31 March 2009

Strangers Wedding

In a comment a while back, Jen wrote:

"Could you make something look like something torn out of an old newspaper? That would be cool for wedding pictures, like from old society pages. Do people do society pages anymore?"

So I gave it a shot, and I can't get it looking right, or very good, but yes Jen - it can be done and someone who has done this for a while could probably come up with a much better layout!

And I cannot find any society pages to use in digital scrapbooking - just boring pages - although this one is from the 1800's. I would think the society pages would be the first thing they would use!

30 March 2009

"Solitary Rose"

So I have a new system for my current obsession.

No photos? No problem! My photos are on my hard drive nested: by year, then by month, and finally by week. I told myself that I had to randomly open a year folder, pick a month folder from that and pick a week in that month without looking ... and I have to choose a photo out of that folder to scrapbook with. I got lucky this morning. It could get interesting since I take a few good photos, but I take a TON of crappy photos!

TOTAL waste of time - but I am learning new things so maybe not. Y'all will just have to continue to suffer and look at these while I try to grow me a creativity gene.



And to justify this crap or if anyone wants to learn any of these things: I created the papers from scratch - picked the color, design and texture. Then 'tore' and 'beat the shit' out of the edge of one of them (official photoshop terminology). Painted on the right hand paper (under the writing) with the brush tool with my pick for 'paint' color. Used a cool clipping mask on my photo to have it blend into the page - plus the faint handwriting is also part of my picture. I took a ribbon with a cool brass do-hickey and made the entire thing gold for the left hand side embellishment (using 'styles'), added the emerald and gold to a couple of other embellishments - apparently today was the day to add 'bling' to your scrapbook page ... -

So this page was made totally from scratch. (Learned new the 'beating' and the 'tearing' part - Jen - this is so I can make a page from old newsprint - you asked if I could do it in a comment and I want the answer to be 'yes').

So ... no vote is an insanity vote ...

right?

LOVED that you could have heard a pin drop on my blog last night! Chickens! I am sure there is a nice Hallmark card that is just right for this occasion: Telling your friend that, yes, indeed, she really is batshit crazy. Total blog silence except for my sister in law, Cherri. Ryan came home and I made him watch it and he thought it was pretty funny so I know that I am not totally nuts. And due to Cherri's comments, have figured it out:

Two Words: SLEEP DEPRIVATION. Never fell asleep the night before the previous post and the four days prior to that I had not slept for more than 2 hours a night. A couple of days I was able to fall asleep for a couple of hours during the day - but funky weird dreams and not always successful. I am going to blame a lack of sleep for being off kilter and, well I was going to say weird, but since I am weird all the time, how could you tell?

So after reading Cherri's comment and realizing - in my sleep deprived stupor - that the culprit was my sleep deprived stupor I made a gargantuan effort to get some sleep. Headed to bed at midnight after taking a sleeping pill. And when I say sleeping pill ... I mean SLEEPING PILL. I have a prescription for what my doctor calls 'horse tablets' (in fact for all I know it REALLY is ketamine ... kidding - it's not) which make Ambien, Valium, Sonata, etc look like baby aspirin.

At two in the morning I was having a mini panic attack since I was not falling asleep and I knew I really, really needed it. But that is a cycle I broke years ago - worrying about not falling asleep is not very helpful in falling asleep ... so it has been years since I have been panicked about it - until last night. So now I have fallen off the insomniacs wagon and need to find my way back to some sort of truce with my lack of sleep.

Drifted off about 2:30am and woke up at 4:00am.

And for me?

I call that a success.


.
.
.
AND ... In honor of animal videos and people (like me) with waaay too much time on their hands, I bring you:

Extreme Shepherding (an absolutely fantastic video and no laughing on my part):

Ok, I did find one thing extremely funny: the: "The Baaah-Studs Presents" part. Say 'baaah studs' out loud and you have a spot on English accent pronounciation for 'bastards' ... very clever!

Maybe I needed more than 1 1/2 hours of sleep last night ...

29 March 2009

Sanity Check

I think I am in trouble, but I am not sure. If you would like to start your week out by providing a much needed service - I would appreciate it.

Here I am, sitting around, playing with a couple of photos that Gary e-mailed me of pretty waterfalls, and I decide to surf the web. Of course, I go to all my usual haunts and end up watching this (at cuteoverload.com):



So, here is the clincher - it is 3 minutes and 15 seconds - a long time to spend on me, I know - but I am in a bit of a bind. I was watching it, thinking 'oh, how cute / funny' when all of a sudden something happened and I was laughing hysterically with tears streaming down my face. Thankfully no one is here right now, but I am thinking that might not be the most appropriate response to the video - a few chuckles, yes, sobbing at the end (ok, not really sobbing) .... no.

So - if you have a few minutes and want a laugh - watch the video and let me know if I have indeed lost it and it was just minimally funny and I need to do something to get 'back on track', 'in from the ledge' .... fill in euphemism here ... OR I am still sane - but the fact that I am not sure if I am sane probably says something about my sanity right there ...








Spoiler Alert!!

I am sorry, but I was fine until the camera just sits there and the cat is wandering past the open door from the other room! I still think it is hysterical, but why that part set me off is a mystery.

28 March 2009

Sunrise

I seriously need to start getting up early and taking photos at sunrise. It is my favorite time to take photos - I have just been lazy. This is dated November 2008 - probably the last time I took photos at sunrise.

The Total Collapse of Charlies Brain


Last week, during Spring Break, Gary's brother and his family visited. This involved 4 little ones for Charlie to play with. They kept her busy and Gary would take them all for walks. Charlie got more Frisbee time than was probably actually good for her. A couple of times she was still panting an hour later.

On Saturday, the Hurst family left ...

On Sunday Gary left ....

Monday: Charlie, in the evening - indicating in 'Charlie Speak' (only I can truly understand this rare, sing songy, lilting language) that it was time for 'bouncy ball'. I told her I had a few days before 'bouncy ball' really needed to be played since she was still working off her Frisbee high.

Bouncy Ball: since I suck at Frisbee throwing and would take out a neighbors window if I really tried hard, Charlie and I play a game in the backyard with a tennis ball - I bounce it off the patio as high as I can get it and she runs and jumps, spins, bounces it off her nose (looks very much like a dolphin with a ball) then catches it in her mouth. She has an inordinate amount of excess energy and this activity is purely to let her run some of that energy off. When she is panting furiously - we stop. It helps that she seems to make work when running and jumping to catch the ball. It works for us ... and is the best she can get while Gary is gone so she doesn't complain. (I don't know if any of you know, or have seen Charlie - but she is most definitely a Frisbee dog. Gary throws it to the little grassy park area in front of our house and she jumps and catches it. She can jump 5 - 6 feet in the air, spins while catching it, spins once then catches it - she is very good at it and it is her most favorite thing to do - comes before eating and drinking I am sure).

Tuesday: told her the same thing - work off the kids playing and get back with me tomorrow (this is completely because I am lazy).

Wednesday: said OK, went to the 'ball drawer' (she knows where they are kept and often, when she feels I am being especially dense, or stubborn - will steer me over to the drawer and just sit and stare at it - like I just didn't get it when she asked to play 'bouncy ball') ... opened the drawer ... and ... no balls! Now here is where Charlie gets a little dense - she seems smart for the most part, but when I told her there were no balls, she pretty much didn't believe me and then I got the distinct impression that she thought I was (in her words) 'dicking with her'. I even had her stand on her hind legs, front legs on the counter and look in the drawer - she is big enough to see in. She sniffed at all the other doggy accoutrement's and then looked up at me, broken hearted. I felt bad, told her I would find them and gave her a treat. She took it and wandered off grumbling under her breath.

Thursday: After she asks (she knows we do it in the evening when it gets dark - thus when she starts 'asking') I go to the backpack Gary took on his walks with the Hurst kids totally assuming they were in there - nope. Looked in every drawer in the kitchen and (thankfully) did not find a spit encrusted dirty tennis ball in any of them. Tried to explain this to her but she was not going for it. She ran spastically through the house barking - and would not be consoled.

Could have kicked myself that I spoke with Gary (another story - but now has a loaner phone so I can call him) and forgot to ask.

Friday: Spoke with Gary AGAIN and forgot to ask where the tennis balls were (there are only two and I really need to just go buy a couple of cans of balls, but that would mean shopping ...). When it came time to play - Charlie lost it. I mean seriously lost it! So I decided to play our second favorite game: 'dyne diving' (pronounced - incorrectly since the 'y' is hard to say and I am lazy: 'duna diving'). She waits on the bedroom floor, trembling and I jump in bed and cover myself with my (or more often Gary's) dyne. Charlie then leaps 6 feet in the air and comes straight down on top of the dyne next to me and starts chewing my pillows (I don't know why that is part of the game - but when I make her stop, she chews my arms - gently, but still....). We played this for a while hoping to bleed off a bit of her pent up energy, but no go, she ran to the back door a dozen times barking.

I tried calling Gary, who, by this time it was his Saturday and he was off in a beautiful national park taking photographs with his new camera of waterfalls. Some Australian lady (yeah, I know it is a recording, but that does not stop me from yelling at her) who during the evening had her name changed to 'Australian bitch' kept telling me that his phone was turned off or unavailable and to call back later. I e-mailed him (but it was the weekend, loaner phone so no e-mail on his phone) a note titled: "WHERE ARE THE FREAKING TENNIS BALLS?" but don't think he will get it till his Monday.

She was out of control, inconsolable - and freaking out all over the house. She would run circles downstairs at light speed, then veer off, up the stairs, through Jessie's room, through the connected bathroom, through my craft room, out the craft room door, zoom back down the stairs and start looping again. To say she went 'berserk' is too gentle a word.

Finally took a broken tennis ball that would not bounce outside and just threw it over and over into the grass. She looked at me for a minute and said 'you're kidding me, right?' - told her it was this or nothing and she started playing. We did this for 20 minutes and finally she looked like she had at least started breathing hard.

Saturday morning: Charlie now looks like life as she knows it is over and she is not sure if she wants to live anymore. I decide to perk her up by taking her for a ride to Sonic - which was not a daily occurrence for her this week. I got my shoes and keys which she know means 'MINI ROAD TRIP!' and she started jumping higher than my shoulders. I got her calmed down enough to go outside and get in the car and we were off.

Came back, she wanted to stay out in this glorious weather and I went inside. I saw her a bit later at the back door and went to open it for her. And there, sitting on the back door mat was ... a tennis ball! She looked up at me wagging her tail with a wag that involved her entire body and I swear she smiled at me! The little freak has what, been hiding it from me? I don't think so - she has been pretty desperate lately - I think the kids left it outside, she did with it whatever Charlie does with balls that get left out (they are never in sight - she either has a secret lair I don't know about, buries them, I don't know ...) and then forgot about it.

We played 'bouncy ball' in the daylight.

27 March 2009

Done With the Wildflower Photos

I am imposing a stop to my playing with the wildflower photos I took the other week. I can't stop making crap and posting it and I am now duplicating photos y'all have seen before - so I told myself this is the end.

Trouble is ... I need my Photoshop 'fix' ... either go back in time and start harassing you with living in Norway, or forbid! my younger years again - or get some more photos taken!




You would think that I would stop with the scrapbooking stuff - most people do it and send off their pages to be printed up in a book ... mine go straight in the trash!

26 March 2009

Having Way Too Much Fun ...

I have spent pretty much the last 48 hours working with Photoshop except when I have been sleeping. I discovered how to do some really cool things and how to make some of my own ... infrastructure ... for lack of a better word - to build my photos upon: clipping masks, frames, brushes out of .PNG files etc. It has been too much fun to stop - but since I went to bed at 2:00 and was up at 4:00 because I could not stop thinking about it - I need to stop or my body will stop me.

Most of what I have been playing with is building a set of tools, so nothing visible to put on my blog - except - this photo used a mask that I made, and used about 5 new techniques I learned - so I thought I would post it (and it is cute of Ryan). I know, it just looks like a photo with uneven, blurry edges ... go figure - it makes me happy.

24 March 2009

To Make up for my Potty Mouth ...

I give you the 'Guardian Angel Catholic Church'. It is adorable and was just outside of town.

And it is a wee bit more adorable now that I photoshopped out a light pole and a bunch of wires messing up the photo:






OK, different religion, but Angels! And Stained Glass Windows! I deserve a few brownie points is all I'm sayin'...

Gary read the first paragraph of my last post and didn't even bother to finish it - just called me right up from work and mentioned something about a 'potty mouth'. He hadn't even seen my earlier warning or anything - I guess he just thought it was time to 'talk me down'!

Maybe Idaho will let me in now ... (I guess you would have to read the last posts comments)

Let the Weirdness Begin ...

I have to preface this with a little note that I thought that I 'kept my shit together' quite well last time Gary was gone. He was scheduled for 2 weeks but was gone 3. Maybe when I know he is going to be gone for 3 I just decide it is not worth the effort and my brain turns to mush earlier. (Note: that was not 'losing it' swearing - there is really no other way to say 'keeping your shit together' and having the actual mental imagery there - just like 'batshit' crazy - no substitute - yeah and now I am up to three 'shits' - oops four - so y'all aren't going to believe me that I am in perfect mental health - just getting .... weird. Not out on the ledge ... yet).

Last night was the night of: 'The Mother of All Dreams'. Lots of 'em. Family vacations where I am just a little shit to my sister and apparently her third husband since I didn't recognize him - and kept trying to get away from them - but then again they wanted me to swim with alligators into an underwater cave and I just was not really that into drowning while being eaten at that moment.

Fast forward about 5 dreams each one getting weirder and weirder ... and I am now dreaming in Norwegian. I have been home ... what? Almost 3 years and rarely speak it except to Charlie - since I think we should not let her forget her homeland and her native language (listen closely when she grumples - a lot like Mutly - some dog from my childhood cartoon days - except she has a DISTINCT sing songy lilt to it ... I swear ... sort of like the Swedish Chef. This isn't sounding weird at all now is it?).

In the middle of being in Oslo (properly pronounced for those that would like to know ... Courtney ... is 'oooohshlow') and desperate to remember the word for 'cookie'. Go figure - it was a dream. But a cookie is not a cookie in Norway - it is a 'biscuit' since Norwegians speak 'britisk' ('breeteesk') not capitalized: British English not 'engelsk' ('aenglesk') - yes they have a word for British and American .... English. In England a cookie is a biscuit - go figure.

My mind kept going to the word Czech - tsjekker (suprisingly prounounced 'sheker' - since 'tsj' is their 'sh'). In my dream I kept thinking I was getting way off track and jumping forward to 2007 and our trip to The Czech Republic and was frustrated that my brain was jumping all over the place. I knew I was dreaming and distinctly remember telling myself to stick with one country at a time - this was getting confusing.

And this woke me up.

I lay there wondering what in the world was my problem - and why was I so desperate to know the word for 'cookie' - I was not trying to get one - a Norwegian was being very threatening (without a gun - since there are few and even the police don't carry them) but somehow was holding something over my head if I didn't come up with the word.

It occurred to me that I don't even know the Norwegian word for The Czech Republic - laying there, I listed all those I remember: Norway: norge ('nooorhgay'), Sweden:sverige ('svaria'), Germany:tyskland ('tyyeesklan'), England:england ('anglan'), United States:usa ('ooooh essss ahhh'), Spain:spania ('spaahnia'), Denmark:danmark ('daahnmaarrrk' roll the 'r') ok, I will stop - but no Czech Republic - I don't think ... and fell promptly back asleep.

And I was back in mortal danger if I didn't come up with the word for biscuit. Man - exhausting. And all of a sudden, there it was: 'kjeks' ('sheks') and realized I hadn't teleported to the Czech Republic at all - was just getting close with tsjekker. Then felt ripped that I seemed to be in danger still - and needed to find the word for our wood burning stove - which I really don't think I ever even knew the word for it - so I concluded right before I woke up (very relieved) that I was apparently in a Norwegian Language class with some demonic, evil Norwegian tutor (ours was a sweetie) and when I woke up was just happy to be back in my bed in the good old 'ooooh essss ahhhh' ...

with Charlie sitting on the bed staring at me, her face right up close to mine ... and I wondered - maybe she was the evil tutor?

Weirder things have happened.

International Chip

Gary called me this morning via the Marriott phone and we chatted - I thought he was still at work, just late until he said that he was at the hotel - can't imagine what that just cost Exxon!

His phone is apparently missing, not surprisingly, the international chip. Verizon is shipping one to my house since they won't ship internationally - overnight, and his work is pulling the one in his old phone and shipping that to my house for good measure. I then just need to overnight ship it to Gary and maybe, just maybe my sanity will stay intact!

23 March 2009

Well .... Crap ...

Got a call from Gary about an hour ago. He got a new phone from work about a week ago since he hated his old one ... and it apparently does not work internationally. It is supposed to ... but just does not.

What does this mean? Well, for one - I can't call him - which I used to do in the wee hours of the morning when it was his evening so we could take our time and talk. Tons of casual, 45 minute interntional phone calls on the Marriott phone probably won't look so great ... E-mail is just not the same as talking to him - he can generally 'talk me down off the ledge' as I so fondly call me losing it when he is gone.

So - three weeks and very little communication with Gary - yeah, I'm gonna stay sane ... sure ...

I'm off to my room to pout ... but be warned - copious amounts of blogging might/will occur ... (you will be able to tell when I start losing it - if you have not noticed yet - when my 'potty mouth' starts getting out of control - just a warning).

On the way home:

Finishing up our road trip to Round Top, we saw two itty bitty adorable houses:

"Bluebonnet Cottage"


"Azalia House"

This had to be the biggest azalia bush I have seen in a while - maybe in comparison to the small house - took up half the front. Got some lovely photos of azalias from this one set of bushes - since they wrap around to the side of the house.

I especially liked the ones the sunlight was hitting:



Well, I have pretty much taken y'all on a round trip tour of our 'Road Trip To Round Top' - except I totally skipped a church we stopped at: the 'Guardian Angel Catholic Church' since I have been skipping over stained glass windows and playing with flowers and adorable little towns. I will get to them in a post here soon...

I will also probably have to post a few more of my favorite flower photos - hope y'all can stand it.

22 March 2009

Starting to become a habit ...

4:00pm - Gary packing; Lori keeping Jessie from bugging Daddy; Charlie hunkered down in Lori's closet watching Gary pack - her doggie depression just starting; Gary's 'car' arrives

4:25pm - Hugs and kisses all round (I am lucky if I get to go before Charlie)

4:30pm - Gary leaves; driver loads his luggage; Charlie sneaks off to quietly mourn

5:00pm - Jessie declares she is ready to go 'home' now that Daddy has left and there is nothing fun to do.

6:00pm - My new habits:

Drop his office chair so it fits under his desk (ALWAYS out in the middle of the office since for his height it does not fit under his desk) and tuck it neatly under his desk.

Clean up his desk, take the cup to to sink, straighten all the crap I will now have to look at since he has done nothing with it and won't get to it for 3 weeks.

Unplug his electric toothbrush and dump it in a drawer (SO ugly and marring the beautiful cleanliness of my bathroom counters - and there's that OCD problem) - it seriously stays there till the day he comes home - mine is battery operated and stored 'properly' out of sight...

Clean off his end table (I mean, he is not going to be using any of the stuff and so unsightly) and clean up the crap he deposits on his side of the bed that I never see unless I actually walk over there or go to the TV area

Turn on the light over the sink as a nightlight - for my nightly roaming. Gary is always turning it off when we go to bed, but when he is not here - more often than not I am roaming the house at all hours of the night and it is a good idea to have a light on to not bump into things.

...

I guess there will be more things I do as the week continues ... I had not noticed that I had these little: Gary's home / Gary's away issues - but there they were today.

Who knows what I come up with when he's leaving for 6 and 7 weeks at a time - so far the routine is quite small ... (start selling his stuff I don't like on ebay ... turn that air conditioned, beautifully cupboarded 'garage' into a huge craft room ..., you know - little things. He is actually moving when he gets back: furniture, clothes, etc to the house he finds in Australia - I am thinking that half of his closet is mine! And I have always needed one more drawer in the bathroom ...)

Round Top, Texas

Round Top was a disgustingly charming little town with a population of 77. It was pretty much a town square and that was it. I took a photo of over half of the buildings - adorable as they were. There must be a law stating that the buildings in the town be picture perfect - since they all were....




And if the photos look a wee bit 'dreamy' it is because I have been playing with a photography technique named 'Orton' or 'Orton Imaging' - you can Wiki it for the technical details. I just thought that with such a delightsome little town - it should look like elves and fairies lived in each and every tree knoll ...

Church ...

just outside of Round Top:


There were so many adorable buildings inside of Round Top proper, I decided to make a slide show. Coming up...

Yellow Grunge

Too much time playing with Photoshop.

Bluebonnets


21 March 2009

Fence


20 March 2009

"The Fat Lady Sings" .....



Australia ...



It was all just a little mini-series I played out in my head. Gary working in a really cool place ... me swooping in via the airlines to go off on adventures with him ... Gary coming home when he could and spending quality time together since time together would be so limited.


Adventurous.



Exciting.



Out of the Ordinary.



New.



Romantic.



Exotic.



Fun.

Nothing to it, and just a mini-series in my head ... until the 'fat lady sings'.

Well, she's singing now ... it is official. My husband is going to live in a house 8350 miles away from me. For a year.


Alone.



Hard.



Added responsibilities.



Unfamiliar.



Hours in airplanes.



Difficult.



Lonely.




Funny how once it becomes official, reality smacks me up side of the head and I realize that this is going to be HARD. But like I told Gary when we were deciding - the job is great and he will enjoy it ... and the rest? Well - it is everything listed above (the good and the bad) and then some. But more important: the rest is in the details - we can make this work and have fun in the process - but it is going to take some work.

The first detail? Gary gave me the dates he planned to be home (home being here ... in 'Lori's house') and I needed to see it in calendar form - so a calendar and blue squares for the days Gary is here. The next step? Get me over there during his 6 - 7 week stays. On go the pink blocks - days I will be in Australia. All of this just preliminary of course ... but it's a start. It's a plan.

The problem? I can't stop staring at all the white chunks on this damn calendar .... (I REALLY need to find my inner Pollyanna .... soon .... )

Trees and Stuff ...

Here are some non-floral photos of my Wednesday adventure:




Twig Photo


19 March 2009

Flowers, Flowers, Flowers

Fun road trip with Bonne, but have guests in the house for three days and I am being a terrible hostess playing with Photoshop, so I will write about it later ... fun stuff!









18 March 2009

Not Looking Good ...

Got up to this view out my front door:

Bonne and I are heading out on a road trip to take photos of all the wildflowers today. I'm hoping this burns off!

16 March 2009

Gettin' my Irish on Early ...


going to bed!

Bored, Bored, Bored....




Kimberly's Meme

Kimberly had a meme (which I actually have no idea what it is NOR how to pronounce it: ‘me me?’ or ‘meeem’?, but it looks a lot like ‘tag’ which as you know took me a wee bit of time just to figure that one out) on her blog and does not tag people, but we have had way too little activity in our little blogland, and I am ACTIVELY avoiding all my chores so I am tagging everyone reading this (if you want to) –


Make a list of 5 things you can see without getting up: (photos not required, I am just avoiding what I was avoiding doing Saturday)
1) Rodney glaring at my 'chore avoidance' disapprovingly atop my ‘Girly Pile’:
2) A pot that Marjory Tamiko Anderson from Mission Bend Ward hand made (I love her pottery – I have a ton – she is online – Google Tamiko) full of all my useful crap – pens, mechanical pencils, flashlight, barna kniv (children's knife - now isn't that an oxymoron!) from Norway to open mail with, scissors, photos I like … you know ... crap:

3) Some of my wooden tines, a container from Cozumel and a container I stole from Gary's house after his mother died (I have a container from each of my Grandmothers who have passed away – wanted to carry on the tradition … and I asked) a cool wooden calendar I saw on Dooce’s web site, so I bought it and a huge paper clip for outgoing mail.


