The cat crew

Still working on L's room, but we are so very close to being done. We got the last of the painting finished today, so as soon as the bookshelf we painted has had enough time to set, we will be able to transfer all her books into it. Just a few final touches after that, and we will be done! She's really loving it already, so that has made all the work worth it.

Mark worked most of the weekend, and we had quite a few obligations, so this weekend has been way too fast and lacking in fun!

Dej is at a concert in Milwaukee tonight with her boyfriend and a big group of friends. We made it very clear to her that if she went to this, she is still going to go to school and be productive for the entire day Monday. I'll be interested to see, in reality, how she manages to get up and get to school in the morning.

I started the cats on a special feline lysine supplement this weekend. It is supposed to help alleviate the symptoms of their kitty herpes. The symptoms are just uncomfortable/irritating for the cats, who are all healthy otherwise. Lila almost always has problems, but then she does have a weak system and other issues as well. Right now though, Oliver, Jasper, and Ivan are sneezing and Baxter has a slightly runny eye. I'm anxious to see if it clears it up right away for them now that they are taking lysine. They all seem to really like it and either licked it from my finger or from their own paw.
I am posting a recent picture of each of the cats, as it's been a while.


Baxter


















Oliver














Petey











Ivan













Jasper






















Lila & Hallie

The more the merrier!

M. returned home tonight with his new tattoo. It's beautiful!!! He sat for almost five hours. I am impressed that he made it through the whole thing in one sitting. I'll wait until I have a good picture to describe and explain it. It's kind of gross looking right now yet.

I have a horrible headache and lots more to do yet tonight, so this will be unusually brief for me. M. snapped these pictures this morning. This is how I wake up every morning. L. did sleep in her own bed, but she likes to come in for snuggles in the morning. In these photos, we have six of the seven cats in bed in their typical sleeping positions. Petey was probably downstairs cuddling the dogs. He likes to spend some time in all the beds but seems to prefer Luciana's, now that she uses it. I love these cats so much!

Easter should be in April, not March!

The biggest excitement we had over the weekend took place Friday night, shortly after my last post. M. & I were visiting with Allegrea downstairs, and Dej came running down to tell me that her sister was “wigging out” over something. I ran up two flights of stairs to find my poor little girl curled up in a ball in the middle of our bed, sobbing, with her whole body shaking uncontrollably. I was a little surprised by her condition, because I knew she hadn’t yet been asleep, so it couldn’t be a bad dream. After I got her calmed down a bit, she told me that she was lying in her bed writing a song (she now does this every night before she goes to sleep), when she saw something moving out in the hallway. She then explained what she saw. It was a green man, short—about her size, with a green watermelon shaped object on top of his head, with a little stick-type thing with a light on the end protruding from the watermelon thing. She described every single feature with extreme detail. So while the mommy portion of me was devastated to see my baby so upset, the logical portion is thinking, “You have got to be kidding me! Little green men”! I tried to make several logical suggestions about imagination, her eyes playing tricks, shadows, etc.—any logical explanation for this bizarre, yet obviously disturbing sighting. She was absolutely adamant that it was NOT her imagination, and there was no convincing her otherwise. At this point, I switched from logic to comfort mode. My stubborn little girl was 100% convinced that she saw a living being and nothing I said was going to change that, so there was nothing left but to help her get over it and move on. Who knows…the universe is full of things we don’t understand; maybe she really did see something like that. I lit up a stick of incense (still don’t have my sage) and performed a very elaborate “cleansing” ritual in the hallway and finished up by closing all portals in our house. She was quite relieved after that. We decided that she would stay in our bed until she fell asleep, and when we came up after Al. left, we would carry her into her own bed. She was very comfortable with that arrangement, which really surprised me a little. I thought she may be hesitant to return to her bed. She has slept in her bed every night since then, with no further incidents. Whew!

