Ignoring the laundry

The call of the internet is a siren's song. I can't stay away from my bloggie! I'm at an internet cafe in Durango while Jim is doing laundry. I'm such a bad wife, you say. I'm being a nice wife, I say, because I am letting Jim spend quality time with his two sisters at a laundromat without the pesky annoyance of a fifth wheel of a wife.

Note to Cindy: Jim Sr. seems to be doing just fine. He didn't go with us to Mesa Verde, but spent a pleasant afternoon in the quiet lodge (only four people stayed behind) and napped. The jam is heavenly, by the way!

No pictures for you, but I promise a massive picture dump (or series of them) when I get back to MN.

Josh and Courtney, I'll ask Megan for your number and address and call you re: stopping by for a hello, but I'll have to check with our caravan members to see how much time we can spare. I'm glad to know you live right off the freeway. Megan, we will be expecting you! About 30 mi north of Durango on 550 turn right onto a dirt road which will be not marked very well as Old Lime Creek Road. The lodge is the first driveway on the left (and it's a good ways in).

We've mostly relaxed and watched the teenagers have fun with each other. We've had a few minor injuries from Uncle Art teaching boys how to handle an ax. Then he let Morgan drive on a really icky road. Some have fished successfully, some have taken walks successfully (I am in the latter group). Art and Karen left this morning (Glad you came!). Good luck with your vehicle!

The lodge is spacious and rustic. The hummingbirds are plentiful and with a little daring and a lot of patience, I was able to get a few to sit on my finger while they drank from the hummingbird feeder. The daring comes from standing still while a flock of hummingbirds buzz around you and fight with each other over the feeder territory. You can feel the wind from beating wings as they fly by or hover at the feeder. Mike says the sound of their beating wings sounds like a flying space vehicle from the Jetsons cartoons. And he's right. Hummingbirds are actually quite mean to each other--they chase each other away from the feeder and engage in a few mid-air standoffs. Silly little birdies. But fun to watch. And have sit on your finger.

Until next time. Oh, probably no posts on the road this time. Katie's little green Dell is sicky-poo. What is with the viruses around here? First our Gateway workhorse and now Katie's little friend. I am exasperated, I tell you!

Art on the road

'nother blog entry from on the road.

I’m sitting in the passenger seat, with a beach towel over my head and over the computer, like a tent, so I can see the computer screen. Dang sunshine is too bright for me to see the screen. So I have to hide. I just finished watching a movie on the little DVD player and thought I would blog a little bit. Can’t post til later though.

We met up with Mike and Jen and Annie and Mimi this morning. Annie calls me “Aunt Jenni.” We haven’t seen them since Easter. We stopped for lunch near Kearney at a rest stop. Annie immediately spotted the “playground,” which consisted of some green plastic cylinders with holes in them through which a little child might crawl. She was very excited and ran up to me to say, “Aunt Jenni! If you want, you can take your kids over to the playground!” I had a good laugh. None of my kids have wanted to go to a playground for a few years. I did ask them if anyone wanted to go play, just in case they were interested. But teenagers only like playgrounds if parents aren’t around, it’s after midnight, and they’ve got spray paint. Matt might have gone over to have a look at the amenities, but it’s hard to be the littlest sometimes. Even if you want to play on the equipment, you don’t want to look like a baby to your big brothers and sister. So he declined as well.

Our picnic area had a nice view of a pond with a piece of art in it. It was a very large piece of art, made out of metal. I am not an understander of art; if someone wants to present a message of some significance to me, they’d better just tell me straight out, rather than soldering large disks of stainless steel together and plopping it into a pond in Kearney, Nebraska, because I won’t get it.

There was another piece of art in front of our motel in Iowa. What is it with giant art? Don't they know that most people laugh at that kind of art? This art looks like it is falling backwards while holding a hula hoop. (and yes I know it represents driving. But it still looks like she's got a hula hoop and she's falling on her butt.)

