random monday

i'm on a quest to pick favorite photos out of all the digital photos i've taken. i've taken over 5000 photos with my digital camera. currently, this quest seems a bit daunting.

i picked up all my piles in the back yard & mowed the lawn this evening. the piles did not all fit into the two large lawn garbage bags. that which did not fit is now piled behind the shed. glad i cleaned that area out so i could pile piles there. :)

splitting hostas seems easy enough. i may try that this weekend.

my tomato & pepper plants made it into the ground this past weekend. i don't know that they'll make it, but i'm giving it my best shot.

my mums have started blooming. i really should have weeded those areas before the mums got so big. it'll be a bit trickier now. good thing i like a challenge.

i was going to say that i spent some quality time on face book & myspace tonight. but do we suppose it's possible for time at those social sites to really be quality?

it's very hard to keep track of mosquitos when they fly in front of the curtains in my office. it's like they're lost in the jungle.

i still wish my office wasn't an office, but rather a second bedroom.

i believe the mosquito knows that i will smash it if it invades my personal space. it's flying around very carefully.

i saw "get smart" when i was with greg & kim. it's funny. you should see it.

matt gave me a list of three movies to watch this week: stripes, dazed & confused and the boondock saints. while i will probably not watch them this week, i have added them to my netflix cue.

well, okay ... NOW they've been added. whatever.

the favorite photos (hold on, we're making a big u-turn back to subject 1) all have to translate well to black & white, as well. very important detail.

forget personal space. the mosquito is dead now.

take that

it's fairly uncharacteristic of me to post a photo that's not mine ... but i'm guessing lynn won't mind. this is just to point out that somewhere in iowa, i have my own industrial park. and you don't.

what? words?

tonight's plan was to come home & go to bed. tomorrow, much the same as today, has all the promise of complete and utter chaos. however tomorrow has the added bonus of requiring me to be at the office by 6:30 a.m. - this is much too early, and i was tired by 8:30 tonight. upon arriving home, however, it occurred to me that tomorrow's outfit was highly dependent upon having a pair of clean black capris. and, while i have two pairs of black capris, they were, of course, both dirty. so now they're both in the wash. and, for whatever reason, i'm not a fan of starting the washing machine & going to bed. so you get some rambling instead.

as a side note, i'm even less of a fan of starting the dryer & going to bed. the capris will dry as i shower in the morning.

i put on a t-shirt this morning that fit me differently than i remember it fitting last time. this confused me and caused me to put on a jacket to compare fit. the jacket seems to fit the same as it did last time. which just confunfussed me all the more.

yes, i said confunfussed. it's for bethy, in case she reads this.

i really must remember to plug in my cell phone before i crash for the night. it will not make it through the day otherwise. and i sent an e-mail specifically letting production know to call my cell phone if they came up missing anything tomorrow. the entire department will be out of the office - i thought it was only fair to give them the heads up.

the washer is done & i've pretty much reached the end of my motivation for rambling. life has felt muddy as of late, and it's been leaving me very much in want of a good nap.

alicia's quilt

warsaw, stormy return

the year before 30 list

alright, i think i have a list. 29 goals for my 29th year. yes, i'm already five months into the year ... but these are things i plan to accomplish before january 24, 2009.

1: take 2900 photos. i'll be honest - this is going to be a stretch. but what else are goals for?

2: visit two places i've never been before. i was originally going to say visit ONE place ... but since i've already visited pittsburgh, that didn't seem fair. so i'm halfway to this goal already.

3: finish two quilts. i want to say three ... but i'm concerned about losing interest after finishing the first two. the first two are not optional. they will be finished. (actually, the first one is already finished. yay! in time for the birthday party!)

4: make/recycle/customize a table for the living room.

5: avoid deep-fried vegetables. this will be affectionately called the french fry embargo, seeing as the french fry is the most common deep-fried vegetable we come in contact with. this will be especially important as we go into fair/festival season.

6: watch the entire 'friends' series. this probably seems like a silly goal ... i mean, haven't i already done this? but, i actually haven't. i watch friends while i quilt, but i generally take such a break between quilts that i start the series over instead of continuing on.

7: send out Christmas cards. i made Christmas cards last year, but i didn't send them out. sad, huh?

8: tackle another month of 1000 photographs. this will obviously help with goal #1. :) i'll probably line this up with goal #2.

9: put together the fortune journal.

