Thank You, L-Fam!

Tonight my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew came over to feed us and hang out. I was experiencing technical camera issues, so I rely on Google Images to recapture the evening

Thanks again, guys!!!

The Things You Stumble Upon Internetally

Tonight's regular ol' wind-down clickfest led me to:

• The doleful tale of "Thomas's Stepmother," Britt Allcroft, who brought Thomas the Tank Engine to TV, and then was ousted from her own company because of one lousy movie. It's true, Thomas and the Magic Railroad is LOUSY, but reading that it was edited to crap might make complete sense that the movie makes no sense. I just thought it was interesting.
  
• Mine was the 800th signature on the petition to release the Director's Cut. Ha! What a nerd...

• Uh, hello... How come my hunny-bunny never told me he was interviewed for an article for the glossy Portland Monthly magazine? He represents the Ghost of the State Theatre Present, you can read his spooky input and misspelled name here.

• Through Original Portland I learned that West End News reported one of them natural barn razings. (I used to live down the street!) Sad, but you can visit better times here and here.
  

And now it's time for bed, later!

Power Outage Results Are In

Power Outage = Hours of Poutage

Last night's storm took out one of our tree limbs...





...and it took the fence panel that shields us from neighboring Section Eightage, also some of our, ahem, dangling siding, and the most tragic: our electricity!

Thankfully it came back this afternoon, but gawd is there anything worse than sobbing with your child because none of you can understand why you can't watch the Toy Story VHS. We were a mess, an electricity-deprived mess. But not anymore, welcome back Power, you soft and velvety glow of life!!!

Ed. Note: Actually, it wasn't so bad. The power went out late, Jimmy was already sleeping, Hubby and I actually got a conversation in and I'm still congratulating myself for scaring him with a Hitchcocky "Good Eev-en-ing" when he came home to complete darkness. Waking up the storm was gone, Jimmy and I went to the mall and by the time we came home the power was back. It was scary though, there were many detours and collapsed trees in the area, we are thankful to be safe and sound. Now, how we're going to get that broken limb down...

Little Bundle of Ploy

As much as the news tells us to hate FairPoint Communications (I use them for both landline and internet and have no complaints /ducking/) I think it's funny that they've started marketing to the nexter generation. As a result Jimmy loves their little Bundle critter campaign.

I know...it's a ploy, a commercial eating his brain...but the FairPoint Bundle embodies Jimmy's love for music and dancing and cuteness!! Why just now he was climbing into the Mummy and Daddy dvds and has asked me to play, you guessed it, The Sound of Music. What a champ!!!!



I love my son's unfettered taste.

My Pledge to Oprah

Today I became pledger number 135,448 to swear allegiance to Oprah's No Phone Zone, which admittedly is a heck of a lot easier when we don't even have cell phones, but boy does it fire me up when I can see in my rearview some ______ steering a missile while being text-distracted behind the most precious cargo known to man.

You know you owe Oprah your loyalty, make your car a No Phone Zone today!

Olympsick

I'm a little sick of the Olympics (bring back Poker After Dark!) and now my little guy has a touch of the flu. =( His mouth-breathing and gurgly struggles to sleep gave me the opportunity to feel like quite the mother; I dug out the Mentholatum ointment for the very first time. Well what do you know, it semi-works.

Other stuff:

Raising insurance premiums for Facebook/Twitter users, in the UK at least.

Finding the right car seat upgrade for a car like ours sucks.

It's Lent Week at Shaw's Supermarket, apparently. Lots of seafood sales, hot cross buns (you're not supposed to get good sweets during lent, I guess) and plastic saint medals from the gumball machine to accompany other collections. Be sure to rush in, only 33 days left of Lent Week.

Tomorrow night, Hubby competes on Team Dead Kennedys vs. Team The Misfits for The Clash of the Titans.

And that's been the past few days around here.

My Cool New Science Blog

Not really, I was just amazed by this picture of jerky with what, halloween webbing...? Maybe...?


A cross-section of muscle tissue, surrounded by the extracellular tissue that acts as the connective tissue. Each muscle fiber is joined together by the connective tissue to make up the complete muscle. Myasenthia is an neuromuscular disease caused by a faulty relationship between the two.

Ok, so maybe it's not jerky...yet. More neat photos of sciencia can be found here.

More Indoor Lure

We've been on a pay-per-playground tear, today was at All Play Family Fun Center, and I think I'm getting spoiled by all these new places because I'm afraid today's visit has me grading All Play Family Fun Center a C, a bouncy C (any Irving Cohen fans out there? No?)



Whether Jimmy would rate it a C, I don't know, he didn't want to leave All Play any more than he wanted to leave the other places. The toddler room had lot of climby toys and fun on-the-wall things and he really loved the basketball hoop, but for me there was no "presentation." Which in some aspects was fine--I could see him from any part of the room but it just seemed less polished than Greenlight Studios or the Peek-a-Boo Center.







