phineasjones

( july 6-7. stella. market. )

8 july 2007


yesterday we spent sometime in the yard, putting down mulch. first we had to buy the mulch at home depot. they are not short on mulch there, as you can see. we bought ten bags (will be reimbursed by landlord) and it wasn't enough just for the back yard. there is more mulch in our future. but it already looks much better.

wow, mulch. could my posts get much more interesting? let's hope.

4 july 2007


at trudi's 4th of july brunch. rach frames a picture of ross, caleb, alexa, gabby, andy and some other guy i don't know. it was a fun time. we played hillbilly golf and had a water balloon toss and an egg race. and later, gabby and i argued with robbie about which movie was better, hp 3 or hp 4. gabby and i said 4, robbie said 3. so then we arm wrestled about it and he clobbered me. and then, as a rematch, he thumb wrestled me and gabby at the same time... and beat us both. i guess 3 is the better movie. :)

after the party, we came home and were just too hot to do anything. so we met up with ben, amy and tim and went to see ratatouille in a blessedly cold theater. i didn't like it very much. it was ok. but not better than ok. but the cold was all i really cared about anyway. we went to ben's afterward (lisa is away) and grilled and then we were planning to go to a nearby park and watch the fireworks at invesco field but... it got late. and there were so many people setting off impressive renegade fireworks displays that we decided there was no need to go anywhere. we sat in ben's driveway and watching the fireworks from the alley near his house. and, while rach and i drove home in hellish traffic (30 minutes to go about 25 blocks) we saw more fireworks - a whole lot more illegal ones and the official ones at coors field and... somewhere else far away. it was accompanied by an impressive lightning display too. and a bit of rain and some cool air. happy me.

denver's so weird. not one official city fireworks but a bunch of sports stadiums. odd. last year... i don't remember what we did. i guess that's a handy feature of lj... ah. we did nothing. we were in the midst of moving into this house and rach was about to start her job (one year today!). so we didn't notice denver's weirdness.

and my posting topic for today is from anabelwumpkins - ( doctor whooooo! specifically the cuteness of these pictures. and of the omgYAYness of david tennant at all times, kittens or no. pleeeeeez! )

2 july 2007


taken while shopping at wild oats yesterday. produce is pretty.

just got back from dropping chloe off at the vet. poor kitty. sigh. she is getting old. she's a little overweight. she's foul-tempered. she doesn't really like anyone, including me. but i adopted her when she was a kitten, 10 years ago. and i adore my kitty. i hope she's doing ok.

i'll be back later with post on topics of your choosing. go ahead and suggest some more. <3

27 june 2007


taken while on campus yesterday. can you tell what it is? weird, eh?

yesterday was pretty good. i had fun at sia's lesson again. very good for my brain, i think, to be going over random theory and sight singing and conducting stuff. it's good to review basics.

and the double head-shrinking was mostly good too. i really love my new therapist. julie. we talked about stuff and then she read to me about different kinds of perfectionism and i had to say which ones applied to me. too many, is the answer to that. it's funny how long it took me to accept that perfectionism is one of my issues. for a long time i thought i can't be a perfectionist because i'm not perfect. isn't that the point of being a perfectionist? yeah. clever, aren't i?

i just googled the list of types. ( in case you're curious... )

5 of them apply to me. but i'm not telling which. :) you can guess though, if you want. or tell me how many apply to you.

the session with the shrink was less interesting. i'm going to start weaning myself off the drugs. it's scary, but it's time, for a number of reasons. she was fine with that, and gave me reduced prescriptions. i just find that i miss my old shrink. who would have thought? he was so thorough. he explained things to me so well. and... i don't know. i think he was smarter than this one. at least he shared more of his smarts with me. and he was intuitive. and i felt like he really cared. i never expected to miss a shrink. but i didn't know what a good thing i had. this one chats with me a bit and then gets to the prescribing and we're done. which is normal, i guess. i just used to have better than normal.

voice lesson today! i'm excited. and kind of nervous. i haven't sung in so long. eep.

what do you suppose it means that i found and corrected a spelling error in that list?

