Lyda Morehouse's Blog, page 109

A Fish Blog, Yet No One Died

Shawn and I had been noticing that the java moss in the ten gallon fish tank (with Bob[3:] and the three white mountain minnows) was turning yellow. I tried adding some aquatic plant food, but it didn't seem to do much good. I was feeling like a complete failure because, jeepers, java moss is supposed to be fairly indestructiable. If I couldn't aqua garden java moss, what hope was there for a lushly planted tank upstairs (which is my dream)?

Today, when I was cleaning their tank I discovered th

A Day at the Beach

Mason and I had a great time yesterday at the beach, even though today is probably going to be hotter. The good news is that it's relatively close (we go to Lake Joesphine), so we can hit the sand any time we need to. If the temperatures really start to climb, I'm going to turn on the air before we go so that at least one room in the house will be tolerable this evening.

I didn't quite tire Mason out yesterday as much as I pooped myself out. Again. Writing at night is still hard for me. I've

Why I Am GI Joe's Target Audience

This line from the SF Chronicle's review of the "GI Joe: Rise of Cobra" film makes me sooooooo happy: "Stuff blows up. Lots of it. Most of the actors are hot-looking, and those who aren't do cool things with swords."

I am _so_ the target audience for this film.

Speaking of films, Shawn and I watched "The Burrowers." It's a horror Western. Yes, a strange combination, but, as it proved, a strangely powerful one. Given the quality of previews (which ranged from direct to video humor stuff to re

Rainy Weekend

Not much exciting to report about the weekend. It rained here a lot, which we desperately needed, and in between rain and such it was humid and warm -- though at least not as hot as predicted.

Probably the coolest thing that happened is that Shawn started reading THE HOBBIT to Mason and me. I'd forgotten the awesome that is THE HOBBIT. On Saturday night when the tornado sirens went off and we all headed for the basement, Mason insisted we read a bit more. Even though the tornado passed quite

Adventuring We Go : Parks and Good Book Hunting

As you know, Bob, the main entrance to the Minnehaha creek hiking paths is closed for construction. I believe the Parks & Rec folks are taking advantage of the drought to do some support work on the crumbling falls. Apparently, they've also widened the paths, because some of the sections I always sort of held my breath as Mason clambered across on the "cliff section," as I like to call it, are now quite a bit leveled and widened. It looks a lot less natural, alas, but the part of me that's a

Marvel Mayhem and More

Mason and I discovered a new favorite hiking spot last Saturday: Bass Lake. Bass Lake is part of the Minnesota Valley Wildlife Preserve, and it actually right around the corner from the Mall of America. It's not very large. An intrepid explorer could easily see the entire trail in under an hour, but Mason is a wanderer and a lingerer, so it's actually quite perfect for us. We also happened to go on a day when the Fish and Wildlife folks were setting up stations for a fishing camp for kids,

Adventuring

I've fallen behind on my posting here because Mason and I are spending his month off "adventuring." We've been spending our days tromping in the local wildlife parks or at the beach with friends. Today: Minihaha creek trails!

I *am* going to have a couple of graphic novel/comic/manga (yes, manga! I took one collection out of the library that I quite enjoyed) reviews for y'all at some point, but I have to wait until I can get somewhere with wifi since they're stored on my other computer curren

Now, Back to Life....

Mason and I will probably be hitting HalfPrice Books again today, since he's officially off from school now and I have in my possession three $3.00 off coupons. I'm going to be combing the bins for more JMS Spideys, believe you me!

But in other news, we picked up our CSA box yesterday evening, and I have to tell you it's like vegetible Christmas/Hannukha/Kwanzaa whenever we get one of those! This morning, even though it's not yet 10:00 am, my mind is already swimming with thoughts of lunch...

The Best Spider-Man EVER

To continue an argument I had with Pat Rothfuss at CONvergence, I have to say that really smart writing never gets the credit it deserves. I'm not talking about myself, for once, either.

The panel was entitled "How to Publish and Not Perish," and Pat mistakenly made the point that the first thing a writer needed to do was "write a good book." To which, I immediately countered, "No, sorry. That's not going to save you. Plenty of good books perish, while bad books flourish." At some point dur

He Are A Grad-u-ATE

Yesterday, Mason had his kindergarten graduation celebration. It was really quite precious, as you can probably imagine. My little guy got to do the introduction and he totally stole the show -- although they couldn't find the microphone, so I'm not sure the folks in the back rows heard his most awesome performance, which is entirely too bad. My favorite part was his class (and the other kindergarten science class) singing "First Grade, Frist Grade" to the tune of "New York, New York."

Yesterd