Jeff Goldblum

Not to be punny but I am so jazzed about this album. I love Jeff Goldblum. 

Look! More books! And a cat in a box!

Today marks another successful Scholastic Warehouse Sale. I took home 26 books at an average price of $3.80 per book. It was a Buy One, Get One event so I worked really hard to pair them up by price and get just over $100 so I could use the $10 coupon.

Here's the list:
Bean Stalker and Other Hilarious Scary Tales by Kiersten White
Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman
Bow Wow by Spencer Quinn
Ghost by Jason Reynolds
Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly
Navigating Early by Care Vanderpool
The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson
Word of Mouse by James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein
Horizon by Scott Westerfeld
Horizon Book 2: Deadzone by Jennifer A. Nielsen
Bad Kitty: Camp Daze by Nick Bruel
The Serpent's Secret: Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond by Sayantani Dasgupta
Where are the Galapagos Islands? by Megan Stine
DC Comics Secret Hero Society: Detention of Doom by Derek Fridolfs
A Wrinkle in Time adapted by Hope Larson
Trollhunters Tales of Arcadia: The Secret History of Trollkind by Guillermo Del Toro
Foiled by Jane Yolen
Plants vs. Zombies: The Greatest Show Unearthed by Paul Tobin
Sparks! by Ian Boothby and Nina Matsumoto

And for Monster Book Club members:
The Magic School Bus Rides Again: Monster Power by Judy Katschke
Peachy and Keen: A School Tail by Jason Tharp
The Zero Degree Zombie Zone by Patrik Henry Bass
Mae and June and the Wonder Wheel by Charise Mericle Harper
Desmond Cole Ghost Patrol: The Haunted House Next Door by Andres Miedoso
Race the Wild: Rain Forest Relay by Kristin Earhart
Toy Academy: Some Assembly Required by Brian Lynch

Books!

Books! 

Some say more books than we've ever had before! 

Books! Books! Books! 

The PJA Used Book Sale is (almost) on. The aerial shot below is of the setup after all the minions, myself included, came to haul boxes around to the correct area for the given genre and then unpack them all. My corner of self-proclaimed expertise is the children's books. I didn't spend too much time arranging the Young Adult fiction because they are able to sift through the selection themselves, but I did try to get the chapter books for the younger kids in a form of chaotic order by series when there were enough to warrant doing so. It doesn't really matter because once the doors open it's all going to get shuffled and mixed around and, well, destroyed, but it made me feel good to leave it pretty for the first customers who arrive. All that took about six hours. We had a ton of volunteer parents and kids and there were donuts and water because we gots to keep the troops moving, right? 

My favorite things about this sale are almost too many to list but I'm going to try anyway: 

1. I'm able to restock my home supply with books for cheap ($1 for kids' books, $2 for everything else)
2. the selection is always fantastic (meaning you are guaranteed to find something you'll like)
3. working with the UBS crew is awesome (seriously, we have the best committee ever and it's all spearheaded by the fantastically awesome Safranit Molly and the amazing Ms. Alison R. who spends far too much time coordinating and arranging the whole affair)
4. there is an opportunity to find truly amazing rare pieces (Oscar Wilde, Hemingway, Faulkner - yes, please!)
5. it raises money for our school library (woot!)
6. the kids get to come in and nab a free book 
7. our customers love books as much as we do

photo credit: Safranit Molly, librarian extraordinaire

I'll be working the sale today, tomorrow, and Tuesday. This means, of course, that I'll be able to pick a few more books.

In the event you live in the area, enjoy a good book sale, and would like to come, here's the information you need to know:

Where: MJCC @ 6651 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland
When: Today (Sunday) from 1-5pm, Monday and Tuesday 8am - 7pm
Stuff you should know: Bargain Tuesday means all books are $1 and after 4pm you can fill a regular sized shopping bag for a set amount*. (One year I crammed in 30 books. True story.)

*I think it's $10 but need to confirm that. 

New Purse!

After seven years of faithful service, first as a diaper bag and then as purse, I am retiring my old Timbuktu bag and buying

…wait for it…

…I'm building suspense…

…here it comes…

…hold onto your britches…

…

the Thurloe bag!

