I'm walking around right now with a big shiner.

No, no, Dan hasn't been beating me...although it would sound better if he had been.

My two year old son did it.

The other day Dan, Liam and I were having a family tickle fight on the bed in our room. Liam has the best giggle ever (well, next to Teresa). He was giggling up a storm. I picked him up and rolled onto my back so he was lying face up on my tummy and I could tickle him from below. Dan was beside us getting both of us. Liam got really silly and started flailing, lifted his head and then snapped it back right on my eye.

The fun ended right there. I curled up holding my eye and feeling the lump swell under my hand. Liam was so scared. He kept saying "Mommy hurt" and trying to kiss me better. It was very cute in a trematic sort of way. I sucked it up and "felt better" for his benefit and then went downstairs and put ice on it.

Now I have this big black eye to try and explain to people...it's kind of fun really :)

So I have to apologize for my flakiness lately. A lot of what I blog depends, in a strange way, on my morning routine. I get up and do the route, think up something to say, and then turn on the computer and say it. At least that's what usually happens. These days, I get up and do the route and whatever I start to think about enevitably turns into html or story ideas that I can't share with you guys. Whenever I do have a good blog, Liam seems to know it. He's awake and raring to go. I lose my steam, and the blog doesn't happen.

At least that's my excuse ;)

So here's for everyone who's tired of reading about my creative dilema's.....

~~~

The Britch Story...

So Dan says to me for the forth or fifth time..."What is Scott's girlfriends name again?"

I replied,"Really it shouldn't be this hard for you to remember dear, it's my name but with an "r".

*Pause*

My loving husband says, "So her name is Britch?".

~~~

True story...I should submit it too readers digest ;) The girlfriends name is Trina for those of you who (like my husband) aren't too bright.

~~~

NorthAmerican Beauty

I did something this weekend that'll surprise the pants off of the lot of you...
After a bottle and a half of wine and a litre of cooler...I had a weak moment. Someone offered me a bit of pot, and I accepted.............
To put this in perspective, it's been 8 years since I last tried it at a New Years party. I spent the night being sick after one toke.
Before that, it was 2 years since I smoked anything, I had opted to quit for various reasons...

So it's been 10 years since I was a strung out pothead.

1 toke the other night was all it took to sober me up and send me into an episode of the X-Files. Paranoid, surrial, and feeling out of place, I went straight to bed. I had forgotten why I hate the stuff so much...Now I remember...And it's still not something I enjoy doing. So the obvious solution (again) is to just not do it.

I guess I just wanted to remind myself

A test from Jackie's (and Netwoman's) Blogs

My results

Wackiness: 38/100
Rationality: 56/100
Constructiveness: 56/100
Leadership: 26/100

You are an SRCF--Sober Rational Constructive Follower. This makes you a White House staffer. You are a tremendous asset to any employer, cool under pressure, productive, and a great communicator. You feel the need to right wrongs, take up slack, mediate disputes and keep the peace. This comes from a secret fear that business can't go on without you--or worse, that it can.

If you have a weakness, it is your inability to say "no." While your peers respect you, they find it difficult to resist taking advantage of your positive attitude and eagerness to take on work. You depend on a good manager to keep you from sinking under the weight and burning out.

Sounds pretty much like the truth :)

So...do you guys miss me??? I know I've been ignoring my blog lately...but it's for a good cause, really :) I'm really excited about the web comic. It is a chance for me to show off my creative and altogether too devious mind ;) or is that devient???

I think I need a new name though. "Flotsam" is already taken...so think on it folks. It will losely be based on a)Columbus's first voyage and b) The Little Mermaid
Note that I say losely, but that's sort of the premise. I was thinking of calling it Flotsam: a mermaid's tail, but Leanne isn't a fan I don't think. So, anyone have any idea's???

~~~

I opted out of going to Quoquitlam (sp?) this weekend for several reasons...the heat is a big factor, as is sitting in a car with the kids for hours in said heat. Dan worked yesterday, so he wasn't going to go either. Which means Heat+Car+Single Mom=Chaos...also add in that we would be staying the night in a strange place full of people and other babies...and the fact that Teresa got sick on Friday night, and it just wasn't going to happen :(

I hate this heat.

