31 December, 2010 - New Year's Eve

My New Year's Eve was spent with my grandparents, per tradition. This year, my uncle, his girlfriend and my cousin all joined us (since they have been here since Christmas Eve). We had a good time playing Apples to Apples and the card game Golf with them as we awaited midnight. As everyone gathered in my grandparents' sun room to watch for fireworks being launched off the Peak, I quietly sat and waited for the clock to reach 11:59. Yep, the last thing I did in 2010 was wait for the perfect Project 365 shot. What can I say? It's a lifestyle.

30 December, 2010

Snow! We had a lovely snowstorm today. At least, lovely for those of us that stayed home.

29 December, 2010

I took the day off. I know some people are accustomed to constantly being on the go, but I generally live a somewhat sedimentary life, so the busyness of the week thus far has been a shock to my system.

I finally put up the framed piece of art that LH gave me last week. It looks positively brilliant up on my wall. Thank you so much, LH!


The end of 2010 is rapidly approaching. I have already decided that I shall embark on a second Project 365 quest in 2011. My hope is that I will enjoy being able to look back on my year just as much next year as I have this.

28 December, 2010

I got the pleasure of spending my day with LH, Flynn the Kindly Arsonist and his sister, Telpe! I was thrilled to have the trio all to myself for the day (I don't share well. ;))

To start our day, we hit Cave of the Winds for their Discovery Tour. LH hadn't seen the cave since she was a kid and I hadn't seen it in six and a half years. This was Flynn the Kindly Arsonist and Telpe's first chance at seeing a real cave, apparently.

(Naturally, there were many unique photo ops in the cave. My camera actually did alright with the dark lighting, much to my surprise. I got a few photos that I'm quite happy with.)



After the tour, we lingered on the balcony outside the cave for a little bit. I will never get enough of the beautiful mountain vistas that we have in this state.

(My companions for the day, backed by the beautiful Rockies.)


After the Cave of the Winds, we took a trip to Helen Hunt Falls before heading back into town and meeting my mom and sisters at Jimmy John's for lunch. Since LH, Flynn the Kindly Arsonist and Telpe didn't have to get back until five-ish, we took a spontaneous trip to our favorite regional park. The lakes that I photographed a few times this summer were all frozen over, which made for a spectacular sight.

(It appeared that many folks had thrown objects out onto the ice. Whether they were testing the solidity or trying to break the ice, I've no idea. It did leave the ice rather littered, though.)

Telpe started us off by carefully shuffling out on the ice. My sisters and Flynn both joined her before I caved and joined them (mostly due to the fact that Telpe wanted to borrow my camera.) We didn't go too far out, for fear of hitting patches of ice that weren't quite as solid as the ones we played around on, but we still managed to get a good fifteen feet off of the shore.



I rode with them, following my mom and sisters, back home before they took off for the evening. I doubt that I shall see them again while they're here, but that's alright, for I had a great time.

27 December, 2010

I guess spontaneous trips to the movie theatre are a new part of my family's lifestyle. We randomly decided to go see the seventh Harry Potter movie partway through the day. Despite the fact that we got there rather early, the theatre was pretty packed, making it so that our party of five had to sit at the front, if we wanted to sit together. Not my favorite spot, but I enjoyed myself nonetheless.

26 December, 2010 - My Grandpa's Birthday

We went to our favorite pizza place for my grandpa's birthday before going to their house for cake and presents.

Instead of using an intercom to inform folks that their order is ready, the restaurant uses mirrors with illuminated numbers to call customers to the counter.

25 December, 2010 - Christmas Day

Christmas! After gifts, we proceeded to cook the portion of Christmas that we were in charge of. In the afternoon, we headed to my grandparents' house for dinner. Per our routine, my grandfather read the Bible to us after we had tidied up and then we opened gifts.

The true meaning of Christmas.

24 December, 2010 - Christmas Eve

Just when I thought I'd run out of ways to photograph my little candelabra, I caught sight of its shadow on my blinds this morning.

23 December, 2010

The constant fog of yesterday left a very wet world in its wake. As such, when the freezing temperatures of the nighttime rolled in, the moisture turned solid. So I woke to a very frosty, white world this morning--and there wasn't even any snow involved!




I may be biased, but I'm pretty convinced that I live in the prettiest place in the world. This is as close to heaven as you can get on earth, if you ask me.

22 December, 2010

Strangely enough, our entire day was blanketed by fog. With the fog came a strange, frosty, light snow. It was definitely odd, but very cool.

21 December, 2010

We spent our day running errands, came home, unloaded the car and took off for Noodles for supper. Busy day.

What can I say? I'm in love with this candelabra.

20 December, 2010

Thanks to high winds, our back fence nearly came down again. Fortunately, the supports our neighbor put up back in May when it went down the first time kept it from collapsing entirely. However, we still had to go outside and put it back together with some additional supports, screws and nails.

19 December, 2010

As I was laying on my bed yesterday afternoon, I was enjoying the way the lightbulb reflected the world behind it: scaling everything down to the tiniest size imaginable. I tried to convey that in a photograph but, alas, my camera just didn't want to do it. So I instead took a close up of the light bulb, since I still find the fact that a filament produces so much light for us absolutely wonderful.

18 November, 2010

'Twas a very uneventful day, but a fun evening. We went to our newest favorite restaurant, The Spicy Pickle, for supper and then headed out to a beautiful light display that one of our local churches does every year.

17 December, 2010

As we're going to a play this evening, I've decided to write my blog post a bit early.

We again have some gorgeous snow outside. This is a bit more substantial than the storm we got yesterday, even though it's not quite what I'm used to. After lunch, I went outside to see if I could get some pictures of our pups in the snow. About thirty Goldfish crackers later, I came back inside with a few decent photos. Below are some of my favorites of our two girls.

Joy-Ful and Wisdom decided they didn't like each other enough to allow me to position them next to one another, so I had to wait for them to naturally move close enough to catch them in the same frame.

If it's cold outside, Wisdom does not hold still long. Every time I tossed her a cracker, she'd snatch it out of the air, swallow it and gallop around me before coming to a screeching halt in front of me again.

Joy positively refused to sit so that I could get a decent photo of her. I guess she doesn't like having a wet tush. I did manage to get a couple shots of her, though. I love the way the snow stands out against that black coat of hers. I also love how much she looks like her mommy in this photo.

Even though they're rotten to the bone, I love our puppy girls. Every day is an adventure as long as we have them around.

16 December, 2010

I woke up to snow! A very light layer of it, but snow nonetheless. I'd already intended to take a picture of these little duckies that my grandmother gave me on Tuesday, but the snow really completed the photo, I thought.

15 December, 2010

Visited the doctor today.

14 December, 2010

For some strange reason, I have been craving glazed donuts for a while. Yesterday, while grocery shopping with my mother, I finally got myself a box of them. So that's what I had for my customary brunch this morning.

13 December, 2010

My poor little car has been needing a decent interior detailing job since before Thanksgiving, but I just haven't had the time. Without the needed time to give it the thorough treatment that I'm accustomed to, my mom and I took it to a car wash and used their vacuums. Three dollars and seventy-five cents later and it was looking much better, if not perfect. I also cleaned the plastic and put some protectant on the dash.

12 December, 2010

Settled back in, unpacked and continued working on Christmas gifts. Why must Christmas approach so quickly?

The souvenir magnet I got in Casper.

11 December, 2010

Slowly, but surely, I am getting caught up on my blog posts.

Saturday was the drive home. The further south we went, the less snow we saw (except for that five minute blizzard we encountered just north of Cheyenne.) Though we greatly enjoyed our trip and getting to see His Majesty Mister Fantastic Marinara Sauce again, I do believe we were all quite glad to see our "pack" again. We do love our pups.

"The road goes ever on and on, down from the door where it began..."

10 December, 2010

My mom and CoolBreeze decided to join Boom and I at the pool on Friday morning.



