Wahoo!

Frank called via satellite phone as I was driving home. (But I was only on the phone for a minute, Officer, I swear!) After spending the day motoring as expected, he and Bob were thrilled by a wind shift with accompanying increase in wind speeds. They cut the motor and were still doing 9 knots. And judging from Frank's tone of voice, they were loving every minute of it.

A quote for the ages

Papa Tom to almost-13yo Megan: "Is that a jacket? It looks like a bra!"

Grammar from the Interwebs

The horror!

i no some of you dont like uesing the SDD wind shear maps but in tell the wind shear maps gets fixs this will have to do

My favorite part is "in tell" for "until."

Here's an edited version (just in case you couldn't decipher that):

I know some of you don't like using the SDD wind-shear maps, but, until they are fixed, this will have to do.

On the home front

I'm working a lot, trying to make up for the week I missed while we were in Canada (no regrets!) and prep for the month I will miss while we are in Europe. The girls have been entertaining themselves with a long, video-centric visit from Chelsea, some reading and writing of fanfiction (MJ), some helping Mom out (both), and some creating of a video-game walk-through (Chloe).

We're a little lonely for Frank, but life is good.

From a less lonely day:

Departure

Frank and Bob expect to head out into the Atlantic tomorrow morning. What winds there are, are out of the south, so they also expect to be doing a fair amount of motoring. They hope to reach Fort Pierce sometime Friday afternoon/evening, where they'll put in for more fuel and some uninterrupted sleep.

xkcd storm watch

Live images

I'm a Google user despite my employment, but I LOVE the image search on http://www.live.com. Check it out!

My favorite search: yawn

Notice how it will keep adding photos to the results page for as long as you're willing to keep scrolling. On the yawn results, I was willing for quite a while. :-)

Cap'n Blacktoes sails again

Frank just called. Bob is officially a boat owner! He is very excited, especially after their first little test sail.

Tonight, they have dinner with Gail and Broc (he of the long armspan for raffle tickets). Tomorrow, they stock and equip. Thursday, they sail. I'm their designated weather girl, so I'll be hearing from them and will post updates regularly.

Saturdays!

Don't you just love them?

MJ is mowing for dollars.

Frank is reading "Life Learning" magazine.

Chloe just got up.

I am doing a series of 5-minute tasks that I hope will total up to a measurable improvement in the length of my "ohmigod, there's so much to do" list.

And we get to see Harper and his family this afternoon.

What could be better?

Sleep is good

Okay, you all have to see these pictures if you haven't already. I'm going to "leverage" them since I didn't take a photo for my photo blog today.

http://gail-hummingbirdhaven.blogspot.com/2008/06/sleep-is-good-at-life-is-good.html

Thanks, Gail and Broc!

Fial

So, how'd you do on Learn Nothing Day? We failed. But we weren't surprised.

Another exercise that might be interesting is figuring out which day of the year one learns the most. I'm thinking Christmas, 'cause of all the new stuff to try out. Or maybe a day spent sightseeing in a new place. Or maybe a day spent watching videos or surfing the Internet.

What do you think?

Why "fial"?

Friday fill-in

1. I believe whatever doesn't kill you shapes your life.

2. If you're good at something, SHARE!

3. Why so grouchy, Charrrr-lieee?

4. Something is out there, it's life.

5. If my life were a sitcom, it would be titled "On the Road Again."

6. Sitting on my back porch, I see chores that need doing. (And thank you so much for reminding me, Janet and Sherry!)

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to Psych, tomorrow my plans include touring my new health club and seeing Harper and his family, and Sunday, I want to be with Frank!

Thursday 13

13 Things I Find Difficult

1. Intentionally violating a grammatical or typographical Convention. For example, I have a bumper sticker in my office that says this:

Chaos, Panic & Disorder..

My work here is done

Do you see that faulty ellipsis? It drives me crazy. And that capital C I put in "Convention" above? It's just WRONG.

But I'm leaving both in place. I think it's good for me.

2. Being indoors on a sunny day in the Seattle area, especially after a week on Salt Spring Island spent almost entirely outdoors.

3. Listening to GW Bush speak. At all. Even Jon Stewart's goofy Bush impersonations cause me to grit my teeth and/or shudder with revulsion.

