In fact I would despair, would you not take me to the fair

I just don't want to look back on my life and have regrets about NOT doing things. But I don't think that's going to be a problem.

Tuesday night we went back to the MN History Center for the ninth of their "Nine Nights of Music." They had an American Folk band playing and they had contra-dancing going, which is just a fancy word for what I would call square-dancing. It was easy enough to jam along to with the kids. They weren't much for the waltzing, but their do-si-do was a force to be reckoned with.

Joel took off work today so we could all go to the Minnesota State Fair. We saw mama pigs and cows in labor, and we got to pet an 18-hour-old calf named Belle. After several corndogs and an early total-meltdown by Ed (I think his two-ness is finally catching up with him -- he has these inconsolable fits of bawling a couple times a day. It's not a tantrum, it's just... sobbing. It's heartbreaking while remaining super-annoying.), the kids both rallied in time to ride the giant slide. We also rode the sky-ride, almost asked a question about "winterburn" on MPR, spied Al Franken, made some hats in the shape of the state of Minnesota, and saw some giant fish. It was REALLY fun and I suspect the kids' favorite part was riding the park-n-ride bus.

Oh, and bouncing in the Twins bouncy... until it started raining and they nearly deflated the thing right on top of Ed!

This is Belle:

Sharing a lemonade...

Come see my shows! Again!

I still want to encourage you to come see Guys and Dolls this coming weekend, if you are able. I'm insanely proud of this show and it's a fun, affordable evening of entertainment.

I also want to let you know that High School Musical is coming back to the Maplewood Commuinty Center! Ashland is restaging the show with some of the same cast and much (but not all) of the same choreography and staging as when we did it in March. We sold out every show in March. This time the cast is quite a bit smaller so the show will be tighter -- we've only had a few rehearsals but I'm super-excited about how things are pulling together. We've got some bright shiny new talent and I've had the chance to fix some of the dances I wasn't delighted with last time.

Anyway, so advance tickets are on sale now. Please let me know when you want to come, and how many seats you need, and I can get them for you for $3 off the regular ticket prices. Of course, now I can't find the ticket prices on the Ashland website... well, they're like $10-ish in advance and $13-ish at the door.

Guys and Dolls

Well thanks for checking back!

Guys and Dolls opens at the Maplewood Community Center (2100 White Bear Ave N) on Friday, Aug. 15 and runs through Aug 24 (next Sunday). You should come see it!

The kids (and all us grownups) have worked VERY hard on this show and it is really great. It's fun and funny with loads of good singing and dancing. You can buy tickets at the door -- they're only like $10. Some pix!

Fluffy's Master Plan For World Domination

...Soon there will be cats in charge of the nation

Whiskers will be used to transmit information

Meowing as a means of mass communication

So I'm sure nobody's reading this anymore, mostly because I told you not to. *shrug* I just wanted to let y'all know, because I have been getting concerned-sounding phone calls and emails, that everything is totally fine and wonderful here.

My internet connection has been really spotty -- similar to Delmon Young's leftfielding. So that's one excuse. Also, I just wanted a break, at least for the summer. Also, I feel like I'm spending too much time staring at the computer and not enough time cooking, cleaning, laundering and hanging out with the kids. Also I was feeling a kind of pull to journal, by hand, on a more personal level. Also I was feeling (self-imposed) pressure to turn out "finished pieces" here, and I just didn't want to do that regularly anymore.

But life is really great. The kids are HILARIOUS (they like to stand atop the retaining wall in our yard and shout in rhythm: "JOSEPH! I'll see you ROT in JAIL. The FINGS you have DONE are beyond the pale!" and then throw a rock or a stick over the wall, watching disdainfully as the offending piece of nature plummets into the prison of the lower yard. Oh, except Ed pronounces it "JOPHESS!"). Joel bought me a canoe for my birthday last week (and a big thank-you to everyone who thought to call/email). Jean ran Grandma's Marathon on June 21.

Happy summer everyone!

Permanent hiatus

Hey there; I'm hangin' it up for a while.

Thanks for reading!

The Polar Express Cookie

This recipe has been on the back of the last three boxes of raisins we've bought. Ed freaks out ever time he sees the logo, and Lucy finally convinced me to make the cookies.

I have to admit, raisins and chocolate sounded grody to me. I made a couple changes which I'll explain. The results were SUPER tasty and I will definitely make them again!

The Polar Express Cookie
adapted from the Sun-Maid Raisins box

1/2 cup butter or margarine (I used 1/4 c butter and 1/4 c applesauce)
1 & 2/3 c sugar (I used 1 cup white sugar and 1/3 cup "natural" sugar, thereby reducing the sugar by 20% and adding a really nice texture)
1 Tablespoon (no, really!) vanilla
2 oz (2 squares) unsweetened chocolate, melted
2 c. all-purpose flour (I used 1 cup all-purpose and 1 cup whole-wheat)
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 c. milk
1 cup raisins
powdered sugar

Combine butter, sugar, and vanilla; beat until light and fluffy. Blend in chocolate. Combine flour, baking powder and salt; add to chocolate mixture alternately with milk. Stir in raisins.

Cover and refrigerate 1 hour until firm. Heat oven to 350. Grease cookie sheets. Shape dough into 1-inch balls; roll in powdered sugar. Bake in upper third of oven, 10-12 minutes; do not overbake!

Shed no tears for me; there'll be rain enough today

Ed likes to throw things, just to hear what kind of sound they make when they land. And the other evening he actually asked for his "cowboy pajamas" and when I told him they were dirty, and could he please wear his dinosaur 'jamas instead, he agreed. A couple minutes later I found him rifling through Lucy's pajama drawer, throwing things everywhere. And I said, "Ed, what on EARTH are you doing?"

Through his little tears he sobbed, "A dinosaur 'jamas instead!!"
He was looking for them.

And he LOVES to say who he is. Now that he's figured out that HE'S Eddie, and nobody else is. "I'm Eddie!" all day.

He also came up to me one morning, fully clothed, and said "A take off a shirt. A be nay-kay. A take off a biaper. I'm a naked data." I don't really know what that was all about.


I got my Winona Currents alumni magazine in the mail yesterday and there was an article on A Prairie Home Companion's broadcast from Winona State this February. Featured in the article is Kathryn Hauser Slusher, whose name and very-fuzzy-and-barely-visible profile I recognized from my days at WSU. When I read she'd been a dance minor, I realized I DID remember her -- she was in Dreamscape, the spring-of-1995 modern-dance show that I was cruelly coerced into doing... that I did not enjoy at all... that included Chris Badger rolling around on the floor with a 15-foot tree root to the song of the humpback whales... that drove a knife into my burgeoning love of dance and theatre.


Anyway, Ms. Slusher was in that show. I found her picture in my scrapbook this afternoon, along with the program with our names in it. I only barely remember her. But in this article, she spoke of WSU in glowing terms.

Note that this gal has something akin to my dream job: working at APHC.


And it occurred to me that I've spent lots of brainpower recently maligning Winona State, or at least my experience there. I received a degree in a field I don't care ever to work in again, and I have a good friend and former classmate who had to learn the hard way that WSU wasn't prestigious enough to get him into the grad school of his choice. I spent way too much time having fun and way too little time appreciating the education I was receiving, at the price I was receiving it.


I felt mostly unmentored and uncounseled there. I have a passion for helping people, for teaching, for service... but I didn't discover any of those things until long after I graduated... after it was too late to take advantage of the scholarships I'd been receiving, and get a degree in a field in which I have true interest.


I have felt that some of my time there was wasted remaining uninvolved in theatre, in part because Winona is not a hotbed of musical theatre performance. Or at least I didn't seek it out. I regret missing out on some of my potential and I have been blaming, in part, Winona State.


But I read Kathryn Slusher's words, and I realized how ungrateful I'd been. I've long heard that it's not what happens to you in life, but how you react to it, that makes the difference. I understood the concept but just wasn't really applying it to myself. Well, I get it now. I was sort of feeling... well, "victimized" is WAY too strong a word, but I was feeling somehow wronged by my choice of college.


Now obviously that is ridiculous. I met Joel at Winona, as well as some of my very best friends in the entire universe. I DID get a degree, and while I don't care if I ever work in that field again, and while YES it makes me a little wistful when I realize I'm never going to be a paleontologist or a doctor or a licensed teacher or a Broadway dancer or a large-animal veterinarian or even a college professor... I can indeed choose to embrace the positives. The very big, weighty positives which make up my life right now -- not the least of which is this little life that Joel and Lu and Ned and I carve out daily.


The lead article in today's Pioneer Press Daily Life section is about "feeling slighted" and I feel that here is one thing I can do to make the world a more peaceful place.

I can choose how I feel and how I react.

I can sulk, or I can decide sulking is a waste of time.

I can allow things to offend me, or I can let it roll off my back. Better yet, I can try to figure out what was meant by the "offender" because most likely it had very little to do with me.

I can wallow in self-pity or I can forge my own path.

So that's that! Oh, the title of this post is the first line of "Stranger to the Rain," a beautiful song from Children of Eden by Stephen Schwartz. That song came to me in a couple weird ways last week, and I felt it was trying to tell me something. It's about not crumbling in the face of adversity.

In other news, the Hastings HS gig is going great -- except in true Meg form, I may have made the dances a *teeny* bit too complicated. I'm going to have to go back next week, which means securing a nanny for a couple hours on a couple mornings. *Shrug* Calling Grampa Books...

