Life Under the Lamp

Alternate title:
This would be so cute if only I had a better camera!

Casualties Behind Peace

Lens Day: Peace

Zach and Jake

Jake (right) is a great big brother to Zach, who has Autism. One of Zach's favorite things to do with Jake is to jump on the trampoline.

Moody Monday: Brotherly

Super Duper Pooper Cooper

My downstairs neighbor's boxer/lab puppy.

My site sucks

In case you didn't know it already, this brilliant visitor informed me (via a comment on this post) that "your site sucks." Direct quote, but I obviously can't prove it since I've prematurely rejected the comment.

Okay, Mr./Ms. Brilliant. Thanks for letting me know. I'll be sure to keep up the good work. I'll surely miss your witty remarks.

Kind of funny adventure

My friend Yvonne and I made plans last night to go grocery shopping tonight. She called me this afternoon and said, "I have an idea..." She had to finish up work and yet hadn't taken her dog out for a run. So she thought she'd see if I'd want to go out in the woods with her and Akia before we headed to the grocery store. OF COURSE I wanted to go! She told me to bring my camera in case I wanted to take some great pics of the snow out in the woods. Well, duh...my camera goes with me everywhere!
By the time we got out there, it was starting to get kind of dark. Yvonne was a little worried about going down any roads that weren't plowed because her truck tires need to be replaced. So we found a road that had been plowed at some point, and had also looked to recently have had some traffic (one vehicle anyway). She drove as far as the area where she wanted to hike and was about to park when she slid off of the snow-covered dirt road into the soft snow bank. She was having trouble getting the truck out of the bank, so I jumped out to push. Yvonne was so mad because -- like me -- she absolutely hates feeling helpless. And she didn't think she'd be able to get the truck out. But I wasn't all that worried. I'd been in this situation before myself, but always managed to get unstuck.
Her truck tires just kept spinning, though, because the treads on them are not very good. And the truck was kind of hung up in the snow bank. (Of course, she hadn't yet put the shovel in her truck, so we had nothing to use but our hands, feet and sticks to dig out the snow from under the truck.) I found some small branches to put under her tire, then got back in front of the truck to push it (she had to go backwards because her tires weren't good enough to go up the little hill in front of the truck). After a few more tries, we finally got the truck moving....only to have it slide back into the soft snow. Not once...but two more times this happened. Then the person who had obviously driven in on that road before us spotted our trouble on his way back out (thank goodness). It was hard on my back trying to push by myself, so it was nice -- and easier -- with someone else helping.
The problem, though, was that Yvonne tried turning around on another side road that hadn't been plowed at all. Of course, she got stuck. And this time it was not going to be so easy to get her out. The rear driver's side tire wasn't even touching the road. She was totally hung up in the snow this time. The guy who was helping to push didn't have a shovel or tow strap either, so we had a bigger problem this time. It was at this point we realized her 4WD wasn't working either. But after much digging and pushing, we finally got the truck out and went on our way.
After we both got back into the vehicle, Yvonne kept thanking me for helping her. Finally I said, "What are you thanking me for? I'm a Yooper, remember? This kind of thing happens up here all of the time!" So then she says, "Okay. Then thank you for being a Yooper." (Yvonne, by the way, is NOT a Yooper. She's a Troll -- from Lower Michigan. Sure, she's a redneck. But a redneck Troll. heh heh...there's a difference. Believe me.) She had warned me that her tires weren't very good, so to expect to have the truck slide around on the roads a bit. We just hadn't expected as quite an adventure as this.
The good news is we got out, managed to find another place to take a short hike, saw a doe, two fawns and a buck...and got the grocery shopping done. The bad news is I didn't get pictures because it was too dark for my little camera.
Believe me...it was funnier while it was happening. I'm just not any good at the retelling of it.

Old Fashion Christmas Car

Happy Holidays from...

Downtown Marquette

and

The SLOW! Dude

Cold and Cozy?

My idea of getting warm and cozy doesn't include having to shovel off a place to sit!

Okay, Cheesehead. You're busted!

You know who you are. The problem is I don't. And you know what? It is kinda freakin' me out. Even if you're not one of the persons I've mentioned in my previous post (and I know you've read it), I'd at least like to know who you are. Just telling me that much will give me an idea of why you're cyber-stalking me. If this post doesn't get you to do that, then I hope it'll maybe make you realize just how creepy you're being. I used to find it amusing. It's not so funny anymore. Note that I was nice enough to leave out your IP address and the day/time of your visit to my blog. The least you could do is return the favor and reveal yourself. (If you don't do so soon, I may not be so nice next time.) My email address is conveniently available on my blog profile! As I've said in the previous post, if you want to know something....JUST FREAKIN' ASK! Obviously if you're finding whatever it is you're looking for on my blog through an internet search, our lives are not all that much of a secret. SO ASK! It's as simple as that. No excuses.

Investigation Station

Lens Day: Futuristic

Entrance to the Upper Peninsula Children's Museum. I miss working there. Heck, I just miss working at all. What I don't miss is the nonprofit funding headaches. Or should I say lack of funding?
Although I'm posting this for "futuristic", I think this sculpture has been with the museum since its beginnings (I believe 10 years ago). But don't quote me on that.
Seriously, folks. If you ever come to town with your kids, I highly recommend a visit to this place! It's a total kid-friendly environment. And the best part is you don't have to tell your little ones "Don't touch that" -- because it's a completely hands-on experience! How cool is that?

Earth Bag Sign/Display Board

Tuesday Challenge: Cardboard

This is a sign/display board that I made for a friend. She and another of her friends started a business selling Earth Bags, which are basically heavy-duty shopping totes for people to use in lieu of the usual paper or plastic bags. They needed a sign to use at the local craft show being held at the Superior Dome this coming weekend, but neither of them were able to get it done. Sooo...they hired me to do it.

We were going to just use poster board to create it, but found a cardboard display board -- like the kind used for science fair projects -- that would work better. (And also serves more than one purpose for them. But I won't go into those details.) We also picked up some acrylic paint in two shades of brown, some glue (as I do in almost all of my projects, I used Aleene's Original Tacky Glue!), and some paint brushes. The rest of the stuff I used on the board are things I had around the house: black corrugated cardboard (which I had from when I was heavily into scrapbooking...then got bored with it) to put behind photos of their products and an abbreviated version of their mission statement (which I printed on some leftover letterhead paper I had laying around), and some string (which I have no clue why I have...other than it was in one of the boxes of my mom's stuff that my dad gave me after she passed away. I just don't know why I kept it for so long!). Oh...and some plain black paper that I also had from my scrapbooking days. That was used on the backside of the display board side flaps, just to cover up the board's manufacturer's printing and make it look a little nicer.

I won't go into detail about how much of a pain it was to get the logo and top border design transferred to the display board. Those details also include the reason behind why we couldn't just print their logo off of the computer. Let's just say it was a major headache, to say the least!

So after I got the logo and border penciled into place, I got down to business with the painting (not one of my strengths!). My friend was insistent on covering up as much of the board's "white space" as possible, so I came up with a plan to paint ALL of the "white space". (A surprise to my friend, and a pleasant one at that...much to my relief when I showed her the final product.) To begin with, I sponge-painted (with a sponge I had around the house) the flaps using both shades of brown. That was the EASY part! The hardest part was trying to paint (with crappy brushes by the way) the logo and border so it didn't look TOO sloppy. (Sloppier than it looks now that is.) Obviously, I used the darker brown on the border design at the top and the background for the logo design; the lighter brown for the logo design itself and the background for the top border.

Next came lots of glue: For adding the string to the "handle" of the logo, as well as for outlining the logo's lettering; plus attaching the black paper to the back of the flaps, and the black cardboard to the front of the flaps to serve as a background for the photos and mission statement (both of which I printed myself, as well as some business cards). I also did some outlining with a black Sharpie.

I added the photos and mission statement to the board (using straight pins I also had) to finish the sign/display...at 3:00am yesterday morning! And...WAH-LAH! There you have it: A sign for your Earth Bag (because you KNOW you just HAVE to buy one of those bags now)!

(WHEW! I never thought I'd finish typing! That's a lot of words from li'l ol' me lately!)

Geniuses Only Please

I was checking what Sarala had to say over at blogaway, and saw her recent post about her finding a site that checks the reading level of your blog. (Hers was College/Post Grad by the way.) So I thought I'd have a little fun and check my blog's reading level. I thought for sure it'd say something about being completely illiterate since I don't generally have much to say in my blog posts.

Guess what? I was wrong!

Does this mean most geniuses don't have much to say? Or maybe that my blog posts are so complex that you'd have to be a genius to read between the lines.
(Does anyone else find this just too funny?)

Two Snappers

Photo Friday: Two
Shutterday: Photos of Photographers

11-28-07 Just a quirky little observation since submitting this to Photo Friday.
I've noticed a few IP addresses (not many, mind you) are actually clicking on the image to view it larger. My guess is that these clicks belong to guys. They look at this photo and see the pretty young speciman on the right. (I am pretty sure no one is clicking to get a better view of the snapping turtle.) What do I see when I look at this photo? I see my turtle buddy lazing about on a tree stump, and a camera that is way better than mine.

Photo-Op Goose

(Please scroll down to third photo for Shutterday entry.)

Coming in for a close-up.

This is one goose who's also a ham.

How's my profile?

Shutterday: Neck

Let's Play a Game...

