The Cat In The Adage

Attention To Detail

2010-11-01T18:03:00.002-04:00

This morning I showered and got dressed for the day right around 9:00. I had been up for an hour or so, and felt reasonably awake even though I was up late last night watching the Giants beat the Rangers.

During the course of the morning, I checked our various pantries while making a grocery list, I went over said grocery list with Natalie, I made my breakfast and ate it, I followed Natalie around the house having a conversation with her while she Swiffered the floors, I did school with Colin. In other words, I was fairly actively moving around the whole house, and I had contact and conversation with both of my kids.

At 1:10PM I was standing in front of the stove, polishing the ceramic top. Colin came up behind me and said "Oh, so you're doing a half-Indian thing, are you?"

Now, Colin is the King of Random and I've learned to stop and consider what might have gone through his head before he spoke, rather than jumping to conclusions about his meaning. I paused, I considered whether he meant "Indian" in the "India" sense or the "Native American" sense. I pondered whether he had seen me looking through the cupboards and had made some assumptions about what we were having for supper. I was stumped.

"Son," I said, "What are you talking about?"

"You're doing a half-Indian thing! You have half of an Indian thing on!" (At this point he reaches under the edge of my shirt in the back and gives a tug.) "You've got this towel hanging down in the back, but you don't have one in the front."

I set down my paper towel. I reached around and felt my waistband. I tugged. Yep, I had a large-ish burgundy hand towel caught in the waist of my slacks...hanging down over my behind like half of a Native American loin cloth.

Apparently the towel was sitting on the bed when I got dressed this morning, and I managed to pick it up and incorporate it into my dressing process. Somehow I had not registered the presence of an extra piece of fabric hanging off of me while I went through my morning's activities. Somehow Natalie had not noticed that I was sporting a dark burgundy terrycloth addition to my outfit of gray pants and purple shirt. Colin was probably closest to me most of the morning, and he had not noticed it until 4 hours after I got dressed.

This is yet another reason why it's best that I don't work outside the home. :)

Nehemiah And What It Means To "Man Up"

2010-10-25T13:12:00.011-04:00

I've been thinking about the concept of "manning up" a lot recently and in several different contexts. Tom and I need to train Colin to "man up" and learn the skills and character qualities he'll need to serve God as a man some day. I hear Natalie and her girl friends lamenting the lack of real, grown up, Christian young men who will "man up" to pursue their life goals and then to pursue young women with the intention of marrying them someday. Tom occasionally tells me about men he meets in the course of his work who need to "man up" and take responsibility for their actions. We know of churches where bad doctrine and practice are allowed to flourish because the leadership of the church won't "man up" and root them out. There are plenty of examples out there in all sectors of life in our world.

At the church we've been attending for a few weeks now the pastor has been preaching through Nehemiah. Yesterday's sermon was from Nehemiah chapter 4. Nehemiah and the people of Israel are facing opposition as they rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. The attacks are coming from all sides. Nehemiah prays and asks the Lord to make the insults the attackers are flinging at the Israelites fall back onto them instead. This is what he says and does next:

••So in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, in open places, I stationed the people by their clans, with their swords, their spears, and their bows. And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, "Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes."••

God frustrates the plans of their enemies and they go back to work, all of them armed and ready for battle at the same time. The work requires them to be separated from each other, they cannot stand around in formation with shields locked together. Nehemiah tells them:

••And I said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, "The work is great and widely spread, and we are separated on the wall, far from one another. In the place where you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us."••

Nehemiah doesn't call them simply to man up and fight. He calls them to "Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome" and later says "Our God will fight for us." He's not asking them to fight in their own strength, he's not requiring them to have some super exciting vision for the future, he's not sending them out there specifically to slay these enemies, he's not giving them a political or patriotic motivation for the fight. He's saying to them "Remember the Lord. Carry your weapons. Do your work. When you hear the warning trumpet, come help us. When we have to fight, fight on behalf of the families and homes the Lord has blessed you with. Our God will fight for us." The Israelite men were called to do the action of fighting, to "man up". But the one really fighting was the great and awesome Lord they served.

That puts the whole issue of "manning up" in a different context, doesn't it? It's not a matter of summoning enough testosterone and adrenaline. It's not a matter of getting all your ducks in a row and all your plans mapped out so that you can't fail. It's not a matter of being particularly strong either physically, mentally, emotionally, financially, or in any other way that we humans define strength. It's simply, and not so simply, a matter of a godly man taking up his tools and his weapons and stepping out to do the work God has for him and fight the battles God has for him. The beauty of the matter is that the godly man is not working and fighting on his own. God will fight for him.

Recently I've had the privilege to observe some godly men stepping up to fight in this way. A few weeks ago I posted our reasons for leaving Pilgrim Bible Church. I told you the reasons I could tell without making accusations against anyone. Those reasons still stand. But since the time of that post many other families have also left. They have all left for specific stated reasons, and those reasons are all different.

I'm picturing PBC right now as a tree that is rotting from within. There may be a few cracks in the bark, but it looks fairly intact on the outside. Until one branch falls off. Then another loses its leaves and the homeowner prunes it off. An ice storm hits the state and several branches on one side of the tree crash off under the weight of the ice. All of these branches depart from the tree for different proximate causes, but the heart of the reason for their leaving is the rotten core.

Exploring the whole issue of the rotten core of PBC is beyond the scope of this post. God establishes churches, cities, governments, and kings all according to His sovereign will and in His timing. He also brings them down according to His sovereign will and in His timing. That is evidently what is happening now to Pilgrim Bible Church, and the Lord will be glorified even if we do not understand why this is working out this way.

But the families who have left are all headed by godly men, by men who made the hard decision to "man up", to do what was right, to confront, to lead. They stepped out and did what they needed to do, not in their own strength, but because our great and awesome Lord was fighting for them. I am very thankful that my husband was one of those godly men, one who had the courage to "man up" and fight for the truth. One who knew the Lord was fighting for us, and who stepped out in that knowledge to protect his family from evil.

I want to mention one other side to this issue of "manning up", particularly as it applies to the situation with PBC...but also as it applies to Christian families in general. I know the men who have led their families to leave, and I know this to be true of all of them: these men were not afraid to take counsel from their wives and to seek their input on the various issues and events that came up.

There are some movements in Christianity right now that emphasize the leadership of husbands and fathers in the home to the point that it makes me wonder sometimes why they think God bothered to give them wives. Oh, obviously they can't birth the children on their own, and it's also handy to have a woman around to cook, clean, and educate said children. But it's as though when God declared in the beginning that Adam needed a helper, He meant a physical helper who kept her thoughts to herself and followed Adam around like a beaten dog.

How well does a world leader, a military leader, a business manager, or a pastor get on with his tasks when he ignores the knowledge and counsel of those God has placed in position to be his assistants, his vice-presidents, his elders and deacons? Not very well, or if well at first, not for very long. In the same way, men who ignore their wives, who marginalize their knowledge and their input, who place themselves in a position to take no input from them, put themselves in a place to fail and to fail miserably.

God didn't give wives to husbands to be duplicates, to be clones, to be always smiling like automatons and saying "Yes, dear!" God gave us to our husbands to be helpers, and helpers help. Sometimes that help is smiling and saying "Yes, what a great plan!", sometimes it is saying "Have you thought of this issue?", sometimes it is saying "I know something about that situation that you probably haven't heard, let me tell you before you make a decision". Sometimes it is simply being there in the back of his mind as the one he is "manning up" to fight for, and sometimes it is helping him figure out battle strategy.

Well, Nehemiah doesn't mention wives except in the context of fighting for them, so perhaps those last few paragraphs don't fit well with my title. But I believe that those issues are part of the bigger picture of godly manly men. I do believe that being married to a truly godly manly man who is willing to "man up" is a lot better than being married to either a wimpy man or one who expresses a false manliness by marginalizing his wife.

It seems like, at this point, I should have a fabulous summary to pull all these thoughts together. I never was very good at writing concluding paragraphs...lucky for me I'm not still in school, eh? Anyway, those are a few of my thoughts about godly manliness in light of the book of Nehemiah. Any thoughts? Arguments? Additional insights? Comments are always welcome!

Twenty-one Years!

2010-09-04T13:05:00.000-04:00

Today, at around 7:30 PM, Natalie will be 21 years old. I'm sitting here struggling to figure out how to summarize 21 years in one blog post, and I'm not sure it can be done. Some highlights, then:

Natalie was supposed to be born on October 19th, but we figured she would follow in what had become a family tradition and be born on the 20th. Her second-cousins Lauren and Aubree were born on the 20th in 1986 and 1987, respectively, and her cousin James was born on the 20th in 1988.

Natalie has been an individual from the start, and wanted her own private birthday, so she was born 7 weeks early instead. She weighed 4 lbs. 4 ounces and had fuzzy reddish-blond hair and blue eyes.

Those eyes stayed stubbornly blue past her first birthday, and then changed to green just to spite some of her relatives who insist that a true Roth has blue eyes. (Never mind that all the Beattys except me have green eyes...this child is a Roth, where are her blue eyes??!)

During the 17 days she spent in the NICU after she was born, the nurses tried to keep her wrapped up in blankets. She would always wriggle out of her expertly-wrapped blanket and scoot up into one corner of the isolette.

She would also wiggle one foot free and hang it over the edge of the tray in the isolette. Even as an adult, all these years later, if she is crashed on her bed napping that same foot will very often be hanging over the edge of the bed.

I think Natalie's first word was either "mama" or "dada" (I can't remember, but I'm putting my money on "dada") but her first phrase was "I do it myself!" Beyond just a phrase it was her personal motto as a toddler. She wasn't belligerent, she was just very, very confident. :)

And brave. I remember sitting at the park with my mom, watching Natalie at 18 months traipsing across a hanging bridge apparatus on the playground equipment. She was surrounded by older kids twice her size, the bridge was bouncing, and she was just plowing across without a fear in the world. My mom, on the other hand, was about to have a heart attack and was seriously concerned about my lack of parenting judgment.

But who does Grandma call now when she needs someone to scramble up a porch railing and hang Christmas lights or crawl up into the attic to find something that's been shoved to the back. Yep.

Natalie will always be my First Baby and she was my guinea pig for so many things. She was the one who cried for hours as a baby when we tried to let her determine her own bedtime (we were insane is all I can think), ate nothing but chicken nuggets and fish sticks for way too long while her dad and I grew backbones and learned to say "no", and later she was the victim of the Figure Out Our Homeschooling Philosophy years. I'm not sure how to put a positive spin on this, but we didn't kill her and I don't think we damaged her too much.

I could go through a year-by-year summary of her teen years, but fortunately for both of us I don't remember a lot of details as well as I remember her early years. I know, and Natalie will attest to this, that she lost her brain for a couple of years between age 14 and 16. But she found it again and it was none the worse for having had a little time off. :D

Even when she was in the flaky-brain teen years she was still sweet, loving, respectful, creative, kind, and a hard worker. There were many days that I would not have made it through without her help. She has been my assistant, my right hand, my sounding board, and my best female friend for years.

As an adult, she is still brave and confident. She meets people easily and makes friends easily, even though she is shy and introverted on the inside. She loves adventure...she always the one in the pictures clinging to a tree on the edge of a mountain, the one who decided she wanted to learn to contra dance and convinced her friends to join her, the one who still scares her grandma...but now by whipping her car into the driveway at high speed.

Natalie loves God and wants to please Him in all she does. She loves her family and her friends. She works hard and her employers trust her judgment. She is still always learning, always growing, always moving on to new adventures...and she is still my First Baby and always will be.

Happy 21st birthday, Natalie, with love from your Mom :)

Okay, let's just get this over with...

2010-09-03T10:47:00.006-04:00

I am mad. I am seriously ticked, peeved, and cussedly cuss cussed...at myself. I'm also doubting the wisdom of even having a blog, since I obviously lack discretion and judgment and don't know when to just Keep My Mouth Shut!

In my most recent post I mentioned that we had left our church and offered more details via email to anyone who wanted them. When I typed that, I was envisioning hearing from far-away relatives and friends who had only heard me rave about how wonderful the church was and would be wondering if I'd suddenly gone loony.

In retrospect I should have just sat on my hands and left that part out. Apparently that one line, probably combined with what I said about not feeling free to blog, gave some of my readers the idea that there was some Big Scandal, some Juicy Gossip, some Major Heresy that I was being coy about and would divulge via email.

No, no, no...a thousand times NO! Those of you who have contacted me about this, let me just say it again: I should NOT have said things that way. There is NO scandal, NO gossip, NO heresy, and there will be NO juicy details forthcoming.

I'm just going to spell it out as quickly and succinctly as I can right here and right now. Full public disclosure and I won't be sending any emails. Please forgive me for saying I would, it was a stupid thing to promise.

Here's the deal: God has been working on Tom and me in a lot of areas, showing us some things about our convictions and life choices that didn't match up with the Bible. We believe that it was in His sovereign will and provision that we were at Pilgrim in the first place, and in His sovereign will and provision that we have left.

Basically, we have, over the years confused being likeminded with being identical. We have sought to surround ourselves with Christians who make lifestyle choices and have family rules as similar to ours as possible. We have shut ourselves off from the conviction, the sharpening, the refining that comes from fellowship with Christians who are very different from us. We were comfortable being with our "own kind", and we realize now that God didn't want us to be so comfortable.

Even as we were teaching our children the difference between "family rules" and "God's rules" we were bent on keeping them in an environment where they could not see that God allows so much diversity and variation in "family rules". (For anyone wondering about the terminology...God's rules are the specific commands He has given Christians to follow. Family rules are the preferences and choices each family makes in how they serve God and train their children. As an example: God's rule is that Christians are to train up their children to serve Him. A family's rule might be that that training includes family Bible reading every night after supper. Other family rules might govern what kind of media children are exposed to, what sort of education they receive, where the family shops, etc.)

The decision to leave was not something we made lightly or in a hurry. There were some precipitating factors and situations that God used to open our eyes to our error. Those situations that involved other people are not blog fodder, and have been dealt with to the best of our abilities through the proper channels of authority in the church.

When I said that I suddenly felt very free to blog, it was not because I had been censored or censured by anyone or anything involved with Pilgrim Bible Church. I was, however, afraid of what people (from Pilgrim and elsewhere) would think of me if I posted the things I was wrestling with. God also used that fear of disapproval, that need for approval, to convict me of not seeking His approval first and foremost. So, yes, I do now feel free to blog...but I still need to learn discretion. Discretion rather than fear...

So, that's it. That's pretty much the whole story. We are still searching for a church to attend. There are 3 or 4 churches that are very good possibilities, but we don't intend to make a decision quickly or lightly. If you feel led to pray for us, pray that we will make our decision based on the right priorities and not give in to our human desire to retreat to a place that feels "safe" and "likeminded" but instead to go where He wants us to be.

Now, I'm going to go clean my bathroom and put away a big stack of books that is cluttering up the kitchen. I'm going to fold laundry, and I am going to get ready for a big weekend of non-stop part-ay. :) Natalie's birthday is tomorrow and our new family rule is that 21st birthdays take a whole weekend to celebrate. Tonight: company, pizza, and Star Wars!

It's Alive...and riddled with bullet points!

2010-08-31T15:52:00.006-04:00

I guess I took a wee break from blogging, eh? Let's dive back in...here's a few things bouncing around in my head:

• Summer is almost over, and I am very happy about that! I'm ready for cool breezes, dry air, red leaves, and a new year of school.

• Yep, even the school part sounds good. Colin and I did summer school this year, as usual, and he made some leaps of progress in a couple of areas he had been struggling with. I'm looking forward to seeing how he likes his 3rd grade work.

• We left our church this summer. I won't go into details about that on the blog, but if anyone really cares about the details I do answer emails.

• Totally unexpected result of leaving: I suddenly feel very free to blog. I think of myself as the sort of person who speaks her mind no matter what people think, but apparently I'm not really that brave.

• Today I started a "Bon Jovi" station on my Pandora. The music of my youth makes me feel all warm and fuzzy...yeah, even the occasional AC/DC song.

• No matter what sort of artists or songs I use to start a Pandora station, they always try to add Daughtry to it. Do they get his music for cheap or is he really that versatile?

• This is an excellent post from the Practical Theology For Women blog about what the term "helper" means in the Bible and how it applies to all women in every stage of life.

• For supper tonight we are having BLTs. Tom cooks the bacon on the grill to avoid smelling up the house. Bacon, ripe tomatoes, crunchy lettuce, lots of mayo...all on lightly-toasted homemade white bread...drool. Probably my favorite summer supper.

• Oh yeah, I also made a pitcher of iced tea to go with the sandwiches...can't have BLTs without iced tea. Proper Yankee iced tea with no sugar in it, the way God intended tea to be. :)

• My current knitting project is making watch caps for Army troops stationed over in the "sand box". This came about because of a podcast I listen to. The podcaster's husband is currently deployed and told her that he and his fellow-soldiers could use warm knitted caps to wear while they sleep this winter.

• I've never felt motivated to do a "knit for the troops" type project before, but I feel like I've sort of come to know this podcaster and her husband and that makes the project more meaningful. It also doesn't hurt that hats are fast and fun to knit.

• Once again, Natalie and I are taking a year off from entering things in the Dixie Classic Fair. Natalie is busy with a somewhat unpredictable work schedule right now, and I lack the motivation to bake a bunch of stuff that we don't normally eat.

• For instance, in order to win in the cake categories I have to make my cakes with cake flour, shortening, and tons of icing. Our preference for cakes to eat, though, leans more toward heavier, moister cakes made with real butter and much less icing.

• Does it really mean anything if I win a ribbon for something that I'm not happy about making? I don't think so.

• Yikes, Blogger apparently didn't like that last bullet point...it suddenly threw up a red bar telling me that Autosave had failed. Then when I tried to save manually it acted like it wasn't going to work. Quit threatening me, Google People!

• I could go on a rant right now about blogging, and SEOs, and blogging conferences, and what I think blogging really is. But...eh...who really cares, right?

• Colin's kitten, Paisley, (maybe I should post about her sometime?) is trying to sleep on my shoulders while I type. Since she's not so much a teensy kitten anymore and is more of a 7-pound Catten, this is not working as well as one might hope.

• Natalie turns 21 this weekend, which seems almost impossible. How could she be that old? (How could I be that old?)

Okay, enough for now. More to come next time the muse strikes.

Things I Like

2010-03-09T16:54:00.003-05:00

On a Tuesday afternoon...a random list of some things I like:

• Being well and also having the rest of the family well. Colin and I got colds on January 20th, and it all just went downhill from there until all four of us had worked our way through bronchitis, consumption, typhoid, and plague. (hack!) 6 weeks later I think we are about back to normal.

• Snow! Our part of NC got more than the usual amount of snow this winter, and there was very great rejoicing at our house.

• Having the option of not interacting with/driving in snow. I do realize one reason I can be so cheery about snow is that I very seldom have to leave home.

• Spring! Now that the snow is over with and gone I am very much liking the sunshine and 60-something temps this week.

• Tea. I've been swilling gallons of the stuff this winter. It may not make me healthier, but it's keeping me warm. My favorites: Twinings Ceylon Orange Pekoe and Lipton White Tea with Island Mango and Peach Flavor.

• My fuzzy plush electric throw blanket. Tom and I gave our moms electric throws for Christmas, and he sneaked out and got me one for Christmas as well. (Because underneath the glamorous exterior I am really a senior citizen.) (And maybe because he got tired of hearing me whine about being cold in the evenings.)

• Podcasts. Listening to podcasts is like having my own little talk radio station where the shows are all about things I'm interested in.

• Watching the Winter Olympics. Although we did cut back too much on our sleep while they were on.

• Knitting in general. I'm becoming one of those crazy knitting people because of the soothing effect of the repetitive motion combined with the narcotic effect of pretty wool. I haven't done any cross-stitching in weeks...very bad.

• Knitting socks in particular. I started a pair of socks while I was sick and actually finished them long before I got well. Somehow the state of illness overcame my nerves and jitters about knitting something so complicated. I just waded in (with the help of lots of videos and my in-house knitting therapist) and somehow magically a couple of balls of wool became socks. Totally addicting.

• Taking pictures of knitted socks. (Well, okay, I haven't got to the point where I really really LIKE taking pictures. I just needed some way for this to be part of the list and theme, instead of just bunging a picture in at the end and saying "Look! I made socks!")

• Look! I made socks!! (My socks, Natalie's feet and legs doing the modeling...)

I sailed away to China in a little rowboat to find ya...

2010-01-12T11:01:00.002-05:00

How long has it been since Christmas? Today is the 12th, so about 19 days, maybe? My 2 year desk calendar ran out at the end of 2009...making a note on the to-do list to Order One From Amazon TODAY! No doubt this fancy computer has a calendar program on it somewhere, but it's not the same as actual paper and pictures of cats.

Since sometime around Christmas our family has been involved in a wee bit of Drama. It's all over now, everything is resolved, nobody got hurt, valuable lessons were learned, no need to stage any interventions or call out the National Guard. I'm not offering any specifics or particulars about the Drama; three or four of my readers will know what I'm talking about and it's only significant to this post because it establishes the context for the strange dream I had last night.

Digression One: Don't you hate it when bloggers talk about things they can't talk about? Especially with that certain secretive "I have a rilllly exciting life that you don't know about" tone? When someone says "I'm not going to share this part of the story because Relative B didn't want me to." that's understandable. We all at some time resort to saying something like "Life is hectic, but it's unbloggable, so let's talk about baseball." Some bloggers, though, make a big deal about how much Mysterious Other Life they have that isn't featured in their blogs.

Look, if I read your blog I'm going to assume you're not telling me everything about your life. No one should blog without filtering, and if you happen to be the one person who does I'm not reading your blog anyway. So, having said all that, I'm blogging about what I can't blog about.

Digression Two: The Drama was a really, really small drama. Infinitesimal. It probably wouldn't be a Drama at your house. But remember we are the Roths: introverted, homebodies, homeschoolers, dorks. "All me life flashed before me eyes. It was really borin'!"

Last night I spent the evening relaxing, knitting on my everlasting stash-busting afghan and listening to podcasts. Podcasts about knitting. Podcasters who discuss knitting, yarn, spinning, Ravelry, more knitting, what to knit next, which yarn is best for which project, etc.

Then I went to bed and slept soundly and dreamed. I dreamed that The Drama had been restaged as a knitting argument. The two characters involved were knitting the same sweater. It was some sweater that was very popular on Ravelry right now. (Therefore guaranteeing that I would not remember its name when I woke up! I will call it The Sweater.) There were whole Ravelry forums devoted to The Sweater; there were Ravelympic teams forming to knit The Sweater together as a Ravelympics challenge.

But the characters in The Drama could not agree on the best type of yarn for The Sweater. One of the characters believed that a commercially-produced, carefully quality-controlled yarn would give the best results. This character wanted a yarn that had high positive reviews on Ravelry, something that was proven to be long-wearing and easy to knit with. The other character wanted to use handspun yarn and was planning to learn to spin in order to make the yarn for the sweater.

For some reason the characters could not go their own ways and use different yarns. This had something to do with the Ravelympic team they were joining, as I remember...this part was a little fuzzy. I believe they were allowed to use different colors, but not different yarns, so they had to come to some agreement about the yarn before joining the team.

The dream dragged on and on forever and was thoroughly tedious. I like listening to podcasts where knitters and spinners discuss the qualities of different yarns, but this was one of those dreams where you feel like you're stuck....you try to wake up but it doesn't seem possible. There were all these little samples of commercial yarn in various colors and all these batts of unspun wool in various colors and all this arguing. Somehow my mind was going along with the premise of the dream that The Sweater was worth arguing over, but it was just crazy-making.

Finally I woke up and realized what I had actually been dreaming about. And was relieved, yet again, that it was Not An Issue either in the form of the original "drama" or in the form of...yarn and sweaters.

Now, aren't you glad you wasted the time it took to read all that? Have a great day...American Idol starts tonight and I am not watching it. So there.

Why I Bought Cheap Yarn

2010-01-02T20:41:00.003-05:00

Okay, I made some progress today. And what is WITH the sudden burst of posts on this blog, anyway? Don't get your hopes up for it continuing is all I've got to say...

Believe it or not, I purchased yarn today from Joann Fabrics. Apparently it is possible to order from their website if one uses Natalie's computer...or if Natalie uses Natalie's computer, at any rate.

My computer is an Apple iMac. I use the latest version of Firefox and use Leopard as the operating system. Natalie's computer is an Apple Macbook. She uses the latest version of Firefox with Leopard as the operating system. There is no sensible reason why Joann Fabrics' website should be cooperative with her and not with me. But that's how it is. Natalie placed the order with no problems; we both have yarn on the way. We think.

This is the project I bought the yarn for. (Yes! I took a picture! After much fiddling about, I uploaded it...Natalie fixed iPhoto for me...are you noticing a theme?)

This stripey blob of yarny stuff is the scrap afghan I am knitting. A while back I rounded up all the balls and partial balls of medium and dark colored acrylic yarn that was piled up in bags around the house. Some of these are leftovers from other projects, some were bought and then not used, some were donated to my "cause" by Natalie, some she found for me at Goodwill.

The plan was to knit in garter stitch stripes until the yarn ran out, making either an afghan or perhaps a small cat blanket depending on how long the yarn lasted.

Somewhere along the way the plan got expanded a bit. One of the yarns Natalie gave me was some Lion Brand Homespun, which has a reputation of being fuzzy and hard to work with. But it added a textured effect and wasn't too hard to work with, probably because I was only knitting one row of it at a time and it was always being worked onto a firmer yarn.

I liked the effect so much I bought a couple more skeins of Homespun in different colors, and also picked up a couple of skeins of plain acrylic worsted in some other coordinating colors. Then Colin gave me some more Homespun for Christmas, and that made me think of a couple of other colors I'd like to add to it. Which led to yesterday's failed and today's apparently successful attempt to order some more yarn on sale from Joann Fabrics.

Right now the afghan is about 16 inches long and somewhere between 40 and 50 inches wide. I weighed it on my little kitchen scale...subtracting a roughly estimated amount for the big circular needle it is attached to. Then I weighed all the little and not-so-little balls of yarn, figured the number of grams per inch of the knitted object, the total grams of yarn available, and calculated how many more inches the blanket could grow before running out of yarn.

123. 123+16=139. Yes, there is enough yarn to make this thing 139 inches long (that's roughly 353 centimeters). Wow.

For anyone wondering...yes, that figure is BEFORE I ordered six more skeins of yarn today. Uh oh...

One Addition and One Rant

2010-01-01T20:24:00.005-05:00

I knew I would forget something I wanted to put on yesterday's list. Photography. This year I would like to learn how to use our digital camera, how to take decent-ish pictures with it, and how to upload/crop/publish said pictures.

IF I can accomplish that, you may actually see an occasional photo on this blog. Imagine! The mind boggles...

The rant: The economy is in the toilet, right? People are losing jobs and companies are going out of business right and left, true? If I owned a business I would want to be one of the lucky ones who didn't go under during the Great Recession. If I had a paying job I would want to be one of the lucky ones who didn't lose it.

But it seems I am perhaps...unique or at least rare...in holding to this philosophy? If I were a company who did business two ways: a physical store (maybe made of brick and mortar, but more likely steel and some sort of plastic stuff) and a website...I would want customers to spend money at both of those places. Right? Unless maybe I was running the business as some giganto tax write-off or as a cover operation for my drug ring??

So why, why, WHY do the folks who own Joann Fabrics seem intent on discouraging people from buying their merchandise?

There is a Joann Fabrics store in our fair city. It is in an inconvenient location for me, but that's not the deal-breaker. The deal-breaker is that the store is just nasty. It is dirty, it is unorganized, it is confusing, it is lit with glaring fluorescent lights, it is staffed with people who know nothing about the products, and if all those weren't enough, the restrooms are a nightmare of filth and disease. So I shop there only when I have absolutely no other choice, and I most often manage to find some other choice.

