Ka-boom!

For this week's TT, I am doing the top 13 "guy" movies that I love. While I'm a sucker for a romantic comedy and can easily lose myself in a serious drama, I also really just love of flick where a bunch of stuff blows up, a bunch of guns go off, and some just stupidly unrealistic fight scenes happen. (Obviously there are bonus points to me if it's a Tarantino film or has Bruce Willis in it. What can I say - I like bald guys ;) Here we go...in no particular order:

1. 
2. 
3. 
4. 
5. 
6. 
7. 
8. 
9. 
10. 
11. 
12. 
13. 

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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So sad

I was heartbroken to read that author Arthur C. Clarke died today. I've developed into something of a sci-fi fan in the last 10 years or so...and no one did the genre better. Most everyone knows 2001 - the movie and book...but he had so many other great novels and short stories. I think I'm going to re-read all the stuff of his that I have. If you're ever looking for a great read - even if you're not a sci-fi geek like me, go pick up one of his amazing books. What a loss to the world of readers.

Weekly Winners 03.16.08

Idea, organization, and all-around coolness the brainchild of Lotus.

These really look much better if you click for the larger version.

We tried to spend time outside with the nicer weather. And as I post these, it's starting to snow. Oh for a warm sandy beach...

I don't know anything about plants...
but I'm pretty sure this is called Super Ugly Vine!

A shadow friend

Small and big....Noah and Dylan...brothers.

Teasing spring

Jaunty

Leaping

Copying
(Thanks a lot Dylan!!)

My kitchen table, like my life...just....random sometimes.

Reflections...

What a crazy week it has been. There have been so many ups and downs - for myself and for people around me. I think it's amazing what you can learn about people when they, or those they care about, are at these emotional extremes - especially the lows.

This week I've seen two different bloggers who cried out for help - and I saw other people respond with amazing support - moral, spiritual, even financial. I read a heartbreaking tribute of love and grief. I've seen hard work, hope, audacity, and a little bit of luck pay off in a happy way. I know someone who got horrible, painful news and responded to the bearer of the news with courage, generosity, and an astonishing maturity that anyone would aspire to have. I read a terrifying account of someone who literally feared for the safety of their child.

All of these things - the entire range of all these possible human emotions - have really put me in an introspective place...but a really good place. I think it's just one of those weeks that make you stop and redefine what you want to hold on to, who is really there for you, what things are worth to you, and those people and things you must let go. Anyway, people will recognize themselves in this post. You all are such incredible, amazing, and interesting people. Thank you so much for making my world a richer place.

Still in a rush...

So you get a funny picture. Ok after comments 1 and 2, I should explain...we were goofing around and he was making funny faces. He's just goofing here - not sad.

Yikes!

Ok. This is such a lame TT. But I've had **no** time. So here are a list of 13 topics that I plant to use at TT's in the near future - vote for your favorite and I'll do it next week.

1. Guilty pleasure movies
2. "Guy" movies that I love
3. Favorite paintings (with pictures)
4. People I admire (and why)
5. Great things about where I live
6. Horrible things about where I live
7. Areas for personal improvement
8. Favorite quotes
9. Actors I love
   
10. Websites I love
11. Cooking mistakes I've made
12. Reasons I'm so ready for spring
13. Reader's choice*

* Ok for the last one, if you hate 1-12....put in your own topic.

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Revelations

Wow I love all these questions. Thank you so much for asking and I will try to be as forthcoming as possible. This post is going to be loooooong.

