I love bees. I mean, I don't LOVE love them...don't want to wear a bee suit or anything...but damn, they are one badass little creature! The way they pollinate plants (yum, food!) AND make honey? Too cool for school.
I've always loved honey, but I've been on a particular honey kick lately. Our staple honey is a mesquite honey from Trader Joe's, just cause it's well priced and we use a lot of honey! Each batch can vary widely, since "mesquite" in this context just means "whatever the bees can find in the deserts of the Southwest". Our current container is light and very floral and amberish. I am snarfing if down. The previous batch was slightly heavier, and smokey. I don't go for the smokey honeys. My brother brought back a chestnut honey from Italy a few years back that was amazing and interesting, but really just too much for me in the end. Luckily he brought it for our parents, and not me ;) Yeah, we all love honey! We've also got a jar of raspberry honey in the house right now, too. It's from some lovely beekeepers in Ojai, and my mom brought it out to us. Delicious. Not much berry flavor, but almost caramel like. Sooo good. *Swoon*
Anyway, between the pollinating and honey making I'm pretty seriously considering some minor beekeeping (one or two hives) someday (you know, when we win the lottery and can actually buy a house here. Argh. Mustn't get caught up in negative thinking!). Can you imagine honey fresh from the hive??
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Hat Attack!
I am squeeing with delight right now, because I just signed up for Hat Attack! It's a variation on Sock Wars- a knitting war game. I. Cannot. Wait. We get the pattern February 9th.
In short, everyone who plays knits the same hat. We are all assigned a target to "kill". You kill your target by finishing the hat and getting it to them before they get their hat to their target. When someone dies the send the hat they were working on to their assassin, who then finishes it and mails it on to the original target, hopefully in time to kill him/her. Cool, huh??
*bounces*
Better get mom's sweater finished ;)
In short, everyone who plays knits the same hat. We are all assigned a target to "kill". You kill your target by finishing the hat and getting it to them before they get their hat to their target. When someone dies the send the hat they were working on to their assassin, who then finishes it and mails it on to the original target, hopefully in time to kill him/her. Cool, huh??
*bounces*
Better get mom's sweater finished ;)
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Housekeeper of the Year
As I tucked Liel into bed tonight she whispered to me.
"Mama?", she said, "There was cereal on the place mat (bath mat) in the bathroom".
"Really?", I said, slightly embarrassed. But she does like carrying a little bowl of dry cereal all over the house, so...
"Huh", she confirmed. "I ate it up!"
"Oh", I said. She must have heard the yuck factor in my voice.
"It wasn't old", she assured me.
Well, thank goodness for that! There may be cereal on the bathmat in my bathroom, but folks, listen up: It isn't old cereal.
"Mama?", she said, "There was cereal on the place mat (bath mat) in the bathroom".
"Really?", I said, slightly embarrassed. But she does like carrying a little bowl of dry cereal all over the house, so...
"Huh", she confirmed. "I ate it up!"
"Oh", I said. She must have heard the yuck factor in my voice.
"It wasn't old", she assured me.
Well, thank goodness for that! There may be cereal on the bathmat in my bathroom, but folks, listen up: It isn't old cereal.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Power and other outages
At 6am this morning out power went out. It came back after a few minutes, and went out again around 7am. Came back on about 830am, and was thankfully on most of the day. But around 4pm? Out again. Upon hearing that it was probably going to be out until 730pm we decided to go do a little shopping at IKEA to get out of the dark house. Just as we were bundling up the power came back, so we scrapped that plan (the drive there is pretty awful on weekdays around rush hour and it was 5pm) and headed to the local Chinese joint, The Golden Mushroom, instead. We go there about twice a year, because apparently that's how long it takes us to warm up to its mediocre food again. Halfway through dinner the lights went out. We finished up by fire hazard candlelight and came home to power, so it was all good in the end. Let's just hope we keep power tonight! I have plans, yo.
In other news, pre-contest props go to Rachel, who expressed her enthusiasm with 80s song lyrics. Get down with your bad self, Rach!
To conclude this disjointed post I'd like to urge all of you on Facebook to adopt (fluff)friends. I've become irrationally addicted to this application (which features super cute cartoon pets you can adopt, feed, and race), and now crave tshirts and mugs with my sweet little piggy, Punch'npie on them. I am a marketing teams dream consumer, no doubt. And Punch'npie wants more friends! I bow to his whims. If you are my friend on Facebook and dont' have a (fluff) friend, I've surely already sent you a (fluff)friends invitation. Hoinch!
In other news, pre-contest props go to Rachel, who expressed her enthusiasm with 80s song lyrics. Get down with your bad self, Rach!
To conclude this disjointed post I'd like to urge all of you on Facebook to adopt (fluff)friends. I've become irrationally addicted to this application (which features super cute cartoon pets you can adopt, feed, and race), and now crave tshirts and mugs with my sweet little piggy, Punch'npie on them. I am a marketing teams dream consumer, no doubt. And Punch'npie wants more friends! I bow to his whims. If you are my friend on Facebook and dont' have a (fluff) friend, I've surely already sent you a (fluff)friends invitation. Hoinch!
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Diabolik
I've complained about Robert being in charge our Netflix queue, right? But yeah, on account of my lazy I allow the situation to continue. Last week a movie called Diabolik arrived.
"What's Dee-ah-bo-leek?", I asked suspiciously.
"It's Die-ah-ball-ick", Robert replied. "I think Cody and I watched it in college and it was pretty funny."
"Mmmmph", I said.
