barbies

My stepdad forwarded these to me in an email a while ago. Ha ha ha! Photoshopped dolls poking fun at stereotypes about various small towns in Montana! This post is sure to be a favorite all around the world.

Anyway everyone in my family gave each other bottles of wine and bourbon for Christmas, and pirated totally legal copies of movies purchased in crazy Asian countries The United States of America! So I have been far too busy with those to think of anything interesting to say, sorry.

MONTANA BARBIES:


KALISPELL BARBIE
The modern day homemaker Barbie is available with Ford Windstar Minivan and matching gym outfit. She gets lost easily and has no full-time occupation. She has no idea what Ken does for work. Cell phone and golden retriever dog sold separately.




HUNGRY HORSE BARBIE
This tobacco-chewing, brassy-haired Barbie has a pair of her own high-heeled sandals (one heel is broken from the time she chased Beer Gut Ken out of Billings Barbie's house). Her ensemble includes low-rise acid-washed jeans, fake fingernails, and a see-through halter-top. Also available with a mobile home.




BOZEMAN BARBIE
This collagen-injected, rhinoplastied Barbie wears a trendy leopard-print outfit and drinks cosmopolitans while entertaining friends. Percocet prescription available as well as newly built spec house in new subdivision.




WOLF POINT BARBIE
This Barbie now comes with a stroller and 2 infant dolls. Optional accessories include a GED and bus pass. Gangsta Ken and his 1979 Caddy were available, but are now very difficult to find since the addition of the infant. Warning: it is possible that Wolf Point Barbie will soon come with an additional infant.




GREAT FALLS BARBIE
This recently paroled Barbie comes with a 9mm handgun, a Ray Lewis knife, a Chevy truck with dark tinted windows, and a Meth Lab Kit. This model is only available after dark and must be paid for in cash (preferably small, untraceable bills) unless you are a cop, in which case this is a display model only.


HAMILTON BARBIE
She's perfect in every way, mainly due to the high levels of antidepressants in her system. We don't know where Ken is because he's always at church meetings. Available with 2.5 kids.




MISSOULA BARBIE
This doll is made of actual tofu. She has long straight brown hair, arch-less feet, hairy armpits, no makeup, and Birkenstocks with white socks. She prefers that you call her Willow. She does not want or need a Ken doll, but if you purchase two Missoula Barbies and the optional Subaru wagon, you get a rainbow flag bumper sticker for free.




BILLINGS BARBIE
This pale model comes dressed in her own Wrangler jeans two sizes too small, a NASCAR t-shirt and Tweety Bird tattoo on her shoulder. She has a six-pack of Bud Light and a Hank Williams Jr. CD set. She can spit over 5 feet and kick Mullet Ken's butt when she is drunk. Purchase her pickup truck separately and get a confederate flag bumper sticker absolutely free.




WHITEFISH BARBIE
This yuppie Barbie comes with your choice of BMW convertible or Hummer H2. Included are her own Starbucks cup, credit card, and country club membership card. Also available for this set are California Commuter Ken and Boarding School Skipper. You won't be able to afford any of them.




BIG SKY BARBIE
She comes with an assortment of Kate Spade Handbags, a Lexus SUV, a long-haired foreign dog named 'Belle' and a million dollar waterfront home. Available with or without tummy tuck and face lift. Workaholic Ken sold only in conjunction with the augmented version.





p. s. I do not know who made these hilarious items. If it was you, email me and I'll give you credit. Or not. Whatever you want baby.

I'm hoping to stay in this chair for a few days solid

I'm in Billings. The tale of my journey was really stupid and long and sad, starting with how the NWA people "forgot" to tell the flight crew when they were supposed to be at the airport, so they were all still asleep in their hotel rooms when we were supposed to be boarding the plane. So, that flight was 3 hours late, and before we had even left DC I had missed my connection to Minneapolis. I kept trying to get someone to just put me on a different flight to Minneapolis (there was one RIGHT NEXT DOOR, as well as many others) but they were too stressed out and just made everyone go to Detroit on the premise that "they will rebook you there, we promise".

