Cherokee's Thought of the Day

If you stare really hard, sometimes they'll give you a french fry.

If they won't give you a french fry, laser eyes are also helpful.

The Car With No Name

My first car, a 97 VW Golf.  This picture, however, was taken in 2003 right before we traded it in for Murray (a Mini of some renown).

As the title says, this car didn't have a name.  Not sure why, really; it wasn't on purpose.  It just never seemed to have one.  It did shuttle me back and forth to school for four long years, through every type of weather imaginable, and performed admirably in situations where I did something stupid.  Like drive myself home with a 103 fever, or convince myself that if I didn't blink all the way home, I wouldn't fall asleep.  Or when I took the corner leaving our street too quickly and spun all the way around on the ice.  The woman two doors down looked at me pretty strangely when I drove by in different directions within the space of 30 seconds, I tell ya.

It was a good car, with a variety of growing problems.  By the time we decided to get something new it was pretty clear we had to either move on trading it in soon, or drive it until it fell apart (which I suspect it was getting ready to do in the next couple of years - arbitrary things like the muffler were falling off out of the blue).

It was still in good enough shape that the Mini dealership gave us more than their initial estimate for it, which is probably pretty unusual for car dealerships, I think.  I was sad to see it go, but driving Murray home washed a lot of that away.  It's a shame the car and situation that replaced Murray didn't go the same way.  Maybe next time.

(Also, that's the same bag I carry now.  And I still love those shoes, but they're more hole than shoe now.  Sigh.)

(Also also, yes, there was no Sunday post for Sunday.  So we've officially missed one for the year.  I'll keep track.)

A less than great picture

One that I actually took with  my cellphone in 2008 sometime.  This was one of the first polymer clay foods I made - poppyseed bagel with cream cheese.  Mmm.

Random Friday Cute Doggie Picture

From last summer, when I was working on my Tinker Bell wings during a thunderstorm.  This was before Cherokee decided the small bathroom was a good safe place to hide and tried to hide under other available things.  Like me.

Whoops...

I was so tired last night I forgot all about posting this.  What a horrible night.  Anyway... let's cheer up a with a little belated Disney Thursday.



I think this shot was from 2004.  Judging by the angle, I suspect it was taken from the Peoplemover.

I like it.

Did I mention I was really tired?

Going places on Wednesday (slightly on Thursday)

Among the reasons I regret leaving The Biggest City in the Country(TM) for The Poorest Excuse for a Large City On Earth(TM).  T.O. gets cool traveling exhibits that only go to a handful of cities in the world.  Atlanta gets Sinbad on tour.

This was the second exhibit that came through for LotR, for Two Towers.  The first one was at Casa Loma and this was at the planetarium (which is completely dead now, I suppose - sad).  The first one was a little more sedate with displays of props and costumes that you were, sadly, not supposed to take pictures of.  It wasn't as well attended, though, and you could wander around as you liked.  This one was a big, elaborate affair with sets rebuilt and stuff - like the Dead Marshes (complete with bodies under the water).  It still had the props and costumes, but you had to move through in an orderly procession with all the other people.

Still, Atlanta doesn't rate when it comes to things like this, unless you're looking for a Yankee to torch the place.  That they qualify for.

Cherokee's Thought of the Day

Persistence is key.  With persistence, you can turn any chew-proof item into a scratched up shell of its former self.  Or, you know, some non-chewing-related activity.  Case in point:





I'm going to add to Cherokee's thought for today by saying persistence is great, but the biting power of a great white shark doesn't hurt, either.

For the record, this is Cherokee's nylabone.  The blurb on the website claims "Made of X-tra tough nylon and designed to stand up to the most POWERFUL CHEWER!"  Hers is in 'wolf' size.

When we dropped her off at dog camp last time we went away, the guy checking her in - who works with dogs all day, every day - looked at her bone and made a face.  "That's not supposed to happen..." was his assessment.

Indeed.

King of Thieves

Many ferrets are 'fetishy', where they'll get abnormally attached to some item and be distressed if someone else handles it.  Some more so than others.  Some about one item in particular and some about a variety of things.  Orson's particular fetish was for my pencil case.  His first order of business when he got into my room was to retrieve said pencil case from my schoolbag and haul it into his hiding spot in the closet.  If I needed something from it, I'd have to go and fish it out with him climbing all over me the whole time trying to pull it back again.  I'm not sure what it was about the pencil case but if you ever want to see an accusatory look from an animal, man, did he ever have a good one.

