Monthly Archives: October 2009

by

Random thoughts

I should be in bed but I’m not because I took a nap this afternoon and now I’m not quite tired enough to sleep. Dang it.

I had to discipline someone else’s kid at the Pumpkin Patch today. I hate that. Z was on one of the bouncy slide things, and was scared to slide down, so this kid pushed her so she slid down.  He didn’t push her  hard, but it scared her, and was uncalled for. I asked him where his mom was and it was clear she was nowhere around, so I told him what he did was rude and that he needed to apologize to Z. He did, so end of story. Later I saw him with a bunch of other kids (obviously not related to him) and 1 adult, who apparently wasn’t keeping a fabulous eye on all of them. But whatever.
100_5376

I call this picture Zoe, with pumpkin. Original, I know.

We went to the Rosicrucian Museum today- so fascinating. Z was in a weird mood, so we didn’t stay as long as I would have liked to, but man it was cool.  And check out this mummy, just in time for Halloween:

100_5334Just for the record, Z did not see this mummy. You had to look up and over something to see it. We kind of downplayed the whole mummy thing, no need to get her all freaked out.

I’m having book club at my house tomorrow. I’m excited. We’re having yummy food. :)

I’m really excited about my new calling, which I should be sustained to this Sunday. It’s one of those times when I really feel “called” to what I’m going to be doing. It’s one of those callings that could be seen as “small”, but I see SO much potential for service and growth and fellowship. I’ve been catching the vision lately of how Relief Society can really work, and I LOVE it. It just makes me happy to be a part of it.

Don’t get me started on So You Think You Can Dance, all I will say is that I LOVED Wade’s group number – I love watching him develop as a choreographer, he’s just amazing – and I ADORE Jakob and Russell. And I’m heartbroken that Billy Bell is out of the competition, and they better let him come back next season, because he is possibly the BEST dancer they’ve EVER had on the show. And yes, that takes Nick and Danny into account.

There are these two glass pitchers that someone left in our trash room (people often do that with stuff they’re done with in the hopes that someone will take it) that are just gorgeous. One is green, the other is orange. I keep wanting to take them, but I seriously don’t need any more stuff in my house. I need to get rid of the stuff that’s already in here. Anybody want some stuff?

I’m currently reading 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers. It’s cute and funny. And long. It’s almost 700 pages. I’m not convinced that there’s actually a point to those 700 pages, but it’s entertaining none the less.

I’ve run out of random things to say. I’m going to bed.

Any randomness you’d like to share?

by

What people think of you

You know those quizzes you can take that ask you to answer “what would your friends say was your strongest quality”, or some such thing? I never know how to answer those, because I can tell you what I think my strongest quality is, but who knows if my friends think I’m more playful, serene, honest, or intelligent? How would I even find that out, short of polling them? And does my answer say more about what my friends think of me, what I think my friends think of me, or what I think of me?

Anyway.

Last night was our ward Halloween party, and I went out of my comfort zone and made a new friend. (Go me!) As we were talking, it came out that she had heard about me (I’m assuming it’s because book club is at my house), and in an attempt to figure out who I was, came to the conclusion that my friend, Kim, was “Maryanne Snell”.  I totally didn’t mind,  our ward is HUGE and it’s easy to get people confused.  But it got me thinking – what was it that she heard about me, and what is it that my friend and I have in common that made us confusable? It certainly couldn’t have been appearance, my friend is a gorgeous 6 foot tall Amazon, and I… am not.  It probably had more to do with us both being near the YW room than anything else, but it’s just interesting to think about.

I  assume y’all know that I don’t mean any of this in a “oooh, look at me, I’m so cool, people are talking about me” kind of way, I just know what it’s like when I’m trying to describe someone to someone else, and I just wonder about how I’m described.

It’s also interesting to realize how little I actually think about what people think about me.  It always catches me by surprise when people tell me that they heard something about me or that I came up in conversation.  I think about the YW who are in high school and are constantly concerned about what everyone thinks about them, even (especially?) people they don’t like, and I totally remember being in that space. Everything was about me, everyone cared what I did, everyone was watching and judging.  And now I know, no, everyone was worried about themselves and what they were doing.  I mean, we were teenagers, and teenagers can be jerks, so I’m sure some of the time they were judging, I know I was, but I’m sure it wasn’t nearly as much as I thought. And even if it was, so what?

I just finished reading the lesson for RS today (yes, in the middle of typing this post, I got a little distracted), and it’s all about this.  (Coincidentally?) The biggest point that I got out of it is that the more we stop paying attention to ourselves and concentrate on serving other people, the more effective we are at serving, and the more we develop as the people we should be. Conversely, the more we concentrate on ourselves, the less effective we are at serving, and the less we develop as the people we should be.

Anyway, I don’t know that any of this makes sense,  it’s just what I’m thinking about this morning.

And as a special bonus, cute girls in Halloween costumes! (click on the pictures to slightly bigger versions)

by

Presents! Oh presents!

It’s been a couple days of presents, woohoo! I love presents.

First, it was Liz’s birthday, and I was struck by inspiration at the craft store and ended up making her this:

100_5147

It’s a mini-album that is spiral bound, and then the spiral goes around the dowel.  (I didn’t come up with that idea, it comes in a package, but you have to have a certain kind of machine to do the binding, so if you live by me and are interested in making one, let me know, I can help you.)

The chipboard dividers were decorated by me, and then she can put photos on the white pages. Here’s some other views:

100_5146

100_5139

100_5124

100_5123

I really like how it turned out, and I love those crazy boho embellished flowers.

THEN, I got a package in the mail yesterday from my Auntie! My cousin Travis is going on a mission soon to Hawaii, and my Auntie  held a contest on her blog to see who would come the closest in guessing where he would be sent. I chose San Jose, CA, because, how cool would that be, and I was the closest!  So yesterday I received the package with my prize.

100_5163

She sent me a lei (for Hawaii, of course) and a gorgeous handmade table runner.  She didn’t send the candle in the picture, although she did send a candle, which didn’t end up in the picture. Whoops! :)

Seriously, I don’t have words for how much I love this runner, and how grateful I am to have something created by my Auntie. Just seeing it gives me warm fuzzies to think that she loves me. Aren’t aunties the best?  I’m seriously considering putting table runners on my list of potential presents for people this Christmas; they’re handmade, but not an overwhelming project.  Hmmm….

Because she’s incredibly awesome, she also sent presents for two very happy little girls:

100_5174

100_5170

As pillows are among their top 5 favorite playthings, the girls were beyond thrilled. Zoe was so pleased to have a “princess pillow, Daddy! Look, it has a princess crown! Because I’m a princess!”.

And speaking of presents, just a little heads up- Bath and Body Works currently has some awesome deals going on- buy 3 of their signature collection items and get 3 free, as well as a coupon happening where if you spend $15 you get any item up to $13 (I think) free.  AAAAAND, their anti-bacterial soaps are all $3 right now. So you could go get 5 soaps, give them out as presents to your friends this cold and flu season, and get a yummy treat for yourself. Or stock up on bubble bathy soapy lotiony goodness as Christmas presents for your friends and family.

Just thought you might want to know. :)

by

For Brandy

I found this on someone else’s blog, and knew Brandy would love it, so here goes:

1.If you don’t frequent your local library, why not?

We go to our local library all the time.

2. If you do visit the library, how often do you go?
At least every two weeks-ish. If I’m on top of it, once a week.

3. Do you have a favorite section that you always head to first, or do you just randomly peruse the shelves?
We hit the New Arrival shelves first, so I can grab books that look interesting, and then hit the kids section.

4. How many books are you allowed to check out at one time? Do you take advantage of this?
I have no idea what the library limit is. My personal limit is 3-4 for me, and 3 for Z. More than that and we lose them.

