Hannah has changed her mind that she wants to be cremated when she dies. Instead, she wants a double-decker casket, with a tv and unlimited movies, a toilet, and snacks and magazines. Plus, everyone has to wear white to her funeral.
In less morbid news, she has revisited the Grease-remake idea and decided that the original Grease needs to be remade with *pets*. John wanted to know if the cats and hamsters would get greasy hair-dos. Hannah gave him her patented "whatever" look, complete with "W" gesture.
I took Hannah to John's office while I had class today (only 1 week of school vacation left--woooo!), and on the way we passed a little boy walking with 2 ladies who were ignoring him crying. (Totally understandable.) Hannah wondered why he was crying. I pointed out that the ladies had probably denied him candy or ice cream, or permission to pick up a dead bird. Hannah said she wouldn't cry like that because she is a teenager. I pointed out that she is 10 years and 51 weeks and 5 days old. That is a far cry from "teenager". Then she came home and played on the Noggin site. *g*
Monday, May 19, 2008
News of the Weird
I broke my not-cutting-myself streak by making a magnificent slice in my thumb Saturday night while slicing onions. Luckily, I did not get any blood on the food. Unfortunately, I had to finish cutting up the onions and 2 pounds of tomatoes for soup.
It stopped hurting immediately, and the bleeding stopped pretty quickly, too, but now I have a gaping, white flap of skin on the end of my thumb. I finally got rid of the last bandaid this evening while washing dishes, but the thought of anything catching on my thumb-flap made me scrub very gingerly. And the thought of having to type the words "thumb-flap" makes me physically ill.
Making meatballs without meating up my thumb-flap was also an adventure in cookery that I would have avoided if at all possible.
It stopped hurting immediately, and the bleeding stopped pretty quickly, too, but now I have a gaping, white flap of skin on the end of my thumb. I finally got rid of the last bandaid this evening while washing dishes, but the thought of anything catching on my thumb-flap made me scrub very gingerly. And the thought of having to type the words "thumb-flap" makes me physically ill.
Making meatballs without meating up my thumb-flap was also an adventure in cookery that I would have avoided if at all possible.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
The Hannah-upagus (-Lupagus? I don't know)
Me to John: It’s 10 o’clock—do you know what town your child is in?
Earlier in the school year, Hannah’s class went to a museum in another town with the train, but she never made it clear to us what town that was.
Conversation with my child:
Me: Hannah, you do not have fat, hairy legs.
Hannah: Yes I do.
Me: That is crazy talk.
Hannah: No, this is crazy talk: blah blibbzty blahdy blblblblbl.
Hannah took part in a chain letter for kids (allegedly for a Guinness Book attempt), and some of the resulting mail got mis-delivered to our house, despite having the correct address on the envelope. Hannah has been anxious to get the letters back in the mail—OMG! Chain letterrrrr!—so we wrote “MIS-SENT” on it this morning and she ran it down to the mailbox. When she came back, she declared that the postal service was lucky we didn’t sue them for their egregious error. While John and I tried to talk some sense into her, she blew us off with the reflection that she doesn’t have any money for a lawyer anyway. As John said, “Our little litigant.”
Hannah was asking me what kind of movie I would make if I could: Sci-fi? Animated? Grease re-make with transvestites? She knows me so well.
Hannah is constantly speculating on what happens to characters after the action of a book or film is over (I see fan-fiction in her future). She thinks there should be a Grease 3, but she doesn’t appreciate my efforts to deduce what kind of vehicle will be featured. Original Grease had fast cars; Grease 2 had motorcycles. For Grease 3, we came up with jet skis, skateboards, a Segway--
Get that guy, Thunderbirds!
--or the Little Rascal.
Hannah was not amused.
Hannah’s birthday is coming up fast. She is going to be 11! I am not too weirded out by my baby growing up so fast, but some days I think, “Poof! 11 years gone.”
Hannah has already been planning out her birthday parties for the next few years, to be sure to cover all the possibilities. This year, we are taking her and 2 friends to Holiday Park after a sleepover. Her birthday falls during school vacation *and* on a holiday, so the amusement park will be open an extra hour. She has already asked us if we can celebrate her birthday in the summer vacation (August) the next two years, that way we can take her to Legoland (in Germany) and Parc Asterix (near Paris). She doesn’t really care about celebrating with friends, as long as we take her someplace cool.
John and Hannah insisted we buy an inflatable boat, so that is how they spent Mother’s Day, paddling around on the Neckar.
(Full set here.)I have very bad luck with boats smaller than a ferry, so I stayed on shore and photographed the big event. It didn’t help my peace of mind to know that Hannah was wearing a swim ring as a make-shift life vest, and that the tourist cruise boats were out in force.
Hannah was dying to get back in the water this weekend, but the life vest John ordered hasn’t come yet, and it has been overcast with intermittent rain, so I don’t think she’s going to make it today. Maybe on Monday, says John.
Earlier in the school year, Hannah’s class went to a museum in another town with the train, but she never made it clear to us what town that was.
Conversation with my child:
Me: Hannah, you do not have fat, hairy legs.
Hannah: Yes I do.
Me: That is crazy talk.
Hannah: No, this is crazy talk: blah blibbzty blahdy blblblblbl.
