One of those days

This sums up my feelings today:

Lisa's Mood!

I'm so Angst! It should make my friends proud ;)

Writing writing writing

One thing I've discovered, is when I write, I blog less.

Thus, this blog, is less... ha ha ha ahh... coffeeeeeeeee........

Where have I been?

I am sorry. I know Idisappeared for a few weeks. I know I tend to do that.

This time, it was for reflecting.

There were a few weeks when I stopped doing everything and started thinking instead. Doing and Thinking are both important, but often we spend our lives simply Doing and never stop to actually Think.

I did some thinking, and here's what I came up with:

It's not too late, after all, to do the things I want to do.

It's okay to want two very contradictory things.

You can't have everything you want is true, but it doesn't mean you can't have anything you want.

I am less the river I was, and more a mountain. I still wonder, how'd that happen?

I enjoy cooking. Seriously, I did not know that.

We are paying too much money for too many channels (Yes, we're joining all the rest of the sane folk who are downgrading or canceling their cable!)

I have something special with my little boys, forged because I've stayed home with them for five years. I love that. Love that I COULD do that.

It will take me a long time to find a job in this economy, with my changing career fields. And that's okay.

And most of all....

I think that this crappy economy has taught a lot of us a good many things on need vs. want.

And it's On

So, the election is 'on'

I've already voted, mind you. I live in a state where mail-in ballots and early-voting is allowed, so all the delays and problems other states encounter will mostly be avoided here. Early voting makes sense, even if it's only opening the polls for two or three days instead of just one, but that is not my point. The merits of early voting will sell themselves today.

What I'm on about is tonight.

Election Eve.

Hubby McRed and I have two bottles of wine. We've invited a neighbor who lives without television. We're not sure what she'll be drinking (ha!).

The plan is to eat leek and potato soup with sourdough bread, drink some wine, watch the election, walk away from the election, watch some more, and hopefully, at 10 p.m., pronounce victory.

If victory is not pronounced, well. We'll have to do a few things.

First, go to the liquor store for more wine. It closes at 11.
Second, pack up and head to Canada, the Last American Frontier for Blue State Refugees.
Just don't tell Canada we're coming.
Hate to have them close their borders and all.

I am cautiously optimistic though.

The polls are all predicting a landslide, but polls can be wrong.
So I'm not celebrating early. But I feel slightly confident.

Election Eve.

Happens once every 4 years. Really, I'm surprised they don't make it a Federal day off, well, except for all the poll workers!

Nano writing

November is nano writing novel month!

I've decided to see if I can crank out an obnoxious rough draft in one month!

Stay tuned to see if I do it, go insane, or just give up.

But I want to make it clear, my goal is to establish an absolute habit of writing, not so much the finishing the novel, as the writing at a specified time every day. IF in the habit of doing this, the rough daft of my serial killing vamp gets completed, it's all bonus.

Good luck me.

Lets talk Daylight Savings Time

I understand this actually held a purpose a long time ago, what with farmers and picking and train schedules and whatever other reason it was imagined we should play with time.

But, what is it's purpose today?

It used to be to give me an hours extra sleep in the fall, followed by a depressing loss of an hour in the spring.

But what is it's purpose?

Particularly, to those of us with children, who didn't wake up this morning and go, 'oh, we fell back, I can sleep for another hour?'

So now, not only do I not get my extra hour of sleep, but I get an extra early hour of darkness in the evening.

Bah.

Happy Halloween,,,, trick or treat

I was going to go on about the horrors of sugar and candy, but this is not really the time.

I love Halloween. I love getting dressed up in costumes, though this is the first year in many that I've bothered... I love taking the kids trick or treating.

Candy?

I generally toss it.

For me, it's all about the experience.

Oh sure, the kids eat come of it. But it quickly disappears. I wish more parents would hand out raisins and toothbrushes, but tradition is tradition, and what would costumed kids without overflowing treat bags filled with healthy food do to Halloween? Hmm....

So tonight we'll visit our friends in the 'hood, the homes we know, the people we see every day, and some we don't, but as we'll be right there, it'll be okay, and we'll teach our children that it's okay to knock on people's doors and demand candy one night out of the year.

