Great Health Report Card - No Cs

GuTTer MuNKi got the call today that all is well and good; no cancer. What a huge relief! Thank you all for your prayers, support and good vibes. :-) After that news, things were looking up for the rest of the day.




In the ensuing euphoria, I saw things in nature that might have appeared totally innocent to the untrained (and non-euphoric) eye. But I bet some of you will get them right away.






Yes, R-rated flower and veg pics. Forgive me. I'm still giddy. My brain takes off on this flight of fancy and there's no telling where it will go.



Well, OK, we can all be relatively certain it will make a beeline for the gutter. :-P (No, there's nothing suggestive about the butterfly as far as I can tell.)

I've probably announced more than once that I'm back on the Flylady wagon, but I keep falling off. Well, I've leapt on again. And I plan to blog about it to make myself more accountable. So, yes, my sink is shiny.



Oh, yeah, and on the windowsill, you can sort of see the little Toledo steel swords, which I DID get on eBay. I had a pic for today involving one of those, but it didn't turn out so great, so I'll try again later. Maybe tomorrow.


Well, it's 11:15 and there's still a lot I want to do tonight. And besides, the wind's howling like anything out there and the power is flickering, so I'd better get this up before I lose my juice. Heh heh. I said -- OMG somebody control me!


Oh, yeah. GuTTer MuNKi (OMG rugby is suddenly SO my favourite sport ever!) sent me this link today. Very entertaining if you like stop motion films (and even if you don't) or are a child of the 80s.PS - Ha ha ha!!! Kitkat, you got your laptop there in NY? In case you do, check out the latest blog in my sidebar. Yes, Broken Lizard blogs!!! :-)

The C Word

There is a C word that's worse than the one ending in "unt" (which, by the way, my 4 year old uttered rather loudly at TKD yesterday while reading a list in Alphaphonics: "unt, hunt, punt, bunt. . ." And no, it wasn't on the list; it was a read-o.)

The C word is the one that we never uttered when my dad got sick; the one we all tap-danced around; the elephant in the room, looming there ominously, knowing that we saw it and were afraid to say its name. Or perhaps we were just taking a boat-ride down that long river in Egypt (de Nile), while steadfastly ignoring the fact that Charon was piloting the craft. The C word is a dirty word. No one likes to use it, and certainly not in the context of it affecting anyone they know. If you do say it, you sort of cringe, and look around self-consciously to see if anyone's glaring at you, and then you make yourself small so that hopefully people will ignore you or forget who said it.

Yesterday John went to the doctor to get a suspicious-looking spot on his arm checked out. The doctor didn't like the look of it at all, and cut it off for a biopsy. We'll find out the results on Monday. On the plus side, if the C word is involved, the doctor said that this has the look of the very mildest sort - the least invasive.

Strangely enough, at our house we are irreverent even about things like this. As GuTTer MuNKi lay napping (allergies are BAD this year) we stole in to bag some of Sluggie's b-day presents for tomorrow. Monsieur mUNki awoke and I asked if we could turn on the light, or if he still needed to rest. He didn't want the light and Mollusc exclaimed, "don't turn on the light! He'll get skin cancer!" That's her second good one in a week. (The first involved and ancient woman and her ancient van who were determined to keep us from doing the speed limit.)

This week the kids were invited to Vacation Bible School at the church of friends of ours. They had a GREAT time, despite the fact that every time the big kid in the crocodile suit came in, The Prawn would start crying. The first night when we went to pick them up after TKD, she was looking a bit weepy. I asked her if she had had a good time, and she nodded vigorously through her tears, LOL! Tonight, they got her out of there before Mr. Croc put in his appearance. And then she showed him to me and watched him take off his suit. They all got to make fun crafts, sing songs and play games. I think they're bummed that it's over, and now Sluggie, at least, wants to do the Patch the Pirate club that starts up again next September. We shall see. It's a lovely church full of really REALLY good people, but not the exact flavour of my choice. I don't really fit anywhere, to tell the truth. Not that I've heard of yet, anyway.

GuTTeR mUNki and I had a private lesson at red belt class tonight. No one else showed. :-/ This summer, attendance at adult class has really been down. That said, last night's class was the biggest I've seen all summer- 10 people. I think our biggest ever (that we've been in) was 14, maybe 15. On the plus side, with only 2 of us tonight, we pulled out the crash pad for self-defense and did real throws. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee! **WHUMP**

Flexi-HNT

Pink Ass. . .tilbe

OK, so I wussed out. What a pussy. I had this great idea for an HNT of the Meow variety, but the pics didn't come out like I was hoping. I'll try refining the idea, butt in the meantime you get what you get.

