Summer Vacation
Posted: July 2, 2008 Filed under: family, movies | Tags: movies, Stardust, Summer Vacation Leave a commentIt’s July already. We have been whirlwind busy, and for the most part things are good, though the bickering and tattling presents some challenges.
I had some trouble sleeping last night. Not sure why. Last night I watched Stardust, which has a great cast, including Robert DeNiro, Michelle Pfeiffer and Claire Daines. I really liked it. Reminded me a bit of The Princess Bride, but more in a fantasy vein with a pinch of Harry Potter, and also a bit of the same flavor as the ABC show Pushing Daisies. Overall, I found it entertaining.
Then I read for a bit, and couldn’t put Away down. I have about 60 pages to go. I turned out the light around 12:30, Manfrengensen already snoozing beside me, and then I tossed and turned for another hour. I feel a bit grumpy today, and I need to be on my game. The boys are both having friends over for playdates this afternoon.
Trouble with a Capital “T”
Posted: June 27, 2008 Filed under: family, movies | Tags: Burn After Reading, La Vie En Rose, Motherhood, Two-year-old Leave a comment
So, this morning, I woke up with Ee calling from her crib, “Mommy, come get me. Stinky pants.” Pause. “Stinky pants, Mommy. Come get me.” Pause. “Mommy, my hand’s dirty.”
So, at that point, I jumped out of bed. Good grief, I was thinking. Great way to freaking start the day.
But here’s the thing: she was lying. Not even three and she’s figured out that this is the perfect way to get my ass out of bed pronto.
How do my children continually outsmart me?
Last night Manfrengensen and I watched La Vie En Rose, which was excellent. I don’t know off hand if the make-up won an Oscar, but it should have. My only complaint was that it didn’t have subtitles for the songs, and I think they would have meant more to me if I had known the words she was singing. I got that they were conveying a kind of emotion, but still, would have been nice to understand the words. Like in a movie like Walk the Line, when he sang about walking it, you knew which line it was.
Can’t wait for this movie!!!!
Stream of Consciousness Day
Posted: June 12, 2008 Filed under: Day-to-Day, family | Tags: Canada, imported, minor injuries, playground Leave a comment
The other day I served these wheat crackers at a party we had for J’s birthday. Today I was moving things around in the pantry, and I noticed there was a note on the front of the box of crackers claiming they are “IMPORTED.” So, I thought, is that really necessary? To import wheat crackers into the U.S.? We grow wheat, in fact, farming wheat is a huge part of “our thing.” Amber waves of grain and such. What could be so great about imported wheat? I decided to investigate further. Turns out the crackers were made in Canada. Canada? Really? That’s not imported. From Canada should not count as imported. Also turned out that the crackers are actually made by Kraft Foods. Again, shouldn’t count as imported. It’s like claiming Welch’s Grape juice is imported. Stupid.
In any case, T3 says they tasted “like dog.”
Speaking of T3, he took another couple of weeks off my life today. We went to the library, and they have a little playground there, so we hung out for a while after getting our books and stuff. There were these two other boys there, and the four of them got right along, running and climbing and doing boy 
stuff. Super nice kids, very friendly and sweet, even to Ee, who kept trying to keep up with the four of them. I sat in the shade on a bench, and every so often they would congregate around me, quizzing me on different aspects of life. The other boys were quite nimble, more nimble than my own, who tried, but could only watch them in amazement. The other boys were climbing to the top of the equipment, doing flips and things like something out of Cirque de Soleil. These are girls, but you kind of get the idea.
So, they were all around me, and we were having a nice little chat, though T3 was still bouncing around on the bench and stuff. All of a sudden, I saw him lose his grip, and BAM! Darned if he didn’t smack his mouth right on the back of the metal bench, slamming all of his weight on his lower jaw. He immediately started to cry, which is not his usual MO. He came over to me and opened his mouth, and I couldn’t see his teeth for the blood. I ran to my car and grabbed a handful of tissues, stanching the blood as best I could, then collected everyone in order to rush home quickly to the ice pack. It stopped bleeding soon after we got home, and luckily it seems like only one tooth is maybe a little loose, but overall, major disaster averted.