And why am I not going to complain about the sugar, the excess candy, and the deeper message we're sending our children by letting them ask for treats?

Because life is hard, and can be full of many hard things, and some people have it harder than others, and some have it easier, but right now, we're in some rough times, and a lot of people are having it hard.

Because childhood is short, and adulthood filled with responsibility, concerns, and the knowledge the world isn't such a great place all the time.

Because they are young only once, and they haven't yet learned about how the world really is.

Because I want them to learn to laugh, and to dress up, and play, and be frivolous, and have fun.

Just for one night, let the world be a magical playground.

A great parenting moment -- wasted

"Mom, Mom," said Bear, a slight panic to his words. "I can't find Henry."

Oh no. Not Henry... Henry was an old 'hood dog that the boys loved. He passed away recently, and I gave a very simple, but seeming satisfactory answer as to what happened to him. But now, Bear was looking for him.

I am one who believes in not blowing off these conversations. Children need to understand the world around them, and death is a part of that world, as is life.

I get down on my knees and take his hand.

"Now Bear," I say. "We've had this conversation. Henry is gone."

I'm about to continue.

But the potential Viggo-like neighbor steps in.

"Um, He means Henry, my cat...."

.....


Ah, yes, Henry is also the name of the old cat the boys like to play with....

So I said, "Oh, WELL THEN," and patted little Bear's hand... "maybe he's just hiding from you hon."

Horrifiedly Aghast

Not really sure if Horrifiedly is a word.

But I have a slight confession.

I think I may perhaps find campy vamp movies funny.

We watched Bitten, with that guy from Clerks, you know, real high budget, and um, I want to watch it again because I can't remember laughing that much in a long time.

Now, Iron Man was all good and well, but it was too slick and not plotless enough. It tried to have a plot when really, it would have been better just admitting there was no real one.

The Dark Knight was superb, but, lets face it, not really a comedy.

So,

Me and campy vamp movies.

Who woulda thunk?

The little things they say

So I realize now that one reason my husband and I together is because of the little things, not the big things.

He drives me insane, mind you, quite batty at times... but... it's things like when we first moved here and he said one day, out of the blue... 'You're losing weight, I can tell, it's showing in your face.' And that one comment spurred me on to new efforts... it was REALLY noticeable because he noticed and, one thing about my husband, he doesn't lie, and when he attempts to, it's obvious.

And other things like, like this morning...

We'd had a rough week, his work is getting to him, to me, and to be too much with all his side projects and school and my school and life, yawn, you get the idea, but this morning I took the boys to school and came home and when I came upstairs because he wanted to chat about something he stopped, and said...

"you look kinda sexy today, in a slightly bohemian way..."

And now, I'm in a great mood.

/aw shucks.

The boat is sinking! The boat is sinking!

So we're sinking. Well, no, Wall Street is sinking, and apparently, if I'm reading the news right, is doing it's damndest to take the Everyman down with it.

I'm not an economics major, although, apparently, neither are any of the executives working at the big companies that are currently falling, but I am uncertain as to why the 700 billion dollar bailout is necessary. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a plan that will help, but so far, the only reason I can find that explains it, is to 'avoid financial panic.'

Bit late for that.

And, what about the Everyman? It's not like this is going to help the Everyman, bailing out these buffoon companies that, from the headlines this morning, may face angry mobs of protesters demanding pieces of their overblown compensation checks. Because lets face it, even with the bailout going through, and limits on 'compensation,' the checks are going to more than equal people's retirements, retirements that are currently being lost.

So, we need to pass on this great debt to our children and grandchildren, to avoid panic, and a recession?

Haven't we been in a recession?

And can't we, as a nation, come up with a better solution than having the Everyman pay a price the Everyman didn't exact?

I can hear the Everyman asking these questions:

Will OUR debt be forgiven? Will we keep OUR homes? Will we be able to find jobs? Can we relocate Wall Street to another part of the nation, and restaff it with competent people? THIS is what America has come to now? Making the Everyman who's already suffering in an economy of errors, who's already been watching the financial markets warily for some time, wondering why, if we weren't in a recession, things were hard, pay more money they don't have, to bolster the very financial institutions that caused the mistake in the first place.

