Idiocy or lunacy....is there a difference?

Normally, I try to hide my moments of idiocy from the world, but today I had one of those moments that begs to be shared - so we can all laugh together as we shake our heads in wonderment......

At work, some of the people we call for help require us to provide a code to verify that we really are employees.  To generate this code, you log into a certain link and it gives you a code to provide and a confirmation code for the person to provide back.  It's the same user ID and password you use to log onto the computer in the morning - seems simple enough, right?  I did this once today, and then needed to do it again about 15 minutes later.  For some reason, I could not get the code - I kept getting an error message. Finally, after about 10 minutes of fruitless attempts, I called the Help Desk.  After explaining my problem and five minutes of trying to check stuff and get me logged in, the very nice person on the other end of my call checked a few things, came back on the line and asked me if my password was 8 characters long - they have to be, you know, exactly 8 characters long.  He told me I was typing it in wrong - no way, I say, and then BAM! epiphany, I actually was only typing 7 characters.  Duh!!!!  Yes, I have been a natural blonde most of my life and no longer wonder why those jokes originated.

Fortunately, the day picked up.  Had its ups and downs (doctor appointment for a checkup....did you know I'm overweight?  It's official).....and then off to pick up Ron and Devon to go to the JCC for the Israel Independence Day celebration.  Aubrey felt all grown up since she walked there by herself from school and was there for about an hour without us.  She did pretty well on her own, too.  It was a lot of fun for all of us.

The J had open swim which the girls enjoyed - separately, which made it all the more enjoyable for them, I think - and the girls, along with some of the other kids from religious school, sang two songs as part of the program.  What they lacked in ...shall we say talent?....the kids made up for in enthusiasm.  Devon had a great time playing with her best-religious-school-friend, Jade, and Aubrey met a boy (go figure!) and hung out with him most of the time.  He seemed very nice, but a little too old, sorry sweetie! We liked that he checked in periodically with his parents and actually listened to them....so we forgave him his age for the evening and let them hang out.  I would love for Aubrey to do that - call us before doing something she isn't sure would be okay and then listening to us when we say no.  But that would just be so out of character for her.  Ron and I really enjoyed the "main event" a singer from Israel. And to show one of the differences between American musicians and Israeli musicians, I would have bought her CD

because I really enjoyed her songs and voice, but they were not for sale at the event.  An American act would definitely have had their CDs available for purchase.  Saved me money, I guess, so no harm done.

And I need to save some money these days.  I got a flat tire on Sunday, and Ron had the car towed to our favorite mechanic.  As long as the car was there, they said, you know you're way overdue for a tune-up and timing belt replacement.    That'll be $1500 please.  Ah....no?!  They offered a discount if we did both, since the labor for one is most of the labor for the other, so Ron made a deal and did some of the work - trying to keep the van going for another 100,000 miles, please.  Can I cry now?  Thank goodness tuition for Aubrey is done for now, and most of the summer camps the girls will be at are among the cheapest we've ever done. Of course, I didn't mention that we just had a sick cat which cost over $300 at the vet (no, I not getting rid of my animals!)....Anybody got a tourniquet?  Too bad I'm not allowed to work overtime...

I'm glad for the timing, though.  If the flat or the cat had happened two weeks earlier I wouldn't have gotten my new dining room table (I LOVE this table!).    

And the table makes me happy.  :)  It's never uncovered, though, because we don't trust the girls to not hurt it.  And it's so pretty, exactly what I wanted and Ron let me have it and loves it too, so we're all just one big happy family, except we don't let the girls sit on the new chairs, which they really resent.  Too bad!  They occasionally sit on one but if they're eating I make them move. And I keep them pushed in, (the chairs not the girls) under the table, so the cats don't get to sit on the chairs either.    If Aubrey is lucky, I may decide to let her sit on one after her bat mitzvah.

We just passed the one year mark until that big day.  Aubrey has a friend who is being bat mitzvahed (for lack of a better phrase) in 2 weeks, so she'll get a good idea of what is expected of her when she goes to services.  We've got lots of studying ahead of us!  And this past weekend we all participated in a mitzvah project (charitable project) for a boy who was just bar mitzvahed. The whole religious school plus some others all went to Feeding Children Everywhere and we made over 4,000 meals to feed the hungry locally. I think a lot of the information they gave was too detailed for the kids or too big a number, but talking about how some kids (thousands) get only a school lunch to eat in a day was an effective fact.  I know my daughters think that the school lunch isn't enough food for lunch, much less to last a entire day!   Spoiled things that they are.  I do run what my mother liked to call an "expensive table", which was her way of saying I spend too much on food.  I like to get a lot of fruit, though, and that gets expensive.

Devon went to bed the other night not happy and a bit hungry.  She decided she doesn't like chicken anymore and refused to eat dinner, not even the vegetables, which she usually loves.  Because I know she actually does like what I made, I refused to make her something else.  If I make something for dinner I know one of the girls doesn't like, I'm willing to make them something else.  Devon doesn't like fish, other than fish sticks (and crab legs).  But she always has to taste what I make before I'll make her something else to eat, even on fish nights.  She just flat out refused to try to the chicken, so I just flat out refused to make her something else to eat.  So there!  But I haven't quite gotten to the point where I can send her to bed without her eating anything, so I caved and let her have a couple of cheese sticks and a bowl of watermelon before bedtime.  Yes, I know, my giving in reinforces the bad messages and therefore the bad behavior.  Sue me.

Panic for a minute there....the track point disappeared on me.   Not on the screen, the actual little red track point on the keyboard...Miracle of miracle, I found the little bugger and put what I lovingly refer to as Rudolf's nose back where it should be on the laptop keyboard.  But I digress.

So anyway, Aubrey wants to do something animal related for her mitzvah project, no surprise there, and we've started talking about it to try to come up with a really good idea.  We've also discussed what kind of party we want to have, so we can plan and shop for a while.  I told her the good part is getting to crash other people's parties so we can hear the deejays.  She definitely liked that idea.  Maybe she'll get her big idea this summer - it's a mostly animal summer for her, dog-training camp for 2 weeks, horseback riding camp for 3-4 weeks and the rest at her friend's house with lizards and geckos and dogs and cats and kittens, lots of kittens.  She'll be in heaven!  Devon is excited about her summer, too - take away the dog training and the rest of it matches...so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they have fun.  And I'm loving that I don't have to pack lunch and snack for them for the entire summer, just part of it.  I really hate packing lunch, don't ask me why.  I just do.

Everybody has something they hate, and, for me, it's packing lunch.  And letting the world see I'm an idiot. Or at least I hate knowing that the world can see I'm an idiot.