Still, this is how I feel a lot of the time:
Wednesday
Posted: June 11, 2008 Filed under: Day-to-Day, family, Music | Tags: Andrew Kuo, Concerts, Pixies, Women Friends 1 Comment
Good night’s sleep despite the wicked thunderstorms that raged last night. Took our maiden showers in the newly updated facility. We are still lacking the shower door (one to two weeks probably) but everything else was working — and heavenly so.
T3 slept without his pacifiers for the first time last night. We have been trying to convince him to give them up for a long long time, but he only responded by tightening his grip and hoarding them. When he finally turned them over to me yesterday, there was a total of eight, all of which he had been taking to bed with him each night. Manfrengensen says this development is an example of why a free market economy works best. If you give people an incentive, say a trip to ToysRUs, then they will do the right thing, like give up their binkies.
Last night, we also began the new program of “one meal” for the family each night, instead of the short-order cooking I have been doing. Chicken soft tacos went over okay, even though they ate only the chicken and refused the tortillas. Crazy, right? They did eat it, even though it took them forever, and no one threw up, (though J did almost make himself gag a couple of times) but that’s a vast improvement over previous efforts to widen their horizons when it comes to eating. Surprisingly, it was Ee who refused to eat, and she’s usually the one I don’t have to worry about. She ate an apple for dinner instead.
I find I have been wasting a lot of time lately. I should be working on my book, but the other night I went to work on it, and it is such a mess, not where I want it to be, that I just had to walk away. It’s brewing though…
I went to book club the other night. Sometimes I feel like…I have no connection to people. I mean I like them, but when they all start talking about how they are looking forward to seeing Journey in concert, and re-constituted Journey at that…I have a hard time identifying. They were lamenting the fact that it wasn’t Steve Perry singing any more and I thought, Good, finally a reason to respect Steve Perry. Tell me about a re-constituted Clash concert, or the Replacements, and then maybe, maybe I will be interested. I think I am just past the age for all that…nothing really tempts me, not even The Police, to shell out the Franklins. Maybe the Pixies would…definitely, I’d go for the Pixies. Yes, I know they did get back together briefly, but they didn’t come play close enough to me.
And what would be “close enough to me” exactly? Ideally my living room, but even so, they didn’t come to my town or the closest major city. Not that I would hear about it if they did because I avoid pop radio in general.
And it’s not that I think I am better than the Journey fans…I just feel like I am out of step with those I am surrounded by. It’s like high school all over again, complete with the same soundtrack, only without the anxiety.
And when it comes to festival shows, I totally agree with Andrew Kuo, who put it perfectly in this graphic in the Sunday Times:
I couldn’t agree more, though because I am digitally challenged, I can’t make the graphic any bigger for you. You can link to it here: Kuo Festival Chart. I highly recommend you check it out, as I laughed out loud several times over breakfast this past Sunday while perusing it.
Gotta go to the park now, it’s a beautiful day…
Summertime
Posted: June 10, 2008 Filed under: Day-to-Day, family | Tags: barn owls, fun, super soaker Leave a commentGreat moment in a great day of being a mom today. I took hold of one of the supersoakers, as the kids were complaining that they couldn’t get it to work. They just weren’t pumping enough air into it, so I fixed it and squirted all five of them, (they had friends over from across the street) while shouting, “SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND!” They all ran, squealing in that delightful way little kids do.
Today we were sitting at lunch and J said he thought barn owls were an endangered species. I said I wasn’t so sure. He claimed never to have seen one, so I asked, “Well, how many barns have you been in?”
“One,” he said, and went on to reason that since he hadn’t seen one there, they must be rare.
