Domestic Distress Call

Help! I've lost a graphic novel! Actually 2 of them, but it's 2 copies of the same thing. One is actually intended as a gift. Shh-don't tell my brother-in-law. I put them in the home office, and I have absolutely no idea how I could ever lose something in a room that looks like this:

I would swear that I put them on top of my comic book boxes. There on the left side of the picture, under our range bag (the blue back pack crammed between the boxes). Or maybe they are there between my computer towers under my desk. The one in the foreground of the picture is a Windows XP/Debian Linux dual boot HP. The one in the background is my Mac G4. (Yes, Instinct-a Mac. And I'm writing this entry on my Mac iBook in the living room) I'm a nerd, and a disorganized nerd at that. Guess I didn't really need to point that out since I already made reference to my comic book boxes. Oops, went off on a tangent there.

This room is a perfect example of what happens when domestically-challenged random creatives get married. I would love to claim that this is the exception, but I would be lying to you. There is a hair dryer, a dremel-style tool, and a four drawer file cabinet in the kitchen. I don't know why anything ever gets lost here.

My mother-in-law will be mortified, and since I just found out today that she is reading my blog, I should probably clean up the place. I'll hide the laundry and get the toilet paper out of the living room before she shows up. Maybe the shirt she gave me today should be hanging in my closet rather than from the leg of the coffee table standing in the dining room. But there is still hope! In order to work a day off of his 3 week grounding, my son cleaned the bathroom. He even cleaned the mirror. Check out his work.

I think he earned the shortened sentence. There's hope for us yet!

My husband, after asking if I was also planning to share pictures of our dirty underwear, suggested that I should make a game out of these pictures. So, here is a list of some unusual things found in these 2 pictures. The first person that can locate them all will get kudos from me, and I will tell everyone else that reads this blog how incredibly cool you are. Maybe, just maybe, if I can find something interesting to send, I will send you something random from one of these two rooms. Don't hold your breath on receiving it though. As I've pointed out before, I am the queen of procrastination and I'd hate for you to be asphyxiated. See, I really do value my readers.
1. Cat butt (extra points if you know the cat's name)
2. Bi-Plane kite
3. Leather tools
4. Saxophone playing blue M&M
5. Peace Lily
6. Wine Corks
7. Pinkish-orangish candle
8. Something made with cucumber
9. Dandruff shampoo
10. Outdated digital camera
And the bonus: Uninstalled Mac processor (no, you won't get this as a prize. You can't have the cat butt either)

Spontaneous Parenting

I shaved my son's head this morning. At 6:30 this morning to be specific. And, shockingly, he didn't end up looking like a cancer patient. Well, at least to my 6:30AM mind he didn't. We shall see what he looks like when we pick him up from school. By that point, I will be fully caffeinated.

I've been putting off the haircut for far too long. And this child has about three heads worth of hair growing out of his head. Not to mention the giant swirl of cowlick that he inherited from my father. Thankfully that is the gene that decided to skip a generation rather than the one that would have caused me to have twins. Whew! I dodged some kind of bullet with that one. I also got to miss out on the cowlick.

But you know you have to do something when a pair of eight-year-old brown eyes peeks out at you from under a mop of morning anime hair and says, "Mom, would you cut it so short that I don't have to comb it?" Yes dear, I have clippers. Caffeine deficiency aside, the pleading look had to be answered. So I sheared the 10 pounds of hair off and Dad followed behind to clean up the edges and shave his neck. The hairy neck gene came directly from Dad. Guess that one doesn't skip a generation. Glad it's not contagious because I really like sharing germs with Dad.

I dusted the kiddo off and swept up the hair while Dad made morning elixir. Mmm, triple shot of fresh roasted espresso. You can read about our coffee habit here. All of this and we all still arrived at our designated places at the appropriate times. Amazing that such a lack of planning actually works out in a household full of random creatives.

Before you go and think I must have some very strange looking child. What with the hairy neck and cowlick. Really, he's a very attractive kid. Even complete strangers with no obligation to protect my motherly feelings say so on a regular basis. But he is far more handsome with the mop under control. Just to prove it, here is picture from before the haircut. Cameras are forbidden before coffee in my house.

See, told you. Trust me though, under that hood is an unruly mop. I understand that mine was also completely unmanageable when I was a child. Which would explain the constant braids or pigtails and lack of blinking for the first years of my life.