Tina's Ten Tidbits #2

1. Why doesn't open office realize that I write everything in papyrus 14 and just default to that? What is it with this world's obsession with Times Roman and why is it the default? (Yes, I've looked for settings to “customize my experience”, and this free, pretty good, but wonky from time to time software has none that I've been able to discover. )

2. Speaking of “customize my experience”, that is a phrase that puts fear in my heart and gives me the creepy-crawlies. To me it's saying, “We're watching you, and we'll make sure everyone else knows every song you like, every video you watch, and tell you what you have in common with your friends.” No thanks, I know my friends, and I like my privacy.
   
   
3. You scoff when I say privacy, thinking, “This girl let's it all hang out at Life is Good.” Yes, I'll blog about anything from anorexia to Zoloft, but that's my choice, my blog, and besides, my mom can't remember how to get here, so I'm pretty safe. (I have it book-marked in her favorites. Let's call her not quite so computer literate...)
   
   
4. Computer literate? It's amazing what they're teaching our kids these days. “Don't worry Mom, I just have to submit it through google docs by midnight.” Jake wrote his own song on Garage Band. YellowBoy made a video, complete with voice over, graphics, and credits. By himself. Not like I could help or anything...And my favorite? It's called Infinite Campus and I can see every assignment and its grade, or as is the case with my former freshman, every MISSING assignment. If I'd had that tool when I was teaching, helicopter parents wouldn't have taken up so much of my time. (A helicopter parent is one who hovers, calls almost daily, wants notes sent home about what their child is missing, wants a behavior report every week, basically drives you nuts as a teacher. Now I can be one and no one knows ;-)
   
   
   And here's where I ran out of nice transitions...
   
   
5. Would you eat glucosamine chondroitin that you found during a cleaning spree, but expired in 2008? I'm not going to. I do feel that some expiration dates are there just to sell more products, (diet soda expiring? Yeah right...) but when it comes to supplements, I'm not willing to gamble. Just getting my health back. I'm not going to be the one to ruin that miracle
   
   
6. YellowBoy is at summer camp. As in sleep-over camp. As in he won't be here for a week. Not sure this mama is surviving this too well. He's my baby. Was. He's almost 13. Been weepy all week.
   
   
7. Jake, on the other hand, is at summer school. Seems he had some trouble in his native language. You know, turning in assignments and things.
   
   
8. I was really bothered in school when someone didn't like me. Why don't you like me? What did I do wrong? How can I fix it? Come to think of it, still haven't really gotten over that. When a follower stops following, I get paranoid and want to ask them why? Why don't you like me anymore? I mean, I've certainly stopped reading blogs, but I haven't gone there and removed my name. That might hurt someone's feelings.
   
   
9. How are you doing on the Post A-Z Road Trip? I hit 15 stops before 5 am today. Insomnia sucks. (See previous post for more info.) At least I have something fun to do when I have to get up at 3:45 am or go nuts.
   
   
10. A new season of Masterchef has started, a new season of Hell's Kitchen has started. I'm very happy. I love cooking. I love competition. Hence, cooking competitions are the best.
    
    
    ❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁
    
    
    What shows do you watch? Are you a helicopter parent? Do you un-follow? Do you obsess when you're un-followed yourself? What's your favorite font?
    
    
    P.S Between me hitting "new post" and publishing this, someone un-followed me.  Sigh.

One More Won't Hurt You

It's a sneaky one,

this insidiously slithering

slowly sliding

silently hissing

satanical siren song

of promised relief

I don't need it

I don't need it

I DON'T NEED IT

roll over

switch position,

scrunch the pillow,

draw the sheet

Now he's sliding up my spine

a vertebrae at a time

I want to scratch, want to grab

want to fling the fucker at the wall

and watch him shatter to nothing

I mean, he doesn't really exists,

so what harm is there in that?

I'm strong

I'm capable

I've come five weeks

It's almost over

It's almost over

It's almost over

It'll never really be over

I'll always be here

sure, I'll leave you alone,

like I did when you thought I'd left

for good

that's my best trick, you know

make you think you've won

battle over, let down your guard

Ha!

