Feb. 23: Logic? What’s that?

Do you ever find yourself getting angry at really, really stupid things? Yeah, me neither. But if I wasn’t so calm and even-keeled all the time (cough!) and DID let myself get mad at anything, it wouldn’t be jerk-ass politicians or anti-vaxxers, it’d probably just be stuff like this:

• Side-by-side cabinet doors that don’t align properly. I think it’s due to house-settling, but it’s also possible we live right on top of a fault line. I know our crawl space is pretty deep…
• The possum that just moved into the neighborhood and likes to walk on our fence. Thanks to our beagle’s twilight “aroooooo”-ing, everyone knows about the possum from here to the next county over.
• Things I’ve misplaced and searched for and still can’t find.
• Sinuses. I’ve had it with mine and would like them removed, thank you.
• Over-enthusiastic parents that sit next to me for youth sports. The other day the score was something like 54-7, and some dork kept saying to other parents of the loser team, “Well, they got heart! You can’t deny they got heart!” If I’d known whose kid belonged to them, I’d have wanted to yell out, “Hey YOU. Your dad thinks you suck and you do! And bee-tee-dubs, your jersey’s tucked into your underwear.”
• Also sports-related: I don’t know the first thing about coaching a basketball team, but somewhere in the rec league coaches’ manual there are apparently instructions to leave rebounds to the professionals. Here’s my play-by-play of every single game so far: A kid tries to make a basket and EVERY OTHER KID ON THE COURT stops to see if it goes in (it doesn’t), and then a kid from the opposing team catches it and dribbles down the court. Repeat 7,398 times. Hear Jen scream. I know, rec league players are rec league players because they aren’t good enough to play in a real league, but COME ON. Even *I* know that rebounds are… things… you should try to… get.
• Kanye West. Seriously, people need to stop letting him do stuff. He is not the artistic force he thinks he is.
• People who drive under the speed limit. People like my husband.
• People who don’t obey traffic signs. “No turn on red” means WAIT, idiot. (That is NOT my husband. He obeys all the traffic signs that don’t have big numbers on them.)
• Broken stuff in my house.
• Broken stuff in my body.
• Madonna, trying way too hard. Sure, she looks good for being 85 years old, but WOMAN, PUT ON SOME FRIGGIN’ PANTS.
• And speaking of trying way too hard… Lady Gaga. My tune changed—slightly—when I realized she can play the piano and therefore might actually have some talent, but generally speaking, she is close to Kardashian-level overrated. And while her performance on the Oscars last night wasn’t the worst thing ever, by far, if you ask me, she had no business imitating Dame Julie.
• Dog hair everywhere.
• Text-speak. Well, text-spell, anyway. C U L8R, really? Is it really that hard to spell out “see you later,” especially with auto-complete on your phone??? Answer: it isn’t. So stop. I can’t read it.
• People who don’t proofread their texts before tapping “send,” making them impossible to understand. (Although sometimes that ends up being hilariously make-fun-of-able, amirite, Theresa???)
• Emoticons that don’t exist: the rolling eyes, the puking face…
• Those blue-ish headlights. They make my eyes scream.
• Muscle cars. Also antique cars—I just don’t understand the point. When I was a kid my dad bought an old car, and I would watch him night after night in the garage, restoring it. I remember asking “why?” an awful lot.
• Bananas that turn brown the second you bring them home.
• Weeds. Not weed. Weeds. Especially when they really ugly-up the yard but it’s too muddy to go out and dig them up.
• How my kid thinks I’m the meanest mom EVER because I remind him to do two things every day: practice piano and brush his teeth. Even with my nagging, he still manages to get out of doing one or both. At least he doesn’t tuck his jersey into his underwear.

Anything driving you crazy? Feel free to share. This is a safe place.

Oct. 31: Month in review

Later today, October will end. Here’s how I spent this month.

special days i celebrated this month and how:

• Today is Halloween, and in our house, this year marks a bit of a change: Katie is going to the varsity football game instead of trick-or-treating. Is it possible that 2013 was her last year of traditional Halloween activities? It bums me out a little, but not a lot.
• My favorite part of Halloween is answering the door to trick-or-treaters. Occasionally I’ll dress up (for my own enjoyment, because the kids never care—whatevs). Today my Timehop app reminded me of one of those times when I posted helpful advice on Facebook:

• I went shopping for tonight’s costume components this week, and when I purchased leopard print pants the clerk held them up and said, “Oh! These are exactly the kind of thing I would buy.” I said, “I probably shouldn’t tell you they’re for my Crazy Cat Lady costume then, huh?” She grimaced. It was shitty of me to ruin her day, but I figure I was doing society a service—right? (I know. Still shitty.)
• Our dogs are three years old! We keep waiting for giant Lucy to calm down, but so far she’s as crazy and puppy-like as ever. Since we don’t know Maya’s actual birth date, but her estimated age is about the same as Lucy’s, we decided to make them have the same birthday.

