fold, walk, metal, 9, appreciate, driving

I worked on a couple of projects this weekend, both origami. A few years ago, I made a shadow box with a multi-layer set of Mette rings - in orange and yellow with a blue background - that looked like the sun. I gave this to my grandmother for christmas and she really liked it. About a year ago, my aunt asked if I would make one for her and I said I would - but I was a bit hesitant about it since I don't like to duplicate gifts like that. Plus, not long after she asked, my grandmother moved in with her and my uncle and took the sun shadow box with her. I figured that would be the end of it, but then I saw some sun flower scrapbook paper and figured that the sunflowers, done in the same style of origami, would be an excellent replacement. I cut down the paper so I could fit 4 of them in the shadow box - since she has 4 kids - and finished it up this morning. Photos to follow.

My cousin is getting married next weekend and though I've already purchased the gifts from the registry and wrapped them, I wanted to do a little more. So, I glued some white paper to foil - to match the wrapping paper - and folded a bunch of snowbell flowers. Again, photos to follow.

Yesterday, I lay out in the sun for a bit while I worked on the paper flowers, then took myself for a walk. I walked down to a nearby forested park and hiked the trails for a bit. On path took me near the lake and I sat there for a few minutes and wrote a tweet - in Haiku format, of course.

On my way, I picked up a piece of rusty metal. I'm thinking about doing a painting-type project with rust and ash. I've already been gathering the ash from a few sticks on incense - which I'm burning outside since it's too strong in the apartment. The neighbors haven't complained - I guess it's no worse than the occasional smell of pot that comes from down the street on a quiet summer night.

Finally, I went to see the movie "9" with some friends on Friday night. Good flick, a lot of depth to it. The ending was ever so slightly cheesy, but they meant well and that counts. It actually reminded me a bit of the Matrix movies in a way. I'd like to try and build my own little number "9" but I'm having difficulty finding good pictures.

Oh, almost forgot. I helped with the student appreciation day last week. We gave out a great honking pile of t-shirts in no time at all. It helped that we had a system - one guy would scan their card and then they would step over to me and tell me their size. I would turn and repeat the size to the three guys in the back - if they hadn't heard -and they would hand me a shirt that I would then hand to the student along with a food coupon. My boss was in charge of the large shirts at one point and I had to call for a large twice before he responded. I then joked with him - "Dude, you've got one job!' - and he laughed and said, "I know! Sorry!"

Well, it'll be a short work week - thankfully - but I'll have a lot of driving to do. 3 hours to my sister's, then 7 hours to Illinois on Friday. Wedding on Saturday, then 7 hours back to my sister's and three hours back home on Sunday. And I've got a football game to go to on Tuesday - busy week over all.

Speaking of football - the Zips won in their brand new stadium. Go ZIPS!

later...