Now why couldn't that part of my day take longer instead?

I come home and deal with putting the dogs out to do their 'business' and go pack some more packages to mail tomorrow.
As I'm rocking out to some music turned up VERY loudly I hear dogs barking in the distance.  That's weird I think because they sound like OUR dogs but our dogs are in the den sleeping.
Nope....
The wind had blown the backdoor open and all 3 dogs had make a break for it.  Cherry our female beagle(our runner-who loves being outside and will take EVERY opportunity you give her to runaway)was standing on the deck barking at the now totally out of sight other two dogs.    So I had 2 loose dogs to NOT chase....no, I don't run after dogs anymore.
Peanut, our bagel(bassett/beagle mix)is all about food.  He use to run like a beagle but now at his age he likes napping and eating more(kind of like me).  I took a bog of dog biscuits outside and walked around the yard shaking it and calling his name.  About 20 mins. later he appeared in the next door neighbor's yard racing around like a maniac.  He saw me and heard "Cookies" and he came running.  Of course, we have a small netting fence between the yards(so that their black lab doesn't come over here and poop when they let him loose in their yard), so Peanut ran to the fence and then along it up to the front yard where he could get around it.
But then it didn't appear back in the backyard.  So I walked to the front door and he was standing and barking at the closed front door......he is not the brightest crayon in the dog box, is he?

The chihuahua was still MIA.  She will snarl and bark and stand at the edge of the deck if she sees someone or something move but she rarely leaves the deck and attacks anything because she is all bark.  But I guess Peanut's leaving gave her the courage to bolt.
I got a phone call a bit later from #2 son's friend's adult brother that he had her in his yard up the street so I sent #2 son up there to retrieve her(she is HIS dog anyway)when he got off the bus from school.

So my afternoon was full of fun and mayhem.

Then the other highlight of my day was attending the school's band and chorus concert.

#2 son is in both the middle school and high school bands(tho he's in middle school because he is more advanced and was in the high school marching band, he gets to be in both this year) and daughter is in the Chorus.  It was nice to see them both perform but every time we go to one of these I think I am going to have a stroke!
Why?
Because of the rudeness and total lack of consideration among the parents in the audience.
If their kid is performing they are standing in the aisles or climbing over the seats with some bigass camera trying to get the perfect shot of  "their precious Tiffany".  They are blocking the view of everyone around them who is trying to WATCH the performance too.  I watched one guy last night prop himself up on 2 seats so he was almost as tall as if he had stood up, blocked the sightlines for about 5 people behind him for an entire set of numbers.  He never WATCHED the show that whole time his kid was performing.  He had his face in his viewfinder clicking on shots and then reviewing them to see if it was a shot worth saving.
And if their kids are NOT performing at the moment the parents talk incessantly while other kids are performing.  At the winter performance DH actually turned around and laid someone out for this kind of rudeness....not that it helped.
The other thing is people will get up and leave when their kid is done performing so the kids who go last have barely anyone left in the audience.
And people who get up and walk around DURING a piece....for gosh sakes, can't you hold still and do your moving BETWEEN performances??!
And then there are the parents who come in late. ARGH!  If you can't bother to show up on time(they do post the time it starts you know!), then have the courtesy to stand in the back(and NOT talk!)and wait until a piece is over and THEN walk down the aisle and find a seat in the 3rd row.
Finally, cell phones.....hello?!?!
Can you untether yourself from that piece of plastic for 1 hour people?  And if you can't please turn off the ringer or buzzer or whatever you have it set on.

Finally it was home to answer more eBay moron questions like......

*How much to ship this to Austria if you take it out of the box.  "Well, let's see....if I take it out of the box to throw it into a padded envie to verify the shipping for you, it will no longer be new and sealed in the box and if you end up not buying it after all that, I'll be left with something I can get even LESS money for than when it WAS new and sealed in the box."

*Is this the largest Iron Giant......do you know if they made a bigger one?  This is the type of ? I call the "fishing expedition".  They are not interested in buying your item....they either have one to sell to or they need this information for some other reason and figure they will bother you for the info rather than go look it up for themselves.

*I am interested in buying your xxxx but will you take $xx instead of $xxx?  "Dear buyer, Do I look like a flea market?"

*Will you take $xx for your item XXXX. "Sorry but that price is more than a 30% discount on the listing price.  If I wanted to give it away(after eBay and Paypal fees), I would just give it to charity now."

*I also have gotten 4 QTS emails so far from one guy about one item I have listed.  He is truly pestering me with every  possible question he can come up with about this item and some of it I can't answer since I am not omniscient.  I do think he will eventually buy the item but he is going to make me jump through all the hoops and spend an inordinate amount of time and energy on this sale.....sigh.....

And to top this day off, I found out on Thursday that we are going to have some "Relative Problems".  Sorry but I can't go into this whole other area of my life but I think there are some family members who actually read this blog sometimes so I can't dish about any of the juicy hilarity that would be our families.
It's killing me but I can't....lol

Between all this I had to make dinner and make sure laundry was done so the kids had performance clothing to wear(I even had to IRON A SHIRT...ack!).

So that was my day yesterday in a nutshell.
Now do you wanna trade??

Sluggy