Of movies and videos

My heart goes out to the victims of the Colorado movie theater shooting. It was a senseless act of violence. However, major props to Christian Bale (Batman) for visiting the injured in the hospital. Way cool, dude. Way cool.

That said, we took the Little Man to see "The Dark Knight Rises" on Monday. The movie was great. However, I gotta say I felt a little...uneasy sitting in the theater waiting for the movie to start.

But then I looked around at other people eating popcorn, chatting amongst themselves and it was business as usual. So I settled in with my guys and relaxed. We had a great time. And there are more good times to be had at movies in the future. I refuse to bow down to fear and stop enjoying myself.  I only hope that the survivors of the shooting do the same and are able to return to the movies for fun and escape.


In other not-so-entirely-unrelated news, we went to the Library on Tuesday and returned home with a couple books and some DVDs.

Bill went to put in one of the dvds and it was still in 'locked' position. Of course it was the one I was holding with my books. It was scanned to be borrowed, I just forgot to give it to them to unlock. Hey, I can't think of everything.

At this point it was too late to go back to the library, so we spent about half an hour trying to use house magnets to unlock the damn mechanism. No dice.

Thanks a lot stupid refrigerator magnets. You just stand there holding business cards until you're needed. So now, one of us has to go back to the library and unlock it so we can watch the darn thing.

Hi, yeah, um I need to unlock this dvd. We kinda sorta accidentally left without putting it through the big magnetic unlocking device. Okay, thank you. Sheepishly walks out all red-faced while library staff point and laugh.

I'll never be able to go there again unless I'm wearing a fake glasses and mustache disguise and overcoat and even then I'll probably be mistaken for a pervert. Or Groucho Marx.

See you in the funny papers.

Evil gnomes are attacking my desk

Monday mornings my desk (and I use the term loosely) is pretty neat. Bills that have been paid are filed away. Loose paper finds a home. Scraps and nonsense are tossed in the garbage. Even my pens and pencils are neatly put in their cute little cup holder. My mom would be proud. Okay, maybe she'd at least be pleased with the effort.


By the weekend it looks like someone broke in, ransacked the place, put everything back neatly but left my desk a scary mess. Upon further thinking I might not be far off the mark. Maybe I'm being targeted by evil desk gnomes who work for an underground faction that dislikes organization and neatness.

Of course I'll need to gather evidence to support my claim.

Maybe if I sprinkle powder around my desk, I'll find little gnome foot prints the next day. Or claws considering they're evil. Maybe forget the powder idea. Besides I'm not sure how I would explain what I was doing to Bill. He's not a gnome believer.

Why couldn't I be the focus of cute, little pixie neatniks who flutter about straightening files and papers while leaving behind magical  pixie dust? Then my desk would be tidy and we'd have magical dust to play with. A win-win situation all around.

Damn you evil desk gnomes and your messy hi-jinks!

Toys to die for

Yesterday we took Chris to Toys 'R Us because he's been a good kid lately, and he had a gift card (so it wasn't our money to be spent) and because he's been dying...dyyyyyyying for a Ninjago (Lego ninjas) toy. And us, being such awesome parents, gave into his wish.

When we walked in and came upon the Lego department that housed the desired toy(s), it was sensory overload.  Think of that scene in the movie, "Despicable Me"  where Agnes wants the stuffed unicorn.

Here's the clip: It's so fluffy I'm gonna diiiiie!  

Yeah, that's what it was like.

Anyway, Little Man's eyes were literally bugging out of his head. There were so many to choose from. He looked at each and every one.  To make a choice was agony.

Then we told him to walk around the store for a bit and check out the other toys. He looked at us in horror, as if we told him that it was all a cruel joke and he couldn't buy one. But we promised him he could come back and pick his favorite. Only then did he consent to come along with us. So we walked around looking at this and that and remarking at some of the over-the-top prices.

At one point I wandered away alone and came upon some new breed of ridiculous, over-priced, time-wasting entertainment meant to lure unsuspecting parents and gullible children into purchasing.

It's called the Ugly Doll and it's a stupid wind-up toy. And IT AMUSES ME TO NO END!

I love the blue bat, called the ice bat because it just hops around in a circle.  My other fave is the red bat but it just hops straight across.  Here's what they look like:

 The other wind-ups in the group just bend forward and then do a sudden surprise backwards flip. Not nearly as amusing. Sorry for the poor pic quality but I was using my cell phone, but yes that price is $4.99 for a silly wind up toy.  But I want it!!  It so amusing, I'm gonna diiiiiie!!!

It was a dark and stormy night

Well, not exactly. But it was dark (cause it was night time). And there was lightning. But that's all there was. This was last Wednesday night at about 1:30 am. (yes, I know, I go to bed way too late)

Bill and I watched the lightning with the window blinds wide open. It was awesome. It would have been even more awesome had there been thunder, but, I won't complain.

 Okay, maybe just a little complaint.

