Once upon a time… from Capucha on Vimeo.
A breathtaking story by Capucine. Starring baby monkeys lost in frightening trees, a witch, crocodiles, a tiger, a “popotamus” and a lion, and even a “tremendously very bad mammoth”. There are also magic powers and an orange ring, but sometimes, “something goes amiss”.
Bring your popcorn and enjoy the show.
via boingboing
Seventy-four days until a new President, our first non-white President, is sworn in. A President for whom I voted*, for whom I am proud I voted. I am under no delusions that as soon as he repeats the words “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” that the sky will open up and the angels will sing on high. There is still a long road ahead, we’re still tangled up in two wars, still in what could end up being an economic catastrophe , etc etc.
But I have hope.
*Which will be a first. Not the voting part, but the winning part.
The Husband and I just got back from voting! Fortunately, we had no problems, no lines, no nothing. Unfortunately, that means no good blogging fodder.
Well one small thing, apparently I am registered to vote under my married name and my picture id is under my maiden name. I have no idea why I am registered under my married name, I guess that’s what I filled out when we last moved and they didn’t check it against my id? It didn’t prevent me from casting my ballot but they did suggest that for clarity’s sake, I probably should have it changed one way or the other match.
The ironic part is that when I called after we got married to have it changed on my Social Security card, I was told that I would need it to be on my ID/Driver’s license and then the next time I went to get a new ID I was going to change it, but was told it would have to be on my Social Security first. So I just never got around to investigating it further. I just wish that I had gotten the names of both of the people that I spoke to, because obviously one of them is an idiot who is giving out false information to the public.
I can’t wait to start seeing the numbers start coming in this evening!
The Husband just sent me this link.
NEW ORLEANS - An exclusive new WWL-TV statewide poll shows the contest for president may be closer than many had predicted among Louisiana voters.
In the telephone survey of 500 registered voters, conducted by pollster Ed Renwick, Republican Senator John McCain earns 43 percent of the vote, while Democrat Senator Barack Obama receives 40 percent. Renwick said that amounts to a statistical tie, since the poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 points.
Seriously, if Louisiana ends up going to Obama, I am going to literally R-O-F-L and I might have to put a sign in the yard that says “Yeah…it did….that just happened”.
I’m not going to get my hopes up though, all the other polls have McCain in a comfortable lead. However, the fact that anyone is even saying it’s a remote possibility is pretty shocking.
via PopCrunch
I don’t know where to begin. I guess first thing that comes to mind is how much I love that this guy hates Loud Mouthed Women, Muslim’s, Homo’s, Effeminate Men and Racist’s so very much. He also hates Catholic’s, Mormon’s, Jehovah’s Witness’s (Witnesses’?), Bahi’s (by which I assume he means Bahá’i’s), Pagan’s, Scientologist’s, Atheist’s, and Agnostic’s, New Ager’s, Buddhist’s and Idolater’s…but apparently is fine with the Jew’s? Loud Mouth Women, Feminist’s and Wifebeater’s. Sport’s Nut’s or maybe Sport’s/Nut’s? What in God’s name (no pun intended…ok maybe a little) is a High Fullutent, mayhaps someone in the act of being high falutin’? Do you think Jesus minds that he apparently thought of Goverment Recipient’s before Idolater’s and Adulterer’s and Thieve’s and Liar’s, the latter four being a Commandment’s and all?
Seriously, you could hold a class on just this picture…if you could figure out what subject. English? Typography? Philosophy? Theology? Graphic Design? Adult Education?
Definitely check the comments on PopCrunch out, there are some gems in there. There is also much discussion about what a P.K.’s could be. Preachers’ kid’s, Player Killer’s, ?
Ok first of all a few things I have learned since my last post:
In retrospect, it was all worth it, but there were definitely times during the process where I didn’t know if that would be the case or not. The sanding and scraping of the ceiling was most assuredly the low point. I don’t think, with the exception of gall bladder attacks, I have ever been so miserable.
I started by removing the cheap (at least I hope the previous owners didn’t pay much for it, it sure looked cheap), poorly installed crown molding, to find yet more molding. That actually ended up being a good thing since we had thought we would have to install trim after painting but I was able to patch what was there enough to be presentable.
After all the molding was down, and what seemed like a million nails in various stages of rust were removed, came the ceiling work. What a bitch. Put on fogged up goggles, a head cover, and a dust mask, roll around in some wet chalk dust, now stand on a ladder and hold various tools and implements above your head for several hours a day for a week or so and you will just about have the experience captured.
Next was all the wiping down, sanding, caulking, spackling, and patching of the walls and trim. The time between the beginning of the ceiling scraping and the priming was a period of at least a couple weeks (I literally lost all sense of time) but I don’t have many pictures of this time because my entire world became dust and dirt and I was too paranoid about getting the camera grimy to do any documenting.
