not your astronaut

my two little guys at christmastime

2012-01-06T13:11:00.001-05:00

afternoon commute

2011-10-22T11:33:00.001-04:00

afternoon commute, a photo by stupid blue on Flickr.

afternoon commute

finn at seven months

2011-10-09T13:01:00.002-04:00

or, looking a little happier ...

my boys

2011-08-10T11:20:00.002-04:00

i took this picture of erik and finn last night when the sun was setting and the light was beautifully soft. it's my favorite of the two of them together so far ... but i don't have very many because erik really hates to have his picture taken, how sad for his photographer mom!

death of the point and shoot camera

2011-07-20T11:15:00.003-04:00

i read an article awhile back about how the digital point and shoot camera will likely fade into extinction over the next several years due to the increasing abundance and quality of mobile phone cameras. i kind of scoffed at that thinking sure, the quality of the photos you get from these phone cameras is getting better, but it's still a long way from being as good as that from my little canon SD790. fast forward about 6 months plus one child, and I find that i'm carrying my camera less and less and taking photos with my phone more and more. i guess with two children now i have enough to remember/carry that the extra item, even though it's so small it fits in my pocket, is nearly always overlooked. in addition to that, i have a few apps for my phone camera that instantly create some really cool effects and can be uploaded directly to facebook or flickr or sent in an email. since i am also rarely on my computer in the evening or on weekends anymore, this has become my primary tool for photo-sharing. so it seems the author of that article was correct: convenience triumphs over quality. plus it would take a good bit of photoshopping to accomplish what my retrocam app does with the push of one button.

my how finn's grown

2011-06-21T17:05:00.003-04:00

maybe one day i'll have time to blog again!

welcome baby finn

2011-03-30T21:20:00.001-04:00

Baby Dots Birth Announcement

Personalized cards for babies, Valentines, Easter and Mother's Day.

View the entire collection of cards.

pummelvision

2010-12-17T23:42:00.003-05:00

from the fine folks at pummelvision, my flickr life flashed before your very eyes:

pretty cool, no?

this year's carving

2010-11-01T16:19:00.002-04:00

i decided to carve the traditional jack-o-lantern this year. i wasn't feeling particularly inspired, but i awoke saturday morning with visions of round, slanty eyes and a dramatic overbite with large fangs in mind, so that's what i went with. it was a great weekend all around, trick-or-treating with erik times two, lots of lab work also. life is busy! and little zanzi has been super active, keeping me company all the while.

18w4d - introducing zanzibar buck buck mcfate!

2010-10-26T22:31:00.002-04:00

last day of summer flowers

2010-09-23T16:33:00.004-04:00

the calendar says that it's fall, but it's almost 90F out there. what gives? bring on the 70F days and evenings in the 50s! i took some photos the other day, something i hadn't done in awhile. here are some cornflowers from my neighbor's yard and little yellow snap dragons from my own.

it was interesting to watch the bees push themselves into the "mouth" of the dragon, do their little bee-siness, and move along.

thinking about halloween already!

2010-09-19T19:47:00.002-04:00

one of my favorite holidays. maybe my very favorite!

exciting times

2010-08-27T17:45:00.002-04:00

i don't know if anyone reads this blog ... mostly because i never write anything in it anymore! well, i'm not really announcing this to the "general public" yet, but i'm excited and have to tell someone, so i am telling my blog. and if anyone should happen to read this, i guess that's okay too! :)

9w3d:

way behind

2010-07-11T00:18:00.002-04:00

hmmm

2010-05-05T15:00:00.004-04:00

seems to me i haven't blogged in awhile. and i started the year off so strong! maybe i'll catch up again one of these days. i've been taking TONS of photographs and have been enjoying playing with them in photoshop and i just adore the topaz adjust plugin! i have lots and lots of new flowers popping up in my yard. i don't remember having so many in years past, but maybe it's just that i wasn't really looking. these just came up this week:

they are called star-of-bethlehem. and i am captivated by these bluebells:

thanks to the kind folks on flickr for helping me to identify all of my beautiful blossoms! perhaps i'll dedicate my next post to logging and identifying all of the flowers that i have in my own tiny little yard in pittsburgh, pa!

experimentation

2010-03-04T11:22:00.001-05:00

something new to play around with!

ooh

2010-02-27T01:02:00.000-05:00

i like the way this one turned out!

topaz adjust

2010-02-27T00:20:00.003-05:00

does some pretty cool things! still trying to decide if it's worth my $50 though. here's an example of some photos edited with the plug-in:

some stuff

2010-02-26T00:05:00.001-05:00

this:

and then this:

miniature fakes

2010-02-18T23:11:00.002-05:00

all of these are photographs of full-sized things manipulated in photoshop to look like miniatures. it's fun to play around with them.

what do you think?

