This would be super cute all by itself, but it's even cuter because this Angry Bird breakfast was made by a husband for his pregnant wife who is on bedrest and can only eat certain foods. So he started making her food art. :)
* If you don't know what Angry Birds are, type it into your app store when you've got a few hours to waste being addicted to a $0.99 ipod app.
** Photo found at the The Unofficial Apple Weblog
No, not about writing. Though I might be able to reach and come up with some corollary, this is a concrete, practical sort of post about glitter. Because you've all been needing one, right?
Lesson 1) Spilling glitter on a recently mopped floor (Friday) while frustrating, is actually much better than spilling glitter on a yet to be mopped floor (Monday)
Lesson 2) If you (or one of your minions) spills glitter on a sticky floor, the glitter will, not surprisingly, stick to the sticky places.
Lesson 3) If you scrub at these sticky places, you will think you are scrubbing the glitter off, but what you are really doing is scrubbing the sticky stuff off while redistributing the glitter elsewhere on the floor.
Lesson 4) Glitter has excellent survival skills.
Lesson 5) No matter how big the pile, and how much you think it would it would be so much faster to sweep up the pile rather than carry bit by bit of it to the garbage can in wet paper towels... DO NOT REACH FOR THE BROOM. Brooms get up a lot of glitter, but just like that movie where the bad guy's been shot so the hero relaxes and you're shouting "NO, don't put down the gun!" because you can see the bad guy's hand reaching ever so slowly up... glitter sticks to the broom. And will redistribute itself around the kitchen floor (see Lesson number 4).
Lesson 6) If you think you've thrown away all the glitter, check again, and again, and in the bottoms of the art bin, because maybe you just threw away an empty container and it's all hiding at the bottom of the bin waiting for some rushed child to stuff it into a cupboard where it will without a doubt fall on your feet as soon as you open the cupboard.
Lesson 7) Gold glitter actually looks really cool going down a sink because the gold kind of floats on top of the water.
I hope I've helped someone.
For all of you mourning the loss of Lost, a new J.J. Abrams show has just been picked up starring Terry O'Quinn (Locke) and (Ben Linus). Yes, I was planning to Tivo Undercovers (the J.J. show airing this fall) and I probably still will, but it wasn't exactly looking like my sort of show. True Confessions: I never saw Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Or if I did, I've forgotten, which is pretty much the same thing.
This one is a dramedy about two ex-black ops agents called Odd Jobs. Seems kind of fitting to have the two big baddies from Lost as leads. So, you've been warned. Set your Tivos!
Boop is very nervous whenever she hears a siren. She's afraid someone called the fire department to tell them our house is on fire and she just doesn't know it yet. So I started pointing out that sometimes it's a police siren, and sometimes an ambulance. We live near a couple of retirement homes, so ambulances cruise by a lot. And I have to tell her, it's not coming for you (she fears perhaps she's sick and doesn't know it), it's probably going to the Old Folks' Home.
Which gives Boop something new to worry about - how the Old Folks are doing. So the other day she told me,
"I think about the Old Folks a lot. More than you think. Like all the time. Just because I can't talk about Old Folks doesn't mean I'm not thinking about them. I mean, it would be rude to say, 'Hey, you, you're gonna die soon,' which is what you mean when you say someone's an old folk. But they're always in my head and I pray for them. I pray that they will have a long, long life."
We might just need to move somewhere with fewer sirens...
I'm working on the epic motorbike race in my WIP right now and thought I'd share these pictures of bikes made from watches. At first, I thought they were full-sized bikes, then I looked closer and saw the little numbers. ;) Aren't they fun? I thought I might need one myself, but then realized that what I really want is a really good scene. So, back to the WIP I go, and I'll just click over to these for inspiration if need be. :)
Yes, I won something! And I'm really not gloating (maybe just a little) but mostly want to send you over to a really fun blog about being a teenager in the Nineteenth Century, called Nineteen Teen
I am, of course, linking you to the post that announces that I WON something. Again, not to gloat, but so that you'll find out what beau-nasty means. I promise you'll start incorporating it into your everyday language. I think chick lit authors everywhere should be messaged and told about this fabulous old word that's ready for a dusting off.
Also, I'd like to point out that the blog is run by Marissa Doyle and Regina Scott. Just go ahead and click on Marissa's name and look at the beautiful gaslamp lit street. Ooooo, ahhhh...
Getting sick when you go back to school is as much a tradition, it seems, as picking out a new binder and sharpening pencils. Right now, Red is down for the count, with Mystery Man looking a little punky. Boop is holding strong out of sheer will, but we'll see how long she lasts.
I thought I'd share the note Red sent down last night when she was wondering if enough time had passed to have some more Tylenol for her poor, sore throat:
Has it been an hour yet?
It sure feels like it's been one.
A MISERABLE one at that!
Help, somehow, please!
-From a Fed-Up Red
My children are all so understated.
I thought I'd give you a preview of my latest knitting project. Isn't he adorable? This isn't mine, this is Jen29 from Ravelry but I just bought the pattern and should have my very own soon. I'm also planning to do some Dickensian Mice and a little Chimney Sweep. They help me stay in the right head space for my book when I can't actually be writing.
Right now I'm about 10,000 words and one particularly sticky decision away from finishing. I should be able to knock that out in a week - or rather, one week from when I figure out my plot point. It's kind of like getting a knot in your knitting. Or, you know, when your 2 year old pulls all the stitches off your needles. Not that I'd know what that feels like...
I just want to share some of my Steampunk inspiration today. Some of these images inspire scenes in the book or just help me get into my steampunk mindset so that I can write Johnny Steam, my WIP.
Tunnels: Yes, poor Johnny spends a little time underground
And I always love a good rainy picture with an umbrella (it's so fortunate I live in Seattle)
Steampunk Coffee: of course! Also, this picture is from The Steampunk Tribune. I've just discovered it and am adding it to my steampunk links to the right. --->
And who knew you could buy Steampunk perfume?!
Enjoy!
I got the milk order form today and was suddenly really happy I only had one kid in school over lunch time. You know, milk really adds up over the course of a school year. So, I'm asking my 4th grader if she wants white or chocolate when Boop pipes up that she'd like chocolate.
Me: Honey, you don't get milk at school because you don't stay for lunch, but I'd be happy to give you chocolate milk at home.
*long pause while Boop processes this unfortunate scenario*
Boop: I really want you to kick me up to Kindergarten.
Me: I'm not kicking you up to Kindergarten so you can have milk at school.
Boop: No, really, I want the challenge.
Other than the horribly unfair milk situation, school is off to a great start. Red, the 4th grader, is studying the middle ages so she has a suit of armor in her classroom named Bob that gives the instructions for the day by way of the white board. And Boop had a fire drill today. She's very concerned about fire safety, so this was huge for her.
Sometimes when I'm writing I'll hit a tough spot and click over to a web page - facebook, email, it happens. I shouldn't, but I do. I can live with that. But sometimes, in a particularly weak moment (like five minutes ago) when none of my friends are updating with anything clever, I'll click on Petfinder.org and look for my dream dog. This is dangerous, because I inevitably find my dream dog. And sometimes he's an adorable standard poodle/Irish Wolfhound mix named Starbucks.
Don't you all agree he should be mine?!
As I'm catching up on my blog roll I'm reading lots of posts about 9/11. Especially about remembering. I've read lots of lovely and some chilling posts, but there's one thing I wanted to add to the chorus.
I don't know anyone who really believes we're at war with Islam. We've all got Muslim friends who were just as grieved as we were when those towers went down. But that doesn't make the evil of that day go away, because that's what it was really about, just plain good and evil. And we saw evil in sharp relief when the smoke rose out of those twin towers.
But we also saw an awful lot of good, really heart-wrenching, heroes of old kind of good, and I think when we remember, we need to remember those heroes. Remember that there was a 4th plane that didn't reach it's target because of some brave people on board, including a kid from Wheaton with a young wife who became a widow. That there was a 60-something year old man who stepped off the last elevator going down from the towers because there wasn't room for a young woman. So he got off, saying he'd had his chance to live and she should have hers. That the firefighters went up the stairs while everyone else went down.
At least, that's what I mean when I say I'll always remember.
School started this week. That picture over there is my happy face. And this year, Boop starts Pre-K. So far she's been so excited each morning she can't eat breakfast, and has lots of ideas about her uniform.
It's always a little bumpy getting back into the school routine. For instance, the girls have to go to bed and actually turn off their light instead of staying up all hours reading. So last night, when I went up to check on them, Boop bounced out of her room and flipped on the hall light saying, "What do you think we are - nocturnal?" I believe she was trying to tell me she couldn't see in the dark, which is of course the point of sleeping, as I explained to her, I hope patiently, but probably not.
The Mystery Man and I are getting our exercise in the morning, having coffee together, and then we each have our computer time. I'm writing the final chapters of my Steampunk book and MM favors his Thomas the Tank Engine online games, and this very strange massively multiplayer game for toddlers featuring a kid on a skateboard as an avatar. I think it's Danish. At least the robot that walks you through it has a European accent that I can't quite place. I should be working in some more regular blog posts during our three free mornings a week, too.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
