I learned from Thanksgiving to not expect Y to eat whatever I prepared for dinner! So, today I just made a ham steak under the broiler, some mashed potatoes and green beans. Nothing fancy, and he ate the ham and potatoes with no problem. Maybe he just doesn't like turkey and stuffing. Of course, this is Christmas, and he got gifts, too, so he was a little more willing to try things today. I guess a new PSP (PlayStation portable) with a game, a new blanket, new brain games, new clothes, a couple of new pellet guns and some good old cash money will do that for you.
Y was trying out his new pellet shotgun yesterday, and he kept telling me it didn't work right. He pulled the trigger several times in the kitchen (while I kept repeating, "No shooting in the house!") and nothing happened. Then he pressed the barrel of the gun against his calve and pulled the trigger. "Owwwch!" he said, as a small pellet left a big welt on his leg. Guess he it finally worked. And then we went over, again, the list of rules that go along with having a pellet gun or two or three:
#1. You must be outside and all pets must be inside.
#2. No shooting in the direction of any house.
#3. No shooting the deer.
#4. No shooting the squirrels.
#5. No shooting the rabbits, snakes ...
#6. If you shoot the guns in the backyard, and the pellets fall on the ground and are eaten by the dogs - YOU get to pick them back up in three days time when they've been properly processed and are just smelling lovely!
#7. Don't leave the container of 9000 pellets anywhere a cat or dog can get to it, even if you think it's completely closed.
#8. Absolutely no shooting any guns when no adult is present.
Y agreed will all but the last two. He sees no reason not to shoot a gun when he's by himself and he doesn't think an enterprising little cat or dog could figure out how to get a container of pellets open.
Y also got his birthday present a little early. (The big day is 1-1!) He wanted his own dedicated server to play Counter Strike Source online. It's not as expensive as you think. And, he gets to be the administrator, so he can make changes to the map any time he wants and he can boot other players off his server if they aren't playing nice, among other things. Good thing I gave it to him early. There were several kinks to be worked out of the system, since Y can only understand so much English and Mama can't understand any computer language. The site we used, www.counter-strike.com, would be relatively easy to use if I had any computer programming savvy whatsoever. Alas, I am lacking in that respect, so in comes the continual stream of support tickets. The service has been very helpful and quite patient with us. We will even be upgrading to a larger amount of players. It seems Y has more online gaming friends than he thought and several times this weekend he has had more people wanting to play with him than slots available on the server. Oh yeah, and he's also ranked 10,890 or something out of 542,000 players this past quarter. Not too shabby. Or, maybe he just plays too much, I'm not sure.
Back to work now. That seems to be all I'm doing lately. Even though I'm on the "Do Not Call" list for overtime at work, I've been called twice this month to work Monday day shifts. At least Y is in school then, so I came in for the extra money. My first paycheck next year is going to have an overtime and two and a half holidays on it, so that should be a sweet check! (President Obama gave federal workers 4 hours of holiday leave on 12/24 - because I'm an air traffic controller and had to work that shift, I get four hours of holiday pay.) 8 hrs OT and 20 hrs holiday pay!
Merry Merry and Happy Happy,
Natalie
TX
