Sorooshians, Dodds and friends, last month

Holly just sent this to me with a note: "I wasn't sure if you had already seen this, but it's a neat picture. Kirby took it." I had not seen it, and it's very happy.

That's Holly with the red in her hair. Then Rosie and Roxana Sorooshian, me, Bo King (who did the tree art below), Marty, and his girlfriend Ashlee. Pam and Kirby were in the other room.

This was the second week of January, this year, at my house.

Strawberry Holly

Another self portrait by Holly. She's messing with it on the other computer, but this is the original image.

Various Oddities of the Week

Keith puts his hair up in a little bun, but here's what it looked like a couple of mornings ago when he was getting ready for work. He was sitting to comb it out because his back's been hurting. I was up early because he hadn't slept well, and I got up to check on him and do things, but couldn't go back to sleep.

Any of these photos can be seen larger with a click.

One day Holly had a rainbow on her shoulder. It came from a crystal that hangs in the kitchen window. Keith and I got it as a wedding gift, so we've had it nearly 25 years. She was sitting across the kitchen table from me and I looked up and saw her rainbowness, and the shadow of her Valentine's Day flowers on the rainbow.



Holly and Brett went to dinner at a French restaurant for the one year anniversary of their being a couple. One photo is dark, but I liked their expressions.


Then I was in the bathroom and thought it was an interesting bathroom day—the stuff on the counter and the wall.


Kirby and three friends signed a lease on a house and they move in March.

My biggest excitement happened today. I found out I'll be a speaker at the London Unschooling Conference on July 25. That's the day after Learn Nothing Day. Cool.

"Cool" is an understatement. I'm giddy.

Also, about the Good Vibrations conference in San Diego—maybe Keith will drive out with one or two of the other kids. Kirby and I will fly, if he can go.

AND it's nearly time for the HENA conference, Kirby has reservations, Brett will drive me and Holly out there, and I'm excited!

La la la, my website is down...

It's kind of a creepy feeling. SandraDodd.com isn't there. That's where I work.

---

P.S. a few minutes later:

Never mind. It came back while I was posting the note above. Cute!

I knew it would be down for four hours overnight, but it was still down at 8:45 in the morning at my house.

don't open e-mail from me

... at least one about grades in colorado and the christian science monitor


I hope nobody else got this but me.
I hope nobody clicked a link.

I deleted mine. It's junk. I hope nobody got one. Sorry; it's an evil zombie-bot mailing.


From: Sandra@SandraDodd.com
Subject: A Colorado school district does away with grade levels | csmonitor.com
Date: February 18, 2009 8:56:34 PM MST
To: Sandra@SandraDodd.com

The benefit of a big house

One of many benefits of a big house is that Holly and Brett can have a romantic dinner of their own making alone at home while I'm in the back (an attached apartment, but separate roof, separate building, odd kind of hallway-connector). Keith and Marty are in Arizona until Monday. I have this cool new laptop which makes me more portable, and I have lots of e-mail to catch up on and webpages to tweak.

Here are the flowers Holly's Brett had delivered while he was at work today:


And he was going to make her asparagus with sauce, and they were going to make spaghetti. Holly bought heart-shaped candle holders and red candles. I am just not there at all. I'm back here. See?



Kirby has called me twice today, just to talk. What a sweetie. I got to talk to Ramona for a long time, too, and spend a lot of the day with Holly. I brought food back here and was preparing as though I'd truly be limited to just what I'd brought in, but realized while I was talking to Kirby that although I'm planning not to go up to the main part of the house, there's a Popeye's chicken right out the back gate, and a grocery store up the alley. There's a Twister's right across Juan Tabo and... a fridge in the next room. So although I was preparing as though I were going camping alone, it was oddly inappropriate. Still... I've folded laundry and played games and listened to music and read and written.

I really do like my life!

Holly, mountains, circus

Okay, Holly and Brett went to the circus. I'm at home doing important things, like... washing the shot glasses we bought at the thrift store. Feeding the birds. Looking around the yard for places to put hanging tomato planters. Emptying the photos off my camera, which leads to sharing things like this with you. One of the most boring slideshows of all time, *unless* a person is really bored, or has never seen an in-town tumbleweed, or both.

Added February, 2009 to the tumbleweed post on some other blog I have.
"A tumbleweed by the road on Indian School near Pennsylvania. Not tumbling. Just being. On the right near the car ahead, in the first of the three photos:"


And I saved some mountain photos from the past few days, to illustrate a Donovan song, and what's been going on outside. Possibly as boring as the tubleweed, but I like it.

First there is a mountain...


then there is no mountain

...then there is.


The first one I saved because of the two big lines of clouds, all symmetrical and all. On flatland it's hard to get scale on clouds, but these clouds are up higher than a mountain that's a mile high and four or five miles long (high I know; length I'm guessing). Strongbad is on the window as a scarecrow to birds who might fly into it.

Then there were me and Holly earlier today:


And the other day on Facebook people were writing what smelled good to them, and I was inspired to make bread, and thence cheese sandwiches for me and Brett. The bread is "spaghetti bread"—Italian seasonings and parmesan cheese. The toppings are tomato, scallion, sauteed mushrooms and avocado with Swiss cheese. THAT is what Facebook has done for me lately.



And then my computer. I have a laptop now, after never having had one. And here is the setup I was using the other day to edit the WoW chat with Kirby—the file open on the desktop and the editor open on the laptop. In case anyone pictures me very organized and living in a pristine environment cleaned by my administrative assistant and file clerk, you share my fantasy, and now I will share my reality.


But here's some more reality: That chat is readable, as are the ones with Pam and with Ren (still being tweaked, but available). WoW, Pam and Ren. Maybe a little messy, but not as messy as my office is.