Whack-a-Mole, cart return style

And a legend is born, a legend of a creature that lives among the corralled carts at the Shako Mart du Wal. The creature is stealthy, but even so, he must come up for air every few hours. He creeps among the wheels of the carts, gathering leftover donuts and forgotten cookies for sustenance. In order to keep himself hydrated, he licks wet carts after rain showers. Because he lives mostly under carts, he cannot tolerate bright sunlight; he must scavenge for lost sunglasses among the returned carts. He is The Creature of the Cart Corral.

An attempt to clutter up the kitchen counter even more

I'm sprouting wheat kernels.

Last week, I had a project for Fake Child--growing wheat grass. She enjoyed spreading the seeds on the dirt and misting them to keep them wet. (My kids have gotten into the fun of it too. I'll catch OJ misting the seeds and Matt will ask if he can do it too) The grass is now close to two inches high.

When the seeds had just sprouted, I got a sudden, daring (as daring as I get these days) urge to eat one. I didn't even rinse it off. I just popped it into my mouth. I liked the texture. I ate a few more. I let Fake Child eat a few too. I made OJ eat one.

Now I am sprouting some wheat for my own eating pleasure. Mom gave me a sieve-type lid for a Mason jar specifically for sprouting and I popped that on a clean jar and in three days, I should have salad fixings of wheat sprouts! I could also make bread but I will save that experiment for later.

Bad poetry and Applebee's

First, I post this bad poem for Jenni. I call it "Forty-one." No reason. (unless Jenni wants to admit to her age. Otherwise, I just picked the number out of a hat)

It is your birthday, your birthday so fun,
A day to rejoice as you turn forty-one.

The play life is over, the real life begins
You’ll have much to enjoy, you’ll wish you were twins.

So smile at the day, and to the uglies that frown
On your day, say, “Scram, I’ve no time to be down!

Put on your pink shoes, your bangles and rings,
Don your prettiest clothes and spread wide your wings.

Dance to the music, drink deep from the font
Getting older is fun! You can do what you want.

You can say what you feel, there is no one to nag,
Or lecture or reprimand, or say, “Scalliwag!”

There is freedom in forties, and fifties and on,
The days of being held back have up and have gone.

So get on getting happy! Waste not your time!
The best years are ahead, your life onward, sublime!

Bad poetry, we love thee! I hope you enjoyed it. It probably took you longer to read it than I took to write it. I love picking rhyming words out of a hat.

As for Applebee's, Paul, Matt and I had an interesting experience yesterday dinner time. I took them to Applebee's because Matt had a coupon from school and Jim and Hayley weren't home yet. OJ was at work. So we sat down in our assigned booth and our server approached and he looked JUST LIKE Johnny Depp in "Secret Window." I was so creeped out I could hardly look the guy in the eyes. He was a nice guy, but I kept thinking "HE'S JOHNNY DEPP" and I could hardly talk. I had to keep my eyes on the menu while we ordered. The server probably thought I was antisocial. After he left to put in our orders, Paul leaned over and said, "He looks like Johnny Depp." So Paul noticed it too. After getting over the initial shock of having a celebrity lookalike for a waiter, we had a pleasant dinner, just the three of us. Paul didn't needle Matt for anything, which was nice. As we finished up, Server FauxDepp said he had some good news for us. The guy in the next booth (who had since left) paid for our meal. I didn't believe him at first so he showed me the receipt. He explained that the gentleman, who asked to remain anonymous, did it because he thought Matt and Paul were well-behaved during dinner. I was taken aback, but in a good way. So I guess I have two good kids (well, I have five good kids, but three of them weren't there). I am pleased that Matt and Paul got a chance to see that good behavior is noticed and appreciated, even by strangers. And even though I saw on the receipt that the man added a tip, I left some money too. Server FauxDepp got to enjoy a little generosity as well. To the man at Applebee's who paid for our dinner, you are generous and we thank you!

Home today

Jim and Hayley get home tonight. Yesterday was a bit of a doozy for them (just a bit. Like maybe just the first "o" of doozy). They got stuck for two hours on I 80 when it closed because of a giant wreck. After several hours of sitting in the car, and upon the advice of someone within cell-phone distance who had access to a computer, the internet, and thus the Wyoming DOT website, (i.e. ME) they got the heck out of Dodge (aka Bitter Creek Exit at mile marker 111.5) and drove back to Rock Springs and headed north on some backwater Wyoming country highway to go up through Casper and into South Dakota. Where they are now.

