Paint!!!!

The painting adventure is going well!

We started with the grey primer:











Then we moved on to the COLOUR!!

It will still need 2 more coats, but I'm loving it already - Bordello colours as a friend put it. ;o) You can see our mango bathroom in that pic, too. I'm really happy with how that came out. When everything is all cleaned up, I'll post some "after" pics. :)

Today while we were painting, I heard a whistle blowing and I was wondering WHO was foolish enough to buy a whistle for my children! Then I remembered that it was ME. (argh) It came with a little survival guide from Scholastic. Maybe I'll bury it in the backyard. I can always tell them that they get to dig for buried treasure if they figure out it's missing...

Trillian has become quite the blogger. She really likes to hang out here in my lap while I type. I can't believe how much she can eat in one go. She's definitely getting some meat on her little bony body.

I ordered that ring I was coveting. John made me do it. He said it was either that or get a SOLD sticker and wear it on my bum. ;o) I also won a lot of 8 Stephen Donaldson books on ebay. Sadly only 6 are the Thomas Covenant books, so I'll still be missing some, but the price was right! ($10.60 shipped)

I've been re-inventing myself because - well - it was just time! So I've made a switch in style to some rather Bohemian type stuff something like this (WOW! looks like I'm not the only one!) and am actually wearing skirts (so not my usual style!) and loving it, but I'm not sure what to do about cold weather attire. I guess I still need to figure out my style there. I'm a no-shoes kind of person for the most part. And I'm DEFINITELY not a nylons person. Here's what I'd REALLY like to wear but where can you wear something like that? And I'm clueless about footwear. I've never paid attention to what women put on their feet. I know a few basics like "no white after Labour Day", and I know combat boots are a no-no, (not that I want to wear those - had enough of that in the Air Guard back in my airplane-fixing days!) but I guess I'm going to have to start paying attention. It's kind of pitiful how clueless I am about this stuff, LOL!

Had a good breakthrough in my story today. I wasn't sure where it was headed, but it suddenly came to me what needed to happen next, and I'm quite happy with it. I'm all inspired to sit down and write the next part now. It seems to be growing out of short-story length. I'm not sure what it's becoming. I think I'm going to need a Nom de Plume, though. Can't have children's books published under the same name as this adult fiction. :-O (assuming I do get published, LOL!) I'm still waiting to hear back from the publisher about my latest manuscript, and I have to work on tightening up another one I'm polishing up to send out.

Time to go be productive!

Allo, Salut!

Woo Hoo! Bought the O-Zone CD! Can't wait til it shows up!

Swimming today was a bit of a bummer for Prawn today due to a mask malfunction, but she got over it eventually.

Trillian has turned into quite the purrbox. Such a happy little bit of a cat!

I lost my wedding ring a week ago yesterday. I was pushing the kids on the merry-go-round at the park (a bunch of us homeschoolers went together after homeschool TKD class) and I must have gotten a bit too energetic - well plus my fingers have been shrinking as I shed more weight - because it just flew off. It wasn't my actual wedding ring - lost that down the tub drain years ago. This one was one I got while pregnant with the Fishy because my (replacement) wedding ring had gotten too tight. At least it wasn't an expensive one. I certainly got my $30.00 out of it. :o) I have been coveting this ring for quite some time now, so I suppose I should order it. I can't wear my 1st replacement because they soldered that to my engagement ring and the diamond fell out of that shortly after we moved here. D'oh! But I've never been a ring person and the diamond sticking out of that has always been a bother. Just think if I'd found the One Ring instead of Bilbo. The story would have ended about 2 chapters in when I lost or destroyed it!

Anyway, it's been nice for sparring, since the one I'd been wearing has cut my finger a few times (cutting into the finger beside it when I block kicks) so having no ring has been good there. I should have just taken it off during sparring, but I was afraid of losing it. The one I want to order has rounder edges so maybe it will be OK.

I watched Shakespeare in Love last night. Kinda wish I hadn't wasted my time. I kept waiting for it to get better, and then I just started fastforwarding. The acting was great, but the story just wasn't a gripper. Dame Judy Dench was a very good Queen. It was a bit unsettling when Will was making out with Master Kent (actually a woman disguised as a boy.) But that's pretty Shakespeare-ish in itself (no doubt intentionally so.) I had to follow it up with some Children of Dune just to end on a good note. I'm going to watch Tomb Raider again with John and at some point we'll get to Frequency. Mead might be required *wink wink, nudge nudge, know what I mean? Say no more...*

New post-Prawnie low on weight today. I've lost about 21 lbs since I got serious about dropping the rest. I don't actually know where I want to end up since I'm a lot more muscular now and I know that my ideal weight will be more than it used to be. I guess I'll just figure it out when I get there, though it's nice to know what you're shooting for... Maybe 15 more lbs...

I'm happy:

I also appear to have developed a squint in my left eye, because I think all the pictures I tried to take came out that way. ;o) <-- (squinty)

EXCITEMENT! Followed by a plunge into disappointment. I just saw some comments for the first time - people are actually READING this? OK, there was 1 real one, but the rest turned out to be SPAM (Acronymn for Super Pressed Ass Meat as my SIL explains it.)

Oy Vey!

I think Master Han was trying to kill us tonight, LOL! Man, what a workout. We did 3 step sparring and holy cow! It was a huge workout but also really good. I'm still working on that jump spinning back kick, but it's coming along, and I tried a new one for the first time - a combo af Nalyabang and inside crescent kick, so it's a kind of jumping spinning inside crescent kick - very cool once you get the hang of it, but also hard to use without hurting anyone - like spinning hook kick, it's definitely a kick to be pulled! I was lucky I threw it really high - or I guess I should say my partner was lucky! Here's a pic of the kick (last pic on the page,) but you prolly need a vid to really understand this kick. I swear my face was glowing like a nuclear test site after 45 mins of continuous 3 step with the bigger guys.

On a pretty much unrelated note, here's a great new crayon I just discovered:




So tonight I think it will be Frequency. Or will in be Shakespeare in Love? Hmmmm which one is John more likely to watch with me since he returns tomorrow?? Whichever movie it is, it's going to have to air by the Jacuzzi. :o) I have bruises in places I've never (knowingly anyway) gotten them before from tonight's session.

Swimming tomorrow! Yay! I can't believe how much the kids have all learned simply from swimming in a warm, zero-entry pool where they are comfortable. Fishy floats on his back really well now. The Prawn can do forward (double!) and backward somersaults in the water and swim about 12 feet with the current. Mollusc and Sluggie are improving what they already knew. We worked a bit on side stroke last week - had the whole fabulous pool to ourselves for much of the time. When someone else did show up, it was only a dad with his cute little red-headed baby. Plenty of room for all!

Talking to Myself

After a dearth of blogging activity, here I go making it up in one fell swoop. Thanks for the fun emailing fest, Sheila. :) Here's a little bit of what happened here today:




and then:





Awwww!

Yesterday: check out those toes!





Spot the kitten: (watching BBC mini of Hitchhiker's Guide)



That's right!




Humph! My FTP prog is refusing to upload some of my pics. Maybe that's enough for now...

Non-sanctimonious Meditations and Links Galore

"I have been meditating on the very great pleasure which a pair of fine eyes in the face of a handsome man can bestow" ~not quite Mr. Darcy :o)

So Tomb Raider was actually pretty interesting - kind of Indiana Jones meets Spy Kids and Angels & Demons. I thought it ironic that Angelina Jolie had to put on a British accent and Daniel Craig put on an American one - not too bad of one, though - maybe a little cowboy twang on those "R"s. Still prefer the British one by far. :o) I did NOT expect to see good old Arnie Rimmer as Hillary. What fun! He made a great Hillary.

So thanks for the heads up on O-Zone, Sheila. Any way I can get the Romanian version? I've learned all kinds of stuff, like what a meme is, and that William Gibson has another book out I'd like to read.

I really need to do some picking up and de-clutterning. That's why I'm sitting here blogging. Tonight I have class and sparring. I've been practicing my jumping back kick and hope to try it out tonight. I think I'm getting better at the jumping-backwards roundhouse kick when separating from close sparring. I bet there's a name for that, but I don't know it yet. I need to get going on my water drinking. It helps a LOT with energy during class.

Since my monitor is going out on me yet again, I guess I'll take that as a sign that I need to blogoff.

Speaking of strange music

I really am going to have to find a link to this Korean Reggae I got from a friend. It's so fun!!

Nothing as good as some numanuma!

Well thanks for the site, Sheila! :) Where do you GET these things? I have to say that I need a copy of this song now, so LMK if you can find one. :) I find myself pretty much doing the same thing along with this dude. Catchy tune! I haven't got the eyebrow thing down yet though. I'm running it the background while I post. :o) I wonder what kind of lizard he's got in the tank there... (edit from the future: the group is O-Zone, the CD is Dragostea Din Tei)

So with John gone, I went to the lib to pick up some flicks. Did I get some chick flicks to enjoy? Nope. Embarrassingly, I ended up borrowing Tomb Raider, primarily because it has Daniel Craig in it. He has the most startling eyes . Very inspirational for a story I'm writing, LOL! That's not to say that I wouldn't get Pride& Prejudice if it were out already. As it is, I think I've nearly licked all the tracks off my BBC P&P DVDs. (check out that code-work!) I actually got some other flicks, too: Frida, Frequency (Dennis Quaid *grin* ) and another one I can't recall right now. Gotta love free movies! Oh Yeah - Shakespeare in Love. Any good? I think I recall Sheila raving about the guy in it...

Oh scary! My monitor blinked off again. It has started this disconcerting habit of going black with faint rainbow shadows lately. Wah. This time a sharp rap on the right side took care of it though...

Mollusc wants to name our next 'puter Deep Thought. I think she's got something there.

The library didn't have the Stephen R. Donaldson books I needed - only vol 3 of the first set and then the 2nd set. Bummer - guess I'll have to put them on hold. Why oh why did I sell mine?? Maybe they're still at Frugal. Wanna check for me, Sheila?

I see that Trillian has been left on my bed in a baby basket. She's such a cutie! She's gotten to the point where she bursts out purring just about every time we pick her up now. And I heard her meow for the first time today. What a little voice!

We went walking in the woods today and saw some neat stuff - Dragon Eggs, deer tracks, squirrel tracks, turquoise and red leaf-hoppers - oh and we caught a baby garter snake in the yard when we got home. He was very little! Pencil-girth and maybe 8 inches long. Herbie II I guess. We were collecting leaves and trying to do some tree identification, but that kind of fell apart when I realised our book is the Western US book that we got in California. :oP Rats.

I made some pumpkin bar thinggies today and they're great. Maybe tomorrow I'll blog the recipe.

I've been writing pretty consistently, but it's tough when I keep getting interrupted. But, c'est la vie, and that's even more life experience to work into a story somewhere, right? I'm interested to see where this story is going - eager to find out what happens next! I suppose I ought to be working toward a specific ending, but sometimes that how it goes for me - I find out as I go along, then go back to fine-tune everything.

Malya HEE, Malya HOO, Malya HO, Malya HA HA!! bop bop boppity bop - Sheila PLEASE find this song for me!! Numa numa yey, numa numa yey, numa numa numa yey...

OK, I have to publish this before my monitor dies again and doesn't recover... (It went out again a second ago.)

Zaphod is Trillian!

Can't do pics today cuz my FTP puter isn't working right now. Sigh.

Anyway, Zaphod has become Trillian. She sure is a sweetie-pie. And AWFUL sleepy! So far Jet is doing well with her, Emmett is NOT happy about her, and Enya is scared of her, LOL! Soon enough, Enya's mommy instincts will kick in, I'm sure.

Tonight we all watched the old BBC production of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The kids are camping on the living room floor with Trillian and whatever other kitties have joined them by now, and I'm about to head off to try to finish my book.

I have to post this beofre I forget. The other day, the Prawn told me "I'm going to get a mommy horse and a daddy horse and they're going to have three babies, and I'm going to name the first one "silver" and I'm going to name another one "meat" and I'm going to name another one "ice.""

BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!! Classic!

Some of the kids are still awake, making paper dolls, of all things. Mollusc has created a very nice Ford on a stick, complete with satchel and Hitchhiker's Guide book. He has a full complement of people-on-a-stick-friends as well. :) No Vogon yet, though... Marvin turned out particularly well.

Oh yeah - have you seen these? Very nice!! I wonder if Arthur can vomit technicolour yarn like in the movie?? :o)

Oh oh oh!!!!! There are NEW Thomas Covenant books! Apparently the first is out and there is going to be a whole set! Wow! The 3rd Chronicles of Thos Covenant!!! I found out from a dad at TKD and am just tickled pink! Wish I'd kept my old ones. But at least I know our library has them. (note that I didn't spell that with 1 "r" like the caveman!) Soooo, if I ever finish the His Dark Materials set (won't be keeping those, but I do want to find out what happens!) I'll go on to Thos Covenant. Good thing I have a gigantic dictionary. But I want to re-read the Hitchhiker books, too. So many books, so litle time, eh?

