Oblique House

Monday, May 26, 2008

Students vote on whether 5-year-old can stay in class
Early childhood education/Lord of the Flies.
Disturbing bedtime reading. Especially disturbing to any mother who has had a child with some school issues.

When I was in Kindergarten, there was a boy who always had a rather disturbing accretion of neon greenish ooze around his nostrils. If I had been asked, he would have been my first choice to be voted out. That is just one personal example why five-year-olds are under adult supervision. Supervision. By adults. Who act like adults.

Let's watch Spiders on Drugs one more time. Maybe it will help me forget...
posted by Ellyn - Monday, May 26, 2008 -

Oh the ~~humanity~~ vegetation!
We weren't expecting the lawn guys on Monday. Especially a holiday Monday. The edging around the out of control pampas grass surrounding the mailbox was most appreciated. In fact, I even toyed with the idea of running the phrase "dig it all up - go ahead and kill it" through an online translator and yelling the results out the window.

"!Alto!" would have been better. While we were relishing the control of the pampas grass, the lawn guy was 'cultivating' the front garden that Fran has been working on for many weeks. The big plants are sort of unscathed but the seedlings...well, we can hope that there is enough life left that something will come of them. Oy, I'm having flashbacks to the afternoon when I found two landscapers crouched down, deftly plucking my little ornamental khales. The ones that had managed to survive the attack of the bunnies. Now compassion for laborers forced to work on a national holiday has changed to resentment and speculation about their passive-aggressive work style. They lawn guys are contracted thru the homeowners association, so we have no say on who, when, why or how. Unless maybe we went to the association meetings. Highly unlikely.
posted by Ellyn - Monday, May 26, 2008 -

"So, is your mom, like, crazy religious?"
"Crazy? Sure. Religious? Yes.
But not crazy religious."

Fran's friend sees the May Altar pics on her camera. Fran answers ensuing questions with patient aplomb. Her patience being well-exercised by teaching mom how to take pictures and upload them to her lap-top. Oh, and running into Office Max after failing to find the proper cord during the bi-weekly WalMart grocery ordeal. (Just because we have more cords than some planes have snakes...well, no plane, no matter how accursed, is carrying every snake.)
posted by Ellyn - Monday, May 26, 2008 -

For Your Grilling Enjoyment!

Ed checks out 21st century streamlined (Cocktail)Wienermobile!
posted by Ellyn - Monday, May 26, 2008 -

Sunday, May 25, 2008

May Altar

posted by Ellyn - Sunday, May 25, 2008 -

Eureka
posted by Ellyn - Sunday, May 25, 2008 -

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

The Provincial Emails - keeping an eye on the Milwaukee area, so I don’t have to. (Though there was no mention of the planned razing of the Grafton Hotel or Cedarburg’s St. Francis Borgia Catholic Church and its Cub Scout’s holding a Memorial Day ceremony for Thomas Barrett, a Civil War veteran who enlisted in the Union army at age 16 and was killed in battle. I never knew.)

But we do get this...a little late for my personal St. Dymphna day special (2 disturbed callers for the “price” of one ) but just in time for the full moon:
"Cecelia has been stalking the parish for at least 10 years," he wrote in the petition. "She parks in front of the rectory where she claims she has visions. She has been ordered to move many times by the police. She always returns. The school children are afraid of her presence. Older parishioners are annoyed by her presence and she appears to be dead in the car. She has made bizarre and false statements to the police concerning her presence at the church.

So much for Protecting God’s Children. She sits in a running car while the children are going to and from school. The police and EMTs are continually called because she appears to be unresponsive. Our current Virtus On-Line bulletin has this current poll question: Have you ever confronted another adult because you felt that they were potentially placing children at risk? The responses were yes or no. No place for the pastor to respond “failed to get an injunction.”