5. How long are you allowed to have the books checked out?
3 weeks, I think.

6. How many times are you allowed to renew your check-outs, if at all?
You can renew them twice, so you can have them a total of 9 weeks.

7. What do you love best about your particular library?
I love that I can renew my books online. Saves my life. That and the self check out kiosks. So awesome.

8. What is one thing you wish your library did differently?
Nothing really, it’s a great library.

9. Do you request your books via an online catalogue, or through the librarian at your branch?
Online. I don’t do it terribly often though.

10. Have you ever chosen a book on impulse (from the online catalogue OR the shelves) and had it turn out to be totally amazing? If so, what book was it, and why did you love it?

Most of my library picks are on impulse. Only rarely do I go in planning to pick up a particular book. But, books that fall in the impulse category recently: Pandora in the Congo, The Manual of Detection, The Salvage Studio…  Ok, I just checked, and out of the books that I checked out of the library this year and actually read (I don’t keep track of those I don’t read), only 2 were planned out ahead of time.

So if you’re so inclined, answer away! :) Yay libraries!

by

Get thee to a museum!

For our adventure day today we went up to the Cantor Museum at Stanford. I know that’s not the official name, the real name has Visual Arts and Center and Ms. Cantor’s first name in it, I just don’t remember how it all goes together.

We left with plenty of time for me to get lost, which usually happens at least slightly. It was good we had that added time today, because I relied on Google Maps to get me there, and Google LIED to me. I ended up on the other side of campus from where we should have been, but luckily we live in the future, and the maps function on my magical iPhone kept us headed in the right direction as we navigated our way on foot across the campus.  (We’d already paid for parking, and I didn’t feel like driving all over creation again.)

It was lovely walking through the campus — it really is gorgeous. Totally old school looking, and just beautiful.

100_5111

100_5113

The kids LOVED the museum. We only hit the Early European and Americas sections, we’re planning on going back a number of other times to see the rest. Too much at once and it starts to go a little blurry.  So this time we talked about painting, and how it looks different than drawing, and how woven baskets look different than clay, that kind of thing.

This was my favorite painting, Corridor in the Prison of Saint-Lazare by Hubert Robert. :

100_5103

And what was Zoe’s, you ask?

Was it this?

100_5076or this?

100_5075Oh goodness no.

This was Z’s favorite painting:

100_5073

It looked to me like a depiction of Dante’s Inferno, but it’s actually The Last Judgement. The artist is unknown, but it came from Cuzco, Peru.  Would you like a close up of the beauty that stole my daughter’s heart?

100_5102Yes, that would be damned spirits being speared down at the bottom, and other tortured souls being herded away…. but I don’t think she was noticing the detail so much as the color and size. :)

Her favorite other item was this:

100_5107-1The lady who greeted us as we entered told us there was a dragon, so we ducked into the Asia section on Z’s request, and this is what we found. She LOVED it.

She thought her daddy would like this:

100_5088I was highly amused by these:

100_5077

Remember this horror from the wildlife refuge a while back?

100_4931Apparently the “artist” was inspired by our friend Giuseppe Arcimboldo.  Arcimboldo’s paintings have charm and skill and artistic technique, however, while the two headed monstrosity above is just….. well, I’m sure whoever drew it made their mom proud. Or something.

We’re looking forward to going back again, and parking even remotely close to the museum this time. :)   My trekking across campus muscles haven’t been worked out like that for a while!

