Updatey Goodness

News All Around! Let’s start with today.

Today Michael took Atos to the vet. He has an ear infection, but we can use the meds we have for Sasha, and she only charged us for the test on his ear, not the visit itself. He is otherwise healthy and friendly. We both ran down to Lauderdale and picked up Sasha’s Interceptor (the Abandoned Pet Rescue gave us a months supply for 80$ instead of 12 pills for 80$)  and she started that today. The gal in charge there said she should start to look better in a couple of weeks. Yay!

Once we were done in Lauderdale we came back up to Coral Springs and signed the boys up for camp for next year. I never did hear back from Camp Gan Israel, so we signed them up for three days a week at the place they went last summer. I am going to make plans for the other two days a week, so we should have a busy summer! I inquired about VPK for Eshiva for next year, and tomorrow morning we’re going to fill that paperwork out. KIM offers a 50$/week full day of pre-K when coupled with VPK. 7:30 – 3 (VPK runs 9 – 12, so we can drop her off after the boys and I can pick her up after the boys too). She also gets one day a week of swim instruction (not the full day of course, but the instructor comes in once a week) as well as time in the gym and daily school stuff, etc. It’s a great deal, and Olivia waived the registration fee since we’re bringing Eshiva for VPK.

Ah… we also went to Target and went food shopping. Eshiva spent some of her birthday  money and got a Hello Kitty CD/Tape/Radio player. I burned her a couple of CD’s today and she is in heaven. Michael got a full sized acoustic guitar and is going to learn right along with Dorian, who has a kid sized acoustic. He got a video from NetFlix and they are going to do it on Mondays. We went to GameStop and the boys bought some games with their cash. We went back to GameStop and bought a new PS2 because the dog broke ours (total accident). Today was a money kind of day :( At least camp is paid in full and I don’t have to fret about it (ha, fret/guitar) and we saved a little to contribute to the fence fund.

Saturday I saw one of my Aunts & Uncles, and Gram & Zaide. They brought down some studio lights from another Uncle, so I get to tool around with those tomorrow. I need to get Michael to come outside with me and his dremel and fix up my PVC piping so I can get my backdrop stand to, you know, stand. Had a fab visit. I may bitch and moan about my family, but I really miss having more of them live locally, and I should make more effort to visit the ones that are local.

I put all my tattoo equipment in Michael’s car tonight. I haven’t had time to work with it in months. I wont have time for a while yet, and my focus is kind of on my photography at the moment anyway.  I started out with the intention of learning how for the sake of knowing how, and well, I know how, so that’s that. I’m not going to go work in a competing shop, and I wont be hired to work at the shop Michael is at, so I feel like it was getting kind of pointless anyway. Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be?

Starting in August I’ll have a full day to myself. I suspect I’ll have a very clean home (I hope so anyway!). I’ll have time to repaint the front room. I’ll have time to find a place for everything. I’ll have time to set up some bad ass photo shoots and put together props to show off how cute my kids are. I’ll have time to finish my digital work during the day so I am not up doing it at midnight. I’m pretty excited about it!

So, that’s the news!

CoralSpringsParents : Coral Springs Parents

CoralSpringsParents : Coral Springs Parents.

I need a local group, so here it is! Just publicizing it.

South Florida Tattoo Expo

I don’t love their website (http://www.sofltattooexpo.com) and I don’t know of anyone who even liked their location last year (same location this year) but they do benefit a good cause. Better yet, they have a great collection of local and out-of-state artists and vendors. Yay stuff!

This year is the 13th year it’s going on, and the dates are August 15, 16 & 17. According to the site, hours are noon to 1AM on Friday & Saturday, and noon to 7PM Sunday. Admission is 15$/day or 30$ for the three-day pass.

Location is the Deerfield Beach Hilton. A word of warning – this hotel has the expo split up into multiple rooms and it’s kind of hard to navigate. I know of at least one vendor last year who got there, set up and packed up because of the layout. Unfortunately, the Coral Springs space was much nicer (I’m not being selfish here. Yes, it was right around the corner, but it was also all in one large room plus vendors in the public area, not five or six small rooms and a maze to get around) and better thought out.

This expo benefits the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital. I don’t know the total, but they donate thousands of dollars every year to the hospital. You can beat new swag, new tattoos and a healthy donation for the kids. Actually, according to the website, over 400,000$ have been donated over the past twelve years.

Check out the website for location, vendors, artists, events and more. We’ll be there Saturday or Sunday, so keep an eye out and come say hi!

Wow, my town is in the top 100

Let me preface this with, a large portion of my brain wants me to be June Cleaver and move my family into her home. I am convinced if I try a little harder, I can have that perfect household. Of course, the rest of my brain knows it can’t happen, but… I want it.

So it was nice to see, when I scanned for anyplace in Florida, that my little town (ok, not so small, 135K people or so) is on this list. Who knew?

http://men.msn.com/articlebl.aspx?cp-documentid=7560549&GT1=32001

The 100 Best Places to Raise a Family
Find out which cities in America are the best—and the worst—for you and your brood.
Research by Sara Vigneri; Illustration: Sean McCabe

Television executives seized the idea long ago: American families value where they plant their roots. The Cosbys had Brooklyn. The Cunninghams, Milwaukee. The Simpsons, Springfield.

But fathers face reality when they’re not in prime time. They want to raise their children somewhere safe, where they can attend good schools with favorable student-teacher ratios, above-average test scores, and respectable budgets. Plenty of museums, parks, and pediatricians also contribute to a good quality of life, whereas multihour commutes, expensive houses, and divorcing friends and neighbors do not.

Best Life editors used these categories and data from the U.S. Census Bureau, National Center for Education Statistics, FBI, American Association of Museums, National Center for Health Statistics, and American Bar Association to evaluate 257 cities. Here are the best—and worst—places to raise a family.

1 Honolulu, Hawaii (Schools spend almost $9,000 per pupil, unemployment ranks less than half the national average, and you can play on the island of O’ahu’s 125 beaches.)
2 Virginia Beach, Virginia
3 Billings, Montana
4 Columbus, Georgia
5 San Diego, California
6 Des Moines, Iowa
7 Minneapolis, Minnesota
8 Madison, Wisconsin (Madison has a high number of pediatricians per capita.)
9 Colorado Springs, Colorado
10 Santa Rosa, California
11 Wichita, Kansas
12 Los Angeles, California
13 Corona, California
14 Austin, Texas
15 Stamford, Connecticut
16 Omaha, Nebraska
17 Naperville, Illinois
18 Fort Wayne, Indiana
19 Springfield, Illinois
20 Boise, Idaho
21 Manchester, New Hampshire
22 South Bay Area, California
23 New York, New York
24 Fontana, California
25 Louisville, Kentucky
26 Plano, Texas
27 Oceanside, California
28 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
29 Sacramento, California
30 Ann Arbor, Michigan
31 Reno, Nevada
32 Las Vegas, Nevada
33 Lincoln, Nebraska
34 San Bernardino, California
35 Grand Rapids, Michigan
36 Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina (Median value of a home: $202,733)
37 Kansas City, Kansas
38 Fremont, California
39 Buffalo, New York
40 Berkeley, California
41 Cambridge, Massachusetts
42 Kansas City, Missouri
43 Waterbury, Connecticut
44 Syracuse, New York
45 Phoenix, Arizona
46 Albuquerque, New Mexico
47 Akron, Ohio
48 Boston, Massachusetts
49 Escondido, California
50 Fairfield, California
51 Antioch, California
52 Elgin, Illinois
53 Rochester, New York
54 Seattle, Washington (Residents spend $266 per person annually to maintain the city’s parks.)
55 Tucson, Arizona
56 Santa Clarita, California
57 Denver, Colorado
58 Indianapolis, Indiana
59 Glendale, Arizona
60 Chicago, Illinois
61 Atlanta, Georgia
62 San Antonio, Texas
63 Mobile, Alabama
64 Concord, California
65 Denton, Texas
66 Coral Springs, Florida
67 San Francisco, California
68 Cedar Rapids, Iowa
69 El Paso, Texas (Classrooms average fewer than 16 students for every teacher.)
70 San Buenaventura, California
71 Worcester, Massachusetts
72 Baltimore, Maryland
73 Richmond, California
74 Lowell, Massachusetts
75 Portland, Oregon
76 Jacksonville, Florida
77 Fort Collins, Colorado
78 Orlando, Florida
79 Modesto, California
80 Montgomery, Alabama
81 Tampa, Florida
82 Salinas, California
83 Newport News, Virginia
84 Oakland, California
85 Augusta, Georgia
86 Fort Worth, Texas
87 Washington, D.C.
88 Tulsa, Oklahoma (Residents spend just 17 minutes commuting to work.)
89 Bellevue, Washington
90 Cincinnati, Ohio
91 McKinney, Texas
92 St. Louis, Missouri
93 Hayward, California
94 Midland, Texas
95 Sterling Heights, Michigan
96 Greensboro, North Carolina
97 Arlington, Texas
98 Alexandria, Virginia
99 Winston-Salem, North Carolina
100 Lexington, Kentucky

The 10 Worst Places to Raise a Family (from best to worst)

Springfield, Missouri
Dayton, Ohio
Corpus Christi, Texas
Flint, Michigan (Country’s highest violent-crime rate)
Columbia, South Carolina
Waco, Texas
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Fayetteville, North Carolina
Beaumont, Texas (Long-standing air-quality challenges)
Clarksville, Tennessee (Low educational spending: $6,729 per student)

stolen meme

A) Four jobs I have had in my life (other than current job):
short order cook (fry cook), cashier in a pharmacy, web monkey, graphic artist (ok, two of the four are my current job, but those are the only things I’ve ever done)
B.) Four movies I would watch over and over:
I can think of tons of tv shows :/  OK, Heathers, Hot Shots, Pirates, and Oceans
C.) Four places I have lived
Parkersburg WV, Gaithersburg MD, Arlington VA, Coral Springs FL
D.) Four TV shows that I watch
Monk, Psych, House, Lost
E.) Four places I have been:
Austin, LA, Chicago, Orlando
F.) Four people who e-mail me (regularly):
Sarah, Mandy, Michael, Punky Moms
G.) Four of my favourite foods:
sushi, garlic rolls, babaganush, squash
H. ) Four places I would rather be right now:
in bed sleeping, shopping with free money, in my own shop, with Michael
J.) Four Things I am looking forward to this year:
seeing where Punky Moms goes this year, seeing where Michael goes this year, seeing what the kids do this year, finding time for me
K.) Four favourite authors:
Heinlein, Hamilton, Harrison, Lumley