Just Junk

The goody bags at children's parties. Who invented these? It must have been some psycho nutjob who had no kids. They are always filled with various pieces of junk. And if your kid's room looks anything like my kid's room, junk ain't exactly needed there (disinfectant and an industrial-strength vacuum cleaner, maybe, but more junk? I think not...).

But the thing is, kids love junk. I realized this as I stood with my kid in front of one of those banks of candy/junk machines you find where ever young children congregate. You know the junk machines...where there are little pieces of junk toys folded up into a little plastic egg? Yeah, those.

Well last weekend I was the desperate mother trying to talk a recalcitrant child into getting more sugar , more sugar, more psychodelic-colored sugar as he pressed his little nose to the bank of junk machines.

Me: E don't put your money in that. That is just junk. Here, look at the pretty fluorescent colors on all this sugary crap.
E (pointing to junk in junk machine): I want this.
Me: E, it is just junk. Here, don't you want to spoil your lunch?
E (lower lip starting to quiver): I want this.
Me: *sigh*

Ten minutes after we get home, he comes to me and asks if I can fix the toy that he got.

Junk. What a load of crap.

Wordless Wednesday - Out my window

Weekly Word Challenge - Hands & Feet

This week's words for Weekly Word Challenge were, well, too hard for me so I am digging back to last week and going for Hands and Feet.

Hands:

Feet:

Sunday Funnies...on Monday

What Obama really meant by change...

hehehe...

Not Proud

I am not proud of my country electing a black man as our next president. I know it is very historic. It is stupid that it took so long.

I am glad that the people in my country voted their conscience and did not factor the color of our new president's skin into the equation. That is the true meaning of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.

For that I am proud.

Saturday 9 - The Best of What's Around

1. What's the best new website you've found?
Hmmm...I've been wasting spending a a lot of time on Sudoku.

2. What's the best movie you've seen?
This is hard to answer a I love many movies. A real variety too. I love "Mame" (the one with Lucille Ball and Beatrice Arthur), "Chicago", "Casablanca", "Gone With the Wind" and "The Shawshank Redemption". Also "Madascar", "Happy Feet", "The Incredibles", and "Ratatouille".

3. What's the best quote you know?
The poor man is not he who is without a cent but he who is without a dream.

4. What's the best book you've read?
This is hard. I would say "The Time Traveler's Wife" simply because that is the only really good book I have read lately. I also like "The Kite Runner".

5. What's the best thing someone's done for you?
Probably the surprise baby shower I was given by some of my co-workers. It was a total surprise. I had no clue.

6. What's the best thing about your job?
Heh...getting paid. What I wouldn't give for that right now.

7. What’s the best CD you own?
Unplugged Eric Clapton

8. What’s the best new TV show you watch?
Eh...don't watch much 'new' TV. I just discovered "Jericho" which is, I think cancelled but is really really good. I also really like "Burn Notice" and "The Starter Wife" both on USA network.

9. What’s the best car you’ve owned?
My favorite car would be my bright red 1990 Toyota Celica, standard transmission. I loved that car.

Three Beautiful Things

To combat the Friday Funk, I am gonna post 3 things that made me happy today.

1) The smile on my son's face as I tickled him awake this morning.

2) The sound of my cat's purring as he sleeps next to me.

3) The scent of the air freshener that I put out today.

Weekly Word Challenge - Then & Now

The words for this week were Hands & Feet. I don't wanna do them this week so I am going to reach back a couple of weeks and do Then & Now.

Then: Here is my beautiful little boy at about 7 months old.

Now: Here he is a week ago after he fell asleep in our bed.

Wondering...

Since black (men) were given the vote in 1865 and women were given the vote in 1920, does that mean it will be 55 years before there is a woman president?

It's Over

Well McCain just gave his concession speach so I guess this long, long campaign is finally over. I think I am a bit torn. Though I did vote for Obama, I still did like McCain. There were just too many things in the Republican platform that I couldn't support. I liked Obama's economic plan better, but I just don't see how he can do it.