The weekend was completely comprised of Easter/Ostara “doings” and working on L’s bedroom. We have made significant progress in there. I can’t begin to describe the mess I found and have continued to find in her “clean” room. Every single nook, cranny, bag, box, piece of furniture with cracks/crevices was stuffed with whatever she didn’t want to put away in her various room-cleaning endeavors. She is a packrat! She has more rocks, shells, sticks, nests, pieces of god-only-knows-what-but something-from-outside than anyone would think possible. In one small, child-sized purse, I found several rocks and shells, a crab foot (found on a camping trip?), a tank top, two unmatched socks, a pair of underwear, some plastic animal figures, some marbles, a pencil, and some tissues. I couldn’t figure out where all her socks and undies were going, but as she needed them, I just bought her more. Now I have found a lifetime supply of them. I basically dumped everything into the middle of the room (and it totally covered the floor and the rocking chair) and started sorting into piles. All the clothes that still fit had to be washed, as I don’t know if they were dirty or clean when she stuffed them into their various areas. This has really turned into an epic event, and I will be so glad to be done. The majority of her floor is cleared now, and I just have a few piles that I am working on putting away. We have lots of “give away” piles too (and of course the secret garbage piles that I sneak out at night).

We had an Easter Egg hunt at my parents’ on Saturday, so Michael and his boys could join us. That went smoothly, though my children don’t do well at egg hunts, because they are not competitive (and Dej is on the lazy side). But all the kids got more candy than they needed!























Sunday we did the family egg hunt at home and L. got more eggs than Dej. I’m pretty sure the only reason Dej still participates is because half of the eggs have money inside. Dej found cash in her basket. The Easter Bunny brought L. a variation on the "povo" stick she wanted so badly. It looked cooler than a plain pogo stick--you can do tricks and bend and twist it. It proved to be a bit more challenging for her, though. :( We had a fairly non-traditional Easter afternoon. We went to my parents for my dad’s pizza (yea!!). Hunter came with us, and he and L. played while we watched V for Vendetta. My parents hadn’t seen it, and I enjoyed re-watching it. Dej really liked it too—I knew she would, as it’s right up her alley too.


















Today was a very long day--classes have resumed, so today was a 12+ hour day. I returned home from class tonight tired, hungry, with a headache, and was jumped by my selfish, over-emotional, bratty teenager, who thinks it's the end of the world when she can't see her boyfriend for a few days. UGH! And, I can't even console myself with the promise of LOST on Thursday, as I will be deprived of my joy until April 24!

Happy spring!

Mark took the day off, and we were able to get our Easter shopping done, while L. spent some one-on-one time with Grandma. L. really wanted a "povo" stick. She's been using Dej's old one, but it's a little too big for her, so she can't jump on it very well. We found a fun one for her today, and we're excited to give it to her. Unfortunately the ground is snow covered again. It had melted and been somewhat springlike until today, the first full day of spring, when it dumped more snow on us. Hopefully this snow won't last too long and she'll be able to use it soon.

We made a little more progress in her bedroom and got her new curtain rod hung and her new curtains up. Installing curtain rods still falls within the limits of our handywork skills (barely). They are very cute and really pull the room together nicely (the portion of it that's put back together anyway). I couldn't find a white bookshelf that I have been looking for--well except the great one I found at Ikea that would cost $215 to ship to us (from 2 hours away!). We finally gave up and got a maple bookshelf, and we will just paint it white. That slows down the process by adding one more unpleasant step, but I'm still optimistically hoping to have everything done this weekend. In reality, Easter and all the related hoopla make it unlikely, but I will still shoot for it!

Yesterday (Thursday), L. and I went out to Orinda's, so the kids could have a play day. They had a blast playing on the boys' new bunkbed. They always play well together. The three of them took walkie-talkies (while O. kept one so we could talk to them) and hiked down to the pond and then to the "100-acre wood" (Logan's name for part of their property--we're all Pooh fans). They have 40 acres, and the kids love to explore it. They found some snake holes near the 100-acre wood. L. said she wants to go there a lot in the spring and summer. It is a perfect environment for kids. There is every manner of wildlife and nature to explore. We all love it out there!

I actually have lots more to say, but Allegrea just called and is on her way over. I'm off for now...

Glorious green

Alliteration makes me happy. Blogger's finally working...but I'm holding a grudge.

This entire weekend was spent working on Luciana’s room. We stripped it and repainted the walls. It was time-consuming and unpleasant, but it’s great to be done with it. She picked out the color--pink of course, but not a pastel pink. It's very saturated. I wasn't sure about it when we started, but it looks great! It was sad to wipe out the nursery. She still had the Beatrix Potter nursery that we decorated while I was pregnant. At 8, she has definitely outgrown it, but we were both a little sad to see it all go.

It would have been much quicker and easier had she cleaned her room like she was supposed to have. What we found when we started moving things around and working in there, was that she had stuffed things behind, under, in every single possible place. It looked as though she had cleaned up, until we found the many stashes of crap she had all over. It was infuriating to try to move and work around her piles, but since we were already in process, we just kept going. Now we have the room completely painted, but only half the room is clean and put back together—the half with her bed, so she can sleep in there. We still have to tackle cleaning and putting furniture away in the other half. She will get to pick out new curtains and a throw rug, and we have to get a different bookshelf that will better fit her room, and then we will be done. Then we can get started on re-carpeting the office area in the basement.

I continue to be saddened by the China-Tibet situation. Considering China ’s horribly oppressive policies and violent behavior, I am puzzled and appalled that the Olympics are being held in Beijing . I would like to see the UN pressure them by pulling out of the Olympics. Any participation seems to imply approval of their policies.

Dej is on spring break this week, which means she stays up making a lot of noise late at night (so we can’t get much sleep) then she sleeps half the day. I don’t mind her being up late, but she is incapable of being quiet, so that presents some problems when we still have to get up early and go to work.

Yesterday’s Feast of the Green at work went well. I took my cupcakes in—they turned out really well. The chocolate mint cupcake recipe (from Vegan Cupcakes) was a hit, and L. & H. told me that these are their favorite cupcakes so far. Sarita brought in a delicious Indian chili and nan, so I did end up getting to eat something good. Smelling corned beef and cabbage cooking in crockpots all morning was absolutely disgusting, though!

We had dinner at my parents’ Monday, and my mom got into the spirit by dying her boiled potatoes green. I think it was the first time I have ever had green potatoes!

Other news of excitement, my face is ravaged with eczema right now, making me look like a disgusting leper and it hurts a lot. How very special.

Tuesday is my "late" day at work, but I don't teach this week (yea spring break!!!), so I got to come home at dinner time instead of going straight to class. Mark and Luciana had their traditional St. Patrick's Day celebration (moved to tonight instead of last night, for convenience) going strong. Irish music was blasting, they were sitting at the table carving Irish Springs soap, and his traditional potatoes, hash, sourdough bread meal was cooking. He had the house decorated, too. He started this tradition way back when Dej was young, and it continues on. The girls love it. After the carving of the soap, they always test their soap boats for the best floatability (yeah, Mark, it's a word now). L. can eat potatoes like you wouldn't think possible for a girl of her size.

You might have PMS if...

1. You string together a stream of obscenities, the likes of which could horrify any sentient being, because the GD stupid blogger keeps erroring out when you try to upload your stupid, frickin pictures. Stupid idiotic java script. Stupid idiotic struts framework. (I'm also pissed off at C# and ASP.NET, due to an altercation with it at work that lasted all afternoon! I'll probably be fighting with that AND Java code tomorrow.) And you've considered stomping on the laptop to pay blogger back.

2. You go to the LOST board to kill time while waiting for stupid blogger to allow pics to upload and find that you want to scream "F-ing MORONS!!" at all the posters, because they are posting idiotic, stupid theories that are a waste of time to read. Bastards. Seriously people, Aaron is NOT Kate's biological child. The entire island population is NOT time jumping and thus is not in need of "constants". Most of all, Annie is so NOT living off the island with Ben's teenage son. And learn the flipping difference between there and their and to and too, for god's sake.

3. You are now queasy from all the migraine drugs taken in an effort to get it down to a bad headache and can't even enjoy the thought that there are delectable chocolate cupcakes and homemade dark chocolate candies available for therapy.

4. You are such a bitch you don't even want to be in the room with yourself.

Well, since the real post I wrote for today is worthless without pictures, I am going to hold off for now. I'm going to go pet my cats in an effort to relax and lower my blood pressure. They can earn their considerably expensive keep by offering me some therapy. If blogger decides to work AND I'm up to the challenge, I'll try to post later tonight.

For Tibet

And because this week just hasn't been great, we could all use a reminder of how important compassion is. This is a shot taken (through glass, unfortunately) at the Kenosha Museum last week. It's a beautiful representation of Kwon Yin (goddess of compassion). Notice the detailed and lovely enameling on her. I would love to have her in my living room. Which reminds me that I need to dig my own Kwon Yin (not nearly this beautiful) out of storage and get her back on my mantle. She's with my smudging supplies at my parents'--and I haven't gotten that stuff yet either.

I baked a batch of chocolate-mint cupcakes tonight that I haven't yet sampled. They're pretty, and hopefully will taste good, too. I am planning to make a few dozen on Sunday to take to work on Monday for the St. Patrick's Day Feast. I totally do not get into St. Patrick's Day, as I don't want to have anything to do with anything associated with the Catholic church, the biggest source of evil, greed, and murder in world history. But they decided at work that we should have a Feast of the Green for the IT Dept., where everyone has to wear green and bring food. UGH! There's just not a graceful way to get out of it, so I'm baking cupcakes.

Luciana went to see, "Horton Hears a Hoo" tonight, with her friend Delany for Delany's birthday. She's a sweet little girl from our homeschooling group. While L. was at the movie, Hunter called and asked if he could come over even though she's not home, so he came over and chatted with me and played with the cats until L. returned.

I got very upsetting news this week--my cousin/friend, who I love and miss very much, was burglarized this week. She and her husband have five children and have worked extremely hard for everything they have. Some drug-addled, lazy loser felt that their selfish, worthless desires were more important than the needs of a hard-working family, and violated them. God I hate the weak drug addicts. I cannot find compassion for people who make such selfish choices and victimize everyone they come in contact with. Some people are just too weak to live with the rest of us. Sorry for the side rant here, but I am so fed up with people like that destroying the world for those of us who aren't weak and worthless. Fortunately my cousin and family are okay and they still have each other and lots of love, but damn it, I'm angry beyond words about this. The police being what they are, will never solve the crime--I have no doubt. They don't do much but pursue things like traffic stops, that will generate revenue for them. Solving crimes and actually hunting criminals is hard work and doesn't directly generate revenue, so they don't seem very interested in doing things like this. I feel very helpless and wish I could do something for them. The whole thing just sucks!

We loved LOST last night! As always they answered lots of questions but introduced so many more. L. is in bed (not sleeping, but in bed) and D. just got home from work and is getting ready to go out with some friends, so we are going to re-watch last night's LOST and try to catch some more clues and insights.

Mark took his last Friday off for a while, and we went to some new museums in Kenosha. The public museum was quite nice—on the small side, but the displays were very well done. We saw the bones of the wooly mammoth that was recently discovered in Kenosha, right near the museum. On the second floor, one of their temporary displays was of several carved ivory pieces from China. They were absolutely stunning, with the most intricate detail. I was able to enjoy looking at the artistry of it by telling myself that I’m sure they just found the ivory lying around after the elephants died naturally. It could have happened that way, and since I have no knowledge on how the Chinese got their ivory hundreds of years ago, I will just go with this theory.

We then went to the dinosaur museum, which had some very nice displays of dinosaur skeletons. As many of these displays as we have seen, we still learn new things with each one. Luciana enjoyed herself at both places, and fell asleep in the back seat of the car on the way home, while playing.

As soon as we got back in town, she went over and got Hunter, and the two played until bedtime. She is still sleeping all night, every night in her own bed. We are so proud of her and happy!

Saturday, Dej went with a friend to Milwaukee, to see her boyfriend and his band play at a concert. She said they did very well and she had a lot of fun at the concert. They didn’t get back in town until around 2 am, and with losing the hour of sleep, she was pretty tired all day Sunday.

We had our date night Saturday, so L. stayed overnight with Grandma & Grandpa. Mark had made top secret plans again, so I had no idea what we were doing. We went to Madison and had dinner at an East African restaurant, Buraka, that we have been meaning to try. It’s on State Street, right near one of our favorites, Chau Tura. Since we know we love that restaurant and it’s so close, we have a tendency to return to our favorite, never quite making it to the others that we intend to try. We finally made it to Buraka, though, and had excellent, I mean absolutely delectable food! The ambience was nice too. We will definitely be returning!

