Mr. Boingy Pen

So, I have this pen. But it's no ordinary pen. See, it's got a little spring on the top with a bouncing head. It smiles very widely and has a tuft of orange hair on the top. It has a little holder that it sits in so it stands upright. The holder has a suction cup so it can stand securely on the tabletop. Sounds cute, right? That's what I thought. But now I'm not so sure.

See, the other night we heard a funny sound. When we went out to the kitchen to investigate we found Mr. Boingy Pen on the floor. Securely suction-cupped to the floor and bouncing slightly on his spring, grinning from ear to ear. Eerie. And slightly disturbing.

While discussing it over breakfast, the hubby picked it up. It continued to grin straight ahead, and then slowly, oh so slowly, its head bobbed and turned so it was looking at me. What the heck?!?!? It did this several times.

Right now, as I write this, it is staring into the fish tank. If there are fish missing in the morning, or if anything about the tank is even slightly out of the ordinary, that pen may have to go.

Shhhh. Not too loud.

Quack!

Telling the Future with Caterpillars

Woolly bear caterpillars can predict how long and cold the winter will be. The larger the black bands, the worse the weather. Well, Sweet Pea found three of the little guys this year. The two from the zoo indicate that the winter will be very mild. But the one from Onondaga Lake Parkway says it will be a long cold one. I'm going for the majority rule on this one and expect a mild winter. Either that or the zoo will see remarkably mild winter weather, but the snow coming off the lake will bury the parkway in cold wintery snowiness. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Caterpillar small -
Fuzzy portent of winter's length
Mild winter ahead

(Yes, I know. I have an extra syllable in the middle line. I decided to give up preciseness for a little creativity. I just like it this way, OK?)


Quack!

Rambling, Nonsense and Occasional Posts of Interest

 Hey! It's my one year blogiversary! Last year on November 24th I posted my very first blog entry! It's now a year later and I haven't managed to say anything of much importance, but hey, it was fun getting there. I hope you stick around for another year of rambling, nonsense, and occasional posts of interest. Thanks for reading!

Have a happy Thanksgiving tomorrow everyone!

Quack!

Where Do Baby Carrots Come From?

Where do baby carrots come from? I think I know. I found these carrots in our garden. I like to think they know winter is coming and are snuggling together for warmth. Despite their cuteness, they went into the soup the other day. At least it was a nice warm place to be!

And to finish off today's post, here are a few carrot haiku's inspired by the little orange lovelies:

End of the season
Preparing for winter's cold
Two carrots snuggling

or maybe

Two carrots entwined
How do carrots procreate?
An erotic twist


Quack!

For Your Viewing Pleasure

Yes yes yes. I know. Halloween was three weeks ago! What took me so long to post these pictures of the costumes I worked so hard on?!? Well, I'm a busy woman you know. Very busy. Lots to do.

So, without further ado, here they are. Pac Man, Ms. Pac Man and Blinky. For your viewing pleasure:

Quack!

These are some of my favorite things . . .

I like music. One artist I have been listening to lately is Beth Hart. On her Screamin for My Supper album there is a song titled Favorite Things. Very cool song. It made me think about some of my favorite things:

• Little arms wrapped around my neck, little fingers in my hair, little kisses on my cheeks and nose, a little hand in mine.
• The sound of the vaccuum cleaner while I'm ensconsed, sleepy and warm under a blanket (hasn't happened in years, but I always liked it)
• Melting chocolate on my tongue 
• Snoozing beside the bulk of my hubby, warm and safe
• Snuggling up next to a little warm body curled into my side, hair and breath in my face
• The darkness of tree bark in the rain against autumn-yellow leaves
• The icy etching of frost on leaves, branches and stems
• The sound of the robins in the early evening, warbling in the sunset and moonrise
• A heartfelt song, sung with passion and feeling
• The sound of the mixer and the dust of flour and sugar as I bake on a cold wintry day
• The background sounds of laughter and little voices as I work around the house.
• The twinkle of the Christmas tree lights on a cold snowy evening.

