The Difference Between Males and Females

Woo! I’m in the lead for the fridge tour video voting, and I didn’t even beg you guys to vote. How cool is that?

Speaking of cool things, it’s raining here! Huzzah! The grass was dead, the rudbeckia was withered, and the pool water was perilously low.  The sound of the storm was a nice backdrop to my evening of fun with some fellow homeschool moms. We were to dress in quintessential homeschool mom garb: a denim jumper. (I had to borrow one from Anne.)  I complemented my outfit with sneakers, bobby socks, and a doo-rag. We got together and watched two music and skit videos of homeschool moms lampooning themselves. Oh, what a hoot!  (The videos were produced by Funny Moms, but I think they are out of print.) The strawberry pie provided by our hostess, Judy B., was delicious.

But, on to the difference…

Last night, Little Miss said to me, “Mom, I’m so tired. Can I sleep in tomorrow?”  I thought that she must still be exhausted from all our weekend fun. She slept in and had Cheerios for a late breakfast.  I made pancakes for lunch at her request.  After that, I headed out the door to drop LibbyK off at her friend’s house and meet TGD for lunch at The Deli (most delicious fried mozzarella in the universe). Next, I headed to a doctor’s appointment and made a stop at Wal-Mart to replace our half-working toaster oven.

During the course of the few hours I was gone, there were about five phone calls between my house and my cell phone. “How is Little Miss? Where is the information for my history report? Can I play on the computer?”  When I arrived home, I asked where Little Miss was. “Uh, she’s napping upstairs,” was Hunter’s reply. When I checked on LM, she was awake. “Mom, I have some good news and some bad news,” she said. “The good news is I feel better. The bad news is that I threw up two times.”  WHAT?  Yes, indeed, she had–all over the wall, the carpet, the window shade,  and on the blankets on the chair near her target trash can. 

I cleaned her and it up and quizzed the boys one-by-one.

Mom:  Why didn’t you tell me LM threw up? It’s not as if we didn’t talk this afternoon.
Hunter: Well, she did it in the trash can.

Mom: Why didn’t you tell me LM threw up?
Wit: Well, she did it in the trash can.

Mom: Did you know LM threw up?
Gockle: Yeah, but she did it in the trash can.

Can you believe it? Three independent quizzings with identical answers.  GAAH!  Thus one of the many differences between male and female. Had LibbyK been home, I would have known right away.

What amusing or frustrating differences have you noticed between genders?

Weekend of Wow!

I will refer to Xangans by their Xanga names, and everyone else gets his or her real name, unless of course, said person is a child, and then I will make up a name.

Friday late morning found me sitting at the State Theater waiting for the Pride and Prejudice dress
rehearsal to begin and waiting for Ruth G, avaricewrex, and
Erik-with-a-K Evans-with-a-Texas-A&M to arrive. They were stuck on
I-80, also waiting, but on road construction. Since the start of the
rehearsal was delayed by an hour, they arrived right at intermission.
(Does anyone else delight in calling intermission “halftime”?) 

To be honest, I can’t recall if Gockle won or lost his game, but I do know that I had a wonderful time visiting with everyone.  We have the most wonderful baseball fields.  There are two fields, and in between the two of them is a nice playground, just large enough to amuse an older child, but small enough that a little person wouldn’t get lost. 

LindaUlmer and I stayed up and chatted and had tea. She treated me to five books! One of them is a cartoon collection called Tequila Mockingbird. I didn’t get the joke at first. Do you? (Tequila=To Kill A) She also gave me a lovely little candle with my name on it (Mary, not Teacherperson) and this saying: “A wise and generous lady. A cosy have to comfort all.”  Awwww!

Saturday dawned clear and sunny and warm.  It was a great day for doing just about anything, and I suppose we just about did.  The young folk (which includes the teens) jumped on the trampoline, swam in the pool, and disported in a holiday humor.  The teens decided to make a commercial for Heinz ketchup. Judging from the excellent editing job Godzgirl91 did on an earlier “just for fun” commercial, I’m quite keen to see the finished product!  I think the highlight of their filming was when Max the cat jumped up onto the unguarded picnic table and absconded with the weiner. 

Around lunchtime, words_are_things and her dad arrived. Unfortunately, her arrival meant it was time for the Greens and Erik to leave for the AP picnic (which Hunter could not attend due to being Mr. Darcy).  Farewells and hugs all around (excellent job on the hug, Erik!), and we bid them a fond farewell. Ruth left me with a most delicious box of chocolates. I have already eaten two caramels, the caramel pecan, and bit into the coconut. Where it wound up would distress the coconut lovers, so I shan’t say. 