Well, we watched it 2 nights ago. It's a late 60's era if-James-Bond-were-a-bad-guy kinda movie. The ImDb plot synopsis says, "Fey super-thief Diabolik runs around stealing jewels, gold, murdering innocent people, and being a nuisance to the government of a generic European country." and I couldn't have put it any better, except to note that it probably qualified as soft p0rn in the 60s (my favorite scene involved him and his girl having sex on an ENORMOUS round, revolving bed covered in 10 million dollars worth of cash. Classy!).
Anyway, I'm not really recommending this movie. It wasn't particularly hilarious. It did have one redeeming feature, however: the Beastie Boys video for "Body Movin'", which we still watch fairly often at Zion's request, suddenly makes a lot more sense! It's more or less a condensing and retelling of Diabolik, with tomato sauce standing in for emerald necklaces. Of course.
"What's Dee-ah-bo-leek?", I asked suspiciously.
"It's Die-ah-ball-ick", Robert replied. "I think Cody and I watched it in college and it was pretty funny."
"Mmmmph", I said.
Well, we watched it 2 nights ago. It's a late 60's era if-James-Bond-were-a-bad-guy kinda movie. The ImDb plot synopsis says, "Fey super-thief Diabolik runs around stealing jewels, gold, murdering innocent people, and being a nuisance to the government of a generic European country." and I couldn't have put it any better, except to note that it probably qualified as soft p0rn in the 60s (my favorite scene involved him and his girl having sex on an ENORMOUS round, revolving bed covered in 10 million dollars worth of cash. Classy!).
Anyway, I'm not really recommending this movie. It wasn't particularly hilarious. It did have one redeeming feature, however: the Beastie Boys video for "Body Movin'", which we still watch fairly often at Zion's request, suddenly makes a lot more sense! It's more or less a condensing and retelling of Diabolik, with tomato sauce standing in for emerald necklaces. Of course.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Pre-contest announcement!
I've been thinking about running a contest on my blog or on Facebook (or both) for a few weeks, and I think I've more or less worked out the details in my head. Here's what I'm thinking:
Contest will run for the month of February. I'll call it a Leap Year Contest or something. Each day I will have a quote from an 80s song as my subject on a blog post. If you can identify it, do so in the comments. At the end of the month the person with the most correct answers will win a prize!
Sound good?
Contest will run for the month of February. I'll call it a Leap Year Contest or something. Each day I will have a quote from an 80s song as my subject on a blog post. If you can identify it, do so in the comments. At the end of the month the person with the most correct answers will win a prize!
Sound good?
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Movin' on up
A few nights ago Liel had a nightmare. Pretty rare for her, and she was pretty badly shaken. She refused to get back in her crib, a first (she usually loves her crib and asks to be in it). So I brought her up to our bed to sleep, and Robert and I decided to set up her big girl bed the next day.
Only setting up the big girl bed wasn't as easy as it may sound. Oh no. You see, we planned to have the kids share a room when Liel stopped sleeping in her crib (really it was once she started sleeping through the night, which finally happened this summer. Then we figured eh, might as well wait til she's ready for a bed, why disassemble/move/reassemble the PITA crib?). So, first we needed to move the car table out of Zion's room. We'd wanted to do that anyway, cause we were pretty sure it would get more play if it were in the living room. But in order to make room for the car table in the living room we had to move the futon. So: futon downstairs (good, now we will have a guest room with some privacy! Once we reassemble the futon, that is). Car table into living room. Move dresser and toy chest in Zion's room. Haul big girl bed up out of the basement. Set it up. Realize that IKEA bed slats are just slightly too narrow for the frame, as is a standard box spring. Call my parents. Oh, says dad, there are slats to that bed. Great, says I, we don't have them! Well, says dad, you'll just need to go to a lumbar yard. But it's nap time. Luckily Liel consented to nap in her crib, and Robert was dispatched to buy wood.
Finally it was all done. We've left Liel's crib up for the time being, in case she decides she wants to use it again (and also because we're lazy like that), but she was sooo excited about her big girl bed and couldn't wait to sleep in it. So far it's been a breeze...she slept well last night and at nap time, and the kids didn't bother each other in the same room! Oh how I hope it stays like this...even mostly!
So, here is Zion's bed:
And Liel's bed:
And both of them togther:
Cute, no? I love their "new" room, and they seem to also!
Only setting up the big girl bed wasn't as easy as it may sound. Oh no. You see, we planned to have the kids share a room when Liel stopped sleeping in her crib (really it was once she started sleeping through the night, which finally happened this summer. Then we figured eh, might as well wait til she's ready for a bed, why disassemble/move/reassemble the PITA crib?). So, first we needed to move the car table out of Zion's room. We'd wanted to do that anyway, cause we were pretty sure it would get more play if it were in the living room. But in order to make room for the car table in the living room we had to move the futon. So: futon downstairs (good, now we will have a guest room with some privacy! Once we reassemble the futon, that is). Car table into living room. Move dresser and toy chest in Zion's room. Haul big girl bed up out of the basement. Set it up. Realize that IKEA bed slats are just slightly too narrow for the frame, as is a standard box spring. Call my parents. Oh, says dad, there are slats to that bed. Great, says I, we don't have them! Well, says dad, you'll just need to go to a lumbar yard. But it's nap time. Luckily Liel consented to nap in her crib, and Robert was dispatched to buy wood.
Finally it was all done. We've left Liel's crib up for the time being, in case she decides she wants to use it again (and also because we're lazy like that), but she was sooo excited about her big girl bed and couldn't wait to sleep in it. So far it's been a breeze...she slept well last night and at nap time, and the kids didn't bother each other in the same room! Oh how I hope it stays like this...even mostly!
So, here is Zion's bed:
And Liel's bed:
And both of them togther:
Cute, no? I love their "new" room, and they seem to also!
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