First, yet "Last" Theme of NaBlo

(c) 2009 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

Stolen from Mugsy at Drive Fast. Take Chances; can also be seen at Syl's Watching Paint Dry and Kashka_Z's Aunt Templeton's Theme Song.


Last Road Trip: Girls' Adventure Weekend '09, baby!

Last Bad Advice: "Go ahead! Have some more of that leftover Halloween candy!" (Received from my own subconscious, dang self-sabotager that it is!)

Last Movie I Saw in a Theater: Um.... I think it was Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Last TV Show Watched: The Mentalist

Last TV Show I Enjoyed Watching: I don't usually watch shows I don't enjoy - waste of time - but I will sit through not-my-favorites while folding laundry

Last Book I Tried to Read: I tried Dante Club for Book Crack (well, actually, after Book Crack was done with it), but just couldn't get into it, and ended up returning it without finishing it, which I NEVER do. Now I'm reading Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things and enjoying it immensely.

Last Thing I Left Home Without: My husband. Usually it's the girls and I doing the school run.

Last Take Out Meal: A few weeks ago, on a Friday, I had neither kindergartner I sometimes/usually watch, so my own two girls and I hit the McDonald's drive-thru for an out-of-the-ordinary treat.

Last Celebration: I love Halloween, not that we did anything with anybody, but it was still fun!

Last Item Loaned Out and Haven’t Gotten Back: Oh, most likely a book. I think Siblings Without Rivalry. I would like to give honorable mention, however, to Sailing to Sarantium, which I'd lent to Syl YEARS ago... and got back at GAW. Thanks, Syl!

Last Package Received: A Halloween package from Gramma Yori, but it only beats out one from TNGreatAunt by a day or two. We're very lucky to get packages fairly often from generous souls. No, wait! Actually, I think this great Monster Madness Game I won from Fragile Earth Stuffed Animals came after those two. I've been meaning to write about how awesome it is anyway, so I'll try to do so tomorrow. Thanks, Mary Beth and Helen (and Rupert, of course!)

Last Web Site Visited: Um, the aforementioned Fragile Earth Stuffed Animals so I could link to it. Otherwise, probably Twitter.

Last Injury: I'm always bumping into things, giving myself paper cuts, bending back nails, etc. Yesterday I bumped Pumpkin's headboard with my wedding ring while making her bed, causing my ring to scrape the top layer of skin off a very small area on my finger. Whenever I even slightly bump my ring now, it pushes/bumps into that skinless part and hurts. However, it did not occur to me to, you know, take off my ring and put it someplace safe until Mr. Kluges suggested it when I was complaining about it tonight. *eye roll at myself*

Last Run In with the Law: Let's see... probably the last time I got a speeding ticket... which was before we went to Ireland... which was forever ago.

Last Place I’d Want to Live: Someplace super cold like the Arctic or Antarctic. But I do also have a somewhat irrational dislike of St. Cloud, MN.

Last Magazine Read: Bazaar, while waiting at my eye doctor appointment this week, which was rather bizarre, since I had to take my contacts out for his assistant earlier, so I was holding it about 3 inches from my face.

Last Thing I Broke: My replacement carafe for my French press coffee maker, which I'd had for all of 26 hours after waiting months for a local store to get them in. Not that I'm bitter or anything. (Note to those who might possibly be looking for Christmas presents for me - yes, an 8-cup replacement carafe would be great, or else an unbreakable or stainless French press will be mentioned on my wish list....)

Last Thing I Fixed: Ha. Not the carafe. I taped up a ripped book earlier today and also fixed half of my microwaveable scarf, which I'd trapped in the door late last winter and in so doing burned a hole through part of it.

Last Thing That Made Me Laugh: I'm sure it was either one of the girls or my husband, likely something about one of the girls, because I laugh at/with them multiple times daily.

Last Thing That Made Me Go Huh? One of the girls I sometimes watch, who we'll call Rachelle, said today, "Thanksgiving is just the same as Halloween." Um, no. Both are fall holidays, but otherwise, no.

Last Thought: Man, I just can't be brief at these meme things, can I?

NBPM20 - Thursday Thoughts - A small case of whine

(c) 2008 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

Edited to add: Ok, rereading through this, I realize how whiny and self-pitying I sound when really, it wasn't THAT bad of a day. At all. However, being NaBloPoMo and all, if I don't leave this poor-me post up, well, then I have to think of something else to write about. So guess what? You're getting the whine today! :) Feel free to skip now!

