It's beginning to look a lot like ...

What to our wondering eyes did appear this morning but Christmas Eve snow! The pretty kind, too: big, fat, wet flakes drifting down like feathers. Of course, considering that it was 70 yesterday, it's not going to stick long, but it was pretty while it lasted (and I'm not too sorry that it melted immediately on the roads, seeing as how I have some last-minute errands to run before Christmas).

Faith was very excited to get out and play in it, but Eric, while excited about seeing it through the windows, balked at actually going out in it. We just coaxed him out for a few moments to take this picture.

We hope everyone's Christmas is merry!

Speaking of bad Jane Austen sequels...

I saw 2 copies of Mr. Darcy, Vampyre at the used book store the other day. Apparently, the reason he was so cold to Elizabeth Bennett in Pride and Prejudice wasn't his titular pride; it was because he borrowed a plot device from Twilight and was so attracted to her he was afraid he was going to tear her throat out in the throes of passion.

I suppose it's a rational progression from Pride & Prejudice & Zombies. Personally, I'm waiting for Sense & Sensibility & SAW, in which Fanny Dashwood persuades her husband John to torment his half-sisters by placing them in contrived situations where they are forced to choose between maiming each other and torturous death and Willoughby reveals his villainy when he chooses to disembowel Marianne rather than face severe facial disfigurement.

A very short, quick fairy tale

Faith told me this story in a great hurry:

Once upon a time, there was a prince and a princess, and they saw each other, and the princess said, "I want to marry you," and the prince said, "Okay," and they went to a wedding, and they kissed each other, and they lived happily ever after, The End.

Odd juxtapositions

Yesterday, I was stopped at a traffic light next to a pickup with one of those magnetic signs popular among small businesses on its door. It advertised "computers and landscaping," which seemed like an unusual mix of specialties to me.

It reminded me of a sign I saw in front of a seafood restaurant in a strip mall this fall which advertised a "steak and hot dog combo." Those are two foods I never thought of serving together at the same meal -- and from a seafood restaurant, as well. It was, at least, budget-friendly, as I recall the price being something like $2.99. Oh, and sno-cones were also available, if you wanted some dessert.

Eric playing Rock Band in his pajamas

(The drums weren't plugged in, but we didn't tell him that.)

Halloween (extended remix)

I was (mildly) berated last year for not making sure the first photos I posted after Halloween were actually of the kids on Halloween. Last year, I at least had the Ludditely excuse of still using a 35mm camera and thus having to wait for the roll of film to be finished and developed. This year, however, my birthday present was a digital camera, so I knew I was out of excuses.

Eric this year dressed as Thomas the Tank Engine, while Faith chose Wonder Woman. (I say she chose Wonder Woman; in actuality, she first grabbed at the Supergirl costume, but as Supergirl is a useless simpering superhero whereas Wonder Woman is obviously the pinnacle of superheroinity, I quickly grabbed the Wonder Woman package and said, "Look! Wonder Woman! Wouldn't you rather be Wonder Woman?") Of course, she had never actually heard of Wonder Woman so we went home and watched some old Lynda Carter episodes on DVD, which convinced her entirely that she had made the right choice.

In general, our church carnival is held on Halloween night, but as Halloween was on Saturday this year, they moved the carnival to Friday so as to have more time to clean up before Sunday morning. The result was a preternatually extended celebration that just about wore me out. It began with the Friday night carnival, of which the high point was the return of the 15-foot-tall inflatable slide that Faith had spent all night climbing two years prior. It was the favorite of both Faith and Eric, despite the fact that it was a chilly night that they spent most of standing in line on the pavement in their socks. (Eric at least had on long sleeves and pants under his Thomas outfit.)

The following day -- Halloween itself -- my parents' church had a carnival in the afternoon. It was a smaller affair but also had an inflatable slide. Then, finally, on Halloween night we took the kids trick-or-treating around the neighborhood for the first time. They ended up with over THREE POUNDS of candy -- each! Before we got back to our house, they had Tommy and I carrying their plastic pumpkins because they were "too heavy."

