Saying yes...

Busy week... nonexistent blogging...

I heard this song today...

...and was whisked back to the 3rd grade... my love for Robin S, as sure a thing as any 3rd grader can experience. I was thrilled when we were asked to stay a few minutes after school to clean the blackboards. I remember as he stepped up onto the piano bench to reach the top of the boards, I noticed he was wearing the absolutely most heinous pair of Toughskins... and like that, it was over.

What is this??

 I've always wanted to do this. When I look at this thing, I've always felt it needed eyes. :)

Too good not to share...

h/t Karla

Things that make my head explode...

...hearing that Catholic Bishops are going to DC to have a discussion with male senators/representatives about women's health. What's wrong with that sentence (aside from grammatical issues)??

IT'S 2012!!!  (Or, 2112 for some of us!)

Thank goodness that men who are never supposed to have sex, will be talking with men who will never be pregnant. My female parts feel safer now...

BUT! It's Friday, and I have a lovely weekend stretching out in front of me, so no more head-exploding talk. Instead, let's end with an oldie, but a goodie. Have a good weekend my leetle dream kittens!

 

Brief Blogging PSA: Pet Oriented

A blogging friend of mine (she's not sharing personal info yet so I'm not going to link) has lost her cat, and almost lost her dog (after extended illness, a significant portion of intestines had to be removed, but he's seeming to be on the mend), to chicken jerky treats that were made in China. The main scare was long enough ago that people have forgotten, or they thought it was resolved. Apparently it is still an issue.

It might be a good thing to double check any food or treats to see where they've been manufactured.

Color Pron

We are still on the receiving end of Holiday Fruit around here... Last evening, a large basket of fruit arrived from someone Grizzled works with. This person always sends it after the holidays, which is nice, since our fruit stash is usually waning. It wasn't this year... and now we had more...

Since it said "Perishable! Open Immediately!" I tried to find places to put it, our fruit bowl was already filled, and there was no room in the fridge. I pulled out my lovely stack of cheapo, but lovely colored, Michael Graves mixing bowls. It only took me a second before I knew what I had to do... all of that bright fruit, all of those colorful bowls. I tried to hide my activity in dinner prep, but heard EL, who is hip to my ways, beckon from the other room...

EL- Mom??? Are you sorting the fruit by color??

Me- ... maybe...

EL- Are you sorting it into complementary colored bowls??

Me- ... maybe...

EL- (muffled reaction)

Me- BUT LOOK AT IT!! When do we ever have this much fruit?? In all of these colors?? OK, we could use a better purple, but come on! Look at how nice those lime green bananas look in that pink bowl! I wish I had painting class this week! I'd take it all in and make them paint IT ALL!!!

And then I went back to making dinner, but left the fruitscape on the counter, forgetting it until Grizzled came home.

G- Did you sort the fruit by color??

Me- YES! I DID!!! I COULDN'T HELP IT! LOOK. AT. IT!!!

G- I was just going to say, you missed the lighter blue bowl... those not-fully ripe tangerines would look really good in it...

He was right.

Or forever hold your peace...

When I was a young lamblet, the Vietnam War was a regular feature on the evening news. I don't necessarily remember watching it, but I do remember it being on in the background... it was hard to miss, even for a kid who was distracted by other more important things such as toads, Liddle Kiddles, and was Frankenstein really buried under that big cement slab back in the woods... What I do remember noticing though was that this war seemed to be playing out in an area with no buildings. After seeing endless newscasts filled with jungle green, I came to the only conclusion I could... they must go somewhere with limited population in order to "have war"! Yes, that's it! Because if you're going to do something as silly as have a war, it would at least be best to have it in an area where there would be little collateral damage. No, it would be better to have some remote area designated as the fighting area, much like the corner of the rec room where my brothers were sent when they couldn't get along. You go to that area, free of items to be hurt by your flailing... you flail, and then you see the errors of your way and get back to life as you knew it. Yes, this made sense to my single-digit mind. It was a way for me to make sense of war.

And then I believe I shared this revelation with an adult... the next thing I remember, my father was showing me a photo or two of London after the Blitz. Once again, war made no sense. My mind tried to make sense out of what I was seeing, but there was no sense to be made. As Dylan Brody so succinctly puts it in his current post (go read it):

War cannot be waged decently. War cannot be waged or supported with clean hands or with a clean conscience.

War still makes no sense to me. What makes even less sense is that in 2012, it's still such a viable option.

I often wonder what my lamblets think of it, both of them older than I was when I first came to my "designated war area" conclusion... but I'm guessing it makes even less sense to them. Even though we now have a continuous news cycle, war and its ugly impact seems to be covered even less than some 40 years ago... the true impact so far removed from daily chatter... from anyone's chatter. Best to keep it quiet... best to keep shopping.

Update:

The comments made me remember this song/video...

Snag is back!

Just in time for the holidays.

And if we stick to our usual schedule, we just might finish before next year's holidays.

Procrastinating for a good cause....

Not sure whether the good cause is me, or Louis CK and his experiment, but who cares! I had $5 burning a hole in my pocket, a full cup of coffee, and the house is quiet. :) Besides, I could never say no to those crinkly, smiley eyes. Yeah, I bought the thing.