But Joann Fabrics also has a website! Aha! A website...so I can shop from the comfort of my reasonably clean, incandescently lighted home! A website...with information about the products so I can pick what I want without needing sales staff to help me. A website...with many products always in stock so that I don't have to worry about them being out of what I want. A website...so I can shop conveniently. A website...so I can take advantage of their sales and get what I need shipped to my cozy little house.

If only.

No, Joann Fabrics has one of THOSE websites. The finicky kind, the kind where you log in to your account and add things to your shopping cart and sometimes they stay there but sometimes they don't. The kind where you try browser after browser, even stooping so low as to try Internet Explorer on a Windows machine to see if that will work. The kind where you pull up all the items you want to buy in your browser's tabs and get ready to add them super, super quickly so you don't lose them. (That works with one of my other nemesis websites, Kohls.)

Joann Fabrics currently has a sale on some yarn I want, some yarn Natalie wants, and a thread organizer Natalie wants. I had considered driving over to AC Moore today to get my yarn, but why do that when I can get the sale price and shop from the comfort of my home? Well, now I know why. Joann Fabrics is corporately suicidal. They do not want to stay in business. What other conclusion can a sensible person draw? If I cannot place an order after fussing with it for over an hour and getting help from my in-house tech support (who designs websites and KNOWS when I'm just making some stupid mistake in using one), then how in the world do they manage to stay in business?

Tomorrow I will again attempt to buy some yarn. I will likely get in the car and drive across town to either AC Moore or Michaels. Both of them are enough cleaner and better staffed than Joann that I feel better about giving them my money. Because the yarn I need is cheap acrylic I'm sure to find it at one of those stores.

But I could also consider going to one of the two real knitting shops in town where no doubt I would find friendly people to take my money. For some projects I would do that, or I would order from a real knitting shop such as Webs in Northampton, Massachusetts. Webs, amazingly enough, has a website that allows customers to purchase things! What a concept!

Do you think anyone at Joann Fabrics' corporate office cares that they are losing business like this? I really wonder.

So...pictures and e-commerce. One addition, one rant. Welcome to 2010!

What ho, 2010?

2009-12-31T17:25:00.002-05:00

What should I do differently in 2010? I don't make formal New Year's resolutions, but a swirl of thoughts keep poking at me the last few days.

Digression: I am finding it incredibly difficult to get this post written. I put it off too late today and now the house is full of people TALKING. I just put on my headphones and fired up iTunes and am hoping a little John Cougar music will wipe out the background noise to the point where I can think to type.

Explanatory Digression: My 47 year old ears can't understand one word in five that John Cougar sings unless I crank it really loud...effectively making his music into white noise when played at a lower volume.

In 2010 I want to:

1. Once and for all solve the Killer Dishes issue. I'm tired of worrying about whether there is lead in the old transferware dinnerware we eat off of (and microwave in) daily. Either Tom is going to come up with a test that will reassure us both, or we are going to replace them with something we know is safe.

2. Understand what holiness is. I know it is being like Christ, but I want to really know what that means. Not what people mean when they say "holy" and hold up their list of rules that I have failed to adhere to . Not what the hymn Take Time To Be Holy seems to mean...although the author lists some things that might be components of holiness. The idea of "taking time to be holy" scritches at my nerves like the spray-painted graffiti that says "Try Jesus". Yeah, try Jesus...if that doesn't work, maybe some Lipitor? Take time to be holy, and then take some time to exercise.

3. Knit a pair of socks. Tom gave me teeny double-pointed needles for Christmas. I intend to buy some sock yarn, perhaps even tomorrow, and make some socks. Perhaps very bad socks. Perhaps the last socks I ever make. But I will try it and accomplish it, even if very badly.

4. Settle for myself the whole issue of being busy. This may be related to holiness because I find myself feeling guilty for not being busy enough. Or not being as busy as some people I know. I need to come to find out for myself whether I am right or if I am shirking my duty.

5. Read A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I know I read this back in high school, and I know the basic plot. I realized not very long ago that I think of this book as "Dickens Light" or "American Dickens"...the one story of his everyone knows. It's part of our culture, Scrooge McDuck and all that. In the last few years I've come to appreciate all the Dickens novels I've read. I need to read A Christmas Carol and experience it through the lens of that appreciation.

After I publish this post I will, no doubt, think of several more things I could add to this list. But this will have to do for now. The garage door just opened. (Hitting "play" button on iTunes) Colin and Tom are back from fetching Chinese food for our festive New Year's Eve dinner. Tonight we will eat yummy food, work on a puzzle, watch a silly movie, play some games, and who knows what all else.

I'm looking forward to 2010...Happy New Year!!

Baby, if you've ever wondered...

2009-12-02T11:56:00.005-05:00

...wondered whatever became of me...

So, anyway, we went to Cincinnati for Thanksgiving this year. I think I could write several posts about our trip, but I'm going to try to fit it into one by dividing my thoughts into categories.

Family: We spent our Thanksgiving holiday with my brother Jim, his wife Julia, and three of my...there needs to be a generic term that covers both nieces and nephews. And, after a little Googling, it turns out there IS such a word: nibling . Which sort of sounds as though Rebecca, Andrea, and John are hors d'oeuvres. (Thank you, Merriam-Webster online dictionary.) Oh, and my parents traveled up there, also, mustn't forget them.

Food: What didn't we eat? Julia and the girls (Jim helped, too) kept us fed all weekend long with wonderful, yummy food. Thanksgiving dinner with turkey and ham and spinach casserole and sweet potato casserole and potatoes and gravy and real homemade crescent rolls and pumpkin pie (secret creamy recipe!) and pecan pie and caramel apple pie and whipped cream and other things too, but I can't remember everything. Stir fry that tasted like it was from a great Asian restaurant, shrimp Creole, pea soup, chocolate cake, chai tea, coffee...and all of it was totally delicious. It felt really odd to not be cooking on Thanksgiving, but it was also really fun to eat Thanksgiving dinner and actually feel hungry for it...having not been looking at it and smelling it and fussing with it all day.

Field Trips: (Uh oh...just realized I've got all "F" headers so far and at some point I will have to break the pattern.) Friday we went to the Cincinnati Art Museum and saw maybe a little over half of the exhibits. I would have to go through there with the map in hand and mark off each room as I went through it to be able to feel I'd seen it all. Colin was thrilled with the museum; it was his first time in an art museum and serendipitously it turned out to be just the right timing for him to visit. He loved almost every kind of art work we looked at, although furniture didn't enthrall him like the Egyptian carvings. When he draws pictures he always represents people as cats, a bus driver or pilot or any other character in the drawing will always have cat ears and whiskers. The Egyptian exhibit included several little statues of cat warriors/rulers/deities; he liked seeing that the Egyptians had a "cat theme" to their artwork also.

Saturday we went to the Cincinnati Zoo. Tom and I took Colin, Rebecca, and Natalie with us on this trip while Andrea and John went with my parents to the Creation Museum. Colin was less thrilled with the zoo than he was with the art museum which surprised me. After some discussion it turned out he was expecting the animals to be displayed closer together, not all spread out over a large area with lots of paths to walk on in between. This was our last day in Cincinnati and he had been getting less sleep than usual every night and trying to keep up with the adults and the big kids, so his enthusiasm was starting to fade. He did end up having a good time at the zoo, he just wanted to have that good time without the walking. (I agreed with him on that one!)

Cincinnati: I was a lot more impressed with Cincinnati than I thought I would be. I was there once before, 30+ years ago, but I remember very little about the city from that trip. In my mind I pictured it being a cross between Springfield, IL and Pittsburgh. (No offense intended to my former hometown or to P-burgh. Springfield is Springfield, and Pittsburgh might be perfectly lovely if you see parts of it other than the ones we managed to find on the trip we took there.) Instead Cincinnati reminded me much more of St. Louis...an art museum in the middle of a park in the middle of an historic neighborhood, lots of neat little gentrified old neighborhoods, lots of confusing highways all twisted together by a river... I'm sure there are seedier parts we didn't see while we were there. In fact, Jim kept saying as he gave us directions to different places "Yes, you could go all the way down Street X or Y Avenue, but not at night." But I liked the parts we saw and almost everywhere we went it seemed pretty straightforward to navigate...unlike say, Greensboro.

Other fun: We spent a lot of time sitting around and talking, of course. The kids went on numerous hikes around the neighborhood and to the handy nearby Starbucks. I'm sure Natalie will blog with pictures of some of their wild and crazy games. I'm not really sure what they were up to a lot of the time. We picked the busiest travel days of the year for our trip, so we fought traffic quite a bit both coming and going. Having three drivers makes a trip so much easier now, though. On the way home I was very sore and stiff from our expeditions to the museum and zoo so Natalie and Tom decided they would do all the driving and let me rest. It turned out Natalie ended up doing 2/3 of the driving, so Tom got more rest than he expected, too.

It seems like there was a whole lot more I was going to say, but this post is already very long. We had a wonderful time, we liked Cincinnati, we liked being with our family, our trip went smoothly. Thank you to Jim and Julia and the niblings for their hospitality!!

Now, I'll just be putting down some masking tape on the floor around my desk here...

Unfortunately...

2009-10-26T14:24:00.002-04:00

Let's do a meme this fine Monday ~~morning~~ afternoon while I try to wake up. We've been staying up late to watch the Yankees vs. the Angels in the ALCS. I was rooting for the Yankees for the sake of my father and a handful of my friends; Tom rooted for the Angels out of sympathy for the underdogs and sheer stubbornness. Now he will most likely root for the Phillies, but he will use the excuse that he always roots for the National League if the Cardinals are not playing. Unless the NL team playing is the Braves, of course.

Here's how this particular meme works: Do a Google search on your first name preceded by the word "unfortunately". See what sort of results you get, and share the interesting ones. Here are a few of the better ones that came up for me.

• Unfortunately, Beth is married...but that won't discourage Kevin...

• Unfortunately, Beth had really just won a stay of execution.

• Unfortunately, Beth kept her clothes on.

• Unfortunately, Beth realizes she never appreciated her family enough after they are all killed in a car crash on their way to a Fourth of July picnic.

• Unfortunately, Beth still has the fever.

• Unfortunately, Beth maybe hearing from some ill-advised supporters looking to cash in on a election process.

• Unfortunately, Beth no longer wants Sarah to know that she is Bill.

• Unfortunately, Beth doesn't quite get the revenge she wants by the end of the book – though not for a lack of trying.

• Unfortunately, Beth had locked the door to our room and taken the key with her into the female shower cubicles.

• Unfortunately, Beth was a born klutz.

• Unfortunately, Beth has seen them, and she seems to be awakening.

• Unfortunately, Beth assumed my identity and went on my dream date instead.

I live quite the interesting little life, do I not?

Being Offensive Without Offending?

2009-10-05T14:18:00.004-04:00

This summer I was cranky a lot. Many things were making me grouchy. All this was, no doubt, exacerbated by my lack of sleep and high pain levels.

Whenever I'd think about blogging this summer the only topics that came to mind were rants...rants with the potential of offending people. Lots of people out there, in real life and on the Internet, were doing things to make me mad. (Did you know that? Or did I manage to fake you out?)

One day inspiration struck. I would blog all my rants and give full voice to all the things bugging me...but I would "bleep" out all the identifying details. I would say things like "People who BLEEP in line at the BLEEP should be BLEEPED and BLEEPED."

This revolutionary idea (hey, I was sleepless, it was revolutionary) made me so happy. A huge burden was lifted from my blogging shoulders. Finally my blog would find its true niche. (You know, like "they" all say a blogger should find..."they" being the ones who've decided their blog's true niche is telling other people how to blog.)

I went to bed that night and rehearsed my next blog post in my mind as I tried to fall asleep. I ranted and raved in my head, and mentally backspaced and inserted a BLEEP as needed. I had enough material in mind for, oh, maybe six or seven posts at least! And what were the odds that people would STOP ticking me off and deprive me of material??

The next morning, after getting a little bit of sleep, I got up and thought about blogging. But, strangely, all the desire to rant was gone. Dang! How cliched can you get?! Did I just do the blogging equivalent of the old "write the letter, tell him everything he did to hurt you, and then throw it away without mailing it" shtick? My blog fodder, my Preciiooouusssss....I wants it...

Isn't this all too Aesop? Too sticky? Too Disney happy endings and we'll just live in the sea and I'll grow gills so we can be together?? Too Celine Dion ballad-y??

Coming up next time: Beautiful butterflies, soft kittens, rolypoly puppies, and sugar cookies.

Return of the Random

2009-09-30T15:50:00.002-04:00

Just putting my hand in the blender again...

• It's customary in the Blogosphere to explain where you've been after you've taken a break. Take a breath and fasten your seat belts and we'll make this quick and painless: school/church/work/summer/reverse SAD/pain/insomnia/Daylight Saving Time/boredom/business/slow broadband/dropped connections/children/parents/legalism/socialism/patriotism/tea parties/iced tea/ennui/hyperactivity/malaise/swine flu/mass hysteria/mad hedgehogs.

• Today is the day we would normally be submitting our entries to the Dixie Classic Fair. This year Natalie and I decided to sit out the fair for a number of reasons...mostly related to lack of time to create our usual pile of entries.

• I've started planning out what to enter in the fair next year and I'm excited about trying out some new things. This year I'd like to crochet a shawl or scarf in laceweight yarn, knit something in the round (mittens? hat?), and cross-stitch a pillow.

• In the cooking categories I'd like to master a truly good pound cake. I still wouldn't stand a chance of winning yet, but I want to be ready as the older ladies retire from competition.

• My blog needs updating. I'm thinking about changing the background color and adding some headers to the side columns. I'll need to get my tech support/artist to help me with the headers because I want something to coordinate with the main title header.

• You may have noticed most of the blog links have gone away. I started to revise them and then realized my reading habits have changed to the point where a lot of them were no longer relevant. I'm thinking about doing a "blog of the week" link or something along those lines instead.

• Tom got a digital camera for his birthday, and I intend to learn how to use it and also learn how to upload and manipulate photos. IF this works out, expect to see more pictures around here.

• This was the year for technological birthday gifts. Tom gave me an iPod Touch for my birthday, and I'm having a blast learning how to utilize it best. I'm becoming obsessed with podcasts. I like having something interesting to listen to in the evening while I'm crafting.

• Do any of my readers (do I HAVE any readers left?) know where one can download books to listen to on an iPod? Our library has downloads, but they aren't in an mp3 format.

That's all I've got today. This is like going back to the gym after not working out for several months. If I write too much today all my writing muscles will be screaming tomorrow and I'll be tempted to quit. See y'all soon, I hope.

Independence Day Memories, I Think...

2009-07-04T13:52:00.004-04:00

A few months ago Natalie and I were listening to the RhettandLinKast and the theme was "Anchor Phrases". Anchor phrases, according to R&L, are phrases people throw into their speech out of habit...perhaps to keep their flow of speech moving along, or to retain possession of the conversation, or just to have something to say instead of "um". They gave some examples...a dentist who says "per se" all the time, for instance. Feel free to watch the episode for more examples which, of course, will be much more funny from them than from me.

Anyway, (watch and see if you can spot the Cat's anchor phrases!) I started thinking about anchor phrases I've used and anchor phrases I've heard others use, and this meandering thought process took me back to an Independence Day in my childhood. The thing is, there are several parts of this day that I'm sure I am remembering fundamentally correctly. But there is one feature of the day, a highlight for me, that may or may not have really happened.

I was somewhere between the ages of 8 and 12, we were living in either Springfield or Berlin, Illinois, and on this particular 4th of July we celebrated by going to a cookout at the home of some people I didn't know very well. They were friends of friends, or maybe friends of relatives, at any rate we had friends in common and were therefore invited to the festivities. They lived either on or near a farm in the country somewhere around Springfield. The family consisted of a mom and dad and three children; there were two boys who were quite a bit older than me (possibly college age) and one girl close to my age.

I don't remember a whole lot about the evening. I assume that we ate hamburgers and hot dogs and didn't eat Aunt Delores' three bean salad. I assume we played with the other children there, although I really don't remember there being a lot of children around. The following are the two really clear memories I have.

The host asked one of the men to pray before the meal. I don't know if we had met this man before, but I think he was part of the crowd of miscellaneous friends who hung around with my aunt and uncle. Usually when you're a kid and you're being forced to hold still long enough for someone to pray before you get to go pounce on the food, you don't pay much attention to the prayer. But this man's prayer became burned in my memory because of his extreme overuse of an anchor phrase. His anchor phrase was "dear heavenly father", a phrase one would normally expect to hear only at the beginning of the prayer. This man was not content to leave it at that, and this is how I remember him praying, This, by the way, is an abbreviated version. I believe he went on at greater length and prayed for the missionaries in foreign lands and everyone he knew who was sick or suffering some way.

"Dear heavenly father, we thank you, dear heavenly father, for these friends, dear heavenly father, who have come together, dear heavenly father, to celebrate the founding of our country, dear heavenly father. We thank you, dear heavenly father, for the freedom to worship you, dear heavenly father, and the blessings you give us in this country, dear heavenly father. We ask you, dear heavenly father, to bless those who don't have our freedoms, dear heavenly father, and those in foreign lands, dear heavenly father. We thank you, dear heavenly father, for the food, dear heavenly father, that we are about to eat, dear heavenly father, and we ask, dear heavenly father, that you would bless the hands that prepared it, dear heavenly father. Thank you, dear heavenly father, for the fellowship, dear heavenly father, we are enjoying tonight, dear heavenly father, and thank you for the X family, dear heavenly father, and their hospitality, dear heavenly father, to us, dear heavenly father. Please bless us, dear heavenly father, and be with us, dear heavenly father, as we enjoy this time, dear heavenly father, together. Amen."

The second memory is the one I am not sure about, and I'm hoping one of my brothers can either verify that this actually happened or tell me I was hallucinating. After we ate dinner we ran around and played some more, and then after night fell our host and some of the other men put on a fireworks show. That part I am 99% sure of. In that time and that place, an amateur fireworks display would have been fairly common. However, I remember those fireworks as being super impressive, and I wonder now if that would have been possible.

Perhaps these were the first fireworks I had ever seen and I remember them as being bigger and better than they actually were? In particular, I remember fireworks that formed shapes as they exploded, and most particularly a huge finale that featured an American flag. It wasn't just a few rings of red, white, and blue exploding simultaneously. It wasn't a shower of red, white, and blue fountain fireworks. As I remember it, it went up and lit up as a perfect US flag formation.

To my adult mind, that does not seem possible, and I've never seen it since. It seems quite unlikely that, if such a thing is/were possible, it would have been possible for a handful of amateurs in a field in central Illinois. So I'm wondering if it was really a mixture of red, white, and blue rings and someone said "Oh look, it's like the American flag!" and my mind created this image that is more real in my memory than what actually happened. So, what say you, Jim and David? Do either of you remember this? Anyone else out there with knowledge of the history of fireworks who would know if this would have been possible in the 1970s?

Anyway, since this post began with Rhett and Link, and since we believe in supporting local, organic, and sustainable comedy, it only seems fitting to end by featuring the Fireworks Song video. Enjoy!

Kitchen Progress Update

2009-07-02T11:02:00.009-04:00

I wish there was something more interesting I could post about, but this is our life right now. If you've been reading this blog for any length of time you know what happens when I promise better posts to come...so I'm not going to do that.

At some point last weekend I thought we were so far ahead of our schedule that we'd be done by tomorrow. Ha ha! Well, we are not behind at this point, so good for us, I guess. Most of the lower cabinets are now in place. Tom and Colin are assembling the uppers today, so that they can install them tomorrow when Natalie's at home to help.

There have been amazingly few problems thus far. I attribute this mainly to Tom. He thought and planned and researched this all out ahead of time, and has been anticipating almost every tricky situation we've run into. I wouldn't recommend taking on a project like this unless you either are, or are married to, someone like him...perfectionistic, stubborn, persistent, and extremely patient.

Some pictures of where we've been and what's happened so far, although these don't accurately reflect the current status. Natalie took more pics last night, but they are still on the camera.

Kitchen Remodeling Plans

2009-06-18T16:43:00.003-04:00

My family members have finally goaded me into writing another post. At least, I'm assuming that the "James" commenting on the previous post is a family member. We have a plethora of Jameses, Jims, and Jimmys in this family, which is why (if this is the one I think it is) I humbly suggested to his parents that they call him James rather than nicknaming him Jimmy or Jim. But I suppose it's hard to think of a little baby as "James". Natalie did suggest that perhaps it was her grandfather commenting, but that would indicate levels of Internet savviness that are just too improbable to be believed.

So, we have a kitchen project starting at our house soon. Way back in March I posted about our evil icemaker and its cabinet-ruining leakiness. Tom and I don't make decisions very quickly, and I can't think of a way to state that so that it isn't a vast understatement. We ponder, we research, we plan, we argue, we fret...no, I'm the only one fretting. At any rate, after much of this messing about, we made some decisions, placed some orders, and things will be getting underway here soon. Here's how the plans stand as of now:

June 20-21 Priming and Painting faux trim effect near ceiling in the kitchen half of the room.

June 22-26 Packing up everything from cabinets into boxes, arranging temporary "cooking" and eating area in living room. Shopping at Costco for massive quantities of frozen food and disposable tableware.

June 27th Removing current kitchen, and selling old cabinets, counters, and sink via Craigslist

June 29th Wall prep: sanding, spackling, more sanding. Assembling cabinets.

June 30th Priming walls and painting first coat of paint. Assembling cabinets.

July 1st Second coat of paint. Assembling cabinets.

July 2nd Installing lower cabinets, reconnecting plumbing for sink and icemaker.

July 3rd Installing upper cabinets.

July 4th Installing countertops, sink, and appliances.

July 6-7 Do whatever else I've forgotten! Tom has these days as work days on the plan, so I must be remembering the timing wrong on one of the steps. Or else he's allowing extra for problems, which would be a good idea.

We are not knocking down any walls, expanding the size of the room, replacing flooring, or putting in new appliances. We did the floors a couple of years ago, the appliances were all replaced 4-5 years ago, and the ceiling fan and light fixture were replaced just a month ago. We will have a new paint color, but only the pickiest connoisseurs of beige will be able to tell the difference from what's up there now.

The cabinets are from this place; we are using the Randolph Oak style. The countertop is Wilsonart's High Definition laminate in the "Bella Venito" colorway. (Colorway? Isn't that pretentious and special...) The sink is a nifty new single-bowl stainless job that we got for a very nice bargain price on Ebay; we're switching from a double-bowl to free up more counter space and to have room for washing big baking pans and such.

That sink change is really the scariest part of the whole project for me; I think I will adapt well to a single-bowl sink...but there are others who use this kitchen who like to accumulate whacking great piles of dirty dishes in the sink while they cook. This is frustrating with a double-bowl sink, but might be downright intolerable with only one bowl. I cannot fill a water glass or rinse a piece of fruit, just two examples, over a pile of filthy dishes. There has to be a zone of cleanliness or something vital will split apart in my psyche and Bad Things will happen.

I'm hoping that we'll be able to get some decent pictures of this whole mess while it's taking place. I may be able to post some updates as we go along. My job is mostly to keep Tom fed and figure out how to wash dishes in the bathtub, so maybe I will be able to post. Most likely you will see tragic Tweets over there to the right on the Twitterfeed. Should be loads of fun!!

My Final Prediction: Who Will Win American Idol Season 8

2009-05-20T18:59:00.003-04:00

Hey, it's only an hour till the show comes on...which means it's only 2 hours and 59 minutes until we find out who won this year. So I still have time to make my final prediction. We've come so far in the season that my scientific predicting methods allow me an even greater degree of precision and accuracy than I have heretofore achieved.

(BTW, this post is brought to you by Sudafed and Tylenol, who are working together like troopers to keep my head somewhat clear of a massive cold/virus/cow flu that is going around amongst our family and friends. Don't expect my usual brilliance, in other words, just drugged brilliance. Which might be better than the usual.)

This is one of those seasons of American Idol where I really don't care a whole lot who wins. Early on I thought it would be nice if one of the girls won...someone like Megan Corkrey or Jesse Langseth. I like both of their voices and their styles were different from the usual American Idol Shrieking Diva female style. Which is, of course, why neither of them made it very far at all. Well, that and Megan seemed to go a little loopy and took up acting like a bird.

I also thought maybe diversity was the goal this year, maybe a Latino or Asian or Indian boy or girl would win. I favored both Jorge Nunez and Anoop Desai on the basis of their personalities, although I really didn't like their preferred style of music. Then I thought maybe Alison Iraheta would win as our diverse candidate. I found her likeable and thought her voice was interesting, while at the same time I thought her parents should be smacked upside their heads for letting her sing slutty songs and wear some of the clothes she wore.

But I guess the producers at American Idol had a different idea about diversity this year. Maybe they thought this was the year for diversity in sexual orientation? And since the show is on Fox, you know they went about it in their usual Fox manner. They report, we decide...you know the drill. They obviously wanted us to be sure we knew what we were choosing, too. "If we're going to have a gay contestant we need to have one who really acts gay! Not one of these fellows who could just be a nerdy Baptist mama's boy from the South." So we got Adam...and his shrieks and screams...and his wardrobe...and his makeup...and his lighting...etc, etc...

Some bloggers are saying that Idol set up the finale to be "God vs. Gay" because both Danny Gokey (the chosen runner up?) and Kris Allen (the actual runner up...oops) are worship team musicians. Well, there again, that sounds like something Fox might just be capable of. Do people really vote for an American Idol based on things like this? Maybe they do. A lot of people were voting for Danny based on something...and I know I have bad hearing, but could he really have sounded that good to someone who could hear him better? Hmmph...

But, somehow Danny is gone! The annointed final match-up did not work out. Now we have Adam vs. Kris. Two guys who neither one could sing that awful song Kara wrote for them. (That does raise the question of who exactly she planned to have sing it.)

Okay, I've strung this out long enough with a bunch of babbling about something I really don't care much about. Last year I cared. David Cook is a musician and a talented singer and David Archuleta is a cute little boy with a decent-ish voice. There was an obvious difference in talent and the right person ended up winning.

This year, I think Adam and Kris are pretty much evenly matched. Adam has drama, style, personality, and vocal range. Kris has musicianship, musical understanding, a decent voice, and a more current style of singing. Either one will have a venue for music somewhere. If Adam wins it will cost 19 Entertainment a boatload more in props, wardrobe, backup singers, and makeup artists. If they make that investment and do it up right they could bring back "arena rock" and expose that genre to a new generation.

If Kris wins, 19 Entertainment will get an artist who can arrange songs (probably even the drecky ones they have written for him) and make an album that sounds current and contemporary and will be very popular with the young ladies.

Either way, 19E wins, and either way I don't really care. So, here's my prediction. If I get this posted in time you might even have time to get a call in to your bookie. The winner tonight will be:

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A white guy.

"I updated it multiple times...a year."

2009-05-07T12:02:00.003-04:00

Almost one whole month without a blog post! Yikes! Where has the time gone? Well, quick run-down on what I've been up to coming right up...with an up-front warning that none of it is terribly interesting.

•Perfecting (ha!) the art of expressing myself in 140 characters or less. Yes, I've been Twittering and you can see the impressive results over in the sidebar. I think it has been good for me to have to condense my communications to the smaller format. But it has also gotten the writing urge out of my system in little bits and pieces so that I don't feel the need to blog.

