A tiny little RANT for the beginning of this week.

Ah, yes, it is Sunday night, again. I have just finished watching the 3rd in The Complete Jane Austen series (Mansfield Park) and it has become my Favorite of all the three thus far (see here for info on the series on PBS.) However, I have no doubt that as the movies continue to present themselves, it will surely be replaced with another of Ms. Austen's amazing writings. If you are not watching them for yourselves, then you are truely missing out.
And, on to the rant part of the post...
We (Ini and I) went to the Olive Garden this afternoon for lunch. It is one of her *FAVORITE* places to eat, and I figured it was time that we had a little "Girls Lunch" out as it has been a while since we have gone to lunch together. We had approx. a 30 min wait (not bad for a Sunday afternoon) so we made a side trip to Barnes and Noble to check out their Bargain Classics section (I had to pick up some new reading materials - Emily Bronte's Wurthering Heights (YEAAAAHHH!!) and a copy of Mansfield Park to add to my growing collection of Ms. Austen's works. Our "beeper" went off fairly quickly, so we raced back to the restaurant and handed the damn thing to the "hostess" (who chose to ask us at this time if a booth would be alright, 'cuz if we wanted a table we would have to wait longer. Right, like I am going to force my hungry 3 yr old to wait for a table. ((insert eyeroll here)) I say, a booth is fine. Then she turns and asks me if we will be needing a children's menu (can we say a collective "DUH!!!") I just looked at her, like, "Do YOU think that we need a children's menu?" She seated us in a horribly located booth, and informed us that our server would be by soon to take our drink orders. UGH!
Our server was BEYOND negligent. It took her 15 min before she showed up to ask us what we would like to drink, at which time, we took advantage of her being there and ordered. Add an additional 15 min before we received any salad or breadsticks. Before she had taken our drink order she had dropped of another table's check and they were still sitting there, waiting for her to take their money and bring them boxes. At which point, I thought to myself, "This is not going to go well." (The other table eventually flagged down another waitress to settle their check for them.) After she brought the bread and salad, she disappeared somewhere for the next 30 min or so before making an appearance to inform us that our meals *should* be about done (really? 30 min to make some chicken and spagetti? I could have went back there and cooked it myself faster than that.) The food came, and it was decent (presentable, hot, fresh, edible) Our waitress, however, did not come back to find that out.
On to dessert. I always order the same thing, Torti Di Chocolate and it is DELICIOUS. Ini always orders the Chocolate Gelato. And, generally, they give a child sized portion in a little bowl with the caramel sauce and chocolate shavings on it, just like the grown up version. However, this woman brought her a Chocolate Gelato *SUNDAE* with Chocolate syrup and whipped cream on it (in the shape of a smilie face no less ((again with the eyeroll)) ~ she was *NOT* happy. However, she developed a love for maraschino cherries because of it, so the day was not a total failure. LOL
We paid, we went to the fabric store (at which I bought *ONLY* thread HURRAY!!!!) And then went to pick up Cait.
When we picked her up (30 min late, mind you) she had NO COAT on (it was a warm day, but it won't stay that way) and her shoes were from her Dad's and not the ones that were sent with her (UGH!) Normally, I would not have been so angry (who am I kidding, I would have been just as livid,) BUT I make an effort to send her with items that come home with her from there house when she goes back to their house. It would stand to reason that they could make a bit of an effort to make certain that the things that she arrives with, come home at the end of the weekend! And, on top of everything else, they attempt to lay the blame for their lateness on my shoulders. In fact, I believe their *exact* words were "We wish that you would call us when you are coming to S---------- on Sundays." Why? So that they could get out of providing her transportation to the designated pick up site? WHATEVER!
Anyway, as exciting as today was, it is not a day I would wish to repeat.
On a bonus note, Ini was *REALLY* good the entire time we were in the restaurant (despite having woke up at 6 - FREAKIN' - 30 IN THE MORNING!!!!)

As the World Turns.... (aka. Christmas Vaca-y for us!)

Hmmmm....When I picked Cait up from school last Thursday for the start of her Christmas Vacation, I honestly never thought that it would go by this fast. It has been a week now, and it feels like just days have gone by. (It probably helps that she spent about 5 days or so at her dad's house when she was first out of school.) The girls and I have spent our days playing board games, and our evenings reading from the Complete Chronicles of Narnia collection (well, Cait and I have been reading it. Ini is really only good for a chapter or two and then she is out for the night. LOL)
The odd thing is that I am discovering my children all over again. Their personalities, their temperments, their ability to torture one another with their mere thoughts. I have never in my life known siblings to get along so poorly (possibly, my brother and I, but possibly not. LOL) I thought that MAYBE 4 yrs, and the fact that they are both girls, would make some kind of a difference. But I guess that sibling discontent runs rampant for all.
It is nice that I have been able to sew some though. I have managed to accomplish 2 tankie/shorts outfits, a coat shell, a tunic top, a peasant top, 2 pr of flannel pants, and an additional tank for my Cait in just the past 4 and a half days. So, maybe, this whole Christmas Vacation thing isn't so bad after all.
I still can't wait for January 3rd though.

Sad day in the ol' Dirt Box.

Our worms are dying. And we are sad.
That sounds odd, doesn't it? Maybe a little backstory will shed some light on all of it.

About a month or so ago, we attended an event (Recycling Night) at Cait's school that offered a "Take Home Recycling Center" (aka. a Worm Farm.) We were to bring a plastic tub/box the size of a shoebox to fashion into the worm holder, and the school would provide the rest (worms included.) Now, before you start to exclaim "Ewwwww ~ Worms, how disgusting!!!!" I should probably note that the ones that my mother has in her worm farm are really clean, do not smell, and quite cute little things. (Ours, sadly, are not the same worms.) So we went to "Worm Night", as the girls refer to it, with the intention of getting our own personal "Take Home Recycling Center".

Fast forward to about a week later, the worms are still fine but they are not eating any of the food that has been put in for them (as a side note, worms consume - something like - 4 times their body weight in a week or something like that.) In fact, the food that we had put into the container for them when we set up the farm had molded. So we began the process of cleaning out the worm box, throwing away all the newspaper, leaves, moldy stuff, etc. (but not the worms :) ) And basically starting all over again. And thus began our quest to keep the worms alive - which I affectionately refer as "Save the Worms - 2007."

My mother came over several days later with some scraps for the worms - coffee grounds, cucumbers, and the like - that her worms had really loved and eaten right up (her worms had liked them so well, in fact, that they had been reproducing by the thousands inside of the coffee grounds.) So we added the scraps and some peat moss to the box, and put them back in the closet (worms HATE light.)

Moving ahead to last weekend (not this past weekend, but last weekend), the worms had eaten through the cucumber, and not much else. Of course, I couldn't exactly tell the difference between the coffee grounds and the dirt, but they had not eaten the carrots or the cabbage that was put into there so I would imagine that the coffee grounds were still in there as well. And there is absolutely no sign whatsoever of any kind of reproduction either (Worms are asexual creatures, does that strike anyone else as odd? Probably just me.) And it was moldy once again. So I cleaned out the box again, and started all over again.

This morning/afternoon I opened up their box and found 1 dead worm and a whole lot of messy, moldy orange and it's peels. They have not eaten any of the food that we had put into there, there is still a problem with molding, and now they are starting to die off. So, again, I cleaned out the moldy stuff, replaced the other stuff, and put in some pieces of apple.

Hopefully, they will live. I know how sad the girls would be if their worms met their untimely end inside of a box in our closet. My mother has already given up hope for them, I think. LOL She offered us some of hers.