While we're on the topic of Star Wars...

MANAMANA!!

Chad Vader

I really don't know how to intro this video clip. It's the first of 8 episodes telling the story of Darth Vader's brother, Chad.

It speaks for itself.

Rated PG.

To see the rest of the episodes, go here. I've only seen the first two, but Episode 2 is even better.

Guess what I'm driving...

My boss needed to switch cars for the day. I don't mind too much.

Note the lack of a key - the car has a push-button ignition.

I may need to pull a Ferris Bueller so the mileage isn't too high...

The Relativity of Time

It has been a loooooong week. I technically work just over 70 hours/week, but that's just technically speaking. My work day starts at 5:15 am and ends at 7:30 pm. However, I don't even get up until 6:30. Then the kids are off to school by 8:30 and don't get home until 3:15. While they're at school, I do laundry, grocery shopping and other errands. But I usually have some time to myself, too.

It still makes for long days, but the break that I have in the morning while they're at school is definitely good for my sanity. Even if I spend the whole morning running errands, the fact that I don't have a couple of kids in tow makes it feel like a break.

Naturally, whenever the kids' schedule changes, so does mine. I now understand why my mom would get frustrated when we had lots of time off from school (then again, halfway through she decided to homeschool us...). Fortunately, the kids have all-day summer camp during the summer. But I am not particularly looking forward to the last week of June, where they will be off for the entire week and it will be up to me to keep them occupied.

Anyway, the 6-yr-old had her tonsils out last Thursday. She has been doing very well, considering the circumstances. But not only have I had her all day every day this week, but her discomfort has meant that she's been whiny and clingy, as well. Yesterday, I felt like anytime I walked out of the room, she would either follow me or call me to come back because she suddenly "needed something." Add to this the fact that I worked until 10:00 last night instead of 7:30.

She has definitely been improving, though, and she has been anxious to get back to school. So, we were both excited that she was going to go for half a day today. I let her sleep until she woke up on her own, then took her to school at around 11. I kind of felt like someone just busted open the prison gates and I was breathing fresh air for the first time in a very long time. That sounds kind of mean - I really do like her, this week has just been a little much.

But now I've finally got a few hours during the day without the kids and I spent a portion of this coveted time blogging. That was silly. I've got a bunch of errands to run and 3 1/2 hours! Yikes! I'm looking forward to it, though. It's 80 degrees out and I'm going to go drive around with the windows rolled down.

Yes, the worst is definitely over. The kids have an early dismissal tomorrow, then I'm taking them to meet their dad and I'll be off work by about 1:00, making my 3-day weekend more like 3 1/2 days. *contented sigh* I think I've earned it.

Dichotomist dilemmas

I have long considered myself to be a strange dichotomy of a tomboy and a girly-girl.*

As long as I can remember, I have loved climbing trees. But at the same time, although I love my church here in NJ and the fact that casual dress on Sundays makes the average Joe feel more welcome, a part of me is frustrated at the missed opportunity to dress up.

I like construction work, but love to get my nails done.

I enjoy working hard, getting dirty, and working up a sweat - but I like to get dressed up and wear make-up and jewelry.

I think that hanging sheetrock is fun, but so is making cookies.

I have had a few jobs where the ratio of men to women was around 50:1 (mainly because of the physical labor aspect). In fact, in one such job, my friends called me "the Proverbial Man."** But in community college, I stuck out a bit because I tended to wear skirts and dress up more than the average girl.***

Thus, wouldn't it seem natural that I would enjoy gardening? It is frequently viewed as a feminine art (especially if you're talking about flower gardens), but it involves dirt and the outdoors. However, when it comes to plants, I have always admitted that I have a brown thumb. I either drown plants, or they die of thirst. I don't know what it is. When I moved out here, there was a potted plant in my room that was supposed to be very hardy and not easy to kill. It may have lasted a couple of months. And that's probably just because the woman who cleans every week watered it. I think it's funny that sometimes people say that being able to keep a plant alive is a good precursor to raising a child. A child, I can keep alive; a plant, not so much. I can probably attribute a lot of it to ignorance. How do you know how often to water a plant? How much water do you give it? I don't know the answers to these questions, and apparently, I don't do too well at guessing. A baby is easier to figure out - you just feed them until they stop crying.

At any rate, when my boss asked me a couple of months ago if I wanted to get flowers for the deck, I told her that I consider myself to have a brown thumb, but I could give it a shot. Unfortunately, she took me at my word.

So naturally, I took care of all of my other tasks first, and saved this one for last. Finally, when I didn't feel like I could wait any longer, I went to the local nursery (again with the plant-baby analogy - doesn't work for me, people).