I have not been able to find Smarties candies anywhere. Smarties are a necessary trip snack for me, along with Snyder’s pretzels. I looked for Smarties at Target before we left, but Target apparently doesn’t carry them. And every single gas station we’ve stopped at doesn’t have them either. Wah!

One more thing: I’ve got another idea for people who design cars. My idea yesterday was for more charging outlets to be installed in vehicles (I still car those outlets “cigarette lighters”). Today I would like pull-down screens to be installed for the side windows. I know there are removable screens available that you can hang right on the window with a suction cup, but why mess with a suction cup? I don’t know anyone who can get a suction cup to stay stuck on for more than three and a half minutes. I’ve had to hang a hand towel in my window to shade my delicate flesh from the heat of the Iowan and Nebraskan sun and it’s irritating to hear the constant “flap-flap-flap-flap” of the small portion of the towel that hangs on the outside of the window. So car designers—will you consider my requests?

Now we are at the hotel in Pueblo. Tomorrow we get to the lodge. I finally found a bag (well, Jen found it) of Smarties at the Kmart here in Pueblo. I won't have to go without tomorrow! Yay!

I leave you tonight with a picture of our van in a one of an 18-wheeler's hubcaps.

On the Road with Technology

Raise your hand if you love technology.

I am writing this post on Katie’s little green Dell in the car on the way to Colorado. We don’t have a wifi connection, but I can type it into the computer, save it on my flash drive, and then when we find a place with free wifi, I can upload this to the shoebox castle. Matt is playing Nintendo DS and listening to a cd on a cd player. Paul is also playing DS and listening to music on his mp3 player. Katie and Jimmy are watching a movie on a portable DVD player together and Jim and I are listening to an Eagles cd. We had hooked my iPod to the car stereo and were listening to that, but then Katie and Jimmy needed the car outlet. OK—new idea for car designers: more outlets in the car. Each of us has probably three devices that need charging in the car and having just ONE outlet is not enough to handle our electrical needs.

The DVD is keeping Katie quiet. She’s been at YW camp for nearly a week, so she had a lot to tell us. She chattered non-stop from Savage to I-80 in Des Moines. She ran out of camp stories to tell so she and Jimmy started inventing hands-free cigarette holders. (yeah, I know. None of us smoke. I think someone gave her goofy gas) She and Jimmy came up with the Pez dispenser version of a cigarette holder. Then there is the one that comes with a recliner and operates much like dental chair apparatus so you can smoke while operating several remotes for your TV. Then there was the holder that fits on your head and looks like a phone operator headset. This activity kept Jimmy and Katie laughing for half an hour. Then they started throwing Red Vines licorice chunks at me and I had to gnash my teeth at them. Someday I might even take Mom’s advice and bite my hand at them. She says that works.

Boy, Iowa is flat and boring. At least it’s green. I’m looking out the window of the van and I can see for miles. There are a few groves of trees here and there, but most of the view is of cornfields. Mile after mile of cornfields.

We are meeting up with Mike and Jen of Hawleyfocus.com fame in Council Bluffs. I don’t know if we will be caravanning with them until we reach the lodge; it would seem logical and prudent to do so.

I have taken a few pictures so far, mostly of alien windmill invasions. There really isn’t much else to see. I can’t wait to get to the Rockies.

Now we are at the motel in Council Bluffs. Tomorrow morning we will be in Nebraska. Joy of joys. But I'd rather drive through cornfield after cornfield and treeless vista after sweeping treeless vista than be snarled in freeway traffic.

Around dusk, the fog started collecting in low-lying areas and the fireflies turned on their back lights. The blinking of the fireflies is mesmerizing and I stared out the window for miles, watching them flicker. One hit the window and left a streak of luminous green bug juice that faded after 30 seconds or so. I would have taken pictures of fog and fireflies, but Jim wouldn't stop the car for anything.

The motel has free wifi so I am able to post this using the little green Dell. I guess I am addicted to blogging--Jim is watching sports, and I HAVE TO BLOG. Like you all care what Iowa is like...

For now, goodnight. I'll post again when I can.

