Random Stuff

~~ Last night was Alex's awards ceremony for her grades. I had to take Samantha to swimming until 7:00, then get her showered, and got to the awards around 7:15. Everything worked according to plan, except that Eric had sat at the far end of a row of seats and I had to push past maybe 15 people. Well, I'm sorry, but when you first have to help a 6-year-old get her hair washed and rinsed after swimming in your "dress-up" awards ceremony viewing clothes, no matter how hard you try, you are going to be enjoying said ceremony with wet pants from the knees down. I'm sure these people I had to climb over were freaking themselves out for a few minutes wondering what the hell just touched them that was so wet.

~~ Just a couple of my kitchen pet peeves, since it's been bothering me a lot lately. I hate when "people" open the bread, take out a slice or two, then don't even bother to twist the bag back up. The bread on top is hard within an hour. Grab a clue.

I hate when "people" slice off a piece of cheese and then go ahead and zip the bag back up, but leave 2 GALLONS of air, like a fancy balloon with a lump of cheese in the middle. How we fit anything on the same cheese shelf with this balloon thing is beyond me.

I hate when "people" put their dishes in the sink for me to take care of, but, knowing, KNOWING (having been reminded OVER AND OVER) that we don't have a garbage disposal and haven't now for two years, they still leave food on their plate, again, for me to take care of.

~~ On a lighter note, Samantha jumped off the diving board yesterday, into the arms of her male instructor, two things I never thought I'd utter in the same sentence, let alone separately. She has a friend, Martha, who REALLY doesn't want a male teacher. Since Samantha only SORT OF doesn't like having a male teacher, seeing Martha hyperventilate about it sort of put things into perspective. Also, I suspect she was semi-terrified to be jumping off the diving board but, being probably afraid to talk to her male teacher, she went ahead and did it. Her male teacher, by the way, is adorable eye candy for us moms. Just sayin'.

~~ The soccer team has league placement tournaments the month of June where we go to the Tri-Cities for at least one, but possibly four weekends in a row. I mentioned how we should have a cooler of water for the girls during these tourneys and was tasked with being in charge of getting it done. I sent out an email asking each family to donate a case of water or $7 (we also wanted washclothes for the cooler) and that I would be at practice yesterday to pick up the donations. I heard back from two or three that they would be donating. Well, I got ZERO donations yesterday at practice. One mom did tell me they had a case of water. I'm assuming I'll see more people tonight since practice is further away and people will probably be hanging around the whole practice. Not sure, if I don't get any donations tonight, what I should do. I will probably send another email saying if I don't hear from people, their girls will be on their own. Sort of a little perturbed here, but willing to give the benefit of the doubt.

The Non-Confrontational Portion of My Personality

Before I got married, my sister came out to visit me. For some reason, we were staying at Eric's apartment, and he wasn't there. I have no idea where he was. Anyway, Jana and I called in an order to the Mexican restaurant a couple of miles away for 7 layer dip. We went down, picked up our dinner and returned to the apartment, where we discovered that the restaurant had forgotten to include the chips with our dip. We called the restaurant, informed them of the oversight, and stormed back down, swearing and wondering what we were going to be given, free of charge, to make up for our trouble. Upon entering the establishment and letting the girl at the register know who we were and what we were there for, this ditzy blond thing says, Oh, yes, I'll get your chips. She comes back out, hands us the bag of chips, then says, I'm so glad you came back because I actually charged you wrong the first time. You actually owe another $1.40. We kind of stood there like waiting for Candid Camera or something. No one popped out, laughing, from behind a plant, so we meekly handed over the money, took our chips and left, whereupon we cursed like our brother after a summer of fire-fighting in the mountains the whole way back to the apartment. I think we were so stunned, we just paid the money and left.

I've wondered since then, from time to time, why I've got such a non-confrontational gene in my personality, where it came from, and when it would possibly be going away and I would learn to stand up for myself.

The pest people came back on Thursday to pick up the two dead mouse bodies that the other guy had caught using this amazing invention called BAIT in the traps that had sat there, unused, for the past six weeks. This other new guy comes to the door. I tell him that I'm pretty sure we caught at least one mouse and that it's under the sink, but that I need him to check the other traps behind the sink in the cubby hole thing. He asks me how does he get back there. Well, you have to stick your head FAR under the sink through that hole in the back. He looks sort of puzzled. Then he asks me if I have a flashlight because he didn't bring one. I hand him a flashlight. He opens the cabinet and says that, yes, I did catch at least one mouse. He HOPEFULLY managed to cram his head back through the hole under the sink with MY FLASHLIGHT and tells me those traps are fine. While he's performing this task, I mention that the first guy who set the traps didn't put bait in the traps. Go figure. Oh, that's normal, he says. Mice run along next to walls, so you don't need to bait the traps since they don't look at them anyway. As they run along, they run over the trap and get caught. Again, I'm sort of stunned at how my experience with mice has vastly differed from this little nugget of information he has just bestowed upon me.

He then heads out to the garage to check those traps and, yes, I've caught another mouse in one of them out there. He then asks me if I have a plastic bag. I give him one of the precious plastic grocery bags I save for cat litter, again mildly stunned they don't have some sort of special equipment for this. I tell him that I do want the traps reset after he's removed the bodies. He finishes up, hands me the call sheet for my records and leaves. At this point, I sit and ponder his visit. Part of me is so happy that the bodies are taken care of before they started to smell, that I'm initially not too disturbed that when he reset the traps, he followed his bait-isn't-needed format. Then I had a scary thought that since he hadn't brought any of his own equipment, would he be lazy enough to actually dispose of the bodies in my kitchen garbage? I race in to check it out. No, I dodged that bullet. Then I consoled myself with the thought that the first two mice I caught probably went to eat the bait that was there, snapped the trap before consuming much, and died before finishing, hopefully, so that there must still be SOME bait left in the traps.