4. Living with my (mild) asthma.

5. Waiting.


6. Being at work when my family needs me.

7. Being at home when my work needs me.

8. Resisting the temptations of the moment.

(OMG! Chocolate Shoes!)

9. Saying good-bye.



10. Asking people about themselves. I want to know, and I know intellectually that most people are happy to tell their own stories, but curiosity feels rude.

11. Keeping quiet when people around me are promoting traditional parenting or schooling.



12. Going to bed at least eight hours before I want to get up.



13. Coming up with ideas for Thursday Thirteens.

Getting Things Done

For some time now, I've been applying some of the organizational principles found in "Getting Things Done" by David Allen. I moved the system into Excel using ideas from Dave Pollard, and then I moved the system into Outlook using ideas from both Allen's own GTD and Outlook whitepaper and The Zen of Zero Mail.

Anyway, my personal system has all its own quirks and, well, personalizations, so I decided to reread "GTD" to see how far I've strayed from the path. Pretty far, as it turns out, so I'm refining my system yet again.

But in the meantime, I found this quote. You know how you feel like you have way too much to do for the time you have to do it in? Maybe this is why.

[Your current action items make up] the accumulated list of all the actions you need to take—all the phone calls you have make, the e-mails you have to respond to, the errands you've got to run, and the agendas you want to communicate to your boss and your spouse. You'd probably have three hundred to five hundred hours' worth of these things to do if you stopped the world right now and got no more input from yourself or anyone else.

And most of us keep all those things in our head! No wonder we feel stressed out!

Anti-journalism

McCain misspoke. CBS edited their interview with him, thereby concealing that McCain misspoke.



I can accept (or try to) that McCain got the timeline wrong. After all, I barely remembered the phrase "Anbar Awakening," let alone when it was first used. But that CBS showed McCain's response to one question as if it were the response to another... Call me naive, but that I find outrageous.

MoveOn has a petition going where you can object to this shoddy journalism. If you'd like to sign, click here.

It's Learn Nothing Day!

I dare you to try it!

http://sandradodd.com/learnnothingday/

Friends R Fun

We made it across the border! Twice!
We saw orcas from the ferry!
We enjoyed perfect weather! All week!
We ate pancakes!
We ate salmon!
We ate more salmon!
We ate salmon salad, salmon mousse, and salmon cakes!
We painted, glued, wrapped, tattooed, and dyed!
And we did some crafts, too!
We built dams and dug canals!
We paddled! We swam! We floated!
We rolled tubes!
We sang! We danced! We strummed and drummed!
We said "eh" and "oot" and "zed" and "dick" (I mean "deck")!
We spent loonies and toonies!
We might have slept a little!

But mostly we played with Meah, Fergus, Effie, Lily, Max, Otto, Sabine, Vivian, Fenna, Hamish, Dan, Benjaman, Cooper, Frankie, Noah and his brothers, Forest, Amy, Emma, Jayne, Erich, Autumn, Qacei, Madelyn, Conor, Shelby, Sasden, Sam, and probably a few more whom I am forgetting! Oh, yeah, and their parents!

It was a lovely, busy, noisy week. We're pooped!

Thanks, everybody!

P.S. MJ's camera got passed around some and we ended up with over 600 amazing photos. I imagine we'll post a few eventually.You can see some of the ones I took on my photo blog!!

Blogoversary

I've been blogging three years today.

A year or two prior to starting this blog, I took a survey at work that included questions about blogs. One of these was along the lines of, "Do you find blogs useful or entertaining?" Since at the time I barely knew what a blog was, my answer was a rather confident "No," with my interior monologue running along the lines of, "Newfangled contraptions, who needs 'em?!"

By now, my answer to the latter question is ME!! I need them! My own blog provides me with an outlet, a hobby, a forum, and sometimes a little therapy. The blogs of my friends and family members provide me with community, information, and entertainment, in quantities and of quality that I couldn't have imagined way back when.

Thanks for reading! I'd probably still blog if you weren't here, but it's ever so much more fun that you are.

Here's to the next three years!

This is cursed, that is cursed

Frank jinxed us. That's all there is to it.

Let's just review our last two weeks without him, shall we?

