2/26/2006 05:05:00 AM|W|P|Schnozz|W|P|... but I think that's pretty obvious. Thank God someone had the presence of mind to snap a photograph at the height of the excitement. |W|P|114329207654293294|W|P|We had fun ...|W|P|j.h.gilbert@gmail.com2/17/2006 10:09:00 AM|W|P|Schnozz|W|P|... is from George, who lives on our barstool: He asked me to remind you that sometimes the smallest things are the most interesting. "Have them find an interesting small thing and admire it," he dictated to me. "Life is about the small things, really. Life is, more specifically, about NOT STEPPING on the small things. Hint, hint. (And enough about the itsy bitsy spider business. I am so tired of being patronized.) Oh, and by the way, could you frigging DUST in here once in a while? I keep tripping over these damn dust motes. There you go with that flash again. Does my hair look all right?" (George will be released into the wild as soon as I'm done photographing him.)|W|P|114019977673327947|W|P|Your Friday assignment ...|W|P|j.h.gilbert@gmail.com3/21/2006 03:02:00 AM|W|P| Squid|W|P|i really dislike spiders...... eeehhh... but cool2/15/2006 09:30:00 AM|W|P|Schnozz|W|P|When a certain holiday or other occasion comes up, I use that calendar awareness as a reminder that it's time to force Mr. S to have his picture taken with me. He really, really hates this. The pictures themselves are not "Valentine's Day pictures" or "Christmas pictures" or whatever. They're just pictures of us. I don't think he gets why this is important. And maybe it isn't to HIM. But I like doing it. So here are our Valentine's Day 2006 photos. Yes, we're crouched in our kitchen and the camera is perched on the windowsill. So?* (Do me a favor: Let me know if these look dark to you. I have a bright monitor, and can never decide whether I'm forcing you all to look at murky photos.) The first photo came out really dark, which is why the quality is not so great. But so what? We're so in love, plus this sweater only cost three dollars: Mr. S didn't look happy enough, so this time I called out, "Think of [girl parts]!" right before the shutter opened. And look at his face in this shot: He is TOTALLY thinking of girl parts. He started getting crabby after this (I know, two shots and he's a crab ... he is not a good photography husband, as we all know it takes like thirty shots to get a real winner). I tried to cheer him up, but to no avail: Ah well. It's better than nothing. My marriage, I mean. No, wait! The pictures. I meant the pictures. ------- *On the technical side, it REALLY REALLY annoys me that self-timed shots focus when you hit the button, not a second before the shot is taken (or at least provide an option that lets you decide which you prefer). So I try to focus on Mr. S, then move the camera a little so he's not in the middle of the shot ... but the camera usually focuses on our shower curtain, and I'm just forced to live with the dubious results. Annoying! I can't use manual focus, either ... the camera is too close to the wall for me to get my head behind it.|W|P|114002461907990688|W|P|The obligatory occasion photos|W|P|j.h.gilbert@gmail.com2/02/2006 05:33:00 PM|W|P|Schnozz|W|P|First, let me apologize: This site has the dumbest layout ever. I have no idea what possessed me to force the poor visitor to traipse all over the place to see which sections have been updated lately. From here on out, EVERYTHING goes in daily, and I'll cross-post in those other categories when I feel like it. Or not. Second: I need to be OK with not being OK sometimes. As a normally happy person, who even now is happy most of the time, I think I'm too taken aback by crappy days, like the one yesterday where so many things went wrong with all of our condo efforts. Look, self, there will be crappy days. Especially when your world is a neverending festival of remodeling crises. OK, who wants to see photographic evidence of the fact that I was completely justified in wanting to cry all the time when we got here? You do? OKAY! Behold the living room: Of course, you all are amateur home designers, unlike myself, so you may not see the logic behind the lyrical beauty right away. Which is why I have provided labels: (If you have trouble reading it, you can open a bigger one in a new window by clicking here.) Aaaand if you want to understand how bad it really got, this was our bedroom for WEEKS. Yes, that's a bra. Yes, it's a push-up bra. There's simply no dignity left, is there? But after that, things started to improve. I don't have pictures of most of the improvements yet, but I will allow you to feast your eyes on the newly carpeted, very dimly lit Orwellian scene: I can see that you aren't impressed. I don't really blame you. I cannot WAIT to get the lighting up so we can pour about 600 watts into this bad boy. And finally, perhaps the biggest monstrosity of all, and one we aren't planning to do anything about: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! When our friend K saw the bathroom, he said in wonder, "Who could do this? Who would ever do this to a bathroom?" The answer: People on lots of drugs. It WAS the sixties.|W|P|113893040212686359|W|P|Condo Craptastic|W|P|j.h.gilbert@gmail.com