GimletBlog

Here’s the portrait from a couple of weeks ago. No, the studio didn’t chop off Thing One’s head; I just haven’t quite tailored Gallery’s thumbnail cropper the way I’d like, so please click on the photo to see it in all its glory.

Note Thing Two’s casual, cheery pose, as if he’s thinking, “I love getting my picture taken! Can’t think of anything else I’d rather be doing!” You cannot tell what we went through … I’m sitting just out of shot, have moved my hand away and leaned back for just an instant. It was all tears after that.

In the past, we tried using our local department store studios for Thing One’s baby pictures, and have found that Yuen Lui may be more expensive, but they’re worth every penny. All the studios were pretty good at coaxing a smile out of Thing One (First Child Syndrome — he saw the camera and knew what was expected of him), but only Yuen Lui’s photographers were quick enough to capture his poses before he got fidgety. And for … less cooperative … children (Thing Two looks around innocently), speed is essential.

Thing One’s report from Fire Mountain scout camp, July 10-14.

On July 10^th-July 14, Troop 175 and many other troops went to Fire Mountain scout camp. I earned the swimming merit badge and I am now a tenderfoot scout. Also, EVERYTHING, from camp to the trading post was a ¾ mile hike!!! I’m going to finish the basketry merit badge at home because the craft staff wasn’t much help. On Tuesday and Friday night we had shows, with funny skits and songs like a “Swiss boy”. My favorite part of that was the mountain climber. His call was “aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa splat!”. There was another song called the moose. My favorite part of that song was the verse after the moose had his head in the water for 2 hours. My favorite, favorite part of that was “He decomposed!”. and also a skit the staff performed. Where there were other staff that either went “down there”, or “up there”. Two of the staff’s choice. The problem at camp was the tents were leaky and I would want to bring our own tent next year so there are no leaks when it rains hard, like on Wednesday. I hoped you enjoyed my entry of Fire Mountain. *cheer*

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Editor’s note: Every summer, a local patent law firm hosts a “client appreciation” movie day. The firm, clients, and their friends and family are treated to an all-expenses-paid summer blockbuster matinee at Seattle’s landmark Cinerama Theatre — the tickets and all concessions are free of charge, plus attendees get goodie bags and other treats. Are patent lawyers just the coolest, or what? The Gimlet, Thing One, and Uncle B attended this year’s showing of Superman Returns.

The movie Superman Returns was a good movie. At the Cinerama Theatre, I got free treats, like a lunchbox with treats inside and also a Superman hat. The movie had scary and sad parts, but I would recommend it to my older cousins. The movie also has some funny parts. It was really cool when the bullet hit Superman’s eye and I also liked it when he pushed a big rock into space.

Summer’s here, and the rhododendrons and lilacs have given way to hydrangeas. This very useful web site readily identified our two different kinds of plants and has lots of information about caring for them.

The shrub in the front yard is a lacecap hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla normalis). It’s planted next to the house, facing north and slightly east so it gets a little morning sun but is mostly shaded all day. (more…)

You know I’m just marking time when I resort to posting blog quizzes.

Let’s see … there’s one hiding in my bookmarks somewhere that breaks out the MBTI into various lunatics.

Aha! Found it. And here’s another one which is especially amusing if you’ve taken the real MBTI.

I’ll be here all night, ladies and gents … really, I will. I was told in no uncertain terms to wait up and help sort a week’s worth of camp laundry when it shows up on my doorstep. If you bother to take the linked quiz, feel free to share your results in the Comments!

… when it’s not all about Thing Two, that is.

The Gimlet and Thing One have spent the week at scout camp, which we’ll post about later, and are due home around midnight tonight. In the meantime, I’ll summarize a couple of old GimletBlog entries.

First, about an hour before GimletBlog shut down, I mentioned that I’d won a contest and had a T-shirt made from my winning entry. This was based on an on-line book group where we wrote limericks on particular topics. The overall book group discussion was Northanger Abbey, and the topic was “The Dreadful Black Veil” (referring to Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho). Click on the image to see the T-shirt and my limerick in Pemberley’s on-line store. As this is as close to being published as I will ever get, I’m pretty pleased … and if you can’t brag your swag on your own blog, I don’t know what this world is coming to. (more…)

Thing Two has been looking rather shaggy lately, so we decided it was time for his first haircut. We took him to Li’l Klippers, where Thing One had his first haircut, and Sheila has been cutting his hair for almost as long.

Thing Two was intrigued by the rocket chair, with its distracting knobs and dials, and the little box of toys was looking tempting too, until we tried to put a drape on him. (more…)

Pex has been installed for the kitchen. It was as easy to work with as I had hoped, taking only about three hours to complete. I have been hanging the tubing with plastic strapping. The blue tubing is for cold water and red for hot. I ran separate hot water lines for the kitchen sink and the dishwasher. Additionally I ran a line for the refrigerator icemaker. I even now have two hot water lines run to the two bathrooms. Now I need to buy more red tubing to finish the hot water lines. Soon I will begin the process of hooking the lines up to the Manabloc.

8 July ETA: The basement bathroom is finished and both the kitchen and bathroom are hooked up to the Manabloc. Again, it only took a couple of hours.

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