Brisingamen End Of Year Note, 2022 (November)
I felt bad I was leaving Lucas a mess. It rained all night and we needed to put decorations away – but Luke had to dry them out first. Tawbs and I were headed right back to Wisconsin on the first. I felt bad but Luke said it was no problem.
Tawbs saw the Nutcracker preformed by her dance school, Parkside Academy of Music and Dance, last year. She loved it. I loved that she loved it, as I loved the Nutcracker at her age. I got dressed and went to go see it with my dad preformed by the Milwaukee Symphony and the Milwaukee Ballet. Last year she was told that this year she could be in it – and she wanted to be – but we had conflicting events, twice, three times over. The biggest being that her 1000 Books Before Kindergarten Graduation party had been postponed until this year, at the beginning of November. Tawbs worked on 1000 Books Before Kindergarten for 4 years, reading 1,000 different books! We had already talked about going to the graduation as soon as they scheduled it (Covid and all). Going to Wisconsin would have taken us out of too many practices – plus family was coming out the week of the recital. It was all just overbooked, so I made the decision that we would go to 1000 Books Before Kindergarten.
Lucas couldn’t go, as he had a business trip to Florida at the same time as the graduation. Lucas got to go to Hollywood Studios and Epcot Center. He had a fantastic time. He stayed at a wonderful AirBnB – I saw pictures of it – and Lucas got the bunk bed, Encanto room. It was between him and Carl getting the Encanto room, and I told Lucas his daughter would be disappointed if he didn’t fight for that room. Luke said, for the most part, the food was good but very expensive. He did say that he had the absolute worst meal he has ever had in his life there. He said it took forever to get seated, forever to get menus, forever to get water – 40 minutes at the table to order. Lucas said he ordered an omelet. Not only did his build your own omelet not come out with everyone else’s food – but when it did come out – it had nearly the exact opposite of what he ordered on it. He told Carl that the omelet was going in the End of Year Note. Carl said it better be on the first page. Since Carl didn’t get too far past the Haiku last year, I doubt he made it here this year.
Lucas said once he got into the groove, he did okay at the conference. He realized that attendees were given bingo cards on the vendors – and Lucas was able to figure out if the attendee was looking for them or not, which gave him a great intro for talking. The guys did get caught up in Hurricane Nicole – which delayed flights. They had to get another AirBnB and different flights. To pass the time, Lucas and his co-worker went to go see Wakanda Forever and Shazam! Fury of the Gods. He said he liked Shazam! Luke seemed to have some pretty good-looking drinks that week. I saw a picture of a very tasty looking sangria sampler which I would have loved. Luke returned home with Australian chocolate and cookies which the family shared and enjoyed. Thank you.
Catawba-Lynn and I’s trip was a little different. First off, the VW performed perfectly, no issues. Secondly, Catawba-Lynn did not get sick in the car. She told me she wasn’t feeling great, and I took the first exit I could get off on and pulled into a McDonald’s parking lot. There she found a bunch of snail shells she decided she had to have, so she picked up handfuls of those and forgot she was sick. She seemed a little groggy on the trip, but we had already committed to driving out.
The morning after we got into my parents’ house, my mom and I administered a Covid test on Tawbs and it came back negative. She was just blah. We went to the Milwaukee County Zoo for about an hour with my parents and my Aunt Lucy and Cousin Mike. Catawba-Lynn and I rode in my wagon, and we stayed out of buildings just in case Tawbs was contagious. Later that evening, my parents’ friend, Scott, came over and so did Matthew and Nicole. My mom ordered local pizza and it was a good night.
The next day we went to the graduation, but we both wore a mask while we were there. The director of the library heard we were there and came to say hi to Tawbs and talk a minute. She said, “Glad the timing [for the graduation party] could work out for you!” I said, “We came out just for this.” She was shocked mut happy. I look at it this way, you tell your kid over and over again “There’s consequences for your actions.” but it’s usually for bad things. Catawba-Lynn worked at completing those 1,000 books and we wanted her to get the reward of the party if we could. Luke and I could make it happen. And of course we went to Scoop after and said hi to Ray and Carrie.
The following day was a calm day at the house watching Hallmark movies and HGTV with Grampy. Aunt Lucy brought over Sorry and Kids Monopoly to play. For the most part Tawbs just needed a break.
