Category — Show and Tell

Show and Tell is wasted on elementary schoolers. Join several dozen bloggers weekly to show off an item, tell a story, and get the attention of the class. In other words, this is Show and Tell 2.0. Everyone is welcome to join, even if you have never posted before and just found out about Show and Tell for the first time today. So yank out a photo of the worst bridesmaid’s dress you ever wore and tell us the story; show off the homemade soup you cooked last night; or tell us all about the scarf you made for your first knitting project. Details on how to participate are located at the bottom of this post.

Let’s begin.

I had oral surgery yesterday and survived.  I was going to photograph my revolting mouth, but decided against it in case anyone is eating while reading this.  So you get this fun site which I shamelessly stole from Julie instead.

At formspring.me, you can set up a program that collects questions and then posts your answers.

I think what is most interesting (to me, at least, since I don’t know if I actually have anything interesting to say) is what is asked by the sheer fact that it’s anonymous.

The problem is that even though I have checked a box asking for the program to notify me when I have a question, it doesn’t.  Therefore, it becomes one more place to check and frankly, the last thing I need on the Web is one more place to check.  So I’m not sure how long this space will last, unlike my beloved Posterous spot where I am still posting several times a week, especially whenever I’m with other ALI bloggers and we are talking about chicken sex.

So, in honour of my new Formspring site, either ask me a question there.  Or, if you’re feeling infinitely braver about standing behind your question, ask it in the comment section below.  And I may even answer it.

What are you showing today?

Click here or scroll down to the bottom of this post if this is your first time joining along (Important: link to the permalink for the post, not the main url for your blog and use your blog’s name, not your name. Links not going to a Show and Tell post will be deleted). The list is open from now until late Friday night and a new one is posted every week.

Show and Tell is wasted on elementary schoolers. Join several dozen bloggers weekly to show off an item, tell a story, and get the attention of the class. In other words, this is Show and Tell 2.0. Everyone is welcome to join, even if you have never posted before and just found out about Show and Tell for the first time today. So yank out a photo of the worst bridesmaid’s dress you ever wore and tell us the story; show off the homemade soup you cooked last night; or tell us all about the scarf you made for your first knitting project. Details on how to participate are located at the bottom of this post.

Let’s begin.

Befana brought the loot last night.

She brings not quite the gift extravaganza as Purim or a birthday–two small toys and some candy.  She usually, cheeky bitch that she is, requests a little behaviour modification in her yearly letter too.  Last year, she helped smooth over a difficult patch at school.  The year before, she was the main impetus that got them potty training.  This year, she has asked them to leave their binkies on the top step on Friday night and she’ll swing by and pick them up for binky-less Italian babies and leave a toy in their place.  We figured it was the last year to really milk their love of Befana for all its worth before they start realizing that there are a few holes in the Befana story including how she gets from Italy to America on a broomstick in under an hour.

The Wolvog gasped as we read the letter aloud and screamed, “what is Befana trying to do?” as if I had told him that Befana had requested 20 pints of his blood or she was going to hold the yearly chocolate bars hostage.

We told them that it sounded like a pretty good deal.  They were going to have to give up the binky regardless someday soon, and here, they could help binky-less Italian children and get a toy for their emotional pain.  They went to school muttering about this and told me they would make a decision before Friday.  Oh–and yes, I’m well aware that we should have given up the binky about 3 years ago, but…well…I am a weak-willed woman and frankly, teeth are overrated.

What are you showing today?

Click here or scroll down to the bottom of this post if this is your first time joining along (Important: link to the permalink for the post, not the main url for your blog and use your blog’s name, not your name. Links not going to a Show and Tell post will be deleted). The list is open from now until late Friday night and a new one is posted every week.

Show and Tell is wasted on elementary schoolers. Join several dozen bloggers weekly to show off an item, tell a story, and get the attention of the class. In other words, this is Show and Tell 2.0. Everyone is welcome to join, even if you have never posted before and just found out about Show and Tell for the first time today. So yank out a photo of the worst bridesmaid’s dress you ever wore and tell us the story; show off the homemade soup you cooked last night; or tell us all about the scarf you made for your first knitting project. Details on how to participate are located at the bottom of this post.

Let’s begin.

We got our own Wii as a Chanukkah gift from Josh’s parents which meant that not only could we finally return Lindsay’s Wii (thank you, Lindsay!), but we could also make our own Miis.  Er…which is to say “me” in Wii-language.  Your Mii is the little electronic version of you on the screen that you see replicating the movements you’re making in real life.  So if I jog in place, my Mii moves on the screen.

After we made everyone in our family, we made two additional Miis for others to use when they come over.  They are fraternal boy-girl twins, 35-years in age, named Pru and Henry.

I think I might be falling in love with them.

We’ve begun constructing a very detailed history of their lives as a family.  The four of us talk about them as if they’re real people that we know, chuckling about a funny thing we pretend Henry said that day (oh that Henry!) or wondering what Pru is having for lunch.  The Wolvog announced yesterday, apropos of nothing, that Henry has gotten a dog named “Arf Arf Nigel” after the John Lennon poem.  And now we have constructed a fictional life for his dog as well.

