Photo Essay #4?

First off, shall I apologise for inundating y'all with Daniel Craig pics yesterday? Usually I try not to flaunt my obsessions too much, but I just lost control. I swear it's those hypnotic eyes. ;o) I looked back today and was slightly embarrassed at the amount of post space I gave him. :oP Y'all will lose all respect for me. And if you haven't already, this will do it:

With John off on a trip, we did, indeed, stop and get a pizza at Papa Murphy's. They build it, you bake it. My rule about pizza is that you can have soda with pizza because it just screams for it, and since we were out of low-octane, Pepsi it was. (Sorry, John - we busted into your garage stash, but Prawn assures me there's still a lot out there.) The resulting jocularity at partaking of this forbidden fruit led to, yes, a full-on belching contest. Sadly, even the 4 year-old Prawn put the Mollusc and me to shame. We 2 are the only ones who can't burp on command, so we had to rely on the bubbly nectar to aid us. Sluggie tried in vain to teach us the trick. So far we are still hopeless cases.

John made this wonderful breaded chicken the other night. The green beans steamed a wee bit too long, but everything tasted fabulous:


Trillian is smart enough to know who usually drops the most chicken:

I swear I love all my kitties, it's just that she presents us with so many photo ops.

I HEART the person who came up with this idea:

My kids are all skinny minnies - well, not mini in the short sense - they're all Amazons like me, heightwise. I'm not sure about elsewhere, but here in the States, clothes are being made fatter for the generally fatter children and I have a hard time finding pants that don't drop straight to the floor on my poor kidlets. I adore pants with these elastic waist shrinkers. And I also adore the fact that the BX/PX was selling them for 50% off and then an additional 30% off that!! Woo hoo! (I'm often easily excited.)

Mollusc has been writing a story, and I have to say that her writing is nothing to sneeze at. I'm going to have to get off my bum if I want to beat her to the published book phase. Tril has taken to ghostwriting with her:

One of the little boys in my morning TKD class is taking a break and today was his last day. He brought me flowers and a card with a Target gift certificate. What a sweetie-pie. Both he and his big brother are really lovely, well-behaved kids and they work hard - especially for kids their age. I'm bummed that he's taking a break, actually, but hoping that he will, indeed be back. His brother will still do class, so that increases the liklihood of his return. I think that financially it was just too much for them right now. Ansyway, inspired by the flowers, I think, Sluggie decided that we should have a tea-party when we got home, so she set this up:

Oh, that's before Fishy's haircut. It was time. John, here's what your son looks like now:

And the rest of you can see what I mean by "pumpkin-headed." :o)

I had to eject a kid from sparring tonight. Zoiks! I think he was testing me since I'm not the Master. Maybe things will be better now. He was being silly and falling for drama, and it was going to end with him getting kicked in the face by his opponent, so I dropped him for pushups, dropped him again when he kept on, and ejected him when he decided he didn't want to do the pushups. It did seem to make an impression on him, so I'm hopeful that now that he knows I mean business, things will go smoother next time. Thankfully, his dad was very understanding. Most people are there at least in part because they value the discipline that is an integral part of Martial Arts, but others - well with some I just don't know why they're there. I'm glad this dad was one of the ones who value discipline. Whew!

One of the reasons I showed the kids part of the LOTR movies (edited-kid-friendly-via-FF version) was because Sluggie wanted to see what Legolas looked like. She has been fascinated with Legolas for some reason - both animated and non. So ever since seeing him, guess what wallpaper has been appearing on the computers? Yup - Legolas! Tonight she found a Legolas screen-saver to round out the theme a little more. I think perhaps an archery set may loom in her future as a birthday gift. Suggestions on make/model for tall 8 year-olds? Does height matter? I'm also planning to add the archery badge to their Keepers/Contenders club work this year. Turns out she also wants and wooden sword like Beowulf and Grendel got for Christmas. Could be a Very Armoury-Stocking Birthday.

I found an old poem I wrote back when Fishy was wee. I may post it after some tweakage. Trying to decide whether that's just too sappy. I guess I can do whatever the heck I want, huh? Maybe it's the fear of putting something so personal out there. At any rate, I've been slacking off on the writing lately and I need to get my bum back in gear.

Oh, yeah. Remember my test with the bath bombs? Uh-huh! Another hit from Unknown Country, Unknown Everything. I should stop saying bomb. D'oh!! I said it again! Oh, and again! Oh - I can't stop saying it! I said it again! (Yes - the Knights who until recently said "Ni!" and who now say Ecky ecky p'tang zootfondumbmlndmmm. . .")

**waves again, this time somewhat apologetically**

I will try to stop, really. Pretty soon they'll just look at the IP addy and go, "Oh THAT chick. Never mind." Of course, maybe that's what I'm planning on. . . **knowing look** OK, note to self - prolly not a good thing to joke about in this day and age.

Looking back at yesterday's pics again, nope, I don't think I will apologise. . .;o)

The Itchy and Scratchy Show

Now Drudge says Daniel Craig has been hit with a nasty bout of prickly heat. What's the angle here? Trying to make him look like a pansy? Oh well, every new Bond is met with BIG resistance at first. Some, as it turned out, for good reason, LOL! But even though I'm not into the sorts of films Craig has done, I think he's a very good actor and will pull off Bond very well, given a decent script. Or maybe I'm still hypnotised by those eyes.
**happy sigh**
Is it just me, or are they almost wolfish? In a good way. Rather peircing.

Ahem, excuse me, ah, on to other things. . .

Got kicked really hard and repetitously tonight. I'm not a pansy, really, ask dh. Was out of the hosp in under 24 hours after giving birth to each of my first 3 (under 12 in one case) gave birth to my last (pumpkin-headed!!) baby at home with no meds, have suffered a torn ligament without crying, have seriously turf-toed during sparring and finished the match even though I could barely walk afterward when the adrenaline stopped flowing. But tonight I actually wished for respite. Oy. We were doing sparring drills with partners and we were supposed to block the kicks rather than get out of the way. Fine, I've done that lots. But tonight, ow! I actally said something to dh afterwards (half-afraid to - REALLY don't want him speaking to the Master on my behalf) and he agreed that this dude kicks HARD, LOL! A lot of times, newer folk have to learn not to try to kill their opponent when it's just a drill. Also, you don't want to sacrifice speed for power when less power will earn you the same points and give you more speed to score even more. It's easy to get froggy as a newbie and just get all gung-ho, though. Silver Lining: it ought to toughen up my forearms, and elbows, and back of upper arms. . . But it hurts to rotate my left forearm right now. Arnica is my friend tonight. :oP What is the point of this whining? I guess since I don't do it IRL I need an outlet, LOL! That's enough for now.

We worked a bit on forms in class tonight after all the kicking. Tae Guk Chil Jang is the most interesting form yet. I finally have it down and it's so much fun!

Tomorrow will seem to disappear in a frenzy of TKD with teaching littles tomorrow, staying for my older 3 to do homeschool class, and going back in the early evening to ref kids' sparring (and taking all 4 to spar.) But after that it's sweet relaxation. I think I'm actually going to pick up a pizza for us on the way home, grab a movie or 2 (prolly - but not definitely - some chicky flick for me as John will be in the seething metropolis of Winona, MN) and we can settle in for a cosy evening at home with no getting up to be done the following morning. Ah, yes! :o) I'll have to remember to set an alarm for Thurs, though, with no John to wake me up. Movie suggestions?

