Monthly Archives: March 2007

Super bon bon

bonfire

While Jason was making fizzy lifting drink in Austin*, I was at a bonfire in Mattapoiset. It was wicked fun and I am proud to have employed the Jeaun’s Official 2005 St. Patricks Day Parade Cocktail (a Dr. Pepper bought from a convenience store with rum poured in it and the lid screwed back on for easy transportation).

*if this part of the sentence doesn’t make sense, I’m sorry, but that’s what he was doing.

PWND!

fragged

This PT Cruiser was parked outside the videogame store where I chatted up the employee (and probably the owner of this car) about Wii games.

Someday, I’ll have children and my hope is that I’ll be hip enough to do similar things (except never drive a PT Cruiser).

Clusty Cloud

Loading Clusty Cloud …

Huh. I’m a little confused by my cloud. I have a blog post that reviewed Napoleon Dynamite, and I described the sweet early-90’s fishbone braid one of the characters rocked. Why that particular term has been snatched by the robots, I don’t know.

G to the rizzo.

For those of you who requested I post more, I don’t know what you’re looking for, but this is what I have for you.

It’s raining.
My new phone stopped ringing. Like, it never rings, even after checking that it’s set on ‘ring’ and am using a Motorola-supplied tone (as opposed to Mindless Self Indulgence’s Bitches).
So I reset it.
Now my phone numbers are gone, and when I use iSync, they don’t show up again.
I know this should be doable, since Jason synched my phone in the first place.
But he’s not here.
Which reinforces the fact that I need him.
But not in that awwww nice way, in the petulant fix-it-for-me way.
Which makes me grumpy.
And want to post and bitch about it.
Which makes me loathe myself.
Because posts like these are no fun.
Whirling dervish of a downward spiral, leaving me no choice but to eat ice cream for dinner.
That is all.

You and Me and Everyone Wii Know

WoOt. Thanks to Graver’s tip (a text-message service that tells you when stores in your area get shipments of the Wii) I am a proud owner of a Wii. (For those of you who don’t know what it is, and are too lazy to click on the Wikipedia link, the Wii is a animatronic Shetland pony that is a combination Roomba/dishwasher. Just kidding. It’s a tattoo that uses glitter embedded under the epidermis.)

wii

Yesterday, Jason got a text that Wii was at Circuit City. We called, and they told us they’d have them for Sunday. They said that they open at 10, but would hand out vouchers at 9 a.m. I took Jason to the airport this morning, and was back in town standing in front of Circuit City by 8:30. I was fourth in line. The CC flier said “minimum shipment of 10”, so we weren’t sure how many people were going to get their Wiis.

Standing in line

The girl in the photo let me sit on her blanket, which was nice because I was in my pjs (cat-hair-covered ninja pants and hoodie) having not considered that I’d need to stand outside. It began to sleet at 8:45, and by this time there were about 13 people in the line. At ten till, a bunch of people showed up. At 9:05 the smug CC employees came to pass out vouchers. I got my vouchers, waved goodbye to my temporary line friends, and went to IHOP to warm up, eat breakfast, and wait till the store opened.

wii voucher

(Sidenote: I had the double cinnamon swirl french toast, and it was very much like eating the insides of a cinnamon roll, which was fantastic.)

So now I’m at home, warm and full of cinnamon goo, with this Wii staring at me. I’ve started reading reviews of games, and I think my game plan is to figure out one that I know Jason and I will love and buy it. I’m pretty sure that’s going to be Warioware: Smooth Moves. I’ll rent others before deciding to buy.

Yay! S+E!

Shane and E came to visit this week, and we played Trains and ate food and went to metal music stores and slept with kitties.

sleeping

chowdah

Oh, man, it was good. And I’m feeling more homesick than before, because we laughed and talked about our friends (lovingly) and played SuperMarioParty 7.

Babies are like wolves.