• The day he left, Chloe decided it would be a good idea to smash her face up. One trip to the ER.
• Two days after that, I tried to cook a frozen pizza for Conor and the girls (this being just about the limit of culinary abilities), and the oven. never. got. hot.
• Two days after that, when I had a houseful of guests and was preparing for a long holiday party, the water heater died the heat death. There was flooding. There were no showers. There were no clean dishes. There was a $500 charge at Lowe'st Point.
• And now today, the dryer won't work. It's a fairly new dryer. I can't find any obvious cause.

I am not sure what's going on here, but I don't like it one bit.

Get your fanny home, Frank!

Friday fill-in

1. Oh, I can't wait until I have a banana split.

2. Abundance is the first thing I see when I open my refrigerator.

3. I never leave home without my glasses and my inhaler.

4. If I were a condiment, I would be Thai sweet chili sauce because it's colorful, unique, sweet, and spicy.

5. Smoking is really high up on my list of pet peeves.

6. The last thing I thought of before I went to bed was things I have to do today.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to getting ready for our trip to Canada, tomorrow my plans include PICKING UP FRANK!!!!!, and Sunday, I want to have a hassle-free expedition!

Fuel for thought

Isn't it true that every time you step on the brake, you waste gasoline?

I'm all orientated

Two days into my new job and all is well. Orientation was surprisingly fun: even the two-hour legal briefing was entertaining and interesting. And I got a free mug and a pen, and the perks that go along with the benefits package are pretty nifty, and today I got my very own gen-u-ine blue badge.

But returning to my team with said blue badge felt very odd indeed, probably stemming from all those years when I told anyone who asked that I LOVED being a temp and had no interest in going blue.

"I used to care but... things have changed." — Bob Dylan

I am still Dua Khalil

Crud: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25571617/?GT1=43001



I am Dua Khalil, and I refuse to accept honor killings and the inequality of women as an acceptable status quo.

Reminder

Psst! Check out my photo blog! I'm being really good so far about posting at least one photo a day. Plus, my visitor stats are pretty pathetic. Help! :-)

Have you noticed...

...the Bush Out of Office Countdown is down to less than 200 days? Joy!

It rhymes (yes! it's a poem!)

A lovely Gold-en weekend was to close out my vacation,
But what we had instead was a minor tribulation.
The morning of the 4th started with a flood:
Turned out our water heater was a Big Fat Dud.

"It's flooding," cautioned Conor, with customary cool,
As I fixed my potluck salad, mindless of the pool.
Some brief investigation identified the source,
And stand-in manly men helped me stop it in due course.

With Our Hero and Our MJ mounting an attack,
Wading to their ankles and running the Shop-Vac,
And Chloe and her pals gathering things piratical,
I finished up the salad and avoided thoughts fanatical.

"I'm sorry," I kept saying, much to the Golds' dismay
('Though it gave them an idea for a new drinking game to play);
Then the pirates loaded up their ships and headed to The Club,
Trading water-heater battles for fireworks and grub.

But... but... but...

I found this on http://www.xkcd.com/ today:



Unfortunately, "Jaynestown" is actually the sixth episode (since the pilot is considered episode 0), and Jayne actually receives the rain stick in the fifth episode, "Our Mrs. Reynolds."

Shoddy research, xkcd.

The Fourth

There were unschoolers...


And pyromaniacs...


There were connections...


And the greatest toys...


And, of course, there were pirates...

Friday fill-in

1. Holidays in the summer are hot. Or rainy. Sometimes both.

2. Shrimp are my favorite things to grill.

3. My thoughts are fuzzy due to lack of sleep.

4. Watching and experiencing unschooler bonding is what I'm most looking forward to this weekend!

5. My favorite book so far this summer is The Lion's Daughter by Loretta Chase.

6. Sleeping in is the best way to begin a day, or, barring that, a caramel macchiato.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to the moment when my head hits the pillow, tomorrow my plans include recovery from Jon's assistance with my 4th of July stress, and Sunday, I want to hang, talk, play, and get ready for my big first day at work!

Thursday 13

Thirteen Questions I Bet Ingrid Betancourt Did *Not* Ask Her Children When They Were Reunited After Six Years Apart

1. Did you do your homework?

2. Is your room clean?

3. What's 8 times 7?

4. Did you brush your teeth?

5. Did you remember your thank-you's?

6. Are you wearing clean underwear?

7. What's the capitol of Iowa?

8. Will you please write an essay about your life without me?

9 through 13. (Never mind. You get the idea.)