•Blithering around about kitchen repair and replacement. I think we have a plan, but I'm not sure when the plan will be implemented. We've had several plans that have had to be scratched for various reasons. We ordered a wood sample from a place that sells the exact size and style cabinet we need, and found out that the color was way off and would look icky. We bought two cabinets from Lowes that matched in color but not style and were a size compromise(15" plus 18" to fill the space left by the missing 33" cabinet) and when Tom unpacked them one had fallen apart from the unwrapping process. End of plan two, and back to Lowes with the flimsy cabinets. Plan three is the scary BIG project and I'm afraid to talk about it yet.

•Helping my parents with some banking issues. Fortunately I love my parents and I love financial finagling. I don't easily get frustrated and aggravated with financial dealings...you just go ahead and fill in the second half of that sentence yourself. Thank you. :)

•Changing the way I deal with pain. For those who might not know, you can take your pick as to what's wrong with me. I either have fibromyalgia, I may just be fat and lazy and out of shape, or I may be physically manifesting pain as a response to something in my life I can't cope with. The second one is true, the first one is my official diagnosis and some of the doctors obviously used it as a polite euphemism for the second option. The third option is something I've been reading about in a book called Worried Sick, by Nortin Hadler. The only problem is that dear Dr. Hadler doesn't have much in the way of solutions for dealing with this non-issue. I'm guessing he would tell a patient with my symptoms to seek some type of counseling.

•Meanwhile. (Do you ever get the feeling that bullet points are not really meant for the type of posts I write? I do so hate it when I have to split a subject into two bullet points because I need a new paragraph.) Meanwhile, I've stopped taking the prescription pain medicine I was taking because the more I read about it, the more convinced I was that the potential side-effects for long-term use weren't something I wanted to mess with. Hence the proliferation of Tweets about burning pain and interrupted sleep. But most everybody I know who's around my age has some sort of pain issue, so I've decided this is just normal and I'm going to have to learn to deal.

•Swine Flu. Isn't it time-consuming to have plagues and famine and financial collapse going on all around? At this point it sounds like the swine flu (I've learned to say that with a North Carolina pronunciation...just a hair more stress on the first word and always with a "the" in front of it. Like shopping at the Goodwill.) is not going to be A Big Deal. But Tom's employers are stressing workplace and employee preparedness so we've done a little more than our usual stocking up of supplies. We already had a recession/depression/we're all going to die stash of extra food staples so we really only needed to add some medical supplies. If you're a thief in need of rice, beans, Tylenol, and cough syrup we are the folks to burgle...bring it on.

•Wrapping up first grade with Colin and getting our options figured out for second grade work. I'm having a strong sense of deja-blog here...did I say I was doing this two months ago? We do school throughout the summer, so we're not planning to have a great chunk of time off. This means I don't have a great chunk of planning time, either, but since I tend to obsess and over-think things that really turns out to be better. Colin reads whacking great tomes now, so I can cut him loose with all kinds of interesting topics. He takes after me in his way of understanding (or not) math, so that's a challenge we need to deal with more thoroughly in the upcoming year. But I don't panic about school nearly so much as I did when Natalie was young. He will learn everything he needs to know eventually if we continue to work diligently at it.

Well, I should be making yogurt. Wait, I was making yogurt during my last post, too. I've been making yogurt a lot lately. Yogurt with frozen berries has become my warm weather default breakfast, so we're going through the quarts of yogurt fairly quickly. I like to make my own because it's cheaper, I can make it with whole milk (more filling when that's my whole breakfast), I can make it with milk that has Vitamin D added (I run low), and I can make it nice and thick so it's spoonable.

And if that isn't a way to wrap up a blog post, I don't know what is. That's one heck of a sentence, too, I might add.

Oh yeah, for the pair of people who don't know the source of my blog title, watch this video. Oh, and for my Cincinnati kin...R&L are doing a live show in your neck of the woods tonight. You should check it out.

Various Thoughts and An Experiment

2009-04-09T14:45:00.003-04:00

First of all, the experiment: I am blogging whilst listening to music. Really radical, eh? I'm building myself a new Pandora radio station because the only one I've taken the time to build so far was titled "Oh Holy Night" which might give you some idea of how long it's been since I messed with it. :)

There's one problem I'm noticing already...I seeded my radio DNA with Coldplay to begin with, because I like several of their songs. The little wizard that picks songs has given me something from U2 and then from Snow Patrol, and I like the sound of both. But they have lyrics, and I'm trying to listen to what they're saying and type at the same time. Next time maybe I'll try instrumental. On to other thoughts...okay, wait, I have to go pause this music. So much for the experiment; I guess I don't have the spare RAM I used to have as a teenager.

Homeschooling: Lately I've been feeling convicted about my level of enthusiasm for teaching Colin. He benefits in some ways by being the second child and born to an older mother. I'm calmer, I'm more focused on the important things and less worried about peripherals. But I'm also less energetic and less patient. Calmer, but less patient...yes, that's possible. Somedays I feel very enthused and motivated, and some days I find it very difficult to deal with one more day of school. I know I can't face any of these days in my own power; thank God I don't have to.

Eschatological Panic: Something that's bugging me lately is the attitude I'm reading and hearing from some Christians. They see the financial crisis, the sweeping bailouts and takeovers of companies by the US government, our president's policies, etc. and they start doing eschatological math in their heads. Financial collapse + "socialism" + godless government + America = End Times. Christians are supposed to not feel at home in the world, we know we are truly citizens of another world, and we should be looking forward to Christ's return. But take the last addend out of that equation and realize that this same combination of bad stuff (and much worse) has happened to Christians in many other countries over the centuries. Why is it suddenly the End Times because spoiled American Christians have to "suffer" a little bit? And I put "suffer" in quotes because, on the whole, we are not suffering by any stretch of the imagination. Isn't it just a bit rude to our brothers and sisters in Christ in other times and places to have such an insular attitude?

American Idol: Segue time!! Anoop dodged another bullet this week, but will he really win? I'm not sure that I want him to. He has an enjoyable personality, and he's a cute kid, and he sings fairly well, and he's from North Carolina, so in theory he should be my favorite. But I don't like the style of music he favors and he's not doing anything spectacular with it. Then again, maybe this will be one of those years on Idol where someone Just Average wins (Jordan, Taylor, Ruben...oh wait, maybe that's most of the years.) Adam seems to be the judges' favorite, and I have to admit if I had to attend a concert by any of this year's singers, I would probably pick Adam. I wouldn't take any impressionable children to it, and I'm sure there would be parts that would make me gag. But at least I wouldn't fall asleep and fall to my death from the stands.

American Idol, paragraph dos: See, I thought I was going to limit each thought to one paragraph. Oops. Danny is annoying and smug and sings every song the same way. Lil can't pick songs and can't sing the ones she picks and can't pick clothes that fit her properly. Matt is boring and sings another kind of music I don't like. Allison is loud in voice, clothing, and hair. I'm forgetting somebody, probably a couple of somebodies. Um...Kris. Kris is okay, he's kind of like Jason from last year except he remembers his words. I think he might be able to sneak through and win the whole thing if he works at it a little bit. Unfortunately Adam is cornering the market on Memorable Performances this year...but he could Constantine out at some point.

Kitchen: I think we're redoing the kitchen sometime this summer. I'm trying to find the right balance in how I talk about this. I was contented with the kitchen the way it was before the cabinet got ruined; I wasn't asking to have anything replaced or changed. We had talked in the past about replacing the countertop because it's worn down and dinged up, but it still works and I probably notice the problems more than anyone else would. SO...my point is, I have been and still am content with my kitchen. If something happened and we were unable to spend anything at all on fixing this cabinet problem, I could figure out how to use things around the house creatively and feel at peace about it being the way it is.

On the other hand, (oh drat, another second paragraph) I sure will enjoy having some things changed in the kitchen! I don't want to sound like some paragon of wifely submission who is really wiser than her husband: "I didn't feel we should spend the money in these perilous times, but Tom wants to redo the kitchen and it wouldn't be right for me to oppose him!" Bwahahaha... that would be a lie, wouldn't it? Of course I'm feeling a bit gloom-and-doomy about the economy, it's in my genetic makeup to be that way. (Barring my dad, I'm probably the most optimistic person in my family...or as the rest of them would say, Dad and I are unrealistic and loony.) But I can kick the gloom genes to the curb and be thankful for new stuff. It's just stuff, it doesn't really matter in the end, but if we can afford it and if we do it sensibly...well, I'll enjoy it.

Now I need to get back to making yogurt. Oh, I didn't mention that part of the Experiment, did I? Attempting to make yogurt whilst listening to music and blogging. As the kids say...Epic Fail. But maybe I can scale back my expectations and try making yogurt whilst listening to music. Let's find out.

Kitchen Fun

2009-03-26T15:22:00.003-04:00

A while back, maybe last week? No, it was earlier than that, probably the week before. Anyway, a while back Tom noticed that something was leaking in our kitchen. There was stuff between the stove and the cabinet to its left. He was sure Natalie or I had spilled something while cooking, but we both swore we hadn't.

(It was quite a lot of stuff, whatever it was, it would be hard to spill that much and not remember it.)

Well, after some investigating, he figured out that the stuff was Stuff. Bad Stuff. Water and wet dust bunnies...and also mold. Further investigation revealed that the water was coming from somewhere near the wall and that it had apparently been coming out for quite a little while. It turns out the water line to the ice maker had a small leak. The sides of the cabinet are particle board and absorbent and yellow and porous are they. Et voila...moldy ruined cabinet.

Tom removed the cabinet, replaced the water line, and dried up the wall and floor. He also built a frame of two-by-fours to attach the countertop to, and placed a small table under it to hold the most crucially needed things from the cabinet. The kitchen is once again functional, although a bit odd-looking. We need to do something about the latter.

Option 1: Replace just the cabinet. There is a building salvage store in our town that sells a similar, but not identical, cabinet in the correct size. It might be close enough in appearance to get by. There are also online cabinet companies we could order a similar cabinet from.

Option 2: Replace the cabinet with something unusual and frugal and funky. My mother is the primary champion for this approach. She's thinking in terms of open shelves covered with cute gingham curtains.

Option 3: Replace a bunch of cabinets. The online cabinet companies sell much better cabinets than we have now, for quite reasonable prices. (The prices are good because you have to put them together and install them; this is well within Tom's ability.) We could change a few details of the layout, add a few inches of counter space and increase the utility of the kitchen. We could do all the bottom cabinets at once and do the uppers later (the designs are close enough or different enough, depending on which style we choose, that it would work), or we could plunge in and do the whole shebang at one time. This option also involves replacing the 12-year-old countertop which was cheap and flimsy in its prime and could stand to be replaced.

Obviously Option 3 gives us the most overall excitement and change in our kitchen. It's also the most time-consuming, life-disrupting, and expensive. That last there is what keeps bugging me. We can afford to do this, we would be improving the overall value of the kitchen, and we would not be going into debt or spending money that is allotted for anything else.

BUT...we would be Spending Money. On something other than big whacking bags of Survival Rice and cases of Cans O. Beans. Spending Money during the Financial Crisis...Spending Money during what might be TEOTWAWKI!! Peak Oil! Goats! Chickens!! Victory Gardens!! Cabinets??? Formica???

Astute readers will grasp the turmoil this has produced in my mind. Do we spend money on Frivolity and Cabinets? Or do we hide it under the mattress...oh wait, it won't be worth anything. Do we exchange it for gold...oh wait, it wouldn't get us much. Do we buy goats? (And EAT them???)

And that doesn't even begin to address all the other dilemmas ripe for the picking...oak vs. white vs. maple? Dark countertop vs. light? Formica vs. Corian vs. Silestone? Green vs. tan vs. cream wall paint?

Moral of this rant: Beware of icemakers. They will steal your contentment.

American Idol Prediction Update

2009-03-11T14:26:00.002-04:00

Well, I blew it with my first prediction, didn't I? Kai Kalama didn't even make it to the Final 13, let alone win the whole thing.

But we still have Anoop Desai and Jorge Nunez, both of whom fit my criteria for Statistically Likely To Win Based On Suspect Or Non-Existent Statistics. Unfortunately, both of them did a pretty bad job with Michael Jackson's songs last night. Although, for me, that's a point in their favor, it might not go over so well with those who actually decide about these things.

Speaking of which, Simon and Ryan gave us a teaser last night about a Big Change coming to the judging process. Oooohh....what can it be? Will they be adding yet another judge? Will one of the judges be leaving? Will they be allowing only one vote per phone line?

My theory: they are going to start doing the Sudden Death Singoff routine that they used in Hollywood. The two contestants with the lowest number of votes will each have to sing for the judges on results nights and then the judges will pick which one goes home.

Some more predictions from me...might as well be hung for a sheep as for a lamb, eh?

•Going home tonight: Allison Iraheta and Kris Allen. Simon was right, Kris lost the little girl votes by mentioning his wife so much. His wife didn't help matters by glaring at Simon instead of looking sweetly and romantically at Kris. Allison's voice is better than some (Megan Joy!) but she doesn't fit into a good voter-friendly niche. She's the screaming rocker, but she's not old enough to have a cool car or bike. There's no tattood husband in the audience, no cute baby at home with Abuelita, she doesn't play an instrument, she doesn't smart off to Simon, there's no hook there.

•Bombing spectacularly on Country Week: Anoop Desai, Matt Giraud, Jorge Nunez, Jasmine Murray, and Lil Rounds

•Final Four: Lil Rounds, Adam Lambert, Danny Gokey, Anoop Desai

•Final Two: Danny Gokey, Anoop Desai

•Winner: Anoop Desai

Luckily for me these are "predictions" and not "prophecies" and I'm not an Old Testament prophet facing the threat of stoning if my prophecy fails to come true! If Anoop gets the boot tonight, I can write another post explaining why (the Bobby Jindal factor??) and adjusting my predictions. Eventually I'll get to the point where I have a 50% chance of being right!

Oh, one final note: These are predictions based on who I think Everybody Else wants to win. I don't know yet who I want to win, and I did not participate in the voting last night. I do know that I don't want ANY of them to sing any more Michael Jackson songs...bleccchhhhh....

Reasons I Can't Blog Right Now

2009-03-06T17:34:00.002-05:00

1. Three day migraine headache with aftershocks.

2. Reading glasses that bug me.

3. Nice big screen on my fast new iMac that necessitates wearing the reading glasses that bug me.

4. Trying to wrap my head around the reason that bigger screen = smaller type.

5. People talking to me. All. The. Time.

6. Cell phone spam.

7. The stock market and the economy in general.

8. Mortgage loan application process.

9. Cat who has to go OUT and come back IN. All. The. Time.

10. Aging parents trying to live in the Internet Age.

11. American Idol stealing my evenings with weird people singing badly.

12. People who need food to eat and clean clothes to wear.

13. Books that call me to read them and then don't hold my attention enough to keep me from noticing that nothing in the living room is arranged on neat right angles.

14. Wasting all my good material on Twitter.

15. Someone who calls to ask me to send him the Costco list that I sent already via email because he forgot to print it out.

16. Trying to text with 46 year old fingers.

Freudian Typo?

2009-02-25T22:23:00.002-05:00

So, just now on the local Fox affiliate they ran a story about President Obama's plan to get the banks under control.

The large intro headline and the tagline that ran under the story as it played both said "Obama plans to reign in banks".

Which is pretty much what some people expected, innit?

Among The Things I Have Forgotten

2009-02-23T14:36:00.002-05:00

In my former life...back in the day...before kids...almost 20 years ago, to be exact...I worked as a mortgage loan processor for a savings and loan association. Do S&L's even exist anymore? I don't think there are any around these parts, at any rate. Maybe they all vanished in the great Crisis. I know the one I worked for got bought up by another S&L, which was bought up by a bank, and who knows what it is now. Wait...this is all starting to sound familiar.

Anyway, way back then, we refinanced a lot of mortgages when the rates were plummeting during the heyday of the Reagan Revolution. When a customer wanted to refinance we tried to help them figure out which combination of rates and points saved them the most interest over the period of time they were likely to own the house. There was a calculation we used to figure a break-even point where it made more sense to go with a higher rate versus paying more points.

As I recall, the way it worked was like this: Customer needs to refi $200K loan. Interest rate X will yield a monthly payment of $1,000 and customer will pay 1 point. Interest rate Y will yield a payment of $1,100 and Customer will pay no points. Since one point would be $2,000 and the difference between the payments is $100/month, the break even point is 20 months. So, if Customer plans to keep the house for longer than 20 months he will save money by going for the lower rate.

So, this makes perfect sense to me if Customer is paying that point in cash at closing. (Although maybe we should take the equation further and estimate how much interest he's losing by not investing the money instead. But we'll assume he banks at Wachovia and gets .05% on his savings account, so it's sort of a non-issue.)

What I can't remember is this: Does this break-even calculation work if Customer is financing the points into the refinanced loan? The points are, in effect, getting spread out over the life of the loan and thereby making the payment higher. But the lower interest rate is also making the payment lower...and that's where my brain got all creaky and started yelling at kids to get off its lawn.

Anybody got an answer for me on this? Any wild guesses? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller??

American Idol Season 8 Winner Prediction

2009-02-18T12:48:00.000-05:00

Season 8 of American Idol has now begun, and I decided to make some predictions about the outcome. Surely I've been watching long enough to know how this show works, right? Okay...predictions, but first some presuppositions:

• Someone, maybe it's the viewers...maybe it's the producers who are occasionally led by what the viewers want...will pick a winner and that winner will be presented to the public at the end of the show. The winner will be the contestant who is most likely to make money for the show, its producers, its associated companies, and its advertisers.

• Someone, perhaps the viewers or perhaps the producers, prefers that there be a balanced variation of gender and ethnicity and musical style in the winners from year to year.

Based on the above presuppositions we can look at the past winners and the current crop of contestants and predict a winner, or at least a category of likely winners, for this season. First of all, the gender/ethnicity/style categories for the past 7 seasons:

Season 1 winner: Kelly Clarkson is a white female whose singing style is, according to Wikipedia, Pop Rock. (I'm going to rely on Wikipedia for the style information so as to avoid referring to most of the female singers as "shrieking divas".)

Season 2 winner: Ruben Studdard is a black male whose singing style is Pop, R&B, and Gospel.

Season 3 winner: Fantasia I'm Too Sexy For My Last Name is a black female whose singing style is R&B.

Season 4 winner: Carrie Underwood is a white female whose singing style is Country Pop.

Season 5 winner: Taylor Hicks is a soulful white male whose singing style is Classic Rock, Blues, and R&B.

Season 6 winner: Jordan Sparks is a black female whose singing style is Pop/R&B.

Season 7 winner: David Cook is a white male whose singing style is Rock.

Okay, what do we need for balance this year? There have been 4 white winners and 3 black winners thus far, so maybe we need an ethnicity balancer. So far, none of the winners have been Latino or Asian; if we need balance we are past due for a winner in one of those ethnic categories.

There have been 4 winners who are at least partially identified with R&B, so we can have another year off from that...and there was very great rejoicing. There have been 2 winners identified with Rock music, and one of those was last year's winner, so it's highly unlikely that a rocker will win this season. Only two winners are in the Pop category (which seems odd...isn't this show all about the Pop?) so that's a ripe possibility. Carrie Underwood is the only Country singer who has managed to win thus far, and since it's been several years since her win it might be Country's turn again.

In terms of gender balance there have been 4 female winners and 3 male winners. Obviously the men need to win this year, right?

So, what do we need for our ideal winner? A male Latino Country singer! Uh oh. As far as I can tell there is no one in the Top 36 who fits that description. We need Gabe Garcia...the runner up from last year's Nashville Star. Unfortunately we ain't got him, so where do we go from here?

A male Latino Pop singer? A male Asian Pop singer? Hey, lookie there at the selection the producers thoughtfully provided for us in this year's Top 36. We have Anoop Desai, Jorge Nunez, and Kai Kalama!

I'm going to throw in another variable just for this particular year of American Idol...the Obama Factor. The USA's historic election of Barack Obama is recent enough that Americans are still in "Obama Mode" in their decision-making. I'm predicting this will affect the AI results. President Obama was born in Hawaii, although he is not of Hawaiin ethnicity, he is of mixed ethnic heritage, and he has an unusual name with a melodic flow of vowels and consonants.

Based on all of the above criteria, my prediction for winner of American Idol Season 8 is: Kai Kalama!

And Now For Something Completely Different...

2009-02-16T21:02:00.011-05:00

Sea Kelp.

"Ch" Is Also the Beginning Sound Of...

2009-02-15T16:44:00.002-05:00

CHat...which we had today with the CHeerful and CHarming Esbee of Life in Forsyth when we came upon her shopping for school snacks at Costco.

After church this morning we first stopped at Lowes to look at ceiling fans and debate which metal finish would best coordinate with the various metals in the kitchen. Then we headed to Costco to pick up a few things we were running out of.

I saw someone who looked familiar as I was distractedly wandering near the Health and Beauty department, looking for Natalie who had quickly located the soap she was sent to find and had moved on to the Dairy aisle to wait for us.

After we finally caught up with Natalie, and proved once again that all three of us adults really DO need these cell phones, I caught my breath and grabbed Natalie's arm.

Me: Did you see Esbee? I think it was Esbee, in the pink top, did you see her?

Natalie: (after trotting around corner and back) Yes, that's her!

Me: Did you say hi?

Natalie: No, that seems a little too stalkerish.

Me: (to Tom) We need two cartons of the eggs.

Me: (to Esbee who came around the corner suddenly) Hi! Are you Esbee?

Esbee: (looking ever-so-slightly wary) Yes, did I say something to offend you?

That will go down in my memory as the perfect blogger greeting. "Yes, did I say something to offend you?" It succinctly sums up the angst that so many of us feel about meeting Real People who have read what we write.

After we assured her that she had said nothing that we found offensive, and after we had introduced ourselves via our secret bloggy code names, we went on to have quite a pleasant CHat. I really enjoy getting to meet other bloggers and have speaking voices and mannerisms to put with the written "voice" I've grown used to reading.

As for Tom, he said very little as is his wont, but he was apparently also CHarmed by Esbee. CHarmed to the point that he didn't remember about the eggs I wanted him to pick up till we were all the way back home. :)

As we got done talking, Esbee CHastised me about my recent lack of blogging and CHallenged me to get back at it more frequently. Hey, at least writing this post was easier than trying to come up with CH snacks!!

Keep Left Signs?? Boo!!

2009-02-10T15:35:00.002-05:00

Now I know why I like to crochet...it's all part of my life plan to become one of these ladies:

20 balls of wool a day! I'm going to have to work up to that.

Cheating With a Facebook Meme

2009-02-06T18:03:00.003-05:00

So, on Facebook everyone who is anyone, and a lot of people who aren't, are being tagged to do this 25 Random Things About Me meme. Since not very many of my blog readers are on Facebook, and vice versa, I thought I'd let the agony of this exercise do double duty as a blog post. Because I am Lazy Like That, but y'all knew that.

1. I'm not good at doing memes.

2. Or maybe I am (sinister laugh). See how I just blew two of the items with that randomness?

3. I was very, very, extremely, terribly shy when I was a child. Except at home.

4. I got over it, but I still find it hard to function well in large groups.

5. I'm not "shy" any more, I am "introverted". Which is much more fashionable, dahlink!

6. I wanted to have 6 or 12 kids, but God in His wisdom only gave me 2. And considering how often I crave peace and quiet, that's a good thing. Although God uses my kids considerably in my sanctification, so maybe I would be more like Him by now if I had more kids?

7. My favorite color has always been blue, but now that blue is fashionable I feel my loyalty waning.

8. I don't know what to pick for a second-favorite color. I like to wear red, but saying red is your favorite color sounds so...bold, or something.

9. Pink, I could compromise and say pink. Geranium pink, leaning toward coral, not Barbie pink.

10. I love words. I get words "stuck" in my head and have to pronounce them over and over, with the emphasis on different syllables.

11. I used to be able to make snap decisions, but after I got married that ability went away. Probably because I married Mr. Analytical. Now I overthink things even more than he does. :)

12. I find it easier to talk to men than to women, to the point that I butt into male conversations most inappropriately. If I ever have to receive church discipline it will be for arguing with men about politics. I also immensely prefer having a male boss to a female one. This might be because I have two brothers and no sisters and my mom has never been the girly-girl sistery type.

13. My dad taught me to argue when I was very young. My mom says that when I was a toddler (younger than 2, at any rate) I would hang out in the bathroom to watch my dad shave. He and I would argue while he shaved. He would say something like "So, do you like that bathmat over there?" and I would say "It's not a bathmat, it's a RUG!" We would go back and forth "bathmat!" "rug!"...presumably until he got done shaving and went to finish getting ready for work. Apparently my dad can argue and shave at the same time without cutting himself. :)

14. I use adverbs such as "presumably", "apparently", "inappropriately", and "definitely" a lot. And, yes, I did check the online dictionary to verify that those were adverbs before putting them on this list.

15. I just asked Colin to help me with this by telling me a random thing about me. He said, "You stay in front of the computer almost all day." Ouch...

16. I like tea, hot or iced, no sugar or sweetener, sometimes lemon. I do not like coffee.

17. I am a cat person. I grew up having cats and dogs as pets, but never really developed a big love for dogs. I mean, I like them...I just don't want to live with them.

18. I'm a cat person to the point that I feel like I can think like a cat, which is sometimes helpful. To my cats I am The Mom Cat, and they know that if they do not obey they will be punished cat-fashion...I bop their noses lightly and hiss in their faces.

19. If you knew how really weird I am under the surface (oh, maybe you do?) you wouldn't think #18 was so strange. :)

20. I almost never feel properly dressed or comfortable in my clothes. I never have, and quite possibly (adverb!) never will.

21. I make myself a detailed to-do list every day. If I didn't I would feel as though I never accomplished anything. By "detailed" I mean I have things on there like "eat breakfast" and "read newspaper".

22. I never know what to eat for breakfast. It's supposedly (adverb!) the most important meal of the day, but I put it off for hours until I get hungry enough to just grab anything and eat. I need to have a breakfast cook on staff who will have a perfect nutritious breakfast prepared and ready for me the minute I hit the kitchen in the morning.

23. Natalie had a book when she was little called "Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch", in which the heroine of the story received a "wall-to-wall refrigerator with built-in automatic foodmaker". I want one of those.

24. My favorite season is Fall. My favorite days are cool, crisp, and sunny. Second favorite would be cool and misty.

25. Because of #24, if I could live anywhere in the US I would choose either Colorado or the Pacific Northwest. Outside of the US, I would pick Ireland. Or Wales...but I would worry about the nocturnal badgers.

What's Up?

2009-01-29T16:42:00.002-05:00

Oh bother, people, I have a blog, don't I? Someday maybe I should write a real post, eh? But here's What's Up today:

What I've Been Wasting Time Doing: Entering many giveaway drawings on the Bloggy Giveaway Quarterly Carnival-Thingy. I don't win anything, but I never give up.

What Needs Fixin' On The Blawg: My blog links are terribly out of date and don't really reflect my current blog-reading habits.

What I'm Listening To: John Mellencamp's Trouble No More album, via I-Tunes, probably uploaded by Natalie two computers ago.

What I'm Thinking: John Mellencamp will always be John Cougar or John Cougar Mellencamp to people my age. Who does he think he's fooling? And will he write a new version of "To Washington" for President Obama? And when John Cougar was John Cougar were cougars called cougars...and if you don't know what that means you will have to go research it for yourself because I couldn't find any links without stinky language.

What's For Supper: Chicken and Stuffing Casserole, carrot coins, and that's about it. "Carrot Coins" has such a school lunch sound to it.

What's On The Needles: One Row Lace Scarf in a bright red shade of TLC Cotton Plus. Beginner's lace with inexpensive yarn, because I need something bright to wear with a black outfit and I wasn't prepared to sink a lot of cash and heartache into it.

What I'm Reading: Too many blog posts and message board threads and not nearly enough real books.

What I Should Do Right Now: Get up from this chair and go finish supper before the at-work people get home.

