Tick.

(That's one of the nicknames I have for Tess.)

Tess is in a class where most of her classmates are the oldest in their families. Tess is the youngest. I am surprised at what a difference this makes...

Tess is the most cynical and sarcastic kid there, I think. I mean, she's really a good and nice kid, but she can be really pretty cynical at times. She has a t shirt that has two guys on the front -- one guy says "movie quote" and the other guy says "ha ha. another movie quote." We all find this quite humorous. (Tess picked this shirt out herself.)

The kids in her class don't get it. Tess was slightly bemused by this. She also comes home and is incredulous that the kids in her class have never heard of some of the bands she listens to most (which in fairness to her classmates, are far from top 40 types. They tend to be slightly obscure bands Zach finds.)

Much of it, I am sure, is because she has brothers who are 4 and 6 years older than her. Some of it, though, must stem from her personality and world view, which tends, I think like mine, to the skeptical and insatiably curious. So she is always looking for the fake and the angle, and looking to avoid being made the fool (she hates that, just like I do), and always trying to figure out how they do that. And she's smart, and quick to understand things.

Now she is motivated to learn things that the other kids don't know, like "vini vidi vici," which apparently no one else in the class has ever heard. This morning she asked Mom how to say something in Norwegian, I think with the view to stump her friends at school again...

Christmas is far too near.

I have made no plans. I have decorated nothing. I don't have time for Christmas.

I have to get busy and get some of this stuff done...I did make two batches of strawberry/blackberry freezer jam, so I have gifts for the teachers and staff at Tess's school, and I have quite a few presents purchased (actually I need to get them out of my closet and figure out who is getting what...and who has the short end of the stick gift wise, so I can get them something more if necessary.)

The dogs will be getting the giant beef bones again this year, but I cannot buy them until closer to the time, because they will find them and eat them, wrappers and all. Rawhides are not worthy -- Mojo will eat a four inch rawhide bone in under twenty minutes, and it only takes Abe about an hour. But even the iron jaws of Mojo are no match for a smoked cow femur ( I was tempted to say bovine there, just to try to bump up my blog's readability ...Junior high. Bah.).

Maybe we can manage to drag the lights out and start getting festive around here...Hard to top last year though, when we had a bright green blow mold alien wearing a Santa hat on the roof. Perhaps it's the blow mold gargoyles' turn. I wonder how they look in fuzzy red and white...

weekly winners

Today I took pictures of things I like. Random stuff, stuff around the house and yard...



This is my creepy pouting doll. I guess I pouted when I was little, so my parents thought is was hilarious to buy this doll for me. It used to push out it's lower lip when you raised the arm, but it doesn't do that any more. What a shame. It now sits with my murder mysteries on the bookshelf. Seems appropriate to me, although Mark doesn't particularly like it.


One of my most favorite stores...and the stuff you can get there. (actually, some of these books were on clearance, and some of them were purchased at a used bookstore. But I forgot to take a picture of that sign...)



We hit the drive-thru on the way home...Starbuck's is very festive this time of year.

This is the street I live on. We have various (and very non-PC) variations on the name. I don't mention them in public, because people are so easily offended sometimes...or perhaps it's because they are rather rude.

These are photos of my backyard. We can see a tip of the Rincon Mountains. There are mountains in every direction, but this is the only view of them from our house. Unless you climb on the roof, which we tend not to do, since it's about 1000 degrees up there in the summer.


The skies have cleared, the rain has gone, the warm sun is shining again. Everything is fresh and washed clean -- the air is crisp and fresh (what is this humidity? It surely cannot be natural. Air is meant to be harsh and sandpaperish.) The dog is happy, because he once again can sleep in the sunshine. He loves the sunshine. I hope he loves snow and cold and rain, because next year he is moving to Anchorage, AK, with the rest of us. I hope he also loves long car trips...

This is one of my favorite chairs in the back yard. It's a turquoise hotel chair (those bouncy metal things). I think my bright chairs contrast very nicely with the rocks. I hope they contrast nicely with snow, too.

This is a detail of one of the palm trees in my back yard. I really like this one. (The photo, not the tree. I am not a big fan of the palm tree. Too SoCal for me, I guess.)

Thanks, Tasina!!!

You posted that cute video on your blog...and after I watched it, I noticed this video in the lineup...Japanese toilet training animation!!!





I have a new goal in life -- I must learn the song that the parents and kid sing while he is trying to wee and poo.

I have a very shallow existence at times...

Mom and I finished a quilt.

For Tess. And if you look in the sky above Thor, you can see how dark it was today -- the sun made several very brief appearances and we got more rain -- and a rainbow. We didn't even notice the rainbow until I downloaded my photos.



The quilt top is made from flannel, some of it from pajamas, and some of it is flannel I had purchased but had not yet found the perfect use for. The back is turquoise with bright geckos.

We have also made some great boxers for the boys. I will post photos of those tomorrow...