Since that visit, I've kicked myself up one side and down the other, wondering why I just couldn't open my mouth and request that he use BAIT when he resets the traps. I also thought, Man, I should call that place and let them know about this guy. But no, I just tell myself there is enough leftover bait and that the mouse that had been living here was now gone, so it would be fine. None of the other traps have been tripped, and I KNOW they were baited, so it's probably okay. It just makes me hate myself a little. And it totally reminds me of the chip incident, another memory I can laugh at now, but still totally makes me cringe to remember it. Maybe some day I'll finally grow the cajones to say, Um, excuse me, Gene (he looked like a Gene) but I'm going to need you to haul your chubby redheaded ass out to your truck, get a tube of bait, and bring said bait into my house and USE IT on my mouse traps. Thank you very much.

Text Messages

From Jana:

Who has two thumbs and hates Todd Packer? This guy. (The Office)

What do you mean, an African swallow or a European swallow? (Monty Python and the Holy Grail)

You're fooling yourself. We're living in a dictatorship. (MPHG)

Uncle is crazy! He put a blooming flower into a glass bottle and it melted then shattered! (Samantha about Uncle Scott's fireworks display)

Tracy Jordan key to success: Dress every day like you are going to be murdered in those clothes.
(30 Rock)

For your height, your weight puts you into what we call the disgusting category. Crystal meth has been shown to be very effective. (30 Rock)

They would call me the overkill killer. (The Office)

4 the mare. (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia)


From Alex:

That's the way Samantha rolls.

Ym moor ah ah. ("My room ha ha" backwards. Samantha had written that on her window, and one night while out making smores we noticed it and repeated it over and over till it turned into a Fiedler family saying)


By Me:

The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one. (Spock)

I should pitch a show where I just go about my day, except with a camera crew with me and I just judge people all day. We could call it the "I'm better than you" show.

Do you still snore? I'm trying to teach myself to sleep without snoring, so this nap is for training purposes.

I mean, your drunk husband trying to play poker could piss off real players!

By the way, you know who hates unicorns? Mark Walberg. (30 Rock)

You're savoring it? What, you think you're better than us? (30 Rock)

Maybe we'll hit up that barbeque place you puked at." "You'll have to be more specific." (30 Rock)

I even stopped to catch a snowflake with my tongue, but evidently that's some sort of signal in Chelsea. (30 Rock)

You used Ghostbusters for evil. (30 Rock)

"I wolfed my teamster sub for you." "Wait, is that a saying?" It is now. (30 Rock and me)

This Makes Little to No Sense to Me

So a month or so ago, I found some mouse turds in the garage and had my pest people come in to put up some traps. The guy also came in and checked out the house and found some turds under the kitchen sink (GROSS) and put up three traps in the little cubby behind the pipes and one right by my garbage. He was pretty cute, which may be a minor part of my story.

Well, Monday was my bi-monthly check that the pest people do. This new guy (it's hardly ever the same one) came in and starts telling me about how they've had to get rid of some of their guys because of some problems and that everything should be fine now, not that I've noticed any huge problems in the, what, 10 minutes a month ago that the last guy was out. So the new guy, I'll call him Michael, starts checking the mouse traps and tells me that none of them were actually baited. The bait they use is in a squeeze bottle, sort of like a toothpaste tube. It's not like they have to go pull worms out of my yard and cut them into bite-sized pieces and season them or anything. Just squeeze the goo out, approximately half an inch of goo. Basically, you're probably talking about three, maybe four muscles working for maybe ten seconds, eight traps total in my house and my garage, four inches of goo from a big tube of maybe 50. I'm just saying.

So I'm like, why wouldn't he have baited them? My sister theorized that his business is pests, so if he doesn't bait them, the pests will stay and he will get more business. That actually doesn't really make sense because he has to come for free since I have a contract. I didn't notice him checking me out or anything, so I think we can safely say he didn't have any designs on the woman of the house. He didn't look like he had any physical problems, that is to say his fingers and opposable thumb were working fine, so I don't think he was having a squeezing problem. Michael said maybe he just didn't want to run back out to his truck and get a new tube because he was out (since I SAW the tube IN HIS HAND), so he just used that tube for show. Okay, maybe slighly more plausible, but still. It's not like he was parked on the street, 15 yards away. He was right in my driveway. He doesn't personally benefit by saving money by not using bait, I'm assuming, since the company probably wouldn't be thinking, Oh, Bill went to ten houses yesterday and used four tubes of bait, and Adam went to 11 houses and only used one. My hero. He saved the company $8.40 in bait. I just don't buy that.

Anyway, Michael filled all the traps up with bait and replaced the three rat traps that had been used instead of mouse traps, seeing as how a mouse isn't heavy enough to trip a rat trap anyway, and there was no concern about rats. The first guy told me that he had had so many calls that he was actually out of mouse traps, even though I'm quite certain the reason I had him come out was that I found MOUSE TURDS in my garage. Anyway, Michael tells me to check the traps in a week and give them a call if they catch anything.

Later that night, of course, I hear a sort of muffled snap. A few minutes later, another one. Yesterday morning I went to check the trap under the sink, which was no longer where it had been. Great. Anyway, I did see the edge of it a little ways away, and I'm pretty sure I caught a glimpse of what moved it there. I immediately called my pest people and told them I needed them to come back out. See, I'm not touching anything, and I want the traps reset anyway, even if I were to move the decaying body from under my sink. Even if I were to tell my husband and have him move the aforementioned dead body, I still want the trap reset WITH BAIT. The earliest they can make it is Thursday morning between 11:00 and 1:00. I checked to make sure the bodies (I'm assuming, since I heard two snaps, that there is another dead rodent back in the space way under the sink) wouldn't be stinking by then (they shouldn't be). I took the garbage out, partly because it is full and partly because I don't want to open under my sink anymore under Michael comes back. I don't even think I'll bug my husband about it. We have a contract and pay these people. It's their job. I'M NOT DOING IT. But I've got the serious heebie-jeebies every time I go in the kitchen.

