I'm dreaming of...oh, hey, look at that.

My folks in OH have low 40s today.  Here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, we're in the 30s (headed for high 30s).  And wouldya look at that - we have a white Christmas!  The kiddos LOVED watching it snow yesterday afternoon and evening.

Merry Christmas!!

Significantly diminished list to the right...

Savvy readers will notice that the "blogs I visit" sidebar gadget has lessened.  By quite a bit.  I finally checked out Google Reader, and lo, I like.  So the blogs I could subscribe to a feed for in that way, I did.  The list contains those I couldn't find a RSS feed subscribe button thinger for.  Might still be some way to subscribe to them through the reader, and if I find it, then you'll see the list decrease even more.

...not a crucial update, just an FYI. :D

Target gift card update

Target refunded my aunt the cost of the gift card (yay!), as it had not been used. They also disabled/blocked the card number so that it won't be usable by whoever has it.

Of course, after my little angry spout post, it occurred to me that the envelope may simply have come open en route to our house, and the gift card fell out - and that a *nice* USPS employee noticed the open envelope and tucked the envelope flap so that the Christmas card wouldn't be lost (having no idea that there had been a gift card inside).

Hopefully *that's* what happened (and heck, it probably IS what happened).

*If* it isn't, well, at least the person isn't going to be able to use the card after all, and my aunt's replacement gift to Patrick arrived safely.

Merry Christmas, idjit.

To the moron who stole the gift card intended for my son out of his Christmas card:

Bet you didn't plan on my aunt having written the gift card number down. She'll be calling Target with that number to put a stop on it.

Enjoy.

Jerk.

Calla on the computer

She looks pretty serious about what she's doing, doesn't she?

Wow. Incredible accordion skills.

YAY for an A!

via Auto Insurance.org

SNOW!!

Won't stick, I'm sure (though if it does, there will be pics). But still - SNOW!

Note to KERA:

All kids all day (weekdays) - meaning kids' programming until 5 PM - does NOT mean a David Foster concert event thinger at noon.

What exactly are you THINKING?

Best Game EVER!

I was paging back through Improv Everywhere's missions, and found one I had somehow missed (I mean missed it being posted, not missed the event itself - I live nowhere near any of their events!).

It's funny AND really cute. Seriously. Big warm fuzzies and grins.

The best game EVER - IE adds some big-league magic to a little-league game, with some big-name collaboration...

7 Quick Takes Friday - Nein! err, Nine!

1. School pictures for Patrick are back - they tuned out PERFECT. And I don't mean perfectly posed perfect hair etc., but rather, the perfect picture of Patrick. It's very *him* (without being goofy or anything like that). I'd post a scan, but you know how copyright stuff goes.

2. On that same note, our appointment for the kiddos' Christmas pics is on Monday. I'm probably going to miss being able to do it when nobody else is out of school, but now that Patrick's in pre-K, that's not an option. So here's hoping things aren't too crazy there Monday.

3. Calla and Patrick have been on a Pingu kick lately. I'm hoping to get them a DVD of it soon, so that they'll be able to watch it more easily (currently, we have two episodes - 5 mins each - on a couple of HIT entertainment DVDs; they can watch some via Netflix on the hubby's comp, but that means they have to be at his computer to do it.).

4. Why does Bob the Builder have a runic keyboard on his laptop? You can catch a glimpse of it during the On Site vids. I understand trying to make the show easily translatable to markets using other languages, but would a Latin alphabet keyboard *really* interfere with the show being marketable in other countries? Seriously?

(If it's an issue with not being able to make a full scaled keyboard, then just don't show the whole thing in shots.)

5. Why did my spice bottle of bay leaves come with a (thankfully removable) shaker top? No, it wasn't to shake the leaves out one-at-a-time, because the holes were much too small for the leaves (might have been large enough for whole cloves, perhaps).

6. Distractability - when you step away from doing the blog post in order to help the girl with something, and end up cleaning one of the bathrooms - including toilet and mopping - before you get back to the computer. (And no, it wasn't immediately necessary that the bathroom be cleaned.) But hey, the bathroom DOES look nicer now.

7. The return of cooler weather = time to have CoCo Wheats again! :) Happy me!

Preemie Awareness Day

Check out the link - find out what you can do to help prevent prematurity and help preemies.

Thanks from a former preemie!

So what do YOU think it is...?

This is a fire truck.

This is a Calla-set tea party - casual, for her, as typically, she would put her blanket over the table first. Tablecloth, you know. It makes the party. Anyhow, notice anything unusual...?

Yes, that is the fire truck, with all its block-puzzle-parts off, at the tea party. Now, *I* know what she has it there for, in that form. Can you guess...?

Edited to add: Yep, it's a birthday cake.

Victor Borge does Happy Birthday

As only he can. Gotta love him.

Picnik

See the difference? This is from using Picnik for color saturation and temperature effects - see how much more the colors pop on the second one?

It's FREE. And you do save the image back to your own computer. WHEE!!

Here's another -- going waaaay back for Patrick -- for this, I just cropped and had it autofix.

Another one

Because it'd be her type of sense of humor.

RIP Shelly

A message board friend passed away very unexpectedly this morning. All of us there are shocked - she hadn't been feeling well, but there was nothing to indicate anything of any severity.

God be with her family and friends.

And in honor of our friend, who adored the Beatles...

(changed embedded vid b/c the other one cuts off the end of the song)

7 Quick Takes Friday - the Eighth

1. I went to pick up Patrick today and wondered if I had missed some kind of memo, because even though we were later than usual getting to the pickup line, there were VERY few cars waiting. Then I remembered that the fall parties were, for most classes, today, right before pickup - so many parents had come, parked in the lot, and attended the parties, and were therefore just leaving with their kids that way.

2. Patrick had TWO parties this year - one in his special-ed class, and one in his pre-K class. Lucky little guy, LOL. I'm the room mother for his special-ed class, and channeled my inner Martha Stewart to make their little treat bags:



Ribbon was $1, package of plain brown paper lunch bags was $1, pipe cleaners (handles) were under $1, and the stickers were $1.50. Sorry about the poor lighting, took the pic with my cell phone, since our digital camera is being weird. Still, I was rather pleased with the way they turned out! (there's ribbon on the other side as well) $4.50 total, not including glue gun/glue sticks (which I already had) for ten bags. I did intend for them to bring home their little pumpkins they were to decorate in class in the bags, but I didn't realize that they weren't the little mini pumpkins - they were small (probably about 10 inches high or so?), but definitely not miniature! Oh well - they had other things to put in them, so it wasn't wasted effort.