The next day we looked at 3 open houses in Manitowoc and Howard’s Grove. We stopped at Pine River Cheese for yes – cheese – but also $0.25 ice cream scoops. Yum! Nothing important stood out on the houses we looked at. Again, informational purposes.
The next day Catawba-Lynn, the three dogs, and I drove home. We took the turnpike back home and there were a couple places along the turnpike that had no gas. Luckily, I was filling up frequently, so I was never in danger of running out. While driving through the mountains, I passed a dead buck in the hammer lane. I did my due diligence and called #11 and was in the middle of reporting my findings when a different deer jumped out in front of me. “Oh for fuck’s sake! Get out of the damn road! Get out!” I yelled as I maniacally beeped the horn, all the while still on the phone with #11 for the report of the original buck. “Well,” I said, “I didn’t hit that one, sorry about yelling. Do you need anything else?” He thanked me for my time and said they’d have someone out soon to clean it up.
I had to get back home from Wisconsin so I could do elections. Justine said she would watch Tawbs all day for me if I dropped her off. Tawbs did her classwork, had Chick-Fil-A and did a bug hunt, among other things. Super cute – Tawbs knows we are not Christian, but that other people are. We usually don’t go to church-based things. So when Justine said they were walking to the church (to go vote) Tawbs looked at Justine and shook her head and said, “Mom isn’t going to be happy.” It’s cute and funny but great too. She is comfortable around Justine and trusts her, but still lets her know what she is or is not allowed to do.
I had the chance to vote too. Our booths were “busy” but uneventful, so I could take my time thinking of how to vote. You’re supposed to vote for the person who you think would do the job the best – so I voted for Luke’s boss. I don’t know how he does so much, stays on top of everything, and still knows what the hell is going on in the Philadelphia area – so I voted for him. Luke told Scott he’d better watch out as he was going to be Mayor, or something, of Norwood and Scott said, “No! Taxes are too high out there!” “And that’s the first thing you can fix!” Luke responded.
We put a birthday present together for Catawba-Lynn’s dance friend and gave it to her late. We were invited to the party but were in Wisconsin and then forgot the chocolate coin present in Wisconsin. We had to wait until the second time we went to Wisconsin to bring it back home.
Another honorary note – I was in the basement switching loads when I heard this crashing sound. I turned around quick to see Jude, just calm faced, slide-falling down the basement stairs on his shoulder. He slammed into the washer, stood up and started exploring the basement. What the hell, dog?
Beginner Obedience for Sessrumnir and I started. I intended on taking Catawba-Lynn to each class with me. She could work on her class work and watch us work with the dogs. It sounded great. However, during the first class, instead of sitting quietly and watching like I told her 6 times, she decided to build a fort with her workbooks, a chair, and the bag full of toys I was too nervous about class to catch getting brought in. As cute as that sounds, the terrier in class didn’t take too kindly to the midget architect crawling around on the floor and started going nuts barking at her. I had to walk Sessrumnir over to her, down the whole line of dogs he wanted to play with, to tell her to knock it off and clean up her mess.
We went to an Encanto Party at the Radnor Library with Judy and her son, Henry. Judy and Henry happened to have other friends at the party as well who were introduced to Catawba. The party was great and Tawbs was mesmerized.
Afterwards, we went to a neighbor boy’s 10th birthday party. It was a tremendous amount of fun. Great time. While there, I asked my neighbor how and the hell people make it by. (Wisconsin – we bought a 40th-50th and Lisbon in Milwaukee size and style home in a 60th and Greenfield in West Allis type neighborhood and are just not making it). My neighbor told me that there are no single earner families at the party and very few in the area. She said to live in Norwood, you need to make $150,000 or more. I couldn’t imagine not being able to make it in West Allis if under $150,000. I got my answer. And actually, now that I know that it isn’t us missing something or doing something wrong, I’m at better peace with where we are at.
We stayed very late at the party. We went from the party to the garage to get the car to go pick up Lucas from the airport. Luke was finally home! But I wouldn’t let him rest because the next day we had already scheduled a trip to the Delaware Children’s Museum.
We got 5 passes free with our Brandywine Zoo membership. And that is another great museum! There are climbing and building activities. A section on the human body. The water cycle and the ecosystem have their own area, and there is also a place in the museum on transportation.
