Flickr Bicker

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned joining a Flickr group that was sort of an online photography scavenger hunt of sorts.  I thought it would be a good way to learn to use my camera, get some feedback, maybe even garner a little praise if I was lucky.

Apparently I’m not that lucky.  I’ve found myself struggling mightily with the assignments; this week’s include high key, "visual joke or pun" and hometown postcard.  Living in the Metro D.C. area makes the last one clearly the easiest, but I’m completely stumped on the other two.  I’m thinking of ‘dropping’ the class until after I take some time to take a real photography class and pick up some pointers on focus, aperture, depth of field, and all of those other photography terms that mean something to folks other than me, but I’m reluctant to because they’ve recently stopped accepting new members to the group.  On one hand I feel like I have to suck it up and muddle through, but on the other, I find myself getting a bit frustrated wtih with I feel is my inadequacy when I compare my shots to others’.

   

   

There are a couple of different beginner photography Flickr groups that I may be better suited for.  On one hand, I feel like I’m wussing out of a challenge after very little time and on the other, I’m just not sure I have the skills yet to do what seems to be required.  We’ll see.

On the health front, for the first time in two weeks I am finally able to breathe without hacking up a lung (for the most part) so I have no excuse for not making it back to the gym.  More than that, I’ve let not going to the gym influence my eating habits which have backslid tremendously.  I think I may have to go back on the french fry bandwagon and I certainly have to start bringing lunch again.  I’ve been summoned to my LYS for late night tomorrow but I know my gym buddy wants to go to a class Thursday night, so we’ll see if I can get my act together.

Speaking of getting one’s act together, my boys have gone TWO whole races without winning.  Come on  now!  Although, I should clarify, Phoenix’s 4th place finish feathering a wonky alternator/battery situation v. dropping a cylinder and running smack into @#%#@!^% Tony Stewart and finishing near the back of the field isn’t exactly the same thing.  The Texas result really hurt us; we’re sitting in fourth but well back from a third-place Kenseth (sorry, RWR, but I’m gonna have to start wishing ill for Matty).  This weekend is ‘Dega and as long as we stay away from Vickers, we should be okay.

Happy BEarthday

For the last several weeks, everyone has been abuzz about Earth Day being right around the corner.  While I do appreciate the celebration of our zany world and the movement towards conserving what we have, April 22 has always meant a smidge more to me.

It’s my daddy’s birthday.

I’ve always been Daddy’s Little Girl with a twist.  I’m not particularly spoiled by any stretch of the imagination, despite being an only brat, but I’ve always had a great deal more common with my dad.  He taught me to love sports, although not his precious Cleveland Browns (I mean, seriously).  My love of boxers comes from him (the pups, not the pugilists) and my dry sense of humor is 100%  Pop.  I wish I had more of his way with people, strangers and friends alike.

I know he wishes I was home more often, that he could see me more often, but he also understands that I needed to go explore other avenues.  He has always loved me, supported me and trusted me and no number of blog posts can thank him for that.

I love you, Dad.  Happy birthday.

L-R: my dad, my great-grandparents, my grandmother, aunt and grandfather.  Easter Sunday 1940-something

Biting off more than I can chew

I have a massive bedroom.  In this massive bedroom, I have a LOT of junk  terribly important prized possessions.  I’ve lived here for YEARS and never bothered removing the nails that previous tennant left in the walls and I certainly haven’t done any decorating.

That’s all going to change.

Pam – my personal hero who just ran the Boston Marathon earlier this week – and I went to that place that isn’t Lowe’s after work tonight [I’m sorry, Jimmie, I had no choice; there’s no Lowe’s nearby].  Anyway, I wanted to pick up some spackle to patch the holes in my walls before attempting to paint this monster.  I accidentally bought paint while I was there – Behr was on sale, so I figured what the heck.  The nail holes have been sanded and spackled; a couple of them are so deep that I’ll need to do a second run with the putty knife.  In an ideal world, I could get two of the walls painted by Sunday, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.

Sucktastic

In the real world, I’m a computer geek for a small non-profit (what else would I do with my shiny liberal arts?).  Today was one of those days that I ABSOLUTELY HATE that title.  Normally it’s a little web editing, a little software installation, and a lot of list-making to along to our real tech support consultants.  Today I wasn’t so lucky.  One of my coworkers thought it would be a fantastic idea to open an attachment from someone she didn’t know.  "I didn’t do anything; I just double-clicked!"

