Orange Noms

Orange Noms, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

I took Brenden to my mom's house this weekend (no photos - I forgot to pack the camera). Brenden has wanted to fish since we went there last time so Mom and Price rigged him up a very nice child-sized rod & reel. The reel is a fixed spool type, where you have to hold onto the line, flip the bail open, then let go as you cast. I had to look that up on Google. Google is my friend!

They rigged it up to fish with a cork and bait, which means you cast it then you wait. Brenden wanted to cast and reel it in, cast and reel it in, etc. We went out on their boat, but it was so stifling hot we didn't stay long. Brenden kept busy for a good hour though. Me, I got heat exhaustion. Also I had to convince Brenden he did not want to keep a dead minnow and fortunately Price caught a catfish so B's attention was deflected enough that I threw the poor fish over with only a little whining from el jefe.

Sunday morning when it was still relatively cool, I set up my reel again with a dead minnow (they were all dead from the heat by then) and went about teaching Brenden how to cast properly. The rod & reel are perfect for a little guy - he got some good casts in, but getting him to let go of the line consistently so it would be thrown forward was tricky.

I finally noticed that something was on my line (fortunately Mom and Price have rod holders on their dock) so I reeled in a nice-sized catfish. Brenden was very excited about that. He totally loves the concept of fishing but he has the patience of a ferret on meth.

On our way home Brenden got bubblegum in his hair. We were pulled over on a service ramp on the highway and I was trying to use an ice pack to get the gum cold enough to get off his hair and poor Brenden was crying hysterically. I actually said "what in the world possessed you to put gum in your hair?"

Like I never did that when I was a kid.

That was our weekend.

65 Questions You’ve Probably Never Been Asked

Brenden and Zoe, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Via Helly's Hellhole

1. First thing you wash in the shower?
My hair.

2. What color is your favorite hoodie?
Grey.

3. Would you kiss the last person you kissed again?
Yes!

4. Do you plan outfits?
Sure. Blue jeans + clean shirt. That's planning, right?

5. How are you feeling RIGHT now?
Mellow. I've cut down on caffeine and I'm surprised at how much better I feel.

6. Whats the closest thing to you that’s red?
A book on XML.

7. Tell me about the last dream you remember having?
Sigh. Flesh-eating zombies, blah de blah de blah.

8. Did you meet anybody new today?
No.

9. What are you craving right now?
St. John!

10. Do you floss?
No.

11. What comes to mind when I say cabbage?
Sauerkraut!

12. Are you emotional?
Not as much as most people.

13. Have you ever counted to 1,000?
When I was a kid, sure.

14. Do you bite into your ice cream or just lick it?
I bite it.

15. Do you like your hair?
Not completely - it's do straight and fine I'd have to use krazy glue to put it up in any king of hair do.

16. Do you like yourself?
Not completely. We get along most of the time, but sometimes we get into some pretty viscious arguments.

17. Would you go out to eat with George W. Bush?
He likes barbeque, I like barbeque, why the heck not?

18. What are you listening to right now?
The hum coming from the server room.

19. Are your parents strict?
Nah.

20. Would you go sky diving?
I did it 1109 times until I got pregnant.

21. Do you like cottage cheese?
I eat it every day for breakfast. so that's a yes.

22. Have you ever met a celebrity?
No.

23. Do you rent movies often?
Not anymore. Used to do it constantly.

24. Is there anything sparkly in the room you’re in?
No.

25. How many countries have you visited?
I've visited Canada, Costa Rica, and England. Wait, I guess I visited the Bahamas, too; even though Disney owns the island. So that's 4.

26. Have you made a prank phone call?
No.

27. Ever been on a train?
Ever since my little guy got obsessed, I've been on several train rides in the last few years.

28. Brown or white eggs?
What's cheapest.

29. Do you have a cell-phone?
Yes.

30. Do you use chapstick?
In the winter.

31. Do you own a gun?
Firestar 9mm and a Mossberg security shotgun.

32. Can you use chopsticks?
Sort of.

33. Who are you going to be with tonight?
Brenden, Jayne, Zoe, and Big Fat Kitty.

34. Are you too forgiving?
I don't think so.

35. Ever been in love?
Yes.

36. What is your best friend(s) doing tomorrow?
Working at the drop zone.

37. Ever have cream puffs?
Yes.

38. Last time you cried?
The end of Battlestar Galactica.

39. What was the last question you asked?
"What version?"

40. Favorite time of the year?
Fall! I've said this before - Winter is cold and no fun because there's no snow. Spring in Alabama lasts 3 weeks and we live in mortal terror because the tornado warning sirens go off almost every day. Summer cranks up immediately and there is no letup. But falls are wonderful, cooler but not so cool you have to wear a coat.

