A Very Disappointing First ...

Woke up at 4:00 am with a migraine.

Threw up and realized that there was no one but me to pick up Jessie.

Spent the next 9 hours trying to get rid of it.


No go.

A first: I did not get Jessie today. The very first Sunday I have been in town and did not pick her up.

I am ENORMOUSLY depressed.

Woke up on the 'Idiot' side of the bed today ...

Things haven't been going well this morning. Things have been all skiwampus, discombobulated, and just plain off.

All night, well for the first part of 'all night' I kept fighting with the dog. She would get up on the bed, spin around a couple of times, then plop down RIGHT ON TOP OF MY HEAD. The third time I got a doggy butt in my face I yelled at her to get off the bed, wondering what was up with the crazy mutt.

This morning I awoke to arctic temperatures and no dog in sight. I thought back and realized after I had yelled at her, she had left the room because she was not on my bed, nor in her doggy bed. I realized that the heat was running and that I had turned it off last night ... boy - I thought - that dog is talented ...

Eventually I realized that the upstairs heater was running (I had turned off the downstairs heater) and went to check what it was set to. It was set to 60 degrees and was working hard. Found Charlie up there curled up on the couch enjoying the warmth. The dog is smarter than I am.

The house was freezing, it was very cold outside:

and the first time I had turned on the heat since coming home from Australia was last night I was so cold. I think Charlie has been sneaking upstairs to keep warm - I have noticed she has been absent from the room I am in the last few days - an oddity for her. Like I said: smarter than me.

I used to think I could stand the cold. I grew up in Utah and remember waiting for the school bus without a coat on and a foot of snow on the ground. It eludes me now why we did this - thought we looked stupid in a coat? It wasn't cool to wear a coat? Didn't have a coat (kidding mom)? Or were we really just that stupid? But I don't remember it phasing me much - no scarring for life. And this morning after crawling out of my 'woolie' (an Australian Wool duvet) which Charlie was obviously trying to share with me last night - I was so cold - I just might be scarred for life. And I don't have any fun really warm clothes - so I sit here, freezing.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Went shopping and got a cart of stuff - everything except the thing I went shopping for ...

Was cleaning my hand sprayer overnight - it had started spraying in all sorts of directions except where it was supposed to (lime deposits) so I was soaking it in lime remover. Freezing, went over to put it away, ran some water on it to rinse off the cleaner, leaned it to see if the lime deposits had cleared up and something (the very naughty side of my brain) sent a signal down my arm to my fingers to clamp down - yeah - sprayed myself in the face, all over the front of me with FREEZING cold water! I think I am brain dead. I have no idea how this happened.

Got myself cleaned up, and now I am just waiting around to accidentally burn the house down ...

Tell Me This Isn't the COOLEST Trick Ever ...

It amazes me how happy this simple command makes me (ok, it's not a SIMPLE command, but close enough):


From this:

To this:

Distorting Perspective ... I feel so POWERFUL!!
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OK ... I'm over it ...

All Over The Map ...

I was going to call this "Things I did Today" but it is only a bit after 3:00pm and, well ... the blog is seriously all over the map. I think I have ADD today.

Things I Did Today:

1) Got Charlie Groomed:

Yeah, love the funkadelic bandanna too, but if she wants to take it off, I am thinking she can do it herself. She smells ... funky. Like she has perfume on. I wouldn't put it past the groomer. I get her groomed at a groomer / kennel combo and when I went to pick her up, saw the weirdest thing on the counter. It was a spray bottle that said "Strong enough for a man, made for a dog" which just sounds down right stupid. Anyhoo - I read on and it said it was, and I quote: "Dog Perfume" with a picture of the little Taco Bell dog on it (the spelling for them eludes me right now - and Rat Dog is just rude ...) on it. You know, I'm thinking, if your dog smells - spritzing it with perfume ain't going to do it. How 'bout a bath? (Oooops, um - Alisha - I am not talking about YOUR dogs - I like them. I just call dogs I don't know 'Rat Dog' ...)

Here she is eating grass in the back yard - does not bode well. Although I forget right now what it means ...

2) Went to the Dentist:

Well, just staple a halo to my head! They have only been trying to get me in for a cleaning for about 6 months. Bad, bad Lori.


