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!
Friday, July 08, 2005
Friday, June 03, 2005
As Miss Clavel has been known to say...
Something is NOT RIGHT!!!!
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?!?"
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...
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...
Saturday, May 28, 2005
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
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.
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.
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
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...
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...
Sunday, May 08, 2005
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)
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)
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
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:
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)
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)
Sunday, March 27, 2005
Happy Easter! Take a Peep! :o)
Mollusc found this hilarious Peep Research Page and we laughed until we cried! Make sure to check out the Medical Miracle page. :o)
We also loved the Lord of the Peeps site. Check out the story - fully illustrated with marshmallow bunnies - here.
This weekend has been "Master Bathroom Upgrade" weekend. Yesterday, John painted the ceiling (pretty much a squash colour) and tomorrow he plans to do the walls. ("orange spice") The colours were inspired by a Thomas Crown Affair mounted poster we have in there. What better inspiration could one ask?? Voila:
Haven't sewn much of anything lately. But maybe now tha the weather's changing, maybe I'll get inspired. What I'm really inspired to do is go canoeing at Kensington again. That is always such a great time. We did go there to the Farm on Monday to see the baby critters. They were, of course, adorable. One of the biggest hits of the day was a teeny baby mouse that was rummaging about in one of the pig's stalls. I think Marley the duck won everyone's heart, too.
I really will post pics soon. But now it's time to go soak in the tub and stare at the new ceiling.
We also loved the Lord of the Peeps site. Check out the story - fully illustrated with marshmallow bunnies - here.
This weekend has been "Master Bathroom Upgrade" weekend. Yesterday, John painted the ceiling (pretty much a squash colour) and tomorrow he plans to do the walls. ("orange spice") The colours were inspired by a Thomas Crown Affair mounted poster we have in there. What better inspiration could one ask?? Voila:
Haven't sewn much of anything lately. But maybe now tha the weather's changing, maybe I'll get inspired. What I'm really inspired to do is go canoeing at Kensington again. That is always such a great time. We did go there to the Farm on Monday to see the baby critters. They were, of course, adorable. One of the biggest hits of the day was a teeny baby mouse that was rummaging about in one of the pig's stalls. I think Marley the duck won everyone's heart, too.
I really will post pics soon. But now it's time to go soak in the tub and stare at the new ceiling.
Friday, March 25, 2005
Some Things You May or May Not Know
First of all, this T-Shirt folding method is just awesome!! I mean, how cool is that?!?!? It takes a wee bit to load but is well worth the wait. You've gotta love Japanese culture - all kinds of cool gizmos and gadgets and art forms on never knew existed like this T-shirtgami as it were. And of course Hello Kitty. We would NEVER forget her!
OK, so really that's just one thing you may not know. I will now endeavour to make up some others...
Aha! Here's something. I found coyote poop in my yard today. I knew they were close - we hear them at night - but had no idea HOW close they came to us. COOOOOOOL! I was raking leaves (yes I know it's Spring - I am a procrastinator, OK?) and I found 3 large, furry logs that could only have been from coyotes. Too much info? We also found a dead mousie with no visible wounds under the oak tree. Not sure what happened, but he was a very beautiful little creature - reddish fur, white, white tummy, plump - ever so cute. We took him into the woods hoping he'd get "recycled" - maybe by the coyotes.
While I raked, the girls kept busy by pulling bullets and nails out of the big oak tree. Yep, we're close to Detroit. OK, they're actually remnants from the days when our subdivision was a farm and the folks apparently used to hang out on the farmhouse porch and shoot up paper targets on the big oak tree. :oP Yee haw! I'm actually hoping the nails weren't the only thing holding the tree together. :-/ I'll try to get a pic up to make that comment more easily understandable. For now, suffice it to say that it looks as if someone took an enormous bite out of the trunk. It's a very large, old tree and when it comes down (and I do mean when!) it's going to make a big impression on something - hopefully not our house. I should use Trigonometry for the only useful purpose it will ever serve in my life and figure out how tall that thing is and whether or not it's going to actually hit our house. From the looks of things, it's too close to call. It does still leaf out every Spring, so it's not yet dead of lead poisoning. It's so chock-full of various and bizarre lifeforms (and the holes thereof) that I'm not sure what will happen when it does fall. Last summer I saw the most enormous bug I've ever seen in person in my life. We're talking Goliath beetle size! It was very slowly and solemnly wedging itself under a shelf of bark at the edge of the big "bite" on the trunk, so I never did get to see the complete massivity of it, but what I could see was deliciously unsettling.
For some reason there is wire - I don't think it's barbed - wrapped about 3 times around the base of the tree. I'm not sure what that's all about. It certainly doesn't keep anything out of the tree. And I seriously doubt that the tree is in danger of walking away if the wire is removed. Unless, of course, I'm just really unobservant and it's actually an Ent.
I also found significant chunks of said tree littering the ground underneath. Gives one pause for thought...
We're reading the Lemony Snicket books and just loving them to bits. They are really, really, really delightful. Tim Curry does a spectacular job of reading them on CD, too. :) We listened to #1 on a CD we borrowed from the library and promptly bought a set of volumes 1-10 from Scholastic for $21.95. We're also re-reading the Narnia books. I just bought our 3rd set from Scholastic. We loved the other 2 sets to death.
Other books I've read recently include the DaVinci Code (great read, IMO,) Early Thunder by Jean Fritz - we're looking for Revolutionary War books from the Tory point of view as per Mollusc's request. This one half fills the bill. He turns Patriot during the course of the story, but at least you get a glimpse into how the other side felt and why. I recently finished Plum and Jaggers - an interesting but odd book I picked up free at a library sale (on day 3 everything left was free!) After watching Camelot, the Musical from um - maybe the 60s or 70s - I'm inspired to pick up the Mists of Avalon for another read through, but I have other books I'm still working on first. I have Kite Runner from a friend, as well as Eyes of the Tailless Animals, which is just too depressing to read much of in one go. It's about N Korea - an autobiography of a woman held in one of the prison camps there. I also have the Aquariums of Pyongyang - also going to be depressing. Argh.
My latest new CD is from Chris Rice - "Run the Earth, Watch the Sky" and just as awesome as I've come to expect from his work. My faves are "On the Other Side of the Radio" and "My Cathedral."
Latest movie watched was "Bridget Jones: the Edge of Reason." Cute. The fight scene, as anticipated, was a hoot. :) And you get some good insight into it all by watching the bonus material. Before that, we saw "Evelyn" - very interesting. Hard to imagine kids could be kept in orphanages without their parents' consent. I finally saw Starship Troopers, too. Well done except for that whole plot thing. Why not just blow up the planet and be done with the nasty beasties? But much better than some of the doozies John's picked lately. :oP (I cannot, for instance, recommend "A Day Without a Mexican." Or that really weird and unsettling movie about "little people" with Gary Oldman, the title of which I have no interest in recalling.)
Tomorrow we're having an egg dyeing extravaganza with some friends and their kids. Should be messy and lots of fun. John has a 4 day weekend and TKD is closed tomorrow through Sunday. What will we do with ourselves? Looks like we'll paint the Master Bathroom, actually. Wheeeeeee! I'm actually pretty excited about getting this place a bit more personalized. I really like how the garage entry came out.
I'm looking at upgrading cameras and have finally selttled on the Digital Rebel XT. I think...
Haven't sewn in a while. I'm thinking of making an actually useable "How to Catch a Husband" bag for my sis. A diminuitive partner, as it were, to the goliath shown previously. What do you think? If she doesn't want the big bag, maybe I can catch that beetle and keep him in it. I really hope he's not what's holding the tree together...
OK, so really that's just one thing you may not know. I will now endeavour to make up some others...