But first you have to put up with the flowery crap. It's called pleasure delaying. Yadda yadda yadda. (OK pleasure, I can't really guarantee, so I don't know what to call it exactly.)



White - I dunno - kinda looks like a balloon flower. I think it's Campanula.



Do I detect a white theme? Bachelor's Buttons is what keeps jumping into my head, but maybe it's Spinster's Snaps or Ho's Hooks or something.



The ones that always make me smile and that are no doubt getting old for all y'all.



Not a flower at all. Well, soon he'll be clinging to the wall. I guess then he'll be a wallflower.



Not what I had planned, but a fun idea from GuTTer MuNKi.
If I have bored you to tears, or even if I haven't, check out the Trapped in the Closet vids as mentioned on Kay's blog. (Troubled Actor Guy over there ---> ) Wow. What a convoluted mess, LOL! But fun.Oh, and if you want to laugh, look up Laurie Notaro's "The Idiot Girl's Action-Adventure Club" I'll probably have to get more of her books to make me laugh again after I read A Fine Balance.She even has a blogsite.
Is that a Six Foot Vanilla I see in the Sky? Nope. My bad. Just some kind of volcano-dwelling deity.

Lilies of the Alley

Lilies of the Alley*

What a strange day it was, weather-wise. But true to Wednesday's form, it was full of possibilities: rain, wind, clouds, sun, calm, storms, you name it. Well, no sleet or snow. Wednesdays are like that; anything can happen because we have no committments, no responsibilities, no place we have to be. It's not uncommon for us to eschew breakfast on Wednesdays in favour of brunch or just snackage. Whatever feels the most decadent (a late curry breakfast/lunch? YES!) fills the bill. We usually go to the library on Wednesdays. We don't have an appointment or anything. It's not a scheduled outing. It's not a committment. (Shhh! No it's NOT!) We do it because we can. And primarily because we don't have to.

The Three Sisters Garden(click the pic at the top of that post) is growing like gangbusters. The three sisters have been joined by their red-headed stepsisters "Strawberry" and "Tomato."



Theoretically, the squash covers the ground and deters would-be snackers (so far so good) and the beans will climb up the cornstalks. I'm not sure why the ground is always so dry over there. We have sprinklers going on it just like the other gardens. But everything is still growing, regardless. And this in SPITE of the fact that more than once I had to replant the corn because something kept pulling it up before the squashes started spreading.

Hungry for something fried and green?



Ask not for whom the bell grows. It grows for me.



Today I made Seasoned Perilla Leaves for lunch. Perilla is also known as Shiso, and is bloody expensive to buy, but it grows like a weed. I have a ton growing in what was originally meant to be a spurge bed. Lots of volunteers, too. Ours are the Korean kind like in the bottom picture. We had freshly steamed jasmine rice with the leaves. Here's how to eat them:

Take a seasoned leaf and lay it on top of your rice, press down the sides with your chopsticks so that it envelopes a nice hunk of rice, lift and eat. MMmmmm! If you run out, steal some from "the baby" when she's not looking. }:-)

This afternoon I heard The Prawn squeal, "Eeeew! That looks like BACON!!!"

Here's what she was talking about:



Yes, it's a strawberry on Slug's knee. :-P

In a similarly coloured, but hopefully far more appetizing vein, I made cherry cobbler today with some of the sour cherries we picked on Saturday:




If you look closely, you can see that it's still bubbling 'round the edges. Don't touch that pan, though, it's HOT!

I finished reading Kira-Kira today. It was excellent, but I was hopping up every few mins to run to the bathroom and blow my nose and mop my eyes, and hoping depserately that the children wouldn't wake up and come wandering in. I read the last page in kitchen while making tea for breakfast (snackage), answering The Prawns' Qs (without breaking into weeping - impressive), and drowning my sorrows in chammomile. (An exquisite tea that I bought at the commissary last time we were there. Oh, I also bought a Cadbury Flake bar and have been making it last. :-) ) One of the next books in the queue is A Fine Balance, which I understand will be heart-wrenching. (hee hee hee! Look at the next book on her list. I had to link that, now, didn't I? OK, so here's a better link for the book itself. ) Oprah's book club? Is that where my friend is getting these titles? Was Kite-Runner on there, too? Hmmm. . .

I'm still plodding through the Covenants every now and then, too, as well as other things. Multi-tasking reader-woman, that's me. Still haven't dared pick up those brocade pieces to start sewing them together. :-P Still haven't found a prospective publisher, either.