Interview Time

2009-01-15T17:26:00.003-05:00

This is a meme going around. The questions I'm answering were given to me by Cathy at It Will Be Funny Tomorrow. These are the rules, if you'd like to join in:

1. If you want to participate, leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.” (And your e-mail address if I don't already have it, please.)
2. I will respond by e-mailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Here are the questions Cathy asked me, along with my answers. Some of these were easier than others!

1. Name a person that you admire who has profoundly changed your life and tell us why.

My husband. It might be a little cliched to say this, because marriage is supposed to profoundly change us, so it's not unexpected. But, marrying Tom changed my view of myself in many, many ways. He has always seen potential in me that I don't see in myself, and beauty where I certainly don't see it. I admire him for, among other things, his strength, calmness, and tenacity and trust in God in the face of any kind of adversity. He daily deals with things on his job that would completely do me in, and yet he gets up every morning and faithfully goes in to do battle again. He brings that kind of tenacity and calm to our marriage and family and I would not be the same person I am now without him.

2. What would you most like to be remembered for?

I would like people to say when I am gone that I glorified God in my daily life, and that I was a godly wife and mother. I am very, very far from that ideal.

3. What is your favorite comfort food?

Fried meat (fried chicken, chicken fried steak, or fried pork chops) with mashed potatoes and cream gravy!

4. Tell us one dream you have yet to accomplish, and whether or not you think you'll ever be able to accomplish it.

I would like to visit Ireland, and at this point I don't have any reason to think I will be able to do that. Times change, though, so maybe in years to come it will happen.

5. How are you most comfortable sleeping (be as detailed or brief as you like)

We have a king-sized bed because I am most comfortable sleeping on My.Own.Side of the bed with nobody touching me! I sleep mostly on my left side, with a down-alternative pillow for my head and a squishier pillow to hold. I like flannel sheets in the winter, and flannel top sheet in the summer. I like the room to be cold enough that I can cocoon under my covers without getting hot. I prefer my covers to be untucked at the bottom so I can arrange them around me however I like without my feet feeling trapped. I like several layers of very lightweight blankets rather than one big heavy comforter.

If a cat is sleeping with us, I want her to be either against my back and not pushing or shoving or else over on Tom's side of the bed. I like the room to be as dark and quiet as possible but I don't need white noise. If Tom has to have the ceiling fan running I can tolerate it, but my preference is to not have it blowing on me. If someone else in the house has to get up before me, I prefer that they just go ahead and bang doors and turn on lights. I may or may not be able to sleep through that, but someone sneaking around softly closing doors, tiptoeing, and whispering will always wake me up!

Okay then, I guess you can see what's important to me in life...sheesh! :) I'm a picky sleeper, I admit it.

Leave me a comment if you want to be interviewed and I'll start thinking up some questions.

Things I Am Pondering Thinking About

2009-01-08T13:59:00.002-05:00

•Is Colin going to need braces? I hope not, but his teeth are a mess right now, so it's hard to say. If we take him for an orthodontia consult they'll want to put a palate expander or somesuch on him. $$$

•How much I love my washer and dryer. My washer, in particular, is a technological marvel compared to what I've had before. It uses less water, but lets me do a full-immersion wash and double rinse if I want to. Best of all, it spins the clothes out so thoroughly that the washer and dryer finish their respective cycles in just about the same amount of time. I started doing laundry at 8:15 this morning and just now put the 6th load in the washer, a mere 6 hours later.

•How little I understand the economy. Or maybe how little I understand the true depths of sinfulness of the human heart.

•What to cook for dinner. It's looking like a Chicken and Rice night...heads up to the family members returning from work.

•If I make Pear Crisp with the pears that are ripening/spoiling in the garage should I follow the recipe and add the Craisins to it? Will they contaminate the whole mixture so that the Craisin Hater in our house can't eat it?

•What would make our microwave door stop functioning properly? It has one of those "push button to open" kind of deals, and it's taking two or three firm pushes followed by prying at the door with a fingernail to get it opened.

•Still pondering the craft projects. I think I'm going to attempt thick socks with worsted weight yarn before making myself go blind using the thin sock yarn. I might also make myself a decorative scarf...the kind that looks good rather than keeps warm. Natalie got me a black top for Christmas and if I wear it with black pants I'll need something to inject some color or people will think I'm from New York.

•Trying not to think about the new Consumer Protection Act that might/could/will totally screw up the American manufacturing sector. Said sector is out there, it's just composed right now of very small businesses. To my little pea brain it seems like the best course of action would be to regulate and test toys and products coming from China, and encourage small American manufacturers to create alternatives.

•Wondering if the item above means I should be stockpiling fabric, yarn, etc.? Those things will probably have to be certified, too, right? Which should mean that they'll be getting ever more expensive. I have a pretty healthy stash of cross-stitching supplies, but not much in the way of yarn. Well, maybe the government is showing me which way to go with my crafting? Hmmm....

•Considering "raising the bar to walk effortlessly underneath":

Crafting Conundrum

2009-01-05T16:21:00.004-05:00

As I head into 2009, I've been pondering what direction my crafting efforts should be taking next. I know, I know, a bunch of you just said "She's yammering indecisively about crafts again...kill me now!"

Here's where I am, crafting-wise. I am currently crocheting an afghan/throw to put on the back of our loveseat. It's a simple repetitive pattern, just a giant granny square that changes color with each round. It's creating exactly the effect I want, but it's not terribly stimulating or challenging work. Obviously every project can't be challenging, though, or I'd never be able to watch TV.

In cross-stitch I have one project currently in progress and one completely kitted and in my work bag. The one I'm currently working on is a Prairie Schooler alphabet piece featuring fruits and vegetables. As soon as it is done I will frame it and hang it on the little piece of soffit that conceals the range vent above the kitchen cabinets.

The other piece I have ready to start on is Fleurs de Provence by Sweetheart Tree. It's a lot more intricate stitching than the PS piece, which is why I have them both in my bag at the same time. I am supposed to be switching off between them, but I haven't been in a "difficult stitching mood" for a while, I guess.

But now I'm wondering what, if anything, I should work on after these things are done. Or what I should slot into each category when I get the item from that category finished. After pondering this for some time, all I seem to come up with is problems. For instance...

Knitting: I'm a beginning knitter, but having finally mastered purling I could stretch my skills by moving on to something (ANYTHING!!) other than dishcloths. But...I don't wear sweaters, Tom doesn't wear sweaters, Colin doesn't wear sweaters, and Natalie buys or knits the sweaters she wants. None of us wear mittens, and gloves are beyond my comprehension. We have plenty of hats right now, although that might be an option in the future. Tom and I each have a scarf and that's really all we need; Colin would like a scarf but would not wear it and would probably lose it. I attempted socks yesterday, and discovered that I can at least begin socks...I can use dpns and I can work in the round, but I may go blind and batty in the process. So...maybe not socks, either.

Crochet: Again with the issues of sweaters, mittens, gloves, scarves, etc. I could make an afghan for the big couch and one for the chair, but I'm not sure if we really want that much afghan-age in our decor. Maybe.

Cross-Stitch: My walls are starting to fill up to the point of Tasteful Simplicity. Now, I know with cross-stitch it is possibly to create an attractive look of Massed Groups of Needlework, and I actually like that look. But I'm in the in-between point, and I'm not sure if I have the decorating skills to choose the right pieces to stitch to begin moving in the MG direction.

Which brings me, in all three categories, to the point all crafters reach eventually...the point where we begin to think about crafting for gifts or profit. I'll rule profit out right away. Right now I'm not interested in the kind of time pressures and extra work that would be involved in marketing any of my crafting. I doubt that the market would be there in this economy, anyway.

Giving away crafts is a really, really touchy thing. Basically you are giving something either to decorate a person's home or to clothe them, and they have no way to return it if it is not to their taste. I know my immediate family well enough to craft for them. (See above about all the crafted things they DON'T need.) I've also cross-stitched one piece for my mom, and she liked it and displays it. Beyond that, though, I'm afraid I'd be wading into treacherous waters. My dad wears sweaters, so if I were to develop some Sweater Skills he would be a possible ~~victim~~ recipient.

Ideally, I need to have a bunch of friends and relatives start reproducing soon. Babies are the best victims for knit and crocheted objects. Baby afghans are fun, fairly easy, and almost all new mothers like them. (Or are really good at faking appreciation.) Beyond afghans, there are little knitted bibs and sweaters and other sweet things which look cute and are not huge time commitments. Here again, though, I think the crafter has to pick her victims carefully. I don't know if any of the young women I know are like this, but I have heard of young moms who would never put something homemade on their child. And, of course, there are always taste issues. We who craft usually think of ourselves as having good taste...but one person's zesty fun purple and lime ripple afghan is another person's nightmare.

So, that's where I am at now. Fill my house with more afghans? Make sweaters for people who don't wear them? Find some needful and beautiful item to make that I haven't thought of yet? Bribe my friends and relatives to have children?

Any ideas?

Evermore and Evermore

2008-12-24T14:57:00.002-05:00

Well, here it is Christmas Eve and I haven't posted in forever. This Christmas season has not been particularly busy or hectic around our house, so I can't use that as an excuse. In fact, we went out of our way this year to plan a modest, frugal celebration. (I don't know why the pile under the tree looks as big as any other year...optical illusion?)

What has been happening is that, in the midst of holiday preparations and events, my mind has been swirling with ideas and decisions to be made about a plethora of issues.* None of these things is earth-shattering in importance, none of them had to be dealt with right now, but all of them kept filling my thoughts so that thinking of something to blog about became a chore I didn't want to deal with.

*Issues, among others, include: refinancing our mortgage since the rates are pitifully low, helping my parents figure out their health insurance, finding a new pair of supportive shoes, picking a good location to plant blackberries, wondering if I should join Amazon Prime. (See, nothing earth-shattering.)

But it's Christmas Eve, all the gifts we've bought are wrapped and under the tree, all the food prep I can do for tomorrow is done, Tom is home from work, even the cats are both inside. It's starting to get cloudy outside, it's already cold (North Carolina cold, at any rate), and now my head is clearing and I'm finally starting to celebrate in my heart.

Tonight we will go to the Rogers' house for prayer meeting. Since it's Christmas Eve we will sing many wonderful Christmas carols, and I will be in wonder yet again at how much great doctrine is packed into those hymns.

Here's my favorite. This was written by Aurelius Prudentius Clemens as a response to the heresy of Arianism. Arius believed that Jesus Christ did not exist from eternity past along with God, but at some point came into being. That's a very quick and dirty summary, read the link for more specifics.

Sunday morning we had a service of Scripture readings and Advent hymns. Two of the men of our church sang this hymn, with one of them playing guitar. I wish I had a recording of that performance to share, but this one will have to do instead. I do like that this one shows the words; they are definitely worth reading.

Merry Christmas!

Because Natalie is laughing too hard to post this first...

2008-12-16T14:17:00.001-05:00

This is SO stupid, it just IS. But somehow it's more than the sum of its parts...or something.

Please Leave A Message After The Beep

2008-12-12T13:16:00.002-05:00

Hello, this is Beth's blog. Beth ~~is not here right now~~ is really here but is screening her calls. She doesn't have any good excuses for not blogging. She hadn't promised to say anything profound. She doesn't leave the house to Christmas shop. Her children are being reasonably well-behaved. Nobody is sick right now.

There is this thing tomorrow night to be gotten over with. But other than making a couple of easy side-dishes and cooking two hams and shopping for a bunch of stuff, she doesn't have much responsibility for the thing.

She has been sleeping just fine. She has been drinking plenty of tea. She may not be eating right because she can't think of anything that sounds good to eat. In some people that might lead to weight loss, but we don't need to worry about that here.

So, leave your message if you have one. Talk about the Chicago politics, the Christmas parties, the Big 3 Bailout. Or just watch this and pick your favorite Chicago cuisine. Beth prefers the Italian Beef.

Taxonomy Of Leftovers

2008-12-01T18:27:00.002-05:00

If one makes a casserole dish of leftover mutton (a fancy name for sheep!), some vegetables, and gravy, and tops it with mashed potatoes, one has made Shepherd's Pie.

On the other hand, if one makes the same dish with leftover beef, one has made Cottage Pie.

But, if one makes the same dish with leftover turkey, what has one made?

First, we (the "one" thing was getting awkward) must decide whether the resulting dish should be named after an occupation or a dwelling. Which leads us (or one of us) to wonder why Cottage Pie is not called "Cattle Rancher's Pie"? Do people who live in cottages never eat sheep? Do shepherds never live in cottages?

Turkey Herder's Pie? Suburban Ranch House Pie? Poultryman's Pie? What is the correct title for someone who raises poultry? Do people who live in McMansions ever eat things like this? Since nobody who lives here raises animals for a living, do we name the pie according to our occupations? Photoshop Wranglers Pie? Mom Of All Trades Pies? And why is this dish even called "pie" when it has not a morsel of pastry in it?

So many questions, and sadly, so few answers.

I do know one thing: If I don't go deal with the gravy that is bubbling over the edge of the dish, we may be naming it Smoked Out/Burned Down Hovel Pie.

As Usual, I Am Ahead Of The Trend

2008-11-26T09:25:00.002-05:00

I can't do NaBloPoMo. I freely admit that, and I finally know myself well enough, at my advanced age and all, to not even set myself up for that kind of failure.

But without my readers even realizing it, I have been a part of a new movement in the blogosphere. The future of blogging, what the really cool kids do. I didn't want to scare y'all earlier and make you feel inadequate as you try to reach the high standard I'm setting. But now that it's become national news, I think it's time to be open with you, my readership.

I am a Slow Blogger.

Yes, we are out there, and we are a force to be reckoned with. We're not the Taco Bell of blogs, the blogs you gulp down on the way to soccer practice, the blogs that make you get up all night long with food poisoning...well, okay, maybe the analogy breaks down after a while.

But we are the Slow Food of blogging. I think we need a logo.

But first, a blog post.

2008-11-25T17:01:00.003-05:00

Which is what I said to myself a few minutes ago, after looking over my to-do list for the sixty-seven bazillionth time today. Update accounts, make apple crisp topping, clean monitor, eBay searches, order gift cards, strain gravy base...but first, a blog post.

•Okay, first of all, looking at that list of what's left to do today, I don't feel too bad. I got a lot of things done, and I don't even have to finish most of those. The gravy base won't wait, but everything else will.

•We now have one completely working phone. Well, if you don't want to wander too far with it. The cord is from the bedroom phone and it's a bit short, so there's no picking up the receiver and walking to someplace comfy to sit.

•BUT, two new classic Trimline phones are on their way from Radio Shack, and there was very great rejoicing. These are exactly like the phone we have in the kitchen now, except they are black. One is going in the bedroom, and one in the kitchen, and if I could have bought a more retro phone I would have.

•I could have. But I didn't want to spend that much. Or this much. And that, my friends, is called knowing one's priorities. It's just a phone, and I hate talking on the phone, but...oh my, that is a pretty red phone. A pretty red phone which would end up falling on the floor because my husband insists he can't walk around phones that big without banging into them with his shoulders.

•I will end the suspense now. My middle name is Jane, and not after Jane Austen as far as I know, Rebecca. Your grandparents are not Austen fans, and your grandpa who will read every billboard on the highway (out loud!) just to have something to read, won't read her books.

•A shout-out to my nephew, Jim, who has moved to the Chicago burbs to go to school. Hey, Jim! We will miss you at Thanksgiving, especially when we get to the "McQwilkin, no child left behind" part of the proceedings. :) You should start a blog, in your spare time you know, and keep us up-to-date on what you're doing!

•At Thanksgiving I miss living further north, for just one reason. It's cold enough there almost every year that the back porch can become a back-up refrigerator. Every year I think that we should look into buying a second fridge for holiday gatherings, but I'm not sure where we'd put it.

•The rest of the year I think a second freezer would be nice. So I probably need both, right? Or would the cost of extra electricity to run them be outrageous. So many things to think about, so few really interesting things to blog about. :)

•Tom and Colin installed an electronic thermostat on our...well, what does one install a thermostat on? The "system"? The furnace? The wall! They installed it on the wall. :)

•If we save large sums of money on our heating and cooling bills, I will be sure to let y'all know.

•Biggest advantage I've noticed thus far with the new thermostat? It has nice large numbers, so I can see what it's set on without having to stand on the other side of the hall and look at it sideways.

Okay, it's almost 5:30, and I've got nothing interesting left, not that I had anything interesting to start with. Time to go make some supper and get this gravy base taken care of. There will probably be some blogging going on over the holiday weekend; I will most likely not be the one doing it...check in with Natalie and Rebecca for up-to-the-minute accounts of the festivities. If it snows we'll send John out on the road with a camera and a ruler.

6 Random Things

2008-11-18T17:54:00.002-05:00

Okay, so Rebecca tagged me for this eons ago, but I am very bad about memes. I'm not even sure I can think of six things about myself that I haven't blabbed about at great length already.

I'm going to break the law and not post the rules or tag anybody. So there.

Six Things:

1. I hate talking on the phone, and this is not a problem right now because we don't have any phones that work. The kitchen phone is broken where the cord attaches to the handset, so to use it you have to hold the cord in while talking. Our bedroom phone makes an annoying clicking noise the entire time it is in use. And Natalie's bedroom phone doesn't hold a charge once you get it off the base; it's good for a short conversation and that's it. Obviously we need to buy some phones. These ones are at least 11 years old if we put them in new when we built the house. But we might have brought them from the apartment, so who knows?

2. My hair has always been curly to some degree or another. It is curlier when it is long than when it is short. Hair stylists always say things like "We could cut it off short and it would just curl up so cute!" But it won't. If it's short, it's just bendy instead of curly...and it bends in all the wrong places. The more gray hairs I get the curlier it gets. On the right side of my head I have a couple of hunks of hair that form double helix curl patterns as they dry.

3. I don't like ketchup. The only way I will eat ketchup is the way I will be eating it tonight: combined with Other Ingredients and put on top of meatloaf as a baked-on sauce. The Philistines I Live With will scrape this off and put cold ketchup on their meatloaf.

4. As of last weekend I now know how to both knit and purl! Because I am strange, the only way I can knit is Continental and the only way I can purl is Norwegian. Oh, and I do a German Twisted cast-on. I am the UN of knitting.

5. For my first real knitting project I am making fingerless gloves/mitts/wrist warmers. I could have used them today because it is COLD in here.

6. My middle name is four letters long. I was born in the age when many parents gave their children standard throw-away middle names, but even though mine is very plain it is not one of the usual ones. At least not where I grew up. The standards there were Lynn, Ann, and Marie. Maybe mine was standard somewhere else. The only explanation I've heard is that my mom wanted it to be my first name and my dad didn't, so this was the compromise. I like my name now, both first and middle, but I didn't like it when I was a kid. All the cool girls had names like "Dawn" or "Traci"...or anything ending in "i", for that matter.

Phew...that was painful. All done. More later. Time to eat the meatloaf.

It's Another Manic Monday

2008-11-10T16:01:00.002-05:00

A few random bits of life:

• Over at Casubon's Book, Sharon Astyk's blog, folks are pledging to learn how to do things that they've told themselves they couldn't do. I'm joining The Competence Project; my goals are to learn how to purl so I can knit something other than a dishcloth, and to learn how to have a decent garden in the South. Go check it out and ask yourself if there's anything you've decided you can't learn.

• Something I'm thinking about: How can we slow down Thanksgiving dinner so that we're savoring the food and fellowship instead of gulping and ranting? I very much enjoy cooking holiday food, but it doesn't feel right to spend hours cooking and 15 minutes eating. Ideas on the table, so to speak, as of now: eating in courses, eating buffet style, spreading seating out more so that the groups are more relaxed, keep food hot and available for a longer time. Any ideas from readers, be they family members or friends or interested bystanders, gratefully accepted!

• Whilst catching up on the newspapers this weekend:

Me (reading article in Saturday's paper about Maya Angelou): It says here that 'Angelou now feels a new poem welling up inside her after Barack Obama's election'

Tom (from the depths of Wednesday or Thursday's paper): Nah, she's just constipated.

• Things I got done today: organizing my yarn piles in the living room, coralling a crochet project into its designated bag, lots of laundry, library books in the bag ready to be returned, more things that I forgot to write down on my to-do list and therefore have forgotten.

• Key to a feeling of achievement: write it on the to-do list, even if you just finished to-doing it.

• Oh, yes, today I fretted about lead in my dishes. After searching the vast reaches of the Internet I could find no information as to whether transferware made in the UK in the 1970s is likely to have dangerous levels of lead or not. We tested it with a cheap kits from the hardware store, and it tested as being safe. But I just heard recently that those tests aren't always accurate, and don't reflect what happens when you heat things in the microwave or eat acidic foods off the plates, etc. Still no answers.

• When I read on the Internet about lead in dishes, I'm tempted to reach the conclusion that there are only a few safe things to eat off of: solid white Corelle (but not the cups), clear glass, and Melmac. But the Melmac is plastic, and maybe it has BPAs? And if Melmac is melamine is it okay to eat off of it as long as you don't grind it up and add it to your food? Maybe I should pick the big leaves of my mom's magnolia tree and fashion natural plates out of them?

Time to go eat an apple and read the newspaper, the last things on my list. Oh, wait, there's still a load of towels in the dryer. Job security!

Why I Am Happy Obama Won...

2008-11-07T16:52:00.004-05:00

...even though I didn't vote for him.

Well, this is Friday, and I thought I'd have posted about the election by now. But we were up late Tuesday night, of course, and then we were up late Wednesday night, too. Wednesday and Thursday I was just too tired to put my thoughts together.

Last night I dreamed I had written a brilliant blog post explaining all my thoughts about the election. In that post, I weighed all the pros and cons of the different positions and drew very insightful conclusions about the impact of the election.

When I woke up I thought to myself "Oh, how wonderful to dream of the perfect words. I need to lie here for a minute and just get them fixed in my mind." Oops, too late, of course they were gone. Now I'm left to muddle through without the guidance of my apparently brilliant, but who will ever know, sleeping mind! Of course there are all kinds of gaps in my logic that you could, and some of you will, drive a truck through. But here it is, anyway.

• God's will was done. This may because He wants to use our new president to bless us, or it may be that He intends to use him to punish us. It may be that we will not know in our lifetimes what God's purpose was in appointing President Obama, but we know it is for His glory and our good.

• I am happy for my African American neighbors and friends. I do not believe that the color of a person's skin makes him any different from anyone else. The Bible clearly teaches that God created all of us from "one blood". We have many different physical characteristics, but we are all one human race, created in God's image. But people who look like me, my ancestors, stole people who look like Barack Obama, his ancestors, and cruelly made slaves of them based on their belief that they were less than human because of how they looked.

We all know that even after slavery was abolished, black people were treated as lesser citizens for many, many years. In many places and by many people they are still treated poorly, based solely on the color of their skin. If these people are rejoicing that someone who looks like them was elected President, then I want to rejoice with them! Yes, of course, we should instead be saying "The best man for the job was elected. What color is his skin? Oh, he looked tanner/paler/redder than me, does that matter?" But when our country's history has been stained by such sinful prejudice for so many years, it does have meaning that we've taken even this one small step in the right direction.

• This is an opportunity for Christians to stop putting their trust in politics, and more particularly in the Republican party.

• However, having said that, if the Republican party wants to go back to any kind of righteous stance on "social issues" this is their big chance. I rather doubt that this will happen, though.

• I am happy that we will now have a president who can exhibit gravitas in his speech and actions. It's been 16 years; it's about time.

• I am happy that the Obamas seem to be a loving couple who are trying to have a good marriage and raise their children well in spite of the public spotlight.

• I am happy that the Obamas claim to be Christians. I pray that they will find themselves a good church in Washington where they will hear the true, unadulterated Word of God preached, and where they will be held accountable and encouraged to live out their professed beliefs.

• I am glad that our new president wants to end the war in Iraq, and I am thankful that he was never in favor of it in the first place. I know it may not be possible at this point to end it quickly. But I am thankful that we will have a president who at least professes that he would not take us to war against a nation who did not attack us. I hope and pray he will maintain that position and that he will be used to change our country's hostile relationship with other countries.

Yes, of course there are negatives to having Barack Obama elected as our president. I could not vote for him because of his position on abortion. He may or may not be telling the truth about his associations with some of the people he has been accused of being associated with. If he does owe them anything in the way of respect or favors that could be very bad.

Those are the things that bother me. The fact that he may want to raise my taxes, or that he is "moving us to Socialism", or that he may plan to institute a national health plan, or that he may not be as happy about people owning piles of guns as Sarah Palin was, or any number of similar things he's been accused of, doesn't bother me nearly so much. Sure, I would be irritated if our taxes go up, but they're going to go up no matter who is president anyway. Sure, a national health plan might be hard to adjust to. But those are material things, and my security should not be in material things. I may have "rights" that are given to me by the Constitution of the United States, but those are not rights guaranteed to me by God.

One final thing. In the days since the election I have seen some people online talking about wanting to leave the US because of the results of the election. Some of them have mentioned moving to Canada. Please, people, do a little research before you say things like that. Sure, Hollywood's finest made a big point of saying they'd move to Canada or France in 2004 if Bush was re-elected. Just a hint here...they weren't headed to either of those countries because of the excess of freedom and capitalism to be found there. Maybe y'all could move to Alaska and join that secessionist party they have there?

10 Things Tuesday--Visual Edition

2008-11-04T18:07:00.000-05:00

Ahh...my tech support team are home. They got it fixed for me!

So Natalie and Rebecca are doing Ten Things Tuesday again this week, and again the theme is "Things That Make Me Smile".

Ahem...did either of you notice that today is Election Day?? Smiling on Election Day? Hmmmppphhh... Shouldn't there be a really good Calvinist joke about Election Day? Yeah, I thought so, too. Let me know if you find it.

Until then, ten visuals, political for the most part, that make me smile:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Arrggghhhh....10 Things Tuesday!

2008-11-04T16:25:00.003-05:00

So, I tried to do a "Ten Things Tuesday" post. I thought I would be so clever and it would all be pictures, so I spent way too much time tracking down funny captioned pictures from LOLCats and others. Pictures with a political theme to fit the day. Got them all arranged and the codes entered properly (as far as I know, anyway). And now they won't work. Blogger doesn't like the HTML on them.

So you don't get funny pictures, you get crankiness.

(Grabbing self by scruff of neck and administering stern shaking.)

Okay, we'll try it analog. Ten Things That Make Me Smile

1. God is still in control!

2. Elections don't last forever!

3. Maple leaves in the fall

4. The return to Eastern Standard Time

5. Plump lazy cats holding down the furniture

6. Comfort food on a chilly night

7. Cross-stitching while listening to the TV

8. Colin cleaning his room all by himself!

9. Incandescent lights on a dreary day

10. Driving over acorns

The Waiting Is The Hardest Part

2008-10-29T15:45:00.003-04:00

Ever have one of those days/lives when it feels like everything is held in suspense? Or do I mean "held in suspension"? Because I started to type that first, and then thought that sounded more like what happens when you mix a solid with a liquid in chemistry class. Or is that "in solution"?

I have a jury duty notice for tomorrow. I am waiting for it to be after 5:00PM so I can call the automated system and find out if I have to go in. My number is 7. You know, the "good" number in the Bible (I think the lengths to which people can take Biblical numerology are a bit out there, but the 7 thing IS there in Scripture) so does that count for anything? If it was 666 maybe they wouldn't want me to come in, eh?

Jury duty isn't a BAD thing per se; it's just a disruption of my life and I don't do disruption very well. My body is used to waking up slowly and getting breakfast when it's good and ready to digest it, and having two big cups of tea before coping with school work...things like that. Getting up at the crack of dawn and running downtown to the courthouse (to stand outside in the cold till they let us into the secured building!) is just too painful to think about right now. So I'm fretting. It's 3:52, so an hour and a few minutes till I can call and learn my fate.