Bonne Nuit! :o)

Testing

We succesfully made our bath bombs and last night was the test. Yes! They fizzed and melted appropriately, made the water feel and smell nice, and no, no one was armed (honest typo! I meant Harmed) in the explosions. But mostly this is a test to see if I get another one of those cryptic blog hits from "unnkown country" "unknown ISP" - unknown everything except for IP addy - after blogging the word "bomb." Interesting. . .

**waves to Federal monitors and offers last yummy cookie, singing, á la Larry, "I have a cookie! A yummy cookie! Just for you for when you come, only for you for when you come. . ."**

She-Ra, does that not bring back memories of suits in sunglasses riding on the G bus?? **coughFBIcough** Ah the paranoid delusions of young detective story-reading girls.:-D

**door smashes open and Candace gets spread-eagled at gunpoint against the wall**

And that was the last time she joked about anything like that. ;o)

**Candace quietly ponders whether she can get some sort of family discount at Mendota Mental Health Institute as the offspring of an ex-staff member**

Random Deep Thoughts

I still have a bunch of cookies left if anyone's hungry. They're so rich even the kids don't OD on them.

Normally I'm ashamed to bake pre-made cookies, but I think at Comissary (I can never spell that stupid word!! 2ms? 2ss? 2 rs?) prices it's cheaper not to bake from scratch. However, if you come to visit me, I will bake you some of my friend's famous chocolate cookies. From scratch. Each one is like a wee brownie. Mmmmm!

So I was looking up Nipplefruits (scroll way down that page) and SORELY tempted to incorporate them into my landscape but this bit concerned me: "The fruits are considered toxic and are not usually eaten. "

What the heck does THAT mean? Considered? Not usually? Puts me in mind of a fruit my dad bought at the market in HK one time. It looked like a small dark purple potato and most people he asked assured him it was poisonsous, while a few claimed it was delicious. He shared it with me. My mom - the cautious sort - was NOT pleased. But the latter group was right; it was delicious. So what do you think about nipplefruit? Toxic or not? Men can eat it, women shouldn't? Thoughts? Opinions? First-hand knowledge?

We're working on front yard landscaping this year so that we don't get more "we hate you cuz your yard sucks" letters from The Association this year. Yes, that was a passive admissal (word? now it is!) of having a non-standard suburban American yard. Boy would I love to plant the front as all wildflowers and prairie grasses. But it's not meant to be. Instead, I rebel on a minimalist scale by planting herbs and chili peppers in with my "landscaping" out front. :oP But, yeah, I do actually want an attractive yard and am looking forward to being able to put in more plants this year. Which reminds me: my friend went to a party at someone's house (OK, mansion) where they had planted $10,000 of *annuals*!! That's right! 10 Grand on plants that would last, what, 5 or 6 months here in MI? Wowza! Well, whatever trips your trigger I guess. . .

Poor John just broke another bowl. He's really good at breaking our largest bowls. (Pasta-serving type, and OK, it's only been 2, LOL!) This one was melamine (melamac?) so you'd think it would take a little more. Well, who knows, maybe it did before all was said and done. I will forgive him any kitchen transgressions since he's such a good cook. And I will make him feel better later. Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!!! :-D

By the way, anyone in the Detroit area need a Britax Roundabout? Prawn is about to outgrow hers and the only pregnant mom I know already has all the car seats she needs. Train of thought on that jump? Goldschlåger, LOL! Or else sex/pregnancy/carseats. :oP

I should prolly stop posting before I go into secret blog territory, so that's all for now. Unless I get ripped on mead and throw caution to the winds and expose myself (I mean, of course (I hope) my inner self) even more. . .

Darn. No pics. They make everything more interesting. Next time. . .

This Post Contains 4680 Calories

It was definitely time for more pictures.

Tonight, in the name of Science, we decided to conduct a highly sensitive experiment.

Bag on the left: 200 calories per cookie, bake at 350º for 14 mins
Bag on the right: 190 calories per cookie, bake at 325º for 17 mins
Bag on the left bakes up like this:

Bag on the right like this:

The squeaky white guy wins. I guess those 10 extra calories are magic.

We went to the comissary and BX/PX today. Oh, and the Class 6 store. Can you tell?

Evaluation: heaven in a bottle!

And:

Dh didn't believe they were real gold flakes.


I'm too impatient to wait for HNT so I'm starting PUF. (Partially Unclothed Friday)
I took a vote with myself and agreed it was the thing to do. The ayes had it. Well, the eye, anyway:

I think in future I'll avoid such crinkly details. I guess it's from being a laugh junkie. :oP Well, you know the saying: better to have laughed and crinkled than never to have laughed at all. . .

John wanted me to get more clothes at the BX. As previously mentioned, I loathe shopping for clothes. Plus, I already have my Amazing Mystery Shirt (which got me petted today) and a boobie shirt. Apparently I needed 2 more boobie shirts. (If you've seen Must Love Dogs you'll know about boobie shirts. Well, they're actually "boob shirts," but boobies are cuter than boobs, I think.) Anyway, it wasn't excruciating, so I lived through it -- and so did he. I saw a shirt that said "twisted" with a twisted Gumby on it that I'd prolly have bought if it hadn't been brown and had been a little more fitted. I've always liked Gumby. I painted a camo Gumby on my flightline helmet back in my crew-chiefing days. If I had any clue where that was (if I still even have it) I'd post a pic, but alas. . .

It's always good to be back on a base and Selfridge is no exception. The only real exception I can think of is Camp Parks in CA. (Dublin/San Ramon) It's an eyesore and an embarassment and I can't believe they've let it get into such a state. Maybe it's better now - haven't seen it in over 4 years. But even that one had its merits - namely that after 9/11 only military people could get in, so it was the one place in CA that wasn't crowded, LOL! And the burrowing owls all over the grounds were cute. Oh, and having it in our power grid made us immune from rolling blackouts cuz there was a prison on the grounds. HAHAHA!!! We actually used that as a selling point for our house. I'm told that's the Prison Heidi Fleiss (Madame to the Stars) was sent to, but I've never looked that up.

Bingus made me laugh today. She was talking about the "hot mittens." (oven mitts) Oh - Bingus is The Prawn. You can never have too many nicknames.

John found this video. Talk about an audience!! What a hoot! Sounds like someone copied one laugh and layered it, LOL! Painfully cute babies. :o)

Frei Day

Thanks to Faltenin for finally confirming what HNT is. I'll have to be doing some of that.

Saw a friend at swimming that I haven't seen in a while. We're both reading books about lepers. Weird. Mine's fiction. Hers is fact about the Molokai Leper Colony. Isn't that a little odd?

The kids are in bed. We're putting in Alien Vs. Predator and the rating is PG-13 for "violence, language, horror images, slime and gore." Slime! LOL! That cracks me up. :o)

Well, the laptop seems to be actually cooking the flesh of my thighs, even with a cushion under it, so perhaps I'll say adieu and watch the film now.

You Haven't Lived Until. . .

. . .you've rocked out in the car to Dragostea Din Tei (aka the Numa-Numa song) with a 10, 9, 8, 6 and 4 year old and they can ALL sing along in Romanian, LOL! Yes, we've even corrupted one of their friends - gave her a CD a while back and she knows it by heart.

A bunch of us went over to the house of one of the TKD families after class and sparring for a late night supper of chili fries. Good friends, good food, good fun. :o) We have a sleeper-overer tonight whom we'll take swimming with us tomorrow, and at some point later, we plan to break out the interesting chemicals and make bath bombs. (No, all you monitoring Fed-types - these are not gigantic Molotov cocktails made in bathtubs; they're things you drop in the bath that fizz and foam and smell nice.) Note to self - not so sure about making coffee ones. I don't want to come out smelling like a giant latte. Chocolate ones - well, they just make one smell edible, so that can't be a bad thing. I think. Maybe I should just stick with more traditional girlie stuff. Suggestions? (I know - NOT sushi! :-P )

I need to work on my right leg hook kick. Something is just not right. It feels OK, but it's harder to see my foot and leg when I'm kicking with my right leg, so I must be holding my body differently somehow.

