Category Archives: Pooh Bunny

Painting Colors

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Aia update: She’s doing well.

I was painting last night. After about 15 min during program mode on the recumbant bike I got really bad cramps. My endurance is way down. I’m going to try for 30 min program on Sunday. I’m doing the weight training now without weights…so I can have my forms down when the weight I ordered at Christmas time get here in a couple of weeks.

What? My gym renewal came up. I haven’t been since late October because with my new job I can’t make the hours. So instead of renewing I found a good deal on a weight bench with weights, a recumbant bike and a body ball. Plus I started to add pilates to my weekly yoga regieme. I feel strong, but I still feel fat. I’ve been bad with the diet, but I’ve kept my daily calorie intake to 1500 or less. Sigh.

Then everything hit the fan. Snow storms which meant delayed checks, short checks and such. Aia got sick, my car died. Blarg. I called the company to see if I could return the equiment. I could, if I shipped it back went it came on my dime…which meant several hundred dollars in shipping and insurance. It was cheaper to keep the equiment…and less regret too.

The recumbant bike finally showed up yesterday. The guys who delivered it stuck it in front of my garage then put my trash can on it’s side in front of it. It was a nice guesture but it took me and three neighbors to lift it. I doubt it would have been stolen.

It has some damage on the feet but it’s still stable and the computer works. Not bad. Treadmills and other cario equip was way too expensive. I began thinking about the recumbant bike when I saw one at Costco for 300$. A quick check online got me one for $100. It has six programs. I’m only making halfway through the easy one now. But watching TV, reading or playing video games while working out is a big plus for me. I put the thing on manual and turned my laptop around on the coffee table so I could play FFXI. Kept my heart rate above 100 for 30 min and gained two levels. Now that’s progress.

But I knew I had to get back on my five day a week schedule. So I looke for a bench. Bench, weights and the ball are costing me two hundred. I could get them all for one hundred however the weight range isn’t as good and niether was the bench. The guarantee on this was a lot better.

So tired, sore and crampy after exercising I sat down to paint. I use Corel Painter 8. I’m stubborn about it as I’ve had a hard time finding info on translating what I can do on paper to what I should be able to do on computer. In formation on the internet is sorely lacking due to NDA’s and a prevelant feeling of just play. Well it took two years of playing for me to narrow down a tool set for use in painting. Now that I finally have one and a saved palette of the tools I use, painting has been going well. Last night, though, I discovered I hated digital water color.

Which makes me glad I did not upgrade to XI Painter. They have digital oils. I love oils but if they work like digital water color they can hang.

I would like to upgrade, but I’ve spend a lot of money on books to help me translate RL painting to Painter painting. I would not want to have to get more books for a new software that while giving me the ability to use two monitors (I wish painter 8 could do this) and possibly digital oils…it isn’t really anything I need.

So anyway, I start laying down color for the sky of a tower piece I’m doing. I paint reds and blues, browns and purple. And is discover I can not dry the water color then translate it into another type of layer. I can’t blend it using any thing but other digital watercolor brushes. I’m going to try merging the layer with a normal later later…but if that doesn’t work there is NO way I’m ever touching digital water color or even digital ink layers ever again. The power in painter is being able to use all those mediums at once, without having to spend thousands of dollars to do so. Limiting that sucks.

Boy that was rambling.

Car Go Boom and Multiculturism Go Boom

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Important things first, nattering details later.

Aia is doing much better. Her eye is completely open and it looks like she hasn’t slept in a while. It has hemorrhaged though and the white is almost all covered by blood.

Other than you wouldn’t know she was sick. When I see her tonight I’ll check the eye again. I’m still worried, but hopeful.

Because bad things pile together like rotten hamsters, my car died on Saturday. I new co2 sensor, intake valve, and belty thing later and my car’s gas mileage has much improved. It needs more work but that can wait a few thousand miles. This is good because my pocket book could use a good million mile break.

Amazingly the ex came through with a little money. I was surprised. Not enough but it helped make groceries affordable till the credit card bill comes in. Sigh.