And it just made me feel warm & fuzzy to know I could actually turn out something that looked passably nice.

3. Missed out on the free flu shots yesterday for the kiddos. Lost our place in line b/c Patrick had to use the restroom, thus we had to go to the back of the line when we returned - and they then ran out before they got to us. They ran out within 1/2 hour of the start time. They advertised this clinic (free flu shots for kids ages 2-18) in all the surrounding school districts, and didn't have enough doses to make it through even the first half hour? Maybe they should only have advertised it in their own district if they really didn't have that much there. I mean, with all the media coverage about the flu season, not to mention a lot of folks who are probably in the financial situation where saving a co-pay for each kid would likely be a VERY welcome thing - if they're insured at all to begin with - did they really not anticipate a heavy turnout?

Thing that irks me is that it cost us gas and time going for absolutely nothing. :/ I did call the kiddos' pediatrician today, but they said to call back after 2:00 to find out if they were giving any today. Heh. That wasn't going to work with needing to pick up Patrick only an hour later (the office is about 1/2 hour away). The drive doesn't make it very easy to just dash on over for that. I'll call on Monday to see if they have any (or any more, I guess), and when they'll be giving them.

4. The Christmas Music Countdown timer on my desktop shows 1 day left (there is at least one radio station around here that offers Christmas music only beginning on Nov 1 on one of their webcasts. The other, which broadcasts what they play over the air, begins mixing in some Christmas music then as well, I *think*. Could be wrong. Either way, it's a day that someone I used to work with online and I count down to every year, LOL - though in my case (not sure about his, but very likely the same for him as well), it's not the only thing I listen to at that point. I just like having it available.

5. On a related note, I really need some new computer speakers. They skip/pop/etc. badly, and lo, it's getting annoying! If it weren't for the fact that my (wireless) mouse uses one of my USB ports, I'd just use the USB headphones - but I only have one working USB port on the front of the tower, so the mouse wins out (my wired mouse died long ago). Maybe I should put some new speakers on my Christmas wish list.

6. Patrick came home today with a balloon dachshund. I wondered how long that would last - less than 1 1/2 hours. Heh. At least he didn't freak out when it popped.

7. The city is having a Halloween party tomorrow at the park. Dunno yet if we'll go or not - guess it'll depend on weather and how the kiddos seem to be acting. Either way, though, I do need to get the kiddos over to the in-laws' so my MIL can take their yearly Halloween picture; probably tomorrow afternoon.

Have a good weekend!

Relaxing.

Now that it isn't baking hot sitting in the car - and one can actually sit in the car with the engine off (not needing the AC) and just the windows down - Patrick's pickup time is a lot less harried.

When it was over 85 or so, and I needed to have the AC running, I'd try to leave home at just the right time - late enough that I wouldn't be sitting for too long (since I'd have the engine running for the AC - and the car is old enough that it does NOT like idling for too long!), but early enough that I'd still actually be in the school parking lot instead of waiting on the street. I'd want to get Calla out the door at about 15 til, so that I could get her fastened in and be at the school between 7 and 10 til. Even if the times were all working great, it was still just *hectic*.

Now? Eh, I leave closer to 30 til (around there, often a few minutes later than that, though). I can sit in the pickup line with the car off, windows down, and work on a crossword or sudoku, or flip through whatever magazine or catalog may have come in the mail. SO much less stressful.

(Note - arriving at about 30 til means waiting almost 40 mins until the kiddos actually start going to the cars. Even this early, I am by NO MEANS the first there. Usually a good 15 cars or so, plus a few of the local daycare vans.)

It's actually fairly peaceful. And so much less harried getting out of the house. I can grab a travel cup of coffee on my way out the door if I want, or not - but it's a decision I make based on whether or not I want it, not "Cripeit'salready10tilIdon'thaveTIME!!!".

At any rate, it's a nice change.

7 Quick Takes Friday - VII

1. Car tour weekend! The kiddos have been looking forward to this *all week*. Baked for it all morning yesterday (to help boost the stuff to be made available in the hospitality room) - double batch of pumpkin muffins, and a double batch of biscotti. I was going to even do the white chocolate drizzle on the biscotti, but I only have one square of white chocolate left - so I'll just make that available to the hubby, which will probably mean it will be gone approximately 27.3 seconds or so after I tell him. ;)

2. I took Calla over to McD's Wednesday to play at the playground there. She hit it off right away with another child there - a little boy, perhaps a couple of months younger, perhaps not, but around her age. They played with his Happy Meal toy for a bit, and explored the play area together. She even managed to convince another boy - who was perhaps four years older than she is - to join them for a bit, LOL. It was cute. Mostly because she wasn't being *bossy*, but rather, inviting - "Come on! This'll be fun!"

3. She also gets to play with a little boy at speech - he's fiveish, I think, but isn't enrolled at school there. I've been meaning to ask his mother if they homeschool. Didn't get to this week; her baby was being "talkative" (in that very cute 4-month-old babble/squeal language), and it was just too freaking adorable to interrupt. Eeeeeveryone in the office there at the school was commenting (positively) on it.

4. Just barely over a week until the beginning of NaNoWriMo. I've signed up, and have been bouncing a few ideas around in my head. Still not sure which one I'll go with - I think I'll pack a notebook for the car tour; if I get any ideas or decide a definite direction, I want to be able to scribble down some notes. Not start writing, though - can't do that until Nov. 1.

5. The hubby has been watching Dead Like Me through Netflix (direct streaming to his comp). I've been needing to have my headphones on to focus on doing anything else - and I'll still catch myself watching instead of doing whatever it is I need to be doing. Netflix has been MORE THAN worth the (pretty darn minimal) cost. Less than what we'd spend renting two DVDs per month.

6. Kiddos have discovered Winnie-the-Pooh. The "Un-Valentine's Day" videocassette and the original Disney movie (DVD) have been heavy favorites now. I should probably get that videocassette copied over to DVD just in case.