Well, if I don't toddle off now, I'll jst be eating more reading time, and we don't want that!!

Zaphod's Music Video

Zaphod is sleeping next to the 'puter while this plays. :) Thanks to Ender in whose blog I discovered the existence of this vid:

Zaphod has joined our family!

We have a new family member! This is Zaphod:




Like the original Zaphod, our Zaphod has some extra parts:

It sure looked like Zaphod was a boy when we first got her, even though that would have been very rare (it would have to be an XXY male) and we had already decided that Zaphod was a great name for our next cat before we were asked if we wanted this kitten, so even though "he" is a girl, I think the kids are stuck on Zaphod as a name. I thought of "Polly" for our polydactyl kitty, but blah, so I suggested "Trillian" since she has "about a trillion toes" but looks like we're gonna stick with the big Z. Although if she trills a lot, maybe we're going to have to change that!

Zaphod went to the vet today and has no fleas, no mites, no Feline Leukemia - whew! What she DOES have are LICE!!! Argh! Fortunately, lice are species specific (HOORAY!!) so Zaphod gets a shot a week for the next four weeks and the other kitties do as well. That's actually not so bad as it could have been if it had been fleas. I hear those are really hard to get rid of.

We picked off one of the lice and mounted it and looked at it under our microscope (yeah - homeschoolers are a bit eccentric, I guess...) and can I just say EEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you want to see what we saw under the scope, click here. I don't really recommend it, actually... Especially not if you're planning to eat any time soon.

There, now that you're all itchy (I WARNED you...) maybe you'd like to indulge in some compulsive handwashing. I know I would....

We went to a TKD tournament on Saturday. We only had Sluggie participate since no one else really was fired up to do so and it was too expensive for us all to compete anyway. She did forms and sparring (the only available options) and took gold in both! Yay! The next day we got a call about Zaphod - did we want a kitten that had been dumped at a friend's in-laws' house out in the boonies in Ohio? If so, they'd bring her back with them. And you know the rest of the story. :o)

We're painting our room - FINALLY. We've had the paint since May and are just now painting. We've got grey primer on everything and the ceiling needs one more coat of Antique Ruby and then we'll start slathering "Scarlet's Velvet" on all the walls. I think we're going to try to get one more coat on tonight before John heads off for Winona.

The girls both tested for red belt last month, so now they go to Red Belt Class on Fridays. Wow - I can't believe they're red belts! If all goes well, John and I will test for our reds next month. Fishy has 2 tips on his blue belt, so it won't be long until he tests for brown. Good grief! And the Prawn knows her form now, so maybe it won't be too long before she goes for yellow.

Money is always an issue isn't it? So I've been looking into The Grocery Game. The list for Kroger in MI just became available last month, so I'm going to sign up for the $1, 4 week trial. I'm just trying to decide if I should try to amass more coupons first. I also discovered that Target has the best prices on pasta and both Target and Walmart have much lower prices on dry goods and packaged things like flour, sugar, applesauce, granola bars, etc. So that's helping. I'd always assumed the stuff would be more expensive there since you were paying for convenience. Silly me! I've been saving grocery receipts for each month since July. September's envelope was by far the thinnest, but I have yet to break it all down and see how much was spent and where we spent the most.

I've been working on 8"X8" baby albums for the kids and that's been a lot of fun. It so non-intimidating working with such small pages, though sometimes I do wish I could cram in more pics.

Well, lots to do, and I have to go back to the vet with the other 3 kitties soon, so check in soon for your personal Zaphod update. :o)

Pink Plastic Flamingos and God's sense of humour

It stands to reason that the inventor of wit would be a great one Himself. Here's a fun example in the form of something that happened to my sister on Friday.

My sister's co-worker was cleaning out a storeroom and found a brand new, pink, plastic flamingo - you know - the lawn variety. As soon as my sis saw it, she asked to borrow it for a few minutes so she could menace another friend with it. Off she went to D's office and poked the head of the flamingo through the doorway, letting it just kind of loom there for a bit. She stood waiting for a little while, and then D appeared, looking rather haunted. My sis thought he was just being silly and overdramatizing, but then he asked if she had time for a story and pulled her into his office. On the way to work that morning, D had passed a funeral and had had a feeling that it might have been for someone he knew (I don't know why - maybe he saw friends' cars or something, or it could have just been one of those feelings) and later that day his wife called to tell him that an older gentleman from church whom they had really liked had passed away and that had, indeed, been the funeral which D had passed. D was understandably upset that no one had bothered to tell them that this man had died or inform them of the funeral time. In their church there had been a history of planting a pink plastic flamingo in the yard of someone who was noticed NOT giving offering. This was done in good fun, don't get me wrong, but D was expostulating to his wife on the phone "sure, I get a pink flamingo if I don't pay my offering, but someone dies and I don't even HEAR about it! Shouldn't I really get a pink plastic flamingo for this?" And that was when my sister just happened to stick the pink plastic flamingo through the door. :o)

So I guess we should all keep our inner ears open to those little nudgings and promptings we feel from time to time. Sometimes we are called to do great things, but other times we are called to deliver a message that's just as important, even if it does take the form of a pink plastic flamingo.

The Journey - my mini-epiphany

I have really appreciated the words "the joy is in the journey" in the past, but you know, I don't think I ever consciously applied them to the biggest Journey - LIFE. As I wrote in my journal last night, I had this mini epiphany that just kind of overwhelmed me as I was writing. Here's my entry.

------

My intention is that my Journey will bring me to the place and position in which I ultimately envision myself. However, this is an evolving path; new goals appearing as earlier ones are met. The joy is in the Journey. This is not a constant, unfulfilled striving for perfection; it is a constant spiraling both inward and outward of self-betterment. Each step along this sacred pathway is something to be treasured and enjoyed. Even mistakes and shortcomings are to be savored. Sometimes they are the best teachers, and bring about the greatest changes. Remember to enjoy the journey.

-------


It was a big thing for me to come to grips with not *waiting* to feel fulfilled. I'm a very easygoing, laid-back kind of person, but I still found it enormously freeing to think of allowing myself to really enjoy the Journey more than striving for "someday." You know that "someday" when you have the perfect house, or more $, or you're done with school, or the kids are older, or you've lost some weight, or whatever those things are that we tend to wait for. That doesn't mean I don't still strive for my goals. By all means, I'm as fired up as ever! But I intend to not put off that feeling of fulfillment until "someday." I intend to enjoy every moment and just add more enjoyment on top of it all as I reach my various goals. :o)


I posted that over on a message board I go to and received this amazing quote in reply (source unknown):

"Sometimes on the journey towards happiness, we must stop and allow ourselves to BE happy."


