Monday, May 13, 2013

Vampires

At daycare one day, I noticed one of my first graders looking distraught.










































































Sometimes it's hard not to laugh.









Saturday, May 11, 2013

White dog.

I like to walk my dogs in a local nature preserve. Despite the clearly posted leash laws at every entrance, people still like to walk their dogs off-leash here. This is obnoxious at beast, and dangerous at worst. Most of these people have no control over their dogs, who love to harass/annoy/fight leashed dogs. I carry various methods of warding off larger and potentially dangerous dogs, and I normally ask people to call their dogs or inform them that I am not friendly.






























While I do everything possible to prevent larger dogs from making contact with mine, I sometimes let the little ones take their chances.

Sometimes it's really muddy out there.
























I try to warn them, but even "My dog will eat your dog!" doesn't seem to get the message across. I sort of hope that arriving with a white dog and leaving with a brown one will help them see one of the many benefits of leashes, but that's probably too much to ask.


Thursday, May 9, 2013

Video Project.

When Pirate! and I were in high school, we did a lot of video projects. For a history class we planned to film a skit involving horses.






























We didn't have very long to do the project, and scheduling worked out such that we ended up filming the day before the project was due. It was a half-day at school, so we got out at noon with plenty of time to film and edit. Our chosen location was a 45-minute drive away through a bunch of farmland. Pirate! drove her parents' Oldsmobile, fully equipped with Broadway musical soundtracks on cassette.















































We found out later that the timing chain snapped at 45mph and chewed up the entire inside of the car. At the time all we knew was that the car made a horrible noise and sprayed mangled parts all over the road. This was before cell phones were common, and we had to walk a couple of miles to an agricultural building to find a payphone.



































By the time we had walked to a payphone, called for a tow truck and walked back to the car, most of the afternoon was already gone. While waiting for the tow truck, we realized that there was no way we were going to get our project done on time, so instead we filmed the Best Excuse Ever.



























We turned it in the next day and got a week extension on our project.