I Dream of the A-Team

Not to scare any of you (well, some of you have known me long enough to know this already), but when I was a kid I loved, loved, loved Dirk Benedict.

I completely and totally fell for his blond good looks, his charm, and of course, his 'Vette. Even on old school Battlestar Galactica, I dreamt of being the Cassiopeia to his Starbuck. Oh, how I loved that little gold-braided caped uniform.

And don't get me started on the A-Team. I wanted to be on the A-Team (hey, I was only 12, don't judge).

To this day I've kept the assorted Dirk Benedick memorabilia - old magazines, comics, and trading cards. Even though I don't feel the same way about him anymore, a girl never forgets her first love.

It's funny, but now when I watch the A-Team today (yes, I own the DVDs), I think that if I were going to date one of the team, it wouldn't be Face. Let's face it, Face was a womanizer, and he would never be in a committed relationship. He'd lie to me about his identity - probably to get me to sign off on some papers that allowed Murdoch to fly one of my company's planes - wine and dine me for one evening, and then I'd never see him again.

The girl in me loved the Faceman, but the woman in me would definitely rather date Hannibal. Now he was a real man. The leader, the general, the confident brains behind the operation. And Hannibal would probably be really fun on a date. Good conversation, romance, but with feeling, not the autopilot that Face would be on.

I'm sure Murdoch would be fun to date, but really for a relationship, he's too out there. He'd be way too high-maintenance. Is he crazy? Is he faking to retain his benefits, and to keep himself the non-fugitive member of the Team? I don't know, but it'd be exhausting to try and figure out ways to break him out of the V.A. Hospital all the time. I'll pass.

And B.A.? I'd just never date anyone that wore all that jewelry.

So Hannibal is defiantly my main man now. George Peppard was a good looking man, and he rocked the role of Hannibal. The new movie stars Liam Neeson as Hannibal, which is also a good choice. But can Liam Neeson really hold a candle to George Peppard's smart, mental, and sexy Hannibal? I'll have to find on June 11, when the movie opens.

But one thing I'm sure of - I'll never regret buying this Dirk Benedict jigsaw puzzle.

QUARANTINE!

Some kids go on vacation for Spring Break. Some attend sports camps, or do other fun activities with friends.

My son got scarlet fever for Spring Break. Colin was so gross looking, the doctor's office wouldn't even allow us to come in the clinic at first, we had to have a nurse come out to the car and assess him. They don't let really contagious people be around pregnant women and kids. We felt like lepers.

We were finally let in an exam room, and the doctor did a throat culture. I thought it was chicken pox, but I was wrong (this is why you should always take your kids to the doctor). Scarlet fever is a form of strep throat, so taking a positive strep culture is how it's diagnosed.

Scarlet fever is treatable with antibiotics, so it doesn't cause the epidemics it did back in the 1800's. But how weird is it to get now, right? It's like getting small pox, or tuberculosis.

Poor Colin is covered head to toe in a yucky rash. I'll spare you a photo. And he's as sick as can be with sore throat and fever.

He's on antibiotics now so he'll probably be better in a few days, but our whole family is exposed to this very contagious disease. I guess only kids really get the scarlet fever, adults would normally just get the strep throat. Lucy seems OK for now, but we'll know in a day or two if she's got it, too.

We are all under quarantine today. I stopped at the store and got all the best sick foods; noodle soup, crackers and popsicles. Colin picked out a bunch a movies from the red box machine, so we're all set for the day.

Worst Spring Break Ever!

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Yesterday Lucy and I went to an art show at Magnuson Park. I wanted to go there specifically to see an artist named Tim Wistrom.

When I was a kid, Tim Wistrom would sometimes display his work at the Columbia Center Mall in the Tri-Cities. If you ever saw his work there, you'd remember it; scenes of future Seattle - the broken Space Needle underwater with orca whales swimming by, or underwater Kingdome with dolphins. I used to love those paintings.