I need to put that on a plaque.

____________________________


I've been sewing again! Some birthday things for a friend's son (and I'm actually ahead of time for once) and some dolly bibs and wipes for a trade and for sale. My lucky children will score all the blems, LOL! I think some dolly clothes are in order, too.

Gogo gave us a scare with a lump on his neck. I took him in and it seems that he'll be OK as long as it keeps shrinking (lymph node.) He has a re-check in 2 weeks.

Still waffling on the vaccination issue. The diseases would be terrible, but OTOH, my 2 who don't have all their vax are my healthiest kids. If they get something we all get, they get it very mildly compared to us. Sometimes they are the only ones to NOT catch what we all have. Sigh... (seems a no-brainer sometimes, but other times, not)

Just finished Harry Potter 6 not long ago (re-read them all) and was so shocked. I was just dazed for the rest of the day. Then I googled "____(spoiler)" is really alive" and there are a lot of folks who seem to think so, and with good reasons. I'm in that camp, too, since I can't/won't accept that death. Now I need to re-read it with looking for more clues in mind...

Now I'm re-reading the Golden Compass and the Subtle Knife so I can get on with The Amber Spyglass. I WAS reading Angels and Demons, but I couldn't take not having pics when I know there's an illustrated/annotated version available, so I've put it down (with difficulty) to wait 'til I have that one.

We had the library summer reading party yesterday, and for my book I chose "Walking the Labyrinth." Looks Good! It was a tough choice between that and one of the Mrs. Pollifaxes though. :o) Guess I'll try to put those on hold.

I started a scrappin' stash game on Amity's and have been doing more pages than ever! What a motivator that has been!

I don't spend much time on the computer these days, but maybe I can put in some more mins on my blog than I have been. Life is busy! But so rewarding! :o)

Sprayscape!

Today we went with friends to a sprayscape and had so much fun! The Prawn and the other little one would only go through when the stuff was cycling through the low-spray setting, but the others got soaked and ran through everything. Then we moved on to a nearby sand pit, and after that to the huge play structure where my friend proceeded to blow the minds of some cute Korean kids by speaking Korean to them. :o) It was awesome weather - sunny with a bit of breeze, and off to one side thunderstorms were booming and lightning was flashing but they all passed by with a good berth. We brought food and made a day of it and had so much fun. I'm sure we'll be back soon.

Right now I'm in the midst of making a pie crust to fill with Snow Ghost pudding. I'm determined to make a stinking pie crust if it kills me. (So far the few I've made have not been what you'd call great.) If this recipe works, I'll post it. So far, I'm not too impressed with the instructions, which say to use a KitchenAid blender on pulse to mix the dough. All it did to MY KitchenAid blender was jam up the works. Right now the 2 crusts are "resting" in the fridge. I guess pie crusts have a well deserved reputation for being high-maintenance. But the crumbs I scraped out of the blender tasted awfully good (if you like that sort of thing, that is) so I haven't lost all faith in this recipe. Next comes the arm-breaking task of stirring that pudding for what seems like weeks.

I have a bruise (I say, "bruise" but there's no mark yet) inside my left elbow that is spectacularly painful. I didn't discover it 'til I was toweling off after my bath last night. If it does start showing it should be rather technicolour. But I do recall that it was a great block. Of course I re-smashed my left shin and re-wrenched my right ankle, so I'm lopsided when I walk.

On June 20th, daughter #2 was evicted from her room. She was hoping to earn it back by July, but alas, her putting-away skills were not strengthened by the experience and she's now been evicted from squatting in her brother's room. (#1 has also lost squatting rights there since they both mess it up and leave it that way. Sigh. Not sure what it's gonna take...) On the other hand, her old room (now #4's room) has never looked better! (helped a great deal by the fact that #4 still Family Beds with us, LOL!)

We're counting down the days to Celtic Fest on the 16th. This time we'll have to make it back to the kids' area in time for them to make some of the cool crafts. Navan, my sister's group, will be singing there a few times, so of course we'll catch a performance and take lots of pics for my mom. I wonder if I can get inspired enough to whip up something Celtic for the kids to wear...

We found out a bit about a pool about 20 mins from our house that has a fabulous play area and is all indoors so we can swim year round. We may have to buy a year-long pass!! I'm taking the kids to check it out next week.

I think my pie crust is nearly done with its beauty rest, so I'm off to bake it. Wish me luck!

In which another appliance bites the dust

It's my dryer this time. Much better than having no washer, but still, WAAAAH! I had all the laundry out today flapping nicely in the breeze, went to TKD for 3 hours (big kid class, our class and our sparring) and about 10 mins before we left the do-jang, the heavens opened up and commenced pouring on my laundry. Phooey! Did I anger the Laundry Gods somehow?? Maybe I could offer some kind of stained sacrifice... ;o)

In other news, we went to the bi-annual tournament in June. I always feel like a bit of a party crasher at the Mason's temple or something, since I'm always the only woman there in my age group. So I had to fight 3 men, but I won all my matches and took a gold in forms, too, so I'm satisfied with my performance. This was Gordy's first tournament. He took 3rd in forms and first in sparring! He had to fight a friend from the do-jang as well as 2 little black belts who were really good! But fortunately, when the medals were awarded in sparring, they separated the black belts from the blue belts, so Gordy got good experience in sparring but ony competed for POINTS against the other blue belt.

Today the master's wife brought a friend from Nigeria to spar us. He's a Bo Dan (temporary balck belt) and very good. He was challenging, and fun to spar. They're going to try to have him come to sparring at least once a month, which will really be great for us. He has a beautiful jumping round kick that I have to try to imitate! (I got clobbered with it a bunch of times, LOL!)


We've been busy lately! Summer brings so many great opportunities! Today we went to the park to picnic and play with friends and tomorrow we're meeting at the library and then going to a sprayscape. That should be a blast! We went swimming at a local lake last Friday and the kids loved it. On Saturday we hit the commissary and BX/PX and loaded up on groceries. I loaded a bunch of frozen and fridge stuff into our insulated bag and promptly left it in the parking lot. We figured it out when we got home, and called, and were VERY grateful to find out that someone had taken it right in and they'd typed up a list of everything in there and separated it into the fridge and freezer and were holding it for us!! Since we didn't have time to go get it before closing, we went up on Sunday and took advantage of the LOVELY base pool, then retrieved our bag of goodies and had a picnic in the park. It turned out to be a perfect day, and all because I was a bonehead, so I guess that's serendipity for you. :o)

I finally finished "Eyes of the Tailless Animals" (with much weeping - it was so depressing, I'd been putting off reading it) and am reading "Kite Runner" and "Out of the Blue," both of which are very interesting. I read "Labyrinth of Evil" (Star Wars book - remember I'm a total SW geek) last week and liked the story but not so much the writing style.

