Jumping at the Ground and Missing

An Inauspicious Day

2009-03-19T22:41:00.003-04:00

In Chinese philosophy/theology, there are days that are auspicious for certain endeavours, and other days that are less so. Today, March 19th, is a particularly inauspicious day for our family, as it's the day my father died, as well as the day that MuNKi choked last yr, requiring the Heimlich to save his life (thank you, Erica!)

Today we played hooky from TKD in the morning, because we were so behind in everything else due to extensive yard work this week. (A result of the gorgeous weather.) After I decided not to take the kids, I realised what day it was, and silently breathed a sigh of relief for the avoidance of whatever driving disaster we may have ended up in had we gone. We agreed that my dad would have highly approved of our schedule-breaking hooky behaviour.

MuNKi went off to take part in a BIG presentation at work, dressed (as we would later realise) in one of my dad's suits. He ate his lunch with full supervision in the office and did not choke even once.

I took the kids to the library for volunteering as usual for Thursdays, but when I saw Grumpy Newspaper Man in the Teen section, I got worried about the Littles, who were in the kid section. Usually Grumpy Newspaper Man stays in his wing chair by the fireplace, thus leaving my Littles free of his candy-giving, worriesome-question-asking behaviours. Today, noting that he was on the prowl, and also taking note of the date, I uprooted from the teen section (where you can plug your laptop in) and took my laptop over by the Littles in the Kid Section, passing GNMan on the way. He was already interacting with some tiny kids, but their dad was there, so I felt comfortable moving on to my own crew.

I got hold of MuNKi upon arriving home, and determined that he was still alive (he was supposed to call me after lunch, but is notoriously bad about remembering to call me back, ever, LOL!) and not too long thereafter, he arrived home safe and sound.

We played hooky from night class and sparring, too. I just wasn't in the mood, which isn't really like me, but what can I say? I felt guilty, but it passed (all too quickly, as Mr. Bennet would say.)

And that was March 19th. There's an hour and 5 minutes remaining. I think we'll make it. In the meantime, a weirdly coincidental song that found my sister today:

Overheard

2009-03-18T21:53:00.002-04:00

"You can tell we're geeks because we're composing Dr. Who episodes in Latin."

"Are you still employed?"

"Mater in horto herbum ingneus."

"Run!"

"Gavin Rossdale!" (*gasp*)

"My calves are sore!"

"It's Wednesday!" (exultant sigh of happiness)

"It really does look like a body."

"I got a great Bigfoot picture through the smoke."

"My calves are sore!"

"I still have a job."

"Which one of these is Jimmy Hoffa?" (there was a weird correspondence between a newly resurrected newspaper/headline/photo and our family's running joke)

"The Master!" (*swoon*)

"Eheu! Dominus ad est!"

"My calves are sore!"

"Euge, more like!"

"Where are the binoculars?!?!"

"Why is the rice purple?"

"The world's biggest land animal!"

"Lara, put fwoaty cwoaffee beens in tha potatuh coolah!"

"I'm sharpening my wit."

"Want some of my nutritious slop?"

"I'm covered in chocolate."

Rollercoasterama

2009-03-12T23:25:00.003-04:00

I should have known it was coming. Last time I got all antsy and decluttery, MuNKi got activated to full time Air Force, and we ended up moving across the country. This time, MuNKi got laid off.

Here's how the day went:

Morning: MuNKi goes to work. I remember that this is Layoff Day (30% ends up going) and try to decide whether I hope he makes it through or not, since "not" will push us onward to more exciting things. ^_^ (I know. I can be reckless.)

10:00 am: I take the kids to morning classes at TKD. I tell the Master that MuNKi might be getting laid off today.

12:00 pmish: We head home. I call MuNKi to see if he remembered to fax my sworn statment of Absolute Being (or whatever) to CA so I can get an official copy of my birth certificate. The phone picks up and there's silence. I try again and get a recording - not his. A few mins later Mollusc tries and then informs me "I think he said he was in the process of being laid off. It was hard to hear him."

12:45ish: I open my compter and see that MuNKi has messaged me that he's been cut. I'm strangely untroubled.

1:15ish: Friends come to hang out for a bit. (We took their son home from TKD with us so the kids could play) We talk about the job thing and toy with the idea of going to live in Hobbit Holes in Wales.

2:30: MuNKi (no, I'm NOT implying that he's a jerk, LOL!) arrives home with his box of stuff. Someone has given him the contact info of the competition's director. Heh.

3:00ish: I take the Bigs to the Library for their volunteering hour.

3:20: MuNKi arrives with the Littles, who apparently wanted to come after all. He informes me that he's gotten a call from a different company in Muskegon or somewhere across the state with a job offer. Upon hearing that it's across the state, the dude says he thinks he has stuff in Detroit, too and says he'll call back.

3:30ish: The Bigs want to know what "grades" they're in. We don't have "grades"; we just do whatever's challenging in different subjects. I give random numbers that are hopefully close. It turns out that the children's librarian is nominating them for the town's Teen Service award for their volunteering work.

4:00ish: we head home and the phone starts ringing off the wall. I can't begin to count how many calls came and from whom, though I know there were people from 2 companies calling: MuNKi's employer's company and the company with whom they are doing their best business.

4:45ish: The Director of Engineering calls MuNKi to say "Oops. It was a mistake. We need you after all."

I guess it's good to know you're needed. But do we trust the company to keep him on? Ha!

How's it Bean?

2009-03-11T00:49:00.004-04:00

One of my friends pointed me at MAKE magazine's podcasts about making Bean Bots. Since then, I've managed to get my hands on this book. (And hey, is Hrynkiw a hockey name or what?) I forsee a trip to Radio Shack in our future. Also the dismemberment and parts-scavenging of those no-longer working CD and tape players we have lying around.

Tomorrow is Holy Wednesday again, and BG is coming over to see if we can make her laptop work. Most likely, we'll end up sitting around finding weird stuff online and trashing Dell. BG has her very own blog now, so if you want to laugh, go check it out. Because it's funny, I mean. Hopefully she won't abuse it to dish dirt on me. ^_^

Signs

2009-03-09T21:57:00.004-04:00

There's a little boy I know who I suspect is being abused. I'm not certain, but I just have this feeling. Today when I saw him, he had a major shiner. His eye was swollen almost shut. He wouldn't talk to me about it. Not one word. He told the other little boy who was there that it had "happened while he was sleeping." His mom said his brother did it. His four year old brother.

A few weeks ago, it was bruises underneath both eyes.

Maybe there's an explanation. I know abusers like to stay away from visible areas. At least if they're not too drunk. Maybe his brother really did do something, and then it swelled when he was asleep. God knows I don't want to get CPS involved if there really isn't an issue. But I'm going to be watching him. Very carefully.

My Kingdom for a (Wooden) Horse

2009-03-08T20:07:00.006-04:00

We recently finished The Children's Homer by Padraic Colum. I had originally thought that the kids would find it semi-dry, especially in light of the somewhat archaic prose, but each reading brought clamouring for more. They were truly bummed when it ended. Now I'm looking for supplementary materials, so if anyone knows of any great books or films, let me know. I've checked out Troy from the library, but have no deslusions as to its suitability for children. Still, I'll preview it and see. Prawnie made a lovely painting of the sea nymph who helped Odysseus, and Fishy made a fun diorama out of Sculpey that has Polyphemus the Cyclops and his cave, one of his big sheep, and Odysseus with his wine skin and sharp stick (for putting out Polyphemus's eye.) Maybe someday I'll be able to post a pic. In the meantime, I won't attempt to describe it with 1,000 words, lucky for you.

I'm about to embark on another math book spree - Alg II for Mollusc to accompany her Geometry, and the 4th grade book for Dags. I can't believe it. Realli. I was talking with friends about Geometry's application beyond the actual class, and we were all hard-pressed to come up with any times we've actually used it. Even playing pool is more Physics than Geometry. Perhaps it's a time filler so that kids can get ready to embrace the headier concepts of higher level Algebra and Trigonometry. Surely there are useful principles, but beyond those that can be taught in about 1 week, I'm not sure what they are. So I think that doing Alg II concurrently with Geometry will be good. Less chance to forget how to do "real math" and all that.

We got our passport photos done on Saturday, and now all we need for our apps is proof that I was born. Here's hoping that the lovely state of California isn't so broke that it takes my $ but can't afford the postage to send out my birth certificate.

Penultimately, while I'm wasting your time with the trivia of my life, I finally downloaded some songs from the net. MuNKi* was able to get a Linux-friendly downlad app installed. I am now the proud owner of Coldplay's Viva La Vida (song, not album), Gavin Rossdale's Love Remains the Same, O.A.R.'s Shattered, and Blue October's Calling You and Into the Ocean. I need to look for Peter Gabriel's cover of The Book of Love next.

And finally, I have about 7 books going, but the one I'm reading the most is The Hindi Bindi Club, by Monica Pradhan, which is fantastic. It also makes me terribly hungry for good Indian food. Fortunately, there are recipes at the end of each chapter.

If you made it this far, tell me what you're listening to and/or reading. Please! :)

*Is this a sonic screwdriver which I see before me? Hur hur hur!

Nothing much

2009-03-05T22:14:00.005-05:00

When I started blogging again, I had visions of making this more of a photo blog. Unfortunately, the computer I use for storing (and then uploading) photos is toast on a stick right now, so that's going to have to wait.

So today you get:

* no pictures

* no wine recommendations (because, seriously, what are the odds you're going to be able to find the same ones in your area, regardless of how good they are? Hell, I can't even find the Sacred Stone that was so great at the same store where I originally bought it.)

* no description of my super amazing electrono-gizmophone, because I don't have a cell phone, nor do I want one

* no MuNKi link.

OK so, I lied about that last one.

Well

2009-03-04T19:43:00.008-05:00

It's been cold as a welldigger's, er, bum, as they say, which fosters long periods of indoorness. I'm doing the one-step-back and two-steps-forward routine in my re-writes, which, I suppose, is good and helps flow and continuity and all that. At least I hope so.

I find myself envisioning the future with more surety and clarity. That I will get this novel published seems more a "when" than an "if" now.

I have some questions for myself, and I'll ask the same of any who care to reply:

1) What would you be doing differently if nothing stood in your way, whether time, money, geography or reality?

2) What, if anything, stands in your way?

3) What, if anything, are you doing about it?

I find that answering these questions is a bit like making my Life Goals List. It's intimidating to think on a scale like that. It feels pretentious, and silly, and scary all at once. For instance, admitting that someday I would love to have written a successful episode or two of Dr. Who or some other science fiction show sounds both childish and vainglorious. When I think of some of the things to put on my List (because, yes, I was scared and left holes in it "for later") I find myself erecting barriers in my own mind: "What a lofty goal. Don't be ridiculous." No one else needs to stop me when I think like that, because I'm pretty darned good at stopping myself.

But as I strain against convention and safety and expectations, I feel my horizons broadening. I feel avenues of possibility opening, and I become aware that even if no road exists, I have the abilities to pave my own way.

Wednesday Eve

2009-03-03T21:34:00.005-05:00

Ahhhhh. Wednesday eve. Tomorrow is my Holy Day. My Day of No Commitments.

No doubt I'll be in the throes of rewrites, but perhaps I shall also make more soap. Shall I tell you about my last batch? I had Sweetgrass, which is a fantastic fragrance, amazingly similar to the real item. In case you're not familiar with sweetgrass, here's what Wiki has to say about it. Lovely stuff. I have a braid of it that I can never resist sniffing, and so I was forced to buy some when I saw it at Brambleberry.

I had visions of making a batch of pure sweetgrass scented soap for my mom and myself, and then selling leftovers at the co-op. But I didn't have enough of the oil, and honestly, what fun is soaping if you can't do some experimental mixing? So I mixed it with Black Tea, and that was really lovely. But I was still a little low on fragrance, so then I added chammomile, and I kinda wish I hadn't, though it still smells good. Live and learn. Such are the ups and downs of soapmaking. You have to be part chemist and part perfumer, and what doesn't work out, I hear you can grate and use in the washing machine.

For those of you interested in the books I mentioned on Facebook, I will be weeding out more tomorrow, so fear not; the list will be ready soon. For those of you who aren't on FB, LMK if you want a list of the books I'm getting rid of, free for the cost of shipping.

I've had the extreme pleasure of introducing my kids to Dr. Who recently. I've been a fan since 5 BCE (the 5th Dr, before Christopher Eccleston) and CE was their first Dr. Tonight I saw what is one of my all time favourite scenes. But now we are in mourning because we're out of episodes. At least ones that we can get our grimy mitts on.

And while we're on geeky admissions, Mollusc has informed me that today was Square Root Day. I'm not going to make any ROM bus or tuber jokes. I'll just say I hope you had a fair one.

Life Marches On

2009-03-02T12:10:00.004-05:00

Here's the thing: if I'm going to do something it needs to be now. I don't want to wake up and find myself 65 years old and still waiting for the next adventure to begin. "Eventually."

I come from a line of nomadic people, though you wouldn't know it to look at them. They don't keep camels or anything, I mean, or live in stick huts. Anymore. But they were globetrotters. I don't think that I realised until I was nearing adulthood that some people actually stayed in the same country, or even state, as their extended family. Forever.

Six years is the longest I've ever spent in one house, and now I find myself coming up on a six year mark once again and feeling suffocated. I love it here. I love the friends I've made. I love the things we do. I love the beauty of Michigan. I love my life. But to be honest, I'm itching to go again. I have wanderlust. I don't know if I'll ever be able to settle in one place "for the rest of my life." It just sounds so. . . final.

There's a chance we could go to Germany for 12-18 mos, which would be terrific, but it wouldn't be for a year or so yet. And if that falls through, my feet are still yearning for new soil -- another continent.

In the macrocosm of my life, I'm preparing for big changes, while in the microcosm, I keep on keeping on as it were -- making soap and selling it at the co-op, doing rewrites on the novel that I finally finished(!!), taking and teaching Tae Kwon Do classes, and homeschooling the kids. I plan my garden and hope there's no point this time. I pare down our books to what I would only be willing to cart across the ocean, and still find new ones to buy. I get passport applications and maps of the UK and Germany, and I think of painting the kids' rooms. It makes my head spin, to be honest. I feel like I'm straining against a giant rubber band, drawn back after each lunge, but still aching to cut myself free.

Great Things

2008-12-10T21:44:00.004-05:00

I was going to call this "Good Things" but then I rethought the title, because I realised that Martha Stewart probably owns that phrase, and the last thing I need is to get sued by her. I mean, the woman is impossibly well-organised, whereas I would be lucky to even remember to show up for the court date, let alone bring along my list of paltry excuses ("blonde", "4 children", "kicked in the head one (or two) too many times". . .) So I decided to one-up her instead. Take that, Marfa.

In light of the fact that I've not written a blog entry for over a month, I thought of making an excuse list for that as well ("homeschooling", "holiday season", "4 children", "writing like a madwoman", um. . . "blonde". . .)

And then I realised that your time would be more profitably spent elsewhere, so here are some yummy links for you:

a fantastic book, called "Homespun Gifts from the Heart"

another stupendous book called Making Doll's House Miniatures From Polymer Clay

and, er, Google. (OK, I admit it. It was a trick to get you to look at those beautiful graphics and listen to that beautiful music.)

We've been having way too much fun watching (and re-watching) Iron Man, reading good books, and working on holiday projects, some of which I may someday get organised enough to show you. In the meantime, I believe that Martha Stewart has a website you can go to that probably has real, fake pictures of impossibly neat children wearing impossibly clean clothing, capering around an impossibly beautifully decorated tree before eating their artistically sculpted yule log cake, decorated with real $600 truffles. And that can only be a Good -- well, you know.

The Frugal Foody

2008-11-05T13:10:00.003-05:00

As a household administrator (doesn't that sound snotty?), I've always found rising to challenges exhilarating. Yeah it can suck, too, when you see something you want or *need*, but there's something about not letting things get you down, not being beaten, that feels good.

This month's challenges include finding a way to go Organic and Non-GMO in a frugal way, and doing my best to handcraft as many gifts as I can for the holidays.

