darth baby (updated)

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i am a proud auntie. i spent monday afternoon with two of my sisters and 'the kids'. i took this video, and though it's sideways (i forgot it would actually be sideways!) it's so worth tilting your head to see!

here's another one...


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the youngest of my sister's brood of four is nicknamed 'lolo' and is almost three. she's super funny (so are the other three, for that matter), and never funnier than when she donned the darth voice changer helmet her brother got for christmas. she's an absolute doll in the wanna-squeeze-her-and-kiss-her-to-death kindof way.

as if that's not the cutest thing ever, i also captured the kids meowing the darth vader theme. they know the whole thing. check it out...


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chesterton

gilbert keith chesterton lived 1874-1936. he was an englishman and a brilliant wordsmith. he wrote for several british publications for many years, and wrote several novels, of which i have only read 'the man who was tuesday'. but even at that, he is still one of my absolute favorite authors, up there with lewis, austen and macdonald.

when i read anything of his, weather a novel or just a quote, i always have the impression that both he and i know his depth of understanding is far superior to mine, and he's telling the tale almost as a grandfather would to a small child. not in condescension, but with the explanation necessary for my little brain to wrap around it. his wit, humor and imagination never cease to amaze me.

here are some of his quotes...

A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.
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A room without books is like a body without a soul.
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There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and the tired man who wants a book to read.
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Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity.
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Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere.
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Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.
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I believe in getting into hot water; it keeps you clean.
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I say that a man must be certain of his morality for the simple reason that he has to suffer for it.
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It is not bigotry to be certain we are right; but it is bigotry to be unable to imagine how we might possibly have gone wrong.
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To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.
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But a somewhat more liberal and sympathetic examination of mankind will convince us that the cross is even older than the gibbet, that voluntary suffering was before and independent of compulsory; and in short that in most important matters a man has always been free to ruin himself if he chose.
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If there were no God, there would be no Atheists.
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The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.
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The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.

bling

this was the last tuesday of 2005. it was highly insignificant and excessively nominal. and yes, it was the first day of the rest of my life.

christmas was so nice, so chill. yesterday i had a full day of family. i brunched with dad, mom and grandma, and dad was gracious enough to pick me up from canby and take me and an armoire back dowtown via the "24 hour hotcake house". if you haven't been there it's a must. if you're visiting portland you have to squeeze it in. it's open (yep, you guessed it) round the clock, and is a dive of a greasy spoon with really good food that you can in no way justify eating since one meal there contains half your annual calories.

after we got the armoire to my place and dad headed out my sister jenny came downtown with the four kids to pick up 'auntie sheeberry' and 'auntie foofiefoo' (aka my other sister, ruth, who also lives downtown). we had a lovely afternoon of coloring, tickling, munching, chatting, laughing and opening a few presents. i got the kids a book called "the history of scotland for children". it was such a cool little book, and i wanted them to be familiar with where 'auntie sheeberry' is going next year.

among the bling i received this year were several books (some out-of-print l.m.montgomery and two other delicious-looking things), some knitting needles that i have used to keep myself busy at work this slow, slow afternoon, a set of 'jeeves & wooster' dvds ("with all expediency...puttin' on the regency") and the cookbook my mother used the entire time we were growing up. yep, that's right. betty crocker now lives with me. my dad found mom the same cookbook on ebay, but in mint condition. she loves that edition, and when he found it for her he gave it to her and they gave the old one to me. yes, it's worn and tattered and egg-white-and-molasses stained, but some of those stains were by my own hand. i'm seriously stoked to have it.

off to bed i should go, so i'll be rested for another day of almost no calls and lots of knitting.

comfort & joy

merry christmas! as i write this i'm sitting in my friend rachael's kitchen enjoying the chill of a low-key holiday. i've just read my email, checked all the blogs i stalk and uploaded holiday pictures from the weekend.

i'm so grateful for my friends and family. we are all broke this year, so gifts were pretty minimal. that's fine by me, i don't need much, and where would i put it all anyway? no, really...it's good that we're all broke at the same time. it's even. i made so many scarves this year! but i'm so grateful for friends and sisters and the love of those God has put in my life. i am truly blessed.

i don't work tomorrow, so i'm still only about half through my holiday. tomorrow i'm hangin' with my sisters, nieces and nephews. i love being an auntie, and four of the seven that call me 'auntie' belong to my sister jenny. i bought the kids a 'children's illustrated history of scotland' so they'll know where auntie sheeberry will be moving next year. not only that, but in my sister's recent research she's found our clan and the history of our scot ancestry, so it's good for the kids to be in touch with their roots. i'm really excited about the gifts for my sisters, brother-in-law and the kids, much of which i picked up on my travels this autumn. i'm just finishing my dad's gift today (shhhh...don't tell) and loving my chilled-out weekend.

these pictures are from the most over-the-top decorated house i've ever seen. it's by rachael's house, so we did a drive-by photo shooting. you can't hear the music they were playing, or see that some of the figures moved. i especially love the outline of carolers behind the nativity scene.

merry christmas

or happy christmas, as they say across the pond. today i told my kiwi co-worker john i'd quote him on my blog. he's occasionally un-pc, which is refreshing.

as he was leaving this afternoon i said, "happy holidays!". to which he gave a somewhat indignant, "christmas! merry christmas! they killed Jesus. don't let them kill christmas too!"

nice, john. nice.

artists

today i have turned a new leaf. i have made a commitment to myself to only use my own photos when blogging. it means i've come to the point that i actually believe the goofing around i do with a camera could actually be considered art.

