Raise Your Hand if You Agree!

I shamelessly stole this, but only because I love it so much. I plan to follow this advice very soon. On October 11, to be exact.

Have Wagon, Will Travel

I'm ready for my solo trip to the beach next month!

Contents Under Pressure

I recently spent the night out of town for work, and took a cooler since it was a car trip. In the hotel room, I simply could not open the bottle of flavored sparkling water I took with me. In fact, I blistered a finger with my multiple attempts.

I used my trusty Leatherman Micra to cut the plastic tamper ring from the cap, but it didn't help matters. By that point there was no way I was giving up.

Guess what worked like a charm?

This Week in Auntie K Land

Sunday: Taught my last adult Sunday School lesson. In two weeks I start teaching the four year olds.

Monday: Mowed the lawn for the first time this season, and lived to tell about it.

Tuesday: Finally got serious about my agenda for the library conference I'm attending next week in Indianapolis. First decision: Where to eat Thursday night (grabbed the last spot at a pizza restaurant dinearound). Yes, wherever I go in this country, I'm always on the lookout for good pizza. Suppose I now ought to focus on the sessions I plan to attend. Well, maybe I'll check out local shopping and sightseeing options and THEN focus on the sessions I plan to attend.

Wednesday: With a start like this, who knows where Wednesday will take me!

What Would We Do Without FB?

My life will not complete until I have visited the Home for Wayward Babydolls. Who's up for a road trip?

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image: Image of dolls hanging over and piled on a canopied bed in a room in Chicago, Illinois [photonegative]. ca. 1904. Chicago Daily News negatives collection, DN-0002099. Courtesy of Chicago History Museum. Available from American Memory at http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/cdn:@field(NUMBER+@band(ichicdn+n002099))

Just Sayin'

For once in my life, I'd like to go to bed at a reasonable hour the night before a trip out of town. This, apparently, will not be that one time. But by golly, I'm determined to rip those two audiobooks, wash all the dishes and paint my toenails before I leave. A girl's got to have her priorities in order.

You Get What You Pay For

I took the three oldest ARW children to the dollar store on Saturday. I didn't think we would ever get three year old L out of there. He kept wandering each aisle picking up and discarding things, and no matter what we suggested to him, he rejected it.

Seven year old A couldn't decide between a toy pony and an art kit to make a crown, but she ended up with a kite kit instead. I tried to point out she might like something that would last a bit longer, but my advice wasn't heeded.

So how long do you think a kite (actually two kites) from the dollar store lasts? That kite was the source of many tears and arguments (some violent) the rest of the day, as it broke right away and the second kite couldn't even be put together. Five year old J bought a bow and arrow he was quite pleased with, but not inclined to share. It was ugly! Eight month old J, however, was happy to chew on the cutlass that accompanied the bow and arrow set, so he benefited from the trip without even spending any money.

Back to L, he had a jump rope in his hands until he saw trading cards on the way to the check stand. I managed to get those out of his hands, and then IN the check stand aisle he saw batteries, and that was it. L insisted he needed batteries for his frog, and I knew we'd have an argument if I pushed it, so he bought four AA batteries and I bought the jump rope as a backup.

When we arrived home it turned out that L does indeed have a frog, Tad, who talks and sings and counts. Unfortunately, Tad requires AAA batteries, but Dad produced some without L knowing the difference. I gave L the jump rope since I have no need of a dollar jump rope, and he was happy (he broke the handles, with his teeth, a couple of hours later). Tad is still talking and singing and counting, as far as I know. His batteries are too well hidden for L to reach them, unless he learns how to remove a screw with his teeth.

A was not interested in learning the meaning of the title phrase, You Get What You Pay For, something that especially applies to kites.


ps - A later hung up each kite as a wall hanging, and she was fairly pleased with that, though I'm not sure it completely erased the earlier sting.

Neverending Story

No, we're not talking about the 1984 fantasy movie. We're talking about my life. Every day (practically).

I didn't find the missing Caffeine Fix, but I made some interesting discoveries during my search. The inner dialogue went something like:

North Texas tolltag? I didn't even know it was missing. And I never would have found it here!

Compact mirror. Sure wish I could make myself use it. Well, it wouldn't hurt to transfer it to yet another bag.

Wait a minute. Where's the bag I took to Day Camp last month? I haven't seen it since then. I better not have lost it there.

Aha! I knew I'd find you, rogue library Dogs and Cats book missing since October! Apparently I took you to KY at Christmas. Huh. This is a pretty good book. I should take it next time I see the children. Lincoln does love his "arfies."

Hello, running watch. This saves me a trip to my gym locker, since I planned to take you to FL tomorrow. But wait, maybe I should take this $14 fashion watch instead. Too bad the battery is dead.

Where on earth is that stupid bag? Now that I've thought about it, I really need to take it on the trip.

Four boxes of Puffs Plus? I knew I couldn't be completely out. Good thing I only bought three more and not another six.

