How hard is it for people to RSVP? Evidently, it's impossible for some. I sent out invitations for Grover's birthday party well over three weeks ago with today as the RSVP deadline. Out of 14 invitations I sent out, do you know how many people I've heard from? Seven. Now, we're having this party at a place that has indoor inflatable jumpy things (think MoonWalk at the county fair) so it costs money to have this party. Lots of money. (The upside is that the kids are supervised, entertained and most importantly, cleaned up after by someone other than me!) The package includes play time and a party room in which to have cake & drinks for 26 kids, counting my two. Every kid from 27 on costs an extra 10 bucks. So it would be nice to know whether or not I have to shell out extra money in advance so I can be prepared. Not to mention, the f*#%ing goody bags that I have to prepare because my hyper "super-mom" best friend who we are splitting the party with is making goody bags for her son's friends. God forbid Grover's friends get wind of the 3YO party guests going home with treats and none for them...

Grover (who as of today is 6YO - yikes!) was impressing us with her newly gained knowledge of the renowned artist Vincent Van Gogh and was trying to explain how rough his life must have been:

Grover: He painted a picture of his room and he didn't even have a TV.
My husband: What do you think people did before they had TV?
Grover: Stayed in bed all day.

If you're a movie buff like me, you have to check out the Fun Movie Quiz and Fun Movie Quiz 2. They give you 30 still photos from movies for you to identify. You type in the name of the movie and if you're right, the box outline turns green. You don't win anything other than the confirmation of your own brilliance. For geeks like me, it's a lot of fun. I got 21 of 30 on both, which basically means I need to get out more. There were some photos that I recognized but just couldn't quite place, so I may dig around on IMDB just to satisfy my curiosity. Try it and let me know how you do. If you get all 30 (or even better, all 60) I'll devote an entire blog post to my unending admiration of your awesome movie knowledge (the gauntlet has been thrown, Fishmonger).

Not related to movies, but here's another fun one: Intelligence Test***

***and yes, it proves I am a genius. Not that I had any doubts.

I took the girls to the zoo today and while we were checking out the gorillas that happened to be sleeping right next to the glass part of the enclosure, this woman decides to vent her frustration on me. She is pushing a baby/toddler in some sort of backwards wagon contraption and grumbles something about "this is going to be lost on her. How is she supposed to understand this form?" Since I had no idea what she was talking about (the prostrate form of the snoozing gorilla?) I ignored her. Then she looks right at me and in a rather disgusted tone, asks if I like this zoo. Well, being from the state of NC and having seen several other zoos around the country, I'm pretty impressed with our zoo. It is HUGE for one thing and instead of cooping up the poor animals in cages, they have gone to great lengths to simulate their natural habitats in large open (to a point) enclosures. They have just about every major animal you'd want to see and some fairly exotic ones, too. The only thing I'd like them to add is some hippos - don't know why, I just like them. Anyway, so I answer this woman's question with something lame like, "Uh, well, yeah" and she responds with "This zoo is horrible. All the animals are asleep so you can't even see them do anything." I just looked at her and shook my head because I didn't want to get in a fight in front of my children (and two of their friends, although MY two friends that were with us probably would have been highly entertained by such an incident). But really, what does this woman expect? Yes, lots of the animals were asleep - hello, they're nocturnal! Plus, if you were provided a wonderful living space and all the food you could eat without having to hunt it down, you'd probably be pretty lazy, too. I know I would! But plenty of the animals were out and about; the polar bears gave us quite a show, the bison got up close & personal, and we hit the seal/sea lion exhibit at feeding time which was a lot of fun to watch. The best, though, had to be the baboon exhibit where two young ones were scampering across rocks with reckless abandon and falling off at regular intervals (much like human children....), leading to the monkey equivalent of a time-out from "mom". Anyway, I almost suggested to this woman that a) if she wanted a show, she should have considered Ringling Brothers when it was in Raleigh last month and b) the exit was that-a-way. But as the saying goes, discretion is the better part of valor.

Here's a prime example of the music phenomenon about which I wrote yesterday. Today I heard "Personal Jesus" by Depeche Mode which immediately brought to mind one of my senior year college room/house mates. She and her best friend from high school had an affinity for stealing cement animals - you know, cast concrete cats, bunnies, frogs, etc., that people put in their gardens for some insane reason. Anyway, they thought it was fun to sneak into people's yards at night and make off with the heavy pets. I failed to see the attraction at the time, but whatever. It kept her out of my hair, so big deal... So one night, the two of them snuck into someone's yard and found a statue of a man. It was starting to rain, so they didn't look too closely, just picked it up, chucked it in the back seat of the car and took off. Well, as they cruised down the road, a flash of lightning illuminated the back seat to reveal the true identity of the "man" they had stolen. "Oh my God! We stole Jesus!!!!" screamed my roommate. Yeah, like stealing isn't bad enough, they have to grab the Son of God. If there's a Hell, those two will be in it and with my luck, I'll get stuck sitting next to them.