How do they do that?

How do they do this??  (try it with different numbers - it still works, as long as you do do the simple math equation, even if you choose completely different numbers, which lead to completely different answers)

Christmas Flash Mob!!!

I love flash mobs... at least, I love the artistic sort.

Hopefully you love them, too, because I'm about to subject you to one.  My thanks to the wonderful Violet Hoarder for pointing this particular bit of joy out!

Why Can't We All Just Get Along?

My new roommates have taken to fighting constantly, and it's driving me batty.

It doesn't help that the heating ducts create a magnifying resonance to their voices, so that I can hear them swearing at each other very clearly from nearly anywhere in the house. 

I guess it's their business if they want to beat up on each other (I can hear the blows falling), but it would help if they weren't so da*ned shrill.

I wish the cat would put a stop to it, but she's old and deaf, and sleeps right through the altercations.

Sometimes I hate winter.

Stupid mice.

Election Shenanigans

With the elections coming up next week, we've been getting calls and emails galore every day for the last couple weeks. We're feeling pretty cynical about the whole thing, and are not particularly thrilled with any of our choices... but this political ad certainly caught our attention. Worth checking out, whatever your political leanings might be!

So There

In case my friend Roberta is feeling all gloaty-faced about the fact that it's currently ten degrees warmer where she is (in Sunny California) than where I am (in Minnesnowta) - and I only point this out because I am currently under the covers in my bed and I am STILL shivering and have snoticles forming at the tip of my nose - I would like to say for the record that according to the weather reports I will be the warmer of the two of us by the middle of next week.

I'm just saying.

I especially want to point the same thing out to my beautiful cousin Chris, who lives in Reno, NV, where it will be in the 80's today. Yeah, you feel all happy and warm now, but who's going to be top dog on Wednesday, eh? Upper 60's, baby, that's what I'm talking about...

*********************

Why, yes, I do think my brain may have developed frostbite and dropped several black shriveled sections onto my bedroom floor. Why do you ask?

Oh, My!!

Poor Scott. He has to choose between watching the Cincinnati Bengals play the New England Patriots, or watching the Detroit Lions play the Chicago Bears.

It's a quandary. How do you choose between Lions and Tigers and Bears?

I'm Glad We're Not Their Problem (Any More)

My son was homeschooled after his fifth grade year, and now he is in college. So it's been quite a while since we've darkened the door of a public school for any reason not involving governmental elections.

But when my son was in grade school, I spent a few years with our inner-city school district, teaching kindergartners to read and sometimes dealing with the EBD (Emotional/Behavior Disorder) kids. I spent some of that time in the Principal's office, dealing with the kids sent there by various teachers for disciplinary issues of one sort or another - disruption of class, fighting, stealing, cutting class, refusal to participate, sassing or hitting the teacher. There I often had the privilege (koff, koff) of meeting the child's parents/guardians, and listening to their interchanges with teachers and with the principal himself.

My experience is that for the most part, kids with discipline and/or EBD issues have absolutely no problem functioning well when given an environment in which there are consistently applied expectations and boundaries. Even kids with neurological issues - although many of the kids with EBD/discipline problems were actually very bright, indeed. In fact, the disciplinary problems were usually the sharp-witted ones.

It was unfortunately a rare occasion, indeed, where the parent called into the principal's office behaved better than the child in question. Once or twice a year a parent would sit quietly through the explanation for why they had been summoned, then apologize and offer an explanation for the child's state of mind, or ask for advice. Occasionally the parent would offer excuses having to do with a neurological condition, often blithely stating that nothing could therefore be done about the issue. But for the most part, the parent would blame the teacher, school policy, other kids, the homework, the babysitter, the government - anyone but the adults who theoretically were actually raising the child in question.

Usually this blaming process involved raised and snarling parental voices; sometimes it also involved banging or flinging of objects and pointed flouncing from the premises with the added punctuation of a slammed door. And unfortunately everyone was aware that it would probably involve the child ending up back in the office many more times before their school career was done.

