“Karens” (216/365)

“A box of new crayons! Now they're all pointy, lined up in order, bright and perfect. Soon they'll be a bunch of ground down, rounded, indistinguishable stumps, missing their wrappers and smudged with other colors. Sometimes life seems unbearably tragic.”

Bill Watterson (American Author of the comic strip Calvin & Hobbes, b.1958)

TIME:  10:15 PM
PLACE:  Desk
SUBJECT:  Crayola Crayons <= “Karens” is how DQ would pronounce them when she was little.  Now, that’s how I usually refer to them.

We did some school supply shopping today.  I have a question to ask SD’s second grade teacher.  I know you pool the supplies in your classroom, but why would each child need to purchase 8-glue sticks and 4-bottles of white glue?  Assuming there are 25 students, that’s 200 glue sticks and 100 bottles of the white stuff.  Good gravy, that’s a lot of glue!  Do they eat it as a snack?  You are also not going to get washable markers you specified.  Those are priced at $3.29 and the regular markers are on special at 50 cents.  Guess which ones I purchased?  And you, yes, Jr. High School folks, I’m talking to you – seriously, when have you ever seen solid orange notebooks in any stores in our community?  I’ve been to every office supply, drug and discount store around and there are no orange notebooks to be had.  My children are going to have an extra blue one instead.  Deal with it.

Magically Delicious (063/365)

“I won't eat any cereal that doesn't turn the milk purple.”

Bill Watterson (American Author of the comic strip Calvin & Hobbes, b.1958)

TIME: 8:57 PM
PLACE: Kitchen
SUBJECT: Before bedtime snack

I was in Target this afternoon, picking up yogurt for lunches and snacks (Target is 20 cents cheaper per Yoplait carton than my regular grocery store!) and a few other items that we needed. I wandered down the cereal aisle – we are running low - and saw that they had Lucky Charms on sale. I love Lucky Charms, so do my kids. For awhile I refused to buy it because they would sneak in the pantry and pick out and eat just the marshmallows, leaving me with plain old toasted oats when I went to have some. Talk about disappointing. Now they eat both and when I pour myself a bowl, I get the full Lucky Charms experience.

Gloomy Day (052/365)

“I like these cold, gray winter days.  Days like these let you savor a bad mood.” 

William B. "Bill" Watterson II (American, Cartoonist and the author of the influential and popular comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, b. 1958)

TIME:  12:28 PM
PLACE:  Mississippi River
SUBJECT:  Barges

A very wet, grey and gloomy day, with a very low cloud ceiling.  In the morning, the kids went to Sunday school.  When it was over, the family went on a Costco run.  Exciting!  I took this picture from the car on our way home, as we were crossing the Mississippi River, south of St. Louis.  I was hoping to take other pictures today, but I didn’t.  So this is the one I post.  I also took a long nap this afternoon instead of folding the laundry, I hoped it would go away so I wouldn’t have to do it.  Unfortunately, it was still there when I woke up – gosh darnnit.