Happy Rabbits!

My heart broke just a little this weekend.

 

Big O has decided he's too old for Eggs.

 

He was very sweet to his sister, he wasn't surly and "too cool", just told her she would have more fun than he would. 

 

He didn't want to dye eggs with us Saturday night, and didn't want to hunt the eggs on Sunday. 

 

He helped Little O find eggs when she was stuck, but didn't want to hunt them himself. 

 

My boy really IS turning into a teenager.  Right down to the desperately needs a haircut.

 

(sob!)

I need your help, friends!

So my twelve year old boy, light o' my life and the one that I lectured about classic rock while he was still in the womb, can totally kick my ass on guitar hero.

I bought him guitar hero in hopes of breaking the Pokemon fascination, and giving him something to connect to kids his own age. Well, Pokemon is not entirely gone, but GH is definitely IN. My happiness is only compounded by the fact that most of the GH songs are, in fact, kick ass, and far far away from the dreck I was afraid of my children getting into. (Little O may yet be my corporate-generated-band-of-the-week girl, but I will fight it for as long as I can...)

SO here's my dilemma. Big O has loaded his MP3 with the songs from the game. He has come to me, mortified, at the lyrics to one of the Rage Against the Machine songs, and confessed that he thinks I would not like it if I knew he was listening to it. (tee hee--Love my O) I want to build him a library of CLASSIC, EPIC albums that he should be familiar with.

Please, if you are normally a lurker, leave me something in the comments.

I started a debate in the office as to whether I should give him The Wall, or Dark Side of the Moon, or if Pink Floyd is just Smokin' music and I should keep it as far away from him as possible.

Which Rush album (can I pick 2, pleeease?)

In terms of a twelve year old, don't you think WAR would be more appealing than Joshua Tree?

Bob Marley, the Doors, even the Beatles can be greatest hits albums. But what MODERN albums belong (Other than Nevermind by Nirvana)? I would think Green Day would have to be in there--Are the Beastie Boys just an 80's sentimental favorite or a noteworthy reference?

Is it evil of me to make him write a report on each of these bands over the summer, one a week, as punishment for crappy grades? Mom's Version of summer school, since I WENT to summer school when I was a kid, and I know that he would meet all the WRONG kids and bond with them and become the central valley pre-teen I've been raising him NOT to be? Did that even make sense to you?

Help me, people-- give me your recommendations for a well rounded rock education.

Wednesday Hero

Sgt. Steve Morin Jr.
34 years old from Arlington, Texas
111th Engineer Battalion, 36th Infantry Division, Texas Army National Guard
September 28, 2005


From the time he finished high school, Sgt. Steve Morin Jr. made serving in the military his career.

"He always stood up for what he thought was right," Gwendolyn Michelle Morin, his wife, said. "He was a fighter. He would never give up." "He had called me to let me know what he was going to do that day," she said. He expected to be able to call her more often because of the missions he was being assigned. Sometimes they would go 11 or 12 days between calls.

Morin enlisted in the Navy after graduating high school in his hometown of Brownfield, Texas at 17. By 34, Morin had devoted 14 years to the Navy, served in the National Guard for two and planned to attend Officers Candidate School. Morin was still in the Navy when he met his wife. At the time, the two were working for a photo company; he was Santa Claus and she was an elf, she said. Both were attending Texas Tech University. "It was funny because we always kept running into each other. He would hang outside my classes and wait for me with a Diet Coke," recalled Gwendolyn. "He knew how to make me really happy."

Sgt. Morin died when an IED went off, overturning the vehicle he was riding in near Umm Qasr, Iraq.

"He's very strong willed, very determined. Humorous, a clown, but he was also very disciplined and very passionate about what he believed in," Gwendolyn Morin said. "He always wanted to serve his country."

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Regardless of your opinion of this stupid war, honor the men and women putting their lives on the line, and appreciate every day that you live in this country. Bitching about traffic and the price of gas seems much less important when you think of how many lives are lost each day.

Has anyone seen a widget that posts the names of the soldiers lost in the last week/month/year? Even a counter? I've seen reverse counters to mark how much longer until Dubya pardons the entire Halliburton payroll as his last official act, but I'd rather have the names.

The devil has been cast out.

 

The fish is still with us.

 

Not, as it turns out, named Beelzebub, but a rather more prosaic Floaty.  It likes the top of the bowl, and it freaks the Honey out.

 

We're having a dietician come to giveus a pep talk for our weight loss competition.  I have a feeling she'll frown at my frantic shoveling of Mac'n Cheese last night as I was putting it all away.  It was heaven.  I used a hell of a lot less cheese than usual, and I was good the rest of the weekend, but pre bedtime secret eating?  Not so good.

 

I don't know if my bro is reading my blog and passing on, or if my Mom has read it, but my whining blog about the ice cream maker has yielded... wait for it... an ice cream maker.  I asked my mom what the occasion was, and she said "Well it's on your list every year and I can never find one."

 

Not even going to ponder how she figured out my whiny butt-hurt feelings about the whole ice cream fiasco.  But now I have to USE it.  In the middle of my diet challenge.  I am thinking there's kiwi sorbet in my future.  Maybe a giner peach or a blackberry sage (Republic of Tea, anyone?) Baking Bits had a strawberry and black pepper sorbet...

 

Must resist the ice cream!

 

 

Weigh In!

I shaved my legs today for the weigh in. 

 

Locks of love has not called me back yet, but considering my stunning lack of focus and committment, 3.8 pounds is a triumph, people.  I thought I was just gonna break even.  

 

I just flew my dork flag at work, we were talking about WILLING people into overlooking something, and I did the wave with my fingertips and said "These are not the droids you're looking for."   crickets.    Nobody got the reference, just Jen being strange again.  I'm used to it.  My dad called me the other night giggling, sharing a pun he had made at dinner with my mom.  In fine Dadd-i-o fashion, it was like a four part pun requiring back story and much explanation.  I AM my father's daughter.

 

Dork pride, baby!

 

(Have you read my horrifying faux pas at Dorkbloggers?)

ONE WEEK 'TIL WEIGH IN.

Next to me?

 

Wench is eating buttered popcorn, and it smells sooooo good.

 

I am paying for my crab ravioli last night with a lovely plate full of steamed asparagus.  In all honesty, I love asparagus, and it's perfectly done, not soggy at all.  A little salt and pepper...  Yum.

 

But it's not buttered popcorn.  Boo.

 

BUT...it's NOT buttered popcorn.  Yay!

 

I could go both ways on this one. 

 

The sun has only come out in the last week in my little armpit of California, so I have really been inspired to DO this thing for, um, about three days. 

 

Send your salad and water vibes my way, my friends, I am really more of a baked goods kind of girl.  Five pounds in a week has happened, but it won't be pretty.