7. Calla went with us this morning to drop Patrick off at school. She typically likes doing that (though some mornings, she tells me I have to go with Patrick, and she has to stay in bed) - and she wanted to go this morning. She is now happily playing with a LeapPad - then soon it will be off to get a few things for the trip, then my big, exciting activity of the day - laundry. :D

Have a great weekend!

Thoughts from a garage sale item

Friday, while out shopping the garage sales with my MIL, I purchased a couple of workout videos. Now, this is absolutely the price range to pay for them - I mean, if you don't like them, you're out all of $1 total. Besides, I knew these were some that I could actually do (do NOT ask about the Paula Abdul video. Oh my. I've tried that one several times, and I end up stopping and laughing halfway through. I am just NOT coordinated enough) - they're both Richard Simmons videos.

So in conversation with the women running this particular garage sale, we agreed that, while his choice of sequined tops and shortish shorts may be a bit over the top, he's good at what he does.

And in thinking more about it since coming home, I've thought more about that.

First, almost *anyone* can do his videos. He has real people, trying to lose real weight, in the videos with him, following along. Not aerobics experts, and not just people with very little weight to lose (and whom you suspect have no problems with energy level and such).

Secondly, he cheers them on from their very first workout. Just for taking that first step. The introduction of the people in the video done at the end of most that I've seen includes everyone from someone who has lost 80 pounds (or more) with him, and those who are on day one. All of them are cheered where they are right now.

And that leads to what is probably the biggest point - you can actually tell that he really, sincerely, cares about every single person he talks to. He doesn't find them gross or shun them, nor does he want to help them lose weight to make them acceptable or a size (whatever). He wants to help them for the sake of their physical, mental, and emotional well-being, and tries to show them love and acceptance and their self-worth where they are RIGHT NOW.

I have no doubt that there are people out there alive today only because of him - probably quite a number of people.

So, despite the times I have cringed to see the sequins, I'm very glad he's around.

Hee!

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7 Quick Takes Friday - parte seis

1. Garage sale shopping with my M-I-L was really productive today - 7 tops, a pair of PJs, a pair of jeans, and 6 pairs of shoes for Calla - all for $11. Whee!

2. Stupid head cold going around the family - kiddos and I are on the tail end of it, I think, but the hubby may be more on the beginning side. Still beats the flu!

3. Found a local option for flu shots for the kiddos that is offering them FREE. I doubt it'll be the flumist, and I hate subjecting the kiddos to shots if there is another alternative, but FREE is FREE. I do have another option to check into, and if it is within our budget, I may do that instead, just because they'll be more likely to have the flumist - but we'll see.

4. Been playing a different free online game with the hubby lately - it's nice to be able to do some gaming with him again. :) Especially to haul my dead character's soul stone back to a rez point, LOL.

5. It is amusing to see two grown women go into "worried mommy mode" over another grown woman, where none of the three are related. Hopefully, she feels loved. :D

6. Even though I did buy a costume for Patrick last year after Halloween for this year, I think we're going to look for something else - it kinda puts me to mind of the plastic costumes we all wore growing up (no offense, mom!), and I think we can rig up something else ourselves, since the kiddos are on a pirate kick lately. I'll save the costume for him to play in, though - since it was something crazy like 85% off or such, I'm really not worried about not using it for Halloween - but I think what I WILL do, this year, is if I buy anything after Halloween, get something that can be a bit more neutral - Calla's princess gown, for instance (navy blue velvet, no characters or anything) can be the base for a princess, for a fairy, for a pirate queen (which I suspect is what she'll do, because if Patrick will get to have a cardboard sword or something, she'll want one too!), etc. We'll see what I find on sale this year.

7. Patrick's elementary school is having a fall festival one weekend here soon, but we'll be missing it for a car tour. I'm kinda sad he'll miss participating in that, but he LOVES the car tours, so I don't think he'll mind, LOL - and I'm looking forward to the tour as well. We do always enjoy it.

7 Quick Takes Friday - part V

Note - the host blog isn't doing Quick Takes this week, but I still wanted to be sure to credit her.

1. Patrick is LOVING pre-K. He seems to have a best buddy there, and talks about him all.the.time. It's nice to see that he's enjoying it so much; it's definitely helping his speech.

2. Started playing a free online game, in which several players in the group I'm in are from all over the world. Sooo, in order to have some idea of how late/early it is for them, I set up clocks on my Windows sidebar for their different time zones. Not because it's necessarily such critical information, but I like knowing "Cripe, you're up late" vs. "Oh, hey, coming in for the evening?". Five different ones so far, covering Australia (Sydney's time zone), New Zealand, London, Belgium & Sweden (same time zone), and U.S. Eastern time. I had no idea New Zealand was two hours off the time zone for the eastern coast of Australia (like Eastern time US and Mountain time) - I thought it was closer than that. It's been fascinating to me, at least.

3. Patrick wore the hubby's old school jacket today - my M-I-L just loved seeing him in it after school. According to her, Patrick EATS like the hubby used to as well, LOL - he ALWAYS comes home hungry (and usually wanting pancakes, heh. His favorite!).

4. Yesterday, 87 degrees. Today, 63. It'd be nice to be able to pull out the fall/winter stuff and put up the summer stuff without being worried about needing the summer stuff back out next week.

5. Speaking of fall clothing, Calla looks SO TALL in long pants. Cripe.

6. The weekly "Breakfast with Papi" is switching to Saturday, so that Patrick can go too, since he's missed it now that he's in pre-K. Location is also switching, from IHOP to the local McD's - cheaper, and the kiddos can play. I feel awful about leaving IHOP, though - our waitress is going to wonder what happened to us. She would have our table set and the kiddos' order in when we walked in the door. I should go out there with Calla one morning, to at least let her know not to expect to see us every week.

7. Missed garage sales this morning, since it was raining. Calla's been going with my M-I-L and I, and every week, she manages to score something for free that someone will give her. So nothing this week, though I did pick up a book for her at the thrift store (we were looking for more uniform pants for Patrick). Maybe we'll get to go next week.

Toy Soldiers (that aren't)

Toy Soldiers from Alta Media Productions on Vimeo.

The catch here is that those aren't miniatures, nor is that computer animation or the like - that's film shot of an actual parade lineup and such in Paris; just shot with angles, film speeds, and edited with other effects (the focus, I think?) that makes it look like stop motion animation of miniatures. (The overall scheme/system is called tilt/shift). Pretty spiffy, eh?

