fun, renovations and blessings
Jul. 26th, 2005 11:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chelidonIt's been a week for me of feeding my child-self, something I don't do nearly enough of most of the time...
Along with my partner, son, and a combination of housemates and other family, we ran away to the circus (a delightful non-profit circus where they treat the animals well, and oh, the performers, wow...), saw the new Willie Wonka movie, (well-done, delightful with a deliciously twisted bite, but a bit uneven and I still adore the Gene Wilder original), played games, visited with old friends, and I took a too-rare day off from work Monday so my partner and son and I could have a delicious dinner with my dad (is there such a thing as too much good wine?) and spent the day at Water Country, a huge water park. It was a perfect day for a water park. My reckless boi and I got to do the Dragon's Den ride together, and it was a blast -- sitting in a 2-person inner-tube, steep drops in total darkness, twists and turns until you're spit out at high speed spinning around and around into a 35-foot, smoking bowl with a giant dragon sitting in the center, water gushing out onto you from its nose and nether regions (some perverse designer had fun there), eventually to get sucked down (backwards) into the dragon's maw (is that water, or digestive juices? ;>) and down another swift tube, through a waterfall and to the end of the ride, too soon, too soon, but...oh, okay, there's another huge water slide right over there... I asked my son while waiting in line if he thought the dragon perhaps actually eats someone every so often, and we agreed that dragons do get hungry, even dragons in water parks, and we tried to figure out whether it would digest or spit out the innertubes. Hard questions... My son is still rattling on and on about Dragon's Den, I think he had a good time :>
And in between the fun, I wrote, split more wood (reminder to self: your back is not in its 20s anymore, pace yerself, eh?), got to rip out everything in the small hall bathroom in preparation for my partner painting the walls and tiling the floor this week, and my installing a new green glass basin sink (sledgehammers are fun)
Some of the lighting changes I'd ordered came in this week as well. I've been looking for that elusive combination of beautiful and dirt-cheap. Here's one, a lovely stained glass peacock lamp for $75 (closeup here), the same lamp with a red star-motif stained glass shade (lit picture here), and a funky organic "vines & twigs" wall lamp.
Today I stumbled across a deal for 50 classic Kung Fu movies for $10 (okay, I had a $10 coupon, so really $20...) Still, 50 of the movies I grew up with as a kid, yum. Just as good,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
eedge pointed me to the upcoming release of the Muppet Show, Season 1, on DVD at last! I had to order the Firefly compilation DVD at the same time -- I never saw any of it, everyone tells me it was great. Honestly, I probably watch the TV an average of two hours a week, and that's almost always a movie.
Took a trip to the hospital for a tetanus shot and some other things today, which (aside from the shot, sore-arm ow!) was a blessing because that place (Dartmouth-Hitchcock) is an example of what medical facilities and medical treatment could be like -- it's hands down the best run, best-designed and best-staffed hospital I've ever seen (and I don't say that just because my partner is on staff there ;>) One clue -- waiting (very briefly!) for my doc in one of the treatment rooms, the bulletin board had a notice inviting patient participation in a new hospital-sponsored medical research study...on the effects of green and black tea on blood sugar level in diabetics. That's exactly the kind of mainstream attention to alternative therapies that is so lacking elsewhere in the allopathic medical community. During our talk, my doctor handed me a pamphlet about hiking trails in the area -- apparently the hospital has partnered with the Upper Valley Trails Alliance to create, maintain and promote public hiking trails throughout the area, including recommending trails and passing out trail maps to patients at the hospital, as an effective way to encourage cardiovascular health for the whole community. Gosh, proactive, holistic approaches to healthy living -- who'd a thunk it?
This weekend, two old friends show up, one to help the other move in with us, so we'll have yet another Lovely Housemate soon -- one of my very best friends, a person who is about as close as I've had to a blood sister, so I'm feeling especially blessed. The fact that she is an accomplished pianist and a talented artist/graphic designer is just icing on the cake -- another musician in the house!
