Russellsphere

I don’t know what it is about Disney Pixar movies but I cry and cry and cry; just like a balling baby; of course the rest of the auditorium is just staring blanky while I’m a wreck. It was a sweet movie; a little slow in parts – but our kidz held on till the end. I lost a bet with Jenny; I thought the cinema would be packed (9am on a Sunday) – I neglected to take into account that SC is somewhat heavily laden with Churches. Sunday Morning and movies don’t usually mix.. In any case; I have to make dinner – then I reminded Jenny that my cooking skills are weak to say the least.. I have a really poor quality movie of our trip embedded below.

Our Up Experience

Jennys addiction to Fishdom has become quite serious; hours upon hours of play. A massive $6 was spent to purchase the game and her poor MacBook is burning up. I ‘borrowed’ the code; and now I have fishdom on my MacBook also. So we are a couple of fish fanatics (Jenny moreso than me of course). I miss Jenny; I hope she comes back soon….

Nicholas and I went for a hair cut yesterday. I do not like getting my hair cut; I just feel uncomfortable- anyway; Nick went with me – and we got our hair cut. I got a ‘no 4′ on the top and a ‘no 2′ at the back; suffice to say its very short – I have got my hair this short before. Its a great relief in the summer heat; I actually feel I can walk now without melting. Nicholas as always looks awesome; he is very proud of his hair cut. This morning he got out of the car for school and said to me-

“Someone is going to call me handsome today”

That my son; is completely correct.

Today we went to Edisto Memorial Gardens in Orangeburg, SC. I have to say; we were not impressed with Orangeburg one bit!! But – the Memorial Gardens were surprisingly nice. There were many bees out and Nicholas decided that he did not like bees one bit; so we had to carry him around a lot. There is a rose garden there – and it was very nice; the girls paying special attention to the various smells. The girls also loved the turtles – I tried to lure one in but it would get to the edge of the water then scarper off. I have some photos and a movie but haven’t had time to upload them yet. Pictures at the bottom.

Also today; I have had a secret weapon for a couple of days to calm the kids down when they go bezerk. Fishdom; a game that the kids love – and is quite enjoyable. Well Jenny discovered it; and we had to put it on the big screen computer. Now Jenny is addicted to it- it is fun and we all help each other solve the puzzle. When you win you earn cash to buy fish and various toys/tools to help make your fish happy in your very own personal aquarium :-)

Update: Also attached below are pictures from our special day out with the twins on Friday.

Twins Day Out

Edisto Memorial Gardens

Most nights; we all group together in our bed and read books. Jenny reads us all a chapter from Junie B Jones; it is quite thrilling. Anyway, Lauren has her own Junie B Jones book and Emily has her own – and Nicholas is sitting up listening to Jenny read hers.

The girls flip through their books; pretending to read and then talking in garble but synched in time with Jenny. They pause though to look at pictures in the book. It is the most delightful time; and all the kids are at peace listen to Jennys finely crafted reading abilities..

Finally; tonight when I took Lauren up she had a lego spaceman and was doing shooting noises at the ceiling – and she said ‘Kill Mommys house’ – she now wants to see movies with ‘guns’ in it… probably not a good sign :)

Last night there was a ‘dreaded PTO meeting’ which we’ve never been too… but they had some Kindergarten performances – so of course we all went. Everyone in the crowd was so cheery and laughing; very festive (sorry to add this – but as the show finished.. NO ONE would let me out of my parking spot- as everyone fought and screamed to get out of the parking lot at the end. So I’m not sure where all the festivity went..)

Anyway – St Nicholas put on a show; and it was truly wonderful. Emily and Lauren sure loved it too; so much – Lauren didn’t want to leave!

Monica sent me this

The weekend saw us having some really odd weather; yesterday was quite cold – and we got over 2.5 inches of rain. Over night tonight it could be in the 40s….

We did some work taking stuff to Charity – - and we’ve also been working on a new project.

We have a projector set up in the largest room of our house – and the brightness has dropped 70% – which isn’t good. We have 600 hours on the lamp; and we should be getting about 2000 hours. So I’m not happy. The lamps aren’t cheap; so we wanted to see if there was anything we could do.

Most enthusiasts project to a ‘screen’ – just like at the movie theater. We project to the wall – and its met our needs just fine; but we wanted to see if we could improve what we have with some kind of screen plan put in place.

We both did a lot of research and ended up finding a ‘mix of paint’ which attempts to mimic the reflective properties of a true projector screen. Its a specific type of Home Depot gray (770E-2 I believe) – and we chose Satin for a brighter look. Now here is the key; you mix it with ‘Pearlescant Paint’ – it creates a shimmer effect that helps enhance the color of the image. You mix 25% of the stuff with 75% of the gray and you slap it on in thin layers on the wall. It was a lot of fun; and a ‘family building time’ activity. The kids enjoyed watching us suffer.

Unfortunately; it did not have an effect on the brightness of the image (the brightness is just too low on the lamp) – but you CAN see the enhanced color effect; I can imagine when our lamp is replaced; it will look astonishing.

In one last ditch attempt – I posted some questions on a projector forum but they said ‘replace your lamp’ UGH – just so annoying.

The kids this weekend – enjoyed some time indoors. We did a massive Ice Experiment – where we ‘buried’ a fish into a cup of water and let it set overnight. Nick performed his own experimentation; he got a green marker and put it in a container of water – took the marker out and put it in the freezer.

Emily and Lauren enjoyed the festivities of the ice experimentation.. but weren’t too thrilled with my $5 charcoal grill experimentation… that though; is another story entirely.