365

Translation: really big boobs.

Just kidding. Paul tried to get me to tell him what it says, but I made him look it up. He came back shaking his head.

That's right, dear. Me and my t-shirts.

I processed the hell out of this one, and I like it.

I'm not fond of my face in general, but sometimes I like my eyes.

This photo is actually better viewed like this. And my photostream actually contains a smiling shot, believe it or not. That one was for you, David. I don't know about kool-aid, but there's at least a little Crystal Light in that one.

Working from home today, and waiting for the return of the TV repair dude, who should be here between 10 and 12.

Sorry, I lied. It's not OK today. Maybe tomorrow.

I'm ok, just tired and stressed-out. It'll all be ok tomorrow.

This is my new sports bra. It is not particularly pretty, but it does the job.

I had a slightly difficult time with this one, deciding which size to get. In an effort to be optimistic, I went smaller in the band - and consequently I'm being squeezed to near unconsciousness around the ribcage in this photo. The first time I put it on, I ended up wearing it with one of those expanders, but that made it almost too loose. So I wore it without the expander (mostly because I forgot to grab it when I was packing my gym bag) to run today, and despite the general discomfort, it actually does the job very nicely. And now you know.

I'm all about TMI.

Sunday clothes, going to waste. We didn't get out the door until after 2, which made it sort of dumb to go, so we went to lunch instead. We are sinners of the highest order.

My cousin Carol is coming over in a while so I can take some photos of her. She just got her hair done, and I can't wait to see it.

Slow day - have to work this evening in order to be ready for tomorrow's onslaught of crap. Sigh.

The sun has been shining here all week long. I'm so thoroughly amazed I can't hardly express it in words. It was supposed to cloud up and get normal on Wednesday, but it's still bright and lovely and... well, shit. I just turned to look out the window and noticed that it's kind of grey out there all of a sudden. I went and looked out the window - and looked at the time. It's getting dark, not cloudy or rainy. Yay!

Madison and I went to the mall this afternoon for lunch with Spike. We ran around looking for Bath & Body Works, which had moved since I was there last. We got turned around, and ended up wandering like tourists.

I ended up having a hard time deciding which shot to use for today. My second choice for today would be this one.

If you were one of the marauding pirates that live on top of my monitors at work, this would be your view every day. Just thought you should know that.

It was a quiet but busy day at work, and not much happened. In fact, absolutely nothing of note happened at all, except that I went to work. Damn, my life is staggeringly boring.

No plans this weekend. No appointments, no dinner guests, and no mandatory children's activities. Again with the massive quantities of boring. I'm amazed you're still reading this.

I started a new blog for One Object 365 Days. You can see outtakes and everything on flickr if you're interested.

So.. I took about 60 shots of my feet today, none of which I was even remotely happy with. I'm not fond of my feet in general, but I think today was the worst foot day ever. I got a damn pedicure yesterday, and it looks like it's been 6 months already. ouch.

Shell made it home safely, and I'm sad today because it'll be too long before I see her again.

We got home really late last night, and pretty much went straight to bed.

We got pedicures in the morning, then I had to go into the office for a meeting. After that, we went to lunch and messed around at the fish market. Shell found a cute boy in orange coveralls to rub up against, and bought 3 enormous crab legs to take home with her. She almost didn't get them when she found out that she'd have to check the box for her flight this morning. She doesn't usually check anything.

At 4:00 she had a hair appointment, which lasted FOREVER - then we went to dinner and a movie, which I slept through large chunks of.

All-in-all, a fantastic day with my best friend.

For today's photo you'll be getting my new shoes and pretty pedicure. Pay attention, Marcus! :o)

Shell took the girls to the Science Center today, and I met them for an IMAX movie (Spiderwick Chronicles) this evening. The movie was pretty good, though Kierstin was a little scared.

Played volleyball tonight - won 1/lost 2 - oh well.

I'm starting a new project sometime next week, or maybe tomorrow. It's called One Object 365 Days. I was really inspired by this guy's series. I'm not a big fan of The Simpsons, but he makes Homer pretty interesting. I'm excited about it, to tell you the truth. I think I've found a pretty cool object to use. I'll link to it when I start.