A LOT of snow

2010-02-18T23:08:00.002-05:00

and ice damming, and water in our bedroom and dining room. heavy heavy sigh. bastards at njm won't cover any of the major damage. lots of tears today. self pity. and wine.

ominous

2010-02-18T23:06:00.001-05:00

snow-rama 2010

2010-02-07T11:28:00.004-05:00

in case you hadn't heard, we had a pretty big snowstorm here this weekend. i think our total was around 22 inches! we're all fine here, and peter's about to finish digging out our driveway so i can go down to the lab. obviously we didn't go anywhere (by car) yesterday, but i took a nice long walk around greenfield (our neighborhood) and snapped tons of photos. here's a mosaic i made with some of my fisheye pictures:

the skies were brilliantly blue yesterday afternoon, and with the snow these pictures fit quite well with the blue/white theme of my recent mosaics. i may need to create another with snow! i love that combination!

i know i've been behind on my blog again, but that's because we're just so darned busy! i actually started writing a post from last weekend. We went to the zoo and aquarium on saturday and then i took a quick trip to phipps on sunday, but i haven't finished it. maybe one of these days ...

the year in flowers

2010-02-02T14:56:00.003-05:00

for 2010 i designed a calendar filled with photos of my flowers and had it printed at bighugelabs. they did an excellent job and it really came out beautifully.

so far this year ...

january

february

my father-in-law challenged me to do one of all rocks for 2011, but so far i have no interesting rock pictures. when the weather gets a little warmer i'm going to have to start scouting locations around the area with cool rocks!

another blue and white

2010-02-02T11:39:00.002-05:00

this time, all flowers! i'm working on a more substantial post, but so as not to exit the blogosphere completely, here is a pretty picture that helps brighten up a dreary february day for me!

sleepy

2010-01-26T23:59:00.002-05:00

so tired tonight, i'm going to bed soon. here's a pretty blue and white mosaic to look at for now:

entertainment

2010-01-25T22:38:00.002-05:00

it was a BAD night with erik tonight ... no nap today, and at bedtime we had a complete nuclear meltdown. luckily peter very generously relieved me when i was about to totally lose it. erik has FINALLY settled down in bed, i have FINALLY settled down with a couple of glasses of wine, and i created this to amuse myself:

meh

2010-01-25T00:11:00.001-05:00

i need to get out and take some photos!

wordles

2010-01-22T23:59:00.004-05:00

there is the really cool website with a program that allows you to create word clouds from any text you type or paste into it. i've been having a lot of fun playing with it and making wordles mostly from lyrics to various songs, but if you're more creative than i am, you could probably make something really interesting. the website is: http://www.wordle.net/

here's an example of a couple that i have made.

this one is just text pasted from dean wareham's wikipedia entry:

and one from the lyrics of the luna song sideshow by the seashore:

finally, this one is from the lyrics to another day by galaxie 500:

i highly recommend that you go check this out, and share your results with me. i'd love to see them!

the other red squirrel

2010-01-21T23:42:00.002-05:00

today i did not take my camera to school with me. today, on my walk from my car to the lab, i saw my little red squirrel friend but had no food to share with him so i didn't stop. and then, a little further down the road, i saw *another* red squirrel, this one a bit fatter and a bit bolder than the one i usually see. he came right up to me, obviously begging for some food. he sat only six inches from my feet so i of course whipped out my phone and took a couple of pictures of him - what a cutie!

another erik birthday mosaic

2010-01-21T00:16:00.002-05:00

i wanted to update the one that i made yesterday so that i would have a photo of erik on january 20th each year, and also so that each photo would clearly show his face (yes, i am very picky!) ... this is what i came up with:

my little boy blew out his candles all by himself tonight!

happy 3rd birthday erik!

2010-01-20T00:57:00.001-05:00

here's a mosaic i made with photos from each of erik's four birthdays. they were all taken on january 20th except for the last one, which i took at his party this past sunday (the 17th). i'll try to get a decent shot tomorrow and update it. hard to believe my little guy is 3 already! it's gone by amazingly fast, and i hardly remember what it was like having a little baby. he's such a big boy now!

party!