Ruth and the #1 AP Econ Team

The giver and spitter-outer of chocolates

Around 1:00, we loaded many folks into vans and headed to the first performance. Cindy and her youngest children stayed behind, but the rest of us had a fine time watching Elizabeth and Darcy and Wickham and Mrs. Bennet.  Afterward, the Ulmers headed to Mass (should that be capitalized?) and to visit some other friends.  Since we had so “few” people for supper, I got Domino’s pizza instead of rushing home to make chili. Gockle and LittleMiss were most grateful. In my absence, Cindy had cleaned the house (got to LOVE friends like her!) and made salad.   We ate. We chatted. We left for the evening performance.

This time, Cindy, my boys, my parents, and natureg0d came along. All the rest stayed at home and watched a video.  The second performance was even better, and we all enjoyed chatting and exclaiming over how good everyone was.  But, I told you all about the play in my last entry. Old news, eh?

Wit models Lady Catherine’s hat with encouragement from natureg0d

 

Home again, home again, jiggety jig.  We had another fine, late-bedtime night. Natureg0d entertained and impressed with excellent card tricks. I’m quite content to believe it is magic and not prestidigitation!

“I’m picturing your card. I’m getting a dark feeling. It must be clubs…”

Cindy gave her sweet, sweet baby (whom linaldawen called “The Bug”) a bath in my kitchen sink.

Sunday: In which we all go to church, play Ultimate Frisbee, almost blow up the house, and laugh ourselves silly. Also, Teacherperson loses at Boggle.

We woke, ate, and left.

The cheerful lady bakes chocolate chip muffins

TGD taught Sunday school for the adults on the book of Acts as he’s been doing all year. After church, we headed back home for spaghetti and meatballs, salad, bread, and cheesecake brownies. 

I hope we all wiped our mouths!  Cindy, Linda, and Mary      

The afternoon was spent in fun, with lots of swimming.  M, Little Miss, and G pose on the ladder.

Cindy, her two youngest, and I took a drive around several neighborhoods to look at houses. This issue was important, as Cindy is in the process of house plans.  Plus, it gave us an hour of relative quiet to chat. Linda wisely took a nap in preparation for her long drive home on Monday.

Teacherperson drives! (Um, maybe that should be Teacherperson chats and unwisely takes her eyes from the road while driving?)

The Sunday party started at 5:00ish. We invited the Kroekers, BluSmurfGirl, and Julia S. over for a cookout. (Cheesepuff had to work. Boo.)  I turned on the grill and began to cook the burgers and hot dogs. Cindy was sitting by the grill and noticed flames shooting out of the bottom toward the propane tank. Uh-oh.  I turned off the burners, but the fire continued.  Would I blow up the tank? Eeek!  I got a hot pad and turned off the propane tank, thus avoiding potential death.  Thankfully, a stove and frying pan will cook burgers as well, and bkroeker doubled as Emeril, even though we had already avoided the BAM!

linaldawen on the porch

Victoria and LibbyK in the kitchen

Ya-Ya (And she was Ya-Ya before the Sisterhood!)

After our feast, we played Ultimate Frisbee. A sleepover was happening across the street, and Kitty and Lydia of P&P were there, so they joined us in the game. I actually ran, which is something I don’t do very often.  I forget which side won, but it was close. (Are you picking up a theme here?)

bkroeker, Victoria, Morgan, Godzgirl91, linaldawen, E, R, Teacherperson,  and two sleepover girls watch the Frisbee as it flies toward them.

The fun didn’t stop at Ultimate Frisbee. Oh, no! Flutemom38 headed home with C (which wasn’t the fun, in case you thought it was), and the rest of the crew stayed and played until 1:00 or so. I’m not sure what everyone else did (guitar, Capture the Flag?), but I played Boggle. I have this reputation as an amazing Boggle player, but I lost repeatedly. “It must be the contacts,” facetiously said I. (Did you notice that I’m wearing contacts now? Got them on Wednesday.)  Once again, I don’t remember who won, but it was not Teacherperson.  While playing, we told the dumbest jokes. Poor Helen Keller.  LindaUlmer got kudos for best joke deliver–ever. She was laughing so hard she couldn’t even speak. 

What do you call a potato that gets all the cheese sauce?
Spoiled O’Gratin!

After the Kroekers and others left and the majority of wise folks went to bed, Hunter, natureg0d, and I played a version of Cinch. It was great fun, even though poor NG was so exhausted the hardwood floor looked cozy.  How about that happy chicken? Or was it gay…?