Then there's the election next week. I've wracked my brain to come up with way to justify voting for any of the presidential candidates allowed on the NC ticket. No go. I saw a blog post where someone described it as being not the "lesser of two evils" this year, but the "different of two evils". That really sums it up for me. Which form of evil do I want to support? Yikes!

Just getting to vote this year is a major ordeal because some people who have never voted before are coming out in droves to impact the election. Well, good for them! I mean that sincerely, and I hope, hope, hope they've educated themselves about the options before making their choice. But fighting crowds does not make doing one's civic duty any more pleasant or enjoyable to look forward to.

Lesser things to wait for...well, I guess I'm somewhat fretted about whether any of the rest of us will get Colin's cold. But it's not a big hairy deal. I always fret about what Colin may or may not do when he's sick, but since I try not to horrify people too much that's all the more I'll say about that.

Okay, typing that all out helped some, I think. Jury duty will either happen or not happen. Side note: I wonder if juries are still supposed to be composed of one's peers? How many forty-something home school moms are criminals? The only time I've done jury duty before was in Illinois, and there I ended up being an alternate on a rape trial. I most assuredly do NOT consider myself a "peer" with the hastily-scrubbed-up-and-trimmed-and-put-into-a-suit scumbag of a defendant. At least not in the legal or worldly sense...in the sense that he and I are both descendants of Adam and inheritors of Adam's sin I guess we were pretty much peers.

Hey, we went to a daintz Friday night! It was encouraging to be with other families who are attempting to train their children in the faith. It was fun to get to meet some of Natalie's bloggy friends and their parents. It was not fun to learn that the equation tom+extreme fatigue+no-doz+thumping music+spinning people+photography=dizziness. Again with the worrying, because when he told me he needed to go outside and get some air because he was dizzy the only thing I could think was that he'd gotten food poisoning or was having a heart attack. As it turned out, just getting away from the visual and aural stimuli cleared his head and he was fine from there on out.

It was great to watch an older couple who looked like they had been square dancing for decades. They kept up with the young people with absolutely no problem; I don't think they even broke a sweat. The young people seemed to have a good time. Natalie said one of her bloggy friends told her she didn't look the same as on her blog...she was probably giving him the homeschooled glare of death or something. But I know what he meant, because I had seen pictures of several of the people there and it was still an odd disconnect to put voices together with faces and to see the faces and bodies in motion. I also found that I built up personality "pictures" in my mind for a couple of people based on their writing styles, and had to suddenly drastically alter that picture upon meeting the people. Which is why it's good to get out and fellowship with people instead of relying on the Internet for socialization, I guess. :)

4:13 PM...less than an hour till the verdict on jury duty. Colin has just placed, using magnetic letters, an "I", an "A", a "1", and a "3" on the fridge and wants me to tell him what's missing. Uh??

Edited at 5:21 PM...they want jurors 81-256. Happy for me, not so happy for those folks...unless they wanted to go, in which case I wish them well. :)

When life hands you lemons...

2008-10-23T13:42:00.002-04:00

Or when brothers hand you blog posts...

Jim's questions from the comments in bold...my replies with bullet points.

- Have you been practicing your "Men Without Hats" impersonations?

• I plan to act real rude and totally removed...and also like an imbecile.

- How did Dad get back through security? I'm glad this happened in Phoenix and not in some place like Chicago. Btw, how did they wind up routed through PHX? What sort of weird ticket is that?

•He showed his ID at the ticket counter and got duplicate papers.

•Amen! But they did it at O'Hare last time, too.

•It's the cheapest way to get to Bend without having two or three stops at places like Newark or DC.

•Ask your brother.

- What sort of dance is this? Will there be {shudder} body contact involved?

•Square

•It depends on how badly they trip over each other.

- Will there be an overbearing homeschool MWAP "in charge" who determines which of the fifteen verses of each Martin Luther hymn you must dance to? (Yes, now IS the time on Shprockets vhen ve dance!)

•We can only hope!

•Who skips verses??

- I have a denim jumper.

•With a whacking great flag pin on it?

- Whatever you do, don't wear the wrong trousers.

•Ex-NASA! Fantastic for walkies!

- Who/what is Colin dressing up as for All Hallows Even? Will you slaughter any livestock?

•We're planning on Joe the Plumber right now, but there's always the scarecrow option.

•If they come to our door!

- Why does Colin have a pink eraser? Perhaps he'd do better with something that's manly white.

•Because they don't make "Blue Pearl" erasers?

•Are you eraser-racist?

- Ten more days till DST ends, then our evening meals will be plunged into darkness and despair... and not because of the menu.

•Quit feeding those kids those awful hunks of meat, they want veggies!

See, that was easy. If I could do that every day I could do NaBloPoMo. Anybody want to volunteer to write lengthy comments for me everyday?

You Can't Always Get What You Want

2008-10-22T10:39:00.002-04:00

But if you try sometimes, well you just might find, you get...um...random Wednesday bullet points?

•My parents made it to Oregon and back with only one incident...Dad went off in search of milkshakes at the Phoenix airport and ended up outside the security checkpoint without his ticket and boarding pass.

•Dad is not senile, he has always wandered off...usually at state parks, airports, or convention centers, and always leaving Mom stranded.

•The earliest wandering incident I know of was when he took me and two of my cousins for "short walk" at a state park and got us lost. I was young enough at the time that I have no memory of this, but my cousins and my mom remember it vividly.

•Apparently we are attending a dance this Friday. I was going to say we were attending it "en famille" but when I looked that up it turns out that means staying at home with one's family. We are attending "en masse".

•When I type the word "dance" consider it pronounced "daintz" or "dayuhntz".

•Because I said so.

•I am pretty much in a torment of introverted spazziness about this shindig. We are going to a town I've never been to, and meeting a bunch of people I've never met, and I will probably have to Talk To People.

•What does one wear to one of these things if one is not going to dance? These people are homeschoolers, some of them, and from a church somewhat like ours...so denim jumpers?

•Ha! Homeschool joke. :)

•I do have a denim jumper, but it's too big for me. I'm saving it for when the economy totally tanks and we need to reupholster something.

•Slacks would be most comfortable...I hate the word "slacks", and the word "trousers". But when you're on message boards with Brits they make fun of you for saying you're wearing "pants" because that means undies to them.

•Someone in this household is being obstreperous and objecting to cutting his/her hair to make his/her Halloween costume more authentic.

•We have a complicated and inconsistent family position on Halloween. Sometimes we let our kids go trick-or-treating and sometimes we celebrate Reformation Day instead.

•Should a homeschooling mother really have to tell her son, as I did just now, "Use your pink eraser to erase your desk!"? Math a la Colin.

•Fall is here, fall is here, fall is here!!! My favorite season of the year!!!

•Now if we could just get back on Standard time, life would be wonderful!

•In Arizona they don't switch to Daylight Saving Time. John McCain is from AZ. I wonder if he would make it law that the rest of us don't have to switch.

•Because I might could be persuaded to vote for him if he'd do that.

•Anybody who thinks getting $5K per year to purchase a family's insurance with is a good deal has not priced insurance lately.

•So there I go getting political again, and then I'll get sarcastic. And that's why I can't go out in public. To daintzes and things like that.

•Last night I stitched after not getting any stitching done for several days. But the two projects I have kitted up and in my bag are not thrilling me at all right now.

•They are things I will like a lot when I get done with them, but the stitching is tedious.

•Later today I'll pull out my Big Box O' Stash and kit up something else less finicky. I have this pattern, and I have fabric and floss to make it with, and I have a spot in the kitchen to hang it, and I have a frame to frame it with.

•So, that looks like one obvious choice. But maybe something else will catch my eye...we'll see.

•Okay, this is becoming an even more boring post than usual so I will put y'all out of your misery and stop!

Advent = Countdown???

2008-10-07T13:35:00.004-04:00

Today I am doing some school planning. Mostly just sorting through the next few months' worth of schoolwork that Colin's going to do...making sure I have things I need, printing out some worksheets, requesting books from the library, organizing, that kind of thing.

But I needed a break for lunch, and while I was eating I looked at some crafty blogs and on one of them saw this. Do what??!

Okay, so maybe this one writer just made up this term to be cute. Google is my friend. Let's see: we have this here, and this here, and look...another one!

Now here's the Webster's definition of "advent":

1: the period beginning four Sundays before Christmas and observed by some Christians as a season of prayer and fasting

2 a: the coming of Christ at the Incarnation b: second coming

3 not capitalized : a coming into being or use Advent of spring> Advent of pasteurization> Advent of personal computers>

(Do you like how the Websters site says "not capitalized" for the 3rd definition and then capitalizes the word in the examples?)

So, maybe the 3rd definition works for these...these...Halloween Countdown Calendars. But if we stretch it like that then shouldn't they be saying "countdown calendar to the advent of Halloween"? Or "fun way to count down the days to the advent of Halloween"? But it wouldn't really be the "advent" of Halloween, now would it? The advent of this year's Halloween celebration? Maybe.

I hate to be cliched (actually I don't, do I?) but this is yet another Inigo Montoya moment. This word they keep using just doesn't mean what they think it means!

Advent Calendars are presumable derived from Advent Wreaths which were designed to commemorate Advent, the four Sundays before Christmas. Advent Calendars don't really celebrate Advent so much as serve as a countdown guide for anxious little kids waiting for Christmas Day. But they are at least tangentially related to the Advent and Christmas season.

I should clarify that I'm not arguing about this on a doctrinal or theological basis. We don't have proof that Christ was born on December 25th, and not all Christians celebrate Christmas, but some do, and both sides have strong arguments in favor of their way of doing things.

My gripe is solely about the appropriation and misuse of the word "advent". Words mean things, people. (Excuse me, I used to listen to Rush a LONG TIME AGO!)

I just read on the NASA website that the next launch of the space shuttle Endeavour (they use the British spelling?!) is scheduled for November 14th. That's also my brother's birthday...hmmm... Guess I'd better get my school work done quickly and get to work crafting a dual-purpose Endeavour Launch/David's Birthday Advent!

Jet Dry

2008-10-06T19:31:00.002-04:00

Whenever I am rilly, rilly, rillllllyyyy in a hurry to get the dishwasher started it happens. I add the detergent, close the door, hit the start button, and kaboom... There's the "add rinse agent" light.

This indicator doesn't light up at the end of a cycle, that would make too much sense. You could see the little light and calmly fill the dispenser after emptying the dishwasher. No, that would be too easy. Even though it couldn't have gotten any emptier sitting there (evaporation? I am not listening to you!) it can only now tell you about its sad, empty state.

So it's empty, and it needs to be filled, and those of you getting ready to argue with me about that (Jim!!) can think about condensation and surface tension and why dishwashers with a no-heat drying cycle have stainless steel walls.

Dig around in the under-sink cabinet, think to self "Someday, SOMEBODY has got to clean this up, there is dust and crud everywhere!", find Jet Dry. Open flip-top, realize this is a new bottle, open screw lid, peel off little stickery-protection-from-doom-thingy, open dishwasher, open dispenser cover, attempt to fill reservoir with Jet Dry.

The reservoir is flattish and has a little plastic window thing that is supposed to indicate when it is full, and the area to pour the stuff in has a little dial and plastic arrow that can be moved around to dispense more or less of the stuff during the rinse cycle. The best way to fill the reservoir without wasting the Jet Dry is to squirt in a little bit, let it trickle in, squirt in more, trickle in, etc, etc, ad infinitum, world without end, amen.

However the bottle is full. It does not know the meaning of the term "squirt in a little bit", so even with a very gentle pressure it is pouring out enough to rapidly overflow the opening and douse the inside of the dishwasher door. Attempting to let the Jet Dry flow out of the bottle without exerting pressure is also a no-go.

So the thing is full, I guess. I can never see any difference in the little indicator window thing. But I've put A Quantity of Jet Dry in it, therefore it is full. Close the flap, close the dishwasher, press the start button again, off we go.

The Jet Dry bottle is labeled boldly with the inscription "New and Improved". It can't be both, can it? Or did they develop a new formula, discover it was awful, and have to improve it? The bottle doesn't say what was new and what was improved. I will testify that the bottle and dispensing method are neither.

New and Improved. The sign at the KFC says "New Original Recipe Strips". What part of that is new? The "original" recipe? In which case, is it "original" as in the first one they started with? Or as in "nobody thought of this before"? Or are the "strips" the new part? Or did they just cook up some new ones today instead of serving week-old ones like they did yesterday?

The dishes got clean. I didn't eat any "strips". Happy Monday, everyone!

Hey, everybody look!!

2008-10-05T16:55:00.002-04:00

Amanda (MandolinArtist) has a blog!!!

Go check it out and see her art work! And, yes, I realize NOW that it's been there for three days. I am clueless and senile and cannot take a hint.

Welcome to blogging, Amanda...now the pressure of a blogging lifestyle begins. :)

Fair Results

2008-10-04T16:42:00.011-04:00

First of all, not much sunburn but MUCH complaining about the smell of sunscreen. I despise the smell of sunscreen, so I don't use it unless I absolutely have to. But Tom was putting on some nifty new sunscreen and assured me that it didn't smell at all. He later amended that remark to "It doesn't smell at all...except to bloodhounds!" Yes, you can read that as being said in a very exasperated tone of voice.

We ate ribeye steak sandwiches and funnel cakes, with Colin subbing a corn dog for the ribeye sandwich part of the meal. We only managed to see one show, but I'm glad we saw the one we did. It was a family group called the Rhinestone Ropers. They did rope tricks, gun twirling and slinging tricks, and whip tricks. Colin got called up front with some other little boys to learn how to twirl a rope. And I found the perfect place to sit...propped against the wheel of a bobcat-type tractor. It even provided shade!!

Well, Natalie will probably provide more details about and pictures of the other things we saw. I'll get on with the exhibition results.

First of all, crafty stuff. In this picture are all the crocheted items I entered:

Results: pastel striped baby afghan--nothing; big ripple afghan--third place; purple scarf--third place; navy hat--second place; stuffed cat--nothing.

Then the cross-stitched pieces:

This was entered in the Flowers category, and did not win anything.

This was entered in the Animals category, and also did not win anything.

This was entered in the Sampler category, and got second place. That was exciting!

(My philosophy with all my craft entries is to enter things I want to make because I like them or am giving them to someone who will like them. Sometimes this means I win ribbons and sometimes it doesn't. Those of you who have seen the competition I had this year will know I was very blessed to get this many ribbons!)

Okay, now cooking entries. We didn't take any pictures of these entries, so you just get a list for this part. :)

Breads: light rolls--nothing white bread--third place hot cross buns--nothing

Cookies: gingersnaps--second place sugar cookies--second place peanut butter cookies--first place

Cakes: white--third place yellow---first place devil's food--second place cake mix--nothing applesauce--third place prune cake--second place

All in all, I am very happy with the results this year. I also have some ideas of what to do differently next year. The total premium check I'll get this year is $136.00...Christmas shopping money!!! Which is the third reason I do this every year...it's not that I'm so fond of those little polyester ribbons. :) The first reason, when I'm thinking properly about this, is to glorify God and to keep up some skills that I can use to bless my family and others. The second reason is to promote homemade cooking and crafting and keep that part of the fair going.

Typing all this out helped me to feel encouraged about this year's fair. As is usual for me the day after the fair, I am sore and tired and feeling not-very-good overall. But when I look over the results and think about all the neat things we saw that other people had done I start getting excited about projects for next year. Time to start stitching and hunting for recipes!! (I think there was only one cake entered in the "any other spice cake" category---target selected!)

Fannie Mae, you almost failed me, Boo...

2008-10-03T10:00:00.000-04:00

We're at the Fair today...checking out the exhibits, seeing if we won anything, making plans and strategies for next year (QUICK, what's the difference between a "tactic" and a "strategy"?!), eating funnel cakes, watching whacko Wild West-themed shows, tipping the bathroom ladies, and getting a little sunburned. Because it's Fall now and it's COOL, just in time for the Fair. And the sun doesn't really burn your skin if you don't feel hot, right?

So, to keep you busy while you're waiting with bated breath for our ribbon count, here's a musical ode to the current financial crisis. Enjoy.

To Do Today

2008-10-02T15:47:00.002-04:00

1. Sleep Late

Status: done (slept till 8:30!)

2. Recover From Fair Prep

Status: purt near

3. Clean Bathroom

Status: done

4. Try New Brand Of Contacts Eye Doc Recommended

Status: in eyes now, fit well but slightly itchy

5. Wash, Dry, and Fold Three Loads of Laundry

Status: one completely done, one in dryer, one in washer

6. Kitchen Chores: Polish stove, make ice, put away folding table and extra baking supplies

Status: done

7. Check Online Accounts

Status: still to be done

8. Fix Easy Supper Involving Hamburger and Canned Biscuits

Status: hamburger thawing

9. Read Paper

Status: still to be done, probably this evening between suppertime and The Debate

10. Blog Post

Status: really close to being done

Now the jihad needs containin'!

2008-10-01T19:13:00.002-04:00

Since we homeschool we have some freedom to tweak our school days to fit around real life. So, one thing we do every year is take off school the week we turn in our entries at the Dixie Classic Fair. Monday, Tuesday, and part of Wednesday are spent frantically finishing our baking projects. In theory we should have all the crafts done before this week, but a couple of us were knitting and crocheting hats at the last minute. And one of us was very slooowwwwllly painting a foam core board to put his Lego project on.

You'd think Colin would enjoy having the week off. But, no, he is bored and doesn't know what to do with his free time. Monday afternoon he stomped in to where I was working and declared "I am going to have to GET A JOB because I am tired of having NOTHING TO DO in the Fall!!"

Turns out, he intends to be a tailor and make clothing for animals. Yes, we read too much Beatrix Potter, why do you ask? Unfortunately it took a long time for me to understand what his chosen career was and this only added to his frustration. He has trouble with the "th" sound, so I thought he was telling me (loudly) that he wanted to "make cloves". I think that's an understandable mistake for an old woman who has been baking cakes and cookies for two days straight.

We got all our fair entries delivered today, and by "we" I mean "Natalie". She delivered stuff and I cleaned up the kitchen. Pretty good deal, I think. She took pictures for me of my craft projects, but we haven't had time to tweak them and get them ready to post. I entered: a large afghan, a baby afghan, a crocheted hat, a scarf, a cat, and three cross-stitched pieces. I also entered six cakes, three kinds of cookies, dinner rolls, white bread, and hot cross buns. I didn't enter the new Official Burnie R. Little Scone category because I do not have the gift of scones.

When I started this post I had some sort of outline in mind and had a general idea of where it was going. No longer. I'm either really, really, really tired...or else my brain has become clogged with all the powdered sugar I inhaled this afternoon. My hands still feel sticky. Time to shower, read the paper, and crawl in bed. Tomorrow morning I can start thinking about what to make for next year.

Pobre Tomate!

2008-09-17T15:18:00.002-04:00

No es triste? She wishes she could dance!

Like the cucumber...libre y suavemente.

But she can't. Not even at Uncle Louie's polka party.

Well, maybe the tomate (look at my picture, look at Bob the Tomato...family resemblance, no?) doesn't really want to dance. Okay, yeah, she does, but she knows her body won't cooperate any more.

But what she really wishes is that these modern contra dances were set up more like the dances back in Jane Austen's day. Or, at least, Jane Austen's day as portrayed in the movies. With, you know, comfy-ish chairs around the edges where the old ladies sit. Because it would be really fun to pretend to be Mrs. Bennet at one of these deals...sit there cramming cake in one's mouth and being loud and vulgar and speculating about how much money the young men make.

What??

No.

I really don't act like that all the time. Well, okay, but it's cookies, not cake. (See note above re: family resemblance and rotundity) And I don't talk with my mouth full. Much.

Unlike Mrs. Bennet, though, I would for sure bring some knitting or crocheting to work on. You've got to wonder how many of her nerve problems and how much of her crankiness were brought on by sitting around watching young people spinning around at high rates of speed.

On the phone this morning

2008-09-04T12:39:00.002-04:00

Me: Oh, yes, she does have cute kids! Yes, they are a very attractive family.

Caller: Well, I know who I'm voting for, for sure!

Me: I haven't made up my mind yet; I'm not happy with either of the two main candidates.

Caller: You can't trust Obama, that's for sure! Oho, no, there's no way you can trust him!

Me: Politicians are like that, aren't they? They say so much and yet you can't tell if they're really telling the truth.

Caller: Well! I'd say you can certainly believe John McCain!! He was a prisoner of war in Vietnam, you know. And you know they offered to let him go because of who his dad was, and he refused their offer! So!!

Me: ??????

***Beth changes subject, wraps up phone call, hangs up phone, beats head against wall and wonders (yet again) if we really are getting exactly the government we deserve***

Some good reading and listening for a Monday

2008-09-01T12:39:00.006-04:00

Yesterday Stu Johnston from Grace Reformed Baptist Church in Mebane spoke at our morning worship service. His message was called Six Reasons God Allows Satan To Attack Us, and if you click on that title you will be able to listen to the sermon at the PBC website.

Pastor Johnston based his message on the 22nd chapter of Luke, where Jesus tells Peter that the Devil has desired to sift him. I won't give a recap of the message here because I would ruin it. Just go listen to it in Pastor Johnston's own words. It was both comforting and convicting and a strong reminder of God's sovereignty.

Another strong reminder of God's sovereignty...hymn #75 in the new Trinity Hymnal! We sang this yesterday:

O Father, You Are Sovereign

O Father, You are sovereign in all the worlds You made;
Your mighty Word was spoken, and light and life obeyed.
Your voice commands the seasons and bounds the ocean’s shore,
Sets stars within their courses and stills the tempests’ roar.

O Father, You are sovereign in all affairs of man;
No powers of death or darkness can thwart Your perfect plan.
All chance and change transcending, supreme in time and space,
You hold your trusting children secure in Your embrace.

O Father, You are sovereign the Lord of human pain,
Transmuting earthly sorrows to gold of heavenly gain,
All evil overruling, as none but Conqueror could,
Your love pursues its purpose—our souls’ eternal good.

O Father, You are sovereign! We see You dimly now,
But soon before Your triumph earth’s every knee shall bow.
With this glad hope before us our faith springs forth anew:
Our Sovereign Lord and Savior, we trust and worship You!

This is the tune used for this hymn in the Trinity Hymnal.

I needed the reminders of God's sovereignty this weekend after spending time Friday and Saturday thinking about John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his vice president. I was initially enthused about Palin...after all, she's everything McCain used to be, or at least used to claim to be! But my initial enthusiasm cooled off after I started thinking about the Biblical ramifications of a woman being in this position. I've been mulling over how to present my opinions on this and how best to express my objections. But in the meantime others have stepped up and expressed this much better than I could...so I will link to them and encourage you to read their thoughts carefully and prayerfully.

Carmon Friedrich of Buried Treasure Books posted this entry on Saturday and hers was the first post I saw this weekend that raised this question. (Editing to add---others surely may have posted before Carmon, she even links to some of them---this was only the first one I saw.)

Follow the links from Carmon's post to get some additional perspectives, and read her comments to get agreement and disagreement from her readers.

Voddie Bauchum also addressed the McCain/Palin candidacy in the light of Scripture and from a pro-family viewpoint. I appreciated his calm, reasoned tone.

EDITING AGAIN ON TUESDAY: Today I noticed that our pastor, Michael Beasley, had also written about Palin's candidacy at The Armoury. Be sure to read this one, too!

If any of my readers has written, or knows of, a Biblically-based argument in favor of Palin being vice-president I would be interested in seeing it. For those of you who are having the immediate reaction "But that means you're going to vote for Obama!" or "But if you don't vote for McCain Obama will win!"...scroll back up to the top of the post and listen to the sermon and read the hymn about God's sovereignty. Then you might go take a look at these links for some ideas of how America's two-party system could be changed. BIG NOTE: The Cat is NOT endorsing, recommending, or idealizing either of these two parties. She might be voting for one of them; that remains to be seen at this time.

Constitution Party-Chuck Baldwin/Darrell Castle

Libertarian Party-Bob Barr

Too Good To Pass Up

2008-08-29T12:33:00.002-04:00

No, I should not be posting. I'm supposed to be reading long, boring web pages exploring the difference between regular high-deductible health insurance and HSA accounts. Natalie turns 19 in...I don't know...a few days. She needs insurance because Tom's employer has plans we can buy to cover our cats, but not our children over age 18. Say "meow", Natalie. Good girl.

I should also be getting my fair registration filled out and submitted and a zillion other things that need to be done. Like the craft projects that I'm entering in the fair...that would be a good idea.

But stupid me, I had to go read some blogs that Natalie links to. And I had to read this. And get that song stuck in my head. And look up the video on Youtube.

And now Colin is going around making the arm motions. And Natalie is talking about medieval mullets (mediemullets?). So why not share the agony with my readers? Yeah, I knew you'd be grateful. Enjoy:

Relieved, Reassured, Comforted...and all that...

2008-08-21T10:27:00.002-04:00

The USA is going to be okay, people, it really is.

We may be sending all our jobs to India, and buying all our goods from China via WalMart.

We may have two lousy political parties, and two less-than-ideal presidential candidates to choose from.

Our economy may be in the toilet, and gas prices may be so high we can't afford to drive.

But...BUT!!!

When it comes to scantily-clad women playing volleyball on fake beaches we reign supreme. Even though China managed to find some very tall women to make into volleyball players, still the strength and ingenuity of American youth conquered in the end.

And if you can be the country with the best team of women-who-play-volleyball-in-their-undies, well...why would any of that other stuff worry you?

Back with the Randomness...so predictable...

2008-08-14T14:35:00.002-04:00

Hello, I'm back, and as usual after being a total blog-slacker, I am back with the Random.

•What did I do to stop my blogging cold in its tracks, as it were? I published a post in which I promised to write about something definite. Lesson to The Cat: Don't do that; it causes blogger's block and paper cuts and fleas in the armpit.

•I signed up for Facebook, which I think is meant for people younger than me. But, I did find a bunch of friends and kin around my age hanging out there...so...a revolution, I guess.

•Facebook is HARD to figure out. They keep it that way in an effort to screen out old people like me. They don't know about our secret weapons..."For Dummies" books and offspring. Heh heh...

•Despite the confusing-ness (Hey, if Bela Karolyi can say "bias-ness", I can say "confusing-ness"!) of Facebook, I'll keep puttering with it because it's another way to stay in touch with people.

•As is Twitter, but I'm not sure I'm up for more connectedness. Until I saw this video, I really didn't know what Twitter was designed to do. I thought it had something to do with cell phones. And since my cell phone likes to hang out with the aforementioned offspring, fun little cell phone applications aren't much use to me.

•Go watch the video even if you're a Twitter expert...please. Just do it. Just to hear that guy say "English" if nothing else, okay? It's almost...uh...presidential.

•Let's get this straight right now while we're talking about politics. (We totally were.) "They" don't hate us because we have so much freedom. They hate us because we don't know how to pronounce our own language. We have a hard G, people, let's use it.

•My mom used to tell me something along the lines of "you will end up being just like the person who aggravates you the most." Or maybe it was "the person you are making fun of." Hmmm. Anyway, the other night I was using the word "nuclear" and, completely without intending to, mispronounced it. Nuke-u-lure...why do you ask?

•Twitter might not work for me because it's too much like talking on the phone. I generally don't like to talk on the phone. (Stop spluttering, Natalie.) When Colin was a toddler he learned to say "Oh no...who's that?" when the phone rang.

•It's been years since I've been forced to take a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment, so when I saw a link to one on someone's blog today I took it. Today I'm an INTJ. Woo, and also hoo.

•Jane Austen and C.S. Lewis were supposedly INTJs, which would give one a big head if one did not stop to consider that Donald Rumsfeld and Rudy Guiliani are also. And how does one conduct a MBTI assessment on a dead person, anyway?

