Monkeys and Mysteries
One: my sister solved my doll mystery. The author of the gifty books is Joan Walsh Anglund. Boy, we are just the research team, are we not? So, I�ve got a thing set up in ebay that will let me know when the JWA dolls come up for auction. Sweet. It�s not really my taste, these books, but I remember loving the dolls. I also had a set of white wicker furniture for them.
Two: I seem to have started this thing where I make sock monkeys for friends� babies. The latest one, Sir. Granville Monkey, can be seen here at the site of the most recent arrival. I made another for a friend whose adorable son is now over a year old. There was a picture of him and his monkey but her LJ account is locked so we�re none of us winners.
This all started long before there were children (in my personal life). I�ve always had a thing for sock monkeys but never owned one as a child. One birthday, my husband gave me a sock monkey kit. Whoo! Monkey! I made him and adored him for many a year. Then Dusty was born and it�s funny how, it�s all wonderful and cool and kitschy of you to collect/own toys and whatnot, but once you have kids you think, well, I certainly don�t need these things for ME, I�ll give them to the children. That�s what they�re for. I�ve never understood the collector of toys who never plays with the collection. Why have toys you can�t play with? So, Dusty inherited Sir Reginald Sacque Manquee.
Then, when Red was born, I made her a monkey � who is not yet named because I am lame, so lame. The second never gets equal spoils because, damn, I�m just too tired.
After that, the snowball never stopped rolling. Making these little monkeys is fun and easy and only takes me about three nights in front of the television (this time it was a 4-hour documentary on Andy Warhol) to polish off another one.
Windfalls
We recently received a bit of good news in the form of money � free money. Which is always a good thing. First, my husband received his quarterly royalty check from BMI. It�s a token but still nice.
Secondly, the dump down the road has, for the past month, been handing out raffle-like tickets to anyone who comes in with a covered load. This is a not a concept most of our redneck neighbors understand. I think they believe that the sky above their truck bed filled with open bags of garbage is all the cover they need.
Well, my husband drives a Volvo station wagon so it�s kind of hard NOT to have a covered load but he would be given a ticket each week anyway. Covered is covered.
He found out last week that we�d won something but the conveyor of this news didn�t know what we�d won. A major award? Could we possibly soon be the owners of a leg lamp? Yesterday we received in the mail our winnings: a $100 coupon for free food at our local grocery store. Man oh man, now THAT�S a prize. We�re all mighty grateful.
I was going to review a few recent movies I�ve seen and books I�ve read but I need to get some work done around here so I�ll save that for later. Or tomorrow. Which ever comes first.
