Hold still!

me: No, hold still!!!

her: I didn't know you were talking to me.

me: Stop moving, just hold still a second!!!

Lookit what I found on Aryanne :)

And then we realized there are probably a few hundred more of these little guys in the vicinity :p

Feeling satisfied

I recently caught wind of a bombshell that was dropped at a homeowners meeting by the board... they want to levy a "special assessment" which equates to $9000 per home-owner due by August, and if you didn't pay "they'd just take out a lien on your place". They assured everyone quite indignantly from what I heard, that what they were doing was perfectly legal in our CC&R's (the community's local governance documents).  The fact that most of the people who live here can't afford $9000 in 5 months seems to have escaped them, and the fact that if they *did* have that lying around... they wouldn't be living here.

It didn't sound right to me, in fact it sounded like a giant steaming load of BS.


So I took to the internet and did some exploratory Googling and happened upon the California Civil Code section 1366 which confirmed my suspicions.  There is a housing code for the state which supersedes each local CC&R your local laws can be more specific but they cannot disregard the state law. It very clearly states that you can do this *BUT* there are dollar amount limits, very specific situations in which it can/must be done, AND you have to have a quorum of half of the home owners on board.

This recent declaration violates the California Civil Code on *almost* every count.

I have a feeling someone was banking on nobody doing their homework... and that everyone would grumble, carry on in their ignorance and just take their word for it.  In which regard, I'm quite pleased that the bug I placed in a few ears seems to have wiggled past the unfocused anger and manifested itself in others looking up the Civil Code as well. *satisfied grin*

My work here is not done, I don't know what is going to come of this hot mess yet, but I'm still pleased with myself for stirring the pot that needed stirring. 

How does one become the people of Wal-Mart you ask?

Well first you spend the evening putzing around subconsciously muttering to yourself that there's something else you should be doing...

Then you play video games until it's past your bedtime, and finally decide to wrap it up only to realize that you have company coming over tomorrow  and that you were supposed to go grocery shopping this evening, and that most normal grocery stores are going to be closed in 15 mins...

That's how you become the people of the 24hr Wal-Mart.

Om nom nom

I guess he really is hungry enough to eat his own arm...

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day!

Holy you would have thought I'd asked them to turn the electricity off for a whole day rather than an hour, but we made it! We had a romantic candle lit dinner, and discussed how Earth Day isn't just something we celebrate in Canada, that in fact it's celebrated all over the world, apparently just not the US ;)

It was cool though, for the most part we  refrained from using our phones, and we only fell into the "how much longer till we can turn the lights on" thereby making it that much longer, a couple times... so we had to be social the old fashioned way, which led to the deep contemplative conversation of 

"What would it be if you crossed a Shitzhu with a Cock-a-poo?... a Shit-poo!!!"

Meanwhile in California

I'm having trouble reconciling this beautiful weather with my Canadian bones that are whispering "winter is coming" I keep putting on a sweatshirt before I go outside, and then immediately having to take it off!

I'm not sure how clever that it's...

On the way home recently I saw a lady who looked like she was working on her lawn, she had on gardening gloves, a freshly pulled weed in one hand and a medium Chinese style meat cleaver in the other...

I did one of those mental double takes,  but we drove by too fast to tell what she was actually using it for.  Since then my brain has been working overtime trying to come up with a plausible explanation.

A few days later, and I still gots nothin'

When three syllables isn't enough

Her: "I was teaching a kid about sixteenth notes today, and I told her it's like: Mo-tor-cy-cle, mo-tor-cy-cle"

Kid: "El-e-phan-tay, el-e-phan-tay"

Her: "El-e-phan-tay?"

Kid: "Well, I know Elephant is three sylables... so I needed to make it Elephantay."

Consequences unforseen there may be

I don't think this is what they meant when they said you will have to battle your inner demons...

burlap sack moment

Fellow airport traveler, you weren't stinky until you sprayed yourself.