But, then, Detroit was full of all these people who needed to be rebooked. (NWA had also just cancelled some huge flight to Hawaii, plus many others were late. I was in line next to a kid who had been in Detroit since Saturday morning). So it took 2 hours to get to the front of the line, and then there were no seats available to Minneapolis until 7 pm.

I kind of wanted to go to Missoula anyway (and was planning to drive over there today to hang out with my other brother and with Heebie Geebie) so I kept suggesting that I be sent to any place! Any place in Montana! Bozeman! Butte! Kalispell! I don't care! What about Spokane!

But all the flights were full.

So I sat around in Detroit for a lot of hours, feeling sorry for myself and reading stupid books about vampires.

Then I went to board the flight. Except it wasn't there. The gate agent told me to go to a different gate, where my flight was on the marquee, with an estimated departure of 8:30.

I was supposed to be arriving in Minneapolis at 8:30 to get on the VERY LAST PLANE EVER to Billings, which was supposed to board at 9.

So I was going to miss that flight. And I had been awake for a really long time, and if I was going to miss it anyway I wanted to go to bed RIGHT NOW.

So I went up to some random other gate agent and was all pathetic and "please can you please help me? I am really, really tired, if I'm going to miss the flight anyway can you put me in a hotel here please". And he started looking at flights and told me that (a) if I didn't get on the flight to Billings that night, I was not going to be able to fly to anywhere in Montana until Friday, and (b) I was going to miss the connection and all the other flights to Minneapolis were full.

I might have started crying a little bit at this point. Just a little! I said, whatever, okay, I'll go to Minneapolis and figure this all out tomorrow when I am more coherent, sorry I'm crying! I'm just really tired.

Then he looked at all the "mechanical problems" and "crew problems" and how I had been so sorely mistreated by fate all day, and also how I was kind of crying (JUST A LITTLE) and magically decided to put me on his plane anyway. Which was leaving for Minneapolis in 30 minutes and which 10 minutes previously he had said was "completely full"

Whatever.

He put me in an exit row, which I am not allowed to sit in because I am deaf, but I didn't say anything to anyone because I am so selfish and irresponsible.

Then I got to Minneapolis, and my plane to Billings was also late (they had to replace a wheel. Or something.)

So, I got here last night, at midnight. Which is 2:00 AM in DC. And I woke up at 4:00 AM in DC yesterday morning. So I had been awake for 22 hours. That is too many hours for me. I like to only be awake, like, 12 or 14, at most. Also I don't get to go to Missoula any more; time and weather were not on my side.

But, I had gigantic brothers to meet me at the airport and carry my bags and fawn over me, and put me to bed. I slept for 13 hours and now I'm drinking coffee. It is snowing. Everyone is off doing things at the mall and the gym and the grocery store and the pottery shop except one brother who is reading a magazine at the table with me. All is relatively right with the world.

also you'd think the collective would be something better than "herd"

Do you know what word has a really deeply unsatisfying plural form in the English language? It is "moose". One moose, two moose, three moose, a dozen moose. How many moose? Too many moose to count.

"Mooses" would be an improvement.

"Meece" would be so much better.

Julie always gets annoyed with me because whenever I am talking about a moose to her (SO OFTEN.) I do the sign for "moose" and then I get worried that maybe someone will think I am talking about an elk or a deer, so I spell out M O O S E too just in case. And Julie is all "yeah Cecily, when have you ever told a story about a deer or an elk? it's a moose, we get it, hurry up and finish your story already."


It's true, I know way more stories about moose than about elk or deer. Which also have zero plural forms, but which don't annoy me at all. Who cares if it's one deer or two deers? I wanna hear more about the MOOSE!

I don't actually have a story about a moose to tell you right now. There are no moose allowed in Washington DC; I am pretty sure it's Official Federal Constitution Policy. Up in the Frozen North, though, there are lots! Lots of mooses! So many meece! Maybe I'll see some and tell you a story about it later.

Update! my mother writes to add:

Do you have any memory of the song you made up as a two year old called,"Moosey Julia"? It was because I had you at the cabin and a mother moose came browsing around you and I were sitting at the table and she came and looked in the window. The song went something like:

"Moosey Julia, Moosey Julia
running around calling "Noot! Noot!"