I acquired some plants at the ECFE plant sale last Friday. I know, I KNOW, I hate plants! I hate how they don't cry when they are hungry! I hate how they die just to spite me! But there were a couple "leftovers" after the pre-orders were filled: orphans in need of some love. I took 'em home with me. A couple coleus, some impatiens, some tomatoes and basil, and some "walking green onions." And something white I can't pronounce or spell. I don't have real pots to put them in, and I know I can't put them in the ground until Thursday and even then I might hesitate because it's only like 40 degrees out right now! And, like, I have sooooo much free time to spend repotting plants. Arrrgh, what was I thinking?

Introducing Ms. Sportiquette

I'm not *quite* ready to do this (though it's been in the pipeline for almost a year!), but I seriously can't wait another minute.

I've been hearing lots of sad news lately. I've been following lots of very sad stories, very eloquently told: miscarriages, sick babies, sick parents, untimely death, loss, and suffering.


It gets overwhelming. I've spent time weeping in front of my computer recently. And there's a time for that.


But I also believe there is a time for laughter and levity. And without taking anything away from the struggles of these families, I want to offer a place for some fun. Now, I don't know about all of you, but I equate "fun" with sports and games and athletic events and activity and fitness.


So... have you been in attendance at an athletic event, and questioned any of the protocol and/or proceedings? Do you play sports and have a pet peeve about others' behavior? Do you wonder what's with rally-scoring in volleyball? How female gymnasts keep from getting wedgies? Do you have an opinion about football pants?


Ask Ms. Sportiquette!


Your place to ask any and all sports-related questions. Email 'em in, or call me if you can dig up my number. No new questions = no new posts! Don't be shy!

Mr. Ryan Goes To Washington

I knew I'd forget something.

My uncle Jim (my dad's brother) is biking from Chicago to Washington, D.C. all by his lonesome (well, my dad and uncle Dan are keeping him company but not biking). Jim is raising money forthe tuition assistance program at his parish school, St. Robert Bellarmine. Follow his progress here  at jr2dc.blogspot.com.

Horse heaven

I got a call on Friday morning from the choral director at Hastings High School -- it's a choreographic emergency!! The HHS choral program has, apparently, 600(!) kids... and a show in less than 4 weeks. So I spent much of my weekend inventing dances to six different choral medleys.

Jean and I went on a 4-mile run together on Saturday and I rollerbladed with her for a 12-miler on Sunday. Over the course of the weekend, we also caught two shows (Seussical at St. Jude's and Footloose at Hill Murray), tried out the new Jimmy Lee indoor water park in St Paul (I can still do a forward 1.5, and a back flip, off the diving board! I've regained my youth!), watched the Derby (and fielded dozens of questions from Lucy about poor Eight Belles), went to church, went to the Petersons' for lunch, prepped for a dance class that didn't end up happening, and made a flurry of phone calls lining up babysitters for the next couple weeks. Whew!

I've got to get Lucy to dance class -- she and Eddie are playing some weird pretend game in their room right now, and all I can hear are very insistent choruses of "Mommy!" to which I (of course) reply "What?" before getting back "No -- COW Mommy!" I guess I'm not expected to answer to that.

Then a few moments later I hear "My daddy is DEAD." Time to go talk about the horses again, I think.

Beautiful to banal in 2.2 seconds

If you ever need reassurance that maybe this world isn't such a bad place after all -- and who couldn't use such reassurance? -- I highly recommend holding a crying baby in your arms and soothing it to sleep.

I had the honor of doing that twice today (and it's just barely 2pm!) -- first to a beautiful almost-5-month-old named Rosemary (at ECFE), and just now to my own baby Ed.

Watching the peace and beauty of a little person surrendering to a much-needed nap -- it's a very powerful thing. Being able to take the time to be a part of that experience -- that's a very humbling blessing.

Lucy was eating breakfast this morning, and mentioned some little boy she saw yesterday.

"He can burp his ABC's," she reported, "and that's adorable."

Forever in blue jeans

We borrowed "How Are You Peeling?" from ECFE -- a kids' book with pics of vegetables and fruits making all kinds of silly faces to show different feelings. We were talking about the faces on one page, where there was a green pepper scowling at an apple. Lucy scowled back at the page and said: "That's no way to treat an apple!"

Later on Lu was sitting on the pot and I was sitting on the tub facing her (because this is the only way she will go). She was staring into my eyes, and in my pupils she saw a reflection of... herself.

"Why do I see Lucy in your eyes?" she asked. I thought it was cool that she noticed that, and I explained about the reflection. She thought about it for a moment and then, still staring straight into me, asked "Do you see Meg?"

Well, that totally blew me away. I DID see myself in her eyes. Literally, I mean. It's amazing when kids develop the "theory of mind," I think that's what it's called, when they realize that other people have their own thoughts that might be different from their own. The human brain is absolutely incredible.

Ed was adorable today too. I had to awaken him from his nap at 5:00 and when I did that, he rolled over, yawned and said "Mommy, I'm TIRED." Later on he was refusing to go to bed and he was flipping all over, so I went to give him a FINAL goodnight kiss and he twisted over to see me, smiled and said "I'm upside down!"

Oh, and yesterday he was refusing to nap, and I could hear him bopping around in his room. I went in and found him sitting entirely under the little Ikea kids' table. Just staring at me with those giant brown eyes, waiting to see if he was in trouble. I went in a little later because I still heard banging, and he was sitting inside one of his wicker toy baskets, hammering the wall. Strange child.

See? He doesn't sound funny on paper. Er... screen. I assure you, he is. :)

Ed's cloth diapers are going great. I hesitate to type this next thing, because I know it doesn't make any sense, but: I somehow feel more invested in his diapering. I care more about what happens to his little body. I actually kind of look forward to changing his diapers -- the clothies are cute, and cute on him, and it matters more to me whether he is wet or dirty. I'm really, really happy with the used Thirsties All-In-Ones I got. And even the prefolds are folding a LOT better, and snugger.

Neil Diamond is performing on American Idol. I really love Neil Diamond. I also love that his backup singers are AT LEAST as old as he is. I appreciate his giving those old bags a job.

We had another speaker come in to ECFE today, to talk about nutrition. And now I'm trying to wrap my mind around eliminating breakfast cereal. I know, I KNOW! When will the madness cease? But the truth is, breakfast cereal is processed, and most of it doesn't have enough protein to sustain the kids until a 10AM snack. And all of it has sugar. So I'm going to have to work on getting eggs or more yogurt or some sausages into the munchkins. I'm also thinking about switching to raw milk... at least for the kids.

A lot of what the speaker talked about, I already knew -- high fructose corn syrup is bad... shop around the perimeter of a grocery store for the most "real foods"... saturated fats like butter are way better for you than the super-processed "lite" fat-substitutes they sell. So it was good to get some confirmation that I'm headed in the right direction. She also really advocated having a garden so the kids can A) really see where food comes from, and 2) help with harvesting and food prep.

Oh, and I tried to do the Right Thing and wash my kids with Kirk's Castille Soap because supposably it doesn't have any of those nasty chemicals in it... and Lucy totally had a reaction to it. I forget how sensitive her skin is. We used it on her face (not my choice, actually -- but Lucy insisted) and she got these red patches and complained that her face hurt. Well, I said, Lu, I tried to use the gentler baby soap (which DOES have yucky chemicals but doesn't sting the eyes) on your face but you demanded the Castille soap, so maybe next time you'll let me use the soap that I know is gentler on your face, Lu, what do you think?

"Mommy you were right!" she wailed.

I took the cheat-sheet available at cosmeticsdatabase.com and underlined the "bad chemicals" in the ingredient lists on all our shampoos, soaps etc. I underlined them because, I'll be honest -- I'm too cheap to throw out full bottles of product. I also underlined them so that I could start to familiarize myself with the complicated non-English names. Because "DMDM Hydantoin" and "PEG-30" used to mean nothing to me, but if I remember to glance at them every time I use them, I can start to remember which ones "should be avoided" versus "will give you cancer tomorrow."

Jean and I had our first vball game last night -- mind you, I'm not actually on the team. I'm a sub but I'm really hoping I'll get to play a lot. I ruuuuv sand volleyball. Except, let me tell you, the sand was real chilly last night. I seriously thought I was getting toe-frostbite by the middle of the second game. It was fun to play with Aaron and Nellie again -- and of course Jean and Cortney. And we had a new guy, Phil, who was Iamnotkiddingyou seven feet tall. His head brushed the top of the net, which I can only BARELY reach when I jump as high as I possibly can with my monster-ups. It was totally different, playing with someone who could essentially cover the entire court if he so wished. He was a really nice guy and we won 2 out of 3.

Oh man I'd better get to bed. Talk later...

I believe that God has given me a new heart -- but I think maybe my body is rejecting the transplant.

I seriously didn't mean to go a whole week between postings. Oops.

Jean and I ran the Get in Gear 10k (6.2 miles) on Saturday morning, and YES it was 35 degrees and YES the wind was blowing 25 MPH and YES it was hailing in our faces for at least 1/3 of the run.

And no, I had not run for two weeks prior. But yes, we did manage to run the whole way! I really hate running but apparently I have to do a race once a year to remind myself. Yuck.

Ed's getting two of his 2-year molars, which I'm using as an excuse for his kinda cranky attitude and runny nose. I bought a bunch of used diapers on Friday night (Thirsties All-In-Ones, plus some extra wraps) which I am hoping will take the diaper-laundry down to every-other-day, or maybe even every-third-day. We had a really discouraging diapering day on Friday, but I think I need to just change my thinking... by changing Ed more frequently. Which is totally do-able, I just have to remember to DO it.

