Thursday Ten: Big Fat Orange Moon Edition

1. I hate that it gets dark so early now, but as I left the house this evening to take some DVDs back to the movie rental place (“Baby Mama”, in case you were curious – but man, I can’t look at Tina Fey now without seeing Sarah Palin) and to go to Pumpkin’s preschool parent/teacher conferences (Seriously – more later) I looked up and the moon was rising and it was this huge big nearly perfectly round ball in the sky. I looked several times, not sure at first it was really the moon. I’m not sure what else I thought it might be, but it was just too perfect looking. As I drove, I kept looking up and the moon became more and more orange. Now it’s just obscured behind clouds (it IS Michigan, you know), but man, how beautiful.

2. And YES. Parent/Teacher conferences for Pumpkin’s preschool/daycare program. It was excruciating actually. When The Princess was this young, they didn’t do this kind of hooey, and though I’m relieved about that, I’m sure it would have been different because The Princess is this freakishly brilliant kid. Not saying Pumpkin’s not – she’s just…different. One of the things they assessed Pumpkin on is her knowledge of the alphabet – knowing the letter name, the Zoophonic animal representation, the Zoophonic “signal”, and if she could recognize the letter by sight. According to her assessment, she didn’t recognize any of the letters – a fact I know to be complete crap, because I’ve seen her identify letters. It’s really dumb to test kids like that – especially since three year olds tend to be free-wheeling, stubborn, controlling beasts who seem to like to do what THEY want to do WHEN they want to do it.

3. My grandfather seems to be doing well. He’s a little hoarse, but he’s home. I’m so relieved he spent less than 24 hours in the hospital this time. Whew. For those who extended positive thoughts towards my family – THANK YOU.

4. Music for the week: I have been listening to Seal’s “Soul” nonstop all day and I’ll be writing more about it soon, but OH MY GOD it’s incredible. So incredible. While I was all, “Oh Seal!” a friend sent me “I Wish”, a song by DMX featuring Seal, and I LOVE THAT ONE TOO. Also jamming to, “It’s a New Day” (Will.i.am), and “White Horse” (Taylor Swift). All good tunes. All of them. Not a rotten apple in the bunch this week.

5. In guitar today, my teacher taught me “Jesu, The Joy Of Man’s Desiring” (? Is that right?) by Bach. I told her I’d never heard the song before and she said, “What?! It’s in weddings all the time!” Well, not MY wedding (my dad wrote my music). Am I just an idiot?

6. My cousin rocks – he gave me free passes to see an early screening of “Four Christmases” next Wednesday. I’m so excited. I like Reese Witherspoon and I adore Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau. And it’s FREE. Wheeee!

7. New season of Top Chef started last night. My goodness, I love that show and it always blows my mind what they do with food and yet I remain a fantastically unenthusiastic cook. Go figure.

8. Three days a week, I pack a lunch for The Princess. I got this cool book of little note card dealies to put in her lunch (I bought the book from Target). I had no idea that she even liked getting the notes from me until Monday morning. She packed her own lunch and then came tearing through the house looking for me so that I could write her a note to put in her lunch bag. The past few days, she’s been waiting for me to put the note in. I’m glad that she appreciates the something special I do for her. I was doing it to make myself happy. Added bonus that she likes it too.

9. The closer we get to the holidays the more my calendar fills up – and not just with kid related activities, but things that might be fun for ME too. I keep meaning to pester my BFF about plans for this weekend, but next weekend we’ve got a massive day of baking on our horizon (Seriously, my best friend’s sister-in-law tallied up the ingredients we need and we’re looking at 22 cups of powdered sugar in use. 22. 22. Let me say that again: 22 cups of powdered sugar — oh and TWELVE sticks of butter). But, how much fun is that gonna be? So much fun.

10. I need to get a new treadmill. Or an elliptical. I am getting VERY SICK of Turbo Jam.