Bo Dans

"The white belt means to be new and unknowledgeable."


Hook kicks - Mollusc's (L) is just starting to hook around nice and high

Today Mollusc (11) and Sluggie (9) tested for Bo Dan or Temporary Black Belt. They ROCKED!



And here's Sluggie's (R), nice and high, too. :-)

I'm so proud of my girls! They kicked hard and high throughout the whole test. As red belts, they were up kicking quite a bit longer than the rest of the group, and without any breaks. They worked HARD. When it came time for the questions, they nailed every single one. They were the only kids to do so (brags Mama.)

At the end of the kicking, blocking sets, forms and questions, they had to break a board to complete the test and receive their belts. This time they had to use a spinning back kick and were given roughly 1/2" thick boards.


Mollusc, just before she hit with a nice, big "kihop" (yell). She broke the board cleanly on her first try.

Sluggie was pretty geeked up and took a couple of tries because her aim was off, but then she snapped hers cleanly, too. You can see the two pieces in each of GuTTer MuNKi's hands.



Sluggie, our Master (being a bit silly, LOL!), and Mollusc. The half-black, half-red belts on top are their new belts.

When we got home, a Monarch had come to congratulate them.


And all of Nature was shouting its praises in showers of flowers:


pink things


white things


Cosmo


Kramer


Naut


Mum's the word


snow fairy


no, seriously, it's really called "snow fairy"

Congratulations my girlies! I'm so proud of you! :-)

Can't Sleep

Mollusc and Sluggie test for Bo Dan (temporary black belt, or black belt candidate) today. Why is it that *I* am the sleepless one? :-P

Sitemeter is fascinating. It's truly amazing what you can tell about the lurkers who come to your blog just by how they got there. You can even make some very educated guesses as to who they are. I feel like a private detective.

Tim Curry: Theatrical Genius

Dear Mr. Curry,

Thank you for your humour, your decadent good looks (you make me feel like I'm smitten with the Devil himself) and your charming accent. Thank you for your amazing and incredible voice-talent, and the stunning renditions you give of the Lemony Snicket books. I wish you could have heard the cheering at our house when we were finally done with those pesky "read by the author" volumes, and were back to yours. (No offense, Mr. Handler. Your writing rocks. It's just that Mr. Curry, well, he was BORN to the theatre and it shows.)

I don't care a whit that every time you try to say the word "sixth" it comes out "sikth." In fact, I find it rather endearing.

And while I'll admit that I've never seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show in its entirety, neither have I seen the Wizard of Oz, nor Gone With the Wind in theirs, nor even the smallest segment of Titanic, so please don't be offended. Every role in which I *have* seen you, has been a masterpiece, whether I loved you, or hated you, or loved to hate you, or hated to love you, as dictated by the script.

When I read or listen to the Artemis Fowl books, I pretty much picture Foaly as you. When I listen to "St. Augustine in Hell" it's your voice that makes the whole song come off so brilliantly, even though that isn't really you.

If you were a slice of cake, you would be Devil's Food. If you were a wine, you would be a Casillero del Diablo. As it is, your roles are as enjoyable as a rich slice of dark chocolate cake, and your voice is as intoxicating as a heady wine. As it is, you are an actor with perhaps the greatest inversely proportional ratio of talent to deserved recognition.

Thank you.

A Fan

Sometimes

Sometimes when I look at my kids, I see a glimpse of the future - how they will look in 6 or 8 or 10 years. And I get goosebumps because they are so beautiful.

Tonight when I tucked my "baby" (4.5) into bed, and she wrapped her little arms around my neck like she always does and pulled my nose down to her baby-soft cheek, I thought She's not always going to be this small. And I felt something profound stirring within me. Not sadness. Because that 4.5-year-old will still be a part of her when she's 6 and 8 and even when she's older than I am now. But I was reminded yet again how important it is to love every minute of this. To be grateful for every moment -- the quiet and the loud (and the cacophonous,) the pleasant and the irritating and the joyful, the painful and the euphoric and the plain old coasting along in contentment.


You don't really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around - and why his parents will always wave back. ~William D. Tammeus


Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. ~Elizabeth Stone

HNT and Hodgepodge

unplanned Yin Yang in vinegar and oil

". . . dum, dum, dum, dum, dum, dum. . ." The same note being struck repeatedly on the piano finally intruded on my awareness.

"Mollusc!"

"Nineteen!"

"What?"

"It was a test. Nineteen times before you had had enough. I bet it would take a lot less for Daddy."

*SNORT*

She knows us all too well.



Our Wednesday was decadent. We started off with a "Tea Party" brunch. Well, actually, we started off by sleeping in. (Ahhhhhhhh!) Then the Tea Party brunch. Fresh raspberry sauce over vanilla pudding cake, coffee (Boston Tea Party?) and assorted goodies (to include stale hazelnut things that now had the consistency of cardboard, which we promptly chucked.) Utter decadence. (other than the whole cardboard thing of course) Look closely, and you might spot the postcards that Peter and Fal sent us from Athens and Egypt, respectively, on the whiteboard.

The Rule of Four: not just an annoying yet useful mathematical manipulation, but a fact of photography of well. If you have four kids, it's only going to be very rarely that you catch them all looking their best simultaneously on camera. You might get 3 looking pretty decent but only half of the fourth, or 2 good and 2 bad, or 3 great and one looking, quite frankly, demon-possessed, but going 4 for 4 is a rarity, as proven in today's pics.



We had planned to head off to Brighton (everything here has English, heinously massacred French, or Native American names) for Lego Star Wars II (wheeee!) and the new Artemis Fowl book (double wheeeeee!) but GuTTer MuNKi wanted to come with us, so we totally debauched instead while waiting for his arrival at the homestead. Yesssssss! This was made even more rewarding by the fact that he had our teacher discount card for Borders, which we used for Artie.