AAH! I totally forgot to post about this, and it was so cool. Around the balcony on the second floor, there was “sheet music” displayed.  It was made up of symbols, with their meanings left ambiguous by the composer.  Musicians come in at specific times and play their interpretation of the music.  I don’t remember the point- metaphysics of music or something, but it was such a deconstructionist Santa Cruz thing to see on such an old school campus, it made me incredibly happy. I’d love to hear how it’s interpreted. Here’s some of the music:

100_5068

100_5070

100_5069

100_5067

by

At this moment

at my house:
Zoe is watching Super Why. She LOVES Super Why with an obsessive love only equaled by her previous love for Curious George, Little Einsteins, Word World, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse… it seems she is quite fickle in her obsessive love. But still. She watches the same episodes over and over, and then acts out her own episodes, which is actually pretty dang cool. Her last made up episode consisted of Whyatt being scared, and them going into the book We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, where they made the bear go away by changing the words “It’s a bear!” to “It’s no bear”. Pretty clever if you ask me. And I love the fact that she’s getting indocrinated in the way of looking to books for answers to questions. That’s just awesome.

Tiny is practicing standing up. Hooray!

It is raining outside. We have to head out into the rain to go to preschool. Hopefully people have gotten all of the crazy rain driving out of their system already.

I’m trying to rework my household schedules to accommodate preschool, adventure days, and the fact that the girls are waking up later. I’m also trying to rework them to accommodate me actually, you know, following them. I’m not accustomed to schedules, and it’s an effort to make them work. But I know good will come of it, so I will work on it some more.

I’m still partly in my dream from last night, which consisted of meeting Mia Michaels (who was surprisingly kind and sweet) and B giving up his opportunity to dance with her company (a one time thing) to me. When I told B about the dream he laughed and said that wouldn’t be any kind of sacrifice, but in the dream it really was. In unfortunate news, I read yesterday that Mia Michaels is leaving So You Think You Can Dance, which makes me sad.

I’m reading and studying this talk: Being Temperate in All Things by Kent D. Watson this week. Feel free to read it too if you wish- I’ll post a book club post later today. I really need a LOT of help in this area, so comments and insights are so welcome.

I’m feeling a little off kilter. I got released from my calling as YW President a week or so ago, and while I’m feeling fine about the release, I realized that I’d gotten in the habit of my weeks going from Wednesday (when we had our YW activities)to Wednesday, and now my week doesn’t tilt that way any more. It’s kind of weird not having that kind of deadline now. I have a new calling but I haven’t been sustained yet (they haven’t been able to get a hold of the old person to release her), and while the new calling will change the axis of my week a little bit, it hasn’t started yet, so my week is still spinning a little free.

Time to head off to preschool and shopping, what’s going on in your house right now?

by

Read this

I’m reading Amish Peace: Simple Wisdom for a Complicated World by Suzanne Woods Fisher right now, and it is fantastic. I highly recommend it (well, based on the 60 or so pages I’ve read so far, but I can’t imagine it going south at this point). It’s very informative, and very inspiring.  I’ll come back and post some snippets when I have more time. Right now I’m off to get everyone ready for church.

What are you reading?

by

Lovely things

Some of you may not know I worked in the comic book industry for about 10 years. I managed a comic shop, wrangled comic book writers and artists (as well as cartoonists, animators, actors…)  for the country’s biggest (and best) comic book convention, and was director of marketing and sales for the best comic company there is. (Not that I’m biased.)

All that to say, I’ve seen LOTS of art, and I know what I like and what I don’t.  And this? I like.

147_large1We went up to APE (Alternative Press Expo) in San Francisco today, and when I saw the stuff on these folks’ table, I stopped dead in my tracks.  Seriously, I want one of every print they have. My whole house would be decorated in fake movie title cards if I had my druthers. (Isn’t druthers an awesome word?)  Instead I settled for the print above, and their book, Seductive Espionage, a fictional retrospective of the character Yuki 7 in film. SO awesome.

I got to see a bunch of my friends, which was nice, and I got to see a young lady who was a little 8 year old buying Archies and Catwoman comics when I worked at the store, and is now creating her own comics, and is a special guest at the show this weekend. (That’s a BIG deal.) Go Jamaica!

by

Don’t you love it

when you get up in the morning, read something, and it changes your life? (Well, maybe not life exactly, but certainly puts into words things you’ve been thinking and feeling?)

That was this this morning.

I think it may have broken my brain. I’m going to be thinking about it for quite a while.