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Grape Tendrils December 17, 2009 Last night I was sitting on the futon downloading photos from a little outing Chris and I took Sunday afternoon and my dad was sitting next to me reading a book. My dad is in town for a long weekend visit as he's done for the past several years around this time of year. My normal photographic download protocol is to download the photos, make them all large in the file so I can see them and determine which ones to ditch and which have potential, then I have to make a new folder so I can convert the raw photos into a .dng file. This is because we have an older version of Photoshop and the newer versions of our cameras have newer RAW file technology and the older versions of PS cannot understand that new RAW language. So, instead of coughing up the money for new PS at the moment we use an Adobe converter to make them .dng to open them up and edit as a RAW. It really is a pain. After I did that I was opening them up in PS to take a look at them. Sometimes it is hard to see if they are in focus, or they will appear to be perfect in the file window but once you open you notice the things that are wrong with them. I opened up a file and my dad leaned over and said that it was good. I crinkled my nose and said that I wasn't sure I liked it and he replied with "Snob". Which is true. I was being too harsh on myself. It is a good photo, but as I was opening it I was debating whether I needed to do anything to it in PS or leave it as is. I mean, I shot it that way because of the light to begin with. This is my problem and this is why I rebelled against PS for a long time; once you open it and start doing things, the creative-artsy possiblities are endless. Many options looks good. If you add contrast all the way, looks good; but add a smidge and it looks good too. Or maybe highlight this or highlight that. It can really drive you nuts. When I edit a photo I only try to correct for maybe a white balance issue or a little under or over exposure issue and put a little contrast in it. If it needs it. I am not one to try to make something totally different than what it was unless I am in a really artsy mood and then I feel like I don't care. And this was my problem with the photo. I liked it but felt like I had to edit in PS or else it wouldn't be good. This whole feeling is kinda why I started using PS, because everyone uses it. Meghan and I have discussed this and so have Kathy and I. It is a conundrum somtimes. Chris and I don't even discuss it because we have opposing views; he does things that I wouldn't even do.  This was the problem photo. I wanted to add contrast but then it took away the light that I had. I felt like if I didn't do anything I was cheating the photo in some way. I know, I'm weird. Weird, weird weird.  This one I did add contrast to it so I could get the front grape tendril to pop a bit. I didn't feel like doing any of that took away from the photo at all. I know I'm probably talking to myself about this, but it was something that was bugging me. The Friends December 14, 2009  I was rifling through my backup hard drive tonight, processing photos to make smaller for the portrait section on the website. I don't have a lot of portraits. I am sure I could delve into my files and pick some out, but none that come up off the top of my head other than what I have up at the moment. But, whilst digging around I found my friend Stephanie's wedding photos that I took. They aren't professional by any means, just with my point and shoot and capturing the little side stuff that the 'real' photographer didn't get. She's been asking for a copy of the photos anyway, but I saw this little gem. Blurred as it may be, it reminded me of what a great time we had that weekend and how much I miss my gals. The pathetic thing is that none of us never pick up the phone and call. I'm as guilty as anyone. And especially since I got off of Facebook and MySpace it is even harder to keep in touch with anyone. Emails I think even get relegated to later. I've been having some good conversations with Meghan over the phone the past couple of days talking about photography. I passed off some information about a photography scholarship that I found online and got her to sign up. I would do it but have commitments at this time so I am enjoying the excitement through her. But, all of this makes me miss my friends. Drat this getting older crap and losing touch with people. Though, today I was told that someone though I was between 24 and 26. Hooray!!! Sure, you can believe that...I'm not six months shy of three zero. Best Of '09 Continued December 13, 2009 Playing catch up with the Best Of Challenge. Article: I just read a two part series about Stephanie Nielson's recovery from her plane crash last year. Start here for the entire article. Ever since I found her blog a few days after the crash, thanks to the blogging world, I've been following her blog and her story. I've missed her stints on Oprah and the Today show due to work, but this article was really great at showing the truth behind the blog. I've often wondered at the hard times behind the cheer. Every blog is like that. No one and no life is perfect. I think the heartbreaking part was reading how her children didn't recognize her or didn't want to accept the changes that were at hand at first. I would say this is one of the best articles of the year due to the uplifting and truthful aspect to it. Book: Well, for fiction I would definitely put An Echo in the Bone up there as most highly anticipated and excellent book of the year. I also read Eat, Pray, Love, which I thoroughly enjoyed and am excited to see be made into a movie. Night Out: My nights out with Meghan were of a high caliber and certainly entertaining. Having dinner in Half Moon Bay with my friend Rosemarie was pretty awesome...and I had a great night in while in Texas last August when my mom, sister in law and I had a wine and cheese night at home. That was pretty fun! I want to do that again! Wine, cheese, what could go wrong??? Workshop or conference: Um, I went to a grass identification workshop that was pretty great except that I haven't had the time to practice or study my grasses so I fear I am far behind on this. I went to some other conferences that pertain to my career that might be rather boring to those not in my field. Blog Find: Oh She Glows, Remarks from Sparks, are two blogs that I'm glad I stumbled upon this year. Moment of Peace: My moments of peace are often intermixed into little minutes here and there when I feel like I have clarity in my life. Then the next second its gone because I've been overcome with anxiety or whatever else I get antsy about. No real big moments of peace here... Challenge: good question...I didn't challenge myself enough. Album of the Year: Acid Tongue by Jenny Lewis, though it was released in 2008. And now I can't find my cd. The Best Place: I love going into Starbucks. I know people get all anti-Starbucks sometimes, but I don't have the benefit of having a plethora of indie coffee shops around. So, I love Starbucks. I love that my barristas know me and I love the beautiful red cups at the holiday season. I love Starbucks. I just don't spend enough time hanging out there; I'm always in and out. New Food: I tried Lebanese food last week and realized that it is great! Very Mediterranean in flavor and quite healthy as well. Now I am a bit caught up on my year of reflecting. I'm also slowly catching up on Christmas gifts. We're pretty much done, except for Zoe. And I keep having a hard time remembering I need to buy for Abigail as well. I told Chris that I was glad we did not come from big families because it would be too much for me; thinking about those people with a huge group of cousins is overwhelming! Call of the Scrub Jay December 12, 2009 Alrighty, back to Florida scenes. Here are a few more from last weekend and our trip to Jonathan Dickinson State Park.  Eliana says that you should spay and neuter your pets! Don't let them run wild to breed! She's wearing her Trap, Neuter, Release shirt.  The love vine, aka: dodder, aka: annoying parasitic vine, growing on the scrub plants offers a food contrasting background for photos!  The two lovebirds stop for a little kissing, mid-trail. Ooh la la!  Eliana stopped me to get this shot of her through another geocacher's son's sunglasses. *Peace*!  Sunday morning we decided that we were too lazy to cook breakfast so we hit a little cafe on U.S. 1 not too far from the park. Last year some time we went to a park just south of the Palm Beach/Martin county border where we found some very friendly, but tame, scrub jays. Marc and Eliana had seen scrub jays before but not ones that will come to you and beg for good. That's how tame these birds were. (PSA: Do not feed wild birds! Do not feed wild animals!!! You are just taking away their natural ability to forage for themselves.) So, I found one good thing out of the Apple Cult; a wonderful app for bird calls. Once we got to the area we saw the birds in last year Marc started using the scrub jay call on his iphone. We were about to give up when all of a sudden out of the bushes come about five or six birds. It was almost like a 'whoosh' of activity. Pretty amazing! Like I said, last year when we saw these birds we stopped and thought we'd just get a few pictures and move on, but the birds decided we were going to stay longer by coming up to us without any hesitation. So, this time I stuck my arm out to see what would happen.  A bird landed on me immediately! This was my view of the bird...  This is Chris' view of the bird. Crazy!  Marc and I were both wearing blue jackets and I posited that perhaps they were attracted to that color because Eliana had a hard time getting them to come to her.  He had a good time talking to two birds!  Finally Eliana had some luck! They were still a little skittish towards her though! Sorry Eliana, next time we'll try again! It's always fun to have some close encounters with wildlife, but at the same time it is sad to realize how attracted they are to humans. We didn't have to do anything for them to come fly to us. They knew that humans equated food. There is a beach on the bay side of this area and people can pull their boats up and hang out for the day, so I'm sure many of them easily feed the birds. Just think about seagulls (excuse me, gulls...Marc corrected us, they aren't seagulls, the correct term is gull. Just as starfish are not fish, they are seastars.), they are so used to begging for food from humans at the beach. I've finally managed to work on the photography side of the blog. I think I've got a format down so it should get easier. The biggest pain is going back and finding my best photos and then having to resize them for the web. I'm working on the portrait section right now as it is the smallest portfolio-wise that I have. So far I only have baby Zoe photos up; I can't believe how big she is now! Let me know what you think, if the size of the photos is good. I'm going to aim for about 10 photos per page so I don't clog up the loading time. I'm still wondering what to do with the different photos sizes, though. I'm take a lot of vertical photos and the mix with the few landscapes are looking odd to me. Go to the Photography section. Thanks! Goofing Off in Annapolis December 11, 2009 I was called on Tuesday by my boss to come home early, yesterday instead of today. So, instead of meeting Meghan on Thursday night I took the Metro orange line to New Carrollton Wednesday night and she picked me up on her way home from work. After a quick stop to her house for her camera gear we hit a Lebanese restaurant for dinner. I must say, I was pleasantly pleased. Very Mediterranean in style and the baba ghanoush was to die for! Bread and dip, what can do wrong??? We sat for awhile talking about things, photography, art, life, drinking wine and doing a few pages in our Wreck this Journal books (we traded about eight months ago and just now switched them back), and mostly pondering what to do in life. Then we meandered to a Barnes & Noble down the way and sat in the floor of the photography section, picking through the books and laughing at some of the horribly outdated wedding photography books. Seriously, some of them need not be published. After an hour or so we started to hit that lull. The one where you are getting sleepy but somewhere deep down you know there is a second wind. It was on our way back to her house that we decided the cameras need to come out and we set out to a park across the street to take some light painting shots. And well, there were mixed results. Her stuff came out better than mine. We realized about 3/4 of the way through that using the flash to focus was the way to go instead of guessing (it was pitch black for the most part) or trying to manually focus on the face with the LED. Meghan pointed out as we had our "DUH" moment that if we were professionals we would have known that at the beginning instead of not even thinking about it until then. But, the important thing was we had fun and acted like we were 13. Honestly, I miss this sort of thing; having my own little group of friends to laugh and joke with and escape into another world for a few hours. So, here is the evidence of our light painting endeavours:  Meghan wanted to paint me as a butterfly so I tried the same thing on her but I ended up with more of a lady bug.  At least 20-30 second exposures for these...a few seconds in each spot. Lots of laughing in this mixed with the squishy sounds of wet baseball field.  BOO!   Little Bunny  I really like this one, though the LED was having issues at this point and the light wasn't as bright.   These two Meghan took. She has several others on her Flickr site. She did a much better job than I did, I think. Lots of things on my agenda this weekend. I have Christmas cards to get out, things to make for Christmas still and cleaning up to do. I'm now inspired to shoot more photos this weekend. Photography is on my mind a lot right now, but I'm not sure what to do about it. I was reading through a business book on photography at B&N and it was slightly disheartening thinking of all of the work to go into it. The whole turning a hobby into a business aspect. Oh, and paying your own taxes. That is scary to me. Anyway, for now, I'll just take the photos and figure out the rest later. Nightscapes in D.C. December 9, 2009 More photos from Monday night:  We were walking around the White House, to the west, and we noticed steam coming up for a manhole so we stopped to try to capture it. This was originally in color but I feel like the black and white makes it a better mood. Plus, I like the way the lights look in b&w.  Messing around with a long exposure and Meghan walking in the midst of it. Very spooky...!  More blurred lights and long exposures.  The Christmas tree south of the White House. There are small, decorated trees around it from all of the 50 states. Now for some Georgetown photos from last night:  If I was in a buying mode for paper, this would be the place to go. As it was, I limited my spending to a few small items. This place had some beautiful, beautiful paper. It renewed my interest in scrapbooking. Unfortunately that is not on my radar at the moment creatively.   Again, if I had money to drop, this would be another store to drop it.  Tilt your head slightly to the right to get the position that I took the photo. This might prompt a re-read of the series.   I had a good dinner here, bread with goat cheese and proscuitto, salad, olives, and sangria.  Want an original lithograph print from Pablo Picasso??   I was so tempted to take a ton of photos inside Trader Joe's. I mean, there were endless opportunities. But, I didn't. I got scared and didn't. I'm such a wimp. I know I could just take photos until someone says not to, but still; I'm a scaredy cat.  I think there should be one that says "Trader Joe's, Ft. Lauderdale", with a very pretty palm tree in the middle. Or maybe "Trader Joe's, Sawgrass", with a Everglades scene. I'd be happy! Scenes from Chinatown-D.C. December 8, 2009  Hello there. I'm in D.C. at the moment. I had time yesterday afternoon to roam around D.C. with my friend Meghan. We had a late lunch in Chinatown at this awesome hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant. It wasn't your average Chinese place either; it had the best noodle soup and we split a fried pork *thing*, that I want to say wonton but it wasn't a wonton. It was sooooo delicious. This was one of those places you might not go in if you didn't have a recommendation to go inside; there are ducks hanging from the windows and cooks making noodles in front of the windows, too. I wish I'd taken a photo of the place. We intended to hit the National Portrait Gallery, but got sidetracked by a sidewalk art sale out front.       We did finally make it into the National Portrait Gallery and had a good look at the presidential portraits. We stopped in a few others while we we were at it; we saw this stunning landscape painting by an artist that I cannot remember his name for the life of me, but after reading the placard about the painting I learned the artist did it entirely from imagination. It was a supposed landscape scene of the American West. I started noticing the mountains, though, and they looked more Alps-ish than any ranges we have. But, it was surreal and remarkable. The presidential portraits were cool, too. They had a few unfinished ones on display and we were marveling at how the artist didn't even draw anything on before they painted. I know this is fairly common with accomplished painters, but for me, it seems so foreign. It was nice to see the bare bones of a work. Most of the portraits were done well and we commented about the presidents we forgot about. The ones that didn't make so much history, ya know? I felt a bit bad for Harrison since he died after a month and all, and then the most rockin' portrait was Kennedy's in a very 60's mod fashion of blue and green abstract---completely different than the rest. The only not so good painting was the one of Clinton; something was amiss. It was the nose or the eyes, but you could tell it was him, but it wasn't him. Something was messed up on it. I think I would have demanded a refund! No Obama painting in there yet. *drat*. ;) Tonight I went up to Georgetown to hit Trader Joe's and Paper Source, and the entire time I kept wondering why I had never been there before. I've been missing out, people! I'm also wondering when South Florida will get a Trader Joe's because it would make my life 110% better. I mean, TJ's is the coolest grocery store ever. Those photos are tomorrow... PS: Don't ask the police standing in the north side of the White House why the flags are at half mast on December 7th. You'll get a dumb look and asked "What's today?". Of course, "a date which will live in infamy". I realized that just about as soon as he asked me the question. Yeah. Miss Millie and Goofy Baloo December 6, 2009 This weekend was Cacheapalooza and we drove up to Jonathan Dickinson State Park to camp out with Eliana and Marc and a slew of other geocachers. We aren't really geocachers these days, but we still like to go and hang out with everyone. The weekend wasn't remarkable weather wise, a downpour caught most everyone for two hours on Saturday afternoon---everyone but me. I was snug in my tent like a smart girl. Chris and I turned back before lunch so that he could help set up a night cache and do a few other things. Before the rain we hit the eastern dunes of the park, hiking along the scrub ridge. Baloo and Millie had a wonderful time as you can see:  Millie annoys Baloo often, bumping into him and then biting him in various places. Baloo is a good sport about it, though he does get very annoyed.  She runs like a greyhound, speedy through the trail, throwing sand behind her.  Millie is very photogenic, especially with her Christmas collar.  Begging for $18 pine nuts. Yeah, did you realize pine nuts were that expensive??? They actually tasted good, the handful I had must've added up to $0.75 at least.  A sandy nose doesn't keep her from smiling!  The sand was nice and cool, a perfect spot to plop down.  She should go to doggy modeling academy. Millie is such a sweet if hyper gal!  I am so excited about this shot. Eliana was giving Baloo water out of her Camelbak and I was just rapidly firing away. I went to review the shots and this one came out. He's such a good little boy. I miss him so much now that he's back home with her. He was incredibly cold from being in the rain yesterday afternoon so we turned our car on and let him lay in the front seat all curled up. I have more good shots to come, mostly involving scrub jays. Très cool. Kitty Cat Woes December 3, 2009 Earlier this week we noticed Samson developing a limp. He was hobbling along as if he'd done our hike with us. It was even weird that he plopped down in the middle of the kitchen near the trash can and didn't move. Odd. The week wore on and he wasn't getting out of the bed to greet us and only ocassionally got down to use the litter box and eat. We started picking him up and making him come to us and taking him to his water. He was getting grouchy at Leo when Leo came to give him a head-butt/hey brother rub. He's also been battling fleas and we weren't sure if the two were related, so tonight we took him to the vet. After some thought we decided to go ahead and get an x-ray because the vet couldn't really diagnose anything and the only remedy would be to try some fish oil and glucosamine. It turns out he has spondylosis. He's had some sensitivity in his tailbone area since early summer and possibly that is what he has been. Now it looks like this could be pinching some nerves and aggravating his walking. All we can do is just watch him, try the fish oil and other supplements and try and get him to lose a pound or two. He is a chunky fella. Poor little boy. He was so good at the vet, though he did poo on the table after he got his x-ray; that takes care of my having to collect it for them.  He really is a good bunny. 2009 Best-Of December 2, 2009 I was reading along in my Google Reader today at lunch and saw a post by Andrea at Superhero Designs linking to Gwen Bell's post about a sort of best-of writing prompt for December. I immediately thought this would be perfect for keeping up in my writing here, instead of letting it languish with me writing non-sense posts that aren't of interest to anyone but about five people I know. I'm on an effort to better my content here. Part of this was a result of working on my archives last night, breaking them down into yearly quarters instead of half years. Some of the quality of writing and the photos, well, a lot is lacking from them. Don't get me wrong, they certainly serve a purpose, but it definitely shows an evolution of myself. Yesterday's prompt was best trip and I'm sitting here sifting my brains for the best trip of the year. I traveled quite a bit this year, D.C., Sacramento, Montana, Minnesota, Texas twice, and soon to D.C. again. Each trip was awesome in itself. I think this one is fairly simple, though. Montana, hands down, best trip. For one, by some miraculous alignment of the fates, my dad ended up being an hour away from me on one of the days I was there. I drove up to Kalispell to meet him and we went to Glacier National Park together for a few hours. We saw a gigantic moose feeding in a pond and walked through what trails were open that early in the season. After he left I explored a few small towns around Flathead Lake, wandered through a national forest spooking myself about bears, and just saw some beautiful country. If this was 2008 I would have said Montana again, as I went there in June of '08, but to the southern portion of the state and drove through the Beartooth Range, which so far is the most beautiful scenic route I've taken in my life. I blew the drive through Rocky Mountain National Park out of the water. So, that was my best trip of this year. Photos here. Today's prompt is the best restaurant moment. This one is going to be tough. This could go several ways; the culinary route or the excitement and o.m.g. story route. A slightly disgusting and more daring culinary moment would be diving into blue crabs the very messy way with my friend Meghan and her husband Jesse in Maryland. I'm a crab leg kinda gal, not a suck the juices out of the body of a crab gal. I once had a meltdown when I saw what a softshell crab was after I'd ordered it at a restaurant. Then there was eating sushi in Half Moon Bay, California with one of my bff's Rosemarie after having gone nearly seven years without seeing each other. It was just so great to sit there and chat with her, relaxed as the late afternoon sun was coming in through the windows and enjoying the California atmosphere. One of the best tasting food experiences was at an Italian restaurant in St. Paul, MN in August. I had am amazing bowl of risotto that made me wish I'd of ordered another bowl had it not been $15+ a bowl. Oh, how good that was! As I said earlier, I'm working on my archives. I've still got 2008 and 2009 to fix. This is one of the hazards of writing your own html and not using any blogging platform. Yeah, I'm kinda slow. I could install Wordpress, but that would make it too easy. Apparently I like doing things the hard way. Also, I'm working on getting a gallery of photos together. This could be a slow process. I was working on pulling together my better photos the other day and wow, what a time that was. Megan at Remarks from Sparks, a witty and hilarious blog that I love to read, has been writing a series of posts about Twilight. The fourth one is here. After watching New Moon I've come to realize that I'm not fond of Bella at all. Or at least the Bella of the movie. I felt zero chemistry between Bella and Edward in the movie and after I started thinking on it I realized that I don't understand how these books were written like they were. The kinda suck, actually. Don't get me wrong, I love the gooey hotness of the whole idea behind it, but the actual content and plot? It's not very well written and not well thought out. And Kristen Stewart's Bella drives me insane with her constant start-stop mode of talking. Ugh. Anyway, I suggest dropping by Megan's blog. It's always a riot to read! Monday Musings November 30, 2009