2010-01-18T22:14:00.002-05:00

yesterday we had erik's third birthday party. it seemed to go pretty well, everyone had a good time. i'm not feeling particularly verbose tonight, so for now here are some pictures.

before the party:

funny faces:

opening presents:

cake time!

no one seemed to mind that he spit all over the cake while he was blowing out his candles.

i think the highlight of erik's day was listening to yo gabba gabba songs on unkie newt's phone:

then watching yo gabba gabba with maggie upstairs:

while others played wii downstairs:

more later ...

afternoon in the strip

2010-01-17T00:48:00.000-05:00

yawn

2010-01-16T00:02:00.001-05:00

i'm feeling too tired/lazy to blog tonight, so here, look at this picture of my cute squirrel friend!

reflection

2010-01-15T00:40:00.003-05:00

it was another beautifully sunny and blue skied day today, and it's even warming up a bit. the sunset was again gorgeous, and i again couldn't resist stepping out onto the balcony of our new building to take some pictures of it. the cloud patterns were very interesting, and the river was smooth as glass reflecting the clouds and the colors, not to mention the trees, bridges, and buildings. i'm going to have a huge collection of pretty sunset pictures from this place!

thirteenth sunset

2010-01-14T14:32:00.001-05:00

my day in pictures

2010-01-13T23:55:00.002-05:00

today was the first day of sunshine and blue skies in 2010 ... i'm so glad i took my camera to school with me!

the geese make interesting patterns with their tracks in the snow.

i see this little red squirrel most days on my walk from the parking lot to my new building. today i shared some bread with him and he rewarded me by sitting close by for some pictures then doing some incredibly cute things.

all of the sunshine caused the ice to thin out a bit on the river and it made some really cool shapes.

i saw the geese again on my walk back, but not the little red squirrel.

and i was treated to a very pretty sunset, the first i've seen so far this year.

erik, unhappy in the snow

2010-01-13T11:53:00.000-05:00

on saturday peter had some errands to run and i stayed home with erik because he wanted to play in the snow. it turns out that erik is really not fond of the cold, so we spent more time getting all dressed up in his snowsuit, then undressed again than we actually spent outside in the snow. for what it's worth, i didn't think it was all that cold and just had a jacket and jeans on, but i suppose i have a lot more insulation than he does! here's a picture of him i snapped with my macro lens as i was begrudging the fact that i wasn't going to be able to photograph snowflakes while he happily played in the snow like i'd planned. doesn't look too happy, does he?

icy

2010-01-13T00:51:00.004-05:00

today was another very busy day at the lab. i was doing about five different things at once. some of them worked, some of them didn't. some i won't know for a couple of weeks if they worked or not. my day started out with erik being pleasantly and unusually cooperative before daycare. i've been making him hold my hand going down the stairs there lately because they've been wet from all of the snow and i've been worried he might slip and fall. sadly today i was the one who slipped and fell, and pulled poor erik down with me! luckily neither of us got hurt ... we both landed on our bums! i felt terrible though for making him fall. aside with the trouble with some of my experiments today, the other bad thing that happened was that i got bitched at by a certain stomme kutwijf who will remain nameless because i happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. apparently someone had slipped and fell (i see a theme today) on some water that was in front of one of our lab's -80 freezers. granted I had been in that freezer twice this morning, each a quick visit, but i suppose some ice could have dropped from the door onto the floor, but i really didn't deserve to be spoken to like that. i feel terrible that someone got hurt, but in a room like that (the freezer farm) with so many freezers in a small enclosed space, it's inevitable that water will get on the floor from time to time. i'll be more mindful of that in the future and clean up any messes immediately, but i also think that people just need to assume that the floor in there could be slippery and take the proper precautions. as i found out just this morning, slippery wet floors can cause you to fall! only i didn't feel the need to curse at someone for my bad luck and clumsiness. hopefully we'll be getting some non-slip mats to put in there, and maybe that will alleviate the problem.

as per my entry yesterday, i took my little camera to the lab today, but only had time to take a couple of shots. the ice on the monongahela river was really pretty and interesting to look at today, all crackly.

it was hard to get a really good picture from inside the lab because of the reflection in the windows, but i waited until it got a little darker to take another one and kind of like how the lab reflection looks on the photo of downtown pittsburgh.

this evening after work/lab, we went down to costco to order erik's birthday cake. we let him choose what he wanted, and i think peter was pretty relieved that it wasn't pink and purple with princesses, butterflies, and unicorns on it. instead he picked a colorful caterpillar on white icing, on top of a chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling. sounds yummy! i'm still trying to motivate to clean the house. we got some things done to that end, but still have a long way to do. as for now, it's almost 1:30am and i need to be getting to bed!

back on the horse

2010-01-11T23:18:00.002-05:00

today was an unremarkable monday. i got erik up and out at a reasonable hour without much fuss, got to lab in time to do my transfections before class, and took my first shuttle rides of the year up to the bst and back for research in progress. it wasn't too bad. i was a little sleepy and had trouble paying attention, but i got some good hot chocolate beforehand so that was nice. here's me on the shuttle, looking a little haggard:

i'm not sure why, but i seem to feel compelled to take self portraits on the shuttle with my phone and then post them. i guess it's all about documenting little parts of your day. i really should start carrying around my little camera with me to capture all of the interesting things i see each day rather than using my phone. but i guess it has a certain charm all its own.

i really am trying to motivate myself to get my house cleaned and organized for our guests this weekend, but i'm just feeling so absolutely uninspired to clean. i know that by the end of the week i'll be in full blown panic mode and it will all get done, so i'm not too concerned just yet. i have to give a lot of credit to peter who actually has been doing a nice job of getting some things done in the living room. thank you peter!!!

sold out

2010-01-11T01:00:00.001-05:00

i guess that's what i get for waiting until the second day tickets are on sale - the wilco show is sold out! %#@&! hopefully i'll still be able to acquire a ticket somehow ...

boo!

being there

2010-01-11T00:47:00.003-05:00

i just found out friday that wilco is going to be playing at carnegie music hall in april! i'm so excited that a band i like is finally going to be stopping in pittsburgh - they usually just go right by! i still need to get my tickets which went on sale yesterday. it'll be great!

i had been looking for at least a month for my wilco cd 'being there' which lived at the cellomics lab with me and came home shortly before the move. for some reason it had never made its way onto my ipod and i've really been jonesing for it recently. today, as peter was working on cleaning/organizing for erik's birthday party and our visitors next weekend, he found it buried in a pile of CDs that i had looked at several times but always missed it. yay! i now have it both on my ipod and my laptop, so it will be with me at pretty much all times. thanks peter!!!

one of a kind

2010-01-10T01:21:00.002-05:00

check out this beautiful snowflake that i photographed this morning. i love this one in particular because its center looks just like a daisy!

foray into fisheye

2010-01-08T23:49:00.002-05:00

i've been dying to play with my new fisheye lens so i decided to take it to the lab today where there is copious light and lots of interesting things to photograph. i still need lots of practice, and to develop a better eye for what will look interesting with this technique, but i had fun shooting people and things around the lab. i got home a little earlier than peter and erik, so after i was finished shoveling the driveway, i snapped a few photos of our house/neighborhood/trees. this is my favorite, a hibiscus:

some snowy pines at the cemetery this morning:

the view from my window at the lab, down the monongahela river towards downtown pittsburgh:

marco in our bay:

my desk:

my snowy neighborhood:

hopefully i'll have a lot more time to experiment this weekend! i want to try to take erik sledding (for the first time ever) tomorrow, and we're going to a party at my friend jamie's house tomorrow evening. plus lots of cleaning to get ready for erik's party next weekend. it's going to be a busy weekend!

another day

2010-01-07T23:47:00.002-05:00

from start to finish, it was yet another very snowy day in pittsburgh today. other than the roads being a little slippery and dangerous, i'm finding all of this snow very pleasant and beautiful, a blanket of pure white on an otherwise gray cityscape. i haven't even been minding the shoveling. it's nice to have an excuse to be outside when the weather is like this, so pretty and peaceful.

nothing exceptional about today really. i worked happily in the lab most of the day, actually really enjoying some of the things i'm doing as it looks like a tough ligation finally worked and i may be able to start making my virus next week. i have some planning to do for a second virus that should come together much more quickly than this one, but i'm having trouble wrapping my brain around its design. erik's doing much better, nearly 100% and back to his old self tonight. the three of us had a good evening with peter giving him his bath and me tucking him in. now we're watching the dvd peter got me for christmas - 13 most beautiful ... songs for andy warhol's screen tests which is most excellent. i will definitely be watching this again and again. peter is going to try to figure out how to rip the soundtrack off of it so i can have it on my ipod. if anyone knows how to do this, please let me know!

i've been listening a lot this week to galaxie 500's album 'on fire.' so many great songs on that album, including leave the planet, snowstorm, strange, and an excellent cover of new order's ceremony. but i've completely fallen in love again with the hauntingly beautiful another day:

Why close your eyes to the sky today?
Why do you cry today just because the sky is grey?

Cause it's ok if every day is not the same day
It's just another way that every day is not the same

How can you see the sky when you close your eyes?
How can you run away just because the sky is grey?

