KateOhKatie blogs

Hello, Blog.  I’ve missed you.  I’ve thought about you constantly.  I’ve jotted notes to myself, about things to tell you.

But then I haven’t written.

And now that I am writing, I’ve apparently forgotten how to create witty titles or write about interesting things.  Yes, Blog, I know, I’ve failed you once again.

So here is a photo of my mortal enemy:

Aaah!  Moths!

It makes me want to invest in a cedar closet.  Hold on, let me pass that idea by Jeff.  If I’m not back in 5 minutes, you can assume I’m weeping inconsolably in disappointment at my flat-out rejection by him.

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::crickets
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Hold on, let me get a kleenex and wipe that last tear from my eye.  SNORK.    Eww.  (Am I the only person who’s amazed when I blow my nose and I’ve been crying and the snot is perfectly clear?)

Even though Jeff is the meanest meanie poo ever, he does stomp on bugs for me:

Giant ones.  In the Monsanto Insectarium.  Damn you, Monsanto!  (for a variety of reasons, which I shall not delve into right now).

Here, you can observe another popular zoo exhibit:  the failus faceus makingus.

The failus faceus makingus is a species of near-human intelligence, characterized largely by the inability of males and females making humorous or grotesque faces at the same time.  When the male of the species makes a humorous or grotesque face, the female does not.  And, as you can see in the following image, vice versa:

So let’s just look at a baby giraffe instead:

I brought it home with me and right now it’s sitting next to my computer and licking my arm.  That means it’s hungry.  Which is unfortunate, because giraffe food is hella expensive.

Giraffes always have been my favorite, you know.  I’m so happy to own one now.  I’m going to go put scrunchies in its mane and knit it a scarf and teach it how to give the cats a ride.

OK, you called my bluff.  I returned the giraffe yesterday, as he kept smacking his head on the doorframes.  Who knew a tiny baby infant would be 7 feet tall?

I’ll leave you with this trio of prairie dogs:

I almost brought them home, too, but they would’ve turned into cat food.

PS>These photos were taken with my new P&S camera, which I’ll blog about sometime very soon.  All of the animal photos were taken on the auto setting, at 7x zoom.

/WW.  <3.

Settle in with the nearest cat and a cup of tea (bonus points if the cat will bring you the tea), here’s the exhaustive run-down of our Big Weeked Number One.

(Or, if you don’t care that much, scroll down to the bottom of this entry, where I’ve provided a handy summary of the events transpired.  For your pleasure)

We woke up at 3:30 on Friday morning, showered, brewed a pot of coffee, drank a pot of coffee, and hit the road.  It was dark.  Quite dark.  The highway was desolate.  Quite desolate.  I drove.  Quite drove.

The Wash U people had a breakfast buffet thing set up for all the admitted students, and people (including Jeff) mingled before the presentations and stuff began.  I sat in a corner and wound my skein of Cascade 220 for Jeff’s hat, into a ball.  Using a pen as a nostepinne, and feeling very MacGuyver-ish in the process.

Then we all went into the moot court room to listen to people talk.  I worked on my Alpaca Sox sox.

People talked a lot…about lawyer-y stuff.  That’s really not my thing, y’know?   In fact, that is SO not my thing.  I was so awkward, uncomfortable…the girls were all wearing business suits and tottering around on stiletto heels (radiating insecurity, if you ask me), while little ol’ me sat in the corner with my knitting and cowboy boots.  I’m pretty much the polar opposite of those girls.  Except the insecurity thing.  I just use knitting as my shield, rather than mascara and Prada knock-off bags

I was happy with my knitting, until tragedy struck….the ball of yarn rolled off my lap, and under the seat in front of me!  I was knitting-less for the remaining 45 minutes of the presentation.  When it was finally over, I was faced with the humiliation of asking the girl seated in front of me to hand me my yarn. (I was so freaking close to digging myself a hole, and hiding in it, with some yarn and Diet Coke, and never coming out).

The first presentations over with, Jeff then gave me permission to duck out, so I gratefully retreated to the campus coffee shop.  I spent the rest of the morning sipping a caramel latte and working on various projects.  I sat in a corner and was happy

Jeff came to collect me when the lawyer-y people were done talking, and we went to the car to have some sandwiches, stare at the mind-trippy fence in the parking garage (it was an optical illusion, I swear), and talk about how the visit went.  Jeff was exhausted but we couldn’t check into the hotel yet, so we went to the nearby Loop for some shopping and time-killing.  I finally go to visit Knitty Couture (and meet Thi!), which was definitely the highlight of my trip   I bought this:

That’s 7 skeins of Peter Pan DK.  I was thinking about making it into Basic Black, but now it may have to become Sunshine, if I can get gauge.

