Friday Favorites

I haven't done a link up in a while. It's late, but it's still Friday!

1. Date nights!  Ryan has been working a hectic schedule of very long overnight shifts which has not been any fun for any of us.  After working seven straight days he finally got a night off and we went to see Carolina Liar, Kelly Clarkson and The Fray.  Sadly, due to my inability to both driveaggressivly and follow a GPS, we ended up driving through the city.  As a result we stopped at no less than 1902298239823 stoplights and we ended up missing most of Carolina Liar, which is a shame because I really enjoy their music. 

I had been leaning towards getting lawn tickets, but Ryan found us a great deal on Stub Hub on seats in the center of the arena. He totally made the right call. We ended up being in the perfect placebecause both Kelly Clarkson and Isaac Slade of The Fray came out and performed a few songs from a small stage in the audience right in front of us.  The pictures are terrible quality, but the first one is Kelly Clarkson and the others are Isaac Slade. 

Kelly Clarkson put on a great show.  She really does have an incredible voice.  She covered  her bases singing most of her big hits (Since U Been Gone, Miss Independent, Breakaway, Because of You, etc, etc) which, let's be honest, is what people want to hear when they go to a concert.  She was very cute and bubbly, even if she does say "y'all" about every other word (personal pet peeve, plus isn't she from OHIO?). 

The Fray also put on a great show.  I like Kelly Clarkson and The Fray equally but I thought they were a bit of an odd pairing.  Kelly Clarkson is pretty much cheesey ballads and rockish pop.  The Fray is very serious and angsty.  I thought they had a reasonlyy upbeat and fun show, considering most of their music is fairly melancholy and piano based, but it seemed that most of the people were only there to see KC, because once she was done, quite a few people went home.

2. These fun printables that I am incorporating into my classroom!  I've already printed the flipped supply signs.  I will be printing the posters when I get a new color ink cartridge.

3.  Tackling something that has been hanging around on your to-do list FOREVER.  In the spring my brother Joe and Ryan put a ceiling fan up in my bedroom (which has been so so so lovely all summer).  Joe converted the single light switch into this double one.  Joe left me with the task of getting a new switch plate to put up.  And for the past four months or so this is how I left it.....

Well, with the new school year charging towards me like an out of control locomotive, I have renewed motivation to tackle those tasks.  It usually takes me until about November to get my head above water and until then I only do the true necessities in terms of housework.  Anyways,

Ta-DA!!!!

I know this is nothing to brag about really, but I am still going to allow myself to revel in the small burst of ecstasy when you finally get to cross off a nagging task, even if it is a small one. 

How to Get Your Own Earring Out of the Trap

Okay, for all of my feminist girl powerness, there are somethings I really, really hate to do for myself. Home repairs totally fall into that category. A few days ago my brand new earring that I had only worn once fell down the drain in the bathroom sink. I begged and pleaded for my dad or brother to come over and retrieve it with no dice. My dad (kindly) told me, that this was something I could handle myself and walked me through the steps using his own bathroom sink as a visual model. So tonight I decided to tackle it. And, of course, blog about it. I think it falls under domesticity attempts. It was actually pretty easy and took less than five minutes. A definite success for my first venture into plumbing. To retrieve your earring out the trap you will need:

A bucket (cat walking into frame optional)

Open up that sink door and take a peek at what you see. It should hopefully look like this. If you have metally looking pipes instead of plastic ones, you might need a wrench of some kind. The little U shape is the trap where your earring should be. It is filled with water (and probably some other gross stuff, but try not to think about that).

Clear away all of the stuff under the sink and position the bucket under your pipes. There's a little ring on the back end of the U. Give it a twist. Mine was pretty easy to loosen. If it's tight you could probably use a wrench. As you can see in the picture the ring will slide up and the U will slide away.

From there you can just kind of tug the other end of the U off. Warning: it is filled with water and smells kind of gross. Another purpose of the U tube besides being a catch, is that it stays filled with water and keeps the sewery smell from coming up the pipes into your bathroom. Anyways, tug the whole U thing off.

And dump it into your bucket. The water was so gross I couldn't see the earring but I could hear a "plink" as it hit the bucket.

There it is!

Then just jam the U pipe back on and twist the ring over it. Keep the bucket there and do a little test run with the water to make sure everything is back in place.

Not too hard and kind of empowering. Go me!

Repost from Anti-Racist Parent

Girls can do anything: Ask Emily Yeung written by Anti-Racist Parent contributor Renee; originally posted at Womanist Musings Sorry, I never know how to do Youtube videos imbedded in the text. A little help? I am constantly looking for images of girls defying the gender binary to teach my boys about equality. I have recently started to talk to them about Emily Yeung. In the above segment she is learning how to snowboard. In many of the episodes she is learning all about the world and never do they focus on what she is able to do or what she should like based on gender. Though these are just small spots shown in between cartoons, they send a powerful message. The video I wanted to post is about her learning to play soccer but unfortunately it is not up on youtube. She clearly states in the video that “sporting equipment should be made for boys or girls because girls can do the same things as boys can”. Hearing her say that just made me want to cheer.. The Emily Yeung spots are a clear example of the ways in which the media can disturb social constructions, if the images are created by a progressive voice. There are not enough examples of this, and instead our sons and daughters are over ridden with terrible female role models like the bratz dolls. Even finding a cartoon or a youth geared program in which a girl is not obsessed with boys, make up, or looking pretty, is a rare phenomenon. I am further impressed with the fact that Emily is a bi racial child. Race has never been a subject that the mini episodes have focused on, thereby allowing her visibility to speak for itself. She is presented as a beautiful, precocious child who is interested in the world around her. The high visibility of a bi racial child is also very uncommon in media where images are mostly reflective of the white supremacist state in which we live. As Emily learns about snowboarding, farming and science etc., the audience learns right along side her. What makes these small spots so beautiful is everything that is not said. In an equal world, the profile of a young child like Emily Yeung would not be a special that is aired to teach diversity; it would simply stand for a young girl learning about the world.

Aww how cute

A cute picture from our girls day breakfast at the shore, right before I jetted off for my job interview. Left to Right, My fabulous Aunt Kathy, Kami, Jenny, me and my Mom.