Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

You can say these are healthy since they have pumpkin in them...as long as you just ignore the...um...two cups of sugar that's also in them! ;) I make these in the mixer (it's very handy for combining the dry ingredients since the brown sugar clumps up) but be sure not to over-mix them. If you mix them by hand, combine all the wet ingredients in a separate bowl before adding them.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
2 C. flour
2 C. packed light brown sugar
2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. salt
2 t. baking soda
1 C. oil
1 15 oz. can pumpkin (2 cups)
4 eggs
2 C. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350'. Combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda. Mix in oil, pumpkin, and eggs. Stir until barely combined, add chocolate chips and finish mixing lightly. Fill 2 muffin tins 2/3 full. Bake 22-25 minutes.

Makes 2 dozen muffins.

Tuesday...on Wednesday

Okay, so I used a half-hour of my afternoon tearing the house apart looking for the CDs that go with the Algebra 2 books that Mom is going to sell. Last time I saw them they were on the bookshelves...so I looked behind all the books, looked in the cabinet in the garage that has more school stuff in it, looked all over my room, (although I didn't think the CDs were ever in there.) Mom finally emailed Dad and asked him if he knew where the things were! Well, he did, they were in his closet. Why, I don't know, but at least we've found them. Now I need to go take pictures of the Algebra 2 and the Biology books so Mom can re-sell them. Anyone need any Learnables Spanish, btw? I guess they've gone to a different format, more stuff on the computer or something, so no one's selling the old stuff with cassettes and CDs which is what we've got.

Oof. After all that rummaging, and yesterday when the cat had a hairball to deal with and had to be found and flung outside quickly, I've realized I'm still getting worn out easily. I really want to go ride my bike, but I'm not sure if I'm up to it or not.

So, you haven't been hearing about my teeth for two reasons...1. I thought I'd better not bore y'all with any more with updates on how miserable I was, and 2. I got better. :p

By Sunday night I was feeling great, I could talk, my mouth wasn't hurting, and I'd had time for a nap Sunday afternoon...so I was quite happy! ...although I tried not to be too terribly hyper around everyone else, Dad especially, since he was going around groaning a bit.

He and some other guys from church had a workday on Saturday over at our pastor's house putting up drywall in their new addition...I think everyone was probably stiff! :p It sounded like it went pretty well, considering none of them had put up drywall before...so that's good! :) I think next weekend they're going to do the mudding.

Also, I realized this past week how much I like having something to do! There are also plenty of times when I feel lazy and not like doing anything at all, but after lying in the couch reading all week I was really bored. Now I love reading, but I was getting pretty tired of it by the weekend, and I was so happy on Monday to get up and clean a bunch of stuff and get stuff done! So next time I don't feel like doing anything, I'll remember that! :)

So I can eat more real food, but still pretty soft stuff. My friend Zoe and her mom brought me a little thing of macaroni and cheese yesterday, so sweet of them! It was very yummy too, and went well with the one barbecue chicken wing I managed to deal with for supper. And they brought it in a cute little Pyrex baking dish :) :









I also made pumpkin chocolate chip muffins yesterday:









And sewed Mom's coupon pouch...these go a lot faster the second time around:









Tuesday, April 29, 2008

1-866-IDOLS-0...take your pick

Okay, so American Idol tonight: Neil Diamond songs. Wow, Neil wore some glittery shirts back in the day! You know, you don't have to match your name...anyways...
The contestants are singing two songs each tonight and Jason's up first.

Jason Castro ~Forever In Blue Jeans Edit: If you click on this link or the one for David C.'s song and get a 403 error, try cutting and pasting the url in another window...for some reason that works, but these links won't!
The clip shows Jason forgetting his words, and realizing he has the wrong sheet of lyrics in front of him...oh dear, not a good start Jason... However, Jason does very well, he actually puts some energy into his song for a change (still not as much as Neil Diamond) and sings a little lower, which sounds good for a change. Good job, Jason!

David Cook ~I'm Alive
Ryan asks David how he prepared for Neil Diamond week, David flips it around and asks Ryan what he did to prepare...Ryan says he "used to sit in the back of his mom's station wagon and sing Neil Diamond songs while making faces at people through the back window...too much information..." and David tells him to cut to the tape.
Mom and I found a video of Neil Diamond doing this song and it sounded really good even then so we figured David could only make it better, which he did. He did very, very good! In fact, this is the first song where I actually thought that I might like to download off of iTunes...I'm not sure that I will though. In the middle of David's song Dad suddenly says, "He's playing that guitar left-handed!" He hadn't noticed before that when David plays guitar it looks backwards...maybe you only notice that if you've played guitar...

Brooke White ~I'm a Believer
Brooke sings "I'm a believer" like she's acting, and makes the end of every phrase sound country...um, not good there, Brooke. If Rebecca saw the show tonight, she was yelling at the TV during Brooke's performance...right Rebecca? ;)

David Archuleta ~ Sweet Caroline
The arrangement was bad, I thought he was forgetting words, but there just weren't words in some spots...when there were words, I couldn't hear them...except for "Shweet Caroliiiiiiine...." as David seemed to stick his tongue out as far as possible to sing that part...I don't see how that helps any, David.

Syesha Mercado~Hello Again
Wow, what a boring song! And why did she need to be barefoot?

Ryan goes to the judges for a quick review on what they've done so far, Paula criticises both of Jason's songs...uh...um, Paula? He's only sung one so far... (I think they must have written down their critique during the rehearsal) Randy points out that she just needs to go over his first song. "What?!! I thought you sang two songs, Jason!!!!!" Paula rather falls apart over this, while Jason looks a little worried and David C. totally cracks up, he's still laughing when she finally yells something to him about being very good, since she can't judge the others. David nods his agreement with her while still grinning.

Second round:

Jason ~September Morn
Oh...*yawn* we're back to Jason's usual style...and he's sitting down again. I guess he used all his energy for the first song so there's nothing left. I'm falling asleep...

David C. ~All I Really Need Is You
I can't find any video or mp3 of this, so I don't know what the original sounded like (I need to look some more) David made it sound completely modern, like I could have heard it on the radio...unfortunately that's why, although it was very good, I didn't like it as well. But it was good. David once again freaks out as Ryan starts patting him on the back, and pointedly offers him his hand to shake. :p

Brooke ~I am..I said
Brooke changes the lyrics from "New York" to "Arizona" which makes the line "I'm lost between two shores" completely irrelevant. Brooke doesn't seem to really get the song...possibly because she only had to go as far as Arizona?

David A. ~America
Ha, clever song choice! And he didn't gasp, that was good at least.

Syesha~ Thank the Lord for the Night Time
This was really quite good...a very good song for her and she did it well. Once again she was barefoot...maybe her feet just hurt today so she thought she'd go barefoot? Who knows.