Revelations during the ride

There's no garbage in the future, and it smells like crayons!
~Faith on Spaceship Earth

Doing Disney World right

I think we got lucky... and we were foolish, but overall it worked out ;)

We booked an early breakfast at Be our guest, which turned out to be awesome because they let us in to the park early for reservations, which meant we were able to jump in line ahead of the horde for the Seven Dwarfs ride we couldn't fast pass...

And in staying at a Disney resort we got extra magic hours, which were two at the end of the night... So we pretty much went on EVERYTHING we wanted to, and then some :D

Are you ready?

It's barely 6 and a half hours since I went to bed last night...and probably more like 4 since I fell asleep barely able to contain my excitement in anticipation of Disney World! My eyeballs hate me and I briefly wonder if the juice had enough time to neutralize... no matter, ready or not... here we go!

Priorities kids

Overheard on the dash into the park:
"Silly Daddy, see he's the first in line in there, he had to go to Starbucks"

Look at the moon!

Looking out the window as we descend, there is a whisper of a reflection of the moon if you know where to look, jumping from puddle to lake and reflecting off of the edges of the strangest things just beyond reach it easily keeps pace with us until at last it is revealed in a golden splash, looking even more magnificent than the cold bright white coming off it directly.

A safe place

*slightly-panicked dog* lemmeuplemmeuplemmeup!

Dog: "The other one is playing with those squeaky balloons again that scare the crap out of me!  This one is safe, I will sit here and supervise..."

Do, or do not... there is no try

Done!

Doh! 

I had to look back through the instructions twice, and apparently I missed the fourth step... (I'm not even kidding!) So I did this whole thing without the fourth... but I knew it could never be complete without the fourth...

S'tho I fixed it... ;)

May the fourth *ahem* force be with you!

Definitely not writers block

I've been struggling with "getting everything out"... it isn't writers' block, it's something I think that is more akin to trying to drink from a firehose.

I've had so many incredible days, and trips, and things that I'm really excited about and awesome pictures that I want to share, and the fact that I just can't seem to get it all in the right place at the right time is... it's frustrating, and it's messing up my flow, and I'm ready to be done with all the excuses for why I haven't written anything.

The other day I started thinking that something really important to my writing is *moments* and that maybe the reason I'm having so much trouble is that I'm trying to save time and write about a day... but maybe it doesn't work like that, and so it comes out chunky and awkward like mac 'n cheese before the cheese is properly melted.

I don't want to share some diatribe of how my day went, inundating you with all the boring minutia of things that don't really matter.  Although, I do realize that this is a matter of perspective, and some of the things I share may not matter to you at all, but please know that for one reason or another they matter to me.

"If it mattered before the election, it matters now" I can't find the original article but thank you fellow artist, this has been resonating with something inside my brain and I think it may have jiggled my wordjam loose! *grins*

 

What you know vs what you do

At one point in my career I was feeling overpaid for what I was actually doing... like any monkey could do what I do, when a friend said to me "They don't pay you for what you do, they pay you for what you know".

I've thinking about it... I know a lot of things now, but it isn't like I'm some great repository of knowledge, I don't *do* anything that anyone else couldn't do... but I know what makes me different, is the experiences I've had and learned from.

The other night I had the pleasure of helping an old friend with something that I had previously worked on.

Something that I had spent hours, nay possibly a few days bashing my head against, tearing my hair out, and attempting to manhandle into place.  The golden nugget at the end of it all, was learning that you didn't just have to make the right changes... but that in order to actually see the changes, you had to completely clear your browser cache.

So yes, what I *do* may only take seconds, and may seem trivial once you know it... but knowing that you need to do those things, especially those small important details is what makes you worth your weight in gold.

Where poopy mornings come from.

Some mornings are a pry-yourself-out-of-bed with the incentive of a warm cup of coffee... and some mornings are a rude awakening to the realization that the dog pooped by the door and you have to clean it before you can let her out again, later followed by more pooping by the door when you don't let her out because you thought she was done pooping already.

Poop.