Photo Contest entry

I want to enter Costco's annual Photo Contest, and today is the deadline. (Have I ever mentioned that I'm a major procrastinator?) After looking through all the photos I've taken this past year, I think one of these two is the best (though I have LOTS that I really like). I had thought about cropping the one of my dd to a vertical shot, but I think I like it with all the water better.

Please let me know which one you think is "winning material". Thanks!






I enjoy playing around with different effects, and I really like this one that you can do in Picasa, with just a bit of color focused where you want and fading to black & white. Pretty cool, eh?

If you buy peace, you will be seen as weak. If you want peace, fight for it.
When you engage in actual fighting, if victory is long in coming, then men's weapons will grow dull and their ardor will be damped.

For My Husband

I'm going to "steal" a post from another friend:

To My Dear and Loving HusbandIf ever two were one, then surely we.

If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee;

If ever wife was happy in a man,

Compare with me ye women if you can.

I prize thy love more than whole Mines of Gold,

Or all the riches that the East doth hold.

My love is such that Rivers cannot quench,

Nor ought but love from thee, give recompence.

Thy love is such I can no way repay,

The heavens reward thee manifold I pray.

Then while we live, in love lets so persevere,

That when we live no more, we may live ever.

This poem reminded me of another Anne Bradstreet poem that I found in a book last year, which I copied into a letter to my Dear Husband:

A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment

My head, my heart, mine eyes, my life, nay, more,
My joy, my magazine of earthly store,
If two be one, as surely thou and I,
How stayest thou there, whilst I at Ipswich lie?
So many steps, head from the heart to sever,
If but a neck, soon should we be together.
I like the Earth this season, mourn in black,
My Sun is gone so far in's zodiac,
Whom whilst I 'joyed, nor storms, nor frost I felt,
His warmth such frigid colds did cause to melt.
My chilled limbs now numbed lie forlorn;
Return; return, sweet Sol, from Capricorn;
In this dead time, alas, what can I more
Than view those fruits which through thy heat I bore?
Which sweet contentment yield me for a space,
True living pictures of their father's face.
O strange effect! now thou art southward gone,
I weary grow the tedious day so long;
But when thou northward to me shalt return,
I wish my Sun may never set, but burn
Within the Cancer of my glowing breast,
The welcome house of him my dearest guest.
Where ever, ever stay, and go not thence,
Till nature's sad decree shall call thee hence;
Flesh of thy flesh, bone of thy bone,
I here, thou there, yet but both one.

Books I've read this past year...

We've read a lot of books since last September. Usually I am the one reading, while we're driving someplace; we keep a book in the car always. Occasionally he is the one reading to me, usually at home at bedtime. And we love to check out thrift stores everywhere for more books!

I thought it would be interesting to list all finished books here, along with what we're currently reading, books we have yet to read, and ones that we still need to find (to finish a series, or we just want to read).

Terry Brooks

1. Magic Kingdom for Sale--Sold!
2. Black Unicorn
3. Wizard at Large
4. The Tangle Box
5. Witches' Brew

Orson Scott Card

1. Ender's Game
2. Speaker for the Dead
3. Xenocide
4. Children of the Mind
5. A War of Gifts
6. Ender in Exile

1. Ender's Shadow
2. Shadow of the Hegemon
3. Shadow Puppets
4. Shadow of the Giant

The Memory of Earth

Diana Gabaldon

1. Outlander
2. Dragonfly in Amber
3. Voyager

Dick Francis

1. Odds Against
2. Whip Hand
3. Come to Grief
4. Under Orders

In the Frame
Field of Thirteen
Second Wind
Dead Cert
For Kicks

Alistair Maclean
Athabasca
Floodgate
Caravan to Vaccares
Goodbye California
Partisans
San Andreas

Terry Goodkind

1. Wizard's First Rule
2. Stone of Tears
3. Blood of the Fold (Read in 2007 before Sept., but why we wanted the series)
   
4. Temple of the Winds

(Actually, my dh has downloaded all 12 of the books in this series. We think we'll put them on cd and listen to them in the car.)

Ayn Rand
Atlas Shrugged (dh has finished it; I have not. This is a "read on your own" book)
We the Living
The Fountainhead (we watched this classic movie recently)
For the New Intellectual
Anthem

Dave Barry
Big Trouble (watched this not-classic-but-funny movie recently)
Tricky Business

Mario Puzo

1. The Godfather (reading separately, when one of us is waiting in the car; we'll have to watch the movies sometime)
2. The Last Don
3. Omerta

Charles Dickens
Bleak House
A Tale of Two Cities (Dh read, I only got through the first chapter...)

Lillian Jackson Braun
The Cat Who Saw Red
The Cat Who Played Brahms
The Cat Who Played Post Office

Near or Far: Which is fairest of them all?

I wear glasses. I've worn glasses since I was about 12 or 13. I need them to help me see far away. Therefore, since I can see things up close, I am nearsighted. For some reason, people seem to get the terms "nearsighted" and "farsighted" confused, but I don't understand why. It makes perfectly logical sense to me that if you see better "far" you're farsighted, but if you see better "near" you're nearsighted. Anyway, that's not what this post is about.

I wear glasses. Oh yeah, I said that already. I did get contacts when I turned 16, and I still have some, but my eyes tend to be very dry, so if I wear them ALL DAY, or fall asleep with them in, they tend to stick to my eyeballs, and it's not very pleasant to remove them! Being pregnant and having small children for pretty much the past 17 years of my life has made me very tired, and naps are a wonderful, and sometimes unexpected, part of my day. I simply don't have time or energy to "take out my eyes" just for a nap, especially if I'm in the car.

So, despite the fact that little hands can make glasses pretty dirty, knock them off my face, and bend them, I wear glasses. The glasses I currently wear were purchased in 2004 (or was it 2003?). They are glass lenses as opposed to plastic, because glass doesn't scratch! I know, you can get "scratch-resistant coatings" for your lenses, but you know what? It doesn't really work! At least not for me. And my prescription isn't so strong that the lenses are any heavier in glass. I like my glasses, I really do. They have flexi-hinges on them, which means if they get opened too wide they don't break, which is really good when you have children who like to "borrow" your glasses.

But I really need new glasses. For the past 2 years, one of my lenses has this annoying habit of falling out, usually when I'm cleaning it. I tightened the screw. I went to Costco and had them replace the screw. We tried gluing it in place. Nothing worked. The space is stripped out, so no screw will stay in. I currently have a piece of wire running through the holes to hold them together. Sometimes, if I bend them just a bit in the wrong direction, the other lens pops out, too. Not a good thing.

So I need new glasses. Oh yeah, I already said that. I'd be happy to get another pair just like what I have, but Costco doesn't seem to have that exact style anymore. And my dh would like to see me with lenses a bit smaller than what I currently have. So, on a recent trip to Costco, I selected several frames to try on. Dh took photos of them all so that we could compare them at our leisure and make our choice. I would like to invite you all to tell me which one(s) you like the best, and also which ones you like the least. Please participate! Thanks in advance!


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12)

Quite a handful!

I know some of them look a lot alike, but really they are different. Maybe different colors or slightly different shapes on top or bottom. Leave a comment, please!