busy this week

...hence the lack of posts. place got kinda trashed, spent most of last night cleaning it up; still got some more to do.

Loren's getting a 4-day weekend from school. his results this quarter seem pretty good- for the most part- but he's still got some rough spots to iron out. what i did last quarter didn't work, so i'm trying a new approach. getting a little resistance from his mom, but that's not exactly surprising. she's certainly not addressing his school issues so it's up to me. i hate to criticize her approach (or lack of one?) when i'm not around to witness what actually takes place over there, but this much is certain: she absolutely will NOT sit Loren down immediately after school and make sure he does his homework, and she doesn't have a clue about what's necessary for him to improve his grades in the classes he's struggling in. being out of school for a week SERIOUSLY damaged his grades, and his teachers are only posting results online in a hodgepodge fashion (as usual) so it's really very difficult to get a handle on what's going on. i need to get ahold of the school, since i still don't have his report card for last quarter. i bet his mother hasn't given that much thought either.

Loren had basketball practice tonight, and did fairly well. nothing spectacular to report there- it was a fairly random evening.

Loren will (supposedly) be coming here Saturday night, for the remainder of his break from school. his mother has been trying to talk about what is going to happen for a week, without making any kind of decision about ANYTHING. no progress. so i took matters into my own hands and decided- he'll come here Saturday night and stay Sunday- and Sunday night, even though this hasn't been discussed. possession is 9/10ths of the law, right?

pretty much working my butt off this week; put in a 10 hour shift on Sunday, and i'll be putting in another long one this weekend. the last one went to making up hours i missed before, so it got juggled around onto other time periods (not exactly legal....but i'm not complaining; i need the money and it was nice to be offered the opportunity to make up my lost time, from when my truck died). this weekend's a different story though; it should all be OT, if my hours don't just get cut later in the week. i think i'd be a little upset if that happened. 10 hrs of OT would amount to a windfall of around $170- nearly half my truck repair bill. still haven't heard a damn WORD from the towing company that got my truck over there, let alone seen an actual invoice for the towing. bet i got charged, though. tomorrow i'll have to call 'em again- during business hours so i get a live person instead of leaving another message that doesn't get a reply.

not a lot interesting to speak of this week. still in the 3rd seed spot in NBA fantasy. another of my players got traded (the third one). the first was Desmond Mason, who went to the Hornets, before i waived him from my fantasy team; then it was Wally Szczerbiak, who's played great for me since i picked him up; he got traded to the Celtics, and he went from being the #2 scoring option behind Kevin Garnett in Minnesota to being the #2 scoring option behind Paul Pierce in Boston, so no real change as far as stats are concerned. the newest trade was former Sonic Vladimir Radmanovic, traded to the Clippers. wondering whether it'll be a smart move to waive him during the All-Star break, since i don't have games for a few days, or if i should keep him in hopes that his numbers will take an up-swing with his new team. there are certainly players available i could get better numbers out of.

finished my Twain book of short stories last night; sometimes, while i was reading it, it seemed like every story in it was better than the last one, but after finishing i'd have to say they were all pretty much excellent across the board. a singularly talented writer, and a true American icon; definitely one of my all-time favorites.

still working on finishing the conventionalization of files in my photo album- i'm making headway, but it is a slow process. can't wait to get everything posted. then i'll have to order something so the Kodak people don't just eliminate my gallery for non-support. i think a nice mug might be in order, since money continues to be tight.

as i may have mentioned before, i backslid a bit on the no-smoking thing, but have managed to keep it to a minimum. i can definitely tell a difference, i don't crave them like i used to. a lot of a smoking habit is just habit. i think that's the most pernicious part of the whole thing, the urge to fill little breaks in the action with a cigarette. i've been (pretty successfully) trying to save them for times when i really actually want one, rather than just reach for one impulsively (or is that compulsively?), and many times when i light one i don't want to smoke the whole thing anymore. when i've worn this pattern in for awhile, i'll decide if i want to try quitting again. i'm sure those in the medical field would tell you ANY amount of smoking is too much- but common sense tells me that there has to be SOME point at which a person smokes so little that the impact on their health is negligible....though where that point lies is likely less than i'm smoking even now.

suppose that's about all i have to blab about at the moment.