The thunderstorms here are really crappy. Almost not worth the effort. Take today's small storm, for example. The sky got really dark and there was some lightning.  I say 'some' because you could almost make yourself believe that you were blinking too much.  There were even a few claps of thunder, which were more like distant drum beats but okay, at least this time we got the full effect. But in like, five minutes it was over.

Back east this would serve as a prelude to a huge thunderstorm complete with lightning bright enough to make you think it was daylight and thunder so loud it made your whole house shake and set off car alarms.  It was thrilling and scary all at the same time. I miss that.

The forecast calls for more thunderstorms in the coming days. I'll have to wait and see exactly what that means.

On another not completely un-related note, I like the sentence that serves as the title to this post: "It was a dark and stormy night." Supposedly it's one of the worst opening lines to a novel (can't remember which), but it makes me laugh. Maybe because I like dark and stormy things, especially nights, or even nights that aren't dark and stormy but just night in general. Or maybe because it makes me think of Snoopy and the Peanuts gang.

Thanks but really, I got this

Recently some well-intentioned folks have been telling Little Man what he can and can't eat. (He's a diabetic, for those of you who don't remember or if you're a first time visitor, hey and welcome!)

Anyway, as I said, their intentions are good but they are uninformed. The old way of thinking was that diabetics can't eat sugar and other certain foods. From what we know, today, this, is incorrect. He can eat anything he wants and we just compensate with the proper insulin intake. Besides, we're counting carbohydrates, not sugar.

The first time it happened, he was at an event with his grandfather and they were serving all manner of fun, outdoorsy, barbecue food, which included S'mores. He wanted one and someone there said he couldn't have it because he was a diabetic. Little Man was slightly confused, but shrugged it off and had some fruit instead.

Then, at a different outing, he wanted some ice cream after a meal and a family friend said it wasn't a good idea and that he should eat better so he wouldn't need as much insulin because too much insulin is not good, blah blah blah. I tried to intervene but didn't want to get into a pissing contest with him (he would obviously win, he's a guy so his equipment let's his pee go further), so I dropped it.

Now, I do appreciate their concern, but I'm his mom, his primary diabetes caregiver, and a JDRF volunteer and advocate. Believe me when I say, I got this. I've been taught by diabetes educators on how to help manage his disease. I've read a lot of books and articles. I've talked with other parents of children with diabetes and I belong to several online diabetes social forums/groups. So I think I know what I'm doing when it comes to my kid.

And despite his age (8 going on 25), Chris is well aware of his disease and how to handle it and what he can eat. However, anyone can feel free to stop him from mixing Pop Rocks and Coca Cola, although I think that turned out to be an urban legend. And now I'm in the mood for something sweet. And crunchy.

Strange shoe-wearing rituals

If I want to wear shoes I haven't worn in a while I first shake them upside down to let anything creepy crawly fall out. Then I stick my hand inside just to make sure. This way whatever might be trapped inside will just bite or sting my fingers as opposed to my foot.

I know, it's weird. But it's better than just slipping my toes inside my sneakers/boots/shoes and getting surprised by some icky little critter hiding in there. One never knows.

Bill just laughs at me. Especially as I'm putting my hand inside my footwear. He seems to think it's funny that I would subject my hand to contact with something that has more legs than me, rather than my feet. I can't quite explain it, but it makes sense to me. At least I'm taking partial caution as opposed to him who just slips on his shoes and goes on his merry way. We'll see who's laughing when one day he throws on his sneakers and gets zapped by a bug-in-hiding. Better safe and silly than sorry.


*Please note that no harm is actually intended or wished upon my careless shoe-wearing husband. Any arachnids or insects found in his footwear is purely coincidental and unrelated to this post.

Moments of levity

I've posted before about my battles with depression and whatnot but I can say that despite it all, there are moments of levity.  For the most part I'm happy, but there are times when I let go and find myself smiling, almost floating, and I think, life is good.

I had two of those moments happen earlier this week. Monday we took Little Man to an Aquatic Center (think outdoor park with pools and water and 2 water slides) in a nearby town. He had a blast, especially since it was a complete surprise.

At one point I was sitting neck-deep in one of the pools, enjoying the cool water, hot sun, and blue skies. I closed my eyes, sighed and thought, yeah, life, is good.

Wednesday was the 4th of July.  And as last year, Chris put on a fireworks show (ground fireworks are legal here. Those that shoot in the sky, not so much but we had both. ssh!).  We all sat outside at dusk to watch as Chris and several other people on the street set off fireworks.

It was nice. And again, as I sat watching my son and husband shooting off fireworks (and having a blast..pun intended) I thought, life really is good.

So I got to thinking that I should look for more of the good in life and in my everyday, as opposed to the bad, or not-so-good stuff that I keep working to overcome. Maybe, in fact, life really is good and it's just my perception that's bad.  In either case, I hope to have more moments of true happiness and levity.

Feel free to share any aah, life is good moments that you have.