Costume!

So, Each year Paige dresses up on Halloween to go teach at the Junior High. Apparently some jobs allow this. In construction, you only get to dress up as a construction worker.

This year Paige dressed up as witch. Though more in the lines of the Harry Potter genre. She had this dress that belongs to her mother that was picked up when traveling, and then I totally carved this awesome wand for her, using a handheld belt sander, a chisel and a file.

Most people assumed she was Fiona from the Shrek series. Why do people automatically assume that your costume has to be something so totally commercial? I mean, wasn;t it obvious she was dressed up as a teacher from Hogwarts? Sheesh. People.

Anyway, here is the costume.


I like red hair, personally, but a wig is apparently to much to wear for that long. Or so I have heard.

Those of her students who saw the wand found it amazing that anyone could actually make something like that. I'm guessing none of her students took shop.

Here's the wand. (Elm and dragon heartstring, fourteen and three quarter inches, inflexible, excellent wand for transfiguration... Sorry, my geekinesss is showing.)

Jack

What is Halloween without out carving pumpkins, pretending to be something else, or scaring various groups of marauding teenagers out of the candy they stole from smaller children?

Ah, memories.

Tonight we were invited to the Shumways to carve our sacrificial pumpkins. Actually, I look at is as liberating the inner captive from the bland exterior. (Let your light shine and all of that).

Here is the product of this nights labor.

Music Monday

Today, another departure. Rather than just bringing you a song from a band that you may or may not have heard of, we want to ask you, have you ever considered the music in a Movie?

Good music or bad music can "assist" even the worst of acting. An Awful performance may become more overlookable in a highly dramatic moment assisted by the right musicale score. Like Ben Afflec in Armaggedon or Leonardo Decaprio in any movie he's ever been in.

The score can set the whole mood. Even for a movie you have already seen before. Like the video we have today. So Just sit back, relax, and rethink your whole childhood.




oh. Happy Halloween.

Oh bright and shiney

Today we brought joy and happiness to Brian's life: a new laptop!

His beloved (and despised) laptop had so many problems; it was time to put it down in favor of one that will not cause premature baldness from hair pulling.

It's been such a good laptop too. The problems started with the fan. See figure 1.


This fan you can't see here has, for several months begun to sound like James Earl Jones riding in a car without suspension on a washboard road. On it's good days. This unfortunately is also the CPU cooling fan. (Minor key music begins to play.)

Second is the bad screen pivot, which unbeknownst to me has not been turning with the rest of the screen. See figure 2.



The pivot caused the screen housing to crack nearly 4 inches across the back of the screen towards the second pivot. It also shredded all the plastic around it to where the screen cover no longer sits right and the screen itself won't stay upright unless at strange and unreadable angles.

The straw that deliberated the camel into visiting a chiropractor was the CDROM drive. It ejects anytime you hit either enter key. or look at it. or breath within 3 feet of it. or whenever it has to do something stressful like sitting there and doing nothing. Or, believe it or not, just now. For no reason. It's new favorite game is to eject 1.5 seconds after you push it back in. 6 times in a row is it's current record. BUT TODAY...

I was trying to burn a copy of my portfolio for a prospective employer. See figure 3.



This is our nasty orange office carpet. We are currently taking donations for it's replacement (Just Kidding). Also in this picture find all the discs it ejected mid-burning before making the ONE disc in the corner.

Alas poor Joric, I knew him well Horatio, here sat the keyboard I tapped I know not how many times...

Music Monday

My Sister should love this:

Today we have some Keane.

First, Everybody's Changing, followed by Bad Dream.




Album: Hopes and Fears
Recommend: Good Album, Highly recommended

Album:Under the Iron Sea
Recommend: This one as well.

The Office

Our office has been in a state of construction since Brian began working on the ceiling two years ago. We basically finished it in August, but with a major problem... Our experimental blindingly blue ceiling did not turn out the way we wanted it. This weekend, I finally got around to painting the ceiling white again. So, here you have it - our new and improved office.

Let there be light!

What do you do with a hole in your roof and ceiling? Plug it, of course!
And, add another one.

The hallway was dark and gloomy, and our winter plans of dividing our upstairs bathroom would leave the inner bathroom without a source of natural light. One long day of work later, we have a skylight in the hallway and one in the bathroom. Now, if I could only ignore the patching jobs that are obviously apparent as you look at the hallway...

Before

After

Revenge on a Swamp Monster

That's it.

We confess.

WE KILLED THE SWAMP COOLER!

We pushed it off the roof when it had its back turned.

Can you blame us? It was superfluous since the arrival of our central air. It was a blight on the landscape and a hole in the roof through which our conditioned air could escape.

We found great pleasure in the piece by piece dismantling culminating in our next blog post.

Death of the Swamp Monster

Disassociated press, Thursday October 16 2008.

On a cool and sunny fall day, in a realatively quiet neighborhood, a longstanding member of the community toppled to a loud clanging metal-tearing death.

Those who knew the victim described him as ominously creaking, flapping in the wind, and annoyingly full of high humidity.

The Police have few leads to go on but at this point are suspecting foul-play.

He is survived by the homeowners who are frankly glad to see him go.

RIP ,
The Swamp Cooler.

Music Monday

Good Morning! welcome to another Monday.

This mornings video is a cute little song from a so far one-hit-wonder.

This cute little video teaches me 2 things. (I mean aside from all the philosophical mumbo-jumbo about being yourself and all that, I thought that was obvious.)

