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Wishlist
Since we've started receiving catalogs daily by the dozen, I've turned over kid-related ones for Christopher to look through. (He calls them manuals, and doesn't appreciate it when I refer to them as anything else.)
Today I handed him a kids' catalog manual and a Highlights magazine, and he went through each, circling anything that struck his fancy.
One might think that Highlights magazine would be short on wishlist material. Truth be told, I didn't really notice that I'd handed him a Highlights along with the manual, but I did find it curious when he remarked that he'd found "something to eat" in one of the manuals.
When we went through the manuals together, I had to smile at his choice of a toothpick, cracker and marshmallow menorah. I think I'd buy it if I could:
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Procrastination
Don't get me wrong. There are a million things I *should* be doing. None of them are as fun as this, though.
Click the picture to see us in action!
Thank you, E, for showing me this!
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Funny Product of the Day
This is from Restoration Hardware, costs $25, and is called the Halitosis Detector.
The description says that it "measures four escalating stages of unfreshness".
I'm laughing both at the concept and at the funny face on the meter.
p.s. If you get this as a gift from me this year:
1. Act surprised
2. Don't be offended. You don't have bad breath! I'm just weird.
3. Be happy that you have a great party game conversation piece.
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Random, I know
But this picture of my brother (caught in a rare silly ham mood) doing his Flock Seagulls impression cracks me up:
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Subtlety
I wonder what the boy could be telling me.
He did this after I asked what he thought of my holding our friend's baby:
His reaction when I told him how funny babies are, and how funny he was as a baby (notice the eyes crinkling with giggles):
I *might* have also asked him what he thought of babies in general, and of the idea of a sibling in particular. (don't freak out - it was just a question. no babies in the works here.) His look of consternation reminds me a lot of the one my mom gave me just before I misbehaved.
He followed up the ever-so-subtle ZERO signs with, "Don't even think about making another one."
Just in case I didn't get it the first three times.
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Hungary, My Foot
These particular Hungarian Vizslas wouldn't last a day in Hungary!
 I couldn't find Bacchus anywhere, until I walked into my bedroom and hear a telltale thumping noise which was the cutie wagging his tail.
I literally had to peel back the covers to find him - he was all the way underneath, at the foot of the bed - and I was greeted by a blast of hot air and a groan which obviously meant, "Cold! Cold! Cold! Cover me up!!"
It's 67 degrees in this house. I don't think Hungary hits 67 degrees till July.
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Novelty
 For the half-mile walk to school, Frank's got the boy bundled up to survive an Arctic trek.
Coat, mittens, hat, hood, and yes, a dog scarf. You may recognize this scarf as having adorned the famous Vizsla brothers in last year's Christmas card picture.
Gotta love it. (Not pictured: Frank, who's wearing running shorts.)
At least the boy's smiling! 10 minutes before this picture, we'd taken a quick trip past Grumpytown to Meltdown City, all over the tying of shoes.
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Happy Thanksgiving!
Hope you're having as good a day as we are!
Traditional Thanksgiving here, with the added celebration of Frank's birthday!
He was especially gratified that the Cowboys of Dallas beat the J-E-T-S Jets for him on his birthday. I'm especially grateful that Frank's now as old as I am and that I don't have to hear about being old for another 5 months. :)
Here are a couple of highlights from our day:
Christopher & Aunt Michelle (and Jax) having a party in our room:
Christopher and the dogs (the dog on the left belongs to Frank's parents)
Frank & Christopher after blowing out Frank's birthday candles.
And finally, an attempt to get everyone in a picture. There may or may not have been wine & cocktails involved in the making of this picture.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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Who Knew?
After school yesterday Christopher informed me that, for Tuesday's Thanksgiving performance, he'll be on the top riser because he's tall.
Wonder what THAT's like?!
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Major progress
Lots of progress being made!
Yesterday, our breakfast/family area looked like this:
As of this afternoon, our breakfast/family area looks like this:
We're getting there!
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Tile!
Well, the progress was slow from my perspective, but apparently there was a lot of prep work to be done.
One of their tasks was to remove the tile from our hearth. I'm hoping to see some replacement sheetrock today for this:
The guys were very dedicated, and stayed till about 7:30pm. This is what we've got so far:
They're supposed to be here early this morning and should get the rest of the whole tiles done. They'll do the decorative tiles and all the ones they have to cut later today and tomorrow, and will finish with grout.