I also got some souvenir sock yarn:

I haven’t seen that colorway before, and it’s just too yumylicious to pass up.  It reminds me of stormclouds passing over a field of wild blueberries

I can definitely add Knitty Couture to the list of fantastic St Louis LYSs….and if we go to Wash U and move to University City, it’ll definitely be the closest one!

When we could finally check into the hotel, we did.  Where a nap happened.  A long nap.  A long, deep, satisfying, don’t-bother-to-set-an-alarm-who-cares-if-it-lasts-five-hours nap.  Man oh man…that was a nap of the gods!  (Sheratons have *very* comfy beds, fyi).

Once we finally dragged ourselves awake, we realized two things:

1) we were hungry
2) somehow, we had managed to eat all the sandwiches we’d packed (quite possibly while simultaneously napping?)

So we hit up Fitz’s for dinner–definitely a must-see in St. Louis!   It’s a root beer brewery and restaurant in one, located right in the heart of University City.  It’s always busy, but is also *huge* (they have two stories of a building), so we only had to wait about 20 minutes to get seated.  Jeff and I had gone there once before, when we were still dating (summer 2005).  We hadn’t been back since they discontinued his favorite soda.  But we decided it was high time to give them another chance, and I fell in love with the best diet cream soda ever.  So I was happy.

After that we just went back to the hotel and called it an early night.  Even though the hotel had a pool (and, knowing this, we’d brought our swim stuff), we couldn’t use it–it was closed for renovation.  What a bummer   (see what an emotional roller coaster my life is?).  So some Sopranos happened, then a lot of sleeping.

The next day we went back to the campus to wander around on our own, outside the constraints of a tour guide.  Since it was just me and Jeff I was feeling a lot more secure, even enough to break out the camera:

Jeff looking up at the University’s “big entrance”:

We loved all the gothic architecture:

Then we saw a tunnel of trees, not dissimilar to Truman’s!

(wonder if they had a lazy gardener, too?)

Then we popped into the library (which is that odd modern-looking building in the background of that picture up above) to see their miniature book exhibit:

Then we briefly contemplated having lunch at the library’s cafe:

(to interested parties:  we ultimately decided to go elsewhere.  ”Elsewhere” being, ultimately, Panera.  Ultimately.)

A statue of the university’s namesake:

(Point of interest:  Washington University was named as such *before* the state of Washington existed.  So nyah nyah!  Jeff and I decided that the University of Washington should, thus, be renamed “University of the state in the extreme upper left corner of the United States”.  It has a nice ring to it, right?  I think that’ll help avoid any further confusion

Looking across the quad:

(a photo which would be much mroe impressive if I had the wide-angle lens for which I pine)

Jeff at a crossroads, just like in life:

(that’s the library in the background, again.  Isn’t it ugly?)

More beautiful architecture, this time on the women’s studies building:

Also, a convenient representation of “undergrad” versus “law school”.  Here’s a typical bike rack on campus, on a Saturday afternoon:

And here’s the racks outside the law building:

True story.

Speaking of the law building, here’s the new building where it’s moving next year:

And just next door, here’s the law program’s current home, Anheuser-Busch Hall:

We’re in St. Louis, remember?  And actually, I’ve heard tell that there’s free Budweiser products at a lot of  the law school’s social events

Jeff outside the doors:

He’s already gained admittance, but will he choose to pass through?  We’ll know by next week!

(also, ps, I’m corny )

Plaque in the entrance, just to prove I’m not lyin’ about the name:

An awesome “Justice” gargoyle:

And here’s the bench where I sat the day before, knitting and feeling socially awkward!

(since I know you care)

A-B Hall has a courtyard in the middle of it, for students to eat, study, whatever, in.  I like it a lot:

The courtyard may also be used for pondering:

Inside the moot court room, scene of the previous day’s embarassing knitting incident:

And so ends our tour of the Washington University campus.  If you’re still with us, there’s more to go…

After a quick lunch, we decided to visit the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park, while we were in the neighborhood (Forest Park is right next to campus):

This shall also serve as proof that I was, indeed, also along on this trip:

President Jefferson also came along:

and by “came along” I, of course, mean “sat there and continued to be a statue”.