Ocean to Lake: 67.5 miles of fun! November 28, 2009  While everyone else was tucked away in their warm beds this weekend after eating a savory dinner of turkey, ham or tofu (Eliana), we were tucked way in a tiny Big Agnes Copper Spur tent. Oh, and we enjoyed a Thanksgiving dinner of pre-packaged chicken and macaroni and cheese in the middle of a buggy trail. So, where'd we go??? We started out at Lake Okeechobee early Wednesday morning. Our geocaching friend Tom (aka: GatorMan) picked us up at Hobe Sound where we left our car and drove us across the state to Port Mayaca where we could start the drizzly morning on the Ocean to Lake Trail, a segment trail off of the main Florida Trail. We picked this trail because of its distance, manageable but long enough to enjoy on a long weekend, and because not very many people have done it. In fact, we found barely anything on the trail except for two guys who did it a few years ago and the regular group who do it every February on an assisted hike, aka: camp sites and food are set up already. One of our goals was to document it fairly well, putting together a video and making notes of changes and things we saw. The video will be put together in the next few days. The trail starts, at least for now, along a roadway at Port Mayaca, where you have to walk for about three miles or so until you reach the cemetery (also where they buried in a mass grave the victims of the 1928 hurricane that caused the flooding of the Lake). Then you start hiking in DuPuis Wildlife Management Area, followed by Hungryland Slough Natural Area, cross over the Beeline Hwy in Palm Beach county and road walk for about a mile until you get to Loxahatchee Slough Natural Area, cross the new C-18 bridge (which you would have hadto either swim across or find another way to get to the other side until a few months ago!), enter the Sandhill Crane Natural Area, walk along the C-18 canal north into Riverbend Park, cross Indiantown Road and then enter Jonathan Dickinson State Park, finally exit and cross US 1 and walk along A1A for about 1.5 miles, turn on Bridge Road (CR 708) until you get to the end and see the Atlantic Ocean! Now, that was one run-on sentence! We didn't get a starting shot at the Lake, only a video, so I will show you a few things of what we saw.  A cool horseshoe on the very west side of DuPuis. It was drizzly most of the day and ended up pouring at the very end. We set up our tent in the rain, made dinner and quickly got inside!  Things I decided on this trip: my hiking skirt was great until it got wet. Then it was a no-go. I loved these long capri-like shorts. No chafing!   We saw a fair amount of animals on the trail. Lots of deer and lots of hogs. The first two areas we were in were available for hunting and the first day we ran across one hunter, the second day we heard gunshots not too far away from us and we ended up putting safety vests on.  Just after we saw this pygmy rattlesnake Chris mentioned he'd been wondering why we hadn't seen any snakes. About a mile past this we ran into a cottonmouth on the side of the trail. Later we saw what we thought was a Florida blue garter snake and scared up a bunch of black racer snakes. The black racers are skittish and slither off of the trail quickly.  In Corbett we came across several tree stands, but this is what I'd call Florida cracker ingenuity.  When we existed Corbett yesterday morning our friend Chris (aka: FootTrax from geocaching) met up with us to hike for awhile. We ended up crossing our wires and he went to another road while we were at another place and so we had about an hour to kill while we waited for him. It was worth the wait because he brought us McDonalds and coffee for breakfast. Mmmmm! It was nice to have that to top off the Cream of Wheat and oatmeal we'd had at 7am. You can see his photos here if you scroll down to the name FootTrax.  Some really tall cypress knees.   At last! We found the Atlantic Ocean at about 4:30 pm tonight, about an hour earlier than expected. I was hobbling by the end, though my pace did pick up once we got a flat surface again. Sorry the photo is not great, but the sand took the photo for us. I'm off to bed to recuperate. Gotta get rid of the old lady hobble before Monday. Sayonara NaBloPoMo November 24, 2009  It's the end of the road for me and NaBloPoMo. I will probably finish out the month next week, but with Thanksgiving here my ability to write for the next few days will be greatly diminished. But, I will have lots to share when I get back and I hope to continue my writing for awhile, too. As hard as it is to write every day, I would like to up my posting to at least five times a week. I know many bloggers are weekday bloggers, but for me it is easier to post on the weekends and a couple of evenings. When I get back I have plans for a few things. I have been wanting to design a watermark for my photos for awhile. I have gone back and forth about writing on them, but after reading some photography blogs I've decided to start making it a habit. Plus, I am working on actually putting together a gallery of my best works here on the site. I don't think they will necessarily be available for sale just yet, but at least they will be displayed and I can put together a portfolio of sorts. As for the watermark, I've got a design in my head but it will take me actually sitting down at my Wacom tablet and attempting to draw something out. I'm envisoning a sea turtle of sorts. I might fail miserably, though. Until then, stuff yourself silly at Thanksgiving and because Eliana makes me laugh I'll repeat what her voicemail says at the moment: Happy Thanksgiving! Save a turkey, eat tofu! Red Headed Snippet November 23, 2009 "Bless my soul, what's that redheaded snippet coming here for?" It would be hard to say whose face was the redder, Mr. Harrison's or Anne's. -Anne of Avonlea, L.M. Montgomery Several months ago, August I believe, I received an email from a message service stating that I had a reply to a genealogy board I'd been on and posted several messages. Back in 2002 and 2003 I was really into genealogy and started compiling a lot of information on various family lines. The messages stay on the forums and anyone can reply to them, even several years later. Imagine my surprise when I'd received a message from someone who said they were related to my great-uncle. After I replied back with a bit more information about the family she sent me an email and we found out we were second cousins! The best part was that she was actually near my age, not an older distant relative which I've ran into before. These interactions are nice, knowing the long distance relatives, but it was really nice to know there was someone my age looking into our genealogy as well. It turned out that Elizabeth and I had a lot in common but here we are, having never met. She grew up in Oklahoma, me in Texas. So, I subscribed to her blog and I've been following ever since. Elizabeth recently got married and she's been blogging about her honeymoon which was to Maine and Prince Edward Island. I was totally stoked to see she was going to PEI on her honeymoon! Hello---how awesome! And I've been dying to find out more about the island and read her version. She has prefaced her PEI posts with an Anne post and of course, I'm all giddy about someone who likes Anne like I do! After reading her story I thought that sharing my story might be fun...so here I go! It was 4th grade, 1989, that I met Anne. My reading teacher Mrs. Mills was Canadian and she was very interested in Anne of Green Gables. I remember sitting at these tiny round tables, with those blue plastic chairs made just for elementary school kids, and listening to the story on a cassette player with huge headphone, and following with a book. I know that we watched the first movie in class and Mrs. Mills brought along slides to show of Green Gable and PEI. Slides...that's good! Remember those reel movies that you'd have to coordinate with a tape? This was the beginning of my voracious reading career. I followed Anne with Babysitter's Club books, devouring the pages in several hours and procrastinting chores long enough to get grounded from my books. Yes, I got grounded from books! It had to be in middle school that I really started branching out with the rest of the Anne series. Anne of Avonlea came out on PBS or Disney, or both I suppose, and I remember loving that one so much. I wanted the Gibson girl hair that Anne had in that movie. My hair was quite long then and when it was wet I would twist it up into a French twist of sorts or something resembling a Gibson girl style and prance around like I was Anne. I would usually do this more often when we had a Disney preview weekend and they would show the Anne movies or Avonlea (aka: Road to Avonlea), which came out in the early 90's. For a long time it was hard for me to move on in the series, having missed the interactions of the younger Anne, Gilbert and Diana. I always wanted a friend like Diana, and of course what girl didn't want a boyfriend like Gilbert? Over the years I tend to read a few of the books about once a year. I've read the majority of L.M. Montgomery's stories now, though I think I have to finish The Story Girl, and maybe Jane of Lantern Hill. I've been partial to the Emily of New Moon series as well; a slightly more adult story line, but very good just the same. I also love The Blue Castle, and Pat of Silver Bush and the follow up Mistress Pat. After making my initial comment to Elizabeth about my love of Anne, I mentioned something about what used to be called the Anne3.com forum that came into being in 1999/2000 after the third Anne movie debuted. Let me tell you, I think that is where my internet addiction started. I was plastered to that forum for months on end...ok, years. Talking about the movie, the characters, and once that was exhausted moving on to other topics. I made a lot of friends on that forum, people like Robin, Heather (I'd link you Heather but only certain people can see your blog anyway. :( ), Shelly and many more, some who comment here from time to time. I remember my parents thinking I was strange when I met a few forum friends, heck I invited one of them to my wedding because she lived in the same metropolitan area as me! Now she's married and has a baby! It's been an interesting 10 years, meeting people because of Anne. I think the biggest trip of all was Elizabeth telling me that she was on the same forum that I was on! How insane! And that is my Anne story. It isn't elegant or sweet, but I rate L.M. Montgomery as my favorite author and PEI as a destination one day. I may have to go with just my mom unless I can find something very rugged for Chris to do while I am at the Green Gables tourist sections. *someday* For more information on Lucy Maude Mongomery: L.M. Mongtomery Institute. She is a national icon of Canadian literature. Silent Sunday November 22, 2009  I'm feeling ragged trying to write today. NaBloPoMo is getting difficult now! Oh yeah, my brother and sister in law found out the sex of the new baby last week. Zoe's little sister Abigail Rose will be arriving sometime in early April! WOO! I'm already pondering how alike they will be. The Dog November 21, 2009  Baloo had these green balls durin his first year and a half long stay with us. Then he went back to Marc and Eliana's and it seems that he fell in love with the balls all over again and now they are his favorite thing ever. Last night we got him going; he was squeaking the toy like crazy. Sometimes he just walks around the house with it in his mouth, looking like a goofball the entire time.  Then we tried to have a little animal portrait session in the kitchen while cooking dinner, but no one wanted to sit still. We tried baiting with treats but to mostly no avail, especially with the cats. Today we went up to the American Orchid Society gardens since our membership expires tomorrow. We should have known since last year on this same weekend there was an orchid show, but we showed up and were surprised there was an orchid show. Sweet, more photos to take! We picked our friend Kathy up and went up there. I didn't get around to doing all of the photos but here is a teaser:  Kathy is into the odd-ball cameras and film these days. She hardly ever uses her DSLR now and instead totes around various cameras from super cheap plastic cameras to a Diana F+, whatever suits her fancy. She has done some really creative stuff with what she has on hand.  She's inspired me to try with some expired film we had laying around. I am going over to scan some of the negatives tomorrow and see what I can come up with. I used a super cheap plastic camera with a panorama function...should be interesting!  This is what Chris carries around these days. Too heavy for me! He offered to let me try his ring flash once and I decided against it as soon as I picked it up. This camera is heavy with the ring flash and the battery pack. Ugh.  A cattleya orchid. I didn't check the label so I have no idea what variety this one is. It also lost some detail in the upload to Flickr. We started saving our files at TIFF and Flickr has been compressing them on uploads and photos are losing color. The sunrise in the post from yesterday is much more red and darker than what you see here. Also as a note, after a few people saying that it was a little too blah without color on my banner, I decided not to take it into consideration. Mostly because I like how it looks and well, Chris supported me in that. I value his input and he's usually right so I decided to keep it. However, I changed the little side buttons to add more color to the page. I've just been on a lot of pages lately and the cleaner the better it seems. As for the issue with the page rolling over to the side, check your computer resolution settings. Mine is set at 1366 x 768. I know that my parents set their on a larger resolution because it is easier to read and so they have to roll their scroll bars. So, check that. I've never had a problem except on a computer with a larger reading resolution. Sunrise November 20, 2009  Photo by Chris, Wednesday morning in Fakahatchee. The Quileuete dog pack...H.O.T. Watching New Moon in a theater of annoying people...not so hot. My advice: find a matinee at 11am to watch. I swear, a fight almost broke out over seats tonight. Someone was saving seats, another person said 'oh no you don't' and got holier than thou. An usher was brought in...yeah, not good. Then someone yelled at another person with a crying baby. Geez. And I had the peanut gallery behind me, criticizing every little thing. Ugh. I'll have to go again another time. The ending...awesome. Kristin Stewart's acting...not so awesome. Someone needs to write out the little sighs and pauses she does. It's annoying. The Swamp in Black and White November 19, 2009 I finally got around to processing a few more photos from late July of the ghost orchids at our slough. I started off taking photos in color and switched to black and white, using red and polarizing filters and a tripod. The wind was fussing with the orchids causing them to blow ever so slightly and then I'd have a nice little blur. The canopy was full then and the light was low.  