I think you had her looking for her baby inside the cabin, anyway you sang it for a year or two and it was always adorable.

So. There you go. I don't actually remember this, particularly, but I am always willing to believe people who tell me I am adorable.

ANOTHER UPDATE: An anonymous commenter points out the genius of Brian Regan:

“Moosen! I saw a flock of MOOSEN! There were many of ‘em. Many much moosen. Out in the woods…in the wood-es…in the woodsen. The meese want the food in the woodesen…food is the eatenesen…the meese want the food in the woodesenes…food in the woodesenes.”

Moosen it is.

are you tired of adorable babies yet?

I linked to this before in a comment, but now Lindsay captioned it for me. The best part is at 3:00 where the baby fakes utter dejection, on behalf of David.



Thanks Lindsay!

p. s. if anyone knows lots of stuff about captioning/subtitles, formatting, and .srt files, please email me.

where you are at?

All over!

Here's what Google Analytics says about who looked at this blog on a recent day:



There's a big splotchy dot for Constitution City, obviously, obscuring the rest of the east coast. Then we got some M state action up there and a nice scatter down the west coast. Plus hi Texas! I never knew I had so many imaginary friends in Texas. Hook em, or whatever it is you crazy kids say down there.

Half the international visits are boring and predictable, and the other half are totally inexplicable to me. There's my dad in Mozambique, and Lindsay in Sydney, and Jim at his conference in Manila, and my mama in Beijing. But who are all these people in Utrecht? And Jerusalem? And Brisbane?

Anyway. Presumably I'll think of something else interesting to talk about soon, now that the semester is over and I've recovered from all the ensuing whiskey consumption. So, you know. Stay tuned for that.

See you.

Family update: Vocabulary Expansion Edition

Update: Michael found a multimedia event demonstrating the wonders and dangers of Counterflowing:



My stepdad is in Manila for a conference. He writes:

Driving to Tagaytay was also an experience. I learned another new word, counterflow. It is a Manila-taxi word, and is used in a sentence like this (spoken very casually): "If the traffic is bad, it is okay to counterflow." Then the cabbie smiles at you. (Note to travelers: pay very close attention when someone in Manila smiles at you.)

"To counterflow" means TO CROSS THE CENTER LINE AND DRIVE IN THE LANE OF ONCOMING TRAFFIC ON A FOUR LANE HIGHWAY.

This was a great surprise to me, and I am determined to remember the word, counterflow. The next time everything looks like it has turned to shit around me, just before I do something incredibly stupid, I will smile and tell those around me (in a casual voice), "In this situation, it is okay to counterflow." Then I will smile and do the stupid thing. Counterflow.

I'm pretty sure that at the end of the semester, counterflowing is standard procedure. Counterflowing with whiskey! It is okay! Right guys? See you Wednesday.

we've been working on this trick for a while

it's still kind of hit or miss, but excellent when successful.

Let's play rock paper scissors and you're wine and I'm beer

and the winner gets to drink the loser and the loser has to do all my homework.



Dear Internet,

Hello! Did you know that it is December? It is December.

See you when I'm done writing papers!

love,
Cecily

more on mice, mamas

From an email my mother sent a month-ish ago:

I don't think of myself in general as a courageous person, but this trip has forced me to deal with a few phobia issues:

1. I can get on escalators almost casually most of the time.

2. I am fairly nonchalant about using the public facilities

3. Last night was a special dinner for the president of the University where the training is taking place- in a posh hotel, big round table with a lazy susan of thirty or forty dishes in the middle. Jim was sitting between me and the president, and a new dish came around. The president leaned over and said to us,

"You must try this special Xian dish. We call it mouse legs."

Split second decision against the allergy excuse ("Oh I'm very allergic to mice?") It might work but I had already used it on things I am actually allergic to, and it sounds thin. Plus Cecily would never let me live it down.) So, I dished some up and ate it. It was delicious. Also it was just mushrooms, so maybe it doesn't count, but I feel very macho about it.

Jim wasn't paying too much attention because he had been chosen by the chief professor to play the "Gambei!" game on behalf of all the Americans. So he had to stand up and match this guy drink for drink, and down three beers in quick sucession. This is the genteel academic version, limited to three and using beer instead of the usual grain alcolhol.

