snazz-ifying lalaland

in case you didn't notice the tie dye (tie dye is always so subtle)...
lalaland gots a new 'do!!!

whaddaya think? like? don't like? ignore the question? ;)

i think they just painted this elevator.

my quest to cultivate a healthier, cheaper, and greener lifestyle has landed me in my office this morning, smelling quite strongly of vinegar. methinks we have some glitches to work out...

i'll post more once i've got my act together. until then ... just don't ask.

this is me, helping you declutter your home!

IF you live in the portland area ... and
IF you have one or more books that you don't read ... and
IF you already tried selling the books at powells and they wouldn't take them ... and
IF the books are in halfway good condition ...

i know what you can do with them!

africa new life ministries is a totally awesome organization that is doing great work in rwanda. seriously, check them out. (we sponsor little adelaide, an 11-year-old rwandan girl through anlm. they rock.) btw - unrelated - i heard about anlm from kristal - whose blog also rocks. :)

any-hoo, anlm is building a school - kigali bible college - that will open in january 2011, and they need books! the kigali kollection committee (yeah, i know, you'd think a bunch of book collectors would know how to spell...) set a goal of 5,000 books by may 15, and are sooo close! according to african accreditation standards, a library must have 10,000 books ... so that's the end goal.

for details on the the book collecting project, check out dr. garry friesen's (highly entertaining) blog posts here, here, and here, (in that order).

so ... what can you do with the books? get them to multnomah university, or just bring them to me!!! i will haul the books in for you - i'll even pick them up from you! (if you live in the gresham area ...)
so leave me a comment here, on facebook, plurk, twitter, email, phone ... ya know ...

pontiac FAIL (ftw)

i'm feeling nostalgic today.

i woke up to the voice of npr newswoman renee montagne on my alarm clock radio; she informed me and the world that pontiac is no longer. pontiac, the fabled auto maker whose name recalls the heyday of muscle cars. 82-year-old pontiac, maker of the gto judge, the firebird, the tempest ... has finally crashed.

and i exulted.

see, i don't know much about firebirds and whatnot, but my first car was a pontiac: a 1991 pontiac bonneville sedan.
it looked a lot like this:add rust, chipped paint, bailing wire (to keep the hood shut), duct tape (to keep the trunk shut), 250,000 miles on the odometer (the distance from the earth to the moon), rips in the upholstry (what uphostry?), cracks in the windshield, flatten the tires a bit, kick out the back left turn signal, and you have...

my first car! ta da!

yes, i, along with other current and former pontiac owners, am feeling the sweet sting of nostalgia as an era draws to an ungraceful close.

sayonara, pontiac.
sucks to be you.

ant invadorz

aaaaand they're back.
1 week after we paid $$2much.moolah to our wonderful exterminators, the ants invaded the living room and the kitchen. i think whatever was sprayed around the exterior of our home drove the beasts inside, instead of away...
thankfully, the "exterminators" did leave some super-duper, high-powered, keep-away-from-pets-children-plants-and-oxygen ant traps, which have been patroling our counters menacingly since the attack.

... which happened 3 days ago. yes, my kitchen has been immobilized for 3 days. i want my money back.

the ant-y side of the kitchen - click to view larger and see the carnage.

the non-ant-y side of the kitchen. can you say "non-functional?"
posing for the ants :: menacing + exasperated

these things are nice today

sounds of silence ~simon & garfunkel ...

taking pictures of my freshly weeded and replanted herb garden when i get home (if it's not raining) ...

joel acing the anatomy & physiology test that he's taking right now [fingers crossed] ...

spending tonight cleaning the dead, poisoned ants off my kitchen counters while listening to coram deo podcasts (their january core life conference on the bible) ...

thai leftovers ...

intermittent sunshine ...

overcoming blogger's block ...

random catch-up blog, april-style

i know it's time for a random catch-up blog when i'm backtracking so much that my posts border on incomprehensible. so, here's what's occupying our time these days, in no particular order, with some random musing for good measure.

