Tuesday, November 30, 2004

Creativity Survives and the Red Sun Rises.

So Tuesday has come, and it's tired I am but still standing, after what feels like a battle has just passed. With drooping shield and dragging sword, I will turn around and walk back up the hill, rather than go down in silence, knowing that there are others who work, fight and struggle all around me, and it's good company I am in.



Saturday, November 27, 2004

Black Friday

Yes I participated.

Man I haven't actually shopped on The Day After TG for more than...lessee *thinks*...well

at LEAST 12 years. B- and Dani wanted to go and be at the store at 6am. On a whim I said, "Hey sure, it's been a long time why not?" I also remember thinking, "I'm sure there's a good reason why I've avoided this for 12+ years, but I will go along for the fun anyhow."

I am SO glad I did!

I got up a 4:30am, and drove over to B's house. We hit the Fred Meyer's expecting a line, and there was none! We got in, got some stuff that wasn't all picked over in the toy dept and got right back out. Hitting the Star Bucks just outside the building of course! Next we hit up the Wal-Mart. More populated in side, but not impossible. Got some really great deals due to the 50% offness for the first 6 hours of the sale! I was sooo pleased with my thrifty-ness! Then we headed over to Target. By now its about 7:30am and there are alot more people. Went over over to Costco which was totally empty! It was great! We got some lunch at 9am and then cruised down to the Olde Mill District to the artsy-fartsy shops. Major sale and major score at Gap, Pac Sun, and American Eagle! There was hardly anybody in the whole district. By now, its 9:30 and we already know that people are hitting up the Wal-Mart and the Target pretty hard. It was great.

We had a leisurely lunch at El Jimadore down by Drake Park and then went to the Mall.

It was now very late in the day for us...1pm, and we were all wiped. So I dropped Dani and B back off a the house and went home. All in all, I got ALL of my Christmas shopping done in one day, except for my dad, Pat, and I still have a little bit to do for my littlest. It is such a good feeling to have it all finished! Normally I am running around the second week of December with bronchitis, trying not to pass-out in the check out line. This year when I get sick, I can just stay home and get well! What a thot!

B, Dani and I made a pact that we are gonna do this again next year!

Why did I spend the last 12 years doing this the stupid way?



Wednesday, November 24, 2004

Happy day

Planned out the actual food for TG, last night. The stupid turkey does NOT want to thaw out. Donna suggested I just carry it around under my armpit all day. I said, "Yeah, hey like my new purse? Wait minute, I gotta dig some change out of its butt. Oh sorry, that's not a quarter, that's the gut bag..hang on a sec I know I have a quarter IN here someplace...*digs around*"



Yeah, right Donna.



Anyway, planned out the menu.

Turkey and a honey baked ham. Scouts mashed potatos made with cheddar, cream cheese, sour cream, whipping cream, butter and salt/pepper. (I know. We should just call it cheese pudding with some potatos thrown in for starch.) Green bean casserole, dinner rolls. A green salad,

a fruit salad with NO coconut(yuk!), and Babz is bringing pies, and the sweet potatos with the marshmallows on them. Amber is bringing a bottle or two of wine probably.

Rented Shrek 2, and Elf. I will grate all of the mountains of cheese tonight and make the mashed potatos tonight since they have to sit for 12+ hours to be really good anyway. I think I am almost ready.

Stu shampoo'd the carpets which was really nice. Now if we can just keep dogs, cats, shoes and kids from skating on it, maybe it will remain a decent colour for more than a week? These people we bought the house from, put brand new carpet in it right before they sold it. It is a very light, light tan colour. Its not white, but it is really light. Who in their right mind has kids and puts in carpet THAT colour, I ask you?! Ca, c'est ridicule! someday I am gonna rip it all out and put in pergo all through the house. Be done with it!



I hope I didn't annoy MK with my comment on his recent update.

Its funny. Somebody can make fun of the Church in general and I usually agree it in many ways. But boy, if something even remotely appears, even at first glance, to be a pot-shot at, or a misunderstanding of God, then I get a bit hot-under-the-collar immediately. So, to MK, if I sounded harsh, I really did NOT mean to, and I realise the whole entry was fictitious anyway. And besides, it's all good anyway. That is one of the hilights of fine art, whether it be music, painting or literature. It should make one examine one's own beliefs and the reasons that one holds to those beliefs. So, in the end, good job MK!



Well, this post has been all over the place and largely about nothing at all, so in the interests of productivity I will say Happy Birthday to Aquila and sign off.





Monday, November 22, 2004

The Time Machine

My daughter tells me that we have a Time Machine

She says that she put some food in it, and set the timer, and it sends the food into the future where it gets cooked, and then it comes back all ready to eat.



Here it has been, all this time, sitting on my kitchen counter and I never knew what it was!

I wonder if it has a reverse setting?



If I put an egg in it, will it become a chicken?

If I put a chicken in it, will it become an egg?

Can I put my head in it and reduce wrinkles?

Those folks at Kenmore are pretty dang clever.

My daughter is so smart to be able to recognize it, just sitting there innocently all this time.

And this is the child, who at age four, invented the shoes made of balogna.

Thanksgiving to look forward to.

I love Thanksgiving.

I think it is my favorite holiday.

I don't know why my mom ever complained about having her turn to host everybody at her house. I love it! I love doing up the turkey and stuffing. Scout has her special recipe Mashed Poptatos which consists primarily of cheese products. *

(*Points toward Canada and shouts "eh!"*)

I love that we can sit around and play video games and watch movies.

I love having my adopted sister and niece and nephew and friends come over and fill the house!

I love how the town has their annual Christmas parade on the Saturday following. The parade takes all of 10 minutes to get from one end of town town the next. Everybody watching the parade knows every body in the parade, so thereis alwasy lots of yelling and waving. And the miniature sleigh being pulled by the eight Welsh Corgies, and riding in the sleigh is a 3 year old Santa - oops make that a 4 year old Santa I guess.



I love Thanksgiving.

It is my favorite Holiday.





Friday, November 19, 2004

heh! Whaddya do?

...when you have this friend, who is a goofy wacky funny person?

You call them on the phone. They sound really, really like they've been through the wringer.

Their normally witty and jovial reparte` is not as forth coming as usual. Sure, you know your friend has been ill, and is frankly, quite TIRED of being ill. Still, in writing, the wit belies the physical turmoil and it's much easier to forget that a good friend is really wrestling with discomfort and possibly even worry.

Whaddya do? Whaddya say?

Do you say,

"Gee, you sound AWFUL!"

Som how, that doesn't sound like an encouragement.

Still, you wonder if your friend is ok.

And you worry.

Replaying the sound of their voice.

Then again, maybe, since they work for a living, maybe its Friday night and they are just bouncing back from having to be "ON" all week. Ya know? And more than likely that is the reason for the exhausted voice.

Still.

It makes one wonder if one should be worrying.

It makes one wonder, if one should have said more when one had the chance?

....hmmmmm......

I wish I had had more time today, and been able to ask.







Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Well Said Lehsa!

WOW!

Her blog post for 11/16/04 REALLY defines an important issue in The Community.

And she asks a question that has plagued me, but I was not able to articulate:



LEHSA: "Nobody seems to want to fight for our chatroom. I don't get the feeling anybody cares that our chatroom is becoming the equivalent of a ghetto chatroom."



I wonder why this is, that no one seems to speak up? Where has the Community gone?

Lehsa also goes on to point out what I think may be part of the answer:



LEHSA: "They think, 'I'm special!' "



Somewhere we stopped being a Community, and started looking only to our own interests and wanting to *Shine Up Our Own Sign.*



There seems to be a growing attitude of: "Oooo everybody look at me! I was a bloody beta tester for blah blah blah game. Ain't I all that?"



Pfah!



It is this kind of one-up-manship that kills morale and eventually the Community.



Thanks Lesha for speaking up!





Monday, November 15, 2004

Boss Throttling

Yes.

Our office is in need of a good "Boss Throttling."













Thursday, November 11, 2004

Michael's "School" entry.

Michael's got an interesting entry for Oct 20th entitled "School."



Terrifying and wacky.



Tuesday, November 9, 2004

THE BIRTHDAY RENN QUEEN:

My daughter turned 12 on Friday, and one of her gifts was a Not-So-Extreme Home Makeover on her bedroom. Daddy took her out for two hours, in which time I completely emptied and refilled her room with new furnishings and art etc. Because of her previous paint job - Red, Gold and (not olive but almost) Green acccents - we decided to go for a classic Renn Masters Style. Using some prints from Raphael, Boticelli, Titian, DaVinci and with velvets and brocades and what not. I had planned to put up a silver embossing that I have been working on a as well as a portrait I started but I ran out of time so those will be put up near Chritmas. I mounted some DaVinci mechanical drawings on black foam core and hang them in 3 seperate groupings in her room. As I was looking through DaVinci's studies for the Crossbow and the Seige Engine and Water Processing devices I was struck with the similarities to some of the MRED mechanical drawings found in the journals. I had to laugh and said to myself,

"You guys! (Referring to Cyan)

"I recognise this style!"

That is what gave me the idea to park a few of the Exile drawings among the DaVinci's.

My daughter came home just has I was putting up the last Raphael painting. Blake parked himself back int he corner of her room with the video cam, and I closed her door and pretended to be busy in the kitchen as she came in.

"Did you and dad have a good time?" I asked her.

"Yeah, but I am so full of icecream I am not hungry for dinner right now," she answered.

"Ok, well, your rats have been lonely so you should probably go in your room and feed them and play with them a while."

(*snicker, snicker!*)

It was histerical!

