The Sleeping Fishes

14 Nov 2016 3 Comments

by alightningbug in Mom Stuff, NaBloPoMo, The Daily Prompt, WordPress Tags: , , , , ,

The WordPress, Daily Post’s Daily Prompt is Fish.

This works out almost perfectly since I was just thinking about our pet fish. 

We have quite a few guppies. All of them are descendants of fish we got many years ago at my daughter’s after-school-care program.

They had both male and female guppies. Only they called them Glowfish. Again with mislabeled items. I think they purchased them someplace that had the wrong fish in the tank or vice versa. But actual Glowfish reproduce by laying eggs. These fish produce live young. Glowfish also glow. These do not glow, not even under special lighting, but they can be colorful.

Along with producing live young and the lack of glow, many parents commented, “oh, they look just like guppies.” 

And, indeed, they are guppies.

With all the live young, the after-school program had a fairly steady supply of fish for the kids to see and also for feeding to a small pet crab (of some sort) that lived in their aquarium too.

They also had extra fish that the kids could take home with them from time to time. So we did. And we got both male and female fishes because somehow I thought that would be such a cool thing.

It was. For a while.

Many, many fish later, I’ve tried to separate the females from the males and put a halt to the fish population (that also bread at least once with a pet-store guppy that gave all the subsequent offspring more color variations). 

So we still have lots and lots of fish. And, what a lot of people may not know is that fish sleep. 

I walked in on them again earlier this evening and got a little weirded out. 

At night when it’s dark, they stop moving and just hover in the water. It can be a little disconcerting to flip on a light and see a whole tank full of fish not move. They seem so lifeless. It can easily feel like we’ve had a mass die-off. But they gradually wake up if I leave the light on for long enough.

During the day when I walk in the fish are ready for food, so they swim all around and back and forth, much like our cats do when it’s dinner time.  It’s like a feeding frenzy. 

Life is a lot like that. We have times we’re so lively and thrashing about and other times when we just need to be still. And sleep. 

Another Awesome Day and Cats

06 Nov 2016 Leave a comment

by alightningbug in Kitties, Mom Stuff, NaBloPoMo, NaNoWriMo Tags: , , , ,

I have over 500 words for NaNoWriMo so far today (only about another 1,500 and it will meet a daily goal except that I’m behind on my total goals). It’s early, so I have another chunk of writing time planned for later.

Plus this post counts for NaBloPoMo Day 6 which probably seems silly except that this way it’s done. That’s better than not done. (And actually I wrote more than I thought I would. So I may post again later today or not …)

I’m trying to squeeze a lot into this beautiful day. I’m planning to get several things done at home then maybe visit a farmer’s market. Then maybe take my daughter to Cox Farms to enjoy some Pumpkin Madness (a day of pumpkin smashing and fall activities). There’s a market there too though so maybe I’ll just skip the farmer’s market beforehand.

Our cats are completely battling it out in the kitchen as I type this. I can hear them squealing and thumping on the floor and on each other. Glad they still have some spunk. They finished the old-man gruel that we like to call “cat food,” and now they’re just full of it (piss & vinegar along with the food).

We have old kitties, so we mix their food with lots of extra water and some added clear fiber (like Benefiber only generic).

Dave recently purchased a mini-blender for the sole purpose of mixing up the cat food. The cats gobble this stuff down, and then they don’t know what to do with their extra time.

They feel like they should be eating for longer, so they pester us and each other in the time they would have used for eating. It used to take them about a half hour to an hour to finish their food because we’d have to add more water and give a little stir. They’d leave and come back a couple of times.The blender has changed that. 

Plus, our cat Mojo doesn’t like to drink water the same way most cats do. He likes to stick his paw in the water, splash it a while, then lick the water off. Sometimes he’ll even leave his paw in the water as he sucks on it, almost like a straw. It makes a mess. When he’s done, there’s  water on the floor and a path of wet paw prints.

