Adventures of a Stinkier Sort

Stink's Blog

Our gal Stink has begun her very own blog!

While I am not quite sure how I feel about this new development, she has assured me that it is all about practicing her typing skills for school.

Since she has spent the last several minutes convincing me first: to let her post TONIGHT, PLEASE MOM!!! and second: to post of her blog here, in Adventures in hopes of a comment or two, it is dawning that while this new venture of hers may indeed assist in her passing her typing test at school (a very big thing I am told, it being a precursor to Internet research and typed book reports), she may, in fact, have ulterior motives of the social sort.  Humph...Methinks I am a bit slow on the uptake.

So, if you have the inclination, stop over to her "furry friends" blog and welcome her to the neighborhood.

 

The Sum of All Squares.

Today

Today, I watched the motorcade travel down Constitution Avenue in Washington,DC en route to the Presidential Inauguration.

They crossed over several crosswalks that I crossed, drove past several buildings I saw, and lay tread over cold pavement that steamed hot on the September day that hosted thousands of triathletes in our Nation's Capital.

In fact, President-elect Obama entered the Capital building by the very same steps as those in the photo above, he entered by them and left them our 44th President.

Several months ago, I promised, on my triathlon/Team in Training blog See Stink Tri,  a three part series of "The Race"; I made it one part in.

I kept getting these emails, you see - emails asking what I was going to do next and the thing is, I didn't know. I didn't know what to do next, and that didn't seem to be a good enough answer so I just left the question blank.

And well... that didn't seem to be good enough either.

So I've sort of wandered these last months. Wandered and wondered what does come next? (and frankly, I think someone should prepare you for the anti-climax that is the after-race... Form a twelve step group or something.)

Today, our President stood on the same steps where months ago I hoisted my trusty steed and he made a plea for service. An urging for a nation to pick themselves up and dust themselves off - to guide and to rise up and to lead again. And I am so all for that.

So, my friends, I am dusting off, picking up and committing myself to the good fight... again...

I have signed on with Team in Training for a second triathlon, this one in Morgantown, WVA in August.

It's a longer race, this next, the Spirit of Morgantown, a Half-Ironman.

An affirmation fell into my lap this afternoon; I don't remember from whence it came.

This is what it said:

"Let me do today, the things I feared I could not do."

So I did. I signed up... and I signed back onto this blog too...and I'm sorry I've been gone so long.

Pleat Lovers UNITE for CANCERSTINKS!!

Friends of Stink, Pleat Lovers near and far, "UNITE" I cry!� "Unite" for CANCERSTINKS!

The Return of the Pleat

Proceeds from this and all of the CANCERSTINKS auctions go to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

GOOOOOOOOOO TEAM STINK!!!!

TEAM STINK

Following www.seestinktri.blogspot.com ?

Our funds thermometer is going UP!  It's sure to go up even further as some great design gals are joining the team!

On August 4, auctions will be listed on Ebay to benefit The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and TEAM STINK!

Join in!  Together, we can make a difference!

More things to do.

 

Picking, Eating, Squishing, Squashing, Painting, Dyeing, Inking, Baking...

Berries:

take your pick.

Stink's Summer o' Fun or things to do when you're not watching TV

A couple of weeks ago, the Stinky One found a little swimming thing during an otherwise routine father-daughter paddle boat excursion.  I am, I will admit, somewhat wary of things found on daddy-Stink excursions in our pond, but this particular found thing turned out to be a fat little tadpole. 

A true naturalist  would likely study the little guy, and then put him back in his own environment.  We, however, (and by we, I mean me) are hunting desperately for things to do while not watching TV so we googled "raising tadpoles" instead.

disclaimer: If you are a tadpole rights activist, please scroll to the next picture.

Those of you with honed powers of observation will note with interest the tiny jar placed strategically beside our frog habitat. La Stink put it there for use during water changing. She was very careful to catch him in the little jar before changing his water.

Because I judged myself a dexterous and capable gal, I proceeded with significantly less caution and because I seem, with the advent of Stink's Summer o' Fun, to be especially gifted at traumatizing the poor miss, proceeded to pour the tadpole down the drain. (gasp)

Before you all begin to picket and chant, please know that I was, consequently tried and found guilty of accidental frogicide, and sentenced to finding more tadpoles for raising. So I googled "finding tadpoles" and, with girl in tow, dutifully went a-hunting.

Turns out, frogs lay their eggs in round gelatinous masses full of hundreds of eggs. They lay them in still, shady waters close to shore. They were not, in the early weeks of June, difficult to ferret out.

We gathered a bunch and waited.

We have 8 of these pudgy little swimmers. I'll keep you all updated.

As a side note, the girl swears she saw the lost 'pole in the toilet. (is that even possible? and if it is, has he truly returned to seek his frogish revenge?  Stay tuned for more of Stink's Summer o' Fun or - the Frogman Come-ith.)

Money doesn't grow on trees or my first contribution is IN!

