This evening I present to you an argument of sorts against the piracy of films. Not on the basis of economics or intellectual property rights, but more from a quality standpoint. Now this scenario is entirely hypothetical, right? Just imagine, theoretically, that one’s husband had downloaded a movie that one had wanted very much to see. And that one happily watched a fairly high quality copy of this film, say about 75% through…only to have this hypothetical copy crash. In the midst of a pivotal scene towards the end of the film…when one was, hypothetically, very much emotionally invested in said film. And even though one had, theoretically, read the book beforehand, thus knowing the story’s ending, one really would have liked to see how the filmmakers handled said ending. So this could, theoretically, make for a highly frustrating Saturday night, no? Sigh.

The little man is an eating machine. At dinner last night he hoovered an entire Batura before anyone else’d had time to properly tuck into their meals. I did find another entree for him, a lovely Vegetable Biryani, that he seemed to enjoy…but he didn’t have much room for it after the bread began expanding in his little belly. Though he somehow managed to make room for birthday cake later on. Speaking of which, last night’s birthday boy is notoriously camera shy. Or more accurately camera averse, if such a device happens to be pointed in his direction. I don’t much care for photos of myself either, but the husband is far more photogenic than I am. Still, in lieu of photographing him on his special day I made due with taking even more photos of the little man. I especially liked his Ralph Macchio/Karate Kid look. He looks so happy in that picture. Unfortunately we’re both a bit on the cranky side today. He stayed up over three hours past his usual bedtime, yet still woke up around six today. We didn’t get anywhere near enough sleep, so we’re not our usual bright-eyed and bushy-tailed selves today. Instead of cleaning the house, as per my original plan, we hightailed it to the Riverview Theater (on the nicest day of the year) to nap through their child-friendly offering. Like mother, like son apparently. Though when I regularly fell asleep at the Riverview it was during their midnight movies…not the mid-afternoon movies. Today’s film wasn’t worth staying awake for anyhow.

Today is the husband’s birthday, the little punk. Happy Birthday, my dulcet darling. So it’s nearly the weekend, and we’ve got an especially busy one ahead of us. Much celebrating will be done tonight, of course. Then there’s Leap Day. I’ll be participating in another Shift photography project…A Day in the Life, the Leap Day. I’ll snap off one photo every hour that I’m awake on this extra day. Will also be taking the little man to see “Beyond Boreas! A Puppet Show of Frozen Follies and Mythical Meltdowns” at the Minnesota History Center. And lastly, ugh, cleaning. Much cleaning needs to be done, just because. The chaos has gotten even more out of control with the new schedule. And the new schedule is going to get even more out of control come Monday, when the husband starts working a second job (between our three part-time jobs we may just scrape by). But I have to stop neglecting this old house. An added incentive to get cracking is a proposed home visit from the little man’s new teacher next week. There’s much on our plates but hopefully not more than we can handle.

You are very very cute but head-butting mommy at six in the morning is not. Gentle hugging is preferred, at least until the coffee has kicked in. Please wait until that time to commence with the roughhousing.
If I happen to doze off on the couch or in the comfy chair, please refrain from waking me up by placing pieces of your toys in my nose and/or ear canals.
Gromit is the dog and Wallace is the guy, not the other way around…no matter how many times you shout otherwise. So there.
Though our cats seem quite large you are MUCH MUCH bigger. Please do not sit on them.
Thank you for your time, my darling boy.

I’m not worthy…but Leslie Hall, the luminary behind Gem Sweaters Be Thy Name and mistress of disguise, has deigned to become my friend. Well, friendster friend, at least. I don’t remember how I first found her, but after my initial “what the huh?” reaction I dug deeper, and was well rewarded. In her Hefty Hideaway project a self-portrait of the artist, portraying a fictional character called June Huxley, struck me as being very Joan Cusack-like, circa Sixteen Candles. And the portraits of Boone and June (all taken at Wal-Mart) are brilliant. I’m sure Leslie is quite a kick in the head in person, but I may never know. Speaking of online VIPs, SXSW is coming up. Once again I will be unable to attend. But Chuck and Lori are stoked to go, especially after having learned the ropes last year. I’ll have to live vicariously through their reports, and rest assured that they will represent the Upper Midwest Blog Managers Association to the best of their abilities.

While commuting home this evening I was thinking about the youth of today, as a few junior high kids had joined our ranks on the bus, and how different things are now from when I was their age. I could argue in favor of certain items for nostalgia’s sake, but there have been definite improvements. For instance, the lo-fi mix tapes of my distant youth have been replaced with CD burning, filesharing and ipods. It’s also encouraging to think that the ambivalance and/or outright discrimation I was raised with have been outmoded…that these kids have been brought up in a manner that fosters greater tolerance, and a disdain for discrimination in any form. The snippet of conversation I overheard was enlightening, to say the least.
teen girl: Where you going?
teen boy: Over to Fat Jordan’s house.
teen girl: Who?
teen boy: You know, Fat Jordan. He’s fat.
teen girl: I don’t talk to fat people.
I suppose the cruelty of children is a timeless thing.

