hmmm...

I'm not sure how this fits into the conspiracy, but I went to HEB tonight for lunchables for our play date at the water park tomorrow. And when I checked out, the dude asked me if I wanted some reusable bags...for free. So I said, "Sure." And now I have 3 reusable grocery bags. Which is cool, I'm all for reusing stuff, but I wasn't about to actually buy the bags myself.

I'll let you know when I work this into the conspiracy theory.

walks like a duck

I'm beginning to suspect an Earth Day conspiracy.

I haven't quite worked out the specifics, but something is going on.

Last night, sometime after midnight, the power blinked. Not unusual by itself, but the first in a series of troubles.

All morning, the cable has been erratic, as has the internet.

Then my brother called me, on my cell phone, and the connection was terrible - kept breaking up - which is unusual.

I think the environmentalist wackos found me.

They're welcome to come find me. They'll be getting my carbon footprint on the rear.

Disclaimer: I'm all about environmental stewardship. But there is nothing on this planet more important than people. Oh, and once/if the environmentalist wacko "scientists" start applying the scientific method in their experiments, magically most of our "problems" will disappear. Have you heard the ice is actually getting thicker in Antarctica? Global warming my big fat toe.

I will not be outstubborned.

Some miscellaneous thoughts that have not yet made it to my blog:

We went to the UH vs. UCF softball game today. It was a lot of fun! We lost that game, but we won the first game of the doubleheader, so we came out even. I think the kids had fun, but sometimes it's hard to tell. Joe almost caught a foul ball. He would've caught it had he not been holding the baby. As it was, he made sure it didn't hit any of our small children, which is what really matters. He and Alaina took it to the concession stand, where she traded it in for a blow pop. Good times.

Ravi was the color commentator for the radio broadcast of the Omaha Beef game last night. He was really good. I actually listened to 3 hours of an indoor football game on the radio and enjoyed it. The Beef won.

I discovered something depressing the week before last. When I was growing up in Omaha, I always said that when I had a house of my own, I wasn't going to live so far out that I'd have to drive by cornfields to get there. (The cornfields across from my parents' neighborhood don't count because they are owned by Boys Town.) When Joe was looking for our first apartment the summer before we got married, he kindly took a picture of the fields he drove by to get there. But that didn't really count because those fields aren't there anymore.

So a few weeks back, I decided that the equivalent of the cornfield rule around here was Buc-ee's. For the uninitiated, Buc-ee's is a gas station chain with a near-cult following. I don't know, I don't really understand it. I suspect the beaver mascot has brainwashed people or something. ("The moon and stars..." Sorry, better now.) Anyway, the new rule was that if you had to drive past a Buc-ee's to get to your house, you lived too far out. To my dismay, the week before last I discovered that there is a Buc-ee's on the other side of the freeway from my neighborhood.

Apparently my rules are a cosmic joke.

Last Tuesday, as I was changing Jared's third dirty diaper of the day, I asked, in what I thought to be a rhetorical fashion, "Jared, what did you eat?" To which he responded, without missing a beat, "Dirt. Eat dirt, Mama." (That wasn't a command, he just skipped the sentence subject of "I.")

In case you were curious, I won the stubborn contest. I knew when Jared napped until 7 the day was not going to end well...(it's 2am right now).

Eat something other than sopapilla cheesecake for breakfast?

The idea was briefly considered and quickly rejected.

After all, it's raining. I'm tired. It will go well with the coffee I made. The children ate all of the bagels. And Jared's antibiotics have already given him diarrhea after only one day.

See? You would have made the same decision.

how I spent my Easter vacation

When I was in Los Angeles (for Sibling Fest West Coast 2009!) over the weekend, I kept a running commentary of the things I wanted to blog about when I got home. So now I'm home.

Seen at IAH (on the way to L.A.):
-Dude wearing a hiking backpack and a "kill your TV" shirt flying to L.A.

It's like raiaiaiain on your wedding day! Sorry, better now.
And I had just been wishing for some fanfic to read on the plane...

Seen at the ballgame (Red Sox vs. Angels, Saturday afternoon):
-Apparently people in L.A. have a hard time with the concept of ticketed seating. People would sit, and when the people who actually had tickets for those seats would come, the seat switchers would just move over or down or what have you. And inevitably the people with those seats would come, and the seat switchers would migrate again. It was bizarre.

Seen at LAX (on the way back to Houston):
-zappos.com shoe advertisements in the bottom of the loose articles bins at security.

Capitalism at work!