We got to talking about Ritalin tonight and how it has the opposite effect on adults that it has on kids. This led me to regale everyone with tales of strange things my dad said while he was on morphine (the doctor gave him Ritalin to counteract the morphine and make him more alert.) The one that translates best to type is the Russian women story. My mom and dad were in their house in the middle of the prairie in South Dakota when all of a sudden my dad said, "Look Barb! Hundreds of Russian women coming over the hill in little tiny cars!" LOL! Fortunately my dad had a great sense of humour right up til the end, so a lot of times, he'd realise he'd just said something utterly ridiculous and start laughing at himself. Ah, we had some great times even then. :o) I was pregnant with Fishy (named after my dad - well, his real name, that is, LOL!) when my dad was sick and I went to visit my folks while John was off in Switzerland or somewhere. That was something, let me tell ya. Both of us puking - my dad cuz his life was running out, me cuz I was bringing forth new life - how ironic. Me running for the yak bucket for him, then rushing off to lose it myself in the bathroom. But even then we laughed about it. :o) There is humour in nearly everything if you just know where to look.

OK, Bloggers, I'm tagging all who read this. What's one of the *weirdest* things that has ever happened to you. The thing that people just wouldn't expect to hear. Make that 2, cuz the ones that pop into my head are a tie and I have to list both.

1) Getting attacked by monkeys when I was little kid (explains a lot, though, doesn't it??)
2) Meeting Ed Gein - a very quiet, smiley little gentleman (my dad worked as a psych nurse and Ed was on his ward)

Your turn!!

Planting

In a fit of extreme optimism, Mollusc and I planted seeds in a starter tray today. Sadly, all the sprouts will eventually get eaten by the cats or die of dehydration, but we always try anyway. OK, that didn't *sound* very optimistic but trust me, it was realistic. :oP

The kids have been playing Fritz and Chesster lately (computer chess game) - especially Fishy (6) and The Prawn (4.) I'd better get playing some more, too, cuz my endgame sucks.

I'm feeling uninspired, so I'll ask a Q to get others talking *for* me, LOL! I had chicken soup and hot French Bread for dinner. What did you have? Faltenin, I *know* you had something interesting? Bulgogi? Bibimbap? Any kimchi? I love kimchi. :o)

Candy's Triple Death Bars

These are much more pleasant than Candy's Cup Kicks, which are better with icing (running joke at TKD - say it out loud.)



They have peanut butter, coconut, and dairy -- ingredients that will send at least two people I know into anaphylactic shock, hence the "Triple Death."

But they're very easy to make if you're not susceptible to death by anaphylactic shock due to those ingredients. Here's how:

Ingredients:

1 package Oreos minus a bunch of tasters for you and 4 kids. Guesstimate if you haven't got 4 kids.
1 stick butter
1/2 bag of shredded, sweetened coconut (7 oz.)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 c peanut butter
1 bag chocolate chips
white chocolate chips for sprinkling

Heat the oven to 350º
Put the Oreos in a ziplock and smash them to bits. You can use a rolling pin or chicken smasher (tenderizer ;o) - flat side) for this.
Melt the butter.
Pour the butter and Oreo crumbs into a 9"X13" pan, mix them up, and press into the bottom of the pan (or at least spread evenly over bottom.)
Distribute shredded coconut over Oreo crumbs.
Pour the entire can of sweetened condensed milk evenly over the coconut.
Toast in the oven for 15-20 mins until lightly browned.
Nuke the peanut butter and bag of choc chips together for about 2 mins and stir. Pour over everything else. Sprinkle with white choc chips and let harden. If you're impatient, put it in the freezer or outside if it's cold. (away from possums!)

Hide in a closet and devour.

Last night I was practicing to be an insomniac. Actually, I can sleep anytime, anywhere. I even slept on the flightline during an ORI while hooked up to a running A-10. (It was OK - the Pilot told me he'd wake me up over the headset when it was time to launch.) But last night I made the mistake of drinking the last of a bottle of wine -- not even a full glass! -- that set fire to my stomach. I had suspected this wine of having less than lovely effects before, but was stupid enough to test the theory. That's what I get. So I got some movies in. I'm becoming more and more like my dad in the movie arena - he was a huge film buff once they were no longer taboo. I think it's the draw of the Forbidden Fruit ;o)

The theme for last night's movies was "People With Fake Accents." I started off with K-19 - an American and an Irishman both pretending to be Russians. Sadly, I was bored to tears, fast forwarded, was still bored and a bit distracted by the weird accents and pulled the plug. Next came "Captain Corelli's Mandolin." This one has an Englishman, a Spanish woman and a Welshman (Christian Bale - weird!!) all pretending to be Greeks, an American pretending to be an Italian, and another Englishman pretending to be German. I fully expected one character to die - esp when he got executed by the Germans, but surprise, surprise, he lived! It was a decent movie, but not as good as the last one: Monsoon Wedding, which, AFAIK, broke away from the "people with fake accents" theme. The speech was constantly shifting between English and an Indian language which I'm too dense to be able to recognise (Punjabi or Urdu, I guess, looking at the Imdb listing) with sprinklings of Hindi, apparently, because every once in a while the subtitles would add "Speaking Hindi." You can watch this movie without subtitles - everything not in English is auto-subtitled, but I watched the whole thing with subtitles cuz I had it turned down so low. Anyway, it was a really lovely film, and I'd like to see it again.

I lost my book last night so got some more of my second one read rather than starting a third (came close!!) Must find my book today.

It's supposed to get up into the 40s (F) so cutting back the black-eyed-Susans is in order. Plenty of other stuff on my "to do" list. We'll see what I accomplish. . .

Wednesday Eve!

The d on my keyboard is starting to not work so well, so if I begin to blog streams of incoherent nonsense (well, more so than usual) try adding some "d"s.

Still writing. The problem is that I keep getting inspired with new ideas and wanting to go with them and neglecting earlier ones. It's nice for when I'm in different moods though - I have something to work on for pretty much every mood. :oP And I'm still writing more than reading, so those with whom I'm discussing books by now think I'm an EXTREMELY slow reader. :oP

It's that time of year again - 3 of the 4 kids are getting to the end of their math books and I have to order again. After further review, I have decided to only order for the Mollusc (10) because we were able to skip so much with both girls in the previous year's books that Sluggie can use Mollusc's old one and Fishy can use Sluggie's. Hooray! This makes me feel much better about having switched to the new Math-U-See curriculum. :o) I was considering a different system for Mollusc, but considering that A) she doesn't want to leave Math-U-See, B) the other one costs twice as much and C) I was able to order an Honors enrichment supplement from Math-U-See -- not an option with Teaching Textbooks (the other system under consideration) we're sticking with Math-U-See. The Honors supplement is designed, among other things, to prep for higher level Science courses. I have reservations about doing pre-algebra instead of algebra with her, but it looks like there are a few topics covered in Pre that won't be hit on in regular, so the Honors supplement is a nice compromise. Besides, all those regular pages she ends up skipping will mean Sluggie will have another hand-me-down book, LOL! I have to say that math is very satisfying to teach. Except when I'm yanking my hair out. :oP But we always get there in the end.

Sluggie did, indeed, earn her Harry Potter set today with her multiplication tables. Very cool!

We have been planning yard/garden stuff. Every year we make a little more headway, but the plan is that this year we get the rest of the foundation planting in. We're planning to do pavers and a bench near the front door, too. I should take before and after pix of all this.

And on that note, some pix for your edification:


Peek-a-boo. . .

The object of her attentions:



Yes, she's an ardent bird-watcher. :oP

Who Wants To Help??

A blog/board friend of mine's husband is in Iraq right now and he will be overseeing the renovation of 2 schools there. The kids and I are collecting school stuff to send so the schoolchildren will each have a decent set of supplies. Who wants to help?? This is a great opportunity for my kidlets to learn more about Iraq, and it makes it more personal to them when they see that they are helping other kids. And they get to practice their sewing skills cuz we're going to make zippered pencil cases. :o) Win, win situation!! Anyway, check out my friend's blog post on this and if you want to help, you can email me at:

milkmaiden at sbcglobal dot net :o)

If you would like to help, please avoid anything with religious slogans/symbols, piggies, Barbies/Bratz or similar.

While we're on the topic of religion (sorta) it's Paczski time again. Say it with me now: "PUNCH-skee." LOL! I had never heard of these before we moved to MI, but they are BIG here because of the enormous Polish population. By that, I don't mean that the Polish people here are enormous (though maybe they are if they eat Paczskis!!) but that there are a lot of them. In fact, when I called the gas (or electric?) company one time, one of the menu options was to listen to it in Polish. I kid you not. I shoulda just for fun. It certainly would have been more entertaining than the English version. We also have the largest population of Middle-Eastern natives ouside of the Middle East. Remember the big stink about the changing of the noise level limits to accomodate the call-to-prayer loudspeakers in Hamtramck? (Yes, that's a Polish name.) I don't think the utility menu was offered in Arabic though. Or maybe I didn't listen long enough.

Anyway, why not try a paczski today and die happy? It's got enough fat to basically blow an ekephant's weekly fat requirements, so you know it's gonna be good. ;o)

John got a table at Sam's today for the Linux machine for $58 and it came WITH a chair. It went together exceptionally well and looks fantastic. Naturally, I'm just waiting for it to self-destruct, cuz that's way too good to be true.

Today we worked on "Bribe Your Way to Homeschooling Success" - a technique I learned from another hser. Normally I'm not into bribes (except for dh, maybe, like the TV deal) but for multiplication tables it makes ALL of our lives easier, so I do it. The deal is that they have to be able to do all of the Mathtest (free download) times tables on the "more time" setting with a perfect score, and then they get the toy we agree on. Sluggie (8) is working for an $80 Harry Potter Lego set that I scored on Ebay (new in the box!) for **20 bucks!!!** Woo hoo!! Fishy (6) wants to work for Bionicles, or maybe something from Lego Exo Force. Sluggie's been doing multiplying for ages, but needs to get them perfect with the time limit, so today she got serious and was able to check off the 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 11s and 12s. Obviously the 10s won't be a problem, so she doesn't have many left! (1s aren't on there - too easy!) And Fishy was able to check off 10s and 11s today. Yay!!

I taught my 4th private lesson today. Wow! We're having quite the influx of new students. In our class, we got to do back and forth across the room kicking today (my fave) and then worked on a drill with partners for sparring. I was wringing wet when we were done. Eew. :oP But it feels good to work hard. My partner was a guy with incredibly long legs, and try as I might after my pulling step round kick, I simply could not get out of the way of his spinning back kicks. So the Master showed me how so step my front foot back as I turned for maximum backing. It was better, but still hard. I swear the guy's legs are telescopic, LOL! And of course HE traveled backwards very far when *I * was doing the spinning back kicks, so I was on a sort of running offense, LOL! But it was fun. And it felt really good to wash all the salt off my face when I got home.

Last night something bad happened to my back. I was simply scooping up toys on my hands and knees and suddenly *PAIN* in my back. Argh. I was worried about teaching and class tonight, but fortunately it was one of those "better-with-exercise" sort of things. Whew!

I think I had some sort of pics to post, but I'm too lazy to go to the other puter, plus I need a soak in the tub, so maybe tomorrow.

Wow - I think that may be my most diverse post yet! :oP

Speaking of the Tooth Fairy

From Drudge:

"New Bond is OW OW 7
New James Bond Daniel Craig has already failed to make the grade as tough guy - after villain knocked out two of his teeth in his FIRST fight scene!"

Ouch!! Poor guy!

I know how to make him forget his pain. **leers**

How much does the tooth fairy give for permanant teeth?? Do you think she'll remember? Maybe I should take this opportunity to redeem myself as the tooth fairy. Where's my passport? Oh, yeah, I'm still procrastinating getting one. :oP

And how does that make him fail the grade as a tough guy anyway? Bad timing doesn't make him a wimp. Although my TKD Master would have told him, "Block!" ;o)

Abject Failure

D'oh!!

Hello, and welcome to the blog of the current Forgetful or Negligent Mama of the Year Award (FONMOTY) holder.

Last night at TKD, Fishy's tooth was so loose and crooked that he looked like a hillbilly. One of the other boys suggested using a paper towel to grab it (for grip) and Fishy wanted me to try. Me? Pull out my baby's tooth? *cringe* It's not the pulling of the tooth that gives it the cringe-factor, it's the possibility of causing my baby pain that gives it cringe-factor. Nevertheless, he was adamant, so I tried: wiggle, wiggle and then with a tiny bit of a boot-getting-freed-from-squelchy-mud feeling, it was OUT!! Having pulled the tooth out myself, you'd think I'd have remembered to be the tooth fairy last night, but you would be wrong. Aaaargh!

So sometime after we were all up this morning, (well, all except John) he announced, "I'd better go check under my pillow!"

Aaaaaack! No time to beat him there! What to do?

I ran into our room, urged John to get his butt up, asking where he might have any money, and suddenly remembered the envelope of cash from teaching private lessons. Yes! I grabbed a $5 (hey, my kids don't get an allowance, so this is a major source of income, LOL!) and shoved it under the pillow he'd been using in MY bed. (He nearly always makes an entrance at around 2 or 3 am.)

Fishy came back downstairs with his baggie of tooth and somewhat dismally announced, "All I found was my tooth." So of course I asked, "Did you look under your pillow?"
"Yes."
"Did you look under the pillow where you were sleeping last?"
A look of hope crossed his features and he ran to my room, fished under the pillow and triumphantly brought forth the $5 bill. Whew! Of course that doesn't explain missing the tooth, but he knows it's us anyway, so I guess all's well that ends well.

Previous holders of the FONMOTY Award have been cited for such neglectful behaviour as (2005) accidentally locking the baby in a running car at the gas station (not me), (2004) "losing" the baby whilst actually nursing her (OK, that one was me), (2003) Failing to call any child by their own name (and not a sibling's) on the first try for the entire year, and (2002) giving her child the green light to play with matches when he asked while she was on the phone. (not me -- I think -- I forget. . .)

I'd describe the Award, but I can't remember what it looks like.

