Playdate Tuesday

It'll have to be an inside playdate today, as it's cold outside.

Talkin' about gettin' messy with food coloring and shaving cream.......


And really, who doesn't want to do that??

spring has sprung, summer is here

How do I know?
Well, yesterday the chillens took their sidewalk chalk and decorated our doorstep

Kids live here.

And today we not only broke out the air conditioning, the two played with something I couldn't believe the grocery store was selling - I was incredulous that they're still being made...

a Slip 'N' Slide.



And while there wasn't a whole lot of sliding (C couldn't make his body bend the right way and would end up with his knees in front of him each time, and R really just didn't want to) there were lots and lots of grins and shouts and 'chase me!'s' and general summerish horseplay.


So I sat outside in my big white chair and watched my colts frolic and couldn't imagine a better way to spend a summer afternoon.

Hello, summer. We've missed you.

old meme, new twist

Stole this from TX Poppet (now in her new digs!) This made the rounds originally as a list from a men's magazine, and people originally posted about their husbands, but now it's mutated into things I can do....

The Rules: Bold the things you can do and you leave in normal type the things you can’t. Sarcastic comments in parenthesis are encouraged.

---

1. Give advice that matters in one sentence. (One sentence? Are you kidding? Unless it's something like: Date everyone. Be good. Or Don't Eat the Yellow Snow, the one sentence rule means I'm screwed. I babble on and on and on and on......)
   
2. Tell if someone is lying. (My kids? Quake before me. Everyone else? Not so much.)
3. Take a photo. (I'm pretty proud of the pictures I take, actually. Less thrilling, though, is the way I cannot understand Photoshop.)
4. Score a baseball game. (Little man slides into home plate. Check.)
5. Name a book that matters. (Oh, yeah, baby.)
6. Know at least one musical group as well as is possible. (Now if you had asked me back in high school I could have written you a dissertation on several groups.)
7. Not monopolize the conversation. (Me? Monopolize the conversation? I have the bhlaaag for that.)
   
8. Write a letter. (Email. Not so good on the postal thing. Ask my mother, who is pretty convinced I'm secretly aphasic and/or going to hell for never writing thank you notes.)
9. Swim three different strokes. (Isn't that a Billy Squier song? See, that high-school music knowledge coming back to me now....)
10. Show respect without being a suck-up. (Uh-huh. Your worship.)
    
11. Throw a punch. (I can never remember the thumb thing. Is it tuck it inside, or leave it out?)
12. Make one drink, in large batches, very well. (I can pour you a nice glass of wine very well. But I didn't make the wine, so I guess that doesn't work)
13. Speak a foreign language. (Does High School French count? It really shouldn't...)
14. Argue with a European without getting xenophobic or insulting soccer. (I've got nothing here. Can I insult the rain in Spain?)
15. Be loyal. (I am incredibly loyal, to the point of being ludicrous.)
16. Know his poison, without standing there, pondering like a dope. (I suck at names. Faces I'm pretty good at. Drinks I can nail.)
17. Cast a fishing rod without shrieking or sighing or otherwise admitting defeat. (Um, defeat? The first fish I fished for was a catfish. If seeing that slimy bottomfeeder didn't put me off fishing, why would a pole do that??)
18. Play gin with an old guy. (I can!)
19. Play go fish with a kid. (I do. (big sigh) I have also committed the Stupid Sin of buying Candyland. But I think I have 'lost' enough pieces now so that I can make a case to toss the damned thing.)
    
20. Feign interest. (My kid loves Dora. 'Nuff said.)
21. Make a bed. (Prettily. And teach my husband to make it as well.)
22. Describe a glass of wine in one sentence without using the terms nutty, fruity, oaky, finish, or kick. ( I can! And I can look knowledgeable and wave the cork under my nose too.)
23. Jump-start a car. Change a flat tire. Change the oil. (I can also change the filters, unstick a valve and tie something down on top so it won't fly away.)
    
24. Make three different bets at a craps table. (I don't understand many card games. I never learned to play poker, so that basic knowledge just isn't there.)
25. Shuffle a deck of cards. (No fancy tricks, but...yes.)
26. Tell a joke. (A man and a collie walk into a bar....)
27. Know when to split his cards in blackjack. (Not a clue.)
28. Speak to an eight-year-old so he/she will hear. (Damn, I hope so.)
    
