Blibber Blabber

No rhyme, no reason

 

I'm just a posting nutso the last few days, eh?  When it rains...  Actually, I don't like what Mr. Calm's watching on t.v., so I'm in here.

I found chocolate rocks for the paths on my "yard" cake.  Hard as hell to find, too-- I called nearly every candy shop in town looking for them.  Finally found them at the candy store in the nearby mall, stuffed down in a corner.

I also made a pond out of melted blue Jolly Ranchers.  First time I've ever done that, and it turned out marvelously well... except for the tiny triangle of foil that seems to be seared into the underside of the pond.   After a bit of tugging and attempting to curl up an edge with a veggie knife AND tweezers, I got nervous and just decided to leave it.  I'll cover it with a "lily pad" or a clump of "grass".  Hey, maybe even one of the ducks' asses.

Watched "Ace of Cakes" for the first time on Food Network tonight.  I love his cakes; I watched him on either the Halloween or Christmas cake competition.  It made me realize that I need to quit reading cake decorating books.  Believe it or not, they hold me back.  I'd never do it for a living, but if I just let myself go and stop worrying about it, I can do a fantastic job on the cakes I do design and build.

posted by: athenawj at 22:21 | link | comments (2) |

I'm beginning to learn that I should just take my camera everywhere with me.  Hell, if my bag's big enough to carry a large toddler, it's roomy enough for a camera.

We went over to the hotel this morning for breakfast, and since I've taken pix there several times, I didn't bring it.  And, of course, we spotted a skink while outside smoking; terrific hibiscus bushes; and several huge sand sculptures.  Shee-yit.

***

I really did have a long diatribe here about the two crack-addled clients that Mr. Calm had to deal with today, but it's so long-winded and boring to everyone but us that I deleted it.  I just thank our lucky stars that most of his clients are nice and easy to work with, but hell, two assholes in one day is a little much.  I'm glad he's dropping one of them--being threatened by a lawsuit by an angry yelling asshole when it was the asshole's fault in the first place the website got messed up is grounds enough (as well as never paying on time).

STAY OFF CRACK!!  Thankyouverymuch.  And quit playing with your website if you're computer illiterate.

***

I made the bushes for my cake: butter, marshmallows, green food coloring and corn flakes.  I wasn't too sure until I made them; now I think they look great.  I'll take pix while I assemble it on Tuesday and post them afterward.  I even made two little topiary trees, hee.

posted by: athenawj at 16:35 | link | comments (2) |
photography, real blibber blabber

It's that time of year again...

Yes, it's state fair time.  Today I dropped off the first of our entries: artwork and photography.  My artwork is in the newly-created "Computer-Generated Art".  Every year there seems to be a snafu; this time, my entry form couldn't be located.  At least when I said I'd mailed it in at the end of July, "Along with the CHECK", the elderly lady taking the artwork laughed (I'm more free with my smartassishness the older I get).  It was finally found at the Photography table.

I'm a smart lady, very smart at some things, but those "Duh!" moments seem to come more and more.  Like yesterday, mounting our photographs on the self-adhesive mounts, standing back after KNOWING they weren't exactly centered, and listening to YD and realizing, "These need mats... and I should have gotten the mats BEFORE I put the photos on." Sigh.

So, it's running to Hobby Lobby last night, not realizing I got there five minutes before closing; running back this morning and getting six mats cut.  Sheesh.  Then, going down to the fair and finding out...

Children's Photography, which was listed as "Open", and no instructions given in the premium book that only ONE entry was allowed, only allows ONE photograph per child.  Um.  YD has FOUR.  So I took the photos home, because there was no way in hell I was going to choose which one was the best for her.  Right now, she and her dad are down there, trying to work the magic that is prevalent in what I like to call "John's World".  It's a happy place where people are go-getters and mall stop signs are not real.

Actually, what they're trying to do is get her upgraded to the Amateur Photography division.  And if not, we should get the money back that we paid to enter her four pictures, not one, right?

Next Tuesday, I'll spend all day covering my cake dummy with fondant.  I still have to make the corn flake treats bushes, and fix the entire top of the cake. Next Wednesday, I bake all day, as well as early Thursday morning. And then it's off to the fair again, to be judged.

