senoritafish | Entries tagged with kids

You probably saw at Tumblr already, but my LJ is lonely...here's the full set at Flickr. - there are a couple of short videos, too.

This was supposed to have been a Geocaching Event Cache - great gallery there by others who attended. Unfortunately, we got there a bit late and never met up with anyone (there were no coordinates posted for the actual Forum meeting place). However, I'm grateful it was posted at all, though, or we'd never have known about Endeavour stopping here. I'd had a hard time deciding to come - I thought traffic and parking would be horrible - but I'm very glad we did. Gareth would have never let me hear the end of it if we hadn't. :D

I really wish my dad could've seen this. He would've had a blast.

Edit 1/7/13: Got a notification that the geocacher who organized this event passed away about a month later. He was disabled and had been in declining health. I'm even more grateful he was able to do this.

Current Mood: excited but sad

(Backdated post - occurred 9/28 - it's now 10/16 and I never posted this to LJ)

I went out the docks Friday morning with one of our new scientific aides, who's still being checked off; while heading to San Pedro, he mentioned, "Mostly just squid's coming in - we'll probably be back before the Shuttle flyby at 11:00." He pointed out the Queen Mary as we passed, and remarked that she was supposed to be one of the flyover points. Sure enough, we collected our squid and were heading back to the office by 8:30. I checked the LA Times website and noted she was also supposed to fly along the beach in Huntington Beach (where I live) as well, on the way to Long Beach and to LAX.

Drove home to get the big camera, called runsamuck to see if he wanted to go along, collected him and went down to the beach, about a mile away from home. Very hazy and warm - runsamuck was a bit cranky from the heat and tired from working graveyard. Lots of people already there waiting, consulting phones calling people in the flyway, checking progress of the shuttle. Someone told us they thought it’d be an hour - she was supposed to fly over Disneyland, then head to the coast and fly north along the beach, back to Long Beach and the Queen Mary, thence to LAX.

Hundreds of people along beach and lining the pier

After a good long while, finally we heard shouts of “I hear it!” but the noise was coming from behind us. We looked the opposite direction and just barely caught sight of her and the fighter escorts between a few of the houses across the street.

Original shot...

Zoomed in from the original shot..

Extreme zoom...

There was a lot of babble around us, one guy had some binoculars and swore he’d seen them turn south over the ocean and they were coming back around again, but after waiting another 10 minutes or so, it was obvious it was not so. Apparently they’d felt they were running behind and cut short the southerly leg, opting to fly straight from Dismalland, over the Boeing (formerly McDonnell-Douglas) plant in the north part of HB, across the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station to the Seal Beach Boeing plant (which used to be Rockwell International when my dad worked there), Long Beach and LAX.

Ah well. Do I get one of those “I Tried” stickers?

Gareth and Avalon's school a few blocks away let everyone out onto the lawn in hopes of seeing Endeavour, but unfortunately, the planes all flew behind some trees. G. was extremely disappointed.

Angus however, was lucky. The Shuttle flew right over his high school. This video, apparently by one of the teachers there, was taken right outside his classrooms!

Current Mood: excited, yet sad

And so comes fall, the days get shorter again, another school year starts. Angus is starting high school, though not at the one he thought, Gareth is in his last year of middle school, and Avalon in her first year of it. Angus has been taller than me since last Christmas, and I just realized a couple of days (when I was trying to figure out t-shirt sizes), that Gareth is about even with me - he hasn't even turned 13 yet! And Avalon, at 11, wears a size 8 women's shoe now - still two sizes smaller than me, but about the average women's shoe size. Cripes!

