Back in Regina

Up at 4:10 am, cab to airport at 5 am, flight delayed a bit but caught a good wind so home by 9:30 am. William got to school after first recess. Margaret worked at noon and had volunteer event this evening. Even though I am simultaneously on sabbatical and on vacation, I went to two meetings this afternoon. William and I watched "Joe vs the Volcano" this evening. I really like that movie. William thought it was pretty cheesy and that he could have made it. I think I'm it's only fan.

Vacation day 7, From Phoenix to Calgary

Today we tidied up the house and left Phoenix. Their airport is large but quite easy to navigate. The runways are on expressways that run over top of car traffic, very disconcerting. Our flight was to Calgary to stay the night there and fly home tomorrow. Sharon picked us up. Michelle is sick but she showed off her grad dress and shoes anyway. We were all pretty tired and need to get up very early for our flight tomorrow.

Vacation day 6, Botanical Gardens

Today we went to the botanical gardens here in Phoenix. Mostly we were there to look at cacti but we also saw a roadrunner and a display of ecologically friendly design ideas where young international designers have proposed ideas for creating furniture, clothing, jewelry, and other stuff out of natural and easily renewable products. (ie: salmon leather dress below).

Afterwards, even though it is February and the winds had picked up to about 40 miles per hour and shoots of dust from the storm were rising six stories in the air, we went swimming in the backyard pool.

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Vacation day 5, Grand Canyon and return to Phoenix

After a breakfast at the century old first class restaurant (they bake their own croissants) we drove and walked around a lot more of the Grand Canyon. At the top of one road, which is accessible only by bus during peak season but we could dive now, there was a gift shop and a couple of ravens begging for snacks outside. I locked the keys in the van but fortunately Margaret had written down the door entry code. We drove down the alternate highway to Sedona which is a very odd arts and crafts and time share based little city where we had homemade ice cream, looked at photos of movies that had been shot there, and bought some petrified shark teeth. We arrived back in Phoenix in time to watch most of the Academy Awards.

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Vacation day 4, Going to the Grand Canyon

About ten minutes north of Phoenix we hit some rough traffic. There'd been an accident and we crawl along for about an hour. I got a lot of photos and videos of the cacti along that piece of road though. The big cacti with the arms only grow where it always stays above freezing so by the time we were an hour north of Phoenix, there were none left (noting of course that it took us well over two hours to go that distance). We took a couple rest stops, argued about whether or not the GPS was correct (why would a computer lie?) and ended up at the Canyon at 5:00. It is pretty cool. A mile deep, we watched the sun set on it.  Ate a nice meal at the steak house (I had the triple meat), awesome deserts (lava cake and a cheesecake with prickly pear topping), and looked at the stars (it is a light preserve here so you can see an amazing number of stars).

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Vacation day 3, a quick bite

 

Last night my nephew Chris went out to a barber shop and got his big mangy beard shaved off. This morning, after a healthy breakfast of Reeses Puffs and chocolate milk, he and Fauve headed back to Calgary. 

This afternoon we poked around in a big antique mall. Picked up a couple of small items but couldn't consider things like this aligator head as we'd never get it over the boarder. I found a copy of Kurt Vonnegut's "Sun, Moon, Star" which I read twenty years ago but have never owned. It gives me an almost complete Vonnegut collection. I think I have his Mark Twain book on order and I'm not sure if I'm missing anything else at all.
Sharon left for Calgary this evening so we have the Phoenix house to ourselves for the next while.

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Vacation day 2: Around, and in, the pool.

 Today Margaret and Sharon went shopping. William and I spent a nice day lounging around the pool. Took a walk around the neighbourhood and saw cacti growing everywhere. At the end of the day, I was walking backwards helping put the cover on the pool, which has rounded edges (see left side of image of pool above) and fell in with all my cloths on. A bit of a shock. My eye infection has created a huge bag under my eye so I've started taking the antibiotics.

 

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Vacation day 1: Flight to Phoenix

Today we were able to take our time getting ready for our trip, the flight to Phoenix Arizona was at 5 so we needed to be there around 3. The flight was a half hour late. The movies are all pay per view now, so I was rather glad that I forgot headphones. Sharon picked us up. William enjoyed the pool, even though everyone thought he'd be too cold (the sun was down and it was getting chilly).

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getting ready

Getting ready to travel. I realized that I'd rendered a number of my videos incorrectly and had to redo a bunch of that work. Even though the session is 1440x1080, if the videos within it are larger, you must render at the large, or the source video's native size.

routine broken

I guess it's no big surprise that our daily walks only lasted two days. The much preferred routine of staying in pajamas all day trumped it. I have an eye infection, will the plagues upon this house never end!

Spring clean up?

After our second day begun with a brisk 8 am walk, we cleared some of the snow and ice from the front walk. Later we brunched with my parents. Margaret didn't come, nor did she go as planned to Moose Jaw for the day, as she continues to be sick. She went to the clinic and got some meds.

New routine

Last night William decided he should have a new routine in the morning. Before breakfast, he would get dressed and go for a walk. With my back still soar (walking is good for it) I told him I'd join him. At 8 am he was ready and off we went. Just around the block, but it was brisk and nice. He was making note of the sights; the light on the tress and so on.

House of pain

Margaret is sick now. This afternoon I put out my back and am in pain and lots of it. Luckily we don't have any Friday night commitments (how rare is that?!).

Getting spiffed up

I didn't get as much done today as I'd wanted. Somehow lost momentum. Margaret seems to be getting the cold that William had. William is better, but for an occassional cough, and got his hair cut in preparation for the holidays.

how big is your kitchen

If you find that there is just too much space in your appliance garage and want something to fill it ...

face facts

I went to the puppet workshop area at the Filmpool today and successfully pulled my latex face out of its mold even though, I found out later, that it was probably too thin. I like the translucent quality of it, like it is old person skin.
We had a nice Valentine's supper. I ran lots of errands today including helping William deliver Valentines for his friends who were not in his class.

assembly line art

I made a video today which is for a poetry festival, thinking it was due in two days (it is due in a month). I also made a video for one one-a-day set and just after I set it rendering, I realized it would be more appropriate as a valentine video tomorrow so I had to dive back in and build another video (total of three for the day and actually two others are half ready). Amid this activity, I posted four days of blog notes for my reading list AND taught William how to mass produce as we collaged together 27 zombie butterfly valentines for his class tomorrow. Meanwhile, Margaret and William made a couple of dozen muffins for the school staff (it is some sort of staff appreciation week) AND a few dozen mini-cupcakes for William's class tomorrow.  There's still time for some Tv!

William exits the house

With his prescription complete and his mood and health improved, William went to his game class down the street today. Expectation of going to school tomorrow. While he was out, I got a lot of work done on some poetry videos I need to ship out by Wednesday. They feature our cat.

Allan and Jana

Met with Rob this morning. Passed a new 1 Tb external firewire 3 drive to him for use in Rerun.
Made a movie with William and his friend Griffin this afternoon.William is recovering but not completely yet.
Allan and Jana came over for supper. After supper we played a round of the game that Allan had demoed for the game class last week. It's called Mechaton, designed by D. Vincent Banker of Lumply games, downloadable and played with Lego, dice, and a hex-grid map. We had a very nice evening.