I did a little damage control to help the house recover from Crazy Tuesday, sewed on patches for my side biz at TKD ($5 per patch, so I'll make $15 - not bad for a few minutes' work - about $60 per hour, adjusted) and wrote my review of Peter and Beth for TCM.

Brighton was pretty much underwater due to heavy rain. (Ctrl-F 'clouds') On the way home, GuTTer MuNKi had been detained by being stuck behind this wreck:


He missed being IN it by about 15-20 seconds. I am thankful. Surprisingly, it seems there were no serious injuries.




Nope, it's not another "side biz," it's Enya's thyroid medication. Yes, it's against nature. No, I don't give a crap that this is so. Although cutting the tiny little pills in half is kind of annoying and reminded me of Layer Cake for some reason.

HNT time. I can't believe I'm prepared. Keep your eyes peeled for falling skies and aeronautic pigs!

I kinda figure if I post extras it makes up for the ones I missed. Plus, I couldn't choose. Rule of 1: if it's me who's attempting to pose, even one is tough to get just the way I want it, so a collection might be neccessary.

Oh yeah, what do you think of braids like this? (bearing in mind that I am not 4 years old, but closer to 4 decades old. Oy! That's an intimidating thought.) Acceptable for outta the house or no? Be honest or I will cite you for my fashion faux pas when ticketed.



And an outtake of sorts:

Brain Dead

Today was what will henceforth be known as Crazy Tuesday. I think I have a lot of crazy Tuesdays in my future. It was a pretty unaccomplishing sort of day. Here's the basic breakdown.

8ish get up (yeah, I'm lazy that way)
Feed the crew, clean up
Start the crew on math
Bustle the crew off to TKD (Prawn takes (and I teach) Little Tigers class, then the older 3 have homeschool class)
Come home, make lunch, clean up
Try to get SOMETHING accomplished, help kids with piano, Spelling for Sluggie, launch kids on Rosetta
Get on the computer and be a vegetable for a bit before
Off to teach After school class
Home for about 40 mins before
Off to teach/ref kids' sparring class
Home for about 30 mins before
Off to do my own class and sparring (2 hours)
Home to eat dinner
Turn into a complete and useless vegetable

But Wednesdays are OFF. Wednesday could not come on a better day.

Today I was totally geeked because our new TOPS science goodies came. I ordered Pendulums and Math Lab. Obviously, I pay no attention to the grade levels. I think Fishy is going to have a BLAST with Math Lab. Woo hoo! I love new hsing goodies!

GuTTer MuNKi is geeked because all the Randy Wayne White (with a name like that, I dunno why he's not a country singer) books I ordered at the library came in. Sluggie is geeked because her "Visual Pirates of the Caribbean" book came in, and I was geeked because my books about the Tower of London and The Scottish Play came in. I don't remember what Mollusc got, but she was geeked, too. A very geeky day, all in all.

Can you believe THIS? Ooh. That reminds me. Sunday (a very sleep-deprived and foggy day) I tried a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte. Ooccccchhhhhhchchchchch! Yum.

The kids and I are listening to The Ersatz Elevator now, which means we're FINALLY back to the Tim Curry recordings. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh. So. Much. Better. We're laughing our bums off over Sunny trying to talk from the depths of the pinstriped suit. And you have to love those references to the 2 Quagmire Triplets. :-) And of course all kinds of things are coming IN and going OUT like mad at our house.

Speaking of which. . .

Uh, later! :-)

Raspberrying

Any guesses?

Want a closer look? No? Okay then, here ya go:



Guesses? Yes? No?

Nope, it's not something out of Fear Factor. It's the lovely bag of 100+ cicada molts that my kids brought home from our friends' house today. ("Oh pleeeeeeeeeeease can we bring them home?" Sheesh! Anyone want 'em?)

They remind me of something another friend gave me the other day from the Korean grocery store:



In case you're thinking about trying these but are worried about the nutritional content:



Traditional food. It's too nice. Eh, Winters?

*************

You're going to have to excuse my very disjointed format tonight. I'm watching the director's cut of Boondock Saints and listening to Troy Duffy's commentary. So in the interest of my getting to pay full attention to the masterpiece, here are my last random ramblings for the night.


This next is a pic of Prawn's scrapbooking masterpiece. She's a bold artiste who likes to fly in the face of traditional graphic design principals. Her spelling isn't spot on, but certainly not bad for age 4. Actually, she did another page that was well laid-out, too. I should take a pic of that one as well.




We picked rasperries this afternoon. The guy who owns the place was very nice and only charged us for 4 quarts instead of the 5 we'd picked because "I like to see 'em a little fuller than that." I told him the kids had eaten a bunch, too, but he only said "they better have!" and stuck to 4 quarts.

A small portion of the fruits of our labour:

What's Up

Lately (aside from regular stuff like TKD and mountains of laundry and all that) I have been:

Enjoying the new Casino Royale trailer (Insert Homer Simpsonesque noise of ecstasy here.)

uh

was I saying something?

erm

(deep breathing)

oh yes. . .

Finishing my review book (Good story. Yay!)

Scrappin' (with pictures and stuff, not people)

Visiting with friends

Watching films

Hosting a sleepover

Reeling from the shock that it's actually Fall

Using "Voodoo and Hoodoo and all kinda weird shit" (name that film) to cure my poor GuTTer MuNKi from a strange vertigo thing (Rhus Tox if you need a cure for "vertigo upon rising")

Helping my 7 and 9 year olds bid on a laptop (They pooled their $ - mostly 9 year old's money from her "Mommy's Helper" job at a TKD family's house. They didn't win it, but we'll try another.)

