BoBo - 12/27/2007

Everyone, say hello to Bobo.

Isn't he adorable? Click on him to make him bigger. Last Friday, while Jake was celebrating his birthday at his gradfather's, and David was working, Isabel & I had a girl's night out - which means shopping. While in Old Navy, Isabel discovered a bin full of stuffed animals and found the softest ever green monkey. Isabel and the monkey danced and danced, to the pleasure of store personnel. I asked one clerk "If you can find another green monkey and have him hidden by the register for me, I would really appreciate it." The Old Navy employee did this for me. I purchased some clothes, which they placed atop the green monkey in the shopping bag. Isabel was none the wiser. Kids are SO easy at this age.

Come Christmas morning and in the hubub, I forget green monkey, who was hiding out in my closet. I later find him and hand him to Isabel. She is so excited she hugs and kisses him. "Bobo" and she have been inseparable. He didn't have a name. I asked her what his name was, but she seemed confused by "naming him," so I asked, "Is his name 'Willy?'" "Nooooooo," she replied. "Is his name 'Greeny?'" "Nooooooo," she replied. "Is his name 'Bobo?'" "YES! BOBO!" and she hugged him.

Happy Birthday David - 12/27/2007

Do you all know how hard it is to have a son born 12/21 and a husband on 12/25? Do you? Do you know how hard it is to shop during Christmas?? It is HARD!!




My darling husband was born on Christmas Day.


Poor David. It can't be easy sharing a birthday with THE MAN.

We opened gifts early for him this year. His good friend Niki was in town, so we went to Joe's Crab shack and then back here for prez-nints. (click to see bigger).



Assassin's Creed Game & book, Wheaton Glee Club 100 year embroidered fleece blanket and polo, grill cooking utensils.

Happy (belated) Birthday David!

Aye, Amen! - 12/26/2007

Fifty bucks and a refilled brake line is all we needed. It was clouded up & causing our stick shift to stick.

Thanks to the local mom & pop mechanic outfit 2 miles from here, Osteen Automotive Repair, that helped us out immensely.

Aye Aye Aye - 12/26/2007

Well, here I am, Wednesday morning. I am supposed to be at work. BUT the clutch just died on the Jeep. Nothing says Christmas like a huge car repair bill. *sigh*

We knew this was coming. The clutch started acting up a month ago. Sometimes we just could not get it into first gear and would start in second. Other times, it worked perfectly. This morning, I could not get it in reverse. David managed to do it for me while it was shut off, but by the time I got to the end of the street, no amount of shoving or cajoling would get that car into any gear. NO WAY I am driving 20+ miles to work on a hope and a prayer. So, I turned off the Jeep, put it in reverse and got back to my driveway.



I am waiting for a coworker to come get me and then I will probably spend most of the day getting the Jeep towed, renting a car, and bracing myself for the estimate to get the clutch fixed.

Happy Birthday Jacob - 12/24/2007

Yes, I know I am a little late posting this. His birthday is on 12/21. It was on a Friday, his last day of school before break.

From David, Isabel and I, he got Sony Acid Music Studio 7. It allows him to create music on our computer. He never smiles, but he kept thanking me all day for buying him this. We also got him a Domokun sweatshirt.

It's a random Japanese cartoon character.

Happy 14th Jacob! You Rock! Now go clean your room. :)

Pupil Pianist - 12/20/2007

This is Jake's school piano recital. They had a show called "Cool Yule" with most of the kids taking piano lessons performing a small holiday piece.



And here he is at home playing a piano rendition of a song from In The Groove 2 (like Dance Dance Revolution) called Hard Core of the North.



Here's the video game with some random people dancing to the song he just played.

Hurray! - 12/19/2007

SHE DID IT!!



I think she was just as surprised as I was. She was begging for a diaper (we keep her in panties & try and try and try). Instead, I said let's got sit on the potty (again) and read books (again). She then ordered me out of the bathroom because she can read the books herself! She whines when she really has to go, but she just won't do it. There are tears, and cries and pain. Tonight, she whined a little, but I just think she forgot, because all of a sudden, I hear it. Her face was shocked and then we both clapped! It's a start!

Sanjaya! - 12/17/2007

Yes, this is his school picture. A Co-worker said "Hey, it’s Sanjaya!" Oh, it’s ok! It’s not like I am posting naked baby pictu…..










Huh. How'd that get there?

Gonna Find out Who's Naughty or Nice !- 12/13/2007

"Mom," Jake says. "Today, David asked me if I wanted to see if I could figure out what's in our stockings. I told him no way, it's cheating.......then we did it anyway."

This, dear friends, is my husband's wise influence yesterday. He & my son proceeded to touch, shake and manhandle all the gifts in their stockings!

Today, the phone rings at work.

Me: Thank you for calling blah blah blah, can I help you?

