Sick Day

I left work early yesterday and I took a sick day today. I have a cold. I think the germs were lurking in my body, waiting for a moment to take over. Being very tired after getting back at 2am from a concert Friday night, I think they took advantage of my weakened state to stage a coup. They have control now but I am trying to rebuild my defenses and regain power.

So, I have spent the day on the couch. I don't know why the couch is better than bed. I think perhaps that the bed is for majorly serious illness and by being on the couch I am making a statement that I am not totally down and out.

This is my day in pictures.

Movies on netflix...

technology...

and Meg.

Some Sort of Book Convergence

Ok, this is getting WEIRD! Stuff like this has happened before but not so often!

So, I went to Barnes and Noble the other day to get "Return to Cranford" dvd. I love Judi Dench....sorry, I'm straying. So, I picked up a book, thought it looked very interesting and carried it around (that's what I do then I reevaluate at the last minute before checkout and leave it in some random place - don't yell at me, I know!) and then at the last minute decided not to get it.

My niece, Emma, comes for a visit and in our visiting, she says, "There's a book that I'm reading that you MUST read." Before she pulls it out of her bag I'm thinking about that book I carried around B&N. She pulls it out and it's the same book!!!

Weird, weird, weird. Somebody please tell me what's going on.

Some Sort of Frog Convergence

I don't know what it is with me lately where things are happening in themes. I told you about Franklin.

Well, I went to church and heard about this lady I know who found a frog in her toilet. She screamed so loud that she burst a blood vessel in her eye. I laughed really hard about that

Then, last night, Steave found a frog in OUR bathroom. He wasn't in the toilet but he had so much dust on his little sucker feet that he couldn't walk. He was kind of swimming in place. I felt really bad about having such a dusty bathroom. But Steave took the little guy and washed his feet and put him outside.

What is going on?

Manic Scanner

I started looking at some old photos that my niece put on her facebook and got inspired to scan some more of mine and put them on facebook, too. Now, I think I'll post a few here for my blogger friends who aren't facebook friends. I had such a good time reminiscing...

Baby Katie in her Dad's handKatie's first trip to the beach.Joel's first trip to the beach.Beautiful boy.Katie & Calan

Me & Steave the early years.

Some Sort of Franklin Convergence

So, the other night I dreamed I had a baby. The baby's name was Franklin. I didn't name it - its name was Franklin. He could talk but he was very tired and slept a lot.

Yesterday, I was in the Chick-Fil-A drive-thru getting my change from a fellow with an extra thumb attached to his thumb. I knew that hand!

I asked the young man what his name was. He said, "Franklin." It was my son's friend from the 2nd or 3rd grade!

What is the deal with the Franklin theme? Can anybody interpret dreams?

Rosca de Reyes

An update on the research concerning the Naked Baby Relic.
My father-in-law emailed me a wikipedia article about a Spanish tradition. Here it is:

Roscón de reyes.Rosca de reyes or roscón de reyes (kings' ring) is a Spanish pastry traditionally eaten to celebrate the Epiphany.

Although the name indicates that it should be round, the Spanish “roscon de reyes” generally has an oval shape due to the need to make cakes larger than 30cm across for larger parties. For decoration, fig fruit, quinces, cherries are used; which both decorate the cake and enrich its flavor.

It is traditionally eaten on January 6, during the celebration of the "Día de Reyes" (Wise Men Day). In most of Spain, Mexico, and sometimes Hispanic communities in the United States, this is the day when children get presents from the Three Wise Men (not from Santa). They leave their shoes outside, filled with hay or dried grass for the animals the Kings ride, before they go to bed along with a note. For decoration, Mexican people use dried and candied fruits like figs, quinces or cherries

The tradition of placing a trinket (figurine of the Christ Child) in the cake is very old. The baby Jesus, when hidden in the bread, represents the flight of Jesus, fleeing from King Herod's evil plan. Whoever finds the small baby Jesus is blessed and must take it (a representation of baby Jesus) to the nearest church on the 2nd of February (Día de la Candelaria).

In Spain, due to commercial interests, Roscones bought in cake shops hide in their interior a figure - either of Jesus or others like little toys for kids - and a haba (bean). Whoever finds the figure is crowned and becomes the king (or queen) of the banquet, whereas whoever finds the bean has to pay next year's roscón.

Don't Spit, Joel

My son, Joel said that if I didn't update my blog he would spit.

That makes me think of Ash, my favorite character from "The Fantastic Mr.Fox."