Mollusc and Sluggie have new friends at the do-jang who look like their twins separated at birth. :o) The oldest girl (Mollusc's twin) is a 2nd degree black belt and the next younger (Sluggie's twin) is a 1st degree. They have a 7 year old sister who's a green belt and is a perfect match for Gordy in sparring. They're a really neat family and I'm looking forward to getting to know them better. The oldest hates sparring, just like Mollusc (though she does a great job and kicks a lot, so I hope Mollusc will learn from her) and the next one loves it just like Sluggie.

The Prawn has officially started classes. I help teach morning Little Kid classes and John helps with evening Big Kid classes in exchange for her tuition. (Hooray, cuz we had no more money to spare!) She's doing really well!

I finally mailed off a story to a publisher for the first time in a long time. Now to work on another instead of just waiting!!

Cheeto (the raccoon) has been back since it got warm. The other night she brought her 5 babies. Soooooooooo cute! She still loves Trader Joe's caramel corn and cheetos.

We found a neat softshelled turtle (BIG) outside a store in Brighton a couple of weeks ago. We were going to Wildernest next door next, so we asked the lady there what to do with her. (She rehabilitates baby bats, and knows all about birds and all kinds of wildlife.) She knew the river that the turtle had likely come from, so we took the turtle there. A guy in the store turned out to be a photographer with his AWESOME camera there with him. He was so excited to see the turtle because he didn't have any pics of that kind yet, so he asked if he could take our pic with her, and then get some natural shots before she returned to the river. He mailed us a great 5X7!

On the sewing front, I've done a couple of skirts and have WORN them. (gasp!) Next projects are some birthday things for Sluggie. (picnic set a la Magic Cabin, and a little zippered cosmetic case among other things) The kids are soooo excited that Yi-Yi will be here soon for the Saline Celtic Fest and Sluggie's birthday!

I've returned to jewelry-making lately and have sold a couple more pieces. I need to list some more goodies that I have in stock.

I found a really weird website trashing C.S. Lewis's books and was pretty sure it was a farce because the guy's website contains one of the words he criticizes Lewis for using. I emailed in good humour, and the guy REALLY took offense and wrote me a really scathing and sarcastic reply, signed "In Christ Jesus." I was really confused at that point, because that's just what you'd expect a non-Christian to do in keeping up the ruse, and certainly not what you'd expect a Christian to do (not the closing, but the hateful content of the email,) but I was a *little* uncertain at the same time. He wrote another nasty email and I Googled his name, only to learn he was a PASTOR! Good grief!!! I'm proud to say I kept my replies pleasant and I hope what I said will help him take a look at himself from the outside in, but I doubt that a person like that can be tempted to change his ways or even consider that he might ever have acted badly. Sigh - the nastiest emails I've ever gotten, and they're from a pastor. He's exactly the sort of person that gives us all such a bad reputation. If you go to the Landover Baptist Church site (which, thank goodness IS a farce!) you'll get a taste of what the guy was like. And yet still I protect him by not posting his name and emails and site. How nice am I? (pats self on back, LOL!)

Once again it's time to soak away the muscular aches and the bruises. More later!

As Miss Clavel has been known to say...

Something is NOT RIGHT!!!!

This was the MOST CONFUSING pattern I've met to date. After many, many seam rippings, more sewing, more seam ripping, and finally tossing the instructions, it came out like it was supposed to:

Closed (long loop on right slips through short loop on left):

And the inside:



The bloody thing is about 10% sewing and 90% origami. Aaaaaarrrrrrgggggh!

Dh is not impressed. His comment: "This is what you got after all THAT?!?"

LOL! He has a point. *snort*

OK, other stuff:

Shorts for the Mollusc:

And a matchy poo skirt for me: (I have yet to conquer the art of self-portraiture...)



This is a wrap skirt, and I have yet to put on the hook and eye. I definitely found out why that will be neccessary and won't be able to wear it until I buy a hook and eye. Unless I want to become a flasher...

I was going to post pics of my lovely herb garden, but alas, it appears that I have yet to load them to my site, and the other computer (with my FTP program) is off for the night. Stink! I really hate having my stuff split up between different computers, but I guess I'm doomed, because every time I seem to get stuff shifted to the "right " computer, dh does something and everything's scattered again. Sigh.

Cheeto the raccoon came to our door again. She's VERY friendly and wants to come in (NOT a good idea, Patrick!) She likes Korean snacks and she still loves Trader Joe's Macadamia Nut Caramel Corn. She does not like corn. Weird, because I knew a farmer whose corn always got trashed by hungry raccoons. Go figure...

So after the 420 kick workout followed by an hour and a half of sparring last night, some of the other TKDers and I decided to pass on sparring this morning. A good choice, I think. Only 1 guy showed up, as it turns out. Bummer. We went to the library instead. My shins are so bruised it's insane. Especially considering they don't hurt that much. What hurts is my arm which got axe kicked(OUCH!) and which has no visible marks (where it hurts anyway...) and my right lower outer thigh, which also has no marks. Someone apparently kicked me in the left upper thigh/butt judging by the bruise there, but that doesn't hurt. Strange.

We watched National Treasure tonight for the first time and really enjoyed it! That one might be a keeper. :) And it was fine for the kids, which is a rarity these days.

John and I plan to try to go see SWIII tomorrow for my bday, but I don't know if it will happen since we both forgot to try to buy tix online, and I really only want to see it in digital.

Off to soak my bruises in the tub...

Random Musings

What? Two posts in one night? Well, gotta do something while nursing the Prawn --yes *gasp* I'm still nursing her to sleep at 3 yrs, 5 months of age! :oO ;o)

So one of the good things about living in Michigan is that you can ALWAYS pretend you're camping because there's so much iron in the water. AND, you don't have to shell out for iron supplements! Also, the weather is startlingly unpredictable. However, it's pretty much guaranteed to be the opposite of the extended (2 or more day) forecast, which is a very helpful tidbit of info to know. This is as opposed to the California forecast, which was always correct because there was never any weather. I don't mean to suggest that there was no atmosphere, and therefore no resulting atmospheric conditions. I mean "weather" in the colloquial sense of the word, which suggests actual CHANGE in these conditions. Call me crazy, but it actually got monotonous. And when it rained, people forgot how to drive. That was weird. Maybe they were so entranced by seeing actual "weather" that they forgot to look at the road, or to press the gas pedal, or, in some cases, simply forgot where the brake pedal was located.

