I just heard about this abomination and am still reeling from it.

art, tulips, nipples

Last Friday we received the exciting news that a piece of Ruby's artwork has been selected for the school district's annual Art Show. She is delighted, as are we, of course. There is a small opening night party to which we've been invited. This event will no doubt be interesting as the Art Show is to occupy the now-vacant J.C. Penney space at the World's Saddest Mall here in our little burg. This mall fascinates me because of it's haunting and half-empty decrepitude. Sadly for me, I will miss this petite soiree because I will be hanging up my photos at OZO coffee house in Boulder. What are the odds that Ruby & I would both be invited to publicly display our works at the exact same time and date??This all takes place on Wednesday. Now I need all of you to keep your fingers crossed that I sell enough prints to cover my costs of this month-long show. That's right, keep them crossed for the entire month of May. Thanks!

Now for the obligatory weekend wrap-up. Saturday was kind of cloudy and cold. I spent it running around picking up prints, shopping for cheap yet attractive frames, and buying groceries. Mr. Man and the girls spent it watching ET & The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Sunday was nicer, sunny and warmer, so we went to Boulder to stroll the Pearl Street mall where we saw scads of lovely tulips:



and some didgereedoo-ers:


I also added to my string of failed attempts to photograph the amazing nipples on the mannequins in the Prana store windows. Have you seen them? I swear these mannequins can lactate! Their nipples are huge and firm. Here is my lame photo but, I promise you, I will get a better one. It has become a mission.

quickie catch-up post

Lame, I know, but maybe tomorrow I'll put up a proper post. Maybe. The important thing is that tomorrow I will get my hair cut. A girl has to prioritize.

SO since my last post, all this has happened:

Thursday, Lyra's Paternal Grandma & Uncle arrived (To be clear, they are grandma & uncle to both girls). Birthday party ensued.

Friday, Ruby's school had a field trip to the Denver Zoo, where I was a chaperone. There were so many parents there that my "group" consisted of Ruby and her friend Mackenzie. Seems easy, right? Well, Miss Mac here is fast, and harder to keep up with than she looks. Poor Ruby, in her spf 5,000 and sunhat. But at least no major burns. whew!


Mr. Man brought the rest of the fam. there so we could all soak in the sun. For some reason it didn't occur to anyone to rub sunblock onto Lyra's ass crack.


Luckily, this shoulder ride didn't last long enough to cause any damage.

Saturday we had the birthday party at Sunflower Farm. So much fun! SO much cake (chocolate w/ chocolate frosting + strawberry cupcakes w/ cream cheese frosting).


So windy, especially right before we left. Saturday was a big day, and then the MIL & BIL kidsat so Mr. Man & I could have a date. Yea! We drove to Boulder to eat sushi flown in from Tokyo that very day. Al Gore would disapprove mightily, but then he flies around everywhere, right?

Sunday we drove to the mall in Broomfield to visit the Build-a-Bear Workshop. When it was finally time to take Isy & Stephen to the airport, I took the girls to Boulder to catch the tail end of Lyra's school's big 40th anniversary/birthday bash and fundraiser. I helped clean up while Lyra watched some Senegalese dancers and Ruby played with her friends.

I'm still tired.

as of midday today

she will be FIVE YEARS OLD! Sinda, remember that day?

Screw pie, where the cake?

and the winner is...

another unrelated photo from our trip to the aquarium

Lemon Meringue! Suck it, all you lemon-haters.

Kris, yes I know. I had to omit some pies, otherwise there would have been way too many choices.
I left off Shoofly pie, which is also yummy, and oh so very suthren. Anyway, you have a blog. Make your own damn poll. It's fun!

what a difference a day makes

unrelated photo from our trip to the aquarium

Yesterday: glorious Spring!
Today: 34 degrees and snowing.
Yesterday: "Ugh, I forgot to put sunblock on Lyra and she's roasting!"
Today: "This polar fleece is not waterproof. Damn!"

Also, Lyra has been very concerned lately with "Robbers!" and other bad guys. Last night during the tucking-in-and kissing-goodnight period she said "What if bad guys break into our house? What if they have steak knives!?!".

it is still poetry month

Here is a poem to befit this glorious weather we've had for 2 days now. A far cry from the Springtime poem I posted a little more than a year ago.


Billy Collins, from Nine Horses.

Today

If ever there were a spring day so perfect,
so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze

that it made you want to throw
open all the windows in the house

and unlatch the door to the canary's cage,
indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,

a day when the cool brick paths
and the garden bursting with peonies

seemed so etched in sunlight
that you felt like taking

a hammer to the glass paperweight
on the living room end table,

releasing the inhabitants
from their snow-covered cottage

so they could walk out,
holding hands and squinting

into this larger dome of blue and white,
well, today is just that kind of day.

audible choking gasp

John Aielli, originally uploaded by patrick dentler.

So here I am , surfing (as I do) the Interestingness archives for the last 7 days on Flickr and what do my eyes behold on the very first page but the inimitable John Aielli. I'm being haunted by semi-charming Austin weirdos.

April is national poetry month

So in honor of that, here is a poem Junebug read at her class' Coffee House Poetry Day.

She put in the 3 cups of coffee just for me! Here she is reading it in her classroom.

Ruby just adores her teacher (the one in green on the left) and insists on giving her one last hug every single day right before we leave her school. The only problem with that is Ruby's inability to understand why anyone would mind being hugged around one leg just at the point where leg meets pikachu. We had a talk about it yesterday and hopefully she will keep the hugging confined to the waist area now. It was one of those talks which starts: "You know how grown-ups are weird about being touched in certain areas? Well,...(fill in the blank here)". Don't you hate those?

i love the results of the Pie poll

Two people have voted, and cherry has 100% of the votes, leaving apple, pumpkin, chocolate, coconut, and peanut butter with 50% each. Statistically hilarious! Also indicated? Apparently lemon meringue is chopped liver. Well, I love lemon meringue AND chopped liver. (But not together, Ew.) And I have yet to vote. So there.

it's been a long week.

We have a new gap in our little family. Mr. Man's beloved cat, Bono, passed away a few days ago. His decline was sudden and for that we are grateful. But every time we see a bright, hot patch of sunlight on the floor of our kitchen or dining room, it seems odd that he isn't there, soaking it in.


Also, can I just say that 2 weeks of Spring Break is 1 too many? Lyra's school is in a different district than Ruby's, so last week was Ruby's break and the week before was Lyra's. I will be sofa king glad to get back to our routine starting tomorrow.


I loved this: Peter Sagel's remarks on the newest Suess movie.




And I have also been enjoying the NPR pieces celebrating Bette Davis' 100th birthday. Here is one by Bob Mondello.

Yesterday the girls and I joined some neighbors for a Clean-Up, Green-Up party. We walked around our neighborhood picking up litter and getting to know each other. It was lots of fun and we met some very nice people. It was organized by my one real girlfriend here, Erin. She is the bright spot in my otherwise bleak and lonely social life. She is just the type of person you'd want to hang out with: easy-going, fun, smart and sassy. As one of the other women there said, "It is impossible to meet Erin and not become her friend". I'm so glad I did meet her!

from the mind of Sugarbear

2 days ago we were driving home from Vitamin Cottage and Lyra sees a person driving next to us wearing dark sunglasses. She then asks me "Mama, how do blind people know where they're going when they're driving?"

The day before that, she started frantically waving and shouting hello to a guy in the truck next to us. He had dark hair and a beard, therefore he was Cat Stephens. Must! Get! the Attention! of my boyfriend!

Mr. Amazing Man

So Mr. Man does actually read this blog. And he loves to surprise me. There is nothing he enjoys more than to mysteriously produce, seemingly from a satin top hat, the unexpected cadeau. Yesterday, after returning from the Downtown Denver Aquarium with the girls, I found this waiting for me on my pillow:


Awesomeness in a cheap/cute wooden box. So I'm back in business! While I was opening all the packages contained within said wooden box, and oohing and aahing, Ruby leaned in close and whispered to me "You should say Thank You." So THANK YOU, Monkey!

I will also take this opportunity to brag about the Mr. Man a little more. About 3 months ago he went to the doctor for a physical and had a complete blood work-up. As a result, we found out that his cholesterol count was something like 293. Yikes! He really is opposed to taking any kind of meds to control it, instead choosing rather drastic lifestyle changes to see how much he could bring the bad, and overall, levels down. He started exercising almost every day, we cut way back on the amount of meats & cheeses in our diets, increased vegetables & fruits, and he started taking some supplements like Red Yeast Rice & garlic. And guess what? He has lost 20 pounds and his cholesterol is down below 200 now! His doctor was absolutely flabbergasted. He said he'd never seen such a fast and dramatic turnaround without prescription drugs. He said, "Whatever you're doing, keep doing it.".