10: surprise! this one is house related, but i don't want to spread the excitement before i figure out the logistics. i'll say this: black & white photos in the living room. but that's more to remind myself what the goal is than to tease you. honest.

11: send a piece of real mail each month. i want to see if sending real mail breeds the reception of real mail. ;)

12: watch all of Alan Alda's movies available from netflix.

13: try a muffuletta from at least two restaurants other than three floyd's.

14: host a ladies' night at the new house. anyone know how long it's been since our group's been together? i'm thinking it's been over a year ...

15: get my own place. yes, this is already accomplished. but this was on the list before my last birthday.

16: plantumentary. think documentary about a plant. yes, that's plant-umentary. details to follow. :)

17: get my blog archives under control with yearly headers.

18: don't plug in my tv until goal #3 is accomplished.

19: try to grow some vegetables. i'm envisioning tomato plants. but i really need to get them in the ground soon.

20: read a book. i was originally going to say two books. but i'd be happy with one. :)

21: put up a Christmas tree. i can put up my own Christmas tree! yay!

22: get my nose pierced.

23: update my portfolio. i've managed a decent online format ... but it does need to be updated. and my physical portfolio is a mess.

24: screen print a t-shirt. this is sort of a carry over from last year. i did give it a try last year, but the results were not good. this year, i will accomplish a wearable t-shirt.

25: bike ten miles. this is from my house to east philips road on the bike trail. i feel confident in saying i can build up to this. and i really need to ride my bike more.

26: create artwork for the office. i'd much prefer this room was still a bedroom ... but if it's not going to be a bedroom, my office needs some artwork.

27: go two weeks without obvious processed sugars. i say "obvious" because there are processed sugars in a lot of things other than candy & cookies & cakes. i'm wanting to avoid those obvious ones. especially that stupid candy bowl on beth's desk. how dare she bring back ghirardelli chocolates, anyway? ;)

28: Christmas surprise. if i give you the details on this one, it'll totally ruin someone's Christmas gift. but it's something i wanted to try last year, but just didn't have the time.

29: have breakfast at lynn's paradise cafe. yeah, this is a repeat from last year. but what's wrong with a little continuity? besides, breakfast at lynn's undoubtedly means time with the beamers. and i do love the beamers.

la porte sunset

haircut

solstice

lilies

good things

it definitely looked like we were in for another good rain yesterday after work. we were not. it remained dry & beautiful all night.

malissa was in town the past couple of days. last night i got to show her my place, share good mexican food with her and talk well into the night. it was simply fabulous.

i mowed my lawn this morning!

i put some actual thought into my outfit for tonight's shindig. i'm pleased. and i think joe will be satisfied. so if that was my concern ... ;) i mean, it's no powder blue shirt with ruffles, but not everyone can pull that off.


i have a lily blooming! and there are so many buds out there, i'm beside myself with excitement for when they all open.

you tube thursday!

i need my 30th birthday party to be as rockin' as this 40th ...

the year before 30 ...

i shot photos almost the entire drive home from bunco last weekend.


it's been awhile since i shot night driving photos. and i was tired, so this gave me something to do. :)


when i got bored with changing the exposure time, i started just swirling the camera around while it was shooting.


yes, i was tired enough that i took photos to keep me interested in driving ... and then i got bored with that, too, so i had to swirl the camera around. doesn't it make you want to drive with me at night?

i'm contemplating a "the year before 30" list. i know i said i wasn't going to do one this year ... and i know i had reasons why ... but now i'm thinking i might change my mind. i'm revamping the way my archives are handled on the site (perhaps you've noticed the nice year labels over there?) and doing so requires me copying & pasting posts between blogs. so i'm re-reading a lot of old stuff. and those lists are kinda fun. and i like fun. so maybe i should make a list. because i've already got a name for it ... and i'll never be able to make "the year before 30" list again.

granted, i'm a solid five months into the year ... but i'm still thinking about it. and i'll not make any goals that have already been accomplished. or, not more than one. i did have one goal already set for this year & i've already accomplished it, so it will be there. other than that though, i'll stick to things that are new or in progress.

for example, so far i've shot 562 photos this year. (that does not count the 216 photos of darkness i took during that lightening storm.) last year i shot about 2400. the year before i shot about 1650. i'm wondering if i can challenge myself to 2900.

there will be a goal about taking a trip. i already know where that trip will be. in fact, i'd already have bought my plane tickets several times over if they weren't so flippin' expensive right now. but it'll be someplace new. which will lend itself to taking more photos. see how smart i am? :)

there will probably be a quilting goal.

