girafferty

Matthew and I were resting in bed about a week ago when we heard Brendan shouting from the office. "Kevin, get in the spaceship! KEVIN! Get in the spaceship, Kevin!" he was so incensed we were rolling around laughing.

Then he gasped, "I bought you this spaceship and you don't like it? It cost a hundred dollars! Kevin, come back to the spaceship! Kevin, you're the worst ever."

Kevin soon became the usual suspect whenever any of Brendan's characters were misbehaving. We all started shouting "Get in the spaceship Kevin!" whenever we felt frustrated.

Then I started listening to the boys and the things they said to Kevin sounded familiar. "You need to go to school and get some learning Kevin!" Gregory said.

"Get outside Kevin! Michelle Obama said so, an hour a day!" Brendan said. Did I really sound like that?

But we are having the greatest fun with Kevin. Its so fun to shout at him and tell him off. He really is the worst. He never listens.

At 3:30 the doors opened at the hotel conference room in Baltimore. There were about 50 people in our group, some from the Wheelmobile event in October, and some from the "Face of the Fan" video entry that I did. We all got called to stand up where we were and call letters for the puzzle on the overhead screen. I was surprised by how many people still called letters that had already been called or didn't speak up at this audition.

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Profile pic by my friend LB, "Evil Squirrel", 
http://www.cafepress.com/evilsquirrelsnest

This is fast becoming a game-show blog.

So a few months ago the Wheelmobile came to Baltimore a few months ago.  I was intrigued, but I had already made plans to go out with my friends that weekend, and reading up on the event it sounded like a huge headache.  You go and stand in line and wait in a big room, and they draw a few names out of a hat to play the game, but most people don't even get a chance to play. 

But they also had an option for people in the Baltimore area to send in a video.  I meant to do it, but I kept pushing it back hoping for inspiration to strike.  It never did. Finally, on the day it was due, I went outside so I didn't have to clean my house and said, "I'd like to be on the show because I want to win a fabulous vacation."  I never heard back from them so I figured that was it.

Then yesterday I got an e-mail inviting me to the callback auditions!  They're coming back to town in a few weeks and I guess they just went through the videos to pick a few people.

I'm nervous.  I really need to work on my word puzzle skills.  And excited to get the chance to be on a game show again!

I took Gregory to the Secret Playground yesterday and was set upon by Mormons.  They were asking me why I wasn't interested in reading The Book of Mormon.  I said, "Listen guys, my family have been Catholic since St. Patrick came over to Ireland, and I'm not about to change that now."

"My family has been around since the start of our religion too!"  said one of them.  "My great-great-something grandfather was one of Joseph Smith's bodyguards."

"Ah...wasn't Joseph Smith killed?"  I said.

"Yes."

"So he can't have been a very good bodyguard, then."  I said.

"Well, he couldn't protect him in prison!"  he said all huffily.

"Fair enough," I said.  I felt a little bad for them, they were so young and nervous.  And they didn't have any answers for me when I asked them why there was no archeological evidence for the Lost Tribes of Israel coming to America.

We went to the zoo on Wednesday because we never made it to see the animals at ZooBoo.  We had the whole place to ourselves!  It was amazing.  At the front gate the clerk said only 29 people had come all day.  It was a beautiful, crisp fall day.  We saw one of the rhinos chasing the zebras and ostriches in his enclosure, and we finally made it all the way back to the elephants.

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Ever since the warm weather came and Greg has been wearing shorts and short sleeves, strange women have been coming up and squeezing my baby. I think its happened four or five times. I'm always to befuddled to say anything at the time. It happens so fast. Usually at the checkout line, they start admiring my baby, then reach into his stroller and give his arm or leg a squeeze. One time the woman was speaking to me in a foreign language, so I don't know if she would have understood anyway.



Maybe they think he's a can of biscuit dough? Now, I squeeze Greg daily, because he is so squishy, but that doesn't mean other people can. They never ask permission, either, probably because "May I squeeze your baby?" sounds like a bad request.

At my doctor's appointment, one of the nurses stopped to admire him, then circled back and was going to squeeze. Brendan jumped in front of Greg and said "No! My baby, mine!" and scared her off. Thank you Brendan!

This is neat-my Grandma was 16 in 1945.  On VJ Day she skipped school and took the train down to Times Square to celebrate.  This picture ended up being in the paper the next day.  You can see her in the space under the horn.

I hope you and yours had a very merry Christmas too!


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Hooray!  I just self-googled and the number 5 hit is me!  Hopefully my J! Archive page will balance out all the mugshot ones.

I got my wish for a child who's a late-night owl like me. Unfortunately, I still have the early bird too. While Greg and I are blissfully sleeping, Biggie brings me my glasses and says with hope "Bo? Elmo?" I don't remember if I wrote about The Bo before. As soon as we moved here he started calling the basement where he has his playroom Bo, maybe from "Below"? He also calls playgrounds Bos too, so who knows.

Then at night when Biggie is ready to sleep, Greg is ready to party! I can't complain too much, there's still a six hour overlap when they're both sleeping.

Trivia Finals were today, and we won! We won $1200, split 10 ways. A nice bonus at Christmas. And I helped lead us to the right answer for the final question. It was "What is the largest country (by population) whose capital is the largest city?" I'll put the answer in comments. There was also a neat bit of trivia I hadn't heard of before-Sylvester Stallone is the only actor to have been in a #1 movie in every decade since the 70s, including this one. How is it that we're already in the second decade of this century? I feel like I missed a few years there.

All I've wanted to do in the last few days is sit around being sad for no reason and eat junk food.  Its quite boring.

I did put pants on today, so that was better than yesterday, and went to the trivia semifinals for my team.  I put Greg in the Ergo and took him with me, because he was just miserable when I left him home last time.  He was so good!  I only missed two questions when I took him out to the car for a break and he spent most of the 3 hours either sleeping or staring at the red tinsel on the ceiling.  My team, BAM (because everyone on it has been on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire) tied for fourth, so we just made it to the finals next year.  Hopefully we can do better next week.  The final question (which we got wrong) was "What meat is eaten the most in the world by pounds consumed?  Chicken, beef, or pork?"

Brendan has finally noticed he has a baby brother.  I wish he still was ignoring his existence, because now he wants to hug him and hold him all the time.  The only problem is he likes to hug him around the neck.



Then yesterday I had Gregory on the couch next to me. I look away for a second and when I look back Brendan is holding Greg's nose shut. He got sent to his room for the first time for that one (for two minutes). Now I have the baby trying to kill himself as all babies do, plus his brother trying to help him along. How does anyone make it to adulthood?

*answer to the trivia question: Its pork, by a lot. We said chicken, because we figured chickens are everywhere and no major religions forbid eating them. But I guess the fatness of hogs makes up for that.