Short Stuff

Image: NASA.gov, obviously
EYES ON THE SKIES: This morning first thing (and by that I mean before 6), CJ and I checked in on Discovery and her crew. So far so good on the mission. We don't usually ever have the TV on between 9 and 4, but I kept NASA TV running in the background on our big screen all day. I just love hearing the exchanges between the astronauts and Mission Control. I realize this makes me a rather enormous geek. ...

LINGERING LESSONS: When she emerged from the shower mid-morning, Annabelle told me she had been playing Lewis and Clark in the bathtub. "I made the (rubber) duckies look like they were Lewis and Clark. I took my (wooden) boat, because it had a loose string and it didn't have the sail anymore just like theirs, and I made the Frankenstein ducky look like he was pulling it and then I put Private the Penguin on the boat and I made the boat go around the bathtub like they were on the river, just like Lewis and Clark."

Nice :)

AILING: Today's entry is going to be short because, in short, I feel like crap. I've been some degree of sick since New Year's Eve and this week it's been especially awful. The tipping point came when I started oozing out my eyes (as opposed to 'just' my lungs and sinuses). I finally broke down and made a Dr. appointment.

I absolutely did NOT want to take the younguns to Group Health with me as every time we go there for anything, we all wind up sicker than we were before. Fortunately biggest bro Rick was available today. He took them to a movie while I was indisposed.

I'd heard good things about "Tangled," a Disney film. I asked CeeJ and Bee if they'd heard of "Tangled." Both of them had. I asked them if they knew what fairy tale the movie was based on. They both knew it was "Rapunzel." We reviewed our "Rapunzel" knowledge so they could compare and contrast it afterward.

I dropped the three off and headed off to my appointment, and picked them up afterward. We didn't get into heavy analysis of the film today, but all three gave the movie big thumbs up reviews. "It was GREAT!" said CJ, who frankly, wasn't excited about seeing it to begin with.

BALLOON GIRL: By fishing around in our craft drawer, Annabelle found a big pink balloon today. She was thrilled - until the tried to blow it up. Unfortunately, it had a hole in it, on the neck, but Annabelle wouldn't let that stop her.
She tried several methods to work around the problem. Her first idea was trying to insert another balloon over and around the hole. She also suggested stapling the balloon (I pointed out that this would mean adding two holes to it). She eventually settled upon (pink!) duct tape to try to cover the hole.

She was thrilled that it worked. (Check out CJ trying to photobomb in the background!)