Jumping at the Ground and Missing

Food for thought

2011-04-08T13:42:00.005-04:00

Last night I made Nigella Lawson's Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic. OK, so it's the recipe in one of her books, not a recipe she invented or anything, but it was awesome. Tonight will be her Tarragon Chicken. Yum. I love tarragon. Even though they're hard to find around here, I plan to get more tarragon seeds/plants for the garden this year.

Current activities include:

- stocking up for inflation (I started to do this just over a year ago, but with my short attention span, I didn't follow through.)

- planning a bigger garden

- making more soap to sell

- knitting an entrelac scarf

I'm tutoring a boy in math right now, and making a little money for things like soapmaking and school stuff, so that's great! It's been a challenge finding methods that will work for him, but in the last week or 2, his progress has been really encouraging. I think we're on to something. :)

I still make soap, but I need to make more as stocks are low right now. I recently got some new fragrances and EOs to try, but my new big WANT is to try some of the awesome M&P projects in the Soapy Love book I got on sale at a closing Borders. I used to be something of a M&P snob, but no longer!! Fortunately, there's a place not far away that sells M&P base for a good price, and I can pick it up so there's no shipping.

The kids are going to a friend's birthday party tomorrow and she's asked for no gifts, just canned food because she's doing a food drive. She really likes upcycled/recycled goodies, so the "wrapping paper" will be this bag that I made today from one of our old rice bags. I didn't take the time for optimal photogenicicity (new word!) but you can get the general idea.

Fishy thought it needed "bunny ears."

The zipper part is now a functional pocket. :)

And here it is with some towels stuffed in to show expandability.

And, finally, my entrelac scarf. I'm not working on it very often right now, but it's still growing. The good news is that I can tell now that the right side will be straight after blocking. :)

1,000 Things Challenge

2011-04-06T14:25:00.002-04:00

Inspired by someone else, I am now working on getting rid of 1,000 things. So far, I have 5 down. ^_^

Alive.

2011-02-22T03:53:00.001-05:00

Believe it or not, I'm still rewriting my novel. Now that's just embarrassing. Sometimes as I work on it, I'm very encouraged, and other times not so much. For the most part, though, I'm happy. I'm making little connections (a bit like a developing brain sending connections back and forth between the hemispheres), ironing out inconsistencies, and trashing useless scenes. I suppose if I devoted a little more time to it, things would go faster. And I think I'm at the point where I need to do that now, because having it unpolished is bottling up other stories that want to come out.

In the meantime, look for upcoming pics of knitting and soaping projects - my excellent timewasters! (Or not wasters, since it's stuff I enjoy doing.) I made a batch of salt soap today, and it's AWESOME! I think it's going to be an excellent shaving bar.

Little Sweatshop of Horrors

2010-05-03T18:44:00.006-04:00

OK, so there was, in fact, no horror, but I did force my kids into some sweatshop work for Craft Hope.

The idea met with enthusiasm from some, and slight reluctance from others, but in the end, everyone had fun, and 3 of them wanted to do MORE sewing (Fishy included!) We had a pretty nice assembly line of sewing, clipping corners/turning/pressing, and stenciling, and after 2 days (and a little bit of stenciling learning-curve on my part) we have all 26 letters of the alphabet. :-) All that remains is to fill the bags and close the tops.

In other news, Mollusc was excited to see the return of the Red-breasted Grosbeaks shortly after we put up our new feeding tray.

This weekend, we'll be sojurning to Toledo for the biggest birding week in the country. Mollusc hopes to see tons of warblers. Of course we'll have to take the camera(s), so hopefully we'll come away with some good pics.

The weather was gorgeous today, and I took some of the herd to the park after all the school-type stuff was done. Prawnie and I played catch with a tennis ball and her barely used baseball mitt -- a new and exciting interest for her since Daddy is starting softball on Wednesday. The tennis ball was a good choice as I beaned her a few times. :-P We made dandelion-chain crowns and peered into the creek, and of course there was the obligatory game or 2 of Poohsticks for all of us.

On the homeschool front, I'm looking into the "Key to _______" math series for Sluggie since she's hit the point in Algebra where it appears that Math U See is just not perfect for her learning style. We'll likely keep on with MUS, but I want to supplement with other things, and so far, the Key to___ series looks promising. There's nothing worse than rushing past shaky subject matter and continuing on to the next stuff in math, IMO. I have a growing "things to order on Payday" list. :-/ Oh, and while I was hanging laundry on the covert line I have stretched across the back deck (Shhhh! Don't tell the ~~Nazis~~ Homeowner's Association), Fishy made this comment about his copybook: "I can remember so much more at once now. I used to only be able to remember 2 or 3 letters, but now I can remember about 2/3 of what I have to write. I just remember the words now, because I'm a much better speller." He's right -- the copybook has been great for his spelling (as, I'm sure, has all his reading), but it was great to hear that he notices it, too. I know I'm not as unschooly as I used to be now that everyone's getting older, but we're still pretty relaxed and tend to do what works for us.

Tonight is my last soccer game until Fall, which is a bummer. I was really nervous when I first started, because I'd never played the game on any kind of team before, but now it's just plain fun! At least there will be pickup games during the summer. :-)

And finally, here's the kind of thing you tend to find lying around when you've created a houseful of geeks and happen to have alphabet letters handy:

Mother May I?

2010-04-27T11:22:00.008-04:00

No, it's not May yet, but it's close enough. According to something I read in The Boleyn Inheritance last night, May is a time for putting off old things and taking on new ones (a la Henry VIII and his wives.) For me, it's more a matter of taking on something old again, but making it new. Again, close enough.

"Chateau Sur Mer"

We took our first actual vacation ever this year. Yes, we've taken time off to go visit family and friends before, but this was the first time we've ever gone somewhere just for the sake of going there. It was SO relaxing. Our destination was a beach house on the Outer Banks in North Carolina. (Yes, there were a LOT of stairs!) I'm not going to wax eloquent about it. I'll just post some pics now, and probably some more in future posts.

Hatteras Island Lighthouse

I'm getting back into the swing of normal life again, which (in my usual style) involves trying to do way too many things at once. One of my goals is to make a set of alphabet beanbags for Craft Hope's donation to the Liberia Orphan Education Project. It's a great project to get the kids involved in, as the sewing is very simple. I plan to use stencils from Dick Blick and fabric paint to do the letters. Looking online, I was despairing of finding anything affordable until I found those, and joy of joys, MuNKi can pick them up at the store in Detroit on a work day.

Prawn woke up barfy today. :-( I had her make a nest on my bed after a bath, and Enya immediately decided to keep her company.

Kitties make even pukiness better!

She just woke up, and is feeling a lot more chipper. Never underestimate the value of kitty therapy.

Kitty therapy x 4 = WIN!

Oh, Canada!

2009-12-05T10:12:00.012-05:00

So no word about Germany. I know. It's been how long? It's still a possibility; they're just dithering I guess. In the meantime, the kids and I have done the Pimsleur short course in German and are now fully capable of asking the location of Goethe street or the Opera Square, and ordering both beer AND wine, and saying whether we want to drink it in the restaurant, at my place, or at your place. ^_^

So much has happened since my last feeble attempt at blogging. ~~Global Warming~~ ~~Global Climate Change~~ Climategate, some dude being inappropriate on TV, Dubai going tango uniform, and the impending collapse of the American economy. Makes you wonder where would be a stable place to land. Perhaps some farmland with a decent growing season in the boondocks? Perhaps Canada?

A few weeks go, we went on a jaunt into Canada to get the new Marianas Trench CD. Can I just say this? Oreos. Mmmmmmm! Canadian Oreos don't have all the hydrogenated crap that the US Oreos do, and boy are they yummy. Oh, and Mars bars. :) Actually, the crackers and other snacks are also fantastically garbage-free (relatively speaking.) So here are some pics. I'll save the best for last.

Still in Detroit -- Joe Louis arm sculpture. It probably has a name, but I don't know what it is.

Tunnel to Canada!!! The kids always hoot with delight when we pass signs that say "Tunnel to Canada." It just sounds like a funny concept if you regard "tunnel" as a verb. :-) The traffic going to Canada was fine, the route back was JAMMED.

Bridge to USA. The traffic going our way was fine, the stuff coming out was JAMMED. Boy did we choose the right way to leave and re-enter!

Our mission was a success. We picked up Masterpiece Theatre at Best Buy (for way less than that), and then saw that ALL of the Dr. Who DVDs (new ones) were not only in stock, but HALF OFF!! So that got expensive, but was well worth it, considering we're all complete Who geeks. ^_^ We were forced to pick up an old Peter Davison one, too (Sluggie's fave old Dr.) And, yes, we got a bunch of snacks. Best of all, though, how could I see these and not buy a packet?

Casanova Frankenstein

2009-07-20T09:52:00.005-04:00

It is aliiiiiiiiiiiive!

Life has been really busy, as you've probably guessed by my absence. Big changes are afoot. We're still waiting to find out about Germany, but the decision is supposed to be made at the end of this month.

I'm still stunned by what a glorious summer we're having, and enjoying every minute, though (to the children's minor chagrin) we are still doing some schooling (Homeschool Lite ^_^ ) so they don't turn into puddingheads.