I still feel that the orchids are too bright in this one. I tried selecting them only in PS to darken them slightly but it looked really odd and I didn't like it. In general I shoot the ghosts a few stops down from normal just because of the white. If you shoot it balanced they tend to wash out. Even so, these were bright.  This one is better, a bit more crisp.  Looking southeast in the slough. This area is probably my favorite part, but it only became that in the past year. Previously I loved the western side of the slough; when we were doing all of the orchid counting and seeing how many there were (607!!!) each little section became a part of a house, if you will.  And another view of the double ghosts. After visiting the slough again this past weekend, the pollination rate for the area was pretty poor. Even these two didn't get pollinated! Chris told me he'd go see New Moon with me this weekend and I was floored when he told me that! I was planning on going by myself on Sunday since he has to work, but now I am excited that he's going to go with me. I highly doubt he will get on any Team (Edward!!), but I'm betting he'll end up being on Team Alice or Rosalie. Hah! 2:42 a.m. November 18, 2009 There's a spirit that can ne'er be told...That's the spirit of Aggieland  1. Aggie Bonfire 1993, 2. 020109, 3. Bonfire Memorial, 4. Bonfire Memorial I wanted to become an Aggie in my 7th grade Life Science class because my teacher was an Aggie. Plus, I'd heard it was a good school for budding marine biologists. When I started researching colleges I had narrowed it down to Southwest Texas State Univeristy (now Texas State Univeristy) and Texas A&M University at Galveston. The Galveston branch hosts the maritime studies of the main university making it easier to actually study the subject you are interested in a bit better. My first year I was a bit of a 2%er, not necessarily engrossing myself in traditions. Even still, once I became much more Aggie, I wasn't as hard-core as many people I know. Traditions are one thing that Texas A&M is steeped in. Yell practice, Muster, Silver Taps, Elephant Walk, ring dunk, doing yells at football games...there are lots. We Sea Aggies have a few of our own traditions as well and that included building our own bonfire on East Beach in Galveston the week before the main bonfire. We did attend our first bonfire in 1998 on East Beach and it was awesome. I think that might have been what made me more of an Aggie rather than a 2%er. So on the morning of November 18th, 1999 when the phones started ringing before anyone was out of bed yet for class, it was a shock to the whole student body. I don't think anyone wasn't thinking about the people trapped under the stack, the ones who had already perished and the ones that were seriously injured. I was also sad because Chris and I had been planning to attend that bonfire, a 'real' bonfire. And there has never been a campus sanctioned bonfire since the collapse. There have been off campus bonfires hosted by private entities, but it isn't the same. We went to the football game a week later, the big one, Texas A&M vs Texas, played at home---Kyle Field. And we won. It was an emotional win, students rushing the field after the last quarter. Afterward we walked to the site of the collapse on the northeast corner of the campus and saw the stack sitting there in the manner it collapsed and with some of the logs to the side from the rescue efforts. An orange fence cordoned off the area and so many people had put trinkets and banners up along the site. I have a few photos of the site; now there is a memorial in the place, as seen in the mosiac above. The memorial wasn't completed by the time we graduated, I don't think, and I haven't seen it in person. The 12 Fallen: Click on the names, there are things written by each of them in earlier times. It's pretty tearful. The Bonfire Memorial Website: Watch the video. The Last Corps Trip by P.H. DuVal Jr. '51 It was Judgment Day in Aggieland And tenseness filled the air; All knew there was a trip at hand, But not a soul knew where. Assembled on the drill field Was the world-renowned Twelfth Man, The entire fighting Aggie team And the famous Aggie Band. And out in front with Royal Guard The reviewing party stood; St. Peter and his angel staff Were choosing bad from good. First he surveyed the Aggie team And in terms of an angel swore, "By Jove, I do believe I've seen This gallant group before. I've seen them play since way back when, And they've always had the grit; I've seen 'em lose and I've seen 'em win But I've never seen 'em quit. No need for us to tarry here Deciding upon their fates; Tis plain as the halo on my head That they've opened Heaven's gates." And when the Twelfth Man heard this, They let out a mighty yell That echoed clear to Heaven And shook the gates of Hell. "And what group is this upon the side," St. Peter asked his aide, "That swelled as if to burst with pride When we our judgment made?" "Why, sir, that's the Cadet Corps That's known both far and wide For backing up their fighting team Whether they won lost or tied." "Well, then," said St. Peter, "It's very plain to me That within the realms of Heaven They should spend eternity. And have the Texas Aggie Band At once commence to play For their fates too we must decide Upon this crucial day." And the drum major so hearing Slowly raised his hand And said, "Boys, let's play The Spirit For the last time in Aggieland." And the band poured forth the anthem, In notes both bright and clear And ten thousand Aggie voices Sang the song they hold so dear. And when the band had finished, St. Peter wiped his eyes And said, "It's not so hard to see They're meant for Paradise." And the colonel of the Cadet Corps said As he stiffly took his stand, "It's just another Corps Trip, boys, We'll march in behind the band." Site Update November 17, 2009 I did a little site update. New banner, tweaked a few things. Yep, I'm counting this as my post today. I just spent the past two hours working on it, so I need a break. Until then, tell me what you think. Autumn in Little Slough November 16, 2009 Yesterday Chris and I went out to our slough to take photos of the water level dropping, the bare trees and the clamshell orchids. The water came up about knee deep in the deepest places I ventured to go and in a few months it will be dry again---my favorite time. I love the water, but I love walking around when it is bare.  The only photo of the clamshell that I was happy with. I thought the light would make for some great photos, but all it seemed to do was wash them out.  With the leaves off of the trees, everything is mostly brown and barren and light filters through beautifully. The ferns really glow with the sunlight streaming in through the empty canopy.  Here you can really see the trees leaning in towards the center. I really tried to capture this in a few photos but I was dissapointed to see that a few were out of focus and I also ended up with some icky sun spots that did not work for the photo.  I love this photo, what leaves are left on the top---they twinkle a bit.  And I decided to call the bromeliads 'tree jewelery'. They are little adornments that compliment the tree, giving them a bit more culture and flare. I'd like to go out again soon, somewhere a bit drier though. I love the light this time of year. Take the time to enjoy the beautiful things in life---life is fragile. Last week my mom texted me to tell me that a friend of our family had passed away. He was actually the son of my parents' friends, someone that my brother and I grew up around from time to time before they moved away to Amarillo. I hadn't seen him in probably 15 years, maybe a little less than that. Jeremy was 30 and much too young to be going from here, but so he has gone anyway. For some reason the two memories that stick out for me with him are Garbage Pail Kids and making this concoction of soap and water to kill ants on a tree in his front yard in Amarillo. Don't ask me why we were doing it or what compelled us, but the memory sticks. The funeral was today and my mom went up to Amarillo. So, send some good thoughts and prayers in that direction tonight. -Thanks- Sunday 10+ November 15, 2009 Robin did these earlier this week and I'm needing something cushy to post today so here we go... Ten Things/People I Hate But Everyone Else Seems To Like :
And, if I haven't seriously bored you, there will be photos tomorrow! Chrysalis November 14, 2009  In college, my last year, I worked at Moody Gardens as an Interpretive Naturalist. It was a really good gig, didn't pay a lot, but I got a lot of hours for part-time, especially in the Fall semester when I had Thursdays completely off and in the spring Fridays. Moody Gardens has an aquarium exhibit as well as a rainforest exhibit. I was mostly in the aquarium, but the rainforest exhibit had a similar butterfly setup to Butterfly World. Usually shipments of chrysalis (chrysali?) would come in on a particular day and then they would be pinned in a glass case for the visitors to see and watch as a butterfly came into being.  It's funny to look back at working in the rainforest exhibit. I didn't really pay as much attention to the plants and animals in the exhibit as I did the aquarium exhibit, but here I am in South Florida where many of those plants can grow. Plants such as gumbo limbo trees, the traveler's palm and swiss cheese plants, plus I'm sure there were orchids and other plants that I paid no heed.  Looking at the photos from Butterfly World I'm reminded to get the macro lens out again. I've been keen to keep the 18-55mm on lately, mostly for the sake of not having to switch lens around and because the lens is small and light. The macro, not so much. Chris has bulked his camera up with so many things, extra batteries, fancy flashes, and it becomes too heavy. I like the simple.  I've only seen two hummingbirds in my life. One in Panama in 1998 and the other about two or three years ago in someones backyard here in South Florida. That's it. We are supposed to be in the fly-way here, but they hardly stop over it seems. We've done the hummingbird feeder thing to no avail, planted red plants for their use and I've basically given up. There are a few hummers in the aviary at B'fly World and they were still difficult to photograph, zipping around for nectar.  Lepidoptera is a good word. It rolls off the tongue. That's the Order in which butterflies reside in the great taxonomic system. King Philip Came Over For Good Soup. Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. It was a nice day here. Nice enough to open the windows up while I was at home. I turned the air off and let the house air out for awhile. I can't really do this much since we have to watch Leo. We're afraid he'd be clawing his way out if he was unsupervised. I really miss opening up the windows; when we lived in Melbourne in our apartment on the second floor, we regularly left the balcony open and the back windows open. Samson came and went in and out as he pleased. It's finally nearly perfect weather here. Sunshine Butterfly November 13, 2009  I know, another photo post. It's been a long two days at work; field work makes a girl tired. My brain has gone to mush. Actually, I do have some good posts in my head, but right now they just can't be written with this kind of brain melt. Until then, admire this pretty butterfly that I took at Butterfly World last July. I'm just now getting around to processing the photos. Which reminds me, I have ghost orchids photos to process, too. And a backup hard drive to cleanse of duplicate and crappy photos so I can have some more room. Until tomorrow when I am fully rested... Relax... November 12, 2009  I need a weekend in the Keys. Much too tired for anything else tonight, but enjoy my re-visited photo of the Old Bahia Honda bridge. A Hook and Some Yarn November 11, 2009 Since I thought there was enough interest on my crocheting, I thought I'd do a little post about it. I started crocheting six years ago but my experience with it goes back to my grandmother (my mom's mom). She is/was an avid crocheter, but her arthrits and other illnesses have caused her to stop in recent years. When my brother and I would stay at her house for the weekend she would often work on a doily or an afghan and ocassionally we would ask her to teach us. I know we got the idea of a chain down pretty good, but once we started learning to work back into the chain with a single crochet, we were totally lost. Fast forward to six years ago and I was working at Michael's part time since the lab I'd been working at as a temp had stopped needing me (I went back a few months later). For the record, Michael's is an awful place to work for a crafter. The urge to buy everthing that you see with your discount is deep and coming up with ideas fills your time as you restock the aisles. Trust me. Working at Michael's ended up meaning that I got to stock the notions and sewing sections, which naturally led me to look at the colorful yarns that were in supply. I had no background at all in knitting so it was natural that I chose crocheting first. I ended up buying a kit that they sell that comes with a set of hooks and a book on how to learn. I recommend that for anyone who is new to crocheting. At this same time my friend Brooke was pregnant with her first child and I ended up with the harebrained idea that I was going make the baby a blanket! And, I did. Not with some trials and errors of course. I made simple squares of blue and yellow and sewed them together, and of course later I saw that I'd reversed a few of them, but oh well, what can you do? After that saga I emailed about six or seven of my closest friends and told them I'd make blankets for them all! Oh, Lord. I did the in the order that people responded with colors and it was last year when I finished the final one. I am fairly certain they got smaller as the years wore on. Blankets are hard work and consume lots of yarn.    