a design pick me up

I'm actually supposed to be 1) washing dishes 2) doing laundry 3) working on Beautiful Day pastor invites.
But, poor Sam and her cheesecakes had waited long enough.
So I made cards and flyers for her just now...




Don't they just say "look at me! look circles, think cake! look some more!"

Won't you order a cheesecake from her, or donate to her Leukemia/Lymphoma fund?

crash n' burn, crash n' burn

You know that funny feeling you get when you're driving somewhere
and you suspect that there might have been a wrong turn somewhere?
And you convince yourself to keep driving until you're absolutely sure that you are practically in another state?
This is what happen on this website.



As we were making it, I could feel that it might get shot down.
That I shouldn't be "driving" and that it would all fall apart in the end, despite all our hours of work.

Yep, and I should have trusted my gut. My gut, it's a smart gut.

Anyway, I don't think it'll ever see the light of day, as in going live, to replace this.

But there is a bright side:

I was so maddened by the terrible fate of my website, that I got up and drove to meet with Trina and Kristen and we conspired to make something great.

Something that no one has ever tried, and something that I can be proud of.
Really confident in and proud of.
Code name project F.
But it deserves it's very own blog post later...

makes my nostrils flare

Since our fence is in shambles and our gate is virtually non existent, the dogs take it upon themselves to scurry on to the front yard when they are let out in the back.
Mojito in particular will bark at anyone or anything within a 2 mile radius of our front yard.
I hate that about him, it's his main character flaw. He's otherwise a very nice boy.

So this afternoon when I heard barking coming from in front of the house, after I had let them out back, I was irritated. And then I saw that I couldn't see them out front, because they were harrying a woman walking on the sidewalk practically two houses down.

I called them, they came and she flatly offered to shut our picket fence gate. I told her that it didn't matter, they can squeeze through it and that the problem will be solved when we fix our back fence.

And what did she reply?

"Maybe the problem should be solved before you fix the fence, then you wouldn't have one."

Oh really.

Listen, lady, it wasn't like they bit you. But now I wish they would have.

They're grouchy, but they're not a public threat.

Yankee Bowl party 2008

Thanks everyone for a great turnout here at the homestead for our super bowl party.
First ever baby-invitational, I think it went well, no sharp edges, all outlets covered, etc.
However, the pet dander factor shut down the baby demographic before we hit halftime. Sorry Baby E, I forgot to warn your mom and dad about our hairy pets. :<


(R-L) Dan, Ann, Steve, Dan McC


Bree [and brand new Baby L swaddled in the blankie], Jeff and Cristen


Jeff, Joe, Trina, Baby C


Sara, Matt McD, Baby C/Matt McN


Joe and Trina


Kevin, [crazy uncle] Brad, Jon


Baby C (duh).
She kept trying to get in the shot. I guess I can't blame her.

Baby Tuesday Supplemental

As promised, I took some photos today...at the park.




"how could you forget this face on Baby Tuesday?"

Baby Tuesday

I just realized I have no images of Baby R.
I'll have to take some when he wakes up from his nap and post them later.
Sowy.
But he took his first step on Sunday during the Super Bowl's halftime.
He did it right after my friend asked if he was walking, and I said, "no, not yet."
And then he took a step on his own!
Perhaps because Tom Petty was singing "Free Falling" he then fell down.



Baby C was say more interested in having her picture taken than watching Surf's Up.
She couldn't take more than 15 minutes of it before asking for Curious George instead.

Mojito will be a stand in for Baby R.

Look at that. It's like he made himself a Pooh-style bee hive and snuggled in.
He never ceases to impress me.


During the super bowl, despite Matt's extreme pet allergies, he allowed Mojito to achieve his own nirvana, the snuggly lap.

lame no more

because it's super tuesday, baby tuesday will be a little late.





But I want you all to know that I got up 6:30 AM to finish this [$%#^] poster.
If I get a bunch of critique, I'll post it right here. :)

tis the season of voting

So what do we like best?

man [and woman] make site

Hey look, Kevin and I made a website.
And it whipped us.

It's not "live" yet, but it works...mostly.

And it looks lovely. I'll let you know when you can click around.

ooh, science-y

Hey look, DNA geneology!

Takes all that pesky research out of your equation and pays someone else to figure it out.

Nice.

I wonder if the Mormons are behind it/\.

chipmunks and llamas

I think I've decided (with the absolute freedom to change my mind at any moment) to do Baby C's mural in the style of Richard Scarry's Chipmunk ABC's.
I may throw in a llama or two, just for some spice.

