« Friday Five | Main | whine mope groan complain »

Friday, September 05, 2003

miscellaneous rambly thoughts

This is weird, I have just sat here literally with my fingers sitting on the keys, unable to think what to type. This is the equivalent of me not knowing what to say, which, let's face it, never happens. If I'm quiet (which I have to be from time to time) I'm either asleep, or it's the result of a serious effort of discipline. And the "diarrhea of the mouth" (what a repulsive phrase, really! ugh!) runs to email and chatting also. Fortunately, it's easier to control myself in typed electronic communication because I generally have the opportunity to think things over and delete before I send (though this certainly does not mean that I never stick my foot in it). If anyone figures out how to do that with speaking, please do let me know, I'll pay anything. :)


OK, I just had my best laugh of the day at something totally inane. My kids have this goofy video about construction equipment, and they're watching it backward, and the dirt is just magically going back up into loaders and spreading itself out before retreating bulldozers and the like. LT said it was like they were "using the force" to pick the dirt up. I am easily amused. My kids got this from me. Say what you will, it's a very handy character trait. :)


Tonight T is leading a group of local boy scouts toward their astronomy merit badges, via a three-hour observation session. It's a good time for it -- the moon is waxing gibbous, which means it will interfere just a little bit with the best seeing, but that is the best time to look at the moon itself because the "terminator" (line where it goes from light to dark) is in clear relief, which is very interesting to look at. And Mars is still putting on a good show. Astronomy is a lot like classical music, now that I think of it. To the non-fanatic, much of it seems really boring, but there are some aspects which are interesting even to people who will never in a million years get into it deeply. Not everyone would enjoy a Messier-object-finding-party that lasts all night, just as most people don't cry when they really listen hard to CPE Bach or Vivaldi or Schubert or even Gershwin (me? what?). But everyone likes to take a good close-up (relatively speaking) look at the moon, or Mars, or, say, the Ring Nebula (picture), just like everyone recognizes and probably likes, say, "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik", or "Fur Elise" (which my classmates used to ask me to play on the piano thus: "Do you know that song from the McDonald's commercial?" grr), or (of course) Pachelbel's "Canon in D" (I once saw an album for sale called "Pachelbel's Greatest Hit", consisting of a dozen or so different renditions of that one song.). I don't know exactly where I was going with this concept, other than trying to use as many parentheses as humanly possible, except to say that I am in the "when you get something interesting in there, hon, call me and I'll go look at it" camp as regards my husband's astronomy fixation. I really think it's neat to look at recognizable or very-different-looking stuff. And I'm really glad that he is able to enjoy something that he's so interested in. But I am certainly not as into it as he is.


We are having a mini-party tonight. Sometimes when T is gone overnight, the kids and I will stay up late, eat junk food, bring all our pillows out in the front room and crash on the floor watching movies, build ornate castles with blocks, dance to the Cranberries, that sort of thing. That's not happening tonight but I did get us some junk food, and they are vegging out watching a video. I even ate 400 calories' worth of junk myself. (a portion of Pringles and an ice-cream sandwich). I have been doing pretty well; I am now at -15. I'm not losing as fast as I did at the beginning but realistically it's probably better for me this way. That doesn't mean I like it better. grr. It was so satisfying when it was just falling off early on. I can tell a difference, though, looking at video of myself. We were watching my son's birthday party, from April, and WOW, I was fatter. The jeans I was wearing were quite snug and now I can do that holding-them-out-in-front-of-me bit. I am still not getting out my slenderer clothes until I hit -20 or so. My memory must be a little tweaked, because other of my clothes don't seem any looser than they were. Which makes no logical sense, so I must be mis-remembering how tight they were before. Thinking positively never hurt anyone, right? :)

--------