This really ought to be the Iron State, instead of the Wolverine State, since wolverines don't live here anyway and never did. (There's some irony. Maybe the Irony State would be more appropriate...) There are iron stains everywhere from sprinklers. Toilet bowls are good at accumulating them, too. (ugh) My friend's tub (older farmhouse) is actually COMPLETELY orange, even though it was once white. Fortunately, we were the targets of a drive-by Rid-o-Rusting, and we now know how to get rid of the stains. (And no, CLR does NOT work. I think the R actually stands for "ravioli" or something.)

See, I meant it when I said "random musings."

So I'm reading The Princess Bride now and was gratified to learn through net research that my suspicions were right about the non-existence of S. Morgenstern. It just seemed so weird, but there were a lot of credible-sounding details, too, in both intros. (I'm reading the 25th anniversary edition so there are 2.) I was starting to feel like a real dork not being sure about this "Florin" country, LOL! I guess all that stuff about Goldman's son is made up, too, if he even has a son. And how about his wife? Same story, I guess. Anyway, he's obviously a talented writer and the story looks like it's going to be great. I have heard so many good things about it from fans of the film.

I finally saw Napoleon Dynamite. That was kinda painful because I lived through a lot of that. It was...um...interesting... It certainly had its moments, though. I think I'll use "you're bruising my neck meat" at Tae Kwon Do during self defense #s 3A and B when we get put in headlocks. :o)

Well, the babe crashed pretty quickly tonight, so I'm free to do other things like rid-o-rust the iron stains in my toilets, so ta ta...

Oh - gotta link this hilarious yoga clip before I go. :oD

It's Friday and I'm out of my sewing slump!

So, what are y'all up to these days? I FINALLY, FINALLY made the circular knitting needle holder for my friend's bday (which was waaaay back in January) and thus ended my sewing slump! So over the last coupla days I've been whipping up things as I feel like it. Nothing with a pattern - just catch alls, PJ bags - stuff like that. I think a twirly dress for Prawn may be coming on soon.

So I don't have tetanus, which is good news. ;o) I stepped on a toothpick the other day - totally JAMMED the sucker into my foot. YEEEEOUCH! Kacey extracted the remainder from the carpet - it had really gotten shoved in there and was hard to remove. John was insistent about finding the rest of it when he got home, even though there was nothing visible in the hole in my foot, so I dug up a few pieces and it looked like they all went together with nothing missing. It was a little tender for a few days, but no biggie. I did class and sparring that night on it, class on Monday and Tuesday, too. My biggest concern was keeping it clean since the Band-Aid wouldn't stay on during TKD classes. When we got home from class I'd just clean it well and I was using Bactine, and triple antibiotic twice a day (a little paranoid since my tetanus booster is overdue.) One night I had a sore neck and couldn't sleep (something about reading about stiff neck being a sign of tetanus, LOL!) So I went online and researched tetanus at about 3 in the morning and learned that there was no way I had tetanus. Of course I was relieved, because it's always good to find out you don't have tetanus. :oP What a paranoid freak I can be from time to time -- usually only in the middle of the night though. About 5 days after it happened, I was cleaning the entry spot and some cotton ball fibers got stuck in the hole, so I asked Prawn to bring a tweezers so I could pull them out. Lo and behold, a piece of toothpick about 5/16" long came out of the hole! *gasp* EEEEW! Sure gave me the willies, but it healed up really quickly after that, LOL!

In the meantime, I figured it was time to get the kidlets up to date on shots, but no one wants to give them to them. Hmmm. The doc doesn't stock them and told us to go to the Health Dept. The Health Dept. said that as we have insurance, they'd rather we went elsewhere. So I called and got an appointement at their old pediatrician. I was told they did not need their check-ups first, even though we hadn't been there in about 2 years. When we showed up, there was no appointment on record and the doctor didn't want to give the shots (understandably) since she hadn't seen them in so long. Balked 3 times, and we were just reading about Balaam and his donkey. I think someone may be trying to tell me something.What do you think? Not to mention that in the preceeding week, Sheila had linked us to an NPR interview about the vax/autism link, and one of the Sewing Mamas' babes had a bad reaction to her 18 mo shots. Argh! Decisions, decisions, eh?

I got to go to sparring this morning. I escaped relatively unscathed from last night's session, but today I got large lumps/bruises on both shins. Ow. But is sure was fun! :o)

So today's project was a simple batch of jammie bags to help the kids corral their jams. Anything to help control clutter, you know? There's a second ladybug one that didn't make it into the picture.



It's great to be out of my sewing slump! I was just so intimidated by all the iron-ons, and the uncharted waters of the pattern for that circular holder. It really wasn't a difficult pattern; just fiddly.

I've also been reorganizing the sewing stash/scrapping stash/computer room. It's changing slowly but surely. Sewing up a bunch of my stash would help. :o) I want to get some of those Yoda/Darth Vader pillow panels from Walmart, but John didn't see them last time he went. Maybe I can find them this weekend. He did say they had other Star Wars fabric there. :)

My mom has been going to antique stores lately and she said that the old Star Wars guys are worth a LOT now. We're having too much fun playing with my old ones to sell them, though. Plus, as you may recall, Luke Skywalker's head fell off...

I've been planting all kinds of things in the weedbeds lately. Maybe I can take some pics tomorrow. So far, I think the creeping phlox has made the biggest difference, visually. I really want to put in some lilac bushes, but haven't yet figured out where to put them. John put the kaibosh to my idea of putting them in the weedbed bordering the driveway. Phooey!


Here's a big reason why everyone should love Star Wars. DARK CHOCOLATE M&Ms!!!!!!!! YUUUUUUMMMMMM!!!! I love both kinds - plain and peanut. And we bought some of the SW mini Ms yesterday - also yummy! And not freaky to feed to a 3 yo - no choking hazard. Then again, I've never met an M&M that I truly disliked, but I think the dark chocolate peanut Ms are my all time faves.

I'm hoping to draft this A-line skirt pattern for myself this weekend. One of the Sewing Mamas posted it for me. Looks like fun. :) People I know will be absolutely shocked if I turn up in a skirt. Do I dare fly in the face of pre-conceived impressions? We shall see. Sadly, I have no adult fabrics, though, so I may *gasp* have to buy some fabric. :o) I guess I'll hunt through my stash once more just in case, though. On the other hand, I could make a delightfully freakish skirt from children's fabrics. Tempting...

