SEVEN QUICK TAKES!
(It won’t let me load up the image for some reason.)
This week has been an experiment to see whether two rather sedentary adults can accomplish the work of five strong men, sleeping an average of four non-consecutive hours per night, and sustained by little more than beer, deli ham, and Laffy Taffy:
(Oh, so the answer is: “Yes, but unnnnnghhhhhhhh.”)
So here are seven things I never got around to blogging about:
–1–
Maybe someday, if we need a house, we will just print one up. I was going to say something about how such houses would be lacking in the charm that only traditional stick-built homes can afford, but then I looked around and, yeah. Charm. We once hired a guy to replace our front door, because whoever designed our house graduated Magna Cum Stupido from the Dr. Suess Academy of Ridiculous Architecture. After watching him struggle with the angles for over an hour, I apologized to him for how crookedy it all was. “Aw, that’s okay,” he said. “Anyone can work on a straighthouse!” So, that’s why we live here. W. H. Auden would approve.
–2–
Probably everybody’s seen this already, but my kids got a kick out of this Star Wars bloopers reel:
–3–
Here’s a thought-provoking post that uses that odious “What’s Your Excuse?” meme as a springboard for some even more interesting ideas about the “self-improvement culture” and what health really means. Long but fascinating.
–4–
Quickie: The reality of what food stamps cost all of us
–5–
I suppose you’ve already met the worst person in the world. I’m happy to report that, when we went trick-or-treating last night, there was no visible judgment from anyone, even though we had three teenaged trick-or-treaters and one baby trick-or-treater. (And yes, the candy really was for her. Although she shared it with the dog, who has a special weakness for lollipops.)
We also saw zero (0) sexy costumes. Probably because it was cold and rainy, but really! Three cheers for the backlash!
Of our own costumes, we took very few non-terrible pictures, but here are a few of my kids:
Ash from Army of Darkness:
The kid who went from door to door saying “Alms for the bodiless” instead of “trick or treat”:
A puppy, who wore this beloved costume for four months nonstop last year, even through the sweltering heat, because of reasons very much like this:
Here is our weeping angel getting ready:
Her finished costume got mixed reviews, mainly because (a) it turns out it’s hard to spraypaint feathers, maybe because they are, oh yeah, designed to be moisture repellent; and (b) we spent six weeks planning and about twelve minutes actually executing.
We also had a cat fairy, River Song, and 2D from Gorillaz (because we are the family your mother warned you about). The baby was “Baffled Two-Year Old Who Fell Asleep in the Car on the Way Home from School and Continued Sleeping Until It Was Time to Go Trick-or-treating, So We Just Put a Fluffy Scarf on Her and It Was Cute” girl. Oh, and a princess:
Sorry the pics are so dark. We’re getting thunderstorms here, and if I delay posting this any longer (to lighten up the pics), I’m going to lose my internet. You get the general idea. Lotsa candy, happy night. We’re going to watch The Birds andSigns with the older kids, as part of our prolonged weekend of spookiness.
–6–
God bless this amazing young woman protecting an apparent neo-nazi from a mob:
There were shouts of “Kill the Nazi” and the man began to run – but he was knocked to the ground. A group surrounded him, kicking him and hitting him with the wooden sticks of their placards.
Mob mentality had taken over. “It became barbaric,” says Thomas.
“When people are in a crowd they are more likely to do things they would never do as an individual. Someone had to step out of the pack and say, ‘This isn’t right.’”
So the teenager, then still at high school, threw herself on top of a man she did not know and shielded him from the blows.
“When they dropped him to the ground, it felt like two angels had lifted my body up and laid me down.”
–7–
And finally: Hundreds of proofs of God’s non-existence and counting!
Don’t forget to check out Jennifer Fulwiler’s blog for the rest of the Seven Quick Takes. And, because I am special, I saw the cover of Jen’s new book, and yes, it is magnificent, and perfect.
