My boy played a show with his friend Kaine at Fountain City Park today for a school benefit.  Of course they rocked.  They need a bass player though & a tech geek to balance the sound before & during the performance.  Pat's Uncle Wayne (JJ's brother who purchased much of the equipment they use) was able to come down from Morristown & enjoy it.  It was a very nice day for it & we all had a fun time.  JJ video taped it & Laura took the still shots.  Everyone had a great time. 

Next weekend is Greek Fest.  Hope to see some of you there.

With all the silliness of "pets" & finding out "how much you're worth" on myspace, xanga is looking better & better.  I'm a freak who actually likes blogging & reading my friends blogs.  I don't want to be anyone's pet.  I know my own value (& its considerable, thank you very much). 

This Chinese situation is very disturbing.  According to CNN this morning, 2 lakes may soon burst through their confinements & drown whoever is left in the rubble of the buildings leveled by the quakes.  At least the Chinese are better at getting needed help to the victims than Myanmar.  Rotted food is reportedly finally making its way to the victims of the cyclone there &ships with  fresh supplies are still waiting to be permitted to dock.  Its so tragic.  It really puts other mundane problems into proper perspective.  I'm very thankful that my family doesn't live in the geologic ring of fire that is Southeast Asia, & I hope better disaster preparedness may be a lesson learned from all this.  The only certainty is that this area will continue to experience natural disasters on this same scale & bigger, so there's no room for a learning curve.

On the domestic front, I am truly blessed.  Tom's been a real sweetie lately & seems to be recovering nicely from all his dental drama.  Once we get the stimulus check, we'll be able to afford his partials.  Laura has lost weight since being diagnosed with PCOS, getting on Yaz, & changing her eating habits.  We're very proud of her.  Pat is stilling rocking with his band and will be turning 16 in a few weeks.  He already has a summer job lined up at Hardee's with a friend and has big plans for his paychecks.  Laura is planning on applying at Ingles' and Hobby Lobby.  With gas & food prices on the rise, it'll be nice to know that the kids will have their own cash to get the things they need and I can focus on just paying bills.  Covenant won't be reevaluating mileage reimbursements for case managers until July, so its getting more expensive to make the same rounds through town to see my clients.  I am due for my first raise in June, so hopefully it'll be enough to keep me there.  We need more money & if they can't give it, I'll have to look elsewhere.

Right now, I'm waiting on Pat & his friends to wake up so I can put them to work.  We have stuff to do here, then we need to go pick up a stove from a friend, & then head down to my Mom & Step Dad's place so Pat can help John with yard work & heavy lifting.  Tomorrow we have 2 activities to choose from, a gathering at another friend's place or a talk at McClung Museum on ancient Asian bronzes.  I'm hoping we might have time for both, but how much housework I get done today will probably be the final determinate. 

Lastly, I just finished a book about the history of Knoxville & just started one on Cades Cove.  Both belonged to my Dad & I feel closer to him by reading his books and listening to his old records.  This July will mark 5 years since his passing and I still feel woefully inadequate at filling his metaphorical shoes.  Of course, he earned easily twice as much as I do, which made taking care of things easier.  Still, we do pretty well all things considered & feel good about the love and attention I give my family.  My kids are smart, loving, & reason for much pride.

Ok, that's a long entry, so no comments expected.  I think people see lengthy blog entries and decide its too much of an investment of their time & energy to read it, let alone comment.  That's ok.  The exercise is more for my benefit than anyone else's.  To those who actually still read this stuff, thanks.  I appreciate your interest in my mundane ramblings.

Tom's molars are no more.  He had the last 6 removed last week & although he's very sore & itchy & more than a little grumpy about it, he is no longer having night sweats and no longer has those horrid dark circles under his eyes.  The swelling has gone down from the infection and his head looks properly proportioned again.  Its like doing the time warp back to about 7 years ago before his break down.  He also enjoyed the anesthesia enough to be more receptive to having his very swollen and infection filled tonsils out later this year, so that should make a big difference too.  I'm really looking forward to having a healthier husband.  It will be especially interesting to see if his depression and anxiety issues are relieved somewhat by these physical measures.  I don't expect any kind of miraculous cure for all his psychological ailments, but increasing his health and comfort level will probably be a big step in his overall recovery.   It is very much like having a few demons exorcised from a troubled soul, allowing him to know a little more peace.  I know there are still a few more demonic invaders to contend with though... the ptsd, agoraphobia, paranoia, panic attacks, depression, & dissociative disorder are better entrenched and harder to displace.   With better health, we now have time a little more on our side.

As for Mo, I'm listening to podcasts about skepticism, religion, & environmental themes.  I'm also reading an interesting book about Buddhist meditation &enlightenment written by a Jewish Buddhist.  Home improvement and organizational projects have been keeping me busy, as is work and all the extra charting we have to do.  I'm almost ready to start trying to get back into UT for a master's program, but I want to be sure which Master's program I want to pursue and I'm still weighing options right now.  I'll make my decision around the same time that Laura's graduates next year & we can probably car pool to UT together.  My goal is to have my Master's by the time Pat graduates in 2011 and the child support ends.

In the mean time, we're taking advantage of the medical & dental coverage we have and I'm trying to get everyone tuned up accordingly.  Once we get Tom's partials, we're going to take him & Pat in for eye exams.  Laura's vision is excellent, but she needs a dental visit and has a gyn appointment next week.  I need dental and the girlie doc.  Anything an MD would say to me would involve me losing weight, which I'm working on & it seems pointless to have the conversation until the agreed upon goal is achieved.  Pat will need a dentist appointment too, but shouldn't need braces or anything.  Laura, on the other hand, wants the invisiline things, but will probably have to settle for old fashioned braces.

Ok, that's our health update.  How are you people feeling?