Halloween went well - the kids had a lot of fun at their party, and then got to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters at our house (a first for them - I think they may have had just as much or even more fun handing out candy then they did being at the party or trick-or-treating themselves). This was the first year that we didn't go trick or treating, mostly because we had the party to go to instead.
In the past we've bought the candy off the kids at the end of the night so that they wouldn't get sick from eating it all, and now that we are off sugar (as a family), there's really no reason to go trick-or-treating for them, except that they still may find it fun to do and probably would want the money anyway. Their aunt Jessica came up today with their cousin Caleb, aka Ace - he's walking/running a lot now (18 mo old) and is a pretty even-tempered, happy boy. Jessica gave the kids each a bag of candy, so that's what they gave out to trick-or-treaters tonight.
N was a werewolf - H made a great costume for him, with the fur coming out of rips in his clothes and the ears coming out of the top of his baseball cap. We glued fur to his face and used stage makeup and he had claws on his feet and hands.
M was going to be a cyborg, but after a trial run at a library Halloween event he discovered that all the metal was too uncomfortable, so today he changed to Aragorn - with his long hair he looked pretty sharp with a green cloak and leg and arm wrappings. I put "stubble" on his chin and cheeks with makeup - looked good.
S was vampirella, with a black and white-striped wig, red dress, and white face makeup with dark circles under her eyes and grey, hollow cheeks. She looked pretty cute.
H had her second full weekend of improv classes up in Vancouver - last weekend she had a minor fender-bender which busted one of our headlights. She said when she was exchanging insurance info the other party and witness were dumbfounded when she asked what the insurance company was. Turns out that in Canada everyone has the same vehicle insurance company! Anyway, her classes are going well and there were no accidents today.
School is keeping me really busy, I have several due dates creeping up on me and still feel like I'm treading water in very large waves.
Saw "Saw" last night - interesting movie premise-wise, but suffered from overacting by Elwis and a bad montage, too many flashbacks and boggy third act: C-
Sunday, October 31, 2004
Sunday, October 17, 2004
Oh the time goes by, yes it does.
Shaun of the Dead was a great movie!
Did a report back last Tuesday about my experience being in NY at the RNC and working for Radical Reference. I was pretty nervous before-hand, but it was done in a seminar style, all of us sitting around a circle, so even though the focus was on me for the 10 minutes or so that I talked, it wasn't overwhelming. I imagined I'd be standing up in front of a lectern or something. There were about 30 people in the crowd, all dressed like Evergreeners. I actually felt pretty comfortable with them. The response was terrific, people were very enthusiastic about activist librarians. I could almost see a paradigm shift occuring as people began to imagine librarians as a source for protest and social justice information and support.
M starts his pottery class tomorrow. He's pretty excited about it. N and S continue in their dance class. H is going to be gone for the next three consecutive weekends, pretty much all day, for an improv class up in Vancouver, BC. It should be a pretty intense and rewarding experience for her. The only hard part for me will be this upcoming Saturday, when we have our third annual Apple Fest happening. Hopefully I'll be able to be papa/host/participant in all the events until H gets back.
School is going OK - I feel like I'm constantly behind on my readings, just barely keeping up with them, but I'm "getting" the content pretty well. I've received high grades on all my assignments and exercises so far. Got my first 3.9 in LIS510. But the pace is fast and it would be easy to fall behind if I'm not careful.
Um, what else? I feel like I'm going through my financial aid money pretty fast, but also feel like I'm spending the money on things that are worth it (like H's improv class, fixing M's bike, buying H a watch that she needed, etc).
I've been sick the last few days, and now the rainy, windy, dark and cold rides are upon me. Time to get on the cold weather gear and suck it up.
Shaun of the Dead was a great movie!
Did a report back last Tuesday about my experience being in NY at the RNC and working for Radical Reference. I was pretty nervous before-hand, but it was done in a seminar style, all of us sitting around a circle, so even though the focus was on me for the 10 minutes or so that I talked, it wasn't overwhelming. I imagined I'd be standing up in front of a lectern or something. There were about 30 people in the crowd, all dressed like Evergreeners. I actually felt pretty comfortable with them. The response was terrific, people were very enthusiastic about activist librarians. I could almost see a paradigm shift occuring as people began to imagine librarians as a source for protest and social justice information and support.
