Planking

So we've been trying here to salvage a difficult summer and find hilarity in simple things. So Isaac and I have been Planking.

First, our front porch:

His technique is still developing. Stiffness isn't ideal, and toes aren't pointed.

This one wasn't too bad... some cinderblocks in our backyard.

A decorative fence on our town square.

City Hall.

And then our roof. Well, the accessible part of our roof. And he wasn't on the EDGE. We were careful. I don't want him injured. People get hurt or killed doing this. But they're usually drunk. And we were quite sober.

Proud to be an American Planker!

Fire Department Plank!

Waste Management Plank!

Ford Ranger Plank!

Generator Plank!

Concrete abutment thingy Plank!

Old Car Plank!

Phone Booth Plank!

Ramp Rail Plank!

Church of Christ Plank!

Cactus & WagonWheel Planking!

Planking while being observed by buzzards

Aaaand Backhoe Plank!

Okay, yes, it's silly. But we're having fun. And fun is good. That's what Dr. Seuss told me, anyway.

Book recommendation

I just finished reading this book --->

and I was profoundly moved by it. I can highly recommend it to anyone who parents or who works with children in any capacity. Dr. Perry has some real insight into the minds of childhood trauma victims and the aftereffects of their abuse, neglect or trauma.

He's a big proponent of love and of understanding how the human mind develops and works in conjunction with relationships.

Read this book. Today.

Current reading

Home: A Memoir of My Early Years by Julie Andrews

Artistic time-waster

Bomomo

Kewl-tastic and chaotic and beautiful -- no score-keeping or tension involved, just fun.

Big Fun in Ballyhoo

Martha with one of her pals from school.




What To Wear To A Monster Truck Bash: Heels, Daisy-Duke shorts and an off-the-shoulder t-shirt.

I think I was not dressed properly for this event... I was wearing my OU t-shirt (which I wear every Saturday in the fall).



Infant Fashion Tip: Diaper, socks, and a mohawk haircut. Tres chic.


YeeHAAAAWWW!!! It's Monster Truck Time!!!

Here's a brief video of some of the Monster Truck Action. The building in the background is the Ballyhoo Elementary School. You'll hear Isaac in the background as well as a few of my students:





Does this officially make me a redneck now?

This event was sponsored by all the local churches. The driver of the Monster Truck told his life story after the festivities. Prior to the Smashing of the Junk Cars By The Monster Truck, we were regaled by live worship music -- every single song exactly the same as the ones we did back in the Soulfire days. [sigh] We thought we were so edgy and out-there.

I guess, however, that this qualifies as "speaking the local language" in a way. No-one would come to a symphony performance here, but line up the Monster Truck Guy and give away free hotdogs and the whole town (plus all the even smaller communities nearby) will show up. It's what works here, so we went and participated and enjoyed ourselves.

What's your score?

The Fifty Largest Countries in Five Minutes or Less

I am ashamed to say that I only got a 62%... [sigh]

Time Waster

Dadgummit, Tracey. What have you done to me????

Daffy Duck Splat Game

If you can break 500, you're doing pretty good. I have yet to do it.

Taking a load off

GAH! I am WIPED OUT.

And a tad sunburnt.

I am far, far, far too old for amusement parks, particularly on 100F days.

But I got the pictures I needed, which I would not have gotten otherwise. And I *did* have a *little* fun.

I was very careful with my arthritic knees, so they're not screaming as loudly as I had imagined. The soles of my feet, however, are not happy. I need a pedicure in the worst way.

Haven't heard from the surgeon's office yet, so I suppose my insurance approval/disapproval letter hasn't arrived. I didn't eat anything today at Six Flags except a chocolate milkshake, but on the way home I had some coconut shrimp at a Chinese buffet. It was splendidly lovely, but I ended up yacking it all later. I think it was worth it; it tasted sooooo good and I only had a couple. It will be nice, I hope, to be able to eat again without yacking.

And since I'm griping, my eczema has flared again, leaving my fingers raw and weepy. This particular type of eczema (dyshidrotic) has been directly correlated with an increase in stress levels, and this seems to hold true for me. I always get a nasty outbreak a few days after a severe stress event of some sort. Late last week, Martha informed her teachers and friends that her parents beat her. We had to have meetings with the school counselor and principal, who had had to examine her for bruises (!!) and such -- which, of course, do not exist for the simple reason that we do NOT beat her. It seemed to have been precipitated by a pretty severe confrontation she provoked at home the evening before... and perhaps she decided that was a way to be important or special. At any rate, the counselor and the principal knew it was bogus, but of course had to investigate anyway. I told them that they're welcome to contact Child Protective Services at any time, and that they've got an open invitation to live with Martha for a few days. Removal of cell phone and computer privileges brought her back to Earth, at least momentarily, but she's rapidly becoming more and more difficult to deal with. We're seeking further professional assistance with her. Nobody can say we haven't tried everything we knew and a few things we didn't know... but there's a breaking point and it's getting nearer. I love her so much, and she has never made it easy for me to do so.

I have debated about how much to blog about our struggles with our oldest child, but keeping completely mum about it isn't helping. I need to talk about it. I'm not really needing advice, since that seems to abound until people get a taste of what it's like. I just need to unload. Hope you don't mind. Gotta keep it real, yanno?

Cool time waster

Test your reaction time... this one's fun and quick.

Sheep Darts

Time waster

I made it to level 34. How 'bout you?

