Does That Hurt?

I can hear it happening upstairs *smack* "Does that hurt?" *smack* "Does THAT hurt?" What is up with that? (yes, I put a stop to it) Children can be so very weird. The other day during lunch, The Prawn (4) suddenly turned to Fishy (6) and started whaling (walin' - exactly what word is that, anyway??) on his back with her fists. She wasn't mad or anything, just felt like lightin' him up, I guess. He didn't bat an eye. Now I'm not sure whether this was because A) she is 4 and has muscles as effective as limp cappellini or B) she does this sort of thing all the time and he's used to it and I just haven't noticed. I hope it's A. Scary. We had a brief talk. Brief is all that works with a 4 yo or they'll space out and forget the last 5 pieces of info you taught them. Actually, I think that's true of any age.

I'm slowly chewing through my queue of books in progress. I finished Beowulf, which would have been a very fast read had I not treated it like a magazine and read it 5 mins at a time. Good story and it was particularly interesting to see the bits that influenced Tolkien. I've decided that Artemis Fowl the Opal Deception is next to go down since it's the next fastest read, and then the SW book on loan and the Thos Covenant book 2 on through the end (for the third time around) and into the new book. I'm going to have to hurry, cuz I have a hankering to read the H2G2 books again, as well as the Dune series. Zoiks. No shortage of reading in my future. Sad thing is, I write more than read these days, so I haven't been making very good progress through my list.

I've been listening to Green Day's "Wake me Up When September Ends" fairly incessantly because a) it's a great song and b) it's one of the few songs I can play from the album with the kids listening. I'm sure it's no accident that the song is #11 on the album, but I've been wondering about the lyrics. Does he mean that this is all one big September ever since the war started, and please just wake him when it's all over? 7 years has gone so fast, 20 years has gone so fast - predicting a longer more drawn-out thing than anyone imagined? I saw the vid online and it's a guy signing up with the army - girlfriend gets mad. Are the time references about waiting for him to get out of Basic Training, and then maybe he ends up signing for 7 yrs, then 20 (for retirement?) I guess somewhere there's prolly an explanation of these things. So that's prolly what I'll be looking for next.

Last night at TKD we had quite the workout. I think my heart was sore afterwards! We did some really good sparring drills and sweated a lot. Today I jump-roped a bit longer than usual and practiced my pushing spinning back-kick and now my calf muscles are not happy. I taught class this morning and reffed for sparring this evening. It's fun reffing and very satisfying when the kids are able to take coaching and apply it.

Sounds like the kids are doing MadLibs. "I need 6 adjectives." "Prickly, cold, hot, spicy, pink, green." "6 nouns." "Mold, poster, hair, lightbulb, trophy, toaster." Okaaaay. Should be a fun one! :o)

I can never do short posts.

Back, I am, and with song meaning information. (says the wise Yoda)
Thank you Wikipedia.

"The song was co-written by the members of Green Day (with Billie Joe Armstrong writing the lyrics), and was co-produced by Green Day and Rob Cavallo. There once was much debate about what this song was about. However, Billie Joe has confirmed to the mass public that the song was written as a memorial anthem about his father, a jazz musician and minor league baseball catcher, who died when Billie Joe was only ten years old.
In this melancholy ballad, Billie Joe, backed by the support of the other members of Green Day, takes a trip back to his painful childhood and thinks about the day he lost his innocence when his father died. Like any traumatic event, Billie Joe never truly recovered, and he can't believe that twenty years have passed since the day. As Armstrong associates pain with the month September, the death month of his father, he would rather not deal with anything related to the month prompting him to sing, "As my memory rests, but never forgets what I lost... Wake me up when September ends...""

They touch on the "ambiguous meaning" and the military theme of the vid as well. OK, so maybe SEAL was right - use as needed. *shrugs*

Speakinawhich, Tony Levin has a very amusing website.

In Which I Have a Lucy Moment

**sigh**




Bono had it all wrong. It should be "Monday, bloody Monday!"

Can't tell you how many times I've opened the door without anything bad happening. Usually the bubbles stay put. Sadly, this was not the case today. I had already cleaned the floor, but it's cleaner now! Why did I open it? Well, I had to throw something else in mid-cycle, didn't I? Because I'm not organised in the least and I'm always coming across something I should have put in at the start.

What I should be doing:

Resubscribing to Flylady, LOL!

What I'm really doing:

Blogging and working on a story

What I already did:

Moved patches on my TKD uniform so they'll show again instead of wrapping 'round the sides (I've shrunk! yay!) Sewed patches on friend's son's TKD uniform (ah - maximizing my time!) Replaced zipper in Sluggie's Ottobre skirt I made her. It worked! Colour me shocked! Mondayed the house.

What I will be doing later:

Teaching Little Kid Class at 5, doing my class at 7 and sparring at 8. Woo hoo!

Playing with Adobe Photoshop, hopefully, for a contest thinggy.

What's Playing Today:
Great Big Sea - Rant and Rave
Green Day - American Idiot - Wake Me When September Ends (on loop)

Sundays - ahhhhh! :o) Creativity waned for a week, but I think I'm getting back into the swing of it. Already have next Sunday's figured out. :o) Not that Sunday's the only day; it's just *special.* Where to get more creative ideas? The research is so taxing, LOL! ;o) Should prolly conduct field tests during the week. . .

Lysee, Mao Djai

Photographic evidence. Fishy's work on top, Prawnie's below. Lysee packets for all!


King Emmett last night while we were in the tub.


Princess Verticalia. Yes, I Adobed the floor clean. :oP

Tomorrow we don't have to get up for anything. Yaaaaaayyy!!!

Gung Hay Fat Choi!

Lysee dow leui!!! Today for the first time in - um, ever - I have real lysee packets for the kids instead of having to fabricate them out of red construction paper.

Happy year of the dog all y'all! I will probably make Tangyuan but maybe not. . . So committed aren't I? To tell the truth, I don't remember doing anything special in Hong Kong other than lysee packets. Maybe firecrackers - yeah, probably firecrackers. Oh and the Dragon Dance/Lion Dance. I remember the Lantern Festival more, though. Looks like the Tangyuan should really wait until the 15th day anyway, so maybe just cookies tonight, LOL!

Went to Target hoping to get a swimsuit among other things (mine's getting too stretched out/floopy- the hazard of swimming once a week!) and all they had were atrocious I-can't-believe-anyone-would-pay-for-this-crap suits. O.M.G. I have never - with the exception of photographs from the 60s and 70s - seen anything so horrendous. They went the whole 9 yards, too; rather than limiting it to one category of hideosity such as cut OR print OR colour, they chose to do their worst in all 3 categories. Holy stink! So I tried Warmart and the only ones they had were in the really big people section, but they, too, were hideous, so I doubt that their non-mumu suits would have been an improvement. Women's clothing is hard to figure out anyway. You have Misses - regular grown up clothes for girls with hips, boobs and bums; Juniors - for those with no bums, hips or boobs; and Women's - aka big clothes. But Warmart had no Misses. They had Ladies, though. But what did Ladies mean? Was it Misses or Women's? Sigh. So I asked a fitting room attendant and she had no clue. Thankfully another one came along who did have a clue. (for the curious, Ladies=Misses at Warmart) A few mins later I passed by only to hear them still discussing the subject rather loudly. I guess #2 was educating #1 or something. Anyway, there were no suits, hideous or otherwise, in my size. Maybe I'll try T.J. Maxx or Marshalls. Do they have swimsuits? I'm serious when I say that the "fashion gurus" this year must have decided to play a colossal prank on everyone and see just what kind of crap they could get us to buy. Sorry, folks, but it's not working on me. Not until I get desperate anyway.

