Can you see the difference?

Vengeful people everywhere are always imagining what they would do to some one else. Perhaps that's the motivation of CU 3 (child-unit 3). Maybe she's seeking revenge on me for all those nights I refused to pick her up and she had to cry herself to sleep. Or perhaps it's some in-utro trauma that I inflicted on her. Then again, it could be bringing her into this world, and in particular, this crazy house, where the nuts don't fall far from the tree.

Hey! Look! There goes the point! a friend once said to me after an equally long introduction to a fairly short point.

So. Here goes: I'm never sure which is worse - some one using your tooth brush, or some one using your tooth brush to clean the toilet.

I caught CU-3 not only using my tooth brush for dental hygine, I found her swoosh swoosh swooshing it in the toilet before the spit and rinse.

Leaves me speechless.

Smart ass

They have smart technology ... what about technology for the <> end user? Like toilet paper despensers that despense just enough TP as needed. It would require interaction toilet based on volume, and length of visit.

Oh my gawd. I think I've been taking too many Business Analysis courses!

It's a living ...

What does it say about one's life when one has to direct one's dear husband to one's blog to catch up on the daily comings and goings?

Update

DH just came in and surveyed the pizza dough I just spent the last 3 hours working on. It's funny.

Funny? I ask.

Ya. Funny.

Ha ha? I hope.

Start over. He says.

Cheese and crackers.

Commando baking

Commando baking. That's what my DH calls it. He labeled it after several in-and-out missions in the kitchen that left the kitchen in a state that looked like, well, a bunch of commandos had their way with it. Or so is my understanding of the term.

I vacillate between liking the term and using it proudly, and feeling ashamed that he feels that I'm not tidying after myself. (Really though, after midnight the maid is sent home!)

Tonight is a commando night. After getting child-units (CUs) 1-3 through their paces (starting off with picking up CU-3 from daycare and returning to school with CUs 1 and 2 to pick-up forgotten homework, dealing with a missing eraser (turns out it was in CU-3's mouth all along!), helping to writing a letter to a pen-pail in France, and learning all their is to know of the lifecycle of a hamster), I finally I get to start in on THE LIST.

Tonight's list runs something like this:

• cake for neighborhood child-unit 4 (NCU-4)
• pizza skins for NCU 4 and 5 who come Tuesday nights as that's homemade pizza night
• cookies for CU 2's Brownie meeting
• rose costume for CU 3 (I still have a few days on this one, so that might fall by the wayside)
• my homework for a weeklong professional development course I'm taking
• my homework for an eight-week professional development distance education course I'm taking
• my homework for a bi-weekly music class I'm taking

And I'd like to get to bed before midnight.

Mental cha cha

Fall is definitely here. Maybe even winter, though that doesn't officially start for another few months. I went to bed with the radio playing in the background, hearing that not only did I miss the announcement for first frost, but we're to get snow too. Oh swell. It means that the slow shift into digging out the seasonal garbage bags of mismatched mittens and fur-frosted tukes has to be done much sooner, then much later.

It also means that I have to spend the time that I can outside to get the garden in shape for next years plantings and for this year's ice skating rink.

With all the children home, I may be able to conscript them into helping me. Sometimes I can pass it off as a Tom Sawyeresk activity telling them that it's sooo much fun that they really want to participate. I'm pretty sure I can count on child-unit 3 (CU-3) to help me with quality checks and to give me feedback as to my skill at any particular task I turn my hand to.

For example, for a family of five we have a fair amount of laundry surfacing from the basement, requiring processing at any given time. As a treat, I sometimes do this task in front of the television. Well, apparently me folding laundry in front of the TV is about as successful as doing homework in front of the TV. Too many distractions and not enough quality coming from the task.

This is where child-unit 3 comes along for quality checks. CU-3 looks at the piles of sorted laundry and will begin to remove and shake out those items that do not meet the quality standards.

I think there's a career here.

Don't get any ideas

This link was sent to me by a good friend, I'm hoping as a source of amusement.

What we both agree to, after careful study of the site, is the aged and old question why. Why would any one dipped a stuff toys in wax to sell as an air fresheners?

