July 31, 2011

Balderdashia 2011. Game One, Part One

When twelve people play Balderdash, half of them in teams of two, it simply takes longer to finish the game. We wound up after midnight, documenting where we were on the board for another night. Here is some of our enjoyment from Game One:

James Smothers:

1. invented the only choker for mothers
2. was the third Smothers Brother. He was never part of his brothers' act, but was the winemaker at the Smothers Brothers winery
3. Famous jazz player
4. Maternal grandfather of Tom and Dick Smothers
5. inventor of the electric typewriter
6. A notorious Chicago bootlegger during Prohibition, he was also an Episcopalian minister
7. A rival of James Roberts, of Roberts' Rules of Order, whose rules were less popular and therefore not chosen
8. As a young man discovered 31 new species of small birds and mammals and became the youngest inductee of the National Academy of Science at age 19

Sitatunga

1. Red Betelnut stain
2. Large tongue drum used in gamelan orchestras
3. A kind of river rush which is often dried to make a tooth-cleaning ool in central Africa
4. A fungal bacteria found in the bloodstream of cattle that have mad cow disease
5. a ceremonial wand carried during the male initiation rite of several African tribes
6. An advanced yoga position where the head touches the lower back
7. A brown antelope with wide hooves that is able to walk on swamp land

Russodad 2011, Day 1

Ahhh. It is finally vacation.

We're catching up and eating Jelly Bellies and watching the blue herons and the duckweed in the water.

The happy nattering of the jigsaw puzzle hoverers includes a multi-generational discussion of how many mandatory readings of Das Kapital were had by the classes of '77 and '97 at a certain hippie university. Mrguy continues to summon funny stories that I have never heard.

The living room crowd are discussing current experiments aimed at composting human waste and whether certain people who brought styrofoam plates to vacation should have a talking to.

All is well.

+++

My nephew to his daughter: You know you came from a family of superheroes, don't you? We don't really talk about it.

Nephew to his uncle: What's your power?

Uncle: Modesty.

Our grandniece: What's your power, Daddy?

Nephew: Forgetfulness.

Me: I can scale small furniture with my shin.

Mrguy: I am really good at drinking beer.

Uncle to a different nephew: Your superpower, if I understand correctly, is to fetch beer

July 27, 2011

Fleshy Caterpillar

Stitches are out and I'm down to ointment and bandaids. The doctor says I'm at the "lumpy bumpy" stage. When I finally saw his handiwork I realized that my lip incision looks like either a teeny tiny roast or a fleshy caterpillar. Adding to this effect is the fact that I have no sensation on this spot. It seems entirely other, but familiar.

The quilting on my nose isn't as bad as I thought it would be. Sensitive, but o.k.

And I have now learned that Pilates melts Neosporin.

Two days to vacation.

July 21, 2011

Another Homely Day

I just changed the bandage for the first time and slathered on Neosporin "like you're icing a cupcake," according to directions. Now that I've seen what's under there I understand.

No *wonder* my face is so swollen and bruised! The lip incision is small, but the one on the side of my nose is large and has a graft. Poor face!

It would be pathetic to try to put makeup on for mrguy's homecoming tonight.

I've warned him and he'll just have to brave it.

July 19, 2011

Post-Surgery Update

This year I've been having a little of this and a little of that removed, at the request of my dermatologist. I find things, he biopsies them, and my instincts have been pretty good. Nothing serious, but a tedious number of biopsies and Mohs surgeries.

Today's Mohs surgery has left me looking like an electron microscope view of an insect, with one squinty eye and a fat cheek that's turning green. All the goo seems to have drained into one half of my top lip, and that's large and purpling. Were it not for my blog rules I'd give you a photo. Suffice to say it's not pretty and my anaesthetic was wearing off as the doctor was stitching. Ouch.

Remarkably I kept dozing off during the doctor's quilting bee, despite being under only local anaesthetic.

I only have Tylenol to numb the pain, but happily Bravo played most of Season 2 of Real Housewives of New York, which was quite diverting.

Thank you, Bravo, I needed that.

To Be Vivacious

is a sin, apparently.

