Storm Drain Sal & the Cell Phone Shuffle

My 13 year old son has bad phone karma.

This year he has dropped his cell phone in the toilet...and in a storm drain.

The most recent folly was the storm drain last weekend.

His cell phone was in his pocket...and as he got into the car, it slipped out and fell onto the street and into the storm drain.

The look on his face was tragic.

Then the desperation kicked in.  We attempted to retrieve the phone with a golf-ball grabber thingy, a rake, and we even considered holding my 8 yr old upside down and lowering him into the sewer...

but, no phone was retrieved.

The last act of desperation was a call to the City of McKinney the next morning.

And lo and behold, the city send out...Storm Drain Sal.

A petite man who slid into the storm drain man hole and saved the phone...which still worked, amazingly.

Wonder what else he's saved out of our city sewers?

My Cell Phone is smarter than my iPod

We arrived home from Florida today.
Our Disney trip was awesome.


I took over 500 photos, so you will be hearing lots and lots about this trip
for the next month at least.


But, seriously, my cell phone is smarter than my iPod.
When we flew from Texas to Florida...my cell phone changed it's time.


But the iPod didn't.

If You Give a Girl a Blog...

She'll talk about ANYTHING.

First, I want to say, no matter whose candidate won or lost, let's all remember to be graceful winners and not gloat if you voted for Obama...and not to be a sore loser if you voted for McCain.

We need to remember to be respectful of the Office of the United States President, no matter who it is, whether you voted for him or not.

We need to all come together.
Elections are fun and exciting, but they do often pit people against each other.
I for one am glad it's done with and we can work on coming together as a nation once again.

_____________________________________________________________________________________


November is Prematurity Awareness Month.
I didn't know until Darcy from Life with My 3 Boybarians told me.

Did you know that one out of every eight babies is born premature?!
I'm just asking that you be aware of this. That's all.

My Remy was born early...only a couple of weeks, which isn't bad, but he did have trouble keeping his own body temp up for a while.
Everything turned out ok.
thank goodness.

Speaking of Remy...

Here he is, my little monkey


I'm so thankful he can climb.



And I'm thankful he can read.




Even if he ends up doing most his homework on the football fields while Donny plays.



And speaking of Donny...

Remember how proud of him I have been?

Well, this was his reward ...
a new cell phone.

He doesn't call anyone, except for me.
But, he does text with friends some.

We'll see if he's responsible enough not to loose it.




Did you know that almost 300 years ago, this building was built?

Did you know that we have bawdy pub wenches in Texas?

Please leave comments at the Uptake Attractions blog if you have a moment.

Where do your children usually do their homework?
Where did you do your homework as a child?
Have you ever visited the two places I have linked to above?

War & Peace...in the carpool line

This year I spend about an hour, sometimes more, in the carpool line waiting to pick up my kids. That's counting two different schools, two different pick up times, twice the number of parents.

Carpool rules.

Ahhhh...where to begin. There are so many of them (rules) at the elementary school, and the principal usually sends out lots of paper reminders about them. The middle school, no information on it, and pick-up is confusing, so I see the need for rules.

No talking on cell phones or texting. No blocking parking spots. Have your laminated number in the windshield. Try not to idle your engine, turn it off.



So, I sit in my car with the windows down, my unwashed, crazy hair hidden in a UT Longhorn baseball cap, furtively playing Sudoku on my cell phone,




(listening to Annie whining because she can't jump out and go play kickball with the kids on the playground), I watch not one, not two, not three, but FOUR cars consecutively cut in front of me!

I feel immediately outraged. I got here early, I'm following all the damn rules (well, maybe the cell phone playing isn't) but these people waltz up and cut! Do I get out of my car and confront them? Do I honk the horn in indignation? Do I ride up on their bumper and gesture rudely? I see the principal coming out to the line with her walkie-talkie to start carpool, should I tell her what just happened?

I do nothing. I breathe deeply and let it go. Because, really, what difference does it make? I'm getting worked up about nothing. These poor parents are either new to the school or don't know the rules or don't give a damn, and I'm really not going to get my son any faster. In the grand scheme of things, this is NOT something worth getting upset over. It's just not.

I read a post on SITS co-founder Tiffany's blog the other day about some issues in China. I mean, sheesh, at least I'm allowed to have two children. They have some big problems over there.

I also was blog browsing and found a post on Mamadance's site talking about the documentary Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids, a film I've seen. It follows a woman who's teaching photography to kids who live in brothels. Can you imagine growing up in poverty, in a brothel? The lives these kids live. All I can say it, you should watch it.

These two posts reminded me of the bigger picture. Life for me might be about annoyances in the carpool line, but honestly, there are much huger issues out there for me to worried about. So, I brush off these slight irritations like an irritating fly buzzing around my head and look forward, outward. What can I do to help fellow mankind? I think the key is knowledge. Making people aware. It all starts there.

Cell Towers & Pygmies

Have you seen a cell tower before? If not, here's an example of what they look like...


If you start looking for them, they're everywhere! I hadn't noticed them until recently. Now that I look for them, I see them all over. They're what makes our cell phone service work so well (hopefully). Cell phones work like radios and have to transmit to these towers. Does this mean soon we'll have landscapes overwhelmed by these towers? I saw a picture somewhere of one tower made to look like a tree. lol

Taking my children to school this morning, I was sitting at a red light when I heard that horrible, brakes-sqealing, someone's-trying-desperately-to-stop, noise. When the smoke cleared (from the brakes) I saw a man talking on his cell phone in the car that almost plowed through a very stale red light. Unbelievable! The guy in the car next to him started yelling about cell phones. I don't blame him. It was scary. HOWEVER, I don't think everyone who uses cell phones should be punished.

Our schools have started posting signs that say something along the lines of "no talking or texting on cell phones while dropping off your kids." In general, I think that's good advice, but I don't think we need signs to tell us. I don't know about you, but our carpool lanes move about less than 1 mph. I could do an entire crossword puzzle in the time it takes to get to the front of the line and pick up my kids (and I have!).

I just wonder where to draw the line. Some people I know are more dangerous fiddling with their radios or CD players in the car...and I have a relative that likes to look at you in the mirror while talking, which takes attention away from the road...other people are busy trying to deal with kids or balance a drink and food...are we going to start making laws to prevent people from doing all this? Where do we draw the line in telling other people what they can and can't do in the car? I don't have a problem talking on my cell phone in the car. Granted, I don't do it much, and I always try to dial at a stop light or somewhere I can pay attention but is it so dangerous we needs laws to keep us from doing it?

On the other hand, if laws about cell phone use are what it takes to get stupid people to pay attention, then maybe that's what we need. I don't know. This is just a subject that frustrates me to no end. I don't like people telling me what I can and can't do all the time. I feel like I have good judgement most of the time. Are we treating each other like children?

I'll step off my soapbox for now. I'm curious to know how others feel about this. Did you hear about the pygmy hippo sited in West Africa? They are nearly extinct. Cute little fellow...

In Alaska, a rare white killer whale was spotted as well. Apparently the biologist who spotted it had heard about it but never found one before. Exciting, huh? I bet this made her year. Someone give her a bonus!! I wish we had a better picture of it...

And, finally small-bodied (pygmy) people skeletons were found in the Pacific Ocean nation of Palau. Are these hobbits?

And, finally, our weird invention of the day (our Octodog moment), why on earth would anyone ever buy this? Believe it or not, but I know someone who has.