Disappointment

I watched Cider House Rules last night. What a shame that such a superb job of casting, acting, and directing was wrapped around such a disappointing story. We see the painfully obvious ending hurtling towards us from over an hour and a half away. Who really wants to know the ending that early on? Not me. For the obvious-impaired, there is an abundance of "this way, Dummy" road markers pointing directly toward the resolution of this thinly veiled (OK, you're right, it's not veiled at all) political statement. As the saccharine icing on this sad little cake of disappointment, we are treated to a mini-morality-monologue by an incestuous rapist. And in case we are really, really stupid, he actually picks up a cake server with his social sermon engraved on it and shoves a piece into our mouths. Oooh, Baby, gimme another slice. In case you were wondering (and I just know you were) religious stereotypes are still alive and well in Hollywood. Dana Carvey's Church Lady could almost have slipped in there unnoticed, LOL! Note to self: trust your instincts on Oscar-winning films. Always. **slaps self on forehead**


Well enough of that.

I've been playing an old song with the delightful title of Mr. Beveridge's Maggot. Have you ever heard a more appealing title? You can print your own sheet music here or here. (different arrangements) This is from one of the country dances in the BBC Pride and Prejudice mini. I also have the first page of Handel's Silent Worship (the song Frank Churchill sings with Emma in "Emma") but am too cheap to pay for the rest, so I must improvise after that. :oP If you click that link, it's going to make you download Scorch to see and hear it, which I highly recommend if you are at all musical, cuz Sibelius does have a TON of great music free for the printing - and not just page 1, LOL!

I guess it's time to rustle up some grub for everyone before sparring.

Nothin' Much

I was the honoured recipient of a gift from His Holiness the Dalai Lama yesterday. I got a letter in the mail purporting to hold a gift from His Holiness himself. Sure enough, inside was a darling little string of miniature Tibetan prayer flags. The kind I actually PAID for last year for part of my sister's birthday gift. I feel special.

The letter from His Holiness was heartfelt, I'm sure, and moving, but the stuff that accompanied it was, I'm sad to say, lame, and I have to wonder if he really is aware of what's being sent out with his letter. It was a letter to Condoleeza Rice that I was supposed to sign and send to her which basically stated that I was not OK with the Chinese oppression of Tibet. OK, well that's true. But honestly, is anyone? I mean, isn't that kind of a no-brainer? Like Hitler or Stalin? I don't think anyone who's aware of it is OK with what China has done/is still doing to Tibet. So why the letter? Why not a call to action? Not that anything would result from that, but I have to wonder what the senders of this letter expect to result from a massive letter campaign to Ms. Rice stating that a bunch of us are unhappy about China's presence in Tibet. I mean, if you're going to do something, aim high, right? Then again, I'm not sure what His Holiness would have us do about it either, since standing up to China - aside from being something the US won't do - would eventually involve violence and bloodshed. So what do you think the point of this group's campaign was? I could be cynical and say money (let me point out that this wasn't from the office of the Dalai Lama or anything, but from a private group) but I honestly don't remember whether they were soliciting donations or not, and I'm not going out to dig through the trash to find out.

**crickets**

OK, no more politics.

We optimistically bought a TON of seeds at Walmart today. Most were 10 cents a package. We're going to actually try to get a jump on the garden planning this year instead of being late like we are every year. Since we haven't moved in over 2 years now (a new record for the last 7 years!) there's no excuse. And I've been drooling over the Spring Hill catalog. Sigh. I'll take 3 of everything, please.

We also hit the clearance racks and got stuff for the girls for less than I could have made it. Gotta love those clearance racks. I also love how more and more clothing now has printed labels inside instad of tags.

The children were lobbying for an "electric blue lobster" for our fish tank. Maybe next time. They're pretty neat.

I found my Dragostea Din Tea CD (which goes missing more than any of my other CDs) so we've been playing that in the car. It still amazes me how my 4 year-old can sing along in Romanian, LOL! They are truly little sponges. Today while John and I had class, Mollusc taught her how to write "Nabi" (butterfly) in Korean. It looks like this: 나비

And now, for your stress releasal (new word!):


Sleeping Cats

Observing sleeping cats has been proven to lower blood pressure. Of course, if you fear or loathe cats it prolly won't help. And I'm not exactly sure whether it has to be a real cat, or if a picture will work. So are you feeling mellow now?

In Which I become an Animated Corpse

I taught another private lesson tonight and got paid again. Yee ha!! This kid is something of a natural. It's always hard to teach American guys to punch, but he got it right away. He was a little shy about the kihaps, but improved as he went. He'll end up in our class if he joins, cuz he's 16. Always good to have more adults. :o)

In other news, The Master attempted yet again to kill us, and this time he succeeded. Actually, I guess it wasn't particularly harder than any other night, but I was sweatin' like a BIG dog (hmm, I guess dogs don't actually sweat, do they?) and the guy I was 3-stepping with at one point was actually RAINING sweat all over the floor. I definitely need to hop in the tub. I think my hips are starting to seize up. :oP We'll have to throw in another episode of Coupling. Last night we watched the "Lesbian Spank Inferno" one. I just love Steve's tirade about "blokes" and how they love women's bottoms, and how when fire was invented, they didn't say, "Good! Now we can cook!" but "Good! Now we can see bottoms in the dark!"

It's weird how I don't bruise like I used to. I always thought that was an old-wives'-tale -- that you toughen up and don't bruise as much -- but it's true. Both John and I have found that we can take a hard hit and get a lump that may never even come out in colours. And I used to be covered with dark bruises - esp when we started sparring 2 nights a week. Not any more, though - just one or 2 here and there. My feet will never work properly again, of course. I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that my toes will never bend or flex like they once did, but as long as I don't lose my arms and have to become a street artist who uses her feet to render great works in sidewalk chalk, I guess it doesn't matter.

Now is the time of year to drool over garden catalogs that come in the mail to taunt you with all the lovely plants you won't be growing for at least 2 months. Sigh.

We're having a thunderstorm, which is a bit strange for Feb, but I'll take it over the snowstorm my sis got in WI today. I heard there are tornado watches predicted for Lansing at 11:00. Just another good reason not to live there.

Does anyone really care about Median, Mode and Mean? I certainly haven't used it since grade school. OK, Mean, maybe, but let's call it "average" shall we? Mollusc has hit that in her math book. One lesson is prolly enough. I say we skip a bit, Brother Maynard. Ah, the joys of hsing - you can skip the irrelevent drivel. If she ever needs it again, she can Google it and re-learn it in 12 seconds.

Darn. I had something snarky to say, and I've totally forgotten what it was.

Why Yes, I CAN Hula Hoop

When's the last time you tried hula hooping? I did it just moments ago and it's good exercise! Dh thinks it's hot when women hula hoop. Um, OK. Sure is a lot of fun for less than a buck. Keep small children away from them, though, or in no time at all you will have a hula hexagon.

Legolas and Frodo are out trekking in the woods, Frodo having traded the One Ring to Legolas for an Elven charm that looks suspiciously like some beads on a safety pin. I was able to cleverly smelt The One Ring from a silver plastic ring that apparently came off of a hairbrush (so says the Slug) and gold foil from a chocolate heart. The ring is strong and in its desire to come into being, it bent my will to serve its dark purposes and I was forced to eat the heart. But fortunately I'm willing to make these kinds of sacrifices in order to save Middle Earth. This ring is such an amazing and powerful creation that I can only pray their mission is a success. Come to think of it, I'm not exactly sure what their mission is, even though I am apparently Elrond. I ought to know these things, wise Elf that I am. Perhaps I'll take a look in the scrying pool. Better make sure it's flushed first.

Meanwhile, Mollusc plays NetHack. Yep - she's been sucked into the glorious world of quaffing potions, reading scrolls, trying to rip-off shopkeepers, and eating corpses. MMMM Mmmm! She has made me proud yet again by finding a towel in the dungeon and wrapping it around her head to successfully deflect the gaze of a Floating Eye. That's my girl!