Our other cat, Fletcher, usually looks at us as if to say, “Do you see what I have to put up with?” He doesn’t like drinking the water after Mojo’s had his paws in it. Today, Mojo was especially splashy with the water. So we took the water away for a few minutes. That’s when the cat fight started.

They’ve calmed down now and will probably take their old-man naps in a few minutes.

Maybe they can sun on the balcony for a bit while it’s still warm out. Kind of what I’d like to do.

NaBloPoMo November 2016

NaBloPoMo Day 2, Concert

02 Nov 2016 Leave a comment

by alightningbug in Mom Stuff, NaBloPoMo, NoNoWriMo, Writing Tags: , , , , ,

Just a quick entry for NaBloPoMo Day 2. I managed a Day 1 entry, so I wanted to keep rolling. NaBloPoMo is National Blog Posting Month. Writers pledge to blog at least one post every single day of November. Here’s a link to some writing prompts which I may or may not use.

I didn’t get any writing done for NaNoWriMo yesterday. (National Novel Writing Month.)

My daughter had an orchestra concert at school yesterday evening plus a lot of my free time in the morning was consumed with finishing the hem and alterations on her formal orchestra dress. Got it done ,and it didn’t look bad. Yay.

The orchestra performance was wonderful!

This was the first concert of the year and my daughter’s first concert as a high school student. I’m amazed that the musicians are just high schoolers.

Many of the students wore Halloween masks, and there was a separate contest for audience kids in costume. They were way cute! Loved the Eiffel Tower girl! My daughter wore a mask that was either a fox or a cat. I’m still not sure which. Maybe a foxcat. That’s a thing, right?

I hope to get more writing done tonight.

Today is the Day of the Dead in Mexico and other countries that celebrate it. And it’s All Soul’s Day for many Christians including Catholics. So greetings to those of you who celebrate. I will remember my grandparents and also hunker down at home to get things done including writing.

I’m going to try to go about this with an amount of time set aside for writing each day. I find I can do little chunks of time and just keep going until I have some writing done.

NaBloPoMo November 2016

The Wrong Star Wars Costume

28 Oct 2016 Leave a comment

by alightningbug in Mom Stuff, Star Wars Tags: , , , ,

So I decided to dress up for Halloween this year. My office has a Halloween party with a costume contest, and I’ve also dressed up to go trick-or-treating with my daughter (though maybe she’s getting a little old for that these days).

I almost purchased a Princess Leia costume, but then changed my mind because:

A.) I’ve been there, done that several times.

B.) I’ve cut my hair short enough now that I can’t really pull off Princess Leia buns or even good Mini-buns without adding fake hair or a wig. Right now my buns would look more like crumbs.

C.) I already have a Princess Leia Costume but have misplaced parts of it over the years, and I don’t want to purchase another one because (see options A and B).

So I managed to find a Rey costume in my size, and I got that instead.

I love Rey, the protagonist in the 2015 movie Star Wars, The Force Awakens. She’s a strong, smart, energetic, and talented female character. YAY, Daisy Ridley and  J.J. Abrams et all for bringing her to life!

Plus the movie didn’t suck. It was a lot fun! I liked it more than the previous three Star Wars movies. And, probably, at least as much as Return of the Jedi. Though my favorites are still Star Wars and The Empire Strikes back. I’m pretty sentimental about those.

So, the Rey costume fits. It’s reasonably comfortable too. While it’s not a high-end, cosplay-quality costume, it’s fine for Halloween and even for wearing to occasional movies on opening nights. I even kinda-sorta managed Rey’s hair (though mine is messier and a few shades lighter with, um maybe, a couple of gray streaks).

But I had the costume on today, and I realized I had gotten something I had not expected.

Rey Costume packaging

The package looked like a Rey costume. The label said “Rey.” But somehow in my package I managed to get a Rey’s middle-aged mom costume instead. Well, crap. I don’t even remember that character from the movie. Maybe it’s really Rey 20+ years in the future?

