family picnic with new family

Oh the sun came out and shone today. Perfecto. Got up early, showered, put my hair into rollers. Anything beauty related you have to practice. Though all the hairspray isn't fun. But my hair did keep looking fabulous all day long. Huzzah!

At a bit after 11, Grandma and Grandpa Spencer showed up in their van. Dad did the driving, I sat in the back and read. There was a picnic in Dupont that was a Dupont picnic and also a Spencer family thingy. Not quite sure about the guest list, but there were hotdogs, chicken, and salad so I was happy. Met cousin Annie, who was very nice. Chatted. Noshed on food. I read my book in the playground of the park for a bit too. I didn't know many people there so conversation was tricky. Still, it was a beautiful day. Perfect for hot dogs.

We left at around 3:30. Nice scenic drive back. I took a nap. Too many early days (two of them!). Back in Seabeck, we all relaxed for a bit. I had some tea to pep me up. Ma and I tried to watch Nine but it was so slow and thought it was way more grand than it actually was. We fast forwarded a bit. Only one dance number was actually fun, but the majority of it was meh. Early in the night, ma and pa retired.

Have no plans for tomorrow and I'm not going to try and predict them.

Todays Portrait Is: Dana Ashbrook.

teef and roll

Got up bright and early to go to the dentist. Hurray. Actually I have no fear of doctors or dentists.

This time around it was the oral surgery place. It was a precursory exam to check out where my wisdom teeth are at and to set up an appointment to get them removed. I had Curran, who did some work on my mother. On the 11th, I will be going in for surgery to get them removed. Will I be ill a week or a day? They are going to have to cut the bejeezus out of my mouth to remove them, so I have a feeling I'll be taking the week. A week to watch MI-5 and other stuff on Netflix! Hurray! And then the wedding. I went to JC Penny's and looked at dresses for the wedding. There were cute dresses that were not available in my size, and cute dresses that are not appropriate for a wedding. Went to Walgreen's and put in my prescription for the two painkillers for after the surgery. Huzzah! Bought some hot hair rollers as well. Whee!

Back at home I played with the rollers. I am having trouble getting the curl to stick in my hair. It goes flat. More hair spray? Use a mousse? But they do give the effect I like...for about 30 minutes. Read a chapter. Just one.

Dad came back and slept the rest of the day away. Ma and I hauled National Geographics up and watched Tales From the City. It feels weird to be tired at 11pm. Tomorrow is a picnic. Now I need to work on getting things finished before my surgery. Quilt. Portraits. Author August is almost upon us!

Todays Portrait Is: Lara Flynn Boyle.

so many chapters!

Slept way in. I'll be getting up early tomorrow for the dentist appointment. Need to finish filling out all the information. So much medical stuff. Blah.

Ma was gone at a lesson learning thing. I just sat about and drew portraits till five. Then I read for a bit. No quilting. Ma made salad for dinner. We watched So You Think You Can Dance. Jess, the one I voted for, was sent home. Boo.

Dad comes home tomorrow. Whee! Then we will see Cowboys and Aliens.

Going to the dentist to have them check out my mouth and maybe get an appointment to yank out my wisdom teeth. Early August would be best. Not too close to Carmen and Josh's wedding.

Half way through Dance of Dragons!

Todays Portrait Is: Sherilyn Fenn.

might be employed soon

Another long day without mum. Slept in. Barbie's Cafe in Seabeck had a help wanted sign, so I filled out an application and turned it in with my resume. Maybe I'll have a job, that would be swell! It will be nice to earn some moolah to pad my account for when I eventually leave home and start my life. August came faster than I expected it to. Yeesh. Anyway, it would be waitress/dish cleaner type stuff. I'm cool with that. All experience is good experience.

After that I got to quilting. Put Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on my MP3 player and listened to a big chunk of that while I sewed up squares. I'm nearing the point where I assemble the squares. Yay. I bought either way too much green fabric or not enough blue. I'll have to count my squares tomorrow and see what shape the quilt shall take. I should have them ready to layout, and then I'll have to buy fabric for the border and back and then it will be near done! Hurrah! It goes both slow and fast at the same time, quilting does.

Dinner was left over pasta and a lovely salad. So You Think You Can Dance had some great routines tonight. Lady Gaga was a good judge. She actually critiqued some of the choreography. I think I can tell who is going home tomorrow though. It is a shame that the dance numbers can bring dancers down even if they do it well, simply by not having an attention getting number.

