Left behind

The thing is, where do you start when you want to begin again? I'll start with two things:

1. I miss all of you.
2. I've been inspired by Kathy to post again.

The latest & biggest with us is that we moved this summer. Just across town. I love our new apartment. A really lot. So, about that:

3. When you have central air conditioning in New Haven during the summer, life feels about 80% better.
4. When your kitchen is 60% smaller than it was, but still has plenty of counter and cabinet space, it is about 60% easier to keep clean.
5. When most of your 50 boxes of books fit in the built-ins, and you can gaze at them while you sit at the dining table, you appreciate them 70% more often than you did before.

6. Being able to store your towels AND display them at the same time makes you very glad you started buying them in all your favorite colors a few years back.

7. Living where most of your haunts are walkable will hopefully help you get fit. Unless your walking mostly takes you to ice cream and pastry shops.
8. Nothing beats having 4,000,000 books in your backyard.

RIght now I love

• Dried mangos
• Whole roasted unsalted almonds
• Mascarpone cheese
• Biographical graphic novels
• Thinking about upcoming trips
• Color versions of sudoku
• Book clubs
• Finishing a quilt square
• When favorite brothers come to visit
• Days off
• Fargo the movie

Haiku tribute to summer

Oh summer, why must
you be so lovely and short
so lonely and long?



{Photos taken by Grandma Laurie in Utah last month}

Shooting a pillow

Pillow shoot 3, originally uploaded by brookewill.

I love this pretty pillow. My mom made it for her mother. Taking photos of it makes me happy. You can admire all the needlework details on my flickr set.

Kid History

I can't get over how funny this is. I have been thinking about it every day since I saw it on my friend's facebook status. It makes me happy.

To mom & dad

This is what's in the mail this very moment for Mother's Day and Father's Day together (to save postage?). I love you two people. Be safe on your adventure. Love, Brooke

FPF live video in LA

...or, I think my husband is hot.

Faded Paper Figures - Invent It All Again - LIVE from Kael Alden on Vimeo.

Prepare to be amazed

If a woman snores in her room and no one is there to hear it, is she really snoring?

John has been out of town for 10 days and nights. I'll be so glad to have him back home in a few hours. And I can't wait to see/hear footage of the stuff he was doing out there on the west coast. Go Faded Paper Figures!

Thrifted towels

Thrifted towels, originally uploaded by brookewill.

I get lucky sometimes at Savers and Goodwill and Salvation Army. But only with something I wasn't looking for. I don't even know where a person might find such cool towels. I mean, if I had a thought in my head about getting some colorful, design-y towels, I wouldn't know where to start looking. But now that I have them, I don't have to.

{Mustard and coral leaves and swirls.}

{Burnt orange and peach floral.}

Being revolting by revolting

Language can be tricky. Especially when talking about female facial hair. Take the following conversation I had with my husband, for example.

John: (noticing my mustache) Hm. Looks like it's time to do a little bleaching.

Me: I know. I'm revolting.

John: No, it's not that bad—

Me: Yah, I'm rebelling against societal norms that say women can't have obvious facial hair.

John: Oh, I thought you were saying that you look—

Me: Yes, I'm revolting and disgusting and repulsive. And my cosmetic policy is that I only do something about my facial hair when I can no longer stand myself.

What planet am I on?

Snow sequence frame 1, originally uploaded by brookewill.

The amount of snow that has fallen on our town this month really blows me away, despite the fact that I grew up in northern Utah. There have been plenty of snowdays lately (school canceled "due to poor weather conditions"). I may have to start homeschooling purely by default.

I wish I could capture the immensity and chaos of the snow with photos, but I'm too busy shooing my kids off the various screens to which they devote their snowday free time. That or I'm too busy defending myself from their snowball attacks. Yesterday John was shoveling our driveway and ended up directing traffic on our busy street, which had been reduced to one lane at various points. We are running out of space to put all the snow. But it makes things exciting. I mean, it could just be a cold, boring winter with no snow. Now the world seems like another planet, or a theme park - and all kinds of expectations (like going to school, for instance, or grocery shopping) are shot.

I have the impression my feelings about it all would be somewhat less enthusiastic if I had a job, or homework to do. I guess I'm pretty lucky.

Another toothless photo

M trying to sneak into the photo, originally uploaded by brookewill.

The tooth fairy has made more than one visit to our house this week. Two for Harry and then one visit for Miles last night. Is it something in the water or the cosmos?

Lost his third and fourth last week

Lost his fourth
Originally uploaded by brookewill

Just call me Master Brooke

As someone who is interested in everything, it was hard for me to choose a major in college, actually decide on one particular field of study. So I graduated in English. Theoretically, you can read about any topic in an English class. You can also read a lot of theoretical stuff.

When it came to choosing a career, though, my English degree didn't necessarily help. So it seemed well-suited to place myself in the field of libraries. That's the place where you can be smart at everything. Which is what I want to be when I grow up. Smart at everything.

I finished last semester, after 5 years of grad school.

Today I got my diploma in the mail. A crisp, embellished, but no-nonsense piece of paper. It is a glorious feeling.

Stop Sign Graffiti

Just some local vandalism I am amused by.

Polite.

Attitude.

Liberal.

Potty humor.

Journey lyrics. {It's hard to read the marker but it says "Don't [STOP] believing." Posted previously here.}

And, though not a stop sign, below is something I see on USPS mail drops all over New Haven and it makes me giggle. If you're going to be bad ass and break the law by vandalizing government property with graffiti, why would you use a pseudo swear word? I don't know, but somehow it speaks volumes.

by Robert Lewis Stevenson

HAPPY THOUGHT

The world is so full of a number of things,
I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings [Edit: or queens].

{from A Child's Garden of Verses}

Newsmasters distraction

Great Reviews Part 2

I apologize if you like cats. This may hurt your feelings. But it's too funny not to share.

Someone reviewing Metropolis (just scroll down a little) by Faded Paper Figures:

i just punched my neighbors cat cuz this song is soooo goood!! ;D


What the...??!

Great Reviews - Part 1

The best thing about the internet is how a vast number of people can contribute to discussions all over the place. And one of my favorite things about Amazon is that any customer can write a review. And so many do. Personally, I am too lazy to write reviews, but there are people out there who do it and I love the extra advice when I'm shopping.

So, our kids are interested in Weird Al Yankovic these days and we just bought The Essential Weird Al. This was one of the customer reviews we found to be helpful:

Customer Review

1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars "Music"???... "Art"???... This is pure NONSENSE..., October 22, 2010
By
ARMANDO R. VENEGAS "Omar Dan Ben-Gaz"
This review is from: The Essential Weird Al Yankovic (Audio CD)
I deeply hate this guy. I hate every "Music Hit" he makes.
I hate all the "funny" Covers he thinks he makes from well known music hits. Either considered as a Parody or not, his "Music" is awful.
His voice is the WORST voice I've ever heard (even worse than my own, which is horrible).

I would give him -********** (MINUS ten stars) if such option would be available in Amazon.com.

If there's still anybody that thinks Weird Al Yankovic is an "Artist"...
Well, maybe you could be very happy living with Bizarre Superman in planet XYZ. Not in this world.

I mean, don't you think it sounds like Weird Al could have written this review himself? It's hilarious! Harry's favorite track: "Ebay." Miles also loves "Ebay" but his other frequent requests are "Trapped in the Drive-Thru" and "Eat It." My favorite right now: "White and Nerdy." I'm sure I will be sick of it all pretty soon. But for now, not so.