Okaaaaaaaay. 

Nearly seven hours later, I finally got it all hammered out.  Since I didn’t leave the office until almost nine, I’m torn between sleeping in or leaving early tomorrow eve ing is?.ning.  Only time will tell.  The good news is, I did get a lot of knitting done while waiting for various scans to run and tell me what the heck was wrong with Trixie McGee’s computer.  Almost done with Writhe #1.  Once I turned the heel, the foot went really quickly.  It would’ve been finished weeks ago if I hadn’t gone on an Hourglass hiatus.

I just hit the increase shaping for the breastical region and it’s coming along but it’s   SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW.  It makes for great race knitting since it’s largely stockinette in the round, but I guess I’m just getting impatient.  I’d like it to be done now please.  Thank you.

This weekend the clouds are finally supposed to break and the sun should reappear.  Good thing my new flipflops arrived today.  Oh Teva, how I love your squishy goodness.   Although, with all the wall spackling I need to get done this weekend, perhaps clouds would be more welcome.

Off to watch the Australia installment of "1000 Places to See Before You Die" – only eleven months to go!

Rain, rain, go away

Once again, our basement here at Chez Garfield flooded.  Only this time it was serious.

Pay no mind to all the crap except to say that it’s ruined.  Three suitcases of winter clothes, a duffel bag of (thankfully) crappy yarn, a tent, a backpack – all of it waterlogged.  Two cases of cassette tapes – oh, those precious college-era mixed tapes.  Ick. 

And, of course, no renters’ insurance.

SURPRISE!!!

I only gained three pounds in the last two weeks.  I thought it was going to be at LEAST five.  I spent last week being pretty lazy and unmotivated (but still managed to hit the gym four times), but this week I’ve been wallowing upon my deathbed, scarfing down so-called "comfort food" the moment it came within reach of my tentacles.  Since the last time I checked, Soft Batch cookies weren’t rockin’ on the nutritional and/or medicinal value front, I’ll take my three pounds and be done with it.

My soccer boys – DC United – play their home opener tonight at RFK.  Of course, it’s supposed to rain and, of course, I’m going anyway.  I will likely wuss out and hide under the eaves on the 300 level rather than mingle with the riff-raff in my usual waterlogged seats.  We’ll see how I’m feeling.

I’m currently obsessed with the Take a Class with Dave & Dave group on Flickr.   It’s kind of like a weekly photography scavenger hunt.  Unfortuntely last week was my first week, so I wasn’t in a terribly good place to be creative with the themes of mirror/reflection, frozen time & dance.    I find that I can be okay with framing shots, but I’m not particularly good at creative interpretation of others’ ideas.  We’ll see how I do with this week’s themes: square foot, sky & "abstract".  Hopefully I can find a shot at the game tonight that will work for one of them.

Knitting has been sporadic at best.  I haven’t picked up the Writhe socks all week and have been fairly devoted to my Hourglass.  I finished the first sleeve and cast on the main body.  I’m just a smidgen above the turning ridge but it’s rolling along.  I think I’ll work on Writhe today b/c with NASCAR back tomorrow, it’ll be the perfect time for brainless round-and-round knitting.  I’d show you a picture of the body, but it’s just a weird three-inch wide terra cotta ruffle and not particularly exciting.  Deal with it.

But I need that lung!

I’m not sure which, but I’ve been home dead, hacking up a lung for the last couple of days.  My guess is that it’s some sort of allergy/post-nasal drip/congestion party in my chest, but no matter how fine a point you put on it, it sucks.  The BossLady’s head will spin around if I take day 3 off work so I have to haul my butt in to the office tomorrow.  Joy.  Rapture.

Needless to say, this hasn’t bode well for my whole healthy living master plan.  I do nothing but wallow when I’m not feeling well and wallowing means comfort food and comfort food doesn’t mean mixed green salads with a nice reduced-fat vinaigrette.  Post-Easter 50% off Reese’s PB eggs certainly isn’t helping my cause either.

I’ve gotten some knitting done over the last several days, but life would be much easier if my Hourglass pattern didn’t make a break for it every time I set it down.  I know it can only be about three feet away from me, as I haven’t moved in several hours.  It’s not very exciting knitting; just imagine 2.5 feet of a terra cotta stockinette tube.  W’hoo!

