Diary of an adult runaway

2012!!

I'm not going to say 2011 was the suckiest year for me, but I was still happy to ring in 2012, and I have to say that it's turning out to be fun.

I don't really do resolutions, they seem to put a lot of pressure on people and end up not being fun, so instead I decided to look at what fun I've been missing out on, And I realized I'd let reading for pleasure slip by the wayside and that I couldn't remember the last time I'd been to the movies. DVDs are great, but I missed the cinema-going experience. So! My "resolutions" are to do 52 Reads and add a little something I called 52 Views, in which I'm going to try to go to the movies every week. So far I've kept that date with myself, going to see "We Bought a Zoo" (Matt, sigh) and "The Descendants (George, sigh). This week I'm planning to see "Young Adult." As for books, I've read James Garner's memoir, "The Garner Files," (which I loved) and 2 chick-lit books (which I didn't). I'm going to keep a list in the sidebar.

I also took a leaf from Keris's book, and created my 2012 collage, filled with things I love and things I want to experience more of this year:

Speaking of fun, here are a few things I've been enjoying this week:

I've wanted one of these for ages - now I just have to remember to use it :)

A little treat for my kitchen. I love the material so much that I might see about making a matching pendant lampshade.

Sweet Redford cat :)

I think I need...

one of these:

And one of these:

One each of the pendant and telephone, please:

And one of these fabulous plants for my living room (anyone know what it is?):

Thanks to Keris (*shakesfist*), I also must have one each of these:

Come on! Pink buggy! Who doesn't need one of those?

I'm about a week away from getting my hands on Keris's new book, with its beautiful bling cover:

But until then, and thanks to Amazon UK's excellent deal (spend £25 on selected items and UPS express shipping is free to AU/NZ), I now have this:

Oh my, Redford in the 70s, I don't believe it will ever get any better than that! I'm going to need to curl up in this NYC atrium to do this book justice:

But what I'm supremely happy with:

Ska-wheeeeee!!

Yes, I am one of those pathetic people who scans the blogosphere for photos of animals being cute, but come on, how could you not want this?:

Or these:

So, please to send so I can transplant them in my courtyard and watch my cats go batshit at the windows. I'd laugh so much, I'd snort. Promise. 

Hey, buddy, can you spare $8.5 million?

I wouldn't ask if it weren't an emergency. It's just that I need this place:

After we've finished alphabetizing the books, we can retire to the deck:

 
And this will be my office:

But if you're a little short on cash at the moment, let's make it $3.1 million, so I can grab this modest little place in Marin:

Bit of a challenge, but I think I could fashion an office out of this space:

Maybe I could borrow this desk from Kanye West's office:

Or, if you're feeling really cheap, just float me $1.5 million and I'll make do with this:

So! I'll be around this afternoon to pick up the check. You know I'm good for it :)

And yet, STILL not as cool as an iPad ;-)

What, you're STILL here?

Last week, in all the Golden Heart ® commotion, a few people posted on my Facebook page that they'd read the news on my blog. Yes, this blog, the one I've neglected of late. Neglected so badly, in fact, that I'm amazed people still drop by.

So. This post marks a recommitment to blogging. And I'm starting with my favorite photo of the past week:

Love the smile. And I know the feeling. I've been grinning a lot of late (thank you, thank you, thank you again for the lovely encouragement). One of the reasons is that, thanks to Facebook, a lot of people I went to primary and high school with are reconnecting. And the fantastic thing is that everyone's over their grievances and hormones, and can enjoy each other for the people they are. The best PM I got? "I think you used to hate my guts." Well, yeah...probably <g> And what people remember is fascinating. One woman said she remembered waiting for the bus with me and I was correcting my computing homework. What?! How could you possibly remember that? And what else do people remember? Kinda has me worried!

What would a return to blogging be without a little home p0rn? Let me just say, I DO NOT NEED any more artwork. I've got plenty of prints and posters that I haven't even got framed, so DO NOT NEED. But...WANT:

You can find this and others here.

And I dub thee, the John McEnroe of Avocados...

As in, you cannot be serious!:

The "value" sign just adds insult to injury.

And so I did...

