Tuesday, July 7, 1998

        The QuickCam seems to have died. Either that or it's the parallel port connection in the laptop again. I got a couple of photographs before it completely quit, which explains the frown in today's image. It works very sporadically. I'll have to try it on the desktop computer tomorrow, but that's a real pain, too, because I can't leave it hooked up. It screws up the computer somehow and it won't start up if the camera is physically attached, so I have to unhook it every time I use it, which entails practically crawling around to the back of the computer. Not easily accessible, in other words. Maybe I'll have to just start taking photographs of things other than myself with the digital camera . . .

        I did a lot of work today in the office upstairs. I filed everything, I cleaned off my desk (sort of) and got some files and things up off of the floor. I cleaned some old files out of the filing cabinet and stuck them in the closet. The room looks a little better, and I feel like I accomplished something. Bob was happy, anyway. I also did a little bit of work in Bryce, but I got frustrated with it. I was trying to make a deep space scene, but I kept having trouble with the stars . . .

        This afternoon I went to Michael's in search of little chairs. While I was in Hobby Lobby yesterday I suddenly had the idea of buying some unfinished wooden ones and painting them myself, since I had such a good time painting the one that I bought last week. Hobby Lobby didn't have any, though, so I tried Michael's today. They had some, and I bought them, but they're not exactly what I would have liked. These have full backs rather than spindle backs, so I'll probably have to come up with a decal or decoupage or something to fill in that area. Still, they're nice ones and just the right size, about a foot tall I guess. I bought two straight chairs and a rocker.

        I also bought paint--a deep navy blue not unlike the nail polish I bought the other day, a soft cream, a metallic gold, and a couple of whitewash-type stains, one cream and one pale green. I'm not sure how those will work, but I wanted to try them. I'm envisioning the rocker as dark blue with cream colored stars. I may try whitewashing one straight chair and painting the other one in a more colorful scheme, maybe with bright colors and stripes or dots or something.

        I really love to paint things, but I try to choose small things so that I don't get burnt out and frustrated. My attention span is just about right for a foot-high chair. I'm not sure I could sustain enough interest and motivation to paint a full size one. Oh, I probably could, but these are just right. If they turn out well I'll probably give them as Christmas presents to a couple of friends who like that sort of thing. They're just the right size for a small bear.

        When we got ready to come home from John's party on the 4th, Bob couldn't find his sunglasses. I was going to try to get some for him today while I was out, but I ran out of time, so we went out tonight to find him some. We went to Wal Mart and he picked out a nice pair for $15.00. He's sort of hard on sunglasses, although he said he's had the pair he just lost for a pretty long time. I have a terrible time finding ones that I like, so I'm very careful not to lose them, although I drop them all the time. They're sort of beat up and scratched, but they still serve their purpose.

        We stopped at Baskin Robbins and got ice cream on the way home. Every time we stop there, Bob mentions the sign in the window that the store is for sale and tells me that he thinks that I should buy it. He says he's thinks I'd be perfect running an ice cream store--supervising a crew of teenagers, dealing with the public, handing out tastes of ice cream to little kids . . . Yeah, right. I can't think of too many things that I'd be worse at. Obviously, he's only joking.