Arrant Nonsense

So. We're going to Moab to the Jeep Safari tomorrow.

Normally I'm excited about stuff like this. Moab is my favorite place on the whole planet, y'all.

But I'm so sick of interacting with people right now that I'm almost ready to bag it and just tell the Hubby to take Da Boy and go have fun. But if I bag it this year, there's no guarantee we'll go next year, because we're trying to sell the Willys and the Durango just can't be the same beast on the trail that the Willys is. Plus I only get to see these people once a year, so...yeah. And I like them, they're good people.

Maybe I'll tell the Hubby that I want a couple of days away after we get back from this, just me--or maybe I'll send him to his Mom's with Da Boy in the plane, since he'll want a shakeout flight after its annual inspection. Wanting to choke people every time I talk to them is not a good frame of mind to be in, and I feel shaky with repressed rage and stress. This is not normal for me. I wonder if my uterus is acting up...

The tax thing? So not helping my state of mind. Also, I've been a lazy bitch this week and my kitchen is a wreck. I should go clean that.

Frell, frak, dren.

Well. In homeschooling news, I actually sat down, figured out what I need to do on a weekly basis, broke that down to a daily basis, and now we have some sort of schedule. We had a loose sort of thing going before that I decided wasn't working out too well; this will be better for everyone involved. We'll all know what to expect. Routine = a good thing.

And I'm still beating away at the query/hook thing. I've got two pretty good sentences for that three-sentence thing I told y'all about the other day. I just need one more that makes actual sense for a strong conclusion.

Oh, and a title. A title would be good. Chapters would help. *headdesks repeatedly*

So, the fanficrants homeschooling wank hit Fandom_Wank, as it was bound to do--although I looked for it first in OTF_Wank, because it has little to do with fandom per se.

What's got me sporfling?

This comment: Agilebrit just being, like, "Oh, hey, yeah, I'm a fundie," made me go D:.

Is it some sort of secret that I'm a fundie? Did the fact that my first fanfic ever was Christian!Spike, and that I've written four stories in that 'verse (one of which was the longest I've ever written) not clue them in? Am I just not internets-famous enough? Was ginmar's calling me a "stupid Xtian housewife" in the oh-so-famous wank not a big enough clue? Do I need to scream it from the housetops in all caps on my profile page?

Is it just because I don't talk about it all that often? Because, seriously, I don't generally feel the need to.

And I will not wank. No, I won't. Not there, anyway. Eh. *grabs a tissue and cleans up* Seriously, I couldn't let that go.

However, all you have to do is look at the "quality" of fic at FFN to see the sort of "education" that public schools are churning out. Semi-literate snowflakes who bristle at the merest hint of criticism? Pretty much.

Yeah, not in my house. Da Boy already gets corrected if he doesn't capitalize "I" or the word at the start of a sentence, and he's seven. And I don't think I'm stunting his creativity.

The Tracy Aviary is having a free day tomorrow to thank us for raising our own taxes. We're going to go and take advantage of that, and make it a field trip. It'll be chilly, but worth it, I think. They have four species of toucans!

Next week, we're going to San Diego to visit the Zoo, the Aviary, and Emerald Gardens. After that, we'll make a final decision on the aracari. My main questions at this point have to do with feeding the critter, honestly. I know it eats fruit, but how much does a bird that weighs as much as a cheeseburger consume in a day?

We also want to visit Yellowstone sometime toward the beginning of May, possibly making a motor home trip out of it and pulling the PT behind us. We have a friend who may or may not accompany us on the trip. BABY ANIMALS!!!

And I found a very useful Calendar of Events that are kid-friendly and educational. Antelope Island is having some interesting things later in the month, and I've also found a new wildlife center that we need to visit.

Looks like a busy Spring!

Now, if the weather would just turn a leetle cooperative...

In other news, New Amsterdam bored the crap out of me this week. I'm not sure I'd bother tuning in next week if we were going to be home. It's gone from "Hey, this is kind of neat" to a big fat "MEH." The fact that the Love of His Life is separated from her husband because he's a lying cheating bastard does not mitigate the fact that John Amsterdam himself is a lying cheating bastard--we found out this week that not only is he currently sleeping with a married woman (even if she's separated, separated /= divorced), he once cheated on one of his wives with (of all women) a "lady" (I use the term loosely) he was painting.

So, yeah. Way to NOT get me on his side, people. FAIL. Making me root for your character--ur doin it rong.

As we do. And we're reading a book called "Secrets and Surprises." I have Da Boy read through these stories first, and then I read them back to him.

He finished his part of this story, wherein a set of twins get a box of candy from their Grandma, and the girl determines that she's going to make hers last two weeks. Initially, the boy wants to do the same, but he succumbs to greed and eats all of his share. The line there is:

He did not stop until he had eaten all the candy!

And after I read that line, Da Boy said, and I quote:

"Dun dun duuunnnn!"

Hee!

Especially when you dig them up yourself.

I didn't get lost on my way to the quarry (yay!), and we arrived there at around 10:40, after leaving at 7:40. We bashed rocks for two hours, and got lots of pretty nice specimens. I swear, I brought home about forty pounds worth of rock. Oog.

And naturally, I forgot to take my painkillers before we left. So I took them when we got home (around 4:10), and am feeling somewhat better now. I'll have to sort through what we got and see what's worth keeping.

And one of the neat things about home schooling is field trips.

Tomorrow, we are going to a privately-owned fossil quarry and digging for trilobites. It will entail a three-hour drive (or thereabouts) each way, but one of the local homeschoolers has negotiated a 25% discount for us, and the weather is supposed to be gorgeous, so we're really looking forward to going.

In other news, my poor little laptop fan died today, so I decided to bit the bullet and open up my laptop case to see what sort of dust and gunk had accumulated, since I'm out of warranty anyway so breaking that seal won't actually hurt me.

Yeah, I got out about enough dust and pet hair to assemble a small mouse. Oogie. And the laptop hasn't overheated and died today (yet), yay for that. I'm madly backing up my hard drive right now. Only 4.3 gigs to go...

Yes, that's taken pretty much all day.

Ah well. The Steelers won today, and Wif Burritos and Chocolate Chip Cappuchino muffins cure all ills.

And the font that is used in Da Boy's books is Times New Roman.

He has apparently decided that his handwriting should look the same. *facepalm* So, he does the little curlicue at the bottom of the small "t" and the "i" looks just like the font.

And I'm having a hard time convincing him that our handwriting isn't supposed to look like typewriting.

It's going to be a long year.