So, my brother in law is staying with us for a while. He's going to be moving into a house as soon as they close on it and he needed an "in-between" place. The basement bedroom is that place.

The basement bedroom had become the collective limbo for all the family's stuff. Joel's stuff that couldn't go with him to Mississippi, Katie's stuff that didn't make the transition to the room upstairs, furniture and books that didn't get a place upstairs after the flood. It was quite a combo of items. So, we went through it all and sorted it out.

Now, there's a nice clean room.

Then our sorting out energy spilled out into the main room of the basement and we are in the process of turning that into a studio for sewing, painting, crafting, whatever you want to do. I'll get pictures up of the process soon.

My brother-in-law loves to go places and so we've spent the last couple of weekends going places. We went to Trader Joe's. It's a pretty cool grocery store. It has organic and Trader Joe's brand items. I got some killer chocolate chip cookies. We also went to Harbor Freight Tools. It is a really amazing hardware store. They have EVERYTHING! I almost bought a sextant, they really had one there.

I don't know how to use a sextant, probably would never learn, but it reminded me of the Great Explorers! Adventure lept in my heart and I felt the wind in my hair and tasted the salt on my lips right there on aisle 7!

We also went to The Container Store. One of my most favorite stores. It appeals to the organizational freak inside of me. I was looking for containers for the shelves in my bathroom. But instead I bought a door stop for my classroom, a flip flop organizer for my friend and a display box for a crazy thing that my aide found at school.

Let me explain "the crazy thing": a parent donated a large bag of toys and random items for our classroom treasure box. We were to go through the items and pull out what we thought our class would like and then pass the bag on to 4th grade. It was a large bag and quite overwhelming to me, so I assigned that task to my aide with the suggestion that she delegate that task to the girls. I knew they would love to go through the bag and make the executive decisions about what to keep and what to reject. 6th grade girls love power.

My aide, being the kind, hardworking person she is, went through the whole bag. Later in the day, she came by my desk and held out her hand. In the palm of her hand was a plastic thing. It was in the shape of a purple and gold  crown and glued to the crown was a naked, flesh colored baby. The baby reminded me of a baby hamster or mouse, a pinkie that you would feed to a snake. Kinda creeped me out.

Then we laughed hysterically!

I immediately thought it had some religious implications. King...baby...Jesus....I felt surely we had come across some religious relic. Right then and there I had the desire to issue sanction that my classroom be henceforth known as a "cathedral" or "sanctuary" due to the discovery of the Naked Baby Relic. I still haven't come up with a good name yet.

It was such an amazing find that I wanted it to be under glass. So, I bought a $1.99 plastic box to put it in.

We've done some research on the Naked Baby Relic and found this:

You can buy a bag of naked babies.

You can buy a bag of plastic crowns.

But you can't find a naked baby glued to a crown.

To celebrate Mardi Gras, people bake the naked babies into cakes to a make a "King Cake."

They bake them into muffins to make "King Muffins" I suppose.

They put the naked babies and red jelly into cakes to make "Scary King Cakes."

Then they serve these cakes to their friends. The person who gets (eats, bites or swallows) the naked baby is dubbed "King of the Party" and they are required to bring the "King Cake" the next year.

I don't think I'd want to find a naked baby in my food.

Even though that's really strange, I'm still going to keep my relic under glass. And I still want to name my classroom.

Maybe: " The Cathedral of the Naked Baby Glued to the Crown Found in the Incredibly Large Bag of Treasure Box Donations"

A Half British Breakfast to Soothe My Knackered Soul

A picture of TIRED.

I'm sitting here on this beautiful, cool (as in temperature, for a change, thank God!) Sunday morning eating my fried eggs and beans on toast.

I am "knackered"- to quote Sweeney's Mama, a blog aquaintance from New Zealand. 

I had a rough week. So rough it made me cry.

I haven't blogged because I was torn between being honest and depressing the life out of my readers - or waiting until the anger and disappointment had passed to be more cheerful and upbeat.

I think I'm in the middle right now. So, here's my blog post:

I had a stinking, rotten week which totally reinforced my life's motto:

You can't reason with crazy people!

I've threatened to embroider that on a pillow for years.

And I would like to add the following words of wisdom to anyone else who is as knackered as I am:

"Sometimes the best you can do is get out of bed, breathe and go through the motions. And eventually the sting of the blow will fade and your heart will come out of hiding."

~Jill Libramento

Posting a funny picture of your kids and eating a half English breakfast helps.

