photo editing

Hi all!
I'm trying to make a picture book (written by my mom...in many pieces), with photos by Nathan and me...but we have no photo editing program. We're thinking a good plan would be to get Adobe Photoshop...you can get it online for $89.99...but do any of you have any other advice, or is that the way to go? Hope everyone is doing well and is planning on having a wonderful night of crazy partying! :c) Riiiight.

Happy Birthday to Brooke yesterday!!! Sorry I didn't say it on the phone yesterday, Jared - I wasn't 100% sure if I had the right day so I didn't say it. Anyway...we hope she had a wonderful birthday and that it is a purely fantastic year for her!

We had a wonderful Christmas...getting to see both the Palmer family and the Rozen family on the same day! Lots of amazing food...Christmas Eve and Christmas...and then my mom made lasagna for my Dad's birthday (the 26th). We had a lot of fun. I took down the tree and all the Christmas decorations yesterday. That was pretty sad...we seem to have acquired a lot more this year, which is exciting! However, we're hoping we'll be able to store them in Lafayette...so hopefully we'll be allowed that much more space!

Happy New Year everyone - any cool resolutions anyone wants to share with us all?

Love from the both of us,
Manda (and Nathan)

From Emily

I finished the Book of Mormon. I just read the last two chapters. Later, Trina and I are going to do some shopping.

I've been having a good time in D.C. On the first day, we saw the Archives, which has a lot of records -- military records, patents, and the Declaration of Independence. It was very neat. And yesterday, in the evening, Adam took me to see Georgetown, and then later we went to see the D.C. Temple. There are hundreds of thousands of lights on all the trees and bushes, and there are even flowers made of lights. And they have trees decorated with dolls from different countries, and nativity scenes from all over the world, and there was a harp ensemble performing that night. Then we drove downtown to see the national Christmas tree, and there are trees for all the states. I had my picture taken beside the Oregon tree.

Have a wonderful New Year's Eve, wherever you are!

What's up with Mom and Dad

Sorry we haven't taken the time to write sooner. When we arrived at Cheryl's very late Sunday night, Eric and Laurel and Baby Stevie were there waiting for us. He is such a beautiful sweet baby. We've really been enjoying him. On Monday we visited at Cheryl's and then Eric took us out to his place. On Tuesday we went to the Getty and enjoyed the art there. On Wednesday morning, Cheryl and Jenny came out and joined us on our trip to the Newport Beach Temple. (I made my goal of 25 endowments in one year.) Later that evening we went to Ikea to look around at the furniture. Also, Eric stopped and bought a new DVD player because his wasn't working. Today we took a hike at the Newport Back Bay where they have a bird sanctuary. Then this evening, Eric and Laurel went out to a movie while we watch Stevie. Of course, in between all the other things we've been doing, we've been playing with our Baby Stevie, in fact I've had to stop 3 or 4 times while writing this to take care of him. I've loved every minute of it.

I love you all,
MOM

Happy Birthday, Emily!!!

Hi Emily. Happy Birthday!! Sorry I did not call you. I hope that you had the best birthday anyways. ok bye. oh yeah.... just because you were in the airport does not mean you visited the state. If that were the case I have been to all 50 states. But happy birthday and eat a hamburger for me.

love,
Nathan

waiting

Well, this is my 3rd post in the last 10 on the blog ... I've been waiting for something like, oh, a report on Stevie's first Christmas or some new Stevie pictures since Eric hasn't posted any on his calendar for nearly a month. Or a quick comment from Mom and Dad on meeting Stevie for the first time or seeing Aunt Cheryl or the Newport Temple or something about their trip. But nooooo ... so we sit and twiddle our thumbs and wonder what we did so wrong to be neglected like this.

We went to the National Archives today so Emily could see the originals of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Did you know there were originally 12 amendments in the Bill of Rights? 2 of them didn't get ratified.

Posting

Okay, someone besides Emily and Mindy needs to post now.

I've put in the January calendar, and I also was playing with the Chaos website today.

a small update

So far in my webpage updating I have my latest portrait on there .. it isn't the completed project, just what they put under the tree to represent what it's going to be. In the end there will be twice as many children, and much less sketchy-looking. I'll be working more on updating my page in the next few days, while I'm not working, so check back soon.

D.C.

