summer bugs

the itty bitty grasshopper (about an inch long) that was hanging out in the office one day and jumped straight at me as i was taking his picture - causing me to scream & throw my camera.


and the flipping huge beetle (beetle?) that was a good two inches long and hanging out on my parents' screen door tonight.

official end count on the month of 1000 photographs - 1,029.

after dinner

on monday i began the scientific research into my odometer quandary. does my odometer really end with a 5 or a 0 more often than it should? laws of probability say it should happen 20% of the time, right? there are ten possible numbers, 5 and 0 are two of the possiblities - therefore a 20% chance. i feel it happens more often than that. since monday i have parked my car a total of 16 times. so, my mileage should have ended in a 5 or 0 three of those times. in fact, it ended in a 5 or a 0 FOUR of those times - 25%. interesting.

okay, only interesting to me. and the experiment is still young. but whatever. it's still scientific.

8: month of 1000

my rental car has shiny surfaces. :)

i have officially taken over 1000 photographs this month. one goal down for the year.

what's sleep?

yeah, a good hour later & i'm still up. i did go to bed after publishing that last post. got just asleep enough to be completely freaked out by a couple of loud & unidentifiable noises ... and now i'm awake again. i am not a fan of unidentifiable noises.


so i posted my black/white photo wall on craftster. and then re-loaded the page over & over until it showed up on the "newest projects" list. see it there on the left? yeah, i'm a nerd. i'll keep you posted if it moves over to the "hot new projects" list. or if i happen to get any feedback on it. posting to crafter is kind of hit-or-miss. it just depends who else is online when you post it whether you're going to get feedback. currently about 700 people are using the site ... so there's hope.

teehee ... two responses already. i got a "that is so freakin rad" and "amazing. seriously." that's right, i said "teehee". someone used the word rad ... it's like they know me. :)

i think my refrigerator may be making the noises. and they're probably the same noises it always makes ... but for whatever reason tonight they seem louder. i've already investigated the entire house - nothing seems to have fallen or broken or anything like that. well ... okay, i investigated the main level. i poked my head downstairs & figured that was good enough. yeah, i'll just blame the refrigerator. in fact, i'll blame the ice maker ... even though it's currently set to not make ice. ;)

and with a third response of "that looks great! awesome job :)" i'm going back to bed.

why not?

i'm trying to stay awake long enough to get this load of laundry done ... and posting keeps me awake. so here's some random stuff.

we presented a local dancing with the stars this spring. the fellow who created this video disabled the embed feature, so you'll have to follow this link to see it. well, actually you could follow either of the two links ... they should both take you to the right place.

according to flickr, i currently have 981 photos taken during the month of july. i'm pretty sure i can shoot 19 photos in the next three days. kinda ticked me off that i missed a photo yesterday because my camera wasn't with me. i had the case, but not the camera. fat lot of the good that did me.


jeff & roxanne had a photo booth at their reception. we did our best to make fools of ourselves. repeatedly. it was a good time.

i stink at responding to messages on facebook. i'd apologize, but that's just the way it is. i'm a little better at responding to messages on myspace ... but not by much. shoot, i figure i'm doing good to respond to e-mails in a timely fashion. that's right. that means those of you who have been getting regular responses out of me within a couple of days ought to feel special.

i had the admin for a couple of flickr groups ask me to add some of my photos to the groups' pools. i have no idea if that sentence makes any sense. but i now have photos in the old barns, farms & equipment group and clouds, storms, sunsets and sunrises group. granted, the other members of these groups take the most amazing photos that completely dwarf mine ... but very cool to have someone recognize some potential in your work.

i want to take more photos. this would be easily accomplished if i executed "the plan."

what? you don't know about "the plan" yet? i want to quit my job, liquidate all my assets (that's funny ... i don't have any assets ...) and drive around until i run out of money, my car stops running or i die. whichever comes first. do you know how much of the united states i haven't seen yet? how many bridges i haven't photographed? how much i currently dislike going to an office every day? i'm 29 ... who needs a savings account? i say chuck it all & go drive the country.

i'll do it someday. just you wait & see.


for a good time, i updated my "where i've been" map. look at all the opportunities still out there. and i'm most interested in hitting all the states first. other countries can come later. i haven't spent quality time in even HALF of the states yet.

i'm pretty sure the washer just turned off. the clothes can dry in the morning. i'm going to bed.

