Wednesday, March 26, 2008

First day of Spring

Each day  walking too and from work, bulbs are poking out of the ground.   Daffodils in front of the UK President' s  home have been blooming for well over a week. I've even noticed the creeping Phlox beginning to turn into little mounds of lavender flowers.  I love UK's campus in the spring.  It reminds me of being back in school  when a couple of friends and I conducted "flower raids." ( I shall plead the Fifth concerning any further details to this activity.)  Regardless the little hints to warmer, brighter days are a welcomed sight after a most unusual winter.

The calendar has said that it is spring for a week or so, although there have been no signs of it around my house.  I spent a bit of time working in the yard this weekend.  Yes,  I'm still cleaning up from last month.  Although the grass seems a bit greener,  things still look very bleak.  My yard has had a complete transformation, and I'm still adjusting to the change.  I keep telling myself it will get better when spring gets here. But, every day  I look out on to the  now emptier lot that has been nearly stripped of  nearly all its character, and I'll    
admit it makes me a little sad.  

Then today, I came home and was greeted by a little, sunny friend that has been away for almost a year.  Spring did finally arrive at my house too!

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Blue 2.0!

The video of Ben Hall accepting  his iPod Shuffle is uploaded YouTube.

I know there is a widget for me to post it here, but for now the link will have to do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba9ZsxhTJY0 

What a learning experience this has been! I love iMovie once I could get the video to import with sound. The sound effects are my favorite part. I felt like a foley artist. 



Sophia Copolla  I am not, but this sure is fun.

Enjoy
-c

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

March Madness


So the teams were announced on Sunday. Monday, I walk into work to find empty brackets being distributed around the office. Selection tactics are being discussed as Kathryn walks in....

"Kathryn we left you a bracket sheet on your desk."

"Great! For what sport?"

(Keep in mind, "work" is The University of Kentucky.)

Another priceless moment. Thanks Kathryn!!!!

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Misty Yellow Springs

Another weekend in Yellow Springs. It's been so nice in Lexington you can tell Spring is just around the corner. I expected to see more of those first few Spring signals up here too. Instead it is grey, cool, damp and very foggy. No glimpses of green yet, then again last weekend they had 15 inches of snow! So I guess I'm just being over anxious.
Between the weather and Celtic music on the radio, I could easily imagine being in Ireland. So Happy St. Patrick's Day ( a little early.)

-c

Monday, March 10, 2008

Yellow Springs in the News


Things like this don't surprise me in Yellow Springs. Actually it is one of the reasons I love this town.




Be sure to check out the link to Corrine's blog (Jafabrit) below.

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Snowy Saturday

What a wonderful day to stay inside and watch the snow. I love snowy days. I find them quite cheerful. The winter can be so dark and snowy days are actually bright.  The light is soft and relaxing. 
I've spent most of the morning with a hot cup of coffee and my mac. For Blue 2.0 I've been diving deeper into advanced blogging.  I customized my blog's layout way back when I first started it. I'm still not happy with it. I've been designing a new layout in iweb that I like SO much more, but I can't figure out exactly how to upload it to blogger. It's not a straight forward as I thought. I'm sure it involves HTML code, and code is not my thing.  (If anyone has any wisdom they are willing to share, I'm all ears.)    
I'm afraid the mission to master the blog layout has taken up most of the energy as far as the "assignments" go. However, weeks ago I created a wee me when we were doing instant messaging. (see previous posts)  I had so much fun with that nearly half a dozen friends made wees after seeing mine. 

French Toast



Last weekend was great. I attended a photography conference that really helped me professionally as well as personally. The speakers were wonderfully energetic.  I learned better ways to focus (no pun intended) on what I really want and how I plan get there.  It also made me think more about how I can challenge myself creatively, and not necessarily behind a camera.   
I've been to several events like this over the years and it's interesting how they've change drastically, even in just the last year or two.  More emphasis is on creative business practices and embracing the influx of new technology. Blogging has become  a very useful tool to many photographers for a variety of reasons.  One speaker commented that surprisingly the most mundane of topics can often spark the greatest amount of interest.  One particularly popular post in recent months happened to be simply the contents of his refrigerator, or more appropriately, the lack of contents.

Now I know you are asking yourself "What does this have to do with French Toast?"

Throughout the past week, I've been reminded of this blog post on a daily basis.  For whatever reason, I've been putting off going to the grocery, and quite frankly the fridge has gotten sparse.    The contents are as follows.
  • 1 stick of butter
  • a partial loaf of bread
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 zucchini
  • 1 yellow squash
  • 4 or 5 carrots
  • 1 can of Pepsi One (left over from a visit from my parents)
  • 2 cans of inexpensive beer  (also left over from the parent's visit)
  • 1 bottle of beer carefully set aside for when I've had "one of those days"
  • 1 Starbucks Frappucinno 
  • 1/2 a jar of marinated artichoke hearts
  • 3 partial packages of assorted cheeses
  • 1 container of left-over homemade soup
  • 1 box of baking soda
  • an assortment of various condiments including, ketchup, sour cream,  mustard, salad dressing,  mayo, chocolate syrup, jam etc. 
  • 1 box of polaroid instant film (Most photographers keep some photo-related item in their fridge.  This is now even more special given that polaroids will be no more, but that's a topic for another post.)

This is it, not including the freezer, but honestly it's not any better.  I contemplated going to the dreaded grocery in evening, but all day the weather forecasters warned of a major winter storm destined to hit our area.  I think I would rather starve than to have fight the people at the store stocking up their emergency supplies.   A friend of mine said to me "Yeah, you know everyone will be there getting their French Toast."  After giving her a confused look, she told me that's what her family always said. Whenever bad weather hits, people always rush out to stock up on bread, eggs and milk.  "And what do you make from bread, eggs and milk?... French Toast." 

So not being able to muster up the courage to go out and face the crazy people at the grocery, I opted to stay in. I have all the emergency supplies I need. The Frappucinno will satisfy the need for morning coffee if this freezing rain ends up causing a power outage, rendering the coffee maker useless. (See, I plan ahead.) I don't have milk so I guess I won't be able to have French toast for breakfast. That's okay I might  have crepes instead. I found a mix in the cupboard and all I need is eggs. 

Stay warm!

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

I am new to the world of widgets, but I have recently installed one that I love.  This widget allows me to post directly to my blog from the Mac's Dashboard.  What a time saver!  So now, hopefully, I can get off a quick post when time is of the essence.   For instance when the Project Runway finale begins in 4 MINUTES!!!

ta ta