It looks great so far!
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Let the Tiling Begin!
The tile people are coming today at 9 (fingers crossed!) to begin laying our floors.
Here's what our family room/breakfast area looks like right now:
Stay tuned for more progress pics, and please accept my apologies for the lame blog posts. I don't have anything on my mind right now except getting my house back :)
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Tile Madness, Day 2
Frank made a lot of progress yesterday afternoon:
I tried to take a BEFORE pic of the dining room, but the dust obscured it a bit:
I cannot recommend a Shop Vac highly enough. They are amazing!
More soon, if we can still breathe.
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Milestones
This weekend, Frank and Scott ran two marathons. Each. Richmond, VA on Saturday and beautiful Harrisburg, PA on Sunday.
Frank ran his best time ever (3 hours, 49 seconds) on Saturday and finished in a great time on Sunday, too. Here's what Frank looks like 90 seconds after his second marathon of the weekend:
Scott managed to get past an Achilles strain and no training for two weeks to pull off his first "double" with a 4:45 and a 4:58. Here's Scott at mile 5 of the Harrisburg marathon:
I don't know how these guys do it (or whether they *should*) but I'm in awe of their ability & willpower. Great job, guys!
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Craziness around here
Day 1 (last Friday):
More pics to follow this week.
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Dora? The horror!
 Conversation between Christopher & a good buddy:
Christopher: So I like to play this Dora game on nickjr.com
Buddy: Yeah? Dora's stupid.
Christopher: (pause) Uh, yeah, and it's really cool because you have to help clean up the garbage -
Buddy: (Matter-of-factly) Cool. Hope she dies.
Me: (laughing under my breath but cringing for Christopher)
Christopher: (surprised pause) Uh, so there's an evil octopus who -
Buddy: Dora's for babies. When you get to be in first grade, you can't watch shows like Dora.
Christopher: (grasping at straws) Well, the octopus is a really bad guy. He's evil. I like evil.
Buddy: When you get to be a teenager, you can't watch any of those shows. You have to like watch the news or something and be grown up.
Christopher: Well, I hardly EVER watch Noggin and Nick Jr anymore (false). Mostly I watch the Cartoon Network because it has Goosebumps on it (which he's seen once and which terrifies him).
Buddy: Yeah! Goosebumps is cool! (Catching himself) But you won't be able to watch that when you're a teenager or your best friend might make fun of you. You have to do cool stuff.
Christopher: Well, I can watch whatever I like.
Buddy: Yep. But your best friend might laugh.
Christopher: (Attempts to feign indifference with a shrug)
Buddy: Do you still have those cool Legos at your house?
Christopher: Yup.
(Cue 10 minutes of fart noises from both boys)
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Typical Austin
 Yesterday while driving Christopher to gymnastics, I saw a sign on the side of the road urging citizens to vote NO on the local school district bond proposition. Punctuating this message were two words: Taxes and Traffic.
The sign suggested that passing the proposition would lead to a flood of traffic.
This cracks me up, sort of, because it's so typically Austin. The city I love has been growing steadily for decades, mostly against its own will. Austin drags its feet on issues like public transportation and expanding interstates, like a child who closes her eyes and ears in the hopes that the problem will JUST GO AWAY.
School districts don't think to themselves, Hey! I bet if we spend $500 million and build 8 more schools, people might decide to move here!
School districts think to themselves, Holy crap! Our schools are falling apart and class size is up to 42! What should we do about it?
The people are already here! The bond proposition is a reaction, not a ploy to get more people to move to lovely downtown Leander.
Anyway, the outcome (it passed) doesn't directly affect me, but the reverse 'logic' of the sign made me laugh.
On a related note:
If you're a candidate or backing a legislative bill or proposition, I highly recommend hiring me to do your website.
As of yesterday's election, I have a 100% success rate. My sample size? 2. So what?
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Can you figure it out?
When you have a Kindergartner, you become en expert codebreaker. Can you tell what this is saying?
The answer will be announced later this week.
