FlipSide:Starting June 25, 2001

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A journal of the trials, tribulations, and triumphs in the life of a woman in the 21st century.

Last Updated : Monday, July 02, 2001 09:13:17 PM -0500

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Monday, June 25, 2001

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Men can be soooo touchy sometimes. You ask their opinion and they get all defensive. Take Saturday, for instance. I asked John which shirt he thought I should wear to the picnic. When he replied that he thought I should wear my American Classic tee-shirt, I asked him if he didn't like the blue Coca Cola bear shirt. At which point he said, "oh no, not going there". I just asked a simple question. Why so defensive about a simple wardrobe question. Could it be he doesn't believe there are simple wardrobe questions? At least, not when asked by his lovely and charming bride. <G>

(Gentlemen? Send your comments here... -- jd).

Ahh, the stinking hot summer weather has arrived. Today's high was 97 degrees, although my car thermometer said 101 when I got into the car. Luckily, today our dew points were only in the mid 50s, but they are climbing as I type. In this swampy heat, Rhiannon had her first day of day camp. On Thursday, I spend about $25 outfitting her with all the items they had on her supply list. One of these items, being a "sit upon" for the girls delicate derrieres. Gee, when I was in day camp, we just sat on the ground. So I had to hit a couple of stores before I found a utility mat (think the mats on the floor of the back seat of your car) for her bottom to "sit upon". What did they do today? They made a sit upon and gave each girl a water bottle (another item they had insisted we purchase) and a tee-shirt. Explain to me you would tell parents to buy items you plan to make and/or give the girls on the first day of camp. Oh well, anyone need a very slightly used grey car mat?

Everyone in our office was a little tuckered out today. Between being at Breezy Point all weekend and the fact that none of us had been in the office since last Wednesday, things were a little disorganized. The brightest sunburn award went to our Vice President of Human Resources, the human raccoon. She was out on boats all day on Saturday and her face is a tad bit pink (okay, so it was more like bright red), except for the swath across her eyes where her sunglasses were. She scratched her nose this morning and a large chunk of skin came off. Not good. I haven't been sunburned in years. I had worn sun screen and a cover-up while on the beach, so I have just a little pink on my hands, the tops of my feet where my sandals didn't cover and my cheek bones. I haven't had to wear any blush since Saturday. Cool.

Tuesday, June 26, 2001

Well, the deadline has come and gone and our legislature is still playing political games. In order for the state to keep running come July 1, they had to have passed the spending bills by today. They didn't make it. There are three basic factors to this. The first is the Minnesota Republican party, which controls the House. Their leader, Steve Sviggum, was greatly criticized by the more conservative side of his party last session for giving up too much (in their opinion) so this session, he is determined to give up nothing and is playing a political game of chicken with Roger Moe, the Democratic Senate Majority Leader.

The Democratic (or DFL as we call them here in Minnesota) side of the aisle is determined to spend more money on education and public works than their Republican counterparts. The Republicans want to give the money back to the taxpayers as a rebate, which has been done for the past two years. Some other elements playing out in the special session include Republican attempts to block family planning funding for any organization that provides abortion services and serious ideological differences between the parties over an attempt to reform our property tax system. The Republicans want to lower taxes primarily on commercial property and recreation properties (cabins and the like, a large number of Minnesotans have cabins up in the north woods on the shores of a lake), which would primarily benefit upper income people. The DFL wants to target the property tax reform to help more low and middle income taxpayers, leaving a larger burden on the upper income bracket. Your basic Democratic vs. Republican disagreement.

Now, left to their own devices, I suspect the two parties would leave this issue for next session, as they have bigger fish to fry at this point. Namely, keeping the state running and several thousand people getting paychecks. However, that is where the third factor causing this stalemate comes in. Our governor has said he will not sign any spending bills unless there is property tax reform legislation before him as well. He has also refused to sign any stop-gap spending measures designed to keep the state running on a temporary basis. Apparently Jesse has confused governing with his old wrestling gig, for, rather than try to sit down in meetings with both sides and help them find a compromise, he publicly ridicules both sides, issues ultimatums, and insults the legislators every chance he gets. His low point, in my opinion, was when he went on the air on his radio show one Friday and said that there would be no prison guards if the legislature did not pass a spending bill and threatened to send prisoners home with legislators to guard them.