Aha! Here's something. I found coyote poop in my yard today. I knew they were close - we hear them at night - but had no idea HOW close they came to us. COOOOOOOL! I was raking leaves (yes I know it's Spring - I am a procrastinator, OK?) and I found 3 large, furry logs that could only have been from coyotes. Too much info? We also found a dead mousie with no visible wounds under the oak tree. Not sure what happened, but he was a very beautiful little creature - reddish fur, white, white tummy, plump - ever so cute. We took him into the woods hoping he'd get "recycled" - maybe by the coyotes.
While I raked, the girls kept busy by pulling bullets and nails out of the big oak tree. Yep, we're close to Detroit. OK, they're actually remnants from the days when our subdivision was a farm and the folks apparently used to hang out on the farmhouse porch and shoot up paper targets on the big oak tree. :oP Yee haw! I'm actually hoping the nails weren't the only thing holding the tree together. :-/ I'll try to get a pic up to make that comment more easily understandable. For now, suffice it to say that it looks as if someone took an enormous bite out of the trunk. It's a very large, old tree and when it comes down (and I do mean when!) it's going to make a big impression on something - hopefully not our house. I should use Trigonometry for the only useful purpose it will ever serve in my life and figure out how tall that thing is and whether or not it's going to actually hit our house. From the looks of things, it's too close to call. It does still leaf out every Spring, so it's not yet dead of lead poisoning. It's so chock-full of various and bizarre lifeforms (and the holes thereof) that I'm not sure what will happen when it does fall. Last summer I saw the most enormous bug I've ever seen in person in my life. We're talking Goliath beetle size! It was very slowly and solemnly wedging itself under a shelf of bark at the edge of the big "bite" on the trunk, so I never did get to see the complete massivity of it, but what I could see was deliciously unsettling.
For some reason there is wire - I don't think it's barbed - wrapped about 3 times around the base of the tree. I'm not sure what that's all about. It certainly doesn't keep anything out of the tree. And I seriously doubt that the tree is in danger of walking away if the wire is removed. Unless, of course, I'm just really unobservant and it's actually an Ent.
I also found significant chunks of said tree littering the ground underneath. Gives one pause for thought...
We're reading the Lemony Snicket books and just loving them to bits. They are really, really, really delightful. Tim Curry does a spectacular job of reading them on CD, too. :) We listened to #1 on a CD we borrowed from the library and promptly bought a set of volumes 1-10 from Scholastic for $21.95. We're also re-reading the Narnia books. I just bought our 3rd set from Scholastic. We loved the other 2 sets to death.
Other books I've read recently include the DaVinci Code (great read, IMO,) Early Thunder by Jean Fritz - we're looking for Revolutionary War books from the Tory point of view as per Mollusc's request. This one half fills the bill. He turns Patriot during the course of the story, but at least you get a glimpse into how the other side felt and why. I recently finished Plum and Jaggers - an interesting but odd book I picked up free at a library sale (on day 3 everything left was free!) After watching Camelot, the Musical from um - maybe the 60s or 70s - I'm inspired to pick up the Mists of Avalon for another read through, but I have other books I'm still working on first. I have Kite Runner from a friend, as well as Eyes of the Tailless Animals, which is just too depressing to read much of in one go. It's about N Korea - an autobiography of a woman held in one of the prison camps there. I also have the Aquariums of Pyongyang - also going to be depressing. Argh.
My latest new CD is from Chris Rice - "Run the Earth, Watch the Sky" and just as awesome as I've come to expect from his work. My faves are "On the Other Side of the Radio" and "My Cathedral."
Latest movie watched was "Bridget Jones: the Edge of Reason." Cute. The fight scene, as anticipated, was a hoot. :) And you get some good insight into it all by watching the bonus material. Before that, we saw "Evelyn" - very interesting. Hard to imagine kids could be kept in orphanages without their parents' consent. I finally saw Starship Troopers, too. Well done except for that whole plot thing. Why not just blow up the planet and be done with the nasty beasties? But much better than some of the doozies John's picked lately. :oP (I cannot, for instance, recommend "A Day Without a Mexican." Or that really weird and unsettling movie about "little people" with Gary Oldman, the title of which I have no interest in recalling.)
Tomorrow we're having an egg dyeing extravaganza with some friends and their kids. Should be messy and lots of fun. John has a 4 day weekend and TKD is closed tomorrow through Sunday. What will we do with ourselves? Looks like we'll paint the Master Bathroom, actually. Wheeeeeee! I'm actually pretty excited about getting this place a bit more personalized. I really like how the garage entry came out.
I'm looking at upgrading cameras and have finally selttled on the Digital Rebel XT. I think...
Haven't sewn in a while. I'm thinking of making an actually useable "How to Catch a Husband" bag for my sis. A diminuitive partner, as it were, to the goliath shown previously. What do you think? If she doesn't want the big bag, maybe I can catch that beetle and keep him in it. I really hope he's not what's holding the tree together...
Thursday, February 24, 2005
I Sewed Baby Gifts! :o)
Yay! This is the second time I've sewn for a baby. I hope I actually get off my duff and mail it. Still working on the card, though... I did write him a name poem for it. I've been experimenting with various embossing powders and stamping glitter, hoping to get inspired for the actual making for the card.
Anyway, here's the gown and hat:
For the gown, I used a lap shoulder T patt and just lengthened it (like that other, floopy-necked one I did) and this time I just made a casing for the elastic, rather than trying to serge in on. I used FOE (Fold-Over Elastic) -- as an Amity Mama suggested I do -- for the neck and it worked GREAT! I love how it came out! The hat is from a sew-along on the Amity's sewing board.
After the hat and gown, I made him a tag blanket with little ribbon loops sewn all around. This is NOT a Taggie(insert trademark symbol here)! I hear they get really POd and sue you if you call them that.
I'll show both sides. Blue is fleece w/embroidered trucks. Crazy turtle fabric is flannel. :)
In other news, I made my sister a GINORMOUS bag. Too big, in fact. Here you see The Prawn STANDING INSIDE it:
And here's a close-up of some of the fabric and stitching. I LOVE the fabric!! It's called "How to Get a Husband." :o)
I'm not sure what the heck she would do with such a bag. Someday I really must start measuring and planning these things...
I also posted some jewelry on eBay and have bids on 2 pieces. YAY!!! The pixie anklet is one of my faves:
Seems like I'm making up for lost time on pics. First famine and now feast!
Speaking of feast, today we made yuanxiao for the Lantern Festival. (The recipe in the link is the one we used, even from the same book.) Yummy! Next time I'll try stuffing them with red bean paste. They are SUPER easy to make! We had class and sparring tonight and we had our traditional Thursday night pizza, and then I whipped these up while everyone was finishing their pizza.
I got some lovely books from Isabella - can't wait to check them out. And I FINALLY got "Eat Drink and be Chinaberry" from Chinaberry. I've been lusting after it for years. Yum, YUM! The kids LOVED the Mocha Snowball cookies.
So, you are treated to a feast of pics and links today. Hope you like them!! Happy Lantern Festival!!
While I'm at it I'll show the twirly skirt I made The Prawn and the Poodle Hoodie for Sluggie:
PS - Sheila, do you want the bag?? LMK... :o)
Anyway, here's the gown and hat:
For the gown, I used a lap shoulder T patt and just lengthened it (like that other, floopy-necked one I did) and this time I just made a casing for the elastic, rather than trying to serge in on. I used FOE (Fold-Over Elastic) -- as an Amity Mama suggested I do -- for the neck and it worked GREAT! I love how it came out! The hat is from a sew-along on the Amity's sewing board.
After the hat and gown, I made him a tag blanket with little ribbon loops sewn all around. This is NOT a Taggie(insert trademark symbol here)! I hear they get really POd and sue you if you call them that.
I'll show both sides. Blue is fleece w/embroidered trucks. Crazy turtle fabric is flannel. :)
In other news, I made my sister a GINORMOUS bag. Too big, in fact. Here you see The Prawn STANDING INSIDE it:
And here's a close-up of some of the fabric and stitching. I LOVE the fabric!! It's called "How to Get a Husband." :o)
I'm not sure what the heck she would do with such a bag. Someday I really must start measuring and planning these things...
