So, here's the latest video of the living room...

I've been on vacation for the last week, working on remodeling the living room of our house. Its been a slow, slow process - I didn't finish scraping paint until last night. I won't go into all the details right now (it's late) but I did want to point folks to the photos and videos I've put together of the project:

Photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/morphosis7/

Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/morphosis7

I'll have to upload pictures to Flickr once I'm done tonight - we finally started putting paint on the walls tonight, with the help of my sister-in-law. I think the room is coming along nicely, finally - but there's a lot yet to do.

• Beauty and the Beast
• The Dark Crystal
• Dumbo
• Finding Nemo
• The Incredibles
• Jungle Book
• Madagascar
• Meet the Robinsons
• The Muppets Take Manhattan
• Over the Hedge
• Pixar Short Films Collection - Volume 1
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
• Titan A.E.
• Wallace and Gromit - Three Amazing Adventures
  

A few thoughts as I look over this list...

First, you'd never know we have a 2-year-old.

Second, Xavier is truly my son - we had quite a number of these DVDs (Titan A.E., Dark Crystal, etc) before he was born.

Of course, there's a ton more animated/claymation/marionette movies out there - which we'll probably pick up eventually. Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Creature Comforts, Triplets of Belleville, and most of Pixar or Dreamworks animations are particular targets.

It should also be noted that I didn't bother listing all the Thomas, Bob the Builder, and VeggieTales DVDs we've picked up - that would more than double this list. We've also got our share of movies like Dark City, Office Space, the Matrix, Moulin Rouge.

Anyway - just a thought that struck me, so I decided to blog. You're welcome. :-)

You know, you'd think I'd remember that I have this profile a bit more often, considering its the first one I created. But apparently that's too much to ask.

Not that I'm doing a whole lot of updating of my MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, or other profiles. Maybe I've just got too many. But, until OpenSocial gets a bit more acceptance and I can just maintain one resource to connect to all my disparate friends, I suppose these things will wax and wane, like caribou populations.

(name that movie - anyone? anyone?)

Life has been crazy busy around here. Since last I blogged in February, I've travelled to Pittsburgh (for a quick conference that kept me busier than I thought - sorry to Alisa and John for not stopping by) , applied for grant funding and been turned down, worked more hours than I care to calculate, watched the Crew sprint to their best start in franchise history, had my Grandmother die, and started reading for fun again.

Obviously, that list isn't sorted by importance.

In the spirit of keeping everyone updated, then, here are some thoughts on these and other topics:

Work, part 1

I've been working with a good friend at work on an open education project - which has been a really interesting experience. Its gotten me to step out of my comfort zone a bit, which has been a good thing. The timing couldn't have been better, honestly, because I was starting to get a bit complacent. No more - this project has both of us significantly overclocked and looking for ways to work smarter, not harder. Thankfully, it has also given us a chance to meet some great colleagues around the country, and learn quite a bit.

The Crew

Shortly after the Indians began their renaissance in the mid 90s, Jacobs Field hosted the All-Start game. I remember watching one of the in-game promos during that game with my father, which featured Drew Carey talking about his team. I remember the phrase "Finally, its your team that sucks!"

That, in a nutshell, is how I'm feeling about the Crew these days. After three years of general futility punctuated by spurts of competence, they've stormed out to a 6-1-1 record. They've played with flair, discovered players who can be a terror to opposing defenses, and seem interested in actually playing the friggin' game. Its hard to believe this is the same team, frankly.

Of course, it helps that through these 8 games they've run out mostly the same lineup each time. Of the 11 starters, 9 have been the same the whole time. The other two have seen very limited turnover, always due to injury. And there's even players on the bench that I'm excited to see warm up.

Grandma B

My maternal grandmother died while Carole and I were honeymooning in Paris. My maternal grandfather died while I was an undergrad. My paternal grandfather died well before I was born. Which left only my paternal grandmother, Grandma B. She died in April, after a long bout with dementia and a bit of Alzheimers. "Long" in this case means over a decade.

News of her passing, then, while certainly sad, was also tinged with a bit of gratitude that her suffering is now over. In the build-up to the memorial service in Hillsdale, I realized that in some ways she had been dead to me for quite some time.

Then, during the memorial service itself, I realized how little I knew of her to begin with. I enjoyed the time I spent with her as a child, but hearing the pastor talk about her in her eulogy was almost like hearing about a stranger. Which I feel very sad about; I'll never get a chance to ask her about those parts of her life that I never knew existed.

In July, we'll be having an internment of sorts for her - she's been cremated, and her ashes will be laid to rest in the Upper Peninsula (Iron River, specifically - on the border with Wisconsin). I'm trying to find a way to make it up there, but with gas prices the way that they are I'm not sure how possible that is going to be. Carole and Xavier have already bowed out of the trip. I'm looking into Megabus to get to Chicago, and possibly renting a car from there or from Milwaukee the rest of the way.

Et cetera

There is, as always, more to say. But, it is far too late to go into that here. Xavier's been up tonight once already while I've typed this, so I should actually try to get to sleep before the next awakening. Ta ta for now.