First I learn that clowns are inherently creepy. Okay, I knew that, but this is a life affirming experience here.

Second I learn that clowns with facial stubble are significantly less creepy than all other clowns. That one I can't figure out.

Here is Ingrid Michaelson with The Way I Am.



Album: Girls and Boys
Recommend: I seriously know nothing about this artist beyond this one song. I highly recommend the song, and if anyone knows anything else about here, recommend away.

Bread Crumbs

We've been attempting to adjust a wonderful bagette recipe passed to us by Jon & Angela this past week. It has been an interesting ride.

Monday: Started the recipe. After about 2 hours, Brian commented that it didn't look like the yeast had risen. "There's no yeast in it," was my calm and confused reply...and then the light bulb lit. (that batch stopped there)

Tuesday: The next batch, which Brian started, was wonderful. (All 3 loaves were gone by Thursday night.)

Friday: I made a double recipe to share around...and only added half of the needed salt. (Edible, but no prize winner.)

Anyone seeing a pattern?!?!
I can cook, but I think I will leave the bread making to Brian.

Hitting the books...

So many of you may know, and many of you may not, but I changed jobs one year ago the end of this month. After 7+ years with Kodak Service and support I decided I was unhappy enough to finally choose something else.

After an extensive search, I ended up working for a division of Gunthers Heating and Air conditioning. None to soon either, as the job in which I HAD been working at kinda went belly up. Within a matter of months Kodak cut it's service force down to less than a third.

So I took up HVAC instead, and as the poet once said, I "took to it like a duck to merchant banking." It was only weeks into my job that one of our job leads declared me the worst at ductwork he'd ever seen. Or maybe I said that, and he didn't contradict me.

Things, unfortunately, did not continue at such a rosy pace. Around Christmas, I started having pain in some of my joints. Some time off around the holiday and I felt better until a couple of weeks after the wedding when my hands began to ache. They had done it earlier in the season, and they were an inconvenience, but I really figured they were aching due to the 32 - 8 degree weather in which I was running control wire in a wall - less building. Then the same problem began occurring in my knees, and eventually in my ankles and feet. By mid summer, though my hands were back to normal, my leg joints hurt so bad if I stood still or sat for more than 5 minutes remaining stationary that I would have to limp around for ten or more before I could walk normal again. A Doctors visit showed nothing to be wrong, anywhere. I just hurt. It's not even arthritis.

Add to this a constantly overwhelmed feeling and things began to become intolerable.

whelm (hwĕlm, wĕlm) tr.v. whelmed. whelm-ing, whelms
To cover with water; submerge.

overwhelm (ō'vər-hwĕlm',-wĕlm') tr.v., -whelmed, -whelm·ing, -whelms.
To no longer be keeping ones head JUST below water.

Okay, I may have made up that second one.

Anyway, I came to the conclusion that it was not particularly good for me to continue in the path I was in. For one, it hurt to much. For two, whats the point of me forcing a company to pay me for something I was (am) rapidly becoming less able to do?

All in all, the conclusion became that I must find something else, and that though I deplore the thought of school, school it must be. I am talented at many things, but I have no paper to show me trained in those things which I really enjoy doing. (does that mean I'm not paper trained?)

Then upon further review, we decided that at least while Paige is employed, and as we can live comfortably on her income, I'm going to go to school full time. So, January 7th I start full time at Utah Valley University. I will be going for a Bachelors Degree in Digital Media. UVU's program is nationally connected and watched, and even has some International recognition. It's a good program.

I'm still terrified of the thought of school. I took the placement tests today. I got a 99 out of 99 on Reading. A 98 out of 99 on writing. . .

And a 78 of 99 on Pre-Algebra.
and a 25 out of 99 on Algebra.


So, I can take the highest required for reading and English, and a non-credit review for math before I can take the required Math class. But I can also take one of my core classes right away. That's what I'm looking forward to. That and giving my joints some time to calm down. I hope.

Love-Hate

I am trying to remember that it does NOT make me a bad person to love a child but hate them at the same time. After all, I could just hate them.

I have a special few boys who I like as people, but wish they would:
a. wise up
b. listen to me as I try to teach them how to play the school game
c. figure out that they will NEVER earn their way out of "book-time" unless they behave...and behave
d. find another class to disrupt
e. be taken over by body snatchers and changed into a "model" student

Oh well, 1/4 of the year finished, 3/4 to go!

Follow the...dirt road

I finished digging our path today! My muscles and trusty shovel have been looking forward to a break - we've earned it. (Just in time for rain/snow to fill in the depression that we walk through every day.)

Now, comes the fun of laying the base rock and edges and pavers and...I'm going to stop now before I get discouraged.

Olivia

Introducing:

Olivia Marie Barlow
Born: Oct 3
8 lbs 10 oz
20.25 inches

I may be biased, but she is awfully cute.

Such a sweet sister moment... I am not holding my breath that it will last forever, but I am sure they will have so much fun in the years ahead.

Music Monday

Music Monday once again. I know, It's a late post, comparatively. I usually post somewhere in the neighborhood of three hours ago.

I'm late today on account of me not being at work. I have an appointment in an hour or 2, so I skipped work.

So now here I am, awake and ready for my day, and ready to bring you some music. Today I have chosen to bring you 2 more from ColdPlay. I give you first, The Scientist, followed by Trouble.



Album: Trouble
Recommend: A very good album, I recommend the whole thing.

Album: A Rush of Blood to the Head
Recommend: Also a highly recommended album