Quack!

Hip-Deep in Books and Oblivious to Everything

Doodlebug brought a book home from the library once about Anansi the Spider. Anansi is a character from a western African folk tale. For whatever reason he loved the book! It really struck a chord with him. It was all bright colors and a simple yet fun story. And there was a spider named "Cushion' which really struck him funny. So, we've gotten that book from the library several times.

Well, I realized that the author, Gerald McDermott has written many stories of a similar vein - old folk-tales retold. Among them are Zomo the Rabbit (A Trickster Tale from West Africa) and Jabuti the Toroise (A Trickster Tale from the Amazon). So I stopped by the library to pick them up. And wow! Let me tell you! Get me in the library and it's hard to drag me out. I spent an entire hour in one row of books. (I'll have to tell about the time I spent almost an entire hour on one shelf. The shelf with the books about the old west no less. How strange and unusual! I didn't even know I was interested in that stuff. And if you asked me, I'm not particularly, but for some reason, it was interesting that day - from Montana homesteaders to the Kansas dust bowl to Tombstone Arizona to Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee I was hip-deep in books and oblivious to everything.)

But back on topic. I spent an entire hour in the "Juvenile Non-Fiction" section in the aisle with the fairy tales and tall tales, trickster tales and folk tales. (Why this is considered non-fiction I don't know.) Wow, there's a lot of stuff in that aisle. From the original Grimms fairy tales to modern retellings, African folk tales, American mid-west tall tales, Korean sky tales (wha?), princesses, coyotes, spiders, castles, kingdoms, grails, kites, rice paddies. Scottish and Jewish and Korean and American Indian, Carribean, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, you name it. Stories from everywhere, every time about everything. All beautifully told and illustrated. Wow! I managed to read 4 or 5 there (these are children's books afterall) and borrowed about 10. Some for me, some for the kids.

For Doodlebug (and me too) I found a set of books by Eric Kimmel, illustrated by Janet Stevens, about Anansi the Spider. They are very cute! I really like them. I hope Doodlebug does too. I read Anansi and the Talking Melon right there in the aisle and it is a great story! Very cute and wonderfully illustrated.

But, overall, that's pretty good - me coming out with only 10 books. That's good for me. When I go to the library I almost always come home with about twice as many as I can possibly read in the amount of time I have. Even considering that I have 3 weeks and can renew 3 times for a total of 9 weeks! I still get too many and end up returning about half of them unread. I guess my eyes are bigger than my reading time, or something like that.

Maybe when I'm old and crotchety I'll spend every day at the library reading my way through every book. I have so many books at home I want to re-read (my entire Ray Bradbury collection for one) but who has the time when there are so many books I haven't read yet? Not to mention who has time when there is crafting and scrapbooking and drawing and painting and writing and playing and exercising and baking and dulcimer-ing, etc, etc, etc to be done.


Quack!

Sometimes the Way Back is So Much Easier

Every once in a while I go rollerblading. It's a lot of fun, a good workout, a chance to enjoy the fresh air and I really like it. But occasionally it's not so fun. Like the time I went skating during flying ant mating season. Holy Ick Batman! Flying ants everywhere! Now, I know that they are just bugs and relatively harmless bugs at that, but for some reason they really ick me out. They just look gross! Of course, swarms of any kind of bug, even cute ones like lady bugs or those cute little tiny gold beetles would probably be gross too, but for some reason, flying ants are particularly uggy.