I made Lime Bars from a total cheater mix I needed to get out of the pantry, but may have to make something else A) to assuage my guilt and shame over using such a cheater mix and B) so John won't feel too left out. He's not a lime bar kind of guy.

Powerless to Resist

Aaaargen fargen blargen!!! It et me whole post!!!

Sigh.

Now I'm gonna rip off Kitkat's book meme, because why not?

Grab the nearest book (I got one of the ones I'm actually reading. Maybe that's cheating.) and turn to page 123. Mr. Tickle didn't work (not enough pages) so I had to get another one. ;o) Type in the 5th line. Mine has a song in the way. A very creatively punctuated song. So I'm going with line 5.

"But then the song changed, as if the singer opened inner chambers to give her voice more resonance."

The Illearth War: The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Book 2.

The power went out at a little after 8 tonight. John went to rescue the Mollusc from the shower, where, having just finished, she was cowering with a towel wrapped around her head and waiting for something dreadful to happen (an explosion? the end of the world? But it was a very H2G2 defense mechanism, so good girl.) In the meantime, I lit a bevy of candles and soon the house was smelling oddly of blueberry muffin, sage, rose, macintosh apple, and several other delightful but never-meant-to-be-combined scents. John chopped the rest of our wood for a fire (no heat, obviously) and after everyone had pottied, reminded themselves not to flush and then promptly done so, we all gathered on the couch and liv rm floor while I read the rest of Over Sea, Under Stone to everyone (and John did an inner eyelid inspection.) The atmosphere was perfect for the ending of the book, actually.

At that point, the kids were all hungry, so we trooped out to the kitchen to have a snack of PB& cupboard jelly (so as not to open the fridge) as well as Pringles and Cheetos left over from movie night. John turned on all 4 stove burners (gas, thank goodness) to warm the room a bit for the birdies, and we made cocoa. Fishy was quite pleased to be doing things "just like in castle times." Yep - Cheetos, instant cocoa, Pringles. . . ;o) Mollusc claimed to be choking "the Old-Fashioned way" and from then on, everything was an "Old-Fashioned" joke. I cautioned her to be careful since the Heimlich wasn't invented back then. All the kids agreed that the Star Wars mug was kosher because that happened "a long time ago. . ."

All in all it was an enchanting evening. The biggest bummer was not being able to play the piano when the power was out.

The neighbours are smart enough to have a generator. They've lived here long enough to know what we are beginning to realise, namely that if you live in MI where A) the unions are strong, B) very few of the power lines are buried (see A), C) the weather is strong enough to take down the ill-strung lines (see A) and D) the drivers are bad enough to take out the ill-planted poles (see A and "MI no-fault insurance") your power is going to go out on a fairly regular basis. Remember The Great Blackout of aught-three? We made international news.

Nonetheless it was cosy, and when the power came back on as we wrapped up our snack, it was to a chorus of moans and groans from the children. So we've adjourned back to the liv rm, extinguished the lights, and left the candles and fireplace going. We did, however, pop the animated LOTR in the VCR. 3 of the 4 are out cold now. Very cosy indeed.

Xian Bale

OK, so I filmographised him and have NO CLUE why he looks familiar. Please tell me who he looks like. It's driving me just a little nuts now. Think geeky American guy who looks just like Bruce Wayne. Who is that? Come on now. . .

I bet he's hotter with his Welsh accent. That always ratchets hotness up a few notches, dontcha think?

Batperson Begins

John and I watched Batman Begins last night. We were somewhere near Tibet - training with Qui-Gon or something - when John announced, "I don't think people really want this much backstory." I turned to him and said "Dude, it's called Batman Begins. That's what it's all about." OK, so he had forgotten that bit, LOL! After that he seemed to enjoy it more.

I don't get the big hoo-ha about Christian Bale. Granted, I didn't know who he was before seeing this, but I had certainly heard about him. So what's the big deal? He's kinda geeky, isn't he? He looked familiar, but I haven't filmographised him yet to see why. Anyway, yes, the man can do awesome pushups that I will wish I could do come blackbelt testing, and yes, Batman is a very cool character, but I have to say that Bale doesn't do it for me. He did very well as Batman, I just don't find him sizzlin' hot. Then again, I can be slow to catch on to these things. Maybe in a couple of months I'll think he's the hottest thing since branding irons. . . Maybe some fans can help me appreciate him better.

So tonight I nearly got drunk off the fumes of one of the TKD parents. Ugh. That's kinda sad. No one appeared to be actually drunk, so I'm guessing alcoholic. :o(

Tough sparring drills tonight!

Note to self: do more Kegels. OK, OK, do them, period. Sigh.

One of the guys in our adult class turned 50 this weekend. In a last-minute burst of inspiration, I called the Master's wife to see if she had an extra white belt that could be turned into a grey belt. *grin* She jumped through multiple hoops (ending up with a nastily streaked dryer drum) and made him a grey belt, which the Master presented to him yesterday. Great mirth abounded and he wore it to class today, LOL! He got to warm us up today cuz he was special. :o) It's a good group of peeps - like family. :o)

I downloaded Gmail's Talk feature and called my sis FOR FREAKIN' FREE!!!!! Wow - that was cool!!! Now I need to get my mom a 'puter! It was AWESOME. (to the tune of Spiderman) Technogeek, Technogeek, la la la la la la la la. . .

Speakina geek, it's time to soak in the tub and read a geeky book. :o) Night y'all!

My Sister's Panties

on display for the world to see:



Yep, I was feeling creative, so I made 2 bracelets and, yes, She-Ra, finally a Hello Kitty G-string for you. The first one sucked mightily. Bummer. And I didn't have enough FOE for another go. Crap! But I had enough of the stuff that works with the purple, so at least you get 1 pair. But John says you have to come get them. He may have plans to make you model them. . .

The pink bracelet was made to go with my Amazing Mystery Shirt (and does, yay!) and the other one was just an excuse to use some fun sushi beads I made from Sculpey a long time ago.

We got to blackbelt testing in time to watch sparring and breaking. There were only 3 of the 6 left by then. 2 had failed on curriculum and the other (who always has his curriculum perfect) had gone home after throwing up twice and being too dizzy to go on (lots of spining kicks and back and forth series.) That really sucks because he's dedicated and prolly the hardest worker of everyone who tested. Of the 3 that passed, only 1 was getting her 1st degree blackbelt. The other 2 were pre-testing for 2nd Dan. You have to take 5 or 6 bi-annual tests and on the last one (I can't remember if it's 5th or 6th) you get your 2nd Dan. They kicked for almost 2 hours straight, then I think there was a break for some forms and Qs, more kicking, more forms, Qs, etc. Then, when eveyone's dead, they have to spar and then break - flying sidekick for 1st Dan, spinning hook for pre-testers for 2nd this time. I have a year and a half to increase my stamina. Oh yeah, and to be able to do 150 pushups an 150 situps to start it all off.

Now I've Got a Little Coin in My Jeans. . .

Today was my first paying gig as a Tae Kwon Do Instructor. I won't say I wasn't a little nervous about it. I've been teaching classes for a few months now, but this was a new deal - private lessons for new students to get them familiar with the basics - bowing correctly, attention stance, horseriding stance, proper ki-hap, making a fist correctly, punching correctly and RAD (Recognise trouble, Avoid the problem, Defend yourself only if necessary) as well as a little about the philosophy of Tae Kwon Do and how it will impact their lives as students of the art. Since I had a specific # of objectives to cover in a half hour, I was a little nervous about how the timing would work out, but all went smoothly. The boy seems like a good kid, and he's the type to laugh when nervous rather than go all introverted, so he was easy to work with and the time flew by. I'd say it was definitely a success, and I actually forgot I was going to get paid, LOL! All my private lesson money is going to go into our travel fund, since we are planning to go to England, Ireland and Scotland in about 2 years. My other teaching is done in exchange for Prawnie's tuition.