Practicing this passage over and over:

*sigh* (obviously not there yet -- my tendons hurt)


I got Howl's Moving Castle for the kids to watch with their sleepover friend on Friday night. It was great! I'd heard that some people thought it was not up to Miyazaki's usual standards, but I disagree. It was very enjoyable with plenty of humour and suspense and bizarro Miyazaki goodness for all. We had actually started the book about a year ago, but, like many things at our house, it got misplaced and we never finished it. :-/ I need to find it now.

I FINALLY saw The Importance of Being Earnest. Would you believe that for all these years, I've had it confused with The Unbearable Lightness of Being? "Why?" you ask. Reader, there is only one plausible answer, and I fear that it hinges upon my blondeness. I found The Incredible Lightness of Being soporific at best (if, indeed, that is actually the film I was thinking of, which, to tell the truth, I'm no longer certain it is. . .) which can hardly be said for the Firthalicious The Importance of Being Earnest. I found Earnest very Wooster and Jeevesish and quite amusing overall.

I got a few other films at the library as well, and will, of course offer my brilliant thoughts on them as I watch them. But GuTTer MuNKi got the director's cut of Boondock Saints, too, so don't hold your breaths.

Overheard today:


DIE, Undead Scum!!!!! (this was uttered by my extremely sweet-tempered 7 yo boy while he was playing "Battle for Wesnoth" on the Linux machine. And really, to get the full effect you must imagine it more as DIE, Undead Thcum!!! LOL!)

And now you must DIE!!!!! (again, sweet boy, this time with Playmobil figures -- I detect a theme)

Oh, you shaved me bald! (4 yo daughter playing with Playmobil)

Oh, yes, and I made albino chocolate chip cookies. For some reason the cookie part is really pale this time, but they taste normal. Perhaps they are undead.

Bonus HNT

Several years and millions of lives later, she finally posted another HNT.



She decided to make up for lost time by posting another angle so that discerning viewers could try it at home if they so chose:



However, she also learned that waiting too long after a 2 hour workout before trying this sort of thing was a sure road to muscle cramps. She was forced to adopt a less than dignified position as she attempted to stretch out her abs. Not being one given to hubris, she thought she might get a laugh if she posted a pic of this as well.



Oops. A bit nipply out, isn't it? Thank you GuTTer MuNKi, Blogographer extraordinaire.


I never got to the rest of the extra stuff, did I? It was such a blast. We got to react to a guy (nonexistant for us) "throwing up" onstage. I was asked to do my bit again for a closer shot (yay! though it may well become one with the cutting room floor, I'm not holding my breath) but since I wasn't wearing my glasses, it took me a bit to figure out that I was the one being asked, LOL!

I was so impressed with how a "crowd" was fabricated out of, I dunno, 9-12 people. (I was there for 2 different nights of shooting.) We moved around to sit near different walls, changed things up a bit (hence my lack of glasses for a while there) and circulated behind main characters in order to give the illusion of a much larger number of people than was actually present. Again, I can't wait to see how this all comes out.

I met fascinating people, including a very dapper 71-year-old gentleman (I thought he was in his 50s) who had recently self-published a book called Dear Alfie. He had a "cast party" for the book release, and most of the people in the book (including Alfie, whom he hadn't seen in 60 years) were still alive and made it to the party. How cool is that? Chitchat was a bit surreal as we stood around pretending to register for various conferences, as it was a blend of real life and "movie" stuff. Someone might be telling how they "networked" or "advertised" or how they got to the "conference" and in the same breath launch into what they did IRL. I got so confused at one point that I actually forgot where I lived when someone asked me. (Though that could have a lot to do with having moved so much and being back in WI, feeling very much at home, while simultaneously realising I didn't live there. Or maybe it was just my blondeness coming out.) I also met a fight coordinater and wish I could have talked to him more. What an interesting job!

One lady - well, I'm not sure why she was in the film, because she was kinda unimpressed by the humour. She called it "Christopher Guest meets Adam Sandler" but apparently didn't mean the Adam Sandler part in an approving way. (She said she had told this to the Franks (the filmmakers) as well, so I'm comfortable mentioning that here.) Now, I happen to love Adam Sandler and promptly said so. (TG, I can see you rolling your eyes.) Her reply was "You and a bunch of teenage boys!" "Yeah, that's right!" I agreed enthusiastically, glad she was willing to recognise that he has quite a following, and only later fully allowing myself to realise that this was meant as a slam. MeOW! LOL! Does it surprise you that she's a schoolteacher? OOh. MeOW. I got my own catty bit in there, didn't I? ;-)

I really had such a great time, and if I end up cut out altogether, I'll certainly understand. One has to make the best film one can, you know. But of course I had a few of those classic "extra" moments where you go, "Hey! I'm interacting with a main character! Cool! That might stay!" All in all, I have to say that if you get a chance to be an extra, go for it. And then tell me all about it.

Not Your Regularly Scheduled Post

In a complete flight of non-sequitur fancy, I decided to share this story.

There's an Air Museum in Dayton, Ohio. You may have heard of it. It's called the National Museum of the USAF (though I think it used to go by "The United States Air Force Museum.") It is there that the B-29 "Bockscar" resides. The first time I saw Bockscar, I touched it. I mean, how could I not? It was right there in front of me. How do you stand in front of a piece of History and not try to make contact? So I reached out and touched it. A tingling, buzzing sensation flowed up my arm to my elbow before I removed my hand. The feeling remained for a while - I don't know how long. I don't remember if I told anyone right away or not. But I didn't forget. The next time we went to the museum, years later, I saw Bockscar again. This time there were signs around the plane instructing museum-goers not to touch the plane. But we were just about the only people in the hangar (we were there for an Air Natl. Guard softball trip and the musem had been kept open after-hours just for us.) How could I not touch it again? So, full of skepticism, I did. It still tingled -- an undeniable buzzing, crawling sensation spreading up my arm. GuTTer MuNKi tried it. He felt it, too.

What's the explanation? Residual radiation? Incredibly bad karma? "A great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced…"?

Tell me your story.

Wake Me Up When September Ends

Rest in Peace

Steve IrwinFebruary 22, 1962 – September 4, 2006

What I Have Been Doing Instead of Blogging

Really, it looks simple, doesn't it? And it sounds simple, too. But for some reason I had such a hard time getting this stupid passage right - figuring out a fingering that made sense (see my scribblings) getting my hands to the right places at the right time, playing a **C** not a stinking **A** (dammit!) Stuff like that. I've finally conquered it, so as my victory spiking of the ball (as it were,) you get a third generation recording of it. (recorded on piano, recorded onto laptop, recorded into phone for audioblogger) Come to think of it, I could have just played the piano recording into the phone for audioblogger. But I'm too cheap to call back. I still need to polish it up, but at least I can hit all the notes now. :-P

So, for your aural pleasure, I give you the final passage of "Devonshire" by Patrick Doyle, from Sense and Sensibility:



Oh, yes, and some of my kids playing in the background.

For Your Viewing Pleasure

. . . while you await the next brilliant post.

Greatest. Music. Video. Ever.



I must give full credit for my discovery of this to David. What a great band!

Now all I need are 8 treadmills and 2 more willing accomplices.

My Life as a Volunteer

I got another book to review, and to my pleasant surprise, it's really good so far. This one's called Peter and Beth and is By Doug Lalli. I don't get paid for these, but I do get to keep the books. :-)

The last one, as you may remember, was not so good. In fact, as you may or may not recall, the writing sucked. Grammatical errors, redundancy, contradictions and over-dramatisations abounded. Here's a small excerpt:

We both looked up at the house in silence for several moments. I realized my perception on it already shifted. Maybe it was the fact that sun had lowered a little and the light was no longer gleaming on the glass, but it seemed a little darker now, colder. I wasn't nearly as impressed as I was when I first saw it. . .

Yes, at least 3 grammatical errors in just that little passage. Sigh. Oh, yes, when the protagonist first saw the house, she "heard the familiar 'click' of the door as it unlocked." Stuff like that. On every page. It's a shame, really. And no, I'm not disclosing the title here, because I think that would be mean.

Anyway, I'm very excited to be reading and enjoying Peter and Beth. :-)

In other highly rewarding volunteer work, you all know by now that I got to be an extra in my friend Frank's (4th musical down the list) mockumentary. (Dude, when are you going to cough up your site so I can link you?) This film is going to be a scream, and I can't wait to see it. I'm not going to say much about it until Frank tells me what all I can mention. Or maybe Frank will finally login and tell you himself. OK, probably not. He's a very busy guy. (No pressure, Frank. I'm messing with you. Except for that site link thing.)

Being involved had a few great benes (bennies?) Number One: we got to see the always charming Frank. He's a very fun and energetic guy. Reminds me a lot of my dad, actually. Also easy on the eyes. Shh. Don't tell him I said that. Number Two: we got a look at behind-the-scenes filmmaking and hopefully took away some stuff that will help us in our own endeavours. Number Three: it was really fun and we got to meet some fascinating people, and Number Four: Dude, it might go to Sundance. How cool would it be to be lurking in the background in a film that went to Sundance? I guess I could also count getting to see the inside of GuTTer MuNKi's (and Kevin J. Anderson's - a school chum of MuNKi's) and Frank's and SIL's alma mater, but as this took place in the somewhat recently scabbed-on atrocity (the inside is nice, but the outside is ugly as sin) I don't think that counts.

So what was it like? First off, I'm Miss Unprepared. Or maybe Mrs. Unprepared would better indicate the magnitute of my lack of preparedness. Had I been a Boy Scout, for instance, I would have emailed or called Frank before we left and asked if he would be shooting while we were there. (I already knew he was filming in July and August.) Then I would have brought appropriate clothing along. But no. Well, actually, I guess it was kind of a sudden decision that we made about going on the trip. And come to think of it, I don't have anything like "business dress" anyway. *shrug* So I hit the resale shop out by MIL and FIL's and found an ensemble that I actually really, really like (and a sexy red dress, too, as it turns out) and everything was 40% off the already very decent prices, so all in all, this was a good thing. :-) Hooray! Obviously my wardrobe could benefit from my taking up extra work as a full-time hobby. Have I ever mentioned that I am not a clothes-horse? I have a shelf in the closet and a few hanging things. The rest belongs to GuTTer MuNKi. Oh, and a bit of it is Prawn's.

Anyway. I didn't find shoes and had only brought sandals on the trip (I'm a barefoot girl for the most part) but as it turns out, my surprisingly shorter-than-me SIL has the same size feet that I do. And an incredible wardobe. Heh Heh. She loaned me a pair of black heels (Oh yes, I was the Tower of Babel in those shoes) that had some designer chick's name inside and that were purported to be very pricey shoes (given to her, fortunately, by a friend, so I wasn't too freaked out about borrowing them.) I'm not sure what that says about either of our feet, BTW. Hers don't seem too large on her, and mine don't look too small on me. Maybe there's a very boring scientific explanation for that. At any rate, I was immediately complimented on her shoes when I got there, LOL! Somehow I managed to stand, and yea (the Biblical "yea," not "yeah") even walk in the shoes. I was impressed. I don't think anyone else really was. Most people take this sort of thing (the ability of women to perambulate in high heels) for granted, but tall girls like me do not like to emphasize our towerosity, so we don't tend to wear skyscraper heels a whole lot. Needless to say, my practice at walking in such things is very nearly nil. My toes went to sleep almost immediately.

All this chatter, and I've only gotten as far as the dressing-up fun. Number Five: I got to play dress-up. Did I mention that I've never quite finished growing up? Well, this is long enough that some people **coughEgancough** are going to get bored without any pics to ogle, so I guess I'll do more blathering about life as an extra-special person tomorrow.

Home Again, Home Again

We're home and I'm attempting the recovery phase now. You know what that means - unpacking, heaps of laundry, going through a jillion pieces of mail, etc.

A couple of months ago I slapped something up on my secret blog and GuTTer MuNKi expressed a desire that I send it to a certain mag. Just to humour him I did so. It wasn't well written, IMO, and I think I was probably drunk when I did it, but after going through some of the mail last night, he showed it to me in the magazine. Well, well, well. They changed MuNKi's fake name to a different fake name and gave me fake initials and a fake location (kind of as per my request - I'd asked to be published under some sort of pseudonymn at any rate) but there it is in print. In a shiny, real magazine that hundreds of thousands of people read. Go figure.

Maybe this evening I'll be recovered enough from unpacking to post the fun details about my life as an extra. It was really a blast, and I can't wait to see the film! :-)

You Know You're F----d When. . .

I have a bad feeling about this.

Today is the impending return of the ILs. It could happen at any moment. They get up really early to drive, you see. I should be looking for things to clean even now. Although the last time they returned to a sparkling clean kitchen, MIL honestly seemed pissed that there was nothing to complain about. I kid you not.

This morning I showered as soon as I woke up, in order to get the hell out of the upstairs bathroom (FIL's) before they returned. A couple of the little girls had showered in there yesterday, and there were some splats of pink conditioner on the wall. I had noticed a device on the shower wall earlier that looked like a miniature water cooler. Peering 'round the back had revealed part of a label depicting those little scrubbing bubble guys, so I determined that this was some sort of cleanser. (Have I mentioned that MIL is a sucker for any sort of gadget ever invented?) Perfect. I could use this stuff to tidy up the shower a bit. I couldn't really tell where it came out, but there was a nozzle-looking protuberance at the bottom around the back. Strange placement, but OK. Pressing the blue button, I studied the contrivance for signs of emerging cleanser to no avail. Hmmm. I pushed the button a couple of more times. And then it hit me. Right in the eyes that is. A fine stream of those little scrubbing bastards shot right into my eyes. Both eyes, as it happens, because it turns out that the damn thing rotates back and forth as it shoots out its vile stream of caustic poison. I scrabbled to reach the shower nozzle (which I had turned on for cleaning purposes) so I could turn it off and get the hell out of Dodge, and - you guessed it - got it again. Shit. I uttered a mild expletive, ran to the sink and washed my eyes over and over again. The left one's still a bit pink.

GuTTer MuNKi asks how absurd is it that though most (innocuous) products are plastered with dire warnings, this one has nothing?

I have a bad feeling about what this day holds in store for me.

PSA Day

Here's something cool: Acne Zapping Light Pen

Today, among other things, we went to Maurie's and stocked up on orgasmic chocolates.

It rained like gangbusters last night (tornado warnings, even though none were sighted - how does that work?!?!?) and the kids were all out in the greenway today playing in the resulting stream/chain of ponds. It bucketed down again today. On the way home we saw a wreck involving 3 cars and a bus. One of the cars had slammed into the side of the bus. Pieces everywhere. The roads were flooded up over the gutters and onto the sidewalks in places, and the hwy was very, very hydroplanic. (new word)

I watched Because of Winn-Dixie with the kids, which was amazingly good for Hollywood, but not as sweet as the book, and after they all headed downstairs, SIL and I watched The Island with MuNKi and made lecherous remarks about Ewan McGregor and Sean Bean. We FFwded through a lot of the slow bits. Actually, my sis was here for a bit of it, too, but she's been sick lately (possibly Fifth's Disease) and had to head off early. Then it was on to our favourite: The Boondock Saints (yes, again!) during which we were forced to quote along with all our favourite lines, watch bits over and over again and giggle ourselves silly until SIL conked out. (She's infamous for not making it through a film.) All I can say is, thank goodness the ILs are NOT here. Though we decided that FIL would be eminently more enjoyable if his grumpiness were to manifest in the way that the bartender's does. ("F---!! A--!!!")

Oh yes. The PSA. If you're going to lure someone off for a quickie and have chosen to adorn yourself with an ass tiara (excellent CS at that biz, BTW,) DO make sure that your partner gets the string all the way out of the way so he doesn't end up with a terrible chafe wound. *cringe* Here ends the first lesson.

Bouncy Pouncy Fun Fun Fun Fun FUN!

Tonight we headed over to Bob's to have supper, hang out, and escape confinement with FIL. Bob's girlies were there, and we brought 2 of the cousins with us for a nice total of 7 girls and, yes, the one boy. The kids splashed in the pool and played, we ate pizza, played the piano and sang. What a blast! We had a rousing rendition of "Jesus Loves Them Prostitutes," some stuff from a couple of Hal Leonard books that GuTTer MuNKi bought (compilations of various old rock songs) and plenty of make-it-up-as-you-go stuff, LOL! Bob demoed a couple of the songs he's mixing for the new CD for us, and WOW! Shame is going to be awesome, and Trudy is one you just can't not sing along with.

Tomorrow morning MIL and FIL take off for greener pastures, leaving us irresponsible children and grandchildren to hold down the fort. Huzzah! A little break from the stress will be nice. Though I feel bad for MIL. We'll get to see her when they get back, as we are looking at extending the trip just a bit so we can see her more and also see our other niece. I'm hoping we'll get a chance to get her out and about with us when they return.

A bonus of this is that we'll get to be extras in our friend Frank's film if all goes well. Yay!

GuTTer MuNKi and FIL fixed one of our van doors so that we can open it from the inside now. His next mission is to replace the broken off door handle of the other door and also fix it so it opens from the inside.

The MuNKi* also surprised me with 2 awesome piano books.