So, that was American Idol...Neil Diamond is supposed to perform on the results show tomorrow, and I think he's supposed to sing one of his new songs called "Pretty Amazing Grace" which is pretty good, and you can hear it on his website...and I sound like an ad for Neil Diamond.

Now I need to go vote some more.

I was planning on writing a regular blog post today, but at this point I think I'll wait till tomorrow...space it out so there's something throughout the week. Or maybe I'll start on it tonight...or write it all tonight and use the handy scheduled posting feature to post it tomorrow! :)

Interesting...

57 words

Speedtest



Ha, figures...I can type fast enough for anything I need to do, but since I have my own style of typing, I didn't figure it was going to be very fast! :)

Monday, April 28, 2008

Oh dear...

Churches Adapt To Changing Culture

And more...
Then there's also this: Local Pastor Inspired To Create Bruce Springsteen Sermon

And an article.

The first and third links are videos.

Work worth doing

I found this post on the Wise Bread blog, and I thought it was interesting...

Find Work Worth Doing

I don't really have any comment on it, other than that he makes some good points. (One note, the article by Franklin Schneider that he links has some bad language, so use your own judgment on whether you want to read it.) His post makes sense without reading the one by Schneider though.

A lot of his other posts are pretty good too: Philip Brewer

Sunday, April 27, 2008

*yawn*

Okay, so I woke up around four this morning because my throat kept tickling, so I was coughing. I woke up enough to get a cough drop, and then tried to go back to sleep. Well, the cough drop wasn't helping, and I as I woke up I realized my mouth was bleeding some and that's why I was coughing. Oh dear. So I got up and got some gauze to bite on, and went back to my room and got on the computer to find out if I could why I was bleeding again...because I'm a bit paranoid about that. :) From all I could find, it sounded like it wasn't a big deal and I really wasn't bleeding very much, but I sat up for a half hour biting on the gauze, because you're not supposed to lie down until it stops bleeding.
After that I got back in bed and tried to sleep, but by then I was: a. awake, and b. hungry...but I certainly didn't feel like eating anything, so I tried to sleep (which is almost impossible when you're hungry) until I gave up and decided to read until everyone else got up.

Anyway, as a result I only got about 4 hours of sleep last night, so I just got up from a lovely nap! :)

I'm paranoid about this one side of my mouth because it's always been more sore, and bled more, etc...I saw something online that said the left side of your mouth might be more sore if your oral surgeon is right-handed, because they'd be working backwards, so maybe that's it, or maybe it was just harder on that side. At any rate, I've been worried that something is going to go wrong with it! :p

In other news, it is humid today...blech.

And the cats were sort of happy to get "their couch" back after I've been sleeping on it since Tuesday, but then they had also kind of taken over my bed, so they had to find other places to sleep last night. This is where I found Petunia when I got up this morning...Colin had left his beanbag chair in the living room and she took it:









Gracie claimed my bed during the day yesterday:









Okay, it's almost time to leave for evening church, so I'd better get going.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Saturday

I realized I never posted a picture of the skirt I made. Or re-made actually...I made a skirt a couple years ago and it never quite worked right, it was cut on the bias and I think maybe I got the fabric going the wrong way, or maybe the rayon just stretched funny. Anyway, I decided to remake it and this is what I came up with:












I tried to take a picture of it while I was wearing it, but it's really a paler blue than that and it kept just getting washed out. So I put it on the floor instead! :p

And look at the bug!









I don't really like yellow, but I like how that looks...they're supposed to be crazy bright colors.

I had something other than soup for lunch today! Ha-ha! :D Mom made deviled eggs, so I had some of those for lunch and they tasted SO good... and last night I had leftover mashed potatoes and piled a bunch of cheese, butter, and sour cream on them...that was pretty good too! At least I'm losing weight with this diet...unfortunately I didn't need to at all!!! :( Bother, where'd I leave my belt?...

Friday, April 25, 2008

Random stuff about me!

So I got this in the email, and I sent it to some of my friends, and since Rebecca posted her answers on her blog, I thought I'd post mine. :)

1. WHAT TIME DID YOU GET UP THIS MORNING? 8-ish

2. DIAMONDS OR PEARLS? ? Uh, neither? Diamonds I guess...small ones.

3. WHAT IS THE LAST FILM THAT YOU SAW AT THE CINEMA? ? Ratatouille...I've only been to the movie theatre three times...all for kid movies! Ratatouille was cute, but after we saw it I remember saying something to Rebecca about if I had to see another movie about animals who just weren't understood by the humans, I wouldn't be able to take it! lol!

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE TV SHOW? ? Ah...I don't really have one...how about "This Old House" I like that one! :p Or "Ask This Old House".

5. WHAT DO YOU USUALLY HAVE FOR BREAKFAST? ? A smoothie!

6. WHAT IS YOUR MIDDLE NAME? - Elizabeth...and I think I know around 6 other people with the middle name of Elizabeth

7. WHAT KIND OF CAR DO YOU DRIVE? ? My parents' blue Ford Taurus...it drives great!

8. FAVORITE SANDWICH ? Peanut butter...w/butter and no jelly most of the time

9. WHAT CHARACTERISTIC DO YOU DESPISE? ? Snobbery (snobbishness?) being snobby! :D Or acting fake...can't stand that.

10. FAVORITE ITEM OF CLOTHING? ? My favorite pair of jeans

11. IF YOU COULD GO ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD ON VACATION, WHERE WOULD YOU GO? ? Great Britain or Germany

12. WHAT COLOR IS YOUR BATHROOM? ? Aqua...or light blue? I guess you'd call it aqua.

13. FAVORITE BRAND OF CLOTHING? ? Eddie Bauer

14. WHERE WOULD YOU RETIRE TO? ? Wherever...except Florida...Oregon or Colorado perhaps.

15. WHAT WAS YOUR MOST MEMORABLE BIRTHDAY? ? I don't remember!

16. FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH? ? Baseball

17. FURTHEST PLACE YOU ARE SENDING THIS? ? Well, via email: Ohio

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? ? "Oh bother"....and lots of others that I can't remember right now! Oh, "If that makes any sense"...I say that a lot.

21. WHEN IS YOUR BIRTHDAY? ? September 4th

22. ARE YOU A MORNING OR NIGHT PERSON? ? Night!

23. WHAT IS YOUR SHOE SIZE? ? Um, *cough* 9 or 10...

24. PETS? ? Two cats

25. ANY NEW AND EXCITING NEWS THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE? ? I don't think so...

26. WHAT DID YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU WERE YOUNG? ? Grocery bagger

27. HOW ARE YOU TODAY? ? So-so

28. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CANDY? ? Dark chocolate anything!

29. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE FLOWER? ? Uh, most of them? Lilies, perhaps, or pansies/violets...I don't know!

30. WHAT IS A DAY ON THE CALENDAR YOU ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO? ? Right now, the homeschool convention the end of May, after that...mmm...my birthday?

31. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW ? ? Clothes tumbling in the dryer

32. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE? ? Soup and coconut pudding...man, I really want a hamburger or something!

33. DO YOU WISH ON STARS? ? No

34. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? ? Green...or black.

35. HOW IS THE WEATHER RIGHT NOW? ? A bit hot

36. FAVORITE SOFT DRINK? ? Sierra Mist, or Sprite, or ginger ale...Schweppes brand.

37. FAVORITE Restaurant? ? Macaroni Grill!

38. SIBLINGS? ? One little brother

39. FAVORITE Day? ? Tuesday or Friday probably

40. WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE TOY AS A CHILD? ? Aaahh, I don't remember! Probably a stuffed animal...

41. SUMMER OR WINTER? ? Fall! :D

42. HUGS OR KISSES? ? Hugs

43. COFFEE OR TEA? ? Coffee...but I like tea too

44. CHOCOLATE OR VANILLA? - Chocolate...

45. DO YOU WANT YOUR FRIENDS TO EMAIL YOU BACK? ? Uh, sure! I like getting emails! :p

46. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? ? It's been a while I think

47. WHAT IS UNDER YOUR BED? ? Nothing, my bed's flat on the floor. Good thing too, or half my room would be under there

48. WHO IS THE FRIEND THAT YOU HAVE HAD THE LONGEST? ? My friend Sarah...not that any of you know her! lol

49. WHAT DID YOU DO LAST NIGHT? ? Read...lay on the couch with a heating pad on my jaw.

50. FAVORITE SMELL? ? Something yummy baking

51. WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF? ? Weird things...like chairs collapsing under me, or old buildings, stuff like that...nothing rational like heights, or bugs, or anything! :p

52. SALTY OR SWEET? ? Sweet...or salty...I like salty things!

53. HOW MANY KEYS ON YOUR RING? ? 5

54. HOW MANY YEARS AT YOUR CURRENT JOB? ? I don't really have a job...

55. HOW MANY TOWNS HAVE YOU LIVED IN? ? Two

56. DO YOU MAKE FRIENDS EASILY? ? Sort of...if the other person is outgoing enough...if they're shy too it'll take a while

57. HOW MANY PEOPLE WILL YOU SEND THIS TO? ? n/a

58. HOW MANY WILL RESPOND - Whoever feels like filling this out in the comments, or on their blog, or emailing it to me!

What! It's Friday already?!

I'm feeling a lot better today...My jaw isn't anywhere near as stiff, and I had mashed potatoes for supper last night along with a teeny-tiny bit of meatloaf. And I tried not to gross out my family as I smooshed up the green beans on my plate. It looked like baby food, except it tasted a whole lot better! :)

I forgot yesterday to say thank you to all of you for praying for me, I really appreciate it!

I'm going to put a poll thingy up on my sidebar, because I'm bored...:p Since I mentioned the word "snarky" a couple weeks ago...I hadn't ever heard anyone other than our family use the word, but then Olivia said her family says it all the time too...so I'm vaguely curious how many people actually say "snarky". Did I mention I'm bored? :D I think I'll try to do some chores today...I think I'm up to it now.

Edit: I don't know how to change the color of the text that shows the results on the poll...it's really hard to see!

Thursday, April 24, 2008

I'm alive...for now...

...until I die of starvation.

Okay, I'll see how this goes...see if I can get a whole post written! :)

I'm feeling...well, not great by any means, but much better! I kept frozen washcloths on my face until this morning, and now I switched to putting the heating pad on my face, and it feels like my jaw is loosening up some. Ah yes, Ana, a chipmunk...that's what I look like! :) A sick chipmunk at that...

Let's see...so I didn't get to eat any breakfast Tuesday morning, and of course, out of the few days where I actually wake up very hungry, Tuesday had to be one of those days! So when we got there, the nurse had me sign a consent form and stuff, and asked Dad if he wanted to go ahead and get my prescriptions filled, etc. Then Dad left and Dr. Kretzschmar came in and asked if I was excited. Uh, no not really! "Ah, I didn't think so," he said, "you didn't have that really thrilled look on your face."
He's really nice, and he tried to get me calmed down by talking about my shoes. He told me his daughters wear those shoes too, and asked me if I knew who Chuck Taylor was...I said yes, he was a basketball player! "Oh good, you actual know who he is!" :p He told me that he used to wear those when he was a kid, and he always wanted the white ones, but the white ones were two dollars more than the black ones, and since there were four kids in the family to buy shoes for, his dad bought him the black ones. He also said that since his girls wear Chucks, their younger brother won't wear them because he thinks they're girl shoes!

So he managed to calm me down a tiny bit...it obviously couldn't work very well when I could see that's what he was trying to do, but anyway. He said the IV wouldn't hurt much more than a pinch, which it didn't, and he was able to get it in very easily. It wasn't exactly pleasant, but I was able to stand it for as long as I was conscious of it. I remember him putting it in, saying "That wasn't so bad was it?" and when I said no, asking if I wanted another one? :p I told him one was fine!, and I remember thinking, "I wonder how long this takes to work? And will I feel it working?" And that was all I remembered except for sort of waking up once and having the sensation that he was stitching up the hole on one side, and then when they took the IV out.

What's really funny is that at the time, I felt fairly alert, I remember the nurse helping me across the hall to a recliner and I could hear Dr. Kretzschmar talking to my dad, and it just felt like I had been asleep and could quite easily wake up and pay attention if I wanted to, but I wasn't going to bother! :) And I got settled in the front seat with a pillow and my blanket, and I dug my iPod out of my purse and listened to it on the way home. I looked at it the other night, and it had gone through six songs, but I only remember hearing maybe two of them! :p

I had my mouth all stuffed with gauze, so if I said anything loopy while I was out, it would have been before they started the surgery, and he didn't say I'd said anything weird. Sorry, Rebecca, I know you were hoping for some good stories! :D

By afternoon I was awake, but my lower jaw was still numb. The doctor prescribed pain medicine and an antibiotic and Dad went to Target and got those filled when we got home. I wouldn't recommend the prescription pain meds though...he gave me Lorcet (I think that's what it was) and it didn't seem to really work all that well.

And I managed to become very well acquainted with the hallway floor! :p I don't know for sure if it was the Lorcet, or the loss of blood, or the lack of much food, but I was feeling rather woozy. Twice when I got up to go to the bathroom I ended up lying in the hallway...the first time I was washing my hands and I could tell I needed to sit down, fast! So I sat down, and then lay down in the hallway...I don't think I actually passed out that time. The second time I foolishly thought I could make it back to the couch, so I went from clinging to the door frame, to crashing in the hall....poor Dad, that's the second time he's tried to catch me before I hit my head on the floor. Last time he did that was years ago when I was sick and got up too fast...he didn't catch me that time either. Luckily my head is hard! LOL! And the hallway is nice and cool and a fairly peaceful place to recover as long as no one's worrying about you, or about to step on you. :p

So I've been taking liquid Motrin instead...it's for kids, so I have to take 4 t. of it, but it's long-lasting and seems to be working really well! And I haven't passed out since I stopped taking the Lorcet. Dad went to Walmart and got the Equate version of Motrin, so it was cheaper even. So for anyone getting their wisdom teeth out, you might want to try the Equate liquid ibuprofen before a prescription! And I have amoxicillin for an antibiotic...I don't remember if I've ever had it before, but it's the pink stuff and tastes really good.

So, my jaw is swollen, but I think at least half of it is probably from the local anesthetic...I had to have teeth out before I had braces and the local really, really hurt for a while. I can't chew anything, and I can only eat things that I can manage to swallow straight down, so nothing gets stuck. I didn't realize the eating was going to be such a problem! I mean, I like soup and yogurt and stuff like that...what I didn't realize was that I wasn't going to be able to even eat enough of that stuff! I'm craving junk food too...like chicken nuggets, or fries, or a chicken wrap, or pizza... I should be able to manage eating more soup soon though, since I've put heat on my jaw I can open my mouth a little bit further. Mom said I look really mad...well, yeah, I can't really smile, and I have to try not to laugh or yawn either!

So, all in all, it wasn't really that bad! Now that I know what it's like, I could go through it again...it was mostly not knowing what it was going to be like that scared me. Dad told me on Monday that if I just didn't want to have this done, I didn't have to, and maybe they could buy a computer instead! So, no computer for them...this took a huge chunk of the tax refund and the washer took the rest. Sorry! :) It really was just as well I got this done with though...it was pretty certain the wisdom teeth would have eventually caused problems, and I could have been married with little kids to take care of when it had to be done...and in that case it wouldn't be great to have to lie on the couch for a week! So Olivia, it's not too bad...don't worry! :)

So I look like a sick chipmunk and I have bruise on my arm in a lovely shade of blue-grey. And I'm weak, I guess from not eating much...it's really annoying to not even be able to get the lid off of your water cup. Sheesh...

Wow, this turned out really long! Sorry y'all! I haven't been able to talk much at all, so I guess it's all coming out here! :p Colin says I must be feeling a lot better if I'm blogging. :)

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

She's Alive...but not kicking yet :)

Hi everybody in Shrubbery land, this is Nat's mom. She told me I could post a quick update to let you all know she lived through her surgery. :) Actually, I said "Do you want me to post an update?" and she said "Ooom..hooommph" and nodded...she's not really able to open her mouth enough to speak yet.

Everything went just fine, she's ensconced on the couch with all her favorite blankies and her stuffed zebra. She's in some pain, but she just got her first dose of the powerful pain medicine so that should get better fast. She had a lovely, tasty lunch of yogurt and Malt-O-Meal hot cereal. :)

Thanks to everyone for your prayers and encouragement. You helped her to be braver than she usually is. :) Ana, I really appreciate your idea about the frozen washcloths...I put several in the freezer this morning and they are helping a lot!

I imagine she'll be up and posting by tomorrow, even if only to keep me from messing with her blog.

Oh...Olivia Joy...you'll do fine! I had mine out in my mid-thirties and they had grown into the jaw bone so they had to do unspeakable things to get them out. I got by just fine afterward with only non-prescription stuff like Advil. You're far better off to get them out while you're young!

Monday, April 21, 2008

I'm a little nervous...

...to put it lightly. I'm getting my wisdom teeth out tomorrow...at 8:20...I'm VERY nervous in fact. And yes, I know I'm totally being a wimp, but I've never had surgery of any kind, or an IV, and I have low pain tolerance. Low tolerance for long-term pain anyway, I don't get woozy after sudden pain like Colin does. Which is a shame really, because that doesn't happen to me much...so I'd be better off passing out after a sudden injury. Well, really I'd be better off with high pain tolerance for everything, but anyway...

Mom and I went to the grocery store today and I stocked up on yogurt, rice pudding, cottage cheese, and canned soup. The canned soup that I usually don't like because there's nothing to it. And we have hot cereal and oatmeal for breakfast, and ice cream for milkshakes. And I think Mom said she'd make deviled eggs, because I could probably eat those...and I'll definitely need something that's actually filling! I can't eat anything 6 hours before the surgery...so I'm going to eat lots of homemade pizza tonight. Since I'd rather sleep than get up at 2 in the morning and eat! :p

I requested a bunch of books from the library, but only four of them had come in when I picked them up this morning... I ordered lots of light reading, because I've got plenty of other stuff here to read if I can concentrate on it, a huge history tome for one thing, or some Dickens books for fiction...but I had ordered a bunch of mysteries, and Grace Livingston Hill books, and the Mary Poppins books because I wanted to read those again! :) (Oh, I just checked the library system and all my books are in now! Dad said he could run up there tomorrow if he needs to though.)

Anyway, I'm not really sure how I'm going to feel this week...there will either be no blogging, or lots of blogging, or mopey blog posts when I don't feel well (I'll try to spare you those), or I'll be feeling absolutely perfect and there will be whatever usual number of blog posts because life is going on as usual. I don't think I'll blog tomorrow, as I imagine I may be a bit on the loopy side! :p

But I have some blog posts in my head...including a REALLY random one about a funny blog, and camp, and singing praise choruses and doing trust falls at camp. Yep, I told you it was random. :)

So if anyone has any tips regarding the removal of smart teeth, or anything funny or interesting to cheer me up this week, please share! Or best of all, pray that it goes well, and I recover quickly and not act like a wimp! :)

I'm getting a ton of stuff done today, so that if I do feel awful this week, there won't be as much stuff that needs to be done...I vacuumed the house, brushed the cats, washed my bedding, and cleaned my bathroom. I cleaned my room (!!!) because it was really, really messy (ha-ha! what's new?) and Mom told me that if I expected anyone to be able to find anything for me, or walk through my room even, that I'd better get it cleaned up. So I did. And it looks so much nicer now, but it never stays clean for very long. *sigh* But at least it doesn't look like my closet, dresser, and sewing box exploded all over the room now.

I babysat Saturday night, and we played with Legos this time instead of K'nex...but there weren't very many Legos, so there wasn't a whole lot I could build. They wanted me to build a house, so I built this:









It looks ever so slightly like the Alamo Mission. :)

I want this polar bear! It's so cute:









And I cut their sandwiches properly:









One time I cut the boy's sandwich in triangles and that was a BIG problem! "I need it cut in squares!!" I guess triangles are too girly? So I cut his sandwich in squares and cut hers in triangles. He was very happy. :) And then after she spilled water on one triangle, she tried to convince me that I wanted it. Um, no thanks. "You like peanut butter and jelly?" Yes. "You want the squishy one?" No. "You like the crusty ones?" Yes. "You want the crust on this one??"(hopefully) NO!!! I DON'T WANT THE SQUASHY SANDWICH!!! :p

So, that's what's up with me. See y'all later!