Maybe I'll feel differently February or March, but right now, my heart isn't in this.  I'm not excited the way I was before.  Maybe it's because I've polished most of my recipes long ago and don't need to experiment as much.  Maybe I have too much else going on.  I think I'd rather volunteer in the Baking department, maybe judge, than enter.  They always seem to need the help.

Now I'm off to find the list of things I need to bake next week, because I can't remember which pad of paper I jotted them down on. 

posted by: athenawj at 16:42 | link | comments (6) |
state fair

Owchy-Mama!

Wanna know why I slid down the hall in my slippers and slapped my  husband's ass awake like he was a fresh young piece o' meat this morning? 

I found out that my poem "La Noche de Duelo" and my novella "Winter's Dark Memory" got Honorable Mentions in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, Nineteenth Annual Collection.

Do I love it? Yes, I DO!

posted by: athenawj at 20:43 | link | comments (10) |
writing

Blahblahblah :)

Prettily-printed paper.  It's the best.  I love having notepads at my disposal, although I have to restrain myself from buying more than I need.  What keeps me from doing that is so silly that I'm not even going to say.  Right now I have my Lenore notebook and Grumpy pad on my desk, and a Piggy from Pork Chop Friends in my purse.  It has to be cute.  It has to be fun.  It has to make me feel good.

Pens O the Moment: Lenore ballpoint pen, pen with Jack Skellington's head on the end, and my desk pen is a wooden one of a Japanese woman in a kimono, with her baby's tiny bald head sticking out of the top of the kimono.  A cute EPCOT find.  Love me pens, too.

I wouldn't really want Hell's Kitchen on DVD, because of the incompetent jackasses that drive me up the wall, but I sure would love Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares.  I'd also love to see "The F-Word", but they've never shown it on BBCAmerica.

I used to have a bunch of pins on my purse when I was in my mid-twenties.  Now I've started up again, with eight right now on my messenger bag.  I have a few more on the way from Crab Scrambly, Nightmare Before Christmas, and a "hip" version of the Hitchhiking Ghosts.  Am I reverting?  Nuh-uh.  And so what if I am?  I shall wear purple and all that jazz in a few years, too.

I made the best loaded baked pototo soup for dinner last night.  YUM-my!!  The starch took effect three-quarters of the way through the bowl; I sat there with my mouth hanging open thinking, "I'm gonna fall asleep while I'm eating!"  Plenty of leftovers.  Want some?

I rested my neck yesterday.  Some tightness and pain maybe from working here too much and drawing, so I did no computer work or drawing.  I feel much better now, so, of course, it's back to drawing today.  A weird little ditty that I won't bother explaining, but it involves a ballerina, and a blood splatter, and a flying teacup and saucer.

I really wish I could get out of here.  And that's bad, because I still have so long to stay.

posted by: athenawj at 06:49 | link | comments (2) |
real blibber blabber

I'm posting this everywhere.

posted by: athenawj at 22:54 | link | comments (2) |
art , the seriousness of it all

Fair Pictures

I changed my Flickr badge to link to the pictures I took yesterday at the fair.  Click the badge to be taken to the set (although, I think you have to click on "Wilson County Fair 2006" on the right to be taken to the left).

It was fun.  I didn't get grumpy, although I really should have worn my Crocs.  And a bonus: it rained right before we got there, so it was overcast all day.  Not having the sun beat down on your head is definitely a bonus.

Off to study.

posted by: athenawj at 14:51 | link | comments (2) |
photography

I'm exhausted this morning.  After months and months, you'd think I'd get the hang of time management, but I'm still not getting things done that need to be done.  Top that off with one of the times of the month that hormones prevent me from sleeping well, and you got one tired ol' Athena.

• The girls started school on Monday.  Both in high school- a bit unbelievable, but it's nice that they're both back in the same school.  Even nicer?  They carpool with a neighbor in the morning.  Yahoo!
  
  The fees are astronomical.  Don't even get me started on those.
  
  OD's back in first chair in full orchestra, and YD has yet to test.  Her best friend retested (I swear, I think the poor kid's one of those good musicians who freezes up and loses her skills at auditions, because she initially got stuck in the equivalent of beginner's orchestra), so now they're in the same class.  They're both off to a great start, grade-wise.
  
