tin

1. tin: a metal “Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (Latin: Stannum) and atomic number 50. It is a main group metal in group 14 of the periodic table.”
2. tin toys: classic toys made of tin
3. Tin Toy(1988): an early Pixar short film featuring animate toys and a drooly baby
4. tintype: a early type of photograph printed on metal (typically iron) plates
5. Tintin: a character from a series of comic books
6. Rin Tin Tin: a German Shepard (or several) of fiction and TV
7. Pushing Tin (1999) A movie about air traffic controllers starring John Cusack
8. tin: another name for a can used to hold food, e.g. a tin of beans
9. tin foil: what aluminum foil is commonly called
10. tin: a traditional material for gifts in honor of a 10th wedding anniversary

Had I been more organized, many of those items might have made good gifts to get John for our 10th anniversary. Which is today. Instead, I may have to give him a wad of aluminum foil and a tin of green beans.

Happy anniversary, John!

bumper stickers for word nerds

This week’s Monday Mission was to compose a license plate or a bumper sticker. I felt like doing several. Because I’m like that. (I’m also late getting this posted. Because I’m like that.)

For more license plates and bumper stickers, drive over to Painted Maypole’s and honk.

santa baby

The December Greeblepix contest theme is “Holiday Cheer.” Seeing as I can’t submit cheer in a video format, I thought I’d pull out this photo from last year.

O Tannenbaum

We finally got our tree this past Saturday. Phoebe and I decorated it on Sunday. I put on the star, the lights, and the strands of beads.

Then Phoebe put on ornaments while I made dinner.

She put on just about all of the ornaments.

She put some of them way, way up high!

(Phoebe is about 3 and a half feet tall.)

Jingle bells.

Let it mold.

Oh the veggies in there are frightful,
And takeout’s so delightful
And since the leftover soup’s too old
Let it mold, let it mold, let it mold.

Since the fridge door last was closing
The food’s been decomposing.
That old tuna salad’s growing bold
Let it mold, let it mold, let it mold.

When we finally face the blight
How I’ll try very hard not to gag
But if we hold our noses night
We can load up a hazmat bag.

The eggs have all gone rotten
And the tofu’s best forgotten
But as long takeout’s still sold
Let it mold, let it mold, let it mold.

This was a Monday Mission, which called for re-written holiday songs. For potentially less toxic songs, pay a visit to Painted Maypole.

speeding by

This week’s PhotoHunt theme is “fast.”

These are a few photos I took in the fall. I can’t believe how fast the months have passed this year. There is still part of me that is waiting for summer. (Did we even have June this year?)

For more people’s interpretations of “fast,” hurry over to tnchick’s place.

don we now our gay apparel

Neil of Citizen of the Month has posted the 2009 Annual Blogger Christmahanukwanzaakah Online Holiday Concert. And I’ve participated again. Because apparently I like the sound of my own voice.

(This year, I opted to go with a more cheerful carol than last year’s song about dead babies.)

Go have a look. There are pictures, even.

undesirable

I’m pretty sure I haven’t mentioned it here, but I found a tick on me a few weeks ago. Talk about undesirable.

It was pretty surprising to find a tick in November, but we’ve had some pretty unseasonably warm weather up here in the Northeast of the US. We live in a heavily wooded area, so ticks are pretty common. I was pretty skeeved out, but not too concerned otherwise. I thought it was a small-sized dog tick, and not a deer tick. (Deer ticks can carry Lyme Disease, but dog ticks don’t.) I also thought the tick had only been on me for a few hours anyhow, and apparently ticks need to be attached for at least 36 hours before they can transmit Lyme Disease. However, about a week and a half after removing the tick, and well after the initial trauma from the tick removal had healed, I started to get a rash at the site of the bite. So either the tick had been on me longer than I’d realized, or our clumsy removal of it had caused the tick to transfer the bacteria faster.

My doctor prescribed a 2-week course of antibiotics for me. I just took the preantipenultimate pill. I’m happy that I’ve only got another day left to go, because the antibiotics have done a number on me, and I have been feeling pretty wiped out and was actually pretty sick for a few days. On the other hand, I’ll gladly take 2 weeks of feeling awful over the longer-term feeling awfulness associated with full-blown Lyme Disease. The rash cleared up right away, so it seems that the antibiotic is working.

But you know what? It really sucks taking care of 2 small children when you are feeling awful. I have found myself being (even) crankier than usual. It’s hard to be patient and cheerful when you just want to curl up in a ball on the floor. I don’t know how I would have coped if I hadn’t been able to take the kids to daycare some of the days, or if John hadn’t been around. (How do stay at home parents manage when they are sick? Or single parents?)

It was such a relief when I felt better, but then Theo has been sick the last few days. I’m not sure whether he’s got the intestinal bug that a couple of other kids at daycare had, or whether he’s also reacting to the antibiotics getting passed on to him through me. (He’s still nursing.) In any case, he has been sleeping worse than usual. And now it seems he’s getting a cold. Phoebe has seemed a bit under the weather, too. Or perhaps she’s just been more needy in reaction to my crankiness.

Life has generally been more than ordinarily crazy the last couple months. John has been working pretty much around the clock, 7 days a week. I’ve had work deadlines, too. And did you know that there’s some sort of major holiday coming up soon for which we’ll be expected to do things like decorate and purchase (and even mail) presents? We as yet have no tree, and I haven’t even started Christmas shopping.

(If it’s any indication of the craziness of our household, I took the above photo on Saturday for the PhotoHunt theme of “undesirable,” and started drafting the post. And I still have yet to get it finished. I decided not to actually submit this as a Photohunt entry, anyhow, because I doubt most people participating in that really need this much detail about my life. But I figured I might as well still use the title.)