We watched Mystery Men this weekend, which was a riot and, IMO one of those heretofore unappreciated gems in manner of The Princess Bride (as Bridget Jones might put it.) I mean seriously, a guy who can only go invisible when no one's looking? And a guy who can shovel better than anyone else? Too funny! The title of this post is a reference to the villain in the film, who I was sure was James Woods, but turned out to be Geoffrey Rush. Be forewarned, though, you have to be able to deal with fart humour to appreciate this one. (You already knew I never claimed to be sophisticated.)

I'm reading the second book of the Thursday Next series - VERY funny - and listening to Atonement - great so far! I was listening to Atlas Shrugged, too, but the digital download expired (well it's a little over 52 hours long and you only get it for 2 weeks) and I had to go back on the waiting list. I've read that book so many times that my original copy fell apart, yet it's always even better than I remember it. Maybe it's better just to return to the hard copy anyway, since I have another audiobook to listen to. The reader of Atlas drove me slightly batty. I looked him up and he's "the Golden Voice" of audiobooks or something like that, but he reads (this one at least) like he's preaching a sermon and it makes me a little crazy. I figured out, though, that if I put him on 1.5 speed, it's less crazy-making, PLUS it goes faster, so I can fit more in. ^_^

I'm also working on a new book while finishing up rewrites of the first. This one's completely and utterly different, so it's a refreshing change for me.

To top it off, I wanted to share this amazing vid. It gives me goosebumps every time. Especially when the whale sharks come looming out of the gloom to glide silently by. Here's a link to the creator's other Youtubes.

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. . ."

Geekery

2008-07-27T10:04:00.005-04:00

This is just a random geekiness post. You may experience turbulence as it jumps rather abruptly from topic to topic. Please fasten your seatbelt.

When we lived in CA, I started a tradition of blowing up as many balloons as possible and trying to fill a room with them, then letting the kids frolic. This started on Sluggie's third birthday, when MuNKi was out of the country on her special day. With just the four of us (me and 3 kids aged 5 and under) I was feeling a little bummed, and not "festive" enough, so voila: Balloonorama was born. We've missed a birthday or two here and there, but I think the tradition has been re-revived. All I can say is that whoever invented the air compressor is my hero! ^_^ (I used to have to do these all by lung.) There are at least 4 kids in this picture. Maybe more.

We're going through a massive Star Trek phase here. When I learned that Pfaltzgraff had made some Enterprise dishes, I was totally geeked up. Then I saw the price tag: $300.00. Um, no. Thank goodness for eBay! 10% of that was much more reasonable. We use these every day. The kids take turns with the cup ("Tea, Earl Grey, hot") and share the plates. I need to find more! :)

And speaking of being geeked up about stuff, I tried Paper Piecing for the first time yesterday. Here's what I made:

I started with something simple, but I can see a lot more of this happening. In fact, I'm off to look for Star Trek and LOTR piecing patterns now. ^_^ I love the web!

On My Soapbox

2008-07-25T10:30:00.004-04:00

I think I'm going to make soap today. Yay! I may even get crazy and make more than one batch. I'm going to do smaller batches, though, so I can play around with scents and have at least 2 different ones, instead of 30 bars of the same kind. I'm also going to use some of my fun moulds. Last time I just used PVC pipe, creating a soap sausage that I then sliced into hockey pucks. I'll likely end up using both, actually, since I don't have a ton of moulds.

Hmm, Mozilla says it's "molds." Isn't that what grows on old food? I am the only person on the planet, it turns out, who cannot intentionally grow mold. I tried for one of our Biology lessons and failed spectacularly. I made mummified bread. I'm still unsure of how that happened, but I may try to patent the process and produce mummified bread on a large scale to sell as survival food. Fortunately, it turns out that I can grow molds UNintentionally, so we finally have something to look at under the microscope now.

I've been teaching myself to play the guitar (at last!) and am moving past the sore fingers point, which is nice. Chordie rocks! I remember several chords now (variarions of F, C, G, G7, Am, D, Em) but there are some I cannot figure out how to play for the life of me, short of pulling a Zaphod and having quite a few extra fingers grafted on, or perhaps having my hand cut and stretched between the 3rd and 4th fingers. That could be the latest "hot" surgery. You know, like tongue splitting, and other body modifications. Yep, I should patent that, too. "Guitar Player's Hand."

Observations From The Mattress

2008-07-23T00:24:00.004-04:00

Well, I'm blogging in bed, so it seemed an appropriate title. . .

I keep swearing to myself that I will keep Wednesdays free of obligation.

I keep failing.

The good part is that it's always something good that comes up, so I can't complain. :)

My kids have the chance to be exposed to chicken pox tomorrow, but with a 10-20 day incubation period, that puts us in range of the next black belt testing, so I have to say no. Can't have poxy kids trying to survive a 7-8 hour test. Bummer.

Yeah, black belt testing is coming up again. (Aug 16th) Urf. ^_^ This will be our second "check test." After you make black, you keep testing with the other black belts, or bb candidates every 6 mos. On the 5th or 6th test (I can never remember which), if you passed them all, you get your second degree. So yeah, 2nd degree is still a ways off. Our last one was, I think, only 4.5 hours long, as opposed to the 7.5 hour one the first time around. But last time everyone was just doing check tests, and this time we have a new candidate, so it will probably go longer. Argh.

Sluggie turned 11 on July 15th and Gogo Fishy will turn 9 on Aug 13th. Yikes!

I see a lot of names on Facebook that are really familiar from high school, but I really don't remember a lot of the people. There are a few I do, though. The trick is finding any of those who remember me. ^_^

I kicked one of my sparring partners in the butt tonight. (spinning back kick) Apparently I got him pretty hard. *cringe* The good news is that I didn't hurt my ankle again. ^_^

I have a new hogu (chestguard) that I like very much, but I can't dress myself in it, and must thus rely on the charity of others who are willing to tie me up in it. O_o ^_^

Thus ends the random update.

W00t!

2008-07-11T10:03:00.006-04:00

Woo hoo! Pic uploading is enabled once again!!

If you haven't deserted me after all this time, I guess I really do need to cough them up. :)

Mollusc and I are ultra-chic in our sparring goggles. ^_^ But boy were we glad we had them on! Even with the strap, mine got peeled off my face at one point.

Oh, and the latest post on Mollusc's new blog is crackin' me up bigtime. ^_^

Wet 'n' Wild

2008-07-03T18:53:00.002-04:00

Please stand by for pics, as Blogger is being a poo.

It's Summer

2008-06-19T10:19:00.002-04:00

and I'm reading, reading, READING!!

Right now I'm in the throes of the following:

Lamb (absolutely hilarious!)

Elric: Song of the Black Sword (recommended many times over by a friend and proving to be very interesting, indeed)

The Forest House (I loved The Mists of Avalon, so this has got to be good, right?)

and the audio book The Secret of Lost Things.

Our second library's summer reading program has kicked off, which is the one that has an adult program, too.

And last weekend, we went to the beach for the first time this year. It was gorgeous. Now it's too cold, but I know there are lot of great beach days ahead of us. Ahhhhh, summer! :)

Sparks

2008-06-18T11:56:00.004-04:00

Fishy and Sluggie brought me a huge ant at the library the other day. They had seen someone intentionally step on it, but it had been left only horribly maimed and not dead. There was clearly no hope for it, even though they wanted to save it, and I regretfully told Sluggie to put it out of its misery. She couldn't do it, and asked me to do so instead. It will probably seem stupid to most people, but it was hard. Life is sacred and mysterious and miraculous to me. And knowing that by the simple pressure of my foot I would be removing an enitity from the universe, crushing out a spark of life so easily -- so suddenly -- was hard. It even bothers me to kill mosquitoes. Yes, I do it, but the act of killing anything is just so hard to wrap my brain around. One minute there is something alive and moving with a purpose and intention of its own, and the next there is only an empty shell, and the motivating force or spirit has vanished. Where does it go?

Librarese

2008-06-10T15:33:00.001-04:00

We signed up for one library's summer reading program today. The other library's starts on Monday. (We like to double dip.) You might think that on an information sheet done by librarians, they'd know that "bazaar" is not a description of a strange and wondrous thing, or that "leaches" don't lurk in stagnant water. You might think so, but you'd be wrong.

Picture This (Part 654)

2008-06-05T11:01:00.009-04:00

We found some plates that were made somewhere besides China! (Italy in this case.) MuNKi is semi-embracing my desire to get completely mismatched dishes. My logic is that we can get a bunch of interesting stuff and if something breaks, we simply find another interesting setting. I know stacking won't be the greatest, but who cares? MuNKi liked these enough that he bought a bunch, though. I don't think he's quite on the same page I am.

Lamb's ears. Not deceptively fuzzy. They really are as soft as they look.

I wish I could make the lilac one scratch 'n' sniff.

Cookies, cookies, cookies! They look better than they tasted, IMO. But MuNKi liked them.

This tastes pretty good though. ^_^

So if you put chive flowers in a jar of vinegar (with some plastic wrap under the lid to prevent corrosion) . . .

it turns into this!

Emmett is always such a help in quilting.

He's practicing for his role in the upcoming Puss in Footwear here.

Trillian, on the other hand, contents herself with helping to change the lightbulbs.

Tashiya brought only one of her three babies this day. (Or maybe it's Winona. I'll have to ask Mollusc.)

Awww! Who could say no to a face like this? Well, besides Egan. ;-) (photo credit goes to Mollusc)

And yeah, I'm being brave and posting a pic of my haircut.

I think I look slightly less liney outside. Thanks to Mollusc for the first pic and Fishy for the second. :)

Schtick Lit

2008-06-04T11:53:00.006-04:00

Originally titled "STFU Stanley!" Gardner Books has decided to go with a slightly less in-your-face title for this award-winning children's story. Aimed at toddlers, the shiny board book with drool-friendly pages is sure to be a crowd pleaser as Zacky the Zebra teaches children in no uncertain terms how to be seen but not heard.

Dr. Evil calls it "the best book I ever read!"

Be sure to buy your copy today.

If

2008-06-02T21:29:00.004-04:00

If I were to get off my lazy ass (well, ON it, I guess would be more appropriate) and make a new post, it would go right here.

And if I were to post pics, they would probably be about here.

And here (but further down.)

But I'm too lazy.

My soap is curing in the kitchen. The whole place smells like spearmint and it's just lovely.

I made more cookies from the Martha book and chive vinegar (for consumption) and lemon/orange vinegar for the laundry. What a shame I'm too lazy to post.

More Than a Bumblebee, More Than an Ant. . .

2008-05-28T22:47:00.010-04:00

So much has been going on! We went to see Eddie Izzard on May 20th, which was great. First we ate at a topless restaurant. I didn't really get it, because everyone was wearing clothes, but our server announced that it was a "topless-style restaurant" so I feigned understanding and considered removing my top. No one else did, though, so I followed suit and remained overdressed. The place where we ate was directly across from the Detroit Opera House, where Eddie was playing, so after our meal, we meandered over there and gawped at the goodies. MuNKi asked to see a shirt in a Women's medium, which earned him all kinds of weird looks. Now that is incredibly silly, because it's EDDIE IZZARD, Man, and why WOULDN'T a guy be buying a woman's shirt? But I digress.

Here's the thing. iPhones should be banned from Opera Houses. So should innattentive bitches who (for some unfathomable reason) don't want to be there anyway and insist on playing with said iPhone throughout the entire show, thus scarring the retinas of everyone behind her with the blinding glare of the screen. How I wanted to give that chick an iSmack in the back of the head! I mimed doing it once or twice, but she didn't seem to pick up on my wrath vibe.

There was a mass (OK not mass, but largish) exodus from the show a few minutes in. I'm not sure whether it was Eddie's weird theories on God (doubtful, since Detroit is such a Godforsaken place ;-) ), his disappointing lack of drag, or the fact that they had wandered into the wrong theatre. It wasn't one of those "we're season ticket holders and we had no clue what we were in for" things, because Eddie wasn't included in the season package. Maybe they had already seen it all on YouTube.

Our Memorial Day Weekend included a day of soapmaking with the lovely Erica and her friend, the Soaping Goddess, followed by too much fantastic guacamole (made by the Soaping Goddess) and a barbecue, followed by a ceremonial scorching of marshmallows over a fire, and the sacrifice of many of said marshmallows to the Fire-Pit God. My children love fire. They love putting things into fire and taking them out again and then, yes, putting them back in. (in a sort of Eeyore-with-his-balloons-and-honey-pot way, but with quite a bit more drama) They love using toasting forks until the prongs glow like a cauterizing eyeball-gouger-outer, and they love flaming marshmallows. Mollusc had to get hosed off a couple of times. (She's my dainty one. OK, not so much.)

Monday brought the arrival of people I had never met before who had come to stay the night. OK, so I was a little stressed about that. But it all worked out.

And then, somehow, some strange how, it was Wednesday. I'm not sure what happened there. I do know that I should go see if MuNKi has managed to make the 3rd period of the Wings game appear on the wall.

I also have some bars of soap that I plan to sniff a lot and try not to eat.

Wheeeeee!

2008-05-21T22:03:00.002-04:00

It really looks like the orca is having a great time. ^_^

So my Q is: orca toy or llama spittee?

Cookies, Cookies, Cookies!!

2008-05-20T10:12:00.004-04:00

Yesterday we picked up this book at the library.

I went off to teach class last night, then stayed and did my class. When I got home, the kitchen was clean and Mollusc had made these:

YUM!

Chop Shop

2008-05-17T09:13:00.002-04:00

I need a haircut. Just in the last week or so, my hair suddenly reached the point where I can't stand it anymore. I've been trying to figure out whether I can get 10 inches lopped off (so I can donate) and still pull it back, because I can't stand it in my face either. It seems like a waste to get less off and not donate, so I'm having them whack off 10" regardless. Now I have to surf some sites and figure out if there's any sort of cut I want to aim for. Like they'll look the same on me, anyway. Ha. Maybe I'll just do a Britney.

Prawnie and Fishy are testing today. They know their stuff, but of course Nervous Mama is hoping they don't seize up for the test. :)

Ancora Imparo

2008-05-16T08:44:00.008-04:00

I'm teaching myself Latin.

"Wait," you say. "If you already know enough Latin to teach it to yourself, what do you have to learn?"

Ummmm. . .

€

2008-05-14T15:12:00.002-04:00

I can make a Euro sign with this keyboard.

That is all.

Willoughby Wallaby Weenis

2008-05-12T21:11:00.007-04:00

the elephant went to Venus, Willoughby Wallaby Wuranus, the elephant saw Uranus.

Yeah, we've been having too much fun with that song. I laughed so hard I nearly wrecked the car on the way to the co-op, and I can't even remember what we came up with that set me off.

Tonight's Little Kid class was pandelirium. 23 kids. Oy! Actually, it was fun, and not too crazy. I don't think I screwed anyone up, and I remembered everyone's name, so that's good. :) To be honest, kid names are easy for me; it's the parents' I can never remember. It was also the traditional Monday night DadFest, which it hasn't really been pretty much since I mentioned here how I enjoyed perving at them. So obviously they found my blog and were horrified and made a pact to mostly stay away until now. Bummer.

I also kicked one of the fathers in the butt tonight. I don't know what came over me. It was just a reaction. He put out his hand for a high 5, and thinking it odd, but not wanting to snub him I went for it, so of course he pulled it away (shoulda seen that coming) and my natural reaction was to smack him and kick him in the butt. (lightly! lightly! Not hard. I'm not mean like that.) Yikes. I don't think I offended him, though. I hope not anyway.

I watched PS I Love You last night, which, while being a glorious ManFest (including some full backal nudity) and pretty entertaining, probably did not garner the sympathy from me that it was supposed to for the main character. She was just such a high maintenance, neurotic bitch that I thought her hubby was better off dead. But there were bits that reminded me of my dad (the knowing the end is nigh stuff) so they were a little tear-jerky. Harry Connick Jr.'s character was bloody entertaining, too. ^_^

I got a new book called Garden Spells that I'm loving, and I finished The Camel Club, which was fantastic. The twist on the terrorist attack was brilliant. I'm also listening to Twilight, so I'm finally finding out what all the hoopla is about.

Oh, and the Master taught us a new Black Belt one-step sparring tonight. I can't wait to show MuNKi. It's cool!

The Six Word Memoir Meme

2008-05-12T01:43:00.005-04:00

Nothing I could write would be a poignant as Hemingway's 6 word story, which, as legend has it was "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." IMO that's his most brilliant work. (To be honest, I haven't liked any of his wordier stuff.) But since I was tagged by the lovely Claire, I'll give it a crack.

Here goes.

*clears throat*

*cracks knuckles*

*gets sidetracked and cleans the fridge*

(You know, if that was shorter, that would sum up my writing process.)

~~Disgustingly happy family junkie loves creating~~

Oh look! A chicken! (hey that could be another one for me, and only 4 words cuz I might get distracted after that. . .)

Tick, tick, tick, tick

2008-05-08T10:13:00.005-04:00

~The "replace all" feature in my word processor makes me feel powerful. Very powerful.

~Sometimes too much power is a bad thing. Such as when I do something like replacing "Amina" with "Chopra" and end up with words like "contChopration."

~I procrastinate writing by looking for new wallpaper for the computer. I tell myself it will be inspiring. Sometimes it is, but not usually for the right reasons.

~My teakettle doesn't whistle; it moans. This has disturbed me for years.

~When I come up with a new idea for a story I putz around on the computer doing all kinds of weird crap (see this post) before I write. I'm not sure if this is pure, unadulterated procrastination, or if the story seed is actually germinating in my brain while I do this.

~I don't feel my age. At all.

~I love the internet. I love being able to hear a song in a film, look it up, and print out the sheet music for free. (I'm generally drawn to the public domain classical stuff.)

~Playing the piano is a great way to procrastinate/germinate. Hunting for new sheet music doubly so.

~I love tax whatever-they're-called checks. It's time for a laptop! :-) (I gave mine to Mollusc for her b-day)

Unh?

2008-05-05T23:00:00.005-04:00

I'm not sure when it became cool to trash on boys and men here in the States. I know it's been a long time, but I'm curious about the origins of the tradition. I've pretty much had it with that whole thing. One of Sluggie's friends sent her a YouTube clip from some kid show (a Nick show I think) and it was (from the sounds of it) 2 boys talking (or reading?) about why boys are not stupid. But of course they were being very stupid and disproving their own point. I made her turn it off. Grrrr! You don't see people getting away with calling girls and women stupid, but make it a boy or a man and ha ha ha, there's mirth all around.