You ever have one of those days? You know, the kind where your French press takes a nose-dive out of the cupboard first thing in the morning when you're opening it to reach for a mug? And smashes ALL TO HECK in shards of glass bestrewing the counter AND the floor?*

And then a couple of hours later when you are just heading out the door to get a replacement with the toddler because she's not taking a morning nap anymore (*sigh*) and the school calls to say your 4Ker has been having a runny and slightly bloody nose all morning? Maybe you could swing by and take a look to see if you want to take her home?**

And you might have a tad less patience than usual 'cuz the little one has decided that the switch back from Daylight Savings Time didn't actually happen, so she's been ready to get up at 5:00 am the last two mornings?

And then with one thing and another, you don't get your NaBloPoMo post up as soon as planned, so you keep thinking about it 'cuz you don't want to break your streak 2/3 of the way through...

Yeah, it was that day.

Not awful in its entirety by any means***, but still, the kind of day when you're just glad to be approaching the evening, and dreaming of when you get to put on some fleece pjs and hop in between those cozy flannel sheets with a book and relax.

Now, if only we could convince the brownies to come and do the dishes, tidy up the toys, vacuum the dining room floor...****



*It definitely could have been worse - Pumpkin was still asleep upstairs and Penguin was happily eating breakfast in her chair, so no kids were near or otherwise in danger of being hurt by all the slivers and shards and chunks of glass in my kitchen, thank goodness! Also, I was getting out a mug to drink some coffee already made in the thermal programmable coffee maker, so, you know, there was still coffee to be had!

**They were nice and had I been unable to get her then it wouldn't've been a big deal 'cuz it wasn't that bad. I do like her teacher & the classroom aide, too.

***Yes, I've had worse ones, and I know you have, too, and perspective and all that, blah blah blah. Sometimes it just eases the mind to whine and mutter a little bit, you know?

****Couscous eaten by a toddler is messy!

Coffee Maker Conundrum Resolved

(c) 2008 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

Ok, y'all have convinced me. I'm going with the 8-cup thermal coffee maker that I bought at Target but didn't open when Mr. Kluges expressed doubts that it would be big enough for company. We'll think about adding an electric kettle or other hot water fix to the mix if we still think we need it after a while.

Thanks so much for your input, both through comments and the poll!

Final results from the poll (which I just closed) were:

a 12-cup coffee maker	2 (14%)
an 8-cup THERMAL coffee maker	4 (28%)
an electric kettle only	1 (7%)
the 12-cup AND electric kettle	1 (7%)
the 8-cup AND electric kettle	10 (71%)
Other - I'll leave a comment.	2 (14%)

Coffee Maker Conundrum

(c) 2008 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

Right, so, our coffee maker has been dying a slow death. It is apparently incontinent, because whenever we make coffee or run water through it, we always end up with a puddle on the floor. Better than a puppy puddle, but still really annoying.

So I went to Target yesterday to get a new one, planning on getting the 12-cup programmable Mr. Coffee they had on sale this week, which is nearly an exact replacement for the one we have.

But then when I was there, I saw the 8-cup, programmable, THERMAL (that is, with a thermos carafe instead of glass), Black&Decker one was also on sale. And I remembered that I'd been thinking (oh, weeks ago when the coffee maker started leaking) about how nice it would be to get a thermos one so the coffee would stay warm without being continually cooked.

BUT, I usually just use the coffee maker to make the water hot and then I make coffee in a French press anyway and transfer it into a plain thermos, so we could just get an electric kettle (something like this, that were ubiquitous in Ireland).

EXCEPT THAT when we have visitors, like, say the grandparents, here, it's really nice to have a plain ol' coffee maker that they know how to use, too. Especially one that I can program to brew in the morning before I'm necessarily ready to be up and about. (Both 'cuz grandparents get up early, and for busy mornings when we need to be out of the house.)

BEAR IN MIND, coffee has recently been bothering Mr. Kluges's tummy, so he's been opting for tea exclusively, which is a vote for the electric kettle, which would be just peachy and quick for the French press coffee, hot cocoa in the winter, etc.

HOWEVER, in a few months, Pumpkin will be starting "4K," which is basically half-day preschool / kindergarten for 4 year olds ('cuz that's what she'll be by end of August!), and I'm requesting morning since she still occasionally naps in the afternoons, so I'll probably want coffee with less time input than French press in the am's. So programmable = good.

AND if we got the thermal one, I wouldn't have to also have a thermos out on the counter all the time, and it wouldn't keep heating the coffee and giving it off flavors, and it would still stay warm and yummy.

THAT BEING SAID, when the grandparents or any guests are here, will an 8-cup maker really be sufficient (even with Mr. Kluges possibly still boycotting coffee), or will I just be having to jump up and make a second pot every single time....



So,

HELP!

What do you think makes the most sense? Leave a comment below and/or hit the poll off in the right sidebar. Thanks!