I Was Going To Sleep In...

But I woke up and made the mistake of getting out of bed early to do "just one thing" at seven in the morning. It is now midnight, and I'm tired, and I don't think I've sat down to take a break.  This means at this point in the day (or night), the Guinea pigs are clean, their cage has had its weekly overhaul, the children have done things with us, and we've gotten a video ready to release tonight.   

I think most of those things have happened.  I was trying to get caught up on my blog posts from this past weekend.  I've finished Friday, but I'm still missing Saturday and Sunday.  I'll get there.  I remember what I want to say.  

The Tiny Girl Pet Caregiver: my daughter wanted to wash the Guinea pigs tonight.  While she waited for us to be finished our video, she relocated a lot of the cage internals to our bathroom.   She helped me wash them and then decided she was too tired to help clean everything up.  She was a real help, though, and they definitely needed their lower halves cleaned. 

The Big Boy Update:  I wrote this down when my son said it, and he got mad, thinking I was going to be picking on him in the blog.   I had a hard time convincing him that I thought what he said was very clever, and I wanted to share it.  He said this afternoon while he was looking out the windows in our backyard.  

"There are too many deciduous trees here."  His grandfather was a scientist and loved botany.   I see him in my son.   

He's Home

I have really missed my son.   I left for RMRRF, and while I was gone, he left for Acadia National Park with his Upper Elementary class.   He was scheduled to come home late evening tonight, but as things tend to happen, they were delayed.    He's in now, and I'm happy he's home. 

He doesn't smell like my son.  That might sound odd, but he doesn't smell like he normally does.   He smells like a great aunt's house.  I don't have a great aunt that I'm referring to, but this smell is how I imagine it would be if you had a great aunt that wanted to have you over for the summer vacation.   It's not a bad smell, it's just a musty, older house smell.   Some people love the mystery of old houses.  And I have to admit, the times I spent with my grandmother over the summer were interesting times indeed and the smell was part of what made it so memorable. 

The thing my son said when he got home though.  The bit that was so heart-warming, was after I'd calmed down the bouncy jumpy dog who was just beside herself with happiness he was home was the first words my son said to me as I sat on the floor, hugging him.   He said, "I want to play video games."   It just melts a mother's heart. 

The Grown Up Girl Chronicles:  Aunt A sent some adorable stuffed guinea pigs for my birthday.  Their names have been up in the air until recently when they have been settled upon.  This is not unlike what we went through when picking Cheerio's name.   The new siblings are Trix and Fruit Loop.

Fifth Grade Flashbacks

My daughter is very responsible.  She does her homework and tries to do a reasonably good job of it, even when she's put it off until the last night, which is most of the time.  She has been turning in her work every day (that it was due) and turning in other things that need to be reviewed by a teacher during the day as work is completed.   She had school knocked out of the park.  Or so I thought. 

On the way home, I talked to her about getting her homework done because I'd seen an email from her teacher with all the things that were due.   She told me she would get it all done tonight.   She also told me she usually didn't turn her homework in.   Wait, what?   "Why not,"  I asked her?  It didn't really matter was what I was hearing.  Hmmm... is what I thought.  

My daughter brought her backpack in, went upstairs after school, and didn't want to come out until it was after ten o'clock.  It was then that she told me it was Teacher Appreciation Week.   Or rather it had been starting last Wednesday only she forgot to tell me and tomorrow was the last day we could bring them things.  

My husband read through some things and found out she had math and science work to do.  Plus, there was a day the students could bring in notes to their teachers, and she had to do those as well.   And wasn't going to sleep until she was finished.   

She was up late working.  I'm still not sure about the unturned-in work.   It gave me flashbacks to fifth grade because that's the exact same thing I got in trouble for.  My father brought that up until I had graduated from high school.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son is coming home tomorrow.  He's been in Maine with his class all week.  I'm really interested in what they did this week.  The pictures looked so interesting.  My son will probably not want to talk about it at all.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter hasn't been turning in her homework—that she completed.   When I was in fifth grade when I didn't turn in my work, it was because I didn't want to do it.

Up and Down

I woke up, and the dog looked at me with the, "Please, could you let me outside?  I can go back to sleep, but I sort of need to go now" look.  So I got up and hobbled to the door to let her out.   I collapsed back in the bed and reached for the Tylenol bottle on my nightstand.   The muscle aches were pretty bad.  I also had a nasty headache.  And, to add another layer of fun, I had a fierce sore throat.

An hour later and I felt a decent bit better.  My husband had let the dog in, and she kept looking at me with the "Where is my food?' look.  I kept telling her, "Go get your breakfast, go." but she persisted.  Did she not know to go check to see if the food was there?

I got up to show her and found the bowl on the counter, filled, but for some reason, not put down on her mat.   Go me.   

I took some herbs from Nana's garden that she brought over for the guinea pigs and went upstairs to feed them, do the morning cage cleaning, and get some Halls that I knew I had in my mint collection.

They were very happy about the morning's greenery.  I put them in the playpen and took a few videos of them doing "zoomies" (the term for when they run about in joy) and fighting over food, which is really cute because there's plenty to eat, they just always want the thing the other one is eating.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son said he feels like he's being mean to me because he doesn't want to be anywhere near me.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter has hidden in her room for two days now.  We need to get her out.  My husband (who is now negative for COVID) just took her and the dog for a walk in the park.

