Nothing Perspicacious

I haven't anything witty or sage to share today. I just thought I'd check in with both of you readers. I know, I shouldn't sell myself short. There may be three or even four of you faithful followers of this blog out there!

Today marks two full weeks of school. Yes, I know it's Friday. And yes, my girls began this school year on a Friday. And yesterday we had our first parent-teacher conferences of the year. (Oops, I meant to type Family Advocacy Day - that is what parent-teacher conferences are called now in our school district. Is it the same elsewhere?) So, our, um..let's just call it meetings with the girls' teachers went pretty much as expected. Meaning that after two weeks of school, Emi is getting back in the swing of things and Annie is still catching on to the swing of things. Honestly, we have such terrific little girls. (Emi just turned nine this week. Can I still call her my little girl?) Can I admit that as much as I enjoy having time to myself, I really do miss my munchkins.

I really am lucky to have the children I have. And I think I did pretty well in the husband department. And I think Ryan would have to agree that we scored in the pet department!

Playing Football?

Grandma has gone on a little trip to visit Aunt Karen. Grandma's mom, Grandma Opal, asked Annie what she thought Grandma and Aunt Karen might be doing. Annie didn't hesitate to answer, "They probably playing football."

Upping the Ante

I raise Allison's rooster by a miniature cow. According to The Times, a trend is emerging where people raise miniature cattle as productive pets. (No doubt more productive than our hebetudinous brown beast.) A miniature cow is a great way to augment shelved food storage with fresh milk and the occasional steak.

Just right for the garden: a mini-cow

In the mean time, does anyone know where I can find a pack of clever coyotes or even the proverbial sly fox with a taste for rooster blood?

Cocka-a -doodle-doo! Again!

We wake up each morning to the rise-and-shine herald from our friendly neighborhood rooster. We haven't caught sight of this enigma, but daily (for the past several months, at least) we have heard his presence. Did you know that roosters don't just crow (or cuckoo or squawk or whatever you want to call it) in the morning? Evidently, they make noise whenever they feel like it - morning, noon or night! And here's the funny thing: we live in a pretty urban (not to be confused with urbane!) area, but apparently not metropolitan enough. Some of the land in our area (or neighborhood, rather) is zoned for agricultural use. I guess that explains the cow bone we found in the garden....

An Auspicious Beginning?

Last Friday (August 15th) was the girls' first day of school. How did it go? Well, take a look at the picture I took before school. Emi seems perky enough, but Annie is much more interested in blowing up the whoopie-cushion.

Fast-forward to about 8 1/2 hours later. Third-grader Emi stepped off the bus. Her steps dragged as she sighed aloud. "How was school?" I chirped? Emi just shrugged. "Well, was it fun?" Another shrug. "Was it just terrible?" She shrugged again. "It just started too soon, didn't it," I soothed. Finally, I got an almost imperceptible nod in response. This from the kid who started playing school with her dolls and stuffed animals almost as soon as she got home.

I decided to ask Annie how her day was. She told me, "I was on orange." I was thinking, What? On the first day? (For those of you who don't know, the kids behaviour is assessed by a colour system. Green is good. Yellow is okay. Orange is not-so-good. The next two colours, which might be red and blue, mean bad-news and the teacher hoping your parents believe in spanking, respectively. And teachers also usually mark the students' hands with a smiley face, or a sad face, or a rather blank face, sometimes indicating the kind of day that was had.) So back to Annie's orange day. 'Why were you on orange? What did you do?" I asked. She responded matter-of-factly, "I didn't make good decisions and I couldn't keep my hands to myself." Okay. Sounds like an orange day to me.

Going There Someday

'I will go to the temple. I will marry Curious George there.' - Annie, Family Home Evening, 8/18/08

The Blonde Brigade: Back in Action

Ahh, the memories of a carefree time fraught with intrigue and reckless passion for enterprise! Let's catalog a few reminiscences, shall we? Abandoned carriage house. Check. Crumbling gas station and man wrapped in old bathrobe. Check. International espionage. Definitely. Sir Percy Blakeney, Baronet. Of course. Marcus Gilbert. Double check! Skinny Dipping? I can't reveal all our secrets!

The Blonde Brigade! Doesn't the name itself conjure up romance and excitement? That's certainly what we, the founding members of the Blonde Brigade, think! My readers may be wondering how a handful of Scandinavian descendants in Northern Utah could possibly be involved in such adventure. The answer is simple: imagination!

Long live Ang, Trish, Kay, Jules & Kate (and me, of course)! Long live the Blonde Brigade!

(Now you just have to look at the pictures and guess who is who. Who is the dancing Devonshire Maiden and who is merely represented by a few thousand pixels of color?)

Becoming a Polished Shaft

This is an abrupt change from haikus penned by our dog, but she survived - the girls are home and our relationship is just as strained as ever. I mean my relationship with the dog, not my girls.

The following is on a topic near to my heart lately for a number of reasons I won't go into here. I know, you're probably sick of reading my posts - this is Allison's blog after all.

Other shaken individuals recover their belief in the basic principles [of the Gospel] and events [in Church history] but are never quite the same as before. Their knowledge...gives them a new perspective. They tend to be more philosophic and less dogmatic about all the stories they once enjoyed.

Insights on testimony and growing in the Gospel by the thoughtful but timely Richard Bushman.

Renga - or a Long Haiku

No, I did not eat!
Trembling upon my plush bed -
Watching for my girls.