Discounted admission, $2 per person, on the third Wednesday in each month sounds pretty exciting once we run out of free passes. We will be going back. The building with the big blue blocks was surprisingly a lot of fun. Very creative.
Catawba-Lynn’s November 4H topic was on Alpacas and Chlorophyl. She did a leaf color extraction experiment lasted a week on the table.
The family went to the American Swedish Museum in Philadelphia. This was another library pass event. I recommend going at least once. We went during reindeer story time! Tawbs got to pet 2 live reindeer! She did a handful of crafts, colored, sang songs, and participated in a “find it” in the map room. That is my favorite room. The whole room’s walls are an all-connected map. There is a Pippi Longstocking Children’s area. I don’t think I hold the author of Pippi Longstocking in as high regard as most – but Tawbs enjoyed the area. Well worth a couple of hours. I have wanted to go to the American Swedish Museum since the first month we moved into our house. Very glad we could finally go.
That evening I took about an hour to put Luke’s anniversary gift together. The 8-year anniversary gift is traditionally bronze. Bronze is a third-place medal. As Lucas’s gift, I promised Lucas, on the third week of each month, on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, we would play one of his games, which he took to mean video or tabletop game. In November we played both. I put a bit of thought into it and I rather liked it. I wrote it out on good paper so we can keep track of the games we play.
I started reviewing the year and taking notes on the happenings in hopes of writing, typing, and printing the note before my parents arrived. But that didn’t happen. So as I reviewed and wrote, the days kept marching on.
That following Saturday, the family acquired another library pass to go to America on Wheels. It was around 2 hours away. We all hopped in the iQ and away we went. We enjoyed the museum. Lucas commented on going to three different car/auto museums and seeing three different aspects of vehicles. Doylestown was a catchall, showing military, passenger, racing – it was a large, extensive collection. Simone was a racing museum. And America on Wheels was about how automotives have changed humans and our world – what they mean to us, what they do for us, and the future of them. Tawbs got to see a Model T Ford. I took her picture in front of it and explained to her if she was in a brick-and-mortar school, she would be forced to memorize the year it was built and imagine what “assembly line” meant and what it did for our country, our world. But since I’m her teacher, I took her to a museum that showed her an actual Model T Ford and what it did for our country.
The family was hungry on our way back home and wasn’t liking my offering of a protein bar, so we stopped to try MOD Pizza for the first time. Very interesting. The Qdoba of pizza. It was a little pricey, but fun, fast, and tasted good. We also had great staff. Tawbs put together some zany ass pizza with garbanzo beans on it – I didn’t care, so long as she ate it and she did.
What do you know – we found an Ollie’s two hours from home while we were in the iQ. With my 10% off coupon, we bought a vacuum cleaner and a carpet cleaner. (We didn’t have a cleaner and our vacuum cleaner died in June, so we had been using an old, broke one that was abandoned her at the house in the interim). We just barely shoved them in the iQ. With all three of us and our other purchases and our mini cooler, we made it work and made it home – slowly.
We drove down to Delaware to celebrate Sessrumnir’s first birthday with the breeders, Chris and Steve, and another owner of one of the pups of the litter. There were 4 “puppies” all running around, having a good time. All Sessrumnir even wants to do is play, so it was great he had space to run with his brothers and sister. There were dog treats, a human meal – even with cake – and presents exchanged.
The next day we went to Middletown Library’s Home School Mix It Up Group and got to go to Middletown’s fire station to learn fire safety. We have to teach fire safety every year and she got it twice this year, so hopefully we can keep building off of it. The kids enjoyed crawling around in the firetruck and I learned that a firetruck gets 2 gallons to the mile. I already knew that ambulances get 4 miles per gallon, but 2 gallons per mile! Wow!
We had to get home and get ready for Tawbs to see another (live) behind the scenes look at the Brave Wilderness studio through Varsity Tutors. Catawba was in a group of roughly 10 students that got to see [digitally] where Coyote Peterson works – with Coyote Peterson! I’m really happy for her – I’m very glad she gets to “meet” some of her heroes. I remember meeting Gary Paulsen and it was very special.
Lucas is starting to get ready to think about gearing up for the process of practicing the correct technique – of paining miniatures.
