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an update on The Teeth…

July 10th, 2008

Yeah, that’s a grown-up tooth growing in there, alright. The dentist told us to “push the baby teeth out” with popsicle sticks.

Both kids: “POPSICLES!??!!”

Dentist: “You can re-use the sticks, you don’t have to eat a new popsicle every time.”

The baby tooth in front of the grown-up tooth is hardly wiggling at all — but the one right next to it is. Hmm.

Also, according to Dr. Tooth, this does not indicate that all of the teeth are going to come in crazeee like this — or that the new tooth won’t “float forward.” He also suggested to the kids that they could try his daughter’s tried-and-true method from childhood: Any tooth that is loose, work on it, pry on it, push it back and forth until it comes out.

“It would usually take her two, three days. All of her teeth were gone by age nine.”

Wacky Boy: “Then I’ll be able to get LOTS of money from the tooth fairy!”

“Yeah,” the dentist told him. “You’ll never have to work a day in your life.”

QOTD and on planting a garden

July 10th, 2008

“If you have come to help me you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”

— Aboriginal activists group, Queensland, 1970s

I read that quote for the first time today — it moves me. I read it here and read about it here.

(I love finding out the history of quotes, don’t you? They can get so muddled and mis-attributed along the way. So it was cool seeing credit go to where it was due on that one.)

Here is something I frequently talk about with people in “real” life, but rarely on the blog: My husband, Steve, is fairly outspoken. (Read this post, too, if you haven’t already.)

That’s getting to be well-known, that he is a political person. People keep asking when he’s running for office and I ask them, “Have you seen our blogs?” I mean, for real. Who would elect either one of us? I am political and vocal, too, of course, just in different ways from Steve. He works through the proper channels, is forthright and has a logical mind; I knit and plot the revolution. What I don’t write about here is how we go about our work. I don’t really blog about our different styles and how they mesh. Or don’t. It is a difficult thing to put into words, but we’ve woven it together pretty well over the past decade plus.

Also, it’s kind of a mystery to me, and I don’t want to mess with it.

I will say that sometimes we clash, mostly we agree. We spend almost all of our free time together, but at the same time completely do our own things. We like our independence, whether it’s expressed in big ways or small. A couple of months ago I planted a little garden at the high school. This turned out to be a tiny and a huge thing, and not just for me. It started because every time I walked by this particular flower bed, I would grimace. Garbage, weeds, NO PLANTS. What is the point of an empty flower bed?

“Please take the space between us/
And fill it up some way/
Take the space between us/
And fill it up some way/”

“O My God”
The Police

More importantly — what is the point of bitching about it (all that garbage! Why doesn’t anyone clean it up? Doesn’t anyone think to plant there?) when you can do something about it?

It took me three hours. I filled it up. (Not really, but it will be after the plants get established and fill it up.)

Daphne, grasses, lavender and rosemary and more lavender. Spiderwort. Some vegetables, which are not perennial, not at all, but I had extra seed packets and wanted to see some vegetables. It’s pretty now. Even the spiderwort, which likes to be babied, is enjoying its independence and thriving. I am working on “letting go and not being a control freak” which you can probably imagine is a huge challenge for me. I’ve decided:

1) if anyone yanks up the plants, I will re-plant. I will not let it get me down.
2) if someone decides that they can put in a better garden than I did, they can have at it.
3) However. If their garden dies from neglect, or if they get bored and abandon it, I will re-plant again.
4) I’ll keep picking up garbage (there are three cans nearby, this is not a big deal) and keep up on the weeding.
5) I’ll try to keep the plantings perennial, native, and in need of little water (once they’re established)
6) no boxwoods, rhodies or camellias, sorry. I love them, but I want something a little different. Maybe a smoke bush? I love these when they bloom.
7) I might plant another bed, too, that’s adjacent to this one (Mom and I planned it out yesterday — we may or may not follow through. Day lilies, lilies of the valley, a smoke bush?, daffodils, iris, something tall, like a tree peony? She has tons of starts, and her friend has a greenhouse with starts to share).