29. Speak to a waiter so he will hear. (Wait. Is he deaf? Is this a trick question?)
30. Talk to a dog so it will hear. (Wait. Is he deaf? Is this a trick question?)
31. Install: a disposal, an electronic thermostat, or a lighting fixture without asking for help. (I don’t do wiring, period. Plumbing, yes. Painting, yes. Electricity? unh-uh.
32. Ask for help. (And read the manual, and find the right tool to install it with.)
33. Break another man’s grip on my wrist.( Prolly not. I can scream and bash him in the head with my (heavy) handbag, though.)
34. Tell a woman’s dress size. (I'm better at men's sizing than womens, despite years of retail.)
35. Recite one poem from memory. ( I think that I shall never see....)
36. Remove a stain. (The Boy is in Grade Primary. They play soccer a lot. Grass stains and I are fighting looong battles.)
37. Say no. ( To what? That? well, yeah....)
38. Fry an egg sunny-side up.(Not often, but yes. Plain eggs don't get on the menu much here. )
39. Build a campfire. ( I was a Girl Scout.)
40. Step into a job no one wants to do. (Official Vomit and Poop Cleaner, right here!)
41. Sometimes, kick some ass. (Yeah. Because walking softly and carrying a big stick doesn't always work)
42. Break up a fight.
    
43. Point to the North at any time. (Seriously? Is there a trick to that? I have no idea.)
44. Create a play-list in which ten seemingly random songs provide a secret message to one person. (Not since high school.)
45. Explain what a light-year is. (I like getting all science geeky with the boy, who has a sponge like brain for that sort of stuff.)
    
46. Write a thank-you note. (I'm lazy. A slob. Rude to the point of...rudeness. I just don't write thank you notes. I loved your present, I did, and when I called to tell you I did, could you not hear it in my voice?)
47. Be brand loyal to at least one product. (Oh, at least one.)
48. Find his/her way out of the woods if lost. (Probably. And I have good, well-developed lungs if I can't.)
49. Tie a knot. (See the rabbit? Now where does he run?)
50. Shake hands. ( Firmly. Looking the person in the eye.)

Considering this meme's origins, I just might make someone a good husband someday......

Too bad I'm already a wife.

at least I'm not selling the silver to make book, right?

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sometimes the news is funny

Today I was curling up to the internet, checking out the on-line newspaper...

Then I spit out my coffee on the screen and guffawed until the kids abandoned their Weetabix and came out to see what was the matter.

The main headline:
GO BIG BROWN!!!


The next story's headline, directly underneath: (in smaller type)
Clinton urges supporters to unite behind Obama


After I stopped laughing, I realized that Big Brown, of course, is the racehorse (who didn't win the Triple Crown, alas) and Hillary would never use racial slurs - even in a semi-funny way.

Not today, at least. (Snark!)

remember Caroline in The City?

Oh, my God, y'all.....

read this.

when I think of the VCR tapes I've tossed over the years....

Kinda makes you weep, doesn't it?

Like those Precious Moments commemmerative plates (waaaaay back when) that were given to my mother and I that somehow ended up at Goodwill.

Gulp.

what sweetney wants

A Moment In Time




Really not as pissed as I appear. Low on coffee and kid-whining-about-having-to-take-bath tolerance. Did, however, crop the picture so you can't get lost in the giant pores in my nose. (Must get facial.)

Want to do one too? go here.

things you don't want to know

• When washing clothes, remember son has had a snuffy nose for (well, ever) and look for Kleenex in pockets, or else you will spend a long time weeping over your dark shirts.

• Dog poop is funny when you put it on a shovel and chase your sister.
  It's less funny when you trip and whack yourself in the head with the (stick part) of the shovel and then your Mom makes you clean your shoes.

• Puzzles aren't any fun when pieces are missing. It is still NOT acceptable, though, to sob and toss pieces around like confetti while shrieking, and then kick the dog.

• Meatballs do NOT go well with mushroom alfredo sauce.
  

here kitty kitty kitty

This is our new foster kitty. Her name was Minette when she got here, now she's Minou/Cookie/Patches/Kitty-Witty/ the little one/Squeak. (We do our best to make sure all foster animals leave with a complex and aren't quite sure who they are.)

