Some blogs would put pictures of fireworks here, or possibly embed a Lee Greenwood song.
We give you the best Keyboard Cat ever.
We’re out for the weekend to do family-type stuff. Enjoy!
Some blogs would put pictures of fireworks here, or possibly embed a Lee Greenwood song.
We give you the best Keyboard Cat ever.
We’re out for the weekend to do family-type stuff. Enjoy!
I'm in California with friends, vacationing for a week. Here's what I've been up to:

Posted by Ping.fm

Ileanas, size 5.5. MINE.

Posted by Ping.fm
First it turned out that the LOLrus died in 2005.
Now I learn that Fatso, the keyboard cat, died in 2000.
Since these things come in threes, it’s clear that we’ll soon learn that Rick Astley actually died in 1995.
I'm in California with friends, vacationing for a week. Here's what I've been up to:
(via @joshjanus)


Diner food!


I'm in California with friends, vacationing for a week. Here's what I've been up to:



As I noted on geophlog, my price for taking cute pictures of your kids is dinner. That is, of course, the friends and family rate.
Last night we watched “Virtuality”, Ron Moore’s TV pilot that became a mini-movie instead. It’s about a crew of astronauts who are on a starship headed to Epsilon Eridani and who are also part of a reality TV series. Thanks to the show, I have a request: Dear science fiction and fantasy TV/movie writers, please stop using rape as motivation.
I just did a camera off-load, hence more photos! The grandparents can be happy.
These are just a few highlights of what’s in the album.
Sophie says, “Hey why don’t you feed me rather than taking my picture!”
| From June 2009 |
The stretching she does when her swaddle blanket is removed.
That was then: (Phoebe 1 month old)
| From Phoebe November 2007 |
This is now: (Sophie 2 months old, and really outgrown the outfit)
I'm in California with friends, vacationing for a week. Here's what I've been up to:



Queued for bus passes.
Saturday was my first opportunity to tape skits for DCTV, so of course there were vampires.
Fine, fine, we had vampire hunters as well. That’s Buffy, Alucard, Edward Cullen, Spike, and Mina Harker in that photo. Why were they all together? Find out in September!
(And thanks to Patrick for the cast photo.)


Tenzing is not impressed with my plans for leaving.

Meat curing in Boccolone, a sausage shop in the Ferry Building.

SOLD.

Cheese for sale at the Cowgirl Creamery in the Ferry Building.

Cheese for sale at the Cowgirl Creamery in the Ferry Building.

Bread for sale in the Ferry Building

Bread for sale in the Ferry Building


Four blocks of this, even just heading down, is enough to make your knees hurt. Let’s not discuss the ‘up.’

Best example I’ve got of just how insane the street slope is near our house.

Four blocks of this to a particular bus stop. Whimper.
I'm in California with friends, vacationing for a week. Here's what I've been up to:

I’ve been working diligently on the lighthouse cross stitch. And everything was going great until today when I sat down to begin lighthouse #3. I completely miscounted and stitched for an hour only to have to remove all but about 20 stitches and start over. I was so disgusted that I put my tools away for the afternoon. I did take a photo though before I started work this morning.

In other news, on Friday night we had a sleepover for Ashley’s birthday party. Ashley, Jessica, Sheila and Wendy came over. We painted our toenails and watched “Mama Mia!” (Most of which I missed except for the part about Colin Firth playing a gay man. I just about cried.) We ate and talked and in the end decided to go to bed at 1:30 because I knew that Eli and Liza would wake everyone up at six o’clock. It turns out sleepovers in my 30s are exactly like sleepovers in my teens. With one giant exception: I had no idea in my teens I’d spend so much time in my 30s talking about reproductive issues, poop and breastfeeding.
Lastly, New Kid Pictures!
Here’s Liza doing her new thing of dressing herself from the dressup drawer. And of course, what is the one thing you must do once you have on your backwards sideways swim top and wearing one leg warmer on your arm? DANCE!

Geof came over last week and took some photos of the kids as well. We waited until the sun was heading down and then I attempted to art direct but the kids were having none of it. The photos are still awesome anyway.

Click the photo to see more of Geof’s photos.