I made friends with a couple of the neighbors, who are helping me water. Did I mention that a water source is a problem? There’s a spigot, but it looks rusted over. No shed for a hose. No little dealie to turn on the spigot. A local gardener/landscape designer stopped by school the other day — she wants to write some grants, do a master plan. I told her go for it.

One of our PTA members and some students she knows went around the whole school, for no particular reason, and did a big clean-up. The alumni association did another clean-up. We have Community Care Day planned for August 23rd. I’m not the only one who is paying attention, is what I’m saying.

Anyway. The custodian? Turns out he likes to garden, too. He’s been helping me water, and he did a bunch of sprucing up to the beds that are near the bed I worked on. Suckers taken down from trees, hedges pruned back, weeds and garbage gone.

“Looks nice around here, doesn’t it?” he asked me yesterday. “People are starting to talk.”

Good.

Thursday Thirteen: We Love Summer

July 9th, 2008

thirteen things we love about summer, here at Chez Wacky:

1) riding bikes
2) eating ice cream
3) hanging all the laundry outside
4) coffee and breakfast with my husband at the patio table
5) potatoes, tomatoes, strawberries, cucumbers, geraniums, zinnias, begonias and hot peppers in the garden
6) cold showers
7) going to the ocean
8) swimming every day
9) playing in the dirt
10) staying up ’til midnight
11) playing baseball and tennis
12) playing all kinds of games
13) hot summer nights

Happy Thursday, everyone!

love,

wm

she cursed us

July 8th, 2008

We’re at the orthodontist’s yesterday, to get started on Phase I of Project Braces for my daughter with the crookedy teeth and the crazy jaw. (Estimated cost ’til completion of project, as of yesterday when we did a worksheet: $7,000. Insurance will pay: Nothing.)

“So, you’ll be next!” the tech says, perkily, with dollar signs in her eyes, to my son.

I say, “NO! He has my teeth! Straight! She has her father’s teeth.”

“Sorry, sorry, of course, I can see that now,” etc. sez the tech. “Did your husband have braces?”

“No,” I tell her. “My father-in-law has a thing against orthodontists.”

Today, Wacky Girl tells me, perkily, with dollar signs in her eyes, “We can’t eat out anymore. You’re saving for my braces.” Of course. Of course I am, honey. I can see that now.

Not ten minutes later she tells me I need to look into her brother’s mouth.

“There’s something real weird going on in there.”

She’s right, there is something weird going on in there. A great big grown-up tooth, his first, snuggling up right behind his baby tooth. (Which is not wiggling, by the by. Which is firmly holding on to its own real estate, smack up against the big boy tooth.)

She tells him, “You’re like a crocodile! With double teeth!”

He grins a big toothy grin at her.

“Maybe your great-great-great-great grandchildren will have the same problem!” she says, like this is the coolest thing that has ever occurred to her.

At least I won’t be responsible for their dental bills.

We’re seeing the dentist tomorrow.

we have some business to take care of at home

July 6th, 2008

“It was our own moral failure and not any accident of chance, that while preserving the appearance of the Republic we lost its reality.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero, statesman, orator, writer (106-43 BCE)

The kids and I have had a great couple of weeks, swimming, celebrating birthdays, staying up ’til midnight. On Thursday we actually made it to the park to play and have free lunch. Yes, free lunch. Oh, free lunch, how I love thee. (more…)

Vancouver lights up

July 5th, 2008

Here in North Portland, sometimes I feel as if all we are is a glorified border town for Vancouver, Wash. You cannot buy “the good” fireworks in Oregon… but you can in Washington! So everyone drives over there, loads up, drives back, and on the Fourth, my entire neighborhood looks and sounds like it’s exploding. Yes, it’s illegal, but the cops don’t mind so why should you! Lock up your daughters is all I can say.

(This was not Wacky Dog’s favorite holiday, especially since “the festivities” start in June and end around mid-September.) (Dear departed Wacky Dog, I’m sorry I called you “stupidass,” you weren’t. You just didn’t like the bang and pop, that’s all.)