______________________________

* I can't claim this title as my own. It was the name of yet another of my ultra-talented sister's singing groups.

Frogpole Blogpole

"Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea." ~Robert A. Heinlein
Last night Trillian asked why Egan asked for a post without cats. I explained as best I could (given that's it's truly hard to believe that ANYONE could fail to appreciate the exquisitely amazing creature that is the cat) and she appeared to think about it for a moment or two.



And then she snorted and walked off, shaking her head.

Before you read any further, here's a quick question:

Do you know how tadpoles develop their arms/front legs?

I thought they developed like the rear ones. - little buds that grow out and develp into arms, right? WRONG! They actually develop *underneath the skin* and then pop out when they're all ready. COOL, huh? I was joking that this must happen after my friend said hers seemed to develop them overnight. But then it seemed that that might actually be what *was* happening. This morning, it was pretty obvious that, yes indeed, that's what was going on. This morning before TKD Sam (or Merry) had one front leg:



And by the time we got home, the second one had popped out.




His shape has become a lot more froggy, too. Once those arms pop out, the taddies aren't all sperm-shaped anymore.

And now I leave you with this last piece of food for thought.

The problem with cats is that they get the exact same look on their face whether they see a moth or an axe-murderer. ~Paula Poundstone

Here's hoping your alarm system doesn't consist of a cat.

Pussy-Free Post

GuTter MuNKi has been making cherry jelly lately. It's goooood! I'm going to attempt cherry jam, cuz I like meatier stuff. ;-)

I'm currently researching publishers for my latest kids' book. I really dislike this part of the game. Sigh. And lately more and more publishers will only take manuscripts from an agent. Crap. But I did find this awesomely depressing piece about the "Slush Pile." (The pile of hundreds - or thousands - of unsolicited manuscripts that cross an editor's desk each year.)
Enough depressing stuff and more - LOOK! A Chicken!!


Did you know that men have a G-spot? I only found this out a month or 2 ago. Silly me. I'll have to do more of this kind of research. Oh, and yes, it's true.


Lately the children have been making films involving rabies, vomiting and dramatic death scenes. OK, so they're not so much films as random scenes. Such talent. I weep with pride. Actually, I just laugh, cuz some of them are entertaining. :-)

Random modnaR

Let the Randivity spew forth:

1) Use For a Cat #1138: I made Trillian dizzy with a Cat Dancer yesterday. She was running/falling sideways. If I knew how to post YouTube stuff I'd go for it. She got so tired she started panting, poor thing. I hope that doesn't constitute animal cruelty. I did it for her health after all - she's a bit pudgy these days. Today was instant replay day, but she'd learned not to run after it once she was dizzy. She can't leave the thing alone though.

2) Woody Allen *has* made a movie I can stomach. Go figure.

3) Picking sour cherries is an entertaining family/friends activity.

4) They're called "sour cherries" for a reason.

5) Donuts and cider are *still* great together.

6) Mortarific *could* be a combo of Mortification and Horrific, but it can also be a combo of Mortar and Terrific. My sister is not having a crisis. She is happy to have a new explosive toy.

7) That last bit sounded kinda dirty

8) It's good to keep an anonymous sex blog. I highly recommend it.

9) Nausicaa, like, totally rocks!11!!eleventyone!!one!!

10) Mark Hamill has done voiceover for every single animated feature since 1979. Impressive. And he IS a Jedi.

11) Nathaniel Parker is an EXCELLENT reader of the Artemis Fowl audiobooks. And holy crap, after Googling him, he's easy on the eyes, too. Yes, I'd pay for a DVD of him sitting reading the book. ;-)

12) Most audiobooks readers seem to have theatre experience.

13) Eoin Colfer is a brilliant author. "Her smile shrank by a couple of molars." Brilliant.

14) Decanters really do improve the wine

15) Even if you got yours on sale at Walmart for $3.50

16) Don't let your kids try to hoist your friend's kid up to the loft with a block and tackle

17) Even if you ARE busy scrapping with his mom

18) The fridge door is about to fall off. Again.

19) Does that mean it's about to be curtains for 2 other appliances as well?

20) Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is the longest train station name ever. It means, 'St Mary's church in the hollow of the white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the church of St Tysilio of the red cave.' Makes me proud to have a few drops of Welsh blood swirling through my veins (along with a hodgepodge of about 8 other things, none of which are French.)

I forgot the GuTTer MuNKi link last time. So here's a bonus.

O I C U HNT

something purple, July 2006

No, that is not the C word up there. But it's darned close, isn't it? Shall I leave my HNT for last? Probably.