I know that boys face a lot of prejudice in school these days, and I'm so glad that Fishy isn't being hampered by that. I'm also grateful that there's no one to pressure me to put him on meds just for acting like a boy so that he can become a nice, quiescent little zombie instead.

That's my deepish thought for the day. Now for something fluffy.

Bras.

Why is it that it's so freakin' hard to find a bra without a life of its own these days? Seriously. Go to any bra section in any store, and see how many bras are living complete little lives with their own phantom boobies right there on the rack. I want bras that do NOT have their own personality -- bras that to NOT ask my boobies to assume their identity. (--tity. ha.) Bras that do not jut out past my boobies and belittle them for not filling the cup. And also bras that do not mould my boobies into weird pyramids in some sort of Egyptian homage sort of thing. Even the wee tiny little A cups have minds of their own. What's up with that?

Oh and by the way, WTF was that terrifying monstrosity next to the strapless bras? I couldn't find a pic online, but suffice it to say that it would have made a nice hump-cozy for a Bactrian camel. If you want to see for yourself, I think you're out of luck, but you might enjoy a Google search for "gigantic strapless bra" just to see the weird crap it pulls up, like Johnny Depp, groomsmen's neckties, strollers, and ice cream drumsticks. Or you can go look at the boobie bags made by Faveo.

We got to play kick the bottle at TKD tonight. (an empty little water bottle suspended from the ceiling) It was great fun, but both my buns need a massage now. Or maybe I just need a "Buttocks Bra."

Green Grow the Rushes-O

2008-05-02T12:41:00.012-04:00

Sluggie got hit on in the library yesterday. She came to me all giggly and embarrassed about a teenage boy who had asked her to come sit by him at the computers to play Runescape. In case you have trouble keeping track Sluggie is my 10 year old. :-P It's really incredible to watch my girls climbing onto the cusp of womanhood -- carefree kids one moment, and so grown up another, with all that giggly in-between stuff thrown in for good measure.

May is here in typical Midwest fashion. You'd think that with 26 years experience in the Midwest, I wouldn't be foolish enough to think that after the first 80 degree day it would never be cold again, but I'm still learning. We had our classic warm teasers and plunged right back into the 30s. Today we're back in the 60s. At least it's heading in the right direction.

The tulips are blooming. I had kind of forgotten about them.

And some little pinky white things are out, too. I don't know what they are, but they make enchanting little faerie carpets through the grass and woods.

The Littles are playing outside, though it's thundering now. Excitement runs high!

Mollusc got braces and a palate expander on Tuesday. She's still at the "can't chew" phase, which totally sucks. Hopefully she'll be able to chew in a week or so. Food suggestions are welcome!

Yin and Yang

2008-04-30T23:31:00.004-04:00

I saw a great movie (see below) and so it must follow that a pretty awful one must come next. The kids and I just watched The Golden Compass. Oy! First the good. It was a beautiful film, by which I mean that it had pretty settings, costumes and people, though the overall lighting and colour could have been better in a lot of scenes. In addition, it was well-acted, and I very much appreciated the lack of gore. That said, this is quite possibly the Worst Book to Film Translation Ever. I don't even know where to start. The whole thing felt choppy and rushed (probably because it was!) and so much was changed -- even the rival bear king's name! -- that it was ludicrous. Maybe it would have helped not to have read the book at all. Or maybe it would have made it more confusing. Not even the lovely Daniel Craig (what little there was of him) could redeem this story, which is sad, because it's a pretty compelling story in its book form. But during the film I just kept rolling my eyes and hoping it would end. When finally, mercifully, it did, it wasn't even in the right place. WTF?

Gah!

Happiness is. . .

2008-04-30T08:58:00.009-04:00

. . . a Good Movie. I'm so glad I grabbed this one at the library. A wonderful, thought-provoking story, beautiful people; what's not to love? It fits very well into my Jane Austen phase.

. . . a Good Book. I love the way Gregory Maguire can turn a phrase. I appreciate the writing as much as the story, and you don't come across books like that very often.

. . . a Good Reader. I mentioned earlier that I was listening to Octavian Nothing. At that point I was only a little way in and found it. . . interesting. Well, it's progressed from interesting to fascinating. Peter Francis James is a fantastic reader. In fact, I'm choosing my next audio book by looking for something he reads. I could listen to him all day.

. . . and a Basket of Warm Kitty >^_^<

Testy

2008-04-29T12:26:00.024-04:00

What happens when your sisters volunteer at the library and are tasked to peel all the NEW stickers off the books.

He made quite a splash.

Wee little daffodilly things

and grape hyacinths

Never let anyone persuade you to plant an "ornamental pear tree." The blossoms stink like fish. This one was here when we bought the house.

I made a bunch of goodie bags for Mollusc's B-day.

And on Thursday, we went to a book signing by Erin Hunter at Nicola's bookstore in Ann Arbor. Our Line # was 185, so there was a lot of waiting around without even the hope of any books to be bought since it was the day before payday. Talk about torture.

We ended up walking down the strip to the pet store and seeing some very adorable kittens who came dangerously close to coming home with us. And I found an awesome scrapbooking store. Danger, danger! When we went back to Nicola's it wasn't all that long before we got to the front of the line.

Now we'll see if the pics are clicky.

Sew Tiny

2008-04-23T21:12:00.003-04:00

So today was a sewing day for me. First I made something I can't show, cuz it's for Mollusc's b-day and sometimes she reads my blog. :) Then I tried a new (free) pattern and did this:

That involved a lot of swearing and picking out and restitching and, finally, chucking the thing across the room and starting over. Then I did this:

Size 0-3 mos

and this:

size 3-6 mos.

By then it was time to kick back

and have a cup of tea. Here's some for you. Hope you like Blackberry Sage. :)

Business As Usual

2008-04-23T11:11:00.002-04:00

I was looking for funky little bag ideas (to sew) and found this on someone's blog. I really want to see it. I know the actual birth stuff will make me all teary, but in a good way. :)

Bookses

2008-04-21T23:11:00.006-04:00

The Friday Night Knitting Club: Very well-written, but I have a thing or two to say to the author because, well I can't say if you're going to read it.

Labyrinth: Worth the read. Kind of Da Vinci Code-y, but different. Also, it made me wonder about when we decided that it wasn't OK to burn people alive and why it was OK back in the 1200s. That seems like a black and white issue to me: no, it's never OK to burn people alive. Doesn't it?

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: I'm listening to this one now. It's. . . interesting. . . So far.

Wicked: off to a great (if surreal) start!

Also, the lovely and talented Frank called and said he's downsizing his library rather extravagantly and I could pick from whatever was available. Is that orgasmic or what? I'm pretty sure I spoke very loudly and at a higher than normal pitch for the rest of the conversation. ^_^ How weird is it that this Musical Theatre workshop Frank attended was directed by the guy who wrote the music and lyrics for Wicked (the musical)? How much weirder is it that a young guy in my class told me tonight that he's going to see Wicked in Chicago in a few weeks? Pretty Dirk Gently, huh?

We got pretty thrashed in class tonight, so that is all for now. I thought abuse week was last week, but I guess I was wrong. :-P

So Much for That Idea

2008-04-20T20:08:00.005-04:00

Oh well. I'll get this "clickable larger pictures" thing figured out one day. Maybe.

Crocus

Chives! We ate some tonight. Yummy! It's not going to be long before we get some of those beautiful chive flowers.

Finally! Daffodils. :)

And some signs of life in the clematis vines:

I made a bunch of headbands on Saturday. There was one more, but the little girl I made it for already had it by this point. ^_^ All the light ones are made from vintage scraps I got from MuNKi's mom.

This was a Cuddle Quilt kit from JoAnn's. I liked having the fabrics already coordinated. I still had to cut the squares to the right size, and it was kind of a PITA sewing knits, wovens, flannels AND satins together, but it was fun. I love the fabrics. :)

I also made the triple-play peanut butter cookies again. They disappeared the same day, so that evening I tried Tea & Spice Squares. Nom, nom NOM! The glaze is confectioner's sugar and Bailey's. YUM!! I think these will become a Christmas staple. They are very gingerbready and have chopped dried fruit in them (in this case raisins and candied red and green cherries.)

Emmett decided to "help" Mollusc play RuneScape while the girls chomped fresh green beans (stolen from the chef.) Prawn is "wearing" a pop-up laundry basket in case you were wondering about the red stuff.

And last night, all 3 girls were collaborating in the game - one on a regular computer and 2 on laptops.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Overheard on Friday:

Prawn: **aah!** (surprise more than shock) A SPIDER!

Sluggie: It's BIG!

(a few minutes pass)

Fishy: NO SPIDEY!! Don't leave the Spi-Tanic!!!

(a few seconds pass)

Fishy: Prawn! Come see! The spider can walk on water!!

Testing

2008-04-20T20:07:00.003-04:00

Lazy

2008-04-17T23:02:00.008-04:00

~I'm listening to The Friday Night Knitting Club, reading Labyrinth and The Silmarillion. Next on the docket are Wicked and Rebel. (No one can say it's not a varied list, right?)

~The crocuses have bloomed and faded and the daffodils are open now.

~My kids have gotten their first sunburn of the year (where WAS that blasted sunscreen?)

~We're going swimming tomorrow.