Last night I made a "Fresh Pork Ham Roast" which was a cut of meat with which I hadn't been familiar. Joel's sister Julie gave it to us, because she often gives us random food products, claiming she won't use them. Which is AWESOME for us! It was basically a very thick, large (2+ lb?) steak from the leg of the pig. It's not a ham because it came uncooked and uncured. I basically threw it in the oven for a couple hours with a bit of sage, salt and pepper -- then I made mashed potatoes and gravy and some green beans, and it was delicious! Plus there's tons leftover.

Tonight is lasagna (I haven't made it in YEARS but I'm just having a hankering). There will be sloppy joes at some point this week as well.

It may be 30 degrees out, but this week all our softball and volleyball begins!! Joel and Jean and I are all beside ourselves with excitement. Which reminds me, I haven't the foggiest notion where my cleats and glove are. Hmmm.

The family tinkle

Yesterday I was reading to both my kids out in the yard. The sun was bright and naptime was looming, so I picked up Ed and carried him into the house to lay him down in his room. And I can't remember what I asked Lucy to do, but I think it was just to follow me into the house. And she seemed to be taking her sweet time, and for some reason that was a problem so I spoke very sternly at her when she finally came in.

"But mommy..."

(I'm paraphrasing myself:) "I ASKED you to come in and you NEED to LISTEN to me when I talk to you!" Or somesuch. I believe I went on longer and with some vehemence. Lucy later referred to it as "screaming."

"But mommy... I went back to get your books."

And I looked and she had, indeed, gone back out to retrieve my two books that I'd left out on the swing. She thought of me, and thought I wouldn't want my books laying out in the yard. And I just crumpled... I felt so terrible.

So this morning, Joel got up and left early and the kids were still sleeping, and when I heard them start bopping around, I came down.

"I sat on the potty all by myself mommy!" Lucy said.

"Oh, that's GREAT Lu. Thank you," I said (because going by herself is not exactly one of her strong suits).

"You didn't hear me flush."

"No, I didn't."

"Yah, I didn't flush because I didn't want you to wake up!" Her pride was palpable.

"Thanks, Lu, that is really thoughtful of you! That was very nice. I think I'm going to go use the bathroom now."

"Do you want me to flush?"

"Oh, no, that's OK," I waved her off, "I'll just go and then flush when I'm done."

"Does Eddie want to go tinkle too?"

"No, I don't think he wants to."

"If he did it would be a FAMILY TINKLE!"

So Lucy has been extra adorable and thoughtful this week. Which is making up for her WANTING to help in the kitchen, but not really wanting to do any actual work except stick her fingers in the peanut-butter-cookie batter and then lick them.

I also gave her a sip of my tea the other day and she said "I LIKE it! Tea IS for children!" So when I was making tea today I made her her very own cup, which she hemmed and hawed at and then totally refused to drink. Grrrr.

And Ed has taken to sleeping anywhere except his own bed. I think he figures that if he's not in bed he can't actually be sleeping -- but then he crashes in Lucy's bed (as on Friday), or under his bookshelf (Monday), or under his rocking chair (later Monday), or right in the middle of the floor (tonight). Crazy panda.

Oh! The cloth diaper update! That's what I was forgetting. Well, we are nearing the 48-hour mark. He has gone #2 once each day and honestly, the biggest difficulty so far was trying to change him this afternoon at the Watsons' when he was caked in mud head-to-toe. It was the "outer" mud that was the trouble, not the "inner"... if you know what I'm sayin'.

Truly so far so good. Again still working on the technique. But other than that, it's not ANY more difficult than disposables. I did an extra wash-load of diapers-only this morning, so that was one extra thing I did, but really, turning a dial and scooping a teeny scoop of detergent is minimal extra labor. He soaks through his prefold pretty good in a couple hours but I haven't noticed any leaking. Both naps (yesterday and today) were just fine with one prefold, and last night was a breeze in the bumGenius. Tonight we're trying a prefold overnight and I'm a little nervous about him being soaked in the morning. I just don't have a fold that fits him just right, yet. We'll see.

Her is

Saw "The Pajama Game" at BCT on Saturday, with Jean (my constant theatre companion -- we decided it freaks out my theatre friends to see two of me sitting in the front row during a performance). It was EXCELLENT! Super-professional, not that I expected any less, and all the individual performances were nuanced, interesting, and funny. Not to mention I knew a batch of the cast (Ed Williams who was involved in every show I did at BCT, Heather Paulson from when I was in Joseph now-almost-5 years ago, Tom Danford who was Coach Bolton in HSM, and Ryan Halliday who was a beedle-dee-dee with me in Cabaret).

So I've had the song "Her Is" stuck in my head ever since. I don't actually know any of the words but it was a really cute number. Once I was able to CHOKE back my jealousy, that is.

Her is... the kinda girl who's trying to be more crunchy, isn't her?

Her is.

Her is... crazy to be trying out cloth diapers, isn't her?

Her is!