In any case, his affection for hauling the pencil case around gave him pretty good technique when it came to carrying things bigger than he was.  He'd kind of grab the item in his mouth, tip is head way back and feel his away along the ground in a sort of prance.

He was also fond of raisins and a master of seized opportunity.

Ferrety ambition knows no bounds!

Me, Bob Ross style

I even added a little cabin in there.

Speaking of which

Remember I said we (well, mostly I) liked taking pictures off our balcony?  I present for your viewing enjoyment snow off our balcony.  Probably winter 2004/2005, but maybe earlier.  Actually that looks a bit like Scarlett Rd. at the bottom (see the street lights?) so I suspect this was more like 2002/2003.

Still snow off the balcony, though.

Deluxe apartment in the sky

When we lived up on the 30th floor (like real apartment/condo buildings have, not what they have here), we had quite a view.  You could actually look down from our balcony and windows onto the roof of one of the neighboring buildings - that building in the foreground was about 25 stories tall.  It was good stuff.  I would like to go back there...

Anyway, good view made for good picture opportunities a lot of the time.  Snow, rain and sunsets were particular favorites.  Makes me wish we'd had a more sophisticated camera at the time because these pictures never really did them justice.

Still waiting on this one

This remains on the perpetual list of things I'd like from Walt Disney World.  We took this picture in 2004, I believe, and it was still there last December.  I think the first time I looked at it it was $20,000, but last time I looked, it was up to 25.  Can't wait much longer to get it, obviously.

Going places in the pre-digital camera era

From NCAR (the National Center for Atmospheric Research) in Boulder, CO in December 2003.  I don't have easy access to the scanner at the moment, so today it's a picture of a picture.  The actual facility isn't quite this grainy (nor is the original picture, to be fair to the old camera).

You'd think they'd have a lot of interesting exhibits in the lobby area since they get a lot of visitors, but they really only have this one.  Fortunately it's a pretty interesting exhibit.  The rest of the tour they took us on was pretty dull - lots of 'here are our banks of Crays' and such.  And all of our paunchy scientists in their denim shirts and brightly colored ties.

The facility is up onto the side of the Front Range, though, so going up the stairs out front was an adventure when you consider that Boulder itself is already 5400 feet and we drove up a winding mountain road (covered in ice, no less) to get there.  You never miss oxygen is until there isn't any.

Cherokee's Thought of the Day

It requires a significant amount of cuteness to get away with sleeping right beside the stain you  made in the carpet when you tore through the garbage and spread sweet and sour sauce all over the place.

I recommend making it look like you're prancing like a deer if you can.  I find it suitably distracting.  It also helps if you can look like you're smiling.  Of course, I am a professional at this so you may want to get some practice in before you go for the red food coloring stain yourself.

Soon they will let us in for sushi

Dragoncon 2007, waiting for the Benihana to open.

I can't find the camera

So the camera in the laptop will have to do.  This is actually from my birthday, completely with wee pokemon from Jennifer. :)

It was tasty, too.

That is a really big onion ring.  Deliciously Southern.

Taken a greasy spoon on the way back from Savannah in 2009.  This was the place that was still serving "Freedom Fries".

In 2009.

Whoops...

Opened this when I got to work and forgot to do anything with it.

For this random Friday image... I present...



a toucan.  From the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, SC.  He was a pretty bird, but we had no crackers on us.

Comes with a side of insulin

December 2004, the Kona Cafe, the famed Tonga Toast.

It's basically sugar-encrusted fried sourdough french toast stuffed with bananas (or, in this case, apples because that's what Scott asked for).  When they serve it, they warn you to not put on any syrup until you taste it first.  It's pretty much offensively sweet and rich.  Good for a few bites, though.

Me and my friend. And CJ. ;)

From when we went to Celebration 3 in Indianapolis in 2005.  Poor CJ was still underage at that point, and I was clearly unsympathetic.

Cherokee's Thought of the Day

Try not to itch your belly in public.  Damn paparazzi are everywhere.

Today's family post; me, myself and I.

All right, so I believe I've made the decision to do the hair coloring thing.  But I'm still at a bit of a crossroads about what color.  My thoughts are:

1) Color it back to the way it is when it's not going grey
2) Color it back the way it was when I was a bit younger (which was much redder; copper red, though)
3) Color it a darker brown, which would be a little richer, I think
4) Go for the anime red.  Or green.  Or blue.  Or maybe all of the above.

