Saturday, July 09, 2011

The obligatory catching up post

Last week I made over.

This week I write.

Where to begin?

This summer has been very laid back for the most part at the House of Babble.

BH has been working diligently on completing his masters degree. He has one class down. Only the capstone left to go. It is due July 29. He defends it August 8 and then he is done done done! I am thinking long and hard about throwing a major celebratory bash. I can't decide whether or not to do it now, or wait until graduation. Assuming he plans to participate in the ceremony.

I should probably ask about that.

I did not attend the graduation ceremony when I finished my masters degree. It was held in California, and I was in Kansas. We had a 9 month old baby, I was working part-time, BH had just gone back to school to get his second BA so that he could teach one day. There was no money for a trip to Cali for my ceremony. I was very sad, but we did have a great party at home. My only regret now is totally silly I know. Since I didn't go to the ceremony, I did not order the graduation attire. That means I do not have my masters hood. I still harbour some sadness about that. I have the diploma, which is the most important thing. I had a lot of fantasies about wearing that hood to get me through the long months at the end of my degree. So it hurt a bit not to get it.

Suffice it to say, I will be working hard not to project my sadness over missing my own graduation ceremony on to BH and bully him into attending his own should he decide that he doesn't wish to do so.

I will bully him into a party though.

Mostly because I like parties.

Also, he has worked long and hard and should celebrate his success. Especially since he is graduating with a 4.0.

What else has gone on this summer?

#1 now has a full mouthful of braces. They actually look pretty cute, and give her just a slight lisp.

I should get a picture of her, I have failed to do that as of this post.

#1's parents now have a healthcare flex account that is getting drained at an alarming rate.

Glad to have it.

I have seen 2 of the 3 concerts I wanted to attend this summer so far.

Remember that Ben Folds concert I hoped to talk BH into attending with me?

WELLL...I decided that I really couldn't justify the cost of a third concert this summer so I decided to let it go. THEN! An out of town radio station was holding an online contest to win tickets to several different shows, one being Ben Folds. I entered with my usual low expectations. A few weeks after, I get mail from that radio station. I was a bit perplexed by the envelope as I didn't recall right away that I had entered that contest. I opened the envelope to find two tickets to see Ben Folds! Yayy! I will be attending that show tomorrow!

The Mumford and Sons/Cake show needs a do-over. Guess what guys! I am old! Standing for 4.5 hours in 96 degree heat at an outdoor venue crammed in with 10,000 people does not amuse me. Especially when you are not far from the stage, and can not see a fucking thing because you are short, and people feel the need to shoot shitty video with their cell phone that they are holding over your head. Both bands sounded great. I experienced claustrophobia for the first time ever, and for the first time ever left a show before it ended. So you can clearly see where the do-over comes in.

Elvis Costello. Oh Elvis. He is a fucking fantastic performer. We were again out in the heat in standing room only. It was 101 degrees this time. However this outdoor venue only held 2000 people and did so comfortably. Did I mention that we were in the front row? Front row as in there was no one between us and the stage except for one very friendly security guy? E.C. played for 2 hours and despite the heat and my tired feet, I could have happily listend to him play for two more hours. This goes down as one of the top 5 concerts I have seen. It made up for the crappy experience I had last month.

I have high hopes for Ben Folds tomorrow. It is at the same venue where we saw Elvis Costello. The fact that we are going for free will make it all the better!

The girls have spent the last 5 weeks at theater camp, and have loved it despite the copious bitching we heard at the very beginning of summer. We usually only do one 3 week session of camp per summer. This year we did 2, because BH needed the time to do school work, and the girls believed this to be a grave injustice to them and their summer plans of sitting around the house reading, complaining about only having an hour of screen time every day, and being bored. This week will be their last for camp. Then they are off to Missouri with grandparents for a week. Not sure how I will fill my child free time. Never been at home for such a long time without the children. No big exciting plans for us, since BH will be one week from his capstone project due date, and will have to focus on that. I should probably start planning what I would like to do during my child free evenings at home.

I have enjoyed the slower pace of this summer. I am actually not looking forward to returning to school time schedule. It is always so crazy. I have not missed having a big vacation planned this summer so far. There have been a few twinges here and there, but overall I am OK with it. Travel kind of stresses me out as my two readers well know, so it is nice not to have to deal with it this time.

I have babbled on enough. I think you all get the jist of what I have or haven't been up to so far.

Now I have to start thinking about upcoming posts about my garden, storm damage repair, crazy ass state politics, and my sad sad JBTBH.

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