She totally flipped OUT!!

She walked around and around the room looking at the art work, which I displayed at a height a little higher that her eye level. She is certainly a Queen among pre-teens now. ;o)

She hasn't made the connection regarding the Exile drawings yet - at least not verbalised it, although I have noticed her looking at the diagrams.

Heheh!!

The Exile drawings are dead center, in a group of three, with the water-wheel on one side and the giant crossbow on the other. I have a really nice rennaissance painting of St. Francis, and if she doesn't pick up on the Exile drawing by the end of the month, I think I will slip in an image of Gehn, from the Golden Dome on Temple Island, which is done in a stained glass style, and see how long it takes for her to catch on.



After Friday night, we went to stay at the beach house.



We had great weather for November.

High overcast and nary a raindrop in sight.

A rarity for the Oregon Coast I can assure you.

;o)



For a pictorial tour you can visit:

http://www.geocities.com/orcoast2004



I wish I had shot film this time instead of digital.

I should learn to quit being lazy and cheap and take both from now on, just in case.







Thursday, November 4, 2004

Thinking Aloud?

I talk to myself.

I talk to myself inside my head, and apparently it leaks.

Pam, my co-worker who is across the hall from the break room, just laffed at me and said I was funny.

She said that she always enjoys listening to me talk to myself.

The scary part is that, I thought I was just thinking.

Ya know...inside my head.

What the heck have I been saying all this time, thinking I am only doing it in my head.

Maaaaaan! That is WAY scary!



And now to embarrass a friend...

...what ARE friends for after all. :o)



Actually, my heart is really bent more towards introducing him as opposed to embarrassing him.



This friend is a writer who's work I have been enjoying immensely and I thot you guys might enjoy it too...since you are all just as wonderfully quirky.

I have pasted a link to his works over in the sidebar.



So far my favorite is "Dolls."



Michael is currently spending his days in the UK.

Wish it was me.

:o(

Sink a pint for us Michael!







Napoleon Dynamite

I don't know how he got hold of it.

I don't wanna know how he got hold of it.

But somehow, my son brought home from his media class, a digital copy of Napoleon Dynamite.

Now a lot of people I know find this film absurdly stupid and pointless.

My son however, seems to find moments in it that amuse him.

I saw a couple of clips from it last night, and I am just too dang sorry - but they were histerical!

Ok, so they were histerical in a stupid way.

So sue me.

I find the humour reminiscent of the stupid kind found via Brak of Cartoon Planet fame.

Similar genre.

Anyway, Back to ND - I saw the clip of him wanting to borrow a friends bike to go over a jump. LOL! Stupid!

And that brother of his, Kip?

On the internet 24-7?

He is just plain scary.

And Kip's internet girlfirend -what's her name-Luh Fawnduh? LOL LOL!

Anyway.

That and the gramma telling him to

"Make hisself a dang quesadilla!"

(Her pronunciation being "kay-suh-dill-luh!")

Those were the only clips I saw but I am now curious, so I told him to bring it with him to the beach and he and Emery and I would watch it on the laptop.



On a seperate note:

That stupid virus that hit the office 3 weeks ago, is still hitting my comp. I got my comp all cleaned out, and fired it back up this morning. Went to check out and dl my Cyberis office mail using OE, and Norton went nutzo on me. Deleting about 15 messages straight out of the gate. So I unplugged. Called the Server guys at Cyberis and left them a message saying delete my account. Hopefully that will finish that. Cyberis is always getting hit with krap like that. I am finally glad to have an excuse to tell my boss I am through with them. Yay!

Some how something good came from this mail bomb.

Ain't I just a flippin' Polly Anna?!

No.









Wednesday, November 3, 2004

I have flipped out.

Maybe it's the chocolate I ate, maybe its the fact that the elections are over and we can all go back to our normal daily lives (hope to get one).

I don't know what happened, but suddenly for about the span of a half hour I was, in Donna's words, "on a roll!" She told me I better shut up and write when I am in this condition.

I said, "No! I want a creme puff!"

One from the Sisters Bakery.

They are to DIE for!

She said, "no, I think the chocolate was enough for both of us."

I could not coerce Donna into trotting down the street to fetch me a creme puff.

Nobody can coerce Donna to do anything against her will, except stay in an annoying dead-end job that she hates.

This I said aloud.

She heard me clear over in the bathroom and starts cackling away.

O man!

I need a coffee.

And some sugar and a day off and some money and a diet pepsi to go with the creme puff I am going to get by hook or by crook. I need larger canvases, and some new strings for my fiddle. I need a book deal and a hot tub. I need man who listens me and one that will pick up after himself. They should not be two seperate people, otherwise I would have to move to Utah - wait no! I've got that backwards anyway, nevermind.



Tuesday, November 2, 2004

Delete

I love the delete button.

I wish I had a corporeal version at times.