Before succumbing to black lung, I did manage to get out of the house this weekend to go to the last hockey game of the season.  The streak continues – the Caps lost their season finale to Buffalo.  Unfortunately, the curse bled over into DCU in their season opener v. Colorado.  Hopefully they were just resting up for their opener at home this weekend.

Dear Ginormous Prehistoric Bug-Creature

Good morning.  I am writing to express my concern at your presense on my wall this morning.  While on many occasions I have commented that I wish there was someone at home to welcome me back with rousing applause after I make it to the gym in the morning, I didn’t quite have you in mind.  And while I’m sure that wriggling maneuver you were making while waving 300 little arms in the air was surely a gazillipede’s celebratory booty shake and not any sort of prelude to attack, I’d be quite grateful if you did it somewhere else.

Like the Amazon.

Sincerely,
Moi

“Fat. You’re FAT!”

That was the barbaric yawp that echoed around my room this evening as I tried to drag my butt to the gym.  I’d already strapped myself into my iron maiden whalebone corset new sports bra and was all set to go but then became sucked into the gravitational pull of the couch and the televised stylings of the perpetually perky Rachael Ray.  Alas, after the aforementioned grunt, I did manage to crawl to the gym for a half hour of joy.  I’ve had the worst time getting out of bed to go to the gym this week and the early morning thunderous pyrotechnics certainly didn’t help.  However, The trek to the gym did bring me my favorite personalized license plate in quite a while though:  L& SHRK

I have been knitting, although nothing particularly exciting.  I cast on my Undulating Rib socks (henceforth known as Writhe) on Sunday.  I LOVE the yarn but I still don’t know how I feel about the yarn and pattern together.  I also recently cast on my 2nd attempt at the Hourglass sweater from Last  Minute Knitted Gifts in KnitPicks Shine Worsted in Terra Cotta but I’m not sure how I feel about the color.  I’m considering exchanging it for Watermelon, but I’m knitting up a sleeve to see how I feel about the color knit up.

With Easter approaching – four days til I can have French fries!!! – there is also a race-free weekend on the horizon.   Ebeth is kind enough to go searching for fish and chips with me on Sunday, but other than that, I think I may focus on more preparing for room painting.  At least I have Chimmie’s victory last week to keep me going til Phoenix.  Not only that, but DC United kicks off their regular season Sunday afternoon in Denver.

What a Fool Believes

Yes, that’s a pair of socks.  A COMPLETED pair of socks!  I love the Mama-E’s June Bug, I love the pattern and I adore the way they fit.  Of course, it’s going to be 80 degrees tomorrow, but that’s not the point.  The Elliott socks – officially the Here There Be Dragon socks – are the ONLY project I managed to finish during the first phase of Project Spectrum 2.0 and even that’s cheating a little because I didn’t finish them until last night.  Well, I suppose technically they are blue and green so it’s only fitting that they straddle the two color groups.

Since we’re in the midst of peak cherry blossom season here in DC, I thought it was only fitting that I share the pink blossoms as my nod to the April/May grouping of PS 2.0

     

1. cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin 2. Cast-on cuff of the Undulating Rib sock from Interweave Knits’ Favorite Socks 3. Pink Powder Puff (I think) at U.S. Botanic Garden 4. Yellow calla lilies at Botanic Garden 5.  Ballband Dishcloth from Mason Dixon Knitting 

I realized I completely forgot to update the world (or just my small corner of it) on how Chimmie did at Bristol.  It was not one of our finer outings.  I think they finally finished 16th, one lap down.  It wasn’t so much the 16th place finish that bothered me, but rather the way Chad and Jimmie were screaming at each other on the scanner.  It was reminiscent of the way they used to fight at the end of the ’05 season and THAT wasn’t pretty.  Updates on last weekend’s short-track result (Martinsville) later this week.

Another weigh-in came and went last week.  Down another 5 – W’HOO!!!  Had a LOT of trouble getting up for the gym this morning after a somewhat lackadaisical weekend.  Ebeth and I went downtown for the Smithsonian Kite Festival, but ended up spending more time at the National Museum of the American Indian.  After our tour, we moseyed over to the U.S. Botanic Garden.  The exterior gardens were not exactly in bloom, but there were beautiful Easter lilies in the greenhouse.