The government has gone into shut down mode at this point, telling employees that they will not be paid after July 1st. Since the last day of June is a Saturday, state offices will be open so they can wind down. According to the State Employees Union, state employees will be paid vacation time through July 13. After that they will be eligible for unemployment. The hitch to that, however, is that unemployment insurance is a state function that is not deemed critical, so there will be no one there to process the paperwork or issue the checks. Road construction projects have been shut down, state parks will close at midnight Saturday, inconveniencing hundreds who have camping reservations or have planned events like family reunions or weddings using the facilities. The state says it will take the better part of a week to reopen them, after the state is funded again.

We in Minnesota have been let down by our public officials. I single out no one person or any one party, there is plenty of blame to go around. I find it appalling and disheartening that no one, most especially our governor, has stepped up to the plate and shown true leadership by leading the two sides to agreement. Instead, the Republicans have aired radio commercials blaming the DFL for the stalemate, the governor has gone on record calling the legislators idiots that don't know how to do their jobs and refused to negotiate, and the DFL has shown a distinct tendency to follow the Republican lead and not work with the other side. The state of Minnesota has never shut down before. If you are counting on any sort of service from the state of Minnesota this July, don't hold your breath. If you have reservations for a vacation at a state park, I recommend you make other plans. And if you were thinking about moving here, may I suggest Iowa or Wisconsin.

Wednesday, June 27, 2001

Yet another hot and muggy day. We have yet to get any storms, in fact, the weatherman says it is actually too hot to rain. I didn't think that was possible.

Well, work is busy, life in general is busy and I am uninspired and bushed, so I will make this a short post. So, here are a few more pictures from Breezy Point. These photos are courtesy of Jodi and her new digital camera.

	All I can think of is "We three kids on a beach are . . ."
Before our little s'more fest on the beach (or should that be snarf fest, I swear, all we did all weekend was eat!), the resort had fireworks. A pretty decent show, really. I love fireworks. However, I do usually prefer to view them from a greater distance due to the noise.


	And then, the evening was wrapped up with a roaring fire on the peaceful beach, toasting marshmallows and listening to the waves. Ah, I wanna go back.

Thursday, June 28, 2001

Sorry, the heat and the grocery store was just too much for me. Catch me tomorrow.

Friday, June 29, 2001

We all know Murphy's Law, "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, at the worst possible moment" and the various and sundry other variations on the theme. I have my own humble own little additions to this doctrine. I call them Annie's Addendum to Murphy's Law.

The 7 year old that is so very tired she must be carried to bed is awake enough to autocratically remind you at the top of her lungs that you forgot to turn on the radio. Or that it is too loud. Or too quiet.
Your well behaved 4 year old will suddenly turn into a screaming stamping demon from hell in front of 20 of your coworkers in the buffet line.
The man who is too tired to do laundry and had to come home early from work due to his unusual fatigue was lively enough to stay on the internet until 2am the night before (and want some "attention" tonight)
The phone call you have been waiting for for hours comes just as you leave to switch your laundry in the laundry room.
The one person you are trying to avoid is always the phone call that you can't.
Your biggest mistakes are always made just before your pay review.
Cats do not recognize the concept of "the weekend". Neither do kids. At least not as it pertains to sleeping past 7 am.
Your two favorite television shows are always scheduled against each other when the new fall TV schedule is announced.
You realize you are wearing your "laundry day, holey underwear" in the gym locker room. As you put them back on after you have worked out and showered.
Your four year old drops his brownie after you assure your host that "he never drops chocolate", frosting side down.
The day you need to be most strict on your diet is the day someone brings in their grandma's secret recipe super chocolately chip cookies.
The family or friends that you haven't seen in years come to town the weekend that you are 300 miles away.

Welcome to my life.

Saturday, June 30, 2001

Too tuckered to write tonight. See tomorrow's post. Oh, and by the way, if you haven't noticed, we have new web home. Matt and Keri Beland have graciously extended their servers's hospitality to us, so this is now found at http://adominik.rearviewmirror.org.

Sunday, July 1, 2001

I have been educated today. Today I learned that there is yet another part of my anatomy that can be painfully affected by gravity. I am aware that, with age, your breasts can sag to your navel. (Do you supposed they go from singing soprano to baritone?) I am also aware from my father's nursing home stay that certain parts of the male anatomy, euphemistically referred to as "the twins" can droop to one's knees. (In a vain attempt to avoid this fate, my husband buys his underwear smaller and smaller each year.) I was also somewhat conscious of the fact that your cheeks could sag. However, I was unaware that the lower set of cheeks could have the same problem. Luckily for me, I didn't learn this fact from my own painful experience (currently all my parts are right where they are supposed to be, thank you very much) but from the dismaying experience of a friend of mine.

