Friday, November 26, 2010

Late November Happies

November 25 is Happy Thanksgiving!





November 27 is Happy Birthday Hunny Bunny!



Tonight, relaxin' o sole mio with Channel 8 is Happy Feet!




Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Pajama Day

Today was Pajama Day at school, they all brought in snacks and watched Toy Story 3 and talked about being thankful.



Happy Almost Thanksgiving!

Sunday, November 21, 2010

How He Rolls...

Really now, why throw out a broken toaster oven when you can just as easily gut out its electrical parts and plop it on top of the woodstove, good as new.



This is how my Hunny cooked his dinner tonight, he got it up to 450°!



As the hotwings went from frozen to sizzlin', the weather dept (also Wally) was predicting a hard frost which meant it was time to harvest the beets.




Prize Beet!


Preparin' for Picklin'

This all took place in the 40 minutes he was home between work and work. Just another evening in Wally's Kitchen!

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Look Out Happy Wheels....

...Portland's got a new concrete place to break your knees, for no charge! And it's outdoors, in Libbytown, and in my back yard. Today they cut the ribbon at Portland Skatepark so Jimmy and I took a windy stroll to check it out.











I must say, the vibe was very cool. The 14 year olds seemed pleased with the new option and their moms seemed cozy enough in their minivans lined up St. James Street. One of the park's promoters even gave Jimmy one of those BIG ROUND BALLOONS but my camera's batteries wore out by then so no photos and the balloon never made it home. Last I saw it, it was over Cash Corner in South Portland (or so I presume) but Jimmy was too cold to watch it disappear into Scarborough. We wish the best for the new skate park, only time will tell how many more graffiti tags our fence will earn in its honor.

Friday, November 19, 2010

You can pick your friends....



Imagine my surprise when I uploaded this photo from the camera to the computer, I had no idea he was doing that with his finger. Happy Friday!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

¿Esso si que es? And Sandals!

At school today Jimmy apparently defiled himself all the way down to his shoes and since I'd only packed an extra shirt/pants the school had to make do with what they had, and as a result they dressed him in the most culturally fatal combination alive---they dressed him in SOCKS and SANDALS.



Hold on, wrong photo. Here he is:



One of the socks was lavender and had a feather marabou rim, so yes the socks didn't match each other or his gender. However, the school is completely off the hook because this is where I admit that....I'm ducking here....that I don't really mind this offense to fashion, the whole socks and sandals thing. I'll even go as far to say that I think that it looks cozy, and cute! I wish it were more socially acceptable, the world can be so unkind to those of us who are sensorially opposed to being barefoot. I just didn't expect Jimmy had the same sense of style, if you ask me I think those feet look darn good! Right, Steve?

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Anniversary Lunch

Today my Hunny Bunny and I have been together for 10 Years! Hurrah, we made it! What better way to celebrate than with a special anniversary lunch with



...this guy! Haha, it's my nephew Alex, a Frosh at a local college, and we were accompanied by



...Mr. Psyched2Bthere! J/k, that's actually my son Jimmy, a Forest Room student at a local preschool.

It was a nice lunch, how could it not be when the convo hops from Westboro Baptist Church to Family Guy to Reaganomics in American ghettos. Once back home to my hubby XO's were exchanged in lieu of gifts, but you don't need gifts when you have the happiest family on the block (hardly the most death defying feat here, but still.) Happy 11/11, Hunny! Many thanks Alex and Jimmy for celebrating with me!


Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Afternoon Pancakes

Ok, the stovetop could use a scrub, but I still love the built-in griddle on our 1959 Estate oven.



The pancakes didn't suck either. Happy almost Veterans Day!

Monday, November 8, 2010

"Ma'am, I DID that! I typed 'Gewgle' into email and it's not taking me to your AOL spot!"

The worst task in the world for someone as impatient as I am is being called upon to help the clueless use a computer. This happened a lot in customer service, answering calls from people who don't know what the internet is or what Num Lock is for, trying to remotely teach golfball sized knuckles to double-click, that sorta thing. The company I worked for wasn't especially helpful, their website and their product in general was ridiculously complicated, I'm presently smarting from several terse flashbacks caused by the following image, forwarded to me by my nephew. Thanks Alex!






Oh beans, if the image doesn't work you can find it here, if your nerves allow.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Ni Hao

Ni Hao is Chinese for 'Ello, Chap, and is the first half of the title Ni Hao, Kai-Lan, a cartoon on Nick Jr. featuring 6-year-old Kai-Lan. I was first acquainted with Ni Hao, Kai-Lan in the toy aisles of Target, her theme layouts were grouped with all the other licensed character toys and, it is true, my first thought was "Who's this bitch" cuz I thought she looked kinda bitchy, but now that we have cable I have a totally different take on Kai-Lan.