For shame.

Solution to Wall Street

Give me the $700 billion stimulus package money, and I will personally save the real estate market by buying lots and lots of homes, than refinancing them for the people who lost them... then I'll go shopping and buy lots of consumer goods.

Lets all hate HBO together

I like Netflix because I can get entire seasons of shows that I can't be bothered to pay extra money to get on premium channels. For the most parat, I find that premium channels don't really have anything worth watching.

The exception is HBO.

HBO has Band of Brothers (which you can netflix now)
It had the Sopranos (Netflix!)
Deadwood.

And now,

True Blood.

I want to watch True Blood. I was told True Blood would be available on Itunes shortly after each episode aired. Only now, it seems that information is incorrect. True Blood will only be available after the entire series has aired.

So I hate HBO.

And to be fair, I hate cable television in general. There's so few really good shows worth watching, but to watch them, you have to pay for a lot of crap television. There's no a la carte packages, which, frankly, in today's age of media gluttony, really, there should be.

So I hate HBO because it wants to make money and the only way to make money for its programming is to, apparently, put one or two really good shows on, and then expect people to pay extra money and give them one or two good shows with twenty more crappy shows.

Now, Itunes lets you download shows immediately. Sci-Fi offers some shows on Itunes right after airing. Netflix lets you download some videos and shows immediately. But, not HBO shows. No, I have to wait til the series ends, or I can get HBO.

Is one show worth an HBO subscription fee?
Nope.

I can barely justify regular cable.

I think we ought to start a media revolution. Everyone should cancel their premium channel subscriptions and extended cable plans and demand a la carte service.

Lets be done with crappy televison! Lets demand only good shows! Lets make those shows downloadable immediately, because lets face it, that's where the future is going to be. Eventually, these industry giants will collapse under the weight of all their crap and there will only be shows that people actually want to view, all downloaded on itunes, with no cable bills...

Lets all hate HBO, and bring the future that much closer!

Dang it!

Boys Room, part one

See? I did actually finish a project!

This is the first of the four walls I'm doing in the boy's room... It's all painted, and I added the wooden airplanes and stars I painted...

Remember, these are five year olds!

I will eventually remove the painter's tape. And it's not the final placement. I am spacing the stars so they fill more of the wall and have more space in between. I need to get some ubah-3m adhesive tape stuff for the wood planes.

But hey, the boys' love them!

Brady is out!

I know it's not rational, but I am seriously bummed about Brady's knee injury.

It most likely will keep him out of the season.

He was my guy! He was my favorite player. I loved watching him play, I loved watching football knowing that Brady was the best QB, no matter what some grumpy red heads in the house might say...

...how can football season be the same?

Kids in the hood

There was slight drama in the hood yesterday.

I never handle these things well, I just don't.

I go two ways.

I go 'whatever' and let someone else eventually deal with it.

Or I go and say stupid crap and be all cranky and pissy.

I'm sure somewhere there is a middle ground, an appropriate way to not say things in high-pitched whiny ass cranky voices (how I imagine I sound) without doing nothing.

I really need a Teacher voice. I might ask my teacher friend for some pointers.

But it comes down to, in the end, I wouldn't have to say things in whiny cranky voices if people paid attention to their own kids.

So we have kids in the neighborhood that do stupid things. Of course they do, they are kids.

It's what parents are for. Most parents get that parenting is an active thing... some not so much. I feel some of the kids are good kids who'd do less stupid things if there was occasional parenting.

As for the kids not from the neighborhood, well, they usually get bored and leave.

But what is it with signs and kids? Why must children hang on signs, pull on signs, tear signs down? Is it some inner desire to break down the confines of authority and society, or is it just cuz it's there?

When I was 17, I snagged road cones with some friends and we tossed them out the window.
Then, we stole a Stop sign.

It wasn't easy.

We had to settle on snagging some construction signs first -- they were much easier to pull down and take... and it wasn't until a snow storm blew a Stop sign down a few weeks later that my friend and I were able to um, obtain, one for her. I kept the construction signs. It was because in my mind I envisioned a cool urban bedroom with cool urban signage.

We lived in rural New Hampshire. There wasn't really much 'urban' to it.

