Married In Ohio

California Girl and I went to visit The Boy over the long weekend. He’s only been gone for a couple of weeks; but it was still good to see him. He seems to be adjusting well to life on his own. He seemed a lot older and a lot more confident than he was when we left him. Except for the huge pile of laundry in the corner he was adjusting well to college life. (Or perhaps that is the way of college students.) While we were on campus, I was struck by how different this year is from years gone by. It was warm enough to get into the pool; but, instead of relaxing in the back yard, we were walking around on a college campus. Except for the size, the campus is very similar to the one where I went to school. Although we think he’s more like his mother; perhaps he’s more like me than we think.

Except for the fact that the hotel which we had reservations was overbooked and we had to spend the night after we arrived at a dump until rooms became available at our preferred location, I really enjoyed our visit. With all of the restaurants and shops that cater to students so close by, college life is so convenient. Where we live, you have to get in a car to go anywhere. The closest bus stop is miles away. So, everything being in walking distance was a nice change.

I don’t know when we’ll get back to see him. He is adapting very well. Unfortunately, his mom, his sister, and I, are still getting used to him being gone.

We received a question in the Shoutbox asking why we haven’t used more of everyone’s suggestions. To be clear, we appreciate everyone taking the time to leave shouts and comments. Unfortunately, many of the ideas require a real live camera person whom we have yet to find; or, don’t allow for full participation for both of us. Not every suggestion falls into those categories. There have been some suggestions that we liked and want to do that we just haven’t got around to yet. We both enjoy having a blog. But real life happens too. And this has been the busiest summer we’ve had since we started blogging. We hope that things slow down soon. We could really, really use the break. Until then, thanks for your patience.

As you probably figured out, our recent absence in the world of blogging was due to taking The Boy to college. After the commotion of getting up early, packing the car and the ensuing drive, the time to say goodbye was suddenly on us. No tears were shed; but it was clearly a significant moment. He’s been away from home before; but we always knew exactly when he was going to return. It was always I’ll be back to pick you up on Saturday or the bus gets back to school at 6:00 P.M. Never, I’ll see you around; but I don’t know when. The emptiness in the house the next day after we returned was palpable. No music playing. No Doom monsters growling. Just silence and an empty chair. People say kids grow up fast. Now I truly know what that means. I can’t believe 18 years has gone by since that day in June that I held him up to the window and let him take his first glimpse of the world. Now he’s out in the world all by himself without a safety net (me). I’m sure that he’s doing fine; but I’m not sure that I am.

We just wanted to post a quick note to let everyone know that we are still alive and kicking. We’ve just been incredibly busy working, doing family things and getting The Boy ready to go off to college. Hopefully, things will slow down towards the end of the week and we’ll be able to catch up on everyone’s blog.

In case you were wondering, we decided to keep the Dell. The Boy has got almost everything that he needs/wants loaded on it. I just hope someone remembers to pack a network cable for his dorm room. We’re still deciding on what to do with the other one; but we’re leaning toward keeping it an let The Girl take it with her when she goes to college in a couple of years.

Update: Look for a new post or two later today (Thursday). School started this week for both children, so about the only thing we have been doing when we’ve been home is sleeping.

Update #2: We’ll be publishing a few backdated posts today. That’s not something that we usually do; but this bog is something of a dairy and, even though we have been offline, a lot of things have been happening.

I ordered The Boy a laptop for another company this morning and though that everything was good. Then, when I checked my email after watching the Bengals beat the Packers, I had an email from Dell notifying me that they had shipped my computer and it should be here on Wednesday. So, now I have two computers on the way. As I mentioned in my previous post, I couldn’t reach them on the telephone to verify that my order was cancelled; but they should have done it anyway in accordance with FTC requirements.

So, now I have a conundrum. Do I send the Dell back for a refund and keep the system that I bought when I didn’t think that I was going to be getting it? Or, do I keep it and sell the unneeded substitution on EBay? The Dell is faster/better with more memory, a bigger hard drive, etc. since it was custom configured as opposed to a standard system. But it’s the only one that can be returned. The replacement was purchased from a site that does not allow laptop returns. I won’t be buying anything on my credit card until I get things sorted out.