10: surprise!

this is the massive living room artwork i was working on this past week. my living room is this fabulous deep red color and my furniture is black. marlana (my landlord) always had black/white photos in the living room, which i loved. so i decided, what better to do than cover a whole wall in them?

the mechanics: i started by nailing up large pieces mat board. and then simply used double-sided sticky tape to attach the photos. that way there's no adhesive on the wall, and i didn't get the plaster texture on the photos when i smoothed them down to ensure adhesion. plus, the nails holding the mat board are completely covered by the photos - and nail heads were one thing i wanted to avoid. i'm pretty satisfied with how it came out. undoubtedly, i'll change some things next time i do it. but i'm seriously in love with this wall.

random statistics about the wall:
1. 11 pieces of mat board.
2. way more ink than i care to count.
3. at least 10 rolls of double-sided sticky tape.
4. 166 photos, taken at no less than 30 different locations.
- photos from my road trip along the southern cali coast: 24
- photos from san francisco: 10
- photos from my recent trip to south dakota: 30
- photos that include a bridge: 8
- photos that include water: 25
- photos taken from a moving vehicle (car, boat, plane, double-decker bus): 30

tyb30 - july update

alright, an update for you. :)

1: take 2900 photos. 1663 as of july 25. it's also been commented that i should choose my 29 favorite photos out of the 2900 total. i like this idea. :)

2: visit two places i've never been before. pittsburgh! michigan! south dakota!

3: finish two quilts. alicia's is done!

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

5: avoid deep-fried vegetables. the french fry embargo officially started may 1. so far, so good. although it did occur to me as i was eating some potato chips that technically they're off limits, too. but i was already eating them, so what was i going to do?

6: watch the entire 'friends' series. on season six, disc one.

7: send out Christmas cards.

8: tackle another month of 1000 photographs. i am tackling this in july. currently it's the 25th and i've already taken 948 photos. i think i'll create a little space on my flickr account for them. now, in fairness, some of the photos taken with my camera last night were taken by beth ... but i did my best to pull out the ones i think she shot. some of hers may have slipped through, as we were both shooting photos of the rail cats players. but i'm crediting her with all the rohde shots, and i'm taking most of the wallace ones. :) i'll just aim to have over 1000 photos to make up for any overlap.

9: put together the fortune journal.

10: surprise! this is my artwork in the living room. it's done ... but i can't post photos until tomorrow. :)

11: send a piece of real mail each month. june - sent & received! july - sent & received!

12: watch all of Alan Alda's movies available from netflix. i watched purlie victorious (alan alda's first film) a couple weeks ago - worth watching for his ridiculous georgia accent. but once you've heard the accent, you can turn it off. ;) i've currently got the mephisto waltz sitting in my office.

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

14: host a ladies' night at the new house.

15: get my own place. done! haven't you invited yourself over yet?

16: plantumentary. officially started june 21. i think i may make a little spot on flickr for this, too. we'll see.

17: get my blog archives under control with yearly headers. workin' on it.

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

19: try to grow some vegetables. two tomato plants & a pepper plant are planted, however, my resident mole seems to enjoy tunneling through their area. so i'm not sure they'll make it.

20: read a book. i've started 'the complete persepolis'.

21: put up a Christmas tree.

22: get my nose pierced. done on the fifth of july! and by a very nice looking man, if i do say so myself.

23: update my portfolio. i have been giving this some thought. i grabbed a bunch of files from work - now i just need to get the site updated.

24: screen print a t-shirt. i have a plan ... :)

25: bike ten miles.

26: create artwork for the office. i haven't thought much about the artwork ... but i think i found some fabulous fabric to make curtains out of.

27: go two weeks without obvious processed sugars. yeah, this currently conflicts with my summer of ice cream. it'll have to wait until october or november.

28: Christmas surprise.

29: have breakfast at lynn's paradise cafe.

new flowers

watched the railcats lose last night. played hard for eleven innings, but our boys just couldn't get the win.

had two gas purchases take almost a week to post to my bank account. i was kinda starting to hope they'd just never take their money. i mean, a girl can dream, right?

my sinuses are killing me, and i have no desire to go to the office today.

if i can shoot 133 photos during the next week, i can count july as my month of 1000 photographs. that's less than 20 per day. surely i can do that.

ouch

vague update

i finished my big art project for the living room. well, i finished the main section. there's an extension planned for an adjacent wall - but that will come later. maybe in time for bunco night, maybe not. i want to show it off like no one's business ... but not until after bunco. you ladies need to be surprised. ;)

next my attention will probably shift to the bedroom. i have the fabric to make the curtains. i've made a miniature version to convince myself the mechanics will work. now to just make it happen.

seriously, the art project took me all week. more than all week? possibly more than all week. it's worth it. i love it.