From there we went to a brass concert, part of the UW Faculty Concert series. We’ve gone to quite a few of the faculty concerts in the past and enjoyed them all. Well, one was a bit odd, but it was certainly a unique experience. Anyway, this was a low brass concert, and they performed several strings pieces, which was very interesting. For one of the numbers, they were accompanied by a four-hand piano (two players on one piano). I enjoyed watching them play, and as always, when I see a piano performance, it reminds me that I should play more often and really makes me want to play. Then I come home, play, and get pissed off that I am not as good as I used to be.

Sunday started early with a lot of work, as we had M’s parents and brother Dan coming for a visit. As always, there was a lot of housework and chores to be done. Sunday is usually our chore day, and we had to have everything compressed so it was done before they got here. We all went to the insect display at Rotary Gardens. We were once again reminded of the amazing beauty in nature. These insects, butterflies, moths, etc. were astounding in both their form and function. We came back and had a nice chili dinner that M’s dad made.

The few, the proud, the fucktard David Motari

I'm hoping by this point, everyone is already aware of the hideous and repulsive puppy murdering soldier. If you haven't yet experienced the proud soldier's crowning moment, here you go: Worthless Fucktard

I received this e-mail from one of my animal groups (thanks, Les!). I don't know the individual who wrote this commentary, but I like it:

Gentlemen: Most of the world has now learned about the abuse and killing of the now-infamous puppy at the hands of soldier David Motari and other soldiers. In addition, we realize that this is not only not an isolated incident, but has unearthed what has apparently been traveling around blogs and U-tube - systematic, long-standing abuse of animals in Iraq and other military occupation sites for amusement. Abuse so abhorrent as to severely test the squeamish and to call into question the moral compass of the military, already at risk. I will not at this point connect any of this to the abuse of humans in that area in order to stay focused on the animal cruelty as it pertains to the exposure of the real problems that the military and the United States face, in general, and that, gentlemen, is the revealing of sociopaths in our midst, in our towns, in our military, our schools, our churches. The sociopaths which well-respected studies have shown began their killing with animals as prey. We in the animal rescue community, which is worldwide and networked, have long since known about these abuses in the States and have expected and followed the animal abuse that is prevalent in the military in foreign locations. We speculate with certainty that it is ignored and even condoned by superior officers (some of whom have particiated apparently) as relieving boredom and stress associated with such repetitive assignments in a politically charged situation which would tax the mettle of greater men and women than you have been able to recruit (i.e., lower recruitment standards). Appallingly, it is seen as recreation. But it is not war that produces these psychotics, it is war that attracts them. It allows them to unleash what would back home be criminal behaviors. However, in a foreign country, where troops have been misled into thinking that its citizens were responsible for 9/11, they become sociopaths without restraint or boundaries; they are free to abuse, torture, maim and kill for pleasure. I am not telling you something you do not know. Motari has confirmed for the world what was already questionable behavior in Iraq by the military and, with videos such as his and others, he has earned the scorn of all the world for the United States and its forces serving in other countries. This war has spawned large numbers of these sociopathic individuals who will eventually return for implantation into our society, in cities and townships across our country, for society to deal with. They are a danger to others, most especially children and, of course, animals, neither of which they should ever have, respectively. They have little concern, if any, for the value of a living being. They are without conscience, rarely cured. Please, set the example to all others in your ranks who are contemplating or currently participating in such abuses, and who are publishing them for all to see, and punish them to the fullest extent of all contemplatable laws. It is not just unacceptable behavior, it is sick and criminal behavior. (Need I make this one connection to Abu Ghraib, et al., not excluding senior officers who were and are involved in such atrocities?) Gradually, those who are involved in any of these tortures and killings will be loosed upon us, those who "support our troops." Of this, you are well aware. It is up to you to make the difference for society. If Homeland Security and the military are charged with our security, let's start with the psychopaths among you, one of which is clearly David Motari. As you can see from Motari's blog below, which is unfortunately representative of many similarly reprehensible blogs and postings on U-tube and other sites by soldiers, he has named his own punishment for you. Please don't disappoint him. Thank you.

And here is the blog post this individual is referring to:

FUCK
Category: Life

The Sergeant Major called me in today and it looks like they found out about the dog thing. I don't know who it was who put it on FUCKING youtube, but man they are not happy... They were even talking about court martialing me, but they better not. It wouldn't be fair because they didn't court martial the last guy they caught FUCKING with a dog.

FUCK atleast i was humane about it. That guy from motor transport shot a dog in the stomach in front of the Major and everyone thought it was funny. I FUCK up and it gets on TV and all of a sudden it's wrong. This is some BS. POS media, always sticking its nose where it doesn't belong
HIS PAGE IS :http://www.myspace.com/davidmotari

PHONE NUMBER 808- 257- 8841
EMAIL: christopher. perrine@usmc. mil

Oh, and let's not forget the POS "soldier" who thought it was funny to record it and not stop it!

Baby Got Back

Today during lunch, I had the radio on, playing the station that has the retro lunch hour from 12-1 every day. While I do like a lot of current music (esp. System of a Down/Serg!!), the retro (80s & 90s) music energizes me in a different way. I can close my eyes and be young again. So even though today is cold, the sun is bright, the good music was turned up loud, and I was feeling pretty good by the time I sat down at the table to eat with my girl. Then she started talking. I have no idea where her topic of the day came from (maybe watching me eat?), but the lunch conversation starts like this--all spoken in the blunt honesty of an eight-year old, with no malice intended:

L: Mom, why did you quit trying to lose weight?

Me: I didn't quit trying, I'm just not doing very well at losing it.

<** a few bites later **>

L: You should just go to a doctor and have them cut off all your flubber <* as she grabs a chunk of skin from around her middle *> and sew the rest of your skin back up

<** I explain to her the concept of liposuction and the reasons why I will not be doing that. I'm done eating by now, and she continues to dawdle over her food. I start cleaning up the kitchen, dancing, because for some strange reason, I'm not yet feeling like a disgusting piece of shit. **>

L: Where did you learn that dance?

Me: Oh honey, when mommy was young, I used to go out dancing at dance clubs a lot. I loved to dance.

L: Oh, before you were so fat?

Me: Yes, before that.

L: With Dejanique?

Me: No, no, a long time ago.

<** Now I'm really dancing as I clean, as Sir Mixalot's Baby Got Back is playing, and I think there's a law or something stating that you have to dance to that song. **>

L: <*Giggles*> Too bad you don't go now, because you could really butt everyone out of the way.

Me: Hey, listen to the song! He's telling you that skinny girls aren't as attractive as healthy girls.

<** The next song that came on was a lifesaver, as by this time I DO feel like a beast that shouldn't appear in public. Thanks Rick S., cuz Jessie's Girl always cheers me up. **>

I'm pretty sure if today was dark and dreary, I would be curled up under the kitchen table, unable to leave the house. Really, I do want to lose weight. I am carrying about 15-20 pounds more than I would like. I'm 5'7. According to my doctor, I'm not overweight (I know, because in a weak moment, I tried to get some diet pills from her and didn't qualify). According to me, I am overweight. According to my youngest child, I am a giant, flubbery freak of nature.

I am so happy to see the sun, that I have the inside doors open. The animals and I love to look out the full-length windows on the storm doors. Right outside the side door is where I have our cat feeding station. The side door is also the door that the dogs like to look out. The rabbit, squirrel, chipmunk, etc. feeding station is over by the garage, as I don't want the predator and the prey to eat near one another. Our cat feeding station consists of cat food, which is eaten heartily by many other animals. We have seen cats (of course), possums, mice, and chipmunks, all eating from the cat food bowls. As you can see from the picture, the dogs have a great view of the bowl. Here's Jezi, enjoying the sunshine and watching the activity outside.

Our cats also line up at that door to watch the action. The presence of the dogs doesn't seem to affect the outside critters' eating at all. The last couple of nights, after we have all locked up and gone up to bed, we've been hearing loud banging noises that we initially couldn't identify. Mark finally tracked it down to the dogs flinging themselves against the closed, locked inside door on the side of the house. When he looked out to see what they were freaking out about, he saw a giant possum, completely unaffected by the ruckus, using both hands to stuff her little mouth full of the cat food.