Hannah took part in a chain letter for kids (allegedly for a Guinness Book attempt), and some of the resulting mail got mis-delivered to our house, despite having the correct address on the envelope. Hannah has been anxious to get the letters back in the mail—OMG! Chain letterrrrr!—so we wrote “MIS-SENT” on it this morning and she ran it down to the mailbox. When she came back, she declared that the postal service was lucky we didn’t sue them for their egregious error. While John and I tried to talk some sense into her, she blew us off with the reflection that she doesn’t have any money for a lawyer anyway. As John said, “Our little litigant.”
Hannah was asking me what kind of movie I would make if I could: Sci-fi? Animated? Grease re-make with transvestites? She knows me so well.
Hannah is constantly speculating on what happens to characters after the action of a book or film is over (I see fan-fiction in her future). She thinks there should be a Grease 3, but she doesn’t appreciate my efforts to deduce what kind of vehicle will be featured. Original Grease had fast cars; Grease 2 had motorcycles. For Grease 3, we came up with jet skis, skateboards, a Segway--
Get that guy, Thunderbirds!
--or the Little Rascal.
Hannah was not amused.
Hannah’s birthday is coming up fast. She is going to be 11! I am not too weirded out by my baby growing up so fast, but some days I think, “Poof! 11 years gone.”
Hannah has already been planning out her birthday parties for the next few years, to be sure to cover all the possibilities. This year, we are taking her and 2 friends to Holiday Park after a sleepover. Her birthday falls during school vacation *and* on a holiday, so the amusement park will be open an extra hour. She has already asked us if we can celebrate her birthday in the summer vacation (August) the next two years, that way we can take her to Legoland (in Germany) and Parc Asterix (near Paris). She doesn’t really care about celebrating with friends, as long as we take her someplace cool.
John and Hannah insisted we buy an inflatable boat, so that is how they spent Mother’s Day, paddling around on the Neckar.
(Full set here.)I have very bad luck with boats smaller than a ferry, so I stayed on shore and photographed the big event. It didn’t help my peace of mind to know that Hannah was wearing a swim ring as a make-shift life vest, and that the tourist cruise boats were out in force.
Hannah was dying to get back in the water this weekend, but the life vest John ordered hasn’t come yet, and it has been overcast with intermittent rain, so I don’t think she’s going to make it today. Maybe on Monday, says John.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
I was in the middle of Spring Cleaning...
...when the doorbell rang. I got to take 30 minutes out of my busy cleaning schedule this morning to be an official witness (I had to sign some forms and stuff) for some cops who turned up with a search warrant on one of our neighbor's kids. No one was home, and they couldn't track them down, so I got to be the stand-in to ensure that they didn't break anything and only searched the kid's (he's 23) stuff.
After that, cleaning the floor and shoving around the furniture just didn't seem as exciting anymore.
Friday, May 09, 2008
Somebody's Checkin' In!
Sometimes I hear ladies my age talk about having a(nother) baby, and I wonder what they are thinking. My conversations with Hannah yesterday included the words hotpants, bra, and hickey; no poop-laden infant can hold a candle to a preteen, although I guess you have to start somewhere.
WE ARE DUMB
When we moved here, we brought an international VCR to watch videos on, DVDs just then making inroads into the movie-watching media. John got a laptop for work, and we sometimes used the disc-drive to watch the handful of German DVDs we had bought or borrowed. The drawbacks were that we couldn’t watch any of the American DVDs people were sending us, and John had the nerve to want to use the laptop to work—when we were requiring entertainment, sheesh! Jooge and Mr. Jooge took pity on us and sent an American DVD player. Shortly after that, the disc-drive on John’s laptop crapped out on us, so I bit the bullet and went out and bought a German DVD player.
Kept up so far? At that point, we had a VCR and 2 DVD players, and we had to keep switching around cables depending on which DVD (American/European) we wanted to watch.
Just recently, while wrangling cables and settings, Hannah accidentally put an American DVD in the German DVD player. And it worked! I had to dig to find the weensy print in the manual, but it turns out I had managed to buy a remarkably cheap international DVD player that *didn’t even advertise itself as such*. Weird, eh? So we packed away the American player for later and have spared ourselves a lot of effort in our pursuit of entertainment.
Of course, we still have an incredibly ancient television set that doesn’t even have a remote control, and the on-off button is broken, so we have to plug it in to turn it off. And the volume and channel buttons are starting to wear out, so you have to press extra hard when you want to scroll though the channels (UP and DOWN are the 2 channel options). But it came with the apartment, so at least we didn’t have to buy a tv to go with our million video players.
WE ARE GASTON
Remember that jerk from the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast? And how he sings, “I use antlers in all of my decorating!”? I bet he didn’t have one of these:
That’s right, it’s a dining-room chandelier made out of antlers. Every meal, we sit beneath the partial remains of multiple German deer. They match the patterns on the chairs:
And the tile oven:
And the outside of the house:
I mentioned that I need to recover the cushions on the dining room/tile oven bench, and I finally got around to ordering the fabric:
It’s not exactly the same pattern, but it’s not bad for a replacement (and if your taste runs to Bavarian kitsch). Now I just need to let it sit in the storage space under the couch until I finish a metric buttload of school work, and then I’ll need to figure out where I can rent a sewing machine.
IN OTHER CRAFTY NEWS
Since my brain basically calls it a day as soon as dinner is done cooking, I dug out the quilt project I’ve been working on since *cough* 1996 *cough* to have something to do in the evenings. Even though I’m only quilting an hour or two a night, I’m making a lot of progress. See?