A roofer came by the other day to look over our roof (a long story ) and says that whoever built this place squeaked it in just under the bylaws. There needs to be more vents on the roof, and this is why our house is a sauna right now...sure wish I had a ceiling fan....

...Sure wish my spellcheck worked >:o( ...

Page one is up!!! I couldn't wait any longer :) I've started networking with other web artists to get link exchanges going...so I thought they should at least see that we have a site. When I claim that we actually have a web comic...well now we do !! Updates will be twice a month on like Mondays or something.

I spent a lot of time in the last couple of days working on the website for Flotsam
Now I need to tweek, and add a no frames version and I think I'm ready. Let me know what you guys think. I use Mozilla as a browser, so let me know if I need to fix any glaring mistakes in explorer and netscape :)

I couldn't sleep tonight because my creative juices were flowing so fast I needed to write them all down. I have the first 6 chapters ready to go now, just needing to fill in minor details like dialog ;) It's nice to have the visual aid of the artwork (or the literary aid of the writing) to help the story along. This is going to be fun!

I think where I failed with Storytelling vampire and demon was the interaction with my players. My plot was good, but my dialog sucked. We'll see how it goes with fictional people/victims instead of real ones ;)

ps @%$#* no spellcheck!

In closing for the "Kevin Smith week" , Here's a link that Randy sent me...Flying Car

Did I mention???...Yay Sean!!!

I want to thank you again Sean for helping us out yesterday. Dan and I really appreciate the chance to go out on a date ...5th one ever ;) ...and actually talk about anything other than the kids :) And your work on the fence was also very much appreciated....thank you, thank you, thank you! With out your help, an afternoons worth of work might have taken a couple of months' weekends.

For everyone else...
1) Sean's a wonderful person and deserves a hug
2) If you're looking for a good place to go for wings, check out the Colwood pub :) The Times Colonist rated thier wings 3rd best in the city. But Dan and I agree that we've never had better dry pepper wings. I can vouch for the terriaki as well....Mmmmmmmmmm!
3) I'm a little slow this morning, I've caught the brown bottle flu ;)
4)Really this should be higher on the list...Leane and I have finished the first page of our comic, and it looks awsome! I'm going to work on the website for it today. I'll just use my telus account for the webspace :) I'll start posting it once we have a few pages ready to go.
5) Stoopid blogger spellcheck :(

Who comes up with this stuff?????

Ola
They've changed how posting works at blogspot...yay! Now I can post things like this........................................................................................................... . . .
Nevermind, aparently it's still in the planning stages...sigh

I've been working lately on a script for a comic called "Flotsam" . It'll be losely based on the origanal "Little Mermaid" tale by Grimms...the one where everybody dies in the end :) Leanne has offered to do the artwork for it...so if it's a little quiet on this site, that's why.

Argh! The spellcheck doesn't work anymore either :(

One of Scott's friends has bought a house and moved in with his girlfriend. He decided to get rid of all of his old VHS tapes and Scott made him an offer. $10 for 3 boxes of tapes...Not bad. Anyways, we watched Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back the other night...

I've avoided this one because I thought it looked stupid. I think I've been jaded by all of the summer blockbuster comedic crap that they put out these days, ala American pie. I should have remembered who wrote it. I've haven't laughed that hard in ages...I'm not sure if that makes me an unfit mother or not, I'm sure real mom's don't like gratuitous swearing and blowjob jokes ;)

So in honor of Kevin Smith I declare this week to be Kevin Smith quote week...If any of you have a favorite quote from any of his movies (Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob SB, or anything else that I don't know about) send it too me or post it on the tag board.

