And sometimes you just move on

That's Valerian, isn't she pretty? Yes I name my paintball markers. I name my cars too. My present Jeep is Trick and the Honda is 'the beater car'. It doesn't do the Honda any justice but it is what she is. My husband's marker doesn't have a name, it's not my marker and he changes markers often enough that I don't bother. The 2 he has now though he's had for years. I'm not going to count the Angel, she's on the way out. I bought him one as a birthday present and although people have offered to buy it off of him he wouldn't dare. It was a present from his wife and he falls asleep before she does. Pissing her off at that level is not good for his longevity. I take that back, we did name one of his markers. She's Jurassic Ooze, it's the name of the paint job. All right all right it's not a paint job it's an anno. An electro chemical treatment really so I should get it right. It's a pain to do and as I understand all the people who knew how to do Jurassic Ooze are no longer in business. So the hubby is keeping that marker. His other marker is electronic and was out of commission for years. I finally made all the arrangements necessary to have it fixed and did it for him.

Another long intro to a story you all still have no idea what it's about other than maybe paintball markers. Sorry I digress. I used to play paintball with my hubby. It's a fun fun sport mostly played by men. Why? Because, just like tattoos, you don't really have to ask. It hurts. It hurts a lot. And damn those bruises last for months sometimes. It's still a kick ass sport though and totally worth the pain. Plus I get to hang out with a bunch of guys all day and just be one of the guys. I really do prefer that more than hanging with girls at a spa. Yes I know what you're thinking, there's medication for that I'm sure but really, I like paintball.

Here's the thing. 2 years ago (and I'm sure you all remember this fact) I had brain surgery. Specifically they cut out a large chunk of my skull located in the front half of my head. You can barely see the scar since it's just inside of my hairline but it is right there. They put the skull piece back in but it's still an indented soft spot that will never be as secure as a solid skull. Such is the nature of something that was once one piece and is now 2. I'm ok with this, I'm alive and my brain functions as well as it had before. I am also careful of the fact that I should not do stupid things that would put this soft spot in danger. Like go horseback riding (falling would be bad, worse than for normal people) or play paintball. Those balls move at 350 feet per second. If they hit a bare cheek or an eye they would break the bone or destroy the eye. They move hella fast and hit hella HARD. That's why we wear full masks. The mask, however, does not fully cover the forehead. I know, I've been tagged there before and it HURTS LIKE HELL. No way my bone chunk wouldn't suffer and hit my soft brain with one of those hits.

Consequently I knew from the get go that my paintball career was over after the surgery. It's ok, the only people that really lament it are the boys (like my hubby) that really like girls playing paintball. It's a novelty and all paintballers want a girlfriend that plays. It does it for them. Even though most women who play paintball suck, they just aren't aggressive enough. Something I found terribly annoying, being a kind of overly aggressive female. Not that ya'll knew that already or anything. Right? Yeah I thought not.

This, of course, leaves me with Valerian. I was going to keep her as a back up for the hubby but now that I got his Excal (electronic marker) fixed he doesn't really need 3 markers. And ya'll remember how I have this camera conundrum right? Just need a spare grand or so to get a set up that I want. Do you have any idea how much Val is worth? About $1200. Yeah getting my ass on the paintball field was expensive. I had to have just the right marker with just the right barrel kit and they all had to be annoed to match. Red. It's my power color. Seriously, all my paintball stuff is red. I wasn't going for subtle on the field. I was a back player, if you didn't always know where I was at I wasn't doing my job right. Sorry, I'm sure that makes no sense to you guys. I was like the umpire in back, screaming to let everyone know where everybody else was at and where they needed to go. And dumping paint like it was going out of style, back players never stop shooting. So yeah, they're not the sneak up and shoot you type on the filed, that's the front players job. Red, it's not a color for front players.

