Day 52

This is the stained glass panel above the front door at Benjamin's school. On the way back from my run around the block during the Scout meeting, I noticed how the light from inside glowed through the window. I may or may not have made the boy wait after the meeting while I set up the tripod and got this shot...

Day 51

The Christmas display at Target. "We all know that Christmas is a big commercial racket. It's run by a big eastern syndicate, you know. "

Day 50

A win this afternoon and a visit with the Stanley Cup put these guys in a pretty good mood. The Dallas Stars helped out by winning their game 4-3 in overtime, too.

Day 49

The team split their games today, losing a rough one in the morning, but rallying to beat the team from Mexico in the late game. Yes, for people who have a hard time imagining hockey in Texas, wrap your head around hockey in Mexico! And, they were pretty good, actually.

Day 48

Before the start of the Turkey Trot 10K. This is the fourth or fifth year I've run this race - I always find it a great way to start the day to recognize how lucky I am to be healthy enough to toe the line and run 6 miles just because I can. Happy Thanksgiving!

Day 47

Ready for dinner.  We'll have an empty seat at the table tomorrow afternoon, but she'll be there just the same.  Wishing everyone a peaceful and happy Thanksgiving.

Day 46

This was an oil painting of the Tower and Littlefield Fountain we found that was intended to go over the mantel at The House That Was Not To Be. But I love it so much I put it in the hallway off the breakfast area, so I walk by it about 100 times a day. Hook 'em!

Day 45

You can't imagine how hard it is to get two cats to look at the camera simultaneously, especially at dinner time. Their eyes are kinda creeping me out, but their expressions otherwise are hilarious.

Day 44

Had a chance to spend a few minutes at the playground this afternoon; had I known this, I would have brought the good camera. That'll learn me to leave it behind.

Day 43

 

Clouds looked spooky today, even though the moon was just a little slivery thing. Snapped this on the way out of my in-law's house; I like the creepy touch of the bare branches in the top corner, too.

Day 42

 

Scout meeting tonight featured a member of a local model airplane club. He brought in several rubber-band airplanes that he flew around the school gym, and a few others that are designed for outdoor flying. Needless to say, the kids were enthralled (as were most of the parents, actually, too!). If the balsa stock at the South Arlington Hobby Lobby runs low, you know why!

Day 41

This is the last of my roses on the east side of the house. Between a fungus last spring and two years of neglect, I didn't think they'd ever recover enough to actually bloom again, so I'm grateful for any I get. I played with the focus and glow in Picasa somewhat, too, so it doesn't look as sad and beat up as it actually is.

Day 40

The mums in the front flowerbed bloomed a few days ago - there were stubbornly resisting flowering until it was truly fall around here. I'm not thrilled with this photo since I was losing light and had to have a really long exposure to get anything worthwhile. But I am thrilled that my mums finally came up!

Day 39

Lightning fast... OK, not really. Had every intention of running for real after I got this shot but the motivation kind of left me afterward. It was tougher than I thought to set up - took a while with the tripod and experimenting with the aperture, shutter and timer to get an exposure I liked. I hate treadmill running anyway...

Day 38

How can one cat have so much fur? Seriously. And amazingly, she's not the one who sheds all over you when you pick her up. Of course, I have to brush the chair every day...

Day 37

The afternoon slipped away from me before I had a chance to do anything cool for today. So I pulled out the new tripod and played with fire.

Day 36

Jorden is by far everyone's favorite Star! He is beyond adorable and always ready for a good hockey game. Go Stars!

Day 35

Mmmm. Fresh berries. And, oh, yeah, the tart yogurt. If I close my eyes and imagine hostile cab drivers yelling at me, it's almost like I'm back in Manhattan having Pinkberry. Yay!

Day 34

Lockers at the gym. Played around with background/foreground focus and such. Kinda cool. I feel like I'm still learning what my camera's buttons are after five years, and I'm slowly starting to remember all those things I learned about in my RTF classes back in college. If I get inspired, I might dig through some old boxes and find my textbooks with all the stuff about f-stops and shutter speeds, etc. Then again, it might be easier to go to half-price books and get a book that's not 20 years old...

Day 33

This is the view from my office chair, looking out the window at the biggish oak tree in the front yard. The leaves are finally turning, so they're starting to match the orange in my stained glass panel. Pretty pleasing perspective if I say so myself. Also, please note the bokeh effect in the background - it's starting to get all photographic up in here!

Day 32

Crazy cat lady in training.  The boy invaded my room and my computer to play Webkinz with his FIVE cats.  That's in addition to the two live cats in the house.  And they are all in his bed with him every night, too.  Sheesh.

Day 31

 

Wahoo! My magazine subscriptions finally came in! Two for one! Nothing makes me feel like a real runner more than my RW arriving at the house (except maybe those new shoes! and hardware!). Also, note in the background that I finally got a frame for my Cowtown Marathon poster from last year. The loverly orange color scheme goes very nicely with my orange-ey chairs in my office. That poster makes me feel like a real runner, too, now that I think about it!

Day 30

This paperweight on my desk is one of the only things I kept from my pre-consulting days. My old workspace at the university was littered with family photos and lots of other sentimental items; now that my office is at home, I don't need all that, but I still really like the paperweight.

Day 29

Sunset over Suburbia. Was driving west and had to pull over to try to get the amazing colors in this sunset; noticed afterward that I got the US and Texas flags smack dab in the middle.

Day 28

So the biggest whoop around here lately is that the street connecting our neighborhood to the free world finally opened up after several months of being closed and making us go the LONG way around. We also got a new convenience store at that intersection, a place I will come to either love or loathe - it's too early to tell which.

Day 27

 

Another shot from the gymnastics class. Considering we're here twice a week and at the rink twice a week, be prepared to see a lot of these.

Day 26

 

Equal time for big kitty. Do you have any idea how hard it is to focus on something that is so fuzzy?

Day 25

 

I got this glass cross from my mother-in-law for my birthday a few years ago. It's something I would have never picked out for myself, but I really like the way it picks up the candlelight behind it when it's on the dining room table, so I guess it was just the right thing after all.