Just One More

I am NOT addicted to Blogthings. Seriously. I hit them about once a year. But I read Chana's post about this one, and I was curious. What time of day would they think I am? BWAhahahahaha!

You Are Midnight

You are more than a little eccentric, and you're apt to keep very unusual habits. Whether you're a nightowl, living in a commune, or taking a vow of silence - you like to experiment with your lifestyle. Expressing your individuality is important to you, and you often lie awake in bed thinking about the world and your place in it. You enjoy staying home, but that doesn't mean you're a hermit. You also appreciate quality time with family and close friends.

What Time Of Day Are You?

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Blogthings Memes About SCONE


1. You Have a Melancholic
Temperament
Introspective and reflective, you think about everything and anything.
You are a soft-hearted daydreamer. You long for your ideal life.
You love silence and solitude. Everyday life is usually too chaotic for you.

Given enough time alone, it's easy for you to find inner peace.
You tend to be spiritual, having found your own meaning of life.
Wise and patient, you can help people through difficult times.

At your worst, you brood and sulk. Your negative thoughts can trap you.
You are reserved and withdrawn. This makes it hard to connect to others.
You tend to over think small things, making decisions
difficult.

What Temperament
Are You?

2.

You Belong in London

You belong in London, but you belong in many cities... Hong Kong, San Francisco, Sidney. You fit in almost anywhere. And London is diverse and international enough to satisfy many of your tastes. From curry to Shakespeare, London (almost) has it all!

What
European City Do You Belong In?

3.

You Were a Peacock

You carry yourself with beauty, dignity, and confidence. You are able to see the past, present, and future with clarity.

What
Animal Were You In a Past Life?

4.

Your Inner Blood Type is Type A

You seem cool and collected, though a bit shy. You are highly driven and a perfectionist, but that's a side you keep to yourself. Creative and artistic, you are a very unique person who doesn't quite fit in. People accept you more than you realize, seeing you as trustworthy and loyal. You are most compatible with: A and AB Famous Type A's: Britney Spears and Hilter

What's Your
Inner Blood Type?

5.

You Have Low Self Esteem 24% of the Time

Generally, you feel pretty darn great about who you are, even when you mess up or fail. Occasionally, a huge setback will make you question yourself, but you pick yourself up quickly.

How is Your Self
Esteem?

6.

What Your Face Says

At first glance, people see you as strong willed and stubborn. Overall, your true self is passionate and physical. With friends, you seem dramatic, lively, and quick to react. In love, you seem like a huge flirt. In stressful situation, you seem like you're oblivious to the stress.

What Do
People Think Of Your Face?

7.

You Are a Chocolate Chip Cookie

Traditional and conservative, most people find you comforting. You're friendly and easy to get to know. This makes you very popular - without even trying!

What Kind of
Cookie Are You?

8.

You Are a Boston Creme Donut

You have a tough exterior. No one wants to mess with you. But on the inside, you're a total pushover and completely soft. You're a traditionalist, and you don't change easily. You're likely to eat the same doughnut every morning, and pout if it's sold out.

What Donut Are
You?

9.

Your Power Level is: 75%

You're a very powerful person, and you know that all of your power comes from within. Keep on doing what you're doing, and you'll reach your goals.

How Powerful Are
You?

10.

Brainy Kid

In high school, you were acing AP classes or hanging out in the computer lab. You may have been a bit of a geek back then, but now you're a total success!

Who Were You In
High School?

11.

The Movie Of Your Life Is A Cult Classic

Quirky, offbeat, and even a little campy - your life appeals to a select few. But if someone's obsessed with you, look out! Your fans are downright freaky. Your best movie matches: Office Space, Showgirls, The Big Lebowski

If
Your Life Was a Movie, What Genre Would It Be?

12.

People Envy Your Ingenuity

You're a person with unique ideas, big plans, and a zany outlook on life. Many people look to you for inspiration. People envy your creativity and "who cares?" attitude. They feel very ordinary next to you - and they usually are!

What Do
People Envy About You?

13.

Your Life Path Number is 11

Your purpose in life is to inspire others Your amazing energy draws people to you, and you give them great insight in return. You hold a great amount of power over others, without even trying. You have the makings of an inventor, artist, religious leader, or prophet. In love, you are sensitive and passionate. You connect with your partner on a very deep level. You have great abilities, but you are often way too critical of yourself. You don't fit in - and instead of celebrating your differences, you dwell on them. You have high expectations of yourself. But sometimes you set them too high and don't achieve anything.

What Is Your
Life Path Number?

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1. astrocoz
2. Surrender Dorothy
3. Jen
4. Heather
5. Julie
6. Denise
7. Yellow Rose
8. Chana


Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Another Thing About Where I Live

So, I was just thinking a couple days ago, "Gee, we've probably seen the last of the snow for this spring... surely we have..." After all, we've had sunshine and temperatures between 75 and 90 for several weeks. Even a 40-degree drop wouldn't be enough to bring snow. Rain would be nice, though...

Would you believe a 50-degree drop?

Don't Call Us...

I just had another long-distance interview, this time for a job in the place I grew up. I don't think I made a good impression. Or maybe they're just not that interested in filling the position quickly. I don't know. The woman I talked to said she'll probably call me in a couple weeks to talk about maybe bringing me out for an interview. Maybe.

Oh, here's another guilty pleasure I left off my T13 yesterday: traveling without my kids. Whee, what fun. I feel terrible about it, but it helps me remember that I (at least used to) have another facet to my identity besides "Mama." Did any of that make sense? I'm going to lie down now.

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen of Scone's Guilty Pleasures 1. Chocolate. Of course. 2. More chocolate. No seriously. 3. Marshmallow Peeps-- they're not just once a year. 4. Naps. Mine and the kid's. (Yes, only one kid.) 5. Going barefoot. Especially in summer. 6. #5 is getting to be less of a pleasure since my feet went bad. Mostly it just hurts now. 7. Blogging. 8. Reading other people's blogs. 9. Reading just about anything else, especially British mysteries. 10. Blowing off other responsibilities to just play with my kids. 11. Especially the Pirates! game. 12. Playing The Sims 2, even though the last 2 expansions sucked. Sigh. 13. The Indian song from Disney's Peter Pan-- I know, I know, it's totally un-PC and revolts the modern sensibility; I think what I mostly like is the running-about-madly-uttering-war-whoops part. I guess I just feel the need to yell. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. TLC 2. Nikk 3. Chaotic Mom 4. Carmen 5. Surrender Dorothy

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Wednesday Wondering

I'd really like to know:

• What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen 150-pound cast-iron table as it goes flying up and over the deck railing toward the neighbor's yard?

and

• How big a person could that same wind lift? ("Wendy, I can fly!")

I can see my kids getting a big kick out of that.

Those Who Do Not Study History...

So #1 Son tells us tonight that at "Mommy's" church (supposedly Lutheran and actually her husband's, not hers), his Sunday class learned that the Lutheran church came about because Martin Luther didn't believe in tithing. Um, don't you mean indulgences? No, he's certain they said tithing.

((Here Scone pinches her eyes together and rubs her aching head but does not actually quote Malachi 3:8-10.))

Well, that would explain a few things Miss Thing has said. It explains why their biggest point of doctrine seems to be that churches that teach tithing are evil and that all their members are going to hell and should therefore be screamed at. On the other hand, it doesn't explain how this group can teach whatever they want and still call themselves Lutheran. Our dear friends down the street are quite strongly Lutheran and have never heard of such a thing in their church. Is that normal? These congregations are less than 100 miles apart, not on opposite sides of the world or anything. Anybody know what's up here?

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Things about WHERE SCONE LIVES The climate here is sunny and dry. Very, very dry. Bleeding skin dry. But it keeps me from getting attacks of seasonal depression. Usually. People elsewhere usually think we're constantly buried under snow and ice. If that were true, I'd have gone screaming out of my mind long ago. We do have plenty of wildlife--skunks in particular. I think one has made a burrow under our deck. Houses around here are fascinating. Some are tiny little gingerbread houses, some are massive and ostentatious. Some (of all sizes) have bronze statues on their front lawns. I hear that we're now part of an "X-YZ metro area" (think Dallas-Ft. Worth). Our part of the area (X) is undergoing rapid expansion-- new houses going up everywhere. The YZ part of the metro area is now full of empty storefronts. It's spooky. I blame the New Mall. We have about 10,000 banks here. Of the new construction, about 1 in 5 lots is going to have a bank on it. We are getting no new gas stations, though, despite the fact that they are at least 5 miles apart in our area. Well, at least we only have one place to sink our money. We are also getting a new hospital, although our town (X) has one already, and so does YZ. There are less than 200,000 people in the area. Guess the banks were bored. YZ contains the best school in the state and several other excellent charter schools. X has things that pass for schools, but only barely. People here are trying to shut down that best school and preferably the other good ones, 'cause it's not fair that some kids get to go to good schools while others don't. Huh?? Tell me in what world that makes sense. In the medians along the interstate in this area, they've put up barriers made of several steel cables strung along deeply buried steel poles. They can take the top right off any car that bumps into them (I have seen it). But then there are these signs every so often: STAY OFF MEDIAN. Again: huh?? Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. Momma M 2. Nancy 3. Surrender Dorothy 4. LifeCruiser 5. Yellow Rose

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Monday Motivation

I'm feeling down and discouraged. My health has been deteriorating in ways that are scary. My kids are out of control with spring fever, my house is a wreck, I have to work on this white paper but I'm hating it more every day. I have a lesson to prepare for writers group Wednesday, and the wonderful dear person I'm trying to collaborate with is going to wonder why I haven't been working on the book to our musical. And I feel I really need to write cards or letters to a few people and I never get around to it.

