Gnumoon's Stuff: Laughing toddler, video upload test, and a weekend wrap-up

You know what is funnier than a teddy bear rolling down the windshield of a car over and over and over? Apparently nothing in the world.

We capped off yesterday with blueberry picking and a dinner of blueberry-wheat-flax pancakes. I ruined any illusion of "healthy dinner," however by heating up some of the honey-roasted hand-mushed peanut butter we'd picked up at the Farmer's Market and pouring it over the stacks. I'm not generally a huge PB&J fan, but it was incredible. My mouth just started watering thinking about it. I'm sorry, regular butter, you had a good run. Take that good-fer-nothing syrup with you. Then for good measure we showed Pookie the joy of feeding the dog peanut butter. She wasn't laughing quite as hard as in the above clip, but almost.

Today I made omelets with fresh veggies out of my grandmother's garden, and they were quite good. Even Pooks approved of the "yittle cute greenies" (sweet peppers), when usually she prefers her eggs infused with nothing but more eggs. (This page is quickly becoming "Gnumoon talks about food a lot," isn't it? Oh well, I do. I love food. *shrug*) Then, because I have all this free time, I painted Pooks' bathroom. I haven't posted about this much, but we're having some difficulty in the potty training area. The difficulty is that Pooks refuses. She CAN, she knows HOW, but she will NOT.

So, having tried begging, ignoring, "Potty presents," and other gimmicks with no success, I was left with no other option than to redo the upstairs bathroom (in the nursery). To change it from a dark, never-decorated cave suitable for only hand-washing post diapering and holiday-decoration-storage purposes into a room so bright, so fun, so cheerful that she will literally pee with delight upon entering. Let's hope that lofty goal can be achieved with paint, shelving, and tile. (PS - Do NOT just hand your paint swatches to the good people at Lowe's and then poss-ass off to do the rest of your shopping. Take the paint base of your choice to them. Otherwise, they will default to the MOST EXPENSIVE PAINT ALLOWABLE BY LAW in your state. Lesson learned.)

Then after some lunch we headed off the mountain to do some shopping (filling the pantry to avoid those "Oh shit, we have a sitter coming during football game and NO FOOD IN THIS HOUSE" moments) and meet the family for dinner. My youngest brother is going to portland to visit the middlest brother in the morning, and it's sort of an unofficial family tradition to meet for a meal the night before a trip and take turns chasing the toddler around the restaurant while not actually getting to ingest any food.

So that was our relaxing weekend. My husband spent the rest of the evening in the recliner, reading media guides and spot charts, writing furiously on index cards and highlighting words in his special Game-prep code. I puttered around getting ready for my week, quizzing him on stats and bringing him green tea, as is our gameweek custom. It's a routine we fell back into with stunning ease.

Since I'm starting back to school tomorrow I have this guilt about leaving the family to fend for themselves, not that they aren't capable of survival. I made turkey meatballs, and instructed DJ on where the sauce and pasta were, and the feta and cranberries for the spinach. He exaggeratedly rolled his eyes at me and went back to his charts, indicating that he knew all these things. I also made fresh basil pesto and a triple-recipe of hummus (forever known around here as "Thomas," since that is what Pooks calls it) for later in the week.

I know all these preparations seem silly, manic even, but it's as if I'm stacking sandbags on a riverbank. The flood isn't here yet, but I can feel it coming, and I want to at least say I tried not to get swept away.