It's the place to be

(overheard at the downtown Greek festival last Saturday):

I don't like Greek festivals. I don't want to go.

You ordered them each a whole gyro?! They'll never be able to eat all that!

I don't like gyros. I want a hot dog.

Wow, I was wrong. They can eat a whole gyro. I was hoping for leftovers.


I had super fun! When can we go again?

That's a shame

On Saturday we went to the school's Fun Fest, their yearly fundraiser for the junior and senior classes. Batman was scheduled for a turn in the dunking booth, and the girls and I along with their friend NeighborGirl visited as many booths as we could, smashing pumpkins and fishing for candy and taking a run through the maze. Batman not only got dunked but also "pied," which means "covered with shaving cream."

The girls all spent a lot of time (and tickets) at one booth in particular, trying to win a goldfish. They were all eventually successful, and after dropping NeighborGirl off at her house we went home and put both fish into a nice big vase. We then went out to dinner, and then on to Target where we bought goldfish food (among many other things--it was Target, after all).

Sadly, the little fishies didn't live long enough to be fed. When we returned, they were belly-up in the vase, staring blankly with their cold, dead eyes. We ceremoniously took them into the bathroom and sent them on their journey into the afterlife. RIP, George and Tiny Tim.

This is more fun than homework

My friend Karla tagged me for this meme--take the 6th picture from the 6th file in your My Pictures folder and post it. So here it is, taken almost exactly two years ago: Number One hula hooping it up in the driveway.

She's outgrown those pants and shoes, the sleeves on her sweater are allllmost too short, and the hat got lost last summer; we've replaced all the landscaping in this picture (mostly because the neighbor's cat killed it all) (he has since disappeared) (although not by my hand) (but I did think about it).

Happy Tuesday, and may your hips never lie.

Special birthday

My baby is seven years old now. We still treat her like a baby (and she still acts like one sometimes), and I can hardly believe she's so grown up. Her birthday was last Wednesday, and as an added bonus that marked the third anniversary of our move to Houston. It doesn't seem like it's been that long, but time flies when you're falling over with fatigue.

(How telling is it that the only page I tore out of Lucky this month was not an outfit I had to have, or a picture of the latest shoe trend, but an article called "New Secrets to Disguising Exhaustion." I can't decide which I want more for Christmas: Guitar Hero, or an $80 Laura Mercier eye serum.) (The Botox will have to wait until my spring bonus check.)

ANYhoo, here are pictures of the happy birthday girl. This was taken at school, clutching her birthday breakfast:

Here she is on her birthday call from Pop and Baba:

After opening her gift from Pop and Baba, I'm not sure which of them was more excited about the Easy Bake Oven:
And here she is at her party on Saturday, blowing out the candles on her musical note cake:

This was after we took her and three of her friends to see High School Musical 3, and obviously after the gift-opening--see the tissue explosion in the background?! She had a very happy birthday, and I hope this year goes by slowly for us all--I want to savor seven as long as I can.

It means whatever the heck you want it to mean

Scene: the backseat of my car

Number One (singing): "Konnichiha, konnichiha, konnichiha, konnichiha! Konnichiha, konnichiha, konnichiha, konnichiha! Mommy, what does konnichiha mean?"

Special: "It means shut your pie hole."

This just in

According to one of Batman's ninth grade students, "God has been around for, like, ever."

Zen and the art of Ford Focus maintenance

Here's a little-known fact about me: I like to fix things. Toilets, pipes, tree removal, whatever: I hate paying other people to do things I think I'm perfectly capable of doing. Now, I may NOT be capable of doing them, but I at least want to try.

My left tail light went out the other day. No biggie; I can change a light bulb. Unfortunately, the part that the light bulb plugged into had melted out of shape, and the nice man at the auto parts store had to break it to remove it. Long story short, I had to strip the existing wires and crimp in a replacement piece.

So this is what I did after work today (note the liberal use of electrical tape):

Ta da! It works!

I want to send a big shout-out to Pop, because if it weren't for him I'd be much less likely to know my way around those needle-nosed pliers. Also, madd propz to Ken at O'Reilly Auto Parts for selling me the $3 part instead of trying to convince me I needed a new $150 tail light. Thanks for not patronizing the little lady. And last but not least, thanks to my husband Batman for coming outside and congratulating me on my successful repair, even if he did refuse to join my in my Victory Dance of Awesomeness in the driveway.

But he did compliment my Spaghetti of Awesomeness later, so it's all good.