Day in the Life of an Idiot

On Sunday night, I watched former CONvergence guest Ms. Shannon Paul's live (streaming) "Comedy Through the Chaos: Proud to be About Pride" via YouTube.

Secretly, I have always been a fan of stand-up comedy. I even take an odd sort of pleasure even when the comedy is... not at its peak, let's say, which is why I fell into "The Marvelous Ms. Mavel" very easily. Shawn would be yelling "OMG, she's bombing, fast forward," and I'd be like, "Nah, give me the iPad and I'll plug in earphones and tell you when it's safe!" So, I guess that's my roundabout way of saying that some of the performers Ms. Shannon showcased were awesome and others were... well, let's just say that Shawn would have had to leave the room, if she'd been watching with me. But that's what you get with live comedy? So I thought it was very good, overall.

If you want to catch it in rerun, as it were, it is still available on-line.

I did not know that the episode I signed up to watch was going to be the Pride episode, but that worked out for me.Speaking of Pride,  I also decided to try another OutFront event. The walking tour of Twin Cities gay history go cancelled, so I decided to try a virtual town hall. This discussion about racism in the dating scene and is entitled, "A Spicy Lunch: A Conversation on White Supremacy in Relationships." I don't have a lot to add to this discussion, since I last dated in the late 1980s, but it seems like it will be an interesting discussion, nonetheless.

I spent a huge portion of my day today prepping a few Loft class proposals (which were, OF COURSE, due today.) I knew that it was time to start thinking about getting my ideas together a month ago, but did I do ANYTHING about them then? No. What do you take me for? Someone organized? Ha, I scoff! 

Even so, it wouldn't have taken all day, if I weren't building one of them from scratch. My friend Kate and I are proposing a class for readers (and writers who are readers) about BIPOC and queer science fiction. It should be a ton of fun, if it goes. We've picked some interesting stories to talk about.  The other class I sent a proposal in for was one of my intermediate science fiction/fantasy writing classes that I've taught before. Of course, that one was all pre-researched and prepared, but I am waiting to see how much of both of these classes we will have to convert to on-line. Neither of them would be scheduled until sometime in the middle of September at the earliest, but  I have my doubts if we'll be meeting in-person yet.

That took up a huge portion of my day. Partly, because I need to vet all the stories we're going to use, have sample discussion questions written up, and make sure, when possible, that there were audio versions for accessibility reasons. Also, the Loft has an online form that involves a lot of other little picky bits, like percentages of class time spent on this and that, and other administrative hoops that must be jumped through.

Just now, I went outside and grilled a few brats, even though it kind of feels like it might rain again. While I was out there, I fed the birds and checked in on the various beleaguered plants. After reading up on how various homemade pesticides worked, I decided that the one I wanted to try was garlic spray. Unlike some of the other pest controls, garlic spray is the least invasive. Apparently, how it works is that the garlic actually gives plants a case of "garlic breath" (https://www.savatree.com/garlic-insect-repellent.html) which repels most insects. Apparently, it can actually kill some sap-sucking insects like caterpillars (oh no! I have been carefully not spraying too near the parsley where the parsley worms/black swallowtail caterpillars have been munching, but now I'm worried!!)  It would be just my luck to kill off the caterpillars I want and not harm the four-striped plant bug that I would like to move on. 

Ugh. Gardening is hard.

How does your garden grow?

I thought I'd post a few photos of the recent goings-on in my life. First, last night, Mason's school had "Science Night." One of the reasons we chose Crossroads is because it's a science magnet. They have a "scientist in residence," who is a Bell Museum curator. So as part of the big event last night the folks from the Bell Museum came out with some of the animals from thier interactive area, including (much to mama's chagrin) the giant bat cave cockroach:



That's a grown man's hand the cockroach is perched on, and, yes, those are lovely wings. Mason, who is a huge bug person, was actually a little freaked by this cockroach because -- well, because it seemed to like him. When the guy took it back, it instantly leaped into the air and flew over to perch on Mason's shoulder:




There was also a milliped from Africa so large it could wrap all the way around a woman's wrist. Mason was (oddly) similarly disinclined to hold that one, though I touched it. Despite his reaction last night, Mason woke up this morning begging mama to have a giant bat cave cockroach as a pet. You can probably imagine mama's reaction to that... especially since she spent her time in the science lab room cringing in a corner and trying not to squeal in horror every time the cockroach and Mason interacted.

The other big events was the free-range tour of the I-Zone (stands for "Inquiry-Zone"), which I think I've described before. It's a bunch of cubicles set up in a large atrium area in the school. At each station there's some kind of science experiment for the kids to investigate on their own. There were light bulbs to light using wires, a battery, and circuits. There are blocks to play with, magnets to experiment with, lightboxes, kalidoscopes to make, and just a TON of fun stuff for the kids to learn about/play with. There's cockroach farms (new addition: bat cave cockroaches in addition to their already thriving Madagascar hissing cockroach farm!) tanks with fish, plants, turtles, etc. There are grow lights with different plants being grown -- and, well, it's no surprise that when Mason first experienced the I-Zone during the open house when we were considering attending Crossroads, he CRIED when it was time to leave.

As we were leaving, he said the only thing that would have made the night more perfect was if the library/media center were open.

Also, I have a few shots of our Ostara celebration to share. As I said earlier, Mason and I decorated over a dozen eggs. We did our usual Goddess/Ostara symbols (spiral, moon, sun), but Mason also decided to add a bit of BLING this year:



Here's all of the eggs, Mason's bunny Sirraliyboadoh (I can NEVER spell that name), and our Trader Joe's tulips:



I also took a picture of all our food -- we had hot cross buns (I finally found the perfect recipie) and quiche lorraine (from a recipie from Shawn's mother):



Bonus image of Mason playing his DS. At that moment, I believe he was "training up" a Pokemon.