My Favorite Alien

Here he is, the man himself!  Smart, funny, and rather a hermit, who has the dogs firmly convinced he's an alien from outer space and not to be trusted, for all that he's the one that does half the feeding, walking and petting around here.

Leader of the corn maze exploration force, sole owner and operator of the office of technical support, procrastinator-in-chief, and king of the honey-do list. Tickler in chief, ringmaster general of the household circus and taskmaster for the child-monkey-slave labor force.  I love him so much!!

Counting My Blessings

There's a really old song, sung by both Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney in "White Christmas" in 1954, Google tells me, called "Counting My Blessings".  I'm too tired tonight to figure out how to get it to play here, but I will someday.  For now, here's a clip and the lyrics.

http://s0.ilike.com/play#Bing+Crosby:Count+Your+Blessings+(Instead+of+Sheep):7011349:m667431


When I'm worried and I can't sleep
I count my blessings instead of sheep
And I fall asleep counting my blessings
When my bankroll is getting small
I think of when I had none at all
And I fall asleep counting my blessings
I think about a nursery and I picture curly heads
And one by one I count them as they slumber in their beds
If you're worried and you can't sleep
Just count your blessings instead of sheep
And you'll fall asleep counting your blessings
I think about a nursery and I picture curly heads
And one by one I count them as they slumber in their beds
If you're worried and you can't sleep
Just count your blessings instead of sheep
And you'll fall asleep counting your blessings


And that's what I'm doing tonight, counting my blessings.  The economy is in the tank, money is tight, and everyone I know is struggling on some level, but I am so grateful tonight for our comfortable home, and for the wonderful children and husband and dogs (not necessarily in that order) who share it with me.  I talked about missing blog posts, and I guess this one is going to be a mishmash of many of the things I've been thinking about.

Monkey at his "new" desk in his reading corner

Dolly's new desk, complete with computer (thanks Dad)

Caveman's new desk and chair

Fridays the kids are supposed to get their rooms picked up and ready to vacuum, and this week as we were working on it I was just amazed at how they're growing up and how good it feels to have their rooms growing up with them.  We didn't have any yelling or fighting about getting it done (!!!) and as I was vacuuming I was able to see the progress we've made in getting fall clothes out, closets cleaned (or at least partially emptied) and things squared away for another week.   I've been on a Goodwill kick lately, dropping off old things AND picking up things that are new to us.  Wardrobe items, decorative items, and things to stash for Christmas and birthday gifts, have all been hauled home in the last couple of months.  Both Dolly and Caveman have new desks and chairs for their homework and art projects, which means Monkey inherited the little one that's just his size from big brother.  All three are thrilled and spending a lot more time with their projects.  Monkey is showing interest in writing, which he never has before, and coloring as well.  

Caveman has a new nickname because of his other new room addition: the bookcase and lamp UNDER his loft bed.  I laugh, because he's made himself the perfect little man-cave and refuses to sleep ON his bed anymore.  He's got his comfy mat, quilt, light, and bookshelf, and I'm seeing a similarity to his bookworm mom that I haven't seen before.  I don't think I'd want to come out, either.

My supposedly missing blog episode "Blondes and Birds" episode is all about Dolly and her quest for a pet of her own.  She loves the dogs, but they're not hers.  She started wanting guinea pigs, but the space requirement to do it right was a little prohibitive-plus, what are herding dogs going to do with guinea pigs (or rabbits)?  Herd them, of course, and that's not going to turn out well.  So she started researching budgerigars, or parakeets for those of us who aren't going the scientific route.  She started saving her money and reading everything she could get her hands on about them.  The library had several kids books, plus the ones she got from the adult section, PLUS the interlibrary-loan books.  Last summer just before our vacation she bought the biggest cage she could find, and made sure it was horizontal, best for parakeets.  Last month, she got her birds.  With her own money.  I was so impressed with her dedication and self-control.  She bought a few smaller items along the way, but the bulk of that allowance went right into the bird fund, every week.  There have  been dramatic moments, like when she tried to put the birds in the cage the first day and one escaped into the bathroom (hence the name Rubber Ducky), and the morning she woke up to a dead bird (RIP Dovey) but a responsible bird owner, she is!  She even has a little vacuum for cleaning up the food they toss out, and she's really enjoying this whole process.  It's funny to hear her spouting random bits of bird-lore, too.

So many things to be grateful for, so many wonderful blessings.  And now I'm going to go enjoy the blessing of an electric blanket on a crisp fall evening.  Good night and all my love to my dear friends and family who are reading this (I hope) and who are among my dearest blessings!

Trails of Breadcrumbs.....On the Expressway?

I drove about 15 miles on the Stevenson Expressway the other day behind a guy who was goin' old school.  No GPS for him, and no maps.  He was tossing sunflower seed shells out the window, regular as clockwork, about every 20 seconds.  Regular guy, from what I could tell from behind, regular car, just cruising along about 50 mph.  And in heavy traffic, they were all bouncing off of my windshield.

Now normally I get all bent out of shape about litter, but this just made me laugh.  Sure, they're biodegradable, so low on the impact list, and that made it ok for me to just get a kick out of this guy who had no idea I was picturing him trying to find his way home by following the trail he'd left.  I could see it so clearly, the guy driving his car down the center lane, against traffic, with his head hanging out the window looking for his backtrail, completely oblivious to all the other cars.  Haha!

The South-Going Gax

With apologies to Dr. Seuss, I remember it going something like this:

"A long time ago, in the prairie of Prax, a North-Going Gax met a South-Going Gax."

