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Graceling39/104; The Carrie Diaries40/104; Fire41/104

After the last three books I read, especially the horrifyingly sad Every Last One, I wanted to read something a) frivolous and b) stupid. My friend Gabrielle suggested I read The Carrie Diaries, but I was like “Not that stupid!” So instead I chose Graceling, because I the premise (people with two different coloured eyes who have extraordinary powers) sounded pretty silly. At first I was like WOW THIS IS SILLY, especially since the character and place names are mostly ludicrous (Prince Greening Grandemalion, what) or uninspired (the kingdom on the west is called Wester, the kingdom in the middle is called Middlun), but the writing and the story itself are actually quite good. I was impressed enough to get the companion, Fire, which I assumed would be a sequel of sorts but is actually kind of a prequel, taking place in a different kingdom and several years (decades) earlier than Graceling. In between them, though, I did read The Carrie Diaries, and it was every bit as frivolous and stupid as I thought it would be, with a healthy dose of super annoying and I-want-to-punch-all-these-people thrown in for good measure.

Currently I’m at 41 books read, although I should be at 45. I’m slowly catching up though, and I few more weeks or reading 3 books instead of 2 should get me all the way there.

A couple weeks ago Symphony was feeling upset about something, so to cheer here up I came up with the Popsicle Party Plan: Every Friday night, all summer, we’d make a new kind of popsicle for us to try on Saturday. We were going to start last week but with her slumber party and the Puppy Plan* we just didn’t have time, so this weekend was the first Popsicle party.

Symphony chose Strawberry Lemonade as our first popsicle, but the store I went to didn’t have straight strawberry juice, so I bought strawberries and organic lemonade.

My popsicle tray holds about a cup and a half of liquid so I hulled and sliced half a cup of berries and blended them with a cup of lemonade.

I poured the strawberry lemonade mix into the try, Symphony added the sticks and our creation was ready for freezing!

Today we tried out our first Popsicle Party popsicles and Symphony declared them a success. I was worried they wouldn’t be sweet enough but they were just right.

Today is also the first West End Farmer’s Market of the year. It takes place literally in front of my house so we go to almost every one. There wasn’t a lot of produce today, so we got delicious Bean Boy homous, three different kinds of honey and an apple pie.

I might go back later to get some tomatoes, the line for that stall was just way to long when we went!

*We’re going to pick Georgie up next Saturday!!!

It’s done!

lol this thing is so hilariously awesome now! Taylor put these pictures up on flickr and he’s been getting tons of compliments on all my hard work. It’s inspired him, so now he says he’s going to have at the Master Chief helmet with some spray paint and unicorn stencils. WE’LL SEE.

Anyway I’m just happy to be finished with all the spray painting, I’ve had a headache for like a week straight. Sorry, brain.

The other day one of my clients was picking up her kid and she noticed the huge salmonberry bush just outside the back gate that was covered in big, juicy, ripe berries. She said “Ooh, salmonberries!” and plucked the plumpest, reddest one, but right before she popped it into her mouth she got all sour-faced and said “They never really get ripe though.” I just don’t get it! Confronted with FREE DELICIOUS BERRIES and all she can say is something crabby? How depressing! And just never mind the fact the the berry she was holding was totally ripe! Negative people bum me out, BUT their energy-sucking grumpiness does have an upside: it reminds me of the importance of staying positive!

Yesterday I mentioned wanting to put up that stick-on mirror in my hallway, albeit with clips and not stickiness. It urned out to be too thin and flimsy to clip to the wall, so instead I had a New Project! I cut a piece of particle board (I have a bunch from the back of old Ikea bookcases) into a slightly larger rectangle, and since I was (and still am) currently painting that God of War box pink, I figured WHY NOT use the same paint for this project? A couple coats of paint, a couple coats of lacquer, peel-n-stick the mirror and BOOM.

