The ORIGINAL 1000+ Posts Club

[Penthesilea]

I think I missed some milestones and birthdays the last weeks. But here's to the newest milestone:

Congratulations Mikaela
2000 posts!

[MaineWriter]

And how my day got off to a lousy start (but hopefully it will get better)....

I have an amazon visa card which I use for everything. Because I charge so much, I get these $25 gift certificates to use at amazon and since I have a Kindle, and and buying books like mad, these coupons come in very handy.

Yesterday I received two in the mail...$50! I sorted the mail, put the bills in the bill drawer, the junk mail in the trash, and left the coupons on the table, intending to put them on the amazon account.

I wake up this morning, am doing my usual puttering and I notice...no coupons. Hmmm....

I start searching everywhere. I look in the bill drawer, the recycling, the trash. My purse. My briefcase. On the floor, under the couch, in the drawer of the desk. Then I do it all again. Now I start searching other places...in the bathroom, next to my bed. I go upstairs and wake up my daughter. She hasn't seen them.

I call my husband at work. Of course, he has no idea what I am talking about and denies ever seeing them.

I try to sit down and read email but I am too annoyed so I start the search again. This time I even search through the nasty trash....ewwww.

I have spent 30 minutes on this search and still nothing. Now I am getting really pissed. $50 can buy alot of books!

I call my husband again. "Please check your backpack," I say. "Maybe they got scooped up with your computer."

"I never took my computer out of my bag," he says. "But I'll look again. What do these coupons look like?"

I give him a detailed description. Nothing.

"I really didn't see anything on the table when I left this morning," he says. "They weren't there."

"Well, it could have been last night. Maybe you picked them up last night."

He thinks back to the evening. "All I did was sit on the couch and read the Smithsonian."

Suddenly, a light bulb goes off. His brother called. His brother invited him to his 50th birthday party next month. "Did you write down details of the party when you were talking to Michael?" I ask. My husband has this BAD habit of writing on whatever piece of paper happens to be lying around--never mind that I keep stacks of scratch pads all over the place for this very purpose.

"Michael? Oh, yeah," he says. "I wrote on an envelope that was on the table."

Bingo!

"Find the envelope," I say, and he does. And there are my coupons!

His lame excuse? "You never said they were in an envelope..."

At least we found them. The day can only go uphill from here!

L

[MaineWriter]

I was just out communing with nature in my outdoor shower and who do I see at the end of the yard but...Bambi! Ah, sweet. Maybe the day is getting better.

And Mikeala, congratulations on 2000 posts!

L

[optom3]

I have been so tied up in Wimbledon the last few days I suspect I have missed lots of people so I am just going to offer, one enormous joint, not that kind  CONGRATULATIONS !!!!

I now have a second crush too on a certain young Spanish tennis player, and it is nothing much to do with his looks, it is his extraordinary talent and one of the cutest smiles ever,second only to the man himself.

Unfortunately or fortunately depending on which way you look at it, the past  2 weeks have inspired my son Matt. to take his international tournament which is comming in November very seriously now.

That means mum is up at a stupid hour to bike alongside him while he runs. Back for 2 hours of clinic. Another run in the heat so he gets completely conditioned.(He has in the past played over 2.5 hours in 95% plus and it is pretty wearing.)Mum has to keep shouting encouragement.We are getting quite well known round te neighbourhood now !!!!!

Back for lesson and finally bike ride in the evening, for me while he runs again.

His coach is really taking things up a few more notches.My face fell when he was speaking to me about it.I am really struggling tp pay for waht he already does, in this recession,however he assures me he is not going to be charging for the extra. That is of course exceptionally generous of him, but so embarrassing for me.
I will have to keep a log of what we have had free and then hopefully when the recession ends, pay him for al the extras. I tried to pay him by giving him his weeks food shopping, but he was having none of that.

I do not know if it means he really thinks Matt has some real talent.I know at 11 he can beat the 14and 15 year old boys at the clinic he goes to.It is just when he does a tournament he loses as often as he wins against his own age group.This is apparantly because he has a habit of playing down.The 2 really big IMG tornaments he played in he got to the finals.

Not that I ever get to see him play now.I give off bad vibes apparantly by being too emotional.!!!!!!!!

It is very hard to watch your son out there on his own and not get emotional.At this age in the USTA matches they call their own shots and line calls and the cheating is unbelievable.One boy at the very last match I went to, before I was banned by his coach, called out the score and a whole game, not point, of Matt's just vanished.!!!!

I was hopping mad, which made Matt even more mad  and he lost the plot completely. Bye bye mummy.Same with my daughter at gymnastics, the first and only time she came off the beam was when I was watching.

So I  missed her becomming state champion and also Matt at the finals of the tournament at the IMG academy !!!! I have to stay at home and my husband, when he remembers texts me the scores. I in the meantime I am on I.V gin and tonic and valium.I cannot ring him so just have to sit waiting,and it it drives me insane !!!

It is also starting to become apparant that very soon, I will become less important to them than their coaches. It is hard to be a mum sometimes.I am ecstatic that they are doing so well, but saddened that I am becomming less and less important,apart from taking care of the nutrition side of things.

If there are any sporting mums here at Bettermost, perhaps they can offer me some tips on how to cope with it all.!!!!

[oilgun]

I was just out communing with nature in my outdoor shower and who do I see at the end of the yard but...Bambi!  ;DAh, sweet. Maybe the day is getting better.

Aww, and of course you didn't have your gun with you.  Isn't that always the case?

Congrats Mikaela!

[MaineWriter]

Yes, so this day...

After the nice outdoor shower, Hannah and I have to rush downtown to get her to a 9 am doctor appointment. So, off we go. I drop her at the door and say that I am going to sit in the car and read the NYT on my Kindle while I sip a cup of coffee.

I manage to get through one article (a funny one, about the horror show that is called "Christie Brinkley's divorce") and suddenly, at the door of the car, there is Hannah. "They said the appointment is tomorrow, mom, not today--and it's been cancelled for tomorrow, anyway."

Grrrr.

I get back to the office (after a detour to Shaw's) and find the appointment card: as clear as day: 7/8/08 at 9 am. Of course, by now, it's 10 am so the appointment slot is gone (if it ever existed).

Her prescription needs a refill which means I need to call the prescription line and then I have to schlep back to the office to pick that up! What a PIA.

Oh, and did I mention, it's 87 degrees and humid?

L

[MaineWriter]

Today's shopping tip:

Have you seen the Coinstar machines in various places, like grocery stores? Some of them--not all--give gift cards to a variety of places, including (my favorite) Amazon!

Dump your money in, pick gift card and voila!

The good thing is...if you want money back for your money, they take an 8.9% processing fee. But with a gift card, you get the full amount.

So...clean out those jars of coins you have laying around your house. There's money in them there coins!

L

[Kelda]

Congrats Paul & Mikalea!

[Ellemeno]

The good thing is...if you want money back for your money, they take and 8.9% processing fee. But with a gift card, you get the full amount.

Oh, wow!  I didn't realize they give you the full amount when you choose a gift card.  That's smart of them.  It's a win win win situation.

BTW, I thought your story of the bills and coupons was going to be worse, that you had done something like put the recycling in your bill drawer and thrown your bills out. 

[Ellemeno]

Congrats to Mikaela on 2000 of my favorite BetterMost posts, and to Paul, who is already proving himself an asset as a mod.  Hugs to both!