14 posts tagged “boy”

I'm just slammed! 

The shopping season hit with a vengeance, I'm a little worried about running out of stuff.  My parents are in town.  Man's parents are in town.  Boy's  birthday is today and I'm elbows deep in trying to bake and decorate a Bugaboo cake.  (Bugaboo is a creature from Jill Thompson's Scary Godmother universe.) 

<img src="http://www.jillthompsonart.com/images/cast_bugaboo.jpg">

Hope all is well in y'all's world! 

Oh...and how freaking annoying is it that Vox can't translate basic 1995 html.  I mean, what the hell, people?

Today, I'm batching a ton of Honeysuckle Bears.  (I'll have to get a picture, they're adorable!) They're going in the Promo kits that are being sent out at the end of the month.  For the promo I'm doing a 1.5" cube of Pumpkin soap, wrapped like a candy in green tissue, a honeysuckle bear, a small spritzer of Babylonia, a description card, a business card, and a discount card.  All of it will be wrapped in a champagne fabric bag with green shred, and tied with ribbons and a hand cast ceramic flower.  I think they'll make a really great impression.  It's going out to a bunch of decision makers in the cosmetics industry, so I've got my fingers crossed that it could lead to some new big accounts. (hope, hope, hope)

In other news, Boy started his dance classes yesterday, and he LOVED it. Loved it. It's sort of a combo class, they do some ballet, some tap, some jazz and some tumbling. He excelled at the tumbling, and did his best to follow along with the choreography that the other kids already knew. Bless his heart. He picked out some really cute jazz shoes that he'll be wearing in lieu of ballet slippers, and we still need to get him some tap shoes. (A thing which I and my hardwood floors are dreading. Heh.) I was pretty surprised that he picked dance out of all the options I offered him for activities, but who knows...he could be the next Baryshnikov.

So...the plan was to go to the art museum.  It's cool there, you know. I mean, beyond the metaphorical...it's actually temperate inside the building.  Whereas outside, it is the burning sands of hell.  Seriously, it's 500 degrees.  Rubber melts, babies cry, it's freaking August in Texas.  

But you see, Boy can read.  And we got a flyer from the Dallas Zoo, pimping us to join as members.   It had a gorilla on it, and text that read "Come to the Dallas Zoo!".  Boy opened the flyer, read the stuff about all the new exhibits, like the African penguins (did you know there were "hot weather" penguins?  I did not.  Little surfing South African tuxedo birds.  Groovy!)  Plus, there was marketing chatter about the Monorail.  (And who here can hear the word Monorail and not have the Simpson's song run through your head?  What?  Just me?  Ok, then, moving on.)

"Mommy!", he says, his big blue eyes blinking up at my barely coffeed consciousness, "Can we go to the Zoo?  I really wanna go to the zoo."

Me: Erm...it's really hot little dude.  

Him: But it's ok, they have trees.  

Me: I don't think trees will abrogate the contract the sun has with Texas to melt anything stupid enough to be outside, bud.

Him: What's abrogate?  

Me: Start to explain contact law, in the hopes that I can distract him from the idea of Crocodile Isle.  Because hope springs eternal in the chest of a woman trying to avoid the Evil Daystar.

Him: Yeah, yeah...whatever.  They have a train!  And crocodiles...nom, nom, nom!(Yes, the boy has seen I can has Cheezburger? and thinks it's hysterical.)  And a Children's Zoo with goats and birds and chickens and everything!

Me: But...but...but, wouldn't you rather see the Modernists Exhibit at the DMA? It's air conditioned.  I'll even buy you lunch at the *nice* restaurant. You could have Salmon on a cedar plank...you love salmon!  (As I will spare no expense to avoid the outside world in August.)  

Him: Na, it's a modern art museum, they'll always have modern art there.  But the train doesn't run all year, so let's go to the zoo instead.

Me:  Ok sweetie, I told you that you could pick; if the Zoo is what you want, the Zoo it will be. (Dreading the day...oh dear lords, dreading the day.)