•I dislike these assessments because I feel like I am incapable of answering them honestly without trying to put myself in the proper category with my answers. We once were members of a church where someone got the bright idea to do an assessment like this and then assign people jobs based on their personalities and gifts.

•You know I was trying my hardest to figure out how to rig those tests so that they'd indicate that I was ideally suited for something like ironing table covers for communion. But, no, of course that would never do. I was always "best suited" for something like making phone calls to every single family in the church to set up appointments for church directory photos.

•Which leads me to believe one of three things was happening. One, it could be that my personality can't be accurately reflected by a test, even if I'm totally and brutally honest. (Sort of a MBTI vampire?) Two, it could be that the organizers of jobs had decided what they wanted me to do and a little test wasn't going to stop them. Three, it could be that the organizers of jobs decided based on my test results that I needed to be pulled out of my shell and made to do extroverted things like making phone calls. Choose whichever option fits your Conspiracy Theory Plausibility Type Indicator.

•Where was I going with all that? Hmm...an over-elaborate explanation for why I won't be Twittering? Maybe.

•Or maybe my brain is just shutting further down than usual this week from staying up too late watching the ~~Michael Phelps Show~~NBC Olympics Coverage.

I make no promises about my future posts...got that? No promises!

Okay, okay, I can take a hint!

2008-08-03T18:30:00.002-04:00

Time to give the public what they want, I think.

Do you know the most common search phrase that brings people to this blog?

"Home remedies for sick cats"

There's just something about the little darlings that makes us want to treat their illnesses at home and not schlep them to the vet, isn't there? We've had to do some home treatment for our cats over the years...sometimes to avoid paying a lot of money for a very minor problem, and sometimes to implement a treatment the vet has recommended.

So, sometime soon I'll put up a series of posts about home remedies for cats. I can't promise a time-frame yet...so if Tigger is looking poorly right now, don't hang around waiting, okay? :)

Why do the (furry) heathen rage? Feline Theology 101

2008-08-02T15:37:00.002-04:00

We had a thunderstorm come up suddenly here this afternoon and it made me think...

Is it at all possible that animals go to Heaven? I mean animals we know here in this life...pets, for instance. This is a rhetorical question, of course, although there are a bunch of websites out there with "answers". Just Google "Do pets go to Heaven?" and see how much precious time you can spend reading theories about why or why not God would allow pets into Heaven.

••Disclaimer: This post is not reflective of accurate Biblical theology and doctrine, and is meant for entertainment purposes only. :)

We've had three cats since the grand day when Natalie convinced Tom that she needed a kitty cat. Two of them, Petunia and Gracie, we still have; Basil died three years ago. They each have/had their own doctrinal beliefs, as evidenced by their attitudes and behaviors.

Basil--Calvinist. Basil knew he couldn't do anything to make himself good in God's eyes or in the eyes of anyone else. He knew he was a sinful cat, he knew he didn't deserve to have a good home and good food and a loving family. He was truly grateful for the life God had given him and for the people who cared for him. When he misbehaved he repented.

Petunia--Arminian. Petunia is the classic Arminian, she is working hard for her salvation and she will let you know it. She works constantly to position herself as The Good Girl. When she and Basil would wrestle she would get behind something where he couldn't reach her and then scream and cry about how he was killing her. We used to yell at Basil until we noticed one day that between cries she was very handily wholloping him while he sat there looking guilty.

Gracie--Heathen. Gracie is just, unfortunately, a flat-out heathen. She doesn't care whether she sins, she doesn't care if there is a God, she lives for Gracie and Gracie alone. Oh, and she sorta likes humans if they are willing to cater to her every desire. Actually, Gracie may think of herself as a deity. When things don't go her way she doesn't just complain, she rages.

Which brings me to the storm this afternoon. Gracie was outside when the clouds started rolling in. Natalie went out and called her, but she refused to come inside. Instead she sat on the patio with her ears twitching as the thunder boomed and the lightening flashed. We called her several times, knowing the rain was coming at any moment, but she stiffened her back and refused to come in. The sky was dark, the lightning was wild, the thunder was loud...and she sat on that patio, looked to the sky, and...raised her paw and flicked it at the sky.

When the heavens opened and the rain poured down she suddenly ran for the door and flung herself at it. We let her in, but she showed no signs of repentance...nothing but utter rage that she should have had to be subjected to such an insult.

She probably wouldn't wear a flag pin, either.

Stitching Update

2008-08-01T12:32:00.004-04:00

Here's a quick update of my recent stitching projects. I took these photos myself, so please excuse the fuzziness. I am not good at holding still. :) I could have borrowed Natalie's tripod (especially since I was already using her camera) but my main goal was speed, not perfection.

This is "The Rose in Morning" by Little House Needleworks. I finished this a few weeks ago, but hadn't posted a picture of it. I measured it this morning and the finished size is about 4" by 18", so it's probably not going to be made into a pillow as it's doubtful that there are pillow forms out there in that odd size!

This is "Serendipity Sampler" by Papillon Creations. All the outer sections are done and the middle is about half done. The oval motifs will all be filled it with intertwining designs in the medium and lighter pinks, and the diamond in the middle will have a fancy speciality stitch in the center. There are some other details at the edges of the smaller motifs still to be filled in, too.

After I get Serendipity done I need to think about frames. But before I order frames I have to decide whether I will be able to get any other pieces stitched in time for the fair. We order most of our frames from Franken Frames; their prices are reasonable but they have a minimum shipping charge so it makes sense for me to order everything I need at one time.

Seven Years Ago

2008-07-31T11:45:00.005-04:00

I did not sleep well last night...too much tea and probably too much guacamole and salsa, too. Amazingly I don't feel too bad today; maybe it will catch up with me later.

Seven years ago I did not sleep well on the night of July 30th, either. Not because of tea and Mexican food, though! Instead, I was in a hospital bed, hooked up to monitors, with a nurse hovering around me trying to keep the Doppler monitor in place. A certain little boy was determined to wiggle around in the limited space available to him, so we had to keep shifting the device around to hear his heartbeat.

The nurse and I spent the night talking about various things that, in retrospect, seem rather odd. We discussed whether it was harder to drive in Boston or Chicago. Since she'd never driven in Chicago and I'd never been to Boston it was not a terribly productive discussion. :)

We also spent a lot of time telling the wiggly young man that he needed to turn around to be ready to be born the next morning. He listened to us, but was apparently confused about the directions because instead of turning all the way around from being head-up to head-down he decided to turn till he was sideways and stay in that position. Since he needed to be born quickly his position meant he would have to be delivered via C-section. The intensive monitoring was to try to determine how he would do once he was born, because he was not supposed to be born for another 7 weeks.

(I'll skip the long, boring explanation about my struggles to get and stay pregnant and why both my children were born at 33 weeks. Cliffs Notes version: probably caused by an autoimmunity problem, possibly related to the chronic pain condition I have, potentially treatable if God were to give us another baby at our advanced ages.)

So, on the morning of July 31st on 2001, Colin Thomas Roth was born. He weighed just under 4 pounds and he was very mad. :) When I finally got to hold him he felt like a little feather; in fact I wasn't sure if I was even feeling him or just the big wad of blankets he was wrapped in.

Seven years later he is not a little feather any more! Today he is a big moose and if he keeps getting taller and outgrowing shoes at the rate he is now, I predict he will be at least as big as his daddy and his uncles. Possibly bigger. :) Natalie just measured him and he is 4' 2".

So far today Colin has received a phone call from his friend, Mrs. B, and a visit from his friend, Mrs. S. He is very popular with the older ladies! Mrs. S. brought him a remote-control truck with race cars to go in it. This has been a wonderful diversion to keep him from going stark raving mad waiting till we celebrate his birthday tonight. It is so hard to wait for birthday parties when you are seven!

Colin requested grilled hamburgers and grilled sweet corn for his birthday dinner tonight. I just looked at the weather forecast and it looks like Tom might be grilling in the rain this evening. We'll also have birthday cake and ice cream, of course. Natalie is making and decorating the cake. It is in the oven right now and the house is starting to smell like chocolate...yum...

Here is a picture of the birthday boy this morning, with his usual cheesy smile. Happy 7th Birthday, Colin!

Is It Wednesday Already? Yikes!

2008-07-30T12:29:00.003-04:00

Okay, while I'm waiting for our lunch to cook** here's a quick rambling update on life around these parts.

As some of you mentioned in the comments and in person, those weekend plans didn't sound particularly relaxing. I think it was relaxing for us because the weekend didn't involve outside commitments or much activity that was not of our own choosing.

Also, relaxing and restful are not the same concept in my mind. I can be relaxed and enjoying myself and then get up the next day and be totally exhausted. Which is how I felt Monday morning! Part of that has to do with the amount of social interaction I had on Sunday.

I hope nobody I know in person will take this personally; it is certainly not meant that way! I enjoy being with people, I like being with my friends, I particularly like hanging out with my family and/or my church family. But, as enjoyable as that is, it is utterly exhausting to me.

Reportedly there are people out there who get invigorated and energized being around other people. People who when they are by themselves get depressed and lack energy, and need to get out and see other people to feel good. I think these are the people who can be good sabbatarians and feel like they "rested" on Sunday. I put "rested" in quotes, because whatever else Sunday may be to me...the Lord's Day, a day of worship, a day of learning, a day of fellowship, a very precious day...it is not restful for me.

So, anyway, relaxing weekend followed by a tired Monday. But we accomplished a lot! Tom got the first vent installed. This is the one he could reach with my dad's ladder; the rest of them will wait till he can borrow a friend's longer ladder. But this one was a good trial run for him; it turns out the plans he made for installing the vents are going to work out pretty well. He got up early and was done with the vent by mid-morning so he avoided the worst heat of the day, too.

I got bread made (4 loaves), Natalie did the Aldi shopping for me, and we hit Costco on Sunday for a trunk full of groceries there. Now the freezer is back to being almost full, and the pantries likewise.

Plus I did get some stitching time...quite a bit, actually. A total of four hours on Saturday, broken into pieces, and two hours on Sunday afternoon. When my photographer gets a spare minute I will be able to post an update picture of Serendipity Sampler. It is not done yet, but getting there. If this week wasn't shaping up to be busy I would say I could finish it by next Saturday, but probably not at this rate.

Well, Natalie is pulling the lunch out of the oven, so time to go eat and catch up on online comics together. Tomorrow...time permitting...what I was doing 7 years ago. :)

**Oven Cheese Toast: spread butter very lightly on both sides of several pieces of bread. Lay bread slices on non-stick baking sheet. Place cheese slices of your choice on top of bread. Bung the whole shebang into the oven at 350 degrees until the bread is lightly toasted and the cheese is melted and bubbly. Cut into strips, enjoy, and tell the complainer that once he is old enough to make his own lunch he can make whatever he wants. Remember that his favorite foods include steak and shrimp and reconsider your hasty words...

Friday and Weekend Doings

2008-07-25T17:17:00.002-04:00

It feels like it has been a long, busy week! But today is Friday and I think we have a relaxing weekend planned for a change.

Tonight we're going to have French Bread Pizzas for supper, and we'll probably eat in the living room and watch a Jeeves and Wooster episode whilst eating. It's been ages since I've made French Bread Pizza, but we had some loaves of Natalie's homemade Cuban bread in the freezer from when we last had Cuban Sandwiches. So I decided to cheat, save time, and use the bread instead of messing with making a crust. And I guess I should be calling them "Cuban Bread Pizzas"....hmmm.

Tomorrow Tom is getting up on the roof and in the attic to work on a project he's been planning for a while. Our house has a ridge vent system in the roof, but it doesn't seem to remove enough hot air from the attic in the summer. With some of the very hot temps we've had this summer it has been hard to keep the house cooled down without running the A/C non-stop.

Tom monitored the attic temps and found it was getting as much as 30 degrees hotter up there than it was outside. So he's going to install some gable end vents up there to help move the hot air out a little better. This involves popping a few pieces of siding off, cutting some holes, installing vents and doing some sealing. And, of course, it also means climbing around on the roof. What is it about men and climbing on roofs? Oh well, it's better to be married to a brave man who climbs on roofs than one who would never consider doing something that dangerous!

Colin will probably be involved helping Tom. I'm not sure he's got his mountain goat skills yet, so he probably will not be up on the roof. Maybe he can go up and down the ladder to fetch things.

Natalie and I need to get some food in this house! We worked to use up stuff in the big freezer so we could defrost it, but that's done now so it needs to be refilled. A trip to Costco Sunday after church will help, but we'll probably also hit Aldi and Lowes for a few things tomorrow. We need to bake some bread tomorrow, too.

Hmmm...our relaxing weekend is starting to sound a bit busy! I think we'll have time in there to kick back and just enjoy being home. I want to get some serious needlework time in either tomorrow or Sunday afternoon. I've been trying to get Serendipity Sampler finished in time for the fair. Since that picture, I have finished three more segments and have a fourth almost completed. That will leave just the middle section to complete; unfortunately it is BIG. I would like to get all the outside part done this weekend and some sort of start on the middle.

I did get the Rose in Morning piece done some time ago, but I still need to figure out how I want to finish it. We have plenty of wall space left for framed pictures, but frames can get pricey. If I make it into a pillow, though, I need to find a pillow form the right size and a nice coordinating backing fabric. So, decisions and purchases to be made either way...

Well, Tom is home and he and Colin are bustling around gathering up their supplies for tomorrow's project. They've tried out the new siding removal tool and are impressed with how it works, and they've located the right size template for cutting the hole. Time for me to heat up the oven and pop in the pizzas so we can have some supper!

The Temptation to be Mrs. Bennet

2008-07-24T14:41:00.004-04:00

I don't know if I would have made this connection without reading this article by Nancy Wilson several years ago. Here's a little taste, but you really should go read the whole thing.

••But you may ask, "What's wrong with trying to find a nice Christian young man for my daughter?" It sounds like such a holy pursuit! First of all, why do so many mothers think it is their job to find a suitable husband for their daughters? Has your husband delegated this responsibility to you? "Honey, Susie is pushing twenty-two, so I'd like you to find a husband for her. Start going through the church directory and we'll have the young men over to dinner in groups of three." I don't think so.••

When I first read this, two or three or more years ago, I found it very amusing. Anybody who has read Pride and Prejudice or seen one of the film adaptations can probably picture a modern day Mrs. Bennet...gotta get these daughters married off, gotta find suitable husbands, oh my nerves, oh that husband who won't help, oh the regiment is in town!

When I found it amusing, though, my daughter was in her early teens. Now she's 18, going to be 19 soon, and what she wants to do with her life is be a wife and mother. So, even though I know better, I sometimes find myself thinking like Mrs. Bennet. Obviously we want her to have a godly husband most of all. But we go to a teeny tiny church and if I were to start inviting the young men over to dinner in groups of three we would run out of young men ridiculously quickly.

So, late at night, my crazy mind starts scheming, thinking of scenarios. Hey, we were in a good church back in Illinois when she was born. And she was born during the massive 1980s baby boom at that particular church. Lots of our friends had babies around the same time. And, believe it or not, some of those babies were boys. Hmm...our godly friends from College and Career Youth Group days might have eligible boys wanting wives. "Hey, honey, wake up...ROAD TRIP!! What...what do you mean you 'have a high respect for my nerves'? Ah, you do not know what I suffer!"

I can think of a bunch of really good reasons why it is SO stupid for me to be like Mrs. Bennet. Three will suffice:

1. God is sovereign. This is really the only reason I should need, but I am a weak bumbling human. God knows if Natalie will marry, and He will see to it that she meets the man without my crazy schemes.

2. Natalie isn't exactly desperate. She's 18, for goodness' sake! After all, I was not nearly as pretty and accomplished (and all those other Austen virtues!) as she is...and even I got married before I was too terribly old. Without having to go running after the regiment, even. :) There's plenty of time for her to meet someone before she's anywhere near to being an old maid.

3. I don't really want her to leave home anytime soon. She's my helper and my friend, and when she's not here I miss her a lot. It's going to be hard enough to have her gone two days a week for her new job...I don't want to think about what it will be like when she might be hundreds or thousands of miles away.

So, as you can see, this is one of those posts that I'm writing to make myself face the truth. Mrs. Bennet was an idiot and I don't want to be like her. So I need to keep reminding myself to trust in God for the future in all things...including my children's future spouses.

Spouses. Spouse(s).

I wonder what Mrs. Bennet's thoughts and strategies would have been if she had an unsocialized homeschooled son to marry off? :) Perhaps I should be thinking ahead...Colin's going to be 7 soon, after all.

Eureka!

2008-07-21T12:58:00.002-04:00

Abomination! "Angel food cake is the abomination of the cake world!"

That only took three cups of tea, and the last one was watered down.

In other news, the Brown Sugar Pound Cake I made on Saturday turned out to taste very good, but not have the proper pound cake texture. According to the premium catalog for the county fair, the texture of my pound cake would be described as "soggy or sad". Sad pound cake. Pobre pound cake...no es triste?

I was telling a friend last night that Yankees do make pound cake, and that we like it heavier and moister than Southern pound cake. Upon further reflection (see above re: cups of tea) I realized that what I'm thinking of is Bundt Cake. Yankees make Bundt Cake, and Bundt Cake is moist and heavier and made in a fluted pan.

There isn't a Bundt Cake category at the fair, so I will not cast my pearls before swine. I will also not continue to labor under the deluded notion that I am capable of making pound cake. :)

PS. The mind-melding in this household could be frightening to an outsider. I finished folding a load of laundry, walked into my bathroom, and suddenly shouted "Abomination!" Instead of coming running to see if I was sick or merely addled, Natalie just hollered back "Oh yes, that's it exactly!"

A Blight? A Scourge? A...a...where did my vocabulary go?

2008-07-19T14:03:00.002-04:00

The cake pan is on the upper shelf of the lower cabinet, right where I can't see it when I look down. Tom offers to get it out for me. I tell him to get the "big cake pan", he grabs a 9 inch layer cake pan. No, the really big pan, the pound cake pan.

In his home, growing up, that pan was called the Angel Food Cake Pan.

Let us just pause a moment and weep for the tragedy that was my husband's childhood.

And then let us get back to trying to remember what THAT WORD is that means "blight" or "scourge" or something like that, but it seems like it should end in "-tion" or "-sion" for some reason. As in "Angel Food Cake is the long impressive missing word that means scourge of the cake world."

Girls' Night Out

2008-07-10T11:12:00.002-04:00

Last night was Wednesday, and this Wednesday happened to be Men's Meeting night. Our church has regular all-church Bible study and prayer meeting (should "prayer meeting" be capitalized?) on the first and third Wednesdays of the month, and men's meeting (ditto on the capitalizing?) on the second and fourth Wednesdays. When there is a fifth Wednesday in the month we have regular prayer meeting. So we can have two regular prayer meetings in a row, but never two men's meetings. I think. My strategy is to listen closely to the announcements on Sunday morning to know where we're supposed to be on any given Wednesday night.

Anyway, last night was men's meeting, and last night it was held at our house. So, men's meeting at our house...where do the women go? My original plan was to grab my craft bag and a mug of water and hang out in Natalie's room with her. She's got a computer, a phone, a cell phone, the Internets, and a bed that can be sort of comfortable enough to sit on if you pile enough pillows behind your back.

But, in the end, we decided to get out of Dodge. First we thought we'd just go to Barnes and Noble, but I also wanted to go to Michaels, and then as we were getting ready to eat supper (leftovers!) we suddenly had the inspiration to go get something to eat first. I mean, we needed to get the car out of the driveway in plenty of time before the guys got there, right? :)

So, our first stop was Panera for paninis and people-watching. We saw Ms. No Visible Panty Lines and her date/work associate/friend/brother (he let her pay for her own food so we couldn't draw any conclusions from that). You know the fashion gurus make a big deal about being sure to have no visible panty lines under smooth clothing...but. (resisting pun, resisting pun) I won't describe her in detail, but let's just say that Ms. NVPL illustrated graphically for us all that sometimes it might be best to have those tell-tale lines rather than to leave your audience wondering if you decided to forgo the undies altogether.

Then there was Ms. He's Mine You Can't Have Him. She was accompanied by her date/boyfriend/fiance/husband and she apparently thought he was in danger of getting away. She had both of her arms twined around him at almost all times. Her strategy seemed to be to keep him in some sort of straight jacket of arm loops. He did not appear to be actively fighting this strategy, but neither did he seem terribly appreciative of it. As they stepped up to the counter to place their order, he had to shift a little to get an arm free to get out his wallet. Since his arm remained out of the grasp of Ms. HMYCHH, she took to holding onto his other arm while leaning heavily on him. When the girl behind the counter turned and smiled at him in a bland, non-threatening, polite customer service manner, Ms. HMYCHH took immediate measures to recapture his other arm and reinsert him in the straight jacket.

After Panera, we headed over to Michaels. I browsed the yarn department and tried, unsuccessfully, to come up with a way to make a nice afghan out of good yarn without paying much for it. Natalie, meanwhile, found a pair of shoes to buy.

Fueled by the excitement of unexpected shoe purchasing, Natalie then asked if we could go over to Shoe Carnival. Shoe Carnival plays annoying music very loudly. They also have a contract with a company that keeps them constantly supplied with whining, crying children. They have seats that look comfortable, but aren't nearly as comfortable as they look. Natalie tried on piles and piles of shoes, including one pair that made her yelp "ouch" the second she got them on her feet. After all that she ended up buying three pairs of shoes, so I guess we can call it a successful trip.

After that we headed to Barnes and Noble to look for gardening books. We looked through several and decided that the information we get off the Internet would be just as helpful as what was available in print. We also sat and flipped through lots of magazines, and drank Starbucks beverages. Natalie had a Frappucino and I had a drink called something like Creme of Double Chocolate Chips. It was like a chocolate milk smoothie. Very refreshing, but not as creamy as I thought it should be. When I got home and looked up the ingredients on the Starbucks site and found out it was 510 calories, I decided that in the future I would prefer a real chocolate milkshake instead. Starbucks doesn't sell those, though.

Finally we dragged our exhausted selves back home to find that the guys had had a great time with the men's meeting group. Colin had even swept the kitchen floor before we got home...which was probably just as well since the men and boys had enjoyed lots of cookies and popcorn in our absence.

I think Natalie is blogging this morning, so head over there and read a much less rambly version of our night out. Plus she'll probably have shoe pictures. :) And maybe she'll explain how she shut down The Flirting Guy at B&N with her patented Homeschooled Anti-Flirting Glare of Death. :)

Summertime...and the blogging is sporadic...

2008-07-03T14:00:00.002-04:00

When I want to do some blog reading lately I find myself thwarted by so many bloggers who are too busy doing fun summery stuff to write blog posts. "Why don't these people blog?!!"

Ahem. Well, as I was saying.

•Last week my brother and 3 of his kids visited us from Wednesday afternoon to Saturday afternoon.

•Jim was here to seal Mom and Dad's driveway, something they've been wanting to get done for quite a while. I think all parties concerned decided that Tom wasn't going to seal it because he and I are on record as not liking the look of sealed driveways.

•We don't like our ~~cement~~ concrete patio and sidewalk to be brilliantly clean, either. The effect of years of red clay and fungus and whatever else stains concrete makes the surface blend into the natural surroundings instead of standing out and screaming "I am a PATIO!"

•That's our story, and we're sticking to it.

•Tom grew up with a gravel driveway and a very old patio. I don't remember all the driveways and patios of the houses I lived in growing up.

•When I was 8 we lived on State Street in Springfield, Illinois. Down the street from us lived an older man with a big two-car garage attached to his house. His driveway was sloped, creamy, smooth, polished concrete.

•I read a book sometime (I say that a lot, just don't ask me what book or when) in which a male character made a great point of emphasizing the difference between cement and concrete. Since then I have sincerely tried to use the right term.

•But in my heart of hearts that beige stuff patios and sidewalks and driveways are made of is "cement"

•I was 8, Jim was 6, David was 5. We had a pack of markers and were playing with them outside.

•I don't remember our driveway at that house, but it probably wasn't anything special. Certainly not something you could write and draw all over with markers.

•Unlike the one at the old man's house down the street.

•I don't know if we waited till we knew he was away from home, or if he was inside watching us out a window...perhaps admiring our masterpiece?

•I also don't remember feeling guilty about it AT ALL. At least not till Mom found out...and we probably just out-and-out told her about it. What mother thinks she needs to warn her kids not to write on someone else's driveway?

•I do remember her marching us back up there with buckets of cleaning solution and scrub brushes and making us scrub that driveway until it came clean. At least, I guess it came clean. I don't remember any further repercussions. Jim??

•Natalie, when she was 3 or 4 years old, drew all over the bottom of her bare feet with markers and then walked all over the living room carpet, leaving a rainbow of colorful little footprints.

•This was in a rental apartment with very nice newish carpet. Pale beige nice newish carpet.

•Fortunately the markers were the very new innovative washable kind, and fortunately they lived up to the manufacturer's claims.

•Colin does not have unrestricted, unsupervised access to markers. Apparently an old dog like me does occasionally learn a new trick.

Afghan Finished!

2008-06-24T12:58:00.004-04:00

I finally got Colin's afghan finished last week! Now it's packed away in a big plastic bag awaiting the fair. Fortunately he's old enough to understand why I'm not giving it to him to use right away. :)

Details: Easy Ripple Afghan freebie pattern. Lion Brand Vanna's Choice yarn in Navy, Brick, Olive, Rust, and Purple. Addi Crochet Hook in size 6.0mm(J-10).

As you can see, it has been tested and approved by both Gracie the Tortie, and Pat the Panda.

Thursday Rant--June 19, 2008

2008-06-19T12:26:00.004-04:00

Today's Thursday Rant is political. Consider yourself warned.

It is common to hear people say "I could never vote for Candidate X; he/she scares me!" Why are so many people frightened by politicians? What do they mean by "scared"? And why is this usually only said about persons running for president? Are mayors less frightening?

I remember the first time I heard someone claim to be frightened by a candidate. It was in 1988 and a young co-worker of mine said she had to vote for Dukakis because "Bush scares me!" I asked her why she found Bush frightening and she muttered and mumbled about her father always voting Democrat and the unions being in favor of Dukakis and Bush being from a rich family.

The current presidential race has now been narrowed down to two, presumptively scary, candidates. People are afraid of Barack Obama because he has a scary middle name, he doesn't wear a flag pin, and the preacher at his former church is controversial. People are, on the other hand, afraid of John McCain because he is old, because he is too Republican, because he is not Republican enough, and because his wife is too thin and blond.

Reasons why you should not be afraid of political candidates:

1. God is in control and will raise up the rulers He wants us to have. He will use these men and women to do His will (Proverbs 21:1 The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.) God uses means, and in the case of elections the means he uses are the voters. But He is the one true Ruler and He is not frightened by any politician. He has commanded that we fear (respect) Him (I Peter 2:17 Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.)

2. No one politician in America has that much power. (Yeah, you thought the first point was the controversial one.) We may be stuck in a stupid war that should never have been fought because it was originally the president's idea. But he couldn't implement the idea all on his own, despite what a lot of the other politicians involved would really like you to think right now.

3. Personal characteristics (rich parents, middle names, skinny wives) aren't worth fearing. I don't think my husband has any plans to run for office, but it's just as well he doesn't. In addition to having a fat wife with increasingly gray hair (fat wives are even scarier than skinny ones) he also has a problematic middle name. It's the all-time favorite middle name given to little boys born into Catholic families. But it's also the first name of not only a Soviet dictator but, even worse, a Kennedy...and who knows how many other frightening people. The thing is, we all know that when someone say "he scares me because his middle name is Hussein" what they are really saying is something else entirely. Trying to mask one prejudice with another is hypocritical.

