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Friday mix
Sep. 12th, 2008 06:36 pmIt's starting to be stormy/rainy out there, and while I think this storm pattern is completely unrelated to Ike, it makes me feel for those people in Ike's path. Be safe, people!
You know what's nice? A decent sound system. Our speakers are cheap, but they're better than the ones we had in Germany. Nice piano music is very calming after a stressful week, especially when the music is accompanied by DH and kids cooking, and well, one good thing about our otherwise exploding house is that the weird paneled kitchen/dining/family room really is a good place for everyone to sit around and enjoy each other's company. Also, it looks like a youth hostel. We could move all the chairs along the wall and have a dance some night, and there'd be room for all of us to have a wallflower seat.
One nice thing today--I found a solid wooden table plus four chairs at a garage sale today for $40. It smells like wood, which is a good thing. I plan to check garage sales for a computer desk tomorrow, if it isn't flooding. We should get a lot of rain from Ike. It appears that garage sales, not used furniture stores, are the key to finding decent used stuff. Anyhow, there's this phrase in a book I've had several people critique that they've all had problems with. No one has ever heard of a door that's "pulled to" (meaning closed, or at least mostly closed). Finally I took it out, because I guess it isn't real? But today the guy I bought the table from was helping me load it into my van, and he said, "I'll just pull the door to for you." I'm not crazy! It IS a real expression. I'm just expressing my Arkansas upbringing or something. :)
You know what else is lovely? Language. I've been reading all my usual genres, and everything else outside the canon. The English language is a lovely, lovely thing. I have missed it. I can feel my starved brain slowly rehydrating. Yesterday I read Shug, by Jenny Han. Today it's Thursday Next: First Among Sequels, by Jasper Fforde.
Lastly, I'm glad that daughter 1 is learning spelling. She got an 88 on her spelling test today! (I'm not saying this to brag about her. I'm just excited that her hard work is paying off--she missed American kindergarten last year, which means that there's a whole school year's worth of reading and math that she has to learn along with whatever the kids are learning now. I've been concerned about it, worried she'd get discouraged, but so far, so good. We're trying to be really positive and make it fun instead of stressful, but she's pretty...intense? emotional? acts like she's 16? so it could turn on a hair.)
You know what's nice? A decent sound system. Our speakers are cheap, but they're better than the ones we had in Germany. Nice piano music is very calming after a stressful week, especially when the music is accompanied by DH and kids cooking, and well, one good thing about our otherwise exploding house is that the weird paneled kitchen/dining/family room really is a good place for everyone to sit around and enjoy each other's company. Also, it looks like a youth hostel. We could move all the chairs along the wall and have a dance some night, and there'd be room for all of us to have a wallflower seat.
One nice thing today--I found a solid wooden table plus four chairs at a garage sale today for $40. It smells like wood, which is a good thing. I plan to check garage sales for a computer desk tomorrow, if it isn't flooding. We should get a lot of rain from Ike. It appears that garage sales, not used furniture stores, are the key to finding decent used stuff. Anyhow, there's this phrase in a book I've had several people critique that they've all had problems with. No one has ever heard of a door that's "pulled to" (meaning closed, or at least mostly closed). Finally I took it out, because I guess it isn't real? But today the guy I bought the table from was helping me load it into my van, and he said, "I'll just pull the door to for you." I'm not crazy! It IS a real expression. I'm just expressing my Arkansas upbringing or something. :)
You know what else is lovely? Language. I've been reading all my usual genres, and everything else outside the canon. The English language is a lovely, lovely thing. I have missed it. I can feel my starved brain slowly rehydrating. Yesterday I read Shug, by Jenny Han. Today it's Thursday Next: First Among Sequels, by Jasper Fforde.
Lastly, I'm glad that daughter 1 is learning spelling. She got an 88 on her spelling test today! (I'm not saying this to brag about her. I'm just excited that her hard work is paying off--she missed American kindergarten last year, which means that there's a whole school year's worth of reading and math that she has to learn along with whatever the kids are learning now. I've been concerned about it, worried she'd get discouraged, but so far, so good. We're trying to be really positive and make it fun instead of stressful, but she's pretty...intense? emotional? acts like she's 16? so it could turn on a hair.)
