The Great and Random Ramblings of Cannwin

I'm not around today... at all. I've gone down to Las Vegas for a doctors appointment. That's 2 hours there and 2 hours home. I really ought to stop at Nellis Air Force Base while I'm there and hit up the PX, but I probably won't. Either way, I'm not here... I'm there and I've farmed out my kids so that I could be there. So until tomorrow enjoy this video. Unless of course, you're offended by people flipping other people off... then don't watch this video. This is my friend, her husband and myself at a "parade" in town (it was really just a commemorative wagon train that pulled into town and my friends family was in it). If you can't hear... her husband asks me how good I am at editing video.

NaNoWriMo is coming up next month. Anyone going to participate this year? I'm thinking about it.

Oh, I’m being eaten By a boa constrictor, A boa constrictor, A boa constrictor, I’m being eaten by a boa constrictor, And I don’t like it—one bit. Well, what do you know? It’s nibblin’ my toe. Oh, gee, It’s up to my knee. Oh my, It’s up to my thigh. Oh, fiddle, It’s up to the middle. Oh, heck, It’s up to my neck. Oh, dread, It’s upmmmmmmmmmmffffffffff… Yep--That's me!

The other day my brother-in-law emailed me this suggestion for a blog post: How about you blog about if you were on death row and you can pick your last meal any thing in the world.  What would it be.  And you might say what crime you committed to get you to death row. ... Well, can I tell you that my answer to this question might make you guys laugh. My last meal would have to include a fantastic plate of Mashed Potatoes. Yep... Mashed Potatoes... I'm a total sucker for them. I told my friend the other day that MP's are like food sex to me. ::blush:: (Did I just use the word sex?!) I L-O-V-E them! Meat and Potatoes are one of my favorite meals. And as for what I'd have done? What are my options? Murder? Hmm, I suppose there's a few people I might like to see 'off'ed' What about you?

This week has been a week of completely irrelevant posts... that tends to make me feel like a bad blogger. Like I'm just sure that you guys have better things to be doing than read my irrelevance. However, I'm practically chipper enough as to not want to blog. ::gasp:: That is an absolute first for me. I need some topics. Does anyone want to suggest some things for me to write about? A topic perhaps? An essay (I haven't done one of those in a while). Anything at all! :) As for something of value for you guys. Listen to this fantastically chipper song that just fits my mood for the day.

So, I have this little quirk about my personality that you may not know about. Actually it's rather new to me, so how on Earth would you know about it? I like British TV shows.... Well, okay, I like the two shows I've watched enough to dig around for more. And no, I'm not talking about British humor shows, I'm talking Law & Order: UK (even though I don't like any other Law & Order shows) and MI-5 (Spooks). MI-5 is what I'm watching now, it's like a spy show... or more like an FBI sort of show, except that they are way more secretive than any FBI agent I've ever known (and I've known a few). Anyway, so I've been watching this show and there is this one character named Ruth that so reminds me of my friend Cari it's a bit weird. Last night, as I was watching my allotted daily intake of 2-3 episodes (this is what wives of soldiers do when their men are away... we watch lots of TV), I tried to figure out what it was about Ruth that...

This morning we are all just lounging around watching "The Prince of Egypt." Going to visit family is sometimes so exhausting and very little sleep is had. Last night I woke up on the floor next to Remewin and I'm still not sure how I ended up there. Clearly I'm overly tired. The kids are not much better. Today I'm going downtown to see a friend I've known since I was in elementary school. There aren't many of those friends around here anymore. Families have moved on and there are very few lifelong acquaintances to visit around here. There's something about people you've known all your life that makes them special despite any differences you may have. Having the same history, the same memories, the same past... that's almost how siblings are made. So I'm going to see the last of a dying breed...it ought to be fun.

One of the first things that caught my eye when I moved here was that my brother in law had this nifty little device full of fun games that his babies would play on when he was trying to distract their attention. It had touch screen technology and I immediately wanted one. I could imagine long distance driving in an entirely different light. Audio books, games, stories, movies. Our little lives could change so much! So my brother in law found me an iPod Touch for $90 on craigslist and I was up and running. Except for this one small little hiccup. -- I don't get it. The stupid little machine is practically it's own Artificial Intelligence and sometimes I don't get it. Take for example the process by which you convert a DVD over to a iPod readable file. I have to pass through so many different languages to get the iPod to understand me that I honestly am not sure what I'm doing. My poor brother in law had no idea what he was getting himself into when he handed o...

