For the longest time I’ve made it a habit to avoid certain things, especially the celebrity gossip magazines and shows, but since I’ve been going to therapy regularly I’ve been catching bits of gossip via the magazines that they have in the waiting area, and also I tend to find that I catch TMZ in the evenings when my husband is at work given it comes on right before “The Simpsons” and “American Idol” (which is something else I never thought I’d be watching).

I’m turning into such a house wife.

I mean what do I care who is in drug rehab? Who is divorcing who? Who slept with who? Who waves at the camera and who flicks it off…but apparently I do.

Augh! Save me from myself!

I’ve been seeing the CommentLuv plugin on several of my friend’s blogs for a while now, but finally got around to installing it on my own. So, from now on when you comment on a post, provided you’re not an evil spammer type person you’ll get two linky-love for the price of one, as the plugin will find your last blog post and link it to the entry when it’s approved.

Thanks for commenting!

This was taken this morning but I keep forgetting to post things. If I look tired it’s because I was still recovering from the munchkin’s party. It’s part of Self Portrait Sunday meme. See what everyone else is doing this week by checking out the Self Portrait Sunday entry of the day. I had a pretty relaxing day though which I needed after the hectic week. The munchkin had fun running around the yard naked and bouncing in his paddling pool, and actually had a nap today because of that which was good too.

I’ve been editing and reworking some fanfiction that I wrote a while ago, and can hopefully now finish some things up. I can’t post anything until Tuesday though because the new fanfiction.net account is frozen for two days to prevent spam.

I think it’s safe to say the munchkin had a good birthday. He’s flaked out willingly and gone to bed. He wound up not having a nap. He got a lot of nice gifts, and we all ate a lot of good food, and he got to play with our friend’s children. We had a mini-incident, where he pushed my friend’s daughter because he wasn’t getting his way about something and had to be put in time-out but overall everyone got along well.

He was spoiled rotten really. I’ll post some pictures tomorrow of the amazing cake that my friend made. She made him the dragon last year, and this year she did a cake with several characters on it seeing as we couldn’t decide, so it had Sarah from “Land Before Time” on it, Clifford, Curious George and Elmo all sitting around presents and a little birthday cake. It was amazing. She’s apparently made a Smurf house before too. I’d love to see pictures of that one.

The munchkin himself got a nice list of gifts.
From my Mum he got two sets of pajamas, 101 Dalmations pictures for his room, a Thomas the Tank Engine interactive DVD/book, two plushie Cars from CARS.
From our friends he got sidewalk chalk, a ball, a training bicycle, $40, pillows, bed sheets, a toy chainsaw, and some clothes.
From us he got the party, Curious George in a police car, several board books (The Very Hungry Caterpillar, the Very Busy Spider, Cookie Dance) and a t-shirt that says “Reasons why I’m in Trouble: 1. Won’t Share 2. Won’t Give Mum a Break 3. Refuse to Nap 4. Keep Breaking Stuff”
My Gran sent him a cute pants/t-shirt set that says “Cheeky Monkey” on it, and a Paddington Bear book and a teach/turn book which is neat, I haven’t seen anything like it before, it shows you how to tell time and count by turning dials on different pages to match the story.

Last Sunday we had a mini-party at my FILs and they got him a neat phone which you can record messages on so that you can talk to the child through the phone and a dump truck to play in the yard with, and a couple of outfits, a plushie basketball and a bubble wand.

One of our friends showed up early to clear out brush from the back yard so that we had more kindling for the fire pit. It kept a nice fire going for most of the afternoon so we were able to randomly make smores, and toast marshmallows, and then we also made hot dogs and burgers and turkey burgers, and our friends brought meatballs, black bottom pie, tiramisu and the one set brought the birthday cake.

We have tons of leftover food so we should be going for a few days. So, that’s nice. I’m tired after all the prep work over the past few days and definitely don’t want to be cooking or anything like that.

I think I’m going to go have myself a piece of birthday cake given I didn’t get any really today. I had a bit of the black bottom pie and the tiramisu though. It was so funny, the munchkin was so excited when I lit the candles that he didn’t wait until the end of “Happy Birthday” to blow them out. I wound up having to relight the right as the song was getting to the end so that he could blow them out again.