So, I got out of the car and saw a bunch of them flying around. Not so bad. Just a few bugs, right? So I put on my skates and headed out. Ick, a few bugs on my shirt - just shake them off. Make sure I breath through my nose, not my mouth. Don't want to breath the little buggers in. Alright, a few more on my shirt. And a few in my hair and on my helmet. I can take it. After a couple of miles I'd had enough. I couldn't take it! They were all over the place. So, I turned around and headed back. Return trip same as the way out - bugs in my hair, on my shirt, on my pants. I finally got back to the car and they were all over the car! Eeeewwww. So I opened the door and threw myself inside, slamming it behind me. Thank goodness only a few followed me in. Oh, it was so so so so gross. They were all over the windshield and the mirror. It was like Hitchcock's The Birds, but different.

Then there was the time I tried to skate in the wind. Now, I've skated in the wind before. It's a lot more work if you're fighting the wind, but it can be done, usually. This time was downright ridiculous. I swear it must have been blowing at 40 miles per hour. I didn't realize how windy it was or I wouldn't have tried. I got my skates on and headed out. And then realized Wow! It's windy. But I gave it a try. I fought and fought the wind. My thighs and calves and feet and butt were screaming after just a few yards. I kept trying, but if I slowed down at all, I would come to a complete halt and at one point even rolled backwards. OK! That's it. I gave up. After only 1/2 mile or so. It was pretty funny actually, I had to keep pulling over to the side (which I never do) to rest and try to wait out the gusts. But it was no use.

However, the way back was a piece of cake. All I had to do was stand there and let it push me back. I rolled pretty darn fast. As I was almost back I saw an older guy struggling with the wind. I just shook my head, then told him the way back was much easier. As I was finishing removing my skates about 5 minutes later I saw him heading to his car too.

Quack!

Crispy Potato Balls and Other Tasty Things

I was cleaning up the other day (about time!) and came across some recipes I had cut out of a magazine in the spring. And let me tell you - I don't know how I could have just set them aside and forgotten about them. I was drooling just looking at them. An awesome chocolate loaf cake, a vanilla tart with a nutmeg crust, some divine shortbread sandwich cookies. Drool! And even some non-sweet foods like crispy potato balls and a delicious looking chicken dish. Wow - I hit a gold mine with that magazine.


So now I need to start cooking and baking. I'll share results and recipes and if things come out as good as they look.


Quack!

I Leave a Trail of Items Behind Me

Why, oh why do I do it? I go to the grocery store for a handful of items. Just a few. Plenty of space in one of those little hand baskets for the items I need.


Or maybe not . . .

There is always something extra. Oh, potatoes are buy one get one free! And I need potatoes. OK, put both bags in the hand-basket. Oh, and the gallon jugs of Hawaiian Punch are on sale. Grab one of those. Oh, look. Toilet paper - you can never have enough toilet paper and who can turn down a sale like that? 20 rolls for only a few bucks! Oh, and look. Cases of soda on sale. I finally get to the checkout with two or three things under each arm, Two things dangling from the fingers of my left hand, an overflowing, carefully-balanced pile in the hand-basket in my right hand. A trail of items behind me.

Will I ever learn?

Quack!

Red-Eyed Demon-Rat

What, again with the evil gerbil? Get over it already! But I can't! He's truly evil! And he's living in my house!

An Evil Gerbil Haiku:

Gray furry cuteness,
A cloak hiding pure evil,
Living in my house.

Red-eyed demon-rat.
Disguised as a pet gerbil.
How long do they live?



Quack!

Moved To Poetry By a Bright Orange Tangerine

I recently bought a bag of tangerines at the grocery store. Since it's not really citrus season I didn't expect them to be very good, but I'm optimistic. I'm a big fan of oranges and minneolas and honeybells and the occasional grapefruit. I like lemon and lime flavor. If it's citrus, it's usually pretty good. But I've gotten my share of stringy, flavorless, dry, tough oranges at the wrong time of the year. So I was pleasantly surprised. So much so that I'm now on my second bag of them (over several weeks - not in one sitting) These tangerines are delicious! Very juicy and sweet! So good in fact that I was moved to poetry.


A Tangerine Haiku:

Bright orange tangerine
Burst of sunshine in my mouth
Juices dripping down



Quack!