~I'm putting together a patchwork baby blanket and in the last few days have made 4 pairs of shorts, several little bags and a dolly flannel robe. Xavier continues to rock!

~I feel very good about sparring tonight. Sparring to 1 point gets the adrenaline going and makes me nervous, but I didn't suck, so I feel happy.

Oh, did I tell you all about my "swimsuit"? The things available at Target and Wallyworld are so hideous that they defy description. I was kicking myself for not taking along a camera they are so bad. We're talking monstrosities of brown and avocado with ginormous hibuscus prints, and pink and brown things with huge ruffles, buckles and wooden beads. I feel the need to wash my eyes out with Daniel Craig just thinking about the things. **shudder** The new style seems to be the "backless front" this year. This amounts to something that looks like a one-pice from the front and a bikini from the back. This might not be so bad, were it not for the fact that some of the ones I saw (and, God help me, actually touched) were gigantic (but also tiny if you KWIM.)

BG and I were joking today about doing our own version. This would consist of a Sparring Banana and a posture enhancer.

Even if the available suits weren't hideous, it wouldn't matter. I can't wear one-pieces (unless I want to stay hunched over while wearing said suit) because I'm too tall.

So I ended up buying just a swim bottom at Wallyworld -- quite a gamble really, considering that I was then banking on finding a top at Target. My new swim bottom (which was found in the swim section, so hopefully it actually IS a swim bottom) is a pair of short black boxing shorts (think lace-up fly, etc.) Target yielded absolutely nothing acceptable in the top category, so I bought a black Champion C9 sportsbra. (My white ones are great for TKD. They also wick away sweat very admirably.) Yes, that's right, I've been swimming in shorts (or hot pants?) and a sports bra. In public. :-P

Of course the first time I went to the pool in this ensemble, there were men at the pool. Men! On a Friday morning! The audacity! Don't they know that the pool is the realm of mommies on Friday mornings? Clearly they had not read the handbook. (Then again, maybe they had. . .)

Considering that I have not shown my tummy to any men (well, besides MuNKi of course) since starting the process of growing children in my belly over 13 years ago, wearing a "swimsuit" that bared my middle section in front of men was a distinctly uncomfortable experience. I'm very glad of what TKD has done for my tummy muscles, but I was not banking on flashing them to men I don't know. (Well, any men, actually.) Usually BG and I have the pool completely to ourselves, so this was a shocking development. Fortunately I had a Prawn handy. The Prawn is never adverse to being carried, and even at 6 yrs old, she's still a featherlight 42 lbs or so, so I used her as belly camouflage until I could slip into the pool.

So far my swim bottoms are not holding up that great. They threaten to slip off when I swim forwards (though backwards is safe) and are fading after only 2 trips to the pool. The "swim top" on the other hand, is performing admirably. Though I'm still a little afraid of that space-age techno-fabric wicking away the entire pool when I jump in. O_o

Lzy

2008-04-17T23:02:00.001-04:00

Busy

2008-04-14T23:07:00.004-04:00

~It's been so long since I made clothing that when I made shirts for the Bigs on Saturday, I cut out the sleeves wrong, so the stretch doesn't go around the arms. :-P Fortunately, they are wispy girls and can still wear the shirts. ^_^ Now I just have to get the FOE on the necklines without screwing it up. When I got out the FOE yesterday, a bunch of it had died an untimely death. I guess it had been curing in my stash for far too long.

~It was snowing when I woke up Sunday morning. Bleh.

~Strangers only come to my blog to look at my sister's panties.

~My appreciation for Jane Austen continues to grow. What a brilliant woman!

~My appreciation for audio books continues to grow as well, since I can "read" without guilt while I do otherwise completely mundane and painfully boring tasks.

~We're back to "abuse week" at TKD. Urg. But I feel good when I'm done (once I can breathe again.)

~Xavier is wunnerful!

~I had my picture taken with a little boy from my Monday evening class today. Awww. :)

~I got an adorable (hand drawn) picture of myself from a little boy in my morning classes last week.

~I have been exposing my children to the Young Ones. (Irresponsible parenting, say you. They'll finally understand all the things I say, say I. ^_^ )

Honestly

2008-04-13T01:37:00.004-04:00

If I see one more Postman Pat reference in the next 24 hours, I think I may just lose it. I mean, really, WTF??

Oh, and apparently "they" have just discovered a nude portrait of Mozart.

Oh. New?

Whatever.

Come On In and see the NEWS!!!!!!

2008-04-10T22:35:00.007-04:00

I made that yummy creme de menthe cake from the Chinaberry cookbook again. It's gone already.

But you can still have a virtual bite.

Then I made these from the King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion

They're basically just oats, brown sugar, corn syrup, butter and vanilla, with chocolate chips, cocoa butter (my substitution for shortening) and walnuts on top. They didn't get a great reception, but they're disappearing anyway. They seem better on the second day.

For our Ancient History class, Fishy made a scale model of the Ark. (Noah's, not "of-the-covenant.") He was going to make it out of Play-Doh, but changed to this paper print-out model when that proved too awkward. Whether you are into arky stuff or not, I find it fascinating that there are hundreds of cultures around the world that each have their own world-wide flood legend.

It's really hard to glue something made of paper that's so long and thin. ^_^

Sluggie compared 3 flood legends from different cultures (China, Egypt and Greece), Mollusc drew a scale model of the ark, and Prawnie made a lapbook about Paleolithic People.

I have a new project in the works: a Wheel of the Year quilted wallhanging. I have yet to decide whether it will be circular or octagonal. I want to be able to turn it throughout the year so that the current season's wedge faces right-way-up.

So far I have these fabrics for Mabon, and Imbolc or Ostara:

And finally, the BIG NEWS! Meet MY NEW BABY Xavier! He is soooooooooo lovely. He sews like buttah. I'm in love. :) The adoption fee was only $75. His mother had to give him up because he had too many siblings. He's currently slightly disabled because he has no feet, but I plan to remedy that tomorrow if possible. Welcome, Xavier!!

My other machine (a Singer from Sam's) has served me well for at least 11 years with no servicing at all. My big girls will inherit it, but it needs reconditioning, because right now when I use it, it goes DONK DONK DONK DONK DONK instead of hmmmmmmmmm. They have yet to name it, but I suspect it will be something like Boromir or Aragorn or Legolas. ^_^

A Fungus Among Us

2008-04-04T23:08:00.004-04:00

Whose woods these are, I think I know

because they're right behind my house.

When in the woods, every Boy must have a Stick.

The object of today's search:

And another example:

We also happened upon the scene of a grisly murder:

It looked as if some ghoulish thing had been decorating for Christmas.

If you care to peek, you'll see a beak (or at least half of one.)

All around the site, Nature went on as if nothing had happened.

Though the apartment dwellers were wise enough to stay indoors.

We decided to leave that world,

and venture into Eldemoss

a magical place of bridges and sacred pools

and corndogs growing wild.

But all too soon it was time to cross the dead marshes

and leave that world for our own.

I'll leave you with a picture of another fun guy (on my thigh.) His name is Bruce.

Dream On

2008-04-03T18:17:00.009-04:00

I looked up some of my dream stuff at the library today. Turns out that strangling a stranger means money is coming your way (that would be lovely!), but you may have to be ready to defend your good name. Generally, killing someone in your dreams was accepted by all the books to mean something positive -- either you have overcome an obstacle or fear, or you are getting rid of something negative in your life, though I suppose it could also mean you're just a bit psycho.

Maybe it's all about my washer. It's stopped filling with water for the wash cycle. This is a major pain, because I have to do it with a bucket. Through the little soap dispenser slot. (It's a front loader.) Maybe I could try doing it through the door before I put the clothes in. Either way, it's awkward. Thankfully, it still turns, and still appears to fill with water for the rinse cycle. Although last night I guess it stopped partway through a cycle, cuz that's how I found it this morning. Wah. It would be nice if it was still under warranty.

I have a hunch it's about the TKD tournament on Saturday, though. I hate tournaments. I don't know whether or not I'm competing, because I don't know whether or not there will be anyone else in my division. It's a State Tournament, so there's no cross-gender sparring (a first for me -- I've always had to spar guys.) Same goes for MuNKi. All the kids are competing, though.

I did my grocery game early this week. I think that may be a first for me. Usually I end up not getting it done until Sunday, but I found time to squeeze it in today. This trip's results:

Value of groceries purchased: $98.07
............................. I spent: $44.68
...................for a savings of: $53.39

Catch-22

2008-04-02T21:09:00.002-04:00

Emmett decided to save me about $50 today by being ornery when the vet tried to get an X-ray. Due to his lack of cooperation, they were unable to get an X-ray without sedation, and since the purpose of the X-ray was to determine whether or not he could handle sedation, it was a perfect Catch-22. The vet ended up giving him a steroid shot and we're to monitor his wheeziness. If it improves, they will proceed accordingly. So while it's embarrassing that he was mean to the vet, I'm secretly happy to have saved the $. He's been wheezy all his life. I'm 99.9% sure it's asthma. The only other alternative is that he has an infectious disease. I find it hard to believe that he could have had an infectious disease his entire life without suffering worse effects or getting over it.

Cookies! Nom nom nom. These are peanut butter cookies with peanut butter chips and chocolate chips.

