Monday, July 11, 2005

Thank Heaven for Mondays...

Quote of the day: "Worrying is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but doesn't get you anywhere."

My weekend was a little crazy. With Hubby out of town, and a sick child (and one still recuperating) we didn't do much yesterday. Saturday has already been blocked from my memory (see previous post) and luckily Sunday was quiet--except for the rampant cabin fever that my kids are now experiencing.
I find it highly ironic that my kids never get sick all at once, they "bite the dust" one at a time, so I'll have a virus in my house for THREE WEEKS at a time, (and then by the time its gone through each family member, its mutated into something else and re-infects everyone all over again).
No amount of washing sheets and spraying Lysol seems to work, because my kids just can't stay away from each other. They are all very close in age, and ergo, they are very close, and unless I physically quarantine the Sicky in his or her room while they're contagious, whatever one kid has, another kid is bound to get. UGH.

So today we'll tentatively go outside. It's hotter than hades, and our swimming pool is beckoning. (I went and got one of those big blow-up eight foot diameter pools because yes, no fool in Wisconsin would actually invest in an IN-ground pool, because you can only use it two months out of the year--literally.) So we'll see how that goes.

I did something impulsive--we went to the pet store and got a Betta-fish. I picked out a lovely pink one with purple and yellow on its body (a Crown-tail Betta) and lovely blue fins. I started calling her Polly.
Then I got on the phone with my mother, and told her all about Polly. She seemed to think it was funny that I thought my fish was a girl. "All the pretty ones are males," she said. "Just put a mirror in front of it and see what it does."
I was skeptical, but put a mirror beside the fishbowl so Polly could see herself. Then she did something very strange. Her fins fanned out spectacularly, and this big flap on her jowels opened up and flared out at the mirror, so that her head looked twice its size. It actually freaked me out a little bit at first.
So, naturally we stopped calling her Polly, HE is now Paulie, and he's very happy. I have him in a bowl on my desk next to my laptop, and he likes to stare at me, which sometimes is a bit unnerving, but he's a fish for pete's sake. And he's actually kinda cute. When I was choosing Bettas at the store, he's the only one that stopped swimming and stared right at me from his container...all the other fish were too busy darting around and looking freaked.
Today he's been blowing bubbles--I read that it's a healthy thing for males to do. Hopefully he'll live a long, long time. I'm getting pretty attached to the guy already.

In other tidbits of news, I have decided I am moving to Quebec. Apparently a Walmart in Quebec unwittingly sells the Harry Potter books a week early, every time. So there are people out there, reading it as I write this. DARN IT. I am starting to get antsy. You would think it was Christmas or something! Five Days! Five Days...

I got 1300 words out yesterday on my "formerly-Kate-then-Maddy-and-now-I've-finally-settled-on-Emma" Novel. Picking names for main characters can be frustrating, at best. But now the rest seems to be falling into place. Thank heaven I have an awesome writer's forum where I can get support and info--pretty much on any subject. I'm lucky to belong to a group that is diverse and united at the same time.

Well, off to the races! Cheers!

2 comments:

Colin said...

Five words to make a roasting hot Scotsman sick with envy - "our swimming pool is beckoning"

*sigh*

Say hi to Paulie for me - I love fishes! :-)

Michelle Miles said...

The forum rocks, doesn't it? Congrats on your 1300 words! WOOHOO!