And let me tell you, the only thing more boring than driving through Wyoming on I 80 is looking at pictures of vehicles driving on I 80 on the semi-live camera shots on the Wyoming DOT website. (rim shot. Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all week)

Anyway, on to more important matters.

Ten things I was able to do while Jim was gone:

1. Sleep with the best pillow on the bed! I really like Jim's pillow, but he won't share it with me. And I haven't been able to find it's like at local stores.
2. Put pots and pans in the dishwasher. Not that Jim is against that, but we never have the option because with 6 people in the house, the dishwasher fills up on plates and cups alone.
3. Sleep with the window open. I like a cold room at bedtime. There is nothing like bundling up with a bunch of blankets to keep me warm. I like breathing chilly air.
4. Skimp on the makeup. Oh wait, I do that anyway. Skimp on the deodorant then.
5. Eat leftovers for days on end. I guess I'll have to relearn how to cook for two people when all the kids move out. I seriously do not know how to not cook for less than six people.
6. Have the cat sit on my lap. Magic has relaxed quite a bit this week while his nemesis was away.
7. I tried to have the cats sleep in the bed with me, but they are so conditioned to sleep downstairs that they would have none of it.
8. Wash dishes in the morning. Jim always does them at night. I can't bring myself to do dishes in the evening. I've already spent so much time dealing with food by that time that I can't stand another minute in the 4'x6' area we call our kitchen. Dishes in the morning are not that bad (especially if you are washing very few dishes because you haven't had to dirty many dishes in the cooking process). And yes, I can sleep perfectly well knowing that there are dirty dishes in my sink.
9. Prune the bushes. I can do that while he is here, but I pruned them rather more than he would probably approve of (yeah, as if he would ever say anything or lecture me or tell me I did a bad job. I'm really only mentioning this because I have nothing else to mention for #9)
10. Complain that he was gone. I can't complain about him being gone if he's not gone. So thank you, Jim, for being gone so I could complain about it.

More pictures from Utah, where I am not

Hayley plays Mario Kart (or some other Mario game with a first cousin once removed who is sitting in the chair and is three. Or four)I had to put this up on my blog because this is a picture of Jim's two cousins, Sara and Jenny (Sara is on the right, Jenny on the left). I met these two girls when they were quite young--Sara was six I believe (and now she is married, has her own child and another one on the way! And Jenny is married too, with two children!). Sara sat on my lap and was very friendly the moment she and I were introduced. We both liked that our names were spelled the "right" way. I knew I fit into Jim's family because of her. And I have a sister named Jenni. Two Sara-and-Jens! And they have a brother David! So that night I met them also happened to be the night Jim proposed (much later after everyone had gone home).

Here is Karen with one of her grandsons. Karen, like Anne, has not aged one BIT since I met her that night at Anne's when I got to meet Jim's relatives.
Here are three of my favorite people! They are having fun without me though. But someone had to stay here with three of my other favorite people.
Katie likes little doggies.
Jim is on the phone with me now, having just started on his way home. Here's to hoping that they have a safe trip.

Prom prep

So Other Jim asked a girl to Prom. And all I said was that he was pretty sure she was going to say yes.

I never followed up on the story.

OJ gave Edna the shirt and she said "Maybe."

Then he went to take a shower because they had just played basketball. While he was rinsing off, Edna made this:So, "heck yes," OJ is going to prom this May 1st.

And this is what the neurotic kitty does when his neuroses have left the house for a few days:He becomes a lap kitty and a beggar for attention.

Not here

Jim and Hayley aren't here. They are there. "There" means "with Katie." They left Saturday morning and arrived yesterday afternoon. Jim wanted to take some stuff out to Katie and asked Hayley if she wanted to come with. She did. She's on Spring Break so she's not missing anything.

Jim is staying with his aunt and uncle and that is where they had dinner last night. Aunt Karen is a party-loving woman and she whipped up a dinner and a birthday cake for Hayley since yesterday was Hay's birthday. (PS Hayley is staying with Katie--sister sleepovers!)

