Jan 15, 2011

Community theater.

If I’m married to a thespian, does that make me a thespian, too?  🙂   Tonight we got together with a several friends that have been a part of an amateur theater club where we worked over the span of many years (20 years?!).   We haven’t seen them in a number of years (shame on us).   The occasion was to attend a play that one of the other former club members has been involved in via a community theater troupe up in Leander.

The show was Rumors, by Neil Simon.  Funny.  And well done, guys!

Everytime we get together with some of the old Boca refugee crew everyone says “We really need to do this more often!”

We certainly do.   And I hope we will.

Jan 14, 2011

Blue.

Just messing around on a Friday night.

Here is a time lapse view:

 

Jan 13, 2011

Looooooser.

Our cupboards are getting a little bare, so last night on our way home we stopped at the nearby Tetco and picked up a gallon of milk.. AND $3 worth of lottery tickets.

I was so tired last night I forgot to check the nums… I actually ran across this ticket this morning, almost buried under the couch.

For the record… I did *not* win a bazillion dollars.

Maybe next time.

Jan 12, 2011

Deep freeze.

Temps outside were around 28 degrees again last night.  I figured the water in the bird bath would have frozen, so right after the sun came up this morning I went outside to check it out.  It was frozen all the way through.

I like the effect from the frozen bubble paths in the ice.

Brrrr.    Time for hot chocolate!

Jan 11, 2011

Hardy.

It was very cold last night and into today.  Well, cold for Austin.  It got down to 28 degrees here last night.  It’s going to continue to be at or below freezing for the next few nights.

I took a walk out back tonight.   Most of the perennials I planted in the Spring are dried and dead above ground and need to be cut back soon.

An exception is the lamb’s ear that I planted.   They are doing great!  I love touching these plants.  They are so soft and fuzzy on the outside, but must be tough on the inside to ride out this cold.

My Aunt in San Antonio gave me these from her garden last year and I’ve really enjoyed them.

 

 

Jan 10, 2011

Pre-game.

Yeah.  We have a pet duck.  Well, it’s a decoy. … Long story.  Just humor us.  Everyone else does.  🙂

Anyway.  His name is B-Duck – and he’s a big fan of the University of Oregon Ducks.

They were playing in the BCS championship bowl game tonight.

Didn’t turn out as B-Duck would have liked.

He’ll get over it.

Jan 9, 2011

Berry nice.

We had a most awesome sendoff for our friends Tony & Michelle last night — in true B-dock fashion.   We will miss them dearly but know we’ll sail with them again.

It *finally* rained — bringing some welcome relief from the dreaded cedar pollen, so I took a walk out back this afternoon.   The red berries on the nandina caught my eye, especially with their dangling rain droplets.

I’ve found it difficult to manually focus this little camera.   Though I love this Powershot D10 very much, it may be time to upgrade to a DSLR.  I’ll wait until after I finish this 365 project.

Jan 8, 2011

The King.

Elvis is 76 years young today.

What?  Doesn’t everyone have an Elvis shrine?

Monte built this for himself long before we met.  We’ve been adorning it over the years.

Happy Birthday Elvis!!!

 

Jan 7, 2011

Lines.

I mentioned yesterday that I’ve been feeling creatively challenged.   A fellow blogger recently made me aware of a site she sometimes turns to for ideas of subjects to photograph — it’s called The Daily Shoot.  I turned to it this morning and the assignment was to find strong converging lines in a photograph.

So, I took a number of shots and picked one I liked.  Technically, I don’t think this one qualifies as containing converging lines, but it does contain strong lines, so I’m going with it.  Here ’tis.

p.s.

TGIF!

Jan 6, 2011

Girlie mug.

Irene gave me this awesome coffee mug for Christmas.   It’s an insulated, ceramic mug with a silicon lid from Yedi Housewares.  Today I christened it.

Irene volunteers at a fantastic giftshop on 38th street called Sweet Charity.   I think you can find these mugs there.  Proceeds from the giftstore benefit charity care at Seton Medical Center Austin.

I am creatively challenged today, so this is the moment I’m posting.

Jan 5, 2011

I learned something new.

When I set out on this photo-a-day-for-a-year project in March, it wasn’t to hone my photographic skills, as many 365-projects are intended to do.   I just wanted to pause long enough to capture a moment from my day to reflect on.

As it turns out, along the way I have picked up a few things related to photography.   One thing I recently learned about (I may be the last person with a camera to do so) is a bokeh effect in a photo  (wikipedia definition here) — essentially when what is outside of the depth of focus has a blurred effect.    I kept seeing “christmas bokeh”  shots in various blogs for the last month or so and didn’t know what it was til I looked it up.

So, this is my first, not very well executed, attempt at a Christmas tree bokeh shot.  In the foreground is my new favorite angel figurine – the Irish Charm angel – a gift from Sue and Marty.     In this case, what *is* in the field of focus is a bit blurry as well…but this was the best of the several shots I took tonight.    🙂

Jan 4, 2010

Gotcha.

Hectic first day back.   But a canceled noon meeting meant that Monte and I could go to lunch together, so we did.  As we were leaving I spotted a squirrel hiding on the fence.   He didn’t run away until after I had taken this shot.  If you look closely you can see a huge pecan in his mouth.

Jan 3, 2011

Spring has sprung.

We have been shut out of our garage for the last few days.   I went to Ann’s for my inaugural New Year’s game day on Saturday and when I came home the garage door could not be opened.  It’s a good thing all the cars were out of the garage at the time, or they would have been trapped there until we got it fixed today.

Turns out when your garage door torsion spring looks something like this picture, you need to get it replaced.   Monte toyed with the idea of fixing it himself.  But when the first hits on google for “Do-It-Yourself broken garage door torsion spring” brought up things like:  risk of death, maiming, danger, danger, danger, I looked for a local company to come fix us up.

Les from Cedar Park Overhead Doors came to the rescue today, and we were all set in under an hour.

I’m enjoying this first Monday of the new year… good thing it’s a vacation day!

Tomorrow…back to the grindstone.

Jan 2, 2011

Zantedeschia

Doray and Tom brought a beautiful Calla Lily Friday night.   I wasn’t able to take a shot that does it justice.  It’s lovely.

Today is Sunday.   Monte went golfing.  I ran a few errands to finish some projects before the end of vacation.

We actually have tomorrow off as well … a bit of a bonus vacation day to enjoy.

We just finished watching the Seahawks win their last regular season game to get into the playoffs — by a hair.   Yay!

Do I dare to hope?