June 2008

A very disappointing week. I tried to get downtown and get some shots of all the run down areas of town, but I had Liam with me and he was rather uncooperative. So all in all I have very few shots to choose from this week.

I’ve noticed all my photos are pretty weak on contrast, I can get my shadows where I like them, but my highlights are either washed out or muddy any photoshop tips/hints in that direction? It could be a setting on my camera as well, I’ll have to check that out. Anyway, here they are:

This is a hat that’s been sitting in a chair in our sunroom for weeks. Yup. It’s a hat.

This is the base of a lamp post in downtown near the Philips Petroleum building. It’s a nice area that I had never really walked through, I’d like to revisit it at night sometime (once I get a tripod).

I love chipping paint photos, but again, I wish the white could have been a bit whiter.

If you’re currently eating something or squimish, don’t read any further.

Mike had to pull a half eaten baby rabbit from Turbo’s clenched jaws yesterday. This was a very traumatic experience for me. I realize that dogs are dogs and that hunting down and eating wild meat is simply bred into their nature, but why can’t he just stick to his Science Diet. It’s so much less bloody. Mike was actually on the phone wishing his dad Happy Father’s day when I noticed Turbo through the window, tiny Thumper feet hanging from his mouth. Without any particular plan in mind, I grabbed one of my shoes and ran out to do…something. But, by that time it was clear that the poor thing had departed from this world, I sighed and I contemplated just letting him eat the rest. Then I started thinking about the size of Turbo’s stomach and the size of said rabbit. He was eating it whole, kind of like a snake would. I worried that this might cause some sort of blockage in his stomach because surely, he doesn’t digest fur, does he?

It’s been storming off and on for almost two weeks now. Usually I love storms. I love listening to them, falling asleep to them. But unfortunately all the rain is causing a great deal of grief when it comes to our house, and belief it or not, my car. The house is flooding/dripping on two ends. My dad and Mike have been working on the corner flooding next to Liam’s room. After digging for a day they discovered that someone had drilled a who in the wall, which is probably where the majority of the rain was coming in. However, there still seems to be some leakage problems but they need to wait until everything dries properly before they seal it all. Meanwhile, it just keeps raining. Very annoying.

The sun room ceiling is still dripping, even after Mike and his dad spent days trying to seal up all the gaps. The car. Well, my car is always a mystery. It continues to be tempermental about starting. It died on me just before my massage therapy appointment last week. Not a good time to have a dead car. I was so looking forward to that massage, I was totally prepared to hike my way their in the heat. But the new mystery is that the trunk fills up with water after it rains and we can’t figure out where it all comes from since every “test” we’ve done on it seems to indicate that everything around the top of the trunk is sealed tight. I’ve had to chuck my spare tire because it got all rusty. Hopefully I won’t get a flat anytime soon because that would really suck.

New Liam words: bug, baking, honey (my heart melts when he says this), air conditioning (ok, so it doesn’t come out exactly like that but he has the syllables right).

New Liam challenge: getting him to sit down for dinner, eat dinner, show any interest whatsoever in dinner.

Sorry, I’m technically a day late on the PotW, but Friday seems a better day to do it anyway. Well, here goes:

This weeks batch was actually very difficult. First I had to weed out all the Liam pics, which proved to be my best stuff of that batch. Then I had to filter out three from the rest. I was really digging a lot of the ones I took this week, making it difficult to choose three.

This one was tough, since Liam was right there with me, so I was trying to spin the (what do you call those things?) thing around without whacking him in the face. I would have liked to have gotten another shot at this pic, but it was a no go.

Edward Weston in the house! This one is very evocative of the work of Edward Weston - my all-time favorite photographer. Of course, he was using a Large Format camera (Quick Aside: the Large Format class I took in school ruined photography for me. I LOVED L/F so much that once out of that class, I really couldn’t go back to 35mm. The amount of control and clarity you get with L/F is astounding.) so he really has the advantage on me.

Why is this interesting to me? I don’t know. Some workers are gutting the elementary school’s heating and a/c units and this was a shot of some kind of….part.

Well what do you think?

Ok folks, I’ve been watching people on the web work on this challenge for some time now, Chrissy, Mae Jane…accomplish 101 preset goals in 1001 days. I’m going to give it a shot. I’ve tried things like this before. I few years ago I made a list on 43 things, but I was only able to come up with 33 things to do. So, how, I ask myself, am I going to be able to come up with 101 things if I can’t even come up with 43. I need some suggestions. I intend to include some of my 43 things on my new list, although some need to be updated and tweaked a little. For instance, I don’t think I’m going to manage to visit all of the world’s continents in 2.5 years. I mean, I have two down so far but financially it’s just not feasible right now. And, I don’t think I’m gonna swing the mile under 10 minutes. Last I checked I clocked around 12 to 13 and that was before I had Liam. However…and I know I’m probably going to get some head shakes from Mike on this one, but I really do want to run a 5k. Just a 5k. Nothing big. I’m fully aware of the possible pain that would result form such an endeavor but my plan is to do it this summer…get it out of the way now, accomplish that goal before the arthritis really kicks in, then finally wave good bye to my running days and hello to bike riding and elliptical trainers. The socks, however, I have a head start on. I’ve been working on a pair of socks for Mike for a few months now. I have one done. This is pretty much the first knitting project I’ve done that didn’t end in a scarf or hat.

But still, I’m stuck. I need some suggestions. My only request is that it doesn’t require the consumption of bugs (if I’m stranded in the desert…ok, fine, roast up that beetle) but stick with the crafty, creative, sporty and adventurous endeavors (except, I did mention the bugs, right?).