Don't worry Devon, I'm keeping my word, and by March 1st it will be done!

because I'm slowly becoming the knitty type of woman

Here's a slideshow of knit things that entertained me,
especially since on my 2008 to do list is "knit some stuff."

Make sure you catch the "knitta, please" and knitting-directly-from-a-rabbit photos. Those are my favorites.

bring back hats with veils!

Sometimes I feel I was born at the wrong time.
I love so many things about the 50's-- everything but Monsanto, Korean War and the Red Scare.
Just look how well I could blend in.
Long neck? check
Prominent bone structure? check
Bangs and loud lipstick? check

Sigh.

I don't even want to try for the post modern ideal of beauty.

I feel a interior design update coming over the horizon and I'm goin' mid-century aesthetics!

Baby Tuesday

Nevermind that Kevin has his eyes closed-- look how cute Baby C is.
And she looks like she's 5.


Baby R has had a rough few days. The "I teeth" are coming, and he's miserable.



Baby Luxe blankies, and only Baby Luxe blankies, have a magical calming effect. Even when they have big food stains and pony stickers stuck onto them.
I should buy back-ups in case of a blankie disaster.


Look at those little tree trunk legs.

At last, the pig and cow are painted in.
All they need now are labels like "boston butt" and "chuck."


This video is all over the place. And I look really tired, Baby C tricked me onto [bad lighting] film.

sleeper hit!

I just watched Surf's Up and it was the funniest movie I have seen in a long long time.
I did the I-can't-breathe-laugh more than once.

I can't believe it!

So-- funny. It's making my top animated film list, along with Emperor's New Groove and The Incredibles.

See it, buy it, it's great.

it's my fragrance, it's here to stay

Actually, it smells like an old lady's lavender sweater.

But I do own three bottles of it, despite not liking the smell, for obvious reasons.
And that does kinda look like my signature, how 'bout that?



I need that guy to follow me around and talk about how "wow" I am.

....but I'll pass on the sateen jumper.



p.s. I can't handle the anxiety of picking a preschool for Baby C. It's giving me indigestion, so I blogged this instead.

tootsie-ittles

I impulse-bought a pack of chocolate skittles last night. Without Baby C having any knowledge of said skittles, I've been sampling them throughout the day.

Verdict: kinda good, kinda dumb

They want to be M&M's so badly, but they land somewhere in Tootsie Midge Land.
(I have a stamp on my passport from my visit there)

I'm sure if I read the fine print on my orthodontic agreement, chocolate skittles render our contract null and void.
Dr. Keller must never know!

whew!

A friend told me that she heard that microwaving vegetables kills 90% of the nutrients off.

I was shocked and worried, since I almost always eat frozen vegetables cooked in the microwave.

I finally got around to looking it up tonight and it's [mostly] not true.

NY Times thinks it's not true either.

Baby Tuesday

The babe's and I were watching the Today show and eating our Puffins and bananas, when the local news reported snow in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Oooooh!

We scurried to get warm layers on, packed into the car and went on the hunt for snow.


Where'd my braces go?
How strange!


We found this knoll right on Mountain Charlie Road.
How could we not stop on my namesake's knoll?


Other moms had the same idea I had for their toddlers.
One lady brought out a grass mat for her kids to use as a sled, which encouraged another to get some big plastic bags from her car for the rest of the kids to use as sleds.

This one little boy was whining and pouty most of the time we were there. I told Cricket tht maybe she should go see him and try to make him feel better (I'm trying to instill some sort of compassion in her). She walked over to him and I said "why don't you give him a hug?" And she hugged him and he pushed her off and cried louder.
Ooops.
Okay, bad idea. I admit it.
But all the other moms and I praised her for being nice. So I guess it counts for something.

Baby C wanted to 'bag it' so I let her.
And then there was crying.
And then we left to get hot chocolate.

we're productive at times

Today, I made this:



And Kevin made this.

Nothing is ever good enough for either one of us. So we're both ho hum about our respective products.

But it was better than eating cheez puffs and watching TV right?...wait, no...

apparently I don't need therapy, I need geometry

Some friends were discussing the ennegram personality types this morning.
Maybe you've heard of them.
It seems kinda like the rational person's horoscope.

