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I peek over and see that Gaia is watching me type this, and I notice that she's smiling at me and she's cuddling one of her mother's cha-cha shoes.
Since she's not sleeping, "What are you doing with those," I ask her.
"They're Mama's shoes," she says. "They're cuddly, I like to cuddle them."
"Ok. Go to sleep."
"Do you want to cuddle Mama's shoes in the big bed?"
"No thanks."
"They're nice," she giggles.

She's wearing an Orange Shirt, Pink Shoes, Blue Pants and a Purple Headband. She asks me if I would help her put on her Lailac sweatshirt.
"Are you sure you don't want your green one?"
"Why?"
"Well, if you wore you're green one, you'd pretty much have all the colors on."
"I guess I need a Green Shirt then," she says.
"Why?"
"Because then I'll have all the colors, and I'll be as pretty as I can be."
"Aww. THat's cute, But I think you're already as pretty as you can be."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"But with the green shirt, I'd be even more pretty!"

Congratulations to the Gang at Bucketworks for cobbling together a fantastic space for the Bucket's first event since it was closed by Mother Nature and the subsequent cleanup.

Born 2 Skill was a good artshow focused on the empowerment of women and urban expression, and the event did well in the converted playspace. There was street and sketch sytle arts, fine arts, a DJ, and even some jewelry and sculpture. Gaia really liked the giraffe sculpture.

I stopped by tonight to check it out and was happy to see art and community melding again at Bucketworks. Back on our feet, taking baby steps. I didn't walk through the flow space or the greenhouse, but what I could see through the windows of Quazi Cafe, it'll be a little while before the bucket is back at 100%. Great work, Patrick, Jen, and everybody who, I know, did whatever they could to get the space ready for Born 2 Skill tonight.

I brought Gaia with me; it was her first Art Show and she was very excited to be there. You could tell because she had her intense face on, studying what was going on. She liked the DJ, by the way. Jeni asked how she could know what a DJ even was, and I was all like, but she loves DJ Lance. Yo-Gabba! Gabba!

So on the way home, as we pull out of the Bucket's driveway and up Sixth Street, Gaia says, "Wow. That was cool. This was fun. Thanks, Dad."

She's such a cool kid. Totally spoiled, I am.

Gaia is from another planet.

So, we're taking the Pig around the block, and Gaia looks up at the canopy and sees the tree cover we're walking under and she says, "Ooh! Dad! Look at this dark and magical forest!"
And I say, "No, it's the neighborhood. It's safe."
And she says, "I know, Dad. I'm pretending."
And I say, "Ok. It is a magical forest then."
"Don't worry," she says. "Pig is here. He's a fighter."
And I think that's great. "Pig's our warrior, ehy?"
And she says yes.
"What do you want to do here in the forest?" I ask her.
"I'm here to explore!" she says.
"Ok. Can I be the healer? Every party needs a healer." I say.
"Yes. We need a healer," she says.

And my heart went pitter, pitter pat.

Massive Mayfly hatch up north this weekend. If you listen carefully, you can actually hear their wings humming in the air.

Created this in about 30 minutes in iMovie HD. Viva la Flip. Music Source

Gaia likes my work computer because it doesn't have any "poop" in it. This is because I explained to her that my desktop at home -- my Ubuntu machine -- took a poop last week and won't work anymore. She's very disappointed at the lack of Tux Paint in her life.
So, we sat down at the "Pooputer" as we're calling it now, and managed to chisel 25 minutes of tux-paint out of it before the poop kicked in and pooped the pooputer to poopington. She was pleased and the results were, as always, tuxpaintriffic.
I like my work computer because it was paid for by someone other than me. I think, in the future, I'm going to try to negotiate a private laptop into all my employment arrangements.
Sure, the world is moving away from platform/hardware based document processing/storage, but that is exactly the justification for including a laptop in my work requirements. I don't need to be tied to just the office intranet anymore. I work everywhere. Even when I'm not at work.
The fact is, when I'm away from the office, I shouldn't use the computer that has poop in it. Everybody, but especially my office IS people, should appreciate that.

Gaia Sleeping

Gaia Demands to be let in.