OK, so what's new in the the delusional alternate reality that is Candy's World? Em, let's see. . .

Oh yes! I bothered Egan all day while he was "working." Actually, you could just go read my comments over there instead of me bothering to blog. Hmmm. . . He is the master of - uh - something, because for the longest time there, while I thought I was messing with him, he was actually messing with me. Much better than that Recruit movie of which I spake yesterday. I suspect that Egan is actually CIA. Sssshhhhh! If I'm right he'll have to kill me, so don't let on that you know.

I'm tightening up a picture book and the next step is to find a publisher off of which to boomerang it. :-)

Aw, hell. I have nothing to say. Here are pretty flowers, and then my HNT. You'll forget the sun in his jealous sky, as we walk in fields of. . . purple.



UGO (Unidentified Garden Object)


When will the blood begin to race, the sleeping bud burst into bloom?




Echinacea! (bless you)


O I C U HNT

Old Dogs, New Tricks

"I can't wait to go to the dentist."

These words were uttered by the 6 year old Boy today, I shit you not. The Prawn was awfully fired up, too. All four went. All four had fantastic check-ups. We blasted our eardrums out on the way to and from Ann Arbor listening to The Killers and singing along. It was a gorgeous, beautiful, amazing, wonderful, perfect summer day. " Hallelujah Jaffar!" Can I have an "amen!"?

I love Michigan. It's beautiful here. I need to take the camera along when we drive places, so I can show you all how everything on the way to everywhere is tree-lined and stunning, but I suppose that eventually I'd wreck the car trying to drive and snap simultaneously (and in rapid succession - that's for you She-Ra. And I want to talk to you for more than 12.5 seconds sometime, dammit.)

Here's my pseudo-inspirational thing for the day: it's never too late to learn a new skill. Or multiple ones. ;-) And the more you practice, of course, the better you get at it. (Hallelujah Jaffar!!)

If I sound all smiley, it's because I am.

One of the Saturdays this weekend (we counted the 4 day weekend as 3 Sats and a Sun) we went to Main Street in Ann Arbor, which is rather reminiscent of State St. in Madison, though a lot shorter, and with cars. There are lots of little restaurants and interesting shops tending toward artsy, New Age, etc. As we passed one of the Irish Pubs (come back, She-Ra - you could score Navan so many gigs here it's not even funny) I noticed a tiny little door set into the the door of the shop next door. There was a little sill in front of it, at the bottom, which had some coins on it. Turns out it's a "fairy door" and there are several around town. We'll have to look them up. How handy to have a list of locations on that page.

I got dibs on another review book, so hopefully that will be coming soon.

Tonight we watched - hmm. I don't know what it was called. I grabbed it at the library. Ah, found it - The Recruit. Eh. It was interesting but had at least one major problem. And lately I can call everything about an hour before it happens, more by formula than by actual clues given, so, eh - a good one-time view, but doesn't invite repeat viewing.

The Boondock Saints (in case you missed the link the first time), on the other hand, is an awesome script and I appreciate it more every time I see it. In Nomeni Patris, et Fili, et Spiritus Sancti.

Carpe Crappum

raccoon trail, July 2006
I'll warn you right off that I'm not staying on the path in this one. Not even remotely. (Even if there ARE "guerrillas in those woods.") So what's new?

A wise man once (OK, yesterday) said:"Today is the day that we waste other people's time with our crap."Brilliant!


Last year I joined an order, a sisterhood, in which we set goals for ourselves. Each phase of the moon brings us the opportunity to focus on a different aspect of our goal setting. We also each have our own Life List of 8 goals that we plan to accomplish. Have you ever really thought about what you hope to accomplish in your life? Let me tell you, to sit down and decide on the 8 things that you most want to do in your lifetime - it really makes you look at yourself and how you're doing things. Now, we have a bit of an "out" in that once we accomplish one, we update our lists. So that's a little pressure off, right? I mean if it was only 8 EVER, I think that would be harder. But still. So here's my challenge to you: make your own List. They don't have to come to you all at once, but don't look at it as a "here's a few and someday I'll choose the rest" type of exercise. It might take a couple of days. You might change your mind on one or two. A year from now, you may find some things have lost their importance, and other things have taken their places, but make your list anyway. Eight things, no more, no less. And then get started. But do be sure to stop and smell the daisies along the way.



OK, being serious for too long causes me physical pain. I'm just not a very serious person. Levity is the key to, uh, levitation. . .? Anyway. On to the - LOOK a chicken! stuff.

For the visually oriented, the rest of this post will be peppered with photos.




I'm slowly attempting to make the front of the house more inviting.


