Fun with Mitchell and Webb

Here is a British duo that Rachel introduced me to (although I did see another show with these two actors called Peep Show, so really Rachel just introduced me to That Mitchell and Webb Look):

This needs no explanation

An infinite jest or maybe not

I write like
David Foster Wallace

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I've only read a little bit of David Foster Wallace, but maybe I should be adding more footnotes, and footnotes for those footnotes. But apparently

I write like
J. K. Rowling

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Needless to say, I've read all the Harry Potter books, some twice. But also

I write like
Chuck Palahniuk

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But most awesomely:

I write like
Jane Austen

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Although I may have skewed the results a little bit, because I used a super long blog post about Persuasion

On the Flipside

I know I complained about the BBC version of The 39 steps yesterday, but I am not repeating that today. New BBC episodes of Miss Marple have been airing on PBS, and I've really liked the two new episodes "The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side" and the "Secret of Chimneys". And I get to play my favorite game of spot the British Actor; there was a good one in The Secret of Chimneys, which feature Jonas Armstrong (who was Robin Hood in the recent BBC series). He was almost unrecognizable from Robin Hood because he was clean, shaved, and gained about 15 pounds. So unlike the 39 steps, the casting in the new Miss Marple is fantastic (I won't talk about the Miss Marple with Geraldine McEwan because I'm totally conflicted about those; I enjoy watching them but I know they could have been so much better). I am enjoying the last new one called The Blue Geranium (right now) because one of the characters is a super bitch (and she gets killed). Here are two of my favorite lines of hers:

"No not those, the truffles you useless girl"
"But not you, you are being annoying. It's alright if bad things happen to you"

Sorry Rupert, you are just too young

I finally watched the PBS/BBC version of The 39 Steps. I've seen the Hitchcock version and I love version very much (which is pretty much a given, because I love about 85% of all Hitchcock movies). But I was kind of disappointed in this version. This version was closer to the book but the plot was a little bit of mess and the end is kind of a downer. The cast wasn't too great either ( I did get to say "Hey, it's Rick from Bleak House" and "Oh, that guy from Little Dorrit" which was pretty special). I'm sorry Rupert Penry-Jones, you are just too good looking (and young looking) to be convincing in an action role. The first thing that I saw him was Cold Comfort Farm where he has basically eye candy. I have no problem watching thriller/action movies that do not have typically action stars in them (like probably every Hitchcock movie, except maybe Foreign Correspondent because Joel McRea does look like he could beat some people up), but Rupert-Penry Jones just looks too boyish. And as my mom can attest, I was really mad when I saw the more recent BBC version of Jane Austen's Persuasion because there is no way this man:

spent anytime (let alone eight years) on a navel ship in the West Indies.

Lotion Attempt No. 1

Over the long holiday weekend, Rachel and I finally made our first attempt at making lotion. We settled on making a diaper cream for Maddox and after looking a a few recipes, we ended using the recipe from the class we attended but made a few changes. We used beeswax, cocoa butter, and calendula infused olive-oil for the oil part. I have to say that it is quite an adjust from soap making where changing the type of oil can wreck the whole batch if you don't adjust for it with the lye and water. For the water part, we used lavender water and a bit of aloe vera juice. We also added a little bit of liquid lecithin to make the cream thick (the lecithin is the consistency of honey, but about 30 times for sticky and 1000 times harder to wash off). The lotion didn't quite come together all the way (we think the batch size was too small for effective mixing), but just like in my soap making experience, a little bit of blending with the stick blender made the lotion come together better. We added some zinc oxide to the lotion and now it in a container on the changing table with the name "Diaper Creme". And it smells like chocolate and looks like pale yellow butter cream icing.

Now Summer is here

In the midst of this heat wave that the whole East coast is having (it feels like I'm living in Indiana for the summer, I thought it was supposed cooler in place of higher latitude), Trey and Rachel put in an air-conditioner in the office but Rachel declared that to be not enough and so she and I put a second one in the kitchen (and then put up blankets to keep the cool in and the heat out). Despite the increased area in coolness, Rachel, Ellis, Maddox, and I went to Sand Bar Park yesterday to cool off. The park is on the shores of Lake Champlain by a sandbar (hence the name) which means the water is pretty shallow until about 50 feet out (I didn't go that far out because Ellis was with me in the water). The park was really nice with lots of trees and picnic tables and not overly crowded. We all waded out in the water when we got there, but Maddox didn't like to water to much (he liked it when it was just his toes dipped in, but he didn't like his upper thigh and butt in the water) so Rachel and Maddox headed back in while Ellis and I floated about. We had packed a little picnic lunch of egg salad sandwiches, sweet cherries, yogurt, cheese, granola bars, and yogurt covered raisins. After finishing lunch, Rachel hung out on the blanket with Maddox to do some editing work while Ellis and I went back out to the water. My attempts to teach Ellis how to float on his back did not go well but he did seem to enjoy being in the water. Or at least he enjoy hanging onto my neck while it swam around a little bit (I now understand why my mother hated us doing that to her. Rachel and Ellis did spend a little more time in the water while I packed up everything. I think everyone had a really good time, except I got a sunburn on my shoulders and back. But it wouldn't really be summer if I didn't get a sunburn.

Silly or Scary

The past two weeks have been full of changes around here. Ellis's last day of school was the 18th so now, I take care of both boys during the day. Fortunately, Rachel changed to going to the lab part time, so I have Ellis and Maddox alone for only 2.5 days a week. The first week was a little rocky, but this past week was a lot better. Wisely, Rachel stocked up one some crafty activities for Ellis and I to do together. So far, I have tattooed Ellis (with tattoos from Toy Story 3), done a paint by number, and Ellis has painted 6 plaster masterpieces. But, his favorite activity by far has been the monster puppets. For 3 days straight, the morning began with making monster puppets (the pieces have Velcro on the back, so they are reusable). Here are 2 of Ellis's masterpieces: