Men and Clay

I am greatly amused by man.

What is it with men and clay?

Youngest has a scorpion project. Has to do a report on it's habitat and the scorpion cannot be a store bought plastic toy. Nope. It can be made with anything you want, but it has to be homemade.

I had to work so I asked my DH to help out youngest. Good gravy!
It became "The Project"

He SHOPPED for the right clay,
He ORGANIZED the items he'd need; stood there and basically said, "Rally the troups, I need...rattled off a long list of stuff that had me scurrying all over the place to find the stuff. Why me? I seem to be the ONLY person who knows Where Everything Important Is In The House.
Married Women or Women who do Domestic Sharing the world over, know of this syndrome.

Then he referred to the pile of books I picked out from the library.
Obvioulsy, I chose wisely. There was the perfect detailed picture he required for his masterpiece.

He then proceeded to make his OWN scorpion whilst youngest watched and sort of copied the technique yet making the little critter entirely his own creation, including sticking a piece of tooth pick in the tail for the stinger.
Nothing like a little reality. ::shudder::

In the end, the result was pretty impressive. DH was SO into it too -- it was pretty funny.

If/when he decides to commit to something, he is 100% focused.
And he likes to play with clay.
Who knew?

My Favorite Kid Quote

I guess my last post was a bit...macabre.

*grin*

I have a variety of interests.

Today I'm going to share my favorite quote from this past weekend.

When stating the intention of tracking down where the sky divers/jumpers we'd been watching spiral and float to the ground originated from, the young man said:

"Oh, I've done that before. I'm an expert!", chest puffed out in pride.

I looked at him aghast.

"Your parents have let you sky dive? You had lessons? When was that?!"

"Oh, well..." chest deflates. I've actually done it on Play Station 3.
But I'm REALLY good at it!"

You have to give him credit for enthusiasm. *giggle*

Just remembering the look on this young man's face as he boasted with the best of them, keeps me giggling long after it happened. Art Linkletter sure had it right.

Kids really DO say the darndest things...

Vampirism vs.Water

Vamps. Vampires. The romance paranormal genre or sub genre is alive and still biting. Intelligent vampires are sexy when they bite responsibly. I'm sure you've heard the slogan, Drink Responsibly? Well, vampires need to bite responsibly. If they existed. I'm only talking about the fantasy ones...the unguys that appear in romance books. I'm not touching the box with the people inside who think they ARE real, or indeed think themselves as potential living un-undead. Do two negatives make a positive? Do two UNs make a living vamp, an un-vamp? ::ouch:: Brain hurts. Anyway...I'm talking about vampirism in general. No wait, I'm changing the subject is what I'm doing. Vampirism in the natural world. Natural. As in animals and stuff. Everyone knows about ticks and leeches and mosquitoes. Very common blood suckers that help man but gross out man at the same time, as in the case of leeches. Or impart deadly and debilitating diseases via tick and mosquito bites. And of course, I'd be remiss in not mentioning everyone's favorite mammal, the vampire bat. But if you've not caught some recent discoveries on TV, let me enlighten you to some newbies on the block: The Vampire Butterfly The Vampire Bird. Yep, they exist. The final two ended up evolving that way, so the experts say, as a means to survive in a drought ridden area. That makes me wonder. Someday, it is predicted that drinkable water will be scarce. And yes, the technology exists now to reclaim water from salt water and water mixed with...body fluids, as in the space station. That occurs with some high costs though, doesn't it? Just think...in the future, if water becomes worth more than gold; if water becomes a commodity only the oil-rich, politically-rich, drug-rich, armament-rich populace can afford, where would that leave the rest of the masses on the planet? What other sources would we use for hydration? What resource is abundant and all around us since it would no longer be water? Other people? Blood then. Would we turn to the lessons of nature that forced a butterfly and a specie of bird to turn to vampirism to drink blood for its moisture content alone? So, for the genre that writes apocolyptic stories, dark romantic fantasy stories, what would the romance journey look like? Would mythical vampires be in competition then, with humans who have had to turn to blood drinking for survival? They, the living, to continue to live, turn into living monsters, the very things they reviled? And feared? How could there be anything romantic in that? It sounds like a nightmare. But then again, the power of love transcends a lot. I wonder what it would read like. I'm not the sharpest stake in the bag, but I can say I'm not the only one who thinks of such things. Frank Herbert, in his DUNE series touched on that. Those suits reclaimed body fluids and I thought it was a great idea when I'd first read the series in the early 80s. The thing I found most fascinating was that when a body died, its fluids, its water, was reclaimed so that the family the person belonged to had their water - or the victor claimed that moist treasure as spoils of battle/war. But that was a book, a sci/fi fantasy. I wonder. What will be our reality? Blood for water? Body reclamation? I hope water never becomes that kind of bargaining chip because, personally, I'd prefer reading about it in a fantasy. At least I'll wake up from that one. What do you think???

