The Corn Edamame-Sesame Salad from Veganomicon was a hit at the teacher luncheon. Props to everyone that recommended the cookbook.

The iCarly movie iGo to Japan debuted this weekend. If you don't enjoy the show, I sympathize. My wireless headphones started fading an hour into the 90-minute program. The Newsday review summed it up nicely: "It's not deep, unless you consider a puddle deep, but there's some charm here. Kids will (duh) like it. A lot."

One of Vogon's coworkers keeps an Airsoft gun in his office. I located a t-shirt that says "There is no crying in Airsoft" for Vogon to wear one Friday when he takes his Airsoft gun in and epic lulz ensues. (They work in a mostly-empty building so there is room for horsing around.)

I have been just flattened lately with tiredness lately; please don't think I am ignoring all of you.

You know that "A priest and a rabbi walk into a bar...." joke? I got one better -- and true:

P.Z. Myers and Richard Dawkins went to see a screening of Expelled! (Both were interviewed in segments for the movie.) Myers was identified as persona non grata and asked by a security guard to leave the premises. Dawkins got in and saw the movie, albeit with a security guard watching him every time he appeared on screen.

Epic failure of irony meters everywhere ensued.

Edit:

(Graphic linked in a comment at the post; credit information would be appreciated.)

Just saw an ad for The Seeker -- a Dark Is Rising movie? o_O

My parser is still broken from The Golden Compass being turned into a movie. And that Calvin totally wasn't redheaded in that TV movie version of A Wrinkle In Time.

Dang it, stop ruining perfectly good books by turning them into movies. Hell will freeze over before I buy a movie-cover paperback of any fantasy series.

edit 23 SEP, 1633: here's a detailed list of differences between the book and movie: http://community.livejournal.com/authorblog/5880.html

I got Mad Hot Ballroom from NetFlix a few weeks ago but hadn't made the time to watch it, so I made it this week's Date Night movie along with a Dublin Dr. Pepper and a fun size Twix.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, although I'm not sure it would have been as good for anyone watching it with me because I let the occasional admonition slip during the competition pieces. I know they can't hear me, but I told kids to stand straighter and get their feet together anyway. *wry grin*

Overall: great story, okay cinematography. Some of the subtitling is hilarious in a "what dialect did the translator hear that in?" way.

I burned the pad of my thumb on Wednesday, so now you know why I haven't been posting or commenting as much as usual. I followed the SOP for burn treatment and now it's just a little sore, which isn't bad for what was probably a second-degree burn.

...

Holiday photos are up and half-heartedly captioned in the castle.geek.net gallery album for Christmas 2005. I wrote most of the captions while half-awake, so feel free to point out any obvious errors. I'll fix the awkward phrasing in the photo credits from Christmas Day later.

...

Vogon created Netflix identities for me and the midget. Rating films to get better recommendations is interesting. I initially indicated that I liked the Television genre instead of just adding the few series I'd like to see to my queue and now it keeps recommending Sex and the City and Friends even though I click "Not Interested" every time one comes up. Laurel's only favorite genres are Anime & Animation and Children & Family, yet it recommended Friends to her too. Bleh. After adding about a dozen movies to her queue from series or characters I know she likes, we started rating her recommendations and it's getting better, though I had to rate her not interested in Enterprise too after it somehow made that connection.

On that note:
- Which Mr. Show discs would you recommend? Should I just start at the beginning and watch them in order of release?
- Why isn't Robot Chicken Season 1 coming out on DVD until March?
- Is Goodnight Sweetheart ever going to be released on DVD?
- Is anyone else as amused as I am by the end of the voice talent of Bratz: Rock Angelz including Lacey Chabert, Soleil Moon Frye and Wendie Malick? Or that it's even mentioned in the blurb?

Man, we have so got to subscribe to NetFlix. We're starting to run low on interesting finds at Blockbuster, plus NetFlix would be less expensive in the long run. If they offer any refer-a-friend offers, I'd be happy to give one of you guys credit for referring us.

In the last week, we have watched:
( Kinsey, Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical, and Inside Deep Throat. Warning, I make snarky comments about obscenity laws. )

Vogon had a half-day today, so after lunch we went up to the Angelika to see March of the Penguins. I liked it, although we had to take Laurel's shoes off since she kept making them blink. (Amy bought her blinking Disney Princess sandals when we were on vacation because she felt the sandals she had weren't girly enough.) She behaved quite well for not being into the movie as much as the others she's seen in the theater this summer and told Grandma and Aunt Sarah all about it on the phone tonight.

I would like to have done more to celebrate my birthday than lunch out on the actual day and a movie a few days later, but I've been a bit under the weather lately. I picked up a cold last week that's hanging on, another molar abscessed (not as bad as the one earlier this year) and drained, and I have an intermittently piercing earache, although I'm not sure whether it's because of the cold or wax buildup. Vogon picked up a bottle of Similasan Earache Relief for me last night and it relieved the pain enough for me to sleep then and for a late-afternoon nap today.

I started watching My Architect: A Son's Journey earlier this week and am about halfway through it; I hope to finish tonight but if I don't, I will sometime this weekend. I also have The Motorcycle Diaries and My Mother Likes Women to watch on my own after Vogon watched both earlier in the week. We started A Very Long Engagement earlier tonight, but he fell asleep around 2100 in the study. I can wait until he's up again to resume watching it.

In a comment I made comment early in the weekend, I said that our tentative plans were grocery shopping, a little fabric shopping ($1 Simplicity patterns at Hancock Fabrics this weekend), haircuts, possibly seeing Madagascar and going shopping for some basic summer clothes for Laurel. We did that, although not quite in that order.

( Lots of movies, a little shopping and it's a cat tree, not a cathouse! )

In other news, I've been putting in some serious time in PCStitch to get New World Discovery into .pat format as my original paper copy of the pattern is wearing out and it has the strikes against it of being out of print and being sold as a kit, so the chart is nearly impossible to find. I'm about 40% done and if I keep up my pace, I hope to post here and in a few communities once I'm done and ready to share.

Once M*A*S*H is over tonight (the local rerun of it just started season 10 and tonight's the second half of the season opener, "That's Show Biz") I plan to crash and get a sound night's sleep.

Laurel's been gently but consistently exposed to Star Wars all her life. When she outgrew the mobile on her crib, we hung up my X-wing Estes rocket. She's played with my light saber since she could lift it. She's seen the entire original trilogy and The Phantom Menace, and has been watching the animated Clone Wars series with me. Vogon asked yesterday if I wanted to see Revenge of the Sith in the theater (are you kidding?) and Laurel's been lit up ever since.

We saw the afternoon matinee at our local multiplex today with a bunch of Vogon's coworkers. (Only two sat with us, but being near the front is important with a semi-potty-trained kid.) Even that late in the day, we saw two guys dressed as Jedi knights, one dressed as Darth Vader, and one dressed as a storm trooper, which delighted Laurel.

While we were waiting for the movie to start, she colored in a coloring page of Yoda printed from the Galactic Color-Bot and was thrilled when Vogon let her 'hold' the popcorn tub since she was sitting between us. She did pretty well but asked to go to the potty every time she got bored, which made for *six* trips although she only actually needed to go once. I didn't miss any major plot points, but I started to really dislike motion-sensor hand dryers.

Verdict: Well worth seeing.

While taking a quick look at Simplicity's website for a link I wanted to include in a comment yesterday, I noticed on their front page that they've added toddler sizes to their Lizzie McGuire Collection.

In particular, patterns 4522 and 4563 have sizes 6 months to girls' 6. Laurel and I looked at the pattern envelope fronts on the website and she loves the skirts in 4563, so I'll add it to my running list of patterns to consider when Simplicity patterns are on sale.  4721 has cute dresses in a size range that would allow me to make matching mother/daughter dresses... *thinks* Maybe not.

...

Vogon picked out a movie Laurel and I really enjoyed watching together: Fat Albert. He was surprised that I'd loved the cartoon so much (don't know why he was, but hey) and picked up a DVD of the cartoons for me to watch when he returned the two-day rentals from Sunday.

...