  The funniest thing was how YD exclaimed that lunch was just like a certain movie.  "It was like being in Fame!"  Hee.  Rapping, guitar-playing, dancing, singing... if someone breaks out in a rendition of "Hot Lunch Jam" I'll topple over.
  
  Yes, I SO have that album.  On vinyl.  Since I was ten.  It's scratched deeply on Side B but I still play that sucker.
  
• I'm still working on all the gumpaste stuff for my decorated cake entry.  I just finished the henhouse: it's a sugar cookie (because I don't feel like baking gingerbread) house covered in candy Legos with a Necco wafer roof.  But I recently read through a newsletter that there are many state fair entries, and since this was a nl from the local cake decorating shop, I assume she was talking about the decorating categories.  So, I gotta step it up.  I have NO idea what to use for bushes.  I really don't want to roll together shredded wheat, royal icing and green food coloring paste.
• I started another shop at ArtWanted.com.  I want to offer more standard-sized prints of my work, and, as a pin collector, it's fun to be able to offer my own pins.  Unlike my Zazzle shop, I won't be uploading everything under the sun; only my latest art.
• My studies are going well.  My average isn't as high as I'd like, but it's a high B, so I should be happy with that.  I'd just like to be better.
• I told myself last weekend that I was taking the week off from art, and yet I've done one piece and am halfway done with another.  This one's a Dia de Los Muertos piece, with a drawing of a sculpture I did a few years ago.
• Ordered more memory for my computer.  I'm trying to make larger pieces, but the 'puter and PSPX are terribly slow when I do that.  Of course, FedEx decides not to work as quickly as promised, so we're still waiting on it.  It'll be wonderful when it finally arrives, and I don't have to save every few minutes to make sure PSPX doesn't stop running in the middle of doing something.
• I'm looking at printer/scanners.  Mainly scanners, and I say "looking" because I don't know when getting one will happen.  I've heard great things about Epson in regards to art scanning and printing.  I know I'll never get one of those nice ones that can print professional prints, but just one where I don't have to do a ton of cleanup after the scan.  This last drawing, I've had an unbelievable amount of erasing to do on each of the three sections--it's what's drawn this project out into seven hours so far, and I haven't even started on the background.  Our old scanner is just that, oldashell, and I need something that'll scan crisply and cleanly.
  
  I'd love a scanner that has a wider/longer bed, because I draw on 9x12 paper, but where are they?
  
• I need to set up a "Signs" set at Flickr for me and my sister and our love of signs.
• I am now part of the MySpace phenom, purely for my art.  What's fun about it is finding Roman Dirge and Gris Grimley, as well as authors and mags that I 'know', and other artists.  Strangedolls.net is the coolest.
• Certain things came to a head around here again.  Quietly, but still they came.  I have a tiny stress headache and swollen eyelids because of them.  I feel a little bit better because they were hashed out, but who knows how long that will last?

Today, we're off to the Wilson County Fair, the largest-attended fair in the state.  It truly is a terrific fair, although they only allow entries from within the county, poo on them.  There'll be a cat show today, and all the creative arts entries will be up.  I'll be armed with my camera, and I hope, in addition to general shots, to get some good creative ones.  I'm sure OD will walk around mixing French with English, and although I can only tell when she's talking about the cats, and what "Pour moi/pour vous" means, I'm glad she's keeping up what she learned.  I want to start watching "Tabloid Wars" on Bravo- sounds fascinating.  I wish "Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares" was on more.

I turn 36 in twenty days.  Oh... boy.

posted by: athenawj at 07:53 | link | comments (5) |
real blibber blabber

Tomato Art Fest photos

If anyone wants to see some pix of the Tomato Art Fest, they're up here.  And I hope that link works.

posted by: athenawj at 09:35 | link | comments |
summer

Tomato Art Festival

Before I start, I have two new pieces up at my shop & site: Bliss Precedes the Feast and The Fat Cat Meets the Big City.  No pix here; you can check them out at the site under Artwork. 

I was contacted yesterday to donate a piece to the Nashville RAINN benefit concert this month.  Will do gladly, and it'll be "Bliss". More details later when I can remember them, but if you're in N'ville, it's a good cause to donate to. 

AND... I was reading an article on Edward Gorey in Rue Morgue magazine the other night, and turns out he collected salt shakers and Mexican Day of the Dead skulls.  As do I.  How friggin' cool.

