and never give it more than a frowning hour

maura @ 8:48 pm

Lately I’ve had the nearly overwhelming urge to get rid of lots of stuff from our apartment. Between the big purge I did at the beginning of this year and our last stoop sale we are running pretty lean + mean here at mauraweb! HQ. But like everything else, it could be better. Sometimes I daydream about the eXtreme minimalism that would be possible living in a studio (or one of those very small houses I love so much). And wouldn’t it be easy to keep it clean?

Part of the problem is that I recently read a bunch of posts on 43 Folders called My War on Clutter. As I read through these posts I couldn’t help thinking how much stuff we still have that we don’t use, things that could still go. Sometimes it’s stuff we can’t even see: old CDs I’ll never listen to again, unused art supplies (why do I seem to have so many boxes of crayons? From COLLEGE?!), etc.

Of course, once the things are reviewed and decisions are made, there’s the hurdle of actually getting it out of the apartment. I have used Freecycle, but you have to be home for people to get stuff, sometimes they flake, etc. What I wish is that we had a monthly Really Really Free Market (essentially a huge free swap meet) the way they do in San Francisco.

I got to 43 Folders from No Impact Man, which I am not going to link to because you can use your own google-fu to find it easily. Also because I am trying (so far unsuccessfully) to stop reading that blog. It makes me feel guilty about taking the subway and using the washing machine. When really I should be all, hey, I could be driving and using the dryer!

I have a love/hate relationship with ecoblogs. Right now they are my preferred source for interwebs distraction/procrastination surfing. But when I read about all the eco stuff others are doing I tend to get bogged down in all kinds of coulds + shoulds and then I feel bad. Which is silly, because we are doing a pretty decent job in my household of avoiding plastic, conserving energy, wasting not, etc. So yay for us, we rock!

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p.s.

maura @ 10:21 pm

I almost forgot!

Today’s fun fact gleaned straight from the interwebs to Jonathan to me: Viggo Mortensen and Exene Cervenka (of the seminal LA punk band X) used to be married, and they have a college-aged kid named Henry! Who knew?

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some say it’s a game of skill

maura @ 8:38 pm

I’d meant to do some work tonight, but I’m tired and we have three (3!) freshy-fresh movies from Netflix AND our friend’s new TV show starts tonight so maybe not. And tomorrow is another day. Plus, Jonathan just whipped up some cashew brittle, woot!

But, so as not to leave you in the blurch (blog lurch), here’s the Mauraweb! Index of Today:

Today’s wake-up time: 7:06am

Today’s weather: sunny, clear, high 74F (but it was dang sunny + felt warmer on the playground, see below)

Today’s clothing choices: spring green w/white + yellow daisies pants from high school (!), purple tshirt, red sneakers

Today’s incidental household chore: one load o’ laundry

Today’s job search goal (completed): send in an application for an adjunct position

Today’s work: freelancing for my former employer

Today’s lunch: leftover tofu, broccoli and red pepper stir-fry

Today’s admission of error: as it turns out, the new Shins record really is quite good

Today’s caffeine intake: 1 cup of coffee, 1 cup of tea, 1 iced coffee

Today’s afternoon activity: playdate at the playground

Today’s question: is rhubarb a fruit or a vegetable?

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every word means no i heard you say once long ago

maura @ 8:19 pm

T-47 days to Halloween and already the anticipation is running high in our house. Last week we got out the halloween dish towels, and Gus has watched Nightmare Before Christmas a few times since last month. Right now he’s watching the Halloweenies episode of The Adventures of Pete and Pete. Surely The Great Pumpkin can’t be far behind.

He’s also been obsessed with pirates lately. This year for Halloween he wants to dress as “a skeleton with a cutlass.” We’ll just reuse the skeleton costume he wore last year, but he wanted a real (plastic) sword (rather than the cardboard ones he + Jonathan create). So off we went to our mall-type place this morning.

I was hoping for something smallish and made of hollow plastic, but the sword we ended up with is nearly as tall as Gus and quite solid. Of course he can’t stop swinging it all over the place. I suggested that he whack the bed with it so hopefully nothing in our house will be accidentally broken anytime soon. The label said cutlass but Jonathan says it’s really a scimitar. And because nerd + nerd = little nerd, Gus spent much of this afternoon lecturing me on the differences between the two kinds of swords.

Let me take this moment to point out that the little hoarder hasn’t even finished his candy from Easter nor the most recent few birthday parties he’s attended (even with significant post-bedtime parental snacking!). All the same he’s cleaned out his traditional Halloween candy bag in preparation for the big event. Bring it on — we are ready!

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the official mauraweb! world cup theme

maura @ 8:41 pm

I’m currently suffering from an advanced case of library hubris, having vastly overestimated the amount of free time I’d have now that I’m finished with school. Or maybe I thought there’d be more hours in the days for leisurely reading on our recent vacation (hello, 5 kids in 1 house, who was I kidding?). Whatever the reason, the fact remains that I have 5 books checked out of the library (4 fiction/1 non), plus a nonfiction book borrowed from a neighbor for nearly 6 mos. (the shame!), PLUS I still haven’t read the new Harry Potter (double shame!!). Luckily no one else seems to be wanting the books I’ve got checked out from the library right now, so I’ve been renewing them on the library website every few days.

Part of the problem is certainly that I’m spending less time on public transportation these days (and will spend even less once Gus starts riding the school bus home next week, woot!). And it’s not like I’m sitting around the house eating bonbons — I’ve got stuff to do (really!). At least I’ve been able to keep up with the paper and magazines.

To abruptly change the topic, I think we finally need to get Gus a haircut. It’s been growing long all summer, a combination of our inability to make the time to get to the haircutters and desire to have some sun protection on his neck and face (since I could never be sure he was putting sunscreen on himself at camp). Plus, it looked really cute. Last week the hair in his eyes was REALLY bothering him so we even did something I swore I’d never do: just trimmed the bangs a little. Jonathan did a very nice job and now it is cuter than ever.

Which makes it even harder to think that we need to say goodbye to the lovely locks. But it’s getting to be more of a pain to wash it and especially dry it, because he complains when we rub his head with a towel. And one lone, persistent dreadlock has formed on the back of his head. Sometimes I comb it out, but the next day it comes right back. So a haircut is probably the best course of action for all of our sakes. This time I have to remember to take a picture first (it’ll last longer!).

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and you know everything that i know

maura @ 8:42 pm

We’re just back today from our crazy summer beach house week, this year with 18% more family members (and 40% more bedrooms!). It was really lovely. The weather was fabulous (much, much, MUCH better than last year, when it rained nearly the entire week). We had lots of iconic beach experiences: wave jumping, mini golfing, hermit crab hunting, bumper car driving, water ice eating. Gus is the eldest of the 5 offspring of me + my sibs, and he enjoyed his role as their lord + master.

Now it’s T-minus two (2!) days until the start of FIRST (!!!) grade. Gus’s school sent us the required supplies list 3 weeks ago. Do you think we here at mauraweb! acted on it then? If you answered “No,” you’re right! So Gus and I will be spending all afternoon tomorrow flinging ourselves at many of Brooklyn’s fine shopping establishments in search of notebooks, folders, colored pencils, baby wipes, paper towels, liquid soap, and other essentials of elementary education. Good times!

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