Tommy enjoyed the trick-or-treating the most of all our "Halloween weekend" activities, and I don't know what we'll do when the church carnival goes back to being on Halloween itself, as we won't be able to do both. But this picture of Eric after Halloween describes my mood when we finally wrapped up all the festivities: Halloweened out!

The Empire Strikes Back

Tuesday is history day around our house, and Faith and I were reading about the first European colonies in the Americas. I read to her, "Spain was building an empire in the New World," and paused to ask her if she knew what an empire was.

"Oh, yes," she replied excitedly. "It's a bad person with pointy teeth!" At which point, my face must have given something away, because she added, "...isn't it?"

But just think if Spain had been building a vampire in the New World. There's a historical-conspiracy action movie in there somewhere.

Summer "Reading" List revisited

Our educational system in action, folks! Read it and weep ... literally.

Link

What I'm reading now

...and have actually been working on for quite a while. It's The Arcadian Friends by Tim Richardson, a book not presently in print in the US. (I ordered it from an eBay seller in the UK.) It's a long book and on a subject -- the evolution of the English landscape garden -- that made Tommy ask me why, exactly, I was reading it, but well-written and not at all dry, as evidenced by this passage which opens Chapter 11:

Binfield, in Berkshire, is a village which still feels hemmed in by trees. The lanes are canopied with boughs, and ploughed fields picked over by crows are suddenly interrupted by thickset parcels of woodland. In hedgerows of hawthorn stand dark and ancient oaks that improbably sprout fresh green leaves each spring, and I well remember thirty years ago the felled carcasses of once-grand elms blighted by disease strewn across the fields, thousands of woodlice seething beneath their tawny skins, orange fungus erupting wildly from crumbling joints.

As to Tommy's question why I am reading it, the book connects the landscape garden of the early 18th century to the political outlooks of the landowner, and while the focus of the book antedates Jane Austen's novels, I was very much intrigued at the prospect of comparing, say, Pemberley and Sotherton to the gardens and concomitant ideas discussed by Richardson, for what they might say about Darcy and Rushworth.

What I'm reading now to Faith at bedtime is Peter Pan. She is a big fan of the movie (not the Disney version, but this live-action one) and lives in constant hope that Peter will fly in her window and take her off to Neverland. We have been through The Wizard of Oz, The Land of Oz, Winnie-the-Pooh, The House at Pooh Corner, Alice in Wonderland, and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. I've learned that Alice has far too many jokes incomprehensible to modern American children to make it a successful bedtime read for under-7s, and House at Pooh Corner is far more child-oriented than the original Winnie for similar reasons.

My mom suggested Charlotte's Web to Faith, which has put it in our future-reading stack, but I'm dreading it, as I can never make it through without crying. (I couldn't even make it through an abridged version of The Velveteen Rabbit several months ago.) Spoilers be danged, I've already warned Faith that the spider dies at the end. We had better both be steeled for that circumstance.

Dinosaur Train

Proof that the people behind PBS Kids are evil geniuses. Dinosaurs and trains? Together in one show? I can only imagine how much money we'll be spending on licensed merchandise from this cash cow, er, "educational programming."

Why I love Prime

So, after nine years, Tommy's lawn mower needs replacing. The new model which is the "replacement" for our old Black & Decker cordless is, by most accounts, inferior to the version we have, so we did some comparison shopping and decided to buy the Neuton 6.3. Decision made, I navigate to the Amazon page. As a Prime member, I have two One-Click options: 2-day shipping by Thursday for free or 1-day shipping for arrival Wednesday for $3.99.

I pause. It's not that we really need the thing by Wednesday instead of Thursday. Lawn-mowing is for the weekend, after all. But this is an over-70-pound box. And they're offering to overnight it. For $3.99.

