seriously, cat. stop already.

 

Yes. That's all off of him. He has a few bald spots now. The more vigorously I comb him, the more he loves it. I'm practically abusing him and he's purring and rolling around like he's getting a deep massage.

Our cat's a freak.

dog fest "dock dogs" event

lab in flight 

"i wanna jump too!"

unsure about this whole thing

Sorry about the infrequent posts and visits, folks. I'm so dog-done busy these days, that these pix are from two weeks ago when we went to Dog Fest. I didn't get many photos though because I had put in what is apparently our suckiest camera battery, and it died about ten photos in. Dem's da breaks. This is from the dock diving competition, and the last dog shown here was just seven months old and had never attempted this before. His handler was a young boy of about twelve. The crowd was cheering them both on, trying to get the young pup to jump off the pier. But as you can see, he opted for wading in.

I'm at the half-way point with summer school now and averaging about 95%! Woohoo!! Yes, that's counting algebra. Honestly, that number would be closer to 80% if my son, Luke, weren't tutoring me every Friday. (So, thanks for that, dear boy.) Over summer, they cram in a whole semester's worth of crap in six weeks. So, my new found abilities in math tell me I have three weeks of class left!

Woohoo²!!

fans of the wiener

Only in Wisconsin can you make a facebook post about where the Wienermoblie is going to be, and wind up in a parking lot with a bunch of friends a few hours later eating hot dogs.

I posted the rest on facebook this time 'cuz it's a bunch of people you don't know. But you're welcome to be nosy...meet the husband if you like...

Our friend Francee, on the left, is up from Miami. Her mother volunteers for Echo, who hired the Wienermobile to make an appearance and draw a crowd. Francee begged them to take her for a ride around the parking lot when they arrived, but they said they couldn't for insurance reasons. "No one has to know! she pleaded. I guess she needed to grease some palms to make that happen.

If you want to see some older weiner shots, go here. I promise no congressmen. But I have to say, this one is my personal favorite! Taken at the Milwaukee Art Museum with a Holga camera and a Polaroid back. (Mental note: search out more Polaroid film.)

Ok, that's plenty of wiener for now. Nothing says there won't be more in the future. I do live in Oscar Mayer territory. Why this particular vehicle has California plates is beyond me. Blasphemous even.

collapsing/cream brick goat house

Some wonderful old buildings in the farmland between Edgerton and Cambridge, Wisconsin. If you look closely at the brick building, you'll see it houses goats. If anyone had been around, I probably would've asked if I could shoot inside. I was curious to see how many goats were climbing in the rafters. But then, hubby was waiting in the car, so he probably wouldn't have been too excited about that prospect. Considering he didn't bring a book or anything along with him.

ride the drive

 

Argh! I'm never gonna keep up my blogging/visiting with this whole school thing getting in my way! :oP

To top off homework and tests, we had such a hectic weekend. The Cambridge Pottery Festival, dinner with the in-law's (Mom W's birthday) and Mounds Dog Fest. All those shots are still in the camera. It seemed faster for me to open one from the weekend before when Madison had their Ride the Drive. I had mentioned we'd been to this before and I didn't have many captures that varied from prior years, BUT seeing this image a second time, I realized it was a good candidate for a faux tilt shift effect.

So, yup. That's what that is.

I've posted a how-to link in the past, so just click "tilt shift" in the labels to find it. And if you try this yourself, please let me know, or include your link! I'd love to see what you did with this technique!

kitty & moxie

We're so happy for our friends, Kitty & Moxie, who've hit the big time, and had their first show in Vegas last week! Hubby drew this illo and made stickers for them to hand out! Cool, huh? Sounds like the show was a big hit (according to all the love they're getting on facebook)! We've seen their act locally, although it would've been a blast to see in such a huge venue. Seated next to Penn Jillette. Or Wayne Newton.

Um, let's just go with Penn Jillette.

You can watch one of their acts here, but turn your volume way down as the audio is awful. Also, these women are burlesque performers, so skin is shown.

Maybe it's too late to point out my liberal views concerning the nude form. Didn't mean to shock any newbies. We raised our boys with the belief that seeing a nude body on screen is more natural then seeing someone's head getting blown off. Guess we're just unamerican in that regard.

a walk in the park

yay! new monkey bars!

bouncy thing, debounced

timber(!)

out on a limb

it fell, then crawled three feet away

pick-up sticks

a lovely park view

Wanted to share scenes of the damage from last night's 100mph winds. These were taken at a park two and half miles from our house. The wind started up pretty unexpectedly. We have this 3-cornered canvas canopy (you can see a tiny bit here) that detached itself from the tree and was whipping up against the side of the house and up onto the roof! My poor hubby had to go out there with a ladder to take it down. "Can you bring in my potted tomatoes and peppers too?!" I shouted into the wind.

Aren't I considerate?

"Honey, could you please put your life on the line to bring in my $8 worth of produce?"

To be fair (your honor), it didn't appear all that scary.

...from the safety of the porch.

heavy

My peonies have all burst open in the last two or three days! I went out (in the 90º heat) yesterday to take a few shots, but the few bunches I brought into the house are much happier then what's still out there, smoldering. This morning a freak thunderstorm came through so most of them are now lying on the ground. Along with about 45 pounds of tree limbs.

