True Confessions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~I want to see Wanted *blush*

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

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

On My Soapbox

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

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

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

Observations From The Mattress

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

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

I keep failing.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thus ends the random update.

Tick, tick, tick, tick

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Unh?

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

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

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

Bras.

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

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

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

Random Thoughts

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

It makes you smile and rich.

It's souper than the rest!

the Dulce de La Leche League

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.

I Thought She Threw the Trough Through the Rough Slough, Though

Isn't English fun? At least it is if you don't have to learn it.


Blame Egan. He's the one who brought up YouTube.

Sunday Funday

I'm off to BG's to inspect the proposed site for her flock of Sky Chairs and fondle fabrics while MuNKi runs some wires for her network.

By now it shouldn't surprise you at all that this cracks me up. BG and I found it whilst surfing one day. Don't ask.

Random Update

~We went to the Teen Reading Party at the library and saw friends whose house had burned up several months ago. They're back in finally and unpacking, and they just bought a new (3rd) goat! Yay!

~Our green peppers were free at the co-op today, we got salt-n-vinegar Kettle Chips, and I saw a lady I know for the first time since learning she's been lying to friends about another friend of mine. It could have been awkward, but I let her feel that way and decided not to feel it myself. It worked. ^_^

~Red Belt Class was fun - poomse (forms - my favourite) in all different directions, and nunchucks. Does it get any better? I did do over 200 pushups today. But only the first 150 were close together. (at home) The others were spread out. Every time we drop our nunchucks or let them hit the ground we have to do 10, so yes, I dropped mine several times, and I threw in a bonus 10 when I actually kind of flung them and they hit another person who was already doing pushups for dropping his. ^_^

~MuNKi and I watched Derailed and were very pleasantly surprised after it looked like the movie was going south for the duration. MuNKi saw what I never expected.

Mishmash

I'm doing the chicken-with-its-head-cut-off thing this week. After I teach this morning, I'll likely be getting ready for our big garage sale until class and sparring tonight. We're making good headway, but I wish we had another week or two. But since we're doing this in conjunction with some other families in the sub and they're putting out the big sign, we're trying to take advantage of the higher traffic.

I took what I think were some interesting birth photos last night, so I'll try to share those soon.

In the meantime, please discuss the most random things you can dredge up. ^_^

Blather

So, I've been looking at possibly selling candles online and at street fairs, etc. The ones I'm looking at are soy/veg, 90% less soot than traditional candles, and all that environmentally friendly stuff that would probably make them a hit in Ann Arbor and the surrounding area. Not sure yet.

Also, I've been checking out Etsy, and will be listing stuff there soon. Be very, very careful about clicking that link. That's the kind of place where folks like Egan might go surfing and get all overcome by a fit of buy-it-for-the-babyitis and drop a ton of dough. ^_^

Random

~My ankle continues to improve. I still have to do a dorky little step-step thing to get turned for my kicks when my left leg is the supporting leg, but that's about the only problem. I can do back stance now, which I wasn't able to do last week.

~MuNKi* got a new Kitchen Aid mixer (if you're thinking of doing this, the Sam's (or Costco's) exclusive is a great deal) because he was going to kill the old one with all the heavy-duty bread making. The new one is rather large. I can now make 480 cookies at a time if I so choose.

~I bought paint for the front door yesterday. It's green. Very green.

~I feel inclined to plant a shrubbery. Perhaps with a path (a path!) Or at least to purchase several shrubs. Preferably flowering ones.


*no, I have no idea either, but there are apparently a lot of people involved with this.