Your order is further delayed and we need your permission to… This was the email that greated me when I check my email when I got home on Friday. When your son is leaving for college in less than two weeks discovering that the vendor still can’t ship his laptop after waiting for a month is not a pleasant surprise. California Girl and I will have to scramble and try to find one locally. Now we’ll end up spending more money, getting him a system that is not as good or both.

I tried to call themFIVE times about the order andthe firstfour times I called I got mysteriously disconnected when I was being transferred to a “supervisor”. I finally reached someone’s voicemail on the fifth try. I doubt that they will ever call me back. They’ve had plenty of time to call me back so far and have yet to return my call. Sometimes, I wonder how companies with such disregard for their customer stay in business. The only thing that was “good” was that they didn’t even try to pretend that they were American. Instead of Saying their name was “John” through a heavy accent; they gave obviously foreign names.

If anyone has any suggestions for retail locations to purchase a good laptop for a college student please let us know. The college will be providing all of the software he needs; so the laptop itself is the only thing that is important for us.

I wasn’t really thinking much about it as it happened; but I realized when I was reflecting on things during my run earlier today that California Girl and I had sex four times on Tuesday. Once in the morning before I left for work. Once in an unnamed outdoor location to be revealed in our next HNT post. Once at the conclusion of our Two For Tuesday photo session. And once when we went to bed Tuesday night. Three or four times would not be extremely rare for us for us for a Saturday; nut it’s a lot for a weekday that I spent a full day at work. That’s one of the reasons that I like participating in Half Nekkid Thursday. Having a regularly scheduled weekday photo session encourages us to slow down, relax and take some times for ourselves. And have some fun sex at a time when we might not do so otherwise.

After a week of unsuccessfully lobbying us to pay for a bigger share, The Girl finally got a new mobile phone. She had been holding out for a model which was much more expensive; but we declined to increase our contribution. I think it was a good financial lesson for her. Her choices were to make due with a partially working phone that can only place and receive calls and save her money toward a new one with a lot of nifty features. Or get a more affordable model and go back to texting her friends a gazillion times a day. That’s a choice that we as adults make quite often; but it’s one that she really needed to think and reflect on. Hopefully, she’ll remember the lesson.

People with tattoos and body piercings came up during a discussion I was having with a few of my coworkers a couple of weeks ago. I know that I work in a “square” office; but I was still surprised at some of the negative comments I heard. It’s what people are on the inside that matters, especially in the workplace. And to be intolerant of someone just because of the way they look is wrong. I haven’t exactly been a trailblazer; but, many times, I’ve been the only black person in my organization. So, I know what it’s like to have all eyes on you. Everyone is different. And it’s wrong to think less of people because of superficial differences. It seems that the more we become accepting of some things, the more we find other things to dislike. I’m glad that most of the people I know both in real life and in blog land are open-minded and non-judgmental. I just wish more of the world was.

It was great being on vacation last week for the Fourth of July; but things have caught up with me this week. I wasn’t in for the night until 11:00 PM yesterday and it was after 10:00 PM today when California Girl and I started our photo session. And of course, I got caught in the rain when I went running. I love being on vacation. But I really pay for it the following week. I’m already looking at two more late nights. I just hope that things slow down by Friday.

Several things happening at work are causing me a lot of anxiety. They don’t affect California Girl or the kids so I shouldn’t be “worrying” about them; but, nonetheless, I have been spending a lot of time thinking about them. I work to live yet, sometimes, I find myself focusing on work-related things when I should not be.

I have not been spending much time in the blog world this week. I hope to catch up on things on Wednesday night when I get home before or after I publish our HNT post. We had a good photo session so we’ve got several photographs we think you will enjoy. We’ll have a Two for Tuesday Wednesday post in addition to our HNT post.