I also posted some jewelry on eBay and have bids on 2 pieces. YAY!!! The pixie anklet is one of my faves:
Seems like I'm making up for lost time on pics. First famine and now feast!
Speaking of feast, today we made yuanxiao for the Lantern Festival. (The recipe in the link is the one we used, even from the same book.) Yummy! Next time I'll try stuffing them with red bean paste. They are SUPER easy to make! We had class and sparring tonight and we had our traditional Thursday night pizza, and then I whipped these up while everyone was finishing their pizza.
I got some lovely books from Isabella - can't wait to check them out. And I FINALLY got "Eat Drink and be Chinaberry" from Chinaberry. I've been lusting after it for years. Yum, YUM! The kids LOVED the Mocha Snowball cookies.
So, you are treated to a feast of pics and links today. Hope you like them!! Happy Lantern Festival!!
While I'm at it I'll show the twirly skirt I made The Prawn and the Poodle Hoodie for Sluggie:
PS - Sheila, do you want the bag?? LMK... :o)
Sunday, February 13, 2005
STASH GAME!!!!!!!
Yep, it's STASH GAME time. That's when the Amity Sewing Mamas sew like madwomen, fast from buying fabric and try to use up stash. Points are lost for buying fabric; gained for sewing, selling or donating fabric. I never do that well compared to some of the mamas who get up into the thousand-some points. In fact, I'm doing well if I break a hundred, but hey, it's a challenge and it gets me motivated to use some stash. It's also a great time to sew the Spring Wardrobe for the kids. Between that and PAINTING!!! YES!!!! I've not had time to blog.
Yes, PAINTING!!! I'm so excited. I hate boring white (oh, excuse me eggshell) walls. I'm so happy to be painting! I've started with the entryway - well, the entryway WE use. No one comes in through our front door, so I'm starting with the entry from the garage door. It's becoming a lovely light yellowy green called Cabbage Green. I know - not a very inspiring colour name, really, but the colour itself is lovely, trust me. It goes beautifully with Daoffodil Yellow (at least I *think* it's Daffodil Yellow, maybe it's another garden theme name like Anemic Squash or Blanched Buttercup... :o/ ) which is what I plan to paint the kitchen. :o) I let the kids each have a turn at painting inside the closet. I have a hunch I'll get more help tomorrow. I have already spotted green paint in one child's hair and on one cat's fur. :o/ I'm still dithering about the bedroom colour, which is where this whole painting idea originated. I think it's going to be a wine colour, but it may be a deep eggplant (notice the garden reference) instead. For the Master Bathroom I like something called - hmm was it Pumpkin Spice? Orange Spice? Something Spicy anyway. Transition between the 2 could be a problem - as in what colour should the door and moulding be painted? Muted Mustard? Grey Poupon? Ah, there's the rub, and that's why I'm starting elsewhere.
What have I sewn? Last night I cut and started on a microfleece hoodie for Kacey which I finished today, and today I made a knit Peasant top for Dags. Since the SG started (Feb 1st), I've also made a valence for Gordy's room, a wall hangning for Molly, a pair of pants for Gordy, a twirly skirt for Kace, a twirly skirt for Dags, a library bag for Gogo (kinda small) and another for Dags (kinda big), Dragon brocade pants for Go, purple ribbed velour pants for Kace, slippers that were supposed to be for Kace and actually fit Dags (supposedly Adult small what's up with that?!?!?!?!) and a microfleece rice bag for my shoulder that doubles as a keyboard wrist-rest. Yes, I've been busy! :o) I've also bought fabric since I'm not supposed to and I must flout authority. I plan to make several more peasant tops for Dags and a hoodie for Mollusc. And I'm sure more ideas will come as I fondle my fabrics. Pictures may appear some day...
Actually, I need to go cut some stuff out now...
Yes, PAINTING!!! I'm so excited. I hate boring white (oh, excuse me eggshell) walls. I'm so happy to be painting! I've started with the entryway - well, the entryway WE use. No one comes in through our front door, so I'm starting with the entry from the garage door. It's becoming a lovely light yellowy green called Cabbage Green. I know - not a very inspiring colour name, really, but the colour itself is lovely, trust me. It goes beautifully with Daoffodil Yellow (at least I *think* it's Daffodil Yellow, maybe it's another garden theme name like Anemic Squash or Blanched Buttercup... :o/ ) which is what I plan to paint the kitchen. :o) I let the kids each have a turn at painting inside the closet. I have a hunch I'll get more help tomorrow. I have already spotted green paint in one child's hair and on one cat's fur. :o/ I'm still dithering about the bedroom colour, which is where this whole painting idea originated. I think it's going to be a wine colour, but it may be a deep eggplant (notice the garden reference) instead. For the Master Bathroom I like something called - hmm was it Pumpkin Spice? Orange Spice? Something Spicy anyway. Transition between the 2 could be a problem - as in what colour should the door and moulding be painted? Muted Mustard? Grey Poupon? Ah, there's the rub, and that's why I'm starting elsewhere.
What have I sewn? Last night I cut and started on a microfleece hoodie for Kacey which I finished today, and today I made a knit Peasant top for Dags. Since the SG started (Feb 1st), I've also made a valence for Gordy's room, a wall hangning for Molly, a pair of pants for Gordy, a twirly skirt for Kace, a twirly skirt for Dags, a library bag for Gogo (kinda small) and another for Dags (kinda big), Dragon brocade pants for Go, purple ribbed velour pants for Kace, slippers that were supposed to be for Kace and actually fit Dags (supposedly Adult small what's up with that?!?!?!?!) and a microfleece rice bag for my shoulder that doubles as a keyboard wrist-rest. Yes, I've been busy! :o) I've also bought fabric since I'm not supposed to and I must flout authority. I plan to make several more peasant tops for Dags and a hoodie for Mollusc. And I'm sure more ideas will come as I fondle my fabrics. Pictures may appear some day...
Actually, I need to go cut some stuff out now...
Saturday, January 29, 2005
Is That a Banana in Your Pocket?
What will they think of next? My friend and I were perusing the Not Martha site when we read about the Banana Bunker. Now, honestly, we could not help sniggering a bit - OK a lot - about this product. I mean LOOK at it! We even felt compelled to email it all the way downstairs to John, who was using the computer in his basement lair. He had pretty much the same impression we did. It's obviously a product that is intended to look very innocent - in case, say, your bags are being searched at the airport. No longer do you need to fear embarrassment at what might be pulled from your bag. "That? Oh, that!" *light laugh and toss of head* "That is simply my ribbed banana protector." At which point you open it and pull the banana from within with a flourish.
Perhaps you could even purchase it with an upgrade! "Why is there a battery pack attached? Ah, well, you see it's refrigerated! Yes, yes indeedy it is." Mmmmm hmmm!
Perhaps you could even purchase it with an upgrade! "Why is there a battery pack attached? Ah, well, you see it's refrigerated! Yes, yes indeedy it is." Mmmmm hmmm!
Now, if you go to that Not Martha site (I'm going to make you go there if you want to see the other one because she has a great site) there's also a link to the Banana Guard I'm not sure I should share my thoughts on this G-spot other banana protector, so I will let you form your own opinions.
In other breaking news, it's cold here!!!! Yeeesh! It's not as cold as Wisconsin was, but it's cold enough. No, it's too cold. The kids are getting cabin fever. We took them all to sparring today, and even after an hour of lighting up their partners, they were all nimbly-bimbly when we were leaving the do-jang.
In light of the weather, I guess I need to get back into the sewing swing and make those Sew Baby slippers. Look for an S&S soon.
