Action B

Getting wet, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Julys seem slow to me. The only thing new in my section of the country is Brenden's swimming skill set is growing in leaps and bounds. He will now swim underwater and jump off the diving board. We spend so much time in the pool that all three of us permanently smell like chlorine. Brenden is also a nice cocoa brown, except for underneath his trunks.

I have that colonoscopy this coming Monday, so that's something to look forward to!

Happy kids that have nothing to do with this post.

DSC_0074, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

What I'm Watching:

Not much, but I'll recap:

Jumper Kinda boring, even with interesting premise (teleportation) and Samuel L. Jackson.

Dairy of the Dead A George Romero zombie movie. I lost interest. WTF?

Out of the Blue I'm kind of sorry I watched this, it's about a true incident in 90's New Zealand where a nutbag went postal. I'm sorry I watched because it involved the death of kids (thankfully all off screen but still pretty haunting). I watched it however because my newest imaginary boyfriend, Karl Urban, is in it. You might remember him as Eomer in Lord of the Rings but he was hidden under a lot of hair. I'm totally excited that he's playing Dr. McCoy in the new Star Trek movie. I'm also thrilled that Eric Bana is playing a Romulan. Double-shot, woo hoo!

Just because I want Joss Whedon to succeed at everything he does:

No more sparklers. Bummer.

No more sparklers, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

I'm trying to read more books - it's easier for me on the weekends to carry a book around while chasing Brenden than try and use the computer. I realized recently that I had basically quit reading for pleasure around 10 years ago and I miss books. On her last visit here Nancy brought me some books which I'm working through, and I'm also trying to read some classics simply because I'm appalled that I've never read them.

I finished Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms Sunday and while I admire the way the man wrote - he never wasted a word, ever! - I find him a total downer. Read it because it is a classic, but have something by Terry Pratchett nearby for afterwards so you can shake the gloom out pronto.

When I'm trying to judge something, I go by the old standard of what was the author /director /whatever trying to say, and how well did he /she /it achieve it? But I also have to add in something I learned from Ayn Rand: what is the sense of life in the work? I think I once mentioned on this blog that I'd rather watch any given episode of McGyver than sit through any of Stanley Kubrick's movies simply because of a more optimistic sense of life in the former despite the superior technical ability of the latter.

Look, I'm not saying every story has to have a happily ever after ending. I just prefer to read stories by people who cherish life and understand that no matter how bad it gets it's still a gift. I think that's the reason why Dan Simmons is my current favorite author: even though horribly bad crap happens to good people in his writing I still get a sense of optimism and hope by the end of his books (even if I'm crying me a river).

WOW BOOM!

WOW BOOM!, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

I'm going to stop writing Brenden monthly letters, because this blog is basically all about Brenden anyways, with an occasional "what I'm watching" report thrown in occasionally.

So, Brenden's going through a defiance phase. He says "no!" to everything. Fortunately it's easy to take something away from him and he whines but that doesn't bother me. I like that he's learning that there are consequences to his actions. Sometimes it's pretty simple, like he found a dime in the couch this morning. He exclaimed "money!" and "mine!" which was fine with me.

Then I said, "put your shoes on, hon, it's time to leave". He said "No!" so I confiscated his dime, and told him he could have it back when he put his shoes on. Hey, it worked, with a little fussing.

Brenden loves fireworks. We went over to a friend's house on Thursday and shot off a bunch of stuff (there are some advantages to living in Alabama). Brenden's comments were along the lines of "WOW, BOOM!"

He's getting better at swimming. He'll get close to Jon or I in the shallow end, then duck his head under and dog-paddle towards us and grab a hand or a shirt.

Brenden is pretty much completely toilet trained, except at night time and that's my fault because I still have half a big box of diapers. Also, I'm not completely ready to remove the gate from his door. Once we do that there will be no peace ever. Not that we have that now.

Brenden's First Movie

Wall-E, originally uploaded by JasonCross.

Yep, we took B to Wall-e! And it was only a semi-fiasco. He got bored about halfway through - he just doesn't like to sit still for that long.

Sure it was only a 93 minute movie, but tack on that FARGING 15 MINUTES OF CELL PHONE COMERCIALS!!! ZOMG WTF?!!!?!!!11!

Add to that the popcorn was stale and expensive and the picture just wasn't that great I think I'm going to stick with NETFLIX from now on.

I gotta admit I enjoyed the Indiana Jones movie in the theater, but we arrived 15 minutes late and didn't even miss the Paramount Logo.

The movie? Pixar's worst movie still remains A Bug's Life. I can't tell you where it ranks yet (I need to see it when I don't have to accompany a bored toddler to the bathroom every 15 minutes) but what I did see was wonderful, great, fun, etc etc etc in otherwords typical Pixar.

Oh and anyone who gets their panties in a wad because of any message they find in the movie: get a life.

Kitty Come Home

cutekitty, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

We had a scare this weekend. Jon reminded me on the way home from work on Friday that he was going to take Brenden with him to the drop zone. A night to myself, o joy! After they left as I was preparing dinner, I noticed that Big Fat Kitty did not come into the kitchen to annoy me until I fed him kitty treats.

I searched everywhere for him in the house, including the attic, but he was gone. I tried to think back to the last time I saw him. I realized, to my shame, it was Thursday night. Our kitchen door doesn't close completely unless you pull the knob hard. That door leads to the garage, and kitty is adept at opening the door and sneaking in the garage.

I figure he must have snuck out, then left through a garage door and was locked out when we closed the garage doors for the night. I can't remember kitty trying to sleep on my face Thursday night nor trying to trip me the next morning when I was getting breakfast ready so it must have been Thursday.

I had planned to work through a six-pack while playing BioShock again but instead I walked through the neighborhood asking my neighbors if they had spotted a really big black and grey kitty. No luck. I did finally go in, drank a few beers and played a little but my heart wasn't in it. Poor kitty. I left a garage door open and I kept going into the kitchen to see if he was there.

I did some more searching in the neighborhood on Saturday and as the day wore on I got sadder and sadder. You have to understand, Big Fat Kitty is sweet but stupid and has lived his entire life indoors. I imagined him getting squished, or running away in terror at something and diving down in a storm drain and not able to find his way out. Saturday sucked, in other words.

But around 10 P.M. that night, Brenden asked for some water so I went in the kitchen to get him a sippy-cup. After filling it I did what I had been doing at least 5-10 times and hour which was open the kitchen and yell "Kitty!" and listen for a meow. I didn't have to yell; he was sitting right there with an expression on his face like "Hey, how you doin?"

Of course I yelled "KITTY!" which brought Brenden out of his room. He yelled "KITTY!" too and scared the crap out of BFK. I did manage to coax him into the house with kitty treats. Other than being a little dusty he seemed ok. I didn't find any ticks, fleas, bites, scrapes, or other problems.

There's a Spongebob episode where his pet snail Gary runs away because Spongebob is neglecting him. When Spongebob realizes what's happened he is totally miserable, crying into his Krabby patties, and he and Patrick scour Bikini Bottom looking for Gary. About in the middle of the cartoon there's a montage with a pretty sad song:

Gary can’t you see I was blind?
I’ll do anything to change your mind
More than a pet you’re my best friend
Too cool to forget
Come back because we are family and
Forgive me for making you want to roam
And now my heart is beating like the saddest metronome
Somewhere I hope you’re reading
My latest three word poem
Gary come home

As you can imagine this freaking song wouldn't get out of my head all day Saturday! All's well that ends well, however.