Fessing Up

All my remote issues - a bad battery. 

Holden Caulfield and Snow

Everything this week comes down to the snow.  If I had been on my normal routine I may have forgotten about J.D. Salinger passing away.  Since I am bored and trying to hide from the kids, I decided to look for "The Catcher in the Rye".  I have read this numerous times, but truthfully probably not in a decade or more.  This is my original copy from 9th grade.  It has all my notes written in the margins and just looking at it made me hate high school all over again. A kind of sock to the gut feeling.  I loved this book. Related to this book.  Idolized this book.   And am rereading it with trepidation, I don't want to ruin it for myself.  It is harder now to separate the book from the author knowing what a nut he was.  I want this book to be just as good and hope I don't disappoint myself. 

I have been way too domestic.  I dusted for no reason, no company coming over.  I think dusting is pointless, there is always dust.  We all know there is dust, dust is on everything, so why bother.   I cleaned my desk.  I vacuumed out the spice drawer.  I organized the paper sacks from the grocery store.  I paid Ned to match up all the tupperware type containers.   I have lost my mind and as evidence I present the pumpkin pie I made with no sugar.  Absolutely revolting.  Now the kids won't try anything when I make something delicious, but they all tasted the gakky pie. 

I have been so happy to have up-graded cable service, but we have a faulty remote - for real life.  Half the time we can't change channels and the 0 doesn't work.  You have to use the remote, because the comcast guy programmed it that way.   Are they trying to help me go insane?  I can't watch HBO, because of course it starts at 300 and I can't type the 0.  It keeps getting stuck on channel 1, which is a channel to tell you what all the other channels are showing.  All the other channels I cannot watch!  If there was not 48 " of snow they would actually send a technician out.  I have to tell you I feel really lame having a tech come out to help with the remote.  Loser with a capital L.  You know that guy is going to get back to the break-room and entertain his cohorts with the stupid lady who couldn't work the remote.  I think it really is broken and not just user error, because Ellen can't get it to work either. 

Tomorrow is day number six of no school due to snow.  Monday is a holiday.  We have had a lot of quantity time together.  I live in a big house and yet we are all in the same room.   Maybe I should be flattered that the kids and dogs want to be in whatever room I am in, but why do the kids and dogs always have to be in the same room I am in.  Someone is always putting their feet on me. 

SNOW and More SNOW

These blizzards have reaffirmed my convictions that I can never home-school.  I don't have the required discipline, I am much too "oh, well."  I have had the valentine stuff out for two weeks and not one of us has completed them.  Valentine's Day is going to be buried in snow at this rate anyway. 

We got out of the house yesterday and met friends at the movies.  We saw the "Tooth Fairy" and if you go in with low expectations.....it can actually be better than you thought.  We are all really excited to see "The Lightning Thief".  If you haven't read this series then you should.  It is a great series for kids and adults.  Riordan really
brings greek mythology to life!

I have almost finished a quilt I started at MAQ in 2008.  It is called "Ned's Redemption".  I had been sewing on it steadily and got to the bottom corner and a block was missing.  I marched downstairs and gave the kids "the I don't care who did it, just return it" rant.  Of course, they all vehemently denied seeing the fabric.  Later I caught Ned pinning the fabric to it's spot.  The cheeky little bastard actually said, "mom, you should thank me for finding your fabric."   It is almost done, but I have goofed it up and think I may have to cut the border off.  The entire quilt is on the bias and so the border really stretched.  It is frustrating to be almost done and have it looking ratty.  I am pondering this dilemma. before I do anything.  I think I am going to stick to small quilts, by the time I finish a large one, I don't like it anymore.  This quilt isn't even that big.

I made a batch of cookies, a day stuck inside is a day that requires chocolate chip cookies. 

Hill Cows and Aliens

I was talking to the wild ones about a boy we know who is undergoing treatment for a bone cancer.  He had surgery just below the knee and then had surgery on the other leg to make sure his legs will be the same length.  Ellen piped up, "luckfully, he won't be like a hill cow!"  Sometimes it makes me wonder what planet my children are from? Quite truthfully we should look at our children as aliens.  They haven't been on our planet long.  They haven't had a chance to study our ways.  They make connections that don't make sense, but work,  because they are higher beings.  It is only after we wear them down to conformity that we call them human, which seems to coincide with them going off to college.

The mid-atlantic region was hit hard with snow this weekend.  It was quite a wonderful storm.  It came on Friday, so most people could stay home to enjoy it.  The sun came out on Sunday and it was very beautiful.  It was amazingly quiet, no cars or planes.  There was a woodpecker out in the driveway making a terrible racket.  His red head really stood out against all the white.  Unfortunately, there is no-where for the snow to go and so many roads are still not passable.  We are supposed to get another storm tomorrow, understatement of the year, that will not be great at all!  You may not see any of us until March.  Schools might be in session until July 4th.  

Spiders and Orange Feathers

I ran a load of laundry today, miracle of all miracles.  I was transferring clean clothes to the dryer and had a major scare.  There was an absolutely enormous, big-ass, black spider in the washer.  I bravely bent in closer assuming it would be dead, since it had just completed a wash cycle and realized it was a rubber spider.  One of the wild ones must have had it in their pocket - woowee! 

An older friend (her son is my age) was telling me about the time doing laundry that she found a condom in her son's pocket.  She told me that she had no idea what it was.  She thought maybe it was one of those thumb protectors that secretaries used to wear.  I cannot look at her son with a straight face anymore.  I am sure no guy wants his appendage to be small enough to be covered with a thumb protector.

Teri informed me that some dinosaurs may in fact have been covered in orange feathers (tails anyway) and not leathery type skin as assumed.  I just can't picture this.  What would their environment have had to look like to provide them camouflage?  Is it possible that James Cameron read this report before making Avatar?  It just makes me think of drag queens, large and flamboyant!

I think my vampire addiction is in fact a mental illness.  I had a lot of garlic for lunch today and actually thought, "It is a good thing I am not dating a vampire."  I wonder if weretigers mind garlic?

Not only did I do laundry, but I went to the grocery store.  I was dying for some fresh fruit!  The shelves were bare.  My question is, is this a storm preparation thing or an economy thing?  Are the stores keeping smaller inventories?  Am I going to need to start stockpiling Diet Coke?  Which I do have enough to keep me through the storm of 2010.  I hope this is something the news is just hyping up and then will be wrong about!  The cable guy (he stood me up last week) better come tomorrow and I hope my Amazon delivery arrives.  Diet Coke, movies and good books - let it snow, let is snow, let it snow.