Auntie's Hideaway

Oh, boy, was yesterday a long day!!
( Lots of photos to follow, for soccer and Halloween, so clicky to see, and beware, oh users of Dial-Up! )

I didn't forget that yesterday was your birthday, but I didn't have the right light to take a shots of this until this morning. So, for your enjoyment, a long promised picture of my honeycomb teapot!

( Here we have Exhibits A, and B... )

What do y'all think? And yes, I do own shirts other than this purple one. It's just pure coincidence that I wore the same shirt today when I left to get my hair cut! I am feeling so much cooler now! Ahhhhh...

*is happy*

I did not sleep well last night. The poor Husbandly One tossed and turned most of the night, and therefore, I spent a lot of it curled up against his side with my chin digging a hole in his chest, chatting and making him laugh. I know, sounds an odd way of spending a night when someone is restless, but THO needed distraction in a big way, and for once, sex wasn't going to do it.

Why, you ask? Well, he got his hair cut yesterday, very short, and afterwards, he got progressively grumpier, and grumpier, and shorter, until it was bedtime, and I thought he was just tired and cranky, he'll just pass out and wake up tomorrow in a much better mood, right?

Nope. He was... upset about his hair!!

Even though he complained constantly that it felt like a wet mop on his head, it was heavy, and it's been so damn hot that it was like wearing a blanket on his head, he was more attached to it than he realized. He liked having it, and realized that it made him different, and he liked that, too. It made him rather a standout in this town, and he'd rather enjoyed that. And he liked our little ritual in the mornings of my getting up to put his hair in a ponytail before work.

I told him if I had known that, I would never have encouraged him to go ahead and get it cut. Yes, you read that right, I did. He was so miserable and hot and uncomfortable, well... what would y'all have done?

So... I made the appointment, and he thought he would be happy with it, but he said it didn't sink in how much he had liked it and just enjoyed having long hair until it was gone, and so I hugged him and said, "Well, now you understand how I feel sometimes when I get my hair cut and realized it was the Wrong Thing To Do."

"Yeah," he said sadly.

"Well," I said finally, "we already know your hair grows incredibly fast. In fact, I'm jealous of how fast your hair grows! So, by this time next year, your hair will be where it was today. And what will you be doing?"

"Just getting the dead ends trimmed off!" he said firmly.

*does a happy dance at the thought of long hair on THO again*

In the meantime, I'm getting mine trimmed and evened out today. Yes, I'm going to go ahead and let it grow out. He quivered his chin at me and did the tear-filled eyes thing, saying, "Please don't cut your hair! If I had not cut mine, I could bear you cutting yours short but right now, please don't cut it all off! I'll help you take care of it!"

*pause*

Okay, I'm back from getting my hair cut. Wanna see it? Do you? Do you really? Okay, here's a really bad Photobooth photo of me...




Yep, pretty much just look the same. Same ol' hair, same ol' freckles, same ol' purple shirt... I really need to get some new clothes, seriously.

In other news, got the results of Monday's blood tests back, and I don't have... mono. Okaaaaay....

Apparently, I just have a pissy little virus that doesn't want to let go, and I just have to let it... run its course.

And don't y'all know I'm just thrilled about that! So, I'm going to curl up in bed and spend some time with Lord Peter Wimsey. Actually, I started Murder Must Advertise at about 3 a.m. I'll probably finish it today and start on Gaudy Night.

Oh, and we rented "Knowing" yesterday. All I can say is... I'm glad we didn't pay full price to see it in the theater!! As it was, we enjoyed making fun of it as we watched it. I am sure the flaming moose is going to make itself a part of family jokes for years to come!!

Okay, off to bed for me!!

I needed a profile picture for my Ravelry page, so the Husbandly One obligingly took one of my hands as I worked on a bag...



Yes, I have a bandaged finger. Blame it on excessively dry skin and leave it at that.

And here is the Husbandly One. He's letting his hair grow out, and I promised my mother a shot of him with his ponytail. *squee* He's getting ready to leave for soccer practice, as he has a 3v3 team for a summer tournament in July.



Why, yes, I do find him irresistibly sexy and mouthwateringly hot... why do you ask?

Yes, Random Auntie is random!

Okay, more pic-spam. I was noodling around on Facebook last night, and found that a bunch of my old drum corps buddies had formed a group. This was very cool for me, because I haven't seen or heard from these folks in about a century or two, so... I joined. And I went to the photos page and was stunned to see this...



Okay, after I got over the shock of that SHIRT (omg, did I really wear stuff like that???), and the HEADBAND (I wore that when I wasn't sweating?? Dear gods...), it took me a minute to remember when that was. And I thought, omg, 1983, the year I was drum major, my mohawk had grown out, and I had finally gained some weight after nearly starving myself to death.

Yeah, Auntie was anorexic as a teenager.

It's bizarre to think that about five months before that photo was taken, I weighed a whopping 86 pounds.

*lets y'all get over the shock*

I think I weighed somewhere between 95 to 100 pounds in that photo. Soaking wet. With a heavy purse. And some big clunky shoes.

Is that not a big get-the-damned-camera-outta-my-face-before-I-hurt-you grin? And hello, red hair!! Where did it go?? Because as Chan pointed out during her visit a few months ago, it isn't red now!! *laughs*

Oh well, enjoy another blast from the past!!

