Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Random pictures

Trying to organize and archive some old pictures I took with my phone, two or three phones ago.

(Did I mention I got a new phone? I moved into the Technology Age in July with a bona fide smart phone, the Samsung Gravity. As hard as I resisted, I have to say, I really love this phone.)

So as I was saying, here are a few pictures I took with previous phones for various reasons:

May 2010 -- label-making fail, at the library of all places


April 2010 -- Holly having some private time


April 2010 -- My Explorer hit a milestone. It lasted almost another year before the transmission went kaput and I had to say goodbye.


More pictures later...

Monday, July 25, 2011

Office mates

Faith, in my office at work: Mom, who had this office before you?
Me: I don't remember.
Faith: I think it was someone named Herman Miller.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Ouch



Seriously, really??

Friday, July 8, 2011

Pinktastic!

If you are disturbed or annoyed by large amounts of pink, don't look at these pictures of Holly's room re-do.

For many months now Holly has been saying she wants a pink room. More often than not she uses it in her arsenal of sleep-avoiding tactics -- "I can't sleep in a room that isn't pink!" Well, when she gets home, she won't have that excuse anymore.

First some before pictures:


^ The wall by the door, her cluttered-up dresser, her bed pushed into the corner.


The wall to the left of the door, with a gross stain on the floor that was hidden by a toy chest we had already moved before taking this picture.



^ Furniture moved to the center of the room, walls primed!


^ The first coat of pink is on and drying.


^ And this is the finished product!


^ I wanted to paint the toy chest white and get some pink cushions for it, but I didn't get around to that. Maybe later.


^ Love this cute pink tree! It is a removable static-cling type wall decoration. It came in about 105 pieces. I'm wondering how long before Holly picks at it and starts peeling it off.


^ Window and radiator. I didn't get new curtains, but I painted the cornice and hung the little wooden "H".


^ Her bed, with Faith's old comforter and her own collection of pillows.


^ And the crowning piece, a 3 ft by 4 ft mirror for her to dance and preen in front of!


^ With rope lighting! How cool is that!


^ Pretty fun nighttime effect. The rope lights are LED so they won't waste a lot of energy.

I think the little girl is going to be pretty excited!!

By the way, Thea, if you read this, don't you dare tell her!

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Summer

Faith comes home tomorrow from spending five weeks with her dad. I can't wait to see my sweet girl get off the plane. Just under two weeks to go and I will get my other girls back as well!

If you didn't even realize they were gone, it's because I meant to post here about a hundred times and never did. I had lots of other stuff to talk about... my gardening, our new cat, redoing Holly's room, the U2 concert I went to, etc etc. But even though the day-to-day responsibility of three kids was removed, somehow I filled up the time with other stuff and squeezed out time for just goofing off, reading or updating this journal. Not sure how I managed that exactly.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Dig - Incubus

This song is several years old but I have recently rediscovered it. Previously "Wish You Were Here" had been my favorite Incubus song, but I think it has just lost its title, as I can't stop playing and replaying "Dig".

This song is awesome -- all the instruments have strong and interweaving parts (listen for the bass, it's stirring), and Brandon Boyd's emotional vocals elevate it to something really moving. I love the lyrics, which suggest to me a commitment to remember and look for a friend's or lover's true person, underneath the changes and facades that we all go through or take on over time.

"If I turn into another, dig me out from under what is covering the better part of me..."

Monday, May 16, 2011

Spacey


I don't have a "bucket list" or anything, but one of the things I always wanted to do was see a space shuttle launch in person. From the first launch I watched on TV as a child to the one I just watched a few minutes ago (Endeavour), I have been excited and moved by the power and the spectacle of lift-off every time.

I guess I never considered that one day the shuttles would be retired, or maybe I didn't realize that so much time had actually passed. With the last shuttle launch taking place next month, turns out I'll never get to cross that item off my mental to-do list.

I'm not crying about it or anything, but just now I found myself thinking about what this means. There are plenty of other things that I intend to get around to doing someday -- some long-term goals, but also things that I could easily do today that I just put off -- and for each of these things there will come a day when it's too late. It will sneak up on me, just like the final space shuttle launch did, whether it takes a day or two weeks or (unbelievable!) 30 years.

Turns out I need to get busy living!