• On the dogs’ birthday, the humans in the house got cupcakes, and the pups got Doggie Paella (treats, hot dogs, cheese, and peanut butter). (Yep, we’re dorks.)
• Other October birthdays: Ted, Cristina, Erin, Jim, Alex F’n, Sherilee, and today, Uncle Paul and Chris Eff.

i saw things with my eyes:

Many, many movies:

• Nerd alert! Victor and I had our very own Avengers movie-fest. While this movie genre is definitely not my favorite, it was pretty cool to watch them all in a row. Over several days we watched, in order: Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase One: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, Marvel’s The Avengers, Phase Two: Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Still left to see: Guardians of the Galaxy. In May, there’s another Avengers movie coming out (I love the first part of this trailer), and in July, Phase Two ends with Ant-Man (starring Paul Rudd—rawr). Phase Three starts up in 2016 with more sequels and movies about other Marvel characters. The Iron Man movies are definitely my favorites. I enjoyed the Thor stuff least, since sci-fi is ridiculous to me.
• Whatever other movies I watched are obviously not worth mentioning, cuz I can’t remember any of ‘em.

Television:

• I started watching Call the Midwife (Netflix) a year or so ago, but I couldn’t get into it—it was like A Baby Story to me, which lost its appeal really fast; I mean, why would I repeatedly watch a show that ends with me inconsolable from watching strangers have babies??? I recently gave CTM another try, and really am loving it now. I hate getting hooked on stuff that ends. That can really be said about most things in my life.
• New shows this season seem mostly disappointing. Mysteries of Laura seemed like it had so much going for it, but it’s truly terrible. John Mulaney, a comedian I adore, has a show that’s also quite bad. Gotham’s premise and cast is good, but after five episodes, I think I’m done with it. 
• I’m happy to have my old favorites back: SVU, The Mindy Project, Modern Family, The Middle, CSI, The Blacklist, The Simpsons, and Grimm (it’s set in Portland, so the sci-fi-ness of it is tolerated).
• Where is Parks & Rec? I will definitely miss this show after it ends this season. Sad face.
• This clip from The Tonight Show is so much funnier than it should be. You must watch.

Other stuff:

• We saw Portland Center Stage’s production of Dreamgirls. I thought it was incredibly well done, so much so that I went twice.
• Still. So. Much. Football. The regular season ended last weekend, and playoffs start tomorrow. We started in September attending games in 100° weather, and last weekend watched in rain, wind, and a wind chill factor of something like -43°. We are some dedicated parents. And kinda dumb.

this month’s good and bad:

• Apologies to my friends who have dedicated their lives to physical therapy, but I really hate physical therapy. It’s very ouchie. They say my ankle’s range of motion is slowly improving, but I think they’re lying and just enjoy hurting me. Also, the sign outside their office looks like this:

• We got to see Daryl when he visited from Florida for a few days. Hoping we’ll see him again (with Sally and Presley) at Thanksgiving.
• My nephew’s band’s new album just came out. Check out Tetherball here.

i likes to share pics I’ve found on the ‘net:

These seem familiar, and I apologize if I’ve posted them before. Enjoy anyway:

I’ll close with this good news: Every day that passes now is one day closer to the end of all the psycho-level of pumpkin spice latte hype.

Aug. 31: August in review

August 2014 is just about done. Septembers in the Northwest are usually quite lovely—still warm and sunny, but not god-awful hot. Also: KIDS IN SCHOOL AGAIN FINALLY OMG I’M SO GLAD I THOUGHT THEY’D NEVER GO BACK.

special days i celebrated this month and how:

• We had Victor’s birthday party. It rocked, mostly. We know a lot more nice/fun people than assholes, and that’s good when it’s time to throw parties.
• Katie registered for high school. Eek. I’m happy for her, but GEEZ, it seems like just a few days ago that we were trying to teach her to count.

i saw things with my eyes:

• We went up north to see our niece, Abby, perform in a musical. It was big, silly fun; Bellevue Youth Theater has a cool program.
• Welcome to Sweden and The Hotwives of Orlando are semi-amusing time-wasters.
• I think I would be soooo good at doing a Drunk History episode. Not actually being on the show, just recording one. My great-great-great grandchildren will be so very, very proud. What a legacy. :) 
• The Simpsons “every episode ever” marathon has been playing almost non-stop at The House of Manullang for the past ten days. LOVING. IT.
• This is exciting pretty much just to me: I got new dishes, and the full kitchen sink never looked so pretty. My mom gave me ten of the cheeriest, colorful-est gifts EVER:

• Sweet Maya. She’s adjusting so well in her new life as a Manullang. I think she loves us pretty good:

 

• My rock star nephew started a new band, Tetherball. They just released a single on iTunes. He’s also a goofball—check out the video teaser he stars in for the song (below). And if you care, the guy who sang lead for The Rouge has a new band too: The Almanacks. Stephen produced their album. Stephen, apparently, can do anything and is pretty much the greatest.

 

this month’s good and bad:

• We spent a LOT of time in doctors’ offices this month. I don’t know how all the appointments got scheduled like they did, but there was one week where every morning we were out the door EARLY to see one professional or another. None of them gave us bad news, so YAY!
• One of the appointments was an eye exam for Jack. You’ve probably noticed in photos that he wears his sports goggles as regular glasses, which has never made me very happy but at least I don’t have to worry about girls chasing him. ;) Since he’s been ready for a new prescription for a while now, we encouraged him to get regular glasses in addition to a new pair of goggles. He couldn’t find frames he liked, though, and I knew if I forced him to choose a pair he wouldn’t actually wear them. And THEN the optician suggested we check out the Nike line of frames. Jack’s grin went ear-to-ear, and $300 later he was wearing normal glasses again. (I have several four-letter words in my head over this, and the last one is “Nike.”) He was disappointed that the swoosh sticker on the store lenses weren’t on his prescription lenses, but there are swooshes on the temples, so that’ll do. <cue this mom’s eye roll>
• A new season of football has begun. Jack is on a junior varsity team this year, and practices until 9:30pm several days a week. Crazy. I am sooo glad Dina’s kid and mine are on the same team again this year. I’ve got our flasks all filled and ready for the first game next weekend!
• I worked quite a bit in June and July, but not at all in August. I really haven’t minded all that much. The free-ish time let me concentrate on other things, like…
• Katie decided to switch bedrooms. You think it’ll be a pretty simple, quick project, but then it goes all week long and you regret ever suggesting it when she complained that her room was too small. I think we’re finally done moving, but somehow a bunch of stuff ended up in the master bedroom and I hate when our room becomes a dumping ground. Grrr.

i likes to share the silly stuff:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For all the people who complain that smart phones have killed decent communication:

  

Well, that’s it for August. Bring it, September.

Aug. 7: Meet our sweet Maya girl

Sometime in the next few posts I’ll explain my long absence from the blog. For now, though, I want to introduce you to our newest family member.

---

First, watch this story:

This video was especially touching to us, given our fondness for the beagle breed, and after watching it several times one evening, I looked online to see if any local rescues had beagles to re-home. Within minutes, I found these photos and description:

Maya is about 2 to 3 years old, a super sweetie pie and a cuddly. She loves respectful children! She has learned to be good with other dogs and mellow cats. She was treated badly and tied outside by herself for 12 to 16 hours a day in her previous home but despite that she is very loving. She needs a gentle family that will understand she needs some time to trust. Maya would do best with another friendly dog, lots of exercise, and a family that is not gone for too many hours each day.

Every pup we’ve ever adopted has come home after I’ve worn Victor down with my constant begging. With Maya, though, we both felt an immediate sense that we were exactly what she needed, and that we could give her the home she deserved. We hadn’t even been looking for a second dog; it was seeing that video that made us want to take action. I contacted the agency—Pound to Posh Dog Rescue, which I cannot recommend highly enough—and after applications, verifications, and evaluations, we arranged to meet Maya at her foster home.

We were put in touch with Ute, the owner of Pet’s Point of View, who coordinated our meeting, as well as the method of introducing our crazy Lucy and Maya. Ute was amazing—I’ve never met anyone so dog-intuitive; within minutes, she showed us how to give Lucy treats without getting our hands chomped off. We felt like such dog-idiots. Ute shared more details about the ways Maya had been abused (heartbreaking), and her foster dad, whom she’d been with for six months, told us what he had done to rehabilitate her. He was incredible too; we loved how he spoiled her rotten while helping her heal.

While the four of us human Manullangs fell in love with Maya almost immediately, Ute recommended a couple more visits between Maya and Lucy before we took her home to stay. Lucy is uninhibited no matter where she is, but Maya—like most beagles—needed time to smell every little thing before she can relax.