So off to the zoo.  When switching from rational "in-town" bag to "trekking through the wilderness" backpack so that I could carry water, and snacks, and extra socks, and camera and all the other necessities of life in the outback, I forgot my phone, and my meds, (and lipstick, although I doubt anyone would notice that my dessicated corpse was inappropriately made up for the wilds of Dallas), and apparently my sanity, because for some unknown reason, I packed bottles of water...as though there wouldn't be water (expensive, but cold) every half a mile or so.  But no, I had to schlep along an extra 400 pounds of water...I am a crazy person.  

And all of this, and I never took a single picture.  I think because I was barely conscious by the time we got a mile into this 1000 mile journey. Damn, it was HOT! I didn't want to drip on my work camera.  I don't care if my people once lived in in Camel Territory, they were Phoenicians, they lived on the beach for god's sake. It's civilized on the beach.  I can't say the same for South Dallas.  

Boy had a fabulous time.  I am not sure I shall recover before he's ready for high school.  I am fairly sure I'll hide the fliers from the zoo during the summer months from this point forward though.  ;)

Man, Boy, and I spent yesterday with Thomas the Train engine.  It was pretty cool.  The antique train museum refitted some marvelous old passenger cars so everyone could ride on the train.  They had an actual steam engine kitted out like Thomas.  The Boy couldn't have been more excited.  Some quick pics:

I have more, but this computer doesn't have photoshop installed, and trying to work with batches of photos without photoshop is just an exercise in futility and aggravation.  

There were people wandering around in character suits, like Bob the Builder and Sir Tophamhat, which was all fine and well, except for the fact that as we were waiting for the train, we realized that they'd left the back of the changing area open to the train loading area, so Boy saw the empty Bob the Builder suit, with a head on the ground.  He was a tad concerned at first, but then the train pulled in and he forgot about it.  

All in all, it was a fairly fun, albeit crazy expensive, day.  More pictures after I find my PS CD. :)

Also, the new Soapy Hollow is now live.  Hooray!

So, my downstairs is floored with very slick wood.  Thus, given my tendency to trip over shadows, my crutches have large silicon grippy things on the bottom.  Also, the crutches are sort of creaky.  Thus, my perambulations about the house sound like a large, arthritic cephalopod has broken free of the briny deep and is taking over the suburbs. 

*creak, creak, mpsmok, msmpok, creak*

Hee!  I'm the pod people!

Recovery is going well.  Thanks to everyone who wrote and called!  I've been able to spend a lot of time working on the new Soapy Hollow.  It's exciting, I may be able to roll it out for beta/stress testing in the next week.  Just a reminder, if you want to be on the test team, send me a message.  Free soap for bug finders!  Whee! 

Boy has been home sick for the past couple of days, and he's developed a serious love for the game Burnout3.  I'm sort of embarrassed that my 4 year old can kick my butt at a video game.  I just keep telling myself it's because I'm taking narcotics.  Yeah. It's the drugs.  That's my story.  Hee. 

And now back to hammering on SQL in between crashing race cars and sounding like an escaped octopus.  I hope life is going smoothly and sucker free for everyone!

May I just say that dieting and being on one of the world's premiere chocolate makers mailing list may not be compatible. This stuff is so good that just looking at the pictures may cause weight gain.  And now, it comes wrapped in pinup girls?  Oh dear lord, I'm lost...lost I tell you. ;)  (We all know how I love a good Vargas.)

Speaking of chocolate, if you are in the Dallas area, there's a chocolate guy here that is just amazing.  J. Dorian is a veritable god with the chocolate.  Man brings me a box for my birthday every year.  Total bliss, I swear to you.  Total bliss.  

Boy and I are iced in.  We've been playing with the "snow", which is really just teeny little ice pellets...but he and the dog are having a blast.  Me, I love winter as a concept.  I love when everything is all white and pretty.  However, the Dallas Metroplex freaks out like it's the end of the world if we get so much as a quarter of an inch of ice.  Seriously!  There have been over 400 accidents in 2 days.  I heard this morning that there've been close to 60 fatalities.  Crazy!  I'm pretty sure that if everyone would just slow the hell down, and maybe spend a couple of days not being aggressive pricks in your hummers of death, then maybe, just maybe, we could all get through the tragedy that is an inch of cold precipitation.  

