Ice Storm

An evergreen encased.

 

     I woke up to an ice storm this morning. It has just begun, and since we've been told we'll lose power, I thought I'd post some photos while I could.

The trees are decorated in ornaments of crystal.

The view from my office.

Has the ice ruined the dogwood blooms?

Duke power predicts 1 million people
will be without power when the storm is over.
We've prepared the best we can.

Now back to typing the completed outline of a new novel into my computer.
Hopefully, before we lose power.

Summer Odds and Ends

Today is busy (and yesterday too). So I don't have time for a full post. But here are some highlights (and lowlights) of the week and some photos from throughout the summer.

1. As you know, I'm looking for a job. But things are NOT what they were like twenty-four years ago. Now everything is done on computers. So your resume and cover letter must "echo" the requirements of the job. That way the computer imp will reward your hard work and forward your resume package to a real person at human resources. One morning this week, I spent three and one half hours perfecting my resume, cover letter, and filling in all the random information this particular company wanted. Finally, after it was all done and uploaded, I noticed that I'd misspelled the company's name on my cover letter. UGH! A whole morning down the drain. (At least, I got part of a blog post out of it. :)

2. My husband's had health problems that started back in February. The doctors are monitoring a couple different organs for cancer. Today, he's going for a biopsy.

3. Three day weekends never used to mean much to me because my husband works Saturday and Sunday and Monday is his normal day off. But now three day weekends mean my kids might be coming home--and they are--we're celebrating Matthew's 18th birthday. So in between re-writing resumes and editing, I've been baking and cleaning house.

Here are some photos.

Matt graduated from high school.

Matt played Lord Berowne in Love's Labour's Lost

Thanksgiving in the summer.
 Invite friends and bake the turkey that was on sale after Christmas.

Matt's idea of fun is to jump out from behind a dark corner dressed like a ghoul and yell, "Boo!" Is it any wonder I have nightmares?

Chattanooga really is a romantic city.

Four Hundred Seventy-Six Photos

Yesterday, I finished (sort of) editing photos from our trip to Paris. It seemed to take forever. Then, after I finished I discovered why. I have 476 photos. That is the curse of the digital age. And that number doesn't include the blurry ones or the ones where my eyes are closed, etc.

And the good/bad thing is that some of those photos were actually bad. But do to the wonders of modern computer programs, you can fix the bad photos. And I had several bad photos--due to 1. a cheap camera and 2. bad lighting--museums, cathedrals, etc., don't allow you to use flash. So when we got home, I downloaded the photo software, Lightbox (the free version of Sagelight).

Here are some results.

Here the lighting was so bad the ceiling looks dull. 

With the photo editor I was able to bring the photo in line with reality.

So what am I going to do with 476 photos? Clearly, I'm not going to print that many photos. I suppose I could put them on a disk and watch them on our television. We could torture our loved ones by making them sit through a presentation. My daughter, though she said it in kind words, basically told me that she'd be bored out of her skull if we made her sit through 476 photos. Hmm, a new parental threat, "Get those dishes done or you'll have to watch all of our Paris pictures, even the blurry ones. And remember how much I like ceiling vaulting--I got tons of ceiling pictures!"

Five Favorite Pre-Christmas Moments

Here are my favorite pre-Christmas moments.

1. Plugging in the Christmas tree for the first time. Made even better by the fact that I didn’t have to decorate the tree—the kids did it. Made doubly better by the electrical engineering major who dealt with the strands of light that didn’t work.

2. Giving the official “you may listen to Christmas music” pronouncement. Actually, this is my least favorite moment. By December 26, my brain and ears will be melted by carols that Matt plays nonstop on the stereo.

3. First mug of hot spiced cider. Matthew has his own special recipe that he makes during the holidays. All I have to do is buy the cider.

4. Watching “A Dog’s Life, Merry Gentlemen” from All Creatures Great & Small, series two.  My kids are tired of it—I watch it every year. The skeleton scene gives me the giggles every time.

5. Finishing the Christmas cards. When Cal and I were first married, we agreed that he’d balance the checkbook and I’d do all the Christmas cards. Eleven months out of the year, I think that I got the bargain. But in December, I know he did. Today I have to remind the kids that we haven’t done our picture yet…

 If you hear screaming carried on the breeze today, it’s my kids protesting the Christmas photo.

What are your favorite pre-Christmas moments?

Shakespeare Photos

We're going to be on vacation for the next two weeks, so my posts might be sporadic. But here are some photos to enjoy from Shakespeare performances.

The Lovers: Benedick (Jacob) and Beatrice: "Come, come. Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably."

& Hero and Claudio (Matthew): "Silence is the perfectest herald of joy. If I were a little happy, I could say how much."



The Happy Couple. "Didst thou note the daughter of Signor Leonato?"


Benedick: "For which one of my bad parts did you first love me?"
Beatrice: "For all of them together. But for which of my good parts did you first suffer love for me?"



"If we can do this, Cupid is no longer an archer: his glory can be ours, for we are the only love gods."



"For man is a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion! Come, let us have a dance 'ere we are married so we may lighten our own hearts and our wives' heels."

Author Photo

Once in my life I’ve done a photo shoot. It was for a modeling portfolio—but that is another story and a boring one to boot. Okay, I did do one other shot for my very first author photo, but those photos were taken by my daughter’s friend who was sixteen at the time so it wasn’t intimidating (Thanks, Rebekah, you did a wonderful job.) However, the time had come for a new photo.

We have a friend who’s a photographer. And she was having a special sale on photo shoots. It seemed like a great way to get an author photo and family Christmas picture. (I usually take the family Christmas photo with a cheap camera on a tripod and a timer amid grumbling and gnashing of teeth. And the lighting is always weird with half of us in the shade and half in the sun.)

Having a real photographer sounded great until I discovered an hour before the shoot, that the six of us don’t own clothes in the same color family. Ariel prefers muted colors—greys and browns. I like brighter colors—oranges, greens, and reds. The boys generally have whatever colors were on sale that their grandmother liked and bought them for their birthdays. My bed was covered with clothes none of which worked together. I was nearly panicked, telling myself that I was an idiot for not making clothes decisions earlier in the day/week.

Ariel said, “Let Dad do it when he comes home.” Now don’t cringe. I know most men don’t know a teal from a Prussian blue. But most men aren’t gifted artists. Calvin is. And his specialty is color. He can look at a beige wall, go to the paint store, and bring home the identical color. (Apparently, he “paints” the color in his mind—all he has to do is match it at the store.)

When Cal got home, he glanced at the piles of clothes on the bed and said, “Luke wears this, Matt this, Jake that, Ariel this, you this, and I’ll wear that.”

And..it worked!

Here are a couple of photos. They were taken by the amazing Rachael Venema of Raeven Photography. You should check out her website.

Official Christmas Letter Day

Today is the official “Christmas Letter Day.” It’s the day I send out our Christmas letter/photo to our friends and relatives. This year was slightly easier than last simply because I had a gifted 16 year old take our family photo. (Plus, that meant our kids couldn’t make caustic comments about the insanity of taking our picture.) And it meant that our photo looked professional instead of “Ack-our-mother-made-us-take-this-picture-and-we’d-rather-be-anywhere-else-even-the-dentist!” So assuming that Sam’s Club didn’t wreck the photo, which they’ve done in the past, the picture is done.

The official 2009 letter has also been crafted. And it has now passed Kellerhouse inspection. Inspection consists of each member reading the letter. Then each individual responds in one of two ways. If the child doesn’t like the letter, he/she has a conniption and his/her face splits into two pieces while he/she ponders maternal psychosis as the reason why I included a particular bit of information about him/her. The “approval response” is a shrug of the shoulders. Then I say, “So you’re okay with this?” The child must then audibly answer, “Yes.” It must be aurally perceptible because if the child changes his/her mind later, I can defend myself with the audible “yes.”

Next, comes the printing. Assuming I orient the pages correctly in the Xerox machine, it’s not too bad. But I always mis-orient the paper at least once. Plus, the copy machine tends to develop toner issues, which necessitates taking the cartridge out and doing the “toner tango” every five pages. Then, I have to print the labels, using Excel. In case you don’t know, Excel is a “gift” from the nether regions. Having lived in New England for seven years, we have lots of friends whose zip code begins with a zero—Excel refuses to print initial zeros, so each zero must be printed by hand. (Yeah, I’ve been told there’s a way around it, but no one has been able to give me the details. Apparently, it’s “complicated,” so giving my kids pens seems easier than trying to correct a Microsoft programming error.)

Last but not least, is the actual folding and stuffing of envelopes. This might seem to be the easiest part, but you have to plan on a certain number of paper cuts and a helpful child sticking the stamp on the left side of the envelope instead of the right. Another example of “getting what you pay for,” and since I use what’s affectionately called “slave labor”...

Finally, it’s time for the letters to be mailed. I can leave them out for the postman, but he’s unreliable (he delivers mail only when he’s feeling “led”). Or I can take a drive to the post office and deal with all the Black Friday traffic...or not. Maybe the postman is more reliable this time of year. At least, I can hope.

New Photo

In case you're not a detail oriented person, look to your right--there's a new picture of me. Many thanks to Rebekah Duke, aspiring photographer!! She takes wonderful photos.

She took so many lovely pictures. Here are a couple of my favorites. One with me and my darlin' and one with me and my daughter.

Grin and Bear It

Most children look forward to Christmas. The presents, the cookies, the candy, the presents, the school vacation, the parties, the presents. My children look forward to Christmas, but with some trepidation. Matt worries about what new embarrassing thing I will write about him that will soon be read by all the obscure relatives. But mostly, the kids dread the “Christmas photo.”

This year we tried to avoid the normal stress and had a visiting friend take the picture right after we got back from church on Sunday. However, there was an issue. Unbeknownst to the friend, there was an odd shadow across the top of my head that blended into my dark hair and made me look, well, a bit odd. I will admit that I’m a little vain, but this went well beyond vanity—I looked like a cone head!

So, we had to take another picture. I thought, “Well, we’ll just do it the next day or so. But then, Cal came down with a nasty cold, the kind that puts you in bed with the covers pulled up. When he got better, I thought, “Okay, today’s the day.” Until Luke got up with a swollen red, crusty eye. Yep, pink eye. After a couple of days of drops, Luke no longer looked like the loser in a boxing match. Finally, it’s time—but, Jacob got sick with the same vile cold. His eyes watered, and his skin took on the tone of spoiled egg white.

This wasn’t going well. It was mid December, and we still hadn’t taken our Christmas picture. It was time—no matter what. I told the kids they could wear whatever they wanted (although the shirts had to have collars). They waited while I tried to get the tripod straight and to remember how to set the auto-timer. Then, I began the photographer commentary: “Luke, put your chin down. Matt, scoot over. Jacob, smile—it looks like you’re sneering. Watch at the camera. Etc.”

Time to take the picture. I pressed the button. The kids yelled, “Hurry, Mom, it’s blinking!” I rushed over, trying to avoid bumping the tripod. Once I was unsuccessful—but it made for an interesting, albeit not Christmas-y, picture. When I did avoid smacking the tripod with my leg, there was always the challenge of squeezing in and trying to have a non-fake smile. And, don’t forget the comments of the other participants: “Oops, my eyes were closed.” “Hey, you’re making yourself look taller than me.” “My knees/back/smile is hurting.” After about ten pictures, I thought, “Okay, we’re done.” I put the data card into the computer and Ariel showed me how to get rid of red eye and so on. Finally, we all settled on a photo and I thought, “It’s over!” But, it wasn’t. One child said, “Hey, Jezebel isn’t in the picture. We need her in the picture.” My fake smile vanished completely. And before I could say, “Have you lost your mind?!,” all the children said, “We need Jezebel in the photo!”

I ground my teeth and said, “Sure, okay”…maybe it’s not the kids who hate the Christmas picture, maybe it’s me.


{Here's the picture we finally chose. (I won't even tell you about trying to get it made into Christmas cards--and how the photo machines at Sam's Club hate me and try to sabotage my cards every year. This year they tried to crop off half of Calvin's head. Thankfully, I was able to save him from the digital guillotine.)}