Eternal sunshine of my spotless mind

Watched the movie Who killed the electric car? today as I try to get rid of this cold. It was very enlightening and further fuels my outrage at our government and its leaders.

When I was preggers and needed to buy a car before C-Man arrived, I looked into buying a Prius, but the wait list for the vehicle was 8-months and he was due in 3, so I ended up with my too-small-gas-guzzling-but-still-cute car. My co-worker's husband is going to buy an electric car kit on the internet so that he can convert his VW into an electric car. That will be cool.

Gas is now $4.03.

Watch the movie. It's very interesting. The next documentaries on my list are Why we fight and Sicko. I don't know why I watch these things, they just make me so mad. Also have the new National Treasure movie to watch, so that will counter the boiling blood.

Posted by Cora at 03:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Got this link from Aunty J.

Candy Bar Identification Quiz - AOL Food

She got 8 out of 20. I got 12 out of 20.

My favorite counter candies are dark chocolate Dove bars, Snickers and Peanut Butter Cups. During Halloween (or any other candy-giving holiday) I can't help but snitch those or the 100,000 bars (or any bar with caramel) and Mounds (or with nuts is better). Nowdays I only buy "fancy" chocolates and counter candy doesn't interest me anymore, however, C-Man is getting older and he's starting to ask for it as we wait in line at the checkout. I now know why they're strategically placed there. For little kids whose parents are tired of hearing them whine and give in just to keep them quiet (not me) and for those impulsive buyers (me, but not as far as candy is concerned). C-Man has higher standards for chocolate. When he's offered MnM's he asks for chocolate chips instead. So he prefers semi-sweet to milk.

My mood: strangely craving chocolate, hmmm...

Posted by Cora at 07:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Is it possible to have a bad day by 5:00 a.m.?

I woke up this morning at 4:00 with anxiety over which preschool my child will be going to. I know, I haven't enrolled him anywhere yet. I must have had a dream about him not getting into a school. I was also having anxiety about the semantics of "day care provider" and whether "preschool" is covered in my pre-tax plan.

Also, some phantom bug bit me in my sleep.

My mood: definitely sick, but still going to work (which further contributes to the bad day status). We'll see how long I last...

Posted by Cora at 05:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As the body ages, I notice things that creak and things that no longer work the way they used to. One of those things is my stomach. Its tolerance for food has grown picky and I am no longer able to enjoy some of the foods I once loved. I am grateful that my tolerance for milk products has remained intact after many years of spotty indecisiveness on my digestional behalf.

Today I was reminiscing with my co-workers about our love of onions-- RAW onions. We both gnoshed them regularly in our youth, the rawer and stinkier the better. My favorite dish was a tuna sandwich. Wheat bread; tuna with mayo, relish and tons of diced RAW onions; lots of black pepper; and alfalfa sprouts. Yum. Pair that with Fritos and you've got a winner. Unfortunately the days of raw onions are over. Bye-bye poke, bye-bye macaroni and potato salad a la Grandpa, bye-bye burgers, bye-bye to all other things I used to enjoy with raw onions. Now I can only eat well cooked onions, which is not as fun.

My mood: tired and certainly catching some sort of cold

Posted by Cora at 10:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If DUI means "DRIVING under the influence," how can you get a ticket if you're not DRIVING under the influence? What if you're SLEEPING in your car on the side of the road (although you are intoxicated)?

My mood: think I'm getting sick again!

Posted by Cora at 05:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Taken when they were pups, they're still puppies to me, but they are now 8 years old.

Posted by Cora at 11:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am sunburnt. I haven't been this sunburnt in ages. I put on sunscreen 3 times and it didn't work. Sucks. Of course, it was HOT on Sunday and we were at the water park and our spot had no shade.

When I get too much sun, I get itchy. Someone told me I have a skin fungus or something. Great, well my fungus doesn't like the sun because i'm ITCHY. I've been using this lotion which helps a little, but i'm still ITCHY.