My other problem with this whole swimsuit thing is that I don't know what size to buy. I don't know how much of my suit's largeness is due to my shrinkage (no, not like male shrinkage - I mean cuz I've shed some more lbs) and how much is due to stretchage from chlorine. Frankly, I don't fancy trying on swimsuits even with my underwear on. You know? I know, I need to get my priorities straightened out. Somewhere in the world someone is being attacked by a vulture and I'm worried about trying on a swimsuit at the store. I guess I'll shut it now.

With Apologies to Sarah McLachlan

and to the tune of Ice Cream:

My cat has more toes than your cat
More toes than any cat I've ever known
Yes my Tril is so polydactyl
Sixteen toes and six more to loan
And it’s a lot to count
It’s a lot to count
It’s a lot to count all those toes
On her kitty paws
My cat has more toes than your cat
More toes than any cat I've ever seen
My Tril is so polydactyl
Check them out, you'll see what I mean
It’s a lot to count
It's a lot to count
It’s a lot to count all those toes
On her kitty paws. . .


Princess ManyToes approves:

Pictures, Rambling, Stuff

Chuckie, caught in the act of raiding the bird feeder, thinks the camera is some sort of nuclear missile launcher and flees:

Bye bye Chuckie!

Trillian is a bit strange. She likes to drape herself across the rungs of the barstools. Sometimes she uses rungs on the same stool, same level, sometimes 2 levels or 2 stools. For unknown reasons, The Prawn also stretches across 2 stools for a double decker effect:


How very relaxing. She is definitely harking back to her wildcat roots. :o) Such a sweet girl.

In the background, John is preparing something wonderful involving Chicken and Rice with Saffron, Peas and Paprika. Yummmmmmmmy!

Tonight we're watching Life of Brian. The littles won't get any of the adult stuff and we'll be able to refresh ourselves on whether or not the bigs can see it. Looks like the Littles are going to opt for Brain games on the 'puter, though.

Sparring was a good social hour for me, as well as a chance to watch all 4 kids continuing to improve.

Reading: The Ilearth Stone (Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Book 2) and Star Wars Revenge of the Sith (on loan to me from a TKD dad and VERY good) as well as the last 3rd of Beowulf. I need to focus on 1 at a time I guess. Also writing 4 diff things with 2 more in the cooker. Oy Vey!

Listening to: Won't Ask Why
and tearing up unabashedly. *sigh*
Also Green Day, American Idiot.

Wrong Song, and A NEW WORD is Invented!

Alrighty then! Tonight it's open mic at the Jumping at the Ground and Missing Blogsite. So hello and welcome to The Wrong Song Lyrics Singoff!! Mollusc is getting things off to a galloping start with her massacred version of Great Big Sea's "Something To It" from their Rant and Roar CD. The real lyrics: "I think I'll need some time alone to work my way through it." What Mollusc thought they were: "I think I'll need some Tylenol to work my way through it." Nyuck Nycuk! Great start!

I'll follow with an oldie that I didn't know the proper words for until just now when I Googled it:
Manfred Mann's "Blinded By the Light." I swear the man's singing "Wrapped up like a douche in the middle of the night." Apparently the real words are: "Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night." Um, OK. If you say so.

Now Seal, whose music I have been known to enjoy, doesn't do liner notes and says that he wants people to take from it what they make of it (or something like that); that he wants them to go with what they think it says -- a sort of "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" but done as "lyrics are in the ear of the auditor." Sorry, I understand the sentiment, but I find it annoying. Do I know any of his songs by heart? No.

I know there are a lot of other lyrics I've misunderstood along the way, but I can't think of any of them, so step up to the open mic, folks.

On a semi-related note, have you ever noticed that there is a POTO line for EVERYTHING? I still need to write my thank you letter to ALW. Can't tell you how many times I've bellowed out "Go now!! Go NOW and leave me!!" when I've told the kids to do something and they're dragging their feet, LOL! But really, there is a line for nearly every occasion. And if there isn't one, it's easy to twist the songs to your own evil ends. Muahahahaha!!

In the meantime, I'm inventing a new word because it's well past time for this particular word. I've been thinking about this for a few years now, and decided to get off my bum and invent the bloody thing already. We've had the words "blind and "deaf" for just about ever, but we have nothing akin to those for non-functioning noses. We NEED this word. The thing is that "blind" and "deaf" don't have the most helpful etymologies for creating this new word. In fact, they're downright lame. So I guess my new word can be lame and it won't matter in 20 years. Watch as a word is born. Liking patterns as I do, I notice that "blind" starts with "b" and "deaf" starts with "d," so it seems pretty apparent that our missing word starts with "c." The other logical choice would be "f." The first letter of "deaf" is the last letter of "blind" so the missing word could end with "b" or start with "f." (or both!) I see that as 2 votes for starting with "f." "Blind" and "deaf" are also both 1 syllable words, which precludes my inventing a word by adding an obvious prefix such as "a-." Humph. Both end with consonants. The vowel will be o, since words associated with smells and smelling start with "o." (olfactory, odour, odiferous. . .) I think I'm going to go with folt. It does sort of dredge up thoughts of the word "revolting," which is appropriate. Or we could say it stands for "faulty olfactory." So there it is. Folt.

Let's try it out: "You reek so bad I'm folt!" Or: "I was totally folted by the stench." Or, "You can't smell that??!! Are you totally folt??"

As a noun: folt (Help! I'm folt!)
As a verb: folt, folted (She tried to folt him with Limburger. He folted me with his socks)
As an adjective: folting (She was overcome by the folting odour)

There is is folks, I have written you an opera given you a new word. Please use it well and pass it around the universe. You, too, can have a hand in getting "folt" into the dictionary. Plus, it's like, totally useful!

And if Al Gore tries to claim credit for this brilliance later, you can tell him he's full of folting s--t!

PS is "smolt" better? **sigh**

National Anti-Blogging Day

Well crap! I went to read all my favourite blogs and not a ONE of them has anything new. Of course, neither did I. . . That's when I realised it was National Anti Blogging Day.

I taught Little Kids Class this morning, taught another Kid Class this evening, did my class and got to spar 3 times tonight. I managed to tap one of the guys on the head just right (round kick.) I don't like to kick too hard to the head, so I often pull the kick just before it hits, but I'd like to get better at tapping it lightly so in tournament it won't be an issue. I won't hit with a spinning hook, though, if I can help it. I don't think there's any good way to dial back the power in that kick, so I always shoot high, over the head. Now, after sitting on the couch for a bit (looking fruitlessly for new blog posts) I'm a bit frozen up. But it was fun. And it made up for Monday when I was teaching a white belt and did basically no kicking myself until sparring.

On the way home, John rented what is quite possibly the suckiest movie on the planet. He didn't make it through very much. Poorly acted, stupid "plot" and just all around lame! It's called "Dirty Love." Now you can avoid it. He wanted something light and silly after that spate of more serious films. Well, this didn't do the trick, LOL! Basically, the plot is: "leathery, bleach-blonde, over-makeup-ed CA ho gets dumped and tries to - something." He didn't get very far, like I said.

Swimming tomorrow. Some friends (our source of bulbs if you read that post) who will be off school are meeting us there and then we're prolly gonna go see their goats. It's supposed to be 46 degress tomorrow. OK!

I hear Navan is doing a belated Burns Night gig tomorrow. Nice! I'd share my slaughtered Burns poem, but it's centered on Beowulf and prolly won't make sense to many people, so I think I'll pass. What time is the Kilt-flipping event? OK, from the sounds of things, I'm gonna stay away from that event. Y'all need to seek out a less geriatric clientele! ;o) I hear there's gonna be a movie that might change your following if you get on the soundtrack. . . (harp, harp, harp - hate me yet? :o) )

Someone told me I should try some Newfie Screech Rum (we had been discussing Great Big Sea) Now John, and maybe Linc cuz he was there, will tell you that rum is very dangerous for me (can you say Rose Bowls at State St. Brats? Looks like the recipe is still a secret. **sigh** ) and should only be used in the privacy of my own home. So I'd love to try it, but will have to lock the doors and windows first. Kind of a Lupin thing, without the fur and fangs. OK, maybe that's not the best analogy. Maybe more like, um, Sadie Frost in Dracula. Maybe I flatter myself. I'm not saying I'm a Sadie Frost, but if you think about her behaviour in the film, maybe you'll understand. Nearly anyone looks charming and attractive to me after a Rose Bowl, and I also get rather, em, desperate. TMI? Sorry.

Well, I've blogged long enough that it's tomorrow, so I, too, have not posted on Anti-Blogging day. Now that's willpower! OK, it was a fluke. Wanna make something of it? Got rum? Say whatever you like if you're bringing rum . . . Off to soak in the tub. Bring me a Rose Bowl and I'll make room for you! :o)

Star Wars III: The Backstroke of the West

Because we all know that the West is as evil as the Sith, LOL! This is a link to a blog where a guy with a pirated Chinese copy of SWIII shows very funny screen captures of horrible, horrible subtitle translations. Basically, the English was translated into Chinese and then back into a direct translation of the Chinese words for the "English" subtitles. Bwa ha ha ha! Enjoy! :) Beware - some profanity in the horrid translations, and some in the responses as well. :oP

In Which the Battleship Lesson Manifests Itself - aka BREAD!

Remember the Battleship picture from yesterday? Remember the post in which I totally sucked? Remember how we needed to get some groceries? That's OK if you don't. I wasn't paying attention either, and there's no pop quiz. Anyway. . .

I got a call from a friend this morning. A friend of hers works at Panera and brought the day old bread to their kids' basketball game last night. She ended up with more than she could use for her large and ravenous family (several teen/preteen boys and a preteen girl) so offered me the rest. Of course I accepted! When she said she had a couple of bags of bread, I was thinking in terms of a couple of bagged loaves. I was not expecting this:



WOW!!! I broke it up to freeze and left some out for today and we have something like 6 or 7 meals' worth, LOL!! I should have put something in there for size reference. Those are BIG bagels. It's Breadapalooza!

The next picture is of grape jelly, and it might not seem very impressive:

until you find out that it's on the ceiling. Nowhere near the table. I have no idea how it got there, and I don't think I want to know.

Finally, Yin Yang cats:

Well, almost, anyway.

HAPPY BURNS DAY!! Or is it only Burns Night?? Oh well, throw on a kilt (properly! *grin*) and send me a picture. :o)

Photo Essay Time Again

Ever feel like you're being watched? (Hey - I can rip off Bradley's Blue Day book, LOL! I slept in his bed for a week - or was it one of his sisters'? I dunno. We knew his family in Hong Kong and traded houses for a week - the church's idea of a "vacation" for our families, LOL! I remember that their toaster threw the toast on the floor every time it popped up, and my sister and I would laugh hysterically!)

aka The Invasion of the Giant Freaky Cats


You talkin' to me?


You bore me. Go away quickly.


I wonder what she'd do if I suddenly launched at her face??


The Secret Kitten


The Not-So-Secret Kitten


Scones! We just made them. They're warm and biscuity. (like American biscuits, not English ones) I don't think I've ever had a scone before, so I don't know if they came out right or not. For the second batch we ran out of oats with about 1/4 cup left to go, so I used "Crispy Rice" cereal. No problem! Probably cuz I don't know what a scone is supposed to be like. . . We used chocolate chips in batch #2. Oooooooh.


I dunno. I just found this amusing. It was lying on the office floor like this. Sometimes you think someone's calling all the shots against you, but then you realise that you're actually the luckiest person (or fleet of ships) on Earth. Ooooh. Deep.

Something From Nothing

Sometimes I'm amazed at what can be made from relatively little. Coming home from TKD this morning, I couldn't think of WHAT we'd do for lunch. There's always lemon-butter pasta as an emergency back-up, but that has very little nutrition. So I dug around in the pantry and found some refried beans, found cheese and a little leftover lettuce and some salsa we'd made in the fridge and some leftover tortilla chip shards in the roundabout (it's OK - they were still in a bag!), and voila! Haystacks! Yummy. I was truly surprised when it was all assembled and we had a good-looking meal a few mins later. Well, good-looking is in the eye of the beholder, I guess, cuz after Gogo had stirred up his third batch, Prawn looked over, made a face and said, "yours looks GROSS!" I guess it did look a bit like a train wreck by then. Especially with splashes of salsa here and there. But it was yummy and nutritious.

This morning there were some random snowflakes starting while I dug for breakfast (no bread! Plus, the toaster finally died yesterday and no amount of slapping was bringing it back. No milk, no fresh or canned fruit, only 3 eggs, no sausages, blah blah blah. I think we need some groceries) and about half an hour later, the ground was white! It snowed more while we were at TKD and then it nearly all melted again. Now we're having more random snowflakes.

Prawn is jumping on Gogo's belly again and they're both laughing like crazy. Kids are amused by the strangest things. Better that than silence, though. When they're quiet, you KNOW they're up to something dastardly. Usually involving scissors. Or glue. Lots and lots of glue.

What do you think?

For the past year or so, I've been donating clothes to Planet Aid - YK those big yellow boxes in parking lots? And now I read this. We don't have a Goodwill around here. The nearest salvation Army is in Brighton and they have crappy hours. Frankly, I'm not sure I care what they do with the clothes, since by the time my 4 are done with them, they are servicable enough for folks with no clothes, but certainly no great shakes. Still, I'd rather someone who would otherwise have nothing could have them. It seems a lot better than throwing them away.

I'm not sure what to think. But I guess I'll keep donating to PA until I find a better alternative.

In Which I Totally Suck

Massive depression. Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap! I can't believe how much I suck. For the second time in 2.5 years, I've sent the stinking house payment to the wrong bloody place. The curse of online banking (for me) is that I mix up my lines sometimes when I'm paying bills. I could try to blame it on my astigmatism, or my blondeness, but really it just boils down to the sheer stupidity of not checking, double checking, triple checking, practicing some sort of useful form of OCD. . . Aaaaaargh! So the first time I sent the payment (to the right place) this month, it vanished. No payment made, money still in the account. Now I'm past the due date, so I try again. Success! It even shows as "pending" (and I still don't notice my error.) I get a few shutoff calls from a couple of different utilities (gas, electric) and a nastygram from DirecTV (but we're not renewing that one, so I don't care) and tell them I'll pay them within 7 days (after payday) and then, when John checks the account today, the payment still hasn't gone, but is in process for the WRONG farging place. It can't be stopped, even though it's not paying out until tomorrow. I guess on the bright side, the Gas (or Electric - whichever one it is, I can't keep 'em straight - they both have stupid Communist-sounding names) company is prolly going to be thrilled and love me forever. No that's not true. They benefitted from my last SNAFU, but they obviously had already forgotten their love for me when this latest payment was late. Sigh. So now, there's still a house pmt to make, plus all the late bills (except one of the Commie utilities) and not enough dough. (expletive!)

