randomly chaotic and frequently mundane

I sold a few things on eBay. Patterns, knick knacks… also, my french maid costume and Gage’s Tigger costume. The Tigger costume was nice. It didn’t sell, but the watcher sent me a message that she was out when the auction ended and asked if I’d relist it with a $7 buy it now (there was no BIN on the original auction, and it started at$2.50). I relisted it with a $5 BIN. I’m glad I did. When she sent the paypal payment, the note said that she showed the auction to her son who was very excited about the costume and was really excited by the idea of being Tigger for Halloween. It’s a great costume and Gage looked adorable in it, but he can’t fit it anymore… so it’s nice that it’ll go to another little boy who’s really excited about it. It’s really nice, you know?

In other cuteness news… Gage has begun to tickle. No seriously. He came up behind me yesterday and started tickling at my tummy and sides and saying “tickletickletickle” and giggling his butt off. It was so cute. And so much fun! So we spent an hour chasing and tickling and laughing until we couldn’t breathe and collapsed on the couch in exhaustion. THAT’s the good stuff.

Aaron is coming over tonight.  It’ll be nice to see him again.  It’s been quite awhile, after all.  Haven’t seen him since that Memorial Day party before I moved out here.

Hoping to hook up with Rob and play some more Magic: The Gathering online with him this weekend or something.  That’d be fun.  It’s funny because the systems chat eliminates naughty words.  Doesn’t put symbols in their place or anything.  They just don’t show up.  So when I want to tell him I have the “Fuck you, I win” card, it tends to come out looking like: I have the      you, I win card.  Which is funny, but not nearly as effective.  So we say smurf.  As in “I have the smurf you, I win card” or “you smurf!” or “smurfin deck is stacked against me.”  Which makes it even funnier, to be honest.

Gage keeps turning the living room light off and on.  He likes watching the fan stop and go.  It’s kinda funny, actually.

someone on link and blog challenge posed an interesting quesiton… ‘if you could only do 1 craft for the rest of your life, what would it be?’ that’s an interesting question for me. since i grew up in a crafting household. i’ve learned how to do so many interesting crafts from my mom and tutu (my grandmother), and gone on my own and learned things they weren’t interested in. it would probably be one of three…

1. cookie cutter ornaments that tutu taught me. they’re simple. made of felt, 2 pieces cut out into the same shape — we used holiday cookie cutters (traced) and pictures we cut out of holiday coloring books. they’re sewn together by hand, a little stuffing is added and then they’re decorated w/ paints, sequins, glitter, etc. this year i got re-interested in making htem. made a bunch, even did a few for halloween, so you can really make em for any occasion.
2. because we vacationed in miami all the time and went to the beach no matter what the season to collect seashells we had a lot of shells. my mom used to do all kinds of things with them. she’d decorate the frame of a mirror, simple jewelry/treasure boxes… she even made animals and clowns out of shells. i only learned to do a few things, but i enjoyed it, and i would of course learn to do more…
3. ceramics. my mom was huge on ceramics. she was one of those people who bought the greenware, cleaned it, then once it was fired to bisque she painted, glazed and all that. i’ve done a few pieces… but nothing compared to what she’s done. and i love doing it. it’s kind of relaxing, actually.

speaking of crafts, this post reminded me of something. when i was growing up we knew a lot of people who were very crafty… one woman my mom was friends with would make these little birds that she sold. now, to make them… she would go into a pasture and collect horse shit. and by horse shit, i mean horse shit. she would bring it home… and fry it (no, i’m not joking), then once it cooled she would add the beak and eyes and feathers and feet. they were interesting. charming until you found out what they were made of. who was buying them i have no idea. but apparently there was a market for them.

i mentioned awhile back a “salmon incident” with gage… where he tried to cut a salmon filet w/ a butter knife.  and said something about letting gage help a little in the kitchen.

interesting thing about gage in the kitchen.  if the stove is on, he doesn’t touch anything.  ok, there have been a couple of random incidents where he touched the side of a pot that something was cooking in, but each time he drew his hand back quickly, and looked at me like “that’s why you said don’t touch!”  he hasn’t cried.  he hasn’t burned himself.

so yesterday i decided to make pizza.  gage helped me put flour into the bowl while i was mixing the dough.  he also helped me punch the dough down once.

today i took the leftover dough, fried it and sprinkled it with sugar.  helped me “flatten” the dough.

we’re going to dye eggs this week.  i’ve already hard boiled them so we can do them whenever the mood takes us.  2 dozen should be enough.  there’s going to be deviled eggs and tuna salad for awhile, lol.

spent some time outside with gage afterschool today.  it was fun.  tossed the ball for tiger he loved that.  now HE’s zonked out on the couch.  gage is watching ice age 2.  gage had a blast.  i had a blast.  the alphabet is written on the back porch, gage tried riding his bike and tricycle… we blew bubbles… even practiced a little sign language.

i grabbed one of gage’s little chairs and sat on the back porch to hang out with him… so he went inside and got the other one, put it down in front of me and sat down face to face with me and jsut started talking — not many discernable words, but he was trying to communicate, i think.  so we started going thru the signs that we’ve been working on.  i also threw in a few others, in addition to signing everything i was saying to him while he was sitting there paying total attention to me.

hmm… no clue what’s going on this evening… perhaps just some relaxed time with my little angel.