Max’s schoolwork

I just pulled this out from Max’s bag. This is the paper in its entirety, emphasis mine though:\
I was in kindergarden [sic]. Later, I went to Hawaii. Technecly [sic], I was going to the Hawaiian Islands. I stayed for two weeks. They were the best 2 weeks of my life. We lived in a house where we got dirty feet if we went barefoot. Before we got to rent the house, we went to a place. My brother and I went to a playground. On one of my last few days there I went to McDonald’s (which I only regret only because of the recipe) and later, I left. It was great. I wish it could happen again.

I love presents!

I received a call today from UPS informing me that a package would be arriving sometime today and it requires my signature. Wheee. Mother’s Day is right around the corner and then my birthday is a week later. I wonder what Kevin bought me. Can’t wait, can’t wait.\
Wait a minute. Brian’s birthday is coming up too (before mine, actually). So the package is probably his present. DRAT.

Brian

Brian making a really cute face

One of my favorite things about being a parent is making my kids make faces. I taught Brian how to do “blue steel” (go watch Zoolander). And with my fancy new camera, he looks like a star, doesn’t he?

A Musical Interlude

This week has been one to forget at Chez Lawver. Jen, Brian and I have all had the stomach flu, and it hasn’t been pretty. So, as a break from the disgusting offal-ness of it all, here are some musical recommendations for your Friday afternoon. These are all things I’ve picked up in the last couple of months, many of which are Canadian. I blame the recent Northern influence on my iTunes library on CBC Radio 3 and their wicked podcasts.

  • Holy Fuck – I prefer LP to their self-titled album, but this is some wicked butt-moving stuff. If you crossed Beck with The Chemical Brothers and took away the lyrics, you’d have Holy Fuck (sorry mom, that’s really their name).
  • R.E.M.‘s Accelerate – I love the band’s early albums, especially Document, but this is a return to that style of garage awesomeness. Absolutely fantastic stuff, especially Supernatural Superserious.
  • Sunparlour Players‘ Hymns for the Happy – I first heard If the Creeks Don’t Rise on one of the CBC podcasts. It’s just good folksy rock – no pretense, just great vocals, lots of instruments and some harmonies.
  • The Polyphonic Spree – Jen calls them “Up With People for grownups”, and I’m OK with that. They’re an alt-rock band backed by a horn section, a full choir and sometimes strings, and they sing some seriously happy stuff. My current favorite, though, is their cover of Nirvana’s Lithium.
  • And only because I can’t remember posting it before, Great Lake Swimmers‘ Ongiara is one of the most beautiful albums I’ve ever heard. It’s acoustic and the lead singer’s voice is hypnotic. Where in the World Are You is one of my all-time favorite songs. It’s heartbreakingly romantic and forlorn and never fails to choke me up.\
    There you go. That should keep you busy for a while. And yes, those all go to the Amazon MP3 store. It’s cheaper than the iTunes store, and they give you mp3’s instead of annoyingly locked down AAC files. Enjoy!

What’s up, yo?

Someone please explain to me why Brian just threw up, seven hours after eating a small bit of plain pasta and 20 hours after his last barfing bout. I THOUGHT HE WAS BETTER!

Badass

I’m eating some cereal. Oh yea.\
ETA- Brian just threw up again, after I thought he was better. He only had a cup of apple juice but it came back up almost immediately. Note to self: waaaaaah.

Ugh continued

A couple of hours ago I decided that I didn’t need narcotics, I just needed my mom. She is so great about making my aches and pains go away and soothing me when sick. But I am the mom in my household. I am back to wanting drugs. Please, please, gimme drugs. Anybody got the number for Dr Feelgood?\
One thing is for sure- I am so thankful to be done having kids. Ugh, ugh, triple ugh.\
I’ve tried to suck it up today and not let Brian’s care be affected (effected? whatever). It hasn’t really worked though, so I decided to cry ‘uncle’. I am commencing whiny, baby mode NOW. Waaaaaah.

Ugh, pass the pepto.

Three of the four of us are sick. I am quarantining the house until further notice.\
In other news, Kevin is awesome and having him is better than being wooed by any fake billionaire. True story.\
ETA- OMG, I am the worse sick person. I need some pot to combat the nausea and some Tylenol 3 for the pain. Boohoooo. Brian seems better though. He and I got sick at the exact same time, though I was feeling it hours earlier. I wonder if I can write a fancy algorithm predicting when I will feel better based on Brian’s stats. I sent Max to school since he was completely unaffected. Keep your fingers crossed that he stays that way.

A Small Favor: Have You Read My Book?

I sometimes check the Amazon page for Adapting to Web Standards to see if anyone’s rated it (and to see how it’s doing, of course). It’s been out for four months, and there are no ratings so far – good or bad.\
So, I’m asking a small favor, if you’ve read the book, could you please go rate it? Good or bad, it doesn’t matter. If you’ve got any feedback on my chapter (#7, the one on AOL.com), I’d love to hear it. It’s the first thing I’ve written “professionally”, and I’d love to hear what people think of it, how it could be better and where it goes wrong.\
Thank you, please continue about your day.

Half the Photos from China

man dancing in traditional Chinese dress while wearing a mask.

I’m not close to having them all up, and will hopefully be able to recover the ones on the\
fried laptop’s hard drive, but I’ve started uploading photos from China. They’ll all end up at that URL eventually.