Oh Hoppy Day!!

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

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

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

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

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

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?

Uplifting

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

Thanks to my sis for sharing this:

Alive and Kicking

Well, no, actually, not kicking.

But alive anyway.

Which is really saying something.

Uhhnnnh

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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. . .

. . . 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!

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.

Happy, Sneezy, Giggly and Sticky

My children are using the Xyron machine (sticker maker) to adhere "H"s to each other's foreheads.

Only the true geeks will appreciate the significance of this. ^_^

I have a real post coming. Honest.

Creative Streak

No, sorry, no streakers or other nudes here. Just this stuff:



I made sleeping bags for Prawn and her friend's Groovy Girls.


Then I turned these


into these. I wasn't thrilled with the pattern, because the seam allowance got in the way of the buttonholes that hold the elastic in the top of the shoe. I improvised and did the stitching lower down in order to avoid the buttonholes, and did a fancy scallop stitch just for fun. Of course, because I was dorky enough to use fabric with lines on it, everything looks a little wonky. :-P I used this pattern, but found these instructions a little more helpful. Next time I'll try the pattern from the second site. It looks like the buttonhole markings are in a better spot.


Then I made some sherpa and flannel washies to go with them.


Round about the same time, MuNKi was making this fabbo beef stew and bread.


And for Tori, the Webkinz Recipe Books I scrapped for Prawn's B-day. Clio the Kitty is here for size comparison. Of course, this only helps if you know how big a Webkinz is. >^_^<
The original album I had for stove recipes wouldn't fit them, so I had to redo the cover pic for the new, more expandable album. I stuck the other label inside the front cover. ^_^


And I loaded the album from back to front, so I ended up with a blank front page. Of course that was all wrong, so I hastily threw this together.


Random spread #1 (they're alphabetical, but what I'm gonna do when I add the new ones as they crack them makes me cringe to consider.)


Random spread #2


Blender recipes!


I just did random spreads because there are way too many to show.




And some from the sandwich book. . .





That is probably more than enough. :)

Christmas Candy

I have stuff to post, but I'm too worn out. I did class tonight in case I don't get to tomorrow (Prawn was sick last night, but unless she spikes another fever tonight, I think she's going to be fine for me to go tomorrow) and I just finished my review for a Beowulf audio CD as well as a last-minute order for MuNKi. So it's eye and ear candy for you all (provided you like these actors and actresses and Nickleback. . .)

How many of these flicks can you name without looking at the info? I got all but 4 or 5, but I think some of those are from the same films. :)

Captain Chaos

Wow. I've been sewing lately (!) and tonight I was trolling blogs for fun baby gift ideas. You would not believe how many beautiful crafty-type blogs are out there. Or maybe you would. They all have these gorgeous pictures of their amazing creations (with all those yummy, pricey fabrics I've seen online but always considered to be a "you can look but not touch" item), and everything is clean and orderly. There are great tutorials, and I found some really inspiring stuff. I also thought, "Wow! I should declutter my life, declutter my blog, get everything in order and live like that, with fresh huckleberries and organic milk and crocheted antimacassars (OK I didn't really think that part right there) and beeswax candles and stuff."

But you know what? That's just not me. I'm not an orderly person. My mind is always whirling, my house is never, EVER perfect (and sometimes it's a LOOOOOONG way from even decent), I usually have too many irons in the fire, and I'm running on a budget with no room for organic milk or designer fabrics. (Or else I just blow it all on books.) I do have a weakness for beeswax, though. ;-)

The more I think about it, the more like my dad I realise I am. He always had tons of ideas and projects and some of them never came to fruition, but he was always enthusiastic about all of them. And you know what else? I'm OK with that.

So, no, I'm not going to be decluttering my blog, or very likely my life, even though I really do admire - and yes envy - those women who can. And I'm still going to post like a chicken with ADHD, because that's who I am. So there.

In that vein, I shall switch tracks completely and post pics of our Dec 1st adventure which I mentioned, and then never came back to. ^_^

So there was this lovely little celebration in our town. I don't know what it was called, but they had reindeer for the kids to check out and Santa, and caroling, and carriage rides, and once it got dark there was a parade. I took the kids after sparring and lunch and we found the line for the carriage rides close to quitting time. So close, in fact, that I was pretty sure we'd be the last ones, if indeed we made it at all. Sure enough, we didn't make the last ride, but were given the option of riding the carriage to where the horse trailer was parked if we didn't mind walking back. The woman driving the carriage jokingly added something about helping them push the carriage into the trailer after they got the horse taken care of, and when we got there, I saw that she really didn't have any help. It was just her and a 15 or 16 year old girl, neither very big, a horse, and a heavy carriage that needed to be pushed up a ramp. So we offered to really help, and I'm so glad we did. :) I almost hate to say it for fear of changing our luck, but somehow we always fall into awesome situations like this where we get to really talk to the people handling the animals at the bird shows (all by ourselves after everyone else is gone), or help pack the hot air balloon that landed down the street back into its basket, or brush the horse, and push the carriage into the trailer.

Chaotic or not, life is good. :)


Festive Scarf Horse


Tess and her 2 people and (heavy) carriage


Sluggie does not impress Tess


Tess makes an impression on Mollusc


Brushing Tess -- shortly before she swung her back end around and knocked all the kids over like dominoes! ^_^

That Takes the Cake

At this time, six years ago, our newest kitten was attacking the midwife's foot, and I was somewhere between the fireplace and the Christmas tree, just 18 minutes away from giving birth to The Prawn. I'm feeling much more comfortable right now!

Since then, the kitten has gone through a devastating illness and been given up for dead, only to turn around and become Mr. Fat and Sassy whom everyone adores (though his now-black hair went all salt-and-pepper for a few months) and The Prawn has grown from an 8 lb 8 oz black-haired kicking machine to a 42 pound blonde kicking machine whom everyone adores. :-)

I'd stick around and post all kinds of sappy stuff, but I have rather a terrible track record with cakes. They fall. Whoever heard of cakes that fall? That was the stuff of our childhoods (mine anyway)- "Stop jumping in the kitchen; you'll make the cake fall." Modern cakes don't fall, do they? Mine never used to. But somewhere along the way I must have angered the God of Rising Baked Goods, because I can no longer bake a cake that doesn't fall. I thought of making a sacrifice to the Kitchen God. I mean, maybe he's making the cake fall so he can have it, and I just need to fill him up first. I don't know what he likes, though, so I'd better get baking and just let him have the first cake. And maybe the second. . .

Deep Thoughts

So I'm at the library, making judicious use of my enforced computer/writing time by checking my Scrabulous games, putting books on hold and blogging. Just now, I tried to put an audio recording of The Wee Free Men on hold, but the system didn't allow it. (Some libraries are selfish bastards and won't share with ours.) The computer popped up a screen informing me "Hold Not Allowed" and presented me with only one option: the OK button. But it is most definitely Not OK that they are a collection of selfish bastards who won't share with me when I Really, Really Want to hear this book. Honestly, what am I supposed to do? Push the OK button, even though it's Not OK? Throw a screaming hissy on the library floor? Navigate away and blog about it?

Also, when a math problem works out to something like "7= (-156)" isn't that technically a paradox? And aren't paradoxes rather earth-shattering events? They were in every Dr. Who episode I every saw. Imagine my surprise to find us all still here.

For Your Eyes Only

I think this will be the last year I'll be able to make something for The Prawn in plain view without arousing her suspicions. It probably helps that she's used to seeing me make a mess with scrappy stuff on the table. It also helps that there has been such an incredible scrappy mess on the table that she probably can't even see what I'm up to. :) I think I've finished the recipe books. All that remains is to load the recipe pages into the little albums. Yes albums, plural, because there are an ungodly number of them and I had to break them down into Stove Recipes, Blender Recipes, and Sandwich Maker Recipes. This will mean nothing to those of you whose households are not graced by the presence of fuzzy little Webkinz, but they will mean the world to Prawn. I hope. :)

So now, in my weird and strangely pleasure-delaying ways, I have put the very last disk of Going Postal on pause, stepped away from the final stage of the project, and sat down with my computer to blog. The kids are in the basement with a friend, playing some strange and exciting Pirate Ship game they've invented. I know there are swashes being buckled, because I saw an armory load of wooden swords and shields getting dragged down there. Hopefully there won't be any severed limbs to deal with. The crew ate lemons just before going to sea, so at least scurvy isn't going to be a concern.

I could take this opportunity to make some secret things with lovely secret fabric I bought the other day, but I fear that the crew will likely pop upsatirs to dry land at the most Inopportune Moments, and unlike The Prawn, the others suffer from Insatiable Curiosity whenever I'm sewing. So it will have to be a matter of Secret Midnight Sewing, I think. In the meantime I'll make more Christmas gift bags. I seem to have given away rather a lot of them, and I'd rather be flayed and hung from the yard arm than resort to paper.

We've started reading Swallows and Amazons again, which I don't think Fishy and Prawnie remember much at all. The Bigs are enjoying it more than ever, as am I. I think the combo of S&A and watching Pirates III is what spawned this latest seafaring game. If you haven't read it, all I can say is that this is a series I wish every child could read. One of my Desert Island picks for sure. (you know - if you were stranded on a desert island and could only take X books - perish the thought!)

Enough pleasure-delaying for now. I'm off to see what finally becomes of Mr. Moist Lipwig.

Widdlyweep

Monday nights I teach a kid class that just happens to have a high number of attending parents (as opposed to drop-offs), and they just happen to be nearly all dads, who just happen to all have shaven heads or super short hair. It really is a lovely view from where I stand.

Now that I've admitted that, I'll cross my fingers and hope that none of them stumble across my blog. Or else that they don't mind finding out how much I enjoy perving at them. ^_^

I have nothing further to say, being in my happy place and all. So you get Widdlyweep, one of my all-time favourite Eddie Izzard bits. I say bit, but it's just over 9 minutes. Kudos to those of you brave enough to click. For my ADHD readers, my sincere condolences. The only one I can find starts out with dull-ish sound, but it gets better. And how cool is it that it starts and ends with Danger Mouse music?? ^_^

Stuffity

Since Tuesday's post I have:

~ Been informed by MuNKi that there is a pole-dancing class starting at the gym where he and another TKD friend lift weights. (And OMG, BG and I are getting mileage off the pole-dancing jokes, LOL!)

~ Taken a spinning back kick to the chin (thank goodness for my mouthguard, or I'd be concussed.)

~ Taken a spinning back kick (I think, or maybe a spinning outside kick -- it's all a blur) to the nose (I need to work on this whole getting back farther thing, LOL) but I DID land a gorgeous counterkick a half second later. Only then did I feel that I'd been hit in the nose (pretty lightly.)

~ Been scrapping like crazy trying to finish a Webkinz cookbook for Prawnie's 6th birthday (1 week from today! OMG!!)

~ Watched Casino Royale again and marveled at how delicious Daniel Craig still is

~ Made a ton of cookies

~ Finished listening to Deception Point by Dan Brown (very good) and started listening to Going Postal by Terry Pratchett (OMG freaking hilarious!) I do this while scrapping -- multi-tasking. Hooray! Mollusc is developing quite an appreciation for Mr. Pratchett, too. :)

~ Finished re-reading The Subtle Knife and started re-reading The Amber Spyglass (the 2nd and 3rd books in the Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman)

~ Laughed a lot

~ Battled a zit trying to grow in my eyebrow

~ Dug wood splinters out of my thumb

~ Tried to determine whether those are really shiny blonde hairs or *gasp* grey ones (I swear they change in the light.)

~ Gotten my glasses fixed so that I no longer have red marks on my nose and headaches. (No, not red marks on my headaches. . .)

~ Done the opposite of coming from behind in yet another Scrabulous game (Simon/Winters is deadly, let me tell you.)

~Decided that my mundane list of stuffity stuff is probably already too long. ^_^

Pictures of You

Perfect, considering I was just going through pics yesterday and still have a sore shoulder from so doing. (Better not to ask, probably, as it's a boring explanation involving desk, mouse and chair placement.)



I just heard this for the first time today, which means that Egan will likely inform me that it's been playing for at least 3 years.

But there's also this, so you can pick your poison:

Stormy

The wind is howling 'round the corners of the house tonight, trying to sneak in all the nooks and crannies. Unfortunately, it's pretty good at blowing right through the window by the couch where I'm sitting right now. Urf.

We had quite the adventure today. I think all the pics are slurped into the computer now, so hopefully tomorrow I will relate all. Very cool. :)

I have no trouble believing recent reports that average temps have been falling since 1998, as it's bloody cold out. But it's a nice way to welcome in December.


PS: if we're playing Scrabble, it's your move. :)