Booooooo

It's pouring.... (This is the pumpkin I carved. My kids are out in this rain...) I'd better go make hot chocolate and doctor appointments!
Carly(via Blackberry)

Ugh

Here we go again... My least favorite day of the year. Anytime now the carloads of kids will start appearing in my 'hood. We have mostly retired people and apparently It's A Great Place To Trick Or Treat. Eff that. I'm considering a per-car charge. I will go through no less than 500 pieces of candy today.

I'm going to have to try to carve the pumkin this morning, as I've been sick all week. But now I can't really decide WHAT to carve...

(Sadly, there will be no wine to console me as I answer the door again and again and again. Does not mix well with cold meds... Although I did seriously consider letting them all wear off, not taking any all day and seeing if I'd survive until dinnertime and still be able to ...breathe...)

Is it November yet????
Carly(via Blackberry)

Kelby-nated

A week or two ago I came across news that Scott Kelby was going to be doing a seminar in Boston. If you don't know him, let me sum it up this way: he is Photoshop Guru, if Guru stands for Geek Ruler of the Universe. Here's the very official description of the classes:

Kelby Training LIVE has just announced Scott Kelby’s Photoshop for Digital Photographers one-day seminar tour. It includes five classes, covering editing images in Adobe Camera Raw, portrait retouching techniques, shooting and creating HDR images, printing techniques that will help you get what you see on screen, as well as Scott’s very own step-by-step Photoshop editing workflow from start to finish.

I have his 7 points book, which covers the Raw editing he went over in this seminar in detail, and it's great. I texted my photography buddy APB that we needed to somehow convince our spouses that we should be granted parole to cross state lines for a day trip. (Yes, I got up at five, met A. at 6, and we drove to Bean town, attended the classes, and then drove home. Lonnnnnng day.)

I was a little bit annoyed with Scott, because of one phrase in his blog that I had an issue with, when he weighed in about Kelly Clarkson's photoshopped Shape magazine cover ("her battle with weight"... my comment over there, that THAT'S THE POINT THAT EVERYONE'S UPSET ABOUT, THEY MADE HER LOOK 25 LBS THINNER, ON A MAGAZINE WITH A HEADLINE ABOUT LOVING YOURSELF, MAYBE SHE'S ACTUALLY HAPPY THE WAY SHE IS.... brought me the first troll I've had in a while... ) - but I forgive him now, because he's so effing funny. There, I bet he can finally sleep nights.

And I have to tell you, the TomTom (a GPS navigating device, for my two British readers... hi guys!!!) rules Boston. Every intersection that I needed to turn at seemed to have 6 choices for which way I could go, and we made it to the convention center only about 20 minutes past my target, which left us plenty of time to check in, check out vendors, enter raffles we wouldn't win... and see ALL of the presentations.

Here's the thing. We owe an apology to the guy we sat next to. Because we laughed quietly but hysterically through a good portion of the classes. There were SO MANY "That's What She Said" setups during those presentations, we just couldn't believe he didn't know what he was saying. (The whole "ooooh, fingers!" bit for example.... ok, maybe you had to be there but when you're in that frame of mind, it's pretty easy to spot TWSS opportunites. ) The guy is VERY funny. I'm too tired to really do an adequate review and describe how entertaining it was to watch him tweak pictures, but he was hilarious. ("Too sezzy, too sezzy....." as he was moving the edge of a shirt over to be more modest... just little stuff like that made us want to bug his office. )

I definitely recommend the seminar ($99) to anyone who can get there - he's going around to various sites in the country (Philly and Tampa) in upcoming weeks. I learned a great deal... I came home and since I was wide awake from caffeine-ated driving, I started playing around in Lightroom 3 Beta and put some of what he taught us to good use (LR is similar to the Bridge component which he was using in the class to edit RAW format photographs). I'll definitely be using some of the portrait retouching techniques. Just not on pictures of Kelly Clarkson.

Unfortunately, when you put 400 people in a room all day, what do you get? I've got it! A cold.

I've got it.

Sunday Art

IMG_2273
Originally uploaded by carlyq80

A while back (at least a year ago?) I used to post a photo of something I'd done, every Sunday.

Today I was out on what ended up being a rather pointless trip (to a "home show" in Clifton park that was about 20 vendors) and on the way home I wandered around Waterford Rural Cemetery for a while.

You can see other photos on my Flickr feed.

Print it for your daughter

This:

http://www.rachelfitzwater.com/?p=258

was written by a friend of a .... whatever, I know her, and she IS that awesome. It's great stuff. I've saved it for a couple of weeks and just printed it out for my own daughter... she loved it and made me print it for her locker or something. Bingo!

Pass it along to your daughters and neices.... tell rf that Carly sent you. Mwahhhh!

Take a hike

Took a walk today around Peebles Island; beautiful foliage and sunshine on the rivers. I will be putting more photos on my flickr feed (probably tomorrow).

If only I didn't *have* to get a job... I would be quite happy not to! Except for that whole mortgage thing.
Carly(via Blackberry)

Off my Crocker

Today I needed to distract myself from something. And my mom's birthday is tomorrow, as well as a friend of ours at church, and Stanley and APB always likes fudge. So I made the following:

• two batches of brownies
• one batch butterscotch fudge
• one batch of chocolate fudge
• two batches of Margarita fudge (I put 1 oz of tequila in each batch this time and OH MY, that is why I made two batches)
• little pillsbury no-bake mini pumpkin "pies" with graham cracker crust, in individual muffin foils, to bring to my mother's tomorrow
• one batch of my favorite christmas cookie dough... it's flour, shuuugar, butter and walnuts and the dough gets chilled overnight. No eggs. We all sneak into the fridge repeatedly to eat chunks of the dough. If any of it lasts until the next day, I bake little tiny balls out of it and roll them in sugar. Yummmmmy.

So, in conclusion... the art corner... not so much done, perhaps half finished... but I ran for 45 minutes on the treadmill

Help!

You know how, in order to reorganize stuff you have to take everything out and rearrange it, but in the middle of the project you notice that it's a big discouraging mess and you really just want a glass of wine?

I'm in the middle.
Carly(via Blackberry)

Say hello to my leeeetle friend

My father used to hide a mouse something like this around the house from time to time.

My mother would open a drawer, gasp, and then say "dammit, Harold", and we'd all snicker.

I wonder if Bette and Stanley will like it at choir tonight. He is just the type to use a prank like this, over and over. Gotta love Target - four for a dollar.

(Don't look now Poly, but I just might enjoy Halloween this year. The solution involves WINE, I'm fairly sure...)

Carly(via Blackberry)

This

...Just about sums up the day I am having...
Carly(via Blackberry)

Beads

So a month ago I started working on this necklace but didn't like the first version.

The bits and pieces have been sitting on my art desk ever since. After a week or two I came up with twisting together strands of wires with different sections. Then more time passed by while I figured out about how much chain to use and where.

Tonight I finally finished it. I fought with it for about two hours and then when the Yankees got their act together and the other people in my house stopped yelling at the tv, it finally all came together. This is as close as I can get to capturing the greens; they are actually a little tiny bit brighter. And can I tell you how many times I had to try to string that stupid dangling bead on the 'tail' ? I can not do a decent wrapped wire loop. Grrrrr.

It's got a lot going on but as it will be the only jewelry with a (cough cough BORING cough cough) navy suit and cream blouse I think it will be OK.

Choppers

So, this is how I spent my lunchtime yesterday, patiently waiting for these to be yanked out of my child's jaw. Blahhhhh. I had to look at them, so you do too. Mwahhh. And just for the record I did try to wash the blood off.

Smashing

So, I have still been fighting with this sinus infection. Mornings are tough.

Today I was on the couch trying to watch FlashForward on my dvr and I kept dozing off so it took about two hours to get all the scenes. When did I turn into a 90 year old lady?

I went to walk into the other part of my house and there over the kitchen doorway was a GIANT effing dark brown spider. I think if he hadn't been on my lovely white ceiling moulding I might not have noticed him QUITE as quickly, but... This guy could probably spin a web big enough to trap one of those annoying yappy taco bell dogs.

I'd post a photo (because yes I took a picture) but blogger doesn't want to accommodate me this evening.

I didn't want to walk under him, because hewilljumpinmyhair, dammit. So I looked in the garage for spray, but we are all about yellowjackets and not so much with spiders. Plus I didn't want to spray chemicals on my lovely tan walls and possibly wreck them.

I thought about throwing a baseball to crush him but 1) I suck and would never hit him. 2) bouncing? In my kitchen? Near my lovely ceiling light w three globes? Again, not so much for a plan.

Plan C was to climb on a chair and whack the hell out of it and pray he wouldn't fall (or jumponme, ohmygod) or scurry away somewhere only to return to build a web on my face while I sleep.

So I decided to use TWO chairs near each other. I would climb on one, step with ONE foot onto the second, and be able to retreat without jumping down to the floor and killing myself.

I rolled about 20 sheets of newspaper into a MAJOR club. Hemmed, hawwed, and finally thought, "oh crap, I have to do this."

It went pretty well except when I whacked him. I heard myself say "Mohhhhhhm!" as sort of an audible cringe, as I connected with the club and he dropped to the floor. On floor, not in my hair - check. Not moving - check. Me not falling off chairs - check.

I swear to god the word MOM had not been out of my mouth for ten seconds and my phone rang.

It was my mother.

I would NOT lie to you, internets.

Carly(via Blackberry)

Favorite new Funny

Little things entertain me ... stubby arms, waaaay too long fingers...

http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com/

Today's project

Brought to you by annoying offspring who don't do their chores and a Mom who left their father to deal with their nonsense.

One trip to starbucks and michael's later, this is what I ended up with. The flowers were a total of $7.49.

The giraffes belonged to my Aunt Helena; she traveled all over the globe and I'm pretty sure they were all made in Africa since one has an ancient sticker on the back saying "hand carved in Kenya" and that it was purchased for $6.75.
Such a deal.

Carly(via Blackberry)

Bones

Really? Am I the only one who thinks these are strange?

Carly(via Blackberry)

Thought for the day

Courage does not always roar

Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day, saying

"I will try again tomorrow"

-Mary Anne Radmacher

Have I ever mentioned

....how much I love, LOVE tomatoes and basil? No fresh mozzarella tonight, how sad. However I did make some italian herb bread....

Carly(via Blackberry)

Frasier's got a new girl

There is an all white crane on the pond at the park now; I had noticed the different neck mixed in with all of the ducks the last time I drove by.

I'm wondering this is the "Mrs" of the Blue Heron I photographed this summer. In my vast knowledge... I conclude yes, it is... and that I need a real camera.

Carly(via Blackberry)

Summer is here

....And it's October....

I have been sick most of the past week. Finally I'm feeling better.

Carly(via Blackberry)

It must be fall....

.... I have my annual sinus infection. Love the feeling that I've been whacked in the face with a baseball bat. Oh no, really, I do.

My doctor said I may be allergic to ragweed just enough that the late summer bloom creeps up on me and eventually I get congested enough that I develop a sinus infection. He is a big fan of the Neti pot and.... ugh... have you ever done that? It burns! It burrrrrrns!!!

So next summer the plan he proposed is that I start taking allergy/ decons faithfully from Aug 1 to the first hard frost. So, don't make plans with me then... I'll be in a cloudy fog. Yeeehaw.

Going to lie down now... they're REALLY going to be happy to see me at choir tonight. Hi, Stanley! (sneeze) Hi, Bette (sniffle). Hi, Icky (cough)... I can already feel the love.

Margarita Fudge

Last night I was mulling over what to make APB as a gift for his birthday. I am sure he has a sweet tooth, because of our Cheesecake Tuesday habit. I also know he wanted to try a margarita cheesecake recipe he came across. (Technically... he mailed it to ME, so I conclude he wanted ME to try it and give him some or all of said cheesecake. Hah. )

So I came up with the idea of Margarita Fudge. (Not chocolate fudge. What I had in mind was a "white chocolate" base, with the lemon and lime flavors.) I used Google to search for a recipe... with no luck. Is the idea that bad? I didn't think so. I found a white chocolate fudge recipe to base my experiments on.

This morning I was trying to figure out when the liquor store opened so I could get some tequila. A good friend I happened to be chatting on the phone with said "Carly... maybe you don't want to be at the liquor store WHEN IT OPENS, looking for tequila." Point taken.

