La fin

This is it. 31 posts in 31 days. Nope, I didn't miscount.

I realized two things this month: 1) My life is not nearly exciting enough to blog about daily. I think if one were going to commit to blogging daily long-term, one would need another topic... like Cake Wrecks, or Epic Fails, or Clever Kludges. But even if *I* personally had another topic, it would be a struggle because, 2) I'm not the daily blogger type. Unless you count groggily posting a quick (and boring) blab as I fall asleep. So I welcome the end of NaBloPoMo, but still glad I did it.

On another note, my son realized for the first time a few days ago that if you change the spacing of the letters in his first and last name, it's French for 'the sea-faring Norse plunderer'. It's something I'd considered before choosing his name many years ago, but I was more concerned that he'd be teased. My worries were for naught. Apparently his friends think it's very cool. Arrrrrrr! Or maybe it was Urrrrrrr!

Okay, headed to bed. I have only one thought remaining tonight....




TOMORROW IS DECEMBER ALREADY?!??!?!!

Pizzelles Tradition

This is about the time I remembered I still hadn't posted for Sunday, right before I drifted off to sleep. So I'm faking it.

Oh--just in case you ever get a Samsung Gravity phone... Don't attempt to use an SDHC card in it. Even though the user manual indicates that any micro-SD card will do, the phone will irreversibly reduce a 4 gigabyte SDHC to 104 kilobytes. No joke. Guess how I know this. Fortunately I got the card for $9.99, so only tossed $10.81 down the tubes.

Dad put together a big Thanksgiving Revisited meal, with meat leftover from the 20-pound bird he cooked Thursday. And there was STILL lots of meat left over!

After dinner I mixed up a batch and a half of pizzelle batter. Years ago, this is something Gramma and I did together several times each year during the holiday lead-up, both Christmas and Easter. We made all kinds of cookies, but pizzelles are my favorite. She and I would each have an iron going, and she'd tell me about her aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. So when she wandered out of her room after I'd added the anise oil (such fragrant stuff!) to the batter, I had to smile. She sat and silently watched me set up my own waffle iron and start stacks of finished cookies. I offered her one, but she refused. (I called her 'Gramma', and I realized the mistake as soon as it was out of my mouth. If I'd used her first name, she probably would have accepted it.)

Though she really wouldn't acknowledge me except to say that I'd taken the waffles off the iron too soon, she did stay at the table to watch. Mom turned on a CD of treasured hymns, and she sang along (kind of) with Alan Jackson. It's weird that the tunes of those songs have stuck with her to steadfastly. She sang loud, strong, and mostly on-key, at the slow, deliberate pace of the old ladies in the choir loft at St. Joseph's mission.

At some point mom got out Gramma's waffle iron, and she and I sat at the counter, while Gramma still observed and critiqued our efforts. She told Deena on the phone that we didn't know what we were doing (apparently she remembers that pizzelles are supposed to be the color of dark caramel, and ours were too white). After I cleaned up the pizzelle mess, I put all the accidental 'good' ones in the cookie jar for her.

On one hand it was nice to make pizzelles with Gramma. And it was nice to spend the time with my mom. On the other, I do really miss making pizzelles with my REAL Gramma. My kids barely remember her, but she's the Gramma who would never even think to stick out her foot and try to trip them.

Bones

It's in its 5th season and I'm only just now getting truly sucked in. Until today, I'd really only watched it at the gym, reading the closed captioning subtitles while I was on the elliptical machine. But I happened to catch two back-to-back holiday episodes today. You miss so much vocal nuance by reading subtitles. It's a terrifically intelligent show, which makes me wonder how in the world it's survived this long.

Had to go to the Fox website and watch the available episodes.

Of course now that I'm hooked, it will probably be canceled...

ADDED SUNDAY MORNING: I realized this morning why the name 'Temperance Brennan' sounded so familiar to me. Ten years ago, I read the very first two Temperance Brennan books by Kathy Reichs when I was assigned to review the second one, Death du Jour, soon after it was released. Terrific books but a little on the intense side for my tastes at the time. Gonna have to dig through my shelves and re-read them.