We had an enjoyable Thanksgiving. I sat at the table and wrote and wished I could watch the National Dog Show hosted by the Philadelphia AKC Club. And Luke did it for me! He bough one month of Peacock and hooked it up on my phone to play through my Google Dock he bought me for Yule last year. It was great. Thank you. There wasn’t an American Water Spaniel at the show – so if Sessrumnir is ready to behave in the ring, I’m seriously considering entering next year.
Thanksgiving food was Thanksgiving food. I don’t make a whole turkey – that would be a waste. I bought a package of deli turkey and rolled some up nicely on a plate and my little monster ate all of it! Tawbs likes deli turkey. That month. I bet you if I buy it again it will be a no. I’ll take my wins where I can get them.
I checked on the neighbors’ birds. Their birds are friendly and want to come out. Gram is an anti-social prick if he’s inside his cage. But Gram’s cool. He’s been flying overhead as I finish writing this note.
Black Friday, my favorite day of the year – filled with stories and made-up rules and traditions from my dad and I. I thought about skipping it this year. The presents were mostly purchased, I did not (and do not) have money, and damnit! Retailers don’t put flyers in the paper anymore! I didn’t even buy a $6 paper for the 4 or 5 ads that would be in it. I was going to skip it. But Black Friday is the best day of the year. And it’s not cold out here so standing in line for little to no reason isn’t really that hard. And Cabela’s sent me an ad – and they were giving out free gift cards. And I love an early morning drive. I was going. I woke up at 03:00, got my breakfast liquids together, put my hiking boots on, checked the weather – flannel and Carhart vest weather – put those on, grabbed my purse, reached for the backdoor, keys in hand – “You should take Catawba-Lynn.” It blasted into my head. “What? No. I’m going to be late. I’m not going to be one of the first 250 people in line.” I thought and shook my head. I grabbed the door. “You should take Catawba.” Again. “She’s young. She doesn’t like to fully listen. I’m supposed to be going to relax and enjoy the tradition – it’s not going to work.” I thought. Time ticking away. More people getting in line. “She’s old enough. You were her age when you started. Ask her. You’re fine. Don’t worry about the line.” I listened to Freyja and woke Catawba-Lynn up for her first raid – who couldn’t believe she was getting woken up to go out on Black Friday – to go with mom. She fell out of bed running to the bathroom – with “Hurry Up – We’re Late, We’re Late.” my mantra, behind her. We were in the car in 15 minutes, and we were on our way. We were #219 in line. We got the bottom tier, $10 gift card, and Catawba-Lynn had her first Black Friday. She got to pick a flannel out for her dad. She waited not only outside before the store opened – like a proper Black Friday should start – but she also waited in the long checkout line. And she did great. Another big part of the tradition of Black Friday is going to breakfast. It used to be Perkins – one last review of the stores, the lists, the product placement, the game plans – but as Black Friday changed, breakfast changed to Kwik Trip – a meal in the vehicle. Now, Wawa isn’t Kwik Trip – yeah no, it’s not – but, I took Tawbs to Wawa after Cabela’s and we finally figured out how to order a meal from the deli thing there. We got Luke something too – brought it home and ate it there. It was a great Black Friday.
My parents and two cousins, Mike and Mary, came out. They drove Friday night into Saturday and arrived at our house a little before noon. We got the set in the house – beds put together to take a nap – while Catawba-Lynn, Lucas and I ran off to a birthday party – Catawba-Lynn’s good friend, Gabe’s 7th birthday. It was a pool party held where Gabe and his brother Logan, are learning to swim. I really liked the facilities! A plethora of changing rooms, space to move around, a safe pool and separated seating areas for parents – much more similar to Hartford Rec Center’s swimming lessons. They are a bit more expensive, but I intend on signing Tawbs up next year.
The party was Pokémon themed. After an hour of swimming in a safe, large, enjoyable pool – the kids had a Pokémon cupcake, played pin the tail on Pikachu, threw Pokeballs into holes to catch designated Pokémon and generally just had a good time. The goodie grab bags at the end were Pokémon themed as well. I loved it, it was great, and Tawbs was ecstatic!
Family craziness started on Sunday. Mary wanted to go to the King of Prussia Mall to go to the Louis Vuitton store. Look – I honestly don’t know brands. I have Carhartt outerwear which should last me a lifetime, Lucas likes Redhead. Wigwam socks out of Wisconsin and Darn Tough socks out of Vermont are the best. After that, I don’t know. But it was fun walking through the mall seeing things and stores and people I normally wouldn’t see. I looked at a Louis Vuitton scarf for $1,300.00. That was interesting. To each their own. I spend a lot of money on my pets – Jude alone gets so many elixirs and specialty things.
