Thursday, August 21, 2008

My Da

cat
more animals


In other news, manual cameras are ungodly expensive. I need a 35mm fully manual film (duh) camera for my Photography 1 class this semester, and after getting some pointers at a local film shop and doing some online searches, Da & I bought me a used Nikon F3 yesterday. Used price: $350, price new: about $1000. I quease. I'm really looking forward to the class though, even though this prof allegedly thinks his class is the only one you have, and gives you a workload appropriate thereof.

2.5 more days of packing left. Today I start disassembling things. Also, I have some work to do on my portfolio from Drawing 1; the drawings all slid & curled under at the bottom while sitting in the portfolio, so now I need to tape them by the cover-sheets to cardboard pieces and that should get them straightened out. Four of the pieces in particular I think are quite nice for beginner work, and I intend to submit the allowed number in the school's juried show in January.

~Brill

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

More lolcats

cat
more cat pictures

I have been renamed.


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more cat pictures

Thankfully not on the listed side effects of any of my meds....

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more cat pictures

And this is for Monkey (what I look like, not her).
I really should sleep, but this is so much more fun than some of my recent dreams.

Monday, August 18, 2008

What I do when I should be doing other things

cat
more cat pictures


This is me were I a cat, at least attitudinally. lolcats make me extremely happy, and it's a very good distraction from all the packing I should be doing.
School starts back on Sunday, and I'm only half packed. On a positive note, I'm half packed! This time last year I wasn't even that. Of course I also have a birthday party and a doctor visit in the interim, but it's still less.

The kids returned to school today, and it was blissfully quiet, and I got a massage. Le Batard has taken it upon himself to learn the art of massage, and both Monkey and myself have volunteered/were asked to be his practice dummies. I was quite happy.
Then I went to pick up Buster this afternoon. The High School decided that just before the year started was a great time to tear up a quarter of the main parking lot, right where kids usually wait. So now, instead of 4 lanes of traffic at the main pickup point and two lanes at the main road entrance, the whole shoot and match is now two re-routed lanes.
The people who drive in this town and especially at the school do not need this; the majority of drivers in that lot are blithering imbeciles who do not need construction to garnish their perfected massacre of the practice of driving.
I came down the road towards the school, had to pass two cars stuck behind another who refused to turn before I could finally get back into the correct lane, and pulled into the second (main) entrance. Buster saw me (our vehicle would be hard for a blind man to miss, it's so huge), and got in as soon as I stopped. The administrator they had trying to direct traffic motioned forward the car ahead of us. Nothing. More frantic motions. Nothing. The driver is sitting in the only lane in this direction waiting for his/her/it's spawn.
It's 20 minutes after school finished, but more people than usual still remain, and this car is holding up traffic. Finally another admin comes over and much gesticulation and exchange later, the car s l o w l y moves forward and trundles off into the doldrums of the parking lot.
I passed him/her/it and proceeded to freedom. Neither Buster nor I is amused at this point. Because of construction there's a large, very legible, noticeable sign that says cars in my lane must turn right, with adequate room given to switch around an island to the left turn. When I pass this sign, what do I find but a DIFFERENT driver from the original incompetent who decides that manners and common sense do not apply to him; his tail end is in front of me, blocking my escape from the hellgrounds when he noses his front in front of another oncoming car... and sits. Passes up an opportunity to go, and rather a lot of traffic goes by before he can next leave, freeing us.
Have I mentioned that I hate the HS parking lot?!?!?

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Hazard pay

Gently insert fingers into hair.
Massage lightly to ensure maximum intertwine-age.
Take a deep breath.
...
Let it out at the highest possible volume as you yank the ever-loving daylights out of your cranium.
Rinse and repeat.

Mum and Da left yesterday for a five day camping jaunt at a much higher latitude and elevation. Just the two of them, no kids. Well, plus the large group with which they're camping, but no kids for which they are responsible! And I'm in charge while they're gone.

Really Kleptomaniac Demonspawn isn't that bad when she's left alone, but Hypersonic Hyperactive Demonspawn sees it as his honor-bound duty to incite mayhem and discord wherever he walks... and he ran out of Ritalin.

We went to the library yesterday, all four of us, though Buster didn't get anything. Klepto continually confuses me. She's not at her grade level with reading, but was motivated (by forces unknown to me) to get a large book on the life and music of Beethoven and a slightly smaller volume on Harriet Tubman. And she's actually reading them. It's good; confusing, but good.
We all return to school at various times near the end of the month, and I'm having my belated BD party as well.
I'm taking the kids to a local river today to swim and, as Hyper said, "work off our energies!"

Laters!
~Brill