Monday, February 16, 2009

Top five, February version

In honor of my ever expanding tummy, let's do another top five things list.

I've done this once before, remember? With mild success.

But it might be fun.

So begin:

Best television episode
1. Hands down for me. "The Dundies," season two of The Office. A drunk Pam. A Jim and Pam kiss. A classic Michael Scott performance. It's got humor. It's got emotion. Who needs anything else?
2. A close second. Episode one of season two of Lost. This is where we meet Desmond for the first time, and he says to Jack, "See you in another life, Brother." Great.
3. I also really like the season finales of Lost's first and second seasons. Season two, I believe, ends with them blowing up the hatch where they found Desmond in episode one.
4. The Little House in the Prairie episode where Nellie pretends to be paralyzed after she falls off a horse and blames Laura for it (it was Laura's horse) and so Laura, feeling guilty, helps Nellie with her homework, etc., until one day she sees Nellie walking around in her room and so discovers she's faking. The episode ends with Laura pushing Nellie in her wheelchair down a huge hill and yelling, "We're such good friends, Nellie!"
5. I don't know which one, but some episode of Wonder Years clearly deserves this spot.

Did we do songs last time? Eh, let's do it again:
1. "Cath," Death Cab for Cutie. I'm addicted.
2. "Mr. Jones," Counting Crows. The live version
3. "Yellow," Coldplay
4. "Thunder Road," Bruce Springsteen
5. "Mr. Brightside," The Killers

Restaurants, anywhere in the world
1. Johnny Carino's, Grand Junction, Colo.
2. M's Pub, Omaha
3. Le Peep, Omaha
4. McFosters Natural Kind Cafe, Omaha
5. The late Ying Thai, Grand Junction

Books
1. "The Chocolate War," Robert Cormier
2. "Blue Shoe," Anne Lamott
3. "A Separate Peace," John Knowles. Yes, Mr. Campbell, it left an impression, even this many years later.
4. "Little Altars Everywhere" and "Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood," Rebecca Wells
5. "The Mermaid Chair" and "Secret Life of Bees," Sue Monk Kidd

Movies (I'm pretty sure we did this one last time, didn't we?)
1. Back to the Future. Hands down.
Not even worth following this up with any others (and yes, I'm getting a bit tired of the lists).

Play along, if you like.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Valentine's Day

Have you ever made Valentines with a 3 1/2-year-old?

I just did. And it was pretty fun.

Rather than buying Valentines for his friends at daycare this year, I suggested we make them. I figured he'd say no, but instead I got an excited, "yeah!"

Alright, I thought. So we got to ditch the castle guys in the playroom in the basement and come upstairs where I retrieved the construction paper.

Rye picked out three pieces: a white sheet, a red sheet and a black one. I thought black might not send the right message, so I convinced him we should use red, white and pink.

So I made hearts, and he thought it was the coolest thing in the world. I like feeling talented at something!

And I liked that we weren't watching Justice League movies or playing in the basement with action figures like usual.

Maybe his friends will like our homemade effort, too.

Either way, we had fun doing it.

(And yes, is this a weak effort for a blog post or what? I just haven't been feeling it lately. Thanks to the four of you who still check to see if I've come up with something to say again yet...)