Potpourri Pot (heh heh I said "pot")

This is going to be a little bit of everything.  Total mish-mash.  Lots of things to talk about, none of them worthy of their own entire post.

Remember that midlife crisis I had last fall?  Yeah it's still going on.  Yesterday morning I was on the phone with Hitter (he was out of town over the weekend) and he tells me that his HR guy had sent him an email about a new job opportunity (just a new role within the same company)  This is not surprising, this company plays apple-cart-upset about every 18 months or so, and Hitter's been in this same role for 3 years now, so he's WAY overdue for a shakeup.  Of course I never really look forward to these games of corporate musical chairs, because this happens:

Yeah.  That's a lot of fun to deal with.  Side effects include irritability, short temper, complete lack of understanding, and general assholedness.  Except he's already been like that lately with the current position, so how much worse can the transition to something new be? 

Famous last words.

So anyway, I just kinda went "yeah whatever okay" when Hitter mentioned possible new position.  Right up until he said that it would involve a move.  And then my emotions got on the biggest baddest roller coaster ever. 

Just a few colors short of a Jackson Pollock painting

"OMG I might actually get out of Hillbilly Hell?!"

"Wait, when I imagined moving away, it wasn't to go to the east coast.  Ugh"

"Well, we wouldn't stay there for more than 2 or 3 years, I can do that.  And I'd get to move!"

"Hitter would never go for that, he couldn't be that far from his family"

"God what an ass, he is the reason I am so miserable!  Why won't he move away from here?  I hate Hillbilly Hell!"

"Wait, I'm a shitty wife.  Could I really move that far away?  I'd have to fly EVERYWHERE and I hate to fly.  So really I'm just blaming him and using him as the scapegoat but I wouldn't like it either"
"But there might be work and/or school opportunities out there that don't exist here"

"But the east coast is one giant city running into the next giant city, and my biggest problem here is that it's a freaking city"

"Seriously though, I want to get the hell away from this damned place!  I don't even care where I'm going next"

"Although... I'd have to leave my house and my pool and I kinda like them.  And I probably wouldn't get anything I'd like out there"

"But it would be an opportunity to get away from everything around here that's making me miserable, including my family."

"Except I probably won't be happy out there either.  I'm not sure if I've ever been happy.  And I don't think I ever will be happy.  Ugh.  Just... ugh."

It's like the lamest roller coaster ever.  Anyway the good news is I don't need to worry about it anymore because Hitter said he isn't taking it.  He wouldn't like the work, it's way out of his comfort zone and possibly not even something he really agrees with.  Althoug who knows with him, because he pretty much agrees with anything the Beloved Corporation does. 

So I think I'll quit thinking about that.  Or maybe I'll just quit thinking.

Random Internet Stupidity:

I got this in an email.  Don't get me wrong, I love me some Mike Rowe... *drool*... but seriously?  He's doing videos telling idiots they need to get their oil changed?  Wow.  I can't decide whether to be more annoyed by Ford thinking they need to make videos telling people that if the check engine light comes on you'd better... well... check the engine, or by the fact that I think Mikey boy has finally hit the "overexposure" status.  Perhaps a while ago. 

His voice is still dreamalicious though. 

New subject: my year-in-pictures is still going, although sometimes it's not very interesting.  I made it all the way to oooooooh about January 11 before I realized that some days I just don't have anything photo-worthy in my life.  So I've been randomly filling the boring days in with extra pictures from interesting days.  In some ways, that's probably a good thing though.  Then I can remember that good things do happen sometimes, and occasional boring days aren't the end of the world.  [/philosophical comments]  And then there were a couple days when I had specific pictures in mind that I wanted to use on those specific days... didn't get the pictures... and then didn't update the album. 

Today I had to catch up on two weeks worth of pictures.  There was much procrastination of anything that others would consider "productive".  Kitchen's still a mess, house didn't get cleaned, dog needs more exercise (although thank goodness the co-dependent beast actually spent an entire half hour in the back yard today without me) laundry didn't get done, trim didn't get painted, closets didn't get decluttered, office stuff didn't get organized, and most importantly, Hitter's model train didn't get landscaped.  Most importantly to him anyway.  I really don't care much, and I didn't feel that his hobby needed to be prioritized above mine, but I'm probably still going to catch hell for it tomorrow when he gets home.  *sigh* 

I think that's enough for now.  Way past my bedtime. 

A Photographer's Guide to Photography

Pileated Woodpecker:

(he's the one on top)



Some of you may recognize that tree and birdfeeder from the raccoon incident.  Slight change of season.  Anyway, pileated woodpeckers are becoming a bit of an obsession of mine.  We have a mated pair that lives in our area and come to Hitter's suet feeder pretty regularly.  I think they're living in the dead tree that will be featured on the 2011-Year-In-Pictures once everything is green again.  I mean seriously, all trees look dead in the winter. 

I had out both cameras, both lenses for the interchangeable-lens camera, the tripod, and my insanity.  I am on a mission to get a lot of really good pictures of these birds. 

Here's the fun I put myself through a few days ago trying to get a good picture of him.  (No, I'm not being random calling him a "him", it really is the male this time.  I can tell them apart.  And I know what their call sounds like.  I need help.  Hitter turned me into a birdwatcher *twitch*)  The background information you need to know is I'm pretty much a lazy-butt and I love to be on my couch.

