Friday, October 28, 2011

An icky word for Halloween

Random Research led us this week into the realm of sleepy sand—that grainy stuff in your eyes when you wake up in the morning, whatever your family calls it. Its real name is

Gound (pronounced "gowned")

We also learned another of its nicknames: optiboogers. And we agreed that Optiboogers would be an excellent name for a rock band. Also Gingerbread Godzilla. And Giant Pez Dispenser. Stay tuned for gingerbread Godzilla, whom we all decided should make an appearance this Christmas.

Anyway, gound is composed of mucus, tears, and/or dust, and it forms because you're not blinking those things away when you're asleep.

What is your family's word for gound?


Sunday, October 23, 2011

The CAKE OF THE APOCALYPSE!



It took however long it took (long!), but we have finished reading the New Testament as a family. We generally celebrate scripture-reading milestones with a cake, and this one merited a big cake. Since the New Testament ends in the Book of Revelation, that was on everyone's mind when we started cake designing. And John's vision lends itself to expression in Legos and cake. So here we have...

The Cake of the Apocalypse!


 Note the 7-headed beast.



Also the Pearly Metal Detector (they might have taken some poetic license).

Everyone had a much better time designing hell than heaven. Much cake was had by all!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

He can fly!

We went to Washington, D.C. for the last few days, and saw all we could before our legs, feet, and brains gave out. Interesting study in gratitude: there is so very, very much to see and do there that even the concept of prioritization isn't much help. We could narrow our choices down to ten or so huge possibilities, but after that, we just had to do something, usually enjoy some but not all of it, and let the rest go, enjoying the memory of what we did manage to do and see. Buffy and I completely missed the "Mammals" exhibit at the Museum of Natural History, but we had a fabulous time designing and launching meteors on an interactive computer exhibit, and tossing paper clips at a huge lodestone.

Random Research day centers on the theme What We Learned in Washington, D.C.:

A good parking spot is not a constitutional right.

The pilot of an aircraft carrier is called the "flight boss." It had never quite occurred to me that someone pilots an aircraft carrier.

Lodestones are awesome. We missed the Hope Diamond, but they don't let you throw paper clips at that.

And, most importantly, the ostrich has a tiny South American relative called the tinamous, who can FLY short distances! His skeleton looks like a 6"-tall ostrich. I want one.
Lee Ann Setzer's blog about books, writing, and life in general.