*ME: Naked frivolity. . .
MUNKI: What?
ME: The name of one of the pictures I'm trying to look at
MUNKI: Are you GuTTer MuNKiing again?

Uncomfortability

- I keep just *barely* staving off a full-blown bladder infection.

- FIL is an extremely grumpy person, so we're trying to stay out of the house as much as possible (which, of course, has been resulting in MIL not getting to see the kids enough) but we have to be here sometimes (like for sleeping.) Noise is not good, Patrick. Noise is not good. We are not a quiet herd.

- I decided to go for the Hat Trick by luring GuTTer MuNKi out onto the deck for a quickie last night (or maybe he lured me - I think it was pretty mutual - ever tried to get some time alone in a house with 3 other adults and 6 night-owl kids?) I'm sure one of the neighbours somewhere somehow will be reporting on that to MIL. Actually, I don't think that would complete the hat trick, because at this point I'm beyond caring what anyone else thinks. But I'm sure I'll come up with something. Suggestions, anyone?

Howdy From WI

We're on a whirlwind trip to WI. I realised last Wednesday that my sister's birthday was going to be on Saturday. And it was the big four-oh. So rapid arrangements were made, and Friday afternoon we drove out here to WI to surprise her. My mom was going to pick my sis up and take her to lunch, so we told my mom that we'd pick her up instead. Was she ever surprised, LOL! That was fun. :-) We went to an Indian buffet. Mmmmmm! Currygasm.

So here we are, doing the WI thing for a week or so. Last night, my sis's boyfriend threw a big barbecue for her at his house. He grilled yummy kabobs with Ellie's delicious marinade (squeeze 6 limes, add a can of coconut milk, keep adding garlic paste and ginger paste until the marinade itself is a paste, and spread it on the meat.) There was a lovely fire (I know, Egan, I know) in the fire - um - holder thinggy for roasting marshies, etc. Both Navan and a portion of The Getaway Drivers were there, so we sat around the fire singing and listening to all the musicians make great music. Excellent private concert. :-) Ellie is a luthier, so the fuel was partly fueled by guitar and mandolin bits - mostly leftovers, outside cutout pieces, etc.

GuTTer MuNKi started things off with a lovely political discussion, so I pretty much hid in the corner of the yard until that was over with. It took a long time. A long, long time. Obviously I need to enforce some kind of "no politics" rule with him. I can't take him anywhere. Although truth be told, he and Ellie had a lot of fun with the debate. I, on the other hand, am a very non-confrontational person. You may have whatever beliefs you like, I will have mine, and we'll all be happy. Or at least I will. If you are a miserable sort of person, that's your problem, not mine. Arguing about the rightness and wrongness of our conflicting beliefs makes absolutely no difference to the spinning of the world, so who cares? OTOH, I do find it interesting to have a political discussion now and then when everyone has had at least 2 glasses of wine and is feeling mellow, and is capable of discussing things without caring whether or not everyone's beliefs are perfectly in synch.

Today SIL and I took our Mongol Horde to a petting farm where I was thoroughly sampled by baby goats (bangles, hair, necklace, sandals, ankle bracelet, shirt) but mostly hung out with the kittens. They were excuciatingly cute, and GuTTer MuNKi actually believed me for a couple of very horrified moments when I told him that I'd brought back a new kitten. I was seriously tempted to bring one back for the in-laws, whose "cat" is one of the most evil creatures I've ever had the misfortune to meet. I don't know what it really is. It has the shoulders of an ox, the body of a pig, the legs and tail of a stick drawing, and the temperament of an extremely pissed off electric eel.

We hit one of our favourite used bookstores yesterday and scored a bunch of good stuff, including one of the Outlander books. We'll be hitting the very best one - Frugal Muse -sometime before we go home. I brought a big bin of books to trade in with the dual intention of offsetting the cost a bit and making some shelf space for new books. But I'm really eyeballing some of IKEA's bookshelves.

Speaking of IKEA, I finally saw Fight Club thanks to SIL. What a very strange film. Interesting, if a bit slow paced in places, but strange. The lack of continuity at the end with the whole massive head wound thing kind of yanked me out of the story. We started watching Boondock Saints again with SIL last night, but SIL and I were both losing the battle with the Sandman, due to our late night antics of the preceeding twenty-some hours. Every time I see that film, I appreciate it even more. It's on my Top 5 List. Maybe Top 3. Check it out. :-)

Gorgeous Weather = No Blogging

We are in the blissful days of early Autumn here. Leaves are beginning to turn; birds are flocking up; the air is gorgeous during the day, crisp and cool at night. Delicious.

It's not that I've been outside more than usual, really. But the time I spend indoors has been spent in slightly more creative ways than blogging, I guess. And at night, I just want to read or play the piano. I'm also avoiding cropping pics and uploading them. Silly, but there you are. I have some neat ones, I think, and I'll try to get them up soon.

On The Boy's birthday we went to Kensington to picnic. We had our favourite spot all to ourselves and discovered a new little beachy thing we hadn't found before. The kids swam and GuTTer MuNKi and I enjoyed ourselves on the bank and wading in the shallows. I should have taken the camera, but didn't.

Today I went out to the butterfly garden to take pics of a pretty Tiger Swallowtail and ended up seeing a hummingbird, too. He was sampling all the various flowers. I got a few pics of him, but he was hard to catch on film - or pixels, I guess. I'll post the best along with the other stuff. Eventually.

I had the great misfortune to step on a cat brush today. It stuck in my heel by 2 of the nail thinggies and hung there until I pulled it out. Ish and blah. I had to do something else before I could attend to my wounds, and when I looked down, there was a lovely puddle of blood on the floor. And then I left a nice gory trail while hopping for the First Aid box. :-P No pics of that either.