Posted by Ping.fm
I’ve had this from the stream for a while, but now it’s great to have it in physical form.
It had to happen eventually, but it took a bottle of mead and a late night and finally signing off of work to realize it. I am going. I am really going. I have this sleep, the one that's coming for me fast even as I type this entry, and one abbreviated one more, and that is it. A little over twenty-four hours and I am gone.
I am lying on the guest bed next to a surprisingly small pile of items that must go with me. Is this all I need of life for two weeks? Really?
I've turned off all the lights except the lava lamp, whose glow is strangely soothing, and put away my books. (Wizards of Earthsea is for the plane, so quit dipping into it already, Amy.) I need to wind down, and sleep, and yet suddenly it is all too real and all too soon and all too horribly far away.
What BART stop after the airport? I don't know, but I know we need to trade off from BART to bus to do the walk-through on our vacation house, as we're the first ones to arrive. I need a new bra. I need to make sure I remember ... ack, so much. So much. This trip has been in the works for so long and it has never felt real, not until five minutes ago. It was an eventual-thing, not a now-thing, but suddenly tomorrow is my last day to sleep in for two weeks. Sunday is an early flight and Monday is ... who in their right mind sleeps in in San Francisco?
Now it hits me. A house shared with Jeff, Asai, Adam, Brian, Suzan. Raven joins us for the birthday dinner. Teresa stops by to say hi. Lynette and Earl if they have time. Jeff finally meets Cat. Then red-eye flights home, and Adam and I hook up the iPods and drive, drive, drive.
Seattle isn't "over there." It's "where we're going." Then Minnesota -- a certain Zoë will be delighted to learn I'm packing purple nail polish this time! and camera geekery with John and ...
.... ack, I'm seeing BT and Sander Kleinenberg and Josh Ritter in a two-week span. Seriously? Srsly? SRSLY? And I can have five of the people I love the most in this world all under one roof for an entire week?
Is it any surprise I haven't fallen asleep yet? If I get any more excited I may burst.
This is real, right? I won't wake up and it's not happening?
Also...
Happy birthday, silly little blog site. You are nine now. Soon you'll go off to middle school and I'll have to explain the birds and the bees to you, and you're going to be REALLY traumatized. But for now, revel in your innocence.
I’ll be back at work on Monday. I decided this today after talking with co-workers who wanted to check up on me. I would’ve figured our program reviews had happened this week, but they’re happening next week, and jumping into that is a great way to get my feet back wet. Next week is a short week, so I’ll be good with that.
I start therapy on Wednesday. I may need it after the PMR, heh.
Via Colter, here's what I'm humming tonight, courtesy of Nashville duo Swan Dive:
I think I'm going to need this album...
I tell you what: go watch the video for Billie Jean. When you’re done, listen to the entire Thriller album.
Twenty-seven years later, and still one hell of an album.
We have reached a magical point in rearing Eli and Liza: occasionally they go off and play together for up to an hour. It’s like how Furbys would sometimes spontaneously talk to each other, except Eli and Liza have no off switch. The two of them will come wandering through the room, each pushing a small shopping cart or baby stroller filled with random junk, or they’ll climb up on Eli’s bed and roll around and hide under pillows and fall down yelling, “TIMBAAAAAH!”
They don’t do this consistently, of course. There’s always the problem of toys and who has what. Eli and Liza have to go through their own version of the Great Compromise in divvying up toys, which I guess means Eli is Virginia in this metaphor and Liza is Delaware, so let’s move on, shall we? Eli sees Liza with a toy and decides that he has to have that toy right now Right Now RIGHT NOW! If Liza won’t let him have it, he sniffles, shoulders slumping, as he says, “She’s never going to let me have it! I’ll never see it again!”
Sometimes Eli realizes Liza wants certain toys that he’s done playing with, so he takes them, throws them in his room, and closes the door. If he could set them on fire and scatter the ashes just to deny Liza the pleasure of playing with them, he’d do it.
Sometimes Eli can con Liza. He finds another toy and applies his best used-car salesman tactics. “Liza, do you want this robot? If you want this robot you have to give me the balloon. Give me the balloon and you can have the robot!”
His negotiation tactics still need work. One time last week he told Liza, “Can I have that toy? If you don’t give it to me, I’m leaving!” Liza looked up at Eli and said, “Nope.” Eli shuffled off slowly, looking back the whole time, so Liza gave him a “how can I miss you if you won’t ever leave?” look.
They even fight over bugs. We’ve had a minor infestation of small black beetles. Liza has paroxysms of joy when she sees one. “Hiiii, bug! Hiiii! Look! He’s running! He wants to play wif me!” She’ll pick the poor beetle up, traumatizing it for the rest of its very short life. Eli naturally demands his turn. “When do I get to play with the beetle?”
I can only imagine what’ll happen when they discover cockroaches.
I wrote on Monday that I was auditioning for the Huntsville Master Chorale. My audition was this afternoon, and I was told that I had “a perfect choral sound” and that “I would love to have you in our group”. I mean, that’s not, “You’re in,” but it’s pretty close. Needless to say, I’m happy with it, even though I thought my sight-reading stunk on ice. [She demurred and argued that it was a challenging piece to sight read, which I grant you that it was, but still ... I missed notes! I don't like missing notes!] I was nervous, mainly because the last time I tried out for anything was ACDA All-State my senior year at MSMS.
Also, things continue to be good. I had a dream last night that I went back to work today, where I got yelled at by everyone involved for coming back early. :chuckle: Today was actually the first day I was eligible to go back, as the leave I’m on requires that you be gone at least two weeks. Admittedly, I am tempted, but there are some things I want to get done around the house and with myself before I start back to work. I meet with my shrink again tomorrow, and I think she’ll be happy with my results. I know that I am.
I’ll make you click through to read the possibly-controversial lyrics Eric wrote, but I want to quote his discussion of them after the fact:
These are potentially expensive words. I see how they could easily be misinterpreted or taken out of context without knowing the story’s backdrop. Hence, they may be expensive in that customers might want their money back after purchasing a “christian” album expressing such sentiments. I have no idea how the song will be received, as it is hopefully as honest in its narration as the true story on which it is based. The reality of humanity is that we owe to grace as great debtors. In our worst moments, we curse the blessing of our own skin, our own breathing in and out, the universe and Maker alike. In our best moments, we remain desperately in need of that which is beyond our frailty or capacity to bring anything good to the Mercy Table. I struggled for weeks, in the process of writing it, to allow the main character the red-blooded freedom to tell God, “I hated you that day.” That is not the sort of cheap, plastic, pre-fab line that floats easily upon the waters of this industry. I am trying to be as honest as I can, since I so personally and closely related to the story of my friend’s losing and losing, while in the midst of such tremendous anger, hostility towards God, loss of income and business, found himself spewing those very words with all the venom and bile his hard, tired heart could muster. And in the process, God still showed up with all the mercy and hope He ever possessed.
The emphasis is Eric’s, but that’s where I would’ve put it, too. I personally have written before about what doubt is to us as Christians, but I don’t think that writing about sinful things is, in and of itself, sinful. After all, Christianity teaches [or at least it should] that we are sinners, broken and needy. If we learn this through anything other than our own foibles with sin, we learn it through others’ experiences—and I have the feeling that this kind of song that Eric’s talking about, while it might be hard to hear, is what we need to hear. The lyrics he quoted struck within me ways that I’ve felt at dark hours, and it’s important to know that others have felt that way and moved on from there to right thinking and living. Not that any of us have attained all this…
Pirate pickup lines.
Which of Jon and Kate’s octuplets you’d like to be.
That one YouTube video that is unbelievably cute.
Tinted avatars as political activism.
Movie titles that are unintentionally creepy when muttered by Christopher Walken.
Robot sexual positions.
The YouTube video involving Keyboard Cat playing off that one unbelievably cute YouTube video.
Things that, when eaten, pass through the digestive system unchanged.
How Twitter is dying, nuh-uh is not, is too.
Any other suggestions?
CNN reported that Dr. Jerri Nielsen has died. If the name tickles a memory in you, she was the sole doctor in Antarctica when she diagnosed herself with breast cancer during Antarctic winter, requiring her to treat herself for breast cancer until a risky South Pole rescue mission could be undertaken as soon as winter ended..
A quote of hers struck me as particularly memorable; it put into words something I've been trying to say a long time but never formulated properly:
"The things that make you strong, and make you feel as though you've accomplished something, are not the easy ones; it's the things you had to work and struggle through. Those are what give us our depth -- that make us not gray and plain and nothing but give us depth and texture and longing."
Indeed.
Four days to vacation + furlough #2. I should probably be thinking about packing...