So, yesterday morning JoAnne took me to the airport. I got there, and the man at the desk noticed that I had a flight to Salt Lake City then to Cincinnati and then to Baltimore. He asked if I would like to skip Salt Lake, so I flew from Portland to Cincinnati. I had what I consider to be the worst seat. It was an aisle seat, and even when I did glance out the window, I could only see the wing or clouds. We finally got to the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky Airport. So I've added another state -- only ten more to go. Then I got on my next flight, and I ended up sitting next to an LDS couple. We talked a little bit. And this time I could look out the window and see all the lights of the city, and I could see the Chesapeake Bay. Trina and Adam picked me up, and we drove to their homes. There are some interesting looking houses in D.C., and the street system is, as Adam described it, a bicycle wheel set over a grid.

We're back!

Tawnia and I are back in Provo, safe and sound. We would have loved to stay in Oregon, but since everyone else left, it wasn't any fun. This way we can still be relaxing, and yet get stuff done. I'm hoping to update my webpage, and now is a good time to get started on it. The good news is, I finished the Book of Mormon today on the airplain. Yippee! And there really isn't bad news .. it was just fun to put "good news".

Packing

Hello, family.

I hope you all had a merry Christmas. I got a lot of stuff, most of which is now in my suitcases awaiting my departure tomorrow morning. I also packed all my new clothes. Yesterday, I went shopping with Tawnia, Clarissa, Mindy, Sarah, and Amber. At Ross, they would pick clothes off the rack and I would try them on, and we decided on our favorite items. I spent $100 on clothes yesterday. (And that doesn't count the jeans or coat I bought earlier -- if we count that, I've spent close to $300 just on clothes. I've never done that before.)

I will be leaving for the airport in about 18 hours. And it will take the entire day to get to the other side of the country.

Emily

box inventory

Hey ERIC. And JARED. Did the boxes ever arrive with the gifts for the kids? You still haven't said. Everything else has been accounted for.

I'm working today and tomorrow, and Adam is at home doing his chores ... which include listing a whole ton of his school books online to sell off, and finishing his law school applications. If we don't have the books gone in the next month or 2, we're going to haul them to a used bookstore and drop them off. Hopefully get some money, but if not, oh well. We just need to get them OUT. I started working on cleaning out closets yesterday, and packing away non-maternity clothes for the next 6 months. Emily will probably end up with some of them if they fit her.

I'm amazed at how much stuff has accumulated as we've combined our belongings and gotten more (like our kitchen - we started with nothing there) ... and I'm amazed at how much stuff is required for a little baby. I started looking at registry items for the baby, and it's very overwhelming just to think about the STUFF. Just the bottles: multiple bottles and nipples and the screw cap thingies, and scrubbers and sanitizer stuff because we don't have a dishwasher, and formula and storage containers for extra milk (as well as the scary looking pumps), and bibs and spit cloths, and it just keeps going ... and this is just to feed Summer for part of the day while I'm at work. What the heck. We need a bigger apartment.

We are home

Okay, we made it safely home to Houston. We had quite an eventful trip. We stopped by Wal-Mart on our way out, and Brooke got lost. Fortunately, she knew what to do. By the time we got to the manger to ask them to make an announcement, they already had her in their designated area. We went off on our way, but blew out a tire halfway to Dallas. We had to backtrack 20 miles to get the tire replaced (after calling the tire shop and begging them to remain open for us), so we were delayed about three hours in getting to Michelle's parents. Fortunately the rest of the vacation went well. We just got back tonight, so if anyone wants to call or anything, you know where to find us.

one more sleep till Christmas

I don't know who all will read this in the next couple of days, but ...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

It's Christmas Eve morning and I'm up a little earlier than Adam - I'm going to get started on my desserts (fudge, apple crisp, etc.) for our Christmas Eve dinner with the missionaries. We already seem to have adopted Mom and Dad's newer twist on Christmas scheduling, which is to have the big dinner on Christmas Eve so everyone can take it easy on Christmas Day and eat leftovers. We also had the missionaries join us for Christmas Eve last year.

We really enjoyed the Joseph Smith broadcast last night. If you missed it, we hope that you'll watch the video archive of it when it pops up on lds.org. It was really good. The Tabernacle Choir sang between every talk - it was A LOT of music. And fantastic of course. During some of the songs, they showed clips of the new Joseph Smith movie that's being introduced in the Legacy Theater in Salt Lake this month. We're happy about that too, because we don't have to go to Salt Lake to see it - it's being shown right here at the DC Temple visitor's center (and some others too - I don't know about the LA Temple VC.) It will definitely be here for a while so Emily can see it here, and likely Mom and Dad when they come in June.

If there's a group online to talk later this morning (it's 8:30 here now, so 5:30 out west), give me a call and I'll get on the computer for a bit. I can't get on for very long because I also have some cleaning to do besides all the cooking we've got going, but I'll stick my head in and see what's up. Just let me know when to sign on.

Vacation

It is so weird to have time to sit back and relax... I almost don't know what to do with myself. (Key word: almost). It is nice to be home, to relax and take the time to read, play the piano, and post on the blog. Then I'll head back to Utah and focus on school stuff for the rest of the "vacation"... but for now I'm going to relax... something I think I've forgotten how to do.

I hope that everyone else has a chance to relax and enjoy the holidays.
Love,
T

Updates again

I have made a few small updates to the movie page. Particularly, you may want to click on the letter "C". Emily, I think you will like one of my other updates.

School is OUT!

My first post from Tawnia's computer at school .. not that you could tell, but since I just told you, you can think it is cool. I'm VERY happy that school is over .. but now I'm waiting for Tawnia to do a few things and then we'll move the mice to the car, and head home. Then I need to do laundry and pack, so I can be ready for flying to Oregon tomorrow. YIPPEEEE! I'm so happy! And exhausted.

Summer

Bring on the pink and purple and yellow and lace frills! It's a girl!!!

(There was no good pink in the color option, or I would have used that.) Yes, Eric was correct that we were at the doctor's office when he posted that question. The doctor said that it "looks like" a girl, but she never says for sure because the picture is "fuzzy." Whatever. It was fuzzy when she could identify the kidneys. Don't tell me she can't tell what sort of sexual organs are present (or not, as the case may be). That was probably the most clear view she got of the entire thing. Summer wasn't very cooperative when the doctor wanted to look at her spine, and kept moving around.

In one of the ultrasound pictures that we got, she looks rather like a space alien with humongous eye sockets (for the size of her head) and a weird nose and mouth. So much for Adam showing them to people and saying "Isn't she cute!!" I'm going to take the pictures to my office tomorrow and see if our techie will scan them for me.

In other news ... I'm going to suggest to Eric that 7 am is indeed too early for the west coast. Maybe he gets up early and that's fine for him (he has Stevie to take care of anyway), but I'll guess that Tawnia and Mindy are going to want to sleep in. It's Christmas Eve AND a Saturday. I'd say more like 9 or 10 for west coast, which would be 12 or 1 out here and starting to stretch it for us (we're doing dinner around 4). What about Monday the 26th? That's the holiday for everyone to get the day off because of Christmas being on Sunday. And maybe we can get online on Christmas afternoon/evening as well.

Brain cell construction

For the last couple of months I have been working on building brain cells. My psychology professor once told us that there are a few things one could do to build neurons. I believe one of the things was to play a musical instrument. The other thing that can do it is the thing that I have been doing these last few months. When Eric came here I showed him some of the new things I was working on (I've only improved, Eric). It is juggling.

I have w weird way that I go about making sure that I get sufficient amounts of neuron building in. I have to juggle for at least three minutes in a session. Also in order for the juggle to count it has to last no less than a minute. So if I have three one minute juggles I am done. If I have one three minute juggle I am done. If a juggle lasts one minute 59 seconds, it only counts as a one minute juggle. If a juggle lasts 59 seconds, it does not count at all.

Well, I like to keep track of when I juggle for long periods. In October I juggled for something like two minutes and 46 seconds straight. As of November 21, my longest juggle was five minutes 36 seconds. Well today I left all previous records in the dust.

I was doing laundry and the egg timer was set for 60 minutes... no I did not juggle for 60 minutes. It got to 58:30 before I started to juggle. Well I started. Then I kept going, and going, and going. I did not throw any under the legs, or two up at once, because I did not want to mess up. Well I was pretty excited when I got to 6 minutes, because I knew I beat my previous record. But I kept juggling.

When you juggle for a long time you start to get dizzy. At least I did, because it was about 1 in the afternoon and I had just got done doing yoga, and I hadn't eaten lunch yet. Well it was as if nothing could stop me. The juggle bags had brushed against each other a couple of times, and I feared dropping them, but I kept going. Amanda could walk through the door at any second coming home for lunch, but she never appeared.

Well I knew that nothing could last forever. The bags finally hit each other hard enough and cam to a crashing halt. The egg timer read 42:37. That put my new record at 15 minutes 53 seconds, just shy of 16 minutes. I almost tripled my PR. It is PR, right?

I really do not know how much cell building I did in those almost 16 minutes, but I think in the time it took me to write this whole thing... I killed all of that hard work.

Until next time... keep on juggling.

Nathan 12/20/05

Movie Planning Meeting

Jared suggested that we have a family meeting sometime around the holidays. Might I suggest Saturday morning? I know, it's Christmas Eve. What better time for gathering as a family? We can wish each other a Merry Christmas while we chat.

Let me know what you think. I'm figuring we can start around 7 am Pacific time, so 10 am Eastern and 9 am Central. Too early? Too late? Let me know. Also, if you have another day that you think would work better, let me know that too. I'd like to have as many of us online together as possible.

Oh, and do we know the baby's gender yet? I suppose Trina is at the doctor's right now...

Death by Chocolate

So I finally figured out that one of my mice is a boy... but I just couldn't part with him. Instead I got my boy a new cage and another boy mice to live with. I also got a second girl mouse to live with my other girl... I came out to the school and set things up Saturday night. My original boy immediately started chasing after the new boy as soon as I put them in together. I was hoping that they would learn to get along over Sunday and things would be harmonious in the mouse world by Monday morning. Instead I came in Monday morning and I had one dead boy mouse. I disposed of it before any of the kids came in, but it really disgusted me. I haven't told the kids because I really just don't want them to know. The girls are getting along well. My new little white female mouse has been named Energizer. And the boy... he's been renamed also. His name is Chocolate.

comments on the comments

To pull this all out into the light of day ...

the storyboards: In Emily's defense, if you read Tawnia's original post about the storyboards again, it sure LOOKS like Tawnia wanted Emily to make them. I think Dad's idea is cool - to take pictures. You could get out the little people and legos, set them up to be the scenes, and take pictures of those. Maybe?

our digital camera: Dad, I don't know how much video can be shot on it, but we did get a really good memory card. So 20 or 30-second sequences are not out of the question. And if it fills up really fast, we could shoot our bits of footage, download them onto our computer, and email it all right away to Eric and Mom for their editing into the final. That way, we keep our camera clear to take pictures at the reunion, since I, of course, will want many many pictures of our little baby meeting her/his aunts and uncles and cousins for the first time.

Jared's piano question: I don't compose. I used to arrange (before my mission) and did all right at it. I just accompany now, all for church. I can play probably half the hymns, and now I have to start working on the Primary book. It's on my top 100 list to be able to play all the songs in both books. "True to the Faith" is a piece of work, and whoever wrote the bass line to "I hope they call me on a mission" was viciously cruel.

new callings: I can't remember if I said this before or not. I was released about a month ago from teaching Gospel Essentials and being a ward missionary. I now play the piano for Primary. I thought the timing was a little interesting, with taking the baby into Primary straight out of the womb instead of waiting until 18 months old. Also, Adam was "promoted" yesterday at church - he's now the assistant ward mission leader. So I'm back to being an undercover ward missionary, since my activity in that area will obviously continue but back to an unofficial capacity.

26 hours until the ultrasound. Time to make your final bets on if you think the baby is Summer or Michael.

1101

Not only is 1101 binary for lucky 13, also known as hexidecimal D, it's also the decimal form of one thousand one hundred one. This is the 1101st post on this blog.

I have a question for everyone to answer (and I really would like EVERYONE to answer, for unnamed reasons). How would you rate your piano skills? How are you as a composer, arranger, or accompanist? Here's my answer.

I'm self-taught on the pianoforte. I can accompany hymns pretty well as long as it's a song I know how to play. I do like to compose and arrage music, and I like to think I'm pretty good at it. Most of my arrangements thus far have been vocal work, intended to be sung a capella. That means without a piano. I have done a little bit of piano arranging and composing, though.

The Writer's Ranting

I was going to post a few comments, but then I realized, I'd better just say it all up front.

First of all, I do not think there can possibly be a storyboard or anything close to a finalized script finished within the next week. I don't think New Year's is too late to add ideas, Trina. I don't think mid June is too late, and I don't think there will be a finalized script until about the night before we start it. And even then, it could still be edited. So, no storyboard, at least not one made by me. I can't make a storyboard!

And before we could get a finalized script, we would have to do our casting. Let's start with the boys. We have ACME Rent-a-Hero played by Jared, Captain Chaos played by Dad, Torpedo Boy played by Bryan, Skip played by Nathan, Egbert played by Eric, and the lawyer played by Adam. (There is a point in the script where Havoc calls her lawyer; we could change it to a lobbyist or Congressman or something who will say a lot of legal things that no one else understands.)

Jared suggested that the girls play a gang of super heroes led by Havoc (who will be played by Amanda or Clarissa, or someone else -- though if Amanda plays it, it would be silly to have her say that Captain Chaos is her father.)

I know most movies would do the casting after the writing, but I have to do it with certain people in mind. Besides, I don't want to write a part for someone and then have them complain about it. Clarissa is already trying to back out. And I want a bigger part! I don't want to just show up for fifteen seconds at the very end! Dang it, I'm the writer! I want more screen time!

Okay, girls, listen up. You are going to be super heroes. If you don't want to be a hero, you might be cast as a bystander, archivist, or basketball referee. What I was thinking was that you can all have a brief biography of your character. See the ones that Jared has posted.

EXAMPLE: The Righter (pun intended) was an ordinary girl until she got her hands on the Laptop of Extreme Chaos that had a strange program. Now, when she types things on the Laptop of Extreme Chaos, they actually happen. She enjoys writing crazy stories, which may explain many of the bizarre happenings around Palmerville. She can even manipulate the behavior of other super heroes. She enjoys "harmless" practical jokes, but she does have a tendency for getting blamed for everything that goes wrong, and so she may incur the wrath of the angry mob.

So, heroes, let's hear about you. What's your power? Where does it come from? What is your super hero name? (Mom has already declared herself to be Super Mom, and Brooke is called Superhero Girl.)

Oh, Jared mentioned in his description of Palmerville the time that seven Chaoses showed up at one crime scene. That was the time that the local Palmerville First Bank -- okay, the jar of spare change under the desk -- was nearly robbed. This was a short time after ACME Rent-a-hero's surprising rebound from near bankruptcy. It was believed that this was a clerical error in which the call went out to five heroes on ACME's list. When he realized the error, he went there himself, as Chaos. He found six heroes had come; one of them had picked up a friend along the way. The villain attempted to sneak away during the confusion, but he was seen and tackled by the shortest Chaos there who used her special Tickle Attack to keep him down until the others could restrain him.

There. Now I'm feeling a little better about the project. But I'm still not making a storyboard.

a Plan B option

Eric, is there a way to edit a video clip from our digital camera into the movie? Because if there is, here's a thought ...

P.S. I guess this is for Eric and Tawnia and Emily, and I am the assistant screen writer. This is one of my formal contributions. Anyway.

Adam is likely not going to be able to make it to the entire reunion festivities next summer. July is one of the busiest times for Congress, as they blitz a lot of stupid things before their summer break (which is all of August). Our thinking is currently that he try to go for the Uncle Max part of the reunion so that he can meet all the cousins and aunts and uncles as well as our family, and that would mean he would NOT be able to participate in making the movie. If someone thinks we should try to plan the other way around with Adam coming for the movie section, well, then I need some feedback, and which weekend for the Palmer reunion. It would have to be on a weekend. Anyway, so let's say Adam does not go to Oregon for the movie. Plan B to still get him in it:

Before I leave, I go to the Capitol with our little digital camera, and take a couple of clips of him working and talking on the phone in his office. Also, some outside shots. Then, in the movie, we have a line where someone says that the movie theft is so terrible that there ought to be a law!! Or something about the regulation of super heros. (Whatever.) So they're going to call their Senator!! They whip out a cell phone and dial. Cut to a shot of the U.S. Capitol building from the outside. Cut to a clip of Adam on the phone in the Judiciary office. I can work on a little bit of scripting with Emily later ...

And voila!! Adam is in the movie!! All compliments of our little digital camera, which has a video feature on it.

I also still think that Jared's idea of the minion relationships (a la "Torpedo Boy is my brother." "Laura Ingalls Wilder is my great grandmother's cousin" etc.) should be added. Jared, I will lobby for this to be added to the script when Emily comes out here to DC. And if anyone says it's too late to work on the script at New Year's, they can just be quiet. It's my job to contribute to the script and I haven't gotten to do anything with the movie yet. So there.

A few items of business

Hi everybody!

I'm very happy that Christmas is so soon, even though it means I'm going to have to hustle to get a few projects done (burning DVDs, reading the Book of Mormon). But that's okay. It's worth it. Tonight Stevie is getting his first sitter and we're going to the temple for the first time since he was born (and to the Newport Beach temple for the first time ever) for a sealing assignment. I'm really looking forward to it.

I finished teaching my last class of the year yesterday, and thus ended a long string of classes that started in mid-October. Two solid months. I wasn't used to that pace, but it actually feels good to be back into the grind of teaching after many months (years?) of writing manuals.

Just a thought on the historic meetings of Tawnia, Emily, Mindy, and Clarissa (as well as others I'm sure) over the holidays. Could we get some of this on tape for the DVD? I'm seeing this time as potentially the most influential on the development of the movie, and I'd be interested to see how it all developed.

I'll be talking with each member of the family who has volunteered to work on the movie (Jared helped me out by calling me last night) and going over your role, what you've done, and what you have in mind for the future. I have a few ideas for the overall scheduling that I think will make this a very smooth and enjoyable experience, which is the whole idea.

Merry Christmas everyone and be on the lookout for the new Baby Stevie DVD!

It is done...

I have finished my Associates Degree. I have also done it getting a 4.0, so I am pretty pleased. I was a little worried a few times about what my grades would be, but I pulled it off. I am not done with the education thing yet though. I am not even close. But all is well in Palmerland, Salem edition.
Amanda is off at a Christmas party right now at 10:30 in the morning on a Wednesday, and then she is going to another one and then out to dinner with her staff. Holy Cow!!! That girl can party. I guess that leaves me with plenty of time to do the laundry, dishes, and clean up the rest of our home.
Tawnia- I am sorry that school live is stressful for you. You are doing a good job and I am sure that those kids adore you. If they don’t I will sit on them.

Nathan

A Break

I am REALLY looking forward to Christmas and having a break from my crazy life. I just don't even have time to breathe sometimes. Things are starting to calm down. I have things pretty much figured out for the rest of this month (all six days of school, hooray!) My big focuses now are grades for this term, and planning lessons for the month of January. Hooray... it's nice to be ahead. My only problem is, I tend to procrastinate. I need to stop doing that.

Anyway, on to a different topic.

As director of the upcoming family event I would like to invite any and all of you who have not been assigned a part, to please let me know which part you would like have. Also, for Emily and Clarissa... I would like to have a meeting on that first day I'm home (ie Dec. 23rd). It would be nice if we could have the story already storyboarded out for me to see. Then we can get a finalized script put together and start working on some other things. I realize that neither of you is a professional artist, but that's okay. We can have stickmen even. I want to start figuring out the different shots.

Anyway, I have to run.
Love,
T

DONE

For those of you who have been anxiously awaiting the conclusion of The One-Winged Dragon, I am pleased to announce that the story is now complete and ready to be read.

This is the second draft of the story, I might add. And I am already making plans for the third draft. All I really need to do is completely shred three chapters (four from my first draft, but I already dumped one because it was too anticlimactic). Colin is not going to met until chapter seven. Yes, he will be in the prologue, but then you won't see him again for a while. So he won't be jumping in and out of the story either. And I'm changing how they meet. Now it will be in an arena, facing each other during Joshua's trial by combat. Did I mention that he'll be arrested? I love being a writer. And if you think this is crazy, I am planning a sequel to The Sword and the Medallion, which will be about spies, a rebellion, and a soup spoon -- yes, a soup spoon.

Well, now you know what I've been up to lately.

comments option

What's the deal with the comments option for the blogger site here? I posted a comment on Jared's post about the movie page, and I can't see it. In fact, there are THREE comments on that post, not just one. If you click on "post a comment," you can see them ... but you don't know that they're there. Dumb. Anyway, I said that the O page, instead of being "oh no," should be "oops" instead.

Christmas festivities numero uno - tonight was the staff party for the Senate Judiciary Committee and Senator Specter's personal staff at the end of the work day, and I crashed it. I was intending to keep to myself - just meet a couple of people I've talked to on the phone numerous times with and call it good. I mean, I'm not Congressional staff in any way. But no. One of the executive assistants swooped down upon me and insisted that I get my picture taken with Senator Specter. So I did, with Adam too. Senator Specter put me between Adam and himself for the picture, and said I was "the rose between the two thorns."

more additions

I've completed the basic structure for the movie website. Some pages appear in their "finalized" forms, and others include comments about how they will eventually look when they are completed. Some links are dead, but each of the nine leading pages is there. Feel free to poke around and make any comments or suggestions. Remember, this is a "living document" and is open for amendment.

first order of business

Adam has just put together my new computer, so I am posting as one of my first actions on it ... he hasn't even installed all the programs yet, but I'm doing some messing around on the internet to "test" the keyboard and how the monitor works for me. He got it for me to do the medical transcription training this spring - our old computer was needing some major repairs and was just sitting here taking up space while we used his new laptop. (He got it for law school, and has also been using it in meetings down on the Hill.)

Today was a nice day off - I got a bunch of Christmas shopping done and other random errands. I also made dinner for a family in our ward who just had a baby on Friday. The new mommy (this is their 3rd) was one of the people who helped me last year with the miscarriage, so I was happy for the chance to return a similar favor.

Woohoo!

Yay for Nathan being done with his Associates Degree...and only one little technicality (a recommendation letter that is in the mail) away from being accepted at Willamette to start in January!! I am very proud of this wonderful husband of mine and just wanted you all to know it. As for me - life is stressful and crazy and I could fill up many posts describing it...maybe when all the students leave for winter break, I'll fill you in, but I'll see some of you tonight - yay for the Messiah performance, and I'll see more of you at Christmas, so there will be lots of filling in time then!

Well I'm off to wrap some presents so we can bring them over to Christmas Present Central to hopefully get them in the same boxes that will be sent from headquarters to California, Texas, and D.C. I'm sad to not be able to see all of you this Christmas...but only a few months til the reunion :c)

Love to you all,
Mandapandapalmer

belated

Sorry I didn't wish Dad a Happy Birthday on time - I was in Chicago for work, and I spent more time at Kinko's making copies than I did doing anything else. I put it all on my credit card and will get reimbursed for it all ... the director is going to have a FIT when he finds out how much I did. There's a reason we copy everything before going to the conference and ship it - because it's cheaper. (Really.) But I wasn't given all this stuff before we left - I got it in bits and pieces in Chicago (which explains the multiple trips). I was very careful to keep all my originals and mark on each receipt what the copies were for - you better believe I'm going to be pointing fingers back up the chain of command when my reimbursement form gets turned in.

I got home last night and can finally get on with Christmas (I did do a bunch of stuff before I left), but mostly, today I'm just glad that this trip is over and work will ease up for a while.

But regardless of all that ... Happy Birthday, Dad!!!

One left...

I only have one more final to go, and then I am done at Chemeketa... as far as I know. It is tomorrow morning at the Pentacle Theatre. I have a scene I have to do with another classmate. I think I have practiced more with Amanda than with my partner, so I wish Amanda was my partner.

Amanda was gone a lot of this evening shopping for two different giving trees and family and coworkers. That left me at home to do some dishes and watch World's Most Amazing Videos.

Amanda said that she hopes Brooke and Bryan really enjoy their presents because she has had a fun time with them. It is going to be a big pain in the butt to pry them from her fingers.

Nathan

Happy Birthday, Dad!!!

So how does it feel being 59? You are a little closer to 60, and a little closer to retirement. I hope that you have a wonderful day today and that everything goes your way. I might write you a birthday poem later, but for now I need to study for my government final.

Love,

Nathan

Um, yeah me too!

I wasn't going to extend birthday wishes until tomorrow, but since Eric already did, so I guess it's all right now. So... happy birthday Dad!

I'm doing a rework of the Pure Chaos webpage. It will be a work in progress over the months until the movie is made, and even after, and I'll probably be asking for input in various forms. I've built the front page, and I've got a basic structure in mind for the subsequent pages. None of the links on that front page go anywhere yet except the letter H. And that one will, of course, change. As far as the music on the page, I want to change it out at some point for the actual theme music from the movie (after I write it, of course!). Does anyone recognize what music is on there right now?

Happy Birthday Dad!

I know it's early, but I wanted to be the first to wish Dad a happy birthday (on the blog anyway) and I am going to bed right now with a sore throat. I took some medicine and I'm going to try to get a lot of sleep tonight. I hope it works.

Well, we sure do love you Dad, and we're looking forward to your visit in a little less than three weeks. Stephen Frank (as one of our friends insists on calling him) is looking forward to meeting you. At least, I can only assume that he is.

Thanks for taking good care of us. Becoming a father has made me appreciate my Mom and Dad much more, and especially the role that you filled so well in taking care of our physical and spiritual needs. Thanks for doing all those "little" things that make such a difference in my life and I'm sure in the lives of all your children (and grandchildren).

Happy Birthday!

Update!

Hi all.

I just wanted to let you know that the Stevie Calendar has been updated. Check it out!

And, of course, there's more to come.

going for milk

So Tawnia and I were going out to get some milk. Instead of turning towards the store, she turned the other direction. I thought we were going to WalMart, but instead we went to the mall. We bought tickets for Harry Potter 4, and then went to take our pictures in the little photo booth thing that prints out strips of pictures. We needed dollar bills for that, but we only had change. No luck at the stores, so we just went ahead to see the movie. It was very good, so we were inspired to buy tickets for another movie - Pride and Prejudice. Between the two shows we found some girls who would give us some bills for the quarters, and we went and got our pictures done. Very fun and giggly. When we stepped out of the booth, Tawnia noticed that her phone was broken, even more than it had been before. We happened to walk past a T-Mobile stand, and within 15 minutes we had new phones. (I emailed the numbers to everyone earlier.) The movie was starting, so we ran to the theater, and sat and enjoyed another excellant movie. I reccommend both. By the time that movie ended it was 2 minutes after midnight, so we slid out to the car (it had snowed and iced over) and went home. We didn't end up getting milk.

Me Too

I added some pictures from our Thanksgiving celebration. They are in my digital pictures section. I'm working on a few other pages when I have the time, but I have lots of projects to finish up this month so I don't know when I'll get more pages ready to post. Can anyone think of a good Christmas question?

Love ya,
MOM

More updates

I have posted the next two chapters of "One-Winged Dragon" on my site. Enjoy reading them. More will soon follow.

Yesterday, JoAnne called and said she would like to me to read to her mother, so I went over there, and I read her "Firestone." She really enjoyed it. So I may go over there sometimes.

Addition to webpages...

I added a story to the stories section of my website. I am letting you know because Mom wanted to know when this happened.

Nathan

happy birthday

In honor of your birthday, Laurel, I have a small addition to my website .. my newest piggy bank! It is a small addition, but I'm hoping to have more after Christmas. Hope everyone is doing well - I'm off to work again today.

ditto

Happy birthday to Laurel from the Caudles! I hope you have a good day and that Stevie isn't too fussy.

Speaking of Stevie ... has everyone seen Eric's calendar on the Birdhouse page? Since he didn't mention it on the blog (and hasn't posted for ... however long), I just came across it myself. My new favorite picture is the one on Nov. 24. Could that double as one of Eric's baby pictures or WHAT??? And the one of Nov. 25 where he's looking over Eric's shoulder - Stevie's expression cracks me up. The calendar is a great idea for baby pictures, especially when they're changing so fast.

Emily, I like Jared's additions for the script - the phone call addition is good. "I'm busy" but playing computer solitaire ... we should add a couple of instant messenger windows as well so he can be chatting with people at the same time. REALLY not busy.

Also, the minions wouldn't just be singing ABOUT wanna-be super heros, they would BE wanna-be super heros. And introduce themselves. That would actually give the song a point for existing instead of just some random thing stuck in there. I hate the type of song in a musical that does nothing for the plot line. And when naming the "Captain Chaos is my dad" and Laura Ingalls Wilder and all those connections, don't forget to add "My grandpa was Shirley Temple's bodyguard."

Happy Birthday, Laurel!!!

Laurel,

I was hoping to be the first to post a happy birthday message at midnight last night, but I guess I can still be first, but at 11:55 instead. I hope that you have a happy birthday and eat lots of cake when Eric is back with you.

The Palmers

In response to Jared's suggestions

I like the suggestions and will see if they can fit into the script. However, I would not have the minions singing about the wannabe super heroes, just the actual ones like Havoc and Torpedo Boy. That was my thought.

Thanks for the suggestions. Keep them coming, folks.