When do i get a normal day?

Anybody home? i called out as i went into Ms. P's house.

It started as a busy enough day, and got busier.  #2 Son called at 5am for me to come get him from work.  He was being sent home because his stomach was hurting so badly he could barely stand up.  Once i got him home and started the laundry, i took Little Girl to school and then i called the doctor.  Could we have him there for 7:45am?

We were there by 7:20, before the office staff even showed up.  It's amazing what you can do when the doc agrees to work you in before the other patients.

It all boiled down to stress and too many energy drinks.  He's started burning that candle at both ends again, trying to work 4am to noon and yet stay up late with friends.  It doesn't work out too well for him.

Once i got him back home, i went to the store for milk and cat food and bananas, then came home and found that the car Grandpa had chosen to get #2 Son, an old Honda Civic, was being delivered.  Grandpa had made a mistake, though -- he put it in #2 Son's name.  He's only 18, and because the car is in his name instead of ours, he has to have his own insurance.

Guess how many companies will cover an 18-year-old on their own policy?  Very few.  Guess how much we finally had to pay?  $300/month.  He and i went to my insurance agent, because she was the only one who could cover him at all.  That, as i tried to remind Grandpa, is why we put Bigger Girl's car in our name instead of hers.  It makes a difference.

When we got back from that, and i finished the ironing, everything was breaking loose with The Big Boss and Ms. P.  They needed Sweetie to go pick up a parking pass, pick up one of the kids from school, and then i had to go meet them where the parking pass was being delivered.  From there, Sweetie would go get Little Girl from school, and i would take Middle Boy home, make sure the other three who were home sick were resting well, go get their dinner, and babysit for the rest of the evening.

So i went in, calling out to see if any of them were still extant.  They were, though all lying in bed, watching TV, and Youngest Boy was very upset at being awakened.  The boys requested beans and rice and biscuits from a local fast food place for dinner, and Daughter wanted an order from the sushi place next door to that, so i went and got what they wanted.

It was an evening.  The house was a wreck, and Littlest Boy is feeling much better -- he and Middle Boy misbehaved the whole night.  It took an act of Congress, and the threat of no hot cocoa, to get Middle Boy to do his homework.

There was lots of screaming, lots of sassing and back-talk, and three times i had to physically separate the boys because they were really hurting each other.  Times like this remind me of why some animals in the wild eat their young.

Eventually baths were taken and bedtime came, and while refereeing and doing everything else i managed to clean the kitchen, run the dishwasher, and do a load of laundry.

By the end of it all, Middle Boy was coughing up a storm and saying he didn't feel well.  He was starting a fever, i could tell.

When i get back on Thursday, i'll probably have a lot of work cut out for me, but at least i'll have one load of laundry out of the way.



Today is:

A&W Rootbeer Mug Day -- see if you can frost your mug like they did

Birth of Baha'u'llah -- Baha'i

Birth of Sun Yat-Sen, Doctors Day, and Cultural Renaissance Day -- Taiwan

Chicken Soup for the Soul Day -- "Changing the world, one story at a time."

Constitution Day -- Azerbaijan

Dia del Cartero -- Mexico (Postman's Day; postal carriers are shown appreciation with small gifts left in mailboxes)

Fancy Rat and Mouse Day -- the American Fancy Rat and Mouse Association wants you to know these little critters can give you a lot of love

Journee Nationale Maore -- Comoros (Admission to the UN Day)

Khalkeia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (festival of smiths, associated with Hephaists and Athena; date approximate)

National Pizza with the Works Except Anchovies Day

National Youth Day -- East Timor

St. Emillian's Day (Patron of Spain, finding lost objects)

St. Josaphat's Day (Patron of Edmonton, Alberta; Toronto, Ontario; Ukraine)

Tewa Buffalo Dance -- Native American Tewa of the Tesuque Pueblo rites on the feast day of their Patron, San Diego, to honor Mother Earth, Father Sky, the four directions, and the elements; through the 15th

Triple Crown of Surfing -- Oahu, HI, US (3 separate events, through Dec. 20)

World Pneumonia Day -- because we lose a million children a year to this preventable illness


Anniversaries Today:

The Arches National Park established, 1971
Ellis Island closes, 1954


Birthdays Today:

Anne Hathaway, 1982
Ryan Gosling, 1980
Sammy Sosa, 1968
Michael Moorer, 1967
David Schwimmer, 1966
Nadia Comaneci, 1961
Megan Mullally, 1958
Neil Young, 1945
Al Michaels, 1944
Wallace Shawn, 1943
Grace Kelly, 1929
Jo Stafford, 1918
Harry A. Blackmun, 1908
Sun Yat-sen, 1866
Auguste Rodin, 1840
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1815


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Grand Hotel"(Musical), 1989
"Irma la Douce"(Musical), 1956
"Paint Your Wagon"(Musical), 1951
Song of the South(Disney film), 1946
The first Sunday American-style football game is held in Philadelphia, 1933


Today in History:

Tibetan troops occupy Chang'an, the capital of the Chinese Tang Dynasty, for fifteen days starting today, 764
Plymouth, England, becomes the first town incorporated by the English Parliament, 1439
Sir James Young Simpson, a British physician, is the first to use chloroform as an anaesthetic, 1847
Jules Leotard performs 1st Flying Trapeze circus act (Paris); he also designed garment that bears his name, 1859
World's Fair in Paris opens, 1900
The first movie stunt: man jumps into Hudson river from a burning balloon, 1910
Norway holds a referendum in favor of monarchy over republic, 1905
Robert Scott's diary & body are found in Antarctica, 1912
Austria becomes a republic, 1918
The first underwater tunnel, the Holland Tunnel connecting NY to NJ opens, 1927
The first photo of whatever is in Loch Ness is taken, 1933
Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia join the United Nations, 1956
Equatorial Guinea joins the United Nations, 1968
The Comoros joins the United Nations, 1975
The NASA space probe Voyager I makes its closest approach to Saturn and takes the first images of its rings, 1980
The Space Shuttle Columbia becomes the first time a manned spacecraft launched into space twice, 1981
Crown Prince Akihito is formally installed as Emperor Akihito of Japan, becoming the 125th Japanese monarch, 1990
Tim Berners-Lee publishes a formal proposal for the World Wide Web, 1990
Shanghai Transrapid sets up a new world speed record (501 kilometres per hour (311 mph)) for commercial railway systems, 2003
The Comparative Toxicogenomics Database is launched on the web and revolutionizes chemical-gene-disease information for research scientists, 2004
Philippine volcano Mount Bulusan erupts again, 2010