Thursday Thirteen, Right Now Edition

I haven’t participated in this for a while, from a lack of inspiration, I think. I got the idea for a Thursday 13 with the theme of immediacy out of the blue. It must have been a sign to come back and join the TT crowd. Enough introduction. On with the list.

Here are thirteen things about me right now.

1. Right now, I’m listening to Louis Prima. Yes, I know, I always seem to be listening to Louis Prima, but it’s great to go out to the folks’ house for Easter dinner and have ham and hear the kids warbling, “The closer to the bone, the sweeter is the meat, the last slice of Virginia ham is the best that you can eat…”

2. Right now, I’m watching King of the Hill. My son turned me on to this one. The Simpsons just don’t do it for me any more and the gentle humor of King of the Hill is just right.

3. Right now, I’m reading The Screwtape Letters. Any good spiritual tome needs to be revisited from time to time. Time and lives change and you get a completely different reading based on where you are at that moment.

4. Right now, I’m playing Star Wars: Battlefront on the Xbox. We’ve had it for a while, but the kids and I have gotten back into it. We play a game where we rotate the three of us through two controllers and a splitscreen game. It’s loads of fun.

5. Right now, I’m shopping for plants. My front yard has been rototilled and it and the vegetable garden have been fully outfitted with irrigation. This last weekend I got two tomato plants, two bell pepper plants, an eggplant plant, oregano and rosemary for the garden. As I was checking out, it dawned on me that I was planting a vegetarian spaghetti sauce.

6. Right now, I’m luxuriating in the blooms of my pet Gerber daisies. I’ve collected a glassful of seeds from their most recent blooms and will be starting seedlings very soon. I plan to have a whole flower bed of mom daisy’s daughters and granddaughters in the front yard.

Mom's redheaded daughter.
7. Right now, I’m helping my daughter learn electricity and magnetism. That just happens to be what she’s studying in 4th grade. We already had a great electronics kit that she loves to play with and a few months ago we all made little electromagnets out of nails, copper wire and D cell batteries. She loves to experiment and I help her pick up the theory.

8. Right now, I’m teaching my son to drive. He’s not quite old enough to get his learners permit, but on Sunday mornings we find a local parking lot where he can get the hang of very basic driving. Ahh, the excitement of youth!

9. Right now, I’m cooking a lot of spaghetti sauce. I don’t know why, but I’ve gotten on a spaghetti kick. I use whatever leftover meat comes to hand and all of the vegetables I can find.

10. Right now, I’m working hard to find videos of all of the constructive things our troops are doing in Iraq. There’s a difference between guys in uniform building schools and protecting kids and lunatics in civilian clothes blowing themselves up in schoolyards and markets. Good and evil are not the same.

11. Right now, our Maximum Leader is involved in a stakeout. One of my blogging friends (the Feline Theocracy’s Knight-Protector and Defender of Yarn Balls) pointed out that the reason she positions herself to watch as much of the house as possible is to keep an eye on all of us. She doesn’t like to move, but she wants to know where we are and what we’re doing.

She sees all. She knows all.
12. Right now, Jacob the Syrian hamster is fast asleep. Unless you’re reading it at night, in which case he’s scurrying.

He sleeps all day and scurries all night.
13. Right now, you’re reading my blog. Thanks!