After that flop of a baby gown, I made myself some lounge pants. Suffice it to say that they had problems of their own. Sigh. I'm not feeling very sewing-savvy right now. I used something kinda veloury and forgot about nap when cutting, so the nap on the front goes one way, and the nap on the back goes the other. Wah! I decided on a whim to lettuce the bottom edges, and they have a fun flare-y look and feel. They're pretty comfy, but I feel like a dork about that nap issue.
I'm definitely in my "Blue Period" in scrapbooking. Out of the 5 layouts in my book, 3 are blue. Well, they're winter pics, and that's about all that seemed to work. I need to pull diff pics I guess...
On a totally unrelated note, I can no longer type the word "the." Instead, it always, ALWAYS comes out "teh." I hate that. I'm not sure what to do. Maybe I'll abbreviate it to just "t." Maybe I could start a new trend in blogging, or even REAL writing. "T quick brown fox jumped over t lazy dog." Hmm... I could be onto something. Think of all the ink and paper we'd save just by omitting the "h" and "e" in every "the" in a book. "Save a tree, use a "t!"" Yep, that could be my slogan. Or maybe "Get the he out of the." Remember, you saw it here, first!
Now it's late, and I need to get the he out of here. :o)
Friday, January 21, 2005
Bloggity Blog
Well, not a whole heck of a lot is going on right now. I'm back to writing again, as planned. I have something almost revised that I wanted to get out by Friday, but may slip 'til Saturday. (children's picture book)
We had class and sparring today. That's always a blast! :o) I kicked my 1st poor sparring partner in the face, though. Yikes. I didn't mean to - I was just going for the head. John says my kick was right on, but he turned into it. Ouch. I felt my heel contact bone (spinning hook kick and it hit him in the cheekbone) and then he was just standing there all dazed for a while. Oops! :o( But he gave me a nice head shot, too (good thing we wear headgear!) so hopefully he feels better about that. :o)
I finally finished and mailed both calendars on Tuesday! WOO HOO!! So I made my first scrapbook page (2 pg spread) for MYSELF after that, and then I finally got to sew again.
I made a baby gown for a friend today - well I meant it to be for a friend - and it came out all wonky. I used a lap shoulder shirt pattern and just lengthened it for a gown.
As you can see, the neckline is all rippled. The instructions said to turn under and stitch, but that made it all wavy. Even washing and drying on hot didn't help. On top of it all, I serged on the elastic, and it gathered the bottom of the gown, but it was too weak to gather it once I'd turned it under for a finished edge, so I had to pick that out again. Shoulda made a casing. I guess it will be a dolly gown. :oP Some of the sewing mamas said to try clear elastic, so I'll have to find some of that.
I scored at the resale shop for Fishy today! Neat stuff I couldn't have made myself for the prices! I always love a good bargain! Sluggie got new tennies, too, for $6.50. That girl's feet are growing like crazy. Zoiks! Maybe it's just that she likes shoes so much she *thinks* she needs new ones. The girl does like her shoes... But I saw her pass up a pair of cute shoes that she liked today because they were too small, even though they were a size larger than her current ones! I think she may outgrow the Mollusc soon!
Mollusc went to the orthodontist and I was shocked yet again that they didn't recommend doing anything. (Have YOU ever known an ortho to pass up recommending any kind of treatment? That's like a shrink saying "OK, you're done. All Better. Bye-bye!") So she doesn't have to go back till next October, and both visits have been free. I'm a teensy little bit worried about that in the back of my mind. Wouldn't you be?
I still need to sew. Obviously the wonky baby gown would not satisfy my creative urges, and I need to make some kind of baby present, if I can just figure out what...
Prawn and her friend (the Master's daughter) did great at TKD today and both got stars on their foreheads (a big deal, believe me!) After that, they proceeded to decorate the dojang with bandaids and salve during the homeschool class. We all realised they had been WAAAAY too quiet. Little stinkers!
Still doing Flylady. Not sure if I'm doing it right... But I'm decluttering more and took in a load to the resale shop today. More goes on Mon if I'm on the ball. I also really need to post some of my goodies on eBay as SOAA auctions. I have a lovely purple cape, a fairy skirt, etc. that need to go.
I'm currently coveting a new camera. Turns out my old one is broken and that's why it's been giving me fits. What I really want is a Powershot Pro1. My uncle (a photographer) recommended it and I apparently have his and my dad's bloodsince I just LOVE to take pics, and am dying for an awesome camera with a superb lens like my old film camera, but digital. I also want a guitar. Must be entering the "creative" phase of my life... In the meantime, I need to get my current camera fixed, at least.
We had class and sparring today. That's always a blast! :o) I kicked my 1st poor sparring partner in the face, though. Yikes. I didn't mean to - I was just going for the head. John says my kick was right on, but he turned into it. Ouch. I felt my heel contact bone (spinning hook kick and it hit him in the cheekbone) and then he was just standing there all dazed for a while. Oops! :o( But he gave me a nice head shot, too (good thing we wear headgear!) so hopefully he feels better about that. :o)
I finally finished and mailed both calendars on Tuesday! WOO HOO!! So I made my first scrapbook page (2 pg spread) for MYSELF after that, and then I finally got to sew again.
I made a baby gown for a friend today - well I meant it to be for a friend - and it came out all wonky. I used a lap shoulder shirt pattern and just lengthened it for a gown.
As you can see, the neckline is all rippled. The instructions said to turn under and stitch, but that made it all wavy. Even washing and drying on hot didn't help. On top of it all, I serged on the elastic, and it gathered the bottom of the gown, but it was too weak to gather it once I'd turned it under for a finished edge, so I had to pick that out again. Shoulda made a casing. I guess it will be a dolly gown. :oP Some of the sewing mamas said to try clear elastic, so I'll have to find some of that.
I scored at the resale shop for Fishy today! Neat stuff I couldn't have made myself for the prices! I always love a good bargain! Sluggie got new tennies, too, for $6.50. That girl's feet are growing like crazy. Zoiks! Maybe it's just that she likes shoes so much she *thinks* she needs new ones. The girl does like her shoes... But I saw her pass up a pair of cute shoes that she liked today because they were too small, even though they were a size larger than her current ones! I think she may outgrow the Mollusc soon!
Mollusc went to the orthodontist and I was shocked yet again that they didn't recommend doing anything. (Have YOU ever known an ortho to pass up recommending any kind of treatment? That's like a shrink saying "OK, you're done. All Better. Bye-bye!") So she doesn't have to go back till next October, and both visits have been free. I'm a teensy little bit worried about that in the back of my mind. Wouldn't you be?
I still need to sew. Obviously the wonky baby gown would not satisfy my creative urges, and I need to make some kind of baby present, if I can just figure out what...
Prawn and her friend (the Master's daughter) did great at TKD today and both got stars on their foreheads (a big deal, believe me!) After that, they proceeded to decorate the dojang with bandaids and salve during the homeschool class. We all realised they had been WAAAAY too quiet. Little stinkers!
Still doing Flylady. Not sure if I'm doing it right... But I'm decluttering more and took in a load to the resale shop today. More goes on Mon if I'm on the ball. I also really need to post some of my goodies on eBay as SOAA auctions. I have a lovely purple cape, a fairy skirt, etc. that need to go.
I'm currently coveting a new camera. Turns out my old one is broken and that's why it's been giving me fits. What I really want is a Powershot Pro1. My uncle (a photographer) recommended it and I apparently have his and my dad's bloodsince I just LOVE to take pics, and am dying for an awesome camera with a superb lens like my old film camera, but digital. I also want a guitar. Must be entering the "creative" phase of my life... In the meantime, I need to get my current camera fixed, at least.
Monday, January 10, 2005
Hallelujah! One Calendar is DONE!!
Yay and hooray! I finally finished that October page and did December's. One calendar down and one to go.
I'm dragging myself back onto the Flylady wagon. Someone told me about using a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser on my porcelain sink and I am THRILLED with the results! I always have a hard time making it past the FlyBaby stage. I don't understand what she means by things like "make sure you have your weekly vacumming done" since I don't already have my own schedule. I do it on Mondays and when it looks like it needs it. I guess I need to pore over the site more and figure all that out.
