Portrait Practice

There is something about the facial expressions in the third photo that makes me laugh... out loud... :)

Queen of Thrift

I had to miss the twins sale this fall, but just got back from the Denver JBF kids sale. I get to shop the twins sale before the public, and I got to JBF after the public mowed it down for a weekend, so it's a good thing I'm practiced with shopping second hand!

I still managed to part with a hundred bucks. But for that, I got the greatest stuff: three pairs of shoes (including Vans and Clarks), two movies, two dresses (including a holiday fancy dress), one pj's, two tees, seven sweaters/hoodies, and five pants, most of which are cute brands like Gap and Gymboree. That's five bucks each, and we're about done for the season.

There is another sale happening Friday, so that will just be for a few things I forgot, and some icing on my shopping cake.

Show Technology Who's Boss

I dropped my little Canon Elph. Whoops. My kids were tap dancing at the Children's Museum, bummer. Even worse, I started getting a "Lens Error, Restart Camera" notice, and the lens wouldn't open.

So before shelling out for a new camera (which I would actually love to upgrade anyway), I surfed a bit. Seems I'm not the first person to encounter this problem. I tried to troubleshoot by charging and reloading the battery, removing the memory card, and even trying to push the lens barrels into better alignment. No luck.

Then I came across a website about this problem, that basically said, you need to pound it on a counter a few times. With hundreds of success stories! I got up the nerve to put a fabric napkin on the kitchen counter, face the lens side of the camera down, and gave it three hefty whacks. No kidding, that little camera opened up like a daisy, it might have curtsied if it knew how! I had to laugh out loud, so much for delicate technology.

Tricky Pics At Dusk

Mitch Hedberg

I was under the weather last night, and lost two or three hours when the rest of the world was unconscious. (I know you're worried; rest assured I'm on the mend.) In those moments when I needed a little hug, a little love from the world, I opened up the laptop and found Mitch Hedberg.

As you may remember, I am a great lover of stand-up comedians, or at least the ones that are good. I hear Mitch Hedberg from time to time on XM, and came across a long page of his jokes on WikiQuote. In the middle of the night, in imperfect health, I was laughing and happy, so thank you Mitch.

Here is the page. It really is funnier if you know his inflections, so track down some video of him if you can. Here were a couple favorite lines:

I saw this commercial on late night TV, it was for this thing you attach to a garden hose, it was like "You can water your hard-to-reach plants with this product." Who the fuck would make their plants hard to reach? That seems so very mean. "I know you need water, but I'm gonna make you hard to reach! I will throw water at you. Hopefully they will invent a product before you shrivel and die! Think like a cactus!" So it said, "You can have this product for four easy payments of 19.95." I would like to have a product that was available for three easy payments, and one fuckin' complicated payment! We ain't gonna tell you which payment it is, but one of these payments is gonna be a bitch. The mailman will get shot to death, the envelope will not seal, and the stamp will be in the wrong denomination; good luck, fucker! The last payment must be made in wampum!

I went to a pizzeria, I ordered a slice of pizza, the fucker gave me the smallest slice possible. If the pizza was a pie chart for what people would do if they found a million dollars, the fucker gave me the "donate it to charity" slice. I would like to exchange this for the "keep it!"

I saw this dude, he was wearing a leather jacket, and at the same time he was eating a hamburger and drinking a glass of milk. I said to him "Dude, you're a cow. The metamorphosis is complete. Don't fall asleep or I'll tip you over."

Telluride Film Fest, Part 1

For those of you who haven't taken me up on my Telluride invites... you're nuts. Or perhaps you just really hate great vacations, they make you feel unworthy. Or maybe you are that one person in the universe that just can't stand movies, they are so played out.

Telluride is always a bit of a challenge to organize, and then I get there. This year our condo was SO nice, and I was knocked out by the location - a block away from the town park, and a block from the gondola. The weather was perfect, as has always been my experience with Labor Day weekend there. The crowds were mild to non-existent, the pace was easy, everyone was happy and chatty. We couldn't have done better.

The line up was terrific too. There were three movies that seemed headed for theaters, so we skipped them in spite of our interest. We ended up seeing three documentaries, one fiction movie that's a tribute to silent film, two outstanding shorts, and the first Tribute that I've attended since going to the festival. I had to go, it was George Clooney, and I heard that so many people were expecting it to be swamped that there were actually empty seats! So I got to see a 45 minute interview with Clooney in person.

But by far the highlight for me - of the entire weekend - was a documentary called The Island President. It's about the president of The Maldives, a chain of 2,000 islands in the Indian Ocean, that is primarily known as a home to unbelievable beach resorts. The elevation of this country is 1.5 meters, and it is the first country that is entirely at risk of extinction as a result of global warming. Mohamed Nasheed is a hero, and a very smart man fighting a losing battle to persuade other countries to cut their carbon emissions and save the culture of his people. It was brilliant, heart breaking, emotionally affecting.

We also saw Martin Scorcese's 3 1/2 hour documentary about George Harrison, called Living In The Material World. It's apparently planned for release on HBO or Showtime, so watch for it, it's completely fascinating.

More pictures to come, and probably a couple afterthoughts. If you have any interest in joining me next time, let me know. It's a cheap, easy, fun vacation and I would love to share it.

Counting, More or Less

It's so hard sometimes to correct their mistakes, they are so much cuter than just getting it right. Check out this video and this video of some creative counting.

Jon Stewart is Smart and Funny

I've been getting back into the Daily Show lately, and Jon Stewart (and company) never cease to amaze me with their insight on current events. Here are two clips from a recent show that I think are particularly worth watching, here and here.

Some of my favorite stories from Daily Show are about the media itself. This one had me laughing a long time.

Des Moines PS

I got these pics from my brother, and thought they were pretty great memories of our July trip to Iowa. So glad that we saved Ada's special silk party dress for hot dogs and unladylike rolling around!

I really love the one of Dad and me, it's not a regular pose for the camera, I just like that it's us, occupied with little ones together. Sweet.