From Camel to Duck

I made such a rookie parenting mistake—I asked my two and a half year old what she wanted to be for Halloween. I asked so early because I'd like to make most or all of her costume, and one needs a bit of lead time for that sort of thing.

It took a bit of time to explain the dress-up bit, but she understand pretending, and I told her there was a day when she could pretend to be something or someone and she could dress up and have a lot of fun.

"So what would you like to be? An animal?"

"Yes! Animal!"

"How about a kitty?" (I said, envisioning making her a black hat with two little kitty ears on it, and some sort of tail.)

"Kitty! Teddy bear!"

Ah, teddy bear. That's not so bad. Brown hat with round ears, brown sweater and pants. Maybe some felt spats to cover her shoes...

"Camel!"

Camel. Ah, well. I guess I could...or...um... Knit some humps? Rig up a hat with a nose on it that spits at people?

"Are you sure? Wouldn't you rather be a kitty? Or a duck? Or a teddy bear?"

"Duck!" (relief) "No! Camel!" (aw, darnit)

I'm still hoping to turn her to kitty or duck. Teddy bear would be all right too. And she can be a camel if she wants. I'll come up with something. But still, it won't be as comfortable, so she'd probably wriggle out of a camel costume and then not have as much fun dressing up.

In my first salvo in the skirmish to change her mind, I made a hat she could use if she agrees to dress up as a duck.

Come on. Wouldn't you be a duck if you had that hat?

Building with Duplos

(Yes, I realize it's probably "Duplo" in plural and not "Duplos". I just think it's a little silly.)

One of the great things about having a child is watching them gradually learn how to do things, and to realize how many of the more creative impulses we have are innate. I never told her to build animals out of the various Duplo blocks she has. Some of them have eyes on them, and she took it from there.

The creations so far:

And there was another red animal of some kind that was demolished before I could get to it with the camera.

I'm pretty amazed at how creative they are, but that they are still recognizable as animals. Why do we become less brilliant and freely creative as we get older?

But You're Not There on Saturday and Sunday, Morons!

You know what ticks me off? When people who send you bills give them due dates on a Saturday or Sunday. Listen, I know the bills are auto-generated, but it's not hard to code it so they check to see if the due date falls on a weekend. It's really not. If it's Saturday, make it due one day earlier. If it's Sunday, make it due one day later. Then hard code in all the bank holidays each year and change the dates for those, too.

You know I'll pay you on the earlier day to avoid late charges, even though you should round up to Monday for a Sunday due date. You might even do that, but I don't know and I certainly refuse to navigate your phone tree to ask you, only to have your CSR probably give me the wrong answer so I get hit with a late fee anyway.

Bills are soul-suckingly annoying to deal with anyway (and before some helpful soul tells me to have them auto-debited, HELL NO. There is no way I'm not going to go over the bills with a fine-toothed comb, and you have a much better position to argue with them over a bad charge when they don't have your money yet and they only get it when I okay the bill and send in payment) and then the companies go and give them impossible due dates. Don't make me come over there, billers. I'm going to count to ten!

I Guess I Have to Buy Singstar Now?

Good news: Queen music in a video game. Bad news: It's for Singstar.

So, hey, the good news is that there's now a music game that features Queen. The bad news is a) it's apparently for PS2?!? (wtf) b) there's no track list for it yet c) it's singing only and not for one of the "whole band" games. Not as fun, Sony, NOT AS FUN.

I suppose there's a few upsides. It's not going to be in Guitar Hero, thus forcing me to buy it, because, you know...Queen. I lied. There's only one upside, and that's it.

Does anyone know what the chances are that a PS2 Singstar game will run in emulation mode on PS3? I mean, I read an article on the Playstation blog that makes it sound like I can play songs from a PS2 Singstar game if I own a copy of a PS3 Singstar game, but DO NOT WANT. I just want to buy the one game with my Queen happiness in it. (I also know that the 40gb PS3 doesn't have any emulation software on it at all, but I'm pretty sure we just have a puny 20gb PS3 that should have it.)

**shakes fist at the world...why didn't Rock Band get there first?**

Best Timing Ever

The B and I walked up to the community poolhouse for her to play in the kiddie pool after she woke up from her nap this afternoon. The clouds looked a little gray, but it didn't really look or feel like rain other than that.

We got there (after I had to yell "No! Go home!" at a dog that got out of its fenced-in yard on the way there, but the 'Everyone in Colorado has to own a dog and then get a shitty fence' rant is for another day) and she played. It was a random amount of time; nothing that was planned ahead of time but something that seemed long enough for her to play but not too long.

We left (with no tantrum, yay!) and walked home. I even took my time when we got to the house pulling a couple of weeds out of the rockbed next to the driveway, and then I walked under the alcove at the front door of the house. I heard a funny noise behind me and turned just in time to see the skies open up and a veritable deluge of water come down. It's like it was waiting for us to get under cover and then it all was released.

Weird, but it made me feel oddly lucky, like I should go buy a lottery ticket or something.

Ant and/or Dec

Ant and/or Dec

Turned on the first ten minutes or so of the newest television reality offering. I admit that I was drawn in because the people playing were "celebrities" (as in, I knew who one of them was) and they were playing to win money for charities, and not for themselves. I think it was called "Bet You" or something like that. I could look it up, but eh, my kid's still restless in bed and if I have to listen to her fighting sleep by singing and kicking the bars of her toddler bed, you should have to do your own damn research if the exact title means so much to you.

Anyway.

The hosts were familiar in that I've-seen-them-in-one-other-place sort of way. British, so that was a bit of a clue, and helped me rule some possibilities out. Suddenly, I wondered aloud, "Hey, I think that's Ant and/or Dec!"

My husband, though he may deny this, has seen the movie Love, Actually nearly as much as I have, which is to say, far too many times. My favorite character from that movie, personally, is Billy Mack. Those of you who have also seen the movie might recall an appearance Billy Mack makes on a talk show (chat show, to you Anglophiles and/or actual Brits) where he writes naughty things on a picture of the group Blue, his main competition for the Christmas Eve #1 single. He referred to the host he addressed directly as "Ant or Dec", meaning that he had no idea which one the guy he was talking to actually was, and furthermore, couldn't care any less about whether he ever found out. Interchangeable little talk show hosts.

So, back in the Real World, I hit the Info button on my remote to see if the, well, 'info' there would tell us who the hosts of this (fairly wretched) new show were. Damned if they weren't Ant and/or Dec, whom I recognized ONLY from their brief appearance in the movie Love, Actually.

The mister opined that we should actively avoid for the rest of our lives discovering which one is actually Ant and which one is Dec, and I think that's a valid tribute to good old Billy Mack. I'll start with not watching their little betting show again, regardless of the fact that I think it's nice that one of those shows is giving money to charities instead of out to regular people who will only go spend it at Wal*Mart on stuff that will break three months from now. The show was that silly.

But I love ya, Ant and/or Dec. But really only because you were in Love, Actually.