I have been in Orlando on spring break since Monday night. Yesterday I got my birthday present at Fantasy of Flight, it was a ride up in an open cockpit airplane. There are pictures on my flickr, just click on this one for more.
Last night I finally checked my email, to find two acceptance messages from physics REU programs that I applied to for the summer. Even better, one of them is right here in Orlando, so yay for me! Now I just have to figure out what to do with my parrot and my apartment in San Angelo over the summer. Troy offered to let Rigel stay here, but he has a cat. As laid back as Athena is, I will never trust a cat around one of my birds. So if anyone in San Angelo is looking for a place to live over the summer, and would be willing to birdsit as payment on rent, talk to me.
Hey all my interweb friends, I am relaxing in sunny Orlando. Here is some photographic proof from Kennedy Space Center and The Vine. Click over to flickr for more photos.
I added six photos of my new tattoo to flickr. The flowers will be filled in with a lilac purple, the leaves a dark green (and to cover up the old dragonfly), and I am as yet undecided on the color for the damselfly.
I know that at the moment this picture was taken, I felt like a cow. I look back now, and I see that, wow, I was kinda cute. But I still crop my lower body out of this picture, because I still look at it and feel as awkward as I did the moment it was taken. That is a shame, because the pond scenery is sooo beautiful. The bigger shame is that I had to feel so awkward in such a lovely photograph, just because my clothes didn't fit me right.
I. Looked. Great.
But I was so overjoyed at finally FINALLY being able to get into and zip up a size 10 pair of shorts, that I didn't realize that it didn't mean that those pants FIT ME. With the unfortunate shirt, I was stuck on the idea that I was a size Medium, forever an always, up top. I was so terrified, mortified, at ever even trying on a size Large *gasp, horror* that I actually put up with an entire wardrobe (term used loosely) of shirts that stretched tight over my round belly.
I was the most physically fit of my entire life. Back then I weighed 141 pounds, overweight by Air Force standards for my height. Lets keep in mind that at this point I had zero social life and spent 1-2 hours PER NIGHT at the gym, in addition to my unit's thrice-weekly mandatory mile run and calisthenics, and I ate a cobb salad for lunch and dinner every day. I could do 65 situps in 60 seconds, but I still had the round tummy, and I always will. FACT.
Here's me last month: When I posted this picture to Facebook, I cropped it to not show my arms, and squeezed the image a little. Yup. I still can't stand the sight of myself in the camera's lens.
Now, I don't bother weighing myself anymore. I am done hating myself because of that number. Maybe it is around 165, I dunno. I wear a size 12/14 pant, and Large/XL shirts. I can't shop at most stores in the mall because they have shitty selection that high, and I get asked "why are you here, skinny?" at Lane Bryant.
I have biked 100 miles in about 5 total weeks. I do yoga or an abs workout 4 times a week. I have found healthy, simple foods that I enjoy, and I refuse to eat something "healthy" that I do not absolutely love.
Today I made pound cake, and I will delight in every brandy-infused bite for the next week.
The little card that described the birdy in the cage said he was hatched on 20 April 2007. It also called him Sonny. A year later, he has a better name, a willing servant/playgym, and the gift of flight.
Here are a few pictures I took of Rigel this month. There are more on my flickr account.
I'm trying to figure out who is in this photo. My first guess is Aunt Kay. I'd love an indication of year and location as well.
Hopefully someone in my family will get around to visiting my flickr page. There's lots there, and more every day that I don't have details for. I'd also like to see others in my family uploading what they have at home, if they can.
I inherited an overactive camera finger, but luckily I developed a small sense of quality over quantity all by myself. Yeah, most of my family's photos are random, an entire box of pictures of clouds taken from a moving vehicle.
Anyway, my big project right now is uploading old (mostly good) photos that I got from my Mom. They were stored in a giant plastic tub, bent up, stuck together, mixed in with a bunch that were inside our van when it caught fire about 12 years ago. I sorted the burned from the not, and then sorted by family member or scenery. When I get done uploading and tagging those that are on my computer, I need to get the rest scanned. Its alot, so if anyone knows where I can send them off (safely) to be scanned in high-quality, please send me a link or something. I sold my old crappy scanner last year, and really don't want to buy a new one.
I've been "Favoriting" alot of photos lately, too. Go check them out!
I've had this project brewing in my mind for over a month now. I bought these 4 tiles with flowers on them, and then two more that were also floral but larger and with a square-mosaic background. I didn't want to try to line up or arrange them on the wall with nothing behind, didn't want to agonize over nail placement. So the plan was to attach the four small ones to a canvas or board painted in the same pattern as the two larger ones, so they match. Cool, eh?
