How I spent my Sunday afternoon

It was a rainy chilly day today. Not even a brief pause in the rain to go outside resulted in quite a rammy child. She had been getting into things all day, partly because she's two, mostly because she was bored of being pent up in the house.

So this is what happened. I was making the bed, Evan was in the other room, and Cecilia was in her room playing doll house. I saw her go down the hall towards where Evan was, and figured she was going to see him, when I heard a door close and the click of the lock. She was locked into the bathroom.

It's a pushbutton lock, where if you turn the handle from the inside, it will pop open. Or you can put something slender into the hole on the outside and that will also pop it open. But it's an old house, and an equally old knob, and it just wasn't giving it up.

We pulled the face plate off, but couldn't to the guts of the knob because it didn't come out far enough, we tried sticking a skinny chisel into the hole and hitting it with a hammer, but no dice there, either.

We tried coaxing her into turning the knob herself, Evan had her convinced he'd give her chocolate if she opened the door. We spent a good 25 minutes trying to stick things into the handle, or get her to open it from her side, but we weren't getting anywhere.





Eventually, we hit the door and the knob with a hammer until the handle broke and slid out far enough for us to do something with it.


And this is what we found on the other side:


Cecilia, as The Crow:

Six

"For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these: It might have been."

That'll teach ya

Jemma: Ew. The house smells like up dog.
Saki: What?
Jemma: The house smells like up dog.
Saki: Updog?
Jemma: Yes
Saki: WTF is up dog?
Jemma: Not much homie, with you?

Where, oh where...

..Has my Lauren gone? Where, oh where can she be?


Did my giant aloe plant head eat her?


The world may never know.

The beginning of the end

Since it's getting to be fairly warm on a regular basis here in the swamp, I decided that it's about time to take Cecilia shopping for some summer sandals. Okay, okay, the buy one, get one half off coupon for stride rite had something to do with it, but i digress. I approached Cecilia on the matter this morning, as she was licking the remnants of her cinnamon bun off her fingers and watching Sesame Street.

Saki: Cecilia, how about we get cleaned up and dressed and we'll go shopping?

Cecilia, plucking a frosting coated finger from her mouth with an audible pop: Shoppin'?

Saki: Ya, we'll drive up to the mall with the merry-go-round inside, and we'll buy you some new shoes

Cecilia: Shoe SHOPPIN'?!?!

*she hops off the couch and dances in circles while making up the following song*


Shoppin' shoppin' shoppin'
shoooooooooooes
shoppin' YEAH!


Man, my husband and his wallet are in SO much trouble. Let's get some shoes.

Going Green!

Feeling a little grey in the midst of urban life? Get an EcoWall!!!


Not only are they beautiful, but they purify the air, and add a touch of life to a dull space. And the architects behind it are really, really awesome

I think I might have a situation...

..Or something.

I have this aloe plant, it's HUGE. We call it KingKong Aloe:



Ignore the mess.

Anyway, so KingKong Aloe grows at an alarming rate. To give you an idea, it's in a 16" pot, and the window behind it is a little over 5' It's a big frickin' plant. It has baby aloes all the time, they start to grow out of the roots in the pot, and look just like the big one, but smaller. I take them out and give them to neighbors, and everyone on the block has an aloe now.

So when I was watering it on Saturday, I noticed it was growing...something. Right from the middle of the stalk, it looks like...I don't know. A plant head. There, I said it, it looks like a plant head.



All i can think of is this:


Like I'm going to wake up one morning and the dog will be missing, and KingKong Aloe will have fur around the pot, and will be all like FEED ME, SAKI!

Help.