Which is why the following comes as no surprise. Except in its honesty and lack of political correctness... I can't imagine the litigation-fearing schools of the U.S. would dare do any such thing.


Thanks to Susan T.R. for bringing this to my attention!

Vacation, All I Ever Wanted...

My mom is helping me tick off the one item on my Bucket List (thanks, mom!)

So I'm off to California. No, that wasn't the item from my Bucket List. The OCEAN is the item, and part of it can be seen from Hwy 1 and from the beaches along that route. So that is where we are going.

Along the way we will be visiting a few cool places and a few cool people (hi, Roberta & Rich!) and hopefully one or two cool whales.

I will report on our adventures when I return - around the 16th.

Until then, here are two Stephen Lynch songs. One is for those of you who is or knows a Gamer. The other is an Equal Opportunity Offender. Enjoy.

An Ad I Can Watch. More Than Once.

First there's the making of the ad. Then there's the ad, which is short and sweet.

I think you'll see why it's my kind of commercial interruption...

Celebrate!

We had our traditional Christmas Lunch at the Oak Grill today, and it was lovely. As always. I want to share the joy, but I can't serve up our lunch for you. Here's the next best thing:

This Counts As An OMG Moment

Movies Yes, Parking Spaces No

This past week I went to the movie theaters three times. It was a revelation.

First of all, what's with the handicapped permits? There were literally dozens of handicapped parking spaces, and both of the mid-week afternoons I went, the handicapped spaces were either all or nearly all filled. In one case all the spaces in the entire theater lot were filled, and all the spaces in the lots surrounding the entire huge mall were filled except one lonely handicapped space (oddly, on the opposite end of the lot from any of the entrances - possibly for a person handicapped by a pathological fear of doors?).

Either November is an extremely fashionable month for hip replacements, or they were giving permits out with the candy at the DMV this Halloween.

Oddly enough, when we went to see a movie on Saturday, the parking lots were practically empty.

Another issue: in all three visits, the new Twilight Saga movie, "New Moon", was sold out right up to the last showing, in spite of the fact that it was showing at multiple screens in all three (different) theaters. Also in spite of the fact that all the reviews I've seen have been... well, to put it very gently, a bit sparing in the praise department. Now, to be fair, my son reports that his college-aged friends thought their viewing of the show was quite enjoyable - but then, he also reports that his friends were very possibly inebriated and very definitely howling loudly whenever a werewolf character came on screen, which was a fairly frequent event. I suspect they also were enjoying the squeaky presence of the impressionable high school girls that comprised the remainder of the audience.

So here's what I can report: The Michael Jackson movie, "This Is It", is reasonably interesting... but wasn't quite interesting enough to keep me awake during its entire impressive length. The semi-autobiographical "Blind Side" - a movie about the inspirational high school experience of the Raven's recent draft pick, Michael Oher - was predictable and sweet and touching, a good movie for families and dates. The most recent remake of Dickens' classic, "A Christmas Carol", was heavy on the scary, and wince-worthy in the "obligatory unnecessarily extended chase scene" department (although I thought that with the addition of trees and a flaming pumpkin, it would have made for an admirable scene for "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"), but overall it was an interesting and entertaining addition to the ever-expanding lineup of movies devoted to the traditional holiday tale.

In the meantime, my travails in having to share theater lines (and parking lots) with hoards of shrieking, mincing, giggling girls were somewhat mitigated by this gift from my son. He understands my Inner Scrooge...

I'm Old But I'm Still There...

Thanks to Denise, I can present this, dedicated to Gina and Maria. They know why.

A Blast From The... Umm...

This nifty item recommended by my dad is hereby dedicated to my lovely friends Sam and Paul. Enjoy!!

Off Topic, And Possibly Off Color

This question is just for the ladies. With obvious exceptions.

What do you think is the sexiest, most erotic part of a man's body? What makes your engines rev when you are watching a movie, or a television show, or the guy at the cubicle two rows over, and he turns so that you catch him at just that angle, and...

I'll go first. Seriously, for me it is that area just under the ear, where the jaw angles and there is that tender, vulnerable spot on the neck. Seen from behind and to one side. Totally gets to me.

