Friiiiiidaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy!!

Jumping Sym
It’s almost the weekend! Actually, Sym has no school today so for her it’s already the weekend.

After the iPhoto bummer last night I was expecting to spend today in a state of sad sackery BUT it’s actually been awesome.

1. Taylor came home from work early and I got to sleep next to him for a half hour before I had to get up.
2. I made double-chocolate mini-muffins this morning and they are the omnomnombomb dot com.
Mount Muffins
3. It’s a super easy work day today: no babies, just three preschool boys, except 2 came late (10:30 and 12) and one was picked up early (12:30).
4. It’s half-nice outside, so before lunch we were able to play in the backyard and it was so warm I actually had to change into shorts!
Jungle Cat
5. I did some more work on my 2 art projects: started outlining the completed planets and did more work on Saturn, and did some more work on the preliminary sketch for my next painting, which is going to be TOTALLY AWESOME.

I hope everyone out there in internet land is having a great Friday as well!!

Lamesville, Population: Me

Tonight I spent like, six hours running restores & repairs & rebuilds on my iPhoto Library. I’ve been noticing recently that my pictures are disappearing- first they’re there, then when I click the thumbnail to view them I get the big grey exclamation mark, then they vanish completely and all that’s left is a dotted outline that shows where a picture USED to be. Anyway the result of all my hard work was this:

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Bye-bye, 787 precious memories.

I’m pretty bummed out- most of the pictures that have vanished are Sym’s baby pictures (which I think I might have on a ZIP DISK somewhere, haha) and pictures from the first couple years of my relationship with Taylor. Unfortunately, I think the damage was done BEFORE I started doing regular backups of my computer, so the ones that are gone are just… gone forever, but the ones that show a thumbnail I can save, sort of. I copied the whole “Data” file to the desktop and it’s full of little mini-versions of my pictures.

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Symphony on Galiano Island, August 2008.

That’s the full size. Pretty lame, but better than the alternative, which is nothing at all.

More Art Before Art

Me, circa October 2008:

Real Me

becomes:

Sketch Me

The eyes are still wonky but it’s a super preliminary sketch. Also, MORE JUPITER:

Jupiter

FINISHED! Except for the outline.

Carbo Loading

All-Carb Diet

“I can’t go to Taco Bell, I’m on an ALL-CARB DIET!”

You know what’s delicious? CARBS. I love carbs. I’ve been reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma and there’s one part where the author is talking about Atkins -style diets and he writes:

…two of the most wholesome and uncontroversial foods known to man- bread and pasta- acquired a moral stain that promptly bankrupted dozens of bakeries and noodle firms and ruined and untold number of perfectly good meals.

Last night I decided to make things right with bread and pasta in the only way I know how: by stuffing my face with them. I could have done some sort of spaghetti-and-garlic-bread combination, but I also wanted to incorporate another great love of mine: cheese. Inspired by a picture I saw in a general discussion forum, Tanie’s (Fried) Grilled Macaroni & Cheese Sandwich was born.

Inexplicably, I could not find a recipe for this online. This is baffling to me.

Grilled Macaroni & Cheese Sandwich

I could have actually grilled these on Taylor’s George Foreman grill but ughhhhhhh it’s too heavy to take out of the cupboard so the frying pan is my cheese sandwich weapon of choice.

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For the “filling” I used Annie’s Shells and Cheddar, because I find the Annie’s cheese sauce to be stickier than Kraft Dinner’s sauce. I made it with just margarine and only the smidgiest smidge of milk- a liquidy sauce wouldn’t work for this, you want it to coat the pasta.

I pre-toasted the bread but didn’t butter it, and when I assembled the sandwiches I stacked them like thus: toast/cheese slice/mac&cheese/cheese slice/toast. I added the extra cheese to help hold the pasta in place and stick the whole thing together. Then I buttered the outsides of the bread and fried ’em up real nice over medium heat.

Grilled Macaroni & Cheese Sandwich

This is a terrible picture. Maybe one day my husband will take pictures for me with his expensive camera equipment like he is supposed to.