So it seems like they are having fun.

(Anticlimactically and disappointingly for us all, in case you missed it, there were no mice. There were only mushrooms.)

Confidential to my family: I think I succeeded in guilt-tripping Jocelyn and Michael into coming to Christmas! Congratulate me at will.

my homework is not finished

so here's another movie for you, dears.



I will think about a transcript/description later. Sorry to those of you who are excluded in the meantime.

if you tell me a saying about idle hands, I will SCREAM

Are you bored? Do you need something to look at on the internet? Well I am here to help, as always. Look at this crazy video! It's some Australian musician simcomming in English and ASL for most of the song. So there's probably something to say about that, you know, politically and linguistically and whatnot. You guys all feel free to do so.

I, however, mainly care about watching 1:15 - 2:25 over and over and over. This is where the best thing ever to happen, happens. I won't spoil the surprise except to say that my favorite is the squirrel. And the snakes. And the trees and the dog and everything else about this section who wants to make a movie with me!?!?



Sia | Soon We'll Be Found from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.

via The Gimp Parade where there is also smart political discussion and a full description and the lyrics


(if it seems like I never do anything but put links to other people's entertaining videos on here these days, well, you are very perceptive and smart, aren't you? The secret is that my advisor reads this blog and I owe her 5,000 pages of writing and I don't want it to look like I am fooling around too much. HI KRISTIN!)

Everyone loves crocodiles and hippos

even French babies


Once upon a time... from Capucha on Vimeo.

via Feministing

All Hallow's Eve

was fun. First I made some outfits





and then I dressed people up in them.



while Alyssa pumpkin-carved



And everyone drank drinks



and looked pretty





Pictures stolen from various sources; I was too gluey to use a camera ever. Also more at flickr.

DC turned into a block party last night

d
@ the White House, November 4th 2008 from greggish on Vimeo.


this is a pretty fun time to be living in this town.

happy dancing skeleton day

d

via the inestimable Katie Beaton

Verbing AWESOMEs language

d

I just read something where "photoshop" was used as a verb meaning "clean up with a hint of falsification and intent to mislead" but not related to pictures. I practically clapped my hands with glee on the spot.

(By "practically", I mean, whether or not I will admit having done this depends on my mood and how much whiskey and ice cream you brought me.)

It was in this post, which is discussing Sarah Palin's speechifications and their subsequent renderings into print. Prompting Mr. Nunberg to note that "you wouldn't expect the transcribers to photoshop Palin's anacolutha and false starts".

Indeed. I certainly did not expect transcribers to photoshop anybody's anacolutha and/or false starts. Although personally I would prefer transcribers to use the IPA whenever they can, maybe illustrated with some gestural scores of tongue position and printouts of waveforms, so it's possible I am not really anyone's target audience.

This is tangentially related and also awesome.

***

Next: I want to see movie critics start using anacoluthon to describe when it seems like there's gonna be one kind of movie, and then all of a sudden the aliens attack and you are all like "whoa I totally thought this was going to be a romantic comedy based on that opening scene there, boy howdy was I ever taken aback by the swift change in tenor as well as the scary scary aliens."

The banana confuses happily.

More awesome from China: menu items sighted by my mama.

The curry beef/chicken braises the Italian surface

Pushes Pisa newly

Cherishes one's relatives the intestines

West the Buddhist ritual procedures black angel digs up the beefsteak to match orchid shelled fresh shrimp

And for dessert:

The banana confuses happily

family update: Africa/Wild West edition

So before when I told you my dad and stepmom were moving to Bangladesh, I spoke rashly and before all the cards were on the table. Or whatever the saying is. Anyway they didn't go to Bangladesh; instead they went to Mozambique. Where the streets, rather than having no names, have some pretty awesome names. From my dad:

The street is Pereira da Lago (which is probably mispelled), presumably somebody's name. To get downtown, one goes a couple of blocks left, turns right on Kim Il Sung, left on Mao Tse Tung, and then left on Kenneth Kaunda, and finally right on Julius Nyerere, which one follows past Robert Mugabe Place on Avenida 25 September.

