Today, I went ice skating. I did not fall and crack my head open. (although I fell twice, klutzy me)

Tomorrow, I will probably go roller skating. I hope I do not fall and hit my head.

Friday, I go skiing. Guess what I hope I do not do?

Why all the fuss about my head? Well, on 12/30, I went skiing. I am not a bad skier, and some have even told me that I’m a good skier.  We will just say that I’m an average skier.  Anyhow, something was up with me. I kept falling. At first, they were just silly things–clunk over and laugh. But, then, on the expert slope, I somehow wrecked. I still do not quite know how. And I wound up facing uphill and smashed the back of my head into the snow. Ow. Ow.

I got up, laughed, and skied down. Then, I went down a different slope and wrecked, but I did not hit my head. At that point, it was time to go in.  We all sat in the lodge for a while, and then I drove home.  When I was almost home, the middle went out of my vision. By the time I got home, I was seeing incredibly beautiful, pulsing circles of silver, blue, and white trapezoids. I put myself to bed for the night.

Now, a week later, my head still aches in the back. My neck is stiff, and I have a few weird, little things going on. So, I am a bit paranoid now.  Yes, I’m planning to buy a helmet before Friday. This little girl learned her lesson.

See how good I’m being? A blog entry every day so far!

Since I didn’t blog on my birthday this year, my 40th birthday, I should tell you what TGD got me. A cruise to Mexico with my mom!  Yes, we leave on the 23rd for a five-night cruise to Costa Maya with a stop also either at Cozumel or Key West. Haven’t been able to figure out which one yet.  I am looking forward to it. I’m a little nervous as I get queasy on pool rafts, even, but I am pretty sure with liberal doses of Bonine, I shall be fine.

But, this brings me to the question I wanted to ask. What camera should I get?  You see, I had a beloved Kodak EasyShare 4 MP with 10x optical zoom. I loved it. LOVED it!  And now the focus sensor is off. To repair it would be over $100. So, I got an upgraded camera last Christmas (2008). I hated it. HATED it!  I finally sold it on Ebay last month. And now, I am in the market for a new camera.

I would like a smaller version, like a slim pocket-sized one. Something with 5x zoom at least would be amazing.
But, what I really, really want are crisp, clear shots. None of this stupid soft focus stuff that I had with the now-sold camera. (Which I mailed to Hawaii, which I found infinitely nifty.) Do you have any recommendations of which camera to buy or definitely NOT to buy? 

I had to laugh at myself yesterday. I wrote that second blog entry and was about to leave Xanga when I realized that people had commented on my entry. I totally forgot that people left comments! How funny is that?
   
Boy, what a cold day. And the very light snow is blowing all around and it looks like a blizzard sometimes, but it’s not even snowing. I am glad I don’t work outside. Well, I’m glad I don’t work in general, but that is another story.

Now, to today’s topic. I’m not much of a TV watcher. As a matter of fact, one day a few months ago, I turned the TV on myself, and several children said, “Mom, did YOU turn the TV on?”  Yes, fairly rare. But, I’m getting very excited as the new season of my favorite show starts Sunday. CHUCK!  It is the only TV show I’ve gone out of my way to watch since we used to watch West Wing when it first came out a gazillion years ago. (And I no longer watch it.)  That made me think about TV shows I really like. So, I thought I’d share them with you, just in case you want to love them, too.

1. Chuck (NBC)

This is my favorite. (Uh, yeah. You just said that, Oh Repetitive One)  The plot of the show is that good-natured Chuck, who works in the Nerd Herd at a Buy More as a computer guy, accidentally gets a top-secret government computer program downloaded into his brain essentially making HIM a top-secret computer. They let him live his life, but he now has two “handlers”–one who poses as his girlfriend and one as a fellow Buy More employee. He goes on missions with them and helps to solve things in a bumbling, endearing way. The antics of his fellow employees at the Buy More are hysterical, too. And this season, Chuck’s brain got and upgrade–he is a real James Bond!

2. Phineas and Ferb (Disney)

This is a cartoon grown ups can enjoy. There is no crude sexual humor, no making fun of parents, no idiotic slapstick. But, the writing is hysterical.  And Perry! Oh, every time that secret agent platypus makes his little growl noise, I laugh. James got the soundtrack for Christmas. Squirrels in my Pants? Good song. And Little Brothers? “You are younger, we’re related, and you’re boys…” The plot is that two brothers build inventions–amazing things–entertain the neighborhood and then the invention somehow vanishes before their neurotic sister can show the mother what they’ve done. Their pet platypus, Perry, is a secret agent who battles the Evil Doofenshmirtz each episode. 

3. iCarly (Disney)

I am catching a theme here as to what my kids watch–Disney channel! I am not sure why this show about 15 year old or so Carly who lives with her older, artist brother, who does an online show with her best buddy Sam (a girl) and friend Freddy (a guy) appeals to me, but it does. It’s funny and silly and all that you’d expect in a sit-com. But I like it!