Thoughts of Were

I was cruising in cyberspace and came upon the coolest tidbit about Werewolves. One of the myths is for when a werewolf dies. Did you ever hear that when a Werewolf dies, it becomes a vampire? What a cool concept. Why haven't the paranormal romantic suspense writers jumped on that bandwagon? And I was thinking.... yes, yes I know, bad thing. Silver bullets were not always around. Guns have only been propelling balls of metal through the air for a couple of centuries. What was used back in ancient times? Silver didn't make for a strong sword, did it? What did they do, make silver balls and use a sling shot? I can't say that would be too effective when the weres have super speed. And lets face it, women back then did not learn hand-to-hand combat, so a silver knife would have been a joke - on the woman. And hand-to-hand anything is too close to teeth and infection. Right? Hmmm, silver barrettes? I'm going to style your fur in a killer coiffure? Naw..too silly. I cannot think of a single long range weapon that can be utilzed quickly and be made of silver that could have been applied in the ancient days. Can you? So that means, werewolves had the right of might on their side until the invention of the gun. What a culture shift that would have been! Anyone with a writing bug can see the possibilites in this, right? And yet, and yet, as the myths unfold, werewolves never gained a majority. So what held them in check? Slayers? I can't see them being too effective prior to long range weaponry. I think I would enjoy others' take on this. Sure, it's a fanciful and unrealistic topic. Then again, some of the best and well loved tales and movies of the past deal with vampires and things that go bump in the night. What I would like to know, what bumped them right back?? Care to share your thoughts? LOL

I threw the clock out the window

And time really flew!

Look at the calendar.
It's May.

We have a graduation, a Confirmation and our anniversary this month.
We've had a sleep deprived EEG and another coming up before the end of the month.
Why?
It's been busy. My youngest was diagnosed with Petit Mal seizures.
Then he ended up having a Grand Mal on the school playground.
Imagine a young person who goes unconscious one place and wakes up to awareness in an ambulance speeding to who-knows-where, surrounded by strangers, strapped to a gurney with an IV sticking out of your arm.
Terrifying.

The school reacted very professionally and with consideration. The rumors that started were almost immediate: His head split open, he broke his leg, amongst a few. Kids sure can be creative when it comes to drama.

My eldest had a M.D. appt which required him to be taken out of school early.
What do you think happened?
One of his peers called later that day and asked him why he had to leave school so suddenly, did he have Swine Flu?

Sheesh! Kids seems to be fascinated with dramatic mortality.

As far as a favorite thing, books, I've discovered Christine Warren. I ordered every book in the Other series and I read them one after the other. I love when I can do that. I feel like I'm immersed in another world, getting to know the characters and unlike soap operas, it doesn't take a year to make a point. Well, when I come in late to a series it can work that way, LOL

I saw Star Trek yesterday. Oh my GOSH! How did everyone keep the secret? I LOVED what they did!
I try to talk to my DH about all the great parts but he's not into dissecting things. He was OK with the movie. Okay because he expected more like the old series whereas I was wide open to the possibilities. I was not disappointed in any way. The action, the characterization, the subtle hints and jokes that only the fans of the original series would get, it all worked and I had a blast!

At one climactic point, I saw one young person put their arms in the air in a Touchdown! motion. When um... when the Live Long and Prosper sign was used, the girls next to me, three of them, all put up their hands and Did the Vulcan sign right back! LOL
Even my kids did it. My DH is the ONLY person who cannot do the Vulcan Hand signal.
Ha!

At the end of the movie, Guess who started the sold out audience to start Clapping?? Me! Me~! I started them clapping cuz I started it first. I was so enthused, I could not keep it inside. Star Trek ROCKS!

I started a garden. Planted seeds mostly. Peas, lettuce, 2 kinds of chives, green beans, cosmos flowers, and radishes. So far the peas and lettuce are coming up. Waiting on the rest.

I've won two free ebooks lately. That was awesome!
So, that's what happens when time flies - you live and experience and the blog sort of gets dusty.
Sorry about that.

But I'm alive and around
Hope you are too.