Friday, December 16, 2016

7 Quick Takes about Being Bad at Shopping, Orphaned Dogs Who Are Just Misunderstood, and How to Talk in Ancient Rome

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?

1


Thanks to everybody for voting on what we should wear for family pictures; the winner was Palette A!

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?  {posted @ Unremarkable Files}
The winning outfits: thank goodness we have you all to dress us.

I'm looking forward to picking up the pictures when they're ready. The photographer got all the kids to smile by simply yelling "farts!" before taking the shot. Kids are so predictable.

2


My kids absolutely love having some proper snow so they can go sledding now (we've got several places in our yard that make for decent sled hills).

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?  {posted @ Unremarkable Files}

They love it, but they're also under the impression that they need hot chocolate 3-4 times a day after every time they go play outside. Yet another reason why I'm not into "yes" parenting.

3


After dropping my daughter at preschool, I had some time to kill and decided to do some window shopping for Christmas. (This is really bizarre for me, since the last time I stepped in a store without a definite purpose for being there was in 1998.)

As I was wandering through the aisles at K-mart I saw a blue-and-white striped changing table pad cover and briefly considered getting it, since ours is a pink hand-me-down and the baby is a boy.

After a few moments of deliberation, I realized that not only did we not need a new one, but I actively didn't want one. Like, if they were giving them out for free at the door, I wouldn't have taken one. Our perfectly serviceable pink cover will stay right where it is, thank you very much.

Then I tried on some clothes, put them back on the rack, and left the store with a tub of Eucerin and nothing else. My takeaway from this experience is that I don't care for shopping.

4


I've been putting off making this announcement, but Phillip got a TV. 

We'll just be using it for movies (we don't have cable or network stations) so we still don't technically have a TV, at least not in the traditional sense. But I'm still adjusting. For one thing, it's so huge I feel ridiculous watching it. I live in an IMAX theater now.

At 55" I'm told it's not that big (even though it totally is.) I suppose it seems more that way to me because for the last 7 months we've spent family movies nights crammed around my 14" laptop screen. (We used to use Phillip's big computer monitor but we had to give it back when he changed jobs in May.)

It's quite a shocking change.

5


I've read Go, Dog. Go! at least a million times, but the other day my 5-year-old made an interesting observation.

"Why does he have a collar but she doesn't?" she asked as we got to the obnoxious 'Do you like my hat?' pages.

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?  {posted @ Unremarkable Files}

"You know, I've never noticed that before. I'm not sure," I told her.

"Is it because someone adopted him, but she doesn't belong to anyone?"

And then you feel like a jerk for dismissing that poor pink poodle as a vain and silly dog, when really she's just an orphan desperately seeking acceptance!

And then you think about how she's just a dog and you're anthropomorphizing and she's not even a real dog, just a fictional one.

And then you realize that if a picture book about cartoon dogs triggers such a complex emotional analysis, you probably need to get out more and/or read a real book meant for grown-ups.

6


My 7th grader debated taking French or Latin as her required foreign language in school this year, and ultimately chose French because she thought it would be more useful than a dead ancient Roman language.

But on the side she's been doing a self-guided study of Latin, and she told me the other day she's learning a lot.

"Like what?" I asked.

"I can say 'The slave fell into the fish pond.'"

I think she made the right call on French being the more practical language.

7


Last year I actually listened to the lyrics of Baby It's Cold Outside for the first time and honestly, I'm not a fan. At best it's pushy and stereotypes both men and women, and I personally find it a little creepy.

I mentioned it on Facebook:

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?  {posted @ Unremarkable Files}

and a reader directed me to this video, which is one of my favorite things on YouTube now.

I died when he offered to take her to The Cheesecake Factory. How sweet and funny is this?


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6 comments:

The Runcible Pen said...

We don't have cable/satellite or network TV, either. We plug the computer into the TV and play downloaded shows, so we can simultaneously watch them on a big or little screen.

AnneMarie said...

Oh wow, it's so intense that y'all have a TV! That must be weird. Whenever we visit my parent's house, it's always a little shock to my system to see stuff on their (rather large) screen, since I typically use my laptop for watching shows. Sometimes, we'll use my husband's computer, and his monitor has a fairly decent-sized screen, but I'm still very used to smaller screens (and I'm more than OK with that).

Good job on the KMart adventure! I think that shows that you have really developed self-control, which is cool. I used to be the type of person who would buy things just because they were on sale, always take free things that were offered to me, etc. But within this past year, I've successfully been able to walk into stores and say, "That thing is on sale, and would probably be cool, but I don't really need it." It's so freeing to be able to say that without actually buying something!!

Is your 7th grader's self-guided study for Latin include conversational Latin? I love Latin and studied it in college, but it was only written translations, and not conversational (well, except for prayers). I would love to learn more conversational Latin, though!

Michelle said...

I saw that video for the first time today, and it killed me. So funny. Also, when I was in high school, we sang Baby It's Cold Outside in show choir. Also Santa Baby. I'm just now realizing how inappropriate that was.

PurpleSlob said...

Yay for the peach palette! I know y'all looked killer good!
WOW!! I'm still in shock! A TV?? Let that sink in for a minute....
Poor, poor doggie!
Yay! She's prepared for any slave drowning emergency!

Jen said...

Whoa, I just googled the lyrics because I never paid attention before. Why are the catchy songs always sooo inappropriate?? I love that video's version MUCH better.

Carolyn Astfalk said...

I'm still using a 13-year-old changing pad. I'm determined that it will make it through child #4's potty training days (although I'm beginning to suspect this kid just likes to poop in his pants). It's ripped and torn, but by golly, it's going to survive.