And the back:
Maybe one day I will be finished, but for now, it is keeping me out of the crack dens and other low places.
MRS. GREEN-JEANS
Now that it has finally turned warmer, I am having a little more success with my apartment gardening. These walnut trees have totally taken off just in the last week:
I’ve got 2 pots of Lemon Balm going upstairs, and it is heavenly:
Hannah even had some pepper seeds going, but then the cats ate them, but then some more seeds came up. I was so pleased, I repotted them in a big old container and even showed them to John. Five minutes later, I saw that one of the goddamned cats had eaten several leaves off them:
I just planted you some cat grass, bitches! So I moved the baby pepper plants onto the balcony, but only after locking the cats out of the sunroom for a whole day. The nights are not getting below 50 now, so I think they’ll be just fine.
WE ARE DUMB
When we moved here, we brought an international VCR to watch videos on, DVDs just then making inroads into the movie-watching media. John got a laptop for work, and we sometimes used the disc-drive to watch the handful of German DVDs we had bought or borrowed. The drawbacks were that we couldn’t watch any of the American DVDs people were sending us, and John had the nerve to want to use the laptop to work—when we were requiring entertainment, sheesh! Jooge and Mr. Jooge took pity on us and sent an American DVD player. Shortly after that, the disc-drive on John’s laptop crapped out on us, so I bit the bullet and went out and bought a German DVD player.
Kept up so far? At that point, we had a VCR and 2 DVD players, and we had to keep switching around cables depending on which DVD (American/European) we wanted to watch.
Just recently, while wrangling cables and settings, Hannah accidentally put an American DVD in the German DVD player. And it worked! I had to dig to find the weensy print in the manual, but it turns out I had managed to buy a remarkably cheap international DVD player that *didn’t even advertise itself as such*. Weird, eh? So we packed away the American player for later and have spared ourselves a lot of effort in our pursuit of entertainment.
Of course, we still have an incredibly ancient television set that doesn’t even have a remote control, and the on-off button is broken, so we have to plug it in to turn it off. And the volume and channel buttons are starting to wear out, so you have to press extra hard when you want to scroll though the channels (UP and DOWN are the 2 channel options). But it came with the apartment, so at least we didn’t have to buy a tv to go with our million video players.
WE ARE GASTON
Remember that jerk from the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast? And how he sings, “I use antlers in all of my decorating!”? I bet he didn’t have one of these:
That’s right, it’s a dining-room chandelier made out of antlers. Every meal, we sit beneath the partial remains of multiple German deer. They match the patterns on the chairs:
And the tile oven:
And the outside of the house:
I mentioned that I need to recover the cushions on the dining room/tile oven bench, and I finally got around to ordering the fabric:
It’s not exactly the same pattern, but it’s not bad for a replacement (and if your taste runs to Bavarian kitsch). Now I just need to let it sit in the storage space under the couch until I finish a metric buttload of school work, and then I’ll need to figure out where I can rent a sewing machine.
IN OTHER CRAFTY NEWS
Since my brain basically calls it a day as soon as dinner is done cooking, I dug out the quilt project I’ve been working on since *cough* 1996 *cough* to have something to do in the evenings. Even though I’m only quilting an hour or two a night, I’m making a lot of progress. See?
And the back:
Maybe one day I will be finished, but for now, it is keeping me out of the crack dens and other low places.
MRS. GREEN-JEANS
Now that it has finally turned warmer, I am having a little more success with my apartment gardening. These walnut trees have totally taken off just in the last week:
I’ve got 2 pots of Lemon Balm going upstairs, and it is heavenly:
Hannah even had some pepper seeds going, but then the cats ate them, but then some more seeds came up. I was so pleased, I repotted them in a big old container and even showed them to John. Five minutes later, I saw that one of the goddamned cats had eaten several leaves off them:
I just planted you some cat grass, bitches! So I moved the baby pepper plants onto the balcony, but only after locking the cats out of the sunroom for a whole day. The nights are not getting below 50 now, so I think they’ll be just fine.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Avatar and Nee
My prediction about my favorite TV show, Avatar, came true. After airing the first 11 episodes of the third season, they went all the way back to the very first episode *of season 1*. This lead me to do a little poking around on the Internet, where I discovered that in the US the last 4 episodes will make a giant series finale *in July*. I was in a funk about this, so I did some more poking and found a trailer for the second half of season 3 that was just released at Comic Con. You’d think this would be good, but it just put me in more of a tizzy. Then on the German Nick, they announced that the series finale will be in the fall. *In the fall*, people. So, like, 5 months from now.
For those of you with Harry Potter inclinations, it’s like Book 6 came out, and then JK Rowling announced that extra people were going to die in Book 7, and then Scholastic moved the release date for Book 7 back to a later date. *That* is the level of pain I was experiencing, seriously. I am totally Nickelodeon’s bitch.
But then John, my dear husband, father of my child, light of my life, fire of my loi—oops! Moving on, he found episodes 12 and 13 online, thanks to the generosity of the Canadians in airing 2 more episodes than the Americans. A good chunk of the trailer clips were in those 2 episodes, which I found reassuring somehow. Since then, I have been feeling more calm about having to wait, but that might have more to do with the fact that I am coming off a manic hormone peak. Or stoic resignation. Or anti-pms. It’s hard to tell.