Remembered!

Almost forgot to blog today. Would have ruined the NaBloPoMo streak right at the end! But alas, I have remembered just in time.

The initial plan today was to avoid the Black Friday crowds altogether and do laundry. But my mom called, asking if we wanted to go with her, and we said 'Sure, why not?' (Who really wants to do laundry anyway?)

So we braved GardenRidge (where I picked up two nauseatingly cute ornaments for Tuesday's ornament exchange), Best Buy, and Walmart (where I picked up the cheddar cheese pretzel Combos I'm munching right now).

This evening after David got home, we headed back out and braved the mall to finally get new phones. After going so long with crappy, beat-up, falling-apart phones, it's strange to have brand new ones. We're sticking with T-Mobile for now, but without a contract.

Tomorrow I'm thinking we may go bake cookies at mom's... We'll see...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Home again, home again, jiggety jog.

Thanksgiving dinner was very nice, and very delicious. It was just the four of us and David's mom, Rosaleen. This morning, between floats and performances during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, we got dinner in the oven in stages. Okay, I use the term 'we' very loosely. Rosaleen did nearly all of it. All I did was open two cans of corn and a box of corn muffin mix (but I made up for it by washing dishes afterward). The 'fresh' turkey she had paid extra for turned out to be frozen on the inside, which would kind of be impossible for an actual quoteless fresh turkey. I've found that as I mature, cranberry jelly grows on me (not LITERALLY). I used to hate it, but I took a big slice today and ate every smidget. Still not fond of sweet potatoes, though. At least not as sweet potatoes. I do like 'em in pie, though.

David has to work tomorrow, unfortunately, so after digesting for a couple of hours, we piled back in the truck and headed home. Think I'm headed to bed soon, so I can get up early and stay home for Black Friday. Wooo!

Today I am so grateful for the abundant blessings bestowed on me that I'll never even begin to deserve. I'm grateful for a God that loves me no matter how obstinate I can be. I'm grateful for family, for freedom, for the men and women who are serving our country away from home.

Hugs and blessings to you!

Mobile in Altus

Posting for the first time from my mobile phone. Not the most fabulous arrangement, but it works. We're in Altus tonight, Lucy's first trip out of state. It took us an hour and a half just to get out of Fort Worth, so the overall trip length was that much longer. We were ALL kind of whiny at the three-hour mark and we were only half way.

Have a blessed day of thanks!

Caffeinated

Sitting here with Sunshine, jamming to Foo Fighters via Rhapsody. She's playing billiards on Webkinz. Bookman is spending the night at his buddies' house, but he just checked in with a text message. David is in the living room on the laptop, Facebooking and watching basketball. A quiet evening (if you don't count the music) with modern technology.

For some reason, about 7:oo this evening, I thought it would be nice to reheat and drink the cup of coffee I left in the microwave before lunch. And it was nice, don't get me wrong. Peppermint Mocha creamer. Mmmmmm... But even at half-caff, I'm having a hard time sitting still. So it's kind of good that I've got music blaring, 'cause I can channel some of the energy into be-bopping. But be-bopping and typing at the same time is a challenge... *air guitar*

Probably ought to go do something constructive with this energy before it wears off...

They're a blessing

I have fabulous kids. I like to think I had a lot to do with that fact, but really I think I'm just blessed. By the grace of God, I have kids who are, in general, polite, respectful, responsible, and helpful. Of course they have their moments, as all kids do, but fortunately theirs are relatively few and far between. Just wanna squeeze 'em!

It used to be that if you asked them to do anything that might be construed as 'cleaning', they'd protest with exponentially more effort than it would have taken to just do the task in the first place. But this past week, I asked both kids to do various 'chores', and they BOTH did them with nary a sigh of dissent. It almost makes me wonder if they have a cooperative agreement between them to get on my good list in the lead-up to Christmas. Almost, but not quite. Not even when combined with TWO instances of brushing one's teeth without being asked. Nope.

Chili dogs

Lazy day. Did not go out to Mom's house, as is our normal Sunday routine, for fear of spreading whatever viral crud is still lingering. Sunshine hasn't decided yet if she's getting it, though as I type this, she's sitting at the computer next to me with about a dozen wadded up kleenex in front of her, sucking on a cough drop...

As the weather get's chillier, our chihuahua becomes more and more of a lap dog. If she gets cold and sees that you have an available lap, she'll stand at your knee and send those subliminal brain wave messages. It's cute, and she usually gets the lap. However, the border collie has observed this, and is also trying it, except that she skips right past the cute brain-waves part. She's big enough to take the initiative and and shove herself into your lap, invitation presumed. In other things, she really seems to grasp the 8-pounds versus 42-pounds difference between them (like when they play), but in being a lap dog, fair is fair apparently.

National Adoption Day

Felt MUCH better today! I didn't think the 12-hour Alavert that Mom had brought me yesterday had helped a whole lot, but boy I can tell when it's worn off.

Tagged along for the official adoption ceremony of Valerie 'Daisy' Jacobson today. I was serving as photographer, but I've known Daisy pretty much her whole life, so it was a little emotional too. I had to concentrate on photographing the event so I didn't get choked up. Take pictures, take pictures, don't cry, take pictures. Sunshine also tagged along, and I put her to work. She's good friends with Jacobson kid #2, but did a very good job handling my other camera. In fact she got more photos than I did, mostly of the same stuff, but from different angles, which is always good. Daisy's biological brother, Daniel, was fostered by the Jacobsons almost from the day he was born. They officially adopted him two years ago today, which was about a month after they took in days-old Daisy.

The Itsy Bitsy Spider saved a lot of photos today. I mention it because that same spider saved my sanity many times when my kiddos were younger. Cooped up in a van for 21 hours with an 18-month-old who would SO much rather be out of his carseat? Sing that wonderful song for hours and hours and hours and hours on end. What is it about that spider that little ones (particularly those under age four), find so captivating?

Am I drooling?

I'm sick, spacing out on cold meds, and beat from a long day at the school. Even though I took an hour and a half nap earlier, I'm drifting off, sitting here at my keyboard, and maybe even drooling a little bit.

So I should probably head to bed--after I post my daily photo on ShutterMuse.

Snot

How can one nose produce so much? I've been through a whole box of kleenex in the last two hours. And now blowing my nose sends a stabbing pain through my ear. Fun times. Just in time for Grandparents Day portraits at school tomorrow.

The good news is that Bookman is feeling better after having stayed home from school today. I had a photo shoot in Arlington, so I had him call me every thirty minutes with temperature and breathing updates (he's such a good boy). He's still running a low-grade fever, but is otherwise fine.

The photo shoot today went great. Got to work in an actual studio, and I got some really great portraits of my good friend Courtney. Had to buy a light meter and wireless strobe triggers on ebay--got some good deals, which is helping me to feel a bit better :)

Hope all of you are healthy and happy! Love you!

100 Degrees

A 100.7 degree fever in the heart of a swine flu breakout. And it's the kid with asthma. I'm thinking it's a cold--he's had some allergy-like symptoms for the past couple of days. But remaining vigilant.

I swear the days have been missing a few hours lately. I think they may be skipping out of work early, 'causeI just can't seem to get everything done AND get enough sleep.

My friend Stacy sent this to me today... Hadn't seen it before. I laughed because I have had at least half of these random thoughts myself, and totally agree with most of the rest. Thought I'd share it.

Random Thoughts for the Day

1. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.
2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.
3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.
4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.
5. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
6. Was learning cursive really necessary?
7. Google Maps really needs to start their directions on #5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.
9. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.
10. Bad decisions make good stories.
11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.
12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don't want to have to restart my collection...again.
13. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.
14. "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this -- ever.
15. I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Damn it!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?
16. I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.
17. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.
18. My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day, "Dad, what would happen if you ran over a ninja?" How the hell do I respond to that?
19. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.
20. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.

Inspiration?

Yeah...I've got nothing.

