It is Thanksgiving, And I am Grateful for ...

(obviously NOT in the order of importance)

Adventures, Agatha Christie, Air, Air Conditioning, Airplanes, Amber, America, Angels, Answers, Apps, Arches National Monument, Architecture, Art

Babies, Believing, Best Friends, Birds in Flight, Blog Comments, Blogs, Blue Skies, Books, Broadway Shows, Brother, Bubble Baths,

Cairns, Calendars, Call Waiting, Cameras, Cars, Cathedrals, Cell Phones, Cellos, Chance, Charity, Charities, Cheering, Cheesecake, Choices, Church, Clean Air, Cleanliness, Clocks, Clothes, Clouds, Cold Days, College, Color of my Sons Eyes, Colors, Computers, Considerate People, Crocs, Cruise Ships, Curie, Cute Overload

Dancers, Daughters, Degas, Desires, Determination, Dictionaries, Dishwashers, Diversity, Doctors, Dogs, Dolphins, Dooce, Down Pillows, Dream Catchers, Dreams, Dynes (Norwegian Down Duvet)

Eagles, Ears, Earplugs, Education, Einstein, Electricity, Electronics, Elevators, Elves, E-Mail, Embraces, Emotions, Encyclopedias, Ends, Enduring, Energy, Engineering, Entertainment, Enthusiasm, Environment, Epiphanies, Equality, Eternity, Excursions, Examples, Exploring, Eyesight, Eyeglasses

Facebook, Faith, Fall Leaves, Fall, Family, Father, Firemen, Floating, Flowers, Flying, Forgiveness, Free WiFi, Freedom, Friends, Fun, Furniture (that my hubbie builds)

Garage Door Openers, Garden Tomatoes, Gentleness, Gifts, Goals, God, Good Friends, Good Times, Google, GPS Units, Grace, Grand Canyon, Grandparents, Graphics, Grass, Green

Happiness, Hard Times, Hardware, Harps, Headphones, Healing, Health, Helen Keller, Help, Helpfulness, History, Honesty, Hope, Hopes, How-To Manuals, Hubble Telescope, Huggers, Humor, Husband

Ice, Icicles, Idaho Russets, Ideals, Illumination, Imagination, Immunizations, Improving, Inclusion, Intuition, In-Laws, Inner Peace, Innocence, Insight, Inspiration, Integrity, Internet, Intimacy, iPads, iPods

Jesus Christ, Jewelry, Jobs, Jokes, Jolly People, Joseph Smith, Joy, Justice

Kangaroos, Keepsakes, Kidding Around, Kindhearted People, Kindness, Kisses, Kleenex, Knowledge, Knowing, Koalas

Lakes, Laptops, Laughter, Learning New Things, Leather, Leaves, Left Handed Scissors, Leonardo da Vinci, Letters, Libraries, Life, Light, Lightroom, Literacy, Living Abroad, Logic, Love

Maps, Massage, Math, Medicine, Memories, Mercy, Microwaves, Milk, Monet, Moon, Morphine, Mother, Mountains, Museums, Music, Musicals, Mute Button, My Blog, My Daughters Laugh, My House, My Husbands Talents

Napkins, Naps, National Pride, Nativities, Neatness, Nieces, Newborns, Nephews, News, New Year, Niceties, Nonconformists, Nondiscrimination, Nonsense, Normalcy, Norway, Notepads, Novels, Novocain, Now …

Obscure Ideas, Occasions, Occupations, Ocean, Oddities, Odorless Anything, Offers of Help, Old Barns, Olivewood, Open Hearted, Ordeals, Orderliness, Organization, Ordinary, Outdoors, Overcoming, One More Day …

Patience, Peace, Penguins, Pens, Pepperkaker, Perfect Moments, Pets, Photographs, Photoshop, Physics, Pianos, Picnics, Pioneers, Poetry, Policemen, Positive Outlook, Post Secret, Post-its, Prayer, Preikestolen, Presents, Pretty Fish, Primary Children’s Program,

Queues, Quests, Questions, Quicken, Quiet

Rain, Rainbows, Raspberries, Reading, Reflections, Reflections on Water, Relatives, Relaxation, Renoir, Rivers, Rolling Luggage

