Coming up for air

But just for a moment. As Wednesday's post clearly outlined, it was not to be a quiet week around here. Thursday saw things starting to look up a bit as Mark called the FTB and the recording said that case number had been resolved. I still want to have a human actually confirm that it means what it sounds like. I'm just not trusting when it comes to any tax organization. Sue me. I was out of the house all day between our f2f meeting (which went well and our teacher thankfully got us out just after an hour since Nico had had enough of everything this week since stupid mommy left his good stroller in the truck which is still in Berkeley) and then I was able to drop off the rental car in San Jose and get a ride to my mom's house to borrow her old station wagon. While I'm grateful for the loan of it (Thank You Mom!) after spending 2 days in the rental car (Ford Taurus) and now the station wagon (Ford Escort Wagon), I'm really missing my truck. We have to cram Christopher between the two carseats in the back because I don't want Matthew's arm to get messed with since he just got his cast off and pin out. This leads to Nico kicking Christopher, wanting Christopher to roll the window up and down every 2 seconds, and screeching at him just for fun. This leads to Christopher screaming and yelling at Nico which then leads me to screaming and yelling at both of them to just shut up. Forget cell phones being a distraction, I've never been as distracted by a phone conversation as I am by the two of them. Sheesh!

We stayed home today as a) I didn't want to have to drive anywhere and b) we haven't been home to get anything done all week. Jonathan got all the schoolwork done that I felt we really needed to get done and the big boys worked on theirs. They've yet again been pretty lax with mommy's preoccupation and they are going to have to work hard tomorrow if they expect to play at the party on Sunday.

Speaking of which, tomorrow is baking day. The cakes we are trying this time should be much simpler and today was just too beastly hot to attempt baking if it wasn't necessary so we'll get two cakes baked tomorrow, one frosted and totally ready and the other one shaped for a quick frosting job on Sunday morning. I'll be sending Mark out for a few staples we need from Costco and the paper goods I haven't been able to pick up this week. Maybe he can take the 2nd pair so I can get some presents wrapped.

On the car front, I was supposed to hear back today when I would be getting it back but true to form, they didn't call to give me that information. I called this morning to ask and was told that they had my transmission out and off to the shop that will rebuild it and they would be getting it back either today or Monday and it would be ready the following day. I also talked to them about the state of my starter which we know needs to be replaced. They quoted the price for the part (about what we knew it was going to cost) and said there would be no labor charge since they already have everything apart so we are getting that done too so it's just all happy again. At least, that's the theory.

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Insights from the Dalai Lama:
Anger and hatred cannot bring harmony. The noble task of arms control and disarmament cannot be accomplished by confrontation and condemnation. Hostile attitudes only serve to heat up the situation, whereas a true sense of respect gradually cools down what otherwise could become explosive. We must recognize the frequent contradictions between short-term benefit and long-term harm.

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Cooperation is imperative for a healthy family, body, society, and nation. How does one develop cooperation? By force? Impossible! So what is the alternative? Voluntary actions, altruism, an showing concern for the welfare and rights of others.

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Buddhist texts speak of four principal obstacles that one must overcome for meditation to be successful. The first is mental scattering or distraction, which arises at the course level of mind and refers to the tendency for our thoughts to be scattered.



State of my sink: Shiny again!