This post is brought to by the fabulous Evelyn @ Hanging by a Silver Lining who gave me all the prompting I needed for one dry day. Three confessions: 1. I am 90% ornery and am typically in a bad mood. I hate this about myself, it makes me mad. :) 2. I don't floss. 3. I let my babies diaper get completely full before I change it. Three things I do to beat the heat: 1. Cold showers. 2. Cold water on my face. 3. Change clothes 4 times  day. Three lessons, skills, or new tricks I have learned this past month: 1. How to make digital glitter. (see yesterdays post) 2. It's never a good idea to lose your temper with your children at the grocery store. 3. It doesn't matter how many 'prince' outfits I make the Mischievite, he'll still wear my dresses. Three things that motivate me to be a better person: 1.  “'What do you fear my lady?'  'A cage. To stay behind bars until use and old age accept them and all chance of valor has gone b...

Recently on this other blog that I adore (Pugley Pixel) she had a mini tutorial on how to make digital glitter. Now, seeing as how I'm like a crow and attracted to all things shiny, I just had to give it a try. The problem is that I don't have Photoshop, I have GIMP--which is the freeware version of Photoshop and is slightly different. When I go to use GIMP I have to figure out the equivalent wording for any Photoshop tutorials. Plus, if I'm entirely honest, I really don't know what I'm doing, nor am I very good at it. So for two days I spent all of my free-time (and perhaps maybe a teensy bit of not free-time) trying to attain glitter perfection. Then, when I had satisfied my curiosity, I became aware of one glaring problem with my project. I had nothing to really show for it! I may have accomplished my goal but where was I going to put it? What was I going to use it for? I was left feeling slightly deflated until a new friend suggested that I blog about...

Lately I've been really struggling to come up with things to blog about. There just isn't really anything going on in my life. Except that shouldn't even be an issue because I typically can come up with all sorts of things to go on and on about, but lately I've got nothing. I don't know if it's just because my days are filled with mundane things that aren't really that interesting or if I've just hit some sort of writers block. Surely there is more to it than that. Maybe it's because I've been reading more books of late and that takes up my time and imagination. Right now I'm reading a really good book called "The Wise Man's Fear" by Patrick Rothfuss . It's the second book in a series and is so far just as incredibly well written as the last one was. I'm very engrossed. Other than that I have nothing of interest going on in my life whatsoever. Essentially I'm having a dry run around these here parts. I supp...

The future. Yesterday we went to the library and, as is typical of my children, they all ran in separate directions. The nice thing about the library, though, is that as long as I have an eye on Remewin, I'm totally okay with this. So, after directing Vicbowin to the Young Adult section, I took a comfy seat next to Albowin and the computer he was using. (Typical Albowin... he cares nothing for the books and everything for the technology). I enjoyed a great few minutes of childless mommying before I noticed that Albowin was using his computer screen to maneuver his game character. "Hey!" I said, quite impressed, "that's a touch screen." "Yeah." he mumbled back at me. "But how did you know that?" I asked, wondering what had prompted him to touch the image. Albowin shrugged, "I just thought I'd try." I sat there just a bit stunned. What a world my boy is growing up in, where touch screen technology is already ...

{1} What   must   you do before you go to bed at night? Let's see... I'm trying to run through my daily routine, which isn't really much of a routine...and I can't really think of anything I MUST do. I can't really sleep without being on my belly so that's a definite must. I MUST be able to roll onto my stomach, and pull my leg up... otherwise I toss and turn.  Seriously, every night. {2} What is one thing you   must   snack on at the theater? Maybe a soda, but then I'll have to go to the loo half way through the movie so I don't tend to actually buy anything. {3} Before going on vacation what   must   you do? Clean the house! I can't stand coming home to a messy house. It's like walking into stress. So I clean before I leave. Including laundry if I can manage it. {4} What is one thing you   must   do every day? Blog and check my email. Oh, and brush my teeth. :) {5} Is there something you do th...

Via Cannwin's computer screen I watched the wedding. Admittedly I probably wouldn't have, but the Mischievite was beating me to a pulp with his feet and I couldn't sleep. Besides Ralexwin and I have so much in common with the couple I felt it appropriate. I mean, >she has brown hair and so do I. >She's got a sapphire on her left hand and my birth stone is sapphire. >Her new husband has a receding hairline and so does mine. >She wore white at her wedding and so did I. >I've been outside Buckingham Palace, so has she. Clearly kindred spirits. Stretching it? In  all honesty I'm a bit of a cynic about the whole thing. I'm not really convinced it's the grand love story everyone thinks it is. For instance, Prince William has opted NOT to wear a wedding ring. Really? Why not? It's too hard for a royal to wear jewels? He has too many and one little band is going to tip him over? The skeptic in me finds this suspicious. I gu...