That's $68 bucks of bag beauty right there because Boden sent me a $20 coupon (woot!). It is a textured cotton bag with a "practical, wipe-clean coating" and a cross-body strap. I would not have thought I'd be this excited about a bag but I am. Isn't it cute? (Only acceptable answer: Yes.)

Deer in the Headlights

This game is awesome. You can buy it here. That is all.

Handwritten letter to Santa

With a cute letter like this there's no way the kid won't get the LEGO set he wants. (Don't tell him that.)

Lens envy

I'm renting the 14-24mm f/2.8 lens from Pro Photo Supply to try out at the beach this weekend. It is an ultra ultra-wide with less edge distortion (or so I've read, I have no working knowledge at this point). As a person in the market for a new lens in the next year or so, it is awesome to be able to rent equipment and take it for a test drive before purchasing. I always ask how much the lens is in the event I want to buy it. (Haha, yeah, right.) And I'm always a little scared after learning how much they are. I mean, I can handle being super careful for a weekend but no wonder I see people packing around those lined, could-be-run-over-by-a-car-and-not-be-crushed suitcases for their gear. These things ain't cheap.

If I may just talk up Pro Photo for a moment... Their rental department isn't open on the weekend. If you call ahead to reserve a lens, you can pick up the lens on Thursday after 3p.m. and keep it for the entire weekend returning it by 10a.m. on the following Monday* for the price of one night. Awesome!
Also, a while back I did a processing test for prints - Costco, Snapfish, (the now defunct) Scrapbook Pictures, and Pro Photo Supply. Pro Photo Supply used to have only matte and glossy as paper options. They have now added the beautiful Luster. And it is a perfect balance between the shiny glossy and the flat matte. I highly recommend it.

*I don't know what their policy is if the following Monday is a holiday so check before you decide to rent a lens on a holiday weekend or be prepared to pay for an extra day if you don't return it by 10a.m. on Monday.

Ode to Joy

Meet Esmé, the newest member of our family. 

Kiwi Crate project #1

When we came home from dropping Darren off at work today a Kiwi Crate was at our door! This is our first shipment and the projects couldn't be better for un Monsieur Henry. This month's theme is bugs. The projects are painting bugs using bug-shaped sponges and paintbrushes and, as if that wasn't enough, creating your own firefly. Woot! I am impressed with the quality and creativity that has gone into this package. The box contained all the necessary items to complete the two projects, and even has a set of bug-trivia cards with space on the back for your little one to draw their own bugs. Hen was super excited to get a package sent directly to him and even more excited to put the sponges in water to see them expand. He drew a lot of snakes to complement the bug-themed project he chose to do today. Of course, there were pictures...

Otherwise known as I Have a Problem

We have sets from Lego City, Lego Kingdom, Lego Creator, Lego Dino, and Lego Harry Potter. I could not bring myself to buy the H.P. castle so I instead bought the lighthouse, dino set, Hagrid's Hut, and fishing boat (and still paid less, darr! woot!). We played with the Legos for almost five hours today. I've tried to explain to Hen that the H.P. Legos are mine but I think he's operating from a "what's mine is mine and what's yours is mine" mentality.

Digital SLR camera Nikon D4

Dang. I want one. But it'll be, what? At least one more year before I can upgrade. Right, Darr?

Facelift

We recently had our floors done at the condo. We moved the oh-so-soft-and-lovely cork from the living room to Hen's room, got matching cork in our room, laid bamboo in our dining, kitchen, and living areas, and replaced the tile* in the bathrooms. While the guys were pulling up the old flooring, they accidentally broke the tile in the laundry room, so that was pulled up, too. We decided since we had done some cool stuff in the rest of the place, the laundry room shouldn't be forgotten. We went linoleum, folks. Black and white mottled flooring from Armstrong. I love it. I also love that right after they put the flooring in I got a flyer from The Container Store highlighting their sale on Elfa shelving with, you guessed it, laundry rooms featured in it. What luck! Darr picked out the color and I painted the evening away - took all of 20 minutes after taping, it isn't a large laundry room. The next night, I hit The Container Store about an hour before closing and picked out the shelving and accessories I wanted to store all the stuff we have crammed into that little space. We still have one bar to cut to fit on the wall but everything else is pretty much done. I wanted to enjoy being in that space - I do a surprising amount of laundry given there is only three of us - and I also wanted to check out this local place that mounts photos on bamboo (as an alternative to traditional framing), so I selected a couple of my non-Henry photos and sent them over to Plywerk. I couldn't be happier with the quality and I'm thrilled at the way the photos turned out. For those who picked up Chinook Books, there is a 20% (I think) coupon from Plywerk in there. I highly recommend using it or giving it to me if you aren't going to because I definitely will. As a result of this burst of almost creative and slightly industrious energy, I now truly enjoy opening the laundry room door and looking inside. If only I could figure out a way to get rid of that dang litter box smell. Ewww. And, yeah, because I'm excessive, there are far too many pictures to go along with this post. Here is our new and improved laundry room in all its glory...

