Don't mess with me...it's HOT!

For Lyana.  Who thought this needed to be blogged.

I admit I was already in a mood.  This was before we got the A/C in our car fixed.  After a long hot ride home from church, we were greeted by a broilingly hot house.  Plus, I had invited guests for dinner without bothering to consider that our home was devoid of food.  (We had pancakes.  They weren't very good.  Sorry new family.  I'll do better next time.)

Anyway, have I mentioned it was hot?
It was really hot and I walked around the corner into the kitchen and caught Max with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar.  Which was the actual sugar canister.  Yes, that's right.  My little sugar-addicted son (takes after me) was about to eat a handful of white sugar.  (Even on my worst craving days I don't stoop that low.  BROWN sugar, yes.  But WHITE?  ick!)

I may have yelled at him.

Then I moved on to the living room.  Yes, I know Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest, but the other thing I failed to consider when inviting guests over, was that the house was trashed.  The family room floor, though vacuumed daily, needed to be vacuumed again.

So I started vacuuming.

Which is when I discovered the wet spots.  Two rather large sticky soggy spots on the carpet.

Me:  "WHO has been EATING in here???"
Sammy: "I have!"  (He's too young to know he was about to catch it big time.)
Me:  "WHAT DID YOU SPILL?"
Sammy:  "Corn Chex!" he says with an unrepentent smile.
He really shouldnta smiled...

That's when I snapped.  Sneaking food into the family room while sneaking early morning TV was just too much for me to handle in 100 degrees of liquid heat.

Me:  "That's IT!  You guys are in TROUBLE!  NO.MORE.T.V.!!!"
(I've threatened this before.  They weren't scared.)

I walked to the computer desk and picked up the first thing I saw.  A pair of kid safety scissors.

I walked back to the T.V.

With Max and Sam both watching, picked up a black cord and snipped it cleanly in half.

After a moment of stunned silence, both boys burst into hysterical tears.
Max ran sobbing to tell his Daddy--whom he mistakenly thought would side with him.  (Doug was trying not to laugh when he came into the room and saw the damage.)

Now, for the record, I knew what I was snipping.  The cord that gives us the AFN T.V. stations including the "Family" channel with all the cartoons.  Not the power cord or anything.  And I've seen them snipped and spliced and fixed before, so I was pretty confident I wasn't doing any serious damage.
And I was mostly certain I wouldn't be electrocuted--which really would have ruined the effect.  

When the boys realized they still had access to the Wii and the DVD player, they were slightly mollified.  Until later in the week when they ticked-off Doug and he ripped the DVD player out and shoved it in the top of the coat closet.  (It's been very very hot.)  We've told them the Wii goes next and after that the T.V. gets used for batting practice.

Let's just hope for all of our sakes, it doesn't get any hotter.  *sigh.*  Or it's going to be a long, loooong summer!





Post Script Rant:  Most Japanese schools get a fraction of our "summer" time off of school.  Only around six weeks.  Makes a whole lot more sense than three stinkin' months--which is out-dated and just plain LAME if you ask me.  I'm all for "year-round" school.  More progress, less "re-learning".  Who's with me?


Post Post Script:  My knee caps are sweating.