Tired of Furniture

We walked all day yesterday, looking at furniture and lighting.  There was so much to see it was overwhelming.   The thing that was mostly overwhelmed though was my feet.  They were the most tired. 

It must have been the festival, the travel, getting in late, and then walking all day because I slept and didn't ultimately get out of bed until 4PM.   Talk about being lazy.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter has been begging her father to play Monopoly with her.   He and she have had either a very long game going on, or they have been playing multiple games upstairs.  She is really good at visualizing everything on the board and who has what.

The Acadia Sixth Grader:  We've seen some pictures coming in and it looks like my son is doing interesting things.  One activity was with a large map that covered the floor of an entire room.   Maps are his favorite!

Lots of Walking

I've never been to the Furniture Market in Highpoint North Carolina before.  You can't go as an individual, you have to have a ticket and the only way to get a ticket is with someone who is in the industry.  Basically you need to have a designer or someone else get you a ticket to come. 

We met our designers at a place that gave us a spot in their parking lot for the day.   We looked at the one sofa they thought would match what we were looking for.   Then we looked at what things we'd like on a sofa that was different from what they presented.  

It's an interesting process.  The designers can't read our minds and we can't give them every preference in our heads, so we come to a meeting in the middle.   They're both very nice, and seem to be enjoying the process of discovery as we go through this. 

They are mostly helping us with things that will be built with the house, like the cabinets and paint, tile and countertops.  Handles and fixtures and anything else the house needs.   There are a few places we need a piece of furniture because what we have is going somewhere else.  Still, Market was fun.  There were so many beautiful things to see. 

The Tiny Girl All Alone:  My daughter was picked up from school by our neighbor's nanny.  She had to leave at 6:10 and we weren't quite home, which was okay as my daughter is fine to leave for periods now.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son isn't hear.  It's odd to come home without him here. 

Meow Wolf

RMRRF was amazing.  People are still talking about it months later because the turnout was far, far more than the organizers or anyone expected.  It was their first event, and they did a very good job planning and executing the event.   The turnout was boosted in part because there hadn't been a maker faire in that area of the country before.  

COVID concerns have been continually diminishing, and people just wanted to get out.  I didn't get a break from the steady stream of people, so I took one whenever there was a lull and walked around, talking to people in the other booths.  It was a fabulous weekend, and I am very much looking forward to going next year. 

The one regret I have was an invitation some of us had for Saturday night after hours.   There was this place called Meow Wolf in Denver, and did I want to go?  It was very hard to explain what it was, but it wasn't something you wanted to miss.   It was only an hour's drive away in Denver.  

An hour?  I in no way wanted to drive two hours total after a long day or be cramped in a car with people I only knew from their online presence.   So I passed.   I was so tired.  My back hurt, and all I wanted to do was eat dinner and go to sleep.  I ended up at the bar at my hotel, hanging out with other people from the event, which was very fun.   But when the others got back from Meow Wolf I was immediately sorry I didn't go. 

It was hard to explain other than it was an interactive experience with room after room with each being their own mystery and adventure.   The rooms were created by people with imagination to spare and more artistic skill than two artists.   The place was so large you could spend over a day there and not repeat rooms.   They ran into people who were on their tenth hour in and were still discovering things and having fun.

The pictures and videos they were showing us at the bar were so oddly beautful, strange and exciting looking.   I should have gone.   

I talked to Matt about it later and he said next year the trip will be on Friday before the event begins since the setup day isn't as long or tiring.   I am not missing it next year, even if I feel awful . 

Sad Goodbyes, Long Flight

The festival is over.   Everyone is heading home.   I had a wonderful time, but I want to get home too.  And yet I don't want to leave because these people I've met have all been so nice.   Everyone could sit around for hours and chat and be perfectly happy.   But it has to end and I'm hoarse and tired. 

I got on the plane, followed by a connection and another plane and then I was home after midnight.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  The time was past midnight, but my daughter, the sweet darling that she is, brought a Guinea pig to see me. 

Missing #1

In the entire time I've had this blog, I've never missed a daily post.   I've been late and backdated things.  I've left very short messages here saying I'm busy but I'll be back soon.   But I've never just abandoned days and posted nothing.  

When I was at the Rocky Mountain RepRap Festival (RMRRF—which is pronounced differently by different people) I was so busy.  We went from the time I got up until I crashed into the bed at night on full tilt.   What does full tilt mean?  I should look it up.  

Where was I?  Ah, yes, that I thought to myself I would just publish something later.  Only I never did.  That was April.   I'm now in July.   But I'm coming back and setting things to rights today, putting something up for the three days I ignored my daily routine of writing a post about the day, or something I just wanted to write about, in the evening before going to bed. 

I don't know what my children were doing for these days as they were with my husband, but I'm sure they were well cared for.  

RMRRF Friday Setup

I left very early in the morning to head to Denver for a weekend of 3D printing madness.   We didn't know it would be that crazy busy at the time.  I landed close to the time that JC, my producer, landed.  We got our luggage and a car and headed the hour-ish-long drive to Loveland, Colorado.

JC prefers to use Waze, so he had it taking us to our destination.   I prefer big roads and straight shots.   Waze likes to do the opposite often, from my experience.   But this time it did something I can't believe happened.   We were getting close.  Less than a few miles, when it had us turn onto a road that headed up towards the mountains, away from everything.   Maybe the hotel was over that rise we can see?  Then it has us going down a very small road and continuing on through a gate that said on a sign, "Private Property No Trespassers." 

