Random!

I've missed the last few weeks of random, but am back-- with a vengeance! 

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Am I the last one to see this hilarious Lady Gaga/Beyoncé Telephone parody by Key Of Awesome (or is it Barelypolital.com)??

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My buddy Chris, at Pickles Dickles, never fails to crack me up.... his latest find had me laughing for hours, as I kept the page up and just kept flipping back to it to take a look every so often.  If you love random, cooler-than-cool mostly-music-related stuff, you have to sign up for his RSS feed so you won't miss anything. (I'm stealing his photo, but please hit the link to his site.)

To add to the pathos of this photo, please click here for appropriate sound effects.  And then bookmark that link, so the next time someone tells you how rotten their day was, you can pull up the sad trombone on cue and really add the icing to their day! ;)  FYI: that photo right there doesn't link to anything, so don't click on it.----->

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My 10 year old son, CC (that's Capt. Chaos, for those of you not in the know), went to an all day karate training event this weekend and did his first-ever grading to get his first-ever belt.  He was very pleased with himself, as he should be, because he did a great job and put in a lot of effort throughout the five hours that we were there.  I forgot to bring a computer or book, so ended up actually talking to a fair amount of other parents.  Again, I was floored by the generosity of spirit that these Brits have! I talked to one woman for a couple hours about village life (she works in a village near mine & is looking to move in another year to somewhere closer so she won't be commuting so far every day), and her job happens to be working as an anger management counselor at a school for boys that have been "excused" from all mainstream schools.  I talked to her about CC's recent anger issues and she gave me loads of great information and a website to get more insight on the problem and hopefully to learn some more ways to help him deal with his feelings.  What an angel this woman was!  The site, if you have an angry young man of your own, is http://www.angermanagementexpert.co.uk/ . You can sign up for their email newsletter and it has tons of great information, research results, management techniques, physiological insights, etc.


Everyone I spoke to raved about the effects of the karate disciple on their sons and daughters.  One girl, a fourteen year old, had started at ten and her mother had seen her go from being a timid, "creeping around the edges" type to being a confident, proud, strong young women who had, just the night before, graded for her brown & black belt! Part of the grading included defending herself from three of the male instructors who positioned themselves in a triangle around her and tried to land a blow while she fended all of them away.   Pretty incredible stuff. 

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The House Hunt....

We need to be out of our house by mid-July because the family that owns it is moving back.  We are woebegone about losing this amazing home, but are hopeful that we will find something else that will suit our needs.  So far, we have seen things that are the right size, wrong location, and right location but wrong size (and wrong crap-factor).  I can handle it being a little dumpy, but not untouched since 1978, people.  Call me spoiled, if you must, but .... :(

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We have great news.  Our babysitter, Gigi, that came over to the UK with me back in August to help us with the kids while we got settled?  She is coming back!  She'll be here at the end of June and will stay until I fly back to the States in August. Finally, my psuedo-daughter will be back in the house, helping me keep my sanity in the face of all the testosterone and boy shenanigans. Yay!!!!

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Did I mention that my husband got a job for the summer and will be working full time from the time of his last final on June 8 through the resumption of classes at the end of September?  No?  Well, he did!  Congratulations, honey, and welcome to the world of the desk-riding AutoCAD design nation!  I'm sorry you won't be able to join us for all of August in America, but know that I appreciate everything you are doing for our family.

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Lastly, and probably least-ly, too:  X-Factor auditions are being held Sunday in London.  I signed up on a whim back in October, thinking HA! Now's my chance, since X-Factor doesn't have an age limit like American Idol does.....  Now I am just thinking that I would have to be pretty much insane to go to that audition.

Have a great week, ya'll!