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Alucinor Tela - Dream Weaving
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| Freshly caffeinated, and ready to sing the alphabet song... |
[06 Sep 2008|02:16pm] |
Keainid ended up doing a big grocery shopping trip this morning. We don't have everything, but we're better stocked than we were. I even have caffeine, which I was very good about not asking for...(slightly guilty) woo hoo! Heh. I attacked the kitchen in anticipation of putting away the new food and drink. Didn't make a huge impact on anything we hadn't yet managed to make useable, but did maintenance on things already in use...wiped down the inside of the fridge, cleaned out some empty jars and such to recycle, to get them out of the fridge (where they often stay until we can get out recyclables, so they don't get stinky), cleaned a few large tupperwares so some of the bulk snackish stuff could be put into them...makes for better space use in the few vaguely sanitary cabinets we've managed, than keeping things in bags, and does better at keeping out (or in) and weevils. Put everything away, tied off some garbage bags for Keainid to take out, and then made his lunch for work.
Now he's there, and for all my aspirations (more work on the kitchen, getting more laundry folded and put away, shiny advertising, for sale listings, doing applications for him, prepping images for advertising my photo-editing skillz, etc.), chances are, my productivity is done until (and hopefully then, at least) he's home tonight. We'll see...
Fascinating post, huh? At least I'm not feeling as whinygrumbly today.
~~~~~~~
Oh, last night while waiting for Keainid to get home from work, and nursing a headache with some cocoa (the only form of chocolate in the house at the time), I watched "Anna and the King", which we borrowed from the library. I had never managed to see it, but had been interested in doing so, since it came out. I haven't read the memoirs that the story is based on, but I know the musical (The King & I) well, so it was very interesting to see this non-musical Hollywood drama of the story. Aside from the ingrained disappointement that I wasn't watching (a shirtless!) Yul Brynner, I thought it was quite good. Jodie Foster and Chow Yun-Fat made the film, of course. (And huh, I was right...the kid who played her son is the same kid who plays Draco Malfoy in the HP movies.) There were a number of plot variations between the R&H musical and this movie version, but I didn't get the feeling that the story as I knew it wasn't being told, which is a good thing. I still teared up, too.
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[06 Sep 2008|11:45am] |
Did this thursday night...
He still needs work..nose horn needs to be added and some cleaning up, needs a pupil. I hope you like him, Dia!
Got really exhausted last night, went to bed at 8:30pm. WTF! Got up at 1am, went back to bed...woke up at 7am. That is so backwards for me, it's not even funny. I must have really needed some rest :C
Harmonix rejected me, i guess the position was already filled. Ah well. Didn't want to uproot again yet anyway.
Gonna do some personal work, maybe some commissions. Then i need to clean up a little for the housewarming party tomorrow...
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| Spore review |
[05 Sep 2008|03:35pm] |
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http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/85968-Will-Wright-Says-Spore-Is-Over-Hyped
I'll admit, I overhyped it myself, but not from my own assumptions, a lot was promised in their videos. Which video was it... http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5748685702138041968&vt=lf&hl=de this. That video is awesome. The graphics are slightly less toony, the WATER stage looks really cool, PROCEDURAL VERBS, really cool looking tools in Tribal. Not in the actual game :(
I have a lot of fun just watching the creatures interact. From sim-like conversations to random critters all curious at you. Creature/tribal? modes the best for that. Seeing all the random things in your environment (wtf, was that a spaceship!?) I wish I could spend more time doing that. Me trying to figure out what fun things I could do with the sticks and rocks but oh wait, you can't make new commands. You can still see citizens run around in Civ mode but you spend all of your time zoomed all the way out doing other things, controlling your vehicles that all look and behave the same. I end up just stacking weapons to boost power, regardless of looks/position :(
Cell stage is really fun. Simple but the parts you put on your critter actually effected other critters(Angling your body so your spikes can hit another guy) .. but the stage is over quick :< The creature you make is from body parts you find or earn in the game, so you can't load up all the cool things you made in Creature creator. Etc etc, I can say a lot of negative stuff but. I'm gunna go play it after this post and still have fun. lol.
edit: giant gripe, no way of screenshotting or am i just a tard? :( Thats kinda silly in a game with all these cool things happening
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[04 Sep 2008|05:25pm] |
Follow up better Cthulhu commission....plus a painted eyeball wood cut out commission:
( Check 'em back here... )
I'm open to commissions if anyone wants something...
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| In other news.... (a whiny post) |
[04 Sep 2008|12:52pm] |
....blah.
Keainid went to deliver my Disability paperwork and birth certificate to the SS Admin. office, this morning. The street parking is all closed off, and the only place to park was a lot with an all-day flat rate of $4.50. He got in, saw over 50 people ahead of him, and knew he'd never get out of there before work. He had to walk out....the parking money wasted (which is so close to the cost of a case of caffeine I've been denying myself the benefit of drinking, it strikes me more than the waste of time and bit of gas.) And of course, it's still not taken care of. He'll have to try getting there crazy early in the morning tomorrow, to try being at the front of the line. I'm not sure if a bus will run him there early enough, or I'd be all for that, and not wasting another $4.50 on parking. (It's too far to walk.) Delays on the processing of my case, and ANY wasted money, are both bad things right now.
Keainid gets his paycheck direct-deposited tomorrow and we will be able to pay...some things. Not all of them. Some will have to wait another week...::bites lip:: And we still need to restock a bunch of groceries and toiletries, too, including diapers and wipes, which aren't cheap. We've got a few offers on the cars, but nothing close to what we asked, which itself is hundreds less than we've lost on them (we fail by merit of being honest). I might have managed to sell a few little things, but nothing that makes up the difference at all. I mean, every bit helps, but selling things we wouldn't want to, otherwise, hurts less, if it helps more. Besides, right now there's no payments in our account, so it's all....
Well, this is becomming the same finance-whiny post I could make 1000 times. Things suck, if they are in any way related to logistics. We're working on all of them. They still suck. Blah.
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| One step closer |
[04 Sep 2008|12:39pm] |
Jamie just held up a yellow ball, told us that it was one, and then said, "Y-E-L-L-O-W....'at spewws yellow!"
This is the first instance we cought, for certain, of him spelling something without reading the letters off of something, or having just recently seen them, at the least. I'm sure it's still memorization, not phoenetic sounding-out, but still.....cool!
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[03 Sep 2008|09:25pm] |
Got the basement set up enough to do a little work tonight. Three footer, crap picture...will get a better photo tomorrow!
Hey you know whats cool? I can cut some more wood tonight because i don't have to go outside! HA.
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| Sale on DIY Tees! |
[03 Sep 2008|08:17pm] |
Hi,
Cool DIY t-shirts on sale this week, 9/3-9/9, ONLY!Look in the Tops section.
Dark Devious Smiles
:)Mazy
Mechanical Bunny Boutique
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[03 Sep 2008|03:54pm] |
Hey guys!
Just a quick thing...Iam in the process of unpacking and setting things up and trying to get everything organized. I took a day off for my birthday last week and add the whole moving thing to the mix and I have gotten a lot more disorganized than usual. My mind has been on getting a deposit back, getting the house together and getting my life settled.
Iam not ignoring any emails nor do i plan on not getting people their stuff. Please don't think that im trying to shirk my duties, not do my job or rip anyone off. Sometimes it takes me a few days to answer emails, but please don't take it as an effort to ignore or run off with money.
If you are concerned or want a refund , email me. But i just wanted to reassure people that Iam trying to get back on track and make everyone happy and am not trying to neglect anyone. My job is to make stuff and make people happy...I like to do my job right. It just takes a few extra days sometimes.
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| Gear wallet! |
[03 Sep 2008|03:24pm] |
So my old gama-go wallet finally went to shit. I looked for a new wallet online but didn't find what i was looking for. So i made one last night while waiting for laundry to wash and dry ( i has washing machine and dryer!)
( gear wallet... )
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| Selling a Purpleheart Armoury Longsword |
[03 Sep 2008|12:31pm] |
Soon to be cross-posted, but I figure I'll give my f-list a shot at it, first....