Today I had 17 people at storytime, which is unusual for the Friday crew. We read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, and I taught them the American Sign Language signs for the animals. I did this with the 1-3 age group, and they mostly stared at me (they mostly stare at me most of the time). This older crew were totally into it, and remembered the signs when we got to the end of the book where there’s a review page of all the animals (a black sheep, a white dog, a purple cat).

There’s a little girl who comes to storytime who is totally rad, but kind of freaks out during songs – I had wondered if it was that she didn’t know the words, which would make things confusing and overwhelming. As it turns out, her mom thinks it’s the standing up and singing out loud that terrorizes her shy heart. Today before storytime started, I asked her if there were any songs she liked. She said “Itsy Bitsy Spider”, so we did it after the first story. Everyone liked it, coming right after the sign language bit (remember walking your fingers up the waterspout?) and my shy girl smiled and sang and it was goooood. So, I learned a lesson – some sitting songs are good for those who hate the limelight.

I had never read Winston the Book Wolf, and I’ve noticed that a lot of books about libraries are terrible and librarians buy them because they’re about our world, but this one made the kids laugh and kept their attention. Winston goes from literally eating words to “eating them with his eyes”. It sounds weird to say out loud, but the concept is there, and as a voracious reader, a wolf analogy is appropriate. Also, we talked about how babies like to chew on books, and then they learn to read, so babies are like wolves.

We sang “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”, and my shy girl ran. Can’t please everyone all the time. We did it in super slow motion, then again really really fast. That’s always a crowd pleaser, much like suggesting “tounge!” or “butt!” when doing the hokey pokey.

Then we read Just Teenie, by Susan Meddaugh. The main character is very small for her age, but the memorable part of the story is the plant that she grows, which starts pulling keys, socks, and – dare I say it – underpants into its vines. Teenie ends up in it too, which turns out to be exactly what she needed to feel big and important. The kids were totally into the idea of a giant plant that tries to take stuff.

The craft we did was drawing a plant like Teenie’s, then sticking foam stickers of animals, boats, etc. into its branches. Coloring + gluesticks+foam cutouts = awesomefun.

Names and names

Jason and I have decided to not change last names. We decided that a while ago.

This weekend, I asked Jason’s mom how she chose his name – he was born in September, and August through November spell out J-A-S-O-N. (How Jason’s sister got her name is an even better story, but not mine to tell. Then again, neither is Jason’s. Hm.)

I was named after Sonja Heine, the famous figure skater and actress. My parents decided to change the spelling, thinking that j is a hard letter to make when you’re little. It also kept me from dotting the j with a heart, star, smiley face, etc.

I like that my parents were so concerned for their new child, getting the hang of spelling and the making of letters. I get asked if I’m Norwegian a lot. (Once, I was asked if I was a squarehead. That query came from an old man.)

*warning – totally gross, smoopy, mushy stuff up ahead*

If my name has been spelled like my namesake, I could do this: sonjasonjasonjasonjasonjason

So I’m considering it – chainging my name, a single letter actually, in reflection of my solidarity to my soulmate.

My neck, my back, one wrong turn and I felt a crack.

Try singing that to the Khia song “My Neck, My Back”. That’s how it sounds in my head, and that’s what’s keeping me from taking Jason’s expired Vicodin.

Jason and I went to Buffalo for his grandma’s 80th birthday, and ironically, I got my first old-person injury. You know the kind, the kind your parents complain of – making a slight movement, like in the garden or reaching for an eraser, and herniating a disc or misaligning whole portions of their spine.

I was simply attempting a Cirque du Soleil move with Jason in his parent’s basement during a game of pool. I jumped on his back, he bent forward, and I kicked my legs in the air behind me. As my back arched, I heard a crack-crack-crack.

I spent the rest of the weekend lying on the floor, listening to conversations. It was actually quite humbling. I’m a talker, so to be forced to remain out of sight was good for me. Still, I feel like I’ve been betrayed by my body for the first time, at age 28.

(I’m going to the chiro tomorrow, and should be fine – thanks for letting me talk like an old person too. This should be my dad’s blog, not mine. Hey pops, when are you setting up www.crankyoldfarmer.com?)