Nothin' makes you feel crazy like ...

There's nothing to make you feel like a crazed lunatic like a twitching eye.

While I usually consider myself a sane person (ahem) and have actually been feeling fairly well, lately, physically and emotionally ....

I must say I am starting to doubt that perception of sanity.

Because my left eye has been twitching, twitching, twitching ...

and going on a week of twitches now ...

I am starting to think I am indeed insane. If not evil. It's the evil insane people in movies who have eye twitches. And they're about to snap.

So ... you might want to just baaaaaack up.

I'm just sayin'.

This is a Public Service Announcement - with Guitar!

It has come to my attention that I broke two-thirds of my "my favorite blogs" links and didn't fix them. While I actually knew that, I forgot that you all didn't know. So for every one of you who said, "Waaaah, you don't link to me as a good blog read anymore!" there must be another 20 of you who are just quietly weeping and feeling neglected!

Please don't be sad! It's not that you didn't make the cut! It's that I broke my links and didn't fix them yet!

One day I went to load the blog and it hung up, repeatedly. The Grand Lunar checked something magic somehow and said it was the blog links that were crashing it. So I just commented them out. (That means put little code to tell the code to ignore them for now) -- so I still HAVE them, I just need to figure out why they were crashing my site!

Also, a few of you have relocated your blogs and I am woefully behind on updating those links.

Also-Also, I am, likewise, woefully behind in reading my blogs -- yes, even yours, yours is one of my favorites!!! -- so if you are feeling sad because I took out your blog link and/or because I haven't commented on yours in days, weeks, months (what's with that time slipping slipping slipping into the future thing anyway?) please don't feel bad! The malfunction is within me, not you or your blog!

And with that, I have to run to an all-morning choir musical rehearsal. I volunteered to sit upon the difficult child. LOL. Figuratively speaking, of course. Fortunately, too, the difficult child is not my own. Although I am bringing along a whole box of evil eyes in case my children try to push the limit.

Nothing I can do, Total Eclipse of the Moon

I hope you weren't counting on me to remind you to watch the eclipse last night.

For the record, there was an eclipse last night.

I hope you didn't read "Feb 21" somewhere not not realize that meant universal time, and thus subtract your time zone and realize it was LAST night, and not today. Stupid Universal Time.

Fortunately, I personally had about 64 reminders. 53 of them were from my children.

I really should've looked up *how* to photograph the moon and an eclipse *before* the actual eclipse. But I was able to get a few decent pix by fiddling.

Turns out that a tripod that only locks at 0, 45, and 90 for the angle isn't all that helpful when the moon is somewhere between 45 and 90. And tripods aren't really all that steady when plunked in the snow. But, nonetheless, it was a good learning experience for me. It was unusually clear for a Michigan Night Sky Event. And like I said, I did get a couple decent pix. I'll quit rambling and show you.

Going under:

Eclipsed:

Coming Out:

Coming Out:

The two littlest boys were long in bed. The two middle kids did not want to brave the bitter cold, and peeked now and then front window. The two eldest would've stayed up all night if I had let them, but when we realized it would be fully eclipsed for ~50 minutes and that they had already seen it at full, we sent them packing off to bed, after hot chocolate for them and decaf coffee for me. I'm really not a cocoa gal. My poor fingers were frozen from dinking around with the camera settings, and glad to sit in front of a roaring fire while the pictures downloaded from the camera.

Not Easier, Not Better, But Amusing

First: The History

I've never been a successful popcorn maker. Other than the microwave variety, which I'm quite good at. At which I'm quite good. Ahem.

I was sidestepping one friend bewail the unhealthy toxins in microwave popcorn, using my clear failures in the past as my excuse. When my other friend said quality seeds make a difference.

Well.

I must admit, I'd never, in all my failures, tried name brand seeds. I've always used the cheapie store brand bagged ones.

And so I said I'd give it one more shot. I had The Grand Lunar buy me some actual Orville Reddenbacher brand seeds.

And I attempted, following Orville's very own directions, to pop seeds on the stove.

And it worked fabulously.

The children were much impressed.

And ... yet. Oh, all that oil! And adding butter on top of that! I checked and oil alone, with no butter added, was already as high fat as the microwave Xtreme Butter kind. And really, it needs butter. But do WE need butter? Can we afford to eat a stick of butter a week on various bowls of popcorn?

But I didn't really want to (my goodness I'm rambling on and on, I'm still not to the point!) buy another air popper or microwave popper, just to declutter it again in a year.

So I surfed around to find if you could REALLY make oil-free popcorn without an air popper.

Most of the directions I found were for the brown-paper-bag method. I had a stack of brown paper lunch sacks! Which, doggone it, I had just decluttered in the last few months.

So ... instead of a brown paper sack ... maybe we could FOLD one. After all, Moogie The Origami Queen happened to be here. And I was anxious to try.

So we got a big piece of blank newsprint, and found origami water balloon instructions online. Well, Moogie actually already knew a better way.

Pardon the not-crisp folds in these, this is actually a re-creation, I didn't take pictures the first time around. I admit, these pix are staged. Although, I really DID re-do it.

