Random Observations From The Past Few Days

1. My dad, despite being born and raised in south Georgia, does not have a southern accent. Weird.

2. Why is Three Dog Night only remembered for "Joy to the World" when "Shambala" is CLEARLY the superior song?

3. Mendel was right about the whole genetics thing. Case in point- my family.

- James was raised in a household with decidedly non-geeky roots, but he loved Doctor Who as a kid, even though he only watched a handful of episodes. Given the chance, he probably would have been a full-on geek.

- I was raised in a moderately geeky household. My dad was totally into Star Trek (although it didn't go as far as him being a Trekkie). Since I grew up in the Dark Ages and we only had one TV, on Saturday nights from 1987 on if you wanted to watch TV you were watching ST:TNG. I usually watched the episodes with *some* interest, but I wasn't heavily into it.

It was more of a matter of self-preservation, really. We had moved to Pennsylvania a few years into the school year. I was assigned to the only open spot at a table with four boys. All of whom watched Star Trek and discussed it. They even assigned themselves characters! Since one was very cute, two were moderately cute, one was significantly less cute, but they were all very, very nice to me, I figured I should join in the conversation. Eventually I was able to impress them with my knowledge enough that I was assigned the character of Dr. Beverly Crusher. (Not bad, right? It was better than being Tasha Yar.) However, I was more excited about writing my secret Anne of Green Gables fanfiction, but I didn't even know what fanfiction was at the time.

- As we've gotten older, our recessive Geeky genes have started coming to the fore front, especially when Harry Potter came around. As a result, our two recessive genes have combined to produce two children with dominant geeky genes.

I suppose one could argue a Nurture VS Nature thing here, but that would be crossing over from geeky to nerdy, which is not really where I want to go. ;)

4. I will never have everything perfectly organized for preschool (as much as I would like it to be) so I should work on a few little projects for another week or so and then STOP! If I work on preschool stuff all summer, then I will be burned out before the school year even begins.

Road Trip 2009 - Part Dos

We woke up bright and early Monday morning and we were on the road to the Space Center by 8:00. It opened at 9:00 and we wanted to be sure we had time to see as much as possible. We were meeting up with Cindy around lunch time for our 'behind the scenes' tour.




I had been to the center before, but that was in 1987. A lot had changed since then! ;) It really is a neat place, even if you don't think you're "into" science/the space program/history/etc. One of the coolest things is that many of the displays are actual size. These pictures were taken inside the Davidson Center for Space Exploration. The building is HUGE, and is has to be to display the restored Saturn V.




Look! It's Darth Vader!

The museum is going to be getting a Star Wars exhibit later this year, and Cindy said they are trying to get the Harry Potter Exhibition too. That would be A.MAZ.ING.

This is a recreation of the Apollo 11 landing site.



Next we saw an IMAX movie that was called Magnificent Desolation, which was produced and narrarated by Tom Hanks. It was a very cool movie, but it *was* a little weird to hear Neil Armstrong's voice being played by Morgan Freeman.

Leaving the theatre, we saw these banners hanging from the balcony:




I seriously considered stealing one to hang outside my house. ;) We had considered sticking around long enough to see Star Trek in the IMAX theatre, but we decided not to. After seeing *just* the preview, we knew we had made the right choice. Talk about motion sickness! Sheesh!

After the movie, it was time for us to get some lunch and then we headed over to the rock wall. I was seriously impressed! The girls have some freakishly strong upper body strength!




We didn't know untiil after they were done that they had gone up the "Advanced" side of the wall!

Cindy met up with us at the rock wall, and it was time for our very, very cool tour. As a kid (and teenager, and heck even as an adult) I had a burning desire to go to Space Camp. For an hour and a half, Cindy showed us some of the super awesome stuff that only the campers get to see and do. As icing on the cake, the kids were able to do some of it too!

This is an actual simulator where the campers get to run missions.





