Turn on the No-Drier

((If you hadn't guessed the title is a horrible knock off of blow-drier.))
This is because sometime yesterday, fortunately after I'd cleaned and dried the Mini Monster's latest batch of laundry. ((So he's got a couple days worth of spit up-free stuff...)) Our Drier, which admittedly was ancient and came with the house.... bellied up.

Tilmani was trying to get some laundry run, and got it to the drier, where he discovered after several attempts to roust it into life, that the drier was blowing hot air... but not tumbling.


... at all.

This makes drying your clothing not particularly effective by any means, so he hung stuff up on hangers and what not to try and get it dry, and we'll be looking into a new Washer and Drier. ((Since the Drier and Washer are the same age, it makes sense to replace them both before the Washer ALSO decides to do the Failure Waltz.))

A little tired

I've been a little tired:
Mini Monster has been sleeping in his crib again, which either makes for a restless night because we're used to the extra company and reduced space in our own bed, or means he wakes up a lot more to give us a short fuss for company. The first night he actually slept all the way through, and Tilmani and I were just restless. Last night it was about a dozen rounds of 'give me back my pacifier'.

Til slept through them but I didn't, so yeah... little tired.

Our Jumparoo finally arrived. It needs a slight height adjustment but otherwise he seems to think it's pretty damn cool. It's free standing so I don't have to worry about him blocking or banging into a door frame, and it can be moved to wherever I want without me needing to go get a step ladder and climb around. *phew*

It does need some batteries to show full functionality, but I'll go get some later.

I rented "Wonderland" from the RedBox yesterday and watched it. In spite of the mixed reviews, I admit I really didn't think it was that bad. Especially for a Burton film, since his stuff tends to disappoint me in the end. I thought it was an interesting approach and he actually worked pretty hard to get the feel of the original book illustrations, something Disney never even tried in their original.
I was however rather wierded out by the White Queen's BLACK EYEBROWS. She would have actually been pretty, rather than bleached looking, if they'd made her eyebrows as pale as her hair.

Little touches like the Rocking-Horse-Flies and Dragon-flies were cool though.

Otherwise we've been watching our way through "True Blood". It definitely has some insanely cheezy aspects, and some of the relationships make me wonder which came first, Twilight or TrueBlood. I think Trueblood since someone said there were books.

This would not surprise me since it's already painfully obvious that Stephanie Meyer virtually (or outright did) plagarize(d) just about every other vampire romance she could think of. Like Buffy. ((Edward: You are in fact an insanely creepy stalker bastard and should be arrested, but Angel did the whole "I'm watching you sleep" thing first. Oh and he didn't sparkle. Looser.))

But yeah. T.B. Has the whole love triangle thing going, or maybe more of a love quadrangle or some other geometric shape, since everyone (except me) seems to be MADLY IN LOVE With "Sookie", who I swear to god was named this because of it's vague resemblance to "Succubi.".
Another thing probably stolen by Meyer, though she transferred it to Edward: Sookie's telepathy and her inability to read certain characters.

The irony however of someone who's name is often pronounced "Suck-ie" in a show largely centered around vampires is not lost on me however. In fact it cracks me up quite often.

My favorate character in the show at the moment has to be Eric though. He's a freaking vampire-VIKING. He gets his hair done, he messes with people. He pisses off Sookie ((Which also amuses me because she's really a dip.)) and then messes with more people. Usually successfully.

Bill: Take notes from Eric. He's smarter than you. Oh and if you actually want to keep your girlfriend, who has absolutely no sense of self preservation, alive, you might remind her at some point that repeatedly bitch slapping random vampires, after she already knows they can do a pretty good impression of a tornado, is a stupid idea.

A really stupid idea. Oh and actually telling her some shit about vampire politics might also do something for her survival rating. Just sayin'. I mean if there's a giant 'don't do this' list, she might maybe need to know it, if only so you can say "You know better than that" next time she sassess off to something that could break her neck by sneezing in her direction. Not that it would probably actually prevent her from doing so.

Rice Cereal and Blue Elephants

If there's a good way to summarize how Mini Monster is taking to solid food it's something like a Shark in a Goldfish tank. Only occasionally the shark sneezes.

I've already picked rice cereal out of my hair this morning.

We did finally get a high chair, though that in and of itself was an adventure: I should have figured that it would be after we went to the K-mart near my parents and five minutes after entering the store, there was a massive blackout that knocked out the power to every store in the area, and probably everything else, up to my folks place. Even the street lights.

We decided that since even the Wal-Mart didn't have enough power to run with their generator ((employees were leaving as we passed and a traffic cop was directing people)), that we would go to another K-mart about half an hour away. This was unfortunately bound to make it a much longer trip than I'd planned for.

For sanitys sake: We car pooled. Then we ran into construction.