I need psychiatric meds.
I think I'm going to die.

He made me go out.
Then I dry-heaved for a while -
Feeling quite distraught.

Haiku In 5 Parts: V

My tail is wagging.
Ryan is now my good friend:
He deigned to feed me.

Free Dog to Good Home

Calm down. I'm just kidding...

Haiku In 5 Parts: IV

My hunger is keen
Oh master, I beseech thee.
I must eat now, please!

Aahh...The Bluebird

Today, the girls and I went out to lunch with Bunky and Grandnan. And where did we go? Why, to the Bluebird, of course. The Bluebird is practically an institution in Cache Valley. The food is tasty, the ice-cream is rich and smooth, the chocolates and other delectables from the candy counter are divine, and the ambiance hearkens back to a time when soda fountains were part of everyone's life.

Apparently, there was a problem with the ice-cream freezer last night, resulting in goopy, runny ice-cream today. But that certainly didn't deter my girls! Ice-cream is ice-cream, whether it comes in a block, on a cone, or in a bowl, like soup!

Kansas City may have Sheridan's, but Logan has the Bluebird!

Haiku In 5 Parts: III

I listen for cars,
My ears strain to hear the kids.
Um, Ryan scares me.

Japanese Countryside

Correction: It would have helped in my last post if I had initially made clear that Momofuku Ando was the inventor of instant ramen. In my excitement, I neglected that important fact.

Also, my last post was not intended to elicit dinner invitations, but Jennifer and Sung-ti, thank you. I'll be there. I'll bring some banana cream pie if any is left by then.

Finally, I have a simple but fantastic video of the Japanese countryside that brings back happy memories - the sites and sounds take me back. Watching this, I was also reminded of some imagery in Howl's Moving Castle by Hayao Miyazaki.

And this one should need no explanation.

Haiku In 5 Parts: II

Where are my three girls?
Only the tall man is here;
I am scared of him.

Eating Like a College Student

So my girls have left me and I'm home to fend for myself. The dog's here to keep me company, but it's an awkward dance spending time with her.

As you can imagine, I'm really eating quite well. I eat out so often when traveling that I have really no desire to do so now. I did go to the grocery store after dropping the girls at the airport and picked up a few necessities - you know, a chocolate muffin, lot's of french vanilla and key lime yogurt (they were out of orange cream - quite possibly the Eden of yogurts). The yogurt was only $.39 each, so I bought eleven! I also picked up a frozen pizza and some Art's tortilla chips to go with the hideous Walmart brand salsa Allison bought the other day.

But the best thing I got was the ingredients for a banana cream pie. I came home from the store, baked the frozen pizza for breakfast and, while it was in the oven, made the banana cream pie. It wasn't really gourmet, but who needs gourmet when Nilla wafer crust and banana pudding are involved? It wasn't really set up, but I enjoyed a piece of pie right after my pizza. (It might have been before.) Mmm.

Today the madness, continued. After a day of fasting, I had that chocolate muffin and lots and lots of tortilla chips. Delicious. (And then I didn't feel very well.)

Tomorrow will be better. I think I'll go to the store again with the aim of buying actual food that requires preparation beyond removing it from the package.

But this is really just a setup for my main topic - Ramen. I just saw the trailer for a movie called The Ramen Girl. It doesn't look that good, though the visuals of a ramen shop are particularity evocative to me. (I'm not referring to the girl standing in a towel - that evocative scene wasn't in a ramen shop.)

Probably a better movie is Tampopo, a Japanese spaghetti (noodle) western set in a roadside ramen shop in Japan. Aside from a couple of spots of brief, bizarre sensual content, this is a fantastic movie. (Maybe Clean Flicks should get a hold of this one.) I recommend it to anyone interested in Japan or just a funny show, though you'll probably miss a lot without the cultural context.

Finally, since we're planning on taking another trip to Japan, I thought I'd start posting places I think would be interesting to visit. You see, I've been to the bars, the temples, the massage parlors, the muddy old rivers and reclining Buddhas. Um - scratch the massage parlors and bars.

What I really enjoy is spending time living like the Japanese (hanging out with friends, riding the train, hot springs - preferably riding the train to hang-out at the hot springs) and enjoying the random quirks of Japanese culture. In the spirit of quirkiness, I'll start my list of places to visit with the Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum in Osaka. Momofuku Ando invented instant ramen during Japan's post-war period. Mr. Ando, a Taiwan native, died in early 2007 at age 96, presumably after enjoying one too many bowls of instant ramen.

When Emi was asked to write a report a few days later on an important historical figure, can you guess whom I suggested?

Update: This just might be heaven - Ramen Bath.

Haiku In 5 Parts: I

I am enjoying a little trip to Utah with my girls, leaving Ryan in charge of hearth and home. And Tessa, our devoted canine. Ryan and Tessa's relationship is tenuous at best, and, well, never mind what it is at worst. Despite the 1100 miles or so between us, I think I can gauge Tessa pretty well. This haiku (all 5 parts) is her ode to Ryan:


My mistress is gone
And those little yahoos, too.
When will they return?

But Buddy's not here!

This morning, the girls and I drove Ryan to work. He needed to make a call to one of his clients while en route, so I sternly admonished the girls, "Nobody can talk while Daddy's on the phone." A perplexed voice (sounding rather like Annie) piped up from the back seat, "But Buddy's not here!"