Miscellany Monday

The most shocking thing in California?
It wasn’t the price of gas (not nearly as bad as I had thought) or the weather (heaven) or my FIL's need to rise before the break of dawn every morning just because (which was shocking), but the windows. Why?

THEY DIDN’T HAVE SCREENS.

We went to a friend of the in-laws for a cookout, and I marveled at how clean their windows were. I mean, just sparkling you-could-run-into-them-because-they’re-so-doggone-clear clean windows.  The next day it hit me: there were no screens. There were no bug-carcass-encasing screens. None.

We stayed in a hotel with NO AIR CONDITIONING, we were COLD, and we slept with a fireplace on and the window cracked. WITH NO SCREENS.

When I told my mom this, she exclaimed, incredulously, “Nuh-huh! Sarah, there HAD to be screens!”
Nope, not a one.  

And no bugs.  I think I saw one harmless fly. ONE. That’s it. No spiders, no roaches, and not a single mosquito.
Oh, gosh and golly, this may be heaven.

Yesterday, I went to my folks’ to deliver souvenirs. 
As Mom and my middle sister, Davie, were leaving for gymnastics (Davie’s . . . not my mom’s . . . I probably just clarified that without any real need), my five-year-old baby sister, Ellie, crept up beside me and whispered, “Um, Sawah, can we pway?”
“Sure, honey. What do you want to play?”
“Um . . . can we pway Wii? I want to pway Wego Star Wars.”

And so we did.

We quickly discovered that Ellie and I play at about the same skill level . . .which probably means really good things for her and really bad things for me.
Considering that my character fell to its doom every time I had to cross a bridge, I don't see any real future career as a gamer . . . or, at least, as a good one.

I can’t help it. He falls, screams, breaks into a billion pieces, and then, magically reappears . . . only to have the situation repeated as I attempt two more steps.
And we’re not even a third of the way across the tiny bridge.

That’s skill, peeps.

And, yes, after one session of “Just Dance 3” I totally purchased it (which I may regreat when the hubs decides to watch and start mocking me . . . Glory, I won't hear the end of it).
So much fun  . . . such a dork (seriously . . . I can't bloody dance to save my life) . . . and such a workout  (hence the purchase . . . I love a workout disguised as totally not a workout).

source

The highlight: playing with my sixteen-year-old sister-Cat-and little Ellie, losing miserably, and Ellie exclaiming, “Sawah! I BEAT YOU!!! I’VE NEVER BEAT A BIG KID BEFOW!!! YAY!!!”
Yeah, she totally slaughtered me.
Three times.

Again, I gots skillz.

See? I have so much skill, I used improper grammar and spelled it with a “z.”
My coolness meter is growing.

P.S. As a testimony to said coolness meter growth, I apparently actually WON something.
I cannot begin to express my giddiness.
Because, seriously, we're talking a kid who's never won any sort of raffle and whose schools always lost their homecoming games (at least when I was in attendence). I kind of seem to be on the losing side . . . so much in fact, that when I burst out, "OH MY GOSH!!! CHRIS, I WON!!!"
He replied dryly, "Were you the only person who entered?"
"NO!"
"Is it a scam?"
"NOO!!!"
See? Even my hubs doubts my luck-of-the-draw.
But, NO MORE!!!
Check it out! :]
Yeah, I'm a tiny bit excited XD