THE VERDICT: How was this sandwich? IT WAS FRICKING DELICIOUS. The mac & cheese and extra cheese slices were all soft and melty and the bread was crispy to perfection. I would definitely make this again and again and again. And then I would get fat but you know what? It would be worth it.

The Jupiter Crash

I’ve had this song stuck in my head for days because I’ve been working almost exclusively on my Jupiter painting.

Jupiter in Progress

You can see how much progress I’ve made if you compare it to the picture I posted here– it’s on the bottom right. WOW is it ever different!!

On Saturday I also repainted Neptune (blue, it’s much more uniform/less ~swirly~ now) and Uranus (turquoise, the tube I bought is much brighter that all of my attempts at mixing my own). They and Mercury, Venus, Mars and Pluto are done, aside from a black outline. I after I finish Jupiter I have to give Saturn it’s rings, and Earth, the Mini Mecha-Fawn and the Sun aren’t even started yet :/ The Sun will be easy but only if it ever stops raining so I can go outside to spraypaint the magnet board!

Frankenphone

Remember when I went to a bachelorette party and dropped my purse down three flights? And I thought everything inside survived unscathed? Turns out that wasn’t exactly correct, which I discovered last week when I reached into my coat pocket and pulled out a handful of phone pieces. This is what my phone is supposed to look like:

Sony Ericsson S500i White/Copper

And this is what it actually looked like:
Broken PhoneBroken Phone
In the fall the bottom piece of the faceplate broke off, and some things (I don’t even know what they were) fell out. Additionally, almost all the keys are cracked and the part of the back next to the charger plug was cracked off. It still worked, but it looked ugly.

Before I had this phone, a Sony Ericsson S500i in white & copper, I had the exact same phone in black & green, and I loved that phone. Until I stepped on it on New Year’s Eve and cracked the screen, which developed these red streaks that made it look like the phone was bleeding. It still worked, but it looked ugly.

So yesterday Taylor and I were looking at my identical-but-for-the-colour-and-damage phones. The white one had a perfect screen, but the casing and keys were disintegrating. The black one’s casing was in perfect condition but the screen was a mess. We figured I had nothing to lose by taking them both apart, and after some quick internet research Taylor discovered that replacing the screen should be a piece of cake- which it was. We just had to pull the faceplates off, unclip & unplug the screens (I did this with my fingernails), switch the white phone’s intact screen with the black phone’s cracked one, and snap the faceplates back into place (this turned out to be the hardest part). Now I have my favorite black phone back, with a non-bloodsoaked screen!

Of course, now that I have my old phone back, I also have all my old custom ring tones and alarm sounds, all my old contacts in my phonebook (there are people in this phone I don’t think I’d talked to for years before I even had It) and best of all, all my old pictures that I forgot to save to my computer before switching to the white phone.

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Old-school no-beard Taylor; Kichou in the dark.
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Six-year-old Symphony; some woman on a bench- I think she was wearing a half-slip as a tube dress, two different shoes and foam rollers in her hair.
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Dougal lying all sexy in the bed; some man in a thong lying all sexy in the park.
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Taylor trying not to laugh at the thong-man; a little girl I used to look after.
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Taylor buying coffee at an unfamiliar Starbucks; smiley-face sandwich
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Symphony and Kichou washing their feet together
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An enormous haired & bearded man; Scandinavian Sweetie Halloween costume
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Viking Vixen & Barbarian Babe Halloween costumes (these were all the same costume, just with different packaging)
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Two faces of Taylor: weird & melancholy
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Best Friends; Famine Hygiene Products
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What happens if I don’t shut the bathroom door completely.
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Dougal’s creepy mouth; New Zealand: Take your mum.
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I couldn’t figure what beach this was, but then I saw in the properties that the picture was taken on March 21st, 2009. It’s Keawakapu Beach in Maui, and this is the last phone picture I took as an unmarried woman, haha. Also: Taylor’s hair curls.
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Super greasy hair + deep V. sex.
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Britney Spears concert; “nippy” cheese
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My hairdresser’s mean dog; Sea of Shoes fan window display at Holt Renfrew (high-end dept. store) that I lolled about
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Some strangers’ butts in shorts, I don’t even know. Also Dougal winking and saying “heyyyyyyyy.”