The same friend recommended using margarita mixer, like the ones you can find in a grocery store. I found a powdered version, called Mixer Stix. Bingo! I was worried about adding too much liquid and this seemed like a good option.

So I made batch one today, and it was somewhat of a success. I put in some lemon and lime zest, and sprinkled some kosher salt on the top of the fudge. As AB said "the taste of the salt comes and goes while you eat the fudge" which is what I was hoping for - the effect similar to how the salty taste of a margarita varies depending on which spot on your glass you drink from... Mmmmm.

I will attempt batch two when I get mini bottles of tequila and triple sec.

At last, now I will make my million$. Who am I kidding? I need to buy a Lotto ticket.

Its the thought that counts

So I had this great idea to make a Vera Bradley-esque pattern on B's cake. But I had crappy colors to work with. I had a fall design in mind and so I used some light brown and some green marbled leaves, and it was ugh. BAD.

Lucky for me I was able to peel off the entire top of the cake and scrap it. So now we have this. It's only marbled in one corner and I couldn't stop laughing at my bad flowers. But it's kind of cute considering I went into it with no real plan at all....

Happy Friday!

Carly(via Blackberry)

For my next trick

.... I will use these tools to make a cake for today's birthday girl.

Carly(via Blackberry)

Arrrrr

It be a lame pirate cake for me lad. And talk like a pirate day was last week so I'm done with that now.

I will simply add that my first attempts at his name were brown "rope" and it looked bad. I then tried brown and yellow and still it looked rather like pooo.

So pretend for me that 'tis a treasure map right there in front. Gahh. Although my fondant marbling was rather nice...

Carly(via Blackberry)

Fondant time

D's birthday cake. Any guesses?

Carly(via Blackberry)

Impatience

Technically that is not the proper spelling of this flower.

But I am waiting for official word of good news that I have been promised.... Waiting is difficult.

I planted seeds in this flowerpot right after I left my job. Now, finally, a flower. I didn't notice the buds... They were right under my nose.

Many years ago I volunteered at a wonderful organization. Now there is a very strong chance that I am going to work there. Waiting waiting waiting, for seeds to bloom.

PS: My children are eagerly awaiting their birthdays this week. I've got presents hidden pretty much right under THEIR noses.

Carly(via Blackberry)

He'll never last

D's bus driver, to the kids: "Stop yelling! It's my first day!"

Carly(via Blackberry)

Always remember

to put on your parking brake. Safety first! Yes, that is a cinder block.

Seriously though. How does he RELEASE the PB? Does this guy always have a co-pilot? And what does he tell them? "Pull it out really quick and then put it in the back..." - - there's no way for that conversation not to be loaded with TWSS jokes.

(Thanks AB for the photo. )

Closing up for the season

With a sniffle I read a passing remark about the Emmys being the last awards show of the season. There is nothing I enjoy more than sitting watching the various celebs on the red carpet and picking out my favorite gowns.

I'll give you my top five choices...

#2 Kristin Chenoweth's dress was beautiful but either she scraped off a bunch of the sequins or they were left off under her arms for comfort (that stuff gets scratchy, I have been to a number of black tie dinners in my day...). It ruined the almost perfect look, if you ask me.

#3 Sandra Oh - loved her metallic dress and especially the shoes.... a splash of color

#4 Jennifer Love Hewitt - for some reason I really liked the flowing yellow dress

# 5 Carrie Ann Inaba - I only saw the top half of her dress, but it looked like her hair and makeup and accessories were well put together (If it was a mermaid dress, I retract any and all compliments)


BUT ANGELA KINSEY! Oh my!!! #1 !!!You will never see her look like this on an episode of The Office.







Fabulous. Winner. Hands down.


I adore Seal, but the combination of Heidi Klum's baby bump with her mermaid dress was just WRONG in so many ways. (On a related note: Tina Fey, please lose the black dress mama, you're gorgeous. )

Blake Lively's boops looked great, but it wasn't the dress, which was unexciting even though it was red. It was her being young and perky, and... why do I suddenly have a headache? I will Knot comment on Leighton's dress. Ugh. They should find out who Hayden Panettiere uses. Really.

Raspberries for people I thought could do much better ... Kardashian (pick one) , Padma, ... Christina Applegate and Sarah Silverman who were drowned by their dresses... I need to go work out now. Adios!

Cash crop

This is my entire harvest for this year.

I estimate they cost me at least $7 each not counting my time spent planting and watering seeds, buying "good" dirt and digging up a small section near the porch... and a few stakes that are still much taller than my plants.

I shall eat them in a little while, with coarse salt (and a tiny pinch of sugar), pepper, and olive oil.

They had better be DELICIOUS.

Carly(via Blackberry)

The other lonely hearts club

Or, the Why Do I Feel Like the Octomom of Corporate America's Dating World...


For the single gal, Saturday night can be very dismal, as you sit home in fuzzy slippers imagining everyone out having a fabulous time, wearing beautiful clothes and clinking glasses and laughing.


For the unemployed gal, Monday morning brings the overpowering joy of filing for unemployment insurance ("no, I did NOT refuse any job offers last week, I worked ZERO days, I am NOT back to work full time"). Same fuzzy slippers, but this time imagining everyone standing around with hot cups of coffe, chatting about America's #1 Jackass, or that cute girl who threw the foul ball back.


Having nowhere to go is freedom and imprisonment at the same time. There are very few people who can take a two hour lunch these days... and you can't really stop in and hang out with your friends while they're at work without them getting a little bit twitchy.


The time that I thought I would spend the MOST time on my hobbies has turned into The Time Where I Do Things For Other People Because I Have Time Because I'm Not Working. The flip side of that for a procrastinator is that the more time you have, the more time you can waste on things like Facebook quizzes and Twitter. Or :::cough::: blogs. And yet I also blog less than usual now that I'm not working. Although I have finally solved that problem of being a CraigsList virgin and I'm having a garage sale. Please, kill me.


It's a mixed up, upside down feeling. The world will thwap you again and again in the face - suddenly EVERY sales clerk asks me if I would like to open a credit card with the store to save 15 % on this purchase. I don't really want to say "uh, no, out of work, don't plan on opening new credit cards nowadays"... even though in terms of cash flow, things are good for now. Every purchase is already a little bit dicey ... "should I buy this? I should Wait Until I Get A Job." Do you go on and live your life, or do you wait for that wedding ring / new cubicle to make decisions?