Folding the water balloon from a not-quite-18" paper square:

And then we filled and nuked it:

And ... ta da!

It wasn't easier, it didn't work better, but it sure was amusing!

About 2/3 of the kernels popped on the 2nd attempt. It was just starting to burn when I stopped it.

I discovered with further experimentation that I can also pop them without oil in a heavy non-stick pot on the stove, lid slightly vented. Or, better yet, in the microwave in a glass bowl with a glass lid, slightly vented. That method proved to be the easiest, no shaking, I could see it pop. And that's the method I'll be using.

But that wouldn't have been as exciting to blog, would it?

And It Shall Be Called The Winter Of Sledding

I fear I am setting an unwise precedent this year.

After 12 years of being pregnant or having a little one, this is the first year sledding has been less of a hassle, more doable. And we've had several good snows. (And, I hear, possibly more on the way!?) So we've been sledding a lot. But will I have to do this every year, now? What have I done?!?!

On Friday morning Karen called and invited us sledding*. (link to Karen's entry on the sledding) We almost didn't make it, but I'm so glad we did. The kids had a wonderful time being able to sled with friends, especially to make giant "blobsled" runs. And with only minor aches to my healing tailbone, it was a success.

My only real complaint is my pictures. I had my camera on the "sports" setting, and all my pictures are grainy. Whether that's because at some point I changed some setting I shouldn't have, or because there wasn't enough light on a dreary Michigan day (perfect for sledding, though!) or ... because I just don't know what I'm doing ... I don't know. But I'm bummed that I didn't get great crystal clear magazine quality sledding action shots. Perhaps I set my hopes too high?

So, as if all sledding pictures don't look more or less the same to you, and as if you hadn't seen too many already, I present: More Sledding Pix.

I'm still using the funky zoom. If you're on dial-up, I'm told the bigger pix load when you hover over them or click, so if you're careful to only point at the ones you want to see, the load time should be reasonable.

The regular kids (and moms) on the big city hill pictures:

Special thanks to Karen & Her Mom for the pic of me videoing on the way down.

The "Bad Idea" Series:

And - last but not least - yet one more video in my series of "Lets Film As We Sled!"

New And Funky With The Pix

The Grand Lunar sent me this link for FancyZoom ...

Simple, easy, stylish?

So I'm trying it out with these pictures of SNOW! I took this morning.

Not that you haven't already seen enough images of snow on my chair and snow on my stump. But it's a Michigan Winter, so there's not much else to show you.

At least until I get that other sock done.

So I give you ... FancyZoomed Snow! (uh, click the thumbnails)

... uh ... hm. I must've done something wrong. I'll take this back down *again* until The Grand Lunar can tell me what I missed.

I keep trying. It is not working. I am not smart enough for "Simple!"

Oh Grand Luuuuuuuuunar! Save me!

**update**

thanks, Grand Lunar! Turns out we were having issues because something else wasn't loading. And because we couldn't read. Both are fixed now. More or less.

trying to think of something to say

I like to read blogs, even ones that don't have "deep" or "exciting" entries. So why am I having trouble writing blog entries these days?

I'm trying something new with my laundry. I don't think I told you. But if I did ... um ... I'm sorry for the redundancy.

I'm trying to fold each load the same day. Okay, that's not all that novel. But I'm trying to fold it on our bed. Also not so exciting. But wait! I'm trying to listen to upbeat music and *walk* and *dance* in place while I fold, and add little steps - be inefficient - while I fold. So, for example, instead of making a little stack of socks to put in The Grand Lunar's sock drawer, I'll put them away as I fold them, so I have to take a few extra steps to the dresser and back.

The bummer part is if I really DO do it every day, it takes me 10-15 minutes per load (maybe more if there's a lot of socks to match ... maybe not) which makes me wonder why I save it all up until I have 8 loads to fold.

My old method was to save it up and then sit on the floor folding and sorting while watching videos. Which was good for getting videos watched. But not so good on the activity.

I'm trying to add little steps to my day - not necessarily long aerobic lengths, although it's always nice to find that I walked/danced long enough to trigger the aerobic minutes on my pedometer.

Today I was (again) way behind on the baskets to fold, so I stood and danced/walked to some aerobic-tempo playlists and got an extra bonus 45 minutes in, on top of my "real" walking this morning! Now my legs are tired. It's not as intense a workout as "real" walking with Leslie, but every not-sitting-around minute counts, right?

Oh, and Daisy - my pedometer claims all my walking adds up to 553 calories burned! Woot!

Once is funny, Twice is silly ...

Anyone remember that line from the Frances books? It was always a favorite saying in my home ...

but today's application is a little different.

Once is funny, twice is silly, three times is a bruised tailbone.

Yeah, apparently I'm getting a little old for going down bumpy hills ... I should've stopped when my tailbone was just a little sore, but I went down one more with Sputnik, making the mistake of using an unpadded sled and going over the little bump. YOUCH!

I'm sure I'll be fine in a day or two. But apparently I'm not 10 anymore. Go figure.