Okay, this isn't funny anymore

The local weatherguesser is predicting several inches of snow starting tomorrow evening. Just a few counties north, my Aunty Ada may get ten inches.

I'm scouring the travel deals like a crazy woman. I've got air-miles and I need to use them this year; I can't think of a better way than a few sick-leave days spent in some warm, sunny location.

Here, for example:


I don't actually even know where this photograph was taken. Does it matter? I thought not.

What's your Travel IQ?

Mine's 113... not fabulous, but not bad.

Go play this game and see what yours is, and report back in the comments section.

Time Waster

This one's good for a bit of time-wasting fun: Falling Sand

Just for laughs

Here's a video of some guys yukking it up (literally) (nyuk nyuk nyuk) at the Comedy Barn in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee a few months ago. You might want to let it play to the end. Keep tissues handy; your eyes will probably be watering by then.






And here's a video of a girl watching that video.




Hee hee!! I wonder if she has a boyfriend, and if he's deaf.

Time waster

Check out this cool Google game and see if you are as good as Google Maps! (read the instructions, then scroll down for the game)

(h/t TFARK)

The 2007 Parker County Peach Festival

The kids and I hopped into the MomVan and headed down to Aunty Beth & Uncle Brian's house in Fort Worth, and from there we all went to Weatherford, Texas, to the Parker County Peach Festival.


You could purchase all manner of peach (and lots of other sorts) comestibles, such as the peach salsa and peach marmalade shown here.



Texas chili peppers...



The Peachniks were even out in full force.



Some things you see at county festivals just can't be explained.



Of course we had to have a funnel cake and some peach lemonade, dontcha know?




Tasty! But they don't sell Sausage On A Stick anymore... it only comes on an STK:





Street vendors by the hundreds and hundreds, and most of it was actually decent stuff (although I did see a few of the purses made from empty Capri-Sun bags stitched together like patchwork and adorned with feather boas -- those are soooooo tacky).

A recent trend in home decoration around here is the Wall Cross, which can take just about any form or fashion. Wall Crosses have now trumped the ubiquitous Angels that were literally everywhere about ten or fifteen years ago. I saw gazillions of Wall Crosses of varying types, but this one made of lariat rope looked more like an Ankh than a cross:



Of course, the Church adopted it as the "Egyptian Cross" or the crux ansata (cross with a handle), so I suppose that counts. But you see it much more often as an ankh, since the neopagans have adopted it as their symbol of choice.

Back to the Festival...


There were lots of, er, unusual items for sale...



The Parker County courthouse is a handsome one, as are many Texas courthouses.

It was HOT and quite crowded, but we had a great time.

Lost in Translation

I occasionally like to have fun with the free online translation services... you know, the ones which can give you a "general gist" of what's being said. I use them often, since I frequently receive e-mail from friends in Haiti who write to me in French.

I thought that tonight, before I hit the hay, I'd take a piece of a famous speech and translate it into Spanish, then take the Spanish translation and feed it back into the translation program changing it to English... sort-of a language feedback loop, if you will... and see if you recognize it. This one's pretty easy, though, so I don't think anyone will have trouble recognizing it:

Permit the ring of the liberty. And when this happens, and when we permit the ring of the liberty - when we permit that it to call of each village and each village, of each state and each city, we will be capable of accelerating that day when all children of God - black men and Jewish, white men and the Genteel, protestant and catholic - will be capable of being taken of the hand and to sing in the words of the spiritual old woman Of the Black one: "Freed at last! Liberate at last! Give thanks to Omnipotent God, we are free at last!"

Stuff I saw today

At the lake, we saw a snake lying in the middle of the road. Of course, I had to stop and take his picture:



But he wasn't crazy about me standing there, so off he slithered:



Snakeys don't bother me much. I can easily tell the difference between the kind that aren't going to kill me and the kind that are, and I give the nasty ones a wide berth, but they don't terrify me like they do some people.

UPDATE: Yes, I know that it vaguely resembles a cottonmouth water moccasin, but I went back and zoomed in on the snake's head on my original photo, and it just doesn't have the triangular head shape or the pits. Also, a cottonmouth tends to have a very bulky, muscular body rather than a thin, lithe one. If it were a juvenile, it would've had a brighter body color. That's my opinion; I suppose I could be wrong. Nonetheless, since I really didn't know just what kind it was, I gave it plenty of room and used the camera's zoom rather than getting too close.

And then a cute widdle butterfly decided to perch on my finger:



There were loads and loads of butterflies of all shapes and sizes out at the fishing hole today. Apologies to my blogmommy who's got a weird butterfly phobia.

Next, we decided to get some hooks wet:







Not much was biting today except mosquitoes and fire ants, but we had a lovely, relaxing day. Wish you'd've been there with us.

Gone fishin'

We're out of school today thanks to a couple of built-in bad weather days, one of which we did not use. I've decided I'm taking the kids fishing. By the time I was their age, fishing was a normal and regular part of my life during the summer. Since they grew up in the urban jungle of Des Moines (TIC), they have no idea how to do it.

I hope to get a few photos for your fun and amusement; watch this space for further developments.

My newest podcast treasure find

I have been enjoying a "radio theater" podcast produced in Canada by a group called Decoder Ring Theater. I'm specifically indulging in their "Red Panda" super-hero comics-on-the-radio. If you've got elementary-age or older kids, they'll probably dig these. If you yourself are a kid at heart, you'll enjoy them, too.

I find that podcasts like this are a nice treat on long car trips. I hook up my iPod through the radio and the kids can listen to it that way.