…except, of course, for the time with loved ones and the Miles-help, the best part of visiting my family is finding things from my and my brother’s childhoods.

One example:  this book, Beavis and Butt-head’s Huh-huh for Hollywood.  I have long thought Beavis and Butt-head were unjustly cast as juvenile fart-humor.  I think Mike Judge is one of the better comic minds of the late 20th century, and Beavis and Butt-head can really be quite hilarious.  Also, I sort of like fart jokes.

This book has a section called “Cool Actors” (juxtaposed with “Actors Who Suck”).  An excerpt:

Charleton Heston

This guy has kicked ass throughout the universe.  Like once, he landed on this planet that was ruled by chimps, and he kicked their monkey asses.  And then like this other time, he was on this planet with all these diseased zombies, and he kicked their undead asses.  And then he was on this planet where everybody was eating these little green snackcakes made out of people, and he kicked their cannibal asses.

Yeah, and remember, this other time, he was on this planet called Egypt, and he turns a whole river into blood, and he makes all these frogs to do his evil bidding, and he, like, talks to this bush that’s on fire.

You know what, Beavis.  I heard that movie was based on a book.

No way, Butt-Head.  No book would ever be that cool.

Sir Anthony Hopkins

He eats people, and he doesn’t wait for them to come out in snackcake form, either.  He says they’re delicious just the way they are.  Plus he bombed a bunch of people over in Vietland, like, when he was the president.  Now he’s like a knight so you have to like call him sir or he takes out his sword and cuts off your fava beans.

I don’t know what’s wrong with the blog.  I’m tired.  Maybe upgrading my version of WordPress would help…except every time I do that, they promise it’s going to take like 5 minutes and be easy, and I end up crying and Denny fixes it for me.

I am a modern, reasonably tech-savvy woman.  I really don’t want to let it come to that.  Again.

UPDATE:  I figured out what the problem was (all by myself with no crying).  My spam-squashing plug-in was horking things.  I wonder if I should upgrade anyway, because I really can’t go without it, and a newer version might not be so hork-a-licious.

Also, it’s our anniversary.  Three years!

1.  Last night I was reading Miles a story, and I thought he would enjoy it if I got dramatic and did some wacky voices.  He got scared and cried.

2.  There was this booger right on the outskirts of his nostril, and in the process of trying to pick it out, I flicked it directly into his mouth.  He ate it.

Miles shows off his new trick.  I dig shooting little videos with the iSight/Photobooth; he really enjoys watching himself on-screen as it records.

[quicktime width=”320″ height=”256″]http://www.aprille.org/media/raspberries.mov[/quicktime]

I’ve really fallen out of the habit of posting.  Sorry about that.

Some exciting things of late:

1) We went to Book Babies at the library, which was fun.  There was much bouncing and singing and reading of books.

2) We’re working on active sleep training at the moment, which is not as much fun as Book Babies, let me tell you.  Miles is doing much better at sleeping; he hasn’t been waking up nearly as often in the night lately.  However, he’s still not very good at falling asleep on his own (i.e., without being nursed/walked/bounced).  I’m not really comfortable with the Ferber method, so we’ve been trying the method where you stay with him, touching him and making soothing noises.  That sort of works.  Sometimes he just gets so upset that his little body shakes with sobs, and it goes against every instinct I have to let him stay that worked up.

For his nap this afternoon, I picked him up and soothed him when he got upset, but put him down again before he was completely asleep.  It took a lot of up-and-down, but eventually he did fall asleep.  We’ll see.  It’s brain-poundingly frustrating.

3) I had a really good peach a few minutes ago.  It had a couple of bad spots, but once I cut those out, man-oh-man.

4) I finished a draft of novel #2.  This one is a young adult novel.  Now comes the delightful cycle of sending query letters and reading rejections.  I think I need to wait until this sleep training thing is better established before I start that.  There’s enough crying in the house right now.

(I’m actually exaggerating.  Rejection letters are just what happens in the publishing world.  I don’t take them personally, and the rare, precious acceptance letter makes the rest fade away.  However, I’ve only had one of those in my whole life, and another one would really be nice, you know?)

Miles’s feet were actually sort of stinky.  I’m not sure why.  He doesn’t wear shoes or socks.
[quicktime width=”320″ height=”256″]http://www.aprille.org/media/stinkyfeet.mov[/quicktime]

Here are some names which are perfectly normal for people my parents’ age, but kind of weird for people my age.  When I meet people my age with one of these names, I think there must be some kind of reason, like they’re named after someone or their parents are immigrants who wanted an anglicized name for the kid but weren’t quite on top of the trends.  Note:  I actually find this kind of adorable.  There was just such a Doris who lived in my dorm in college and I got a kick out of it.

• Judy
• Carol
• Diane
• Bob
• Jan
• Terry
• Randy
• Joyce

This has been on my mind lately.  I don’t know why.  Equally weird is the fact that in a generation or two, there are going to be wrinkly grandmas named Tiffani-Amber and Britney and Madison.

Also note, my more sensitive readers, that I am in no way insulting any of these names.  I just find their absence and presence among certain demographics interesting.

Like many others, I am addicted to the “Compare People” app on Facebook (though I hate the stupid online dating aspect they’ve added to it—if you see an option who is clearly not one of your friends, don’t click him/her; it’s a trap).

However, I seem only to excel in the nerdy categories.  I am currently #1 for “More trustworthy,” “Studies harder,” and “Would make a better mother” (aww, I like that one).  Still, it’s the ones where I rank low that concern me.  My very lowest one is “Happier person.”  Do I come off as unhappy?  I’m pretty happy.  What gives?

I’m also suspiciously low in “Smells better.”  Maybe I stink and that makes people think I’m unhappy.  What, you’ve never heard the expression “Happier than a pig in excrement of its own emission”?