jellyfish

Tomorrow I am going to celebrate the jewish holiday, being that I'm not a jew, by going to the national aquarium. They've got a new exhibit and my guy and I make it a point to go 3-4 times a year. We've arranged someone to watch the baby, bought our tickets online (worh the $3 fee to avoid standing in line!), and will set out at 9:30ish for our 10am entry. It'll only take us about 15 minutes to get there, but we've to park the car. My guy wants to go to ESPN zone when we're done at the aquarium, and i've agreed to spend ONE HOUR in my own personal hell just for him. Who knows? maybe i can go to barnes and nobel while he's at espn?

Here's a picture from the aquarium's website about the new jellyfish exhibit.

grape ape

the chimp is considered as a "great ape." i remember learning this many year ago, but re-learned it tonight. i was having problems sleeping tonight, so i watched a national geographic special on captive chimps and increasing violence. Half into the show, one woman worried about why male chimps in captivity have heart failure more than ones in the wild and speculated that it was the stress of living in captivity. Good theory. However, my counter theory is that it's the fact that they were feeding the chimps mcdonal's and pizza hut not to mention fried eggs and bacon on a regular basis. Having that as a steady diet causes heart problems in people, so why wouldn't it do the same for chimps, who are practically identical internally to people? Chimps don't eat cooked food in the wild and they really don't eat deep-fat fried foods either.

personally, i don't think people should be allowed to have chimps as pets, as they're dangerous after 10 or so years of age and most of them end up becoming test animals after a few years anyway. According to the special, there are two "western" countries that allow chimps as test animals, the US and Gabon. Although, without chimp testing, we wouldn't have many of our vaccines and woudn't be able to have new vaccines. Have to fight over the "rights" of chimps and the needs of people there, so people get ugly at this argument. It was an interesting part of the show. apparently, in spain, great apes are given rights as animals akin to "human rights." huh. The idea is that chimps have the abilities of a 2 year old human, so experimenting on them is the same as experimenting on humans with the abilities of a 2 year old, which is illegal based on ethical standards and thus should be illgal to experiment on apes.

i'm not sure where i stand on that point. i feel bad for the apes, but i like having vaccines and hope we get more of them in the future. but anyway, if you feed a chimp crap, don't be shocked when he's got a heart problem.

Huge Bear of Kindness

A few weeks back we took my sister's kids to the state fair. My friend gets free enterance tickets because she's a state grunt. We went last year too but with more people. Our party consisted of me, Mandolin, my friend, my nephew, my niece and my brother-in-law. Last year we spent a small fortune on food, drinks, and rides. This year I was set against that. I told the kids that I'd buy one snack, three rides apiece and took in water to drink. I've been on a mission to "become healthy" since my hand gimpy issue, so Bert wouldn't recognize me if he saw me today. I'm smaller, with different hair and I smile a lot. Apparently, it's working because people who know me don't recognize me. Because of this, I refused to spend money on pure crap while at the fair. I didn't eat anything deep fried etc. This was a struggle because my sister's kids have been raised to only eat toxic waste. My nephew actually looked at me and said "I can't drink that, that's water!" He drank it after he was thirsty enough though. Jilly was a bitch and didn't give in.

Anyway, The day we went to the fair was free day for people with significant physical and mental disabilities, so every "differently abeled" person in the state was there. I'm open to differences so I wasn't bothered. As we went into the gate, a man stopped us and gave us his "ride all day" pass, which was very expensive. It was a nice gesture ruined by my brother-in-law being scared by the man because he was severly disabeled. I felt like super momma having "the talk" after thanking the man. You parents know the talk, the one you have with your kids about not pointing at people who look/act different. I never thought I'd have to have it with a 23 year old man and not the kids. Anyway, we bought a second all day ride pass because it was actually cheaper and the tickets for three rides. 2 minutes into our trip and I'd already covered half my promise.

We went off to see the animals, petting zoo and all sorts of other baby safe but free stuff. I love Mandolin, but she's a baby, you don't need to spend money to make them happy. A man in the cow barn loved her, so she got to pet a pretty calf until she was satisfied. I got the kids lunch and had the soda fight. I brought in a BIGASS bottle of water with cups (never drink after young children) and refilled the bottle at water fountains throughout the day. The kids rode many rides and we got to people watch. I love to people watch. Something about the fair allows people to wear things no one should wear out in public and behave in odd ways. I had the time of my life playing "fat or pregnant." Although we can't be sure, I won the game but my friend came in a close second.

At one point, a man waled by with a teddy bear the size of my car. Mandolin was so enthralled that her uncle took her to talk to the man. My kid has no issues talking to strangers if they're holding toys. The man explained that he won it playing a pool game and the carnie running the game sid he was the only winner that day. They talked for about 20 minutes while my friend and I watched the older kids. I mostly stood outside a ride with one kid and she stood waiting for the other. Three adults and three kids is a good balance. This was at 4pm or so because we adults hadn't eaten yet. Later we adults ate and took a tour of 4H etc. then let the kids ride rides until 9:30 pm. Just as we were getting rady to go, someone started yelling "MANDOLIN" throughout the crowd. We were confused because it's not a common name and we didn't recognize the voice. the man from before went back to the pool game and won a second teddybear the size of my car to give to Mandolin because he thought she deserved it. I was so shocked. We didn't know this man from pete. He won the bear and then walked around the fair for 2 hours looking for us hoping we hadn't left. It was so sweet. The man explained that he won the first bear for his great-grand daughter and he figured that Mandolin was someones granddaughter and so she needed a bear too. The bear took up the entire back seat of my car and weighs a ton. I'll have to take a picture of it and show you as soon as I get a new camera battery. It currently lives on top of Mandolin's playhouse. So Mr teddy guy, if you're out there, thanks for the bear, Mandolin loves it and it was one of the nicest things a stranger has ever done for me/my family.

Answering Bert

"Bert said... Where are your sister's kids now? Were you ratting her out, or the crack whore cousin? Does the crack whore cousin have kids? When did you sister lose all sense of proportion when it came to her offspring?"

To fill in some of the gaps:

I called CPS on CW, not my sister, but I'm sure once CPS gets to investigating CW, they'll stop in at my sister's place. CW in fact has a few kids. She had several abortions in one year, then had a baby that same year and a little more than a month after that baby was born was knocked up again and gave that baby away. I'm not sure why she kept the one she kept. I really think she gave the one kid up because in our state, more kids = less money. Besides being a CW, she has an illegal/unlicensed tattooing gig on the side for under-the-table money. So besides welfare, she's got a few under-the-table gigs to rack in some money. I have a friend who works for the state tax department who wanted to report the fraud, but on top of the CPS thing, that would just be petty, right?

My sister refuses to send her kids to school and states that "CW is her only child care option, since she can't afford private school." School just started, so she could send them there FOR FREE, or I would take them, and offered to do it. I have the added bonus of being allowed to educate kids and would actually educate them and there'd be no worry of drug deals etc. I'm most angry at my sister because I told her about the conversation, and she didn't seem to care, in fact, she knew it was going on and keeps sending the kids there. If i found out that Mandolin's daycare had anything shady going on, I'd find a new daycare AFTER calling the cops. I think my sister has had what I'd consider skewed parenting values for awhile now, but in my family, there's a "hands off" policy when it comes to other people's kids. This is why I'll probably be disowned across the table. It doesn't matter if the kids are beig harmed, we're supposed to butt out. Obviously, I didnt follow that rule.

This rule is in fact hypociritcal because one of the many reasons I haven't spoken to my mother since Feb. is because she wouldn't utt-out of my life and made me choose between my child's health and her. I picked my kid and that's the end of it. I've seen my mother since Feb, but we haven't said more than "hello" or other very small talk. The other day she called me and started in on it again, but I got off the phone quickly and have decided not to talk to her again. Who would have thought that my guy's parents would be the sane ones?

Raggedy Ann

This is the costume I got Mandolin for Halloween. Several of the reviews stated that the costume was so loved the girls wearing it refused to take it off. I thought that this was overblown, but after I put it on Manolind, she refused to take it off. She loves the whole outfit. A lot of kids hate hats, but mine loves them. She also likes socks, which this costume has. It's sized 2t-4t, so she's swallowed up a bit in it, but that's okay. When it came time to put the costume away, WW3 took place, but a quick trip to the consequence chair knocked that out. For now, it's up high in a safe place. I can't wait to take her out in it. Last year she couldn't walk yet, so this year is the real deal for trick-or-treating.

misty

i loved the misty books when i was little. we went to chincoteague for a few days on vacation this past weekend. it was a nice trip. the only down side was the baby lost her $50 shoes so i had to go get new ones today. i have camping and pony pics to share, so look out.

busy fingers

I've been scarf making up a storm. I love making scarves, it brings me some peace when I can't do other things.

Bert, I made something for your lovely wife, so can you e-mail me an address to send it to?

Emma, I made you a scarf, so let me know where to mail it.

Mel, I promised you a black scarf some years back, and I have had it ready for a few years, I just need to know where to mail it to.

All of my relations got scarves for last christmas and they've asked to be spared scarves this year (ingrates), so the rest of you broards should expect a scarf at some point. I'm almost out of storage room as it is from ym current stock. I'm going to donate the pink ones to a local BC charity.