4) More of my collection of Tine’s with my antique one from the 1800’s:


5) Cool file folders I found at Office Depot and bought and now have absolutely no idea what to put in them, but they are too pretty to put away…



What are you wearing now? Jeans, sweatshirt, fuzzy socks (make the tile not feel so hard and my feet are cold)

Who was the last person you said ‘I Love You’ to? Jessie – yesterday when she was visiting.

Coke or Pepsi? Coke!

Who was the last person you hugged? Gary – been gone 3 weeks, home Friday – you do the math …

What’s your current fandom/obsession/addiction? Obsession: learning Photoshop – mainly for photos, but pumping out butt ugly scrapbook pages learning (fandom: not big on being a ‘fan’ of anything, addictions: not telling)

What would you most love to be doing right now?
Not fighting a headache (but much, much better)

What websites do you always visit when you go online? Laura's, and all those listed on her site (plus Rhonda's and Alisha's that Laura does not have listed, but Leslie does), Dooce (because I am evil), CuteOverload (because … furry cute animals!!!) and PostSecret.com (artsy, but would probably offend the hell out of all of you – living in Europe plum took the ‘offense’ right on out of me!)

What was the last thing you bought? About 18 gallons of milk by accident (see lower post).

What would you like to be listening to right now? Exactly what I am listening to – satellite radio (no commercials) via my computer on my favorite rock station through my great Bose speakers….

What’s the last song that got stuck in your head? ABBA’s Dancing Queen (damn Mama Mia movie!)

If you could have any superpower, what would it be? For the next year? I am going with Kimberly – teleportation – Australia is a 14 hour flight from Los Angeles … just kill me now … (If that was not looming in the future – the power to heal and relieve any one’s illness and pains)

What is your favorite weather, and why? OK, picky, but: Norway, sunny day, fresh fallen snow, and a fire burning in the library (red room) because there is nothing to do but read a book! (Snow anywhere else I have lived just gets ugly after 15 minutes)

If you could play any musical instrument, which one would you play? The piano – but then I would have to play and I hate being in front of people – so it is good I gave up at the age of 10.

What book are you reading now?Photoshop Elements 7.0” fascinating … really!

Your dream career? Electrical Engineer designing computers. Had to take a bunch of Electrical Engineering for my Computer Science degree and discovered two years too late that it was the subject of my dreams. (that and the optics part of Physics – I’d work it in to my job too)

Stavkirke Pilgrimage part II

Borgund
Hedalen (side)

Front of Hedalen
Since there was a wedding going on that day, we did not want to interrupt and go take photos of the front of the church. Everyone attending was wearing the traditional Bunad, both the men and women.

I accosted this young girl walking up the road and asked her if I could take a photo of her beautiful Bunad. Since most looked like this and the churches are named by area, I am pretty safe in saying this is the Hedalen Bunad. The purse is my favorite - it has a sterling silver top with a clasp that hooks it to the belt you cannot see very well. It is entirely hand made. The silver jewelery just below her neck is very traditional and very unique to the area also - I would see them in museums and they are very intricate - and all silver. These are very traditional and VERY expensive (think - seriously thousands of US dollars for one outfit, yeah - I didn't come home with one!). My theory why the Norwegians stay so svelte - it is too expensive to keep buying bigger and bigger Bunads! They are worn at weddings, christinings, other church functions (about the only time Norwegians go to Church) and Mai 17th - their National Holiday. (Oh, that is May)

Lomen


Øye


Renli


Bonus Renli - the entrance and an itty bitty Smart Car!
Also - the very traditional rock fence that have been throughout these photos - they are beautiful and are hand made - with each rock fitting like a glove into the other rocks - no mortar and have stood for centuries (I didn't put the dates they were built but a couple last post had carvings - one from the 1700's and one from the 1600's). The rock fences, generally covered in moss are one of my favorite things about Europe.