Childhood

10/365

I had several ideas for this topic--which in itself is quite a miracle because I don't usually have any ideas for the topics.  But I was unable to execute any of them during the day.  I knew I was going to my grandson's bb game tonight, so I figured I'd use an image from the game.  You don't usually think of JV players when you think of "childhood", but really, in the big scheme of things (living to 80-90 years), a 16-year-old is still in the stage of life referred to as "childhood".

Now for my rant.  Before leaving the bb game for the hour drive home, I decided to visit the loo.  I usually head for the handicap stall, not because I'm handicapped, but because there's sooooo much more room.  Well, once again I faced the all-too-frequent logistic predicament found in all-too-many ladies' rooms.

The commode was about 3 inches from the wall--really, what's that all about?  The stall is almost as big as a small bedroom, but the commode is jammed up against the wall.  If you sit down too fast and your shoulder accidentally touches the wall, you practically rebound off the seat.

Okay, then it's time to get the t-paper.  Well, that in itself, is an adventure, because invariably the dispenser is located so far down the wall that it's almost impossible for me, who isn't handicapped, to get the paper.  What in the world do the "handicapped" people do?  You practically tip yourself off the seat while bending over to grab the paper.  And if there isn't a little "tail" of paper to grab onto, you have to go on a search & rescue mission, hoping that you don't land on your knees before being able to clean up.

All I can say is, men must design those arrangements, cause a woman certainly wouldn't subject herself and her fellow-women to that kind of indignity.  hmmmph

Daily Routine

9/365

I've been trying to figure out how to label my posts since I began this 365 day Photo-a-Day challenge.  I think I finally hit on the way I'm going to do it.  Each post will be titled by the topic of the day, suggested by fat mum slim (Jan 6) .  And under the title will be the day's number/365.  Not exactly rocket-science, and I can't even say I came up with the idea on my own.  But it's a good idea, it will provide continuity and most importantly, it's easy enough for me to remember from one day to the next.

I do the dishes as my daily routine.  Well.....if the truth be told, maybe not every day.  But often enough to call it a daily routine.

Even the dishes look pretty good in HDR.

Oh, by the way, my plane leaves at 5:15 am on Thurs, so I actually have only two more days till I fly off to Hawaii.  Woot, woot!!

Day 8 Challenge

"Your Sky"

It's about 30 degrees with some  blowing wind.  Even so, we occasionally get a nice sunset around here.  The straight shot, not so great.  The HDR, pretty tolerable.

I was only out there for about 10 minutes.  Needless to say, I didn't belabor the issue.  I could have worked the composition and location, but 10 minutes was long enough for me.  I'm so NOT a winter photographer.  (of course, being dressed properly would have helped quite a bit...)

Tomorrow's challege:  Daily Routine.  Anyone want to jump in?  Leave me a link to your

blog so I can check out your image.

Photo a Day Challenge, Day 7

"Favorite"

Jacob just turned 9.  Tonight was his party.  He's my "favorite" 9-year-old grandson, and his sister is my "favorite" 7-year-old granddaughter. 

The party was chaos.  The dad and the uncles wrestled with all the boys (there must have been 50 6 of them) right in the middle of the room where everyone was trying to talk--not in the completely empty other room.  hmmmm.  I'm too old for this.

I've noticed that my photography skills are deteriorating at an alarming rate.  I think I'll blame my equipment, or maybe the chaos, or maybe the lack of cooperation of my subjects.  And if you believe that, I have a bridge in the middle of Arizona to sell to you.  Sigh!

Photo-A-Day Challenge, Day 6

"Makes You Smile"

Getting a head start on Christmas 2012 makes me smile.  Last year I got hooked on making quilted totes.  I lost track of how many I made.  This year, as Christmas drew closer and closer and no handmade projects reared their heads, I despaired of having something creative to give as gifts.

About three weeks before Christmas this year, a friend showed me a table runner that she had made.  Eureka!!!  I found my project, but it was too late to make them for this year.  No worries.  Now I have an entire year to make my gifts for next Christmas.  I'm psyched....and I'm smiling.

Want to join in on the Photo-A-Day-Challenge.  Click here.