I'm dragging myself back onto the Flylady wagon. Someone told me about using a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser on my porcelain sink and I am THRILLED with the results! I always have a hard time making it past the FlyBaby stage. I don't understand what she means by things like "make sure you have your weekly vacumming done" since I don't already have my own schedule. I do it on Mondays and when it looks like it needs it. I guess I need to pore over the site more and figure all that out.
It's really wonderful to have a washing machine again. Really! I sat for a while today, just watching it go 'round and 'round and marveling at the miracle of modern technology. If it weren't for washers and dryers, I'd spend the better part of my week scrubbing the family's clothes. Yikes!
My fabric stash is calling to me. I'm not sure which pieces of fabric are actually making all the noise, since I won't open the drawers until my calendars are done. Well, not completely true. I did open one today to put away a piece of glittery pink rib knit I had to wash after my kids managed to slime it with something. At that point, a tan, striped knit with foxes and backpacks tried to convince me to make pants for Gogo, but I was firm, even though it begged and pleaded. It even tried to guilt me into sewing it up, because the grey striped pants I made him last year are now about 3" too short. But I was resolute in my steadfastness (or maybe steadfast in my resoluteness) and pointed out that he can wear jeans for a few more days if neccessary. Still, I can hear the fabric calling out in muffled voices. It's worse at night when the house is (more or less) quiet.
I'm going to have to try the washcloth idea one of the moms at The Swap told me about. You fold a washcloth in half, sew up the sides, turn it right side out and put 2 or 3 snaps across the top. Soap scraplets get slipped inside and are easy to use up!
Tomorrow is Monday already. We're doing Around the World in 180 days and the kids wanted to start with Australia. We've been enjoying it so far. I have some books and movies on order at the library that look good. Maybe I can review them when we're done with them. I'm not actually sure how I ended up with the program. It came with a botany book I'd ordered, and it was listed on the order form. Suffice it to say that it's better not to order things late at night - especially when you've just gotten your internet back after a dry spell. But we're enjoying it, and learning, too, so maybe I should actually go on a late night ordering binge and see what else arrives on our doorstep. :o)
Saturday, January 08, 2005
P.G. Wodehouse was a comic genius :o)
Holy cow, could that man write!! Douglas Adams wasn't kidding when he said that Wodehouse was "the greatest comic writer of all time." I lie in bed reading those books and just cracking up. Jeeves and Wooster books are my faves so far. And I can SO see the influence in Douglas Adams's writing. Sigh. :o) There's just nothing quite like the pleasure of having a good book waiting for you, is there?
Now, for those awaiting the latest with bated breath, I shall press on lest I disappoint...
We went sledding at Kensington park again today. We bought our 3rd annual membership sticker for the park. It doesn't seem like we've been here that long. Sledding was a blast, though I'll prolly have bruises on my bum all over again. I'm eyeing up that extra piece of chair cushion foam in my sewing room pretty seriously now. I know it would fit in my sled. :0P
So my friend and I are scrapping calendars (yes, STILL!) for our moms and MILs. I thought October was in the bag, but I got socked over the melon with a bad case of the dreaded Scrapper's Block. Argh! It's just not coming together the way I wanted it to. Cute pics, but too much white space (wall backround in the pics and if I silhouette the pics they're gonna look dorky.) I think I'm going to just emboss a bunch of pumpkins and fill in the spaces. I dunno. She and I are both down to about a page a day, and unless you're an addict or somthing that is not a Good Thing. I wonder if there ARE addicts. I wonder if there's some kind of Betty Ford Clinic for scrapaholics. "Hi, I'm Betsy and I'm a scrapaholic. My last layout was 2 weeks, 2 days and 4 hours ago, and I didn't see my family for 3 days. The kids ate fruit snacks and dirt, and I actually gave the baby a box of matches to play with. He set the curtains on fire, which was not cool, but I threw them in the swimming pool, and I did get some great pictures for a House Fire layout."
My friend and I went to the scrapbook store yesterday (no matter HOW MUCH stuff you have, you always need "something else" when you have a specific project!) and we walked in with our herd of 5 kids, collectively. The lady at the register said, "Wow! That's a lot of kids! Are they all yours?" Nope. We just thought we'd borrow a bunch of kids on a school day and take them to the scrapbook store to hinder us while we shop. :oP I almost told her it was a homeschool field trip day, but I wasn't sure how that would go over, so I refrained. The kids were really good though (of course they were! They got to watch Star Wars while we shopped. I have turned them ALL into Star Wars Geeks - even the one that's not mine! :o) ) and while I was rounding up the kids and my friend was checking out, the lady told her "the kids were really good - very quiet! To tell the truth, we were all a little afraid when you all came in." Bwa ha ha ha!!!
After shelling out all my food money for supplies (what problem? ;-) OK it wasn't really quite that bad) we went swimming at the pool at my friend's apartment. Wow. It must have been too long since we last went. Prawn (age 3) started the Series of Weird Questions and Comments by asking if we were going to wear our clothes for swimming. Nope, we're going to wear swimming suits. OK. A while later she wanted to know if we'd be wearing our coats. Nope, just our swimming suits, babe. OK, she was good with that, but what about our boots? Did we plan to wear our boots for swimming? Uh, no. We don't need to wear our boots for swiming. Then, when we got to the pool it was Gogo's turn. (he's 5) We were all ready to jump in and he kinda pulled me aside and informed me "I'm not wearing any underwear." snickersnort! I told him that was just fine, he wasn't supposed to. And that's when I really knew we had to get out to the pool more!
In spite of being fish out of water for so very long, we all had a great time, and my friend got some really good pictures at the pool. I'm pretty sure we can crop out the charred curtains in the background.
_______________________________________________
Now, for those awaiting the latest with bated breath, I shall press on lest I disappoint...
We went sledding at Kensington park again today. We bought our 3rd annual membership sticker for the park. It doesn't seem like we've been here that long. Sledding was a blast, though I'll prolly have bruises on my bum all over again. I'm eyeing up that extra piece of chair cushion foam in my sewing room pretty seriously now. I know it would fit in my sled. :0P
So my friend and I are scrapping calendars (yes, STILL!) for our moms and MILs. I thought October was in the bag, but I got socked over the melon with a bad case of the dreaded Scrapper's Block. Argh! It's just not coming together the way I wanted it to. Cute pics, but too much white space (wall backround in the pics and if I silhouette the pics they're gonna look dorky.) I think I'm going to just emboss a bunch of pumpkins and fill in the spaces. I dunno. She and I are both down to about a page a day, and unless you're an addict or somthing that is not a Good Thing. I wonder if there ARE addicts. I wonder if there's some kind of Betty Ford Clinic for scrapaholics. "Hi, I'm Betsy and I'm a scrapaholic. My last layout was 2 weeks, 2 days and 4 hours ago, and I didn't see my family for 3 days. The kids ate fruit snacks and dirt, and I actually gave the baby a box of matches to play with. He set the curtains on fire, which was not cool, but I threw them in the swimming pool, and I did get some great pictures for a House Fire layout."
My friend and I went to the scrapbook store yesterday (no matter HOW MUCH stuff you have, you always need "something else" when you have a specific project!) and we walked in with our herd of 5 kids, collectively. The lady at the register said, "Wow! That's a lot of kids! Are they all yours?" Nope. We just thought we'd borrow a bunch of kids on a school day and take them to the scrapbook store to hinder us while we shop. :oP I almost told her it was a homeschool field trip day, but I wasn't sure how that would go over, so I refrained. The kids were really good though (of course they were! They got to watch Star Wars while we shopped. I have turned them ALL into Star Wars Geeks - even the one that's not mine! :o) ) and while I was rounding up the kids and my friend was checking out, the lady told her "the kids were really good - very quiet! To tell the truth, we were all a little afraid when you all came in." Bwa ha ha ha!!!
