Blog of Doom Personal thoughts of a total stranger.

Why did I go to work on Monday?

Ash posted on No Place Like Home about my little oopsie this week. The short story is that I went in to work on Monday when I had the day off. I didn't realize it until I pulled into the deserted parking lot. I was not looking forward to going in on Monday anyway because I was feeling sick, but I hauled my tired ass out of bed (more on that later) and dragged myself in.

I stopped at Starbucks first for a wake up call (Venti Latte, which means Large Latte). While I was in line, I saw that they had the cups Ash was looking for! I told someone a month or so ago that I was looking for these cups, and they told me they didn't have them and couldn't get any. Someone else was listening in and I guess they took it on themselves to order some. When I got in, there were only two left. I got one because I knew that we already had one.

So, I was feeling like the day wouldn't be a total loss, since even though I had to work I got a cup for Ash. Check out No Place Like Home for information on the cups and why we like them.

When I finally got to work and saw no one was there, my first instinct was to just turn around and go straight home. Instead, I decided to go in. I brought my laptop back to my desk and was thinking to myself that I could get in a couple of hours of work today, when I finally said "To hell with this!"

I didn't do any work, I didn't even turn on my computer. I just hooked it up for easy startup the next day, and went home. When I got home, it turned out that Ash had already locked the top door lock, which you can only open from the inside (this is one reason we can't leave Morgan alone for a second inside our apartment). When I unlocked the bottom lock and tried to open the door, it didn't budge. Morgan heard it and came up to the door. He was upset because he couldn't let me in, so I tried to get him to open the top lock.

"Morgan! Unlock the door!"

Clicking sound of the lock. Morgan has re-locked the lower lock.

"No! Morgan, unlock the door!"

This time it worked and I could walk into the apartment. As I was walking in, Ash was getting up and starting to yell at Morgan for unlocking the door and opening it. I explained to her that I didn't have to work that day after all. She seemed a little confused at first, but it finally sunk in and she said "Good.", then went to bed.

So, I got a day off I wasn't expecting, Ash got to sleep in another day, and Morgan got to have his daddy home with him all day. Overall, win-win-win.

Our Special Day

Today is Ash and my anniversary. We've been married for 12 years, and together for 13. We were living together in New Hampshire at the time. I remember how beautiful Ash looked, and how nervous I was on our wedding day. I also remember how happy I was.

Ash,

I love you so much. Thank you for 13 happy years! You are my sunshine. I'm still happy.

My mother-in-law is here this week

This is the week Ash's mom is visiting. She's here for the whole week! Saturday afternoon, I went to the Dallas-Ft. Worth airport to pick her up. I was able to take a new route, since the George Bush Turnpike (yes, they named a road after him before he even died, the dad that is) was just completed and now extends all the way out to the LBJ Freeway (yes, another one they named after a Texan), aka I635. The trip was fast and pleasant, since I didn't have to get onto I635 until after I35. I35 is a very busy road, and most of the congestion on I635 West is people going to exit onto I35. Once you're past the I35 exit, I635 clears out a lot.

So, I get to the airport and park just as mother-in-law (MIL) and husband's flight is landing. I meet them at the baggage terminal, hugs and welcome to Dallas, etc. They flew out at 21 degrees, and landed at 60 degrees, always a nice transition in my book. MIL was nervous on the flight because she has only flown once before, when she came out the last time.

So, now she's here and our routine is inevitably disrupted. I'm not upset, since that is what happens when you have guests. I just can't walk out into the living room and get dressed in the mornings. I have to get dressed in the bedroom and hope I don't wake up Ash. Minor stuff like that. There are also the usual annoyances about other people, who don't know how you do things and want to "help", or who aren't quite as tidy as you. But, that's what happens when you have guests.

I like having the visitors, and Ash gets to catch up with her mom. Did I mention that she's going to watch Morgan so Ash and I can go out on a real live date!? Another bonus, worth putting up with a lot in my book. Just in time for the new Harry Potter movie, too. It doesn't get any better. I think it's going to be so nice!

Ash did ask me to pour her a full cup of coffee in the morning and set it aside for her in the fridge. I guess she didn't get a cup yesterday morning. The funny thing is that I make our coffee, and MIL brought along her own instant coffee because she wasn't going to be drinking ours. Now she's drinking two cups (which is why Ash didn't get any yesterday, much to her annoyance).

Morgan is having a blast. He was just so happy over the weekend. Sat in between them on the couch, and kept saying "Hi Grandma! Hi Grandpa!" all the time. He wouldn't leave them alone. Ha! Welcome to our world! They love the attention, though.

Another bonus, we cleared out (mostly) the spare bedroom, so now Martin can come up for a visit if he wants.

The Grinch Who Stole Halloween

Yesterday, I took Morgan out for Halloween. Our apartment complex sent around some signs to put on doors if we were planning to hand out candy on Halloween. We put ours out, as well as a sign at the bottom of the stairs letting kids know that it would be worth their while to go up to the third floor. Ash made the sign using a nifty Harry Potter font.

Morgan had a Spiderman costume, which we bought about a month ago. He was pretty excited, and couldn't wait to get going. When I got home, the first thing he said to me was "Trick or treat?" His teachers said he was talking about trick or treat all day at school, too.

This year, it was my turn to take Morgan around, while Ash stayed home and gave out the candy. We got ready and started out on our candy trip. That's when I found out what a bunch of cheapskate sons of bitches our neighbors were. Morgan and I went to over one half of the apartments and buildings in our complex, and found only two places that were giving out trick or treat candy.

