for the sake of saying something

It's been a little grey in here for posting. And a little busy out there in the life. But spring is here. That can't be bad.

Dined in Horseshoe Bay last night for my father's 60th birthday. It went surprisingly well. My uncle (his brother-in-law) is very deaf and I am slightly deaf and both of us have trouble at noisy tables, so we shouted cheerfully to each other across the table about wine. It was one of the better conversations I've had with a family member.

Beforehand, I dragged my brother to IKEA to look for some black metal storage bins for my room in honour of my new FAUX LEATHER TAB CURTAIN, purchased recently at Linens 'N' Things, famous to all as the site of the Terrible Parable.

I bought my brother a lavish lunch in the store cafeteria. All went well until the unlimited refills of Pepsi gave out and we sugar-crashed somewhere in the midst of a mockup of someone else's prosperous and tasteful future. Lost, broke and bitchy in IKEA. Not a happy. And they were all out of the fscking bins.

Random philosophical question: Do we think that parental love has the potential to be deeper and more profound than romantic love?

I asked the NMG about this, and whether the key to parental affection was to just keep smelling the baby's head (where apparently they give of pheromones that make you feel less like killing them when they cry.) He said:

"--All love is about the head. If there is any kind of dichotomy between loves, it is only in the frequency distribution of puns."

I may put that on a usericon.

Thank you to chromemagpie for suggesting the studded collar as curtain tieback to mitigate the unexpectedly looming shadow of my new prize. The curtain currently smells like a whole box of sharpies were all opened at once. I'm hoping that novelty fades over time.

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userpic fever

I will probably have to get a paid account just so that I can have more userpics. My current choices are all text-heavy, and I'd like to have some that were just imagery, for balance.

It's probably wrong that I think about these things.

Someone really ought to write a Short Treatise on userpics. People's choices, design elements, creative solutions for size limitations, symbolic systems... I've seen such amazingly clever collages and layerings in that tiny 100 x 100 space. I love the way the stress of limitations makes people's creativity flower. It's a bit like Jane Austen's little bit of ivory, two inches wide.

Very fun evening looking at frock coat patterns with K. and going through her incredible collection of velvets. She is going to take the scattered scraps and scrapes of fabric remnants I have and make me a motley that Harlequin would envy.

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