Stranger Curiosity

Forget “Stranger Danger,” my daughter is defining a new trend in children’s behavior: Stranger Curiosity.

A curious three year old is not a surprising thing. A kid that age is learning about the world, and all kinds of different questions are natural, whether they’re about earth science, how plumbing works, or who that guy walking down the street is.

Questions about strangers are normal. Usually the first people to be introduced to a child are his or her family, and they are people that the child knows all about: their name, their relation to the child, their age, and various other things that their parents choose to share with them. It’s different when talking about a stranger.

Three: “Who is that man?”
Me: “He is a stranger.”
Three: “What is his name?”
Me: “I don’t know.”
Three: “Does he have a name?”
Me: “I would assume so, but I don’t know what it is.”
Three: “Who gave him a name?”
Me: “His mother, most likely.”

Three: “What is his mother’s name?” Me: "I don't know either of them, so I don't know that either." Three: "Does he love Christmas?!" Me: "I... what?"

Usually I give her all the information that she could possibly want about the people around her, so not my knowing the answers to her questions is very foreign to her. And the answer “we are not acquainted with that person, so we do not know,” is not satisfying to her, but that might just be because she doesn’t yet have a definition for the word “acquainted.”

Someday she’ll realize that Mommy doesn’t know every person in the world, and if she wants to know something about someone she’ll have to get to know them herself. And then, as my mother-in-law says, “They’ll get the third degree!”

Away Uniforms

There is a lot of stuff to learn when you start actually paying attention to a sport like professional football. Players’ names, their positions and the teams they play for, and which teams are generally going to score the most points. One of the things that makes watching the NFL so interesting is that all of these things can change at any time (yes, even the player’s names, especially when they’re the type that doesn’t want anyone to forget the number on their jersey).

Once you make the effort to learn all of these things, it’s hard to focus on anything else on a Sunday (or Monday or Thursday, depending on the week). And when there’s nothing but football on TV all day, your kids start to take an interest.

Usually, the home team wears darker uniforms, and the away team wears lighter uniforms. Tonight when the Texans play in San Diego, they’ll be wearing white uniforms with blue and red trim, while the Chargers will wear their blue jerseys with white and yellow.

It’s different in Dallas, though, and I was confused about the arrangement while watching the Giants play there in dark blue. “What do the Cowboys wear when they're away?” I asked my husband.

My three year old had the obvious response, gesturing over her head as she answered: “cowboy hats!”

Boogaloo Bag Count: 113

I know it doesn’t seem like a lot, but Bag Count is not everything. I did a lot of work on attaching the handles this week. My equipment will prove this.

That crochet hook wasn't always so obtuse...

It seems the easiest way to get me to work on this arduous final section of the project is to weave it into my other tasks. If I’m writing something and need to take a break, I fight with the next stitch. Not only does it encourage progress on Bag the Bag Part 2: the Electric Boogaloo, but it also lets me back off from a writing project and gives me a little time to think about what to write next. Everybody wins.

Boogaloo Bag Count: 113 (Body 71, Handles 9+7+7+16, Attachment 3)

Thursday in History: Late

This morning on the twitter, the following appeared:

Think Geek often tweets about geek history or special holidays, such as Talk Like a Pirate Day (coming up in two weeks!) or the day Google was founded, or HP Lovecraft’s birthday. But sometimes I think they’re making stuff up.

I Googled it (happy belated 15th birthday, Google), and came up with several articles on the subject, but nothing on wikipedia (except a Lalaloopsy doll). I couldn’t find the source of the day, and no information before 2011.

According to Think Geek’s tweet, if you’re on time today, you’re doing it wrong. So maybe that’s why I can hardly find any information about this day: perhaps its founders simply haven’t gotten around to it yet.

As one website put it: “if you have any information about this holiday, please email us.”

...Y’know. Whenever you get a chance.

Writing Prompt: Fashion Carousel

“It is no doubt that fashion is a carousel,” he said, straightening his bow tie. “Clothing that is fashionable in one decade is reviled in subsequent years, after which it becomes an object of ridicule followed by something worn merely to be amusingly ironic.” He admired his reflection in the mirror. “It doesn’t take long after this time for this once-fashionable attire to reenter the minds of the most fashion conscious as being a very handsome accessory indeed.” His jacket lay nearby; he picked it up and pulled it on. “Believe me,” he told her. “I’ve been around long enough to have ridden the fashion carousel a time or two…” he frowned, calculating in his head, “well, it’s rather closer to ninety or so, but that’s not the point.”

“The point is,” he said, ready for another adventure, “that bow ties are cool.”

Writing Prompt #747
Who better to make the case for bow ties than the man himself?

Shorter Week = Busier Week

We usually don’t look at a three day weekend in any other way than a blissful extension of our ‘being at home instead of at work’ time. It’s not often that we look at that lost Monday or Friday and think “I could have gotten so much work done!”

The fact of the matter is, a week that’s shorter because of a nice three day weekend is a week you’re going to have to squish five days of work into four.

Thankfully, I did Monday’s work on Monday, but since I have extra work on Wednesday, I’m going to have to squish that day’s work into today. I should probably attempt to take on Thursday’s work as well, since my fabulously talented writing partner and I just started a new project, and the giggling/“ooh, ooh, what about this?!” phase is in full swing, so I know it’s going to distract me from whatever else needs to be done.

Friday is right out. Friday is when my fabulously talented writing parter and I update our completed story (which you should check out if fanfiction is your thing), when I update a completed story of my own, and when I have the normal work of this blog’s Friday Craft Diary, which usually consists of a twenty minute photo shoot followed by writing three or five sentences.

It might occur to my reader to bring to my attention that since I was able to get some kind of work done on Monday, that I might have used that day to complete other work. Well, I could have.

But that would defeat the purpose of a three day weekend.

Picnic Tips

Things to remember on your Labor Day picnic:

• The position of picnic tables is not necessarily immutable.
• The best spot is not always under one of those pavilions; birds like those things too.
• Don’t forget the sunscreen.
• If you leave awesome stuff on the playground, other kids are going to play with it.
• Babies enjoy swinging on the swings, but not when they have to squint into the sun.
• Watermelon is necessary, and so are seven kajillion rolls of paper towels.
• It’s always a good idea to go on a picnic on the first cool day after several days of insufferable heat.

Enjoy your Labor Day.