I LOVE IT. The bright pink makes the mirror part look like weird negative space. There are only two problems with it:
1. I did the peeling and sticking on the living room floor, which is a den of dog hair, so I had to tweeze a bunch out when I was done, which was easy but annoying.
2. The particle board is curved! I stupidly put to mirror on the convex side, so it bulges out and makes you look fat. I wet the back and I have it squished under a bunch of heavy tool cases so hopefully it flattens out enough. If not I’ll have to construct some sort of frame to hold it flat.

Also last night, after dropping Sym at her dad’s, I found this cool chest of drawers in the alley where people leave stuff they don’t want.

I wish all the tiny drawers were real but it’s actually just 3 small drawers in the top and three big ones in the bottom. I want to paint it up all cool and store my craft supplies in it, BUT I don’t want to bring it in the house until I’ve confirmed that it isn’t riddled with any sort of bugs. It was starting to rain so Taylor and I carried it down into the covered area outside the door until I can figure out what to do with it.

In other news, today was basically the GROSSEST day ever, work-wise. I normally wouldn’t post pictures of any of the daycare kids, but I’ve cropped this one to protect her identity so I could show you the SNOT ROPES this baby was producing.

the arrows point to the top and bottom of the snotterfall

Sick. This happened all morning to the point where I had to change her shirt because this one was soaked through with mucus and separate her from the other kids. Anyway she developed a nasty cough and started to get glassy-eyed so I called her parents to come pick her up, and it turns out she has an ear infection. Her mom is gonna keep her home until she’s better, so no more booger baby this week!

Sometimes when Taylor buys videogames, he splurges and gets the ~special edition~

Special editions generally come with some fairly useless collector’s item, like a duffel bag to put all your ill-gotten gains in (one of the Grand Theft Auto games I think) or a giant and hideous Master Chief helmet that takes up too much space on the bookshelf and gets put into storage. His most recent hideous acquisition is this sinister box, courtesy of God of War 3

Lovely.

Really lovely. It’s made of the highest quality faux-metal (aka plastic) and the inside is flocked in black velvet, with a false bottom to hide all your most evil and arcane possessions. Because. If you had evil and arcane possessions you needed to hide you’d use a CREEPY BOX WITH DEMON FACES ON IT. Really.

Anyway this thing is ugly as hell and there’s only one thing to do about it.

I’m absurdly amused that the clear coat’s number is T1000.

Anyway…

SO MUCH BETTER ALREADY! It needs a few more coats of pink before I lacquer it up, but I can’t do it inside when the kids are here so I’m waiting for a) the weekend or b) it to stop raining, whichever comes first.

We are definitely ready for summer. Anyyyytime you are ready to stop raining and be blue, sky, that would be great. I mean, it’s June already!

Last night I made mini bacon cheeseburgers for dinner (I don’t like calling them sliders, what does that even mean??). No recipe, I just bought pre-made mini-buns and patties and laid out a selection of toppings. I unfortunately didn’t have the time/energy/capacity to make mini fries, but maybe next time! The burgers were a big hit with Sym, and made Taylor feel like a giant.

We’ve spent the last couple days starting some seriously spring cleaning. I want to get everything ~squared away~ before Georgie (it’s official!) comes, by which I mean getting all of us into the habit of NOT leaving things lying around that we don’t want chewed by puppies! I’ve also been kind of slacking on the housework, which has led to some disastrous build up. I’ve managed to stay on top of the dishes, but the laundry was out. of. control. I think I’ve done five loads in the last two days!

Anyway Taylor and I cleaned up our messy bedroom on Sunday, and yesterday Sym did hers, and I helped her vacuum it. Then I told her we should get all the bits of toys and paper and garbage and odd socks out from under her bed, which involved a broom and lots of grossness, especially when I started finding all the granola bar wrappers and ABC gum. Of course that led to more cleaning and vacuuming and eventually, when Sym was in the shower I ended up stripping the mattress and slats off her bed so I could vacuum under it properly. Then I figured as long as I had it half-taken apart I might as well raise the side rails so her mattress sits higher. I don’t know why every cleaning job I undertake ends up requiring a screwdriver!

ghost cat!