4. Fear implies a lack of options. In America we have the government we deserve. If the only options we have are scary candidates it is because we are a scary electorate. We are concerned, even frightened, about the wrong things. We vote for the lesser of two evils because we are scared to vote outside the two big parties. We don't vote in local elections because we are apathetic...the mayors we didn't vote for then go on to become the governors or senators we didn't vote for and then to become the presidential candidates we are afraid of. We pick our presidents because they are like us, and then wonder why they don't do any better job than we would.

5. There are good reasons to vote for some candidates and good reasons not to vote for others. We should be focusing on facts and real reasons for making decisions, instead of basing our voting decisions on fear.

So, can we please consider not being "scared" of the candidates? Can we start looking at issues instead? Or could we maybe just be honest and say "I'm not voting for Candidate X because I just don't like him."

Remember, kiddos, as Franklin D. Roosevelt once said "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

Speaking of scary presidents...what's with that middle name? "Delano"...sounds Eye-Talian!! And don't EVEN get me started on Eleanor...

Links to Neato Stuff

2008-06-17T11:17:00.003-04:00

Some links to cute stuff, thought-provoking ideas, and things in general that caught my eye...have fun browsing!

1. the shop at boygirlparty.com The graphics and drawings are so cute! This one is my favorite, but Natalie should page down a bit and find the 'edgepig.

2. I'm thinking of making some of this bubble solution for Colin, especially since it sounds like it makes better bubbles than the store-bought version. Maybe I'll track down one of those huge bubble wands, too. Sparkle Power also posts lots of neat fabric crafts on her blog, so check it out.

3. I want some of these Marble Suncatcher strings!! This looks simple enough for Colin to make, or for the two of us to try together...of course we will end up hollering for Natalie to bail us out. I think I would hang them from the Crape Myrtle in the herb garden, so I could see them from the kitchen window. A great idea from Wisdom of the Moon!

4. Wise Bread is a personal finance/frugal living site which features message boards, articles, and thought-provoking blogs. Philip Brewer is the author of this entry: Strategies for households with more than one adult, in which he asks us to stop and think about the various ways a family or household can maximize its standard of living by having some of its members stay out of the money economy. I'm using the PC terms he uses in the article...at our house this translates to "having the kid and wimmin folkses work at home" :)

5. Nancy Wilson's recent blog post: How Organized Are Your Closets? was something I really, really needed to read this week...and she mentions my favorite verse from Proverbs...Prov. 14:4.

6. How do Asians perceive American young people? Asia Times gives one viewpoint in The Day the Slacker Died. Find out the connection between American youth, the economy, and Kung Fu Panda. :)

7. Monique of My Mark Designs not only creates cute, youthful, modern cross-stitch patterns, she also made a bright stripy sleeping bag for her daughter's Webkinz platypus, Cheese. Perhaps I will not show this one to Colin; I don't really want to spend a week making little sleeping bags for his many, many pandas.

8. The Vintage Chica crocheted rag rugs from old pajamas and sheets. I found this while looking for some inexpensive way to replace our kitchen rugs....now I want to go to garage sales and look for old sheets. :)

Late Saturday Night

2008-06-15T09:00:00.002-04:00

"Didn't Martin Luther saying something about..."

"Blogging??"

"No...but...Martin Luther would so have been a blogger if he could have!"

"You'll have to blog about that."

Raise your hand...

2008-06-12T19:17:00.003-04:00

...if you think the line in the last panel should read "But that's not important right now."

Thursday Rants Public Service Announcements

2008-06-12T14:40:00.002-04:00

Today I have a couple of ~~rants~~ PSAs to share, just for the education and improvement of the general public. These are both things I have seen so many times it is impossible for me to remember where I saw them, so I will not be linking specific examples. Besides that would be rude, and this is not meant to be rude. None of the people I've seen committing these terrible crimes is anyone I know personally, either in real life or through the web.

Okay, was that done in the proper spirit of the PSA? Like those "The more you know" ones they have on some TV network that I'm not going to bother to look up? The ones that imply that no one as brilliant as you would do this, but we need to get it out there because not everybody is as brilliant as you? Good.

1. Sort Your Laundry...sorta. This one is quite popular on the message boards where busy homeschool moms hang out. Someone complains about how she never has time for laundry by the time she gets done teaching little Peregrine her Latin conjugations, and a chorus of helpful voices ring out in answer: "Don't waste all that time sorting! Just throw it all in together and wash on cold!"

Which is fine, super, wonderful. IF you don't mind all your white clothes, towels, and linens turning a lovely shade of gray. If gray is your favorite color and you've always wondered why they don't make more light gray clothes, then go for it! And if you're a certain person who lives in my house who prefers that t-shirts not be perfectly pastel, you are welcome to continue throwing them in with the darks so they get grayed down a bit.

But maybe you don't want your white tees to be gray, maybe your husband would like his white shirts to stay white? You don't have to become the Sorting Nazi, you don't have to be Cheryl Mendelson or Martha Stewart, you can be a Casual Sorter. Just put the white things in with the very light-colored things, and put the dark things in a separate load. Once in a while you'll have to get a little more finicky than that to keep something fuzzy from shedding on something else, but for the most part just dividing into two categories can make enough difference to make it worth the trouble. (Full disclosure: I have four different categories not counting sheets, but that's not nearly as many categories as the experts would recommend.)

2. Press As You Go Sew. This one I see all the time on the sewing and crafting blogs and boards. Crafters can be spontaneous, creative, really fun people and I love to look at their blogs and boards to see all the neat things they cook up. But so often I see someone's photo of a finished object and it is obvious that the seams and other details were not pressed.

Again, if speed is your thing or you prefer a slapdash look about your items then by all means, don't press! There may be artistic reasons for this look that I am not aware of. But, very often I see someone showing off a finished item, say a dress or skirt, and then complaining that the seams hang funny or the collar won't lie flat. Those problems, and many more, can often be avoided by pressing. Pressing isn't the same as ironing. Pressing involves special attention to the seams and other construction areas. Pressing also involves some good hard pressure with the iron and lots of steam.

You don't have to get a fancy-schmancy expensive iron. Just go to Amazon or Epinions and read till you find an iron that: sounds fairly reliable, puts out lots of steam without leaking water, heats up quickly, and has some weight to it. Then get your Bed, Bath, & Beyond coupon and get over there and buy one. Or, even better, see if Costco sells it...because then, if it does break down in 3 months they will take it back!

While you're about it, get a beginning sewing book like this one. Or dig around on your shelves and find the ones you bought before and forgot about. Most books like this will explain the details of what you should be pressing and how, plus any special equipment you need for unusual fabrics. Set your ironing board up at table height and get a chair on wheels so you can roll right over and press when you need to. Or use the need for pressing as an opportunity to get up from the sewing machine and stretch a bit.

That's it for today. Anybody got some more PSAs to add? Should I make this a regular feature? :)

Inconceivable!

2008-06-09T12:49:00.003-04:00

One of these days I'm going to get Colin a t-shirt with Inigo Montoya's saying from Princess Bride. No, not the one about preparing to die.

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

Natalie just got done washing out our big stash of used ziploc and other plastic bags. We save all the ones that are not icky, wash them out, and use them again. The problem we face every time is how to get them dry.

This time she got the ball of twine from the garage and strung up a twine "clothesline" across the kitchen/dining room. It runs from the corner of the cabinets to the corner of the china cabinet, and she placed old towels on the floor beneath it to catch the drips.

Colin was sitting at the table watching the proceedings as he ate his lunch. After considering it for a while, he said "That looks very naive."

Naive??! Yes, that's what he said, I asked him to repeat it. When I asked him what "naive" meant, he said, "It means the kind of people who don't have real clotheslines."

Okay then, now we know.

Things...

2008-06-02T12:28:00.008-04:00

Things to buy next time I'm out shopping:

•microwave-safe tea cup and saucer

•wide bandaids without kid-friendly designs

•Vitamin E, aloe vera gel, or some other pain-deadening burn treatment

Things I'm thankful for:

•my daughter, who is good at first aid

•my mother who lives next door and keeps things like Vitamin E on hand

•ice water to numb the pain

•nine other fingers to keep working with

•that it's "only a flesh wound" and is starting to feel better already

Things that I'm wondering about:

•What is it about 30 year old stoneware that makes it unreliable in the microwave?

•How is it that a saucer can be hot enough to burn a finger instantly, but the tea in the cup still not be hot enough to drink?

•What sort of tea and saucer combo would be microwave safe?

•Are my brother and his family coming to visit this weekend?

•Does the strawberry place have berries still this week?

•Do I have time to make jam if they do?

•If cats only ~~sweat~~ perspire through their paw pads why does Gracie get all sticky and smelly when she's outside on a hot day?

•What is it about Vitamin E that takes the pain out of a burn?

•Could it be a placebo reaction because I've had Vitamin E put on burns since I was a little kid?

•Do I need to think about that right now, or do I need to get back to work?

Silly question...it's Monday...back to work!!

If it's random it must be Thursday...

2008-05-29T13:15:00.001-04:00

Haven't had a random post for a while so here we go...wait, I have to remember the code for bullet points...okay, got it.

Warning for young people...this post wandered off and got needlessly mushy. If you are shocked and also appalled at the mere thought of people older than 30 acting romantic you should bail out now. Go listen to some Coldplay on your little Ipods and wait to get older. :)

•I have this song stuck in my head now, but Natalie says I have the tune wrong when I hum it.

•Should I listen to it a few more times to get the tune right? Eek! Okay, listening now whilst typing. Hey, I like that it starts out like "Heart and Soul"!

•I made Tom listen to this last night and now he's calling me his "personal penguin". Sweet :)

•Colin is in the back yard building a "structure". Should be interesting.

•We survived the homeschool convention without hearing any Man With A Plan seminars!

•David Cook won American Idol! (And there was very great rejoicing...)

• Which line makes me remember that at the NCHE convention someone was selling ukeleles and many young men, perhaps hoping to be the next Jason Castro, were strolling/sitting/standing around plinking and plunking on the dang things just to annoy me.

•And when I saw my third batch of ukelele players in one short morning I could only think this: "Then the winter came, and they were forced to eat Sir Robin's minstrels. And there was great rejoicing."

•Sir Robin's minstrels probably tasted better than the food sold at the concession stand at the convention center.

•In a sudden burst of brain waves I figured out last week why some people in our family think Natalie looks like David Cook.

•If I had a scanner I could post a photo of my husband at about the same age as DC...you would all have an "aha" moment with me.

•Although Tom's hair is lighter and he has blue eyes. And he was then and certainly still is now much hotter than DC.

•Yes, still. Because, as much as it will gross out you young whippersnappers, maturity is very sexy. Even when you've been married for over 20 years.

•When you've been married for over 20 years you know when it is safe to call your wife names like "my personal penguin".

•Free advice for any young men still reading...if you've not been married for long don't call your wife any animal names till you know her better.

•This goes double if she happens to be pregnant. (I do not speak from personal experience on this one...Tom was wise beyond his years when we married.)

•Or follow the example of King Solomon and stick with the slimmer, more graceful and attractive animals.

•Our pastor has a hilarious drawing he got in seminary of the Shulamite woman pictured literally as Solomon described her in the Song of Solomon.

•Colin just came in hollering because he thought he had a spider "attached to my body!!"

•It was a Daddy Long Legs and it was just wandering over the back of his shirt.

•I didn't see any sign of the "structure" when I took the DLL back outside. Instead there was much evidence of a water gun being loaded, shot, and reloaded.

•I am very hungry, though perhaps not hungry enough to eat Sir Robin's Minstrels.

•I always get very hungry on Thursdays when Natalie cooks supper. There is no real rational explanation for this.

•My new china cabinet is all aired out and cleaned out and ready to be filled up. Somebody is supposed to be crawling around in the attic finding my boxes of Depression Glass...

•Someday I will get this blog fixed up a bit with columns on the side showing what I'm reading.

•Or would it be better to just have a post now and then with lists of books I've read and some commentary on them? Hmmm....

•Is this enough bullet points yet?

•If this were a PowerPoint presentation would my husband be reeling in horror?

•Yes, he would...ergo, enough bullet points!

Time to go find some lunch!

Sheep Sandwiches At Subway??

2008-05-27T19:11:00.002-04:00

By now if you aren't living in a cave in Afghanistan with Osama bin Laden you've probably heard that a great army of homeschoolers are quite royally peeved with the Subway sandwich chain for sponsoring a writing contest that excludes home schools. This issue has surfaced all over the Internet, including such unlikely places as a needlework message board I frequent.

People are calling for a boycott of Subway, writing emails and letters to Subway management, and even attempting to phone the CEO of Subway to complain to him directly. Home School Legal Defense Association has even thrown its considerable weight into the fray and has posted an open letter to Subway asking the company to allow homeschoolers to enter the contest.

Hey...homeschoolers...people...YOU!!! GET A GRIP!!! Since when did we become a flock of boycotting sheep, bleating "Discrimination, discrimination!!" when we don't get asked to play with the cool kids?

Aren't we the same ones who used to speak out against this kind of affirmative action stance? Aren't we the ones teaching our children about free enterprise and capitalism? Aren't we the ones standing against the status quo by choosing to home school in the first place?

Do we realize how ridiculous and petty and shrill this makes us look? For those of us who homeschool because we believe it is God's will for our families, does this kind of boycott help our testimony to the world? "You won't let my little Bufert send in his wonderful story about sandwiches, so I'm going to take my money over to Quiznos instead!" Well, that'll teach 'em. I'm sure the next time Subway execs think about having a contest they'll remember us homeschoolers with great fondness and go out of their way to come up with nice prizes for us.

Who wants to join me in boycotting the boycott? Oh wait, that's more sheep talk. Who wants to join me in getting on with our lives and not worrying about silly contests we weren't invited to participate in? Eat wherever you want to eat! You don't have to eat at Subway (I don't particularly like their food myself) but if you want to...go right ahead!

To the rest of you who think this kind of boycott is the proper response when things don't go your way...I can only say "Baaaaaaaa!!!!"

Throwing, Thrown, or Throne??

2008-05-21T10:48:00.004-04:00

It's been nearly two weeks since I posted anything here...eek! I have had many things on my mind and plenty to say about them...but, unfortunately or otherwise, I wasn't free to blog about them. So, hey, how about some American Idol talk? And after you read this, head over to BooMama's place to see what everyone else had to say.

Last night was the big finale, the David vs. David showdown, complete with boxing motif and extra cheesy announcers. You've seen the show by now, you know how it played out, so let me indulge in some speculation.

Why did David Cook have a sub-par night of performances, and why did the judges ruthlessly point this out while praising David Archuleta to the skies? Three theories....

1. David C. threw the competition. Either he is the "genuinely nice guy" Simon thinks he is and he just couldn't stand to crush a little kid's dream...or his agent told him "Bail out now while there's still time!!" Whichever David wins gets stuck with the sappy AI ballad album and maybe David C. decided he just couldn't hack that?

2. The judges, especially Simon, praised David C. for the last few weeks and then threw him under the bus. This then would enable David A. to win, plus boost ratings and get people talking.

**Brief digression**Isn't that phrase getting a tad overused? The area under the bus is full, and David C. is now squished in there right next to the Reverend Wright and Barack Obama...who apparently, via some sort of logistical hoodoo, threw each other under there. **End digression**

3. Last night's show was all part of the shrewd strategy of Simon Cowell and company to put David Cook on the AI throne. They praise David A. and make his fans feel he is a shoe-in, while motivating millions of ~~forty-something women~~ loyal fans to vote for David C. because he was done wrong. Simon went on a bunch of chat shows and said David C. should win, and then awarded the win to David A. last night. Hasn't he used this kind of strategy before?

**Second digression with conspiracy theory content** Simon asked David C. why he picked the Collective Soul song instead of reprising Billy Jean or Hello and David answered that he thought he should do something new instead of reusing something he'd sung before. In response Simon made a face that some people interpreted as fierce anger complete with a twitching eye. I, on the other hand, thought it looked like he winked at David. Hmm...collaborative effort maybe?**End conspiracy digression**

Of course there are other, much more prosaic, explanations for the performances of the respective Davids. Maybe David C. was sick or tired...maybe his brother is doing worse...maybe his voice was just exhausted from all the rehearsals. Maybe David A. finally realized this was his last chance to really nail a performance...maybe not having his dad around for rehearsals made him more confident.

In the immortal words of the ever-lucid Paula Abdul "May the bessht man win!" And since there's only one man competing at this point...

OCD...but we knew that already..

2008-05-08T17:02:00.002-04:00

This afternoon my mom asked me to come over and talk to my father about a "procedure" he's scheduled to have next week. She was concerned because he couldn't seem to explain to her what was going to be done, he hadn't found out if their insurance was going to pay for it, he didn't know if it was going to really fix his problem, etc. Two problems here...my parents don't specialize in good communication, and my dad is the ideal patient for a busy doctor...he tells the doctor a lame golf joke, he flirts with the office staff, he doesn't ask any questions.

So, because every daughter dreams of someday getting to discuss personal plumbing issues with her elderly father, I trudged over there to intervene. This is when I wish I had a brother. Oh wait, I have two brothers, they just live too dang far away to deal with this stuff!

We discussed, we clarified. I found out Mom thought he was going to be hospitalized for a week and in pain and peril for a long time after. Dad, on the other hand, thought he was going to have a quick 15 minute procedure and be instantly good as new and probably learn some new jokes in the process. I went online and looked at Mayo Clinic and WebMed, and if they are accurate, the truth lies somewhere in between those two extremes.

Dad felt ganged up on, and got miffed with me. I had to remind him that I didn't have a horse in this race; I was just trying to make sure he and mom both knew what to expect. Funny how this type of health issue makes one think in sports metaphors...good job Avodart ads!

Anyway, we got all that hashed out. Both of them are happy with me again, both of them feel better informed. Good has been done, super daughter saves the day. Haha!

So I stand up to leave and automatically turn the decorative pillow on the couch over so the zipper isn't sticking up. Zippers on pillows aren't supposed to be sticking up. Mom says "Oh, turn that back, I want it the other way so the brown stripe is on top like the other one."

I look and see that the matching pillow on the other end of the couch has the brown stripe on top and the zipper ditto. "I always like to put the zippers down!" I say.

"I'm always telling your father to turn those pillows over so the brown stripe is on top!" she says. "But, I really don't like those zippers sticking up, either."

I turn them both around so the zippers are down and the blue stripe is on top. That doesn't work for either of us, so I try turning them both so they are oriented differently. The stripes now run vertically instead of horizontally. Success at last. I turn to leave.

"Oh wait!" "Now the solid brown pillows have to be turned around!" Huh?

The solid brown pillows are behind the blue and brown striped pillows. They have a woven texture to them...and the texture is running horizontally and clashing dreadfully with the vertical stripes. I turn the brown pillows to a vertical orientation.

"But," I say, "the fabric on the back of the couch is running horizontally, so now we've got that problem."

We decide to try to ignore that for now. We discuss the family tendency toward OCD, and the ramifications of more than one person in a household being this way. Dad opines that at least he doesn't add to this problem because he never notices anything.

Well...okay...checkmate.

Fifteen Minutes of Fame?

2008-05-05T09:55:00.002-04:00

This Friday a friend of ours was featured in the Web Sightings column in the local paper, the Winston-Salem Journal.

Scott, aka the Caledonian Highlander, is married to the inexplicably blogless Mandolinartist who faithfully reads and comments here.

Scott does not post silly things about American Idol or runny noses or cooking mishaps. He sticks to much weightier matters of theology, history, and Scottish heritage. He uses big words like "supralapsarian", which my spell-checker does not even recognize. :) We should all be thankful there are bloggers like Scott out there to balance things out and remind us of what is truly important.

Check it out, and while you're there tell him his wife needs to start blogging. :)

More Mumblings about Medical Care

2008-05-02T16:10:00.000-04:00

Last week as part of a random, rambling pos t I mentioned looking for health insurance for Natalie and also watching a Frontline program about health care in other countries. I also made a few vague observations, as is my wont, about the information presented in the program.

I think I ought to connect a few dots, and maybe disconnect some others because I think my vague ramblings sometimes get taken more seriously than I intend. With that said, some more thoughts...

First of all, I am not about to complain about the health care system on a personal level. We have excellent insurance coverage through my husband's work, and we also have access to some of the best medical care available.

Secondly, I found when I was researching insurance options for Natalie that I had some misconceptions about what was available to people who didn't have insurance through their jobs. Insurance that you buy yourself costs more and is harder to qualify for than I realized. For someone young and healthy like Natalie it's not terrible; we'll pick an option with a fairly high deductible and we will stretch our budget to afford it.

But the plan we get for her won't cover her like our work-based plan does. There's no going in to the doctor and only paying a $15 copay, for example. We'll also be losing her dental insurance. Again, because she's young and healthy this won't be, Lord willing, too big an issue.

Thirdly, when I went looking online for discussions about and reviews of insurance plans and options, I read about quite a few young people in Natalie's situation who, although they were young, were not healthy. I also read about parents having to get coverage for their whole family under this same type of plan, and how many are struggling to pay extremely high premiums because of pre-existing health problems or just because of the number of people they need to cover. They are also struggling to get medical bills paid by these companies because, as I said in my other post, these insurance companies seem to do best at taking payments, not making them.

Fourthly, I watched the Frontline show about medical care in other countries. Of course this report was carefully edited and scripted to get across the point they wanted to make. Overall, the report featured patients and doctors who were happy with the way things were working in their system. They might have walked past huge groups of people who hate the system, who knows? :) I thought it was interesting mainly because I didn't know anything about health care systems in the countries they featured.

Obviously I have questions about all this, but not any firm answers. It's another one of those areas where I start feeling anxious about not having enough knowledge, but then I have to squash that feeling and remember that I can do what I can do and that's it. God hasn't given me the job of fixing the government or the medical system or the insurance industry.

But what would Biblical thinking be in this regard? God didn't specifically give government any role in health care in the Bible, but neither did He give it a role in building roads or educating children. As long as we live in a sinful fallen world we are going to have corrupt governing officials who like to take our money and redistribute it where they want it to go...while taking a chunk off the top for themselves, of course.

Another thought...if secular socialism is wrong, does it automatically follow that secular capitalism is right? I don't think so.

If I say to my neighbor "Hey, I've got great health insurance, too bad your husband can't get a job like mine has so you can get treated for that heart problem!" then I am sinning.

If I say to a country full of neighbors like that "Hey, I've got great health insurance and I want my health care to stay exactly the same as it is now. If you want to get your heart problem treated and you're self-employed with bad insurance...well, sorry sucker, that's the way the market forces worked out!" am I still sinning?

Finally, I mentioned the thought that government officials could use an economic downturn as a time to institute health care "reforms". Again, I'll say that I'm not trying to start or pass on a conspiracy theory. I don't really put much stock in that kind of thing, I lean towards being slightly more skeptical than Scopes.com.

So, are y'all ready for me to go back to picking songs for the American Idol contestants now? :)

Porcupine Pie

2008-05-01T13:01:00.002-04:00

Just to wrap up the Neil Diamond madness for now. Next week's AI theme is Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Woot!

Next post we'll get back to the serious, thought-provoking, intellectual material you've come to expect from The Cat. But for now...

Vanilla Soup...a double scoop, please!

2008-04-29T21:09:00.002-04:00

Okay, it's Neil Diamond night on American Idol and each contestant is singing two songs. Wow, they really had to squeeze to get all that done in a hour! If they only had to sing that would be one thing, but you've got to allow time for the mentoring from ND, Ryan's cheesy remarks, critiques from the judges...well, the hour went by quickly!

After I went to all that trouble to pick songs for the contestants they just up and did whatever they wanted, except for Jason's valiant attempt at "Forever in Blue Jeans."

Hey, I just realized I've never done an AI recap blog before. I'm trying to type real fast like someone's going to be waiting for my insights with bated breath. Okay, slow down...hmmm...does this need any particular format to work right? Ah, who cares, we'll just dive in.

Jason: 1st song: "Forever in Blue Jeans" I felt like he did a pretty good job on this. He showed off his "lower register" as Paula and Randy like to say. He played guitar and he always manages to keep the tempo up a little better when he plays and sings at the same time. This wasn't a big show-stopper, and it didn't have anything particularly distinctive about it, but it wasn't BAD either.

2nd song: "September Morn" Oh, well, I guess he couldn't be up-tempo on two songs in one night. This one was just okay. I mean he didn't do anything wrong (he said afterward he coughed or choked or something right before he started singing, but I didn't notice that). But he didn't do anything exciting with it.

Jason is reminding me of Bo Bice right now. Their styles are different, of course. But Bo got to a point near this stage of the show where it seemed like he was just too mellow to compete. Every week he came out and sang his songs and every week they sounded like "Bo songs", and when the judges criticized him he smiled graciously and said "It's all good, man!" Now, Bo did come in second, so maybe Bo knows Idol and maybe this is a fine little strategy. We'll have to see how it works for Jason.

David C. 1st song: "I'm Alive" Awesome! He played electric guitar on this one, with the initials "AC" on his jacket and on the guitar...is that in honor of his brother? I listened to this song on Youtube this afternoon after I saw the spoilers of what they were going to sing tonight, and I thought at the time David could do it justice and "make it his own" as they like to say.

2nd song: "All I Really Need Is You" Again, awesome! I was not familiar with either of these songs, and apparently they're not very popular, but that works out so well for David. The way he sang this one reminded me of someone else...maybe Bryan Adams?

David Cook is either the only one of the contestants with the musical ability to adapt these old songs and make them sound fresh, or he's the only one with the savvy to realize that it's the best strategy. I'm really torn because I would like to see him win the whole thing because I believe he's the best one out there, but I also worry about what kind of nasty dreck they'll make him record.

Brooke 1st song: "I'm A Believer" Oh, oh my. Brook is wearing jeans and a ruffly shirt and has her hair flying all over the place and she's playing guitar and singing like she's at a hoedown. Did she somehow get the impression that this was a country song?

2nd song: "I Am...I Said" This is one of my least-favorite ND songs. That line about the chair just to make it rhyme...eek! Brooke changes it up, following ND's advice and instead of pretending to be born and bred in New York she instead travels between the "two shores" of Arizona and Los Angeles. Okay.

I liked Brooke in the early rounds, but she's become tiresome. I'll give her points tonight for not crying and not being too mouthy while the judges tried to talk. But she never seems to quite get it. Tom said she was singing like Dolly Parton tonight; I thought she was going for Sheryl Crow...either way, it didn't work.

David A. 1st song: "Sweet Caroline" Oh, someone please hit me over the head with something! First of all, in order to fit some semblance of story into the time available someone had to chop big pieces of the song out and cut and paste other parts together. Which made it look like David was forgetting the words. Or maybe he really was forgetting the words, but I don't think so this time. This was dreadful, he was not in tune half the time. This was too much song for him.

2nd song: "America" Heh...heh..heh...Simon and I agree about this strategy. :) Oh, how nice, he even got a flag background behind him. "Ticking all the boxes" indeed.

David A. proves, like several others before him, that you may be a prodigy in your own little world, but it just isn't enough when you're placed up against older more-seasoned performers with some life experience. He's probably a nice kid, and if the stories of him being pressured by family are true, well, that's just sad and disgusting. But it's time for him to go home, and AI really should raise the lower age limit a few years.

Syesha 1st song: "Hello" Syesha shows more personality tonight on both her songs than she had been earlier in the season. I think she figured out last week that she could act like she was enjoying herself and people would buy it. She has a good voice, and she's a pretty girl, and this was a good song choice for her.

2nd song: "Thank the Lord For the Night Time" Another good choice, this showed off her voice well. Of all the performers I think she came closest to singing the songs the way Neil Diamond intended them to be sung. You can take that however you want to!