"She said I should stop looking at her because I was the Antichrist. I've been called worse," (Ald.) Dudzik said.
Yeah, that’s a heady and humbling feeling. I had a co-worker who could no longer look at me. And it wasn’t because of my devastating good looks.
posted by Ellyn - Wednesday, May 21, 2008 -

For the tresmillesimus…
Magnificat anima mea Dominum
Et exultavit spiritus meus in Deo salutari!!!
posted by Ellyn - Wednesday, May 21, 2008 -

There, but for family obligations, job commitments and other life choices, go I...
Armed with Sharpies, erasers and righteous indignation, two apostles of the apostrophe make it their crusade to rid the world of bad signs.
I would hope to do it with charity. But I would love to do it!
posted by Ellyn - Wednesday, May 21, 2008 -

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

...the WASP equivalent of Montezuma's Revenge
TS confirms my apprehensions about amazon's Kindle.
posted by Ellyn - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 -

Federal Appeals Court Rules that Paper Money is Unfair to Blind
May it also be noted that...
...blindness is unfair.
...paper money and coins are unfair to the arthritic.
...money is unfair to people who don't have any.
...changing the size of paper money might help the blind, but would be unfair to makers of cash drawers, wallets, offering envelopes etc.
...life is unfair.
posted by Ellyn - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 -

Monday, May 19, 2008

Today...
May 19 - Charles is the last of the kids to celebrate a golden birthday. This is a custom that I have learned through my children. Poor deprived souls such as my husband and myself - both having birthdays on the first of the month - grew up oblivious to the honor. It has taken me all this time - six children; twenty nine years - to come up with the perfect way to commemorate the golden day. Wilton Elegant Shimmer Dust! It’s edible, FDA-approved and certified kosher.

I ordered the chocolate cake that Chuck requested. I picked it up after work and rushed it home to dust the white flowers and scallops. It was not quite as golden as I had hoped - I could have gotten away with yellow sanding sugars - but I didn’t dust it as thickly as I could have, for fear that it might have a bitter taste. (Why bitter? I don’t know. Gold looks like it would be bitter. You know, rather than salty, sweet or sour.)

Chuck lavished praise on the golden flowers, his birthday gift to me. Humor Mom. After making sure the gold is edible.

The rest of the gold - along with silver and pearl - is hidden in my bedroom, instead of with the rest of the cake decorating supplies. We don’t want any gonzo cookie decorator to turn a single Christmas cookie into a mini mother lode.

The rest of the birthday festivities have been fun. Chuck, Martha, Eddie, Rick and I went to see Iron Man. Iron Man would not have been my choice for a good time, but it isn’t my birthday. And, I am amazed to admit, it was a good movie. Robert Downey, Jr. is wonderful. There is plenty of technology and action but it is accompanied by an engaging story. And now, with a bit of a head-ache precipitated by sitting in the fourth row at Showplace 8 compounded by popcorn and gilded frosting, I am off to bed. Chuck and Eddie have their second wind and are downstairs playing with a new XBox game. More power to them!
posted by Ellyn - Monday, May 19, 2008 -

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Closing In...
on my big 3,000th post. I would hope that it would be significant. I'll start by delineating topics that I won't touch...
*dogs
*jury duty
*dog odors
*ComEd, North Shore Gas or $4/gallon gasoline
*my mailman
*our car
*textured linoleum
*dog hair
*hand-tooled reproduction Victorian tin tinsel
*celebrity gossip
*Oregon Catholic Press
*the 'Belle Reve' Homeowners Association
*The Chicago Tribune
*Lansinoh and how much I love it
*WalMart and how much I hate it
*Target and how much I love it!
*my collection of plastic body parts
*L.L. Bean Maine-Isle flip-flops

That about clears the docket.
posted by Ellyn - Tuesday, May 13, 2008 -

AAUGH!
A whole 8 days of Mother's Day! Including the first time in three years that I've been able to make my May Altar. And I even pulled myself together enough to have Franny teach me how to use her digital camera so I could post details here. Then...we can't find the cord for uploading the pics. There are cords everywhere. It's like the set of Snakes on a Plane - with cords! (And I've done my best Samuel L. Jackson impression, too, when tripping on the them) But not a one that fits Fran's camera. So, of course, none of the computers here can have a memory card directly inserted. Perhaps the cord was a collateral casualty of the big Mother's Day Living Room Clean Up. Which means there is 90% chance that it's here - just displaced. We'll just pack it in for the day and try again tomorrow.
"Enough is enough! I have had it with these ************* cords in this ************* house!"
posted by Ellyn - Tuesday, May 13, 2008 -

Friday, May 09, 2008

Lake Forest Theater of the Absurd
Lawyers, Guns and Money Edition.
All courtesy of the Chicago Trib...'cuz there's too much absurd to wait for the Lake Forester.

Dozens of illegal guns seized in raid on commodities trader's home in Lake Forest
This is one where it does pay to read to the end of the article: Neighbors who asked not to be identified said they rarely saw Stevens, but that he recently had been upset about flooding at his residence following a water-main break in the neighborhood.

He appears to have himself under control. He was sitting on 85 assorted weapons and 50,000 rounds of ammunition. But did he try to take on the DPW? No. Unless he was arming himself for the next break down in what has come to be expected as top of the line public services. Or maybe he was just getting ready in case of an attack by, say, crazed pigs.

Court held in suburban yard
This would have had more pizazz if the judge were wearing a judicial robe instead of typical North Shore mom Talbott's gear.

Gone from today's paper, but never far from our hearts, of course, are (as seen on Good Morning America!)Mrs. Walgreen's Pigs.

And from the neighbors in Highland Park - a fate far worse than living next to pigs that burb and grunt like ill-mannered school boys:
First the skunk. Then the bigger stink.
Stench drives family from home for a year.
posted by Ellyn - Friday, May 09, 2008 -

		Oblique House

*where nothing is quite parallel nor perpendicular and likewise not as bleak as it may sound...... Observations of an opinionated Catholic home-schooling mother...* *E-Mail* The Weather in Lake Bluff *It is right to begin with the obligations of home, and, while these are overlooked and neglected, no other duties can possibly be substituted for them.* - Charles Dickens We never ever do nothin' nice and easy - We always do it nice... and rough -Tina Turner St. Isidore Foundation I cannot live under pressures from patrons, let alone paint. -- Michelangelo, quoted in Vasari's Lives of the Artists Coming soon... New! Improved! Expanded! Meet the Family... Collect the Action Figures Yes, three jade ribbons. 15 Years! (not all the same child) If you need to ask, you may not wish to know. You can call me "Mom" LINKS CLOSED FOR CLEAN-UP! Archives *"Missing" Archives* 08/25/2002 09/01/2002 09/08/2002 09/15/2002 09/22/2002 09/29/2002 10/06/2002 10/13/2002 12/01/2002 12/08/2002 12/16/2002 12/22/2002 12/29/2002		Monday, May 26, 2008 Students vote on whether 5-year-old can stay in class Early childhood education/Lord of the Flies. Disturbing bedtime reading. Especially disturbing to any mother who has had a child with some school issues. When I was in Kindergarten, there was a boy who always had a rather disturbing accretion of neon greenish ooze around his nostrils. If I had been asked, he would have been my first choice to be voted out. That is just one personal example why five-year-olds are under adult supervision. Supervision. By adults. Who act like adults. Let's watch Spiders on Drugs one more time. Maybe it will help me forget... posted by Ellyn - Monday, May 26, 2008 - Oh the ~~humanity~~ vegetation! We weren't expecting the lawn guys on Monday. Especially a holiday Monday. The edging around the out of control pampas grass surrounding the mailbox was most appreciated. In fact, I even toyed with the idea of running the phrase "dig it all up - go ahead and kill it" through an online translator and yelling the results out the window. "!Alto!" would have been better. While we were relishing the control of the pampas grass, the lawn guy was 'cultivating' the front garden that Fran has been working on for many weeks. The big plants are sort of unscathed but the seedlings...well, we can hope that there is enough life left that something will come of them. Oy, I'm having flashbacks to the afternoon when I found two landscapers crouched down, deftly plucking my little ornamental khales. The ones that had managed to survive the attack of the bunnies. Now compassion for laborers forced to work on a national holiday has changed to resentment and speculation about their passive-aggressive work style. They lawn guys are contracted thru the homeowners association, so we have no say on who, when, why or how. Unless maybe we went to the association meetings. Highly unlikely. posted by Ellyn - Monday, May 26, 2008 - "So, is your mom, like, crazy religious?" "Crazy? Sure. Religious? Yes. But not crazy religious." Fran's friend sees the May Altar