Friends & Family

A Pogo Stick is the Perfect Welcome Mat

Christmas, Family Funk, Friends & Family, Kid Talk, Toys & Games /

A few years ago, RJ asked Santa for a pogo stick. Santa, being the obliging sort, provided. RJ pogo’d a little, but she’s not a great pogo-er so she put the stick aside. Prince J tried to pogo. Once. E loves the idea of the pogo stick but she doesn’t have enough weight to make it really pogo the way she would like. Chris and Michelle did some pogo-ing that Christmas. The half-child, who no longer lives with us, also pogo-d and liked it. But, mostly, the pogo stick sits on the front porch right next to the front door – forgotten and unused.

Except…

Except when Michelle and Christopher bring a new friend over to our house. Then, the pogo stick is a much loved, much used toy.

We will hear a car drive up. We will hear older teen and young adult voices outside. And then, we’ll hear a joyful “wowwwwwwwww a pogo stick!!!!” and then much bouncing ensues. And an awful lot of laughter, too.

These older teens and young adults love that pogo stick. It is really a great welcome mat.

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Harrods and Flamingos with Koan

5 Comments / Family Funk, Friends & Family, Kid Talk, Travel Log /

Heh.  I met Koan, I met Koan! In person! Heh.

Koan met us outside of Harrods and graciously wandered around with the amazed Americans and helped us “herd the cats” that are our children.  She also made the children’s day by purchasing truffles for them.

After Harrods we went back to the Hotel Chocolat for a couple of gift items we had decided to purchase and bring home for friends and family.  And then, we found the Kensington Roof Gardens and THE FLAMINGOS!  It was sort of cool to take Koan somewhere that she didn’t know existed in her homeland.  😉

It was a fun little half-day and now we’re working on packing things up and restoring the flat to its former condition.

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Lost to the Patriarchy

4 Comments / Friends & Family, Health and Wellness, News and Politics, Pet Peeves /

I thought for sure my mother was safe.  After almost 25 years of being divorced and a zillion years of living with K and no desire at all to bow to the patriarchy and re-marry, she went and did it.  She snuck off and married K yesterday.

I should have known this was going to happen.  For the last six months she’s been making noises about marriage.  And everytime she made those noises I reminded her of the patriarchy.  I reminded her that if her granddaughters called and said "We’re thinking about getting married for health insurance…" she’d have said "NO! Don’t do it! Bad reason!" 

Bah.

She says she called last week and told me they had decided to do it.  She most certainly did not call me last week and tell me they had decided to do it.  I’d have taken down the pink flamingo flag in front and hung a black mourning flag up instead.  She did call and discuss the pros and cons of marriage with me.  But she did not specifically say "We have decided to tie the knot."

HMPH.  She probably confused me with my damn sister – again.

She also did not tell my brother.  But that is because my damn sister told her that he was off on a cruise.  Not that Mikey would have cared, he is part of the patriarchy after all and he bowed to it himself a few years ago after swearing for all of his adult life that he wasn’t going to get married.

Grrr.  What is it with my siblings who swear they are never going to do this or that and then turn around and do it.  Oh wait, they are their mother’s children – since she always SWORE she would never get married again.

Damn patriarchy.  Damn American healthcare system that encourages marriage in order to solve health insurance coverage issues. 

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She Made Me Sniff Coke

3 Comments / Friends & Family /

And no I wouldn’t jump off of a bridge if all of the other kids were doing it.  Yes, I do have free will.  Even when TW is involved, I have been known to say no… occasionally.

But she really did make me sniff coke last night.  It was one of the odder moments in bed with her, I can tell you that. 

I was happily reading my book, The Thirteenth Tale, and I was on page 13.  She had already interrupted me on page 6 and page 10 so it shouldn’t have been any surprise when I arrived on page 13 and she put her book down – a sure sign that she’s going to interrupt me with some odd topic of discussion.  I tried to ignore her, it’s The Thirteenth Tale after all.  But, of course, I can’t ignore her.  It’s impossible to do so.

I looked at her and she began to explain the revelation she has just had.  About coke.  About coke and the place we purchase our coke.  And about many experiences with coke purchases in her life. 

She handed me her open can of coke and told me that first, I needed to sniff it.  So I would understand what she meant by the way coke sometimes smells like gasoline.  (Uhhh errr, that is really what she said. I know, it’s weird.)  So, I sniff.  I took a really deep sniff. 

Apparently, to TW, it smelled like gas and a can of coke.  And this has been happening to her off and on for quite some time.  Because we are now buying all of our coke at Daily’s Shell Station (which I have previously said I would not shop at any more due to the ICEE fiasco but have since changed my mind) because it’s the cheapest place in town – and it’s conveniently located on the way home from work. 

Also, TW has experienced this gasoline scented coke at other times in her life.  Like on family vacations when she would stop and get a coke (in a real bottle and before that whole high fructose corn syrup fiasco) from the machine in a gas station. 

I gave her coke another sniff.  And smiled in support of her revelation.  But just between the two of us… I’ve never smelled gasoline scented coke before.  I think it’s just another one of those TW and her imagination things.   The next time you get a coke from a gas station, could you give it a sniff and tell me what you smell?

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Just Lick It

3 Comments / Friends & Family /

Have you ever licked your dryer? Have you ever wanted to lick your dryer?

All of those blog posts where women talk about licking things, I never got it.  It seemed sort of silly to talk about licking your iPod or your new blackberry or whatever.  But today, when the dryer was delievered, it all made sense to me.

I want to lick it.

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I should get serious about photography?