Did I mention that I'm ITCHY?!!!!!

My mood: a little itchy and a little cranky

Posted by Cora at 11:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Even in art, he dreams of robotic adventures...

This is Optimus Prime (yellow) and some other red Transformer climbing up the hill. It's raining. Clouds provided by EMusson. Sun painted by me.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BILLY!

Posted by Cora at 10:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday I said goodbye to my lovely locks. I went to Fantastic Sam's (not Supercuts) to have my mane shaved and donated to Locks of love. She measured my hair and said it was long enough. Apparently if I just go in and they lop it off it's free, but if I want it styled *DUH* I have to pay for it. Why would someone go in and just have it lopped off without styling it afterwards? People must do it, because she did offer to just hack it off for free. Back to my same old hair.

Posted by Cora at 05:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Grandpa tells me that his bill for his gas card was almost $250 for one billing cycle. Yikes.

The other morning I was late for work because I went to buy gas at $3.89 a gallon. It cost me $55. When I passed by the station on the way home it had jumped to $3.95.

Sis is paying similar prices on the east coast.

Grandpa says that by the end of the week it will be $4.00. Looks like they were right on track.

My mood: robbed

Posted by Cora at 07:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well it's finally over. I must say I was surprised with the results. At first I was thinking that Cowell must have made people mad with his comments on Tuesday, so they overvoted for DC instead of DA, but DC won by a huge number of votes, so I guess that's not the case. Yeah, the show is over and I can get on with my usual life of no television. I do this every year. Get sucked into the Idol drama. Aah, well... must have some guilty pleasures in life. After all, there are worse shows I could be addicted to.

My mood: tingly (my foot's asleep)

Posted by Cora at 10:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hopefully sooner, than later...

I hate politics almost as much as I hate religion. I avoid both like the plague. Unfortunately, with my child's future at stake, I have no choice but to get caught up in the current political tide.

I have come to realize that it's a great thing that we have delegates that vote for us, because the general population is stupid anyway. Look at American Idol-- over 50 million votes. Now that shows you what the country is really interested in. Maybe we need Clinton, Obama and McCain to get on a stage and belt out a song detailing their stand on education, healthcare and the mess in Iraq. Then we can call or text in our vote.

Speaking of Clinton, isn’t she done yet? She’s starting to sound desperate. I’m beginning to have similar feelings about her that I have for Bush. Okay, not even close, but she’s starting to grate on my nerves.

I look at Bush and I just can’t believe that we (okay, NOT ME) chose to have him lead the country further down the path of dismalness for another four years. I wonder how he can sleep at night knowing that he single-handedly is responsible for more deaths than the 9/11 terrorist attacks (although I blame him for that too). I wonder if we can ever recover from all the environmental, social and political wrongs. I wonder if people are really so stupid and we’ll be stuck for another four years.

God I hope not.

My mood: cynical, depressed, disgusted, and tired

Posted by Cora at 11:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've been counting the days until my hair is long enough to donate. I need at least 8 to 10 inches minimum in order for one of the wiggies to take it. A bizarre memory comes to mind. It was a deep, dark secret, but it’s quite in the past and I feel the need to share…

I will never go to Supercuts. I went there once and tried to get a layered haircut. I left the store with a mullet. I was so horrified by it that I immediately went to Sears and had them chop my hair. I told them that I didn’t care what it looked like, but I wanted them to FIX it. There is no evidence or witness to this event. It lives in the area of my brain that includes stupid events in my life that I’d like to forget.

Can I laugh about it now? Maybe.

My mood: dry

Posted by Cora at 10:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

or Woohoos Aplenty or Weekend Update.

Saturday:
- No more regurgitation (for C-Man). Yeah!
- My bookstore buying is OVER! I completed my Barnes & Noble $2500 purchase order in 2 days baby!
- Got some great deals from the Scholastic warehouse sale. $39 for 39 items. Most were popular fic that will get trashed within a year anyway. What can I say? I love a great bargain.
- Of course, after spending all that money, I went to Costco and found myself browsing the books yet again... I was a good girl and only bought what I needed. Yeah.
- Watched Alvin & the chipmunks (not my choice). It was horrid, but C-Man enjoyed the singing.

Sunday:
- The beautiful skies are back again. I can see the Koolaus and it does not feel like L.A. I can breathe and I don't feel like I'm losing days off my life.
- Lunch at the Golden Arches. Felt like a dessert and I couldn't decide between the cookie and the hot fudge sundae. Musson says why decide, just have both. What a great idea, why didn't I think of that? We all had both and it was great.
- C-Man made it to the top of the play structure on his own and back down again--- on his own (no help from me, no whining about being stuck, no crying)!!! Woohoo. My baby's growing up.
- Spent a warm lazy afternoon watching kiddies slide into pool while listening to oldies music (1980's!) with my bestest buds (minus KK).
- Went on Amazon.com and bought a 20th anniversary Transformers -the movie DVD for C-Man. He's soooo into Transformers that when I took him to the bookstore with me (I know, I love books, what can I say?) he chose to buy Warman's Transformers field guide : values and identification. Too bad Bro never kept his old Transformer toys. They're worth a bunch now. For example a mint in sealed box Optimus Prime or Megatron 1984, series 1 toy is valued at $275 apiece. Who would have such a toy? Musson's brothers. You would think that my ex would have a similar toy collection, alas he was not into Transformers otherwise C-Man would be in heaven. Should get him interested in comic books, then he'd be a happy camper. Of course, now he's driving me batty asking me who each one is and whether they're an Autobot or Decepticon. Goofy kid.

My mood: happy and looking forward to next weekend

Posted by Cora at 11:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As you can guess from the title, it's not been a fun few days for me. C-Man has a fever and he's been coughing up a storm, refuses to blow his nose and his galas are plugging him up big time at night. And the vog is NOT helping. So for the last 2 days he's thrown up on a bunch of stuff and I'm tired of cleaning. I'm sure he's tired of barfing and coughing. It is now 11:30 p.m. and I just started a load of laundry. Unlike Sis, I am not usually a late, late night owl. Now I think I will watch Spiderman 3 (no, I haven't seen it yet) or something else, since I have to stay up to finish the laundry. More work tomorrow, more book buying. Am tired of shopping --what???

Rewatched Bulletproof Monk. I love that movie (am now wondering if I own it). Chow Yun Fat is such a hottie.

My mood: grossed out, tired and hot

Posted by Cora at 11:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I first got to my branch, I told them that there were 2 things that I would never do:
1. Storytime
2. Plastic clear (which I know I'm spellng wrong, I think it starts with a K)

About 2 weeks ago, I spent the morning putting those stupid plastic sleeves on the hardcover books with jackets. It was incredibly tedious and I am not good at it and hated every minute of it, but the books are starting to pile up in the back and they needed to get out.

Today, I did storytime. Now, let me tell you about storytime at my library. It is legendary. People come from my hometown and even as far as 2 towns away to have my children's librarian tell storytime. She is that good. Our storytime brings in about 40-50 people average every week. Which, for us is huge. So my children's librarian is on vacation and our tech is supposed to do it. Guess what? She called in sick today. So I hauled my feverished, but Tylenoled child to Auntie M's and dragged my ass to the library to do a fr*ckin' storytime. Because I can't say no to 40-50 people. So I get there and frantically try to throw something together. The theme was the letter "T" and here were my books:

Tacky the penguin / Helen Lester. (Tacky)

Scoot! / Cathryn Falwell. (Turtles)

The three little fish and the big bad shark / Ken Geist. (Three)

Smash! Mash! Crash! There goes the trash! / Barbara Odanaka. (Trash)

Goodnight train / June Sobel. (Train)

I SANG the opening song, I did the story about the rainbow boxes, I read some books, I SANG the turtle song, I read some more books, I SANG the closing song, and we did some train coloring pages. I SANG in public. That hasn't happened since elementary school. Must not have been too bad, no one left and I'm still alive. One grandma (a regular who hasn't been to storytime before) said she'll bring her grandson every week-- she came with his skills trainers. I told her I wasn't the regular storytime person and she said "Really? I couldn't tell." That was a nice.

