Visit the Kelpforest (pt. 2)

The Astronomical Picture of the Day's picture from yesterday was just gorgeous - go look at it if you haven't yet. It's now my wallpaper at work. The dust cloud structures in the center remind me of a dragon breathing silver flames, which are actually newborn stars. How that for a creation mythos?

Fairly pleasant weekend. V. had a Partylite candle party on Saturday - I mostly went along for the ride, but I did buy a set of little floating frog tealight holders. I can't do too much with smelly candles, although they do smell wonderful. I can't burn them in the house because they will set John to wheezing. So I look for a few things I can put outside or on the patio. I miss candlelight sometimes. MN decided to have a catalog party, so after payday, maybe I can order this tree thingie for Halloween. V. gave us a tour of the house since they've done a lot of painting since I was last there - all the rooms are different colors and she painted fish on the walls in the bathroom. Her husband has a pretty amazing collection of comic book hero mini-busts; several of us were drooling over Gambit. (She told me today she got about $180 worth of free stuff!)

John had started up the BBQ when I got back - he is such a purist. Hates gas or briquets, and will only get the special mesquite charcoal that look like actual chunks of wood. He usually comes up with two or three variations of BBQ sauce as well, one for each thing he grills, and also made a fresh basil and rosemary vinigrette for some skewers of onion and home-grown bellpepper, which we threw in the salad. I'm not usually a fan of Italian dressing, but that was rather good - mmmm, if you get a chance to grow some Siam Queen Basil, it is heavenly. He's probably happiest when he's cooking. He also sauteed mushrooms - we had no wine so he used a shot of Jack Daniels....

(Behold, my very first homemade animated gif!)


They were quite tasty - had it been in a restaurant, I would have never known they were canned. The kids ate their mashed potatoes,and that was it. I'm afraid Avalon is getting to this not eating stage as well. I was hoping at least one of them would bypass it, but both Gareth and Avalon seem to be getting their cues from their older siblings.

Later, after they were in bed, I put in Mr. Accident, which I had just gotten from Netflix. Yahoo Serious is as kooky as ever, and doesn't seem to have aged much, maybe a few crow's feet, but still just as cute as a bug's ear and playing the naive, clumsy, but lovable goof. Now that I notice, he seems to draw quite a bit on Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd; there are a lot of the same style of body movements, timing, and facial expression. He's also in pretty good shape, which I suppose is a requirement for such physical comedy. It's probably not his best, and it's no Young Einstein, but a silly, enjoyable 90 minutes or so, if you're a Serious fan. However, John seemed to agree with most of the Netflix reviewers and fell asleep 20 minutes into it. I was a little disappointed that there were no extras on the DVD, except for a movie trailer.

My brother Dave in Portland has been asking about the holidays so he can get the time off (his last email said "everyone and their bother is asking..." heh, ain't that the truth). Thanksgiving would be nice, but Angus has school that week, so it will probably be Christmas. John doesn't want to leave his mom alone that day, so we will probably stay here and they will come down. We should see what my Aunt Margaret in Napa is doing as well; maybe we can meet halfway. However, I know last year my cousin Jim took her on a trip. Ah well, it's a few months off yet.