After teaching, I came home to get John and drop him off so he could watch blackbelt testing today. He's going to call me when they get to the sparring so the rest of us can go down to watch them spar, break and get their belts. I don't think the kids could sit quietly through 4 hours, otherwise I'd like to watch, too, to see what we're in for when the time comes. Our blackbelt test is about a year and a half away now.

I feel creative today, so off I go before it passes. :o)

Candace Hates

I thought that might be an amusing Google search. Some of the results:

**Candace hates pink. (not true)

**Candace hates men for how stupid they are. (no, Candace loves men!)

**Candace hates the food (actually, I love most foods)

**Candace hates when people call her “Candy Girl”. (not true!It's kinda nice, actually)

**Candace hates endless chatter. (not if it's intelligent)

**Candace hates being snuck up on and tenses up when anyone gets into her personal space or touches her without permission. (That rarely happens, but I usually find it exhilarating. Don't you? At least after the loud screaming part.)

**Candace hates the smell of fresh baked bread. (OK, well that was actually true for a long time. I once changed a diaper while babysitting that smelled just like fresh-baked bread. It was slimy and green and I had a bad smell association for along time. All gone now, though.)

**Candace hates you (there are a lot of those! But I don't hate you. Really.)

**Candace hates me (um, I don't know what to say to that - sounds kinds psycho)

**Candace hates the Backstreet Boys. (well that's prolly true.)

What does Google think *you* hate?

Can you tell I'm putting off that basement thing? "Down once more to the dungeon of my black despair. . ." Nope - better make some fudge first. Much more appealing.

If You Live Near Madison, WI

Go check out Bob Manor and the Getaway Drivers on Sunday night:

$6 (actually their blog says $6, their site says $3 - what's the scoop, guys?) 9:00pm, High Noon Saloon, Madison, February 26th

where you will be entranced by, among other things, a two-headed lead singer and narcoleptic bass player. They will be thrilled to autograph your various body parts after the show and wrest your $ from your unsuspecting fingers in exchange for a CD or 2.

They're opening for the Deadstring Brothers along with Auburn, nominated as MAMA's Best New Artist. Tell 'em Candy sent you and Ellie will refrain from beating you with flat noodles (or not.)

Directions:
High Noon Saloon is located at 701A E. Washington Avenue (or Hwy 151), just east of the Capitol in downtown Madison, Wisconsin. The cross street is Blount St., and our entrance is in the rear east corner of the building. Parking is available in the "good neighbor" lot located on the 600 block of East Main St. between Blount and Blair. Street parking is also available on Blount St., E. Main St. and E. Washington Ave.
CDs will be on sale for only $5!

Blogday

We're skipping swimming today. Sad to think of that big pool there all empty without us, but we woke up a little late and after paying those pesky bills, I shouldn't recharge the swimming card until next payday. OTOH we get to lounge around and act like it's Wednesday until this evening's red belt classes.

I'm making curry to celebrate a day of semi-debauchery. Have you ever popped mustard seeds (or as my packet from the Indian grocery says, "mustarded") in a hot frying pan? They kind of start zinging all over the place.

I've been practicing Tae Guk Il and Ee Jang backwards. Very confusing. I'm the kind who can't say the alphabet backwards past zyxw without a lot of racking my brain and starting at the beginning of the next chunk, doing it forwards to get the next one back, ad nauseum. And if I hadn't made songs to teach Fishy his forms, I'd be sunk. As it is, I go kind of go chunk by chunk with the songs, though it's still really confusing.

I've dejunked some today - mostly the 2 littles' clothes that are too small. I'm going to suck it up and hit the basement some today too. If I don't return in a reasonable amount of time, please alert the authorities.

Pant, Pant, Pant

This is actually Thursday's post, but Blogger was not on my side last night. It cut out right on time, but didn't come back on time. :oP

So tonight when I was helping teach Little Kid class, the Master got out the hanging helmet for flying sidekicks and announced "your instructor will demonstrate." Oy! It's been a while since we got to do those ourselves, and I was so hoping not to make a fool of myself in front of this large group of kids and their parents, who had until this announcement been gaily chatting away amongst themselves and were now suddenly riveted on the possible spectacle to come. No pressure. Thank the Tae Kwon Do gods, I did not make a fool of myself. Whew. Well, at least not AFAIK.

I have actually had some success in helping kids learn how to do cartwheels this week. That might not sound that hard, but you try it sometime!! Demonstration is one thing - no problem - but now try to get a 4 -8 year old to actually understand and try to perform the physical motions. Yeesh!

Wow, class tonight was not as strenuous as it could have been, but we made up for it in sparring. First we lined up one on one (4 at a time.) One side had to move side-to-side only and the other side had to follow. 2.5 minutes nonstop, pant pant pant - small breather, maybe 30 seconds, now the other side chases for 2.5 minutes. My feet were burning the last time we did this. After my first round of chase and be chased tonight, they didn't. I was so proud of my feet for being tougher. After the second round (the second 5 mins), they burned. :oP My legs felt a bit like jelly.

Then we went on to relay races - 10 pulling step round kicks on a target, run to the next target, switch sides, 10 pulling step round kicks, followed by rear leg round kick, run around the cone and back to the start to tag off. I swear the hardest part was running back to the start with my jelly legs. After that we thought we were done, but first we had to jumprope with a hula hoop, backwards. Does that make sense? You hold the hula hoop in front of you, flip it over your head and jump over it as you spin it back around for the next revolution - the hoop is the "rope" and you are jumping through it. Oh yeah - WITH our sparring gear on - but we did get to take off our helmets. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself coordinated enough to do this with no difficulty. I thought it ws going to be pretty hard.

If Thursday bloggings seem to be mostly about TKD it's cuz I spend 5 hours at the gym on Thursdays. And now I have a date with the tub and dh.

Overheard

John overheard the kidlets discussing something from a Harry Potter book (most likely some sort of creature from one of the peripheral books) and saying how tiny it was. Sluggie (8) said "It's as tiny as Mama's panties."

At that point dh cheered loudly.

Nyuck nyuck! I've set a new standard in "tiny." :o)

JFF = Just For Fun

A survey I stole from Kitkat to fill in:

What is the middle name of the first person you ever slept with?
Easy! Alberic.

What kind of underwear are you wearing and what color?
Pink satin Hello Kitty G-string/V-string. The cheerleader one.

What is the song you want played at your funeral?
While I'm not actively planning to ever expire, I suppose if I did I wouldn't care WHAT was playing. How about "The Day Pat Murphy Died" by Great Big Sea, and there should be a lot of hard liquor and general festivity. Maybe togas should be required attire to further lighten the atmosphere. Or blue Christmas lights. (aha ha! lighten!! I crack myself up. Mostly cuz I didn't intend it that way. See Ford Prefect over there -->)

What would your last meal be before getting executed?
Something to make me invisible, or able to walk through walls, or deadly to touch (temporarily)

Beatles or Stones?
Sting

If you had to pick one person on earth who should die, who would it be?
The @#%@ that made the child prn blog mentioned some time ago. Though I'd rather just beat him within an inch of death. Not comfortable actually taking away a life or being responsible for that.

What is the thing most important to you (as far as physical) about the preferred sex?
Personality. Alpha-male.
OK, um, in decent shape - not a blob.

