How Queen Victoria scared the hell out of my kid

Yeah, okay, she's more than a little frightening

Justin always gets the week of July 4th off. I tried to plan something every day for the kids. We went to the zoo, wading pool, library and had general fun. There's a discount movie theater about 10 minutes from our house and on Fridays they have matinees. Since Liam loves irates and we'd had success when we took them to see the Muppets movie, I figured that'd be an easy activity to go see the Pirates! Band of Misfits. 4 tickets  ($12) and unlimited popcorn and air conditioning made us all happy. Until the last 20 minutes when Queen Victoria turns into a rampaging maniac and Liam starts crying inconsolably and clings to Daddy until Justin takes him out into the foyer and multiple theater workers are asking if he's going to be okay. So all in all, not a success. But we had fun the rest of the week until some old guy got up in church and gave a talk on how all Liberals are going to hell and that any one who protests wars is a bad church member. But that's another story.

Send me your recipes!

I few months ago I got really sick. I contracted some sort of virus that literally made red meat indigestible. When I finally got over it (and lost a little weight in the process that I have since gained back), I found that I really didn't miss it that much. I've decided that I'd like to become a pescetarian (fish, no meat). I really can't become a full fledged vegetarian because I'm very prone to anemia and iron, but since red meat isn't the only way to get iron and since I LOVE seafood, I've decided that pescetarianism is the way to go. I'll probably still eat chicken occasionally, and I might have red meat on even rarer occasions. But here's where I run into trouble.

I need recipes. I'm not fond of tofu. I know, I know-I'm Korean, I should love it. I don't. But I could really use any recipes that are vegetarian or use seafood/fish. Dairy and eggs are fine. I do have to be a little careful about cheeses that have sulfites in them because they give me migraines. Email them or send me a link.

Stay tuned, abnormal programming will resume shortly

Sorry about the hiatus. My life has been simultaneously very stressful and very boring. Here's a conversation Justin and I had today:

Kids are screaming their heads off. I turned to Justin and asked, "What do you think? Augmented fifth?"

That's right. Instead of calming my kids, we analyze the interval of their shrieks.

Here's how Alana tells me she's hungry.

Ugh.

I am currently hopped up on a lot of Nyquil. If I drunk dial you, just hang up. I won't be offended. Maybe.

Happy 3rd birthday, Alana

Three years ago yesterday the Universe presented us with this: 

Just look at that lump of baby. Plus the awesome mullet.

In three years, she has grown into this:

I didn't realize until now that her swimming cover and water table match.

This is what she thinks of growing up. I concur.

Still trying to convince Alana that her changing table is not bunk bed

Amazing what you find two years later

These are pictures of a scarf that I made my sister-in-law a couple of years ago. She took the pictures (which is why they actually look good). It's made up of over a hundred yo-yos stitch together with a surrounding band.