Shoulda Coulda Woulda

1. Shoulda been cleaning the house and packing for our trip. But instead I had a great time mending a fence. That fence needed mending for a while now, and now that it is put back together, I must say those that worked on it did a good job. No picture of the fence, though. Proverbial fences don't photograph very well.

2. Coulda eaten ice cream last night for dessert. Ate generic cheerios instead. Let me tell you, generic cheerios are no substitute for ice cream.

3. Woulda posted about trying on shoes at Target just for fun, but computer and phone STILL aren't talking.

So much to do today. I'd better get on it. Posting may not happen again until August 4th. Hang tight until then, my little cyber friends.

I'll be seeing some of you in COLORADO! Safe driving to all of you!

PS. If any of you run across a musical called "Urinetown," it is worth seeing in spite of the title. I saw it last night with a bunch of ladies from church because a friend of ours is in it. It's a community theater production and our friend was playing Penelope Pennywise. The whole thing is pretty funny (people die though).

New Series of posts.....or not

I had a fab post with pictures about shoes all lined up last night but my stupid phone and stupid computer aren't speaking to each other again. They are both being stubborn and no amount of cajoling and explaining will get them to talk. *shakes fist at computer* *shakes fist at cell phone*

So because of that, you all get an explanation of one of the Evans family's favorite stock movie or TV phrases. (This might be a new series of posts). I recognize that explanation tends to remove all traces of humor from the funniest joke, but that's what you get when your phone and computer won't talk to each other.

"Go Packers! Wooo Packers!" (must be said in somewhat of a stupified voice)

The big boys and I say this to each other a lot. Anytime anyone mentions the Green Bay Packers or anything to do with Wisconsin (and being so NEAR to the cheesehead state, we are given many opportunities to hear WI mentioned). Or if anyone is excited about something we say it.

Why do we say this? Because we love Mystery Science Theater 3000--an old cable TV show featuring robot puppets, bad movies, and cracking wise. Anyway, in the episode called "Giant Spider Invasion" a mob gathers to go after a giant spider from another dimension and the robots watching the movie start yelling "Go Packers" and "Wooo Packers!" And we...um...thought it was...um...funny.

Wow. It's hard to explain inside jokes. And it makes for really stupid posts. Maybe I'll have to go back to Target today with my real camera and take more pictures of me wearing shoes so I can post something interesting.

Countdown to Durango

We leave in two days. We drive for three days, we play for five days! We drive for two days, then we wish we were still on vacation for several months.

Ten things to pack:
1. The usual stuff: clothing, sleeping bags, medicines, pillows, toiletries
2. My neck pillow for the car ride. I like to sleep in the car (but Jim won't let me drive while I'm sleeping).
3. DVD player. Nothing says "vacation in a rustic lodge in the Colorado Rockies" like watching movies on a small screen.
4. The kids. I'd hate to leave any of them at home.
5. Recipe for the eclair dessert. Don't know if I'll use it, but just in case... And the recipe doesn't take up much room. I'll buy the ingredients when I get there.
6. Games. Should I bring Werewolves of Miller's Hollow? It's a game for a large group of people (especially teenagers).
7. Travel diary. You never know when one of your vacation companions will do or say something really funny and you just HAVE to write it down for posterity. (Like in 2005 when we saw that lady peeing in the bushes!) Mike will be there so we are guaranteed some good stories of practical jokes he's played or of when he was a devious little prankster youth.
8. Camera, natch. Next time I WILL get a photo of that lady's hinder.
9. Bear-wolf-mountain lion repellent. I'd hate to meet up with one o' them animals and not be prepared.
10. Crazy deranged psychotic killer hiker repellent. You never know.

Old Lime Creek Road, here we come!

Jimmy's camp pictures

I don't think I posted much about Jimmy going to Scout camp earlier this month. So that's what I will post today--pictures from his trip. The camp he went to offered many activities--sort of mini High Adventures for every day of the week. Jim went with for a few days and said that he'd recommend the camp to other groups.

I don't have much explanation for the pictures (I just wanted to post SOMETHING today and life was boring yesterday so when I saw these pictures on the computer, I thought "I'll post these!") since I wasn't there, but I might add a comment or two.

The campers (Jimmy, Ethan, Dan, and Dan's dad, who came up on Wednesday to relieve Jim, who went for the first three or four days)
Camp breakfast of Champions:
"Why yes, I do miss my wife. But this can of pop will keep me company for now."
Getting ready to go out on a sailboat. He never works this hard at home!
Jumping Rope: He's doing it wrong.
Ropes course. He looks like he's playing on telephone wires (aren't they obsolete now, what with the proliferation of cell phones?)
Making s'mores. Look at the size of that chocolate slab. When I was a kid, mom let us have only one little rectangle from the Hershey bar. One little rectange! He has half a bar on there! Oh the humanity! But I must say, he's roasted that marshmallow almost to perfection. I don't like burnt marshmallows.
I purposely did not include photos from Jimmy's biking accident where he scraped up his leg good and bloody. Nor did I include the picture of Jimmy with a smear of blood on his face, presumably from squishing a sated mosquito. Bleagh!

Today: get a haircut, check out a book, ship a package, write for my Creative Writing class, call a bookstore, shower, weed in the garden, etc etc etc. See why I chose to blog about Jimmy's camping trip?

What's that popping noise?

I looked in the microwave and what did I spy?
Peas a-poppin' right before my eye.
The garden has grown me a handful of green,
And I wrecked them all by cooking them in that machine.
I had picked a handful of sweet green peas,
To eat with my lunch of salad and cheese,
It's not at all fair, cuz now I have no pods,
And my microwave is covered in hard green clods.

(Sung to the tune of "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree")

Reason #1 not to cook freshly picked peas in the microwave: see above.

A little bit of the beach over my shoulder

I finished my purse! Here's a picture with my hand for perspective. It's a small purse, but I've managed to cram all my junk in it so it'll do.
I love beachiness almost as much as I love shoes (have I mentioned that I love shoes? Cuz I do.) I have a seashell-themed bathroom (cliche, I know, but dangit, I love the color and look of shells. I love the beach. Too bad I live as far inland from the beaches as possible. And lake beaches, much as I like them, DO NOT COMPARE) and I have cross-stitched wall hangings of seashells. I have a lovely shell-and-beach-themed necklace/bracelet/earring set (you can see the bracelet in the picture above), made for me by my seester (who lives quite a bit closer to a beach than I do). The color of the yarn was the blue I used in my beachy bathroom, and while looking for things I could embellish my purse with, I saw the seashell buttons. Hence my beachy purse.
The felting process made the yarn quite sturdy. For the next purse I make I think I will incorporate some eyelash yarn for a fringy look. I've seen it done and it looks simply FABULOUS!

So we all know that Paul turned 14 this past week. And that means he can go to church dances! And as luck would have it, there was a dance last night (Saturday night for those of you reading on days other than Sunday night, July 20--which is my brother Dave's birthday--Happy Birthday Dave. And Happy Belated Birthday to my other brother Jake) and Paul got to go! Doesn't he look adorable? Simply spiffing, Pauly! He said he had a good time and even asked some girls to dance!

A Giant Victory! Also a Cubbie loss, and a blue bag

Woohoo! (or in cyberspeak, "w00t!)

The Giants--baseball team of Jimmy and Paul--made it to the league championship game! (lest you think that that is a major feat, there are only 5 teams in their league. however, to get to the championship game, they had to defeat the heavy-hitting and fast-pitching Pirates, which they TOTALLY did)

And they won!