Me in the “Rey” costume. More like Rey’s mom or perhaps Rey 20 years in the future. No Princess Leia buns, but there are buns.

A lot of my co-workers haven’t seen The Force Awakens. I think they’d recognize Princess Leia or Darth Vader, no prob. But some wouldn’t recognize Daisy Ridley if she showed up in person with BB8 while wearing a genuine Rey costume. So yeah.

A group of my co-workers dressed as the adult card game, Cards Against Humanity. They each wore large cards containing select, office-appropriate words that were either a question or answer. They could pair up together for humorous question & answer combos. I think I may need to check this game out!

The Cards Against Humanity split the contest winnings with some other co-workers who dressed as “Food Groups” — chips & salsa, milk & cookies. Get it? It was cute.

I think I’ll have to hope that Rey’s mother shows up in a future Star Wars movie. I mean, there are speculations about Rey’s parents, right? My costume is ready! I’d like to see those Cards or food groups show up at a Star Wars movie opening night, so there!  (Okay, maybe as snacks and games to play while waiting for the movie, but you know what I mean.)

And hey, my Rey costume looks better without my glasses. Shoulders back. Suck in my tummy. Hid my behind … behind me. My hair even looks reasonably close-ish to Rey’s in this lighting. (Can’t see the gray unless you look really close.)

Rey hair and lightsaber. Looks better without my glasses. I think I need new glasses.

Oh and, I wore my hiking boots with the costume, so my feet are crazy happy. They’re all like, “OMG girl, why don’t you wear these thangs every frickin’ day?” Are those mom-feet talking or what?

Rey with hiking boots.

Be Daring

04 Oct 2016 Leave a comment

by alightningbug in Mom Stuff, School, The Daily Prompt, WordPress Tags: , , ,

 

The WordPress Daily Post’s Daily Prompt is Daring. Ha, that makes sense as a sentence.

WordPress bloggers dare to put it out there. They don’t just say they’re going to blog. They blog. Be like WordPress Daily Prompt bloggers. Be daring! Blog.

And dare to do other stuff too. At our recent back-to-school night, one of the teachers had this single slide up on the screen through the entire presentation for the class.

img_5331

Other teachers had PowerPoint presentations that covered lots of stuff. Each was many pages long. Class schedule. Topics covered. Projects. Grades. Contact information.

I took a few photos of information that I thought may be of value. But I liked what this single slide said the most. And it was for a math class no less! The teacher also said that when kids told her that they didn’t know how to do something, she corrected them by saying, “you don’t know how to do it YET.”

I hope the class goes well for my daughter. I’d hate to like the presentation so much only for her to have a bummer of a class experience. But I’m not going to worry for now.

So far, so good. The year is early. I’m sure not everything will be perfect. I’m going to enjoy these ideas while fresh on my mind. And perhaps my daughter may even learn more than just math in this class.

Students learn so many new things every day. I need to bust out of my own comfort zone more often!

I need to try some new ways.

I need to be daring!

 

My Feet are Happy

05 Jun 2016 4 Comments

by alightningbug in Doctor Who, Games, Mom Stuff, Uncategorized Tags: , , , ,

I am currently waiting in Hall D of the Convention Center in Washington DC. Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman were scheduled to start a Q&A here at Awesome Con over an hour ago. Their photo ops are running late, so Peter and Jenna are still op-ing while most of us non-photo-opers are trying to be patient.

I haven’t been to a con in years. So far, most of my day here at Awesome Con has been spent waiting. I’m not sure how normal that is. First we waited in line for our badges. It moved quickly. Then we waited for StarTalk Live seats. We enjoyed StarTalk but left a little early so we could get in line to get seats to see the Peter Calaldi & Jenna Coleman Q&A.  I left my daughter and her friend in that line while I went on a mission to get us food. Then I waited in the food line. We ate the food in the P&J Q&A line. Lots of lines. Lots of waiting.

I hear the waiting wasn’t so bad the other two days of Awesome Con. That’s good.

