Maggie: I can make my mind completely blank.

Me: [Dubious look]

Maggie: Really, I can. Nobody ever believes me when I tell them that!

Me: That's because there are zen masters sitting on top of mountains all over Tibet, who have been trying for years to accomplish that.

Maggie: [Smugly] Well they are obviously not trying hard enough!

Gwen: How long have you lived?

Me: For twenty-nine years.

Gwen: TWENTY-NINE YEARS!!! You CAN'T have lived for twenty-nine years! You'd be DEAD by now!

I was not previously aware that when drones mate with the queen bees, the drones'...um...man parts, break off inside of her, preventing her from breeding with any others. After which, the drones fly off to die.

It had not occurred to me before that the "birds and the bees talk" could be used as a way to terrify young men into good behavior.

The house is dark and cozy right now.

I just finished reading Charlotte's Web to the children. Poor Guinevere, curled up on my lap. The tears were running down her cheeks as Charlotte died. And when the little baby spiders spun their balloons and floated away, leaving Wilbur behind frantic and miserable, Gwen let out a little choked sob.

Afterwards, ( Read more... )

Facebook just sent me an email from the We're Related app, trying to convince me that I am the fourth cousin once removed from Barak Obama! They'd mocked up a family tree and everything.

1st reaction: What the bleep? (Incredulty)
2nd reaction: I wonder how many hundreds of thousands of people they are annoying with this little prank? (Irritation)
3rd ( Read more... )

[Crying is heard from the other room]

[Presently, three year old Darius walks into the kitchen, with tears in his eyes]

"Mamaaaaaaaa! I'm being attacked by a mittennnnnnnnnnn!"

O_o

I have a very acute sense of smell. I also have very poor eyesight. As a result I tend to rely more heavily on my olfactory sense than most people do ( Read more... )

Colin and Gwen are spontaneously reenacting the scene of Tinkerbell' s resurrection, marching around the living room chanting "I do believe in fairies, I do! I do!"
Darius apparently misunderstood, because he's marching around chanting "I do believe I'm married, I do! I do!"

Darius is so Irish.
He also needs some work on personal pronouns.
He just came to me for a medicinal Mama kiss after falling down and bonking his nose. Through the tears he attempted to communicate that the wound was self-inflicted.
"Mama, I hurt meself."

I just read a fascinating guest post by JA Konrath, discussing the topic of ebooks and what the future of the publishing industry will look like.

I have not felt any temptation towards a Kindle, for a number of reasons. I love the feel of a book. Also I'm a control freak and I like having something that can't be ruined by some mysterious electronic ( Read more... )