She's not shy at all and is usually squeezing her eyes shut and purring.

Here she is snacking on small boy. NOM NOM NOM NOM. Ice cream fingers= devoted kitty.

Isn't she a beauty? Now she needs a forever home. Fostering is something we like doing - the kids get to meet and pet and play with all sorts of animals, and we get to help nice cats and dogs be adopted.

Local? Call 902-350-2444 for information on Minette, or to inquire about fostering. The SPCA brings you food. They bring litter. They will pay for any medical problems and to have the animal spayed. And you get to have a lovely, purring kitten on your lap for a little while.

the crazy place

this page outlines what all the buildings were used for (also scroll over the map and click to see lots of other pictures) don't miss this, either

Flicka asked:

Why the insane asylum? I'm not asking that facetiously, I really want to know.

And I may give a longer answer than she needs!

I could swear I've written about the State Hospital before, but darned if I can find the post...suffice to say one night a friend and I had a ghost siting there...

Hmm. The State Hospital. When I was growing up it was acres of crumbling gorgeous buildings, beautiful trees, lots of spooky, eerie stories and a magnet for angst-ridden teenagers. My mother worked in a building across the street (the old nurses residence) and in the basement there was a tunnel leading across the street to many of the major buildings. It was rumored the grounds around the hospital complex were riddled with those tunnels, and searches would be made by flashlight at night, trying to find a way into the boarded-up stately place.

I've actually been in the main building (with permission! honest!) - the last part of it closed down in 1989, and I remember a pervasive smell of mildew, a room with crumbling wall paper, and chairs that looked like they'd been there forever.

There were so many stories! Although there was a general feeling of healing, of the drawing up and scarring over of an old wound around the huge trees and little courtyards, there were still tangible reminders that this had been a place of suffering not too long ago. I've been to the graveyard where many of the patients were buried, and I've seen dusty rooms with old stretchers stacked against the wall, restraints hanging drunkenly off the sides. There was a gorgeous building with a two-storey balcony - astoundingly beautiful, if you ignored the metal grid that kept people in.

When I was older I used to go for long solitary walks there - there were miles of trails - and I used to soak up the quiet and wish someone could find a way to bring life back to all that gorgeous architecture before all the buildings rotted to the ground. The (modern medical) hospital began to encroach upon its borders, and ominous noises began to be made about bulldozing the lot and using the space for a (sacrilege!) parking garage and perhaps a heli-port.

I moved to Canada while the debate was still raging, but I miss being able to grab my music player and stroll through all that space, all that healing, going-back-to-wild acreage in the midst of suberbia.

And from a crumbling eyesore that noone wanted to destroy but was too expensive to rebuild to this a place where the gracious old buildings live in harmony with rehabbed spaces. I haven't been there (I haven't been back!) but I can't wait to see....

ten places that feel like home

You don't have to live in places to feel like you're home.

Which is a very good thing, as my ten places include a long bridge, a county courthouse (a symbol of the town it's in) a waterfall, a falling-down insane asylum, a historically accurate tourist attraction, a city, a wharf, a racetrack, a simple front porch and a museum.

These are a few places where I feel most like myself, where things are simple and I'm happy just feeling the sun on my face and listening to the thrum of my life as it goes along.

As different as they are, I love them all - for the way I feel around them, for sweet memories and vacations snapshots kept in my mind. For long walks and time spent alone, for friends and laughing and journeys with loved ones by my side. Remembering the chuckle and burble and sweet slapping waves, the sound of the wind sighing through the trees. Echoes of days gone by.

Not pictured, but dearly loved too: My great-grandmother's kitchen, my best friends' front deck, the swimming hole at the lake access right off of M-72, the veterans cemetery in Holland, and the little dam behind the old theatre.



L to R, top row:
Ontario County Courthouse, Niagara Falls,Traverse City State Hospital, the horse statue at Churchill Downs, Louisville, Kentucky, Innisfree's front porch
L to R, bottom row:
Leland's Fishtown, Chicago, The Canso Causeway, The Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic, and the Coast Guard Station at Glen Arbor, Sleeping Bear Dunes.