maybe something about baking ... i do enjoy that. and seriously, the oatmeal brownies i made last night were tasty. i do like oatmeal.

this is where i open it up to you. any ideas on things i should do before i turn 30? it sounds like a milestone, doesn't it?

odometers & randomness

i have a tendency to end my road trips with mileages in multiples of five. and not just long road trips ... but just general day-to-day tootling around town.


this was after going to the post office one day at lunch.


and this was two days later after driving home from work.

perhaps this is not an uncommon phenomenon. maybe i simply notice it more than other people. if it's not uncommon, is it really a phenomenon?

i got my niece's quilt pinned together tonight - finally. it's been stretched out on my living room floor for three days. and it pretty much took up the entire floor. i was using the side door because using the front door just meant i had to walk over the quilt. it's pinned now though. and i'm working on gussying myself up to do the quilting. i'm thinking if i keep the design simple & large enough ... i should be able to do it on my machine. right? yeah ... gonna need more gussying first. :)

i also got the vacuum cleaner to work tonight. it took me about an hour of unclogging the hoses & what not ... but it works. i have clean carpets. or, at least ... cleaner than they were. it's not a perfect vacuum ... but it was free.

it's been six weeks! i've heard people say that if you can do something routinely for six weeks, it becomes a habit. well, today marks six weeks without french fries for me. actually, it's six weeks without fried potatoes of any sort. i decided early on that hashbrowns weren't fair during the french fry embargo. two things i learned: A. after not eating fries for awhile, the fries at floyd's look like they're positively swimming in grease. 2. red robin will let you swap out your fries for steamed veggies. i did not ask if the steamed veggies were bottomless, like the fries. :)

chinese wednesday

according to my fortune cookie, i desire to discover new frontiers.

interesting.

is that sunshine?

yup. we actually have some sunshine in northwest indiana. pretty blue sky, bright white clouds. it's a little weird, but i think i could get used to it.

something i might not be able to get used to: i think i have a waterproof spider living in my bathroom sink. i kid you not, he crawled up from the pipes twice this morning. i ran the water extra long the second time i washed him back down the drain. and i haven't seen him yet since i got home for lunch. but i have a feeling he's just lurking. waiting for me to least expect him.

if that theory is true, all i have to do is keep expecting him, right? hmmm ...

alright, the microwave is intent on telling me my boca burger is done. have a great afternoon, kids!

bilbo baggins

see ... i wasn't making this up. :)

this morning's happy series of events: i made myself an omelette this morning. i'm a big omelette fan. i mean, the egg is a marvelous thing. toss in your favorite veggies (this morning it was mushroom, green pepper & asparagus) and meats (none today, thank you) ... maybe add a slice of cheese (swiss, yum). yeah, that's good stuff. anyway, i made myself breakfast (sliced tomatoes on the side and a glass of oj) and realized i couldn't eat in the living room like i usually do. well, i could eat there ... but it would require stepping over my niece's quilt. with a plate of food & a glass of oj in my hands? i don't think so. so i came to the next logical place ... my computer desk. now, my blog hasn't been posting since early sunday morning. but i figured i'd dig up the bilbo baggins video anyhow (beth, lynn & i were talking about it last week). i mean, who am i to let a little problem like the blog not publishing stop me from blogging? i can ramble with no one to listen (this was not evident last night ... :D). so i go ahead & tell it to publish so that when my hosting place gets its act together i can easily get the posts up. and it published! yay! that's why you're able to read this. ;) and if you click on the pillows! post you can see the fun pillows i made this weekend. yay for sewing!

my web hosting place, however, still says that server is down. so either that wasn't the problem or they haven't updated their system status page. hmmm .... the quandary ...

pillows!

i made pillows - yay! this was my first attempt, and i do believe it was quite successful. i only had to rip all the seams out once. :) plus, if you haven't seen the new furniture yet ... now you have! it's a bit tough as it's all black ... but basically it's a black wood frame with black cushions. the loveseat (you can just see it on the left side of the photo) is also all black currently ... but once i get to the other ikea it will have cushions to match the pillows on the sofa. i thought putting the patterned cushions on the sofa might be too much - so i went black. but i think the pattern will look good on the loveseat. and i might end up with a matching patterned chair, too. we'll see. :)

i locked myself out of the house today. yeah ... smart move, i know. i made it back in though. without walking to matt's & asking if his mad lock-picking skills would work on a front door, even. so it's basically been a good day all around. :)

PLUS, i found the perfect green fabric for the back of alicia's quilt. i will get that pieced together & the whole thing basted tomorrow evening.

