Finally! All My Hard Work Put To Good Use!

I earned an honors diploma from high school, and, therefore, I got to wear a yard or so of tasseled gold cord around my neck when I graduated.  I can't remember for sure, but I think I wore the same cord when I graduated from university four years later.
Since then, however, the cord has been tied on the edge of a bookshelf, getting dusted ever so often.  Until last week, that is.
Last week, I noticed that Mom had used the tasseled honors cord to tie back the new, decorative shower curtain in the bathroom.
It's nice to know that all my honors have paid off for her -- at last.  :)

Oh-So-Very-English Story Starter

Every once in a while, I pull a random picture out of iPhoto and use it as a story starter.  Here's one for today:

This shows a picnic meal of a scone with clotted cream and jam, accompanied by ginger beer.  (That's non-alcoholic, if you're curious.)  It just doesn't get any more stereotypically English than this snack -- unless it's tea and biscuits (cookies, that is) with the Queen.
The real story here is that I walked from Cambridge to Granchester one hot and sticky summer day in 2007, accompanied by a die-hard, born-again American Baptist fellow whose name I can no longer recall.  My enjoyment of the outing was rather diminished by the humidity and by his refusal to discuss anything other than his own narrow outlook on life.
However, the photo is a great set up for fiction.
What would you do with it?  Who's picnicking in the park?  Why?  When?
Feel free to share your ideas or link to your own post if you write something about this.
Have fun.

Blogging Blackout

It's been awhile.

Yup, I'm still alive, but I haven't been completely well lately, and my need to sleep has exceeded my need to blog.

I shall try to post a big more often.

In Which I Get Really Geeky And Discuss Disney Characters Re-Imagined As Hogwarts Students

There are just so many, many things about which I can't write right now that I have slim pickings for entertaining blog posts.  Thus, when I saw a Buzzfeed article in which an artist who goes by Eira 1893 had re-imagined Disney royals as Hogwarts kids, I thought I'd do some psychoanalysis of their personalities and decide if I agree with which Hogwarts houses into which they were placed.

So, since Merida is my all-time favorite Disney princess, let's start with this drawing which contains her.  It looks like Eira has placed Merida in Griffindor, and I agree.  Merida climbs sheer cliffs by herself and fights off a bear.  Yeah, BRAVE is the word.  Seriously, where else would you put her?  Duh.  (But that's a horrible drawing of her.  Yuck.)
However, the artist has put Aladdin in Griffindor and Jasmine in Slytherin.  Huh?  I'd put him, with his criminal tendencies, into Slytherin, which is where Flynn Rider has been placed, but I'd put her into Hufflepuff, which is where those who are not particularly talented in anything go.  Also, I'd put Rapunzel into Hufflepuff as well.  She's nowhere near smart enough to be a Ravenclaw, which is where Eira has put her (based on the stripes of her socks).

This one is spot-on, though.  The slimy Naveen is Slytherin, and Tiana, who's dumb enough to fall for him and give up all her plans, is Hufflepuff.  Yes, I agree.

Prince Charming as Griffindor?  Really?  He doesn't even do anything in the story except look for the girl.  That's not brave.  I'd put him in Hufflepuff.  But Cinderella faces up to her wretched step-family every day, and then goes to the ball by herself in borrowed clothes, still hoping to avoid recognition by the evil women who demean and abuse her.  SHE should be Griffindor, not him!  Switch these two!

Tarzan, Mr. Buff Dude, as Griffindor.  Well, OK.  I'd think maybe more of Hufflepuff.  Jane as Ravenclaw?  Yeah, she is pretty bookish.  Now, Milo -- ah!  Steampunk Disney before it was even cool! -- Milo is definitely Ravenclaw, but I guess Kida could be Ravenclaw or the Griffindor shown.

Now, I can handle Philip as Griffindor; he does have to hack through all those vines and fight off Malificent, after all.  But Aurora as Ravenclaw?  If she's so smart, how come she pricked her finger on the spindle in the first place?  She doesn't even do anything in the show; she's only a prize to be won.  Nyah, this chick is Hufflepuff.

Eric as a Griffindor I can see, but Ariel's mostly just stupid.  I'd say Hufflepuff.  As for Snow White -- THAT'S Snow White??  Seriously?  That does not even resemble the Disney girl!  But yeah, I'd say stick her and her boring prince (He has a name? Florian?  Really?) in Hufflepuff.

Belle in Ravenclaw and Beast in Slytherin.  Perfect!!  (Now, kick him in the groin, girl, and avoid that whole Stockholm Syndrome thing before it's too late!  Hogwarts has a better library anyway!)

And now, our Frozen friends....  Hans as Slytherin -- definitely.  Anna as Hufflepuff, yup.  But Elsa should be there, too.  She's no Ravenclaw, by any means; she's not that smart.  Kristoff is a bit doofy, yes, but he's very brave.  I'd say he goes in Griffindor!

Thank you.  I shall now replace the Sorting Hat on the shelf in Professor Dumbledore's office and leave you to your regularly scheduled Saturday evening activities.