For the bargain-basement price of $56, I purchased a large canvas, 4 large tubes of acrylic paint, cheap-o paintbrushes, plaster-stuff, mega-hold glue, decorative beads **, 1/2 price Dove chocolates, and a package of gum. I bought a new spatula, sheets, and kitchen towels recently, so I had the following items at home: old asian-print sheet as drop-cloth, small brownie knife* (i have 3 more, no biggie), old metal spatula*, 6-year-old kitchen towel*, kitchen sponge*, wooden skewer for stirring, cardboard inserts from new sheets to use as a palette. **at this point I was trying and failing to escape without buying the entire store *for texture and spreading of plaster-stuff
I spent 4 hours painting last night, and then about an hour this morning gluing the tiles on and touching up a few spots. I'm still waiting for the glue to dry, no indications on the bottle as to how long that takes.
I might take some close-up pictures later, because the textures are really nice that I got with my spatula and brownie knife. But really, the point of the story is this: I HAD SO MUCH FUN!!!
The end for now.
PS. If you love me, you'll gift me a flickr upgrade....*bats eyelashes* PSS. If I love myself, I'll gift me a flickr upgrade, dammit.
a) I've posted less often lately. This is because I'm actually doing schoolwork. Get your jaw off the ground, its not that surprising. Ok, so I've been doing some other stuff online too. Also, that first r in surprise? Gets me every time. Makes no sense.
b) I've updated my blogger layout. Let me know what you think about green on grey and grey on green. I already know that the header isn't lining up right in IE. This is annoying to me. Solution: get with the Firefox. I promise you'll love it because it doesn't take a whole two hours to open a page and doesn't update every day. It's not as daunting as ...well at all. Promise.
c) I'm now a member of Flickr.com and there's a link on my blogger. I have no idea why I didn't do that before. It rocks.
This shitty week had better not follow me into the weekend. First, I failed my physics test. I don't mean failed as in I didn't get the grade I wanted, I mean I got 51/100 points possible. Shit.
Oh yeah, I also slid my tablet, face down, across the floor in my English class. The 3 inch long gash is quite lovely, really. *bangs head against wall*
Thursday I took a calculus test. I won't know how badly that stunk until Tuesday.
Here's a set of pictures I took after Rigel's bath today. We sat in the sunshine to dry off and he was very photogenic. I had a little trouble with the upload, but finally got it working on slide.com.
I love this, I caught him mid tail-shake!
He has a bunch of new feathers coming in around his beak, so he loves rubbing his face on things. He stopped and just looked at me from this weird position.
Enjoying the sunshine, and chewing on the perch.
Mister Attitude
What a difference flash makes. He didn't like it much.
I like the arrangement here, and in the second one his little prim proper feet. Don't be fooled. Later I caught him chewing on my shirt.
Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! No really, its a bird.
The Petco here where I got my birdie was the only pet store in town until today. I've been eagerly awaiting the opening of a Petsmart in this town and it opened today and I forgot to go. Petco's toys are so boring and I am too impatient to buy online, and to buy without holding things in my hand first.
Before I got Rigel there, I would go pretty often and get my heart set on one or another bird but didn't have the money/lifestyle to buy yet. I would see them degrade from happy bouncy new arrivals to quiet and unhappy little things. They even had a yellow parrotlet who was there for over a year whose bonded partner died of a sickness and eventually started plucking and was still on display until a few months ago. They have two beautiful linneolated parakeets that I wanted but were $400 each, still there 8+ months later and in the last 6 months I haven't seen them move from the same perch cuddled together looking fluffy. I visited again this week and they look double their previous weight and still sit on that same perch.
I got little Rigel there because I saw him and knew the time was right for me and if I didn't get him, he would sit in that place his whole unhappy life.
I finally went to the new PetSmart today, and its great! Open atmosphere, greater selection of toys and food, and the birds seem happier. They have mostly finches and budgies, and two quakers. All except the quakers (i think) were unclipped and flying around in their enclosures. Each cage did seem a bit small for each group of budgies, but they had nice natural wood perches and fruit out in each cage in addition to seed. They were all very active and it was so refreshing to see them flying around and not hopping from perch to perch or just sitting on the bottom.
I really regret that my baby was so severely clipped before he could fledge, but he is adventurous and likes to jump so I think he will do well when they grow out and can be clipped a bit kinder.
Also, I was being silly and couldn't find many good lolbirds, so I made some myself. Not that they're any better than what's out there already of course....
There was a parade yesterday, so I went with Traci and her mini-people. It was fun, and I only got a little sunburned. Then some of us went bowling last night and got good and sloshy. It took us 3 hours to play 2 games. I won one, and Becky won the other. There will be pictures eventually, but since Dear Hubby took the battery charger for the camera with him to TN, I have to get the bowling pictures from Becky. In fact, she may have put them up on Facebook already. Go, go see! Tell me all about how goofy we look. Just remember that it is more fun to be tipsy and act drunk, than it is to actually be drunk.