Hayley and Uncle ArtJim
Jim and his two daughters and his mother, who drove down from Idaho to see them all. Hi Anne!
Jim and Anne (who hasn't changed at all since I met her 22 years ago)

And this is Jim's cousin Sara and her husband David. They took care of Katie the first year she was in Utah. Thank you!
Unfortunately, Karen took the pictures and didn't take any of herself so I can't post a picture of her! I hope that there will be more pictures forthcoming from the Utah trip! I'm not there so I can't make sure that pictures are taken. Thanks, Karen, for taking and sending these!

A very quiet Sunday afternoon but an energetic Saturday night

It's almost too quiet. People are either gone to Utah, gone to work, gone to sleep, or engrossed in a book. I should be making dinner for those few left in the house but I think I'll blog instead.

Last night I took Matt to his cousin's birthday party. Owen turned three and Marissa had the party at a gymnastics school.

This is the foam pit where Matt and Dylan (another cousin) spent most of the time. See that flowery patch above Matt and Dylan? That's Dylan's sister, Maya, who, by the looks of things, has faceplanted into the foam cubes. Apparently it's hard to navigate through the cubes. And you can't touch the bottom because it's 8 feet down.

Here is the birthday boy with his daddy. I can't believe Owen is already three!

Here is Matt, taking a flying leap into the foam pit from the trampoline runway.
And here are two of my brothers engaging in some fun that no doubt reminds them of their childhood: throwing stuff at little kids. The little kids in this case are Dylan and Matt. Jake and Dave showed no mercy with those foam cubes. Matt and Dylan didn't seem to mind being pelted.

Here is my niece Maya, who showed me her winning smile. She's a cutie-patootie. And she actually talked to me last night for a sentence or two. Normally she scowls at me. Hopefully we're getting over that phase now.
A different angle of the trampoline runway. Matt is running on it.
He emerges from the pit
Owen spent a little while in the corner of the foam pit by himself, enjoying the environment.
The party at cake time. Owen is at the other end of the table.Marissa's mom made two train cakes and many cupcakes to feed the kids. Pretty cool!

Matt and Dylan had a good time together.
It was a fun party. Thanks for the invitation, Marissa!

Can you guess what Other Jim is doing?

He's doing it late Friday night when he really should be in bed.
But he needs it for tomorrow morning.
He's going to Rochester
Just to ask a girlto Prom.
Prom isn't til May 1st, but it's never too early to ask. He says she knows about being asked and he's pretty sure she'll say yes. He's sure enough to invest time and money into asking the question via T-shirt.

OJ is in Rochester, and Jim and Hayley are on their way to Utah to see Kate. Paul was working out with his shirt off so Matt and I decided to go for a walk.
We walked to a local pond.

Matt had a honking conversation with the geese and read the signage.

I took pictures.

Tomorrow maybe I'll post pictures from a birthday party.

Wrecked cake

Haydle-dee turns thirteen on Sunday--is the world ready for another teenager? To celebrate, she and her friend went to the mall this afternoon. I didn't think she was the mall-going type of girl, but I was wrong. She bought some kind of Japanese fizzy drink. The Japanese have invented some weird process for bottle opening: no cap, simply a glass ball you have to hammer out of the way with a special tool. Then as you drink, the glass ball floats around inside the bottle doing who knows what to the liquid. It's just plain weird, and way more difficult to open than a simple bottlecap! But then they eat with chopsticks, so I guess it's no surprise. Hayley eats with chopsticks sometimes...she's turning Japanese, I think she's turning Japanese, I really think so! (name the band who sang that song)

Back home, we had her birthday dinner. She didn't know what she wanted for her special dinner with the special birthday plate until last night. I offered all kinds of menu possibilities: hot dogs, spaghetti, tuna casserole, etc. She said, "No way. I don't want hot dogs because that's the dinner you and Dad fix us when you are going out somewhere special and you don't have time to get us dinner. You just put hot dogs in a pan and leave us to eat a pathetic dinner at home." (Wah, by the way. POOR CHILDREN!) So what did she finally choose? COCKTAIL WIENERS. Yeah, she turned up her nose at hot dogs, only to say yes to......SMALL hot dogs. My eyes rolled so far back in my head I got whiplash. (at least cocktail wieners are just as easy to fix as hot dogs) She wanted green beans, tater tots, and fresh pineapple too.

