Snow!

The clouds cleared for a few seconds this morning, just long enough to confirm snow on the mountaintops! Sometimes on days like this it's hard to tell what is mountain and what is sky.

Brrr...... choices, and bad news

My outside thermometer is reading 42 degrees F. It's been raining on and off all day. I just know we will wake up to snow on the mountains tomorrow.

My youngest boys were expecting a friend to come today, but that didn't work out. They did get to somehow play Mario racing with him on the Wii, don't ask me how, or even how they know to do that. We also went to the YMCA, the library, and were going to get their free summer reading program ice cream when we decided to do hot chocolate instead.

This afternoon we made insanely good brownies, we followed this recipe and did the suggestions of one less egg and no baking powder. I also added 2 tablespoons of flour because we are at altitude.

Yesterday we FINALLY finished shopping for school supplies and shoes. After looking at several stores for little boy shoes I realized we'd seen about 200 pairs of said shoes. I told the boys that back in the days of the dinosaurs we had about three pairs to pick from. It's really not my imagination either, or one of those two-miles-uphill-to-school-both-ways stories. Sometimes I think that all the choices may not really be a helpful thing.

And my entire family is disappointed that The Half-Blood Prince movie has been pushed back from November 21 to next summer. The date was on our calendar and everything. The film is finished but Warner Bros. hopes to make more money next summer by delaying the film. Argh. You can read the story here.

Random Sunday Musings

It took us a couple of days to watch all of the Olympic opening ceremony. Hurray for DVRs! We were amazed at the choreography of it all - 2008 drummers - wow. I don't want to think about how much it cost. I will instead hope that it brought needed income and job potential to the area. I also thought the USA team looked snotty and preppy in their Lauren suits and goofy hats. I must be hard to please because I also complained about the pickup trucks from the Atlanta opening ceremony.

The latest issue of WOW! Women on Writing is now online. This months theme is Personal Writing and Personal Space. These articles come at a good time for me. This time of year is a good time to evaluate life, jobs, and time usage. We have a week until school starts, but already there are registration days, shopping for supplies, and back to school night. The weather is already a bit cooler and rainy. Our summer seems to have evaporated. Candy corn anybody?

Did you see the Opus cartoon today? Opus drags a boy out of the house away from his Gameboy and music lessons and into the world to skip a CD like a rock, drop water balloons, and look at clouds. The cartoon ends with Opus saying "A summer is a terrible thing to waste".

Quirky?

While we were gone Kay tagged me for the quirky meme. The rules are:

1) Link to the person who tagged me.
2) Mention the rules.
3) Tell six quirky yet boring, unspectacular details about myself.
4) Tag six other blogger´s by linking to them.
5) Go to each person’s blog and leave a comment that lets them know they’ve been tagged.

Actually I don't think I'm that quirky. It's the rest of you people who are weird, right? So...

1)I see twins wherever we go. (If the parents look hassled, I promise them that it gets easier. I figure the gift of hope makes up for my less than full disclosure on raising twins.)I even saw two sets of infant twins at Dollywood last week. Why anyone would take a baby, much less two to an amusement park is beyond me. But anyway, I don't think I'm a twin magnet or anything, I think it's more of a case of noticing, like if you drive a yellow car you notice other yellow cars....

2)I'm very picky about pens. They have to write very smoothly or I get frustrated. I write small and fast so the pens can't skip or smear. The pens also have to be fairly inexpensive because I lose them often. My three current favorites are Faber Castel Artist pens (the thin sketch one is great for writing and doodling), Pilot Precise V5, and Pilot G-2s.

3)I have over a hundred pairs of earrings that I really like and actually wear, and yet I still look the earring displays at stores.

4)I've always liked the smell of gasoline, even back in the days when it had lead in it.

5)But most perfumes and even scented candles give me an instant headache.

6)I have a dozen different kinds of paper clips in my desk - including star shaped and zebra striped.

I'm tagging Janet because she likes memes. And if anyone else wants to play, I'll add a link to the blog for you. This was actually a fun meme, and could be a great writing exercise if you listed the quirky things about your characters.

home

Yesterday we traveled 10 hours to get home from our week of family visits in TN and AL. We were welcomed back to CO with 68 degree weather and a double rainbow in the sky. It's good to be home.

Assorted Links

If you are looking for an agent, you can search Agent Query to see who represents your genre, or you can enter in a book you loved to see who the author's agent is.

I've just started exploring this site, 100 Helpful Web Tools for Every Learner. You'll find mindmaps and charts for visual learners, podcasts and text readers for auditory learners, and new ways to take and share notes with others, and fun ways to organize your information.

Catching Up

Yesterday a friend of mine took me, the ten year olds, and the dog hiking in Red Rocks Canyon. Two hours in the sun and heat, but wow, what a beautiful area. (Yes those are my boys on the huge boulder - one's at the top, one's 1/2 way up - and no I don't encourage it, and yes it does actually make me hugely stressed, and yes sometimes I have to go rescue them and that makes me even more stressed.)

A few months ago, I mentioned a creativity project - the Eric Maisel Creativity Central is now up and running. I'll be guest blogging over there once a week. You can visit it by the above link, or my sidebar. My column is called Creative Connections. I'm really honored to be included in this project with such successful and creative people.

I'm ready for the heat to break, we've been in the 90's most of the week, very hot for Colorado.

on learning

Continuing the education and thinking skills theme, last night I finished reading From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler to the kids. At the end of the book Claudia is telling Mrs. Frankweiler that she should learn something new every day. Mrs. Frankweiler says, "I don't agree with that. I think you should learn, of course, and some days you must learn a great deal. But you should also have days when you allow what is already in you to swell up inside of you until it touches everything. And you can feel it inside you. If you never take time out to let that happen, then you just accumulate facts, and they begin to rattle around inside of you. You can make noise with them, but never really feel anything with them. It's hollow."