Monday: In which the Ulmers and natureg0d go home, Cindy and Mary eat at Quaker Steak, and the girls go shopping

Memorial Day began with the Ulmers leaving. We were sad to see them go, as we always are.  When they left, Cindy said, “Let’s get all the kids busy and clean the house.” (You have GOT to love that woman!)  We did, they did, and the house was back to its normal state.  Natureg0d woke up, ate, and went back to bed. He woke up a second time and went home, still tired.  I wonder what his parents must think when he returns home after a visit to our house. “What DO they do there?”  Of course, we miss him wildly and hope he returns soon. I’ll throw another party!

Around 4:00, Cindy, Godzgirl91, Morgan, LibbyK, Baby Bug,  MK (who is two), and I headed for the mall. TGD, who is SUCH a good man, watched all the rest of the kids, in the pool even!  We shopped at Christopher and Banks (great store) where Cindy bought four skirts and I bought a sweater which makes me look like a librarian. (Which is a good thing in my mind)  We left the older girls at the mall to do girlie things and eat their own supper while the rest of us ate a yummy meal at Quaker Steak and Lube and had equally wonderful conversation.  In our absence, the girls certainly had fun.

   My future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades!

Where does this meal land on the food pyramid?

Mad hatters

Ooh la-la!

After our lovely evening, Cindy packed up all her things as best as she was able, as she wanted to leave by 7:00 a.m. on Tuesday.  She did, and I even pulled my sleep-deprived carcass out of bed to hold BabyBug for a bit and wave good bye. 

It is sad now that everyone is gone. Gone but not forgotten. How can you forget a face like this one?

Did I have a wonderful time? Indeed I did.  As Ulmdog said, “You must be having a good time, if it is keeping Mary from blogging.”

So, how was YOUR Memorial Day?

A Movie and a Play

One thing I liked about the movie was the fact that the apostrophe was in the correct place in the title. At least there was something to like.  The rest of the movie was beloved by the teenage males in the crowd and not-so-enjoyed by the rest of us.  Why?  I shall explain as best as I am able without giving away much of the plot.

Mr. Darcy and Mr. Wickham
 

Charlotte Lucas and Mrs. Bennet

Lydia and her Wickham

Mrs. Bennet meets Mr. Collins

Mr.Charles Bingley

Jane, Kitty, and Elizabeth

“And this is your opinion of me? I thank you for explaining it so fully.”

Jane Bennet

 ”My youngest sister has eloped–has thrown herself into the power of–of Mr. Wickham!”

 

“I wish I could see some happiness for both of us.”

“Will you do me the great honor of becoming my wife?”

Mrs. Lucas, Caroline Bingley, Charlotte Lucas, Mr. Collins, Lady Catherine, Jane

Mr. and Mrs. Bennet

“My dear, dear Lydia! Married at sixteen!”

Photographer and stage crew Erika with Charlotte Lucas

Outside the State Theater

The whole cast

Charles and Caroline Bingley and Fitzwilliam Darcy

GhostFroggy-123, Stage Manager Extrodinaire

  

Mary Bennet and Hill, the Bennet’s maid

Kitty, Wickham, and Lydia

Jane and Lady Catherine with Mrs. Bennet, who is showing her real nature

Mr. and Mrs. Darcy

Darcy and his grandparents

Darcy and his mom

Phew! Did you make it the whole way to the end?  Stay tuned for the next installment of “A Weekend with Teacherperson!”  I’ll report on what its like to host 20 people overnight, have a big Sunday picnic, and more!

Sleepless in Stormstown



Yeah, so I’m not Meg Ryan.
Still, I’m bright eyed and bushy tailed for the third night in a row. 
Should I blame the antibiotics? Perhaps it is my own sloth for sleeping
in late. Maybe that Diet Pepsi Jazz Black Cherry French Vanilla has the
power to stop sleep–with mind bullets!



Thursday is a cleaning and
baking day as we are having a vast number of guests this weekend. I
don’t think I’ll knock myself out too much.  We’ll just get the house
messy again anyhow.  Cookies, quiche, blueberry buckle, and a few other
things are on the make-it-Thursday menu.  Thursday night, as I’ve
already mentioned, we are headed to see Pirates of the Caribbean. I have my ready-to-smuggle movie candy already purchased. Dots, Sugar Babies, mmmmm!

Look, more flowers!

Last weekend, a lot of folks
in our neighborhood had yard sales. I didn’t go to a single one.  I
don’t have anything against yard sales, per say. But, I find that I buy
things I don’t need.  I also do not have yard sales. All my junk is
bagged up and taken to Goodwill.  Are you a yard sale fanatic? What was
the best thing you ever found at a yard sale?