She's starting in band this year and she's decided she'll try learning my old alto sax. She took it in to school today for the first time, but this weekend we'll take it in for a tune-up, and possibly renting one for a few weeks while it's being fixed up. I don't think it needs a complete overhaul, but it's been quite a while since I played it. It'll be the third generation it's been played - it was my mom's in high school, probably in the mid 50's? Anyhow, today at lunch I ran out to a nearby music store (I'd thought this one was just guitars, but apparently they do band instruments as well), and picked up her beginning music book, a new ligature for the mouthpiece (the old one is missing a screw) and some reeds. Sheesh. Those have gotten steep since I last bought any; they want almost $9 for three of them! At the store, looking in the cases at the flutes and piccolos, and checking out the cases - the original one is starting to fall apart - I was feeling some serious nostalgia, being overcome with marching band memories. Although the last band I was in did not march. It was called Band X, and we participated in parades on the back of a couple of flatbed semis. We were billed as the world's largest non-marching marching band. At football games, we did not march onto the field for half-time; we boogied. Think Steve Martin in his "Wild and Crazy Guy" act.

Where was I the other day when I heard a marching band playing 25 or 6 to 4? I think it was even the same arrangement we used to play.

vwsrmylife doesn't post here anymore, but I follow her other places. She belongs to a community marching band for adults in her area - it'd be great if there were something like that around here. There are community bands, but generally they're more orchestral or symphonic-type groups associated with the city and want people who are a little better than rusty amateurs. I should check with the community colleges - Band X actually was associated with the junior college I went to.

runsamuck just called me. He said the band teacher says they don't have a storage place for instruments, so she's going to have carry it back and forth every day, and I'm assuming, to all her classes, as that school no longer has lockers. When I went there, band had a storage room for instruments. What the heck? I know it starts feeling really heavy taking it back and forth to school, and I can't imagine have to haul it with you for all your classes. What about people learning the tuba? Do they expect everyone to play the piccolo, so it'll fit in your backpack?

Current Mood: nostalgic

Big Mack... by *senoritafish on deviantART>

Doodled (on the back of an ad for another con) at the Anime Manga & Music (AM2) con in Anaheim this past weekend, while waiting for the kids to finish a contest in the Brony lounge. I started with his nose and then the rest of him didn't fit on the paper. Because he's big.

But I had to edit out some lines in his horse collar because my husband pointed out it looked like something untoward, and then I couldn't unsee it. :p

I guess one of the reasons I kinda like this toon and am allowing the kids to drag me along into it is that there are male ponies . I don't recall them existing before. Although Big Mack seems hardly a pony - he looks like a draft horse.

Gareth wore his Rainbow Dash hoodie I made him for Halloween and had a bunch of people want to take his picture in it. Now he can't wait to wear it to Anime Expo, if we go. ;p

Hope they'll continue doing AM2 - this was its second year. But it's free, except for concerts, priority seats, and tables in the artists alley. Kind of small compared to AX, but kind of nice because of that.

CIMG2176
Originally uploaded by senoritafish

Runsamuck has been a bit disgruntled with our dentist since the last time he went in and the good Dr. was a little rough with the dental floss. Also for telling Gareth he wouldn't do anything to the baby incisor that was hanging by a thread and yanking it out anyway. To be honest, it needed to happen - Gareth's mouth has some kind of shark thing going on, and really wanted to retain baby teeth, when adult teeth were already growing in underneath them. This one was clear up above his gumline, but he wouldn't let anyone touch it.

So, the last time the fry and I went to the dentist, as we were leaving, the good doctor called, "Wait, I have something for you." He ducked into his office and came out with this box of Persian candy.

"Here, give this to John; maybe it'll pull some teeth out and make him have come back in to see me!" he laughed.

A peace offering? I looked it up; it actually comes from a small town in Iran. Sort of flowery nougat with pistachios. Two of the fry thought it tasted like soap, but I liked it.

Gareth: (glum) I'm kind of sad I didn't get to see the last shuttle launch (live).
(He didn't wake up in time and we forgot to DVR it)
Me: You know something will come along in your lifetime that'll be even more exciting and wonderful.
Gareth: (sighing) But I'll be on that one, so I won't get to watch it!

Current Mood: amused

Shortly after Avalon's birthday last summer, I bought a Groupon deal for half-price for whale watching, and bought six, thinking it could be a birthday present and she could take a friend. And of course, I almost forgot about them. They expired at the end of January, and earlier in the month, there was stormy weather and after that, a huge swell. Sunday was sold out already when I called to make reservations, so we decided they could take a day off for something educational. ;) Instead of a friend, we took John's grandmother along, as she's never seen them off this coast.

We left out of Dana Wharf Sportfishing on the F/V Dana Pride - GGma was a little surprised we went so far south as she was expecting for us to go out of Long Beach. Well, we only saw small whales. Common dolphins and bottlenose dolphins, and sea lions of course. And tons of shearwaters, seabirds that don't usually come very close to the coast. But that was fine. The kids had never been out on a boat like this before or seen wild dolphins, so it was all good. It was a nice day for it, especially for January. John's grandma had a nice time too.

And I forgot the stupid card for the big camera, so I put it away and there's only crap phone photos. Which I couldn't remember where the stupid lens was so my fat finger is in the way half the time. >:p

Sea lions on the buoy outside Dana Point Harbor.

( blurry dolphins and fingers ahoy... )

Current Mood: content
Current Location: Dana Point CA

Avalon went off to Science Camp for four days. I worried whether we'd sent enough warm clothes along with her (and silly us, we should have spaced buying everything out so it didn't cost so much at once), but she was fine. Her main complaint was that owls hooting outside her cabin made it hard to sleep.

Gareth got a student of the month and Angus made the honor roll - for the first quarter. They just had an assembly for it last week.

Went to La Jolla for a meeting and to give the results of a survey we'd sent out to fishermen; there were a bunch of them who attended, but they mostly thought it went over well. Afterwards we got to load a bunch of preserved squid gonads into the truck and take them back to Los Alamitos, because the SWFSC is going to have a building demolished soon, and they'll be moving across the street to a brand-new building.

Before we left, I finally found the geocache on the Scripps Campus, which I've looked for a couple of times, but it was usually getting dark. Coming to the correct place finally, I realized I'd completely misunderstood the hint the last couple of times. "An arrow points the way" - I'd been looking for a sign, but it's a big triangular hunk of concrete on the ground, which I'd overlooked previously. There were four travelbugs - I took two to move along. I might have even left Toki's Underwater Friend there, but she was too big for it.

I feel really old. We finally were allowed to hire scientific aides and our project here in this office got about four. While eating lunch the other day, one of them let on that she was born in 1989 - the year I started here!

No internet at home right now because of stupidity, except through phone, where I can read, but replying/posting is iffy. Maybe resolved by tomorrow.

I've been told to take vacation off because I have too many hours, but then some fire comes up where I have to come in anyway. I only took 4 days over the holidays when I was supposed to take three weeks.

Tired. John hurt his back which means he's not sleeping well, which means I don't sleep well. Anyway, time to go home and make dinner...

Current Mood: discontent

Courtesy "How the States Got Their Shapes" on the History Channel, and how states might have been shaped according accents...

Or, linguistics according to 12-year-olds.

( At the risk of offending people on my FL from across the pond... )

Current Mood: amused

So, once upon a time, the Corpse Bride, a plague doctor*, and Rainbow Dash the My Little Pony went Trick or Treating...

This was after the candy collection and Avalon's posture is "I'm soooooo tiiiirrred..." She was wearing some fancy silver flip-flops, but they were hurting her feet. Angus was pronounced scary, and a couple people thought Gareth wasn't wearing a costume (C'mon, you gotta do better than that!) until he turned around. He's trying to do the V behind Angus's head (because that's something Rainbow Dash would do), but didn't realize his hat was hiding it. ;p

( behind cut, as I know pictures of other peoples kids are mostly of interest to other people... )

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: a_hollow_year's A Night in the Lonesome October mix

So yesterday was Autistics Speaking Day (the autistic response to Communication Shutdown), and while I started this on the day, I'm finishing late, as per usual for me (writing as an ally, although I'm really not sure about myself). I'd asked Angus awhile ago if he'd like to participate himself, and all I really got was a frown; I'd sent him an email with a link about it, but he forgets to check it, friends don't email him like they do his brother, so if there's anything in there, it's probably from either me or his grandma, and what 13-year-old rushes to read those? In teenage fashion - which he is now - I theorize he's just thinking mom is bugging him again about something he's not really interested in. He's really not that interested in social media anyway - he does have a Tumblr account, but mostly likes the "Ask Anything" questions. He writes fairly detailed essays for school (and is praised quite a bit for vocabulary), but to do that outside of school? And not for fun? When he could be coming up with new comic book ideas or making up new piñata creatures for his Viva Piñata game...

Viva Pinata Ideas- Moosesicle by ~datadoggieein on deviantART

... or perusing various fan wikis for every last detail or trivia about the ones he has? Or going with me for a long walk, down to the end of the pier, maybe helping me find a geocache along the way? Coming up with the idea of being a plague doctor for Halloween, or even, finishing his homework - which he actually has been doing first, without prompting, lately (which I'm shocked and thrilled by, even I had problems with that).

Last night while I was making dinner, he did finally read the article I'd linked him to, brows knitted all the while, thought about it a bit, and then declared to me, "I'm not an auto-biographer, Mom!"

Ah well. Maybe in a few years, or in other mediums. Choosing to not speak (or write) when he could is also valid. He's got a lot of pressing issues just being an eighth grader. ;)

Go Listen.

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: Viva Piñata music

Alright, time to stop messing around on teh intarwebs and get busy. I have pretty much one costume down and two to go before tomorrow. Hopefully, it won't be too many years before they can start putting them together themselves...

Angus decided he wanted to be a plague doctor. If you've seen those fancily decorated Renaissance-type masks with a long beak on the front, that's what they were inspired by - special doctors who only treated people who had the bubonic plague. They wore long coats, gloves, a mask with glassed-in eyes and a long beak-like extension that was often filled with aromatic herbs and spices. Since the plague was believed to be caused by "bad air," this was supposed to ward off infection. Weirdly enough, he came across this from an Adventure Time reference - Princess Bubblegum was wearing a mask in her lab that was said to resemble the same kind the plague doctors wore. We found this mask, and with a black bandanna under it, a pair of steampunk looking sunglasses over it, a musketeer-type hat (and they gave us a discount on it because it didn't have the musketeer plume, which we didn't need anyway), gloves, and a gradauation gown found at Goodwill, plus his grandmother's cane, I think this is about done. Looks pretty cool, too.

Avalon decided on being the Corpse Bride. We couldn't find a wedding-type dress, but we found an angel costume for $9, which I'm going to modify. I still need a pair of white pantyhose I can cut up to draw her skeleton arm and leg on.

Both boys declared a couple of weeks ago that they are Bronies. This amuses me, although I still can only take MLP:FIS in small doses; I like the animation, but it's just so pastel, and the music mostly makes me cringe. However, Gareth told me he decided he wanted to be Rainbow Dash; coincidentally, earlier the same day I came across this cosplay in the Artisan Crafts group I belong to, which is just perfect. The creator doesn't mind other people putting together their own versions of it either. Gareth says he doesn't want to tell his friends about though (although some of them are bronies as well). He's just decided to be helpful and place a cutout of RD next to the monitor as I type this.

(The whole Brony thing makes me snort; why is it such a big deal that boys like a show marketed to girls? I know a ton of girls who like Dragonball Z - why don't we get a special name?)

Gah, spent way more than I should - and even bought a small cheap sewing machine so hopefully I can throw these things together a little faster. Plus some things for Gareth's birthday tomorrow. Kids are out of school for a teacher development day - glad I have tomorrow off, too.

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Angus playing the Lavender Town section of his Pokemon game emulator...

Whee! We get to go see this tonight because some friends of mine bought tickets, but then one of them had to go out of town, and she didn't want to go by herself. Mainly because it was his idea, and she'd rather go to the roller derby. She threatened to take my daughter along with her; that might be a good idea. She told me they even have leagues for girls her age, and given what an instigator Avalon is, maybe she'd be good at it. Maybe it would get her to lay off her brother - she and Gareth both got put on computer restriction the other day because I told them about SIX TIMES to leave each other the hell alone. BECAUSE GODDAMMIT MY BED IS NOT A CAGE-MATCH RING.