My mood: hot, vog-filled and tired

Posted by Cora at 11:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Chickens: okay, not so strange in a small town, but there are many on the Pali (mountains).

Pigs: also on the Pali.

Peacock: strolling down Kalanianaole highway near the Bluffs and Olomana golf course.

A diaper box: was it full of diapers? who knows...

A moke walking to the bus stop carrying a PINK backpack. I only wish I had a camera. (Wikipedia has a good definition just in case you don't know what a moke is, oh, and in case you can't figure it out, I use the word endearingly)

My mood: amused

Posted by Cora at 06:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Marveous; multi-tasking; macaroni & cheese making; mediator;
Open-minded; oven master; overly patient;
Tears of all kinds; tough; tender; teacher;
Hopeful; hair-raising; headstrong; huggable; healer of boo-boo's big and small;
Entertaining; eyes in the back of your head; Energizer bunny;
Radiant; referee; role-model; ready to do whatever needs to be done to make sure your child grows up to be a wonderful person.

One day late, but Happy Mother's Day to all my mommy friends.

My mood: lethargic

Posted by Cora at 11:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So my homework is to do something spontaneous (small) every day. I apparently have no fun in my life. I've been feeling a bit down lately and working too much (I don't take lunch or browse the internet at work anymore -- not that I did that before -- ha, ha). I noticed that even my lunch has been boring. For the past week I've had yogurt for breakfast and peanut butter and honey on crackers for lunch. My snacks have been goldfish crackers and apples. I suppose healthy, but not really since I've also been gnoshing Oreo cookies like they're going to vanish if I don't shovel them in my face. Not the regular Oreo cookies, the golden ones. Yum-O. Anyway, I decided to pick up dinner from the Vietnamese place near Auntie M's house. I must go there too much, because when I walked in they asked me "chicken sandwich today?" Hmmm. Maybe I do need some spontaneity in my life. I don't think I've ever had any other kind of sandwich from them. Anyway, went for the pad Thai noodles which were not Thai, but Vietnamese so they were not what I was expecting, but was still good.

Grandpa thinks that instead of therapy I should go to AA meetings. Huh? He says I should quote the serenity prayer, so here it is:

God, grant me the Serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time,
enjoying one moment at a time,
accepting hardship as the
pathway to Peace.
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
As it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things
right if I surrender to His will;
That I may be reasonably happy
in this life, and supremely happy
with Him in the next.
Amen.
--Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971)

My mood: tired, bored, calm, cold, itchy, slouchy, in pain (I have some sort of paper cut that runs the length of my forearm and looks like I tried to kill myself), but sort of happy?

Posted by Cora at 11:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My child's new obsession: Transformers. Don't worry, he's still into trains and construction vehicles, but what a dream toy--- a vehicle that turns into a ROBOT. The trademarked Transformer toys are pricey, so we only have a few of them (okay, more than a few). We also have the cheapo Pricebuster kind (that are cheap for a reason-- you do get what you pay for). The thing I absolutely hate about Transformers is the transforming. Because I am the transformer. You would think they would make these things simple enough that a child could transform them, but NO. Sometimes I can't even figure it out. And they don't just change once, they change 3 to 12 times a day. Multiply that by the number of vehicles we have and that's a lot of transforming. For the price, you'd think there would be a button to push and have it change by itself.

The thing I am most impressed with is C-Man's ability to create a whole fantasy world with these things. Our Optimus Prime is electronic (complete with movie quotes and transforming sounds). He never turns it on and prefers to do the voices all by himself. One day, he was playing with them and one of them accidentally killed his friend and the other one says "God-damn it, what did you do?" (or something like that). I wanted to laugh and scold him at the same time, while I'm thinking to myself... do I say that? (which I must). I went with ignoring and it seemed to work, I haven't heard it since then.

