Duets with a darling dude

This was two weeks ago, but it's never too late to share really fun stuff, right? This little guy came to visit, and we wound up playing some duets. We might need a little more practice before we go pro, but so far audiences have loved us.

Most of the audience did consist of our moms, which might explain some of that. That and the fact that this guy is ridiculously cute.

Exhibit

You remember how I was going to be learning how to draw? Ha! Well, I have come to report that I have not been idle in my absence from this blog. As you can see, I'm getting to be quite a pro.

I call this one, "A Guest, Upon Swallowing the First Bite of My Cooking."

"A Squirrel, Probably Suffering from the Plague and Possibly Possessed"

I drew this little piggy just this week. So far he's stayed home.

Well, I know you're all impressed, This presentation has been free, but if you'd like to make a donation in honor of this exhibit, please donate to your favorite charity. Or to me -- I'll take it.

Art and Criticism

Laziness of course plays a big part, but I also think I might be better at playing the piano and writing if I didn't have such good taste. Becoming good at these things takes a lot of consistent effort and work, a lot of practice, and a lot of bad attempts. I have enough critical sense to be hyper aware of my poor performance and for it to jar on me, so I don't practice nearly as much as I should. Thus, I'm not very good.

I have a solution, though. I'll take up art! Since I don't "get" art, bad art doesn't faze me. This should mean that I'll be able to get in lots of practice without frustrating myself.

Stay tuned, guys. Pretty soon, I'm going to have perfected my stick-man technique.

Reluctance Is Futile

I floated up onto another floor the other day, and as I sat in the staff room waiting for reports, I noticed a sign up on the wall in fancy script that said, "Reluctance is futile!"

And I thought, "How true."

And then I realized I'd read the fancy script wrong and it actually said, "Resistance is futile," which is a more mainstream thought.

I like the way I originally read it, though. Sometimes I drag myself out of bed, wanting very much to not get up. I drag myself to work, wanting very much to stay at home; and I drag myself around all day. Then I come home and drag myself off the couch (if I've let myself sit down) and into the shower. I sort of enjoy myself a little for the next hour or two, but it's kind of poisoned by knowing I need to go to bed soon. Usually later than I should, I finally succeed in dragging myself off to bed, dreading the next morning.

This is very stupid.

Reluctance is futile. I have to do all that stuff, and dreading things is pointless (and very un-fun) and takes all the fun out of the rest of the day as well.

Today I managed to cut down a lot on my "reluctance," and it was a very good day.

Thank goodness for illegible fonts.

Blogging

I'm not a very good blogger. I'm kind of a run-of-the-mill, boring type person, so it's hard to come up with anything that would be interesting for anybody else to read. And then the forum just seems very odd to me. It's like speaking into a black abyss, addressing the whole world and nobody at the same time. But I guess I should just start talking into the void here; maybe it will interest someone -- or help me be more interesting? The great thing about a blog is that if it bores you, you don't have to read it!

Russell's Visit

We had a really nice visit from Russ and his family about a month ago. They spent two weeks, and we played lots of games, swam, watched fireworks, and did lots of hanging out and getting to know each other better. It was really nice.

The boys got to help Grandpa with watering and get to know him better.

It was really fun for me to see Mom with Andrew. A mom of an adult has a different relationship and a different way of treating her adult children, which is the way things ought to be. But watching Mom with Andrew, I got to see the mom I had when I was a little child, and it was really sweet. She's wonderful with him. She's a great mom and grandma.

The boys also had a good time exploring. There's so much to look at in Grandma's house!

We played with puppets for Family Home Evening activity. It was pretty fun.

Russ and I stayed up late several nights, talking about games and books and math, and that was nice, too. I just have good siblings and a great family. Thanks, all of you family! I appreciate ya!

Becky's Undergraduate Graduation -- Undergraduation?

So Becky graduated in April.

 Ready to go off and bear the torch, and all that.

I don't think Mom had told Dad how much a college education costs.

He started going around asking for donations.

He did get one.

I think he felt better after that, so we went and got something to eat. We stopped in the sculpture garden on the way there.

We also got a picture with President and Sister Samuelson.

It was all really fun. Thanks for graduating, Becks!

*Disclaimer: Because I have a compulsive need for complete accuracy (as far as possible), no matter how little anyone cares or how much it may have been obvious in the first place, I must add that Dad did know how much education costs, that I have no memory of why he was pretending to ask for donations, and that most of these pictures are out of order.