But I digress. John's mom is taking the kids for the evening and we're going to take the special bus from Lakewood that goes straight up to Hollywood Bowl, no messing with parking, whatever. I picked up some fruit, chips, etc. at lunchtime, and John's going to grab some sandwiches - and maybe an alcoholic beverage or two, and maybe a picnic before John Williams. Yay! Should be fun - John's picking me up in maybe an hour, and off we go.

Current Mood: excited

Current Mood: excited

(because it popped up when I opened the LJ post page instead of Semagic - I must have written it and then closed the page...)

[Error: unknown template qotd]

You mean I don't have that right right now? When did it become illegal to bore all my LJ friends with endless pictures of my progeny? Actually you don't get that unless you look at my Flickr account, which you won't look at unless you're nuts.

Seriously though. It seems to me that everyone posting that no one should post any pictures on the internet at all are being a trifle paranoid. Does this apply to school yearbooks? Pictures in the paper? A crowd shot on television? For god's sake, anyone can see your face any time you go to the store. Are you going to put a paper bag over your head every time you leave the house? Fears of photos "getting into the wrong hands"? Yeah, creepy, but it's a file or a piece of paper; it's not my child. Pedophiles have always been around; they just get more media coverage now, and we can find out better where they are. There is no personal or locational information except for first names (I haven't gone as far as making up nicknames for them, like some people do) attached to any of them; they may be in a public place, but anyone can be in a public place. And very few people look at my stuff anyway.

I started this journal to remember stuff and I take photos for the same reason. And I reserve the right to embarrass them on any occasion - up to and including the nekkid baby pictures to their first date, except I don't actually have any of those. I thought that was a parent's job. ;p

Current Mood: cranky

Current Mood: cranky

Things one never expects to have say when becoming a parent:

"Gareth, if you squished that spider in your sister's math book, you're for darn sure cleaning it up out of there!"

Grr. I usually try to put them outside.

Current Mood: tired

Current Mood: tired

Wow. From oppressive heat to pouring down rain; weather is bouncing like a rubber band...*

Well, I had been putting up

mylife_onceaday photos that I'd posted to the community here, but then I got sidetracked by the scavenger hunts they started doing, and Sackboy Travels and other things. I still carry my camera around everywhere, but I guess I haven't been inspired to use it all that often, unless something really special or different happens. I feel like I seldom go anywhere new, and I'm constantly taking pictures of the same things, maybe just a different sky or another angle.

Anyway, the last non-themed thing I posted (here and in the community) was this, so I thought maybe I'd start catching up from there. And in a timely enough fashion, the next chronological photos are apropos for the month (and show I'm almost exactly a year behind - typical)...

http://www.ladayofthedead.com/

( LA Dia de Los Muertos.. warning - photo heavy )

Fantastic show. Great fun, the music was great and all the creations wonderful. I'm agnostic leaning toward atheistic, but if there is an afterlife, this is the way to celebrate it.

By the way, today is my mom's birthday. I think she might have liked this.

Link to all photos in this set. This year's Dia de Los Muertos at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery is on October 30. You might see another post like this after that date.

___________________________
*this damn post started on 10/5 when the weather was being really record-breakingly weird. Need to get 'puters fixed...

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Current Music: The Chieftains With Lila Downs - La Iguana

Wow. From oppressive heat to pouring down rain; weather is bouncing like a rubber band...*

Well, I had been putting up

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Current Music: The Chieftains With Lila Downs - La Iguana

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senoritafish

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Entries tagged with kids

Endeavour @ the Forum

Endeavour Flyover...

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candy

Another conversation...

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Actually this was precipitated by the question, "Mom, do we live in the Dude belt?"

Costume picspam...

Other things than speaking?

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One of those writer's block thingies I forgot to post....

One of those writer's block thingies I forgot to post....

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Los Angeles Dia de Los Muertos

Los Angeles Dia de Los Muertos

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March 2016

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