All this to let the world know that I'm moving on. Getting rid of the old to move on to the new. I could say that I'm getting old but that's not entirely true. I am getting old but I'd still be on the paintball field if my brain wasn't at such risk. Oh and if it wasn't 104-105 degrees outside every day. Oh my ever loving god it's hot out this year. We're breaking records ans just waiting for some raging fire. No green out here anymore, it's all burnt to a crisp. One good spark and I swear this whole state is going up in smoke. I'm not sure I could handle the heat on the paintball fields right now. Good thing I can use my frontal lobotomy as an excuse right?

And then there were books....

I have not been posting a lot lately. You see I have this problem...and by problem I mean it in a very "I'm an addict" kind of sense. I like to read. It is all time consuming really so like probably isn't the word. Again, the word is most likely addiction, but lets get past that shall we? The first step is admitting the addiction right? Too bad that doesn't help much.

I'm not sure how many pages have been read by me since I delved back into the land of books, I had been on a self imposed hiatus. Broken only because I decided it was time to start the Twilight series. Which I did. Finished all of them, in like, a week. See? Problem. I was on the fence about it. I enjoyed them but not as much as I wanted to. So me being me I went so far as to read Meyer's other non vampy book, The Host. I must say it is very good. I enjoyed it a lot and totally recommend it. I then moved on to more sci-fi/fiction (because that's what I read, bubble gum for the brain) and was delighted to stumble into another author that I had to read everything she has ever written (Patricia Briggs). Oh and it had been so long since I've sunk myself into reading some of my other fav authors had published more books. Yes, my addiction is so bad that I had been out of it for like a year. Charlaine Harris had published the latest in her Sookie Stackhouse series, I highly recommend it. And YES I read all of her books before True Blood came out. So many people don't even know that it was a written series long before it was an HBO show. I passed on my Harris books to at least 3 people years ago and they all loved her stuff. Great brain bubble gum. Not anything that is so amazing that you'd want to put it in to some hall of fame but making it a classic with a HBO series is perfection.

Now might I mention that there was a book mentioned in an incredibly sweet blog I like a lot (no this doesn't mean I'm warming to religion) This is Reverb. He mentions a book he was reading in his men's group, Wild at Heart by John Eldridge and this terrible funny anecdote about how he was trying to be adventurous and just ended up puking. Hey, it happens. There was that last time when I thought the roller coaster my kid and hubby were on didn't look that bad. I don't do roller coaster rides. I barely do windy roads when I'm driving, I'm the motion sickness queen. It was Tony Hawk's Big Spin. Don't do it people, trust me on this one. It looks ok but no. I got on and I swear I was going to DIE.

But the book! I was mailing something off at work and the mailroom guy is a nice religious guy and we chat whenever I see him. He was talking about how he was reading this new book and dontcha know, it was Wild at Heart? I asked if I could borrow it from him when he was done. Apparently it had a big affect on him too and I just want to see what it's about. It really is a 'man' book (not geared toward women at all) but I don't care. I was raised by my dad and have never been able to live with a woman much less relate to most of them. I really am geared more towards men. Such is life but I suspect I'll enjoy the book. So happy to find someone to not only loan it to me but we can discuss it too!

Total book dork I know.

Be cows it needed translation...

As most of you know my hubby is presently working in a max security prison. He was able to change from regular horrid shift work and make a move to a 8-5 job at the prison, working in their law library. The prisoners are whiners, he comes home with some of the most insane stories I just could not even begin to tell you. Last week he brought home a letter written to the law library, it was a prisoner complaining about something. I can barely tell what, the spelling is so bad it took no less than 4 people to decipher out one of the words. There is a scan of the letter here on my hubby's blog the Recalcitrant Beagle. Click on it to make it bigger (legible) and you'll get the idea.
Here are some translations

Labarey = Library
eney = any
mall = mail (he makes this same mistake no less than 5 times in this 1 page)
Petorcens = Peterson (the woman in charge and she, like all the other CO's, wears a name tag.
nuw = new (seriously, it's a 3 letter word)
recev = receive (I'm going to cut him some slack on this one. Not everyone learned i before e except after c)
gith = get (come on now peeps!)
thosday = Thursday
be cows = because
wensday (and I'll give him this one, people have trouble with Wednesday)
Detator = this is the one no one could figure out, best we can tell he was trying to say dictator
wat = wait
falt = fault
Shey = she
or = are
alowd = allowed
mor = more
wot = what