And now for the piece of resistance: her cake wreck cake!
Up close:
I won't list all the cake wrecks we stole from the website, but Hayley had a good laugh. She didn't want to know in advance which wrecks we stole from because she wanted to see if she could recognize them. Her favorite is the Admiral Ackbar figure:Matt helped me with that particular decoration. You can tell by his face what he was most helpful with:

Hayley blows out her candles, rationing her breath very carefully so that she isn't stuck with any lit candles, and therefore boyfriends.
Here is Hayley with her sole birthday gift.
It is named....Pineapple Juice. She didn't know what to name it while I set it up for her, so I suggested Cranberry Juice since it was a cranberry color. She said, "No, Pineapple Juice." Um, whatever.

Choose your earworm

And by earworm, I mean the second definition in the link.

When I am home mostly by myself, I like it quiet. No music, no TV, no sound at all, unless I'm talking to the cats. Quietude helps perpetuate the pretense of time standing still while I'm at home. With no sound to aurally remind you of the passage of time, I can pretty much convince myself that I'm in some kind of bubble outside of the ticking of a clock. This has been a secret I've kept for a long time because a) I participate in music-intense activities, b) I'm married to someone who likes music and c) he likes to hear it constantly. And really, I don't mind when he is home and puts in a cd, but when I'm home by myself, NOTHING. Not even humming.

Anyway...

Lately, I have not been allowed to keep up the pretense of non-time through quietness. I have been afflicted by earworms.

First earworm This is thanks to Hayley and Matt who LOVE this commercial. Then they sing it ALL the time. And then I sing it. And then my brain sings it for HOURS.

Second earworm I made the mistake of slinging a Disney cd into the player while Fake Child was in the house. Of course, she loves Disney songs and so I have been badgered into playing the cd quite often. And this song is the first one on the cd. My brain must still be hooked on my princess phase of my early childhood (and middle childhood and late childhood. And I can hear my sister say now, "Uh, you still think you're a princess") because I have to listen to this over and over and over until I want to smash every candlestick and teapot and piece of silverware in the house against a very sturdy cement wall.

Third earworm I love the 90s cable show "Mystery Science Theater 3000" and frequently check the Twitter feed of one of the major MST3K players, Mike Nelson. He posted on his feed that this song was stuck in his head so I clicked on it. It comes from one of my favorite episodes and Hayley and Matt and I have been singing "Pu-ma-man, he flies like a moron" over and over and over and over. It's catchy music, I'll give it that.

Fourth earworm Another cd I put in for Fake Child. She sings this song even without the cd playing. And Matt and Hayley know this song too. I hate jellybeans.

Does anyone know how to turn the audio off on a brain? I can't stand it!

Leprechaun poop

That's what we called the mint M&Ms that I put on people's plates last night for St. Patty's day. See? We also have mint Hershey's Kisses and Rolos for the treasure. Corny and silly, but the kids enjoyed it. So did I.

See Paul's face? Click on the picture to make it bigger so you can see the expression in more detail. He's never been photogenic. He always has a scowl on. Notice how he is stacking his Rolos. He built a little fort out of candy as we were getting ready to eat. Hayley is jiggling the jello and wishing she could dive right in.

This is a better vantage for full food viewing. I'm not any sort of Martha Stewart; my table settings are usually haphazard and messy. But if I were to go all out and make everything look just right, I'd be spending several hours placing things in just the right spaces and then it would take the kids mere nanoseconds to destroy the fine table and they wouldn't have noticed how nice it was in the first place. Jim did manage to scrape together 6 green cups of various shades and material so there is some cohesion in the place settings. (you can also see how far Paul progressed with his candy fortress at this point. He's very weird, uh, organized)
The only food not on the table was the cabbage, which I made everyone eat. Otherwise there were mashed potatoes (which Hayley and Matt plied with green food coloring--just their own potatoes. No one else wanted green potatoes), broccoli, corned beef, and green jello. Oh, and lemon/lime Kool-aid, which tasted exactly like the jello.

So that was our St. Patrick's Day celebration for dinner (Lucky Charms for breakfast).

Today Hayley had an allergy appointment so now she can get back on her Advair. We learned that she still needs Advair. When she goes off it, she needs the nebulizer at least 3x daily. Sigh. We were out of Advair, her rescue inhaler (mostly because everyone in the house uses it occasionally), and her nose spray. She was miserable this week for lack of medicine.

Green

Happy St. Patrick's Day to those who celebrate it! As far as I know, I'm not Irish, but the corned beef is cooking, the green jello is setting and the cabbage is in the fridge, fearing the knife.

