SpongeBob Immersion Therapy


My oldest has hated SpongeBob since the first time he flitted across her screen 6 years ago. If he comes on anywhere, she runs from the room. She's not scared of him, but she despises him so much, it is its own form of terror.

So, of course, it's Miss Boop's favorite show. I never actually let her tape it, because of Red. But she has SpongeBob coloring books, paiting books, ipod apps.

Then one day... I taped it. And she watched it with such adoration, I had to tape it again.

Today, we had this conversation after school:

Red: Let's watch Phineas and Ferb
Boop: SpongeBob!
Me: We have to pick one everyone likes. Red's aversion to SpongeBob is legendary.
Red: It's ok... I still have a huge grudge against SpongeBob, but I am warming to it - let's say I'm adapting.
Boop: Would you say you're becoming more comfortable with SpongeBob?
Red: Well, I guess so.

Escapist


I'm feeling a little frazzled. I need a book recommendation for a nice, happy book. Nothing with the word "grim" in the description. I've just finished the Libba Bray books and keep stalling over my amazon cart.

My manuscript is out in queryland right now, and I'm at the obsessively hitting refresh on my gmail and also wanting to stick my head in the sand, phase. And I need some good fiction.

It feels like all the quick responding agents have responded, so I have about 11 partial/fulls out, which is great, but I'm not really hearing anything now and, of course, imagining the worst. Like they're all just using my manuscript to hold their coffee and forgetting to get back to me.

But they would never do that, right? Right. See, I need to just stop thinking about it. And once I get my grey cells back, I'll tell you all about how Red melted her skirt off of her the other day. ;)

Counting


Boop: My sister thinks I don't know how to count but I do. You count like this: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, thirteen, seventeen, fourteen, sixteen, eleven, eleventy, eleventy and a half, eleventy fifty, sixty, sixty-one. Maybe it's my sister who doesn't know how to count.

Our evening thus far

Poor little Mystery Man didn't get his nap and fell asleep at 5:30 on the living room floor. I can only hope and pray he's down for the night.

Red and I were in the living room working on an oral book report she needs to give at an assembly tomorrow - in front of the entire grammar school. She's in love with the Dragon series by Chris D'Lacey, so she's going to talk about the first one, but she can't for the life of her remember the author's name. I've suggested bringing a notecard (and was shot down), I've suggested keeping the book in her desk and glancing at it just before the assembly (her desk is too crowded), finally I just made her stand in front of me and say her report over and over. She's still struggling with remembering bits of it, but finally said, "If I can remember 'Chris D'Lacey' I can remember all of it - bottom line."

One can only hope.

In the other room DH is entertaining Betty Boop with the Wii while we work. This is what I overheard.

DH: Hey, Boop, don't throw the controller at me!
Boop: But it's the fastest way to get it to you.
DH: Sometimes the fastest way isn't always the better way (a line shamelessly stolen from a Handy Manny episode)
Boop: But it gets the job done quicker!
DH: Yeah, but sometimes getting the job done quicker isn't the most important thing. Sometimes not hurting your dad is.

Points of Reference



After hearing that I grilled the chicken tonight...

Boop: You mean you went all the way out there and got the grill and brought it in here to make the chicken!!
Me: No, I didn't use the bbq, I used the little George Foreman grill
Boop: What's that?
Red: You know, it's about the size of a computer, only fatter
Boop: Oh, that, why didn't you just say so in the first place?

Tricksy Hobbits


Red: Mom, what does eleventy mean?
Me: Are you reading Fellowship of the Ring?
Red: *smug grin* (I told her it was above her reading level, which she took to be a challenge)
Me: It means Bilbo is 111 years old, but they just like that word. Kind of like Boop.
Red: Yeah, her favorite number is eighteen eleventy and a half.
Me: Maybe she's part hobbit.
Red: The only question is which side did she get it from.
Me: Your dad's - he's the one with the hairy feet.

PSA

Public Service Announcement: Should you find yourself stuck in a situation without Microsoft Works or Word and trying to open a .wps file in Open Office or Google docs, neither of which will open said file. Here's a tip. Before throwing the computer out the window, google Zamzar and voila. You upload your file, tell them what format you want it in, and they email it back in like 5 minutes for free. If only that worked on toddlers.

Happy 01022010

Hello blog buddies! Welcome to 2010!

I have a question for all of you bloggers, writers, and readers:

If you had a dearly loved netbook, let's call him Huey for our purposes, who was badly injured with a life threatening virus, a sticky pointer, and broken clicker keys, and the unnerving tendency to blackout in the middle of the day... what would you replace him with?

I love his cute little 8 inch screen, but think I might need a bigger screen for editing. I'm not sure, though. And then there's the Mac/PC question. Scrivener makes me think I might need to look at Macs. I'd love to know what all of you use and how you like it.

The second order of business here is to tell you that Lamplight is officially in query land. It's getting a good response ratio right now, so checking gmail is pretty fun these days. Plus, you all know how much I love querying. I LOVE querying!

I'm embroiled in edits right now, but soon I'll be moving on to Steam. In which case I may have to repaint the blog steampunk. We shall see!

Enjoy your palindrome day!