For those of you with Harry Potter inclinations, it’s like Book 6 came out, and then JK Rowling announced that extra people were going to die in Book 7, and then Scholastic moved the release date for Book 7 back to a later date. *That* is the level of pain I was experiencing, seriously. I am totally Nickelodeon’s bitch.
But then John, my dear husband, father of my child, light of my life, fire of my loi—oops! Moving on, he found episodes 12 and 13 online, thanks to the generosity of the Canadians in airing 2 more episodes than the Americans. A good chunk of the trailer clips were in those 2 episodes, which I found reassuring somehow. Since then, I have been feeling more calm about having to wait, but that might have more to do with the fact that I am coming off a manic hormone peak. Or stoic resignation. Or anti-pms. It’s hard to tell.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Twisted Sister
Hannah got the Spongebob movie while we were in Texas. In one scene toward the end, Spongebob plays "I'm a Goofy Goober" to the tune of Twisted Sister's "I wanna rock."
Spongebob Squarepants The Movie - Goofy Goober Rock - More amazing video clips are a click away
So this morning when John started singing "I wanna rock", I had to chime in with "I'm a goofy goober". That's just how I roll. John wonders what Dee Snider and company think of the use to which their music has been put.
Then I remembered that I actually had that album (well, cassette) as a kid. And then I remembered that I used to play "You're gonna burn in hell" at LilSis. And then my father threw my cassette away.
I guess I could blame LilSis for the loss of my marvelous tape that might have been a collector's item by now, but instead I will apologize to her for terrorizing her with big-haired 80s metal. It turns out I was the twisted sister.
Spongebob Squarepants The Movie - Goofy Goober Rock - More amazing video clips are a click away
So this morning when John started singing "I wanna rock", I had to chime in with "I'm a goofy goober". That's just how I roll. John wonders what Dee Snider and company think of the use to which their music has been put.
Then I remembered that I actually had that album (well, cassette) as a kid. And then I remembered that I used to play "You're gonna burn in hell" at LilSis. And then my father threw my cassette away.
I guess I could blame LilSis for the loss of my marvelous tape that might have been a collector's item by now, but instead I will apologize to her for terrorizing her with big-haired 80s metal. It turns out I was the twisted sister.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Friday, April 18, 2008
Participant in Rock-Release Program
It may seem that I’ve been hiding under a rock recently, but I have actually been kind of productive, in a boring, not very bloggable kind of way. I jumped ahead on my to-do list and ordered a new under-the-sink trash can. On runners! We’re way hi-tech around here.
Hannah and I planted flower seeds, which are not looking so hot at the moment, but at least we tried to start our spring gardening.
I bought a garden gnome. He is ceramic instead of resin, which I like, but he is a little more Disney than I had planned on getting. But he is still many-times better than some other ones I had seen at the garden center, and he only cost me 8 bucks at the grocery store. (Many thanks to Hannah for spotting him on an aisle I wasn’t planning on going down.)
I have prevented John from microwaving a bowl topped with a lid edged in metal. I don’t think he is on any medication, but I am starting to worry about him.
I have done some proofreading and bibliography-cleaning and bibliography-building, so I am definitely getting my hours in on my student job.
I have been soaking in new episodes of Avatar. Last Saturday Nick showed all of season 2 in the run-up to showing the first episode to season 3, and every night this week (and through next Tuesday, according to their web site) they’ll be showing the new episodes, in order. By next week, we’ll be caught up with the episodes that have aired in the States. Of course, sometimes Nick stalls out around then and starts re-showing earlier episodes before getting to the end of the new season, so I will have to wait and see what the new schedule looks like when it comes out online.
Despite the icky weather recently—and Spring is supposed to show up by Sunday, if you can trust the weather man—lots of flowers have come out. My favorites are purple, and the color is like a zap of electricity to the brain via the optic nerve. I read somewhere that purple is supposed to be an energizing color, as opposed to pale green being soothing, and it definitely seems to be true for me. Here is a picture of some lobelia.
While in Loosiana, we stopped in a mall in Monroe to buy jeans. We were hungry, but I just couldn’t bring myself to eat at Food N Food. Do you think they sold food? If I were a little more country, I might have gone into The Camouflage Shoppe, but the extra –e made me feel that there should have been more dust ruffles and tea involved than I saw on display. Not that the camo baby clothes and taxidermied toys weren’t cute.
This brain dump has been brought to you by the letter M and the number Z.
Hannah and I planted flower seeds, which are not looking so hot at the moment, but at least we tried to start our spring gardening.
I bought a garden gnome. He is ceramic instead of resin, which I like, but he is a little more Disney than I had planned on getting. But he is still many-times better than some other ones I had seen at the garden center, and he only cost me 8 bucks at the grocery store. (Many thanks to Hannah for spotting him on an aisle I wasn’t planning on going down.)
I have prevented John from microwaving a bowl topped with a lid edged in metal. I don’t think he is on any medication, but I am starting to worry about him.
I have done some proofreading and bibliography-cleaning and bibliography-building, so I am definitely getting my hours in on my student job.
I have been soaking in new episodes of Avatar. Last Saturday Nick showed all of season 2 in the run-up to showing the first episode to season 3, and every night this week (and through next Tuesday, according to their web site) they’ll be showing the new episodes, in order. By next week, we’ll be caught up with the episodes that have aired in the States. Of course, sometimes Nick stalls out around then and starts re-showing earlier episodes before getting to the end of the new season, so I will have to wait and see what the new schedule looks like when it comes out online.