So now what? Credit card is shut off. (yeah, I suck) I guess I pay the mortgage from the second mortgage and then pay it back when I get the money back from the gas/electric place. (insert creative string of random curses here)

On a brighter note, my 6 year-old son (who does not suck) did some creative math today. It's fun to see how his brain works. He was looking at a Tae Kwon Do picture book we have and saw a white belt dino walking with a blue belt dino and said "he's a senior yellow belt ahead of him - no, a green belt!) OK, that was pretty cool. Here's the progression at our dojang: white, yellow, sr. yellow, green, blue, brown, sr. brown, red, sr. red, bo dan, black. So do you see his logic there? Pretty nifty, huh?

**Monty Python song starts now** "Always look on the Bright Side of Life, dun dun, dun dun dun dun dun dun. Always look on the Bright Side of Life, dun dun, dun dun dun dun dun dun. . ." (ad nauseum)

The Shadow of Things to Come

I'm sitting here in bed with beautiful music pouring out of my laptop -- a new song by Bob (see sidebar) and my sister that she emailed me, and it's so amazing I can't describe it. And this is just the rough cut. Someday you'll get to hear it too. When a song called "Won't Ask Why" is everywhere you turn, remember that you read about it here first. Sheila, you inspire me. I'll have to race you to stardom, or at least notoriety. I'm thinking there isn't a lot of stardom in the authoring world. Thank goodness for that. I want to always be able to go into the Secret Store without making the papers. :oP When your face is too famous for that, just hand me your list. *grin*

Raising Helen was sweet, poignant and entertaining. Not one to watch over and over and over again, but definitely good.

Well, my fresh-cooked story wants out, so I'm off to spill it onto paper - or into a file if you want to get technical.

I was looking at this today and Mollusc said, "Oh, a Pendragon." LOL!

We watched The Sword in the Stone tonight and it was just delightful hearing the kids giggling and cackling away over it. How refreshing to have a movie with no gratuitously slaughtered animals.

I wanted to get High Fidelity tonight but the vid store had SOLD their copy, so we're watching Raising Helen. I guess if I can't get John Cusack, it has to be Joan. ;o) I've just recognised Big Tall Dumb Guy from Baby's Day Out. I guess I should stop typing and enjoy the flick. :oP

FOE, Aliens, and Fiery Hot Nachos

I have a love-hate relationship with FOE. Still not sure whether it's truly friend or foe. Maybe I've mentioned that. (FOE is Fold-Over-Elastic, such as that used in the panty post.) The thing about FOE is that you have to stretch it while you sew. If you don't stretch enough, it'll go all floopy (and for some reason, this won't really be apparent until you finish) and if you stretch it too much, it will be puckery. When I get it right, it's great. And when I don't, well, it's not pretty. Sheila I'll try to get your panties whipped up while my fingers still remember how much to stretch. :oP Then I'll show them to everyone on the net. "Lookit - my sister's underwear!!" Ha! Of course, I've already shown mine, so I guess it's not that great of a taunt.

Last night we watched War of the Worlds. I thought Spielberg did a great job with it. Not too much gore and splash, good story, really creepy aliens - not bad! I'm curious who wrote the script since the original was more like news reporting of the aliens and carnage. I don't recall any dad and kids storyline. (it's been a long time since I read it, though) They did a good job of assimilating the characters into the story, IMO.

I am the girl with no patience. (That's the major contributing factor to my also being the Girl Who Doesn't Read Instructions or Fine Print.) I always, ALWAYS burn my mouth on hot food cuz I can't stand to wait. Hot tea, hot soup, today it was hot nachos. Ow. Not sure whether it was the molten cheese or bubbling salsa - maybe both. Note to self: either get some patience or set the nuker for less time. Of course part of that was brought on by my not having the patience to push all the buttons to give me the exact # of seconds needed for nachos and instead hitting 1 (auto 1 minute cook) a second time with the intention of pulling the stuff out earlier. **rolleyes**

A new story is cooking in my brain, plus another one I keep forgetting to write down, and of course there's the novel. (actually there are 2 but one had to take the back burner) It seems that more often than not, my short stories go longer than I want and my long stories fall short. Maybe I should invent a new in-betweener length. Probably I should just develop some discipline.

A little while ago, Trillian came out meowing ominously and proceeded to yack up a wasabi pea. Eeew. I bet she won't eat one of THOSE again. She's playing happily now. :oP

Past the Point of Productivity

I'm past the point of productivity
As I'll be the very first to admit
I have this rather odd proclivity
For doing some rather pointless s--t
I sit and I surf and compose random posts
I read other blogs and invent ribald toasts
Yes I sit and I try almost any activity
Except for the one that my blogger name boasts.

Sorry. That just fell out. Your turn.

Brokeback Mountain

Well, that right there is going to draw Googlers, but I had nothing better to call it unless I felt like playing the game I was playing on Marcus's blog. *evil grin*

In an outstanding feat of further procrastination, I clicked some yahoo film links, none of which are worthy of mention except for Brokeback Mountain. This is one I was curious about because even in my news void, I've heard of it. Reading the reviews sparked several thoughts and observations:

1) People either loved it or hated it. Very, very little middle ground here.

2) Most of the reviews by men were prefaced by "I'm straight," or variations thereof. *giggle*

3) I don't plan to see this film. Why? Because it looks like a real downer, and if you've read ANY of my movie likes and dislikes (aka rantings,) you'll know I hate downers. Never saw Titanic (we ALL know the boat's going down, so what's the point?) and have no desire to see it. Ask my sis about the email I sent her after watching Beyond Borders last night. On second thought, it might be better if you didn't.

4) What if it makes me want to be a gay man? ;o)

5) What about the gay issue? Surely you can humour us and say you don't want to see it because you're a repressed, van-driving, married, ex-military, religious, rom-com-loving, American, white, sci-fi-geek, cheese-loving, procrastinating, marshmallow-eating, raccoon-humouring, non-communist, child-birthing, homeschooling, book-reading, ex-sword-wielding, snake-licking (how'd that get there?), non-corporate-job-holding, straight female with no known disabilities. Hmmm. While I really don't like to watch men kiss each other on screen or in real life, I also don't like to watch heteros going at it in real life. Heteros on film are fine (well, with definite exceptions, LOL!) If that makes me a hypocrite, then tough rocks. I don't pretend to understand it. Strangely enough, most people who haven't discussed it with me will be shocked to hear that I have no problem with gay marriage. Go figure. But the kissing is not what's keeping me away from the film. I can peek through my fingers and squirm uncomfortably during those scenes if necessary; it's the thoroughly depressing content matter that's keeping me away. And the whole Western thing - just not my bag, Man. That was confirmed by Legends of the Fall (aka The Film Where Everyone Dies.)

On a related note (or not) I understand a little more how ancient civilizations can come to be buried so far below the surface. Yesterday when I was planting tulips around the oak tree, I unearthed a bunch of clay pigeon shards and a couple of spent shotgun shells. The shards are still bright orange and can't be terribly old, but they were several inches under the surface.


A funny word just occurred to me: Hetero Sapiens. So I Googled it and I am the next-to last person on the planet to have thought of that. I think they're sending me a plaque or something. The Penultimate Plaque, as it were. I think I have earned a Procrastinator's Plaque today as well.

Heroic Procrastination

Since the post below, I have spent at least an hour and a half reading Kill The Goat (no goats harmed AFAIK) and other blogs, as well as hacking into my template and monkeying with it. KTG is a scream. I will be spending a lot more time there when I should be writing.

Somebody call me. I'm in danger of opening my outline.

Oh yeah. Trillian's antibiotic is sweet. No, I didn't try it on purpose.

Practice Makes Perfect. . .

. . .and I get continually better at procrastination, as evidenced by my multiple postings today.

After firing up Word, I managed to go nuke a slice of pizza. Then of course I needed to go to the garage for a Pepsi (even though I rarely drink soda/pop/fizzy/whatever you want to call it, pizza does scream for it) and although I watched carefully to make sure Emmett was behind the door and not going out it, when I reached down for the Pepsi, there he was beside me. I swear he walks through walls sometimes. Then I needed another slice of pizza and Trilly needed some, so I had to share. Then I decided to face the fact that I was cold and lower the blind over that window that doesn't seem to have glass and go get a heavy sweatshirt. It was finally time to write - I had surfed, blogged, and run out of excuses. So I came to blog some more. At least I haven't resorted to cleaning the fridge yet.

Yesterday Fishy and Prawn had a multitude of Star Wars guys out and there was a giant police-lineup-looking row of clone troopers/storm troopers standing against the couch. I'm not sure what Fishy was doing with them, but Prawn had what appeared to be a collection of Anakins (there are so many different ones, YK, Lightsaber-Action Anakin, Head-Turtles-Into-Body-So-You-Can-Put-On-His-Cape-With-Attached-Mask Anakin, Burnt-and-Missing-Parts Anakin with Rebuild Parts, etc. etc.) and was singing (in a deep voice) "Down once more to the dungeons of my bwack despaiw, down we PWUNGE to the pwison of my mind!" while one of the Anakins marched about looking particularly disturbed. Maybe it was more Phantom Menace of the Opera. I really need to eavesdrop on their play more. Maybe I'll get some writing ideas.

Characters on whom I had not planned are wandering into my story. I tried telling the last one to sod off, but I don't think she's listening. The one before her was serendipitous - provides more dialogue - but I'm not sure I can allow the newcomer to stay. If she refuses to make a graceful exit, I may have to get a little forceful with her. What do you think - falling piano? Rabid ferret? Maybe I can do an Adamsonian "but this is not her story" thing with her. Then again, I have to give her a little more time, because she does actually have some potential. And the man who wandered in may turn out to be someone I met in passing earlier in the story. In fact I'm almost certain of it. Strange how these things happen. I guess it's time to rework the outline a little. That's a kind of procrastination, too, so I guess it's OK.

Days of Slush and Snow

Last night it rained for several hours, then, from the sounds of things, it rained ice for a while, and then it snowed. Bad combo, usually, and I was dreading taking Trillian in to the vet (infected toe) but when I got onto 8 Mile it was surprisingly great - just wet, not slippery. Which is really good, cuz I almost piled it into a sign at that corner after the last snow. It gets really slick there sometimes.

There was a crazy guy plowing the vet's parking lot (zoom! zoom!) but he kindly let me cross without gunning his truck into me. Trillian, meanwhile, hid under the towel in her carrier. In fact, she wouldn't come out, so I had to disassemble her cage, which takes no time, and then reassemble it, which takes about 4.5 hours - OK, not quite that bad, but you'd be surprised at how many hands you really need to do this easily. I swear it's easier to fix F-16s -- unless it's an engine change. They didn't charge me for her visit, only her meds, and the Dr. took out her tummy stitches so she wouldn't have to wait for them to fall out. All is well other than the infected toe. She has to take an antibiotic every 12 hours for 14 days. It's banana flavoured (no I didn't taste it, I'm going by smell) and she loathes it. So I've got that going for me. Good thing for me that she's down to 12 claws instead of 24.

Last night we watched (well I watched, John did a pretty major eyelid inspection) Beyond Borders. (Clive Owen, Angelina Jolie) It started out pretty much just disturbing, then got interesting with plenty more disturbing stuff right in there, but I don't like bad endings. I just don't. I spent the night dreaming alternate endings, all of which would have been preferable. Actually, I don't really remember, but I did dream something about the movie. OK, mostly just Clive Owens's eyes. There might not have been any story at all, come to think of it. But it was still better than the end of the movie. I was glad to find out that the baby was a healthy boy who'd been CGId, but of course there are real babies in that kind of shape and possibly worse, so it's not as much of a comfort as you'd hope. And I suppose that's the main point of this movie. Then again, maybe not, for the main point seems to be the love story - at least that's what it comes down to in the end. It does make you feel like finding some way to help, though.

Gardening Week?

The thing about living in a tiny town is that you see people you actually know. That's weird, but pretty cool. So the other day, I saw 3 different people I knew, 1 of whom is a Master Gardener and who endowed 548 bulbs and corms on me for free with the stipulation that I would actually plant them. :o) She had picked them up at Walmart for 2 cents per bag. :-O So 18 cents would have covered the $90.00 worth of bulbs she gave me. Wow! I planted them all today, which seems a bit odd since it's mid January, but I'm not complaining.

Tonight it's supposed to snow 4-7". You never know with the weather guessers, though. Friends are coming for dinner but they may want to bug-out early if the snow starts.

No red-belt class tonight since it's "Family Fun Night" at the dojang. Maybe that's just as well since my buttocks are seizing up. We worked hard in both class and sparring and had some very interesting drills. My knee was doing a lot better until we went swimming this morning. I thought swimming was supposed to be easy on your joints. Humph.

Igby Goes Down was entertaining, but definitely *dark* comedy. I think Susan Sarandon's last couple of lines (and the way she delivers them) are a riot.

I'm still laughing about Dance-Dance-Immolation. It's SO appropriate for Burning Man, LOL!

Dance-Dance-Immolation

I will probably be laughing about this all day.

**CHORTLE** My eyes are leaking.

A Good Reason to Come Visit Me

Well, maybe. Valentine's Day weekend the Dirty Show is on in Detroit. No clicking if you're under 18, please. (SlartiMollusc, this means YOU!) How do you dress for something like that? Or DO you?

Ack - got 1,000 more words to crank out. Later, Dude.

Life in a Snowglobe

Ever seen one of those snowglobes with a little house inside? Well we're living inside that house today. It's gorgeous out there:


We started on a Scotland lapbook yesterday. Mollusc printed out a Scottish flag for the Prawn to colour, and then we minted a bunch of Scottish money:

I found a great resource for kids: Electric Scotland
but steel yourself, cuz I found it a bit startling when the electric bagpipe music started.

We're hoping to find people to host a Flat (mascot - haven't decided on him yet) - like Flat Stanley - in Scotland, England and Ireland, since we'll be studying those countries. Anyone reading this want to apply? We'll gladly host a Flat Someone in exchange. :)


It's my week to send a card (we're doing a card train - someone sends a card every week) to an online friend who lost her husband to cancer, but I suck at cards. So instead I made her a Psalm 23 bracelet:

and I tucked in 2 Navan CDs. I know it's ironic to be a writer who sucks at cards, but there you are. I did write a letter, just so you don't think I'm completely gauche. It's still very hard, emotionally, for me to face this and I can't even imagine how she and the kids are feeling. I pray for them a lot.

More later. . .

Have You Ever Wondered. . .

. . .why you get ANGRY when you stub your toe? (or is that just me?)

. . .what flavour Blue Moon ice cream really is?

. . .what babies or blind people dream about?

. . .if everyone really sees the same colours or if we all have the same names for the unique colours we actually perceive? (e.g. every time we look at something green, if I could see it through your eyes, I'd call it brown, but you've learned to call it green, and if you could see it though my eyes it's what you would call red - wait is that right? Oooh - that's confusing)

. . .if there's stuff in the world that's always there that we just can't see, that would maybe freak us out if we could see it? (kinda like neutrinos)

. . .whether those "breathing underwater" dreams are really a recollection of how it was to breathe in utero? OK, I'm pretty sure mine are. Am I the only one who has breathing underwater dreams?