“I’ve been in a barn,” T3 chimed in.
“Oh, Yeah?” we asked.
“No,” he giggled, “it was actually a Barnes and Noble. I’ve been in a Barnes and Noble.”
The Mood
Posted: June 6, 2008 Filed under: Day-to-Day, family | Tags: birthdays, childhood, gas prices, inflation Leave a commentDoesn’t it seem like a lot of people around you are angry? It’s all because of gas prices, I think. Well, gas prices and the cost of living in general. People don’t have anything extra. And when you don’t have anything extra, you don’t have a lot of mirth.
Manfrengensen was at the local Walgreen’s yesterday, and the guy in front of him paid a $40 tab with two dollar bills. “Times are hard,” the man told the cashier. He was cashing in bills he’d been saving for three decades. Guess he thought they’d be worth something someday. And they were — but the value was only two dollars.
Remember when the bottom fell out of the Beanie Baby market?
Going to J’s “moving up” ceremony in a bit. He turns eight today. Eight – the “forty” of childhood. It’s all downhill from here. Next thing you know, childhood will be over. He’ll be telling us what’s what with Santa and the Tooth Fairy. Hair’s going to sprout in places. His voice will change. It’s all just around the bend. Bittersweet. I took this photo of him on Memorial Day after his inaugural boogie board ride for the season. The water was 55 degrees.
See my stepmom’s expression there in the background? That’s the look of “The Mood.” The face you see on everyone.
Goose Chase
So now it’s summer, and as always, I am shopping for the unattainable. Today I wonder, is it possible to find a sleeveless summer shirt that won’t expose my conspicuous cleavage? I have all these photos of me and my kids at Disney World last year, and every time I look at them I think, Ooh, there are the kids with Cinderella….and my rack. I know this goes against the current fashion mindset, but when it comes to that kind of exposure, I beg to differ. Less is more.
The Summer Begins…
Posted: June 5, 2008 Filed under: family | Tags: family, Shower tile, summer, writing Leave a commentHaven’t written in a while. I guess there’s not much going on. We are about to close out Week Three of the Great Shower Tile Project. The end is in sight, but only if I squint really hard. At this point we are waiting on six pieces of accent tile, that the tiler ran out of, leaving a 4″x2″ space. He says we can still shower in it while we wait for them to come back, but is that really a good idea? Doesn’t matter anyway, because it turned out that even though the shower door guy told me to call him when they were finished and he would “come right out to measure,” he can’t come until Friday afternoon. We were also missing some pieces to the plumbing fixtures, not crucial ones, but necessary nonetheless. The plumber said “maybe” he’d be back Friday with them. Maybe…
The kids are finished with school, though J has to go back Friday for a “moving up ceremony.” After that, he and T3 can devote themselves, as much as I will allow them, completely to Wii.
Today T3 actually went on a hunger strike, taking to his bed when I asked him to stop playing and come down for lunch. He is particularly fond of creating “Miis” and has populated a large city full of them. His break today turned out to be a lot longer than it would have been had he just come down and eaten.
Manfrengensen says not to worry about the Wii addiction. It will run its course. And I have faith that it will. Letting it go is better than battling all day about the number of hours they play. Besides, it’s raining. What else are they going to do? Nice days, we’ll be in the park. Today, they are working those thumbs.
Ee has her own addiction, a bit of a substance abuse problem. And that substance is powdered sugar donuts.
Don’t worry, I’ve got stuff planned. Swim lessons, camps, piano lessons, trips to the beach, parks, museums. I know what I’m doing.
On a completely different note, Manfrengensen let me read a few pages of the novel he started in November, and damned if it wasn’t really good. I’m not the kind of person who would think his writing is amazing just because he’s my husband. That’s not how I roll. I’m actually a little jealous of how good his manuscript is. My own is like “chick lit,” which isn’t what I want it to be, but it is what it is in terms of the story and voice. I can’t just abandon it just because it’s not Michael-Chabon-esque, no matter how much I wish it was. His book…it’s got that thing, that voice (of a man?), just good stuff.