I went to Sally's Beauty today and the woman there had a lot of good advice (and new what anime red was; in fact, she's the one who first called it that so I knew i was in good hands), but I wasn't able to decide on the actual color while I was there.  It was good for recon, though, and as I said, she had good advice.

The first part was to take three towels - one white, one gold and one silver - and hold them up to my face, and see how that looks with my skin and eyes, etc.  If white looks best then you can go white blonde (which was not one of my options, actually); if it's gold, then a warmer, lighter shade would work; if it's grey, then a cooler or darker shade is okay.  I don't have towels in those colors, but I do have photoshop!  So here we go:







This is very similar to the thing I've been trying to figure out re: do I have warm or cool skin tones for makeup?  And the answer there seems to always be 'neutral'.  Which is unhelpful because it means you can sort of wear anything, only I know certain things look like ass on me (pale greens, yellow, orange-reds come to mind) and they cross the 'warm/cool' barriers.  So I think it's trial and error for me.

In any case, I think the white looks best?  But I dunno.  And I'm not sure I want to be blonde?

I decided, whilst photoshopping, that I'd just go ahead and try on some colors.  So here we go! =D


Coppery



Slight Darker Brown


Black


Malfoy


McDonald


Sailor Mercury


Sailor Pluto

Anyway, after talking to the girl in Sally, I have an idea of what I'm going to do.  But I'm open to comments. o_o

Well, hell

I took some pictures to put up here today, but I don't like any of them.

So instead, here is a picture of a delicious cake.  :9

That's a keeper, right?

Suitable for framing, isn't it?

I have a bunch of pictures on the camera right now like this.  Basically just the top of my head.  Why?  Because I'm trying to figure out what my 'natural' color is, in terms of hair colors.  It is surprisingly difficult, though I think this is partly due to the way the pictures hair color companies have on their websites just stink.

Avast, havarti!

I bought this (some time ago; it's long gone now) specifically because it had Jack Sparrow on it.

Scott said the combination of Disney and my parents created a good little consumer.

I could get those at Walmart.

This was my favorite Christmas decoration at Disney - The Lights of Winter in Epcot (circa Dec 2007).  They were these huge arches you passed under going between Future World (er, "Future" World) and World Showcase.  They changed colors and danced to the music and were generally very pretty and serene and festive, and when you took the monorail to Epcot from the TTC, you'd pass between them.

Disney did away with them in 2009, citing 'outdated technology that they couldn't fix'.  So ... Disney ... saying that they didn't have the technology to make lights dance to music.  Never mind the fact that the huge Christmas display at MGM is - wait for it - lights that dance to music.  On a much bigger scale, in fact.  Never mind the fact that you can rig up your own dancing lights with a package you buy at Target.  They can make a fake Johnny Depp and blow off tens of thousands of dollars worth of fireworks every night.  But no no.  This was a problem too complex for WDI.

*grump*

This whole place was strange

A World Trade Center I-Beam, which was the only part of the Atomic Testing Museum that they let you take pictures of.

Why there was a World Trade Center I-Beam in the Atomic Testing Museum is still something of a question mark to me, but the whole place sort of fell under that category.  I realize the subject of the museum needs to be approached... carefully?  Maybe?  We ended up going there because Teller said it was one of the most interesting places in Vegas, and it was.  But the tone they took struck me as odd.

It started out pretty much like you'd expect.  Manhattan Project and all?  But things started to go a little weird when they declared Harry Truman was not only the best president ever, but also just ... basically nature's greatest miracle.  And then they went on to say, more or less right out, that Japan was happy to have been bombed.  I can almost understand where they were going with that.  But not... not quite.

They did have a lot of interesting artifacts, however, including this really fascinating book - produced by JC Penney - of the effect of the nuclear testing on their various items of clothing.  It had a series of before and after pictures of mannequins and their ... y'know, Sunday best or work clothes or whatever, and descriptions like "Slight melting of tie.  Shirt singed around edges.  Torso collapsed.  Arms gone.  One leg missing."  Priorities.

Anyway, at the end of the self-guided tour, they had this I-Beam, with a note saying you could take a picture of it.  So we did.  And I still don't know why they had it.  I mean ... what is the implication?  That 'The Bomb" keeps the country safe?  'cause I-Beam seems to indicate otherwise.  Or that eventually they'll nuke someone else and they'll be happy about it too?

