Why I get to steal the Xbox 360

A small snippet from an entire room in similar condition, with clothing and food remnants strewn everywhere.

This is apparently invisible to eyes younger than maybe 30.

Drives me nuts.

Learning all the time

So I figured out how to add links to the sidebar. I'm such a loser. It's so easy, and all I have to do is add the hyperlinks. So there are some blogs to visit off to the side, representing various different parts of me and my interests. But I have to visit the rest of my computers to actually get all the links that I visit fairly regularly, so bear with me as the list grows. But since I've figured out how easy it is, I'll get there...

nerdness raises its ugly head ...again

Took this from Sarah O - I'm totally a Harry Potter nerd. But I have to admit, I was super relieved to see where this sorted me. Every one I've ever tried has told me I'm a Gryffindor, but I figured it sorted everyone into Gryffindor, for obvious reasons. But here I am, once again, a

Which Hogwarts house will you be sorted into?

Gryffindor - 13
Hufflepuff - 12
Ravenclaw - 11
Slytherin - 8

Weird questions though - many without the answer I would have preferred, so perhaps if my "real" answers had been choices I would have been who knows what...
kicked out??

Broadway Babies

The news about Heath Ledger today made me sad. It also made me call DDD. She's in NY now, and I wanted to make sure 1) she had nothing to do with his death; and 2) she hears again about the dangers of drugs and actors. Yes, mom. I know, mom. Do you even KNOW who you're talking to? yada yada yada.

But she's been in the freezing cold NorthEast for more than a week now. I figured a reminder was in order.

She and J., friend from CU theatre program (why do they always spell it theat"re"? I think it's pretentious. But I humor all those creative artsy types anyway.) have started writing their own blawg - Broadway Bloopers about their experiences in NY, NJ and auditions and stuff. I may be just a bit predjudiced here, but I think they're both pretty darn good bloggers! Yay them!

Go check it out -
http://broadwaybloopers.blogspot.com/

btw - DDD wants to know if her aunts and cousin are reading their blog, so you might want to LEAVE A FREAKIN' COMMENT dudes! I know I never get any comments from you, but have a heart! They're newbies at it, and as they are both actors, you know they love the attention!

Mr. Ledger, Rest In Peace.

OK, I'll Bite

77% Barack Obama
76% Hillary Clinton
74% John Edwards
74% Chris Dodd
74% Bill Richardson
66% Dennis Kucinich
64% Mike Gravel
63% Joe Biden
58% Rudy Giuliani
53% John McCain
45% Mike Huckabee
42% Mitt Romney
32% Tom Tancredo
30% Ron Paul
30% Fred Thompson

2008'>http://www.gotoquiz.com/candidates/2008-quiz.html">2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

Not too terribly surprised by any of this except that Ron Paul isn't in the last position... Oh wait - he tied with Fred for last. Yep. No surprises.

more things I know about myself, 2007

I do not like Splenda.

I do not like Diet Coke with Splenda.

I can drive from Vacouver WA to Moraga CA by myself.

Pulling a trailer.

With three other drivers in the car.

I am far more comfortable in the drivers seat than the passenger seat.

Obviously.

I can pick out paint colors for an entire house in less than 5 minutes.

And be happy with them.

I cannot do the same with rugs.

I cannot eat some things, like mushrooms and oysters, because of their texture.

I can, however, eat peach skin and be perfectly fine with it. Strange, I know.

My job is nuts, but I'm finding I like it most of the time. That surprises me.

I'm increasingly proud of my kids. Good thing, I guess.

I actually like working out. ...most of the time.

I do not like the "sleep number" bed. I am the only person I know in this category.

I do not like my home decorating abilities.

I do not like many other people's either.

I long to be able to foster a baby again. But not while I'm working like this.

I am a decent but not expert sudoku player.

I enjoy playing games with family and friends.

I love the snow.

I also love the sunshine.

and warmth.

I miss my bike.

I am sad that someone would steal my bike. again.

It embarasses me to have 9 cars at my house when there is no party going on.

And only two of them belong to our remodeling crew.

My feet are permanently cold.

I sometimes wonder if I am up to the task of raising another headstrong child.

But I'm so glad I am.

As much as my dogs annoy me, I fall apart at the thought of them not returning from one of their "adventures".

I hate their "adventures".

I am looking forward to 2008. Not that 2007 was bad at all. Just looking forward to 2008.



Happy New Year, everyone!

I'm a shoe whore, or the story of the Halloween costume in 2007

I'm a shoe whore. Not just an everyday shoe whore - a children's shoe whore. Specifically, a young girl shoe whore. I love the cute little things they have out there for the little girls.

I don't like shopping. At all. But I can look at little kids shoes, no problem! I've tried wandering the adult shoe section and while there are always one or two things that will catch my eye, I don't have a huge urge to spend the money on them. But I have to double park LK's shoes on her shelf, and still there are probably one or two pairs stuck in a closet or under a pile of something somewhere.

I guess there are worse things.

The shoes completely drove the halloween costume this year. And even though it was ridiculously hard to find a Minnie Mouse dress (I ended up making someone's day on ebay), I think it turned out pretty danged cute.

Happy Halloween. A few days late.

Paradise

LK: "I know what paradise is."

me: "What is it?"

LK: "It's where you lie on the ground and eat food."



Just thought I'd share the new definition, in case any of you were wondering.

Wild Game Week

So some friends talked us into going to dinner at the Big Four restaurant in SF for wild game week. This is a big deal every year, where the chef, Gloria Ciccarone-Nehls, gathers all kinds of non-typical meats for her entrees. It is quite the popular thing apparently, as my friend marks her calendar every year and calls for reservations on somemonthber 1st when reservations are first accepted.

Our friend admits to being a food snob, in fact, she is very proud of it. She also sold wine for several years, and throws around the word "sommelier" like it was rice at a wedding a really long time ago when they still allowed rice throwing at weddings because we didn't know it was going to make all the birds within a one mile radius explode. Ah, the good old days of rice and ignorance. She also throws around the dear chef's name because I guess they are good friends when they see each other during this week. Anyway, she summoned the sommelier to advise us of the proper wine for a dinner where one person selected the ostrich, one the wild boar, one the yak and the last the elk. (I ordered elk. WHAAA?) We did get a lovely bottle of wine. Which DH desired to finish every last drop of. Apparently that is not what you're supposed to do with a very fine bottle of wine.

Those of you who know us well, know that while DH particularly loves to eat, he's not particularly picky. A food snob, not. I'm picky, but not terribly adventurous. So this was a departure for both of us. And I decided it was a good thing. The food was good. The meat was mostly tasty. My elk was a little tough. We all tasted each other's entrees, of course, even though I think that might have been going a little on the wild side. My favorite was the yak. Who knew? We also found that DH could, in fact, pull out his card to pay an astronomical amount for a dinner we'd never on our own consider. We could have bought an ipod for what that wine cost. We almost felt like grownups.

Don't we look civilized, all fine wine sniffy and stuff.

Tonight we promised LK we'd go see "The Bee Movie". We went to Taco Bell before the movie.

losers.


PS - sorry for the sporadic posting. Again. I've had my hand slapped once or twice... But I think this is not the last time I'll have gaps in my posts. You Go, no mo blo po's or whatever that is people! I still have time to read one or two blogs every day or two, and this daily posting is fun. Maybe in 2012 I can do it too. Until then...

Peanut Butter = No Evolution

Did you know that a jar of peanut butter conclusively proves that evolution does not exist?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZFG5PKw504

Neither did I. You fundamentalists just keep on throwing these experts witnesses at us crazy heathens, y'hear?

And Just for Fun -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zwbhAXe5yk



omg.

The SWC

The phrase is out there. It's been said.

Already.

LK was in kindergarten for 3 whole weeks when I had the first "talk" with her after school day care program. It was about that same time when her teacher said "While I have you here..."

LK is a "strong willed child". syn. stubborn, willful, defiant, aggressive. There are more, but what's the point? She is many of those things much of the time, some of them only occasionally, but it is not a surprise that teachers and day care providers find her difficult, especially at first.

She's also not terribly interested in stupid things like letters and numbers. And that makes life a little less than wonderful for her in this day and age of accelerated learning. Add to that our highly accomplished and competitive school district and I think we may have a recipe for some issues.

I think if we get to the 8 week point without a visit with the principal, we should be pretty much ok.

She wants to go back to preschool. Preschool where they let the kids play on the playground for 2 days instead of kindergarten where they only let them play for 2 hours. (obviously her concept of time isn't terribly clear, either) I feel for her - she was finally getting to the point where she really felt comfortable, wasn't getting in trouble all the time and was happy. Now her life is in turmoil and she has to get used to new things all over again.

Anyway - here we go again. This book was recommended to us. Believe me - I've bought books. I've lived in the house of ADHD for 26 years now, and I've read a ton of them. Some of them halfway decent, others ridiculous. But we do know we've got our hands full with this one. I believe she's probably dealing with some kind of a learning disability, probably due to her drug exposure at birth (and unfortunately, no doubt, prior). I'm sure we'll eventually hammer out just what kind, but for now we're not focusing on that. Regardless, we'll have to help her along as best we can and we will have to continue to find new strategies to deal with the "SWC". By the way, she may be strong-willed, but she is also delightful. I hear that's pretty common. Or maybe we're just predjudiced. Either way.

The floor is open - if you've had any experience with your own SWC or have any ideas, I'm open to suggestions!

What's new?

Someone started kindergarten last week. Someone also pretty much took over the class. I'm told the kindergarten gods put her in the right classroom - she will not be able to run over this teacher. We'll see.