Despite the icky weather recently—and Spring is supposed to show up by Sunday, if you can trust the weather man—lots of flowers have come out. My favorites are purple, and the color is like a zap of electricity to the brain via the optic nerve. I read somewhere that purple is supposed to be an energizing color, as opposed to pale green being soothing, and it definitely seems to be true for me. Here is a picture of some lobelia.
While in Loosiana, we stopped in a mall in Monroe to buy jeans. We were hungry, but I just couldn’t bring myself to eat at Food N Food. Do you think they sold food? If I were a little more country, I might have gone into The Camouflage Shoppe, but the extra –e made me feel that there should have been more dust ruffles and tea involved than I saw on display. Not that the camo baby clothes and taxidermied toys weren’t cute.
This brain dump has been brought to you by the letter M and the number Z.
Monday, April 14, 2008
That's My Girl
Hannah was getting low on reading material, so John suggested she try some of my Terry Pratchett books. Except for Harry Potter, Hannah hasn't shown much interest in what I read, so I was surprised that she agreed. Except--unsurprisingly--she wanted me to read it to her. But that turned out to be her undoing, because she got hooked.
Between me reading a chapter or so aloud to her and her reading a couple more pages beyond that to herself, we managed to get through Wee Free Men over several bedtimes.
Now she has started on A Hat Full of Sky, and she isn't calling out for me to read to her every single evening. Just every other evening or so.
Maybe by the time she gets to The Wintersmith, she'll be reading 70% on her own.
Between me reading a chapter or so aloud to her and her reading a couple more pages beyond that to herself, we managed to get through Wee Free Men over several bedtimes.
Now she has started on A Hat Full of Sky, and she isn't calling out for me to read to her every single evening. Just every other evening or so.
Maybe by the time she gets to The Wintersmith, she'll be reading 70% on her own.
Easter is so weird
So while I was in Texas, my mom and I had to run to Target. On the Easter aisle, I spotted the Star Wars Easter Egg Kit. After boiling the eggs into plastic sleeves with character faces on them--I noticed C3PO--you stand them on cardboard cutouts rolled into tubes with their bodies printed on them. Hahahah! Best. Easter. Decoration. Ever.
Later on during our trip, my SIL and I went to HEB for Easter loot, and alas--no Star Wars. It turns out that only Target carried them. But it wasn't to be in any case, because we were propane-less and couldn't boil eggs anyway. *sigh*
Later on during our trip, my SIL and I went to HEB for Easter loot, and alas--no Star Wars. It turns out that only Target carried them. But it wasn't to be in any case, because we were propane-less and couldn't boil eggs anyway. *sigh*
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Yeah, I thought so
Thanks to WesTexGirl for the link!
You Are a Seeker Soul |
 You are on a quest for knowledge and life challenges. You love to be curious and ask a ton of questions. Since you know so much, you make for an interesting conversationalist. Mentally alert, you can outwit almost anyone (and have fun doing it!). Very introspective, you can be silently critical of others. And your quiet nature makes it difficult for people to get to know you. You see yourself as a philosopher, and you take everything philosophically. Your main talent is expressing and communicating ideas. Souls you are most compatible with: Hunter Soul and Visionary Soul |
Thursday, April 10, 2008
I *heart* Economics
Until a couple of years ago, I hadn’t had a course in economics since high school, and I don’t remember that being especially exciting. I had to have a certain number of cultural studies courses for my degree here, and I was sick of art history and history, so I gave this German Economics for Foreigners course a try. I was surprised to find that I really enjoyed it. Part of it might have been the instructor, who was delightfully sarcastic, but the subject was also quite interesting in and of itself. I ended up being one of the few people who wrote an exam in economics when it came time for our exams for admission to upper-division studies.
The experience didn’t exactly turn me into an economics junky, but I do enjoy reading the Filthy Commerce entries on Lisa Schmeiser’s blog, “The Rage Diaries.” Who knew marketing could be so interesting?
More recently, I got turned on to Marginal Revolution. I haven’t read very far back in the archives, but I definitely have to recommend an economics site (or any site) that links to an article on the demise of the semi-colon.
For Christmas, I got John The Undercover Economist, but he is never going to read it, so I’ve been reading it at bedtime. It is fascinating! I admit, I sometimes have to read back over what I’ve just read in order to be able to understand it, but that has to do with the topic and not with Tim Harford’s writing, which is very accessible and entertaining.
Have you ever learned about something, and then suddenly you come across it again, totally randomly? After reading about the Camelback houses in New Orleans in The Undercover Economist, and how they allegedly came about due to a weird tax law, I proofread a paper by an anthropologist in Louisiana who had a more plausible theory, that when free-standing, 2-story kitchens were built on to shotgun houses, the end result was the Camelback. What a strange coincidence, eh?
I recently got around to watching all 20 minutes of The Story of Stuff, and it was worth it. Ok, I found the first five minutes a bit, mmm, shrill, but if you have ever wondered about where all that great stuff for sale came from and where it’s going, this is the video for you.
Some day I will get around to watching all of the video “Money as Debt”, but not today.
And to wrap up my encomium of all things economics-related, I just read the Slate article “The Last Days of Cheap Chinese: why American consumers are about to start paying more for clothes, electronics, toys, and just about everything else” By Alexandra Harney. Wal-Mart won’t be cheap for much longer.
