Tank Sums up High School Musical 2

My kids get 2 library movie check-outs a week.  I am very strict about allowing only 2 movies per kid, and I'm religious about getting the movies back on time because they're each $2 a day if they're late.  2 movies times 3 kids, times $2?  That's $12 a day!

But what I'm not strict about is what movies they can check out.  They have full control over that choice.  I, however, have full control over if they can watch it upstairs or downstairs.  For instance, Yo Gabba Gabba is a downstairs movie and Power Rangers, for the first 3 views, is allowed to be an upstairs movie.  Tinkerbell can be watched upstairs as many times as desired, but Tellytubbies is only acceptable downstairs.

Right now Tank is laying on the living room floor, watching Power Rangers Operation Overdrive.  (How many variations of Power Rangers can there be?)  It's apparently affiliated with Disney, because all the previews were for Disney movies and shows.  And Tank insists on watching the previews.

One of the previews was for High School Musical 2.  I walked into the room at the end of the preview and Tank was laying down, knees up, 2 fingers in his mouth, the other hand on his ear.  Like normal.  I asked him if he liked the preview and he said, "Yeah.  They said 'summer' a lot.  And then they danced."  I thought that was a pretty accurate sum-up of the whole movie, actually.

American Community Survey

About a week ago we got a friendly note from our government informing us that on top of the 2010 Census forms we would be asked to fill out, we had been randomly selected to fill out the American Community Survey.  It's a more in-depth questionnaire, they told us, and we would need to fill out BOTH forms.  By law, the extra American Community Survey isn't "extra" at all:  if we don't fill it out, they can hunt us down and shoot us.  (That was in the fine print.)

No problem.  I can fill out a survey.  We got it in the mail yesterday and it informed me that it would take me about 38 minutes to fill out.  I started right then.

So what does the government want to know?  As it turns out, a whole bunch of stuff!  Not only where Rob works, but how many hours a week he works, what kind of company he works for, and even when he leaves for work in the morning and how long his commute is!  Not just if we own a house, but how many rooms it has (by their definition, by removing the wall between our kitchen and dining room, we downsized our house a whole room!), what our gas and electric bill was last month, what our 12 MONTH water bill is, what the annual real estate tax is and if it's included with our mortgage payment or not.  ...  Why does the government need to know some of this stuff?

One thing I do want to know is this:  What do I put down for Ethnic background?  The survey wanted to know if I considered myself English or Russian or Finnish or Scandinavian, etc.  Well, I consider myself American, honestly.  How many generations does one's family need to be in the States before we're just American and no longer Other?  I mean, on my father's side, we can trace our roots back to America in the 1700's.  That was almost 300 years ago!  Aren't we American yet?!  ...  My solution:  I put down Prussian/American for mine, and English/American for Rob's.  For my kids I put down American.  Period.

The survey's in the mailbox right now, and it really wasn't that hard to fill out, but I think they should have warned me that it would require me searching through tax documents, housing and insurance paperwork, and old water bills.  ...  I guess I'm just glad that about a month ago I decided to fire our Secretary in Charge of the Filing Cabinet (aka Rob), and just filed everything myself.  So everything was right where it should have been, and finding all that paperwork was easy.

Winter Olympics

Downhill skiing.  The American woman who won 2nd place.  The one who isn't Lindsey Vonn.  She wore a tiara after the race and for the podium.

And this is what I love about the Olympics.  Here's this fierce competitor.  She's focused.  She's driven.  She's one of the Best in the World.  She won the downhill event in Torino, and then a silver medal this time.  Clearly, she's a force to be reckoned with.

And she stands up on the podium, tiara on her head, and does a little girl dance of triumph.  It was so cute and so ... cute.  It wasn't fierce.  It wasn't focused.  It was just pure little kid joy.

I turned to Rob and said, "Girls can get away with that kind of stuff.  Can you imagine a guy doing that?"

Rob said, "No.  Except maybe Johnny Weir."

And we both laughed.

Sites of Cincinnati #1

I love Cincinnati.  It is my personal goal to live here as long as possible, perhaps even for the rest of my life.  It's family-friendly, it's on the foothills of the Appalachians, there are trees everywhere.  It's a good small-town, big-city mix, and suburban life works well for me.

My friend is coming into town soon, and I thought of where I'd like to take her, of all the cool things that Cincinnati has to offer that I value.  And I thought I'd create a new series called "Sites of Cincinnati" that highlights some of the cool and/or unique things that Cincinnati has.

So here goes.

Sites of Cincinnati #1 - The Grotesque Christ

Every time I make a trip up or down I-75 I think about the "wonder" that is this 60-foot statue of Jesus.  Behold:

 

(This is not my picture, by the way. I found it on the internet.)  The statue was built shortly after we moved here, so it's relatively new, and locals have taken the opportunity to give it all sorts of awesome names.  The most popular is Touchdown Jesus, though my own name for it is Grotesque Christ.  I advise my children to not look at it as we pass.

But how could they not want to stare at it?  It's huge!  It's ... bizarre.  I suppose the congregation that built it thinks that it's a beautiful show of faith.  But generally it's viewed as an eye-sore.

One of my favorite parts about the statue is the surroundings.  The church is huge, and the house beside it where the pastor lives (I assume) is equally mammoth.  But then, right next door, is Trader's World!  A huge flea market that advertises with statues of assorted exotic animals (most notably, giraffes) and palm trees that light up.  Right at the edge of Trader's World's property, and immediately before the church's property starts, there is a sign that says, "Trader's World.  Visit us again soon!" or something like that.  It's a large, tacky sign, surrounded by those palm trees, all glitz and glitter, designed to capture your attention with the sheer gaudiness.  When you're coming North on I-75, there's one point where the Trader's World sign and the Grotesque Christ statue are visually lined up right next to each other.  And every time, that view strikes me as somehow ... appropriate.

So, if you come to Cincinnati, and you have an extra hour to spare, just drive north on I-75 past 275, and behold the wonder that is.  You, too, will be blown away.

Therapy

We got news from our Water Works that the sewer rates are going up by about double and a half.  Bummer.  This has us thinking, again, about how to reduce our water bill.  Of course, I already know how to reduce our bill:  Tamra should stop taking long showers.  But we all know this isn't going to happen.  The low-flow shower head was the compromise.

This got me thinking about other things, though.  Mainly, what I don't spend on Therapy sessions with a professional counselor.  When I take a shower, my troubles wash away with the water and the world is Good.  I figure it's worth an extra few dollars a month for shower therapy.

So:  Therapy Cost #1 = Water Bill

Therapy Cost #2 is, of course, my soccer league.  I play co-ed soccer every Friday night and it's heaven.  I come home and talk to Rob or my brother about the game (since Rob only cares because I care, not because he loves the game).  I don't think back to the glory days that were, because these ARE my glory days.  When I was 13 years old, my competitive spirit was sucked out of my soul by a really lousy coach, and since then I've been waiting for people to catch up with my non-competitive, fair-play attitude.  Turns out that age mellows people.  And soccer, to me, gets no better than a friendly game.

I've been playing every week for almost 2 years now and I'm addicted.  Family circumstances will demand that I skip next session, and I might go into withdrawals.

Therapy Cost #3 is high-speed internet.  It allows so many wonderful things that low-speed didn't (like blogging), so it's totally worth the extra $15/month that we pay for it.

And that's about it.  Books used to be a therapy cost, but I abuse the library system these days, so it costs me nothing.  And talking to Rob is wonderful therapy, but thankfully he doesn't charge me for it.

...

I don't feel bad that I'm not paying a professional counselor for therapy sessions.  They over-charge anyway.