My stylish hogu strap covers. I wish I'd had some Hello Kitty knit. They seemed to help last night.

I bought this a Borders a couple of trips ago and we've been using it for TKD nights. Yum! At $6.88 (or somthing like that) it was a very sound investment.

No Pictures!

2008-04-01T23:51:00.006-04:00

I took some today, but as I'm worn out and in bed, I'm not posting them 'til tomorrow. Instead, you get this random smattering of stuff.

Emmett has to get a chest x-ray tomorrow because he needs to have his teeth cleaned and he has (most likely) asthma, so the vet has to figure out how to safely knock him out. In the meantime, Enya is in the early stages of kidney disease, so she needs prescription food. Sigh.

Perhaps because of these things, I dreamt that MuNKi got a new, super-high-paying job (that he actually liked) and we were moving to Boston. Additionally, I had to strangle to death a woman who was trying to kill us all. (I think.) It didn't work very well. I could tell, because she was talking to me while I was trying to strangle her. I was pretty squeamish about the whole thing, so that may be why I did such a poor job. It would be nice to be able to say that she had a very telling name, such as "Housework" or "Vet Bills" but she didn't. I'm just a weird person with weird dreams, I guess.

And now, Ear Candy.

This song should be the anthem for the current (or perhaps any) Presidential Race. I ignore the vid and just listen.

And this one is just fun in a totally geeky way. I'm not generally a rap fan, but this partly musical and partly bad rap with some fun lyrics.

My Name is Candace

2008-03-31T16:24:00.007-04:00

and I am a Journalaholic. It's very hard for me to pass up yummy journals. ESPECIALLY when they're on sale.

I particularly love the red triangular sticker on this one.

And the brown pages inside. I got 3 of these and Prawn claimed one:
(By Kaira Baggins. Concerning Hobbits.
When I was dead, then some other hobbits would get my house, but I adopted another hobbit. His name was Frodo Baggins, and then Frodo would get my house (switches to pencil) and the other hobbits would not get my house.)

Mollusc chose this velvety embossed one:

Additionally, Prawn wanted this very colourful book (also bearing my favourite sticker) :

It's handy to have something big enough to trace your body on in case the mood strikes. ^_^

The brown one was on sale (with more yummy brown pages) and the black one wasn't, but it was cheap

AND it has paper like THIS inside:

So, yeah, I have a problem.

In other news, I found some leaves outside!

And some daffodils. Real ones!

But Emmett says it's still too cold.

I know how he feels.

A Rash of Pictures

2008-03-29T00:40:00.003-04:00

I got BG addicted to this liquid crack a couple of weeks ago. I shouldn't have told her where to buy it, because then I could have extorted large sums of $ from her for it.

It snowed again last night.

I figured as long as I was out there barefoot in the snow, I might as well get a picture of the bench. I'm hoping to be sitting there, sweating, in 3 mos or so.

Does my pussy make my ass look fat? Wait. Don't answer that.

At any rate, he's extrememly pleased with himself.

No, sadly, they aren't hickies. I traced this mystery rash to my hogu tonight. I don't think I've blogged my sparring gear. Maybe someday. It used to make me feel like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man when I put it on.

Now I have to come up with some sort of wrappy thing for the shoulder straps. Or go with the neck gaitor that MuNKi suggested. I think I'll try the wrappy thing.

Random Thoughts

2008-03-27T17:56:00.005-04:00

I'll leave you with these weird snippets while I go about my day, and hopefully you'll add some of your own. :)

It makes you smile and rich.

It's souper than the rest!

the Dulce de La Leche League

Overheard

2008-03-26T10:10:00.010-04:00

"You're a extra, extra, extra, extra poop head!"

"If we send it to Yi-yi (through email) will we still have it?"

"Please take your nest out of my room."

"I have a mining level of 32."

and

"He looks like someone from Pride and Prejudice."

"Like Mr. Darcy?"

"Only without the claws."

(that one was Prawn, re Hugh Jackman on the cover of XMen 2)

And just now, a conversation between Grumpy Newspaper Man and a mom and her kids. Grumpy Newspaper Man is an enigma. He's always at the library, always sitting in the wing chairs by the fireplace, always reading the newspaper. Apart from this, his only other known activity is giving candy to young children.

Grumpy Newspaper Man kind of freaks me out a little. The first brush I had with him, he had given candy to Sluggie without my knowledge or consent when she was about 7 or 8. Loathe to be rude to an older person (TKD tenet #6 "respect your elders"), she had taken it (ironically thus breaking another TKD instruction) and come promptly to me whereupon we discreetly disposed of it.

Since then, our interactions with Grumpy Newspaper Man have consisted of him giving us dagger eyes when we are talking near him, him making disgusted noises and pointedly flapping his newspaper when we are talking near him, and him "yelling at" my 2 older girls and one of the librarians when they were talking near him. Oh, yes, and being subjected to him talking loudly (way louder than we ever do) to his cohort, "Grumpy Newspaper Man's Cohort." They are apparently both retired teachers (you can't help but learn a lot about them when they are yelling to each other across the wing chair section), so maybe after all those years of struggling to be heard, they just hate the sound of anyone's voices but their own.

Just now, Grumpy Newspaper Man approached a child and gave him candy. I think he asked the mother first, because I heard her say "thank you for asking." But it was purely extortion, because then he made the child smile at him. No, really. And then he gave a sucker to the kid's sister and made her smile, too.

It kind of makes me flash back to when I was 5-ish in Hong Kong and some fat white dude came to the top steps of our yard as I was going out to play. He made me tell him my name and give him a hug, even though my little 5 year old arms didn't come near to reaching around his ample gut. Even though I didn't know him from Adam. I was too afraid of being rude to him to decline.

Something about Grumpy Newspaper Man just doesn't sit right with me.

Geekery

2008-03-25T15:36:00.011-04:00

I'm so pleased to be raising mini geeks! ^_^

Helm's Deep

Aragorn, Legolas and half of Gimli (so he'll be short enough) man the wall.

Theoden hides inside where it's safe

Gandalf has brought the Riders of Rohan over Mount Spiderman just in time to save everyone from. . .

. . . one dead orc!

In other news, MuNKi made yummy bread

and stew

And I made "Lembas cookies."

One mouthful is enough to give a grown man a sugar buzz for an entire day. ^_^

Lizard Gizzard

2008-03-24T23:43:00.002-04:00

I've got tickets to go see Eddie Izzard. Huzzah!

Oh Hoppy Day!!

2008-03-23T11:43:00.012-04:00

Yes, I'm letting the wider pics bump my sidebar. :)

I'm going to try to do more pics now that I've returned to the Blogging world. I did some writing while I was gone -- not enough, but more than usual. My novel is about 1/3 done now. I read and listened to a bunch of books, watched a bunch of films (though a large portion of that was the LOTR trilogy over and over and over again ^_^), played a ton of Scrabulous games, did a lot of TKD, sewed some goodies, and ate, drank and was merry.

Additionally, MuNKi choked on the anniversary of my dad's death, but his co-worker (the lovely, lovely Erica, may her name be forevermore praised! I'm not kidding) Heimliched him, and saved his life. So you owe all additional forthcoming MuNKi anecdotes to her.

Some of what went on during my hiatus was recorded digitally for posterity as you will now see.

The dangers of Kool-Aid, sale hair dye, and too much estrogen in one place:

Come and join our newfound D&D geekery!! Did you know that you can emboss velvet with rubber stamps and an iron? Cool. :)

Quilting Cat Approves of This Thread (T-Puff awaits her turn in the wings) :

Let it not be said that I never finished that quilt. The Prawn loves her quilt.

We have entered a phase of prolonged LOTR obsession. It's still going strong. (Men of Gondor. . . Yummmmmm. . .) Mollusc has become a GIMP wizard and created this for her desktop:

Sluggie and Jet wait for me to finish making her Fellowhip Cloak:

Trillian helps me with the hood lining:

She is pleased.

"RRR shorts." I hacked off the legs of a blown-up pair of jeans, cut off the 3 big flowers from the flared bottoms and sewed them onto the leg. Prawn chose the placement as they will be her shorts. They look better now that they have washed and frayed because the edges of the flowers are fraying to match the bottoms, which helps to tie the whole look together. (Don't I sound fashion-knowledgable? Don't worry, it's just a facade.)

I. C. Frosty Trees:

Borrowed Time

2008-02-06T11:52:00.000-05:00

I'm giving up blogging for Lent. This was a spur-of-the-moment decision made at breakfast this morning when Fishy was asking about Ash Wednesday (I MUST teach that boy to make the "sh" sound properly!) and I realised it was Lent.

But it's also something that's been a long time coming. I started blogging as a daily writing warm-up, and it took over too much of my writing time. So my plan is to use the time I spent blogging for writing.

I know this will quite likely be the kiss of death for an already foundering blog. But maybe I'll find a way to jump-start things again when I come back with my newly prioritized writing schedule. ^_^

And I'll still be playing Scrabulous on Facebook. :-)

Sunday Smattering

2008-02-03T13:51:00.000-05:00

I'm off to play the grocery game in a few minutes. 3 of my kids have actually asked to come with me. At least one has wanted to come the last few times, which pretty much stuns me, because I loathed grocery shopping as a kid. Well, except at the ironically named "Dairy Lane" in Hong Kong (which, as far as I know carried no dairy products other than Klim and some ice cream) where my sis and I would go upstairs and read books like The Joy of Sex, or Sphinx (a trashy novel about a woman with 6 breasts), tucked into a LIFE magazine.

