flightless hag

A chronicle of the adventures of birdwoman: a lonely, talentless freak who wanders the internet in search of entertainment.

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Location: Philly

I'm a 40-something married white female, survivor of weight watchers, avid reader of pulp. Dogs (not cats), extreme right (handed, not politics), ENTJ, alto, wanna-be knitter.

September 21, 2008

Happy Birthday, Richard!

My oldest brother is 20 years older than I am. When I was a wee tyke, he went off to the navy and sailed around, playing trombone, while Vietnam was raging. He really rocks on trombone, apparently. I've not heard him play. Have heard him sing and play guitar, though, and boy, that dude has TALENT.

I have almost no memories of Richard from when I was a kid. The majority of my memories stem from when he married and brought his kids around - they used to camp out at the pond for the entire summer. Sandy and Timmy and Jackie were nominally my nieces and nephews, but were really my siblings.

But he was my brother before he became more like an uncle. I have exactly one memory of Richard from before the camping days. I remember sitting on his lap as he read me a spooky story called "The Ghost of Windy Hill." Isn't that a great memory to have?!

I didn't remember the story line, just the name and the cover. A few weeks ago, on a lark, I looked it up in my local library. What do you know? It was there. I got it out and have read it to Stinky, who has found he likes it pretty well. I like it, too. It's got brave kids who stand up for what is right and a nice little story line. Quite a good story to read to your bratty kid sister.



It's Richard's birthday this week. He's 39 of course :) I know he doesn't read the internet, but some of my other sibs do. If y'all see him, tell him I say happy birthday!

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Sunday Pass Times

Sunday. Such a mixed bag.

I start out the morning with correcting that I didn't finish on Friday. Also, since I'm teaching a new-to-me subject, I have lesson planning in the afternoon that takes longer than it should. Between, we go to church.

John spends all day Saturday cooking our meals for the week. The last thing he wants to do on Sunday is cook. Especially rushing to cook lunch after church!

So, we usually have our eat-out treat, if we have one at all, on Sunday: McDonald's, pizza, any of the cheap-but-tasty like. But last week, we decided for a treat. We went to our favorite Indian restaurant, which is a big family hit, usually. The food is so different but so yummy!

Unfortunately, it's also named after a fertility temple. And they have reproductions all over the walls and shelves. Stinky noticed these for the first time last week. The tamest of these is something to this effect:


But most of them are much wilder. Stinky was absolutely at his most curious, and wanted to know, since we have all kinds of statuary in his room, if he could have one of these reproductions.

I guess we won't be going there again any time soon, at least, not with the kids!

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September 20, 2008

Shoppin from A to Z

Every time my dear husband fixes eggplant, as he is doing today, this old Toni Basil song pops into my head.






Thank you, so much, Amy A, my best friend from middle school, for making sure that I had a complete 80's experience. I never would have known this song without her.



We are doing well in birdland. We have become a soccer family, much to my horror. I spent two friggin hours of my life that I will never get back this morning watching the Moth flutter in the wrong direction half the time. They're cute... for 45 minutes. After that? I have laundry waiting.



My school continues to be randomly weird. I have a FANTASTIC room this year - it's an actual lab with sinks, gas jets, lots of electric outlets, and storage. Drawers and drawers of lockable storage. So, I put my stuff in the drawers. I came in last Thursday morning to find that maintenance had screwed 2 drawers - not even the top two or right most two, just two random drawers - shut. I had to unscrew them to get to my rulers and paper. Why, you ask? No one seems to know. So, with a big shrug, I go on to make my lesson plans about JJ Thompson and the plum pudding.



My concerns about Spaceley's have started to come to fruition. They had surprise layoffs a few weeks ago, and there are strong possibilities of worse to come. I'm glad I'm out of there, for sure, though I do miss the guys I worked with.

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September 12, 2008

complacency...

This is a shortie, as, being immersed back in school, I don't have much time for long posts!

Anyhow, John and I were talking tonight... it started with how cute the Moth and Stinky are and somehow turned to Sarah Palin and her interview and her telling her National Guard to go fight the dudes who caused 9/11.

I said, John, those dudes were trained in Afghanistan, not Iraq, right?

He says, yeah, but now Al Quaeda or however you spell that stupid thing, is all over Iraq. The New York Times apparently refers to them as Al Q of Mesopotamia, because that's what they call themselves, I suppose. I'm like, no way. Give me a break. So, I guess my fellow teacher who is getting shipped next Thursday will be going to historic Mesopotamia. Maybe he'll stop by Persia on the way! And pop over to Byzantium whilst he's at it...

Anyhow, we were talking about 9/11. Remember when... we live next to the Philly airport, and it was silent for a week. And the next year, there was a conference for John's job in NYC on 9/11. It had been planned for years in advance. His boss wanted him to go. I wouldn't let him, not that he was willing. We were all so scared of what THEY would do next.

Somehow, I'm not scared anymore. We had a squad of fighter jets go over the other day, and I thought, how neat! Five years ago, I would have come in to look at the TV and see What Happened? But now, it's all in the past. We have reached complacency.

God help us.

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September 04, 2008

This is why I say I am a bad mom

I am so mad right now.

I think my kid lost my copy of Harry Potter 1. I bought it when I was on vacation in Britain in 1998. It is, to me irreplaceable.

I am furious.

I know it's just a book. But it's more to me. My set is now incomplete with a raging gap at the beginning. My OCD is furious, my sentiment is lost, and I am so mad I could spit.

Is it possible I lent it out? Yes, but not probable. I don't lend out my books, as a rule. They never come back when I do. And now, despite that precaution, a bibliophobe has destroyed my book sanctuary.

If I were a good mom, I'd shrug this off and laugh. After all, it's just a silly book, and he is my kid. But I think I'm going to hold onto this mad for a long, long time.

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