Partial to the bean…

I’ve got too much to say, and it’s all jostling in my mind in no particular order, so here is some of it, in no particular order.

- The girls and I tried Qdoba today, and it was gross.

- Last week we went to New Hampshire for a few days. We did all kinds of things, including driving up and down Mount Washington twice in a row, taking a tram up to the foggy top of a mountain and then hiking around the summit in a magical mist, wading among sculptured rocks, and spending a whole lot of time in the car (9½ hours each way). I’ll try to summon up the energy to expand upon that summation in the coming days, but…

- This week we’re doing a loose, fun “camp” thing with some homeschooling friends, and that’s keeping me away from the computer. We desperately need a day or two at home to recover from our trip, but we I we desperately need to hang with some homeschooling friends, too, so…. Yeah. We’ll get our pajama day eventually. Maybe on Saturday.

- While we were away in NH, a massive storm ripped through our neighborhood back home — trees were torn down, roofs were damaged, tornadoes may or may not have been spotted, and power was knocked out to more than 225,000 customers. Ours was out for three days. I’m desperately glad that Sammi was not present to witness this storm, which was apparently terrifying. (I am sorry that Anth missed it, though — he would’ve dug it the most.) I’m also incredibly grateful for our pet sitter, who went dozens of extra miles in caring for our animals without lights, air conditioning, or running water. She also, bless her, cleaned out all of the spoiled food from my fridge and freezers and put it out for trash pickup so I didn’t have to deal with it. The pain of losing hundreds of dollars worth of high-quality meat and other frozen foods was dulled considerably by the fact that I wasn’t there to witness the carnage.

We got out to see The Karate Kid a couple of days ago, and we all enjoyed it. Alice thought it was a bit on the long side, and not very quotable, but good overall. Sammi decided halfway through that she wants to take a martial arts class, and then she decided at the end (when everyone was kicking the crap out of each other at the tournament) that she doesn’t. Still, she was totally into the movie, which does my heart proud since I was raised on Bruce Lee flicks and Five Fingers of Death. I was surprised at how well-paced it was; it didn’t feel like 140 minutes, unlike, say, Prince of Persia, which felt like at least 380. Jackie Chan was great — I’ve had a hard time really being a fan of him because of his “clown” persona, but he really is talented, and still very physically gifted despite the fact that he’s clearly a little old for the really demanding stuff. Jaden Smith is amazing; kid’s gonna be a star for a long time. Anyway, the movie was great fun and really well done. There were very few surprises in the story, particularly if one has already seen the original Karate Kid, but they played everything out in a really entertaining and gripping way.

I’m going to be offline for a few days, not that you’ll really be able to tell, given how sparsely I’ve been posting lately. Have a good weekend!!

I forgot to say that the girls and I went out to see Shrek Forever After last week. It was no finely-crafted piece of high art, but we had fun. I can’t recommend it for anyone who didn’t watch and enjoy the first three, but if you still feel kindly towards the Shrek franchise after Shrek the Third, which I remember mostly as being completely unmemorable, you could do worse than spending an air-conditioned summer afternoon with this one.

We’re looking forward to seeing The Karate Kid next, and then Toy Story 3 as soon as Daddy’s free to come with us. (He doesn’t really “do” movies, but I can usually get him out for Pixar, or the Coen Brothers.)

Happy Solstice! Summer is here!!

It’s funny; the public school kids here don’t get out of school until tomorrow, while my kids have been out for almost a month already and are already well into the morass of no-schedule-land.

Summer malaise has set in big time around here, and it’s gotten quite hot, which doesn’t help the ol’ energy levels. It’s been in the 90s, and it’s been a dry heat (oh yippee), but the sun is just beating down. Walking across a parking lot feels quite frying-pan-ly lately, and we of course have a buttload of errands (and therefore a buttload of parking lots) to deal with this week. I hate the heat like this; it just grinds me down.

In other news, the guinea pigs are continuing to seem happy with their lives. I’m still doing a good bit of the work of them, but I don’t mind it. Maybe once I’ve got it all down to a bit more of a system, I can pass more on to the kids. *shrug* They’re cute.

Various things, noted here for your edification and amusement:

• Sammy is now spelling her name ‘Sammi’. Around the time we all get used to it, she will most likely forget about it, but for now I’m operating under this new parameter, so don’t be surprised when the new spelling crops up here.
• The guinea pigs have figured out that their kibble and their hay both come in crinkly plastic bags, and will set up a racket when a plastic bag is crinkled within their hearing.
• Mean Mommy is putting Summer Screen Restrictions into effect today (after a couple of weeks of wallowing in our own worst impulses). This means no screens for anyone M-F 11-5. Exceptions are allowed for working out with the Wii, any DVD that we all sit down and watch together, pulling up the to-do list, or putting on music. I find that this (a) focuses the mind wonderfully in terms of prioritizing online activities during screens-on hours, and (b) encourages reading, outdoor play, housework and accomplishing errands during screens-off hours.
• Speaking of reading, Sammi is!! I mean, she’s been reading really well for over a year now, but she’s finally through the picture book and emergent reader stage and into manga (I hooked her on Scott Pilgrim) and actual chapter books — someone gave her the first four Boxcar Children books for her birthday and she is hooked! She was trying to read in bed with a flashlight last night. I’m very proud.

Allow me to attempt to sum up The Guinea Pig Experience™ for us, to date:

Pro: They are so freakin’ cute, especially when they play tag and chase each other around their cage, while making little happy piggie whickering noises.