———-
Pagany things all well and good, I am horribly enamored by Asatru, Odinist and other Scandinavian leanings. I’m an not any of these except for some blood ties and a strange up bringing.

I grew up in Breckenridge, Colorado. Every winter we held the Ullr Festival. It is still held but the tame parade and ice carving is a far cry from the festival of my youth. That festival was a wild parade of fun…a day off school to start with. Then came the parade…it was wild, political, lots thank the snow god. Our resident Norwegian (an ex-spy for the king of Norway in WWII, who lived down the street from me in a very Norwegian house, who never bought my girl scout cookies but could be counted on for a nice talk and a bit of chocolate in the middle of my long sled trek come February) would have his ski float there were lots of hot tubs being pulled by trucks. Naked men and woman populated the tubs and sometimes various other floats. We had the Ridge St. biker gang which would invade the parade and throw raw meat, candy and plastic necklaces. The parade went by two or three times. We’d need shopping bags to carry all the loot back. Beer and liquor flowed freely and for free from floats, random people dressed in costume, and restaurants along the route. It all culminated in a huge bonfire in which people would burn Christmas trees and anything that they needed to in order to cleanse themselves for the New Year. Sometimes we had ski displays and fireworks but that varied. It was the beginning of the real ski season and a weekly day off in school, just to ski.

I admit that I am late in the blog game. And only recently have I begun to find Pagan blogs of note. I forget how I found Chas’ blog. Probably from Colopagan, which is where I knew him from (that and various works he has contributed to paganism.)

Anyway, my point beckons.

So I head over to Chas’ blog today and see this article. I’m leery of Odinism. It has a darker past than other forms of Scandinavian old religion. Still I’m pretty impressed by this.

Article 1
Article 2
Letter In Full

The letter of announcement is more than a little condescending. I would suggest reading the articles first.

Odinism joins the ranks of pagan religions recognized by various goverments. In the US, Wicca is the only currently recognized pagan religion. I’ve heard Asatru claim this. The U.K. government recognizes Wicca, Druid, and now Odinist religions. Iceland recognizes Asatru.

These are the only ones that have been confirmed as far as I know. If you know of others, give me a comment.

That’s why this is important. I hope that the multicultural room stays open for all who need it.

A Sick Baby

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I’ve been dreading the blog this week.

I won’t even pull a tarot card, I’m that scared.

My baby came to me with a little bit of puffy in her face and complaints of a head ache. 24hrs and $500 dollars later we find out I got her in the doctor in time but her life and her eye are still in danger.

There are positives.

She’s playing

She’s desparately hungry, despit the vomiting.

Today you can see her eye again.

She hasn’t had any fever.

These are all good things. But she has now four doctors watching her. All of them warning me that any change will result in a trip to the emergency room. Which if it gets to that point it doesn’t leave them optimistic.

So as uninsured Americans, we’re worried. I’ve put $500 on my credit card, $300 of that was for medication, which I had to try 5 pharmacies before finding one that carried it. Even then they only had part of the dosage. I had to wait another 24hrs before they could get the rest.

I’m glad that I have a good team of doctors. This is not a repeat of the 2002 pnemonia which gripped Aia and I from Dec 2001 till May 2002Having to throttle doctors who just kept telling me to come back when her tempurature was a little higher, as if 104 isn’t high, was not fun.. They all came to talk with Aia and inform me of what was going on. Her condition is rare. Our physician was the only one in the office which had every seen a case of this and that was more than 15 years ago. The infection has spread into her body but not her blood. I got her there in time. They gave her two shots of antibiotics right away and almost at third today but they didn’t want to overwhlem her body.

I’m seriously thinking of revoking visitation rights for the ex. This is the second deadly situation he’s put her in. Pnemonia came from his need for a booty callThat sounds sicker than it actually is…he brought Aia with him to see his then girl friend, her daughter was sick and it transmitted to Aia., and she recieved this infection while at his house.