***

Yesterday was terrific.  We all got out at ten and went to the East Side to the Tomato Art Festival, which was set up along a few blocks.  That part of town is gorgeous (I just got Flickr Pro, so I'll post a link to my pix when they're up), with artsy, quaint houses and shops.  We started off at Bongo Java's, and while I like mint and got a Peppermint Patty coffee, Mr. Calm didn't like what I identified as the taste of spearmint in his iced tea.  I got out my camera for good and we strolled along, getting pix of OD and YD with her friend D., and over to some of the food stands they had set up.  Mr. Calm and I tried samples of a local Bloody Mary mix that literally made me SWEAT.  Whew!  Then I headed over to the sellers' tables, which were mainly set up with tomato art. 

I found a great yard sale table and got an old tuna label with a retro kitty drawing on it, a Campbell's switch plate, and four glass magnets.  There was also a great hand-decorated hula hoop table, but I have no waist to keep one up, heh.

Down the block, past the cute houses, and Mr. Calm informed me later that he got a lot of nasty looks from what I deemed the "granola crowd".  I'd love to post a bulletin:  Smoking's legal.  If he's not running up behind you and puffing clouds into your ear, keep your faces to yourself.  We always step away from the crowds and little children to do our business.

Anyway.  YD and D. wanted to get their faces painted at the kiddie place, so Mr. Calm, OD and I walked around taking snapshots.  He ran into a potential client (running into clients is commonplace for us), so I sealed the deal by asking them to get out of the way so I could take a picture of a sign. That's me- fine-tuned to the very last.  Afterward, we were treated to the horrible rainbows and suns on YD and D's faces.  A face painter the woman was not.

Back up the block and into the art gallery after that (and spying a guy whose head looked like a flaming tomato).  I tell you, I was not impressed by the Best in Show, which was a four-by-four painting of three tomatoes on a yellow background.  Um.  Okay.  And I sadly didn't want the art by the artist I'd been looking forward to seeing. But there was a lot more cute art in there, although VERY disappointingly, only two drawings to be found.  I swear, we're like the ugly stepchildren.

Then it was off to the Atlanta Bread Company for lunch, because we didn't want to wait around for an hour for a seat in the neighborhood.

Later, Mr. Calm and I went back for the gallery reception and to hear some local bands cover old country crossover hits, like "I Love A Rainy Night", "Nine to Five", etc.  at the outdoor stage.  I LOVE that music- reminds me of when I was a kid.  We also went into a bar and had Shiner Boch, which I haven't had since TX.  It's been YEARS since we went into a real bar... I don't even know the last time.  Nice to sit anywhere inside and smoke, and the Shiner tasted good.  Later, we went over to Noshville, which is a NY-style kosher deli near Vandy, and had dinner.

Okay.  I actually prefer some kosher meats, and got the 1/4-pound hot dog and fries.  It was HUGE, and as I picked it up, I said, "I'm gonna eat my hot dog now.  I hope I can get my mouth around it."  It was NOT a joke, no innuendo there WHATSOEVER, and yet Mr. Calm cracked up.  How come men take such perfectly innocent statements and turn them into sexual stuff?  Seventeen years with the man, and I still can't figure it out.

Got a copy of "Corpse Bride" later on at The Great Escape, which is a huge comics, DVDs, videos, cd, album, toys, etc. store down the block, as well as Haunted Mansion #3 (no #2, which bums).  Mr. Calm got a Stevie Ray Vaughn cd.  Sorry Stevie, but you bore me.

A good day, a good night.  We're debating going to the Wilson County Fair next weekend, although it'll be crowded and hot as hell, and the Greek Festival in September.  We may hate it  here, but we're trying to find things to make it bearable til we get out.

***

More artwork this week.  I'm trying to broaden Miss Millificent's World with line drawings.

Why did I write all this?

posted by: athenawj at 08:41 | link | comments (2) |
art , family, etc , festivals

Seems like I've been really busy doing a lot of nothing.