Now to read! I'm halfway done with my big book of awesome stuff.

Todays Portrait Is: Madchen Amick.

happy birthday mum!

Mums birthday today, so naturally she had to work. I went into town to run some errands. Went to Best Buy to check out computers. Not to buy, just to observe. Went to Old Navy and tried on some clothes that I didn't like. Swung by Walgreens and picked up some sweets. Got some vegetable oil at Seabeck Store. I made mom a cake for her birthday. A simple cake mix in a bundt pan, except it didn't come out of the bundt all that easy. And by that I mean, it came out in several chunks. I put a couple tea candles on it. Looked all right. All food digests the same, who cares about presentation?

Read a bit. Watched telly. Didn't feel like quilting. Tomorrow I am likely to quilt.

Ma came home and we had pasta for dinner. She opened her presents. I got her the second and third book of the Hunger Games trilogy, as she asked for. A gnome came in the mail for mom as well (Nathan's present, as mom wanted a gnome). We are going to play "hide the gnome" with it. I put it somewhere in the garden, and when she finds it, she'll move it somewhere else and when I find it, I'll move it. And so on. So right now I've hidden it. It isn't like HIDDEN hidden. It is well within sight and hopefully not near a bees nest.

We watched Johnny English and then mom sorted out her online book orders and I watched an episode and a half of MI-5 aka Spooks. Good spy drama.

So yeah. Quilting. It sucks I can't listen to audiobooks from my computer, but I guess I can just load up my MP3 player with something, though the display on my MP3 player is also blacked out. Ohhh why is my tech refusing to display to me these days?

Todays Portrait Is: Michael Ontkean.

black out

Daaamn. Just spent an hour and a half taking apart my computer and putting it back together, only to find that it was still where it was. The screen went dark during quilting and it hasn't returned. I assumed it would be the connector (and Nathan said it was likely to be such) from the bottom to the top that was wonky and thus didn't come up with the display because of the poor connection. So I took it apart and checked where it all connected and put it back together and NOPE still no display.

Got up to a rainy day. Boo! The plans were cancelled. Ma ran errands. I read and quilted. Got a bunch more squares done. Time flies when you are quilting and listening to audio books. Time flies less swiftly when you are struggling with a blacked out computer.

Ma made me a delicious sandwich.

We watched Four Rooms but were not so enthusiastic about it. I remember liking it a whole lot more the first time around.

Tomorrow I will work on my computer more. Now I'm just going to go to bed early. Or maybe see if hooking it up to the computer monitor will work. Either way.

Need a new computer pretty soon. Have to do some major chores. But that will make a nice goal. I don't need a nice computer, just need something to watch videos and stuff on. Four and a half years is about the life expectancy of a laptop, and I replaced the hard drive about two years ago. The laptop is pretty well worn. I should back everything up once I am able get a display.

Todays Portrait Is: Kyle MacLachlan.

staying up late with good television

The hotness continues, and as I've said the heat makes it quite stuffy up in the girl cave. So I didn't go there. Just spent some more time painting the garage doors. The ladder fell over with me on it. I was fine, but I spilled some paint. But I don't think Dad will notice. The edges need another coat, but that should go fast. It is good painting weather right now.

After a few hours painting, I threw on my bikini and soaked up some sun. Read a couple chapters while I made myself not so pasty. I think I did manage to get some freckles and have the faintest start of a tan line. Rolling over every chapter is a good way to time it. Sweated up a frenzy, which kept me from spending too much time outside.

Ma made a delicious salad for dinner, then we finished the other half of Angels in America. Damn good actors acting goodly.

Drew some portraits while watching stuff.

Tomorrow ma and I will be driving to Sequim and going to pick some berries. Early birthday celebration!

Todays Portrait Is: Misha Collins.

heck yeah, hammock

Dad is off to Brazil. Just as the sun comes out in Seabeck. Mom made poached egg on toast for breakfast, and then we got to painting. It will need a second coat because the original, patchy paint underneath still shows. We will do that tomorrow. It looks good though. It will look better once we can paint up to the edges.

After that I read on the lawn and hydrated. Mom sorted through boxes of old things. Found some books that have been long missing.

Lunch was a sandwich. Mmm. Also had a bowl of ice cream. Did more reading.

No quilting, as the girl cave does get quite stuffy and hot. I'll have to suck it up though, if I want to finish anything.

Dinner was a salad.

