pretty little kevin face 

:) 

home improvement with a side of bacon

I'm currently a part of a volunteer team that is remodeling the outsides of homes that have been cited by the city for "blight". That is, their neighbors complained that they have an ugly house.
Of course these people are have reasons why they can't help themselves, they're old, they're infirm, they have mental problems. So that's where we come in.
I'm the "designer" head of the team, which also means I'm the only woman. We toured the homes and I took measurements and photos, etc, so I could draw up plans on how to fabulize the houses.
This one man's house is a crack up. He had toilets for flower planter boxes, light-up reindeer and chachskis galore out front. Then, we walk in back and find that he has a little friend living back there. I had to take a video.



I'm going to call her Miss Piggie.

Hopefully we can re-do her house, too!

again, thank you Flickr

I was seraching for chinchilla photos on Flickr, when I came upon this.



I had a chinchilla once, and I think it would have fought to the death rather than wear a costume.

I can't wait until tuesday!

I was gonna save this until Baby Tue, but I can't!

We find out whether the new baby is a boy or a girl in two weeks!

Two weeks!!!

You can't take the tacky outta me!

My wig came!
[fanfare]

I love it! I wore it to the grocery store yesterday (because I can only wear it amoung strangers). But then I felt bad when the she-butcher behind the meat counter complimented me on my hair and 'how did [I] do it?'
Moral dilemma!
I couldn't tell her it was fake. I just couldn't. So I lied, I totally did.


yes, I got my wig, and it's great. Is this the first step to mental illness? 

fake? what? 

I know, it's an up the nose shot, but you can see the length in this one. 

too GOP?

I recently desgined this "title slide" as I call them, for our latest series at church. We sat around and thought since the series is so long, we should make it like Time magazine, every week being a different cover, etc.
So this is the first one I've done. And as I'm made it, I began to feel very Christian Coalition. Like, this is a publication I would pass over in the bookstore because it looked too Republican.

It's kinda icky like that.

Oh well.

Baby Tuesday

Well she's enjoying her life as a one year old now. Only things to report are:
After watching me blow cool air on her sore butt while changing her diaper, she has learned to blow. Too bad it was after her birthday or we wouldn't have has to blow out her candle for her.
Also, she rubs her fingers together like Kevin does to get the cat to come. It doesn't work when she does it, but it's cute.
She may have said "thank you" yesterday after I handed her the little pony. Alright, it sounded more like "tankoo" but I think that's what she meant. It's yet to be repeated.



Alright I'll smile, that's close enough! 

We tried pigtails since her hair is kinda long enough on the sides. She looks miserable, but it's only because Daddy is about to leave and she knows it. 

The only thing this picture is missing is a jazz musician in the background smoking a cigarette, no? 


I bet, if you look closely under a microscope, you'll see that other crickets have big gold sparkley antenna too.  

[high pitch girl squeel!!!!]

THE MICROBUS IS COMING!!!

THE MICROBUS IS COMING!!!


AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!

Edmunds.com said so!!!


AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!


(Even though it says it won't look as cool as this one, I don't care, I'll love it anyway.)

You will be mine, Microbus!!!!!!

I'm sure you've all heard, but

I've been upset all week about Dwayne "Dog" Chapman and his son and brother being extradited to Mexico for the stupidest reason I have ever heard. I'm so mad I want to drive down to Mexico and protest.
A friend of mine (also a law student, if anyone cares) sent this, and I thought I'd share it:

I watch Dog: The Bounty Hunter all the time because it's just good TV. I don't know why, I don't know how, but the mix of the show is just too good to turn off.

He was arrested for a bounty in Mexico.

The guy who he arrested (3 years ago I might add) was a rapist, heir to the Max Factor throne, and is currently serving a 124 year sentence.

It's a crime to detain someone in Mexico, deprivation of liberty. . .kinda like false imprisonment here only Mr. Max Factor money was probably paying the government some hefty cash to hide him.

Dog was arrested for this crime 3 years ago, spent a couple of days in jail and then missed a follow-up hearing. . .god only knows why. . .I imagine he wasn't even told he had one, it seems ridiculous for a Bounty Hunter to not show up to his own hearing.

The original crime that Dog is being extradited for is a MISDEMEANOR. You can't extradite someone from state to state for a misdemeanor so this is totally bull*** for the most part.