I've made five hens and roosters, four ducks, four heads of lettuce, same for cabbage, eight carrots, sixteen red and yellow tomatoes, six rhubarb, one cat, one basket, and twenty four roses for my cake entry.  On my counter now are the sides, floor, front, back and roof for my sugar cookie hen house, which I'll start "gluing" today.  I've decided how to make my bushes, but I'll keep that a secret for now.  All in all, the cake's going to look terrific.  We'll just see how it places.  I read via another source that there are alot of entries this year.

I gave in and got a wide angle lens and filters.  Thing is, I can't get the damn thing to focus.  I'm trying to figure out if I'm doing something wrong, or I just got a bad lens.  My uncle the photographer will hopefully be able to answer that.  In the meantime, I AM getting better at understanding shutter speed and aperture, which has long eluded me.  I sincerely think it has something to do with being mathematically-challenged.  I'm just one of those people who will never be good at using an SLR.

The polarizing filter works fine, yeehaw!  Since I love taking pictures of windows, doors and signs, this is perfect for me.  My sister and I are thinking about starting some sort of signs page.  She thinks MySpace, but I'm thinking more like Flickr.

We got badly-needed rain yesterday and the day before.  My yard and flowers thank the heavens for that.

Our boys got their shots yesterday.  They're still sleeping it off, sweet things.  Salem is sixteen pounds!  Understandable- it's been so hot he hasn't run around like he usually does (his usual weight runs from fourteen to fifteen).  Ollie is thirteen.  We thought he was a lot lighter, but I guess when you hold Salem, a friggin' watermelon would seem lighter.

We're off to the Tomato Art Festival today, then Mr. Calm and I are going to an art gallery reception.  Tres casual, thank goodness.  I was really looking forward to seeing a particular artist's work, but... well, let's just say I've had the chance to see the person behind the artwork, and can we say juvenile and ANNOYING?  Sort of takes away from the experience and thrill.

About half the visitors to Miss Millificent's World have bookmarked the site.  Yes, that's important to me.  Thank you if you're one of them.

And... I think Mr. Calm is finally planning our 15th anniversary/belated honeymoon trip.  I WILL NOT.  As the Family Planner, I want to take a break.   Where we're going though, your guess is as good as mine.

 

posted by: athenawj at 07:23 | link | comments |
art , photography, summer, state fair, real blibber blabber, crazy kitties

My kids are done with their orientations, and school starts on Monday.  They were able to get almost all the classes they wanted, although YD has to stay in Algebra II instead of going up to the honors level because there was no room.  Some changes:

The orchestra/symphony teacher got a bigger room.  That's a good thing.  But several classes and their teachers were dropped, Playwriting and one of the dance classes being two of them.  Apparently Metro wants bigger class sizes, which flies right over my head in logic.  I always thought smaller class sizes were better, more conducive to learning.  Granted, I can understand dropping a class or two because of lack of interest, but what's going to happen at Open House in the Spring, when the new kids come to sign up and something they wanted to take isn't available?  What's big enough?  What's next on the chopping block?

Anyway, new news about the girls' old school, their middle school arts magnet.  The latest principal came in two years ago and really shook things up.  Most of the time I loved her.  She'd attended an arts high school herself, and understood what it needed and what she needed to do.  Aesthetically, she turned an old run-down school into a thing of art, repainting the outside and having the fine art specialty kids transform the hallways by painting murals and pictures in each hallway.  It looked great. 

But this year, they had to move out of their building so another school could move in.  What school did they get?  Another rundown one at the very farthest edge of the county-- the old arts high school's building, in fact (just so you know, all the other magnets are centrally-placed).  What else makes me sad is that as soon as the new school took possession, they painted over all that artwork.

Construction was supposed to begin on a new arts high school two years ago.  What a surprise-- that money was never allocated. Instead, they're renting a building on the TN Prep School's property.  Nicer building than the last, but people were excited about a brand new school.  But in Music-Friggin'-City, football and religion's more important.

Arts: the Bastard Child of the Education System. 

posted by: athenawj at 06:49 | link | comments |
art , kids

Story Sale

So, of course, as soon as I get done posting friggin' everywhere about my art, and get my art site off the ground, I get a story sale.

For those in the know, you know it's been a dry year writing-wise (although I think I've had four original sales, and then I've got some reprints ready for publication), but I managed to eek out a story last month and sent it off.  Only once before have I sold a story to the first place out.

Now I can say I've done that twice.  My story "One in Ten Thousand" will appear in GUD magazine in the fall.  It's a sad sci-fi tale.

(Of course, when I see the email, right after I woke up, I groaned.  It'd only been two weeks or so-- I think I got it in toward the end of the subs period.  Nice turnaround!)

posted by: athenawj at 08:01 | link | comments (2) |
writing

New Website!

Helloooo.

My new website's up: Miss Millificent's World.  Not only Miss Millificent, like my old art site, but chock-full of my artwork and photography.

Enjoy.  I love (good) feedback. ;)

posted by: athenawj at 11:00 | link | comments |
art , photography

This doesn't pertain to anyone I trust and like, nor those I've added to my Friends list:

No Name+No Commenting=Deletion.

There isn't a bigger pet peeve I have online, and I stand firm.

The only exception: A.

Thank you.

posted by: athenawj at 21:11 | link | comments |
real blibber blabber

Today is the first day of our Tax-Free Days.  I went to the evil store this morning at six to get school supplies.  Yes, six.  I don't like crowds.  In a few minutes, we're off to the mall to get clothes and shoes.  Contrary to shopping for myself, this bores me.  But hey, I'm the Momma.  It's what I do.

I'm sure that in a couple of years, I'll be back to wearing my glasses full-time.  I've come full-circle.  Sigh.

I've gotten a lot of good feedback on my Halloween designs, and my last Millificent-related illustration.  Also, my "Midget Carry-Out" photo.  It's really nice.  So, why can I get great comments and ratings from perfect strangers/fellow shopowners, and yet most of my family* and old friends can't be bothered to even reply to my emails about my shop?  Wow.  Support can be so one-sided sometimes.

(*That's not including my youngest sis, who has been very supportive of my shop and latest artwork.  Thanks, A!)

I'm more than halfway done with my website.  Resizing and making thumbnails takes 90% of the time.  But work progresses well.

I'm almost done studying North American Air Travel, Part 2.  Learning all about writing and interpreting tickets and flights.  Tedious, but hallelujah, it's almost over.  Next it's on to Geography: something I like.

 

 

posted by: athenawj at 09:30 | link | comments (2) |
real blibber blabber

Elizabeth Hasselbeck is an idiot.

God, how I wish vapid celebrities would just keep their traps shut.  The morning-after pill does not stop life--it prevents fertilization. There is no life to be destroyed.

Elizabeth, are you popping out babies left and right?  Are you halting fertilization in some way?

Hmph.

posted by: athenawj at 13:32 | link | comments (1) |

They've taken all my trees!

When we moved here in '99, we had the serious need to be by ourselves.  We'd lived under a tyrannical, harassing neighbor for a year up in MA, and we wanted space, privacy after years of living in shared houses.  Our house here offered it: an acre-and-a-half to ourselves, bordered on three sides by a thick, lush crop of trees and bushes.  We live next door to a school, so those trees and bushes also served as a sound barrier from the kids who play from 9-6 every day at the playground ten feet outside our back yard.

Last week, the electric company came, shut off power for five hours, and then the cutting began.  They've been here every weekday, and now we have about ten trees left.  All the bushes are gone.  The playground is in clear view.  All they've left separating our backyard from the playground is ten feet of trampled, messy ground and a scattering of trees creating a fence with many holes.

They'll be back to cut more today and tomorrow-- who knows when they'll quit?  Not only is our natural fence gone, the home to many bunnies and birds is gone, too. Yes, we still have two sides, but it looks horrible.  And I'm mad that every time I go to the back yard, I'll have dozens of little eyes looking my way.  I'll hear kids screaming all day long (think they don't?  I've heard screams that will curdle your blood.  At times it sounds like they're murdering each other instead of playing.).  Not to mention free access to the dogs our neighbors to the east allow to roam free.  They're nice dogs (sort of dumb, too), but my CATS don't like to be chased.

This is all so nothing will touch the electrical lines.  But it's overkill.  It's gettin' happy with a chain saw.

Cut down a tree!  They only stand in the way of progress!

 

posted by: athenawj at 07:16 | link | comments (2) |
house

Sites updates

Just to let those who visited know: two of my sites, Athena's Place and Kaleidoscope Farm, have been taken down. Kaleidoscope Farm was more of a portal to my shop anyway, and too unwieldy to handle.  All that remains of Athena's Place, a site for mainly my writing credits, is the entrance page and the Bibliography page.  I'll continue to update it whenever I rack up another credit.

I'm presently concentrating on one site: Miss Millificent's World.  My old site is so tacky-looking, and it's Angelfire, too, so I've got a nice domain name, free hosting (it's nice when your husband is a web developer), and an expected launch date of August 15 (though maybe sooner... although I've got to work with a ton of graphics).  I'm really happy with the way it's turning out, and I hope when I announce it's open, ya'll will all visit.

This is the direction my life is heading, so this is a pretty natural progression that I feel good about.

 

 

posted by: athenawj at 10:15 | link | comments (2) |
art , writing

Coming Home

So, OD came home Friday night.  I braved the yucky bugs that love to congregate under our porch light and went out to meet her.  I know I probably overreacted at times while she was gone about her being gone for so long, but wow, the first thought I had was "She's so beautiful."  It was like the time I was gobsmacked when the sitter brought her home after YD was born-- "Oh my God, she's not my baby anymore!"

Anyway.  Lots of info.  They bought me cows for my kitchen, and lots of postcards for my collection, including one of the biggest sand dune in Europe-- I think they climbed it several times.  Brought back a tin of the best damn butter cookies I've ever tasted-- L. (my mother-in-law) sent us that four years ago and I gobbled them up then, too.  Pate (blech, that's for Mr. Calm), and Carambar, and hot chocolate and baking chocolate.  No cheese, heh.  Some treats for YD, of course, and OD seemed to have culminated an affinity for shoes while she was gone, because she brought back three new pairs.

She's lost 15-20 pounds; mainly from the fresher food and the walking every day.  For a month they camped near the beach-- we have pictures of her sitting with her great uncle Jacky while he fished, or shivering on the shore.  Sadly, they came upon rescuers pulling a drowning victim from the surf one morning, but another day L. and C. (my father-in-law) were able to help someone else who'd had a heart attack while swimming.  She went in a cave and museum with recreated drawings of early man (the originals have faded and they've been restored), and went to an exhibit full of chocolate sculptures.  The pix of those made my jaw drop.  In Bretagne, which is NOT pronounced the way I thought, she saw a Bretagne dancing competition ("like river dancing"), and a parade of colorful costumes.  On Bastille Day, only a few fireworks were set off before the area had to be cleared because of some kind of threat.  She drank a glass of apple cider every day, and yes, it's different from over here, heh.  Meals lasted several hours, and she told us that milk is cool, not cold-- they don't believe in giving children cold drinks, including water.  When her cousins reached for her chilly water, her mother said, "Don't touch that!"  (Now, I actually prefer what little beer and wine I have to be room temperature, and water's okay, but, no ice anywhere?  Agh!).

She loved the family she met: her great aunt and uncle, two of her second cousins and two of her third: two little four-year-olds with the names Maeva and Lea.  Maeva is a stunner, with huge brown eyes that I see in my MIL.  OD taught them how to sing "Happy Birthday to You", and let them use her camera.  When they arrived, the neighborhood had a block party for OD and C., and the mayor of Bordeaux came (she guessed that someone on the block knew him).  Everyone wanted to meet "the Americans", and the mayor, while not speaking much English, was very personable and welcoming.  No, she didn't get any pix!

Happily, she learned alot more French.  Had to, because her relatives don't know much at all.  She's been saying a lot at home, too, to keep it fresh for French III-- I can figure out "It's possible", but that's about it.  Over there, she watched the French versions of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and "Weakest Link".

Home, she seems more mature. I think the camping like, the learning to wash her clothes by hand, cooking by fire occasionally, staying at the beach in a tent really taught her to relax as well, and put aside all the electronic stuff that kids depend on nowadays (I say as I type at my computer).  I don't know; maybe it'll change and we'll go back to the way things were-- we're both similar and sometimes friggin' hard to live with each other-- but for now, I'm cherishing this.

She saw "Omen 666" in French, with her nana translating, and "Marie Antoinette" with French subtitles (it's open only there).  Today, I'm taking her to see "Pirates" in English-- it hasn't opened there yet.  See ya!

posted by: athenawj at 08:45 | link | comments (2) |
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