( 22-24 june. kitty.sun.pride. )

25 june 2007


and yes, denver. taken from the city and county building, which curves around and can been seen in the left edge of the picture. that was where i spent my day, along with hundreds of other potential jurors. i don't really mind that i had to go. or that i wasn't chosen. i just wish it hadn't take from 8:30 until 3:30 for them to decide they weren't going to take me. it was a seriously boring day.

with the exception of the book i was reading during my copious downtime. at swim, two boys. it's one of those books that makes me glad to be a slow reader. because i get to enjoy and savor it for so long. i'm kind of tearing up right now thinking about it. i'm close to the end and it's making me want to slow down even more. i don't want to leave these characters. so much love.

20 june 2007


yesterday was the first time i've seen riikka since her birthday, so i gave her these earrings i made for her. she seemed to like them very much. we skipped the tea and went for margaritas. frozen ones because it is motherfucking hot here. so hot. much too hot. have i mentioned how i don't like the heat? and it's hot. supposed to be a high of 97 today. enh.

the lesson went well too. my student is just so cute and earnest. ::pets him::

our house is well insulated against heat. we actually have central ac on the first floor but we rarely need it because the house is so airy and well-shaded. the second floor, however, is like an easy bake oven. no... those probably don't get hot enough. it's incredible. here's my theory, based on random chats with people around here about their abodes: there are a lot of small houses in the denver area and most have a wee second floor that isn't good for much more than storage. we've lived in two such houses - the first one littler - with the wee second floor converted to living space. again, the first one was smaller all around and tall people couldn't really hang out on the second floor. and both second floors were swelteringly hot while the rest of the house wasn't so bad. i'm thinking the whole point of the little second floors is probably to eat the heat. it's the sunlight - and not humidity or any of that nonsense - that brings the heat out here and that's why the upper floors are so goddamned hot. without them, i bet the first floor would be that hot. so... thanks second floor.

sadly, our tv is on the second floor. and we've been bringing ice packs up with us when we want to watch and putting three fans on and snuggling the ice or sitting with it on the backs of our necks. this is how much we love tv. :) but maybe watching some dvds on the computers downstairs would be a good idea.

18 june 2007


rach's thread collection. ok, so it was kind of a slow day. but i like all the colors.

i went to another yoga class yesterday. the friday teacher was new agey perky - just on the very edge of annoying. this guy? all i could think of was regis philbin. it was very weird. also i didn't like some of the things he said about breathing and posture. but it was a bit less tortuously strenuous than friday's class. so that's something.

i just volunteered to beta something for the third time in a few weeks. it's good to get back in the beta game. i so thoroughly enjoy it. more than writing, most of the time.

i don't have a whole lot to say right now, it seems. i've been very focused on domestic things. getting the house in order and making it pretty. cooking tasty, healthy dinners. we gave ourselves the goal recently of eating 3-4 servings of leafy greens every day. we're doing pretty well with it, though maybe we're averaging more like 2-3. still pretty good.

i need to start focusing on school stuff. maybe therapy tomorrow can help me with that.

16 june 2007


i turned around to take a picture of the yummy, leafy produce at the farmer's market yesterday and there was this super cute child, sucking on a strawberry. so my picture is much cuter than it otherwise would have been.

last night we hosted a party for rach's union branch. we just provided the space, a birthday cake and some veggie items for grilling. people brought the rest. it was much more fun than i had anticipated - considering i only knew a few people who came and all. but they were (almost) all nice and fun and it was a very mellow and pleasant back yard party. and we even managed to get everything cleaned up before bed last night. which was good because today we had plans to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary! yay. i hope to post more about that later on.

14 june 2007


yesterday afternoon i went shopping with rachel so she could get some clothes for hawaii. hawaii! where the average temp in the winter is 65. ! so she needed a wardrobe adjustment. and some new work clothes for her fancy professorial job. we got her some good stuff. and then had a nice dinner. and... i'm so happy for her but i really don't like to think about her not being here. it's too sad.

our flylady comm has taken off to a fabulous start. i'm so pleased! yay us.

i'll be leaving shortly for a yoga class at my gym. i haven't gone before but i want to check it out. here's hoping it's good stuff.

