*yawn*

Dad babysits Joel on Mondays. Joel is the three year old of this woman Cindy--and her mum Carol is my dad's ex. They parted on good terms, obviously. But yeah, he likes doing this babysitting stuff. He's been ready to be grandfather for years, he says, but Iain and I are simply too young to be starting on giving him grandchildren yet, thankyouverymuch. *rolls eyes* Anyway, little dude comes over on Mondays. And dad has some lovely tricks to get the hours to pass without seeming to, and getting errands done at the same time. Like, if the weather is nice, get Joel to help with the gardening. Or, if it's not so nice, go grocery shopping.
It's so weird. I don't know where I picked it up. I figured it out somehow, anyway. When we were at the supermarket, a way I kept Joel sort of occupied was giving him the job of holding the shopping list. And having him help me take the cart to one of the little trolley park things. Just, y'know, giving him little errands or something to hold so he would feel useful--and stay out of trouble. And I have no idea how I knew to do that, 'cause I don't ever remember anyone ever telling me. It's not like I watch those Little Angels or Supernanny shows... not very often anyway. Although the bits I have seen have given me some clues as to what to do/not do whenever I do get around to having my own rugrats.
Anyway...
Last week pandoras_evil_t took her bike into the repair shop to get it all checked out and fixed up. Well, they told her the back tire and brake pads needed replacing, and she said, "Do it!" All's well and good, right? Right. Well... no, not right, actually. She picked the bike up, and was riding home, when, at a place where she needed to stop, horror of horrors--her brakes didn't work! She crashed into a fence. Thankfully it was only a fence. When she called up the shop, the guy there said he'd forgotten to mention--the brake lines needed replacing as well, and how much that would cost. Later that day, though, the manager of the shop called back and said they'd do that job for free, since there'd been such a cock-up and it could have been much worse.
Well, on Tuesday Ange asks me if I want to come with her to take the bike back in, and "look scary." She... just doesn't know how to do intimidating like I do, lol. Well, off we go, and the manager surprised us--he gave her a full refund on the whole job. Well, now she has a whole $58 more than she had last week, and as she took the money we both noticed that, well... her helmet's in pretty bad shape. May as well look at getting a new one, yeah? *laughs* Kind person that I am, I was oh-so-complintary of how the helmet's looked on her when she tried them. But, yeah, picked one, and the manager only charged her $40 instead of $45. Good stuff!
After that we skipped across the road to the McCafe for some coffee. Mmmm, latte. I don't know how I've not managed to get addicted to coffee. pandoras_evil_ loves to tell me Cancerians have addictive personalities, so it's strange I don't really have many addictions--but then sometimes it seems as if people become addicted to me! Well, we were at the McCafe enjoying our latte and mochacino, when who showed up on his lunch break? Her boyfriend. So he came and chatted with us for a few mins before he went to actually grab something to eat and we went back to her place for the afternoon.
Got another fic rec, this one being Lupin/Snape. I enjoyed it. How Severus Snape (Didn't) Kill Nymphadora Tonks. 'Sfunny, I really haven't read too many fics lately, and recced even less... but, eh, what kind of fics I want to read fluctuates and varies so I never know when the mood is going to strike me to read whichever pairing or gen...
And, yeah, this was an icon used by someone commenting on my last entry, made by quietlyhonestly. Is tres cool, no?


( Happy Thanksgiving )

Fin.

Don't like

Pumpkin pie: yep, still don't like it. Tried it for the first time in years as a sort of "just checking" and there was a lovely huge piece of pastry for my piece, and it was made by Eileen rather than dad. Figured it would be polite to eat it. But admitted I don't care for the pie. The cookies and cream ice cream was vair nice though.

Brandy: ughhhhhh *shudders* Never had it before. Nope, don't like it.

Today was not dad's day.

We went to the bank today, because the fucktard clerk who served me on Friday when I deposited his Christmas check from Gma and Gpa McFarland totally fucked up. For one thing, she told me that I could no deposit my check into my dad's account (which I need to do, because my account is overdrafted at the mo and I need to fix that up). For another, she deposited dad's check into the wrong account. Wrong, as in, not his. So we talked to this guy there, and he fixed up with dad's money, and looked to see IF I could deposit my check into his account--I could, I just had to write on the check to deposit in his account along with my endorsement.
And that was okay. Although we had to deal with a couple shitty drivers on the way there. And dad was pissed because his bottle of ink for his quill pen had disappeared. Couldn't find it anywhere. Not in the house, not left at the course place he's been at. No sign.
So, we get to Chartwell and get a new bottle of ink. If I suddenly find myself up $200 I'd love to buy him a new printer/copier/scanner--the current printer has utterly died. No surprises as it's at least five, no, six years old. But yeah, that's just a secret desire. Anyway, over to the mall to look in the hardware store at curtain rings. Thing was, dad was sure the rings they had in the style he needed were too small, so he didn't get them. When we got back, we learned they'd been the same size as the four he already had here.
But yeah, got back, and I open the door of the van and look down to be sure of my footing when I get out. Guess what I see lying in the dirt? Yeah, uh-huh, the missing ink bottle. Oh, how I laughed and laughed. Dad, he saw, and rolled his eyes in the "that's just typical" fashion... said that yes, it was funny, but he couldn't laugh right now.
We weren't home more than two or three minutes, and Suzy showed up. She was getting dinner in order and all, and then Eileen showed up with one of her pumpkin pies. It is, after all, Thanksgiving--even though I'm the only American of the household. Dad's not got American citizenship anymore. He's gone Kiwi. But yeah, it was celebrating both Thanksgiving and the fact Dad's citizenship papers went through finally. I really impressed them when I got up and made coffee for Dad and Eileen, and got a glass of apple juice for Suzy--without any motivation for myself (I wasn't thirsty, I was just being the good hostess) and I hid in the kitchen washing the dishes and being a total Domestic Goddess. No wonder dad said, "We'll keep you on." (I neglected to mention how many times Gary has said that when I've been a good little helpful daughter--Dad would not appreciate the comparison)
I was very good, and resisted going on the computer until almost 7:30 or so--only to discover when dad and I left this afternoon not only had he left the computer on, he'd left the internet connection on. There were no messages or anything though, so that's all right.
I hope LJ gets it all sorted and starts sending email notifications right. It's confusing to get maybe half of the notifications and find 'extra' comments on an entry. It makes me wonder if there are any replies or comments I'm completely missing because I don't even know where to check.
*laughs* Eileen just coughed. Lin is in the kitchen, making stir fry like he usually does. And what is part of the stir fry? Chile. It makes the eyes water a little, and often makes us cough, too. They're waiting for it to hit me. Poor Eileen is asthmatic though so no wonder it's affecting her.
*coughs* There we go!

Fin.

aww, this is fun

Unbabies is my new favourite nonword

Fin.