So these greet you by the front step:


The echinacea was photo shy, but the mums, ironically, clamoured for a close-up.


(insert clever segue here for seamless transition)
The following is proof that I am

1) Overambitious
2) Insane
3) Going to be using a lot of potty words
4) A sucker for pretty fabric
5) And cheap patterns
D) All of the above



Look away now, Poly and Egan. When you hear the chime, you can look back.

I had plenty of help with the cutting phase.




It's Trillygami! This is why God gave her thumbs. 2 on each hand.

**ding** (that's the chime for Egan and Poly)


I had no clue what size to make. I will try to chronicle the saga of this ill-fated project with plen -- OOOH! Shiny thing!


**skipping record noise**
You can tease me all you like about the awful Brittany hair, I did it for GuTtEr MuNKi, who promptly rogered me senseless. Afterward, I lulled the birdies to sleep with Enya. (whose music hath a far more pleasing sound than Brittany's)


3 birds at piano

Yes, the books are double-stacked in the case. No, there's not usually any room for them to lean over like that. (Will ho for bookcases.)

And so I leave you. Who's accepting my challenge?

something like the sun July, 2006

Links comma Sausage comma Creative

Caveat Lector: from now on, click GuTtEr MuNKi links AT YOUR OWN RISK. Some are not for children under 18. None are for the emotionally mature.

Hey! Check out Mr. Froggy's legs (well, leg.) He's keeping them small so some evil Frenchman doesn't kill him and rip them from his corpse for lunch. ;-)






Today after kids' sparring, we headed off to GuTtEr MuNKi's co-worker's house to see her Savannah cat, Ozzy. Before doing so, however, I made a string of catnip sausages for her pixie-bob (some sort of bobcat derivative) Sigma, and a string of lavender sausages for Ozzy. Lavender affects lions like catnip affects housecats, so I figured it was worth a try. And most housecats like lavender anyway, so why not? Needless to say, I had helpers who eagerly offered to perform quality contol checks on the catnip during this task.






But the carelessly proffered help soon degenerated into a boxing match over who got to do the next test.






Then it was on to see Sigma and Ozzy. Sigma graciously accepted our gift of catnip sausages.






And was, in fact, quite taken with them.






Ozzy was interested, but not horribly impressed, preferring to play with some of his fishing toys.






Please note that the hairy legs in the background belong to GuTter MuNKi and not me.






On the way home, we hit Joe Randazzo's, (whoops, this one, not that one) where we stocked up on lots of fresh fruit and veggies and paid a mere pittance.

Once home, I cut up 3 or 4 different kinds of plums (and some pluots) for a plum good fruit salad, and made pico de gallo. I thought I might make sangria, too, but alas, I have no glass pitcher and no brandy. GuTTer MuNKi made bajingo chicken and those yummy rosemary new potatoes.

I was still feeling somewhat sewy, so I made The Prawn a tiered skirt.






It's not actually messed up in the front. That's just a wrinkle from how she was standing. If you look closely, you can see her black toenail on the back foot. Ow.

Yesterday she had a bit of a crash in the wagon thanks to an overzealous older sister who shall remain unnamed. *coughSlugcough* Check out the scrape between her eyes and the Band-Aid on her chin.






Poor child. But it doesn't seem to be hurting. I've been putting calendula on it, which always helps.

Some time after dark (10ish?) the fireworks started. Wow! Some of the neighbours put on quite a show. I don't know if they were celebrating Canada Day (we're like an hour from Canada) or just having some early 4th fun. One of the nearby towns was putting on a show, too, which we could see from the yard. Naturally, GuTter MuNKi (after some prompting by me and the little munkis) felt obliged to put on a display as well. The neighbour's grandson came over, to watch, too.



Yeah, they had The Good Stuff. It was pitch black out, but you'd never know it from the picture. Yee haw!! :-)

Some of ours:




Holy fiery mint, Batman!!

We might not have lit up the sky, but we lit up the front of the house. Actually, GuTter MuNKi set off some mortars that weren't half bad, but I couldn't get the camera to focus on any of it.

OK, now I've angered 1) people who don't believe in interfering with nature (oh, hey, the raccoons are having dinner out there, too) 2) Frenchmen and anti French-stereotype people 3) anti cat-labour activists 4) anti cat-drug activists 5) people who don't like cat pictures 6) Joe Randazzo, and 7) those who are against the manufacture, distribution, and blowing-the-hell-up of fireworks, so that ought to about cover it for tonight. (Egan, will you ever read my blog again?? Ooops! Is that you??) Thanks for reading, and have a lovely final few bits of Canada Day.