For anyone paying attention, June is now available to view and click on the ShrinkyDink Project Page.

This is also where I’m announcing that the Project is being paused indefinitely as of today. For those of you who visit regularly, you may have noticed that for the past few weeks my daily updates were inconsistent at best. It turns out that I’m getting old, and it has become too difficult for me to juggle as many things as I’ve had up in the air lately. I need to focus on some other things for awhile. I plan on revisiting the Project at some point, although I can’t nail down a date as of yet.

I apologize for the lateness of this particular post. I’m usually much better at having my daily updates available before noon CST. I’m beginning to suspect the every day nature of this ShrinkyDink Project is taking it’s toll on me. I’ll try to do better.

Sunday I returned from a trip up north I took to help my parents move out of the house they sold. I was gone for less than two weeks, but it didn’t seem I was gone too terribly long because I was so busy helping my parents get settled into their new place. I don’t think Paul fared quite as well. He’s very happy to have me back home. Mostly because with me here he doesn’t have to cook for himself or do nearly as many chores. I think he did remarkably well for himself while I was away. When I came home, the house was clean, some much needed yard work had been done, and he’d even gone out and bought groceries.

Luckily my trip to Michigan didn’t involve only hard work. We managed to find time to do things away from the new duplex. The highlight was the trip we took into Flint. I know Flint isn’t much of a day trip, but a few days earlier I had read an article in the local paper about an M.C. Escher exhibit that was opening the next day at the Flint Institute of Art. The exhibit was nice. There were 80 different works on display including my favorite print. We met up with Leatha and Carl there. I think part of the fun was listening to my dad, aunt, and uncle discuss the different prints that were hanging. The three of them were not as familiar with Escher’s work as my mother and I were. It was particularly interesting listening to them discover just what was impossible about the impossible structures. I also enjoyed revisiting the rest of the museum. I had been the the Flint Institute of Art about 13 years earlier, and it’s changed a lot since then. So much so that I didn’t recognize it until I worked my way back to a few of the older galleries.

I also ate pretty atrociously while I was gone. I’ve gotten so used to preparing most of my own meals that all the dining out was a little rough and probably awful for me. I ate a blizzard on 3 different occasions while I was there. Partially because the DQ here is so awful we never bother going but mostly because my mom is such and enabler. (I think all mom’s are, it must be part of the job description.)

My parents did manage to take me me to a few places I’d never been before. There was a barbecue place called Smokey Bones that was pretty good. Although I wish I had ordered what my mom had gotten instead of what I chose. My food wasn’t bad or anything, hers just looked so much better.

We also went to a Lebanese restaurant. I have never had middle eastern food before. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting. I tried a variety of things and discovered that hummus, tahini and baba ganoush are all pretty nasty. The falafel and the tabooli were a little bit of wonderful. The stuffed grape leaves were okay, although the grape leaves were a bit strong, and the spinach in the spinach pie was overcooked or something. I’m glad for the experience though.

Mostly I’m glad to be home, with all the comforts it provides.

It’s been months since I posted here, and I apologize to any and all who checked in while I was otherwise distracted.

Much to my embarrassment, it has been pointed out to me that my site has been glaringly blank for the majority of the past eight days. I’m sure we can place all blame on the programmer. However, I’m sure that in turn the finger will be pointed at me when I am told that it isn’t a flaw; it’s a feature, and if I just updated more often there would have been no problem whatsoever. The cheek of some people …

There is quite a bit that has happened since I last posted, but I’m not going to take the time to cover it all because I tend to be long-winded enough as it is. (At least in my head I’m long-winded. You’re lucky I hit the edit button in my brain before typing everything out.)

First off, I hate Christmas travel. It’s stressful and no fun especially when you have to catch a connecting flight in Chicago. O’Hare is evil, and probably designed by a madman. Also, my brother the hero has returned stateside hopefully for the remainder of his service to the US Navy. I spent Christmas with him and the rest of my immediate family up in the very cold North. He spent most of his time sleeping/laying on the couch and watching endless amounts of American football.

All in all, Christmas was great. My parent’s house is finally finished, and very cozy. Their cats are great, and I might have temporarily considered sneaking them home with me. My oldest brother liked the Cactuar pin I gave him, and has asked for a Tonberry companion piece. I guess I should get started on that soon.

I’ve spent most of my time playing/reading/enjoying my Christmas bounty. My favorite gifts are the ones that sound most like punishments. Bev gave me a toothbrush … I know, weird gift but it’s fantastic! Paul gave me four pair of socks and I absolutely love them.

Paul keeps telling me I should update, and I agree. I just haven’t done a very good job of it at all this year. I figure writing a little more regularly is the least I can do especially if I go ahead and do a site redesign, add new features like comments, or even make changes to old ones like archives.

My biggest problem is finding something I think anyone will be interested in reading. This place doesn’t get much traffic, which is perfectly fine with me. However, I would like to be able to write something that doesn’t cause my core audience to fall asleep at their keyboards.