I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, And that enables you to laugh at life's realities.
- Dr. Seuss

My husband has taken up 2 new hobbies this week: snowboarding and motorcycle riding (perhaps I should say "motorcycle fixing"). As I write, he is on his way to pick up his new bike. Well, it's not precisely new, of course. That would be way too easy. No, he likes to have "projects" in the garage at all times. So, he is picking up said project and will be using it as an excuse to get my bathroom dirty with grease and dirt. I think he likes to enrage me by making sure he leaves black grease smudges on the tub and walls. Snowboarding is easier to clean up after, as it involves, well, nothing. He is dry by the time he gets home.

Some of JP's work-mates want to get bikes too, but they all live in apartments and have nowhere to work on them. So my husband magnanimously volunteered his garage. It could very well be that by the end of the month, I will have several men traipsing through my bathroom with dirty hands.

I've discovered audio books from my library. I just download them and put them on my Clix (my MP3 player) and take it to the gym. Believe me when I say that it's a lot easier to listen to CS Lewis and Francis Schaeffer than read them on an elliptical. I avoid the headache.

I hate down-time, so I feel compelled to put my 30-45 minutes huffing on the elliptical to good use. I can't stand watching most of the shows on TV, so I usually read. Now I have a free unlimited source of audio books. Yay!

Go Green!!!

The King County Library system generously provides bags in which it's patrons can tote their books. Being environmentally conscientious, the library is proud to be "Choosing Green" and therefore the bags provided are %100 biodegradable, compostable. Hurrah.

Unfortunately, the bags are about as sturdy as a wet paper sack. Unless you are just carrying 1 or 2 books, they are worthless. The question that begs to be asked is, if I only had 1 or 2 books, why would I need a bag? And what self-respecting homeschool mom would be caught dead leaving the library with just ONE or TWO books?! The minimum must be 10 at least!! I never have less than 40 books piled in my basket at home.

We got our son a rapier for Christmas. He was thrilled, having been obsessed with swords since he was 3 and we took him to see Peter Pan (2) at the movies. We thought he would have impaled his sister by now, but he holds the thing reverently and only takes it out to gaze at it in awe. Unbeknown to him, this is the first of many swords he will receive. We plan to give him a sword every Christmas until he tells us to stop.

He has quite a collection of toy swords- his grandpa is very indulgent and makes him a new wooden sword every time we visit- but it's not just sword fighting he loves. He spends hours pouring over books about how their made, studying the history and technology of weapons. He draws them, builds them, and dreams up new designs.

I love this about my son- this whole-hearted love of something that excites him and makes his eyes sparkle every time he talks about it. He can tell you the history of each kind of sword- rapiers, cutlasses, sabers etc. He knows how they are designed and for what purpose it serves. He can tell you the technique that the sword fighter would use to fight and how another sword would be used in defense. Like I said, he loves swords (he likes guns and other projectile weapons, too).

Nate the Great

My brother plays the drums, and he posted a video of himself on You Tube playing a little diddy. I thought some of you would be as tickled as me to see it:

n8tr0n playing drums


(By the way, Charlie is fine. The vet said perhaps it was a back problem. not food.)