Frozen Bubbles

Due to the snowfall in Atlanta, Georgia, my kids have been out of school all week.  It's pathetic, really, but we're just going with the flow.

To keep themselves busy, my kids have devised an interesting game.  It's the "blow bubbles, watch them freeze, and pop" game.

Here's how it works:  You go outside in sub-freezing temperatures with a bubble wand and bubble solution.  You blow a bubble and let it sit on the wand.  Ice crystals form, hardening the bubble.  And then the bubble pops.  Loudly!

My kids amused themselves for at least an hour doing this.

If you ever find yourself bored in an Arctic blast, you may want to give it a try. Here's what it looks like:

The Immortal Snowball

If you live in the United States, you may have heard that the fine city of Atlanta, Georgia, where I live, was crippled by a grand total of two inches of snow.  Pathetic!  I've never seen anything like it.  (I recently moved to Atlanta from Ohio.  I'm a native of Cleveland, Ohio, so I'm no stranger to snow!)  Many kids were stuck in schools overnight because they couldn't get home. Fortunately, my kids weren't one of them, but my daughter's bus never arrived until 7:00 PM.   People were stranded on highways because of the ice. Somebody actually delivered a baby in a car while they were stranded.

Anyway, the kids thought it was the greatest thing to have snow.  They pulled out Rubbermaid container lids and sledded down the icy street slopes.  They tried to build a snowman, but there just wasn't enough snow.  So they had snowball fights.

When they were done, they came inside.  My son had a rather substantial snowball in his hands.  He put it into the freezer.

"Dude," I said.  "Why did you just put a snow pile in our freezer?"

"Mama, we might not ever get snow again.  I want to make sure this snow lasts forever!"

Horse Shampoo

"Mom," my twelve-year-old daughter said.  "Can you get some horse shampoo?"

I raised my eyebrows.  "Horse shampoo?  Why do we need horse shampoo?  Last time I checked, a horse wasn't part of our menagerie."

"I need it for my hair."

"Your hair? Are you a horse?"

She scowled at me.  "No, Mom.  I'm not a horse. Horse shampoo makes your hair long and soft. I want long, soft hair."

I took a good look at her hair which falls half-way down her back.  "I don't think you need any help in the long-hair department."

"I want it longer.  And softer."

All right, then!

(I have not gotten horse shampoo for my daughter, but I did do a little research on the matter.  If you'd like to learn about horse shampoo because you want long, soft tresses, read here.)

The Search for Octopus Balls

"Mama," my nine-year-old son said.  "We need some octopus balls."

My eyeballs nearly popped out of my head.  "Excuse me?  What did you just say?"

The boy repeated himself.  "Octopus balls. We need to go get some.  They're really yummy!"

I didn't know whether to laugh or vomit.  I took a deep breath and gathered my thoughts.  "Okay.  Are these some kind of sushi/Asian food?"

"Yeah, Mama.  My friend's mom made some for me. And she told me where to get them."  He slapped down a calendar with the store's name on it and a package wrapper of the stuff.

I looked at it dubiously.  "We'll see," I said.

Today I decided to find these octopus balls.  "Come on, Bubba.  Let's take a little trip."

We ended up in a Korean part of town.  All the stores had Korean signs.  All the people walking around were Korean.  And I didn't have a clue what the signs said, or what the people were saying.  We walked into the Korean supermarket.  Korean music was blaring on the speakers.  Korean salespeople with headsets on were blabbing about Asian pears and fish heads. In Korean, of coarse.  My boy and I were the only Caucasian people in the place.  We wandered around trying to find octopus balls.  We saw piles of live blue crabs squirming in buckets, ready for picking.  We saw whole fish lying on ice in the center of a main aisle.  We saw things, which I couldn't even begin to describe.  It was like walking into another country.

After wandering the store for thirty minutes, and not finding octopus balls, I decided to ask a worker.  "Excuse me.  Can you please tell me where the octopus balls are?"

She looked at me like I had three noses. She shook her head, said something in Korean, and walked away.

"Dude," I said.  "It looks like we're not going to find our octopus balls."

So we wandered around for another fifteen minutes, picked up some packages of food with Asian writing on them, that I have no idea what they are, but I'm going to feed them to my family anyway, and headed to the checkout.