pics on her camera. Fran answers ensuing questions with patient aplomb. Her patience being well-exercised by teaching mom how to take pictures and upload them to her lap-top. Oh, and running into Office Max after failing to find the proper cord during the bi-weekly WalMart grocery ordeal. (Just because we have more cords than some planes have snakes...well, no plane, no matter how accursed, is carrying every snake.) posted by Ellyn - Monday, May 26, 2008 - For Your Grilling Enjoyment! Ed checks out 21st century streamlined (Cocktail)Wienermobile! posted by Ellyn - Monday, May 26, 2008 - Sunday, May 25, 2008 May Altar posted by Ellyn - Sunday, May 25, 2008 - Eureka posted by Ellyn - Sunday, May 25, 2008 - Wednesday, May 21, 2008 The Provincial Emails - keeping an eye on the Milwaukee area, so I don’t have to. (Though there was no mention of the planned razing of the Grafton Hotel or Cedarburg’s St. Francis Borgia Catholic Church and its Cub Scout’s holding a Memorial Day ceremony for Thomas Barrett, a Civil War veteran who enlisted in the Union army at age 16 and was killed in battle. I never knew.) But we do get this...a little late for my personal St. Dymphna day special (2 disturbed callers for the “price” of one ) but just in time for the full moon: "Cecelia has been stalking the parish for at least 10 years," he wrote in the petition. "She parks in front of the rectory where she claims she has visions. She has been ordered to move many times by the police. She always returns. The school children are afraid of her presence. Older parishioners are annoyed by her presence and she appears to be dead in the car. She has made bizarre and false statements to the police concerning her presence at the church. So much for Protecting God’s Children. She sits in a running car while the children are going to and from school. The police and EMTs are continually called because she appears to be unresponsive. Our current Virtus On-Line bulletin has this current poll question: Have you ever confronted another adult because you felt that they were potentially placing children at risk? The responses were yes or no. No place for the pastor to respond “failed to get an injunction.” "She said I should stop looking at her because I was the Antichrist. I've been called worse," (Ald.) Dudzik said. Yeah, that’s a heady and humbling feeling. I had a co-worker who could no longer look at me. And it wasn’t because of my devastating good looks. posted by Ellyn - Wednesday, May 21, 2008 - For the tresmillesimus… Magnificat anima mea Dominum Et exultavit spiritus meus in Deo salutari!!! posted by Ellyn - Wednesday, May 21, 2008 - There, but for family obligations, job commitments and other life choices, go I... Armed with Sharpies, erasers and righteous indignation, two apostles of the apostrophe make it their crusade to rid the world of bad signs. I would hope to do it with charity. But I would love to do it! posted by Ellyn - Wednesday, May 21, 2008 - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 ...the WASP equivalent of Montezuma's Revenge TS confirms my apprehensions about amazon's Kindle. posted by Ellyn - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - Federal Appeals Court Rules that Paper Money is Unfair to Blind May it also be noted that... ...blindness is unfair. ...paper money and coins are unfair to the arthritic. ...money is unfair to people who don't have any. ...changing the size of paper money might help the blind, but would be unfair to makers of cash drawers, wallets, offering envelopes etc. ...life is unfair. posted by Ellyn - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - Monday, May 19, 2008 Today... May 19 - Charles is the last of the kids to celebrate a golden birthday. This is a custom that I have learned through my children. Poor deprived souls such as my husband and myself - both having birthdays on the first of the month - grew up oblivious to the honor. It has taken me all this time - six children; twenty nine years - to come up with the perfect way to commemorate the golden day. Wilton Elegant Shimmer Dust! It’s edible, FDA-approved and certified kosher. I ordered the chocolate cake that Chuck requested. I picked it up after work and rushed it home to dust the white flowers and scallops. It was not quite as golden as I had