So, there's this and this.
Now, I'm not necessarily proud that these things amuse me, I'm just putting them out there in the interest of creating an honest representation of my online persona. It's important to recognize our own weaknesses, and I apparently have a thing for puppet humor and children's books. So what? Anyway, I know I'm getting a little heavy into the Potter stuff with these last two postings. I'll be done after today, I promise. This was mostly just for Julie and Kat anyway, since I know they share my enthusiasm. If these movies and books were coming out during the school year, I certainly would have less time for finding and posting such silliness.
Also, I am most definitely (or at least seriously considering) having the students make and use puppets next year when we read Macbeth, and maybe Lord of the Flies too. So much potential for hands-on (or...hands-in?) learning.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Monday, July 16, 2007
They started jackhammering outside my window at 9:30 this morning. It could have been worse (and by worse I mean earlier) I know, but I was still displeased. This is the week I'm indulging my usually-latent Harry Potter appreciation (because obsession lumps me in with all those other people) and staying up late reading books five and six. I didn't exactly mean to dive back into the books again, but after seeing the fifth movie, I had to go back and see if it was really true that there was no quidditch at all that year. Of course there was. There were actually lots of things that happen in the book that the director chose to omit from the movie, so I'm pretty disappointed with it, and also glad to read the book again, in a sped-up, skimming, refresher sort of way. But anyway, my point is that I was up with Potter until wayyy late, and then the jackhammers wouldn't let me sleep as late as I'd planned. Boo!
In happier news, besides Harry Potter (which kind of counts as fake reading, I feel like) I'm replacing my J.D. Salinger crush with a Dave Eggers infatuation (how many degrees between a crush and an infatuation? "Some but not too many" is what I was going for) and now I'm reading How We Are Hungry, after finish AHWOSG and YSKOV. People have been recommending Eggers to me for ages, so I'm glad I'm finally listening and agreeing. Only, the thing is, I keep buying new books, even as the piles grow perilously around my feet, slowly engulfing inch after inch of precious floor-space in my living and bed rooms. Then again, there's still room in the kitchen. I feel like this might be my Thing in life - that demon I struggle with until it eventually overcomes me on my deathbed and my dying wish is that I'd ever actually been able to finish all the books in my pile, even Don Quixote. Then again, I kind of hope my To Be Read pile never does run out, because the day there are no more books I want to read is the day I'm cashing in my chips and checking out anyway. So Dave Eggers. Those of you who have read and loved Giraffes? Giraffes! should read him if you haven't already. After all, he is half of Dr. and Mr. Haggis-On-Whey, so how could you not expect great things?
Other news. Since summer, I've slowly been making my way toward a regular shower-every-other-day schedule, and it's pretty amazing. Do other people do this? I think they probably do, and no one ever told me how much more free time I'd have if I just started washing myself half as often. So far no one seems to have noticed, or at least I've gotten no complaint-type comments about my appearance/odor lately. And this weekend I met a scad of new people, so I hope I was presentable. Usually being introduced to groups of other peoples' friends kind of puts me off, since it creates that whole "you're an outsider because we all know each other and you don't" vibe, but this weekend the people were actually nice. We even had some jokes, which I always consider a good sigh. Jokes and cake.
And Julie came! Julie came to see me a couple of days ago, and we tried to barbecue on my George Foreman grill. It makes me kind of sad to type that, since the George is about as far away from authentic, outdoor grilling as a girl can get, but we had only certain resources at our disposal, and a real grill was not one of them. Electricity was also only one of them part of the time. (I swear to god, all of this construction is going to drive me insane this summer, with my power and water cutting out at will, the water pressure going all wonky, along with my road being blocked off half the time and loud equipment running most of the time. Also, Hi, I'm Kristin, and I'm a compulsive whiner). At least we didn't bake our chicken in the oven like wussies. We did other things too, mostly involving staying cool since Grand Rapids decided to become a sauna recently. At least my third-floor attic apartment did. Where the hell did my cross-breezes go!? Of course they skip out as soon as company comes.
The last two paragraphs could be extensively elaborated, but that delicious summer lethargy is calling me over to the reading chair, where I last left Harry Potter about to do something exciting that probably wasn't in the movie. So back I go. Let this count as my July update. I'll see you kids in August (or, as I like to call it, The Sunday Night of Months. I also usually make a gagging, "blech" kind of sound when I say it).
In happier news, besides Harry Potter (which kind of counts as fake reading, I feel like) I'm replacing my J.D. Salinger crush with a Dave Eggers infatuation (how many degrees between a crush and an infatuation? "Some but not too many" is what I was going for) and now I'm reading How We Are Hungry, after finish AHWOSG and YSKOV. People have been recommending Eggers to me for ages, so I'm glad I'm finally listening and agreeing. Only, the thing is, I keep buying new books, even as the piles grow perilously around my feet, slowly engulfing inch after inch of precious floor-space in my living and bed rooms. Then again, there's still room in the kitchen. I feel like this might be my Thing in life - that demon I struggle with until it eventually overcomes me on my deathbed and my dying wish is that I'd ever actually been able to finish all the books in my pile, even Don Quixote. Then again, I kind of hope my To Be Read pile never does run out, because the day there are no more books I want to read is the day I'm cashing in my chips and checking out anyway. So Dave Eggers. Those of you who have read and loved Giraffes? Giraffes! should read him if you haven't already. After all, he is half of Dr. and Mr. Haggis-On-Whey, so how could you not expect great things?
Other news. Since summer, I've slowly been making my way toward a regular shower-every-other-day schedule, and it's pretty amazing. Do other people do this? I think they probably do, and no one ever told me how much more free time I'd have if I just started washing myself half as often. So far no one seems to have noticed, or at least I've gotten no complaint-type comments about my appearance/odor lately. And this weekend I met a scad of new people, so I hope I was presentable. Usually being introduced to groups of other peoples' friends kind of puts me off, since it creates that whole "you're an outsider because we all know each other and you don't" vibe, but this weekend the people were actually nice. We even had some jokes, which I always consider a good sigh. Jokes and cake.
And Julie came! Julie came to see me a couple of days ago, and we tried to barbecue on my George Foreman grill. It makes me kind of sad to type that, since the George is about as far away from authentic, outdoor grilling as a girl can get, but we had only certain resources at our disposal, and a real grill was not one of them. Electricity was also only one of them part of the time. (I swear to god, all of this construction is going to drive me insane this summer, with my power and water cutting out at will, the water pressure going all wonky, along with my road being blocked off half the time and loud equipment running most of the time. Also, Hi, I'm Kristin, and I'm a compulsive whiner). At least we didn't bake our chicken in the oven like wussies. We did other things too, mostly involving staying cool since Grand Rapids decided to become a sauna recently. At least my third-floor attic apartment did. Where the hell did my cross-breezes go!? Of course they skip out as soon as company comes.
The last two paragraphs could be extensively elaborated, but that delicious summer lethargy is calling me over to the reading chair, where I last left Harry Potter about to do something exciting that probably wasn't in the movie. So back I go. Let this count as my July update. I'll see you kids in August (or, as I like to call it, The Sunday Night of Months. I also usually make a gagging, "blech" kind of sound when I say it).
Thursday, July 05, 2007
I should not be allowed to wear black. Or white. Or yellow. (Because, respectively, it shows lint, it gets stained, and it makes me look sallow). Hm. Presently my black stretchy pants and I are covered in lint balls from my just-stripped bed. It's laundry night. I decided this after a big, roach-looking bug appeared practically on my pillow yesterday evening. I'm sure he didn't come from the bed itself, but if my bedclothes are even remotely beginning to attract that kind of crowd, it is way past time for a little detergent. Plus, after a week at the cottage, I have a pile of things that smell like suntan lotion, burnt skin (despite the lotion!), fire, and must. So off I'll go.
I wanted to write because I never write anymore - emails or letters or blogs or IMs - I just seem to have no desire whatsoever to communicate with people recently, and I don't know why this sudden aversion cropped up. I'm not feeling especially misanthropic. Just the opposite, actually. I think it's just that typing reminds me of work, which I'm rejecting in any and all forms for at least the next month. That, and the impetus for writing most of my posts usually came from, aside from the desire to share things with you nice people, the perpetual urge to procrastinate. But who wants to put off reading and playing and going to the farmer's market? Anyway, rest assured that there are things going on in my life - like Toronto happened, and then the cottage, and weddings and concerts and weekends full of things from now until the middle of August are all happening, and maybe someday, if I can think of an interesting way of putting things, I'll write about them.
Today's most pertinent news: I just got a chia pet and named her Penelope. I wanted to call it Agamemnon, but, judging by the udders, it's clearly not a he. Also, thanks to a stick of Big Red I chewed yesterday, my taste buds are burnt beyond practical use. My nectarine tasted like fuzzy wood this morning, and the granola wasn't much better. What kind of chemicals are they suddenly using in gum that my mouth can't handle?! (Also, when my "news" consists of headlines like these, aren't you a little glad I'm keeping most of it to myself?)
I wanted to write because I never write anymore - emails or letters or blogs or IMs - I just seem to have no desire whatsoever to communicate with people recently, and I don't know why this sudden aversion cropped up. I'm not feeling especially misanthropic. Just the opposite, actually. I think it's just that typing reminds me of work, which I'm rejecting in any and all forms for at least the next month. That, and the impetus for writing most of my posts usually came from, aside from the desire to share things with you nice people, the perpetual urge to procrastinate. But who wants to put off reading and playing and going to the farmer's market? Anyway, rest assured that there are things going on in my life - like Toronto happened, and then the cottage, and weddings and concerts and weekends full of things from now until the middle of August are all happening, and maybe someday, if I can think of an interesting way of putting things, I'll write about them.
Today's most pertinent news: I just got a chia pet and named her Penelope. I wanted to call it Agamemnon, but, judging by the udders, it's clearly not a he. Also, thanks to a stick of Big Red I chewed yesterday, my taste buds are burnt beyond practical use. My nectarine tasted like fuzzy wood this morning, and the granola wasn't much better. What kind of chemicals are they suddenly using in gum that my mouth can't handle?! (Also, when my "news" consists of headlines like these, aren't you a little glad I'm keeping most of it to myself?)
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