Ruminating Slav

Meet lolcat Joshua Wanat

lolcat joshua wanat, originally uploaded by *Karo*.

Looky here, internets! You can now create your very-own lolcats in 30 seconds flat thanks to the handy-dandy lolcat generator over at fd's flickr toys. If that's not a fine way to spend an afternoon at work, I don't know what is.

Many thanks to C. for this particular caption.

Recent Baxter photos

Created with Paul's flickrSLiDR.

The prom scene from Carrie

Let me preface today's story by saying that whatever thoughts you're having about calling CPS, it's too late; I've already called them.

This afternoon we took the dog for a walk, avec stroller. Mid-walk we see some dude holding a bunch of carpet samples getting out of his car. Buster decides to go completely insane and lunges at the man, growling and generally acting like he wants to tear his throat out. Much chaos ensues, the result of which is Baxter's stroller completely upside-down on the sidewalk. After quickly rightening it I checked the poor little dude out but he seemed no worse for the wear. He kind of tucked himself in to the corner of the stroller for a while and his mouth did the W of Despair, but he didn't even cry. Thank the sweet baby jebus I had him strapped in.

Then tonight we're up on our bed hanging out right before bedtime and he rolls right off, dammit. I just wasn't fast enough. Apparently he hit his head on the corner of the bedside table? Or maybe the sideboard? I don't know, it all happened so fast, but there was blood everywhere. So I'm trying to figure out if my kid needs stitches and he's hollering and blood is just cascading down the back of his neck. Absolutely terrifying, and of course it's a night that BK's out of town. Anyway, it was a small cut and stopped bleeding pretty quickly, but not before his jammers, the comforter, my shirt, and the carpet were all a big, bloody mess.

I kept him up for a while to make sure he wasn't dizzy or disoriented, but he seemed fine, so I put him to bed. I'm sure I'll be going in there every 30 minutes to make sure he's still breathing.

I need a beer.

Buttery Nikon goodness

Oh internets, I am all a-twitter. Your friend and mine, Tootie, you know the one, is entering the brave new world of DSLR-dom via my Nikon D70. I, therefore, am movin' on up in said -dom. First I went really insane and was going to dooce it up again with the Canon 5D, but quickly came to my senses. Clearly, the Slav does not need that much camera. So then I set my sights on the Nikon D200, but I went and checked it out at a local store and came to the conclusion that it, also, is much fancier than the Slav. Finally I settled on the Nikon D80 cause it's significantly less expensive but has almost the exact same guts as the D200. Plus it maintains all the auto-presets of the D70 so BK will still be able to use it.

Though I am excited about the D80, oh yes I am, I am even more excited about the Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8 lens that will arrive some time next month. Oh sweet mother. I think buying this lens forces me to now refer to camera lenses as "glass," oh-most-pretentious of photographer lingo. Next thing you know I'll be throwing around "bokeh" with the best of them, and won't I just be the fanciest girl this side of Mississippi.

And just because when I go all out, I go all out, I will also soon be the proud owner of the Crumpler Sinking Barge, which has been on my amazon wish list for over a year now, so can't call that one an impulse buy. (I own the McBain's Lovechild for my trusty old iBook -- which has gotten much use over the past few months what with the MacBook Pro woes DAMMIT I WASN'T GOING TO MENTION IT IN THIS POST -- and I love it.) Aaaand, I finally got a Speedlight, so I can play with the bounce flash big kids now instead of just yapping around and nipping at their ankles.

Ok, I think that is it. Expect marvels of photographic excellence to be posted here soon. In the meantime I leave you with this picture of my kid, who I promise has had a haircut since:

If this post was a casserole it wouldn't be very tasty

yucking it up
Originally uploaded by *Karo*.

Hi pork chops! Guess what? I done got my baby enrolled in daycare at the local JCC three mornings a week starting next month. Think of it! Twelve oh-so luxurious, child-free hours a week during which I can lay around on the couch stuffing my maw with those proverbial bon-bons do work and go to the gym. Plus, the whole interacting with other human beings his own age has got to be good for the little scamp, right? Right!

Volvo XC90
Originally uploaded by *Karo*.

I also got a ... brand new car! My S40's lease was up soon so the nice people at the Volvo dealership were kind enough to let me pay them even more money monthly for a bigger car that beeps ever-so fearsomely at me if it thinks I'm about to back up into something. The stereo system also has an auxilliary input for that iPod that I never use any more, and plays mp3 CDs. Who needs that iPod when I can have upwards of 1,000 songs in my six-disc changer! Man oh manischewitz, am I ever living now.

I don't even really want to mention it, but since I've been faithfully chronicling my MacBook Pro saga for posterity, I guess I shouldn't omit the fact that I am now on MBP number 4. After my last post I found out that number three had a faulty RAM bay, so I couldn't install my additional memory. So I had to mail it in, and after it came back it started the whole not-sleeping-when-the-lid-is-closed thing that number one used to do, oh joy of joys. I know, right? It'd almost be funny if it weren't so pathetic. The cow I ended up with in tier-two AppleCare kept insisting that it was software related, even though it only started happening after I got the machine back from the repair depot. After the whole litany of "fixes" ending with and archive and install didn't fix it, I went back to the Apple Store and gave it to them, because I had a feeling she was going to make me wipe the hard drive clean next. Anyway, the long and short is that the geniuses replaced it. Again. This one's trackpad button is a little on the wonky side and sometimes doesn't register clicks, but I'm going to ignore that for now because I'm just so disgusted with the whole mess.

green shoes
Originally uploaded by *Karo*.

Oh! So I came across this awesome deal for the Canon SD1000, and because I'm an idiot and cannot pass up a good tech deal I bought one to replace my old point-and-shoot Canon S230. Among other things, it has much better video-taking capabilities than the S230, but it can also do this. --->

Listen up, Dallas! I am now ready to be your crappy "artistic" wedding photographer. Please allow me to take stunning black-and-white photos of your flower girl kissing the ring bearer, and my camera will color up those red flowers she's holding! These priceless and fancy memories can be yours to hang on the wall next to your Thomas Kinkades for the low, low price of two thousand U.S. dollars!

Finally, those of you reading the Buffy Season Eight comic book, or those who aren't and don't mind being spoiled: how awesome is this? Check out J-Dub sticking it to the shippers. Good times.