Summer Swinging

Summer is in full swing. Here's how I know:

~I had to carefully position my bra straps this morning to get them inside the narrow strips of unsunburnt skin on my shoulders

~I hear the hissing of sprinklers every morning

~The Government of Ontario wakes me by telling me to wear DEET

~All the windows are open (well, actually, this is more like spring, but the summer has been unreasonably gorgeous this year - cooler and dryer)

~Products of garage sales are making forays into the house and yard

We acquired a swingset from a neighbour's garage sale yesterday and the kids are apoplectic with joy. Just imagine how they'll be when we get it assembled!

Fame

I'm gonna live forever!

Er, well, my sis is, anyway.

The Getaway Drivers got a great review from Madison's Ithsmus. :)

Woke up in My Clothes Again This Morning

Don' t know exactly where I am. . .

I was awakened by the Government of Ontario instructing me to use DEET.

Feeling Creative

Ever have those days when you feel like you need to create something? I'm having one of those days. I'll probably be doing more at Versalicious than here. And maybe I'll do some hands-on creating, as well. As long as I don't spend all my time dithering about what to do. ^_^

I also need to take some stuff back to the library. The last two times I went, they had to override the 100 book limit for me (which they'll do for homeschoolers.) Even though I brought stuff back the second time. One librarian was looking at me in shock upon hearing how many books I had. The other checker-outer said, "They're homeschoolers," as if that explained everything. "Yeah, we're homeschoolers," I echoed.

And then I wondered whether that was supposed to mean that we (hsers in general) check out a lot of stuff for educational purposes, or whether we just read a lot.

Slightly Famous

Sitemeter is fun. That's how I found out that my blog was linked on this news blurb. ^_^

Summer

If you're looking for me, I'll be at the beach.

A binder clip, a binder clip, my kingdom for a binder clip. . .

What a Waist

Thank God there is some justice in the world. (though apparently there is at least one justice too many)

I can't get over this Pearson guy. You know -- the judge who sued the dry cleaners for $54 million after they allegedly lost his pants? The second pair of pants in as many visits, it turns out, Pearson having been compensated $150 and banned from the store after the first incident. But he weasled his way back in, much to the detriment of store owners Jin and Soo Chung.

According to the article, on the witness stand, Pearson broke down in tears and had to take a break from his testimony because he became too emotional while questioning himself about his experience with the missing trousers.

O_o

Pearson [who continually referred to himself as "we"] testified that Chung insisted [she had found his pants], saying, "These are your pants."

Pearson then rushed from the courtroom, overcome with emotion.

The judge ruled Pearson must pay the defendants' court costs, which amount to about $1,000. Bartnoff said she would consider at a later date whether to make Pearson also pay the Chungs' attorneys fees, which make up the larger portion of their legal fees.

I hope he loses his shirt as well.

Happy Birthday GuTTer MuNKi!!

Today MuNKi completes another action-packed trip around the sun! In celebration thereof, I'm attempting to make a German Chocolate cake (his favourite kind.) I do hope it doesn't turn out to be a German Chocolate Atrocity. I kind of have a track record with cakes. They're usually either very good, or very, very bad.

Since I have to make the frosting from scratch anyway, I decided I might as well go whole hog and do the cake from scratch as well. It wasn't too awfully fiddly - just some chocolate to melt, and some sifting. Everything else was pretty run-of-the-mill. It only took about 5 repetitions of the above song to mix up, allowing for gratuitous dancing. (And thank you, Jamie, for my new Hawksley Workman obsession!) I do hope that I hear the oven timer when it goes off.

I know I don't get all mushy here about GuTTer MuNKi. At least I don't think I do. But that's purely out of consideration for the sensibilities of my dear readers. Today that goes out the door for one post. There really is no way to express in writing how I feel about my MuNKi. He's strong and brilliant, loves to read, humours me with chick flicks and professes enjoyment. He's musical, and tolerant of my own musical obsessions (even when I loop stuff ad infinitum), cooks awesome food,and bakes amazing bread. He has a delightfully nasty sense of humour, as well as certain well-appreciated skills that I won't go into here. And on top of it all, he contributed the best 92 chromosomes imaginable to our troupe (yes, that's intentional) of little MuNKis. And he loves us. What more could I ask?

Happy Birthday, MuNKi. I love you.

Some Kind of Miracle

some weeds are pretty so I pretend that I planted them

Pics will be somewhat randomly interspersed with text in today's post.

like this

By some freak twist of fate that I still don't quite understand, I don't have to teach any morning classes this week. At all. Yes, the dojang is closed every morning this week. O_O

I'm still unsure of what to do with myself.

oracle of delphinium

OK, that's an outright lie. I'll be writing.