• oompa-loompas everywhere...
  i am accompanying christian youth theater's spring production of willy wonka! cyt is an awesome organization, and i'm super excited to work with them. rehearsals are friday nights and saturday mornings for the next couple months.
• the student
  ... is still in school. still taking anatomy&physiology and chemistry. currently learning about the respiratory system and acid, respectively. his first round of midterms for this quarter are next week, so he's stoked about enjoying the wonderful weather predicted for this weekend from the window of our study.
• resorting to bored -i mean board- games
  on april 14 we decided to cut out all tv for a month. tv isn't a huge part of our lives now, but it's always interesting to shake things up a little ... so we're shaking. (not literally.)
• bounce-bounce-bounce-bounce-
  as i write this i'm sitting on an exercise ball. i've been sitting on an exercise ball at work for about 2 weeks now, and i love it! i'm a fidgeter, and this is more fidget-freedom than i've had in years!
• our usual home-project-y ambitiousness
  i bought paint samples for the trim in the bathroom in january. i finally put up swatches a couple weeks ago. give me a couple more months and i might actually paint the bathroom trim all the way! [gasp]
• a smattering of cool sites that you should seriously check out if you've got time:
  awesomest internet radio site EVAR, 3d pavement art, help for managers/office people, testfreaks: product testing, 80% discount on clothes

side effects

getting run over by a car does funny things to a person. (other than the obvious hilarious side effects of blood, gore, etc.)

... in my case, it has rendered me incapable of driving any distance without extreme paranoia, manic episodes of gasping, and psycho-somatic symptoms such as bugging eyes and involuntary (kind of) snarling at drivers who look like they might possibly hit a pedestrian or biker in the next 5 minutes.

i'm considering professional help. for everyone else, of course.

preview

how could i not be excited - i have sammi vestal in front of my camera again! and this time, her dorm section was with her!

here's your preview, girls... and i'll post lots more on the website, plus all your "couple" shots ;), within a week.

if dickens ever had a weekend like mine...

it was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness,
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair...

i don't know about the french revolution, but charles dickens sure nailed my weekend. transporting my ragged psyche from the bowels of an internal mordor, ruled by the piercing cardinal eye of my conscience, to the bliss of a blossom-bedecked stroll with my beau ... no wonder i woke up on sunday with a fever!

the worst of times
my first opportunity to play with christian youth theater (i'm accompanying their production of willy wonka) was last friday - as the backup-emergency-sight-reading accompanist.

i can do sight reading. however, never having been in this position before, i only learned what questions to ask the children after my neglect to ask them resulted in disaster. (questions such as "are you starting halfway through the song?")

i feel terrible when i'm not able to help a child perform as well as i know they can, and though we had several good performances, there were several that ... i could have helped them more by asking better questions. and so, as the day drew to a close, i felt pretty bad.

... and then i looked at my phone, and saw that i had missed 5 calls, and realized that i had scheduled a photo gig for that afternoon with a friend and her whole dorm section, thinking that april 3rd was a saturday.

when i left auditions friday night, i felt awful for those i had let down, and knew that i had no one to blame but myself.

the best of times
forgiveness and understanding are the most healing gifts we can offer each other, aren't they?
my friend was forgiving and understanding (and so kind).

saturday started (for me) with more auditions. this time, no guessing at questions. the kids were great, the atmosphere fun, and this show is going to be a blast!

afterward, my dear husband took me miniature golfing (i got a hole in one!), out to happy hour at mccormick&schmicks (i accidentally dropped a piece of fish in my $7 drink), and for a long walk along the waterfront. we watched the river, the cherry trees, and the kid who jumped over the making out couple.

anatomy of a sick person

1. ice pack applied to feverish, aching head
2. undereye circles
3. $7 rolling stones tee from buffalo exchange
4. extended tongue half-heartedly attempts to echo mick jagger, but only succeeds at looking pathetic
5. deathly pallor
6. wedding ring, symbolizing lifelong commitment to the most tender, caring man in the universe

did you escape the flu this year?