featuring the vocal stylings of
March 29, 2007
The kids have been watching Tom & Jerry frequently. It is strange how the violence will seem comic and slapstick and rich in vaudeville-ian tradition...and then a few episodes later it will just seem violent. Or stereotypical. The kids prefer I watch with them...Tom & Jerry may be a show I need to be quicker with the fast-forward button. I already have to zap the commercial blocs that sometimes exceed the length of the story before and after it.
The credits for Tom & Jerry feature the vocal stylings of Mel Blanc. And I have come to realize that deep in my mind, I confuse Mel Brooks and Mel Blanc. Like it makes sense on the surface, but if I really think about it, then I think they are the same person.
A little over a month
March 27, 2007
The home inspection contingency has passed. The house is being sold. We will have closing April 30 and probably moving out the weekend before. Packing might be easier if we were sure where we were going. That will be drama for weeks to come. Let's hope weeks only and not months.
The weather was so fantastic yesterday, it felt fake. Could it be 75 degrees in March? That's delightful. Of course, I am reminded of birth stories of long ago. My mom remembers having tulips open when she took me home from the hospital. Probably around April 1. One of my good friends born a month after me, same year, her birth story involved a snow storm en route to the hospital. Same year, same city. So I don't think I can put away the kids' boots. I bought Henry shorts yesterday and today i thought, "I really should pack the boots up." That kind of thinking just gets you karmic trouble. And we need all the good karma we can.
In good news--I should wish my grandparents a very happy 64th wedding anniversary. And many more!
Happy Birthday to me
March 25, 2007
Happy Birthday to Me
Happy Birthday to Me
Happy Birthday dear Sarah
Happy Birthday to Me
Amusing me
March 20, 2007
Two things today:
1. A few weeks ago, Rob introduced Miranda to the idea of calling Target Tar-jay. She thought it was odd. On the car ride to school today, we were listening to The Backyardigans CD. We were discussing from which episode each song came. For one song Miranda said,"it's the one with the Tarzans. Or the Tar-zays."
2. Henry took half a pound of shredded mozzarella cheese out of a bag in the fridge and sprinkled the living room. He only got the floor and it was distributed very evenly. I was upstairs putting away laundry so the house looks presentable for the buyers' contractors coming today. And Rob thought we'd have nothing to sweep.
Less amusing for me was my attempt to get a Diet Coke from the basement. I managed to drop the can in such a way it ripped wide open--like a 4 inch gash--wide open. And spilled all over the floor. And toward the drain. Let's hope the contractors don't think we have any brown water problems.
I'm so shy
March 20, 2007
I don't have coherent thoughts or amusing anecdotes. Just real estate on the brain. Living with an accepted off is an interesting thing.
More words about Cake lyrics
March 16, 2007
When I made the last mix CD, Rob had introduced the children to The Distance, which vaguely sounds like it is about a race. And Henry loves race cars. In my zeal to introduce MORE CAKE to them, I added Race Car Ya-Yas and Stick Shifts & Safety Belts (And I resisted adding Satan is My Motor.) Stick shifts & Safety Belts is a song I've liked since I first heard it. It has gone over poorly with the children.
Miranda can now sing almost all of the words to The Distance. And Race Car Ya Yas has been deemed acceptable as well. Their acceptance is funny because I spent weeks skipping the song after the first time I played it for Henry. The song goes "race car ya-yas, the land where you can't change lanes, the land where large fuzzy dice still hang proudly like testicles from rear-view mirrors."
And as happy as I am to use medically correct body parts, hmmm, testicles goes a little far for me. I think I'd rather say scrotum.
The song has been rotating for weeks, with song sing-along, but no questions. And yesterday was the day.
M: What does re<not understandable>stmmm mean?
S: mirrors?
M: No mmr<un-pronounced>est
S: testicles?
M: No
S: rearview mirrors?
M: Yes!
S: Oh, it is the mirror you look at in the car to see behind you. Right here [I point to it].
UPDATED to add: we may have sold our house today. Accepted Offer. 5 days on the market. I have the urge to end that with "God Damn!," but the church I pass several times a day has a marquee currently reading "God' s last name is not Damn." But surely Jesus' middle name is H. Last week the sign read, "Want to make God laugh? Tell him your plans." If I thought it worked that way, which I don't, I think he'd be chucking today.
SOS
March 14, 2007
Tomorrow is Share Our School day at Miranda's school. Miranda is taking her grandfather this year.
Not to be all mysterious, but I am whiny. Whiny in a way I may regret telling the potential whole internet (I say potential because I had 18 page views yesterday and well, that's barely enough for a soccer mob much less a riot.) The house selling thing is going well. We are in negotiations but it is all so soon that I don't know if we are negotiating with our heads or hearts. It feels uncertain.
