Tuesday, September 10, 2013

you foul, loathesome, evil little cockroach (in other words, part 2 of the previous post)

I realized the day after I posted that last one that I left out the most important update of all:  I waterskied.  Uh-huh.  I bet you think I'm making that up, but I have witnesses.  It took me four tries to get up (I'm blaming that on the skis which were several sizes too big), and then I made a wide loop all the way around our part of the lake and skied smoothly to a stop about ten yards from the dock (thirty years ago I could have skied right up to it, but apparently I've lost the art of calculating distances on skis)(or maybe it has something to do with the fact that I weigh about 40 lbs more than I did back then).  First time I've been up on waterskis since about eighteen years ago, when I only lasted about 30 seconds because I just didn't have the upper body strength to hang on.  This time, I was sitting there watching the kids ski and thinking: hmmmmm, all this strength training I've been doing has to be good for something! I should try this!

So, there.  I did it.  Go, me.  I was sore the next day, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.

I realize I haven't posted much this summer and there are several reasons for that.  (#1: It was summer.)  I was actually surprised just now when I looked back to see how often I did post, because it feels like I haven't written anything at all.  So I have a couple of ones that I'm feeling pretty ambivalent about that I'm going to back-post over the next few days, and then I'm going to sign off for six weeks or so.  At least that way I won't feel guilty about not posting because I said I wasn't going to, right??

Unless I think of something brilliant to say, of course.

Hugs and kisses to all my gentle readers.

Thursday, September 05, 2013

what's your account number? uh, seven.

1.  Here is a fun thing:  get a bunch of adults in their mid-twenties together.  Watch from a distance as they intensely discuss something, raised voices, arguing, talking over each other, laughing, waving their arms.  You assume the topic is politics or art or the meaning of the universe, but you walk up and realize they're discussing Harry Potter.  Except the time when it was Little Rascals.

2.  I hate when you click on a news headline and it turns out to be a video. what a waste of time.  I immediately click away.  You have to sit and wait through an ad, and then you have to watch a 4-minute video, when it would have taken about 20 seconds to scan through a text-based article that contained the same material.  Since said videos are everywhere, I assumed I must be the only one who felt that way.  But when someone posted that exact opinion on Facebook yesterday, within a few hours she had nearly a hundred likes and more than 30 commenters chiming in to say they felt the same.  So why are there so many stupid videos?

3.  Except I am a complete and utter sucker for military-coming-home videos.  I start crying before the ads are even finished.  So you can legitimately ask why the hell I watch them, and I don't very often.  But I just saw another one.  *sob*

4. We had our first chicken fatality yesterday.  Since we've had so little trouble with them, we've become very lax about closing them in at night--over a year later, we still have six chickens.  Or at least, we did have six chickens.  Something (dog, fox?) got in the coop last night.  Now we have five.  (which may be why I let myself get sucked into the coming-home video).

5.  It is cooler.  Thank the good Lord above.  And we've also had a bit of rain, which we needed.  The only problem is that means major thunder-and-lightning storms, which I like but the dogs hate.  This morning I was woken up out of a sound sleep by a ginormous deafening crack of thunder, which sounded like it hit in the backyard.  Sadie practically crawled in bed with me, and I found Jazz cowering in the bathroom a few minutes later.  Poor babies.

6.  Winnie-the-Pooh lived up to the hype.  I'm about two-thirds of the way through the original volume and it still makes me laugh.  I'm usually up for an hour or two after Dean goes to bed, so I'm often reading while he's sound asleep.  I woke him up giggling over Piglet and Eeyore the other night.  Highly recommended.

7.  My first class starts a week from Monday.  I'm starting to panic.  With an unusual amount of foresight, I scheduled the one I'm most comfortable with first, so at least there's that.  I'll let you know how it goes.