365 Photos Day 97

97/365

Sometimes the best things don't come in Tiffany blue boxes.

Sometimes they come in white boxes from Cupcake.

Yum.

What's inside? (the pink frosted one & the white frosted chocolate one are mine. But I'm sharing giving the chocolate one to the Kid.)

365 Photos Day 96

96/365

This week's Storytime letter was Pp. Of course I read 'The Princess and the Pea'...but I picked a book that was a little more multicultural than perhaps the kids were ready for. Which is good, I think.

Some of the younger kids were confused because the princesses didn't look like they normally do, which is blonde, blue-eyed, and white. One of the little guys kept asking, "Lisa, who's that?" when we'd see a picture of a princess. He wasn't buying that princesses looked like that.

The population out thisaway is rather, well, white (mostly German in heritage). I still remember back when my Kid was playing t-ball (so she'dve been about 5ish), and one of the moms (actually out-loud) said, "Well, I just take my kids to the Mall of America so they can see what black people look like." I remember thinking, "Whaaaaaa?"

When I was in library school, I took a couple of children's multi-cultural literature classes. One of the things that stuck with me was when one of my classmates posted something on the class forums along the lines of "well, my patrons probably want books they can relate to (about white people), so that's what I'll give them." Our professor went off the deep end and came back with, "THOSE ARE THE PEOPLE WHO NEED THE MULTICULTURAL LITERATURE THE MOST."

Maybe, maybe not.

As for me, though, I try and mix it up for the Storytime kids. Maybe it'll stick in their heads that not all princesses are blonde & blue-eyed, but that it's OK, because they're still princesses. Maybe I'm helping these kids look at life through a wider lens, and helping them realize that there's more out there than this small town.

Or maybe I'm just confusing them even more.

Whatever. I still liked the book.

Here's pictures of the princesses:

365 Photos Day 95

95/365

Show of hands...who all had a phone like this? I know we had 2, maybe 3. One line was the house line, and the other was my Dad's Batphone (his work phone).

Today, while we were in an antiques store, the Kid saw this and said, "I've always wondered how these work."

Uh. Yeah. I'm feeling REALLY REALLY OLD NOW.

So I showed her how to dial a rotary phone.

She had her "WTF" look while she gave it a whirl (ahahaha...see what I did there? Gave it a WHIRL? Because she was DIALING it? No? Sigh.).

I told her that when I was a kid, our town was so small we didn't have to dial the prefix, just the number. "The prefix? Like the area code?" "No, like the 3-digit number that comes before the four-digit number at the end." "Oh."

Yep. Nothing like going into a store and seeing things that I REMEMBER USING marked as "antique" or "vintage". Nosir, I don't feel like technology has passed me by. AT ALL.

Now if you all will excuse me, I'm going to go yell at passing kids to GET OFF MY LAWN.

365 Photos Day 94

94/365

This is the solar-powered "car" that the Kid built a couple of weeks ago. FOR FUN. She wants to go into Engineering (mechanical, I think) because she wants to build things that run on renewable resources (such as solar or wind power) instead of oil.

We just figured out her school schedule for next fall. She's very excited to be taking Calculus, Physics, and Chemistry. I'm pretty sure I'd cry if I had to take all three of those together in a given term--for that matter, I'd probably cry if I had to take any TWO of those together. Ever.

Her math skillz come in handy when I'm trying to sketch out a project. All I have to do is show her what I'm thinking, and she can tell me the dimensions. Of course, sometimes I start drilling or nailing only to have her say, "WAIT! I was half an inch off!" (Like I care. It's closer than I would've gotten by my own self.)

Her father & I aren't sure where her intelligence comes from some days--don't get me wrong, we're plenty smart. But she's smarter. It's amazing to see how she figures things out.

365 Photos Day 93

93/365

This was the responsorial Psalm at Mass this weekend. Well, the OTHER (Catholic*) version was, anyway. I like this version better. The phrasing is more, I don't know...more majestic somehow. More elegant. More something.

In any case, it's my favorite Psalm (this version, that is). Also probably the only one I can recognize right off.

*NAB version

365 Photos Day 92

92/365

Twins Season Opener...Day 2.

Friday was the Twins Season Opener. However, they lost (13-3) to the Blue Jays. I said it was because neither Steve nor Amanda had worn their Twins shirts.

So, today they did. Amanda wore 2 to be safe.

Well, the Twins still lost, but not by as much.

The blame was shifted to me (who couldn't care less about the Twins, but who does love these two) because I hadn't bought them NEW shirts for a NEW season.

Uhhhhhh, yeah.

I bought them their shirts tonight. Hopefully it'll help. Otherwise it's gonna be a looooooooooooooong season this year.

365 Photos Day 91

91/365

This is remarkable for 2 reasons. 1, I took this at about 6:40pm this evening on my way home from work (it was still light out!!!!). 2, this is the first day we've been able to see our entire front lawn sans snow since early November.

The birds were singing, the snow was melting, and the lake looks like it's thinking about opening up soon-ish.

Which of course means Spring will be delayed for awhile because it'll probably snow again next week.