Really nifty site

Go browse for a bit at the CIA's World Factbook. It has a fair bit of interesting info; I spent a while just looking at information for France's possessions in North America (Clipperton Island, and Saint Pierre and Miquelon) as well as at Greenland's info. Nifty stuff. It'd be an excellent resource for a geography class.

Just a silly little thing

Last year sometime I lost track of a cassette that I just LOVED - it had Victorian carols on it (A Victorian Christmas, by Robin Petrie). I bought it back when I was in college, at a shop that had a lot of Victorian type decor and such for sale (it has since closed).

Today I found the album on Amazon. YAY! I hate the idea of buying it *again*, but at the same time, I'd buy it on CD this time, so it's not necessarily a bad thing. Plus, they have some used for sale. I may consider getting one of the used copies once we have a little extra available (they say they have some available from $1.51, so it'll depend on how many are available at what price and what condition).

Of course, they had a couple of recommendations. The music from the Middle Ages looks nifty. I'm somewhat amused to see that the used ones are available at twice the cost of new, heh.

Anyhow, it was just nice to see that I'll be able to replace the Victorian Christmas album - I was afraid it'd be one of those things that never made it to CD release and would be impossible to track down.

Seven Quick Takes Friday - IV

1. It's a bit after seven here. Calla is asleep, and has been for an hour and a half. Will she stay asleep all night? Will she wake and be up until midnight? Stay tuned and find out!

2. The boy is off with the hubby's folks on a car tour, and apparently, everything has finally *clicked* re. potty training - he's doing a FANTASTIC job there, and we'll be putting him in his Thomas underwear when he gets home. YAY!!! Now for Calla....

3. On Wednesday, I went to a meeting of room moms for the elementary school that Patrick attends. I found out I'm responsible for arranging 4 parties (Fall/harvest, Christmas, Valentine's Day, and End of the Year) of about 45 mins each - each with a snack, a game, and a craft - as well as sending out notice for Teacher Appreciation week (with suggestions for the kiddos on what to consider bringing, etc.). Hooboy. Wish me luck - at least I have a small class to supply; fewer than 10 kiddos. I do have to find out from their teacher what specific limitations the kiddos have, though, as it's the PPCD/special ed pre-K -- I don't want to go in with something prepared that half the kiddos wouldn't have the manual dexterity to do, for instance.

4. I think it's time to do *something* with the 10 or 12 single socks that have been unmatched for over a year. I just have that "As soon as I pitch them, I'll find the other" fear, so they're back in a small drawer. Heck, I don't even imagine that I'd ever wear some of them again if I DID find the match, they're so hopelessly out-of-date, LOL.

5. Less than one week until the official start of fall!! :) I had a caramel apple cider from Starbucks the other day, and have a box of gingerbread spice K-Cups for my Keurig. Bring on the season!

6. The hubby turns 35 this year (near the end of the month). I should do SOMETHING for his birthday (other than a card). Hmm....

7. I've found it amusing that I can load/install my old Windows 95 stuff on my Vista machine. The XP wouldn't load them; anything I really wanted (my Moraff CD-ROM games), I had to force by just copying the files over and hoping it would work (it did). It's been fun to drag out some of the older software and play it again - Dilbert, Monty Python, Connections (LOVE James Burke), etc. Yay for some backwards compatibility!

Mathematical Love

see more Funny Graphs

Only one minor little itsy-bitsy complaint - i is not a variable (the square root of negative 1). Maybe if they had used a capital I, but...that's way overthinking a cute little joke.

Biscotti experimentation

For the past several months, I've made biscotti for every church potluck. I'm expected to do it; there will be some very unhappy folks if I don't. ;) And I do like making them - they're fairly inexpensive, and I never have to wonder what I'm going to make THIS time.

I decided to play a bit with the flavors for tonight's singing & fellowship night. I typically make vanilla & cinnamon (itself a change I made from the Betty Crocker recipe that was for orange & almond using orange zest and finely chopped toasted almonds - I've actually never made that recipe, LOL - too much work!), but decided to try orange & cocoa (think those dark chocolate oranges out at Christmas time), orange & almond (using extracts for the flavors - remember that "too much work" above for the orange zest & toasted almonds), cinnamon & white chocolate (drizzled on afterward), and cocoa & cinnamon. The recipe in the cookbook makes two "loaves", so I doubled it (usually do anyhow!), and then made one "loaf" in each flavor.

The cinnamon & white chocolate was the big winner, with the others fairly equally sampled behind. Taking the leftovers to the study tomorrow night. Dunno that I'll stop making the cinnamon & vanilla - those are widely liked - and though everyone seemed to like the white chocolate ones, it adds a bit more cost to the recipe. Maybe for special occasions.

By the way, anyone know how much of a change needs to be done to a recipe before you can consider it "yours"? Not that I'm planning on starting up Cheryl's Biscotti Boutique or anything like that, but it's one of those "good to know" type of things, in case I were to submit the recipe for a fundraising cookbook or something like that.

Sonic and DonorsChoose.org

Those of you with Sonic in your area:

Through the month of September, Sonic is partnering with DonorsChoose.org in a promotion Sonic has called "Limeades for Learning" - it allows Sonic customers who purchase a drink (except Wacky Pack meal drinks and premium coffee-based drinks) to vote for the project they most want to see Sonic fund. Sonic will be donating over half a million dollars to the projects receiving the most votes.

SO! Is that car pickup line at school hot while you wait (cripe, ours is!)? Go get something to drink on your way there -- heck, remember, 2 to 4 pm is Sonic's happy hour, with slushes and soft drinks 1/2 price, so get an inexpensive way to cool off and do some good at the same time.

(And if you don't know about DonorsChoose.org, PLEASE go take a look! It's a great program, since every little bit literally helps - you may only be able to afford to give $5 toward a teacher's need, but your funds join with other donors' gifts to complete the project's funding - and you can see how much remains in the projects, so you can even look for a project that only has $10 left, for instance, and give to that project to complete the funding for it.)

For your kiddos' Christmas lists!!

Alriiiiiiiiiiiiiightythen.

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Gotta love Mythbusters!

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Tidbits from Calla:

While we were at the mall's play area (right beside the skating rink).

1. "It's a Zampony!!" (yes, the Zamboni was out smoothing the rink)
2. "I wanna talk to boys." (I had hoped I'd still have a few years before worrying about that...)

The play area was much better this week than it had been over the summer - with kids back in school, everyone there was the appropriate age (not overcrowded with running climbing screaming 10-year-olds) and it wasn't jam-packed.

Off to Pre-K!

7 Quick Takes Friday - part trois

Okay, so it is a day late...

1. Some folks' kids sing "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider" (or Eensy-Weensy, if you prefer) and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and the such like. And while mine do as well, that's not what they were singing yesterday as we were school shopping yesterday - instead, they were merrily riding through Target singing "We Will Rock You". Thanks to those folks who create music videos of Thomas the Tank Engine to non-kid type songs...

2. Speaking of school shopping, I thought I had the correct supply list for Pre-K, which was very short - and I had only managed to get the Kleenex by the time Meet the Teacher night came on Thursday. Glad I only grabbed those, because I then found out that Patrick's Pre-K class had a DIFFERENT supply list (due to different needs in that classroom) - that was somewhere around 4 times as long. At least the Kleenex was also on it, so I hadn't wasted effort - but instead of the supplies running right around what would probably have been $15 or so, it was around $50. Oy.

3. Patrick LOVED Meet the Teacher night. I think he's REALLY going to like Pre-K -- he kept saying how much he liked "Play School" (I think he picked up the term from Caillou?), so hopefully, this will be an enjoyable year for him, as well as one that will finally finish getting him caught up on speech. I do think he'll thrive there - he's such a friendly and social little guy, and the instructors & aides really seemed like they belonged there, yaknow? Good vibes or whatever you wanna call it.

4. Car club event today, thankfully really local - nice change as compared to driving out 30 or 45 mins. Having lunch at the event, which, since it was local, meant that my mother-in-law was making two briskets - which meant that one was in her oven all night, and one was in mine. Nothing like smelling brisket all.night.long. Talk about waking up HUNGRY. Yeesh.

5. Twilight of Dragons is back on Facebook. I'm happy. You have to start all over again at 1st level. I'm very sad. :(

6. One of Calla's dolls has been sitting on my desk for nearly a month, in need of repair. It was a garage sale find, and she really has been pretty careful with it (the head is breakable), but this time the back of the doll's head is in pretty bad shape. :/ If I am able to repair it, the head will be almost as much superglue as whatever-it-is-made-of. I hope I can, but I'm really not sure. I'll definitely need more superglue first. It has a cute hand-crocheted gown, too. Looked great in the little cradle.

7. Still need to get the tree cut up and hauled away. Not sure how or when that'll happen. Hopefully, though, we'll finally be able to really get the back-backyard cleared at the same time; it'll give the kiddos at least three times as much room to run around. Can't wait for fall temps so they'll be able to play outside longer!

The Tree

Once upon a time, there was a tall tree in our backyard.



Really tall. Just over 60 feet.

There was an itty-bitty problem - the tree was rather unwell, as evidenced by two branches that fell off the tree. Not small branches, either (nothing about this tree was small), and not during a storm. Nor even a wind. Just fell. One of them took out Calla's play-tent-castle-thinger:



Obviously, this made playing in the backyard a little on the risky side, so at that point, the kiddos were banned from the back. But this meant no playing on their swingset, nor with the new sandbox. Something had to be done, and that something was the tree coming down. Now, in the ideal world, where money falls from the sky like the tree branches, we'd have hired someone to do this. Alas, branches fall, but money does not, and this would have to be a DIY project, which was started before the kiddos and I returned from a trip up to see my folks, but completed the day after we returned.

The crew (the hubby and his father) had already cut into the tree quite a bit. They were hoping to pry it loose. You've heard of Wedgewood, right...?



Well, the chisel is pretty buried in there. Maybe something longer?



Nope. Even had the hubby swinging from the bar, and it still didn't budge the tree. At this point, the tree was held up by a central portion of the trunk the size of two 2x12s. The rest of the trunk had been cut through. Now they wondered what to do...



They had the tree tied off so that it didn't fall toward the house (remember, this was day 2, so they were trying to make sure it didn't drop on the house overnight. I think they were actually surprised to see it still up on day 2, as it had definitely been creaking and popping). It was the rope and pulley that finally did the job - they moved the rope to the back of the backyard, tightened it, pulled, tightened, pulled, and...




The remaining stump is still 7 feet tall. Current plans are to level off the top of the stump and build a platform treehouse, since we do know the stump is solid. Either way, though, the kiddos have been able to play outside again, and they are HAPPY. Mission accomplished!

Enter to win...

Melissa at The Inspired Room is hosting a giveaway - leave a comment on her post to have a chance to win an antique grain sack. Normally, this wouldn't have caught my interest as much b/c it just doesn't quite fit our house; but it's printed in German, and I just can't resist that German-farmer-type link (mom's family). I'm sure I could find someone at church who could help me pillow-i-fy it. :)

7 Quick Takes Friday - part deux

Link party at Conversion Diary, host of 7 Quick Takes Friday.

1. Have cooked like crazy this week, and portioned out the leftovers to freeze, so that the hubby will have stuff to eat while the kids and I...

2. ...go back to see my folks. They got an incredible deal on air fare. It'll be nice to see them again, though the hubby's gonna have one heckuva quiet house here while we're gone.

3. Trying to find some sources from either Jewish tradition or early church writings/tradition on Melchizedek. There is so little said about him (yes, references to how Christ is like him, but not much *about Melchizedek himself*). He kinda appears out of nowhere in Genesis, then disappears. There IS an interesting passage in Hebrews that mentions him as having no genealogy, no death, no birth, etc. - but it's hard to say whether the writer means exactly what I said above - that he is just mentioned with no reference other than being King and high priest of Salem, Abraham gives him an offering, and then that's *it* - or whether the writer is implying something about Melchizedek's actual origin and such. Thus the search.

4. Biscotti in the oven for Sunday's potluck. I don't think I have a choice anymore as to what to bring; there would be a lot of disappointed people if I didn't make my biscotti. At least it's easy, cheap, and I always have the stuff on hand to do it!

5. I had lunch today with one of the women I used to work with. We'd like to start a book club of some kind. We're not planning on anything huge, probably just start with the two of us and see who else expresses interest.

