Christmas stuff

Gingerbread 'Houses

This is actually a review of the halloween house kit from Target as an option to replace actual gingerbread house kits, or actually making a gingerbread house from scratch:

cons:
1. The "gingerbread" was actually chocolate cookie
2. the "gingerbread was crunchy like a graham cracker instead of soft like gingerbread cookie, and sometimes broke apart like graham crackers as well
3. Necessary to make white frosting and buy Christmas candy to replace the black and orange frosting and candy bats

pros:
1. replacement frosting and candy went fast and most of the candy didn't end up near the houses
2. the kit only cost $2.50 on clearance after halloween and contained five small houses instead of one big one
3. low fear of failure due to low time and/or money investment

results:
see above

Two things, unrelated, and one more unrelated thing.

1. While shopping for a new plunger, I was reading the label, and wondering, who at Clorox, Inc. has the job of writing the marketing "plug" for a plunger? SPLASH GUARD. Really? Ergonomic handle? Whatever. But by the time I had finished driving home from the store, I decided I could write a totally awesome ad for a plunger. I bet you could too, if you tried.

2. Danjo is watching some sort of cop show on TV. The main character was diffusing a bomb. You know, cutting the wires with a pocket knife, hoping he's got the right wires, and is in time, and all that. You know it's going to work. After all, when does the main character ever fail to diffuse the bomb? Just once, the strong male lead should blow up. Oops! Wrong wire! All the future cop shows with a bomb diffusion event in the plot line would suddenly become more suspenseful.

3. Also, if you are near here, Venom has a ring in an art show at our town's civic center. I haven't seen the ring yet, but I've heard it's cool.

Winter Visitor

Young Adventurer has named this guy (or gal) Christopher Robin. 

We know robins are common birds, but we don't usually see them around here, and I don't think we've ever had one in our yard.

Young Adventurer's Adventures With the Camera

Shiny Chin

Fwoosh

Yummy Hummy

I'm feeling very shy today

f/6.3, 1/320, 200 iso

Venom

Good Advice I Found on Facebook today...

John Wesley wrote in his journal Oct. 6, 1774:

I met those of our society who had votes in the ensuing election, and advised them, 1. To vote, without fee or reward, for the person they judged most worthy: 2. To speak no evil of the person they voted against: And, 3. To take care their spirits were not sharpened against those that voted on the other side.

Taking out the trash...

Some stuff we've spotted in the yard lately

leaving

staying

look hard

The VERY HUNGRY caterpillar (or, "no glasses needed")

note the stubs of leaves all around it.

Note the cute bottoms of it's feet, and also how horrifying it is to see this held in kitchen tongs. Looks ready for grilling, yes?  

For the record, the VERY HUNGRY caterpillar was humanely released onto some of our vines, that need pruning, unlike Danjo's favorite tree. The humane releasing happened because Young Adventurer was just sure it was going to stop devouring our tree, latch onto a branch with it's mouth, curl itself into a "J" shape, and form a chrysalis at any moment, and he thought it should be allowed to complete it's lifecycle. Young Adventurer is going to have an organic garden someday, which will not be visited by a certain grandmother--because the caterpillar will one day emerge from the aforementioned chrysalis as a large moth.

And finally:

the shady side of a sunflower

Untruth in Advertising

As seen at BOTH Lowes and Home Depot. 

Blue things

First, a blue flower. The vines invading our front yard have one redeeming quality--they are morning glories and for an hour or so each morning, there are pretty purple flowers. Funny that we planted them where the day lilies grow. Just a day, just a morning. Don't miss it.

Blue moon. There was one last night. Really. You can google it. It looked almost just like this: 

Cooking Dinner

These are a little darker than they should be maybe, but I like them. Young Adventurer liked the purple potato the best. I think it looks like it could be the next Veggie Tales character.

News of the Week

Feature Story:

At home we've been working on getting back into a routine. Yesterday Young Adventurer (hereafter referred to as YA) had done his homework, practiced piano and cello, watched TV, played video games, and finally came to me as I was cooking dinner with the common phrase among school kids: "I'm bored." We've been trying "do something creative" when we need an alternative to TV staring, as it's still too hot to suggest playing outside. "Be creative" has resulted in painted shoes, a poem written on my bathroom mirror, and an illustrated poem, among other things. Yesterday we tried a variation. I told him to grab some drawing supplies and a Bible, open the Bible, and draw whatever he read on the page, excepting David and Bathsheba and the like. First, Deuteronomy--the LAW--"That's boring!" he declared, and turned some pages. Job was next. He didn't want to draw Job. Then Chronicles--here it began to get interesting.
The passage was 1 Chronicles 25:7-8--David organizes the musicians:

The number of them along with their brothers, who were trained in singing to the LORD, all who were skillful, was 288. And they cast lots for their duties, small and great, teacher and pupil alike.

All the skilled musicians, teachers, pupils, small, and great; and they cast lots for their duties. That's not the way we choose the worship team these days. I wonder what havoc would ensue if we tried it. Anyway, YA drew a lyre, a gong, and a harp, in orange marker. Nothing profound or worth scanning so you could see it. The brain work wasn't translating to great saleable art. And he was bored with the musicians and turned the page, to the death of Moses and begins to read aloud of the trip to the top of the promised land so Moses could see where he would never go, and then...

"Oh My Gosh! Joshua's mom was named Nun!!"

[me] "That was his dad"

"Oh...Wouldn't it be funny if his mom was named Monk?"

Then he drew, also in orange marker, the french peas sitting on a wall while the Israelite vegetables marched around.

Editorial:

"This isn't very good. It kind of tastes like a Sour Patch Kid without the sour."
~Freshman daughter's thoughts on Powerade Strawberry Lemonade

Friday Night Netflix Streaming Movie Review: 

"Decoy Bride" with David Tennant.

There was almost a sword fight.
Charming scene involving an elderly couple and  bagpipes, which nicely illustrates the sermon we heard last weekend.

Photo of the Day:

Two dead in yard art bloodbath

Pink Lightning Sunset

Olympic Observations

1. Things got very quiet before Usain Bolt ran the 200m final. You could have heard a pin drop in that place. Anticipation is silent.

2. People don't know how to turn the flash off on their cameras. If they did, millions of batteries would be saved, just at the Olympics. Seriously, flash doesn't help when photographing the 200m final from the stands. Turn it off, people.

3. (and then there was more volleyball)

4. There's BMX bike racing in the olympics?

Ice Cream is NOT Made of Carrots...

But sometimes gelato IS made of carrots...

A.C.E. stands for the vitamins A, C, and E.
Vitamin A comes from carrots.
Really.
They're in there.
Carrots, in the gelato.

Yes, he tried it.

Yes, he liked it. He ordered it, on a cone. And ate it all.

 (good thing it wasn't ice cream, or this would no longer be just another one of your lies, grandpa)

R 4th (n 3rd)

In random order...

sparklers with friends and sister on the 3rd

fireworks on the 4th

playing in the rain

3rd

3rd

yep, it was like this--4th--here.

rained-4th.