Build-a-Bear

I spent last night at a Build-a-Bear workshop spending a gift certificate received for Christmas. It was really quite fun starting a stuffed animal from scratch. Picking out clothes is always enjoyable, even though I'm not the one who gets to wear them.

Guilherme Marcondi Shorts

Guilherme Marcondi has some talent! If you like the video below, look at the shorts on Marcondi's site. Have your sound on when you watch this.

Animator vs Animation

Here's another one that's popular around our house: Animator vs Animation. Both the first and the second are great. A stick figure decides he doesn't like the animator's plans for him and fights back. Quite amusing.

Chad Vader

Have you seen the short films about Chad Vader? He's the younger, less charismatic brother of Darth Vader. It's fine for all ages, but the younger kids probably won't get it. The films are about six or eight minutes each.

Crocodile Hunter Dies

Steve Irwin died from a stingray barb on 3 Sep 2006. MSNBC has a story about his death. I'm so sad. He's such an enjoyable character.

Sick Goldfish

One of my goldfish has become listless and uninterested in food this week. He just lies on the bottom of the tank while the other goldfish dash to the top of the tank. There is nothing obviously wrong with him--his color is good, his eyes keep track of what's going on around him, he swims away when another fish pesters him--he just isn't behaving like he used to.

After two days of him not eating, I started holding him and putting the flakes into his mouth for him. At first, he wriggled a lot, but now he just accepts it. He sees me approaching the tank and his goggle eyes follow my movements. Hopefully, he will be better soon.

School Registration

The local school district requires registration in the summer for all students, new or returning. I did that and filled out an enormous packet of paperwork. The registrar said, "Great!" I thought everything was fine.

Well, I took my child to school and she wasn't on any list for her grade. I went to the office and stood in line with the other parents whose children also weren't listed. There were a lot of us and it took a long time. The children were all small and many had very young siblings, so add lots of crabby kids to your mental picture of this event.

It was my turn and I found out that I was missing a paper. In the end, it turned out that the registrar does not have access to the computer while she is registering the kids. She inspects the pages we hand her and if everything seems to be in order, she sends us on our way. Later, when the information is typed in, the computer will notice missing bits or incongruencies and flag those kids. That's what happened with me.

I sound gripy--and I am--because this happened to me last year, too. But it's not as bad as it could be. I got my child registered in time for her to attend class that first day. She didn't have to walk in late and have everyone stare at her.

Ah, well, time to wind up a rather whiny post.

A Portrait of Me

I got back from vacation last night. While I was there, this portrait was drawn as I reclined on two pillows, with my arms behind my head.

I spent most of my time in the pool and some of the time shopping. I hadn't been in a pool in a long time, so it took some time to remember the strokes in between being shot with a giant water gun and being jumped on by small children yelling "Watchmewatchmelookatmewatchthis!" Somehow, I managed not to sunburn too much.

The television at the hotel had an okay array of channels available, but I'd rather swim.

Branson

I'm just going to take a moment to point out that I have no interest in going to Branson. Undoubtedly, it's a nice place with nice people and nice things to do. But I have other things I want to do first. Places I'd like to see first.

Granada, Jerez, Natchez, Sequoia National Forest, Yosemite, Glacier, Vancouver, Macchu Picchu, the entire island of New Zealand (maybe both, I haven't decided), places in Japan, lots more...

So no more phone calls with fabulous three-day, four-night deals to watch shows. Okay?

Besides, I have TV shows to watch.