Monday, August 27, 2007

my return to wildlife/ by satellite/ by beautiful, moon-shining girl

So this is pretty much a shameless photo parade of my niece, who is even more gorgeous in person than in the pictures I had seen. And although her little head fits in the palm of my hand, she is very very long. It's cool. I don't have very much (read: almost no) experience with newborns and although kids themselves get more interesting as they come into focus a bit more, with the moving around and the talking, it amazes me how much she's already a teeny person.






Uh, a teeny person who is perhaps the Fonz. Ehhhhhh.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

so high, so low

So, a while back, I asked if we could have some benches for the store. I dunno. Having people sit on the floor is not only irritating (why are you surprised that I don't want you to block off a whole bunch of shelves? Do you not feel that people should read authors whose last names begin with 'S'?) but sometimes distressing (uh, honey? trust me, you do not want your face anywhere near that carpet). Benches! Imagine my surprise when I showed up for work on Friday to discover that they had installed... well... benches of a sort. I was envisioning something a little less... monolithic. And then it hit me: instead of settling for benches, the company has built a ziggurat in my honour, cleverly disguising it by breaking it down into component parts. I was thrilled.

And then I went pants-shopping in the mall and came home feeling like a hideous freak because nothing ever fits right, the proud new owner of a dress and a sweater, neither of which are the pants that I need. Aargh.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007





Some pictures of the place. We're still in progress, really, but as people have asked to see it, I'm posting what I've got.

Now if I could just get my cats to stop harassing one another, everything would be fine.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

whether by high ground/ or splashdown/ we're safely back in the world



This, ladies and gentlemen, is Lucy Anne, who is my niece. She was born on Friday. Look how fucking beautiful she is. As I have noted elsewhere, her tiny lips are like the platonic ideal of lips.

Now more than ever it is my job to make the world a better place, because she's going to have to live in it, which I find more or less terrifying, but also an inspiration.

Monday, August 06, 2007

it's a big old house and there's not much room/ but there's nothing that I wouldn't say to you

Hey. We have internet! So I can blog again. We're moved into the new place, and E. is moving in on Tuesday, so there's one more flurry of box-related madness and then we can all start figuring out where things go.

The furniture Tetris is going both well and not well, but there'll be more on that after the rest of the furniture arrives. Mostly we've been working on fiddly bits. I may or may not have mentioned the bit off our kitchen at the back. It's sort of a mudroom and sort of just the stairs down to the basement...I'll post a picture when I find the camera cable. When we looked at the place, I envisioned using it as a pantry, because our kitchen is slightly low on cupboard space. But it was...awful. Grotty and dirty and full of spiders. I wish I had a decent "before" picture, because spook's been working on it and now it seems like part of the house instead of part of someone's garage. Bwah ha ha! An unpromising beginning is no match for our powers of redecorating! The major challenge in this place is the basement, which is pretty much a dank concrete box. We don't need it to be gorgeous, but it's supposed to house spook's weights, and storage, and a laundry area, so it requires improvement. We have some notions. We'll see how they go.

I am anxiously awaiting news of my niece, who ought to be born this week. There'll be pictures of her too, because she will be the most beautiful baby ever, at least through the lenses of my auntie goggles. (The rest of you are free to notice that all newborn babies look very weird, as long as you notice it privately.)

And that's really all the news. I'm looking for the camera cable, I swear. Pictures soon.