I am excited at the possibility that he may be ready for the movies this summer. Woohoo. Am contemplating taking him to see Speed Racer. It's PG for stuff like intense action, smoking and possibly language. Apparently he's exposed to that stuff already, so I'm not concerned. I bought a Speed Racer video from the booksale and he loved it, so he might be ready? Not sure. He did sit through Transformers (the new movie) twice, the last Pirates of the Caribbean, and Underdog. Of course, he thought Enchanted was scary. So I have mixed feelings. Maybe I'll just have to wait for it to come out on DVD. I, on the other hand, am dying to see Iron Man.

My mood: frustrated (can't finish this stupid sudoku puzzle and it's driving me batty)

Posted by Cora at 11:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Watched 2 (sort of) movies this weekend:

Dan in real life was one of the worst movies ever. It's possible that it got better, but I couldn't get past the whole I'm-in-love-with-my-brother's-girlfriend-after-one-muffin-and-a-cup-of-coffee-so-I-think-I'll-be-an-asshole plotline. So I turned it off. It was not romantic, funny, charming, or feel-goody (as promised on the DVD box). I felt robbed of 30 minutes that could have been better spent washing my car.

Enchanted was enchanting. I loved the idea of fairy tale meets New York City. The parts were well cast. Amy Adams, James Marsden, and Patrick Dempsey were charming. Best scene: when she calls to her "animal friends" in NYC to help her clean. I loved the big musical number. The ending was very predictable as a fairy tale should be, and what else can one expect from the studio of Walt Disney? I thought Susan Sarandon would have a bigger role, but she was equally fabulous to Timothy Spall (Peter Pettigrew from HP movies). Okay, I even loved the chipmunk. The bus scene (from the previews) is just hilarious:
Prince Edward: [on top of the bus, stabs it thinking it's a dragon] The steel beast is dead peasants! I've set you all free!
Bus Driver: [gets off the bus and yells at Edward] Are you crazy? Nobody stabs my bus! I'll tear you apart! Do you hear me? You get down here right now!

********************************************************************************************
The rest of the weekend was spent shopping (back to Borders to buy more books for the library) and building bridges out of sticks and sand at the beach. Except for the work part, it was a great weekend.

Happy Boy's Day!

$3.75 Is how much I paid for gas today. $46.25 on about 3/4 tank. KK says she filled up her tank and it cost her $70.00. Yikers. If I didn't have a child, I'd buy a bus pass or an electric car (coincidentally the next movie I plan to see is Who killed the electric car?).

My mood: pillaged by an unnecessarily inflated economy and mad at Bush yet again (I blame him for everything, why the hell not?)

Posted by Cora at 11:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Rereading one of my favorite strips...

Posted by Cora at 10:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Today, my child tells me that his mouth is sleepy and he can't get it to work right. It's because I'm having difficulty trying to understand what he's asking me for. I keep hearing "Papa nickel bread" (which makes me think of the Beard Papa cream puffs),but finally the mystery is solved. He says it's from California and suddenly the light bulb goes on in my head... I ask him "Do you mean pumpernickel bread?" He smiles and says "Yes!" Don't ask me how pumpernickel and California are associated, cause I haven't got a clue and don't ask me where he's found out about pumpernickel. What can I say? My child is strange.

Sometimes when I really can't make out what he's talking about, I just fake it and say "Ohhhhh, I understand." And he seems happy with that. He can only tolerate me guessing 3-4 times before frustration sets in (for both of us). It's a learning process. I guess I'll understand him for a few years, then he'll start to speak teenager and I'll be clueless again...

My mood: tired of work, glad to have the weekend again (even though I still have to do a few things for work), and I'm really itchy (from stress).

Posted by Cora at 09:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)