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Our trip to Amsterdam in 5 pictures
In mid-October Frank, my brother Scott and I went to London and Amsterdam for about a week. Frank had a conference in London for a couple of days, so Scott and I and our friend M hung out and sightsaw (?) while Frank was busy.
After that we flew to Amsterdam for the weekend, where the boys ran a marathon. It was our first time in Amsterdam, and we found it entertaining and pretty. Here are the highlights:
This is the canal along which our hotel is situated. You might be able to see the vertical red HOTEL sign on the left side near the white building. This is what most of old Amsterdam looks like. Canals, pretty buildings, and lots and lots of bikes.
You can see the Ouede Kerk in the background. Ouede Kerk means "Old Church". Pretty creative!
Someone told us Amsterdam has more than 600,000 bikes, all of them (it appears) ridden by very tall people who apply their bike bells as often as possible.
You have to be quick on your feet lest a pedaling Nederlander plow you over in the road.
I got the hang of it after a while but noticed that the riders often let their hand hover over the bell, just in case I should jump back out in front of them.
It reminded me of a cartoon gun duel where they've got the twitching trigger fingers.
This one to the right is one of my favorites. On the left side you see the Red Lights that made the area famous - hello, ladies! - and in the center, a sign with an adult holding a child's hand.
Sure, I know it's supposed to be saying, Be careful! This area is dangerous! Hold children tightly!
But I think it looks like it's saying, happily, Families, this way!!
Is it just me?
This was the point in the evening when my camera started acting a little weird. But I like this picture because it's weird. I call it "What Amsterdam Probably Looks Like to 99% of its Visitors on a Given Night".
Next, a picture of me and Frank on a tram. Awwwww.
And finally, a terribly out-of-focus picture of the boys after their great marathon finishes!
Well, that was 6 pictures. Sorry.
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Well....
 Not sure what's going on, but our server troubles are messing with my ability to post blog entries!!
Hope to have it fixed soon!
Update: it's Blogger's fault and they're working on it.
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The circus
We attended the Ben Hur Shrine Circus last night, thanks to some friends who generously gave us some coupons.
Before the circus, all I "knew" about the Shriners is that they raise money for kids, they wear funny hats and ride tricycles, and that their mysterious logo/symbol reminded me of the Masons. Also, I'd heard that their circuses were some of the better ones in terms of animal treatment.
My eyes told me a little differently. The lion/tigers act seemed like barely controlled chaos with a sprinkling of gratuitous whipping, with the lion seemingly defeated and mangy and the tigers seemingly hate-filled and skinny.
The elephant act was pretty good, but I was torn between fascination and guilt while watching it skip around the ring and do handstands. This was cool, though:
The best act involved a clown and his little stuffed animals, one of which (an elephant) followed him around the ring and was revealed at the end of the act to be a little Toto-looking dog in a stuffed animal costume. Guess you had to be there, but we all agreed it was cute, and the dog seemed happy enough.
We left after the second act of the second half because it was nearing 10:00 and the boys were tired, and asking to leave. They'd even stopped demanding cotton candy and glowing light sabers, so we knew they were tired.
This morning I found, to my dismay, lots of evidence online that the animals used in the Shrine circuses are often very, very badly treated. Frank was similarly saddened by this, and we've agreed that exotic animal circuses just aren't the places for us.
(Thank you, super nice generous friends. I hope you're not offended by this entry; we really appreciate the coupons and the spirit in which they were given.)
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Happy November!
But since our website was down for a week or so, I'll now tell you about our Halloween.
(And thank you, Paul, once again, for all your help! How does it feel to hold so much power in your hands? ) :)
We started by having our 7th- or 8th, we can't quite remember - annual pumpkin carving extravaganza. This year, the crowd was small, but dedicated, and we had a great time.
As usual, Christopher and I made some seasonally appropriate, looked-better-in-my-mind snacks:
Christopher was really excited that he was allowed to draw AND carve his own pumpkin this year. Trust me, he was excited. Can you see the satisfied slight smirk on his face?
And this is how the rest turned out. They are certainly no match for Dave's awe-inspiring Patrick Swayze pumpkin, but we had a good time.
Here are the 2 boys on Halloween night:
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Just made it
So it's National Blog Posting Month, and we're supposed to try to make a post every day.
This is mine. Hopefully there will be no more like it.
Stay tuned...
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