Six Seconds of Cute

Six Seconds of Cute

Six Seconds of Cute, originally uploaded by djwudi.

This was one of the best things we saw at the Puyallup fair. Put a kid no older than six (the youngest we saw was three) and no heavier than sixty pounds on a sheep and let them try to hang on for six seconds. Really cute, and really funny!

I took a ton of pictures of this, and now I’m having a terrible time trying to cull them down to just a few that are post-worthy. They’re just all so cute…and kind of hilariously disturbing, since it’s essentially a series of young children falling on their heads. The kind of thing you know you really shouldn’t laugh at, but….

Anyway, I put together this collage as a sample of what each round looked like.

Best Viewed Larger and On Black

My Nephews

A few weekends ago, Prairie and I went down to visit family south of us: her mom and sister in Vancouver, WA; my brother and his family in Corvallis, OR; then Prairie’s dad and grandpa in Woodland, WA on our way back up to Seattle.

I’ve finally finished putting all the photos from the weekend up in a photoset. Here’s my nephews Paul and Noah to kick things off!

Paul and Noah

The New Apartment

In happier news: first photos of the new apartment!

Living Room and Dining Room
Here’s what you see when you walk in the front door. Bookshelves along the rear wall, the deck (which has become our favorite spot for breakfast and dinner, thanks to the patio furniture that Prairie’s dad gifted us with), our new couch and chair (brand-new furniture, right from a furniture store — we’re really turning into adults, aren’t we?), the fireplace, entertainment center, and dining room.

Living Room
Another view of the living room, this time from the door to the deck. The three bookshelves on the right will gain a fourth as soon as we can add one, every shelf on those is double-stacked with books.

My Office
My office. In the last apartment, my office doubled as the guest room, but now it’s primarily just my office, only acting as a secondary guest room when we have enough guests to need it.

Prairie's Office
That’s because with a three-bedroom apartment, Prairie now gets an office of her own, instead of having to camp out in a corner of the living room, and her office is now the main guest room. It’s also very girly and pink, which is just the way she wanted it!

There’s also two bathrooms — but those are bathrooms, and not terribly exciting to take pictures of — and our bedroom, which we don’t feel needs to be broadcast to the world. That’s our room, after all. ;)

We’re really enjoying this apartment. Lots of space, not nearly as cramped, and as we specified wanting a corner or end unit, we’ve got enough windows to get a good breeze keeping the place cool at all times. Since we’re on the third floor, the trees outside keep things nice and private, so we don’t have to worry about people peeking in the windows at us (a pretty common occurrence at our last complex). The deck looks over a small playground, so there’s almost always kids playing out back.

Joke all you want about living in Kent — and I’ve already heard more than a few cracks from Seattleites who don’t get why we’d want to be in the suburbs — but so far, we’re liking it a lot.

Encroachment

Encroachment

Encroachment, originally uploaded by djwudi.

Taken near the Old Fishing Hole in Kent, WA. It was a gorgeous day, and the construction equipment looked really out of place against the blue sky and greenery. I think they were actually just working on some of the golf course that’s just over the rise, but there was something slightly ominous about them from this angle (in a bright yellow sort of way), like it wouldn’t be long before the view was of naught but concrete and steel.

12,000 Free Hugs

Buried in the midst of my Pride photos: my 12,000th photo uploaded to Flickr. Yeesh!

Another 8,000-some shots and I’ll have as many pictures on Flickr as I have tracks in iTunes.

Photowhore and musicwhore, that’s me!

Goth Pride

197

197, originally uploaded by generalchaos.

No, mine aren’t ready yet (really, I’m about to get started on them, I promise), but here’s a nice group shot of the group in the truck by generalchaos.

My Desk with my New Toy

My Desk with my New Toy

My Desk with my New Toy, originally uploaded by djwudi.

When Prairie asked me what I wanted for my birthday this year, I just couldn’t come up with an answer. There really wasn’t anything that was jumping to mind — I’ve got tons of music, tons of books, a good selection of work and school clothing…. We batted ideas around for a while, until I mentioned that I’d occasionally dreamed about updating my little Wacom Graphire2 (actually, I think it was an Artz, the progenitor to the Graphire line) 3.5×5 tablet.

I’ve never been a big fan of mice. In rough order from least preferred to most preferred, my choice of input device is somewhere along the lines of

TrackPoint < trackpad < mouse < trackball < tablet

Upgrading from the smaller 4×5 tablet to the larger 6×11 widescreen tablet is so nice! There’s more space to work with, so fine details are easier and more precise, and since the tablet matches the widescreen format of the screen, there’s no horizontal compression further affecting the pointer mapping. Plus, it’s quiet — which may sound odd, but between using a different material for the higher end tablets and including a better quality pen (the old pen rattles a bit), it’s gone from really quiet to near silent.

Definitely a worthwhile upgrade (and I can’t even draw, this is entirely a input device/Photoshop photo editing tool…a “real” artist would love these even more)!

Birthday Presents!

Birthday Presents!

Birthday Presents!, originally uploaded by djwudi.

A couple of birthday presents showed up in the mail today. Cool! Thanks to Phil for Mark Twain’s Roughing It and to Fernando for the sci-fi anthology The Starry Rift!

De M’amour Soiez Sure

De M'amour Soiez Sure

De M’amour Soiez Sure, originally uploaded by djwudi.

Our Valentine’s Day presents to each other: poesy rings inscribed with ‘Of my love be sure’ in French.

The original of this 15th century poesy ring can be found at The British Museum, Dept. of Medieval and Modern Europe, London, England.

The original of this ring is enameled gold. The hoop is rounded on the outer edge where it is engraved with an interlaced band between two rows of sprigs. The poesy is engraved in the interior of the ring in period French, though the ring is actually English. French remained the language of the Court and Nobility for several centuries after the Norman Invasion in 1066.

Poesy (n): A short poem or sentiment decoratively inscribed on rings or jewelry, particularly in the Middle Ages – usually a romantic gift or token of friendship.

Tradition has it that words which touch the skin have a particular power. Poesy Rings were traditionally given in sterling silver as engagement rings, and then replaced with the same ring in gold upon marriage.