Ginger Unplugged

Our house is currently covered in balloons--well, at least the floor of our house. Monkey has taken to setting them over the heater vent to see them float, which is pretty impressive I have to admit. He is also enjoying playing with a brand spankin' new Thomas the Train bouncy ball. For whatever reason, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to teach him the science of "Heavy and Light." Me: Hey Monkey, those balloons look so cool, do you think your ball will float? Monkey: Yep. Me: Let's try it. (The ball doesn't float.) Me: Why do you think it doesn't float? Monkey: I don't know. Me: Is it heavier than the balloons? Monkey: Yep, it's heavier. Me: The balloons are lighter. Monkey: Oh yeah. We don't have dark balloons. Me: No, I mean the ball is heavy, not light. The balloons are light, not heavy. Monkey: Right, the ball isn't light like the Sun. Me: Well, true. But it's heavy. That's why it doesn...

Okay, this is information I've run into while internet surfing so don't quote me in any dissertations, but APPARENTLY some native americans believe that people have totems-- or maybe just some internet people believe in totems--at any rate, I think the gist is that totems are a kind of animal spirit/god that watches over you or follows you or bugs you but is attached to you for some purpose. The, "How to tell what your totem is" indicators seem to point to the spider as my totem. When I see a spider I'm supposed to pay attention to what it's doing and where it is to eek out symbolic meaning in my own life. Like a spider hanging in the middle of a web might mean, hey, I'm pretty balanced. A spider building a web might mean...um...I should prepare for the future? The pantry needs stocking? Anway, you get the picture... So yesterday, Monkey leaned into my shoulder for a sweet little hug and there was a big black hairy spider right on the back of his neck!!! W...

Here I am awake with Monkey at 3:34 am. This is not something I usually do. My amazing Husband gets the kids ALL the time. ALL of it. He was up 6 times with Monkey just last night. So as shrieks arose in the dark yet again I made Husband put in ear plugs (who actually fought me about it) and took Monkey on myself. He was drugged within an inch of his life because I had given him something earlier for teething and Husband forgot and gave him more (who cares about these things at 2 am?). After ten burps I finally brilliantly deduced the problem was gas but had no gas medicine. Did I mention the shrieking--not Monkey's usually hearty yell? Shrieking. Here I was dependent on home remedies again, although I considered driving him to a pharmacy if necessary (did I mention the shrieking?). I stuck a tiny bit of powdered ginger in his mouth (it's supposed to help digestion) but I had to do something more--he wasn't falling for, "Here, this is really delicious" again. Befo...

Yes, another tragedy in the family. The New Yorkers said they brought my laptop to life for an hour. Then it died. It's gone. They retrieved my hard drive information, though, and are sending that and everything back. My husband is going to sell my laptop's little parts on eBay--at least the parts that work. He told me the news as he presented me with THIS--a new MacBook with the Leopard operating system. Aaaah. I had very mixed feelings about the whole thing. But I think this laptop and I were meant to be together and there was no other way than the death of my other computer. I wish I could have been there when it woke up for an hour. At least it got to see New York before it gave up the ghost. Everyone should get to do that.