Questions from Maggie:
Top 3 favorite foods?
This has been a hard one to answer for a self-proclaimed foodie. But I really do love broccoli - cooked, raw, whatever. I love it just plain - no dip, salt, lemon...nothing. I also LOVE meat. I would shrivel and die in a vegetarian world (broccoli notwithstanding). Give me bloody cow and I'm a happy camper. And obviously chocolate in dang near any form. Here's a good place to start if you want to feed me much chocolate.
Top 3 least favorite foods?
I don't like any kind of warmed up cereal grainy oat mush that should mostly be used to feed horses. I also do not like asparagus. Yucky. And never ever will I eat coconut. To combine coconut and chocolate is an act of war against chocolate.
Have you traveled outside the US? Where?
Jeff and I went to Winnipeg, Manitoba for our honeymoon. I wanted to go someplace out of the country and we couldn't afford to jet off to Paris. Winnipeg was in driving distance. We stayed in a fabulous hotel and had a great time. Luckily it was summer - a river tour guide we had said the average daily temperature in the winter is -20. Uh...no way. This is the Hotel Fort Garry.Will you please come hang out with me and drink coffee while we rant about random grievances?
Absolutely!!! Someday we will actually do this face to face (or mug to mug)!!!

Question from K.
If you could trade places with one person, real or fictional, for one day - a sort of Freaky Friday thing - who would it be and why?
What a great question. Hmmm. I think I'd like to be in the mind of anyone who had a big A-HA!!!! moment. Something like being the very first guy who saw a rock roll by and thought up the wheel. Or be Mozart the day he wrote Piano Concerto #21. Or be Michaelangelo at that exact moment he looked at a rough block of marble and saw the David inside. That moment of creation must be such an incredible rush.

Question from Brandie
If you could have one superpower, what would it be and why?
I think I have to go with mind control. Because I could make people who annoy me do stupid stuff such as clucking like a chicken at inappropriate moments. This is why people like me don't get to have superpowers. I would TOTALLY use mine for personal gain and petty acts of evil mayhem.


Question from Sioux Lady
Knowing what you know now about yourself and the college major you selected, would you still select that major? If not, what discipline would you choose and what career would you now have?
That's a really tough one. I don't have any regrets about choosing the major I did. And I think (fingers-crossed) I'll soon be applying some of the things I learned. But maybe I would have gone with something like psychology with criminology. It's hard to say. I should have...AHEM...listened to my mom and learned more about computers....then I'd have my laptop back.

Question from MP
If you can be face to face with your 15 year old self and give any words of wisdom or advice..what would it be?
Oh my god. I think I would lock myself up and throw the key away for a few years. But since that wouldn't really get me anywhere...I think I would tell myself to really think about how each action has a consequence and to really and truly understand what those consequences mean. I would tell myself that I am unbelievably lucky having the parents I have and that they love me and only want the best for me. Don't marry the first person who asks. Don't start smoking. You are not fat. But you will be in 20 years so start learning to love exercise NOW. You don't speak to 99.99% of the friends you think are so important - so they aren't. You are absolutely right about never using algebra in your adult life, so just keep blowing it off.


Question from Kat
If you had to choose to spend two weeks living in the same room and sharing all your everyday activities with someone (and no, you wouldn't have to make out with them or anything) - Jack Nicholson or Woody Allen?
What a wretched question! I guess I'd have to say that since Jack just seems creepy whereas we all know that Woody IS creepy, I'd have to go with Jack. On the other hand, Woody doesn't look very nimble or in shape...I think I could take him down if he did get all creepy on me. You couldn't have included Brad Pitt or Richard Gere in this question????

Question from Angela
Explain the name of your blog.
Well I was trying to be cute and it didn't come off as planned. A mobius strip is a surface with only one side. So I was kind of shooting for a play on words....stripping away the one side or down to my side or something like that. Now I just make people afraid that they're going to be busted at work for looking at porn. See Stan's dilemma. By the way, if you want to test this one-sided thing: Construct a mobius strip out of paper. Then take a pencil and start drawing down the strip. You will eventually meet where you started without having to pick up your pencil. One side. Here's a picture.


Question from Tara Question: what is your biggest pet peeve?
People who are late. I am always 10 to 15 minutes early. So if YOU are 10 to 15 minutes late, then that means I've been waiting for your rude butt for a 1/2 hour. Not cool dude.
A bewildering array of questions from Sandy
1) How did you quit cigarettes? Did you use something like the patch, gum, replace it with alcohol ;)
Obviously Sandy is a recent reader huh? I used a new drug called Chantix. I have tons of posts about my quit journey. And if I had never done this, I would have never "met" Maggie, and never checked out Lotus' blog, and never wound up "meeting" Sandy at Momisodes!!! So it's a great thing in so many ways. I have replaced my cigarettes with much junk food. Still working on that part :(
2) If you had to eat the same meal everyday for 30 days, what would it be?
My parents and Dylan and I once had an INCREDIBLE meal at Omaha Prime restaurant in Omaha, Nebraska. I'm from South Dakota - we have more cows than people. I've grown up on red meat. But I never knew a steak could be so tender and amazing. If I could have one of their filet mignons, fresh broccoli, a nice baked potato, and some sinful chocolate thing with coffee for dessert....yeah I could do that every day.
3) If you were an animal, what would you be?
I think I'd like to be some kind of bird - just to get the experience of flying. A hawk or an eagle maybe. But really, I'd probably actually be a narcoleptic cat or a sloth.


4) Which to you prefer- sweet or salty?
Sweet. No doubt about it. But I will say that after I eat something sweet, I like to have a salty thing to balance it out.
5) Where's the most romantic place you've kissed someone?
Jeff and I once had an absolutely perfect date when our relationship was new. We had dinner at this little Italian restaurant (Del Pietro - couldn't find a website...but go if you get a chance) in St. Louis. The meal was perfect, the wine was great, the lighting was warm...it was just a perfect evening. The combination of being newly in love, the sensory input of the food, the wonderful conversation - it just all added up to an amazing night...it wasn't so much the place as the circumstance and ambiance. I will admit that some kissing went on that evening and nine months later we had Noah. I'M TOTALLY KIDDING!!! Noah showed up way more than a year after that!!! The kissing part was as perfect as the rest of the evening at that's all you need to know!

Painted myself into a corner...or....

...quite possibly the worst limerick in the world.

Such a fine dessert I'll make
by using pineapple
upside down cake
and the boys from the band
that we call double Duran
I should never eat Prozac, then bake.

Ok. That's really bad. I was shooting for slightly naughty with the Duran guys covered in sweets, but I think it comes off more like a depressed cannibalistic leprechaun poem. Yikes.

I'll post the answers to the questions tomorrow.

*note to self, never do this again*

Killing me softly

I think putting the feedburner stats over to the left was an act of sado-masochism. I am riveted by that little tiny number. From the initial giddiness of 12, to the low of 9, the lofty heights of 17, back down to 10. It's like a microcosm of my self-worth in one tiny little box.

Why? Why do you do this to me? Who are you fickle people?

You came here. You read. You liked. You stayed a while. Then what? What did I do? Did I miss a typo? Did I make a grammatical mistake? Was I too snarky? Not snarky enough? Flippant? Insulting? Smell bad? Did you see "Stripped" at the top and expect something totally different?

Ahhh...the hell with it. I think I'm just going to accept that any number over zero is great. Any number over zero makes me want to stand up like Sally Field and start gushing about how much you like me, you really like me.

But hey, you know what's NOT killing me? Cigarettes. I missed my anniversary again. March 8 was seven months smoke free. Woohoo. *does the rid-myself-of-at-least-one-huge-butt dance of joy*

Anyway, this is kind of a rambling, going nowhere post. (Is that why? Should I be more focused? More pictures? More lists? Help me!!!) I kind of liked the thing Sandy and Lotus did recently. They invited their readers to ask any question of them. So hit me all 1 or 8 or 12 or 3 of you. Ask me any question and you'll get an answer or a plausible and interesting lie.

I think I'm going to get five respones to this. Ha. If I get more than five people asking me questions...ummm...I will...mmmm...I will come up with a mildy naughty limerick involving Prozac, Duran Duran, and pineapple upside down cake.

Wow. I hope no one reads this now.