David: I can't believe you used industrial packing tape on the presents.

Me: Why are you touching the presents?

David: You taped them all over the place with this stuff!

Me: CAUSE YOU'RE A CHEATER WHO OPENS PRESENTS AND THEN PUTS THEM BACK!

He does. He peels them open and looks at them. WHY? Why do this? Why ruin the surprise? It made me SO mad!

I get home this evening.

Jake: Mom, David was shaking his present all around trying to figure out what it is.

I don't get this. Someone please explain this to me.

The Old Man and the Sea - 12/10/2007

We meet again, Mr. Hemingway. This time, it was a more fortuitous meeting.

Funny that I read two books, back to back, dealing with men stuck out at sea. "The Life of Pi" is often compared to "The old Man & the Sea."

Here we meet an old man, past his fishing prime. He has lost the young buy who was apprenticed to him, but he's not angered. He understands that he is old. He is old and poor and living in Cuba. He sets out one morning with the rest of the fishermen and ends up going far out to sea, being pulled by the larges Marlin he has ever seen. He considers it a battle of wills, that lasts for days and days. He respects this fish and knows in the end, he (the man) will win out.

I enjoyed Hemingway's writing this time. The old man has such a strength of character. He is a good man and you can feel it in his words and actions. He reveres things that the younger generation takes for granted or mocks. He is no longer proud in the sense of being stubborn. He is proud is being quiet, meek, and with a strong belief in his relationship to God, the sea and this fish, his brother.

He succeeds and also fails. I cringed at his return and all that happened, but I was glad he got home and everyone saw what this old man did - something they could never do.

Patella Expands - 12/06/2007

This weekend, David is sitting in the loft, playing Call of Duty 4 on-line. It's late and I am laying on the couch in the loft. I could go to bed, the bedroom door is 5 feet away. But I don't see David much except on the weekends, so I feel bad going to bed (he's a night owl). I compromise and lay on the upstairs couch with a blanket and pillow.

David's got his head set on and is talking to the guys on-line that he is playing with. I slip in and out of consciousness. Then I hear:

"Damn it. Negroes killed me!"

Huh??

I pop open an eye. I look at him and say "Honey?!? Why the heck are you saying 'Negroes' on-line?"

David stops, stares, and then starts laughing, hard. "I just got it!," he exclaims. He says it again to me: "Negroes." and then he spells it out: K. N. E. E. G. R. O. W. S. Knee Grows. One of the guys he is playing with has the screen name of Knee Grows.

And it took David a couple of hours to figure it out.

David's screen name? Lard Tub.

Life of Pi - 12/06/2007

Another BFF selection.

This book was given to me by my Bff Jill Wendy. (Does anyone get why I always say " Bff Jill Wendy?")

Wendel kept asking me had I read it, had I read it. I was almost hesitant. It's a "popular" book. I don't want to go with the flow. Some recent popular books have been a let-down to me.

If you do not want SPOILERS, STOP NOW! This is your one and only warning.

This is a terrific book, go figure. The writing is fluid. I enjoy reading writings in English of people in other countries (when done right, Mr. Hemingway!). I can feel India in Pi's thoughts and speech. It permeates his actions and I like when a writer can do that.

Pi Patel is a young Indian Hindu living with his family in a Zoo, owned by his parents. He sees the beauty in every animal in there. He sees their purpose, their souls, and has great respect for them. He sees God in everything around him. His love of God is so great, he decides he wants to practice Hinduism, Christianity and Islam, much to the chagrin of the 3 religious leaders of the three religions he practices. When confronted by all three men, he shyly states that all he wants to do "is love God." In college in Toronto later in life, he double-majors in Zoology and Religion. Can anyone see the irony there? Science vs. Religion?

The author describes Pi's life in school (his name is Piscine which means "Pool" in French, and is forever called "Pissing" by his classmates. He changes his name to Pi, while in their upper schools - like high school here I suppose.) While in high school, his parents decide to sell the zoo and its various animals and move from India to Canada. After the details of the selling of animals to various zoos around the world, they embark on a Japanese cargo ship, some animals in tow, towards their new life.

As his parents and brother sleep, he walks to the surface of the vessel. It is sinking. In the melee, some officers throw him into a large lifeboat, atop a zebra with a broken leg. The lifeboat ends up in the sea. As he is floating, he sees Richard Parker and is ecstatic. He whistles and yells encouragement to Richard Parker. Hurry, Hurry! You can make it to the lifeboat, HURRY. As Richard Parker approaches the lifeboat, Pi FINALLY asks himself "What the hell am I DOING??" You see, Richard Parker is a Tiger.

The rest of the book deals with the animals that are in this life boat. An evil hyena, a female orangutan names Orange Julius, the zebra with the broken leg and the groggy Richard Parker, who hides under the tarp, still groggy from the effects of the tranquilizers given to him for his trans-Atlantic voyage.

