Assorted photos

The kids live for Halloween. They would wear their Halloween costumes every day if I let them.

Emery's first day of Kindergarten. He had a rough start to school, but after consulting with his doctor, we tried some medication to see if it would help. It did and now he loves school.



Emma being a ham. She's got a pretty mischevious personality but it hardly ever shines through.



Emma was all set to ride her bike. Helmet on, ready to hit the door. And then she laid down and fell asleep.

I don't know how many times I find them like this. Emery has a pathological aversion to sleeping by himself. So just about every morning, I find him asleep next to his sister in bed. Fortunately, she's a sound sleeper.

Having fun

Had some fun doing Emma's hair today. I've always wanted to curl her hair to see what it would look like. Thankfully, my daughter indulges me.

I write like

So there's this new website that analyzes your prose and will tell you which famous author your written word resembles. In my case? Stephen King. I'm curious to try out some of my other writings to see if there is consistency their analysis.

Something to think about

Ok kids, here's a little grist to chew on: I ain't cheap. Okay, let's back up a bit. If you come to see me for hair services, you can expect that I'll do my absolute best to make sure you step out of the salon looking like a million bucks. You come to me for world class service, I'm going to oblige you. But for the love of peanut butter, don't sit down in my chair and expect me to hand over my time, energy and talent to making you look good and not be willing to give me fair compensation. Notice the word fair in that sentence. There are some places where it costs the equivalent of your mortgage to get your hair done. I don't work in one of those places. But I also don't work at Pro-cuts (no offense to people who do work at Pro-cuts, but people aren't exactly beating down your door for the quality of your work).
You can go to a fast food joint and get a hamburger and fries. Or you could go to Chili's and get the same. The difference? Quality. And you will pay a bit more for the quality of service at a higher end joint because you know that you're going to get more. The same analogy applies here.
What's got my dander up? Someone came in for a variety of services today that involved about three hours of my time and effort (not to mention product). And then they wanted to nickel and dime me for the cost (when they didn't just outright ASK me for free add on services). Please. I might not be the world's best stylist, but I've only ever had ONE person leave my chair unhappy with the results. And it was the second person I ever did professionally, many moons ago. No, I don't expect a tip for my work (you want to tip? That's greatly appreciated but NEVER expected). I do, however, expect that if you walk in looking like death warmed over and you leave looking ready to stop traffic, don't give me a hard time about the cost.

Cowgirl Emma

Emma put on Emery's boots and paraded around the apartment calling herself "Cowgirl Emma". She even added a couple of "Yee-haws" for emphasis. Seriously, I have no idea where she gets this.

Unemployed

So...today I became unemployed. Being unemployed isn't exactly earth shattering news, in this day's economy. No, it's pretty much old hat by now, almost passe. "What? You're just NOW becoming unemployed? Dude, that was so last year." But I wasn't let go (or canned, as I like to phrase it...sh*tcanned when I'm really in a mood). Nope, I was ter-muh-nat-ed. Am I going to delve into the details of the termination on this public forum? No (not until my lawsuit is over, anyway). But I will say that I was not at fault on this one. Didn't punch someone in the nose, didn't make fun of another employee's overweight mother, didn't even give someone a bad haircut. Let's just say it was corporate shenanigans (until my lawsuit is over, anyway. Then I'll spill the beans, pending a non-disclosure agreement).

Anyhoo, don't feel bad for me. As my mother said, "When God closes one door, He opens another." So, I'm out looking for my open door right now (well, not literally). But it is a bit discouraging, considering that under my watch the salon had it's best year on record, sales gains practically every day, an increasing clientele and very happy stylists. It's like "what do I have to do to get some respect around here?" But I'm moving on. Looking back is fine for high school reunions and reminiscing about old girlfriends, but I'm on to bigger and better things (I hope).

Easter!

I really need to post more often.

Anyhoo, we had Easter at my mom's. The kids had a blast. The pics are blurry because they are taken on my blackberry. But really, when you think about it, we can now take fairly high res pics from our phones. Seriously, that was the purest science fiction 15 years ago. Now, my phone does everything but make me breakfast (and wouldn't that be a neat trick if it could).

Healthcare

For everyone bitching about the healthcare bill, think about this: Now, you can't be denied coverage because of a broken foot when you were a kid (true story). Now, your parents can't be denied coverage because of blood pressure medication (another true story). Now, your insurance company can't kick you off the policy because you got sick (way too many true stories). "But now people are forced to buy health insurance", you cry. People are forced to buy car insurance too. "But people can choose not to drive", you cry some more. Yes, but people can't choose not to live (well, I suppose they could just kill themselves at that...hopefully, one of those people will be Glen Beck). No, there won't be any effin' death panels or rationed care, nor will the country become a socialist state (as if the previous administration didn't do enough to make that happen). It amazes how some people will believe anything told to them by a "famous" person like "Sarah Palin" (the air quotes were meant to be facetious both times). People were up in arms over medicare, too, when it was enacted in the 60's, talking about the end of our society. Well, just try and get medicare repealed today. That's a political death sentence. You don't like the healthcare reforms? Great. Move to Canada. Oh wait, they have universal health care too. Um, England. Nope, they got it too. Sweden? Same story for most of Europe. In fact, for those of you that state "We have the greatest healthcare system in the world!"....well, we don't. We're generally ranked in the low 30's amongst developed nations in healthcare (We are beating the Russian Federation for all you neo-cons out there). We spend far too much money and get far too little in return. Is this bill going to fix everything? Prolly not. We'll likely have to revisit the issue again. But it gets the ball rolling in the right direction. Which is something those Republican nay-sayers NEVER did. Thanks for reading, you can now return to your regularly scheduled blog reading.

warmer weather is here

It was relatively warm Saturday. We went to the park with some friends and enjoyed the first warm weather of the year. We are definitely an outdoor family when the weather is warm. I can't wait till summer

Ads

So, I decided to put some ads on the blog in an effort to see if my ramblings will generate some income. You aren't required to click on anything, reading about me and my kids is still a free enterprise.

FYI - cold chicken nuggets? Not that good...

Out with some friends. While I don't see the benefits of making this a weekly excursion (I worked in a bar in my younger days and I don't miss it) I could do this on a monthly basis (well, every other month)

Potty Face

I mentioned in the last post that Emma makes a face when she doesn't want to go potty...




Pictures are worth a thousand words, so I'll let them speak for themselves....

Various pics

I finally uploaded pics from my camera that had been collected dust since Thanksgiving. I thought I'd post a few....

Emma and my sister. She really looks like her mother in this pic


Humorously enough, Emma makes this same face when I ask her to go potty (we're in the middle of potty training and it's not going well. This face is generally followed by the phrase "I don't want to")


We were playing around with the camera this morning, taking pics as we got ready. My little cut-ups. In the second pic, Emma is holding her favorite Christmas present, a harmonica. She is very musically inclined. She will burst out in song at the drop of a hat. It's like I'm an extra in a musical.