Monday, May 14, 2007

VOCs of home

This evening I planned to have V paint our house address numbers to match our trim, and only 1.5 years after we changed our house color to tan, thus rendering them invisible. We took them off the siding yesterday, just in time to confuse the people coming over to pick up stuff from Freecycle. ("Remember, the address is 1107, but we're the house *without* the numbers.") Anyway, V's body decided it would rather run a fever. So she's in bed obscenely early, and happy about it. She even voted herself into a short bath, which she never wants. So I get to relax with the Mexican Wedding Cookies I bought from the Women's Rollerderby Bake Sale on Saturday. (They were too good to pass up, being my favorite cookie, *and* rolled to my car by two flashy women on skates.) And post some stuff on E-Bay, and periodically check in on the San Jose City Hall Peregrine Falcons. In other news, I received the Summer 2007 Philatelic catalog from the U.S. Postal Service and was surprised to find a new addition to this year's stamp releases which was not originally publicized in the 2007 collection: Star Wars. Still think my favorite of the year will be Pollinators. V's dance recital is coming up on June 16. The theme, much to my chagrin, is Disney. Boy, I love them Disney productions, don'tcha know. Her class is performing a dance dressed like newspaper deliverers ala "Newsies". Pinstriped knickers and ties, black flat caps and red leotards. Their song is by "Squirrel Nut Zippers". Could be much worse, considering the alternatives. And the topic I originally named this post for, the Volatile Organic Compounds of home. I realized recently that I love this time of year not only for the tangible appearance of sunshine, but also the aromas that begin emanating from the inanimate objects in the house when the temperature rises above 75 degrees. When I can walk in the door and am instantly hit by the smell of *my* house. All the vapors in the air melding into something so familiar, so homey and comfortable, that you only notice it within the first few seconds of opening the door from the outside. Also coming up: hosting Bunco this week, hosting a Pampered Chef party next week, and then front-row tickets to see the Killers in concert!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hope Vinna is better.

What is Bunco? What is a Pampered Chef party?

You get to see the Killers?! Cool!

L. Ottaviano said...

V is much better, thanks! Apparently the road to recovery included a few games of "Sorry!" with P, and a day at home watching "Monsters, Inc.", "The Secret Garden", and "The Nightmare Before Christmas".

Bunco is a dice game played by 12 people (Two 2-person teams at each of 3 tables), and 3 dice at each table. You rotate teammates, and sometimes tables, every round. The first round you are trying to roll ones, then twos, etc. up to sixes. You do that four times, for a total of 24 rounds. You get points every time you roll the target number, or roll three of a kind. Three of a kind of the target number is called a "Bunco" and is worth 21 points. It can get really noisy and crazy and prizes are given at the end to the person that has the most wins, the most Buncos, the last Bunco, and the most losses. Everyone pays $5 to play, which is where the prize money comes from.

Pampered Chef is a type of home-business like Avon, Mary Kay, Tupperware, Creative Memories (scrapbooking), Partylite (candles) where people host parties a their house and the "consultant" sells their wares. Pampered Chef stuff is cooking and kitchen-related, and they are probably most well-known for their baking stones.

We're hoping to see the Killers at this point. The lead singer currently has bronchitis and they postponed tonight's show in Seattle. By Saturday all should be well.