Today was the first day in what seems like a long time that I haven't gotten a headache. I'm not usually a headache person, but they started after I got smashed in TKD a few weeks ago. Actually, GuTTer MuNKi got thrown on my head. (short but boring story) I thought it was because my glasses were so out of whack, but getting them straightened didn't help. Then I realised, duh, head trauma. I guess it's pretty common to have headaches for several weeks after something like that, but I'm glad they seem to be done. I hope I didn't lose any important brain cells.

We went to a party at the house of another TKD family on Saturday and now I desire to have a firepit. They had a bonfire and it was lovely. All the boys and men were drawn to it like flies. I don't think a single one of them got out of there without adding more wood to the fire. We chucked the football around a lot (and me in a dress, LOL!) and talked and ate and toasted things in the fire and just generally had a good time.

With Fate's perfect timing, we got a cool postcard from Peter from Athens today. Perfect timing because our history leson had mentioned Athens. The kids were very impressed. :-) Thanks, Pete! :-) OPA!! LOL!

My book is calling me. Oh, if you like Jane Austen, I HIGHLY recommend The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler. Such a funny book, with such an Austenish ending. :-) And a fast read, too. But now it's back to Outlander, which (like many books before it) has deposed Covenant, muahahahaha!!

It's About Thyme HNT

Yes, once again you must wade through all the pics to get to the HNT at end. Or at least scroll past them . . .


I was thrilled to discover this little guy growing on my deck. I forget when I planted the seeds - months ago, at any rate, and no thanks to my total neglect, this little fellow grew anyway. The other containers on the deck contain plants from a new sort of gardening called "naturoculture." (Yes, OK, I just made that up.) They're mostly filled with millet and sunflowers planted by the birds and Hoover, the chipmunk.

Here's something else that grew anyway. Can you spot the imposter?


Yes, it's - well, some sort of squash!



In lieu of flowery prose, I'll just serve up the flowers, along with a side of interesting insects.







I had to get into a really weird and uncomfortable yoga-esque postition for this one, so I hope you enjoy it:



GuTTer MuNKi got this one of a hummingbird moth at our butterfly bush.



And I found Jewel Weed growing at the edge of our deck.



Here's the thing about Jewel Weed. It's a great antidote to Poisons Ivy, Oak and Sumac. HOWEVER, it tends to grow where you find poison ivy. I'm a little leery about what else I'm going to find growing under or around the deck. :-/

Another honeybee:


And a wonderful drink mix made from the fruits of his bretheren's labour:



GuTTer MuNKi* told me he'd take me to Ren Faire if I had something appropriate to wear, so I bought a bolt of Muslin (with my 40% off JoAnn's coupon of course)



And bought a pattern for a chemise. (not what you expected, was it?) Eventually I hope to end up with something like this. I had already forgotten how much Trillian likes to help with the cutting stage.


My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.

I tried explaining to her that Inigo himself is not the six-fingered man, but she wasn't having any of that.

Yes, I sewed up the chemise. No, I haven't sewn up the brocade shirt yet. It's a UFO (sewingese for "UnFinished Object.") Yes, I'll get to it eventually. :-P


OK, lastly but not leastly before HNT, it's always a little shocking to me that something like this:



Can turn into something like this:



This one's a little dirty. Well, the bottoms of my feet are, anyway. After 2 weeks without an HNT, I guess you could say it's about thyme.




*OK, how weird is it that of the very few hits I got when I Googled "falling soup" hoping to find a funny pic for this link, one was Inigo Montoya, and one was The Killers, whose new album I am looking forward to with bated breath? "Odd," said Mabel. "Very odd."

Wednesday Eve Again

Hooray for Wednesday Eve! I'm reading too many books (OK there is no such thing as too many books) and not writing or blogging. Sort of a post-submission party sort of thing, I guess, but I need to get back to the writing tomorrow. Or tonight.

Anyway, long story short, here are some random things going on of late in no specific order. Perhaps some will spark commentable memories of your own:

- 2 Bee stings, 2 different children within about 10 mins 1 outside, 1 indoors

- apparent demise of hydrangea bush

- purchase of hibiscus bush and "snow fairy"(crappy pic) on sale, WOO HOO!

- apparent resurrection of hydrangea bush after moving to shadier spot

- viewing (and great enjoyment) of Nanny McPhee (Firthaliciousness!)

- flying sidekick practice and jump snap-kick practice (WHEEEEEEEeeeee!!)

- attendace of 2 library summer reading program parties

- procurement of free book (The Jane Austen Book Club - extremely witty and enjoyable so far)

- viewing of Failure to Launch (had its moments, but not stellar by any means)

- reading of The Penultimate Peril (FINALLY!! Good stuff. "I suppose I'll have to add the force of gravity to my list of enemies." )

- More reading of Outlander. Yum!

- Teaching of TKD and BREAKTHROUGH moment of getting 3 year old boy with attention span of gnat to double punch. WOO HOO!! I'm sure I'll have to begin at the beginning again on Thursday. :-P

- discovery of Vouvray

- extreme enjoyment of chicken parmesan (grated parmesan, bread crumbs, olive oil and garlic patted onto salted-and-peppered chicken breasts) and scrapbooking with friend

- alcohol units: some, unmentionable liaison units: extreme, blogging time units: limited

I guess that's pretty much up to date then. I'll attempt a real post when I can get my face out of some of these books.

More Random Musings

Mostly piccys today. Not a lot to say. Still reading.



I was happily snapping away at the flowers today, when The Boy spotted a toad. Oh Joy!



They like to have those ridges behind their eyes stroked. This one leaned into the petting most happily.



Shortly thereafter, I heard much coversation being carried on with "Commander Toad." The honourable Commander was apparently unfazed by his craft's lack of wings, though I suspect that the many, many ensuing crash scenarios may have been aided thereby. (Don't worry, The Boy didn't actually crash the plane with The Commander on board. It was all strictly simulation.)





Alien lifeforms were discovered. Chiefly, some sort of chamaeleon-toed feline.




Back on the home planet, a Japanese beetle waged destruction on Commander Toad's favourite rhododendron bush.



And a large sunflower turned its face to the sun. It was later decapitated by an unknown foe. (Most likely a squirrel. The mangled remains of said flower were found on the other side of the neighbour's fence.)



**************

Random Observations:

How to keep track of whose clothes are whose:



#1 child gets 1 dot, add a dot when you pass on to #2, etc. etc.

Time to get another copy of my favourite piece of music:



One of my favourite bits - sounds tricky, isn't, and is really fun to play.



The original inventor of the HWT Plankton and his creation:



And yet another lily. Sick of lilies yet? But I don't think I've posted the same colour twice. :-)

The Moral of This Story is. . .

When we came home the other day, I was driving up to the mailbox with the window down in order to grab the mail, when what should I see but a salesman on the doorstep. YIKES! Thinking on my feet (well, on my bum since I was driving) I quickly pulled forward to the next mailbox (uh yes, maybe I was putting in flyers or, ah, looking at house numbers) and then over to the proper side of the street (for this country) and, happily realising that it didn't really matter what the sales guy thought, on to the next road, where I turned casually right. We circled for a while, drove around the subdivision, then headed back home. Instructing the kids to keep their eyes peeled, I drove slowly toward the house. Aha! There he was, 2 houses down, spraying something on the hapless - a word which here means "unlucky enough to get caught outside, or witless enough to answer the door" - neighbour's rain gutter. Whew! Dodged THAT bullet. But just in case he'd seen us returning, I told the kids not to go near the door if the bell rang. I just did NOT feel like dealing with it. Fortunately, the kids eat this sort of stealth stuff up. We skulked around and had a generally good time. I felt like Jamie Lee Curtis (hee hee - who can forget that scene in True Lies??) in Christmas With the Kranks when the carolers are singing outside and they're sneaking through the house. ("This is fun!" *giggle*)

So what's the point of all this? Well, as Lemony Snicket writes:

The moral of "The Three Bears," for instance, is "Never break into someone else's house." The moral of "Snow White" is "Never eat apples." The Moral of World War One is "Never assassinate Archduke Ferdinand."

I guess that the moral of this story, if indeed it has one, is "Even a discommodious - a word which here means "having a nosy salesman pressing his nose against your windows so that you're forced to crawl around on your hands and knees like a prisoner in your own house" - situation can be turned into something fun." Actually, that's probably the moral of my life. :-) Not that my life can be described as discommodious. . .

*******

Here's what I'm watching:

Le Placard

I love where he's listening to the depressing news headlines rolling on and his toast jumps out the window, LOL!

Told you that little library's DVD section rocks.

Here's what I want to see (among other things):

This film. And this one. No, I don't have a thing for Dustin Hoffman. Honest.

Oh, yeah, and after Googling for that piccy of Jamie Lee Curtis, This One. I do have a thing for Pierce Brosnan.

I have pictures lurking in the other computer. One or two may involve cats. I'm too lazy to go crop and upload. Plus, GuTTer MuNKi's using that one right now. And I really want to get back to Outlander. Count your blessings.

Eschew Obfusification

The Outlander book came in at the library yesterday. That was fast!! I've already gotten sucked in. Poor Thos Covenant takes the backseat once again.

I'm also reading a book called "First you Shave Your Head." What with my having been sucked in by 2 books, there may be a little less blogitivity than normal. We shall see.

My Flylady thing is going in fits and starts. I remember some things and forget others, so I'm kind of stumbling along, but the general trend is definitely one of improvement.

The James Bond set caught on fire the other day. Fortunately they're already in post-production, so I won't have to go into premature withdrawal. They ought to auction off pieces of movie sets. Can you imagine how much collectors would have paid for various bits and pieces of Star Wars sets?

Speaking of films, our tiny little library (the one we don't have to pay to use) has a fabulous DVD section -- much bigger (especially DVD : books ratio-wise) than our bigger library's. Thanks to this, GuTTer MuNKi and I watched "Closer" last night, which we thoroughly enjoyed. Very well-acted, and I really liked the script. Even though it wasn't the sort of ending I typically go for, I'd definitely watch it again. I've only seen Jude Law in a couple of things, so maybe he's a regular chamaeleon and I just don't know it. Anyway, in this one, I'd describe him as a mixture of Sting and John-Boy Walton. If you don't believe me, watch the film, LOL! For the girls, there's also Clive Owen, and for the boys, Julia Roberts and a nearly naked Natalie Portman. We did have to watch with subtitles for a bit, as there's a little bit of LOTR syndrome with the sound in this film.

What? I haven't ranted on about LOTR syndrome? Here's a brief synopsis:

**whisper, whisper, mumble, mumble** (you turn up the sound)
**whisper, whisper, whisp -- RAGE, ROAR, RIP, SHRED, EXPLOSION!!** (Holy --!! Heart attack!! Sound down!!)
**whisper, whisper, whisper, mumble** (sound up)
**whi-- AAAAAARRRGGHH, RAAAAAHK, SHRIEK!!!!**

In short, these are films that are not something you can watch while the children are awake, but are nearly impossible to watch after they've gone to bed as well.

"Closer" has its share of mumbled whispering followed by loudly shrieked obscenities. Where was I going with this? Oh yes. I was trying to make out a bit of conversation between Mr. Owen and Miss Portman that was particularly confusing, even with subtitles. GuTTer MuNKi was unable to help me decipher the meaning even after several replays. Turns out he wasn't actually reading the subtitles any of those times. But I did find out that the words get in the way of Natalie's bare bum. (rolleyes) Now you know. What you do with this information is up to you.

My mission today is to submit my latest short story to BUST mag for their One-Handed Read.