Yikes, I'm sorry msbelle about both your mom and your termites.

Also sorry to hear about Aims' family and Plei's losing battle with gravity.

I wanted to note that:

Wednesday, January 26th is Onerous Task Day.

I think we need to have it more often.

Link to the book on Amazon: Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture

I'm not too worried about Matilda's princess obsession. It's not like she's actively thinking about a Prince or even lots of servants. She just likes dressing up in girly stuff.

I wasn't too worried about Emmett's obsession with superheros and supervillains either. Though, come to think of it, fighting and Krav is the thing that interests him the most right now.

Oh, good!

And yes, I agree. We need it probably a good bit more often.

I did tasks, anyway! I hauled firewood again; the SO split firewood yesterday. And I washed the icky fridge clean-out dishes yesterday and took out the resulting icky trash today.

Ooh, and we launched our new website (http://www.hopeintransit.org) for the curious, although for the tech savvy, I'm a bit concerned about the site traffic report, which still seems to indicate that there's still some propagating that's not done yet. That task turned out to be onerous, even though I didn't realize it was going to be at the time.

Anyway, I have the Big Year End stuff to do for work, so I'd better get on that. I'll still be doing it by the time Task Day gets here, so better get going now so I can finish by then.

Though, come to think of it, fighting and Krav is the thing that interests him the most right now.

You're making sure he's not in secret correspondence with MiracleMan, aren't you? Because I saw Dispicable Me, and every super villain needs a mad genius--especially one that hears you clearly when you ask for a dart gun.

Way to one up, Mom of msbelle! (hoping it is NOTHING!)

You're making sure he's not in secret correspondence with MiracleMan, aren't you?

Hmmmm. They did hit it off at the F2F...

I'm not too worried about Matilda's princess obsession. It's not like she's actively thinking about a Prince or even lots of servants. She just likes dressing up in girly stuff.

Although, ugh, when we went to the Booksmith on Saturday all she wanted to do was sit and have me read Disney princess happily-ever-after stories (there's now an ages 3-6 DP book about Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White and how they planned their weddings).

I balked after the first insipid story; Matilda made a pouty face and I said, "I don't want to read you stories about princesses getting married, I want to read you stories about princesses being brave and having adventures!" And a middle school girl sitting in the corner reading the latest edition of one of those giant Harry Potter imitator series looked up, gave me a thumbs-up and said, "Yeah!"

Matilda also wants me to draw her lots of pictures of me and Hec getting married, Emmett in his tuxedo holding the ring pillow. (When I did it the first time she said sternly, "No, Mommy, you did it wrong. He was holding a HEART pillow, not a SQUARE pillow.") Even as mild as her case of princess romance fever is, I'm plenty ready for it to be over.

Liv never went through the Princessy-type stuff. She like the clothes, but she's equally excited to wield the sword and she doesn't even want to watch the Disney Princess movies. She's asking for Legos nearly as much as Owen rather than Polly Pockets.

And I'm glad I found her this at a derby bout.

I said, "I don't want to read you stories about princesses getting married, I want to read you stories about princesses being brave and having adventures!" And a middle school girl sitting in the corner reading the latest edition of one of those giant Harry Potter imitator series looked up, gave me a thumbs-up and said, "Yeah!"

That's awesome. I don't think the princess thing is bad for little girls, as long as the parents don't buy into the "sit still and look pretty" thing.