YouTube Tuesday:

You all know I loves me the YouTube Tuesday. It's the only inspiration that's been hitting me lately. I stumbled across this channel a few months ago. I love Nalts. He's great. He is one funny guy. And to get you all prepped for this coming Thursday (april fools day), here are some great pranks that hopefully don't get pulled on you.

Night Sledding

I'm improving, I'm only a week behind on posting pictures about the current activities. We took advantage of the last wheezes of winter and spent a night up near the Tetons in a cabin with our good friends, The Whoolerys. There was an awesome "official" sledding hill nearby. "Offical" meaning there was a tow rope to take you to the top of this foothill. Sledding so fast your eyes water. Though the towrope was out of order, so we hiked to the top each time we wanted to sled down. But that provided worn out kids for us adults.

The next morning, we hit the hill again. I took more pictures than sledding this time. The night before, Jacqui & I got going a little too fast and overshot the end of the sled run. Jacqui was fine, my gluteus maximus and right shoulder took the impact. Whew, haven't done that in a long time! We had a great time enjoying our last winter for a long, long time.

Music to my ears

I have been striking music gold lately. And I can't stop listening! I've gotten a few albums lately, which I never do. How often do you buy a whole album and like every song? Not very often. You buy the title track or the one that's played incessantly on the radio.

There is the honeymoon period where you listen to the song non-stop. It's on your workout mix, in the car and blasting out at home. But it's just one song and soon you're sick of it. Then you have the arduous process of finding another 'golden song'. Hunting through that artist's archives for another gem, or trying another genre to see what catches your attention.

I'm pretty eclectic when it comes to my music. I'm not a music whore that will listen to anything, but I like a lot of different styles. From Harry Connick Jr. to Beastie Boys to Weezer to Alan Jackson to Enter the Haggis (yes, they are Irish) and all others in between, I have a love in each niche. Though I'm not a big R&B or current rap fan. Hey, remember back before Alternative music & you had the choice between Country, Rock or R&B. At least those were the radio choices in Nebraska. Early 90's R&B is alright by me. Some TLC 'Don't go chasing waterfalls', Salt 'n' Pepa 'What a Man" or Cris Cross (they'll make you jump) brings back the gym dance feeling.

My current favorite album is Weezer's "Raditude". Seriously, I love every. single. song. (p.s. track 4 needs just two little words scrubbed from it, which is ridiculously easy to fix) Buy it from Amazon. And get the 'Amazon MP3 Deluxe Exclusive Album'. It has 4 extra songs that the regular album does not include. Ridiculous tag line, but very worthwhile. I've been burned before by the songs only included on the 'exclusive' albums. This one was not a mistake. The best $9.49 I've ever spent. Geez, Amazon should pay me for this plug.

YouTube Tuesday: Es ist alle gut.

Now, don't consider me any master of the German language. That title comes courtesy of Google Translate. My sisters & brother weren't available. They are all German geniuses; mini-Einsteins. I refer to them as mini because they'll always be my little brother & sisters.

Let's start at the very beginning. (a very good place to start) My Dad was in the Air Force for 20 years. We lived all over the U.S.; Alaska, North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Arizona, etc. Many of my school mates were 'Air Force Brats' as well and had lived in such exotic places as Japan, Hawaii and Germany. No such luck in my family. The Air Force never took us overseas. Though Alaska was technically defined as an overseas posting. Anyway, as things usually turn out, they do all the fun stuff once I've grown up and left home. Where does the job after retirement take them? Germany. My brother and two of my sisters were still home and they got to go to Germany. They speak German like natives. They basically rock. Though I'm not complaining. I did go live in Spain for my senior year of high school as a foreign exchange student.

top row, L to R: Elizabeth, 13; Hannah, 15; Elizabeth
bottom row, L to R: Matt, 20; Hannah; Matt
(also, they'll probably tell me to point out that they will be 14 & 16 next month)

I chose this vid because it is German & made me think of them. And because I would have loved to have one of these homemade speed bumps in Egypt. My sister Hannah told me what they were saying, but I don't remember it all. She also said that it's advertising a store that is the US equivalent of Home Depot; a home improvement store.




Oh, and I can't leave out another sister (i have 4) whose birthday it is today. Katelyn! Happy Birthday, sis!


p.s.
i love you too, Maggie.

Believe it or Not

Wow, I must be on the cusp of trendsetting. Guess what I just found?

We can now share the magic by displaying it on a t-shirt.