[As we arrived home from that first visit, I broke my ankle—my clumsiness knows no bounds, nor does it have a considerate sense of timing. For me, the injury has made developing a relationship with Maya go slightly slower than it might be otherwise (I haven’t been able to take her on walks or play chasing games), but she’s a cuddler and so am I. We’ve spent LOTS of time cuddling.]

Maya came home on May 31. She fits right in to our lifestyle, just like Scout did. We love seeing a white-tipped tail running around our yard again, hearing her beagle arooooooo, seeing the huge begging eyes during every meal. She shows almost no hesitation in meeting new people or pets, and her energy level is similar to Lucy’s, making them perfectly-matched playmates. The only real issues we’ve had with Maya are her occasional potty accidents upstairs, and the fact that she will bolt out the front door if given a half-second. Where is she going? We have no idea. There could not possibly be a home where she is more loved than ours.

Meeting Katie

 
I love this play pose :)

Worn out, and lovin’ on Tina 

Nov. 2: Close-up on Lucy

Apologies to the people who visitor our home, because you’re gonna get this thing straight up your butt—like, HELLO, DOCTOR! deep.

Lucy really likes getting to know people well, and she’s just the right height to do it her own special way. Sometimes our visitors miss the days when we had small dogs (“sometimes” = “every time”).

 

Yep, I’m doing another blog challenge. This one is photo-riffic!

Sep. 13: Stuff others say

It’s Day #13 of our September Blog Challenge. The topic:

What is your favorite quote and why?

I can never limit my favorite to one quote because at any given time there are LOTS that are very special to me. These four are my favoritest of all (this morning).

Here’s one about gratitude from Thornton Wilder:

I found this one and tweaked it to fit me better because OMG, it totally does:

This is such a sweet sentiment:

And because I’m kind of a fan of love, I think this one is beautiful:

You ask me next week what my favorite quotes are and they’ll be completely different. What are your favorite quotes today?

---

If you’re a blogger and want to do our blog challenge with us, let me know and I’ll send you our list! Otherwise, tune in here (and on Sherilee’s happy little blog) every day in September.

Jun. 23: Don’t ring mah bell

Neighborhoods like mine are magnets for unwanted doorbell ringers. When the kids aren’t home, I don’t answer the door unless I’m expecting someone. But when they are home, they race for the front door and then wake me up come get me when the person there asks “Is your mom or dad home?”

We are looong overdue for a “no solicitors” sign. We used to have a doormat that said GO AWAY, but it was always out of order; people would ring our doorbell and say, “I love your mat! Wanna buy magazines?”

I don’t like guns, but these people make me wish I did. And that I kept a collection by the front door.

Last night I searched for “soliciting” on Pinterest and found some very exciting options. Tell me what you think.

---

This sign was the most common search result (soooo… I don’t like it).
What’s good about this particular one, though, is that the pretty frame is deceiving;
it draws people in by giving them the impression that it has something nice to say,
and then it says GET THE EFF OUT. Sneaky-good.

 

Not my cat. I like my cat. But a random cat, sure.

I’m afraid too many people don’t understand what the word “soliciting” means, exactly.
This explains it a little. I like the idea of having a window decal more than hanging a sign,
but our front door windows are six inches from our doorbell and therefore we cannot
be sure an idiot would see the message before pressing the doorbell. Because idiots are such idiots.

 

This could not be more straightforward.

 

This could not be more awesome.

I like it.

This could definitely work on some people.
Heh heh heh.

 

I wouldn’t do the Pokemon thing, but I’d have no problem
asking for some kind of show tune or Robert Frost poem.

A Robert Frost poem WITH VOICES.

Again with the sensible. I like the sensible.

Good. Very good. Probably too wordy, though.

I think this would be like the GO AWAY doormat; people would ring the bell
just to say how hilaaaarious we must be!! To have a sign like that!! So funny!!!!!!

The message is cutesy, but the butterfly ruined it for me.
Also the “y” in “says”—why is it way up there? Bad font choices irritate me.

I like. I like very much.

For the most part, I like the message of this one… but I might add the words “we know” to the end.
I hate those little poopus kids who come from other neighborhoods to sell stuff.

Simple. Good.

Disgusting… and probably pretty effective.

So many choices, right? I’ve gotta put something out front, because no way am I spending my summer pretending that our yellow Lab is way more vicious than she seems. Even an idiot who doesn’t know the meaning of the word “solicitor” will figger that one out.