Ye gods, where the HELL did I get that shirt???

Well, first off, I just checked the school district's web page a little while ago and there's a letter up, stating that our school district AND county have no confirmed cases of swine flu... at this time.

Meaning I set a fox in the hen house when I made my lil' ol' phone call.

Good. They need shaking up, and to tighten up their sloppy practices. Trust me... they have some pretty damn sloppy practices. Need I remind anyone of the year of "once-a-month-strep?"

*grimaces*

On a lighter note, my daughter spotted one of our herd of spiny lizards sunning itself on a football (alas, the American kind, shocolate), and he/she stayed long enough for me to get a couple of pictures.

( Click to see our mini-dinosaur!! )

I am trying to distract myself, really. It's kinda... okay, it's not working, and I don't know how much sleep I'm going to get. I'm very... upset. Not so much about my kids possibly getting swine flu as their being exposed to it because of sloppiness, carelessness, and thoughtlessness on the part of a school district so focused on those damn TAKS tests that they put my kids (and I include all my kids in this, my biological kids, and the ones I've taken into my heart) at risk just so the numbers of kids taking the tests stay high, thus increasing the odds of good scores. And thus, more funding and recognition.

And yes, I'm worried about my kids getting the flu. Because of stupidity. Sheer, careless, asinine, and completely ham-handed stupidity.

I better get some answers tomorrow. Or I go public.

*throws down gauntlet*

thanfiction, this is why I got so teary-eyed at your drawing of Seamus.


( It's a big picture, so dial-up users beware )

For kath_ballantyne, who has asked me before to get pictures of these very shy lizards.

( Big pictures ahead, so beware, oh Users of Dial-Up )

So here, as promised last night, photos from yesterday...

( There are only three... )

The Impertinent Daughter's team had their first game today. Yes, today, Sunday. That's what happens when you move up to U-14, and yes, you read that right, too. Miss Priss is playing U-14, because we did not have enough kids to make up separate U-13 and U-14 teams. And again, it's a co-ed team, but we're playing all male teams.

I wish y'all could have been there, really, truly, I do!

I wish I had videotaped it, because guys... it was really an awesome, sit on the edge of your seats, jumping up and screaming kind of game. My stomach muscles hurt from both holding my camera and yelling my head off!

First off, they won 4-2. Second off, as usual, the boys from the other team thought they could get ahead by scaring and or intimidating our girls, and they tried zeroing in on them. Yeah. Right. Like that's worked before when they've played us!! Look here!
( Image heavy, though I kept the shots small )

This photo, which I took during our trip to Washington, is my desktop right now, and the Impertinent Daughter was gazing at it and said, "Wow, Mom, you took a picture of Hogwarts."

"I did?" I said, looking up from my reading.

"See?" and she pointed to the buildings on the right. "That's Hogwarts Castle."

"Okay," I said, squinting.

"And that tree there... is the Whomping Willow."

"I see."

"And those purple plants are... poisonous or something..."

"If you get too close to them," I said, getting into the game with her, "they belch out clouds of purple pollen which make you gag and throw up."

"Right," she said eagerly. "And they're there to protect those... big green bushy things..."

"Professor Sprout's valuable Flutterby Bushes, which have to be grown outside," I said, trying not to laugh.

"Yeah!" she said enthusiastically. "And those little bird houses are for the Golden Snidgets, which eat the pests who like to eat the Flutterby's flowers, and the purple plants protect them both! Because the Snidget is endangered!"

And I had no idea!! Imagine that!

Today is our last day, and the Husbandly One insisted that we hit the Freer Gallery so I could gawk at art to my heart's content. We mostly hit the Japanese art and pottery collections, as well as the Indian sculpture, and Chinese and Korean pottery.

( More pictures, y'all! )

Hello dearies!

On Wednesday, we went to the zoo with failuresofine. It was a great deal of fun, and the Impossible Son keeps talking longingly of going back. I don't know if it's to see the animals, or just so he can ride on the Metro again!

I think my rambunctious offspring might have overwhelmed failuresofine a bit. Heck, sometimes they overwhelm me, so I can't blame him! They liked him, though, and as we were leaving, the Impertinent Daughter proclaimed him my fourth child, so apparently, you have been adopted!!

( Pictures behind the cut! )

My kids have their own cameras, so I thought y'all might be interested in their point of view!

( A Kids' Eye View )

Hi Y'all, just your friendly neighborhood Auntie, on flyby to post a few photos of our day.

( Cut for image heavy post )

I'm still figuring it out, but here's two shots of the Impossible Son that I took today with my new camera...






This was taken at the playground we stopped to have lunch at before going into Austin.






This was after racing around the capital building, getting into everything, and having a fine time examining every single inch of a brass cannon used in the Texas Revolution. Go figure.


I guess I'm not too bad at this thing. I couldn't get used to not advancing the film after hitting the shutter, though. After a few minutes, one of the dads in our group ambled over and said, "First time using this camera?"

I said, "Yep. Is it that obvious?"

He laughed. "You keep trying to advance the film. It's pretty funny to watch."

Well, at least I'm trying!