AND, i did my grocery shopping for the week. that's right ... i actually went grocery shopping for more than just one meal. impressive, eh?

blogger's giving me some trouble. says it can't publish because the connection is refused. but i can connect to my ftp site & upload files without a problem. so i'm going to guess it's a blogger issue that will be resolved soon enough. until then ... i'll just blog knowing no one can see it. :)

more rain

if i'd stuck with my original plan, today's rain would not be getting in my way. i was going to be out the door by 10 this morning ... swing through jo-ann's for batting & backing fabric (the quilt top is done! yay!) and then do some grocery shopping on my way home. but that plan was made as i was going to bed ... and i went to bed at 4:30 a.m. a lot of dumb plans are made at 4:30 a.m. - being out of the house by 10 a.m. is one of them. so instead i get up around 10:30 ... surf the internet ... update my acrobat ... do a load of laundry ... discuss the finer points of the muffuletta ... make some lunch ... and decide around 1:30 that it's a good time to change clothes & head out to the door. i kid you not, it started pouring right as i was heading to the bedroom to change. pouring. there were actual sheets of water running down the windows. ridiculous.

so what to do when you don't want to go out in the rain? resize photos & post 'em on the blog, of course. :)


friday after work i came home, grabbed my camera & headed back to the office to take the photos of the li'l gator. normally i carry my small camera with me, but my mom's using it in florida right now. (actually, right now she's sitting on a plane in louisville because of the storms in chicago ... dumb rain.) so i got my big camera & headed back to the office. of course, i got caught by a train along the way. so, of course, i took photos.


i may be as enamored with taking photos in my side view mirrors as i am with taking photos of trains. obviously putting the two together makes me downright giddy.


also not a bad cloud day. the stormy weather has come in handy that way. it is not coming in handy at the railcats stadium right now though, i'm guessing. last night they had a two hour rain delay ... but they ended up winning. yay railcats!


this is the fire truck that was waiting patiently with the rest of us for the train to pass. i'm glad i wasn't the one watching my house burn while these guys were stuck on the wrong side of the tracks.

more storms

this is the storm that didn't hit my neighborhood. tonight was bunco, and i gotta say i'm pretty glad we had it at julie's house. the timing of it had me leaving my house about 10 minutes after the tornado-causing storm was supposed to hit my little corner of the world. that photo is taken looking north - i was heading south & the skies there were practically sunny in comparison. when i walked out the door we were getting a little rain & some nice lightening - that was all. very nice. very nice, indeed.

new work buddy

this li'l guy has been hanging out at my office for the past few days. work there but haven't seen him? enter or exit the parking lot through the middle entrance. he's right there, sitting in the drive like he's waiting to cross the street. i kid you not - he's been there since at least wednesday morning.


little gator, big world.

lunch extension

we were stopped by a train on our way back to the office monday. not entirely surprising, but it is fairly unusual for us to be at a good spot to photograph it.


it also happened to be a beautiful cloud day.

julie, you asked about taking photos out of my sunroof. recently they've all been taken with my small camera. but i have shot with my large one, as well. the smaller one is easier - much wider photos. the walts sign? yeah, it's just barely in the photo. here's the full shot:


plus the little camera feels a lot less likely to slip out of my hands & go crashing into a million pieces. :)

stormy weather

so i stood out on my porch tonight & took 216 photos of darkness. catching lightening is hard!


this is the aftermath of the little bits of hail that fell. i came back into the house about two minutes before that ruckus started. i think hail is pretty cool.

rearranging

greetings from my new computer room. or, at least, the room that currently has my computer in it. it will take a while before the room is complete. i've got plans for some great artwork ... but not tonight. it will be a project. and first i wanted to make sure the computer still worked. that move down the hallway could have been way too much for it, ya know. ;)

i moved my sewing table upstairs tonight, too. i think it'll work in here. i'm hoping so ... i do NOT want to move it back downstairs. what. a. pain. it'll be nice to be able to sew upstairs. and sewing is something of which i really need to be doing a lot more. probably before i tackle the art project for the walls in here. hmmm ...

i may move the full-length mirror to the inside of the closet door. it's strange being able to see myself as i type.

