Sheer Nonsense

I am bad, I am very bad. Every time I hear about General Petraeus, I think, “Doctor Zaius!”.

Make My Batter Better

The children heartily approve of the cake batter for Bette Hagman’s gluten-free Chocolate Pound Cake. The mixing bowl, beater, and spatula have been licked clean with much gusto. The cake is in the oven; I was afraid of the pan being too small, but apparently gluten-free cakes rise less than their counterparts.

I’m a little dubious about the chocolate chips, as I like my chocolate evenly dispersed in the batter rather than in little melty dribs and dabs. Still, it is chocolate, and it is a cake, so Marcus should be quite satisfied on his birthday tomorrow.

Before Swine

After a brief (very brief) discussion of how pearls are made:
Rebecca: So people who wear pearls are wearing oyster spit?
Me: Yes…
Rebecca: So why did you make Aunt Maryanne a pearl necklace?

Revisionist History

Long story very much abbreviated…

I ended up killing time at Borders with Madeline while Matthew, Marcus, and Rebecca caught _Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix_ at the local movie theater. On my way out, I impulsively picked up Judy Blume’s _Superfudge_ series from the clearance racks.

Marcus ran off with _Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing_ as soon as we got home, so I sat down with _Superfudge_. Three-fourths of the way through it, I was nastily yanked from my stroll through memory lane when I read this, emphasis mine:

bq. Dear Santa,
Please bring me one or more of the following items. A clock radio, a remote-controlled model airplane, *a laptop computer, an MP3 player and six CD’s*.

To which I say, bah and humbug. I am very much unamused.

Worst Movie Ever

Matthew, on _Alone in the Dark_: “It’s like somebody died in the middle of production, and they lost the script, and they just kept shooting and shooting and then went, ‘Oh, crap, we have to make a movie out of this’.”

Life, The Universe, And Everything

### On family

Everyone is doing fine. The kids will be wrapping up their school year with standardized testing next week, the baby is past her spitting-up phase and well into her teething phase, and the husband and I continue to pursue our various hobbies and interests.

### On going back to school

I bit the bullet and signed up for a summer math class at the local community college. I will at some point try to sanitize my previous class history by importing it into my student record, but I’m not counting on that. Hence the stint at community college before even thinking about university.

### On work

So unmotivated. I have been trying to wrap up projects that are important to me without alienating everyone involved because I am just so pooped. Summer’s early arrival isn’t helping.

### On hobbies

I recently picked up wire wrapping as a jewelry technique and have been playing around a bit with copper, glass, and seed beads. Once Matthew has finished making a lightbox, I’ll start uploading them to Etsy. If web is work, this is definitely hobby.

### On Six Apart and Livejournal

Wow, what a clusterfuck. For a company that makes communication tools, their communication skills are… limited. I’ve been saying this for years now, but… wow.

### Open invitation to the LJ-flist

I’m in the NoVA area. If anyone is interested in going to DC museum/attractions, local events and festivals, or having an afternoon crafting session, give me a ping. Kids optional.

Want

want