The gift that keeps on giving

Look at what I got!

A Holga!* A present from the ever lovely Julie T for the work I did on her Bad Home Cooking banner. I am so excited about this! And do you see that little white box to the left of the camera? That is film** baby! Yup, it's a cheap plastic 120 medium format film camera. Oh the fun I will have!

But not today. Cause I'm sick. The baby started it with her running nose. Chris went down suddenly Thursday night. And when I woke this morning I was not my usual sunny self. I've just been a slug all day; reading a book on typography and glancing at the CSS book without the energy to actually pick it up. I'm hoping I will have more pep tomorrow because I want to finish up the work I've started on Sain't Christopher's project. Now that the ethical dilemma has been resolved (he asked, she said yes), I can proceed with a clear conscience. And when it is done and has been declared "Glorious!" maybe the Sain't will send me more film (wink wink nudge nudge).

* Because how was she going to ship a hoagie?!
** I've read that Ilford's film has a minty flavor. Sweet!

An overnight sensation

Rome might not have been built in a day but what about a toddler?

We went to Santa Cruz this past weekend. We left Friday morning with a cute little 11 month old girl who crawls like a speed demon but could be contained by setting her in the grass. Such a sweet little baby. By the time we put her to bed – all that had changed. She was still sweet but life as we knew it was over.

Friday afternoon Paul came by. After awhile, Chris, Paul, Kyle and I went out front leaving Grandma to watch the baby. And who should come crawling out the front door and down the sidewalk? The baby. (Doing quite a number on the knees of her pajamas I might add) Thinking we can keep an easy eye on her, we set her in the dreaded grass. And Paul (who will soon go home and not have to spend the rest of his day keeping track of the baby) starts to lure Erin across the lawn. Pulling up grass and sprinkling it in front of her – waving leaves in her face – and BAM! Erin’s fear of crawling on grass is conquered. I suppose that’s not too awful. But after she started crawling down the sidewalk towards Portola Drive we went back inside.

Later, after our guard has been let back down because we were inside - where it’s safe - someone asks “Where’s Erin?” Not seeing her anywhere on the floor where she should be, we find her on the stairs. Not in front of the stairs but on. the. stairs. She’s crawled up the first step and we stand there, watching in horror as she continues up the stairs! So not good. We bought a gate Saturday morning.

And because these things like to come in 3's – she finished off the day by perfecting the stand and scoot - fine let’s call a spade a spade – the stand and walk around the furniture routine. Good gravy, if this is what that fresh sea air will do to you next time we'll go to LA!

I’m sure other things happened this weekend but until the PTBWSD* subsides I’ll be damned if I can remember any of it!

*Post Traumatic Baby Walking Stress Disorder

Since we’ve been home we have removed the bumper from her crib (rendering it a bleak prison cell – I have vowed to buy prettier sheets!).
And now we need to re-baby-proof everything that 2-3 feet off the ground. Oh the joy.

How was your weekend?


p.s. – I just wanted to mention that I could have gone with the whole ‘She has risen’ Easter theme but I didn’t. There might be a hint of regret.

Neither horseshoes nor hand-grenades

I’m so close...

So, I’ve been muckin’ around knee-deep in code all week, determined to get this blog in shape. And last night I found it – the chunk of code that will contain this beast. And as you can see Elfini-land is now 800px wide and will stay that way until I say otherwise! That is how great my powers are.

Unfortunately there is still a slight problem. When I am editing my template and hit ‘preview’, the site looks perfect! It floats in the center of the window as it has been instructed to do. Yet when I open the page on its own, I find it snuggled up tight to the left. Refusing to budge even a little bit. What the hell?! It’s making me a bit claustrophobic and I have not yet been able to figure out what it causing this blatant disobedience. But I will. It might take me another half dozen chapters but I will emerge victorious!

And after that - who knows? Maybe a line delineating the side bar. A colored background? Or maybe some blinky lights pointing to the comments link!
The world is my css oyster!

I’ve got mad skittles!

Skidlios

Skills

I’ve got mad skills. That’s talent. Man, don’t you have an 11 year old? (Want one?)

After much prompting (read: begging, flattery, although not nearly enough bribery) I put down the bon-bons and made Julie her new blog banner. After many hours of my patented ‘learn as you go’ Photoshop methods and several phone calls, I think we have a winner. Well, she hasn’t taken it down in 2 days so I’m going to claim it a success.

So, go check it out- Bad Home Cooking and tell us what you think.

Now I really have to fix my own blog. After getting my new monitor, I discovered my template is not a fixed width but all free floating. Now I’m all for “willy-nilly” and “go-with-the-flow” but not when it comes to recipes or blog design! So, I am once again reading books on html and css looking for that one line of code that will fix everything. I really don’t want to have to start from scratch.

And Sain’t Christopher – I haven’t forgotten about your banner. In fact I have a couple ideas. But first I need to learn how to use Illustrator. Don’t worry; I’ve got a book for that too.

Dear kwall1000

Whoa, I just signed an email 'Mom'.
I actually paused - that has got to be the strangest thing I've ever typed. Mom. Three little letters have never felt so surreal.

Schadenfreude

You should call me. Right now. I just got back from the dentist and half my face is sliding down to my shoulder. No, I’m pretty sure it is, but I’m not going to risk looking in a mirror for confirmation. Anyways, if you were to call me I would talk funny. And the odds are good that I would also bite my tongue. And then you would laugh - cause that’s how my friends roll. I know – I hand picked you for our matching evil streaks.

I had a very small cavity and spent more time getting shot full of Novocain that actually being drilled on. I’m not complaining about that at all. But I did miss my favorite part of getting a filling. Yes, I have a favorite part. Are you surprised? Well you shouldn’t be. It’s all a part of my rosy half-glass-full outlook on life that I somehow managed to get. (Now that surprises even me!)

Anyways. The part I like is actually a sound. And you won’t get this unless you too have lived at some point in a part of the land that has real winters – complete with snow and air you can’t breath. The sound of a filling being packed is the same sound as walking on crisp snow. I love that sound! Can you hear it? Well, today’s filling was so small there was no sound. So here I sit with a head full of Novocain, a suspected fat lip and no upside other than getting to lay back in a comfy chair for a half hour instead of sitting here at my desk.

On second thought - forget it. I’m letting all calls go to voicemail.