Thursdays

I figured out my least favorite day of the week, and today is it. Thursdays suck. The week's more than half over, but it's still not Friday. The kids had a short night due to religious education classes. I have no more patience than the sleepy, whimpering five-year-old who can't remember how to dress herself. There's nothing good on television tonight. Oh, and it's -7 degree this morning, which doesn't help at all. Thursday is the worst day of my week.

Late Night Television

The beauty of late night comedy is that by the time it's on, you're so tired, everything is funny. Conan O'Brien can keep me in stitches when I'm exhausted.

Misadventures in Cooking

Dear Reader, I made macaroni salad today. I forgot to make sure the macaroni was cool before mixing. The result was half-melted cubes of cheddar cheese. The salad still tastes delicious, but it's a bit stringy. I highly recommend following the directions when cooking, even if you've made something a thousand times.

New Appliance

My new carpet cleaner arrived today. This is what I got. Not a very good picture, I know. It was the best one I could find.

I know just where to try it out. The carpet in the downstairs hallway is in desperate need of cleaning. It's really too bad I got this just in time for the weekend. I probably can't use it until Tuesday, when the kids go back to school, or they'll be walking all over the wet carpet.

Snow

It's snowing! This isn't the first snow, but it's still kinda exciting.

Patience

Is it normal to have less patience as you get older? I've gotten to the point where I can't stand to sit in one place for too long at one thing. Case in point: I used to love jigsaw puzzles, but the last two times I attempted to put one together, I got bored with it, and had to put it away.

I can't seem to sit through an entire movie, either. They take up so much time, and I keep thinking about all the things that I need to be doing, and how late it's getting. I don't go to the theater more than once a year, so most of my movie viewing is at home.

I think I can still read for hours at a time, and maybe write too if I'm on a roll, but anything else gets boring fast. I don't know if this is good or bad. On the one hand, I get more exercise when I go from task to task. But I don't like the short attention span. I'll have to think about this more later because I have things to do.

Forgotten Blog

After my driving test failure, I haven't felt much like updating this blog. Nothing much has happened anyway. I'm still writing. I'm closing in on 168,000 words. I'm fairly certain I'll break 200,000 before the story is finished. I can't imagine what I'll write next. After putting two or so years into one story, I'll have to start another one, or I'm apt to feel lost. Or worse, give in to the temptation to write a sequel. I do have other stories started, so perhaps I'll feel inspired to take up one of those to finish. I'll just have to make sure I create characters I can have fun writing.

Farmer Girl

I got to help a bit with the harvest this week. I was babysitting the hopper to make sure it didn't overflow with corn while the wagon unloaded. I only helped for a few hours while the angel was napping, but it was fun.

Failure

Well, I failed the road test.

Apprehension

Tomorrow is my driving test. Last night, as I waited for sleep to come, I envisioned all sorts of horrible accidents I could get into. This is not helpful. I'm anxious enough as it is without thoughts of injury or death. I'm not so worried about myself, but that I might hurt someone else. I don't think I could forgive myself if I hurt someone with my car.

On a somewhat unrelated subject, I saw Bourne Ultimatum yesterday(lots of car crashes in that movie). It was beyond awesome, and everyone must see it.

Break Time

After 18 months, I'm taking a break from writing. I figure a month should be long enough. No updates, no deadlines. I can write what I want, when I want; or not at all. It's good to have the pressure off. Granted, I put all that pressure on myself, but I've put more effort into my story than I have into just about anything I've ever done. I think it's good for me.

I can't quite relax though, because my driving test is next week. I haven't driven in over a week. A neck injury prevented driving practice for a few days last week. I've been reading the Wisconsin Motorists' Handbook and Study Guide. A little more practice with parallel parking and negotiating parking lots, and I should be good to go.

Movie Review: The Others

I've been watching some creepy movies lately. With the older movies, it's more of a film study, and I don't get too into the story, but watch for things that made them creepy. The twists are usually predictable, or at least not terribly surprising. But the twist in The Others was great.

The film started out alright. The music wasn't really creepy, the main character seemed a bit odd, but her strangeness was explained away. I settled in for two hours of what I figured would be more mildly creepy stuff with increasingly creepy music.

