August 6, 2007
Well, this has been an odd day.
My throat has been irritated and hurting for the past couple days, and this morning, I woke up and really couldn't manage speaking. Laryngitis, potentially of viral, not bacterial, origin. (No fever, no general cold symptoms.) It probably didn't help that we had a rowdy, goofy, raised-voices kind of weekend with the boys, either.
So driving the boys to camp: I can't talk and everyone in the car is silent. I make some hand signals to Keith and he tries to make hand signals back. No no no - I can't talk, but you can, goofball!
Most of the day was pretty quiet, lots of emails, Keith made some calls in my stead, and pantomimes to ...
June 27, 2007
INT. DINING ROOM TABLE - EVENING
JACK is doing some goofy hand-motions and burbling nonsense.
KEITH (to JACK)
And what, exactly, does that mean?
LAURA (to KEITH)
That the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
KEITH
Or that the apple doesn't fall far from the neighbor's tree.
LAURA falls off the chair laughing.
May 14, 2007
It used to be that 'making breakfast for mama' involved me making my own breakfast with four extra little pudgy hands involved. Not so anymore. Sam did the scrambled eggs completely on his own and Jack made a cinnamon crumb cake (from a mix, but I'm not counting that against him) with only minimal help from me.
They cleaned the car, too. This required more supervision, but they did a fairly reasonable job. No more sticky stuff in the back seat, windows reasonably fingerprint-free, floors vacuumed. Not too shabby.
How is it that it's taken me this long to get to
The Shins? Oh, I've heard of them, they appear on various '
recommendation' lists of mine, etc. - but I ...
May 7, 2007
Note to Martini Republic visitors: It's been a long time since I've had a link from there to here, but if you've found your way here from there, welcome.
I learned a new skill over the weekend: belaying. My younger son's birthday party was held at the local indoor rock climbing facility and the parents present were pressed into duty as belayers. The climbers wear a leg harness which is tied to a rope that goes through a pulley at the top of the wall. The belayer stands at the bottom, keeping tight hold of the rope and managing the slack so that if the climber slips, they don't fall, they just dangle from the end ...
April 21, 2007
Feelin' mighty nostalgic this morning, not sure why. But I may as well share a little piece of my nostalgia, eh?
I wish I was back on the Lochranza ferry
With long legged Keefy
Breathing the spray and the sweet island air of the morning
But I'm wasting away in this sweltering prison
The mercury's rising
And freedom's a dream that arrives and escapes with the dawning
I won't leave this link up very long, but if you want to hear the accompanying song running ...
April 3, 2007
Buzz marketing for the young: Jack and friends took the
play pump fundraiser buttons to school yesterday and sold a number to kids and teachers. More interestingly, the teachers were so pleased with the buttons that they invited Jack to do part of the 'morning announcements' this morning to tell the whole school about the buttons. A perfect lesson in marketing.
The tax man effeth off: Had our appointment with the
best. accountant. ever. yesterday and despite paying in no money, we're getting a refund.
30 degrees of separation: 70 degrees today, 40 degrees tomorrow. Why? Why oh why oh why?
One foot after the other:
Keith and
I now both have pedometers. Let ...
April 1, 2007
Jack has the best intentions, but still has the planning skills of a small boy, so if you have a moment in your day to stop by the car wash he organized, we would all appreciate it. The kids at Slauson Middle School are raising money to purchase a
Play Pump for a village in South Africa and they're out there trying to collect some donations for the effort. They're washing cars, and we've got some cool buttons coming, too. Even if you don't need the car washed, stop by, say hello and support a good cause. They really are trying hard. We'll be out here today (Sunday, April 1) until 4 or ...
March 28, 2007
My
mother has been expanding her
horizons and has been learning more about her camera and photography in general. She'd like to wrap her head around depth of field better, so here's my non-professional, not terribly technical explanation:
Depth of field is, generally speaking, the depth of the area that is in focus in your picture. As the aperture gets physically bigger, the depth of field gets skinnier. As the aperture gets physically smaller, the depth of field gets deeper. The trick there is to remember that bigger aperture numbers (like F16 or F22) are actually smaller physical apertures - so, bigger number, deeper depth of field.
The focus ring decides where that field, ...
March 27, 2007
"Ohhhhhhh! You're Jack's mom!"
I don't know what it is about that phrase that strikes such dread in me. Maybe it's the intonation, maybe it's the source - this time, the secretary at Jack's middle school. What's she going to say next?
It was good this time - she said he was such a sweet boy, which we hear a lot. He is a sweet boy and his natural confidence makes an impression on a lot of people. And then she remarked that it was amazing that he takes the public bus regularly (it goes right from his school to our house) and figured that if he could swing that as a 6th ...