Bonne nuit, Lestat

We said our good-byes to Lestat the Pirat today. Although his prognosis looked good immediately after his surgery, the tumor that had caused his eye problem grew back at an alarming rate and spread around his throat. He was a pretty sad little critter by the end.

To compound our grief, this concludes the Rat Era at the Maier house. While we enjoyed our little friends very much, my increasing allergic reaction and the too quick good-byes have led us to decide against getting another pair.

A sad morning.

Cast party

Back row from left (primary role): Josephine (Widow), Nora (one of the Lords Dumain), Tessa (Lafeu), Angela (interrogator), Mike (Parolles), Chloe (Diana), Mai (Countess of Roussillon), Hannah (Helena).

Front row from left: Morgan (King), Isabella (Bertram), Sam (Clown)

Not pictured: Forrest (Reynaldo)

A picture of me I actually kind of like...

...which probably means it doesn't look anything like me. :-)

Rules are not allowed

A follow-up to my language post...

My kids aren't "allowed" to do anything. Or rather, they're allowed to do anything. Or rather, they're not prohibited from doing anything.

We don't have rules in our house. Okay, maybe we have a few, and they apply to all who enter here:

• No smoking in the house
• Use a coaster
• Don't burn Lego men under the eaves

I think that's about it. Except maybe "Don't threaten Ronnie's supremacy." Yeah, that's a good one.

Over the years, we have had a lot of conversations about what constitutes polite, sensible, and/or legal behavior. If one of the girls is in danger of violating social mores or another person's peace or comfort, I might offer a warning (not a threat or a "don't", but a piece of information, such as "some people are really grossed out by chewing with your mouth open") or a request ("please watch your language in front of GG"). If one of them looks like she's about to walk off a figurative or literal cliff, I might say, "Look out!" And if one of them commits or contemplates committing an act that isn't legal, I might ask, "What, are you stupid?" (Okay, not really. Okay, maybe really.) But the decisions are theirs to make.

The point is, the behavior you see from my kids, good and bad, is their own. I might occasionally feel gratified by same, and I might very occasionally feel embarrassed by same, but it isn't my behavior, and I don't take credit for it when it's good. That's all theirs.

But I'll happily bear the blame for the bad if it makes you feel better about my girls. :-)

Colorful metaphors

Your use of language has altered since our arrival. It is currently laced with, shall we say, more colorful metaphors, "double dumb-ass on you" and so forth. — Spock, Star Trek IV

A slip of the tongue was probably the trigger for a conversation I overheard the other night on our way to the baseball game. I tuned in when MJ was explaining to 9yo Emma that she is allowed to use "bad" words. Someone asked by whom she was allowed, and she replied, "My mom." My grandma asked her not to use them in front of her. My mom asked for clarification about when she is allowed to use them. MJ admitted (with that word describing her tone of voice) that she isn't supposed to use them in front of grandparents.

The truth is, she is "allowed" to use whatever language she wants, whenever she wants. I have asked her to moderate her language around small kids and people who are sensitive to language (including grandparents), but she is free to disregard this request. In most cases, probably for her own reasons rather than mine, she watches what she says at family gatherings. But sometimes she slips and sometimes she lets fly.

I swear with some regularity, but I tend to use profanity to create impact in my speech. And indiscriminately while driving. Frank swears freely.

It's about personal expression. We (including our kids) are free to speak as we will. People who are offended are free—no, welcome—to ask us to stop, just as I asked a drunk guy at the game to stop dropping F bombs around Emma (he did).

And in the case of our daughters, it's about learning. We all experiment with language. Our speech rhythms and habits change over the course of our lifetimes. The societal rule that says kids don't get to experiment with profanity until they turn 18 or 21 or whatever is just silly. And unrealistic.

Did you wait until you were 18?

Finally, it's about comfort. I want my kids to be themselves around me. If a "colorful metaphor" will help them do that, I have no problem with that.

Visions

I've started a photo blog as a companion for this blog. Enjoy!

Visions of the Zombie Princess

Lips To Shame The Red Red Rose...Because They Are Covered In Blood

OR, I Feel Like House, MD


Congratulations! You are one of the lucky few to witness this rare and amazing event! It is...A blog post by Chloe (me)!


Yes, yes, stand amazed. But since it's mostly about her, she requested that she be allowed to write it.


