Four Things

• If you are on Instagram, consider giving Merriam-Webster a follow.  Yes, as in the dictionary.  They post a Word of the Day that puts most of those desk calendars and toilet paper to shame.  Here's a recent one I'm still thinking about:

Can you imagine using this in a sentence around people?  "I don't know what it is about tulips, man- I just grok them."  They'd think you were crazy, throwing random nonsense syllables into what was a normal conversation.  

This, of course, means I'm going to try using it at the library today.

• If you happen to be at the national school nurse conference in San Diego next month, I recommend going to this session:

Why, yes, that is my mom presenting it, because who else has favorite pediatric infectious diseases?  Or refers to themselves as a "former 'Germ Wench'"?  I can promise the whole thing will be a hoot, and am currently taking bets on how many times she mentions hand-washing.  

Pre-test:  Who can tell me three things that are wrong with this combatant's hand-washing technique?  I am not even kidding, and I promise my sisters know.

• One Friday of every month, our library hosts a little thing called Soup and Sound, where the library staff makes a meal and a person or group comes in and performs.  Over the past year I've heard a presentation by the Iowa Honey Bee Queen, a contingent from our high school speech team came in, and last month, a local hammered dulcimer player shared his talents.  I pulled Adelaide out of school to attend, much to her delight.

I believe she enjoyed listening to Mr. Greenlaw play, and it was so generous of him to let everyone fiddle around with the instrument, but if I'm being honest, the carrot cake was probably her favorite part. 

• Derek's won a bunch more awards for his work over the past few months, but one is a doozy:

He won a Telly!  What's a Telly, you ask?  It's a big ol' honking international competition with thousands and thousands of entries and only the best win the good stuff.  I did not take that from their website.  

I believe I've shared his winning video before, but just in case, here it is again (and before you say, "Resource Recovery Plant?  No, thanks," well, this is actually interesting and will make you question what your own community does with their trash):

Congratulations, husband!

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P.S.  What do you think the past tense of "grok" is?  "Grokked"?  And why isn't it "grock"?  I can't think of any other English verb or noun that ends in "k" rather than "ck."  Mock, shock, lock, hock, chock, dock, why can't I let this go, knock, pock, sock... 

It's Not All Terror

Lest you think it's all terrified screaming in our family, here's what else we've been up to:

Saturday, Derek's mom took the kids to do all the fun things their lame-o mom won't do with them, like go to the park.  (It's been cold, okay?  And yes, "cold" to me this time of year is 45 degrees.)  She also took them to see Zootopia, which they all loved, while Derek and I went to a super fancy new movie theater we've been wanting to try out.

Why, yes, those are over-sized, leather, reclining-with-footrests theater seats!

Derek's feet hung off the end, but really, that's just what his feet do.  It's the same way with our bed, and that's a king-size.  (Does anyone else find it odd that the biggest beds are called "king-sized"?  I assume they're referring to the size of the king's bed, not the king himself.  Weren't most of history's kings on the shorter side?)  Most people would not have this problem in these seats; I felt like I was swimming in it.  They were so dang comfortable, but all I could think was, Where the heck were these seats when I was pregnant?  We didn't go to see a lot of movies during the four years that I was constantly cranking out babies, but that was in part because I couldn't get comfortable in the theater seats:  There was poor lower back support, my feet swelled after sitting for so long, and I felt like I had very little room to shift my bulk around.

Incidentally, these seats are called "luxury loungers," a name that caused an almost reflexive eye-roll in me.  I still don't know why people don't check with me before naming things.  Rest assured the next time we go I will be unable to keep myself from referring almost constantly to those seats as "lllllluxury lllllloungers" with great ostentation and relentless giggling at my own joke.  My husband is a lucky man.

The screen in that theater was also GIGANTIC (I made the word big to reflect its meaning and how big the screen was, see?  I'm nothing if not subtle), and while I tried to take a picture, I couldn't fit the big movie screen on my tiny phone screen.  You'll just have to use your imagination.  The sound was also somehow perfect, and that is saying something, as I started carrying ear plugs with me for movies, church, etc, years ago.  Young people like things so loud these days.

Oh, look!  It's me at church!  "Yaaaay, I'm at church, I'm happy to be here, but ow, ow, ow, ow... "

Quite possibly the best gif I have ever come across.  I can't stop laughing.  Oh, internet, you are a strange and wonderful place.