How To Sleep In On A Sunday Morning

I was up late last night, working out a new plot outline for The Chocolate Smuggler's Notebook, but I figured I could sleep in this morning, as I had no real reason to be up before 9:00.  Thus, I went to bed after 1:00 AM.
Sometime before 7:00 AM, I was dragged mercilessly from the depths of slumber by what sounded like a troupe of Appalachian cloggers accompanied by a greased pig in terror of being caught.  Now, as I know that one set of neighbors has a wooden deck, it took only a few seconds before I understood the source of the noise, but I vaguely thought that it was a bit early for them to have a patio breakfast.  The tromping and screaming continued until I was more coherent, and my brain recalled that today was indeed Easter, and I was hearing the sounds of young children on the hunt for colored eggs.
TROMP TROMP TROMP.  Squeal!!!   TROMP TROMP TROMP.  Squeal!  It went on for 40 minutes, during which time I tried in vain to block out the sound and drift off again.
This, however, proved ineffective, as another neighbor let out his dogs to bark.  Normally, the dogs just  sit and bark to get back into the house, but this morning they could hear squealing, tromping children, and they got worked up into a rare frenzy over not being able to join in all the excitement.
Just when all this was beginning to die down and I was starting to doze off again, the phone rang once.  I grabbed it, but it was a wrong number.
Plopping my head down onto the pillow, still in a tired stupor, I did actually lose consciousness again for about 5 minutes.
Then there was a harsh, abrupt voice, which barked a command.  It sounded like it was right outside my window.
I vaguely approached consciousness.
The command again!  With an abrupt cut-off and a sound like static!
My sleep-fuzzed brain connected the sound to that of a walkie-talkie.  Police?!!  Were they in the yard?!  What on earth had happened?!
I half-rolled out of bed, grabbed my glasses, and stumbled into the next room where the window would give a better view.
Again the command!  I jumped.  It was so loud!  And it had the same cadence as before.
I froze, mid-stride, half-way to the window.  Was this a recording?  Had some kid planted a recording to startle me?
My almost-unfogged brain came to the conclusion that I should try to understand what the possible recording was saying, so I stayed put and focused as well as I could in my semi-confused state.
"Dumbledore will see you now.  Sherbet Lemon!"  Whoosh!
Minerva McGonagal was shouting at me.
By now I was fully awake.  And laughing.
On the shelf was a small toy I'd received as a gift not long after the first Harry Potter movie was released.  The toy has the Hogwarts tower leading to Dumbledore's office, and when you push the lever, the stairs roll into place, and McGonagal says her line, her voice recorded from the movie.
Only, this morning, the batteries were on their last dregs of energy, and the recording got stuck, playing over and over, even though no one was triggering the lever.
There was no going back to bed at this point.  My rude awakening was thorough.

Feeling Crafty: Updating Antique Pictures

When I was a child, a few times every summer, we used to visit the house where my mother had grown up, which stood vacant for all the years of my childhood, as Grandma, by then, had a house in Salt Lake as well.  Thus, my memories of the house are all dark: dark rooms with curtains drawn and no electricity, sheet-covered furniture, cool and musty air kept in by the thick walls.

The things I recall best from the house were the things that were not covered with sheets, such as the set of framed prints and a little shelf that hung on the wall of the living room.  Thus, years after Grandma passed away, when we finally got everything from the old house out of storage and divided it up, I asked for the prints.

However, once I got them, I was disappointed to notice that their frames were a horrible color (which my father recently referred to as "chicken poop tan"), done in a lousy paint job.  My mother explained that her older sister had "updated" the darker brown frames and shelf -- but this had been done in the 1950s, when "blonde" furniture was just coming "in."  And these didn't quite make "blonde."

Thus, the prints and the cute little shelf sat in my basement storage room for years -- until a couple of weeks ago, when I finally realized that 1) the paint was not sacred just because it was antique and 2) if repainted, the whole set would really brighten up the laundry room wall, which is one of the very few walls in the house not decorated with my father's paintings (and these little prints would never mix with his gorgeous work).

I therefore made my trip to the craft store and bravely bought the spray paint.  I spent a couple of days painting and drying the items.  I then hung the paintings, but I had to get Dad to restring the little shelf with painter's wire so I could hang it.  And just tonight, I hung the shelf.

Here, then, is the series of pics (strung together with a meme-maker, of all things) to show the progress. (Remember to click on the photo to enlarge it.) 

In the top photo, the ugly frames are visible, and the glass over the prints is covered with plastic and masking tape.  In the middle photo, the paint job is mostly dry on the second day, and I'm touching up the missed spots on the edges.  The third photo shows the prints and the little shelf (with a drawer in it) hanging in my basement laundry room (you may notice cinderblock along the right-hand wall).  You can see in the final pic that I chose a blue paint for the frames to match the blue in the old prints.

I am very pleased with the cheerful result -- and with the absence of the "chicken poop tan" color of yore.  :)

Here's a larger version of that last photo.  It's not well-lit because this is, after all, the basement laundry room, and you can clearly see my shadow on the wall.  But it gives you the idea of how everything turned out.

Full Steam Ahead!

My 7th grade gifted and talented class is doing a bit with steampunk literature right now, and today I wanted to let them hear a little steampunk music during their break time.  (We have 80-minute classes, which is a LOT when you're 12 years old, so I give a five-minute break for them to talk about half-way through class.)

My favorite steampunk band is The Cog Is Dead, and when I went to pull up a video or two of theirs on youtube, I discovered that they'd released a new album!  I have no clue how I missed the release news, especially since I follow them on twitter.  Nevertheless, let me share with you one of the most fun numbers from their new album, Full Steam Ahead:

*****

Oh, swear! *&&^%

Once again, blogger won't upload something from a URL.

Fine.  Be that way.

*sulks in front of monitor*

Here's a link, then.  I hope that works, at least.

Hmph!