Watching the ticker

I put a new toy on our blog, this little visitor counter:

You can see it down on the right-hand side, underneath the long list of our followers (two, to be exact).  Instead of registering the number of hits the blog gets, it counts how many unique IP addresses are used to access the webpage and in what country they are located.  Apparently we need to get a little more international.  So if you want to help my self esteem, you can look at our blog on different computers and get our numbers up! 

Start bugging S to post more because right now the title of this blog should be "This is Total B" and I can say that I am NOT a total B!  I think that S believes that blog posts should be deep and meaningful at all times but I just posted about a flag counter and yesterday I put up a picture of a picture of our dog so clearly this is not true.  Perhaps your emails could go something like this:

Dear S,
B keeps posting flag counters and pictures of pictures of your dog.  Perhaps you can jump in and save us from this inane chatter.  It is only a matter of time before we start getting a play-by-play of Buddy's day and since 90% of that day is spent sleeping, we are dreading this development.  Please help us.
Sincerely,
Your dear friend

And you can imagine him looking like this and saying, "Yes, I will help you.  Let's all lift a glass to my interesting blog input.  Cheers!"

Eh, nevermind

I decided to forgo the high-tech attempts and went back to good ol' trace-and-cut for my silhouettes.  Here's the first attempt:

It's not the best picture of a picture, but can you tell who it is?  Yeah, not a difficult one. :-)  I actually really like the depth created by having paper on paper so I guess it turned out just fine!  Now to find three more subjects. 

We went to see "Eat, Pray, Love."  I loved the book (huge surprise).  Reading the book was like going on a trip and wanting to skip my return flight.  Seeing the movie was like finding a postcard, it was pretty but I don't need to gaze at it for 2.5 hours.  But it was pretty.  And now I want to hit the road!  Sometimes I feel like Juliet Binoche's character in "Chocolat" and get so antsy to make a change.  That "clever north wind" makes me so restless!  S, ready for a new adventure?

Help?

I am trying to make some silhouette prints from some photos à la my friends at Young House Love and Our Humble A{Bowe}d:

And I am bad at it.  This is probably because I don't have fancy editing software like Photoshop nor do I have a steady tracing hand on the mouse.  I might have to cave and do it the old fashioned way, if the old fashioned way is putting a piece up paper up on the computer screen and tracing.

But before I do that, any suggestions on creating 8x10 white silhouettes against a light colored background out of the main subjects in these pictures and maybe some others?  I even have mats and frames already!

Cameras

I just realized that when you add an "s" to the word "camera" and capitalize the "c" is suddenly looks like an exotic vacation destination.

Where are you going for your third honeymoon?  

Oh, we're spending a week in Cameras. 

But I am actually wondering about this kind of cameras.

Sometime in the next year or two S and I want to get an excellent camera with which to document our lives.  Now that digital cameras make amazing photography available to amateur everyday-life, run-of-the-mill photographers, we want to find a camera that will help us get those crystal clear gorgeous photos that we see on blogs and facebook photo albums.

So, what do you recommend?  Can you get gorgeous photos with a camera that's not an SLR?  Have you found a camera that has cool features like color balancing and such that doesn't cost an arm and a leg?  If we invest in a fancy-ish camera, have you found one that might last us for 10+ years? 

Thanks for your help!

An announcement

Of the non-baby kind.  I know, when you are 28 and married and having the baby fever, a baby is really the only announcement that you should have.  And I say that without sarcasm.  Really.

But before that momentous and exciting announcement there will have to be a few others: grad school acceptance (hopefully), where we are moving next August, and S's new job in that location.  Then maybe a brother or sister for Buddy because he really needs one.  And then it'll be time for the BIG ONE.

But today, I bring you this announcement:

I REACHED MY 3-DAY 

FUNDRAISING GOAL!!!

This is a big announcement!  It means that everyone I know helped me raise $2300 a full month and a half (correction) a full TWO and a half months before the 3-Day for the Cure event.  That's a whole lotta mullah for breast cancer research.  But it doesn't stop there.  There is no rule that you can raise only $2300.  In fact, I'm up to $2325.  So keep it up!  Maybe we can even get to $3000?  That would be so amazing!

And, because my favorite blog posts are the ones that send me somewhere I've never been, I want to let you know that Teal Toes month is coming up!

