Making it Up As I Go

We are in Texas! We got here four days ago and are making ourselves at home. Our stuff won’t get here for another month at least, so we’ve already made more shopping trips than I would have thought possible. We’re gorgeously placed for “run out and pick up something” shopping, we have a Walmart literally 3 minutes away, and two Targets within 10 minutes. Things are coming together in spaces in the house- the school room may be together before anything else because we’re getting everything for it here, rather than waiting for the shipment. I put one desk together today and will put the other together tomorrow, and the huge whiteboard shows up tomorrow. We haven’t started school yet, we had to wait for a few pieces of curriculum to get here, so we will start on Monday. We are still the Flying Butler Academy, although we have added a “house” system to the school ala Hogwarts. The girls are both in Dragonfist House and will earn and lose points throughout the year in support of their house. Students in Dragonfist are clever, feisty, and like treasure.

We got our air shipment (1 pallet of “essentials” that included our school stuff) and I discovered that I’d stuck some quilts in there. A couple were quilts that I’d made in Tokyo, so they’d never been dried in the dryer before. So of course they got thrown in for a wash and came out of the drier all gorgeously crinkly and wrinkly. There are few things better than a crinkly quilt. 🙂

Speaking of washing, we have a washer and dryer! And the dryer actually dries things! In half an hour! And they come out dry! It’s like a little miracle every time. 🙂 It honestly is glorious to be able to do a bunch of laundry in a row though. I hope I never get to the point where I take that for granted.

B went to IKEA the day we got here and picked up some mattresses, so we’re all sleeping on comfy mattresses on the floor. The girls will continue to use theirs when their beds get here, and the one that B and I are using will go into the guest room.

I love that it’s almost Fall and so a bunch of new books are going to come out. There are biographies by Grace Jones, Carrie Brownstein, and Drew Barrymore, and Mindy Kaling’s new book of essays, plus new novels by Kenzaburo Oe, Margaret Atwood, and Salman Rushdie that all look incredible. I need some new blood, I keep finding myself in one of those “I have a million books and nothing to read” moods. Right now I’m reading a book about haunted locations in New Orleans, which makes me happy. I think after that I will finally get around to reading Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead which is a private detective novel set in post-Katrina New Orleans.

I think that the album Disintegration by the Cure could be an album that exists in the goblin kingdom in Labyrinth. Doesn’t it sound like magical music that would back up David Bowie walking dramatically around places?

We met our neighbors on the right today (we already met our left side neighbors, they are an utterly delightful retired couple) and they have a little 4 year old, a 2 month old, and a dog. The mom is super nice and we’re happy to have them next door.

We also found a great cupcake store; the girls are very happy. The cupcakes are a little big- none of us actually finished the whole thing- but the flavors are fun and the cake itself is delicious. The girls have been a bit obsessed with cupcakes after watching a bunch of episodes of Cupcake Wars.

We’re in the middle of reading the second Harry Potter book and the girls are SO sure that they know what’s going on and they totally don’t. It’s super fun. We’re going to watch the 1st movie soon, I’m excited for them to see it. Tiny’s a bit worried about the end when Voldemort’s face is there, but I think it will be ok. We’re going to see how they do with this one before we decide if we keep reading and go on to book 3. I hope so, because it’s my favorite, but if it’s too scary then we’ll wait. No point ruining it.

I’m so behind on So You Think You Can Dance that it’s not even funny. I’ve been keeping track of who has gone home, but I haven’t seen any of the dances for a couple weeks now. The girls don’t know yet that Neptune went home, they’re going to be upset about that. They really really liked him. I did too.

I have dye to dye my hair red, but I haven’t gotten around to doing it yet. Maybe tonight…

We watched Pitch Perfect 2 the other night- super cute. I was impressed with how it worked as a sequel but wasn’t just a rehash of the first one. I do wonder though if it freaks Jack Black out how much Adam DeVine acts and sounds like him. It’s slightly weird. Is it coincidence or an act? I don’t know. Maybe they’re secretly related and DeVine took a different last name because he wanted to get jobs on his own, not because of his relation to Jack Black. That could be a movie in itself.

I think that’s all I’ve got. Book post coming sometime soon, and posts with pictures from our travels coming as well.