As the movie progressed, things got weirder and weirder, and I wasn't quite sure what was going on. It was starting to seem like some sick practical joke, 1940s style. Then the twist hit. Wow. I did not see that coming. Rarely does a movie have such a surprise ending.

On a scale of 1 to 10:

Music: 8
Creepiness: 6
Acting: 10
Plot Twists: 10

School

It's finally here: the first day of school. I had the kids ready to go nearly half an hour before the bus came because I figured it would come early due to road construction. It came maybe five minutes early, though we waited about twenty. We had to wait for it at the end of the driveway because the view of the road from the kitchen window is blocked by corn and a tree branch.

All of that waiting would have been alright if I hadn't injured my neck yesterday. I woke up yesterday morning, adjusted my neck as I usually do, and got a cramp, or so I thought. Turns out I pinched a nerve or ligament or something. I've done this before. It takes a few days to get better. Meanwhile, my head is almost constantly tilted to the left, I can't make sudden movements, and I can't turn my head very far to the right.

The limited range of motion will keep me from practicing my driving for a few days. The last practice went rather well. I didn't get lost, but the Wal-Mart parking lot continues to torture me. Hopefully, my neck will get better soon, and I'll get more practice in before my road test in two weeks.

Driving #3

The last driving session went very well. I'm still getting the hang of some of those hills and get going a little fast on the downhill side, but aside from the incidental speeding, I didn't break any laws.

I was also able to get to my destination without first getting lost. This is very big for me. Unfortunately, I wasn't in my hometown. I still don't know my way around very well, and I don't know why I can't figure it out.

My road test is scheduled for mid-September. I get nervous just thinking about it, so I try not to. At least I have a few more weeks to practice.

Little Known Artist of the Month

The Little Known Artist of the Month for August:

The Elected

This band has an old sound that's great on rainy days or when you just feel like taking it easy. Check out their website and listen to "Fireflies in a Steel Mill." You'll swear you've tuned into an oldies station. You can even buy their albums in vinyl format!

This video is pretty neat, too:

More Driving

Today's driving went very well. I only missed one turn, and had to go around the block, but in my defense, I didn't have enough room to get into the left lane on the first pass.

I have no sense of direction. I just don't know my way around. For example: I know how to get to Kwik Trip coming into town from the North. I can even get there from the back way around the church. But I don't know how to get there from the Hospital.

Hopefully, I'll figure this all out with practice.

Driving

I'm learning to drive this year. My husband is my driving teacher, so that adds a new level of difficulty. His favorite teaching methods are overreacting, and explaining what would happen if the roads were icy and how our insurance rates would go sky high.

Every time I drive, I run into some new situation that I need to work on. First, it was slowing down for turns. After that, pedestrians on the road. Then came farm machinery. Now I'm having trouble with parking, and stop lights.

I did stop for the red light, barely. I was thinking about where I needed to turn, and didn't slow down soon enough. So, I need to work on my concentration, which is nothing new. I've always had a one-track mind, so multi-tasking is difficult.

The next driving adventure should come on Tuesday.

Tired

I think I'll start a new feature here at the Soap Box: You Know You're Too Tired When...

...When you try to wash your hands with toothpaste.

I did that today. It took me a minute to figure out that it was toothpaste and not soap, never mind that soap doesn't come in tubes.

My Day

Dear Reader, today was very busy. We have company coming tomorrow, so I spent most of the morning cleaning. To break up the monotony, I cleaned in shifts, spending 15 minutes in one room, then 15 minutes in another and so on. The house looks great, but I'm exhausted.

I gave the three older girls haircuts, and they all look pretty decent.

The angel is sick. She threw up in the van on the way home from church. Poor little thing. She had to take another bath(she hates baths), and go straight to bed. Hopefully, she'll be better tomorrow.

Guitar

I've been playing my guitar a little bit every day. I'm getting much better at playing the same songs over and over, but I've been thinking about getting some sort of instructional video to improve my playing over all.

In other news, I had another actual conversation with my father-in-law yesterday. We talked for about an hour, covering subjects ranging from driving practice to disciplining children. This is good.