Daily Dose of Kids and Computers

3 Comments / Kid Talk /

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By jove! I think he’s got it! I walked all of the way up there and completely forgot to take another picture of his monitor. He says he modified his monitor frame to have his initials in it. Maybe I’ll get Michelle to take a photo of it because I am surely not hobbling all the way up those stairs again anytime soon.

I think I’ll get Chris to pull the cover off of the old Compaq and we’ll see what Prince J can do with legos. I’m thinking we’ll see a really elaborate design from him now that he’s got the idea down pat.

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Daily Dose of Cool and Confusion

Kid Talk /

Prince J brought down a new lego creation, which was sort of cool in the typical way. I suggested he make something BIG with his legos rather than something small, like he usually does. TW suggested making something round with those other “block thingies” up there and then we both suggested he make a PC Case Mod. He thought that was interesting and headed up to give it a try. Half hour later, he says he’s done it.

p1010001_1.jpgWell, ummm, not quite. As you can see, it’s cool but it’s not a case mod. The boy, didn’t quite understand “case mod”. Still cool. And now that he knows what we meant, maybe we’ll see another creation up there again soon.

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The Year of Magical Thinking

2 Comments / 2006, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

Finally! I finally managed to pick up The Year of Magical Thinking and read it. Finally! I’ve only reserved it six times from the library and it’s officially one day overdue as it is. But I read it and I’m glad.

I’ve always been a Didion fan and I was a little bit afraid I would not like this. I was afraid it was going to be too weepy or too whiney, something out of character for Didion. Thank goodness, it wasn’t that at all. It was pure Didion and I hope to goodness I’m a cool customer like her if/when I’m faced with death or a child’s illness or heaven forbid, both at the same time.

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Daily Dose of Religion

2 Comments / Religion /

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TW took the kids to church today.  I stayed home and tripped over the dog.  I guess some god or another was trying to tell me something.  It sounds like a good sermon and a good learning experience was had by all.  From the picture of E, you can just tell you missed out on something good, can’t you?

For the adults, it was a Christian sermon – that’s a big deal, people.  Our little UU has had a shortage of Christian spirituality over the last year or so.  For the kids, it was Albert Schweitzer – a UU – thus the bandages.  They talked about his trip to Africa and his compassion toward the African people.  And, they acted out the doctor/patient relationship. 

Darn, I should have gone to church.

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Tamburlaine Must Die

2006, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction /

I reserved Tamburlaine Must Die from the library because TW and I had been talking about The Cutting Room and I realized we had never read any of her other books, even though we really enjoyed that one.

This one – better than The Cutting Room. Louise Welsh’s fictional account of what happened to Christopher Marlowe (remember, he’s the one some people think wrote the better Shakespeare pieces). I liked it. It could have happened that way. And of course, Welsh handles gay sex better than most. There’s nothing worse than poorly written gay boy sex.

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The Crying of Lot 49

2006, Books in Bed, Classics, Don't Read This, Favorites /

Because I couldn’t make my way through Gravity’s Rainbow and because Gravity’s Rainbow was one of my Summer Reading Challenge books, I decided to take a recommendation from someone at “work” and read Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 instead. About the only thing I can say is I managed to make it through the whole book

Conspiracy theories, bah who cares. And can someone tell me why this guy insists on writing incredibly long sentences? He’s much worse than I am. Look, this is how it starts:

One summer afternoon Mrs Oedipa Maas came home from a Tupperware party whose hostess had perhaps too much kirsch in the fondue to find that she, Oedipa, had been named executor, or she supposed executrix, of the estate of one Pierce Invararity, a California real estate mogul who had once lost two million dollars in his spare time but still had assets numerous and tangled enough to make the job of sorting it all out more than honorary.

I mean really, was that necessary? The whole book is like that. The whole book is unnecessary. No more Pynchon for me, thank you.

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Daily Dose of Hair – Boring

1 Comment / Kid Talk /

Michelle has colored her hair, again.  I have been expecting it for awhile – there were only a couple of small little streaks of black left, in the front.  And, it’s back to school time.  I thought for sure we’d see a blue or a green, but no.  Alas.  Boring just a shade or two darker than her "normal" color.  A color that’s not quite blonde but close enough to blonde.

  Here I sit wondering what happened to me along the way to make me sigh over "blonde" and wish for the days when I had colorful haired kids.

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The Prophet of Yonwood

2006, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Don't Read This /

Well, I was disappointed. That pretty much covers it. Prophet of Yonwood is a prequel to the much loved by me People of Sparks and City of Ember. I don’t care much for prequels as a rule but I found this one particularly disappointing.

The story takes place long before people went “underground” so it isn’t much of a prequel. It’s also full of propaganda and while the message it sends regarding religious zealots and fear is an important one, it just comes off as condescending. I can’t imagine what kids would think about this book. Kids who’ve read Sparks and Ember will probably be more disappointed than those who haven’t read them.

Just skip this one, people. Read the other two and let’s hope Duprau gives us a better story next time.

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Daily Dose of Cupcake Toppers

6 Comments / Cupcake Toppers /

Time flies and I’m not happy about it. I’m never happy about it but I’m most unhappy on a child’s birthday. I’m even more unhappy about it when it is an oldest child’s birthday or a youngest child’s birthday. (Sorry RJ and Chris, you two don’t make me nearly as grouchy as your siblings – but everybody knows that.)

Yesterday, was E’s birthday. She is eight. And I hate it. Children. They should not grow up.

On the otherhand, it’s E and her birthday cupcakes for school that launched the weekly Cupcake Topper posts so that is a good thing. I enjoy all of my cupcake topper visitors, very much. I don’t, however, enjoy shopping for E’s cupcake toppers every year.

After last year’s fiasco, I swore we would not wait til the last minute to buy cupcake toppers. I mean, geez, I think about cupcake toppers every single week. You’d think I’d be organized enough to have this taken care of. But no, I only dream of being organized (You larger families people can stop laughing). Instead, I’d rather hobble around Michaels and Factory Card Outlet on a bad sprain and ponder the lack of mini flocked animal cuties. They were such a hit with E (and the dog) last year that she requested them again. She was out of luck.

We were torn between a) Discovery safari animals (umm no) or horses (umm if we have to) b) some “finishers” that were adorable (but TW rightly mentioned that they look like candy and she was concerned about the kids trying to eat them) c) mini butterflies (which I thought were awesome) d) mini jointed teddy bears (that TW liked but I hated) e) mini hedgehoggy looking animals (but they weren’t hedgehogs, just spikey like hedgehogs) f) cat erasers (blah).

p1010003.jpgWe ended up with the cat erasers and E was happy. Or she seemed happy with them this morning when TW dropped them off. I swear, either the child isn’t having anymore birthdays or I WILL BE PREPARED NEXT YEAR. Or, it will be like every year. My bark is worse than my bite.

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