i'm stewing some logo ideas for friends of mine who are opening a coffee shop.

i had ice cream at the crown point coldstone creamery last night. my first time at that location. they have a hole punch tough enough to handle the new punch cards. not that i'm judging dyer for having a wimpy hole punch, but i'm totally judging dyer for having a wimpy hole punch.

i got free pencils at staples this evening. well, i paid $1.99 for them ... but i'll get that back. granted, i'll get it back as money i have to spend at staples, but that won't be a problem. i do love office supply stores.

i'm tuckered out, but i think i'll get photos printed for my turny picture frame before i crash. at some point, i'll have to count how many total photos are in my living room. the number will probably be ridiculous.

but no pictures for you today. aren't you sad?

staples rocks

i bought myself a small bucket of green goodness at staples today. they have a display filled with a good variety of paper clips, binder clips & thumbtacks - you choose your bucket size, and fill it with whatever mix of products you want for a fixed price. i simply picked out all the green ones. well, the green ones i liked. :) and i'm pretty good at packing items into containers, so i'm pretty pleased with my goodies. pleased enough that i'm going to count them now. i got 9 medium binder clips, 30 small binder clips and 121 large paper clips. all in various shades of green. i do love office supply stores.

on a pirate ship

photos of last night's adventure brought to you in spite of the fact i should definitely already be getting ready to leave. :)









i don't understand the fireworks setting on digital cameras. it keeps the shutter open longer, which i can only assume is supposed to give you a better chance of actually catching the firework. but it also gives every fireworks photo streamers (fingers? you know, the elongated snakes of light). i like the streamer effect, but sometimes you just want a quick shot of the action. these were shot with my little camera because i wasn't sure i wanted to carry around my big one. next time i will bring the big one.

and you can't really tell in the photo, but yes, i'm wearing my cubs shirt & frank's got on his sox jacket. funny how many people commented when we were walking around navy pier together. (beth, you can see, is not declaring her baseball loyalties in this photo. so for the purposes of last night - she was switzerland.)

whoa ... survey alert!

and now a break from our regularly scheduled photo posting for this brief message from our survey sponsors ...

1. What time did you get up this morning? about 10 after 7, i think.

2. Diamonds or pearls? pearls.

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? iron man.

4. What is your favorite TV show? law & order: criminal intent.

5. What do you usually have for breakfast? i don't really have a usual. a couple times this week it's been a bagel. a couple other times it's been pancakes. sometimes i'll swing through mickey d's for a sausage egg mcmuffin. if i have eggs in the house i'm a big fan of the omelette - that's about as "usual" as it gets.

6. What is your middle name? renee.

7. What food do you dislike? pot roast.

8. What is your favorite CD at the moment? i'm currently in between favorites. for quite some time it was between a mix CD of The Academy Is ... songs and my Mika CD. now i'm kinda jumping from album to album, but with a lot of Kelly Clarkson's My January.

9. What kind of car do you drive? a black one. ;)

10. Favorite sandwich? jimmy john's billy club. no ... wendy's spicy chicken. or maybe chili's chicken ranch sandwich. or bennigan's turkey o'toole. or maybe i really like sandwiches ...

11. What characteristic do you despise? is "waiting until the last minute & then pushing the stress off on someone else" a characteristic? or how about "volunteering your co-worker for something that has no need to be their responsibility"? good thing i don't despise cynicism & bitterness, eh? :)

12. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation where would you go? ireland.

13. Are you an organized person? i have my moments.

14. Where would you retire to? currently, i'd choose the black hills. which means i need to get to san francisco before i retire.

15. What was your most recent memorable birthday? i remember my most recent birthday. in fact, i just re-read one of my birthday cards today.

16. What are you going to do when you finish this? i'm not sure. i'd like to hang these curtain rods, but it would probably be smarter to paint first. so maybe i'll just go to bed.

17. Person you expect to send it back first? i'm not e-mailing this, so the question is slightly irrelevant. but i bet if i post it to my myspace, beth will fill it out first. :)

18. When is your birthday? january 24.

19. Morning person or a night person? night, usually. but i really don't do too bad in the mornings.

20. What is your shoe size? 9.5 or 10.

21. Pets? i'm thinking about it. something small that doesn't require too much responsibility ... like a good beta.

22. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us? yes, but i don't think i can share it without sounding too happy about it ... and that wouldn't be nice.

23. So how are you feeling today? currently tired and little ho-hum.

24. What is your favorite flower? i don't know. lilies? daisies? sunflowers? tulips? miniature roses? send me some of each & i'll let you know. ;)

25. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? tomorrow - it includes watching fireworks from a boat.