41. Who did you last call?
Wal-Greens to get my migraine meds refilled.

42. Are you sarcastic?
I aim more for sardonic.

43. Have you ever seen The Butterfly Effect?
Unfortunately.

44. Ever walked into a wall?
Yes.

45. Favorite color?
Blue.

46. Have you ever slapped someone?
Yes. Let's not go into details.

47. Is your hair curly?
Straight.

48. What was the last CD you bought?
An actual, physical, CD? Hrm... I think it was something by Front Line Assembly.

49. Do looks matter?
Yes. I don't think I'm picky and considering my looks that would only be right.

50. Could you ever forgive a cheater?
I don't want to talk about that either.

51. Is your phone bill sky high?
No. I hate the thing hence don't use it that much.

52. Do you like your life right now?
Yes. Sometimes I feel the grind but more often and not I count myself as lucky.

53. Do you sleep with the TV on?
No.

54. Can you handle the truth?
I like to think I can.

55. Do you have good vision?
Hah. No.

56. Do you hate or dislike more than 3 people?
I don't think I hate any one. I definitely dislike more than 3 people, but most people I just don't give a poop.

57. How often do you talk on the phone?
As little as possible.


58. The last person you held hands with?
Brenden! We were walking across the street to get the mail.


59. What are you wearing?
Blue Jeans + a skydiving tee-shirt I took from my husband.

60.What is your favorite animal?
Bengal Tiger. Pretty!

61. Where was your default picture taken?
At home.

62. Can you hula hoop?
Heck, no.

63. Do you have a job?
Yes.

64. What was the most recent thing you bought?
A pair of flip-flops for Brenden and some shorts for me.

65. Have you ever crawled through a window?
I used to do it all the time when I was a kid.

Around the pool

Around the pool 2, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

This photo shows where our vacation to Puerto Rico went. Ouch! It certainly looks a lot better, though.

we really do need to clean the junk out of the back yard, we know. It's a total mess! It's too freakin hot to do anything but swim. And the water was 89 degrees yesterday afternoon!

Jon and I decided not to put the hot tub back on the patio. We're going to pour our own concrete slab to the side and place it there. Yay, I get my window back! (It used to be right in front of that long window in the picture).

Put-upon kitty is put upon, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Random Bits

As I speak, the finishing touches are being applied to a large amount of concrete work being done around our pool. Photos soon come of where our Puerto Rico vacation went.

Big Fat Kitty, when he was a kitten, was very timid (still is actually) and he would never uses his claws. Jayne and Zoe are rambunctious kittens and I had forgotten what it was like to have a couple in the house (Vasquez was middle ground. She was playful, but she never went hog-wild, not like these two). All I can say is it's a good thing kittens are made out of rubber because they have been booted forcefully of our bed innumerable times since I adopted them. Some people might like to be woken up by having their fingers or toes nibbled on, but not me, Jon, or Brenden.

Some gaming philosophy: The appeal of Fallout 3 and similar games for me is the FRP (Fanstasy Role-Playing, and man do I ever hate that term. That sounds like games for perverts) aspect. Essentially your character progresses from a weakling to a badass, aquiring skills, money, weapons and armor and you also get to fight progressively badass opponents, too. But that's not the only appeal. In many of the games you deal with other characters with whom you can talk or trade. Some of them you can get 'quests' from (go get / do something and get X in return). Depending on your actions, you can gain fame (or infamy). Yes, you can kill these NPC (non-player characters), but there are consequences to your actions. Those are the games I love the most - your choices come down to ethical choices and they have a great influence on the gameplay.

I find it almost impossible to play a completely evil character. I have played the goodiest goody two-shoes to some pretty scuzzy 'I'm in it for the money' thieving assholes, but I can't bring myself to be something completely awful like a slaver. I can murder if the cause is just - there's one town in Fallout 3, Paradise Falls, that's a town full of slavers. I tried once to go there and just 'get along' but after watching a slaver kill a bartender for watering his drink down I pulled out my shotgun and went to town. On the entire town. They were all scum, good riddance. Well, I didn't kill the doctor. She didn't try to kill me so I cut her some slack and bought some stimpacks off of her.

Never bring a knife to a nuclear holocaust

Fallout 3 Poster, originally uploaded by wongjp.