Saturday, April 19, 2008

"Going to the candidates debate"

And that title is from the song, Mrs. Robinson, by Simon and Garfunkel...except that I've always thought it said something about cabinets...so I was having trouble figuring out why Dad had the song going through his head. Sheesh...I mishear lyrics everyone else can understand, and I understand ones everyone else mishears.

Look, I found the video about the debate that was on the news last night! And you can see Dad and me in the video...the backs of our heads most of the time, and then we apparently walked behind a lady they were interviewing. (I'm wearing a green shirt.) And they got a good shot of a guy from our church looking thoughtful over the candidates "slightly different views on how far control over illegal immigrants should go". :) So for people who know him, you can watch for Seth looking thoughtful... :p Debate in Greensboro

I felt horribly under-dressed, all the people seemed to be dressed up and I had on jeans, a knit shirt, and Converse. I was wishing I'd worn something more dressy, nicer pants and a dressier shirt, but I'm still not sure what I would have done shoe-wise, because there was no way I was wearing heels as worn out as I was! On the whole we were a little out of place...it was mostly older people, people working for the candidates, or the interns from the Civitas Institute...one of which was sitting across the aisle from us and fidgeting the whole time. It made me feel better about having to move some myself (the chairs were a little uncomfortable) but it was still a bit annoying... :)

Friday, April 18, 2008

The debate tonight

The gubernatorial debate tonight was very interesting. It was more of a discussion than a debate, all four of the candidates got to state their opinion of the various topics with not very many time limits.
The four candidates were Pat McCrory, Bob Orr, Fred Smith, and Bill Graham. Since they were all four conservative candidates, I agreed with things all of them said! Not very helpful in figuring out who to vote for! :) I think all in all I liked McCrory best, he seemed to have some good plans for if he won. I was least impressed with Orr, he was mainly be talking about what the Democrats are doing wrong, without saying what he would do to instead. Smith was alright, but I don't think he's had much experience in government, so he wouldn't necessarily be best for governor. He had an answer for everything...but by the end of the debate that was getting merely annoying. :) Graham would probably be my second choice, as he also had plans for what needs to be done in government.

One of the topics they covered was the school system. While the public school system doesn't affect us directly, since we're not part of it, I was still interested to hear what they had to say. Because even if we personally aren't in the public schools, the students coming out of the public school affect many things we are part of. All four of the candidates were for returning to practical education in the schools to encourage local industry, because if we have skilled workers, businesses will be able to start up. They also mentioned more specialized teaching, the English-speaking students separate from the ESL students, or separate classes for boys and girls, so that in both cases the students would be able to be taught in whatever way is best. On thing McCrory mentioned was putting less emphasis on four-year college, because not everyone wants to go to a four-year college, and if there are other options, students who would prefer to be going into a more practical occupations would be able to. I think this was also supposed to keep students from dropping out of high school, since more of them would have a reason to stay in school.

Anyway, they all put it much more clearly...that would be one of the reasons they're in politics and I'm not! ;) The debate was on the radio live, but I don't think there's anywhere that you can hear it now.

It was interesting to hear anyway, and at least maybe I'll be able to vote in the local election even if there's no one to vote for in November!

Groan...

Oof...I'm exhausted...and I need to be ready to leave in about, oh, 40 minutes. Dad and I are going to the debate in Greensboro that I mentioned...and he wants to get something to eat before it, so we need to leave at 4 even though the debate isn't until 6.

I planted tomatoes, green peppers, thyme, parsley, and strawberries this morning. Pulled weeds...when chickweed goes to seed and you disturb it, the little tiny seeds go flying everywhere...including into your eyes...not fun. So I got all that done, watered all the plants, and mowed our yard and the neighbors'. More than one lawn mowing per day is too much...I won't be doing that again!

Another good reason to get out of here around 4: Clinton returns to Winston-Salem today
Aahh...and WFU's only about 5 miles from us! Yep, we'll just be heading to Greensboro... ;p

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Oh dear! :(

I went to Great Clips this evening to get my hair cut. The lady did a really good job! She could tell that it had been all messed up last time I got it cut, and that was reassuring...if she thought it looked fine I might have ended up with the same thing again! :) But she got the layers evened out and everything. It's a little shorter than I wanted, but I can still pull it back, and I thought it might take some cutting to fix it.
Okay, so the problem is, it cost $12 and she gave me a $2 coupon, so it only cost me ten dollars, she did a great job...and I totally forgot to give her a tip! So now I feel awful! :( So I'm not sure what I'll do...maybe if I'm over in that shopping center this weekend I'll see if she's working and go give her her tip...I don't know.

I don't have any pictures of what I got done today...

I planted squash seeds in little newspaper pots, when they get big enough, I'll transplant them wherever we decide to put them. I also got green beans planted.

I worked on my skirt; it's almost done, I just need to hem it. I hate working with rayon fabric...it slides all over and stretches out of shape...it's really a pain.

I got the fabric cut out for Mom's coupon pouch, but that's all I got done on it.

I made supper tonight, and it wasn't until after we'd eaten it all that I realized I had meant to take a picture. "Oh bother," I said, "we just ate half my blog post."
I made these things that were little pie crust rounds, with a filling of chicken, cream cheese, and chives. I put a spoonful of filling on a circle of pie dough, put another circle on top, and crimped the edges with a fork. It would make a lot more sense if I had a picture. :)

So that was today (for some reason I just typed "tofu" instead of "today"...maybe because I'm typing standing up.)

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Wednesday

I'm not promising creative post titles this week either. Because if I tried anything more definitive than days of the week, all you're going to get is: "Sewing", "Knitting and more sewing", etc. :p

First, to file under "things that make me feel old": Mom was talking to a friend of hers yesterday. We've known this family for a long time, but I haven't seen them recently. They have two girls and a little boy. Now I always think of the older girl as being about, oh, 6-7. A little kid still. So later Mom's telling us what's up with them and says, "...and H. is almost twelve..."
What?! H. is the older girl, the one I remember being a little kid... So I stand there saying, "Twelve? Twelve?! She's almost TWELVE already?!!" *sigh*

Okay, so far this week, I've finished making a cover for a pillow, knitted on my sweater, and I started working on a skirt last night.

The pillow:









And progress on my sweater...the pattern name is "Isabella" so I think I'll refer to it as that from now on. Just so you know I haven't started randomly naming my sweaters or anything... ;p

Isabella:









For scale, that looks like a lot of knitting, and it is in number of rows, but that's only 6 1/2 inches. (From the edge to the needle.) It's a bit tedious. :)

Ok, I'm off to work on my skirt!