The real crime was committed when Andrew Luster decided to brutally rape 3 victims. . .not when Dog went and found him hiding in Mexico. Mexico wouldn't turn him over, why should we turn Dog over for a much lesser crime?

Oddly enough, this is happening right before the midterm elections in a time when immigration reform is hot on the plate. This also follows the Mexican elections, brand new president. . .not to get into conspiracy theory but it's fun.

Here's the best story I've found about it so far.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14839076/

there's always that guy

I'll go ahead and make a habit out of critiquing undesirable men on my blog and tell you about The Letch.



It seems The Letch is everywhere.

He's a client/patient/employee at your work, he's a neighbor on your block, he's an attender of your church.

You can't escape The Letch.

The Letch seeks you out if you are, female, relatively young and not severely disfigured.

He wants you to think he's charming, although he's either old or fat. I've yet to meet a Letch who is neither, and often he is both.

If you have the misfortune to be in contact with The Letch on a regular basis, The Letch hugs you. Ugh! Listen Letches, I'm not a hugger in the first place, and frankly I'd rather hug a leper than you. (Sometimes I feel like making a shirt that says, "Jesus loves you, but don't hug me.")

I usually feel common decency pressure to make small talk with The Letch. And although I'm just mostly smiling and nodding, he's hearing "she wants me."

I assure you Letches, we women, all women, do not want you. We might want to wax your back, but we do not want you.

I finally bought one

Although it shouldn't come as a surprise, I imagine it is much to my husband's dismay that I bought a wig off of Ebay this afternoon.
I was watching Stacy London, on TV and I was burning with jealously for her big pretty hair that I can never have. So I got off the couch and bought a wig (like a crazy prego lady).
Those local readers of mine might see me about town looking like this:


(I will be wearing a shirt most likely, and probably less eye makeup.)

It's like what my hair would naturally look like if I slept in rollers and had hair as thick as a shetland pony.

more!

This is the only one I have of me in it, thankfully. I looked pretty tor' up, it was hot and I'm pregnant, so I dressed like caca.



I like this photo because Kevin's making the 'are you taking the picture' face. He insists that he wasn't but, clearly that's the face.


Oh man, the goat interaction was cute enough to make me want to cry. Those goats were so small and she loved them!!












She was a little tired on the way home from the zoo. All those goats and guinea pigs will wear a baby out.


Check out the cake. I thought I was getting a "small" one when I ordered 7 inch, but dang, that thing wasn't half gone by the time we had all had our pieces. Kevin took this shot, which I was thinking was of the cake, but it's like a thanksgiving style pic of "this is what we ate."
BTW, notice that I own TWO super-kitchen-utensils. They are the best, you can get them at Bed Bath & Beyond. Your food will never be the same.

we can't wait a week

Yesterday was her birthday! Yippee!
We started the morning by turning her car seat around, as is fitting now that she's 1 yr and over 20 lbs. She was much happier that way.
We drove down to Capitola in the morning and fetched her purple "princess" cake from Gayles.
Key equation for a harmonious car ride:
Dixie Chicks + teething ring + forward facing seat = happy bug.

Then Auntie Sandi, the Grandparents Thayer, her dad and I took her to Happy Hollow. She loved it!...




She was helping make the fruit salad-- alright she was gnawing on strawberries while I cooked.


Who doesn't love a petting zoo? Maybe the animals, but they did like the little pay-for-pellets that we fed them.




Meerkats! They were very accomidating and still so she could see them. I think she might have mistaken this guy for Mojito.

poor little butt

Poor little bug has diaper rash on her birthday, she's not happy about it.

I blame myself for her sensitive skin and for feeding her grapes on accident which brings it on.

I'm sorry!

Baby Tuesday

I was considering postponing the B.T. until tommorrow which is her birthday, but then I realized I'd be too tired by the end of the day to want to post anything, then it would roll to thursday, the masses would riot-- it'd get ugly.
Here are just a few morsels to tide you over until the big Happy Hollow baby-fest.



Don't you get a depression era feel from this?  

excellent pic, daddy-o! 

this one looked better in blue for some reason. 