This game is called, "Who in Wisconsin". The rules are simple: I try to guess whoever it is viewing my blog from somewhere in the area between three Wisconsin cities (very rarely is it the same place twice, but is always in the same general area) -- Appleton, Madison and Milwaukee -- and if I guess right, that person has to email me or at least leave a comment on my blog.
Okay. Here are my guesses: Jim and/or Tammy, Jim and/or Jen (different Jim), Bug, Rissi, Callie or JT.
Whoever you are, I don't care if you're reading my blog. It's just driving me nuts seeing so many hits from the same general area, and not knowing who is doing the viewing. Or why for that matter. If it's any of the people I've guessed, I just have one thing to say: If there's something you want to know, all you have to do is ask! It's a little creepy having someone viewing my blog so frequently (more than ANYONE ELSE) and never saying a word. I kinda feel cyber-stalked. Heh heh. (Although, it's really beginning to not be so funny!)

Superior Shots

Dundundun-dah....(drumroll, please)
Consider this the somewhat-official announcement that I've mentioned in a previous post. What is "Superior Shots"? It is a joint effort between myself and Sarala (of blogaway fame). A few days ago, she approached me with the idea of opening up a Cafepress shop together. Not so much to make money as for the collaboration.

Why the name "Superior Shots"? Ummm....why not? Heh heh. Actually, we came up with a few ideas, but the others produced numerous results when doing an online search. Sarala came up with Superior Shots, which seemed to not be quite as popular in the search engines. So that's the one we decided on.

The basic idea behind the shop is for us to design "products featuring photos of the Great Lakes we live near - Lake Michigan and Lake Superior - and of natural beauty in general." We both feel this is a great way to test the waters and see if anyone would buy our stuff. And it's just plain fun to work on a project together.

So...that's pretty much what has been keeping me away from the blog and photomemes. Initially, it was because I was not feeling well. But now that seems to be somewhat resolved. I've spent the last few days working mostly on setting up the Superior Shots shop. And now that we have a few designs and products put together, it's ready for the world to see. (Scary thought for both of us, I think!)

So feel free to take a look and give us some feedback. But, please, be gentle. Our egos are rather fragile. Heh heh. Don't forget to keep checking. We are continually adding new designs, as well as new products to the existing designs.

A Message from Mother Nature?

Thursday Challenge: Communication

I came across this while out for a hike with my friend, Yvonne, today. (And it was SOOOOO good to feel well enough to get back out in the Great Outdoors!)

See Part 2

Bellybutton Soup

Not a very good photo, but you can blame my crappy camera for that. Why am I taking a bad photo of a bowl of soup and posting it online? And what in the hell is "bellybutton soup"?

I'm posting a bad photo of it, 'cause that's all I have to work with. Bellybutton soup is this:

Basically, just take chicken soup stock (with whatever you would make chicken soup with) and add cheese tortellini instead of noodles (or dumplings, or whatever you'd typically use). I add different stuff to mine each time I make it, so trying to post an actual recipe just won't work.

So why is it called "bellybutton soup"? My friend's daughter -- and Hayley's best friend -- gets credit for that. She calls tortellini "bellybuttons", and was at my house the first time I made chicken soup with tortellini. Soooo....she called it "bellybutton soup". Which, by the way, she loves! Hayley won't even try it. In fact, I made it especially for Crystalyn because she spent the night last night. Unfortunately, she had to leave before I returned from a hike and finished making the soup.

Now I'll have to freeze a lot of it. I've just had two bowlfuls and am already getting tired of bellybuttons. Heh heh.

Preoccupation

Just a note to let you know that I haven't forgotten about my blog(s) and photomemes. I'm just a little preoccupied with other things at the moment -- including a HUGE project that I hope to be able to announce formally soon!

I like your haircut!

Two of Hayley's schoolmates, waving hello and commenting on her new (at the time) haircut.
Taken at the International Food Festival.

See It Sunday: Social

Graffiti

Tuesday Challenge: Graffiti

Where does imitation cheese come from?

From an imitation cow, of course.

Shutterday: Cheese

car show

Lens Day: Automobile

Lucky Shirt

Moody Monday: Lucky

Be Weird

Lens Day: Oddity

Waiting for the Doctor

Preventing boredom while in the examination room.

Tuesday Challenge: Tight

Yellow Dog Plains

Exploring the Yellow Dog Plains with Yvonne and her dog, Akia.

Lone Leaf

Are we getting tired of seeing leaf photos yet?

Moody Monday: Simple

Fallen Leaves

Found along a sidewalk in August -- still summertime.

Lens Day: Leaves

Another friendly duel

Photo Friday: Fantasy

Lake Superior is not a dump!

But apparently someone thinks it is.

Moody Monday: Ugly

Grand Entrance

Entrance to the Marquette County Courthouse.

(That's a lot of Italian marble!)

Moody Monday: Posh

Jule Ball

Part of the Harry Potter Party Pizzazz community celebration.

Shutterday: Dance

Paper or Plastic?

Tuesday Challenge: Paper

Ghost of Me

Blending into the background, as usual.

Shutterday: Identity

Lake Superior Waves

Sort of like the ocean, only better -- which, I suppose, is a matter of opinion.

Shutterday: Closer to God
(which is also a matter of opinion and/or personal beliefs)