Meanwhile, there are cities where the snow is taller than I am, and the mail still gets delivered, people make it into their offices, and every school and doctor's office is not shut down.  

Dallas, the land of Whine and Crackers.  I swear.

Alright, I'm off to go play in the ice some more.  Because, I have a small child and a large dog.  And apparently they like being cold and wet. Weirdos.  ;)

Today is Boy's 4th birthday.  We've been making Mommy's Lebanese Ghiradelli cookies for his school (possibly the best cookies of all time), and I'm baking him a strawberry cake with fudge icing, a loaf of Hawaiian bread, and prepping for Swedish meatballs tonight.  We let him open a present before Man went to work, and he picked the EZBake oven, so of course, we had to make an ezbake cake this morning before anything else could be made.  Hee.  He loves to cook, and had been asking for an EZB since he saw a commercial for one.  Yes, I know they're designed for older kids, but I figure since he's going to be doing it only if I'm standing right there, it should be fine.  I wish they came in another color than pink though.  Not because I'm weird about giving Boy pink stuff...but because I despise the color pink. ;)  Today he's decided that on his birthday, he doesn't have to wear clothes except for his Buzz Lightyear suit, and thus is now a "Chef in Spaaaaaaace", which made me fall over from laughter.  

Somehow I have to fit in time to make a bunch of custom glycerin soaps and spritzers.  I was hoping to do it at naptime...but methinks that eating small frosted cake for a morning snack may preclude an afternoon snooze.  Speaking of naps, a question for the parents out there;  At what age did you stop trying to make them take a nap?  Boy doesn't really nap anymore.  He'll go have "quiet time" for an hour, but he almost never actually sleeps.  I'm guessing that perhaps he's just outgrown naptime.  This would make me a sad panda...as I get much done during naptime. :)

So, back to party prep, soap making, and putting presents on progressively higher shelves as Boy has figured out stepladders. ;) 

So...I just found out that The Boy's preschool has shown him at least one PG movie. (Monster House) This does not make me a happy camper. Monster House is targeted at a much older demographic than 3-4 year olds, and frankly...I'm not comfortable with the school assuming that they have parental rights when it comes to media content.  (To be honest, I'm a little pissed that I'm paying for private school and they're watching movies...but that's another issue entirely.) 

Even the producer of the film has said that it's a "gateway horror film for the 13 year old set", and most reviews have made it fairly clear that it's not Little Kid movie, despite being animated. There are some ethical issues raised in the film that I think deserve discussion, and I feel as though the school has usurped my role as his ethics guidance point by showing a film with implications that weren't discussed. I'm not really concerned about the language, but I am concerned with the implication of a grown man requesting a child to murder the spirit of his dead wife. I’m more than willing to admit that my take on this is extreme. But the fact that Constance is treated and referred to as a human entity, and children are asked to rid the world of her, really disturbs me.

Am I totally overreacting here? Because...my instinct is to raise holy hell about them showing PG movies to a preschool class. Especially one where the resolution is to kill the spirit of a tortured woman.

Talk me off the ledge if you think I'm being absurd. Tell me why you think I'm being a big ol over protective ninny. (My people may not have been practicing Jews since they were hiding from the Nazis and pretending to be Catholics, but damn...that Jewish Mother Gene is hardwired, ain't it?) 

Else, feel free to add fuel to the fire...because watching me go ballistic is always good fun. ;)

The Boy and I were making sack puppets.  We're gluing on pompom noses, and big ears and whatnot and I said to the Boy, "What else does your puppet need?"  He thought for a moment, then said;  "Brains!  Give my puppet Braaaaaaains!"  Hee.  Who's been letting the 3 year old read the Zombie Survival Guide?