I think he had a fun time though. There was one hilarious point where a friend of ours was spinning the laser pointer around the living room floor and the kids were all going nuts chasing it. The grown ups had some fun tag-teaming each other in “Super Smash Brothers” which we got for the Wii last week. That was my game treat seeing as hubbie has “Grand Theft Auto IV” on pre-order.

I just found this out about the economic stimulus checks and thought I would share. They’re going out based on your social security number, and varying in time depending on the last two digits of your social. Looks like we’ll be getting ours in June.

DIRECT DEPOSIT

Last two SSN digits: Payment will be transmitted by:
00 through 20 May 2
21 through 75 May 9
76 through 99 May 16

PAPER CHECK

Last two SSN digits: Payments will be mailed by:
00 through 09 May 16
10 through 18 May 23
19 through 25 May 30
26 through 38 June 6
39 through 51 June 13
52 through 63 June 20
64 through 75 June 27
76 through 87 July 4
88 through 99 July 11

Today is the munchkin’s second birthday, it’s still a long strange trip. This time two years ago I’d just been given the wonderful epidural and professed my love for the anesthetist. We’d been in hospital overnight. I was on a pitocin drip and my water had broken just before 7 a.m. I was told to nap for a couple of hours and then we tried standard delivery but the child with the huge head he got stuck, and so he wound up being delivered by C-Section at 4:28 p.m. on 4/26/06. He was 9lbs 6oz and 20 3/4 inches long.

Right now I’m not sure exactly how tall he is, somewhere approaching 3 feet, and he weighs about 35lbs. He’s currently trying to rescue a chameleon from the cat, and playing in the newly fenced off yard, while Gran and I clean up and prep to cook and a friend of ours is helping keep an eye on him and clear up the yard around the fire pit and get more fire wood chopped ready for marshmallow cooking later on.

Here’s a few pictures showing how he’s changed over the past two years.

The first picture of him ever taken. He was about fifteen minutes old at this time, and still angry as you can see. Mum took this one as he was being taken to the “waiting area” for his other grandparents to see him.

This one was taken a few days before his first birthday.

And this one is him this morning. More interested in other things than the camera.

My little baby is definitely looking more like a little boy.

Some of this came to my mind reading forum posts about the five police officers who shot unarmed groom 50 times and others are just things that my husband and I talk about frequently given he works in law enforcement.

I’m not talking about the killing of the man in this. I’m not going to get into whether he was a felon or not, whether he was in the wrong or the right, or anything to do with the case in question. I just want people to understand part of what prompted this post.

There are lots of heated discussions going on in various places that I’m reading about right now about this issue, some of them have valid points, and some of them get into those broad generalizations about our men and women in law enforcement, and for some time of this afternoon I was seeing red, and some of that red I feel was justified.

I know that most people understand that cops are people too, but sometimes some people forget that. They find it easy to slag off police officers because they feel that all police officers are “assholes” that cops seem to get some perverse joy in making their lives miserable and that any cop is going to be trigger happy, or tazer happy and does what they do out of some power-trip. That makes me upset and angry. A lot of people also seem to think that cops have an easy job, that they’re just sitting around eating donuts all day, talking smack, polishing their guns and looking for hot chicks to pull over so that they can get a free happy ending in exchange for not writing a ticket.

I had to leave one forum because I got sick of the juvenile behavior displayed by some of the people on the forum after someone’s party got broken up by a noise complaint and their attitude about the law enforcement officers who were just doing their job, by investigating what was going on. What got me the most about that one is that they were complaining because they got into trouble when there were underage people their drinking illegally and imbibing in other illicit substances. They were breaking the law, they deserved to get into trouble.

On to my part about cops and their jobs. Police officers are not paid a lot of money. If you want to make a lot of money, you don’t go into law enforcement, you go into medicine or you go into judicial practice as a lawyer, or you go into real estate. Police officers salaries are pretty low, they’re not as low as teachers, for example, and yes, they do make more than someone flipping burgers at a fast food restaurant, but they’re not rolling in dough. They also don’t get good benefits. A lot of agencies don’t get over time, but yet they’re still working on average 14 hour shifts. My husband’s general shift are twelve hour days, two days on, two days off, lather, rinse, repeat, but there are many times he works two to six hours over time because he works night shift, and cases run over. There are other days he’s worked longer shifts than that because of parade duty or having to go to court, or give or collect evidence on cases.