Our early-line-waiting paid off as far as seats. We have sweet seats for general admission to the Peter & Jenna Q&A. I’m talking non-VIP seats that are almost as good as many of the pay-extra-for-em VIP seats and even better than some of them.

But we’re still waiting for Peter & Jenna at the Q&A — it’s going on an hour and a half late now. The audience has all new questions at this point.

My daughter and her friend have run off to the Exhibition Hall. They got wristbands to get them back in to the Q&A hall. It’s full. I’m holding seats. While I really wanted to go to the Exhibition Hall, at least I’m not down there spending money and tiring out my feet. That’s something, right?

They announced that Peter and Jenna would be here soon. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. My daughter and her friend are back with a hat, a bow tie, and a needlework Minecraft chest in tow. Pretty cool.

Still sitting here. I managed a whole blog post! We’ve been promised the Q&A will start soon. Really. Probably really. Hopefully really. Maybe really.

My bottom is planted in my sweet seat. I might eventually have a good view. My feet are happy too.

Yay, it’s starting!

Snowzilla! And sleeping cats.

24 Jan 2016 4 Comments

by alightningbug in Beyond Uncategorized, Kitties, Mom Stuff Tags: , , , , , ,

Our little section of the country just had a blizzard, dubbed Snowzilla, that lasted 36 hours. We had hours and hours of snow and wind then sunshine enough today to make the snow glisten and look BEAUTIFUL. Digging out will take time.

It’s hard to tell exactly how much snow we got since the wind was a-blow’n and made some gargantuan snow drifts. (Is that a car or a snowdrift or both?) But as far as I can tell our area got 25 inches of snow. My mom’s town, an hour away, got 38 inches. That’s just crazy snow. I don’t think I’ve seen quite this much since I lived in a suburb of Chicago back when I was a kid. (I’ve seen close, but …)

No school for the kids tomorrow and no school on Tuesday either. The county rarely (if ever) announces two days, straight up, in a row. No announcement about Wednesday yet.

Metro (our subway and bus system) has been closed since Friday evening. That’s practically unheard of. They need to clean the subway/train tracks as well as more of the roads for the buses. I think they’re hoping to open again Monday, but I’m guessing full service won’t be back until Tuesday? Wednesday? Who knows.

In our humble abode we’re well stocked on food, but I wish I’d shopped for a shovel earlier last week. By the time I tried to buy one there were no shovels to be had. I would have looked sooner and harder if I didn’t think I had a garden shovel in storage. But when I went to fetch the shovel I realized the shovel wasn’t so much a shovel as a flat edger for trimming grass next to a sidewalk. Why do I even have that? It’s not going to move much snow. We’d do better with a large pot or even a cookie sheet.

I ended up using a piece of cardboard (folded slightly origami style) to shovel a section of balcony near our door. I didn’t want too much snow falling back into our home when we opened the door to go out. But I’d really like to shovel off more of the balcony as a whole because there’s a lot of snow. That’s going to melt, and it’s going to have to go somewhere.

This morning, after the snow had stopped, our cat Mojo for the first time EVER in his entire life climbed up onto my lap and went to sleep. He’s never ever done that before in our 15 years of being his family. So much for teaching old dogs (and cats) new tricks. He taught himself.

He climbed up while I had my legs stretched out under a blanket. First he tried to get comfortable on my shins. Then he shifted and found my lap more comfortable (it’s a lot softer). He curled up and finally went to sleep. A total first. I hated to have to move him.

He loves sitting next to us on the couch. But sitting on us has never been his thing. He was a feral cat before we adopted him from an animal rescue group. Terrified of people, we couldn’t even pick him up for YEARS after we got him. So maybe today he felt cold and wanted some extra warmth, but it’s not like it’s never been cold in here before. This was a landmark move for our skittish and brave boy. I’ll be curious to see if he does it again.

Our totally laid back cat Fletcher slept by my feet the entire time. It was kitty heaven.