Not much to say this evening. Looking forward to tomorrow and my day with Shell, who will most definitely be in my photo tomorrow.

Good night.

I had a lot of fun taking pictures today. My office is completely empty, and the sun is shining (!) through the windows. Take a look at the outtakes from today =====>>

Shell and the girls are at the park playing, and I'm working. Well, sort of working. Mostly working. I did get a few things accomplished this morning despite the fact that my development server is down hard at the moment. It's been having problems for the last week or so, and I think it's dying a slow, painful (for those of us who need it daily) death.

No plans for this evening except the gym and hanging out with my best friend. I have to work tomorrow, but I'm taking Wed off to spend the day with her. The girls will be back in school, and she leaves on Thursday morning. I miss her already.

I'm having a lot of fun with editing my photos, and the effects in picnik. This one makes use of the "Orton-ish" effect, and I think it's interesting. I even looked up the Orton Effect and learned a little something.

Mad had some fun today with the D70, a tripod, and the remote shutter release. She couldn't quite grasp the concept of how to stay in frame, but I think she ended up with some fun shots. She's relegated to the kitchen for slave labor at the moment, so she hasn't posted anything yet, but she probably will this evening.

Only 2 more hours until Shell arrives, and I'm getting a little giddy...

The photo here is not the exact one I posted to the 365 days group, but I like it better, so I used it here. I've been playing around with picnik on flickr and I'm so in love with it it's scary. I like Picasa's glow feature more than chocolate, but picnik has a similar edit, plus a whole lot more, so I'm switching to that for editing. Of course, there's always Photoshop, but I've resisted going there because I know myself, and I know that once I do there'll be no coming back, and what little time I have left in each day will get sucked into the vortex that is Adobe. I already lost much of my late 30's to Audition making ringtones for my phone, and I'll end up divorced and paying alimony along with child support for my troubles if I start down that path.

A note on the VD present:
Tonight the whipped cream apparatus was christened when we had hot fudge sundaes for dessert. You should have seen the look on his face when he realized that the cartridges were nitrous. I'm not sure if that look in his eyes was love for me or just garden-variety boy happiness, but it was worth it.

Today is the first time I've worn these shoes. I got them last summer when I was in Nebraska. Technically, I think I might have been in either Kansas or Missouri when I actually purchased them, but I'm not sure. I was on my way to Kansas City for a weekend and I stopped at this really cool shoe place - can't remember what it was called, but it was big, and it wasn't DSW - to look for something to take home to the girls. They had all kinds of Converse on buy-one-get-one half-off sale, so I got each of the girls a pair, and got myself matching pairs with each of theirs. Mad's are this really cute brown/tan plaid pattern. I was having difficulty finding anything that jumped out at me for Kierstin when I found these. They're perfect for her.

I've never been a fan of Converse. They're really uncomfortable to me. They have no arch support, and they tend to be pretty narrow. I can only wear them for about an hour before I can't stand it any more and have to take them off. I wore them to go grocery shopping this evening with Kierstin, and by the time we got home I couldn't wait to get them off. But she was thrilled that we had matching shoes for our shopping expedition. Sometimes that kid is so easy to please it's criminal.

Right. I'm done with bullshit hallmark holidays. From now on, I'm getting a little something for the girls, because they're easy to please, and dude can just suck it. I put a great deal of thought into my present (shut up) and as it turns out, I overdid it. As usual. I'm a little bit bitter about it right now, can you tell? This ranks right up there with the 'birthday books' incident of 2006 - and I'm officially done.

Come to think of it, I'm adopting this attitude for all holidays. Christmas is going to rock this year because there's no thought going into it at all. Girls and ... done. The rest of y'all who get stuff from me can have the rare gift of knowing that you did not cause any undue stress in my life over buying gifts for you that you don't really need or want, and that I probably had to go into debt for. Knowing me is enough, right?

Ok, I think I'm done now.

Happy Valentines Day!

That is all.

I spent my lunch hour plus another shopping for tomorrow. Normally, Paul and I don't do this holiday. A hundred years ago I got upset about it, but I've come to accept that it's just never going to happen with us, and I've moved on. No big deal. So, imagine my surprise when on Monday night Madison comes home from shopping with her father to announce, "Dad got you a valentine's day present!".

My first and immediate thought was this: Shit - now I have to get him something. Nice, aren't I? After I thought about it for a day, I got all soft and decided that it's really sweet of him, and I should get him something too. But what?

I came up with this with a box of these. I figure we can put it to practical use, or use it to get high, which could make for a very interesting evening either way. I've wanted one for a while, and he thinks they're cool, so we're both going to be happy regardless.

I'm feeling extremely BLAH this evening. Good night.

I took a lot of these photos today, trying to get the angle just right and still be able to see, for the most part, what's actually playing. When I started to drift over into the next lane of traffic on I-5, I decided that this particular project would probably best be done in a more controlled fashion. Good thinking, right? The shots where you can see the song title and album cover art show too much reflection from the roof of the car and it looks funny. I may have to try this one again under different circumstances.

This is what working from home looks like when I do it. Right, like you don't spend the day playing games and dancing around instead of working when YOU'RE at home for the day??

I'm home today because my 2-year-old plasma television is on the fritz, and I'm waiting for the repairman to come and rape me and then charge me for his efforts. I hope he brings lunch. It's going to cost me $375 just for the pleasure of his company. If he has to replace parts or anything, that number skyrockets. I'm bent over in anticipation already.

You know you're jealous of my husband. Living with three redheaded females has got to be the easiest thing any man has ever done, right?

...

I had a massage this morning, and my original idea for today's photo was to take a photo of myself from below the face cradle, hair everywhere and ... well, it didn't work out so well. There wasn't enough light in the room, and the photos turned out kind of ugly because the underside of a massage table face cradle is less than attractive. It was kind of distracting, actually. Meh.

Off to bed now.

I'm caught up now. yay me.

My mood today is extremely odd. I have the same song on eternal repeat in iTunes. It's probably gone around about 15 times so far, and I'm still not tired of it. I can usually wear out a song a whole lot sooner than that, so it's particularly strange that this one keeps on sounding good.

My musical tastes have been shifting violently lately. The bottom line remains the same: anything with a wicked or even prominent bassline I'm immediately attracted to, pretty much regardless of genre. I've always appreciated what I consider to be "hard rock" music, but mostly in small doses. I'm still pretty particular about the harder stuff, and I rarely, if ever, purchase entire albums from that genre. But I've been drawn to it more lately, and I've been downloading some stuff that I would have never listened to before. Here are some of my latest purchases, sorted by date added in iTunes:

• Queens of the Stone Age - Skin on Skin: I'm so into this song, I play it at least 5 times a day. It's fuzzy and distorted, and I can only understand part of the lyrics, but I love it. I've downloaded a few other QotSA songs too: Tangled Up In Plaid, Do It Again, No One Knows, Make It Wit Chu, and God is On the Radio.
• Tina Dico: She's from the Netherlands or someplace, and her voice is just... well, it just sucks me in every time. The first time I heard her was on a Zero 7 track called "Home", and I did a little research to find out who she was, because I knew for sure that she wasn't Sophie Barker or Sia. She has a new album out called 'In The Red' and I've been listening to parts of it off and on since I got it.
• Chris Botti - A Thousand Kisses Deep: after the show Tuesday night, I picked this one up because I didn't have it yet.
• Soundgarden: I downloaded 'Down on the Upside', 'Superunknown', and 'Badmotorfinger' all at once last week. I know they're broken up and I'm way behind the times, but there it is.
• Robin Thicke - The Evolution of Robin Thicke: This is more my usual speed, with the R&B kind of feeling. I've Limewire'd a number of the tracks from this album, and decided it was high time I made an honest woman out of myself - that and my favorite track was crappy quality and I wanted better.
• Sheryl Crow - Detours: This one was mainly for Kierstin, who loves her. I haven't even listened to it yet.
• Morcheeba: Ok, so I'd heard of them before, but didn't really have any knowledge of them. When I went in search of music for a specific purpose (ahem.), all of my search results turned up one or more recommendations for Morcheeba. I guess it's classified as Trip-Hop, but ok, whatever. I really like 'Slow Down', and I downloaded a bunch more. I'm not in love, but I'm getting there.
• Bob Marley - Legend: I've owned this album multiple times in my life. My first copy fell casualty to my little brother eons ago. The second one I purchased was in the glove box of my car when it got stolen. I finally got it again.
• Garbage - Absolute Garbage: I've always liked 'Stupid Girl' and 'Special', and now I'm running 'Push It' into the ground.

That's my list as of 1/24. I've bought a lot of music lately in my specific quest for the perfect song. I still haven't found said perfect song, and I don't think I'm ever going to because it's so moment-specific that it changes every time. Bummer.

Paul and Mad are downstairs listening to The Scorpions right now. Why is that funny to me?

I was really, really going to try and do this every day. Yeah, right. Those of you who know me well are probably already shocked that I even made it 4 days before falling behind.

Friday was a good day. I had a "work function" that started at 2:00. It was a very serious affair that involved champagne, cookies, and nail polish. A bunch of people from my office went over the Butter London at Westlake Center and had a private mani-pedi party. It was totally fun because everyone was relaxed and enjoying themselves. Not that my workplace is high-stress to begin with, of course, but it's nice to get out of the office and see people getting tipsy while getting their toenails painted.

We went out to dinner last night with our favorite neighbors. It was extremely enjoyable. They're both really intelligent and very laid-back in general. They each have adult and late-teen-aged children from their first marriages, so they're ahead of the curve from us in that experience. They also have a 7-year-old daughter, which makes for more in common. We've spent time with them in a larger group of neighbors many times, but this was the first time just the 4 of us were out together. Our reservations were for 7:30, and we didn't leave the restaurant until well after 10. It was really comfortable and we talked the whole time, never running out of things to discuss. All in all, one of the most pleasant dinners we've had in quite a while.

Yes, it is.

Yes, they are.

Moving on:
A while ago I had a "bra meltdown". The details of said bra meltdown are documented elsewhere if you're at all interested. Today, this lovely piece of hardware is the result of said meltdown. I feel like sharing today, so deal.

As a woman of ample chest, it's been a long, hard, uncomfortable road to this place where I am wearing pretty undergarments. Finding an attractive bra in my size was a complete pipe-dream for a very long time, and I've been varying degrees of frustrated for that very long time. FINALLY I've found a website that carries quite a few lovely options in a huge range of sizes - some of them even huger than my own. Amazing. And it's about damn time.

These are my favorite pajama pants. When I've had a long day, and I need to be happy, I put them on, and I feel better. They're roomy and warm and they make me happy. It's a little embarrassing when Paul wears his at the same time, but whatever.

Snowmen rock.

Today's efforts at getting a halfway decent photo of my face produced multiple thoughts:

• Damn, I look OLD.
• I'm looking into cosmetic surgery. Soon.
• Hey. My hair color is looking kind of nice these days. Thanks Lisa!
• I think today is when my midlife crisis begins.
  

I had to glow the shit out of this shot in Picasa to make it even remotely presentable - and I'm still not thrilled with it. At one point I did something that made the image ZOOM in to the point that all I could see was my crow's feet staring back at me. I almost peed my pants. It doesn't help that it's the end of the day, and I had no makeup on to speak of today - and what is there is lazing comfortably in every fine line and crevice that exists under my eyes. When did I turn 90? Seriously.

So, with any luck my photo tomorrow will include a certain trumpet player who we're going to see this evening. I'm hoping to score a photo, but my hopes are not high. Wish me luck.

I swear that I will never again use the HOV lane unless I have more than one person in my vehicle. Amen.

I was SOOO close to getting away with it, too. When I hit the end of the lineup of cars, they were listing to the left. I didn't want to be an ass and go up on the right, even though I totally should have. Because I didn't, I missed the light and had to wait. While I was waiting, Mr. Policeman pulled up and looked in my window. Fuck.

From Flickr:

What counts as a self portrait?

The main thing is that you are both the photographer and the subject. For the purposes of this group, any photo which you took that contains any part of your body counts. Photos of things that are 'very important to you' are fine, as long as part of your body is included within the frame. Taking a photo of your daily planner, your desk, your child, etc. with a detailed explanation about how it's an extension of your body does not count as a self portrait.

So... I am not a "cheater" (Jesika!), and a lot of my photos will NOT have my face in them. So there.