Mom and I decided to catch the late showing of Captain America. There was a line and some kids smoking and some annoying dudes in front of us in line, but all was fine. We took the first two seats in the back that we could find and settled in for some superhero action movie. Captain America is a good character. The ensemble cast was amazing, but such a shame we won't see them again, seeing as how the film is set during World War II and now Captain is in modern times due to stuff happening. So all the great background people are gone. Anyway, good casting. Nice effects. Nothing too overblown, generally fun. Does it need to be seen on the big screen? Naah. I really wish there were more period super hero movies though. This and X:Men First Class both stand out for having a pre-2000's setting.

Tomorrow, more portraits!

Todays Portrait Is: Jared Padalecki.

frustrations

Spent a large chunk of the day trying and failing at portraits. They just were not coming out. Eventually I got to a point where I was satisfied, all though the one of Ackles isn't quite right. The project isn't quite what I thought it would be. I'm getting better but it doesn't seem like as much better as I thought I would be. Now that I've figured out the scanner, I'll try to devote more time to making really nice looking portraits. Mm.

The portrait errors put me in a bad mood.

Scraped some paint. Had some curry. Dad went to bed early because he is going to Brazil tomorrow. Mom and I finished the first disc of Angels in America. Now I'm going to finish watching an episode of Torchwood and then go read.

Todays Portrait Is: Jensen Ackles.

neville is so awesome

Yeah, didn't quilt. Or do any portraits. Again, it is probably a bad idea to announce my intentions for the day.

No rain but not much sun.

Did my laundry. Took all the clothes out of my drawers, all the old clothes that is. So I got that done. It is good to not be living out of a suitcase and laundry basket. One more step towards settling in, for better or for worse. Now I gotta go through my closet. Lots of old clothes in there.

Read some of my old essays from gradeschool.

Read more A Dance of Dragons.

At 6ish we headed out to Poulsbo to see Harry Potter in 3D, as ma and pa haven't seen it yet. The 3D gave it a good depth of field but it wasn't needed. It was good the second time around. Afterwards we got some McDonalds and picked up a Yoda toy for Nathan's Toyota (Toy Yoda, get it?).

Got home at around 10:30. Maybe I'll do more tomorrow. Maybe.

Todays Portrait Is: Chris Pratt.

aches and pains

All that wood hauling has made me quite sore. Oof my back. And my legs. Today's chores were cancelled on account of a wasps nest near the garage (which was right near where I set my chip bag yesterday, eek). So I read and tooled around the Internet. And quilted! Didn't get much further, but I'll do some quilting tomorrow as well. And portraits. That is what Thursday will be about. Portraits and quilting, as we might be up at Pulali again this weekend.

Dinner was a lovely stir fry made by papa. Then mum and I settled in to watch So You Think You Can Dance. During the commercials we watched bits of the behind the scenes stuff for the upcoming The Hobbit film. The Dwarves look great.

It was another not rainy but not warm day. At least the next two Wild Cards books came in the mail. I'm up to my knees in reading books! Hurray!

Todays Portrait Is: Adam Scott.

stuff happened I guess

Ahhh I'm tired of blogging the same old nothing.

I helped Dad unload and stack firewood today. I was in the truck bed making piles at the tail gate, which he gathered and put in the rows in the woodshed. Then we filled up the truck bed again from the piles at the garage and unloaded that. Two hours and my back was well bent after. We moved about a cord of wood. It will be nice and dry by winter. That will be nice.

I relaxed and read after that. Good ol' book reading. I think I'll be hauling more wood tomorrow. Or painting. Either way, I'm making cash for my labor. Yay.

Need to get started on my quilt again.

Dinner was potatoes and vegetable medley and tasty burgers. Mmm. Tasty. None of the books that I ordered about two weeks ago have arrived. Come on mail system! All though I'm still not even a fourth done with my current tome. I like the comfort of books. I need to make a task list.

After dinner, we watched the first two episodes of Angels in America. So sad. So well acted. So...odd.

Todays Portrait Is: Aubrey Plaza (portrait number 200!!!)

mmm salad

Ah man, I really need to start doing something.

Had toast and tea for breakfast. Read in the hammock for a few hours. The sun and warmth finally came out! Not quite totally shorts weather but warm enough to hang outdoors in. Finally.

Helped mom make a pie. Dinner was salad and pie and I tucked, a bit early, into the chicken that was supposed to go onto the salad. Yum! The apple pie turned out really scrumptious.

