Archives: July 2005
Thu, 21 Jul 2005
Yes, the Fish Music
by Richard Brautigan
A trout-colored wind blows
through my eyes, through my fingers,
and I remember how the trout
used to hide from the dinosaurs
when they came to drink at the river.
The trout hid in subways, castles,
and automobiles. They waited patiently for the dinosaurs to go away.
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Fri, 15 Jul 2005
At Te Papa
Josh playing dress-ups. Doesn't he look beautiful? These are ones I'm going to store away to embarrass him with on his 21st birthday. I'm such a wicked mother :)
Matt on top of the world. Actually he's sitting next to the Southern Cross, a significant constellation here in the Southern hemisphere.
These shots were taken at Te Papa, our national museum. They have wonderful Discovery Centres for children with all sorts of activities. A great place to spend a few hours with kids.
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Catch Up
I know I've been very delinquent here at Slipstream recently. A combination of being very busy at work, busy at home, and spending time over at Flickr. I've put quite a few new photos up over there, so go have a look, and then come back and I'll tell you what I've been up to.
As a result of using the mouse too much at work recently (drawing up wireframes for a new site/application), and at home playing with photographs, I seem to have developed RSI, or repetitive strain injury, or whatever it's called. I've had to move the mouse over to my left hand, which I'm absolutely hopeless at and it slows me down. The right arm does seem to be getting better, though, now that I've given it a rest.
I went back to the gym this week. I had taken a break for a month because I'd just got burnt out, and I was rundown and getting sick all the time and felt really resentful of my instructor for being so tiny and perky and cheerful with too high expectations of what I could do. So I had a break and it was the best thing I could have done because when I went back on Wednesday, it felt great to be back. I had so not looked forward to it, I groaned and moaned before I went. But when I was there I realised how much I had missed it. I've decided, though, that I'm only going twice a week rather than three. Three was just getting too much for me to fit in with my work schedule, and it was becoming a real chore. But I think twice a week will be good.
What else? Got a new haircut. I was trying for the shaggy, just-rolled-out-of-bed look, since I pretty much always look like I've just rolled out of bed anyway. But I don't think that's what I got. My hair is too soft, wavy and flyaway and it just looks like a duck's tail to me. Of course, if I used lots of product in it - gel and whathaveyou - I'd probably be able to achieve the look. But damned if I know how to use those hair products. I'm hopeless. Everybody else, however, seems to love the new haircut, so I don't know why I dislike it so much.
This week is school holidays and I took today off work to spend time with the boys. We asked the boy next door if he wanted to spend the day with us as well, and it was supposed to be a happy idyllic day with three boys playing happily together (which they do much of the time). But by the end of our jaunt into town to the national museum, I was ready to give away both of my kids. The boy next door was angelic, and made me wonder why my two children are the only children in the world who play up, whine, yell, fight, don't listen and otherwise act like little wild ruffians. Sigh. By the end of it I had been reduced to one of those harrassed, screaming, shrews of a mother that you sometimes see on the streets and sadly shake your head at.
Joshua has been invited to his first birthday party tomorrow, a twin brother and sister just turning two. Their little social lives start so young. I so rarely get to buy for girls that I loved looking at all the little girl things - I was amazed at the range of Barbies, Bratz, MaryKate and Ashley. All that was too old for a two year old, so I ended up buying her a little Dora the Explorer. If you press Dora's tummy she says "Hola, I'm Dora". I love that. "Hola!" And then I bought pink fairy wrapping paper and a pink fairy card. I was in girl heaven.
Okay, enough of a catch up for the moment. I'll try not be so negligent in the future.
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Sun, 03 Jul 2005
Star Wars Madness
Star Wars reigns supreme in our house at the moment. Both Matthew and Joshua have gone Star Wars mad.
A few Josh-isms:
"I'm Dark Vader. This is my Light Saver."
Josh runs into my bedroom and turns the lamp off, leaving us both in darkness.
"Sweetie, why did you shut the light off?"
"Because I've gone over to the dark side."
So, we have light sabers, little figurines of Yoda and R2D2 and C3P0. Darth Vader. Anakin and Chancellor somebody-or-other. We have Star Wars Lego, and Star Wars posters. We have a soft Chewbacca. We have Star Wars collectible cards. We have Millennium Falcons. We have Obi-Wan Kenobi. (Speaking of Obi-Wan, I'm sorry, but any version of Obi-Wan that is not played by Alec Guiness just doesn't cut it in my book.)
We even had a Star Wars birthday.
That's Darth Vader on the cake, in case you couldn't tell. The words say "May the Force Be With You Matthew."
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