So when Michael was done setting the traps, he also told me he would check the service log back at the office to see who it was that had been here originally. I felt pretty bad that the first guy was going to lose his job, if he hadn't already, especially because he was so cute. Until I heard that snap, snap. I still might have felt slightly bad until I actually saw that the trap had caught a mouse. Now, not so much. That little shit had lived IN OUR KITCHEN for at least a month, probably more, since the last guy had set his Wonder Baitless Traps. Michael told me that the bait goo, to mice, is like Baskin Robbins. Without the bait, there would be NO reason to go near them. What the hell. HELLO.

Where did the Week of Samantha Go?

Man, I must have gotten distracted last week. Samantha came to me on Tuesday complaining that the inside of her nose hurt when she pressed on the side. Then on Thursday evening, she and her dad went to the park. When they got back, according to them, nothing had happened, but her nose looked almost like it had been burned on the top. The next morning it was scabbed over, about a one inch by a half inch scab, so I took her to the doctor. I normally probably wouldn't have, but because of the earlier incident, plus the fact that when she had impetigo 18 months ago it mostly only affected her nose, I was thinking it was something. The doctor said it might be an infection and gave her an antibiotic. But she has had to explain to EVERYONE (because everyone seems to ask) that, No, she didn't fall down or hit a wall or get hit in the face with something. Then I have to explain about the nose hurting and the earlier infection and how she is on antibiotics. Finally, during breakfast on Sunday, my aunt told the little boy hanging over into our booth from the adjoining booth at Denny's, whose parents were ignoring him and letting him BUG us, that she had just fallen. It was easier.

We all went to Spokane for my cousin's fiance's bridal shower, which was really nice. Sometimes when you leave town like that for approximately 32 hours, you feel like you just got back from vacation when, in fact, you have hardly been gone. So I'm checking my bank account online and I'm like, Oh, nothing has cleared since I last checked. Well, duh, there hasn't even been one business day that has gone by. Our joint account had had a hold placed on it on Friday because a check bounced. They normally just do a 24 hour hold. I called and transferred funds, but I accidentally used that card at the fruit stand in Ellensburg. The girl told me it was declined, so I used my other card, but in my head I'm in a complete panic thinking, How the hell did I use $600 this weekend? That can't be right. Well, it wasn't, I had just used the wrong card. When I got home I rushed to the computer to see why the joint account had been declined since I had transferred money. Well, the hold hadn't even been taken off yet.

We had a really nice weekend. Grandma Jeanne gave Samantha $20 for her first lost tooth. Of course, four hours later, the $20 was lost, also. Samantha just totally didn't care because she was having too much fun swimming in the hotel pool and hanging with her sister and cousin, plus she didn't need money for anything right then. I think that's the part that bugged me more, that she didn't care. So finally, we were in the drive-through, just me and her, getting dinner last night and I said, Man, my stomach hurts when I think about the $20 you lost. That's two months' allowance. Doesn't that make your stomach hurt? It finally did. I know, it was sort of evil, but I wanted her to care. Last night my wonderful cousin Brittany found the money at her apartment, so it all turned out.

Drew's fiance, Jami's, sister Angie plays basketball for Tennessee (National Champs two years in a row), and Angie was there, so it was kind of like meeting a celebrity. She's really cool. Watching her and Jami is a bit like watching younger, taller, and way thinner, slightly less funny, versions of Jana and me! I know sometimes the only ones that think we're funny are me and Jana, but we SO are. But I had someone take a picture of Angie and the girls, which also has Samantha's nose in it, so I will get a copy of that from someone and post it for all the world to admire.

The Week of Samantha - Tuesday

I told Samantha she screwed up my Week of Samantha schedule by losing her tooth yesterday, but she was so excited! She got a little plastic tooth necklace with her tooth inside to wear home. We tried to get a picture of her normal smiling, but she's had problems normal smiling and showing her teeth resulting from a weird smile about a year ago. I'm constantly trying to talk her into showing her teeth for pictures, but she won't. Anyway, the Tooth Fairy remembered to come and left her $10. I told her the first tooth always pays more, so she's prepared next time. I remember how disappointed Alex was to get $8 bucks the first tooth and only $2 the second and third.

I have to go in for my mammogram tomorrow, but since I don't go in to Tacoma/Federal Way that often, I also have pleasant things planned to get done. I have to buy some more lavender plants since we gave one to my mother-in-law for Mother's Day. I also got a $25 gift card at Bath and Body Works, and then I found another $10 card that I got in the mail. Wahoo! $35 bucks at BBW. I also need to get a new case for my phone, and I might even get Eric a new phone. He needs one really badly. So I'm mostly looking forward to the trip, except for the fact that I also need some lab work done and can't eat beforehand, which I'm hoping I don't pass out driving in. I'm a serious breakfast girl. If I don't eat again the rest of the day, I'm fine, but I NEED my breakfast.

I just talked to an attorney who owes me $1,300, and he told me the amount had been approved and the check has been sent, which is great, it will allow me to catch up on some bills, but it's also kind of a drag because I don't have that money to look forward to. I've kind of been slogging along in the bill-paying arena lately, but knowing I had these three big invoices out there really helps. Now we're down to two, but I appear to have two big orders in the hopper, so we'll see. My luck, they'll all end up being 4-minute hearings.