Ah, and then after the final wipe down, came my favorite part (seriously, I am not being sarcastic at all) priming and painting. I find the process of priming and painting almost…meditative. Maybe it’s the OCD and/or my obsession with color but there is just something about the transformative powers of paint I find therapeutic
There are still a few things that I need to do before I can call it “done”. I need to hang pictures and art on the walls, since I took these pictures, we have installed the new ceiling fan, eventually we are going to paint the front and closet doors. We couldn’t decide whether to just paint them the trim color or so something a little more adventurous. We also would like to buy a new rug (leaning towards FLOR tiles) and perhaps a coffee table for the first time since we’ve been married.
Overall, the English language can not fully express how happy I am with the results. I think this is the most “me” room I have ever had.
Notes: The credenza/dresser/tv stand was my grandparents’, it was part of their bedroom suit they bought when they got married. The bench was built for us by my husband’s grandfather. The white vase and white ceramic bowl thingy were my grandmother’s (a set of two), the blue miniature pitcher on the shelf and little pine straw basket on the tv stand were made by my great aunt (grandmother’s sister) and the Eiffel Tower was a souvenir my parents brought back for me from their trip to France earlier this year. The little ducks I found at a local antique store and the fish we bought in Jamaica.
Edited: I wanted to add a picture with the new ceiling fan and a rough mock up of what I was thinking for above the couch.
It’s only in the past year or so I have become interested in decorating our home beyond the “it’s cheap/free and/or will be easy to clean” criteria.
For example, the sofa and chair we have now we bought not long after we bought the house because the hand-me-down sofa we were using was just about on it’s last leg (well literally on it’s last 3 since we accidently broke one of them off). We bought the first ones that met our needs: 1) inexpensive 2) comfortable 3) it’s appearance didn’t make either one of us want to gag. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t regret the purchase at all and we still love both pieces, but there are a couple of things that I would change if given the proverbial time machine. To start, the arms are too bulky, with a space as limited as ours, they are just taking up valuable real estate. The back cushions are kind of a pain in the ass, we usually end up just throwing them on the floor. It’s not exactly the most durable construction, I don’t see it lasting us another 5 years, at least not without worrying about injury.
I don’t know exactly where I am going with this really, other than to say I have been giving the overall aesthetic of our home a lot of thought recently and have been trying to get a good idea of what “our style” is. We both like clean lines, nothing too ornate or overstuffed. I tend to lean more towards a Danish modern, midcentury vintage feel that The Husband thinks is a bit “too Brady Bunch”. I think we are getting there though.
I am seriously loving this home tour over at desire to inspire.
The next week or so I should be starting the relatively large project of our living room. After some water damage (reeeeally long painful story that I am trying desperately to block out) to the ceiling, we have decided to scrape off all the acoustic ceiling and (hopefully) be able to do minimal patching and sanding and end up with a smooth ceiling. I will also be sanding, priming and painting all the walls and trim at the same time and installing a new ceiling fan. So that should be fun. I will try to get as many before, during and after pictures to share as possible.
Oh and next weekend is my 28th birthday! And I am getting my well-passed-the-shoulder-length hair chopped off next Tuesday. September is shaping up to be quite a month. Stay tuned.
Ah, Gustav, we’re still here.
In the end, Gustav ended up not being quite as destructive as it was originally predicted, at least in our area. Other than some debris and continuing rain, we are no worse off than before. After preparing for the worse, we ended up only being without power for maybe an hour or so and that was after we had gone to bed.
From what I hear, however, there is quite a bit of damage done to our south, around Lafayette and Houma. Of course all you hear about is how easy New Orleans got off this time, you know as easy as a city that is below sea level in the flood plain of one of the largest rivers in the world that also happens to be in a hurricane zone can be expected to get off.
That being said, it’s not quite over for us yet. We still have about another month of the peak season and several more storms brewing in the Atlantic, so far Hanna, Ike, and Josephine. While none of them are particularly pressing for the Gulf just yet, if anything Gustav has reminded us that the only thing predictable about our weather down here is its unpredictability.
Charlie Browns, boiled cookies, chocolate oatmeal cookies, so many names for such a quick and easy tidbit. This is one of those treats that my grandma and my mom made for us many, many times when I was a child.
Charlie Browns
2 cups sugar
2 TBSP cocoa
1/2 cup milk
1 stick oleo (margarine or butter)
2 1/2 cups oatmeal (The Husband likes chunky)
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
Combine first 4 ingredients in a medium saucepan. Bring to a rolling boil. Boil one minute — exactly one minute — no more, no less. Remove from heat and add oatmeal, peanut butter and vanilla. Mix well and drop by heaping teaspoon onto wax paper or parchment. Let sit until set and cool. Eat.
Sunday we drove over to my parents’ house for supper. I am sure that if I had written this Monday I would have all kind of witty anecdotes to share but unfortunately it’s Thursday now and having been cleaning house in preparation for The Husband being on vacation next week (and therefore nothing getting accomplished probably), I am devoid of anecdote at the moment. Apparently I still retain the ability to craft one hell of a run-on sentence however. I did get some pictures to chronicle the day, so I think I will let them speak for themselves this time.