Sorry for the silence. Getting acclimated to the new schedule, and it’s still kicking our collective asses. I do seem to be getting more accomplished now, though, than I did when I had the entire day at my leisure. The time restraints are spurring me into action, as I’ve always been more productive under a deadline. This week I’ve been spending the mornings preparing for the husband’s birthday on Friday (honey, just never you mind…you’ll see soon enough…and sooner still, if the little man persists in trying to open your presents). The weather has been wonderful, but with the melting has come a certain amount of unpleasantness. Like newly formed lakes and thawed out trash on my route to the bus stop, and a new leak in the bedroom ceiling. We so can’t afford a new roof right now. Trying not to stress about it…and take it one day (and disaster) at a time. Today I’m just looking forward to this evening, when I’ll have a freshly made batch of BBQ tofu waiting for me upon my return home.

The weather was so mild last night that I busted out a light coat, one I’d picked up last fall at a neighborhood thrift store and not had much opportunity to wear. It came as a pleasant surprise to read an inner tag for the first time, instructing me to “wear in good health”. After I put it on the husband informed me I looked like Madeline, though my coat is a much paler shade of blue. Sadly I was unable to say goodbye to the little man before leaving. I’d anticipated a major guy night going on after my departure, replete with PS2 playing and junk food eating, but the poor boy fell asleep before I’d even gotten dressed to go out. This was at 6pm. I worried that he’d wake up in the middle of the night, or early early morning, but he slept straight through to his usual…6:30am. Guess he had a serious sleep debt to pay off…the past week being so intense and all. I headed out thinking that it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to curl up and turn in early as well, but I wanted to see the ladies (and the one token boy). The birthday girl had chosen a suburban eatery, in a ‘burb I’m not terribly familiar with, so I carpooled with Zophia (thanks for driving, lady). I’d had my doubts about the restaurant but was pleasantly surprised…and amused that five folks, in our group of nine, ordered the coconut curry vegetables with fried tofu (myself included). Between the appetizers and entrees the birthday girl tore into her gifts. She was glowing, and not just because of my camera’s obnoxious flash. She scored some serious swag, and it was fun to photograph her in the process as she’s so animated and photogenic. Some of the photos didn’t turn out too well, though, as she had me laughing too much while attempting to hold the camera steady. Afterwards the kidless were going on to knock back a few at Nye’s Polonaise. It was a tempting thought, to indulge in some fancy umbrella-laden virgin drink, but it was past my bedtime. So me and the other two moms headed back to our respective homes. When I got to mine the husband was inexplicably watching Pumping Iron, which he compared to a train wreck. A strange ending to a rather strange, but enjoyable day.

It’s been a day of creation, and a certain amount of destruction, around these parts. The boys built miniature snowmen on the front steps. I enjoyed the extra fine weather for a while, but spent most of my time indoors…getting high off glue fumes. Unintentionally, of course. I’d gotten my friend a couple smallish presents for her birthday (celebration to occur later this evening), but wanted to create an additional one for her. Inspiration struck this morning, leading me to Michael’s (the arts and crafts store) early in the day. That is one dangerous store. I found myself picking up a number of items that caught my fancy. But then had to force myself to return them to their shelves, thus leaving with just the items on my list…more or less, I couldn’t pass up the fancy little tin box with individual compartments, perfect for the finished magnets. Back at the ranch I dug out way old issues of Giant Robot, Bust, Wired and Paper magazines (the Adrien Brody edition, *swoon*) and set about cutting little bits out of them. First to create the birthday card, then for the magnet making. It was my first go at this, so I hope she won’t be terribly disappointed. The marble pieces weren’t quite as round as they should be, and the artwork I picked out might be a little on the goofy side. But that’s to be expected, coming from me, after all.

Well, we went for it. But not via any bus. I drove us to the Minnesota State Capitol and hoped for the best. We managed to find a meter that wasn’t too far away, and thankfully it’s quite mild out. But once we got to the rally we were enveloped by utter chaos. There were people crammed into every nook and cranny, with small children popping up and out of the strangest places. Though I couldn’t spot our classmates anywhere. Naturally the little man didn’t want to sit still, but preferred to go exploring. Who can blame him…it’s an interesting old building. And I couldn’t hear a thing anyway. Whatever came out of the loudspeakers was all muddled sounding, like when the grownups speak in the Peanuts cartoons. We headed for home after a few rounds of going up and up and up the stairs then down and down and down again. Sadly we didn’t make it on to the news this time…though I’m told we aired on Channel 11 last night, and were rebroadcast early this morning.
update: Three more folks have weighed in, stating they saw us on the Fox 9 news, rather than Kare 11. Either way, I’m not shelling out $30 or so for a copy of it.