A few days ago her father insisted that she kicks the big soccer ball. I was dubious. "I think she's just trying to pick it up and she runs into it," I said to which he made a face. So here is proof, I saw it and now you cacn too, that she is actually kicking the ball. I guess some good has come from him kicking the ball in the house.

I think I know why you're single

Over the years, various friends of mine have been on Match.com looking for men.

Something has struck me about most of the men on there and I need to share it with the hopes that someone is listening.

The 90% of the men fall into these two categories:

A. I Am A Man's Man.
That's fine if you are. Fine.
But when your screen name is MustangMan or ilikebeer it's like you're trying to be cool to other men. Women don't care that you're obsessed with Mustangs, shhh keep a secret and don't make it your screen name. And the best way you can market yourself with is your love of beer? That's not gonna make the women swarm to your door, dude.
One guy I saw had as his very first photo, y'know the one you see when you click his profile, a picture of him covered in a dozen dead ducks he'd just shot. Sir, that was a bad decision. Women, in general, don't like hunting. Write that down.
Lots of self portrait, grainy photos with the up-the-nostril point of view. Not flattering on anyone. Or they look like beastly angry mugshots. Do you want a date or not?

or

B. I Think I Know What Women Want
They have names like natural_charmer and nice_guy_27. I don't know who wants that business. Their photos are trying to be the cover of Teen Beat, I can almost see them bat their lashes. Creepy! "Women tell me I have nice eyes..." Blech! Stop it already, I can't take it.


So gentlemen, let some women you know edit your profile. If you're not shopping for man-love or a soap opera role, change your ways.

wikipedia really does have everything

My high school (and also Allison's, Lacy's and Aurora's) is on Wikipedia!

Richardson High School

Finally now I have black and white proof that the Pearl Jam "Jeremy" song is about the guy from RHS. Thank you!

And holy moley, Anne Rice, Robert Tilton and Bill Engvall are alumni! Amazing!

Talons up, people!

in Brazil, even baby chicks are festive

Allow yourself to meditate on this Flickr find...

Baby Wednesday

I really thought yesterday was Monday.
It didn't occur to me all day that it was in fact Tuesday and I should post baby stuff.

Oopsie.

Two videos this week, no pics...



She loves to pull the CD's off their shelf and put them in a big pile. I only let her do it once because I thought she was going to do something with them after she pulled all of them out. She didn't she just tried to use the pile as a stepstool to reach higher objects on the shelf.
During this little flick I thought maybe she was going to pull them one by one and hand them to me. But after the camera stopped because the memory was full, she went back to her old CD-dumpin' ways.



Did I mention she walks now?
And when the dogs bark, she hits the deck!


In other baby news, I ordered her birthday cake this morning from Gayle's Bakery in Capitola. I've always wanted to get one of their princess cakes but never had a good reason to until now. It'll look just like that spherical purple one in the photo. :)

Also regarding the pregnancy, last night I unknowingly made myself a heartburn cocktail of a dinner last. I woke up at 1:30AM and rumaged through our medicine basket for a remedy. I found some Milk of Magnesia that had been given to me in Africa, four years ago. I took some, although I don't think it did anything. After two hours of watching TV upright on the couch, I got on the internet and found that bananas are a natural antacid. So I went to bed, stared at the ceiling, contemplated life and ate my banana.

One other thing, I have just realized that I have baby poop on my shirt. And doing the math, I'm pretty sure it's been there for about two hours.
Good times.

big house people don't have these problems

The "office" I am currently blogging from will soon be no more. It will be a green kids' room and all this stuff is getting evicted.
Our oddly laid out dining room is the only logical destination for our officey stuff but we're once again going to need the help our our friend the Swede, IKEA.

After a very thorough investigation of their many wonderful storage solutions, I have deicded there are only two configurations that will function in our 54" x 66" corner.

I have taped them out onto the carpet thusly:



Basically, one way involves only utilizing the longer wall so that the filing cabinet will still function.
And the other way nixes the filling cabinet altogether and incorporates a dandy "corner cabinet."

Both options would go all the way up to the ceiling, mind you.

I was thinking that I only really currently use 2 of our 4 drawered file cabinet, and the rest could be boxed up right? Right. We have a little "jr. size" two drawer cabinet that is presently filled with unimportant stuff that could also be boxed up and put in the garage. That was my thought for "option 2" w/the corner cabinet.

Thoughts?