Spring has sprung

For want of a better word, I am feeling: apathetic. I think it's the after-effects of a long, long winter. The cold & isolation have wrought their havoc on me. It's been keeping me from things I usually enjoy. Blogging, for instance, hasn't held the same luster it used to. And then I would see others blogging and wonder to myself why I couldn't do something so simple. Well, I'll save you the long, drawn out apologies and not leave you with anymore empty promises. It seems like 'promises' is all I have been posting about every time I come out from under the storm clouds. I'll post. I promise. Whoops, more promises.

The weather has been b-e-a-utiful this past week. I took the kids to the park on one of these days. It was almost 50F. Whoever thought that would feel downright balmy?

I think Mairyn's expression sums it up. Hooray for winter coming to an end!

Eliza was feeling the warm weather vibes, too.

Grant deep in 'Boy Heaven'; playing in the mud.
Jacqui was running around too much for me to catch a good picture.
She didn't want to waste any of this wonderful weather.
Just in case it was teasing us with empty promises.

YouTube Tuesday: Russian Roulette Roll'D

I'm sure all of you out in interweb land have heard of the gag that was born about two years ago called 'Rickrolling'. For the uninformed, a bit of back story courtesy of wikipedia. For they can sum up many topics much better than I can.

"Rickrolling is an Internet meme typically involving the music video for the 1987 Rick Astley song "Never Gonna Give You Up". The meme is a bait & switch: a person provides a web link that they claim is relevant to the topic at hand, but the link actually takes the user to the Astley video. The URL can be masked or obfuscated in some manner so that the user cannot determine the true destination of the link without clicking. When a person clicks on the link and is led to the web page, he or she is said to have been "Rickrolled".



My favorite description of Rick Astley? From comic Mo Rocca, "I'm a skinny, little white boy with a big 'ol blaa-ack voice." (sung in place of the lyrics, 'never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down.' geez, how hard is it to describe a quote that is sung? hard.)

I also vividly remember the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade float that Rickrolled the whole audience.

Place: My living room; Cairo, Egypt
Activity: Watching the Macy's Parade
Date: Thanksgiving '08

The kids were only mildly interested in watching the parade. I don't blame them. It has gotten progressively worse. It was family tradition to watch the Parade every year. Once I got married, I continued on with this tradition, but some of the magic was lost. And it wasn't because I was older. More commercials, less class, etc. I was watching in Egypt because I wanted some sort of 'cultural tradition' to hold onto. Though we were watching it after dinner instead of before.

The parade managed to grab their attention with the announcement that the next float was "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends" singing some song that was attractive to the 12 and under audience. Then, just as the song is getting going, Rick Astley himself bursts out of the float and sings his signature song. It was freakin' hilarious! We adults were rolling in the aisles, wiping tears of hilarity from our cheeks and the kids looking at us like we'd gone insane. They wanted the other song back.

Well, I stumbled across this video just this last weekend. It was described as 'Ray Roll'd, The NEW Rick Roll" Russian version. I don't know about that. Don't worry, no translation needed. There isn't an intelligible word sung. I had a dilemma; shove the ice pick in my eyes or ears? Can I choose both? Well, you be the judge.

"The Pants"

It is unbelievable. I fit into "The Pants". Those pants. The Pants have been the only 'skinny clothes' I kept from college. Each year, a few more articles of clothing would be angrily discarded. After looking at the size, I'd be disgusted that I was ever that size and tell myself to think realistically about this post-baby body. I'll never have the body I had in college and I never will again. After a baby, well, things change.

I have still hung onto The Pants. Actually, Spencer has been hanging on tooth & nail to The Pants. Whenever we go through a closet purge, they always end up in the top of the closet, tucked just out of sight.

"Why are we keeping The Pants, Spencer?"

"I like them, " he just says.

"But I don't fit them and never will again. Why keep teasing myself?"

"But you wore The Pants on our first date! And you'll fit back into them, it'll be a goal to work toward, " Mr. Eternally Positive says.

So that is how they have managed to hang on. Any time I feel like I've made some progress, like I would dare to dream of a day in The Pants, I get them out and try to shimmy my way into them. Never. In 10 years since the First Baby, never.

Until today.

I put them on.

I didn't have to prostrate myself on the bed, taking shallow breaths, angrily yanking at that zipper while it wouldn't move a millimeter. Or the usual, not being able to fit my knee in past the thigh region.

I put them on. That zipper glided right up the the top and I could swear the button smiled at me as it peeked itself through the buttonhole.

And you know what? Zippers were a lot longer when I was in college. Fashion dictated a higher waistline. They are so retro, they're not cool again. Yet. Maybe that will be the hope I hold onto for the next 10 years. Back to the top of the closet you go.



p.s.
fortunately, i have no one to take a picture of me in Them. And mine don't have those awesome pleats. Though I may have owned a pair similar to these at some point in time.

