November – all it’s babies (and Angry Birds)

Some days are a gift. Some days are gifts you are given, that are better than any other gift, except for those gifts that are just as precious, which doesn’t mean that they have less value,  they are just all precious. Oh heck, you know what I mean!

Continuation on some paper mache’ AND the best part (besides being my nephew’s birthday) is the ANGRY BIRDS!!! Cannot express how much fun I had helped my brother with this projects! It is purely his genius idea and execution, but being a helping hand was a lot of fun! It was amazing to see how he took this theme to the max!

Normally after a kid’s birthday party, the adult relatives congregate after all the child fun, but I had a date at that planned time. Besides…. who wants to hang out with parents, when the kids have all the fun? So I got to hold the “bad” cars while everyone played with the “favorite” toy – a Hotwheels http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Wheels-Big-Jump-Track/dp/B0040JG4IE – Seriously, it kept both girls and boys, 2 to 6 entertained for quite a while. They were lining up to drop their cars down the tracks. Some to see if they crash, some to see if they picked a good balanced car – some just wouldn’t make the jump. The blue convertible with orange windows won – hands down!

What my brother and his wife Chrissy had planned, is to divert the kids from one activity to another, so they would not see the big reveal until we had it all set up. They had to hunt eggs in the back yard, and then play a Angry Bird bean bag game where they knocked over plastic bottles (with a little sand in them), painted like green pigs. Meanwhile, we are pulling everything out of the garage and setting it up in the front lawn. People stopped to admire the very popular and obvious game.

These are http://youtu.be/OqcyxlCC4SA

http://youtu.be/zM1_Lon1iHU

http://youtu.be/SljkO2wN6qU

With all the fun going on, I had one boy hitting me in the head constantly with a red balloon, another one coming up every five minutes for activity approval, a girl who wanted me to eat a rubber skeleton, some crying, lots of yelling, lots of “YES!!!” One kid bringing me all the reject cars, another one taking them back and adding them to the pile. It was all good fun. I did learn a lot about C4 from an ex Navy Seal. You never know who you are going to meet at a kids birthday party.

When Vaughn called, I made my good-byes and headed out to meet him. He got to meet my brother Kyle and the two of us headed out to find a place to eat via -Around Me – Located an Indian restaurant and headed over. A Taste of India – was a dive hole in the wall, no bigger than 12 feet wide. They didn’t look like we were expected, and the floors were being moped. I was almost ready to turn around and leave. They didn’t bring us silverware, or water, or menus, just asked if we wanted the buffet and… there was a buffet (just don’t go around 5pm like we did, the food has not had time to heat up in their dishes). So… slightly cool Indian food – but delicious! They were very nice and explained anything I had a question on. Still not convinced that odd round pickle I ate was a mango or whatever they were trying to convince me it was..  but it was yummy!

Kudos, for this being the first place that has served me Mango Lassi without filling a glass full of ice first. First time I was satisfied with the amount given! 🙂 Assuming this is a pick up to go place, or for locals only dining in – they did pick up the pace when realized we were actually staying, I guess.

Came home to Kyle getting ready for a poker game, which is usually played in the basement, but for some reason the whole living room was taken over, which was no problem until they started smoking inside. They whole house stunk, and I was a bit rude, and opened windows but heck… my lungs? Geez!! Still coughing from it. And now everything smells like cigarette smoke (and a few cigars). YUCK! Even when I smoked (from the age of 19 to 30 – up to 3 packs a day) I NEVER smoked inside!! That just was not done by anyone I knew. Ack! Lack of manners! I would never ask to smoke in someone else’s home either. Porch people… porch!

One of the most delightful and unexpected items for the evening was Alex, a friend of Kyle, brought his Hammered Dulcimer – OMG!!! SERIOUSLY?? So, he was shocked I knew what it was, where they came from, and that I listen to Orbital – I was shocked HE PLAYS!! Private concert!! IN MY LIVING ROOM!!! Who gets that? http://youtu.be/rtUudHtfhKI and http://youtu.be/EmxKuTnNuaY

http://soundcloud.com/orbital-4/04-the-box-part-2

Vaughn and I watched the original black and white The Haunting, and went to bed after the ruckus calmed down. Before that, when he came in, Lukas (the dog) did not bark at Vaughn, which is highly unusual. He likes him – A LOT! Lukas looks a lot like his dog Penzy – but she weighs 100 pounds, while Lukas weights 5. They are going to be SO SWEET together!!

Went outside to walk V out, and it was SO FOGGY, but then I realized my glasses had been dog licked. Looks like we are going to spend Thanksgiving together (if all goes to plan – it IS one of the busiest travel weekend of the year).

 

Last Night with Paper Mache’

Do you ever know of a time, when you had a whole lot of fun, but cannot remember every detail, or even most of them? That was last night. There were so many funny things my brother J and I discussed, but every single one of them has flown from the honeycomb of my brain. Too many bees and no honey?

After spending an overly relaxing day filled with foreboding and a mild headache.. My stepmom called and asked me over for a delightful round of “what can you fix for me”. She wanted the larger sticks cut down for the fire pit. I asked for something to cut these 2″ sticks down… she showed me a hedge clipper. This is not unusual, actually. For some reason, it must be a genetic trait, people often expect a job done, with the wrong tools. Or, they assume that the correct tools must exist because they have… tools. Right?