i take pictures nearly every day. i still have jake's camera, and until he needs it back it will continue to go everywhere i do. i never regret 'happening' to have a camera with me. i've often regretted not having one. i still don't know a thing about photography, but i'm ever eager to keep messing with it and occasionally get a shot i'm in love with.

to further encourage myself to continue taking pictures (like i need more encouragement!) i decided i could illustrate my own life just fine without scyping pics from other people. i've gone so far as to make collages of some of my pics to use as banners. (when i have more time i'll have to sneak over to pete's blog and steal his random banner code.)

so read, view and enjoy...just don't dis the pictures.

last weekend

what a wacky weekend i had! it was my first full weekend as a 'downtown dweller', but i spent it twenty miles south in the thriving metropolis (that's a joke) of canby, kidnapping a snowman.

the ransom note took about two hours to compose and execute, which had us heading out at about half past eleven to kidnap the giant blow-up snowman in our friend amy's yard. the lights were out when we got there, so we were reasonably sure she, her husband and their children were safely asleep as we pulled up the anchoring and hauled the plastic-fabric snow man into the car. we left the ransom note, sealed in a ziplock baggy, pinned in the lawn with a steak knife. on the back we put, "this isn't your snowman, but it could be", with a white sheet with a dirty santa hat and a carrot on the ground next to it.

i took video of it, but all you see is blackness, and all you hear are whispers of "who has the ransom note" or "we need a rock to hold it all down". the funniest moment was when rachael picked up a heavy round flagstone and hauled it over to anchor the sheet. its too bad the video is so dark. when we got back into the car and put on the radio we were greeted with 'frosty the snowman'. it was awesome!

sunday afternoon we had our first ice/snow storm of the season, which is pretty early in the season for us. that kind of weather usually hits closer to the end of january...at just the right time to ruin my birthday party. i was in canby when it started, so meems drove me to where i could catch the bus back downtown. it was so nice not to have to worry about how i was going to get to work the next day if the bad weather stayed. i had a lovely dinner and movie with my sister ruth and took some pictures on my walk back home. the 'teddy the rough rider' statue below is my favorite picture of the lot.

by morning (we are, after all, only fifty feet above sea level), the snow and ice had almost completely melted in the streets downtown. most of my co-workers were upset that we didn't get a snow day off work, but i was okay with it. i'd much rather get a day of pay than a snow day off.

dear santa

i thought it would be a good to give santa a little help picking out my presents this year. i'm truly practical, and first on my list is a lovely safeway gift card (as seen in the interactive picture above). now that i live less than a block from safeway you can be sure i'll be getting all my groceries there.

i've added a few other (not very expensive) things i'd love to see santa bring down my chimney. take a look.



(and this one's my favorite! it's so cheesey, i've gotta have it!)

moved

i'm officially moved and am now once again a downtown girl. i have a nice little studio on the eighth floor with a view into the park blocks and beyond. as you can see from this picture, i'm greeted personally by the sunrise every morning. it's awesome.

i still have jake's camera and i'm still using it regularly. yesterday i dragged my six minute walk to work into about a nine minute walk, stopping to click a few pics (see below). i actually laughed out loud at the traffic report as i got ready for work nearly an hour later than i had to before the move. it really is fabú!

the phantom

Your Superhero Profile

Your Superhero Name is The Phantom Lightning Your Superpower is Psychic Your Weakness is Men Your Weapon is Your Thunder Bazooka Your Mode of Transportation is Flying Saucer

there are some specific things in here that jben will find quite amusing. for one, check out my superpower. i knew that would be my superpower! also, the little picture of the superhero chick with the "p" on her outfit. that must be for 'psheena', and the "p" in psheena must be short for "phantom". nice, eh?

What's your Superhero Name?

scary?

You Are Not Scary

Everyone loves you. Isn't that sweet?

i'm not terribly surprised by the outcome of this quiz. i know i'm not scary. and of course everyone loves me! why wouldn't they?

How Scary Are You?

ulysses s. grant

according to this facial recognition webnerdery, i look like (among others) president grant, aretha franklin and chelsea clinton. this provided much amusement to myself and my co-workers between calls the other day. it takes a while to load, but it's completely worth the wait. if you upload a photo of more than one person it will scan both faces to find famous look-alikes.

things have been slow at work, but busy-busy at home. tomorrow's the big move! i'm not quite packed, but i've sold my car, reserved the moving truck and lined up my helping hands. i have until 12:45pm tomorrow to finish packing. that's when my possee shows up to help load the truck. i'm missing the company christmas party (actually fun, believe it or not) to go home and pack. i'm a little sad about that, but i'll live. my sanity tomorrow isn't worth being out tonight.

i'll have internet at the apartment as of monday, so if i'm a slacker about blogging for a little bit longer while i get settled, don't be worried about me. i'm well, happy and crazy busy, but it'll all be worth the insanity when i wake up an hour later monday and walk to work!

ah, life is good!

thrill

one week away from my big move to beautiful beautiful downtown portland. i'm trying not to be stressed, but finding it a little challenging with moving and attempting to sell my car at the same time. despite the insanity i'm getting really excited!

i'll be holding my first garage sale this weekend. i'm not sure if it'll be at my house or at my friend's, but it should be fun. hopefully i'll make a bit of money. every bit helps the transition. i just don't want to get stuck with the extra stuff and with my car once next weekend rolls around. tomorrow i'm going to check with a local liquor store to get some sturdy boxes. as of right now i have packed nothing. i've moved so many times that it doesn't take me that long to pack, and i like to keep my world torn apart for as short a time as possible.

here's hoping i don't go insane over the next seven days. you can be sure i'll keep you posted either way.