Weekly Winners 03.09.08

Idea, organization, and all-around coolness the brainchild of Lotus.

These really look much better if you click for the larger version.

I didn't take a lot of pictures this week with the flu and everything.
Hope you enjoy these!

Paws

I don't know how it's possible to mess up muffins from a box, but somehow I managed it. All of them were totally flat, but this one managed to be further deformed. I should never try to bake.


It's all about the attitude.
We're going to have trouble with this one in a few years.

Jeff turns 40 this year. And look what fun thing came in the mail!!!
I am going to tease him about this from now until approximately the end of time.
I love the AARP!

Scrolling Saturday 03.08.08

S C R O L L I N G S A T U R D A Y

Melissa at Such Simple Pleasures and Coleen at Manners and Moxie have this really cool “meme“. You go back in your archives, dig up an old blog post, repost it, and let it get some new love!

I wrote this post last September before we went on a road trip. Still hacks me off. There were a couple of news links above the main body, but I eliminated those here.

****RANT ALERT****

I'm not a big sports fan. I don't mind a Broncos game now and then. I like ice skating. I used to follow tennis. But no one in the household is a big fan in any way. So when sports begin to inconvenience my life it just REALLY HACKS ME OFF. I think that sports can be a good thing. Children can learn the advantage of team work and fair play...blah blah blah. But I just cannot understand these big sports obsessions. The pinnacle of this insanity are those instances when people riot and destroy things when their team wins. What the *bleep* is that about???

Anyway the point of this whole rant is that I've been inconvenienced and I'm truly miffed. On our many trips to and from St. Louis, we usually never make reservations. We just stop when we're ready to stop and find a hotel room - no big deal. My mom is much more of a planner and insisted that we book rooms. It's a good thing we listened to her. On the drive down, we normally stop in St. Joseph, Missouri, which is about an hour north of Kansas City. When I called to find a room I learned that there are NO rooms in the entire town, or anywhere within about 100 miles of Kansas City. We finally did find a room in some little tiny burg, and we are going to wind up paying $125 for a room that is normally $65 a night.

Why is this so??? (well you may ask)

NASCAR.

Oh my freakin' good grief. NASCAR???? Are you kidding me???

This offends me on so many levels. I'm sure there are plenty of wonderful people who are NASCAR fans. But come on. I can't imagine anything more boring than watching cars go 'round and 'round for hours on end. You either have to have the world's lowest entertainment threshold or you're some kind of evil jerk who is just hoping for a spectacular crash. It just isn't impressive to me. Oh wow - a bunch of professional drivers drove around. Assign a random few of the drivers to get loaded or having screaming kids in the car and THEN win the race - that would be impressive. Or maybe have a bunch of amateurs do it. Or use "real" cars that just break down randomly for no reason. NASCAR. *weeps*

I'm also including this paragraph from a post I did at the last Daylight Savings Time in October. I expect Dylan to come home early tonight!!

But hands down the funniest thing that happened this past week was from Dylan. He has a curfew of midnight on the weekends. At about 11:40 pm on Saturday night I get a phone call. "Hey Mom, doesn't that clock thing happen at midnight? I should get another hour." I never laughed so hard in my life. First I told him that the "clock thing" actually happens at 2 am, NOT midnight. I further asked him if he was willing to come home an hour EARLY next spring for the next clock thing. He said no. In any event, I felt he deserved points for creativity and for putting a smile on my face. He was allowed to stay out until 12:30.

Big Fat Ugly B

Influenza B
Why did we get our flu shots?
My boy sick again

I cannot seem to get my little guy healthy this winter. The whole city is down with this flu. Daycares are closing, people cannot visit the maternity ward at the hospital, the nursing homes are closed to visitors, it's just crazy. I know the flu shots can't protect against all strains, but....well what does it do?? Do I assume we all would have come down with 9 other strains without that shot? I'm starting to think the shot is just a placebo. Every single year that my family gets a flu shot, we still get the flu. Can't they add these other strains into the shot? I know I don't understand how this works, but can it be better explained before they plunge a needle into Noah's arm and make him scream? Grrrr.

I think I'll start a new tag called Grrrr for things like this. Daily Grrrr maybe. Or weekly. Or maybe Random Grrrr.

Hammy

Here are 13 actors that are getting on my nerves. I do watch and enjoy some of their movies, but basically I think they've gotten somewhat stale.

1. Tom Cruise. Nuttiness aside, the guy is just a one-trick pony. His entire career has been based on playing a variation of the same annoying jerk you went to high school with: fighter pilot jock, bartender jock, lawyer jock, sports agent jock, etc. Toothy weirdo anyway.
2. Al Pacino. I wish I could remember where I read this so that I could give proper credit. But basically, the Pacino school of DRAMA is all about screaming parts of your oddly-inflected SENTENCE like a DEranged madman. You don't NEED to know how to act if you can PULL off a lunatic yell from TIME to time. HOO-AH!
   
3. Jack Nicholson. I don't care how many Oscar's the guy has won. He's basically an older, creepier version of Tom Cruise. But instead of being the annoying jerk you went to high school with, he's the scary friend of your dad's that you made sure never to be alone with for any reason. Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere's Freaky.
4. Adam Sandler. I'll probably get some hate mail on this one. I just don't think the guy is very funny. I think he's mostly really juvenile and gross.
5. Brad Pitt. This one was iffy for me. It depends on the role. That "I'm so beautiful yet such a misunderstood and tortured soul" thing got old REALLY fast. But I do kind of like him in comedies....Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Ocean's 11, etc.
6. Richard Gere. I once heard a comedian say that all you have to do to imitate Richard Gere in a dramatic scene is clench your jaw, blink your eyes rapidly, and do a couple of loud, deep breaths. That's basically it.
7. Diane Keaton. She plays the same daffy, screechy, flustered poorly-dressed twit in every movie she's in. Have you seen Annie Hall? Great. You've seen every single Diane Keaton performance from now to eternity.
8. Woody Allen. I don't care what kind of cinematic genius you might think this guy is. Yuck. He's creepy as all hell and that just ruins it for me. We all know the WRONG turn his personal life took and he keeps casting very young women as his love interest in his movies. Disgusting. Get help. Get on a predator list.
   
9. Sean Penn. He'll always just be Jeff Spiccoli to me.
   
10. Johnny Depp. Oh no. Now the really mean comments. I just don't get it with him. It just seems like he's trying waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too hard to be edgy and different. He's like a grown Emo kid or something.
    
11. Michael Douglas. He's either crazy/nutty/wild guy with a beard and Manson eyes. Or he's the slimy corporate bastard with his hair slicked back.
    
12. Jennifer Aniston. Yeah I feel bad that Angelina stole your dreamy hubby. (But hey...she IS Angelina and you really just didn't stand a chance. Team Jolie all the way!) It doesn't mean you can be anything other than Rachel until the end of time. Sorry.
13. Elijah Wood. My husband made me watch all 8700 hours of Lord of the Rings. I hate that hairy-footed little dweeb and wish that Sauron had put that stupid ring...... Sorry, I'll stop.
    

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Plot development 101

Obviously the Fox network is not reading my blog either. Perhaps my Thursday Thirteen post about Native Americans was unclear. Here's what I said:

Despite what you have learned from really stupid horror movies, building your home on an old Indian burying ground will NOT cause poltergeists in your house. Although I don't follow any Native religions, I am QUITE certain that the afterlife of Native peoples does NOT involve sucking little blond wasicus (that means white people, for all you white people) into TV's. But don't mess with burying grounds - it's rude and you wouldn't want us to do it to you. Plus the NAGPRA folks will get you. Furthermore, despite what Mr. King would have us believe, burying your pet in an old Native burying ground will not cause the pet to come back to life and kill your family.