I'll leave you with this picture from last Saturday that I never got around to posting -- which is a much bigger hill and jump than the one that did in my tailbone:

A Little More OrgoWorking

Betsy asked awhile back whatever happened to the Organizing. I can't remember if I had posted about that ... I guess I posted about the Grand Lunar's desk, right? So in summary:

Hollie and I have been on hold since Christmas. First there were the holidays, family, food, and all that ... then Hollie was sick. Then sicker! Then very sick! (yes, you were, Hollie!) Then getting better. Then sick again! Then getting better! Then we had a snow day with bad roads. Then she got sick again! Then still sick! Then finally better! We got a day in! Then car trouble. Pray for God's protection over and provision for Hollie and her family, if you would, they've been through one thing after another!

So in the one day we had together this week we were back to working in the basement. The basement is no one-day-quick fix. At least not with me and my stuff. I think if I stepped out of the picture, Hollie could've whipped the whole thing into shape in a day, but I was underfoot trying to explain why we needed to keep that really old software and boxes of weird stuff and fifty-odd old cans of paint.

Plus it took us almost a whole day to bolt one cabinet to the wall. I don't believe I told you about our failed attempt to move the cabinet while Hollie's son stood back, shook his head, and laughed at our foolishness. Apparently with his guy-genes he could see right away that it was not moving out of it's entrapped location, but Hollie and I thought our stubbornness might have been a good match for the law that two objects can't occupy the same place at the same time. You know, like maybe it would be okay if one is just passing through? Turns out that's not true, it's not allowed to just pass through. Yet. Maybe when we catch up to Star Trek technology. Apple's probably got something in the works.

But I digress. We couldn't move the cabinet elsewhere, so we figured we better secure it, having wrenched it free in order to move it. Turns out there was a reason it was screwed to the wall. The first toggle bolt went in through the cabinet, through the wall, and down into the hollow cinderblock. Oh, right, that's what washers prevent.

The second toggle bolt went in through the cabinet, through the wall, not through the hole because the washer stopped it. But I'd put the toggle-wing part on backwards and so it spun aimlessly in the block instead of tightening, and so in the end the toggle-wing fell into the wall, never to be seen again.

~~ We interrupt this rambling retelling of an old story for this public service announcement. The H button on the round timer is for HOURS. Yes, you already knew that. But do you remember when your mother told you that sometimes it's very important to pay attention? This is one of those times. Do not bake cookies for 16 hours. Thank you. We now return to your irregularly scheduled ramble. ~~

The third attempt (third time's a charm, right?) put the toggle-wing on correctly, and it went through the cabinet, through the wall ... at this moment we *thought* it worked, because the cabinet appeared to be secure. Foreshadowing! And we went to drill another hole with which to anchor it. The second hole turned out to be much closer to the edge of the block than we thought (due to the cabinet not being movable, we were left to try and measure and guess at the bricks behind it) and so we drilled a goodly long hole the length of the drill bit, and never burst through to the spooky dark innards.

Somewhere around that time we also discovered that the previous snug toggle-wing had actually gone through hole, but not quite far enough to expand on the far side, and had been working it's way through the hole, snugly against the sides (thus the perceived tightness - we did yank on the cupboard to test it's snug fit, really!) and eventually loosened and popped out and promptly expanded on the wrong side of the hole. Whoops.

The fourth attempt (fourth time's a charm, maybe?) - back at the original failed hole again - was with one of only two long machine screws we could find. As we started, Hollie's son mumbled something about "it's bent" but opted not to elaborate. Possibly due to that guy-gene, being a man of few words. Or possibly because watching me repeatedly attempt to bolt the cupboard to the wall amused him immensely. The toggle-wing successfully deployed on the inside of the cinderblock and tightened for a bit. until it hit a point where we could hear it grinding against the brick rather than tightening. Eventually we realized that, as he had predicted, the slight bend in the screw-thingie was too much, and the toggle-wing was stuck. So we went to take it out. But apparently had coaxed it far enough into the bend that it refused to come out, either.

So there we were, with a toggle-wing bolt expanded in the wall, and the screwy-thingie-part stuck sticking out of the hole, unable to go forward or backwards. Kind of like Pooh when he ate too much honey at Rabbits Howse. Right.

Wait, am I even getting to the point here? NO!

So (cutting out long parts of the story) we eventually DID secure the thing to the wall.

And then put stuff in it.

Then Hollie had to leave, but I vaguely promised to keep working.

Then I bought shelves. (can you tell I'm still cutting out long rambly parts of the story?)

Then I built them.

Then I went through and decluttered the bulk of my baby clothes, figuring someone else can be using them rather than me hoarding them, and that we can get more if needed, when that time might or might not come ...

I did save some stuff, don't worry.

Anyway, at the end of the day I had this:

**Eight** empty totes! WOOoooo!

A stack of boxes to give away, send to friends, and give away to a different place. (Two views, same stack)

One giant empty tote to also give away:

and the lovely shelves I built, more or less without catastrophe:

cool, eh?