"Drink me," said the peanut butter/choc frappe. No problem. That red velvet cupcake didn't need a sign saying "Eat me" for me to do just that, though. I'm not stupid.

And here we have a shot of Kody trying to get attention in the one way he knows will work:

I think he got a little perturbed when we started looking into fares to Brittany for summer vacation. "Wod about me?!" I distinctly heard him mutter. Sorry, buddy, even with your passport and all, Jean Paul's down with dogs so Miss Cherry's in, but he's afraid cats will bite him...no, I don't quite get that, either.

Happy 2010, y'all! I hope it brings you lots and lots and LOTS of happiness, success and good health.

For God's sake, just ARREST them!

Port Melbourne couple's drink-drive hat trick

THOMAS HUNTER

November 16, 2009

A Port Melbourne couple faces charges after police caught them drink-driving three times - in the same street - in as many hours early yesterday morning.

Police first stopped the married couple on Montague Street, about 12.20am. The driver, a man, 37, failed a breath test, returning a reading of .129.

At the time, police believed the man's wife, 27, was also drunk and warned her not to drive. Then, about an hour later, the pair were pulled over again and the woman was driving. She returned a reading of .112.

Finally, about 3.05am and again on Montague Street, the pair were nabbed once more.

This time, the man refused to accompany police back to the station.

He will now face court on charges of refusing to accompany police for a breath test.

‘‘To say they were foolish is probably an understatement,’’ Sergeant Michael Free said. 

‘‘The decision to drive in the first place is a big disappointment.

‘‘The decision the female and male both took after it had been clearly indicated that they were both over the limit is astounding, especially when it came to the third time around,’’ he said.

‘‘That was absolutely ridiculous.’’

Sergeant Free said police could not impound a car in such circumstances. He said there was an option to take the keys if officers believed the driver was incapable of controlling of a motor vehicle.

He also said the couple assured police they wouldn’t drive, and that with only a short distance between where they were pulled over and their destination, the officers ‘‘reasonably expected they would do the sensible thing and walk or call a taxi’’.

Proudness

So. Years ago, Robin warned me--whatever I did--to never dip my toe in the big black hole of scrapbooking. And I understood her logic, I saw what it did to the people around me, how it consumed them more than the most lethal party drug, took over their hours and turned family rooms into "craft studios". Considering I had very little time and even less space in Paris, I took her advice.

To a degree.

By that I mean I bought paper and other stuff and hoarded it away for when I had the space. I let it out to play every now and then, say when I was make collage boards for manuscripts (all those character and setting pics looked better when placed on Basic Gray's Phoebe collection) or "altering" (what happened to "covering"?) a journal for last summer's road trip.

And then something happened. On the same day, I stumbled across Lainie's Ladies "Goddess of Writing" cards, Kaisercraft's Waterberry range, and Keri Smith's Artist's Survival Kit with "How To Feel Miserable As An Artist."

Et voilà, mon premiere scrapbooking:

 

Sorry, shitty photo, the goddess blends with the paper a little better in the real thing. And I'm not entirely happy about the gap between the "miserable" and "artist" but I'd already started the rub-on lettering so tant pis. I'm not sure if it's finished, I might cut around the...whatever that shape is (die-cut?) before I frame it. I'm pretty bad at this whole language, but Lordy, am I enjoying the toys! Over the last few weeks I've amassed enough paper, pearls, brads, glue-dots, stamps and ribbon to keep the principality of Lichtenstein busy until at least Christmas. I feel that black hole lapping at my ankle.

More proudness: I heard this morning that my entry won the mainstream category of the Chicago North RWA Fire & Ice contest. It's also a finalist in this year's Orange Rose, which means it's sitting with 2 editors. Fingers crossed! I received fantastic feedback and help from the first-round judges on how to make the ms stronger. This is my Topanga one, which I (ha!) always thought was strong but not quite there. And for a long time I didn't know how to get it there, so I was writing other work and soaking up the atmosphere in Topanga (read: soaking up margaritas at Abuelita's) and that's helped me. Not to mention Margie Lawson's brilliant Deep Edits course, which kicked my ass--and gave me the excuse to buy 8 different colored highlighters. 

Office supplies = always a good thing.

Hope you've got lots of good things happening in your world today!