You might remember the comic strip from Calvin & Hobbes, “The days are just packed” (This later became the name for a book of collected strips from the series). It shows Calvin getting up early, and going through a crazy day full of all the childhood stress–teachers & homework & chores, etc.) Well, that’s how our life has been lately–JUST PACKED!
Wyatt and I are in the process of buying a new house – one that we will actually move into. This means that, in addition to getting everything in order to purchase the home, we have to get our house into shape to rent or sell (it depends on the day as to what we think we’ll do with it). All the projects that have been “on the list” for the past 18 months, are suddenly at the fore-front of our to-do. We’ve been working on finishing the painting (of trim) and getting the bathrooms finished. We decided not to take on any more projects, 
just finish the ones that are already started. We’re also tearing out the backyard, finishing up the sprinkler system (that we put in last summer) and throwing down seed.
Of course, once we finish these projects, then the real work will begin. The house that we’re buying is a fixer-upper, and I don’t mean a little paint & rouge. I mean tear-out walls, redo flooring, put in yard–EVERYTHING! We’re just gluttons for punishment.
Saturday was Carrie’s Birthday — HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARE BEAR! Unfortunately I wasn’t able to talk to her during the day–she was out playing way to hard. I was sad that she wasn’t able to come to Salt Lake, but I think she had a great day.
Also on Saturday I made my first POLAROID LIFT ever!! This is really exciting to me. I remember the first time I heard of a Polaroid lift, I was a senior in High School. I’ve always wanted to try one, but lacked two things:
1) The equipment. Because the film used in a lift is large format, I needed either a large format camera (read several hundred, if not thousands of dollars), or a slide printer (several hundred dollars, plus the added expense & pain of shooting slide film which only gives you a +/- 1/3 stop range for good exposure).
2) I didn’t have someone to teach me how to do it. Although I had read through the process in several books, I felt it must be somewhat difficult and didn’t feel confident in the attempt.
But alas, this summer the stars have aligned. First, Wyatt brought home a 250 Land Camera he found among his Great Aunt Duella’s things. I had never heard of this model of Land Camera (I’ve had a Land Camera SX-70 Sonar for several years, used to make SX-70 Manipulations). I’d never even read about this camera as a possible source for exposure for Polaroid manipulations, something I find odd, because I looked on E-Bay, and there are plenty for sale. Anyhow, I spent the summer figuring out the camera how it worked, and then getting it to work. Finally last week I got my first exposure (fairly underexposed, but exposed none the less).
On Saturday afternoon I set out to make my first lift. I got some old scrap vellum paper to lift to. (Why vellum? Why not? It was what I had on hand, and like I said, I wasn’t confident it would even work, so I wasn’t about to make a big-do on what I lifted to). I put it in the boiling water, and watched, wondering what I was supposed to look for. But it became pretty evident when the film began separating itself! I lifted it to the cool water 
and set about separating film. The exposure, when separated from the paper backing, takes on a consistency of cooled soup skin. Easy enough to handle, but you have to be gentle.
Anyhow, this is what I got. I’m now so excited to begin testing exposures & filters (I think this film needs some level of yellow filtration). I’m also going to experiment on surfaces to hold my lifts. I’m swarmed with all sorts of ideas of where to go to from here!
Last night I finished reading To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. It’s Wyatt’s very favorite book, and definately high on my list. Scout (our dog) is even named after the girl in the book, a compromise to naming our daughter that. I love getting lost in great literature though. I actually takes me back to when I was 12 or 13 and read much much more than I do now. I think it was easier to find great books back then. Everything was new, and I didn’t venture into the pop culture novels of either adult or child fiction. I think maybe that’s why I like to read the classics so much today. Even though I’ve read it before, there’s a reason why it’s a classic. And as Andersen Cooper said, “A great book is one that changes every time you read it.”