Stenciled Tote Bags & A Fun T-shirt Site

Everyone around me is all a-buzz getting ready for Sammy's wedding today. Yesterday, Sammy's dad, Pete, came by and asked if I could hem the pants of his new suit. Katie, the Maid of Honor, was trying to fit in a little World Civ reading while getting everything together for the rehearsal dinner and then on to spend the night with the bridesmaids and bride.
While all this was going on yesterday, I was playing with my new Cricut machine. I downloaded some cool fonts and cut some stencils out on contact paper. It reminded me of painting t-shirts back in the day. I had a good time. Here are two bags I stenciled yesterday.

I put a K for Katie on a bag so she could take all the necessary emergency items for the wedding: Tylenol, bobbie pins, safety pins, peanuts (the bridal party always starves!), hairspray, etc. Katie is becoming a pro at this wedding thing!

Then I made this one for myself. I used my favorite "Clash of the Titans" phrase in a cool pirate-y font.

A fun afternoon project.

I love this. It's called Loch Ness Imposter

I wish I would have thought of this! You can find this image on a t-shirt at

Threadless.com

A Fine Line

"There's a fine line between chaos and creation."

-Sir Paul McCartney and probably someone else

This weekend my daughter said, "One of my favorite things about my mom is that she can imitate anything in world."

One of my greatest imitations was of a tastebud. A fine moment in living room entertainment history.

But I love to imitate people the most.

For as long as I can remember, I have imitated people. It's a compulsion. When I see an interesting character, hear an accent, an uncommon manner of speaking, a twitch, a facial expression - I HAVE to imitate it. I have to copy it until I have mastered it. I can't help myself.

I have had people tell me that I am mean, cruel - as if I were making fun of that person. I used to feel guilty, but I have come to peace with that accusation. I really am not making fun of people, I truly enjoy uniqueness. I know I can appreciate it without having to copy it, but I don't know why I do it - it just feels good - I guess that's the way obsessive handwashers, toothpick counters and lock lockers feel.

I love to watch movies. I love to watch good actors. When I see something that an actor does that is surprising or interesting, I watch it over and over and try to figure out why they did what they did.

I love to watch interviews with actors when they discuss their work.

When I was acting, my favorite part was deciding how a character would respond, what they would do with their bodies when speaking a line or in response to a line, would their voice go up, would there be a pause? What would they do with their hands?

When I write stories, I end up writing acting directions more than dialogue: "she looked and turned, put her hand on her face..." stuff like that.

I love to watch people. I love to watch their movements. Sometimes a person may not be immediately attractive, like perhaps in still photos, but when you see them move, they become more beautiful or handsome. The combination of movement, voice, manner - becomes a beautiful human ballet.

My husband and his father work with their hands a lot. My husband works with mechanical things and my father-in-law is a woodworker. I love to watch my father-in-law rub his hand across a sanded board or the spindles of a chair. There is understanding and appreciation in his touch. My husband's hands are big, but amazingly agile when doing intricate work. He, too, percieves through touch. My son is very tactile, also, it must run in the family. He has long, slender hands, though. I've always thought they were beautiful. I love to watch his hands, they are very careful and specific, deliberate, like a surgeon.

Then there are people's eyes, the way they hold their mouths, what they do when they are nervous. I love seeing, noticing things like that.

The problem is, like when I got caught up in the Scottish accent at Home Depot, I have to work hard to actually listen to what people are saying. Also, if someone says a word in an interesting manner, sometimes I will walk away saying that word to myself in order to say it just like they did. Then I look like some mumbling crazy person.

I don't know. I'm glad my daughter loves that about me. I'm not sure if it's good or bad, a problem or a gift.

A Couple of Cool Things

I found a couple of cool things and I want to share them with you.

The first is Metromint water.  It's mint flavored water. I ordered a sample pack and got orange mint water, lemon mint water, chocolate mint water, cherry mint water, spearmint water, peppermint water and a bottle of electrolyte mint water. It's really very good, but you MUST be a mint lover. When I first tasted it I thought of some sort of medicine because it's not sweetened and it's not carbonated. But after I got my mind and my tastebuds around the idea I really enjoyed it.

The second thing is I ordered these cute little journals for Katie for her birthday. They're from The Paperwink. They come in sets of 3 with printed labels on them. You have a choice of labels and what you'd like to have printed on them. Katie is a major journal writer and she was very excited about them. She liked the fact that they were slim. I thought that would be the thing she didn't like about them, but I was wrong.

Just thought I'd share these things with you.