7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 2)

1. I am a proud iPhone owner! M has one, too, but he's incredibly jealous (seriously!) of my cool case. It's pink and black and cute all over! I didn't really see the need for me to own one of these at first, but wow... it's already worth it's weight in gold now (which I suppose is actually not a lot, since it's pretty light). C is tech-savvy and can already operate it-- flicking through pages and pics like a pro. It's ridiculous. I'm still trying to get used to the keypad, and she figured out how to turn the silly thing on and off.

2. I can't wait to get this stamp on August 26th:

Reading this blog post by Patrick Madrid is also well-worth your time-- it talks about the furor over this particular stamp being issued by the Postal Service.

3. Following that last note, stamps make me happy! Maybe it's because I'm the daughter of a postal employee, but I've always loved cute stamps. Mom and Dad occasionally still send me some stamps, which just makes my entire week. I recently bought some Simpsons stamps and some kelp forest stamps. They even make my bills look cuter. I buy the boring Forever stamps, too, but seriously-- it's not like I'm going to stock up on those because I'm pretty sure my money is making WAY more in the bank or savings account than in my letter drawer. I heard from the local postmaster that someone bought $1,000+ of forever stamps because he wanted to beat the system. Methinks that guy needs to rethink his own system...

4. "Who wants flowers when you're dead? Nobody."

Farewell to J.D. Salinger, whose Catcher in the Rye I somehow managed not to read until last year. How did I miss this book?? It's part of pop culture just as much as it is fine literature! Annie Hall, Jerry Maguire, The Good Girl, Billy Joel, the Jonas Brothers, Rick Springfield, and Spandau Ballet (among many, many others) all reference that work.

I'm linking a video that reminds me of why I love teaching-- I love to get students invested in the stories of the authors and the times that books were written, like Craig Ferguson does here.

5. Bring on the Olympics! I've been pleasantly surprised to discover that my hubby loves the Winter Olympics, especially (wait for it...) ICE SKATING! C skates around the living room and does little jumps and spins, so this will be fun. Yay for our TV! Yay for the Olympics!

6. Again about TV... loving the fact that we can watch Netflix movies/TV via the PS3 on our TV. M and I finished Season 3 of Dexter and now we've started back at Season 1 to see everything we missed. C likes to watch Thomas and Friends and I've found other cute shows (The Muppets, Bob the Builder, Dora the Explorer, etc) that I can turn on no matter what time it is, TV show-wise. Since we don't have cable, it's been nice to expose her to more learning shows besides the morning PBS ones (she often is still asleep for Sesame Street!).

7. M makes the best White Russian drinks ever. That's all I have on that. Mmmm.

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 1)

1. So, my brother-in-law lent us Season 3 of the Showtime TV series "Dexter." It's CREEPY. And even though M and I can't figure out if we like it (um, crazy psychopathic guy kills bad people in scary, crazy, and creepy ways... see why we aren't sure what we think?), we're oddly addicted. Particularly me, because I just want to get to the bottom of the season's mysteries. Creepy mysteries.

2. I'm teaching C how to count to ten in French. She already does it in English and is learning it in Spanish, so I figure ma petite fille needs to speak MY favorite foreign language. Plus, she's been to Quebec, but never Mexico, so French has already been far more practical. "Huit" (eight) is her favorite number, so she sometimes shouts it out randomly in the car. It sounds like she's screaming for "wheat."

3. M and I have TV as of this week! C is loving Sesame Street and Thomas and Friends, which I am totally ok with. It's nice to have a few minutes to get myself ready while she's learning something. Abby Cadabby is now almost as near-and-dear to her as Tinkerbell. Plus, now we can watch 24 and Modern Family (best comedy ensemble on TV EVER).

4. When I was in junior high, I used to make fun of moms who had their children attached to kid-leashes. Now, I totally get it. Velcro-ing C to my leg may also be an option when I'm trying to wrangle her and the stroller around in public places. Time for a double stroller!

5. I want one of these:

It's a Bugatti Veyron Mouse, and I think it looks like fun. And it's an affordable $1.5 million. Perhaps I'll just attach ears, a tail, and whiskers to the Ford F150.

6. Scrapblog is fun. I'm working on making a few pages for a scrapbook. Anyone want to take bets as to whether I can make even ONE album without abandoning it like I did blogging??

7. I have found that I like to clean now. Maybe it's the Prednisone I'm taking for the colitis, but I'm like Superwoman around the house these days. Whoo-hoo for crazy steroid-driven energy!

Word of the Year: Peace

I'm stealing this idea from some other bloggers-- I've chosen a "word of the year," something I want to be my driving idea for the year. I picked "peace" because what I want for this year is to create a sense of peace in my family... organized home life, regular schedules with plenty of time to relax and play together, and happy words. I've determined that I'm the single-most influential voice in this family. It's my tone, words, and attitude that shape the way my family reacts and responds. When I temper my words, calm my voice, and respond with patience, I've noticed that our home life is so much more pleasant. I created the image below in order to remind myself on a regular basis. It's the background on my computer now!

 

Lisa's return to the blogosphere!