My new camera arrived today, but I realize that level of near-hyperventilating excitement is not shared by the general population. So rather than bore you with an original poem yet-to-be-written (titled 'Ode to my Canon Monster'), I'm just gonna head to bed.

Good night!

Bless Her Heart

Last week I mentioned I was doing some preliminary logo work for a non-profit organization called BlessHerHeart.org. Vi Kennedy and her husband lost their 29-day-old baby girl last year to TAPVR (the same thing Sunshine has). She had initially suggested a four-leaf clover (though I'm unsure why), but I felt a butterfly might be more appropriate. So I compromised. Stuck a body down the middle of a four-leaf clover, and we have a butterfly with heart-shaped clover-like wings. So I sent her the quick sketch to the left.
She also asked me to submit Sunshine's story to feature on the site. I'll work on that over the next few weeks.

Switch? Stay. Switch?

First, thought I'd share some Christmas freebies: http://www.nbcdfw.com/blogs/pennypinching/Christmas-Freebies-70149332.html

David and I are sitting here browsing the Verizon site for phones. We've been with T-Mobile since it was VoiceStream, but the coverage is still really on the spotty side. So on December 1st (or thereabouts), when our contract is up with TM, we plan to switch. However, better coverage on Verizon comes at a price. The plan we need is about $40 more per month than on T-Mobile. But TM's phone selection is sad, and the one I want is $150 cheaper on Verizon. Better coverage, better phones. More money. *sigh* Decisions, decisions.

Froggy, Froggy on the wall...

Just a quick post, mostly to share a cool photo I took today. We had lunch at Rosa's Café, a very colorfully decorated Mexican restaurant, while we were out running errands. In the middle of one wall, there were four brightly painted frogs, each probably about 3-feet wide? They're very cool and I love them. Anyway, this is a shot of two of them.

Weehuudalee hoober noobit

My hands are blue. I forgot to put gloves on when I was rinsing the dye out of the second backdrop. The first one turned out a bee-yoo-tiful brown. The second is very blue. Much brighter than I thought it would be. I'll assess it after it dries, but I may have to bleach it a bit.

This morning I grabbed my friend Stephanie and her 21-month-old daughter and we drove to Frisco to IKEA, where I bought the fabric to dye. Stopped at Cowboy Studio Lighting on our way (in Dallas). After school, Sunshine and I headed to Walmart and Hobby Lobby to get the RIT, and got back to Bookman's school just in time to retrieve him before heading home.

I would describe how utterly exhausted I am, but being that David just dragged in from work minutes ago (nearly 11pm) all muddy and sore, I'll keep my measly tiredness to myself.

I will, however, tell you that it was determined this morning that 'Weehuudalee hoober noobit' is much more fun to say than 'Weehuudalee hoo ha.' (In case you ever wondered.)

Oh Canada

We're working on a Canada project. She had to choose and research a country that interested her. I suggested Germany, or Italy, or Great Britain. Nope. Canada, eh. Had to look up the word 'patriated', since I'd never heard it before (Canada's constitution was patriated from the United Kingdom in 1982 *nodding sagely*).

Received those settlement documents today (woohoo!). Only had to check the mailbox six times. Celebrated by going out to Peter Piper Pizza for the PTA fundraiser night. The kids spent 40 tokens, cashed in tickets and chose prizes with no input from me--I sat and chatted with other PTA moms. :)

8:41 and David just got home. Going to visit with him....

Mr. Postman, bring to me...

I'm expecting some documents via mail from the insurance company, so I've been sitting here listening for the mailman while reading through some Veteran's Day articles and working on various Photoshop projects. Went out to check the mailbox twice in the last two hours. Was headed out a third time, but eventually made the connection in my brain between 'Veterans Day' to 'no mail service'. *rolling my eyes at myself* Dangit! I want the mail!

One of the photoshop projects I've been working on is beefing up the portfolio on my website. So I'm sifting through all kinds of old photos (the kind printed from 'film'--remember that? Yeah... *sigh* mem-ries), looking for anything that might be considered 'good.' Found these two and scanned them, then muted the colors a bit (that's the photoshop part). Taken the same day at a park in Altus. Such cuties!