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Tuesday-ness

I just got back from taking a walk, and I realized that it's after 4 already...alrighty then... I feel better now though, after getting some fresh air. I got an awful headache this morning and had to take a rest. I'm not sure if it's allergies or what, but it seems like this time every year, I either end up going to the eye doctor or wonder if I should, because I get eyestrain type headaches. And there's never anything wrong with my eyes, so it must be some sort of allergies or something bothering my head. It just feels like my forehead's all tensed and I can't relax it... Whatever... a rest with a heating pad on my head, and a walk seem to have cured me.

I think I'll mostly post this week about my progress on various sewing projects...I don't think my brain's up to comprehensible posts this week! :D Plus I've got a ton of other stuff I need to do. Dad and I got plants for the garden last night, so those need to be planted when it warms up again. And I need to mow the neighbors' lawn. Wednesday night is prayer meeting, Thursday I'll cook supper, and Friday I think we might be going to some gubernatorial debate between the conservative candidates? I can't seem to find a link for it online...it's at the convention center in Greensboro, and you have to get tickets, but they're free...I'm not sure what the deal was. Dad got an email about it and asked me late Sunday night if I wanted to go. Anyway, this week's sounding busy...plus I want to get my hair cut sometime...

I need to do some research on how to plant strawberries, because we got some strawberry plants last night. I'm not really sure where they're going to go... And I need to figure out where to plant squash too. It wouldn't be such a big deal if the ground wasn't so hard around here, but digging a new bed is a lot of work!

Okay, I'm going to stop writing before this gets too confusing. :)

Oh, no Ten Things Tuesday this week, Rebecca's having her readers ask her questions instead.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Engineer's guide to cats

This is pretty funny...I didn't realize cats had an aspect ratio. ;)

An Engineer's Guide to Cats


These two videos by the same guy are pretty good too:

Green Carpool

Green Hot Ride

Saturday, April 12, 2008

A tip for you

Always check the backseat before you leave to go somewhere. Just a helpful tip. Especially check the backseat if you had the windows down and you have a cat who likes to sleep in the car.

I needed to take some books back to the library today...so I put the bookbag in the trunk, got in the car, etc., etc. I was almost to the library when a little furry head popped up from the backseat and said "mew?". I didn't swerve...amazingly. I may have made some sound of shock, but I kept the car on the road.
If it had been either of the other cats we've had, I would have known there was a cat in the car by the wailing coming from the backseat, but Gracie is rather dog-like and she likes riding in the car.

Well, she got a car-ride! She got to ride up to the library and then she got to sit in the car while I was in the library. And I was in there for a while, because the librarian was showing some guy how to use the online library catalog.

When I came back out, Gracie was sitting on the armrest in the front seat, watching everything. Just like a little dog. *sigh* She got back into the backseat when I started driving, and sat right behind my seat so I couldn't see her...which is where she must have been before she decided to scare me.

She likes listening to the radio...

...and Greenie treats, and lizard hunting, and long walks in the woods. STF (Single Tortoiseshell Female)

Friday, April 11, 2008

Knitting, etc.

Okay, hopefully this post will make more sense than the last long one I posted! I'm not really sure what happened there... Let's see...

My knitting. I started knitting this pattern but I think I'm going to add some sort of sleeves to it. Either cap sleeves or long sleeves if I have enough yarn. Either that, or I'll leave the sleeves off altogether and have a neat vest. It's going to take a while to knit, because I'm using really thin yarn. I started it on Tuesday, and so far this is all I've gotten done! :)
















I finished my history book today!!!

It's finally getting warm enough that I got my box of summer clothes out of the attic. The clothes are now in a pile on my bed and the cat is sleeping on them... Okay, I'm glad she's happy. *rolls eyes*

It sounds like we've got a lot to do this weekend...Mom ordered some blueberry bushes so Dad and I might be digging holes tomorrow...maybe not. I'm not sure when the plants are coming. We need to get to Lowes and get some tomato plants. One, or maybe two tomato plants. No more than that!! And green peppers...no, wait those aren't supposed to be planted until May according to my vegetable book. Okay, no peppers yet.

I've got a nice little guide published by the NC Cooperative Extension Service that lists when various vegetable are supposed to be planted and what varieties are best for here. We picked up the booklet at the state fair a few years ago...when was that we went to the state fair? '03 or '04...but I hadn't used it much until last year. It's very handy...I just realized I need to get green beans planted pretty soon.

Okay, what was I talking about? Oh, this weekend... our next-door neighbors' grass needs mowing, but that might just have to wait till during the week.

My friend Zoe is going to the Father and Daughter Retreat with her dad this weekend. Ha...Doug Phillips...hmm... He has a system for everything. And most of the systems seem to involve buying stuff he sells and going to the retreats he arranges. Dad was joking that we should have gone, since Zoe and her dad are going. Mmm-hmm. I told Dad I'd help him install the kitchen faucet this weekend instead. :p That's more my style.

(Oh how annoying! There is a gnat or mosquito or something that keeps flying in front of the computer screen...)

This is neat-looking:












Okay, I think I'll go see what I need to be working on and maybe get some sewing done...or go for a walk...it's really nice out.

Authentic and cool...or a poser?

This article in the paper cracked me up this morning! It's a very well-written, somewhat snarky* article. :p

CONVERSION: Origin as a basketball shoe is only a small part of the phenomenal sneaker saga

By the way, I'm sorry that my "No we're not" post didn't make much sense...I went back and reread it and realized I must have been more tired than I thought! It kind of rambled and got off-topic several times. So, for anyone who was able to make sense of it, good for you; and to everyone else, I'm sorry. I'll try to make sure I'm actually awake before I try to write! :D

*Firefox doesn't think snarky is a word. Ha!

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

I don't know...

"...Heroes from the West
We don't know you, we know best..."
~from Light Gives Heat by Jars of Clay

That's what I was thinking of tonight as I watched Idol Gives Back...I know these poor people need help, but is this really the way to go about it?

No we're not.

Okay, so Colin isn't that bad really, I just really don't want to get sick...for one thing he's got a sore throat. And I really don't like sore throats, and neither does Colin for that matter. Edit: Wow, I'm not sure what happened with the following sentence...I've fixed it now! He mopes around the house verbally complaining and coughs and whimpers...when I have a sore throat I stop talking. I mean, I stop talking. If it's absolutely necessary that I say something, I will open my mouth and say it no louder than necessary and then go back to swallowing painfully and clenching my teeth together in the process (like that helps anything!). I have gotten better about that, because I've figured out that if I drink lots and lots of hot tea when I have a sore throat I feel much better and can function. But I still would prefer not to be sick. :)
The worst thing today is that we didn't get much sleep last night, because he wasn't sleeping and kept getting up. So I woke up a few times, but mainly my problem is I didn't go to bed early enough. Actually, I probably got the most sleep of everyone because I can sleep through just about anything. Like fire alarms, and babies crying, so I'm not sure how that's going to be when I have kids. Presumably my own kids crying would wake me up? For their sakes, I hope so! :p

Anyways...enough about being sick! How about something more cheerful? Petunia, guarding the flour:










The price of flour and in fact, everything, is going up. Oh wait, that's not cheerful. The price of the big bag of bread flour at Costco has gone up...although not as much as we thought at first. It's $19.99 now, and for some reason Mom and I were thinking it was 8 or 10 something last time we bought it. I went and looked where I'd written down the price though, and it was $14.99 before, so it's only gone up five dollars. And it's certainly still cheaper to make your own bread rather than buying it...as long as we can get that big bag. It would cost about 47 dollars to get that same amount from the grocery store! At which point it would probably be cheaper to get at least the fluffy wonder bread from the store...if you don't mind making your sandwiches out of fluffy preservatives.

