Dolphin’s Dock

Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving.  I’ll be heading to my parents as soon as I leave work today.  I’ll have my computer with me, but whether or not I’ll be posting while I’m there remains to be seen.  Hope you and yours have a good one!

Posted on November 21st in Holidays | Permalink | Leave a Comment

Halloween is finally here, but it’s really snuck up on me this year.

I didn’t start working on a Halloween template for my blog until, oh, September 29th. So yeah, I had to put this whole thing together in 2 days. I didn’t get my Halloween party invitations out until the 4th or 5th (for a party on the 20th!). Speaking of the party, I bought my pumpkin for it on the 19th! I haven’t been much more on schedule since the party either.

TheBoyfriend™ and I have a costume party to go to this Friday. Do we have costumes? Nope. We know we’re going as “Peace and Quiet” (he as Peace, a hippy, and myself as Quiet, a mime), we just don’t have anything to put on. To make things worse, he has to meet with a client this evening so we won’t be home til about 8:30 or 9 so I’m going to have to go pick out my costume (all I really need is a striped shirt and face paint, I have everything else for me) tonight and he’ll pick out his tomorrow during the day (we have Jiu-Jitsu class on Thursday night so no time to do it then). I realize it makes me sound like a total control freak, but he doesn’t take Halloween as seriously as I do and I’m worried he won’t put together a costume on his own that is up to my exacting standards (geez that makes me sound even worse than I thought it would).   I also wanted to carve a special jackolantern to take to the party, but really I have no idea when it will happen.  I can’t carve it tonight because it will rot, and I’m just not sure the likelohood of me getting it carved in time if I wait til afterwork on Friday.

To confuse matters further, we’re taking care of a sick cat.  Actually 3.  Sigyn got a cold a few days ago, but has just been sneezing so we’re just monitoring her instead of rushing her to the vet.  She seems to be getting better but the other two have picked it up and it seems to have nailed Hobbes pretty good.  When we woke up this morning he was laying on the foot of the bed with his third eyelids (cat owners know what I’m talking about) extended and his nose so clogged that he was breathing through his mouth.  Needless to say he’s at the vet as we speak and I’m just waiting for them to call and tell me that he’s fine and I can come pick him up.

Ahh well.  This Halloween is just proving to be a bit trickier this year.  I guess it will server to make the treats taste even sweeter.

Posted on October 31st in Holidays | Permalink | 6 Comments

Jackolantern 2007

The design should look familiar to anyone who has visited here (as opposed to reading the feed) this month. Unfortunately, I had trouble getting a decent picture of it lit, it kept blurring. I didn’t have time to pull out the tripod and take a picture that way (to avoid the blurring) because i was already running late on getting everything set up for the Halloween party, and by Sunday morning, the finer pieces (like the tree branches) were already wilting pretty badly.

Update: Well, as I said, I was unfortunately unable to get a decent lit shot this year because I didn’t have time to set up the tripod for one before the party and the heat and humidity caused this guy to wither in record time (plus I don’t know what health it was in in the first place with the drought and all. All of the pumpkins for sale seemed kinda small this year). What I did though for those who really want to see it lit is digitally “light” the above photo in photoshop. It’s below the fold check it out. And remember you can click either picture for a larger view.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted on October 23rd in Graphic Design, Holidays | Permalink | 5 Comments

Halloween has long been my favorite holiday. This is probably pretty obvious to those who’ve been reading here and at the old Where the Dolphin’s Play blog for awhile as it’s the only holiday that I create a brand new custom theme for each year. We also throw an annual “Orange and Black” Halloween party at our house (where attendees wear orange and/or black clothing). Actually I guess it’s more accurate to say that I throw an annual Orange and Black party every year, and TheBoyfriend™ politely sits back and let’s me do my thing (though he makes spiced hot apple cider each year which is always a hit). I also carve at least one jack-o-lantern every year (I used to do two or three but for time’s sake now I usually just do one), but I’m guessing that’s a bigger to do for me than it is for most people. I fire up Adobe Illustrator about mid-September and start to work creating a custom pumpkin pattern for that year, picking at it here and there ’til I finally get something I’m completely satisfied with. Then, having the pattern established, I visit several pumpkin-selling venues to find a pumpkin that is perfectly suited to my specific pattern. Once all of that is done and it comes time to carve the pumpkin (generally the day of the party), I get up early so I can take my time, and 5-7 hours later, I have the perfect Halloween jack-o-lantern just in time to spend another 2-3 hours decorating before guest begin arriving.

Why Halloween is my favorite holiday is a little harder to figure out (even for me). Read the rest of this entry »

Posted on October 15th in Holidays | Permalink | Leave a Comment

Today is the 20th anniversary of National Coming Out Day.

Coming out is not walking up to your friends and family and saying “hey, I’m gay.”  Don’t get me wrong, that CAN be part of it, but coming out is something bigger than that.  Coming out is accepting an aspect of who you are.  It’s taking that acceptance and incorporating that aspect of yourself into the whole so you can live as a complete person.  It’s, eventually, acknowledging that part of yourself to others so that they can choose whether or not you, the real you, is someone they can accept.

While typically we hear the term used with respect to, and indeed the day is largely devoted to, the  GLBT community, I don’t think coming out is limited to any specific group of people.  We all have things in our lives that we ought to accept and embrace as being an integral part of ourselves.  With that in mind, take the time to celebrate National Coming Out Day, regardless of your sexual orientation.

Posted on October 11th in Gay Rights, Holidays | Permalink | 3 Comments

The fact that I can connect to the internet is already making this day (Friday the 13th) luckier than yesterday…

<mitchhedburg>

“I’m staying at a hotel right now, there’s no 13th floor because of superstition. But come on man, the people on the 14th floor, you know what floor you’re really on. If you jump out of the 14th floor hoping to kill yourself, you will die earlier.

13 is an unlucky number. If 13’s unlucky, then so should the letter B be, cuz B looks like a scrunched-together 13. ‘Hello, what is your name?’ ‘BOB.’ ‘Get the fuck away!’

If 13’s unlucky then 12 and 14 are guilty by association. ‘I saw you twelve, you were hangin’ out with thirteen.’ ‘No I wasn’t, I was with 11. You talk to 14 ’bout that shit.’ ‘What’cha got to say 14?’ ‘Me divided by two equals seven?…Alright I was with 13, Shit.’”

</mitchhedburg>

Seriously though, even a bad Friday is still alright. I think we ought to be more worried about Monday the 13ths.

Posted on July 13th in Holidays, Splashes | Permalink | Leave a Comment

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