I had a big breakthough in my novel-to-be this weekend. You know, the one I lost when my laptop crashed. (urgh) Needless to say, I now back it up early and often, and I have to say that in the long run, it's going to be a better book for having to do it twice, because I'm at such a different place in my life now that all sorts of things are being woven in that wouldn't have made it before. Yeah, that's what I tell myself.

weeping rose

So, yep, I'll be writing. (And feeling guilty about those 2 review books I still need to finish. Gah!)

Amelia Lobelia X3


MuNKi bread
In other news, in a stroke of sheer genius, MuNKi got the Linux box both rip and burn-capable, so now Sting is able to serenade me while I write (lucky Sting ;) ) AND, we can burn CDs that actually play in the van. O_O (this is huge, folks ^_^) In the past, none of the stuff we've burned has played in the car. It plays in the DVD player, but not the car. But all the cool Korean and Hindi and Arabic stuff that my friend burns for me - no problem. I'm still not sure what the deal is, but I have to say that I ♥ Linux. Tux is my homeboy. Or, er, whatever. ^_^

Today was our last day to feed our friend's Savannah cat and Pixiebob while she's on her honeymoon. (yes, the wedding we went to last weekend) Needless to say, the kids have loved that. >^_^<



And now we must go eat the Creme de Menthe cake I made.

That is all.

Will Wonders Never Cease?

I got up while everyone else was sleeping so I could write, which means that I have an ecstatic (and rather sheddy) Trillian purring and rubbing all over me, following me everywhere, nibbling my toes, and generally loving me.

While I was in the shower, I started thinking about the 2 books I need to review, but decided I could do that later, because it really was time to get back to writing. And then, of course, when I fired up the computer, rather than opening up one of my documents, I came straight to blogland.

Now my Fishy is awake and has joined me on the couch, and Trilly is loving both of us, rather certain at this point that at least one of us can be dragged off to fill her food bowl. Do you think I can convince the FishMan to do it? Yes! ^_^

Yesterday at the beach, there was a group of 3 60-ish guys who were so dark and leathery that they looked like this. (Their natural shade would have been something more like this judging by the bits of unbaked skin sticking out here and there.) We've dubbed them The Cancer Club. They had a neat little remote control powerboat and when we first got there, there was hardly anyone else at the beach, so I was a little afraid they might try to strike up a conversation or something, thus ruining the point of a free and relaxing day at the beach. As it turned out, I was not wearing my "please talk to me about strange and meaningless things if I look like I might want to enjoy some solitude" sign, and we got to keep to ourselves, which was wonderful. But if Jamie had been there, they would totally have been hitting on her. ^_^ It was so nice to be away from the phone and the doorbell and all that. I saw a few people gabbling on their cellophones and had to wonder why?!?!

Last night MuNKi and I watched The Upside of Anger. Actually, we started out watching Sideways, but it was so lame that we blew it in place and put in the other one. Good decision! I enjoyed it a lot and would definitely see it again. There were some very good lines, and lot of great moments, though I'm not sure what's up with the youngest daughter being named "Popeye." I was hesitant to check out the DVD, originally, because I usually find Costner so stilted and annoying, but it was free, so I gave it a shot. This one makes us 2 for 2, enjoyment-wise, for recent Costner films. I'm wondering if we should go for the hat trick. Any suggestions? Or is that one still waiting to be filmed? ;)

Monty Palindrome

Father (Graham Chapman ):
. . . the word, `intercourse' -- good and woody ... inter ... course ... pert ... pert thighs ... botty, botty, botty ... (the mother leaves the room) ... erogenous ... zone ... concubine ... erogenous zone! Loose woman ... erogenous zone ... (the mother returns and throws a bucket of water over him) Oh thank you, dear ... you know, it's a funny thing, dear ... all the naughty words sound woody.

Mother (Eric Idle): Really, dear? ... How about tit?

Father:
Oh dear, I hadn't thought about that. Tit. Tit. Oh, that's very tinny isn't it?

Prawn: Tit is a palindrome.

^_^

Happy Solstice!!

Tonight we went to a show about birds of prey at the library. It was very, very cool. And The Prawn may end up in the paper, since the Freep picture dude got her pic and took down info from us afterward.

I wanted to do a fire tonight, but that would have required purchasing a firepit thinggy and wood, and wouldn't you know it, payday isn't until tomorrow. Plus, MuNKi is just not fired up. (grooooan!) I'm going to have to plan these celebrations more in advance and let MuNKi know what we'll be doing, so he's less likely to put the kaibosh to such things. :) As it is, the kidlets will get to stay up late, and we'll have a Monty Python fest.