I Love the Smell of Napalm in the Morning
Posted: May 27, 2008 Filed under: Day-to-Day, family, movies, TV | Tags: Crazy Mom, Dora The Explorer, George O'Malley, Grey's Anatomy, McDreamy, Sydney Pollack, Tootsie Leave a comment
Have I mentioned that I am not good in the morning? Plus it doesn’t help that I am currently addicted to MySims, and even though I quit playing it at 11:30, my brain kept going until almost two. Ee woke me up at 6:30, insisting not only that I let her get out of her crib, but also that I dress her in full Cinderella regalia, and I couldn’t find the shoes. Tired.
Lately I have taken to muttering f-bombs under my breath when they are not in the room, which I know is not a good thing because one day, I’m going to turn around and one of them will be behind me wanting to know what that means, and I will feel even worse for muttering.
I wish I could be more like Manfrengensen. He’s more the patient, nurturing parent. He’s Father Teresa. I’m just a crazy mom.
Ee’s watching Dora the Explorer now. She likes those Super Babies. Try getting that song out of your head.
The crazy thing is, that’s not the worst song on the show.
Anyway, the carpenter is here working on our shower. We have run into some other issues. Turned out that we couldn’t take the walls out because a pipe was running through one of them. We could have removed just one of them, but then it would have looked kind of asymmetrical, so we are leaving it. The carpenter is here replacing the floor that the plumber had to cut into to replace the drain. The plumber removed the pan that lined the floor under the old tile. The thing was made of lead. Who knows how old it was.
Yeah, kind of on the negative side today, so I guess I will tackle the George issue.
The Case Against Grey’s Anatomy
(Part 3)
Are they kidding us with how many women fall for George O’Malley? In the first season, he was pining for Meredith, but of course, she was off chasing McDreamy. But then, somehow in a drunken and vulnerable moment, she slept with him. Ew. Then in the second season, he started messing 
around with Callie, and eventually married her. She claimed George was her McDreamy. But then he had an affair with Izzie, which was actually one drunken night that they tried to build on (can you ever really build something solid on a foundation of a drunken night though?) so he left Callie O’Malley and tried to make it work with Izzie, which of course, it didn’t. Now, he has moved into a platonic living situation with Meredith’s sister Lexi, and Lexi is pining for George. Ew.
There is way to much swinging of partners round and round in this show. I can’t keep up any more. All of it means nothing, adds up to nothing. I just don’t care about any of them.
It’s like the writers are running a political campaign. They try their ideas, find the polls don’t like them, then they abandon the course and try something else. But what I feel like as a viewer is that I can’t invest in any of these story lines. It’s just going to be abandoned in the end. They all go nowhere. Waste of time.
Next up, my final random thoughts on Grey’s Anatomy….
One last thing. Sad about Sydney Pollack. He was one of my favorite directors, and I loved him in Tootsie.
Weekend Getaway
Posted: May 26, 2008 Filed under: family, TV | Tags: beach, Derek, Grey's Anatomy, McDreamy, Memorial Day, Meredith, Pursuit of Happyness Leave a commentThe summer has begun in earnest, and we are down at my dad’s beach house, a wonderful place where the family comes together in a completely dust-free environment. It’s fun, though Manfrengensen says it’s like Gattica. If you shed an eyelash, they’ll find it. If you leave a glass unattended on the counter, when you come back from the bathroom it will be gone. Stepmom is cool, but very fastidious, and it’s her place, so them’s the rules. Saturday night I left my sweater and jacket downstairs, and her first words to me Sunday morning were about all my “jazz,” which I immediately took upstairs, feeling sorry and somewhat criminal. It’s nothing personal, it’s just her thing, and sometimes I wonder if her thing might be borderline OCD. But she’s got other things too, and some of them are actually good.
My brother and I watched The Pursuit of Happyness Saturday night, which I have to say was pretty good in a way that brought about the appropriate emotional responses in me at the appropriate moments. I cried at the end, though I thought it was too abrupt. They spend almost two hours bringing you down into this guy’s spiral, and then in the end, hooray he makes it, hugs his kid, and the credits roll.
Saturday night Manfrengensen and I came in from our ice cream walk to a dark house. Everyone had gone to bed, so we figured we would set the alarm for the night. Well, of course, I pushed the wrong buttons, and the thing started beeping, beeping like the countdown on Fox’s 24, My brother was coming down the stairs as we fiddled with the buttons, the thing beep, beep, beep, beep. I hit the right combination 
and the thing stopped. He said, without turning, in that dry, deadpan, monotone way he has, “Did you cut the red wire or the blue?”
We’ll see if this moment is any kind of harbinger to what kind of summer it’s going to be with 10 people sharing a house.
It’s great to be with my brother, who is now in his forties (as am I). He’s been sick with a cold, and the cough is lingering. How many times this weekend did I hear that cough and assume it was my father? My brother is a lot like him, and that is a wonderful thing.
Back to Grey’s Anatomy
(Part 2 of the series)
So, anyway, more about Grey’s Anatomy, specifically Meredith and Derek. First of all, Derek can do SO MUCH BETTER than Meredith. I don’t know if it’s the way Ellen Pompeo plays her or the way she’s written, but Meredith Grey is the most whiney, annoying character ever written for prime time television. It’s been four seasons, and rather than getting her shit together, Meredith just seems to get worse and worse as far as emotional train wrecks go.
Several times over the course of this series, the writers have threatened Meredith’s life. She had a burst appendix, she almost let herself drown, etc. Each time, I didn’t feel like the drama was real. I just didn’t believe they’d kill off the title character. Not in this case. Not for this series. But, man, did I pray that they would.
So now she’s in therapy with some doctor in the hospital who apparently has no other patients, because Meredith seems to just burst in to the woman’s office whenever she has an emotional epiphany, which apparently happens several times a day. Are we to believe that the shrink is just sitting around waiting for Meredith to work it out and come back to her? This doctor appears to have a lot of time, perhaps too much time on her hands for filing. That’s no kind of shrink. No wonder Meredith is still such a mess.
So at the end of the season, a season in which Meredith and Derek have mostly been apart, and Derek has been dating a nice, patient, understanding nurse (I liked Rose. Rose is cool. Rose could see the writing on the wall. She was cautious, but she couldn’t help loving McDreamy. Who could? I ask you, who could? He’s the Loverboy.), Meredith shows up at the end of the episode and does this sappy romantic thing, so we can assume they are getting back together. A lot of fans of the show are mooning over this moment, but I’ve got to tell you that it made me want to GAG.
Next, why is George such a chick magnet?….
The Eternal Optimist
Posted: May 15, 2008 Filed under: family | Tags: beach, father, weather Leave a commentMy parents are taking the kids away for the weekend, and the forecast at the beach, where they are going, is rainy all weekend with highs in the low- to mid-sixties. So my step-mom called me today to ask if I have any “windbreakers” for them. I said they have fleece things, and they have raincoats. “Fleece?” she asked, “Not nylon?” I said they were fleece, but had some nylon incorporated, and assured her that they would “break wind.”
A few hours later, I spoke to my father. He wanted to know whether I was sending their bathing suits down. I told him I thought it was going to be cold and rainy this weekend. “Well, Saturday’s supposed to be a high of 68,” he smiled. My father — the eternal optimist when it comes to beach weather. He always believes it’s going to clear, always has faith that it will be warm enough for beach activities. Could be a nor’easter, he can see the bit of blue sky on its horizon. It’s quite an endearing quality in him, actually.
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