6. Hoping to have dinner out with the hubby tomorrow night, for some us time before we leave on Monday. It'll be nice. Looking forward to it, but we still need to figure out where we want to go!

7. And the timer going off means that it's time to pull the biscotti out of the oven. The kiddos think they're having cookies for dinner. Hope they won't be too disappointed...

7a. Am I the only one who can NEVER get the correct yield for cookies? I exaggerate a little, as there are a few times I've been very careful to try to do exactly the 1 inch balls or whatever, but typically, I never get what they say I should. Heck, the biscotti recipe is supposed to yield 3 1/2 dozen. I get almost 2 dozen instead, and that's even with measuring the rectangular loaves. I suppose I just can't do true 1/2 inch slices. Or I get pretty close, but just a little over with each cut adds up to nowhere near the predicted yield. Oh well. I just end up doing a double batch to get a respectable potluck amount.

7 Quick Takes Friday

(Go see Jennifer at Conversion Diary, hostess of 7 Quick Takes Friday.)

1. What the heck is so special about washing hands? I don't mean in a hygienic sense, but in the sense that Calla would happily stand at the sink and wash her hands for hours.

Heck, I wouldn't mind, if it weren't for the huge amount of water involved. Am I the only mom around whose kiddos have started crying because she made them STOP cleaning themselves...?

And yes, they do like showers/baths - until I have to wash their hair. Cue wailing and gnashing of teeth.


2. Now that the anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing has passed, you can go through the mission at your own pace at We Choose the Moon. Very nifty for being able to see the stages quickly, though you miss out on the behind-the-scenes banter, troubleshooting, and such. (It will still play all of that audio, but if you skip ahead to the next stage, you'll be missing it.) I do kinda wish they had the rest of the time on the moon and the return trip available - the audio feed ends with Neil Armstrong's famous step.


3. We were going to be going to a Christmas in July shindig this morning, but my in-laws decided to host a family cookout this evening with a whoooooole lotta folks coming - so I decided overloading the kiddos with both would be a bit much. I was kinda looking forward to Christmas cookies and crafts today, though. :( Oh well.

(153 Days until Christmas. Oh, and Nick? 99 days until Christmas music! It's double digits now!)


4. I'm sick of the kiddos' room. Not in a decorative sense, but in a cleaning sense. The kiddos do try to help clean it, but it's difficult because their space is limited (which means it is that much worse than it could be, and gets cluttered QUICKLY). We really do need to get going on that attic conversion, and get them their playroom. And separate bedrooms. Preferably before high school... :D


5. Were overalls really THAT popular during the original run of "Lamb Chop's Playalong"? It seems like that's all Shari Lewis wore.

Related to that, wonder what kids' shows from now will be shown twenty years from now, and what the adults THEN will be saying "We really wore THAT?" about?


6. We're considering my returning to teaching in the 10-11 school year, with the hubby as the stay-at-home parent. It *would* be nifty for vacation time (and there would be other benefits as well); gonna need to think about it a lot.

7. "Can I make fireworks, Calla?" There's a sentence you don't expect to hear. Making fireworks, by the way, = hitting the bed with Calla's toy broom. Apparently it sounds to them like the *boom* of fireworks. Patrick usually makes a kind of "raspberries" type of sound to imitate the sound of the fireworks flying before the explosion.

And now Calla is upset because Patrick has the broom and she can't make fireworks.

Wouldn't that be something to overhear without explanation...?

We Choose the Moon...

Go read the post here about a re-creation (of sorts) of the Apollo 11 mission. It'll be a real-time thing with tweets and all, and on the website for the "recreation" itself, you can download a widget for your desktop (or facebook, or myspace) to follow it all.

It looks really nifty!

Random stuff from vacation.

We saw one of these while on the drive home...

It was rather amusing. We joked about folks just not knowing what was that-a-way. "Gas station is that direction, hotel is the other direction, but that way? No idea."

(Of course, we did fairly quickly realize that it was a directional sign for an information booth/tourist info, but the first reaction is still funnier.)



Also saw a sign advertising used cows for sale. I'm not sure that I want to know about that one. I mean, used as opposed to...what exactly? Calves?

That ranks up there with the question of whether they repo mobile homes the same way they do cars - in the middle of the night. Probably not, but still, the mental image is amusing.

Finally remembered to look up the "Which came first, the hotel or the movie?" in reference to Holiday Inn. It was the movie first.

Then we started thinking about names; specifically, the names Tracy, Kelly, Stacy - all of which have that y ending (or could be done with -ey as well), and all of which have changed from a masculine to a predominantly feminine name. We wondered if they had a common origin. Turns out, from my very limited research (one website, so I wouldn't go basing a thesis on it, LOL), two of them do (Tracy and Stacy; English), and Kelly, as one might suspect, is Irish. I think Stephanie has also had a masculine spelling with the same pronunciation (i.e. not just as Stephen)? I know names have a lot more gender fluidity now, but these seemed to be older examples (as opposed to the much more recent ones like Jordan, for instance).

Or maybe the masculine in all of the above are the -ey spellings, and they're no different than Frances/Francis.

Eh well. Guess I should go catch up on the 1976482 emails that accumulated while I was gone...

Funny!

Bohemian Rhapsody as performed by 25 different distinctive (he says annoying, but I'd just say very recognizable) artists.

Wanna win a gift basket?

Go take a peek at this post over at 4 Reluctant Entertainers. Share with her in the comments whether you maintain a gift closet (organized!) or rush out to find something when the need for a gift arises (she uses "last-minute shopper" to describe that, but I'd save that for the folks who do that on their way to the recipient's house/party/whatever, hee!). If you have a blog, post the about the giveaway (like...oh...this!), and/or tweet about it, for extra entries.

It's a lovely blog, too - one of those I follow. :)

Go enter!

And this.

I like this too.

see more Lol Celebs

It's the most wonderful time of the yeeeear....

Nono. Not summer, I mean. I am not a summer fan, really.

This year's "Christmas with Southern Living" book arrived today. :) Happy camper.

(Kiddos are pretty pleased too - their "Maisy" DVD arrived today as well. They cut short their outside activities in order to watch it instead - and with the heat being what it is down here, I was actually rather in favor of that. I wish they would have decided that BEFORE I put sunblock and insect repellent on them, but oh well. And I should note - these are kiddos who much prefer playing outside to watching a DVD inside.)