So yeah, just read and relaxed. Not much going on in the 'Beck.

Todays Portrait Is: Aziz Ansari.

it all ended

Got up a bit earlier than usual and enjoyed some delicious waffles and bacon courtesy of dad. I spent the next couple hours relaxing and getting more portraits in the Portraitoday queue.

Then I packed up some cookies and hopped in my car and headed to Port Orchard to meet my friend Meghan, for we were going to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II. The last Harry Potter movie ever. Gaaah. The books and the series have been around since I was so young. Now I'm grown and it over. What else in culture lasts through so many years and changes?

Anyway, the driving was good but then it came to a stand still just outside Gorst. So I took some detours and got really side tracked. One of the on ramps was closed, but I managed to get on. Then the route the GPS was following wasn't actually taking me TO the theater, just NEAR it, so I drove in circles trying to find it. But I eventually did with about 6 minutes to spare.

The Port Orchard theater is a bit dingy, but we got good seats. The lights were not dimmed fully though, I felt. So it didn't seem as crisp and dark as it ought. Still, ahh. Harry Potter. I cried. Twice. They really ended the film at the peak. I just wish more of the films were longer. They could have made them all three hours long and everyone would have watched. It was wonderful. And well acted. And it was the end. The last link of that chain. The series means so much to so many people and now it is done. I don't want any more though.

Afterwards, Meghan and I found a little lounge and chatted for a few hours about Harry Potter and art after graduation and driving and all sorts of things. Meghan is cool, she graduated about a year and a half before I did.

It was much easier to go back, though I had to tell the GPS that home was not in San Jose.

Back home I gave mom a big "I told you so" for a movie that she, now, regretfully bought.

We bought a new antenna and now we get, like, four more channels! The only problem is that they only come through randomly. So you don't know if, when you leave a channel, if you can get back to it.

I watched Breaking Bad, which continues to be a phenomenal show. It is filmed so beautifully and the silence packs so much emotional weight. Great performances. Dark and brutal and perfect.

Now to read more! I read a couple chapters a day, all though considering I have 800 more pages yet to read, I'm going to have a lot more days ahead of me. It is good reading though. Every sentence has weight.

Todays Portrait Is: Rashida Jones.

yup, still a squeamish movie

Summer still hasn't arrived. It is the longest, soggiest spring EVER. It did clear up and get sunny but not really hot. It continued to dribble here and there. I entered in some more books for mom. Had a simple breakfast. Forget what I had for lunch. Uhhhm. It was something. Left overs? Snacking?

Later in the day, I helped ma and pa haul wood from the wood pile into the truck, then from the truck into the pile by the house, and then helped fill the truck up with wood from the piles up at the garage. There were many large snakes hanging out in the pile. Felt bad to be dismantling their home, but they can move on.

Dinner was a tasty chili that mom assembled. Yum yum! We then settled in to watch 127 Hours. It took place in Canyonlands! It does manage to capture a bit of the overall vast emptiness of the place. That movie really is best in theaters though, it is filmed so well that seeing in large really helps the beauty. Though it also amplifies the moment when he cuts off his own arm. Yeah.

We are going to try to move the reupholstered couch into where the old futon was. That was a perfectly good couch, I don't know why we gave it to Nathan. Oh well.

I read a bit. No quilting. Now I'm going to read more!

Todays Portrait Is: Nick Offerman.

not much of anything II

Another less than stellar weather day. It is mid July! It should be at least 75 degrees. It is going to be a wet winter I bet. Booo.

I made up a scramble using last nights left over turkey. Added more Tabasco to the meat as it warmed. Yum. One of my best scrambles yet. Very good. After that I did some portraits.

Hmm forget when I did for a while. Nothing? Yeah. No book or quilting. Lazy day.

Made some gingerbread dough with mom.

Early dinner of pasta and sauce. Did more portraits. I'm now almost a week ahead! I want to get really ahead so I can finish the month with awesomeity.

Will do something tomorrow. Now I'm going to curl up in bed and read.

Todays Portrait Is: Amy Poehler.

two perfect records, ruined!

Had to get up before nine. boo. Brushed my teeth and hopped in the car and zoomed off to the Silverdale Dental Clinic to get a cleaning. Haven't gotten one in a year. It is hard to keep up with health when you are away at college. It was a nice little place. I was in one room to get really intense awkward x rays and then another room to get cleaning and gum/bone density check and a flossing. The hygienist said that I was the first patient who said that they had tightly packed teeth that ACTUALLY had tight packed teeth. It makes it really hard to floss. And because of my inability to floss, I had three cavities! Boo! Still, after so many years of sweets to only have cavities NOW, that is pretty good. But now we need to pay an arm and a leg to get them filled.

