Weekend update

Yes, I still have Tatu in my playlist. I was tempted to post it, but it's 97K in length, showing some 2720 song. And, y'know, even if the act is old, the first two albums were pretty good.

Oy, what a weekend. Friday, after picking Yamaarashi-chan up from her mother's house, I got home only to somehow tear something horrible in my back across my shoulderblades. For most of the evening, I was having trouble getting up, and couldn't move my head very far. An old cartilage injury in my right shoulder acted up in response, making using my right arm for any heavy lifting difficult. It's cleared up somewhat, but I'm still wondering what I did to it.

Saturday, when I arose Omaha was already out the door, heading north to do some kind of demo at a Triskeli Guild event. I had the kids all to myself, and that wasn't too bad. Despite the arm and the back, I still had the energy to make a batch of waffles, and this time I seem to have gotten it exactly right-- they were wonderful. I kicked the kids out of the house and into the back yard while I cleaned house a little, then traded places, sending them inside to get their bathing suits while I weeded and mowed the lawn, watered the garden, and then set up a sprinkler for them to run through. They had a blast with that.

I made (or rather, tried to make) bread. It was a standard French bread recipe, but I got the shaping of the boule a little off. It's very yummy, but instead of a loaf I got... a sphere. It's actually a very nice sphere of very delicious bread, but it's still a sphere of bread.

And I've learned how to burn VCD's. A VCD is a CD that will play in your DVD player; they can contain about 45 minutes of video with decent compression rates. I burned a couple of music videos and some vacation pics and other things to see what it took. The Quicktime didn't burn right at all, which means I haven't been able to make CDs of Troops (the Star Wars/Cops parody) or The Spirit of XMas, the original South Park short.

Sunday, I took the kids to a birthday party for one of Yamaarashi-chan's friends. It went okay; the kids were kept appropriately stunned on cake and stuff. I mostly spend my time making sure they kept their faces cleaned and orchestrated bathroom breaks and tried to stay out of the way. They had a lot of fun.

When we drove back, they both fell asleep. I dropped Kouryou-chan off and headed back into town with a snoozy Yamaarashi-chan to go pick up her sisters. Her mother needed to be somewhere at six and Yamaarashi-chan needed someone to watch over her at home, so somehow the task fell to me to pick up Aurora and Lily and drive them from the ferry dock to their house. Odd, isn't it, how "stay away from my kids" becomes "I want you to pick up my kids" when living up to one's principles becomes inconvient.

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A reminder to George W. Bush:

United States Code, Title 4, Chapter 1, Section 8 (g):

"The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature."

Why George needs to be reminded.

Ah, Mondays...

Ah, Mondays in summer. I get to spend the evening alone with Kouryou-chan. She wants me to read her Beatrix Potter; I want to read Milne, Lobel, and other things, so we compromise and I'll read her everything. Not that I mind Beatrix Potter. Especially not the original. I recently picked up a "Wind in the Willows" that turned out to be a serious bowdlerization of the original. I can only hope that I can soon acquire better stuff.

She helped me water my (dying) garden. I'm afraid that this year I just didn't put the effort into keeping it alive the way I should have. Part of that is because the retaining wall is about to collapse and it's just not worth the effort. We're going to have to dig out a small hill and replace this ridiculous near-to-meter high retaining wall (it edges down a slight slope over about a ten-meter length) made of 15-year-old sub-railroad ties with proper stone and drainage fill.

We had dinner, mostly leftovers, for her it was vegetarian lentil stew (absolutely her favorite dish, I kid you not) and for me homemade lasagne. It takes 16 minutes to reheat in my microwave at 30% power, and that cooks it through completely from a frozen state.

And, of course, she makes a mess. ( Photo of messy Kouryou-chan. )

That thing she's holding, by the way, is one of my most sinful secrets. It's an ice-cream sandwich but instead of using cookies, I used the leftover waffles I made Saturday. Microwave to defrost and soften them up, and then a minute or two in the toaster to crisp the outside. Spread two tablespoons of vanilla or sweet cream in the middle while still hot so it melts into the waffle holes, and serve immediately. Amazingly good.