Cockatiel in alcohol ink on marker paper

I mentioned my kid was a good artist, right?

Talented

Both of my parents were artists, whether they got paid for it or not. My dad earned extra money doing lettering and pinstriping on boat transoms, and he was an avid carver when he was retired. My mom taught watercolor classes and could have sold her own work, if she had the interest. Dad could build furniture; Mom could make kick-ass Halloween costumes.

I inherited the interest, but not the grit required to practice something until I was really good at it. I can’t draw or paint, and my furniture-building skills only look good if the furniture in question is on a stage and the audience is pretty far away. I’m good at copying things, and I’m good at following directions, which is why the needle arts have always come easily to me. My knitting and crochet may not always be beautiful, but it’s generally RIGHT, even if I had to fudge a few things to get there.

When Liza started showing interest in art, I did everything I could to support her. Supplies, lessons, attention, dedicated space for her to work ... look back through the blog, it’s all there. And to my surprise, she’s kept at it, even when things weren’t working out to her satisfaction. She’s putting in the hours, and it shows.

My dad passed away before he really had a chance to see Liza’s talent bloom, but my mother stuck around long enough to see the first flowers. She was always so proud of Liza’s work, always happy to have her art on the fridge or in a frame. They did some projects together, back before Mom got sick, and I wish they had been able to do a lot more. My mom would have been so proud to see how much Liza has improved in the last year.

You know you have too many fossils when ...

The highway department uses these to make the steps down to a fishing spot next to the highway:

Ah, Brookville Lake - you're just filthy with fossils.

I am now one step closer to dying happy

So here it is: the hotel I've been waiting to stay in since 1970-something.

This is the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, MI.

It's all old and fancy and stuff, with eccentricities and a dress code.

It's so fancy, even your luggage gets to ride in a carriage from the dock to the hotel.

Even the retired ashtrays are fancy.

There's plenty to do - you can kick back on the world's longest porch.

Or splash around in a pool that was once used by Esther Williams.

You can engage in civilized sports, like croquet and bocce.

If you have lots of time, you can try to count how many geraniums are planted at the hotel.

You can play "spot-the-geraniums" everywhere you go, since they're on everything - posters, napkins, hand soap, even the furniture.

Not pictured: Eating a ridiculously expensive breakfast while practicing our best manners and being called "Princess" and "Milady."  Being carded - seriously - to prove we're guests and don't have to pay $10 to enter the hotel.  Listening to the harpist in the lobby while playing Oven Break on the iPod.  Taking the stairs rather than the elevator because we though it looked more elegant.  Trying to refrain from taking ALL of the geranium-scented bath products in our room to send to my mother.  Watching the hotel photographer taking shots each night on the porch, and being glad we raised our own photographer and brought her with us.

Jason was stuck in a conference room all day, but ironically he probably enjoyed more of the hotel amenities (especially breakfast and lunch) than Liza and I did.  We girls spent most of our time out and about, not learning about "lean innovation" and networking over lunch at the Jockey Club.  But everything we did do at the hotel more than lived up to my hopes and expectations. It was fancy, and sorta stuffy, and hilarious, and awesome.  I'd go back again in a heartbeat ... especially if Jason has another conference there someday!

A brief interruption

Because this is the coolest machine ever:

 http://www.fi.edu/learn/sci-tech/automaton/automaton.php?cts=instrumentation

My baby, she's all famous and stuff!

If you can't see the embedded video, here's the old school link: http://shine.yahoo.com/event/momentsofmotherhood/kids-soak-up-sun-sand-and-surf-2511561/

Best part?  I got paid for a video I shot in 2007!

If I start saving now ...

... how long would it take me to afford to go on Zero G?

Crud, I'll have to save up enough for two of us to go, since they allow kids as young as 8 on board.  Good thing Jason isn't interested, or it'd take even longer to get there.

This one's for you, Jen

(audio is NSFW, due to an extremely large concentration of cursing, especially in an illustrated children's book)

Forty-eight inches

In case you've forgotten, my daughter is now 48" tall, which means she's tall enough to go on many of the roller coasters and spinning rides at Cedar Point.  This is a good thing, because if we'd had to hold her to the meager selection of rides available to the 46" tall kids for another year, someone's head would have exploded.

Liza has been in love with roller coasters pretty much since the first time she saw one, and generally she's not scared to climb right aboard and try anything she's tall enough to ride.  Makes sense, right?  She's always been the kid who wants to go higher, harder, faster, longer.  So this year we got season passes to the park and have gone about once a week since school let out.

Once a week.

I'll let you absorb that for a moment while you think about how many nausea-inducing rides I've had to endure in the past four weeks ...

I don't actually mind riding these with her - just not half a dozen times in a row - especially since we've been going to the park in the evenings during the week to take advantage of the smaller crowds.