Basically, this is a rundown of my day (which was fairly interesting, so far as days go) on Saturday the 28th of June. Woke up at NINE IN THE MORNING!!! Took a ridiculously long shower, got ready in a hurry, and left for Seattle shortly after ten. I got there like ten forty-five, I suppose, and stood behind a sign with my castmates for a few minutes before heading into the building. Rehearsed my play all the way through, took a break for a while to eat (didn't eat much. Mostly chased Mike around the theater because he stole my shoes). Then the performance, the last one, at two, for an hour and a half. We did pretty good, and there were many hugs when it was over.


Then, cast party/Sam's birthday party at Sam and Mike's house at seven.


Played, danced, talked to people, helped Isabella and Sam escort Mike to their apartment (the party was in a ground floor room) to get his iPod. As we came back down, Mike broke out of our arm-linking-chain-thingymajigger and took off across the parking lot. We, of course, chased after him.


And heeeeere's where it gets painful. He knew the bar was there, and he ducked under it. I didn't, and I ran into it. Cut on the gums where my upper gums connect to my upper lip (that thing that doesn't actually have a name). Cut on my top lip. Blood blister in between my two upper front teeth. One or two chipped teeth. And finally, last and worst, a huge, evil, cut on my lower lip. Ow.


Left the cast party then, drove to see the doctor, waited for like TWO HOURS to be told it didn't need stitches and I was free to go. He did prescribe me some Vicodin, though. Thus, I feel like House.


Picture of my gnarly lower lip

O Canada

I love Canadians. I occasionally want to be a Canadian. But it has not been a good week for U.S./Canada relations around here.

Conor is here early because they wouldn't let him in.

And last night, at the first in a 3-game series between the Mariners and the Blue Jays, we were distressed to have what should have been a friendly baseball game turn into an unfortunate display of nationalistic excess. Hundreds of Canadians and ex-pat Canadians turned up, which was fine. The singer sang "O Canada" along with "The Star-spangled Banner," which was more than fine. But the Canadian fans got a little carried away. It is, after all, the Seattle stadium, perhaps not the most polite location for celebrating either Blue Jays or Canadian-ness. Frankly, their behavior smacked strongly of the obnoxious display Americans typically put on at the Olympic Games.

I can't think of a more condemning description than that.

But Tom had the last word. After the game (which the Jays pitcher won for them, 2-0), Tom went into the restroom and encountered a group of guys continuing the "Let's go, Blue Jays" chant we had been listening to all evening. Tom said, "Congratulations! You beat the worst team in baseball!" It put things nicely in perspective. :-)

Black spots and domestic thoughts

After Chloe's little mishap on Saturday (details coming soon from Chloe herself), I have been calming myself by puttering around the house and yards.

I am not big on yard work, as anyone who has ever visited my house can attest. But it's not looking too horrible right now (except for The Jungle, our most prominent flowerweedbed). Before Frank left, we had a family day of weeding and weed-whacking (the latter known here as "killing aliens," since wielding the weed-whacker reminds us of Ripley's pose when she mowed down aliens with her futuristic machine gun). I have supplemented this effort with some additional weeding, and today I mowed the back with our newly repaired lawn mower. Phew! Hard work! I have a lovely little blister to show for it.

The rose bush is covered with black spots but flourishing nonetheless. If my puttering mood continues, I'll research what's causing the problem.

The original bout of weeding was inspired by our wish to pull the tent trailer into the yard and set it up. This is done, and we've barely seen Chloe since. She calls it her apartment and comes in now and then to "rent" a movie or grab some food. With the Golden Ones coming up for the 4th, she might have some company out there soon.

I've also been contemplating a few changes to the kitchen, since Frank isn't here to defend his territory. It doesn't seem quite fair, so I'll probably resist. Probably.

We're starting to think about starting to plan for starting to get ready for the 4th of July festivities and parade out at the beach. My mom and Tom and Chris do most of the work, of course, but our efforts gathering pirate gear and tables and chairs and coolers and potluck contributions and sunscreen and fireworks are measurable. It's a drop in the bucket of preparation, but I dread and procrastinate over it just the same.

And then it's my big start day. My boss (or maybe he's just my coworker now...?) sent me a little map that shows where my very own office will be in the new building. Pretty exciting! Except that I won't get to move in there until the 21st.