Here, There, and Everywhere

It's high time I got back to blogging isn't it?

So much has happened since we last chatted that I've put off blogging only because I don't want to go on, and on; in other words, I've been editing in my head for days sorting out what you might want to know about.

Let's back up a week or so, shall we?

Friday afternoon Bruce came home early to load the car, and off we went to set up the show. This year the loading process was much improved, however, the heat was not. Still a furnace, interspersed with rain, which made for a slow process. Compounding that was that Bruce was not feeling top notch, having to stop and rest. Lisa, Danny, and Judy came by just about the time we were finishing. Danny looked excellent.


Show Highlights and Lowlights:

Lisa came on Saturday, Judy came both Saturday, and Sunday to help me mind the store
48 sales
Hot weather
Smaller crowd than hoped for, making the sales total all the more surprising
Patron Award, which merely meant that two patrons of the show bought canvases from me
Saturday evening party with excellent food and wine. Photography first place went to the same woman as last year: Swimmers
Judy answered her phone on Sunday afternoon---her father died--a call she'll always remember...Although expected, the actual moment is always a shock. Now we are not only sisters in law, but orphans as well. Obviously, this was the lowest light of them all.

Monday morning I quickly packed, and off we went to Connecticut, flying first class due to Mr. Peck's status as a three million miler with Delta. Nice flight, nice lunch, and the best part was while looking out my window, I saw first Manhattan, followed by colorful trees. I'd been wondering if there were still pretty leaves left. The temperature was around 50 degrees, a welcome respite from our temps still hovering around 90!

I've put together an album of pictures with captions if you care to click on the album, I believe they'll show that way. When the sun set on Monday evening, that was the last I saw of it until it was time to head to the airport on Thursday. Despite the weather, and Bruce working twelve hour days, I managed to enjoy myself. Bruce now has a GPS, which he insisted I use, frankly, I found the talking box to be a bit annoying. I expect I'm in the minority on that issue. Mostly I spent time at Yale, first in their Center for British Art, followed by their major collection, Museums. It rained from morning till night hampering my ability to take much in the way of pictures, as well as my normal routine of walking around to see what there is to see. I skipped going to the ocean because it was so gray and rainy, that I probably wouldn't have been able to tell where the sky met the water. After having lunch in a nice little Italian restaurant there was a slight break which allowed me to roam two streets. I was amazed at how colorful some of the old homes were painted; I've pictured one of them in the album. I have a suspicion that it helps when the long gray winters start to make a person crazy--a colorful oasis if you will.

Friday I did some much needed catching up around the house, ending the day with a nice dinner out with Bruce. You see, while in CT, we had dinner with others, so I wanted him all to myself for the night. That plan was foiled in a good way though because from our sidewalk seating we had three different couples we know stop to chat.

Saturday--slow as molasses market. Seminoles win in a nail biter! Halloween trick or treaters were few and far between. At nearly 10:00, a car pulled up, the doorbell rang, and a mother with two very young children announced their arrival. Bruce offered the candy bowl--the mother grabbed a huge hand full. Tacky.

Sunday--slowish market, but managed to eke out 12 sales. Early to bed, early to rise, and here we are. Bruce went back to CT for the inspection with an insanely early flight--5:30AM. See what I mean about early to rise?

This afternoon I'll be heading to City Hall for the calendar presentation. I'll let you know how it goes.
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Listening to: Model 500 - The Flow
via FoxyTunes

Untitled

This Australian black swan is like me--a sleepy head. Got about nine hours last night!

It has surely been a summer of celebrity deaths hasn't it? My goodness. The latest, of course, is Frank McCourt. I was a huge fan of Angela's Ashes; I only wish I could remember how I came to read it. Knowing how much I admired him, Jonathan sent me a link to this: Memories. I can only imagine the fond memories former students would write about my infamous sister-in-law, Judy. Those who know her know just what I'm talking about! Through the years, because we share the same last name, I've heard so many wonderful comments about her--"although I got a D in her class, she was my favorite teacher," "she was such an influence on my life," "hardest and funniest teacher I ever had," to name just a few that come to mind. This has gone on for over thirty years! I even met a young man at the convention I did in October who had her back in the 80's, he told me how much he loved her. Judy and Mr. McCourt share a few things--both are Irish, Catholic, and witty. One thing they don't have in common is sentence diagramming expertise, a skill that Mr. McCourt seems to have lacked. Judy, on the other hand, can diagram like it's a competition sport! She's finally having a summer to herself--maybe she'll start writing.

Oddly enough Maureen called yesterday afternoon hoping I'd remember a book we both read a while back. She reminded me that x-rays were part of the plot. Although I couldn't remember the name of it, I did remember that photography was also featured in the novel. Wracking our brains together did nothing, however, after we hung up she did a little searching, coming up with the name, Evidence of Things Unseen. If you didn't read it the first time I blogged about it try doing so now. So what pray tell, aside from plugging the novel again, am I getting at? Well....just the other day I was considering how much all my years of taking x-rays has helped my photography. Jokingly, when people ask how long I've been a photographer, I answer, "most of my life, I just used bigger equipment!" Which is actually true. I learned how to look at things in a three dimensional way which I think helps my compositions. When x-raying, say a wrist, you take three different views showing how the same subject takes on a totally different look, something I try to do with what I'm photographing these days. I learned about contrast, particularly with mammograms. Exposure time--in today's cameras, ISO. You get the picture.

It has been a while since I've passed on a household tip hasn't it? I'm rectifying that as of today! Baby wipes apparently are just as good, if not better, than a stain stick. A shirt I tried on at JCrew had makeup on the front which the clerk removed in a jiffy with a baby wipe. Obviously it wasn't my makeup because once again I went out looking like a hag. That, of course, is beside the point. They tell me it works miracles for all sorts of clothing mishaps.

Speaking of mishaps, my external hard drive has essentially eaten my iPhoto library. Sad, but true. I spent nearly two hours with Apple support folks this afternoon confirming what Matt already suspected. I would be crying if not for Picasa which copied loads of my pictures (lots, and lots of terrible ones I might add); as well Roger has nearly 500 images of mine, much to his amazement. When we began working together he never dreamed I would try and sell so many different images! He has a backup system times three so I think those are safe and sound.

Jonathan gave Bruce three months of movies on Netflix for Father's Day, which has been very interesting. Bruce's que has included some really terrible movies, one of which garnered a 5%, yes I wrote 5%, on Rotten Tomatoes. I watched for about fifteen minutes, bitterly complaining the whole time, and then looked it up on RT. It was one with Mandy Moore and Diane Keaton, the title of which I've promptly forgotten due to the utter stupidity of the movie. Anyway, when I sent Jonathan an email telling him about it, he hardly believed that a movie had that low a rating. When I saw it made me laugh much harder than my fifteen minutes with the movie! I'm urging him to rethink the queue!

Time to reformat the hard drive--I hope I can pull this off by myself!