Stuff Outta My Head

No, really. Amazon is rank, and a move like this makes me glad I look to abebooks.com or my indie bookstores in town (or hell, even B&N) before buying from Amazon.com.

If you're not up on the story, this link - Amazon Rank - will give you the basics.  For an author's point of view, here's a post from an author whose book was deranked.  And here's just another random blog post, the first I read, that has several links about the stupidity of Amazon.com.

Finally, if you want to raise awareness of this you can fill out the online petition, and read this page here, and do your part to expand awareness of Amazon's short sightedness.

I might have more coherent thoughts on this later, but that's all I can muster right now.

(or, how M never ceases to amaze me)

Tuesday was a gorgeous day and evening, and we'd planned to grill burgers and sweet potato fries.  There was a bit of prep involved, though (I had to make the burger patties and Rae was cutting the sweet potatoes and mixing in the spices) and M, bless her heart, was waiting somewhat patiently in the kitchen for one of us to be finished so we could go outside and play with her (she's been riding her bike and wanting to shoot hoops down at a neighbor's house).  While waiting (and asking, perhaps not quite as often as she could have, when we'd be finished so we could go outside) she got the urge for a snack.  She asked once for a piece of chocolate (we still have chocolate from V-day) and when I said not before dinner she asked for an apple, to which I of course agreed.  When she opened the fridge to get one, she saw a tupperware of sliced red bell peppers that I had left over from something last week (omelets?) and asked if she could have those instead.

Now, I know she likes red bell peppers.  It's one of her favorite things to snack on when we make homemade pizzas.  We know this because we try just about everything with her (like red and yellow onions, garlic, sage sausage and fresh shredded mozzarella when we make pizzas) because she's curious and we want her to know what stuff tastes like before she poo-poos it.  By doing this she's discovered that she really likes raw, fresh cut red bell peppers.

Back to Tuesday.  She changes her mind, asks about the peppers, to which I say, in a rather shocked fashion, Sure, sweetie, if you'd like.  She grabs them, sits right on the floor, opens up the tupperware and begins munching contentedly.  Rae is dumbfounded, and I'm smirking at M as she noms her second slice, and we go back to prepping dinner.  About half way through the tupperware M says, I sure like these red peppers.  By the time Rae and I are finished with our work, M's eaten the entire tupperware full of red bell peppers.  She pops up, actually thanks me for the snack, and she and Rae head out to shoot some hoops.

It just goes to show how much we parents do have a say in the habits our kids form.  Sure, she asked for a piece of chocolate first, when isn't candy the first thing on a kid's mind?  But when told not before dinner, she found another, healthy alternative, and was actually happy for it.

And she got her piece of chocolate as an evening snack - after dinner.

Yeah, I know, it's Wednesday and I'm just now getting around to writing about the weekend. I've been busy. In fact, I really don't have time to write much right now, so this'll just be a quick recap of the highlights.

Saturday is swim lesson day. While we were there, we ran into some acquaintances from swim and t-ball last spring, and got to chatting with them about the kids (their girl is a year older than M, and they have a 10 year old boy). Come to find out that R is in kindergarten at the same school M will go to in the fall. She'll have a buddy at her new school! We're all very excited by this, as hopefully it'll make the transition easier. We'll see.

Saturday also brought a renewed interest in her Big Girl Bike. Yes, the bike we bought for her birthday last year, and which she's ridden a total of .. once. Well, Saturday Rae was able to convince M to give the bike a try this spring, since she's grown so much in a year. She did, and the two spent an hour (or more?) ridding around the neighborhood, back and forth. She loved it, and it's all she's wanted to do since.

Saturday was also the first grill of the season, and I grilled a serloin while Pop sauteed some huge sea scallops and asparagus. Top it off with some olive oil and rosemarry bread and a great red wine, and it was a lovely dinner. Great way to start grill season.

Sunday, after lunch, we took M to Grant's Trail so she could continue to ride her bike and we could have some more interesting scenery than just walking back and forth in the neighborhood. We walked while M rode, and we covered 2.5 miles in about 90 minutes. It was a lot of fun, she learned the rules of the trail, stayed in her lane, moved over when it got crowded and pedaled the entire 2.5 miles. We stopped to look at the Clydesdales at Grant's Farm Stables, and even took a pitstop to hunt for four-leaf-clovers. We had one minor mishap as she was watching some birds instead of where she was going, and went off the trail and down in the culvert, which Rae stopped her from falling, but got her ankle banged up in the process. Rae's ok, just bruised, and M learned the lesson that when you're riding your bike, you can't be doing other things.