And in the middle of all this, Satan Herself starts another firestorm over the Easter break that #1 Son gets this year: "What do you mean, I don't get to take all 6 days instead of the usual 1?" Nevermind that the court docs specify 1 day. Whatever Miss Thing wants, Miss Thing had better get, or there'll be... well you know what to pay. And #1 Son doesn't want to get in the middle of it, though he's the only one who can. And he's whining that he still has homework to do even though it's bedtime as if it's my fault he spent 45 minutes on the phone to Miss Thing about nothing in particular and as if it's my fault he didn't do his homework over the weekend because after all, it was his time with Mommy and there were all these parties to go to...

I'm about ready to crawl into a hole and cry. I can't succeed at the tasks before me no matter what I do, the pain is driving me slowly mad, and I'm a failure as a mother. That's how I feel.

Well, felt. As he was lying on the bed kicking me in the face during storytime tonight, Punkin Boy started singing, "Old King Cole." My mind grabbed hold of that; the old boy apparently was an ancestor of mine-- a rather successful Norwegian king back in the far olden times. And suddenly, I remembered where I come from. I come from the land of Valkyries, of strong warriors and successful raiders. I come from people who would spit on the minor troubles that surround me now. I felt them then, Vikings in armor swirling around my head, strong, defiant, utterly capable.

Hand me my axe; I've got some writing to do.

Career Discovery

The saga continues... In the car on the way to school yesterday, #1 Son piped up from the back seat, "I've figured out what kind of scientist I want to be when I grow up!" He hadn't been able to decide on a specialty: geologist, veterinarian, botanist, chemist, etc., so we were excited. "What kind is that?" we demanded, all aflutter.

"An electrician!"

Eureka.

Art Part 2

Now you've probably read my April 1 entry (which by the way was not a joke) and thought, "Gee, she's pretty harsh." But really, I just hate to see people I care about banging their heads against the wall for no good reason. If Plan A doesn't work, try Plan B. And keep trying and revising until you get positive results. It only makes sense. Nonsense is fun for a while, but it's no way to run your life. Not really.

The day after the P/T conference, #1 Son mentioned that he'd had art class that day. So I asked how his teacher had liked his sketch that was their previous assignment. He shrugged. "All right," he muttered.

"No way," I said. "That drawing was awesome. What did your teacher say when she saw it?"

He squirmed, but eventually admitted, "She said it was the best drawing she'd ever seen in fifth grade."

I thought so. The boy's got artistic talent coming out his ears and spilling off his fingers. I will so kick his butt if he stifles it.

His Own Medicine

This week they had parent-teacher conferences at #1 Son's school, and we got to see his grades for the quarter. Actually, I sat out in the car with a sleeping toddler while The Man went and talked to the teacher. When he came back out, he said, "We need to stop giving this guy white bread, and take all the sugar out of his diet." Then he proceeded to tell me about something unrelated that happened in his class that day.

I scowled. Not that I didn't want to hear about his day, because I did. I just really wanted to hear the more urgent news at the time. Well, said TM, #1 Son is probably better suited to being an artist or writer than a scientist or mathematician (which is what he wants to be-- one of those). He got out the report card and pulled the Pollyanna routine that he's so incredibly good at. "Got a B+ in art, an A in karate, an A in music..." (I hope no one heard my gasp, but the boy is, after all, tone deaf.)

After saying something congratulatory like, "That's great, kiddo!" we noticed that #1 Son was in the back seat sobbing. "I don't want to be an artist!" he wailed.

Sigh. So I asked how the rest of his grades were. Spelling: F, science: F, 4th-grade math: D+. Wait, D+? Wasn't he getting a B a few weeks ago? What's up there? No clue forthcoming from the back seat. Composition: C-, Reading: C-, Spanish: C. Well, there's a bright spot. Hey wait, he's got a B+ in history/geography. Excellent! "You don't have to be an artist after all-- you can major in history!"

Louder wails from the back seat. "But I want to do math and science!"

At this point, TM went into lecture mode. You know, about going with your strengths, it's no shame not to be good at everything, or even at the things you really want to be good at. The advice about not burying your talents. You know the spiel.

At some point in this tirade, I burst out laughing and just couldn't stop. My darling husband is an entertaining and creative writer (visit him here), not to mention a budding artist. But he's taking calculus I for the third time (this time, we're gonna pass, darn it!) in an effort to get a biomedical/computer science degree. It would be a really cool degree, honey, in a really cool field, but, um, are you listening to yourself?

I don't know whether he'll re-evaluate his career path, but I'm guessing not. Got to set an example for the kids, you know.