verbatim

Questioning Reality

Quote of the day from Julie: "Last night I dreamed that I was trying to fall asleep." She's so meta.

Another One [Birthday Party] Bites the Dust

Verdict: I am getting too old for these home-grown parties! Julie's birthday party was finally held this afternoon, and it was an undeniable success, despite one minor injury incurred during a vigorous game of Fishy Fishy Cross My Ocean, one bout of sadness, one stomach ache, and a few whining whiny whiners.

My big fear was that we'd run out of things to do, but luckily we didn't. Some of the girls didn't want to play the more active games, and others claimed they were bored by the sedentary activities, but they all enjoyed decorating cupcakes and cookies and then wolfing them down. We also taped down a big paper banner for them all to decorate with birthday greetings for Julie, and that was a big hit:

I am wiped. I want to go on record stating that this was the last non-outsourced party for my kids.

Out of My Kitchen!

If you like things to be a certain way and you have kids, eventually something's got to give. I am pretty good about letting my home be overrun by kid stuff—as anyone who's ever walked through my back door can attest:

 

  

Yes, we are the kind of people whose house is completely plastered with our kids' artwork.

But, there is one area in which I have found myself to be, quite uncharacteristically, a control freak: I can't stand it when the kids want to "help" me bake. Cooking is one thing; you can't really mess up too much. But baking? Every time they mismeasure or carelessly pour an ingredient, I'm already calling the whole thing off. I've got maybe ½ teaspoon of baking powder in the dough, and when a big cloud of flour-plus-what? ends up on the floor, I'm thinking, "This is not going to turn out OK." Same goes with the egg that mostly makes it into the bowl.

You can save yourselves the keystrokes: I know, I know, it's all about the shared experience. But I'd just rather share an experience that didn't result in mediocre baked goods. If this is my worst fault as a mom, so be it!

Today, Julie and I made cupcakes for her birthday party tomorrow (the girls will decorate them with squeeze-tube frosting, sprinkles, etc.). Here's the batch that she "helped" me with:

and here's the batch I did on my own:

Am I right? I'm right.

Wiki Wednesday

Time to learn something!

1. Go to Wikipedia.
2. Click on "Random article" in the left-hand sidebar box.
3. Post it!

Here's what I got:

Adversane is a hamlet in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England, located 1.5 miles south of Billingshurst. It consists of a cluster of houses and a public house (the Blacksmith's Arms) at a crossroads on the A29 road, on the Roman road named Stane Street.

The hamlet was known as Hadfoldshern until the 1850s. The Blacksmith's Arms stands beside the site of the blacksmiths shop, where Gaius (George) Carley was the last of many smiths to work the forge until it closed in the 1960s. He lived at Grigg's Cottage, a half-timbered cottage opposite.

Stane Street cottages, opposite the pub, were probably built using the Roman road as their foundation, as the road deviates slightly at this point, returning to its straight line a little distance further on, and the sandstone houses are precisely in line with both sections of Stane Street. They are in fact a single building, converted in the 1930s from a malt warehouse built by the Allen brothers of Horsham, whose activities are catalogued in 'A History of Horsham' produced by Horsham Museum. They were maltsters who smuggled malt from the continent during the Napoleonic wars and hid their contraband in secret cellars under this and several other warehouses in the Horsham area. The cellars had a tendency to flood and were filled in during the 1950s together with the reputed secret passage to the pub! The malthouse was part of the setting for 'Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard' by Eleanor Farjeon, published by W. Collins & Sons Ltd in 1921 and by Oxford University Press in 1952.

I've never been there, but if I ever go, let's meet at the pub!

When It Rains

Here I am minding my own business when suddenly my week goes haywire. The cocktail cookbook that was supposed to be here October 30 just showed up last Wednesday, but of course I didn't look at it over the long weekend. A Spanish project I wasn't expecting at all landed on my desk yesterday, and I didn't dare say no. Thursday is Julie's (very belated) birthday party, for which I am not at all prepared yet. Of course it's my week to do the school newsletter. Oh yeah, and I was in Charlestown all day yesterday for the November closing—and have to start getting ready for the year-end closing as well. Lessee ... did I mention that in less than 3 weeks it's Steph's birthday and Hanukkah, and I have bought exactly zero gifts? And that's just the stuff I can rattle off the top of my head.

Madagascar, the Game

Pete really loves Mom Central because they occasionally ask me/him to review new games for his Nintendo DS! The most recent one was the companion game to the new "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" movie. We haven't seen the movie yet, but we intend to. We liked the first one so much that we ended up buying it on DVD.

You can find out everything you need to know about the game (which is also available for the Wii, Playstation, Xbox, and PC) at the official website. There are screenshots, videos, a demo, and a chance to search for "lemur loot" that will unlock a cheat code you can use in the game. (Pete thought this was way cool.)

Overall, Pete likes the game, which is a safari adventure featuring Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Gloria the Hippo, Melvin the Giraffe, and other characters from the movie. He thought that the first few levels were too easy, but now he's on one that's really challenging. His only complaint is that the characters talk too much! That's my guy, wanting to skip all the small talk and get right down to some heavy-duty playing.

The World's Slowest Movie Watchers

I forgot to mention that we* watched "The World's Fastest Indian" last week. It's a really well-done (read: not sappy) feel-good story, but a little slow for the likes of Pete. It's a true story, which we could all appreciate, but true stories sometimes take their time getting told.

This is the story of Burt Munro (played exceptionally well by Anthony Hopkins), who lives at the southernmost tip of New Zealand and spends all his waking hours fine-tuning a 1920 Indian motorcycle. In 1967, he finally gets a chance to take it to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah for an official timing. The movie tells the story of how he gets there—with his angina and lack of worldliness firmly in place. I loved every minute of it, but I can see how some of the slower parts would be tiresome for a 9-year-old. Your kids' mileage may vary, but I'm pretty sure most teens and adults will enjoy it.

*We who used to watch a new movie almost every night and now watch a new movie at most every month or two. Sigh.