Just got back Saturday evening after spending a little over a week in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Actually, I’ll take everyone’s word for it that it’s beautiful, because I didn’t see much of nature due to spending most of our time in the city. However, I did manage to catch a glimpse of Mt. Ranier after accidentally driving in the wrong direction away from the Arboretum (which is where we were headed). I told my husband, “I think you were meant to do that so we could see the mountain. We definitely wouldn’t have seen it from the other direction.” We also saw it, and its sisters as we flew over them on our way out of Seattle.
Anyway, it was back to good ‘ole Home Sweet Home. As usual, it was bittersweet. Although I very much enjoyed my one week holiday, part of me was definitely ready to come home. The other part of me (the adventure loving/shopaholic/shutterbug side) hated coming home to Hilliard, which isn’t exactly known for its plethora of culture or nightlife. For that, we usually go downtown to some place like Short North which has a gallery hop every month and no shortage of quirky shops and galleries to browse away the afternoon.
As a sort of “Material Girl,” one of the best things about being home is being surrounded by ‘my things’ again. Of course it’s also nice to get away from all that baggage and live a minimalist life out of a suitcase for a little while. I am always envious of people in movies and on television who can pack up all their life’s possessions in just one or two suitcases and be done with it. My book collection alone would take up more than that! I am slowly trying to “lighten my load” of possessions, but find it difficult not to acquire more. Thankfully my husband tolerates me and my collections.
Another reason I am glad to be home is more control over the menu. Although I very much like eating out and getting out of the kitchen, I found myself craving simple comfort food after just a couple days, and often dreaded deciding where we were going to eat dinner. The best meal we had was brunch on the Space Needle. I’m not just saying that because it was our most expensive meal. It really did taste outstanding.
The worst meal I had was at a Chinese restaurant where every type of food had its own page, so there was certainly no lack of selection. I just chose wrong and ended up with a plate full of mushrooms, celery, water chestnuts, and just a small amount of chicken and tiny pieces of peanuts. It was very bland and I just ended up picking out the chicken and leaving the rest, which is something I don’t normally do, but was a little fed up with my selection.
Probably the biggest reason I was glad to be home was to see our kitty again! Poor little Tamsin was at the kennel all week probably pining for us every day. We certainly thought about her quite a lot – especially after meeting the “Cat Whisperer” at the Pike Market in Seattle. He had two cats sitting on a little platform of sorts. Of course, being cats, neither really wanted to stay very still, so he took turns carrying them over his shoulder, much like a mother does with her baby. One of the cats was a tabby, like our very own precious “baby,” while the other was one of those 6-toed cats like Hemingway used to have. I made a small donation and he let me take photos to my heart’s content.
Now I just have all that unpacking to do…
Monday, August 24, 2009
Friday, August 7, 2009
the death of John Hughes….
Anyone who grew up in the 70’s and 80’s should be familiar with the work of John Hughes. If not, he’s the creative mind behind such great classic 80’s movies as the National Lampoon “Vacation” series, the “Home Alone” series, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “Planes, Trains, & Automobiles.” I only mention these few because they’re some of my favorites and I can quote from most of them.
Although you can’t really compare them to Academy award winners like “Sound of Music” or “Gone with the Wind,” I think his movies will still hold a timeless classic appeal for future generations.
If nothing else, the “Vacation” movies can perhaps make you feel better about your own family. Having been to London multiple times and driven through roundabouts where I live now on a daily basis, I would be remiss not to quote, “Look kids, Parliament, Big Ben!”
The “Home Alone” movies are great because every kid has probably had that fantasy at one time or another of what they would do if left to their own devices. I admit to sometimes having that fantasy myself on nights my husband is out (except I still can’t bring myself to eat a half a gallon of ice cream in one sitting) : ). I also really like that they’re sentimental too.
“Planes, Trains, & Automobiles,” though not my favorite by a long stretch, will always be memorable because my hometown was almost in the movie. Apparently they were scouting locations in the Midwest looking for places that had a little snow on the ground. If my memory serves, it must have been sometime between September and November because I think it was the middle of football season. My friend and I wandered into town either during or just after our local middle school football game. We saw that they had closed off “Main Street” and were filming a car driving back and forth down the street. Actually, I don’t think the car was actually being “driven” as much as it was being pulled down the street by a device with a camera rigged up in front of it. Although I can’t remember the name of the car off the top of my head, I do recall the tacky adult-oriented décor inside. It might have even had a fur interior, though I can’t substantiate that. Not surprisingly, I think most of that scene ended up on the cutting room floor.
“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” will always be my favorite, even as an adult, because who doesn’t like to play hooky once in awhile? (though I’ve never had the nerve to fake an illness). Plus, Chicago is a great city in which to play hooky. I can’t imagine taking off in a fancy car and going to Cleveland while I was in high school. Almost none of the attractions that are there now existed back then. I think our only options would have been the zoo, a handful of museums (none on par with the ones in Chicago), and the old Galleria shopping center (and Higbee’s too).
John Hughes, may you rest in peace.
Although you can’t really compare them to Academy award winners like “Sound of Music” or “Gone with the Wind,” I think his movies will still hold a timeless classic appeal for future generations.
