Halloween Blizzard of Ot Twelve

 Had to trudge out into this Tuesday afternoon to get coal to burn to keep the house warm.

 A couple of dad's old vehicles.

 Bubbles seemed to enjoy it.

 Looking back towards the houses.

 this pine is just to the left of those two old trucks from a few pics ago

 Bubbles again

 This is the pine, and wood pile, from between the two houses

 another wood pile

 pine tree up close

 Bubbles and Goober

 Goober

 The paper boxes and pine grove across the road in front of our house

 looking down the road, a few broken trees

 looking up the road, and the mail box

 more pine trees

 a fence post

 where the pines give way to other types of trees

 up the road again, dogwood tree in front of the little house

some garbage cans beside the house

The power went out sometime very early Tuesday morning (October 30th), and finally came back on today (Saturday, Novmeber 3rd). With the exception of a couple of flash lights the fire place was our only source of heat and light for the past week. 

We kept the baby AND the bathwater*

This is my niece, Julia, and her baby boy, Romin Conner. I took these a couple of days after Stormageddon 2012, or whatever it’s being called. We had no power or water** and were struggling through 90+ degree heat (Fahrenheit). We hadn’t bought a baby pool yet but we got lucky and found a clean plastic tub. He seemed to like it, and at least one of us got a bath.

*We used it on the tomato plants.

**We had warning that the water was getting shut off so we had plenty of drinking water to use for his tubby. And we boiled it anyways to be sure.

So. God damned. Bored.

Another spilt second if power!

We just had a split second of power!

I think my pillows are betraying me.

Uh-oh, just heard a whole lot of sirens go down the 4lanes, couldn't tell which way.

I got my data renewed but my fingers are too sweaty to make my screen scroll so I still don't know what's going on.

Just went out and took a shower in the rain storm. With lightning. What boring shit did you do today?

It's hard to cook bacon in the dark.

I'm like a caveman. All I've had to eat today is burned meat and a handful of black berries.

I hear air hissing in the toilet. Either the water will be back on soon or a poop demon is on its way.

Skies are halfway clear now.

Deep! Car phone charger...

sigh

Aaaaaaand! And And Aaaaaaaand!!! Who the he'll is Armand, autocorrect?

Armand my phone is almost dead.

I don't mind reading by candle light but its too hot to sit near candles. Stoopid tornadoes.

a Romin Conner video

Baby sitting a seven month old who is very keen or crawling and standing. He actually did stand on his own for a few brief seconds (three times) but I wasn't fast enough to film it.  Great nephew, or greatest nephew?

Not long at all. Just waiting on prescriptions and I'm gone.

An hour later I made it into an exam room. Now how long before the doc comes in?

New 'do and a don't

New ‘do and a don’t

After roughly two years of not cutting my hair it was finally long enough to chop off and send to Locks of Love.  I dunno why it never occurred to me to do this before. I’ve had my hair long several times over the years. At any rate I figured I better do it before my color fades any more. Speaking of, the last few years I’ve noticed that when I get a hair cut my hair will turn brown after it leaves my head and hits the floor. I was worried that would happen again but the hair that was set aside for donation kept its color. And then the rest that hit the floor turned brown. Weird. Anyways, here I am before

I have a cold so I look even more like hell than I normally do. And here’s the finished product.

And at the other end of me there’s this:

I broke my toe getting out of the shower the other night, smacked it on the rail for the sliding shower door which we don’t have anymore but dad refuses to let us take the rail off the edge of the tub. Don’t make fun of my weird nubby toes, either. I’ve suffered enough.

Yard sale! Everybody come and buy my crap.

fmlfmlFML

Gee dad, if you call me to help you change a flat maybe you should be where you said.

RIP Donna Summer. MCA, now her, who's gonna be 3rd?

phantom sensation of a piece of tape stuck between my big toe and the one beside it = toe cancer!

when in doubt go back to bed

Yay for the gals who had unprotected sex!

Well dang. RIP MCA

May the 4th be with you.

I really appreciate a kitchen appliance that lets me set the timer for 6:66.

hate Stannis, hate Theon, love Brienne, love Gendry

A full set of teeth and a good head of hair: why is that asking too much?

There needs to be something that I want to do.

Tippy Lou's insides were too effed up, had to put her down.

So far today is gross and unacceptable.

In Batman Begins, the boy on the fire escape that Batman is nice to grew up to become Joffrey. It's true, Batman does create freaks and psychos.

Somebody need to come up with a way to recrisp leftover nachos that doesn't burn the toppings.

Been watching early morning Angel reruns for a couple weeks. Forgot how much I hated Conner.

When a torrent finishes downloading I feel sorta empty and expectant, is this all, now what? Actual success must be very unrewarding.

he is a photon

Guess who turned 5 months old a few days ago and is already wearing clothes for an 18 month old? No, not my sense of maturity. It’s my great nephew, Roman (I refuse to spell is with an ‘i’ instead of an ‘a’).

When it comes to picture time he sits still for everybody and flashes the biggest, prettiest smile - except for me. When he sees me with a camera he starts to jump and wiggle and makes every face but a smile. These are the least blurry ones.

He’s been standing up for little bits on his own, in the walker anyways. He can sort of crawl but it’s more like flop-rolling. And he’s starting to hold his own bottle and spoon provided somebody hands them to him. His repertoire of jabber noises is extensive but he does manage to say yeah and dad. Overall he seems to be superior in every way.

