Category Archives: Zombies

Advent calendar day 1, plus zombies!

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Last year I got a great idea from Andrea over at A Peek Inside the Fishbowl. While kids enjoy those one-chocolate-a-day Advent calendars, they aren’t exactly what memories are made of. Instead she suggested a homemade Advent calendar with fun family activities inside to help create fun memories over the holiday period. I really liked the idea because the weeks leading up to Christmas go so quickly what with the rushing around and everything else.

Tis the season

I made the envelopes up out of scrapbooking paper and other odds and ends, and I created a master list of activities. Like Andrea, I only put the activity in the night before so that I can pick the right thing at the right time. For example, one activity is to decorate the tree. I’d rather not do that on a busy week day so we’ll save that for the weekend. Another activity is to make a snowman but I’ll keep that one for a day when I know we’re supposed to get snow.

It was a hit last year so it’s up again; in fact it was the first decoration I had put up. I figured that since I’m doing Holidailies – the blogging project where you blog daily (or almost daily) throughout the holiday period, it would be fun to keep a record of our activities.

I’m still not feeling 100% (far from it) so it wasn’t the day for a brisk hike in the woods or anything strenuous. As a result the first activity from our calendar was to paint fingernails and toenails. That’s always a success with my girls (I decided not to do mine today and George refused).

I went with a pearly white on their fingernails (which I didn’t get on camera) and then I used a neon pink nail pen to draw swirls on top. For their toes I went a little wilder and put a festive green then drew a pink flower on each big toe.

Advent day one - nails!

One down, 24 fun activities to go!

*******

Being a big fan of zombies lately, I found this site that offers ecards to send to other zombie fans. Giggling, I sent this one to George:

Since we’re both geeks we have a habit of using Skype to chat from, you know, down the hall. This was our exchange after he received the card.

[9:07:22 PM] George Carter: Thanks for the ecard it is really cute. I hope you don’t become more of a zombie than you already are.
[9:07:38 PM] Sherry Osborne: oh go fuck yourself 🙂
[9:07:52 PM] George Carter: see what I mean
[9:08:13 PM] Sherry Osborne: if i was a zombie i wouldn’t say that, i would just rip your throat out and eat your brains
[9:08:39 PM] George Carter: since you are not a zombie, eat my ass
[9:08:58 PM] Sherry Osborne: alrighty then.

Yes, this really IS what it’s like in our home. All the time.

But at least he sent me this one in return. I think it’s a compliment.

It IS a compliment, right? RIGHT?

Oh hell, where’s my zombie survival manual…

Braaaaiiiinnns!

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I’ve never been hardcore into the zombie culture. George has seen all the original Romero movies and generally likes to watch any new stuff that comes out and he’s a pretty big fan. I’ll watch the movies and I usually enjoy them at least. There are some that I have loved enthusiastically – namely Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland.

I think my problem with zombies was always that, in the old movies at least, they shuffled along at such an excruciatingly slow pace that I found it very difficult to be afraid of them. I mean, yes, they were undead and usually had limbs or bits of their faces hanging off of them, and if they managed to catch someone they would then try to eat their brains. I get that this is supposed to be scary but instead I only got angry. I would find myself practically shouting at the living characters that their brains will not be eaten if they would just RUN instead of standing there screaming incoherently. The zombies were slower than a 100-year-old man with a cane and they couldn’t climb anything. RUN YOU MORONS!

Now in the more recent zombie films things have changed. Zombies are not turtle-slow anymore. Most of them seem to run faster than me, in which case I would be very much out of luck in a zombie apocalypse unless I manage to get my hands on a motorcycle, and perhaps a rocket launcher. They’re also frequently seen making their way up and over things (looks like the attic isn’t so safe after all!) and they almost work together instead of just shuffling about in a random pack of flesh-eating slugs.

So in recent years I was starting to see them as having potential to be pretty frightening after all although they still didn’t make me scream or freak out or lie awake at night.

Enter the new show on the AMC network – “The Walking Dead”. Oh my hell.

We don’t get AMC here so we have to wait and see it online the next day. It is totally worth the wait. The first episode was pretty nerve-wracking and intense. This week the second episode aired and I watched it all alone last night at 10:30. I spent most of it with my toes curled while I squished myself further and further into the couch cushions. I may have also repeated, “Oh my God, oh my God, OH MY GOD!” throughout large portions of the show.

When it was over I turned to Facebook and implored someone to please come and help me down off the ceiling.

It is a seriously amazing show and so scary in parts and there are also times when I think “they can SAY that/show that on TV?!” It is excellent and I am loving it more than I should admit.

I also shouldn’t admit one other thing but I will: George was out last night and even though I was tired I stayed up until 11:20, waiting for him to come home before going to bed. You know. Just like that. Cough.

Anyone else watching?