M starts his pottery class tomorrow. He's pretty excited about it. N and S continue in their dance class. H is going to be gone for the next three consecutive weekends, pretty much all day, for an improv class up in Vancouver, BC. It should be a pretty intense and rewarding experience for her. The only hard part for me will be this upcoming Saturday, when we have our third annual Apple Fest happening. Hopefully I'll be able to be papa/host/participant in all the events until H gets back.
School is going OK - I feel like I'm constantly behind on my readings, just barely keeping up with them, but I'm "getting" the content pretty well. I've received high grades on all my assignments and exercises so far. Got my first 3.9 in LIS510. But the pace is fast and it would be easy to fall behind if I'm not careful.
Um, what else? I feel like I'm going through my financial aid money pretty fast, but also feel like I'm spending the money on things that are worth it (like H's improv class, fixing M's bike, buying H a watch that she needed, etc).
I've been sick the last few days, and now the rainy, windy, dark and cold rides are upon me. Time to get on the cold weather gear and suck it up.
Friday, October 01, 2004
H and the kids are down in Oregon for the weekend, at Honeyman State Park on the coast, with the big sand dunes and the yurts. This is the first year I've not gone with them, and it's because the trip was planned for later in Sept instead of earlier, and since Fall quarter has started up I couldn't take the time off from my studies.
We could have gone down for a quick two day stay but that's a lot of driving for that short of time - not worth it to me. So H and the kids went down yesterday (Thu) and are coming back Monday. But what's cool is that Heather Dillon and her daughters Erin and Brenna went down with H & co. So they got to split the driving and the kids have playmates for the drive down and they'll get to share the experience of the dunes and meet their cousins and H will have a friend with her.
Jon and Chad and I are going up to Langley, BC to the Colossus theater tomorrow. It's a huge theater with Imax screens, great sound, great seats, and it looks like a giant UFO has landed on it from the outside. Inside it has a bar upstairs.
We're going to see Shaun of the Dead, which is in Seattle, but not B'ham.
Well, classes are going well. Turned in my first exercise for 568 today. On Sunday I'll be starting the write up for my group's first assignment, worth 25% of our grade! That's for 510. Keeping up with the lectures and readings so far, and more importantly I'm understanding what we're learning.
Got to see the flyer of the RNC report back I'm going to be doing. Pretty cool. Funny that I'm listed as a librarian. I'm both nervous and looking forward to it. I just want to make sure I do a good job - I need to write up what I want to talk about, and write an article about NY and Rad Ref for the ISchool's Silverfish.
And Paul asked me to co-write an article with him about soldier's blogs and other blogs coming out of Iraq! I was excited and flattered to be asked. I think it will be fun to write with him and cool to get published.
We could have gone down for a quick two day stay but that's a lot of driving for that short of time - not worth it to me. So H and the kids went down yesterday (Thu) and are coming back Monday. But what's cool is that Heather Dillon and her daughters Erin and Brenna went down with H & co. So they got to split the driving and the kids have playmates for the drive down and they'll get to share the experience of the dunes and meet their cousins and H will have a friend with her.
Jon and Chad and I are going up to Langley, BC to the Colossus theater tomorrow. It's a huge theater with Imax screens, great sound, great seats, and it looks like a giant UFO has landed on it from the outside. Inside it has a bar upstairs.
We're going to see Shaun of the Dead, which is in Seattle, but not B'ham.
Well, classes are going well. Turned in my first exercise for 568 today. On Sunday I'll be starting the write up for my group's first assignment, worth 25% of our grade! That's for 510. Keeping up with the lectures and readings so far, and more importantly I'm understanding what we're learning.
Got to see the flyer of the RNC report back I'm going to be doing. Pretty cool. Funny that I'm listed as a librarian. I'm both nervous and looking forward to it. I just want to make sure I do a good job - I need to write up what I want to talk about, and write an article about NY and Rad Ref for the ISchool's Silverfish.
And Paul asked me to co-write an article with him about soldier's blogs and other blogs coming out of Iraq! I was excited and flattered to be asked. I think it will be fun to write with him and cool to get published.