Poor Mom had a bad headache the other night, and I was babbling about the price of the flour and doing math in my head, and totally confusing her. :) She finally asked, was I doing that on purpose? Was this, Mom's good at math, but let's see how she does with a headache, time? Oops...I wasn't trying to confuse her. :)

I made rice crispies yesterday, and Mom made shortbread cookies. I put sprinkles on the rice crispies so they wouldn't look so bland.









I couldn't really taste the sprinkles, except maybe they tasted a little bit sweeter, but Dad picked them all off of his piece because they were too crunchy. Umm...okay. There was a little pile of discarded sprinkles on the table! :p

American Idol last night was...ah, okay. It was "Inspirational Songs" or...the contestants picked songs they liked and made up inspirational stories to go with them.

Michael Johns was very good, although he's getting a bit annoying to watch...I guess he doesn't play guitar or anything? He needs to have something to do while he's singing.
Hmm...Carly tried to sing a Queen song and failed, Paris Bennet did it much better two seasons ago on AI.
Syesha was very good really, except for lacking emotion, but I just don't really like her style of singing.
David Cook sang some very strange song that I didn't like, but have going through my head right now...argh. "We are aaallll innocent, we ARE ALLL INNOCENT!!!" Go away, stupid song. Please. And we're not all innocent. So there.
Jason Castro says he's going to sing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and play the ukulele. My dad says, "Bye, Jason!" It wasn't too bad as long as you didn't watch him...because watching someone play the ukulele can make you start laughing no matter what they're singing. But watching Jason singing this slow song with the little "pling, pling, pling" in the background was hilarious!

So the Idol Gives Back extravaganza is on tonight, from 7:30 to 10. Sheesh, I guess I'll get a lot of knitting done. Most of the show is probably going to be annoying...we'll see. There are usually a few good singers they get on there and some ones I really don't like. Like Fergie. I don't like Fergie. But I think the Clark Brothers are supposed to be on there, and Bono is also, except he'll probably just talk.

Oh yeah, knitting, I started a knitting project. I'll post about it tomorrow after I get some more done on it tonight.

Aaaahhhh!

Colin has a virus.

Don't mind me, I'll just be going around and disinfecting everything with with Lysol wipes...doorknobs, light switches..."Colin what else have you touched?!"

If it was just allergies I wouldn't be so worried, but it seems to be a virus...and I hate getting sick.

I've been washing my hands obsessively as well. We have some of that orange antibacterial soap in the bathroom, merely coincidental, that's just what we had on hand, but it's supposed to kill 99% of germs...which is awesome, except that it feels like it's killing 99% of the skin on my hands...that stuff's harsh! Ah well, I doubt the germs can live after I've used that soap. :p

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Ten Things Tuesday

Rebecca's Ten Things Tuesday is "Ten literary characters I'd have over for dinner". Wow, this is a hard list...either you list all your favorite literary characters, or you struggle to find who's in the top ten! Well, here goes...

Lord Peter Wimsey

Jeeves

Mr. Knightly from Emma

Father Brown

Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy

Ginger Kemp and Sally from The Adventures of Sally by P.G. Wodehouse

Tock from The Phantom Tollbooth

Lord Emsworth

A mish-mash of characters that in real life would probably not get along at a dinner party! :p Although...excepting Tock, they're all British. Hmm...

Link or write your list in the comments if you want to.

Monday, April 07, 2008

The one in Rhode Island

I found this online today.

An artist, along with several other artists built a secret apartment in the parking garage of Providence Place Mall, in Providence, RI. They built the apartment in 2003 and were undiscovered for four years! News article

They have a website even: Trummerkind
It's a confusing web page, but there's a ton of stuff on there about the apartment, you just have to explore. Under "The Secret Apartment in the Mall" they have a description of what was behind this plan. And there's a blog with a few posts. Then under "The One" is a real estate ad for the apartment, complete with a list of the "amenities". :p

Maybe they read "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" when they were kids? :)

Obviously the apartment is illegal, but it sounds pretty awesome! They had a china cabinet in there even...

The art this guy and other artists do is interesting too: Tape Art

And does anyone know where my post title is from? Not you, Mom...I know you know it. :)

Sunday, April 06, 2008

Sunday post

...because I'm so good at coming up with titles... :)

I finished the coupon pouch I was working on. Now I need to make one for Mom...plus I have a ton of other sewing projects planned! :)

















I babysat last night...we played with a set of K'nex that the little boy had gotten recently. K'nex are pretty cool! They don't have quite the building potential of Legos, but they're still pretty neat. I bet they don't hurt as much as Legos if you step on them...that's a plus! :p I followed the instruction book and made a Sea Plane (which I didn't get a picture of because I didn't have my camera). It was really cool. ;)

And some flower pictures:














Saturday, April 05, 2008

Not on the test

Rebecca's remark about persuading kids to leave school reminded me of this.

Not on the Test

Friday, April 04, 2008

Logical... or not?

It's just something I've been pondering, but I was thinking about how I don't always manage to explain clearly what my opinion is. I often have a very strong opinion about something, and can quite easily start a rant state that opinion. :) What I'm not always capable of is stating that opinion clearly or logically. So what I've been wondering is whether this is something I should work on, and while it may be, another thing that's come to mind is this.

Maybe it's better that women not be super-logical and able to argue their way through anything. Not that we should be clueless and unable to think for ourselves, but being overly-ready to logically and ruthlessly debate a point practically to the death could lead to having trouble submitting to authority. Obviously women already struggle with being submissive to husbands or fathers, we certainly don't need more ammunition.

We are very emotional, and that leads to irrational arguing sometimes, but would it be better for a woman to be a little irrationally upset that her husband didn't notice her new dress, for instance, or to soundly beat him over the head with concise arguments and facts about how many times he hasn't noticed things, etc.? I'm afraid that if we get in the habit of debating, we're going to carry it to all aspects of life and end up being argumentative. Proverbs 21:19 It is better to dwell in the wilderness, than with a contentious and an angry woman. Yeah, not good.