We got a late start, but we had seen a few photo opportunities in our exploration of the town the previous day and wanted to get some shots before the sun went down. For the first time during our short stay, we were not being swept off our feet by high winds. Instead, we encountered some snow. Very light snow, but snow nonetheless.

I imagine you can guess why I insisted on stopping at this sign.




The fake pussy willow plant from our room.


That evening, we picked up His Majesty Mister Fantastic Marinara Sauce and went to see The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader with him. All of us had a good time at the theatre and enjoyed a late supper afterward. We said our farewells when we dropped His Majesty Mister Fantastic Marinara Sauce at his hotel and then headed for our own.

9 December, 2010

I started the day by escorting Boom to the pool so that she could swim around (since we don't have access to a pool here at home). When everyone had stirred, we headed out to get some medicine (my family managed to catch my cold just before we left), get some lunch and explore Casper a bit. We discovered that it's a nice, quiet town. To the west lay the region's portion of the beautiful Rocky Mountains.

8 December, 2010

A cold, frosty morning greeted us on the day of our departure. I rose before the rest of the family to get a shower, care for my dog and finish my packing (I don't enjoy the last minute packing that comes with a trip). We were locking the house up and hopping in the loaded car at about ten o'clock, which was our aim from the start.



Six hours later, we had checked into the hotel and unloaded the car. As is the way in early December, the sun made a rather rapid descent, so we were glad we managed to arrive early enough to get settled in before dark.



When His Majesty Mister Fantastic Marinara Sauce gave us a call to let us know he was off work, we dropped by his hotel to pick him up and take him to dinner. Despite the volume of the very busy restaurant (I guess Olive Garden is the most popular restaurant in Casper, Wyoming?), we had a very good time chatting with our friend. After dinner, we whisked him off to our hotel room as we weren't quite ready to call it a night. All the same, we got him back to his hotel early enough for all of us to tuck in at a decent hour.

7 December, 2010

I put most of the finishing touches on my packing today.

My dog's a nut.

6 December, 2010

I've accomplished a lot of getting ready for our trip on Wednesday. In the process, though, I plum forgot to take a picture until the sun was nearly down. So I snapped a shot of the lights I put in the window last week.


I'm not sure if you can see her, but in the gap in the blinds at the bottom of the window is my silly sister, peeking out at me.

5 December, 2010

I'm just finally getting around to making the Christmas gifts that I'd planned out last month. Among the projects I have on my to do list, I'm customizing a calendar for a friend (who, fortunately, does not read my blog, so I don't have to worry about spoilers). By "customize", I mean that I'm going through the calendar and marking important dates (birthdays, anniversaries, etc) with scrapbooking pens and stickers.



Also, I thought I'd post the manipulation I made from the screencaps I got last night. This is dedicated to the final scene in the final episode of my newest obsession, "Sherlock". As always, you can view a larger version here. Also, technical critique is welcome.

4 December, 2010

I have basically stayed camped out at my computer all day. I did churn out a couple of requested graphics and get my first set of screenshots, though, which makes me feel like I succeeded at something.

3 December, 2010

Being sick is not much fun. It is also not particularly productive. However, despite the fact that all my body feels capable of is sitting around and producing an excess of mucus, I managed to assist my mom with putting up Christmas lights in the front window. I was even able to get creative with it. I think it looks good, but the real test of that will be after the sun goes down.

This shot was actually taken blindly. I held the camera approximately where I thought it would take a nice shot and hit the shutter button. On my first try, I got this picture, which made me happy.

2 December, 2010

Boom and I decided before I left that we wanted to go on a Sherlock Holmes marathon when our copy of BBC's "Sherlock" finally arrived. Naturally, it arrived on Friday, after I'd already left to stay with LH. Boom then spent most of Wednesday shopping, so we had no time to start our marathon then. However, yesterday, we were able to start and finish the complete marathon in one day. Unfortunately, our collection isn't particularly large (hence our ability to so quickly forge through it), but we had a good time none the less.

1 December,2010

A portion of my sleeping bag ripped while I was staying with LH, so I repaired that on Wednesday between laundry loads and doing maintenance on my family's computer.