Nap Time Notes

Wednesday 22 February 2012 - Filed under Uncategorized

Good afternoon. Happy nap time to you. I was in napping with G Noodle for about an hour. When I tried to get up and sneak out, he sprung right up and was looking at me. I said, “Hey what are you doing? We’re still napping”. I leaned him back over. He seems to still be sleeping now.

I am in the front room. The sun is shining brightly through the windows. The sun feels nice and warm. I’m laying on the couch. I could almost fall asleep again.

Johnny V is off napping with K. Oh wait, you didn’t think I left him to fend for himself while I was napping with G did you?

I will resist the temptation to fall asleep again. I will continue typing.

Yes. The sun feels magnificent. I am so excited for spring! The older I get the more I hate the wintertime.

Oh. I hear G man stirring in his bedroom…

G Noodle is sitting with me now here on the couch. He is making fun of my growling stomach.

Oh. Johnny and K are awake now. Nap time is over! Oh great. Now they are going to make me go on a walk while it’s not raining. Walking! Argh! No. Just kidding. A walk would do me good. I need some fresh air. I haven’t been outside in a while.

Uh oh. Looks like the rain has started again. I don’t know if we’re going now… Looks like K is pretty driven to get out of doors.

Oh yeah. I’m back.

We went to the park then the grocery store and then we went home and had some tasty burritos.

Now we are watching Wall E. Boy oh boy is that a good one.

 ::  Share or discuss  ::  2012-02-22  ::  Noodle

percolation station

Tuesday 21 February 2012 - Filed under baby + G NOODLE + Littler Noodle + poetry + TV + writing

The boy MUST stop talking about the TV. No more talk about the TV dude. Can I watch a show? Can I watch a show? Can I watch another show? Can I watch a movie? No! Stop talking about the TV really. Please. No. Stop talking. I say “be quiet” a lot. Is that bad? Oh who knows. Everything is bad I suppose.

I have been having sneezing fits this morning. Something’s tickling my nose.

This guy here has a website that encourages you to write 750 words a day. That’s pretty awesome. A place to do good writing exercising and get your stream of conscious flowing. I like the idea of a point system to encourage you to keep up with it. I didn’t see what the points get you. Maybe just the same sort of pride as an arcade video game score? One thing I don’t agree with in his write up (although he’s saying it just didn’t work for him and you can’t argue with that) is he says that your 750 words can’t be done every morning as a blog entry posted with WordPress. I agree that you shouldn’t have any blocks to getting your words out but I think that having 750 words pumped out every morning in front of a reading audience is more helpful than having 750 words stashed away for personal or private viewing. If you aren’t able to pump out 750 words in front of people because you are self conscious about what you are saying then I think you could keep it private. Anything just as long as you’re writing I guess.

He says 250 words equals a page? Is that double spaced? 250 doesn’t seem like enough to fill a page. 500 words seems like a page to me. Maybe I should do a test.

I have been trying for 500 words a day here in the journal. I make it to 500 on occasion. 500 isn’t too hard to get to if you really go for it. February hasn’t been a very good example of word count though. I think as long as I am getting any words down every day I’m doing good. You can’t beat yourself up over it or get too serious. That will stop the word flow for sure.

There is a coating of slime over almost everything here in the Noodle Compound. Little dirty hands are making a smudge of things. My laptop is by the window right now with the daylight shining on it and I am in awe of the dirtiness of it. My phone is covered in fingerprints and goo.

Hold on a second. I think older boy woke up younger boy from his nap. Oh I love when that happens.

We had a lovely visit with my mom last night who was still in town for Johnny’s birthday party. They are living in Idaho again. When we last spoke of my ma they were living in Baker right? Oh wait. We did have some talk here in the journal recently about Sumpter (oh wait. a search for Sumpter doesn’t bring up any results. Oh wait. here is what I was thinking of. wow 2009?). Anyway we were over at my grandpa Johnny’s house visiting with my mom and aunt Punky. I was happy my mom could make it to Johnny’s first birthday. She doesn’t get to see the boys as often as I would like. Her being in Idaho and all.

I think that little baby Johnny is about ready to walk! Anytime now. He’s standing up now while still holding on. My mom said I was about 13 months old when I started walking. I believe K was thinking that G Noodle was 14 months old when he started walking. Did we get a record of G’s first steps? Alas… I don’t remember. I don’t think there was a pivotal storybook first step. He seemed to keep trying over and over and then eventually got it.

Oh my oh my. What are we going to do with two little men running around? Hopefully they don’t knock heads too many times.

Well I haven’t heard about the results from the contest I entered my poetry manuscript in. I must not have won. They surely would have gotten a hold of me if I was the winner. Well that’s lame. Hold on let me check. Well, yep looks like they picked a winner. Here’s the announcement. My self-addressed envelope with the results must still be in the mail. Really? Do you have to be a MFA and a senior lecturer to win these things? Are that dude’s poems really that good? I thought it was supposed to be a blind contest. None of his credentials leaked through? How is some graphic production loser with barely any writing credits supposed to get a chance at winning? Well screw it. I’m not going to enter any more contests. Well. For at least a year. I need to just keep working on making my poems and writing stronger and not worry about any of that other shit.

