post walk 

another assignment

Again I have been given an assignment from Westgate: Prayer Room sign. This is my idea.
It'll be about 4' x 3' and made out of mdf board...the room is red, does it make more sense knowing that?

 

what a racket

You'd have to live in a hole not know about the scrapbooking fever that's swept the country.
And since people know I'm crafty, they're often surprised to hear that I don't scrapbook, that I just put my unmolested photos in, gasp, photo albums.
But like I said before, I now have the Italy photos, all 200+ of them. And if I don't write down what's in those photos, I'll forget in a few years. The answer, I thought-- scrapbook them.
I had bought a sensible black leather book to put them in about 6 months ago. This afternoon I opened that puppy up and found that it did not come with enough pages to accomidate my bevy of images. Alright, I'll need more pages...
Oh, and page protectors...
and photo corners...
and special adhesives...
and sparkly doo-dads!...aaa!
This is going to be the most expesnsive photo album ever!
It does not appeal to the starving artist in me, this whole specialty market of scrapbooking.
Hopefully I can get to Michaels (my cheapo art supply headquarters) tomorrow and find some resolve.
At this point, no, I'm not going to scrapbook the baby photos, they are getting their own exclusive photo albums and that's it. That's it, I tell ya.

this desk is ready for re-entry into our atmosphere

A friend of ours sent this photo of how he covered a co-worker's cubicle in foil. I had to show the world. And by "world" I mean the 5 people that read this blog.  

It's like COPS with a heart

Dog The Bounty Hunter is a new must see TV show for me. The mullet woo'ed me in, but the family element keeps me coming back for more. 

if you don't think this is cute, somthing is wrong with you

A very nice lady gave me a Boppy. (The name gives me the creeps, in a Barney/BabyBop kind of way.)
Many people swore by these overgrown neck-pillows like they were the holy grail of breastfeeding. But I haven't really used it, it's too awkward.
This morning I set Cricket in it while I made my oatmeal. Then I picked her up and we sat together on the couch while I ate. When I finished, I looked over and saw this:

Mojito knows how to use it better than me. 

nothing coherent, I need more sleep for that

Did you know that Stephen Baldwin is a Christian? That made me happy (I glazed over the "why it's OK to call the Lord 'dude.'" thing, I blame it on the geeky interviewer.)

also

I enjoy this site's stickers.
I have this one on my car.
I use these to stick on porn vending machines around the south bay. (Am I the only one that wants to kick those over and set them on fire?)
And I gave this one to Allison to wear on her first week of work.
I like those bandaids, but I haven't bought them yet.

and lastly my Kevo movie report (Kevin made his own Tivo, I call it Kevo)

The Milagro Beanfield War
We both really liked it. I'll say it was probably the best movie made in 1988. There's a quirky New Mexican pig and Christopher Walken in it, what more could you want from a movie?

Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator
Facinating. Did anyone remember this? I was too young and not skate-y when it all went down.

Oprah
Ok not a movie but I did Kevo it. Last week she did a show about child molesters/killers and at the end featured ten fugitives and said she would give $100,000 to whoever spotted them and turned them into the FBI. 48 hours later, two were in custody, thanks to Oprah viewers!! She did a follow up yesterday and one guy was living upstairs from a family of 3 litte kids. Aaa!
I want to turn one in! My eyes are peeled!

Baby Tuesday

Cricket is one month old today...well according to the weeks. The 13th won't be for a couple more days. Last night I employed a huge cup of Mountain Dew and it helped me stay up and keep the mindset of if she stays awake all night, I can too. I got five hours of sleep total, not terrible.

This is my favorite baby mode: deep sleep! 

Self explanatory. 

It was Cricket's first day at church. Couture: handmade from the senior center. :)  

Y'all gon' make me lose my mind, up in HERE, up in here

Last night ws my first no-kevin-help night (he went back to work today).
IT SUCKED!!
I had to stifle my own scream of desperation at least 3 times. She would sleep for 5 min, cry for 10 min over and over and over, all night!
I'm gonna have to get a coffee maker. So tired!!

Italy...more than a year later

I finally decided to get my Italy photos from last year printed. I happened to fix a few icky photos of myself at the same time, here's a sample...

Me in a water taxi in Venice. 

Thank you photoshop, now I look normal in front of the tower of Pisa. 

ahorra, soy una madre

I joined Las Madres today.
I have mixed feelings about it.
I mean, I know, the site looks nerdy, but I think it'll be okay. It was recommended to me by a surly mother of two that said it keeps her sane. She won't be in my particular group, but I'm hoping there will be more surly moms mine. Because if it's all ex-cheerleaders or women old enough to be my mom, I'll be sad.

I know it's not Tuesday

But I had to show everyone!
Kevin's mom sent photos of him as a baby.
See Fig 2.
And I took a corresponding photo of Cricket,Fig 1.
Look at that! Everything but the mouth.


Fig 1. 

Fig 2. 

frump hair--gone!

I got my hair done, finally. Although I'm making a really stupid face in this photo, my hair is showcased nicely. Hence, the smiley. (Without the flash it looks much darker.) 

my own SPIN magazine article

In the past week, Kevin and I saw *one* movie and bought *one* CD (although it's a double, so I guess that's two). Here's my review of both.


Proof. I give it an A-.
Pros: Good dialog, acting and a very original idea for a script. And a happy ending, I won't give a movie anything more than a B if it's a sad ending.
Cons: Jake Gyllenhaal, a.k.a. Mr Teen Beat, was pretty dang unlikely as a math nerd.  

Out of State Plates by Fountains of Wayne. I give it an A+.
Pros: 2 CD collection of "B-sides" and few live recordings of previously released songs. Not a bad buy for 12.99. We love you FOW!
Cons: How can a CD have a B-side?
lyric sample: "And I'll never throw your mail away
And I won't tell you that your hair looks grey
And I'll let you listen to Sugar Ray
And I'll say I love you every day"  

Baby Tuesday

Cricket is now 3 weeks old and here are more photos of her, in addition to the one to the right of us napping (and Mojito pushing the baby out of the way).
Since it is Baby Tuesday, I want to propose an invention. The working title is "baby food holder." Inevitably anytime I'm hungry or am about to eat, the baby wants to eat or is hysterically crying-- both requiring the attention of at least one hand. How can I hold a bowl, of say cereal, and a spoon at the same time? I tell you, I can't, and here is where the baby food holder would come in. That's a free idea, please someone make one for me!



a jowl-y pic of the little Thayer face 

I won't say how smart I think she already is but I'm thinking it. 

more reading 

chorizo, bug and bean dog 

Mojito wants his diaper changed 

say it ain't so!

(if you have a weak constitution, don't read this post)
I realized last night that I may have a cold sore...and I may have had them before and I didn't know it (that kinda makes me feel dumb). The jury is still out, it doesn't look like the cold sores I've seen on other people, but WebMD is telling me it's a possbility. But the clues are adding up-- and I am not pleased.

this is what I've been working on

Our church helps out local elementary schools, and one in particular has a room that they wanted to make into a science room but they don't have any money to furnish it. So the pastor in charge of outreach decided we'd do our own Extreme Home Makeover version of a science room and asked me to design it.
Of course I thought: uh, are you sure you want me to do it? And then played it cool like I do this kind of thing all the time.
So below are the concepts I turned in today, apparently the room is really big and will be divided into four separate spaces. Each space will have lots of information panels about each concept too, I just didn't bother including them in the pictures.
I'm a little worried that he'll look at these and say "hmmm, interesting. I think we'll use someone else, thanks though."
If anyone has any ideas on how I could make them better, please comment!

ocean 

geology 

nature 

space 

in case you didn't notice

the big gap in my most recent post is gone! All thanks go to Kevin for fixing the html!

Go to Sam's page

Kenneth G. Ross, 7th Battalion, 159th Aviation Regiment, died in Afghanistan on Sunday. He was 24.

affirmative on the pouch

The Maclaren baby pouch a.k.a. Baby Bjorn works great. She loves it. Well, she doesn't love it when I have to push all her limbs into place through the holes in the pouch. But when she's in, much like riding in the car, she's happy and falls asleep (woo!).
It's like I'm pregnant again the way she hangs out in it on my belly, but I can take her off at any time, I can drink a coke while walking around with her, and my ankles don't swell up. heh.
P.S. Cricket had her 2 week appointment this morning. Points of Interest: She's way above the weight gain norm, she's 9lbs 8oz now. And the nurse said he's never seen such an active 2 week old. She's a squirmer!

a tribute post

Don Adams, a.k.a. "Agent 86" died yesterday.
Get Smart was one of my favorite TV shows when I was a kid (yes, they were re-runs). I secretly wanted to be Agent 99. For those of my generation that have no idea what I'm talking about, at least know that Get Smart was the inspiration for Inspector Gadget.