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Journal (The Ember Update)

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Thursday, October 27

[updated Oct. 28 & 31 & Nov. 24]

Anya

I know I'm very delinquent in announcing this, but I'm an aunt! Or more accurately, I'm Tante Marlene (that's pronounced "tahn-tuh mar-lay-nuh"), Tante being German for aunt. My brother Robert and I grew up with a few Tanten, so it seems natural to us. But on to the real story…

So, on Thanksgiving Day last year (November 25, 2004), Robert became the father of Anya Marie, a healthy, beautiful baby girl. (I won't go into why I didn't announce it here at the time; ask me in person, it's different and more bizarre than you might imagine!)

Anya is tall; at 11 months she's the size of an 18-month-old. She first crawled in July (at 6+ months), and at 10+ months she could take three steps. She's a little character already. Anya has two well-brought-up older siblings, Brie and Kameron, and her brother taught her early to make a scrunchy face, which she loves to do (right). Toby, Anya's mom, is really nice and a good parent, and my brother's turning out to be a fine dad too. Naturally, he says Anya's the best thing that ever happened to him. I happen to think she's a lot of fun myself! (So far I've avoided changing any diapers.) Normally I don't care much for babies, but I guess the family tie makes all the difference … even though we're not blood related; my bro and I are adopted.

Anyway, I've started a web section for Anya with a few photographs.

More Updates

Sadly, Librafest had to be cancelled this Autumn due to unforseen circumstances. However, it's now been almost two years since Kevin and I started to date, and things are still going amazingly well (love you baby!). And I've taken on a few side jobs doing web updates for WorldArtsFocus.org, SkyHavenCabins.com, and pro-bono work for SaveBerniesFarm.com. Sure wish site overhauls were in the budget for the first two, and I need content for the last!

Once again, I've updated my Burning Man Travelogue, this time with the grid of thumbnail photos, a "Jump to" section list on each slide, plus a few tweaks. The remaining hurdle is to add large versions of selected slides, which will have to wait on a copy of a CD of photos I burned for Bucky and Emily (I managed to overwrite a number of my originals while batch-processing them in Photoshop, with a faulty save command.)

I have a TON of mushroom and other nature photos from this summer and fall, which I need to get cracking on. Maybe next time.

What I did at work this week: Finished Chrononauts card layout, re-sorted / assigned / updated all my Mantis tasks, print ad and animated banner ad for Homeschooling Parent magazine, turned over resources for Volcano cover art (I've decided I'm not going to do it after all), worked on the Fluxx Family of Products flyer, and the usual order processing and email support, etc.

Thursday, October 20

• I've updated my Burning Man Travelogue with a better accounting of the week, plus I added captions to a lot of the photos (still need to get the grid of thumbnails done).
• I also updated my Activism page with some new information.
• …and I posted my mockup of the Looney Labs site redesign, slowly in the works.

September

Let's see, what happpened in September? Kevin lined the yard with rocks and made us a BIG SWING!

After visiting us for the first time in August, Brooke (who was our wonderful Maryland yoga instructor) and her husband Bill stayed at our place over Labor Day weekend, while we were at Burning Man. Bill's a contractor and they installed a very nice new outdoor spigot for us while we were gone, one that with the addition of a little heat tape will stay ice-free all winter. Now we can water the garden without running a hose into the kitchen. Thanks guys! And that reminds me, Michelle stayed here while we were in NY at Starwood in August, and among other things she completely weeded our garden. We have good friends…

Bucky and Emily came to visit on their way home to Massachusets from Burning Man, and we had a really great time for the night they were here. Man, are they fun to hang out with! I had planned a small dinner party — to introduce them to folks who might be helpful for them to know in opening their new business — but got some very late regrets from a few people (poopoo) and had WAY too much food with it being just the four of us. Emily and I chopped veggies for a long time and eventually I realized just how over-ambitious I'd been with my Thai dinner. I think Kevin and I cooked for three days afterwards.

Anyway, the weather was lovely and we hiked and hung out by the fire pit for a bit. Emily was thrilled to discover my one LP from the Lets Pretend series — The Little Mermaid and One Eye, Two Eyes, Three Eyes. I'd pulled it out because the cover was SO beautiful and Kevin had propped it up on the piano. Emily nearly jumped out of her skin with excitement at being able to show it to Bucky. She'd had the whole set as a kid, Rip van Winkle being her favorite; then her mother'd sold them at a yard sale, and later she found them worth some 40 thousand dollars (for a complete set in good condition). I need to get an LP frame to display the cover of mine.

Meet Playa

More happy September news: We got a kitty! Her name is Playa (ply-uh) and we found her at the local animal shelter. She's an adult "stray" who'd been dumped at an apartment building (apparently a popular place for abandoning pets), but Playa is obviously a people cat. She has no problem being touched on her paws or tummy, is okay with being cradled upside down, and doesn't even seem to be afraid of a vacuum cleaner. Playa is relatively good at riding in a car; she went to Wilson, NC and back with us in one day to visit Kevin's grandma and pick up some furniture. The day was cool, so while visiting we'd left her free to roam in the locked truck, and she somehow managed to roll down a window (a feat we haven't been able to duplicate) and was gone when we came out. I thought Playa was lost forever in NC, but luckily when we called her she came pretty quickly!

Dancing with Delilah

Brooke decided to discontinue her early Thursday morning yoga sessions in favor of Wednesday nights. So no more yoga class 'til we find a new teacher out here in VA. Also, I hadn't yet signed up for Belly Dance this fall, not being certain if I'd be driving back to MD every Thursday. The point was made moot when my class level was cancelled for lack of enrollment. So no classes so far this fall!

I decided to look for a local belly dance instructor, and the only one I found was up in Berryville, a 40 minute drive. While looking at Miramar's site, I discovered that the very next day, renowned belly dance teacher/performer Delilah was giving a workshop as she travelled through the area. For $55 at the door ($30 less than the same class would be a few days later at Joy of Motion in DC), I decided to go. I'd already been thinking about getting one of Delilah's teaching DVDs and just studying at home for a while. Not as ideal as a live class in many ways, but I can certainly practice to instruction much more frequently.

Anyway, the 3-hour workshop was a lot of fun! Delilah and her talented music partner Erik Brown were really good (wow, to have constant accompanyment like Erik's, there's something to strive to find). Here are three pics from Delilah's unchoreographed performance at the end. She apparently enjoys dancing to unfamiliar music more than anything else. I did pick up her Volume1 DVD. Now I just need to get the upstairs floor done, so I have my studio to practice in!

Wednesday, October 5

Burning Man 2005

Because I selected a total of 290 photos for my BM travelogue this year, it's taken me a really long time to put together. In fact, I'll still be tweaking it for a while (adding captions, large versions of some photos, etc.), but I've had so many requests I thought I might as well post it at this good stopping point.

So visit my Burning Man 2005 travelogue, view the slide-type presentation, or click on a photo below to see more. CAUTION AT WORK, some photos are risqué.

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