When we finally got to the store ((My mom had to feed Mini in the back seat because he woke up hungry and angry)) we looked around, found out they were out of the chair I originally wanted, so after fending off an attack from the photography department wanting to get their claws on Mini ((Who was anxious and spitting up and drooling.)) We got an Graco high chair instead. Both were good chairs, the Graco just lacks the bright colors on the one I was thinking of. On the plus side we know their stuff is solid and assembles and dissembles nicely.

We made our slow way home, and Mini slept all the way until I left town and was about to pass the original store, and then woke up and started fussing. I changed him and his clothes, and gave him a little drink of water ((out of formula and it was hot.)) which seemed to solve things... until I put him back in his chair. Then he spent the ENTIRE rest of the trip nodding off briefly then waking up to wail. Lather rinse repeat. X_X

Haven't gotten the high chair together yet but I'm planning on it.

Growing like a Weed

The Mini Monster successfully turned on the musical frog on his play mat for the first time this morning, by himself. It requires a pretty good, focused tug and is kind of touchy, but he did it! That was a pretty awesome kick off to the day.

He's trying really hard to sit up, though if he does manage to balance enough not to tilt over, he tends to be hunched like Quasimodo still. Never the less, he's trying hard.

And trying to steal peoples food now. He grabbed the edges of my bowl of mashed potatoes yesterday and had to be wrestled with to get it back, and he intently fixates on peoples drinks. Sounds like he's really getting interested in trying other foods! I keep meaning to sit him down and offer him some again, so maybe today.

Digging the garden is going, but still slowly. It seems like we're getting there at a snails pace, but then again we're digging up an established yard, not an old garden plot. And lord knows there's plenty of rocks to get in the way. We've built a small tower out of them to keep them out of the way.

Dig it

We got a little further today, though we knocked off after a while for a combination of Jealous Mini Monster ((He wanted the attention on him, not dirt and grass.)) And just plain exhaustion, but we're really starting to get some where! I'm actually pretty pleased, although I still feel somewhat physically wimpy, stomping on my garden fork to dig it into the ground.

The sound of metal tines on rocks will also set your teeth on edge. There could be a lot more rocks but there's definitely enough. We've pulled up the ones we've found and we've made a little tower of rocks, to keep them out of the way. I'll probably reconstruct it out of the way once we're done, I just want them all accounted for and away from the mower.

Mini Monster also now fits a six month size pretty neatly. Still some roominess and a little extra length, but he's closing in fast. Sheesh!

How Does your Garden Go

Haven't gotten super far yet. My M.I.L came over late yesterday and we went out and worked on moving ground. To make it go faster I used the garden fork to tear up the ground in rows, back to back, and she came through and pulled them up and moved them out of the way. ((We'll shake as much earth back off the grass roots as we can later. The full border is finished and we've started working our way across.

I did try earlier that day but Mini Monster wanted NOTHING to do with the hotter, brighter afternoon weather. Apparently he subscribes to the theory that Mad Dogs and English Men go out in the Noonday Sun.

Who Stan Lee Wants to Be

Dear Stan Lee:
I hate to break it to you, but you're NOT Alfred Hitchcock. He was actually cool, and he didn't slam his roles up the nose of his viewers to desperately cling to the idea that he's actually contributing something to the world.
The only thing you've successfully contributed were the germs of ideas. I've seen your stories. They suck, even though the characters themselves have often been developed by others into fantastic creations.
Please do EVERYONE a favor and go enjoy your money quietly, because you really aren't as amazingly awesome as you think you are.

Oh and as far as Marvel goes: Stop Ret-conning things every chance you get. Readers actually DO hate Phoenix, we want to see ACTUAL character development AND new characters that don't get offed to make the old ones look cool. We know Wolverine is cool but you can do new stuff with him instead of rehashing the samurai shit again... and again....
I mean seriously: your own FAN base makes jokes at your expense. That's not a good sign.

Basically: Don't be George Lucas: the StarWars system was cool, it became COOLER in the hands of people who loved it, don't make us sit through your personal ego-bation and wreck the whole thing again. It's a big system now Lee. Cut the apron strings.


----------------
That being said: I did mostly enjoy the new Iron Man, but there were a few stretches of my suspension of disbeleif that just made it less enjoyable. I mean aside from the fact I just can't accept Samual L(oudmouth) Jackson as Nick Fury, Whiplash, high point of the whole thing as he was, must have been wearing BRICK UNDERWEAR not to at least be hospitalized after being rammed with a car.

Tony was desperate, but not stupid: Why didn't he think of that lithium whatever?

And could you have BEEN any more obvious than placing his amazing cure in his fathers Diorama?
...Or for that matter any more desperate to make your token supposed bad-ass female who's character name I can't even be bothered to remember, look badass? Did she pull her weapons from the same mythic vagina of holding that Elizabeth Swan pulled that giant gun out of in the greatest fail moment of that Particular Pirates movie? ((Well, maybe not THE greatest failmoment but a pretty big one.))

You had good stuff going, don't force it.


....And for gods sake, if Thor says 'Verily', I will throw up on you idiots.