But that’s a whole well of problems I can’t think about right now. I’m trying not hide under the covers like I want to. I called a lot of people yesterday just to talk about it so I could sleep last night.

Tonight, bills…then tomarrow I’ll figure out what I need to do get groceries.

I hate stress.

After yesterday’s visit I took Aia out to eat with a left over gift certificate from my new jobI forgot to mention in my 2006 review I lost the cruddy stupid job and got a new much more artfantastic one.. With her face swollen and her legs numb (They gave her a shot in each leg which also contained numbing medication for pain); forced into a pigeon toed position with her rapid had movents when things hurt, she looked like a down syndrome childI know that’s a bad sentance, go fuck yourself..

I gave up trying to explain when they said things like, “How wonderful that you bring her out in public.” What could I say, “Down syndrome doesn’t strike in 24hrs” or “If you had only seen her wednsday you’d know she’s normal”. Luckily the numbness and the swelling had subsided a bit. I can see her eye today and she can see me with it..despite the blood.

I’m going to go work now. Then I don’t know. I’ve missed time with no pay and I have no insurance yet. I’m sure I’ll make it, so will my daughter.

Like a Tinker Toy Pot Roast

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I’ve updated all my wordpresses…

And changed somethings…

If you’re the observant type, you’ll see that the paganism sections is gone. It’s not that I’m not a pagan any more..because I am a pagan, it’s just that those topics have been absorbed elsewhere. You’ll find my belief section in the Particles, and all tarot related activity has move to 78 Images Later

If you’ve been actually poking around my site, you’ll see I’ve added my salsa recipe. And that I’ve added a ton of reviews. In fact I’m all caught up with reviews. I managed to misplace at least one, maybe I’ll read the book again to review it, but otherwise every book I’ve read for the last year is up there. Besides the on-going debate about Isaacsen-Bright, I’ve gotten a few comments. With my latest posts a Ms Whipping Cream has commented. No link though…she’s actually legit!

So other than needing antibiotics tomorrow, things are okay. I’m a little out of sorts…Aia will be going to her dad’s on
Wednesday, so I’ll be by myself till Saturday. Not a biggy, just a little down.

I’m trying to re-enable the news stuff on Becca’s site. Silver Dragon’s host is so persnickety. It feels like I have to jacknife anything I want on there. Not as bad as Godaddy, but it seems very temperamental. I’ll get it in. And it’s little FAQ too.

I spent a little time this weekend playing in math land. It’s an unfortunate side effect of working with Poser shaders. But I’ve been making some pretty jewels. I think if I can get a tiger’s eye, citrine and perhaps a yellow hued white jade then I’ll stop and give them away. So far:

Jade
Red Jade
White Jade
Blue Jade
Lapis Lazuli
Sodalite
Bloodstone
Moss Agate

They work beautifully in Poser 7…they might work in Poser 6, they will not work in Poser 5…and Poser 4 users will just have to go paint their own.

The green jade is the dragon in an early post. I’ll have to work up some more.

While I really like my new job, I’m finding that the majority of angry customers that call in are calling simply because there is a certain half of the office that does not come in and does not check their voicemail or other messaging systems.

I’m getting pretty good at shuttling them along…but my old tech support sensors have kicked in and I find it hard to hang up.

Silly, I know.

What to do?

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Aia has gotten out of hand.

Not a day goes by in which she doesn’t melt into a screaming hissy-fit. One no is all it takes. She doesn’t wait to listen to alternatives…it’s right now.

So it stops. No more visits to popo, no movies, homework, food then bed. If she gets homework and food done before betime then she gets to clean her room. If she gets her room clean then she gets to play. I’m not expecting miracles…I fully expect to see a lot of empty tummies at night.

When we’re out (which I’m limiting) she still has to go to bed after homework and food. I’ve secured second bedrooms for the purpose. For those places that do not have such amenities I’ve been forced to demure to staying at home. Unfortunetly there are exceptions. Writer’s Meetup is one. But I think I can swing it.

