We had pizza night at home tonight. We make pizza together about once a month and it's pretty fun. Somehow one of the crusts was butchered when backs were turned, and one of the pizzas was pretty shabby looking.
Ruby has been carrying around a nativity scene baby Jesus for a while now. Ruby and Jesus and I watched the pizzas bake. Ruby declared "Baby Jesus likes it."
By the way, the new TV is great. I don't even care what I'm watching as long as it's HD. I know entertainment isn't really important at all, but really, I mean, it's like being in the TV store!
Shawn
i feel like i accomplished a couple of things today. it has been a pretty exciting day so far. shawn actually did bring home a tv this morning and it sure looks better than the last one we had. our last tv was turning all red for some reason. to be honest, it was probably a 15 year old tv, so it really was past it's prime. anyway--the colors were all fading out except for red, so instead of a black and white tv it was a black and red tv. it was really gross. it honestly gave me a headache if i tried to watch anything on it. but the girls didn't really seem to mind, so they would watch cartoons on it sometimes--just occasionally complaining that the colors looked funny. so--shawn brought the new tv home but didn't have time to hook it up because he had to go to work, so i hooked it up! yep--that's right. i hooked up a brand new television all by myself. actually--even more impressive than all by myself--with 2 preschoolers helping me! i hooked up the dvd player and the cable and everything. i was pretty proud of myself.
we watched clifford and curious george on it and we were totally amazed by all the colors! i forgot that cartoons were colorful. i guess i had sort of thought that the shows were called, "clifford the big red dog, and all his friends are red too!", and "curious george, the little red monkey!"
anyway--something even more exciting happened after we were done watching cartoons. the girls and i went downstairs, and beaver was acting really funny in the living room. beaver is our cat, if you didn't already know that. he was kind of sniffing and pawing at one of my end tables so i lifted it up to see what he was looking at--and a mouse darted across the room! now--i am not afraid of mice at all, but it is a little shocking when a wild animal is running through your living room. i yelled. the girls came running to see what i was yelling about and i told them that beaver was chasing a mouse in the living room.
ruby ran away into the dining room yelling, "i scared! i scared!" and she climbed up onto a chair, and lucy said, "can i pet him? where is he? what do mice eat? i'm gonna name him roger! is beaver gonna eat him? what color is he?..." it was pretty hilarious so far.
so--lucy, beaver and i chased the mouse around the room for 15 minutes or so, and then beaver got bored. come on! this is the most exciting thing that is going to happen to beaver probably in the next year, and he gives up! what kind of cat is that!? so lucy and i chased the mouse around for a few more minutes and finally i had him cornered under a rocking chair and i caught him in a paper bag! beaver got bored and i caught the mouse! it was hilarious and fun and really satisfying. i let lucy look at (but not touch) the mouse for a little bit, and i showed it to ruby so that she could see that mice are not scary (she was still a little skeptical), and then i tossed him outside. i know--he'll probably just come right back inside, but maybe he'll remember how terrifying it is to have lucy, beaver, and i chasing him and he'll stay outside like a good mouse should.
valerie
I'm preparing myself mentally for waiting in line at Target in the morning to attempt to put my grubby paws on a 37" Olevia LCD TV for $549.99, limit 2 per customer. I am posting my daring intent partially because declaring it out loud might keep me from chickening out when the alarm goes off at 5am. Fortunately for me, the girls have been waking up between 5 and 6 for weeks so this will not be far from the norm for me.
I wonder what percentage of people who participate in this have a sense of humor about it. I think it must be a lot, but some of them are probably just competitive classy americans who pride themselves on saving 12 bucks on the latest tickle me elmo limit 5 per customer.
If anyone reads this Thursday night, you're welcome to join me for some early morning amusement, if anyone else is participating in things of this nature, good luck and tell me about it.
Happy T-day
Shawn
You know how when you talk to someone who's mostly asleep but slightly awake, sometimes they talk hilarious nonsense? Well they do. I don't know why it happens that way, but it's true.
A couple nights ago, I heard Ruby crying like she does several times every night, and having trained myself to fly out of bed and be a responsible helpful dad, I jumped up, walked around the bed, paused, and it occurred to me that I was going to need something before I went in there.
"Hand me the- ... ... dessert."
Very matter of fact, as if I'd finally put my finger on it. Now that I think about it, I didn't need to take anything with me. I was just confused because I woke up too fast. Reminds me of the time a couple months ago, exact same scenario, wake up to go comfort a kid-
"I need the dynamite."
I don't know what sort of mental mixup that came out of. Sometimes when I say stuff like that, Val just sends me back to bed and takes care of it. At least I tried.
If you have a hilarious sleep-talking story, I'd love to hear it.