Tim Wistrom is still painting future Seattle scenes, so I had to go and take a look at his work. I ended up meeting him, having a brief chat, and I purchased a signed print of one of his newer paintings featuring a ruined underwater Starbucks. I love it!

And in other recent art purchases, last week when Colin and I were at ComicCon, I told him he could pick out a souvenir. I thought he'd want a toy or figurine, but he picked out a print from an artists booth. This artist, Jason Palmer, does a lot of licensed movie and tv art for movie studio marketing. He is an incredibly talented illustrator.

Colin really wanted an Indiana Jones print, and I was so impressed that he picked out art, I bought it for him, plus an awesome Battlestar Galactica print for me. Yes, I know it's nerdy to hang BSG art in your home, but I don't care.

Fire!

If your house were burning down, and you only had time to rescue one thing, what would it be? Let's assume that any family members or pets are already safe.

Quick, quick, the flames are getting higher!! Time is running out!! What would I grab?

Jewelry box? Maybe...items in here are both sentimental and of slight monetary value....


Star Trek Pez set?... Well, I may panic and grab this first.....


Geisha cross stitch? ....I can never replace all the hours i put into this sucker...


wedding album?... nah.


Chartreuse Fiestaware vase?...Maybe..It is retired and rare...

Vintage Lucite purse collection?...Yes, this is what I'd pick...these are valuable and mostly irreplaceable.

I'm so glad I made that decision. You just never know...

What will you rescue? Hurry!! Hurry!! Decide now! The fire is spreading! AHHHH!

She's Crafty

My brother's birthday is coming up, and for a gift he requested that I make him some soap. I was only too happy to oblige. And since I know he doesn't read my blog, I can safely spoil the surprise by posting photos here.

I wanted to stick with food scented soaps, and some of the new fragrances I ordered really gave me great ideas.

I know I'm a pretty creative gal, but sometimes I impress myself with how well projects turn out.

Mini Coffee Cake Loaf Soap

Angel Food Cake Soap

Black Licorice Scottie Dog Soap

Butterscotch Candy Soap

One of these days, I'm going to make some soap for myself.

Every Breath You Take

Today, while out running errands, we stopped and had lunch at a sandwich shop. Someone had left their newspaper behind, and I browsed it while eating.

One of my favorite sections of the newspaper to read are the obituaries. I know it's kind of morbid, but I think it's really interesting to see that snapshot of people that all died around the same time. Some are young, some are really young, but most are fairly old.

Some people have really short, simple obituaries with only the basic info of who, what and where. And some people have column-length bios of their whole lives. Those are the best ones. Some people travel the world, fight in wars, and have long, distinguished careers. Some people mention family members, some mention friends, and some talk about pets. Each one tells a mini-story of a person that just recently was walking, talking, breathing and sharing this planet with me. I feel humbled by this idea every time I read them.

It also makes me think about my own obituary, and what I'd want it to say. I guess something good, like "She was loved and admired by everyone that knew her", or "She died on her 100th birthday while saving a baby from a bank robber", or "After winning her third Oscar, she moved to her private island".

I guess I need to get to work on earning a really awesome obituary.

Why Don't We Do It in the Road

Indulge me, Dear Readers, while I give you this mini-expose on City of Lynnwood politics:

About two blocks from my house, (a house in a normal, average residential neighborhood) there used to be a four-way stop. For reasons I cannot fathom, the city of Lynnwood decided to eliminate the four-way stop and installed a roundabout instead.

The city was very pleased with themselves about this new traffic circle, and sent out a flyer to all the residents with this photo:

According to the city of Lynnwood, this was part of a city-wide project of installing "Experimental Traffic Devices". The city spent $100,000 for six projects around Lynnwood. This means my traffic circle cost about $16,000.

