Working working working
The coworking spot we’re using this morning. Adorable, eh?
Author: Pam Kocke
NOLA mom of identical triplets. Talent Acquisition at Automattic. Enjoy reading and photography and sewing and bookbinding.
Busiest weekend ever!
Here’s how it looked:
Saturday morning:
Up bright and early(ish) to go with Stephanie to City Park. We have a mutual friend who works there, and she needed people to be in the background at the amusement park for promotional materials for a Christmas event. Let me tell you, it’s not easy to find Christmas accessories at this time of year. Normally I’d be grateful for that. But not when I really needed it.
ANYWAY, Big Lots came through for us and I picked up a few sparkly headbands and light up necklaces.
Tuesday stuff (on a Friday)
It’s been a fairly eventful couple of weeks lately. Let’s see….
Went to the Pink Prom (I mentioned it at the end of a post a while back) and wore a dress I got for fifteen dollars at the thrift store, and I gotta say, I felt quite a bit more glamorous than I usually do.
Had a great time going with friends, but my neck was literally bruised from that halter the next day. Ouch.
The end of last week was taken up a lot by the thoughts of Hurricane Nate. We went back and forth about evacuating, as it was headed straight for us, but it wasn’t supposed to be strong. And we had plans Saturday that I didn’t want to cancel, which didn’t help with the decision-making process.
So after planning to evacuate and stocking up on water and various Chef Boyardee products for George (who would stay behind no matter what) we eventually just decided to stay. And…it was nothing. Barely any rain, and just some nice breezes.
Saturday morning, the boys had an audition. I don’t even know for what. Kind of strange, but they had a great time. I made their hair dark again so they’d look more alike, but I don’t think it worked. Maybe if they combed their hair the same and smiled the same?
Afterwards, I headed to my friend Jordan’s baby shower. You know I love any kind of shower. The food is the best. And this shower did not disappoint. Angela made the cakes for my own baby shower ten years ago (almost exactly!) and made most of the food for this shower too. Yum!
So I started two write this post a few days ago, as you can tell by the title. Now I can add even more fun stuff!
We went to visit Grandee and Larry for a night, it was pretty low-key. I was going to take the boys to a pumpkin patch, but the temp has literally been close to 100 (well with the heat index) so I gave up on that plan. Ugh.
One thing we’ve been working on is bike riding. I know, they’re almost 10, but there just aren’t great places to ride bikes in our neighborhood (sidewalks are terrible, and the levee is just too terrifying to contemplate.) We brought the bikes to Baton Rouge and check out Miles!
Wednesday night, Linus had his first solo sleepover at Ethan’s house, which he loved. And then yesterday, I took the boys to Laser Tag for the afternoon. And it was free! You may see their pictures on the Laser Tag website at some point. I was able to sit in the cafe and work while they played arcade games and ran around the laser tag arena. Would have been perfect if I had my noise-canceling headphones.
(They never showed up. I HATE YOU WHISTLER HILTON.)
I also spent a ridiculously embarrassing amount of time taking pictures of myself so I could have a new profile pic for work. But look at my hair! Heart eyes!
In other exciting news, I’m going to England for work in a couple of weeks! We’ll be super busy so not a lot of time for sightseeing or anything, but as long as I can stock up on Winter Pimms and eat some toad in the hole, I’ll be happy. And walk in Kensington Gardens, since we didn’t get to last time. Sadly, I’m probably more excited about the cool weather than anything else. (That’s a lie. I’m more excited about toad in the hole.)
This weekend should be fun too. Grown up time at City Park, the boys have A DANCE AT SCHOOL (really it’s just a Halloween party but they’re calling it a dance so I am too!) and Sunday is the NOMB Halloween event. Good times!
118 months (my heart)
Only took 118 months to get an amazing picture of my boys with real, actual smiles. ❤
Sad dog
Ziggy misses his boys when they’re at school.
Recent goings on
So what’s been up in our house lately?