I like this.

see more Lol Celebs

Happy.

We had a busy day yesterday; in amongst the other running-around we were doing, I decided just to take the kiddos to McDonald's for lunch. Ours has a play area, so it was a good chance for them to run/climb off some steam. Calla did finally figure out how to pull herself up on the triangular platform steps, so she was ALL OVER the play stuff - when told it was time to go, though, she came down and was ready.

Note: I do not take credit for this because of any awesome parental skillz. I know her better than that, LOL. She was just ready. Probably helped that we were going to be heading over to see their grandparents.

Anyhow, from the various toys the kiddos in the play area had, it looked like our McD's was getting rid of the Night at the Museum toys - not everyone had the same thing. But behold, in one of the kiddos' Happy Meals was the coveted (by me!) Einstein figure. Which I commandeered. Without a single twinge of guilt. Okay, so the kiddos really didn't seem to care, so it didn't really matter...

I have my Einstein guy. I am officially pleased.

And on a random note...

How the heck does anyone manage to keep those annoying little earbud thingers from just falling out of your ears? And people actually exercise and such with them in? Seriously? They don't seat well in my ears while I'm sitting still, much less trying to do anything resembling activity.

Pleased...

We were dreading the switch to digital because we had not been able to pick up the digital signal for what had been the clearest analog channel (ABC), which we prefer for news/weather info.

Once the switch happened, though, we decided to go ahead and have the converter box do another channel search, and it picked up the ABC's three stations - looks like they were either waiting to broadcast their digital signal, or waiting to boost it, until they no longer had to power the analog signal.

So we're pretty pleased. I was hoping that our local PBS station would end up with more channels as well, but it looks like they're staying at one (for now, at least) - I have heard some friends in other areas say that their PBS stations started up a 24/7 kids programming channel. We do pick up Qubo, though, so that serves pretty well.

So no more of the annoying "Get ready for the switch" commercials, plus we do have ABC after all. Happy campers here.

Now if PBS here decided to do a home remodeling/cooking/gardening type of station, I'd be ecstatic...but at least HGTV does offer a lot of their shows online (as I think I mentioned earlier).

A memory and an apology

(apology is perhaps the wrong word - correction?)

I took the kiddos to the library today for storytime. Patrick sits still really well for it - Calla, notsomuch. She'll get it in time, though.

At any rate, they were happy to go because they knew they'd be able to pick out some books - though by the time it was "pick out some books" time, they were fixated on their coloring. So I picked out books for them, including a Babar book. They like Babar.

While they were coloring, I was able to pick something out for myself. I went for one of the books in the Women of Genesis series (I think that's what he's calling the series?) by Orson Scott Card. I had already read Sarah, so this was a pretty sure choice for me.

I bought Sarah in late 2001, after feeling guilty about meeting OSC at a book signing in Pittsburgh airport (on 9/10/01, heh - I'd imagine there aren't too many book signings at airport bookstores anymore, since only ticketed passengers would be able to go, and many of them would be on a pretty tight schedule) admitting to OSC that I had not read any of his books. I picked up two copies of Ender's Game while there; one I had signed to the hubby, and one I had signed to a friend of mine (and I had completely forgotten to use her married name, so it's signed to her maiden name. Oh well - she still loved it, and forgave me). It wasn't until a month or so later that I realized I had been wrong; I *had* read one of his books, I just didn't recall it being his.

It was Lost Boys. That book seriously creeped me out - but I really enjoyed it.

I've just felt terrible ever since that I had not only admitted to an author that I hadn't read any of his work, but then was also WRONG about it! Man.

My apologies to Mr. Card!

She's all girl...

Calla: "I need more chocolate!"

Yep.

Random thoughts...

1. One should not wear Star Trek costumes to a renaissance fest. Sorry. Just don't.

1a. If you MUST, because you refuse to listen to the above, then go for the cheesy factor, and go in a small group and act like an away team. Carry the communicators, make comments for your "log", etc. People are already going to think you're a few steps beyond weird, you might as well laugh at yourself with them and go with it, you know?

...I still think you just plain shouldn't wear it, but...

2. Watching Maisy at 12:30 AM with the girl is fun. Especially if she goes to sleep afterwards (which she did, yay!).

3. New sunglasses are nice. :)

4. So is coming up with plans that may actually mean an affordable addition to the house, without adding anything to the footprint - let's hear it for getting the kiddos their own rooms AND a play area! (Okay, so maybe technically it's not so much an addition as it is making livable space out of what isn't at the moment - but that's what makes it affordable.)

5. MUST get one of the Einstein toys from the current Happy Meal line. I'm sure NOBODY is surprised that I'd want that, right?

6. I'm going to be completely messed up all week because the hubby was home today - I'm not going to know what day it is, heh.

Have a great week! Happy Memorial Day!

Go read the product reviews for...

this t-shirt.

;)

Need a little cute...

Prayers requested.

Hey y'all,

A family from the school I worked at has lost their husband/father after an illness (still unknown). He was just shy of 44 years old, and leaves his wife and children behind.

If you're the praying type, please offer a few for the Allens? Thank you.

REO Speedwagon and the Coffin

Here's the REO Speedwagon. It's a pretty spiffy looking truck, if you ask me!

And here's the front emblem. Might not be a really clear shot of it - sorry! Best I could do with my phone.

And finally, here's the Coffin - hee! It's a steam automobile, and Coffin was the maker's last name - apparently, this is the only one like it that he made.

Geek Fest, Part 2

Well, we did get to see the Star Trek movie, though not last weekend. We both really liked it - how they handled the alternate reality thing, how the crew was brought together (I knew who McCoy was before he was introduced, LOL, and OS ST fans will know how and why), and Spock's dialogue at the end (among other things).

This weekend we were on a car tour with the local group of the Horseless Carriage Club. Pics will be posted as soon as my cell phone recharges - if nothing else, just for the shot of (an) REO Speedwagon. The truck, not the band. ;) We also had a good visit at the Dublin Dr. Pepper bottling plant (the first, and the only one still doing granulated cane sugar). Now, I never really cared for Dr. Pepper. I could drink it, but it wasn't something I'd choose. What a DIFFERENCE the real sugar makes! I think I'm glad it's not easy to get, because wow. I like. So I did buy a case while I was there (it's still in the trunk of the FIL's Studebaker - have to pick it up tomorrow). You can order some here. Seriously worth it.