JC said he could see the destination if we could go through the gate, turn left and head to the rise; we might see a way to get to the hotel.   We were both unsure, so we turned around and headed back down the hill.  JC, in the meantime, navigated using Google Maps, which said we were still close to a half-hour away.  We don't know what happened with the navigation, but we made it in the end.

We dropped our bags and pulled out all the things we'd need at the event space, and then we headed to Target to get some candy.   Candy was needed.  And a big bowl for the candy.  I was going for "Best Candy Bowl 2023".  I didn't know if they had any prizes, but if they did, I was going for that one. 

I love the setup day.  It's the companies and the people who have tables or booths getting their spaces ready.   There are no attendees, and yet all of us are attendees in a sense too.   We all wanted to go around and say hi, and since our table was reasonably easy to set up, that's exactly what we did. 

After setup, there were groups of people going to dinner together—large groups—which overwhelmed the restaurants quickly.  We decided to back out of the main, huge, group and go to another restaurant a few streets over.   We had a lovely dinner with two filament companies I'd been wanting to spend some time with.

Then we went back to the hotel to get some sleep before the Rocky Mountain RepRap Festival begins!

Wow, Headache, Wow.

I had a bad migraine headache today.  It was coming on, and I needed to lie down, but I had to finish several things.  I was trying to make decisions on simple things like color or time of day, or something equally challenging, but I just couldn't do it because I couldn't think well with my head pounding. 

For some reason, I couldn't let it go.  I couldn't wait until I had gotten a few hours sleep to pick back up and finish the task in five minutes.  When I got upstairs, my children must have realized I wasn't feeling well because they wanted to help.  

I had Cheerio brought to me with some celery and a single grape.  You might think this an odd thing to bring, but he was perfect.   Cheerio happily ate his celery while the dog looked hungrily on—at Cheerio, not the grape or the celery. 

They took Cheerio away after a while and after bringing me an ice pack wrapped in a cloth (which my daughter had to find and get the right cloth to wrap it in.)  Then they left me to fall asleep (after my daughter spritzed my forehead with cool water) and said she would be back in two hours to help me wake up so I could get back to work before it was too late. 

They were so sweet together.   Sometimes children make you want to pull your hair out.  But then there are the times they are kind and gentle and caring and just the sort of person you'd hope they would grow up to be.   These are the memories I hope we'll all take forward into the future and leave behind a lot of the times we didn't get along. 

Unpack, Repack, Prepare For RepRap

I thought today was Wednesday.  I am so glad today isn't Wednesday.  I'm not even unpacked from the top this week, and I have to pack to leave in thirty-six hours to go to Denver for the Rocky Mountain RepRap Festival.  

We're a sponsor and an exhibitor at the event.  This is the first year of this festival, but it has taken off in popularity.  I happened to be on a Maker call on Friday nights with one of the organizers, which is how I got involved early on.  I didn't know if it would have much of a response, so I offered to be a sponsor at a low level.  The sponsorship came with a table, which I didn't really want, but JC, our producer, said to get the table, and we'd just sit there and talk with people that came by.  He was going to use it as a place that's a home base to talk business from.  

I'm so glad he wants to do the business negotiations side of things.  He enjoys it and finds it challenging.  I do not enjoy it and find it draining.  He's asking, and companies are paying.  When I read his emails, I can understand why; he has a knack for sales.  He's a positive person, and that also comes through.  He's fair but also is looking out for our best interest.   I'm very grateful for all that he's done and wants to do.  

He has ideas for how we can grow the business that is good ideas.  They may not be the direction we want to grow in, which is fine with him, but it's also good for us to think about things outside of what my husband and I are thinking about.   

My Daughter is Bored:  My daughter is bored again.   We just got home yesterday, and she's already bored.  I can understand, though, she doesn't have people to play with during the day because of school. In the afternoons and evenings, some of her friends have moved, and some have aged out of playing with her because the age gap is too much.  Next week she's back at school.   We still need to find a way for her to get in touch with her friends.   I think she would have a lot of fun with text messaging.   She could message her grandparents, aunts, and uncles too.   We have the phone, she just isn't ready yet.  Maybe she's not bored enough?

My Son is Bored:  My son said he was bored this evening after dinner.  He was perhaps not bored as much as he wanted to do something with screens and suggested we play 'Bloons together.   I had to politely decline but thanked him for thinking of me and that we could play sometime soon when it wasn't a no-screens day.

Girls Weekend in NYC, Farewell Until Next Time (Year?)

Day four of our NYC adventure as mother and daughter had us waking to an alarm.  We weren't in a huge hurry, but I wanted coffee.   My daughter wanted to roam the hotel more.   She had found the ice machine and kept us filled up with ice the entire time we were there.

She liked the stairwells as well.  The hotel was twenty-one floors, but it wasn't wide or deep.  My daughter would go up and down the stairs, meeting me in the lobby when I was coming behind her by a few minutes.   She knew the hotel staff and had a little spot she would wait for me at the end of the counter.   Everyone was so wonderfully friendly for our entire trip.  We made friends and wanted to come back, they were so nice. 

She and I went across the street to Starbucks, this being the sole time I had Starbucks on the trip after leaving town here.  When we got back to the hotel after our one-minute walk, my daughter took the room key and worked it with the elevator: holding it against a contact point and then finding floor thirteen, giving the elevator information that a paying customer was on and it could go up now.   My daughter would get the floors for other people in the elevator too. 

We had things happen many times on the trip because my daughter was blind.  The most common thing was people would ask if we needed elevator access.   Perhaps some blind people do need that assistance, but from my experience, the elevators are more out of the way and you still have to navigate to your seat of the location you were heading once you make it to the floor.  It was a nice offer though and we took them up on the offer several times, like at the Empire State Building for those eighty-six floors.

We made it to the airport with a delay to our flight due to fog.   After several more minor delays, we made it home just in time to ride from the airport to pick up my son from school.   I had the best time with my daughter on our New York City 2023 adventure, but I had missed my son.   It was so good to see him.  

The Big Boy Update:  I remember about a year ago when my son would be embarrassed by anything we did.   He still is embarrassed by almost anything, but he's okay with some things now.  I saw this weekend how my daughter is in the same place currently.  I would be giving her a compliment or just engaging in small talk in someday, like how my daughter is can find the floor to our room on the elevator faster than I can.  I told her I was giving her a compliment, but she said I shouldn't talk about her in front of her.  That other parents don't do that!

Girls Weekend, Sunday in NYC 2023

We slept fairly late on Sunday.   We woke up hungry, and I was looking forward to a nice breakfast at a cafe or deli.   My daughter didn't want most of what I suggested, so we decided to go back to Times Square, to the Krispy Kreme store (which had hot doughnuts now, so the phone said.)

Did I mention there was a doughnuts theme for the weekend?  We got some interesting doughnuts.  My daughter selected a basic glazed.  I got for us to share the Big Apple doughnut, which looked like a candy apple with a red glaze on top.  There was a stem made of a pretzel and a fondant or perhaps icing leaf.   It came in a special little box so the icing wouldn't get mussed up.  Perhaps people were taking these home from vacations, and the container needed to be more rugged. 

The other doughnut was a Biscoff and cream variety.  We love Biscoff spread and put it in ice cream—one of my husband's favorite things to add in.   Boy, was it good too.  I hope they're selling them at our local Krispy Kreme because that would be reason enough to head downtown to get some.  

We then had some running about that took us up until our second show, Harry Potter and The Cursed Child—which was excellent.  We both loved it.  The problem was I didn't remember to bring my earbuds, and I needed them so she could hear the assistive audio for the show.   A lot of places provide a unit and headphones, but they use an app that works if you do all these specific steps properly. 

We had to head back to the hotel to get my earbuds.  We took a taxi back and went into the show, heading over to ask for assistance with the assistive audio.   After going into airplane mode, connecting to their wifi, seven other steps that get you into a spot where the audio will play when the show starts.  

And it worked, but the phone had to stay open, and it was vulnerable to finger touches, which took you out of the assistive audio.   I got it up and going again about five times, my daughter lost the earbuds three times, and I was crawling on the floor with my phone light as minimally intrusive as possible.  At that point, I went to ask for help, and they just gave me a headset and phone and said I could bring it back.   After that, things went smoothly. 

We went to It'Sugar after the show and got even more candy because it's good to have energy food when you're on vacation...right?   Sigh, it was way overboard, but it was her weekend, and she was having a good time and wasn't bored like she had been for a lot of her break.  

We got to our hotel and decided on Italian food.  I had wanted Chinese.   The hotel suggested multiple things, but the one we ended up going to, which wasn't at all what I would have selected on Friday when I had more energy, was to go to Olive Garden. 

It was, yet again, in Times Square.   We walked the seven minutes over, got seated straight away, and ate a comfort meal of items we knew well from the times we'd gone there with Mimi and Gramps here in town.  

We went back, packed up, wedging the little gifts in (and the candy and chocolate).  Alarms were set for the morning, teeth were brushed, and we both fell asleep again right after the lights went out. 

Girls Weekend NYC Empire State Building

My daughter and I slept in a bit, but when we got up, we got to work.   We navigated to find Dunkin' Donuts, which turned out to be in the subway station.  I forgot to mention yesterday that we took the subway to the Museum of Ice Cream.  My daughter thought is was interesting, but not any more so than the trains you take going from the concourse to baggage claim in various airports she's been to. 

We got our doughnuts and headed back up top to go to FAO Schwarz.  She had her picture taken with the Beefeater at the front door and then the inspection of the plush animals began.   We found Patrick immediately, the store's dog who carries the name.   My mother-in-law has a huge Patrick from when my husband was younger so seeing his brethren made an instant connection for my daughter, who wasn't interested in the store at first. 

They had so many large animals and things for her to touch.   We left after a while to go drop our things and walk over to the Empire State Building.   She loved being on top of the building.  The experience going from ticketing to the top was much updated from when I went so many years back.   She and I ate two dozen mini doughnuts (noticing a healthy food theme here?) while at the top and then headed down to go back to our hotel and meet a friend of mine from 3D printing. 

My daughter was excited to meet her daughter, who's name was Fox, which just happens to be my son's middle name.  Fox was six-years-old and the four of us went to M&M World in Times Square.   My daughter got M&M's with her name written on them that we got to see in action.  Boy, was it fast. 

We said goodbye to Britt and Fox and then my daughter and I went to Broadway to see The Lion King play.  I admit I nodded off a bit in the middle, for which my daughter absolutely has not forgiven me.  

We headed to the hotel and both fell quickly asleep, realizing only the next morning that we'd completely forgotten to eat dinner after the candy at M&M World before the play.

Girls NYC Weekend 2023

My daughter wanted to go on a trip with just me.  It was my idea.   I thought she would want to go to the waterpark a few hours away.  Nope, what she wanted was to go to New York City.   

I love New York City, and I was all for the trip, but we had a guinea pig on the mend, so we had to plan for another time from our original plans.   We packed and prepared, and I have to thank my husband for the help in preparing and the advice from friends on things to do.  

We left early morning.  Very early morning, and we landed around seven-thirty.  We took a taxi into Manhattan and dropped our bags at the front desk.  They would message us when our room was ready.  I asked to be directed to a deli for breakfast.  I told my daughter Delis and restaurants in general in New York were all good because the competition was fierce, and any establishment that didn't have great food wouldn't make it for long. 

She had chocolate chip pancakes, and I had French toast.  She said they were her favorite diner (and the only diner she'd been to in New York City).    We then went on a walk towards Central Park.  Our hotel was so very well positioned.  We were on 46th, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.   We could get to so many places with not more than a short walk. 

We decided to take a horse carriage ride around Central Park.  My daughter immediately bonded with the horse (who liked her carrots).  We learned about all sorts of things, the most interesting being there were lots of rocks to climb. 

After our ride through the park, we went and climbed some of the schist rock.  My daughter loved the rocks.  At about that time, our room was ready, so we headed back, taking a picture of ourselves in front of Radio City Music Hall. 

Our next plan was to go to the Museum of Ice Cream (yes, that is a thing!)  We ate loads of ice cream and played in a pool of sprinkles at the end of the tour.   We were also very full because we decided we needed five cups of pineapple sorbet each. 

We were getting tired, and it was dark at this point, so we walked home and stopped to get a slice of pizza on the way back to our room.   Pizza was everywhere, but there was one just across from our hotel.  My daughter now understands what her father talked about with the difference in the crust.   She said the crust was amazing.  

We fell straight to sleep, our feet not realizing they would only get more tired over the next few days.

 

Eleven O'clock...Maybe I Should Pack?

It's eleven at night and we leave for the airport in the morning at five AM.   I need to pack but we're finishing things before I head up to bed and packing.  I have my daughter's things ready and hopefully, it won't take long to get mine together.  Hopefully.  I'm tired. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son has been doing all the KiwiCo and Crunch Labs kits he's gotten in the mail.  Sometimes he goes through a phase where he has no interest in them.  Then at some point he's ready to do them again.  He just built a sand table that has magnets under the table that will push a little ball bearing around in the sand above.  Some of these kits are so amazingly clever.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter called out earlier this evening when she had a Guinea pig on her shirt, "Mom, he's eating my sequences!"   What in the world?  Oh, I remembered she was wearing a flip shirt that had a pattern in sequins.   

Voiceover Tired

Seventeen seconds!  That's all I had to do with some voiceovers I'm doing for a client.  This was for five videos, each on a different filament.  I can talk about these filaments easily because I know of them, have used the filaments, and I've known the company for a number of years,  but the problem is, can I do so in seventeen seconds.  

The answer is no.  Writing copy for a short amount of time is much harder than writing a lot of things for a large amount of time.  Whittling down just the right words to get the most information conveyed with the excitement level needed was far harder than I anticipated. 

I am officially very tired because seventeen seconds turns out to be a long time.  

The Doorbell Answerers:  Did I mention one of the best things about having children is not having to answer the doorbell?  They love running to get the door, competing with each other and yelling to let them answer it because it's their turn.   Very cute.   I stay hidden in the basement. 

Time, Money, Space

There is a lady I have worked with from a social media perspective.   She and I have similar interests, although she has a fashion direction, and I am terrible when it comes to fashion.   She has come up with some wonderfully beautiful and creative new ways to use 3D printing in fashion. 

She is always positive.  I love her videos because she's just a happy person.   She put up a video a few days ago that was a beautiful message that was a positive challenge, not in any way a complaint on her part.    

She asked what was keeping you from accomplishing things you wanted to: time, money, or space?  She said she would share a little of her life and proceeded to show her entire living space with her boyfriend, which was smaller than our bedroom.   They had one couch, which is also their bed.   They each have their studios in the space.  Kitchen and bathroom were shared accommodations (they are in London).   

She has accomplished a lot, and she is doing so with significant constraints.   Her message wasn't about her, it was more about saying we shouldn't let things stop us.

My Son: Really likes going through the VR version of the house plans.   We just got this up and running last night and he's already running around the house, changing the seasons outside and the time of day and making suggestions. 

My Daughter:  Is bored.   We go to New York City on Friday.  She will hopefully not be bored then. 

VR House

I was going to write a long post, but my husband just got the house up and running with the VR headset.   It's something he and one of the architects have been working on, and it's working.   This is sort of exciting, walking around your future home before you've even broken ground. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son got very angry today.  Not because he was caught getting screens when he shouldn't have, but because he was caught before he even had a chance to use the screen he'd absconded with. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter does NOT want to do the sign language with a song for her choir. She is just against it.   I hope I can convince her to do the signs, they are quite beautiful when the whole choir is doing them. 

Out of The Woodwork

What in the world does that saying mean?  I don't know the origin of the phrase, but I know it means all manner of things you'd not expect to happen or appear.   We've gotten to a size where apparently we're having this happen.   I have someone who is managing solicitations for us.   He's pretty good because he can be friendly enough to say no rather quickly but shrewd enough to quote rates and be firm about what we're not committing to while they're taking all the risk—and paying us to do so. 

We have no plans on reneging on any commitments. Payment is required first, which doesn't seem to be a problem, and then they wait.   They mostly wait because I'm trying to do a good job and find the right thing to do or show for their product.   I really do want to do a good job for the companies.   That was my goal from the start: to connect people and filament.

We're going to talk in the next day or two to see how things are going, what new business we need to get started on, and what other development we need to do to add the next level of functionality to the website.   I'm going through the messages, and I'm seeing some interesting ones that are the woodwork kind. 

For instance, there is someone with a product idea they're trying to get patented.  He wants to know if he could work with us to create the product for his patent.    We don't design products for people.   At all.  Heck, I want to get some time to learn CAD design for our own purposes but Filament Stories and family and everything else, and there isn't enough time left in the day, so I learn a wee bit here and there.   

I hate to say no to someone, but this is a definite no.   Or, perhaps he's asked for more information so he can determine if it's work he wants to do?  That's been one nice thing about this arrangement:  there are things people are coming to us for that we don't do, but our producer does.   Some of these people just want help and don't know where to go.   There isn't a yellow pages for everything,   Or for anything anymore, really. 

We won't be designing and building a fingernail cleaning and polishing battery-operated mahoodledinky.  Hopefully, he can find someone who can help him.  I haven't the foggiest idea who to send him to.

The Big Boy Update:  My son's broken tooth in the front of his upper jaw broke again.  He looks so very odd with most of a front tooth missing.  He looks like another child.  He's going to get it fixed tomorrow.  Hopefully it'll stay this time. 

The Tiny Girl Chroicles:  My daughter has a raging ear ache, that is likely swimmer's ear.  We went to urgent care today and she now has drops, and in case it continues to get worse, oral antibiotics.   Her eardrum looks fine and she doesn't have any fluid behind it so there is no reason to treat it systemically now if it's just an outer ear canal infection.   Tomorrow we'll see if she needs the other medication.  It sounded like it was getting better thought.  

It's That Time of Weight

It's that time.  The time when you've put off getting serious about losing the weight you've gained.  And then you get to a certain weight, or perhaps something doesn't fit anymore, and you've just had it.  Or, maybe there are things coming up, and you really don't want to look bad for them.  So you get serious and plan on eating salmon and broccoli exclusively for the next three months.  

We're home; tomorrow is Easter, and we brought back far too much candy.   I need to remember how to exercise. 

The Guinea Pigs & The Children:  We were all so excited to see the Guinea pigs when we got home. We'd been watching them on the camera in their cage area but there was nothing quite like seeing them in person.   My son was so excited.   For five minutes.  Then he let Kix run free in the room, which was a pain to deal with.  My daughter wanted to do so much more.  She even wanted to give them a bath.   I cut their nails.   They are more "cared for" than they probably wanted to be at this point.  

Packed Up

We leave in the morning to go home.  We're all packed. I'm ready to go home, fun as vacation has been.  The Guinea pigs have been over twenty-four hours with no one taking care to clean their cage (which is okay, but I don't like them living in their own mess.   We'll be home tomorrow and the first thing I'm doing after hugging them both is going to be to get their cage clean.  

I can't pick up the dog until Sunday, but we'll welcome her home with a lot of love too.  Vacation is fun, but so is coming home.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son had a lot of screens this week, but he also had a good bit of time off them. He still needs to go to anger management school or something.  He gets so angry. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter's toes and fingers have had their skin worn away by the concrete and surrounding pool areas.  They would start bleeding easily.  I tried to bandaid them but to no avail.  Rubber gloves and water shoes saved her for the rest of the final day of swimming here.   

Migraine x2

After one of the rides yesterday I got a sudden headache.  Was it a migraine or was it related to the ride.  There were some factors in the social dynamics at the time and I was wanting to sit down.   We'd been walking around or standing waiting for six hours and my back had had it.  I wanted to rest.   I didn't want to do this other ride which was on the way to the place where we could get food.   I didn't believe that out in this other area there would be seating easily available because everything else was packed with people standing around as overage. 

So when we got to the, "we're going to take a break to get some food now" bit, my head sort of blew up.   It felt like a migraine, but it could have been from the last ride.  I honestly don't know.  What I did know was that I wasn't going on the next ride.   We went back to the locker area, and I saw some indoor/outdoor carpet just inside the building.  There were some other people sitting there waiting to meet someone, perhaps.   I said to leave me there, and I would be fine. 

I don't remember what happened next.  I lay down on my side and tried to block out the repetitive message, and five minutes later they were back.  Only it wasn't five minutes, it was forty-five.  I remembered nothing of the time, but the good news was that my headache had abated.  

We did a few more things, ending with Hagrid's ride, which was amazing.  As we got in the car, my headache was coming back.  It was getting worse.   It was getting very bad.   I didn't have anything to take while we were at the park, but I had some migraine medication in the room.  I took that and tried to fight down nausea from the pain.   I ran a tub of hot, hot water and lay in it, trying to get the throbbing to subside.

I had vomited before getting in the tub.  I was hoping that would help things, but I don't think it really did. I was in crazy pain   This second version of my headache was so bad I could barely function.   I hate getting on the bed when I'm wet, but I had no choice.   My husband came back from getting food and I said meekly that I was trying to get over the headache.   He left me alone.  