After shelling out all my food money for supplies (what problem? ;-) OK it wasn't really quite that bad) we went swimming at the pool at my friend's apartment. Wow. It must have been too long since we last went. Prawn (age 3) started the Series of Weird Questions and Comments by asking if we were going to wear our clothes for swimming. Nope, we're going to wear swimming suits. OK. A while later she wanted to know if we'd be wearing our coats. Nope, just our swimming suits, babe. OK, she was good with that, but what about our boots? Did we plan to wear our boots for swimming? Uh, no. We don't need to wear our boots for swiming. Then, when we got to the pool it was Gogo's turn. (he's 5) We were all ready to jump in and he kinda pulled me aside and informed me "I'm not wearing any underwear." snickersnort! I told him that was just fine, he wasn't supposed to. And that's when I really knew we had to get out to the pool more!
In spite of being fish out of water for so very long, we all had a great time, and my friend got some really good pictures at the pool. I'm pretty sure we can crop out the charred curtains in the background.
_______________________________________________
It's late enough that it's the 8th now. Happy Birthday, Daddy. I miss you! Hope you're jammin' with Bach and Mozart. :o)
Thursday, January 06, 2005
Kaboom=the sound of your body hitting the floor when you pass out from the stench!
Here's a warning to all you people who might have been thinking about trying KABOOM cleaner. DON'T!!! Here's what I had to say about it in my epinions review:
How can I accurately relay my feelings of revulsion here? I thought this was supposed to be some kind of miracle cleaner. I finally broke down and bought some at Costco - 2 packaged together. First, I read the warnings. There are a LOT. Basically, it says everything short of "do not actually use this product." I don't know how I didn't see all that before. Maybe because those folks had cleverly packaged it so the warning labels faced each other and the bottles were then conveniently shrink-wrapped together. In spite of all the warnings, and against my better judgment, I figured I'd at least try the stuff - hey, if it's this caustic, it must be effective, right? Well good luck spraying the stuff. When I tried to squirt the stuff in my sink, it gouted out of the nozzle and flowed down my hand. A pitiful "after-spit" did barely spritzle my sink. I was then over come by a completely NAUSEATING MILDEW SMELL! Holy Cow! My first thought was that the kitchen towel I'd used to try to tighten the spray head (a pitiful and failed attempt to reduce flowage and enhance spritzle-age) must have really needed a wash. Even the bottle and the sink smelled like mildew. I have a very strong stomach, but I actually gagged. I let the sink sit while I dealt with the towel and then scrubbed out my sink. The result was no better than with plain old water. I was afraid to use any more spray just then, because I had a sneaking suspicion that the smell was actually from the "Kaboom".
Since this was a 2 pack, I figured I'd give it a fair shot by using the 2nd bottle in my bathroom. I sprayed the sink (this nozzle did actually work) and sure enough - KABOOM! - the stench of mildew once again filled my nostrils. BE WARNED! When the manufacturer labeled this stuff as having a "New Fresh Scent," they apparently neglected to point out that it's a "New Fresh MILDEW scent!" KABOOM! There goes 6 bucks.
How can I accurately relay my feelings of revulsion here? I thought this was supposed to be some kind of miracle cleaner. I finally broke down and bought some at Costco - 2 packaged together. First, I read the warnings. There are a LOT. Basically, it says everything short of "do not actually use this product." I don't know how I didn't see all that before. Maybe because those folks had cleverly packaged it so the warning labels faced each other and the bottles were then conveniently shrink-wrapped together. In spite of all the warnings, and against my better judgment, I figured I'd at least try the stuff - hey, if it's this caustic, it must be effective, right? Well good luck spraying the stuff. When I tried to squirt the stuff in my sink, it gouted out of the nozzle and flowed down my hand. A pitiful "after-spit" did barely spritzle my sink. I was then over come by a completely NAUSEATING MILDEW SMELL! Holy Cow! My first thought was that the kitchen towel I'd used to try to tighten the spray head (a pitiful and failed attempt to reduce flowage and enhance spritzle-age) must have really needed a wash. Even the bottle and the sink smelled like mildew. I have a very strong stomach, but I actually gagged. I let the sink sit while I dealt with the towel and then scrubbed out my sink. The result was no better than with plain old water. I was afraid to use any more spray just then, because I had a sneaking suspicion that the smell was actually from the "Kaboom".
Since this was a 2 pack, I figured I'd give it a fair shot by using the 2nd bottle in my bathroom. I sprayed the sink (this nozzle did actually work) and sure enough - KABOOM! - the stench of mildew once again filled my nostrils. BE WARNED! When the manufacturer labeled this stuff as having a "New Fresh Scent," they apparently neglected to point out that it's a "New Fresh MILDEW scent!" KABOOM! There goes 6 bucks.
Monday, January 03, 2005
In Which All My Appliances Begin to Break
You know how bad things always come in threes? :-/
First it was the fridge. The door FELL OFF! Do not ever buy a Kenmore Elite refrigerator - I don't care WHAT Consumer Reports says! The fridge costs about $1000. The door costs over $800. I wonder how much the freezer door costs? Considering the main door price, I'm thinking $200 would not be out of the question. So why don't they advertise it as "buy these doors and get the fridge for free?" OK so the door fell off during the summer. John flipped it and rehung it so we'd get by until the service call. Thank GOODNESS it was still under warranty. They shipped a new door, which was beaten up, and then another new door, which the service guy hung for us. Now, a few mos later the part where the door mounts is cracked again. I'm so glad we were on the ball enough to do the extended warranty. But I don't get it. The kids don't hang on the door or push on it, or overextend it, so why is this happening? I guess cuz it's a piece of crap.
Next, enter the oven, stage left. It doesn't light. You turn it on, and the smell of natural gas fills the room, but no light. Fortunately, I discovered that this can be solved by beating the crap out of the oven. Care to guess how I came to that conclusion?
And, finally, the washer, not to be outdone, commited suicide. Now really, I ask you, isn't that a rather desperate plea for attention? Maybe a bit over the top? I certainly think so. John has fixed it twice before, but this was some electrical problem. So out comes Mr. Repairman and guess what? Because John has fixed it before (saving us a considerable amount of $) with parts that SEARS sent us, the Sears guy is "not allowed to touch it." OK, there is NO warranty to be voided here, so WHAT'S THE DEAL?!? Double sigh. For a family of 6, going washerless for the better part of a week is a Big Deal. Our options were 1) call someone else to fix it and possibly pay hundreds with no guarantee it gets fixed, 2)buy parts and start replacing via guesswork as to what could be wrong (with no guarantee it gets fixed) , and 3) buy a new washer. We went with 3. We are now destitute. On the lighter side, the one we wanted was on sale, had an additional rebate, and was bought before Jan 9th when the appliance prices will go up $50-$100 each due to rising steel prices. So we've got that going for us. I'm trying to focus on the positive things...
So today I asked Mollusc if she had clean undies for tomorrow. (New Washer Day!!) She said that she'd taken out today's, and, surprisingly, there was an unexpected, clean pair underneath for tomorrow. In her words, "it was kind of like Hannukah." Yep, it was The Miracle of the Clean Undies. ;o)
In Other Breaking News, John and I tested for (and received) our brown belts a few weekends ago. Woo hoo! We have been getting to do more free sparring on sparring night, too. Hooray! My jump-roping regimen is up to 3.5 mins, 30 sec or so break and 1.5 more mins. (still sounds kinda wussy, huh?) It has made a huge difference in my sparring stamina.
We went sledding at Kensington on Wednesday and had a blast! I still have a bruise on my bum. Which reminds me of a spectacular sparring bruise I got a few weeks ago. I'm not sure whether my "cup" saved me from a painful death, or actually caused the bruise. At any rate, it was a magnificent bruise, and I couldn't even show it to anyone, except for John. Wah!