Along with my partner, son, and a combination of housemates and other family, we ran away to the circus (a delightful non-profit circus where they treat the animals well, and oh, the performers, wow...), saw the new Willie Wonka movie, (well-done, delightful with a deliciously twisted bite, but a bit uneven and I still adore the Gene Wilder original), played games, visited with old friends, and I took a too-rare day off from work Monday so my partner and son and I could have a delicious dinner with my dad (is there such a thing as too much good wine?) and spent the day at Water Country, a huge water park. It was a perfect day for a water park. My reckless boi and I got to do the Dragon's Den ride together, and it was a blast -- sitting in a 2-person inner-tube, steep drops in total darkness, twists and turns until you're spit out at high speed spinning around and around into a 35-foot, smoking bowl with a giant dragon sitting in the center, water gushing out onto you from its nose and nether regions (some perverse designer had fun there), eventually to get sucked down (backwards) into the dragon's maw (is that water, or digestive juices? ;>) and down another swift tube, through a waterfall and to the end of the ride, too soon, too soon, but...oh, okay, there's another huge water slide right over there... I asked my son while waiting in line if he thought the dragon perhaps actually eats someone every so often, and we agreed that dragons do get hungry, even dragons in water parks, and we tried to figure out whether it would digest or spit out the innertubes. Hard questions... My son is still rattling on and on about Dragon's Den, I think he had a good time :>
And in between the fun, I wrote, split more wood (reminder to self: your back is not in its 20s anymore, pace yerself, eh?), got to rip out everything in the small hall bathroom in preparation for my partner painting the walls and tiling the floor this week, and my installing a new green glass basin sink (sledgehammers are fun)
Some of the lighting changes I'd ordered came in this week as well. I've been looking for that elusive combination of beautiful and dirt-cheap. Here's one, a lovely stained glass peacock lamp for $75 (closeup here), the same lamp with a red star-motif stained glass shade (lit picture here), and a funky organic "vines & twigs" wall lamp.
Today I stumbled across a deal for 50 classic Kung Fu movies for $10 (okay, I had a $10 coupon, so really $20...) Still, 50 of the movies I grew up with as a kid, yum. Just as good,
eedge pointed me to the upcoming release of the Muppet Show, Season 1, on DVD at last! I had to order the Firefly compilation DVD at the same time -- I never saw any of it, everyone tells me it was great. Honestly, I probably watch the TV an average of two hours a week, and that's almost always a movie.Took a trip to the hospital for a tetanus shot and some other things today, which (aside from the shot, sore-arm ow!) was a blessing because that place (Dartmouth-Hitchcock) is an example of what medical facilities and medical treatment could be like -- it's hands down the best run, best-designed and best-staffed hospital I've ever seen (and I don't say that just because my partner is on staff there ;>) One clue -- waiting (very briefly!) for my doc in one of the treatment rooms, the bulletin board had a notice inviting patient participation in a new hospital-sponsored medical research study...on the effects of green and black tea on blood sugar level in diabetics. That's exactly the kind of mainstream attention to alternative therapies that is so lacking elsewhere in the allopathic medical community. During our talk, my doctor handed me a pamphlet about hiking trails in the area -- apparently the hospital has partnered with the Upper Valley Trails Alliance to create, maintain and promote public hiking trails throughout the area, including recommending trails and passing out trail maps to patients at the hospital, as an effective way to encourage cardiovascular health for the whole community. Gosh, proactive, holistic approaches to healthy living -- who'd a thunk it?
This weekend, two old friends show up, one to help the other move in with us, so we'll have yet another Lovely Housemate soon -- one of my very best friends, a person who is about as close as I've had to a blood sister, so I'm feeling especially blessed. The fact that she is an accomplished pianist and a talented artist/graphic designer is just icing on the cake -- another musician in the house!