The Week of Samantha - Monday

I'm calling this the Week of Samantha. Last week was my birthday, my sister's birthday and Mother's Day, so I have a stack about an inch high of cards and pictures from my chickie that I need to scan and post. Plus, her first loose tooth is literally hanging by a thread, and I told her that when it falls out, I would need to post a picture of her with a gap in her mouth on my blog.

We had a really nice weekend. Saturday morning, Alex's new soccer team not only scored their first goal, but won that game as well. Alex wasn't on the team last year, but apparently they didn't win any games, so we're already better than last year. Plus I think they look really good. You don't watch them and secretly think, "Boy, we suck." They're actually pretty fun to watch. One of the moms asked me what I felt about the scrimmage coming up on Friday night, where we will be scrimmaging the "A" team, the team Alex was on last year. I told her I totally didn't want to scrimmage them, seeing as how they only know one style of play, KILL. And since they have never been taught any sportsmanship like qualities on the soccer field, I'm not expecting any. So they will come out and kill us and possibly turn off the new goalie Alex recruited from her school team who has never played at this level before. I told Alex to prepare our goalie this week and let her know that we may get as many as 9 or 10 scored on us and not to feel bad. I'm not saying they are poor sports, because we actually played a team last year that spit on their hands before they slapped hands after the game. We chose not to participate in the spitfest, and that's not something our team would ever have done. But when it comes to soccer, there's one goal (HEH) with two parts, and that is (A) WIN, and (B) BLOW-OUT.

Text Messaging with a Purpose

I was thinking, now that I have unlimited text messaging, that I should maybe start cleaning out some of the older texts I have been saving. My sister and I regularly text quotes from movies and T.V., so I've saved quite a few. While this won't mean anything to anyone else, probably, I figured I'd record a few every now and then so I will always have them here!

These were from Jana:

Her I loved. (Robin Hood)

She turned me into a newt. (Monty Python and the Holy Grail)

I just blue myself. (Arrested Development)

Strange woment lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. (MPHG)

Shut up! I order you to shut up! Ordering? Who does he think he is? (MPHG)

So where'd you get the coconuts? (MPHG)

The coconut's tropical. This is a temperate zone. (MPHG)

Take a lap. (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia)

Where were you when I was in high school? I was 8. (IASIP)

I will smash you into a jelly! (IASIP)

and sent by me:

Ola Nerdmigos, hahahaha. (The Big Bang Theory)

I think they shot Peckers of the Carribean here. (Weeds)

I made you a painting. It's called One-Armed Mermaid that's Part Unicorn with Bigfoot. (30 Rock)

Dayman, Fighter of the Nightman, champion of the Sun. You're a master of karate and friendship for everyone. Dayman! (It's Always Sunny)

We got Guitar Hero. Get your Slash wig out of the closet! (Some aren't quotes from anything, just COMIC GOLD.)

Marlee is really playing the deaf angle. (In reference to Marlee Matlin on Dancing with the Stars)

Dr. Spaceman (30 Rock)

Easter, the day Jesus rose from the dead, what should we do? How about eggs? Well, what does that have to do with Jesus? All right. We'll hide 'em. I don't follow your logic. Don't worry, there's a bunny. (Jim Gaffigan - Beyond the Pale)

Oh, well. It's raining shih-tzus out.

Take a lap. (IASIP)

Good times!

Braces

Ugh. It's one thing to know your daughter needs braces and to hope that they can get started soon, even though she still has one baby tooth, and to envision yourself paying $150 or $200 a month every month for her braces. It's another totally sobering conversation when the contracts come out and it's all laid out for you. And I appreciate that we do have some insurance, but come on, $1,000 lifetime/maximum is a little ridiculous. Woo-hoo.

Anyway, after the orthodontist, Alex is usually hell-bent on getting back to school, but today she was all laid back, whatever, so we stopped at my still favorite nursery back in our old stomping grounds in Federal Way. I have been looking for some lavender to plant on the side of my house. QFC has these huge, beautiful pots, but they're $30 a piece, and I wanted three or four. The lady at my old nursery even apologized that they didn't have much, although what they had was WAY more than I had found anywhere else. And these didn't look like they were left-overs from last year and they had some blooms already. And, of course, the smell. Then we went to lunch at Taco Time, and we went in and sat down and had a really nice lunch. Alex even said that apart from the orthodontist, she had a great time today!

Oh, on a side note, Samantha's teacher texted me to see if she had some sort of lessons going on today or something she would be wanting to lay the groundwork for getting out of later, because she had complained of a tummy ache. See how that little fart has trained us all to think?

Auction Saturday

So we made it out of the auction Saturday without spending a dime. The auction was put on by, basically, three softball teams. I think there were upwards of 500 people there, which judging by the new tables they kept cramming around in every empty space, was more people than they expected. The room housing the silent auction wasn't very conducive to passing by the item you bid on and rechecking it. It was basically a long, thin room that you entered and snaked your way around to look at everything. Then if you saw something, you pretty much had to bid right then, because the chances of ever getting back that way were slim. Alex saw a scrapbooking kit she thought she might want, but it was already around $50, so we passed. Dinner was really good, although, due to the number of people, it was around an hour or so late. During dinner they auctioned off the desserts, only one of which went for $95. Everything else was over $100. The last cake went for $385. It was about 18 inches high, covered in chocolate and nuts. I can't remember what it was called. I think one bite of that cake HAD BETTER curl your toes, if you know what I'm saying. Anyway, it was a fun time, but we left early. I'm sure they were probably there until after 11:00, at least. The biggest downside: Right when my cousin's wife, Pam, discovered she was the winner of the "Jar 'O Money", I was discovering that, despite my best efforts not to, I had indeed spilled spaghetti down the front of my shirt.

Auction Update

Last night was Southwood de Mayo at my daughter's school. They had a taco bar dinner and a silent auction. Imagine, I actually got heckled by a 6-year-old for slipping and calling it Cinco de Mayo once. Anyway, Alex and I were running around bidding on stuff, having fun. A little bit later, she decides to go home early, so I'm taking her home and she's texting her cousin Molly. Molly asks her if she's coming to the auction the next night. OMG, that's right, we have another auction to go to on Saturday. I rushed back to the auction praying that some of the stuff we had been bidding on got bid on by someone else! We ended up winning the basket full of girl scout cookies, which we REALLY needed, I am sure, and Alex got a pretty green necklace/earring set. We'll see what happens tonight. Since the cost of dinner last night was $7 an adult and $4 a kid and tonight's is $25 a person, I'm thinking tonight may be out of our league, but you never know!

This Made Me Cry and Think

Commentary | CWU softball players show compassion beyond sportsmanship

By George Vecsey

New York Times

Commentary |

Something remarkable happened in a college softball game Saturday in Ellensburg. At least, I am conditioned to think it was remarkable, since it involved an act of sportsmanship, with two players helping an injured opponent complete the home run she had just slugged.

Why this generous act should seem so unusual probably stems from the normal range of bulked-up baseball players, police-blotter football players, diving soccer and hockey players and other high-profile professionals.

The moment of grace came after Sara Tucholsky, a diminutive senior for Western Oregon, hit what looked like a three-run homer against Central Washington. Never in her 21 years had Tucholsky propelled a ball over a fence, so she did not have her home run trot in order, gazing in awe, missing first base. When she turned back to touch the bag, her right knee buckled, and she went down, crying and crawling back to first base.

Pam Knox, the Western Oregon coach, made sure no teammates touched Tucholsky, which would have automatically made her unable to advance. The umpires ruled that if Tucholsky could not make it around the bases, two runs would score but she would be credited with only a single. ("She'll kill me if I take it away from her," Knox thought.)

Then Mallory Holtman, the powerful first baseman for Central Washington, said words that brought a chill to everybody who heard them:

"Excuse me, would it be OK if we carried her around and she touched each bag?"

The umpires huddled and said it would be legal, so Holtman and the Central Washington shortstop, Liz Wallace, lifted Tucholsky, hands crossed under her, and carried her to second base, and gently lowered her so she could touch the base. Then Holtman and Wallace started to giggle, and so did Tucholsky, through her tears, and the three of them continued this odd procession to third base and home to a standing ovation.

"Everybody was crying," Knox recalled Tuesday. "It was an away game, and our four fans were crying. We couldn't hit after that."

The extra run made it easier for Western Oregon to win the second game, 4-2, and sweep the doubleheader. More important, all involved realized they had taken part in an event they would always remember.

The question is, where did it come from, this impulsive gesture by Mallory Holtman?

"She hit it over the fence," Holtman said Tuesday. "She deserved it. Anybody would have done it. I just beat them to it."

She said she had been taught by her coach, Gary Frederick, that "winning is not everything."

Is there something intrinsic to women's sports that caused this generosity? Holtman, nearly 23, did not think so. "Not many people are ever in that position," she said. "I would hope that our baseball players would do it."

Knox, the Western Oregon coach, said the act "came from character."

"They're playing for a coach who instills it," she said.

Knox said she absolutely would not say this demonstrated some major difference between women's and men's sports: "As coaches, we are so competitive, we forget this stuff. By God, I would hope I would have done the same thing."

Would the Oakland A's have carried a sore-legged Kirk Gibson around the bases to complete his two-run homer that gave the Dodgers a 5-4 comeback victory in the opening game of the 1988 World Series? My guess is that if Gibson had crumpled in the dirt, Tony La Russa (or Billy Martin or Leo Durocher or Earl Weaver or just about any manager) would have said, "Let him lie there." But let's grant that those stakes are much higher.

We've all seen sportsmanship at a high level. Golf depends upon personal adherence to the rules. In tennis a player occasionally yields a point — not usually at a crucial moment — producing a sweet little patter of applause.

In 1999, Arsène Wenger, the French coach of Arsenal of the English Premier League, insisted upon a replay of a cup match after a young Arsenal player had unwittingly set up a goal in violation of the unwritten code when an opponent is injured. So maybe sportsmanship is universal, out there, needing to be cultivated.

"It's amazing what they did," Tucholsky said of the Central Washington players Tuesday, while facing what she assumes will be the first surgery of her 21 years for what is suspected to be a torn ligament.

"Mallory didn't know it was my first home run," said Tucholsky, whose college career will end with a .153 batting average and exactly one home run. "It just says a lot about them."

Tucholsky was too immobile to join the handshake line at the end of the game Saturday, but her family has been in touch with Holtman, photographs have been exchanged, the two teams are wrapped in a bond of good feeling we can only wish did not seem so singular, so remarkable.

I don't know, maybe I'm getting a visit from Aunt Flo. But I cried when I read this story. And no, I don't think it's a normal, sportsmanship-like practice that almost anyone would do. After my experience with my daughter's soccer team last season, where one of my concerns about soccer in general was that the way soccer is set up, especially tournaments, sportsmanship certainly isn't encouraged, it was so refreshing to read this story. I know for a fact that we played a team three times last year, killing them each time with scores of something like 12-0 and 11-0, that didn't have enough players available the times we played to field a full team. You would think that when we were ahead by 4 or 5 that we could have taken a player or two off on our side to even things up a bit. I was shocked that we didn't. I wasn't there, so maybe we did and my daughter didn't notice. I don't know. But I can only hope that my daughter has coaches in her life who teach this sort of integrity and character, as well as the game.

