Kristin’s Playground

My mystery picture the other day was cantaloupe. A tasty fruit with an albeit odd outer texture. Fun to play with though. My Dad was the first to correctly answer here, and Miss Efficiency answered correctly on its flickr page, so postcards to them! I’ll have a few more mini-contests like that before I leave, so you can still “win” a postcard. Though I’d probably send postcards to most of the people who would win anyway, so … anyway.

Yesterday’s picture is of an industrious spider. I had to bring our plants inside the other night because there was a frost advisory. I set them out in the morning, and in the afternoon, he’d built himself a pretty wide-reaching web connecting two of the plants! I don’t particularly like spiders, but at least he’s outside.

Today’s picture comes from a run-down part of town near the river. When I bike home, I see a beautiful river on one side, and old warehouses and things on the other side of the railroad tracks. Somehow I don’t think this thing is really celebrating the spirit of innovation anymore, but maybe that’s just me.

My picture of the day today is a contest…or something. Can you guess what this mystery texture is from?

The first person to get it right gets bragging rights, and a postcard from Italy. Or something.

I went shopping today for things for my upcoming trip to Italy. Top of the list was a phrase book. I know very little Italian. I’m a bit nervous about it. This particular phrase book included a CD, so I can cram on the plane with my ipod. Wish me luck! (That’s “Buona fortuna,” by the way!)

On Saturday, I made potstickers, a la Alton Brown. The recipe, complete with pictures is behind the cut. Read more »

How did it get to be Sunday night already? Like I mentioned yesterday, it’s been a busy week for me at work- getting adjusted to a new schedule, realizing just how close the conference actually is, etc. We’re rushing to get everything ready for a conference in Italy, and while I’m looking forward to it, I’m also a bit nervous. Milan is the land of high fashion, and I don’t exactly fit that model well. Nor have I learned enough Italian to survive yet. And I need a new swimsuit - which should be great fun to shop for. I’ve never particularly liked shopping, but I hope I can find something I like.

Anyway, here’s my daily photo:

I saw the shadows from the chess set on the wall, and thought it looked cool - sort of like a little city-scape.

Monday, the 19th of May:

It’s been a crazy week - dominated mostly by a shift in my work schedule. I’ve been working earlier, so it’s required going to bed earlier, too. (I started getting ready for bed as I hunted for a picture for the day - before this week you’d never have seen me getting ready for bed at 9:40!) It’s been a little hard to adjust, so I haven’t posted any of my pictures all week. See the rest of the week’s photos behind the cut. Read more »

Well, the party went well yesterday. Good food and drink, good friends, some Mario Kart and some roasted marshmallows - what more could you want? I picked this for my photo of the day yesterday, showing some of the tasty snacks we had. The M&M’s are the special Indiana Jones Mint Crisp version. They’re like Thin Mints - in an M&M. Tasty, and all too easy to eat. I have to say though, that the fruit makes me happy too. I’ve been eating the leftovers today, and I’ll have some more tomorrow. The chocolate things in the background are “Mini Truffle Cakes,” (think souped-up brownies) and I might tell you more about those later.

Today’s photo is from my bike ride. I haven’t gotten to go on a good long bike ride since before tour, so I took advantage of the already clean house and headed out to unknown places. It was a good hour plus of solid biking, with plenty of hills, and some stops for photos along the way. On one of the downhill paths (on a not-quite paved road, I might add) I hit 27.9 miles per hour. Kind of terrifying, but fun. Biking home along the river, there were and lots of greening trees on the hillside. I couldn’t help but think that these wooded hills should be in some movie somewhere (well, maybe without the pink utility flag). They were really nice scenery. It felt good to get out, and then to come home and have tasty party leftovers for dinner. For now though, I need to make sure I get to bed early. I’m going to be going to work earlier in the morning now, at least until we get ready for our upcoming conference. We’ll see if I can make the transition to morning person.

Ah, the weekend is here! Since my birthday was this week, we’re having a little party tomorrow. I’m a little nervous about it; I’m not a natural hostess. A chocolate cake-like thing is currently in the oven, and the house is approaching clean. We have plenty of food (I hope), and the weather, while not supposed to be wonderfully bright and sunny, should be good enough to grill tomorrow. Still, I worry about social dynamics at parties I host. Will there be enough people that they’ll break up into smaller groups and entertain themselves? Or will we all end up sitting in a circle staring at each other wondering what we should be doing? Will people enjoy themselves? Generally things work out, but the tendency to worry does run in my family (eh, Liz?), and I’m not immune to that.

Anyway. Lots to do before then. So, for now, I leave you with my photo of the day.

I went outside to see why the dog was barking, and the clouds were absolutely gorgeous. Backlit by the moon, with a cool bluish-gray tint. Run to get the camera, and by the time I get back, the clouds have moved to let the moon shine through, which while still worthy of a photo, wasn’t nearly as cool as the moment I missed. Ah well.

Yes, I’ve been negligent. It always takes me longer than I’d like it to get back into my routine after being away. I feel like I need to spend more time at work to make up for the missed days, but there’s also a lot of things to catch up on at home. So, I’m still behind with processing all my photos from my trip, and I haven’t written anything up about them. Ah well. Blog entries may or may not come. I’m not going to promise lots of entries. I inevitably fail at those.

On the other hand, though, I am restarting my attempt at taking a photo each day. I won’t guarantee that they’ll be posted here in a reasonable fashion, but I’ll try. Logan got me a new point and shoot camera for my birthday (it was Tuesday), and it’s fabulous. I’ve been wanting one for a long time now. Don’t get me wrong, I love my SLR, but there are places I’d like to have to have a camera where I wouldn’t exactly want to bring a hefty, expensive thing. This camera is small, but still quite powerful - the macro mode focuses at 2 cm! - and it’s not so expensive I’d be afraid to bring it on a canoe trip or something. Also, and perhaps most importantly, it’s small enough for me to bring with me constantly. No extra bag if I want a camera with me. Yay!

Here’s today’s picture - my new bike computer. A present from my parents, and I’m quite happy with it. I’ve gone 18.5 miles since last week. It would be more, but I didn’t bike to work much this week. Been kind of rainy. Bah. Ah well. I’m an information geek. I like knowing things, so now I can tell you how far I’ve biked without having to go tediously click through a google map pedometer. And I can tell you how fast I was going, what my average and max speeds were, how long I’ve been biking, etc.

Anyway, I really need to get to bed. It’s past my bedtime, but I had a lot of things to do tonight, and I really wanted to get something up on the blog before then.

Wordless Wednesday