It wasn't this Aquarium

IMG_5602, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

We took a last minute trip to Gatlinburg this past weekend - we left Friday afternoon and came back Sunday. The drive ( 5 hours ) wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the traffic between Sevierville and Gatlinburg.

We stayed at a motel not too far from the aquarium so we were in walking distance from the main strip. Brenden is finally old enough to really enjoy aquariums - he liked the Believe it or Not museum not so much but I always get a cheesy kick out of it. I always end up thinking about that X-Files episode, "Humbug", especially when we pass the Fiji Mermaid exhibit.

Brenden's favorite thing in town however was an arcade that gave tickets for some of the games. On sunday before we left he spent his tickets (that took about $20 to collect) and received a cup full of trinkets worth about 90 cents. He had fun though so I don't really care.

I once read that The Gatlinburg - Pigeon Forge area is considered to be one of the worst places to go on vacation. I dunno, we have fun. And the people - both the residents and tourists - tend to be nice people and even I don't have a hard time talking to them. Brenden made instant friends several times. Photos soon come.

Boy with Kitten

IMG_6123, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

It has been over a year since NBC cancelled Life. This past weekend I got to thinking about it enough to put season 1 in my computer and watch a few episodes. I was going to watch one or two but ended up watching 17. Yeah, I miss it.

I'm still mad at NBC for cancelling this most excellent series in favor of a 5 days a week 10pm Leno show. Much shadenfreude pie was consumed by us fans the day Leno failed. Anyway, Damian Lewis is back in London, doing theater, British movies, and raising his kids, while Sarah Shahi took a couple of years off (raising her kid) and is now in a USA Network show (Facing Kate) which premieres in January. You know, too bad Life wasn't a USA series. That network practically thrives on oddball detective shows.

And for something completely different: I just added a year or so to my stay in Purgatory: About 8pm last night Jon actually said:"Do you think we should put Brenden down now?"

So I replied (to Brenden) "You smell like cheese and your mother dresses you funny."

Brenden yelled "THATS NOT NICE!!" I gave him hugs and kisses and apologies, but I couldn't help myself. I blame Bill Murray, of course.

This pretty well sums it up:

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I loves me some pareidolia and if you peruse the amusing photos at Happy Chair is Happy you will see faces in objects all day.

I rescued a full-grown box turtle from our pool. He fortunately hadn't been sucked into the whirling vortex of doom but he may have been swimming around in there for a couple of days. He seemed kind of groggy when I set him down in some shade but hey he's a turtle. Ok, a TORTOISE. I know the difference but the general tendency is to call them all turtles. Any way I brought him some romaine leaves but he eventually left without touching them.

I'm not watching anything else on tv these days but I have really come to enjoy Warehouse 13. It's not perfect, but the characters are starting to gel. I also can't help but like a show that not only passes the Beschdel* test consistently, I could swear that "THOU SHALT PASS THE TEST EVERY EPISODE" is inscribed in marble on the floor of the writer's room for that show.


*The Beschdel test is:
1) Is there more than one woman
2) who talk to each other
3) about anything other than men?

Boo boos R Us

Gatorade, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Saturday afternoon Brenden runs up to me and yells "ICE CREAM TRUCK!!" again so I grab some cash and we ran out of the house, only to see the truck turn the corner out of our subdivision. Brenden was inconsolable. I even offered to take him to Dairy Queen, but he didn't want ice cream unless it came from the ice cream truck.

On the hope the truck had driven into the subdivision across the street from ours, we walked over there and followed the truck's jingle to their location. Brenden was happy again. Yay! Disaster averted!

Sunday Brenden managed to both bite his tongue hard enough to draw blood and cut his thumb with a knife. It wasn't a good day. Fortunately I had a spare ice cream sandwich to console him.

Monday Jon, B, and I went over to Lake Guntersville with some friends and boated around. It was nothing much to write about but it was enjoyable. We all went to a seafood restaurant afterwards and Jon and I both saw 'bacon-wrapped jumbo shrimp' on the menu and jumped. It was the worst shrimp I had ever had in my life. What a shame.

Did I mention that I gave myself some serious 2nd degree burns about a week ago? It involved frying some pork chops in smoking-hot bacon grease. I splashed some on my index and middle finger on my left hand. Yes, not much is happening.

We all scream

IMG_5892, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Last night Brenden was helping his dad wash the Jeep while I was getting dinner ready. All of a sudden B bursts into the house yelling "Ice cream truck! ICE CREAM TRUCK! I NEED MONEY!!!"

Well how could I deny him? I went outside and gave Jon some cash. Yes, just before dinner. What about it?

The rest of the night Brenden would occasionally say "the ice cream truck is SO AWESOME!"

We all remember from our childhood that it most certainly is.


I forgot to mention this: 2 weekends ago Brenden and I went to this day camp thing for diabetic children (no, Brenden isn't diabetic, but a friend is). Despite the heat, Brenden had a great time: he played games, rode a horse (I watched from a good distance), paddled a canoe, and he got to fire a real rifle.

It was a .22 caliber single shot something - the rifle was chained down with the muzzle through a ring bolted to a horizontal beam so it could never be pointed any where except down range. The instructor showed Brenden how to pull the bolt back, un-do the safety, and load the ammo and Brenden took to it like a duck to water. At the end of the day the firing range was almost empty so B got to shoot 5 or 6 times (5 bullets each time) and he only hit a target once. I tried to show him how to line up the sights but he didn't catch onto that. The few times I did see where his bullet hit he was 2 or 3 feet high.

I got to shoot once and grouped my shots (except 1) nicely about 2 inches to the right of the bullseye. I could tell I was hitting the target but I couldn't tell where. I need glasses again desperately!