Satellite Radio, School, Science, Scriptures, Security, Sensitivity, Shelter, Shoes, Sight, Simple, Singing, Sisters, Sky, Small European Towns, Smell, Smiles, Smoke Free Environments, Snorkeling, Snow, Software, Soldiers, Son, Sound of Rain, Sound, Spellcheck, Spring, Stained Glass Windows, Stars, Steampunk, Stephen Hawking, Subways, Summer, Sunflowers, Sunlight, Sunrises, Sunsets, Support of Others, Swarovski Crystal, Sweaters, Swimming

Tactfulness, Taste, Taxis, Teachers, Technical Manual, Technology, Temples, Tender Mercies, Testimony, Texas Wildflowers, The American Flag, The Smell of a Spud Cellar, Theater, Tickling, Time, Tools, Touch, Trains, Travel, Treasures, Trees, Tripods, Trying

Understanding, Uniqueness, Universe

Vacations, Vermeer,

Watches, Water, Waterfalls, WiFi, Wikipedia, Wildlife, Wind, Window Seats, Windows, Winter, Wisdom, Wool, Work, Worship, Writing,

Yahoo, Yards, Yawning, Years End, Yesterday, You, Youthfulness (memory of), Youth

Zion, Zippers, Zoos,


But most of all, I am grateful for The Journey …

I MAY Have Been Just a Wee Bit Pessimistic Yesterday ...

Well ...


Day 2 of "Project Whoville" has almost ended and I will admit ...


I may have been a wee bit hasty in my judgements of my husbands ability and/or sanity.


He got up and put another coat on his 'sled':


And has he not done a WONDERFUL job in matching the blues?


He then painted and put together his Whoville Fireplace:



Yes, there IS two plastic bags hanging in the 'hole' in the fireplace. This fireplace (if you recall from the movie) needs to have a tree stuffed up it, and a grundle of toys ... I forget if the grinch enters and exits via it, but I do remember the tree stuffing ...

Very clever, yes?

And, yet again - look how he matched the 'puke green' on the background! He could be the Sherwin Williams Paint-Color-Matcher-Computer-Thingie ...


And here is where his 'genius' really shines:


Its Whoville! He decided that it is complete.

What?


Can you not see it?


Hmmm ...

That could be because he realized something today and confessed to me today that when he told me that it would be basically as easy as a "Paint By Number" kit - he has ACTUALLY NEVER DONE a Paint By Number Kit ... And he decided that maybe, just maybe - he HAS hit the level of his limitations and on Saturday at the rehearsal, he is going to throw himself to the mercy of his committee and see if anyone is willing to paint it.

BUT! He has a backup plan - here is the genius part! OK, gotta mention that ONE of these IS MY IDEA ...

If they chew him up and spit him out at the rehearsal, he will either have it printed out poster size and just tape it on the board, or he will use our projector and just project the picture onto the board during the actual production.

Clever, yes?

So, he is in a win-win situation and it will basically look like this (minus the pretty silver frame):



And to show you how well that projection part would actually work - he is, as I type this, finishing up the sled tracing out in the garage.

I took out the brown (well, most the brown, he didn't care if it was sloppy, but NOW that I am posting it on my blog I am so ashamed ...) drew in some sloppy black lines so it would all be easier to see when he projected it onto the board to trace and stretched it a wee bit to fit the board better. Yes, yes - I KNOW! I am SO HELPFUL!!!

And here is my altered sled photo projected onto the board! Not bad, eh?


So he has his sled almost ready to paint and I am CONFIDENT that he WILL be able to paint brown paint between the black lines ...


Here are the lines - that I believe he is out there thickening even as I type this, because if he isn't doing that ...




I have no clue what the man is doing ...





But then again - me not knowing what the man is doing is the norm ...

Maybe ... Just Maybe ... He's Reached the Level of His Limitations ...

Well, Gary moved his behemoth thingies around yesterday - with a wee bit of help from me and some hand made ramps to get his Chop Saw Stand up on those blocks (to be level with the table). All worked well and no one was harmed, maimed or seriously crushed under a ton of wood.


The other day, Gary was trying to explain how his clamps were going to be stored. His TRAJILLION clamps. He is a serious clamp addict and since there is no CAA (Clamp Addicts Anonymous) and he makes beautiful furniture, we all look the other way and just let him buy and buy and buy more clamps ...

But where to store them? Here is his clever idea - which makes a heck of a lot more sense than the description Gary gave me:


Where are the clamps? What are clamps? Here, let me get a little lower and you can see better ...

