Ca ca water, anyone?

This morning, while taking my boys to the bathroom before lunch, I noticed that the floor drain was bubbling up this hideous brown sewer water. It was rising, rising, rising, then thankfully, started to go back down. But, there was still a delightful puddle of ca ca water on the floor. When we got to the lunchroom, I said to the janitor standing there, "Hey, R., did you know the floor drain in the boys' bathroom is bubbling up?" His response - "Yeah, I gotta look at that." OOOKKK.... so then I see the engineer (the boss of the janitors, basically) and I ask him the same thing. But, he says, "Oh, no, I didn't. I'll take a look." Ok, now we're getting somewhere. Or, so I thought. Ha! I forgot! This is the Hell-Hole!

Well, needless to say, the whole thing turned into a nightmare after that point. He tried to unstop the drain, but didn't have a snake long enough. But, in the meantime, more putrid ca ca water kept coming up, and now was all over the bathroom. Eventually, by the end of the day, there was water spilling out into the hallway. At least it wasn't the same thick, brown junk that was in the bathroom. This looked clear. As the afternoon went on, the puddle kept growing. By the time the after school program dismissed, there was water wall-to-wall in the hallway, and covered almost a quarter of the length. And, I can't EVEN describe the stench!! It was like standing in an open sewer.

I just hope to God it's fixed before we get there tomorrow. Luckily, the kids don't have school tomorrow. Only the teachers will have to endure that delightful aroma! Actually, I'm not sure I'll even be there tomorrow. They're predicting another 5 inches of snow tonight. If that happens, I may just take a "stay in my jammies all day and watch TV" day. My son will be home anyway, so why not make a day of it? The only thing that really needs to be done tomorrow is progress reports, but there aren't any for kindergarten. Aw, shucks! So, I don't know if I'll feel like driving in treacherous conditions just to sit around and do nothing all day. But, on the other hand, why not go sit and do nothing all day, and get paid. Quite a conundrum, isn't it? I haven't missed a day yet, so I'm not eager to waste a sick day like that. I guess I'll just have to wait and see how I feel in the morning.

I have kind of a disturbing D.J. story from today. Boy, I haven't written about him in a while, have I? He's come light years from where he was back in September. He still gives me moments when I want to "stomp on his neck," but it's so much better. Maybe I'm just used to him now. Anyway, this was my week to stay in the lunchroom with the kids. I was sitting at the boys' table chatting and making sure they were eating, etc. I was sitting directly across from D.J. There was an unusually large lunch today for the kiddies. Pizza, soup, salad, raisins and apples/pears. That's a LOT of food for 5 year olds. Well, I noticed that D.J. had two empty soup bowls on his tray, as well as two empty salad cups. Let me backtrack a second. As soon as he sat down, he immediately grabbed his box of raisins, dumped them on his tray and scarfed them before any of the other boys even sat down! I said something like, wow, you must really like raisins, huh? Anyway, a couple of the other kids had given him their food, and like I said, he had already eaten a box of raisins, a piece of pizza, two soups and two salad, and when I sat down, he was tearing into a pear with gusto. At that point, I became I bit concerned, so I sat down to chat with him. As I handed him yet another bowl of soup, I asked him if he had eaten last night. He shook his head 'no' as he slurped his third bowl of soup.
"You didn't eat dinner last night?!"
"No."
"Why not?"
Shoulder shrug.
"Was your mommy home last night?"
"No, she was at work." slurp, slurp, smack
"Well, who was home with you? Your brothers?"
"No, my daddy."
"And, he didn't feed you dinner?!"
Head shake, smack, slurp "My daddy and my aunt were home."
"And they didn't feed you dinner?"
"No."
Now I'm getting worked up a bit. "Did THEY eat dinner?"
"Yeah."
OK, now I'm about to explode!
"Why didn't they feed YOU?"
Shoulder shrug. Milk slurp.

I couldn't believe it! For a minute, I even imaged that perhaps Daddy and Auntie were getting busy behind Mommy's back, while the kids sat hungry in the other room. Not outside the realm of possibility, that's for sure. I was just livid about this situation. I told D.J. that if he ever comes to school hungry again, he should tell me so I can get him some breakfast. I'm just sick about this. Is it any wonder he has problems? How do you sit still and focus on school when you haven't eaten since your school lunch the day before? What the hell happens on weekends? Was this (hopefully!!) a one-time incident? I'm going to make a point of sitting with him everyday in the lunchroom, even if it's just a couple of minutes, to see if this is a pattern. God, I hope so. The idea of this poor baby having to go hungry makes my heart break. All right, time to change the subject. I'm getting too worked up and sad.

On to Laura and KBL's favorite subject - my "fur baby." Nothing new to say, although he IS getting his stitches out finally tomorrow, so I may have an update then. But, I did snap a cute picture of him last night. As you can see, he still does that same little cute "paws out in front of me" thing he did as a puppy. Look.

Wow, I just noticed that you can see the remodeling that was done in the kitchen over the years. (At least part of it.) Gone is the linoleum tile and country wallpaper with grapevine hearts and bows (eww). You can see the ceramic tile, new wood trim and olive green paint. At least on that wall. The adjacent wall to the left is mustard yellow, to the right is green on the bottom, yellow on the top, with an oak chair rail in between. I finally have the Tuscan kitchen I spent years dreaming about. Gee, maybe if I ever start a 'personal blog' (hahaha) I'll post pictures one day.

God, Buster was a CUTE puppy!!! That's how I got suckered into taking him. Damn him and his cuteness! I can't stop looking at the picture of him!

OK, Ugly Betty time, so I'm gonna skedaddle! If the snow storm hits, I'll post pictures/video for my Cali friends!

I found this quote that seems to fit the D.J. incident today.

It is easier for a father to have children than for children to have a real father.
---Pope John XXIII