welcome to gary

happy wednesday! i'm all off with my days. i seriously thought it was tuesday until i had "happy tuesday!" typed. at least i knew it was a weekday. i woke up this morning & couldn't figure out why i'd set my alarm clock when it would've been so much nicer to just sleep until i woke up. after all, it's obviously a weekend. yeah ... gonna have to work on that. :)


i understand i show these photos with the risk of judgment. but seeing as i'm always taking that risk with photos ... here are a couple of driving through gary, going to the railcats game this past weekend. (you know, when it actually was the weekend & i didn't have to go to work ...) this is one of the best buildings on 5th - AND it's for sale! great opportunity!


the fabulous walt's sign: taken out of the sunroof as we swung by at 40 miles per hour. someday i may just gussy myself up to park & go take real photos of it. it's my favorite sign up there.


the beautiful u.s. steel yard. that's the toll road you see directly beyond left field. it really is a beautiful park.


unfortunately, you see a lot of empty seats at the games. in fairness, we had gotten into the park with our media passes, so we didn't have assigned seats, so we were sitting in the back waiting to see where we wouldn't be interfering with paid tickets ... but i only say all that to make it sound less like there are a lot of empty seats. and in general, there are a lot of empty seats. it's sad ... because it's a lot of fun to be there.

so there you go. pictures early in the morning. and now i'm going to go get ready for work ... seeing as it is wednesday & all ...

marshmallow factory

okay, so it's not so much that there are a LOT of marshmallows ... but that they're really big marshmallows. :)


and i do believe this mike rigg original will coordinate beautifully in the room. don't you agree? i think i might hang it vertically, though. we'll see.

photo-less ramble

beth, clint & i went to ikea tonight. i bought both a sofa & a loveseat. i think they'll be fabulous ... once i put them together. ;) they did not have the cushion covers i wanted for the loveseat, but there's another ikea close that i can get them at. i'm going to do some thinking about bedroom furniture & then make another ikea trip soon. but for now both pieces will have black cushions.

unloading the car brought in a small gathering of flying insects. i'm not a fan of flying insects.

today was hot.

we went to naperville after ikea. had dinner at rosebud - yummy italian food, and a lot of it. and then got milkshakes at cookie dough creations. good stuff. and downtown naperville is pretty cute. i highly recommend it.

the guy on the corner trying to get signatures for his petition, however, got on my nerves. if i've already told you no twice, why yell down the street for me to come back because "it'll only take 20 seconds, ladies!"? seriously? i'm not interested. leave me alone.

i saw the railcats play twice this weekend. they won both games. i think dave & i should meet up at a flyers/railcats game some weekend. i'd gladly drive to schaumburg to root for the visiting team. ;)

i think i may put roman shades into the bedrooms.

i would totally show you a photo of my living room right now, but my camera battery is completely dead. it sort of looks like an oversized marshmallow factory the way the coverless cushions are spread about.

i totally have two cameras ... hang on ... okay, nevermind. apparently i left that camera turned on when i put it away last & so it's battery is completely dead, too. maybe i'll think to shoot a photo before i start assembly tomorrow.

i'm going to bed now, kids. i'm tired.

long overdue quilt

i'm not going to tell you how long this quilt's been finished. it's been awhile, but i was hoping to have another quilt finished before i gave it away as a gift. the other quilt isn't done, but i just couldn't hold onto this one any longer. it was so sad waiting to be given to its rightful owners. so when jonathan & laure were in the area at mother's day, i sent their quilt back with them. i don't really know what they think of it. unfortunately i forgot to give it to them until we were literally running out the door for the airport. so they got to sort of open the bag & sneak a peak before stashing it in their suitcase. i haven't heard from them since they got back home ... but hopefully they like it.


this photo shows both the front & the back. it was a different assembly than i usually do. instead of piecing together the entire top & then sandwiching it with a large piece of batting & a large backing i made little sandwiches out of each block. so i had one of the individual squares for the front, a square of batting & a square of the backing ... and those were quilted together on the machine. once i had all the individual sandwiches together & quilted they all got joined into the bigger quilt. i have no idea if that makes sense ... but trust me, it was a different way of doing it. fun because it let me machine quilt it - the first time i've done that. time-consuming because of the way i had to join all the individually quilted squares together. but it allowed me to do a fun checkerboard-type back. i like that a lot. :)


here's one showing just the front. the pattern was a stack-and-whack crazy log cabin with some pinwheels randomly scattered.


and one of the quilt lying across my full-size bed to give you an idea of the size. easily the biggest quilt i've made so far. i think it would make a fun picnic quilt. nice bright colors. :)