Nearly our whole family has been playing a game on our phones called Plague Inc. You start with a simple bacteria, and you continue to customize it to be more dangerous; the goal is to use it to successfully extinguish all human life. It leads to hearing family members say some pretty disturbing things: “Ooo, great, everyone in China is dead!,” “YES, I infected Canada!,” etc. Last night I said to Paul, “That game makes me feel so unsettled and queasy—so why do I keep wanting to go back and play it again?” and he said “Because it’s fun. Also, because you know diseases don’t really work like that.”
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A giant branch came down in our yard last night (missing the fence and the house completely: it’s just lying neatly in the yard as if it walked there), which makes me even gladder we’ve hired a tree guy to come take down some trees. Imagine how pissed our neighbor would have been if that branch had come down on THEIR side of the fence.
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I was at Target yesterday, buying some barely-reduced Halloween candy and admiring the Christmas ornaments, and even though I need NO MORE ORNAMENTS, and in fact really need to go through and get RID OF some ornaments, I came home with two ornaments:
My thinking on the subject is that soon the fox trend will be over, so I need to seize it while I can. There will be only a limited number of months/years to easily acquire fox possessions, and MANY years to get rid of others to make room for them.
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Rob is doing NaNoWriMo this year, which is particularly fun for me because I did NaNoWriMo back when I was pregnant with Henry, to distract me from first–trimester queasiness. I’m not sure why Rob, who has never really liked writing, was suddenly interested in trying this, but he’s doing it.
In totally unrelated news, the girl he wanted to go to the movies with likes writing and is doing NaNoWriMo. And speaking of that, the two sets of parents did decide to let them go to the movies together. Purely by coincidence, her parents wanted to see another movie in the same theater at the same time, so that worked out well.
I had to choose a foreign language in seventh grade. And in totally unrelated events, there was a cute boy in my new school name Jeremy who was signed up for French. Good news is that I was nearly fluent in French by the time I was 17 (I lost track of Jeremy by 8th grade).
I have the same idea bout trends, particularly fashion.
I’m also a nano veteran! This is my 8th year trying it, I’ve got 5 wins under my belt. :) Good luck to Rob!
That Plague game is AWESOME, but we introduced my parents and siblings to it before they went on a vacation with an epic number of delayed and canceled flights. My mom was kind of nervous about playing the game in the airports because of the conversations you mentioned ;)
I have thought the same thing of the fox trend. This is why the following are true:
1) I have a 14″ felted fox holding an acorn currently sitting on my landing;
2) I purchased this at Target on Saturday (http://www.target.com/p/holiday-large-decor-fox/-/A-15296561#prodSlot=medium_1_3&term=christmas+fox);
3) Lexi will be receiving a cute little fox coin purse in her stocking on Christmas morning.
Also, I think of you each time I see them. :)
..Carmen
I am interested in this NaNoWriMo thing.
I guess the thing of it is.. what do you DO with it once it is written/if you can make it through?
Some people use it as a way to give themselves a jump-start on an actual book they’re going to try to submit for publication, so after NaNoWriMo is over they go back and edit and lengthen. Other people (I am one of these) don’t know what to do with it: it’s too awful to do anything with (or to ever read again), but it feels wrong to delete it! Some people probably just toss it, thinking of it as a pleasant creative exercise/challenge.
I did NaNoWriMo in July last year, starting with my last trimester of pregnancy. I am revising it (around three drafts now) and I intend to submit it to agents! I know this is a difficult field for first-time writers, but I am so happy I did it.
You feel about foxes the way I feel about owls, which is MUST HAVE ALL THE OWLS. And I’ve never heard of that game but it sounds disturbingly entertaining.
I feel the same way about owls. I am loving the own popularity because it gives me so many owl choices and I can be very very picky about what owl item I like or don’t like.
I’m sitting here laughing very, very much at your last two paragraphs.
Target also has a green/teal fox cookie jar (search for cookie jar on the website). I got it because I have no other cookie jars, it’s the right size, and the color goes with my kitchen!
Get rid of ornaments!?!?! Horror! You have five children. Imagine their delight opening up a box of vintage, heirloom ornaments as their Christmas present on the first year they own their own home. I suppose this type of thinking leads to overcrowded basements. Not that I would know anything about overcrowded basements.
– The girl who cut up her wedding dress to make a Christmas Tree skirt because “IT WILL BE A FAMILY HEIRLOOM!”
The first time I saw my friend’s son playing the Plague game I was concurrently horrified and hilarified (‘amused’ doesn’t really seem to capture it). I don’t know why I’d be surprised that a video game took the killing thing large-scale (oh, that reminds me of a really cool Neil Gaiman story).
You might have just talked me into going back to Target (I am living at Target lately, it’s getting ridiculous) to buy two more reindeer coffee cups, because even though we have more coffee cups than fit in our cupboard, and even though my husband would be horrified if I brought home new coffee cups, the tiny mugs I bought for the children to enjoy their hot chocolate in need matching parents. Our other coffee cups are bound to break someday, but by then I will not be able to find ones to match (by then my children will have probably broken their own cups several times over, but whatever, I have my excuse, and it’s solid).
Everything about this post and the comments is awesome.
In totally totally unrelated news, today is election day in the US. If you are a USian, please go vote. Right now. Unless you already have, in which case, HIGH FIVE!!
I’m doing Nanowrimo too! Or trying at least. I’m a wee bit behind schedule.
Looking back on my own poor teenage decisions, I will say that taking up writing in the pursuit of a dating interest seems pretty harmless – maybe even positive. As opposed to, say, pretending to be into drag racing, mudding, and/or anything remotely outdoorsy. Because if you are successful in your pursuit, you’re stuck doing the awful things you pretended to like. Not that my former teenage self would know anything about that.
Ikea has fox xmas decorations and wrapping paper
I’m getting a new phone after five years with one that barely deserves the title ‘smartphone.’ (Maybe “Bright-for-it’s-age-phone would be a better description) and one of my first acts after it’s charged is going to be downloading Plague, Inc. I’ve been hearing nothing but awesome reviews about that game.
If you guys like Plague, may I suggest the board game Pandemic? I have seen it at Target and played it with friends. It’s kind of like Plague but you are trying to eradicate the disease instead of spread it. I think they are different enough to justify both (but this is the person who has justified 97 different shades of red in her nail polish collection because they are TOTALLY DIFFERENT).