We didn't get to the other half of the apartments, because it turned out to be too much for Morgan. He was forgetting to say trick or treat at the doors. Instead, he tried to just walk in to the apartments we went to. The people didn't mind, since they were just happy that he showed up. He started to melt down halfway through our visit. So, at over half the apartments we visited, a grand total of two were giving out candy.

Bastards.

Anyway, let me know if I'm overreacting. I need some perspective on this.

Missing Morgan update

We had our meeting with the school Wednesday afternoon. Only the principal was there, because all the teachers in Morgan's class have been suspended and are on administrative leave. Ash had the tape recorder and decided not to turn it on after the first few minutes of the meeting.

The principal told us that she didn't have a lot of information for us because the school district took over and sent in their own team to investigate the problem. The school is crawling with school district investigators who told her basically to keep out of it because she can't be objective. They brought in the people who trained Morgan's teachers to take over their classroom until the investigation is resolved. There are some security consultants reviewing their procedures and the physical layout of his class and the school, etc.

The principal seemed a little shell shocked and the meeting put Ash's at ease. It appears that the school district is taking this extremely seriously. The principal told us that they consider this one of the most serious events that has ever happened in this school district.

So, we weren't able to get any of the information we needed because the principal was told not to ask any questions and not to speculate on what happened while they investigate it. Well, one of our questions was answered, whether this was going to be escalated to anyone else in the school district. We're going to be kept informed of the results of the investigation.

Missing Morgan

Well, today one of my nightmares for Morgan almost came true. At 2:40 p.m. today, I got a call at work from a Plano policeman asking if I knew where my son was. He gets out of school at 2:30 p.m. I told him as far as I knew, he was at school. He then told me he had him in his squad car at a major city street corner (three lanes of traffic in either direction, for six total) where he had wandered a mile and a half or so from school.

I ran out of the office and drove like a freaking maniac to where he was. I tried calling Ash three or four times, but she was downstairs waiting for the bus to drop him off. I called my boss, since I didn't see him on my way out, and left him a message. Unfortunately, I forgot to hang up, so the last part of my voicemail was me yelling profanities at someone on the highway who didn't yield and let me onto the exit ramp. I then realized it and hung up.

I finally made it to the corner shopping center where they had him. There were two officers in separate squad cars, standing around with Morgan and laughing at his antics. He loves police cars, by the way, and he was happily looking around in the squad car. The officer explained that he was on a routine traffic stop and saw Morgan walking down the sidewalk a distance ahead of a woman. As the woman got closer, she yelled at the police officer that he was escaping or getting away. He didn't think anything of it, since he thought Morgan was her child. Then she said that he wasn't hers, and that he was just wandering around on his own.

He got him settled and called me (he has an ID tag on a necklace with contact numbers). Five minutes before I got there, he was notified that the school had called police to report him missing. I thanked everyone and took Morgan to the school to pick up his backpack. The other officer was already headed over to the school to find out what happened. They were leaving when we got to the school.

He's fine, but when I think what could have happened, I get a chill up my spine. I have a meeting with the principle and teachers tomorrow to go over what happened and what they're going to do to make sure it doesn't happen again. I'm preparing for some stonewalling and bureaucratic weaseling, but we'll see what happens at the meeting.

Hot Air Balloons!

That's what Morgan was saying for a couple of days after we went to the annual Plano Balloon Festival. He really loved it, and was eagerly anticipating it (translation: he bugged the hell out of us asking for hot air balloons every day for two or three days, every half hour to hour, nonstop...).

We actually weren't even sure if he would be able to go, since he was sick the entire week before the festival. He was down and out with a very bad cold. The surprising thing was that neither Ash or I really got sick. We felt a little bit of it, but thankfully we dodged the major bullet.

I have some pictures of the balloon festival. I'll post the best ones later. I say I have some, but I actually have what may be charitably described as a shitload. I went crazy with our new digital camera, since I don't have to worry about developing film. I might look into setting up a digital photo service and just loading everything up there. Maybe I'll user Flikr. I saw some reviews of services in MacWorld which I'll also check out.

Anyway, enjoy the few pictures here and I'll let everyone know when I have the rest online.

Electricity!

Morgan loves electricity!

New Orleans meets Katrina

What a horrible week! I've been just blown away mentally by the horrible events happening a few hours drive away in New Orleans. I'm just so sorry for the poor people whose lives have been ended or disrupted by Hurricane Katrina. Many from Louisiana are coming here to the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex seeking refuge. We have several Red Cross centers open as well as one of our big stadiums for refugees. We also have recruiters helping the refugees find jobs in the local area so they can start to get back on their feet. It looks like a lot of people who made it this far my decide to stay, since they've been wiped out back home. I say welcome to Dallas/Ft. Worth! I think it is one of the smartest things we could do, finding them jobs and I'm actually a little surprised that anyone thought of it.

My wife hates the mayor of Dallas, Laura Miller, not personally of course, but she always comes off to my wife as one of those snobby types. I've never seen it, and I have no problem with her. Of course, she's not even my mayor, since we have our own mayor in Plano. Mrs. Miller was on the TV talking to the refugees and letting them know that everything was going to be alright. She was the one who mentioned that we needed to find jobs for these people so they can start getting back on their feet. I'm not sure if she came up with the idea or is just taking credit for someone else's suggestion.

I'm still gathering my thoughts about the Federal Government's response to this emergency (or lack thereof). Prepare for a rant of epic proportions, coming tomorrow, after I do some research.

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