Wacky Girl is and always has been a spelling fiend. Even more so after watching Akeelah and the Bee. Which I have seen referred to recently not by name, but as “a Starbucks-produced film.” Which it was, but whatever, hello, say the name of the picture, would you? It’s a great film, and it was awesome to be able to take my six-year-old to a film that we both enjoyed, that was inspirational without being sappy, and that starred people who weren’t white.

Good God, was that so much to ask of Hollywood? Hollywood, what the hell is your problem? You know I dislike Tom Cruise, Hollywood.

Thank you. And now, a few spelling words… starting with…

“C-R-O-Q-U-I-G-N-O-L-E: Croquignole. (Fr.) A hair waving thingy.” (Sorry, that’s what I wrote down.)

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Calling all bloggers:

D. Challener Roe is looking for the help of bloggers to post tributes — five years after — to those we lost on Sept. 11, 2001.

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Miss Zoot rules my blogger universe. Well, you knew that already, prolly. But her column today (“Whatever Works”) just gave me a good kick. And I mean that as a compliment.

Also, Rockstar Mommy’s baby is learning to walk.

And Amalah? Settling in to stay-at-home-motherhood quite nicely.

Off computer now to do dishes and play with kid. Not in that order.

Wacky Girl, Wacky Boy and I are all grouchy. Thanks for asking! I mean — like ready to smack each other grouchy. I. Hate. The. End. Of. The. School Year. So there.

WB: “No, no, NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

WG: “I did not say that was OK! I did NOT!”

Me, to Hockey God: “No, I am not as excited about the Stanley Cup as you are.”

HG: “What is wrong with you guys?”

Wacky Cats: “Meooooooow, hissssssssssssssssssss!”

Wacky Dog: “Bowooooooooooooo…” (bayful mourn)

Thus I have come up with the 20 Top Ways the Wackies are Planning to Have Fun This Summer:

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“With a rubber duck, one’s never alone.”

— “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”

Shelley, for Planet Nomad Mom. This is one of my favorites, too. Especially:

“We look before and after,
And pine for what is not:
Our sincerest laughter
With some pain is fraught;
Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.”

Happy Memorial Day, everyone. Don’t forget to light your candles.

WM

(Click on “read more” to see entire poem.)

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Wacky Girl and I went to see Akeelah and the Bee and it made us so happy. Go see it. Except I’m thinking, my kids are really not going to want to go to the movies with me once they hit those teen years, cuz I am big sucker crybaby at the movies. (They probably wouldn’t want to anyway, but they especially won’t cuz who wants to sit with sobbing mom?) Sad, happy, romantic, overwrought, Civil War epics, cartoons, doesn’t matter. Is she going to win? WHAT IF SHE DOESN’T WIN??? WHAT IF THE OTHER KID WINS THE SPELLING BEE? etc.

WHAT IF E.T. DIES?

WHAT IF AT THE END OF “AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN” HE DUMPS HER? No, it’s okay, there he is, carrying her out of the factory, everyone’s cheering, whew that was close.

Sucker crybaby, I told you.

We had to play Scrabble after dinner; guess who won?

Today would have been my Dad-o’s 64th birthday. (He has been gone since I was 9. Too long. And the years just keep flowing along, and him being here seems like a dream from a million years ago.)

I used to get pretty freaked out on and around the day of his death. Plus, it was in April. And April? Worse frickin’ month in Oregon, even under the best of circumstances. It is wet and gray here in April. “April is the cruellest month,” yeah no kidding. Highest suicide rates, supposedly, are March, April & May.

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I’m watching my Wacky friend A’s kids on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays until school is out. She is paying me. I can get pedicures now.

“We don’t like our other babysitter,” the older kid told me.

“Yeah, cuz she forces us to sit there and watch TV,” sez the younger one.

“Yeah,” sez his big brother. “Like, forces us.” These are boys who really do like their TV viewing, so damn, you know she was parking them non-stop.

“Also, she treats us like kindergartners,” they both said.

“You would be doing us a big favor,” the older one said, and what kind of heartless bitch could resist that?

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Funniest episode ever (I just watched this last night): Where the gang does an intervention on Chrissy re: his heroin addiction, and it ends with Sil and Paulie pounding the crap out of him.

Here’s the script from the scene.