He doesn't use periods but as far as I can figure this is one page long and 6 sentences. 6 SENTENCES. With 16 miss spellings repeated several times. Whoa man, we've got some serious issues in our scholastic system don't you think? A few that slipped between the cracks maybe? I had some trouble with his miss spellings too, a lot of them didn't make sense. Even if all you had to go on was sounding a word out dictator wouldn't come out as detator. Who knows, maybe he meant something entirely different but even the other prisoners were laughing their butts off at this pathetic writing. It's not as if he hasn't had the opportunity to better his reading and writing skills either, he's been in for over 3 years. They have a library and lets face it, time...

I NEED a housewife

Or a house husband. I'm not picky or gender biased. Today was an off day for me, as in I was off. OK not really off so much as called in sick. If you want the gorey details at around 7pm last night my gastrointestinal system staged a coup. It decided that it was no longer willing to be part of the team and went all bad on me. I managed about 4 hours of sleep last night and just did not feel the need to in today. It happens, you take life as it comes.

This did not mean I wasn't ok today, I just wasn't ok enough to get up at an early hour and drag my ass into work and be productive. Instead I dragged my ass out of bed at like 10 am and was productive with home stuff. No, I did not clean the house. I was not feeling that energetic, please. I took care of things that needed to be taken care of. The dogs slept. When someone is home the only difference is that they sleep on the couches rather then their crates. Lazy bums.

Which leads me to the topic at hand, I need a house wife. Seriously folks I had a list of things that needed to get done.
1. Pick up package from the post office
2. Make a birthday card for my dad
3. Mail birthday card and letter the hubby wrote to the kid
4. Get gas for the hubby's car (which he left for me so I could do #5 and #6)
5. Get the hubby's car it's annual inspection/smog thing done
6. Take said proof of inspection and register the hubby's car

It took like 3 hours and this was all stuff that had to be done asap since it's the 1st of July and that's when it needs to be done. Well the package thing, that's just because I don't know how long the post office will hold something before they send it off into no man's land. This is the hubby's paintball gun returning from the repair shop, I know he'd be pissed if that got lost.

And all this got done only because I was at home 'sick'. Good thing I felt better today huh?

PS: don't ever, as in DO NOT EVER Google image the phrase 'housewife'. It's all porn, swearsies. Just do me a favor and don't do it.

Terribly disappointed

I'm big into doing my homework. I was the total dork in school and always made sure I did my homework and it was in on time. Even if I had to pull an all night-er (very common by college lemme tell you). It has helped me in the long run. Whenever I am interested in anything or looking to purchase a big ticket item I research the living daylights out of it. Even if it isn't a big ticket item I'll usually have researched it a good bit.

When I went to buy the new lens for my camera (or suggest it as a present from my dad) I looked up all my options, what worked with my limited camera, and where to get it for the least amount of money. I looked for a long time. I don't own a dslr, I have a fancy point and shoot, so I knew my choices were limited. Hence the on line research.

The lens came in, I was happy, then I needed to get the lens adapter. OK fine. Got that in on Friday, sat down to put it all together on Saturday. The result? It doesn't fit. I looked, compared, looked again, and chose the lens and adapter that everyone else had used together with my camera type. Seriously, this should have worked. I still have no idea why this doesn't make sense. I mean I am looking at them now, the lens adapter is 58mm. The lens is 50mm. Obviously this isn't going to work. But I can't find any other adapter. So how the hell did other people do this? I am on Google searching and searching and I am still at a loss.

It would be one thing if I just ordered the wrong products and it was just a matter of exchanging one. But that doesn't seem to be the case. There is no f/1.8 in 58mm and there is no adapter for 50mm. ARGG! Can I tell you what the easiest fix is? Buying a new camera. Really if I had the 'spare cash' I'd already own a Canon Rebel.