Does anyone else find the 30-inch burrito story hysterically funny? I didn't even see it mentioned on the local news here, but they're usually too busy repeating the top stories several times and talking about sports. If I could customize TV news for what I'd like to see, sports coverage would... well, never mind. I would have laughed myself sick if any of the local news anchors had said "a school went into lockdown after a possible weapon sighting that turned out to be a 30-inch burrito...". The targeted advertisements following that story would have to be from Chipotle and Freebirds (one of their shirts reads "unwrap my monster"). Hee.

We all have a rather nasty cold this week, so pardon the mess and my slow replies. Two points of interest regarding it: this is the first time that I can remember where Laurel has caught something before me and only the second time Vogon's taken a sick day since I've been here.

Laurel's been pretty good this week about taking medicine from the medicine spoon, but she was so difficult this morning I wound up using a graduated dropper and giving her infant cold drops. She still asked for a Sore Throat Pop afterward, so I think Vogon found a hit when he picked those up for her.

Vogon and I have been watching the extended version of Ray in fits and starts this week. I like it, aside from the length. (If not for DVDs, I would have virtually stopped seeing new movies after Laurel was born.) We watched Lil' Pimp in one sitting late Monday night and I laughed my butt off through it; I fuzzed in and out through Saw and Hero yesterday. From what I saw of the latter, I'd actually like to watch it again sometime when I'm not sick so I can follow the plot.

I flung the Christmas tree over the patio railing today.

(If the downstairs neighbors even noticed it, they were probably so baked they didn't think it was real.)

After I carried the tree over to the dumpster, we checked the mail (Laurel got a Valentine's package from Grandma Betty) before continuing our afternoon project of getting the patio ready for spring. She helped me clean the concrete with a wet broom and scrub down her water table, chairs and the grill, then I rehung the empty hanging flowerpots while she played at her table in the living room. (Note to self: take the drill out sometime to put up the third plant bracket and bike hooks.)

Vogon located the litterbox air freshener after he came in and disassembled the old refill for fun; apparently we *could* refill it ourselves. Learning about scented oils should be an adventure; any reading/website recommendations are welcome.

Later on we went back to Kroger in search of the $5 LEGO® tubs, but they were sold out. While we were there, Laurel got her Valentine's balloon (a mylar heart that reads "Feliz Dia de San Valentin", she picked it out), we picked out a few new colors of nail polish, and Vogon picked up an Atari paddle controller with 13 TV games from the remaining clearance toys. I'm itching to play with it, but haven't yet because Laurel discovered she loves Breakout! Cthulhu help us, 'cause I don't think any other religious figure will touch that game.

Vogon and I watched most of The Ladykillers tonight, but still have about 20 minutes to go since he nodded off during Medium. So far, it's amusing although I'm mostly into it because of J.K. Simmons.

Tomorrow is a lunch-in day, currently planned for a picnic at the playground, and if the hot tub's warm, Laurel and I will "swim" in the afternoon before the front comes through that should bring the temperature down to seasonal values later this week.

Over the weekend, we checked out the $1 and $2/yard fabrics at Wal-Mart; we didn't find anything good for the tepee but we did pick up a bunch of nice prints for boxes and bowls, a cute Halloween print I sent along to the Moms [insert Infinite Jest joke here], and Laurel picked out a colorful polka-dot print I need to think about a good use for, perhaps a bag lining. We also made some great kids' sale-rack finds (a few shirts for Laurel but mostly things for me) and picked up some cute underwear for me including Supergirl panties, which I hope to find as empowering as spasmsproject did. I feel so girly now! We also hit the new dollar store at Frankford and Marsh, which was amazing and a bit strange.

I may write up short reviews of our latest batch of movie rentals. So far, we've watched King Arthur, which we both liked enough to add to our 'to buy' list. Fellow Keira Knightley fans will enjoy her costuming. *drools* Much to my delight, our second-closest Blockbuster has a respectable foreign movie selection, so my pick of this batch was the Iranian movie Booye kafoor, atre yas [Smell of Camphor, Fragrance of Jasmine]. It should be interesting since I understand very little Farsi beyond a few bits I remember from when haoma82 was studying it.