It turned out to be a genius idea. It makes Sym’s room look better somehow, and with more space under the bed, I was able to hide away all the boxes of books that were previously cluttering up the hallway. Now my hallway is (almost) clean, I don’t have to look at the boxes and feel guilty about not putting up new bookcases yet, and with a bunch of boxes under her bed, Sym won’t be able to fill the space with bits of toys and paper and garbage and odd socks, granola bar wrappers and ABC gum (mostly because I’ve now banned gum from the house for people under the age of 30). I also took extra care to make sure there are no little holes or pathways around the boxes that would let any little animals squeeze all the way back and out of reach.

That’s the cleanest the hallway has been since last fall. I almost forgot there was a door down there! That thing leaning against it is this mirror, which I’m thinking of putting on the door so that I constantly think there’s a person at the end of the hallway, especially at night.

It’s one of those stick-on ones, but I’ll put it up with clips This is a terrible, blurry picture (it’s dark down there) but you get the gist.

The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud 36/104; The Glass Castle: A Memoir 37/104; Every Last One: A Novel38/104

I admit it, I decided to read The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud after seeing the trailer for the movie:

Sometimes when I can’t figure out what book to read next I just go to the Kindle store and click on random books until something catches my eye. That’s how I stumbled across The Glass Castle, and BOY AM I GLAD I DID. This book was so so so good. I found myself having to stop reading because I was getting so frustrated at the parents, and the fact that it’s a true story just made it so much more incredible.

I would suggest reading Every Last One if you feel like having a big ol’ cry. One thing though- the description of the book on Amazon/the back cover kind of gives away too much of the story, and all the reviews I read the reviewer took issue with this, so before I even read it I knew something unbelievably terrible was going to happen and as a result, I didn’t allow myself to become fully engaged with the characters. And now I’m perpetuating this for people who might read this book after me. YOU’RE WELCOME.

I’m still behind the pace to meet my goal, but I read all these books last week, so I’m definitely starting to catch up.

This morning we went out to Langley to look at puppies and WELP…

Sorry about the blur, she’s squirmy!

I BOUGHT ONE. She’s an orange/chocolate sable pomeranian, and I actually just put a deposit on her, since she is too little to take home yet. She is a little snuggle bug, when I was holding her she kept wrapping her front paws around my hand and hugging it! AWWWWWWWW! When she grows up she’ll probably look like her mom, who is really orangey with a brown nose, and she’ll probably weight between six and seven pounds. Her mom weighs ten and a half, but her dad only weighs two pounds!

left: puppy; right: puppy’s mommy

Now I need to pick a name. The two I’d been considering before I even met/picked her are Georgie (her name right now is Georgia, so it would be easy for her to learn) and Babby Fudgie, but that might just be too silly!

When I got up this morning and brushed my teeth, I looked in the mirror and though “Wow! My teeth are looking really white today!”

I smoked like crazy for years before I had Symphony and I drink tons of coffee, and I can’t use most whitening products because my teeth are crazy sensitive. I’ve been pretty :/ about my teeth for years, so this is makes me feel really good. Well, it makes my teeth feel good. The rest of me feels like this:

Perfect.

I have been SO TIRED this week, every night I’ve fallen asleep before Taylor left for work and then had to drag myself out of bed in the morning. Last night I think I fell asleep before ten o’clock! Luckily I only have to get through one more easy day of work (just three kids) and then it’s the weekend, and unlike the last two weekends of crazy activity (ie weddings, trips to Seattle), this weekend I finally just get to relax and do whatever I want! The only things going on are:
-tonight Symphony has her friend Ali coming over for a slumber party
-we’ll probably go for brunch with Rich and Jenn on Sunday since we haven’t seen them since they got back from Thailand
-TOMORROW MORNING WE ARE GOING TO LOOK AT LITTLE POMERANIAN PUPPIES AND MAYBE PICK ONE TO BRING HOME IN MID-JUNE OMG I’M SO EXCITED. This is my first step to having my dream life with the house and the yard and the baby and a herd of puffy little dogs running around. The asking price for the ~dream house~ has gone down $20K so you know, it’s only a matter of time.