And interviews? Blind dates, in all their gruesome glory. What do I wear? Will I get lost on the way over? Will they be nice? Oh god don't be late Carly, for god's sake leave the house on time and don't be doing something stupid at the last minute to make yourself late. And don't have anything stuck in that little spot in your front teeth, and don't trip, I know you've been in flip flops all summer and now you're wearing stockings (OMFG I hate stockings with every bit of my tattered soul) and high heels but for god's sake don't trip when you walk up to The Interviewer. Don't make the wrong jokes. Don't spill the bottle of water they so nicely offered, all over the table.


And then AFTER the interview, the torture truly begins. Wait for the phone call. Does he like me? Does he like someone else more? Should I call? Will he call? Should I email? I should email. What should I email? F-ck.


I don't want to date anymore. I am somewhat discouraged by the thought of replacing my cubicle job with another cubicle job. But summer's over and all the cute boys, uh, good jobs are taken and now I am going to have to decide what to do with myself .

They don't call it Monster.com for nothing ;-)

Homework

My children were talking about a poem today that D had to read. She actually helped him with the essay questions. In the course of their discussion they came up with this insight, and I had them write it out for me.

I loved it because I am struggling with identity issues now, as I apply for jobs similar to the last one I had. I want to be doing different work in five years but for at least one of my options I have to do some tech retraining.

Carly(via Blackberry)

Seriously

It's hilarious... I see a squirrel dart frantically off when I approach, and then I trip over a half ripe sort of weird klunky fruit. They are hiding them everywhere.

You won't believe where this one was...

and then this one wasn't hidden at all...

and there was one buried in here...

but this (a zoom out from the first photo in this post...) made me laugh the hardest.. see it?

Attention critters

Please, please, stop leaving these weird clunky fruits on my doorstep. (Not to mention the other ones I've found on the perimeter of my household.) It's not hidden! I see it.

Thank you.

Carly(via Blackberry)

Clicks and random sidetracking

This week I had some success with some of my photos.

Out of the blue someone from Schmaps (google it!!)contacted me via my Flickr feed to request permission to use a photo I took at the Empire State Plaza. Wahoooo! It is not final yet... They were contacting finalists though. No prize $$$ but it's still pretty cool to think that I would have a photo credited online. It's a photo I took of the Egg, from across the fountains, with the yellow sculpture in front. The sky is all blown out but she liked it anyway.

As I write this my trashy neighbors (who had a mattress leaning against the back of their house all winter) are loading stuff into a trailer. Please please please move. I think they are emptying their garage; when last I saw it there was junk from floor to ceiling. Please please move!!

My other neighbor was in her driveway cleaning out the cages for her birds yesterday. Her bird kept screaming "DAAAVID" in a way that made me think the dude gets in trouble a little too often.

Not like my Mom's bird who screams things at the dogs like "WHAT did you DO?" And "GET in your BED". But that's another story.

Where was I ?

Another email was from my Meetup photography group. For an upcoming speech by Richard Florida at the Palace theater, they are looking for photos of NY state and the region I live in to use/project on a backdrop. I sent four in, and mentioned other locations that I had, and got an email back asking me to submit some of those. Again, no money, but I would win a free ticket to the speech. If you remember me taking a photo of the sun streaming through the windows of an abandoned building (while I drove down the highway), that was one of the photos...

Well, I am sitting on my porch enjoying the weather we should have been having ALL SUMMER but didn't... So I will sign off for now. Adios.

Wait... One more story. Today my daughter and I ran into her former Spanish teacher. It was funny because B is in high school now and she got a 71 on the state Spanish proficiency, so she never has to take Spanish again. Senora offered to help her w/ Spanish if she needs it. Ummm, yeah...not so much.

(My daughter carries a fully loaded purse. Two types of antibacterial lotion- -girly scented and plain, kleenex, a mirror, a pen, pencil, AND a Sharpie, a deck of cards, money, her phone, gum,.... Not sure what else but I may have McGyver in my house. She's prepared. I just needed to share that). Adios!


Carly(via Blackberry)

Never Forget

Get on the bus

Well I dragged my daughter out of the house sobbing and screaming and pushed her onto the bus this morning.

Ok, I'm kidding. I told her to quit being a wuss and get on the damn bus.

You know I didn't mean that either, right?

But she did cry a little bit in the house this morning. And yesterday. And the other day. It's been a big day looming over her.

It's hard to go from a class of fewer than 15 kids in your entire grade to 100+. So we joked about sending her to school with a little one-shot bottle of rum, just to make a good first impression and all.

Yesterday, to distract her, we went to Sephora. My plan was twofold... A sharpener and some eye makeup. I bought some sephora lip liner down in Pitt, and I love the color, but for the life of me, I can't get a sharpener that will fit it because it's an odd size, a bit wider in diameter than a standard slim pencil but not as wide as a "bigger" standard. It's making me crazy. So that part of the mission was a "fail" and I have a very cranky email waiting for someone at Sephora's customer support team today. (Sorry, but geez. Wtf. ). I am going to use my son's jacknife to sharpen it, so help me.

I also wanted her to have a little bit of makeup in the right colors so that she can wear it if she wants. The consultant in the store who helped us did give us some good colors but her own eyes were REALLY "dramatic" so
I got nervous. Luckily my daughter has not gotten on the bandwagon of Pushing Mom's Buttons yet so she did a very subtle application this morning.

Pray that she can open her locker at least once today. That will be one of the big hurdles for her that no IEP can help her work around. Riiiiiiiight, lefffffffffft, right, good luck. Oy. I told her to just give her combination to someone cute and not leave anything valuable in the locker. Does that make me a bad mother??



Carly(via Blackberry)

Books

.... that I would like, in no particular order.... so here they are alphabetically... they all seem like very fun books...

• Bent Objects: http://bentobjects.blogspot.com/
  
• Cake Wrecks: http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/
  
• The Pioneer Woman's cookbook: http://thepioneerwoman.com/my_cookbook/
  
• Post Secret... (there are actually several books here... ) http://postsecret.blogspot.com/
  

these are currently on the "when I have a job, I hope I can treat myself" list.

(Which is where the iPhone is, and a "good" camera, and so on...but these are much smaller purchases!)

PS: Send good thoughts my way; I had an interview for a job that I would *love* to land. The interview went well, now I am "patiently waiting". Heh.

IMG00282-20090906-1933.jpg

A horrible, grisly murder at the birthday party....

Carly(via Blackberry)

Work in progress

I originally strung the biggest green beads with some silver between but I didn't like the necklace that way. So now I am trying to work out more of a 3 strand entwined necklace.... Can't decide just yet what I want to do.

Carly(via Blackberry)

All done

And I am now going to slide into a sugar coma.... G'night!

Carly(via Blackberry)

Progress

These are the Mii's so far. The kids will be doing what characters do in the wii plaza (poses from whatever recent activity you've done on wiifit)
Mr C and I will have Zzzz's surrounding us, as we have not been working out much on it lately.

Carly(via Blackberry)

Wii mii s

I am making little wii style characters for the birthday cake for my kids. I'm using Wilton precolored fondant (an edible clay) and a paper doll template I found in my scrapbooking stash.
This much took about an hour...
it's fun so far, and Colbie Caillat is singing to me. Well... she's not here, but you probably knew that...

Carly(via Blackberry)

Camoflage

These are just to hide the connections for the strings of lights.... Michael's had a number of things on sale today so I got out of the store for less than usual.

Doing stuff like this distracts me from things like dentists who want to yank out 4 of my kid's permanent teeth. Oh, joy.

Carly(via Blackberry)

Out on the porch

I bought a few mums today and some silk flowers to decorate Mia Porcha for the family party this weekend and "fall-i-fy" it... More photos to follow...

Carly(via Blackberry)

Wheels go round n round

Wheels go round n round
by carlyq80

I went to the Schagticoke Fair last night as a Photography / Meetup event. Usuall APB and I go to Meetup events together, and I feel less self conscious taking pictures with my teeny little pocket camera. Then I watch him take better pictures with his "real" camera and be more creative and.... I'm not jealous... nope. No sir. I'm also not patient with this whole "saving up for my own camera and lenses" plan.

My daughter convinced me to get on the Ferris wheel with her at just the right time. It wasn't that I was scared.... just wasn't into it, until she pointed out that I might get some good skyline photos. It was frustrating not to be able to compose the shots I wanted, but I did get one or two that I was able to edit to something that entertains me.

you can see them, plus a few more here...

There were no crowds, as you will see, it being a Tuesday night and all...wait... yesterday was Wednesday, wasn't it? Hmmm. Anyway.

I'm sure this weekend the good weather will bring EVERYBODY out. And what a sight that will be. Because, seriously, there is nothing like people watching at a county fair. Endlessly entertaining. Almost as entertaining as the event they were running, where people were wrecking their pickup trucks dragging this big machine through some mud... I have no words to clearly explain my feelings on all of that. ::::shaking head:::::

Cakes

While I am trying to distract myself from anxiety attacks about my job(!) interview (!)because :::whispers::: I haven't had a job interview in 22 years holy crap....

I am mulling over birthday cakes.

Specifically this weekend we are having a party for my two kids and the grandparents, and a couple of Aunts and Uncles. So I will be making some sort of 2 mix rectangle cake for them.

I am torn between making ....

• a tv screen (kind of a lot of black though...) with the logo for CSI on it .... a show which my daughter got hooked on, after Taylor Swift was a special guest, and she (my daughter, not TS, but who knows really? maybe her too) has been watching marathons whenever possible all summer long.
  
• a laundry basket, full of rumpled dirty fondant clothing, overflowing actually, with a sign saying "remember me? I'm your chores" (that's kinda mean, huh?)
  
• a cake that depicts the endless rain we have had this summer, with something like "sorrrrrry" and about 100 fondant beeeeeees. We have lots of beeeeeeees. Technically a farmer told me they are wasps. But they are yellow and black and look mean and they are very persistent. It is a plague around here.
  
• some sort of map representing our road trip... and "thanks for being good sports while Mom dragged you 1500 miles so she wouldn't dwell on unemployment." Maybe that should have a faux pitcher of lemonade on it, don't you think? Or a starbucks cup, and portable dvd player, for sure, because that's how we all survived that trip
  
• the good old Yankees logo... a little easy but they are both fans... I could actually do stacked hexagon tiers to spruce it up a little.... this one might be fun and actually viable for me, since I don't have Duff's staff... (google Ace of Cakes if you don't know who Duff is....)
  
• an image of the Wii Fit screen, (with Mr. C's Mii as well as mine sleeping, my daughter's doing yoga, and D's doing some snowboarding or that annoying soccer game where the shoes keep whacking me in the head.... )

Suggestions? votes?

Windows part 2

Here's the view from the WEST. Uh oh. Dark gray clouds. More rain. This will probably not allow me to finish watching What Would Brian Boitano Make on the Food network. He is hilarious and his delivery style is killing me. Another bummer.

Carly(via Blackberry)

Windows part 1

Here's the view to the EAST of my porch. Goegeous day, although the farmer's market was full of swarms of wasps searching everywhere for sugar. At least that's what one farmer told me... There's been too much rain, and there aren't enough flowers. The bread guy was literally sucking bees into a shop vac, over and over. (But then what??? I have no idea)

Carly(via Blackberry)

Today my daughter's friend came over so we needed something to do. Since I was cleaning out the cupboards (oh, my fascinating life) we got creative.

We found cake mix and made carrot cake cupcakes.... then I made frosting with confectioner's sugar, one stick of UNSALTED butter, two dunkin donuts plain cream cheese packages from the other day, and some lemon and vanilla. Yummy. And plenty of frosting left over.

Carly(via Blackberry)

Cookies

Cookies have become my comfort. No, not real cookies.

For as long as I can remember, at christmastime my mother has made cookies. Spritz and butter-walnut balls dipped in sugar, then meringue kisses and Finnish breads, each tiny "bread" carefully flattened with one finger, brushed with milk, and sprinkled with nonpareils. (Not too much milk, or the tiny nonpareil balls will dissolve into a sad tiny circle of color. ) There are chocolate chip cookies and her cornucopias --something like a pizzelle, with anise, and rolled to an ice cream shape...made one at a time in a 60 second dance...you can't even go in the kitchen. Pour batter, wrap the previous one on a wood cone, flip the iron, slide off the cone, .....repeat.

Triple-double batches of cutout shapes, decorated with various flavors of jimmies/ sprinkles. But not too many red hot balls on the christmas trees. Those are for the reindeer nose, and you know there is only one Rudolph so don't go crazy with that either. And don't use so many silver balls that you break someone's teeth. Just one as a star on top of a tree.

A good number of her recipes, like the cinnamon nut bars and the shortbreads, come from her Danish grandmother, so our family's recipes start with a pound of butter. I use unsalted butter and my friend once had a heated debate with me that I was WRONG to do that. But I gave a recipe for cutouts to another good friend and her husband made her call me because they just weren't the same. It was the butter.

The first year I was married Mr C. knew I was taking a day off in Christmas to make some cookies. He didn't expect 14 kinds stacked on the counter when he got home.
I have calmed down somewhat but still make at least 8 kinds, including Scotchies, with butterscotch and white chips, pecans, and a touch of scotch whiskey.

And did I mention, christmas is less than 4 months away?

At any rate, it's the cookies that get me through the night. I am NOT sitting in a dark family room, nibbling. I promise.

When I wake at four-something in the morning, I make cookies. I do this to stop myself from "thinking".... about jobsites and bills and the upcoming school year and....

Silently, on the movie screen of my mind, I start with butter. I unwrap the sticks, one at a time, and see them going into the bowl. I see her old wooden spoon stirring, incorporating the white sugar into a pale, fluffy yellow. We did NOT use a mixer. She still doesn't. Then the eggs. One, or maybe two. I watch them breaking, sliding into the bowl...and more stirring.

I usually don't get past the eggs. One of these days I may have to decide what kind of cookies I'm making, but that hasn't happened yet. I fade back into sleep.

Sweet, sweet dreams.





Carly(via Blackberry)

Fun times

#1.... my dentist determined today that two of my teeth hit imperfectly and as a result, one is rocking every time I bite anything. I felt very equine as he was inspecting my teeth and gums. Awesome. So I can let him file them down, or I can look forward to that top front tooth maybe falling out. We all have to make choices.

#2.... the search helicopters are circling the river near me again. This is never good. Since Rain is The New Normal around here I am guessing some boater got more than they bargained for. It's very sad.

The last time I heard choppers like this it was a search for an immigrant and his family was leaving things for him on the riverside hoping he'd find his way back. It broke my heart.

#3... I had an odd dream. My daughter had found my blog. She was not pleased. I am blaming JustPlainBeth for that dream since her son is reading her blog now. Darn kids.

#4... My son has grown 2.5" in the past year. We cannot keep the boy fed. My friend called him a tween the other day and I died. I realized he's not my little boy anymore.
Oddly, for the past month or so he has told me compulsively that he loves me, over and over, each night before going to bed. I walk out of his room after giving a hug, kiss, and saying 'I love you' and I am hearing "I love you mom, goodnight, I love you... Goodnight". He will keep going as long as we do, and so I just walk out, hoping he can't see me roll my eyes after the 4th or 5th replay. I am blessed. I am also tired.

#5.... The helicopter is now very low and circling a wooded area just up the hill from me. It's freaky. I'm going to go hide under my bed now....




Carly(via Blackberry)

Wonderful Batty Bats

A few days ago I went in to go to sleep. I opened up the windows because it wasn't RAINING and put a small fan near one, to pull in the cool air. I do have central a/c but it was one of those evenings that feels like autumn, and makes you want to hold on to summer as long as possible.

I conked out, but then I woke from a sound sleep when I heard a thwack against the screen. I don't think burglars flick the screen with their big meaty hands before they climb in and kill you. But in that moment I wasn't sure.
I decided it was probably a moth or something and that I should get a grip and go back to sleep.

Then I heard it again -- from the other bedroom window, five feet down the same wall. Hmmm. Two big meaty-handed burglars?

I got out of bed and tried to look out. By the dim light of the streetlight just past my house, I eventually figured out that a bat was swooping around outside my window, probably for dinner. Great. Was he trying to get IN my window, or just bumping it by mistake now and then?

I quickly looked into my crystal ball and saw ME, not Mr C, as the one who would be more coordinated and have to try to sweep that bat somewhere, somehow, if he got in my room at midnight. Maybe the problem is that I'm a control freak and would feel like I could do it better, and not want to stand by. I digress.

At any rate I shut the windows, and settled back in and was almost asleep when I thought of my daughter, with windows a few more feet down the same wall. Windows which she likes to open before bed, since they have a safety latch that won't let them open more than 2".

Sweeping a bat out of a screaming, and possibly PMS-y daughter's room sounded lile even LESS fun. So I went in and closed her windows, although frankly since she never heard me do that, I almost think a bat could curl up on her pillow and munch bugs and she might not notice under that eye mask.

This long rambling and fairly anticlimactic story has been brought to you because I woke up about 5 am and knew I was done sleeping peacefully. I crept out into the dark family room, where I have a recliner near one window. I opened the window and settled in to check a few things on my crackberry.

And then I heard the bat hit the screen.


Carly(via Blackberry)

Clue and the Office

Someone, please please pleaaaaaaaaaaaaase buy me this for my birthday? Thanks

( http://www.officetally.com/clue-the-office-edition?page=1&cp=1 )

Anyway....

Let's get that rant off the top of my blog page, shall we?

Here are some parts of our vacation I never got around to blogging...robots and huge train layouts and submarines and oh, the view of the Falls is always better from Canada.

I'll let you imagine most of the stories, but the fact that I got us over the border was a triumph. At one point my daughter was sobbing on my shoulder on a bench in a tiny park on the NY side, stomach churning because of taking tooooo much migrane medication, while Mr. Carly and D went wandering off for blocks looking for ice cream. She wanted desperately to go back to a hotel room that we had checked out of.