Something You Wore



My favorite kind of footwear.  (not talking about the brand...)

Lettebox

The photo challenge for the day was "letterbox".  fatmumslim is from the UK, so I'm guessing that is referring to what we call, the mailbox.

Couldn't find one that was interesting enough and I thought I'd have to miss a day already, but when I arrived at Morrette's for dinner with my photo group, I noticed these cute minatures on their Christmas display. 

It's not a mailbox letterbox, but pretty close.

Tomorrow the challenge is "something I wore".  Now that should be easy, right?  The operative word is "should".  Knowing me, I'll convolute it in my head and make it much harder than it should be.  Go to photographer mum to see what she posted.

Something You Adore

The suggested topic for the day.

Yikes, how I hate abstract.  You might not think that's an abstract idea, but to me it is.  My kids are gone, there isn't much left that I "adore". 

But.....almost as soon as I began thinking about what to photograph, this wallet came to my mind.  Now seriously, I don't adore, adore  it, but it kind of makes me giddy.  Pathetic, I know.  Wait! A little background might redeem me from being consigned to the "totally frivolous" camp.

A loooong time ago I bought myself a spiffy leather wallet that I really liked.  Over the years it began to self-destruct fall apart and for at least the past 3 years, I've been on the lookout for another that I would enjoy as much.  My daughter asked for a particular Christmas gift from the Fossil store and while I was there I spied this cute wallet.  I thought the style would suit my needs and I love the color.  Ergo, a new wallet that makes me giddy.

The Past Couple of Days

For the past couple of days I've been thinking about what a slacker I've been about posting on my blog.  I don't make New Year's Resolutions, but I thought that Jan 1 would be a great time to begin posting an image a day for a year.

As some of you know, a few friends and I did that a few years ago. Most of the time it was pretty agonizing, although, ultimately, very rewarding.  Well, in her Dec 19 post, fat mum slim has challenged her readers to the very same activity, but she's added a nice twist.  She's posting a topic for each day as a suggestion. 

Today is Jan 2, and I didn't post yesterday, so there ya go.  I've already blown the 365 thing.  And since it's late at night and I just found fat mum slim's list, it's too late to do her suggestion.

So here's my pic for the day.  The only vanity plate I could find in a parking lot full of cars. 

Playing Catch-Up

I haven't been blogging much lately.  Don't know why.  Could be because I'm busy.  Could be because I'm in a funk. (holidays do that to me) Could be because I'm not taking too many photos and I don't like to post without photos.  Who knows.

Anyway, this post is an effort to catch-up a little.

My older daughter's birthday is Dec. 24.  So on Sat, Caleb and I went over there to give her her presents.  Out of the clear blue, someone suggested we go bowling.  So we did.

I hadn't been bowling in more years than I could remember, and believe me, it was totally obvious from my scores.  But it was great fun.

Caleb has a great hook and managed to get quite a few strikes...

My birthday girl and her family.  

Awesome son-in-law and grandkids!

Moving on.  Before Caleb came home I asked him if he'd put down a new floor in my bedroom.  This is the result.  It was painted plywood before.  The walls will have to wait to be painted until I return from Hawaii in the spring.

Moving on again. My husband and I usually drink about 1 cup of coffee each a day.  Even with a small 4-cup coffee brewer, I wound up throwing some of it away.  I like decaf sometimes, he doesn't.  He likes flavored sometimes, I don't.  I like bold brew all the time, he doesn't.

It was becoming quite a conundrum.  Enter the KEURIG coffee maker.  Exit all the problems. This gadget is awesome!  Makes one cup at a time--no waste.  Everyone can have their own coffee brew & flavor.  Or tea.  Or hot chocolate.  Or hot cider.  There is Half & Half (1/2 caf, 1/2 decaf) which is the way I often mixed my grounds.  There are all different kinds of tea.  There is Brew Over Ice for Iced coffee.  It's such a kick.  I even wound up giving two for Christmas presents.

Moving right along. Today we went to lunch at a local restaurant with some folks from church.  The pastor we had for 16 years, and who moved away to take another pastorate about 10 years ago, was in town.  They figured the best way for a group of people to visit with him and his wife was to meet at a restaurant.  It was a great time, and the food was yummy.

Dave and Janet and my good friend, Jean (middle).

So, you'd think that I never used a camera...  I never gave a thought to checking the ISO before I handed the camera to the waitress to take this photo.  Sure enough, it was on 1600 for goodness sake.  Kind of overkill for a flash picture.  The reason I even mention it is because the high ISO makes flash pictures grainy, and the image has been cropped, which tends to make grainy pics even granier.  Doesn't make any difference here on the blog, but for printing purposes it's less than ideal.  Will I ever learn????

And now for the finale.  Caleb was home for almost two weeks, after being gone for 2 1/2 years.  In that time I saw him for a week when I went to Alaska for a visit, and for 15 minutes when I flew with the dog and met him at the Fairbanks airport. 

On Thursday evening we drove him back to Syracuse to meet up with his good friend, James.  They left on Friday morning for their drive back to Florida so they could arrive in time for New Year's Eve services at their church.  Wonder how long it will be till next time?



13 days till I leave for Hawaii.  Woot, woot!

Random

A couple of license plates.

The Scrabble game.  Need I say it?  I lost!

He's Home!

So, early this morning we grabbed our coffee (and that's another story in itself), jumped into the car and headed off to Syracuse to collect our baby boy for the holidays.  He arrived at his friend's house in the wee hours of the morning after driving all night from Florida.  We met him at his friend's church.

Soooo good to see him.  It's been 2 1/2 years since he left for Alaska.  I spent one week with him the summer after he left, and then about 15 minutes with him last winter when I delivered the dog to him at the airport.  See post for April 30, 2011.

Since then, he's temporarily relocated to Pensacola, FL to attend the Bible institute there, so getting back to NY is a lot easier than it was when he was in Alaska. 

The First Game

Well, another grandchild has joined the ranks in the basketball world.  Jacob played his first-ever game this morning.  The team was made up of a mixture of 3rd & 4th graders.  Several of the 4th graders played last year, but it was the first game for Jacob and most of the other 3rd graders.  It was very impressive. 

I think there are going to be some really good ball players coming out of this group of boys.

Jacob was so cute yesterday when I was asking him about the up-coming game. 

Jacob:  I love basketball.  If there's a flat surface and a basketball hoop, then I'm there playing basketball.

Me:  I didn't know that, I didn't know you liked the game so much.

Jacob:  I play with Mace (his older brother who has been highlighted in this blog in past posts) as much as I can.

Me:  That's great that you like the game so much.

Jacob:  Yup--Mace taught me everything I know.  (Jacob is 8--"taught me everything I know" cracks me up). 

It will be a lot of fun watching him grow into the game as he gets older. 

Once again--camera was on 3200 iso and I still got movement and soft images.  I didn't want to use flash.  I was afraid it might be distracting to the boys.  But what I got is better than nothing.

Shutterfly Book

A couple of weeks ago a blogger friend (she) passed along the code for a free 7x9 soft-cover book from Shutterfly.  All I had to do was contact five other friends on behalf of Shutterfly, and the book was mine.  Whoopie!

I already had the images sorted from my trip to Denali Park, Alaska this past Fall, so I quickly edited them and got them into the template.  I only had a few days to design the book, so I wasn't able to label the images or be more creative with my text, but I'm happy I made the book.

My book arrived today.  I definitely recommend shutterfly. 

Another BB Game

Another basketball game.  Ok, ok, I promise not to post any more.  I just wanted to post this one to show that even my  big-boy camera doesn't do the game justice in the gym.  Or maybe it's me.  Not sure.

Anyway, I cranked the iso up to 3200 and still needed the flash.  Argh!  I can't quite figure out what's going on.  I remember taking BB pics a couple of years ago and they were great.  hmmm  Maybe the gym was brighter.

So this was a good game.  Long story short:  the team was waaaayyyy behind during the first quarter, but they caught up nicely, and then managed to win.  Woot, woot!

Grandson made about 7 baskets during the game.  Not that I'm bragging or anything. 
He spends a lot of time in the air.

I Succumbed!

Last year and the year before, I had a severe case of "grinch"-itis.  No Christmas tree, no decorations, no joy.  Oh, I still appreciated the "reason for the season"--the birth of Jesus, but my heart wasn't into all the "stuff" that goes along with the worldly part of the holiday. 

For about 10 years I've been threatening to get an artificial tree.  While the kids were still home, it was too much of a hurdle to go against their protestations.  But alas, they grew up and left.  And still I didn't get the tree.

Not far from here there's a funky little gift shop called "The Garden Bug".  If I had my druthers, my entire house would be decorated with the things that are sold there.  I was visiting the shop the other day when I discovered the exact artificial tree I had been looking for and didn't even know it.

So I succumbed.  I bought one.  It's perfect.  It's small, but not too small, full but not too full, and it even came with the lights.  It fits in front of the bay window, the place where I've always wanted to put the tree but a real one was usually too big. Bingo! 

I may put some other decorations on it, but then again, I may not.  I have a few red bows that I used to use in days gone by and they might be just the right touch.  Gotta give this some thought.

I do, however, have to spend a few minutes rearranging the lights near the bottom of the tree, but other than that, it's making my heart sing. (that may be a little melodramatic, but that's my story and I'm stickin' to it).

Another image from my foray to the High School football field the other day.  

Indoor Soccer?????

My friend's son plays soccer.  Soccer season is over.  At least I thought it was over.  She told me the boy plays indoor soccer every Sunday night.  "What!?!?", I said.  hmmmm, I didn't know there was such a thing.

So, of course, I just had to attend one of his games, camera in hand.

They play the game in a completely enclosed court (just like racket-ball), playing the ball off  the walls.  So it's a much faster and intense game than when played outdoors. 

And of course, the lighting is less than stellar, you have to shoot through glass (reinforced with black wire in the shape of diamonds, like chain link), you have to deal with reflections on the glass, and crazy lighting on the court.  So all in all, it's a challenge.

Solution?  Crank up the ISO to 3200 (which I've never had the nerve to do before), open the apeture as wide as it will go and pan as much as possible, hoping to get something near decent.  Fortunately this was sheer practice. 

I managed to get a shot of the boy before he went onto the court. 

I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the images with such a high ISO.  Cameras sure have come a long way in the past couple of years.

Yesterday I went out for a little while in the hopes of finding something to photograph.  For some reason I thought of the football field at the high school.  I haven't processed any of the others, but I love this one.

HDR rocks!!~!!!!!

Decorating and Cookies

The first weekend of December is when our church gets decorated for Christmas.  This year it was combined with the cookie baking and packaging by the teens.  The cookies will be distributed to the neighborhood families along with an invitation to attend our Carol-sing a week from now. 

We cranked up the Christmas music and did the decorating and cookies.  Some of the cookies were already made, some were baked on-site by the teens. 

Decorating is not my strong suit.  I do little-to-none in my house, but as the saying goes, "many hands make light work".  We finished in record time, and then I cajoled everyone to go into the kitchen (the brightest room in the church--and isn't the kitchen the heart of the house for any family?) for a group shot.  And, unlike trying to get my biological family together for a group photo, NO ONE COMPLAINED!!!  Be still my heart.

Amazingly I didn't eat a single cookie.  This dieting through the holidays is working out great.  I'll be a few pounds down by the end of Dec. 



Funny thing is, I brought my tripod to church specifically so I could join the group in the photo.  When I said, "okay, we're done", I realized I hadn't gotten into any of the shots.  But people scattered the instant I said that, so there was no getting them back together.  Sigh.

Morrette's Again

Every Wed night (or at least almost every Wed night) from Oct-Ap I attend a photo meeting.  Part of the fun of going to the meeting is that some of us meet for dinner ahead of time at a place called Morrette's.  This probably isn't new news to most of you since I've talked about this many times before.

Anyway, when I arrived at the restaurant last Wed, I took out my point and shoot and began taking pics right away.  I don't know why.  I don't usually do that, but for some reason, I was motivated.  These images were all made without flash and without a tripod, so I had to secure the camera to the table in order to keep it steady enough.  

None of these can be used to sell or for stock because of the brand name that's showing, but making images like these reminds me that there's always something to photograph.  I'm so happy that I can be so easily amused too.