Anyway- I browsed I believe I am a 4:

Fours: Romantics, Individualists, Artists

Fours are driven by the desire to understand themselves and find a place in the world. They often fear that they have no identity or personal significance. Fours embrace individualism and are often profoundly creative and intuitive. However, they have a habit of withdrawing to internalize, searching desperately inside themselves for something they never find and creating a spiral of depression.

Ego fixation: melancholy
Holy idea: originality
Passion: envy
Virtue: equanimity
Stress point: Two
Security point: One

Yep, right on.
Kevin's a 1, which is my "security point" which makes our relationship healthy from my perspective. However, I was dismayed to find that his "stress point" is 4.
Great.
Now I'm stressed that I am his stress point. How cruel this nine pointed star is!
Sam, you're a 2.
Trina, you're a 4.
Those are the only ones I know. Sorry, Mom and Aurora, I can't decide where you fall.

Do share.

is there *any* age for "dark materials"?

I was just browsing Amazon.com's children's books and I clicked "ages 4-8."

At the top of the list of books recommended for kindergarden-ish age children is:
His Dark Materials Trade Paper Boxed Set

nein danke

death to cat!!

Comments response:
I spoke with a vet assistant way back when she first started this and she was convinced that it was because of the new addition of Baby R. Especially since his room used to be her room. She has had a year to get over it. But she hasn't.
She was a outside cat when she was taken in by the cat lady who we adopted her from, and I don't see why she can't be an outside cat again (except it sucks making sure she doesn't dart in when a door is opened).

Olive has just peed on Baby R's blanket for the THIRD time!
I suspect she is also peeing under our bed (I'm almost absolutely sure, but I haven't moved our big heavy bed to pinpoint ground zero), so I keep her out of our room at night.
But as soon as I open the door in the morning, she darts in and pees on something!

She's peed on:
the carpet (many many times)
my new leather jacket
R's blankets
a mattress (which we obviously had to throw out)
our clothes
our blankets
the beanbag (more than once)
C's blankets
...and I'm sure more things I can't remember right now.

Who will pick up a torch and pitchfork with me?!

Baby Tuesday

Despite what my blog would have you believe, alot went on in the past week, and I'll try to blog it before the pics get so old no one cares anymore.
Until then-- babies!

Baby R is almost walking. He can walk with a little assistance from his big plastic lion friend. He can stand on his own, cruise the furniture with ease, clap his hands and crawl into the kitchen to tell me he's hungry. And yelling, that tells me he's hungry too.



Our furry adopted babies. They huddle cutely like this almost the entire day.



Again she asked me to take her picture. And just like Mommy, makes the are-you-taking-it?-face.


Little fat guy lookin' fat. The camera adds weight, he doesn't look this portly in reality. But he does often have food all over his face.


I'm too lazy to photoshop my extra chin out of this shot.
I'd rather spend that 2 minutes eating breakfast in peace.
Sloth and gluttony triumphs over vanity!
I'm makin a goofy face anyway, I can't salvage that.

Baby Tuesday

We have begin potty training and I believe that this is harder on my nerves than the whole 9 months of pregnancy.
It sucks.
It makes me want to just keep her in diapers until she's 15.
And once again, it makes me question why some couples have 8 children.



Thanks Auntie Dianne and Sandi for my new sweater!




Naked and banging on the door, two of his favorite things.

Other favorite things:
Biting
Grabbing
Yelling
Eating
Slobbering
More biting*

*I have a really deep blue bruise on my thigh where he attacked me like a ninja beaver and chomped down with his 6 teeth. It hurt so bad!



She said "take my picture!"
And so I got the camera and took this.

i did this until 2:15 a.m.

UPDATE: The designs weren't as well received as I had hoped.
I'm a little be-pouted about it.
I almost said "do have any idea how little I know about websites? and look what I did!"
I should have said "I guess that's why I got a C in Graphic Design II."

I'm tired, but I made progress!




new website design, by moi.


new logo

Franklin's gone!

I let the dogs out this afternoon, in the backyard, just for a quick break because there's a really huge storm today. And then boom! the back fence fell down!

I asked Kevin to help make sure the dogs were okay and all he came back with was Mojito. Franklin wasn't under the fallen fence, but we can't find him at all.

The shelter says no one has found him or brought him in.
I've walked and driven around the whole neighborhood twice. But it's raining and windy.
He's gone.

UPDATE!
My neighbors brought Franklin to my doorstep, exactly 5 hours after he went missing. Apparently he got himself trapped in their backyard (in the pouring rain and wind!). When they got home, they found him pawing at their backdoor. I am so happy to have him back!