<3

12 june 2007



um. this is my bedroom. seen in a mirror. the mirror's etched with branches. rach and i did the etching last year when we were having a crafty night. yes, this was yet another late night, oh-shit-i-forgot-to-take-a-picture picture.

i'm very pleased that i'm not headed to the university for more labeling and stuffing this morning. i get to stay home and play housewife instead. which is totally my favorite game this summer so far. the house is looking shiner every day. rach declares her love for flylady at least once a day.

i will do other productive things too, i promise. i just don't feel like yapping about them.

oh, hey, i'm having a fannish thought...

recently i read a fraser/kowalski story with a painfully angsty ending. but it took place within the series. so... ha! it's very easy to think through the rest of the story, after it ends, and make it into a happy ending in my head. because canon gives them a happy ending. i could cry for joy. because. sirius/remus is the exact opposite, of course. any story with a happy ending for them (with a few exceptions, i suppose) is made painful and bittersweet by the canon ending we all know is approaching. there is no purely happy ending for them. but for f/k, as long is it takes place within canon, there is no purely sad ending. (ok, i'm sure you could prove me wrong but let's take it as a general point, ok?)

how much do i love due south?

8 june 2007


rach and i went to a concert friday night with alexa. it was a women's chorus and i was thinking maybe i'd get some good programming ideas. and maybe i did. but the concert itself wasn't great. not bad, but rather boring.

9 june 2007


and last night was mu son's birthday party. which he celebrated with fried chicken and 40s. rach points out that in this picture, the 40s just make ric and blake look like hobbits drinking from regular sized beer bottles.

( photos demonstrating the remarkably similar adorableness of rachael and stella )

4 june 2007


so i started on flylady yesterday. which, of course, means i shined my sink. sadly, my sink is old crappy, painted-over porcelain covered with scratches and stains. it will never be perfectly clean and shiny. but i know it's clean. and that's what counts. right? right.

so, what if there were a community for fannish-types who were interested in flylady, or doing the flylady thing or whatever. would anyone out there be interested? this is about home cleaning and general life organization,if you're wondering. the website is here. it's corny, cheezy, all that stuff. but it's also really effective. so, let's see who would be into that.

[Poll #997666]

1 june 2007


claire was in denver for most of the time i was in MA. she came over for about an hour right before i had to go and she drove me to the airport. it was a really nice hour and a half

2 june 2007


so, after my plane got in here at 12:30 am, we had a wedding to go to yesterday morning. my friend from school, robin. it was a lovely wedding, though it seemed like the whole thing was on high speed. in and out in under 4 hours. hey, worked for me. that gave us time to stop at the vegan store for treats and then head home for a nap before going out again with blake and jen and his brother and her friend to see knocked up. which was great. all funny and mooshy and heartwarming and i enjoyed it immensely.

and this morning i have to get my shit together and get out to matt's church. yes, i'm subbing for lutherans today. could be worse.

oh, and OMG. the big news of yesterday is that friend!rachel got a job. a real job. she's headed to the u of hawaii for the coming year. that's right, hawaii. the job sounds amazing and i'm insanely happy for her about it. my rachael is counting the days until we can visit her. but then... she's leaving by the end of july. ::clings:: i want her to be successful, of course, but i'd kind of rather she did it near me, you know? poo. but yay. conflicting emotions. sigh.

so. yay. we finally got to show jjtaylor some due south. and it worked. we got her! we watched burning down the house ( hook, ) eclipse ( line, )
and mountie on the bounty (sinker):

27 may 2007


we also introduced her to paul gross arms. though we didn't really explain, hence the slight confusion on her face:

that's scottxwl with remuskitty, anabelwumpkins, me, madmadharri and jjtaylor

( another one )

28 may 2007


and monday i got to go dress shopping with harri and anney. and harri found a dress! this is not it. but how pretty are they?

24 may 2007


went out to eat with the parents last night at a restaurant across from the beach (kings beach). so it seemed like an obvious picture of the day, no? very pretty. and not too smelly at the moment.

i'm trying to figure out what i'm doing with my day. i think i've finally locked it down. i'm going to to some stuff here - laundry, pack for the weekend, etc. and then go into boston to meet up with madmadharri who'll be out of work early. and play with her until i drive west to reunion, getting there pretty much in time to register and go to bed. i think that's my plan, anyway. getting to reunion late means putting awkward interaction off for a day. :) more importantly, it means i get to see harri. yay.

for some reason, i am reluctant to change the time on my computer while i'm here. so it tells me it's two hours earlier than it is here. which is a little confusing... when i sit here at the computer and see that time in my peripheral vision. so why don't i change it? i don't know! i'm a weirdo.

the air is softer here. it's the humidity, i assume. and probably the ocean. it just feels soft. and my skin feels soft. it's nice. though, anyone who's dealt with me during a massachusetts summer knows i'm not a great fan of humidity in general. i can handle this much, though. this is nice.