3) Discovering Old Photos

While e-mailing me the photo of my feet from my Blackberry, I spied this classic that I took at LAX to upload with the post where I was actually laying on the floor of the airport while Gary pretended that I didn't exist - but you can't upload photos to Blogger from the Blackberry.

Better late than never. He is in what I call his 'travelling zone' here. He just zones everything out and ignores you and everything around him completely. If the place burned down - I truly believe he would burn down with it ...



4) Decided "I'm Keeping It"

The out of place table, that is. It is for Ryan. Gary made it and two end tables for him, and last time he was here, he tried to fit it in the back seat of his truck and it would not fit - so he left it. I decided it had to go somewhere until he comes and nabs it - so here it is. And I just love spreading out on it. Throw a couple of my PhotoShop books there and they are off my desk but I can still refer to them. It has come in handy. (Oh, ignore the junk on my desk - it looks pretty bad right now ...)

What? It doesn't match, you say? Well, IT MATCHES THIS:

OK, maybe not that one. Yes, the entirety of my Christmas decorations are sitting on it right now - my nativity and my angel for this year. Go ahead, JUDGE ME. Actually for anything: that they are still out, that it was the sum total of my decorations, that I am currently babbling - I just don't care today ...

Let's look at this one instead:

See, it has something that matches IN THE VICINITY. Isn't that good enough? Yes, you can tell that I skipped the Interior Decorating classes in college. Ooooh, by the way - that is the crystal vase I dropped in that creepy dream about being at KaDeWe in Germany. I can't look at it now without seeing it shatter in a million pieces .... dreams SUCK!

Ok, I won't keep it - Ryan might be mad ... and he hasn't even scrolled down yet ....


5) Put one, yes that is ONE flower vase in Garden #2

At this rate it will be finished some time in the summer. The sunflowers. I had a sun I bought that I thought would look cool (you can see it in the photo of Garden #2 in the post from a couple of days ago). Put it up and it creeps me out. Sitting at my desk, every time I look that way - some creepy sun is leering at me. So I blocked it with a pot of flowers ....

Yeah, the babies are still sitting in my sink will be potted in those pots just sitting out there on the floor. But that involves moving a huge bag of potting soil I bought over a week ago from the back of my car to the shed and to the little potting cupboard I have in there - it is bigger than I expected, so heavy. I can see a soil related disaster in my future ....


6) Played around with a fun technique in PhotoShop while harassing my son at the same time ....

And that is hard to do since he does not live here and is no where in the vicinity!

I am going to find a purpose for this because it is fun. You blur a top layer of the photo then 'paint out' parts of it and make them dissapear showing the in focus photo below.

I call this "Creepy Ryan":

OK, probably not nice. How about flowers:

I just might have found a way for family photos to work for me:

As you can tell, all the important stuff happened this morning and I am too lazy to do any thing else of value today - so I will just keep dicking around. But ... get ready ...

I WILL SPARE YOU and not write about it.

Later ...

What's Wrong With This Picture?

So - yesterday was my quarterly extermination visit, which was a little more involved than they usually are and my exterminator buddy suggested for my health that I leave the house for 4 hours while everything dried. Better than what they used to tell me when I was sick: overnight at a hotel.

But still ... I was just out THE DAY BEFORE! What was I going to do?

Made me a list and decided my main goal would be to give my two indoor 'gardens' a face lift. They are looking a little peaked. I don't know if it is because it is winter and all my live plants are not appreciating the less light, or my general lack of attention to them being gone so much - or maybe it is that I am not blasting my music all the time (when I am in Australia). The trees are looking especially bad. I think this happens every year - they decide they are supposed to lose all their leaves and I am convinced they are dying - just to have them rally and grow a new set of leaves and just 'get by' one more year. They look like they are just barely hanging one right now ...

So - off to do a few errands, then to Hobby Lobby and HEB (to see their live plant selection and I had to go anyway) then up one exit to Michael's. I was armed with my fun money cash so Gary couldn't say anything about my expenditures (OK, well ... he can - but I don't have to listen or feel guilty). I was ready to do some shopping.

Got to Hobby Lobby and their flowers and plants arrangements and individual pieces were all on sale. So - all the more fun for me! I filled a cart to the brim and had to use two carts to get everything out to the car.

Went next to HEB and found the cutest little live plants for $1.99 - and who can pass that up? Also, why just get a couple when a half dozen are yelling 'Pick me! Pick me!'?

Off to Michael's. Saw the 'Home Goods' store next to it and never actually made it into Michael's. Saw a bunch of lovely flower arrangements in there for very reasonable prices. So much so that I filled up another cart. And on home.

Started unloading and taking everything out of their bags. looked around and my kitchen looked like a flower shop had exploded in it. I started thinking that maybe I had overdone it a wee bit. Made my arrangements and fixed up Garden #1 - the one in the back of our house.

So - here's the question - I have been looking at Garden #1 pretty much most the night and it just looks ... well ... wrong. I don't think it is sleep deprevation. So all you talented people out there: Help a gal who doesn't have a decorating bone in her body - what am I doing wrong? Is it too much? Too little? Too many flowers? Too much green? Not enough sleep? Just plain stupid to have 'gardens' in your house?

The "help" sign is hiding a blank spot - I had to stitch a couple of photos together and there was a blank I was too lazy to try to fix.

So that is Garden #1. Problem is - I have a sink full of live babies:

A kitchen table still looking a wee bit full of flowers:

And Garden #2 isn't looking that empty right now - I stuck a plant that apparently loves it when I am gone since it keeps growing and it is filling up the back corner.

I have started putting random little ones in other areas:

But, if the problem with Garden #1 is that there is too much - I am in trouble here in a few minutes when I get started on Garden #2.

So - let me know what I am doing wrong - or better yet - come on over and straighten me out!

What do you say - PhotoShop lessons for interior decorating advice? Good trade?

Lindas Flowers

I know you all are breathlessly awaiting news about Linda's flowers - so here goes. Even with the exceptional care that I was giving them, the roses bit the dust, but the lilies are still going strong. Thought I would take a photo since YOU HAVE NOT HAD ANY PHOTOS OF LILIES FROM ME BEFORE ...

And why just one? OK, it is just one photo - there just so happens to be twenty six permutations of said photo. I know, I know - it looks like I didn't do a thing productive all day - but ... not true - I was actually quite productive. I even left the house! That is a big thing for me. So these were just some after dinner play time for being such a good girl.

And y'all have to suffer through them, 'cause why do them if you aren't going to show anybody?

So, here is the 'real' photo:

The rest are PhotoShop creations - (some at this size look the same - you would have to blow them up to see what I have done to them - oops!)

This and That

I am bored. Well, not really - I am avoiding. I have to bathe Charlie and I really, really don't want to. This is a Gary / Ryan job. The fact that I have avoided it thus far says something ...

So I am blogging about ... well, stuff /crap / whatever.

I am missing one of my cameras:

My Canon PowerShot I bought last October developed a fiber or a piece of something in it while I was in Australia. It shows up in every blinking photo and I have to PhotoShop it out. Since it is a point and shoot, it's not like I can take the lens off - thus - I DID NOT DO IT. I explained this to Canon and they said to send it in and they would take care of it. So I mailed it off today. It is a good little guy - I'm going to miss him and don't know how long he will be gone.

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I was loading photos for this post when my scrolling news said 'cane toads' on the end, so naturally I had to read the article. It said that they were a nuisance and they have to kill tons of them a year - thus - I am actually doing them a service taking a few off their hands ...

The article was about just how to go about killing them. The suspected that clubbing them with golf clubs as they have been doing for years is not the most humane way so they came up with putting them in a bag of carbon dioxide.

They are not quite convinced that this is better in terms of 'froggy suffering' so they are back to clubbing. Yeah - CLUBBING!! I guess one swift hit might be better than suffocating ...

And then, of course I have been playing in PhotoShop with a few new techniques I learned.

So - I took a trip back in time:

Then discovered a non-destructive way to lighten my photos. WHOOO HOOO!!! My earlier attempts generally left a bit of grain and it bothered me.

Like this photo from 'Vor Frue Kirken' (Church of our Lady) in Copenhagen. I noticed it when I was scavenging photos for my little silly montage up there. Got it from this:

To this with no degradation:

OK, OK, I am going *grumbles*. "Here Charlie ..."