We're having a busy week. This week is all about the Scouts for Blake. He had his crossover ceremony on Monday making the transition from Webelos to Scouts. I'll have to add the pictures later because my camera isn't sending pictures properly. They actually had them cross across this huge log bridge that was about 4 or 5 feet high. I wasn't expecting that. Especially when they made all the parents do it too! I took the chicken exit and went through the timbers instead of over. I could just see my fat butt falling off of there and crushing several small Cub Scouts in the process. I think it was a good decision because one of the leaders ended up spraining his ankle jumping off the durn thing.

Today they had swim testing at the local pool for their upcoming campout. Then tomorrow night he gets his Golden Arrow ceremony from his old Webelos troop. Then he's off for a 3 day campout with his new Troop. Wow, how's that for a full week of Scouting? That's my idea of a boy's paradise.


Matt is cooking up some plans of his own. He's all excited about getting his own apartment. A house actually. He and a couple of buddies are scheming to rent out a house together. I'm having a hard time dealing with it actually. I know this is a normal part of growing up, but I wasn't at all prepared for it. It's not that I want him still living with me when he's 35, but I didn't leave home until I was 24 and married and he's only 20 and still in school.

I don't know what I'm going to do when he leaves. We still have dinner together every night he's not working and we watch TV together every week - Bones and Dancing with the Stars and American Idol. He's the one who gives me a hug when I've had a rotten day. And he's the one who plays the most with Blake and wrestles with him and chases him all around the house. And plays really cute with the kitties. Practical stuff too, like watching Blake for me after school, doing the grocery shopping, doing all the sweeping and mopping and stuff.


I mean, he's lived in my house nearly every moment of the last 20 years and I really can't imagine him not living with us and not seeing him every day. But I guess I'll have to come to grips with it because he's all set to go in just a couple of weeks. I just never really thought of myself as being an "Empty Nester". Or half empty anyway....


My other little bit of randomness is about Facebook. As I've said in earlier posts, I'm really enjoying the whole Facebook thing and I'm having a great time connecting with people from all walks of life. However, there's a little point of etiquette I'm not quite understanding. When you're adding people as "friends" how do you define who you should add as a friend? For instance, do you only add people from school you were actually friends with, or do you also add the cheerleaders and jocks and all the people who wouldn't give you the time of day back in school? It's kind of awkward because I went by a totally different name in High School, both first and last, so I'm sure people are looking at my Facebook name and wondering who in the heck I am.

Then there's the relative-of-a-relative crowd. Do I add my niece's husband that I know pretty well? That one sounds like a no-brainer, but what about my ex-step-nephew's wife that I never actually met? Yes, I know you think I'm making that one up, but I'm really not. I have a fairly large and convoluted family tree. I added the ex-step-nephew because I knew him pretty well back when my sister was married to his father, but is it rude not to add his wife since I've never met her?

What about the kids of my various cousins? I've been adding the ones I've actually met and might recognize if I ever ran into them somewhere, but there's some I'd even never heard of. I don't know if they really want somebody my age in their profile. I know Matt doesn't like having me on there as his friend. He's afraid I'm going to embarrass him in front of his friends or something.

Oh and one other question -I found some women on there who used to be good friends of mine, but there was a big blowout in the group we belong to and they kind of bailed on us. We're still in that "polite mode" when we run into each other around town, but we're not exactly best buds any more. But we run in the same crowd, so I see their names pop up from time to time and I'm not sure what to do. Do I ignore them, do I acknowledge them, do I sign them up as friends and make nice-nice? I don't really know on that one. Can you say AWKWARD!

By the way, I'm still a little leery of Facebook. I went in and tightened up my security settings like you are supposed to. Did you know that if you join a network like your city network that every person in your city can see your whole profile? I didn't until I started clicking on other people's profiles and noticed that I was able to see profiles for people I didn't even know. So I've set it so that only people who are actually designated as friends. If you haven't done so already, I'd advise you to give it some good thought. There is a lot of hacking going on. The other day, that We're Related application sent me FIVE different E-mails about adding all my relatives. That kind of freaked me out and I'm wondering why they want to know so badly. I think it's kind of a fun app, but I keep thinking of sinister ways they could use that information.

Anyway, that's my bit of randomness for today...