After flooring was laid, painting was complete, and base trim was installed.

Shelving on one side, appliances on the other.

Since I have leftover paint, I'm thinking of making a faux wall for the one shelf that has all the washer/dryer cords in it. How hard would it be to cut and paint a piece of cardboard to hang from the shelf above to hide all that?

Ah, so pretty.

Plant with green leaves taken at Sellwood Park, cactus taken during my last trip to the Mexico!, rose from Portland Rose Garden. I'm a huge Plywerk fan.

Makes you want to do laundry in there, doesn't it?

*And carpet in the master bath, because running carpet all the way down the bathroom makes total sense. Not.

Photography fun: The Nikon D700, final day #4

<sigh> I returned the D700 this morning. I am quite taken with the camera. It's not all that surprising because I've been wanting a new camera since everyone and their mothers' grandmothers have been getting 'em. I believe I am getting sharper photos with better color balance when using the D700. It should be noted I employed minimal editing, sometimes only reducing the image size, before throwing the pics online. For example, here's one shot I love of Hen playing in his room:

Shutter 1/160 Aperture f/2.0 ISO 320

I really notice the space that is within the field in focus. (Does that make sense?) Like how his hand, nose, the marble on the ramp and marbles below on the table, and the grain of the wood in that area are all so crisp. In order to get a similar pic with my current camera, I'd need either a different lens or to knock out Hen's wall so I could drop back enough to get all of this in the frame. And I would have to change either the shutter or the aperture since ISO 320 isn't an option on the D40X. 

To be fair, here's an outside shot I would be able (conceivably, at least) to replicate with my camera:

Shutter 1/800 Aperture f/3.2 ISO 200

Click here to see the rest of the photos from that day.

This year's best investment

Life at the Condo's best investment this year ... wait for it ... the huge amount of money we overpaid to our friends* at the IRS. Yes, folks. This year we're ecstatic about the opportunity to give somebody our money and have them give it back with zero percent interest! woohoo!

* characterization strictly time-limited

The Geithner Plan FAQ

Q: What is the Geithner Plan?

A: The Geithner Plan is a trillion-dollar operation by which the U.S. acts as the world's largest hedge fund investor, committing its money to funds to buy up risky and distressed but probably fundamentally undervalued assets and, as patient capital, holding them either until maturity or until markets recover so that risk discounts are normal and it can sell them off--in either case at an immense profit.

Q: What if markets never recover, the assets are not fundamentally undervalued, and even when held to maturity the government doesn't make back its money?

A: Then we have worse things to worry about than government losses on TARP-program money--for we are then in a world in which the only things that have value are bottled water, sewing needles, and ammunition.

Please read the rest by Brad Delong

Update: Krugman Disagrees

Hästens bed

Darr and I did a little shopping this past weekend and part of that included a trip to the new Hästens store in Seattle. We aren't really in the market for a new mattress, having recently purchased a Tempur-Pedic, but there was a nice duvet cover in the window we wanted to check out. Once in the store we got sucked into a demonstration by a salesperson I'll call Chip, because that is his name. Chip had Darr and I lying down on bed after bed, on our backs and on our sides, with soft, goose down-filled pillows and with anatomical pillows, with our eyes open and with our eyes closed. The man even touched our feet. What I learned? That there is such a thing as a $49,000 bed. I also learned that I wouldn't ever pay that much for a bed, even if it is (as advertised) "the most exclusive bed in the world". I'd rather buy this.