Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Time, Not Talent

I'm pleased to say that I totally rocked "Old Swampy" last night. It took me awhile... a good number of hours when you add up all the portions of time I spent working on him throughout the day, but it was absolutely worth it. Especially since I realized right after I started decorating him that the book isn't lying--ANYONE could do this. Now, whoever came up with all these cupcake designs is a truly talented and creative person! But I have to admit that if you know how to read you could make these things. It's VERY EASY. And so much fun!


A few nights ago Anja really didn't sleep well, and in the morning I was awoken by Martin bearing breakfast gifts! He told me my fairy godmother had come to him with an Everything Bagel and cup of Holiday Spice coffee from Einstein Bagels for me. What a nice surprise! Good old fairy godmother! It was a great start to an otherwise rough day. My morning was awesome--since Anja had slept so poorly she ended up sleeping in until 9:00, allowing me to get SO MUCH WORK DONE around the house. It wasn't worth it though. Naptime was horrible and while the plan had been for Martin to put her to bed so I could decorate cupcakes in the shape of an alligator, she wasn't on board for that plan. And since her nap ended up being so late she woke up REALLY hungry, but wouldn't eat, so she was just a big crab all afternoon. I tried everything to get her to eat something for lunch, but she refused everything I offered. Then Martin came home and offered her all the same things, and she ate with great gusto. What is it with little girls and their daddies?


Oh, I guess the biggest news around here that probably few people will be interested in is that Martin bought a shotgun. It's something he's wanted to buy for many years, but never quite had the money or a good enough reason. The other day we were at Dick's and he was price-checking, and there was a mistake on the price of the gun he wanted--one of them had not been marked up when the others had, and the salesman offered it to him at the marked-down price. So he bought it. I don't have any problem with guns, Martin is very safe and knowledgeable about them, and he's right--it is kind of nice knowing that if anyone ever came into our house uninvited (not such an unlikely situation down here in the ghetto) we could scare them off by doing more than throwing a chair at them. Of course, I don't know how to shoot a gun, so if anyone ever came in while I was home along, I'd just have to hope that my beating him with the unloaded weapon while shouting snarly words at him would be enough to drive him off.


And speaking of the Ghetto! It is NOT an unusual thing to come home and have a string of firetrucks clustered in the road. It's not a big deal to see the policemen searching cars, arresting people, whatever they're doing. It IS unsual, however, to see any of the emergency personell responding with anything close to speed. This seems to be an area where the policeman are familiar faces, where a lot of the 911 calls are the kind of people who might have an "emergency" every day. I'd say the firemen around here usually "amble" as opposed to "hurry." Not the case yesterday! Yesterday I was driving down Main Street and pulled over for a fire truck. A few minutes later I saw another one and realized I was following them home! What excitement! I turned onto 6th street and was lucky enough to be the first person in line stopped at the light, so I had a great view of the action--a car was stopped at the South Street entrance of the library lot and it appeared to be ON FIRE!!! I have never seen firemen hurry so much. They were frantic! They were trying to get the trunk open from the inside and the outside of the car, and then it finally popped up and smoke came pouring out. VERY exciting! Then the light turned green, and the view from my porch wasn't as good. But still! How often do you see a car on fire!?


Pictures from top to bottom: Old Swampy; Anja in a very cute little knitted dress, with her daddy; Martin lint-rolling the cat (who loved it); Anja making a very important phone call in her bathrobe; Anja bringing the bathmat from the bathroom into the kitchen... I never figured out why she thought this was neccessary; Anja making a ridiculous face while rearranging my pantry. All those little rectangles are lasagna that she evidently didn't feel should be confined to its box.

We're clearly still having some issues with the whole "smile" thing. She understands what "smile for the camera" means, she just doesn't seem to know what a smile is supposed to look like. And so, my collection of demon-face pictures grows.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I LOVE your Old Swampy! That rocks!

Anonymous said...

I didn't know what old swampy was when you said it but I've seen/had it before!! Yours looks awesome!

Anonymous said...

Anja is so cute, I can't believe it. Good thing, too, since she does not sleep....ever. I remember those days.....not fondly.
Mama

Anonymous said...

PS Old Swampy is AWESOME!!
Mama

Jill said...

Ditto about Old Swampy. He is the bomb.
I need that 'Hello Cupcake' book in the worst way now!

P.S. I love Anja's demon face!

Joannie said...

Her bathrobe is hilarious.

It was fun to read the blog and get updates on lots of things that we talked about before-- in a real, live conversation.

(I love Old Swampy!!!)

Joannie said...

Ooh, ooh, I forgot to say-- Lizzie and I saw a car on fire in Rome once, and it was engulfed in flames-- and everyone was just driving around it! It was hilarious!! I wish I could post my picture of it right here in the comments.

Anonymous said...

I work with a guy who is genuinely a fire/explosion expert. He gets all excited talking about how different things burn. I saw a car totally engulfed in flames once, burning almost white hot. When I told him about it, he said it wasn't the fuel but all the plastics that make it do that.

I also saw a schoolbus pretty much engulfed in flames once on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. There didn't appear to be anyone in it.

Daddy

Elisabeth said...

True true about living in the ghetto. I've had lots of interesting experiences living here... getting hit on by bums after being asked for a dollar, hearing random fights outside my window at all hours of the day/night, always seeing "cherries and berries" around my block, having a local shop owner offer his protection to me because he's always carrying his gun... gotta love it! That's so fun that your home will be on the tour though... when is it? I think it would be fun to go on the tour and see all the cute houses downtown.
PS... love the picture of Martin lint rolling the cat!!!!