My week thus far. A photo essay.

• Tootie and I found a gallon size ziplock filled with Toy Story figures at the re-sale shop.

• 
  When we got home we found a package from Candie Cooper. She came home for a short visit from China and brought a special surprise for us. It's cricket cage. I've wanted one for a long time and it was so kind of her to send it to me.

The new Buzz figure seems a little leery though.

• 
  Later that afternoon H flew over the house. Can you see him just over the tree in the center? We happen to be in a flight path. Yeah us. Seeing a CH-47 coming at you is an impressive sight.

• Sunday we decided to venture out to a county fair. Not our county fair but an adjacent county fair. I needed to clarify that because, wow-za boy, did we stick out like sore thumbs. Holy cow. We might as well have had a cartoon pointy sign that said "Urbanite" over our heads. I was the only woman in a skirt. We pushed a our yuppified all-terrain jogging stroller with our, gasp, Asian child.

It was also the very last day of the fair so I think most people there had had enough already. It was pretty void of people. We stayed approximately 20 whole minutes.

• I've begun working on dolls again.

• For 5 years I've lived with 4 channels that I could only view 2 of in
  the front room and the other 2 in the back family room. If we
  wanted to watch channel 6 we had to do all sorts of acrobatics with
  foil sculptures. This morning we had cable installed. I now have 100+ channels to choose from. I get overwhelmed deciding which shampoo I
  should buy. This? Well, I don't even know where to begin. Sadly, I think my Saturday night dates with Lawrence Welk are over.

This reminds me of when I had my first apartment. I lived for 2 years
without a tv at all. One day my Dad surprised me with a TV and VCR. That
weekend I watched 8 movies consecutively. (I lived in a apartment
right next to the library which had an awesome video collection.) I
didn't leave my apartment for 3 days.

If you don't hear from me for awhile you'll know why.

Mr. Frog the 2nd

The community that has been created via the internet amazes me. Through Flickr I've visited places and have seen how others live from all over the world. 20 years ago as I entered my freshman year of college I wouldn't have imagined such a thing. Back then I was amazed at what a Mac could do in layout design. Some day I'll tell my daughter about the old days when the internet didn't exist, when telephones were attached to the wall and one had to get up to turn the TV channel. sigh. Hmmm, I've seemed to have hopped onto a rabbit trail. Where was I? Oh, yes, meeting friends.

Yes, I have met a friend via flickr and noticed she owned a little children's shop, Pueppilottchen, in Germany. I asked if she could arrange to send me another frog friend for Tootie. Tootie's frog is her most favorited possession. He has holes worn through all over and many many stitches of previous repairs. Tootie says she has "loved him up".

Thanks to Nichola, Tootie's beloved frog is getting a new friend soon. Now, I don't expect that the new Mr. Frog will replace her faithful Big Frog. Nothing can replace a lovey. New Mr. Frog will be a good comparison to Big Frog for when she gets older. And maybe he'll get a little loved up too along the way.

Thanks Nicola! We are so excited to meet him!"

to those who thrist

"Make spit."

I said this in response to a neighbor kid complaining that she was thirsty.

It just occurred to me now that it may have been an odd thing to say.

Overheard

H: "This is not a democracy! Well, sometimes it is but today it is dictatorship! and guess who the dictator is? Me. That means what I say goes!

What's a democracy? Um, well, you see, that is when everyone gets a vote in deciding what we do. But not today! Today there has been a coup d'etat. This. Is. A. Dictatorship."

Tootie: "No Daddy! It's not a Dick Tapper's ship it's our house."

I have no idea what it was about but it was settled with a race through the house and a tickle fight.

One thing leads to another, yeah.

The past couple days I've been scrubbing down our deck with a power washer. I'm sore everywhere from using that thing for hours on end. You would think that I'd have lots to think about during all that time doing manual labor. Nope. My mind ventured to 2 songs repetitively. "Overkill" by Men At Work, especially the "I can't get to sleep" part I found went particularly well with turning on the hose. Slowly, I would find myself singing Ebony and Ivory. I, I, I have no comment to explain myself on that one except maybe I was contemplating staining the deck an ebony color...not sure about that but do plan on making it dark.

All this due to this thing I found at a garage sale.

I plan on making a container pond out of it. I *think* it's going to work. I have a plan. Take a look at these aquariums. I am positively drooling over them. Not that I can do that outside but that will be my inspiration.

Now I better go to bed or I really won't be able to get to sleep.

Peek-a-Boo Bunting Tutorial

I've been turning this idea around in my mind for awhile and I finally had a chance to produce it. I wanted to make a special baby gift for my friend. At first I was going to make a simple baby quilt but then I remembered my stroller angst. Now was the time to test out my idea. It's actually very simple.

Then I forgot about it. But today I remembered I had wanted to share this with you. If you are a parent or have ever pushed a baby in a stroller I think you'll find this handy. I know, looking back, I wish I had had something like this for my daughter.

This is little stroller quilt has ties that attach to the frame sides of the stroller. It has buttons along both edges to cover the baby's legs. Every baby I've pushed in a stroller kicks that blasted blankie off. Then it's stuck in the wheels and dragging in the dirt. Lovely. With this you don't have to deal with all that.

I have created a short tutorial on how to make this for yourself or to give as a gift for a friend. Please note that it is under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial Copyright. By opening this tutorial you are agreeing to the following which can be viewed here.

See sidebar "Stroller Blanket Tutorial" and click on the image there to enlarge and download the tutorial.

Happy 4th

We did the parade thing today. I haven't been to a parade in years. Now I know why. Maybe I'm a party poop but aren't parades supposed to have marching bands and floats and stuff? Um, yeah, our parade? Convertible cars with people running for office. Whoopee! H amused himself and us by calling out hello to them by name. Well, their names were written out on big signs. They must have wanted us to say hello. In return for our salutations they threw candy at us.

Tootie was in sugar heaven. She'd never been to a parade before and didn't know what to expect. When candy was first thrown at her she froze, staring at it. I could just see the inner conflict going on. "Don't take candy from strangers! Don't go in the street!" I think I could hear a slight zzzzz noise as her synapses fired.

H left for a short time to use the restroom at the pub we had parked ourselves in front of. He took a little too long in coming back. The very last photo explains why. Clever boy that H.