Take for example, Hilary Clinton...sorry, a bit of an extreme example I know...but think about it. Say she argues illogically and emotionally...scary, yes, considering that she's running for president. Then say she argues with deadly precision and well-aimed logic, like the lawyer that she is...even more frightening coming from a woman. Being the weaker vessels with imperfect logic that we are, we're bound to lose if we argue purely logically, but think how much more horrific is it if we don't lose the argument?

I'm not suggesting that women should be silly and not have an opinion on anything, that's just as bad...they may not have the brains to argue with their husband, but he's stuck with a wife who's not going to be any help at all. Capable of encouraging, perhaps, but not able to help him think through a dilemma.

And I'm certainly not saying all this to pat myself on the back and say "There, there, aren't you just so submissive, you can't state an opinion clearly..."! :) It's just something that occurred to me while I was thinking this over...and I probably do need to work on expressing myself a smidge more clearly, but the submitting part is also relevant in that I need to be submissive to my Dad. And while I'm not called to submit to the other males I know, I need to at least be patient and respectful to them...something that's sometimes hard with some of the people I know, including my little brother! ;)

Gloom and despair

No one is blogging! Most notably, Rebecca...yeah, I'm talking to you! :) And everyone else who's not blogging. :D
Doesn't she look depressed, though?

She just can't take it...it's cloudy outside too:

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Bad Vista energy

An ode to my hair???

So an eight-year-old in our church had to write a limerick/poem for school, and what he hit upon was how my hair drives me crazy sometimes...interesting.

Hair
There once was a girl
who wasn't satisfied with her hair
so she said it got stuck in a chair
and as long as a sloth, oh
who will help poor Natalie Roth?

They cut her hair
Oh boy, it's not hair it's
as long as a sloth she said, oh
who will help poor Natalie Roth?

~Micaiah B.

Hmm...I'm not sure what the sloth has to do with anything, other than that it rhymes with "Roth"...lovely. :p And I think my hair's shorter than a sloth right now... I'm not sure about this whole thing...

Anyway, I was told that I could post this on my blog as long as I also posted the trailer for the "Prince Caspian" movie (because he and his sisters like the Narnia movies a lot). Which is fine, because then I can voice my opinion of the movie. And that is: what? What? WHAT?!!! Why is there a hole in the train station? Why is Prince Caspian so much older than he should be?! And why does this look strangely like LOTR?!! And Susan looks vaguely like Arwen. *Groan* It may be a well-done movie, but I like the books so much I don't know if I could stand to watch any of the movies...I haven't seen the first one either.

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Jolene, Jolene, Jooo-leeene...

So I have that song in my head...which is, sort of alright. I sort of like the song, but I have the squeaky original Dolly Parton version in there. Hmm. Oh, look what I found while checking to see whether I was spelling "Jolene" right...the White Stripes did a cover of it! Jolene
Never heard of the White Stripes? They are rather strange, but anyway they sang the song at the beginning of the movie Napoleon Dynamite, We Are Going To Be Friends
Know that one? Yes? Okay, that's the White Stripes. I'm not recommending the rest of their music, I'm sure it's strange. It's odd enough for a guy to be singing that song...

So last night's American Idol wasn't so bad...the ones that stood out as being good or bad:

Brooke's version of Jolene was too cheerful...and the makeup artist put way too much blue eyeshadow on her...it was a little bright!

David Cook sang a song no one had heard before, but he did a good job. His hair was different. It looked like instead of pointing the hair-dryer down when they did his hair, they pointed it up and made his hair stick up funny.

Jason Castro was very good last night...I've forgotten the name of his song, but it was good! And he seemed like he was awake! Good job, Jason! :p

Kristy sang "Coat of Many Colors" with no emotion of any sort. But then that worked for Carrie Underwood...maybe she's figured out something there. And she was barefoot...why I'm not sure.

It was funny to hear how Dolly Parton described the contestants! Not so funny to watch her...she's had so much plastic surgery her mouth's hardly in the right place to talk. :( The other older country singer that I can think of, Emmylou Harris, is about the same age. I haven't seen her talk so maybe her face is just as artificial, but she looks so much nicer than Dolly! Emmylou Harris

Anyway...according to the A. Idol message board, supposedly the Clark Brothers from Next Great American Band are going to be on A. Idol tonight (yay!)...I guess they'll be playing while Dolly sings?
David Cook was taken to the hospital last night because he was having heart palpitations and had high blood pressure. He got better.
And Ryan Seacrest walked into a door and hurt his knee, and apparently was limping during the whole show last night. Hmm...not a good night there.

Oh dear, all the country music last night killed her...oh wait, she's just asleep:












I'm sorry, that was a really random post...I can't seem to get my thoughts organized to write a meaningful post about anything!

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

They're out to get you!

Ah, I've been kind of busy today. Grandma and Grandpa have been gone, they drove up to Illinois, and they just got back today, so we had them over for supper.

So we got to hear all about their trip, and about the people on the road that were Not Letting Grandma Get Past Them and Driving Right Behind Her! :) I don't think they were actually out to get her personally, it just sounded like the usual highway driving. And I think it was caused by two things...they have a green Mercury Sable with a spoiler on the back, so it looks at least somewhat sporty, whereas if it was a big white or silver Buick, you'd know it was old people and expect them to being going slow. Plus she was driving the speed limit in the left lane. Uh-huh, I would have been right behind them too!
And I know from when we went up to Illinois in December that the traffic between here and there can be pretty interesting. Especially Indiana drivers...I don't know how many times I was driving and cars with Indiana plates came speeding up behind me until I had to move over. And I don't drive slow by any means! :) So, the drivers were out to get them, but they enjoyed seeing relatives and they liked the hotel we recommended, so that's good.

I'm not watching American Idol right now because we didn't get done with supper till almost eight...so we're taping it. Which is fine, because then we can watch it very quickly and skip the stuff we want to. Because it's Dolly Parton week...ugh.

Mom said that she thought I would only have to pay $20 to go to the homeschool convention, but she and Dad saw some things they were interested in too, so it sounds like we'll all go. So that's nice...I haven't been to the convention for three or four years.

Our email is not working properly today. We weren't getting any email through for most of the day, and now it's starting to trickle in slowly. I still haven't gotten emails (like blog comment notifications) that I should have gotten this morning, so the email isn't coming through in order even.

I'm try to cut down on the amount of coffee I drink...drastically. So I didn't have any this morning. Since I was falling asleep mid-morning, I think maybe that was bit too drastic. I had a cup of tea instead and that helped. :)

Okay, I should go do other stuff...like watching American Idol. Woo-hoo. :D

Oh yeah, it's April Fool's Day...thankfully that's nothing scary around here! I guess I shouldn't say that too much...I'll end up getting it next year! :p Oh, maybe that's what was going on with the drivers on the highway...April Fool's pranks. ;)