I know that Faire season is over for many of you, but there are smaller faires to come even for most of those, unofficial Rennie and SCA events no doubt as well, cosplay, Hallowee'en, gift-giving occasions...
...so if you didn't get a chance to arm yourself (or someone else) at faire, but still want to...if peace-tied weapons policies only excite you just so much, because half the fun of carrying a weapon is getting to take it out and do something with it...or if you don't want to invest in (or trust someone with) steel, yet...
...how about buying a Purpleheart Armoury wooden longsword, off of us? Purpleheart "wasters" are a bit lighter (and we find them to be balanced more nicely) than Hollow Earth's, making them less wearying to carry around, or wield (and unless you're already ready for battle, or at least full-blast battle training, that's usually a good thing), while still being well-crafted from very solid and good quality hickory, and comperable in look and feel. They are the standard training weapon for several major Western Martial Arts societies in the Chicago area. These are not the budget wooden swords most faires have a booth selling (often with kids in mind), of cheap painted pine. In fact, we've stained the hilt and leather-wrapped the grip of one of them, and had it mistaken for a real sword at some no-weapons faires.
We actually own "wasters" from both Hollow Earth and PurpleHeart, but the one we're currently making ourselves sell is being chosen because we haven't customized it (see comment about staining and leather-wrapping) yet. Keainid purchased it for longsword class from the Chicago Swordplay Guild, but scheduling didn't work out, and while it was handled, it was never put into full play. Hollow Earth apparently wants $60 for their longswords these days, at least online if not at faire- price (we spent more than that when we purchased ours at faire, 6 years back). PurpleHeart Armoury asks $70 for their longswords in solid hickory, online. This one is in NEW condition, because we never had a chance to use it, but we will happily sand and oil it before handing it over, since it was in storage during out move. While it would be lovely if someone
local wanted to buy it for the $70, we're willing to lower it to $60, to match Hollow Earth's price, and because it's technically second-hand.
Or if you really want, we could spiff it up for you, for a bit extra. We have a few colors of woodstain, as well as a hardening wax finish in both silver steel and black enamel colors (more durable and nice-looking than just paint), and with a little checking into local resources first, we could no doubt leather-wrap the grip for you, too.
The website doesn't show the exact style of the longsword we have. The blade is as shown, with fuller, and the pommel and grip of the hilt are also as shown. The guard, however, comes down in a slight V on the underside, pointing to the tip of the blade.
Please contact me if curious or interested. Buy a fun toy you can get away with carrying around to play with, and help out a friend at the same time!
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| Decimator |
[02 Sep 2008|09:38pm] |
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| updates. |
[02 Sep 2008|06:41pm] |
1. The pro wrestler was knocked to the floor by a chair to the face. He didn't feel a thing. The mask completely protected him from the blow, and didn't sustain even the smallest dent from the impact. Now he's put in an order for custom shoulder armour for press shots and for coming out into the ring.
2. Bumbershoot was not a success for me as I had hoped it would be. I was in a shared booth with 7 other designers, and although some of them did ok, nobody did fantastic. I sold one mask out of 37. This is sad, but at the same time it's exciting because this one mask will be traveling to Spain next week and she'll be wearing it at a masquerade event there. I also met a mime/fashion school student who wants to collaborate on an anime' leather corset.
3. Pat is moving out, and my friend Jerod is moving into one of the two rooms available upstairs. We're looking forward to sharing the house. I think it will be a pleasant change to live with someone who shares many of my interests and is also an artist.
4. My friend Joe was in town this week-end for PAX. It was really nice to see him again.
5. I'll be participating in my first gallery show next week. It's a group mask show, which will culminate with a big party on Halloween. I'm very much looking forward to this opportunity!
6. Lately, I've met some really wonderful people. I used to be the loner at the club, but suddenly I've found myself part of a group. I'm still adjusting to this difference, but I'm beginning to enjoy it. Maybe white hair is good for me.
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[02 Sep 2008|09:31pm] |
Yooooooo, back from our trip to Boston.
Mostly building siteseein' bleaagh, although... feeding 'tiels at the aquarium + WHALES = YAY. Oh man I wish I had a bigger screen or temp PC to check photos after I take them. Polarizer + me goin Oo spinny = DARK photos. Can't really tell if I like the skies like http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y137/Vivieri/IMG_0601.jpg ... . okay I do but I coulda def' toned it down :|
Be prepared for WHAAALES photos if I ever get to uploading them all tho. http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y137/Vivieri/IMG_9956.jpg But I dont have the patience to actually edit each one :P
Ty for all the birthday wishes btw. :)
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[02 Sep 2008|02:30pm] |
I'm alive!!
Just got the internet turned on, HOORAY :D The last few days were ridiculously tiring. So much to move and unpack. The new house is GREAT.
Wait, listen....
listen...
Hear that?
NOTHING. It's the sound of NOTHING. All i hear is the train go by once in a while and bugs/birds making noise. At night it's just crickets. It's amazing. No honking, no bass heavy blasting music, no shouting drunks or screaming kids. No trash,, no broken bottle and broken car window glass, no stink, no creeps hanging out on the corner. It just smells like trees and dirt. It's amazing how much i have missed quiet and the smell of plants. It really feels normal now.
This is like some sort of vacation. We are both relaxed...the tension is gone. Our attitudes are better. We went to see what the "downtown" was like and it was little cafes and shops...but we also have everything we need right around the corner. We found an amazing Irish pub with oh my god such good food. Everything is within 5 minutes driving. Errand time will be cut in half and driving stress will be minimal. People drive slower/calmer here and don't do the right hand lane get-to-the-front-of-the-traffic trick. I can receive packages safely!
My basement/workspace is gigantic. I still need to fix it up but I'll take some photos of it. Everything went great.
Iam almost nervous because I am just so happy and appreciative of this house. But i figure after two years of drama and super stress thanks to other people's bullshit/shitty living situations, maybe I deserve a little break and can let my guard down a bit.
I'm off to go grocery shopping and then it's more unpacking/fixing up the place. Will start posting work soon!
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| 21 |
[01 Sep 2008|02:31am] |
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Yay I can legally buy alcohol now.
Also, Gunner just tagged me for the first time ever! What a present! Wasnt so much the OW OH MY GOD STOP CHEWING but more of.. OH GOD ROTTING MOUSE GUTS SEEPING INTO MY BLOODSTREAM. eew.
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| Bittersweet |
[31 Aug 2008|10:00pm] |
While Keainid pushed Jamie on the swings, I made Jamie a bracelet woven from clover. Yeah, yeah...flower bracelet...girly...whatever. He's three, and picking the "puwpuw fwowuhs" is part of our "owsside" routine. I figured I'd give it a shot, in case it made for a bouquet he could happily carry with him, and less easily lose. Well, he let me knot it onto his wrist, but then he didn't like how it felt there, and started trying to pull it off. I untied it for him, and he immediately grabbed it back and carried it in his hand throughout the playgrounding, and until we were back home, when he eventually handed it to me.
I had a sad moment for him, at the park, though. He wanted to go meet some little kids that had just shown up, but once in front of them, Jamie just couldn't offer what they relate to in a playmate. He didn't/couldn't respond to what they said, he couldn't jump right into a particular sort of game. He would've happily stood there hanging onto me, flirting and giggling from around my hand in front of his face, in a near-endless game variation of peek-a-boo. But that is something only kids increasingly younger than him are generally kept entertained by. One of the little boys (almost 3) was still interested in him anyway, in the capacity that he wanted to run after Jamie to try tickling him, while Jamie gleefully ran/was tickled...but the mother didn't want him to keep doing it, even though I said it was perfectly fine, from Jamie's end.
On the way home from the playground, I remembered to check the grapevine on the telephone pole in front of the yard, and the weeds along the side of the house, and came home with a bunch of wild grapes, and wild strawberries. WIN! Or, I'm anticipating WIN. I haven't tried any, yet, because we got inside, had to go straight into Jamie's bedtime, and then a migraine knocked me out for a few hours. I'm particularly looking forward to the wild strawberries. Strawberries are my favorite fruit, and wild strawberries are sooo much more potently flavorful. The last time I had one, I was six years old and walking along a trail going up into the French Alps...it was the most delicious thing I'd ever tasted (might still hold true), and I never forgot it. It's a pity there weren't more of the strawberries...at least that I could see. I might just have to thin out the other weeds, just for the sake of the berries. When we move, I'll be wanting to take what we can of those, with us. I've never had any luck with those strawberry plant kits, but if we can keep our yards infested with wild strawberries, I think that'll make up for it. As for the grapes, there are actually a lot to pick, especially if I were to have something to climb on. Whether I bother will depend on how they taste. When it comes to cultivated grapes, I tend to prefer white grapes (the pale green ones) to red grapes (the purple ones), and the wild grapes are somewhere between red grapes and black grapes, in color. We'll see. I see a lot of grapevine, but not a lot of it bearing fruit, so the harvest offered by this one plant is pretty impressive.
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On a completely different note, I'll admit to being sad that the comic For Better Or For Worse has completed it's progressing-through-time run. Apparently, starting tomorrow, it'll start back at the beginning, with some new details added here and there, along the way. But after 29 years, the characters have stopped aging, time has stopped moving forward, and the story, while about to be relived, is at an end. Honestly, how many comics can you think of that have been going for that long (and with syndicate frequency), always with both character and plot development, always fresh material, always fresh issues (many of which were not usually confronted in syndicated comics), and heck, the art improved a heck of a lot, too...?! Sure, there were reasons to pick on it...that goes for anything...and I don't think of it as the favored classic of my youth...that'd probably be Calvin & Hobbes...but it WAS something special, as comics go, and it was something special to me. I think part of the latter is that the comic started the year we were born...it's been going, literally, our entire lives. There were periods when I wasn't actively reading the comic, obviously, and periods when, before finding the website, I lost access to following it. Still, I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't see the comic, the characters, the changes in their lives, their stories unfolding just as mine was. The characters were like people I'd always known. And while I can't really begrudge Lynn Johnson her semi-retirement after all this time, I'm disappointed that those characters won't continue to grow through life, with me.
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| Corn Festival, Budd and mom, Dogs, Benny |
[31 Aug 2008|04:02pm] |
Yesterday morning Andy and I got up and went to the Corn Festival in Shippensburg. Our main objective was to obtain a gift to give to my parents to thank them for all the help they gave us with the house and the move. The corn festival was huge. It would have been nice if we had had more than a couple of hours to walk around and see it but we had to be back home before my mom and Budd arrived at 1 p.m. We ate some food at the festival and also purchase a cute framed embroidered piece to give to my parents. I forgot to take a picture of it but it had a sweet saying about family on it surrounding a heart.
In addition to the gift for my parents, we got new, handmade collars for Gage and Una. Until now Andy has made all of Gage and Una's collars our of leather (and from now on since I have one to look at and follow, I could make any number of collars for them from fabric) and we wouldn't normally look at buying a collar but there was one done in Penn State fabric that Andy really wanted to get one for Gage. And since he was getting one, Una needed to get one too, of course! Una's has polka dots, bones and hearts on it. They are ridiculously cute.
( Want to see? Pictures of Gage and Una sporting their new gear under the cut. (And some photos of Benny for good measure.) )
Shortly after we returned from the festival, mom and Budd arrived. We gave Budd the tour and he was very complimentary about the house! Whew! I was nervous that he was going to find things to hate about it and would tell us we were idiots. (He doesn't hold back.) But he said that he really liked it, thought it just needed some painting to make it look really good and said we made a good decision! Yay for parental approval! Ha. Andy, mom and I walked down to the Appalachian Whole Foods Market (which I wrote about in my 'In shades of green' blog). Andy wanted to get some soy ice cream and I wanted to get some new natural skin care products. Mission accomplished. I also got a Thai Deodorant Stone to try. I am excited about that. Anyway, that's all in the blog if you're interested in my search for natural skin care/hair care products and such. We watched most of the movie "Swordfish," and then walked down to Market Cross Pub and Brewery for dinner. It was delicious. We all sampled some of their brews, including a hard cider and three beers. The cider was good but I wasn't a fan of the beers. And the food was just excellent. We had a great meal and our waitress was very nice. After dinner, we came back to the house and watched "Juno."
This morning we made breakfast together and just spent some time together before my parents had to go. We had a really nice visit with them. I am glad that they were able to come down. It was fantastic.
Andy and I plan to just take it easy for the rest of the day. We have no plans. Tomorrow we're going to hit Lowe's to get fencing for the backyard (finally) and also go to PetSmart to get new tags for the dogs and cats.
This weekend has been really relaxed and great. I am so glad I don't have to go in to AutoZone until Wednesday! I have an interview at Gannett Fleming on Tuesday for the technical editing position they called me about. I believe in addition to speaking with them, they'll have me complete some tasks to show my skills. I still haven't heard back about the marketing coordinator position even though they said that they would let us know by this Friday that just passed. I still want that job pretty badly.
I took some photos of the mess Gage made of his kennel yesterday.
( Check it out. )
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[31 Aug 2008|03:29am] |
Keainid was singing in the car on the way to work, yesterday. After a while, he took notice of what he was singing. It was, "God is bigger than the boogyman," from the Veggie Tales -- Where's God When I'm S-Scared? video. Yeah, we're parents. Parents who need more grown-up time.
Speaking of Veggie Tales videos, there's a bit of song in the God Wants Me To Forgive THEM?!?! video that goes, "When God has forgiven us, it's true..." Well, I think Jamie was anticipating watching The Toy That Saved Christmas (which for a while he identified as the Christmas cookie movie, because there's a song in the intermission of the story, which features cookies repetedly), because as he was attempting to sing along, what he actually sang was, "When God has cookies..."
I blame you, Andy. If it weren't for you, we never would've known that this harmlessly preachy produce was something which might amuse our kid, we wouldn't have picked up the three videos as part of a FreeCycle lot, and we wouldn't have bouncy tomatos and cucumbers stuck in our heads.
~~~~~~~~
Store manager G freaked out at Keainid for opening the door to the office, today. It turns out G was in the process of putting the bank deposit bundle not in his pants pocket, or coat pocket, but down the crotch of his pants. Keainid turned around to find out what all the freak-out was about, and caught him with shirt up, pants partially undone, deposit in the process of being shoved in. G claimed there was no room in his pants pockets. (No mention of coat pockets.) I think he just likes the idea of that much money, that close to his schlong. I pity the bank teller, though.
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I HAVE OFFICIALLY, FINALLY, (SECRETLY) BEEN ABLE TO RUN MY KILN. AND IT WORKED. NOT ONLY THAT, BUT I WAS ABLE TO KEEP THE LIGHT ON. AND PLUG IN THE LAPTOP, TO PROVIDE ME WITH MUSIC. NOW I CAN ADVERTISE, AND TRY AND BRING IN FRESH BUSINESS TO FIT IN THE EMPTY SPACES AROUND EXISTING COMMISSION WORK, IN THERE. MAY THERE BE MUCH CRAFTING TIME (SOMEHOW), NOW! MAY MY SHINIES MANAGE TO SAVE US, AFTER ALL!
~~~~~~~~
Prayers going out for Laynie and her family, and anyone else being targeted by the latest hurricane's fury.
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| Heehee |
[30 Aug 2008|11:19pm] |
I make a quicky trip to the bathroom. When I return, Jamie is standing closer to the TV than he's allowed to. I say, "Jaaammmiieee." What does he do? He looks at me, twists his mouth, then sticks out his finger (in a finger-shaking sort of way) and says (for me), "You know bettuw"...then immediately removes himself from the prohibited area.
Jamie and I are playing with a giant box. I put him inside it, and then we play hide-and-seek/peek-a-boo, we surprise each other, we bang on the sides, I "earthquake" it, eventually he tips himself over, rights the box, and we start all over again. This goes on for quite some time, and during this time, night falls. It is after this point that Jamie takes a break from the box games, after springing up and surprising me, to check out his reflection (which apparently doesn't throw him off, despite the haircut...we both wave to each other's reflections quite happily) in the back door's glass. He notices, however, that while he wasn't paying attention, the yard vanished from view. What does he do? "Mommy, tewn on da window, pweese."
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alucinortela
