Small Crooked Nose: Random Bits for a Rainy Wednesday

I'm noticing that the amount of sun outside directly affects my mood. This is not a good week - not a ray of sun in the five day forecast. Seasonal Affective Disorder, anyone? I've turned on all the freakin' lights in the house in an attempt (possibly vain) to compensate. What's a little wasted energy when my sanity is at stake? I'm sure the disruption to my usual work/home schedule isn't helping.
My husband is on his nasty schedule at work through Sunday the 17th. That's not helping things, either.
And we're really missing Seymour.
C brought home a great report card. I'm very proud of him. I reminded him before I opened the envelope that I love him and am proud of him no matter what the grades are. But is sure was nice to see the good marks.
S was supposed to have a little girlfriend come over this morning. S and this girl T adore each other. S uses her battery-less cell phone to "call" T every evening to say goodnight, she's named her stuffed duck after her, and so on. The little girl's mother called 45 minutes ago to say T is sick. Fever of 102. Poor thing. To say that S is crushed is an understatement. I'm disappointed, too. I was looking forward to some adult conversation to get me through this dreary day.

Also, it means I frantically cleaned the house yesterday for no good reason.
I saw a funny bumper sticker last night. "You found God? If nobody claims him in 30 days, he's yours."
I can't decide what to give up for Lent. My job? Already did that. My sanity? Distinctly possible. Chocolate? Coffee? Not on your life. Is giving up doing laundry an option?

In our extremely conservative little town, more people participated in the Democratic primary yesterday than in the Republican primary. That, to me, is more significant than the outcome. There was a four vote difference in the outcome of the Democratic primary. Four. Every vote counts, kids. On the Republican side, the former governor won, in spite of an editorial in our small-town paper to "send him a message" and vote differently. Said former governor did not win by a landslide, by any means. That is significant to note as well, I think.

Some expat bloggers in Italy declared yesterday (unofficial) World Nutella Day. In honor of it, I made banana-nutella muffins. Two of my three kids would not eat them. What is up with that?

Late last night, flipping through the channels, I came across the movie "Beautiful Girls." Do you remember that movie? Mid-90s. A bunch of fairly well-known actors: Tim Hutton (whatever happened to him?), Matt Dillon, Uma Thurman, Lauren Holly, Rosie O'Donnell, Mira Sorvino, Martha Plimpton, Annabeth Gish, David Arquette, and a young Natalie Portman. Anyway, although filmed entirely in Minnesota, the movie supposedly takes place in central Massachusetts (the screenwriter is from a suburb not too far from here), and there are a few baseball references. Then in one scene, this main group of friends sing "Sweet Caroline" in a bar. And instantly I thought about the recent tradition of singing that song in the middle of the 8th inning at our local major league baseball park.

I checked Wikipedia, and according to the entry for the song, the "music director…had noticed that the song was used at other sporting events, and decided to try it out." The song has been played consistently in the 8th only since 2002.

Then, I notice in the IMDB entry that the screenwriter also played a baseball player in "Fever Pitch." Characters sometimes wear the appropriate hat in his most recent work. Huh. While the connection isn't direct, I suspect it's indirect. I've just got a feeling about that.