I’m finally studying the book that Darling Husband bought for me that explains how to use Photoshop Elements. I’m sure that this news will be met with deep sighs of relief by my photography friends. Last time Melissa helped me with Elements, I heard my own voice getting whinier and whinier until I thought she’d have to resort to saying, “I can’t understand you when you talk that way.” For those of you without kids, that’s what you’re supposed to say to a whiny preschooler. Darling Husband has had to listen to me ranting about Elements ever since I got it for Christmas.
Before buckling down to study this book, I’d flipped through it and half-heartedly tried a few things, but sometimes they’d work and sometimes they wouldn’t. For no reason at all. Apparently, Elements hated me and was doing it’s best to drive me crazy, like in the movie Gaslight. You ever see that movie? The man marries the woman so that he can move into the house she owns and search the attic for some rubies that he knows are there. In order to search for and keep the rubies for himself, he systematically tries to drive his new wife insane to get her out of the way.
But now that I’ve started reading the book from the beginning and am forcing myself to use Elements more and more, I told Darling Husband that maybe, just maybe, Elements wasn’t as horrible as I thought, and perhaps, I might even be starting to almost think about liking it. At which point Darling Husband raised his hands to the heavens and announced that there is a God and He’s still working miracles today.
Do you see the sarcasm I have to live with every day? Pity me.
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For the picture of the day, the boys got haircuts for the first time in about 2 years. Here is Boy9 with his long hair.
I have to say, I love the long hair. But it’s very impractical in the heat. When the boys get hot and sweaty, their hair sticks to their faces and gets stinky and gross. And twice last Friday, two different people thought that Boy7 was a girl with his long, golden locks.
After. Boy9 is hamming it up for the camera:
At first they didn’t like the haircuts. I think they went into physical shock from so much hair being clipped from their heads. We had to have them breathe into brown paper bags. But they got used to it.
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A few weeks ago I wrote that I didn’t buy myself a rose bush because I was saving up my money to refill our coffers after paying for Alex. Kris (you’ve seen her portrait a few times) felt pity for me and bought me a rose bush. Thank you, Kris!
I was going to plant it today, but I’m not sure exactly what happened. One minute I’m grousing, “I guess I’ll plant this thing…” and the next minute Darling Husband is out there in a flurry of dirt and shovels and doing all the work himself. I just sat there in a big floppy hat, taking pictures.
It’s either the hat or slathering myself with sunblock. If I’m out in the sun longer than 3.6 seconds, I burn like a little stick of bacon.
And what’s up with sunburn? How did we end up being on a planet where the nearest star is so close that it burns up the creatures that live on the planet’s surface? That sounds like some sort of H.G. Wells novel. We should all be living in our underground domed cities because of the searing rays of Sol. I’m really resentful that I can’t go outside without risking my skin burning and sloughing off, like the burned skin of a marshmallow roasted over a fire.
Oh yum–doesn’t that sound good right now? The marshmallow, not the burned flesh.
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It is with great jittery shaking that I announce that tomorrow the boys and I are going to Hershey Park, an amusement park for those who don’t know.
Going to the park isn’t what makes me jittery and shaky. Wait, come to think of it, going to Hershy Park is what make me feel jittery and shaky, but in a good way. I love, love, love, love, love roller coasters. The boys will be going on their very first roller coasters tomorrow and I am so thrilled and jittery and shaky that I’m about to fall off this chair right here and now.
People use to ask me when the boys were toddlers, “Are you going to take the kids to Hershey Park?” What a dumb question! No! They weren’t tall enough for the good rides. I’ve been waiting nine years to take these kids to Hershey Park. And not for dumb ol’ kiddie rides where I’d have to stand there in the hot sun watching them ride around on little trains. Nope. We’re riding the Comet and the SooperDooperLooper which were the first two roller coasters I ever rode when I was a kid. I can’t wait!
The part that makes me bad jittery-shaky is that I won’t be taking Alex.
Or Clarisse.
Or even little Daisy Mae.
No camera at all, except the goofy one on the cell phone. This will be the first time since at least October, and maybe earlier, that I won’t be carrying a camera with me all day long. I’m sure there will be a tearful parting, and I’ll probably call home a few times and ask Darling Husband to put Alex on the phone so I can reassure him that I’m coming back.
Ok—enough! I have to get to bed early tonight. I’ll be getting up at 6:00 tomorrow and you know how I feel about that.