PS–Not my pond. It’s my mom’s. Hence the fish are my watery siblings.

 

Fun and Kindness

I am feeling better today, although I’m glad I still have more antibiotics to take. LogCabinLady (who is also SG) brought me chicken noodle soup. Granted, it was a can of Campbells, unopened, but it meant the world to me!  She gets a gold star for kindness. The kids and I went out today and planted the new tomato plants. I kept the dead-ish ones in the ground, too, just in case they live.  Aj1965 shamed me enough that I dug really big holes and filled them with topsoil so the tomato babies can grow in dirt instead of in rock.

Happy Richard Wagner’s birthday! He’d be 194 if he weren’t dead.  Set aside fifteen hours and listen to the whole Ring Cycle (Der Ring des Nibelungen). Or at least listen to Ride of the Valkryes.  (You’ll have to click on the link on the page.)  Kill the wabbit! Kill the wabbit!

I’m drinking a Diet Pepsi Jazz Black Cherry French Vanilla soda.  Phew!  Just try to order on of those. It’s fairly tasty for a diet soda. Normally, diet drinks rank very low on my food list.  We (um, Gockle420 and I) are distressed as Coke seems to have discontinued Black Cherry Vanilla Coke. It was quite yummy.

As you all are doubtless aware, Pirates 3 comes out this Friday.  Our theaters here are showing it Thursday at 8:00, 9:00, and 10:00.  We are trying to get a group of us to go to the 10:00 show at the theater by Lowe’s (if anyone wants to join in). Call me or email if you want someone to buy a ticket for you earlier in the day.

I’m reading a great book, With Malice Toward Some by Margaret Halsey. Kudos and a half to Ruth G. who got it for me and knew that I’d love it. It’s the journal of the author in the 1930s who goes to England for the year with her husband.  [EDIT--and they take at least one side trip to Sweeden and Norway.] It’s full of delicious, subtle humor which has me snort with glee. “…to stand upon a piece of pavement which is being held up by the three remaining handfuls of Jane Austen or Edward the Confessor seems to me a breathtaking privilege.”  HA!

Here’s a fun thing to do. Go to Google and type in your Xanga name.  Click on Images (so you don’t go to a website but to the pictures). It was very fun for me to do this as so many of your sites showed up when I typed in “teacherperson.”  Do tell what sites came up for you.  Did I show up under your name? Did you show up under mine?  Try typing your Xanga name into Google (the site search, not images). Who else shows up?  The only other blog that shows up in my three pages of hits is hobbits8. Fun again!

Poem: “Tornado Weather” by Vincent Wixon, from
The Square Grove: Poems. © Traprock Books, 2006.

Tornado Weather

1.
Clouds build
all day,
hold west of the section.
Plowing east he feels them
piling
darker, deeper.

Wind through ankle high corn
comes cold, dries his
back,
and he pushes the throttle a notch,
checks the hills blurring
between the wheels.

At the field’s end he raises the shovels,
as first
drops darken his shirt.
He shifts into high and opens the engine for
home.
The rain thickens, turns hard,
pings off the tractor, bounces on the
road,
stings his bent head and back.

He pulls under the
cottonwood,
covers the stack with a can,
and sprints for the
barn.

2.
Clouds hang low and come on—
a black-green curtain wide as
sky.
The high leaves of the cottonwoods
shudder for the first time all
day.

Women stand on their porches
and the air turns cool.
They
shiver, hug their sleeveless arms,

and listen for the tractor-whine
of
their husbands leaving the fields.
They call the children from the
barn,
and turn inside to switch on the radio.

Head Colds and Horticulture

Pull out your jump ropes and chant along:

Mary, Mary, sick in bed
Feels all wretched in her head.
Sneezy, achy, fever, pain
Mary, Mary, don’t complain!

I went to the doctor today and got a nice, free antibiotic. He said it would have been $15 a pill, so I asked for samples.  I forget the name of it, something with an F. [EDIT--It's called Levaquin, which obviously doesn't start with an F.]  I’ve relapsed, and I’m lying in bed with my laptop on a pillow. I couldn’t fall asleep (probably because I slept in until 10:40 a.m. and it was only 3:30 p.m.), but it feels so nice to be lying down on soft pillows in a dark room.

Thanks for all your helpful advice on the tomatoes and video. I shall observe those plants to see if they are truly dead or not. I bought replacements, but I’ve not gotten them planted yet. 