So, I've been coming across some great one liners recently and I really want to put them all down in one spot. This means that once I start typing I'll definitely forget about half of them, but I'll try anyway. "‎Leather is a tried and tested way of establishing the masculinity of hero protagonists; when not used in excess, or the inference generally changes to ‘villain’." -Clothes on Film "Having a baby is like having a tattoo on your face. You kind of want to be committed." -Eat Pray Love "It's a long, slow, beautiful dance to the beat of a heart." -Rascal Flatts ---this makes me think of baby growing and is exactly how I feel about having a child inside of me... just so you know. "You're going to have to learn to select your thoughts the same way you select your clothes every day. Now that's a power that you can cultivate. You want to come here and you want to control your life so bad work on the mind, and I don...

The day of the move has been determined. The boxes are being packed and I officially have a little over 4 weeks to get everything in order before we head West. So, what does a blogger do when they know they will be offline for a while? (Offline? Really? Am I in the Matrix or something?)  I've been thinking about this for some time now (like a whole ten minutes) and I think I've come up with a solution. You see the most feared prospect for a habitual blogger is that on that day when you finally hit the jack pot. The day when for no discernible reason you are thrust into blogging fame... that day just happens to be the day you post something lousy--or worse you don't post at all. What happens when your window of opportunity opens and shuts and all the while you are in the lou? My conundrum is such. All right, I also don't want to dissapoint my faithful followers who are much more important than some vague and fickle crowd of unknowns. Anyhow. I have a pl...

Can I just tell you a little something-something about myself? It's a secret I've been keeping from the blogging world for quite a while for fear of a general outcry and swift retribution. BUT, never being one to be able to keep a secret for long, I'll tell you. I hate aprons. A few years ago we had a women's social at church in which we were all given aprons and told they were an example of service. I nearly didn't take one. I nearly skipped out on the whole thing... oh, wait--I think I did leave early. You must be wondering what my miff is? What's got my bloomers in a bind? What's got my corset askew? What's the rock in my high heel? To me aprons are the physical representation of everything women fought to free themselves of! Forget bras, people... what about aprons? Everybody seems so gung-ho to embrace aprons these days and every time I see one I just think to myself--"A woman's place is in the kitchen." Wow, last ti...

My friend asked me the other day 'If you could be on any reality TV show which one would you choose?' I immediately answered, "The Biggest Loser." To which she announced that I wouldn't qualify. Aww. But then, in all seriousness I thought about it and since I'm sure I don't know half of the reality TV shows out there, I decided on my dream. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition   and not because I think he is hot.  Because he's not that hot. No, I love EMHE because this is hot: ::Sigh:: And this: ::drool:: And this: ::sob:: Oh, yes. That's the kind of eye candy I'm talking about, and I'd loooove to have it in my house. What's your favorite reality TV show? Which one do you wish you could be on? (If you secretly want to be on the Bachlorette, you can comment anonymously if you want.) ::wink::

1) I've been waiting for Missy at So You Think You're Crafty to announce the whose who of the crafts before I announced it over here... sadly, that won't be until Wednesday. So you will all have to survive a little longer. 2) Also in my world, it is Spring Break for the University kids. This bugs me to no end. In fact it grates on all perfectionist tendencies I might possess within me. Spring Break? Last time I checked it was still Winter--literally and physically. And, since Murphy's Law always seems to be accurate... what happens every Spring Break around here? It snows. Like I said... totally annoys me. 3) I spotted this fun 'tag' the other day ( thanks Melissa ) and decided I'd crash the party. It's a handwriting tag. I don't know why I've suddenly become interested in letting you all see my handwriting, because it's rather dreadful, but it's sort of fun. So I had to answer several questions (I missed a few because I ran o...

One of the many Facebook apps out there is called the 'Truth Game.' Well, I got a prompt on my private facebook page about someone answering a question about me so I clicked on over and discovered that lots of people have answered questions about me. Super fun, in my opinion. So I screen shot them and thought I'd share them with you. Cuz I just love you so much. (please ignore my real last name and just pretend it says Win. Also, please ignore any typographical errors)