Well, let’s see…
Much of the first part of the week was dealing with a sick Miles. He had a minor cold that made his asthma flare up. No fun! I got a call from the school nurse saying his oxygen was in the 70s (whaaaa?) but only briefly, and it went up to the 90s after resting. When I called the doctor’s office to make an appointment, they were like “70s equals ER” so I picked him up from school and headed there.
When he was triaged there, his oxygen was up in the high 90s and I almost thought they were going to send us home, but after a couple of hours (ugh) he was getting worse so we got into an exam room, where he got a breathing treatment and steroids and all that fun stuff.
So anyway, it was fine. We went to the pediatrician a couple of days later, now he’s on a daily preventative so hopefully no more ER visits in our future.
(And then today Linus is home sick.)
Cute thing: peeking in at guitar lessons (Miles not shown as he was home sick.)
Let’s see, what else…
Oh, we went to skating night last week before the sickness started. Everyone is SO MUCH BETTER than they were last year. A lot more confidence. Now they’re talking about a skating birthday party. Just like in my youth! Except they also want another slumber party. Ugh, no. I’m really trying to steer them away from that…
Look at Ollie go! (White shirt, dark shorts on the right.)
What else?
Some exciting stuff on the horizon. Tomorrow night I’ll be donning a fuschia and silver beaded floor length gown I got at the thrift store for $15 and riding in an RV to a breast cancer fundraiser. Should be fun! Pics later, maybe, if I don’t look too much like a sparkly sausage in the dress.
I just realized this post is probably too boring to publish, but oh well.
Progress on guitar
The boys are learning a twenty one pilots song at guitar lessons. So proud of how far they’ve come, especially considering how little they practice. 😐
More film
Some of the better non-Whistler photos from the rolls I got developed the other day…
Oh, and this one of a plant.
Whistler on film
I brought my film camera (the old, beaten up Pentax K1000 that I’ve had since I was about ten) to Whistler, thinking the scenery there would make for much better photos than my backyard. I was sorta right…
I don’t know if the film was not great, or if I wasn’t getting exposure right or what, but these pictures feel a bit muddier and grainier than my last batch. I think the film was ISO400 this time as opposed to ISO200, which would certainly explain the grain. And I bought a new battery in Whistler but somehow the meter kept konking out. So maybe I just need more practice? Better film? A fresher battery? A less beat up camera? (Though this isn’t a hobby I want to invest a ton of money in.)
(None of these photos have been edited digitally in any way. The negatives were scanned for me at the photo lab.)
It’s also interesting to compare these with the photos I took with my phone. Maybe I’m just used to digital photography. I want to argue that the film pictures feel warmer or something, maybe I’m just hopelessly nostalgic or fooling myself.
Film left, iPhone right.
I look at the left photo and it just feels nice, but then I look at the right one and I think “oh yes, that’s much better.”
Who knows? Maybe I just need to try with better film, for a start.
Automattic Grand Meetup 2017
Back to Whistler!
And even more gorgeous than last year. The weather was stunning until the last day, and even in the rainy mist it was beautiful. On to the pics!
Day 1: Arrival and the opening party
Checked into hotel, found the view of the pool wasn’t quite as nice as last year, but I’m not complaining.
Look, it’s Bob! Not my big brother! Bob looks like my brother, only with dimples and technically younger than me by a couple of months. (But seriously tho.) Read More
Fourth grade!
Got the school pics back. Now you know why I only buy the cheapest package. Maybe one day they’ll smile for real. Still cute, I suppose.
Stars
Look closely, there are lots of stars.
I’m in Whistler again for our big company meetup, and there were rumors of aurora borealis. A giant group of us trekked to a lake tonight to see if we could catch the Northern Lights, but alas, they never showed up. But boy, did we see a lot of stars. (Click to see larger.)
And here’s a version the the exposure turned up – there’s the Milky Way!
pyjammy dot blog 