Date Night Report: Late Morning + Afternoon Edition

Steamy Glasses
Steamy glasses at The Templeton for brunch. Taylor had mangled eggs & coffee, I had huevos rancheros & ruby red grapefruit juice. I loooooove having brunch there (their eggs are the MOST DELICIOUS in the city I swear) but it’s usually really busy we end up going to Glowbal or Cafe Crepe, so it was nice to get a spot at the counter. We always end up having chatty cathy convos with the staff and other diners- today was a discussion about how I need to take my vitamins so I don’t get sick all the time (I haven’t mentioned it but YES, I am currently sick AGAIN) and this awful story about the drummer from You Say Party WE Say Die collapsing on stage and dying from a brain hemorrhage last weekend.

After brunch we were going to come straight home (remember, I am sick, and yesterday’s trip to the art supply & Japanese $2 stores almost destroyed me), but I felt well enough so instead we decided to go to the Blim Monthly Market at the Heritage Hall on Main street, where I bought these stupidly cute buttons from Roxypop.
Roxypop Pins

After leaving the market we went further up Main to Voltage, looking in some gift/baby/housewares stores on the way (at one of them I found the M-Cups I was looking for, D’OH! but if I hadn’t ordered them from UO I wouldn’t have gotten the dress or feather rug or all the extras from Marissa so it’s cool). It was fun- whenever we are out in different neighborhoods we always say we should go check out these cool little shops but we never do. At Voltage we got some blind box toys and zipper pulls and I bought a book of Joe Ledbetter‘s paintings.
Creatures of Habit
Symphony and I both have vinyl Unicornasauruses- I think mine is the grey one (quelle surprise) and hers is yellow.
Toys Toys Toys

We also wandered through lots of side streets between the train station and the hall looking at houses, and Taylor told me what sort of house he would want. He’d rather stay in the city (HAHAHAHA AS IF WE COULD EVER AFFORD THAT) and he prefers old heritage houses with big trees. I told him that the houses I like in North Vancouver are old heritage houses with big trees but that “North” modifier is just unacceptable to him.

City Hall
City Hall.

Weeping Angels behind City Hall
Weeping Angels ooohhhhh nooooooooo.

Anyway once we got home I started to feel pretty crumby again so now I’m going to go take more Advil and go read in bed with this cat.
Belly rubs
Don’t let her horrified expression fool you- she loves belly rubs.

Saturday Picture Post

Color for ME
Colourful things I bought today: adorable elephant, mushroom and fawn-themed Japanese stationary; new Martha Stewart Living mag; Montana Gold “Mango” yellow spraypaint; turquoise and cerulean Pebeo acrylics

Kichou
Kichou just came out from under Symphony’s bed- he was hiding from me because I had the hiccups and he has CRAZY hiccup-o-phobia.

Peonies
My neighbor’s beautiful peonies.

Best Friends

This is actually from Friday. Dougal and Claire like to pretend they hate each other but REALLY they are BEST FRIENDS.

Return of the Sleeping Husband

Before I moved my computer out of the bedroom, almost every time I took Photo Booth pictures Taylor would be in the background, snoozing away. Once I even made a video of him wearing a night mask and snoring and called it “Princess Boyfriend Snores” (this was before we were married obviously).

Now that I spend my computering time in the library I kind of miss having him around, even if it was just in sleeping form, so today I decided to bring back the Sleeping Husband.

Sleepies Time Gang
Dougal, Taylor and Kichou

Do I want to snuggle into that bed full of cozy husbands and pups? YES I DO. Also as a bonus I managed to capture Kichou mid-yawn and his little pink tongue is showing. Too. Much. Cuteness.