It's a One-Star Parentig Day

OK, I finally have a DVD-induced moment to myself. The kids are parked safely in front of 'The Goonies', which I hope is an appropriate film. I remember watching it at my age, but I'm finding more and more that what I saw isn't necessarily what I want my own kids to see. I also find, however, that I am increasingly willing to trade some of my parental values for some freakin' PEACE AND QUIET!

Anyway, yesterday marked the official end of 'oh, what a nice day' and the beginning of 'holy sh*t, who turned on the heat?!?!' A couple of weeks ago, we were digging out our sweaters that we had carefully put in storage, thinking 'surely the time for these is over', and now the very SIGHT of those same sweaters makes me break out in hives, for OMG, is it ever HOT.

(holy cow, there is a pre-pubescent Cory Feldman!!!! I remember when I was soooo in love with him!)

Seriously, I don't think it's cosmically fair to break both the coldest- AND the hottest-day records in a span of three weeks. My sweat glands just can't keep up. Since this house doesn't have central air, we're stuck in moisture city until DH gets home and we put in the window units I bought today. It's actually not too bad in here so far, since we have a ceiling fan in the living room, but unfortunately the previous owner left us a remote that is misprogrammed to only work on 'medium', which I suspect is actually the 'low' setting.

(oh, god, in the last five minutes I heard 'sh*t' about three times, saw boys gluing a penis on a statue, and read subtitles of Feldman mistranslating to a spanish packer about drugs - darn, I guess I'm in the bad parent pool after THIS cinematic disaster. If I make a big deal and turn it off, though, that will probably make more of an impression than the words themselves... ugh)

*Bad Parent Report*

Josie just let both dogs out the front door in her desire to pat the dog that had jumped up on our front porch. Now, tell me - if you had 150lbs of dogs behind you barking, would logic tell you to open the door?!?!?! Somehow, I think not. I freaked, of course, because they both took off in pursuit of the other dog, which thankfully lives across the street and ran up onto its own back porch, but as I saw them taking off and heard what happened, I said, 'oh, dummy!' in Chloe's direction while I flew past to try and keep them from being hit by a car. Not the nicest thing to have said, I admit it, but it flew out of my mouth. She was devastated, which was probably half what I said and half the concern that she was in a Heap 'o Trouble when I finally got back. I apologized and said that I shouldn't have said that, no matter how upset/scared/angry I was. I also told her, though, that I expect more thought from a 9yo, and that if one of them had gotten hit, that sight would be in her mind forever, and every time she saw a car or a dog in front of our house, she would relive that moment, and I don't want that for her. Sigh. My upbringing was completely messed up, and I was called names every day; that's not an excuse, definitely, but it's a reason why those things end up on the tip of my tongue. I need to work harder on that, apparently.

Bad Dog Report:

We are having such a problem with the dogs, it's not even funny. The fencing people, who said that they would be here 'in three to four weeks' back in April are STILL not here, so our backyard fence is completely inadequate, which means that the dogs can jump it easily. We put Baci, the pup, on a lead, thinking that 11yo Tyler wouldn't be able to jump, but the other day he apparently had a surge of gumption and got over, so now they both have it in their heads that it's a game to get out of the house and chase the five or so cats that roam freely through the neighborhood (plus the occasional dog). We've NEVER had problems like this with dogs before, and it's driving me crazy! I'm thinking seriously of getting the electric fence in addition to the regular backyard fence just to make double-sure that they know we mean business. It would also be easier for the front yard if I could circle the front porch with the electric thing, since we can't fence front yards inside the city, and even if it didn't keep them on the porch for long, it would probably be long enough for someone to grab them, at least until they're adjusted to our new abode.