Showing posts with label cousins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cousins. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

I Warned Her Not To Leave Her Kid with Me, But Did She Listen? No...

Okay, so it looks like most of you approve of the new blog colors, or maybe you're just being nice. Or maybe those of you who hate the new colors just didn't say anything...

I think the new colors are a little girly, and a smidge on the confectionary side, but they don't make me itch. Yet.

Anywho, I was reading over my post from Monday, and I realized that I put the same picture in twice. I don't know why I did this, and furthermore, I don't know why I didn't notice. I had like 85 pictures to choose from, most of higher quality than the one I actually posted (twice). Maybe I liked how everyone looked a little orange. Here it is again, in all it's glory.

Oh well. Also, I realized that some of you are into the blogging/authoring scene in and around Utah, and yet didn't hear about the blogger/author event. Everyone is invited to these things, so if you're into that sorta scene (which makes it sound like it's a party scene, like a rave, where we all walk around with pacifiers in our mouths, but it's not... It's like the opposite of a rave... In fact, it's downright geeky) then let Natasha Maw over at Maw Books Blog know.

Natasha's like the social director of the book blogger scene. She hands out the pacifiers. She's really nice and not intimidating at all, even if she is married to a One-Eyed Sword-Wielding Duke.
 (Okay, so they look a little intimidating in this pic I stole from her blog, but I read the post and she assured readers they didn't kill anyone)

You know how it is when you're not in Kid Mode...

So, Cousin W was in from back east, and our cousin group decided to meet up at the Dinosaur museum. Everyone brought kids except me, because the dinosaur museum stresses me out enough without kids and I wanted the chance to catch up with Cousin W.
(Cousin K, Cousin A with her two kids, me, and Cousin W)

At one point, Cousin A had to go meet Cousin K in the lobby, so she's all, "Brodi, watch my kids while I go get Cousin K."

I'm all: "Um, No! I'm not in kid mode! That part of the brain has shut down! It's not a good idea!"

But Cousin A had already run out of the Bone room, leaving me with her two small kids. (The room with the dinosaur bones.) Oh well, I figured. What's the worst that could happen?

I snatched up her littlest kid and then picked up my conversation with Cousin W. A few minutes later, I turned to check on the older kid, Jackson. (Maybe four years old?)

He was gone. Like, gone, gone.

The Dinosaur Museum is huge, with lots of twists and turns. We happened to be in the "Nook and Cranny" room (which, if you're gonna lose a kid, you don't want to do it in the nook and cranny room) so I hurried and checked all of the nooks and crannies. No Jackson.

I started running, following the switchbacks of the pathway, all the while yelling out "Jackson!"

You know how you can recognize your own kid from behind, but when it comes to someone else's kid, they all look the same from behind? I'm not alone on this, right?

Well, the museum was extra crowded that day, and there were hundreds of kids Jackson's height (2 and a half, three feet) and they all had Jackson's hair cut. So not only was I yelling his name, I was yanking random kids and jerking them around to see their faces.

Yeah, this is the point where other adults start yelling at me, and I'm all, "Shut up! How am I supposed to know what the missing kid looks like from behind?"

And their expressions said, "You don't know your own kid?"

And I'm all, "He's not my kid!" And the other kid I'm holding in my arms is screaming at me, saying, "You're not my Mommy! I want my Mommy!"

And their smug faces said, "Security!"

Finally, Cousin A found us. Jackson was with her. He'd gone out of the museum part into the lobby to find his mom.
(Here he is, plotting his next great escape, and then on to world destruction)

I gave him a good scolding, and promptly blamed his disappearance on a history of bad parenting. Just kidding. it was totally my fault, Cousin A.

But I did warn her, that part of my brain was under construction. Y'all know what I mean, right?

Friday, November 13, 2009

Free Book Friday, and the Best Model of a Weekend Warrior Trailer made entirely out of Coasters

It's Free Book Friday!
Find out how to enter at the end of the post.


1. I'm Being Interviewed:

F.O.B. Tamara interviewed me for her blog today. If you get a mo, please please leave a comment so she doesn't accuse me of ruining her readership. It may not be up until later today.

*Update: her post is up! Go check it out.

2. What I'm Reading:


Keturah and Lord Death, by Martine Leavitt.

Martine Leavitt critiqued the first 20 pages of Broken at a writing workshop over the summer, and I learned so much from both her and the rest of my class cohorts.

I can sum up her advice to me in two sentences: "Don't make me guess what the Frakkin Concrete Object of Desire is!" and "When it comes to backstory, why can't you be more like Kim?"

I kid. She didn't use the word Frakkin, and she said it much more eloquently than I just did. But the general gist of it is there.

I took her advice. Now, my main character has a goal (sorta important in a book) and I'm trying daily to be more like Kim.

Anyway, she talked about Keturah and Lord Death a lot, so I figured I should give it a looksy.

2. What I'm Revising:

Page 2 of Broken. Only 325 more pages to go. Thanks everyone for your nice comments Wednesday, and thanks to those of you who couldn't think of anything nice to say about the first page, so didn't say anything at all.

As reported by Team Gluten Intolerant in the comments section Wednesday, I turned in my book at 10:02 that night.

3. Apparently you'll have to draw me a picture...

Do you ever have those family members who are all like, "If we weren't related, we probably wouldn't be friends, because we have nothing in common."?

I do. Cousin A. I know this, because the other night when we were at dinner with Cousin K, she said to me, "If we weren't related, we probably wouldn't be friends..."

It all started when she was telling me about how their family likes to go to the sand dunes for vacations. I'm stating here and now, I do not understand this type of vacation, or how one even considers it a "vacation". When I asked where everyone sleeps in the sand desert, she said they stay in trailers.

me: "Like a camper trailer?"


A: "No. More like a Weekend Warrior."

me: "What the Frak is a Weekend Warrior?"

A: "It's boxier than a camper, and it has a back door that drops down so you can drive stuff into it."

me: "So, like a trailer on the back of a semi?"

Totally exasperated, Cousin A gathers five square drink coasters on the table and stands them up, arranging them.


A: "Watch closely. You see, the sides come together at 90 degree angles, like walls... four sides... Hey Cousin K! I need more hands. Can you hold the roof on? Great. There. A Weekend Warrior Trailer looks like this:

me: "A cube? All that work, using coasters and four hands to illustrate to me what a box looks like?"

A: "That's not all. Also to show you what the drop down back door does:

Here's an actual Weekend Warrior:


I think her cube of coasters is a pretty good likeness.

After all these years, Cousin A and I are trying to understand each other.
I tried to appreciate the intricacies of a Weekend Warrior trailer, and why in the world someone would make sand dunes a destination.

She reached out to me by telling me she was at a book store the other day, and she thought of me because she saw a picture of a zombie, and didn't I think that was cool. I mean, I like books and zombies, right?

Actually, I always think books and zombies are cool.

To Enter Free Book Friday:
Leave a comment on Tamara's blog when my interview comes up, and then tell me you did in my comments, and you're entered in FBF.
But feel free to leave a comment on this post even if the interview doesn't show up until way later. How about if you leave a comment on this post, you're entered once, and if you leave another one on Tamara's interview post, you're entered twice. Good? Good.

What's everyone doing this weekend? Any fun plans? I'm going to the SCBWI Conference. If you're there, find me!