Reading Rainbow

I realise I may have been even more scarce than usual. It's that darned Harry Potter. I'm going to finish book 4 today and start on book 5. At this rate my greatest fear is not that I'm going to have any trouble finishing before the new one comes out, but that I'll finish them and then read a bunch of other books and forget everything all over again. ^_^ There are so many LOL moments in those books. I'd forgotten. What fun. ^_^

Here are some of the other books on my list:

~Walking the Labyrinth
~Michael Moorcock's Elric books
~The Wizard of Earthsea trilogy (re-read, and then possibly some of the follow ons, but after what TG said, probably not much of them :) )
~A Fine Balance (not really looking forward to this one, but who knows?)
~A Circle of Quiet, The Summer of the Great Grandmother, and the 3rd one if I can get my hands on it (L'Engle)
~The Flame Trees of Thika (re-read, Elspeth Huxley)
~The Hippopatamus (Stephen Fry)
~The Sparrow
~Darcy and Elizabeth
~a bunch of Terry Pratchetts
~a bunch of Wodehouse I've been stocking up
~The Far Pavilions

I have at least 2 shelves of stuff I want to read. Maybe I should just blow my blog in place now. ^_^

Begin the Beguine

Ah, where, in fact, to begin? First of all, a very Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. Well done, you! You've made beautiful children (I've seen pictures, you know) and put parts of yourselves into them, and look at how cool they're turning out!

Yesterday MuNKi and I celebrated our 17th anniversary by going to a big party with about 150 people, most of whom we didn't know. There was food and drink and song and dance, and a great time was had by all. Well, yes, it was someone else's wedding reception, but that didn't stop us having a smashing good time. ^_^ I think the happy couple chose a very auspicious date.

The kids were hesitant to dance in public at first, but after they got liquored up a bit (OK, not really) they were shaking their booties with the best of them. I didn't know they had those kinds of moves. I think the part that made me glow the brightest, though, was having several different people come up to us over the course of the evening and compliment us on the children and their behaviour. That is really a wonderful feeling, and I need to remember to make it a point of doing it myself whenever the opportunity arises. :)

My reading spree has grown to nearly heroic proportions as I finished all 979 (oversized) pages of The Fiery Cross and went on to burn through Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by the next day. Now I'm on to Harry #2. I'd forgotten just how delightful the books are. So much better than the movies. I mean, the movies aren't bad, but the books are just so much better. Rowling truly is a gifted writer.

Once again I have pictures to post that I need to dink around with first, so maybe I'll get them up next time. Have a gorgeous Sunday!

Reading Time

The Library Summer Reading program is on again. Hooray!

I'm halfway through The Fiery Cross, have 3 of the Wizard of Earthsea (LeGuin) books queued up for rereading, and am about a third of the way through The Light Fantastic (Terry Pratchett.) I have so many books on my list it's not remotely funny. Maybe I'll try to sort them out and post them.

What are you reading?

I Find Your Lack of Couth Disturbing

To sort of quote Darth Vader. . .

The bad thing about being a slightly hippie-minded person is that you tend to run into the same bunch of people all over the place. At least if you live in a small town, anyway.

So there's this guy by the name of "Tom," which (no offense to any of you Toms who is actually a normal human being) in my somewhat limited experience is a name that only rather strange men seem to have. Or I guess it's that boys named Tom grow up to be rather strange men. Or maybe it's that boys named Thomas, who choose to go by the nickname 'Tom' grow up to be losers. Or it could simply be that I have met all the People Named Tom who are either deranged, losers, or have the personality of wallpaper paste, and the rest (whom I have yet to meet) are lovely people. Anyway. . .

Let's start with how I know his name is Tom. It was kind of a no-brainer, (Mace Windu's first words) because a couple of weeks ago when I first encountered him, a child at the park went from whining it at him to literally screaming it at him. His response? To come and cater to her every whim of course. And when she started calling him names? Well, pretending to cry was his response of choice. It was pretty icky and certainly did not inspire my respect. He then proceeded to show his Prowess at All Things by beating the little boys in the group at everything and gloating about it. Did I mention that Tom is about 50-something? I sense insecurity. I eventually came to the disappointing (38 seconds in) conclusion that he was a part of a homeschool group that had come to the park that day.

So of course he showed up at the co-op on Friday, where he proved to be just as icky as he had seemed at the park. I noticed him, of course, and carefully avoided eye contact (and anything else that could be misinterpreted as an overture of -- well, acceptance of him as a part of the gene pool,) but the woman at the counter beside me wasn't as well-informed as I was and thus, when some utterance came out of Tom's mouth, rather than simply becoming more absorbed in her tallying (as I did) she looked up and answered him. At which point he asked, "How did you know I was talking to you?"