3 Comments / Day to Day, Friends & Family, Pet Peeves /

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry or tell my mother where she can go.  I’m leaning toward laughing because that’s usually what I do when I’d rather cry or tell someone where to go, particularly when it’s someone I like.  And I do like my mother.  Even when she ticks me off.  Like tonight.

Here I am doing the most ridiculous data entry in the history of data entry, at 8pm at night – after working a full day, just to make an extra $50 when my mother sends mail asking me for a copy of a photo I took.  I open a tab at flickr, copy the photo and send it as an attachment, telling her she could have gotten it herself if she had been logged in.

Fast forward to 10pm and I’m still doing the data entry in order to make an extra $50 and trying to decide if I’m going to work another part-time gig when I’m finished or am I going to finish up a report for my "real job" since the time I normally do that tomorrow I’ll be at the doctor’s office with Michelle or at SFCC with Michelle picking up her books.  Whatever, I’m a long way from going to sleep and my mother emails me again.  She knew she could get the photo off flickr, she wanted the much better quality original of the Heir to the Throne’s feet because she wanted to print it.  And she proceeded to lecture me about saving originals and printing my photos "if I was serious about my photography". 

Umm huh?  Like I have time for that?  What would ever lead her to believe I was serious about photography?  Or had time to even consider being serious about photography?  I work a full time job, 2 part-time jobs and I take contract work as often as I can.  I have a gazillion children (granted 3 are gone at the moment but still) and a gazillion animals.  NO I AM NOT SERIOUS ABOUT MY PHOTOGRAPHY.

And then what happens, TW who has been snoring next to me for two hours rolls over and says "I really like that photo of the girl and the turkey."  Umm what?  What photo? What turkey? What girl?  God, she probably expects me to get serious about my photography too because the almighty sent her a message in a dream.  Denise should photograph girls and turkeys for a living! Get serious about your art.

Whatever.

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Got Game?

Friends & Family, Holidays, Toys & Games /

Last week, on what we (and Santa) called "The second day of Christmas" the children all received a game.  A few days ago, my sister’s gifts for the three youngest children arrived and two more games were added to the mix.  Tonight, we’ve played six of the seven (One is a Goth Horror Trivia game that I don’t think the small kids or TW will be very successful with so that’s why we skipped it.  If you want a review, I’ll get Chris in here to guest post – just say the word. )

1) Swipe.  Easy, easy game and fun too.  And there was no slapping involved which is good because the last game we bought by the folks at Uno included slapping and I have vowed never to play that game again.  It comes in a nice little travel case so it would be good for a trip or a soccer game.  Pop it into the glove box of the car or a diaper bag for the older kids.

2) Cing-o.  It’s a dice game and harder than Swipe, but after a round of talking it out, everyone had the idea.  And, you have to do math (math is hard!) so that’s pretty helpful if you have an 8 year old who isn’t sure of the answer to 3 x 6.  It also comes in a travel case, this one has a nice keyring type clip on it.  Do you like Yatzee?  If you do, then this might be a nice travel game for you.

3) Shut the Box.  This is an excellent "back in the day" type of game and my sister sent the nicest version that I’ve ever seen.  If you are going to buy a game then go all out, spend the $50 and give this one.  You won’t regret it.

4) Stargo by Discovery Toys.  It’s bingo but with constellations.  It comes with a bunch of constellation cards that tell you the myths behind the constellation and you also get information about when and where the constellations are visible.  Plus, a compass to help you find each constellation.  It’s a silly game and at first the 13 year old wasn’t thrilled but he ended up having a blast and we played four rounds before they all headed out for a walk with the compass.  (FYI we really played this to celebrate the Sagan Blogathon, it seemed like a good way to remember Carl Sagan on the 10th anniversary of his death).

5) Art fish.  Go fish with art cards.  Simple and interesting.  The only challenge is in properly pronouncing the artists names.  (That’s not always easy.)

6) Loot was the most difficult game of the bunch, but even the youngest child (who is 8) caught on pretty quickly (the game is listed as a 10 and up game) and won.  There’s strategy involved in trying to sink and plunder other ships or save your won merchant ships.  It can get confusing because you are supposed to point the card you play towards you to remember that it is yours. Also, you draw at the end of your turn and that’s not generally the way card games work.  So that was a problem at various points in the game.  We only played one round and I think the next time we’ll see some players who use a little more strategy than was used the first time.

There you go – our game reviews for this holiday. 

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Feel Better Tea Fiasco

Coffee & Tea, Foodie, Friends & Family, Health and Wellness /

OK it wasn’t a fiasco, nobody died or anything, but I think I have proven to everyone in the house (who is awake) that I am not a foodie.

See, we’re sick.  All of us who are awake.  Russian plague sort of sick.  The kind that sneaks up on you and hits you when you aren’t expecting it.  The kind that doesn’t give you a fever but makes you wish you had one so you’d have a valid reason for going to the hospital and just dying. 

I thought I’d be brill (can you tell I’ve been reading a lot of English books set in the 70’s?) and make a pot of "feel better tea".  Ha.  We didn’t have most of the ingredients so I substituted.  It’s not great.  In fact it’s not good.  And TW is laughing because I thought a can of crushed pineapple would do pretty much the same thing as a few tiny cans of pineapple juice.  She’s laughing more because I didn’t add any cloves (do we even have cloves) or any sugar. 

Well she can keep laughing, laughter is good medicine and I’m sure it will help her feel well enough to spend her day driving kids around town and playing with all of the games Santa appears to have delivered today.  Not to mention those puzzles that still aren’t quite finished.  And there’s the laundromat to visit. 

Oh if she keeps on laughing this way, I’ll be able to stay in bed with my really bitter non-feel better tea while she plays superwoman and knocks out 6 dozen cookies and makes those two quiches tonight for dinner.

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