Tako

My great grandma had a red macaw that talked tooooo much. He was funny as heck as long as you were only there for a visit! My gran would always threaten to put him in the stew pot if he didn't shut up. For the next hour he'd bob around his cage and shout, "Peeetey's in the stew pot, in the stew pot, stew pot, stew pot!" *laugh*

Maybe parents should talk just a little bit more about the SERIOUS meds they're on, or start reading aloud the long list of side effect that come with all your prescription meds. I think part of the problem with this is the fact that kids are seriously misinformed about what can happen when prescription meds are mixed, taken for long periods of time, or taken at all, because they don't take them at all. I am a rather sickly child of a rather sickly mother, I have healthy respect for the powers of prescription medication because I have grown up with it in my entire life. I have been on the bad end of doctors not paying close attention to the medication I am on and have wound up in the hospital barely able to breath. I don't think these kids are stupid, I think these kids aren't informed. Their parents go about trying to keep them out of their meds in the wrong way. They say "don't do this, it is bad!" or they don't address it at all. In this day and age, and I've been saying it since I was in high school and noticed the problem, there needs to be a much larger emphasis on prescription drug education. I don't CARE if it gives a few more kids the knowledge they need to get that stupid unhealthy high they want off of Vicodin or something because they're going to do it whether it's taught to them in schools or by parents. It would give the -smart- kids the knowledge they need to realize that any of it, especially in combination, is a very bad idea. Stepping off my wee little soapbox now.

gymnast

orator

No pictures yet, it's not -that- much progress, but at least it's no longer just sheets of primed and sanded wood lying about! I went up to the Sonoma Coast to Bodega Bay and Jenner yesterday, it would have been a lot more fun if weather.com hadn't lied about the weather and if it hadn't involved so much time crammed in the back seat of a car. Bad knees, bad hips and a bad back + cramped back seat = bad news. Also, it was early enough in the season that none of the access stairs or anything had been repaired by park services after all the storms we've been having, so access to the beach wasn't great, or wasn't there at all. It was nice to get away though! That, however, was why I didn't get to work on the house yesterday. In any case, there are currently two walls and two floor pieces laying on the right wall on my desk in my room. I ended up propping up the walls with jewelry boxes because they were heavy enough to not be moved by unruly leaning floor pieces and had square corners, so that they wouldn't push anything out of square. Getting everything even remotely into square was a pain in the backside! It took me about 10 minutes to actually get it together and then another 20 minutes of fine tuning and nudging and taping things with masking tape and weighing things down with books and so on to get things what seems to be square. I couldn't find a single one of my right triangles so I used a fresh 1/4 inch thick ruler from the box of promotional rulers my dad inherited from an old job. The corners of them are nice and square and with them being 1/4" thick it's pretty easy to use them as a judge of how square a corner is. On my plate for tomorrow is gluing the front of the house on it and letting that sit to dry while I prep the next parts on the list. I don't know how much of that I will get done though, because there is a slight possibility I'm getting drug off to see Horton Hears a Who (exciting! ). If I do get to that point though, I will probably take pictures, just because it's exciting to me to see it taking shape!

They taught it in 3rd grade for my school district, most important papers for school had to be turned in in cursive writing 4th-6th grade, but after that, everything important needed to be turning in typed, double-spaced, Times New Roman, 12 pt font, anything else and it wouldn't be accepted, and cursive script now really only regularly finds it's way into my handwriting as a way to connect letters when hastily scrawling lecture notes. From the voice of a younger generation here, I enjoy knowing how to write that way, when writing a sincere hand written note to an older relative, or my boyfriend's grandmother, party or graduation invitations/announcements, thank you notes etc. It is a nice skill to have, however, that is the -only- time I find myself using it. In most situations nowadays we are actually told that we must print, for the sake of legibility and that if at all possible, we must avoid handwriting anything at all costs and type anything and everything. The skill of writing this way is unfortunately becoming less and less necessary a skill for children to have and as someone mentioned above, because of how schools are funded (based on testing results) it's not something that is emphasized or even taught anymore, because it isn't anything that will help children pass those tests.