And because neither of them would move for the other, they stood there nose to nose and had a freeway bypass built over them, rather than step one foot aside to be kind to another person.  Now, as I look at this image, it seems a little familiar,. perhaps because I met the South-Going Gax today.  On the sidewalk in my neighborhood.  And she was rude.  And even though I had the perfect comeback, and actually USED it, she didn't hear it.  So you, poor readers, get to!

We (ok, me, Monkey and the dogs) try to walk Dolly to her school if time and weather allow.  We're doing about 3 days a week average in the morning and pretty much every afternoon. We're the last street in the school district.  The people behind us not only go to another school, it's in another district, so we do have quite a long walk to/from school.  Our end of the walk is usually pretty deserted, but up at the school end, it's a foot traffic nightmare.  Still, the bike/pedestrian path through the park is well maintained and everybody tries to do their best to be nice.  Sometimes it gets messy, but the kids on bikes go around the pedestrians and strollers, pedestrians pass each other politely, and strollers pretty much get a pass on going on the grass and getting stuck-common sense and basic manners, right?  I thought so, but evidently, I am wrong.  Little did I know, there are some people in my neighborhood who have automatic right of way and NEVER have to step off the sidewalk!!

Today Monkey in the stroller, the fluffies and I, after meeting Dolly halfway home, are the only people on the street.  Stroller in front, dogs behind me, and Dolly walking alongside.  She likes to walk WAY in front of me and carry on conversations that are aimed in my general direction, but too far away to hear, but today she was actually walking beside me.  Along comes a woman with her cel phone pressed against her ear, looking fixedly at the ground, and stops right in front of the stroller.  We of course come to a stop.  Dolly tries to go ahead, but can't get past the lady to make passing space, and her rolling backpack (containing half her body weight in textbooks) won't back up.  I can't budge forward, the woman is standing stock-still in the middle of the sidewalk.  I can't go backward, the dogs are on my heels, NOT taking up passing-room on the sidewalk, I might add, and the stroller can't go onto the grass without epic struggle.  I tried several times to wiggle past right, edge past left, succeeding only in getting the stroller caught in the rolly-backpack wheels.  I finally looked at the woman and said "I 'm sorry, I can't get the stroller past."  She has been watching all of this simply waiting for us to somehow magically disappear so she can walk her straight line path, I suppose.  In the most condescending tone possible, she says "It's all right, but we all have to share the sidewalk, you know," and with her foot pushes the stroller sideways so her shoes don't touch the grass. I turned to her and said, "Yes, and sometimes that means taking turns."  And she walked on, totally oblivious, without making any eye contact at all.

 Am I missing something here?  Was there an entitlement lottery I didn't get a ticket to?  Did someone steal my dear husband's lifelong dream of bribing lawmakers into designating them a private lane on the road?  I go around people all the time, it's part of respecting personal space.  I take my dogs onto the grass to let joggers pass, or groups, or strollers.  People go around me as well, all the time, whether it's just me and the dogs, or the stroller.  Dogs should generally yield to human traffic. Pedestrians generally yield to strollers, and bikes generally yield to pedestrians.  Joggers can go around walkers, or walkers can step aside for joggers.  You don't walk between a kid and their adult in close quarters.  When does a woman clearly walking for exercise in gym shoes and running shorts trump a kid in a stroller?

I'm sure there are people out there who would call me entitled, taking up the whole sidewalk, but should a stroller legitimately have to go on the grass for a healthy pedestrian to pass?  I'm sure my little fit of pique isn't important to anyone but me, but it really bugged me, I guess mostly because she left us with no options at all.  I guess it's important to me to realize that while my family was taking up the whole sidewalk, it was a whole family, and not just one person being obstinate and refusing to acknowledge others.  And it bothers me, that this is still bothering me.

Blogging in My Head

So I was reading a dear friend's blog not-so-long-ago ( you probably know who you are) and she said that she had composed many blog entries in her head, but circumstances were just combining in ways that kept her from getting them written and posted.  I have always had the opposite problem, that I'm just not sure I have anything worth saying and didn't want to start a blog just to hear myself type and fill up empty time.  HA!!  and again, HA HA!!  Empty time, you say?  I begin to wonder if I ever had any, and why, if I'm suddenly so much busier than I was over the summer and previously, my house isn't that much worse than it was before.  The guilt-ridden answer is, of course, that I'm a world-class procrastinator who will, given the choice, read a book while the house burns down around my ears, not to mention while the laundry buzzer goes off and veggies quietly compost themselves into goo in the bottom of my fridge.  I look back fondly at the early months of 2010 when even if I was feeling dizzy and frustrated all the time, I got to read.  I'm at over 130 books for the year, and have really found some enjoyable fiction.  Mysteries have never been a favorite genre of mine, but I'm in a phase and enjoying them quite a bit.

Lately, though, I'm finding it hard to have more than a half-hour at home without running off to the next errand.  I love having my youngest Monkey home with me, but this half-day of preschool plus swim lessons, plus my swim aerobics PLUS physical therapy for my arthritic knee (yes, I'm old-see the fossils in the last post!!) is just so dang hectic!  And unfortunately enough, it's also incredibly late again for someone who has to get up and walk the dogs and dispense child medications  in the dark, so I'm going to do a bad thing and list the blog posts I wish I'd written this past couple of weeks and hope to catch up on soon:

Blondes and Birds--my daughter's adventures/misadventures with parakeets
What the Whoopee Cushion Said--why taking small boys to wait for Rxs at Walgreens is not my favorite
Halloween Plans--how a Transformer, an Egyptian queen and James the Red Engine got together
Goodwill and Good Finds

Feel free to ask in the comments, I might actually get around to it that way!!