Ed is on cloth diaper #3 of the day (and of his life, if you don't count the towel we had to use one evening at Jean's house when we totally ran out and it was Easter so the stores were all closed) -- and so far, not terrible! Other than the fact that my technique sucks (so it takes me, like, 10 minutes to get the new one pinned in place), so far it hasn't really been much different from a 'sposies day. ('Sposies is short for "disposables" -- cloth diapering is so cool that it has lingo.)

I don't know a single other person cloth-diapering who might read this, but just FYI I'm going the cheapo route -- I bought a dozen unbleached Chinese Diaper-Service Quality Premium-size prefolds, two Prorap snap covers, and one BumGenius 3.0 set. I'd planned on using the BumGenius for overnights but the more I read, the more it sounds like the prefolds will actually be great overnight. I'm excited and there are to date TWO FEWER disposable diapers in the world's landfills.

Better Nate than lever

We're going out this morning to buy some cloth diapers for Ed. I know, seriously? The kid's most likely going to be going on the pot by the end of the summer -- not the best timing to invest in cloth diapers. But we had a guest speaker at ECFE last Wednesday and it really made me start thinking about toxins and toxic waste, and someone told me that disposable diapers are the #2 item in landfills right now, so we're heading over to Peapods in a bit, to see what we can come up with.

The speaker works for Healthy Legacy (healthylegacy.org), a coalition of organizations and individuals working toward a toxic-free Minnesota. At their website, you can find recipes for cleaning products that you can make at home that are better for the environment (meaning, also better for your body) and probably more affordable, too.

One of the main things the gal mentioned is the toxic plastics that are used in the production of all kinds of kids' toys and dishes. Any plastics with a "3," "6," or "7" symbol ought to be tossed immediately -- they contain bisphenol-A (BPA), a synthetic estrogen hormone that leaches into the food it touches.

OK I'm getting way ahead of myself and I don't want to give any wrong info -- you can do some internet searches yourself on this sort of thing. I'm just not qualified or informed enough to be giving this info out. I'm just a bit fired-up about it at the moment.

The gal did say that these same chemicals are found in the plastic lining of formula cans. There's also some nasty stuff in most soaps and lotions -- that you would never know about because in the ingredient list, they are under "fragrance." Eeesh! Apparently you can go to Skin Deep (cosmeticsdatabase.com) and find lists of safe or safer products for you and your kids. They also break out the unpronounceable ingredients you find in skin-care products and let you know which ones we should be concerned about.

Some of the other moms in my group are much more well-versed on this kind of thing; they provided some of the following links:

beyondpesticides.com

For alternatives to traditional bug spray, insecticide, and other pest-control products

seafoodwatch.org

Don't buy shrimp from China... that kind of advice. If you buy seafood.

mercola.com

Several people I respect have recommended this site -- though they all say to take it with a teeny grain of salt. Today's headlines are "Cell phones more dangerous than smoking" and "One sausage a day will give you bowel cancer." But apparently there is a ton of useful info here too.

I made this for book club last night and I always forget how UNBELIEVABLY GOOD it is. Joel refuses to eat it, so I make it for company.

Light Thai Chicken and Sesame Noodles

(Note: This recipe was printed in some newspaper in 2002. The original was a "question" written into a column: "How can I lighten this recipe?" and the columnist magically lightened it with her vast, glorious cooking expertise by, and I am not exaggerating, switching the dressing to fat-free and switching the peanut-butter to reduced-fat and switching the soy sauce to low-sodium, and I'm all "THIS woman has her own COOKING column? Because a HAMSTER could figure out to substitute fat-free and reduced-fat products for the regular stuff." Regardless, the recipe is fabulous.)

1 lb. chicken breast, cut up into bite-size pieces (you could also use 1# shrimp)

Marinate for one hour in 1/3 c. fat-free Italian dressing 

In a small bowl, whisk together:

2 Tb. peanut butter

1 Tb. soy sauce

1 Tb. honey

1 tsp. ginger (grated fresh is best)

1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper

1.5 tsp. sesame oil (NO substitutes!)

2/3 c. fat-free Italian dressing

When the chicken is almost done marinating, cook 1/2 lb. angel hair pasta per package instructions. While the pasta is cooking, heat 1.5 tsp. canola oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add 1 medium-size shredded carrot (about 1 cup shredded) to the pan and cook for 1 minute. Add the chicken/salad dressing mixture to the pan and cook about 3-5 more minutes, then add 1 bunch chopped green onion (green and white parts) to the pan and cook until the chicken is cooked through (2ish more minutes).

Toss the cooked pasta with the hot peanut-butter-chicken mixture and garnish with a generous amount of snipped fresh cilantro (maybe 1 Tb. per person?).

I also made hummus for book club and I totally winged (wang?) it and it was so feasty I think I'll make more tonight.

Mego's Random Hummus

1 can garbanzo beans/chickpeas, drained

1/2 lemon's worth of juice

1-2 cloves garlic, minced (I go even a little heavier on the garlic)

1/4 tsp. kosher salt (you can always add more, and you may wish to)

1/4 tsp. chili powder

1 Tb. sesame oil

1 Tb. olive oil

2 Tb. parmesan or romano cheese

Maybe some black pepper? I can't remember if I added that.

