Things to Confound Your Cat

This video made Boo freeze, then walk very cautiously across the room, watching all the while, until he finally hopped onto my desk and stuck his face behind the monitor to see if there was really a kitten back in there.

A Big Dam Failure.

First of all---sunny day! After I get stuff done, I need to rush outside with my negatives and paper to "print" the cyanotypes. No doubt the weather will suddenly change to a typhoon before I can manage it. I'll take photos of the process in case it turns out to be interesting.

Second, just look at these pictures of the failure of the Grand Teton Dam. They're pretty breathtakingly monumental. They were taken by a lady from Idaho, who just happened to be on the promontory across from the dam when the first leak sprung. She took what seem to be the only photos documenting the entire process, which happened all in the course of about 2 hours. Considering what happened to the promontory on the opposite side, it was pretty gutsy of her to stick around for the whole thing. You can see that around the time that the dam was breached completely, she realized where she was and backed up a bit. Probably not exactly what she expected that afternoon, but history thanks her for having a camera handy.

I'm bad at posting, these days.

Things have been fairly busy, but not to the extent that I have any excuse for never posting. So...uh, oops! Let us play catch up. Here's what I've been up to lately:

1. Blah blah house stuff blah blah. Actually, there's been a lull as we wait to accumulate a bit more cash to pay for more paint and tile, etc.

2. I've been working on making cyanotypes for some of my Christmas gifts this year. The process sounds a little complicated, but actually just finding the right chemicals was the big pain. I went to a camera store close by, and they stared at me blankly when I asked about the stuff I'd need. Eventually, they called a more knowledgeable colleague who directed me to a blueprint store. I called there, and they told me the chemicals aren't made anymore. Hmm. So I called Adray, Century Camera...eventually 6 different places, and everyone either had no clue what it was I was looking for, or told me it was impossible to get the chemicals, or that they cost hundreds of dollars. Double hmm. I realize cyanotypes are not an "everyday" photo process, but I'd expect people working in photography stores to at least have a vague idea of what I was talking about. At one place, they asked me to describe the process and when I said the prints are developed using water the guy told me I must be mistaken.

So... instead I went to the source of all life and things arcane, the internet. Within minutes, I found a little place in IL that sold the chemicals in the quantities I needed for well under $20, even with shipping. I got my package 4 days later. Thank you, Froogle. So nyah to all those nay-saying photo clerks!

I made the ultra-secret UV sensitive concoction, and painted the paper with it, and now I'm just waiting for a sunny day so I can use genuine, all-natural, free-of-charge sunshine to make the prints. And...it's been steadfastly raining. For days. Bleh.

3. The Hillers near us has linguine-style tofu shirataki noodles. I'm in love.

4. I got the cats some bonito flakes rather than their usual treats, which I noticed had various dyes in them. They are in love.

5. The Boy has been home for the weekend, and is at a three day training seminar in St. Clair Shores, which means he's at home part of this week, and then I'll be heading down there soon to hang out with him in Cinci. That should be lovely. More Boy-time.

6. Nihao is looking at me disapprovingly, probably because of the fact that she's not currently inhaling vast quantities of bonito flakes (see point #4).

7. Okami rates among the most beautiful games I've ever seen. It feels as though you're running through a Hokusai painting. The action flows so smoothly, and the story is very fairy-tale inspired, which I adore. One of the lovely and original aspects of the game is that, since the main character is folk tale deity (in the form of a wolf), the player can affect the environment of the game by drawing with a calligraphy brush. A circle stroke in the sky creates a sun to turn night into day. Another stroke across a dead tree brings it bursting into full bloom, and so on. The game doesn't take itself too seriously, at the same time as being engrossing enough to really draw you in. My only complaint so far is that it does a little too much shepherding in terms of letting you know where to go next. At the same time, the player does have a reasonable amount of freedom--I haven't felt railroaded through the storyline. Perhaps the extra guidance will make this game more playable for people who aren't usually gamers. I hope it does really well. I'd love to see more art and folk tale inspired games like this.

Here are a couple examples of environments in the game.
Aaand, that's all for now.

"No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted."

Props to Dove for this interesting commercial.
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While you're at it, make my eyes the same.