I actually went to the UPS website to check the cost of overnight shipment for such a heavy package. It's almost $300. They're offering me $300 worth of shipping for four bucks. Is there any way I'm not taking them up on this deal?

So, feeling very Marie Antoinette-ish, I chose one-day shipping. Now I sit back imagining an oversized box being rushed out of the warehouse and loaded on an airplane, winging its way toward me along with much more urgent items going to people who have paid many more dollars for the privilege. It's an insane bit of unnecessary luxury, and it's so much fun!

Summer "Reading" List

To get students to read, summer lists mix classic with contemporary favorites Schools Star-Telegram.com

Shared via AddThis

This feature article was in my newspaper this morning. These are the motes of wisdom which jumped out at me:
."
"...students often find those must-read classics stodgy and hard to understand.... modern girls can't relate to such traditional women's roles.... The answer, educators say, is to prepare students in advance for the eccentricities of the older works.... 'The older classics are there mostly because they will be referred to in newer works, even in movies.... We always encourage them to have the actual book in front of them if they're listening on tape.'"

Now, they're very careful never to specify which classic books exactly they're referring to as "stodgy" or full of harmful "traditional women's roles" (fear of hate mail from benighted readers who might value those classics, no doubt), but considering that "educators" are only including classics so students can understand references in movies and "encourage" students to have an actual printed book on what is referred to as a summer reading list, I pose this question: Is the problem with the classic books or with the modern student who is so self-referential that he cannot be expected to understand a lifestyle and/or time period different than his own?

The Mouse and the Ogre

dictated by Faith to her Mawmaw

Once upon a time, there was a little mouse laying an egg. The little mouse was with her mother and her father. On the other side of her house lived an angry ogre. He wanted the little mouse to eat for lunch and dinner and breakfast.

The ogre was thinking how to get the little mouse who layed an egg.

The ogre got it! He would walk over and get the little mouse and get her without waking her up.

That night, he sneaked over to the little mouse's house. (It was the little mouse who layed an egg.) He picked her up and sneaked back home with the little mouse and then went to his bed and laid her down.

The next morning, the mouse woke up and said, "This isn't my rock!" Then she walked to the window and noticed she was at the angry ogre's house. And he was ready to eat her. The little mouse squeaked away. She was home again.

The daddy woke up, and the daddy went to the ogre's house. The daddy poked the ogre in the tummy, and the ogre was dead.

The daddy went home to sleep.

The End

Something Beautiful

Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party from William Castleman on Vimeo.

Getting lucky?

I read the following item in the April 20th edition of National Review.

Nagasaki resident Mr. Tsutomu Yamaguchi was on a business trip in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The atom bomb caught him in the open, and he was badly burned. After stumbling through the shattered city and its horrors for some hours, Mr. Yamaguchi managed to get on a train back to his home town. After treatment for his injuries, he dutifully reported back to work at his company in Nagasaki on the morning of August 9. His boss demanded an explanation for his bandaged appearance, and was incredulous when told of the destruction of Hiroshima (of which the Japanese media had said nothing). He had just lost his temper and accused Mr. Yamaguchi of lying when there was an almighty flash ... Mr. Yamaguchi, now 93 years old, has been formally certified as one of the very few to have survived both nuclear blasts; and, of that few, to have been closest to both -- about two miles in each case.

My initial reaction was, What bad luck! What are the odds of being in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the respective days the bomb was dropped? Tommy's first thought, however, when I read the item to him, was that the man had incredibly good luck: What, after all, are the odds of surviving two atomic blasts and living to the age of 93?

What do you think?

Brownie recipe

This is not, as a rule, a cooking blog, but these brownies rock! I cut the recipe from the newspaper; the original source is the Baltimore Sun.

