News from the 'hood

Last week, the police busted *21* drug dealers at the closest light rail station. That freaked me out a bit considering I've never given it a 2nd thought to walk over there with the kids. Apparently, they had been running a sting operation there because they were having too difficult a time finding some kind of permanent address for the alleged dealers. It's just strange because this isn't right next to our neighborhood but it's only about 4-5 blocks away. Still, the truth is that I feel WAY more comfortable over here in this normal neighborhood than I did in the corporate ghetto on the other side of the freeway or in the 500K DINK housing in the south area.

In other news, I now have a new Powerbook (thank you USAA Insurance Company). It's so pretty and fast and shiny and the keys are so springy.

J owes me big time for today. I took both kids shoe shopping. Talk about nightmarish torture. I always forget how awful this kind of outing can be for the parent. Lily wailed and shrieked for most of the time we were in Target. Thankfully, I had brought snacks so I was able to keep her distracted while in Mervyn's (where, thank the Lord, we actually found Ian some shoes that he liked and that fit). He is the pickiest kid I know. He has some sort of incoherent ideal about exactly how his shoes should fit and look and which he is unable to clearly articulate to me. The shopping mostly consists of "no, Mom, they're ugly" or "no, Mom, they'll make my feet look too big" or just plain old "EWWWWW!" This issue coupled with the stringent restrictions on what he can wear with his uniform conspire to drive a parent mad. Seriously, I feel half insane now. And do you know how few shoes you can buy that are only black, white, navy, or brown or some combination thereof? There's always some stupid dash of color somewhere to foil us from getting the hell out of the store sooner. I think the shoe companies do it on purpose. They're out to get me.