I was concerned about the expense of Organics, but I think there's a way to do it frugally. It will just take more work. MuNKi called this morning to say there was a rumour floating around at work that there is a possibility they won't be paid for the Christmas break. Which would be sucky. He thinks it may not affect the salaried employees, though (like himself.) Either way, if I plan ahead, we'll get through. I'm going to buy some bulk stuff from the co-op: oatmeal, beans, etc. We just ordered a bunch of flour from King Arthur when they had a free shipping deal, and I still have a ton of bulghur wheat, too. And I'm looking for a source for rice in even greater bulk than we already buy. So this week and the next will be devoted to finding some great recipes that stretch the food budget and maximize low cost ingredients. Feel free to share recipes and resources. I'll try to post some as I discover them. :)

I've decided to take my kitties off their conventional meds (one has a thyroid condition and another has athsma) and go homeopathic. Hey, if it's good enough for me, why not them? And bypassing the side-effects of the meds is a bonus, not to mention the cost difference. I should have thought of this ages ago, as homeopathics are what finally cured Emmett's UTI after 2 failed courses of traditional meds a year or 2 ago.

It's important, too, at this time to count my blessings. MuNKi still has a job, which is BIG! Today I'm making another batch of soap, and know that there are people at the co-op waiting to buy it. And the weather has been warm, so that keeping the thermostat at 61 just hasn't been a big deal. Yay! :)

But back to the food. Here's a yummy looking recipe for starters. My sis and I both had a thing about lentils leftover from our childhood, but we're challenging each other to make the yummiest and cheapest daal. This is going to be fun. :)

Loving the Lapbooks

2008-10-18T10:18:00.003-04:00

I found the coolest site for some already put together lapbooking packs. It's called In the Hands of a Child. They're having a sale on each of their All American Lapbook Packs this month, and just by mentioning that in my blog, I earn a $5 coupon. Woo hoo! They also have quarterly freebies (this quarter's is Thomas Alva Edison - cool!) I love that you can buy the packs in eFormat and print them out right away on whatever paper you like.

Our Election and Ancient Egypt lapbooks are coming right along. We're planning a trip to the DIA on Friday with some other hsers. Planned activities include, but are not limited to:

~Tour of Ancient Egypt displays (BYOBoD -- Bring Your Own Book of the Dead)

~ Modern Art Mocking Competition (extra points to those whose kids sketch something better in 3 mins or less -- OK so everyone will get those by default. Extra, extra points if you can stick it to the wall when the docents aren't looking.)

~Find the "Dumbledore Stairs" Before the Youngest Ones Can Ask About Their Location for the 5,000th Time Race

~Lie On Your Back and Stare at the Beautiful Ceiling Event (bonus points to those who remain unembarrassed by gawking passersby)

~Translate the Latin on the Walls near the Diego Rivera Murals Race

And here's how the lapbooks are looking these days:

True Confessions

2008-10-12T02:06:00.003-04:00

Things that will make me seem like even more of a dorky geek than I already do:

~Driving the Saturn (low to the ground, manual transmission) makes me feel a little bit like James Bond.

~Monday night classes are becoming shaven-headed dad night again. Yummy! I have to concentrate on teaching and not let my eyes wander. ^_^ Fortunately for me, the class usually consists of about 18 kids with the attention span of squirrels on speed, so I don't have to try too hard.

~When I go to a movie (pretty seldom) I always stay to the end of the credits so I won't miss anything tagged onto the end.

~I'm at the point in knitting where I'm cocky enough to think I could tackle complex stuff, since I don't yet know enough about the things I don't know to be afraid of them. (Does that make any sense?)

~I've been putting off buying the kids' new math books because there were other things to buy that were more exciting. Fortunately, no one's really run out of math yet anyway.

~I've been putting off blogging cuz I'm too lazy to upload the pics I've been taking.

~I've been working on the novel a lot more. Some of the things that end up happening still surprise me.

~I want to see Wanted *blush*

~I also want to see Nights in Rodanthe and (maybe) Four Christmases. How eclectic is that?

~And last, but not least, I'm heartily ashamed to admit that for the last 29 years I've thought that that was Eisenhower on the dime, and I wondered why he got to be on two coins. :-P

Photographic Dysentery

2008-09-30T10:11:00.016-04:00

Quilt top for MIL:

DIY SuperPeople:

Batguy

Bird Woman

"The Fringe"

"The Human Chrysalis"

MerChick

Close Encounters:

Feeling Wild:

Major Milestone:

Close Encounters Deux:

Message:
USTA!!

Feeling Crafty:

Global Inferno:
Nom:

Obscenely Crafty:

Superkatze!