State of the Monday

• I arrived at work at 10 am today. Not as early as I hoped, but not terribly bad (10:30 is my official start time).
• I'm going on vacation in two days. A real vacation. At the beach.
• My toenails are painted for the first time this summer. Mrs. O'Leary's BBQ
• I brought my Primary bag to work today by mistake. This will necessitate a trip home pretty soon to retrieve the correct bag.
• I'm reading The Snake, the Crocodile and the Dog as part of my ongoing bid to once and for all reread and then finish the rest of the books in the series. It really doesn't get much better than Amelia Peabody. She's a great mood lifter.
• In other nail lacquer news, I can't find my bottle of Caffeine Fix. Hmmph.
• I watched the second episode of Zen on Masterpiece last night. Great! I'm now eager to read one of Michael Dibdin's books. If they're as good as Donna Leon's books, I'll be in heaven.

What's going on in your Monday?

Almost All of the Family

I'll try to include little J on the next trip--the batteries were nearly dead this time. The middle child always gets a bum deal, doesn't he?

Perspective

Here is one of the upright cables on the Golden Gate Bridge, with my hand in front for perspective. When I got to the Marin County side of the bridge, I rested at the visitors area for a while, and heard a tour guide telling his group that the bridge is so named because of the golden effect of morning sunlight glinting off the bridge.

Hmm. And what about the fact that the strait itself was called the Golden Gate long before the bridge was built?

Looking Up

My first morning in San Francisco, I walked across and back on the Golden Gate Bridge, almost a 3 mile walk. Despite warnings about cold, wind, and bridge vibrations, I thought the walk was quite pleasant. Here's my view of one of the international orange (not red) towers.

D is for

I think this is a dahlia. Whatever it is, it was growing in a rooftop garden I visited during a walking tour of privately owned publicly open spaces in San Francisco. More about POPOs later.

Yummy Things that Start with C

Meyer Lemony Lemon: Vanilla cupcake with a tart lemon filling and lemon buttercream

I went to Fisherman's Wharf looking for a crepe cart. No crepes in sight, but I did find this tasty gem at Ghirardelli Square.

How About that Flash?

K and A in San Francisco

(in Burlingame, actually, but we won't quibble)

Priorities

I love visiting in Utah with my mom and aunt (Auntie lives there, Moth visits at the same time I do).

The reasons I love this trip are plentiful, but include my aunt's arctic basement, being able to legitimately listen to all the "adult" talk and being able to ask questions (can't do that when you're an eavesdropping child), perusing the cookbook collection, and doing the crossword puzzle every day (everyone gets her own photocopy).

One of the other reasons the trip is so enjoyable is that these two women have their priorities straight. The agenda above proves my point.

I must mention that the written list is missing several things we did while I was there (root canal, burnt sugar marshmallows, sugared peanuts, See's Candies, Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House, Sundance, Hires Big H, Rubio's) as well as a few things the other two have done since I left (Julie and Julia, bookclub, Fleming's). But the list gives you the general idea. Can't wait for next year!

On the Town

One of the stops near the end of my most recent trip was Taffy Town. I think the name says it all.

Anti-Awesome

My weekend trip was very good, and I loved seeing three of my nieces. More about that later, perhaps. The week back at work was particularly tough, filled with four very long days, and I'm looking at more work over the weekend. :-(

So, this post will only be a short rant against Mozilla. Please ignore me if you have no interest in Firefox (or think it's only the name of a movie).

The Firefox 3 location bar is, imho, decidedly anti-awesome. In what world is my bookmark for a government Web site about raw fruits and vegetables relevant to my action of typing www into the location bar? It's not relevant in my world, and I don't want to see it cluttering up my computer screen, along with all my other bookmarked sites that have some vague connection to the letter w.

If I want to search for a site containing a "w" I'm going to use the handy search engine box next to the location bar. Call me old-fashioned, but I liked my plain-jane location bar, and I didn't start typing in it unless I knew the URL I wanted.

Trust me, I'll either be trying a fix or returning this upgrade to the sender.

Taking Off

I'm off to Michigan and Ohio on Wednesday, combining a trip home with my dear friend eb and a quick visit to Nieces 1, 2, and 4.

I never even finished blogging about my last trip, and here's another one. Aren't I the jetsetter!

Looking Forward, or, An Ohio Evening

I just made plans with my dear friend eb to go to Ohio over Labor Day. She's offered many invitations over the years, but in the past I've demurred with excuses of work, penury, or school. Those excuses still exist (work and school are now combined, since I work at a school), but I'm going to say "What the heck" and do it anyway. I'm feeling happy about having another fun trip to look forward to. Also, buying a ticket to Ohio will put me even closer to another Southwest award ticket, which I promise will be used to go to Texas.

The trip agenda includes eb's high school reunion, which should be infinitely less painful than my own reunion, which is also this summer (Mom, are you certain you already threw away my invite?). Two of eb's siblings are getting married (not to each other, of course!) in August and will have an open house in Ohio that weekend, we'll drive through Amish Country, and visit some of the Ohio LDS historical sites like the John Johnson home. Maybe I can even wrangle a meet-up with the original sources of my aunthood and their younger sister, who are just a hop, skip, and a jump from Ohio.

(Soundtrack for this post is my latest download, "Look at Miss Ohio," on Jimmy Carter: Man from Plains (Music from the Motion Picture), performed by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, with additional vocals by Gaida Hinnaw).