So what to do what to do. I don't know. I'm spending a bit more time on the internet researching. I may even end up joining some sort of camera forum and have them make fun of me for being this level of clueless. Either way I'm really disappointed that my present doesn't work. I really really wanted to play with my new lens and reach another step in the play land that photography is.

This is me, feeling all bummer-ed out. Maybe I should have not gotten so excited about it. I wouldn't be so disappointed right? Lower my expectations or some such. Really though, was a new camera lens that worked too much to ask?

House rules

We have them you know. Things like no food upstairs so we don't attract any more ants then we already have (it's the drought cities, ants are our nemesis) and the hubby constantly breaks this one. No toys downstairs, the kid is a repeat offender. OH, and speaking of repeat offenders, no dogs on the couch. Yeah, that one is followed to a tee.










Seriously, I could do this all day. And if they weren't crated when we are gone so would they...





I love this one, great lip action



Now mind you, we have little visitors sometimes and for whatever reason they've been known to find a nice spot for themselves...







Hey we're equal opportunity parents, you prefer a dog crate to a couch, we can oblige.

Oh and let's not forget the "Don't feed the dogs people food rule"





This little beauty was actually appalled that Jaynie had the audacity to take her strawberry out of her hand. She held it in her tight little fist and just stared at him as he proceeded to gently try and lick it out of her hand. Jayne is nutters but he has the softest mouth of any dog I've worked with. I don't think he ended up getting that strawberry, just the juice from the outside of her fist.

I know I don't have any pics of the Roxy offender, she's not normally on the larger couch. She prefers the small chocolate colored armchair. I haven't gotten any pictures of her on it though. Don't worry, she's a law breaker too. Lord forbid we have anyone that follows the house rules, hell would freeze over.

It's our 7th anniversary today

I think. You know it's been so long but I'm pretty sure it's the day after summer solstice. And the kid was like 8 months old at our wedding, if she's turning 8 this year that would make this our 7th anniversary. We met each other when we were 16 you know, that means we've known each other for at least 20 years now. Ya wanna see a pic from back in the day?



That was taken at his mom's dining room table back around 1989-90 or so (check out that retro Pepsi can!). That room still looks the same, we're a bit older. Do you just love the banana curls my hunny has when his hair is long? He never took great care of them but that hair only seems to go to boys that just don't appreciate it. That kind of hair and long curly eyelashes. We women so rarely get those.


It was father's day yesterday and we had another bbq so I didn't get a chance to give my hunny props for the day. My bad! Would you believe he did laundry and dishes all day too? I made him a big breakfast though, and dinner too. I'm only kinda a bad wife. He's a great dad though, a keeper for sure. The kid wasn't with of (of course) but my mother in law let my dad take her for father's day, it was sweet.

I told my hunny we could go and get him whatever he wanted. I suggested an iPhone, he opted for a new par of shoes. Go figure. I'm not counting the shoes though, if he wants something else I'll get that for him too.

Did I forget to show ya'll?

At the kid's elementary school they have year books. It's a cute idea, I like year books. But every year? In elementary school? I find that a bit excessive. So we got her one for her first year, in kinder. She won't get another probably until her last year in elementary, 5th grade. So in the final week of school I had her daddy take the camera when he dropped her of and told him to get a picture of her and her teacher so that she could make a card for her teacher. He was great, he not only took a picture of them together but rounded up all the rest of the kids and took a bunch of pictures of them too. He's such an astute hubby.

So when I got all the pictures downloaded I decided to make a brag book for the teacher instead. I still wanted the kid to write something for the teacher so the first page of the book is a thank you for being her 1st grade teacher with a drawing of the kids on the carpet and her teacher teaching. The only writing I did was the kids' names on the inside so the teacher would be able to remember them. I thought it turned out well and I originally started this blog for scrap booking purposes. That being said, here you go. A $3.00 20 minute whip together brag book that took effort from the whole family and is probably worth just as much, if not more, than the teacher getting the year book for that year. And yes I blocked out all of the kids' names out of respect for them and their parents. I'm only slightly paranoid if you haven't noticed.