I did sew a fair amount for Christmas - lots of lounge pants & fleece socks. Now I'm so busy scrapping calendars (yes, I know it's January!) for my mom and MIL, as well as revising stories, that I'm not sewing much. After my calendars are done I'll be able to sew more again. Yay! I'm also on a fabric fast, except for my gift card for JoAnn's (oh joyous JA's!)
I'm contemplating whether or not to invent New Year's resolutions to post. Maybe not. Then I'd be accountable. We wouldn't want that. ;o)
Hey, did I mention that our popcorn popper died, too?
First it was the fridge. The door FELL OFF! Do not ever buy a Kenmore Elite refrigerator - I don't care WHAT Consumer Reports says! The fridge costs about $1000. The door costs over $800. I wonder how much the freezer door costs? Considering the main door price, I'm thinking $200 would not be out of the question. So why don't they advertise it as "buy these doors and get the fridge for free?" OK so the door fell off during the summer. John flipped it and rehung it so we'd get by until the service call. Thank GOODNESS it was still under warranty. They shipped a new door, which was beaten up, and then another new door, which the service guy hung for us. Now, a few mos later the part where the door mounts is cracked again. I'm so glad we were on the ball enough to do the extended warranty. But I don't get it. The kids don't hang on the door or push on it, or overextend it, so why is this happening? I guess cuz it's a piece of crap.
Next, enter the oven, stage left. It doesn't light. You turn it on, and the smell of natural gas fills the room, but no light. Fortunately, I discovered that this can be solved by beating the crap out of the oven. Care to guess how I came to that conclusion?
And, finally, the washer, not to be outdone, commited suicide. Now really, I ask you, isn't that a rather desperate plea for attention? Maybe a bit over the top? I certainly think so. John has fixed it twice before, but this was some electrical problem. So out comes Mr. Repairman and guess what? Because John has fixed it before (saving us a considerable amount of $) with parts that SEARS sent us, the Sears guy is "not allowed to touch it." OK, there is NO warranty to be voided here, so WHAT'S THE DEAL?!? Double sigh. For a family of 6, going washerless for the better part of a week is a Big Deal. Our options were 1) call someone else to fix it and possibly pay hundreds with no guarantee it gets fixed, 2)buy parts and start replacing via guesswork as to what could be wrong (with no guarantee it gets fixed) , and 3) buy a new washer. We went with 3. We are now destitute. On the lighter side, the one we wanted was on sale, had an additional rebate, and was bought before Jan 9th when the appliance prices will go up $50-$100 each due to rising steel prices. So we've got that going for us. I'm trying to focus on the positive things...
So today I asked Mollusc if she had clean undies for tomorrow. (New Washer Day!!) She said that she'd taken out today's, and, surprisingly, there was an unexpected, clean pair underneath for tomorrow. In her words, "it was kind of like Hannukah." Yep, it was The Miracle of the Clean Undies. ;o)
In Other Breaking News, John and I tested for (and received) our brown belts a few weekends ago. Woo hoo! We have been getting to do more free sparring on sparring night, too. Hooray! My jump-roping regimen is up to 3.5 mins, 30 sec or so break and 1.5 more mins. (still sounds kinda wussy, huh?) It has made a huge difference in my sparring stamina.
We went sledding at Kensington on Wednesday and had a blast! I still have a bruise on my bum. Which reminds me of a spectacular sparring bruise I got a few weeks ago. I'm not sure whether my "cup" saved me from a painful death, or actually caused the bruise. At any rate, it was a magnificent bruise, and I couldn't even show it to anyone, except for John. Wah!
I did sew a fair amount for Christmas - lots of lounge pants & fleece socks. Now I'm so busy scrapping calendars (yes, I know it's January!) for my mom and MIL, as well as revising stories, that I'm not sewing much. After my calendars are done I'll be able to sew more again. Yay! I'm also on a fabric fast, except for my gift card for JoAnn's (oh joyous JA's!)
I'm contemplating whether or not to invent New Year's resolutions to post. Maybe not. Then I'd be accountable. We wouldn't want that. ;o)
Hey, did I mention that our popcorn popper died, too?
Sigh...
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
In Which My Sister Gains Even More Fame...
Check it out! Navan made it into The Irish American News. The story is under Features, under Raised on Songs and Stories. Sheila becomes more and more famous! Meanwhile, I studiously avoid working on the kids' science fiction story I'm writing. Instead, spare moments are taken up with reading a near bodice-ripper (not really my genre) and messing about on the web. I should really be sewing. I have 8 pairs of lounge pants to make for Christmas gifts, and more goodies, too. I have already sewn things I need to list on the Amity's Market Board. I have jewelry to make. Yikes! Life is busy!
Monday, November 08, 2004
Kicking men, Shipping News and possibly more...
OK, so I haven't updated in a while and here's why. I was busy:
1) fighting with men
2) sewing like a madwoman
3) reading The Shipping News
And here's how all that went...
OK, fighting with men. Yep, physical fighting, but with protective gear and judges. You guessed it - it was my first Tae Kwon Do tournament. :o) There were only 4 of us adults and 3 of us were from the same school, and 2 of us were married to each other. I was the only woman. Yes, I had to fight my husband. And then another guy from our school. I won one and lost one and so took second place.
Let me just say how very different it is to spar at a tournament. Wow. I just can't express that enough. I think when I have more experience that will change (at least I sure hope so) but for my first one I foud that I really reverted to my early sparring days. My focus dropped down from the shoulders to the scoring spots on the hogu (ugh!) and my stomach was in knots and my wind - can I just say that though my endurance has improved a lot over this last year, I still need to work on it a LOT MORE!!!! So I immediately began a jump-roping regimen after that experience. I'm suprised little kids don't drop over dead on the playground from jump-roping. Seriously. And those marathon sessions - how do they DO that??!!? I started off with 2 mins and then, due to tripping a few times and getting the rope tangled on my toes ended up going for a total of 3.5 mins. That seemed like a really good workout, so I've kept up with that over the week, though last night I did a lot better and was able to tack on another 30 seconds after a short break and still feel good. So I guess it's helping already. Our matches are 2 rounds of 1.5 minutes with a 30 second break in between. Seems more like 5 minutes when you're out on the mat. Add to that that we had only free-sparred maybe 4 times EVER and the tournament kicked my butt. Oh and we weren't allowed to kick to the head (I think because it was mixed gender) which stank because that's the strongest part of my game and the weakest for the guys I fought (remember, I know these guys.) I definitely need to work on the lower part of my game. But it was a blast nonetheless. I had a lot of fun with the forms competition, got first place and was able to compete against the other 1st places for the "Grand Champion" trophy, which, to my surprise, I won! :o) The older girls competed as well and had fun and did great. Kacey racked up 2 insane scores (30s and 50s - good grief!) and was going easy on her opponents. She obviously should have been bumped up out of her age group. Molly had a good match. She needs to work on her timing and her speed, but I can appreciate that. Her form was really good!
After the tournament, I had to sew like a madwoman for the bazaar. John made some AWESOME display trees for me - 2 table-standing trees and a floor-standing one. Gotta do the picture thing soon. I sold more than I ever do in one day online, and made more than I'd expected to, though not all that much. (yep - online biz is slow, mainly due to lack of advertising) I have a lot left to put up on my site, which I should have done today, but didn't. Molly manned the table with me and we had a good time talking and knitting and shopping the other booths. (So did I actually bring home any profits? you ask. Um - not sure...) I found out that 1) our tiny town is not really ready for Playsilks, and 2) I should have brought more non-Christmas children's aprons. It was a good experience, though, and I had fun making everything and would like to do it again sometime. I'm not sure I've ever spent such a long time not having to take care of anyone before (since having kids.) So it was very relaxing just sitting there at the booth. OK, I guess I was gone for about that long when we went to the Sarah MacLaughlin concert in October (which was AWSOME, by the way), but that's the only other time.