We walked out to run errands this afternoon since it was too chilly to spend much time at the playground. I activated my new debit card (with his photo on my card, but the civilian customer service is much kinder, apologized profusely and is sending a new card) at the ATM since their phone activation service suggested it, we shipped a package with my sisters' gifts, and we found the ghetto dollar store closed for defaulting on their lease. We took our sweet time at the grocery store but made some good finds -- Palmolive with aloe, mini corn dogs and Juicy Juice juice boxes on sale, and I treated myself to a large vanilla Frappucino. It feels good to have money of my own again. (:

In good reproductive health news, I found out from menstrual_cups there's an FDA-approved silicone cervical cap and it's available through Planned Parenthood, so it looks like yours truly may get a long-overdue exam and find out if this form of non-hormonal, non-latex contraception works as well for me as I hope it will. I'm calling my local clinic in the morning.

After telling Laurel several times today not to run indoors, she came barreling out of her room and went over sideways after stepping on a coloring page she'd dropped on the floor. I tried very hard not to laugh. She's fine, of course.

We spent most of the weekend lazing around watching movies or, in my case, falling asleep a few minutes into various movies. I liked the The Royal Tenenbaums (the DVD gets bonus points for having the Studio 360 segment on Miguel Calderón in the bonus features) and Laurel adored The Triplets of Belleville, which didn't surprise me since she loves Amélie. (I love Jeunet's movies, so it's nice we can share that even though it'll be awhile before I think she's old enough to see more than that and maybe City of Lost Children.)

On Saturday, I finally got around to opening a bank account in my name alone (a lesson learned from being married), we discovered a Japanese market a few blocks away from our house and we made sushi that night with wasabi so fresh I took the same amount I usually do and it made my eyes water. On Sunday, the three of us polished off an entire package of edamame after Vogon showed Laurel how to get the beans out of the pod.

The only downside to the weekend was being sick, but my sinuses and menses double-teaming me is thankfully rare and we had ample amounts of bitchwort and heating pads so I camped out on the loveseat and watched movies through the worst of it. Hopefully, ovulating twice in one cycle will be even rarer, although it only made the cramping worse the first day. (Thank goodness!)

I thought we started out well today following as much of a morning routine as we've established but Laurel became increasingly obstinate over lunchtime and into the afternoon. In reply to the screaming tantrum she threw at naptime (she needs a nap after lunch or she's a real pill by 1800) I took the little TV out of her room. She responded by being even louder, but she has to learn that behaving like that is unacceptable. If she wants to watch children's television and videos in her room, she has to learn how to control herself. I don't know if that's asking too much of a four and a half year old, but I'm all ears to suggestions.

Now that she's asleep, I'm off to fold laundry and file/pull sewing patterns. I keep getting behind with them. Now that Vogon's been inspired to make a teepee since we both loved Richie's tent in The Royal Tenenbaums and have a pattern for one (Butterick B4251), we should look through our fabric stash too.

Note to self: pick up more Bissell cleaning fluid and a non-crinkly mattress protector so you can clean and protect Laurel's bed from smelling funny instead of Febrezing it every time you wash her sheets.

edit 1900: She woke up in a much better mood and agreed to voluntarily sit on the potty two times to earn her TV back, which she did in less than half an hour after waking (one resulting in a successful potty use). I'm still thinking about making a teepee, although I should price PVC since the pattern calls for six 1.5" diameter pieces of PVC pipe, 84" long each. Wiggy.

One thing I am good at when sufficiently motivated is being Really Damned Annoying. I'm often slow to respond (I need to stew for awhile), but I'm effective when I finally strike.

Our noisy downstairs neighbors started their three-song playlist and drunken mariachi karaoke at 0230 on Christmas Day, keeping Vogon and I awake at an hour we really wanted to be asleep. We mitigated the worst of it by turning on music in our apartment, but I want something different for New Year's Eve.

While thinking about what genre or specific artist would be effective at canceling out the neighbor's noise and pleasing to both of us, I was reading through the syndicated feeds I subscribe to through LiveJournal. In the Language Hat article "Bollywood Language", I followed a link to Bollywood for the Skeptical and was delighted to find NINETEEN tracks from movies available for free download.

