2008

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linkky

go see the latest scandalous news from Doge City
I miss my family

also we did not die at CampFest 09. We are headed to Tatralandia (local huge waterpark) today. We have been planning this trip since last summer :)

maybe i'll blog more next week

going green with Micah

can you buy body paint here?
what do you want to paint?
myself
What are you going to paint on yourself
i just need to know if you can get the paint here
WHAT are you going to do?
I'm going to paint myself green and take a picture and put it on the internet and say "I am green" it will be really funny....are you going to cook dinner?

we survived campfest. I am afraid we will never be the same....

Ant farming

"If ants got a hold of pretzels they could build little houses. just imgagine it They’d have a sawmill for cutting them up... they could build barns too, a whole ant farm."

…3 full minutes pass…

"This house isn’t big enough for a full ant farm. They do stuff big you know? it’d probably be all over the whole floor all the buildings little tractors going all around you’d be walking and - crunch, there goes another tractor"

"Of course they wouldn’t be able to have internal combustion engines...they’d have to have little wagons pulled by a team of ants..."

"Good thing the darn buggers haven’t gotten a hold of pretzels..."

Micah, we just had lunch, stop eating my pretzels

reccomendation

I read a number of blogs. One of the blogs I read had a guest post today. A photographer who has been in the business almost 40 years.
He gave a formula for not being burnt out even after a lifetime of doing the same thing, "Embrace the People, Enjoy the Places (adventures), and be captivated by our incredible craft!" It sounded a to me like my dad's rules: "Respect your teammates, Have fun, Always do your best". So I checked out his blog. I wondered what other wisdom he would share after 40 years of photography and life.
I found this entry and I wanted to share part of it with you all. I suggest you click on the link and read the whole thing. His photogrpahy is beautiful and his blog has many more great entries.

My life philosophy is pretty simple, there is a God, and I’m not Him, but He loves me and truly cares about me, and I can rest in the assurance that He is watching over me, and has a plan for my life. Now some people would say “how can you know that?” I understand their skepticism. When I come into a room in my house, and it is dark, I reach for the light switch and turn on the lights. I never doubt that they will come on, 99.99999% of the time they do. After a while you just act in faith that the lights will work. I’ve had that same faith in God for almost fifty years. In all that time He has never failed me! That’s a better percentage than the light switch!

Have I seen difficult times, sure, we all do. Have I had illness or lost loved ones, of course, we all face those things too. The important thing is that ... God has always wrapped me in His overwhelming love at every difficult moment. In every difficult time taught me important lessons.

Why am I sharing this and why do I do this...? Because if at the end of my life, one person heard these words and decided to accept that love that God offers, then I will have done something worth while. Is there risk in writing these words? Sure, nothing in life is without risk. I just happen to think the reward is worth the risk. The vastness of God’s love is not cheap, but, it’s worth the price, and that price has already been paid.

Amen. Great is Thy Faithfulness.

TANK!

I figured it out...I meant to type, "Ask Lubo for help getting the gas tank refilled."

Instead I typed "tank ?"


(I stood against the opposite wall to take this photo)
You see, the quaint little stove in my adorably small kitchen runs on a tank of propane, the same size and type as the one on my parents gas grill. When I want to cook I have to go outside, around the building and turn the gas on. And it ran out last week.

It should have had enough gas for another month or so. We figure it was leaking somewhere and due to the strong gas smell outside when we cook, we figure it is not inside. We also realize that it is a small miracle that we have not exploded our selves before now!
We knew there was probably a leak, but our thought process was that it was leaking outside and so there would not be a gas pocket collected to explode. The flaw in our thought process is that the tank sits in a little wooden box. It has probably filled with gas every time we cook. If there had been a spark, the box would have exploded and if the box exploded, the tank would have exploded and if the tank had exploded, the whole darn cottage and everything and one in it would have probably gone up. God is good.

This is as good a time as any to note that whoever designed my stove was not big on precision. It has 3 markings... 0, full circle and half circle.

I have yet to find a recipe that says preheat your oven to a little above the half circle. All the recipes I find have those pesky numbers in them!

Wha?