I managed to snap one more picture–of this amazing 1900s-period crocheted purse–before my camera died (yes, I forgot to bring my Nikon charger.  Yes, I’m an idiot.  This I know.):

So I had to use my old camera (of course I always carry a backup!) to capture this Napoleon lamp:

Napoleon lamp, I covet thee.

And also:

Poster of a wife mending her husband’s trousers while he mows the lawn, I covet thee.

After leaving the museum we headed down to Jeff’ parents’ house in South County (read:  about half an hour from U City), where we had our noses thoroughly kissed by the always adorable Molly, and had dinner at the best Italian restaurant in St. Louis (until proven otherwise), Joe Boccardi’s.  I had linguini with a spicy marinara that was “just right” spicy.  Perfecto!

Later that night we stopped by Jeff’s grandma’s nursing home, where I noticed this art print:

Zomg!  Knitting!

And even…

Zomg!  Knitting correctly!

You don’t see that every day, kids.  Ya really don’t.

We stayed with the in-laws that night and left pretty early on Sunday morning, headed back home.

By the time we pulled up to our house back in Kirksville yesterday afternoon, I’d made this much progress on Jeff’s Claudia hat:

This hat is not my friend, or yours.

‘Course, I don’t really know what I was expecting, knitting a hat on DPNs in the first place.  But that’s another entry, for another day.  I don’t have the energy to bitch about it any more tonight.

~~
Well, that was about it!  A little knitting, a little sightseeing, a few tears, a lot of laughs, and absolutely *no* progress towards a Decision.  Harrumph.  Oh well, I suppose that’s what next weekend is for!  Watch out, Chicago…I’m on my way.

Finally, for your summarizing pleasure:

If you were too busy/apathetic to read all of the above, here’s a handy-dandy abbreviated version.  To trace these over the course of the weekend, please consult the above graphical representation.
1)Getting up ass-early
2)Being socially awkward
3)Sandwiches
4)Yarn!
5)Pool closed
6)Nap!
7)Dinner
8)Pool still closed
9)Visiting campus
10)Lunch at Panera
11)Creepy guy in Panera
12)Getting away from creepy guy in Panera
13)Missouri History museum
14)Dinner at Joe Boccardi’s
15)Provel cheese from Jeff’s parents!
16)Driving home in the rain
17)Seeing the kitties
18)Sleeping in our own bed.

This is Jeff, your tour guide:

He will be assisted by my pink boots, and my trusty D40.

I don’t like when he wears my pink boots–they get all stretched out.

As we exit our house and start walking toward campus, the first thing we are confronted with is the Dead Hedge:

Every time I walk by the Dead Hedge, one of two things will happen to me:  1)A stick falls on my head or 2)I snag some part of my person on the Dead Hedge.  Clearly, the Dead Hedge is not friendly to passers-by.

Just a few blocks down, we spy the Truman campus!

To our left is the apartment building Jeff lived in before we were together.  The building has since been condemned and the land purchased by the university.  It shall be a parking lot in due time.

And here is the curb which never fails to trip me.  Never.  Four times a day for five semesters, it tripped me.  Blame me?  Or balme the curb?

The big entrance to campus.  It is here that I notice my lack of camera-holding-level skills:

Sign by aforementioned entrance.  Now that I think about it, this may have been the first time I ever read it:

Right by the entrance is Baldwin Hall, site of most of the language and literature classes, and a few other random ones, too.  I had at least one class (usually more) in Baldwin, each of my seven semesters at the University:

This is a squirrel.  They run rampant ’round these parts.  One once ran over my friend.  Yes, you read that right.

The odd lines of trees:

I like to pretend that it’s a relic from when this land was a graceful country estate, and these trees are the remnants of those lining the extensive driveway.  But I bet what really happened, is that a landscaper was told “go plant eight trees” and he was too lazy to scatter them about properly.  That, and the trees look like they’re about 30 years old.  And this has been the university’s land since about 1860.

Squirrel number two, just for you:

Cute lil’ feller, ain’t he?

Back on the quad, here’s our famous gum tree:

Stick your gum on this tree on a test day and you’ll ace the test.  Or something like that.  I never did it.  Superstitions are silly (after all the times a black cat has crossed my path, I think I’m in for eternal bad luck!  Though that would explain so much…).

Good old Missouri Hall, where Jeff and I both lived–and, logically enough, where we met.  It has been renovated since we lived there–the front used to have a bunch of wide columns, none of this plate-glass-and-steel bullshit:

Top floor, second from the right–that was Jeff’s dorm room, back in the day.  That oddly-shaped bit to the left was (and after the remodel, I think it still is?) the 5North lounge.

The crooked, broken sidewalk on the east end of campus.  This sidewalk is a large part of the reason that I favor thick-heeled cowboy boots rather than those skinny little fashionable stiletto ones.

I’m surprised I never sprained an ankle on that sidewalk.

And now, a magic trick.  Now you see him:

Now you don’t!

(how’d she DO that?!)

And yes, that was an obscene gesture in the first photo.  He’s a charmer!

The building pictured above is Blanton-Nason-Brewer Hall (motto:  when naming it after one dead university president just isn’t enough!)

I lived there my freshman year.  You didn’t know me then.  (and really, I didn’t know myself).

Here, on a random bike rack, is the bicycle I want:

I didn’t even know I needed it until I saw it.  Funny how that works.  And before you ask, yes it had a lock on it.  No, I didn’t seriously consider breaking the lock.  But now I am going to pursue the purchase of my own! (maybe)

We even walked all the way out to the stadium, in which I’ve never set foot:

Unless it’s Cardinals baseball, I’m really just not a sports person.

At the southwest end of campus is the logically-named Red Barn park, which features (oddly enough), a red barn:

To my knowlege, it’s mainly used by the university for picnics and such on high school visit days.  I rarely see students just lounging or hanging out here–they use the quad for that (it’s much more conveniently located).

The sports building is on the west side of campus, and on its sidewalk is this mural:

Clearly it’s quite poorly maintained, and Jeff and I don’t know exactly why it’s there.  We think it might have had something to do with Homecoming a few years ago?  Tour guides we are not.

Just north of the athletics building is one of the science buildings, Magruder Hall.  It, too, was recently renovated.  Now it sports an empty astronomy theater (they ran out of money) and a wholly useless terraced installation.  Which is useful only in the capacity that it offers a solid 15 minutes of amusement to whatever small children happen to be visiting the campus at any given time.

Misappropriations FTW!

Every good university needs a clock/belltower, and Truman is no exception:

Except the bells don’t ring (a recording and speakers produce the sound), and the clock is always wrong.  Truman, you lose.

It is a good place to take a smoke break, though.  Or to glare at your wife, ’cause she’s always got that fucking camera in your face:

Proof that I really was along for this ride, too.  Windswept hair and everything:

Why does windswept hair look sexy on the models in glossy magazines, and dorky on me? It couldn’t have anything to do with the ponytail, dorky smile and runny nose (it was really freaking cold out!), could it?

Outside the entrance to our library is the sunken garden:

No, behind the bicycle racks.  With the two arbor-y things–one at either end.  That.  It was once the foundation of the university’s oldest building.  In 1930-something the building caught on fire and they drained the nearby lake to put the fire out.  The sunken garden is the remnant of that building’s foundation, and the site of the lake is now our quad.

Can I have my tour guide badge back now?

A lot of student weddings happen in the sunken garden.  Which explains the silk rose petals you’ll usually find scattered about:

They say that if you have your first kiss with someone in the sunken garden, you’ll end up marrying him/her.  Jeff and I put a twist on this tradition, and instead held a series of late-night footraces there (he won most of them).  We still got married.

The aforementioned library:

In a shocking turn of events, it has also undergone renovation recently (before my time, though).  They built a new library around the old one.  So when it’s nighttime and the library is all lit up, you can look inside and see the old brick building within the new, larger one.  It’s a pretty cool effect.  I’ll try to capture it sometime.

My argument for Truman’s inclusion in the Ivy League:

They do call it “the Harvard of the midwest”, after all.

Love the ivy.  Especially when it’s green.

Back north of campus, heading back home.  We live across the street from that abandoned high school (which, incidentally, I am quite eager to explore) on the left of the photo:

I hope you enjoyed your visit to Truman! Maybe next time we’ll go inside some of the buildings (I couldn’t get in any of them on this last stroll, as they were all locked up for spring break).

Pretty things, aren’t they?

Like a poisonous frog, they’re so light and colorful, yet capable of so much pain.

I love my pincushion.

As some of you might recall, I went out to Baldwin City, Kansas a couple weeks ago, to attend the Maple Leaf festival with my friends-practically-since-birth, Stefanie and Mandi.  And, in true Katie fashion, I took tons of pictures.  Also in true Katie fashion, though, I let them fester on my hard drive up until *NOW*, when I’m finally posting them.  What can I say, I’ve gotta stick with what I know!

Everybody was so happy to see me, even the fridge greeted me!

Of its own volition, I assume.

Stefanie’s mom and her grandma came down for the day.  And look what Stef and her mom did!

Oh yes, that’s inadvertently -matching shirts.  Aren’t they cute?  I promised I wouldn’t blog about it, but….whoops!

Had to start the day off on the right foot.  And there’s no better foot than….funnel cake foot.

Seriously though, kids, don’t fool around with funnel cake too early in the day.  It’ll make your tummy hurt.  Take my word for it.

As soon as we finished our breakfasts, it was parade time!

Look!  A Delorean!

Look!  Old-fashioned bicycles!  We had a huge discussion about how, exactly, one mounts those things.  I think the final consensus involved hay bales, tall dogs, midgets, or simply that they never got off of them.

I wanted this car!

Wheat State Pizza (remember this location!) and a sample of the crowd.  There were about 40,000 people there!

That afternoon, we just chilled out in the girls’ apartment for a while, where I took these t rippy pictures of Stefanie:

But what you didn’t know (until now!) is that I took those from all the way across the room, using a 55-200mm zoom lens belonging to a friend of theirs.  I <3 that lens.  I added one to my Amazon wish list.  I’m just sayin’ , is all  (anonymous benefactors out there?).

Here’s another example.  The zoom capability of my kit lens:

Compare that to the 55-200mm zoom lens:

Me wantey.  But alas, me wantey food and shelter more right now.  Poo.

Saturday night’s dinner:

Wheat State Pizza.

Mine was whole wheat crust, organic sauce, portabella mushrooms, and parmesan cheese:

I miss that pizza.  We had a great friendship while it lasted.  ::burp::

Mandi knitting while Stefanie frogged:

Sunday had a smaller crowd, so we started out bright and early again, with shopping and eating as our only two goals.

Mandi and Stef browse painted window wall hangy things:

Doesn’t look posed at all, does it?

We also looked at lots and lots and lots of jewelry:

Mandi and I bought matching earrings from this lady, ’cause we’re awesome that way:

Lunch was Wheat State again for Mandi:

While Stef was thrilled to lose her Giant Turkey Leg virginity:

Clearly an orgasmic experience:

I was just honored to be present at this occasion:

I love this photo, because it reminds me of one of those ones that they put in the newspaper alongside the headline “festivalgoer finds maggots in turkey leg” or something.  Not that there really were maggots in Stef’s turkey leg or anything.  K I’ll shut up now.

One final one, an then I’m *really* done posting pictures of Stefanie gnawing on a giant hunk of meat (yes I meant it to sound that way):

To swiftly change topics…
We were sitting near the first tree in Baldwin City to change color every year.  This was the only really bright foliage we saw all weekend:

And after a short excursion to the kettle corn stand, my purpose in life became fulfilled:

I love kettle corn:

Here are the souvenirs I came home with.  First, a SOUP-er cute soup mug:

And the aforementioned earrings which match Mandi’s (hers are blue, though):

aren’t they cute?

And the piece de resistance of my shopping adventure…a stoneware oil lamp!

Sweet!!!  I love this thing!  Makes me feel very Laura Ingalls Wilder-ish to use it.  Except Jeff won’t let me turn off all the lights and use it to carry around the house…wonder why?

I had such a good time visiting my far-flung friends.  I’ll have to fling myself back to them sometime soon   My only disappointment with Maple Leaf was the lack of yarn or yarn-related objects, but hey…I can find those any other day of the year!  It really was an awesome experience and I had sooooo much fun

Late this afternoon Jeff and I went to Thousand Hills State Park and hiked on one of their trails.  I took my camera of course, and got these:

Approaching the park:

Just on the trail, and the sun was already starting to think about setting…it does it so quickly lately!

Wild wheat, ragweed, all that good stuff

I love Missouri in the fall.  I love that this is a five minute drive from my house.

Like the focus on this one:

I was actually going for a slightly soft focus on this one:

About the best macro I can currently manage:

Our trail:

Same shot, about 5 minutes apart:

Saved one of my favorites for last:

I know any idiot can take pictures of a sunset, but I really had fun doing this…it was a great walk

Oh, and I didn’t use anything automatic on any of these…all manual!

PS>Did I mention I love Missouri?

I fooled around with a lot of these in Photoshop for a good long while this morning, but at this point I’m just getting frustrated with myself and my crappiness at image editing.