Speaking of shopping that I loathe, my favourite jeans have blown up. I have 2 pairs and they both blew out at the knee last week. :-( The ones I'm wearing right now also have a rip at the corner of one of the bum pockets. I can tell, because MuNKi keeps sticking his finger in it. All of this means that eventually I'm going to have to suck it up and buy new jeans. Which is basically pure torture for me. I SO envy guys, who can fall in love with a pair of jeans and still be able to buy the same exact ones 30 years later. AND they can buy them to length. SO not fair. Sigh.

If only I could go upstairs and read smutty books while someone else bought my jeans for me. . .

*****
UPDATE : I won again at the Grocery Game. Today's stats:

$280.64 worth of groceries for $97.51. Huzzah! I saved $183.13, which is close to twice as much as I spent! :-)

Imbolc

2008-02-02T12:45:00.000-05:00

To Pagans and Christians alike, this day is all about Brighid/St. Brigit, the light-bringer. It's also known as Candlemas, and is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Regardless of which woman we honour, a common theme for this day is that of a Goddess or Holy Mother returning young light to a world of darkness. This is a day for hopes and dreams to be sown.

Dream big. :-)

Out and About

2008-01-31T18:07:00.000-05:00

After some local power outages 2 nights ago that didn't actually seem to affect us, we were without the benefit of the "intrawebs" until tonight. It didn't really matter, though, since I finished up a Mr. Darcy book that I need to return to a friend, and got a new review book in the mail today. The new book is "Firefly Lane" and so far is fantastic. Yay! The library is still without power, so I guess we're lucky to have it here.

Yesterday was a day of book shopping (3 new books for the Ancient History class we'll be starting, the newest Alex Rider, and a Garfield) and a night of LOTR watching. I love days like that.

Tonight is class and sparring, to be followed by more LOTR watching. :-)

The girls and I have been brushing up on our Black Belt curriculum questions. Now that they are 1st Poom (the 15 and under equivalent of first Dan) they have to learn the adult curriculum, which is a LOT longer. They're doing well, though, and I think they'll be ready when we test a week from Saturday. Still not really looking forward to that, but it's a positive experience in an esprit de corps sort of way. And oh, poo, I was supposed to order power gel stuff for that. Argh. I wonder if it's too late? :-P

Simple Cushions, Martha-Style

2008-01-25T16:04:00.000-05:00

I'm sure that just like me, you've been cleaning the house while the freshly-made foie gras is chilling when you've been suddenly seized by the urge to have more pillows. Well, my friend, you are in luck, because that's what today's post is all about; ~~foie gras~~ pillows.

First, you need just a few basic materials - the kinds of things that I'm sure you all have lying around in your crafting vaults:

whale bone - a nice 6-8" piece (We will only be using a small portion of this, so don't fret if yours is a little on the scant side.)

eggs, freshly laid Auricana (look for these in your fridge if they aren't in your vault)

a basic assortment of clays and powdered gemstones

a goat

bamboo, freshly harvested, preferably Phyllostachys aurea
flavenscens-inversa

fine muslin (hand loomed of course!)

Panda fur (shed from a 3 month-old panda for greatest softness)

Using basic techniques, craft a brush from bamboo and goat hair and mix up a nice array of paints from the eggs, clays and crushed gems. Now, simply paint a picture on your muslin and wait for it to dry! Spray the dried fabric with industrial fixative and bake it in a slow oven for 2 days to set. Hand wash on cold in goat's milk (you can use the same goat!) and dry with a hair dryer set to "primp." This should only take about 12 hours. Wash again in a vinegar bath to "double-set" and air dry in your walk-in humidor.

Woo hoo! You're almost ready to sew!

For the back, round up a bunch of scrap fibers such as sisal from the mat we made in last month's craft, raffia from your gift-wrapping stash, and hemp from the neighbour's garden. The more varied your collection, the better; we're going for a very "primitive" look with this. Dental floss is discouraged because it will make your pillows smell like old people.

Weave a nice, tight mat of fibers, cut to size and bind the edges.

From your whale bone, craft a sharp, slender needle and get stitching!

Fill with baby panda fur and slipstitch the opening closed. Voila!

Wasn't that easy? Be sure to check back next month to learn how to craft a recliner from your stash of toothpaste caps!

1 or 2? 1 or 2?

2008-01-25T15:52:00.000-05:00

Uplifting

2008-01-24T15:59:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow I will put on a bra for the first time in a week. That's the longest since puberty that I've gone without one. I dunno. Something about that just struck me as. . . well it just struck me I guess.

Boy With a Coin

2008-01-22T16:10:00.000-05:00

Thanks to my sis for sharing this:

Alive and Kicking

2008-01-21T11:52:00.000-05:00

Well, no, actually, not kicking.

But alive anyway.

Which is really saying something.

Uhhnnnh

2008-01-19T23:04:00.001-05:00

The flu. I has it.

So not fun.

Without tea I would be dead.

At least it's not a stomach thing, and for that I am eternally grateful.

A Girl and Her Raven

2008-01-16T23:05:00.001-05:00

Or maybe he's a rook.

Anyway, Joan Aiken's books about Arabel and Mortimer have got to be the funniest kids' books ever written. I had forgotten just how precisely delightful they are until we started reading them again last night.

TKD is closed through Saturday because the Master has a nasty flu. The only exception is the kids' after-school club, which must go on (because where else are they gonna go?) so I'm handling that. The kids were very good for me today, but when the last one's mom came to pick him up, he turned into a complete snot. I couldn't believe what a brat he became. She let him walk all over her, too, which was both embarrassing and frustrating to watch. I need to talk to the Master about the idea of adding some sort of off-the-mat behaviour tip as a testing requirement.

Speaking of testing, black belt testing time has rolled around again, and our test is in a little over 3 weeks. This will be the first of 6 bi-annual tests toward my 2nd Dan. Not looking forward. :-P But I'll probably live through it. MuNKi, Mollusc and Sluggie are testing too.

I'm on a roll of seemingly getting nothing done at home, so I'll probably be scarce for a while.

Later, taters!

Odds n Ends

2008-01-15T12:32:00.000-05:00

Today is voting day. Sadly, there is no one terribly inspiring for whom to vote, but I went anyway. Fishy insisted on wearing a tie. (We tugged his sweater down for the pic so it would show better.) Mollusc thought that maybe there should be a new system for narrowing down the candidates:

1) Logic Tournament

2) Sparring Tournament (in this order, so we get the fittest smart person rather than the least dumb of the fit people)

3) English Grammar Test

^_^

I think she may be on to something. Chess might be a good idea as well - something to demonstrate a decent grasp of "strategerie."

Last night after Little Kids' Class, we went to the library for "Yummy Memories." Each of the kids brought a recipe card and got to scrap it on a piece of 12" x 12"paper. Prawn wanted my help, which is a true test of mommy skills, because as a scrapper I want things reasonably balanced and coordinated, but as a mom I know it's important to let her make her own choices and have fun with it. After all, it's supposed to be her page, not mine. So if she wants to cut out a random scrap of paper with decorative scissors and glue it over the mixing bowl on her card, and then decorate it with a face, more power to her. And if she wants to colour the sticker of the giant glass of milk pink and draw a guy reminiscent of the subject of Munch's The Scream on it, so be it. And in the end, it actually came out pretty cute. :-)

I'm Loving All of This

2008-01-12T20:39:00.000-05:00

The Grocery Game rocks BIGTIME! Today Kroger was doubling coupons up through $1 (so you could get up to $2 off per coupon.) I went through all my coupons, and armed with my List (from the GG) headed off to do battle.

End result:

Value of groceries bought = $389.29

Total I had to pay = $157.98

for a savings of $231.31

HOO ra!

Quite a few the items ended up being free. In fact, they paid me to take some of them away! ^_^

Homeland Insecurity

2008-01-11T11:08:00.001-05:00

I've been doing some online research about bank alarms and security, hostage negotiation procedures, and the psychology of various participants in hostage situations for a story I'm currently working on. Do you think someone's gonna break down my door?

The Ongoing Saga of the Ring

2008-01-10T23:10:00.000-05:00

OK, so to recap (rather than pointing you off to a bunch of tedious posts):

○ I lost my original wedding ring down the tub drain.

○ The diamond fell out of my engagement ring, which was soldered to my new wedding ring.

○ The replacement ring I was wearing flew off at the park and was lost in the tanbark under the merry-go-round.

○ I broke my new ring whilst punching the bags at TKD.

○ The new ring was repaired (by the World's Most Dangerous Jeweler), and I began taking it off to spar and to punch the bags. On the one occasion I left it on when unexpectedly called out to help teach punching at a kid class, I broke it again.

○ It was repaired again, and now one of the little tiny diamonds (oops - cubic zirconias - whatever) has fallen out. :-P

I'm thinking of just having a ring tattooed on my finger. :-P

Search Me

2008-01-09T23:38:00.001-05:00

Most frequently googled subjects that bring people here:

~ "My sister's panties" and variations on that theme (from when I was sewing those Hello Kitty V-Strings)

~ "Bidibodi Bidubu lyrics" Let it die already!

