Still on my mind
It comes to me again, what I wrote a while back: that we are seldom as successful as we think at hiding from people our true opinions of them.
July 05, 2008
Somebody didn't think this through
One understands their choice of words, but a different phrase should have been constructed as the tagline for a local house painting company: The full spectrum of quality and service!
July 02, 2008
Shall I compare me?
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July 01, 2008
A taste of Colorado for your brownies
Looking for a little Rocky Mountain high in your brownies? Swap out the vegetable oil for bacon grease. (Nobody could make this stuff up.)
How to give good praise
Gretchen Rubin over at the Happiness Project gets specific about how to express effectively appreciation or admiration for someone's effort. How much, by the way, do you think it takes most people to get over a critical comment? Take a look at Five tips for giving good praise.
June 30, 2008
There's nothing at all like putting something on the Web to convince me that I can't write a sentence that doesn't need heavy editing.
What I did on what wasn't my summer vacation
It wasn't a great week, to tell you the truth, but this is what I was up to. I deliberately left the images pretty large so that you can see in detail just how many problems there are with them. Looking at them again, I'm not sure about the decision to work with them in their "natural" state. Maybe I learned something. (Maybe I didn't.)
Another gratuitous Charles Aznavour posting
Emmenez-moi... After last week, the desert appeals to me, but I think I'll stay home and work.
June 29, 2008
No need for circumspection in praise
When a friend observed that he'd likely hear on my blog about how things go when I return to Greeley in a couple of weeks, I agreed that he would if it's a good week. When something goes really well, there's no need for circumspection.
So highest praise -- five stars, at least -- to a couple of businesses that helped us out recently. Personal Touch Window Cleaning does superb work. You could say, in fact, that Greg Bales puts the "super" in "superb". And Briggs Carpet Cleaning in Longmont was wonderful.
When I was looking around the Web for impartial reviews of window and carpet cleaning companies, it was striking to me how well businesses seem to be promoting themselves on so-called "review" sites. This really is an impartial review; there's no reason at all for me to mention that these guys are just great other than the fact that they did terrific work. We were really pleased.
Did I fail to mention something else here? Yes, I thought so, too. Email me if you're absolutely gagging for particulars.
June 24, 2008
It's only Tuesday...
...and already it's a very long week. You?
June 23, 2008
Off, nervously, to Greeley
We'll see how this goes.
After much consideration
I believe that Eileen Fisher should be awarded a Nobel Prize. So what if the flash intro is so... ergh... that I won't link to her site. She is still the clothing champion of Women of a Certain Age and Body Type.
June 22, 2008
Longmont plays chicken
It hadn't occurred to me that it would be illegal to keep chickens in this little town, but then again, it wouldn't occur to me to do it. If the council changes the ordinance, I wonder how many of our neighbors, wedged alongside us on 5000 square foot lots, are going to start playing farm.
June 20, 2008
My kit
Yes, I use them all and I sure wish I would learn to keep batteries charged. And all this brings to mind one of the rowdiest songs by the Eagles.
New camera!
The first few random clicks of the coffee table hit the bit bucket right away, but these are the next several -- within the first 7 or 8 clicks. This camera is amazing.
As I noted on the flickr comment, I've shot this portrait of my mother many times. This is absolutely the best photo, ever. The portrait, by the way, looks more like her than any photo I have.
Just a random shot of a some flowers in the livingroom.
A little piece by Oregon artist Ruth S. Trout, atop the piano I had thought of getting rid of, but Mr Tryon says he prefers that it stay.
I have only ever upgraded a camera or computer at Mr Tryon's urging and I have always been astonished at how right he is about such things. This is an Olympus 510E. Honestly, it is less fancy than he suggested but quite enough of a challenge for me for now.
June 19, 2008
Just not sayin'
Sometimes there's a lot not to say.
June 18, 2008
June 15, 2008
Through a glass, darkly
Today in Denver, about 1 PM
Today would have been the 66th wedding anniversary of my parents. Right now Jessy Dixon is bawling out "God Be With You" on one of my playlists and I think, For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. I Cor 13:12
Singing suspiciously
StatGuy can sit by me in church; I agree that it would be no real loss to fire a lot of 20th century church music. But again today our opening hymn was "O, Christ the great foundation" and it's very stirring, especially the third verse. I bet Liu T'ing-Fang knew what he was writing about. StatGuy can give you the words.
June 14, 2008
15 minutes ago
(Looking at this a couple hours later, I feel the need to explain: with the colors and the improbable bird, it might look like a cartoon, but it isn't.)
June 13, 2008
All my life
Seems like this new-ish (out late in 06, I think) Billy Joel ballad is going to be a standard. It's too soon to say that one hasn't gotten tired of a song, but this one is heading that direction.
Not pretty, perhaps
This is probably the end of this long-lasting alstroemeria bouquet, but at this point there is something quite beautifully déshabillé about it.
The gift of pesto
Some things, like tomato sauce, seem kind of obvious (once you get past the fear that a plant in the nightshade family is going to poison you). But pesto?
"Okay, you hold this stone flat while I pound it with a rock to smash green leaves, some little seeds that fell out of pine cones, and a couple pieces of those smelly things you dug up yesterday. And bring me some of that the gooey stuff that came out when Morris banged on the green berries -- wait, are they berries if they came from a tree? And shred some of that hard pale yellow stuff Alva's been making from the milk of their partly domesticated bovine."
Pesto is something that doesn't lend itself much to recipes imho, but if you want a formula to start with #7 on this list isn't a bad one. I'd go heavier on the garlic and NEVER swap out the pine nuts for walnuts, but we all know what I'm like.
Pesto comes to mind this morning because the thin provisions in the fridge had a little container with maybe two tablespoons left over. I boiled a quarter cup of fusilli corti and meditated with gratitude on these distant ancestors. That's a breakfast that gives a person courage to face the day. (If you don't work at home, of course you'll want to make sure the garlic doesn't bite your companions. Or maybe not.)
Busted
"Work-at-homers face an odd contradiction: their working environment is conducive to have more free time than most employees, but they can seem to pull themselves away from their desks at the end of the day. The temptation to 'get just a few more things done before bed' or 'finish up those e-mails over the weekend' is tremendous." Ramona Creel in May-June issue of Organize.
That magazine should be featured in Stuff White People Like. I'm not kidding. Boy howdy, is it Caucasian. While you're at Stuff trying to decide whether to laugh or be offended, might as well take a look at Knowing what's best for poor people.
June 08, 2008
Visiting Guardian Angels
Today I went to a tiny rural parish and take a "class picture" of the community in front of its church building. The pastor wants a photo that shows the church, he says, not just the building.
I doubt they'll accept sepia, so fixing the sky colors is going to be somewhat tedious. But this little place is dear to me and I was glad to visit again.
Happy holidays... or not
The Telegraph runs a weekly feature in which people -- well, rather famous people -- tell about beautiful vacations and vacations that went horribly. Take a look at it for the good humor and, of course, for the cautionary notes.
June 07, 2008
Tagging images with keywords in iPhoto is a wonderful way to feel productive without actually having to do anything.
June 06, 2008
Opportunity costs
We are all on the sidelines of some public score settling this weekend. This brings to mind a Bible story I learned as a very little child. David's first opportunity for ultimate revenge on Saul, says I Samuel 24, came unexpectedly and with a large serving of irony. David resisted, but not without leaving evidence of Saul's vulnerability. It is hard to walk away, I think, without hoping that the wind will carry our whisper: I could have gotten you back, but I didn't.
The piece above doesn't have anything to do with that, as far as I know. It's just a puzzle I'm trying to tease out right now. Opportunity costs and William Stafford's My Name is William Tell
The memory of Metropolitan Anthony
In two weeks a conference in London will honor the 94th anniversary of Metropolitan Anthony's birth. Almost five years have passed since his death. Obviously I won't be going to the conference, but the notice nudged me back to online archives of his talks and sermons, where again I looked at I believe in God.
June 05, 2008
Go, me!
Well, I knocked off the last maths class I have to see on my way to the B.A. It was just great. No, I'm serious! Jodee Phillips was an absolutely wonderful instructor: helpful, clear, encouraging. What was most exciting to me was to be learning things that are actually useful. Not at all what I expected.
