duck feet! =)

duck feet! =)

I know taking pictures of ducks isn't that hard...because well they're not scared of you. I still thought it was fun, and what can I say, I love their bright orange feet! I don't think they loved me though--they were pretty disgruntled with me when they realized that I had no food for them.

fence and sky

fence and sky

These are all picture from this afternoon. I got inspired and went out with my camera (maybe finally getting over that whole burned-out-on-photography thing!). The weather was looking a little iffy (leave it to me to get inspired when there's a winter weather advisory), but the clouds looked pretty neat, and the light was diffused (ah my favorite type of lighting). Anyway...the weather held out for me, and so I had an awesome afternoon doing one of my favorite things ever ;)

prairie grass (altered)

prairie grass (altered in photoshop)

This one and the one below it looked okay after I got them uploaded on the computer, but then I started playing around with them in photoshop, and now I think they look great...so not really photographs anymore..digital images, I guess. On this one, I changed the hue, upped the color saturation, and made the whole image darker.

more prairie grass (altered)

more prairie grass (altered)

This one I wanted in black and white, but once I removed the color from the picture it was really gray...so I went into "brightness/contrast," made the picture darker, and increased the contrast. Another digital image.

I finished the scarf!!

Blue models my newly finished Irish Hiking Scarf--my first knitted scarf AND my first project with cables (which I LOVE now...they look so sharp and aren't hard at all!) Should be mailing it off to Kentucky tomorrow morning and hoping that there's a little cold winter weather left over there. I got the pattern from...

http://www.helloyarn.com/irishhikingscarfpf.htm

I actually decided to do this project because the directions made so much sense and once I read it/figured out how to do the cables I stayed up until 2 a.m. just practicing...I was so excited. For the scarf, I used a a little more than one skein of Red Heart Supersaver Yarn. I used size 10 needles instead of size 8 and made it 65 inches instead of 55.. Now, I just have to get it in the mail quick before I decide to keep it for myself ;)

going on up

Feeling much better today...have been quite the busy bee this morning with clean laundry, clean dishes, and another resume all ready to send out! I also found a great blog about job hunting (I don't know anything about the services the Bold Career website is selling, just appreciated several of the posts)...

Bold Career Blog

Feeling better about the job search too...and hoping I hear back about some of the resumes I've just sent out (fingers crossed)

ugh

yeah I'm cranky tonight...and I was doing so well today...but then I came home, got hungry, figured out that the chicken I'd put out to thaw was all freezer burned (grrrr), had a good dinner anyway (of something else that wasn't freezer burned) and had some more girl scout cookies...I got two half boxes on Saturday and now, I'm two cookies away from them being all gone(!!!)...ugh

Yay! My Dad's coming to visit!

He's on the road right now...and luckily, he lives about 12 hours away so I still have time to clear all the Girl Scout and knitting junk off the spare bed, and clean up the kitchen...

I broke my garbage disposal today...=/ or at least is stopped working. I need to call my landlord to let them know but I'm afraid it's so obviously my fault that they'll just think I'm the most stupid person ever...so yeah I probably have put things down the disposal I shouldn't have...it stopped today when I put two lemon slices down there (to make it smell better)...but since they didn't get torn up at all...I think it may have been little bits of those grapevine wreaths I soaked and took apart for the dreamcatcher workshops (I thought I got most of those little pieces...sigh)

Father Daughter Tea

I was sitting on my couch watching "Little Bill" (I only get CBS with my antenna and Little Bill is by far my favorite Saturday morning cartoon, better than Dora and Blue's Clues combined) and reading when I remembered I had to be at the Girl Scout thing to help at 11..luckily I was having one of those days where my hair doesn't look totally crazy when I wake up, so I just got dressed and left...When I got to the Firemen's Hall, there were more boxes of every type of baking mix you can imagine sitting on the counter...wow these Girl Scout Moms are serious (and I'm feeling a little inadequate about the one sleepover--as in we've only had one event outside of meetings all year--I had for the Junior Girl Scouts )