Problem #1: I can't just take a picture from the couch because our windows have screens on the bottom half so I'd end up with stupid pictures.

Problem #2: I can't take pictures through the top of the living room window (screen-less) because the outside light shines through the glass inset in our front door and reflects off the windows.  Then I end up with these weird ghosty things. 

Failed solution to problem #2:

I put a blanket over the door.  Still didn't work so much.  Moving on!

Problem #3: The birds can see through the living room window so if I try to get up to go to a different window, they fly away.  Pileated woodpeckers are very skittish. 

Successful remedy to problem #3: Me falling off the couch EVER-SO-GRACEFULLY (yeah right) so the birds can't see me, then I crawl across the floor until I am out of their line of sight.

Problem #4: The only other windows with a view of the bird feeder are the French doors.  These doors have after-market enclosed blinds on them.  I love them, love love love, except in the winter they fog up something terrible. 

Solution to Problem #4, Part 1: I took off the enclosed-blind thing (thank goodness they're removable) 

Then I set up the tripod pointing out the window, had the zoom lens on the camera and the other one nearby, looked out the window and.....

Problem #5:

NO BIRDS!

They'd all flown away.  It was just as well, the window wasn't de-fogged yet anyway. 

Solution to Problem #4, Part 2: Did I mention the window still wasn't de-fogged? 

I got Hitter's hair dryer (yes he has a hair dryer, no I do not.  that's probably also a post for another day) and blow-dried the window. 

And FINALLY, I got pictures.  Oh glory did I get pictures!  Two hours later, I had a full memory card.  Oh happy day.  (have I mentioned I love digital?  seriously, I took almost 400 pictures over two days.  who the hell would do that if it was film?)  Sat down to my trusty rusty laptop to upload the pictures and pick out the good ones...... and...........

I have NO IDEA how in the hell I accidentally caused that!  I almost broke my computer smashing the cancel button as hard as I could.  I lost about half of them.  And then I almost threw my computer and the camera across the room.  I refrained, but it was a strong urge. 

Hitter gets home from work that night and is all "so what did you do today?" which is a loaded question because I'm a childless housewife.  But what could I say?  I mean I was busy all day!  It just ended up being for nothing.  How do you say "well I spent all day trying to create the ideal bird photography studio in my house because I was obsessed with getting pictures TODAY of some birds that live here and I'll see them again someday, and then I managed to accidentally delete most of the pictures.  So, yeah, umm, I didn't do anything today.  How do you feel about leftovers for supper?  Cuz I'm worn out!"

Twuhnnyleven: The Year of the Redneck

Actually, it's supposed to be 2011: A Year in Pictures.  But I keep pronouncing 2011 "twuhnnyleven" which strikes me as a bit redneck.

I have a project for myself this year.  No resolutions, I hate resolutions.  A guy I know posted on his Facebook page today "Every new year people make resolutions to change aspects of themselves they believe are negative. This year just be yourself" and I love that.  Of course I really don't like him that much cuz he's a Longhorns fan, but what can ya do...  

Maybe I should make a resolution to stay on-topic.

Project.  Photos.  Twuhnnyleven.  Right.....  This idea has been pinging around inside my brain for a while now but I'm sometimes a little slow on the uptake.  Plus we currently only have a giant honking dSLR camera with a couple lenses and a big-ass bag to carry it around in, which is incredibly inconvenient for random pictures.  Now I've gotten ahead of myself.

The project is to take at least one picture every day.  Some pictures may be important and meaningful, some will be random and weird.  There will be beautiful pieces of art, and there will be odd snapshots. Some will preserve memories, some I'll look back on and be all "what the fuck, me?"

Like I said two paragraphs ago, and way ahead of its time, I've been ignoring this idea because of the annoyance of always hauling around Designated Hitter's stupid purchase.  Don't get me wrong, as I'm learning how to REALLY use the camera I am falling in love with it.  But he uses it like a point-and-shoot so it's a giant waste of $1000.  Actually probably $1500 after he bought the second lens and other accessories.  And I want to buy more... another lens or two, a new tripod, sheesh I'm high maintenance!  I'm finally studying up on all the fancy things that bad boy can do.  Tee hee!  (if anyone's curious, it's a Nikon D50.  It has a few years on it now, and it's nowhere near high-end dSLR, but it's way more than Hitter needs and is becoming just about exactly something I love)  But anyway, we have a crapload of rewards points from a credit card so I'm going to use them to get a shiny new point-and-shoot that I can just shove in my purse and have it with me all the time.  I'll still use both cameras throughout the year, but the new one will allow me to take pictures more frequently and in places other than home.  

I'm not going to post them all on here.  Especially anything that's very identifying... still trying to maintain a touch of anonymity.  I haven't decided exactly where to stick them yet, I have an old picturetrail account where I'll probably at least start, but there's a limit on how much you can put on there without paying for the account (and I am kind of a tightwad, at least about some things) so I'm sure at some point I'll end up on flickr or something like that.  Not that big a fan of the flickr design though.  Hmm...  

Anyway, here's my January 1 picture!  This was taken this morning, a normal sunrise was going on behind some very interesting clouds.  

This size doesn't really do the picture justice.  But you still get the effect the clouds were giving.  

I'll get back to you on how I make this a redneck year...