Surprises

It was Thursday. We were hip deep in kitchen and household renovations when Leena mentioned that she was having problems with her newest pair of gerbils.  Percy was eating much more than his brother, Anton, and was actually getting a bit tubby.

Hmmm.  Well, I didn't have time to think much about it, so I suggested she put extra food in the cage to make sure poor Anton got enough food, and we'd figure it out later.

The next day Leena had me hold Percy.  He was definitely the heftiest gerbil I'd ever seen.  But the Emperor and the younger boys were due back in two days.  Clearly there was a problem, I just didn't have time to research it now.  Besides, Percy and Anton both seemed pretty healthy otherwise.

First day

Saturday morning, Leena came to me with the surprising news that Percy was no longer fat.

And we now had five wiggly pink jelly beans in a corner of the cage.

And Percy turns out to be short for Persephone.

Sigh.  I've been pregnant how many times and I didn't figure it out?!

This is our fifth pair of gerbils and the first error by the pet store.

7 days

10 days

Honestly, this was not the plan, but...

They're so cute!

And we are handling them every day, so they are extremely tame and sweet.

13 days

15 days

Percy turned out to be a good mom, except for the part where she stuffed all her babies in the gerbil wheel, then forgot (?!) and started running.

Fortunately, the babies were all fine!


We figured out we have 3 girls and two boys.

18 days

And then yesterday the first one opened her eyes!

Classic Funk

I found this mesmerizing!  I really like old movies and whoever synched this up is a pro!  I was trying to see how many I could identify.  It turns out that if you put on closed captioning, the names of each movies come up on the correct clip.



HT to Jenny over at Unremarkable Files.  She's just like me except she's way funnier, not home schooling, and she's Mormon.

Would You Believe

They now have cupcake flavored unicorn cereal?  Seriously?  Are we not even pretending to be breakfast anymore?!

Not so Easy Fun Art

I'm sure I'm the only one who has ever found a fantastic craft on the internet that, in real life, made me want to poke myself in the eye with a popsicle stick.

Well, here's a brilliant idea that must work for many people:

Slice a large potato in half.  Scoop out a section of the top and fill it with moist potting soil. Put the potato in a shallow dish of water and sprinkle the potting soil with grass seed. Decorate the potato to look like a face and, when the grass seed grows, you have hair on your potato person! 

What a great idea: a cute easy craft that incorporates art and science!  Let me fetch the popsicle stick before I continue.

POKE! 

Okay, this totally works and probably is the cutest easiest craft ever, unless your potato actually rots from sitting in the water.

In which case it will secrete a foul-smelling brown liquid, your house will smell horrible and you will find yourself answering interesting questions about microbiology. 

Then, if you are me, you will slice off the rotten section, bleach the dish and try again with the exact same results the next day. Why, yes, I do know the definition of insanity, why do you ask?

If you have the foresight (dare I say wisdom) to have given your potatoes large googly eyes, this will give the curious effect of slowly panicking potatoes, daily sinking further into the dish.


Eventually, I gave up, and cut a new  potato and did a "hair" transplant (Hair Club for Potatoes).  This time I skipped the water in the dish, and the potatoes aren't rotting (much).  The grass never grew as well as advertised, so, instead of cute lush hair spilling over around their little spud faces, I have two rather shocked mostly bald tater people. 

And I have Choclo, who saw them and exclaimed, "Whoa!  The potatoes grew!!"  Which is enough art and science for today.

Lunchtime Conversation

Leena: Mom, who first discovered that cows make milk?

Me: Baby cows. (pause) Come on, that was funny!

Klenda (with an absolutely straight face): I am just barely restraining my amusement.

Old Spice

I'm not sure I can articulate exactly why I find the Old Spice commercial so offensive.

No wait, let me try: I DON'T WANT TO LOOK AT YOU! MY HUSBAND IS WORTH 50 OF YOU ANY DAY AND I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU SMELL LIKE!!!

Yes, I know the commercial is intentionally a parody. It just bugs me.

On the other hand, I find the parodies of the parody absolutely hilarious. Go figure!

Here's my favorite with a big hat tip to Zoe at Inside Catholic:

Happy Sleap Day!

That doesn't seem right somehow...

Oh yes, Happy Leap Day!

Overheard

BUT, he has the same intelligence as if his brain were the exact size and shape of a hot dog!

Funniest thing I've read all day!!

Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?