Ni Hao, Kai-Lan is cute, cute, cute. The show's animation is like Hello Kitty on a cupcake high, little Kai-Lan speaks to viewers with the biggest eyes and in the cutest voice and her hair and her friends provide many episodes worth of eye-candy, even Jimmy has chosen this show as one of his newest faves in our foray into cable life. Its focus is on introducing cultures to young ones (and maybe their parents) and with it Kai-Lan ushers in Chinese vocab, which I hear is a highly valuable language for Americans to learn considering how world commerce is going. I hardly object to multiculturalism or learning foreign languages, it's just that...

We've only had cable and Nick Jr. for a couple weeks, and I'm no Poli-Sci major but sometimes it seems like little Kai-Lan is sorta...maybe just a squidge...communist. I mean, I'm all for everyone having access to health care and all and I was just as floored as everyone else with the drummers in the Beijing Olympic opening ceremonies, but. I dunno, it's not that I think Capitalism is all it's cracked up to be, but when Kai-Lan starts changing the rules so that everyone gets a seat in Musical Chairs, that's when I saw my eyes going a little lefty-righty as it kicked into my brain that the wee girl might be into wee indoctrination? Propaganda? Maybe? Far be it from me to say that I don't sommmmetimes make connections that sincerely aren't there (Kelly Osbourne has been intentionally promoting Bristol Palin so that she could wedge herself into a guest judge position on Dancing With The Stars and thus score Bristol statistically lower...I know it! Muuaaahahahahigh-5 to Kelly) but each and every episode we've seen seems to be dedicated to denial of feelings and toward working oneself into a smaller role of something bigger. She makes these chants, "When you feel sad, think about something happy and you'll feel better," "When you feel angry, just calm down and you'll feel better," "When you've been violated, just work your job and you'll feel better," etc.

So I Google it up, "Ni Hao Kai Lan Communist" and I get a bunch of rightwinging airheads opposed to the show for boneheaded reasons, and I don't want to be associated with that, I just think that it's kinda weird, right? Not to mention the show's promotional images:




Haha, j/k, someone else created that. But it did make me think about how she's only got a grandfather and no mother (hi, Disney) because we mothers just get in the way of...everything...and there was this one episode where Kai-Lan was sticking her rear end into the camera for multiple reasons (dancing, showing what's underneath the seat of her swing, who knows what else) and that just gives me that shakin' head squinty-eyed nasal sigh sorta thing.

But Jimmy will still be allowed to watch, because he likes it and because his mom likes to point fingers at the screen and shout out "SEE!" when various pinko commie ideologues pop up in children's cartoons. That's Americanism. Thanks, Nick Jr!

Friday, November 5, 2010

First Friday

We've been treated to a balmy November night so Jimmy and I decided YES on going out to the Children's Museum at no-charge for the First Friday Art Walk. It was a zoo, but really fun, and I'm pooped!


Belting conveyors


Processing eggs


Making Mumma wonder what's he going to do with that thermometer


Proving we're in Maine


Impressing his mother with the brute strength needed to maneuver this sawmill


Catching fish


Architecting


Being thorough


Benching in to get a turn


Vrooming


TCB


Turning left


Being the cutest creature at the joint. I swear, I love watching Jimmy play with others, he is unearthingly patient and easy-going. He likes having his turn, but never hogs anything or gets mad if some (JERK!) kid shoves him off. We had so much fun, many thanks to the folks at the Children's Museum of Maine for offering this free event every month.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

November 2

Today I:

Smiled and nodded and watched Jimmy's teachers fawn, again.

Went to the gym (whoa!)



Watched 2 hours of Kathy Griffin standup at the gym, wondering what I was doing without cable??



Drove Wally to work




Voted (go me!)



Came home and watched this vid, posted by a Libertarian Facebook friend who'd one day prior posted this.



Built a fire, laughed about Jimmy's firewood trains, and then dug out a firewood train splinter from his thumb.


This train hurts...

Asked Jimmy to smile for the camera and got this:



Went scavengering for diapers with my pal Leann



Made a pie unworthy of photos, made this post, and procrastinated my Nanowrimo novel.





Thankfully, I originally planned to write nightly after my programs, so I'm not THAT much of a slacker yet. 986 words so far!

Monday, November 1, 2010

NaNoWriMo

November might be a little light chez S'mère d'Un because I'm doing it:



Nanowrimo 2010, National Novel Writing Month 2010---writing 50k words in 30 days, I did it back in 2001 and this year I've got a book that's gonna write itself, I sweah. Except, so far on Day 1 I've done more culling of Jimmy's clothes than I have in at least a year, so I better get t'a-crackin'. Wish me luck!! And it's not to late to join yourself!