Photo Friday: Birthday throwback edition!

January 30, 20153 Comments

Today’s throwback post is interesting in its age. See, I took these pictures last night – they’re my birthday gifts. But they both hail from the ’90s (literally, in the case of the one), so I feel justified in calling them throwbacks:

The best part is that this unfolds to reveal MOAR PICTURES! 😀

Mmm, Angel… 😀

I LOVED *NSYNC when I was younger. Oh, who am I kidding? I still love them. When it came time to pick between Team *NSYNC and Team BSB, I was the one in the middle clutching my posters of JC and Nick and pleading for both of them. Even today, I still can’t decide which group I like better. So when my sister gave me this poster-cube-thingy, I couldn’t help laughing and then grinning like an idiot all the way home.

Buffy was – apparently – the continuation of a trend. We watched the 1992 movie on Monday night, followed by The Lost Boys on Tuesday night. The whole vampire thing started me thinking about Angel, the box set of which lives in the bottom of one of our DVD cabinets, and I decided I’d rather like to watch it. Except that I didn’t watch Buffy when it originally aired (I didn’t get the channel *sigh*), and I wondered how much backstory I’d be missing if I watched Angel without having seen Buffy.

Seymour to the rescue! We watched the first two episodes of Buffy last night and have a marathon planned for the weekend. Good times, great oldies. 🙂

I think I’ve written about how we celebrate birthdays in my family before – what do you do?

Don’t forget to stop by Charnele’s blog and check out her fabulous throwback post!

Photo 365 #176

January 30, 20158 Comments

Since yesterday was my birthday, I decided to treat myself by going out to lunch. It was positively divine to get a break from the ramen I’ve been scarfing for far too long.

riss

It was nice to get out and about, but it didn’t work so well for my writing. Between the noise from my fellow diners and the soap opera playing on TV, I had trouble focusing on what I was trying to write. Despite all that, and the similar challenges I faced at lunch today, I actually got quite a bit done and feel rather pleased with myself.

The project in the picture is my latest short story, commissioned by Miss Tadpole. I’ve been working on it for a couple of months – rhyming is haaard, yo – and I hope to have it finished by the time she comes home on Monday. I don’t know if I’ll reach my goal or not, but I feel like I’m finally gaining ground with this story, and I can’t seem to stop thinking about it. It’s set in Lokana, but long before the time of my novels.

And now, on to the next thing! Have a great Friday, everybody!

Photo 365 #175

January 29, 2015January 29, 20156 Comments

Last night, the sun set on my thirtieth year. And what a glorious sunset it was!

sunset30

See? Toldja it was pretty. 🙂

It’s been a great birthday today, even if it has left me thinking a lot about my mom. I’m now the same age she was when she died (or at least I will be come August), and it’s got me thoughtful. Luckily, I’ve got some great friends who’ve done a fantastic job of keeping my spirits high today, and I want to share the happy with you all.

So! I’m running a special on Tuesday Daydreams. From now through Monday, you can pick up a copy (if you don’t have one already) for $1.50 (regular price is $2.99). Just go to Smashwords and enter coupon code FE67Z at checkout. You can also pick up a copy at Amazon.

I hope you all have a fabulous Thursday. See ya back here tomorrow! 🙂

Photo 365 #174

January 28, 20154 Comments

Once again, it’s a pretty leaf picture:

2015-01-27 08.20.27

It’s been a busy couple of days at work, and my brain’s a little fried, so once again, I’ve got very little to share. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be a little more with it.

Happy Hump Day! 🙂

Photo 365 #173

January 27, 201511 Comments

The snow we got over the weekend is now almost entirely gone, but that didn’t keep me from waking up to another white morning. Once again, the ground was covered in frost when I left for work, and once again, I found some pretty leaves to take pictures of:

I was surprised (in a good way) how well the frost crystals popped out in these pictures. These are the best of the dozen or so I snapped this morning after dropping my kids off at daycare, and I’m pretty tickled with them.

What’s tickled you lately?

Photo 365 #172

January 26, 20156 Comments

I’ve got nothing today – my brain appears to have shut down. Perhaps it still thinks it’s the weekend?

All in all, it’s just another brick in the wall.

So with that in mind, I hope you’ll enjoy this artsy picture of some of the bricks that make up a local courthouse. See you back here tomorrow, when hopefully I’ll have more on my mind than Pink Floyd.

Photo 365 #171

January 25, 2015January 26, 20154 Comments

Miss Tadpole and Bubbles had a 4-H meeting this afternoon and it was their turn to give the presentations. Naturally, they left them till the last minute, because who needs to prepare?

presentations

Since our ISP switch, though, we only have internet access on one computer – Seymour’s. It’s an inconvenience for sure, and when Miss Tadpole wanted to use the internet to look up information about the history of cats, we told her to look at the encyclopedia.

Her response?

“That doesn’t have history in it.”

*facepalm*

So I gave her a whirlwind introduction to the encyclopedia. Again. (Sadly, this is not the first time this conversation has happened in my house.) I showed her the index, explaining that it was “like Google, before Google was a thing.” Then I demonstrated how to use it to check out different keywords in her search (she wanted information on cats in ancient Egypt). Unfortunately, our encyclopedia was a bit lacking when it came to ancient Egyptian cats, but hopefully she learned that she doesn’t have to rely on the internet for everything.

And no, I’m not holding my breath that that particular lesson actually soaked in.

Still, it was a lot of fun looking through that old encyclopedia. Some of my most treasured memories involve summer afternoons at the library reading The World Book Encyclopedia.

Do you have any fun memories involving reference books of yore? Share ’em below – let’s reminisce! 🙂

Photo 365 #170

January 24, 20158 Comments

The grass yesterday morning crunched beneath my feet. Like snow. It was…interesting.

It was also quite pretty, so naturally, I took some pictures. Today it’s in the forties, so the ground is turning soggy. Mud’s just not as pretty as frost.

Photo Friday: More throwback fun!

January 23, 20151 Comment

Today’s throwback picture goes back to Christmas 2007. It was the first Christmas after my divorce, and Bubbles’ grandparents had invited us to help them pick out their Christmas tree:

lensbreaker

This picture singlehandedly destroyed my camera, the first digital one I’d ever owned. Not thirty seconds after I snapped this picture, I managed to drop the poor camera lens-first on the ice.

*sigh*

Curse you, butterfingers!

I took my Christmas bonus that year and bought another camera, which I subsequently bequeathed to Bubbles a couple of years ago. He’s used it all of twice, if I’m not mistaken. 🙂

Hope you all have a great weekend, and don’t forget to check out Charnele’s blog – she’s got a great post up today. Happy Friday! 🙂

Photo 365 #169

January 23, 2015January 23, 2015Leave a comment

Much to Cricket’s chagrin, Thumper received a package in the mail yesterday. (For the record, Cricket was only annoyed because he didn’t get a package, too.) It was a late Christmas present from his godmother, and he was absolutely ecstatic:

2015-01-22 20.00.42

I’ve seen this before, and somewhere (in my office, I think) I have one of those wall decals that says the same thing. We all love it, and the plan is to get it hung this weekend. Thumper loves it so much that I think he’d have slept with it last night if we’d have let him; he started crying when we wouldn’t let him carry it upstairs.