Monday was more bike riding in the neighborhood while I grilled porkchops and Rae made asparagus and a rice dish. After dinner there was more playing in the neighborhood and we got to visit with a younger couple that have a 2 year old who live just two houses down. It was a great visit, and M even gave the little girl her tricycle (because she's all about the Big Girl Bike now, y'know). Yesterday was playing with the older neighborhood girls while I grilled burgers and sweet potato fries, with fresh salad and excellent rootbeer (a new one we'd never had before - very spicey and rooty!). Can you tell we've been waiting for the weather to get nice again!?

M's running commentary before it got started:

M: Michelle Obama, poppa! Look, it's Michelle Obama!
***
M: Poppa, where do you think Sasha and Malia are? Do you think they might come out with Barack Obama, with their dad?
Me: No, sweetie, I think they're at home tonight.
M: Nah, you're proabably right, they're probably with a sitter.
***
M: Poppa, look! There's Barack Obama! Hi, Barack Obama! Look, poppa! Why did he just kiss that woman?
***
M (pulling up her stuffed chair to in front of the TV): Why is he shaking everybody's hand? I couldn't clap that long, my hands would hurt.
M: Barack Obama just waved to me! Hi, Barack Obama!

***
M: Poppa, is our Vice President Joe Biden?
Me: Yep, there he is in the background, with the blue tie.
M: Oh, hey, there he is, there's our Vice President Joe Biden! Hi, Joe Biden! How do you spell Joe?
Me: J*O*E
M: J*O*E And how do you spell Biden?
Me: B*I*D*E*N
M: B*I*D*E*N (then I hear her whispering Joe Biden, and spelling it out, once, twice, three times) I love Joe Biden, he looks cool. Why does it look like he's sleeping?
Me: He's not, sweetie, he's just looking down.
M: Oh, it looks like his eyes are closed. He looks like he's sleeping.

***
M: Who's the woman in the green shirt?
Me: Nancy Palosi
M: Nancy Palosi? (says "Nancy Palosi" to her self) That's a funny name. Nancy Palosi.

***
M: She claps fast. What's her name again?
Me: Nancy Palosi.
M: Nancy Palosi. I giggle every time I say her name. Nancy Palosi. She claps faster than Joe Biden.

Made chili yesterday, for dinner tonight. I have to say, I make damn good chili.  This was a bit different than my 'usual' in a few ways.  One, I ground my own beef this time.  Gotta find the pics, but I used the meat grinder attachment for my KitchenAid Mixer and ground up some Chuck and Top Sirloin with the coarse grind plate (also called chili grind).  Two, I ran out of chili powder (only had 2T) and ended up using the fresh "Southwest" spices (another 3T) which turned out to be a milder chili powder with some other flavors.  Third, I used an amber ale rather than the oatmeal stout I usually use.  The difference in taste was mild, I think the biggest difference being in the Southwest for the chili powder, which still gave a lot of flavor without the heat.  This was good thing to The Girls, and it's easy to overdo the chili powder for me, so having less of it, and sitll getting good flavor was a good thing.  I also had another bottle of the ale, which is very tasty, and a great way to start a relaxing evening.

Fancy Nancy at the Museum by Jane O'Connor

 

My review

  rating: 4 of 5 stars
M seems to really enjoy this book, but as a Firs Reader book, it has some pretty difficult words in it.  That's not to say it's not good, it is.  The story is fun, and M likes hearing the big fancy words and the bits of French (merci!) that get sprinkled throughout.  It's a fun read and easy enough to explain the fancy words, I just think she'll learn more of the words in this book through listening and looking at the words and memorizing rather than sounding them out on her own.  Not a bad thing, just a different approach to the First Reader.
 

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Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
Well, for the past long long while we've had a drip in the faucet in the tub.  I'd finally had enough of it keeping me up at night, so last Monday, on my day off, I tried to tackle the leak. I know enough DIY plumbing that I knew I needed to remove the stem of each knob and replace the washer at the back of the stem.  Thing was, when I took the knobs off, and removed a few more bits, I didn't see the sort of stem I expected to see. Simply, there wasn't a nut in the middle of the stem to turn the stem out.  So I put it all back together and went to see Coraline in 3D.