Nom nom:
Weirdness:

Nom nom nom:

Brilliant!

2008-09-24T14:14:00.005-04:00

I think this Completely Serious Voting PSA pretty much sums it all up:

Additionally, one of our newest citizens had something extremely worthwhile to say on the subject of voting. I hope you can find the time to watch it all. Seriously.

Disappearing Nine Patch

2008-09-13T09:38:00.007-04:00

"Beware the Jabberwock my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!"

~Jabberwocky, Lewis Carroll

Gone!

OK, so what really happens is that you take your boring nine patch squares:

and whack them into fourths like this:

and then turn them however you like:

And then sew them back together. I was a little boggled by my lack of squares after reassembly until I remembered that I was turning blocks of nine into blocks of four. Duh.

A Moment of Silence

2008-09-11T08:51:00.001-04:00

A Day of No Pics

2008-09-03T09:19:00.003-04:00

~I'm working on a disappearing nine patch quilt for a friend's baby.

~I'm reading one of Kevin J. Anderson's new books for review and have another of his coming to me in the mail. Yay! He's a great writer, and dorky as it may be, I feel a little bit of a connection cuz he and MuNKi were friends in high school. I know that's weird. *shrug*

~One of my friends got to touch the Stanley Cup the other day. I think he may have licked it. I certainly would have. And then his sister went to visit it last night. I would like to go visit it it, too. Or at least some of those sweaty hockey players. ;-)

~I saved a snake from the neighbour cat a couple of days ago. Neither of them were too thrilled about that. Well, I think the snake may have been in the long run. I don't think I've ever been struck at by a snake before.

~And then I found a dead mole. This was the day after reading a blog from Somerset England (which I found by doing a search on quilt squares) which had a pic of a dead mole that the woman's cats had left in the yard. And then Mollusc came downstairs and told me she'd dreamed about finding a dead mole in the yard, so I told her about it. She dreams about stuff that's going to happen all the time.

~I think we're going to the beach today. Everyone else is in school. ^_^

Tempus Fugit

2008-08-26T08:27:00.005-04:00

(more about this at the bottom)

So life has been crazy busy as usual. Yesterday I took some of my soaps (the few cured ones that remained) to the co-op to sell. We'll see how that went. (I got to just leave them there with their info sheets.) I plan to Etsy the soaps, too. But I need to make bigger batches!

I've also been surfing curriculum. O. M. G. there is SO MUCH good stuff out there. Topping my WANT list are Latin Copybooks, Song School Latin, and Cambridge Latin, as well as these classical reading and writing Early Modern History copybooks (That would be Fishy's. There are more advanced ones for the bigs, and I was able to download and print the free one for the Prawn.)

And what homeschooler's life could possibly be complete without THIS BEAUTY? Invention truly is the mother of necessity with the Bind-it-All.

I also have to order new Math-U-See books for almost everyone, but Sluggie's the only one ready for hers yet. Mollusc and Fishy still have a number of lessons to finish up in their current books, and Prawn had the old 1st through 3rd grade book and is about half-way through.

In my searches, I found this incredible lapbooking site (they also have a great notebooking section if you do that.) We're working on the Ancient Egypt lapbook right now to go along with our Ancient History class. I also printed out two different Election process lapbooks that we'll prbably begin next week.

And finally, (hsingwise) I have been using this fantastic review site. Linky-o-rama, and great reviews, too. Actually, the reviews are just one facet of the site.

In other news, I have joined 2 quilt square swaps at Amitymama. We're doing the 8 Sabbats and there was enough interest for 2 swaps. I got Lughnassadh in one (Fall harvest holiday) and Yule in the other. Whee! :) Each of us will do 8 identical squares representing what the holiday means to us, and then send them to the co-ordinater, who will make 8 sets of everything and mail them back. I'll get 2 quilt's worth, since I'm in both. :-)

I'm still cooking up my own Wheel of the Year quilt, but each holiday is so inspiring that I was having trouble confining it to just one wedge of my wheel, so I decided to also do individual hangings for each Sabbat. I started with Samhain (Hallowe'en) because that's what I was inspired to do. I never used to be a great fan of Hallowe'en until I learned more about the real origins and meanings. Things sure do change over time. :-P I didn't even think about measuring when I was whacking off the extra at the edges to bind this (I guess I was in kind of a fog by then), so it's actually a bit lopsided. Mollusc has been making some great symbols of Samhain from Sculpey, though, and I'm going to hang them from the lower left corner on varying lengths of ribbons to help balance things out. I love how it turned out, and my fave part is the printing. If you iron fabric to the shiny side of freezer paper, you can run it through your printer! :-) I'm in love with the Celtic Knot font I found.