After awhile crochet on the internet became a little more popular. The crochet blogs still weren't that great, yet, but patterns were becoming more popular. I started buying crochet magazines and then branched out into other yarns besides worsted weight acrylic. My first non-blanket crochet was a kerchief. After I made one (which I never wear by the way), I had this idea I'd make a bunch and try to sell them on Etsy. Yeah. Dumbest idea ever. This was when Etsy was rather new, too. Then I moved on to headbands and purses.  The headbands were trial and error and I do wear them from time to time. Then I moved on to hats, which I do love and would wear more if they fit in with my clothing. I am a much more laid-back dresser and my work clothing is casual so the hats don't always work with what I wear. But I do like them.  The purses I really enjoyed making. They are functional and fun and they are enjoyable to make since they are small. Sewing the liner in is a pain, but worth it. My favorites are the two on the right in this photo. The top is one I made and kept for myself and the bottom is one I made for my sister in law for Christmas two years ago. It's a wonder I didn't keep it for myself! That purse was actually supposed to be a cabled pattern from a magazine but I kept having issues with the pattern. It just didn't make sense! Eventually I gave up, throwing some yarn in the trash in a heated frenzy, and made my own pattern up. That is what I still do most of the time.  Finally a year and a half ago I decided to delve into making garments. Something for myself for once! I initially tried with a really beautiful flower patterned babydoll top but after having issues with it, I ended up making the top on the left. Then I moved on to the green tank, which is a bit heavy for summer so I will be wearing it again soon, and now the little tunic.  See, it is a little goofy looking! But, from what I've seen elsewhere of other people making it, it seems to be on target. So, that is my little crochet story. If you are interested to learn, I would pick up a book first. Learn the basic stitches. If you want to learn other types of patterns, get a crochet block book like this one or this one, the latter I have. Once you get the knack of a few you can incorporate them into your own designs. Learning to make garments will help you learn to decrease and increase and shape items. Eventually you will start seeing the pattern and can come up with things on your own. Some websites to check out: Crochet Pattern Central: Good for trying to new patterns. I found the octogon pattern here and fell in love with it. You know you want to join my group on Flickr, Awesome Octogons! Bev's Country Cottage: More square patterns Yarn Tomato Crochet Me: Great site and the tunic I'm making now comes from the Crochet Me book. Interweave Crochet: Some months are hit or miss. Sometimes you'll find some barfy ideas, other times you'll be drooling. There are a couple other magazines out there to look into as well. Purl Bee: Mostly knitting but some crochet patterns. Just good to look at the yarns! Ravelry: The mecca for yarnies. Knitters and crocheters alike. Share your projects, look at everyone elses projects...it's great. I hadn't been on in months but now that I went back I keep seeing more things I want to do. What can I say? Get out there and try crocheting. It has evolved a lot in the past five years. There are wearable crochet items that don't look as if they are from the 70's. Sock patterns are being developed for crocheters as well. Just get used to the fact that when people see you crocheting in public they will ask what you are knitting. Don't stab them with your hook, just kindly inform them then difference. And try not to roll your eyes when they say only grannies do that sort of thing. The grannies had to start somewhere...and they were usually young! Water Falls November 10, 2009 Here are a few photos Chris took while on a hike in New Jersey in the Delaware Water Gap. I have a post on crochet in my head that I will write out tomorrow when I have the brain for it. An informative post, how-to's etc. Oh, yeah, and I know, I still need to do a bottle cap earring how-to...sorry Chelle!      And of course, Lady Liberty and NYC behind her. Fiber November 9, 2009 My creativity is in fiber apparently. I see colorful balls of yarn and want to make every pattern in sight. This has Zoe's name all over it. These are reminding me of my great-grandmother. I may have to make a pair for me and my mom. Coming along well on the turtleneck. Chris and I had a good laugh about it earlier. It's in a goofy stage. The Hidden Steam Engine November 8, 2009 Jonathan Dickinson State Park, hence called JD, has a lot of very interesting things hidden about its large land mass. One of them is an old steam engine, tucked away in the back of the park and disguised by a lot of brush. We'd heard about it before but we haven't made it out to see it until today. Baloo has been itching for a good hike, anyway.  We approached it from the wrong game trail and ended up bushwhacking through palmetto for a bit. Baloo, being low to the ground, weaved in and out and looked for his own trails.  I don't know the history of it, other than it has been there for a long time, probably over 50 years, at least.  Rusted over and full of little ferns and moss tucked into tiny crevices. I had a run in with a bee so I didn't get to photograph much. The bee buzzed me several times, went in my ear, then I decided I didn't want to be stung today so I gave up.  Baloo had a good day. He was a bit slow to start, but carried on well. There were a lot of things of interest for him today.  On our way out we crossed a small ditch, the majority of the water on the east side. Baloo paid no mind to it and kept on walking, but when I walked by I must've spooked a small alligator because it gave a splash and scared me. On the way back, however, we'd forgotten about it and Baloo was 20' in front of us when he looked over, saw the water and jumped right in! We immediately start running and yelling for him to get out and when we get there he's staring up at us like he didn't do anything wrong. The side was a bit steep and it was a hassle to get him out. At first he didn't want to come out, finally he started up the side and Chris helped him out with his collar. Then he got in some trouble with a whack on the nose and a stern talking to about being such a bad dog. Gah! Good thing there wasn't a large gator in there. Hrmph. We had two other run-ins with animals, a large family of pigs, which we saw before Baloo so we held back and let them cross first, and then two deer that Baloo did see but we caught his collar on time. And he almost went for a gopher tortoise, but luckily we grabbed him in time, too. Lots of animals out, very different than a few weeks ago. In all, we did 10 miles. It didn't seem like that much, but the balls of my feet did hurt a bit. No blisters again, thanks goodness! Now, Baloo is a tired pup, passed out in the floor. I wonder if I can even get him to go out before bed? Saturday Doldrums November 7, 2009 One week and I'm already having trouble writing here. The fact is, I am so not fascinating enough. My day, incredibly boring. The only thing I felt like doing, creatively, was reading. I sat and tried to draw, nothing was jiving, the beading gave me a headache and I started a small craft project for my niece and the new niece/nephew for Christmas, but that was it. Stuck. Chris is back. He's been gone all week, though I don't know if you could notice in my posts. I was hesitant to write that he was gone, my being alone and all. I did have the Big Bad Pitbull. He kept the bed warm and hogged it as well. Baloo is such a dreamer and he kicks around, too. Anyway, Chris was in New Jersey for work, a stone's throw from NYC and the closest he got was the Statue of Liberty today before he left. Me, I would have been at every little nook I could find in the Village and SoHo. Central Park would have been my photography playground. Someday... I'm disappointed with this creative blah-ness. The crocheting is going well, but I can tell it will take a few weeks to finsih. But, I want to draw and paint, so badly. It just doesn't come. I hate that. I survived the week of being a vegetarian. I suppose I'll go back to being a carnivore tomorrow, for the sake of eating what we have in the house. I think I'll try and keep it up though as much as possible, choosing to eat veggie for breakfast and lunch, simple enough, and eat some meat a few nights a week for dinner and some veggie dinners as well. I think I'll look to choose veggie options when we go out as well. Honestly, it feels weird to think about going back to eating meat. Sort of like being a traitor to myself. Aside from choosing consciously a few times or thinking harder about what I was eating being truly non-meat, it was very simple to do. The only tofu I had all week was last night in some miso soup. I'll let you know how the first meat bite tastes after a week, tomorrow! Work In Progress November 6, 2009  Here is the beginnings of the Icelandic Turtleneck that I have started. The neck is supposed to be 7.25" long, but this is around 5" and I think it is plenty. I have a short neck apparently. Plus, you know, Florida is so cold and I need it. Hah! I have been on Ravelry and I have been browsing other people's finished products and I like the longer versions best, so I hope I have a lot of yarn. It's a very simple stitch, back loop double crochet so far. Over and over and over... Tonight, the gym, some chores, and dinner with a friend! Zoe Bug November 5, 2009 It's hard to believe that Zoe is enjoying Halloween this year, unlike last year when she was a wee small thing that looked so adorable in her pumpkin shirts. This year though, she was rockin' the trick or treating with a ladybug costume! Photos courtesy of my brother and sister in law.  Getting some good candy from Mimi, or who knows what she is going to be called! Zoe hasn't really called her anything yet.  