Portrait of the Artist as a Googly-Eyed Man

Q-ster, age four and a half

Non Sequitur Theater Continues

The boys playing drums. We can totally go on tour. Q-ster has been diligently practicing his “r” sound, so it’s no longer Wock Band in this household. It’s RRRRRRRock Band!

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Many of the blogs I read are written by moms, and while I thoroughly support the right of any blogger to vent and express anything she wants on her blog, it does mean that the husbands sometimes don’t get the best press. So, I love reading little snippets of how couples treat each other well.

Yesterday, Amalah (who is self-employed while taking care of two incredibly cute little boys) wrote about a perfectly thoughtful gift from her husband. He gave her five of his vacation days. That’s awesome.

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I’m attending an event next weekend that includes supporting Dress for Success, an organization that provides clothing suitable for women (re)entering the workforce and interviewing for jobs. Initially, I was all excited, because I have a whole lot of suit jackets that I no longer wear, but upon reading their criteria, I think my stuff is too shabby for them. I always wonder if charity people will scorn my donations.

I’ll probably take the stash to Goodwill instead, with the exception of one corduroy blazer that I only wore for two months post-pregnancy and a nice pair of dress slacks that was also supposed to see me through the awkward post-preggo size. I never got around to adjusting the hems and now they’re too big. At least someone will get some use from them!

Collecting ‘Motes

The boys waiting patiently for us at a dance studio a couple of weeks ago.

Buster collected all the remote controls to the sound system, but I was willing to let him have them in exchange for a long metal bar from the steadycam assembly that he’d procured earlier.

Reading Today

This story about the best Thanksgiving dessert secret made me laugh.

As an engineer by education, I'm entertained by this article about why underprivileged students on the movies (with the exception of Stand and Deliver) are always being encouraged to transform themselves through writing, when some good math skills could get them a living wage.

He of the mellifluous voice, Christopher Lee, was knighted! He played Saruman in The Lord of the Rings, Count Dooku in Star Wars, Scaramanga in James Bond, and Dracula countless times. Supposedly, he’s been in more cinematic swordfights than any other actor in history.

And I’m loving this rhyme in Q-ster’s school Thanksgiving song:
Five fat turkeys sitting on a fence
The first one says, “I’m so immense!”

Pink Ombré Beaded Fringe

Hooray for Hulu, which helped us catch up with last week’s Dancing with the Stars episodes that were broadcast simultaneously with SYTYCD.





I’m not a big Karina or Aaron Carter fan, but Aaron did a terrific job with Karina’s costume in the “stars get to design their professional partner’s clothing” challenge. She wore a mini dress of beaded fringe (beaded fringe, whee!) in graduated shades of pink. I’ve always loved the ombré effect, especially in pink.
The DWTS band has an impressive range and usually features singers who are a good match for each song. This week, however, they were interpreting on the gentle and mild side. Songs included the following:

Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It (if that’s ok with you, I mean)”
and
Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love A (slightly impolite) Name”

I’m sure they’ll be back to their usual top notch levels next week.

Guilty Pleasures, Retroactive Edition

I watched a couple of 'N Sync videos tonight (it’s a long story), which was quite entertaining, since I somehow missed their heyday in the late nineties and only know the performers as follows: Justin, the solo artist. Joey and Lance, Dancing with the Stars contestants. JC, the judge on America’s Best Dance Crew. The other guy (Chris), who hasn’t yet been involved in a dance reality show. I was impressed with how hard they worked and how much good dancing was in each video.

I’ve always liked JC’s critiques on ABDC, where he points out a group’s precision, use of the space, and entertainment value with very specific pointers each week. I didn’t know he was the co-lead singer of the band, and it was like discovering an old friend can really sing and dance!

I like seeing boy band acts for the marketing as much as the music. The good ones have brilliant marketing for their demographic. One of the few failures of the nineties bands were clothing lines, since the average teenage boy is pretty much uninterested in boy band merchandising. In a smart move, the latest darlings, the Jonas Brothers, apparently have a clothing line aimed at girls.

Buster watched the videos with me, and he can sing along (well, to “Bye Bye Bye,” which admittedly is not a stretch for a baby), which gives him the highly random repertoire of John Williams (Raiders of the Lost Ark/Star Wars), 'N Sync, and the Twinkle Twinkle.

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In totally unrelated and more serious news, I wrote about helping to keep up the spirits of friends during cancer treatment over at Silicon Valley Moms Blog in Guys Get Cancer Too.

Two Parenting Skills I Have Recently Mastered

When the baby demands MORE ZIN, I know he wants raiZins, not white wine.

When my preschooler declares that he’s Dr. Indiana Jones in professor mode and proceeds to take a drumstick and pretend to draw three planets on the “chalkboard” of the fireplace mantel, I can keep a straight face. Because first, he hasn’t actually seen the Indy movies, and dude, has he even seen a real chalkboard before?

And then when I ask him what the next planet in line is, he says that “his kids” haven’t learned everything about Mercury, Venus, and Earth yet, so they can’t move on to Mars. I give him a big hug for adorableness, which is shrugged off with “Later, Mommy!! I’m teaching my class.”

*The preschool newsletter last month noted that the themes for October were “imagination, space, and fish,” which I thought was a delightful, if eclectic combination. The solar system has definitely been a hit in our household, with much singing of the Planets Song, which does include nine planets, but is followed with a spoken footnote that Pluto is no longer a planet.