4. What Not to Wear (TLC)

Every day, LittleMiss and I finish read alouds at noon. We then have a lunch break from 12:00 to 1:00. How do we spend our time? Watching What Not to Wear!  This show takes people who aren’t dressing appropriately for their situation in life and shows them how to dress to make the most of whatever figure they have. They also get a hair and makeup makeover.  Occasionally, my girls will What Not to Wear me! “Mom, that sweater hits your hips in just the wrong spot…” 

There are other shows I’ll watch, like Mythbusters and Ninja Warriors when the mood strikes me. 

Are you a TV junkie? What tops your list of best shows?

We went to see Sherlock Holmes today. I had really been looking forward to it. And I was not disappointed at all!  There was not too much gore, although I shut my eyes during the boxing scene and winced a few times throughout. There was not a lot of sex or anything, but the premise was that there was a cult of black magic in England and this guy supposedly returned from the dead. So, you get pentagram pictures and stuff in the mystery. 

And now, I am going to tuck Little Miss into bed on this blustery night and watch a movie with TGD (who went to a wrestling match instead of going to see the movie).

Stay warm! It’s COLD out there! (Unless you don’t live in PA. Then it might be toasty!)

See, another blog. Two in a row. Go, me! 

What movies have you seen lately that you’d recommend?

Happy New Year! One of my resolutions is to start back up with my blog. Since I was getting asked from all sides, I thought it was a great time to start.

We rang in the New Year the way we usually do, with a huge party.  Today, I honor Papa John, who was the closest in the Facebook bet of how many people we would have. He guesses 117. By my best count, we had 105, down from last year, but still pretty good. The strange thing was that usually we have a bunch of families from our church–adults and teens and children. This year, until 10:00 at night, the three oldest people at the party were 44, 40, and 25. And there were almost 80 people there by that point. Eventually, there were 8 people over the age of 25 there. The majority were under the age of 20. Wild times! Fun times!

 

Another view of the same room.

And a third view of the same room!

The other room! You can’t see the people shoved in the corners and spilling out into the entry way.

Round Robin ping pong. Check out the basement! It’s in the process of being refinished.

Awesome game of Ninja in the kitchen around 4:00 a.m.

Guitar Hero tournament–guess who won? (Wit–no surprise)

I made all those who were staying over go to bed at 6:00 a.m. since some of them were getting really tired. (Yes, I also stayed up that late. TGD did not!) About 25 kids slept over. I didn’t bother to count, actually. There were a lot of them. I made pancakes and bacon for them all, and one of the moms had sent over a breakfast casserole and another blueberry muffins.   People started to leave a bit at a time. By noon, only a few people were left.

MarkJ made a big fort.

The guys watched Penn State win!

And I have fulfilled day one of my New Year’s resolution: to keep up this blog! Did you make any resolutions?

I’m sick. Many of you know that I like to be sick occasionally, and today is no exception.  It’s Labor Day, so there is nothing preventing me from wearing my pajama pants and lounging around, drinking tea and coughing. TGD is forsaking the meaning of Labor Day and is working on an onerous task–building a wardrobe from a kit.  He’s doing a bang-up job, but he’s hating every second of it.  I told him that he chose his career well.

I finally finished the painting last week. It was such a delight to finally move the porch furniture back into place and sit out and eat lunch, which is one of my summer treats. 

Yesterday, we went on a picnic to Curwensville. As usual, my mom had quite a picnic feast for us, and my great-aunt even made pumpkin pies! When it started to get dark, we headed out to stake our usual spot for watching the fireworks.  We always sit on a cliff overlooking Curwensville Lake (which used to be called Curwensville Dam, but is now much more sophisticated).  They set off the fireworks directly across from where we sit. 

Since we got there early, we had to amuser ourselves. First we played charades with highlights including a lightning bug, Mount Rushmore, the TV show House, and a mosquito.  There was a bird making a call which sounded just like “Meep!” My mom claimed the bird was actually called a meep. Gockle and Little Miss could do a dead-on imitation, so we sat there meeping for a long while. The someone on a hill behind us with a spotlight started scanning the crowd. We found this terribly amusing, and Peep (my mom) grabbed our tiny flashlight and said, “So you wanna play, huh?” and took a fighting stance and shone her light back. This must have delighted the spotlighter, because s/he shone back, and a light battle began.  Then we got bored. Libby told us ghost stories in her matter of fact way. “And then, when she was about to die, she said, ‘If I ever take off this velvet ribbon, my head will fall off.’ And she took of the ribbon and her head fell off.” 