After the toddler room we graduated to the other areas. Again, Jimmy liked it all, it's just the Mumma in me was a little skeeved out. Why, what instills safety in a mother's heart like a Plinko table made of poorly painted plywood and naked tilty screws.





Or what family hasn't been allured by a bare industrial table scattered with wooden blocks. Thanks to Microsoft Word we learned this was All Play's "Building Area."



And then All Play's major draw: the bouncy houses. We were surrounded by other toddlers, boys and girls alike who were going nuts on ALL the houses (high! scary! kicky limbs!) but my cautious little marshmallow stuck with the 5-and-under house, and even that he didn't like much.





Probably the hardest part was keeping Jimmy out of people's minigolf games, he was very intrigued by the greens and the mini castles/bayous/hellpits. It was a full time job keeping him out of firing range of a couple preschool punks, it is the main reason I thought "maybe we'll come back when he's a little older..."



Best aspect: we only had to pay $5 for the two of us. I recommend it for moms of 5-10s, that is, if you like watching your child burn off a ton of energy, if you're into that sort of thing. =] Jimmy wouldn't object to another visit, that's for sure.

Peek-A-Boo! I See Screaming!

Business is booming for indoor playgrounds in this area, today we checked out the new Peek-a-Boo Children's Center in Westbrook.

Jimmy loved it, with a triple "l." Llloved it.

They had several themed rooms, here he is in the "constructiony" room. They also had "girly," and "outdoorsy," and "musicy," et cetery.








Build, build, build!

There was also some sort of "rompery" room which housed a little devil black widow baby and if anyone (including Jimmy) dared enter her bouncy lair...she'd lock her tiny hands on their collar bones and grip their throats! Spiderhissss!!!

After that hairy getaway it wasn't long before Jimmy discovered the huge train table.


At the Control Panel





This was the first glued-together track we ever used, and my nose is still a little out of joint from some mother insinuating that MY PRECIOUS SON stole her neonate's boxcar, but, whatever, Jimmy maintained his sweet disposition and we all lived. bitch.

Some time after that it was "time to go," the words Jimmy didn't want to hear, nor did he want anyone else in the 5,000 sf place to hear anything other than the highest pitch of his healthy little vocal chords. I'd never seen a little boy so opposed to putting on shoes, it was pretty bad. I apologized to the receptionist, but assured her that he thinks her indoor playground is really, really fun.

Next adventure for us: All Play. Bring your earplugs!

Dennis Quaid Asks "Do You Have Ketchup?"

This kills me every time.

Celebrating February

My camera tries to keep up with Jimmy as my Dad stops in for a Valentine's/Presidents Day visit. Did you know tomorrow is Mardi Gras?! I didn't! 2010 is flying by!

And now the big question....Olympics with Mainers Competing, or The Bachelor Final 3. Olympics with Mainers Competing, or The Bachelor Final 3.... Oh the agony. Now I know why so many folks have Tivo.

Clandestine Valentine

I was excited that Hubby's V-Day gift to me was a good old-fashioned housecleaning while I slaved away at work. I figured I'd be able to come home, celebrate the holiday, take a little Valentine photoshoot with Jimmy, eat lots of rich food, all of it--until I arrived to find that same Valentiney Hub shoving a giant load firewood into the house, announcy-griping that the Toddlrz had spent the prior 11 hours with zero hours napping, and advising off-hook ringing phones that he would "be there in a minute."

Well, then. That's some Valentine's Day. After watching my Valentine rush out the front door for band practice, and watching our romantic woodstove fire eat more of my formerly heart-shaped pupils as I watched my little Valentine Blog Model crushing for me crashing out on me, I wondered 'How Could I V-Win??' Didn't my Valentines realize that it's Olympic Couples Skating tonight???

When I realized...I was probably the only one who wanted to watch Olympic Couples Skating, and that I had a wealth of firewood, a sleeping toddler, and a content hubby who wasn't next to me making all kinds of "comments." In this valentine-vacuumed house. Wow. Happy Valentine's Day to ME!!!

And to you.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Home is where...

...the hhh, uhhhhh, art is? To my horror tonight I came home to discover my hubby had turned into one of those hemorrhoidal chump a-holes who simulexcretes bad harmonica and the guitar, for no reason, and it makes your stomach chunder that coffee shop latte.









Ew, even my camera couldn't take it. A little ointment and we were onto Jimmy's railway arts:









The perfect preparations for our Valentinian artistry. Happy Valentine's Eve!

Olympic Meal Dining

As we wait for the opening ceremonies in Vancouver, Jimmy chooses to celebrate with one of his favorite winter-warmy meals: Peanut Butter Oatmeal.



He opts for a somewhat offbeat technique: spoonless.





Notice how he sports the remnants of Blueberry Smoothie on his shirt from cross-training in the Parade of Rations.



Happy Olympics, All!