Nom de Plume

Like this.

I mean, seriously. Like it’s not bad that children no longer have bedtimes and are screaming and running around restaurants at nine in the evening. Now dogs too?

“Where’s my puppy?” Steve demanded the other night. “I need to snuggle.”

“I thought you hated him.”

“I do. I hate the little bastard. Now where is he?”

1) It was tiresome. Actually tiresome. I couldn’t wait for it to end. The only reason I didn’t walk out was because it was that day where the temperatures reached record highs in Seattle, and the theatre was nice and cool.

2) I really, really hate the girl who plays Hermione.

3) What happened to Harry’s scar?

4) I understand it’s impossible to fit umpteen hundred pages in a two-hour movie. But still. They made characters do completely uncharacteristic things. Would Neville really tell Harry that his parents were driven mad by Lord V.? Would Cho have really been the one who snitched on the DA? Would Dumbledore really have COMPLETELY ignored Harry like that? These fell by the wayside in favor of special effects and suspenseful scenes. Which lasted for EVER.

5) So much charm was sucked out of the story. Like Dumbledore’s neat checkmating of Fudge during Harry’s trial.

6) Just wondering: would anyone who hadn’t actually read the book understand what was going on in the movie? This was the issue with number 3 too; when I dragged Steve, he kept on asking what the hell was going on.

7) Helena Bonham-Carter rocked. As did Ralph Fiennes. Dolores Umbridge was good, but didn’t mesh with my impression of her character at ALL.

The big news is that I am INCREDIBLY disgusted with doctors right now. At least, I’m disgusted with my dermatologist–very pleased with my naturopath.

My derm told me that you get enough D just walking to your car every day—and the naturopath said that just indicated that she’s not up on the latest research. He was very mild about it, but did say that the problem is that vitamin D is cheap and you can’t patent it—so it doesn’t receive that much attention. BUT the number of prescription medications that are essentially various forms of vitamin D is astoundingly high.

The other thing that is irritating me about my derm is that she never told me that protopic doesn’t work unless you get sun exposure. In fact, NONE of the treatments works without UVB rays. So I’ve been doing moderate sun exposure (10 minutes without sunscreen).

Also, I think there’s this attitude in the medical community that there is a single cause for something—when in fact there are many different factors that tip one over into having a disease. In my own case, he suspects—and I concur—that the following issues are coming into play: vitamin D deficiency, low cholesterol (apparently, it all goes straight to my fat stores!!), low levels of zinc (which weren’t tested), relatively low B vitamins, possibly achlorydia (the inability of your system to process differing substances, in my case protein), and possibly oxidative stress. To that I add a possible genetic predisposition; despite all statistics saying that all races are equally affected, it seems that Indians (I’m half) seem to have vitiligo more often. SO, he put me on:

–massive quantities of vitamin d (5000 IU a day)
–l-tyrosine (an amino acid that helps create melanin)
–zinc and copper (copper works with l-tyrosine)
–b12 and folic acid
–vitamin c with flavenoids (this is for the oxidative stress theory/angle)

This German clinic has the same supplemental approach, and they’ve posted before and after pics, which are amazing. I keep coming back to this when I feel a little hopeless:
http://www.vitiligo-vitiligo.de/10701/22913.html

Right now I’m trying to balance being hopeful with not having too high expectations. And don’t get me wrong—I’m grateful for the standard medical community, but it just seems to leave so much out.

One of Steve’s contractors is giving us a deal on granite countertops. So last night we went to their web site. And now, we’re wondering: should we do silestone instead?

Here’s the thing: I spill things. Coffee, oil, vinegar, all the stuff that stains. Am I capable of maintaining granite? Steve says, rather insultingly, an emphatic NO. He’s probably right. So has anyone out there actually seen silestone? Used it? Have an opinion?

Oh, not in any legal sense, though the only thing that would please my mother more is producing an anklebiter or two. It’s just that Steve did an amazing job framing in cabinets and such while I was in San Diego last week–and then he decided that we should really rip out the cabinets at the end of the kitchen.

I complained that I always had to do the crappy stuff, like clean up. So Steve handed me a huge hammer and a chisel. And while he did this:

I did this:

Then Steve and I both cleaned up.

Here’s the thing: Smashing into walls is the BEST.

Steve is a gearhead. He prefers to take on new sports that require massive amounts of gear–and when he’s collected it all, he finds a new sport. For instance, he bought a new surfboard. And then he started sailing and completely lost interest in surfing.

He also has one regular kayak, three whitewater kayaks, two mountain bikes, a small single-person sailboat, two sets of downhill skis, and four windsurfers (all of which feature hot pink as the primary color).

This tally does not include the other gear required: wetsuits, booties, rashguards, helmets, life vests, nose plugs, or paddles.

So yesterday, I ran to the store and when I got home, he was unfurling the sail of yet another windsurfer. Apparently, he traded one of his kayaks for it. But hey! It isn’t pink!

and I need to get a new one.

The only problem is that most cameras are so complicated and I have no idea how to go about choosing one. I would rather not have to get a PhD in how to operate it. Any recommendations for a simple point and shoot? Pretty please?

A while ago, I got an e-mail from someone who wanted to buy this Sekino print, which he had seen here:

I wasn’t that interested in selling, but he was really nice. We started e-mailing about Sekino prints. I sent him pictures of the other four I have, and he encouraged me to post pictures on the blog. So here they are:

And to make a long story short, he’s a serious collector who has been looking for this print for 10 years (in other words, he’s not a dilettante like me) and made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. And while I like the print enormously, the fact is that he will get much more enjoyment out of it than I will. So I’m sending it off to him.

And I think I’m going to buy one of those Saitos I’ve been coveting.