Wishful Slacker

Summerworkstoryidea.doc

I was just digging through my writing folder on my laptop and came across the word document titled above that I apparently created on Wednesday, June 3, 2009. 

Being that it is winter, and dark, and cold, I thought I would share it!

The peaceful quiet of a summer evening

            Little bugs fluttering in the evening sunlight

            Sound of insects

            Swaying in the hammock

            Knowing you don’t have to go to bed

            Watching your mother or father flick on the light inside the living room

            Smacking at a mosquito on your leg

            Sprinklers

            Smell of grass

            Sound of a lawnmower

            Smell of barbeque

 

Remembering this, in the middle of my working adult life

            Having forgotten what that moment of peace is like

            Forgetting that feeling of stillness

            Always having a to do list

            Always having to watch the clock for bedtime

 

Chopping weather

I know many would disagree, but I have just loved the weather this summer. For those of us without the luxury of work-free summer days, these cool temps have made working in July just that much easier. Last weekend, the mornings felt so fall-like, sunny and crisp, that I expected to hear the Fox Sports football music coming across the television. I just love the fall...the crunch of leaves underfoot, the pilling sweaters that have been worn for years, chili on the stove, and the sight of one's breath in the air for the first time. Many feel reborn in the spring. For me, the world comes to life in the fall.

As the temperatures gradually dip over the next month, I look forward to making one-pot meals-stews and soups and chili. And, I have a fancy new knife to use on those carrots and celery and potatoes. We took the Knife Skills class at The Chopping Block a few months ago, and during that outing my husband treated me to a new Chroma knife. It's gorgeous. Designed by Porsche, it's got a nifty nubbin that fits under my thumb and its contours are perfect for my hand. When we have guests, all I want to do is drag them to our kitchen and say, "Let me show you my knife!"  But I don't, because that might be considered odd. :-P

Fiddling with photo editing

One of the items on my recreational "to do" list is to work more on learning the in's and out's of photography (especially now that we have our fancy Nikon D40 cameras) and photo editing.  Since it's practically 300 degrees out today (slight exaggeration) and we're trapped indoors clinging to the A/C, I've been using the past few hours to peruse the camera manual and a digital photography book.  We took the photography boot camp class at the Chicago Photography Center back in December and I would enjoy taking their 7 week long Fundamentals of Digital Photography class at some point (in researching this class, I found out that the founder of the Photography Center was recently fired and started his own institute.  Sounds like there was a serious photography feud going on based on this article.  Because these classes are not cheap, I think I'll wait a bit for things to settle down before deciding when to move further along with this decision!).  The bootcamp class was good for us to be introduced to the concepts of aperture and shutter speed settings, etc.  Our wedding photographer, Kris Noorman, has an amazing blog and recently posted a good summary about this too.    

So though I haven't delved into this as seriously as I hope to one day, I have started experimenting more with doing some very basic photo editing in iPhoto.  When I say very basic, I mean that I've just been fiddling with contrast and exposure settings.  I hope to learn more about programs like Photoshop and Lightroom (which we just downloaded onto my laptop- yay!).  I think I need to create more hours in my day and figure out a way to get paid to learn rather than work.  Anyone interested in supporting me financially in this quest?  Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? 

I thought I'd post a couple before and after shots of pictures that I've worked on.  I've noticed that pictures seem to get pretty washed out in Typepad.  Hopefully the difference between these pics looks as cool as it does in iPhoto.  And, disclaimer- I don't think these pictures rock the house or anything, I'm just showing them as examples of the simple changes that can be made using the standard iPhoto editing feature.

1) Darn kite string! Before:

After:

2) Looking at the city from east of the Shedd Aquarium (which is what you see in the foreground).  Before:

And after: