Thursday, December 1, 2011

Call me Carnot (the t is silent), and an Ode to O

Moving on to a new subject (and away from Peer's strange comments I hope....)

The other day I miffed O by telling several family members that he is messy. He really is not messy, he's a total minimalist and has no stuff (except papers, which he keeps nicely stored away in luggage and tupperwares), I was merely saying that amongst all of his talents, I did not know that cleaning was high on the list.
Everyone has their skills. I am very good at opening doors with antique keys, organizing people into assembly lines to move things, doing the first bit of the worm, cleaning like a wizard (though I don't like that particular talent much), and I am efficient. Perhaps my greatest skill is efficiency. I am extremely efficient. E laughed when I told her-she said she has never thought of me that way before, which is very odd because all day long I think about being a little carnot cycle (a 100% efficient engine! Which is, btw, a fairy tale, a holy grail, as nothing is 100% efficient, it must lose some energy to heat) Anyways, I am crazy efficient. For example, I always walk at a diagonal-because the diagonal is shorter than two straights (see Pythagorean's theorem for the proof).
I hope to name a child Cece (short for Carnot Cycle). (which comes because O assures me I cannot name a child Sophie as we already have two Sophie nieces. I say the more the merrier, particularly when it comes to a favorite character in a fav book Howl's Moving Castle, but O won't see reason, so it will have to be Cece Sunshine I suppose.) At least I can yell "Carnot Cycle!" when she is in trouble :)
O has lots of talents, a few examples include: he is quite a phenomonal Italian soda mixer, excellent at seasoning things, looks great in mullet wigs (which not everyone can pull off), and has a very good dance move where he sort of Discos with both hands while shrinking to the floor.
So I had no idea that O considered cleaning up the house one of his skills. It turns out that he just has not had the time nor the inclination to flaunt that particular gift. I guess seeing other people's skills is not one of my skills. I'll have to work on that! A word to the wise: talk about people's talents, not their deficiencies, and they'll generally respond much better :) 

In other news:
O has gotten a hold of my toothbrush (on accident, believe it or not) once again. I woke up to find it in the shower (where I do not brush my teeth but O certainly does). I started yelling that he had done it again and O was like, 'no way, you wrote your name all over your toothbrush, how could I use it?!?" Good question. I wrote my name all over it, as in on the front, back, handle, top and bottom, though just with a B there because that is all that would fit! and it was pink! and O's was blue! Upon closer examination the writing had started to rub off, it was now etsy's toothbrush. I suppose that was where the confusion came in. O must have thought it was fair game as there is no esty living here :)
So I now have  a purple toothbrush and O has a green one. Of course mine is hidden so hopefully the color code will never need to be used. Keeping track of his toothbrush is not O's greatest skill :) On the flip side, he is rather laid back about germs, which is something I don't even dream of being :)

update:
I wrote this toothbrush post last week. The next morning, I awoke to find a terrible surprise-my toothbrush was sitting in the toothbrush holder! As you may recall, I have been hiding my toothbrush, not placing it in the holder. So, when I also found it to be wet, I was rather suspicious. I shot off several menacing texts to O (he was out playing football), threw away my 2 day old toothbrush, and found a new one. I'm back to pink and this time I have written threats on the toothbrush, not just my name. Unfortunately, as I have terrible penmanship and a very small writing space, very few words are legible. However, the 'STOP' and 'DON'T TOUCH ME' appear to be perfectly clear. The toothbrush problem is turning into an expensive dilemma. (spelled correctly Mom :)     )

5 comments:

Linnae said...

Toothbrush snatching--now that is a problem. Until it is resolved, you may have to buy the Costco value pack, just in case. Good luck! :)

erika said...

Would love to see O's crazy mad cleaning skills! That is funny. I used to always try to walk in a diagonal line to get places faster when I was at BYU as well. I have now given up on that type of efficiency.

Liz O. said...

The toothbrush dilemma. Maybe you should try out the idea that every front desk receptionist utilizes--wire a ginormous flower to the end of your toothbrush, and see if O dares attempt to brush with THAT in his face! You might have to overcome the obstacle yourself, but just go at it from a diagonal and you should be just fine.

Why didn't Pud request O's kind of dancing at the reception? I see Beckstead Family Christmas Talent Show written all over that one!

Jesse said...

oh my gosh. that was SO FUNNY! oh owen. You've done everything possible to keep him away from your toothbrush. Maybe you should get an electric toothbrush. There is no way we could mistake that for his! Also, I love Cece!

Kristy said...

Too hilarious!! I want to hire Owen for his mad cleaning skills. I do agree. You are marvelously talented at so many things. The name Cece isn't pronounced like Sisi is it? She was just a little to nutty for me, but it would remind me of our fabulous trip to Austria. Yes, the Costco value pack might be the thing for Owen's stocking this year.