. . .why the Earth keeps spinning without slowing down? Oh - never mind, I guess it IS slowing down. Interesting.

. . .why you yawn when you see someone else yawn? When I was a kid and consumed with the Hardy Boys books, certain that I would, indeed, be tailed at some point, I decided that yawning was a good way to tell if you were being watched. If the suspect yawned back. . . :o)

. . .if you really ARE being watched?

. . .who invented the semi-colon; the most highly avoided punctuation in the English language? (I'm just guessing about that, actually.)

What do you wonder about?

* * * * *

It's snowing. I guess January got embarrased and decided to assert itself.

Sheila, how was your gig?

I prolly had more to say, but if I did, I've forgotten. . .

More Appliance Woes

We have a couple things that are starting to fritz. The telly has been going for years. It just goes black for no reason. (well, yeah, there's prolly a reason - cracked circuit board, loose connection, whatever) You have to hit it on the right side, and it'll come back to life. Toaster - same. Element quits working, give it a bang on the side. One of our monitors was like that over the summer - needed a sharp smack on the right side. We did replace that. Hmmm - seems there was one more. Maybe not.

I got a sharp smack on the right shin at some point during sparring. I don't remember it happening, but I remember what must have been shortly after it happened. I was waiting after a Kalyo for a start again and thinking "holy crap my shin hurts" and wondering if I could kick with that leg, LOL! Ow!!!! It's a lumpy bruise with nice little lines from the fabric of the sparring pad, LOL! I felt pretty decent during sparring considering, but didn't have my normal speed. So it goes.

I found a bag of cheetos from our WI trip. They're a LOT skinner than MI Cheetos. Weird. Deep thoughts for you this evening. Off I go. . .

I Think I'm Winning.

Last night when I went to bed I started feeling worse, but I got up again, popped some Oscillococcinum just in case it was flu, and kept on with the Zicam and water. I ended up watching The Patriot and enjoying it (!!) and finally went to sleep at 5 am. Today I feel lots better. I should make it through class and sparring unless things get worse again.

I really thought The Patriot was going to be a serious downer, but since only 2/8 of the family snuffed it and I was expecting more casualties, that made it easier. Plus it ended on an upbeat note. Prolly didn't hurt watching House of Sand and Fog before as a contrast, LOL! Yep, The Patriot was definitely a good flick. The identity of Evil Dragoon Dude was giving me fits until I finally realised he was Lucius Malfoy.

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day. :o) It was handy when we went to the bead store today so I could get supplies for a bracelet. (pic later) Everyone assumed the kids had a day off and I didn't have to go into the whole hsing thing. I don't usually mind, but sometimes I just want to do my thing and get the heck out without a big discussion, YK?

Sheila, I hope the Burns stuff is coming along well. Z will look smashing in a kilt at the Premiere. :o) If you're feeling unmotivated, that alone oughta do it. ;o) I'll think of your other band playing your gig tonight while I'm in class and sparring. :o) Doing any of the new stuff? I know - too early I'm thinking. Now all I can think about is Z in a kilt, hahahahaha! :o) Don't get distracted now, just motivated!

Great Blue Sea has been great for something upbeat while fighting this stupid cold. It's so raucous and fun to yell along with! But Bob and POTO are still getting a workout, too. Even now Prawn is up in the loft singing "I am your angel of music. Come to me angel of music." Funny timing, that.

Sniff Sniff

I'm keeping the cold just at bay. I think I'm drowning from drinking all this water. Zicam is good. If I can keep it from getting any worse than this, then whoopee. I was out of fresh ginger for tea, so I ate candied ginger. Dunno if that counts, but sure was yummy and nice on the throat. So far I'm not feeling anything that will impede class or sparring tomorrow. Ha - my life revolves around "will this interfere with my ability to do Tae Kwon Do?" Actually, I'm only half kidding. I seriously took it easy on the sled jumps this year so I wouldn't break myself specifically with class in mind.

Movie Review: House of Sand and Fog
Depressing, disturbing (not in a fun way) and just a general downer. Maybe the book is different. Yes, racism sucks. I think we all knew that. Yes, depressed people who have probs with drugs and alcohol are scary. I think we knew that. Yes, there are some bad cops out there. I think we knew that. Yes, sometimes people on both sides of something can be "right." But what they do about it is a different matter. Yes, sometimes helping people gets you hurt. I think we knew that, but that is certainly not the message I'd want to send to anyone thinking about showing someone a little compassion. So what was the point of this film? I'm not sure. Catharsis for a really depressed writer, perhaps. Ben Kingsley was brilliant, as was Shohreh Aghdashloo, the woman who played his wife. Jennifer Connelly was very convinceng as a messed-up person doing crazy things, and Ron Eldard was very believeable as an originally well-intentioned guy doing wrong things. Well edited, well directed, well acted, but I didn't like the story. The end.

I'm going to be getting a review copy of Louis Sachar's sequel to Holes. I'm excited! I finally got one! Usually after I get the emails and respond that I want one, it's already taken. Woo hoo! My first review. :)

I made Buckeyes again today and they are goooooood! Actually, we made the balls yesterday and dipped them today. Mmmmmm!

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday! Yep, the idea worked and that was good, too. :)

Proud Mama

OMG, my 10 yo can write. And she's FUNNY! Maybe I'm biased. The "Funny Blog!!" link in my sidebar is hers. I got the whole "wishlist" joke in her profile, but I had to explain it to John. I don't think he was focusing. Or else she and I are just zany to the same degree. I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. If she can do this at 10, I'm looking forward to reading her books when she's 15 or 20. She has a big jump on me, LOL! "Her" website is very amusing. You have to read her profile for the story on that. Oh yeah - AND she got into her HTML template and linked to my blog completely on her own. (informed me after she'd done it) I'm so proud!! :o)

Sheila, make sure to check out her entry for today. :o)

PS is my blog better with this size font or the bigger one? After Trundling Grunt mentioned how long my posts are, I thought, "wow - that might scare some folks away." And then I realised that the large font was making them look even longer. I dunno. . . What do you think?

Multitasking Woman

That's my new superhero name. What's yours?

OK, well actually, I'm sitting here with Phantom (laptop) blogging with my novel open in Word; fighting off a cold with tons of water, echinacea, Hyland's cold tablets, Zicam and vitamin C; helping John build a Linux monster by clicking "Yes" everytime the security window pops up, emailing my sister, conversing with John, listening to/singing along with Great Big Sea, handling children as they come up with Qs and requests and, em, breathing! OK, that's actually pretty typical. The only confusing part is when I try to use the mouse on the Linux box for the laptop (which I have done twice in 2 minutes now.)

Last night I watched Keeping the Faith for the second time ever. In spite of the fact that Edward Norton (who played one of the main characters) both produced and directed the film, I loved it. So you see, I'm not a snob about these things, but I think good movies that are produced or directed by one of the stars tend to be the exception to the rule. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, see yesterday's post. Yes, it's a romantic comedy. So sue me; I'm a girl and I like those.

If you have ever used Zicam zinc oral spray you have my sympathies. I bit the bullet and used some last night and it was so nasty that I decided I'd rather get sick than use a second dose. Blecchhhhhh!! **shivers with revulsion** John was lovely and offered to get me some of the Zicam you stick up your nose last night. It's helping already.

Oh, yeah - John made the most awesome Chicken Picatta last night. Best I've ever had! (OK, first I've ever had, but DELICIOUS!) And now he's making cinammon rolls. Don't you just adore a man who can cook? I do!