Well look at that. That’s what 750 words looks like. No wait… 851. That’s not too bad. It did take me a bit longer than 500 usually does. Oh wait, that’s 868 words.

 ::  Share or discuss  ::  2012-02-21  ::  Noodle

Yo! President’s Day. I say yo!

Monday 20 February 2012 - Filed under Mondays

What? Yeah, I don’t know.

Happy president’s day to you. Who cares? See, who cares doesn’t look right with a question mark there. I’m not really asking. It’s more of a statement. Who cares.

Have you hugged a president today?

It’s night time now. President’s day is nearly over. Enough.

Today I declared to K and the boys that I didn’t care where we were going because I was going to wear sweat pants no matter what. My army green sweat pants don’t really look that sweat pantsy. It’s cool. Well maybe not cool.

We went to indoor play park today. I was thinking that it would be good to bring a book to read while there. Yeah that wouldn’t have worked. I knew it wouldn’t before I went so I didn’t bring one. You can’t really read a book while watching the babies. Looking at your phone while the kids are playing is really lame as well. I don’t do that and look down my nose at those who do.

 ::  Share or discuss  ::  2012-02-20  ::  Noodle

keep it flipped over so you can’t see the green light

Sunday 19 February 2012 - Filed under Uncategorized

good evening. Hello Sunday. Hey! No work tomorrow! President’s day I think? Right? Whatever. No work tomorrow.
I had to work today though. That was stinky. I had a really hard time staying awake. Last night’s birthday party for the one year old made me really tired today. It’s like yeah, couldn’t listen to talk radio or podcasts because those were putting me to sleep. Wasn’t sure what I wanted to listen to music wise. Oh the horror!

So what’s going on? What are you up to?

Have I mentioned that I am sometimes quite annoyed when waiting for people to respond back to email I have sent? Come on! Really? Surely you have read your email. You probably read it because it went instantly to your phone and you checked it 20 seconds after I sent it. Why must you wait a couple of days before responding to me? Something simple like hey I got your email would be just fine. That doesn’t take two days to type.

I hate waiting for email. Just forget about it Noodle! Flip your phone over so you can’t see the blinking green light and just get on with your day. Stop checking your email every five minutes.

I am sleepy. Have I mentioned I am sleepy?

Hey here’s a link to a page covering that Moth story hour I went to a couple of weeks ago. Yeah I was in that audience. No really. For real. the next thing we are going to see is Radiolab live in April. Yep. Sarah got a hold of tickets for us. That should be pretty fun. It will be interesting to see what they are going to do. Radiolab is such a sounds in your head show I can’t imagine what they would do visually.

It would be nice to watch a movie tonight since there’s no work tomorrow. What to watch though? Ok. So Netflix’s instant view new releases section is horrible. It’s starting to get annoying. I don’t think there has been anything new up for a couple of months now. How are we supposed to see our new releases? We can only watch Labyrinth and Big Trouble in Little China so many times you know!

I don’t know. I may be a little too sleepy for a movie. I need to get some rest.

 ::  Share or discuss  ::  2012-02-19  ::  Noodle

Party like it’s 2012!

Saturday 18 February 2012 - Filed under Uncategorized

Yep yep. Johnny’s party! I’m sitting here by the front door with Chad the Dark. We have been having some fun partying.

Hmm yeah not too much to report.

Thanks everybody for the love given to the lil Johnny.

Well.

 ::  Share or discuss  ::  2012-02-18  ::  Noodle

Hello Friday

Friday 17 February 2012 - Filed under Uncategorized

Hello Friday whatcha knowing? I’ve come to watch your flowers growing.

No. Not really.

How’s it going? I’m fine.

I wrote a poem today. That was pretty exciting. I think it was pretty good. Who can say so for sure though right?

I wrote and submitted it to a website that provided the prompt. Prompted pieces that aren’t accepted by the prompter can still be yours to send to other places but you may have to cover up some of the promptedness.

Yeah so what else? Uh… work went fast. That is always a good thing.

Tomorrow is Johnny’s big birthday party! I am expecting a wonderful will be had by all. I think the house is going to be packed.

 ::  Share or discuss  ::  2012-02-17  ::  Noodle

REJECT

Thursday 16 February 2012 - Filed under Uncategorized

goood eeevening lovelys. How bee you?

I’m alright.

I’m done submitting my poems. I know I keep saying that. I keep getting suckered into submitting to these poetry literature mags online. Oh I bet you so and so will like these poems. Hmm maybe if I tried this one instead…

I am tired of being rejected. I’ll stop submitting for now.

I need to write. Build my stack back up of things I think are submittable.