If nothing else, the “Vacation” movies can perhaps make you feel better about your own family. Having been to London multiple times and driven through roundabouts where I live now on a daily basis, I would be remiss not to quote, “Look kids, Parliament, Big Ben!”
The “Home Alone” movies are great because every kid has probably had that fantasy at one time or another of what they would do if left to their own devices. I admit to sometimes having that fantasy myself on nights my husband is out (except I still can’t bring myself to eat a half a gallon of ice cream in one sitting) : ). I also really like that they’re sentimental too.
“Planes, Trains, & Automobiles,” though not my favorite by a long stretch, will always be memorable because my hometown was almost in the movie. Apparently they were scouting locations in the Midwest looking for places that had a little snow on the ground. If my memory serves, it must have been sometime between September and November because I think it was the middle of football season. My friend and I wandered into town either during or just after our local middle school football game. We saw that they had closed off “Main Street” and were filming a car driving back and forth down the street. Actually, I don’t think the car was actually being “driven” as much as it was being pulled down the street by a device with a camera rigged up in front of it. Although I can’t remember the name of the car off the top of my head, I do recall the tacky adult-oriented décor inside. It might have even had a fur interior, though I can’t substantiate that. Not surprisingly, I think most of that scene ended up on the cutting room floor.
“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” will always be my favorite, even as an adult, because who doesn’t like to play hooky once in awhile? (though I’ve never had the nerve to fake an illness). Plus, Chicago is a great city in which to play hooky. I can’t imagine taking off in a fancy car and going to Cleveland while I was in high school. Almost none of the attractions that are there now existed back then. I think our only options would have been the zoo, a handful of museums (none on par with the ones in Chicago), and the old Galleria shopping center (and Higbee’s too).
John Hughes, may you rest in peace.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Sick of Sticky Adhesives….
I think it was probably someone in the adhesive manufacturing business that invented the term “acid free” in order to put all those magnetic page photo album companies out of business.
Like most people probably, I had never heard the term “acid free” until about fifteen years or so ago. It wasn’t until I took my first scrapbooking class sometime in the mid 90’s that I was fully versed in the pitfalls of using non acid free products. The instructor warned us that those magnetic pages would eventually yellow slowly destroying both the page and everything on it. I didn’t believe her at the time, but looking back through old albums today, she definitely knew what she was talking about.
As a result, I no longer buy those, and they’re becoming slightly harder to find. Now you either go the slip in route (pages with pre-sized sleeves where you slide in your photo to store it) or get really creative and do “scrapbooking.”
I do a little of each depending on how much time and creative impulse I have. Sometimes I even manage to combine the two by adding a sticker or other embellishment to the slip in albums.
Whenever I do scrapbooking, I can’t help but wonder how many hours would be saved if I could simply just lay out everything on the page and then pull the clear sheet over it and go on to the next page. Yes, you can buy clear sticky sheets to lay over your pages, but unless you’ve somewhat secured everything down, static cling will sometimes cause the various elements to be pulled on to the sticky sheet thus disrupting your whole page arrangement.
I know adhesive manufacturers are trying to do everything in their power to make this process easier from manufacturing glue dots, to small sticky squares to spray-on adhesive. However, at the end of the day, it’s still more expensive and time consuming to have to glue down every element of your creative scrapbooking pages. This is what takes all the fun out of it for me. I shudder to think how much I have spent on these various adhesives, never buying enough and running out halfway through a project. No, I’m not ready to resort to ‘digital scrapbooking yet,’ but will continue on my quest to find a cheaper and more effective product to help facilitate this niggling little detail of scrapbooking.
Like most people probably, I had never heard the term “acid free” until about fifteen years or so ago. It wasn’t until I took my first scrapbooking class sometime in the mid 90’s that I was fully versed in the pitfalls of using non acid free products. The instructor warned us that those magnetic pages would eventually yellow slowly destroying both the page and everything on it. I didn’t believe her at the time, but looking back through old albums today, she definitely knew what she was talking about.
As a result, I no longer buy those, and they’re becoming slightly harder to find. Now you either go the slip in route (pages with pre-sized sleeves where you slide in your photo to store it) or get really creative and do “scrapbooking.”
I do a little of each depending on how much time and creative impulse I have. Sometimes I even manage to combine the two by adding a sticker or other embellishment to the slip in albums.
Whenever I do scrapbooking, I can’t help but wonder how many hours would be saved if I could simply just lay out everything on the page and then pull the clear sheet over it and go on to the next page. Yes, you can buy clear sticky sheets to lay over your pages, but unless you’ve somewhat secured everything down, static cling will sometimes cause the various elements to be pulled on to the sticky sheet thus disrupting your whole page arrangement.
I know adhesive manufacturers are trying to do everything in their power to make this process easier from manufacturing glue dots, to small sticky squares to spray-on adhesive. However, at the end of the day, it’s still more expensive and time consuming to have to glue down every element of your creative scrapbooking pages. This is what takes all the fun out of it for me. I shudder to think how much I have spent on these various adhesives, never buying enough and running out halfway through a project. No, I’m not ready to resort to ‘digital scrapbooking yet,’ but will continue on my quest to find a cheaper and more effective product to help facilitate this niggling little detail of scrapbooking.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
My Solar Eclipse Experience...
