Still single.

So, if, for some strange reason, I were to become single again, this is what would become of me: I’d see movies I’d been meaning to see but hadn’t; I’d read books when I should be grading; I’d browse for nothing in particular in various stores; I’d spend much less money on electricity; I’d do housework, but only until I hurt myself (this evening, I managed roughly 24 minutes before slamming my pinkie in between my socket set’s ratchet and the edge of a piece of wood—after getting a band-aid, I still managed to sweep up a bit). And it would be BORING.

That being said, I have been enjoying a little quiet around the house. I’ve talked with Laura, and what little quiet we did have with our kids has disappeared completely for her with the additional “challenge” of four of her nephews (”challenge” is my word choice, not hers).

They should be home on Thursday. I’m looking forward to it.

Here are some long-ago promised pictures of what we call the “bonus room.” It was a garage, but had been converted to living space/an office a while ago (sometime when wagon wheel chandeliers were all the rage), and the garage door had been replaced with a gigantic 8-foot sliding door. This is gripping information, I’m sure. We (meaning Hector and I) took out the doors and replaced them with six industrial (is that the right word? Commercial?) windows that he had picked up from a demolition/construction project. They are the kind that you’d see in a doctor’s office, framed in aluminum, but without the aluminum. We’re still puzzling out the details of how we’ll frame them. But, here they are for now:

We came home from Costco to see that Hector had punched through the siding and started extracting the sliding door without us. I suppose we would have been nervous to know it was so easy to break through the wall.

Here’s Jonah, inspecting the work:

Here’s the view from the outside:

I am not a carpenter.

Two words: Safety First!

I’m just now realizing that my pictures are all the wrong size–I meant to upload them full-size, but marked “medium” instead (in my defense, WordPress has just changed their format for uploading pictures–oh, and I’ve been a tad inactive when it comes to posting regularly). If the photos aren’t large enough in your browser, feel free to click them.

The single life.

La and the kids went down to California to babysit for Laura’s sister while they are on a cruise, leaving me a bachelor again, at least temporarily (until Thursday, most likely). The house was very quiet last night, and I took a couple of pictures of things that stuck out as especially “single”. My parents were in town this past week, so I haven’t really had to take care of myself yet. That starts tomorrow. Yikes. Laura made sure to stock up on spaghetti and lunch meat before she left (not to go together, but to cover all of my culinary bases, at least as far as my skills will take me). We’ve talked a couple of times since she’s been there, and apparently six kids is different than two. Who would’ve guessed? (This is not to suggest that she thought it would be otherwise, but just to clarify why we may not ever, ever have any more kids).

This toothbrush just struck me as horribly lonely. So I had to take a picture (maybe I don’t have enough to do with the kids gone….).

I got up for a drink of water, then came back to bed and noticed how “single” my bed looked. I miss you, Laura!

Is this a weird post, or is it just me?

Neon Boneyard

Went to the Neon Boneyard with the school’s photo club (thanks, Dawn!). It’s a totally cool place where they try to maintain some of the city’s history (since everything else is imploded, which, for pyrotechnics freaks, is also totally cool). The museum isn’t quite yet a museum, but will be built out of the former foyer of the La Concha hotel from the Strip (okay, they managed to save one other thing from demolition), which they dismantled and miraculously carted a couple miles down the Strip and are piecing back together. Here are some shots:

Been a while.

I’ve been AWOL for a little bit. Busy month. We had the student/teacher basketball game (which, unfortunately, we lost for the second year in a row–this time by 2 points. There was some 6′5″ superkid guarding me, who managed to cram the ball down my throat anytime I tried to put up a shot. I got called on a flagrant foul for grabbing his shirt as he was getting away from me, on a fast break for a wide-open dunk, which would’ve been his second–ugh. I’m not aging well.); we had the “Friends of the Academy” night, where we raised money for the school–I was in a teacher band. We played the Stones’ “Satisfaction,” The Clash’s “I Fought the Law,” and The Beatles’ (and I’m sure somebody else’s) “Money.” I’ll post some pictures later.

We also had the Scout fundraiser/Spaghetti dinner/dessert auction. We sold lots of tickets, made lots of spaghetti, auctioned off desserts for ridiculous amounts of money. We also finished the 3rd quarter in school. And had SPRING BREAK!

The house is progressing; we (meaning Hector, our contractor, and I, meaning his moderately helpful assistant) have put in new front and back doors, and, this past Saturday, I arrived from running errands to discover Hector halfway into the house, having torn through the siding and started to cut out our 8′ sliding glass door. We put in six squarish industrial-style  windows Hector had salvaged from another construction job. I think it looks kind of cool. We’re excited to be rid of the huge-mongous sliding door, too.