Jimmy watches a ball go by after it hits the dirt in front of the plate. 2 points if you spot the ball. 1 point if you can spot the dust cloud caused by the ball hitting the dirt.
Paul hits the ball. 3 points if you can spot the ball
Paul at third. See the score? We're the home team. The other team eventually scored one run, but it wasn't enough. The final score was 15 to 1.
Jimmy gets his medal and is pronounced "Pitching Savior " of the team. Coach sort of gave everyone on the team a name like that: Mr. Instinct, Most Improved... etc. Jimmy was the star pitcher of the team. He pitched in nearly every game. He bailed out the other pitchers when they got into a jam. He pitched the most innings in the tournament they just played.
Paul was pronounced "Rookie of the Year." He was probably the youngest on the team, but coach told me last night that for the second half of the season, Paul really surprised the coach every single game. Paul even pitched a few innings near the end of the season and did pretty well. He got into the hitting groove too, sending a few balls into the outfield for doubles.
Here is the Giants' assistant coach after the ceremonial dousing with the water jug. He knew it was coming and tried to avoid it, to no avail. The head coach was doused twice and didn't see it coming either time.
So baseball is done. Matt's team was eliminated last night. Matt was a little bit sad. Like I've said before, Matt is no natural baseball player, but he has improved, especially in the area of fielding. He can finally catch a ball.
I like this picture. It's so different from his usual posture and demeanor. Despite his constant chatter and lack of skill, this shows that he did take baseball seriously.

OK, now we are switching gears. I'm done talking about baseball for now. Time to talk CRAFTS. Remember this bag? I've felted it and now it looks like this:
Awesome, no? It shrank quite a bit though. I did think it would be bigger. The original bag was about a foot by a foot and a half by about 4 inches. It's much smaller than that now. Ah, you can't tell how big it is, can you? How about this for perspective?

I had to felt the purse at Mom's house because she has a top-loading washing machine and mine is a front-loader, which apparently won't work as well at agitating. After I finished the process, I went in to the piano room to show my mom, and Matt, who was having a piano lesson, grabbed the purse out of my hand and popped it onto his head, thinking it would make a great hat. So he spent a little bit of the piano lesson looking like a Russian cossack.

And that wraps up this edition of The Shoebox Castle's Weekend Update. See you next week! Or tomorrow!

To him the glass is not only half full, but it's THE BEST EVER half-full glass

Last night began baseball tournaments for our three boys. Jimmy and Paul were major players in their teams' success. Both boys pitched and contributed runs and hits. Jim basecoached with such enthusiasm and excitement as he could muster, and I wasn't there to see it.

I was at Matt's game. Dear runty, nonathletic Matt. He's the smallest kid on the team (despite being among the oldest). He has little natural talent. Most of the guys on his team already throw accurately and have the major league batting stances. Regardless of his lack of skill, Matt eagerly anticipates every single game and practice. He chatters away enthusiastically with the coach and anyone else who will even half listen. And he does try hard. He never gets angry at striking out or missing a ball in the field.

So last night, as the game began, Matt ran over to me to say, "Mom, I'm the best bench coach! This is the fourth time I've bench coached this season!" I was a little sad to hear it, but had to stifle a laugh at Matt's utter belief in his being the BEST at sitting the bench during his team's half inning in the field. I hope he maintains that Pollyanna (Polly-Matta? Mattyanna?) attitude for the rest of his life.

Ten Things at the Zoo

1. I took fake child and Matt to the MN zoo today. It rained the whole time we were there so we couldn't go to the outside trails, which was the WHOLE REASON I WANTED TO GO. Stupid rain. We visited all the indoor exhibits and then I gave up and we got in the car. Not two minutes later, it stopped raining. *shakes fist at sky*

2. I forgot my camera so I didn't get any good pictures of zoo time.

3. The Komodo dragon at the zoo was walking around. That's the first time I've seen it move in all the times I've been there.

4. We saw one giant turtle biting on the head of a gianter turtle. Little kids around us claimed they were kissing. With that kind of kissing, teenagers would have chunks missing from their faces and necks.

5. I resisted the urge to buy Matt anything.

6. Fake child was well-behaved and Matt had a good time being the "older sibling" (older fake sibling, of course).

7. The color-changing cuttlefish are super cool!

8. The gray wolves were sleeping right under the viewing window--they look like cute little puppy angels when they are sleeping!

