Post a Comment On: A Nod to Nothing

I realized there are things I've done and want to keep track of that I haven't actually blogged about. And Blogger is my favorite place to keep track of things because I can just do a search and find what I was looking for. I didn't write about how a bunch of us, Kyle, Matthew and Cynthia and their son, and Ming and Julie all went out for dinner last Saturday at the German restaurant in North Minneapolis, Gastof. It was Eryn's very first stay with a sitter, and we took her to the sitter's house rather than worry about the 8th grade sitter coming over here. Me to Eryn: "What do you do if you want to watch one of your shows, and the sitter wants to watch Hannah Montana?" Eryn: "Watch Hannah Montana." So, at 10:45 when we picked her up (yes, p.m.) and she was still awake because she was wound about her first sitter, there they were, watching Hannah Montana. We overpaid the sitter a bit, but my theory is we've paid hundreds and hundreds of dollars for kenneling the dog over the years, so a small outlay on a sitter once in almost five is probably underpaying (and it was my previous boss' kid).

The restaurant was great. I had a big beer and a German spread, avoiding the 3 foot sausage. And Matthew and Cynthia's kid was pounding milk as fast as everyone else was downing beer, and singing and cheering along to Ziggy Zaggy Ziggy Zaggy! Ming even tried the menthol snuff on the mini-nose catapult which prompted Julie to comment that it was the first questionable substance he'd ever put in his body (i.e. alcohol, tobacco, drugs). Near the beginning of the night, while I was sitting there, I noticed that the table right next to ours, over the half wall, was occupied by the very last person I had sent an email to at work the day before. That was weird. But it was cool to see Tom from RMG out on the town. He always looks so quiet and semi-serious, and he was out with friends. Apparently his friends all used to hit Gastof once a year, but it had been a while, which was exactly our situation.

In the parking lot, we saw the tallest Clockwork Orange costumed person ever. He was probably 6'10". Definitely taller than TallBrad. Pooteewheet leaned out the window to ask him where his codpiece was.

Other things I forgot to mention. Eryn's developed tics. Not the kind that suck blood, but this weird little blowing air over her lower lip and blinking a lot thing. There had been a few weeks a while ago where she grunted, and it went away, and now it's back with these other things. She doesn't do it in her sleep, it seems worse when she's stressed, and it seems worse when she's not pooping (i.e., stressed), so I'm pretty sure it's just the sort of tic that 25% of all 4-5 year olds develop. Someone on line mentioned magnesium depletion (magnesium regulates a lot of the chemical functions in your body), and that could be an issue given the pooping drugs, so we're going to watch her intake and maybe give her a supplement. So overall, nothing worrisome yet, but it was really weird to see the tics come out of nowhere.

Nipples. Pooteewheet got me a new shirt. I really like it. I think it looks nice on me. But yesterday, as the work day wound down, I noticed I had runner's nipples. Ouch. Not bleeding or anything. I obviously didn't run a marathon. But sensitive, and not in a good way. Is there a good way if you're a guy? I don't want to know - keep your comments to yourself. Gonna have to make sure I wear an undershirt so people don't think it's really cold in my cube.

I started out today spending several hours cleaning gutters and clipping trees at the duplex waiting for my brother to haul a new washing machine over for us to install. Maybe it's just me, but if someone told me they were bringing a new washing machine to my "apartment", I think I'd take the opportunity to clean my used rubbers out from between the washer and dryer. Damn...thinking about it just gave me the willies again. I washed myself down in All washing detergent after touching the bottom of the old washer, just to make sure I killed anything that had crawled under there to breed.

When I got home, we took Eryn to the Mall of American to ride the rides. We usually go on a weekday, so it was startling to get there and find no parking places. You basically had to wait for someone to pull out to pull in (in the ramp). Inside was crazy. I'd never seen The Mighty Axe with a full passenger load. And you know there are too many people at the Mall when you see someone buying Dippin' Dots. There's only one person in a million who'll lay out $4.00 for non-melting ice cream pellets. So there must have been a million people at the mall. Another person at the mall was the very nice lady sitting on the bench next to me while I waited for Pooteewheet and Eryn to finish on the carousel. After a minute, she stood up on the bench to look over a construction wall, and let one rip directly at me. Yep - big nasty fart. She didn't turn, or apologize, just filled up the 15 feet behind her with a ghastly smell that had me running for the carousel to get out of the affected area. I hate the Mall of America when it's full - I just can't put enough space between me and everyone else.