Then she took us outside to go to another building, and this is what we saw on the way:

It's a life size replica of the Space Shuttle, and it is GINORMOUS. I mean, I always knew the thing was big, but it's HUGE. The fuel tank alone is bigger than my house. Truly amazing.

Cindy then let the kids try out this little baby:


Hee! Luckily no one threw up, although at one point Jed was decidedly cross-eyed and more than a little green!
Jed

Bella

Madeline


Cindy had to go back to work after that, so we went outside and did the G Force ride, where we subjected ourselves to 4 G! Again, no vomitting! YAY! Madeline road the Space Shot...



We decided it was time to head off to Atlanta if we wanted to make it to The Cannegieters by a half-way decent hour. We drove up through Chattanooga, where we made one pit stop at the Fireworks Super Store. Twenty minutes and $58 later (with James a *VERY* happy man!) we were on our way again...

Road Trip 2009

About a month ago we decided to change our summer vacation plans. Given that our last three trips to the beach and/or campouts have all included heavy downpours, we decided that we just didn't want to chance it. Instead, we decided to get our geek on and go on a mini-road trip, with our main destination being the U.S. Space and Rocket Museum in Huntsville, Alabama.

We left bright and early Sunday morning. Since there is really no direct way from Albany to Huntsville, we ended up on backroads for the first third of our trip. Our first major stop was to stretch our legs on the Georgia side of Lake Eufala.




(The kids were inspired to act out a scene from Titanic.)

The view of the lake itself was lovely, however the experience was marred a bit by the copious amounts of feces everywhere. Birds, dogs, and who-knows-what- other-creatures use this area as their own personal litter box. Technically, this area is known as the Walter F. George Resevoir, but to us it will always be known as POO POINT.

We crossed over the lake into Alabama, and there was much rejoicing in the van! The kids began remarking how different Alabama was from Georgia and how neat it was to be there. Jed's major observation was that "Alabama was a lot hotter than Georgia". Who knew he was so sensitive to the ambient temperature?

Not too far into Alabama I saw this sign:


Call me crazy, but when you see a sign that directing you to a 'BIRD DOG STATUE' I'm sorry- you HAVE TO STOP! This is what we found:





Smack dab in the middle of town, in the middle of the road, no less! It turns out that Union Springs, Alabama is the Bird Dog Field Trial Capital of the United States! Who knew??!??!? They really love their bird dogs, as evidenced by the Bird Dog motif being everywhere, even the benches lining Main Street:


We felt we really needed to pay homage to this great town, and to Bird Dogs around the world, so we posed for a picture in a fitting manner:


So to those of you who have travelled extensively- Europe? Boring! Hawaii? Total cliche! South America? Whatever! *We've* been to the Bird Dog Field Trial Capital of the United States! Take that, suckas!

Back in the car, we started driving again, eventually arriving in Birmingham around 1:00 pm. As we were leaving Birmingham, I remembered that our church has a temple there, so we decided to find it. After a quick call to my mom for directions, we realized we were only a few exits away. Lucky!




I realize it's no Bird Dog Statue, but then again, what is??

Our final destination for the evening was Huntsville. We were staying with a family friend who also would be our "behind the scenes" tour guide the next day at the Space Center. We arrived by 4:00 and we glad to be able to stretch our legs for more than five minutes. Jeff and Cindy live on 20 acres outside of Huntsville, so there was *plenty* of room to roam.

Our hosts were FANTASTIC! Their home was lovely and they fed us until we were ready to pop. After dinner, we went back outside and I was SO HAPPY to see FIREFLIES!!





The girls had never seen them before (it's too hot down here), and even Jed got into it. It seemed like there were thousands of them flying around. The kids were walking around, but I just sat in the grass and after while the fireflies would just land on me. It was very cool.

By this time it was getting late, and we had a busy day to look forward to on Monday. So it was off to bed for us...