It's 25 degrees (F) outside which, for the middle of January is freakin' AWESOME!! Better yet, it's supposed to get back into the 40s by midweek. Yessssss!

I'm feeling sassy which is really helpful because this is a day when football would have been on if we still had satellite, so that means creativity will be needed. I already have some ideas. . .

Deserting Sahara

I don't know where to start, so I'll start with this: Suck City.

I hate to trash movies because I realise what an enormous amount of work goes into them. I am sure that the cast and crew put forth heroic effort on this, but, sadly, I'm a reader of Clive Cussler's books and this film was yet another in what appears destined to be a serial killing of Mr. Cussler's fine books.

My first red flag was when the initial credits rolled and I saw that the producer was also the lead actor. It's my experience that this often - not always, but often - spells trouble. (think Costner) But I tried to swallow my fears and skepticism and look at the film objectively. Right away there was big trouble. Dirk Pitt is way too experienced to be in his mid 30s and this was not a flashback to his younger days, so WTH? Sorry, Mr. McConaughey, you have a handsome face and lovely abs, but Dirk Pitt? Have you ever read Cussler? Or even Pitt's Wikipedia entry? A little research would go a long way here. Dark hair and a commanding presence were both conspicuously absent in the film's Pitt. Instead, he's portrayed as - I dunno - that funny guy in school who's always in trouble. He has a witty answer for everything, but he's not of stellar intelligence. Do you know who I mean?

And Al Giordino is not a dumba$$ redneck. What's up with that? Still, John and I tried to swallow our disgust, but I found myself turning to the laptop and starting to surf. We tried fast forwarding, hoping things would improve, but alas. So before we had flushed any more precious minutes down the toilet we simply shut it off. There were more problems, but I've wasted enough of my life on this film as it is. Maybe those who have never read any Cussler loved this film. I don't know how it was received, and I generally avoid basing my film choices on such things, anyway, but I was definitely disappointed.

Red Belt Class #1

Well, that was fun! Hard work, but great. We ran through the kicks as usual, working on refining technique, also worked on refining stances and hand techniques, pulling step double round-kick, and knife defense #1. Sweaty work and lots of fun.

The sleepover went smoothly last night and we all had fun swimming. The Pool Man had kept a pair of goggles for us that got left last time. Yay! Gogo swam the width of the pool, which is a big deal for him. He's the only one that's nervous about water. The Prawn is completely at home in it. She can tread water, jump for air, swim, whatever. And of course the 2 bigs are fine. Gogo is really making strides - finally gaining some confidence and getting less nervous. Ironically, he's great at floating on his back, which kids are usually most nervous about.

I'm getting hits like crazy from folks Googling the song from the stolen car in Supertroopers (if I put the name here, they'll end up here, and I already linked it in the original post) I'm wondering if Supertroopers is running on HBO or Showtime or something. I also get a ton of Google hits for POTO stuff, but mostly for the whole hand at eye thing. So I put an explanation on that page for weary Googlers as well. I love sitemeter. It's fascinating seeing where folks come from to ogle this blog. :o)

Hi everyone **waves** Thanks for stopping by! Feel free to share an Amazing Insight or 2. :o)

Way-hey-hey It's Just an Ordinary Day. . .

. . .and it's all your state of mind. . .

Click this and listen to Ordinary Day and sing along with me!! :o)

I got tagged! :o) **jumps up and down, waving enthusiastically to Sighsofmylife**

And the game of fours looks like so much fun that I'm gonna play, too.

Four jobs you have had in your life:

1) circuit board modifier at a small computer manufacturer
2) hired hand at a rat farm
3) day care teacher
4) book labeler in the Marking Room at UW-Madison campus main library (my most fun job by far)

Four movies you would watch over and over:
Would? How about HAVE!

1)The Phantom of the Opera
2)Star Wars (all)
3)The Thomas Crown Affair
4)Captain Ron

There are more, but I only get 4. Wah!

Four places you have lived:

1) Northern California
2) Kowloon, Hong Kong
3) South Central Wisconsin
4) SE Michigan

Four TV shows you watch:

I don't actually watch any TV shows. Remember my deal of the lifetime? (getting dh to drop Satellite) I haven't bothered to check, but I don't think we get ANY channels now,LOL! We don't watch any shows. Dh had it purely for football and racing. That said, I have some DVDs of shows that dh and I watch in the tub sometimes:

1) Coupling
2) Red Dwarf
3) Scrubs
4) ummmmmmm oh! Chef!

Four places you have been on vacation

We mostly visit people, rarely go somewhere "just cuz."
1) North Carolina (Friends, Kitty Hawk, Outer Banks, etc.)
2) Ohio (Air Museum)
3) Wisconsin (family)
4) canoeing in the Boundary Waters

Four websites you visit daily:

1) Ford Prefect
2) The Art of Making a Life
and lately:
3) Beowulf and Grendel
4) the Knuckleheadlot Subforum at GB.net, LOL! Went to post my parody and got sucked into the silliness. :o) Last I checked, Raoul was selling gelatto, Phantom was moonlighting at Home Depot in the paint department and the theme was "Past the Paint of No Return."

Four favourite foods:

1)Rice and Curries
2)Dh's pork chops in balsamic vinegar with red and yellow peppers
3) #16 at Lao Laan Xang in Madison, WI (ginger tofu with baby corn, mushrooms, green peppers, basil, garlic - YUM!)
4) chocolate - all forms, preferably in homemade cookies, fudge, whatever

Four places I would rather be right now:

1) visiting family
2) Europe in the Spring
3) Greece
4) sailing somewhere warm

Four bloggers I am tagging:
(I'm assuming this means something like "Tag! You're it." But I'll freely admit to not being certain.)

1) Ford Prefect
2)The Art of Making a Life
3)Allan & Cheryl and the Ms
4)Wee Beasties

And now I have frittered away an amazing amount of time and must write.

Oh yes - 40 Year-Old Virgin review:

*noncomittal noise*
Had some laughs but was too long for what was happening in the story, which was not a lot. It does definitely have its moments, but might be better cut up into a feature length gag-reel. (I'm so sorry folks, that was brutal and I know it was a lot of work. If it helps, John liked it more.)

Ramble, ramble

What a gorgeous day! It ended up in the 50s!!!! Holy stinkin' moly!! Not bad for January in Michigan. I HEART global warming. :o) Actually had the window OPEN driving home from class. (didn't hurt that I was broiling from sparring)

The Prawn is definitely 4. That's when kids hit their morbid phase without fail. Especially girls. I overheard this conversation she was having with a plastic horse:

PRAWN
Horse, I thought I told you not to kill anyone!
HORSE
(sullen silence)
PRAWN
(taking plastic fish out of Barbie sink)
Horse, I told you not to kill anyone! Now, who did you kill? Oh, a fish. How sad.
HORSE
(guilty silence)

I used to worry about this kind of stuff when Mollusc turned 4. Now I know better. :oP

The other night Gogo read Prawn and himself to sleep. I think it was Calvin and Hobbes, but it might have been Garfield. Anyway, it was cute, and I should have taken a picture.

Pictures - oh yeah - SHEILA!!!!!! *taps foot impatiently, checks email for 654th time today, taps foot again, folds arms emphatically across chest - ow, bad idea - reverts to tapping foot*

Getting more writing done, which is always good, but inevitably leads to surfing when in a sticky spot. I find the weirdest things when I surf.

We have sleeper-overers tonight. Not sure how much actual sleep will be going on. I wonder at this point whether we'll all be able to get our bums out of bed for swimming in the morning. We shall see. . .