"You were looking at me," she said.

He then proceeded to mock her with that false sort of humour that has just enough undercurrent of meanness to let you know what sort of person you're really dealing with. Do you know the kind I mean? If not, consider yourself lucky. :) "I just said it, and then looked around to see who would look at me." He continued, but at that point I stopped listening because on some visceral level he bothers me too much for me to afford the nasal sound of his voice any more lodging in my head. I mean, who mocks someone who has been trying to help them? People like Tom, that's who. Maybe I should have said something to Tom about what a rude ass hat he is. I think I'd like to call someone an ass hat just once. ^_^ But I'm not that good at confrontation. On the other hand, I'm sure (most unfortunately) that I'll be seeing him around again, which gives me plenty of time to plan. . .

A Week's Worth of Random Stuff

OK, Peeps. As usual I have been a sucky blogger. This week I completed my 38th trip around the sun - something I've been working on for close to 40 years now. I also read and reviewed two books. I think I used the word 'vivid' in both reviews, to my embarrassment. But oh well.

I taught my last 2 after-school classes of the year (Hallelujah, Jaffar!) and found that I was finally recovered enough from my sprained ankle to do jumping kicks once again. (Also Hallelujah, Jaffar! And WHEEEEEeeee! as well.)

I pulled out a lot of weeds (thank goodness for the minidisc player!) sewed some stuff, and took some random photos.

Marathon pics:





(high-fiving Sluggie at the finish)



You may remember when I cut this out nearly a year ago. You may remember that I was pretty clueless about what size to make. As I sewed, it became quite obvious that it was not going to fit me, so I thought it would go to Mollusc. As it turns out, the 6 darts sucked up a lot of fabric, and it was even too small for her. Sluggie was the very happy recipient. Here she checks herself out in the barthroom mirror:


I like the collar, and the covered buttons were fun to make.


Though, they hardly show up. ^_^


There's been a lot of gardening going on. Today when I was planting marigolds around Gogo's garden (to discourage bun-buns) I saw a mama spider covered with babies. I've seen them tons of times hauling their egg cases around, but never with their teeny little babies before. The grey fuzzy stuff is actually their tiny little semi-translucent legs.



And I decided that I needed a clothespin bag to act as a 3rd hand outside when I'm hanging the wash, so I Googled some pics and decided to rip off this cute design. However, I need a ton of clothespins, so I made mine a little deeper. The fabric is multidirectional, though I guess from the front it all looks sideways. Poop. It also looks a little wonky since I filled it with clothespins, but by the time I realised that, I was too lazy to take a better pic.

We put up the tent in the backyard today, and are all going to sleep out there tonight. :)

Oh, and I guess the fairies have taken up residence in our garden. I hope they can do something about the snake grass.

Here's hoping you have a Fairy Wonderful Weekend. :)

Molluscathon!

Mollusc did great! This was her first distance running ever and I'm so proud of her. She didn't end up training for it at all, since I was broken. Her first mile took 12 mins I think and then she mostly walked the second mile and hit that at 26:06. Her finishing time was 43:56. I wasn't bright enough to snap a pic of the clock.

We aren't really shoe people, so I was concerned about how her feet would do, since she was wearing tennies. At least they were broken in, cuz she got them from a friend, but not broken in to her feet, so?? It didn't occur to me until the day before to even make sure they still fit her. Like I said, we just aren't shoe people. In CA, Fishy was known at the local ice cream parlour as "The Boy With No Shoes" (even to friends when they went in without us ^_^ ) and when I first put shoes on him at close to age 2, it was like watching poor Agador Spartacus in The Birdcage ("Ah, but there is no point in me wearing shoes, sir. I never wear shoes, 'cause they make me fall down.")

Anyway, Mollusc got a blister on one toe, but other than that she fared very well. I have some piccys I still need to suck into the 'puter and then shrink and upload to photobucket. I'll add them ASAP.

Gotta Run

Mollusc is doing her first 5K tomorrow and we have to get up at some ungodly hour (for us -- especially for a Saturday.) I was originally going to do this with her, but at this point, it would not be an ankle-friendly thing to do. :-( Sluggie is being a floating volunteer, so they both got T-shirts.

It was nunchuck night for us and MuNKi hoodwinked this kid into thinking that he had "left-handed" nunchucks since he was having trouble. ^_^ For the second time. (apparently the kid "changed them" after the last time MuNKi (not sure I want to know) did this.) Dude, it's 2 foam-covered sticks and a chain. How can they be left or right handed?!?