Earlier today, I dragged my weary body out of bed, took a rejuvenating shower (which gave me enough energy to drag myself downstairs and to the van), and took Gockle to get his first cell phone. We made a deal–if he read the Bible the whole way through, he could get a cell phone. He read and read and read constantly for two months straight and finished the whole Bible.  Way to go, 13 year old boy!  He’s now the delighted and giddy owner of a Samsung Alias, and only two days into the school year.

School started last Thursday. Wit, a junior, and LibbyK, a freshman, are at the high school all day, although they are both doing my AP Language and Composition class online.  Gockle is full-time at the middle school. Little Miss is full-time homeschooled.  I’m actually excited and pleased for this year.  Summer was just long enough.

I wish the Painting Fairy would come and finish this porch for me.  Today, the UPS guy came and said, “You’re STILL painting?” 

I conscripted Little Miss (who was insanely eager to help) and Gockle (not so much) to work with me today. After about seven minutes, Gockle actually stamped his foot at me and said, “No more!” (to which I said, “Great, you can go straight to bed after football practice.”)  Little Miss lasted about 20 minutes before she had a meltdown.

Tonight is Youth Group. I wish I had told all of them to pack painting clothes. We’d have this porch done in no time. 

Oh, and I discovered that it will take two coats in addition to the primer. Sigh.

I must say that I have enjoyed the past few days immensely.  One reason is that summer is finally here–hot days, warm nights, lots of reasons to be in the pool.  As a matter of fact, yesterday, to celebrate the fact that I finally got the coat of primer finished on my porch railings, we spent the day in the pool, invited a family over for a cookout, and played pinochle to late in the evening. What fun! Today I found out that yesterday was National Relaxation Day.  How fitting.

Have you seen the website My Life is Average? I love it.  http://mylifeisaverage.com/

It’s a website of ordinary people who do slightly amusing things in the course of their average lives. Here are a few entries:

Today my friend almost choked on a LifeSaver. I laughed at the irony.

Today, both my mother and elderly grandmother were texting at the table. Not wanting to feel left out, I took my phone out and pretended to text. My mom caught me fake-texting, and my grandmother called me ‘lame’.

Today, I ordered a pizza online. The website gave me the delivery boy’s name, so I quickly put on a shawl and my mom’s glasses. When I opened the door I said “Welcome, Tom.” He looked terrified.

Today I pretended the mashed potatoes I was eating for dinner was a volcano and the gravy was hot lava that I quickly ate with my spoon to save the countless civilians living in an imaginary village below. No one else at the table suspected anything.

Last night, I was lying in bed, thinking about clothes. I got a crazy idea about designers sewing a shirt and a skirt together. I felt like an inventive genius, before I realized that was called a dress.

Today, I was in a parade. It looked like it was going to start raining. I got excited that it might literally rain on my parade. It rained. I was excited.

Today, I was on a subway and someone’s watch was ticking quite loudly. I said “Hmm, what is that mysterious ticking noise…” with a fake British accent. Someone began singing the, “Snape, Snape, Severus Snape” tune. I yelled “Dumbledore!”. We exchanged smiles. I think I’ve found my soul mate.

I am very sad. I am truly sad. I just discovered tonight that my tomatoes have the blight. I did not even realize there was a pandemic tomato blight striking the northeast. My mom asked me about my tomatoes just yesterday, and I bragged about how big they were and how many tomatoes I had. She said all her friends’ plants were wiped out by the blight.

Tonight, I went to look at them and discovered a bunch of brown leaves. Huh? Not enough water? No, we’ve had PLENTY of rain, believe me.  Later, we were chatting with a neighbor who spoke of the tomato blight wiping out his plants in 48 hours and how the fungus can live in the soil for three years and how it can travel 40 miles via wind (so says Penn State’s Ag Department).

With trepidation, I asked, “What does it look like?”
He proceeded to describe the current state of my tomato plants.

I am very sad. I’ve only had four tomatoes.

Today was a bit of downer for various reasons, one of which is that the porch painting is going to take a hundred years (or at least a week).  Anyhow, I was really anticipating a hot bath and a mind-numbing novel, and I indulged in both.  Relaxed and more peaceful, I put on my pajamas and came downstairs, intending to eat a large number of the peanut butter cookies that Wit made which were perfuming the house.

When I got downstairs, Wit was watching TV in one room and the other room was occupied by a bunch of guys playing Guitar Hero!  I scurried back upstairs to put on more appropriate clothing pretty quickly. 

It only proves that sometimes song lyrics are dead-on.

Splish Splash, I was takin’ a bath
Long about a Saturday night,
Rub-a-dub, just relaxin’ in the tub
Thinkin’ everything was alright

Well, I stepped out the tub, put my feet on the floor,
I wrapped the towel around me,
And I opened the door, and then
Splish, Splash! I jumped back in the bath.
Well how was I to know there was a party going on?