Prudence is on the far left.  She has been trying to have a child with her wife for the last two years.  They’re currently gearing up for another round of IVF–this time using Pru’s egg and her wife’s womb.  She is a librarian and works exclusively with electronic sources.  She speaks Italian–not very well, but enough to get around Italy.  She spent a semester in Florence back in college and went back to Italy between college and graduate school to live in Rome.  She has a tattoo, but you can’t see it when she has her clothes on.

Henry is still trying to find himself.  He’s on the far right.  Huge heart–so giving and loving and thoughtful, but also so irresponsible.  He thought he wanted to be an environmental educator in Costa Rica, but then he realized it was just taking douchebag tourists around and he was fired for showing up to work stoned (oh that Henry!).  He just makes poor choices, though his heart is always in the right place.  As Josh says, “he’s sweet, but dumb.”  He has a sleep disorder and Pru is worried about him, but she already has a lot on her plate.

They come on the screen, even when they’re not in use.  When I’m jogging around the island, I’ll pass them running in the opposite direction.  They show up to cheer me on when I’m bicycling.  Aren’t you smitten with them too?

I have started a site that records my daily workout in case anyone else wants to make the commitment to lose weight in the new year using the Wii Fit.  The site is called The Shrinking Ass and it refers not only to my derriere, but to my ass-y-ness in general.  I will be posting the on-going sagas of Pru and Henry in that space as well as my daily workout and calories burned.

If you are also making the commitment to lose weight and keeping a similar online journal, let me know and I’ll add you to the sidebar so we can have a supportive web-ring for everyone working out and we can trade routines.

What are you showing today?

Click here or scroll down to the bottom of this post if this is your first time joining along (Important: link to the permalink for the post, not the main url for your blog and use your blog’s name, not your name. Links not going to a Show and Tell post will be deleted). The list is open from now until late Friday night and a new one is posted every week.

Show and Tell is wasted on elementary schoolers. Join several dozen bloggers weekly to show off an item, tell a story, and get the attention of the class. In other words, this is Show and Tell 2.0. Everyone is welcome to join, even if you have never posted before and just found out about Show and Tell for the first time today. So yank out a photo of the worst bridesmaid’s dress you ever wore and tell us the story; show off the homemade soup you cooked last night; or tell us all about the scarf you made for your first knitting project. Details on how to participate are located at the bottom of this post.

Let’s begin.

We have an egg-free child coming over for dinner tonight.  Along with Tom Waits cookies (which are always egg-free), I tried fiddling with a vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe.  The results are pretty rockin’.  Recipe is here.

What are you showing today?

Click here or scroll down to the bottom of this post if this is your first time joining along (Important: link to the permalink for the post, not the main url for your blog and use your blog’s name, not your name. Links not going to a Show and Tell post will be deleted). The list is open from now until late Friday night and a new one is posted every week.

Show and Tell is wasted on elementary schoolers. Join several dozen bloggers weekly to show off an item, tell a story, and get the attention of the class. In other words, this is Show and Tell 2.0. Everyone is welcome to join, even if you have never posted before and just found out about Show and Tell for the first time today. So yank out a photo of the worst bridesmaid’s dress you ever wore and tell us the story; show off the homemade soup you cooked last night; or tell us all about the scarf you made for your first knitting project. Details on how to participate are located at the bottom of this post.

Let’s begin.

This is how I won an Olympic gold medal.

I was really sad watching the 2002 winter Olympics, so I went to school and told my students about how I could never reconcile the fact that I had no chance of winning an Olympic medal.  I’d forever think about it with each Olympics, and I asked them if they would help me achieve this dream by holding our own Olympics at the school with events within my capabilities such as holding very still or standing on one foot for a long period of time.

Over 100 students agreed, and the principal allowed me to organize it and run it during a series of lunch times and recesses.  We kicked off the opening ceremony with the running of a paper torch during a school assembly.  People came to cheer on each other during events or participated in the “sports.”  I won a gold medal for synchronized eating (a group of four–me and three students–had to choreograph a routine to music and we made smores in unison and consumed them while dancing.  And yes, I made Josh miss work to come video tape us performing.  We would have won the silver, but the gold team was eliminated by using inappropriate music).

The principal knew how much it meant to me, so during the next school assembly, she called all the winners on stage and gave us gold, silver, and bronze medals that she had purchased.  Another teacher got up on a ladder and held the flag over my head and the entire school rose and sang the national anthem.  And I bawled.

Years later, when I was leaving the school to stay at home with the twins, the new prinicipal threw a chaotic pizza party at lunch time in my honour.  It was a new management team who didn’t know me at all and couldn’t tell that pizza was a terrible idea to “honour” my many years with the school.  One of my synchronized-eating teammates was in the upper school and she told my students about the Olympics from years earlier.

Near the last day of school, a student asked me to come out into the Commons to help with something and when I walked out, a group of about 50 students–current ones and old ones who came down from the upper school–stood up and sang the “Star-Spangled Banner” for me.  And yes, I bawled again because the kids got what the adults couldn’t.

And yes, I cried again writing this.

I’m going to wear my medal to watch the Olympics this winter.

What are you showing today?

Click here or scroll down to the bottom of this post if this is your first time joining along (Important: link to the permalink for the post, not the main url for your blog and use your blog’s name, not your name. Links not going to a Show and Tell post will be deleted). The list is open from now until late Friday night and a new one is posted every week.