Everything is Unfinished

Went swimming today in my own pool.

Going to the Pierogi Fest tomorrow.

My parents are coming to visit for the weekend.

I got an early birthday present today:

And best of all, I have the best husband and son who love me and who I love.

That’s the name of my daemon, apparently. If you’ve never read Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, you probably don’t know that in some parallel worlds, people’s souls manifest themselves outside of their bodies in the form of animal-shaped daemons. Well, The Golden Compass, the first book of the trilogy, is coming to theatres this December and on the movie website you can take a 20-question test to discover your own daemon. Here’s mine:

If you click on the “Is My Daemon A Match?” button, you can answer a few questions about me and if you disagree with what I said, the animal will change. As of posting, he’s an ocelot which says that I’m modest, outgoing, spontaneous, humble and fickle. I’m interested to see how that changes, if at all, and also to hear what yours is!

Aren’t these cute?

Jack loves bananas, so I couldn’t pass these up when I saw them the other day at the grocery store. They taste just the same as their larger counterparts. I was kind of hoping I could peel one and hand it to Jack, then he would eat it like a normal human. But no, he still tried to shove the entire thing in his mouth like he usually does and I had to slice it up for him. They’re still awesomely adorable though.

It sounds stupid, but it’s too hot to swim today. I think the pool may actually be boiling.

Suddenly, hiding in the house all day tomorrow doesn’t sound like such a bad idea.

I just love it when they use that little sizzling thermometer icon!

First of all, I do not recommend making a major move and then 6 days later taking a week-long vacation. You just start to get into the unpacking groove, then you have to change tracks altogether, then you come back to the boxes and it’s overwhelming all over again. Finally tonight I got our bedroom arranged and most of my clothes out of the suitcases and into the dresser. But I suppose I can’t complain too much because I get to swim in my very own pool every day, and that rocks more than I could have ever guessed.

Johnny and I saw Ratatouille last week (on the 4th, actually) and once again, Pixar has amazed me with their intricate, delicate animation. The thing in this movie that I caught myself fixated on was the rats’ noses and whiskers, the same way I was so astounded at the fur on Sully in Monsters, Inc. The story was incredible too, and of course I wanted to leave the theatre and immediately make the title dish. Fortunately, I found a recipe for it, here at Smitten Kitchen, and I may even get totally over-achiev-y and go to the Farmer’s Market this weekend for the veggies.

If you read Johnny’s blog, you know that our new hometown will not be hosting the premier of the Simpsons Movie. But we did get to visit the Kwik-E-Mart, with a bonus trip to IKEA, life is still pretty awesome.

Last weekend, during the aforementioned vacation-just-6-days-after-moving, I went to a weekend crop. Ironically, it was about 30 minutes from our old home in Wooster, but this time I had to drive 10 hours to get there. I’m so glad I did, though: I got to visit with some old friends, created some pages and projects that I’ve had in the works for a while, and generally had a nice, relaxing time. I’m really feeling the urge to unpack my scraproom now and get things organized to I can scrap more. I was embarrassed to realize that I haven’t even gotten pictures printed since Thanksgiving, so I’m just a little behind.

Hooray for summer programming! Eureka and Doctor Who are back on Sci Fi, and there are new episodes of Wasted Spaces on DIY. The only problem with watching a bunch of Sci Fi is that I keep seeing commercials for the next season of Battlestar Galactica, which doesn’t start again until NOVEMBER. At least I’ve got David Tennant to keep me company until then.

Speaking of TV, I was pretty impressed with most of the season finales from this spring. My Name Is Earl, How I Met Your Mother and The Office were all outstanding. Heroes was…a bit of a letdown, I guess, plus kind of confusing (as in, Peter had the ability to fly, why didn’t he just do it himself?). I did really like the episode where they flashed forward 5 years into the future though, even though it looks like that timeline will never happen, which is only more confusing because that Hiro is the one who goes back to tell Peter to save the cheerleader. Ack, time travel headache!

As we were finishing up our packing, our friends Tanya and John were having a baby! Here he is, Elliott Thomas:

They didn’t tell anyone his name before he was born, but one of the clues was that there has been a Disney character with the name (the dragon in Pete’s Dragon). My parents, Johnny and I had fun guessing things like Nemo, Dopey, Aladdin and Mr. Incredible.

Congratulations John and Tanya on your new little bundle!