Missing In Action

I love the amount of drama two little girls can create in one household on an otherwise peaceful Saturday morning. This morning I was quietly working on the computer and Tim was outside cleaning out the car. The girls, both being the daddy's girls that they are, were outside as well. It wasn't long before a teary-eyed Maia flew through the door to announce that Mr. Pennypacker, the guinea pig, was under the deck with a cat. I'm still a little fuzzy on the details, but apparently Ainsley took Mr. Pennypacker outside with her and set him down while she went on to do other things. She soon realized that Mr. P. did not stay in the place where she set him (surprise!), and he had ventured into the dark space beneath the deck.
The trauma, however, began when the girls realized that there is a cat who also likes to hang out under there. Now, I don't know what a cat would do with a guinea pig, but the girls did not want to find out. They quickly recruited Tim to help in the recovery. When preliminary efforts did not produce results, Tim resorted to using the hose to "flush" him out. When I went outside, Tim was lying on his stomach half-way under the deck, spraying the hose to the far corners of the space beneath the deck. He was getting frustrated because the water was not much of a deterent at first, and Mr. Pennypacker ran through the stream of water several times. He stayed at the back of the crawlspace, a space too small for Tim to crawl back into but too dark for either of the girls to volunteer their support.

Eventually, a very wet, bedragled looking Mr. Pennypacker emerged at the edge of the deck and Maia scooped him up. He was shivering and filthy, but Maia and Ainsley both breathed a sigh of relief now that they had him in their little arms.
We took poor Mr. P. inside for a bath and some TLC. He usually doesn't care for a bath in the sink, but this time he didn't seem to mind much.

After his bath, Ainsley gently wrapped a still-shivering Mr. Pennypacker in a towel and took him to the couch. Together, they watched Monster House, and Maia brought him pieces of green pepper, celery, and carrot to munch on.

In a couple of hours he was as good as new. Both girls have agreed that Mr. Pennypacker will not be making any unsupervised trips outside anytime soon!

Miss Scarlet is on the Case

I always loved the game of Clue. My mom and I used to play when I was young. Of course you need three players to play the game, so we could only play when we were able to talk my younger brother into playing with us, which was really not that often. I loved being Miss Scarlet. She was so glamorous and beautiful. Sometimes I'd go with Miss White, the maid, for a change of pace. Mom was usually Professor Plum, but sometimes Colonel Mustard. We would search the rooms of Mr. Boddy's mansion to find out WHO committed the crime, WHERE the crime was committed, and WHAT they used as a weapon. Oh, I loved a good mystery.

Well, I haven't played Clue for quite awhile, but every once in awhile I get to play detective in real life. Today was one such day. I entered the kitchen and immediately spotted the first piece of evidence that a crime had been committed.



Hmmmm.....suspicious, but not that unusual to find a pair of scissors left out on the counter. Any one of my housemates could be the culprit. I must look for further clues. My second piece of evidence was located not far away.



Again, it's not that unusual to find empty wrappers lying around the house, but Tim is pretty good about throwing away garbage, so I was pretty confident in being able to rule him out. I had it narrowed down to the younger inhabitants of the house. I continued on to find more clues. The third piece of evidence...



A-ha! I was getting closer. I had a pretty good idea who had used the scissors to open a bag of nuts and dried cranberries before retrieving a tupperware container from the cupboard to pour the contents of the package into (you couldn't just eat them right of the package now could you?) and then proceeding to flee the scene, leaving behind a trail of evidence. It wasn't until I found the final clue, however, that I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt I had caught my culprit. One one person in our house would do all this and leave behind...



a square of American cheese. Only one person in our house eats these squares of cheese by the stack (if she is not caught before sneaking them behind the couch or into her room). Only one person would be so brazen as to swipe a slice of this cheese in broad daylight, only to forget all about it and leave it on the end of the counter along with all of the rest of the evidence. You guessed it....



Miss Ainsley did it. In the kitchen. With the scissors, and the cupboard door, and the cheese slice as the final deal breaking clue. Ahhhhh...I always loved playing Clue.

Random Sunday

At our house Sundays are anything but a "day of rest." They're a day for finishing up everything that didn't get done on Saturday, preparing for the week ahead, and driving Maia to Portland for Junior Blazer Dancer practice. While in Portland I usually take care of random chores and the grocery shopping. In keeeping with the theme of "randomness," here are some things I found while searching the internet this week.

Check out this guy seen dancing at a Boston Celtics game. The quality is not that good, but it is good enough to appreciate his awesomeness.



Here is another clip I found on one of my favorite blogs by Mr. Diggles. What this guy has to say is so true. We get so wrapped up in the latest technology, we forget that we used to be able to get by just fine without any of it.




And finally, I'll leave you with this dog video found on Funny Junk. Maia and Ainsley found this one particularly funny. We watched it several times together. I especially love the way his tongue is not able to stay in his mouth due to the lack of teeth in his head.

What's in a Name?

Anyone who knows me at all will not be surprised to learn that my blog is named for a Seinfeld episode, not some new age relaxation technique I'm trying. I've watched Seinfeld since it was in its 3rd or 4th season, and I now own all nine seasons on DVD. I find it hard to make it through a day without thinking (or saying out loud), "That's like that Seinfeld episode..." Maia and Ainsley even quote lines from their favorite episodes and insert them effectively into daily conversation.

So, when I sat down to decide on a title for my blog I knew that I would get the inspiration I needed from my most beloved DVDs. I started with the following list of ideas:

Yada, Yada, Bloga
Jimmy Legs
Not That There's Anything Wrong With That
Serenity Now
No Soup For You

I narrowed it down to Jimmy Legs and Serenity Now before asking for a second opinion. Jimmy Legs comes from the episode "The Money." In this episode, Kramer is bothered by his girlfriend's jimmy legs (spasms of the legs during the night), and is unable to sleep. Serenity Now comes from the episode with the same title in which George's dad is encouraged to say, "Serenity now" aloud every time his blood pressure is in danger of rising. Rather than saying the phrase, Frank yells it, all the while bottling up his anger for a big blow-up at the end.

I decided to go with Serenity Now in hopes that this will be an outlet for me, unlike the useless utterances attempted by Frank. I hope to share my true thoughts and feelings, and become a better person because of it. I also plan to include random things that I find on the web or our in the world that deserve being shared with others. I hope you enjoy reading, and please comment when you are moved to do so!

I will leave you with a montage of clips from the "Serenity Now" episode. Enjoy!

A Day of Blogging and Ballet

Okay, so I just spent about five hours working on my template, my banner, my background, and all of the color settings. I'm not completely convinced it's right yet, but I'm happier than I was five hours ago.

At one point in during those five hours I snapped this great photo of my youngest.

She'll kill me someday for posting this photo, but what she doesn't know now won't hurt her.

Does anyone feel a draft?

I did it. It's done.

Here it is...my blog. I don't know why I need one. I don't know why I started one. I don't even know what I'll write here, who will read it, or IF anyone will read it. I guess I was feeling left out. It seems everyone has something to say these days, and I wanted to get my thoughts out there too. So here it is. I'll try to keep it fun. I'll try to keep it interesting. And for those of you who know me best, you know this is truly the blog about nothing.