Car Wash

We won the car wash-themed raffle basket last night at the school art show/ice cream social. C wanted to wash the car when we got home - at 8:30 - in the dark.
Since I said no to that, he was outside instead at 7:15 this morning with his brother, washing both our cars.
If we'd won the backyard barbecue-themed basket instead, do you think he'd have been outside at 7:15 grilling?

song: Car Wash • artist: Rose Royce

Alive and Kicking

It was a good morning because the enormous bull frog and the box turtle that C and I passed while biking to school were both alive and well and not squished in the road.
Then in the late morning, on my way to town, the car ahead of me stopped to let a small snapping turtle finish crossing down by Chappy Grill.
So obviously it's turtle-crossing-the-road season people, try to look out for them!

song Alive and Kicking • artist: Simple Minds

Parenting is...

when you praise your nine year old for taking the money you gave him to spend at the May Festival and buying two swords with it; because at least he remembered to buy a sword for his little brother.

Simple Song

Words to live by from Mother Goose:

A wise old owl
Lived in an oak
The more he saw
The less he spoke
The less he spoke
The more he heard
Why can't we all be
Like that wise old bird?

song: Simple Song • artist: The Shins

Man in the Mirror

song: Man in the Mirror • artist: Michael Jackson

Knowing Me Knowing You

Let's get this straight. I am only doing this because Kevin asked. Do not start sending me chain e-mails for recipes or tagging me for 25 questions on Facebook because I will continue to blatantly ignore those requests.
I have been tagged by daddy blogger Kevin at Who Woulda Thought?   to participate in this chain blog ice-breaker. It's like orientation week at college - or spin the bottle - kinda - or maybe not - I wouldn't know.
Anyway there are some rules and some directions. The challenge for me has been coming up with a whole 11 blogs to tag. I should follow more blogs, I know, but I should also read book II of the Hunger Games, finish Zen Mind Beginner Mind, and practice my isolations (see fact #3).
According to Kevin, you must post these rules so here goes:
Each per­son must post 11 things about them­selves on their blog. Answer the ques­tions the tag­ger set for you in their post and cre­ate 11 new ques­tions for the peo­ple you tag to answer. You have to choose 11 peo­ple to tag and link them on the post. Go to their page and tell them you have linked him or her. No tag backs and you legit­i­mately have to tag 11 people.

Eleven facts about me:
1. I do not like balloons or Disneyland.
2. I have very cold hands. All my life people who have shaken hands with me have commented on this and said "cold hands warm heart." I do not feel like have a particularly warm heart.
3. I attend bellydance class.
4. I've love having lived on Cape Cod my whole life but really don't like those who pride themselves on never going over the bridge.
5. I have a degree in graphic design and a soft spot for dads who blog.
6. If you idle your car in front of me for more than 20 seconds you should know that although I won't say anything (unless you are my husband), I am seriously cringing on the inside.
7. I underline words I don't know in books I'm reading and yes - look them up later.
8. I put my cat on a leash (see yesterday's post).
9. I think everyone's life needs more art.
10. I think that attending a women's college and then producing four male offspring is the ultimate irony.
11. I hate talking on the telephone.

Eleven answers to eleven questions from Kevin: 
1.    Which movie best describes your life? I cannot imagine anyone sitting through a two-hour movie that would describe my life. What's that one with Michael Keaton as the stay-at-home dad? Maybe it would be that one. I have, on many occasions likened my life to various Seinfeld episodes. My favorite Seinfeld quote that describes my life would be the Newman postal rant: "Because the mail never stops. It just keeps coming and coming and coming. There's never a letup, it's relentless. Every day it piles up more and more, and you gotta get it out, but the more you get out, the more keeps coming in! And then the bar code reader breaks! And then it's Publisher's Clearinghouse Day…!" 
2.    What is your favorite comic strip? Bloom County.
3.    Who or what is your favorite Star Wars character? You've kind of got me here. I only have three movies to choose from - and only one that I've seen in the past 15 years. Luckily it was just last weekend that H and I watched it. Definitely Chewbacca. He reminds me of my cat. Which I keep on a leash. Did I mention that?
4.    What song can you listen to over and over and over? Warren Zevon's Mr Bad Example
5.    Are your farts (A) loud, (B) silent but deadly or (C) in between? B. I blame them on whichever kid is closest to me.
6.    Who is your favorite stand up comic? George Carlin.
7.    If you were stranded in the desert and your wagon lost a wheel, how many pancakes would it take to cover a dog house? Didn't this happen in the book "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs?" I remember reading it to my kids.
8.    Are you allergic to anything? Disneyland
9.    What is your ideal vehicle? Ideally I would take public transportation everywhere. Or rely on my own two feet. One of those bicycle richshaws might be nice.
10.    Would you put one of those ridiculous stick figure families on your ideal vehicle? Heck no. I was just making fun of those the other day. I saw one with ten stick-figure children on a car that was way too small for such a large family of stick figures. I hoped they were being ironic.  
11.    If we were to look in your browser history what would we find? That I obsessively check blog hits via site meter. I gotta get a life.