In other news, the apocalypse has apparently come to Montana: that place is full of stowstorms



and has somehow magically turned into a swing state. Wacky.

oyster bourbon pony island weekend

was a success.

This is what Saturday was like:



with some of this:



also I made a Walrus Moustache for our dramatic readings of Lewis Carroll poems:



then at nights there was a lot of this:



and bourbon in teacups, and poetry recitals, and ridiculous games.

Verdict: A++++! would attend again.

everybody's got a little devil

mine are in a bucket in my hallway.



"Everybody's Got a Little Devil In Their Soul": Tommie Young

family update: far east edition

Some of my parents (the ones who aren't in Africa) are in China. They report that

we have spent an incredibly TRYING week looking for an apartment. The plan was: wait until Monday because the office manager would help us, but she seems to have very nebulous hours and didn't come on Monday, so Tuesday we went with an agent who could speak English, looked at six apartments that were really more basic living than we could quite stomach at our ages. ( Pipe issues, wildlife under the sink, no water in the toilets,etc. One that was good otherwise had, literally, kitchen counters that hit Jim at the knee).

Yesterday we went with the program manager, a delightful young woman who just moved back here after eight years in New York, and we saw: two amazingly swanky apartments in "hotel style living" places that cost the same or less than the sketchy ones, but one of the most posh ones had the toilet in a glass enclosure in the living room, in full view of everyone!

Then we went to see one that we actually love, and I think will try to bargain on today- highly overpriced (for foreigners) and when we got back to the office, the office manager was very disapproving of that part of town: "Too many Koreans; too many black people." But it's a great part of town, lots of foreign students and interesting cafes, right near the subway, which is very efficient and clean. Today we are going at noon to see three more that are in Jennifer's building complex, and I think they may also work. The office manager (whose name I can't spell) seems to want us to live there, so...

We are SO tired of living in the hotel, although it is beautiful place, it is really existence on a strange tourist level that is pretty artificial. Prices for everything are completely arbitrary- a box of granola bars might cost six dollars, and a meal of four courses with beer ten dollars apiece. Lunch costs less than a package of gum. The food is wonderful, and people are so kind to us about not knowing anything. Our internet access will continue to be limited until we get into an apartment- I am just planning to come here to the office from time to time, because they have wireless here and I can use that until we get settled. Every time before this morning that I have been ready to write this email someone would be ready to go look at places, so it has been slow. Each apartment involves meeting the agent, finding/waiting for the landlord, looking at the place, long incomprehensible discussions about something, not including us, but probably about us, and then transportation back to the hotel or office at rush hour, which is a time consumer in itself.

Matt asked yesterday if the traffic was really all that it is cracked up to be, and it is. The rules are followed vaguely when followed and crossing streets is an adventure every time. The program manager said they will again be limiting traffic starting Monday as thay did during the Olympics - people will have one day a week that they can bring a car into the city, except for cabs. I will try to take some pictures before that. I think that the first week was artificially low in traffic because of the national holiday. As soon as we figure out the apartment I will send photos of that and the neighborhood.

Hope everyone is well and happy and I miss everyone an enormous bunch!

So that's what they're doing. I will mention here for the purposes of Very Fond Mockery that the last email I had from my mama before they left Montana had no subject line and just said "I'm having trouble dragging things (like to the trash). What am I doing/not doing?" and then a few hours later she followed up with a text message complaining that she just couldn't drag things "like you would with a mouse." People who are familiar with my mother's highly variable attitude towards rodents will understand that it took me a moment to decipher these messages.

Hey Mom! Did you get your computer fixed ever? I love you!

I'm not doing much, or at least not much that's worthy of your time and attention. However, starting tomorrow I will be, because tomorrow I am going camping for the weekend on an island with ponies and an Oyster Fest. There will be costumes and bourbon and smores (in addition to the oysters) and hijinks. I'll tell you all about it as soon as I recover; see you next week.

material possessions*

Missoula has a lot of fabric stores for a small town in Montana, and a lot of them are pretty good. One in particular, Selvedge Studio, is better than pretty good: it is REALLY GREAT. Dangerously great. Every time I walk in there I want to spend the next five hours touching stuff and if I had a million dollars I would buy two yards of everything and three yards of some things. Here is some of what I acquired in August:



There's only one fabric store in DC** and I don't love it. It's okay I guess. They have lots of beautiful expensive imported things for fancy people to make suits and dresses out of. And they have some other stuff too, and sometimes things are on sale. I usually can find something I want.