I suppose I should not have limited this complaint to the horror genre. Fox premiered a new show last night called, "New Amsterdam." I didn't watch it, but caught a little flash on a commercial that led me to do further research. Here's what I found on Wikipedia:

The main character is John Amsterdam (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), a New York homicide detective who is immortal. Amsterdam was a Dutch soldier in the year 1642 when he stepped in front of a sword to save the life of a Native American girl during a massacre of her indigenous tribe. The girl in turn rescued Amsterdam by weaving an ancient spell that conferred immortality upon him.

Ok. We don't really do that. By all means - if you see someone attacking a Native girl with a sword, please jump in front of it to save her life. Lots of people will be really happy if you do this. But we're not really going to make you immortal by weaving a spell. In fact, even if we could do that, isn't it kind of mean??? "Oh thanks for saving me from the sword-wielding madman. I am now giving you immortality so that you can outlive all your friends and watch everyone you care about get old and die while you remain freakishly young." That seems more like a punishment than a reward.

So, to all movie-makers, authors, TV executives, etc. Please do not use Native mojo to explain your weak-ass plot line or story arc. While we're at it, please do not use any ethnic mojo (see Karate Kid, The Matrix, etc) to explain these things. Either come up with a reasonable story that isn't insulting and sophomoric or just leave it to those that can. kthxbai.

Weighing in

I was noticing yesterday that if you look at my label list off to the left, I have *ONE* entry for "Diet". hahaha (Well...there should be 2 now after I post this.) Shows how important that's been in my life, huh? I really do need to get going on this though. I'm starting to become really uncomfortable with myself. My knee is doing a lot better and there's no reason why I can't start doing some reasonable exercise. I also really need to cut the sweets. What was the point of quitting smoking if I'm just going to kill myself some other way?

This is not going to be any fun. And I think in some ways it's WORSE than quitting smoking. People have to eat. It's not like you can just remove food from your life like you can with cigarettes. I can't go around and throw away all my plates and forks like I did with the ashtrays and lighters. This is especially hard with kids. Why should they be deprived of fun snacks, just because I have control issues? Also, I think the diet results are wwwwaaaaayyyyyy slllooowwweerrr to see. When I quit smoking, I noticed that lack of smoke-stink right away. I noticed the ability to sing long and loud right away. But I gave up pop 2 months ago and have GAINED four pounds. Grrrr. To lose a 1/2 pound or even a pound a week just doesn't seem like much to celebrate. Because there's allllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll those pounds left to go. *bleh*

I'm not the world's most patient person...in case this wasn't painfully obvious. I want things to happen yesterday, if not sooner. I can tell myself that it took 10+ years to get to this weight so that it's going to take time to take off. I understand that. But I don't GET it....if you know what I mean. It's frustrating and seems like such a huge hill to climb. *bleh again* I'm veering off into whiny territory.

Anyway, I'm going to set a new goal. I have given up the pop and that was VERY hard for me. I'm unsure how to tackle some of the other food problems. I'm afraid that if I *ban* something completely, I'll never stick to it and give up. On the other hand, if I say I'm only going to have one dish of ice cream a week, either the "dish" will be my giant stock pot or I'll sneak some every night. Maybe I need to padlock everything and give the code to Jeff. Or maybe Dylan....he'd probably get a kick out of forbidding ME from something for a change. I think the thing to do is fill myself up on good food and only then have a snack if I'm still hungry. Like if I'm eyeing the ice cream, I have to first eat a giant salad....or something. Or maybe no eating after a certain time. I don't know.

Any other reasonable suggestions out there?

Me meme

I got tagged by Maggie.

THE RULES:
1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Post THE RULES on your blog.
3. Post 7 weird or random facts about yourself on your blog.
4. Tag 7 people and link to them.
5. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

1. I don't have a middle name. No one believes this - people think I'm hiding something dreadful like Beulah or Gertrude or Moonbeam (no offense to all you Beulahs, Gertrudes, and Moonbeams). But I really do not have a middle name.
   