Otherwise, I’m not sure what to do. I can’t just change our life to suit her whim. I have to work, she has to go to school. I’m sorry that’s the way things turned out but there is nothing I can do about it. It’s time to make her start earning her privilages.

———–

I’ve started adding more reviews. I’ve been working on Becca‘s page as well.

Lard, Best in Health or It’s like stuffing, only not so much.

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So I wrote this long post yesterday. And it was eaten by the internet monster.

Bastard.

But if you look a little to your right…no not that far, stay in the browser…you’ll see that I wrote very well last week. I’m behind now because of three straight days of nightly engagements. However maybe I’ll catch up again.

Aia made the honor roll this week. Then spent yesterday in a melt down. Could drive me up a wall that girl.

J. & I went up to a nice restaurant on Lookout Mountain. Cody Mountain Inn has nice food. Hard to get to, and a little dinerish, but the veal Martinique was good.

On the way back J. asked the question “Does lard have trans-fats?” Besides being up there with “If you put dirt in hydrogen peroxide is the hp dirty or is the dirt clean?” it was intriguing. Turns out the answer is no. Not only does it taste good, but it’s better for you than a lot of vegeoil based products. Dang. Go read.

And work? That has been fun. Between actually designing things for a change and phone talking…I’m having a blast. I like this job. So much so I created a new category. Today I was told that I’m doing a great job and that I fit in really well. Two 1/2 years at the drudge and I never heard that once.

On Job Getting and No Child Left Behind

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So then I was hired for a new position.

Yeah me.

No thanks to the old drudge…who refused to confirm that I worked there. Bastards. Oh well good riddance.

But the new job…down in the DTC… a big commute but worth it.

Nanowrimo: Well, I’m obviously behind. That’s okay. I’ll make it. Or at least get farther. I’ve got to updated that word count. I’m pitiful…but not that pitiful. At least I got my blurb in for ghengiscon.

We had the first of many parent/teacher confrences tonight. At least now I can be well informed in disliking No Child Left Behind. My daughter is excelling in Kindergarten. She exceeds expectations on many levels. Of course her report card only says she meets them. The teacher, a good lady who is trying, admited that she only went as far as she had to in testing and grading…no further. So saying that Aia only knew 15 words on sight was not only inaccurate but the product of making sure she didn’t look too ahead of the other children.

Let me take this second to note that when I pointed this out the teach only said “I’m sure but I only went so far”.

Is it really education if children are still left behind but we alter the scores to make them look not so stupid?

Discuss.

School Stupidity

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So today in the mad-rush-to-get-poohbunny-into-school dash, I was stopped, along with a whole group of students and parents by a skinny aid with too much time on her hands.

“The rule that we always follow is that you go in through the lunch room and you need to start following it.”

I cried bullshit. And I was right. It was a new rule AND it doesn’t apply to kindergarteners. Of course I still had to walk to the other end of the school and back before she was straitened out. I gave her some unkind remarks about their newslettersWe get one every week and another every month…but they couldn’t be bothered to put the rules in it..

I’m already at odds with this school as they can’t seem to find the supplies we had to provide for the entire class this year. And I drop my daughter off between 7:30 and 8 which they don’t like. It’s not that they don’t assign teachers to watch these children in that time frame; it’s because “at my daughter’s age she should not be left in the care of others for so long”. Apparently single mothers who have to be at work by 8 are an exception but they never seem to have their rules straight until you go to them to challenge the rules.

I still made it with only five minutes lateness but missed out on morning tea. I can deal. But it won’t end there.

I got her “application” for next year. The race question had white under other with a note to please specify. So I put Scottish-Canadian: Clan Armstrong. That should confuse them. If that doesn’t, the answer to the “How many books are at the home where the child lives?” will. They won’t be expecting 9,999. Of course it’s not accurate…I ran out of boxes.

Things to do:
Call Tenaker
Bills
Dishes
Laundry
Pack

I’m sure I’m missing something.

In Finding the Perfect Christmas

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Pictures will come when Aia is in bed and I’m not sleepwalking.

