Weekly Update

Kurt

This week has been one with a lot of dealings with inside feelings and emotions. Ugh, haven't those been deep enough for so long that they are blackened charred coal and long forgotten. 
Going through a break up and living together situation.....listening to how I am viewed by someone who is angry at me and thinking about the effects of my actions.  We all feel that we are in the right even if we empathize.  Anyhow, lots of reflecting. That's enough for THIS medium.
 I performed at the Pierre hotel in NYC on Friday.  It's right 5ave on central park. We were four silver/winter trees at a private event.  The ballroom we were in was in a scene in Scent of a Women.
On the drive back to RI with the Ten31 group I had an amazing conversation about creativity. It's actually been an amazing week. Reflecting a lot on art. 

On Saturday i was back in NYC and saw a great performance by the band HI FASHION.  The female singer in the band is also a casting agent. She was the person who cast Jon on Project Runway. She is super nice and kind of reminded me of my friend Lind-z. They are FIERCE performance art and fun music. Check them out on FB. 

Ok....so I got new contacts. Have an appointment Tuesday at APPLE to get more memory for my computer....or see if I need to buy a new one......and I MUST go to Carmax about selling my car. 

Carrie

This week.......I got my hair done!!  Love it!  Kurt is a genius.  Didn't get the girls in for their hair though.  Made three batches of two kinds of cookies :-)  Started an anti~ video game movement, since Trent doesn't seem to be focusing on anything else!! We played trains, made playdough, pizza and pretended angry birds didn't exist.  So far so good.  The boys liked making cookies, playdough and pizza so much they thought they'd get up this morning and make more all by themselves!!!  Flour everywhere!!!!!!  But it's ok, they love being in the kitchen and it was really cute!!!  The tree lighting is tonight and Kayla will serve some thumbprint cookies with Girl Scouts.

This coming week......ends my 20's.  I'm sadder then I thought I'd be about it.  I have everything I want so age is just a number, yet it sucks.  My birthday night will be spent watching Hailey's first middle school chorus concert :-)  Then Friday through Sunday, Sean and I will be in NYC alone!!!!  First time leaving the kids, so a little strange, but we're going to be super close.  I cannot wait to wear heels and dresses and makeup and explore.  We go every few months with the kids but haven't been alone since high school!!!!  Christmas Spectacular, horse drawn carriage ride, nice restaurants and shopping in Soho!!  My bathtub will overlook the city at the Trump.  I want to go pack just thinking about it!!!

Goals this week.....cookies, license renewed, record story for the kids to hear while we're gone, stick to the no video game regimen and get our real tree.  Although Chase knocked over the fake tree twice so I'm not sure why I'm pushing for torture :-D. Just kidding!!!!!!

Kim

Ben is dressed up as a banana.  He stood on the corner with a sign to drum up business.  His idea.  So cute.

I held the garage sale last week, as promised, in spite of freezing cold temperatures (like a high of 22 degrees Fahrenheit).  It was not hugely successful, due to the cold, but it was good to get it done!  We only raised $153 so I have approached a local donor (in my house, local) to make up the difference (a hundred bucks) to get ONE SMILE fixed.  Rachel was disappointed that we hadn't done enough for one smile until I told her we might know someone who could help. Nice save, Dave.  I was so grateful to have Lori's help!  Did I really let her talk me into doing it all again in June, though?! 

Dave had the week off last week so we went back to the shooting range and shot  a couple 9mm.  I'm really not bad but the indoor range is so stinking LOUD!  I used to think I hated the sound of popping balloons.  This has been like immersion therapy for that phobia.  Balloons have nothing on shotguns and colt .45s.  One of the guys there told me I should switch to decaf after seeing me jump at each shot.  If he only knew...I'm that high-strung on water only.

We also made it over to IKEA.  Dave was impressed. 

This week I have to pack away everything from the garage sale and store it.  Wrap gifts for our Secret Santa family.  Finish decorating for Christmas.  Make ceramic ornaments with the kids.  Help a friend clean after her move.  Sad.  Tackle the filing situation.  Figure out teacher gifts.   Actually a gigantic TO DO list...but a commitment to drink more water, floss, and exercise.  