Oh Frabjous Joy!

2008-08-19T09:12:00.004-04:00

Yes, we made it through the test. :) It was 5.5 hours long and I'm still sore, though doing class last night helped that a bit. The bottoms of my feet are still sore from all the turning, too. Even the muscles inside my feet were sore on Saturday night. For breaking, we only got to do a pulling-step axe kick, which felt very anti-climactic and lame. :-P J, who was testing for 1st degree, got to jump over 3 people (Mollusc and Sluggie were 2 of them) and flying-side-kick his board. There are a couple of vids on my Facebook page of that. I think I was dehydrated, because in retrospect, I realised I'd stopped sweating at some point, and then when we went to put on our sparring gear at the end, my inner thighs and quads started cramping up. This led to my scooting around oddly on my bum with my legs stuck out in a V while trying to get my helmet and subsequently being accused of doing a Zamboni impression. ^_^

So it's great to be alive after all that. :)

Better still, today is my favourite sister's birthday. OK, also she's my only sister, but let's not split heirs. (boo, hiss) She has reached the age of the answer to The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything. Happy birthday, She-Ra!! I love you. :-)

Girding My Loins

2008-08-15T16:23:00.004-04:00

Blackbelt testing tomorrow, 10am, be there.

This is a sucky time for us, since carb loading should be finished 2 hours before start time, which means 8am, which means we have to start eating before that, which means we have to get up and make the food before that. . .

/whining

We are cautiously optimistic that it may go until only 3 or 4 pm. We shall see. We have one guy testing for 1st degree, and the rest of us are "check" testing toward 2nd degree. One guy is only 6 mos away if all goes well tomorrow, but the rest of us are 2 yrs out and more. It will be exhausting, but the camaraderie is good.

My brain doesn't have room for anything else right now.

Write On

2008-08-14T08:35:00.004-04:00

I am still alive, but I've become unblocked in my novel, so I've been hammering away at that. Hooray!

Gogofishy turned NINE yesterday! We did balloonorama again, went swimming at the Milford pool with BG and her kids and then came home for a curry lunch (Fishy's favourite food in the world - he's definitely his Mama's boy!) Some dear friends came over for dinner, cake and presents later on. We've known this family since CA, and fate brought us together again here in MI. Fate rocks. They have celebrated birthdays with us for about the last 7 yrs or so.

Prawn's scuba suit is the bomb. I think everyone wants one now. It's great to be able to go to the deep pool, which is on the other side of the wall from the fun pool, and swim and dive and use the diving board. (The deep pool is colder.) Prawn is getting pretty good at diving off the side, and Fishy figured it out yesterday, too. I've showed them how to do a "watermelon" but no one's brave enough to try that, yet. I got a huge reaction from a bunch of day camp kids that were there yesterday, though. ^_^ It occurs to me that everyone I have ever talked to about the "watermelon" trick has no idea what it is, so I'll explain that it's basically a headfirst cannonball. You jump as high as you can (preferably off the diving board) and tip so that you'll enter headfirst in a tight tuck, arms wrapped around your knees. If you do it just right, it makes a BIG splash. I suppose I am the only mom at the pool who is insane enough to do this (or perhaps the only one with so little dignity.) Come to think of it, I'm sure I make a spectacle of myself at the lake, too. Tough rocks; I'll play if I feel like it. ^_^

On a completely unrelated tangent, I found this fascinating. It's so hard for me not to think of Big Dog as having a mind of its own. I'm especially impressed by how it rights itself after being shoved, and when slipping on the ice:

Flesh, Blood and Fire

2008-08-09T09:42:00.011-04:00

Not necessarily in that order.

The other day I wanted the kids to make notebooks for the Ancient History class we're doing. Sluggie, having other plans was less than enthused, so like any mom, I tried to come up with a way to make it fun. As we all know, fire makes EVERYTHING more interesting, so we did this.