The clamps are on each end of a long steel pipe and, well ... they clamp things ...


An underneath shot of his lovely storage area:


So ... his table is done, the clamps have a home all is right with the world ... yes?

No.


While I was taking photos of his table he was looking at it and said:

"You know, there is room there for four more clamps ..." in a wondrous, wistful, far-away voice ...


He had to clean up and get serious about other things that he TOLD himself he had to start today. Today is the official start to PROJECT WHOVILLE.

Why do we have a 'Project Whoville?'

Because the man volunteered to do the Ward Christmas Party.


VOLUNTEERED.


TO. DO. THE. WARD. CHRISTMAS. PARTY.


VOLUNTEERED!!!


As in

no one coerced him,

he was not under threat of pain,

his family was not under threat of pain,

he was not under the threat of death,

his family was not under the threat of death,

no one was blackmailing him,

no one was threatening to take away all his clamps,

his family was not being held hostage with the threat of a hideous, horrible death if he did not volunteer,

he seemed sane when he left for Young Men's that night - with a meeting afterwards,

and he did not seem altered in any way, or disabled or drunk ...


apparently, though, he was under the influence of STUPID!!!


Why did he do this horrifying thing?

I will tell you.

A few years ago the Ward Christmas Party had a presentation of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and it was INCREDIBLY hilarious and wonderful. It was narrated, and they had props, there was a Grinch and someone hiding behind the sled using a sock puppet dog as the dog ... OK, so ... you might have had to be there to get the full impact of its incredible-ness and hilarity, but trust me - it was VERY good!

So ... in his infinite wisdom, he decided he wanted 'to see it again' as it were so he took charge.

When he told me this that evening when he came home ... then saw my face ... he quickly said "You don't have to do anything! I have it under control - I will get a committee. I PROMISE you don't have to do anything!"

I saw one Sunday that it was being advertised in the Ward Sunday Flyer (what ever that is you get in Sacrament Meeting - WHAT is it called?) as "Christmas in Whoville".


OK.



Hmmm.


Me: "Gary - who is making 'Whoville'?

Gary: "Me."

Me: "Are you serious?"

Gary: "Yes! How hard could it be? I need to buy some wood, get the book, project a page of it with our overhead projector on the wall, trace the lines and paint it."

Me: "Okaaaaayyyyy"


I ordered the book.


He bought the wood.


The book came and there are actually no pictures in it! Well, no REAL pictures per se - just some squiggly crap ... did you know that? We decided that all of our childhood memories of The Grinch must have come from the movie.


So ... I ordered the movie.


I figured out how to do a screen capture while the movie was playing on the computer. Then put it in Word. Then right click and save it as a .jpg file.

Gary said he would describe to me what he needed and faster than the speed of a quark - I said:

"I don't THINK so ... this is YOUR baby ..."


So he got on his computer and screen captured:

1) The sled

2) The fireplace

3) Whoville from the Grinch's perspective


I was KIND ENOUGH to fiddle around with them in Photoshop a bit, but really didn't help him much at all.

He printed out the pages and off to the craft store he went ...


to buy paint!



NOW:

Day one of PROJECT WHOVILLE has ended. I wandered outside to see how things were progressing and I was surprised at how much he had done!

He had painted the background for the sled:


He needs, now to take the above piece of wood and turn it into this:


I'm thinking it do-able. I photoshopped out the Grinch and the bag and filled in the spots with the appropriate color. Gary drew in some black lines. I made it into a .jpg file and put it on something portable for him and printed it out. It is not great, but should do the job. Now he just needs to figure out if he can actually project the .jpg file from his laptop onto the piece of wood using our projector and trace the lines.

Then paint it ...



He decided that after painting the sled background and the Whoville background (coming up later ...) he was sick and tired of painting and decided that it would be best if he BUILT a fireplace. So he laid out the pieces and asked me if it looked like a Whoville fireplace? I was surprised that the answer was 'Yes'. He is using a piece of garbage up there for the mantle and it looks sort of Whovilly ...

So he will just paint the whole thing and attach it to the board when he is done. Seems easy enough.

Somehow, everything under the line I drew there will not be showing, so just in case you are wondering ... no, it is not a freakishly tall and skinny fireplace ...


Not an exact match, but it will do:


And here is Whoville:


Yep! My husband is going to turn that piece of wood up there into this:


Let be clear -

THIS:

INTO THIS:

Oh, yeah ... it's gonna happen.