YouTube Tuesday: Almost lost in Wonderland

I stumbled across this video last week. I was debating about posting it because I'm not the biggest fan of the newest incarnation of Alice in Wonderland. I haven't seen it, but it just doesn't interest me. I'm not a huge Tim Burton fan. This video I'm showing today was the first ever film version of Lewis Carol's Alice in Wonderland. Made in 1903, it was restored by the BFI National Archives. To quote BFI Films,

" Restored . . . from severely damaged materials. Made just 37 years after Lewis Carroll wrote his novel and eight years after the birth of cinema, the adaptation was directed by Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stow, and was based on Sir John Tenniel's original illustrations.

With a running time of just 12 minutes (8 of which survive), Alice in Wonderland was the longest film produced in England at that time. Film archivists have been able to restore the film's original colours for the first time in over 100 years. "

Absolutely amazing. And another interesting tidbit, they included the name of the music, "Jill in the Box". Enjoy.

I give up

I really, seriously don't even have time for this today. Who says I don't believe in escapism? A run down of today.

7am --> Alarm goes off.
7:05 am --> Wake up
7:10 am --> Really, I'm getting up
7:15 am --> I HAVE to get up. *kicking myself out of bed*
7:20 am --> Rousting 4 sleepy children that, ironically, want to keep sleeping. Why can't they do this on the weekend?
7:30 am --> Pack snacks for school because it's just a half day.
7:38 am --> Switch Grant's shoes to the right feet. There's a 50/50 chance of getting it right, but not in his case.
7:45 am --> Shove graham crackers in everyone's hands and hustle them out to the van.
7:46 am --> Start the van and realize I need gas.
7:50 am --> Gas up and then remember that we left the snacks at home.
7:59 am --> Finally back on the road and heading to school.
8:13 am --> Arrive at school only to be told that the power is out, so there's no school. Crap. The high schoolers & middle school can stay, they have some projects. Eliza hops out and runs inside. I have 3 children in the back seats screaming mutiny.
8:26 am --> Home and dressing kids in their snow get-ups so they can go outside and not be inside. I ask each child, multiple times, if they have to go to the bathroom. "No, Mommy!" is the consensus.
8:40 am --> After me asking, "Are you sure?" just as many times, they trample out the door.
8:50 am --> Jacqueline is pounding on the front door to let her in because she has to pee.
8:51 am --> I open the door to a Jacqui standing in a pool of pee.
8:52 am --> Guess who doesn't have to pee anymore?
8:57 am --> Her clothes are changed, coat back on, but sans snow pants. You know, because of the PEE!!
9:05 am --> Grant comes bounding back through the door imitating a Zulu warrior march crossed with a Sufi dancer. Oh wait, I was wrong. He just has to pee.

And it's only 9 am. Is it time to go back to bed?

What's the bra-blem?

two peas in a pod

Sunday morning. Everyone bustling around, getting ready for church. The kids were pretty much on "self-maintaining" mode while I was hunting high and low for my bra. I do own more than one, but this was the last clean one. I asked both older girls if they had seen it.

"No, Mommy," they said, "Have you looked in the laundry room?" Mairyn asked me.

I told her, no I hadn't, but that my bra hadn't been downstairs. I took it off in my room last night.

"But it can't hurt to look, so you go down and look, Mair." I said.

Two minutes later, she appears in the hall, "Hey Mommy, here's your bra! It was in the laundry room after all!"

Something was suspicious about this whole dialogue. I asked her why she thought to look in the laundry room and she immediately blurted out,

"It was Eliza's idea!!"

Huh? What was whose idea? "Eliza! Come here! Why were you two playing with my bra?"

*cricket* . . . *cricket* . . . *cricket*

I still never got a straight answer out of them as to why they had my bra in the first place.

YouTube Tuesday: A dog meowing?

You'll have to watch this next clip before reading any commentary I make. It won't make sense.




I liked this clip because, well, I don't know why. It's with morbid fascination that I can't look away. It's part astonishment, part repulsion. There is, undoubtedly, a degree of respect for this guy. To get up on stage and do that? I was cringing for him at times; I also breathed a sign of relief once the audience started clapping and cheering. He got through because they needed someone pretty okay to be voted out first so that the really amazing can shine through. I don't think I'd go listen to his act. Eek.

p.s.
i had a really hard time choosing which clip to feature this week. i saved the better one for next tuesday. oh boy!

Moody Monday

My exact sentiments today.



Zip-a-dee-doo-dah