I woke up at five in the morning hungry, but headache-free.  I warmed the mozzarella sticks from the dinner he had ordered me and fell back to sleep.  No recurrence today, but I get the distinct feeling it's still lingering back there, ready to return when I least suspect it.  

The Children's Favorite Things:  Everyone went over their favorite things from Universal Studios yesterday.   We all had Hagrid's ride in the top.  Diagon Alley was a definite favorite of everyone.  The Harry Potter world is done so beautifully there.  My daughter liked all the rides.  My son loved The Simpson's ride as well as the huge Simpson's doughnut he got that we all helped him eat on account of it being the size of a cake!  And butterbeer was another favorite.  I liked it so much I had two of them!

Universal Was...Not That Bad!

Before you pass judgment on me as an all-around curmudgeon, let me explain.   My family didn't take trips to Disney (Land or World) when I was young every year.  We did go once, and I have specific and happy memories of that trip, but suffice it to say, I didn't grow up in a Disney-focused house.

Which is absolutely fine.  I think it's wonderful that children and adults love Disney alike and have so much fun on vacation there that they want to go back every year.   Disney knows how to do entertainment right.   It's even better when you have children and you can enjoy Disney through the wonder and excitement in their eyes. 

Only that's not how it happened for me.  Two way too young children that couldn't be contained, big crowds, long lines, all for two minutes in a ride or attraction was not my idea of fun.   When it was finally time to get lunch, the lines were awdul, there was no place to sit and I had two children I was supposed to keep under control while the food was ordered and a table was (hopefully) located.   That's when I had my Disney meltdown.  

From that point onward I have been a Disney skeptic.   I agree it can be lots of fun and a wonderful vacation for your family.  But it is also the same thing for way too many other families.  It's a big question that people study, there are apparently apps or websites on the best times to go to Disney for a less-crowded experience.  Which means things are leveled out as families go at different times.  

Is there even a way to have a not crazy crowded experience?  I doubted it.  I was a supreme skeptic.  I am happy to report that our day at Universal yesterday was very nice.  We had fun—all of us.  We rode rides and didn't have to wait a long time.  Food was fairly quickly available.  We ate junk food and had Butter Beer (non-alcoholic), and rode more rides.   

We arrived early and went straight to the Harry Potter area.  It was filling with people, but it wasn't shoulder-to-shoulder packed, and there were places that had no people in them.   The line for Olivanders was very long for the wand-purchasing experience.  But there was a vendor right around the corner with all the wands laid out that had only one other person there.  Something that might have taken over an hour was completed in five minutes. 

The rides were much the same, but this is where there was a catch.   The ride wait times were already up in the 100+ minute wait zone.   We had a different type of ticket, though.   It's basically paying to have higher priority.   I wondered if it would lose its value because everyone would want to have what amounted to first class seats.  It didn't seem like a lot of people took this option because we never waited more than ten minutes from the point of entering the line to getting on the attraction.  

We did a loose tally of how many more rides/attractions we were able to do as a result of the tickets, or perhaps we looked at it in the other direction.   We would have only been able to do a fraction of the rides.  

Was it worth the extra cost?  We thought it was.   Everyone had a very fun day.   Everything in the Harry Potter area was masterfully done.   I'm glad I had a chance to go. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son had a lot of fun today.   He was fun to be with.   We held hands so we wouldn't get separated.  He was sweet.   It was very nice.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter had more confidence than I've seen in a good long while.  She knew everything. She could take us anywhere on property.  She remembered which rides you could keep your belongings but you had to check backpacks or other bags in a locker before going.   She knew where the spell locations were to try your wand and spellcasting experience.  It was so nice seeing her know more than the rest of us.   We almost always know more just because we can see.  It made me really happy and I tried to ask her questions—which she was spot on in answering.  

Vacation Within Vacation

We are now in the middle of our vacation within a vacation.  We have gone from my in-law's house to Orlando where we are at staying the night before an early morning that we'll be heading over to Universal Studios for the day.  

I am very worried it will be a mob scene there since it's the easter spring break week of a lot of schools.  Tomorrow we will know for sure.  I think it's going to be a long day, 

We were going to see Aunt Kelly and Uncle Eric, but they had an unexpected change of plans and can't make it.  We're sad we're missing them, but everyone understands.  We'll see them next time!

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter was really nice to the people at the place we're staying.  She's been here before, she told them.  She was very chatty with the people as we were heading to our room.   Had she been here before?  Yes, my husband said, they stayed here when they went to Disney a few years back.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son forgot his iPad on this two-day trip.  He is so furious at his father.  We are telling him that his iPad was at single digit power and it was charging.  It was his responsibility to make sure it was in his backpack when we left.   He doesn't like to take responsibility. 

The Fashion District For Cabinets?

We went to downtown Miami today.   Or rather, yesterday, I posted this a day late.  But for the sake of this post, let's pretend it's still today.    We were going to a showroom for a closet, cabinet, kitchen cabinet, anything cabinet you can imagine company that is from Brazil.   

The salesperson had flown in from Manhattan, her main office, to meet with us.   This was quite a thing to think about, especially since there is a lot at stake when it comes to cabinetry for a whole house.   We had been told by our architect that if we wanted to consider this company, they would become more competitive price-wise if we looked at having them do anything we needed in the cabinet/closet realm.  