Mom told me, with some disdain, that a man had referred to her recently as "vivacious". She is a woman of a certain age and he was a man of a certain age, so there was probably subtext there. However the real subtext is not to be identified with her mother, who was a vivacious woman who lacked in mothering skills. Wore expensive hats but didn't believe in taking her children to the dentist. Wouldn't get her daughter glasses because she didn't want to be the mother of a glasses-wearing child. That sort of thing.

I would say I got lucky in the mom department. She doesn't make me call her "mother", and once she saw that other people liked her vivacious children, she didn't worry about their vivaciousness as much.

Her own, on the other hand...

July 10, 2011

Best Expression of the Day

How about "Come the raw prawn"?

Found in this blog on Hellomagazine.com

Even in context I couldn't figure out what it meant.

Urban Dictionary to the rescue.

Don't come the raw prawn with me, mrguy. I know you fed the kittens a piece of chicken.

Corn Festival

We went to the Corn Festival yesterday. I've wanted to do this since we lived in the Old Place.

We drove and drove and drove out to the Corn Festival. They had tons of parking. First impressions? Mrguy said "It's like the Aloha Festival, without the Aloha".




The vintage car show was very cool. We fixated on this Streamline-shaped van until we realized that it was a fantasy car. The fellow next to it seemed sad that his car was getting less attention, and rightly so. His impala had sweet flame detailing and the interior upholstery also had flame accents in *alligator*.

Festive!

We had both kinds of corn (boiled and grilled), and avoided corn in a cup, which was the third offering. The corn was yummy and we ate it in the beer tent, while sipping a "microbrew" (Sierra Nevada!!!) and listening to a band do a lot of modern country rock songs.



Altogether pleasant, but it was almost 100 degrees out there. I got whomped bad. Spent the evening recovering from the headache and heat exhaustion while watching Tokyo Drifter.

I see much potential for enhancement, here. If you're going to have a corn festival:

1) More corn signage and a mascot on site at all times. I really look forward to corn photo opportunities. Perhaps a giant corn with a cut-out to put your face in so you can see what you'd look like as an ear of corn with legs
2) Ask every vendor booth to have at least one corn item. How sweet would it have been to have a henna tattoo of an ear of corn?
3) Ask all of the food booths feature a corn specialty. I would have loved it if the bbq guys had roasted corn with sauce, and the Thai booth could have added some corn to its Pad Thai.

That said, we had a great time. I'll need to add something to my bucket list again, because now I've been to the Corn Festival.

July 6, 2011

Three's a Pair

We lived in the City when cable television exploded and there was the prediction, not yet realized, that there were going to some day be hundreds of channels to choose from.

We spent one hilarious evening with friends musing over what content would fill that many channels. We foresaw the Golf Channel, thinking it absolutely stupid. And we decided that there should be the Danish Game Show channel. It would feature classics such as Wheel of Gouda and Three's A Pair. I can't recall that we devised the rules to Three's A Pair, but it's cracked us up ever since.

This weekend I found Three's A Pair of another sort on a website that I followed after reading about the groom's business in the NY Times Vows section.

The site is called Little Miss Matched, and they sell pairs of three socks.


Check them out!

July 2, 2011

Oh Happy Day. Stay Happy

I'm sorry I haven't been around more, my blog. I do love you. For the last six months or so I've been filling my days with two bands (three if you count the Hammerslag Singers), singing lessons, Pilates and kittens. Time should appear in greater quantities after Slagapalooza in August.

That's then and this is today. It's the beginning of a four day weekend.

Today mrguy and I went to the fish market and bought all manner of goodies: gobo, tobiko, poi, Carl, Yakult and senbei.

After dispatching many vegetables and making soup stock this afternoon I found Hula Girls on TVJapan. A perfect thing to watch while snacking on tobiko sour cream dip with mrguy and serving as human cushions for sleeping kittens.

The spell of happiness was briefly broken by thoughts of our family vacation. This year I will not let the people who are unhappy get me down. No.

We have a THREE HOUR Toshiro Mifune movie to watch.
Related Posts with Thumbnails