The experience didn’t exactly turn me into an economics junky, but I do enjoy reading the Filthy Commerce entries on Lisa Schmeiser’s blog, “The Rage Diaries.” Who knew marketing could be so interesting?
More recently, I got turned on to Marginal Revolution. I haven’t read very far back in the archives, but I definitely have to recommend an economics site (or any site) that links to an article on the demise of the semi-colon.
For Christmas, I got John The Undercover Economist, but he is never going to read it, so I’ve been reading it at bedtime. It is fascinating! I admit, I sometimes have to read back over what I’ve just read in order to be able to understand it, but that has to do with the topic and not with Tim Harford’s writing, which is very accessible and entertaining.
Have you ever learned about something, and then suddenly you come across it again, totally randomly? After reading about the Camelback houses in New Orleans in The Undercover Economist, and how they allegedly came about due to a weird tax law, I proofread a paper by an anthropologist in Louisiana who had a more plausible theory, that when free-standing, 2-story kitchens were built on to shotgun houses, the end result was the Camelback. What a strange coincidence, eh?
I recently got around to watching all 20 minutes of The Story of Stuff, and it was worth it. Ok, I found the first five minutes a bit, mmm, shrill, but if you have ever wondered about where all that great stuff for sale came from and where it’s going, this is the video for you.
Some day I will get around to watching all of the video “Money as Debt”, but not today.
And to wrap up my encomium of all things economics-related, I just read the Slate article “The Last Days of Cheap Chinese: why American consumers are about to start paying more for clothes, electronics, toys, and just about everything else” By Alexandra Harney. Wal-Mart won’t be cheap for much longer.
Mucking out the spam folder
While I was working on my laptop earlier, I thought I'd skim through my spam inbox, just in case something had fallen through the cracks. Nope, all spam, but I particularly liked the subject line "We're Doomed! Doomed!" Somehow, that got my attention more than the fake-porn and fake-watches sujects, but still not enough to open the email.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Spring Cleaning
Somehow I have fallen behind on blogging, even though I have material. But on the other hand, I managed to get two articles edited and turned in on time over the weekend, so I am not a total slacker. In an attempt to get back on track, I am typing up some writing I managed to sneak in during our recent trip.
*
When we got on the plane [in Frankfurt, so on the international leg of our trip], Hannah noticed right away that there were TV consoles in the back of each seat. “This is the best plane I’ve ever been on!” she declared in her manically happy way.
Then when she saw the free earphones that hook over the ears, she wanted a set for herself. (Stealing them wasn’t an option, because they have two prongs.)
Alas, despite the promised glory of individualized entertainment, it wasn’t completely peaches and cream. My controller was defective, and after repeatedly trying in vain to select the flight plan, I finally ended up whacking it against the armrest in frustration.
Since I didn’t have any electronic entertainment available, I decided to go with my stand-by, the seat-back pocket. I am pre-disposed not to like the Skymall catalog. As I told Hannah, it’s basically a toy catalog for grown-ups, as evidenced by the items Programmable Frozen Drink Machine, Arcade Legends Full Size Game System (for a cool $3695.95), and iMuffs (what a terrible name!).
But then I saw the Holy Grail of cabinetry: the Library-Style Media Cabinet.
How cool is that? I have been looking for a cabinet with doors for hiding our videos and DVDs in, without much luck, so I may be bookmarking this item for future reference. And I also want the skull-covered flannel footy-pajamas I saw.
Despite being in the last row (i.e. no one behind us to complain), I couldn’t put my seat back at first because a flight attendant had stowed a bag behind me. John was able to spend the flight leaning back and watching his choice of movies. [Here I noted, “I need a nap so bad!”] Halfway through the flight, I got my seat back. I hope that stewardess didn’t have a collection of heirloom glass in her purse.
So I kind of got the shaft on some of the amenities, but at least the facilities were clean, and there was hot water for hand washing. When you are a lady like me—small bladder, monthly visitor—public toilets get a lot of scrutiny. Continental Airlines, your toilets passed inspection! (DFW Airport, not so much.)
Hannah is insisting that she is a teenager because I let her buy her first “teenie” magazine to read on the flight, but still put on the little plastic wings the steward gave her.
*
After we got to my mom’s, Hannah was checking out Little Na’s extensive Pokemon video collection—“That’s how a Jamaican says ‘hedgehog’.”
The next morning, I was helping load suitcases into the truck, and John warned me I’d get a lady hernia. “What, an ovary will pop out? Or my hernia will drink tea with its pinky out?” Then I laughed, perhaps a bit more hysterically than John was comfortable with. Hannah woke up at 3 am after our 24-hour day of travel, and was up for good at 5 am, so I was feeling a bit stretched thin.
My mom had put one of her dogs into the cab of the truck while we loaded the luggage, to keep her from running off. Only, when we got in, we discovered to our horror that she had stepped in poop somewhere and then boisterous jumped all over the seats. *sigh* After that, we called her the “pooper pup.”
*
The first morning after we got to John's dad's, we ran out of propane. Luckily, I got a hot shower before it ran out, but we ended up running water through the coffee maker to wash dishes. The bright side was that we didn't have to suffer through one of his glacial breakfasts. I swear, some animals gestate faster than he can cook breakfast. And don't get me started on the "creamy" eggs. *shudder* Cold cereal first thing in the morning instead of a hot breakfast at 11 was a perfectly acceptable trade-off, even with my extended stinkiness.