I am a doofus

In my zeal to get my new lens for my camera (yeah the one my dad bought for my birthday) that I had been waiting on (it was back ordered of course) I completely forgot to order the adapter. See,
Lens (isn't it just the coolest? I can do bokeh with this puppy)


Lens adapter (duh)


And the 2 together (which would be nice)


So I got the lens last Wednesday and thought, I'm an idiot. I then went and ordered the adapter that day and it doesn't even ship until next Monday. Gah, I am not one for patience but in this case there's really not much else to do but wait. Interesting thing to note, you can buy that lens my dad got me from Amazon. When I was looking for the lens to send a link to my dad so he could buy it for me I looked around for the best price (usually Amazon). I found that lens at Dell (where my dad got it from) for $69 + $6 shipping. When I went back to Dell last week it was going for $99 and I just looked again and now it's $119. What the hey howdy are they doing at Dell? This is over a space of less than a month. Maybe the cost of computers is going down but they are upping the price of every thing else. It was $99 at Amazon and now it's $108.95. I wonder what in the world happened in the last 3 weeks to call for a price increase everywhere. Like we're in a recession people, they should be dropping prices!

OK rant is over, I am just waiting impatiently for my adapter now. Expect fun things to come photography wise out here. I am also getting geared up to install Photoshop Elements. Did you hear that? It's the sound of hell freezing over. It happens. On rare occasion.

And she's gone....

This summer my mother in law has my kid. She came last Tuesday, stayed for a little over a week and this morning flew back to San Diego with my kid. We'll get her back sometime the first week of August. The first week of August. I haven't even counted how many weeks that is. I think the dogs are going to throw a party.

Oh they'll probably miss her. For like a day. Then they'll realize that they'll all get more walks and more rides in the car. None of them have a hard life but they've never been in a family without a kid and have no idea what life is like when they are the 'kids' of the house. I'm going to not let them get a big head because you know, she's coming back. And even worse we're working on a second and none of them have ever lived with a newborn or toddler. They'd best enjoy this summer because lets face it, it's all downhill from here.

So what's on the schedule for the summer sans kid? I have no idea. I suspect we'll be doing a lot of nothing. Maybe get to go to grown up movies more often. The hubby will be able to sleep in on weekends (I don't get up for the kid on weekends, he does, it's in the marriage contract). Really though our kid is 7, she is a very easy keeper by this age. I think if we have another it'll be a shell shock it's been so long since we did the baby/toddler thing.

I give it 1 week before the hubby starts going through serious withdrawl. About the same length of time it takes the dogs to figure out that it's party time. I'm sure the combination will be amusing! We'll be missing her terribly but on the flip side, she's gone to San Diego for the summer. We should all be so lucky right? She's going to have a ball!

I keep this little notepad

It's in my purse but I only really use it in the car. I suppose I could also use the note function on my computer but it's really hard to drive a stick and type on an iPhone. Actually I only write on the notepad while at a stop light. The hubby is much better at multitasking while driving, much to my dismay. I'd yell at him about it but he really is good at it. Call it a battle I choose not to fight, one really should try and pick the ones you know you can win.

On this note pad I have 2 lists, 1 starting from one side of the pad, the other from the backside. The front one is a grocery list (totally invaluable) and the other are songs I hear on the radio that I want to get for my iTunes list. I've never had to write songs down, the hubby has this awesome talent for knowing all the songs if I just tell him a line or 2 from the song or if it has a distinct sound or melody. Sadly he won't touch country music with a 10 ft pole and promises the Jeep that when he gets it full time (fat chance in hell) that he promises to purge the country from it (again, fat chance in hell). So now I've resorted to jotting down the lyrics to the ones I like and then going to Google them later. Country is so nice and straight forward too, you can always find the song you are looking for with just a few words from the chorus.

I've discovered a few things about the songs I like, many of them have a rastafarian flavor to them and normally I hate, absolutely detest Bob Marley-esque music. Really. Hate it. Oddly it doesn't bother me as much in country. I'm willing to bet it'd make my hubby's skin crawl (he's a Marley hater too) but he doesn't listen to any of it so it's no big.

So here's the deal, I've found I love just about all of Brad Paisley's stuff. He's pretty generic, kinda like the pop of country so this does not surprise me. I like a lot of Kenny Chesney's stuff too which does surprise me (again, that Marley thing), and a little bit of Billy Currington's stuff too. I think I also have a Dirks Bently song and a Rodney Atkins along with it. Really, if you pulled the country top 20 I'd probably like them all. I've only run into 1 band that was 'too country' for me and it grew on me, I'm listening to The Zac Brown Band a lot lately. He's pretty hillbilly but it's still do-able.

I like this one a lot...


And the rest of the list looks pretty generic, I'm going to spend the time to download them tonight. The list is looking a bit messy and if I don't look them up quick I won't be able to read what I wrote. Bad handwriting while driving you know...
If you're going through hell by Rodney Atkins
Then and Little moments by Brad Paisley
Sideways by Dirks Bently
People are Crazy by Billy Currington
It's where I'm from by Jason Michael Carroll (I have never even heard of this guy. Not that that means much though right?)

There might be more, I don't know since it's kinda illegible. I think I procrastinated too long. It's alright though, I heard them all on the radio so I'm sure they'll play them again. Sadly, I know I'm not going to be biking to work anytime soon so I suspect I'll hear them again!

Just so's ya knows

How many 'english rules' did I just break with that title? I dunno but it may give my hubby a coronary, poor dear. Anyway I know I haven't posted any pictures. That doesn't mean I haven't been taking them. I took probably 20 last night. Of the exact same thing. I'm working on that whole 'learn to use your damn camera woman' training.

Last night it was aperture. Tonight it's going to be f-stop. I think. It depends on what kind of victims I can find on the other side of my lens and what kind of light is going on outside. If I get home early enough and am not running around like a chicken with it's head cut off (remember the mother in law is still here) maybe my Jaynie will be sweet enough to run around the yard like the deer in dog's clothing that he is. If not then maybe I can get him to do it tomorrow, when it'll be 100 degrees outside + the humidity factor. I do not know how we are going to survive this summer, it's already looking harsh.

I won't be putting a lot of these practice photos up, mostly because they are trash. Seriously if you go through all of your levels of aperture focusing on one thing most of the pictures won't come out. That's why you have the ability to change it, so you can get it to come out. Regardless, for the sake of blogging it's just not all that picture wise. It's an educational thing right?

So what have I learned? I think I may need a tripod. And maybe even an external flash. Seriously, I've never considered owning either of these two items and I've been into photography for decades. Just not practicing. Kinda like most Catholics out there right? Being but not practicing get it? Alright I'll stop now.

Either way my day is kinda in the air because my instrument at work has taken a header and I have to wait until a tech comes out and puts in a new part. So today I may spend some time on the net researching the need for a tripod and/or and external flash. See now just because I don't own a dslr doesn't mean I can't fake it. Or something. We shall see.

I’ve got plans

What I don’t have is time. Such is life I suppose though. I have a ton of subjects I want to blog on, just can’t seem to squeeze enough hours out of my day to get them written. I finished those Twilight books, did I mention that? Maybe not, well there you go. I know I have mentioned I’m an avid reader and have been since I was in elementary school. I have reading habits, I’ll call them that. Sure yeah, habits. Maybe it’s just that as you get older you get set in your ways. Yes that’s probably more like it. Regardless I don't normally have biases against books just because I think their authors are freaks. I used to read Stephan King books and you can't tell me that man is well in the head.

