Random: Witty, Wistful, Downright Hilarious, and Completely Brilliant

• Talking about the Polygamous Mormons shortly after the Pioneers went west, when Brother Brigham was still at the head of the Church, Mark Twain said, "in Utah, most of the women marry Young."

• I was talking to my friend about budgeting and she said that James and I are able to budget because we are a two-income family. Huh? If only those two incomes came from either of us working more than half-time, her logic might check out. On the contrary, I think having two rather modest incomes, like ours, force us into far more creative budgeting than we might otherwise need.

• Scout is learning to play peek-a-boo. She has enjoyed me covering and then uncovering her face for months now. And she adores lift-the-flap books. This week, however, she has begun to pick up whatever piece of cloth she can find (usually a burp cloth), and after checking to see whether I'm watching, she covers her face and quickly whisks it away with a smile. A few weeks ago the Doctor gave me a checklist of developmental milestones Scout is supposed to reach before twelve months, so I've started trying them out. One of them is that she should play games like patty-cake and peek-a-boo with no visual clues (that is, I just tell her to play peek-a-boo and she does it). As of yesterday, she's pretty good at this one. So, of course, I wanted to show James. When she finished her bottle this afternoon, I handed her the burp cloth and said "peek-a-boo!" She dutifully picked up the cloth and covered her face and head. Perfect, now we waited with baited breath for her to remove the cloth and flash that gummy smile. I said my line, "Where's Scout?" And we waited. And we waited. There she sat, for about forty-five seconds, dutifully holding the burp cloth up to her face, waiting happily. I think she forgot what she was supposed to do next. I finally started saying "peek-a-boo" in an attempt to trigger her memory. And down came the burp cloth. She properly repeated the game about ten more times, but James and I were laughing too hard to be a very good audience.

• I am probably the last person on the internet to discover this, but in case I'm not, here my most recent discovery of why the internet is great: My friend's husband told me about Pandora, which is free radio on the internet. What's so great about that? You tell it a song or artist you like, and it plays more stuff like it. And you can give it all the songs and artists you want. And you can create your own stations for different musical moods you may be in. And the very best part is, if it plays something you don't like, you just tell it and it will never play that song again. Never. How many times did I NEED this function the summer "Yellow" was on the radio at least three million times and I wondered whether pushing a q-tip into my ear really would pop the ear drum and make me go deaf? I would probably pay money for this, but I don't even have to. It's great.
  

Book Baby

From the (very small) part of me that wishes I had become an artist

When I was a little girl, scientists still believed that every snowflake was unique, no two the same. They've since proven that wrong. But I'm still amazed that it took so long to find two that were identical. I used to be in awe of each flake.

After it snowed I would get in all of my gear (boots, snowpants, coat, hat, gloves, hood) and stay outside as long as my parents would allow. Sometimes I would lay in the field near our house and just watch the snow fall from the sky, enjoying each beautiful flake.

Now, snow is something to be brushed from the car, shoveled from the walk and derided until it crusts over, turns grey and eventually concedes to melt away. How can it be so obstinate as to fall anew at the end of February? Shouldn't we be making our way to Spring by now? Even I, who am always excited for the first snowfall, have had enough by now. I've started planning my garden and am ready to stop worrying about slipping on the ice.

But today, as I walked through the snow, I looked down at my scarf and noticed the delicate, intricate flakes collecting in its fibers. And when my car's heater melted the flakes into mere droplets of water, I was sad to see them go.

Today, once again, I was a little girl watching beautiful, tiny pieces of creation drift from the sky. Today, I remembered the miracle of snow.

The Other Reason I Like Collages

The other day Scout was looking particularly cute. So, I took some photos. Okay, I took 120 photos. I looked through them and picked out the ones that had promise. Then I carefully went through and got rid of everything I thought I could live without. And at the end of all that winnowing down, I had narrowed it down to these few favorites:

Yes, I have a problem. But I made some more cuts, got James involved in the decision making, and we finally arrived at the following manageable group.
Too bad I've got to pick just one for my wallpaper. I'm really liking this one...
...and this one;......this one's cute too, but it's vertical so fortunately it just won't work.