Ooh look, a penny!

--Thirty minutes on the elliptical machine, 10 minutes on the nautilus machines, and 30 minutes on the recumbent bike. Worked out with Mom tonight and I'm beat.

--I was invited to visit a photography studio in Euless next week to kibitz with the owner and shoot some portraits of a willing victim. Just need to find said willing victim.

--Am doing some preliminary logo work for a newly-established non-profit organization dedicated to kids with congenital heart defects, like my Sunshine. Check out the website here: http://www.blessherheart.org. Very sad story under 'Our Story.'

--Spent a good amount of time on hold with JPS today, but have the info I need to hopefully negotiate my bill down a few thousand dollars. Will fax that off tomorrow.

--Got absolutely no laundry done today. (I know you were wondering...)

Almost behind me

Three milestones today:
1) I sent off the signature page for my part of the accident settlement.
2) The lawsuit was filed for David's part of the settlement.
3) I have a brand new shiny Tax ID number for my brand new shiny photography business.

So we spent some money to retain the lawyer, but will hopefully have a check in our hands by the end of the week. It's not nearly as much as I'd hoped I could get. Not nearly enough to cover the stuff I still go through on a daily basis as a direct result of this whole thing. But enough to just let it go. Put it behind me, pay the medical bills, and move on.

I suspect the accident that happened 17 years ago today may have a lot to do with why the accident that happened two years ago Wednesday affected me the way it has. The brain works in weird weird ways.

Designer Shirts :)

Every year, the PTA purchases class shirts for the 6th graders--not sure why exactly, it's just a tradition that's been upheld since before I got there. We discovered last year that it's a lot cheaper to design and have them printed ourselves than to use a company that specifically caters to school shirts--they cost the PTA less than half as much, actually. Since I'm able, I offered to submit a design again for this year's shirts. This is what I've been working on:


Photoshop is my program of choice, but I did this entirely in Illustrator, using another design as inspiration. This may be the most complex thing I've ever done from scratch in Illustrator. It's a little messy as far as construction, but I'm quite pleased with how it turned out, and I REALLY hope the other Board members love it. I'd love to see this on a t-shirt and say, "Hey, I did that!"

Settlement

We talked with the lawyer yesterday, and he kind of creeped me out a little. He seemed to dismiss David entirely, and really just rubbed us the wrong way. However, it's amazing how a phone call from an attorney's office will light a fire under a claims rep's booty. I talked to the rep at Farmers five or six times yesterday afternoon, negotiating a settlement amount that I could live with. It's not nearly what I asked for, but putting it behind me is much more valuable at this point. Hopefully we'll be able to get the release language worked out so I can sign and fax the forms on Monday.

David is deciding. Yesterday he was pretty intent on pursuing a lawsuit. Today he's considering settling. We need the money, but if he settles, he won't get even half of what he thinks is fair. So we'll see.

Anxiety

I'm going with David to the appointment with the lawyer today, so this morning I'm gathering up files, printing off copies of the accident report and burning photos to disc. Feeling lightheaded and nauseated already, so this is probably going to be a long day.

I really like to pretend nothing ever happened. It's much easier to remember only when I can't squash it down, like when I'm the last person in line at a stoplight, or worse, the last person in line in stopped traffic. And just go ahead and hand me the kleenex and look up the number for my 'counselor' if I'm the last person in line in stopped traffic on a bridge... It's been almost two years, and it still very much affects my life. Dammit.

Funky

Feeling kinda funky, not sick really. Just... Funky.

Tomorrow David meets with a lawyer about a possible lawsuit related to the 2007 accident. It would need to be filed before Wednesday if it can even happen. I'm thinking I need to attend this meeting, too, but David was kinda non-committal.

Not sure what's going on with the other guy's insurance. We were supposed to have another offer early last week, and have received no word. They're probably dragging their feet, hoping we won't file a lawsuit and they can offer whatever they want.

Update forthcoming...

