Today’s Monday morning scramble has nothing to do with the regular work week, thankfully, and everything to do with being ill-prepared for our impending mini-holiday. A preferable problem, I might add. The weekend was too full with other activities (a brunch, the Wallace & Gromit movie, Cirque du Soleil) to get around to something as mundane as packing. This morning we’ll have to act quickly, so we can set out to explore Minnesota shortly. A good first step would be locating my damned eyeglasses…
Bonus: I adore Kim’s Sock Monkeys in general (each creation has such character), but her Spooky Sock Monkeys, made specifically for Halloween, are amazingly creative. Too bad they’re all sold out already. Also a little spooky, but not quite so cute, are these anticon hoodies.
Plus: Good luck on the new gig Spacewaitress, I mean Kylark!
And: In absolutely dreadful news, over the weekend a fierce fire destroyed “the entire history” (props and sets and such) at Aardman Animations, the company behind the Wallace and Gromit films. A very sad day for claymation, indeed.

Yesterday there was an article about mock meats, in general, in the Minneapolis Star Tribune…with a photo of fake shrimp at Evergreen Taiwanese Restaurant, one of our favorite veg-friendly spots about town. We’re happy any time they get press, even if it means they’re busier the next time we stop by for a meal, because we hope it helps to ensure their longer-term survival. The restaurant business is such a tricky one. Long live Evergreen!

I am a sucker for both Cameron Crowe movies and Orlando Bloom, in general, so there is no way I am not going to see Elizabethtown. But The Squid and the Whale looks interesting too. And the Sound Unseen Film Festival opens this weekend. And I still have to get round to seeing Corpse Bride and Thumbsucker. And then there’s A History of Violence. But this weekend, of course, is all about the long-awaited Wallace and Gromit full length feature film. Fun for the whole family. Yay!

Now, with the weather turning bitterly cold and properly Fall-like, I’ll somehow feel less guilty about curling up with a good book. Just finished Neil Gaiman’s latest the other night. It was a good read and very, very…Neil. But now I need something else. Suggestions?

Bonus: Lala went to Chicago and took some fabulous photos and then took polaroids of them. That only makes me love her more.
Plus: The little man was a little under the weather yesterday, so we had a stay home day. By afternoon he was feeling better, and had switched gears from his Candyland obsession. Instead it was all Tic Tac Toe Three-in-a-Row all the time. He must have gone through a ream of paper. Color construction paper. Sigh.
And: The husband is soooo bleeding edge. I saw this image on one of his monitors long before boing boing posted about it. Gawd, we’re such geeks. Good thing we’re going on vacation next week, to get away from it all. But how many laptops are we taking?

Oh, my sweet boy. Around 5:52am this morning the little man stumbled into my bedroom. He crawled into my bed, and, as soon as he got his yawning out of the way, he groggily inquired “you wanna play Candyland?” It’s his latest obsession, as they’ve been playing it at school recently. Just last schoolyear I would have thought it impossible, that my child would have acquired the skills and self-control to play a board game, with parents or peers. Last schoolyear he seemed so out of control. At times the idea of medicating him would come up even (I am relieved we didn’t go that route). And while his behavior was never as severe as this poor child’s we have still experienced the occasional shunning by strangers, neighborhood kids, and their crappy parents. Bitter much? Anyhow, this is so HUGE! The little man is getting his impulsivity under control. He understands the rules of gameplay. He’s watching what other players do and waiting for his turn. He doesn’t care who wins or loses. It’s fantastic (and I think we owe much of it to his very small and very fine kindergarten program). This is progress. Leaps and bounds. So after work last night, while I stayed behind to make dinner, the guys ran up to the store to pick up a brand new game for home use. The only thing is…I prefer the artwork from the vintage game. The new one is kinda on the creepy side.

On the drive in to work yesterday I was half-listening to MPR’s Future Tense, while going over a To Do list in my head. John Gordon was talking to Carl Honore, author of In Praise of Slowness: How A Worldwide Movement Is Challenging the Cult of Speed. As I listened to him I wondered what he would think of the insanity my life has devolved into. Nearly every weekend until December is already overbooked with activities. And in November I’ll really have done it. I’m going to attempt to write another novel, and continue my Arabic lessons, and keep on working full-time, and be something more than a half-assed mother to the little man, and a wife to the husband, and a human being. Umm, something’s got to give.

Last Friday didn’t start off very well. My sinuses were driving me up the wall all morning, my right eye wouldn’t stop twitching, and I inadvertently dressed my kid like Freddy Krueger (when I handed him his new shirt that morning he even said “mom, this shirt is scary” and he has no context), but at least it was Friday. And the day improved. That afternoon I was ordered to stop working early for a work-sanctioned kegger, and I was even allowed to bring the little man. Umm, yeah, so I took the little man to his first kegger. But I brought along root beer. And that night Zophia and went to see Serenity (joined by These Old Boots and Cleopatra’s Kitten). I am so glad I steered clear of the fan sites and the reviews and remained completely unspoiled. It made what Joss had to do hurt sooooooo good.

Then Saturday was bright and sunny and all smiles. I felt good and whole and productive for the first time in ages. I took the little man out to run errands. To the bank, and to take the car in for a very overdue oil change. The husband had a contractor stop by to look at the roof while we were out. And the man delivered some unexpected good news. The roof doesn’t need to be replaced. Not for a few years anyhow. Just needs to be repaired in one spot. We celebrated by taking the little man to play at a favorite playground, in the unseasonably warm weather, and afterwards in to have his hairs cut. And after that we swung by the co-op for a few things and back at home the husband baked a couple of loaves of zucchini bread. Later on it was his turn to go out, for some guy time, and he picked up the new Neil Gaiman book for me while he was out, thus topping off what was already an all-around very fine sort of day.

But Sunday. Sunday wasn’t quite so fine, though I’d so hoped it would be. I had trouble getting out of bed. The migraine started messing with my head again, as soon as I’d woken up. At one point I said to myself, “self, screw this. Get up.” So I got up. And stumbled a few paces. And lurched into the bathroom. And started throwing up before I could even shut the door (I think the husband hates the sound of me puking even more than the sound of the cats puking). And that’s how much of the day went. With me too weak and ill to do much of anything. But the husband saved the day, sort of, with an idea that came out of left field. With the money we’re not spending on a new roof, he suggested buying a new dining room set. This was a little too Twilight Zone, coming from the man who wears his clothing until it disintegrates, and eats nearly every meal at his computer desk. But he was buying (yes, we’re married, but no, we don’t have joint bank accounts). So I managed to get myself cleaned up and into the car for a little journey to Design Within Reach. And sometime within the next two weeks we will be able to dispose of our rickety-ass dining room set, the one that came with the house, the one with the chairs with the filthy, grimy upholstery. And we’ll be able to have a dinner party while eating on furniture we’re not embarrassed of. Now what to do about the rest of the furniture in the house…