I mean, seriously?  Fifteen minutes' wait to ride a coaster I've waited as much as 2.5 HOURS for in the past?  Sign me up!  Liza isn't tall enough to ride some of the most popular attractions, so we're doubly lucky and can frequently just walk right up and get onto our chosen ride.  Sometimes we even get walk-on front seats.

Waiting in line isn't always a bad thing, though.  Last time Liza and I were there by ourselves, we used the walking and wait times to concoct a story about her secret identity, The Pink Streak, fighter of crime and archenemy of the Iron Dragon.

Jason isn't that big of a Cedar Point fan, and he has to work during the week so that Liza and I have money for overpriced pizza and parking, so he's only come along once this year.  I'm glad he did, though, since it gave him the chance to see how gleeful Liza is at the park, and it gave me the chance to ride some of the attractions Liza's not qualified for (yet).  It's been killing me that I can look at maXair, and I can see there's no line, but I still can't ride it because there's no one with me to watch Liza.

Having him along as a photographer was pretty handy, too, especially once I told him how to prep the camera to get faster shots.

We're taking a girl-scout-camp-induced hiatus from the park for a week or two, but when we go back I'll have to bring the camera with me, even if it is a pain to lug around.  I've had plenty of time to scope out some nice shots, and now I just have to work on getting the lighting and framing just right ...

Wonder if I'd get in trouble for bringing in a tripod ... those sunset shots aren't going to focus themselves, you know.

Patio pics, part the first

Remember the patio room?  You know, the one that we started prepping for a year ago, poured the pad for last year, and started building a month ago?

It's (almost) done.  The contractors are finished, we've been able to use the semi-finished room for a couple of weeks, and the building permit is gone from the front window of my house.

But in order to save money, I'm doing some of the finishing work myself.  Why pay the contractors to install a floor and paneling when I can do it myself (and take 10 times longer, curse more, and have it look almost as good as if it was done by professionals)?

(primed, not painted, so don't worry, it will look better soon)

The humans haven't been using the room to its full potential yet - we haven't even ordered the carpet, and walking around on the DRIcore subfloor barefoot isn't the best idea - but that hasn't stopped other family members from taking full advantage of the three walls of glass surrounded by birds and squirrels (and even an occasional chipmunk).

 

I've got to get one final coat of trim paint on the paneling, wait for the carpet to be installed, and I'll be done.  And then it will be party time!

The traditional spring "Wow, look how high the river is today" post

Yeah, I talk about the river a lot.  And we go there a lot, especially in the spring, because it's just so darn interesting.

The weather has been so weird this year that we didn't make it down to the river until last week.  We brought out rubber boots with us and scoped out a few favorite spots, like the frog pond.

An old friend - who may actually be old enough to remember us from previous years, if herons have enough brain cells for that - was remarkably tolerant of a certain Nosy Parker who wanted to watch him eat dinner.

 We climbed around on our favorite knobbly trees (as best we could while wearing rubber fireman boots).

We checked to make sure that the antique graffiti hadn't disappeared over the winter (it hadn't).

 

We made mudcastles and looked for crawdads (found one, too!). 

We took artsy photos we'll probably never get around to selling.

And, oh, yeah - we watched the whitewater kayakers.  


Kayaks! On our little bitty stream that's more of a drainage ditch than a river for 11 months of the year!

Seriously, these guys were having so much fun, and they were so cool about letting us watch and take pictures.  I wish I had gotten one of their e-mail addresses so I could send them some of the shots I got - they turned out really well, considering I have never even seen the sport in real life before.

It was a great end to a great afternoon.  Looking forward to more river adventures later this summer (when the water goes back down!).

I loves me a big project now and then

So when I told Jason he could buy a fire pit thingy if he'd let me put it somewhere that it wouldn't burn holes in my yard every time he wanted to burn something, I'm not sure this is exactly what he had in mind:

That's 46 bags of pea gravel, a role of industrial-strength landscape cloth, three rolls of pound-in edging, a few bricks leftover from the patio I laid a few years ago, and a day and a half of my time.  And a bunch of grass I don't have to mow anymore!  Huzzah!

Srsly, I've been sort of busy lately

You can read more about the epic Angry Birds party preparations here.  And here.  Also here.  And did I mention here?  I told you it was epic!

Also, please start humming "Sunrise, Sunset" while perusing the following photos:

5th birthday: http://mind-flush.blogspot.com/2010/05/thank-goodness-rain-held-off.html

4th birthday: http://mind-flush.blogspot.com/2009/05/whew.html

3rd birthday: http://mind-flush.blogspot.com/2008/05/more-partying.html

2nd birthday: http://mind-flush.blogspot.com/2007/05/taking-advantage-of-dsl-birthday-pics.html

1st birthday: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9047701054124759441#