LOCALS, traffic is super bottle necked around the Glen Jean exit on Rt 19

LOCALS, bad wreck on 19 at the 84 Lumber bridge, just happened. Make plans to detour thru Mt. Hope

I <3 Gendry

sometimes simple is better

Dinner tonight was hummus and feta on pita with baby spinach and those little finger sized Hungarian peppers (the pale green ones). It always seems like no matter what brand the tubs of hummus are never big enough. And for dessert:

I always get myself one of these every Easter.

me today

I’ve noticed lately that when I go to bed with a wet head that I’ll wake up with my hair being all curly and full of body. Or rather, more so than it normally does. The weather today is great, sunny and warm with gusty wind - conditions which could only make my hair more awesome - so I wandered outside for a few pics.

I never realized how hard it is to take a picture of yourself with a phone. I’m used to doing with actual cameras with timers that you can sit down and have a few seconds to pose. That, plus the really bright sun, made it kinda hard for me to smile better. Oh well.

That's no cake...

made by Justkist Cakes

made by Cake Nouveau

made by Cakeadelic

Hammer, meet head of nail

It’s been a while since I did the personality profile thing over at COLORGENICS. I’m willing to believe that something shysty is going on somewhere somehow but however they do it every time I’ve taken the test the results have been eerily spot on.

Name:Ben Aliff

Date:Friday 23rd 2012f March 2012 02:50:29 AM

Colorgenics Number:XXXXXXXX

You don’t need anxiety and problems. All you really seek is a conflict free environment which can offer peace and mental security. You don’t like the idea of being alone and, whatever the reason, at this time of your life you feel as if you are being ‘left out’. What you really need is perhaps some ‘tender loving care’.

At this time you ‘need to be needed’ and again you ‘need to need’. You have had this feeling for some time now and you are looking for someone who could share a close bond in an atmosphere of shared intimacy. You have the belief that with the right person you could conquer the world.

Matters are not progressing as well as you would have hoped and you are having to make concessions - but you still believe that your goals are realistic it’s just that people can’t seem to see your point of view. You know what you want but you’ll only accept suggestions under duress.

All the distress and agitation is the result of attempting to avoid any form of stimulation or excitement. The situation in which you find yourself at this time is one of hostility and therefore you are under considerable pressure. You are very irritable and prone to angry outbursts. You are in a mental quandary and you could be experiencing physical problems.You are very distressed by the apparent hostility of everyone around you and you feel coerced and subjected to intolerable pressures. You are resentful of what you regard as unreasonable demands on you but the situation is such that you feel powerless to control it and at this time you just don’t know ‘which way to turn’.

You are completely worn out and you are not in the mood for any further demands on your resources. The situation - such as it is - has rendered you quite helpless, unable to continue the mental battle that you have been pursuing for some considerable time. Enough is enough. All you would like to do now would be to have some time for yourself, to find a peaceful situation where you can recuperate in your own time.

Yes, yes, yes, yes and yes.

It doesn’t tell you anything you don’t already know but having it in front of you in black and white, summed up concisely, can save on second guess work. Plus it’s fascinating to me that something as simple as picking colors in a certain order can give such an accurate result - if that is indeed how it’s done and not some sort of internet shenanigans.

Go see how it works for you. I’m gonna go pout now.

some of the nicer things in the back yard

This is the first year the cherry tree has bloomed. It's been growing in the compost heap for a few years. I just figured it was another poplar tree.

I always liked how a forsythia bushes add a nice punch of yellow to the usual pinks and greens of Spring.

The plum tree has been putting on some amazing displays the past few years.

EEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeee!

MICHONNE!!!!!!!

Really Lorie?

Damn commercials

Up until #TheWalkingDead came on the highlight of my day was finding orange kryptonite in #DCUO

Drove dad to his eye doc at 1pm. Still there. Losing will to live. Maybe just sleepy.

Under the Moons of My John Carter Review

Under the Moons of My John Carter Review

Saw John Carter (OF MARS) at the matinee showing yesterday. I wanted to wait a bit and let everything sink in before I talked about it. Granted I’m biased, A Princess of Mars was one of the first books I ever read and loved so I didn’t want to come off all fanboy gushy. Seriously, the only thing I don’t like about it is the title and how badly the movie has been marketed. Yes, it’s chock full of crazy action and freaky aliens but at it’s heart it’s a love story - exactly the sort of thing Disney should have been playing up when they couldn’t figure out why women weren’t interested after seeing their shitty trailers.

It’s been so long since I read it that I don’t know exactly what did or didn’t get adapted exactly. I do know that a few elements from later books got included and that it made for a much more cohesive movie. There were a few missteps here or there with how some of the secondary characters acted, but that seems more to do with the studio trying to shoehorn in as many tropes as possible to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. Whatever nitpicks I may have had were blown away by this film being exactly what my 11 year old self imagined when I read the books.

I’ve read a few reviews that complained about the movie’s length and how 10 to 20 minutes of talking scenes could have been trimmed out. Maybe, but I had no problem with that at all. Even when there’s lots of dialogue, 1) it’s usually relevant in some way, either to explaining the world or for developing the characters, or 2) there’s something amazing on screen to look at. The CGI is top notch. The green Martians are so well done and just a joy to watch. The baby ones are completely adorable. The air ships are stunning and seem truly alien but at the same time kind of clunky and low tech. And Woola, the eight-legged lizard dog… Woola FTW!