You just call out my name…

We spent the weekend with some college friends. Had a great time. The Other made some kick ass grub. Non Lady brought some great munchies. We had husbands, kids, dogs, great conversation, knitting, man projects, girl crushes, batman, robin and neighborly neighbors. It was like being in the dorm again. I miss these guys a lot. I am really bummed that it took loosing the Roommate to make us realize that we needed to get off our asses. But I think everyone had a good time, which means that it will be that much easier to say “hey let’s get together”.

The Other and I are still planning our Viking funeral for the Roommate. We have big things planed for this, so big we may even need to skip the whole “kill the daughter and burn the house down” thing. I will keep you posted.

Who's afraid of the big bad...postcard?

Guess who is back? Our postcarder has just left Italy, where there seems to have been a lot of food porn, for a more sedate Netherlands. They have also started knitting, which is great...who ever they are. We have let a few friends in on what's going on, they are so into the mystery that it brings us back to the feelings we had when we got the first...WTF and OH MY GOD HOW FUN.

Where oh where will they go next?

Book Review: Briar Rose

A retelling of a classic fairy tale. It starts out simple enough a grandmother “Gemma” telling her granddaughters a story; a princess, a castle, a prince, a kiss that wakes her. Only one grad daughter takes the story to heart. “Becca” and doesn’t mind the retelling of the tale, no matter how often. Becca is now 23 and works for a newspaper. Gemma is in a nursing home suffering from dementia. When Gemma dies, all that is left is a wooden box with several pictures and some paperwork.

What follows is a mystery unraveled, and a story not normally told. For Gemma was a Jew during the holocaust. Held in Chelmono an extermination camp.

No woman ever escaped from Chelmno.

This is a dark tale and worth reading.

Dear Spotty Chop you are 44 months old today

What have you done that has made me giggle?

We were at one of your classmates birthday parties and when you showed up all the kids that were there started screaming “SPOTTY, IT’S SPOTTY, Hi Spotty hi!!!” as you ran over to play with them. A little while later a late comer came and you were the first to see her and you started yelling “Katie, Katie, you’re here. LOOK LOOK everyone Katie is here!!!!” I loved seeing how well liked you seem to be, but I actually loved to see the enthusiasm you show when you see friends more.

You LOVE to make cake with me. I love how you first dip a finger in the batter and the second my eye is diverted somehow your entire hand is in the batter. You make everything taste better.

We went to a wedding in Jersey. We stayed on the beach. Every morning you and I would wake up and go off on an adventure. It was a beautiful weekend the sun shined, the sand was warm and your mind was full of games. We chased the waves, sometimes the waves chased us. I always seemed to forget to put our bathing suits on, but we ending up doing some “swimming” anyways. Someone had dug a large hole that became “ours”. We played pirates and set out pirate traps which (clam shells we had gathered). You told me to spread them out around the hole and when the pirates stepped on them we would hear them yelling “ow ow my feet hurt”. You and your daddy used the hole to cook. You made alien soup and gave it out to the pirates. You took naps with me and slept on top of your dad. At the wedding you met your 2nd cousin j2. He is 6 and a great kid. The bride’s parents had thoughtfully hired a babysitter so that everyone could enjoy the wedding. You and j2 hit it off well. My favorite part of it all was seeing you and j2 on the dance floor at the end of the night encircled by a bunch of drunken marines in full dress dancing your hearts out and having these guys playing air guitar and high 5ing you.

You have been incredibly clingy when I have dropped you off this month. Not sure what that is all about, but there is a lot of drama when I leave. Luckily we have Grammie who has tasks for you to do in the office, so you are happy to see me go. When we are leaving people (Grammies, Nannies and Papa’s, Moo’s) you tell me you are sad because you miss them so much.

At Moo’s house you have a routine, first you play the piano, then you socialize for a bit, then you want to be upstairs in the attic playing. You may want someone to play with you at first, but then you generally will send whomever (sorry Freak Show) away so you can play by yourself. I am glad you have been able to spend more time with them lately.

We have been having lots of races inside. We run from one side of the house to the other. You don’t seem to ever tire (which totally sucks for me as I apparently really need to exercise). We have been playing Caraboo and CandyLand and a silly Star Wars game that I got off of a lunchable. It’s a battle game using cards. I believe this is the “first hit is free” crack that will slowly drag you into the world of game play…not that your father and I ever played games like that…

You weren’t really into Halloween this year. That’s not quite true. You had a blast talking about it, and decorating the house, and putting on costumes, but when the big night came and we got dressed and went out to get candy, you only went to a house or two and then decided you wanted to go home. I don’t know if you were scared, tired or what. I tried to convince you to try a few more houses and I think you would have gotten over whatever it was you were feeling, but you just didn’t want to go. So I took you home and you had a blast handing out candy in your underwear.