I watched the DVD One Night with the King over the weekend. I read the book, Hadassah, upon which the movie was based, although I’m not sure it helped me to understand what was going on in the movie. It was a bit murky and rushed in spots.  I can’t say that I think the movie was “well” done, but to see a full-scale production of a Bible story is a treat, especially when it tells the story a little bit differently than I always pictured it.  I didn’t care for the scene where Esther reveals Haman’s plot to the king at the banquet. From my reading of the text (the REAL text), the king didn’t seem to need  a sparkly bunch of Stars of David to convince him of the veracity of Esther’s claims.  If you don’t want to watch it for the plot, the costumes are excellent–beautiful stuff!  It’s also clean, and you could watch it with the family, keeping in mind that there are eunuchs, kissing, and plot details which you may not want to explain to your seven year old.

Mamaglop is an avid gardener and had a great entry about plants in her garden and how certain ones remind her of people because they were cuttings or offshoots from their gardens. I offered to send her a plant to remember me, and she mused, “By what plant would I want to be remembered?”  I’d like to be remembered as a double coreopsis. It was one of the first perennials I grew from seed, it’s a sunny yellow color, it blooms all summer and into fall, and it is great for cut flowers. Useful, cheerful, always hanging around.  What flower would you like to be remembered as? (No great big explanations needed. Any flower or plant will do!)

(I hope that picture shows up. I linked it. I didn’t feel like searching for my own garden shots of years past.)

Mysteries

All four of my tomato plants are dead.  Here is one of them. Why? How?  We didn’t get a frost, or if we did, these were the only things to suffer. I didn’t spray any weed killer near them at all, although perhaps a neighbor did and oversprayed? But, to kill all four?  Can you solve this mystery?

I got a new video camera. I taped one hour’s worth of tape and downloaded it to my computer. The file is 1.74 GB large. (Yes, I did mean gigabytes!)  Obviously, this file is huge, huge.  What did I do wrong? I used Windows Movie Maker for the download.  Can anyone solve this mystery or give me some insight?  (For those who don’t know how large 1.74 GB is, a CD can hold about 100 pictures at top quality, or about 700 MB.  A GB is 1000 MB. I would need 3 full CDs to hold 60 minutes of a movie, unless I’ve done my math wrong, which is probable.)

I awoke today expecting to feel better from this nagging cold and cough. Imagine my surprise to discover a full-blown, miserable sinus infection! Despite the misery, the children and I got a lot done today–garage cleaning, mulching, grass seed planting, house cleaning, pool vacuuming… Around 1:30, Wit said, “Gee, Mom, you look bad. Why don’t we all go in the house and watch Monsters, Inc. since you’ve never seen it. You could use the rest.” Ah, so solicitous and clever in his laziness! We did so, and then I had a three-hour nap.  More work followed. Gockle made tacos for supper and Wit tidied up. LibbyK cleaned the whole kitchen and bar during my nap. Hunter voluntarily raked up bare spots and put down grass seed. Oh, they were good today, despite the scuffling here and there. We ended the evening by watching Ever After and drinking milkshakes.  They would have been so yummy if I could have tasted them properly.

But enough whining. This is a shot of part of our garden along the driveway. 125 feet is a lot to weed. I like the mix of green colors in it.  Check out my black raspberry cane protruding from the bush. 

I hope you can help me to solve at least one of my mysteries!

Links…I’ve Got Links

First Link–Remember my fridge tour video? Well, that contest is up and running now.  I don’t want a vote for me, as I’m just a sample (Sing it! I’m just a bill. Yes, I’m only a bill…er, sample) 

If you would like to participate in the contest, go here:   

You can enter a video of your hidden talent, your life, your cutest child, and more! 

You may be saying, “Why would I want to do this?”  It’s just for the fun of sharing your video with others and for generating more traffic on your site.  New friends!  You may also be saying, “How do I do this?”  Well, you make your video, upload it to your video blog (like you’d upload a picture), and then send a message to TheTheologiansCafe telling him that you have a video for the contest. 

Second Link–http://www.xanga.com/purse2007
This link is for the blog of a lady who is a missionary in Lima, Peru. To help the women there, she has organized the sale of hand-crocheted purses.  If you are looking to support a good cause or for a nice, summer purse, please check out her site!

The Missing Link–Hee hee. Just couldn’t resist.

In non-linked news, Gockle420 had a personally good baseball game tonight. The team lost, but he played well, even pitching for two innings.  We are gearing up for next Friday when many people descend upon my house in anticipation of Saturday the 26th’s Pride and Prejudice performance. Hunter is Mr. Darcy, in case you were wondering.  Do you think he looks like a teenage Darcy? (Okay, except for the outfit.)