I have a late addition to the Pirate oeuvre for Talk Like a Pirate Day: this dandy portrait of Tina trying out a Cap'n Jack Sparrow hat and dreadlocks at one of the shops in New Orleans Square in Disneyland.
The look, of course, is Tina's perfected and patented "The GLARE." You know you are in deep linguini when she gives you that evil eye.
The deep scratch is another, very interesting story, though. Just before the kids and grandkids came out for their visit, we were quietly sleeping in bed one night when Nikki, who was stretched out on the headboard above us, rolled over and fell off his perch at about 3:00 AM. Cats, of course, land on their feet (usually), but he must've realized he was falling on Tina's head so he spread his paws out to try to avoid her. Instead, he got his claws snagged on both of her shoulders and one toe raked her face.
As can be expected, Tina awoke with a scream. The cat, knowing he'd done a very bad thing, beat feet into the other room and hid for over an hour. Tina staggered to the bathroom to do emergency first aid. The best I could muster was "are you bleeding?" in my most groggy voice, which she was, and quite profusely, but I didn't know it. Her reply was, "I look like a pirate," which made me laugh, until she said, "that's not funny!" At that point I figured I was making the situation worse and could do no more, so I went back to sleep. Yeah, I know - typical guy.
When I got up to get ready for work I finally could see the damage and saw the scratch was quite deep. By this time the cat came back and I've never seen a more remorseful, groveling feline in my life. He was mortified! The fact that he was made it easier for Tina to forgive him, but she still had the wound and a long healing process to endure ahead of her.
It's getting better, but it will likely scar. How visible it will be remains to be seen. Fortunately it didn't get infected, so we'll hope for the best. She's taking it in good stride, as the photo above attests, but it's no fun, to be sure.
It makes for a great story, though, and a cool pirate picture!
Well...that was longer than I expected. I did not plan for a hiatus of this duration, but having the computer go out on me and with it being down for over a month did not help the situation. Between that and the crunch of year-end events, work and outside jobs, blogging became an expendable option. The first month I was too busy to miss it; the second month I found I did miss it.
As far as the computer problem, the nearest thing that we could figure out was that my security program downloaded an update which affected our 64 bit Windows 7 operating system. In short, it turned my "C" drive into a "D" drive; meaning my computer would not even turn on.
Before they figured that out, however, they brought in Tina's computer and our external hard drive to check for viruses. None were on the external, and a minor and inconsequential amount were found on Tina's. Which was good, but not as helpful for getting back into doing work on the computer as I'd hoped.
At least the personal data on the C drive was fully backed up. However, I requested that they try to save my favorites and Outlook emails rather than wipe the C drive and simply reinstall the OP. That complicated matters; that and requesting that they back-up the external on a second external as an additional back-up. You can never have enough redundancy. Unfortunately, that took a couple more weeks of time.
By then we were in Colorado Springs for a nice 8 day visit with the kids and grandkids. Needless to say nothing much got done computer-wise, except barely keep up with the emails. Which wasn't totally bad.
Once we got back there were more complications as my external had to be removed from its case and put in a new one. Then there was reloading the printers and other software in my software-reinstalled C drive. And time passed...and passed...and passed.
But the trip to Colorado was fun! Tiring, but fun. Evie really seems to enjoy her little brother a lot, as seen in the above photo with Tina. And that little girl is chattering up a storm! We played and watched movies and went to tea and watched the snow (ugh) and watched more movies. She is very energetic.
Christie and Mike were mostly fine, except for the bout of 24 (or so) hour flu that cycled throughout the family. I'm happy to say my round only lasted half a day and was more a feeling of nausea than real sickness. A good helping of lamb Vindaloo curry for dinner cured that felling; it burned those bugs right out!
Anyway, I'm back, and looking forward to sharing many more photos and thoughts in the coming days.
In the third opera of the Ring Cycle, "Siegfried," the title character is introduced. The son of the ill-fated union of Siegmund and Sieglinde, Siegfried the the pure, if naive hero that awakens Brunhilde from her enchanted spell as she lies asleep, surrounded by the circle of magic fire that was put in place as protection by her father, Wotan. Once awakened, complications ensue for the new lovers.
In this tableau, I can image the hero gazing down upon the Rhine Valley as the music swells in the background. Ironically, I'm listening to orchestral versions of the Ring music right now, including "Siegfried's Rhine Journey." Wagner may have been a wretched human being, but he could write sublime music.
I found this image interesting because of the little inconsistencies in it. The model was ernest and patient, but he looked a bit like a Southern California surfer dude to me. And the "armor" and leather skirt must have been a Roman Centurion costume borrowed from the church Eastern Pageant. The horned helmet was also a bit large, but somehow the model pulled it together with a strong pose and simple dignity. Good job!
This model produced one of my favorite shots from the paint-out. I'm guessing she is the tragic Sieglinde, mother to Siegfried, who died giving birth to the hero. There is a mysterious quality to this girl, and I thought the lighting in the glen was wonderful. In truth she is standing about 10 feet away from the guy portraying Siegfried, so various poses could be contemplated.
You have to love the modern world, however. Underneath that robe she was plugged into her iPod, blissfully listening to whatever it was she was listening to, zoning out with that enigmatic and exotic look that captivated many of the artists there. She was gorgeous.
And finally, here's a shot of Tina working away on a portrait of the model shown in my last post. The picture has undergone a bit of a metamorphisis since the paint-out. It's not done, but it is coming along nicely. I'll let Tina talk about it later when it's done and she posts it on her blog.
Now it will be Tina's turn to kill me; but again, I couldn't resist. This was taken with the same camera a couple of years later than yesterday's post (September 2008 to be exact). We were waiting for the Tea Cups ride to start and I was taking some pictures of Evie as this was her first time. This was one of Christie's favorite rides, so of course she wanted to introduce her daughter to it. In retrospect, I'm not sure Evie felt the same thrill Christie did (and still does), as a then-22 month old baby probably doesn't have the same inclination to the pleasures of sustained, self-induced vertigo and nausea as an older child would. And so it was this night, but Evie was game to go again the next evening, so maybe it worked. Regardless, the look of absolute joy in Christie's face during this inaugural ride was worth it.
It was at this calm-before-the-spin that Tina got silly and threw herself into this pose of whirling abandon. It so impressed one of our friends that she had the image imprinted on a mug and gave it to Tina for her birthday. It really is a classic silly photo.
I have a late addition to the Pirate oeuvre for Talk Like a Pirate Day: this dandy portrait of Tina trying out a Cap'n Jack Sparrow hat and dreadlocks at one of the shops in New Orleans Square in Disneyland.