Syesha seems to do really well with the Broadway numbers and she might be a good actress. Several AI alumni have gone on to Broadway, maybe this will be her route to fame. The problem I have in judging a performer like her is that her style of music is one I probably will never love, no matter who performs it.

At our house someone else does the phone dialing on AI night, so it's not up to me to decide who to vote for. :) I think amongst the four of us we all liked David Cook best, but I think Jason is getting some sympathy votes from the dialer, too.

Tomorrow night, Neil Diamond and Someone I've Never Heard Of will perform. Plus a cheesy group number...will they do "Crunchy Granola Suite" or "Red, Red Wine"?

The tutti fruit, with fruity blue cheese!

2008-04-26T16:30:00.003-04:00

This week on American Idol the remaining contestants will be attempting to sing the songs of Neil Diamond. (Original title for this week's theme: Songs best sung by Michael Johns.) Who should sing what? We discussed this burning issue in our home this week, and in the process the kids found out that my husband knows way too many Neil Diamond songs. He has two older sisters and he blames them for his indoctrination into this genre of music at an early age. They're also responsible for him knowing many, many Simon & Garfunkel songs, but somehow that is not as offensive to the children.

My suggestions for the Fearless Five:

1. Syesha Mercado: This one is tough because a lot of ND's songs are either very male or very folksy. Syesha can sing powerful songs, but ND's powerful songs are often written so much from a male perspective that it would be hard to change them by just changing pronouns. I don't think Syesha's strength lies in the folksy area, though. My suggestion would be for her to use the Idol fail-safe strategy of appealing to the patriots. Has anyone ever been voted off the week they sang a patriotic song? So, for Syesha:

•America

•You Don't Bring Me Flowers (ballady back-up option, but will then have to be compared to Barbra Streisand)

2. Brooke White: Brooke can do the folksy songs, and ND has some nice whiny ones that would be perfect for her. Tom suggested "Play Me", and I agree that the melody is perfect for Brooke, but there's the gender problem again with the lyrics. Some folksy, weepy options for Brooke:

•Shilo

•Yesterday's Songs

•Hello Again

3. David Archuleta: David (or his daddy) will pick something so very David-ish, so let's not bother finding him something truly appropriate. Whatever it is, it will be forgettable, he will hem and haw about it, and he will win Idol and enjoy two albums worth of fame and fortune. Perfect songs for David:

•Heartlight (from that classic old movie "ET")

•Beautiful Noise (sung in an "Up With People" style)

4. Jason Castro: Poor cute clueless Jason, what can we pick for you...I suspect you're going to pick Heartlight for yourself and it'll be a disaster. There are actually quite a few good choices this week, but Jason's going to have to stretch himself a wee bit to wow us with any of them. Jason could try:

•And The Grass Won't Pay No Mind (this is "grass" as in LAWNS, Jason, but other than that the lyrics are fairly self-explanatory)

•Canta Libre (very pretty tune, en Espanol y con ukulele!!)

•Crunchy Granola Suite (okay, this is a stretch because it requires a lot more energy than Jason usually displays...but it would be funny)

•Forever In Blue Jeans (if Jason could be peppy enough, this could be really rather good)

•I'm A Believer (yes, Rebecca, Neil Diamond wrote this! Jason could do this one up good if he'd try...and that seems to be the operative phrase with Jason. He needs to exert himself.)

•Song Sung Blue (again with the ukulele or guitar)

5. David Cook: Obviously, I saved the best for last. I think David should have an easy hit with Neil Diamond week. He has enough power and range to his voice to pull off many of ND's songs, plus he seems to be smart enough to understand the emotions that need to be conveyed along with the songs. Songs for David:

•And The Grass Won't Pay No Mind (yeah, I just gave this to Jason, but David would have a completely different take on it)

•Holly Holy (not the Reggae version...PLEASE!)

•Solitary Man (there's a video on Youtube of ND singing this in concert in 1971...his style back then reminded me of David C. Of course, David could also emo this one up a bunch and that would work, too. Some terribly demonic looking bunch has done a cover of this recently, but he wouldn't have to do their version. )

•Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show (because there are people in this house who want someone to sing this, and David's the only one who could possibly pull it off. It would have been perfect for Michael Johns.)

Tune in Tuesday night to see the contestants pick entirely different songs and prove me wrong!

Because all the really cool kids are...

2008-04-25T19:33:00.002-04:00

Last week Mandolinartist sent me this questionnaire, and I intended to fill it out and send it back to her. But it's been the sort of week where fun questionnaires get left in the dust.

But tonight I noticed that Rebecca and Natalie both posted their questionnaires on their blogs. So, I thought...hey, what's to keep me from doing that, too? I can't start a trend, but I can follow one!

1. WHAT TIME DID YOU GET UP THIS MORNING? 6:30

2. DIAMONDS OR PEARLS? sapphires

3. WHAT IS THE LAST FILM THAT YOU SAW AT THE CINEMA? Do the teeny movie theaters nowadays really qualify as "the cinema"? Umm...hmmm...wracking my brain...I think it was that movie with all the chickens in it. Chicken Run! I used to go to movies all the time; then I had kids.

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE TV SHOW? America's Test Kitchen

5. WHAT DO YOU USUALLY HAVE FOR BREAKFAST? smoothie or peanut butter toast

6. WHAT IS YOUR MIDDLE NAME? Jane

7. WHAT KIND OF CAR DO YOU DRIVE? 1999 Ford Taurus

8. FAVORITE SANDWICH ? Reuben

9. WHAT CHARACTERISTIC DO YOU DESPISE? puppyism

10. FAVORITE ITEM OF CLOTHING? my lime green polo dress

11. IF YOU COULD GO ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD ON VACATION, WHERE WOULD YOU GO? Ireland

12. WHAT COLOR IS YOUR BATHROOM? Gray-blue

13. FAVORITE BRAND OF CLOTHING? No comprende?!

14. WHERE WOULD YOU RETIRE TO? Colorado or Oregon

15. WHAT WAS YOUR MOST MEMORABLE BIRTHDAY? My 16th birthday; my mom and my cousin had a surprise party for me

16. FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH? baseball!

17. FURTHEST PLACE YOU ARE SENDING THIS? out into the ether, baby!

18. WHO DO YOU LEAST EXPECT TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? n/a

19. PERSON YOU EXPECT TO SEND IT BACK FIRST? n/a

20. FAVORITE SAYING? Dang!

21. WHEN IS YOUR BIRTHDAY? September 23

22. MORNING or NIGHT PERSON? Night

23. WHAT IS YOUR SHOE SIZE? 10-11

24. PETS? 2 lazy diva cats

25. ANY NEW AND EXCITING NEWS THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE? Ummm...the President is sending me free money?? :)

26. WHAT DID YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU WERE YOUNG? When I was 5 I wanted to be a doctor, specifically a surgeon.

27. HOW ARE YOU TODAY? Relieved that it is Friday!

28. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CANDY? Dark chocolate, anything dark chocolate, the darker the better.

29. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE FLOWER? Violets

30. WHAT IS A DAY ON THE CALENDAR YOU ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO? I don't really think that way.

31. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW ? The dishwasher running, my husband mowing the grass, the kids watching Jeopardy in the living room

32. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE? pork BBQ sandwich

33. DO YOU WISH ON STARS? No

34. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Prussian Blue

35. HOW IS THE WEATHER RIGHT NOW? Too durned hot already

36. FAVORITE SOFT DRINK? RC Cola, the retro kind made with real sugar

37. FAVORITE RESTAURANT? Carrabbas

38. SIBLINGS? 2 ~~bothers~~ brothers

39. FAVORITE DAY? Friday

40. WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE TOY AS A CHILD? dolls

41. SUMMER OR WINTER? Winter

42. HUGS OR KISSES? both

43. COFFEE OR TEA? Tea!

44. CHOCOLATE OR VANILLA? chocolate

45. DO YOU WANT YOUR FRIENDS TO EMAIL YOU BACK? Go for it!

46. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? I don't remember, probably while trying to read something sad to the kids.

47. WHAT IS UNDER YOUR BED? Storage box of needlework supplies, wrapping paper box, box of strawberry jam (!), some stuff of Natalie's that she doesn't think I know about.

48. WHO IS THE FRIEND THAT YOU HAVE HAD THE LONGEST? my husband

49. WHAT DID YOU DO LAST NIGHT? ate dinner, showered, sat on the couch and talked with family

50. FAVORITE SMELL? vanilla or baking smell

51. WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF? Being trapped in a tight space or intolerable position (physically or emotionally)

52. SALTY OR SWEET? sweet

53. HOW MANY KEYS ON YOUR RING? 3, and only 2 are ones I use...what's the other one for?

54. HOW MANY YEARS AT YOUR CURRENT JOB? 20.5

55. HOW MANY TOWNS HAVE YOU LIVED IN? seven

56. DO YOU MAKE FRIENDS EASILY? Not really

57. HOW MANY PEOPLE WILL YOU SEND THIS TO? everybody!

58. HOW MANY WILL RESPOND? We'll leave that question to the philosophers.

Overwrought

2008-04-25T09:06:00.003-04:00

A quick public service announcement for those listing things for sale on Ebay, Craigslist, or in the newspaper classified ads. Heads up, also, for those of you who write about decor on your blog or in emails.

There's a substance out there that y'all are fond of. It's used to make railings on porches, or decorative arches for the garden. Indoors it can be found made into candlesticks, clocks, stair railings, and many other decorative forms.

This substance is Wrought Iron. As defined by Webster, wrought iron is " a commercial form of iron that is tough, malleable, and relatively soft, contains less than 0.3 percent and usually less than 0.1 percent carbon, and carries 1 or 2 percent of slag mechanically mixed with it."

Wrought Iron, wrought iron, WROUGHT iron! Not "rod iron", not "rodded iron", and not "rot iron".

Please! And thank you, very much.

Oh, and while we're at it? That room you have between the kitchen and the living room? That room with the big table, buffet, and china cabinet? That's a dining room. Notice the number of "n's" in that word "dining". Two of 'em, not three. You dine in a dining room. What would you do in a "dinning" room? Eat "din din"?

With Half My Brain Tied Behind My Back

2008-04-17T16:26:00.003-04:00

...just to make it fair, ya know.

•Yesterday, the bad migraine (as opposed to those good ones).

•Today, the after-effects...making me slightly less than half-witted.

•My children are multi-tasking today, apparently in an effort to drive me to drink.

•Natalie is sewing, cooking, and gardening simultaneously. When means she's not giving 100% of her attention to any of them. Disaster lurks in the offing.

•Colin is trying to get in trouble as many ways as possible today, also simultaneously. There are too many possible ways.

•Monday I spent several hours researching health insurance because Natalie is about to age out of the group policy we have through Tom's work.

•For a healthy young person, private-pay insurance seems to involve picking as high a deductible ~~as possible~~ as the parents feel comfortable with and paying a medium-ish chunk of change every month.

•From the horror stories I've read online, this works out splendidly as long as one never has to make a claim. Apparently the insurance companies are quite skilled and professional at the tasks of taking one's money and providing one with a little plastic card. Beyond that, forget it.

•Tuesday night I watched a PBS Frontline special about health care in other industrialized nations. They briefly covered Great Britain, but spent more time on Switzerland, Germany, Japan, and Taiwan. Since I've only heard much about the health care systems in Britain and Canada, it was good to get a broader perspective.

•IF everything in the report is accurate, these countries are managing paying for medical care in a way that satisfies their citizens more than we in the US are satisfied with our system.

•In each of these systems someone is getting less money than in our system in the US. Either it's the doctors, the hospitals, the drug companies, or the lawyers. Is it likely, in the US, that a majority of people in any of those categories would willingly give up a significant amount of their income in order to make a new health care system work? I'm not familiar with the health care proposals of any of the presidential candidates. I wonder what provisions each of them have considered to deal with this decrease in income?

•Oh, yeah, another category of people whose income would decrease...people like my husband. Obviously if doctors and medical schools don't have the big bucks to do research and education they also can't pay support staff as much.

•It might be easier for a government to implement a new system if the country was in a financial crisis. Think Roosevelt and the New Deal during the Great Depression...

•That does not add up to a conspiracy theory or anything woo-woo in my mind...just giving my opinion of one way it could be pulled off.

•Okay, anything fun going on? We got a bunch of blueberry plants yesterday! Maybe in a few years we'll have some blueberries to eat. Blueberries are very healthy. :)

•Kristi Lee Cook is gone from AI, and there was very great rejoicing. Although in some ways she was the least objectionable of the women on there this year. I never like the women contestants, how misogynistic of me...can women be misogynists?

•The rest of them should leave in this order: Carly, Syesha, Brooke, Jason, David C, and then David A.

•I am so not a fan of David Archuleta. My reason for picking this order is because the winner has to make a sappy diva album with goofy songs about living up to one's dreams and never finding true love and seeing rainbows above us and the stars are God's daisy chain. This is David Archuleta's destiny. The boy was born to make an album like that.

•Yes, I still call them "albums"...I am a dinosaur.

•My favorites, Mr. David "I'm emo in a way that middle-aged ladies can understand" Cook, and Mr. Jason "I represent the kind of lad the middle-aged ladies would have fallen for when they were 14" Castro...well, if they don't win then they can make real albums that showcase their styles and talents. Albums that even I would buy.

•I would also buy the 8-track versions to listen to in the car.

•I am fully aware that my knowing the term "emo" means it is totally not a trendy word anymore. I also know about "emo pants", which are really nothing new, but we called them something else back in the day.

•I have 5 more things on my to-do list for this afternoon and it is 5:11 PM...this does not bode well for a completed list.

•Note to my brother...is a MWAH a "man with a headset"? There was one of those in our backyard once...walking around carrying a laptop and looking like he was lecturing the trees.

•High Five, everybody!

Today Is....

2008-04-15T15:51:00.003-04:00

National High Five Day

How will you celebrate such an auspicious day? More info here. More random blatherings from me to come later....Lord willing and the creek don't rise.

Ten Things Tuesday

2008-04-08T15:19:00.003-04:00

Today Rebecca's theme is Ten Literary Characters I'd Have Over For Dinner. This was fun, but I realized as I was compiling my list that many of my favorite literary characters would not behave well in polite company. I narrowed the list down to the ten who would most likely be able to get through a meal without killing each other...which meant that, tragically, Madame Defarge had to stay home. Jeeves, of course, will be there anyway to cook, serve the meal, and solve everyone's problems.

Mr. Arabin from Anthony Trollope's Barchester Towers (don't read the wiki if you want to be surprised by the ending!!)

Admiral Croft and Sophia Croft from Jane Austen's Persuasion

Shasta and Aravis from The Horse and His Boy

Puddleglum

Hercule Poirot...and if you have M. Poirot you also have to have....

Captain Hastings

Galahad Threepwood

Paddington Bear

Memory Triggers

2008-04-03T14:56:00.002-04:00

Colin wanted a PB&J sandwich for lunch today. Actually, what he asked for was a "jam sandwich"... because he is British.

So, I was making his sandwich and thinking about how he likes jam or jelly on his PB&J and Natalie never has. And that triggered a memory from years ago.

I had a friend who I had never met in person. We were pen-pals, the real pen-and-paper kind. She and her family lived a few hours away from us, and they were going to be in our area for some reason. So, we invited them over for supper so we could all meet.

They were "health food" eaters, and we were, too, but not quite to the extent that they were. So I struggled a bit figuring out what to feed them, finally deciding on a taco/burrito build-your-own buffet. I found miniature corn taco shells that I knew the kids would love, and I got plenty of whole wheat tortillas because I knew the mama would feel right about eating those. We had taco meat, cheese, veggies, salsa, sour cream, the whole nine yards.

I was stumped for dessert ideas, because I knew my friend didn't believe in using sugar, white flour, or eggs in her baking. I might have been able to pull off a cake or cookies with wheat flour and honey...but I couldn't get around the egg obstacle. She used some sort of soy flour egg replacer stuff that wasn't in my budget, particularly for a one-time use. I decided dessert was going to be fruit salad.

We had a great time with the family. The kids hit it off right away. My friend and I started off a bit awkwardly when I temporarily forgot her name as I was introducing the family to my husband, but they laughed it off and we got on with the meal.

Everyone loved the taco idea except for one of their toddler boys who balked at the whole concept. I offered him a peanut butter sandwich and his mother said he would love to have that. So I popped out to the kitchen and whipped him up a peanut butter sandwich on whole wheat bread...making it exactly as I would have for Natalie: bread, very light skimcoat of butter, peanut butter of medium thickness, nothing else, cut in quarters.

The second bump in the road was the dessert. I handed around bowls of fruit salad and we adults got back to our conversation. From the kids' table across the room I heard a very distinct loud whisper, "Mom, why aren't we having REAL dessert?" Mom whispered back, "It's okay, eat your fruit, I have cake in the car you can have on the way home." I pretended not to hear any of this. :)

All in all, it was a very nice evening. The kids didn't whine to me about the lack of cake; they were well-behaved children. My pen-pal and I got to meet each other in person, our husbands found a few areas of common ground they could talk about. I blew it on the dessert, but I still don't know what I could have done differently given the restrictions.

As they were leaving the dad was carrying the little guy for whom I'd made the PB sandwich, and he asked him "Did you thank Beth for your peanut butter and jelly sandwich?" The little fellow glared at me over his dad's shoulder with what looked like hatred in his little eyes and mumbled something. "You're welcome, Sweetie!" I said, and got on with saying goodbye to the rest of the family. It occurred to me very briefly to wonder what I'd done to him to upset him, but I didn't think much of it. I'm not the sort of person other people's little children like a lot. I would make a lousy kindergarten teacher, and I'm okay with that. My own kids love me. Usually.

But after their van pulled out of the drive, it suddenly dawned on me what I had done! He had expected a proper PB&J and I had given him the jam-less version Natalie favored! He had had to choke that down, not been given any proper dessert afterward, and then was expected to be thankful!

I can only imagine the family's conversation in the car on the way home. Over cake.

If you come to my house and want a peanut butter sandwich, you might want to be real specific in how you ask for it. :)

Nuttin', Honey...

2008-04-02T15:50:00.002-04:00

Me: (whining) I can't think of anything to blog about...(dramatic sigh)

Natalie: (eye roll behind my back) So, blog about nothing!

• The problem with my random/meandering/about nothing blog posts is that they end up sounding cranky too often.

• I think I write crankier than I really am. Curmudgeonly.

• So, an 18-year-old kid (and his underage buddy) admitted to unintentionally setting Sauratown Mountain on fire. Hmmph. And that's probably all the more I should say, because if I start pontificating about boys playing with matches the Lord may see fit to give me a lesson in humility. And I have a 6-year-old boy.

• Of course there are forest fires all the time, especially during a drought. This one just particularly hits home because Sauratown Mountain is home to Mountaintop Youth Camp where Natalie went to camp for 5 years. We were talking the other day about the impact the fire will have on this year's camp weeks. None of the buildings were damaged, so they should be able to have camp. But Natalie pointed out that some of the areas where they do rappelling and rope courses and hiking and stuff might have been damaged. Natalie's not going to regular camp this year (she wants to go to Extreme week if they have it) but her friends Z and S plan to go. I'm sure they've been keeping an eye on this situation, too..

• Over on Natalie's blog she mentioned a cleaning issue she was dealing with in her bathroom. Some of her blog readers are a just a tad shocked and appalled that she would mention this on her blog. Last night as I was falling asleep I wrote a one-act play in response to some of the comments. I planned to send it to Nat as a blog comment, but when I rehearsed it for her this morning she said I shouldn't. She has met a bunch of proper young ladies (Maidens of Virtue!!) and their kin via her blog...I think she's afraid they'll find out what kind of (insert adjective here) family she comes from.

• On Friday, our fair state will be infested yet again by former president William Jefferson Clinton...on the campaign trail for his lovely, ever-so-feminine wife. See, if I were running for President, and I were married to the likes of Bill, I think he's about the last person I'd want campaigning for me. Oh well...not mine to try to understand. Do the folks who vote for Hillary really want four to eight years of Bill toodling around the White House with lots of free time on his hands?

• When did Hillary Clinton drop the "Rodham" part of her name, anyway?

• It is 62 degrees outside, but I have the windows closed and the air conditioner running. Why? Because it is apparently official Mow Your Lawn Wednesday around our neighborhood! Someone needs to invest in some sheep.

• We could take up spinning and have all the yarn our hearts desired. Unless our hearts desired cotton or acrylic. But we're way classier than that.

• This year's homeschool convention looks promising. I haven't been for a few years. I was trying to remember how long it had been, but all I can come up with is that Colin was still young enough to be in a stroller and not walking. So, maybe 2002? Somehow I didn't think it had been quite that long...hmmm...

• Best thing about this year's convention? Near as I can tell there is no Man With A Plan speaking!! Or, if there is, he has disguised his bio sneakily so I can't spot him. Well, one guy looked like he might be developing A Plan, but he's only leading a workshop. When they're keynote speakers they're harder to avoid.

• Favorite convention workshop title: Ballistic Learning: Teaching and Appreciating Boys

It's 4:40 and I need to get supper started! Chicken with basmati rice tonight. Adding the "basmati" qualifier makes it sound so much more gourmet than just "chicken and rice", doesn't it?

Crafty Progress--with Pictures!

2008-03-27T15:29:00.005-04:00

I thought today I'd share some pictures of the craft projects I have in the works. Fortunately one of my photographers was available to snap a few pictures, so you can even see what I'm talking about.

First off, this is a design by Little House Needleworks called "The Rose in Morning". This one has been a quick stitch; I'm more than half done with it. I haven't decided whether to frame this one or make it into a pillow. Either way, I think it's destined for the master bedroom since the floral theme works well in there.

Second is another stitching project; this one is "Serendipity" by Papillon Creations. This is a free mystery stitch-along they designed for their newsletter subscribers. They could have charged as much as $20 for this chart, so getting it as a freebie is a pretty good deal. There are 9 sections to this design and I've got 4 almost completed. This will also be a bedroom picture when it's done. We have a lot of bare wall space in the bedroom!

Finally, this is my current crochet project. It's a ripple afghan, and it will be Colin's when it is done. He picked out the colors and the design; I think it will look pretty good in his bedroom when it's done. It is big enough now as it is, but I need to add a few more rows to get it up to 72 inches long. I want to enter it in the fair this fall, and they have a minimum size requirement of 52 x 72 (or is it 50 x 70? perhaps I should check?).

So, that's what I've been working on lately. I need to figure out what to crochet after the afghan is done. I would like to make a table runner to drape over the top of the piano, but that would be a more advanced, complicated project than I've tackled so far. So, we'll see. I always have a "next" project in mind for stitching; I will need to live a long time to get done all the things I want to do!

Ten Things Tuesday

2008-03-25T11:44:00.002-04:00

At last, this week Rebecca's Ten Things Tuesday is one I can participate in. (Maybe next week she can do 10 bad grammar mistakes and I can illustrate them all from sentences on my blog!) This week's category is Ten Favorite Stores.

I don't really enjoy shopping like I used to when I was young and had "my own money". Two things broke me of the habit of shopping and they both happened a little over 18 years ago. One, I gave birth to Natalie...and two, I quit my job to be a SAHM. (I hate that acronym, FWIW.) Suddenly we had no extra money; everything was budgeted for necessities. At first I thought I could still go hang out at the mall with my friends. Most of us were in similar financial states, but surely we could go to the mall and LOOK at things?!

Alas, I could not even do that. Not because I was tempted to buy things, although I was. I fought the temptation bravely. But it turned out that Natalie was not a good shopping buddy. All the other babies fell asleep in their strollers and let their moms shop and talk in peace. Not my baby...my baby stayed wide awake and fussed. Or the times she didn't fuss, she still stayed awake, missed her nap, and then screamed and cried all evening. Ugh. I had to drop out of the shopping club, which was probably all for the best since it helped break me of my shopping addiction. But guess who likes to shop now? Yep, she still doesn't sleep through a store. And she's probably writing a blog post right now about how she hates to shop. :)

Oh wait, I was supposed to be listing my Ten Favorite Stores!! Okay, here they are, in no particular order and some of them are online-only stores.

1. Costco

2. Elann.com

3. 123Stitch.com

4. HomeGoods

5. BookCloseouts.com

6. Fresh Market

7. Whole Foods

8. Ebay (heh heh...)

9. Aldi

10. The Apple Store

Ditching A Book (but cheerfully!)

2008-03-20T20:39:00.002-04:00

First up, I'm feeling much much better today. An evening of solitude followed by a good night of sleep was just what I needed. Plus I realized that a lot of what's bothering me is caused by the time change messing with my body clock. The older I get the harder it gets to get in the groove after "springing forward".

This morning I made myself hop out of bed as soon as the alarm went off at 6:15. If I can continue to force myself to do that for a few more days I should get back on track. I'm comfortably sleepy tonight already, so I'm hoping to get to bed earlier than I have been these last two weeks.

Now, to the subject of ditching a book. One of the books on my "To Read in 2008" list was Plato and A Platypus Walk Into a Bar...Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein. My plan was to listen to this on CD because I thought it would be a somewhat light treatment of a heavy topic and not to hard to absorb aurally.

Well, I made it through the intro and one chapter before getting really fed up with it. If I had to describe the tone of the book in one word it would be "snide". As I was listening to it I felt like I was being tested to see if I was eligible to be in the authors' elite club. If I got the jokes then I could belong, but if I didn't think the jokes were funny...well, that just proved their point about people like me.

The jokes weren't funny. They seemed lame and contrived. Now I will admit that this might just be because I'm not smart enough to understand the inherent humor in philosophy. And I suppose explaining jokes ruins them. But if your subtitle is "Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes" one really gets the idea one might be helped by the jokes to understand philosophy.

There are two other factors that might be causing this disconnect. One is the fault of the authors and the other isn't.

Throughout the intro and first chapter there is a running theme of snarkiness about "Intelligent Design" that really got on my nerves. It was kind of a "nudge nudge" thing...a "well of course, so and so wouldn't have understood because he probably believed in intelligent design (eyes rolling)" kind of thing. I didn't expect the authors of this book to be believers in creationism or intelligent design. When I read secular books like this I generally expect the authors to be Darwinists unless I have some reason to believe otherwise. This snide approach to expressing their disgust with ID came off as childish.

The other factor is the narrator of the audiobook. I've listened to other books this man has read and have liked them. I think one of them was Victory In the Pacific by Albert Marrin. His voice has a sort of swaggering, macho twang to it that worked really well with this book about WWII. But somehow it just didn't work for me with philosophy. I got the feeling Johnny Heller didn't think the jokes were funny either but was acting like he did as he read. When the narrator doesn't come across as "getting" the book he's reading it makes it even harder to delve into the book and learn from it.

Fortunately I didn't spend money for this book. :) So it just went on its merry way back to the library shelves. The library also has it in regular book form, and I might...might check that out. It's possible that it's a decent book that doesn't come over properly read aloud. So, we'll see. Right now I've got enough other books in the line-up that I know will be helpful and readable that I really don't need to force myself to get through this one.

Balance

2008-03-19T18:38:00.002-04:00

Lately I've had a hard time making everything in my life balance. Maybe "balance" as I'm thinking of it isn't even a valid concept for a Christian? Hmmm...things to think about.

Anyway, I'm tired and sore, and I feel out-of-balance. I feel like I'm spending too much time on some things and not enough on others. I especially feel like there's not enough silence in my life. Even as I type that I think of my friends who have lots of kids and I wonder what in the world is wrong with me that I, having only two children, feel so deprived of silence. Maybe I'm just a spoiled brat!

Tonight my effort at balance or silence or whatever is being aided by staying home from prayer meeting. No, I don't know if this is the best way to go about it. It might be better to go back to having Tom do the grocery shopping on Saturday morning with the kids. But that puts a burden on him that I'd rather not be responsible for.

Well, enough blogging for today. Time to disconnect and savor some solitude!