Anyway I started making brownies with help from the sweetest little girl who had to stand on a chair to be able to reach the counter...we made two different batches...and I managed to keep myself from liking the bowl (both times!!!)...it was so nice though, bustling around the kitchen with moms and kids and dads stopping in to make sure they had everything they needed...for awhile I actually felt like I was a part of something, connected...I'm not sure I can explain it without sounding cheesy...but I'll just say it was warm-and-fuzzy and leave it at that ;) I even got to use an electric cookie press to form spritz cookies, and that was just about the coolest thing

I have to say, I love seeing kids with their dads...it reminds me of my Dad, and I just think dads with their daughters are extra cute...it was so funny, we all sat down to "tea" which was actually punch and a massive amount of baked goods...and it was sooo quiet...one dad finally spoke up "well, you can tell it's a group of men. No one's talking" but they warmed up a little when they started talking about the weather and how sugared up their kids were getting. I sat next to my little helper and she was convinced the brownies she was eating were the ones we made together. "They're really chocolate-y so they must be ours" I agreed that if they tasted good that we made them, and if they didnt...well, then someone else must have (or it could've been the batch where I read the high altitude directions AFTER putting in all the ingredients and it called for extra flour, okay, and different amounts of water and vegetable oil, oops...oh well, didn't see anyone gagging on/spitting out brownies)

I managed to make it home without a plate of cookies/cupcakes/brownies...that seemed like the best thing at the time. I was already all sugared up and didn't think I needed to take more home...but right now, I REALLY wish I had a cupcake and a big glass of milk...mmm

Something else...

Yeah so I'm even sick of hearing myself talk about leaving Wyoming...so I'm going to leave that one alone for awhile ;)

Anyway, today was awesome. I led a dreamcatcher workshop this afternoon, which meant this morning I got up and spent two hours deconstructing two grapevine wreaths (and turning them into about 28 grapevine rings to make dreamcatchers with). I was just so glad that the wreaths came apart and worked so well. My kitchen is still a mess from the whole process but I'll clean it up...someday.

The workshop went well...just 5 kids..which is down from what we normally have but I also didn't get the flyers out until Monday. A small group worked out well anyway since I didn't find any volunteers to help me lead this one...the kids mostly grasped the directions and their dreamcatchers were so beautiful...just incredible...makes me think next time I make one I should throw out the directions =)

It was beautiful here today (64 DEGREES!! according to the temp. at the bank)...even broke out the capris...that was exciting since I've been wanting to wear them for months =) and I checked out a stack of books from the library AND I have knitting tonight (yay!) which means I should go find something for dinner...

Why I'm leaving Saratoga

I've gotten asked about this several times (which makes me think that the people doing the asking haven't really considered what it'd be like to live in rural Wyoming without a family and without any family members within 800 miles) but anyway...

It turns out that I fell in love with Appalachia without knowing it. I had going Out West so stuck in my head that I didn't realize how much I loved where I was, or maybe it just took me coming out here to figure it out.

I miss driving down 664 between Logan and Lancaster. I miss all the crazy festivals they have in South-Eastern Ohio. I miss the way fog collects in the valleys in West Virginia, so you can just see the tops of the mountains, black against the evening sky. I miss Kentucky, Ale-8, the Red, white churches with steeples along every highway, West Virginia, the New, and the Monongahela Wilderness (but not enough to check to make sure I'm spelling it right). I was so afraid I'd come to Wyoming and never want to leave...and here I am, in the Rockies, 6,700-some feet about sea-level, and all I want to do is go back.

Listening

Listen to the Mustn'ts, child
Listen to the Don'ts
Listen to the Shouldn'ts, the Impossibles, the Won'ts
Listen to the Never Haves, then
Listen close to me:

Anything can happen, child
Anything can be.
-Shel Silverstein

It's just that friendly

John and me in the Cinncinnati Airport

I LOVE Lexington!! =) After the craziness of flying, meeting John, and driving away from icky Cinncinnati as fast as we could, Lexington just seemed like the best place on Earth...college town, old houses, places to eat, places to shop, delivery pizza, smile-y sunshine license plates, people my own age (who understand the importance of college basketball!), trees, green grass, plants that were already growing, rainy weather (who'd have guessed I'd miss that) and John (yay!!!!)