Hannah got a pink stuffed bunny for Easter. She named it Gina Bunny Foo-Foo, her Chinese bunny.
*
We went fishing in Loosiana, and Hannah wasn’t having much luck. I overheard her trying to tempt the fishes to her line: “Come on little fishies; we won’t eat you. Bloop bloop bloop!” But then she shushed me when I tried to help with the blooping.
*
I think that about wraps up our Texas experience for this year. I’ve got more stuff stewing on my laptop, but John might need to use the Internet for actual *work* soon (so picky), so I will get to it later.
*
When we got on the plane [in Frankfurt, so on the international leg of our trip], Hannah noticed right away that there were TV consoles in the back of each seat. “This is the best plane I’ve ever been on!” she declared in her manically happy way.
Then when she saw the free earphones that hook over the ears, she wanted a set for herself. (Stealing them wasn’t an option, because they have two prongs.)
Alas, despite the promised glory of individualized entertainment, it wasn’t completely peaches and cream. My controller was defective, and after repeatedly trying in vain to select the flight plan, I finally ended up whacking it against the armrest in frustration.
Since I didn’t have any electronic entertainment available, I decided to go with my stand-by, the seat-back pocket. I am pre-disposed not to like the Skymall catalog. As I told Hannah, it’s basically a toy catalog for grown-ups, as evidenced by the items Programmable Frozen Drink Machine, Arcade Legends Full Size Game System (for a cool $3695.95), and iMuffs (what a terrible name!).
But then I saw the Holy Grail of cabinetry: the Library-Style Media Cabinet.
How cool is that? I have been looking for a cabinet with doors for hiding our videos and DVDs in, without much luck, so I may be bookmarking this item for future reference. And I also want the skull-covered flannel footy-pajamas I saw.
Despite being in the last row (i.e. no one behind us to complain), I couldn’t put my seat back at first because a flight attendant had stowed a bag behind me. John was able to spend the flight leaning back and watching his choice of movies. [Here I noted, “I need a nap so bad!”] Halfway through the flight, I got my seat back. I hope that stewardess didn’t have a collection of heirloom glass in her purse.
So I kind of got the shaft on some of the amenities, but at least the facilities were clean, and there was hot water for hand washing. When you are a lady like me—small bladder, monthly visitor—public toilets get a lot of scrutiny. Continental Airlines, your toilets passed inspection! (DFW Airport, not so much.)
Hannah is insisting that she is a teenager because I let her buy her first “teenie” magazine to read on the flight, but still put on the little plastic wings the steward gave her.
*
After we got to my mom’s, Hannah was checking out Little Na’s extensive Pokemon video collection—“That’s how a Jamaican says ‘hedgehog’.”
The next morning, I was helping load suitcases into the truck, and John warned me I’d get a lady hernia. “What, an ovary will pop out? Or my hernia will drink tea with its pinky out?” Then I laughed, perhaps a bit more hysterically than John was comfortable with. Hannah woke up at 3 am after our 24-hour day of travel, and was up for good at 5 am, so I was feeling a bit stretched thin.
My mom had put one of her dogs into the cab of the truck while we loaded the luggage, to keep her from running off. Only, when we got in, we discovered to our horror that she had stepped in poop somewhere and then boisterous jumped all over the seats. *sigh* After that, we called her the “pooper pup.”
*
The first morning after we got to John's dad's, we ran out of propane. Luckily, I got a hot shower before it ran out, but we ended up running water through the coffee maker to wash dishes. The bright side was that we didn't have to suffer through one of his glacial breakfasts. I swear, some animals gestate faster than he can cook breakfast. And don't get me started on the "creamy" eggs. *shudder* Cold cereal first thing in the morning instead of a hot breakfast at 11 was a perfectly acceptable trade-off, even with my extended stinkiness.
Hannah got a pink stuffed bunny for Easter. She named it Gina Bunny Foo-Foo, her Chinese bunny.
*
We went fishing in Loosiana, and Hannah wasn’t having much luck. I overheard her trying to tempt the fishes to her line: “Come on little fishies; we won’t eat you. Bloop bloop bloop!” But then she shushed me when I tried to help with the blooping.
*
I think that about wraps up our Texas experience for this year. I’ve got more stuff stewing on my laptop, but John might need to use the Internet for actual *work* soon (so picky), so I will get to it later.
Sunday, April 06, 2008
LOL John sez
Im in ur quilt, stealin ur warmth.
(I refuse to spell q-words with k, even if it would fit the genre. BTW, Texas seems to have a shortage of qs and cs, judging by the signs.)
Off to read to Hannah. Maybe more tomorrow.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Back in the Saddle Again, Listing Heavily
We're back, but jet lag is stomping our butts. We just got Hannah off to school about an hour ago, and I hope she doesn't suffer too much on the first day of classes after vacation. Some of the other kids and teachers may be suffering, too, so at least she'll have some company.
The trip to the States was punctuated by one heavy nosebleed and about 3 barf-ups, but on the trip back, Hannah only barfed, twice on the plane and once in the car. We have realized that the main factor in her travel sickness is lack of sleep. It turns out that my mother and my great-aunt were also prone to that type of (travel) sickness when they were younger. My good friend WesTexGirl the biologist can even explain why that is, although my head is too fuzzy to drag the reason back out of the recesses of my brain from when she told me 2 weeks ago.