This is what I found this morning. Tucked inside this vintage jewelry box was $10.01. I asked our gal Stink about the box, and this is what she said:

"It's for your race, for cancer...mom...ya know... the r-a-c-e?"

So about this time I close my mouth, begin breathing again and I say, "Thank you Stinkish - thanks for giving to the cause; $10.01 UP!"

"Nope," she says, "just 10 bucks".

She holds up the little coin and smiles "The penny's for luck."

Team Stink - on the charts!

News from the Home Front

and now...

all the news from the home front.

The end of the school year and these first fickle weeks of summer have seen some interesting going-ons in the House of Stink.

First, this fellow:

attended the Senior Prom with his sweetheart (a pleasantly cheeky, witty miss) while this person:

the actual senior, announced that she would rather dine on a pre-prom meal of stiletto shoes and sequins than drag her sweetheart (a quiet musical type) to the dance.

She did, however, do this senior thing:

with quiet musical boy attending dutifully.

She did not wear this particular chapeau; that colorful thing is a Seuss cap professing in dizzying psychedelia, her graduation theme: "Oh, the places she'll go!"

The end of the year also brought to a near close this adventure for the big girl:

If you "YouTube", hunt "In 500 Words or Less", you'll find a clip of our big girl (and her wonderful mom). Throughout this past year, she has been participating in a documentary following several seniors (and their families) from across the nation through their last year and all it entails. They don't have the big girl's individual clip up yet (though there are three or four others up for your viewing pleasure). Discovery Channel, MTV, and National Geographic have all expressed interest - I'll update more as I learn.

Which brings us to this little person:

Our littlest Gal Stink has, with the onset of warmer, school-less days, begun (albeit not joyfully) her own journey. Following the first two days of summer vaca, when the Stinky one's eyeballs grew dry from boob-tube overload, and she began calling me "MA-ther" - just like that - I declared, (because it is my job and duty as her parent to find ways to make her thoroughly miserable), the television zone to be a "No STINK LAND". Let us, for the sake of this blog, call this time, "Stink's Summer o'Fun" or "92 days with (very) limited TV".

She's totally loving it. *snort*

and then there is me; the Mother of all Stinks. I am honestly, not at all sure what gets into me sometimes. I was just sitting at the table, going through three days of mail, spooning my post Lunch Ben and Jerry's snack-o-snack when I came upon a purple mailer for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's "Team in Training". I looked at that purple flier with its glowing sweaty faced folks beaming out at me and thought. Now that's what I'll do!

So I am.  On September 14, I will be participating in the Nation's Triathlon in Washington, DC.

You can go here to read all about it and join in.  Okay, you don't actually have to go pounding the mean streets of Dutch Country *snort*, but, good news, you can contribute to my (GASP! ACK!) commitment of $2700 to the Society and to the support of cancer research, by clicking on my donation termopeter ;)  I knew you'd love that part ;)  

Things happen for a reason or a meme I did not get tagged for.

Today I had a most wonderful opportunity to begin checking in on some of my friends here in blogdom.

One such friend http://princesstomato.wordpress.com/, (there she is), had a meme as her most recent post.  Now, I do not love memes as a rule.  Let me clarify, I do not love DOING memes as a rule.  I do, however, enjoy reading them. 

I am nothing if not complex though, and so, upon reading this meme I wail mentally "ME!! ME!!  TAG ME!!!"

"What", you might be wondering, "What kind of meme could possibly have a regularly mild mannered gal anguished so?"

Here it is:

The rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.*
3. Find the fifth sentence.**
4. Post the next three sentences, so if my math is correct that’d be sentences six, seven and eight.
5. Tag five people and post a comment to the blogger who tagged you.

As a rule of thumb, I do not feel whole without a book (or five) stashed in close vicinity to me.  I knew, when I read this meme and found only ONE book anywhere NEAR me, I just knew, that this meme was meant for me-me!

So I pick up that one book, A Grateful Heart: Daily blessings for the Evening Meal from Buddha to the Beatles edited by MJ Ryan, and I open to page 123.  There aren't five sentences on the page, so I chose lines - lines 6,7,and 8 read,

"In honor of those of us who have courageously, joyfully, burst into the fullness of our identities, we offer gratitude and blessing." - Molly Fumia

Around the House of Stink, things happen for a reason; trees fall, roofs leak, folks call, and memes are claimed.

I can't say that I have burst, joyful, or otherwise, into the fullness of my identity, but I can say that I have, of late, been courageously seeking it.

Today, I needed to read that.  Today, I honor those of you that seek, or burst or dance in the fullness of your identities.  Today I am grateful for the opportunity to seek.  And today, if it so moves you, if you too find the hair on your arms rising and only one book near, today, I challenge you to turn to page 123 and read what might be waiting just for you.

PS If your curious, and I was, the next two sentences, the last on the page were these,

"At the end of life, our questions are very simple: Did I live fully?  Did I love well?" - Jack Kornfield

Humph.  Guess I needed those too.