Time for a new entry, finally. Yesterday was a truly bizarre day! It started with me and the Little Bit (aka Cherry Bomb, aka Stephanie) dropping Mom and Ghostiness off at the airport. We had to be there at 5:45 (yes, AM!!). Eek. Fortunately, I took the night off (and the next 10 nights as well *weg*). They are now in Washington DC on an 8th-grade class trip. More about that in a bit. Anyway, they got ready to go through the gate (because of post 9/11 security, only ticketed passengers can go further than that), so we began to go down the escalator to the parking lot. One of ghosti's friends (the Prather one) called out "Goodbye, Mr. Bickley!" As I turend to respond, the Little Bit kind of panicked and began to try to run back up the escalator steps. She slipped and fell, striking her right knee agains the step. She regained control, was crying a little, but was ok by the time we got to the car. I looked at the knee at home, saw that there was a small gash (not very big at all), got a cotton ball, splashed some peroxide on it to clean it, put some Neosporin on a band-aid and took her to school. (I know, all the mothers in diaryland are going *gasp!! You monster!!* Well, it just didn't look that bad to me, and it wasn't, you know, like, bleeding or anything.) Around 9:00, I got a call from the school nurse saying that she really though Steph's knee needed stitches. Ok...I resigned the online chess game I was playing and went to the school to pick her up. It was at this time that I got the bad news from her teacher that she did not pass the TAKS reading test. (For all of you non-Texans, this is our inane government's attempt to decide of students are ready to pass to the next grade. 3rd graders must pass the reading test to advance to 4th grade.) With a possible 36 questions, 20 must be correct. Steph got 19. Sigh. As the teacher said, it's not the end of the world.

We went back home and called the doctor's office. After being on hold for almost 20 minutes (thank goodness I didn't use my cell phone!), they suggested that we go ahead and go to the local children's hospital ER. We spent 4 hours (Yikes) there. Ironically, the man who did the actual stitches (not the doctor, who looked at her for a grand total of 2 minutes--how much did HE get paid??) said that he had to repeat 3rd grade. After all of that was done, we came home, grabbed our season passes, and went to Six Flags for the afternoon. Had a wonderful time! It was a beautiful day (cleared up from the morning, which saw thunderstorms and lots of lightning, effectively wigging out Scott Prather's mother, who was also going on the flight to DC), and not too crowded, although as the day progressed more busloads of school kids arrived. And I actually sunk a basket at one of those basketball games where the rim is only slightly bigger than the ball!! The Little Bit asked me to play, so I handed over 5 bucks and proceeded to shoot my 2 shots. Missed the first one, badly. I was talking about how impossible it is to make, when, *swish*, nothin' but net!! Hahaha!! The girl pointed at all of these HUMONGOUS stuffed animals and said "Your pick." I asked Steph what she wanted. She wanted a basketball (whew!!), so the girls said "You get 2 basketballs." So we each got a basketball that says "Duke Blue Devils" on it. Then we rode the train all the way around the park, and the Little Bit was ready to go home. We stopped at Blockbuster, rented a bunch of stuff, got home, ordered pizza and chilled for the rest of the night.

Missed anything?
The Beatles--Abbey Road/Alice Cooper--Killer - July 04, 2012
The Beatles Eponymous Album - June 26, 2012
Autism's False Prophets - February 12, 2011
Santana--Guitar God? - November 11, 2010
Tribute To the Red Sox - September 29, 2010