Do you know what happens at a four-way stop? Cars stop, look around, and continue. Do you know what happens at a roundabout on a quiet, low traffic, street? Cars speed up to zoom around the circle as fast as they can, without looking or stopping

To me, this concept is a no-brainer. But obviously, the city of Lynnwood thought we should spend over $16,000 of tax dollars, plus all the costs associated with multiple mailings, administrative operations, and that little ribbon cutting party to see which method was more "safe".

And you know what happens a few months later? They put the four-way stop back in, complete with ugly, orange warning flags!

Pretty sad, huh? No wonder that guy on the corner is moving.

What was the point of doing this at all? Why did the city spend $16,000 plus for a traffic "experiment"?

I've walked, ran, or biked within a three mile radius in every direction of my house many, many times. And I can tell you that if the city wants to make Lynnwood safer, it can start by installing sidewalks in a whole lot of sidewalk-less places.

I guess the mayor of Lynnwood should start reading this blog....

UPDATE!

If the above weren't bad enough, the city of Lynnwood decided to install a speed bump here! Because all neighborhood street intersections need a 4-way stop, a traffic circle AND a speed bump. Safety first!

This is the same intersection, from a little further back in this photo. New speed bumps (with yellow poll action) and further ahead is the 4-way stop with traffic circle.

And apparently, Lynnwood is under the impression that speed bumps are called "speed humps". I can't even begin to guess why.

I'm sure glad this sign isn't in front of my house....

Birthday

I recently threw a birthday party for my three year old daughter, and this week we'll be attending another three year old's birthday party. I've thrown several parties for my seven year old son, so at the moment, kiddie birthdays are on my mind.

When I was a little kid and had a birthday party, a couple of friends came over, we had had cake and played stupid party games. When I was older, I had a few friends over for a slumber party, we ate cake, and watched "Dirty Dancing".

Now kids' parties are all about "destinations". Inflatable jumping arenas, bowling alleys, nature preserves, even Chuck E. Cheese; those are all places we've been in recent years for a birthday party.

These kinds of parties are great. No mess to clean up, activities are all planned out by the facility, and you don't even have to clean your house. The biggest drawback of all these places? They are frigging expensive!

For example- add up the rental of three lanes at the bowling alley with the pizza party package. 12 kids need four lanes, that's $150. Add up the cost of the cake, miscellaneous decorations for the table, and the giant pixie sticks you had to have in order to sent the kids into a sugar coma, and you've spent over $200 for your six year old's birthday (let's not even mention the presents you got him).

And the bowling alley is one of the cheaper options

Oh, and would someone please give me the name of the psycho bitch that invented goodie bags? Not only do I have to go into debt for my kid's party, I have to give the little ingrates that come a gift for coming? What insane, evil lunatic thought of this?

But since my kid comes home from parties with a gift bag, I'm obliged to do the same. Well, add up the cost of a dozen bags, assorted candies, bubbles, pencils, and other pieces of cheap crap from the Target dollar bins, and you've spent even MORE money on your kid's stupid birthday party.

I thought I'd beat the system this year with Lucy's third birthday party. We had it at the house, only a few kids would be there, no special games, and no performers were coming. I still spent $80 for decorations and gift bag crap, $30 for cake, and another $50 or so on food and drink ($80 on liquor not included). Well hell, that home party was no cheaper.

For all future birthdays, we're just going to squat in the public park or something.

Tiny Dancer

Despite all my efforts, Lucy loves the Disney Princesses. She's not too overboard with it, but her favorite movie of all time right now is definitely "The Little Mermaid".

She wants to be a mermaid.

So I bought the DVD for her, because I don't have anything against the movies - it's just the merchandising I hate.

My mom bought her a Little Mermaid toy with interchangeable tail/dress pieces for her birthday (she bought it on purpose, to mock my no-Disney rule). Lucy LOVES this little toy, and plays with it all the time.

Recently with her birthday money, she was allowed to pick out a toy at Target. What does she pick? A Little Mermaid play set, with all the character figurines. She's happily been acting out all kinds of crazy adventures with all of them since. I know I can't fight it.

A huge part of the reason that I hate the Disney princesses is that they are crappy role models. They don't really do anything, or say anything meaningful for girls that look up to them. They exist solely as objects of beauty, awaiting that "special" man to come and rescue them from something they aren't capable of handling themselves.

I don't expect Lucy to grow up idolizing Marie Curie or anything, but I want her to know that she's worth more as a person than whatever happens to be skin deep.

So I have all these high and mighty ideals, and they all go right out the window when I see her in her ballet class outfit.

My little girl is a pretty, pretty dancer!

South of the Border

La Palmera is my recommendation for best Mexican restaurant in Lynnwood. Technically, it's in Everett, but so close to the border (128th SW & Highway 99) that I still consider it the Lynnwood area.

La Palmera is fun (lots of light strings), festive (loud mariachi music) and family friendly. The menu is pretty standard Mexican restaurant fare, but the staff is friendly, the drinks are great, and the food is good.

If you go be prepared for practical jokes. There was a really old lady having a birthday, and the staff actually bothered to bring out a fake stunt cake first and drop it on the floor as they brought it to the table. They also like to bring out a jimmied cup and saucer set and act like they tripped and are spilling a hot beverage on your lap. It's dinner and a show.

When Colin ordered the dessert churros, without missing a beat, the waiter asked, "chicken or beef?" Colin looked puzzled, and then tentatively chose chicken. We all laughed and explained he'd been had.

Well, it was really funny after a couple of jumbo margaritas....

mmm...jumbo margarita


Colin thought it would be hilarious to pretend this was his beer



Some kind of combo meal, I forget which one


Another combo meal- I wasn't sitting next to the guys that ordered other stuff


Churros dessert (not chicken)

Sunshine Superman

I spent today at the Emerald City Comic Con. It was a huge show. Nerds as far as the eye could see. You looked odd there if you weren't wearing a comic character t-shirt or full blown costume of some kind.

I love the Comic Book Man in the background

The least attractive friend had to be Joker

I wish I'd thought to dress as Rorschach

Lots of Star Wars guys were there

Seattle Comic Con has really stepped up its game this year with some big names. But in order to see Stan Lee at 1:00 and Leonard Nimoy at 2:00, you had to sit through the Will Wheaton Awesome Hour at noon. I figured you could go up to the main ballroom half way though Will Wheaton, and still get a spot for the good Stan Lee and Leonard Nimoy shows after.

Boy was I wrong. I guess Will Wheaton has a bigger following than I ever realized, although I have no idea why. Will Wheaton was so packed they roped off the escalator that let up to the 5th floor. There was no way were were going to get in to see the good stuff afterwards.

I was pretty bummed about that, but the magic of the rest of the convention cheered me up quickly enough. And I consoled myself with the fact that I've already seen Leonard Nimoy twice before.

Plus, it's hard to feel too sad when you're standing next to Lou Ferrigno.

HULK!!

And it's impossible to feel sad when you witness the nerdiest moment in history- a guy dressed as a Ghostbuster paying Lou Ferrigno $30 for a signed Hulk picture.

Sweet!


Soon after that amazing moment, I found myself near the photo tent during Leonard Nimoy's photo session. It was all curtained off with security guards around the perimeter. I had to try to peek in the tent cracks and get a picture with my camera. I was shooed away twice by the rent-a-cops, but I'm pretty tenacious. I stuck my arm in at an opportune moment, and got a great picture.

Mr. Spock!! And some guy!

I also got three of my Season 8 Buffy covers signed by an amazing comic artist, Jo Chen.

Yes, I am this nerdy

I would have loved to see Stan Lee, but all in all I had an excellent time. I can't wait for next year!

Next year, I'm making my kids dress up

Don't Fear the Reaper

Every morning I drive our old car, the Honda Civic, to the Park & Ride in order to commute to work. The Civic is old, smelly, totally ripped up inside and out, and doesn't have a working speedometer. But it keeps on running, so it's going to be part of the family for a long time yet.

