Star Trek

The Kate took me to see Star Trek tonight. Oh. My. God. Thank you for giving us J. J. Abrahms so he could make this movie. I'm serious. I thought it was that good. I remember watching the show on tv in the 70s and being totally captivated. This movie was so true to the show and yet gave it the splash and boom it needed to be completely awesome on the big screen. The actors was believable in as the characters so many of us fell in love with. Uhura and Spock were completely believable and gave Spock that touch of humanity the character needed. Leonard Nimoy was, well, I almost cried just seeing him on screen as the much beloved character. (He was always my favorite.) It worked. May this new take on the franchise live long and prosper. I think the Roddenberry's would be proud.

Happy Mother's Day!

See that photo up there? That's my mother, second from the right in the back row. All the rest of those wonderful people are her brothers, sisters, and their surviving spouses. All six of Grandma's kids are still alive and only two are widows. I think that's pretty impressive.

There are some funny stories about my mom. She's a bit eccentric, although someone made her day not too long ago by telling her she was "quirky". For someone who's kinda shy and more than a bit of an introvert, she's a lot of fun. I think that's part of why she's the goofy way she is - it's her way of coping with the world and people around her. It's also one of the things I love so much about her.

I was talking with my friend, Corvus, a couple of weeks after Dad passed away and he asked about my mom. He was wondering if she was still living since I never talked about her much. Actually, I probably wouldn't have talked about Dad as much if it weren't for driving him to appointments and such. (He was quiet and retiring as well.) Now, the really funny part of this is that Corvus met my mother just a few months ago at Eldest Daughter's birthday party. She's the one who put the giant fuzzy purple spider on his son's head.

I love my mom. She's given up a lot over the year's for my sister and I. Like many moms, when times are tight, she's gone without so we could have. I'd like to think life rewarded her a bit when it brought my step-father into the picture. Life hasn't always been easy and we still don't always understand each other, but I see more of her in myself every day....and I'm at an age where I'm fairly okay with that.

Guinea Pig Love

Guinea Pig Love, originally uploaded by Tryllyam.

This was Monkey Girl's petition to convince me a guinea pig would be a great new pet. We didn't get a guinea pig, as we can't figure out where to put the cage so it would be safe from the dogs. Other than on top of the entertainment center, that is. And I don't want a guinea pig cage as the focal point on the entertainment center. However, it's so cute, the above nearly had me saying yes anyway.

Wednesday Meanderings

100_1448, originally uploaded by Tryllyam.

I'm not entirely sure how to get out of the writing funk I've fallen into since Dad's death. Of course, I live in Athens County and it's allergy season, which certainly contributes. Ugh. I'm getting back to where I really, really want to write. Now I just need to get back into the story. It's not too far away. I can feel the need to put pen to paper - or fingers to keyboard - building up pressure.

I thought I might get there this afternoon, but the cold/allergies/sore throat is just too much distraction. It feels as though someone took sandpaper to my throat in an attempt to distress it. I've had 4 mugs of hot tea, a bowl of beef ramen soup, and at least one other hot, sorta Asian noodle dish. And potato chips. There's still half a pot of tea, made in a 10-cup coffee maker, but I'm not sure my stomach will let me drink it.

And there is HC-TV. I brought the little guys out off their shelf in the bathroom so I could watch them while I work. Right now they're all napping. Earlier I thought mine, Perse, might be getting ready to molt - and she still might - because she'd tucked herself into a corner near one of the smaller shells, but then she got energetic and started doing laps around their habitat. It's fun watching them trying to climb the plastic walls. And each other. And the extra shells. And then sometimes they perch on the small pronged branch. They are so alien looking and yet so damned cute at the same time.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

We Survived

Yes, we survived the beginning of Sandlot Softball practice and book fair AND it being Holy Week. I realized Wednesday night, as we were getting ready to show a movie to the kids in the upper grades, that I'd totally forgotten Easter was almost upon us and we hadn't colored any eggs. What kind of mother was I? When was I going to color eggs with the girls? Wednesday was the book fair movie night, Thursday was Maundy Thursday services, which I'd told Pastor D. I'd help her set up for. Friday we usually take down the book fair and pack it back up for Scholastic AND the girls had ball practice. (We didn't pack things up because we were both just too danged tired.) Finally, on Saturday we were supposed to meet up with my mom and sister to load up some of the last stuff from Dad's.

Now I know, in the grand scheme of things that coloring pagan symbols of fertility for Easter Sunday isn't all that big of a deal, but I don't like to just ignore things I want to be family tradition. And having it as a family tradition means we couldn't just rush through things either. So, Thursday night after services, I boiled up a dozen eggs, thinking we'd fit in time on Friday somehow. About an hour, after school, and we'd be good, right?

Didn't happen. There just wasn't enough time between getting home from school and needing to be at practice. Forgive me, Gods of Sandlot, but I really was praying for it to rain that afternoon. It didn't. It did rain out the end of practice, though. We'd still have time to color eggs after getting home. Nope. Didn't happen. The van wouldn't start. And it was pouring down the rain. *sigh* The Kate came to our rescue, but the van still wouldn't start when she tried to jump me. (The van, guys. Watch those gutters.) She waited on Triple A while I left in her car to get the kids home to eat.

We didn't head to my family's on Saturday. This, I think, was overall a good thing. Yeah, we didn't help getting the stuff to Goodwill. We did a get a day of seriously needed rest. Mr. Incredible was recovering from a migraine the day before. I was, umm, having a bad day of lower back pain. And the girls were just fried. Jeff got the van fixed in the morning - it was a bad battery. I spent a good chunk of the day in bed. Mr. Incredible and the girls went for a bike ride that afternoon and we all had pizza for dinner. (Mr. I. makes seriously good pizza.) And we colored Easter eggs, although THAT didn't happen until about 9 that night. It was fun.

I made it to services on Easter morning. Pastor D. did an awesome job. We had ham for dinner and then had a family we're friends with over for an egg hunt in the backyard. Not bad for on the fly. And it was a good first Easter at home. Next year I intend to be back at Grandma's for Easter weekend. I want the girls to have those memories for when she's no longer around. (This is MY grandmother we're talking about.) I want to have those memories. And we all want to have the experience in the here-and-now.

It was still a good day, though. :)

My Fortune Beans

This was inspired by the egg tree at my grandma's. A couple of my cousins' kids put some plastic eggs on her azalea bush in the front yard. I love how bright and shiny the cheap-o plastic eggs look in all the drear of early spring. I was worried, though, that the eggs might just walk off, given our location on one of the major roads through where we live, which also goes right past the district's high school. Hrmm, what to do? Well, I thought, if they walk, there should be something in them. Thus were born Fortune Beans. I went with the plastic jelly beans because I didn't need to poke holes in the top for the string. Inside each colorful bean is a nifty little fortune cookie fortune, found with an online search.

As for them walking off....Well, except for the wind knocking one down, all of them are still on the bush out front. Making me smile every time I look.