Gette had received some clothes from a friend. In this batch of clothes was a very cute pair of short shorts. Gette was delighted. Although she is my age and the mother of 3 young girls, she is in very good shape, in fact, she recently fit back into a pair of size 5 jeans, so she figured she was not be delusional to desire to wear these cute short shorts. She tried them on and they fit, so she went to look in the mirror. That was when she, in her own words, mind you, realized "something was banging around her ankles." That something, she says, was her ass. So, she turned to an institution that has served the needs of age challenged women for decades, Fredrick's of Hollywood. (Yes, the do have a website.) Apparently they sell some underwear designed to give the 18-hour bra treatment to your lower regions. You know, it lifts and separates. You remember those old Jane Russell ads, don't you? At this point, Gette's husband Kyle wandered into the room. (I can hear all the men groaning from here. Some of you saying " run away, run away.) Kyle asked what she was looking for. She told him she was looking for butt hoisting panties. (Settle down, guys, he is still among the living.) He looked at his wife and said quite innocently, "Does your butt need hoisting?" Let's just say Kyle stumbled into a great deal of husbanding points.

Last night we ended up at a friend's house. Originally, Rhiannon went over there in the afternoon to play with Ashley. Around 5 o'clock Maggie called me and said, "put Jack in his swimsuit and come on over. We'll throw some hot dogs on the grill." So, over we went.

	John decided to bring one of his many super soakers to get the kids wet. I tried to talk him out of it. I said to him, "are you sure you want to do that?" "Maybe you should bring more than just that one to make a fair fight?". Nope, he had visions of hosing down the kids while he remained dry and laughed. Oh, how he underestimated the deviousness of Cody, Ashley, Rhiannon, and Jack. First off, he forgot the Brotherton kids have super soakers of their own. John opened up on them and got what he so richly deserved. All four kids aimed at him. With 3 super soaks and a hose. Fixed him, didn't they?
	You know, I look at this picture and all I can think of is "where is the third angel?" I guess I just watched too much Charlie's Angels as a kid.
	Of course, Dad did manage to dish it out too. Then again, I don't think anyone minded getting wet in the 90 degree and humid heat.
	Sadly, it seems the waterfight was just too much for John. His advanced age, you know. You will notice, however, he did manage to keep a hold of his weapon. Ach, well, boys and their toys.
	The kids, however, just moved on to another form of water play. The younger three turned on Cody, who at 12, was more than able to take them all on. You will notice Rhiannon is in a two piece swim suit. Daddy was not overly thrilled with it. Apparently he is concerned the effect our daughter's navel will have on the neighborhood boys. So far, no riots have been reported.
	Poor Jack. He decided it would be a great idea to swing on the swing set after he hopped out of the pool. He failed to take into account, however, that swing seats are very slippery when in contact with wet swim trunks.

Today we went bumper bowling and to a park. A front came through while we were at Brotherton's last night and we finally have gotten some relief from hot and humid weather we have been having. Today we had beautiful blue skies and a high temperature of about 70 degrees. Lovely. I even turned off my air conditioning for the first time in a week.

Jack perverted yet another saying today. At the park, he looks at me and says "back in a jippy!" No, that wasn't a typo, unless you consider a typo coming out of my four year old's mouth. He said jippy, not jiffy. And there was no correcting him. Sigh, yet another cute saying to file away and torment him with when he brings home dates. I have bath pictures, pants on head pictures, and his mispronunciations. Jippy, tooty-tooty (R2-D2), among many others, none of which I can remember right now.

Anyway, I need to do some reading and water my plants before bed. This week, I work 2 days, have 2 days off , work Friday, then . . . ta da! It's the weekend!!! I love weeks like this. Happy 4th of July! Ta!

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Copyright © 2001 Ann Dominik. All rights reserved. Complaints about the technical details of this page can be directed to the abused geek who takes care of it for me, and is grossly underpaid for what he does, he thinks. No reproduction without written permission. The opinions and content of this site are my own, and not the responsibility of this site's host, my employer, my pets, my parents or anyone else you may care to blame. Please respect my opinions and I will do the same for you. I may on occasion publish e-mail to me; if you do not wish your mail to be published, please write CONFIDENTIAL or DO NOT PUBLISH at the top of the e-mail. If you would prefer to remain anonymous, please note that as well. If you're incapable of reasoned civilized discourse but feel compelled to correspond with me, I'll be happy to filter your mail out after a few choice comments regarding your ancestors, upbringing, and the likelihood of your family tree not