I have many doubts about his ability to carry out his campaign promises though. I wish him all the luck in the world and I sure as hell hope this country can get out of this economic funk, but I am really sceptical.

All I can say is God bless America. And God bless this big blue ball of ours.

Back to whining, bitching and moaning tomorrow.

Bad Blogger

I find it exceptionally hard to blog when things are going badly. That somehow seems counterintuitive, that the act of writing here should be an unburdening. Some people whose blogs I read are in a very bad place emotionally and they write very often, sometimes more than once a day, but me? No.

I guess because I try to keep this a rather lighthearted place. Though really looking back on some of my older posts, the times when I was down were really some of my better stuff. Oh, well.

Right now things are going very badly. I am going to have to close out an IRA to pay my mortgage this month. I haven't had a good interview in over a week.

And B and I are fighting quite a bit. Loudly. In front of E.

I am in a very bad place right now.

Weekly Word Challenge - Plain & Adorned

In an attempt to use the photos that I took for the WWC and yet in my stupidity and laziness failed to post, I shall attempt to catch up using my somewhat halfhearted attempt at participating in NaBloPoMo again this year.

The words were Plain and Adorned.

Dog, Plain and simple.

Dog, Adorned and unhappy. No, your dog really does not want to wear this.

Pleeze git dis off me. I iz not happy now.

Absolutely the last Halloween post....

...will be a wussy mostly-pictures-post-because-I-am-too-lazy-to-try-to-think-up-actual-words-and-shit.

Here is the beginning of our pumpkin-carving activity:

And, yes, here is the eventual product of said pumpkin-carving activity.

Shut up! I was just glad to get it done with all of my fingers intact and no eyeballs dripping blood.

The Requisite Mommy-blogger Halloween Post

Well, another Halloween has come and gone. My son will soon pass out from his sugar-induced eating orgy and I, well, am still unemployed. Oh, joy.

But, now, this is not about me and my paranoia dementia depression. This is about sending innocent little cherubs out to beg for candy for some innocent childhood fun. This is probably the first year he has truly understood what was happening. He has been asking about his costume for a week. Being the lazy slaggard that I am, I naturally put off finishing it until this morning. He has been a wizard for the past two years; a costume I made thinking ahead to when he would be sick of being a wizard and I could foist off the Grim Reaper on him (hey, scary, different, not a wizard! ). I could use the robe from the wizard costume, add a hood, paint his face white, hand him a scythe (okay, a hockey stick), and voila! Grim Reaper.

Here is my son as the Grim Reaper. Originally I was going to make some white face paint (simply made from shortening mixed with cornstarch) and then paint some black around his eyes and mouth with eyeshadow (boy, ain't I creative?). We had to eat dinner before heading out (boy I have never seen a 5-year old scarf down supper so fast). He was finished almost before I sat down. He didn't want to wait for me to paint his face. I guess he was worried all the candy would be gone before he got to it.

He needn't have worried:

Things you don't wanna hear...

I missed the fun over at Jennsylvania and she has closed the comments but I really want to put this story out there. The topic was, "Things You Don't Wanna Hear..."

It was 1992. I was going on a scuba diving trip to Belize with 8 of my friends (the woman who trained me; two people who were in my class; their two children; an exchange student staying with them; and another couple who are friends of us all). We needed to fly from Belize City to Dandriga to catch the boat which would take us to the resort we were all staying at, the Blue Marlin Lodge.

Just as a reminder...we were going scuba diving, meaning scuba gear. For nine people. For seven days. That is a lot of gear.

This was a small plane; a ten-seater, with the tenth seat being that of the pilot. We were just beginning to board the plane; most of my friends were already standing at the door getting ready to climb aboard. I was back just a bit, near the tail taking a picture of the plane. I heard the pilot speaking to the guy loading the gear,

"Did you weigh all this stuff?"