Family Heirlooms

 

When I visited with the folks today, Dad brought out a surprise wrapped in faded tissue. His baby spoon and fork! I should have put a penny down for scale, but they are the sweetest little things! Dad said that they've been in his family since the turn of the century. I'll probaby look up the info on the reverse side of the utensils and geek out later. :D

Bug Jar

About a month ago our Dustbuster died. Normally, we’d just buy a new handvac without a second thought. However, since our income is only a fraction of what it once was, a Dustbuster would be an extravagance. So I pick up all the dead crickets, roaches, beetles, sunspiders and scorpions by hand. Brrrrrr.

Last night, after picking up the tenth bug of the day, I made a bet with my husband. If I could collect forty bugs in a week, he would buy me a new Dustbuster. Day one was a smashing success. I collected six crickets, a roach, two spiders and four click beetles for my bug jar.

Day two was leaner—three crickets and two click beetles. Day three I amassed two click beetles and a spider. Day four I got desperate. That evening, I saw a roach in the sunroom. Since it wasn’t officially dead, I smacked it with my shoe to add to the bug jar. Day five I awoke to find that last night’s roach was simply addled and not dead. He spent the balance of the night eating the other bugs I collected. Wah!

Day six Mom and Dad showed up with a brand new Dustbuster. I am totally spoiled!

Ten Months Old!

 Holy cow! Tyoma is only ten months old, but in this photo he looks much older! Like, "Give me the car keys" older. It must be me. I'm recovering from an energy zapping flu with much help. Tennisfiend stayed home from work on Tuesday to care for baby while I slept and slept, complaining just a little (neck rubs=10,000 antibiotics). Mom brought daily crates of soup, Yoplait and Jello, taking over for Tennisfiend as needed. I had to cancel this weekend's pool party with Ewbliette and hubby. Hey, the heat isn't going anywhwere so we'll reschedule soon.

Blah.

p>Feeling tired today. What did I do? Worked on TF's cover letter and miscellaneous stuff. Think I'm getting a tummy flu.

Happy Father's Day!

Dad in the fifties:

And me as a baby:

Note that I inherited a goofier version of Dad’s ears!

I was hoping to post some of Dad’s adventure pics, but unfortunately they are hidden somewhere at my folks place. I’ll be sure to add them in the future.

Anyway, Tyoma and I dropped by to wish Dad a happy Father’s Day. We relaxed under the shady Mulberry, discussing the latest discoveries in paleontology, specifically the feathered juvenile T-Rexes unearthed in China. After an exchange of opinions on dinosaurs and birds, Dad took off his naturalist cap and brought out the guitar. Tyoma enjoyed his serenade and promptly conked out.

Later in the evening, Tennisfiend asked me if I had any special childhood memories about Dad. I rambled on for at least twenty minutes, until I came across the memory. I was six and felt very sad about the loss of our two weimarainers. We lost them over two years ago. I was younger when Mom told me their spirits were happy, chasing lizards in the desert. Now, I was unconvinced and full of questions, “Why couldn’t I see their spirits when we were in the desert?” Bless her for not saying “Spirits are invisible.” She sent me in for a talk with Dad.

He explained his beliefs: All living things are a part of the universe. People really don’t know for sure what happens when we die, but many think that we return somehow. Some think we return as spirits, angels or even as energy that the natural world re-uses. The only thing we know for sure is that we remember the people and animals we love. By remembering, a person can keep their loved ones close by, with us always.

This might have seemed rather heavy for a six year old, but it was honest, simply stated and it made me feel better. Ultimately, that conversation shaped the outlook of my life. Thank you, Dad.

John Waters Gave me a Divine Nightmare

I watched Female Trouble last night. Too funny. Too vulgar. Too...real? Anyway. I was a fan of Divine long before I ever heard of John Waters. Sure, Hairspray was cool, but I only watched it for Divine. She was beautiful, brave and brilliant. An old VCR tape in my collection features her music videos, complete with interviews. Her soft breathy voice barely concealed the intelligent person behind it. How sad she left us so soon.

Because of Divine I watched John Waters movies. Initially, I considered them too lowbrow for my rarefied tastes. Would someone please pop some Herzog in the DVD before I totally barf?! But seriously, how can you laugh your ass off at Southpark and not love John Waters? Getting older can be kinda cool.

I’ve revisited his films with delight, embracing my inner white trash. Last night I chuckled and guffawed my way through Female Trouble. And I had such a nightmare! Hopefully, you’ve seen the movie, so you’ll understand where I’m coming from.

My hair was fantastically coiffed by my stylist Rodeyo, who bears and uncanny (but slimmer) resemblance to Divine. The voice match, BTW, is dead on. Continuing with my dream. I waited an hour “checking out” from a prestigious salon in a line that was half farmer’s market and half posh department store,. The proprietress (Mrs. Dasher) overcharged me ten dollars, to which I protested. She called forth a sinister, but Monty Pythonesque Spanish Inquisition crew to harass me for the money.

My punishment was not the comfy chair, but banishment from the stylish salon. In my dream, I could conjure no greater punishment than being forbidden to visit Rodeyo for a periodic haircut and highlight (yes, he's that good!). Horrified by my own shallowness, I woke up. This is probably unrelated, but today at the local grocery store, I tracked down a sales associate to insist on a reduced price for brand name milk ($2.99) since the store brand on sale ($1.79) had run out.

Clothing Crisis

You know that size you reach when your big girl pants are too loose, but you can’t comfortably fit into all those cute shorts you bought when you were skinny (skinny, being a relative term)?

Well, I’m there. A year before I got pg in 2005, I gave up sweets and refined foods. Over the summer I dropped over twenty pounds—I was again high school skinny. To celebrate, I bought lots of adorable outfits to last me, eh, well, a lifetime. Or until I put on over ten pounds.

Then I got pregnant and indulged in more cute outfits (thanks Mom and Dad!). After the birth, I successfully managed to loose all but ten pounds of my weight by November. In January, I went on Lexapro for PPD. Hello weight gain!

Except for periodic sweets binges the month Fontessa was here (brrr), I’ve eaten very sensibly. Nonetheless, I put on an additional fifteen pounds with the Lexapro. The only things I could wear were my baggy maternity pants and shorts, since I had optimistically tossed out my old comfy bottoms.

That is until I found a dusty rubber maid box in the attic! Yay! Hidden in it were several pairs of in-between shorts. Hurrah! What a godsend! My butt feels freeeee!

"Percy...Who's Queen?"

Thank you clarke-mas for the Amazon gift certificate! I picked out:

 

 

1. Black Adder II For shame! A shame that it has taken me this long to upgrade my Black Adder collection to DVD! Tennisfiend and I watched three episodes last night. “You have a woman’s purse, Milord..." Hee!
2. E.F. Benson A book of Short horror fiction by on of my favorite Victorian authors, E.F. Benson. This will replace the battered mass market paperback mouldering by my bedside.
3. Brian Hodge Another book of short horror fiction! This one is from a smaller press, Nightshade Books. I've read Hodge anthologized, but this is the first collection of his I've gotten my hands on. Yay!  
4. Horror Writers Association: How to Write Horror I won't be publishing horror fiction anymore than Clarke-mas will be launching a (full scale!) U-boat.

Coming soon..Adventure Jill's House of Wax Hoppy Toads.Wish me luck!

Nopalitos!

I excised twenty pounds of cactus by from the chain link fence around the pool today. I should have made a nopalito salad, the leaves were so tender and fresh. I fear, however, that we would perish from insecticidal poisoning since I've been blasting the resident black widows in that area a bit too frequently.

We've been teaching Tyoma about animals. Here's his tiger impression. :)