Progress

Saturday, May 31, 2008

Back on Film

Well, digital, actually, but we are rolling once more with a new digital video/still photo camera.

The girls requested they get to be the first photo taken. I am happy to oblige, obviously.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

I am an eBay seller now!


Well, yesterday I finally got around to posting the stuff I picked out to sell on ebay a few months ago. And one thing sold already! Woohoo!

The buyer even lives near the city where I used to live. Cool.

Friday, May 23, 2008

R.I.P. Cannon ZR300

My camcorder / digital camera just died. DD7 and I were planning on having a "Picture Taking Day" where we take pictures of her, me, the cat, flowers, dolls, etc. I went to check how charged the battery is and BLAMMO all I get is a white screen on the screen and nothing through the viewfinder.

The blasted thing was working just an hour ago! I took this (the last picture this camera will take. *sniff*) to illustrate something about my Firefox bookmarks.


Then I noticed the battery was getting low and plugged the camera in just like I have thousands of times over the past ... thinking ... 3 years. The screen went white and there was nothing. So sad. It was a good camera.

This doesn't come as too much of a surprise. There have been some clues that it was on its way out since Christmas. Oh well.

Here is the last actually interesting picture taken with this camera. Our cat Pippen in the window of my craft room enjoying the breeze, and birdsong, and sunlight, and whatever else cats like when they sit in second story windows.

Pay It Forward

Andrea at The Happy Hippy Chronicles posted about a gift ... (word search..."exchange" isn't right..."train" maybe) Paying Forward the warm fuzzies of receiving a gift.

So, here is how it works...The first THREE people to comment to this post will receive a gift from me. The they must Pay It Forward by repeating what I (and Andrea and whoever sent Andrea a gift, etc) by sending out three gifts.

Let's Go!

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Dr Laura on HSing

Dr Laura Schlessenger posted today on her blog about a study done at a Jackson, MS university that measured how well home schooled students adjust to their first semester of college, compared to comparable traditionally schooled students.

http://www.drlaurablog.com/2008/05/22/home-schooling-does-not-hamper-socialization/

Monday, May 19, 2008

The Prime Equator

How is it that a child can forget information that they knew mere seconds ago?

I don't know. It is a talent, I guess. I don't know where they get it from.

Wait, what was the question?

Anyhow, today was a geography/map use lesson. Latitude, longitude, Prime Meridian, International Date Line, Capricorn, Cancer, Arctic, etc. I suppose it went well. DD7 did best when talking with me but she froze for the quiz. I can certainly understand that.

We'll have to see if they can find Mississippi on the globe again tomorrow; or Greenwich, England; and the northern hemisphere.

We did have.

This weekend--
DH decided he wanted to relax and play some Magic:The Gathering. He tried to get me to play, but I put it off. I do enjoy watching others play more than playing myself. He and DB refreshed DD10 on her rules and taught DD9 for the first time. All in all it went pretty well.

And what did I do while they played cards? I ripped hair out of Barbie dolls, preparing them for future re-roots. I have a little army of bald Barbies now, waiting to do my bidding! hahahaha!

Now I just need to remove the factory paint off of the ones I plan to repaint, such as lovely Mulan in the picture.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Boring Life

My life is really boring. I don't know why I bother to try to blog about it, other than as a freaky way of keeping a diary.

Today's questions...should I hang the bizaaro-looking exotic hanging table (from the Philippines) that my mother gave me near my desk, or at the top of the front stairs, or somewhere else entirely? (maybe over near the dining room entrance) I cannot decide.

My allergies are bothering me. Mostly eyes today, which is unusual. I am mostly a sneezey, stuffy allergic.

Can I legitimately call myself a home school mother if we haven't done SQUAT all week? The move laid me out, lesson-wise. I want to get back to it, but then I look around and my house is full of boxes. I tell myself, "We really need to focus on unpacking and THEN we can get back into school." But there are so many boxes that I feel overwhelmed and just sit and do nothing.

OK, so, that is stupid, no? Lets dissect that...too many boxes to unpack. Shall we just wallow in boxes then and NEVER MOVE IN? No. OK, so what to do...Let's unpack. BUT instead of worrying about THE WHOLE FEAKIN' HOUSE, I'll concentrate on one room. And withing that one room, I will start with one box.

Which room do I start in? Arrrgh!

OK, calm down. Let's not be paralyzed like rabbits in headlights.

Which room is EASIEST?

...thinking...

I think I will do take care of what I can in my bedroom.

There, see? All that to come to the decision that I need to go clean my room. WHat a boring blog!

I am off, to actually do what I need to, believe it or not.

(PS - I think the hanging table will go over near the dining room.)

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Interesting Photo

Unfortunately, I cannot credit the photographer because I cannot remember what website I found it on.

It may seem cruel, but I have every confidence that this squirrel was not killed to take this shot.
I love the composition, making the GI Joes look like they hunted the beast and killed it. As a customizer of 1:6 scale figures, I can appreciate that.

Monday, May 12, 2008

The New House

Here is the new house before we moved in. Mom and the girls included. You can see that most of the front yard is taken up by parking lot. The house was used as a business building for the last 10 years. I suppose I could eventually reclaim the yard, but then again, I have found having a parking lot to be incredibly convenient, even when I don't have 20 cars visiting.


Big fireplace. I cannot wait to decorate for Christmas. But then again, I always love decorating for the holidays.


The kitchen, BEFORE we moved in (Read- It is much messier now.)


The kitchen from downstairs.


Brick planter-thing. This house was built in 1968 and is a little weird. I am planning to cover the brick top with plywood and put my 55 gallon fish tank here.


This is in the garage. Three little desks built onto the wall. This used to be office space. You better believe it is classroom space now, Baby! (or will be once I get it set up right)

Caught Up - sort of

OK, I went through and copied and pasted the entries from my other blog into this one. Everything between "Souvenir" (with the kitten) and "Not quite a year" (where I tell it has not quite been a year since I posted) was added in. I did not post any of the entries where I say that yahoo 360 blog feature sucks or it was giving me headaches. However, the hassles I experienced in simply going to old posts to copy them make me think coming back to blogger might be a good idea.

It's not like anyone cares. No one reads this.

Have a great day!

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Well, not quite a year

Didn't quite make it to the 1 year point between posts. I'll have to try harder next time.

There are lots of things to relate, many of which I covered in another blog (don't feel betrayed. I know no one reads this blog anyway.) I'll see if I can transfer over what is there to what is here. Maybe. Later. Right now I have things to do.

We have moved. The cat has grown. We still home school. I am not taking classes right now. Tada! You are up to date! Just kidding, but really, I don't want to bring this blog current right now. Later. Maybe.