(Fishy used one of the Blems to make a scroll)

I heart how they came out.

For those of you with kids old enough to shed teeth, you will be able to share in my delight at Prawnie's loss of a dangler. You know, one of those teeth that's gotten to the point where it's horribly askew, but it just won't let go. Sluggie and Prawn were playing the in the basement yesterday and all of a sudden I heard raucous laughter. Then Prawn came up, looking like this: (squeamish people should scroll past quickly)

Sluggie had accidentally smashed the tooth out of Prawn's face with her hand. I say "accidentally" but I know how much that dangler was bugging Sluggie, because I heard her trying all kinds of ways to cajole Prawn into yanking it out or letting her do so herself. So I kind of wonder. Anyway, it's out, so hallelujah for that! I found this next pic on the camera just this morning. I'm assuming Sluggie took it. You can see the new tooth already. (No that's not blood on Prawn's fingernails. :-) )

And finally, after 6 yrs I went to the doctor for a complete physical. The good news is that my pulse and blood pressure and pap smear and all that junk were great. The bad news is that I have high cholesterol. (genetic, I guess) The urf news is that I have to get my first mammogram. I thought I got to wait until I was 40, but I guess they recommend them earlier now. At least it should be blogworthy.

So in the week that I've known about my cholesterol, I've been making dietary changes. The big bonus is that the extra pounds I've been wanting to shed have been falling off, so hooray for that!

I totally forgot to ask about this random dark patch, though. I noticed it a month or so ago. One of my friends has some a lot like it on her cheeks and says hers are "age spots." Is that what this is? It's not a spot I missed with sunscreen because it's been there too long. I completely forgot to ask the doctor about it. It's not scary or anything, I'm just curious. I guess it's kinda hard to see in the pic, but it's kinda hard to see in real life, too. Oh, and please ignore my racing stripes. If you look closely, you can see part of my pussy in this picture. (the orange one >^_^<)

"Scuba, Scuba, Scooby-Dooby-Dooba. . .

2008-08-01T09:07:00.006-04:00

Here we go, scuba, come on!" Is it any wonder I have the Veggie Tales "Stuff Mart Rap" stuck in my head?

I am now hoping to keep my impossibly skinny Prawn from freezing to death and wanting to exit the water after 15 minutes of swimming. :-) I wish I'd thought of this for the other kids when they were wee like this. Actually, I didn't think of this at all BG did. She even sent me a link to scuba.com where I was able to get this for $29.95 and no shipping. Yay!!

The Prawn insisted I take an action shot, too:

There have been many forces at work intent on keeping me from the blogsphere. Sewing is one of those things. I had a heck of a time figuring out how to make a layered sleeve T without sewing the bottoms of both sleeves into the same seam, but the Sewing Mamas came to my rescue and voila!

Since I can never follow directions or do things as they're intended to be done, this is a rather modified mix of 2 different patterns. The 2 sleeves are completely independent of each other. Wait, the 4 sleeves? Because of course the 2 would be. . . Anyway, the long and short sleeves are attached to each other only where they join the body. The fabrics are SUUUUUUPER soft thermal and jersey from the $1 table at Walmart that just happen to match each other perfectly. I now have orders for 2 more shirts just like this. I hope I have enough fabric since I got all they had (which wasn't much.) I'm seriously considering swiping Sluggie's shirt from time to time. ^_^

I also did some more paper piecing. Now sure what I'm going to do with these squares I've been making, but it's fun.

This next one is made mostly (all but the border) from vintage fabrics from MIL and I hope to make her a table runner or hotpads or something from various Christmas-themed squares.

And I think that's all I have time for today since I have to: phone in kitty med Rxs, get gas, pick up Sluggie and friend from sleepover, get cash to pay library membership, pick up meds, take the kids to the library teen summer reading party and pay membership, take everyone to the Milford pool (the snake slide should be open today, huzzah!) and get everyone home in time for red belt classes! Somewhere in there I should probably remember to feed everyone a couple of times, too.

Maybe I can sneak in a trip to Stuff Mart to look for more fabric. Nah. Not today!

". . . and if you need an air compressor to blow fruit flies off your dresser. . ."