I typed my to do list today.
Under the heading "home" number 2 is "Tank?"
I officially have no clue what i should do once i finish folding my laundry.

thouths

I had another emergency dental procedure today. that's two in three months. ick. I have to go back in 2 weeks. my crown fell out. :(

I also have a bad case of general maliase and a slight case of enui.

the spacebar on my computer is now going on the fritz. (which is quite different from "putting on the ritz")

Micah has developed a love of baking pretzels. They are pretty good. I like to roll my half in cinnamon and sugar.He puts salt on them all.

I baked a pie. i might like baking pies.

I ♥ Faces - Feet!

Did you know that i am a compulsive photographer of feet. mostly my own. it's true.

When i'm jsut sitting around waiting for something to take a picture of, i feel compelled to photograph my feet. it's weird i know.

So it's feet week and i have trouble choosing just one.... should it be the one of my feet with the polka dotted mug? The one i took last year at campFest in the control room? Bare feet? the one with the pink and green shoes and pink shirt? Flip-flops? boots? feet in the mud? the snow?

Too many choices! I need a vacation



aaaaaah much better.





Also a Micah Quote for your entertainment:
"Is Vermont a state?"
(I give him a blank stare)
"because it sounds an awful lot like it might be a city in Michigan."
(I slap my forehead)

we were not talking about vermont. I have no clue what prompted this conversation

huh?

I noticed this in the skirt i was wearing the other day. I have never seen something like this in a piece of clothing before. I got it second hand and I am pretty sure it was washed before I got it. and i'm certain that i have both washed and worn the skirt.

The question is, will i get a disease and die a horrible death? will the skirt police come and take me or my skirt away?

Have you ever seen anything like this before?


Also, I'm an aunt again. Sad thing is I wont get to meet the dude till he is almost a year old :( there will be 3 of those this year.

FIx-it-friday

I Know that many of my loyal readers would rather see unflattering photos of micah or hear about the latest of my bathroom themed language goofs, or even news about our lives. But here's the deal, i like to do these. So I will continue. You can just ignore this entry and scroll down to the one I posted earlier today with unflattering photos of my husband AND my mother.


Original:


Take 1:


Taken further:

prolificacy? Redundancy?

This morning the computer is running slow. This is beause i only had 600MB of space left. this is because of the insane number of photos i have stored on the hard drive. I am culling this morning.

guess how many photos i had of old faithful??

SIXTY!!

If you include this flattering shot of Micah with old faithful it makes 61!

now, in my defense, i had just gotten my new camera, and it has a great "Burst" mode I just had to try out, and old faithful IS really pretty neat. But honestly! I'm just sayin', Anyone want a old faithful flip-book?

How about a flip-book of my blurry mother jumping while the dog watches? I had FORTY-THREE of those.


I also have a lot of photos of my brother sleeping through Yellowstone in various uncomfortable looking positions. But he's 13 so i wont embarass him on the internet (today).

And just a side note: Wyoming landscapes are pretty neat while you are there. but when you get home, you will have approximately 500 photos of rocky mounds of dirt.



Still, it was a great trip and looking at my pictures makes me miss the Wyoming branch of my crazy family.

come to Slovakia. We've got castles and trees with leaves here!

From Slovakia

you know what is really annoying. When the c key on your keyboard is broken. and any time you want to type a c you have to hit apple v to paste and you cant copy any thing else or else your c goes away and it's a pain to type a capital c. Thankfully Beatrice has this feature where a little keyboard pops up and you can use your mouse to hit the keys. But still. It's annoying.

the up arrow doesnt work either. I have not figured out a hack for this yet.

More funny things micah has said.

"The toilet paper fell behind the toilet again....It would be nice if your darn husband would ever get around to making a toilet paper holder....Tell the dude to get a move on."

Sister-sick

i miss my sisters today.



Memories are a wonderful thing. I never (ok, rarely) remember our fights when I think of my sisters. And man did we ever fight! But we also laughed and talked and hugged and played and teased (ABI! aBIII! AAbi abiabiabi!)

I think of the christmas mornings all in one bed after the "big Sneak", and playing with claire at the playground in NY, and Beach vacations, and birthdays ( I never get they bunny cake!).