hoped - I could have gotten away with yellow sanding sugars - but I didn’t dust it as thickly as I could have, for fear that it might have a bitter taste. (Why bitter? I don’t know. Gold looks like it would be bitter. You know, rather than salty, sweet or sour.) Chuck lavished praise on the golden flowers, his birthday gift to me. Humor Mom. After making sure the gold is edible. The rest of the gold - along with silver and pearl - is hidden in my bedroom, instead of with the rest of the cake decorating supplies. We don’t want any gonzo cookie decorator to turn a single Christmas cookie into a mini mother lode. The rest of the birthday festivities have been fun. Chuck, Martha, Eddie, Rick and I went to see Iron Man. Iron Man would not have been my choice for a good time, but it isn’t my birthday. And, I am amazed to admit, it was a good movie. Robert Downey, Jr. is wonderful. There is plenty of technology and action but it is accompanied by an engaging story. And now, with a bit of a head-ache precipitated by sitting in the fourth row at Showplace 8 compounded by popcorn and gilded frosting, I am off to bed. Chuck and Eddie have their second wind and are downstairs playing with a new XBox game. More power to them! posted by Ellyn - Monday, May 19, 2008 - Tuesday, May 13, 2008 Closing In... on my big 3,000th post. I would hope that it would be significant. I'll start by delineating topics that I won't touch... dogs jury duty dog odors ComEd, North Shore Gas or $4/gallon gasoline my mailman our car textured linoleum dog hair hand-tooled reproduction Victorian tin tinsel celebrity gossip Oregon Catholic Press the 'Belle Reve' Homeowners Association The Chicago Tribune Lansinoh and how much I love it WalMart and how much I hate it Target and how much I love it! my collection of plastic body parts L.L. Bean Maine-Isle flip-flops That about clears the docket. posted by Ellyn - Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - AAUGH! A whole 8 days of Mother's Day! Including the first time in three years that I've been able to make my May Altar. And I even pulled myself together enough to have Franny teach me how to use her digital camera so I could post details here. Then...we can't find the cord for uploading the pics. There are cords everywhere. It's like the set of Snakes on a Plane - with cords! (And I've done my best Samuel L. Jackson impression, too, when tripping on the them) But not a one that fits Fran's camera. So, of course, none of the computers here can have a memory card directly inserted. Perhaps the cord was a collateral casualty of the big Mother's Day Living Room Clean Up. Which means there is 90% chance that it's here - just displaced. We'll just pack it in for the day and try again tomorrow. "Enough is enough! I have had it with these *********** cords in this *********** house!" posted by Ellyn - Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - Friday, May 09, 2008 Lake Forest Theater of the Absurd Lawyers, Guns and Money Edition. All courtesy of the Chicago Trib...'cuz there's too much absurd to wait for the Lake Forester. Dozens of illegal guns seized in raid on commodities trader's home in Lake Forest This is one where it does pay to read to the end of the article: Neighbors who asked not to be identified said they rarely saw Stevens, but that he recently had been upset about flooding at his residence following a water-main break in the neighborhood. He appears to have himself under control. He was sitting on 85 assorted weapons and 50,000 rounds of ammunition. But did he try to take on the DPW? No. Unless he was arming himself for the next break down in what has come to be expected as top of the line public services. Or maybe he was just getting ready in case of an attack by, say, crazed pigs. Court held in suburban yard This would have had more pizazz if the judge were wearing a judicial robe instead of typical North Shore mom Talbott's gear. Gone from today's paper, but never far from our hearts, of course, are (as seen on Good Morning America!)Mrs. Walgreen's Pigs. And from the neighbors in Highland Park - a fate far worse than living next to pigs that burb and grunt like ill-mannered school boys: First the skunk. Then the bigger stink. Stench drives family from home for a year. posted by Ellyn - Friday, May 09, 2008 -