2. I learned how to drive a stick shift when I was about 12 years old. I took out a volleyball net during this process.
3. My first car was the volleyball net incident car - a blue 1977 Honda Civic. HATCHBACK. Woohoo!!! I miss that little bubbly car.
4. I once had a beautiful 1/2 lab, 1/2 St. Bernard puppy. She was yellow and had green eyes. We took her swimming at the river and she disappeared. She was a beautiful, friendly dog and we think she was stolen. I was heartbroken.
5. I once dated a guy my sister really liked, just because she liked him. I actually couldn't stand the guy because he was about as smart as a box of hair. I'm not proud of this one.
   
6. I have over 1,000 books. They are all alphabetized by author. My DVD's are all alphebetized by title. I'm proud of the books, but the alphabetizing is wee bit psycho.
7. I don't like rules (unless they pertain to the alpabetization of my stuff).

Per #7, I'm not going to tag anyone (besides, Maggie tagged half the people I know). If you want to play please join in.

Weekly Winners 03.02.08

Idea, organization, and all-around coolness the brainchild of Lotus.

These really look much better if you click for the larger version.

This is my niece's baby Andrew. He's so lovely. I may be stealing him.

In other news, the under the bed monster strikes again.

He's so small in a world so big.

Noah loves when Dylan gives him airplane.

Twister? Uh...not so much.

Twister has other desires.

I was playing around with the camera, hoping to do a cute picture titled "Catching Some Rays" or something like that.

Then I started to realize that I could highlight just one finger.

Like so:

So you know what I did next, right?

Hahaha. Hey mom my reads this. I can't put up a picture of me flipping off the camera. She'd be embarrassed and might chastise me. Besides, I would NEVER do that. :-D

Bring a No. 2 pencil and bend over....

Dylan is off taking the SAT test right now. Oh there are so many joys of being a grown up. No more standardized tests has to be right up there with being allowed to drink, no curfew, and control of the remote. But these years are fleeting - pretty soon it's mammograms and colonoscopies...which, from what I've heard, seem to be basically the physical manifestations of SAT tests.

What kind of cruel monster decided that the SAT test should be at 7:45 in the morning? Because as we all know, teenagers are at their absolute best before 8 am. I think that's idiotic. I don't even like the idea of Dylan operating a car this early. I'm also not wild about this test for him. Dylan is a really bright kid, but his gifts and abilities are not the kind that are measured well by a test like this. Sit down and talk with him and you can see how smart and inquisitive and thoughtful he is, but force him to sweat out a test for 4 hours and you're not necessarily going to see that. Bleh.

In other news, we're going shopping for Noah's birthday presents today. His birthday isn't until April 2, but we live in such a small town that I want to see what's available here in case I need to order some stuff on-line. Here's how we're leaning based on market (Noah) research:

Obviously Transformers stuff.

I'm wary though because of lot of on-line reviews I've read have indicated that these toys are very cheaply made (shocker) and fall apart easily. I'm not so much concerned about wasting my money as I am with him being disappointed in something he really wants.

Martian Matter Alien Maker

Reason 984,345,658 why I hate cartoon channels/networks....kids see advertisements for crap like this and want it. This is some sort of goo that you put in molds and it makes aliens....or something. AKA: messy crap to clean out of my rug that will never look as cool on the stuff TV no matter what you (meaning the parent) do.

Muzzy Spanish

Noah has been asking for this for quite some time. They have this at his daycare and every once in a while he comes home doing Spanish numbers or colors. Unfortunately, those DVDs must be made out of platinum, because this set of stuff is REALLY expensive. I can't seem to justify in my head spending $200 for this. I've looked on E-Bay and might be able to find some cheaper used alternatives. I love that he seems to like learning a new language and I want to foster that, but it's a lot of money to spend on something that could wind up being a passing whim. Si.

Anyway, if you have any suggestions for a 5 year old kid, do tell. Please mark your answers clearly with a No. 2 pencil.