Anyhoo, we came back to a relatively clean house (no thanks to the cats and their endless shedding and litter-strewing and barfing) and live pets, so the pet-sitters got some nifty thank-you presents from Texas.
So that is the quick wrap-up. I am trying to get most of our 319 photos from our trip up on Flickr as quickly as possible, so feel free to wander over there to check them out. In addition to my normal photo stream, I'll have 3 folders--West Texas, South Texas, and Loosiana.
The trip to the States was punctuated by one heavy nosebleed and about 3 barf-ups, but on the trip back, Hannah only barfed, twice on the plane and once in the car. We have realized that the main factor in her travel sickness is lack of sleep. It turns out that my mother and my great-aunt were also prone to that type of (travel) sickness when they were younger. My good friend WesTexGirl the biologist can even explain why that is, although my head is too fuzzy to drag the reason back out of the recesses of my brain from when she told me 2 weeks ago.
Anyhoo, we came back to a relatively clean house (no thanks to the cats and their endless shedding and litter-strewing and barfing) and live pets, so the pet-sitters got some nifty thank-you presents from Texas.
So that is the quick wrap-up. I am trying to get most of our 319 photos from our trip up on Flickr as quickly as possible, so feel free to wander over there to check them out. In addition to my normal photo stream, I'll have 3 folders--West Texas, South Texas, and Loosiana.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Stuff
Every once in a while, John gets a wild hair and declares, “We need stuff!” That’s when we get on amazon and start picking out things we have mentioned in passing that we need: more seasons of Futurama, Van Halen CDs, Terry Pratchett books. Since we’ll be in Texas starting at 9 pm on Sunday—woooooo!—we are having some of our stuff sent to family there. We always buy an obscene amount of junk food when we visit, and this year we plan to do some shopping for clothes*, so the books, CDs, and DVDs will have company in the spare suitcase we are going to bring along.
* My fear of German department stores is only exceeded by my fear of German hairdressers, hence my overall ragged appearance these days.
One recent acquisition was 2 seasons of the BBC sci-fi comedy Hyperdrive. We saw the last episode of season 2 while we were in Scotland, and at first we thought it was that Scottish fan-made version of Star Trek. It is very funny, but the characters are not quite as cut-and-dried as you might think at first.
While we were on a roll, we also took care of some stuff we had been putting off for no particularly good reason. I bought a new modem cable, since our old one was missing a clip and kept falling out of my laptop whenever I wanted to use it. Then I got rid of 3 of these:
and replaced them with 3 of these:
It took me forever to find the right-sized replacement blinds since the windows are quite old and slanted (attic apartment), but perseverance and the Internet stood me in good stead. I even got a discount as a first-time customer and free shipping.
Here is my next DIY project for when we get back from Texas:
The lack of shades meant that the cushion was sitting in direct sunlight for however long the old shade was broken before we moved in and the time it took us to realize the landlord wasn’t going to manage to bring a new one and rig something up ourselves. By that point the cushion cover was already starting to rip. So now that we can block the sunlight to that spot, I will try to find some sufficiently ugly fabric to replace the previous ugly fabric and make new covers.
Then after that I will try to find a replacement for the built-in, under-the-sink garbage can that is on its last legs. After 4+ years, this place is starting to look rather scarred, so a few minor repairs are in order. I’ve always thought of myself as rather handy, but a lack of power tools prevents me from taking on really big jobs/injuries. Which is just as well. But the idea that I could actually improve things on my own seems to be part of my American spirit of self-sufficiency. If I don’t manage to burn down the house in the process of these littler projects, John and I might do a little (very little!) wallpapering and painting. Oooh, the skillz!
* My fear of German department stores is only exceeded by my fear of German hairdressers, hence my overall ragged appearance these days.
One recent acquisition was 2 seasons of the BBC sci-fi comedy Hyperdrive. We saw the last episode of season 2 while we were in Scotland, and at first we thought it was that Scottish fan-made version of Star Trek. It is very funny, but the characters are not quite as cut-and-dried as you might think at first.
While we were on a roll, we also took care of some stuff we had been putting off for no particularly good reason. I bought a new modem cable, since our old one was missing a clip and kept falling out of my laptop whenever I wanted to use it. Then I got rid of 3 of these:
and replaced them with 3 of these:
It took me forever to find the right-sized replacement blinds since the windows are quite old and slanted (attic apartment), but perseverance and the Internet stood me in good stead. I even got a discount as a first-time customer and free shipping.
Here is my next DIY project for when we get back from Texas:
The lack of shades meant that the cushion was sitting in direct sunlight for however long the old shade was broken before we moved in and the time it took us to realize the landlord wasn’t going to manage to bring a new one and rig something up ourselves. By that point the cushion cover was already starting to rip. So now that we can block the sunlight to that spot, I will try to find some sufficiently ugly fabric to replace the previous ugly fabric and make new covers.
Then after that I will try to find a replacement for the built-in, under-the-sink garbage can that is on its last legs. After 4+ years, this place is starting to look rather scarred, so a few minor repairs are in order. I’ve always thought of myself as rather handy, but a lack of power tools prevents me from taking on really big jobs/injuries. Which is just as well. But the idea that I could actually improve things on my own seems to be part of my American spirit of self-sufficiency. If I don’t manage to burn down the house in the process of these littler projects, John and I might do a little (very little!) wallpapering and painting. Oooh, the skillz!
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