Estrogen

stupifying

iterate

...or at least decisions were made. So, I decided to put a stone chimney/fireplace up the center of the right wall (the right wall if you're looking at the open back.) Today I sanded the pieces that popped out of the windows for the right side down a little, put glue around the edges, and pounded them back into their holes with the heel of my hand. Gessoed them and sanded them. They match up as solid walls well enough now to be egg-carton stoned over, and a chimney will be built on the inside of the wall on that side, to line up with where I'm moving the chimney on the roof too. Also, I cut the hole for the ladder up to the second floor, sanded it out and it looks pretty good. I might try actually putting it together tomorrow.

golden

onerous

Oh, smells and weather do me in too! It's no fun! I used to work at a Bath and Body Works and had to quit when they brought in some exceptionally potent smells a few seasons back, I was getting full blown migraines with nausea and all within 20 minutes of starting my shift.

oil

I have chronic migraines caused by a sensitivity to practically everything. Largest amongst them however is a sensitivity to prolonged exposure to flourescent lighting. Flourescent lightling flashes like a strobe light (like they do when you first turn them on) just too fast for you to really perceive the flashing. It's been found that it's actually a very common trigger for migraine sufferers as well as seizure victims. It's bad enough that I've been put on preventative medications. I also used to get those pesky mestrual migraines, but being put on hormone regulation therapy in the form of the pill means 1) fewer periods to begin with so fewer chances for those type of migraines, 2) fewer migraines during that time of the month. (If you're young and having mentrual migraines and have no qualms with being on the pill long term and reducing your number of periods a year, and it's medically feasible for you, I HIGHLY recommend this). Even with preventative medication, however, my migraine frequency has only been reduced to about 1 or 2 a week instead of 3 or more, so the doc's are still looking into what in the world could be causing so many neural problems. As for HeadOn, etc, my mom and I keep saying we're going to try it just for the sake of seeing. With my head as insane as it is I'm almost always willing to -try- something. However, we always forget whenever one of us is at the store because we don't every actually put it on our list!

If you're ever worried about craft acrylics being -too- flat you can mix them with a bit of clear acrylic gloss. It means an extra coat for coverage sometimes, but it cuts the flatness of the paint.

Cerebellum

hyacinth

Cyan

As a lot of you probably know, I just got my first mini kit and am beyond excited to be starting my Buttercup cottage. I'm doing it in a fairytale and very slightly Tudor-esque style. Spent almost five hours priming and sanding the cottage walls and and floors on Friday. I got a little bit of a sunburn (first doll house injury!?) because I took advantage of the nice weather and watched birds wile waiting for layers of gesso to dry. Yup, you heard me, gesso. The stuff us crazy artists prime canvases with. I have a TON of it, and no wall/wood primer, so I just used what I have with really great results! I'm so glad I'm not planning to have any of the original wood showing, because it's frustratingly poor quality, different tones etc. Understandable to a certain extent in a kit, but frustrating all the same from a company that seems to pride itself so much on quality. However, I'd been warned about the kit wood quality by other miniers, so I'd kind of been expecting to have to do a lot of prep work before I could start assembly. I needed wood filler Saturday, but dad's had all dried up, so had pretty much everything else in the garage that was a comparable product . So rather than spend money on some when I needed a microscopic amount I made my own with sawdust (well, sandpaper and a scrap of wood) and wood glue. Had problems when sanding it smooth though, so I'm just settling for a relatively filled spot on one of the outer walls since I'm covering them in egg carton stone anyway. (Great tutorial: http://www.miniland.ca/EggClass1.htm) I Was having real issues trying to decide where to put a hole for the ladder up to the second floor. I'm pretty sure I've decided that it's going on the left side in the back corner. I did some scale sketching and I think it will all fit well, so I'm going to go ahead and take the plunge and measure out and cut the square hole for it tomorrow possibly.

Weather

Neanderthal

So few of us out here in Cali

edify

Tater mitts only work on already boiled potatoes and don't work too well at that! A local radio station randomly tests this sort of stuff and they did those about a month ago. The news guy that takes stuff like that to random people in the are to test took them to a restraunt and the kitchen staff was horribly unimpressed as well. I have a bunch of those space saver bags and use them when packing for flights, they're not so great at keeping a seal long term, but for making some extra room in a suitcase they're pretty nice. Plus, they're a nice safeguard against shampoo and such should it somehow make it out of the plastic bags you have them packed in.