They Take A Lickin', And Keep On Stickin'

Ashleigh and Elliott are in full lacrosse swing.  Ashleigh is co-captain of her varsity team and Elliott is co-captain of his junior varsity team.  I have made it to one game each.  Elliott scored once and had an assist at his game early on.  Boys lacrosse is very physical and he took a hard shot.  That woke him up and he upped his game big time.  Very aggressive and was putting some good checks and stick hits on.  They wound up losing 5-6 but played well against a very good team.

Ashleigh played today and her team was down 4-9 at one point.  They were slowly creeping back in and it was 8-11 when Ashleigh took a hit to the head (girls don't wear helmets).  The game was stopped and the girl who hit her got yellow-carded (penalized and removed from the game for a few minutes).  She was hurting for a minute or two but stayed in.  That hit got her fired up too and she scored the next two goals - unassisted.  They tied it at 11 but lost 11-12.  Good games!

If It Ain't One Thing...

Well I see it's been a month since my last posting.  A lot has happened, yet not much has happened.  Had a bunch of minor (hopefully!) medical issues pop up - bone spur in my right heel, strained calf muscle in my left leg (thought it was basketball retirement time), jammed thumb, small cold, and most annoyingly, an achy left flank.  It kind of felt like the makings of a kidney stone but there was no real sharp pains - just a dull ache like someone was squeezing me from the inside.  I finally called my doctor and went in for an x-ray.  Since my appointment was the next day, I got to take my x-ray films with me.  Of course as soon as I get out in the hallway I hold them up to the light and take a look.  Uh oh.  Big dark cloud mass on the one side.  My doctor is in the same building so I marched myself right up there.  There’s this very attractive receptionist at the window so I told her I just got my x-rays and am concerned and don’t want to wait until the next day for my appointment.  She pulls out the films and looks them over and seems concerned so she said she would go run them by the doctor.  I am thinking that if I am going to get bad news, at least I will get it from a good looking woman.  Well out comes the doctor and they are talking right there on the other side of the sliding glass.  I can hear everything.  The doctor says I have two stones and that is my problem.  Then the receptionist says my concern is the dark mass.  The doctor looks again and makes his diagnosis:  gas.  Ugh.  So now here comes the attractive receptionist over to the window and I have to try and look her in the eye and listen to her tell me that not only am I not dying, but I am full of gas.  Nice…  Turns out they aren't stones (there is a big name for calcium deposits) and they are not the problem.  I am going for a CT scan to see what is up.

Meanwhile, I got my car back and it is all good.  The peepers started peeping the other night and we have had a fox and several deer in the back woods the past couple of mornings.

Ashleigh and Elliott are both captains of their respective lacrosse teams.  That is cool.  They are practicing now and come home filthy muddy every day.  Elliott even did the "slip and slide" in the big field puddle the other day.  Good thing I carry blankets in the car...

He Rode In On A Hyundai

On the way out and back to the conference last week, I noticed my Pathfinder was riding rough - like it couldn't find the right gear to be in between 45-60 mph.  So I googled it and found that Nissan has had a BIG problem with my year Pathfinders (2006) so they extended the warranty to 80,000 miles.  Apparently the radiator leaks into the transmission and ruins them both.  All of they symptoms added up to just what I had.  I have 74,000 miles on it and the job, out of warranty, would be $7,000!  So I took it in on Monday and wouldn't ya know it, the problem was NOT the warrantied one - it was bad U joints and some other stuff.  Dang!  At least $800 worth of repairs.  I told them to go ahead and fix it.  They called me the next day and said they were wrong - the problem WAS the radiator/transmission one and they would fix it for free!  And that fix would cover the other things that needed fixing too (U joints, etc.)!  That was some good news.  Of course the parts are back ordered and will be shipped out sometime but that is OK - they gave me a free loaner car.  A 2011 Hyundai VeraCruz with 12 miles on it.  The best thing about it is the XM radio.  To the embarrassment of Elliott, Lucie and I were singing and rocking at the stoplights last night!

I finished my taxes today.  I usually buy the federal Turbo Tax disk (not the state one) but this year you could do it all online and then pay for the protram at the end when you submitted the return.  The federal one was pretty straightforward so I did that and e-filed.  Fine.  Meanwhile, they kept a running total for DE state taxes in the corner and offered to sell that program too.  DE offers free online tax filing so I figured I would just do that like I always do and save the Turbo Tax fee.  But when I finished the DE online taxes, it said I OWED money while Turbo Tax said I was due money back!  What?!  I compared both returns and the only difference was the tax amount from the table.  Turns out, I filed JOINT on the DE state form (like always) while Turbo Tax reviewed the best filing option and found that "married filing separately combined" was the best option!  Who would have guessed that?  So I went back to the DE online form and changed the filing status and sure enough, getting money back!  How "governmental" to have a filing status called "separate combined!"  Works for me...