I have a lot of pent up writing to get through this morning...3 or 4 different posts right now :) Usually I forget what I want to say by the time my computer finally boots up...So I've started taking notes whenever an idea pops into my head.

~~~

There are a lot of deer living in my neighborhood. It isn't unusual for me to spot a few of them as I delivery newspapers in the mornings. In fact it's an odd day when I don't. Yesterday I was crossing a large property near the end of my route. The yard is mostly a rolling field (or lawn I guess since it's manicured), with a gravel driveway that cuts through the middle running downhill. The house sprawls at the bottom of the yard surrounded by flowerbeds. The whole thing is probably 4 acres.

Anyways, there is usually a herd (or whatever you call them) of deer grazing somewhere around this area. They have become so used to me now that they'll just look up when I walk by, no further away then a car length sometimes. So I was non-plussed when I walked through the yard yesterday, and was approached by one of them. She walked directly towards me, ears straight up, tail down and stopped just out side of my comfort zone. I said good morning, and kept walking and looking at her.

When I reached the house I looked over again and was shocked...Right next to the path where I had been walking a little fawn stood up. It couldn't have been more then a month old. The mom had hidden her baby, and when she saw me coming she ran distraction until I got past it. I'll mention again, this was in the middle of an open field that was very well mowed. I had no idea it was there.

Nature is an amazing thing isn't it?

Yesterday was a busy day for the kids and I. I re-wrote my essay at noon while they took a tour of the campus led by Grandma. Liam got to see the big saltwater fishtank in the biology department, and play with some of the cool toys in the physics department. As for me, I feel that I did much better this time around.

A carload of my wacky relatives are in town this weekend. Two auties and three teenage boy cousins make for a houseful for Mom. I think I might offer up a tent and some space in my yard for the boys tonight...We'll see.

The boys haven't ever really been to Victoria before, so Mom and I are playing tour guides. Egypt exhibit tomorrow, and Hatley/Fort Rodd Hill today. The boys are really interested in seeing "Xaviers school for the exceptionally gifted" and if you want to spy on us, check this cam at around 10:00am tomorrow :)

Well, I've calmed down from this morning. Maybe I can get the message across without acting like an infernal hosebeast...But I doubt it.

I want Scott out of my house.

I'm tired of dealing with his attitude. I hate how he's always in my way. I dislike the bad habits he teaches Liam, like bad language and throwing things in the house. I despise the way he raids our CD stack for music and never puts it back, or even tells us where we can find it. I really hate the way he acts one way when Dan is home, and another when he's not. He's sullen, aggressive, verbally mean to me and Liam. And I've had enough of it.

It's my house, and I deserve to feel welcome in it. I've spoken to Dan about it and I thought he had agreed to kick him out...Except nothing was ever done about it. I admit that the situation has it's ups and downs. But the ups aren't going as high anymore, and the lows are hitting bottom. When I can't have a conversation without hissing and spitting...That's an old indication to me that something has to change before I change it myself. I need to be able to count on Dan for support...But he isn't listening, Scott ignores me when I talk to him about it...And the seconds are ticking down to detonation.

I have a very familiar feeling right now. It's the same one I had when I was 13 and left home and the same feeling I've gotten over the years akin to fight or flight.

$600 a month is nice, but if you choose that over your wife's sanity and happiness...Don't be surprised if you come home one day to Scott laid out across the kitchen floor next to a very dented frying pan...I'm just sayin'

Yesterday I went to Camosun again and spoke with Linda about my EPT results. I have to admit that it was a bit of an ego boost :) On the multiple choice area I scored a total of 116/120 !!! Which puts me in college level courses. Linda was just excited that I scored so highly with only a grade 7 English (the last level that I passed, pre-dropout).

My essay writing was another thing. 8/15 :( I'm using the excuse that it isn't something that I've done in ages...Because when she was going over it all I kept having to give my head a shake. Things like context...Keeping it to third person instead of jumping around, and using "they" and "it" instead of spelling out who and what they/it was. For example, "They use it as a new creative outlet." instead of, "The students now use TV watching and video game playing as a new creative outlet."

Anyways, I rewrite the essay on Friday.

The problem with college courses, is that they aren't as flexible as upgrading courses. I was looking for something that I could do from home. Maybe I'll have to look into Open Learning...

I have gmail :) ...sylentlucidity@gmail.com...

Bloggers get an invite automatically...maybe this will convert more of you slackers ;)

Good Morning !

I wanted to post this now before I leave for up island. If I didn't, then I probably wouldn't do it justice.

I've had a great little vacation the last couple of days. It was a lot of fun being single again, but I'm ready to see my kids again :)

Last night was a blast, I haven't hung out with Sean and Kevin in far too long. We had some really good conversation. It's been so long since I've had a real adult conversation with anyone but Dan, that it was a little rough at first, but once it got going...I laughed, I cried, it was better than "Cats".

A note for Cheryl :)

Kevin behaved himself very well. He had some very good things to say about you two, and is very obviously in love. The romantic poet in me was doing backflips over some of the stories he told, and I'm very happy for you both. It makes me less afraid to leave my house, knowing that happiness really does exist outside of it :)

Soooo...
One vehement bachelor down and two to go...

Back to the evening. Monty's sucked! The girls weren't enjoying themselves on stage or something. Sean enforced a tradition and coerced a group of lesbi*ns to sign my bre*sts. "No guys allowed, maybe Dan won't kill me".

I think the last time I went out for an evening like this was when Dan and I were only engaged. I remember being much more embarrassed at my behavior the next day. Besides changing cloths in the middle of the street (and not flashing anyone, much to Sean's dismay) I didn't perform to my usual standards. And I think I'm ok with that. Check out my photolog for pics :)

Evil Dead the Musical !!!!

Evil Dead the Musical !!!!

Play the game ;)

Essay re-write

Well, there you go. I just got off the phone with Linda from Camosun. She has just marked my assessment and says that I got very high grades in the reading comprehension, vocabulary, and language expression. My essay writing skills were there, but wasn't what they wanted from an academic viewpoint. So she has offered to go over it with me and let me retake the written portion of the test :) I'd really like to take some writing courses anyways, so even if I score higher, I might take a lower level course. It never hurts to know your stuff :)

Yay :)

So there we go...Finally!

I was having some issues with the templates provided by blogspot, I couldn't get the comments to work. I gave up on it for a couple of days because I was so frustrated...But I'm better now :)

I lost all of my links when I was switching templates around. I wasn't too worried, 'cause that's what Google is there for...But I can't find Leanne or Jackie's URL's at all. Anyone want to send them to me?