From there I went to Trader Joe's and got some groceries. Then I swung by Target to get some shampoo and a hot dog. I gobbled down the hot dog and pulled into what I thought was a double turn lane, but as the cop pulled me over I was soon made aware that it WASN'T a double turn lane and that I should have just been more patient. Anyway, Nathan didn't know that he had kept the proof of insurance with him and not in my Contour. So I couldn't prove the insurance. But the cop was super duper nice and waived the traffic infraction and gave me a ticket for not having insurance, but the ticket would be waived if I mailed in my proof. So yay! First time I get pulled over and it ain't so bad. Thankfully I found out this way that I didn't have the proof with me, and not, say, a car accident. Still, sucked.

Filled up my gas after that. Went home. Figured out how to send in my ticket. Made a check out for the twenty five bucks for the courthouse fees and popped it in the mail box. For dinner I made tacos! But with turkey meat, because mama don't eat beef. I added douses of tabasco into the meat, toasted the shells, and mom shredded the lettuce. We ate outside and it was scrumptious! We have never been much of a taco family, but I think we are converts. Simple, easy, and tasty!

Dad fiddled with the antenna. We watched So You Think You Can Dance. The people I voted through got through. Yay! Jess!

Now I am watching A Very Potter Musical. I'm not ready for Harry Potter to be over with! It all ends. But I'm not watching it till Sunday.

Gotta do a bunch of portraits tomorrow.

Todays Portrait Is: Yvette Nicole Brown.

salad: so good with the right ingredients and dressing

The weather has yet to get decently nice for long stretches of time. It just poured rain for a long long time. I want to soak up the sun on the lawn. This is ridiculous!

Entered more books for mom. Snacked a whole bunch. Sat on the futon and read my massive tome. I twisted my wrist hoisting it with one hand. Ouuuuch. Then I started feeling warm and took a nap till mom got home.

Dinner was healthy healthy salad. Yum! It stopped raining long enough for us to eat outside.

Then we watched So You Think You Can Dance! The choreographers are not as good as they once were. They need some of the biggies back. I'm really starting to like Jess as a dancer.

Tomorrow I have a dentist appointment. Then some errands. Should get to quilting some more. I reckon I'll stay up reading tonight instead of staying up watching television.

Todays Portrait Is: Donald Glover.

dragons!!!!

Woke up to a new pile of books outside my door. As long as mom keeps finding books, I'll keep entering them on Amazon.com for her. Yup yup.

Had some oatmeal and tea. Went into town at about one to go to Barnes and Noble. The book I needed to acquire was George R.R. Martin's A Dance with Dragons. The fifth installment in his A Song of Fire and Ice series. Fans have been waiting six years for this book, I've only been waiting a few months since I finished the last audiobook during my thesis. The book is over a thousand pages long and is quite hefty. A mammoth tome that will hurt my hands to hold and read. Oh well.

Returned home and entered mom's books into Amazon. Drew some portraits. Then satisfied with the days tasks, I sat on the couch and read read read. Darn good reading thus far. Read till mom came home and read some more. I stopped to walk with her to get the mail and then later in the night we went to pick up dad from the airporter drop off. He seemed to have a lovely brief time in San Jose.

It started raining later on in the day. Boo!

On Sunday I'm going to see the final Harry Potter movie with Meghan (a PNCA grad who lives in Kitsap and is quite cool). Whee!

Didn't do any more quilting. Don't know how much I'll get done as long as I have this book to read.

Todays Portrait Is: Chevy Chase.

not much of anything

Didn't participate in any quilting today. Had other things to do. Lunch/breakfast was mac and cheese. I helped mom put books on Amazon for sale. A lot of them were not selling for much, competitively. It was a gray day with some drizzles. Mom and I caught an earlier showing of Bad Teacher. The editing wasn't so good, but it had some good jokes. The supporting cast was pretty darn good. Ma and I got chicken teriyaki afterwards. Back at home we watched Hot Fuzz, as the actress Judy Punch was in Bad Teacher and we wanted to see her in another thing.

Not much went on this Monday. Really need to clean my room and get it in order. Tomorrow. I'll contemplate doing that tomorrow.

Todays Portrait Is: Alison Brie.