lydamorehouse: (Default)
I've been letting pictures do the talking lately partly because my life has not been terribly exciting at the moment. Mason is off school for "summer" (though he goes "year round," which means, while he gets three months off, they're not all in the summer. We only have the month of August off before he starts third grade in September.) We kicked off vacation by going up to our friends' cabin, and now we're settling into days spent at the library.

Mason has really been taking advantage of the library this year. From some friends at school, he'd heard the Roseville Library had the "good prizes" for "Bookawocky," the libraries' promotion to encourage kids to read 20 hours. We'd been meaning to go check it out for months, but we finally made it there early last week. We registered ourselves in their system (since they're officially Ramsey County and our card is only good for St. Paul,) and got ourselves a "Bookawocky" form. Mason dilligently set out to read for 20 hours. It took him three days.

He won a day pass to the Waterpark of America, a ticket to the State Fair, a free book, and a lovely, red water bottle.

During "Bookawocky" madness, we must have also checked out over 20 books, though he's a fast enough reader that he supplimented with some books of his own. He checked out a whole bunch of chapter book sized ones, particularly the Beast Quest series and Bionicles. And, he discovered the joys of putting books on HOLD. He's now become a HOLD expert --and kind of a hoarder. I think the thrill of "request it!" went straight to his head.

Even now that "Bookawocky" is over for him (the rest of you have until the 21st!), he's been starting the day asking when we can go to the library. Routinely, we've driven between both the Roseville one and our own Mirrim Park Branch. Still, it's been fun.

We also went to the Children's Museum on Monday, as it is one of the few museums open on Mondays. Consequentally, it was really quiet at 9:00 am, and Mason nearly had the run of the place. Also, kudos to the kid for checking out the "Passport to Play" from the library, so our trip was free.

I think, however, that Mason might be starting to outgrow the Children's Museum. It's really keyed for kids much younger and I noticed that places that used to entrance him, like the faux restaurant/grocery store just don't hold his interest as long. We still love the Art Park's sandbox, and managed to spend the majority of our time there building sandcastles in the sun.

Luckily, there's still the zoo...

Otherwise, I found some time to finish up Tate's copyedited manuscript for ALMOST EVERYTHING the third Ana book, and I had a very painless experience with the copyeditor. In fact, I probably got the best copy-edit everywhere when s/he informed me that the proper usage of "nom" is "nom nom nom."

Awesome.

Otherwise, I've been kind of low-energy emotionally, and I'm not sure why. Sorting LEGOs on the floor with Mason today helped some. Though I'm still distressed how many minifigs we have that are missing their legs!

Also, I have to confess that we have not been to kuk sool wan in some time because, *cough*, we've been staying home to watch "Master Chef" on Monday and Tuesdays. Probably my mood will lift when we're back on a regular schedule with them... I feel kind of puffy and out of shape. As far as "Master Chef" goes, I'm beginning to be irritated by what clearly seem to be ratings choices. The villian was spared elimination last night, I think unfairly, because he makes a good villian. I'm also really worried that they're going to go with the perky blonde simply because she makes good cover copy for the cookbook. Jaded, I know.
lydamorehouse: (Default)
My family is very odd, indeed. One of our family traditions lately is to settle down on the couch together on Monday and Tuesday nights to tune into "Master Chef." Master Chef, if you don't watch network TV or reality shows, is about a group of ameteur chefs preparing various dishes, taking on culinary challenges (like cooking for 250 kids at a block party,) and generally attempting to impress three gourmet superstars: Chefs Ramses, Graham, and "Zod."

I can not explain my family's attraction to this show. It really ought to be quite boring, but, of course, the various chef superstars ham it up and, when the contestants's entries suck, they spit out food, gag, and throw things in the bin with much panache. There's a designated villian among the amatuer chefs -- this season, it's the arrogant, potty-mouthed Christian. Likewise, there are good guys to root for: Ben Starr is currently my favorite (because my gaydar goes ding), but there are others I like well enough that I wouldn't be disappointed if they won. It's all very melodramatic and manufactured, but we're hooked none-the-less.

The positive outcome of our obsession, however, is this:



On Saturday morning, before I headed off to the con, I pulled out one of my more favorite blueberry muffin recipies and let him read and follow the directions on his own (with only a few helpful hints from me about measuring and whatnot.) Afterwards, we played Master Chef by pretending to be the various chefs commenting on his offering.

Mason really wanted to wear the apron because one of the shticks in Master Chef is that if you get "voted off the island" you have to surrender your Master Chef apron. Theirs are, alas, notably less frilly, but Mason didn't care as long as it was an apron.


May 2025

S M T W T F S
    1 23
4 56 78910
111213 14151617
181920 21 22 2324
25262728293031

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jun. 2nd, 2025 01:14 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios