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."

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)

Do You Read Me?

Everywhere I go it seems that blogs are shutting down. 10-4, Roger Doger, I copy. Over.


EDIT: Er, that title isn't referring to me, personally, LOL! I was just using radio lingo in reference to the fact that I feel like I'm receiving a message from "out there." (you know - cuckoo land ;-) ) I'm not berating anyone for lack of comments or anything. ^_^

Random Update

Change of plans, Jeeves. For various reasons, we did not participate in the 5K run today, but we plan to try the one in October.

Last night was Gumdo (Kendo) night for the kids in Red Belt class. You could hear the lightsaber sound effects as they fought. No, seriously, some of the kids watching were making light saber sounds. ^_^ They had a blast as usual. Mollusc is showing marked prowess (not to be confused with David Prowse ;) ) at this sport, which is nice because Sluggie is the one who excels at sparring and most physical stuff.

For us, it was nunchuck night. So after we threw all the nuns out of the establishment, we got to play with these pairs of sticks connected by a length of chain. Somehow I always end up next to the same kid - the one I accidentally threw my nunchucks on last time while he was busy doing pushups for dropping his own. (Thank goodness they're padded!) We managed to make it through class without either one of us clobbering the other, but I won't say it wasn't close. We both did plenty of pushups. If you're going to try this at home, never say stuff like "Oh! I got it!" because that signals the nunchucks that it's time to leave your grasp. Violently.

I've saved the best for last today. (though you know I may be posting again with my current state of blogorrhea) MuNKi sent me this great link for a guy who has to be the biggest Packer Fan EVER. Certainly the best. Check it out -- the dude has packed up his things and taken his wife and small children to Green Bay, WI for "a season of unadulterated 'fandom.'" Oh. Did I mention that he's from Sydney, Australia? ^_^ Carpe Diem, Carpe Noctem, Carpe Season Ticketsum. I am green (and gold) with envy. :)

PS my sidebar will return when the "I Can Has Cheezburger?" pics get bumped off the page.

Can't Talk. . .

. . . writing. Sigh. I just cannot strike a decent balance.

In the meantime, I'm looking for some of this, so that I will never fall down again.

Oh yeah, and

How Appropos

~Today all but one of the adults who tested on Saturday came to class because it was our classmate Anna's first and last class as a black belt. She's off to college on Wednesday, and she will be sorely missed because she was a lovely addition to the class. Her dad will still do class with us, and her brother, too, when the soccer season is over, so at least we'll get to see her at the Christmas parties and such. Because it was a special day, after the initial kicking, the Master let us play Dodgeball - "Seniors" against the teens. This is ALWAYS a riot. And we always cream them, too, even though youth and speed are on their side. ^_^ They won only ONE of the 8 or so games we played. ^_^

~Yesterday, when I finally fired up my email, I had another acceptance for a (smutty) story. Woo hoo!! Appropriately enough, it is entitled "Sparring Partners." ^_^

~Today I made a bunch of quilt squares and additionally figured out that the line I've been using on my machine that I thought was the 1/4" line is actually the 5/8" line, hence all the math weirdness when I tried to construct blocks. The good news is that when I had to add bits on, the squares almost inevitably looked cooler than they had before.

Oh My Gosh

Honestly, I just never pictured myself with one of these. It just seemed so unattainable.

The test lasted 7 hours and most of that was kicking. At the end, we sparred and finally broke our boards. There are now 4 of these at my house. I have to come up with a new life goal to replace the one I knocked off my list today. ^_^ Oh, and I lost 4 pounds during the test.

Here I Am

as ready as I'll ever be.

*deep breath*

Diesel You Can Afford

It's here! Diesel that will give you unlimited mileage for one low price, and is environmentally friendly to boot.

That's right, folks! Diesel is releasing a compilation in actual book form of his best blog posts, paired with some never-before viewed, untouched-by-human-hands, freshly mattress-tagged, non GMO, non-pesticide, non-tested-on-animals, organic, preservative-free material. "Antisocial Commentary: From the Secret Files of the Mattress Police" is going to be published on 8/15, but you can start placing “pre-orders” on Diesel's fabulous site on 7/26. That's right! Today!! It’s going to retail for $11.95 + S&H for those poor sods who aren't in the know, but you can pre-order a signed copy for $9.95 with free shipping. Does life get any better? Well, Daniel Craig could phone you up I guess. And if you buy this book, maybe he will.

I adore Diesel for many reasons, not the least of which being that be bribed me to write this post. ;-) From Caption contests to cutting edge Geographical and Celebrity News, to Bold Political Commentary, he never fails to make me laugh. And if I can't laugh with him, I can always laugh AT him. ^_^

Now, of course, like the rest of the world already does, you could just read Diesel's posts for free on his blog, but bringing these glorious works to paper opens up whole worlds of new possibilities -- toilet paper and lopsided origami fodder being just two possible uses. Why not rip out a particularly relevant post, fold it into a paper airplane (with a very sharp nose) and sail it into your boss's office? If you're lucky, you might even hit him/her in the eye. Or go evangelical on someone's ass and nail "Harry Potter and the Inevitable Slide into Satanism" to their door (preferably in the middle of the night.) You might consider smacking a troublesome co-worker upside the head with this gem, or buying 200,000 copies and dropping them on Canada from a low-flying aircraft in an effor to promote World Peace.

Really, the possibilities are endless. And so are the laughs. :)

Angelic

Yesterday was exhausting but fun. I don't think we got any fantabulous pictures, but the show was awesome. The Blue Angels are still my favourite demo team, in spite of my loyalty to the Air Force. :) But I think something was wrong with Fat Albert, because last time that part was a lot more spectacular. I don't think the JATO bottles even lit this time. I saw no fire at all, whereas last time I remember it looking exactly like this. But the Fat Albert part is just the warm up, anyway. And it was still cool.

I've been checking out author Bruce Littlefield's site. His book Garage Sale America sounds like a lot of fun. And with our big sale coming up, it should be inspirational reading. If I can get my hands on a copy, I'll be one step closer to World Domination. ^_^ Be sure to head on over to Blondeblogger's blog and enter her contest!

Nothing earth-shattering pic-wise, but at least you can get the idea. . .

Don't try this at home.


No, realli.

At times, the separation between wingtips is a mere 18". O_O

In other news, it was haircut day for the boys yesterday, and in a bizarre twist on the usual buzz, I cut an arrow into Fishy's hair. Well, out of it. It's like a mowhak, but shaped like an arrow. Think the Avatar with hair instead of tattoos. I'm not sure how long he'll keep it like that, but it's entertaining. Yeah, I know. I should take a picture.

And in spite of making an effort to slow down, I still finished the 6th Harry Potter book last night. Hope I remember all the details when the new one comes out. After all this Pottering, I find weird words popping randomly into my head. Like "bubotuber pus."

Pics of the decluttered room later today.

No, realli. ^_^

Feeling Creative

Ever have those days when you feel like you need to create something? I'm having one of those days. I'll probably be doing more at Versalicious than here. And maybe I'll do some hands-on creating, as well. As long as I don't spend all my time dithering about what to do. ^_^

I also need to take some stuff back to the library. The last two times I went, they had to override the 100 book limit for me (which they'll do for homeschoolers.) Even though I brought stuff back the second time. One librarian was looking at me in shock upon hearing how many books I had. The other checker-outer said, "They're homeschoolers," as if that explained everything. "Yeah, we're homeschoolers," I echoed.

And then I wondered whether that was supposed to mean that we (hsers in general) check out a lot of stuff for educational purposes, or whether we just read a lot.

Once in Blue Moon

Blue Moon is an ice cream flavour I have always just taken for granted. Imagine my surprise, then, to get an article from my mom stating that the flavour is purely a Midwestern America thing. I first remember getting it as a treat after vaccinations when I was 4. We had to have QUITE a few vaccinations to go overseas, and our parents promised my sis and I ice cream cones after each round to lessen the sting. I remember my mom and dad praising me for not crying each time, but I also remember finally breaking down for the last round. I can still hear my mom saying "I think she's finally just HAD it with these shots," and I had. But I still got my ice cream cone -- it wasn't a bribe against crying, just something calculated to make us feel better. Or maybe, now that I look at it from my parents' point of view, something to make my parents feel better. I think I chose Blue Moon every single time. :) I guess that would have been in Berrien Springs, Michigan, at Mission Institute. We lived in Cicero, Indiana at the time, but I don't remember if they had Blue Moon in Indiana.

I know I've seen and had the stuff lots in Wisconsin -- it's a regular flavour at Babcock Hall on the UW-Madison campus -- and here in the greater Detroit Metro area you can get it. But come to think of it, I'm not sure I ever saw it in California. Neil Gaiman apparently eats it. Wikipedia has an article on it. Amazon sells it. (as gourmet food?!?!)

Have you tried it? Have you heard of it? Enquiring Minds want to know.

Triva Fact: our next Blue Moon here in the Americas will be on May 31. Guess what I'll be eating. :)

Success!

OK, so Egan will hate this (the song and the cats) and Diesel might hate this (singer somewhat Bluntesque) but I must joyfully proclaim my YouTube success from the mountaintops. Or at least from the chair in the office.

Basically this is a love note to my family. I apologise that it's not more relevant to the Blogging scene, but there you are. Stand back, World. The only things standing between myself and World Domination now are spray cheese and shoelaces. Oh and lots and lots of Jell-O™.

Hmmm. Everything seems to flash a millisecond too late. More tweakage required I guess.