I have no idea if my children wore green today, except Matt who had on a tie-dye shirt with ample amounts of green on it. It's a moot point, though, because pinching is not allowed in school anymore (some districts consider it "assault").

When I was a preschooler, a babysitter informed me that I had to wear green that day. It was a lovely March day in southern California, and I didn't believe her because I had never heard such nonsense. I thought if it were really a law, or if it were really important, surely I would have heard of the need to wear green (Thanks a lot, Mom. What else haven't you told me?). Besides, I thought to my four(or five)-year-old self, what did the color of clothing have to do with getting pinched? I was a bit put off by the babysitter pinching me so I searched my clothing for any scrap of green to ward off further attacks. I found some blue-green flowers on my socks and proclaimed my status of green-wearer to the babysitter in hopes that she would take back her pinches. She politely accepted the little flowers as green and I was unmolested the rest of the day (and I mean molest in the sense of to bother, interfere with, or annoy, NOT to assault sexually. She was a good babysitter).

The only other time I forgot to wear green on the day that it mattered was in second grade. I had to wear a dress to school that day because we had Primary at church afterward (in those days, Primary was during the week). I hated wearing dresses to school. I got teased mercilessly for it. I tried on several occasions to tuck the skirt of the dress into pants (mom would let me wear pants under the dress. Even more dorky!) but that just made my butt look lumpy and gigantic. Anyway, the dress I wore that day was all shades of brown with a bit of depressing golden yellow. I HATED brown then (and the mustardy yellow of the dress). And a few of the popular kids in the class harangued me for a while til I probably cried. Later, I took a green crayon and colored on the dress so they couldn't harass me anymore about it. They just harassed me about wearing a dress, instead.

Oh, the hardship I suffered (heavy sarcasm).

These two anecdotes have nothing to do with my desire to host a St. Patty's dinner for the family tonight. I'm just in the mood for a themed dinner. And I want an excuse to serve both broccoli and cabbage in the same meal.

Gearing up

For another teenager in the house. Do you realize what this means? I will no longer have two little babies ! Come the 21st, I will have only one little baby left to me in my middle age! Every one of my other babies defied orders to stay little and cuddly by growing up!

My second youngest will be 13. Dear, sweet Hayley enters the years of teenage turmoil. And once she finishes with her teenage years, she'll probably be gone, just like her older sister (Hi Kate! Kate had a good time at the Brian Regan show and she is all moved into her new place! Send pictures of yourself, Katie!). Which is not a bad thing. Katie's doing fine all on her own, and we hear from her often so we know that she hasn't forgotten about her parents. So I don't despair too much about Hayley growing up. I do wonder though, what happened to that little girl who liked Teletubbies and wearing nothing but tights and 3D glasses. I could have sworn she was right here a second ago. Now I have this anime-loving bassoon player instead, who doesn't like to wear tights (but fortunately she will wear pants and shirts).

Hayley finally decided on a theme for her birthday cake, just in time! She wants a cake wreck of some kind. Can do! I can wreck a cake with the best of them! Now I just have to pick out some cake wreck elements to put on the cake. Any ideas? I am going to write "Hapy Berthday Hailee in blue" on it (in red of course). What else? Naked baby carrot jockeys? Poop swirls? a flash drive? Your input is needed!

Fume!

Paul had a mole removed for the second time two weeks ago because it grew back. The doctor removed a bigger chunk of skin than she did the first time and stitched the gap closed. She said come back in two weeks to get the stitches removed.

So I set an appointment for removal of said stitches.

For today.

I picked Paul up early from school and hauled his (and my) butt up to Edina (dr wasn't in Burnsville office this week so we had to take two freeways to get to the office). We go into the office and check in. I sat down with Paul, and the receptionist calls out, "You have a $25 copay."

"What?" I said, "Isn't this a follow-up? He's having stitches removed that one of your doctors put in." She said that depending on the procedure sometimes the followup doesn't count as a follow-up, but as a regular office visit. What the aitch? I told her that I was going to call the insurance company before I paid to see what they said about it.

So I went out into the hall and called the health insurance company and got the same nonsense from the person who took my call.

Now I've had stitches a couple of times and have NEVER had to pay to have them removed. I thought the cost of the original visit covered the removal of the stitches--as in it's all part of the "procedure." I just went in to the office that put them in and said, "I'm here to get stitches removed." The receptionist asked, "Did you get them put in here?" and I would say, "Yes." And I didn't even have to show my insurance card or anything.