What is it like to send your youngest off to kindergarten? Not nearly as traumatic as sending him/her off to college. I have sent my youngest child to kindergarten 3 times now. That might be a record. First time, it was hard. My eyes teared up. The next time it was just plain cute. That big old backpack on that little body. Freakin' cute. I suppose my eyes teared up again, but I remember more just waving and thinking how cute these little people were. This time - I'm just amused at the first time moms and the snifflers. But I'm also impressed that there were so few of those. It was still just absolutely precious and I still got choked up. But mostly because the first of my "youngest kids" is all grown up now and was with her dad and me to wave goodbye to her baby sister. Awwww.

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

Oh - and guess who likes soccer?

(I LOVE the ending... btw, this is not soccer day, but this is the outfit of choice lately.)

DDD and I had a girls date last night. We went to see Avenue Q at the Orpheum. Tickets were scarce, so we ended up in the Mezzanine, but the view was still very good and we were not so far away that we couldn't see expressions.

We've enjoyed the CD for a while now, and it was delightful to see it all put together with the puppets. If you're ok with swearing and "controversial subjects" being put to music and humor, it is an awesome show. It was fun to hear the audience reaction from some of those who clearly hadn't heard the soundtrack prior to seeing the show. Actual guffaws.

DDD thinks this is one of "her" shows. She thinks she could be Kate Monster/Lucy. She's found that she comes across as a bit of a comedienne anyway, so it's right up her alley. She has a handful of these shows that she thinks are perfect for her. She's done one of them already (Gypsy), and is always looking for auditions for her others. After a weeklong intensive workshop in New York this summer, she's more convinced than ever that she wants to go give it a try...

Anyway - go see Avenue Q if you can - We gave it two thumbs up.

Dinner Theatre

We still have the remnants of the 26 year old who spent nearly a year in our garage, and LK decided to make the best of them. She set up some TV trays and brought chairs out for us. They were set up in a nice little line, except for the one that didn't quite fit. That went a little to the side. But the dolls in the little highchair and stroller made the second row not quite so lonely.


Then she found plates and the fruit on the counter and a plastic knife from her kitchen set. She used it to "cut" the fruit into pieces which were arranged on our plates just so.



The little platform in front of the trays was her stage and we all enjoyed our "dinner" while she sang some goofy songs to entertain us.

Dinner Theatre at its best.

Unclear on the Concept

One day last week we went outside to find someone who was just a little unclear on the concept of fishing.

Either that, or she knows something about our pool that we don't.

Coincidentally, we were having fish for dinner that night. We pretended she caught it for us.

It was lovely.

Happy Mother's Day

We finally celebrated Mother's Day last evening. Rather, I finally got tired of waiting for the tickets to be purchased which were promised for Mother's Day. DH was complaining about how the prices have gone up astronomically and it wasn't worth it anymore. I proved to him that non unreasonable (is that an allowable double negative?) tickets were still to be had ON the lower level, but maybe not in the center section, up front. He continued to protest that he couldn't find any tickets under $250 each, so I just up and bought us a couple for less than 1/2 that. Yes, we sat on one of the sides. No, there were no obstructions to our view.

But the real point to this is that it was SO MUCH FUN! What an entertaining show! We pretty much smiled from start to finish. The songs were nearly non-stop, the story line was woven in smoothly and wasn't stupid (a real plus). Then there was the cast. It amazes me that there are so many casts out there right now - that is one heck of a lot of falsetto singing every night. How many guys are there with the right look who can do that? Apparently plenty.

We saw the second set of performers for the SF run. The reviews say they are just as lively and good as the first. I can totally believe that. I did not feel we had any lack of talent up there at all. They were all great singers in their own right and fun to watch together. The women were probably the weakest point, not for their acting, but the singing. But then, this isn't a show for leading lady voices. The one female song definitely paled in comparison to the guys'.

So, if Jersey Boys tours near you - feel free to take my opinion that it is definitely worth seeing.

Happy Mother's Day!

I'm just wild about Harry

omg - I am such a Harry Potter dork.

I loved the book. The author simply amazes me that she can think of all these events! How does she come up with that stuff? Did she think it out from the beginning or did it grow over time? Did she know how she wanted to end it, or did she struggle with five different endings before deciding? How in the world can she keep up the action? I think it's amazing, and I am impressed.

I want to read it again - already - but DH has dibs on it while we're on the beach in Hawaii. Then DDD gets it. After that, I might be able to get my hands back on it. Next up - the audio version of it. Jim Dale is fabulous. If you haven't listened to any of the HP audiobooks, they are totally worth it - even if you've read the books.

I'm done being effusive about Harry.


maybe.

Things to do

See you in about 800 pages or so...

The Big Talk, part 1/2

LK: Where did I live when I was in your tummy?

me: [thinks "I knew this was coming sometime soon"] We lived in this same house before you were born, but I didn't get to have you in my tummy. You have a different mommy who had you in her tummy, but she couldn't take care of you. So they called us and asked us if we wanted to come take care of a little baby girl and we said, "YES!" So we picked you up and came home.

LK: But did we live here?

me: Yes.


moral of this story - Nephew A. likes to know all the details. LK just wants to know where we lived. geez, mom.

Admission

Can I just say, regarding that post a couple of days ago... I can see where symptoms could get annoying after a while.

just saying...