I'm not a guy, either.

I think the check-out girls at Kroger this evening thought I was a guy. And possibly a cute guy? If so, should I be flattered? First, I'm pretty sure my $50 worth of groceries didn't need two extra girls to bag them. Second, as I was unloading my cart, they were talking rather loudly in odd, breathy voices between giggles about how very long ago they'd been seventeen (two years for one, three years for the other two). Third.... well, there is no third thing. It was just very odd.

Okay, I was wearing a Cowboy's ball cap over my bad-hair-day short hair, jeans, sneakers, and a hooded sweatshirt jacket. And no makeup. My decidedly diminutive bosom doesn't help, either. But I was wearing one-inch hoop earrings! Do guys wear earrings that big?

I just know they were screeching to each other as soon as I was out of earshot: "OMG! OMG! I totally thought that lady was a guy, didn't you?"

I'm pretty sure I couldn't care less...

I do not have a luggage fixation! I don't think. Do I?

Bookman isn't feeling well this evening, but I suspect it has more to do with the amount of homework he's put off until the last minute than with an actual bug. Gave him some echinacea and some tylenol for his sore throat, and told him to either go to bed (as in turn out the light and sleep) or get back to work. He's back to work.

In other news, apparently someone in Phoenix with a name remarkably similar to mine has a luggage fixation. Here's the story on CNN. I stumbled across the story on a Phoenix news website earlier today while looking at my site stats, which showed that several people arrived at my website by plugging her name into google and yahoo. While I'm glad to have the traffic at my site, I do hope her name doesn't tarnish mine.

And in a bit of totally unrelated news: I need to lay off the aspartame in diet sodas. It's been linked to memory loss, and I kind of scared myself today with a memory-lapse incident. I'll spare you the details, but I seriously thought I might be losing it. I'll blame the aspartame for now, and hope the short-term memory improves!

Autobiographer's Block

I spent much of the day today trying to come up with a short biography for my photography blog. One would think writing about the one person I know best would be relatively easy. But how do you simmer down all the pertinent information about yourself into four or five sentences? I ended up not posting one, but what was I gonna say? "I'm a geek and proud of it, grew up all over the world. I love nearly every sort of artistic pursuit and am even good at a few: photography, graphic design, painting, papercraft. I'm not good at interpretive dance."

Actually, that's not half bad.

NaBloPoMo and tall tales

November is National Blog Posting Month, and I'm going to take a stab at the goal of posting at least once a day for 30 days--on TWO different blogs. Check out the November 1st postings on Shutter Muse for my other NaBloPoMo project :)

My mother asked me today, "What did you do to your neck?" I'd kind of forgotten about it, because I um... sort of... um... injured... my neck at the base of my throat on Friday morning. David says it looks like I clotheslined myself, which is a much better explanation that what actually happened. Can't you see it? Maybe I was chasing after ChiChi to save her from the jaws of a rabid dog that had somehow gotten into our yard, and perhaps was so focused on her that I didn't see the clothesline, but didn't let it stop me. It could be that I hit the clothesline so hard and kept running that it snapped off, leaving a bright red welt on my neck.

What. It could totally have happened like that.

Or maybe--MAYBE I was in line at the convenience store when I saw the guy ahead of me pull out a gun! So perhaps I tackled him, making him hit his head on the counter and knocking him out, but the gun discharged and the bullet grazed my neck!

Maybe that one's a little far fetched, but still completely feasible! Right?

Right?

Okay, okay... *sigh* The truth is... I um... I.... I burned my neck baking muffins. Okay? Geez!

I was in a hurry. David was ready to walk out the door, and I was trying to get the muffins out of the oven and flipped onto a plate so he could scoop some up with a paper towel and take them with for breakfast. But my hands were in the wrong position for flipping. So I tried to reposition my hands without losing my grip on the potholders. Which I accomplished successfully. I did NOT lose my grip on the potholders.

I did, however, lose my grip on the pan, and it slid into my neck.

There, are you happy now? Surely I'm not the only person who has ever burned her neck whilst baking muffins.

;)