I should be working.

[kv0925]

But I don't wanna. My boss is visiting a call center in Jamaica, mon, so I'm being an egregious slacker. As if that's unusual. Anyway.

What to update about.. I took our kitten in to get spayed yesterday. All our other cats were shelter cats and fixed when we adopted them, but this one was a feral kitten who showed up at the back door while I was away on a trip and made herself right at home. And it was just after another of our cats died, so it seemed like uncanny timing. She's been a pretty good cat, but she hit puberty and started going into heat, and that's just not a pretty picture. So the time had come. It seemed to go well, I dropped her off in the morning and picked her up in the afternoon, and the girls have been keeping her in their bedroom with a towel and little toy teacups with food and water. It's cute. :)

Speaking of bedrooms, we really need to figure out how to kick Amy out of ours. As with all our kids, we took the front off the crib and set it up as an extension of our bed, so she could fall asleep with us and then sleep over there for the rest of the night. But that was only supposed to be for her first year or two, and it is getting old, especially when she interferes with, er, marital relations. :) Currently the older girls like to sleep together, and the idea was for Hermione to move into her own bedroom and then Amy would move in with Hallie. But no one wants to put this plan into effect. Hermione doesn't want to sleep alone, Amy doesn't want to leave our bedroom, and Hallie probably prefers Hermione to Amy anyway. So it's a fight on all fronts, and so far we haven't pushed the issue because we like sleep. But something's gotta give! Ideas, anyone? Just force it? Bribery? Tranquilizers? What?

I know I mentioned Hallie's love of Indiana Jones. I've been having fun scouting eBay for bargains on the retired LEGO sets. So far I've picked up 4, which are currently on the way. They're all used and missing pieces, but hopefully whatever's missing are things I already have or can replace, so I'm not too worried about that. And the prices people ask for unsealed in-box retired sets are insane. Out of curiosity I did a search for the Green Grocer, one of the nice big modular buildings. New it was probably $200, maybe $250. The cheapest used/open one I saw was $475, and for new-in-box? Anywhere from $800 to $1,500. One person had that and another nice one, the Cafe Corner--$2,750 for both. But hey, free shipping! What a deal! I need to get into the LEGO reselling racket, methinks.

I'm sure I have things to say on the political front--Syria, the DC Navy Yard, the upcoming game of government-shutdown chicken. But to hell with it, it just ticks me off.

Working to set up that newborn photoshoot for this weekend, and then next weekend I have an engagement shoot (I think--need to drop her a line to make sure!). Had an inquiry for another family shoot too, hoping to make that the following weekend. Then I'm clear until the weddings in November. Need to try to book a couple more now that the weather is getting nicer, though. I should try an ad for vacation photos, but I don't know how many visitors think to look at CL. I get a lot of that sort of business, but I think they just find my blog/website. That usually picks up around Christmastime, anyway.

Okay, gonna try to actually do some work. I hope everyone is having a good week!

Comments

[fiberguyr1.livejournal.com]

I would force it, but I also have no experience on this particular parental front. The wife and I had a rule that there would be no kids sleeping in our room after they were infants. Most of my three were sleeping in their own rooms by the time they were 6 months, and before then they never slept in the bed.

Now my two girls are in the same room in bunk beds, and my little guy is in his own room. I find it kind of funny when one of the girls goes to a sleepover, and the one still at home complains about having to sleep by herself. I always have to remind them that their 5 year old brother is the only one in the house that should be able to complain about sleeping by himself, but he's never known any different. It's the one thing that he doesn't complain about.

[scriptdelalune.livejournal.com]

No idea on the kiddy sleeping situation - I always feel we got lucky when Evan just decided he liked his room better, no parenting techniques to be seen here! It's hard when you want some adult time, though, so I hope something gives soon. I hope your kitty recovers well, too. It sounds like she's in the finest care :)

[girlspell.livejournal.com]

Are you a professional photographer? Fascinating if you are. I have two others on my flist that are professional photographers. Both are Russian.

Don't know what to tell you about extra babies and bedrooms. I only had one, who always had his own room.

o/t Since I hate politics but love to read, there is a book I highly recommend. It's called the Other Typist. I just finished it and I loved it. That actress Kiera Knightly optioned the book and it's going to be film starring her. Don't how in the world they are going to do it, but the book is amazng.

[audamy.livejournal.com]

My mom had a hell of a time getting me to sleep by myself when I was a kid so I have no solid advice for you because I think I basically just woke up one day when I was like 4 and decided I wanted to sleep in my own bed.

Ugh. The government shutdown stuff makes me crazy. The majority of my friends back home have federal jobs because they live in the DC metro area and it's such a nightmare for them.

[midnightmadness.livejournal.com]

Oh, you don't have to tell me about the Lego sets. I Have about 60 or 70 myself. Licensed properties are the worst. You basically HAVE to get them while they're still in stores. Lego rarely re-releases sets, and usually not at all for licensed stuff (even the Star Wars ones they've re-issued were new sets with different builds, not direct reissues of the old sets. I do Space, Star Wars, Exo-Force and Pirates, but I usually only get the sets I like in each property because I like doing things like eating and paying my mortgage. The Pirate ships shoot up the second they go out of print (literally will double their retail price inside of a month). I'm still kicking myself for not getting the two Pirates of the Caribbean sets that went out of print last year because I just couldn't swing the $100 each at the time - now they go for $3-400 :-(