I wandered among the plants for a good fifteen minutes before I called my mom for help.**** Half an hour later, I left with several plants, some potting soil, some peat moss (which I had always thought was green - evidence of my ignorance), a pair of gloves, and optimistic thoughts.

They look innocent, don't they?

So I gathered all of my materials and laid them out on a garbage sack on the deck.

But as I walked back out on the deck with the bag of potting soil, I noticed that the flowers were just sitting there - staring me down.

Fortunately, I knew what to do in this sort of a situation. I put on some beats. And some good beats, at that.

Then I planted the flowers. As of today, they have survived two weeks since the day I planted them. Time will tell if they can last the summer.

*For lack of a better term - does anyone know of a better term? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?

**The story goes: I was fast and good at my job, so they would have called me "the Man," but clearly, I was not a man. Hence, "the Proverbial Man." Admittedly, a portion of this can be attributed to a fiercely competitive streak, which I always thought I hid well - but apparently not...

***Granted, this was in a small town where everyone dressed the same and I had just moved back from the NYC metro area where I had felt liberated to express myself.

****I have come to the conclusion that one never gives up calling one's mom and asking for help.

Holy smokes!*

Why is it that when I have the most to blog about, I blog the least? I have a few blogs in mind and I've even got pictures! I'm not going to take the time now, though.

So, stay tuned.

For now, I'll just leave you with this interesting/unsurprising tidbit from The Economist. A market research group compared annual cigarette consumption in 120 countries in 2006.

Together, these countries account for over 95% of global consumption.

Spain is #6.

*Maybe that should be "unholy smokes"...

Meine Geburtstag

Thank you, everyone, for all of the birthday wishes! I had a great birthday on Monday. After spending my last birthday in Odegaard (the huge UW undergrad library) working on my thesis - anything would have been an improvement! But it was really a good day.

I went out to lunch with my girls (behind me is Christin, next to me is Jayme, and behind her is Tomina - we're all nannies and we go to the same church) - we had "Moroccan" food. The food was good, but it wasn't really similar to anything I actually ate in Morocco... I was really hoping for some tagine. But I did get chocolate cake with peanut butter cups, so I'm not complaining!!

Later, I got more cake and way too many presents from my boss. Then I met up with my girls again! This time, a couple of my dance friends were able to come, too.

Annie is the one in the back corner, and Bea is in front.

I had more cake.

Then, Tomina and I tied the knot*.

All in all, it was a good day.

*Seriously, though, it looks like we're tying a knot, right? Now we know where the expression comes from...

Happy trails to me!

Yesterday I went hiking for the first time since I hiked the Camino de Santiago two years ago. It was Fun Times.

The hike was about eight miles long and took around five hours to hike, so it was shorter than the shortest hike I did on the Camino. But it felt just right.

Hiking brought back many memories from my adventures on the Camino de Santiago two years ago. And as I was enjoying the hike and the scenery, I began to ask myself if I would ever consider hiking the Camino de Santiago again. Well, the influence of the exhilirating fresh air, the chorus of birds, and the surrounding beauty, combined forces to gently persuade me that, just maybe, I would.

But while I mentally formulated plans for my next hike through the North of Spain, I began to grow tired. As I struggled uphill, my legs began to burn and my lungs cried out for more oxygen. I started feeling that telltale rub that indicates a burgeoning blister.

And I changed my mind.

I remembered why it took me two years to get around to hiking again.

The fact that I started out on the hike yesterday feeling healthy and whole did a lot for my enjoyment of the hike. This happy circumstance was only true for the first two days of my eleven-day hike along the Camino de Santiago. On the subsequent days, I mostly just felt tired and in pain.

I'm not saying that I regret going - quite the contrary! I enjoyed the time that I spent with my fellow peregrinos, and it was a one-of-a-kind experience. We saw some amazing scenery and a side of Spain that I had not seen before. Not to mention the fact that it was rewarding to see what I was capable of.

That said, I think in the future I will most likely stick to one-day hikes. I greatly appreciated the fact that I was not completely exhausted by the end of the day and I was able to come home, shower, and sleep in my own bed. I definitely plan to hike more this summer - but not necessarily for eleven days at a time.

The next DC Talk?

Hot new band Aardvark Arsenal is taking the world by storm.
Making its debut on MySpace, Aardvark Arsenal brings energetic beats, clever lyrics, and most importantly - a clear message. Also, the singer is hot.

MacGyver in País Vasco

Warning: This clip is dubbed in Spanish.
Apparently, one of MacGyver's great exploits was rescuing an American from a Basque guerrilla camp. I'm curious as to where the writers got their background information...