Owie

Tonight was the family housing annual picnic, and even though the weather was just as bad as last year (of all the lovely, sunny summer days, why must it rain for the picnic?), I think the party was more rockin' than last year, thanks in part to the great DJ.

There were a couple people playing volleyball as well, so after we ate, we joined them. Even the drizzling rain didn't stop us from our intense game and our numbers soon swelled from two teams of two adults and a kid to six adults on each side.

Sadly, I hit a ball badly on my hand and now my thumb is very sore. If it still hurts this badly on Monday, I'll go see the physical therapist person. So we had to leave early because I didn't want to keep playing and risk further injury (it also felt numb at the time, but that might have just been shock). I hope I get better soon, or else maybe I'll be able to claim it as an injury requiring exemption from homework?? Probably not, but it's a nice thought.

Hobbies are fun!

I heart JoAnn Fabric.

They are literally right across the street from us and I can amble on over there anytime I want. Normally, this is a very, very bad thing, especially since they have very alluring sales (90% off! 75% off already reduced items!), but right now, it is not. See, Peter and I have made a deal regarding money. We are allowed to spend our birthday money any way we see fit and the other person has no veto power over purchases with birthday money. Otherwise, we pretty much confer about every purchase, since we have barely enough income and God only knows how we make ends meet (I think a lot has to do with Peter's amazing coupon-abilities and my hoarding tendencies).

So I am flush with my recent birthday money, and it's a heady feeling to have any spendable money after such a dry year, and JoAnn is having a major sale on crafting supplies and other things. Put the two together, and I have taken up a new hobby: scrapbooking!

I'm not so keen on the cutesy-country stuff that seems to make up a lot of scrapbooks, but they have come out with such mod papers and keen stickers that I am willing to take a stab at it. It doesn't hurt that I have probably well over 15,000 pictures now that mainly just sit in iPhoto, unlooked at and unloved :-(

Free the photos!

Seasons

Summer is my favorite season. My birthday is in August, so of course I love it, and now our wedding anniversary is as well, so it's even more special. Even without these highlights, I think I would still love the warm weather, the lazy, relaxed feeling and the long days that slowly melt into night with the luxurious and magical summer dusk.

Of course, it can't last forever and summer's end is looming. The school year begins on Monday (my classes begin Tuesday) and I am not ready. There are many things I'm looking forward to, including some of my classes and my new job, but I still have things I want to do while my days are still free.

Primarily, I love the freedom each summer day brings (when I'm a student, of course, and have summers off!). Each morning, the possibilities of the day lie open to me and I can choose if my hours will be spent doing laundry, taking a walk or sorting through photos. Such wonderful freedom! How will you spend your remaining summer days?

Sad state of affairs

So If you've been reading this blog, you will know that I have love in my heart for Flickr. Sadly, since it is a public site, some Flickrites are not just there for the love of photography... I kept getting added as a contact to these guys whose favorite pictures were pornography (it is allowed on the site, they just have warnings on them). I finally figured out that, apparently, my teeny face from a wedding photo was enough to add me to their list of contacts, along with people who had icons of naked ladies :P Gross. So to stop the madness, I had to change my icon to a totally abstract one. I hate that perverts can destroy what is good and fine on the Internet!

Happy Times on Flickr!

So I took a picture, manipulated it a little bit with a cool program to make an HDR image, and uploaded it to Flickr a few days ago. In three short days, it has rocketed to my most viewed image by almost a hundred views (seen 276 times), been favorited 10 times and has had by far the most comments of any of my pictures, all of which have been extremely nice and very flattering.

The most humbling thing, aside from *actual* photographers commenting nicely on the image, is that my picture is in the top 100 most "interesting" on Flickr for August 11th, and the company my little photo is keeping is quite impressive. Check out the cool, cool photos sharing the page with me here.

OK, enough attention mongering for me, back to contemplating your own belly buttons!

Bleeding nipples

You read right. Bleeding nipples. This is apparently one of the many possible side effects of running, one I never could have imagined.

Peter has taken up marathon running and has joined a running club to train with. In this morning's run, the nipples of a guy running with him started to bleed from the chafing of his shirt. It was, of course, a white t-shirt. Thank God Peter took the hint and took off his shirt, because the minute his nipples start to bleed, I might just have to put an end to this nonesense. Or just rip off his shirt :-)

Running out of time!

So, um, where did the summer go? We only have a few more weeks, make that like a week and a half, before school starts and I wonder if I managed to actually do any of the projects I wanted to do over the summer. Hmm... update my websites? I have some good ideas and did some work on one of them, just need to actually POST it... make Peter's quilt? I have all the fabric and a design for it, I just need to cut the pieces, sew them together and MAKE the quilt... give the house a complete cleaning? I've done the normal cleaning, but I have great plans to wash the floors, vacuum the crevices and clear the kitchen counters next week before Peter's parents come... regularly update this blog? Well, I'm doing better than some bloggers, far worse than others, but I manage to get some new content up at least once a week, right? No promises that it's interesting or enjoyable, but it's here!

Another (ongoing) project I'd like to do is keep up on my photos. I take so many of them that I look through the batch, note to myself which ones I like, then promptly forget which ones I thought were so fab. I need to take advantage of iPhoto and mark them so I can post them later here or on Flickr. I'm also getting better at Photoshop and would love to retouch some of our wedding photos (and other pictures) to make them uber-awesome. So many projects! And now school is starting so soon, I'll be taking more classes than before and I'm trying to get a job and I just hope it all works out!

I'm feeling motivated and productive right now though, so that's very helpful as far as getting projects done. We are tackling a new project this weekend with our friend Alison: we'll be painting a mirror frame and a coffee table, both of which were dumpster resuces (the mirror from Jenny's mom's house and the coffee table for Alison on a Boulder street). Since we've made this a group effort, there's a much better chance of everyone getting their project done! Hmm... now that's an idea!

Happy project-ing to all, and to all a good night!

Pretty much the coolest site ever

If you have pictures, like pictures and/or take lots of the like yours truly, you must check out photojojo.com. It has all kinds of cool tips and ideas for things to do with your photos, and today, your short videos! What, pray tell, can you do with those 10-second snippets of video you took with your digital camera? Why, make a flip book, of course! Way cool. Now we just need $100 extra dollars (at least) for all the fun ideas and projects!

PS We actually did do one of the projects I found on there, and it was pretty fun! I would probably choose a different picture and play with it more if I was to do it again, but Peter was opposed to the "waste of ink." True, I suppose we don't really need giant pictures of ourselves or anything else, for that matter, but it's just too cool to pass up! See below for what the heck I'm talking about and visit this site to do it to your own pics!

Back into the swing

We got back from Oklahoma Monday evening, I spent Monday sleeping and catching up on little things, and today I'm even more motivated, o hopefully I can get more stuff done! The baby we watched over the summer is in daycare now, so it's nice because I actually have time to clean the bathroom, do laundry, etc., but I really miss the little bober. I still have a few days to watch him, though, so I can get my fix sporadically. It just won't be the same though!

No, all of you who think that Will-withdrawl will cause baby-making are mistaken because we still have a lot of schooling and other plans to accomplish before we add a wiggling munchkin to the equation.

Egg-tastic

Fresh eggs are unspeakably better than old, store-bought eggs. Just so you know. More about our trip to Oklahoma (with pictures) soon!