 

Rob

Ascension Teacher

Sunday - I was running a D&D adventure, so of course I overslept, and got to the store 20 minutes late.  I really need to stop sleeping in until 11:30 on Sundays.  The adventure went well, no players or characters died, and quite a few of them leveled up, which made them very happy.  We had gotten a new board game (Wrath of Ashardalon), so after the game, we were looking at it, and the Sweenys

 

Monday - Standard boring Monday.  I don't think anything of value happened all day.  Certainly nothing that stands out a week later.

 

Tuesday - Tuesday, my old nemesis.  Most people dread Monday, but I am telling you, Tuesdays are the really dangerous ones.  They are the serial killer of the week - Wednesday always said Tuesday seemed like a nice, quiet day, kept to himself, never seemed dangerous.  But one day... *snap!* and Tuesday is on a rampage!  We always suspect Monday, but Tuesday sits there waiting for our guard to be down and then it pounces.  This Tuesday was boring, though.  For now... Actually, Sons of Anarchy had part one of the season 4 finale, so that was good.

 

Wednesday - Dad was going to come up to bring the boys to D&D.  In an odd way, it was really good that he couldn't, if he hadn't spotted the oil tank leaking in the house, it would have been a major disaster for him.  As it was, he was able to take care of the near-calamity, and I was mildly inconvenienced with having to leave work an hour early to bring the kids to Encounters.  I guess we could have skipped it, but it was Ellie's birthday (sixteen) so we had to go.  She got permission from her parents to join us at our weekly Friendly's outing, but then she wanted to eat at the 99, so we did that instead.  The best part was that her parents paid for us!  As usual, McGuire's meal cost about 50% more than mine, the kid is really starting to scare me.

Thursday - it was a day.  Named after Thor, if you were wondering.  Most of the days of the week are based on Norse Gods.  Tuesday is Tyr's day, Wednesday is Odin's day (hence that odd 'd' at the beginning), Friday is Freya's Day... I think Monday and the weekend days have Norse origins too, but looking that up would make this update even later, so I will skip it.

Friday - sort of accidentally started celebrating McGuire's birthday early.  The one thing that I remember happening on Thor's day was a letter in the mail stating that McGuire had been late to school enough to get a detention.  So when we woke up 15 minutes before he would be late (like we had no chance of getting him there on time), I decided to have him "be sick".  Of course, then Archer oversleeps, and begs and begs so that he can "be sick" too.  I figure "why not?".  I am already way out of the running for father of the year or perfect attendance, and my kids are smart enough to miss a Friday.  I went into work late, and left early to make up for it.  I'm such a bad influence sometimes, honestly.

 

Saturday - I gave McGuire his second birthday gift from me (third if you count the Friday illness) - his own copy of Battlefield 3!  Ironically he played some on my account Friday, but he loves the game, so now we can play together, which I love.  We mostly played different games Saturday and cleaned up some of the recycling for the rest of the day.

 

 

Sunday - McGuire's Birthday!  We went to The Whiz so that McGuire and Archer could play in D&D Adventure.  While they were battling a sentient lake (?) I learned how to play the new Penny-Arcade board game - it plays a lot like Ascension  which is cool.  I was taught how to play that by this Ascension Teacher at GenCon last summer.  After we had our gaming time, we went home and I had a chance to look up a Mexican restaurant in the area.  McGuire really wanted Mexican food, but he suggested a Qboda, which is like Americano Burrito-ville.  Fairly tasty, but really just a fast-food place that serves what Japanese comics would draw as American Burritos.  I found a place called Plaza Azteca in Worcester, about 15 minutes away.   Allison came over to join us, and McGuire got his first of his presents from her - Total War: Shogun 2.  He started the download and then we went to get our meal.  Really good Mexican food, and McGuire got a small sombrero and free flan for desert.  After that, we went home, and he had Key Lime Cake and got two books from his mom.  He had a chance to even play his newest game before bed, so he was happy.  Pictures of McGuire in a sombrero, or pretending to eat his cake whole are attached.