That's my best time to strike, to

insidiously slither

slowly slide

hissing, silently

suggesting

my satanical siren song

just take one

AGAIN

just one

Silently praying

I ride it out

Get up, read

watch, write, cook,

slither around the silent house

myself

until he leaves.

For today.

❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁

I'm linking up at my new favorite watering hole, dVerse. Head on over for a beverage and some bards. Good times, all are welcome.

❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁

No, I didn't quit smoking. I quit amitriptyline which I've been taking for over three years to help me sleep. Withdrawal absolutely sucks big time. And it's so unfair. Over the years, I've taken just about every narcotic out there, and stopped taking them with absolutely no problems. Try to stop some stupid, practically over the counter “non-habit forming, really safe” med? HELL. 

BuNoWriMo! I'm in.

Some housekeeping items before I take off for the gloriously cool hills in our vintage camper.

• I'll be gone all weekend. Off grid. Going to work on my book! Love writing outdoors.
• It needs a title. If you'd like to get the gist of what it's about, I wrote an unfinished, short-story version of it in February of 2011. Please help me out and suggest titles. Genre: space opera, with a generous helping of spies, double-crosses, competing agencies, and set in 2149.
• Yes, I'm once again attempting BuNoWriMo. You can check 'em out on facebook. It's like NaNoWriMo, only in June. I figured I don't have enough to do what with the house full of teenagers and all, co-hosting the A-Z Challenge blog, blogging here, the Post A-Z Road Trip, and general life responsibilities.  Seemed like a good time to write a book.
• Have a great weekend!

If you were to write a book, or are writing a book, what genre would you choose?

A Lovely Blog Award

Bloggers who have been reading me for a while know a thing or two about me and awards. Recently, I've been having horrid insomnia, so I finally gave up and got up at 1:37 am this morning (that was yesterday, just to be completely accurate) and was so thrilled to find that loverofwords who writes at Of Shoes and Ships and Cabbages and Kings has given me the One Lovely Blog Award.

 Thank you SO much, "love". It was just the pick-me-up I needed.

The rules are:

1.  name and thank the blogger (check!)

2.  List 7 facts about yourself (see below)

3. Award 15 other bloggers this award (Ok, gotta break this one, or I break one of my own: brevity) I'm awarding 9

4.  enjoy (this will not be a problem!)

There are a lot of facts about me in my “About Me” tab, so I'm going to add these there after posting. But keep in mind it's 2 am so my brain is NOT on its optimum setting. (That was yesterday when I wrote this.  Still stuck on insomnia setting, it's summer vacation and I got up at 5 am today.  Need I say more...)

 I have a weird sense of humor so one of these facts will be a total lie. This is in keeping with what I promised when I started the “About Me” tab. I fully expect you to read everything under that tab when you're done reading this post. I mean it ;-)

 I love to watch old movies I've seen a million times while I'm knitting. I love knitting. It's the most relaxing thing I know of besides sailing, which is a bit harder to come by in Colorado than on the Chesapeake Bay where I spent my summers growing up.

 "Lost in Translation" is my all-time favorite movie. Scarlett Johansson is my favorite actress and Bill Murray is my favorite actor, part of why Lost... is my favorite movie.  SEE IT.

 When I was a kid growing up in Sweden, we played outdoors a lot. My best friend, Ann-Charlotte, was two years older than me and taught me many life skills, like making cheese by collecting various plants, grasses, and flowers, wrapping them in plastic wrap, and hiding them under a rock for a month. Yum.  Especially the dandelions.

 If I could change one thing about my house right now, I'd paint these cabinets. (P.S That rack that wraps around goes under all 7 sections.  We have a lot of spices.  Yes, they are in alphabetical order.) (Don't laugh - how would you find what you wanted if it weren't for the alphabet?)

 I'm a Food Network addict and my favorite show is Chopped.

 I love kaviar. (That's the Swedish spelling) In Sweden it comes in a tube just like toothpaste. It's their equivalent of peanut butter, which Swedes find very strange.  I've found that Americans find my kaviar (Kalle's of course) strange.  WhatEVer!

It's going to be hard to pick winners to pass this award on to, because I have so many wonderful blog buddies, but I'll give it my best effort. In no particular order:

1. Polly @ 5^th Sister. She's an amazing poet and writer and great friend.
   
   
2. Julie @ My Good Babushka. She's ridiculously talented in many forms of art, and I love her slightly snarky attitude.

3. jenn @ quirky pickings. Speaking of snarky...besides, no list of lovely blogs could be complete without hers. I've been reading her for years, and she's not to be missed.  Yes, I've given her a lot of awards.  Sue me.  She's that GREAT.

4. H @ Little Sealed Packages. I've given her several awards too, but she deserves every single one. Her photo blog is amazing.
   
   
5. Nicole @ The Madlab Post. She's a film-maker and wherever I see her comments, they are encouraging and show that she's really thought about what the blogger wrote, and taken the time to really interact.
   
   
6. Laurita @ Writing Away. She read every, single, one of my Swedish lesson posts. 
   
   
7. Anna @ Anna's Adornments. She's a fellow Swede and also read all my Swedish lessons, AND helped me when I goofed. She rocks, writes, and makes pretty jewelry!
   
   
8. Amanda @ House Revivals. We've been buddies 20+ years and she's the one who helped me launch Life is Good. She doesn't do awards, but there's no harm in putting her link here. Right, Amanda? She's the queen of crafts, an interior designer, and her blog is immensely popular.
   
   
9. Hart @ Confessions of a Watery Tart. She's hilarious, supportive of all levels of bloggers, just published her first book, The Azalea Assault, which releases TODAY!  Go Hart!  Congrats, and best of luck.
   
   
   Thanks again, loverofwords.
   
   
   
   

Monday Movie Meme: Memorable Dinner Table Scenes

Today is my first time participating in the Monday Movie Meme, AND I got to choose the topic. I love to cook, so I chose dinner table scenes. Here's the scoop direct from Nicole of The Madlab Post, our hostess:

Share on your blog or in the comments section, movies that feature dinner table scenes that are either “uncomfortable, have weird food -- whatever made it stand out from the usual, ‘Let's put in a dinner scene so that the characters can discuss X’." Remember, to also visit the blogs of fellow Monday Movie Meme participants and if your film choices for the meme are on your own blog, link back to this (that would be Nicole's) blog post.

As I was contemplating what scenes to talk about, I realized how many there are that stand out. I also remembered my vow of brevity, so I've chosen three that are each memorable for their own reasons.

Weird food: Mermaids 

Mrs. Flax had one cookbook it seemed, and it was about party appetizers. If you look closely, even when Charlotte isn't talking about the strange items they eat, you'll see them in the background of scenes. Almost every meal had something on a skewer, and often ordinary items were cut into unusual shapes with various cookie cutters. Personally, I think that would have been a great way to eat as a child. My mother had a schedule of meals on a two week rotation, and that was predictable. I would have enjoyed a salmon spread sandwich in the shape of a fish, that's for sure.

Uncomfortable: When Harry Met Sally 

I think we all know the scene I'm talking about, but for those of you who haven't seen it, I'll try to describe this as PG as possible. Harry and Sally are discussing women faking feeling satisfied after certain male/female activities, and to prove her point that he can't tell the difference, fakes satisfaction. In the middle of a very crowded diner. The memorable line is, “I'll have what she's having.” (I love to watch the commentaries. It's Rob Reiner's mom who utters that famous line.) I'm pretty sure that Harry was uncomfortable while this all took place.

