Tuesday, September 07, 2004
Guess what? My last post mentioned a dying hard drive. Bought a new computer in February. In August the new computer's hard drive (serial ATA) also bit the dust. It is currently in the hands of a local geek shop in a data recovery effort. Of course the new machine is still under warranty so a brand-spankin' new drive is installed and I bought a second hard drive for data files just in case.
We are now one month away from DD's second birthday. She has learned to climb up stairs but not down them. This means we have to work harder to keep her out of things. She also runs on her toes and dances. Lots of babbling and even some words that we can understand. She still loves the Baby Einstein videos and her book collections although she has loved "Ten Little Ladybugs" to death.
Another thing I've been doing lately is playing with Paint Shop. CivFanatics Forum has a series of pages called Image Editing Fun where an original picture is posted and we have a week or so to make something funny out of it. It isn't just a caption/speech bubble contest. Lots of fun even for people who don't play the Civilization games!
Speaking of fun, we went to the Iowa State Fair last month. This year was the 150 anniversary of the fair. DD loved it since it meant she got all kinds of junk food (everything you could ever want served on a stick) and got to play with goats in the petting zoo. The theme in photography this year was Barns of Iowa and some of the entries were impressive. I really enjoyed the needlework exhibit also since it is now in the upper level of the newly air-conditioned Varied Industries Building. The bad part was the needlework was displayed in glass cases so the items were about 15-18 inches behind glass. Then the cases were cordoned off so you couldn't get within two feet of them. This made detail examination of the pieces impossible. There were a couple instances of entrants using the same design with one earning a ribbon and the other not. I overheard some people questioning why the one was considered better than the other. In one case it was quite obvious since the framed piece had visibly sagging fabric and wrinkles. Really sad since the person had spent a lot of money on a lovely velvet-like mat and fancy frame. I can only hope the piece isn't glued to the mounting board so it can be taken apart and remounted without any damage. I also want to give a shout out to Anne Long--I saw your work & loved it! I have Victoria Sampler's "Green Earth Sampler" (as well as the rest of the series) in my stash. Someday...although I always figured I'd do "Crystal Waters Sampler" first.
NickJr has become creepier. LazyTown, a show from Iceland, is now on the air. It features this pre-teen girl named Stephanie running around with an adult guy named Sportacus. These two and the world's most boring bad guy Robbie Rotten are played by live actors while the other characters in the show are puppets. The "Bing Bang" song is somewhat catchy but that is the only bright spot in the show. Hopefully this show will disappear just like Rubbadubbers.
Enough for now since it is time to go switch laundry and get ready for lunch.
We are now one month away from DD's second birthday. She has learned to climb up stairs but not down them. This means we have to work harder to keep her out of things. She also runs on her toes and dances. Lots of babbling and even some words that we can understand. She still loves the Baby Einstein videos and her book collections although she has loved "Ten Little Ladybugs" to death.
Another thing I've been doing lately is playing with Paint Shop. CivFanatics Forum has a series of pages called Image Editing Fun where an original picture is posted and we have a week or so to make something funny out of it. It isn't just a caption/speech bubble contest. Lots of fun even for people who don't play the Civilization games!
Speaking of fun, we went to the Iowa State Fair last month. This year was the 150 anniversary of the fair. DD loved it since it meant she got all kinds of junk food (everything you could ever want served on a stick) and got to play with goats in the petting zoo. The theme in photography this year was Barns of Iowa and some of the entries were impressive. I really enjoyed the needlework exhibit also since it is now in the upper level of the newly air-conditioned Varied Industries Building. The bad part was the needlework was displayed in glass cases so the items were about 15-18 inches behind glass. Then the cases were cordoned off so you couldn't get within two feet of them. This made detail examination of the pieces impossible. There were a couple instances of entrants using the same design with one earning a ribbon and the other not. I overheard some people questioning why the one was considered better than the other. In one case it was quite obvious since the framed piece had visibly sagging fabric and wrinkles. Really sad since the person had spent a lot of money on a lovely velvet-like mat and fancy frame. I can only hope the piece isn't glued to the mounting board so it can be taken apart and remounted without any damage. I also want to give a shout out to Anne Long--I saw your work & loved it! I have Victoria Sampler's "Green Earth Sampler" (as well as the rest of the series) in my stash. Someday...although I always figured I'd do "Crystal Waters Sampler" first.
NickJr has become creepier. LazyTown, a show from Iceland, is now on the air. It features this pre-teen girl named Stephanie running around with an adult guy named Sportacus. These two and the world's most boring bad guy Robbie Rotten are played by live actors while the other characters in the show are puppets. The "Bing Bang" song is somewhat catchy but that is the only bright spot in the show. Hopefully this show will disappear just like Rubbadubbers.
Enough for now since it is time to go switch laundry and get ready for lunch.