So my solution for the hood?

Take down the stupid signs before the kids pull them down on their heads, and put in speed bumps so the idiot adults that speed through will be forced to slow down and less likely to hit one of the blissfully unaware kids that ride on their bikes down the middle of the road.

My soul in a mosaic... i guess

Okay,

here is my mosaic:


Go to More Gravy's website for instructions on how to make yours! I would do it for you, but I've been up all night playing facebook scrabble and making silly mosaics!

Yay! The Bear is home.

My little Bear is home! For a nice, long detailed account of what I've been doing this week, here...

It was a crazy week, where I learned you can frett away a pound and a half, and that it's possible to forget to eat, even if you are the type that loves food, like I am. Mmm.

It's the sort of week where you're thankful that you know you're neighbors and they don't mind letting your daughter hang out, so you can deal with things that need to be dealt with, knowing she's safe. Or the neighbors that let you carry their half-exhausted Turbo over to their house, dumping him off, bathless (sorry for the stinky toes!) hungry and overtired. The sort of neighbors' who ask how the little Bear is.

And while it wasn't the worst week, there are far worse weeks one could have, the first bit was very scary. The second was chaos. The third was his coming home, and happy.

But now he's home, happy, and a bit skinnier, his baby pot belly is gone! I guess that makes sense. He's alright, and Turbo and Bear are upstairs playing happily, as if he'd never left, as if Turbo didn't have three and a half days without his other half, and only a niggling little cough and some breathlessness remains of Bear's ordeal.

Yay Bear!

The Granola Mom

I no longer know what 'being granola' means, and I don't care. I'm way past the age where labels actually matter, despite the media's attempts to label everyone into neat sub-categories... but that's an entry all by itself.

I do know that I was never going to be 'that mom,' you know, the mom that baked home-made snacks for their kids, packed neat little lunches, and made sure everything was somewhat healthy.

Except, I am that mom.

Last year, I left it all to the school system. My daughter wanted to buy lunches. Toward the end of the year, after I began to pay more attention to what Drama Girl ate, I decided I needed to pay slightly more attention. And I read the school menu. That pretty much sold me on the idea that the school lunches just are not nutritious. Oh sure, their are 'nutritious choices' but how many kids do you really trust to make those choices, when most of us, as adults, can't make them?

Yeah.

So this year, I've been packing her lunch and filling it with healthy snacks. The thing is, the healthiest snacks are pricey.

So I baked.

I set aside two hours on Sunday, figuring this is something I plan to do weekly, and baked an entire week's worth of healthy snacks that can be alternated with fruit (which, happily, requires no baking).

And what did I bake?

Honey-wheat muffins with sunflower seeds -- mainly for breakfasts... if you think you're kids won't eat healthy, HA. My sons tracked these muffins down from upstairs and through the paper bags that were concealing them. My only inkling they found and scarfed some down were the crumbs falling from Turbo's lips...

Home-made granola --this sounds a lot more complicated than it is -- it was embarrassingly easy)

Energy bars from that kick ass 'Foods You Crave' cookbook -- with a nice peanut butter layering

And that was it. These snacks and the breakfast muffins will take my kids through the entire week, with a fruit or two tossed in.

So yeah, I'm that mom now.

But you know what? It's cheaper this way, healthier, and it spares my kids the nutritional joke that is the school lunch menu... oh with one exception, because I'm not TOTALLY that mom -- Drama Girl can eat a hideously unhealthy lunch every Friday.

Oh, and if anyone has read Lunch Lessons... let me know.. I"m thinking of picking it up, because it's hard to creatively think up healthy lunches.

How Does My Garden Grow

It's a very small garden --

a container on the back patio garden, to be specific, but, it grows.... maybe not as well as some gardens grows, but it grows enough for me.

It grows...

Beautiful marigolds

Plentiful tomatoes

ready to ripen

Sweet and plentiful basil used quite frequently

a chili pepper plant that's spiced up a chili really nice

Bushy strawberry plants, sans fruit though

Rosemary picked almost bare and mint for yogurt sauces and pho

Oregano for anything and everything

Overflowing flowers

and lovely native blossoms

How does your garden grow?

Does it bloom?

How so?