So, Things

Things, they are decent. We have been working very hard on completing our shed project. This weekend, we started roofing (first, we had to build a scaffold) and wrapped the building in a Tyvek skin. All very exciting.

I have learned that I do not like heights, but that I can build up a tolerance for them. Once on the scaffold, my knees get dizzy. Not my head, no, that would be normal. But my feet and knees get dizzy. We’ve been shingling the roof and I help Matthew out by passing him supplies as he nails them onto the roof. Also, I help by finding and reading the instructions on how to nail shingles, as we kind of messed up the first few courses because lo, no instructions were read.

Rebecca and Marcus are starting kindergarten and second grade, respectively. We are using the Calvert homeschooling curriculum and supplementing heavily in the science and history departments because I am picky and annoying. (I object to Attila the Hun being portrayed as a very nice man. Taking all the fun parts out of history is just as bad as not teaching it at all.) Marcus has decided that reading is cool, and spends his car rides reading every sign that we pass. He is very interested in chemistry (um, especially thermodynamics) and electronics (radio and sound generation–the louder, the better). They are both taking gymnastics at a local gymnasium; Rebecca has two classes per week and Marcus, one, because the other classes for his age group all fall smack dab in the middle of rush hour, which is really ugly around here.

I will hopefully be taking a Learn to Shoot lesson at the Bull Run Shooting Center next weekend. Shotguns are big and heavy and loud, and I have been told that I will have a bruised shoulder if I ever shoot one. The very nice man at [Virginia Arms](http://www.virginiaarms.com/) suggested the lessons as a good way to try out different shotguns so that I could get a feel for the punch. I am apparently petite and will be knocked off my feet by some of them. Vaguely nervous, but I’ll cope. I would prefer to not have a black-and-blue shoulder, but it is apparently part of the process.

I should update more often because life is becoming more interesting than not.

Dear CNN

Dear CNN,

I understand that you have a certain style of interviewing that is rude and belittles interview subjects. Really, I do. The whole question, challenge, expand mode of journalism generally gets you results and makes your reporters look like unmitigated assholes.

However, a bit of advice is in order. If you’ve dragged a shell-shocked New Orleans evacuee onto your live television program who is struggling to put together two words regarding efforts in Houston to give her some semblance of a life back, _you shut the fuck up and let her talk_. You do not interrupt her after you’ve just asked her a question and she has spit out two words in an attempt to reply to your total stupidity.

Sincerely,
Me

Dear Kids,

Water does not belong on the kitchen floor. Five dishtowels and a bathtowel full of water especially do not belong on the kitchen floor.

While we’re on the subject of things that do not belong on the kitchen floor, it might have been nice if you’d told me that you’d dropped a hamster water bottle on the kitchen floor and that it had shattered all over kingdom come. Then I might not be sitting here nursing a bloody foot that I got while cleaning up the water.

Love,
Me

Dear Day,

Let’s start over again, really. So far, you have sucked massively.

Sincerely,
Me