Tag: fun

Willy Vlautin author reading at Powell’s

Aside from being the lead singer and songwriter of Richmond Fontaine Willy Vlautin is also an author.  He was reading at Powell’s to promote his new book the Free.  Did I mention he lives in Portland, Oregon?

Mr. Vlautin is a happy-go-lucky sort of fellow, which made for a pleasant evening.  He told us he was a painter (the house kind) for twelve years and the happiest day of his life was the day he didn’t have to be a painter anymore.  “Of course, a couple of years later,” he added, “I had to go back to being a painter, but that wasn’t such a great day.”
My favorite gem I’m taking away from this reading?  Someone asked how he knew when he was done revising.  “I stop feeling sick to my stomach and start thinking about a new book.”

2013 Mock Printz

I attended another great Mock Printz Workshop where we read and discuss great YA literature and try to guess what the Printz Committee will pick as the best YA book of the year.
Here was our schedule.

Here were my votes.
After a few rounds of voting we came up with the following winners:
Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell with 113 votes
Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock, by Matthew Quick with 86 votes
Boxers/Saints by Gene Luen Yang with 71 votes.

Now we wait for the announcement on 1/27.

More good finds.

Aside from the Caboodle, I also brought home a few framed pictures.

This is the Residence Assisstant (RA) group from the year at Cottey I was an RA.  I’m thinking the frame was purchased at the store full of good gifts that opened during my tenure there.  Before that, we had to buy all our gifts at Walmart.  And Walmart wouldn’t have such a nice frame as this.
 

Let’s see if I can do all the names.
Top row:  Karen (Robertson Hall Adult), I can’t remember the next lady’s name, (maybe it was Doris?) but she was very cool (PEO Hall Adult) Eden (PEO Hall) Helen Lodge (Director of Housing and we always referred to her by both names)
Second Row:  Eva (Robertson Hall) Teresa (Robertson Hall) Susan (Robertson Hall) Corey (PEO Hall) Kitty (Reeves Hall)
Third Row: Betsey (Reeves Hall) Jen (Reeves Hall Adult) Meghan (Reeves Hall)
Bottom Row:  Jenye (Reeves Hall) Me (Robertson Hall), Jen Comeau (Robertson Hall)
Not too shabby.
 
Here’s a great picture of my brother and myself.  He’s 16 and I’m 18.
 
Our parents let us go to Worlds of Fun, an amusement park outside of Kansas City, by ourselves.  We even got to drive there and back unaccompanied.  I wanted to get our picture taken because we had a family one done, probably at Worlds of Fun four years before, and I felt that too many people had smiled in that photo, making it not authentic.  So we did not smile. 

I also found an early Sue Tirrell.
 

Who knew full well I wasn’t going to be drinking coffee from this.
 

An Amazing Find!

I went looking for some missing letters and journals and was not successful in finding them.  But I did find something else very exciting!

My Caboodle!  Which, as you know, (assuming you are a middle-class white female born in the early 70s and susceptible to advertising) is a handy (and cute) place to keep all your makeup.
 

AND IT STILL HAS ALL THE MAKEUP IN IT!
Note the matches from the Village Inn (from when every restaurant had matches and there were smoking sections, in fact, it was a big deal that there were NON-smoking sections) which were used to melt the eyeliner so it would be easier to apply.
 
Here are the teardrops I would sometimes affix to my face in high school
 
Here are some false eyelashes, an awesome turquoise pick (partially obscured by an excellent primer on eye makeup) as well as more things I stuck on my face and a very cool Avon brush that I had wondered, now and again, what ever happened to it.
 
Plus, two kinds of Avon eye shadow I borrowed from my mother around 1987 and never returned.

“Now you can go fishin’ for man!” Sara commented when I texted her the photos.  Instead I packed it all back up and hid it away for another happy surprise in a few decades.  But maybe I will go back for that brush.

Turkey Trot

Kelly and I signed up for the Turkey Trot back when I didn’t have to wear a coat when leaving the house.  Now I’m wearing a layer of long johns, pants, shirt and a jacket.  It must be Thanksgiving.
 
Some Pilgrims showed up to run.
 
This turkey looks like it’s already been slaughtered.
 
There were a lot of fun hats.
 
And headbands.
 
Pre-race photo.
 
There was an entire group of Thanksgiving dinner items. I first spotted “Sweet Potato” a kid wearing (what else?) an orange shirt.  The later saw Stuffing and Turkey.
 
The Turkey Trot ends in the Zoo and we stopped to look at the Leopards on our way out.  This one is investigating his Thanksgiving surprise.
 
I didn’t realize my camera was on the Fish-Eye setting.
 
Looks like my cat.  But much, much bigger.
 
Kelly’s wingspan is not as great as a California Condor.
 
But she’s giving the Bald Eagle a run for its money.
 

Baghdad Refurbished.


Before seeing a free showing of My Own Private Idaho, I heard the end of the lecture on the history of the Baghdad Theater.  I arrived for the lecture during the period when the Baghdad was going through a transformation to a “multiplex” which meant walling off the balcony for a separate theater and shoehorning a third theater, called the Back Door Theater, behind the main theater space.  All McMenamin’s movie screens show slide shows before their movies begin, and interspersed with the slides for the many McMenamin’s products are historic pictures.  I have been seeing the picture of the Back Door Theater for years and wondered about it.  Now I know.

This picture was a poster for a premiere that happened at the Baghdad:  They Live.  Among other things, this  forgettable movie had the involvement of the man who invented the propeller beanie.  Thus the explanation of the strange juxtaposition of these two pictures.

The history of the theater was quite interesting and I was sorry I didn’t prioritize listening to the entire lecture.

Awesome Thank You cards.

Some time ago, I did a favor for a friend and she grew concerned that we were not “even.”  This would be the same friend that made me the fabulous birthday card last year.
“Oh, I’m sure you will eventually do something for me to even things up,” I said, not at all concerned.  But within a week I had a nice stack of Thank You cards she made for me and which I have been sending to people since.  They always assume I made the cards, but card-making is not really a skill I put in play often.  When asked, I set them straight. 
And then I ran out of the cards.  So I mentioned to her that I would have to put myself in her debt again so I could get more cards.  And within a week I had a stack of Thank You cards that blew away the previous ones.  I love them so much!
She bought a bunch of doll clothes patterns and realized she would never actually sew any doll clothing.  So here they are repurposed for me.

 

  
This one is my favorite as I hate the word “panties” but love that doll panties have made their way to a thank you card.
 

New Camera!!!!!

With the sadness of the death of the old camera, comes the happiness of the new.  This one is another Canon.  It’s a PowerShot SX170IS.  I’m not in love like I was with my previous camera.  But I think we will like each other very much.

Let’s play!  Here is Antares, looking grumpy that I have taken his picture.
 

And again.
 
And here is how far away from Antares I was standing when I took those two pictures.  Excellent zoom!
 
Sentinel!  With flash.
 
Let’s test the fish-eye feature.
Normal.
 
Moderate.
 
Extreme.
 
Extreme fish-eye and Antares.
 
Back to normal.
 
Here’s a new feature I didn’t have before.  Timer, than three shots.  Here are three of Antares.
 
 
 
And three of Sentinel (with flash).
 
 
 
Three more of Sentinel (without flash).
 
 
 
Here is an early morning shot of Paul Bunyan peeking through the trees.

As soon as I read that owners manual (which I have to download as a PDF, it didn’t come with the camera) we will discover all sorts of interesting things, I’m sure.

Welcome Canon PowerShot SX170IS!