Tomorrow’s Friday. I swear, this week seemed endless. But, if I’m remembering right, this also means that Mike will be posting his photo of the week soon. We went to the park the other day and he took some really great shots using the blue tinted filter again. I’m using one of the pictures he took of Liam for our banner. It really is nice to see Mike using a camera for artistic purposes again. He never lost his touch, that’s for sure.

Tomorrow is Mike’s birthday. He’s turning 29. We did our main celebrating last night. We had planned to go out but settled on a dinner (turkey burger) and a movie (The Invasion). Liam spent the night at my parents so it was nice and relaxing. We tried to sleep in but we both have inner 7am clocks now.

This weekend was Sun Fest. It’s like a craft/music/family entertainment festival they have in Bartlesville every summer. I’ve gone every year I’ve lived here (minus the few years I was in college). It’s grown a lot since I was in high school. The vendors used to be mainly country crafters but now there are potters, candle makers, horticulturists and artists of all kinds who attend trying to sell their stuff. I buy something every year, usually from my friend Jennifer and her mom. Jennifer makes delicious natural bath scrubs and soaps (I say delicious because some of them do contain coco) and her mom paints lovely flowers on pretty much anything she can get her hands on, mirrors, chests, tables. One year I bought an old vintage suitcase that I now use to store material. Hopefully one day I’ll use that material to make something extraordinary (must master that sewing machine).

They also had a dog show. Like, the cool type of dog show. They were all rescued dogs that had been trained to catch frisbee’s and do crazy stunts. Really made me want to go home and try some tricks with Chani and Turbo. They’ll sit and shake hands for a treat, and Chani used to be able to “find” treats when I hid them but it’s been awhile. I feel bad sometimes, I don’t feel like I spend enough time with my dogs. I look at Chani and remember what things were like when it was just me and her during the day (Mike would be asleep since he was working the night shift). Those were lazy days. Walk, play, watch a little t.v., play, read, walk again, dinner and then back to the couch again.

The weather’s getting hotter. There’s so much that needs to be done in our yard but the mosquito’s are awful right now. It looks like Liam has my sweet blood because they pick on him too. We try to spend as much time as we can with him outside, going early in the morning or later in the evening when it’s a little cooler. He’s discovered the monkey bars at the park now. He grabs a hold of the shortest bar and swings, then laughs, I guess at the tickly feeling it creates in his tummy.

So, my birthday is coming up next month. My birthday present is going to be a night to myself in a cabin in Osage Hills, and possible a kleen kanteen. We were going to get me a bike but it’s too expensive right now so we’re saving up, twenty-five dollars each pay check, until we have enough for two bikes and one of those canvas tents for Liam that attaches on to the side. I’m having serious hip problems and was recently told that I have to quit running. I’m having a really had time with this since running has been my “escape” exercise for some years now. I was never a very good runner. I could go a good distance but I don’t think I had very good form which is probably why I ended up with hip/back problems. One of my longterm goals was to run in a race but I never got around to it. I guess I’ll have to find a bike race to participate in now.

The weekend before my birthday we’re taking a trip upstate to see Mike’s parents and take part in a family reunion. I’m excited about this, Liam will have a chance to meet more family and that’s always a good thing. The sad part is that I have to come home on the following Monday (not enough vacation days) and Mike and Liam are going to remain in New York for about a week. This will be the first time I’ll be away from Liam for that length of time. It’s over a month away and I’m already dreading it but I’m excited too because it gives Mike more time to be back in his hometown and visit with his family and friends.

In an effort to get myself back into taking pictures on a regular basis, I’m going to start a weekly post entitled (fittingly) Photo of the Week, where I take a bunch of pictures during the week and post my favorite(s). Beyond that, this is pretty well self-explanatory, so, on with the pics! Oh, I forgot my one rule: It can’t be a picture of Liam - we post so many of those already and it’s too easy. I’ve got to go out and really search for a picture.

This was a tough choice, but I really did like this one the best out of the ones I shot today (more below, for comparison) I’m experimenting with some built in filters in my camera - one that tints the B/W to be a slight blue color, and another that adjusts the contrast. I really like the look of the blue and I’ll probably experiment a bit with that. Here’s some other favorites:

Mike’s birthday is coming up on the ninth. I bought him Resident Evil 4 for Wii. I gave it to him early because we had game night last night and I thought he would like to play it with some of our buddies. Unfortunately, I had to retire early last night (was feeling a little loopy) so I didn’t get to gaze at the wonderful graphics that he’s been raving about all day. They’re definitely something. It almost makes me want to play but one look at the way Mike has to navigate both control and nunchuck makes me retreat back to my Google Reader and just say no.

I’ve uploaded a few new photos to our Flickr from our trip to the Aquarium last week. Liam enjoyed petting the sting rays. Mommy was a little edgy around the sting rays, given that she was stung by one while vacationing in South Carolina one summer. I accidently stepped on it (you know, it might help if their skin were a different color than say, SAND). We had also planned to go to Big Splash while I was on my vacation last week but unfortunately the weather was so bad that they had to close down. In fact, we’ve had quite a few storms the last few days. Mike took Liam over to my parents today so I could work some more on cleaning out the craft room (Mike was about to lay orange cones around the doorway….it was getting really bad). I big thunderstorm hit while they were there. Apparently, they both sat out in the sun room and watched while Liam pointed to the sky and said “Boom!”. Meanwhile, I was at Wal-mart picking up more storage bins. The down pour started just as I was leaving. I was a soggy-bottom girl by the time I got home. Still, there’s something about being drenched in thunder storm rain that’s very refreshing.