9. When we were at the puma exhibit, I asked Matt if he thought the lounging pumas looked like our cats. He said, "Yes. And they are lazy like our cats too."

10. The bald eagle perched itself right up close to the viewing area so we got a good look at it. It looked back at us with a somewhat disapproving eye. I almost shouted back at him, "But I HAVE been a good American!" Matt informed me that if we didn't have the bald eagle as our national emblem, we would have had the turkey, courtesy of Ben Franklin. Then we'd probably eat stuffed eagle for Thanksgiving.

She's gonna be popular

Katie is in Chicago. She's with two friends from church; they all drove down to Chitown to see Wicked. Kate texted me during intermission and said that the show is even better than she expected. I could tell she was all atwitter and a-flutter with love for the show. She listens to the soundtrack all the time. After the show, she and her two trip mates flung themselves at the actors in loving adoration (at least Katie did. I don't know if Karissa or Joanna did--Joanna is a very sensible and mature person; she is closer to my age than to Katie's) and got autographs.

I don't know how Joanna got roped into going, but I'm glad she did. Like I said, Joanna is sensible and mature, and she probably brought many helpful suggestions to the planning of the trip. And she gets hotel discounts and a free rental car (which they drove to Chicago) because she works in the hospitality industry.

This is Katie's first real adult trip. She's not with a large band doing scheduled sightseeing; and other than Joanna, she is not under a chaperone's supervision. Today, Katie thought they might go up the Sears Tower and wander around downtown. I'm sure she'll have pictures when she gets back.

I'm so jealous!

Massive birthday picture dump

Sit tight, kiddos; it's going to be a long ride. Are you up for it? Warning: viewing the entire contents of this post might cause a stupor, and one serving size contains 1541 calories.

The team sings Happy Birthday to Paul. He's in the middle, wearing the Skullcandy shirt.

The official cake of the 14th annual celebration of Paul's birth:
Paul wanted Reese's Mini cups and M&Ms on his cake. So that's what he got. Here we are, looking through the field of candy, with the forest of striped candles up ahead. I feel like Hansel or Gretel. Mostly Gretel. Watch out for evil witches!
The blaze of light put out by 14 candles.
The official portrait of Paul with his cake.And the official portrait of Paul with his new shoes. The Sauconny Kilkenny racing shoes and the Adidas Supernovas. I want a pair of Supernovas so I can tell people that I'm wearing a pair of major astronomical events on my feet.
Paul shows us the device used to attach the spikes to the Kilkenny racing shoes.
Ouch!

Jimmy acts special while Matt shows characteristic enthusiasm for cake. Or wearing a watch. Or life. Or breathing. Or existing. Or his enthusiasm.
Servo performs a very convincing impression of a dog.
Matt looks at the camera. Jim, in the background, notices that Matt isn't talking, and thinks, "That's strange." I'm amazed I caught the moment on camera.

The middle child finally gets some attention

Paul is 14! Happy birthday, Paul-i-wog!

First we must attend to the birthday retrospective montage. Here is Paul with his classic "What??" look. He was only two months old and he had already developed it masterfully.

Paul likes to sleep--always has and still does. Sadly, the bucket does not fit his head anymore. For several months, Paul wore the bucket around. We called him "Bucket Head."
Now, a facial comparison. Here is Paul at age 2.
Paul at age 14.
And the reason this post is so late (can't believe it's already 2 p.m.)--this morning we had to go to St. Paul to get these:
We haven't had shoes on the shoebox castle lately, so I had to put up a picture of Paul's birthday present--his cross-country racing shoes. The spikes aren't in because, even though our carpet is old and yucky, I would feel very sorry for it if Paul tore it up with his spikes. These shoes are incredibly light. He also got another pair of running shoes, which are strictly for practice. Those ones don't have spikes--they look like regular athletic sneakers. Paul is all set for participating on the cross-country running team. He said that he thinks he'll be on the varsity squad, because two of his friends said he would, but I said, "Not so fast, buckaroo" (well, I didn't say those exact words) "It's nice to hope to be on varsity, but until the coach TELLS you to your face that you are on the varsity team, you just assume you'll be on JV, and you'll be happy about it." I love popping dream bubbles. I'm the Reality Fairy and I'm here to tell my children that as great as I think they are (or they think they are), the world won't agree. There will always be someone more talented, or faster, or whatever. I try to encourage practice and enjoyment of a sport or activity, but I want the kids to go in knowing they probably won't "win." That way, they enjoy the activity for the sake of participation, and we are all surprised and way more excited if they do happen to "win." Pessimism helps me get through the day.

