Yes, That Ten Years Happened!

Ooooooh look who was born ten years ago today??

Ten years!!!

Ten!!

What. 

The. 

Actual.

Smeg???

I have so much sugary fatty goodness prepared for today. Especially because Allan really didn't want much for her birthday. She is still excited about her birthday, but she didn't want a party. She didn't want an adventure. Just her gifts hidden around the house, candy, chocolate covered strawberries, and hot dogs for dinner! Who am I to refuse. 

In addition to the strawberries, and cupcakes and donut holes, she's getting a lot of candy. And more gifts than I intended to buy, because she started out saying she didn't really want gifts and then filled in her amazon Wishlist a week or two ago. Which is actually fun, because she is flooded with gifts from family and friends for Christmas, so I usually hold back a lot that holiday. Nobody is quite as eager over her birthday, so it's all me baby.

And Andrew. Well. He bought "the family" a Switch 2. He thought about buying one for Allan, but the idea that she might control its use gave him caution, since he's a heavy consumer. So it's sort of a birthday adjacent appearance on top of the actual gifts and candy.  

The hunt is afoot!!

He did buy Allan a switch two game, though, and we're all kind of excited about it, so that's fun! And Allan did get gifts from grandparents and a very fashion forward Auntie. It's going to be a fun opening binge at lunch time!

Today is also Pam's very last radiation therapy treatment for this delightful little cancer thing she's got going on! It's been a shit show, and there's plenty of healing to do, but I'm so happy she managed to get through all the treatments! What a danged relief! It got pretty gruesome there for a while, but it seems like she's mostly figured out her feeding tube, her nausea, her hydration (iv fluids regularly), her pain balance, and how to deal with the awful looking burns all over her throat and chest. 

Surprise, it involves a lot of burn cream and also t-shirts with the collars cut out. 

We're soooooo twinsies!!

Generally burning chest skin and a stylish off the shoulder ensemble?? Yes! Absolutely!!

No, I'm not sharing pics of my mom without her permission but the burn cream is really white and it goes up to her face, so she kind of looks like a ghost from a Japanese horror movie. It's an aesthetic I haven't quite captured yet. But I'll work on on it. I'm sure I have some diaper cream somewhere!

At any rate! The festivities are just getting started, and I'll make sure to give you all the tea on how it played out. While Allan didn't want to do anything for her birthday, I demanded a visit to the Zoo for mine/ours. So we will be taking my fancy ass used camera to see some animals. and who know what other shenanigans!! Stay tuned!

But in the meantime, welcome to Catland. Land of the dragon cats.  Or something. Ask the big ten year old. 

As predicted, the free art camp that Allan attended online yielded both lovely artwork and additional annual expenses. Turns out that the Dragon Art Camp we signed up for (because it was free and thus offered a low risk for burnout), was a promo for Soul Sparklettes Art Glitter somethingorother membership. Soul Sparklettes provides homeschool arts curriculums and classes for a monthly fee. And, honestly, I know that buying the annual subscription means Allan may never use their art resources again, but I hope she does because it was an uncharacteristically positive experience that yielded tons of cool art in various techniques. 

So far Allan has expressed excitement in the abstract for many projeects, but typically then adds, "but not right now... I'll do it later," where "later" is kind of the equivalent of "we should do coffee some time." So, I dunno, maybe I'll start doing the projects, myself. 

Like I've been threatening to do with her multiple Kiwico STEM boxes that she claims to love, but apparently not more so than anything else she could be doing at any moment when somebody offers to do one with her. So... that's fun! 

In fairness, Andrew and I do end up sitting around the table on occasional Saturdays while he "helps" her do one and she runs around the house, occasionally dropping by to say "cool" and take credit for the end product! Since we aren't really able to get our date nights anymore (Pam is the only approved sitter and she's still busy recovering from that pesky radiation therapy nonsense). So, shooing Allan off to the other side of the room and each taking an art project seems about as close as we're getting anytime soon!

Speaking of arts, the new camera yielded good news and bad news. 

The good news: After two or three days of flailing around trying to figure out why the autofocus wouldn't actually - I dunno - focus, I managed to make it work. I'm not 100% sure which of the several things I tried all at once really did it. But I did some stuff. And I that makes me feel mighty!

The bad news is that if the flash is still there, it doesn't seem to work, and I'm not really sure how to address that, really. But for the time being, I'm happy with my flashless camera experience!

I even actually made it to the Photo Walk. I credit this partially to the camera miraculously starting to work the day before (thus rendering my handily prepared excuses invalid without time to create new ones) and partially to having casually mentioned it to a friend; a friend who then told me "you better go to that photography thing!" 

I'm not gonna lie, sometimes I need body doubling. Sometimes I just need straight up threats. It's always hard to predict!

Granted, they may simply have been offering their opinion that this would be a better choice than not going, but I took it as a matter of urgency. Hey, you gotta grab what motivates you!

The photo walk took place at the West Seattle Farmer's Market. Which is a bit of a swarm. I am shocked I found parking, though I was also full of prudence aforethought and parked my car several blocks away from the event.  

The event was also - appropriate to the venue - simmering chaos. About sixty photographers wandering freely around what maybe makes up a block or so of concentrated commerce. All bouncing into each other and apologizing constantly for inadvertently photobombing each other's photos. 

And dogs!!!

I deleted most of the dog pictures for being kind of cute but meh, and have subsequently signed up for daily emails from Unleashed, an organization from a pet photography organization, because I've discovered that I like stalking other people's dogs and I wish I had more to show for it. But still: dogs!!!

I deleted my pigeon photos, but I had a ball attempting to take them Apparently I need a faster lens speed, but in order to actually see anything, I then need higher ISO (which is basically just what the film used to be) and an aperture wider than my particular Nikon feels excited about going. At least this is what I've gleaned in an after day of research. Also, someday I'll probably have to get a macro lens, because duh, this hobby is expensive!

Still. 

Ok I had this one still on my memory stick. One of these days...

In the meantime, I did learn some cool tricks for practicing a slightly less rapid motion: disco lights! 

Most of the time, my camera is smarter than me, but this time I was a control freak to good purpose, so I'm proud. 

At any rate, relatively antisocial social activity unlocked, I staggered back home with a headache and some general heat stroke, because apparently, I forget that I'm a wuss when I'm focused (or should i say autofocused...) But no, the day was not over: I also careened through in a video call with my #1 Bumble BFF that lasted almost two hours! My introvert battery was basically sucking energy from the rest of the room to stay on life support by the end of that, but it ended in a shower and some Full Metal Alchemist, so things mostly equalized in the end!

So, clearly the plan ought to be that the rest of the week should stay in recovery mode until the BIG DAY. And it wasn't exactly anomie. 

But we had a little on the agenda: finishing up homeschool paperwork and planning, the very first equine therapy session at Little Bit (oh boy, I've missed the KPDH soundtrack on repeat!), some PT, some extra OT, some D&D and a lot of preparation.  

Occasionally, we even had to wait! This one is on me, actually. I was so fastidious about being "on time" to Allan's first equine therapy appointment, that I forgot the actual time and aimed to arrive fifteen minutes early, meaning I actually arrived a half hour early. 

We... survived. Mostly. 

Anyways. I got a ton done. And spent a good hour hiding candy and gifts around the house this morning, so I'm about ready to crash for the rest of the day. Until lunch when we do more birthday stuff. And then tomorrow. And then...

But yay!! TEN YEARS! Wild ride!