mandalei

I love them.

That’s probably not a strong enough statement, actually.  I really love them.  My dad sent me a trailer to Ironman posted on Gizmodo today, and I’ve watched it three times.  I will definitely be seeing this one.

We have alot of windows in our house, which is good because we don’t really get great light unless it’s the winter and the trees are bare.  When we first looked at the house, it was during the winter, and I bet that if I had seen it in the summer (despite the siren song of the kitchen… oh, that kitchen!), it would have been a harder sell for me.

But, here we are, with lots of windows.  And blinds.  I hate blinds.  But trying to find decent curtains to hang that don’t block out the light yet aren’t sheer as nylon stockings is tough.  We don’t live close to an Ikea any more, and that would be my first choice.  Sadly, Ikea doesn’t sell most of their curtains online, and neither do they actually show good representations of their wares.  I can make them myself, but I need a good (and cheap) source of fabric.

Any ideas out there????

I used cloth diapers with Jack for the first 6 months.  Once he started solids, though, things got crazy and I just couldn’t handle the in-between poop.  Now, though, things have, uh, “firmed up”, and I am thinking of going back to try cloth diapers again.  Not sure whether I am nuts or not.

Since Ben is gone, the thrill of blowing the snow off the driveway is mine.  We got about 7 or 8 inches yesterday, and the snow plows came through several times, so while I was more than up for the task of the driveway, I was a little daunted by the almost chest-high wave of snow at the base of the drive, courtesy of the snow plows.  That took some doing, and it doesn’t look awesome, but at least we can get out of the driveway now.  It took all of Jack’s precious nap to get it done, but thankfully he was able to hold off on needing to be picked up until after I was finished.  I wouldn’t have been able to do it had he been awake, because there is no way I could strap him onto my back and have him keep his hearing.  As it is, my ears are still ringing, but I don’t know where the earplugs are.

And yes, I did figure out how to turn on the machine despite having a bad feeling I wouldn’t know how.

Followed this link at Making Light, where you can read the article, with her comments, about the Ankara School’s work on revising the haditha.

Jack has finally reached that stage where he is beginning to interact with other kids.  I hosted a play group at my house today, and the first person to arrive had her little boy with her, who is 15 months old.  Now, Jack is normally the only boy in the group, and while he chills with the ladies, he doesn’t always play with them.  When the other little boy showed up, though, Jack was instantly drawn to him.  He followed every move with his eyes, and once Jack was up and in his walker, he ketp walking right up to him and trying to play with whatever he was holding, and kept touching his face and hair.  He couldn’t get enough of this other little boy!  It was really interesting, because when the other girls showed up, they were fun and all but he wasn’t as into them as he was with the other boy.  Really interesting to see!

… in my blogroll, but this post really struck me.  It’s funny to read something you weren’t even aware you were thinking.

We have three feeders outside right now, one for suet, one for thistle, and one for safflowe.  After a length of time where they were unpopular, we now have a good number of daily visitors, including
Tufted titmice
Black-capped Chickadees
Goldfinches with winter plumage
A lone white-breasted nuthatch

and occasionally we have a downy woodpecker.  Jack likes to watch out the window with me, and from his vantage point in the walker, he also likes to look up through the window at the leaves rustling in the wind.  I love that he will move himself to places that provide him with good views.  I think it’s time to load him up in his backpack and go for a walk today, since it’s 42 out, and sunny, and we’re going to have two days of winter storms starting tomorrow.

I have a play date at my house tomorrow, and will be making some kind of stuffed shells (probably with spinach, mushroom, and artichoke–some of the people are vegetarian) and chocolate-orange cupcakes.  I hope they don’t suck.

I always watch the red carpet at the Oscars, because I love seeing all the dresses and what people are wearing.  Sometimes, though, you see a train wreck like Gary Busey accosting Ryan Seacrest (weirdest red carpet scene I’ve ever seen!).

But what’s got me pondering the line of annoying is that RS just heckled asked Jessica Alba, and yeah yeah, I know that’s sort of his job to find out how far along she is, what the due date is and whatnot… but he just asked her if she was going to breastfeed her child. And I sure don’t think it’s because he’s interested in the well-being of her child, but more is interested in what will be going on with the mammaries of  a movie star.

Ass.