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Not long after we moved into Emergency House (post mushrooms), Sam got a new job working for a telecom company. Part of getting the job required him to do 8 weeks of training, 6 of which would be in Dallas.

Facing long, long weeks of no husband, I began looking for a project to fill the time. I'd once spent a winter break in college scanning many of my parents' pictures, but never succeeded in getting through them all.

My parents have a metric crap-ton of pictures. If y'all think I'm obsessed with photography, I don't hold a candle to my father's shutterbug tendencies.

So it seemed like the time was right to return to the project. After visiting my parents, I brought home 4 large plastic tubs of pictures--all of which I'd never touched. Plenty to keep me busy during that cold fall!

Instead, I spent most of the time fighting a sinus infection, and then going to Dallas with Sam.

In the course of unpacking this time around, I once again came across the large tubs of pics. Considering that A) I'm in need of a new project since the house is 90% unpacked (the rest waits until Sam has a day off) and B) I actually have a work space here, I have started the long, tedious process of scanning and tagging,

I'd hoped to show you a few of the more interesting pictures I've come across, but since I'm doing this on my phone, it's not working quite the way I hoped. If this works, there should be 3 pics that appear:

1. A picture with four generations--my great grandmother, my grandfather, my mother, and my brother.

2. A picture of my parents not long after they married.

3. A picture of the same grandfather in either World War II or Korea.

This is why I'm so often barefoot...

I shared this picture earlier today on Google+ (I'll be posting my thoughts on G+ tomorrow), but it was cute and thought that the rest of you would enjoy seeing it.

In regards to my NaNoWriMo experiment, I'm a bit behind if I'm going to reach 50,000 by the end of the month, but that's okay. I'm getting through the hard part right now--at the end of this chapter I should hopefully be able to let loose and fly without providing context/exposition every fourth paragraph. That's the hope anyway. Still, I'm averaging not quite 1,500 words a day. I'm happy with that!


Total Word Count: 16,026

Flaming Hamster Wheel*

After our adventures with the zoo, we had one of many cookouts from that weekend. Of course I was still in shutterbug mode, so I made a nuisance of myself taking pictures of people.

It would be easy for me to overwhelm everyone with the shots, so I'll restrain myself to just one particular picture. It's been well received elsewhere, and really I just want to show off the pretty:

Hi-Res version.

I've been told it looks like a band poster/album art. I just like the way the lighting came out.

(*The blog title is a reference to the first band name Rapier Wit ever suggested to Sam nearly ten years ago.)

Lions and Tigers and Cute Baby Elephants!

Ever since I went off to college, I've made it to the zoo at least once a year. Most years, I've gone to the OKC Zoo. However, I have also made it to the Fort Worth Zoo, Tulsa Zoo, and Wichita Zoo during that time.

Again, most of those times were with Sherri. (In case you were unaware of the fact, Sherri is obsessed with the zoo. Really obsessed. Like, she's-been-getting-a-Zoo-Friends-Pass-for-several-years now-as-all-of-her-friends-trade-off-buying-it-as-a-Christmas-present kind of obsessed.) Occasionally it's been without her, but on those rare occasions I typically was accompanying a small child.

Therefore, it came as no surprise when Sherri informed all of us that she was going to the zoo on Saturday, and we were more than welcome to accompany her. Our friends Rapier Wit and Literary Cat were in town, and Walking Hyperbole's birthday was this past weekend, so a trip to the zoo seemed an excellent idea.

Unfortunately, Sherri ended up not getting to go with us on Saturday because of family, but the rest of us decided to go ahead and brave the heat and crowds because, well, it's the zoo! And we had plans! And there were animals to see!

(Sometimes I channel my inner five-year-old. I'll try to keep her under control.)

Since all of us have visited the OKC Zoo multiple times in the past, we did not do a full tour, instead choosing to visit the exhibits that most interested us that day. In particular, we were on a quest to see the baby elephant, Malee. I think Adorable Nurse would have thrown us to the alligator if we had skipped the baby elephant.