My triumphs so far today are small, but they are victories nevertheless:

• went to sleep before 11, woke at 2 am for only about 15 minutes, then slept until 6:30. I call that a BIG victory. I don't feel like my head is encased in cement today
  
• dinner is already made, in my brand new "it's only $16 at Target so I will buy it to make sauce like the Boyfriend does" crock pot. (Slow cooker, if you don't like the phrase "crock pot", which my daughter has some peculiar aversion to....). For the record, I am trying "chicken pot pie" today. I was cutting and browning chicken at 9 am and wondering how exactly a crockpot will save me time, since I was still spending 1/2 an hour prepping ingredients and cleaning up.
  
• I have fixed my thermostat.

No really, that needs much more rambling.

I have been fighting with said thermostat since the heat wave started. (detour here: IT"S SUMMER. IT'S FINALLY HOT AND SUNNY AND IT'S summer!!!!!) When we put the addition on our house last summer and switched to gas heat, we got a programmable thermostat. Which would be swell, I suppose, if (a) I actually worked out of the house 9 - 5 like "typical" people, and (b) didn't take aspirin every day and consequently bruise and somehow freeeeeeze all the time.

The thermostat is designed to save energy, by making the house less comfortable when you're not there and awake to "enjoy it". So the day is divided into random periods of morning(6-8), day(8-6), evening(6-10), and night, with a temperature set point for each.

The wizards that programmed Thermy decided that it's really ok to let the house get to 78* at night. Um, no... it's not THAT easy being green. Everyone in my family has a peculiar affectation for having a blanket on their bodies in the dead of summer, so 78 really doesn't work. Thermy is also convinced that I wouldn't mind having the house be 83* all day long. Again, not so much true since I am here at home.

There is also no way to bypass Thermy's evil intentions. Oh sure, I can temporarily move the set temp up or down.... until the next setpoint time starts. Then he goes right back to what he was doing before I asked him nicely to do something different. Just like a man. So that's annoying. The extended Hold doesn't seem to work either, even though I made SURE it's not set to "24 hours" but to indefinite. I am a computer geek. I have the manual. I read the manual. This thing doesn't do what they say it will do.

So today I went through and set EACH period to 74*. Dammit. Yes, for every day of the week. Buttons, buttons, buttons. So much fun.

I'm off to eat lunch and apply for a job I may or may not be qualified for, that sounds really fun.

Where Kelby got it wrong

This is ANOTHER person's blog post about that Kelly Clarkson cover that was retouched.

Scott Kelby, an industry expert on photoshop, wrote about all of the aspects of professipnal portrait photography (lighting, makeup, etc) on his Photoshop Insider blog. His point was that retouching is one step of many.

I was right with him until he dropped in the phrase "her battle with weight". Which is the real point .... She has said MANY times that she DOESN'T battle, and she likes herself no matter what number pops up on the scale.

Yet in this cover-model crazy country, that can't REALLY be true... Of COURSE we all want to look skimpy and perfect, right?

I am a size 14 now, and believe me when I tell you that it is not my # 1 priority to get back down to the 12 I have worn most of my adult life. It's not even priority #2, or 3 or 4.

(If you're keeping score, they are "get a job so I can sleep through the night, take care of my kids day in and day out, have fun with them, and get them ready for the upcoming transitional school year. ")

Do I want to be healthy? Yes. Is there at least one person who knows me IRL who will privately think that I SHOULD "want to" lose weight? Absolutely, and I could name names. Eff them.

Do I want to be skinny? Not really.
The reality for my frame is that I will NEVER be a size itty-bitty.

Do I want to be healthier so my doctor will stop kvetching at me? Yes.

Do I get hit on regularly by men who seem to really like the curves I have ? Hell yes. My last boyfriend absolutely made me feel beautiful no matter what numbers I was charting. He just wanted me to enjoy life, be healthy, and fool around with him as much as possible.

(Can we not mention that previous paragraph to Mr C? Okaythanks. )

Every day there are people in my life who tell me I'm beautiful right NOW, just as I am, crazy and funny and sentimental and everything else that makes me ME. And some of the people I love most in the universe are beautiful RIGHT NOW because they are funny and empathetic and supportive and sometimes deliciously snarky, and I don't give a shit what they weigh, just that they're still alive to be a part of my life.

The tossaway remark that Kelby makes, assuming all curvy women "battle" day in and day out, to be beautiful according to ONE, ironically "narrow" definition, well... It makes me crazy enough to post a long rant at almost 5 am.

Insomnia sucks.



Carly(via Blackberry)

I think I can, I think I can

It has been a horrible, rainy summer. But I might have tomatoes by my birthday.

If you're keeping score at home, my birthday is in November.

Pffffft.

Carly(via Blackberry)

A poem by Moi

There once was a girl named Carly

Grocery stores make her snarly

She watched this cute guy

With a gleam in her eye

then saw that his feet were gnarly

The sight of his feet
made our Carly so sick

She put down her list
so she could leave real quick

"Forget the milk and the bread

I'll just go home instead

-I hope he won't hear
my phone camera click"

Carly(via Blackberry)

The scene

To see the scene I was describing in my previous post, forward to about the 8 minute mark here since I can't seem to embed this...

It is Hope that moves us forward

Today I sang at the funeral for the Mother of one of my oldest friends.

I actually slept fairly well last night. I have become accustomed to waking about 4 am, to lie for at least an hour in the quiet darkness of the house and worry. My weight/health, the state of the various relationships and people in my life, my kid who is anxious about starting high school... oh, and that job thing. Money and bills and where will I work and when might that be and will I be a manager or not and will they like me and what I will I wear...good old fashioned fretting of all sorts, large and small.

My friend called the other day, to tell me herself so that I wouldn't see it in the paper, and said that she was going to put me to work. I realized that she meant, to sing at the funeral. So last night I called Stanley, and asked him what the family had arranged for him to sing.

And then I slept. Someone close to me wished a restful night for me, and I received it.

While we waited for the family to arrive at the church this morning, Stanley and I spoke softly. He estimated that he has, in the last 19 years, played for 2200 funerals.

He told me that as he grows older, he wonders what will happen when he dies. I told him about the curtain call scene at the end of the movie, Titanic. The entire cast is in the grand staircase, which is fully restored under the glass dome, and everyone is joyful as Leonardo and Kate enter, reunited. I said that I thought that would be what it was like, for him. They will all be there to greet him.

Of course, then I told him it had better not be any time soon.