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness month and painting you toenails (or fingernails!) teal, the ovarian cancer color, is a great way to spread awareness of this quiet but serious disease.  You can even get business card-size info cards to pass out when people ask you about your teal toes and fingers.  During the 3-Day I am going to paint my fingernails teal and have my little business cards available for other walkers!

I probably would have never known about the symptoms or severity of ovarian cancer or the opportunity to spread awareness if I hadn't lost a childhood friend to the disease a year ago.  Paint your toes teal for Megan and for women everywhere!

A little shout-out

Here's a little shout-out to Coach S and the NAHS volleyball team for their great 3-match season opener tonight!

Don't tell anybody, but I have a little crush on the coach! :-)

Comparison Shopping

I like to comparison shop but sometimes I do things out of order. I find a great deal, indulge in an impulse buy, and then look up reviews, other products, other prices online because I'm curious and then I always have buyer's remorse. Why do I do this? Well, that's a topic for another time and another therapist.

Sometimes participating the all-powerful social network/blogosphere feels like a bad case of comparison shopping after the purchase. I've made and am making choices for my life: jobs, education, who to marry, where to live, when to pursue my goals, which dreams to bless and let go, how to cut my hair, how to decorate my house, how to nurture my relationship, who to spend time with, when to have or not have kids, what clothes to wear, etc, etc, etc. So, good. This is my life right now. It will continue to change but right now, this is it. Great. I got a good deal on it too.

And then I go online. Well, but that person lives there and she looks pretty happy. She didn't get married yet and look at all the fun stuff she's doing. Oh, her hair is long and it looks really good. They already have two kids so they are practically halfway done raising them and I haven't even started. Her husband does all these little things for her, would S even think of that? His job looks like fun and he seems like he's making a lot of money, I could probably do that. How did they take three big trips this year? They completely redid their house...that they own. She has ten good friends that she seems to see all the time, sigh. OMG, she ran a marathon!? Wow, they seem so happy all the time.

My own neuroses aside, is this an unpleasant side effect of Facebook and blog scrolling? I know this kind of comparison shopping has always happened, just read any Jane Austen novel, but does our increased connectedness exacerbate this unhealthy tendency? I know intimate details about the lives of people who I otherwise would never see ever again or have any reason to give even a passing thought if it weren't for Facebook. What do you think? Do we need a collective therapy session to help us interact with our extensive social network in a healthy way...or is it just me?

My inspiration/From whence I steal good ideas

We don't have cable which means I can no longer obsess over HGTV. This is probably a good thing. However, recently HGTV has been supplanted by some amazing home-centric blogs that I stalk read. Well, mostly just one blog but every once and a while they will share another person's obsession with blog about their house and I mosey on over and take a look.

My current favorite home-loving friends are Sherry and John over at Young House Love. And now they have a baby so it's an even better read. Most recently I stole their idea for the bathroom.

Here is their version:

 And here is mine:

These are in my "jewel box" half bath.  Since we are renting our townhouse we only painted the bathrooms to get rid of the awful wallpaper and make the repainting when we move easier.  I like Sherry and John because they provide tutorials for everything they do.  These were easy and I already had all of the supplies in my house!  I am really impatient when it comes to projects so this was perfect for me.  As far as the "subway stops" on my signs, I love New York and Paris but Mike has never been there so I used locations in OKC for the fictional subway signs.  I didn't cut the boards very straight so the bottom one is a little whankerjawed (as my grandma would say) but, eh.

Here's another view:

Oh, so many things I would change if this place were ours!  Someday.

And speaking of good ideas to steal, I am also stealing this one someday in the near-ish future.  Seriously.

Check out their awesome "how to" tab.  Great ideas!

A 3-Day training first

This weekend I sustained my first injury while training for the 3-Day during a 12-mile walk.  Nope, it wasn't shin splints or a pulled muscle or a twisted ankle or even a sunburn.  A bee stung me on my bottom.  Luckily I was almost home for my midpoint pit stop and water refill so S helped me put a baking soda paste on it and cover it with a band aid.  My first injury and my first bee sting, all at the same time!  It still itches and, it's location being where it is, the resulting scratching is highly unclassy.  A facebook friend asked me if it went something like this:



In other 3-Day news, we are now 11 weeks away from the event and I only have $250 left to raise!  My goal of $2300 is only 11% away!  Click here to learn more about how to help me reach my goal!