Checking off summer "to-dos"

When the spring semester was ending, Peter and I thought of all the things we wanted to do this summer with our copious amounts of free time. Things we never had time for otherwise and could only be done in the summer. Have we done any of those things yet? Well, we're getting there. Last weekend we went camping with several friends (check!) and had a great time and today we are going to the zoo! Sadly, Denver is practically a foreign country to us, even thought it's only a half hour away, so we never get down there to see all the fun things they have. I'm excited to take lots of pictures and see fun animals. I totally feel like a little kid again, especially since I haven't been to an actual zoo since I don't know when. Yipee!

Here are some fun pictures of camping for everyone:

WAY too many pictures

I bit the bullet and finally decided to do some long-overdue organizing of my iPhoto pictures with some fancy program that will allow multiple libraries and basically allow me to still see all my pictures without killing my poor iMac. Um, did I ever tell you I have a lot of pictures? Yeah. I've only done through 2005 (before I got my new camera and went ape shit crazy with the picture taking) and it's taken well over 24 hours and it's not even done yet. 15,000 pictures and counting, though I think a lot of them are duplicates I'll have to prune later, whenever the pictures finish importing. I hope it'll be done before school starts in August. I need to do this now before I come back from Alaska with another 15,000 pictures, or all will be lost and I'll never be able to catch up. Holy nut, do I have a lot of pictures.

One of the many pictures I took of wildflowers on our hike Sunday that I haven't even been able to look at yet, since I started this crazy project before going through them.

Spring Cleaning

For the past week or so, my dreams have been coming true. Peter and I have purchased files and files boxes, gone through both the giant Rubbermaid box filled with "important papers" and our overflowing "inbox," recycled a bunch, filed even more and basically tamed our paper tiger (for now). The laundry is mostly done, dishes are under control and I've manged to fill a box with stuff to donate. It's great!

In other Spring Cleaning-ish news, I've completely chopped my hair. It's now at my chin (!) and I love it. As soon as I can take a picture of me that I think does it justice, I will post it here for all to see. Why did I get such a drastic cut? I wanted to be able to donate my hair to Locks of Love, so that's where it ended up (byebye 11 inches!). Summer, here we come!

Fun New Toy

As you may or may not know, we are finally honeymooning this summer, in Alaska, and as you may or may not know, Alaska is said to be a photographer's dream. Since I dream of being a photographer, I'm quite excited about Alaska. Only trouble is, gee whiz, I'm dreamin'... oh, sorry!
Got distracted by the oldies radio station in my head. So as I was saying, I know I'm going to take a LOT of photos, but we aren't bringing a computer with us, so I need a way to dump photos (I'm NOT buying a jillion SD cards I won't need again).

Enter this little beaut:

Baroo? Here, does this help?

Yes, my friends, that is a magical little converter doohickie that makes it possible to upload pictures FROM THE CAMERA TO THE IPOD. Wow. We got it this morning at our friendly local Apple store, I took a few seventy pictures of flowers today:




came home, hooked up the hookups and voila! Teeny versions of my photos were floating through cords like magic. The I plugged in the iPod (whose batteries were quickly depleted; a wall charger will the the next purchase) to the computer, and loaded them into iPhoto! Easy peasy! Now we just have to see if it will work with movies I take on the camera. If not, at least the pictures work!

Widowed too young

Like many women today, I've been widowed before my time. The culprit isn't football anymore, which at least has a set season, but a more insidious villain. Video games. They never, ever have to end. Someone else is always online, or else there are games to play alone, but there are always games. Free on the Internet, cheap at the store, or purchased poison. Luckily, my dearest husband recognizes the dangers.

When I told him what I was writing (as he entered the umpteenth hour of Battlefield of the Immortals), he looked very sad and contrite. As well he SHOULD! But I should go a little easier on him. After all, he did just finish 672 straight hours of school and homework in the marathon of Maymester. But still!

Hair-Raising

I've been meaning to get a haircut for quite some time. Like, a year. My subconscious must be getting in on the action, since I had a dream about getting a haircut last night. It was at a place in Reno that I had gone to once, fancy shmance and a bit full of themselves as those kinds of hair salons can be. I got a good cut, but had a bad experience with them later. But in my dream, I was there at opening at the place was a mess. Not all the lights were working, chairs scattered everywhere, people still setting up for the day.

My hairdresser was a stylish older man, flamboyant and a bit rotund in a teddy bear way. He was confident and excited about his "vision," even when it clearly conflicted with everything the client wanted, though he was sensitive to their feelings. My hairstylist was Frank from Trading Spaces.

In the dream, my haircut wasn't exactly what I wanted, but considering who was cutting it, I guess it was miraculous I didn't end up with a shaved head painted with a chic country scene.

I guess I should call the hair place tomorrow and hope Frank isn't working.

Potty Break

I had a very exciting Saturday night. I babysit for a five-month-old baby girl and an almost-three-year-old boy. The parents have been trying to get him potty trained off and on for a long long time, but he's never shown the slightest interest in the potty or learning to use it. I was sitting for them tonight and as I was walking past the little boy, I caught a whiff of something awful. Fearful I would have to change his poopy diaper (I haven't yet, knock on wood), I asked him if he had to go potty or if he needed a diaper change. Turned out it was his diaper bin, but he took that question to heart and ran downstairs to pull his little potty chair out of the closet where it's been languishing for who-knows-how-long. After that, I couldn't keep his pants on and barely managed to persuade him to leave the potty long enough to take a bath. He probably sat on that thing for at least an hour or so, minus bath time, and didn't even want to get off for bedtime. I seriously, seriously hope this sticks so I never have to change one of his poopy diapers (knock on giant sequoia).

And now I understand why mommy blogs are so much fun to read. Things actually happen and you get to legitimately talk about poop.

Being a Housewife

My first week of mostly not working while Peter goes to class and tutors is done. What have I accomplished? What have I learned? Well, mostly that the dishes are never fully done because more always come, catching up on months of housework is very time consuming and even when I'm busy the whole day, I never seem to get everything I want to do done. On the good side, I *am* getting things done, just not as quickly as I would like. Dishes are getting done, the laundry is down to one small basket, I've put in a fair number of hours at work (not really housewife-y, but it's still less than part time) and I've started some projects I've been thinking about all school year. I've also read several books that weren't required for anything or even slightly educational!

Peter will be finished with his summer school class by Monday, and then I really want to do some hiking, camping and short road trips with him. Plus, he'll be a house-husband, so maybe we can get our apartment into shape that much quicker!