FizzyLizzy

...still puttering (or is that sputtering) along.

I've just been trying to enjoy our newly found Spring.

Great blue heron spotted at Lake Nokomis.

Here's a personality quiz that tells you what poetic form you are. Here's mine:

I'm terza rima, and I talk and smile. Where others lock their rhymes and thoughts away I let mine out, and chatter all the while. I'm rarely on my own - a wasted day Is any day that's spent without a friend, With nothing much to do or hear or say. I like to be with people, and depend On company for being entertained; Which seems a good solution, in the end. I'm not sure that's who I am, and I'm not sure I'm into the terza rima. But thank god I'm not the cinquain: Rubbish. Yes, I'm rubbish. I am the cinquain, and Believe (unjustly) I'm clever. Rubbish.

You may remember my distaste for the poetic form "cinquain". Probably not. Well, I had another unfortunate encounter with the cinquain yesterday. I accompanied Katherine's class to the Walker Art Center for a Writing and Art field trip. Not only was our tour guide quite disappointing, they had to write...you guessed it...cinquains about the half-dozen works we viewed. The worksheet the museum gave the kids contained the particularly restrictive rules for the subform known as the didactic cinquain. If you want to torture them, why not just have them write sonnets in iambic pentameter?

If I had any photos of Rope Power to show you, I would. Unfortunately, after all the Rope Power hoopla, Katherine was sick the night of Rope Power. It was the night she went home sick from school. So instead, I give you this photo of my crocuses taken a few weeks ago.

That's what Katherine said after she finished Book Six of the Harry Potter series yesterday.

I had been thinking that something was wrong. That maybe Katherine had been switched at birth. Paul and I were both voracious readers as children and Katherine had shown little interest in books. In third grade she kind of got into the American Girl and Animal Ark series, but nothing very challenging. We require her to read at least 30 minutes a day and those books sufficed to fill that time. That is until I started reading the first Harry Potter book aloud to William over winter break. She got into it and started reading on her own. I bought the second Harry Potter book at the school book fair on February 9th. She finished the sixth yesterday. She started book five three weeks ago when she was home sick. That one is almost 900 pages. At first we thought it was cool that she had learned to love reading. It even took precedence over video game time. Then it started cutting into homework time, and yesterday at school she chose reading over participating in a game day party. Now I'm all into reading, but I spent my childhood as an outcast. And no child of mine is going to voluntarily choose reading over socializing. So there.

William just offered me his last chocolate easter egg. Of course I accepted.

I'd gone to Southdale to look for a salad bowl at Crate & Barrel. But when I walked through the door of Macy's, the siren song of the Social Occasions department called to me. I was flipping through the 50% off rack when I came across the dress shown in yesterday's post. The size on the tag said "M"--strange in itself since a dress like that should have a "numbered" size. Medium isn't my size, but I took it into the dressing room anyways. It fit perfectly. Then I looked at the price tag. $249.50 on clearance (down from $330). Gulp. I thought, "Well, it's worth having the price checked at least, since $250 isn't 50% of $330." So I took it to a register. Salesclerk: "It's 90 percent off...33 dollars. Plus an extra 20 percent off if you use your Macy's card." $26.40. I've paid more than that for a t-shirt. It was a miracle. Finding that dress also saved me from my infatuation with a dress that was out of my league...























I saw this when I was out with my mom last week looking for her dress. I thought I might stalk it until it was deeply discounted. But I don't think lightning is going to strike twice.

Here's my mom's dress. After trying it on at another store with a price of over $200, she found it on sale for under $100 at Macy's.
























The junior bridesmaid dress I ordered for Katherine cost more than my mom's and mine combined.

If this guy stored all this stuff non-electronically, we would call him a pack rat. But because it's all on his computer, he's the wave of the future. Right.

[Eerie background music] Yes, Mrs. Bickerson, Fifth Disease made an appearance in our home as well. Is it yet just another strange similarity in our two lives or is it running around the Twin Cities? Several kids in William's classroom have had it, and I happened to notice the rash on his hands last week while volunteering in his class. For those of you who are not up on your childhood diseases, Fifth Disease is apparently not serious. By the time you know you have it (usually from the rash on your hands) you are already through being contagious. Sneaky little virus, huh?

As I was getting ready to leave for my cousin's funeral, the thought crossed my mind: three of the four people on the school's emergency contact list are going to be at the funeral. Yes, you might have guessed it, when I turned my phone back on, there was a message from the school nurse. Katherine had a fever. Fortunately they did get hold of my mother-in-law. And by the time I got the message, Paul had already left to pick the kids up. The main thing that puzzles me though is why the nurse waited an hour after she left a message at home to try my cell phone. I would have still had my phone on had she called right away. I know because Paul called to make sure he was at the right church. And by the way, there is an inappropriate time to have your phone belt out Latin Loops. It's when the minister is having a few words with the family before a funeral.

Did you watch the "Amazing Race" last night? We're not regular viewers but tuned in last night because it was taking place in Poland. Hmmm. Not such a flattering view of the Polish people. I don't think that Amazing Race viewers are going to be booking a lot of holidays in Poland anytime soon. (Mom and I taped it, TK--for your viewing pleasure this weekend.)