Mmm, good candy! Check out those Mary Jane's!! Aren't they adorable? Robin posted this really cool, short movie on her blog and so I had to share it. Food Inc. November 4, 2009 Beware: This could be a lengthy post and possibly incoherent. I have a lot to say but I have no idea if it will be formed into decent paragraphs. Last night I didn't crochet. I ended up getting too engrossed in Food Inc to even focus. I had heard of the movie awhile back but it was Angela's post that made me more interested and then when Kasie told me she watched it was too, I had to check it out. Some of it I already knew. I mean, I knew of some of the practices and that slaughterhouses aren't exactly the best places on Earth, but after seeing the footage, it really hit home. There were so many little facets and stories to the entire movie that I am going to try to touch on all of them, or as much as I can remember. My first knowledge of the word organic, pertaining to food, was in 1999 when I joined the Sierra Sea Club, a mini-version of the Sierra Club, at my university. Regina, the president of the club, was very into organic foods and knowledgeable about pesticides and saving the Earth, so I started learning more. At that time organic products weren't available much at mainstream grocery stores and I'd never set foot in a Whole Foods, but she was able to procure some donations of samples to give out and do taste-tests. Around this same time I started learning about the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico and how it was related to pesticide and fertilizer run off from the mid-west, ending up in the Mississippi River and draining into the ocean. At this time I was also learning how detrimental the shrimp fishery to sea grasses (important nursery grounds for all sorts of marine life) and to sea turtles and other marine life as part of the bycatch in the nets. I guess you could call this an environmental spirtual awakening. Fast-forward to today and this movie, and all I can say is Wow. We, as a nation, are pretty much oblivious to everything that goes on in our country, either from a lack of communication from our government agencies and news sources (and/or faulty/mis-leading news stories) or mostly from apathy and willful ignorance. I mean, if our voter turnouts at the polls don't say anything about that, what else would? We really just don't care enough to change, or we are getting the wrong information from people who don't want us to change. First the movie starts describing the chicken farming practices. It also begins by showing how 30 years ago there were a larger handful of companies owning the slaughterhouses had a smaller hand in the food industry where as today it is mostly three or four companies in the chicken, pork and beef industries that control the majority of the industry. A company will come into a small, economically depressed town and find people who are willing to fork over (get a loan) for up to $500,000 to raise chickens the way the company wants them raised and they sell the product to said company. The movie said that these people usually only make $18,000 a year, so I'm not sure why someone would even want to invest in this. Once the person has their chicken houses built they are usually required to upgrade things often, resulting in more money spent. Only one woman showed the film crew the inside of the chicken houses and it was even one of the 'open air' ones, and by that it had screens instead of being sealed and with air pumped in with a fan. A few people said they wished to, but after repeated visits by the company they sell to they were persuaded not. So, there are all of these hundreds of chickens that are given hormones to grow them faster and bigger in half the time a normal chicken would grow, mostly because of our passion for chicken breasts. I don't know about you, but I've been fed up with chicken breasts lately, just blocks of frozen chicken that are tough and don't taste well. I started buying natural chicken thighs at Whole Foods and they are nearly the same price and taste so much better. The chickens are then growing so fast that their bones can't catch up, so they can't handle the weight on their legs, causing them to fall, break their legs or not walk very far and sit down all of the time. Sounds miserable to me. The woman also claimed she'd become allergic to antibiotics from all of the handling of the chickens. I don't know how true that is, but if you take her word for it, then it sounds pretty scary. Needless to say, this woman ended up out of the business shortly after the filming. Ah, next was corn and soybeans. Corn is in practically everything out there that is conventionally processed. You may not know it because they have changed it around so much that it often has a different name on the ingredient list. High Fructose Corn Syrup is probably one of the more widely known, but it is cosmetics and the list goes on. I'm not saying corn is bad, I'm saying it is heavily subsidized and only particular genetic strains are grown these days, eliminating biodiversity in our diets. As for soybeans, there is the Round Up Ready soybean that was developed by Monsanto. They were given a patent over the intellectual rights to that property, so in the mid 90's when it became more popular farmers started using it and now 90% of the soybeans grown are of this strain. The big problem is that since the beginning of time, farmers have been saving their seed. Since Monsanto owns that 'right' to that seed, you cannot save the seed. So, Monsanto comes after you if you are caught saving your seed, or even if you are growing a non-Round Up Ready seed and one blows in from a neighboring farm, you can be sued. They chronicled several farmers who initially tried to fight but ended up settling and giving up because they had no money to continue fighting. Isn't that ridiculous? Why are we letting a big corporation bully us? Anyone with millions of dollars at hand is going to win over an average farmer any day. How is that even fair? How is that even right? Another bit they talked about is factory farming of cattle and pigs. We have these huge problems of E. coli and other bacterial problems coming about because of factory farming. These are huge feedlots where cattle are penned in, walking in their own feces, so when they are slaughtered that feces is still on them and can potentially end up in your meats. All of these factory farming techniques were brought up when the fast food industry became popular in the middle of the last century. The faster you could get meat sent out the more money you could make. Many cattle are not fed grass, they are fed corn based diets, sometimes food that is dead chickens and even other cattle, which is not what these animals really eat. So, they end up having issues digesting food, causing disease. Finally, they showed an organic, free range farm, Polyface Farms, and how they are free range with their cattle and chickens, and they do show them slaughtering chickens. I know I'm anthropomorphizing this, but I swear when they picked up a chicken it squealed "Oww" as it was put into the little holding container while they slit its throat. I swear. So, while they raise everything humanely and treat it with respect that animal life deserves, it was still harsh to see the animals die. I couldn't even pith a live frog in my Comparative Physiology lab in college. It was just hard to see something alive and then dead like that. Thank you Chris for cleaning all of the fish you've caught. I don't know how you do it. Ick. The last segment that really caught my attention was an interview section with a Latin-American family who were on a limited income and were questioning how they could choose healthy foods when the bad ones were cheaper, yet the dad had to take all sorts of medications that cost $200 a month. They went through a drive-through spending $11 on some dollar menu items, plus soda's. If they were concsious of saving money, they could have saved $2-3 on the soda's and drank water instead. So, even if they spent $9 for a dinner for the family, I think you could find something at the store to make that is healthier. Even pasta and sauce, catch a bag of spinach on sale--it'll keep for a few meals. Rice is very cheap, and some black beans. Bags of beans are very cheap as well, soak them the night before. All I felt like they doing were giving excuses. I do understand that many processed foods and fast foods are cheaper, but in the long run they are going to ruin your health and if the dad could have gotten off of some of the medication by living a healthier life style, then they would be saving that money every month and could buy better foods. I think Angela's post on organic milk was appropriate, because it shows that you can make cuts elsewhere to accomodate something you truly desire. (Yeah, I kinda like her blog...it has good stuff!) I just think so many people are like this family, not sure what steps they should take. I was also dumbfounded when they showed them trying to buy produce, looking at some pear's for $1.29/lb, which isn't that bad, and it showed one of the daughters putting one of the scale to determine how much it would be for a pound and it would have been about three pear's. I don't think that is bad. The biggest thing is buying in season. Strawberries right now would be astronomical. Buy them in the summer, especially the few weeks they are the cheapest, and either freeze them for winter or eat to your hearts content then. Right now apples and pears are in season, so buy them up. Sure, some things are more expensive, but that is because they are either a specialty crop or they are imported, but you can find affordable produce. I guess what all of this makes me want to do is to be better. Start buying more organic and natural meats, eating less of it, maybe eventually getting off of it totally (not sure Chris is in on this...and those stone crab claws are going to be hard to give up), but trying to do better. The big thing is that no one changes over night and you can't force anyone to change. You have to do it yourself, step by step and you've got to want to do it. This week has been good, I haven't felt like I've been missing out on anything, though today at work was a true test since it was our Thanksgiving luncheon (yes, early but the rest of the month is busy!) and I passed on all of the meats. I almost got some gravy for my dressing, but passed when I wasn't sure if the brown gravy was meat based or not. The ham looked so good, though. And the radio was advertising for Honey Baked Ham this morning and I could smell the brown sugar. *sigh*. I think I'm done with my rant. I'm losing my concentration and am not sure where to aim this at anymore. Take some time and rent the movie. It's very worthwhile, IMO. On The Hook November 3, 2009  I had high hopes for tonight, but instead I am planning on some crochet time with my D hook and this beautiful hand dyed yarn I've had for awhile. I started the first two rows of this ages ago and decided to pick it up again last night. It has hopes of being made into a tunic. So, tonight it's me, my hook, and either Food Inc. or Mad Men Season 1. I've been wanting to see both, so I hit Blockbuster on my way home. I made a yummy pasta dinner with sauteed veggies. A simple meal that was delicious. I bought Regina Spektor's new cd about a week ago and I've been taking my time to decide whether or not I like it. This song is my favorite on the track, though most of the cd is great, there is one song I wish I could scratch off, Dance Anthem of the 80's. It makes me want to poke my eyes out. There is another minor annoyance with this song, Folding Chair, it's when she does the supposed dolphin noise; it's more of a seal noise. Dolphins are high pitched squeaks/squeals, not that low grunting noise. What music are you liking lately? Things I Wonder November 2, 2009
I think I'm good on my mini-rants tonight. Day two of veggie Misti is complete. I did good, but this cheese thing is going to be short lived. I can tell that I'm all phlegmy and it isn't good. But, oh, the brie. The feta. The bleu cheese. I love thee. Alas, it will be goodbye once I am through with what I have. The soup I made last night was even better the second day. It lost some of the liquid so it was much thicker and very tasty! I wish I could even tell you how I made it, but it was mostly a conglomeration of items. This writing every day is going to be difficult. Flirting November 1, 2009 I've been contemplating it for awhile. Flirting with the idea, as Alicia Silverstone calls it. So, I'm taking a stab at it this week, going vegetarian. A variety of things have propelled me to try this diet and lifestyle change, mostly to be a little healthier. Let's face it, I've been pretty awful in my eating this past year. It was Kasie's post last week that really pushed me into doing a little more research and trying it out. So, here I am, Day 1 of trying a week of being vegetarian. So far, so good. I am keeping eggs and dairy in, though my dairy is fairly limited to begin with as I try not to eat cheese and don't drink milk, but I have been bringing yogurt back in, leaving the soy yogurt behind, and adding a bit of feta and bleu cheese in. I will see how my allergies go with it, if the phlegm comes back. This morning I made an omelette of sorts with two eggs, spinach and kale and some bleu cheese and a side of a sliced peaches. Very good! Lunch was a black bean burrito with a veggie patty and it turned out good. For dinner I concoted a Fall soup; roasted butternut squash, carrots and an apple, blended up in a pot of vegetable broth, four small red potatoes, water, a dash of brown sugar and cinnamon, and some kale. It smells really good! Still a bit hot to eat so I'm writing this while it cools off. The flirting thing is, like I said, an Alicia Silverstone idea. I had seen her new website, The Kind Life a few weeks ago but forgot about it until I was looking for the Brendan Brazier book that Kasie recommended The Thrive Diet, but Borders didn't have it and when I saw Alicia's book it was $30 and I passed on it. But then, Borders sent me a 40% off coupon and I went and got her book today. When I had breezed through it, it had a lot of hints and recipes but also discussed the stages: flirting, vegan and superhero, which I'm guessing superhero is a near-perfect vegetarian diet, probably incorporating a lot of raw and organic foods. I haven't finished the book so I will let you know. The one thing I have noticed in reading the healthy food blogs and the veggie blogs is that it isn't a lot of the soy that most people think of when they think of vegetarians. Sure there are the tofu substitute's like mayo, dairy, and meat, but mostly I see a lot of good whole foods. Some blogs that I've found helpful and enjoyed reading: Hello Veggie The Daily Green Oh She Glows Choosing Raw Fat Free Vegan Kitchen I'll see how this week goes. My problem now is battling this urge to get a malt from Dairy Queen. Hrm. Halloween Slough Slogging October 31, 2009 Chris, me and a friend of Chris' went for a Halloween slog through Fakahatchee Strand today. I haven't been there in, well, I don't remember when. Oh, yes, now I do, it was a nasty mosquito season and we were trying to photograph the vanilla orchids in bloom. The result was no blooms, me wearing my rain jacket in the miserable heat and humidity and being wet with enough sweat that it looked like I took a bath. Ah, the reason I don't go in the summer. I'm more fond of Fakahatchee when the water is ankle deep or less. I prefer ambling through the dry slough's instead of tripping on downed logs, limbs and cypress knees when the water is thigh deep, like it was today. I was a bit grumpy to start, tired and had a headache that plagued me the entire day. I cheered up a bit toward the end, but what I really wanted was a good nap. I took a short nap on our way to Everglades City for a very early dinner. We had a tasty appetizer of stone crab claws, making me wish I had a pound to eat by myself. Stone crab claws are possibly the best seafood in the world. Lobster is a close second. I'm drooling as I type! So, come take a walk with me in the slough, but at least you don't have to get your feet wet!  