But it is too hard to navigate, in there. The fabric is mostly on skinny rolls, instead of bolts, and only half of them have any fiber content information. A lot of them also don't have any pricing information. And they are all mixed together, sort of vaguely categorized by price? or fiber? except not really, really there are all kinds of everything stacked together in heaps, all the colors mixed in there too, and since the rolls are stacked on top of each other you can't really even see most of the fabrics. Like so:



So my main feeling after being in there for five minutes is usually annoyed frustration***, especially if I was looking for something specific. And there have been a number of times when I was looking for something specific and relatively basic, like solid cotton quilt fabric or batting, and they didn't have it. And it's downtown! And it's crowded! And my life is very hard!

Anyway, they're moving into a different location (in Georgetown, which doesn't bode well for the convenience/crowdedness issue) and having a big crazy sale. So I bought some fancy new scissors and a bunch of ridiculous silk taffeta, with which who knows WHAT I will do. It's all shiny and double-woven so it's hard to take a picture of: either I got blurriness or inaccurate color.



Whatever, take my word for it, it is beeeyoutiful.


Okay, the moral of the story is, if you want me to make you something out of fabric, you should go buy some fabric soon while this big 50-percent-off-or-more sale holds out.



* HA HA HA ha ha ha ha ha.

**to my knowledge. There may be another one somewhere but their attempts to remain hidden have so far been successful.

***I know, crazy, right? The last combination of emotions you'd ever expect from me!

I heart technology

All my classes are independent studies this semester so I mainly do my work at home*. But every once in a while I go to school and today was one of those days. I had a meeting and then found things at the library.

I am so spoiled. And so are you, probably. Did you know people used to have to look things up in books if they wanted to learn about something? I get very annoyed if I have to actually physically move myself or any objects other than a keyboard in the pursuit of knowledge. What! It's not available online! That is the worst thing I have ever heard!

Anyway today I had to have a new kind of library researching adventure: MICROFILM. I hadn't used one of those crazy magnifier reader machines since third grade. I walked up to the desk with my little box of film and a nervous expression and before I even said anything the librarian rushed around to show me how to use all the old school technology.

It was pretty fun. Now I have a lot of things to read. Hasta.

*by which I of course mean Big Bear.

easily amused

which is funnier: a bowl of water or a fauxhawk on a baby?



answer: totally a tie.

This was way the most productive hour I've spent in MONTHS.

my Halloween activities are ramping up

more plaster mask molds.





Who's next?

whiskey in a teacup, giving blondes a bad name, etc

Phoebe came over yesterday and put plaster all over me (to make a dressmaker's dummy of myself so I can make some fancy duds) and then I put plaster all over her (to make a mold for a rubber mask for Halloween and or other purposes). Meanwhile, Elizabeth felted things and the small people took naps and the bigger people drank bourbon out of mismatched teacups.

Then Abby and Ben joined in and we all ate pizza and drank beer (>4 years of age) and juice (<) and watched the Wizard of Oz.



Here's my plan: somebody ELSE has to let me make a plaster cast of THEIR face. Then I'll make rubber masks of Phoebe and the other person. Then you guys can trade and be each other for Halloween. C'mon guys it'll be awesome and I promise not to suffocate you with the wet plaster, I am totally an old pro at this game.

strangers talk only about the weather

Apparently there's a big storm coming. Sadly, I am out of popcorn, or I could just watch movies wrapped in a quilt for the next 48 hours.

I'm really glad I live in a new fancy house though, because my fancy new house has a roof that is watertight and walls that do not rub off on your hand when it's rainy.

I have a headache and nothing else to say. Somebody bring me some popcorn!

politics is boring and stressful

but this is hilarious and awesome.

Via Kriston and unfogged.

mystery items

My refrigerator is very entertaining. Mainly because phrases that involve time-outs always make me giggle, but also because somebody left a bunch of Drug Detecting Dog All Star Trading Cards at our house last year. We asked everybody and they all denied it.