Cowboy cards

Well everyone, it's round up time!

Don't think I'll have too many more days to work outside with fewer than the five required layers of clothing attributable to one of our winters so I decided to take advantage of the greyer, but clearer skies to get out and survey the property and attend to some of the rites of hybernation.

I'm happy to post that the marshmellow plants bushed out really well, but the harvest is a bust. With too much rain and not enough time to take off the crops, we have unusually moist baby marshmellows. I told the eldest child unit that we could pick up some of the "seeds" and save 'em for next year.

She was a pop'lar kid

Here it is October and I'm just plum run off my feet.

I haven't started Hallowe'en costumes yet, though I have started (I'm actually mid-way) through my Christmas shopping planning. Now aren't those skewed priorities?

In my house choosing a Hallowe'en costume is a particularly challenging task. It seems that each year the child-units decide to try and stretch their creative boundaries and my skills as a designer and carpenter. Over the years I've designed the following costumes:

• generic insect
• grasshopper
• lady bug
• butterfly
• turtle
  
• ray of sunshine
• a hula girl
• a Poplar leaf
  

This year, child-unit three is joining in the fun and is going to be a rose. A rose. Where do kids get these ideas? (Truth be told, I thought the grasshopper and Poplar leaf were weird requests.)

I'm wondering if I could bring up the breeds of roses. "Oh honey, do you want to be a Don Juan a or David Austin rose?"

You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone

Lately I've had the "I dream of genie" theme song running through my head as an earworm. It's not a bad tune, a bit monotonous though.

The last few weeks have found me away from the computer and caught up sorting through the seasonal mongo. For example, this last weekend, I was out in the garden, looking for any treasures that may still be eatable. Having not had the hard frost that usually around this time of year, we pulled out another three cucs (we're at 100 + for the year already). There's still Swiss chard, a second pumpkin, cabbages that never headed, hidden potatoes and pole beans that are too woody to eat, but should dry nicely and serve as seed for others next year.

And, then there's the fabled marshmallow plants that haven't bloomed, but must be very close. You see, last year a friend of mine dropped off a stock of Brussels sprouts. The sprouts were damned good. Fresh, tasty and just the right amount of skunkiness to off set a bit of lemon juice. Mmm mmm good.

The stock hung around our indoor compost bin for a few days and was making it's way outside when I got a foolish idea. The kids were coming home after a week at their other home, and, well, I guess I was feeling a bit giddy. I took the stock, embellished it with a few baby marshmallows and planted the stock amongst the potatoes.

As a side note, earlier this summer, their local grandparental unit had dropped off a Peeps import - Stars and Stripes marshmallow treats (though I could be mistaken with Little Debbie's products). Child unit 3 had decidedly had enough and pitched it to the ground to bake into the asphalt when I came across it and planted it in the garden. I had told one of the neighbor child units "If we're lucky, we'll get a marshmallow plant". I think it was one of the few times child-unit 1 actually listened to what I was saying and later held me too it, checking in on the status of the plant.

Sooo, this time, when the kids got home, I pointed out the plant and they swooped down like vultures. That thing was picked clean in seconds leaving the barren stock. Child-unit one, clearly not having my gullibility gene looked at the stock and started commenting about the lack of root system. I think I went into some baffling cow manure about hydroponics plants at the time. Enough to confuse the mind of any scientifically advanced eight year old.

So, now it's a year later. I've not been able to replicate the stock results and I cannot find any one who has planted the base stock delicacy. I have loose-leaved cabbage that may have to do this year. I wonder if I could entice my friends over at Artistic Enhancement Creations to give me a hand with this one ...

Thanks for giving

For all my Canadian friends and family, Bonne Action de Grace!

This weekend allows me to reflect on the bounty I've received throughout the course of the last year. (That's not to say that I don't do this type of exercise more often.)

It's been a hell of a year. I have so much to be grateful for. The universe has been incredibly generous both in material finds, as well as emotionally. I'm very thankful for having greater contact with my extended family and of my friends whom I have the honor to include as family. They have provided immense support through some very challenging times. I appreciate

To you all, I raise a glass this week to you and give thanks.