26. What are you listening to right now? the washing machine spinning fabric for my curtains.

27. What was the last thing you ate? a side salad from wendy's.

28. Do you wish on stars? no.

29. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? chartreuse.

30. How is the weather right now? sticky.

31. Last person you spoke to on the phone? holly.

32. Favorite soft drink? diet dr. pepper.

33. Favorite restaurant? chili's.

34. Hair color? mostly brown.

35. What was your favorite toy as a child? no idea.

36. Summer or Winter? summer.

37. Chocolate or Vanilla? vanilla.

38. Coffee or tea? neither, please.

39. Do you want your friends to email you back? no, i like sending e-mails in hopes of never receiving a response.

40. When was the last time you cried? monday night. i came home to a very touching piece of mail.

41. What is under your bed? some under-the-bed boxes and some shoes.

42.. What did you do last night? had dinner with beth. bought some ink at office max. came home & printed out photos for my living room.

43. What are you afraid of? regret & missing something. mostly, of making the wrong choice.

44. Salty or sweet? salty, though this weeks forays into the world of ice cream seem to denote a leaning towards the sweet.

45. How many keys on your key ring? two.

46. How many years at your current job? seven years & two days. SEVEN YEARS & TWO DAYS! people, do you see the problem with that?

47. Favorite day of the week? i have no idea. um ... yeah, no idea.

48. Do you make friends easily? i can be friendly with people easily, does that count?

49. How many people will you send this too? i'm sending it out to the whole world. ;)

50. How many will respond? i'm gonna guess two.

51. Do you enjoy finding out things about other people? yes.

52. When was the last time you prayed? today.

day five

the drive home was an early start and included another trip down the service road to the almost hidden block of land. i couldn't resist. the sunrise was simply gorgeous. and so long as i had to be awake & driving down the interstate ... i might as well take advantage of the scenery.


i hit one storm in iowa, but the rest of the drive was smooth sailing.

stats on the trip, for those of you who (like me) are totally interested in this stuff. a total of 29 hours of driving (14 there, 15 back because of the sunrise photos). a total of 1925.7 miles round trip. average speed of 68.2 miles per hour (i tried getting that right at 70, but there was a lot of construction working against me). average fuel economy 30.2 mpg.

and during the trip, my odometer ended in a five or a zero 5 times. :)

day four

sunday morning we drove to the badlands. we actually drove past the national park in search of a block of land you just barely get a glimpse of from the interstate. one service road & one gravel road later and we were there.


from there we headed to the national park, stopping to photograph this fabulous rundown service station & restaurant.


i've mentioned that i love broken down old buildings, right?


and then into the park. the badlands were amazing. beyond words.


i'd like to camp in the park during my next visit. be there to shoot the sunset, be amazed at the number of stars and then wake up to get the sunrise. yes, there must be a second trip.

day three

saturday morning started with a drive through sturgis, deadwood & lead. both this photo


and this one are from deadwood. from there we headed up to spearfish canyon.


found an old car or two on the side of the road along the way. so, of course, we stopped to take photos.


spearfish canyon & area were beautiful. we went to three different waterfalls - this one was my favorite. from where i was standing to take this photo i could feel the spray coming off the falls. absolutely fabulous.

after our drive back from spearfish canyon, we headed to the quilt shop. but, we found ourselves with a little extra time, and we just happened to be by this fabulous looking tattoo & piercing shop ...


so i took advantage of the opportunity to get my nose pierced. i know it's hard to see in this photo,


so here's an obscenely close-up photo to prove there's really a stud there. so far so good with the healing. i was told to wait 30 days before taking it out. i waited 3 - oops. :) i was drying my face one morning & got the stud caught in the loopies on my towel. it went back in without too much problem, though. and today it's comfortable enough that i forget it's there and then suddenly think i've lost it.

lost the stud, that is. not lost it as in lost it. i feel like that without reference to my new facial adornment. ;)


we walked around part of downtown rapid city that evening, including art alley - basically an alley given to artists to graffiti to their hearts delight. it's a pretty cool place.


our after-downtown drive took us past these barns. i haven't the ability to explain why i love old, broken down buildings. but i certainly do enjoy photographing them.

if you're interested, i uploaded a bunch of my photos to my flickr account. you can either click on the flickr box on the right, or visit this link to view them. if you view them as a slideshow, you can click on the i in the center of the photo & it will show you the descriptions i put in to explain what's what.