SHEILA! Just in case you forgot during those last few sentences I NEED PICTURES!!!! You SO cannot taunt me with all these visual images and then not provide some sort of pictures. His squeezable cheeks indeed. Wait a minute. . . *gasp* Which ones did you mean? I can't remember whether you specified. Well, I'll take pics of either. Bwahahahaha!!!

Spring in January!

It's WARM out there! Don't even really need a jacket. I think it's in the 40s. (F) When winter really hits it'll be somewhat depressing, but there won't be much left.

If you're a Dr. Who fan or a parent you may find this amusing. :o)

Still got Great Big Sea going. Great stuff - so lively and funny.

Trying to be good and go write. . .

The Old Black Rum

Total serendipity today! I was looking at the CDs at the library to see if they had catalogued and shelved Navan's brown CD yet (nope, not yet unless it's already checked out - gotta check the computer) and I saw a CD called "Rant and Roar" by a group called Great Big Sea. Sounded interesting and I was looking for something a little - well, loud. You can't open the CDs until you check 'em out, so I was totally judging by the cover - OK 4 decent-looking guys, good start (I'm becoming shallower as I get older - could it be evaporation?) - and the titles. Almost put it back, reminded myself that they are *free* so grabbed it and WOW! It's a group from Newfoundland that does Celtic music and it's so much FUN! Great pace, a lot of funny stuff, very upbeat and, yes, loud. :) Check them out! If you get Rant and Roar, be sure to hang in there for the hidden track (#14.)

"My mother's making me marry Mari-mac!" :o) Everybody dance now! OK, I look pretty stupid dancing around the kitchen while this is playing, but the kids don't tease me, so who cares?

"Oh they stopped the hearse on Georgia St (?) outside some d*mn saloon. They all went in at half past 8 and staggered out at noon. They went up to the graveyard, so holy and sublime, found out when they got there, they'd left the corpse behind!"

"Because the old black rum's got ahold of me, like a dog wrapped 'round my leg. . ." sing it with me now! I may have mangled a word here or there - wish the liner notes had lyrics. I like this one cuz rum, like mead, is dangerous stuff for me. ;o)

In other news, Trillian's doing well. We took off her ridiculous Elizabethan collar and she's being a very good girl and not chewing stiches or anything.

I'm currently fighting the Fire Leech (Emmett - he likes to suck heat) for a spot in front of the fire. If I get up, I know he's going to spread out into my place. I'm getting better at the whole fire-stoking thing and now pass out with somewhat less frequency while blowing on it. ;o)

Last night we watched Wedding Crashers. Can I just say HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Funny movie. :o) Gotta like Owen Wilson, and Vince Vaughn is so - tall! My Gosh - how tall is that man?!? (and funny, too.) They both tend to play the same sort of character in all their movies (that I've seen) but at least they haven't Kevin Costnered and tried to force their character into a film where he doesn't belong. Afterwards, we watched a bit with the actor commentary - I'd like to see the whole thing with both the actor commentary and director comentary. John TOTALLY called it on who should play "Chaz." No sooner had he said who it should be, than he appeared on screen. Clairvoyance, or good casting??

Making some headway on writing, so off I go. Or else I'll procrastinate and go read Marcus's and Elizabeth's blogs. Bad Writer!

Queen of Notalot

I found this funny article today. Very Onionesque. For those unfamiliar with The Onion, click here. It started as a student paper when I was at the UW-Madison. Now it's global! It's still free on campus, though. :) We always have to grab a copy when we go visit.


Short and sweet today - more writing. . .

Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles!!!

So here I sit in front of the fire (ggrgh - fire good!) nursing a REALLY sore ankle where I kicked a guy in the elbow not once but TWICE. Argh!(I did score on the hogu, too, though, at least.) It's right where the leg/foot pads hinge ankle to shin, so it's unprotected - the Achilles heel if you will. Or Achilles ankle. It's a common spot to injure but that doesn't make it any less sucky when I do it. At least I found the arnica gel. And there was great rejoicing throughout the land. yaaaaaaaaaaaaay. . .

Sheila, tell Bob I've been wearing out his CD and can't get his songs outta my head. Well, they alternate with POTO to be fair. But the past 2 sparrings I've been sitting there waiting my turn and have caught myself humming Bob's songs, LOL!

On to title relevancy. . .

The Prawn figured out how to blow bubbles a little before her 4th b-day (which was last month.) I finally wised up and took pics:




Go Prawn, go. :o)

Today I launched myself on a newly ambitious and inspired writing frenzy. Also, Trillian went to the vet to get her girl parts out. Poor thing. I'm anxious to pick her up tomorrow. They said she's doing well, though, and gave her a hot water bottle and her sheepskin to lie on. Meanwhile, Jet (black kitty), her best bud, wanders around looking for her. :o( Cute, but sad.

We watched Tomb Raider II again last night and I was reminded just how good-looking Daniel Craig is. :o)

Sheena, don't squeal on me, LOL! Here's one to buy your silence. *evil grin*

And I'm spent. . .
Of course that might have something to do with the fact that I've just nearly hyperventilated trying to rejuvinate my dying fire. . . :oP

Speaking of Pansies. . .

Sheila, you PANSY!! LOL! Yes, I will make you some. Are you not ever going to be brave enough to spill it here? I'm sorry that I don't have any fabric with PANSIES on it, so tell me which Kitty/ies print you want, how many, um, units (that's not the right word, but "pairs" is too big, LOL!), and a hip measurement. And if you don't make at least 1 post here, I may reconsider making them at all. ;o) And we wouldn't want to disappoint anyone, would we? That would be such a shame. }:->

No comments on Haggis PopTarts, eh? I guess maybe they aren't that shocking.

I realised today that I am cursed in the arena of wedding rings. Those who have followed the saga will be a little familiar with my trials and tribulations, and my happiness at getting a new one. Alas, today I realised that my new one is BROKEN!!


I don't know why I bothered with the arrow there. Just felt like drawing more. Obviously I need more practice. That looks a bit like it was done by a drunken squirrel.

Yes, the crack goes all the way through! Does anyone question my cursedness in this arena? And yet, I don't really want to get a "tramp stamp" that says "SOLD." :oP So I guess I'll keep trying the whole ring thing.

"How did it get broken?" you ask - if you have even made it this far, and maybe you don't ask; maybe you just say, "get on with it, Chicky-poo. No one really cares about your blasted ring!" But I care, so I will tell you. Ha!
I think I broke it at Tae Kwon Do on Friday night, while punching and kicking the bag. You may (or may not) recall that it was a particularly strenuous and theraputic class. At one point I realised my ring was hurting my finger when I punched, so I took it off (my ring, not my finger.) I suspect it had happened shortly before that. On the brighter side - better my ring than my finger. Usually we aren't on the bags, so I wear it (my ring, not my finger - well, I do wear my finger, but I rarely if ever remove my finger), cuz the alternative - for me, let's face it - is to lose it. I do take it off for sparring and stash it in my mouthguard case where I'll be sure to find it again- I'm not completely stupid. I hope.
Note to Self - do not NOT NOT accept valuable rings from little humanoids with furry feet. What a bad ending that story would have.

Well, enough about that.

Photographic evidence that we did some of what we said we'd get done today:

(pulling speaker wires for surround sound)


The corner where the Christmas tree ISN'T anymore. :o)


A boy is happy as long as he's building. He wanted to show what he's making. There ya go, Yi-Yi.

And here's what happens when I make fire:

Yes, I do have to fight him for the best spot sometimes.

Well, that's prolly more than enough, plus I think I'm finally making some headway on the novel again (sticky spot) so off I go.