In the summer of 2006, we had two baby possums that started showing up every night like clockwork to eat the cat food. We got to watch them grow up They took up residence under our back deck. Since that time, we have had possum visitors show up almost every night for food. While I have no way of knowing, I think (and like to believe) that it's the same ones--our babies. Even when they were babies, the cats would line up at the door and watch through the window, while the unimpressed possums continued their meal. Here's a shot of our babies, too. You'll have to excuse the perpetual doggy nose prints on the window. Oliver is watching one of the babies eat.

Dad, make a lie.

Just heard that from the dining room. L & H have been in there with their electronic circuitry stuff, building for quite a while now. After they littered the entire living room floor with the structures they built out of wood, they moved on to the dining room. They started out by combining the equipment from two different kits to make their own super creations. They actually came up with some working stuff on their own. Then they browsed the book of possibilities and found that they could create a lie detector machine. So far the questions have been of a certain nature: "Have you ever pooped your pants?" <*giggle, giggle, giggle*>, "Have you ever farted in someone's face? <*giggle, giggle, giggle*>". They are now trying to use the machine on the cats. Alrighty then. They've been playing at FULL volume since about 3:30 this afternoon. They laugh so hard, so much. I'm very jealous of the children. I can't think of anything in my adult life that has made me have so much fun and laugh for hours on end. I would love the ability to be that happy and enjoy life half as much as L. does!

Mark was presenting at a seminar-type thing all day again, so I've been in the house with the girls all day. I've had a crappy cold virus since Weds., and I'm still not feeling well, so a quiet day in the house was probably good for me. It takes a full day Sat. to get next week's homeschool lessons done and get my grading done. It makes for a real bummer of a Saturday, but at least it's done now! From about this point in the year until around October, I'm a "garden" widow again. The joys of being married to a workaholic.

Last night, while M. slept, I watched "10 Questions for the Dalai Lama". I hadn't heard of it before, but M. put it in our Netflix queue, and it showed up this week. What an amazing documentary! I'm so glad that I watched it. I watched it again this afternoon (while I graded) with the girls. I don't know how anyone could watch this and NOT walk away a better person. I also don't know how anyone could watch this and NOT walk away with spitting fury at China. Of course that is totally against H.H.D.L.'s beliefs and wishes, but clearly, I am not the saint that he is. I so wish I could be the person he is, but I've failed so far. I guess I'm stuck in angry warrior mode, and I think I would be complacent without the healthy dose of rage I carry around. I would love to be able to talk to HHDL for 45 minutes (like the guy in the movie). I really, really recommend this movie. It's another one that has life-changing potential! It's certainly worth the time and money to rent!

LOST is still the best show ever! This week's epi was infinitely better than last week's. I'm loving the science stuff and have had lots of fun the past few days on the boards reading and researching theories. It seems I'm the only uber-cynical woman in America who isn't gaga and melting over the Desmond/Penny love story. I'm thinking, "Enough of the romance crap! Let's get back to the good stuff!" Then I see all the women on the boards talking about weeping during the Des/Penny stuff. OMG! I'm just too much of a realist to be bothered with romance. Of the two options, time travel through wormholes and soulmates with a life-saving love, I find the time travel WAY more realistic than the sappy love!

I wasn't planning to be done yet, but I have to. My husband is sitting next to me with his laptop, watching You Tube clips showing the idiocy of the Buffoon that is our current president. He has now taken a quantum leap to the Baby Jesus prayer from Talladega Nights. Not a great movie, but a really funny scene--"dear tiny infant Jesus in your golden fleece diapers". The lures of You Tube is proving much too powerful for me to fight. Oh yeah, and once we get the kids settled in for the night, we get to re-watch our Thursday's LOST episode. So many more details to catch! I made some delicious (vegan, of course) dark chocolate candy this week that is calling my name. LOST and dark chocolate--now that is truly Shambala! Oh my...M's playing Borat clips on Y.T. now; he's really pulled out the big guns! Must go...