Monday Round-Up

Samantha cleaned out her folder this morning and brought me this. I said, "Oh, that's so cute. I'm going to scan it and put it --" And she finished the sentence for me, "On your blog?" From time to time she does bring me stuff she's done, either in school or at home. I think she always feels like she won if I scan it and post it. But if I do it too often, she'll work on nothing else but artwork for my blog!

Jana's cat had kittens, and I suggested naming them Starbuck, Apollo and Boomer after Battlestar Galactica characters. She was totally on board. Here we are thinking it's the coolest that she named the new kittens after BSG. I told Alex the names yesterday and she thought they were cool until I mentioned they were all from BSG. Then she said Jana and I are total nerds. So then I couldn't remember whose idea it was, and I was kind of hoping it had been hers, thus, she'd be the bigger nerd. I still think she kind of is. I wouldn't put it past her to let her cat have one more batch so she can name them Helo, Roslin, Baltar, Adama and Six!

Alex's soccer team played Friday night and Saturday. They didn't win a game and haven't scored yet in four outings, but you watch them and you don't think they suck. They look good. She's having a lot of fun, and we already had a team dinner, whereas in ten months with her old team, NOT ONE DINNER. So we are already winning. The old team's philosophy was simply to not only win, but kick ass and spare no cost doing it, even if it means letting kids who don't regularly make it to practice start anyway and not giving playing time to kids who do make it regularly and always early to practice. They also didn't allow chatting of any sort, thus, ten months with a team and there were some girls she never spoke to. I actually saw one of the girls playing volleyball and almost didn't recognize her because I'm not sure I ever saw her smile before.

My aunt and uncle gave us their old king-sized bed, so I got rid of Alex's old bed, and she got the guest bedroom bed, while the guest bedroom got the queen-sized bed. It was a TON of work to get everything switched around, but I did a lot of cleaning on the way, and I love my new bed. It has a four-inch memory foam topper. I'm all about the memory foam. My pillow is solid memory foam. I think I'd wear memory foam if they made clothes out of it. Maybe not.

Alex's basketball team has decided to take a break, which is a good idea. There is just so much soccer going on, and with volleyball, she had three practices some nights. When basketball started, it was on Friday nights and Sunday afternoons, which was actually perfect. But then they switched it to Mondays and Wednesdays, thinking it would be easier on everyone, but it so wasn't. And what started out kind of casual, get in some extra basketball, kind of ended up too intense. The girls never won because we were going to these tournaments with these (I'm assuming) year-round teams, and I think one of the coaches started thinking we needed to work a lot harder and be so much better. But in the end, around here anyway, I think soccer is king, much to my chagrin. There is a girl on Alex's team who is hurt and won't be able to play until July, possibly June, but she goes to ALL the practices and ALL the games, which is really admirable but sets the bar pretty high. Alex was whining about not feeling great and I told her she could stay home today. The WASL is done with and she doesn't have a game after school. She said, no, she still has soccer practice and that even if she was sick, she'd have to go so she knows what they're doing. I guess because they might do a new play and she wouldn't have an opportunity to figure it out once in the coming ten months of play. I kid!

Big Bang Wednesday

I woke up today and noticed I had five texts from my sister. Turns out she was watching The Big Bang Theory last night and was texting me quotes.

"So in your world, you're the cool ones." "Recognize."

"You can't incinerate a bengal tiger with a magnifying glass."

"Sack up, dude. Here I go taking one for the team... in a sack."

"I'm polymerized tree sap and you're an inorganic adhesive, so whatever verbal projectile you launch in my direction is reflected off of me, returns on its original trajectory and adheres to you."

It makes me want to go back and go through all the old episodes and write down all the hilarious quotes. Then again, maybe I can just order a book of scripts...

Television Chat

I had started to chat about some thoughts on T.V. shows in my Monday Madness post, but decided I needed to devote a post to T.V.

The Rock of Love II with Bret Michaels Reunion show was on last night. I know, I know. I wouldn't even call this a guilty pleasure, because it doesn't make me feel guilty. It makes me feel a little smug that I'm not a skank appearing on national T.V. trying to win Bret's "love". It also makes me feel like taking an antibacterial shower. But after last night's show, it would appear that there won't be a RoL III, with Bret anyway. It's been especially interesting to me, what with all the Guitar Hero we play around here. I've actually passed three songs on hard, one being "Talk Dirty to Me" by Poison. So every time I watch RoL, I think of GH and vice versa. It all ties my life together very nicely. HA!

Saturday the season finale of Torchwood on BBCAmerica kept me GLUED to the T.V. I've only recently come to the conclusion that I MUST WATCH THIS SHOW. It's one I've always TiVo'd but the last couple of months have been stellar. The finale had two main characters die. I freaked out and got online to see if these would stick. And while I think that the British are way more pragmatic with the way they run their television entertainment, it would appear that maybe they aren't entirely behind Torchwood. I'm sort of freaked about it. Then I also happened to catch Doctor Who (the first episode of a three-episode finale) and was glued to the T.V. for that. Doctor Who is also a show I tried to watch religiously in the beginning, but it never sucked me in. But man, this finale sure did. Although if Torchwood doesn't get renewed or the main MAIN character isn't back, I think I would blame Doctor Who and wouldn't watch that one. Not that the British would care. On the plus side, I do have the entire first season of Torchwood, which I will be watching soon. I also have to finish Robin Hood.

A show that has become one of my weekly "MUSTS" is The Soup on Friday nights with Joel McHale. Absolutely hysterical. The thing about reality T.V. is that it's almost funnier reading episode recaps on TVGasm.com or Television Without Pity than it actually is watching the show. This is one of those instances. I would NEVER watch, for instance, the Bad Girls' Club or Flavor of Love or I Love New York (I do have SOME standards), but Joel shows you the hysterical stuff and you don't need to worry about watching the show to think he's hysterical.

Monday night T.V. has become the night to watch for me. It kind of sucks because my family is still a Dancing with the Stars family, but the fact that this season is running during baseball has really put a damper on our DWTS. So last night I actually taped How I Met Your Mother and the Big Bang Theory, instead of downloading them and watching them the next day. I think HIMYM has totally hit their stride this season, and of course, CBS hasn't decided whether to renew it or not. The last few episodes have been, in my opinion, PERFECT, the timing, the jokes, the end of the episode. PERFECT. And the Big Bang Theory always has at least, for me, two laugh-out-loud moments in every episode, the kind of laugh-out-louds where I ALWAYS grab my phone to text my sister about how funny this show is. Last night I actually thought "This show is hysterical. I need to text Jana and tell her this show is hysterical. I know, I'll just use the same text that I probably sent from last week telling her that the show is hysterical." I was not all that surprised to find out that last week the text telling her that this show is hysterical was about HIMYM and not the Big Bang Theory. But it's the same every week for BOTH shows.

Greek is also on on ABC Family channel on Mondays. While the previews make it look like some stupid sitcom about the Greek system at a made-up college, it's SO not that. It's an hour-long show that is funny and touching and makes you feel good you watched it, like Gilmore Girls or Friday Night Lights. I don't usually get Greek watched until the next day, but it is SO worth watching. Seriously.

Another show that never disappoints me when I catch it is The Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert. It's not one I even tape, but when I watch it, it always has laugh-out-loud stuff in it. I may have to buy his book. I watched it once over spring break with my mom, and it's like you sit there for a half an hour with a stupid grin on your face the whole time. Good stuff.

The Office is back and has had a couple of pretty funny episodes, and also 30 Rock. I almost wish 30 Rock could make Dennis Duffy a permanent addition to the cast. These shows rarely disappoint. And Battlestar Galactica rules the world, so much so that my sister was trying to decide what to put on her new personalized license plate, and I suggested 12CYLON, meaning that she is the 12th Cylon, and even though BSG will be over in a few months and we will know who the REAL 12th cylon is, and she will have this license plate presumably forever, she seriously considered it for a minute. Plus you can only have six letters in Montana, not seven.

While the writers were on strike, I got in the habit of getting on my computer instead of watching T.V. every night, and I remember actually thinking, "See, I can live without so much T.V." Well, I guess NOT. I wish I could give up crap like Rock of Love, but I can always find at least one hour I've wasted during the week where I can fit it in, although I do spend more time reading the recaps than actually watching each episode. T.V. is just so good right now! I wrote the word "hysterical" seven times in this post. I think I need a new word.

Monday Madness

And so it begins. This week's schedule is PACKED SOLID. Seriously. I mean, damn near every single minute of this week is already accounted for (as soon as school lets out in the afternoons). So I thought I'd better get a post in now, while I'm thinking about it.

This has been one of the weirdest high school baseball seasons on record. It's almost May and we awoke to a dusting of snow today. The baseball team has to get in SIX games this week. That's how far behind they are. Who knows if it will happen. Today looks like it's shaping up to be nice. Another part of the problem here is that we sort of only have one and a half "pitchers" to speak of. But the team has pulled together some nice wins. And they are pretty young. Eric's philosophy in the past has been that sophomores don't normally play varsity, but I know he has some freshmen on the team this year.

The cat has a fractured leg. This led to a discussion of "options". There are two possible surgeries, both of which are expensive and both of which aren't "sure-fire" solutions. The fracture is in place, so the surgeon suggested keeping Tonks in a kennel for four to six weeks to let the fracture try and heal itself. He's actually taken to the kennel pretty well. We'll see.

I saw Horton Hears a Who yesterday with Alex and Samantha. Totally cute movie. But we all came out of it not feeling great. Samantha even fell asleep for awhile yesterday afternoon, which led to the scene last night starting around 9:00. I think that girl is going to need some therapy at some point. She's now aware that bedtime is at 9:00 and that if she gets to bed late, there is NO WAY she will be able to go to school. She'll be too tired. Except for the fact that she is usually up at least a half an hour earlier than she needs to be. But try telling that to a freaked-out 6-year-old who's busy shrieking that she can't sleep and can't go to school. Last night I assured her that she could possibly stay home this morning if she had to. But she made it to school. I guess there will be NO MORE NAPPING of any sort for that chick.

Alex had made the JV volleyball team at school. She's really good, but I think the reason she didn't make varsity is because she is shorter than some of the other 7th graders who did. They were told on Friday that one JV player was being moved to varsity and they'd know today. I think it's between her and one other girl, who is about three or four inches taller. I really hope she gets moved. Watching the first game, I felt like my head was going to explode. There were seriously some kids on her team that I wasn't sure if they even knew what sport they were playing. That being said, the team they played on Thursday for their second game, I'm afraid that team THOUGHT they were in maybe soccer season and had been playing soccer all this time, only to find out five minutes before the game that, no, this is volleyball season. It was THAT BAD. And that seemed to relax Alex's team to the point where I think there may be some hope that what they are doing might resemble real volleyball in a couple of weeks. I hate to be too harsh, but if you yell "MINE" when a ball is coming over the net and then DON'T MOVE and JUST STAND THERE, you probably should be suspended from school for at least a day. It's just that big of a pet peeve of mine that I think I can officially put it on my list of pet peeves, even though it's a sport that will probably only come around six weeks a year.