~ various MuNKi pictures, which I find odd, because I don't hotlink them (post the pics on my site by putting their addy in the IMG SRC tag) since that is stealing bandwidth, and a big no-no. I just make a clickable link that redirects to their page, and maybe sends you down a fun bunny trail at another site. So why does Google direct them to my blog?

And now there's a new one:

"Howie Mandel and Naked Pics"

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!

Strange Admissions

2008-01-09T01:30:00.000-05:00

So we did the sledding/hot tubbing/snow angels in swimsuits thing again with our friends on Saturday. What a blast! My jeans were so soaking wet by the end of sledding (lots of falling off of a snowboard) that they were dragging down, yet hard to get off. :-P It felt soooo good to get in that hot tub, with the steam billowing up into the night air. I took a few snowboard runs down a baby slope in my suit, and (strange admission #1) log-rolled down the hill a few times, too. It probably looked very silly, but it was nothing if not invigorating! It makes one feel very Swedish. And getting back in that hot tub always feels amazing. I highly recommend pretending to be Swedish yourself if you can arrange it. ^_^

Strange admission #2 is that I had a sex dream about Howie Mandel last night. This is bizarre for a lot of reasons, the fact that the guy was Howie Mandel being a biggie. I mean really! What's up with that? I have no strange affinity for the man. So, OK, he's shaved his head, but he's still not my type. And besides, he didn't even have the decency to have a shaven head in my dream. In fact, I think he had dreads. And he was wearing long-johns! Oddly enough, he was basically a tripod, but come on! I don't even know how I knew it was supposed to be Howie Mandel. For God's sake, if it had to be a Howie, why couldn't have been Howie Long? Or not a Howie at all? Why not Clive Owen? I mean, I HAD just watched a Clive Owen flick. Or the delectable Daniel Craig? But NOOOoooo! I get Howie Mandel. Why? I can't even remember the last time I heard him mentioned anywhere. All I can figure is that I must have been punishing myself for something. I wonder what the long-johns meant. And the long johnson.

And then I went to Jay's blog today, and who does she mention but Howie Mandel. O_O

The worst part is that in my dream, I liked it. :-P

Bang Bang!

2008-01-07T22:16:00.000-05:00

MuNKi and I watched Shoot 'Em Up last night, which was a riot! As I understand it, and also judging by some of the reviews I read, a lot of people don't understand that this film is a send up of 'shoot 'em up bang-bangs.'

I think the underlying reason for this is that so many of the last decade or so's shoot 'em up bang-bangs (or SEUBB) are so ridiculous that people mistake this for just another one in a long line of crap SEUBBs.

Think again, dear Viewer, think again.

If you're wondering why I rented this flick in the first place, here's basically how the stream-of-consciousness dialogue in my head went:

"Clive Owen. Yummy! Action film? He's not so much an action dude, is he? Can he really pull that off? I'm not sure I can imagine. . . What does it say on the back? Nothing. Nothing? Oh, you have to slide it out of the little sleeve thinggy. Hmmm. Sexy and funny? And Clive Owen. OK, I'm sold."

Check it out. If it doesn't "crack" you up, I'll post nothing but naked pictures for a week. (Better watch it so you don't have to be subjected to that!)

^_^

Decluttering Streak

2008-01-04T00:14:00.000-05:00

I've decided to work systematically around the house and declutter as ruthlessly as possible. I started with the BILLYs, and I already have a nice, big, overflowing box of books to take to the used book stores when we go back to Madison this Summer or Fall for my sister's wedding. Oh yeah. Did I mention that my sister is getting married? For the first time ever? Cool, huh?

Anyway, I'm thinking that taking and posting pictures of the stuff I'm decluttering might be kinda motivational. For me, at least.

I'm also thinking about sewing or quilting or braiding a rug to go in front of the kitchen sink. Trillian likes to sleep there, and I think my feet and knees would welcome the softness, too. Being the instant gratification junkie that I am, I'd prefer to sew it. I'm not sure if that's actually "done" but I think I could pull something off. Especially if it was pseudo-quilted. I'm not so sure about the braiding thing, as it involves ripping lots and lots of fabric into 2" strips and sewing them end-to-end and then braiding them, and then sewing the braided strip into a big coil type of thing. The edges are gonna be all fray-y. And as much as I enjoy The Fray, what if I hate the rug? Then I'll have ripped a ton of my fabric up for no good reason. Then again, it might help with the fabric decluttering. Especially if I ripped up prints that I no longer love. I'm sure you can see my dilemma here. No? Frayed knot, then. :-/

CLICK VIDEO HERE (The Fray won't let me embed them, dirty (and possibly pleasant) as that sounds. Oh, and don't look now, but is the piano player sporting a Hairrow? Look what I started! ^_^)

Incongruity and Beauty Interspersed

2008-01-02T19:52:00.001-05:00

Is it ironic that the stuff I found all over the floor this morning was "Resolve"?

If you're feeling a little stressed by holiday stuffs, Orisinal is still my favourite site for random games. The animation and music are always beautiful. Mollusc says she could watch the deer crossing one for hours because it's just so peaceful. I don't play them a lot, but my spawn do and I love hearing the music. Here are the top 2 current faves. Double click the title box to start them.

WINTERBELLS

and

THE CROSSING

Even if you're not going to play them, they're worth a look for gorgeousness of art and music alone. And I love that nobody dies if you mess up.

In other chicken news, yesterday Sluggie was playing with Prawn and speaking to her in a demon-like voice, telling her all the horrid things that would happen to her if Sluggie caught her, much to Prawn's delight. I glanced up to see Sluggie calmly reaching out to button the back of Prawn's dress, all the while continuing the threatening monologue. ^_^

Lately I've been listening to the lovely Azam Ali. Now you can, too.

And don't forget to check out Going Great White and play the "Spot Candace" game. I keep popping up in the convention scenes. ^_^

So Much to Say. . .

2008-01-02T00:42:00.000-05:00

. . . and yet I realise that most successful posts are short and sweet.

It snowed a whomp-ass lot of snow here. We've gotten maybe 9 or 10 inches and I think it's still going. Naturally, I was forced to get my stuff on and go play in it today. I mean, how could I not? So whilst MuNKi wrangled the snowblower and cleared the driveway, I built snow forts with the kids. Pictures will have to come tomorrow, but it was pretty good weather for it, since it was 34-36 degrees F while we were out there. We've really got to get one more big pair of gloves though, because one of our "pairs" consists of 2 left hands, and Mollusc wears the same size I do now, so at first I wore one of Fishy's gloves and one of the 2 lefts, which got cold in a hurry, and then MuNKi gave me the other big set and wore a giant Air Force mitten and an oven mitt. ^_^

After snow play, it was time to make Buckeyes, since the garage is perfect for the setting-up process in this weather. I have to stop making those. They're so yummy I'm forced to eat them even when I'm full.

From there we proceeded to a fabbo supper from MuNKi's new cookbook (it was even the recipe shown on the cover there) and a viewing of some episodes of Red Green (another of MuNKi's Christmas presents.) I have to say that I really am benefitting from his gifts as much as he is. ^_^

Oh, and we had a fabbo trip to WI last week. We were spread pretty thin over the various familial units at times, but it was a great adventure all around, and we even got together with our friend Frank Sommers and a bunch of his girls, upon which he presented us with 2 copies of Going Great White. (Insanely clever people will click on "Buy DVD" in that linked page. ^_^ ) MuNKi and I watched it tonight and it's a scream! It totally kicks Best of Show's ass. I mean TOTALLY. MuNKi and I are credited, so we can have our own IMDb pages if we want, though MuNKi will have to use his middle name or something, since his has already been sucked up by another famous actor. ^_^ It was funny and cool seeing ourselves in a film. ANd, yeah, I want to do it again. :)

I keep getting stuck and unstuck in my novel. What a painful, yet alternately joyful process. :-P

Oh yeah, and we're down to just the one car now that MuNKi's work has reclaimed the work Jeep. Bummer. And I lost his cell somewhere in WI, too. Possibly in a snowbank. At least it was broken, so it's not a hugely huge loss. Or so I tell myself. I dunno what he's gonna tell the folks at work, though. Urf. Well, screw 'em for taking his car away. That's like a massive pay cut, so yeah, screw 'em.

Happy 2008, Y'all!

2008-01-01T00:21:00.001-05:00

We watched the Industrious Clock again this year because we are, in fact, total geeks. Actually we watched it twice, because the upstairs computer was right on time, but one of the downstairs computers was a couple of minutes slow. ^_^ As I recall, it's hard to link to because it's an application, so just Google the sucker if that doesn't work.

We drove home from WI (where we were visiting family) just ahead of a snowstorm. Actually, we were in the storm in Chicago and other parts of IL, but we broke out of it and managed to stay ahead of it through Indiana and here into Michigan. Now it's snowing like gangbusters (whatever they are) and we're supposed to get 6 to 10 inches.

It totally rocked being able to hang out with family for a week. We drove out on Christmas Day, which meant that Chicago was like a ghost town. That's the only way to drive through that city, let me tell you! The bits we went through today were pretty deserted, too, making for a pretty much stress-free drive except for the first stormy bit.

A real post may be coming, as promised, or maybe I will stick to my New Year's Resolution of not doing anything I say I will. Wait, does that mean I do or don't have to? My brain hurts. I'm going to post naked pictures now.