The Queen's Rambles

*Thank you all so much for all the help with the songs and the obit. It was very, very helpful. We picked songs direct from you guys, so you really contributed a lot. Torapines and Helloheather were also phenomenal in obituary proof-reading.

*Holy hell, does an obit cost a lot of money. You get 70 words for free, then it starts costing hundreds of dollars. I don’t mind since it is the last thing I am doing for my father, but it was just a total shock. I think I did a nice job writing it and it is a good way to honor his memory, so there you go.

*I am tired of getting puked on at midnight. Poor, sweet baby. She ate so little yesterday that all she had to puke up with bile smelling stuff. Directly into my mouth. I did take her to the doc and she said it was just a virus and we have to wait it out. I was slightly concerned since we’d been around hospital germs and those can be industrial strength. If this silly baby would just eat some fruits and vegetables instead of the flesh of my arm she might not be sick all the ding-danged time.

*Mike had a big work thing today and then he had to go out to dinner with clients. I know he had to do it and I know he didn’t want to do it. I know he has to schmooze so we can make the big bucks and I can enjoy our current lifestyle. Still. Sick baby. Dead father. Working husband. Woe is me.

*It is so hot here that I didn’t let Erik go outside this afternoon or evening. He is chomping at the bit and I don’t blame him, but I don’t need a heat stroked child to round out my week of fun.

*I am beyond irritated at the funeral people. They can not seem to answer a simple e-mail. We are paying enough that they should be committed to answering my every whim. Is it really too much to ask for confirmation e-mails when I’ve sent something they need? Also, I sent a shit load of pictures via e-mail and half of the messages failed to be delivered but I don’t know which ones and they won’t tell me what they received so I am ready to beat them black and blue. JUST TELL ME. At first the lady was all “just send all the pictures in one e-mail, it will be fine.” Yeah. Guess how “fine” that was? We’re talking 30 scanned in pictures and about 20 digital pictures.

*My sister is trying to be so helpful, but she irritates. I’m very thankful that my mom went ahead and hired a funeral home to do everything so my sister can stop running around like a headless chicken. My sister was trying to get us to have the funeral at her church, officiated by her pastor, and then my mom and her could go and make sandwiches in the church kitchen afterwards. As if that is what a mourning family does. I’m sure if my dad was a religious man that would be fine, but he was not and my sister’s pastor is the biggest scammer I’ve ever met. The slime, it just oozes off him. I don’t feel this way about all pastors. In fact, the minister at my grandma’s old church would have been just fine. But this guy? I doubt he’d be able to do a funeral without the fire and brimstone sermon. There are funerals where lots of heaven talk is very comforting and appropriate, but when the deceased was a vocal unbeliever who did lots of naughty things and doesn’t have a hope of heaven by anyone’s definition, the typical Biblical idea of death is not all that comforting. I don’t want to think of my father rotting in hell and sorry, but that’s exactly where the God of the Bible would put him. I think a few prayers are fine, mainly for the comfort of the mourners, but a whole big thing about heaven and hell just doesn’t seem appropriate. I don’t believe it so I don’t find it particularly upsetting, but it seems like true believers would have to find it upsetting, knowing my father’s history. I don’t know. I’m just glad my mom put her foot down and they are doing a celebration of life instead.

*I can’t believe Mike got to go out to a fancy pants dinner. We should have went out to a fancy pants dinner for our 8 year anniversary last weekend, but we weren’t even in the same time zone. I looked at his dinner options tonight and can’t get too upset. I know he’ll enjoy himself because it is a huge array of seafood, but I don’t eat seafood. At this restaurant, if you don’t eat seafood you’d better be prepared to eat asparagus or mushrooms. Yuck. I am not fancy pants enough to eat at these high end places.

*I signed Erik up for a little half-day camp the last two weeks of June. It’s hard to get up to get him out of the house early, but it will be nice to have him off doing very active things that he loves and I don’t have to supervise. He has his school camp this week, then he was going to be free all summer. I can’t handle the freedom.

*I thought cloth diapers were the cause of Elsa’s butt rashes since we used disposables and she had a clear butt the entire time we were in OR, but I guess not. As soon as we got home she got a major butt rash. And you know what else? While we were in Oregon the rash that encompassed over 75% of my hand completely cleared up. It was a thing of beauty. I didn’t think that hand would ever be rash free. It’s slowly coming back, though. I think Elsa and I are allergic to the humidity.

*I wish I could get a clear scan of a few pictures I found in a photo album. My scanner makes a weird, rainbowy thing over all the pictures and they are blurry to start with so it’s pretty useless. But these pictures! My gosh! I was confused because I thought I was looking at pictures of Elsa, but they are pictures of me at her age. Poor little thing looks just like her mama. At least I’ll know not to start dying her hair blonde when she’s 12. Dark hair is much more becoming for our skin tone and eye color.

*Guess it is time to try to get Erik into bed. I’ve been telling him Harry Potter in installments and we are up to book 6, but I can’t remember anything that happens in it. Not that it matters. I have not exactly been detailed oriented with the other books because I can’t remember things and he is not good at letting things unfold. He wants answers, dammit, and he wants them now. Maybe I’ll just kill Voldemort tonight and tell him the story is over.