Yeah. I know.

Do you think maybe I was a vampire in my former life?

Forget Buffy...

The Hellmouth is real, but it's not in Sunnydale, CA. It's in Pennsylvania.

Whoa.

All Right, Who Moved My Brain?

I seem to be attached to the idea that knitting is something one does while watching television, and I haven't been able to spin lately, with the result that the hubster and I are watching about fiftybazillion more hours of TV than is strictly good for us.

Although we do watch 'So You Think You Can Dance' in Real Time (oh, gosh, can you believe that they put that 'Mercy' routine with Twitch and Katee on the same show as the 'Bleeding Love' routine with Mark and Chelsea, practically right on top of each other? I almost swooned with Dancing Joy...), we pretty much watch everything else by DVD or on the internets.

So we are working our way through all million seasons of ER, from the beginning (oo, George Clooney - no, wait, he's annoying in this one...), and the most recent seasons of The Closer, Burn Notice, The Shield (do we want Vic to go down in this final season, or not?), Battlestar Galactica (we've heard the ending is not satisfactory, but, well, how could it be?), and various movies. We own and regularly re-watch Firefly, of course. On the internets I keep up late at night with Chuck, the Colbert Report, Better Off Ted (Dilbert Meets Guthy-Renker), and Pushing Daisies. And with the darling boy I watch Supernatural.

All of which encourages the knitting and the posterior to grow, but is not necessarily great for the brain. I'm trying to figure out how to turn pages while keeping hold of my stitches, but so far I am mostly learning why I was never invited to be a member of the Flying Karamazov Brothers.

Does anybody have a good recipe for 'Sense and Sensibility Kebab'?

Brilliant

The sun is shining, the birds are singing, it's a beautiful day and I'm about to go to the Textile Center with some lovely friends, so life is good.

Let's add a bit of laughter to that. Here is one of my favorite comedians - well, possibly my very favorite comedian, actually. He does intellectual comedy, he does physical comedy, he's literate and loves history and is tremendously talented. Also as a private person, he is shy and tends towards being a bit morose. So obviously we have a lot in common.

Anyway, here's just one bit he's done. If you go to YouTube and look up 'Rowan Atkinson', there's lots more to be enjoyed there. And of course, watch the 'Black Adder' series if you haven't already. While you are at it, check out Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, who aren't as reliable, but have their moments.

Enjoy!

How To Come Out Of Your Slump

I'm sorry I've been away so long. Lots of changes going on in my life, mostly not terribly pleasant, and I've been pouting a bit. But how can I remain depressed when great artists are creating beauty and inspiration for the world?

I'm proud to be a Fiber Fiend, because now I can present you with this:



Ain't life grand?

That's One Down...

So the core biopsy is done, and it wasn't too bad - all in all, as far as the experience itself and the recovery period goes, I'd choose it over oral surgery. In a way, the "Oh, you poor thing, we're so sorry," behavior of the nurses and doctor was more disconcerting. I mean, they see that sort of thing all the time, don't they? Don't they?

Now it's waiting and waiting for the results until Thursday afternoon or perhaps Friday - I'm going out of town on Friday afternoon, so I'm really hoping that I hear before that, because I don't want to wait throughout the entire weekend until Monday.

In the meantime, I am HUGELY grateful to my wonderful mom, who has carted me around on both trips so far, and been very supportive and loving, and fed me hot chocolate after the biopsy**, and distracted me with nice everyday chatter about cheerful things. In some ways being the helpless supportive bystander is worse than going through some of these things oneself, and being the helpless supportive mother is worst of all. I know because I've been there, and I haven't noticed that the age of one's child makes a huge amount of difference in how one worries about them when they are truly in trouble. So I'm truly grateful, Me Mum. You are The Best.

** definitely more enjoyable than it would have been after oral surgery!


In the spirit of fair play, I add something a little something dedicated to fathers. Fathers at Christmas. Minnesotan fathers at Christmas. And a T-Rex.

From The Brave New Workshop, in Minneapolis: