a dream i had

okay, so in this super-rough sketch of mine, where proportions and perpective are a thing of disregard and shading has gone the way of the dinosaur...
my cousin, rachel (of ridiculously beautiful ayrshire, uk) and i are playing wii. everyone was wearing white choir robes. isn't that obvious? except she. she was normal. stylin' even. don't take my color pallete's word for it. seriously. i have limited drab-colored pencils to work with.
we're in a an old folks home. i tried to recreate this ambiance with said drab colors. again... obvious. we're not old. everyone else is. but we fit right in, of course. and are playing on an ancient television. the kind that they tried to make look like furniture?
our grandparents had one like this for a long time. it was sweet. and sort of more like a stocky refrigerator than anything high tech. it was brown. and smelled weird.
the old folks were cleaning my clock at wii. and rachel was laughing hysterically at me. isn't that obvious from her facial expression?
dreams are weird, yes? this goes without saying. and so often i can determine why certain features are in my dream. like what i ate, who i was thinking of, what movie i saw on hulu. but this one was way random. and worth sharing.

left is ridiculous ayrshire. by glasgow. heard of it? i know. it's like she's famous. 

it's like they say...

before you have a kid people tell you all this stuff about how it will be when you have one. some of it's true. some of it isn't.
the following is true for us. because God blessed us with this one. one He knew before she was created. to be our love and joy. this little one. for His lovingkindness is everlasting.

this little one is precious.

she's very chill.

makes great faces.

gives joy and affection.

is a true and beautiful gift.

and is a year old.

O LORD, our Lord,
       how majestic is your name in all the earth!
       You have set your glory
       above the heavens.
 From the lips of children and infants
       you have ordained praise...

the two lennys, part II

pools are very important to the residents of redding. and while we've had a cool spell of high nineties this week, you will still find us basking in a chlorinated bowl of relief.
i have a pool. well, i have access to a pool between the hours of 7 am and 10 pm with the help of a walk across the parking lot and an old key. what good is apartment living if you can't partake in a communal pool? i got my polio vaccination. i'm good.
this pool is great because it is cool. it refreshes. and if one desires to observe a significant, albeit dead, representation of local bug life, it's perfect. i've never seen so many bugs in one place. and they're all floating and easy to study.
and if one swims at dusk, one is likely to see a few family of quail strutting by. adorable. (tasty, my husband would say. good eatin' he would add.) just adorable. well worth the germ and polio risk.
the second pool in my life is at my parents' house. this pool is great because it is not cool. you can swim at midnight without any risk of hypothermia.
it is dark and pretty. it's rated one of the nicest in town. (i guess there was a contest or something. very appropriate for redding.)

it also has a leviathan. named lenny. he cleans the pool. runs over your feet. wraps his tentacles around your legs. scares the resident golden retriever. and squirts water all over when stuck on a rock.

but because of lenny, this pool is always clean (save maybe some golden fur after a certain pup takes a dip) and bug free.
it also has quail. but bird dogs don't like birds in the their yard. weird, huh?
anyway, my neice and i went "swimming in gramma's pool" today and i must say. the folks who thought of making artificial ponds in one's backyard are geniuses. they deserve the ranks of the creator of cheerios, sewing machines, and frisbees. on par with kalashnikov even.

the two lennys, part I

what place is shady even at night?
when's the last time you've been to a denny's? i know. think hard. my girl kelly and i couldn't remember so we went. that, and the black bear was closed for maintenance (bear-ification? whaaaa? they still don't have bear paw prints on the carpet. this is stupid. and thusly not bear-ificated [not to be confused with bifurcated]).
so as we sat in the car mourning the loss of real mac and cheese, we thought long and hard about where to go after 10 in redding. bars and in-n-out don't count. we came up with one place. and this is that one place.

initially, what is so endearing about lenny's-i-mean-denny's, is this sign. as if we would get seated served and cashed out in less than 90 minutes denny's. i just wouldn't happen. so already our hopes are lifted and dashed.

first off, the cherry cola float. it was only after a few sips that i came to wonder... why is this pink? what is making my float pink? cherry coke is not pink. am i sucking down a dye-rich food? why yes i am. upon further reading (there is fine print at denny's if you're faithful to look for it.) i learn that it is coca-cola with cherry flavor added. and who knows what was in the ice cream. i didn't ask.
regardless. it was delicious. i mean look at it. no photoshopping! this is true to life. i know. you can hardly believe it. you also wouldn't believe the film of ick that was on that paper-thingy i placed next to it for juxtapositional effect. (i made that up. just now.)



the club was alright. nothing to write home about. the bacon didn't speak to me, you know?
in the background of this next photo is little round balls of love. pancake puppies. aside from the fact i find it terrible disconcerting to eat anything with nomenclature from my favorite animal (besides the red panda, of course), it was very tasty. how could they not have been? basically they are berry and white chocolate chip pancakes rolled in a sphere and deep fried. deep fat fried. and they came to us hot sprinkled with powdered sugar and wholly unnecessary side of dipping syrup. (check the outrageous nutional value of just one.) so of course i had three.

i regretted this later. but not as badly as i anticipated. there is, after all, something magical about acidophilus pills and herbal tea (homemade yo! calendula, chamomile, peppermint, and lemon grass).


on a side note: blogger is really ticking me off with this layout mess. how hard is it to get their code savvy? apparently, very.