So after getting angrier talking to the the health insurance company (and being put on hold for several minutes), I went back in, vowing to dispute the charge with the doctor's billing office. I still hadn't paid the copay. By that time, Paul was back in the waiting room, having had the stitches removed. I argued with the receptionist some more, saying that it's silly that they are trying to charge me double for one procedure. I also said that if I had known they were going to charge me and the insurance company for removal of THREE stitches, I would have done it myself and saved myself the trip and the money. I wouldn't have even had to make an office visit if they hadn't put the stitches in! The receptionist consulted with the doctor and came back with the verdict: "No charge."

Good.

It took them all of 10 seconds to do it and they were going to bill the insurance who knows how much and make me cough up $25. That's several hours of babysitting! And Paul said the doctor didn't even remove the stitches, the nurse did.

Hopefully Paul wasn't embarrassed by my complaining. He might have quickly slipped out the door to the hall had there been anyone else in the waiting room. I don't blame him, I would have been embarrassed of me too. But proud too.

Getting ready for the holiday (the one that isn't Jenni's birthday)

St. Patrick's Day, that is.

I'm not Irish and neither is Jim, but we (and by "we," I mean "I") can't pass up the opportunity to have a themed dinner. Hayley is on board for it as well. She suggested green mashed potatoes and green jello. Short of serving corned beef (which I am not familiar with), what else can we do? Any suggestions from you, the reader (all five of you)?

I'm thinking stir-fried cabbage and/or broccoli. Green paper plates and Hershey's Nuggets for decor (and that's as far as I will go to decorate).

In other news, we had ANOTHER band concert last night and this time Paul and Hayley participated. All-district band concerts feature three bands: 6th grade, middle school Honor Band, and the Wind Ensemble from the high school. I worked on an assignment for my new class but I listened as I wrote. Matt came with us to the concert and came away enthusiastic for band next year (not that he wasn't before, but he was even MORE enthusiastic). Plus a friend of his was in the 6th grade band and he wanted to say hello to Colton. I didn't bring the camera, but you have seen enough pictures of my kids in band to know what they look like when they play an instrument.

Today, Paul gets his stitches out from his mole removal. I hope he doesn't get weak-kneed. It helps that the stitches are on his back so he can't look at what's happening and get queasy. Next week track starts so he'll go back to running on Monday. He wasn't supposed to run vigorously or lift weights while he had the stitches in so we're getting them out just in time.

In threes

Final test, being in charge of a large-ish activity, and laryngitis. Those three things sort of knocked the desire to blog out of me for the past few days. Then there was the band concert last night, which I went straight to from children's choir, where I did not take Matt because he is coming down with something. It was a good thing I had children's choir, because I was able to pass the buck in dealing with Hayley forgetting to bring her clarinet home for her concert, which was going to be at a different school than where her clarinet was. Jim was able to deal with that particular mishap and Hayley was in her concert chair on time and ready to play. He deals better than I do.

I think I did pretty well on the test. I am confident that I passed and that's supposed to be all that matters (but I am well aware of my tendency to expect 100% and nothing less will be satisfactory).

Tonight, another band concert with the possibility of an emergency trip to the ortho for Paul who says pieces of his braces are falling out (nightmare theme: things falling out of mouth. shiver!). How on earth do I fit an appointment into an already-filled calendar block in my planner? I'll just have to write it in the margin.

Testing...1...2...3...

Humanities test today (or Wednesday if the test hasn't arrived at the testing center in time for today). I have a hard time keeping straight the modern sculptors and the architects. I have no trouble with most of the musicians, but some of the Romantic nationalists (Dvorak, Chopin, etc tend to blur together too.

Wish me luck (and doughnuts).

Movie night

Jim and I went to a movie last night: "Ghost Writer." I read about it in the paper and thought it looked interesting. But it was playing at only one theater in the whole area. It must be some kind of indie film or something.

The movie was playing at the Uptown Theater, which I had heard of but wasn't familiar with it. And as we drove to it, Jim mentioned that he'd passed the freeway exit on a daily basis but hadn't ever been to this part of town since we've lived here. Both of us thought the Uptown would be closer to downtown (but since it's called Uptown, I thought later, we assumed wrong). There is a movie theater downtown, which I have been to as a teenager--but I can't remember what it is.