Last night at the rehearsal dinner I was talking with my Uncle Don (the videographer) and he pretty much said “get thee to a photography class”…I couldn’t agree more!  I’ll put one–and a Photoshop class–on my plan for this spring/summer.  Hopefully I can find something in Kirksville

Anyway, after getting home from the rehearsal, Jeff, Dad and I took Maxie and Eliza to the riverside park in Parkville–same place that Jess and I took our senior pictures back in high school.  The girls were surprisingly cooperative!  As usual, these pics are SOOC…I think I’m going to take a break and then give some light editing another shot.  Wish me luck!

But first, Allie at home…

Wish this were more in focus:

Now on to the dog park!  A lot of these images are taken from above, because when I tried getting down onto the ground with the dogs they’d just run over and start trying to kiss my ears/knock me over/get in my lap.

Look at Lizie’s tongue!

When she licks you it’s like being slapped with a wet washcloth…not the best feeling:

Not that Maxie’s is insignificant or anything, though:

Mutual adoration:

These dog handlers really don’t get paid enough:

Two pink tongues!

So much easier to take pictures of a gray dog than a black one:

Finally, back to the car and home again.  They kept fighting over who got to walk in heel position right next to Dad:

Maxie loves riding in the car!

So here’s what I thought:
~It would’ve been awesome to go somewhere the dogs didn’t have to be leashed, but I think maybe I’ll be able to edit the leashes out of some of those images.
~Hard to take good pictures of dogs who never sit or lay down!  I took over 300, and those above are the best.
~How do I crop a photo in Photoshop yet keep the same proportions?  I don’t want them to have some weird dimension, yet I’d like to crop them to get rid of Jeff’s and Dad’s legs at the edge, etc.

Now I’m off to fool around with Photoshop some more…maybe try to figure out the cropping thing, brighten some colors, etc.

My camera arrived with one fully-charged battery, and a spare.

(Photos taken with my old Canon A400)

Yes, I sat by my picture window and looked for the UPS truck.  So sue me.:

How excited am I?  This excited:

Even though I’ve been whining for months about wanting this thing, once it was in my home I became all Christmas morning-y. I wanted to savor the suspense:

So did Othello.

Cutting open the box…

I’ve got it open!  Helper cat is so proud of himself.

I love having a helper cat.

Eepp!

Here it is!  Arrived safe and sound, Mrs BP   Excellent packing job!

The new encompasses the old:

OK so here’s where it gets really lame.  I have honestly, truly, not had any daylight hours available in which to go out to the local park and really try this sucker out.  So all the shots from here on our are just here in the ol’ apartment…hopefully in KC this weekend Jeff and I will have some time to have some fun with it.

First photo I ever took with it (file name DSC_0001!):

Love that messy apartment.  But I told y’all…I am away from home for twelve hours straight almost every day!  Something’s gotta give.

Helper cat quickly grew bored with my new toy:

But Macbeth indulged me in this sweet image:

This shot has a shallow depth-of-field, right?  I have no clue how I did that…I might’ve been on the flower (macro) setting:

A timely warning, as I was actually just about to adjust the diopter control by stabbing my eye with my fingernail.  Now I know better, and so do you!

Portrait setting for the skin tone, and flash because it was about 10pm by this time.  Not sure what I think of the flash…I really don’t like that ‘flasy’ (haha) look in photos:

I focused this myself!  Where’s my cookie?

Yesterday I took just a few of helper cat while re-reading the manual, right before going to bed.

“We are not amused, Mommy.”

“Wait…what?”

And that’s all I’ve got, folks.  So you can see that Tamara (pronounced like camera, only with a T–wonder where I got that name?) really has possiblities.  But unfortuately I haven’t really been able to test them until now.  I may arrive at work a few minutes early and see if I can at least get a few shots of something…anything..outside.

Oh, and my tripod arrived last night!  Now I’m just waiting on the field guide and remote control I ordered from Amazon, and the bag from LL Bean (size medium, storm blue).  From there it’ll be that $800 VR macro lens I’ve had my eye on…

Too tired to PS any of these tonight, but I think I’m gonna want to in the morning

So, SOOC (and not too bad for such low light, if I do say so myself)…

And because we can’t forget her, one of the cat who can’t come into the great room anymore (Eliza tries to eat her)

::sigh:: I loved taking those, but I still have so much further to go before I’m any good.

So yeah…I’ll PS those a bit tomorrow.  What do you think?