Stanley knows my voice, and knows when to nudge me forward, and when to drop the organ down so that it transposes to fit my range. With him, I can sing. There are times when I sing and what I hear isn't how I want it to sound, and I was so happy that today was NOT one of those days. It sounded nice. I sang entire solos whenever he nodded his head at me, and my voice didn't crack, or vanish on the high notes. It was clear. It was everything I wanted it to be, to comfort L. and her sisters.

L. hugged me outside of the church, and told me how much it had meant to her. "It was my gift to you" I replied. I forgot to buy a mass card, but I could sing for her.

Rest in peace, Dorothy...

More fun at the zoo

Tiger close up
Originally uploaded by carlyq80

I have tried a couple of times to upload photos directly into Blogger, because that's what I'm in the mood to do right now, and it won't have it.

So about 15 of my other zoo pictures are on my flickr feed ... please go and take a look... and OKAY INTERNET, I WILL GO OUTSIDE AND WALK IN THE SUNSHINE NOW..... if I must...

Arriving at the zoo (Road trip, day 3)

We went to the Pittsburgh Zoo. The funny thing is, S and the Boyfriend have each wandered past there, for reasons somewhere between "lost" and "in search of an easier commute home". But she waited for us to roll on into town before going and paying admission ... in other words, this time we went ON PURPOSE.

We barely got out of the car, and I noticed this little darling next to the brake light on her Jeep. Oy vey. I have never SEEN a bug like this before, and I did not get as close as it might seem from this photo, for fear that he might lift off, with those impossibly thin wings, and somehow carry me away and drop me over the tiger cage.

Seriously, WTF is that? (The Boyfriend said it's a locust. But still, WTF is that???)

I have easily 200 photos of zoo animals, and some of them are actually good, but for now I need to go rewrite my resume (I want to make a second version and change it from chronological order to skills, then work history, then volunteering..... just for some of the jobs that I plan to apply for, that are a little bit of a stretch from the formal job duties I've had in the past.)

It's August, and August is hanging over me saying "get a job. Get a job get a job." Booooo.

Wii?

Or nay...

It would appear that our little Mii's missed us while we were on our road trip. As you can see, we have not worked out in over a week and they are bored with us and SLEEPING.

Can't wait to see my fitness test graph.

Carly(via Blackberry)

Nightlife (Road trip day 2)

IMG_0700
Originally uploaded by carlyq80

On our second day in Pittsburgh we took it easy since we were still shot from the drive the day before. The Boyfriend made pancakes with fruit in them... yummy.

We introduced my daughter to the world of Sephora. Cha ching! We also took the kids to Fat Head's and they both loved it.

This photo was taken later that evening, high on a hillside overlooking the southern edge of the city. We were right near a beautiful church, and you can see two shots of that in my Flickr feed.

I love using a digital camera, because you can take a few shots and change the settings around to try to get what you're after. I didn't have my tripod, but I used a manual mode to set the shutter to be open for a few seconds - I also used the self timer feature so that I could avoid capturing any shaking of the camera that might come from hitting the shutter button. So even though I was holding the camera, I braced myself on a railing post and held it as still as possible while the shutter was actually open.

I had some success... I ended up using a film speed of 800 to capture this shot, which has the least blur. The shutter speed was 4/10 of a second, which is fairly long to hold a camera still without a tripod. I did try one at 200 ISO and 2.5 seconds, and it's just a bit too blurry for my liking, but would have been acceptable if it were my only shot.

:::saving my coins for a "real" camera and a nice tripod..... :::::::

Road trip day 1

The day I threw the kids in the car and left for our road trip started out bumpy. We went straight to Dunkin' Donuts so I could begin to apply my strategy of keeping them happy via regular adminstration of junk food, and two things happened. Keep in mind I hadn't even hit the highway yet.


One child began quietly crying because we weren't going to see Mr. Carly for a week. The other child, when casually asked "Do you have any money?" admitted to bringing ALL of the recently received graduation gift money along. Um... time to go to the ATM to deposit most of THAT.


Sirius has a spy camera aimed at me, because "Turn the Car Around" started playing. Oy. It was already 8 am when I was at the ATM, an hour past my threat of "I'm throwing you in the car, ready or not, and we're leaving."

***

For the next seven hours it went something like this:

1. Drive.
2. Potty break.
3. Put a new movie in the portable DVD player. (thank you, Express, for loaning it to me).

Rinse, repeat.


We managed not to tour EVERY rest stop on the NYS thruway. But we didn't get to Erie and Quaker Steak & whatever until almost 3 pm, and that had been my target place for LUNCH, SO WE WERE GNAWING ON THE MENUS.



At Erie you turn "south" and keep going for a couple of hours, to Pittsburgh. Drive. Potty... you get the idea.

***

We got to Pittsburgh somewhere around 6pm, not bad all things considering. The Boyfriend had cooked BBQ pulled chicken for us. Delicious. We walked around the neighborhood near their apartment and enjoyed not sitting in a car.


Then we went to Oh Yeah for icecream...




Amazing. I had peaches and grahamcrackers since the peach cobbler (that day's ice cream special) was all gone. The Boyfriend had something with Baklava, and maybe orange zest? I can't remember. Everyone loved their stuff. No one had bacon.

We could hear the concert starting - the Gin Blossoms were performing a few blocks away, on Walnut Street. We walked over to check it out. I got fairly close, but not close enough to take a photo, because my kids were not enjoying being the shortest people in a dense crowd. But I heard a couple of my favorite songs and then we headed back to the apartment for some SLEEEEEEP.

Mia porcha

I have driven 1400 miles in the past 10 days. I found my way. I rocked it. I knew where I was at all times (I heart blackberry gps plus google maps ). I adapted as needed, changed plans when required and enjoyed myself immensely.

I am drinking cheap white wine...out on my porch. Not even BOX wine, it's sold in INDIVIDUAL bottled servings. Sad. But I am happy to be back on my porch... at home. Even in the rain. Well, maybe LESS RAIN would be awesome.

I saw tigers and submarines and waterfalls... ate cupcakes and steaks, and there were wines... I need to do laundry and pull the best photos so as to not bore you, internet...

I promise...more soon... I am so tired.

Your road trip girl,
~C

Carly(via Blackberry)