Anyway, throw it all in a blender and go to town. GOLLY it was tasty.

Oh, and one more little item:

I went to go check on the kiddos after they went to bed, because I hadn't heard a peep out of them and I thought, with all the excitement of book club, they wouldn't fall asleep. Ever. But this is how I found them. Nose-to-toes, like sardines. Zonked out.

I swear, they DO have their own beds!

Would you rather be a mule... or a starving French child?

Have I told you guys about Flight of the Conchords yet? You need to go to YouTube and watch some of their stuff. Particularly "Jenny" and "Business Time."

Lucy and Ed have been running around the house singing in their little falsettos (falsetti?): "It's business TIME!" Hilarious.

This afternoon while the boyz were napside, Lucy was watching this dreadful VHS tape of some 1930's-era "Little Lulu" cartoons. One of the songs was "Swingin' On A Star," which I remember as a lighthearted chantey from my youth. However, in today's make-kids-feel-good-about-themselves culture, the lyrics are quite disturbing. You just don't hear lyrics like these from Barney or Laurie Berkner:

Would you rather be a mule? ...

He's just plain stupid with a stubborn streak
And by the way, if you hate to go to school
You may grow up to be a mule

A pig is an animal with dirt on his face
His shoes are a terrible disgrace
He ain't got no manners when he eats his food
He's fat and lazy and extremely rude

Well! Take THAT, Mr. Sun, Mr. Golden Sun and The More We Get Together, The Happier We'll Be. Time for some good, old-fashioned name-calling.

Lucy tired of the video (it's in black-and-white) and asked if we could listen to some music. Sure! I said, and she chose Les Miserables. She asked the name of the girl on the front and I told her "Cosette, or maybe Eponine, I never did know for sure" and she asked why her hair was so many colors and I explained about the French flag and she asked what happened to her dress and I told her it was kind of torn because she was very poor and couldn't get a new one.

So we turned the music on and she asked about the men singing.

"What are they singing about?"

"Being in jail."

"Why are they in jail?"

"All sorts of reasons."

"Are they bad?"

"Oh no! Not all of them! This one guy singing now, his name is Jean Valjean. He is in jail because his sister's child was starving..."

"Why was he starving?"

"Because they were too poor to buy food. So Jean Valjean broke a window to get into a house and steal some bread for his family."

"Well he should have gone to the door."

"YES! You're right. Maybe if he had gone to the door and asked, they just would have given him some bread. MAYBE if someone came to our door and was starving, we could give them some of our food because we have so much. We are very lucky to have plenty of food all the time."

"Why did he steal the bread?"

"Because his family was so hungry and he had to feed them but they didn't have any money to buy food. See, he's not really a bad man. This is a very difficult, gray moral area that is the crux of the whole show."

"NOW why is he singing?"

"Well, after he got out of jail Jean Valjean went to stay with a priest. And he stole the priest's silver because Valjean didn't have any money. But then he realized that, even though he spent so many years in jail, he didn't HAVE to keep stealing and leading a life of crime; he could make a better choice and become an honest person. And he spends the rest of the show being a VERY good person."

"What are THESE people singing about?"

"Uh, about being poor, actually."

"Who's that lady?"

"That's Fantine. She's singing because she's very sick and she misses her little girl, who may or may not be this miserable little girl with the French flag in her hair. In fact, a little later, Fantine dies and Jean Valjean is such a good person now that he takes care of her little daughter."

"Is the lady going to die?"

"Yes, she's so sick she's going to die in just a couple minutes here. Right at the end of this song."

"Now?"

"No, not yet, in another minute or so."

"Now?"

"No, a few more lines."

"Is she dead right now?"

"Well, this is a show, so she dies every single night. In the show. It's fiction; it's a show. She is not a real person."

"Did she die yet?"

"Listen, when she sings '... and tell Cosette I love her and I'll see her when I waaaaake' then she dies RIGHT after that."

"Is she singing that yet?"

"Soon. Listen."

"Is she dead now?"

"Ummmmm.... NOW. Right now. Listen."

"Can we turn it off now?"

"Oh yes. What's this you have next: West Side Story? Ohhh boy."

I made a raspberry vinaigrette dressing today and it was not a huge success. Not terrible but just not what I was going for.

I blended some frozen raspberries in the blender along with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and a bit of honey. It didn't come out clear like I kind of thought it would -- it looked real milky. It tasted OK but I bet it would need a LOT more honey to come out like the bottled stuff does. I also think maybe blending it was a mistake -- adding more air in than was necessary and breaking up the oil too much. I saw a recipe that just used raspberry jam instead of actual raspberries. I dunno... I was trying to avoid the corn syrup.

