Friday, April 30, 2021

7 Quick Takes about Adventures in Salem, Fun Uses for Domestic Oil Spills, and Watching Deodorant Commercials for Fun

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

1


At the tail end of my mom's visit with us, we decided to visit Salem, Massachusetts. Phillip has never been very excited when I bring up the idea of going there, so I figured that while the kids were home for spring break and my mom was here it was the perfect time.

Our first stop was the Salem Witch Museum, which dramatized the story of the 1692 Salem witch trials  with a voiceover and slightly creepy vignettes with life-size wax figures. 

The narrative was a little graphic and I'm sure people were totally giving us the side-eye for bringing a 4-year-old in there, but you know, that's just what happens when you've got 6 kids. (If you're concerned, don't lose sleep over it because the content went 100% over his head and the only thing he recognized was the Harry Potter wands in the gift shop.)

2


After the Witch Museum, we had lunch at a park, saw the sights, and ended up at a candy store where Grandma bought the kids lollipops bigger than their heads.

When I went to help my 7-year-old unwrap his, I noticed on the label that this thing contained TWENTY SERVINGS.

Ingredients: Diabetes, yellow #5. 

As we walked past a marina, my 9-year-old spied a good place to sit down for a moment and look at the water. I thought this was the funniest picture:


Who puts a 'No loitering' sign in front of a bench? Isn't that the express purpose of a bench? I am so confused. 

We walked on and then we saw this ship: 


"Oh, no!" My 15-year-old groaned. "It's a bad pun and it's in Comic Sans!!!" (It physically pains my older two girls to see Comic Sans, and yet they see it everywhere we go. I had no idea there was so much Comic Sans in the world until they began pointing it out to me every single time.)

3


I started reading this relationships book called For Women Only: What You Need to Know About the Inner Lives of Men

While I was walking around with it, my 9-year-old daughter took one look at the cover and said "I need to read that book, because I don't understand boys at all." 

She told me about some game they were playing at school and the boys were being all crazy, and she wanted to know why that was fun for them. I just looked at her blankly and said, "I don't know, go ask your dad."

So I'm learning a lot from the book, apparently.

4


I've been a mom for 16 years now, but the cool thing about motherhood is that there's always something new about kids to learn.

For example, this week I learned that if your van leaks oil on the floor of the garage, it won't occur to them to come and tell you about it. Instead, they'll just have a grand old time riding their bikes through it and let you discover it on your own later on.

At least they made a pretty starburst pattern out of it.

5


I got the first dose of my COVID-19 vaccine. It's been a long time since the I was last vaccinated for anything (which means I'm probably overdue for a tetanus booster) and I have to say, it kind of hurt! 

I guess I'm used to blood draws, where you feel the prick of the needle and then nothing. But when you get a vaccine it feels heavy going in, sort of like they're slowly injecting lead into you, and it was then that I thought "Ohhhhh... so this is why kids cry when they do this!"

6


In other news, Phillip demolished the basement stairs. He finished framing and now he's on to the staircase, which needs to be completely redesigned and replaced. 

While we temporarily have an 8-foot drop instead of stairs at the basement door, we're using a high-tech system to keep everyone safe: pushing the couch in front of the basement door for the little kids, and putting a sign that says DO NOT ENTER - STAIRS OUT OF ORDER for the big kids who can move the couch.

There's been discussion among the kids about lobbying Phillip to install a fireman's pole instead, but he's already started work on a new staircase that hopefully will be fully operational by Saturday. 

Until then, every time we need to get something out of the basement we have to literally leave the house, go around the backyard, and through the walk-out basement door. It's like we have a second house now.

7


I've never done this before, but YouTube showed me a deodorant ad that was so funny I specifically searched it up and showed it to my teenager later. (Mostly because it features one of the original Studio C cast members, whose videos she loved when she was younger. )

To my disappointment, she was kind of neutral on the ad and described it as "equal parts funny and awkward." Which is interesting because that basically sums up everything I find amusing in life.


What do you think?

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2 comments:

Robyn said...

That ad is AMAZING! All funny; not awkward. I am considering buying some Lume just because of this ad.

Jenny Evans said...

Robyn: Me, too, and I NEVER buy things because of ads.