I want a T-shirt that says "I'm the Reality Fairy" on it. On the back: "Pessimism helps me get through the day."

Plans for this evening for Paul's birthday: Attend baseball practice.

Last night, after the big boys' baseball game, the coach called for a practice for tonight and Paul came to me and said, "Coach scheduled a practice for tomorrow night. Can we go?" I said, "I suppose if that's the way you'd like to spend your birthday, you can." He said, "OK." Then he ran over to the coach and said, "My mom says that I can practice on my birthday." The kid is just plain weird. He showed absolutely no emotion one way or the other about having to attend a baseball practice on his birthday, and the way he told the coach sounded like he had gotten special permission to do something that wasn't normally allowed.

Speaking of baseball, I took some pictures at last night's game. This is a picture of Paul just about to hit a double.

This is Jimmy's batting stance.
And one Evans was hit with the ball. Guess which Evans got hit on the elbow?

....


....


Nope. You are wrong.

I got hit. Reason #1 to be chubby: When you are hit with a popped up foul ball on the elbow, it stings only a little, and no bruise appears. I was sitting behind the backstop to prevent being hit--it was a conscious decision to park my butt there for safety reasons--yet that ball flew up in the air, bounced once on the top of the backstop, and bonked me on the arm. I saw it coming, but trying to get out of the way was like trying to run in water--I couldn't move fast enough. Anyway, I received much sympathy from the other parents, who also advised me to really milk it when I got home. One parent said, "Seriously, you could get three days of servitude out of husband and kids with an 'injury' like that." We all had a good laugh. And seriously, my arm does not hurt, nor is there any mark that shows I was hit by a baseball.

One more picture:Katie and her little green Dell. Katie is currently in Chicago for three days. She and two friends are going to see "Wicked." I am wicked jealous.

Eeek, this was a long post. 5 points to anyone who read all the way through this near-novel of a blog entry. Yikes!

New online toy

Found Wordle.net on someone's blog. Put my own bloggie into the cybermachine and changed color and font and, voila (or as I like to say it, vee-ol-a, or Vi-o-la, if I'm thinking about former Twins pitcher, Frank Viola. I do think of him so often. And Jack Morris), this image pops on screen. It's addicting...

Bad poetry, birthdays, and The Glenwood apartments

Monday, Monday,
Start-of-the-week day
When we work from dawn to dusk.

By the time that
Monday's over,
All that's left of me's a burned-out husk.

(Sung to the tune of Sunday, Monday)

Not really. I spend too much time blogging to be a burnt out husk at the end of the day. My quadriceps are the only part of me that is burning at the moment. I went on a bike ride this morning and since I got back, my quads have done nothing but complain. Whiners. But I must get into bike-riding shape so I can ditch the van on grocery trips to Aldi's. (like that will happen. I'd have to buy some sort of wagon that would attach to the back of the bike so I could haul the groceries home. And by the time I reached Aldi's, I'd probably be too tired to shop, much less bike back home with groceries for a large family)

Heads up: Paul's 14th birthday is tomorrow! He wants cross country running shoes for his birthday so we will go to St. Paul to the running shoes store and get him some cool spikes for that. He will be old enough to go to the next church dance (which will be Katie's last one). All three big kids are excited to go, because our neighbor and fellow church member is working as the dj and has promised Katie that he will play a Weird Al song. He's also promised other fun stuff too.