Now for The Shipping News. Well, this one's a bit complicated. Right. First off, I picked it up free at a library sale after having it recommended to me by my sister, who had not read it and who gave me a very odd and non-related description of it based on what I can only guess was a dream she once had combined with whatever Irish song lyrics she was currently decoding. ;o) OK, so going into the whole thing, I had this vague (and as it turned out, completely wrong) idea of what it might be about. When I started into it, all I could think was "man, this sucks. The writing style is SO obnoxious. HOW did this win a Pulitzer?!" Granted, I do not actually know the criteria for being awarded a Pulitzer, so that thought may or may not have had a leg to stand on. Maybe a Pulitzer is given for the most innovative use of grammar. I should check that out. So anyway, I started complaining about it to my friend and asked if she'd read it. She had, and said that it was really good. So I gritted my teeth and read on. I'm glad. :o) I still can't explain it, but it became a page turner. Maybe it was that picture of Kevin Spacey on the front. I did turn back to that a lot. But seriously, even though I could NEVER make this book sound interesting by describing what happens, I truly wanted to find out what happened. Maybe because I'm a romantic sap and wanted desperately for Quoyle to find his true love, and figured (judging from that cover) that it would happen. I mean, really, you don't put a picture of Kevin Spacey and 2 beautiful women on the cover of a book unless someone's going to fall in love, right?
The thing other than writing style that really bugged me was the handling of that poor Quoyle guy. First off, he was not beautiful (sorry, Kevin- you're too lovely to be a realistic Quoyle.) So Kevin on the cover was a sort of distracting, hovering-in-the-wings guy, because no way was he Quoyle. But I was able to pretty much turn that off while reading. The big thing that got to me was that throughout the first part of the book, he really came off as a sub-intelligent, Of Mice and Men's Lenny sort of character. And then suddenly - maybe a fourth or a third of the way into the book - he had a brain and was a quasi-intelligent human being instead of this pseudo-retarded caricature of a guy. So he never quite jelled for me. It's disconcerting to think you have a character all figured out and then have the rug pulled out from under you like that. But the story - well it was a page turner and I'm glad I pressed on (with glory, hoo rah.) I'm very curious now to see the movie and see how the whole thing was handled. There's a lot going on as thoughts and descriptions that I'm not sure how you could get across in a movie. I'm curious if it even comes off as being the same story. Gotta rent it I guess, or check the library.
And now it's time to go to Tae Kwon Do...
1) fighting with men
2) sewing like a madwoman
3) reading The Shipping News
And here's how all that went...
OK, fighting with men. Yep, physical fighting, but with protective gear and judges. You guessed it - it was my first Tae Kwon Do tournament. :o) There were only 4 of us adults and 3 of us were from the same school, and 2 of us were married to each other. I was the only woman. Yes, I had to fight my husband. And then another guy from our school. I won one and lost one and so took second place.
Let me just say how very different it is to spar at a tournament. Wow. I just can't express that enough. I think when I have more experience that will change (at least I sure hope so) but for my first one I foud that I really reverted to my early sparring days. My focus dropped down from the shoulders to the scoring spots on the hogu (ugh!) and my stomach was in knots and my wind - can I just say that though my endurance has improved a lot over this last year, I still need to work on it a LOT MORE!!!! So I immediately began a jump-roping regimen after that experience. I'm suprised little kids don't drop over dead on the playground from jump-roping. Seriously. And those marathon sessions - how do they DO that??!!? I started off with 2 mins and then, due to tripping a few times and getting the rope tangled on my toes ended up going for a total of 3.5 mins. That seemed like a really good workout, so I've kept up with that over the week, though last night I did a lot better and was able to tack on another 30 seconds after a short break and still feel good. So I guess it's helping already. Our matches are 2 rounds of 1.5 minutes with a 30 second break in between. Seems more like 5 minutes when you're out on the mat. Add to that that we had only free-sparred maybe 4 times EVER and the tournament kicked my butt. Oh and we weren't allowed to kick to the head (I think because it was mixed gender) which stank because that's the strongest part of my game and the weakest for the guys I fought (remember, I know these guys.) I definitely need to work on the lower part of my game. But it was a blast nonetheless. I had a lot of fun with the forms competition, got first place and was able to compete against the other 1st places for the "Grand Champion" trophy, which, to my surprise, I won! :o) The older girls competed as well and had fun and did great. Kacey racked up 2 insane scores (30s and 50s - good grief!) and was going easy on her opponents. She obviously should have been bumped up out of her age group. Molly had a good match. She needs to work on her timing and her speed, but I can appreciate that. Her form was really good!
After the tournament, I had to sew like a madwoman for the bazaar. John made some AWESOME display trees for me - 2 table-standing trees and a floor-standing one. Gotta do the picture thing soon. I sold more than I ever do in one day online, and made more than I'd expected to, though not all that much. (yep - online biz is slow, mainly due to lack of advertising) I have a lot left to put up on my site, which I should have done today, but didn't. Molly manned the table with me and we had a good time talking and knitting and shopping the other booths. (So did I actually bring home any profits? you ask. Um - not sure...) I found out that 1) our tiny town is not really ready for Playsilks, and 2) I should have brought more non-Christmas children's aprons. It was a good experience, though, and I had fun making everything and would like to do it again sometime. I'm not sure I've ever spent such a long time not having to take care of anyone before (since having kids.) So it was very relaxing just sitting there at the booth. OK, I guess I was gone for about that long when we went to the Sarah MacLaughlin concert in October (which was AWSOME, by the way), but that's the only other time.
Now for The Shipping News. Well, this one's a bit complicated. Right. First off, I picked it up free at a library sale after having it recommended to me by my sister, who had not read it and who gave me a very odd and non-related description of it based on what I can only guess was a dream she once had combined with whatever Irish song lyrics she was currently decoding. ;o) OK, so going into the whole thing, I had this vague (and as it turned out, completely wrong) idea of what it might be about. When I started into it, all I could think was "man, this sucks. The writing style is SO obnoxious. HOW did this win a Pulitzer?!" Granted, I do not actually know the criteria for being awarded a Pulitzer, so that thought may or may not have had a leg to stand on. Maybe a Pulitzer is given for the most innovative use of grammar. I should check that out. So anyway, I started complaining about it to my friend and asked if she'd read it. She had, and said that it was really good. So I gritted my teeth and read on. I'm glad. :o) I still can't explain it, but it became a page turner. Maybe it was that picture of Kevin Spacey on the front. I did turn back to that a lot. But seriously, even though I could NEVER make this book sound interesting by describing what happens, I truly wanted to find out what happened. Maybe because I'm a romantic sap and wanted desperately for Quoyle to find his true love, and figured (judging from that cover) that it would happen. I mean, really, you don't put a picture of Kevin Spacey and 2 beautiful women on the cover of a book unless someone's going to fall in love, right?
The thing other than writing style that really bugged me was the handling of that poor Quoyle guy. First off, he was not beautiful (sorry, Kevin- you're too lovely to be a realistic Quoyle.) So Kevin on the cover was a sort of distracting, hovering-in-the-wings guy, because no way was he Quoyle. But I was able to pretty much turn that off while reading. The big thing that got to me was that throughout the first part of the book, he really came off as a sub-intelligent, Of Mice and Men's Lenny sort of character. And then suddenly - maybe a fourth or a third of the way into the book - he had a brain and was a quasi-intelligent human being instead of this pseudo-retarded caricature of a guy. So he never quite jelled for me. It's disconcerting to think you have a character all figured out and then have the rug pulled out from under you like that. But the story - well it was a page turner and I'm glad I pressed on (with glory, hoo rah.) I'm very curious now to see the movie and see how the whole thing was handled. There's a lot going on as thoughts and descriptions that I'm not sure how you could get across in a movie. I'm curious if it even comes off as being the same story. Gotta rent it I guess, or check the library.
And now it's time to go to Tae Kwon Do...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)