So now that I’ve finished the series I am having issues on what I have to say on it. Did I love it? Sort of? Do I have issues with it is probably more the question that I should be answering. Because I do. After going to the author's website I figured out what it was about these books that bothered me so much. The author is Mormon and you can tell by her writing. (SPOILER ALERT) Seriously, a 110 yr old ‘vegetarian’ virgin vampire? That will not sleep with his fiancé because he wants them to be married first? Oh yeah, totally. I get that. Dude you can’t impose Mormon ideals on to a century old vampire and get it to fly, it just doesn’t work like that. I really liked the 4th book and I know why. By the 4th book she married the two off and then they could just take all the morals and toss them out the window. It was still Mormon-y though. A baby? From a vampire? On their first night together? REACHING peeps reaching. It must read great for a 14 yr old but please people, you just aren’t going to get any hokier than that. You could just read the Mormon ideals oozing from the pages, even the man who didn’t get the girl ended up with another girl. The baby. Oh yeah, that’s totally cool. 2 men in the movie who fell in love with babies. What the hell? They couldn’t do sex before marriage but they could find adult male life mates for a 2 yr old and a newborn. I’m sorry, Mormon much? Not saying they were bad books or that I didn’t enjoy them. There was just something weird going on in the back of my mind for a bit that I couldn’t put my finger on. Until I the word Mormon popped up and slapped me upside the head. There are just some religions I do not get. High up on the list are the ones that support pedophiles and marrying within one’s own family. Ew.

Alright I’m done religion bashing. As for the habits thing? Yes I realize I dropped that train of thought, just picking it up at the next station here. I rarely, if ever, re read books. If I do re read them it’s months, maybe years after reading them the first time. I am going to re read these books soon. Like maybe next week. I think I’m going to look at them differently. Again, odd for me. We’ll see, I may like them better this second time around. If I find the friggin time.
Oh and my gf sent me a funny article...
Sexy vampires are destroying our nation's children

BRILLIANT!

You may notice that I have no photo up today. I got home after dark and was not able to take anything of value inside my home (go figure) but decided instead that I would actually be productive. No I'm serious here. Be productive in respect to photography no less. No I did not install Photoshop, that is not the idea behind this 365 days of shooting photos. The point is to become a better photographer.

I have read P Dub's tutorials on photography and, quite frankly, they did not make sense to me. Flighty women rarely do though so I paid it no heed. Recently Reverand Ryan (linked from P Dub's site, giving props here) decided to do his own set of tutorials and the wonderful man has included the directions to keep us poor folk in the loop. You'll notice that P Dub's are kinda geared towards those who own DSLRs. Ryan's have descriptions and pictures (of the dials on the camera) to include those of us with regular point and shoots.

Tonight I read up on both aperture and shutter speed. Then I went to my camera and figured out where they were and how to change them. I found that I have a separate choice called Manual where I can set both aperture and shutter at the same time rather than only one. This camera is impressing me more and more all the time. Amazing what you can figure out when you read the manual...

So one week in and I have a day without photos but with more knowledge that is going to be put to the test ass soon as I get a free moment! I also have an arrival date for my lens, June 17th. Can't wait!

My camera bag came in! (aka pics 360)

And here is where I try to do some indoor photography (the kind I shouldn't be doing until I figure out how the hell to use my lighting) because it's night when I get home, still has a little light out, and yet...
My camera bag came in from Tracy Joy, I want another one so I think if they still have the Joey in stock by next week I might get one of those too.



I love it. It's not too stiff and it hugs the body. It has some padding in it but truthfully I think I'll add more. I have a ton of velcro so I think I'll be making many more pretty flaps for it too, quite simple really. I can add more padding if I want to. I'm a quilter so I'm sure I can figure out how to add more padding. Have I never shown ya'll the quilts I've made? I may have to do a photo shoot of them this weekend when the sun is out. I can lay them outside and get some pretty shots during the day so I don't have to fight that whole indoor lighting irritation. Oh and the mother in law is arriving tonight for an 8 day stay. You may or may not hear a lot from me for the next week or so.