The zoo has expanded. After five years of indecisiveness, Jennie finally bought a horse. He’s a Polish Arab, sweet tempered and not all that bad for a horse. Officially, he is Fire Summer Rain, but I call him either Alpo or Krokette (which my Dutch friend Maike assures me is commonly made with horse meat). [...]
Sunshine kitty didn’t want to be boxed in, so I erased most of her outer lines and tossed her in darkness. Stupid cat. So, which is better, the first version or this version? Or should I burn my Wacom tablet and uninstall Gimp, ’cause there’s no chance in hell of finding an artistic bone in [...]
Busy, busy, busy. Cold, cold, cold. I thought we hit the forties today, but it looks like we topped out in the thirties. No matter, as I haven’t been outside in a while. Work has kept me busy, although I did spend a few minutes last night fantasizing about summer and drawing sunshine kitty.
It’s good to have goals. My daughter plans on being a veterinarian (as long as she never has to put an animal down) and a horse trainer. Oh, and a teacher, a horseback riding instructor and occasionally the President of the United States. My son is more focused: He wants to be a veterinarian and [...]
For other children, Marco-Polo and other games involve quickly determining who is "it" and then playing. For my children, these are games of shouting "1!-2!-3!-4!-Not it!" and then arguing constantly over who was last. This continues for thirty to forty minutes, or until everyone involved in the game has hurt feelings and nobody is speaking. [...]
As promised, more of the randy little bugs. Below, you can see them enjoying the sites at the heart of a flower while preparing for the future. And as you can see, they like big girls. Another flower, another chance at romance. Ain’t it sweet? Little exhibitionists seem to like it in [...]
From a distance, it looks like a leaf-hopper on steroids. Up close, it is actually a predator. At ¼ to ½ inch, it is not that big. Looking closer, it has front legs like a mantis, and a rostrum like a Pirate Bug, but even at 1/4 inch, they are way too big to be [...]
I’ve updated my site. Yay! I forgot to do a screen capture of my old site. Boo! Anyway, here is the new and improved Oliphant Parts blog, running on WordPress rather than Moveable Type. It looks cleaner, although I haven’t decided if I like it yet. And to make things more exciting, I changed hosting [...]
We have fairy rings. Fairy rings in the front yard. Fairy rings in the back yard. Fairy rings in the orchard. Wherever I look, fairy rings. The interesting ones are the ones in the orchard, which came with the house. Instead of rings, they’re more like serpentine paths. I have only myself to blame for [...]
I gave my two week notice this week. With all of these conflicting emotions, I don’t know whether to laugh with joy or scream ecstatically with excitement and, um, joy. I think I’ll go with joy. It’s a big step, but as long as the kids don’t decide to get sick, it will be months [...]