[in Montgomery Burns voice] Excellent.

I've been quiet lately since I have an abscess against one of my molars that's giving me guff (every time I use that word I imagine HST shouting "Don't take any guff from those swine!") and I keep unconsciously clenching my teeth. I'm irrigating it regularly with a 2:1 water-peroxide solution in the Waterpik, so it should clear up in a few days.

We tagged along with Vogon to Stonebriar Centre early Saturday evening and Laurel chose the exact same carousel horse she rode in May, which I found amusing. I may post a photo of it after I unload the camera.

Holiday cards are finally going out later today. It's later than I'd planned, but I figure better late than never. My sister found the two booklets of stamps I bought for last year's never-sent cards and called me to say thanks for the stamps but no thanks for addressing all the envelopes so she couldn't use them. Heh.

Note to self: remember to write blurbs about The Saddest Music in the World and Bollywood Queen for TODCRA.

Vogon's feeling under the weather today and I had a few errands to run, so we gave him some quiet time and walked out to run errands. I feel silly now that I was afraid to cross Trinity Mills with Laurel for so long. She's a champ at telling me when the crosswalk light changes.

( The highlight reel includes a few new-to-us movies, fun in the shipping store, and new things from the grocery store I've decided to try. )

We had our daily moment of Zen on the way home, not counting the guy that slowed down on Midway and stared at us. As we were approaching our complex, we saw a dachshund walking down the alley about ten feet away from us. Laurel dropped her bag, which had her hat and DVDs in it, and yelled "I LOVE YOU WEENIE DOG!". The dog just looked at us for a minute, barked a couple of times and ran to the back door of the nearest house. I'm glad Laurel didn't want to take it home.

After we got home, Laurel was thrilled to find a package from her Grandma Dorothy, Himself's paternal grandmother, and we opened the magnetic paper dolls my folks sent since she wasn't interested in watching a movie yet. She's never been quiet for so long when she's not getting into trouble. I am humbled by their ability to find things for Laurel that she loves so much she'll use an indoor voice while playing with them.

For Sass and Baroness, a little Ovid: Perfer et obdura; dolor hic tibi proderit olim. [Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you.]

While skimming back issues of Heroic Stories, I spotted an ad for Animusic and popped over to their website out of curiosity. Instant senory lust ensued and it struck me as a perfect holiday gift for Laurel.

If she likes it, I hope Animusic 2 (due out next year) is available in time for her birthday.

Before I sink money into trying them, does anyone have any experience with DiscGuard film or other products that protect CDs and DVDs from scratches? I'm looking for something to help prolong the life of Laurel's DVDs (a few succumbed to radial cracks before we laid down that she has to ask before switching discs) and have no idea where to start looking.

I realize the logical answer is that I didn't hear about it because we don't have cable, but why didn't anyone tell me that there's an Earthsea miniseries airing this month on Sci Fi? I'd like to think that you were all kind enough not to tell me about it because the director hauled it off into some moralizing drivel about uniting belief systems (gag) and, more importantly, changed important parts of the story. I understand that the timeframe of a movie requires significant dropping of detail from the book, but radically changing things is Bad and Wrong. (If you think I'm being harsh, read UKL's own comments.)

I'm wavering on whether I want to rent it once it's out on DVD. It probably can't be worse than the 2002 A&E production of The Lathe of Heaven, although that made me want to bleach my brain. Vogon still needs to see the 1980 PBS production on DVD, but he agreed the 2002 production had swank costuming -- is there any further sign I need to prove he has incredibly good taste? He could probably say the same about me owning paperbacks of the original Earthsea trilogy with the Pauline Ellison cover art.

Speaking of cover art, I have a mint condition copy of the mid-1990s printing of Tehanu with the bright red cover I'd be willing to trade for an edition with a less-jarring cover, but not one of the movie ones. (I despise movie covers of books.) I also need to get off my butt already and buy paperbacks of Tales from Earthsea and The Other Wind since I was lazy and just borrowed them from the library for my first reading. (Yes, I reread my favorite books on a regular basis; right now, I reread the original Earthsea trilogy, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy and and an assortment of miscellaneous other books that touched me every three years or so.)