We watched a fairly stupid movie last night (and by "fairly stupid," I mean "really awful"). I had extremely low expectations for the movie, and when I do, I usually enjoy the movie much more than going to a highly recommended movie and being slightly disappointed. Anyway, it being a stupid movie, I did enjoy many parts which had stupid jokes. But the best part of the movie was recognizing a location. The movie was shot in mostly in Provo UT, home of my college, BYU. And one of the apartments used for some interior shots looked EXACTLY like the apartment I lived in during my sophomore year at college--The Glenwood Apartments. I was so sure that's where it was filmed that I sat through the end credits to see who the producers thanked (and really they should have groveled and asked forgiveness for attaching anyone's name or product to this kind of stupid movie) and SURE ENOUGH--the Glenwood Apartments were thanked! I was glad to see that since I'd left The Glenwood, they'd installed dishwashers and new cupboard doors in the kitchen. The bathroom vanity layout remained the same, though. Jake, I do believe you stayed at the Glenwood (and didn't like it much).

Putting money where my mouth is (or my hands, or my brain)

I signed up for another college class. This time, I will be torturing myself with Creative Writing (insert foreboding organ music with lots of 32' stop sound here. Or even the Phantom of the Opera organ music. That's foreboding, but COOL). I'll have to show proficiency in the arts of poetry, personal essay, and short story.

I like to pretend that I'm a writer, as you can probably tell from my copious posts here at the shoebox castle (the only castle wall that allows writing on it). But this class scares me. Just pretending to be a writer doesn't count in college.

So far, during this stint "in college" (independent study), I have taken PE (I love telling people that I took a homestudy PE class!), Organ, Geography, Humanities--Ancient to the Renaissance, Modern English Usage (academese for Grammar), Persuasive Writing, and Old Testament (I go to Brigham Young University where 14 hours of religious classes are required. This finished that requirement up). Did I forget any classes? When I signed up for Organ, I thought that was going to be the hardest class that I would take, but I WAS WRONG. As of last tally, Persuasive Writing was the hardest. Or the most taxing. But Creative Writing should nose Persuasive Writing out in the end, I'm sure. I'll be putting my very heart and soul on the line, putting it up for critique (which I am NOT good at taking).

I'm trying to finish what I started many years ago, which was curtailed by marriage to a senior (yes, it was Jim) who was planning to go to grad school somewhere else. And curtailed further by Katie announcing her intention to be born (she was quite adamant about it). I gave college up rather easily, even though I loved it. I still don't regret giving it up, but in my quest to be a substitute teacher, I have realized that the road to a bachelor's degree is much harder to travel in my circumstances (i.e. living far away from the school where I go and having 5 children). But I shall press on steadfast.

I wonder if the professor will allow me to write bad poetry for the poetry unit?

Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills.

Jim called me from work this evening and told me to look at the clouds outside; the sky had the cool mammatus clouds going on and I went out to have a look. Looking at cloud formations has always been somewhat of a nerdy hobby of ours.
So having looked at the cloudery, I toddled off to the back yard because I saw something a little odd at a level more closely associated with ground. Paul had set up this contraption--that thing in the middle with the flowery pattern on it is a former dining chair seat cushion. The large beam on the ground is from the old swingset. The wooden x in the back is, I believe, from the compost bin.

Guess what Paul was doing with it?

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Go ahead, guess!

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He was doing this:
which resulted in this:
If you click on this picture, you can see an arrow in flight. It's the red blur on the left side of the picture. We had a seriously cool storm rumble through this evening. The gigantic anvil cloud overshadowed the whole area, looking much like the invading alien ships from the movie Independence Day. (I don't care what the critics said about that movie, I still like it. Will Smith is seriously cool. Plus he based his performance on that of Harrison Ford doing Han Solo).

Now it is time for bed. Tomorrow, I'll regale you with the gripping story of learning to knit an I cord for my purse, which I finished. Maybe. It might be too much for sensitive eyes.