Insurance is another thing which isn’t great. When he first worked at the PD he could barely afford his own insurance, there was no way to get myself or our son on the insurance, and now even though he can get me on his insurance because things have adjusted slightly, our son wouldn’t have insurance if it weren’t for the HealthyKids program through Medicaid. If we had insurance for our son through his work it would take $900 a month to cover it, and we have a $3000 deductible for all medical expenses; and that’s good insurance for cops. Many have it worse. In some states officers are investigated any time they call in sick.

I know that not all cops are good; but not all cops are bad either. I know there’s going to be people attracted to the profession because they get to carry a gun, and that the power is going to go on to their head. They’re going to bully people around because of that, and those sort need to be written up, tossed out and in some cases aren’t going to. I know there are departments that operate on the “good ol’ boy” system. I know there are cops that cheat on their wives with people they pull over. I know all that.

But I also know that my husband works in a thankless job. People are rarely ever happy to see him. People drag him through courts over tickets because they want to punish him for costing them money, and generally they lose because they were in the wrong. I’ve seen my husband’s co-workers being reamed out on the side of the road, because the person they pulled over who was driving like an idiot doesn’t appreciate being delayed from driving like an idiot and endangering people’s lives. I’ve seen hubbie attempt to help people in horrible situations only to have them essentially and sometimes literally spit in his face by going back to those horrible situations. I’ve seen him wrung out because he’s been having to deal with juvenile abuse cases and I’ve seen him wonder why he ever hoped to make a difference, but he keeps persevering because every once in a while he is able to bring down some asshole who thinks it’s great to dope women up on drugs and sell them into prostitution, or someone who manufactures and supplies drugs out of their trailer to school children and others.

Those are the good days, but I’ve never heard him say that anyone’s thanked him, it only seems that good cops get mentioned in the papers when they get killed. Until then we mostly here about the ones who got trigger happy and ruined people’s lives, the ones who thought they were better than the system and that because they had a badge and a gun they could push someone down the stairs, or should get kick backs for allowing the druggies back on the street; but the majority of cops, the good guys who genuinely want to help people, and are trying to keep people safe. No one ever hears about them.

You know there are assholes in other professions too. We had assholes at the library I used to work at, people who would talk down to me because they felt that as a woman I was inferior to them; people who were ticked off to find out that their job at the library wasn’t just going to be sitting around reading all day, that they actually had to perform work and be a service to the community, any job I’ve worked I’ve seen people like that, and sadly in the police force it isn’t any different on that score, which makes it all the harder for the cops that are trying to improve the reputation of law enforcement and trying to do what law enforcement is supposed to do “protect and serve”.

There are cops in our community trying to put together programs to keep youths off the street and give them something to do. They collect toys for children at Christmas. They work in homeless shelters and soup kitchens. They work hard. Most of the cops I know don’t want to pull someone over for something stupid any more than the person wants to be pulled over, but it’s their job to remind you that there are other people on the road and that you should be courteous. Most cops I know try to give warnings because they know that tickets are expensive and they couldn’t afford one any more than you can, but they have to. That probably doesn’t make up to most of you that there are the cops that are ticked off and jaded and will write extra tickets as a punishment.

But remember cops are people too. For everyone one that screws you over there’s three more trying to help someone, you just never get to hear about it.

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve participated in Four Foods on Friday, but this week I’m on the ball, given I’m resting after a busy day of working in the yard and fixing my laptop. So, here are my answers to the questions. Be sure to check back at Val’s blog for her round-up of the answers.

#1. When going out to dinner what items do your order? Appetizers, soup, salad, dinner, dessert.
Usually it’s just dinner, and sometimes appetizers, sometimes dessert. I’m trying to wean away from getting dessert, because I stuff myself, and I’ve started getting salad instead of fries or switching the fries out for mashed potatoes or some other sort of veggies.

#2. How predictable are you when eating out? Do you usually order a meal that you’ve had before or do you like to try new things?
I’m about 50/50 on this depending on what mindset I’m in. I’ll try new things but usually if they have chicken or things like that in. I’m a chicken fiend. I’ll try things off other people’s plates a lot too, which usually works to my disadvantage because my husband loves foods which are painfully spicy.
I like one of our local Thai restaurants because we’re very friendly with the owner who is the main cook and I can quiz him about what’s in and not in his food because I have a very finicky stomach. I wound up throwing up this morning because of the Pho we had yesterday as there was a lot of garlic in it.
But I love new foods, particularly Asian foods. Whenever we get sushi we’ll have two that we’ve liked before and try one new roll.