So PoN took us all on a merry ride to hell to the Denver Doll Emporium. I found the BJD, Orient Doll Ha Girl (Joong Choo). It’s face was darling and not scary like Miranda‘s.

So I thought: Hey, Aia would love this…if I can make it perfect.

I started digging around the store. I had a simple code…refuse to ask questions…must find nearly on own or no buy. And above all, if I could not find the perfect everything for this naked, eyeless doll then I would not buy.

I came so close.

First came the eyes. Light pink or green…perhaps grey. All were to be had but final choice would come if outfit and hair could be found.

Hair was looking daunting. It had to be long and overwhelme the face. This doll had no accessories as of yet and all other’s her size were cutise babies with short bobs.

This girl couldn’t be a baby.

Larger sizes had all kinds of gorgeous long, straight, crinkled and curly hair which look awesome on her but was not for sale.

Finally, in the Barbie section, I found a doll with four interchangable wigs…which fit the ha girl beautifully. Of course wigs only came with the Barbie but she had two curly wigs sold separately.

The deep auburn one was it, it decided on the green eyes.

Of course during this time I was trying to find clothing. Plagued by the same baby cuteness I wandered over to the orphanage. In a large plastic bag were two decaying dolls from the 1940′s.

And two once-fabulous dresses.

Lacy with red trim and a red, ermine trimmed velvet cape it was perfect. The other, again lacy with real feather wings. Both needed sewing and steam. Both fit the little Ha Girl, giving her the grace she strove for rather than the baby doll look that was being foisted on her.

Crap…that meant I had to buy it for Aia.

So $300.00 dollars later and a lot of sweat getting those dresses done…Aia will have a good Christmas.

Check List:

Remove all unwanted staples.
Reglue ermine tales back onto cape.
Surgically remove decaying doll bodies from angel dress.
Reinforce wings.
Stitch up any rips in tool.
Stitch black stamped stars in silver.
Embroider shirt of princess dress in crimson.

On another note: I sent off the application packet to Mongoose Publishing. Whee!

This is all PoN’s fault. But that’s okay, we luvs the wendiesses.

Kindergarten Flowers

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When I was little and my parents told me of Kindergarten, I always imagined this pastel fluff of a world in which little girls, dressed in lacy pink Sunday dresses skipped around with their fingers lightly brushing the top of bright primrose type flowers.

Give me a break. I was four.

I’m not sure what the Poohbunny imagined. On her first day of school, instead of a pink lacy dress (which I did wear my first day), she was dressed in a blue polo and kaki skort School Uniform. Her pink backpack was optimized for heavy grade school loads with symetriacl pockets and wided, padded straps You remember your’s right? Remember those thin, corrigated straps. Remember how they hurt and broke and ah… Her pink light up shoes danced across the floor. I shed a few tears and made a picture and she was off to school.

When she got home I went over the new school girl rules. Instead of Chores then play, the house rule has been extended to homework, chores, then play. There was pouting, but she understood. She has a bin just for her uniforms so they get swallowed by the closet monster. And there’s the money I have to shell out…public school is costing me more than a semester at college.

Sheesh.

I’m slowly working through my everyday list. For those that don’t want to search back to January here’s the list:

Litter
Meditation
Exercise
Tarot
Writing

Back in January Litter was the only thing that was being accomplished every day. I’ve switched to Crystals, now that they are finally cheaper. No mess. They don’t track out with the cats. And a smaller bag lasts longer. Yeah! If I have to switch back for any reason, it will be back to the crystal blends…I left regular scoopable back a long time a go…regular litter even further.

Meditation still isn’t happening…and it’s beginning to wear on me. At most I got to sit on my back porch swing a few nights ago for the first time this summer. Pitiful, as I missed the naked early flowers, and the spontaneous July blooms. Now I’m down to the very green end of season. And that perhaps once a week. Sheesh.

Exercise: Goal. Every day for at least 30 minutes.

Tarot: Goal: finally back to daily cards. It’s been great!

Writing: sigh. Bad, very bad, very very bad. Phew.

3 out of 5. Woot.