Mom - I'm planning to put some aside to bring up with me when we go up to visit. Bringing real-sugar Dr. Pepper up, taking Winery at Wolf Creek wine back - hee! Wish *they* shipped. Oh well!

"It's a Geek Fest weekend."

Thus saith the hubby, upon discussing his spreadsheets he made for realistic ETAs for his Star Trek simulation group (the one we were doing all those other calculations for), and our plans to go to the local ren fest tomorrow, to meet up with other folks who play or work for the MUD that I work for...

Add up the geek points for all that, LOL. He's now watching the "It's Good to be a Geek" vid.

If we could sneak in the Star Trek movie this weekend, we'd have some kind of peak geekiness.

In celebration of geekdom...



The other obvious one has embedding disabled, so you'll need to go here to watch it (White and Nerdy).

Why yes, I am a geek.

Geekish fun: Calculating the mass, gravitational acceleration, and escape velocity for an imaginary asteroid that the hubby's Star Trek simulation group has as a shipyard.

Geekishly amused: Finding that the escape velocity is under 35 mph (of course, like any good physicist would, we calculated the escape velocity in m/s - but we just HAD to know what that came out to in mph as a basis of comparison).

It's nice to find out that I can still do this stuff. Heck, I still remembered a few of the equations.

Poor little girl!

Calla was crying on the potty chair - not b/c she didn't want to be on it, though. Heck, I'm still not sure what it was about. I did finally see that she had scratched open a couple of mosquito bites, so I got those cleaned up, and that seemed to calm her down - hopefully that's all it was.

She's STILL on the potty chair. She doesn't want to get up. She does have a chart in my bathroom now (she said she wanted it up on the wall in there), and has two successes marked. :)

This just makes me happy.

Remodeling Guy Roundup!

I decided I'd go ahead and post about the home remodel for the 2009 Spring Remodeling Guy Round-up - I know some other folks had asked about the work that we did on our house, so I figured we could do both with one post. This was an old project, though, so I'm not sure if it meets his qualifications for the roundup - but if it's ineligible for The Spiffy Prizes, well, that's okay. We still got to show off our work.

Below are some before and after pictures of the remodel of our house. It was a HUD foreclosure (this was several years ago, by the way), so it needed a fair bit of work - replacing plumbing, some drywall, all appliances, new roof, etc. It was quite a project, and we were all relieved when it was done - especially my father-in-law (his back is visible in one of the shots), who worked himself into pneumonia during the remodel. We all survived, though!

First, the outside. Mostly cleanup, but from this angle, you can see the small side porch that was closed in for the master bath (with the old exterior doorway becoming the master bath entrance, and the door itself being reused as the new door into the bedroom from the rest of the house). Otherwise, outside was mostly cleanup. The roof work was the only thing we contracted out; the remainder was done by family and friends. And that ivy? It's all over that side of the yard now. Makes the hubby happy; less mowing!

That side porch area, now - before and after. You'll (probably) be happy to hear that the ever-so-lovely skirting has since completely been replaced by hardiboard siding. I wish we had more pictures of the creation of that master bath from inside; we borrowed space from the den (the leg of a really awkward "L", which became the shower) and the existing hallway bathroom (which was long and narrow, so it could give up some of that space) to help form the room.

This is a shot with my cell phone of the niche left above the "borrowed" area from the den. The floor of the niche is reinforced (plywood); if the kiddos manage to get up there, we didn't want them to end up putting their leg through drywall and into the ceiling of the shower.

Mantel area - Glass in the door needed to be replaced, and with the thought of children soon, we wanted that gas heater out (though we certainly weren't just going to discard it). The mantel is just screwed against the wall. After - Dining room visible through the french doors. The gas heater is gone (still have it, in the garage), line capped. Had to cut through the floor to do it, so now a matching tiled hearth to replace the removed floorboards (which we used to patch other parts of the floor in that room). Tapestry over a bit of foam board in the middle of the new tile "firebox" surround; that tile is on plywood (which the board is mounted to as well).

Living room - Rather plain, but no serious issues in this view (and as dark as it is, it's hard to see that the floors need to be refinished, but they did). After, floor refinished, walls repainted. The furniture has since been rearranged, and pictures moved around a bit. FYI - the only new "furnishings" in the house are cabinets, appliances, lighting and (some) plumbing fixtures. For the remainder, we are at least the second owners (mostly through garage sales). It's reusing/going green now. Then, it was just being cheap frugal.

Dining room - Kitchen visible through the bar type window. This room wasn't bad, just needed to be furnished and repainted. After - the only rug in the whole house. Furniture was on sale at an antique store.

Kitchen - I have no idea what the deal is with the missing cabinet doors. Looks like partially installed new upper cabinets with older lowers, but hard to say. After - New cabinets, sink (there was none!), plumbing. New color also. I can't stand bright yellow. I am considering repainting to match a deeper color from the tile, but not sure right now. The old cabinets, by the way, are now installed in the garage. No sense wasting them!

Detail of the kitchen counter - Wood counters, tile insets - edge of sink just visible. One of the colors from that narrow tile would be what I'd consider. That tile, incidentally, was also supposed to border the backsplash, but between the time we decided on that and the time we purchased, the price went up to the point that we couldn't afford that much of it, so we just used it to edge the tile on either side of the sink and stove (that wall isn't visible in any of the shots; too bad, as we closed in part of a window to gain the wall space. The remaining half of the window is STILL huge - we could just as easily have knocked the window out for a doorway.)

Kitchen view 2 - before - Pantry is visible through the right door, dining room through the left. After - I've since found stuff for the bottom shelf. The china cabinet (from a friend of the family) in the dining room is also visible from this shot.

Bedroom - my father-in-law in in the pic. Yes, in a suit. Yes, that's pretty normal for him. Some drywall patching, texturing, painting needed here. Not visible, the area we closed off to use as a closet, and an exterior door that became the door into the new master bath (a side porch we closed off). After - we did add plain white sheers, not shown. With 8 windows, it's about all we could afford at that point! Color is a deep greenish hue.