We did see several other animals, of course, and I even managed to grab a few decent shots along the way. Even though I've posted most of these elsewhere, it's my blog and I feel like showing them off. After all, not everybody frequents the same places I do!

One of the first animals you see when you enter the zoo is a rhino. As this was my first trip with my new camera, I was looking forward to giving it a workout here.

These are a couple of the prairie dogs that were brave enough to risk the heat. Even though the predicted high was only for the high-to-mid-80's, by the time we left that afternoon it was pushing 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Needless to say, most of the animals were taking an afternoon nap.

They looked quite adorable too.

Not all of them were snoozing the afternoon away, however. The black bears were full of energy.

This grizzly just kept walking the same circuit over and over again. It made me wonder what he was nervous about.

Of course, other animals were lucky and could just go for a swim to cool off. The sea lions were quite happy to be aquatic animals, and would have have teased the other animals if they'd been nearby to see.

Eventually, we succeeded in our quest and found the new Elephant Exhibit. (It's gorgeous!) Malee was also very active and willing to show off for the throngs of humans who'd gathered to gaze adoringly at her.

(Once again, I apologize for the lack of updating. I blame it on so many fantastic people coming to town for Memorial Day, the last of whom are finally home. Don't worry, I'll more posts about our adventures in the coming days.)

Cat Variations 6

Sorry this didn't post yesterday. I was in a happy place hanging out with Literary Cat and Adorable Nurse, and didn't notice the glitch until this morning. 

Similar to the previous batch that was mostly a straightforward edit, this set focuses on trying to make the photos soft and gentle. Cuddly even.

Of course, the only cat that's truly cuddly is Nala, though Tiger tries to pretend otherwise. Techie wants to be cuddly, but has no clue how to go about it. At least he doesn't hide quite as much as he used to.

(For the longest time, Adorable Nurse refused to believe that Techie actually existed.)

Which kitty would you want to cuddle?

For high-res versions of the pictures, please visit their Flickr album.

Previous treatments include black and white, seventies, summer, dusty, basic.

Cat Variations 5

Most of what I've done thus far has involved aging the pictures in some way. For this next treatment, I decided to try a more straightforward feel to them. Most it involved enriching the colors and a little basic editing. Of course, some photos reacted better to the process than others.

For your viewing pleasure, a basic treatment:

To view high-res versions of the pictures, please visit their Flickr album.

Previous treatments include black and white, seventies, summer, and dusty.

Cat Variations 4

As I've mentioned before, I've spent a good deal of time going through old family photos, scanning, labeling, and touching them up. Some of my favorites are pictures from the turn of the previous century. While I know that my cats would never in a million years stay still for the old technology to capture them, it's still fun to pretend.

With that in mind, for this next treatment I tried to make them look like old, dusty portraits.

Has anybody found a favorite yet?

To see high-res versions of the pictures, check out their album on Flickr.

Previous treatments include black and white, seventies, and summer.

Cat Variations 3

I almost left Techie out of this particular batch, because he absolutely refused to stay still when I took this set of pictures of the cats. Then I found the one included here that I'd overlooked several times. You don't see his pretty eyes the way you can with the girls, but it's the best picture of the lot.

For this next set, I wanted a hazy warmth. Something that made me think of lazy summer days, especially since Tiger looks like she's drinking up sunshine in these pictures. I'm fairly pleased with the way they came out. Of course, I'm more interested on what you all may have to say.

Without further ado, the "Summer" treatment:

To see higher res versions of these pictures, check out their album on Flickr.

Earlier treatments include black and white and the seventies.

Cat Variations 2

It's amazing to me sometimes the differences that Photoshop can make in certain pictures. For this next set, I wanted them to feel like the pictures my Papa took back in the seventies. One of the results was that everything ended up with a blue-green tinge to it, which made Nala's pictures come out so much better than in the black and white photos. By the same token, I feel like Tiger's pictures were much better in the black and white treatment.

Once again, let me know your opinions on the pictures. I'm too close to the project to have an objective view!

Here are my kittens again, this time with a "seventies" treatment.

To see higher res versions, please see my Flickr account.

Previous treatment done to the photos was black and white.