Also, Vancouver, Wash., as you may or may not know, is home of “the biggest fireworks show west of the Mississippi.” They shoot ’em off from a barge in the middle of the Columbia River.

God Bless the USA. Now let’s get into the habit of not bombing other countries, what say?

Damn. I’m ready to get back to what America originally stood for, which was what, exactly? Something about “your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”?

We went to our friend’s house last night, and God love him for inviting us because we were right on the Columbia and that close to the best fireworks ever. Also, we went swimming in BOTH of the pools at his condo, and hot-tubbed. And had yummy snacks and ice cream sodas.

He invited us back to swim, anytime, and to watch the Christmas Ship Parade go by.

I hope he adopts us.

quirky and unspectacular

July 5th, 2008

A little meme, to brighten up your holiday weekend. Funsize (and the whole Vixen crew), Happy Fourth!

The rules:

a) Link to the person who tagged me.

b) Mention the rules.

c) Tell six quirky yet boring, unspectacular details about myself.

d) Tag 6 other bloggers by linking to them.

e) Go to each person’s blog and leave a comment that lets them know they’ve been tagged.

OK, I’ll do most of this. Except d). I’m tagging ALL of you.

1) When I was a kid, I used to eat lemonade concentrate, frozen, straight from the can.

2) When I get stressed out I bake. Then I put on a few more pounds and get more stressed, then I bake some more. You can see why this is a problem? My solution: Give the extras away (to the chagrin of my children). This is the number one reason I need a permanent job — so I will have co-workers to bake for. (Some of my favorites are here, here, here and HERE.)

3) On days when I can sleep in, I’m up at 6 (like today). On days when I need to get up early, you cannot drag me out of bed. It’s like my mind is thinking “Snow Day” or something on my “free” days. I try, unsuccessfully, to fight this cycle.

3) I love being alone so I can knit or read a book. I am as much a bookworm now as when I was 9 years old.

4) My moods go with the Oregon weather and always have. We are both a little erratic.

5) I love strawberries and blueberries but raspberries? Not so much. Unless they’re sauced or in a jam.

6) Could I be more boring? I do not think so. Oh, yes. In the summertime, I hang out all of our laundry to dry. Every last bit of it, all summer. This is insane, but the sheets smell yummy.

Have a good weekend, y’all.

wm

General Hospital

July 4th, 2008

feuilleton (fuhy-tohn) noun, masculine
: serial (program), soap opera

I’ve been trying to cut back on watching General Hospital. It’s not going that well. I love GH, as you may know, but I do not have an affinity for any of the characters right now. NONE OF THEM. Except Original Carly, who is now “Claudia.”

Sonny and Carly #4? Always yelling at each other.
Jason? Not enough sex scenes.
Sam? Never liked Sam.
Emily? Dead. Maxie? Dead. Georgie? Spinelli? Robin? Dr. Drake Jr.? The “hott” nurses? All stupid. (Do I have Maxie/Georgie reversed again, BF? I never really have gotten to attached to them. Sorry.)

Anyway. I want to get a life and this means less TV. I do have a pretty big addiction going for The Wire right now, so any free time is devoted to that. (I just finished viewing the third season, so NO SPOILERS please.) And am re-watching the entire series run of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Also, Friday Night Lights. (I’m re-watching Season 2 cuz I missed half the episodes.)

Are you a TV fan? It lures me in, every time.

Happy Fourth, those of you in the States.

i didn’t do it!

July 3rd, 2008

Happy Birthday to my mom, aka My Kids’ Grandma, who several years ago gave them T-shirts that said:

I didn’t do it
I wasn’t even there
I want my Grandma

Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

that’s it. all celebrations should be potlucks.

July 1st, 2008

I decided to throw myself a small party for my 44th birthday, as I’ve mentioned here 10 or 20 times, and it went okay. You know why? Because instead of doing all the food myself I called out, “Potluck!” and everyone responded.

We had… (more…)

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