Shawn
Last week, the pending R2 change cleanup was interrupted by screaming girls and the front seat floor remained full of change, gold dollar coins and everything. The crackhead that ransacked the car looking for change a while back was apparently so focused on scraping up 35 cents that he missed the motherload on the floor by his feet. If he only knew.
Since we now have disclosed to the internet the location of this easy money, in order to protect the assets, I have moved R2 to a more secure location and assigned his previous duties holding up the magazines.
I don't know about you, but when I first read about R2 going flying, the visualization in my head included that R2 bleepy bloop squeak sound when he crashed into the dash.
I feel safe here. I mean, the car's only been sacked 3 times in 4 years and only once did they actually take it with them. And we got it back, so no biggie, right?
Shawn
and what you really want for your birthday is a no pants day, I think you're entitled.
Shawn
There's a new guy at work who is doing very well named Mark Moroni.
Say it a few times fast, I think it's kind of funny.
I really want to say things like "sup macaroni" when I see him, but I'm not sure if he has a sense of humor about it, as I don't know him well.
It is my opinion that if you are able to laugh at yourself, that entitles you to make light of things about somebody else, like a name that sounds like macaroni. Not maliciously, just in fun, because I really like the guy, and it's not like it dominates his identity, there's just that one funny thing.
Mark, if you should ever in your lifetime google your own name and find my blog, know that from the start, I think fairly highly of you and I hope you make a million dollars at Energy Savings. I'm not making fun, just mild amusement.
so--here at the stonesifer house we have a moderately sized R2D2 cookie jar that we use as our change bucket. meaning--that's where all our loose change goes. when we empty out our pockets at night we put all the change in R2. of course--that meant something a little different here when shawn was waiting tables. he worked at a couple different restaurants over the span of--i dont know--2 1/2 years? anyway--that means that he was bringing home a lot of change. a lot. so R2 is still full to the brim of change from when shawn was waiting tables a few years ago. even though i pay with change everytime i go through the drive thru to get the girls a quick lunch or to get myself a tasty coffee treat, R2 is still completely full of change!
the most annoying thing about R2D2 is really where we keep him in our house. there is actually no good place to keep a large plastic R2D2 cookie jar that is full of change. i dont want the girls to get to it, but i need to be able to get to it, but it is not really a nick-nack that i want to display. so R2's current home is the top shelf in our bedroom. this shelf is just above my head and for some reason it is packed with magazines. i dont know why we keep magazines and i dont know why we keep them on the top shelf. R2 acts as a bookend on this magazine shelf and keeps the magazines from flopping down and falling all over the floor. so--the problem here is that if i ever have to actually take R2 down from the shelf the magazines flop all over the floor. so--i dont usually take him down, i just reach up there and try to fish out a '2 happy meal sized' wad of change.
that usually works okay, but a couple of weeks ago, i had to drive to the suburbs for an appointment and shawn was already in the suburbs for work. he had our one and only ipass. so i thought--that's okay, i'll just take R2. so--i grabbed R2 off of the shelf and immediately all of the magazines flopped off on to the floor. i was annoyed, but i didn't have time to take care of the magazines because i was running late. so i ran to the car with R2 and drove to rolling meadows. it was annoying to pay with change the whole way there, but not really that big of a deal, i guess. here's where it gets really annoying: part way home from rolling meadows i had to stop pretty quickly and R2 went flying. FLYING. there was change everywhere. when i got home, i was still so annoyed that i didn't even clean it up. in fact--here it is 2 weeks later and i STILL haven't cleaned it all up. i think deep down i was hoping that a druggie or a punk junior high kid would steal it so that i wouldn't have to pick up all that change or put R2 back on his shelf. oh well. here i am--off to pick up all the change out of the front seat of my car, load up R2D2 and put him back in his place on the magazine shelf.
valerie
On Sunday, we ate lunch at the Sunrise Restaurant in Monroe Center.
That reminds me of the time 8 years ago when we ate at a Sunrise in Rochelle with Gary Brown and had Chicken Parmesan so bad that, uh... can't find the words...
I mean it was real bad. No words to describe. I'll never forget.
Sunday, I had a breakfast skillet, Val had a burger, and the girls split a Mickey Mouse Pancake, which kind of defeats the purpose. All things considered, this time around, the Sunrise was pretty nice.
We heard some really hysterical screaming from upstairs, and when Val got upstairs to see what had happened to Lucy, Lucy bellowed
"I DIDN'T GET HURT I DIDN'T GET SCRATCHED BEAVER DIDN'T GET ANGRY"
He scratched her pretty good, but I've seen the level of disrespect that cat receives when she thinks no one is watching. I'm sure she earned it. Beaver may be on the bottom of the totem pole in this house, but I think he just got a little more self-respect.
Lucy's emotional responses always use curious grammar and word choices. And gibberish.
Shawn