-Baggage handler dude riding the conveyor into the cargo hold.

Kooky.

Not seen in L.A.:
-Postcards.

Sorry Jadyn. (That's what she requested when I asked the girls what they wanted me to bring them back from California. Of course, she doesn't remember that she asked for that, but I did try.)

By the way, consider this official notice. If you happen to sit in front of me and my baby in an airplane and decide it'd be a good idea to recline your seat, I'm not going to feel bad when the baby hits your seat. In fact, I might encourage it. I think if we all agreed that no one will recline their seats on an airplane, we'd all be happier. It's not like reclining those seats makes them any more comfortable anyway.

So back home now. And Joe was very sweet and went to the grocery store this morning at an unholy hour so that there would be breakfast for the children. And he brought me donuts.

I vote for an annual Sibling Fest, and I think we need to institute Childhood Movie Night as part of the schedule of events. Next year, Ferngully!

aluminum linoleum

Go outside. Seriously.

Okay, I don't know what the weather is like where you are, but it is amazing here today. It's so amazing, in fact, that you might think you're in the midwest in May.

But you're not.

But that doesn't change the fact that it's beautiful today.

It's one of those days that, upon exiting the house, the first thing that enters your head is, "it is a beautiful day" . . . to the tune of a scale. But of course you can't stop there, so you proceed to sing "it is a beautiful day" on a scale for an entire octave. Thank you, Nancy.

Come on, choir peeps. I know you're with me. Bel Canto forever!

For the record, I am blogging from the backyard.

different...but the same

I just finished my lunch.

What was it?

A couple of spoonfuls of chunky peanut butter and a caffeine free pepsi.

Seriously.

What is blogworthy about that?

It's basically the same lunch I had for the entirety of my senior year in high school.

I seriously kept a jar of peanut butter in the top of my locker, and I would grab a plastic spoon (from the journalism room, I think) and sit at my locker and have peanut butter for lunch. I think I usually had a Dr. Pepper, too. Often my friend Michelle would join me for at least part of the time with her own jar of peanut butter. Why, you ask, did we eat peanut butter for lunch? I have no idea. It seemed like a perfect logical and reasonable thing to do at the time.

And you know what? It seems like a perfect logical and reasonable thing to do now. (I'm a semi-vegetarian. I'll take the protein wherever I can get it!)

It's fascinating to me how much my life has changed since high school but how much of me is still the same. It's even better rediscovering some of those things that I loved to do (or eat!) that are just as great now as they were then. Fanfic, for example. Joe laughs at me, but it doesn't really matter. Not just any fanfic, of course. Lois & Clark fanfic. I suspect that part of the reason that Joe laughs at me is because he was never really into the show. It's cool because it was/is a show that you either were totally into or you weren't at all. Yes, the show ended in 1997, and yes, there are still people (a lot of them!) writing stories based on the show/characters. And yes, there are still new ideas. Besides that, it's a great fandom - the people are nice.

By the way, I miss my friend Michelle. The last time I talked to her was at least 2, maybe 3 children ago. So if anyone knows her, tell her I miss her!

just a glimpse

Monday night, we were all at Alaina's softball practice. Typically, this means that Joe is on the field, practicing with Alaina, and I hang out at the playground with the other 3. Last Monday, we were doing just that, but I had to go to the grocery store for milk and minor details like dinner (for that night). So I explained this to Jadyn and asked her what she wanted for dinner.

Jadyn: Let's get supper ables.

Me: What do you want for dinner? (not understanding what she had said)

Jadyn: Let's get supper ables.

Me: What is that?

Jadyn: (matter-of-factly) It's like Lunch-ables, except for supper.

Well, duh.

Last night, Alaina, Jadyn, A.J., and I went to Target to get diapers. I was explaining to the girls that we only had to get a few things in Target - diapers, wipes, Alaina's mouthwash, and a game for Daddy.

Alaina: What game?

Me: Guitar Hero Metallica. (incidentally, it's as much for me as it is for Joe!)

Alaina: Is that the game with the commercial with the boys who come sliding out of the room?

Me: (astonished) Yes, that's exactly right.

If you haven't seen the commercial, it's hilarious. I've seen it once - it was on during the UNC-Oklahoma game. (This is a relevant fact if you've seen the commercial.) Alaina has also only seen it once.

In fact, how about I just put it here for you? Look at me being helpful.



Have I mentioned that I love Guitar Hero? I'm pretty sure it is the very first video game I've ever been any good at it.