~~~

I took my EPT (English Placement Test) yesterday at Camosun. I don't get my results till next Friday. I think I did ok. The multiple choice was a synch, but I worry about the essay portion. It's been a long time since I've used proper structure in my writing...

You Can Tell By the Way I Use My Walk...

Dan is complaining that my blog has been boring lately. I agree, it has been...But at least I'm posting something :) To make amends, here is a descriptive review of the 24 hr relay lip sync winner...

~~~

1st place : Coast Capital, History of Barbie (I just made up the name, I have no idea what they called it)

Curtain up (well really there was no curtain, but it's Barbie...Use your imagination)

The stage is empty save for a row of tall, thin black boxes across the back of the stage. A blonde woman dressed in a scarlet evening dress (aka Carly Russel) stands with a microphone.

The recording wasn't the best, it was hard to hear what she said, but it started with "Welcome to the __th annual Barbie awards ceremony..."

At that point almost all of the boxes turned around, showing an array of Barbie and Ken "dolls" dressed in many different costumes. From offstage drives Ken in a cardboard pink Cadillac, dressed up in a suit and tie. Barbie enters stage right wearing a candy pink ballgown. The music in the background..(you'll never guess it)...Is the start to "I'm a Barbie Girl". Ken offers to take Barbie for a ride...And the dancing starts. The crowd loves the line about "you can do my hair, undress me anywhere". Mostly these two quasi ballroom dance and then fade back so the spot light is on Carly again. During this scene, the Barbies in the boxes are pressing their hands against the invisible plastic, keeping time to the beat.

Carly announces the next pair to "arrive" 50's Barbie. The music changes to "Let's go to the hop". 50's Barbie and Ken(Dan) are suddenly able to step out of their boxes and they start swing dancing around the stage. Barbie wears a poodle skirt, blouse and a sweater (I think), her hair is tied back in a pony tail with a scarf. Dan wears jeans and a t-shirt with a pack of cigarette's rolled up in the sleeve. They move off to the side and pose, Dan bent over hands on his knees..Barbie to his side leaning on him and resting her head in her hands. They both freeze with smiles.

Next up...Carly announces Disco Barbie. The music changes again, this time to "Stayin' Alive". Out of their boxes pop Disco Barbie and Afro Ken. They strut around and disco dance wearing sparkling outfits, and epitomize 70's fashion. The Fara Faucett hair on Barbie was great. They pose off to the side and onto the next act.

Tahitian Barbie...This one was great, "Barbie" does tahitian dancing for a living, so she had traditional outfits with head gear. She danced circles around Ken, and had the audience in awe of her belly dancing abilities. Next.

Western Barbie..."Boot Scooting Boogie" Barbie came out in a short jean skirt and pink cowboy hat and squaredanced around with Ken, who looked like he had a few superbowl Sundays to many...

Hip Hop Barbie...These guys were really good. "Barbie" choreographed the whole show, as she has a background in it. She had the hip hop moves down, and Ken wasn't so bad himself. The best part was when he took his shirt off for the crowd, I'm pretty sure that wasn't scripted though.

Now Carly stands up and announces that over the years there have been many successful Barbies and many not so successful ones...Recently their had been an application that was denied (Ok I'm ad-libbing here, I couldn't actually hear what she said) ...Reject Barbie!

The last black box turns around and out steps American Idol dude William Hung. Bright yellow Bermuda shirt, pants pulled up to high. He starts singing "Shabang" and gets a couple of lines into it before all of the Ken's step forward and drag him offstage.

The End

New template (again)

I like this one...now to get comments and quotes to work :)

Essential Parental Cliches