I remember laying on the picnic blanket in the side yard (mom, maybe you could call the school where the track meet was? that blanket was part of us too!), and downhill biking, and that time we made the Stroganoff extra noffy!

I remember when Ami fell through the top of the snow and we could only see her hat. And no one else understands when I ask when the pony comes into the story. We share DNA and parents and secrets and memories.

We worry about each other and we will always be "the Havener girls" no matter what our last names are, or where we live.

But do you ladies think you could come to Slovakia soon.

well well well

huh, if you are reading my blog while i am typing this, you will see the title of this post which i apparently posted. interesting.
I would like to share some random things with you, first up this sandwich:


bacon grease and onion. Add that to the list of odd things someone might feed you while you are sick in Slovakia. I ate the ream cheese and pickle sandwich. i took two polite bites of the bacon grease and onion one, took a picture and then fed the rest to the dog.

We (Micah) Spilled orange juice on my computer this weekend. the c and the up arrow are not working and the right arrow key is finnickey. I am calling this a success. half a liter of OJ hit the keyboard and i Only got a stickey keyboard, 2 keys incommunicado and one with an attitude. . . I took the keyboard apart this afternoon. the keys are no longer stickey and the Hard drive was unaffected. Oh ,God is good! how bad would it have been if my computer was dead. was can not afford a new one, i have DAYS worth of unbacked up projects saved here. oh the meltdown would have been UGLY

I bought toilet paper that is ScENTED!!! like PEAcHES!! I did not do this on purpose, i just bought the cheapest stuff that was not colored... Non-white TP bugs me. its like unsanitary. Thanks mom.

I would like to add to the underwear drawer discussion. The other night micha was taking off his socks and i watched him pull them off and then turn them INSIDE-OUT! I of course asked him what he thought he was doing. He said he THOUGHT I ALWAYS turned socks inside out before washing them!! I am not sure where he got this idea.

the end.

Fix-it-friday

Many thanks to those who gave input about rolling stones, nothing conclusive but appreciated. I think i'll stick with being a rolling stone. Beingcovered in moss has no appeal to me.

Also, for those concerned, Tuesday was not our end day. we are recovering. Sniffling and Sneezing and coughing but recovering.

I went a bit of a different direction for fix-it friday this week and added some embellishments.


I didn't keep good track this week again but here's a rough idea. Image adjustment>exposure, PW bright and colorful, PW's vintage at low opacity. colorized his eyes by paining them blue on a separate layer and then setting the blending mode to soft light at medium opacity (till he didn't look like a cyborg.) I increased the size of the canvas a few mm to give a white border. the font is grenouille. the stars and embellishments are brushes.

see everyone else's take here:


I promise to post about the goose-duckings and chickens with photos soon.

our end day.

Micah is on the couch wearing his winter jacket and flannel pajama pants. he has the heater pointed at him full blast. He used a jackhammer all day. No rest for the dying. I spent the majority of the day in bed, wearing a fleece sweatshirt and under both blankets. I hate puking. I have not eaten anything in about 24 hours. Micah has eaten (and maintained) 2 meals today. This might be our end day... Probably we are both dehydrated.
we are going to watch a movie and die on the couch in each others arms. romantic way to go huh?

wanna win a wii?

Here is a chance to win a WII! Wheee.
This is a blog i read about Personal Finance. Kind of ironic since we dont really have any mony but anyway it's celebrating a two year birthday or is it a blog-aversary.

In August this blog will be 6 years old.
I will not be giving away a Wii.
But bob is so you might as well stop holding your breath over here and just go there

Fix-it-friday with bonus randomness

yup, I'm an addict.

I'm also a borring and predictable photo editor.  But i have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep. And a 63 GIG video file to compress.

and I'm in Slovakia which is why you might think I was up at 2AM playing in photoshop. Not that that has never happened. Just not today.

Spell Check would like me to spell borring with one 'R'. I politely decline. It is more emphatic with 2

I am in charge of feeding and opening and closing the door for the goose-ducks and chickens. I will post pictures and more details later this weekend