Other things appear in our house from time to time. Like a hoodie that I wear all the time, and occasionally shoes, and one time a rubber snake. Latestly* is this baseball-style Sports Team hat:



is it your hat? Speak up!

*is too a word! Shut up! I have a Master's Degree In Linguistics!

she was right; eating IS pretty exciting

Ben's out of town and it was the 4-year-old's first day of big girl school, so I went to pick the baby up from day care. We walked back to my house and sat around watching the news while we waited for Elizabeth to come get her. Also we ate some food.

Oh my goodness, this child LOVES FOOD. I have never seen someone so enthusiastic about mealtime. We had this conversation for 40 minutes:

Cecily: you want a bagel?
Baby: (running into the kitchen and laughing) YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!
Cecily: want some sausage?
Baby: (maniacal laughter) (signing "more") MORE! YAAAAY! MORE!
Cecily: you thirsty? want a drink?
Baby: (nodding, giggling, blowing kisses) MMMMMMMM!!!!! YAAAY!

Finally she reclined on the pillows, patted her fat 18-month-old tummy, and signed "all done". If she had fallen asleep like that I would have cried from perfection, but instead she lasted 20 seconds and then jumped up to throw more things at the cats and try to wear my cowboy boots.

fancy! new! house!

all right I found my camera, and the charger, and the batteries, and the USB cord. Finally! Let me show you around.

Here is the lovely, lovely living room. With the moody, moody Pipi modeling our nice green couch for you.



Here's the living room from the other end of the room.



then there's a little other room with a television in it:


the hallways all have crazy track lighting.


I should probably clean the kitchen up a little more at some point.


Upstairs, there is some more unpacking to be done. Also we need some more bookshelves.


Alyssa's room is blue, and has a balcony.


Mine doesn't have a balcony, but it is gigantic.


I need more shelves in here too.


That's all. Unless you want to look at the living room again! Oh you do? All right. Here you are. Your wish is my command.

Washington DC's a funny little town

All the important people went to Denver, so the city is full of sad, forlorn left-behinds leaning against buildings and saying halves of sentences about how they should probably go find a television and watch the convention. And sighing.

Not me though. I spend my time watching the convention trying to decide who looks like what movie star and what I would have dressed them all in if I were the Boss of All Outfits.

Also, school started. Kind of. Business Registration was eerily fast; there was no waiting in line and no fighting. Not even a surreptitious rude roll of an eye. I waltzed out to Elizabeth's car and couldn't think of anything to complain about. Not ONE. I think I'm becoming docile in my old age.

I have lots of things to read and then, I suppose, write about. Maybe I'll do that after I finish sketching designs for Halloween costumes for everyone I know.

In the works:
Venus Fly Trap (refurbished and improved)
Two-Face
Super-Skrull
something dramatic with UV pens and lights
Medusa
singing bass (or trout) (also I am not so sure about this one)

(Cecily you have to do your homework!)

(Shh! I am busy right now!) okay who needs me to make them a Halloween costume? Call me!

why I have 2,000 boxes of stuff

Mom: Hey do you need a glass cutter? Do you ever cut glass?
Me: well, no, but if I had a glass cutter I might! Yeah I'll take it.

I'm mailing two boxes to myself. Full of things I acquired during the past two weeks. I'm telling you, I can't help it!

Also, in my defense (?) I would like you to note the fact that my mother just happened to have an extra glass cutter lying around that she was trying to pawn off on someone. So (a) I'm helping! and (b) it's genetic, leave me alone!

Plus also, hey, let me know if you need any glass cut. I'm your man, for a price!

Kisses!

My friends Tom and Lindsay and Eli have a lovebird. It is a Peach Faced Lovebird. Its name is Peaches (probably because of how it is peach faced. I'm just guessing).

Anyway it likes me and while I am trying to do important things like drink wine and play Bridge it keeps interrupting me to bite my ears and give me creepy little lovebird kisses.

procrastination

I have papers and syllabi and reading lists to finish, so instead I've been making little dragons out of felt:

this one on Thursday


and this one yesterday


they aren't very big but I like them.