I've used more then a few of these. Not all of them on my children ;)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I was your age we...

Because you're the child and I'm the parent

Life isn't fair

When you're the parent, you'll make the rules

They call it bed time for a reason

Do I have to come up/in/over there?

You're bored? I'm Mom, nice to meet you.

Just a few more minutes/miles

Don't make me tell you again

That's twice, three strikes and you're out

You make a better door then a window

Eat your vegetables

So, I guess you don't like dessert anymore?

Because it's my house

Because it's my car

Because I'm the parent

Just because

I can't wait until you have kids

Can you keep the noise down to a dull roar?

Are you trying to heat/cool the whole neighborhood?

Money doesn't grow on trees

I'll give you something to cry about

Maybe

You'll spoil your dinner

Find something to do

Do you have something you want to tell me about?

You won't be happy until someone loses an eye

If _____ jumped off a bridge, would you?

I hope your kids are just like you

When I was your age, we didn't have...

This is why we can't have nice things

You're not going out looking like that

No son/daughter of mine is...

This is going to hurt me more then it hurts you

Do you want to catch pneumonia?

This is why I have grey hair

You have nothing to do? I'll give you something to do

There are kids starving in...

Because it's good for you

Don't make me ask you again

The food left on your plate could feed a small village in...

Your face is going to stay like that

Too bad, so sad

Go to your room to cry

Because I said so

While you're under my roof, you'll follow my rules

Children should be seen and not heard

Don't make me pull this car over

Go ask your father/mother

Megatokyo

I have a bad neurosis when it comes to "popular" and acclaimed forms of entertainment. I usually have to force myself to read, watch, or listen to whatever it is. Whether it's listening to a symphony, watching the Godfather (or Starwars...) or reading Forgotten Realms, I always drag my heels. In the end it's always worth the effort, popular opinion always wins out. But I still feel dirty, like I've sold out to peer pressure or something.

Dan sort of has the same thing when it comes to video games...He doesn't like to play anything that I like to play...Not because it isn't good, but because he wants to do it first. To be the first to discover plot twists, and the first to reach 20th level...

Megatokyo is one of those comics that everybody links too. I avoided reading it for years, but I picked it up a couple of weeks ago. It's just as good as everybody says...I like what they say about the gaming community, and especially girls in games and girls who play games.

Read it, you know you want to.

Here comes the sun..It's alright

The best of the Beatles album is spending a lot of time in our sterio right now :)

Spent the day yesterday on the rooftop at the Sticky Wicket playing volleyball. I managed to avoid being sunburt everywhere but the part in my hair. That's what I get for wearing pigtails instead of a hat..(I looked good though, and that's what counts right?)

Just a note to you suckers in corperate slaveland...we're off to Thetis :p

Painting

Well I'm almost done the medusa and will probably start the angel in the next day or so. Scott bought me a dragon yesterday, but I want to finish the stuff already primed before I start it. These new tools (needle files, green stuff, and magnifier) really help. I'm finding that I take 3 times longer to finish because it's so much easier work in fine detail.

My wish list for supplies:

Paint, I'm getting low in some colors and I could use more variety

Paint brushes, my fine detail brush is taking a beating and it's the only one left that's usable for "wet" work

More figurines! I seem to have a surplus of female figures and undead. I could use more guys (couldn't we all ;) and more animal/monster figures perhaps a winter wolf or horse?

Reaper has a new contest on...check it out