Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Why I'm not a photojournalist

In the first place, it took me almost three months to offload the pictures I took when Hillary Clinton showed up at the place where I was eating breakfast one peaceful Saturday.

In the second place, I wasn't expecting a Famous Person to interrupt my enjoyment of bacon and hashbrowns, so I didn't have a decent camera, just my cell phone.

In the third place, whenever you hear the words "media throng", you'd better believe it. It was insane.

It was early December. Oprah was in town, campaigning for Barack Obama, which of course had the media wetting themselves with excitement. Hillary had her mother and daughter with her for the weekend, hoping to grab their own slice of the "Hey, girl" demographic. I was interviewed by a CNN stringer who asked me how Oprah's endorsement of Obama influenced me, an undecided female. Umm, not at all. I work for a living, so I never see Oprah. I'm more influenced by the gal in the next cubicle at the office. She lives near me and votes in the same precinct and goes to the same caucus. We've known each other for years, so I listen to what she has to say about candidates. Oh, and she's not a multibajillionaire trying to convince me that her problems are just like mine.

Hillary...


Chelsea...


and Mother Rodham.

I got better pictures once they stepped away from the windows and into the fabulous lighting of the professional TV cameras. Unfortunately, they were looking the other way.


Thursday, February 14, 2008

V Day

T and I went out for dinner last night, "to beat the Valentine rush", he said.

Then we went out again tonight, to a neighborhood restaurant near our church, after I had my second tai chi lesson.

I had leftovers from both, so I can feel the love all weekend long.

I really like the tai chi class. We also do some qigong at the beginning, sort of as a warm up. I think if I can remember the movements long enough that I can practice them consistently, it will loosen up my back and shoulders. I'll try to practice every day, and see if the massage therapist can tell a difference next week.

Thursday, February 07, 2008

A slow start for Lent

Lent got off to a stumbling start here. We had a snow storm starting Tuesday, and the pancake supper at church was canceled. The snow stopped Wednesday (we got about eight inches), but by the time I figured out that I don't really know how to use our new snowblower, it was to late to make it to the Ash Wednesday service.

At least I came up with a To-Do and Not-Do list for the next six weeks, but even it is in jeopardy.

1. Do not start any new knitting or other crafty projects. This one is already on the ropes. I made a chemo cap for one of T's coworkers, and she asked if she could order another one. She's a sweet lady, one of T's favorites, and this is her second go-round with cancer. How could I say no? I'm pretty sure God will understand if I amend this one to say "No new projects for myself."

2. Avoid entertainment news. Granted, it's hard to avoid it entirely, especially when it's right there on Yahoo News, but I don't have to watch the stuff that is on TV when I get home from work. The last time I tried this, it was a Paris Hilton backlash. Now, it's Britney. I think she's at the point where we all just need to look away.

3. Observe Meatless Friday. Between salad bars and bean burritos, this one is pretty easy.

I wasn't sure about this last one, but T had a meeting tonight, and that convinced me to....

4. Take a Tai Chi class. Our church is offering a six week class during Lent. Tonight was the first class. The instructor started by saying, "First, tai chi should never hurt. Second, the only way to do it wrong is if it hurts." That's my kind of exercise. I like the class, and am looking forward to going next week.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Has it been a month already?

I've been a bad blogger, and I blame Ravelry.

Ravelry is the new must-see site for knitters and crocheters, still in beta and invitation-only. It has forums and wikis and what not, but the really cool part is the databases - of yarns, of patterns, of projects. Users can enter all of the details for their projects, including pictures. Then, if you have, say, one ball of Noro Silk Garden yarn, you can search for that yarn, see the projects, narrow the search, and get a pretty good idea of what can be done with the yarn.

The thing is, to get a picture into Ravelry, I need to store it in Flickr. So I upgraded my Flickr account, and started dumping my yarn pictures there. Once that is done and they are linked to Ravelry, I'm tired of them and don't want to re-do them for Blogger. Feel free to go look at them in Flickr, though.

I have finished three hats (one a chemo cap for one of T's friends), and this little beauty:

My co-worker had a baby boy in early January, and this is his "welcome to Iowa winter" gift.