The Girl Scout end-of-year dinner and awards ceremony was tonight.
We managed to get the enormous pot of pasta there (an hour away without traffic and it was rush hour) there without it getting clumpy and gross. Unfortunately, the person bringing the Alfredo sauce didn’t show. There was enough of the tomato-based sauce (with or without meat) to go around. I hate tomato-based sauces but certainly wouldn’t have said so.
About a quarter of the troop didn’t show up at all after all of them said they would be there. The people who were supposed to bring drinks came in empty-handed, knowing they were supposed to bring them, and simply said “Oh, we forgot.” Had it been us, Sam or I would have high-tailed it to the nearest store and bought drinks at whatever price was demanded, but no, not these people.
I was floored, however, when the woman complained that there was nothing but tap water and sodas she didn’t like (that other people brought “just in case”) to drink. Brass ones!
I’d suggested that we should have two families assigned to each category of stuff in case somebody didn’t come or forgot, and the alpha leader has agreed that it will be done that way in the future. Actually, I think it would have been far more reasonable to have a cookout or something, but she doesn’t like those.
The A/C wasn’t working in the church, either.
But—the girls were pretty good. The bridging ceremony was nice. Katie moved up to Cadettes, one Brownie moved up to Juniors, and one Daisy moved up to Brownies. Our other Daisy isn’t coming back next year, so it looks like we’ll just have Brownies to Cadettes with maybe a Senior.
Unfortunately, our Girl Scout council changed its schedule. As of last week, their website said that the Badge & Sash store would be closed NEXT WEEK for inventory, but open 9-5 every day this week. In fact, as of yesterday morning, it still said that.
But when we went to get Katie’s Cadette uniform today, they were closed. In fact, they decided to close the entire council office for the entire week for some sort of training sessions that were scheduled at the very last minute. And alpha leader, who had checked their website yesterday morning, went there today to get the girls’ awards—and couldn’t. So the girls got pieces of paper about the awards they’d earned, and we’ll have to buy them in two weeks when the store is supposedly open again and then get them to the girls. (Had she let me know in time, Sam or I would have figured out some kind of certificates to print up for the girls, at least, but she didn’t think about it.)
I was informed by the parents of one girl (the ones who didn’t bring the drinks, in fact) that I’m the only person their daughter listens to. Huh? I see her weekly for 90 minutes. That’s it. I mean, I’m glad she likes me and all, but—well, I didn’t think she listened to anyone, to be honest. But okay, I’ll take it. They wanted me to tell her that it’s unhealthy to carry her new kitten (first pet ever) around constantly like a beanie baby. So I did since it’s true. She’s an extremely intelligent child, so I explained how the kitten needs to run around and use her body and how the development of her body and mind are tied together. Maybe she listened.
And we had to take one of our cats, Alanna (the one we adopted last fall) to the shelter today.
A while back, she just stopped using the litter box intermittently. She isn’t incontinent—no, she goes to the bathroom and does her business NEXT to the litter box. Or if she sees us cleaning out the covered box, she would come in and do her business in the lid. We’ve tried different kinds of litter and boxes with no joy. There are two boxes and Shelley (senior cat) does not use the one downstairs at all, but Alanna did the same thing in both bathrooms. It was intermittent—would happen at least once most days, sometimes more. It’s just too unsanitary. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the cat physically. It’s just some weird emotional/psychological thing. At first, we thought that maybe it would clear up shortly, but it just got worse. And it’s just too foul and unhealthy to live with. We were afraid to walk into any bathroom without checking for “surprises.” There’s been a LOT of mopping around here lately!
This is NOT an area where it’s safe for cats to live outdoors (if anywhere is—I just don’t normally have outdoor pets, period). Even if it were safe, it would be against the county’s leash laws. So she went to a shelter, and we’re hoping someone will adopt her. Maybe she’ll be happier in a home without other animals, or something. But we’re all pretty unhappy that she had to go 🙁