So Alex's schedule has her doing volleyball after school, basketball on Monday and Wednesday after volleyball, then leaving early for soccer until 8:30. I know it's terrible, but she wants to do it all. She heard the basketball team may be quitting for the season after the tournament on Sunday, so she wants to be there for that. She has a soccer tournament this weekend, and if they don't advance to the semis, she can play in the basketball tourney on Sunday. My cousin told me that this is the point where they made their daughter choose a sport, but I think that's part of the problem with youth sports nowadays. She may not be the best at any of her sports, but I think she should get to play as many as she wants, as long as it doesn't affect her grades, which it doesn't. Anyway, I'm not going to preach about that.

Hopefully, the weather will cooperate this week and we can move on.

New Video

The Solution Room

Every day when I pick up Samantha, I ask her a couple of standard questions about her day. The first one is usually, "Let me guess, Jason and Matthew", meaning Jason and Matthew were the ones who got into trouble today. I'm almost always right, except for that one week where Jason was gone for four days. Also, the day there was snow on the playground, three GIRLS also got into trouble for THROWING SNOWBALLS. WHICH IS NOT ALLOWED. Anyway, today, after confirming that Jason and Matthew had gotten in trouble, I told her that what she should do tomorrow, just to mess with everyone, is to march into school and do something really bad and get into trouble FIRST.

"NO, I CAN'T, BECAUSE IF I GET INTO TROUBLE, I'D HAVE TO GO TO THE SOLUTION ROOM." This being said, of course, the usual two octaves higher than normal conversation. I'm really sorry about this, but I burst out laughing, LAUGHING, which pissed her off even more. "YOU'RE LAUGHING, BUT IT'S REAL." I apologized and tried not to even SMILE, and I asked her what the solution room was. It's the room they go to discuss a better solution for the problem they were having when they got into trouble, except she doesn't know first-hand, since the little goody-two-shoes fart has never been there, not even the time the "guest teacher" got mad at her for talking.

Things sure have changed since Elrod Elementary (Smellrod) in the '70s. Ugh, I threw up a little in my mouth just then. Did I really say the '70s? Someone told me about that, I think...

Alex in her dress

The night of the birthday party where Alex was to wear her dress, she had volleyball practice. She cleared it with the coach to get picked up at 3:20, the party people leaving for Seattle at 4:00. This gave us approximately 30 minutes to rush home and get ready. I was totally anticipating a screaming match over her hair. At first she wanted to "wash it, blow it dry and have it straigtened" a process that normally takes around an hour, if we hurry. I laughed. Anyway, luckily (?) the wind was blowing like hell and it was POURING rain all day. When I got her home, I told her her best bet would be to jam it up in a messy bun so she wouldn't have to worry about the weather and could relax and worry about the rain on her nylons or her open-toed shoes. Anyway, she agreed, and her hair was totally cute. It was almost effortless, getting her ready, although she did worry the whole way to the party that they would have already left. But she had a really nice time.

Oh, funny story, there was supposed to be one more girl in the picture, but after the way the friendship between her and Alex has turned out, I chose to crop her out. I'm not sure what her problem is, but I've told Alex that if she ever decides to start acting like they're friends again, Alex needs to have a serious talk with her first. You don't let your friends treat you so badly and then let them right back in if they ever decide to change. It's really uncomfortable because this girl's mother just loves Alex and really wanted Alex and her daughter to be on the same soccer team next year. I think most of the problems started when they both made the varsity team at school this year, so I deduced that it wouldn't be any better if Alex played on the same select team. Anyway, every time I see the mother, she asks me about soccer and mentions that she has the information on her daughter's team. I don't have the heart to tell her that Alex would probably quit before joining her daughter's team because of the way her daughter has been acting towards her. It's painfully obvious her daughter doesn't discuss anything with her, or she would probably know that she doesn't speak to Alex anymore. Then again, maybe you wouldn't go rushing home to brag to your mother that you have been totally shutting out the friend that your mother loves and telling the whole school how annoying she is. Who knows? And at this point, I am beyond caring. I will care, however, if they ever decide to be friends again.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

The main goal when we left Montana at 8:15 a.m. Mountain Standard Time was to be home around 4:00 so I could nap for an hour or so before leaving for a dinner party we were invited to at 6:00. We kicked butt until we got to Snoqualmie Pass when we were stopped for the "Avalanche Control" festivities. In April. Anyway, we FINALLY made it home around 5:15, giving us about 35 minutes to get ready. After 10 hours in the car. I think that's going to be my new thing. I'm going to write a sentence and then follow up with a sentence fragment for emphasis. Anyway, we went to my daughter's teacher's house for dinner and had a great time. I didn't even allow myself to think that I didn't want to go. Who wants to go to dinner after driving home from spring break all day? Anyway, they served this great flank steak recipe, which will be my new favorite as soon as I get the recipe. I went ahead and drank as much wine as I wanted, knowing I could stay in bed till at least 10:30 (remember the days in college when getting up at 11:00 was early?). So I've had to deal with a wine headache all day, but it was worth it.

Since the Fiedler family is officially a Guitar Hero family, I made a Guitar Hero playlist for the iPod for the car. I also put the playlist on the iPod Samantha uses. She knows ALL the words to all the songs. I must admit, it is a little disturbing to hear your 6-year-old singing "Talk Dirty to Me" while listening to her iPod. I guess GHIII is rated T for Teen for a reason and not 6 for 6-year-olds.

Samantha and her friend were jumping on the trampoline this afternoon and her friend came in to get me to tell me Samantha was hurt. When I asked her what happened, she told me Samantha had bent her knee. See, in my house, this is a common complaint. I'm not sure she realizes that knees were made to BEND. Oh well, nothing a Tums won't take care of!