Anyway, I would love to wander around the Uptown area. I love all the old buildings and funny little shops. I wonder about people who live above the funny little shops and what the apartments look like up there, especially the one with the purple light emanating from it.

The theater had a line snaking out the front door and, surprise surprise, I HAD been to this theater before back in my teenage years. Three times in fact. The Uptown is where they had the midnight showings of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." I even drove one time on a very snowy night--that was a scary drive.

The Uptown has only one screen and the whole theater is OLD. The seats we sat in were probably the SAME seats I sat in as a teenager. They are threadbare and the springs don't work. We sank down quite far in them. One lady behind us remarked to her husband that once you sit down, you aren't getting back up again. And a guy next to her said, "I have a couch just like this."

The crowd seemed to be quite joyful in a sedate way. Jim and I realized that we were on the younger end of the crowd and wondered how such a movie drew such a mature audience. Maybe the only people who heard about the movie were people who read actual newspapers and people who read actual newspapers are those with several years of life experience under their belts. There were NO kids in the whole theater. It was very interesting.

The movie itself was a political thriller with a slight dash of black humor. We enjoyed it and wondered about some of the ambiguities left for us to decide at the end. I'd like to see it again.

Random felineness

The kids didn't say anything cute yesterday so you all get to look at pictures of my cats.
"I'm ready for to veg on the couch after a long, difficult day of napping."

And...

Guess what's for dinner?

I should have taken more college classes way back when

While driving with Matt:

We came to an intersection in a rural area. Matt asked, "Is this part of a city?" I said, "It's a rural area. I think it's part of C____ R_____ Township."

He paused for a bit, then asked, "What makes a place a city or a town or a township?"

"I don't know," I replied.

"Is [our town] a city?"

"I'm not sure, but I think it is."

"Do you have to have a fire department, a post office and a library [which is what our town has all in one area] to be a city?" He was determined. "Does a township not have those things?"

"I don't know."

"How do people decide how to make a county?"

"I don't know!" My ignorance is apparent and I don't like it.

"Is it based on how many people are in it?"

"I don't know! But I don't think population has a lot to do with it. You'd better grow up and go to college and take political science classes so you can find out."

Then he started asking me questions about squids and dolphins. I think he's going to have to go to college for an awfully long time. And I was going to have to take a nap before my head exploded.

At least they weren't the "what if" questions. Although I almost like those better because I can tell him to come up with his own answers to questions like "What if the biggest thing in the universe was a diving board?" or "What if the heaviest thing in the universe was a guy this tall?" (holding his hands up waist-high) (those are actual questions he has asked me)

Today's mystery

Why is it that I'll tear apart a room to find a stray M&M, but I can have 15 pounds of chocolate chips in the pantry (it's true--I weighed them) and not eat a single one of them? And I know they are there. I see them every day.

The trick with chocolate chips is keeping the rest of the family out of them so we can save them for brownies and cookies, both of which I love with all my heart and stomach, and can (and will) eat whole pallets-full. But not an unprocessed chocolate chip.

Plain chocolate chips=meh.

One track mind

The birthday cake. I can't stop thinking about it. I tried to leave the house for a walk, but the cake conspired with the weather to make the sidewalks slippery and nearly impassable for foot traffic. I was herded back to the house to be tortured by its chocolately goodness. I'm trying to avoid even being upstairs with it.

I'm trying to shake the reputation I have around here by NOT eating the cake. I overheard Hayley talking to Katie on the phone and Hayley said something about wanting a cookie or something but there aren't any left. Then I heard the muffled sound of Katie's voice on the phone and Hayley replied, "Probably" and then laughed. I asked her what Katie said and Hayley answered, "She said most likely you ate them while we were at school."

Sigh.

Cake.

About today

Ten reasons today is a great day:

1. Jim is still in his forties.
2. But not for long...
3. He doesn't look as old as he says he is.
4. He doesn't act as old as he says he is.
5. He promised me that he won't ever have a midlife crisis.
6. We get cake!
7. And lots of frosting!
8. And homemade enchiladas! (oh wait. I have to make them! Sigh. But I'll do it!)
9. We're going out to lunch!
10. Happy birthday Jim!

Picture hopefully to be edited into this post later. Maybe I can get him to smile for the camera at lunch today.