That's when I spotted the Macaron cookies.  "Dude!  Normal food!"  Of course we had to get some.

So that's my story of the search for octopus balls.  If we survive eating the food we purchased, maybe we'll take a trip to the Atlantic Ocean and find some real octopus balls.  Or not!

Mama Portrait

My twelve-year-old daughter is taking art class at her school.

"Mom," she asked, "can I draw a portrait of you?"

"Um, okay," I said.  I couldn't wait to see this!

I sat down and she began to draw. "Mom, don't move!" she instructed.

Right. I sat, unblinking, while she did her thing. She kept her eyes glued on me, and kept the marker attached to the paper. "I'm doing a contour drawing," she explained. "My teacher says this is the correct way to draw."  

A few minutes later, she was done. "Do you want to see what you look like?"

Did I?

I reluctantly agreed.  This is what she produced:

Don't I look lovely?  Just like the Mona Lisa!

Answers to 18 Truths Blog Fest and Nut Job

I bet you are sitting at the edge of your chairs wondering which statement I gave during the 18 Truths Blog Fest was a lie.

Here they are again.

1.  I was almost run over by a train.
2. I've zip-lined through a rain forest in Costa Rica
3. I've swam in shark-infested waters

The answer?  #2...  I have not zip-lined through a rain forest in Costa Rica.  Although I'd like to.  It's on my bucket list.  Anybody want to join me?

(For the record - I was almost run over by a train in Germany when I was foolishly exploring a train tunnel.  I hadn't realized that trains actually do run on a regular basis over there, and I barely got out before the train came rumbling through.  As far as the shark-infested waters - I was a SCUBA diving instructor in my past life (before kids). I did shark feeding dives in the Bahamas, and not only swam with them, but fed them.  (Don't try doing this at home - you need a special suit!))

So now you're all thinking I'm a real nut job.  And do you know what?  You're right!

Here's my latest nut job story:

My nine-year-old son and I went to the theater to see the movie, Nut Job.  I think it was produced by the same dude who sings Gangnam Style.  Throughout the movie, the squirrels and other park creatures danced to the tune.  At the end of the move,  an animated Psy did the dance.

My son looked at me.  I looked at him.

And do you know what we did?  We got up and started dancing, too!

Since we were in the front, and everybody saw us, they all decided that would be a terrific thing to do.  Before you knew it, the whole theater was on their feet during the credits, doing the Gangnam Style dance!

18 Truths Blogfest

Beginning January 22nd until the release day of her book, 18 Truths, January 28th–Jamie Ayres be hosting the Can You Handle The Truth Blogfest. This is something anyone, anywhere can participate in.

All you have to do is post a blog centering around the classic Two Truths and a Lie get-to-know-you game.

Players tell two truths and one lie. The object of the game is to hop around the blogs and determine which statement that each blogger posted is the false one.

Anyone who posts for the Can You Handle The TRUTH? blogfest between January 22nd-28th can enter to win a number of prizes donated by 18 terrific people, including:
1) Jamie Ayres–18 Truths paperback + swag
2) Mara Valderran–Heirs of War ebook + swag
3) Eliza Tilton–Broken Forest ebook
4) Tara Tyler–query critique
5) Alex Cavanaugh–Cassa ebook
6) Ayden Morgen–ebook for Fade and Fall
7) Lynn Jake–journals
8) T.F. Walsh–Cloaked In Fur ebook
9) Sharon Bayliss–print copy of The Charge + critique of query and first chapter
10) Katie Hamstead–ebook of Kiya
11) Michelle Ziegler–homemade granola and bookmarks
12) Elizabeth Johnson–Moonflower ebook
13) Lindsey Loucks–signed bookmarks
14) Krystal Wade–ebook of Wilde’s Fire
15) Teshelle Combs–1 copy of Core (paperback) and 1 ebook copy of Core
16) Krista Rausin–2 copies of Mystic paperbacks
17) PK Hrezo–Butterman Time Travel ebook
18) Jessa Russo–Ever ebook

 Let’s get this party started!

Here are my three statements.  Which do you think is a lie?

1.  I was almost run over by a train.

2. I zip lined through a Costa Rican rain forest.

3. I swam in shark-infested waters.