Something to add to the "Science & Tech" folder of your book marks:

The IRIS Seismic Monitor tracks seismic activity throughout the world, and displays it in a handy map. I stumbled over it while looking for info on the big earthquake that just happened in Hawaii.

Here's hoping that everyone is safe in their hula skirts and leis. Electricity and phones are out, but there's no word so far on whether anyone was hurt.

Road Trip!

Tis the season to quit packing and fixing up the house and get on the road. I figure I can take a break from installing stupid 1/4 round molding long enough to visit the Boy in a couple weeks so we can take some time to tool around Cinci and hang out.

Hurrah!

I'm a trip planning addict. I admit it. I plan a lot of trips I'll probably never take. I think it's theraputic. Part of it is the enjoyment of learning the little ins and outs of new places, poring over maps, putting together an itinerary (probably makes the slight OCD side of me happy), and part of it is having something to look forward to. I find that if life gets dull or difficult, as long as there's something exciting on the horizon, I can deal. If I have nothing to look forward to, well, then I have to invent something, or I go a little nuts. Fortunately (?) there is so much on the horizon right now that gleefully planning for this little roadtrip seems kind of over the top.

I think having a baby someday will probably solve this "something to look forward to" need for a few years. It seems as though with a kid, there's always be something thrilling about to happen--baby's progressing, talking, pooping everywhere, writing the great American novel, eating solid food... Uh, not necessarily in that order. All that nonsense that I'm actually going to look forward to.

Well, that was a random, disjointed post. Sorry 'bout that.

God Doesn't like Kathleen Caronna

Just kidding, but observe:

You're at a festive Thanksgiving parade and somehow a sixty foot Cat in the Hat manages to smack you in the head hard enough to put you in a coma for a month. Ouch! Bad luck! (and Dr. Seuss nightmares!)

A couple years later, someone flies a plane into your bedroom. Ouch! Bad lu..??

Uh, I think you need to move to Idaho or something.

Better Late than Never

I'd wanted to post this weeks ago, but YouTube was being cranky about letting me add a blog.

Without further ado, here's a nice little cover for you all.

Ugly Duckling--Pretty Swan

I was going to say this picture doesn't do our "before" kitchen justice, but that could be misconstrued. What I intend to say is that this picture does our "before" kitchen far, far too much justice. In it, you cannot see the rusty, disgusting sink, or painted shut lower cupboards I was too afraid to ever open. You can see some of what made us so glad to say goodbye to this kitchen--the awesome penetentiary-inspired light fixture above the sink, a glimpse of the snaggle-toothed, broken tiles below it, the cupboards that wouldn't close all the way...

Annnd, here below is the sink in all its glory. This was actually after we began peeling off layer after layer of contact paper. You can make out the lime green and faux wood layers still... Though we later sanded and tried to recoat it, it resisted all efforts. For 3 years, we just didn't put anything in it (understandably),which was tough when you don't have a dishwasher for most of that time. We did get a little countertop one later that helped keep me sane.


And here is our tide-over kitchen. Less hideous contact paper, but the health code violations are the same, I'm sure, no matter how I bleached. And yes, that's carpet on the floor. It was wayyy better than the vinyl "flooring" that had been in there since the seventies. At least we felt okay about being barefoot on the carpet.


Just for good measure, I'm throwing in a photo of what the floor in the dining room (and much of the house) looked like before we scraped an inch of crud off it and refinished it.


And now..... Drum roll, please. Here is our brand spanking new kitchen!! It's quite color-neutral for house-selling purposes, but it's so wonderful nonetheless. We still have to install the tile backsplash (that's backer board you see there), finish spackling and painting, and put up a bar for s-hooks on the wall by the door, but otherwise, it's fully functional in all its garbage disposally, dish-washery GLORY. Whee!!

This is the mudroom, which is through the door to the right (counter piled with ikea shelving). Our fridge is in one corner, and this is the workspace on the other side. It's got so much freaking storage I'm not sure what to do with all of it. We still need to spackle and paint in here, but it's not an emergency.


I now LOVE walking into our kitchen. LOVE. IT. Sometimes I even squeak because I'm so excited it's there.