Anyhoo, we’re now in 4th quarter, and school is pretty much at a stressful juncture–the kids and teachers so, so badly want to be gone and on summer break, but there is so, so much to be done. I’m hoping that my seniors will pass, and the sophomores and freshmen come in secondary (and tertiary? or can I just say secondary?) to that.

So, here’s a picture:

This was at the Springs Preserve. Funny stuff.

30 days: Day 10–Back to work.

After a healthy partying down on Presidents Day (woo hoo! Presidents Day!), I had to go back to work. And I’m sleepy. Here’s a picture from, oh, pretty much today, but more like Sunday.

30 days: Day 9–Presidents’ Day

In honor of the Presidents of the United States of America (not the group, but the actual Presidents), we filled in the ditch by our wall (see earlier post about Pablo). Great fun. It probably isn’t as difficult as “ditch digger”, but I scratched “ditch filler-inner” off of my potential future career list. It was a good workout, and the kids really enjoyed being in the dirt (Jonah said, “Dad, this is so much fun!” and I hope we can continue to trick him into liking work with dirt for as long as humanly possible). We were working twin wheelbarrows and shoveling together (”the family that shovels together….”), and he dug a pretty good-sized hole for such a little guy.

Sony Cybershot DSC-P200

30 days: Day 8–I’m Baaaack.

After a prolonged semi-absence (mental and partially physical), I’ve got a meager offering today. Thursday, as you might recall, was Valentine’s Day. Friday, as I’m sure you don’t recall, was a regular school day, followed by an after-school band practice, followed by a 3:30 meeting for a student writing conference I’ll be facilitating, followed by a mad dash at 4:45 to finish packing for a 5:00 meeting time at the church for a Scout campout. Didn’t make it (until about 5:20). We went up into the hills; sent the kids on a Snipe hunt, which, incredibly, still works; ate elk meat and hobo meat (in our hobo dinners); froze; and then went for a hike in the morning before returning to Vegas around noon so I could take a nap and get some real sleep, not campout sleep.

So. I took the pictures to the local Costco, where the usually freaky Evon at the camera bar told me all about how cross-processing my film would make the colors funky (”Great! That’s what I want!”) and how my 1/2 format film could unfortunately only be printed two pictures side-by-side on a 4 x 6 photo (”Wonderful! I was hoping you’d say that!”). What I DIDN’T remember was that they close at 6:00 on Saturdays, and, after picking up our babysitter and getting the kids ready for our departure (so we could see my school’s production of “CATS”–oh my goodness–more on that later), we drove up about two minutes late, much to my chagrin. Long story short, the pictures will have to wait until tomorrow.

Here’s a Jonah shot until tomorrow. I’m thinking of calling it “Jonah’s…uh…sucker for love”:

Lily does the robot:

30 days: Day 7–Saturday morning on Campout.

It was cold, so we spent a lot of time around the fire. Plus, if you’re 12, there’s nothing quite as cool as sticking things in the fire then swinging them around, hopefully (or not) avoiding contact with others. We decided that rifle shooting that morning would be a bad idea.

Ne[r]d (the r is silent)told a story about a date he was on, then said he had to stop because it was going to get a little bit PG-13. I said, “Why? For violence?”

We hiked by this tree.

When I came home and wanted to finish off my roll, Lily was happy to oblige. The little white spots in the background (and which were unplanned in the other shots I scanned in–I don’t know why I’m getting so many artifacts in my other scans), were actually from a 3-hole punch she had opened up a wee bit earlier.

30 days: Day 6–Campout.

Went on a Scout campout. As per usual, it’s the being there that is mostly fun. The preparation, drive there, and packing (I guess that would be preparation, too) are generally miserable. I’ve got an essay about that. No, wait–that was about how the actual camping was pretty miserable, too. This time was pretty good–good food, good company, and, for the most part, good boys. Ramble.

The flame jumped just before I took the picture, but I like how it turned out. Of course, if I had to pick, he would be the one scout I’d keep rather than burn. My other night photos were less than desirable. This and tomorrow’s photos are with the Nikon N80.

30 days: Day 5–Thursday (Valentine’s)

Trying to capture the heart sticky thing on our mirror as if I’m holding it and not my camera. Not successful. Even though yesterday’s post says February 14th, this picture was technically taken then. It’s that GMT that throws everything off. Thanks, Great Britain. (Photos from a Sony Cybershot DSC P200 that I’ve had on long-term loan for the school for a long time).

Attempt #10 or something like that.

Aw. Wasn’t that worth the wait?