thanks giving, day 16

tonight i'm most thankful for my neighbor who shoveled the snow from my driveway. :) i came home and decided to make dinner before messing with snow removal. honestly, all that's under the snow is ice ... and i kinda like the traction the snow gives. there's only 3 inches or so out there, i can drive over that. but i feel like the sidewalk should probably be cleared & the walk to my porch, too. i do have a mailman & a paper deliverer to be concerned about. so after dinner i opened my front door to see if it was still snowing; it was not. so i called my mom to catch up on a few things. as i'm laying on the sofa, talking on the phone, i'm thinking to myself "wow, i know my neighbor is out shoveling his walk ... but it just sounds so loud. why does it sound so loud?" so i look out later - and it sounded loud because he shoveled halfway down the sidewalk in front of my house & the driveway from behind my car to the street. how sweet! now i just need to get over my self-consciousness and go thank him in person. :)



our seats at sunday's blackhawks game were in the 300-level. i was a little concerned we wouldn't be able to really see the game, but this was our view of the ice. not bad at all.



and our view with a little zoom of the lens. :) the seats were great. we were on the top level, but only three rows from the front so the seats weren't angled too steeply. funny story - april was at the united center the night before us for a bulls game & sat only two sections away. small world, eh?



we wanted a photo of all four of us at the game. i, of course, obliged by taking this photo. i think you can actually see frank saying "this isn't going to work" - but, as you can tell, we ARE all in the picture.



after the blackhawks won, we had one of the ushers take a photo of us. sure, it's better than mine ... but i still think there's something to be said for self-sufficiency. :)

i think that makes two times now that i've posted pictures with frank where he isn't really smiling.



after the game i couldn't help but shoot photos out of my car window. i love cities at night.



after dropping frank off, we drove down michigan avenue. if it hadn't been raining, i think i would have sprung for a parking space & walked around.



i must remember to take my camera friday night. we'll be downtown again. and, as i said, i do love cities at night. perhaps i'll even volunteer to be the second car to drive downtown ... that way i can stick around taking photos if everyone else decides they're ready to leave. :)

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'becca needs to work on her to-do list for the week.

thanks giving, day 8

right now i'm thankful i have these not-quite-recent photos to share, and that's just going to have to be good enough.

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'becca feels circularly frustrated.

video, anyone?

driving through deadwood after the corduroy vinyl show saturday night.


driving through new mexico this afternoon. i wanted to completely drain the battery so i could give it a fresh charge ... and a quick video did the trick.

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'becca is ready for bed.

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 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. ;)

warsaw, stormy return

la porte sunset

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?

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!

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.

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. :)

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 ...