Tintype! [link]

It was a fascinating process. They had an antique dentist's chair in the studio, so there was a neck brace to keep you still while you sat and stared into super-bright lights for the 45 second exposure.

How completely cool is that!

At Lee's! Whee!!! Ate yummy sushi and drank yummy beer and am in her totes adorbs house! In NoCA, hallelujah! It's actually gorgeously chilly here. Ahhhhh.

Wow Jilli, I am so jealous! What a great image, what a groovy experience too.

Jilli, that is a cool picture!! What a fun experience too!

ND, yeah, folks need to get with it and look at the bigger picture here.

I am happy to say today was a *very* productive day. In the morning, I spent some quality time in the kitchen, getting it cleaned up. In the afternoon, Mom and her BF came over, and helped me out in the bedroom. We taped and painted the trim. Went to dinner, came back, and untaped it. It looks good! Not great, but hey, for non-pro's, it looks good! Plus, there will be furniture blocking most of the walls, so eh. Anyhow, the bedroom is painted!!! Moved the bookcases into place. Set up the CD shelves. And brought the desk/table in. All bare, but in place. Woot! Starting to feel like home. I need to set up the closet install, now that hte painting is all done. And, of course, start unpacking. I have about 50 boxes to unpack. It will take some time. But the fact that I *can* start to unpack... awesome feeling!

Also, watching "Winged Planet" on Discovery. Dude. The filming is gorgeous. I'm not an animal person. But this is cool! Innovative camera angles, strapping cameras onto some birds. Just really cool.

Oh, and it looks like the ants have retreated. This is the second time it's happened. Not sure if it will be a recurring theme or not. Goes something like this. Come home and see trails of ants. Minor freak out. Figure out where entry point is. Spray with orange spray, which blocks entrance of more. Place ant trap at that location. Spray orange stuff in areas where they are concentrating, and drop another ant trap. Repeat around condo. Wait. The stream is abated. Stomp at will. Next day, invasion is now just sporadic stragglers. By the time I get home, all but gone. Annoying. But, not too bad.

Went to a local Arab fest today. Kinda of neat to learn about cultures I know little about from immigrants who grew up in that culture. I'm not sure my priorities are everything they should be though. I was watching pretty girls dance on the stage, and then got distracted by a booth where a guy was showing off two bejeweled falcons. He trains his falcons and hunts with them. He uses traditional training methods and traditional equipment of the same design that has been used in the that part of the world for hundreds, maybe for over a thousand, years.

They wouldn't have pretty girls dancing on a stage if they didn't want you to be watching them.

Er my point is that I was distracted from the pretty girls by the falcons. There was a time when that would not have happened.

Also, something I did not know when I posted last night. There was a spoken Sudanese-Canadian spoken word artist Yusra Khogali who was supposed to perform at Olympia's Arab Festival tonight. She was stopped from entering the U.S. by a U.S. customs agent who told her she was trying to enter the U.S. to take part in a "violent" assembly.

I was at that assembly. I missed the opening speeches by Governor Gregoir and Mayor Bauxbaum, but I'm pretty sure neither advocated terrorism. There were dancers and fashion shows and traditional on the stage, and I'm pretty sure none of the performers were armed. There was Falafal, and Hummus and Schwarma and Baklavaa and none of that food was of poor enough quality to be weaponized. Neither was the Arab jeweler and crafts and clothing. OK, the falcons were kind of violent since they are used to commit violence against rabbits and ducks, but I'm pretty sure falcons are not weapons of war, and anyway, they were not for sale.

Ah, my mistake, the birds were more interesting than the girls. Still, bejeweled birds of prey are less common than pretty girls.