Thursday, March 28, 2013

And Then Change Your Number

Big day tomorrow: the West men have decided to race one another down various runs at Vail Mountain. I can't say I endorse this endeavor, but I can promise to take video.

In other news, it's Pronto's birthday. He made a delicious surf-and-turf feast to celebrate, and Shef and his grandmother had a rap battle to punctuate the event. Have you ever seen a rap battle between a 9 year-old and his grandmother? It's truly something to behold.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Bomb Dot Com

I'm bummed because the book I'm reading now isn't that good. I know there are worse problems in the world, obviously. But, that's the problem I'm thinking about right now.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Some Book Reviews

I've read some excellent books recently. Real winners.

Winner #1: The Art of Fielding. A pretty perfect novel centered on a small liberal arts college in Wisconsin, specifically on a couple of guys on the baseball team. Also, the college president and his wayward daughter. The only problem with this novel is that the baseball scenes made me so nervous for the players in question that I had to skim some sections. I hated to miss a moment, but I've resolved not to get so emotionally invested in fictional characters.

Winner #2: Where'd You Go, Bernadette?" by Maria Semple. A humorous, mysterious novel about a Seattle mom who is going a little bit bonkers. She relates poorly to the moms at her kid's fancy-ish independent school. She actually relates poorly to most everyone and has hired a virtual assistant in India to handle her day-to-day responsibilities. The book is written as a series of emails, transcripts, faxes, etc. between the characters. Basically, I loved this. Loved it so much that I bought the author's first novel, which I don't like nearly as much.

Winner #3: CHERUB Series: The Recruit by Robert Muchamore. This series is crazy popular at my middle school. It's about a fleet of children spies. This is the first installment and explains how kids get recruited and trained as operatives. I can see why everyone likes it. It's exciting. Someday I'll probably read another one of these. Maybe in the summer.

Winner #4: The Expats by Chris Povone. I only just started this. It's my next audio book, which means it'll take me awhile to finish it, but it's engrossing and mysterious and centers on spies. I like to hear thrilling stories on the treadmill, and it seems this will fit the bill.

That's all I have to report at the moment. Read on!

Monday, March 25, 2013

Lied Like a Salesman Selling Flies

I failed again on blogging yesterday. Basically, I should never again make a solemn vow.

Here's the story: Now that I'm in my mid-30s, my right knee hurts sometimes. My sister-in-law, Steph, a physical therapist, says it's not actually my knee, it's my hip. And that's it's not actually my hip! The trouble stems from the fact that I "have no abdominal muscles left" after having the kids. To remedy this, I'm supposed to do an exercise called Cat Vomit.



I will do this today. I vow it. We all know what that means.

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Seen It Rainin' Fire in the Sky

I'm in Vail. Here's the problem: Dan, Mac, Shef and I are in Vail; but the rest of the W family is stuck in Denver because of the snow. They can't get here. Every moment that it keeps snowing, I worry about them not being here.

But, I have no control over this situation. I'll just have to sit back by the fire in my sweatpants and with my birthday presents and enjoy myself. There's no other way.

Friday, March 22, 2013

Don't Ever Look Back, Don't Ever Look Back


The deal is this: tomorrow is my 35th birthday. In case there was any doubt about it, I'm just living the dream over here. For real. When I took this photo, I had just finished a 13 mile run and the boys were hanging out in the tub with their swim suits on, per usual. Tomorrow we're headed to Colorado for some adventurous winter sports.

Life could be worse for this mid-30s gal. It sure could be worse. And yes, that is my left ear sticking out in this photo. It's totally not your imagination.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Down Like the Temperature


Okay, this is like a totally weird collision of worlds in some way. In 3rd grade, there was a kid in my class named Nathan Kartheiser. He was only in my class for that one year. Together, we ate the punches from the hole puncher. I can't explain why I did this. We called them thousand islands, and we ate them. The paper. I'm pretty sure our teacher, Ms. Miller, tried to stop us, but we didn't stop. We were table mates, and we ate paper.

Nathan had a little brother, Vincent, who was in like, 1st grade at my school. Now Vincent is on Mad Men, the television show.