Our first stop was at this orchid, Malaxis spicata, one I hadn't seen before. The photo is not great as the lighting was pretty crappy early in the morning. This was tucked in an old stump.  The morning sun peeking through to light the bromeliads.  A quick stop at Epidendrum nocturnum, an orchid which I have seen before, about two years ago. Lots of these were seen today, just not a lot in bloom.  The morning sun peeking through the trees in the slough; great lighting at this time of day.  Some funky fungi.  Liparis elata, an orchid I haven't seen before in bloom. I'm fairly certain I've seen it non-blooming.  Narrow strap leaf fern, a pretty rare and uncommon fern here. Chris re-discovered a population in Big Cypress where it was thought to have been extirpated. I love the pattern of the sori on the fern.  Walking through the slough again. Lots of easy, open access here. If you hit the dry ground you end up battling a lot of undergrowth which makes it difficult to navigate. Best to stay in the water! We didn't encounter any alligators, except for a small one that Chris scared off in the beginning.   We trudged it further through the slough and found the alba clamshell orchids, Encyclia cochcleata var. triandra and alba goes in there somewhere but I'm too lazy to look it up how it is. This isn't how this orchid normally is, it has purple in it, so these are very rare.  So, Chris was very sad when he found a clump that he knew of previously, in the water, drowned when a branch broke off the tree. Bummer! And so ends our little trip to the slough! I think I'll hold off on going again until the water goes down! "No Matter Which Way You Look At It, Neuter Is Cuter": a Cat Network write up with Eliana and Marc! Writer's Block October 29, 2009  I'm around. Just feeling the writers blog. Debating NaBloPoMo for November to get me in a writing mood. NaNoWriMo is a bit much for me at the present time, so writing in the blog will help. What I need from you are any interesting ideas that you would like to see here on Ye Olde Blogge. I have a few, but I'm afraid I'd talk in circles and/or just post photos the entire time. So, sock it to me... In the mean time find out what happens in the great big ocean when you throw your trash in it. I can't say that I haven't contributed. I worked/studied on a ship, 11 summers ago, and anything that wasn't plastic went overboard after a certain distance from land. Sadly, I remember a couch going over, but I can't say whether or not that was really authorized. Oh yeah, I have the cutest niece! Jonathan Dickinson State Park: Florida Trail October 26, 2009 This past weekend Chris and I took a little backpacking trip at Jonathan Dickinson State Park. We like going to that park because it is easily accessible and has a lot of hiking trails. I think we've covered the majority of the park by now, though I know there are some fire roads and horse trails we haven't been on. This trip took us to the furtherest east and north of the park we've ever been.  We started off at the Ranger Station and headed up the east side of the east loop, making it to the Scrub Jay campsite for a late lunch. It had started off a very hot day, with rain clouds threatening. Being in the open scrub makes things a lot hotter and the wind wasn't circulating very well, so the rain that came about half a mile before the campsite was welcome. After lunch we headed west towards the Kitching Creek campsite, taking the southern part of the western loop. While crossing the Kitching Creek bridge we took a break, resting in the shade and Chris decided that we could take a nap at Kitching Creek, turn around and head back to Scrub Jay for the night, which ended up working out for the best. The next morning we took the western side of the eastern loop back to the Ranger Station which is about 4.5 miles. Here are some of the things we saw:  A shy gopher tortoise.  He wasn't particularly fond of the camera, but he didn't crawl away!   Some form of lycopodium, the green fern like plant and the red plant is a Drosera, a sundew, which is carnivorous.     It was a good weekend overall. The best part was I managed to not get a single blister! I have been hiking with sock liners lately and tinkering with regular socks as well and I also switched the tape I use on my feet and I'm pretty dang surprised I didn't get a blister at all. I think there would be potential if we'd hiked longer, but usually anything over 8 miles does me in. My next idea is to find a hiking skirt. I am getting annoyed with shorts riding up my legs and having to pull them down, but I've heard good things about hiking skirts. I'm spending a lot of time in the yard this week to savor the last bit of light before the time change. It'll be dark by the time I get in from work and get settled in the evenings, so this last week is it for yard work, except on weekends. I am looking forward to it being light in the mornings; it entices me to get out of bed and go to the gym! Hat Obsession October 25, 2009 I like making hats. They are simple and easy to make in the span of a few hours. My problem is that I don't really wear them all that often. I feel a little goofy in them. So, I try to break out of my comfort zone and wear them on occasion (I have the worst time spelling that word! Two s' or two c's...geez!). Anyway, the one of the left, below, is mine and the green one is Eliana's. I had to make her one because she wouldn't stop bugging me about it. Eliana, I think I deserve a postage stamp mirror. ;) Or a Baloo. We'll go with a Baloo. Muhahahah!  My not so great Photoshop cropping and mixing photos, but here they are! That's about all I've made lately. I am planning on working on my quilt this week, or so I hope. A few links worth mentioning: -Regretsy: Be prepared to laugh and go ewww! I mean, we've all seen things on Etsy that just shouldn't be sold. I'm crossing my fingers something of mine doesn't show up there! There are some NSFW photos mixed in that site, so just beware. -Twigasm: My friend Meghan told me about this site and I only got to peruse it a bit on Friday. Today, it seems that it is by invitation only, which is weird, because the other day it was up and working, you just had to accept that you understood it was, um, adult content. Anyway, it is mostly a conglomeration of Twilight fanfiction of the more adult variety. Like, what you really wished Stephanie Meyer wrote. Ok, so maybe it was just me and Meghan. hah! -The Young Victoria: Sucker for period pieces that I am, I can't wait to see this! I'm not a huge fan of Emily Blunt but the preview looks good. -Around the Blogosphere: -My brother whipping up chocolate chip cookies one night, but he didn't share the recipe. Was this Phoebe's grandmother's famous recipe by Nestle Tollhouse? -The Organic Climber: A nifty little blog that I found awhile back. I'm going to have to get a Vita-Mix one of these days if every food blogger keeps talking about them. -Burbs and the Bees: A blog from a Flickr 'contact/friend' that I've just started reading. Good stuff! I think that's about it for the weekend roundup! We did a backpacking trip this weekend so I'll have a blog about that later on this week. Craft MoJo October 20, 2009 I think that jewelry making session was what I needed. I am in a crafting mood; or maybe it was fall that did it. I have ideas galore and too many projects to name. I want to finish my t-shirt quilt, start some drawings, do more beading, crochet a few items. My problem is time! Now that it is cooler we'll be out a lot on the weekends, exploring and hiking, though I'm sure there will be a weekend here and there that will be free, but most of my time will be during the evenings. This time of year is when I wish I had a DVR or TIVO to record everything and watch at my own pace instead of when it is actually shown. Someday perhaps. I think I am going to do a bottle cap earring tutorial because the ones I've seen online haven't been too appealing. Look for that this week. Seriously, they are very addicting and I know I am going to end up with a big collection of them! hah! 5 Things I Give Cheers To: -Women who weight lift. I think it amazes me every time I go to the gym and see so many women lifting weights. The last time I joined a gym there weren't so many lifting. I think the fitness and blogging world has made an impact. Keep those chicken wings off those arms, ladies! Do some curls and tricep presses! -Bloggers who post real content and not so many giveaways! I stopped reading many blogs because of this; just skim on by them in my reader. It only makes me a little jealous that they are that successful, but when you are sacrificing content for multiple giveaways, you tend to drive away your readers. -The really awesome cool front that came through late Saturday night. Oh, how beautiful the colder weather is. Of course it is back in the 80's now, but at least it's crisper in the mornings. -Last night's episode of Big Bang Theory. I've started watching this show occasionally on Monday nights and Sheldon cracks me up. -One month until New Moon people!!! There are hot werewolves running around in this one!! Well, I had a video to show but I can't get it to upload, so until tomorrow... Jewelry Making Fool October 18, 2009 When Eliana went to Grenada last spring she brought back earrings made from bottle caps. They were really cool and it had inspired both of us to want to make them. We finally got our chance yesterday and after a hectic trip to Michael's to buy some findings and accesories. The biggest thing was working the drill since I'm not really mechanically inclined and boy, you have to be careful not to let it slip or else it'll ruin your bottle caps, or coins in my case. We spent a few hours messing around and came up with some neat looking thing. At least I hope so!  Eliana made the bracelet at the top and she didn't finish any earrings! I'm not sure which bottle caps are my favorite, as in, which ones I'll keep! I made the coin ones on a whim and Eliana liked them so much she told me to make a duplicate pair for her. However, I didn't have enough of the beads to do more so I went to Michael's again today to find them and ended up making my own for myself in another way and she can have those.  So, I came up with this today. It really is addicting and fun! Yes, Eliana, since I know you are going to drool over the green bracelet, I made it especially for you! I made it too big initially and had to resize it. I think I'm going to add to that necklace, though. It needs a little something...hrm.  And here we are, the short Texan and the tall Colombian-American. I want that mirror. Miami: You Suck October 17, 2009 My beef with Miami is long. It's the people that comprise Miami that make it so suck-tastic and aside from a few, the majority are on my crap list. Such as the people today that shot Marc with a pellet gun. I was with them the entire day, enjoying a crepe breakfast made by Marc and doing crafts with Eliana and her sister. I'd just uploaded photos from the day to Flickr and IM'd Marc to tell Eliana they were up so she could see. He comes back and tells me he had been shot and was with the police. For a few seconds I'm sitting there with baited breath wondering what exactly he meant by that when he told me that. Apparently some #*#*$#(*&@ idiots drove by and shot him and Millie their new dog with a pellet gun, leaving a nasty mark on his leg and knocking him to the ground. This isn't a bad neighborhood, but I did have a problem with a mass of teens blocking the road as I was leaving. What the hell happened to respect? Our run in with Miami is in the form of several car wrecks within about six months of each other, that weren't our fault, as well as being robbed in our apartment while we slept. The latter was a smidge of my fault, having left the sliding door unlocked at night. Luckily we'd changed my truck keys out before they came back a week later and tried to steal my truck. And so, Miami, you suck. Banana Republic you truly are.  Millie, you deserve better. Crispy Garden October 15, 2009 I'm going to complain about the heat once again, probably to the dismay of everyone else who has their winter coats and gloves on. But, it's bad. And there's no rain, to boot. I'm feeling well enough to venture out in the yard to take a few photos, but mostly to see how crispy everything is. And in general everything is hanging in there, toughing it out, but some things are showing their signs of frailty in this dry, hot weather of mid-October. All I can say to myself is "Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!!" Sunday is the cold front! It'll be more of a cool front, but at least maybe it'll bring some respite. I also went out bad because I felt back for the dog and let him play in the water hose for awhile. Poor pup follows me around the house looking to play or go for a walk, but I know he wouldn't really want to go out in the heat either. I managed to find a few things worth showing you.  Clerodendrum incisum, aka: music notes.  A dried up ylang-ylang flower. It still smelled good, though.   Clerodendrum ugandense I found an article on the least visited National Parks, and while the majority of them are in Alaska, there are quite a bit that are in the continental U.S. I was dissappointed to see Big Bend NP on the list. Chris and I went with four other friends for spring break in 2000. We spent several days out there and while the drive is long, from Galveston allllll the way out to west Texas, it was worth it. I'd love to go again some day, see more of the back country. I've heard that you can't easily cross the border any longer. When we went you paid a few Mexicans to float you across the Rio Grande and then if you wanted to pay more money you could either take a truck, mule or horse to the little town. We hoofed it. But, the last thing I heard was that you couldn't do that any more, or you had to cross yourself. Anyway, it is a great little park and I'm always for talking up Texas, so visit this park sometime! The other park on the list that I was sad to see was Dry Tortugas NP. And I understand why, though. Unless you have your own boat or sea plane, it costs upwards of $150 or more per person to get there. It isn't that far off of Key West, but you can't snorkel your way there. (well, you probably could, but I'm not trying.) What's a good National Park that you recommend? Let's skip the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Denali, Arcadia and the Smokey's. *cough cough* October 14, 2009 Slowly feeling better around these parts. Three days off work and counting. I think I'm going to attempt for a fourth day since my throat is still sore from coughing, I am still coughing a bit and my glands are still swollen with a bit of congested ears. Yeah, it sounds bad still. I just kept thinking, one more day and I'll be better. I mean, that's how it is with colds, a day or two and you are back to normal. But I hardly get this sick and so I am not used to it, this knocked out of the loop feeling. I'll get up and do a few things around the house, contemplate something harder like mopping the floor after I swept it, but then realize it is such a task and I just lay back down and end up sleeping for a few hours. Or watching movies, like The Bachelor. I like Renee Zellweger's hair in that movie. Lots of good curls. I never realized how much of her Texas accent comes through in her movies, but it does. She's a Longhorn, too. *mmmph*. So, in my three days of languishing at home and accomplishing nothing but long naps and managing to fold laundry, I've come to decide that daytime tv sucks and that I don't know how people who work at home, do it. I would get depressed. For one, there are so many things I could do, but deciding what to do would probably paralyze me. Then I would just decide to sleep all day and get nothing done, or watch movies in bed, or Friends reruns which is what I've resorted to since nothing is on tv. Mind you, I don't have cable so I can't even find something in the depths of Lifetime to watch. I have read a little of Outlander, and that has been good, but then I fall asleep. I was about to convince myself that I shouldn't sleep all afternoon today, that I should do something, but then decided I did need some rest and why the heck shouldn't I just sleep all afternoon. I like watching Ghost Whisperer, though I don't catch all of the episodes on first run, but I'll watch if I'm not doing anything else on a Friday night. I really like Jennifer Love Hewitt, though I know she's gotten flack in the past for, I dunno, just being herself I suppose. I don't think she's a bad actress and I love her style on the show. She's always wearing cute empire waist and A-line dresses and even the night gowns she wears are really gowns and though I don't like gowns because they just tangle up my legs, they make you want to wear them. The other thing I like about her is that she isn't toothpick thin. JLH got some flack for being 'overweight', like a year ago or so, and I think she lost a bit of weight, but honestly, she looks good. She's not 90210 thin. Not sure where I was going with that, just noticing. I like the show, too. It makes me miss Charmed. Let's see, what other rambling can I get into? I guess not much else. Baloo has been with me all week and I feel pretty bad for him having to laze about with me. The cats have been happy sleeping away on the bed, or wherever else they can find to curl up. Maybe I can manage a few more small things tomorrow and head back to work on Friday. I am ready to feel normal again. Lung Hacking and Sunsets October 12, 2009 I have bronchitis with a side of a cold/sinus issues, maybe the flu? The bronchitis is definite, per the doctor, and I do have a mild fever. No aches though, so I suppose a nasty cold. I thought I would start feeling a little better, but so far I feel worse. I did manage to change the sheets because they felt 'sick', and I will probably go around tomorrow with some diluted bleach and clean some surfaces. I'm sure I am too late for stopping this from being contagious, but maybe I can prevent Chris from getting sick. I managed to do a few small things before getting too tired and having to start over with a nap and lots of daytime tv. Daytime tv is boring for the most part. The View, well, it used to be good. What happened? Lisa Ling brought out the best in that show. The last couple of hours of The Today Show with Kathy Lee Gifford and the chick named Hoda (I keep wanting to say Hoodia), weren't too bad. But, mostly daytime tv is lame. Oh, European Vacation was on, so that was probably the highlight. Tomorrow I am hoping I feel better enough to either read or draw instead of feeling like a lame-o. I was hoping to go back to work Wednesday but if I keep dripping and hacking lungs it might not be until Thursday. Before I started feeling so much worse, we went out this past weekend to Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park. While the rest of the country is experiencing fall and snowy weather, we're having record heat in the 90's. Luckily we had a fan and the campground was mostly deserted, but I still wasn't feeling so up to much. We did manage to have a nice sunset Saturday night so I will leave you with those. I'm going to curl up with Dr. House and hope he can diagnose some good British     Chris took this at sunrise on Sunday. I was sleeping. ;) It's one of my favorites that he took. Where'd Fall Go? October 8, 2009 Someone, please tell me where Fall went? Must've went north, because it is practically summer again, with record heat and sticky humidity. Not pleasant. When looking at these next pictures, pretend it is 75 and sunny with light humidity, nothing too dry, nothing too moist. Just pleasant. (Instead of the ick it is).  Pteroglossaspis pottsii at Potts Preserve in Citrus county. Prem has a good write up on this recently discovered orchid. Chris went to see it last year but I think I failed to go because of the whirwind day trip it would have been. It's about a four hour drive up there, maybe a bit more, and he was going to another park as well and it proved to be too hectic for me. So, this time I went and most were setting seed pods but we found a few open. Yes, the sky was that blue, but I also had a polarizing filter on and I failed to change my lighting to 'sun' prior to shooting everything at this location so everything turned out a bit more blue than normal. I think the interesting thing about this orchid is that it went so long without being 'discovered'. It's in an open field, the spikes aren't that invisible, so it is odd to think it went unknown for so long. It makes you wonder what else hasn't been discovered.  I converted this to B&W in PS, but I like the mood. That is a seed pod of the orchid on the right-hand side.  We stopped for 15 minutes or so to shoot some butterflies that were sipping nectar for breakfast (or really lunch!) and I managed to actually get a yellow one to sit still long enough to photograph. The best I could identify this from my book was to be a Eurema nicippe, or sleepy orange.  Another green lynx spider...they really are very cool spiders. Come on, admire the beauty Stephanie! ;)  A little grasshopper....don't ask me to identify it, my knowledge of bugs is limited to butterflies and some spiders.  My walking stick friend says hello!  And finally, beautiful liatris. Fall really is a good wildflower season in Florida, much better than spring. If I can blog tomorrow, it will be amazing and I will have blogged all week! Wowzers! PS: Baloo has a girlfriend now! ;) More on her later... Nearly Wordless Wednesday October 7, 2009 Silver Glen Spring Recreation Area, Ocala National Forest. Grass Laying October 6, 2009  It's always good to lay in a field of grass, especially when the sky is that blue and the air warm, but with a tinge of autumn. Very dreamy. Short post today, but I wanted to let you all know that Stephanie Nielson is going to be on Oprah tomorrow. I clicked through to find a preview and you can see it on Oprah's previews for Wednesday. She's the second person Oprah talks about. I'll be digging out a tape to record it, because I live in the 90's and don't have Tivo. And then I'll have to figure out how to program the VCR. So, just passing it on. I finished An Echo in the Bone on Saturday, prior to that shot there in the grass. Yes, I'm fairly certain I was thinking about the book while laying there. Now, I have four years to wait for the next one. I've decided to restart the series in the meantime. October 5, 2009  Lobelia cardinalis The flower above was growing all over the Silver River and Juniper Spring Run this weekend. More photos on that tomorrow. The best part of all was.....*drumroll please...* I finally saw my first Florida black bear!!! We'd just left Juniper Springs and we'd been told by the driver of the van that picked us up after our canoe run that Silver Glen Springs was a nice place to go for a swim. It was already 3:30 and we have at least a four hour drive ahead of us and we debated back and forth. At the last second Chris decided we should go. We'd turned off of S.R 40 onto S.R. 19, I was driving, and I noticed a black shadow on the west side of the road, in the brush. I was still trying to pay attention to the road when Chris mentioned that it was a bear. I put on my brakes and slowed down to get a good glimpse of the bear, an approximate 100lb-er, just watching the cars go by and hoping for a good time to pass. I debated turning around to get a photo, but there wasn't a camera handy and the bear would have been scared off. But, alas, I have finally seen a bear in Florida! WOO! I think I'm done for 'big time' mammals in Florida. Panther, bobcat, fox, coyote, otter, Everglades mink, bear...though I suppose I need to find the red wolf that was reintroduced somewhere up in North Florida. I suppose I could move offshore and focus on the marine mammals, but that's more difficult. I can notch manatee off that list at least! Hoping to get caught up around here this week on the blog and in life. We'll see, though, I'm pretty tired. Oh, October October 2, 2009 Finally it has started feeling like Fall around here. Crisper mornings, ok, so they are 75* instead of 85*, but it is with a significant decrease of humidity, so I am happy. I didn't mean for the week to slip away, but most of my free time has been spent reading my book, which is really, really good. A lot of items from the Revolutionary War are coming back to me, and I think we had the glossy version in school. There's talk about building trenches for latrines. Ick. And don't forget all of the cutting off of arms, gangrene and other assorted diseases. Double ick! I'm ok with digging a hole in the woods, but sharing a trench with thousands of other people, not quite so much. Other than reading, on Tuesday I baked a cake, which turned out not great but not bad, for Chris' birthday on Wednesday. He is now 30! Oh, how did we get here? On a good note, someone came by to do a survey yesterday and asked my age and when I said 29 she told me I certainly didn't look it and would have guessed 21! I was a bit dishevled from being in the field and had already changed into some comfy clothes, but it made me feel a bit better. Though, there was one time on an airplane, probably three years ago, a teen next to me thought I was 16 and still in highschool!! I should really start wearing makeup again. I have a few photos to share from two weekends ago at Fisheating Creek. I am not pleased with the majority of the ones I took and am hoping next weekend we will get some better ones.     Chris got some better ones:   And here is my little red shouldred hawk friend from a month ago:  RS hawks make a noise that is undeniably theirs, and this one was squaking away when I looking over and saw it sitting 10' up in a tree. I tried for a better shot but it flew away before I could get ready. I was left with this photo. I hope to be a bit better about writing this week once I get my nose out of my book. I know I am going to be disappointed in the end when I have to wait 4 more years for the next one. |