Today is the UB reunion picnic, where I may or may not get to see some more people I know. I hope so, I missed them!
It was a very long weekend. I feel like I walked a marathon. First it was a jaunt through the Caverns of Sonora, finally. It was hot, humid, and beautiful. Lots of pictures.
Then we drove the rest of the way to San Antonio, found the hotel, waited for housekeeping to finish with the room even though it was over an hour after check-in. Then drove out to the Palladium to catch 300 on IMAX. I wish we could have seen it the first time on IMAX, it was so good. Also, the Palladium has a couple bars, a restaurant, and that Italian ice cream. The name escapes me at the moment. Anyway the theater is huge, and its really the coolest thing ever. Until I think of something else.
Dinner at SushiZushi was good. We over-ate big time. You wouldn't believe how much we miss the taste of a good California or Rainbow Roll. Michael's Yakisoba wasn't right, and the Cajun Roll wasn't very good either. Hot green tea did well to settle my tummy from the hot dog I picked up at the theater. Yes, all that good food and I had a hot dog that gave me indigestion for the rest of the night. Go figure.
Oh, and then this morning we headed over to the Botanical Gardens to take lots of pictures of pretty flowers. Oh look, pretty flower! I need 5 pictures of it! It's a compulsion. I'll try to post them, but I'm too tired to crop and sharpen too many today, so here's a selection.
Afterwards, we drove around downtown like crazy people trying to find a place to park so we could walk around like crazy people trying to find the mall so we could walk around like starving people and be picky about what restaurant to eat at because we hadn't had anything but very good hotel coffee all day. Whew. It was not fun. We ate nothing good and bought nothing interesting except bottles of Japanese melon soda. We like it, it is not baby drink. So there.
So I still feel all sick from the heavy meal I had today, even though I didn't have anything else. I've had 5 Maalox tablets. Mmm Lemony-Goodness. Still doesn't help though. Oh well.
After we got home today I went to buy an anniversary present for my hubby. I got him a few things. And then I got him something from me to him back to me, which is completely innocent. However, I left it for him in his bathroom, and he has failed to notice it yet. Since he already left for his game, he probably won't notice it until the morning. Oh well. I still have the real gifts stashed away.
Friday, April 6, 2007
Originally Posted: 25 March 2007. **Update: Sarah sent me some more images from the zoo, and I also added a few from Putt-Put Golf that week. Chow!
I took several videos as well, but they somehow disappeared during copy from my camera. Oh well, they weren't that great. I completely missed the moment that duck scared the crap outta Sarah, or the jaguars playing, or the monkey sliding down his straps. The one video I really wish didn't disappear was the jaguars, they walked right up to the glass and played and huffed and yawned and I got it all. Oh well.
They had hyenas, lions, black bears, and other typical zoo animals that I didn't take pictures of. I tried not to take pictures of just animals, but with one of us in the frame. Interactions and reactions are the best (especially Sarah's, haha) and I can get a picture of just a lion anywhere. Anyway, enjoy the slideshow.
[Tyrol is working on Starbuck's captured cylon raider] Starbuck: What seems to be the trouble, Chief? Chief Tyrol: Well, your new boyfriend's a bit of a jerk, sir. Starbuck:: It's a girl. Chief Tyrol: Well, if you don't mind her goo all over your face, you're welcome to her, sir.
Starbuck: Bitch took my ride!
Starbuck: Permission to speak off the record, sir? Tigh: Granted. Starbuck: You're a bastard. Apollo: What's the charge this time? Starbuck: Striking a superior asshole.
Starbuck: I thought you were dead. Apollo: I thought you were in hack. Starbuck: It's good to be wrong. Apollo: You should be used to that by now. Starbuck: Everyone's got a skill.
D'anna Biers: You seem to think that your pilots deserve special consideration. Apollo: Actually, I do. Like everyone else, my pilots have lost their families, their friends, everyone they ever cared about; but on top of that they're asked to put their lives on the line every single day, for a fleet that seems more interested in what they do wrong than in what they do right. They're not asking for your pity, but they damn well deserve your respect.
Col. Saul Tigh: This is a military vessel, we have rumors for every occasion.
Lt. Gaeta: Sir, I'm running every diagnostic we've got. Checking each line of code could take days. Col. Tigh: I am not interested in excuses. Fix it. Lt. Gaeta: It's not an excuse, sir. It's a fracking fact!
Starbuck: Starbuck to all Vipers - do not fire... repeat, do not fire! I am a friendly, okay? We're all friendlies. So, let's just... be friendly.
ChiefTyrol: What do you want to do now, Captain? Starbuck: The same thing we always do. Fight them until we can't.