Eleven blogs tagged:
Because I'm not good about keeping up with other people's blogs, I had to cull most of these from the short list of folks who've ever commented on my blog and happen to have blogs themselves. Aren't you sorry you commented now?
1. Kathy at Giggling Truckers Wife
2. Priscilla @ Designs by Priscilla
3. Sean at Commuter Daddy
4. Naked Mommy
5. Lola @ Bear & Lion
6. Deb @ Kicking Corners
7. Four Under Four (plus two)
8. Larissa @ Papa is a Preacher
9. Elise @ A Touch of the Absurd
10. Tania @ Maui Shop Girl
11. Recovering Supermom

Eleven questions for them to answer:
1. Why did you start a blog?
2. What have you learned about yourself from blogging?
3. How do you blog and still get things done around your house?
4. Why is blogging better than Facebook?
5. What is the last book you read?
6. What is the last live performance you saw?
7. What is your favorite children's book?
8. What is your favorite typeface?
9. Would you ever put your cat on a leash?
10. Who would play you in the movie version of your life?
11. Love the tourists or can't wait for them to leave?

And of course:
The final word.

So Kevin, this has taken up my entire morning. I'm hoping you'll be over soon to help out. The kitty litter stinks, the laundry needs to be hung, there are blocks and Legos all over the living room, I gotta figure out what's for dinner and I was hoping to make fresh hummus so please bring some lemons and parsley

song: Knowing Me Knowing You • artist: Abba

Walk This Way

Yes. I am officially the kind of person who puts a leash on my cat and lets my kids walk her around the yard.
Why does gay marriage seem more normal (way more normal) than a cat on a leash?
Right now Leo is thinking, "OMG. The cat across the street can't see me can he?"

song: Walk this Way • artist: Aerosmith

Telephone Line

Musing on what's left of the Marconi Wireless Station in South Wellfleet for InsideOUT.

song: Telephone Line • artist: Electric Light Orchestra

My Boyfriend's Back

Our veterinarian's college-age daughter has a cat named boyfriend. It's a brilliant name for averting nosey personal questions.
"Well of course I have a boyfriend."
"My boyfriend's at home tonight."
"I'd love to go to that lecture on medieval architecture but I've got to stay home with my boyfriend."
"Too bad my boyfriend couldn't come for Thanksgiving dinner. He really loves turkey."
"My boyfriend's a real tiger - if you know what I mean."
Boyfriend had to move in with the vet and his wife when their daughter's roommate developed allergies. The vet says he doesn't mind having the cat prowl his office and rather enjoys the company.
"I'm in love with my daughter's boyfriend."

song: My Boyfriend's Back • artist: The Angels

Purple Haze

Is it just me or did the lilacs go by way too quickly this year?

song: Purple Haze • artist: Jimmy Hendrix

Takin' Care of Business

Looks like I can either continue to wipe H's butt after #2 until he leaves for college, or, I can let him sink a half a roll of tp into the toilet trying to do the job himself.

song: Takin' Care of Business • artist: Bachman Turner Overdrive

Where Do The Children Play?

Good news! My kids dried off all the wet playground equipment outside the little library.
With their butts.

song: Where Do The Children Play? • artist: Cat Stevens

Sweet City Woman

My favorite Maurice Sendak book was Pierre.
I loved the scene where his parents offer to let him fold the folding chair if he'll just give a darn.
It's just such a random thing.
Name another children's book that mentions folding chairs?
It's like the song Sweet City Woman.
Name another song that mentions macaroons?

song: Sweet City Woman • artist: The Stampeders

Drive

Parking jam on the potty.
Guess everyone had to go all at once.

song: Drive • the Cars

Wild Thing

So the other night I'm reading Where the Wild Things Are to S and N for at least the 100th time.
They get mad at the end if I read the final two words. They like for me to pause after, "and it was…" so they can sing out in unison, "still hot!"
For this particular go round H is sitting on the bed too and we get to the part where Max tires of the wild rumpus, and longs to be "where someone loved him best of all."
And I look at the boys.
And I get a little sentimental.
And I say - who loves Max best of all?
And the three of them look at me blankly.
"Wild Things?"
"No. Not the Wild Things."
"Monsters?"
"No. Not the Monsters."
"Boat?"
"No. Not the boat."
"Dog?"
"No. Not the dog."
silence
"Who loves Max best of all?"
silence
"His mother! His mother loves him best of all!! That's why his dinner is still hot!"
sigh.

song: Wild Thing • artist: The Troggs

What A Difference A Day Makes

Saturday night I'm Belly Dancing For a Cure in silk and coins; Sunday night I'm wearing a headlamp and biking around Pine Bay in the dark trying to peep on the peepers (to no avail) with C.


song: What A Difference A Day Makes • artist: Dinah Washington

Night Train

For the first time - ever - my kids fell asleep before I'd finished reading a bedtime story.
I didn't quite know what to do so I just finished the story.

song: Night Train • artist: Rickie Lee Jones