In the meantime, I need to make this impressively decadent-looking torte that Mollusc got a recipe for with her Birds and Blooms mag. If it turns out great, I'll post it.

Everything Costs $$

I had to order new math books for Mollusc and Sluggie today. Argh - both at once of course! Mollusc (10) is headed into the 7th grade book, and Sluggie (7) into the 4th. Mollusc's NEXT book will be Pre-Algebra! Unless that's too lame and we have to skip it and go straight on to Algebra. Zoiks!! At the rate Gogo (5) is going, he's not going to be far behind and I'll need to buy YET ANOTHER book. A couple of weeks ago we were in the grocery store and he announced, "I know what ten minus one hundred is." And I was thinking "Well, this will be cute..." But then he proudly said (OK, he's Gogo, so really he was shouting...) "It's NEGATIVE NINETY!!" Um - yes - that would be correct. :-O So I gave him another Q -- 10-90 --and he got that one right, too. He also loves to multiply. Go figure... Oh and chess - my goodness, the boy loves chess already. He sets up the board with no probs and knows the moves the various pieces can make, can castle, put someone in check, etc. The other night John was working through Chessmaster 9000 and Gogo ambled up and said "Oh, the knight can eat that pawn, or he can go there..." Oh my. He's a total Star Wars nut, of course. Good lad! Too bad this next movie looks like a bit much for the kids. I wonder how long 'til it comes out on DVD.

John got his new sparring pads (he'd kicked splits and holes in the others - mostly on people's elbows.) Hopefully these will be better. So far mine are OK...

I started reading "Frindle" to the kids last night. I have to hide it when I stop so no one steals it to read ahead. Always the hallmark of a good book. Mollusc is reading the Hobbit and the Geronimo Stiltons and the Lemony Snickets, Sluggie is reading Goblet of Fire and several other things. Gogo is pretty happy with his Star Wars books, and Prawn (3), while able to sound out words now, prefers to jump on the bed while reading her sight cards. :oP

Did I mention reading "Our Lady of the Lost and Found" recently? I really enjoyed that one. :o) I've been looking through the Bas Bleu catalog lately and checking out possible buys from the library to see how they are. I did buy "Here Speeching American" for Mollusc for her B-Day and she loves it. We laugh 'til we cry over some of those!

I FINALLY am able to do the end of my form (Tae Geuk O Jang) without falling over. We call it a "Twist Stance" though in that link it's referred to as a "cross stance." (scroll down in the link for the pic) Now I'm working on perfecting my side kick. I've been chambering it a little wrong all this time. Argh! I think I have it fixed now, but I need to keep practicing to make it stick. After a hot, sweaty class and then some more practice on my kicks, I think my hips will be glad to get in the hot tub, so that's where I'm off to now...

Sigh. I Was Wrong, and You Were Right

There, Sheila. Are you happy now? Yes, Sam Rockwell WAS Guy Fleegman in Galaxy Quest. Here's his filmography. Myueuh! (general noise of disgust)

I do need to see that again. I love the bit about the Pig-Lizard. "It turned inside out...And it exploooooded!" **snort** Is it true that an alternate Klingon soundtrack exists on the DVD? Some people may well have too much time on their hands...

Today we spent the day at a tournament in which Sluggie participated. All the kids from our school did great jobs, whether they scored that way or not. They were clearly superiour in technique. And even though this is the rigged tourney in which one of our kids was robbed of her gold last year (announced as 1st place and then given a re-match so the gold could go to a student from the host school - GRRRRRRR!) our kids took a lot of first places. There were quite a few frustratingly insufferable moments and I'm glad we'll never go again, but it was...um... an Experience. Sluggie did the best form I've ever seen - just AWESOME! She got a silver for forms and gold for sparring. All the Han's TKD kids had vastly superiour sparring styles. Most of the other kids only threw round kicks or tried to punch (rolleyes) -- even the red and black belts! Now at that level, that's just embarrassing! But ours were throwing all kinds of kicks and combos, and I think they were a real wake-up call to the main school that ran the tourney. Then we hung around to watch Jamar spar (excellent young man we've seen at the other 2 tourney's we've been to - prolly an Olympic hopeful.) His match lasted all of 15-20 seconds before his opponent was incapacitated. And I think he was taking it easy on the guy. It must be frustrating for him because there's just no one in his league with whom he can spar.

After the tourney, I was too brain dead to do anything so, after recalling that it was national scrapbooking day, I attempted to find QVC since one of my mags claimed there would be scrapbooking specials. Now, we have satellite TV, but only John uses it, and only for football and racing. I have no clue where any of the channels are. Sigh. The only one I've ever known is BBCA. Suffice it to say, I found a Spongebobmini-marathon by accident, and John and I drifted in and out of consciousness (both wiped out!) while watching with the kids. Actually, the kids were drifting back and forth between Spongebob and their new Lego Star Wars game. Now THAT is a really cute game. :o) When I eventually did find QVC, the endless chatter was so annoying I couldn't stay with it. Something about the infomerciality of it all, if you know what I mean - it just makes me want to run away.

We've been planting our weed beds lately. I've chopped up quite a lot of all 4 weed beds and have planted actual herbs and flowers in one of them. In the others, I started planting seeds and plantlets we started from seed (at least those remaining after Enya grazed on them!) including a bunch of mystery seeds I'd saved from our Wisconsin garden. I'd like to do some more tomorrow, but I think I'm running out of stuff to plant. I also need to get the food gardens going, but I need some kind of wooden box beds first, since I'm going to be doing lasagna gardens. And I'm all excited about finally having a compost bin. Hooray! Now our kitchen waste can be recycled into the garden. :o)

My fridge smells like a Korean grocery store since my friend came over to teach me how to make some Korean foods. Stinky, but sure tastes good! Kimchi Bokum is particularly easy: cut bacon into about 1/2 inch strips, fry and then add a whole bunch of kimchi and continue frying until the kimchi is hot. The white part will get even whiter and that's when it's done. Or, if you want soup, fry the bacon, then add the kimchi and cover with water to within about 3/4 inch from the top of the pot and bring to a boil. If you like, squirt in a bunch of really soft tofu near the end. (I hadn't ever seen this before. It comes in a soft plastic sausage-looking package with a snip-off end.) Yummy! And much milder than kimchi usually is, due to all that water.