I'm playing Fallout 3 for the 6th or 7th time. The game setting is post-nuclear war Washington DC, and even though many of the ruins / relics reflect 1950's sensibilities, it obviously happened in our future (2077) because cars and trucks have nuclear-powered engines. None of the vehicles run anymore - they just sit around in rusting junkheaps waiting for some unsuspecting idiot to put a bullet in their engine blocks...

The appeal of all 3 of Bethesda Softworks' RPG games - Morrowind, Oblivion, and Fallout 3, are huge gameworlds. Even though each time I play I follow the main quest, there are so many different places to go that each time the game is different. And those are the unmodded versions. When I was recuperating from my operation a while back I played the crap out of Oblivion, then went and downloaded the best mods I could find, and played the crap out of it again. I have yet to download any mods (other than 2 official add-ons) for Fallout 3.

Fallout 3 is special because there are no elves or dragons, but there are guns. .32 caliber pop pistols to Chinese Assault Rifles to Rocket Launchers and combat shotguns, frag grenades, pulse mines, and mini-nuke launchers, laser and phase rifles... (droool). Plus a giant freaking robot!

So anyway, last night I wander into a bombed out and (what I thought to be) abandoned Army weapons depot. A bunch of scumbag raiders open up on me from the ruins, so I run and duck behind a truck, like an idiot. I take out one or two of the bad guys then I hear a distinct "WHANG" which tells me someone's bullet has hit the truck's engine block. The truck's nuclear powered engine block. I run like mad, not even bothering to dodge bullets, until I can duck behind part of a building. All the while bullets are whining off the wall of my hiding place then I hear the "KABOOM!!!" of the engine going up. All of a sudden, there's silence.

I pop my head up, and I don't see any raiders, only the burning truck. I walk back to the fire, and I start laughing like a loon. There are raider parts scattered everywhere! Stupid jerks congregated near the truck to get a better line of sight on my position!

Cat fishing

IMG_2974, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Brenden had his 4-year checkup yesterday. Since I'm not an anti-vax idiot, Brenden got his shots. *6* shots. I had to hold my screaming kid down while he got 2 in each leg and one in each arm. Yeesh!

He spent the night running around the house trailing a measuring tape while Zoe and Jayne gave chase. Yes, by popular demand, his name is Jayne. The hero of Canton, the man cat they call Jayne! Thanks for getting that stuck in my head, Alan!

Birthday Boy

Messy Boy is Messy, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

So El Jefe turned 4 on Saturday. It's tough to believe 4 years have passed. He had a pool party Friday with the kids he spends weekdays with, then on Saturday Jon came home and we had a little private party which involved many toys. In the afternoon I took Brenden to the drop zone and he spent the night with his dad. Me I slept. I needed it because our new kittys are rambunctious and like to chew on feet poking out of the covers.

I still haven't named boy kitty but I'm leaning towards naming him Mal. I was going to name him Jayne, but I'm too damn tired of explaining why I would name a boy kitty Jayne.

New Kittehs

IMG_2975, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Here are our new family members. The black and white one in the foreground is my kitty, Zoe (pronounced Zo-ee). The grey kitty in the potty box is Player to be Named Later (so far). Brenden chose him out of the litter.

I asked B what he wanted to call the Kitty, and he said "CAT!". So we'll pick a name for him eventually.

Big Fat Kitty, who spent 8 years of his life terrorizing my kitty Vasquez, has discovered that payback is hell.

Right about now! Funk soul brother, check it out now!

BB and KC, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Bits and Pieces

The last 3 songs that got stuck in my head:

1)Debaser (the Pixies)
2)The Rockefeller Skank (Fatboy Slim)
3)Sabotage (the Beastie Boys)

Brenden helped me qualify for my "Worst Mother" merit badge this weekend. When we went grocery shopping on Saturday, I ran over his leg with a loaded shopping cart. (Much crying, but he's fine). Then on Sunday we were outside enjoying the outdoors and he managed to let the lid to a grill slam down on his wrist. (Much crying, but he's fine). Then Sunday night he was playing a game on the Wii and he wanted my help with a tough part. I concentrated on the game so hard I never noticed that he placed a chair on the couch then stood up in the chair. He slipped and hit the floor face-first. He had a nice goose egg on his head and a small split lip. Much crying, but he's fine. Me, I suck.

We are getting 2 new kitties, eight weeks old, this week. I chose one, and I'm going to let Brenden choose the other. As for my kitty, I'm trying to decide on a name for her. Zoe is the frontrunner.