S'More Squares

12 graham cracker squares It came out 15 to me, to cover the pan.
1 20-oz. box brownie mix
3 cups mini-marshmallows
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 tsp. vegetable oil
Note that you'll be preparing the brownie mix as directed on the box, so you'll need whatever ingredients it calls for, probably oil & eggs.

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x13 baking pan. I used butter-flavored cooking spray. Line the bottom of the pan with a single layer of graham-cracker squares. Faith did this part. I had to cut just a sliver off the end of one on each row to make them fit the pan.

In a large bowl, prepare the brownie mix according to directions on the box. I used Duncan Hines Fudgy Brownie mix. Carefully spread brownie batter evenly over graham crackers. Bake for about 25 minutes. Do not over-bake.

Remove brownies from oven. Immediately sprinkle with marshmallows; gently press marshmallows into hot brownies. I buy marshmallows once a year to make a cup of hot chocolate and then never use them again, so when I opened the bag, mine were all stuck together. I just threw them on top in sticky clumps to cover most of the surface of the brownies and didn't worry about pressing them in. Return to oven and bake another 2 minutes or until marshmallows are puffed.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine the chocolate chips and oil. Stir over low heat until melted and smooth.

Drizzle the melted chocolate over the marshmallows. Cooks who drizzle must have some miraculous spouted non-stick equipment that I don't. I just kind of spooned the melted chocolate on. It makes for a nice marbled-looking top. Cool completely. Use a knife dipped in hot water to cut into bars. Makes 24 bars.

I'm excising the nutritional information, as it's ridiculous to expect a brownie to be nutritious. Let's just say they're empty calories and leave it at that.

Birthday girls

I had a birthday last Sunday. As I'm the family photographer, I have no pictures from the occasion to share, but Faith turned 6 last month, and I do have photos from then.

Faith specifically wanted a party with streamers, hats, and noisemakers. She wanted a pinata too, but I vetoed that. Here she is with her Mawmaw and Poppy, all wearing party hats.

She loved Eric's Cookie Monster cake last year and requested one for her birthday this year. Everyone had blue teeth and tongues, and I had blue fingers just from cutting the cake!

There were also balloons. Faith got a Cinderella balloon, but with two children in the house, the sibling of the birthday kid gets a balloon, too. (It saves chasing and screaming and fighting over the balloon for days afterward.) Here is Eric with his Lightning McQueen (or, as he says, "CarQueen") balloon and a red noisemaker.

And here is Faith with her new doll. She also got a Dora DVD, a horn for her bicycle, an "I Spy" board game, and some new clothes. When I was a kid, clothes were a boring present; I always felt I'd been tricked when I opened a wrapped package and found it was only clothes, but Faith loves new clothes and likes to try them on right away.

The Facebook Quandary

(A generation ago, that would have been a title for an episode of "Star Trek" or "Doctor Who.")

So, anyway, here's my quandary. My nephew is on Facebook. So are a lot of other people I know/knew. (I looked people up on his account.)

On one level, I find the possibility intriguing. Everyone has someone they were great friends with years ago and lost touch with, and the thought of reconnecting with some of those people is enticing.

HOWEVER....

As evidenced by the amount of time since I last posted on this blog (and the number of people I owe e-mails to), I am obviously terrible at keeping up with such things. Adding Facebook would only spread my already limited time thinner, not to mention adding a whole other layer of things-to-waste-time-on-online, a category I am far from needing to pad.

More importantly, as I read in an article on Facebook and such phenomena a while back, the truth is: There is a reason people lose touch with each other in the first place. I have a hard enough time keeping up correspondence with the people I have been bound and determined to remain in touch with all along. If I didn't have the time or inclination to maintain a correspondence with people years ago, where do I expect that time and inclination to come from now, when I am busier than ever I was when I was single and childless? There is little more awkward than searching out an old friend, only to abandon the effort to keep in touch once again.

So there's my quandary: to Facebook, or not to Facebook? I'm leaning towards not, for the above reasons. Any of you on Facebook may try to convince me otherwise.