If you could have any super power what would it be?
Flight!

Favorite hangover cure?
I don't have one, but if I did, it would be that concoction Jeeves makes.

How many drinks does it take to get you drunk?
2 or 3 on a not-empty stomach.

Hair color you'd most like someone you're dating to have?
Not dating, but I like shaved or dark. Daniel Craig being the exception to the rule.

If you had to be blind or deaf?
Neaf
Do I really have to choose blind or deaf? I guess deaf so I could still do TKD. What would I do without POTO and everything else I listen to? Argh!

Do you have any psychiatric problems?
Depends on who you ask.

Siblings that should go to rehab?
None. For drugs or alcohol anyway. My sis has a linguistics addiction but there's no 12 step for that yet. She's very cunning, so people don't generally mind.

Least favorite month?
Usually Feb cuz I'm sick of winter by then, but this one hasn't been so bad.

First movie you can remember seeing as a kid?
*****glorious shining light and hallelujah chorus*****
STAR WARS!!!! First movie I saw in a theatre. I kid you not. I was 10, it had been re-released, we had just moved back to the States. It was verboten to see films in theatres for our religion at the time and we went anyway. George Lucas has been my hero ever since!

Favorite person in the whole world?
My family! (yes, you too She-Ra)

When's the last time you went on a date?
What do you mean by "went?" Like, "went into the bedroom or bathtub for a party?" With 4 kids and not much disposable $, the dates happen at home. But dh cooks wicked awesome food and we like creativity, so I think that counts. Um, last night. Plus a hot date lined up for tonight, LOL!

Do you like violent movies or dirty movies?
Is this a choice Q or a "do you like either of these" Q? If it's a choice, I'll go with violent for plot reasons. Once you've seen a few of the others, you've seen them all. Given my druthers, I don't really like violent ones either, with a few exceptions. Movies like X-men, SW etc. are fine, but I don't like the kind with slo-mo splashing blood or rolling heads, YK? Reindeer Games, for instance, sucked the big wazoo.

Fall or spring?
Yes.

If you are straight, what person of the same sex would you do it with?
I would only entertain that Q if I were drunk, and I prolly wouldn't entertain the actual idea at all.

Where do you want to live when you are old and brittle?
Prolly somewhere warmish. Hope I don't get brittle, but it's funny.

Who is the person you can count on most?
Dh.

If you could date any celebrity past or present, time and age are not factors?
Tricky. If I were single of course, right? There are several with whom I'd require a trial period to make sure they are date-worthy. :oD I believe I've mentioned 2, and a movie a 3rd was in. Of course there are a few others. . . Good thing I don't actually have to make that decision, huh?

What books have you pretended you've read?
I haven't pretended, though I prolly neglected to read some for Lit classes. Mostly I just bit the bullet, installed non-blink eye devices and slogged through. Oh - once I faked it for a History assignment in 10th grade. I realised the period before class that I had unfinished homework. "Describe your life as a student in Leningrad in 1917" (I think that was it.) I totally BSed it - wrote that as a student in Leningrad, I of course didn't speak English and then I wrote the rest of the answer in English words BUT in the Cyrillic alphabet so the teacher couldn't tell what I had written. (I didn't know more than a few words of actual Russian) He gave me full credit "one time" with the "benefit of the doubt." Nice guy. :o)

What's a word you would use to describe your life?
Eclectic.

What did you dream last night?
Ooh, la, la. Well, it was fun. I initiated something with a guy and we went from there. (see below) Very steamy followed by complete guilt.

Favorite band?
Is Sting a band? Well, that's my choice whether he is or not.

Gotta go. Hot date! :o)

Why Do I Love Wednesday?

Let me count the reasons:

I love thy mornings which come neither early nor stressful
I love thy lack of appointments and thy afternoons restful
I love thy loose, languid, lounge-about ways
Thou art more lovely than week's other days
Most other days we scamper hither and yon.
And free time, once arrived, is quickly gone
But thy ways without such firm constrictions
Make for pleasant times, eschewing frictions
The sun will shine regardless of all cloud
Our music shall be cranked up ever loud
We dance with wild abandon on your day
As joy that overwhelms us we obey

In keeping with the True Spirit of Wednesday, the poem does not follow contrictions of meter, either!

Ever have one of *those* dreams? I did last night and my brain actually said "it's OK, it's just a dream, so go for it" and then I wasn't sure it WAS a dream, and I was all overwhelmed with guilt, and people were upset and OMG what a relief to wake up. And it wasn't even satisfying if you KWIM. Fun, but not satisfying. Am I going to blush when I see this guy IRL? Hopefully I'll have forgotten by then, right? And where the heck does this stuff come from? OTOH it must have been a workout, cuz I weighed in lighter than ever, LOL!

Maybe I'll blog more in my secret blog. }:->

I love waking up late and cooking rice for brunch, thus giving myself a guaranteed 35 mins of guilt-free enforced waiting before feeding the crew. Muahaha!! And we have a yummy leftover curry, so everyone's happy.

I'm sure more blogging will be done later.

Eat, Drink and be Merry, for Tomorrow We Debauch!

Overheard today:

Gogo: I like that word! Debauchery! (we'd been talking about the joys of Wednesdays)

Prawn: Ooh, it's Gollum's preciousssss! (we're watching the animated ROTK)

Sluggie: Do people stop fighting in the nighttime in war?

Mollusc: Too much singing! (in ROTK, and I agree)

I realised today that I not only need a word for nose-deaf but for arm-crippled. Sigh. I cannot for the life of me come up with something I like. But that won't stop me from trying. I learned the word dooced today, which was only recently invented.

Nose-deaf: Neef (Bloody stink! It's taken!! So now it will be neaf. Sigh.)

Arm-crippled: Arkled

And I'm just going to use them whether they're perfect or not, LOL!

Person A: Don't just stand there like you're arkled. Pick up that bag!
Person B: Are you totally neaf? I'm not touching that thing! It reeks!

Can just anyone put stuff in the Urban slang dicitonary? *evil grin*

Monday, Monday, MONdayyyyyyyy!

Woo hoo! The Superbowl substitution was FUN!

Here's something I'm nearly embarrassed to blog about. I don't usually care which celeb is dating/marrying/divorcing/embalming which, but a link came up an Amity's that kinda blows my socks off.

I didn't know that some people think Katie Holmes is not really pregnant. Did you? I still didn't care, really. The post was a link to a pic showing a BUTT ugly ensemble she was wearing that was low rise jeans over either a unitard/gigantic baby onesie, or big a$$ maternity bloomers. (too big to call 'em panties) But then I realised that the point was not so much the hideosity of the ensemble as the question as to whether she's really knocked up. Well, I didn't get it. Not from that pic anyway, so I clicked around and OMG. Have you seen this?

So I guess I'm really skeptical about the pregnancy now. I mean, look at Oct compared to Dec. (esp Dec 5) and then Jan 13 compared to 15. Whassup with that?!?!? So is their baby coming via rocketship or what? And why pretend? Which is the biggest thing making me still wonder if she really *is* pg. I mean, why would anyone fake that?

It's a bummer that Cruise kinda wacked out. I still think he's pretty hot, but it's hard to pretend that he's not insane. Somehow that detracts from his hotness. (I know, I know, that's not very PC of me. Insane folks are peeps, too.) I can see how the actors get sucked into strange stuff, though. It must be a very lonely life. I bet they crave honest social settings (rather than hangers-on and sycophants,) and family-type situations.

Huh. I thought I had more to say than that. Guess not. Musta gotten kicked too hard in the head tonight.