Stand Out: Talledega Nights

Movies with this type of humor aren't usually what I'm drawn towards, but a friend made me watch it and I laughed. A lot. This scene is my favorite: Ricky Bobby says grace to, “Sweet Baby Jesus”. Others at the table argue that Jesus is grown up and has a beard, etc, but our hero likes the baby Jesus best. “So tiny, yet omnipotent.” I couldn't help but include the video. The movie is rated PG-13, but this clip is PG, in my opinion.

What are some of the dinner table scenes from movies that stand out for you? Do you have a favorite? Most cringe-worthy? Please share. Or you can write your own post and link up at Nicole's place.

Summer House Rules

We've always been The House where the neighborhood kids gather. I love that. LOVE IT. Secretly wanted it since I started planning my family. I like kids, I really do. I also like knowing where my kids are, and what they're doing. Over the years, the concerns about their activities have changed of course, but being able to supervise them myself is still what I prefer.

We picked this house for many reasons, and one of them was that the neighborhood was in transition. The houses were built in 1974, and the kids who moved in here were for the most part now grown and gone, and the parents left behind were leaving for patio homes and places without kids running around. A whole new generation of families were moving in, and when we got here there were seven boys, all about the age of my boys, living on our short street. It's a semi-circle, and the only reason for someone to drive it would be to get home. There are other streets for cutting through the neighborhood. Perfect!

I do know that one of the reasons we're The House is that I feed them, so I thought I'd share my summer food rules, 2012 version, in case you are in need of some ideas for handling the hordes of teenagers camping out at YOUR house. Or so that you can laugh and say, “She's nuts. But kinda funny.”

1. Use the paper plates and plastic cups I've provided, and hence, the trashcan.
   
   
2. You must leave no trace of your presence behind. I should be able to look at my kitchen at the end of the day and wonder, “Did anyone eat anything?”
   
   
3. Certain foods are off limits, but they've been marked. Eat them and you lose food privileges for a week. I don't want to start making dinner and realize they ate all the veggies for my stir-fry. With teenagers, I realize veggie stealing is only a remote possibility, but I also like to mess with them. “But Mrs. Downey, I don't even know what that is!” (lemon grass). No, I don't make them call me Mrs. Downey, but some of their PARENTS make them do that. I prefer they just call me Tina. It's my name.
   
   
4. One pop per day. They are marked. You will NOT get away with it. And don't commit the unforgivable sin of taking my last diet Mountain Dew. You will be my manual labor slave until you drop dead. Or The Engineer gets home. He frowns upon this rule, not for the limiting of pop, which he believes shouldn't be in the house anyway, but in the slave labor. He pays them for chores.
   
   
5. You must contribute one chore a day. If you can't figure out what that might be, there are large paving stones that need to migrate from the utility trailer to the pallets where we are gathering them for the eventual rebuilding of the back patio.
   
   
6. I shop on Mondays. Whatever is in the house on Monday will not be replenished until the following Monday. Share and ration.

This was taken during Christmas vacation. They're all taller now, but that's about the only change. Mine are first and second from the left.

Are you The House?  What rules do you have?  Enjoy your weekend.  I'm headed for my continual thistle battle.  I'll show you the scars that are surely going to result later...

Cat's in the Cradle

Yesterday,

I held you

fwundle-bundled, in a

bwankie

and we gazed

true love

Yesterday,

you woke me,

multiple times

interrupting my night,

binkie search

Yesterday,

you'd throw up

in places I'd rather

you NOT

Yesterday is gone

Today, in passing,

you toss out,

multiple times a day

“Iloveyoumomyou'reawesome!”

for no reason,

except you're walking by

Today, you don't need

bottles or diapers or bath,

stories or cuddles or

lullabies

Today, we

listen to Skrillex

watch

Big Bang Theory

Today, you need

to vent,

spew venomous poison

of teenage angst, and

it's not the time for me

to correct your language

it's just to listen

Don't know

which stage is harder

Just that it's all over

In the blink of an eye.

Savor.


It's Wednesday, so I'm heading to the poet's pub: dVerse to link up for OpenLinkNight.  Claudia is hosting tonight, so stop by, grab a beverage, and enjoy some poets.