You are the wackiest kid around, and I love you tons!

Buffy - Season One

Can you believe I never watched this? I bought this as a filler, didn't really think I would like it as much as I do. This is the perfect show when you are feeling down. Have you watched it?


Xander: I kinda had a problem with the math.
Willow: Uh, which part?
Xander: The math.

Cordelia: Willow! Nice dress! Good to know you've seen the softer side of Sears.

Buffy: Who are you?
Angel: Let's just say... I'm a friend.
Buffy: Yeah, well, maybe I don't want a friend.
Angel: I didn't say I was yours

Buffy: I didn't say I'd never slay another vampire. It's not like I have all these fluffy-bunny feelings for them, I'm just not gonna get way extracurricular with it.

[After finding out that vampires exist.]
Willow: Oh, I need to sit down.
Buffy: You are sitting down.
Willow: Oh... Good for me.

Giles: So, all the city plans are just, uh, open to the public?
Willow: Um, well, i-in a way. I sort of stumbled onto them when I accidentally decrypted the city council's security system.
Xander: Someone's been naughty.

Willow: You're the Slayer, and we're, like, the Slayerettes!

Xander: I laugh in the face of danger! Then I... hide until it goes away.

Xander: For I am Xander, King of Cretins. May all lesser cretins bow before me.

Joyce: Look what I found. It's my yearbook from junior year. [finds her picture] Oh, look! There I am.
Buffy: Mom, I've accepted that you've had sex. I am not ready to know that you had Farrah hair.
Joyce: This is Gidget hair. Don't they teach you anything in history?

Xander: First vampires, now witches. No wonder you can still afford a house in Sunnydale.

Buffy: Hot dog surprise. Be still, my heart.
Willow: Call me old-fashioned, I don't want any more surprises in my hot dogs.

Cordelia: I don't know what to say, it was really, I mean, one minute you're in your normal life, and then who's in the fridge? It really gets to you, a thing like that. It was... let's just say I haven't been able to eat a thing since yesterday. I think I lost, like, seven and a half ounces? Way swifter than that so-called diet that quack put me on. Oh, I'm not saying that we should kill a teacher every day just so I can lose weight, I'm just saying when tragedy strikes, we have to look on the bright side. You know? Like how even used Mercedes still have leather seats.

Giles: My calculations are precise.
Buffy: Nuh! They're bad calculations! Bad!
Willow: Buffy has a really important date.
Buffy: Owen!
Giles: All right, I-I'll just jump in my time machine, go back to the twelfth century and ask the vampires to postpone their ancient prophecy for a few days while you take in dinner and a show.
Buffy: Okay, at this point you're abusing sarcasm.

Giles: If your identity as the Slayer is revealed it could put you and all those around you in grave danger.
Buffy: Well, in that case I won't wear my button that says, 'I'm the Slayer, ask me how!'

Buffy: If the apocalypse comes, beep me.

Xander: [to Cordelia] Y'know, hey, I don't know what everyone's talking about. That outfit doesn't make you look like a hooker!

Buffy: You want Xander, you've gotta speak up, girl!
Willow: No, no, no, no. No speaking up. That way leads to madness ... and sweaty palms.

Jenny Calendar: [to Giles] Oh, I know, our ways are strange to you, but soon you will join us in the 20th century. With three whole years to spare!
Giles: Ms. Calendar, I'm sure your computer science class is fascinating, but I happen to believe that one can survive in modern society without being a slave to the, um, idiot box.
Jenny: That's TV. The idiot box is TV. This [indicates a computer] is the good box!

Principal Snyder: There are things I will not tolerate: students loitering on campus after school, horrible murders with hearts being removed... and also smoking.

Willow: Once again I've been banished to the demon section of the card catalogue.

Xander: Well, the Hellmouth, the center of mystical convergence, supernatural monsters: been there.
Buffy: Little blase' there, aren't you?
Xander: I'm not worried. If there's something bad out there we'll find, you'll slay, we'll party!
Buffy: Thanks for having confidence in me.
Xander: You da man, Buff!

Ms. Miller: But has Shylock suffered? What's his place in Venice society?
Willow: Well, everyone looked down on him.
Cordelia: That is such a twinkie defense. Shylock should get over himself. People who think their problems are so huge craze me. Like this time I sort of ran over this girl on her bike. It was the most traumatizing event of my life, and she's trying to make it about her leg! Like my pain meant nothing.

Jenny: The part that gets me, though, is where Buffy is the Vampire Slayer. She's so little.

Buffy: I may be dead, but I'm still pretty. Which is more than I can say for you.

Buffy: Sure! We saved the world. I say we party!