It was a great weekend with lots and lots of laziness...I could blame that on John being sick but really, I'm just kind of a lazy bum ;) but we did go out to Q'doba...which, if anyone is wondering, is much better than Chipotle ;) and we went to Pazzo's, which was excellent, walked around UK, looked for a UK tshirt for me (but in my infinite pickyness I never did find one), watched tv, hung out with John's roommates, and just had a fun time...it was so hard to leave.

Oh, and I didn't get the scarf finished...I did take it with me and was brave enough to knt in front of John's roommates (and only got made fun of a little...but it was ok...if I can dish it out I better be able to take it) but I didn't get that far on it. Frantic knitting doesn't work that well...so I'm going to take my time from here on out...and probably get it finished here in the next couple weeks.

Another crazy night...

I stayed up until 3...knitting! Wild times, huh? =) Actually my dinner turned out so incredibly awesome that I decided I needed dessert. Went to the store (before 8 because that's when it closes) and bought brownies, made them, and ate some even though I can't seem to get brownies right at altitude (move to the mountains and your baking skills go totally out the window...its a drag). I was wired up from the chocolate and decided that I wanted to get a foot of John's scarf finished before I went to sleep...yeah, didn't get quite that far...but I still got up at 9 this morning and I've already been knitting up a storm...I'm trying to get it finished before I leave for Kentucky this weekend, which means I have 40-some inches to go.Wish me luck and hope that my fingers can hold out ;)

Happy...

Things I love about today...my Valentines Day Card, the scarf I'm going to start making as soon as I get off the computer, the awesome oatmeal I made for breakfast this morning, the email card from Heather, trying a new recipe for dinner (raspberry pork chops--keep your fingers crossed), sending off another resume, finding two more jobs to apply for, having no kids show up for reading patch club so it turned into my own personal do-crafts-with-construction-paper-club, having doors held open for me twice, the adorable little boy at the Dollar Store/Craft Store, and finally shelling out the cash for voice mail...so now I can be online (dial-up) all day long without feeling one bit guilty ;)

Winter Carnival

Snowmobile Race, Winter Carnival

Last weekend, I volunteered to help with the Winter Carnival. So I got up in the morning and spent about 4 hours standing in the snow timing cross country skiers, and then 4 1/2 hours in a little wooden shack, selling tickets to the snowmobile races (which are loud and look really dangerous) but I did get some pictures that I liked. Here's one of my favorites.

me too! me too!

"My life has been an unending field trip. And I have tried not to be a tourist. But to be an adventurer, a traveler, an explorer, and a pilgrim." - Robert Fulghum from Maybe, Maybe Not

Yep, I've got a blog now too...just couldn't resist the temptation of letting the WHOLE WORLD (ok, maybe just a little part of the world) know what's going on with me. So what is going on with me? Well, today I'm planning on going to the library, picking up a book about writing cover letters (so I can stop writing ones that are super perky and cheesy), and papering Lexington, Ky with as many resumes and cover letters as I can in hopes that someone will take mercy on the soul of a poor English major and actually call her for an interview.

Why Lexington? It's an hour from the Red River Gorge (if I can remember how to climb after a year off, luckily backpacking is just walking so I should be able to handle that). I miss green things like trees, grass, plants...(most of Wyoming has more of a yellow brown cast, all year round) and I miss civilization....don't get me wrong, there are some really nice things about living in a town of 1,726 people...I know about half the town by now, I can walk everywhere, there's no traffic, the mountains are really beautiful, and I've done things I never would've in Ohio or Kansas (went to my first rodeo, helped at an ice fishing derby and a cross country ski race, learned to knit socks, went snowshoeing). It is a really nice place to live, really it is, but I'm glad its not permanent...and I mean no offense to all the wyomingites when I say.....4 MONTHS AND 18 DAYS!!