So we talked and looked, and she showed us options, and they could do anything it seemed.  The height of depth or width didn't matter because everything was custom.  The finishings were different depending on how you planned on using the space.  It took a bit for me to understand that when she was pointing to the closet area when I was talking about kitchen cabinets, it really didn't matter.   They could customize anything to work anywhere. 

Once I figured out that, it made more sense, and we were able to think about things in a different way.   As we left, she is going to come up with some ideas for two areas of the house.   We are not certain we're going to use this company, although we like them a lot.   I don't want her to waste any time.  We'll know soon enough what way we want to go.  

All of these decisions are hard to think about in concert together.  The most interesting thing is one of our architects has put the house in an Unreal 3D Engine program.   He pulled up the house today and it was amazing.  It looked like you were in a real yard with the house in front of it.   We could walk through and see the trees on the other side.   It was amazing.   He's going to set it up so we can use the VR glasses and go through it at the house.   Amazing, really amazing technology. 

The Children Bicker:  Do you have a sibling?  Do you get along all the time?  Do you bicker and touch and poke and bug each other and then are fast friends again?  I don't understand how the children are together.  I was an only child. 

Horological Tiny in the Sun

I became interested in watch repair sometime back when I found two YouTube channels of people doing watch repair.   The repair was interesting but the taking apart and putting back together the watches was the most fascinating part to me.   The pieces were so incredibly tiny and yet so precise. 

Watches that were made eighty years ago were so beautifully crafted with little tiny screws, so amazingly tiny yet to exacting standards.   I wanted to see this for myself.  So I got some basic equipment that is outrageously inexpensive on Amazon for a kit of low-quality screwdrivers and other tools.   I also got some loupes and a way to hold the loupe to your eye with a band around your head.   

I was ready, I had some low-cost watches from eBay that may or may not even have all the parts to them because they weren't running.   I brought the watches and the tools, and I went out in the bright sun at the pool with the plan to take apart a watch or two.  

I have taken two apart now.  I have no plans to restore them.  This was more of a discovery step to see if I could see for myself.  With the loupe on, the screws and other parts don't look all that small.  When I have it off, I can barely see them in the bottom of the little container I was storing them in.   

I have more broken watches.   I am going to take apart more because the two I had weren't ideal candidates as they were partially electric.   I want to find the jewels, which are synthetic yet so precisely milled.   It's exciting stuff!

The Children In The Pool:  They were in the pool all day.   From breakfast until after seven o'clock when my mother-in-law called us in for Easter Sunday dinner one week early since we'll be traveling next week.   They had a good and exhausting day today. 

An Honest to Gosh Lazy Day

I had a truly lazy day today.   I got up sometime after nine o'clock.  I went to sleep earlyish and didn't have to do anything in particular after we arrived, and the pot roast had made it onto all our plates and into our bodies.   No one complained about pot roast because we all love it.  

Some pool time was had, and the hot tub is still as wonderful as I remember it being.  This morning I had some coffee, a coffee cake with pear in it that was homemade by my mother-in-law.   I've never had pear coffee cake before.   The pear went with the cinnamon and sugar much more seamlessly than I would have expected.  

We had pool time today.   I was out at the pool with my head-mounted loupe and a watch I'd been meaning to take apart for over a year now.    I brought my tools down to Florida, and in a very non-standard horological work location, I worked on disassembling one of the watches poolside.   I don't think I lost any parts, but I'm not completely sure.   Watch parts are internally small.  I will never understand how they are milled to such exacting standards and then sold for such low prices.  

The children played in the pool while I squinted at a very tiny mechanical device.   After that, I was tuckered out and fell asleep for a spell.  My daughter tried to wake me up several times and kept laughing at me because I was answering her while half-asleep.  I vaguely remember answering and then realizing I was asleep, and the answers made no sense.  My daughter finally got me up for dinner.

Taco Tuesday on Saturday is a tradition with my children and their grandparents.   We had all kinds of delicious taco ingredients tonight, all prepared by Nana.   Everyone was full.  

My daughter and I played some cards, and now I'm about to go back to sleep.  It has been a very lazy day, indeed. 

Che-Me-Mo:  Pronounce that phonetically and that's how the children chant Cheerio's name.  I'm telling you, he is the most beloved guinea pig.   Kix is very loved as well, but Cheerio is (apparently) the favorite pet going through the drive through at our morning Starbucks as well.   A high honor.   Tonight my children and I stopped and were completely quiet, listening.   We all three heard Cheerio's peeping sound. What in the world?  It turned out to be a squeaky handle on a domino case.   We all suddenly got Cheerio homesick.  

We Made It...Barely

Fly by the seat of my pants is how I felt today was progressing.   I have never, ever, been so unprepared for the hour of departure to arrive.  I've always had my list checked off and checked twice.   Today, it was a mad dash to get out of the house.

I fell asleep last night with my clothes on on top of the covers with the light on and things happening around me.  Until I was woken up by a crying child and another child who had stolen the guinea pig to bring to me.   It all worked out, and I got to go to sleep.  I got up very early, got the dog to the boarders, and made it home to pack and get to the airport in time to make the flight.  

I only forgot, well, I'm not sure what I've forgotten, but I'm sure there's something. 

The Children Are Babies:  I swear, can they not make it more than thirty minutes without being separated for trying to annoy each other into a fight?   We had to keep them separated for ma lot of the trip.   Arriving here and getting to Nana and Papa's made all the difference in the world, though.  They are happy siblings again.