Have I mentioned that Gary and I both, put together possess EXACTLY -10% of artistic ability?

Yes, that is NEGATIVE TEN.

Between the two of us.

Seriously, I CANNOT impress enough to you the actual ineptitude we possess in this area. Stick figures are hard ...


So .....


THIS?

INTO THIS?




Dude ... you are one VERY TALENTED man ...





but I gotta tell you right now ...








seriously, start looking for a very nice, giving, artistically inclined person to make you a Whoville before it is too late ...










I'm just sayin' ....

A Sunday Afternoon With Jessie ...

As per our usual - we got Jessie this afternoon.

Gary and Jess went for a walk last week and I had heard them discussing feeding the ducks and mentioned to Gary that I wanted to go and take photos of a duck feeding session - so we headed out (after Gary and Jessie watched Ariel and made Banana Nut Bread and I rested in bed).

Jessie would not get off the sidewalk and walk down to the ducks to feed them. I think this is a step backwards in her walking skills - or she has had a recent tumble - she kept saying she didn't want to fall, even when I told her I would hold her hand.

So Gary got to feed the ducks, Charlie was tied to a tree and I took photos!




If the photos look weird, or ... off to you - you are not imagining things! I was playing around with some Photoshop plug-ins and I liked the effect - feel free to not like it ...



She seemed to enjoy watching us from the sidewalk ...

Cute duckie!

And doesn't he look ever so hopeful?


This green-headed duck was a good catch - but I think he might have been beaten up by all the other angry looking ducks after we left ...


I know - blurry ...

But he was yelling at us! As the other ducks looked on with disapproval ...


TOTAL BREAD CATCH FAIL!


The brown ducks getting ready to pounce on him and beat him to death ...


Cute photo of Jessie.

Not so cute background - hence it is gone ...


Pretty brown duck ... with blue? A navy part on his beak and a tiny brilliant blue peeking out from under his / her (? I am not up to date on duck sex determination ...) wing:


The green-headed ducks are not my favorite - maybe it is that entitlement, superiority and "I'm prettier than you" look that we see here:


Awww! SO CUTE! And look at that humble face (and weirdly crossed white wing tips) ...


I believe he got this one:


Dude is yelling at us again ... all the others are like "Shut up! You are going to piss him off and then he will stop feeding all of us!" I really hope they beat him up after we left - Gary was totally spoiling him - or AT LEAST shun him for a while ...


"Anticipation":


Still a happy camper up on the sidewalk ...


Done with the bread and off for a walk ...


A Great White Egret - really wanted to get some photos, but NOT WITH HIS NECK LIKE THAT!!!

BENDY NECK!!! BENDY NECK!!!


The trees look pretty good for having gone through a drought all summer ...







Charlie off the leash! I think this is an adorable photo of her ...


One more shot of Charlie - soon after this she jumped in the lake. She is butt ugly when wet so no more photos of the dog ...


Trying to sneak up on the Egret - he was on to me and flew away ...


But went in for a landing pretty close - so maybe later ...




This is a series of shots I titled: "Telephoto Lens" (yes, I know - very CLEVER name ...):






More of the weird ...



A series of shots of my attempts to find "Fall" ...



*sigh* green, green leaves ...


More green ...


Still more ...


Awww! My very own FALL TREE! ONE tree - but doesn't it look .... seasonal?


Hah! He is back! I shall sneak up on him slowly ... *whispers* bend your neck!!!


*whispers* aw, man ... that doesn't count ... do it like you mean it ...


Lookin' like he is fixing to fly off ...


And there he goes!





Makes a turn and heads over to somewhere in front of us ...








And in for the landing ...


Touchdown!


And back to his dorky pose ...


One more flight away from us ...




One final landing ...


Lovely red and green ...




Gary walked the dog home while I drove Jessie (we had parked over by the pool). He ride came about a half hour after this and she was pretty good about going. Gary was out in the driveway bathing the dog and she didn't even get upset that she couldn't give him a goodbye hug - so a pretty good day for her!

Sorry about all the photos - couldn't decide which ones to put it and I had made these into a facebook album (sorry for the duplication all ye Facebookers ...) so I just dumped them in ...

Well - it's off to bed ...




to lie there and stare at the wall for hours and hours and hours ...





Just like the last four nights ...





*sigh*





I SO HATE going to bed ...