Con: Added stress and anxiety, especially for me: the girls bicker about them (whose turn to do what, she got hers out so now I have to get mine out too, etc.) and sometimes handle them in ways that seem too rough to me, we’re still climbing up the learning curve in figuring out how to care for them (for example, leafy green lettuce: lovely treat, evil empty calories, or diarrhea-inducing menace? sources differ!!), and what exactly are we going to do with them when we want to go on vacation?

Pro: I’m enjoying the way they’re forcing me to keep fresh veggies on hand at all times — for instance, they eat some red or yellow pepper strips every morning for breakfast, and it’s been really nice always having those in the fridge for recipes.

Con: I haven’t figured out the best way to split up the work of caring for them yet. It’s easy for me to do stuff like cleaning dirty bedding out of their cage while the girls are holding and playing with them, but then that means they’re basically getting the fun part while I do the work. I don’t know if that’s a problem yet. And we haven’t even gotten to the full weekly chore of thoroughly cleaning their cage — if I want the girls to help with, or even completely do, that job, I’m not sure where to put the piggies in the meantime. Right now, I guess we can put them outside (with the wire cage top over them) to nibble on some grass, but I’m having a hard time visualizing how this is all going to work in, say, February.

Pro: They really are just freaking adorable, and sweet to have in our family. They really love and need each other, which hopefully will persist as they grow. They’re getting much more comfortable with being handled, and are getting used to the veggie treats we’re giving them (particular favorites, besides the aforementioned leafy lettuce and red pepper strips, are cucumber peel “noodles”) along with their wonderfully sweet-smelling hay and their kibble.

New batch of pictures up — Alice getting her ears pierced (well, not the actual procedure, but before and after shots), and then more pictures from our PSU trip which got sorted and numbered out of order and I’m too lazy to go back and fix it. Heh. Anyway, new ones start here.

Bonus link: Help to map the surface of the moon!

Sammy had her yearly checkup today. She is 4′3″ (61st percentile) and 47 lb (11th percentile) — tall and skinny! Not much else to report, as we were pretty much in and out. I bought her ice cream afterwards, in an attempt to get her to the 12th percentile for weight.

Yesterday we got new pets — little black guinea pigs named Toshi and Moka. We’ve never had guinea pigs before, or any kind of pet except for cats, so we’re all still adjusting. We’ve got a lot of anxiety around getting them comfortable with us and with being handled, but I think we’re coming along with it. If anyone has good tips on starting out with guinea pigs, or good pages on piggy care in general, please share!

I’m letting everyone sleep in today; I’ve been up since 6:30 or so, but there seems to be no one else even close to stirring at the moment. Yesterday was Sammy’s party, and it was a lot of fun, but so exhausting, and everyone was wiped out and lethally over-sensitized by the time we got to bed last night.

The party crew ended up being 15 kids, 3 moms, and a dad (plus the 4 of us). We all hung out in the back yard, played in the sprinkler, relaxed in the shade, tried to kill ourselves on the hammock and swing, got tattoos, and ate ourselves sick on pizza and cake and ice cream and watermelon and pretzels and potato chips. I bought too much pizza, though — given the number of expected attendees, I figured “better safe than sorry” and got 6 large pies, but apparently little girls don’t eat much pizza (who knew?). I gave one entire pie to one of the families to take home as a “party favor”, but threw away almost another whole one that was still perfectly fine except that it had been sitting around for 6 hours in the summer heat. *sigh* Anyway, wasted food aside, everyone seemed to have fun.

Sammy’s actual birthday (Friday) was also really nice. We had our traditional birthday brunch extravaganza, spent an hour petting puppies and guinea pigs at a nearby pet store, frolicked at the mall for a while, had dinner out at Cracker Barrel, and generally celebrated our lovely Sammy-girl, who smells like peaches all the time (strange but true*)!

*Not true.

The birthday girl got a big pile of awesome presents, too, including a red LED light-up hula hoop, tons of Littlest Pet Shop and Zhu Zhu Pets stuff, several super-cute outfits, an electric pencil sharpener so she will stop stealing and losing all of my little manual ones, and many wonderful things with axolotls on them (Sammy is hugely obsessed with axolotls, and her sister and I scoured the internet to find axolotl-themed items, including art, a tiny plushy, stickers, a mug, and a magnet). I believe that there is also a plan in the works to be getting a pair of guinea pigs for her sister and her in the next few days, but I’m trying not to be involved in that plan.

Many pictures were taken, but who knows when I’ll actually get them posted. Heh.

Today is Sammy’s last day of being 7! Our to-do list for the day includes:

• calling those who have not yet RSVP’ed (Alice said she’d do this, which I hope will mitigate some of the rudeness — I just need to know how many goodie bags to make!)
• final shopping for party food and contents for the aforementioned goodie bags
• the year’s first visit to the pool (this was delayed, with much lamenting, from yesterday; it absolutely must happen today or I may have a rebellion on my hands)

Tomorrow is Sammy’s Choice all day — she wants to do our usual epic Birthday brunch, followed by a few hours hanging out with the animals at our local “Zoo” (a really big, really cool pet store). After that, maybe the big mall…

And then Saturday is her party! Augh! The house is a mess! The hose nozzle is stuck on the hose, which means we can’t use the sprinkler, which I already said we’d be using at the party! I’m stressing!!!