So, do you care to guess how I got the shot above? Hint...

No camera is needed!

Ok, enough suspense. I simply laid them on the scanner with the lid open. You've probably all done this with your face, right? Well, why not try it with something attractive? Ha! I'm speaking for myself there, folks.

I got a pretty scan of some tulips a few years ago, which worked much better than peonies. The weight of the peonies pressed them onto the glass, smashing them. After a couple different attempts, I decided a single flower was the best way to go. The two flowers in the background are being hand held. Verrrrrrry still. I also experimented moving the flowers.

But then I remembered I have homework now and should stop screwing around. Ah, things never change...

We've got more storms heading our way this evening. Because the thunder gods demand I collect branches twice in 24 hours. Homework be dammed!

heads of state/thugs

Today Madison held another Ride The Drive event, where several major streets are closed to vehicles for six hours. We went up to take photos, but things seemed a little more lackadaisical this year so I really didn't capture anything terribly exciting or different then prior years.

What really made my day was when we saw the Klement Sausages making an appearance at the capital! Can I get a woot?! For those of you unfamiliar with these fine gentlemen, they have their own wiki-page! I don't think they're even the Brewer's official mascot, as that title goes to Bernie Brewer, but I seriously don't know anyone who cares about Bernie.

Even his wife left him back in 1994.

I mean, come on, he slides into a mug of beer every time there's home-run. The guy's a lush.

The Sausages are the real stars. Put "sausage race" in youtube and you'll see what I mean. I even featured them in our Christmas card one year. I thought I had shared that on flickr, but apparently not. Note to self: Scan sausages.

In other (major, life-altering) news, expect to see less of me around here for the next couple of months. Tomorrow, I head back to school. Been unemployed for far too long, so it's time to take drastic measures. Will try to make the rounds to say hello, and possibly do a "dump and run" on my own blog when I can, but I imagine I'll be up to my eyeballs in homework.

Sure hope my English teacher asks me to use "lackadaisical" in a sentence, because I am prepared to impress!

cold sesame noodles

My thanks to Samantha for sharing this super, yummy recipe! Isn't the interweb fantastic? I didn't have any Chinese egg noodles in the house, so I substituted Thai rice noodles. (Because who doesn't have those in their pantry, right?) When hubby and I were half way finished, I remembered I had some crushed peanuts left over from a satay recipe, so we ended up throwing those on too. Ow, baby.

As you can see, unlike Samantha, I like cilantro very much, thank you.

don't try this at home

I take lots of shots with my lensbaby lens, and if you've been coming around here for a while, you could very well be sick of them. But, these are not lensbaby captures. Ha! Gotcha! (*yawn* "Where is this going, pk?") In this case, I removed my 50mm f1.4 from the body of the SLR, and flipped it over, shooting backwards through the lens. Getting a focal point using this technique is even harder than with a lensbaby, in my opinion. You're manipulating the camera and the lens independently, while shooting uber-macro! Prepare to do some breathe holding.

By all means, go ahead and "try this is home" if you like, but keep in mind the inside of your camera body is being exposed to the elements. Pick a breeze-free, lint-free, dog-hair-free zone. Get your shot, and reattach your lens, pronto. Or hey, maybe you like the awesome effects that dirt produces on your images. I'm not here to judge.

I'm here to remind you that experimenting is fun!*

*But don't do drugs, kids.
____________________


Nancy has her Sunday Best post up, so I'm adding this to the line up. Pop over and check out some other blogger's faves! :o)

i wash myself with a rag on a stick

When I saw Isaac in this position, licking his belly, I said to my son, Cub, who was staying here for a couple days, "Holy crap, he's so fat, it looks like he's sitting on another cat!" We laughed at his expense. Isaac is actually Cub's cat, but his apartment doesn't allow pets, so we are stuck with have Isaac for now. Honestly, we only fill his dish once a day.

Guess I need to invest in a smaller dish.

It may look like he has an attitude, but he really is the sweetest cat.  He doesn't bite or claw. Just rubs and head butts. Can knock a pug right over if they don't see him coming. And pugs are pretty sturdy as far as dogs go.

Wasn't it Meow tse Tung who said, "The best defense is a good offense"?

laundry day

Isaac being his helpful self. I think his back is to me in this shot. It's hard to tell. Usually if you make eye contact with him, he sprints towards you. "She's looking this way, so naturally she wants to pet me." He's all about the love.

And currently, the shedding. He's the reason these sheets needed washing.

lemon/lime shortbread

Here's the shortbread recipe for you cookie lovers out there...

It is a Martha Stewart recipe that I adapted a tiny bit. I don't bother to roll mine out. Just chill in the form of a tube, and slice them to the desired thickness. I obviously forgo the sandwich part as I like one thicker cookie.

I make the frosting a little thicker too. Six ounces of cream cheese, and one cup of sugar is plenty.

And as mentioned, I went with lime here just because I had some. If I were taking these to some function, I'd stick with lemon as not to confuse people into thinking my cookies are broccoli-flecked.

eat up

Made chicken tortilla soup and cornbread last night. Then I turned the left over lime rinds into lemon/lime shortbread. Yum, yum, and yum. Didn't get the cookies frosted until this morning, but hubby likes his shortbread naked anyway.