Derek's been busy churning out video after video, including this one, where he was up in one of those... I think he called it a bucket truck?  I always called them cherry-pickers.  Anyway, he was up in that with an expensive camera.  I would have had to grow a third and fourth hand to do this job:  Two to hang on to the camera and work against all my natural abilities to drop any and everything, and two to grip the sides of the bucket in a heady mix of fascination and terror.  

He's also won some more awards for his work, because as far as I can tell, that's just what he does.

I think I'll leave you with this.

Show kindness and grace to them?  Yes.  Friends?  

Dessert and Derek and a Quiz

• Today I made a chocolate mousse for the first and most likely last time.  I enjoy mousse when other people make it for me, but when I'm the cook, I'm somehow constantly irritated by the whole process.  I really can't explain this, as I enjoy making cookies and pies and the occasional cake.  I think I'm just so lacking in polish and refinement that only the most basic of desserts can be made by my hands, at least with any pleasure.  Case in point: I think of chocolate mousse as fancy people food.  If any of you sophisticates care to make me a cheesecake topped by a thin layer of lemon curd like the one I had last week, I could probably rise above my station enough to enjoy it.  

• Derek was interviewed for a show on video production last week, and let me tell you, it was so fun to watch.  I couldn't explain, even to myself, why this was at first, but then I decided it's because proficiency is so attractive.  It's just nice to see something done well, or in this case, listen to my husband talk about something about which he's so obviously knowledgeable.  Now, to my non-video-professional ears, it sounded something like, "Derek, it looks like Brian has a question about snordlepicks.  Could you tell us about how you go about picking the best snordlepicks for the job, and why you make that choice?"  "Well, Mike, I'm glad Brian asked this, because snordlepicks can be a tricky business, especially when your wallbiters aren't calibrated to the correct galackchinerncy."  *good-natured chuckling by the hosts at my husband's ever-present but baffling-to-me-when-it-comes-to-video-production wit*

• Multiple choice:

The proper response when someone says, "Well, that's the weather in [insert location] for you:  If you don't like it, just wait five minutes!" is

(a)  "Hahahaha!  You, sir, are a riot!"

(b)  "Indeed?  I did not know this about Iowa/Kansas/Connecticut/South Carolina/Maine/Florida/Texas/Minnesota/Nevada.  Thank you for educating me!"

(c)  "Yeah, that's not the weather in this particular place, that's just weather.  PLEASE STOP SAYING THAT.  There is nothing special about the weather in this specific place, or how quickly and often it changes, okay?  It does that everywhere, in the majority of the places on earth.  You sound ridiculous."    

Now, if you've said something along these lines before, don't feel self-conscious.  I won't judge you, particularly if you feel the random yet insatiable urge to send me a homemade cheesecake topped with lemon curd.

A Love Story

If you know our family at all, you're aware that we spend vast quantities of time at our small town library, checking out giant stacks of books, begging for yet another interlibrary loan, and impressing the librarians with our crazy crime-fighting skills (Adelaide, me, and Caedmon, respectively).

In the nearby big town, however, they also have a library.  Our family is likewise recognized at this library, but not because of me or the children; we are known there because this Big Town Library houses the Derek Crisler Fan Club.

Let me first assure you that the feeling is mutual:  Derek loves the people of the Big Town Library just as much as they love him.  You see, because he runs the government access channel in this Big Town, Derek works with different departments and organizations all over the city, but as the library is inhabited by (wait for it...) librarians, who often exist on a plane just a step or five higher than the rest of humanity, when he does his hard-working video thing in their particular institution, they don't hold back with robust thanks and lavish appreciation.

Take last night:

They got him a delicious cake, a full meal, speeches in his honor, and applause all around with close to 100 of the library's closest friends at a special premiere they coordinated in honor of the documentary Derek wrote/directed/filmed/produced/edited/narrated/everything to commemorate the journey from the library's old facility to its new, current building.  

They also requested he tell a bit about his process, how he managed to take 3 years and 1 full terabyte and 84 hours; worth of footage and condense it into a 16-minute story about their beloved library.

Then we all watched it together on the big screen.  It turns out librarians and their loved ones make the best audience; they laughed at the right times, refrained from talking too loudly or obnoxiously throughout, and didn't hold back on their outward expressions of entertainment and joy.

Derek being Derek, he also made a point of acknowledging his four student interns, all the help and work they provided.  Look how short they all look!  Almost like regular-sized people.

Click to see the Big Town Library's gorgeous new building, how they moved themselves from one building to another and back again to the refurbished library, and see just what Derek does all day.