Well, for those of you who have been wondering (and calling and e-mailing and essentially harassing me about my lack of updates for the past two months...), my hard drive is dead. Or, at least, in a severe coma. The computer gurus say that it will cost $400 if they can recover anything at all from the drive, hence M's and my reluctance to take the chance with that just now. The very sad part of all this is that I lost a month and a half of C/M/Lisa photos (and my school work and thesis research). I'm trying not to get too depressed over it all, but I have to admit that if I think about it I get pretty bummed out-- there were some GREAT photos on my computer. Sigh. Everyone who is reading this needs to go back up all of your files NOW. I'm trying to finish/write all of the things that have happened recently and put them in the approximate order. So, be patient and be sure to read April and May, as well as June!

UPDATE: I just realized that my dad copied some photos from my camera to a disk when we were in Florida, so I haven't lost as many pictures as I'd thought... and I have the Mother's day pictures!!!

Scorpion Update: The Battle Continues to Rage

Scorpion tally, including today's beast...

Scorpion stings: 0 (Thank the Lord!)

Scorpions found dead inside, no need to kill: 2 (one in bedroom, one in living room)

Scorpions found dead, smashed between two pieces of siding for shed: 1

Scorpions found alive under charcoal bucket: 1

Scorpions found alive in closet light globes and fried with heat from bulb: 5

Live scorpions found in bedroom, and immediately killed: 1

Live scorpions found in living room, and immediately killed: 1

Live scorpions found in dining room/kitchen, and immediately killed: 3

Scorpions personally killed by me: 4 (11 if you include the ones found dead inside from light bulb heat/industrial bug spray)

Scorpions personally killed by my husband: 2 (seems a bit unfair, no?)

This is FAR TOO MANY scorpions. No scorpion is a good scorpion, but the best kind is a dead one. Unfortunately, I have come across FAR TOO MANY in the past month. Our house is around 1600 square feet. Given the randomness at which I have just happened to be in the right (wrong) place at the right (wrong) time to see these beasts (case in point, today one crawled right under my daughter's Pack 'n' Play and was heading under my bed just as I was laying her down for a nap... had I gone in there a minute later, he'd have been safe from my "killing shoe"), I have estimated that we have over 30 million scorpions roaming the house. The math formula is highly complex and looks something like this:

1600 sq. ft x 10 toes on Lisa's feet x Lisa's 2 eyes x 1 baby that likes to distract Lisa x 3.14 x a whole bunch of other numbers = 30 million scorpions= FAR TOO MANY scorpions

(This is the beast I killed in the kitchen a few weeks ago. Don't worry... I smashed him over 50 times to ensure he was dead before I took the photo. These scorpions seem to have a way of coming back to life, so I made sure I was 100% positive he'd kicked the bucket.)

A time to live, and a time (for scorpions) to DIE

In order to really understand this post, you'll need to see the previous one. 

After taking C to the doctor for her 4 month visit and vaccines, I stopped by Ace Hardware to talk with the scorpion-killing expert. I made sure to point out that I don't just want to kill the few that I might see, but I want to either 1) frighten them all away forever or 2) completely annihilate every last one. After he told me that nothing scares them, I settled for total destruction. Before I bought the indoor spray and the outdoor power killer, I contemplated the following methods of death for the little terrors that have chosen to move in with me:

Cannon to right of them/Cannon to left of them... this method might leave a few holes in the house, though.

I feel that the TNT method would be very Wile E. Coyote of me. It has promise.

I don't actually know what's going on here, but this looks like it would take care of scorpions.

The one problem with this idea, besides the fact that I don't know where one purchases a guillotine, is that it might only cut off a leg or something. I'm going for 100% dead, not just the walking-wounded.

The samurai is my top choice for several obvious reasons. 1) I would not even have to be in the house while he goes all crazy on them. 2) With all of his clothing, he is far less likely to get stung while crawling in the attic to kill the scorpions. 3) He might even be available for babysitting while I run to the store. 

Closing note: If any scorpions are reading this, please stay away from my house. I have pesticide, and I'm not afraid to use it.

My closet is Hell

This is not a funny, ironic, "my closet is a mess" kind of post. No, my friends, this is a "Lisa has come face-to-face with her understanding of Hell" kind of post. Let me explain...

M is still off in New York, leaving me and C to work on whipping the house into shape (much slower than I'd ever anticipated). Since C and I are heading back home tomorrow, I thought I'd go ahead and organize my closet a bit and pack. Oh no, my friends, oh no. That will not be happening. There will be no closet organizing. After I flipped on the closet light today, I heard a rustling noise above my head. I thought that maybe a moth was hitting against a plastic hanger. And then, I look up to see THIS:

I would advise clicking the photo in order to enlarge it... then you'll understand my horror. THREE SCORPIONS (1 huge, 1 medium, 1 deceptively small) were in the light globe, which I assume means that they came in from the attic. I called my mom immediately to tell her I might be heading home tonight instead of tomorrow. When I explained that the scorpions appeared to be fighting and locked in mortal combat, she mused about when their mating season is. Not only did this scare the daylights out of me even MORE, it also says something about mom's mind, I think. Get it out of the gutter, Mom!

There is also a scorpion in my husband's closet globe. I turned on both lights and left them on... hopefully these guys will die miserable deaths up there and it will be a warning to their friends. Our neighbors have told their horror stories about scorpions, but I naively believed I didn't have to go into panic mode until May. Hmm... guess not. This has become my idea of Hell.