Lucas was about to get hangry, so we stopped at Taco Bell so we could guarantee the family Ollie’s (of Eagleville) trip was a success! We stopped afterwards at Radnor Library so Lucas could get a library card. I needed to up my game and take out two museum passes for Monday if we were all going to get in for free!
After dinner, we ran to Aldi (thanks for buying, mom) and then I took them to Lidl – since Lidl isn’t in Wisconsin. My cousin Mike had to endure a turkey cobb salad for Saturday’s dinner and a barbeque chicken salad for Sunday’s meal. He had had enough! Mike bought himself a $0.49 can of condensed chicken noodle soup from Aldi and as soon as we got home he opened the top and ate it out of the can. I saw how much Mike Liked fresh foods. I stayed up with dad to watch the Packers lose against the Eagles. Disappointing defeat. Since the family was out here in person, they brought all of their Yule gifts and we opened them slowly throughout the week. Tawbs got the 3 in 1 Lego Viking set, twice. She was excited. “Now just to get the third one…” Lucas said.
Monday, Lucas went to work and the remaining six of us went to the Brandywine Conservancy and Museum or Art. I’m not an art person, but I wanted to go to this, and it was good. Beautiful area. The model train exhibit was on display, so dad was excited. There was another exhibit called Fragile Earth I wanted to see. It was environmentalism – in a way. Well, it was a call to it. The artist was trying to show the importance of “bugs” and insects. So – she killed thousands of insects and made art our of their corpses. Over and over it was said that the insects were sustainably harvested – but – you also said the insect numbers were in peril. So it’s okay for her to kill them and be an artistic necromancer – but no one else? Let’s replace “insect” with “elephant.” Elephants are in peril – and they are important – so I sustainably harvested a handful of them and painted their bodies – it’s environmental art! It’s a similar thought that makes me stop and ponder the Pippi Longstocking author. She started the movement, or was a big part of the beginning of the movement, that made it illegal to swat your kid or look at him wrong in Sweden – yet the author didn’t parent he first born child before the age of 6 – so she didn’t know what it was like to parent, to teach, to correct a child, because she put her first kid in a home. But we follow her parenting advise. The things you learn. On a more positive note, Grammy came with to watch Catawba-Lynn in Irish Dance lessons.
Tuesday was Luke’s 40th birthday! Catawba-Lynn gave him the flannel shirt she picked out for him and she made him the sweetest little packet of pictures – pictures of him eating a taco, or Jude stealing his taco, or Lucas avoiding drinking water. It was very cute. I got Lucas the remainder of the base sets of Red Dragon Inn – a tabletop game he likes. I made tacos for breakfast; that was a hit. We went to Philadelphia proper to go to Eastern State Penitentiary. Mike and Mary really wanted to go. My immediate family has been to Eastern State several times and we enjoy going. I like the tour. The prison was set up for solitude – and that is how the tour is. You put on headphones and listen. You don’t talk amongst yourselves at all, just listen. Eastern State put together a great tour.
After that we went to the Rocky statue and stairs because Rocky is Mike’s hero, or something. I’ve never seen the movie. Then we placed our cheese steak and cheeseburger orders at Dalessandro’s and Chubby’s across the street. After picking them up, we phoned in our order to Delco Steaks and picked that up so [they – not me] could have a blind taste test (administered by the vegetarian) of a steak cheese steak, chicken cheese steak, and a cheeseburger. It was close – Delco Steaks won overall, but Dalessandro’s hands down had the best bread.
Lucas set up a tabletop game, Alpha, (about wolves) while my mom did dishes (she did them almost all week) and Catawba-Lynn and I put together a princess castle cake and brownie for Luke’s birthday dessert. The birthday wasn’t a surprise and it wasn’t jaw dropping amazing, but I think Lucas had a good time.
It rained on Wednesday, but it was the last day of my Tyler Arboretum pass and I needed 1 more visit to hit my 15 for the year (boast #3!) so we went. It was a short visit, but Tawbs read everyone the story on the story walk and showed the family the treehouses and play areas. Grammy also got to see Catawba-Lynn’s tap and ballet class.
Half A Human 