day two

we spent the fourth of july at mount rushmore. fitting, right? it was spectacular. i commented that they were smaller that i was expecting ... but now as i rethink that, i wonder if what i really expected was to be able to get closer to them. and, obviously, if we'd been closer they would have been larger. because i understand that they're flippin' huge. really, i do. i mean, that park ranger on lincoln's head looked pretty tiny in comparison (he's not in the photo, stop looking for him). but how cool would it be to be able to get close enough to realize how tiny you were in comparison? i'm just saying ...


we didn't drive up to crazy horse, but they're carving it close enough to the road it's not necessary. i have no doubt this will also be spectacular when they get it done. and then lynn tells me they have this thing each year where people walk out along his arm? see, that's the kind of up close & personal experience that will make you feel tiny in comparison.


so we're driving through custer state park ... and lynn says something along the lines of "it would great if you would get to see a buffalo". i, of course, agree - but we know there's a chance we won't see a single buffalo. we come around this curve and a motorcyclist coming the other direction is motioning off to the right side of the road. the people ahead of us have slowed and everyone has their cameras out. sure enough - there's a single buffalo. just hanging out. took a few photos of him lying down and made a comment like "i wish he'd stand up" ... and, of course, he did. i'm pretty sure he gave me a dirty look when he stood up though. something like "you'd better appreciate this, lady. i was really comfortable lying down, ya know." i did appreciate it, mr. buffalo. i did.


so we keep driving. and come across a second buffalo. this one did not stand up for us. but he did point out how easy it is to miss a buffalo if you're not looking for him. with the grass as tall as it is - he kinda looks like a big rock. but at this point, i'm pretty satisfied. i mean, i got to see two buffalo at pretty close range. we weren't more than 30 feet from either of these guys.


and then we came across the herd. kid you not, at least 200 buffalo ...


all crossing the street between the cars. it was amazing. lots of babies in the group - and we all know how cute things are in miniature. and if i'd felt like being ridiculously stupid, i could've easily touched them as they walked by the car. easily. seriously amazing.


one last view of mount rushmore through one of the tunnels leading to the pigtail bridges. i do love bridges. :)

day one

if you didn't see the sunrise thursday morning ... you missed a nice one. i tried pretty hard to get a good photo of it as i was driving out of town. this is the best i got. i mean, i could only do so much as i was driving down the interstate at 75 miles an hour. i mean, 65 miles an hour. i was still in illinois as the sun rose. :)


saw a truck of turkeys around 6:30 a.m. - you can fit a lot of turkeys in a truck. good time to stop for a first breakfast.


cruising through iowa (speed limit's up to 70 at this point) around 10:30 a.m. - right around when i stopped for my second breakfast. i really enjoy driving through iowa. i find the hilly farm land to be quite beautiful and relaxing. honestly. (nothing i can say here will make that sound less sarcastic, will it? i'm being completely serious.)


i made it into south dakota early in the afternoon. oh yeah, minor detail i haven't told you yet. i decided to drive to south dakota this weekend. :) i decided on tuesday night that i would leave wednesday after work - drive several hours, sack out in a hotel & finish the drive thursday. then spent all day wednesday at work pricing flights into rapid city - because it just made more sense to fly than drive. by the time i left work wednesday i'd decided there was no way i could afford the trip. it was just too expensive. came home feeling defeated but distracting myself with plans of gardening, sewing & relaxing for my five day weekend. came home wednesday night, read some e-mails & called lynn. by the time we were halfway through our conversation i'd decided i was driving to south dakota, regardless of the price of gas. actually, halfway through our conversation i realized i'd started packing ... so i took that as a sign & went with it. :)

i left the house around 4:15 a.m. thursday. drove straight through - 14 hours on pure adrenaline. lynn didn't know i was coming. actually, i thought she might know ... because i may have hinted at it too much once i realized i was packing as we talked on the phone. but the element of surprise is huge with me. i love surprising people. so the adrenaline made the trip out pass very easily. i made it into town around 5:30 p.m. (if you're doing the math on that, keep in mind rapid city is an hour behind chicago.) and almost made it to her front door before she realized i was there.


and it turns out south dakota is pretty to drive through, as well. with better speed limits. ;)

not looking good

alright, it's been almost 24 hours, and i'm pretty sure the plant's not looking any better. oops. :)

weekend casualty

with everything i could tell you about this weekend - and trust me, there is a lot to tell you about this weekend - all you get tonight is this photo of a dead plant. actually, i'm hoping it's only mostly dead. if, however, it doesn't spring back ... i will consider it a plant sacrificed in the name of sanity, spontaneity and a very good time. a very, very good time.

curious, yet? ;)