Thanksgiving was relatively easy here, once we got out of the house. Steve fried turkeys with friends and neighbors, Jake helped me make two cherry pies (which unfortunately didn't set up -- they were obviously juicier than the cookbook folks planned on). The kids looked cute when we went to Uncle Mike and Aunt Deb's house. They loved playing in Debbie and Mike's basement, whcih was toy heaven when they arrived and toy hell when they left. They had help -- Mike and Debs' two grandkids, Hunter and Meadow, were both there, so the four of them teamed up for destruction patrol. Other than a few howls of "Mine! Mine!" from Sadie and Meadow, things went very well and they had a good time. Amazingly, they ate dinner too!
I took a few pictures before the batteries died in my camera, and I didn't get around to replacing them while we were there. The pics are definitely not up to snuff, but at least you can see the kids. Pics are on the website
Finished the new Jonathan Stroud book Ptolemy's Gate, which is 3rd in the Bartimaeus trilogy and not yet out here in the states. Freya's friends and family across the pond are sending books our way, and boy is it fun to read them before anyone else can get them here! Ptolemy's Gate is excellent: well plotted, with dashes of Bartimaeus' trademark sarcasm and wit, especially in the footnotes. The book wraps up some of the other books' loose ends and answers questions I hadn't even considered (like why Bartimaeus keeps showing up in the form of an Egyptian boy). Great action, fantastic scenes with battles for London. Kitty Jones is backagain too, so this book is the most gender neutral out of the three as she plays an important role in the events and cataclysmic ending. Nice to have a leading lady who's intelligent on multiple levels, daring, and also a wiseass! Doormats need not apply for this one.
New reads coming up -- Michael Morpugo's collection of war short stories, Crank, and I have to finish Frankenstein this weekend so Dylan can stop bugging me about what I think!!
Took Jake to see Chicken Little this afternoon (too cold and windy to go do anything else) and he liked it a lot.
Friday, November 25, 2005
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Mama Ball Says
November 20
Where has this fall gone? I can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving. On a good note, cooking Thursday will be minimal as we are headed to Stamford to the Lombardo house. We've donated through CMS and CDS to the local food bank, the kids have been coming home with mutant construction paper turkeys, and it FINALLY got cold here. The cats are eating like we never feed them and they are getting ahem...fluffier. Daisy's going to have to watch it or we're going to tattoo "WIDE LOAD" on her ass. The last time she got really fat, she couldn't get through the cat door to the basement, which is kind of a necessity as the litterbox is down there.
Jake and I just finished building a monster Thomas track all over the toy room floor: one giant hill, four bridges, two waterfalls and about eight intersecting loops. This will last until Godzilla gets up from her nap and goes on a rampage.
Saw the new Harry Potter flick on Friday, and LOVED it! There were things I wish they had included from the book, but if they had added everything I wanted to see, the movie would have been longer than "Gone With the Wind". The Media/CMS girls all went together to the theater in Greenwich. I have decided that I'm going to stick to the theater in Port Chester -- it is soooooo much nicer. They have stadium seating, better movie munchies, more parking that's free, and a cleaner place in general. Steve doesn't know it yet but I'm going to make him go see "Walk the Line" with me (revenge for "Jarhead").
Good reads lately: am in the middle of Dean Koontz's Frankenstein, recommended by one of my 8th grade boys. Good stuff -- what a twist on the original tale! Very creepy.
Am almost ready to unveil the project I've been working on with Justine Domuracki's 8th graders: a website of their book reviews. So far, most of them are pretty good -- a couple outstanding, and the garbage ones didn't make it to the posting. I did get some of those kids back in to work with me on them, and most of those made the cut once they figured out what was wrong with what they had originally.
Have to get Isabel's 7th graders to come put their genetics projects in the media center display cases. Izzy had them take dominant and submissive genetic traits and create stuffed animal "children" from different stuffed animal "parents". Great idea, and they were very creative about it!
Tellebration went well, and the entire 6th grade took the day to tell their tales in small groups, in front of parents and staff. I think this is still officially the largest tellebration event for this age group, even though EMS is doing it with 7th grade. I don't know if they actually schedule it for the official Tellebration Day.
Where has this fall gone? I can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving. On a good note, cooking Thursday will be minimal as we are headed to Stamford to the Lombardo house. We've donated through CMS and CDS to the local food bank, the kids have been coming home with mutant construction paper turkeys, and it FINALLY got cold here. The cats are eating like we never feed them and they are getting ahem...fluffier. Daisy's going to have to watch it or we're going to tattoo "WIDE LOAD" on her ass. The last time she got really fat, she couldn't get through the cat door to the basement, which is kind of a necessity as the litterbox is down there.
Jake and I just finished building a monster Thomas track all over the toy room floor: one giant hill, four bridges, two waterfalls and about eight intersecting loops. This will last until Godzilla gets up from her nap and goes on a rampage.
Saw the new Harry Potter flick on Friday, and LOVED it! There were things I wish they had included from the book, but if they had added everything I wanted to see, the movie would have been longer than "Gone With the Wind". The Media/CMS girls all went together to the theater in Greenwich. I have decided that I'm going to stick to the theater in Port Chester -- it is soooooo much nicer. They have stadium seating, better movie munchies, more parking that's free, and a cleaner place in general. Steve doesn't know it yet but I'm going to make him go see "Walk the Line" with me (revenge for "Jarhead").
Good reads lately: am in the middle of Dean Koontz's Frankenstein, recommended by one of my 8th grade boys. Good stuff -- what a twist on the original tale! Very creepy.
Am almost ready to unveil the project I've been working on with Justine Domuracki's 8th graders: a website of their book reviews. So far, most of them are pretty good -- a couple outstanding, and the garbage ones didn't make it to the posting. I did get some of those kids back in to work with me on them, and most of those made the cut once they figured out what was wrong with what they had originally.
Have to get Isabel's 7th graders to come put their genetics projects in the media center display cases. Izzy had them take dominant and submissive genetic traits and create stuffed animal "children" from different stuffed animal "parents". Great idea, and they were very creative about it!
Tellebration went well, and the entire 6th grade took the day to tell their tales in small groups, in front of parents and staff. I think this is still officially the largest tellebration event for this age group, even though EMS is doing it with 7th grade. I don't know if they actually schedule it for the official Tellebration Day.
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