Her Name Was George

There are so many ways to tell this story that I don't know where to begin...  Lucie, Ashleigh and I are in Lancaster, PA for a Royal Rangers conference.  Lucie is running a few classes - Ashleigh and I are along for a vacation.  Elliott has Driver's Ed so he stayed behind with the dogs and Ashleigh's boyfriend.  This morning we went to breakfast at Bob Evans.  Our hostess was a spry woman in her 60's and was wearing a head piece with Valentines hearts on springs bouncing around.  All went fine and we stopped to pay our bill on the way out.  As we were paying, the hostess pointed out that HER name was George.  She was the youngest of 14 kids and her father named her George because he wanted a tomboy daughter.  That revelation lead to a story about her as a child being teased and having to fend for herself.  (Reminds me of the Johnny Cash song, "A Boy Named Sue.")  That story, which included references to pants lowering episodes to prove her sexuality, was nothing compared to what came next.  First, she quizzed me about who was President in 1969 (Nixon) and then the REAL story began...  George told us how when she was a teenager, she received a letter saying she hadn't responded to the draft.  Next thing she knew, she was being taken away in handcuffs and shackles.  Soon she was drugged and taken to Area 51.  Wait.  WHAT?!  Area 51?!  Indeed.  George shared how the aliens that are amongst us have been so for thousands of years.  "And they don't look like the pictures you've seen.  They look like you and me.  They are bald."  The aliens have provided the technology for many human accomplishments including the lunar landing.  It didn't take long for George's mother to retain an attorney who directly contacted the Commander in Chief.  A lawsuit was filed and suddenly George was set free.  Not with a check of course, "that could be traced."  Instead, George was sent home with a briefcase full of cash.  And years later, her golden years are being spent in the Lancaster Bob Evans - wearing a headpiece with spring mounted hearts suddenly looking very similar to alien antennas.

Though we could have stayed all day and listened to her stories, we had to leave.  As we left I turned back and said, "By the way George, tell me about your sister Larry..."

And Your Total Comes to Zero Dollars

I was off today so I went over to Dunkin Donuts to make good on their offer to correct their previous over-charge.  The manager was very pleasant and he tried to pay me back for my entire order.  I took the $2 they owed me and put the rest in the tip jar.  He then insisted I take a free coffee and donut.  The last thing I wanted to do was make him unhappy so I obliged...

While I was out, I got a Facebook notification that Chic Fil A had a free Facebook promotion:  between 3 and 4 PM, mention the promo and get a free large order of waffle fries.  So I pulled in and asked for them.  They said the promo was for free chicken nuggets.  Even better!  It was funny, after they told me it was nuggets, they said, "Your total comes to zero dollars.  Please pull around."  When I pulled up to the window, I asked what happened to the waffle fries promo.  The kid said there were two promos going on and asked if I wanted the fries too!  Why surely I do!  But wait - there's more:  when I got home, they gave me TWO orders of chicken nuggets AND the large waffle fries! 

I would make some sort of "Free at last..." comment due to today being MLK day but someone will probably get offended...

Doh! Nuts!

The other day I pulled up to Dunkin Donuts and ordered a large coffee and two donuts.  I had a coupon for the two donuts - two for $0.99.  So I went to the window and gave the girl my coupon and a gift card (that had like $4.65 left on it).  She told me I still owed her money!  What?!  I tried to explain that it made no sense that a cup of coffee with two donuts should cost more than 5 bucks AND I had a coupon!  I might as well have been asking for technical support for a computer if you know what I mean...  I finally gave up and paid the money and went on my way.  My receipt showed two things - the girl had added $0.99 for the donuts instead of subtracting it and there was an invite for me to fill out a customer service survey.  Fill it out I did!  That afternoon I got a nice call and email from the store manager and he is going to make it all right. 

More important than all of that, Ashleigh got another acceptance letter.  This one from the University of Delaware nursing program.  We hear only 100 people get into the program every year.  She is still set on Stevenson but it is nice to have a choice.  Today I filled out the financial aid application and found out the hard way that there is a difference between fasfa.COM and fasfa.GOV.  One is the real Federal Financial Aid online program and the other is an identical site that charges you to apply...  So after getting to the end of the application that comes with a fee, I recognized the error of my ways and had to do it all over again (for free).

Off this Monday.  We may have a little Patriots watching party over here tomorrow night.

Hard Work DOES Pay Off

Today we got a GREAT letter from the University where Ashleigh is going to school in the fall.  They looked at her GPA (4.1), class ranking (top 10%), difficulty of her high school classes and standardized test scores.  Without even applying, they awarded her the top amount of the Dean's Scholarship!  That is the second highest scholarship available and is worth $10,000 PER YEAR!  Pretty darn impressive!