AND, I read on People.Com today, he has just become engaged to Alexis Bledel (aka Rory Gilmore) from Gilmore Girls, the television star that everyone said I looked like when I was younger.

Guys, this is so weird. Also weird is the story I just read on US Weekly.com about Lorelei Gilmore's love interest on Parenthood now leaving Parenthood to be the love interest of Alexis Bledel, her tv DAUGHTER, on another show!!! Seriously!

And.... Just like that, it's the worst blog entry ever. Did you see the pic of the kids up there? The kids are so cute.

Collect Your Records


I know I said it was my solemn vow to blog every day, but I forgot yesterday. Deeply apologetic.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Dress Up Like Hipsters

Everyone's a little cranked up around here today. I'm blaming the weather. It's flipping freezing, and it's March 19th. Also, there's not enough sun. Hasn't anyone heard of the importance of Vitamin D?! And when I say "anyone," I mean the stupid people that make their lives in Minnesota?! And when I say those "stupid people," I guess I just mean me and my family.

Deep and heavy sigh.

Anyway, the kids have been snapping at each other on and off all day. I finally told them they're no longer allowed to play together, and then what happened is that they want to hang out and are now cuddling on the coach. WTH.

Earlier, I took them to tae kwon do in the hopes that kicking and punching things while screaming would alleviate the negativity. I guess it sort of worked.

Monday, March 18, 2013

Double Cross Thumbs Up

I don't think I've written about how it's very hard to get Mac to eat enough food. I mean, he's growing taller, but he hasn't gained any weight in, oh, probably over a year. He's gained 25 pounds SINCE BIRTH.

The deal is that when we find something he'll eat more than a few bites of, we're pretty excited.

Shef's been asking for sushi lately, for some reason. I also love sushi, and Dan, on his restrictive diet, can actually eat sashimi. So, we went out to Fuji Ya for dinner last night.

I ordered some rolls, some tempura, and a big bowl of udon noodles in broth. I wasn't sure Mac would eat anything, but OMG! He loves Japanese food! "I found six things I LOVE!" he exclaimed, pointing at all the food remnants on his plate.



I'm going to have to order some kind of Everyday Japanese cookbook. Any suggestions?

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Hey Girl, Let Me Talk to You

Tomorrow's the big dance performance.  I think I have all my moves memorized.  I tried to get Shef and Mac to learn them with me, but they thought that was lame.  Instead they blasted "Thrift Shop" and did their own "I wear your grandpa's clothes" thang.  Time as their coolest gal was so fleeting.

Anyway, our last mandatory rehearsal is tomorrow morning at 7:45.

My number one goal is not to disappoint my choreographer, Lynne. She's an amazing dance mentor and captain, and I'd hate to let her down.  I won't let you down, Lynne!  I'll remember all of the moves!!

YouTube video tomorrow, so get ready.

Also get ready for spring break.  I've got two weeks, and I'm blogging every day.  That's my solemn vow.

Monday, March 11, 2013

Stop the Presses

Here's the problem with reading Animal Farm with 7th graders:

"Wait.  How does he hold the paintbrush in his hoof?"

"I don't think pigs could actually climb ladders."

"How can the humans understand them?  They can talk to humans?"

Don't think so hard about it, I advise.  Just accept that it's true in the world of the book.  It's like how you can't cast spells with magic wands in real life, but you can in Harry Potter.

"Okay," they say, nodding. And then two seconds later, "But how could he use his snout to turn the pages of that book?  And how did they hire an agent?"

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Hey, I Just Met You

Here's what's happening:  It's time to work on the Middle School faculty dance number.  In advance of the performance, I was recruited by some pals to help with the choreography.

Seriously?!

I know, but stop laughing so hard.

After accepting the challenge, I had second thoughts.  I emailed Amy.  "I'm really anxious about this," I said.

"KC, honestly," she wrote back.  "Pull yourself together and get this done."

So I showed up at the planning rehearsal and I suggested some dance moves.

"Those moves are not complicated enough," Lynne said.


And now I'm supposed to be some kind of section leader, and I can't even remember the turns and kicks.  The good news is I vow to practice a LOT.  Really, a lot.