Not to despair. The time spent sawing “logs” down with the trusty hand saw made specifically for garden branches – that just happened to be in front seat of my car. What luck! My time was spent in a mental exercise of pure calm. Also M had left. Work to me is a type of meditation, I enjoy it, as long as there isn’t someone hovering over me every second asking non-relevant questions OR questioning if I am doing something as efficiently as possible.

Efficiency – exists in mind of people in my family, like honey does in mine. Once, I was fixing the trim in K’s kitchen – it had originally been installed 1/2 inch too high. The whole counter top was nothing more than a trap for crumbs. The only way to clean it, was to vacuum. Not very efficient for a small kitchen, so I fixed it. But when it came to putting the trim back on, I asked for nails and K said he had every kind of nail that existed. After two people searching, that was proven to be Not True. All I wanted to do was to tack nine nails in. So what happens… K pulls out the compressor, the nail gun and hooks everything up in the kitchen (this is a tiny kitchen. I mean… nine finishing nails is all I ask!!!) It would have taken me less than five minutes to tack in the nails. It took 30 minutes to lug all this equipment in and out of the garage, unload it and load it back up… probably more time than that. And you can PUT YOUR EYE OUT with one of those things…  Ah, the advancements of technology.

Segue complete. After cutting down all the sticks, transplanting bulbs from the front yard and cutting down a “monster” butterfly bush (Buddleia Davidii to those of you in the know), I locked everything up and went home to plant the tree that M asked me if she could have but I told her it was already planted – why does she want my poor sad little evergreen? Seriously? This 9″ juniper will not make a Christmas tree in her lifetime!! Not in a container, and NOT in her shady back yard. It will, on the other hand, be VERY happy living in the ground in full sun, here. I’m SO mean.

How weird, now I am prattling on, some details come back… lol. So back to last night, J invited me over to help make paper mache pigs for a Birds vs. Pigs attack game his 4 year old will play on his birthday. What a marvelous idea. He spent 6 hours making 4 pigs. I showed him how to make paper mache from scratch, and that wide newspaper is better than thin, and we made some pretty impressive pigs! Tonight I will go back to paint them. We used Dixie cups for legs and snouts, the body of a medium balloon – all blown to different sizes. This is the cutest idea EVER! So much work, but we had a good time and got to talk, which we have not down in two weeks. Good catching up, but after my fifth pig, I was tired.

Too tired to plug my phone it, and too tired to remember to bring my crochet home with me. Ack! Working on a blanket in brown Fisherman wool. Just a granny square, but once it is felted (if I have the heart), it will really have a neat texture.

Just realized how appropriate this is to have playing: http://soundcloud.com/mickcollins_gellar/yazoo-nobodys-diary-c-gs

Just helped E, he is staying with us for the week, where the tea is, the honey and sugar, and the auto-kettle (I LOVE those things). It is strange, but I love the juxtaposition between technology and the old blue stoneware teacup I prefer. Today I am using the bastardized “English” pattern of some coffee mug made to look old, but is probably some weird line offered by Avon. Bought at garage sale, two mugs (heck, maybe all four) and a kettle – 4.00. Cannot be beat! This is a nice hefty mug for coffee, which I made yesterday and am reheated as needed – a trick my friend Fred in NH helped me acquire (he will never read my blog).

E is a cool guy friend of H who I suspect is actually NOT sleeping with her. How odd… I could be wrong. Nothing has been heard in two days. So far, he is the most sophisticated of her friends. He is visiting to finish a video project for school, hangs out in the living room with me, eschewing the smoky basement crew and laughing (unheard of from most of this household) along with me while watching the odd movies and series I do. Nice to have some sane company for once.

I do blather on…

Today, my goal is to work on the house projects outside, even though it is raining and the ground is wet. It is a warmish day, and I had my fan on all night, with no cooling effect at all. Went to a dollar store and found the perfect pillow for 6.00. So perfect in fact, I am now thinking of replacing ALL of my pillows with this technological wonder! Do pillows have an age limit? I am sure they do, and all of mine are using walkers and gumming their food right now. Time to PUT THEM DOWN!! I will not cry. They had very full lives. It is just their time.

Lucas is sitting next to me being super cute right now. I only had five hours of sleep, strange, I feel great! This is the time of year I put together my fantasy birthday wish list. Seriously, it is pure fantasy. I only do it to show people the crazy things that interest me, and the wonderful things that exist in this world. WP does not auto link, so it took forever to edit every link into a hyper. Here is the revised list: https://wesleycarter.wordpress.com/2011/11/15/my-birthday-wish-list/I stayed up until 3 am to talk with V, before his trip this week. Didn’t have time earlier with all that was going on. When he called, I was covered in flour muck. This stuff is near impossible to get out of arm hair, just saying. Ugh.

My average blog is 700 words long, and when I reread them, my dyslexia does some interesting things. Rarely do they get edited before printing, lol! These things always take less time to read than they do to write, as long as I don’t edit them, not that much more time.

Is it a cloudy rainy day where you are? Are you enjoying it? I am!! The bread I threw out for the birds and squirrels has proven to be a goldmine. Seriously – every morning I look out and there is something new going on. Today, it was a female cardinal and a bluejay. How lucky!