and some more

no real excitement in the universe. i'm blogging this as much to diarize it as anything.

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got an email from stbx-Mrs_C on Wednesday saying i could send a house appraiser over on friday. i thought that timeline was a little short. appraisers are hard to get at this time of year, and our housing market is very robust right now. i'm still trying to get one to call me back.

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the kids are constantly complaining to me about the poor quality of the food they are getting over at stbx-Mrs_C's place. they advise me that all she cooks is fish sticks and fries or pizza. sometimes they eat out.

the kids have taken to making their own meals.

i bought them some ultra-simple cookbooks. i hope it helps.

they have said they can't get their mom to buy the stuff they want to eat or make. i may buy them some of the ingredients so they can have a level of success. perhaps if they make stuff she will eat, she might be prepared to buy the ingedients they want. i'll have to teach them how to make a basic menu/meal plan and parallel shopping list.

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finished watching battlestar gallactica seasons 1 and 2 with Smitten. started last October. i wanted her to see it, and she is into science fiction enough to be good with it. she mostly reads science fiction and fantasy books, rather than movies or TV. Movies and TV ended up being a staple of activity for stbx-Mrs_C and I - when you aren't talking at least you can be distracted... I have had no interest in repeating that pattern with Smitten.

I never watched much TV when i was younger. I missed pretty much the entire 1980s of TV because I didn't watch TV and didn't own a TV when I lived on my own. stbx-Mrs_C and I didn't have a TV for our first 18 months of marriage (or so) - not until after son was born and she needed something to do while she was up at night feeding the boy (breast fed - wasn't much I could do - if you're wondering why i wasn't up with her/him. i did get up to change him and fetch him, and did stay home with him [yes - that is a pre-emptive defensive explanation of involvement])

the TV is only on when the kids are at the apartment (technically not true because my service includes music channels and i use my DVD player/home theatre set-up ($140 - not some monster deal) as my stereo and instead of music (i hate commercial radio).

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son says stbx-Mrs_C has begun telling people that I intended to divorce her from the moment i married her so that i could get money. 18 years of relationship later, i find that i resent that statement. son ripped her a new asshole when she said that to him. i did not admonish him for that action. i neither want to chide him for it, nor do i want to get in between his mother and him on an issue that is not a parenting issue.

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daughter is asking when i will get my new house because she wants to get out of being at her mom's full time. stbx-Mrs_C's male friend is apparently at the house every day. stbx-Mrs_C says they are not dating - the kids say she is - daughter says stbx-Mrs_C only says she isn't dating to son, because she doesn't want to give son the satisfaction of being able to say "see, you're dating to" - daughter says stbx-Mrs_C has told daughter that they are dating.

daughter is also sick of sleeping with her mom in the same bed since about the new year. stbx-Mrs_C's tossing and turning and whacking with arms and bed hogging and blah blah (usual disturbed sleep) is also grating on daughter.

daughter really wants her own space.

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went out on sunday for the day with daughter. went for breakfast and spent the rest of the day together. bopped around to exchange some jeans i'd bought and to look at pet stores to give the girl an outing. her dog is such a focus in her life that i want to do stuff with her. last year when i first moved out she asked if she could have a gecko. it's getting closer to house time, so we looked at gecko stuff too. that'll be a $300 touch at the end of the day.

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more later

[later edit to see if i can actually get the blog rolls to read this as updated...]