So today we all watched Interstellar. We haven’t sat as a family and watched a movie often enough recently (except Star Wars but that’s Star Wars so …). Dave had seen Interstellar before, but Sara and I had not. It’s a long movie. But by the end we were all in tears. Then Dave was laughing at all of us for getting so emotional over a movie. But MOVIE! We liked it and would like to watch it again because it glossed over some details that we’d like to catch next time around. It really had to gloss over some of the details because otherwise it would have been, like, a five-hour move. But we liked it. We were all warm on the inside with all the beautiful sparkling snow on the outside. It was nice.

 

Merry Happy Christmas 

25 Dec 2015 Leave a comment

by alightningbug in Getting Organized, Mom Stuff, Tea Tags: , , , ,

Every single year since I became an adult, Christmas has compressed the time (from October to December) into a wee little chunk not bigger than a light snack.

When I was 8 years old, 10 days until Christmas seemed to take forever. Now, 10 days fly by in what feels like ten minutes. I scramble to hold on a little longer. Fingers digging in. It’s a desperate attempted to slow it down a little. I’ll brobably break a nail.

Two days ago, I was running errands and I took a photo of a sign at a store screaming out that it was only 2 days ’til Christmas. I felt angst. 

Now, all the things I wasn’t sure I’d get done — all the things I’d planned to do — are either done or not done. Fixed in time for Christmas of 2015.

We had a good one.

It’s unusually warm this year. Our indoor temperature was 80 for a while. Chocolate truffles melted on the inside.

My daughter and I visited Santa yesterday. A camera crew intetviewed the big man just before our turn. Then they got shot of my lovely daughter with Santa. We’ve been going to see him for the past 11 years. He’s s great Santa and always so nice. So It was fun to see her with him on the news channel’s website.

Today I sang:

Oh, the weather outside is frightful [-ly] warm, but the fan is so delightful. And since we’ve no place to go [yet], let it blow, let it blow, let it blow.

This may very well be the warmest Christmas I’ve ever experienced. 

No matter what the temperature on the outside, though, spending time with family and loved ones always feels good on the inside.

We hope your day was a good one filled with many blessings. 

  
In other news, seeing as time was nice and squished this week, I figured, “what the heck,” and tried to squeeze even more stuff in. Probably not enough room in this chunk of time for more. Invariably, I drop  the  ball (or at least “a ball” or, even more accurately, several balls) because of this type of cramming. 

This week I dropped the tea ball (among others). I missed posting a Tea-for-Tuesday tea review. It was Thursday before I realized I’d zipped past Tuesday and was planted in Wednesday. Oops, missed my turn.

So next Tuesday it will be. Enjoy until then. 

Friends in Paper Form

23 Nov 2015 Leave a comment

by alightningbug in Mom Stuff, NaBloPoMo Tags: , , , ,

I spent a portion of today going through items that we set aside to donate. Things we need to get out of this little place we call home.

We’d set these aside awhile ago, each of us contributing to a group of containers near the door.

My daughter set aside an entire box of books. I knew they were there.

Clifford’s inside. Dinosaurs that say good night. Magic Tree Houses. Lonely Fireflies. Kittens. Betty Lou Blue and her flappety shoes. School Buses. The Matzo Ball Boy (akin to the gingerbread kind). And Dilly the Duckling who lost his feather so many times. More

The Cats and the Cucumber

21 Nov 2015 Leave a comment

by alightningbug in Kitties, Mom Stuff, NaBloPoMo, Plant Life and Balcony Gardening Tags: , , , ,

If you’ve seen this video you might be tempted to scare your cat with a cucumber. I was. I was tempted.

There are several articles out now about how scaring your cat with a cucumber can be traumatic (such as this one). Some cats are fragile. The scare may cause him or her have a permanent fear of cucumbers.

Seems to me like those cats were already afraid of cucumbers. The only way to overcome the fear is to expose a cat to more cucumbers, right? I mean, it not like he’s going to get over the fear through therapy and cucumber photos. Right?

Well, before I read the advice from vets, I tried it. More

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