Weekend tales

This weekend was perfect. I don't use the word perfect very often because I don't think very many things are perfect, but this weekend could not have imaginatively been improved in any way, I call that perfect.

As Patrick mentioned in his blog, our rabbit was really almost dead. I didn't know how much I liked it, but after seeing it so sick I felt bad for it and decided that I really like it. We're going to give it a name now because it's suddenly more than the cheap pet store rabbit that if it dies oh well, we'll just get another one. We have had to feed it alphalpha pellets soaked in water blended with baby food vegtables and gatorade. It eats through a turkey baster. I have no idea when I became so animal friendly and sympathetic to little furry things, but I'm glad I'm doing my part to help it recover.
We found mountains on Saturday. This is a weird statement, but we didn't really know we were so close to the mountains. We were looking for a feed store (to get some alphalpha hay for dinner) and suddenly we were looking at the base of a mountain. I hope we can go camping sometime soon. Do any of you like to camp? It's one of my favorite things to do.
I bought the newly released version of Sense and Sensability by BBC. It's 3 hours long and much better than the over dramatized version that is much more popular. It's a similar likeness to the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice that was cheaply and improperly remade with Kiera Knightly as the heroine. Please, if you are going to watch Jane Austen, do her novels justice by watching the BBC versions. They seem to actually care about ethics instead of just money and cheap romatic flutters.
Yesterday Patrick and I went to California Adventure for the afternoon. I was a bench sitter. Yes, I sit while he rides. It's actually not so bad because everyone I see is happy. It is like a weird world where married and dating people are extremely affectionate and mothers with their daughters walk hand in hand looking ever so much alike. Adult children push their parents in wheel chairs while the grandchildren hold the little kids in their laps. People don't care that they have bright pink or black ears on their heads, and men wear hiking backpacks full of fishy crackers and juice packs. I used to go on the roller coasters with patrick, but last time I went I had to clench my teeth to prevent spewing (not fun). I did get to watch the muppets in 3D and I saw my first ever temper tantrum in which the child attempted growling at the top of her lungs to get her way. She tried screaming, yelling, crying, and after 20 minutes (seriously 20 minutes of constant screaming) she growled like a mad dog and pretended to lash out. I was, umm, perplexed. Where was such behavior modeled to a 4 year old? Television? Parents? Hopefully not pets!
We went into Disneyland on our way home in search of frozen minutemaid lemon cups, but we decided those didn't sound good after all and neither did any of the rides, so we went home.
I don't think I ever wrote about an awesome trick we learned about parking at Disneyland. We have a free pass for the Mickey and Friends parking structure (where the tram comes and goes). About two weeks ago Paul called me and said, "Hey, guess where I am." "Where?" "In line for Space Mountain. You and Patrick should come." So, we went to see Paul after Patrick got off of work. At the attendant booth Patrick had a heavy foot and revved the engine. "Are you trying to rush me?" The attendant gave us a suspicious look. "No sir, I'm just anxious to see my brother in law at Disneyland." "Well in that case, here's a free pass for a parking space as close as you can get!"
It was great. Here are some pics from that day.




I had a hard working day today. I worked from 6:30-7:30. PM-PM. 1 measly hour. But, I made a difference in one life for that hour (I love to make myself feel good with cliches).

An edit to the previous post:

My dad plays the piano and tried to teach me when I was about 6 or 7. My progress was SLOW. I was finally placed in real piano lessons when I was in 6th,7th, and 8th grade because my piano lesson with my dad would always end in tears and frustration and usually my stubbornness would flare and I would fold my arms, pout, and refuse to talk or play. Sometimes I exaggerated my confusion and would make stupid mistakes on purpose because I didn't want to learn.
I think learning to play the piano is so boring. I didn't want to learn to read music to play mary had a little lamb or hupty dumpty. I wanted to play stuff like that (below) to learn Mozart and Bethoven, music that sounded real and good, but I would look at a sheet of music and try a few lines (obviously if I couldn't even play Mary Had a Little Lamb then I could not even begin to think Mozart). My piano career ended when I refused to walk into my piano teacher's house in 8th grade and my parents finally allowed me to stop. I know how to read music and play now, but I still don't like it.
This little girl is lucky. She gets to play the music I always wanted to, but was never good enough to play. I don't think I'll ever be able to because I'm still stuck at show tunes and Disney theme songs.

I'm not sure who to be mad at...

My piano teacher

My parents

My own natural ability

I'd like to share our previous three dinners Sunday night, Monday night, and tonight.







It's just a glimpse into my kitchen since I know a lot of you read the Pioneer Woman blog. I like to cook new things that are fresh and light and not always balanced. I get my recipes from Williams-Sonoma and some from allrecipes.

I had my mom perm my hair last week

...and this is what it looked like today after I styled it.



I guess when God said let Noël have straight hair, the keratinized proteins obeyed (and I guess they continue to).

My rabbit has been so clingy lately. The nice thing about rodents (I thought) is that they don't usually like a lot of attention, but this rabbit is so confused. It jolts from its cage when I open it and stops straight at my feet, then paws up my leg to try to get me to pick it up. If I don't, it roosts by my feet. Weird little thing. I accidentally kicked it across the floor once (gently) because it hopped around following my feet while I was moving around the kitchen!




Finally, to share some of my conventionality of late, I was getting ready to give some clothes to Goodwill that I didn't wear anymore, but instead I altered them with my sewing machine for some summery beach shirts. I'm still working on more but I've only had one afternoon so far to work.

The too big red dress becomes an 80's-ish shirt that I think is cute


I don't have a before picture, but it was a big tunic. I sewed cap sleeves and pleated the front.



Thanks for reading!