Weary and Worldly

We've been home from our exciting trip through Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia since late Tuesday night. I'm still tired. I guess driving 800+ miles in three days can do that to a person. However, we had a fabulous time, and it was definitely worth any expended energy. I took a pile of pictures and got them developed yesterday at Sam's. The order came to 198 prints- the stack was three inches thick! It's too bad I don't really scrapbook anymore. :P Who knows? There's still plenty of time before school starts again, and I may be inspired!

I have so many post ideas that I'm finding it hard to concentrate enough to write them out! However, the girls are going to "CAMP NANA" this week, so I won't feel bad if I spend all day in front of the computer. ;) With that, I'll leave you a teaser picture from our trip.

We have a winner!

It looks like I'll be R&Ring Wild in the Moonlight for your viewing pleasure! Woo-Hoo!!

The family and I are leaving town tomorrow for a few days, so the review probably won't go up until the end of next week. I know, you're distraught, aren't you? But don't worry, my peeps. I'll be spending lots of time in the car, which might just give me enough time to read one or two of the runners up! SWEET!

Goody, goody, goody!

It's Library Grab Bag Time again, folks! For the outrageous sum 25 cents you get a bag full of random books for your reading pleasure. Let's open this year's bag and see what we get, shall we??



Oh yeah! We've got some winners this year.



If this doesn't scream classic trashy romance novel, then I don't know what does! The Playboy Takes A Wife...awesome. The blurb on the back says "From Billionaire Bachelor...to Dedicated Daddy?" Ooh, note the question mark! Intriguing.



Ah yes. The historical trashy romance novel! "A woman alone, yet determined to fulfill her dying father's golden dream, Kerry Gallivan heeded to siren call of pioneering and set out on 'the sea of grass'. But how was she to know that while she sailed her prarie schooner, Jed Hunter would become captain of her fate?" I love it when an author uses mixed metaphors! It gives you hope that the qulaity of writing inside the novel will be simply spectacular.



Oh my. So many things to say! The title- what does that even mean? And the teaser on the front: "A shocking secret..." I think the shocking secret it that the scary kid on the cover is really a serial killer, and the two people on the front are her latest victims.



You know, the summary on the back of this one was too good not to share in its entirity. Take a look for yourself, peeps.



"Gypsy Clothing"? "Feline Fan club"? And the fact that the whole plot of the book seems to resolve around "lucrative lavender fields"?? I'm speechless.

And finally...


Judging by this cover art, I was sure this book had been published in the early 80's, at the "heighth" of the BIG HAIR trend (hee! Puns!). But no. This book was published in 1992.

It looks like we have some good (and I use that word pejoratively) choices this year, folks. So help me decide which of these enduring pieces of literature for the full-on review-with-snarky-observations. I'll keep the poll up for the next few days, and then I'll annouce the winner after I combine the votes from both here and my LJ.

May the "best" book win!

Teaser post

It's that time of year again...

Summer breeze, makes me feel fine...

A wise person once said that being part of a blogging community was kind of like being in a sorority (of the very best kind! :P)- during the school year we're all busy, but we check in on a regular basis. When the summer hits, we all scatter our seperate ways, occasionally letting everyone know about fun vacations, good books, etc. I like that.

Anyway, I'm teaching the girls to cook this summer. Heaven grant me patience, please! They can already do basics like scrambled eggs and grilled cheese, but it's time I did my duty as a mother and *really* let them loose in the kitchen and master some baking skills. They made brownies today (each with their own batch, from a mix, but still!). The brownies are baking right now, so we'll see how they turn out. The fact that we went through four extra eggs and had to throw out a egg/water/oil mixture because of a spill will NOT deter me this early in the game!

And lastly, I finished reading an AWESOME book over the weekend, called Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom. You can read my full review over on Goodreads. If you have any desire of being a writer, working in the publishing industry, are a librarian or just love children's books, then this book is a MUST READ. I will probably purchase my own copy just so I can underline that particularly witty and hilarious lines and passages in Nordstrom's letters. I predict most of the book will be marked.