I love blogging.

Not that you can tell by the last two weeks.

My first lame excuse is that I got a new camera. Usually people say they can't keep up on their blogging because their camera broke, but no, I am lamer than that. My camera broke (too much sand in the lens after all those lovely trips to the beach) and so I got a new one, actually two new ones. I convinced Stan to let me pick a nicer one than we had last time by offering to pay for a little less than half out of my fun money (Stan and I give ourselves a little bit each month out of the budget to do whatever we want with). He had a good point - why would we want to buy a fancy camera just to ruin it at the beach? So...I found an all-weather-internally-sealed-just-for-the-beach refurbished camera to buy in addition to the one I wanted and prepared myself to give up my fun money until probably the end of 2010. That means no more Wodehouse books, new beads, toenail polish or See's chocolate for me for a while.

So if you have stuck with me and read this far, you may be asking yourself what this has to do with my lack of blogging since I got this gorgeous new toy. I am intimidated by it! It has an auto setting, but it also has all other kinds of things - Dual Image Stabilization, Wide Dynamic Range up to 400%, Film Simulation Modes, Multi Bracketing Functions, 11.1 effective Megapixel CCD , 14.3x optical zoom 28-400mm, 2.5" tiltable" Wide Angle View LCD, etc., etc., blah, blah, blah - and I want to read the manual first. The whole thing - cover to cover. And this from a woman who only has time to read snatches during lunch and while I wait for kids to wander out to the car after school (and maybe at red lights, but I am not getting into that).

Even though I have no pictures to post,
I miss blogging,
so here are some tidbits.
Enjoy.

Rachel recently got contact lenses for the first time. She loves them. The first day it took her half an hour to put them in. The second day it took 20 minutes. The third day it took three. By next week, we fully expect her to be able to put them in in less than 23 seconds while simultaneously flipping crepes and mounting a running horse.

Speaking of crepes, Rachel made them for dinner this evening. She also sliced strawberries and made custard to fill them with. She quartered lemons and put sugar in a bowl to dust them with. Summer wanted to join the fun, so she made an apricot, orange, banana sauce to dip the crepes in.

The other day, I saw two dogs in the park and pointed them out to Naomi. I asked her if she liked the brown dog or the white one. She said, "Blue." Hoping to delve into her psyche, I asked her if she liked the big one or the little one. She replied, "Yeah." Oh, well.

We have been up to our ears in science projects. Gwen tested different solvents on permanent marker, so next time your toddler gets a hold of a Sharpie, call us and we'll tell you it is hopeless. Summer did memory tests trying to find out which of the five senses will help boost your recollection. Heather (oh let me tell you, this one was fun) tested the effect of chilling an onion on how much crying it causes.

I am trying to catch up on stuff. I still haven't had time to put away the Christmas decorations, but I did write this letter that I have been meaning to write for a couple of months -

General Mills, Inc.
P.O. Box 9452
Minneapolis, MN 55440

To Whom It May Concern:

Enclosed is a disgusting, crusty thing I found in the Cherrios I was pouring into my bowl for breakfast the other morning. I love Cherrios. My favorite way to eat them is with raisins and milk. I don’t love them with mysterious gray clods that look like they have been growing like stalagmites on your factory equipment just waiting to break off and ruin my appetite on an otherwise perfectly good morning.

Please accept the return of your appetite suppressing lump (maybe you could contact someone in the diet industry – they’d probably pay millions for the idea) and I would appreciate a huge pile of money to make up for intense mental anguish and physical suffering (nausea is the pits, is it not?).

Insincerely*,


*P.S. Actually, it was kind of gross, but I understand these things happen. I am returning it so that your quality control people can look at it and I’m hoping for a couple coupons for my trouble. I ‘m not really upset. Thanks for humoring me and letting me have my letter writing fun. I hope I didn’t ruin anyone’s day!

(Sincerely this time, )