This past week while driving, I noticed a bug crawling on the windshield, a little fly type of bug. I picked up a bottle cap from the cup holder, and smashed it. Its little corpse stayed on the windshield.

Next time I drove the car, another same kind of bug. He got smashed, too.

And the next time, two more bugs. Smash, smash.

The grisly murder scene

And still, more bugs kept coming. The windshield was becoming a mass grave.

Don't look, kids

The Bottle Cap of Death, with bug guts

Every time I drive the car, there are more bugs to smash with my bottle cap. It's equally amusing and disturbing.

Where are these stupid bugs coming from? I have no idea.

Taking Care of Business

After we took the old dresser and armoire out of the bedroom, they were put in the garage. We have a two car garage, one side for the Escape, and the other side is the yard/tool/weight-bench-no-one-uses side (our poor old Civic got kicked out to the driveway). The other side also houses the Club House- our N64/Sega Genesis/Beer fridge getaway.

New furniture and bedroom clean outs caused a huge pile up of crap out there.


Before: unsightly mess



It took all weekend, and several dollars worth of storage containers, but we finally have our Club House back in shape. Not to mention a new craft storage system for my many, many crafting supplies.



After: Fabulous Club House



Sewing machine, bath bomb supplies, gift wrap



Miscellaneous



Mini Beer Fridge- no need to get up out of your chair



The other beer fridge- yep, we have two of them


I love having all these things back in order, and better than ever. But, this coming weekend I'm really, really, really looking forward to NOT organizing or cleaning anything. In fact, I'm going to Emerald City Comic Con, and I plan on seeing Stan Lee, Leonard Nimoy, and my favorite comic artist, Jo Chen. It's going to be nerd paradise!

Toys in the Attic

This post should be called "Toys that belong in the attic", but since I somehow started naming my blog posts with song titles, I wanted to stick with that theme as long as I could.

No matter how nice and namby pamby you yourself are, and no matter how anti-violent you act in life and attempt to teach your children to be, one inescapable fact remains: kids love shooting each other with toy guns.

Toy guns are a lot more frowned upon than when I was young. Not that I was really into the fake weapon genre as a kid, but I always did love a good cap gun. Today if a kid brought a cap gun to school, they'd probably be expelled.

Colin has about three or four toy lightsabers, (hacking off limbs with a cauterizing light beam is a waaaaay more civilized method of killing someone, you know?) but I always tried to avoid the shoot 'em up guns that look like real guns kind of toys. Why teach your kid that guns are toys, right?

Well, it doesn't matter what you do. Kids like toy guns. It's not something I'm stressing over, I mean if Colin is going to grow up to be a crazy sniper in a clock tower kind of guy, it isn't because of the kinds of toys he played with as a kid. In fact, I knew he and his sister would love nothing more than shooting Nerf balls at each other, so I bought them a pair of Nerf shooters.

Turns out these stupid guns make the loudest, most annoying sound in the universe.



I guess I should have bought those toy machine guns instead....

What a Day for a Daydream

I wasn't really sure about getting on board the Xanax train, but today I thought, what the hell?

I didn't really feel a big difference, it's more like a feeling that you just aren't very concerned by anything. You are mellow.

Actually, I think I've been way nicer today than usual. When hubby was driving too fast past the places where cops are always setting speed traps, I did not shriek like a harpy for him to slow down. When the kids were like, "can we have candy? can we have candy? can we have candy?", I was like, "OK."

And when I started thinking my usual dark, dark thoughts, I didn't cry at all.

Is this good? Is this bad? I have no idea. But I do know that I don't care right now, and that's a pretty nice break.

Easy Like Sunday Morning

In my quest to cover all the important places to know about in the Lynnwood area, I realized one of the most important has to be where to eat breakfast.

Sunday brunch is probably one of the nicest eating events ever. Sleep in late, mosey to your favorite brunch restaurant, peruse the newspaper, drink coffee, and eat- omelets, sausage, buttery toast, bacon, pancakes, the works. And of course, Sunday brunch includes drinking mimosas or bloody marys. That's the good life, baby.

Or if you are me, you wake up when your early bird kid wakes up at 6:00am, you fight over what to watch on TV, then a little while later you race to get yourself and the kids dressed before the after-church crowds descend on the few decent places there are to eat breakfast in Lynnwood. Then instead of relaxing and reading the paper, you harangue your son to pick something off the menu he'll actually eat, and take your daughter to the restroom 10 times for the thrill of peeing in a new toilet.

Either way, if you google "best breakfast in Lynnwood" you'll come up with Patty's Egg Nest on 196th. We'd never gone there before because there's always a long wait to get a table. And I hate waiting. But I decided it was time to see what all the fuss was about, so we went over there before the rush last Sunday morning.

Portions are huge and the food is good. Not wait-a-half-hour-for-a-table good, but still satisfying. And they have a great selection of omelets. I found it to be a tad pricey, though. $12 for an omelet? Are we at Spago or something?

Biscuits & Gravy - great biscuit, so-so gravy

Pigs in a blanket

Gyro omelet

A nice breakfast and all, but for my money, there's no beating the Family Pancake House on Highway 99 in Edmonds. Sure you're usually the only person there under 70, but those seniors like a good deal, and so do I. Best veggie omelet in town for $8!

White Rabbit

I've had a headache for over a week now. I finally went to the doctor, because I had a theory that an ear infection was causing my headaches. Turns out my ears are fine. Other than a general fever/cold thing going on, no obvious cause for the headaches.

The doctor asked me if I was under stress. I thought about how I was working full time now, about how my husband was unemployed, about how I used to spend all day with the kids and now it feels like I hardly see them. I thought about how I'm on the go all day from 5:00am until I crash at bedtime. I thought about my completely non-relaxing weekends. And I thought about all the undone things at home I want to get done.

But mostly I thought about how I'm kind of doing a lousy job coping with my best friend's death.

Well, it turns out if you accidentally start crying in front of your doctor, he'll prescribe you some strong anti-inflammatories for your headache, and also Xanax for the rest of you.

I've never taken anything like Xanax before, but he said it was for occasional use for anxiety, and it would also help me sleep. He also asked if I had considered any therapy. I said I hadn't really, because it wasn't like I wasn't able to talk to my friends (or blog to strangers), it was just that I'm so damn sad. I can't really imagine anything a therapist would say that would make me any less sad.

These things just take time, right?

I'm walking on sunshine

Last week I went to many, many furniture stores. In one of them, ScanDesign, a handsome floor rug caught my eye. I wanted to buy it then, but talked myself out of it. I was there for a dresser and had to stay focused. Then I thought about that rug all week, which means I really, really liked it. On Saturday morning, I couldn't fight it anymore and went back to the store.

The rug was already on sale (part of its appeal, of course) and when I bought it, the sales clerk said it was an additional 15% off! It was some kind of extra special sale day there. That's fate, baby.

The rug is all wool, and very hairy. It kind of looks like a rug made out of a Sasquatch or something. When you walk on it in your bare feet, it feels like you're walking on Bigfoot's hide.
The dogs LOVE it. They sink right down into the long hair's loving embrace.

The old rug in the bedroom was in Ikea special. After all these years, it looks like someone was murdered on it. No amount of heavy scrubbing with my Little Green Clean Machine was going to make it look any better.

Before: old, chartreuse rug with mystery stains

After: new, fun, Sasquatch hair rug

Also this weekend I jazzed up Colin's new dresser with my hot glue gun and some Legos. We decided that having knobs to display his favorite minifigs was the best way to go.

Colin's new dresser

Close-up of Lego minifig knob

Next weekend: The big garage clean out!