Today, I thought I'd tackle it again since I had half a day of good daylight to see in the bathroom.  After we all went to the bathroom for the last time and I turned off the water, I pulled the knobs off again and got to where I was on Monday.  I got a little braver and scraped some stuff off around the pipe of one knob, and even got in from behind through the wall behind the fridge in the kitchen (there was already a hatch cut into the wall to see the plumbing).  Still stumped, I took some pictures and printed them off and took them to my Ace Hardware around the corner.

Joe, the old guy at Ace took a look at the pictures, listened to what I thought I was seeing, then had a pretty good idea of what was going on.  Funny thing was he'd never seen a faucet/knob quite like I was describing, and what the pictures were showing.  He said, "You know what I'd do if I was you?" To which I replied, "Call a plumber?" He laughed, said no, I didn't need a plumber and he was confident I could tackle this.  He explained to me why he thought I wasn't seeing the sort of thing I expected, and told me exactly what to do to get it off.  I ran back home, did exactly as he said, and there it was, suddenly I had a knob stem in my hand.  It looked and operated exactly as he said it would, and I ran back to Ace (thankfully it's only 2 minutes away) and showed him what I had.  He got me set up with some washers and plumber's grease (to make taking out the 54-year old stems easier the next time I have to), and I was back home in 10 minutes and taking care of the second knob.  In they went, on went the water, and voila! no drip!

Hmm, no, I don't have a picture of the finished product, and I'm too lazy right now to run up and take one.  It just looks like a tub now, but with no drip.

Picky Nicky: A Picture Reader with 24 Flash Cards by Cathy East Dubowski

 

My review

  rating: 5 of 5 stars
My kiddo got this for Xmas past (it's now Feb) and she just recently pulled it out to start reading it.  I like a lot about this First Reader book.  First, it has a bunch of words she already knows (mom, dad, is, the, Picky Nicky) which is a real boost to her feeling like she can do this whole reading thing.  Second, there are obviously words she doesn't know, but she can sound out easily enough.  They don't have tricky silent sounds or difficult combination sounds, and it doesn't take her long to latch onto the right letter sound (like hard or soft e, or remembering that th is "th") and figure out what the word says.  Third, it also has pictures that she can see and "read", and what's more the picture words rhyme, so that further helps and gives it a sometimes sing-song quality that makes reading fun.  Of the three first reader books she got, I like this one the best.
 

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Evidence that M's actually learning something at preschool.

The scene: Tuesday night, Rae and M watching college basketball after cartoons (just before bedtime).
M: Mom, I'm rooting for the green guys [I think Michigan State was playing]
Rae: Well that's good then, because I think the green guys are winning
M looks at the TV.
M: Do they have 47?
Rae looks at the TV.
Rae: (a little shocked) Yes they do! How did you know that?
M: (rather proud of herself) I just looked at the score, and 47 is the bigger number.

So, she knows her team's winning, looks at the score to find the bigger number, and knows what that number is when looking at it.  She didn't say "Do they have four and seven" which she sometimes does, she said "forty-seven", and not only that but knew it was bigger than the other number and that that was her team's score.  It made me smile.

This cracks me up.  Apparently some hackers are messing with electronic message boards along highways around the country, warning people of zombies ahead.  Here in STL a signed was changed to read "DAILY LANE CLOSURES DUE TO ZOMBIES."  In Austin, TX signs were seen to read "Zombies ahead . . . the end is near . . . run for cold climates!" and "Zombies ahead! Run for your lives!"  The article on the NBC affiliate in Austin ended with:

Do you believe in zombies? Do you have a zombie escape plan? Let us know what you think about zombies by participating in our message board .

This has added humor to me right now because I just finished reading World War Z, an amazing, must-read book recounting the worldwide zombie war as an oral history.  That and the appearance of zombies in The Day The Saucers Came has got me appreciating  the zombie form right now.  I know I've got a lot on my To Read list, but The Zombie Survival Guide is going to the top.  There's just too much zombie talk to be a coincidence, and I don't want to be caught unprepared.