Perplexing.

Cherokee's Thought of the Day

It's wise to put your best foot forward when you're trying to make a good impression, or get a cookie.  It particularly helps if you can make pretty feet and cross them in a confident but appealing manner.

It wasn't as good as I'd hoped

A bunch'a us eating the Kitchen Sink at Beaches and Cream in December 2007.  Honestly, if I'd known how many people were going to opt out once we got there, I wouldn't have suggested it. XD  But it was fun for one time, anyway.

Until it started melting.  Then it was just sort of nasty.

Actually this picture kind of reminds me of how irritated I was with the whole situation.

But at least there was fudge.

What I'm up to today

I think I'm going to expand the bounds of the Sunday picture to include what I'm up to, because pictures of me every week is kinda boring.  So maybe I'll go every other week or something.

In any case, today I was ironing pattern pieces for a shirt I'm going to make.  My coat is still unfinished, but it got too cold to wear it for a while so I put it on hold through the busy holiday season and I'll resume it after the shirts.

This is the first thing I'm making that's supposed to be washed regularly, so I'm hoping it will hold together well.  I prewashed the fabric, which was nice, because that way I don't have to iron it.  But not so much for the pattern pieces.  Allllllways crinkly, those pattern pieces.

Shirt does not match picture

This was taken in Dec 2007 at the Beaches n' Cream soda fountain at the Beach Club resort.  Not sure why we kept it, but it's either an accident that belies the 'genius' designation on the tshirt, or a really abstract statement about ... something.

The funny thing is it's not there now

The first time we drove to Florida from here, in December 2007, I was all excited because we were going down 75 through Georgia and that was the route we used to take from home when I was small.  And we used to stay overnight in Forsyth, Georgia at the Best Western that was white with the red roof with a steep driveway.  So I was on the lookout for said Best Western, or some indication of it, to see if it was still there.

Lo and behold... it was easily visible from the highway.  Same red roof.  Best Western Hilltop. =D  This is the place where the waitress ('cause that's what you called them then) didn't know what relish was.  Which is odd, because they totally do have relish here.

Anyway, it was there the following year as well, but the past couple of times, it's had a different name.  I guess it was good we went when we did.

The real Magic Kingdom isn't this pixelated

I really wanted to get a picture with Rapunzel and Eugene when we were there in December, but the lines for it were ridiculous.  They were capped, they were very short... basically you had to stand there all day in the hopes of making the cut for one of the lines.  They kept telling us to show up an hour early, but that didn't work.  Even an hour and forty-five minutes didn't work. :<  Next time, though.

Meanwhile, we stood as close as we could get (which wasn't very) and made use of the camera's digital zoom, which is a tricky proposition at best and results in low-light pixely pictures like this.  But I think this one turned out decently, at least.  The pose is good; both of the cast members seemed to be into their roles.  I'm pretty sure the two days we stalked the line, it was the same two people, too.  Makes me  think they just hadn't cast very many for these characters yet and that's why the line situation was so heinous.

Which I would like to say surprised me but Disney has a record of dropping that ball.  What really surprised me was the lack of general merchandise.  That one they're usually pretty good at.  I can't remember the last time I was waving money at them and they couldn't find a way to take it.  Maybe that'll be for next time, too.

This picture doesn't do it justice

In June 2010, over the edge of the Hoover Dam.

I'm not particularly afraid of heights, but this activity made me a little uneasy.  It was a very, very, very long way down and the guard railing thingie comes up to about your waist at some points.  It didn't help that it was windy that day, either, though I suspect it's always gusty up there.

Shudder.

Cherokee's (Belated) Thought of the Day

Sometimes they will not give you any chicken, no matter how cute you are.  Gravity may affect you particularly strongly during these times.  Plan ahead.  Make sure you have a pillow.

We chose him!

Left to right, Jennifer as Sora, Pikachu as himself, me in kitsune form and some girl(?) playing Ash at AWA in 2007.  To be honest, I'm surprised that pikachu fits in that pokeball Ash is holding.  That's a big little electric mouse.

Pika pika!

Om nom nom

Instead of a picture of me today you get a picture of deeelicious birthday cupcakes.  I think Scott did an excellent job of fulfilling my request for large cupcakes with too much frosting on them, don't you?  :9

I really just don't even know what this is.

Why didn't this get deleted right after we took it?  No idea.  But now it gets its moment in the sun!