I think I may tackle some of the prompts given by a few websites. They give a prompt, you write based on the prompt and turn that in. I have done alright with that in the past. Another thing I could do is pick 2 of these online journal thingys and make an effort to read them from cover to cover every month. Then I would really know what they are looking for in submissions. Submitting without reading the mag is lame. I know it!

Very tired of being rejected.

I need something to click and go through.

I know rejection is part of the writing process and I think I’m getting fairly good at receiving it. Still it’s a bummer.

I need to stop being such a mopey moe. Just get in there and write more sucker!

I need to start reading more. I have lots of stuff to read. Not much time to read though. What I should really do is turn the TV viewing off and read instead. Read before bedtime.

Lots of reading I could be doing.

Let’s see what else can mopey moe worry about this evening?

 ::  Share or discuss  ::  2012-02-16  ::  Noodle

a note during a brief intermission

Wednesday 15 February 2012 - Filed under Uncategorized

Good evening all! Mr. Noodle here. Hanging with my number one pal, G Noodle. We’re kicking it on the couch watching the cartoon “Ruby Gloom”. Yeah. I don’t know about Ruby Gloom. It’s fine I guess. I’m probably only taking a mini break. We are cleaning up the house trying to get ready for Johnny’s big birthday party on Saturday.

I am tired.

Today is the 15th. They were supposed to have picked a winner in the poetry book contest I entered. I haven’t heard back from anyone yet about winning. Maybe they are waiting for just the right moment to tell me.

No I probably didn’t win. I read a essay once that said that literary contests are impossible to win. The essay was written by someone who had lost a poetry competition I’m sure.

That’s fine. I’ll just self publish this batch and be done with it.

I went down in the basement today to find my copy of “Where the Sidewalk Ends” by Shel Silverstein. I had thought that Gilby is at the age where he would enjoy those poems. I was also thinking it would be good practice for me reading poems out loud. All I could find down there though was “A Light in the Attic”. That book is almost as awesome.

Being down in that basement just makes me want to rent a dumpster, park it in the front, and throw all of my possessions away. The basement is just filled with crap we don’t need to be saving.

While picking through the 3 boxes of books I looked in for “Where the Sidewalk Ends” (I just thought of another area of the basement with more boxes of books I could look through) I came across stacks of magazines. Why am I saving magazines? I have never looked through any of them again! Well I guess I look through them when I am looking through the boxes for other books.

I need to get myself on a throwing away regimen stat!

 ::  Share or discuss  ::  2012-02-15  ::  Noodle

Happy Birthday Johnny! 1 year old!

Tuesday 14 February 2012 - Filed under baby + Littler Noodle

Happy Valentine’s day everybody! But really, now forever more important to me than Valentine’s, it’s Johnny’s birthday! A year ago we were just beginning to get to know that little guy. I can’t believe it’s already been a year. Time flies. Is that what they say? I think that baby number two grows faster than baby number one. I don’t remember G Noodle getting to one year old this fast.

Johnny is a happy happy baby. He is a little cornball. A little baby comedian. Every time I see him after being away he makes me feel happy.

What’s he doing at 1? For the record books? He’s crawling around now and just started climbing up standing while holding on. He can now climb on to G’s trampoline and kind of bounce up and down on it while sitting. He seems like he is going to need more baby proofing of the house than G did. He gets into stuff. Opens cupboards and takes things out. He’s saying Da Da, Ma Ma, he says bye bye. Sometimes says baby. We think he might be saying brother. He says something like Ne Nee that must mean something we don’t understand. He’s able to motion down and kind of start to say down. He is able to do the hand motion for finished.

I did something totally crazy today. Crazy for me I guess since I don’t normally do this sort of thing. I made my first cake from scratch! Not from the box cake. I don’t remember volunteering to make Johnny’s first birthday cake. K definitely nudged me with her elbow and more or less force me to do it. I had a pretty bad attitude about making it at the beginning of the day but once it was all coming together I was pretty happy with myself. Baking a cake for the first time in your life while too little boogers are running around the house making messes and falling on their heads is hard work! I made a banana cake with caramel buttercream frosting. I made the frosting too. I haven’t tried it yet as of this typing. It looks pretty good I guess. I’m not sure if I like baking. I’ll try it again though.

Oh silly me. I forgot to mention of course that G Noodle helped me make the cake.

Happy Birthday to my little boy Johnny! You are loved. I can’t wait to see how the next year and the many after unfold.

 ::  Share or discuss  ::  2012-02-14  ::  Noodle

rolling rolling rolling

Monday 13 February 2012 - Filed under Uncategorized

Oh my goodness! These busy days are racing by. I almost forgot to write a post. For real. I swear I’m bound to forget one of these days sooner or later. You won’t be too punishing to me will you?

Today was an alright day at work. It seemed to go by quickly and that’s a good thing. I noticed today that I have been working really hard the last couple of weeks. Why have I not been devoting more time to screwing around?

 ::  Share or discuss  ::  2012-02-13  ::  Noodle