Harriet likes to sleep with her head propped up. Somehow, she managed to turn one of the couch pillows on its side, then she cradled her head on it.
Category: Photography
Letters to Esther
The letter on top is from Esther’s brother, Clark. He went to Purdue University, while Esther went to school here at IU.
At Work
Yes, I’m still painting behemoth pears. Someone in one of the Canon DLSR groups recommended using the timer to take low light photos, so I gave it a try. Huzzah! Today’s photo is much sharper than yesterday’s. There’s still a little bit of shake, from the mirror moving out of the way, but I think there’s a way to lock the mirror. I intend to investigate that this weekend.
Since I’m completely clueless about photography, I’ve been reading up on the basics. Aieee! Physics has never been my strong suit, especially optics, so this stuff is not intuitive to me. It’s going to take awhile before it starts to sink in.
Tile
Or, more specifically, grout. I spent a couple of hours last night on my hands and knees, scrubbing my bathroom floor with a toothbrush and bleach water. The grout is nice and clean now, but it’s an unappealing mottled grey color that will never look it.
And check out the lovely caulk smear along the bottom of the tub. Classy! The little maple piece on the right (it’s a nightstand, actually) is in serious need of refinishing. I promised my mom that I wouldn’t paint it, which means I might get to it sometime in the next ten years. Or not.
The photo is a little fuzzy (aside from the blurring from the shallow depth of field), because I took it in low light with no flash. I had to lighten it a bit and up the cyan and blue channels to compensate for the yellowing. I’m kind of surprised that it worked, as the original image was so dark that it looked like it’d been dipped in molasses.
And now, I’m off to find something to eat and to watch some mindless television. It stormed this morning and has been drizzling all day, so my brain feels like a bowl of pudding.
Fog
It’s 48F right now with 94% humidity, so obviously, there’s a misty drizzle and fog. It’s supposed to stay this way for awhile, too.
The bunnies are happy about the warm weather. When I took Harriet out this morning, there were at least ten rabbits grazing in the back field. They weren’t inclined to leave, either, which made Harriet’s morning potty trip both exciting and educational. We had a wonderful opportunity to work on our ability to ignore tempting, tasty morsels of rabbity goodness. Harriet’s response was something along the lines of, “Okayfinethen! If I can’t have them, I’m going to pretend they don’t exist.” I had to laugh, because that’s pretty much how I feel about the candy jar at work.
Groovy Fish
I had to take Harriet’s new fish away from her, at least temporarily. She very deliberately started chewing them his lower fins off. I should try to get a photo of it, because it’s kind of impressive. There’s a straight cut line, as if she’d used scissors.
I think I’m going to have to cut the fins off completely if I want to give the fish back to her. I don’t think she’d actually eat them, but I don’t want to take a chance. For now, Mr. Groovy Fish is sitting on top of one of the bookcases. Harriet is not amused. Every time I go into the living room, she parks herself in front of him and moos, like a lovesick cow.
Faucet
Disgusting, isn’t it? I wish they would put this sink in a trash bag, if they aren’t going to clean the built up grime off it.
And that’s about all I have today. I had a two-hour customer service training workshop this morning, which was just about useless. The cranky it inspired is still bubbling away. An adult beverage might help, and maybe a couple of House re-runs. (Seriously. The woman running the workshop made a big production of going around and shaking hands with everyone. Aaack! I nearly turned around and left, when I saw her barreling over toward me. I don’t touch strangers. Period. And I really don’t appreciate them touching me. The whole thing was kind of ironically funny, in retrospect. That sort of overly aggressive sales job is guaranteed to lose me as a customer for life.)
Anyway, about the only good thing I can say about this day is that it’s nearly over. Oh! And I got some doodling done during the stupid workshop.
Teh Enb.
Miss Brown
I forgot to buy cat litter the last time I was at the store, so I stopped to get some on my way home from work today. Boy, was that ever a mistake! Not being any kind of sportsballs fan, I didn’t realize that tomorrow is Superbowl Sunday. Target was packed. I figured that, since I was having to fight my way through the barbarian hordes, I may as well make it worth my while. The pet supply section was relatively quiet, so I hunted around for a new toy for Harriet. I also picked up a new collar for her. It’s purple, though you can’t tell in this photo.
Tomato
Tomatoes were US$2.49/pound at the grocery store, which is out of control. But, since there were a few that still had green on them, I bought them anyway, so that I could have fried green tomatoes. For breakfast. Mmm. Much better than oatmeal!
This one was almost too ripe to fry, but it turned out fine. I actually like them better when they’ve started to turn a little pinkish red than I do when they’re hard and green. The semi-ripe ones get soft when you fry them, but the flavor is wonderful.
I just slice them, dredge them in a little bit of flour or flour and cornmeal mixture, and fry in olive oil until they’re brown. Then just salt and serve.
Gesso Brush
I’ve been doing a lot of gessoing lately. The brush I use is an old one that I bought when I was in school. I think I probably paid US$1.99 for it 15 years ago. It’s a horrible brush (and I’ve obviously not treated it nicely!), but the plastic bristles don’t shed, so it’s perfect for gessoing canvases.
I stretched and primed another canvas this morning. The second coat of gesso is almost dry. Tonight, we paint pears!
red paper boat 