I planted some more sesame leaf seeds. I hope they work. The leaves are really pricey at the Korean grocery store. I also hope my 2 plants from last year come back to life this year. I'm incorporating herbs and edibles into the landscaping this year. Hope it doesn't get too hideous. I also planted echinacea seeds even though the packet said to plant them in late fall. I don't have that kind of patience. We'll see what happens...

Hey, when is Sting going to come out with a new album, and where is my Sacred Love album? If you know, or even think you *might* know the answers to these very important Qs, please, please, please let me know! For that matter, when is Peter Gabriel coming out with a new one?

John and I finished the Season 5 Red Dwarf DVD and are ready to move on to Season 6. The Suicide Squid was pretty funny. I plan to re-read the books soon. They make me laugh so hard I can't breathe. :o) In the meantime, I'm reading Early Thunder (again - to the kids), Prince Caspian (again - to the kids), The Original Michael Frayn (funny, funny, funny!!!), Eyes of the Tailless Animals (depressing, depressing, depressing), Blindness (ditto) and ah - can't recall the title - three stories of Lyra or Llyr or something by Patricia C. Wrede (very good so far, actually.) Ah! Here it is. HOLY CARP!!!! Um, I got it either for free or for a quarter at the library. Think I should sell my copy? Good GRIEF!!! I had no idea it was worth so much! Gulp... And it's even in good condition. Oh my!

Well, on that note, I'm off to bed and to read some of my extremely valuable book! Good night! :o)

The Witch's Winter, Aslan's Spring and a Very Cheeky Squirrel

Well HAPPY MAY everyone!! April certainly went out with a bang. The White Witch put in an appearance on Friday the 22nd, bringing her evil, Christmasless winter with her. Here's the back yard on the 24th (it was STILL snowing - hadn't stopped since the 22nd...) I guess this entry is more a photo essay than anything else...






Fortunately, Aslan put in an appearance for Mollusc's birthday the next day:

For those with a small screen, a juxtaposition:

It was pretty weird.

Today a very cheeky squirrel stole the birdseed bell. He made off to the back yard with his prize, but was then dive-bombed by a blue jay and a robin, who both thought they deserved a share of the booty. Maybe they were the lookouts or something. Even when the squirrel disappeared behind the tree-trunk
(he was attempting to carry it up the big oak) or a branch, we could tell where he was by the attacking birds. He eventually dropped it and had to risk life and limb (fur and tail anyway) to retrieve it.

The empty stick (swinging in the wind - a bit blurry):




The culprit with his prize:



Isn't he naughty??

In other big news, I went to a movie in a THEATRE!!!!!! How bizarre! Haven't been to one of those since Jonah (Veggie Tales) and before that I think Mollusc was an infant. I did go to a Star Wars re-release (Empire maybe?) but can't remember when that was. Suffice it to say that it's been about 10 years since I saw a movie in the theatre. Anyway, John and I went to "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and it was great! I've loved the books forever. (You may have noticed the review at the top of my blog which has been there since Day 1.) It was different from the book (which was different from the mini, which was different from the radio show...) but still very much in the whole DNA style (obviously since he did write the screenplay) and very enjoyable. If you go, be sure to stay through the credits. I do have the "So Long and Thanks for all the Fish" song stuck in my head though...

The casting was great, using nearly all 9 of Britain's actors and actresses. I think Hugh Laurie was the biggest name missing. Oh, and Hugh Grant. Maybe there was a "No Hughs" policy or something. Stephen Fry does the narrator's bit (aka The Book) and Martin Freeman made an excellent Arthur Dent. I was really trepidatious about who they'd have for Arthur, but Martin was fantastic. If you think he looks familiar, it's because he's the porn movie lighting stand-in guy from Love Actually . I didn't recognise Zaphod, but my sis says he's Crew Member 59 from Galaxy Quest. I guess I need to see that again. After a brief web-search, however, I've concluded that she's on drugs. It was Crew Member #6, not #59 and it wasn't Sam Rockwell from what I can see. He was, however, in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. And, eerily, Alan Rickman, WAS in Galaxy Quest (AND Love Actually, by the way. This is what happens when you put a limit of 9 on the number of actors/actresses allowed in your country.) Weird... Other than his head/s being messed up, he (Rockwell) was a great Zaphod. I didn't recognise Trillian or Ford, but Mos Def (apparently) made a very good Ford. It would be hard to ever top the Ford from the mini, though, IMO. Snape - er Alan Rickman - was great as the Voice of Marvin, who was played brilliantly by Wicket the Ewok - erm Willow - um, ah - Warwick Davis. Helen Mirren was the voice of "Deep Thought" (You know - the famous Answer to The question computer.) I was thrilled to see that the "real" Marvin and Arthur from the mini, also had cameos. :o) (Arthur was the pleasant "here come the missiles" message guy from Magrathea and Marvin was in the Vogon office-thinggy where Arthur was trying to fill out the proper forms for Trillian's release.) I thought they did a FANTASTIC job on the planet production floor on Magrathea. Wow! :0)

As a side note, I got to see a fair amount of the Star Wars Episode III trailer and WOW! I will be needing to see that in the theatre as well!!! What a difference the theatre makes. I hear that at celebration III, Ralph McQuarrie was begging people to only watch it in digital, so I'll attempt to do it right.

My Go-Go Fishy lost his second tooth tonight. He let me attempt to pull it out a couple of times, but I couldn't get a great grip on it, so Kacey yanked it out. Mayhap there will be pictures for interested family members on the morrow. He also got his blue belt on the weekend before last. Pictures of that will also be delayed due to the fact that the other (host) computer is off for the night.

In other news, I bought more Korean Movies on eBay and a Japanese one as well. Sea Monkeys (Japanese) is basically a Coast Guard Rescue Divers version of Top Gun and was fantastic. Even though my DVD turned out to have a glitch, it was GREAT!

Butterfly Club was racy, but good. It could have had a happier ending. We've decided that just after the credits roll, the husband and wife pull off the road and have a good scrog.

Everyone Has Secrets was great - lots of twists and intricacies and just very entertaining.

Daddy Long Legs was very good as well, though typically Korean in that someone snuffs it near the end. ;o( I'll pretend he doesn't. There is QUITE the twist in that one. Also, in the movie she's named her benefactor "Daddy Long Legs" and says "like in the book" By coincidence, I found "the book" at the library the next Friday, so I borrowed it. I didn't know it was REALLY a book. Weird... I think "My Tutor Friend" is still my favourite Korean movie.

Well, I had TKD tonight and the hot tub is calling me. So is a Margarita. Nice combo, I think... :o)