Having read about the solar eclipse in Asia (best observed in India apparently) yesterday (7/22), reminded me of my own experience witnessing not one, but two solar eclipses in the last century.
The first one was while I was in my last year (as a student) at Kent State University (1993-1994). However, unlike the eclipse yesterday, all we witnessed was an annular eclipse. According to Wikipedia, “An annular eclipse occurs when the Sun and Moon are exactly in line, but the apparent size of the Moon is smaller than that of the Sun. Hence the Sun appears as a very bright ring, or annulus, surrounding the outline of the Moon.”
I remember a large shadow being cast over the campus as if a rather large cloud was overhead, and felt a slight shiver. Still, an interesting first experience observing a solar eclipse.
I was lucky enough to be living in Europe (Great Britain) in 1999 which was directly in the path of the century’s last total eclipse. Although we could have traveled to Cornwall, which was reckoned to be the best place to view it in England, I read about a coach trip to France where the viewing was supposed to be equally good. Having never been to France before, that won hands down.
Our group traveled to the city of Rouen, the capital of Upper Normandy, and best known as the location where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. Although the day started out as rather promising (sunny with a gentle breeze), clouds eventually started rolling in and somewhat obscured the sun during the eclipse. However, we all still took necessary precautions and tried not to stare directly at the sun. Even though we couldn’t see the eclipse as much as we would have liked, we still witnessed the effect of a total solar eclipse.
The square where we were standing gradually plunged into darkness, causing the street lights to come on mid-afternoon. There was an eery silence as all the birds fled to their nocturnal shelter. I’m sure they were completely confused! I just remember being in awe of this spectacle of nature and being so grateful to be sharing it with my husband nearly a year after we were married.
To view more of my eclipse pictures, click on the link here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/authorwannabe/sets/72157621660626787/
The first one was while I was in my last year (as a student) at Kent State University (1993-1994). However, unlike the eclipse yesterday, all we witnessed was an annular eclipse. According to Wikipedia, “An annular eclipse occurs when the Sun and Moon are exactly in line, but the apparent size of the Moon is smaller than that of the Sun. Hence the Sun appears as a very bright ring, or annulus, surrounding the outline of the Moon.”
I remember a large shadow being cast over the campus as if a rather large cloud was overhead, and felt a slight shiver. Still, an interesting first experience observing a solar eclipse.
I was lucky enough to be living in Europe (Great Britain) in 1999 which was directly in the path of the century’s last total eclipse. Although we could have traveled to Cornwall, which was reckoned to be the best place to view it in England, I read about a coach trip to France where the viewing was supposed to be equally good. Having never been to France before, that won hands down.
Our group traveled to the city of Rouen, the capital of Upper Normandy, and best known as the location where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. Although the day started out as rather promising (sunny with a gentle breeze), clouds eventually started rolling in and somewhat obscured the sun during the eclipse. However, we all still took necessary precautions and tried not to stare directly at the sun. Even though we couldn’t see the eclipse as much as we would have liked, we still witnessed the effect of a total solar eclipse.
The square where we were standing gradually plunged into darkness, causing the street lights to come on mid-afternoon. There was an eery silence as all the birds fled to their nocturnal shelter. I’m sure they were completely confused! I just remember being in awe of this spectacle of nature and being so grateful to be sharing it with my husband nearly a year after we were married.
To view more of my eclipse pictures, click on the link here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/authorwannabe/sets/72157621660626787/
Monday, July 20, 2009
What a momentous month...
What a momentous month it’s been filled with so many history-making news stories.
First there was Michael Jackson’s very public memorial service watched by millions and attended by thousands on July 7. Now it just remains to be seen whether the Neverland Ranch will be turned into a museum like Graceland.
Although somewhat less publicized, July 16 was the tenth anniversary of the death of John F. Kennedy Jr. whom many remember from the poignant photo of him at nearly 3 years old saluting his father’s casket.
A day later came the death of legendary News Anchor Walter Cronkite (age 92) on July 17. “The most trusted man in America” ‘set the standard by which all others are judged.’
Today (7/20) is the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landings. It’s only too bad NASA didn’t have the foresight to keep the original broadcast recordings. Fortunately others did have the good sense to record the moment for posterity – digitally re-mastered and coming soon to DVD!
First there was Michael Jackson’s very public memorial service watched by millions and attended by thousands on July 7. Now it just remains to be seen whether the Neverland Ranch will be turned into a museum like Graceland.
Although somewhat less publicized, July 16 was the tenth anniversary of the death of John F. Kennedy Jr. whom many remember from the poignant photo of him at nearly 3 years old saluting his father’s casket.
A day later came the death of legendary News Anchor Walter Cronkite (age 92) on July 17. “The most trusted man in America” ‘set the standard by which all others are judged.’
Today (7/20) is the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landings. It’s only too bad NASA didn’t have the foresight to keep the original broadcast recordings. Fortunately others did have the good sense to record the moment for posterity – digitally re-mastered and coming soon to DVD!
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