The hyena begins to dispatch with the animals - the zebra first, then the orangutan, whose head he pulls off. He does not know Richard Parker is under the tarp. Pi tries to find provisions on his side of the lifeboat, which he finds under the tarp near Richard Parker.

Eventually, Richard Parker awakens and kills the hyena.

The rest of the book deals with the psychology of animals and how Pi must "train" Richard Parker to believe he (Pi) is still the alpha male. The author describes Pi's long, arduous journey. Supplies run out, so he begins to fish and collect rain water. He continues to pray. He feed Richard Parker, he prays to God.

After seven months, seven!, and several grueling adventures, they finally wash ashore in Mexico and Richard Parker runs into the woods forever.

The Japanese company comes to interview him after he has been hospitalized.

and here is where the story gets weird.

He tells his story to the men, which is basically the story we have been reading. The Japanese men do not believe him. Over & over he tells them what happened. They think he is insane. Pi asks them if what they are looking for from him is a believable story. When they agree, he tells a different, shorter story. A story about survivors on the boat. His mom, himself, a cook and a Chinese sailor with a broken leg.

The cook terrorized them. First he cut off the broken leg of the Chinese sailor and used the flesh as bait. When the sailor died, he stripped the flesh for bait, and ended up eating it. Pi's mom and the cook fought bitterly, to the end, where the cook decapitates Pi's mom. In the end, Pi kills the cook.

What are we to believe? Is the zebra really a Chinese sailor? Is the cook the hyena. Is his mother the orangutan? Is Pi really Richard Parker, who kills the hyena? What are we to believe - that a man can survive 7 months on a ship with a Tiger? Or with a cannibalistic cook? Can your faith in God allow you to believe the Tiger story or the human one?

I, for one, am staying with the Tiger story.

Of Mice and Men - 12/04/2007

John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" is a very small book. My copy is 106 pages and is about 7" x 4". Tiny book. Another one in my "Classics To Read Before You Die" thing I am doing.

You all know I LOVED Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath." That book was my "Cry the Beloved Country," Aunt Joan. Loved it. So I was not hesitant in reading another Steinbeck work.

Of Mice and Men deals with two men in around the 1930's who go from ranch to ranch, living a hand-to-mouth existence. There's "small and quick" George and Lennie, huge, powerful but with the mind of a child. They are not related; they just grew up in the same town and George took care of Lennie after Lennie's guardian died.

The relationship is a sweet one. George is ever-frustrated, ever-patient with Lennie, who cannot for the life of him remember anything past 5 minutes. George takes care of Lennie and protects him from himself; Lennie has gotten into trouble in the town they just fled from. Lennie is so child-like, he panics when he is yelled at, and CLINGS WITH ALL HIS MIGHT to whatever it is he is holding on to. This powerful man who broke all the fingers in a man's hand panicked as he held on to a girl's dress in town and frightened her into yelling "rape". It was so pretty, he just wanted to touch it. They fled.

Everything he touches he hurts. The mice he picks up in the fields, the puppy he squishes to death. George tries to help him, but eventually Lennie gets himself into a situation on their new farm where his fear and panic causes him to kill a human.

The final chapter, with George and Lennie by the pond, discussing for the 100th time, their pipe-dream of owning their own stake, living "on the fatta the lan'" is so sad. By rote, George recites the same dream, the same words, the words George knows deep down don't mean a thing. As he recites these words, George knows what must be done, knows it in his soul. The rest of the workers cannot understand his feelings or his hesitance, but he does what he knows he must.

The ending came out of the blue for me, never having read it. So abrupt. C'est la vie. Such is life.

Touched - 12/01/2007

I was talking with Tampa-Sister today. I just called her to see what was up with her & hers. We discussed kids, potty training (kill me now), home sales, and got around to Christmas. I told her that this year, we decided that financially, we were not prepared to buy gifts for the 13 or so people on his side and the 10 or so on my side. This is not counting us and the kids, AND the fact that both David and Jacob have December birthdays. It's too much. I also told her about my paring down the Christmas card sending.

She said she and her mom (my step-mom) were talking about me this week. About how I am so good at seeking people out, seeing how they are, taking care of people, knowing what they need and being there for them. She said the way I am is a gift from God. That most people are not blessed with it and I should not let others ruin it for me. She knows people don't appreciate things much or say so, but she said she & her mom were discussing how special I am and wondering how the heck I do it. I was getting a lump in my throat and thanking her. I especially liked her "Don't let others ruin it for you" thing, because it is so true. Wanting validation and not getting it is a tough and embittering thing. Expecting people to validate what you do can set you up for huge disappointments. I am just trying not setting myself up for more, but I am also not letting myself become embittered (I hope). I want a shiny, happy world full of 1800's values, I suppose.


"Touched," Buffy Season 7, Episode 20