Wow.

It's so terribly sad to me that some people crave attention so badly that they find the need to belittle, insult, and harrass other people in order to build themselves up to feel like real men/women. Terribly sad. I'm not at all hurt by that kind of behavior. I pity people who act like that.

The past, the future, and the 10 minute Nazi.

The Past
This past weekend I went up to Asheville, NC (the mountains!) for a belated birthday weekend with my best friends. Let me first say that Tom is the best man on the face of the earth. (He is!) They picked me up after work on Friday, and we ate dinner at a lovely little place called Camille's. Yummy Thai chicken salad. :)

When we got up to the mountain, we had a few drinks and just chilled for the evening. Tom got us up early in the morning, and made his famous French Toast for breakfast. After that, we went off to "mystery destination", which turned out to be Hot Springs, NC. You see, there are natural hot springs to bathe in there. It was fantastic!

After Hot Springs, we ran a few errands (read: ABC Store), and went back to the house. Once there, Tom had massage therapists come and massage us. (Yay! What's not to love about a massage?) After that, drinks galore, and some seriously awesome dinner (Also cooked by the fabulous Thomas).

Sunday was a lazy day of relaxing at the house, followed by a trip to the Asheville Farmer's Market (for the best bread in the universe), and our traditional lunch at Asheville Pizza Company. *sigh* I love that town.

The Future
This coming weekend is my sister's wedding reception thing. You see, she actually got married on some Caribbean island about a month ago, but my parents have to show off the ridiculous amount of money they have by throwing her a big reception for all of their friends.

Regardless, I got guilted into going to the stupid thing in the first place, and they can't even treat us like family while we're there. Here's the list:
1) They couldn't spend a dime of their fortune on flying us to Pennsylvania, so we have to drive 8 hours on Friday morning. Joy.
2) They couldn't put us in a decent hotel with a dime of their fortune because I guess we aren't worth it. We have a reservation at the Days Inn about 40 minutes from the reception site. Joy.
3) They don't really want to spend any time with their only grandchild (my son) while we're there. My dad decided he wants to go to the racetrack and lay down some bets on Saturday morning, and "Brandon might like to go see the horseys." This is quality time with your grandchild?
4) They want us to stay for brunch on Sunday morning which will end about noon. noon + 8 hours in a car with a four year old= you do the math for what time we'll arrive home Sunday night.
5) We have a home tournament for fencing this weekend, and my husband (the coach) arranges things so that he can still go to the stupid wedding with me instead of running the tournament. What does my father say? "There are some things that are more important than fencing you know." Uh......except when fencing is your freaking job!!!!! All he had to say was, "Gee that was nice of him."

Screw you guys too.....this is the last family thing I get guilted into going to.

The 10 minute Nazi
So there is this guy in my division of fencing who somehow convinced the people in charge that he is the only person on the planet capable of working the computer during a tournament. Basically, this means that every time there is any kind of qualifying or large tournament run by the division, this asshole is running things.

The USFA rules state something like: "A fencer must be given a 10 minute rest period between direct elimination bouts." What it means is: A fencer may rest for up to ten minutes between direct elimination bouts. Our Division Nazi has decided that 10 minutes are absolutely mandatory.

Now, when a tournament has been running for 8 or ten hours and the referees are tired, and the fencers are tired, and the parents are tired, and everyone just wants to fence and go home, a lot of fencers cut their ten minute breaks to 6 or 8 minutes, and then say that they are ready to fence. According to the Nazi, they are not allowed to start fencing one second before the ten minute mark.

My husband recently sent me the link to idiot boy's blog. I read a bunch of the archived posts that pertain to fencing stuff. Here's the funny part: I got hired to Referree Junior Olympic Qualifiers back in November, and this asshole writes an entire post about a "certain referee" at that tournament who "manhandles fencers into fencing before their alloted rest time is up." Who died and made him Father Time? If a fencer looks at me and says they are ready to go, and their opponent has no objection......let's get this show on the road!!!! I'd like to get some sleep before the next Ice Age!

*phew!* I feel better after that rant. :)

"That's too hard for you...." and other stories

I got to spend the entire weekend one on one with my son. My husband was off coaching his students at Southeast Sectionals. We had a wonderful time!

On Saturday, we woke up and had breakfast and watched TV. I decided to go outside (since it was a lovely day), and repot some of my nuclear/psycho plants that had outgrown their current homes. Brandon was my "water guy." He's always very excited when he has a job in any task at hand. 45 Minutes outside, and I managed to get a sunburn!

After that, we met my friend Kristen at her house and went to a little neighborhood festival near her. There were tons of things for the boy, and we all sat and listened to a couple of the bands and relaxed. Very fun indeed.

Brandon was zonked out when we got into the car at about 6:30, and managed to sleep through the night. I had a quiet evening at home, and chatted online and worked on some designs for my new store.

When we woke up on Sunday, it was quite dreary and chilly, so we did the grocery shopping, and housecleaning for most of the day. We baked cookies together, and painted figurines. So much mommy/Son bonding time.

My son has one of those video games that you plug into the tv. It's Star Wars, and is shaped like Darth Vader's head. Weird. Anyway, anyone who knows us, know's that Brandon has a pretty severe speech delay. He's been in speech thearpy for a few months now, and it's helping him so much, that I'm often incredibly surprised by the things that come out of his mouth. So, the Star Wars game has about 5 different games on it, and Brandon really likes a few of them. We were playing different games as a team. He would play one level, and then it would be my turn, etc. So there is one game that I'm terribly bad at, and Brandon decides he wants to play that one. He starts to hand me the controller, and then changes his mind and says, "I'll do this one Mommy. It's too hard for you."

Imagine! My four year old knows video games better than I do! ;) It gave me a chuckle.