#3. When eating at a restaurant, what beverage do you like to order with your meal?
I’m a Mountain Dew fiend, but if we’re at Asian restaurants I tend to get hot tea because I love the Jasmine teas that most of our local restaurants serve. I’ve started getting water most of the time though because I’m allowing myself only one soda a day for the next few weeks.

#4. Name a meal that you ate at a restaurant that you liked so much you tried to recreate it, as well as the name of the restaurant and the recipe.
Hm. Well, I love General Tso’s chicken and I make that at home as well as Sweet n’ Sour chicken. I’ve gotten those at various restaurants around the area. Any Chinese restaurant has those. I also love the sushi. I think I’ve posted recipes for both of those before so I’ll just link them. How to Make Maki-Sushi and General Tso’s Chicken.

I do!

OMG–to get there, though. We were just getting to 441 and I realized I didn’t have my wallet which has my green card in and we had to turn around and get back, meaning we were going to be at least 20 minutes late to the ceremony, they said we had to be there for 1:30 p.m. that time came and went and we were at the intersection of Turkey Lake and Sand Lake, no way we were getting the Orange County Convention Center on time and I’m thinking OMG–we’re not going to get in. Then I’m thinking, well, Mum and I may be able to get sworn in together then. So, hey, not so bad. I make peace with that, but I know I have to show up anyway so they know I didn’t just bail.

We get there and a lady ushers us upstairs, “Oh, honey, you’re going to make it! It’s all fine!” and I find out we’re not late. The ceremony itself doesn’t start for another twenty minutes. They just want you there early so that they can get the THOUSAND people and their guests seated before hand. HUGE relief. I’m almost crying I’m so happy.

So, I get sat next to a guy from the Dominican Republic, and a woman from Zibabwe is on the other side. She’s been waiting to sit because she’s got a broken foot and has to be on the end of the row. Ten minutes and they start. We get a little video about being a citizen, a woman from the post office gives us tips on getting passports, they present the colors and a guy does this beautiful Accapella rendition of the anthem which had most of our section in tears myself included and introduces the guest speaker who is a USCIS worker whose family emigrated from Cuba, and she gives a really stirring but thankfully short speech (as I can hear my son shouting, “MUMMY! WANT MUMMY!” from the balcony area where Mum, hub and him are sat) about what it means to make the citizenship journey and how important it is for the future generations of your family that you take the step and become a citizen.
Then they had everyone stand up by country, there were 94 countries represented. I was one of the last to stand up because my country of origin was the UK and then we did the Oath and a future citizen from the Army led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. We watched a video speech from George W. Bush and a video of people at other Oath ceremonies to the tune of “Proud to be an American” and we all stood up at “and I gladly stand up!” and waved our flags and sang and cried, then they gave us our certificates and that was it.

Wow. My Mum took us out for Pho and then I left my cell phone at the restaurant and we had to go back for that. I’m in top form today. Yeesh!

But, hey, it’s cool. We get to do it again in a few months because Mum gets to have her ceremony, but at least we know the ins and outs now.

When we got home there was a white peacock in our yard! That was really cool. I like to think it’s a good omen.

I got tons of compliments on my hair LOL. I couldn’t spray paint stars in my hair but I found those really cool star earrings which set things off.
I can’t believe it’s really done. I’m a citizen. I just have to put my DL# on my paperwork and send it in and I’m registered to vote, and I have a passport form too, but that’s gotta wait ’cause the passports about $100.

It’s dangerous for me to go into home improvement stores. I see so many things I want to buy and get, but it’s just not feasible. I have to remind myself that the house doesn’t need all these things right now we can get them gradually.

Sure it would be nice to have patio furniture for the deck, an ornamental fountain, start a fruit and vegetable garden, put plants around the borders of the yard, and even buy a hot tub (something my husband wants to do) but we don’t need all that.

I saw a really nice outdoor bench and table at Ace Hardware yesterday which was only $90, but how would I get it home in my dinky car? and the $90 is better served going towards food for Saturday and gas for today. It’s easy in this commercial era of immediate gratification to let your wants become your needs, but especially when hubbie and I are trying to get our debt to income ratio down, down DOWN, we need to stop spending. Besides once we’re sorted there’s a good chance we could find half the stuff we want through something like FreeCycle, and let someone else reuse things that we don’t need in return.