My kingdom for a title

Hey, I know I owe you several days of meals. Coming attractions:

- teriyaki salmon (don't get too excited, I bought it that way)

- bizarro mexican slop

- greyish chicken and rice (I know, could it get any worse?)

- jessica seinfeld's egg puffs (these are super fun and yummy!)

I just ate 80 fat grams' worth of FunkyChunky popcorn -- it's caramel corn drizzled with nuts, chocolate, white chocolate, caramel, butter, and sugar. It was totally worth it.

Did I ever give you my mom's recipe for Seriously Tasty and Also Exceptionally Healthy Oatmeal? Here goes:

Toss into a cereal bowl:

1/2 cup quick (not instant, not old-fashioned) oats

3 whole dates, chopped

small handful of golden raisins

small handful of chopped walnuts

3/4 cup boiling water

Stir and allow to sit a minute or two. Add milk if you want. Stir again and devour. I swear this tastes JUST as good as regular ol' oatmeal-with-brown-sugar ... but there's no sugar added at all!

Joy my joy

Convos with Lucy:

Lu (pointing to a vent near the floor in the dining room): "Is there AIR coming from that SQUARE!??!"

Me: "Yes."

Lu: "It's making me CHILLY."

And, later:

Lu: "Mommy did you take a nap?"

Me: "Well, I couldn't really sleep but I did get to rest my eyes for a bit. It was, like, half of a nap."

Lu: "Why did you take a half nap? You should stay awake and joy my joy!"

Ed is super funny, too, but I can't seem to capture his essence here. So much of his humor is in his tone or his facial expressions. You're not getting video anytime soon, though, so you'll just have to trust me that he is also hilarious. I did catch him holding a toddler-sized basketball and chanting "Head-a, head-a game!" So there's something.

Ed asked for a song about a "hungry bear" for his bedtime song tonight, because apparently "Christmas Comes To Town" (from The Polar Express, Ed's current obsession) is passe, and "Mister Aladdin Sir" is totally last week's news.

The best I could come up with was "Running Bear (Loved Little White Dove)" -- an old (I assume) 1950s tune that my dad used to sing to us as kids. When my dad would sing the song to us, the lyrics always struck me as truly tragic. I remember being really moved, as a child, that the two young lovers chose to die together rather than live apart with their feuding families. In my mind it was kind of on a parallel with "Puff, the Magic Dragon" and "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" and "Teen Angel" on the list of all-time tear-jerkers. On the other hand, the original recording makes the song much more of a dance tune. Just another example of cognitive dissonance associated with early memories.

Frustermated

So, I kinda feel stymied at every turn.

I tried to call Lucy's dentist to make her an appointment... and they were closed. At 4:00. On a Thursday.

I'm trying to put videos on my computer and it looks like I can't find the right port on my camcorder to plug into the USB port on my computer.

Also I don't have the manual -- long story.

I go to sony.com to see if I can find a manual online, but just then this rain/snow/hailstorm hits, so of course my internet access goes on the fritz.

I call Sony to see if they can send me a manual, and I get the Parts department and they tell me I need Customer Service. Which turns out to be THE SAME NUMBER I just dialed. But I dial it again and get another human, at least, and they tell me I need to wait until my internets come back to look up the manual online.

But, they also inform me, I need to buy a cradle/dock/base thing for my camcorder in order to hook it up to my computer. Or, they say, maybe it was supposed to come with it when I bought it. Maybe. They ask me to call Parts again, which I do.

I get another human at Parts, thank goodness, and they tell me that my camcorder doesn't work with any sort of cradle/dock/base, that Customer Service person was an idiot, but what I do need is a cord that will plug into my computer and also into my camcorder.

Well, I have one of those, I said, except I can't figure out how to plug it into the camcorder. I can, I assure them, get the other end into the USB port of my computer.

Ohh, they say, well, you probably have the wrong cord (for the same reason I do not have a manual, which is: when I bought the "floor model" at Target, they gave me the packet-of-papers-and-accessories that was labeled as going with my camcorder but which, in actuality, belong to a different model of camcorder). You can order the right cord from us, they say, for $14.

But (I protest), since that other Sony employee I talked to was an Idiot, and I'm quoting you, here, Parts person, how can I even be sure this $14 cord you're going to sell me is even going to work? No offense, Parts person, but I am the opposite of reassured by this series of phone calls. Thanks for your help.

So I've been looking online and I *think* this alleged new cord will work, as long as my computer has a FireWire port. Hooray, right? Should be easy to figure out whether or not my computer has a FireWire port... right? Right?? RIGHT???

*cue crickets chirping*


I think I'm going to go back to Target and see, at least, if they can find my correct "packet-o-junk".

The more I'm looking at it, it looks like a FireWire cable with two 4-pin sides MIGHT actually work (if I owned it, that is, which I do not). There seem to be identical 4-pin-lookin' ports on both my computer and on the camcorder.

Uh, but if any of you are hanging on to any knowledge of this sort of thing... feel free to pass it along my way. I am really helpless here.