On the plus side of life, I am in the minority enjoying the new daylight savings hour. I am defeating the "save energy" platform by showing my house and leaving every single effing light on in the house. The snow is gone. The rain feels spring-like. The temperatures have been brisk but in that nice, California way. It seems when I have visited (northern) California, it has never been really warm. But it feels warm to me and that is quite enough. Any day I can claim to find a little California in the frozen tundra we call home is quite a good day. Don't you think?
Isn't it ironic, don't you think?
March 13, 2007
Rob is sick today. Oh so sick. He called me and asked to be driven to urgent care after sleeping just about all day. After a 2 hour wait in urgent care, the doctor pronounced Rob sick with influenza, the real one, and dehydrated. 2 hours later, he had a liter of IV fluids delivered straight o this vein and we were on our way. he has a nifty dosage of Tamiflu. And let's hope the worst is behind him.
The irony, at least to me, is that Rob got the flu shot. The only one of our household to do the right thing. I think Alanis Morissette would find that ironic, but on the other hand her song was trashed for really just being about bad luck and not irony. So maybe not. Let's hope he recovers nicely. And that the rest of us escape. I think I need to wash my hands And this keyboard. And maybe the phones.
Happy Birthday V
March 11, 2007
What a delightfully exhausting day. We had a great fun at a birthday party. Three rocks! And then we rested from all of the effort of the past week to make sure the house is perfect for showing. I hope someone else likes it as much as we do. It is weird how home selling seems like a parallel of grief for me. Denial and anger and whatever the other 2 are before acceptance. We've really liked this house. And I will miss it. But life moves on.
Miranda designed a house today. It would have a sticker room, a stamp room, an origami room, and a cuddling room. She drew it for Papa and his boss. If only there were a giggling room.
A little bragging
March 7, 2007
We've had some angst off and on this year about Miranda and school. She had a rough start to the year. She didn't seem happy. She seems to have turned it around, at least switching her sob schedule to the later afternoon when only her mother and usually her grandmother have to bear it. We were told at parent-teacher conference today that she has the best cursive handwriting in the class. She wrote her name in her journal. It looks just like her teacher's example. And so much like her late grandmother's handwriting. Let's hope she keeps the habit of legible and pretty handwriting.
Miranda is also learning to multiply 4 digit numbers by 1 digit numbers. And how to diagram sentences. She has learned about articles and nouns so far. Verbs next week, after the teacher digs out her first grade materials. She has written 30 stories in her journal. The requirement is 1 per week. Miranda does at least 1 a day, often more. She is writing at home too. She wrote approximately fifteen 3-5 sentence stories on our trip to Madison on Saturday.
She is learning about land and water masses. She has had lessons on gulfs, peninsulas, isthmuses, straits, capes, archipelagos, chains-of-lakes, and probably the easy ones too. She knows all 50 states. She can count to 1000 if you will let her. She is on the cusp of reading. She sees letters on billboards and in books...basically everywhere. She works so hard to sound out the words. She is having the letters magically turn into words, although the process is usually painstaking and not magical at all. And despite my title, this post is not about "genius." I'd say it is about hard work. She works so hard. She is diligent. She is focused. She wants to learn things. And for that, I am grateful.
Anyone want to buy a house?
March 5, 2007
We've listed the house! It's official!
Can't stop
March 4, 2007
The push is on to the final stretch. God, I hope it's the final stretch. The basement has been straightened. The bathtub caulk has been redone. The kitchen floor has been stripped and polished. Decorative hand towels have been bought for both bathrooms. The bedroom closet door was brought in and reattached to the door frame. I still have to paint said door. And straighten up that last layer of clutter...the one that will be my March bane..and if I don't get a hang of it and the house doesn't sell, my spring and summer bane. The stuff that multiples like clutter bunnies, The stuff that lacks a set place, the stuff that gets used.
We had a lovely visit to Madison yesterday. To many more!
A tisket a tasket, a multi-colored basket
March 2, 2007
This morning Rob asked me if he should get us tickets to see the Easter Bunny at his work. On the 31st. I said sure. the kids overheard the conversation and asked "what?" (their most favorite word after chanting "Mom, mom, mom, mom."
S: The Easter Bunny is coming to Papa's work. We can see him.
H: We can squeeze him. And hug him. And he'll make eggs!
M: And whatever they make at Papa's work, he'll hide!
I'd be lion
March 1, 2007
If I claimed I posted this yesterday on the actual first day of March. But I thought I should note that yesterday was definitely a lion.The snow, then rain, then slush, then sleet, then snow, then rain, then I went to bed. But the bad weather means that the 31st should be a lamb of day. Handy for the plans above.