Cause it's ok if every day is not the same way
It's just another way that every day is not the same

i have fisheye!

2010-01-06T22:45:00.002-05:00

i'm so excited that my final christmas present arrived in the mail today - my new fisheye lens (thank you peter)! unfortunately it was already dark when i got home, but i couldn't resist snapping a few pictures around the house. the lighting was terrible, and my technique leaves lots to be desired, but i couldn't resist posting a couple of shots. here's one of my kitty xena looking sufficiently distorted:

i can already tell i'm going to have lots of fun with it when i can find the time to really play! things are going to be pretty busy over the next week and a half as we prepare for house guests for erik's third birthday party, but i'm sure i'll have a few chances to experiment with my new lens ... at least i hope so!

sick day/snow day

2010-01-05T22:55:00.002-05:00

it's been snowing constantly since the start of 2010. i think my theme song for this year might be 'snowstorm' by galaxie 500:

erik has been sick for the past few days with a cold, stuffy nose, yucky cough and the like. this morning i left him inside to play while i went out to shovel the snow, and when i came back inside he was whimpering on the floor and said "hold me mommy!" i felt terrible that i'd left him, and when i picked him up, he threw up all over my shoulder, then said "you need to change your shirt." poor kid. i couldn't send him to school like that, so i let him stay home. we spent a lot of the day watching maisy and he actually took a nice long nap. i stole a few minutes while he was sleeping to go outside and photograph some more snowflakes.

peter came home a little early so i could spend the evening catching up on my work at the lab. afterward i went over to the southside to grab a quick dinner, and it was just beautiful, a blanket of white covering everything and muting all the sounds, the streets almost empty of cars and people. i got home in time to tuck erik in, and he seems to be doing much better tonight. hopefully he'll be well in the morning so we can get back to normal. but for today, it was a nice sick day/snow day.

happy snowy new year

2010-01-05T00:18:00.002-05:00

i'm not going to make some silly resolution that i can't keep, like being more diligent about updating my blog! i somehow lost interest in it a couple of months back, but it's not forgotten completely. the best way to keep tabs on me these days is either via facebook or flickr ... i update both sites very regularly with photos. here's a preview of what i've been up to. this morning i made my first attempt at photographing snowflakes and am pretty happy with the results. i can't wait to take more!

i'm sorry for ignoring you again, blog!

2009-11-29T22:57:00.001-05:00

pittsburgh on my mind

2009-11-05T22:07:00.002-05:00

i do believe that this is my 200th post! i've been very neglectful of my blog again. why does this always happen? we've been up to a lot of awesomely fun stuff lately. i love the fall! plus i've been spending more time playing with photoshop than blogging. here is my latest creation made with a photo i took from the hot metal bridge this past may.

calvary

2009-10-26T23:49:00.002-04:00

blog behind

2009-10-22T22:30:00.001-04:00

NIH roses

2009-10-14T19:54:00.001-04:00

i took some pictures of a rose garden i stumbled upon at the NIH at lunchtime today. here is a mosaic.

tulip

2009-10-12T15:08:00.001-04:00

kissing cousins

2009-10-11T00:29:00.002-04:00

the waveswinger

2009-10-09T00:16:00.001-04:00

photoshoppery

2009-10-08T23:22:00.001-04:00

a new thing i'm trying to learn ...

ticking away

2009-10-04T22:36:00.004-04:00

back to last week ... or the week before? where does the time go?

there were a lot of nice things about my birthday, but i knew i'd be taking friday off too and decided that i would let erik go to school so i could have some time to myself. it was nice not having to rush around in the morning to get him there, and after i dropped him off i went to phipps conservatory to have a look at the frabel glass exhibit in the daylight. it was interesting and weird driving through schenley park because the roads were still completely lined with heavy iron fences from the g20 reception the night before. there were dozens of people all over the park on forklifts and large trucks dismantling the fencing and clearing it out. when i got to phipps, there was a small group of protesters on flagstaff hill and wpxi newsman gordon loesch was reporting on them, but they were very peaceful. the group dressed as buddhist monks was also there. i got my camera and lenses ready to go, and immediately after getting out of the car and closing the door, i realized i had locked my keys in there.

d'oh! well, i immediately called AAA and wandered around near my car for about an hour or so. here is what i saw:

finally the AAA truck arrived and, though my car proved particularly tricky to unlock (which i guess is at least somewhat comforting), the nice man was eventually about to open it so i could retrieve my keys and go into phipps. i went around the entire conservatory twice, once with my "everyday" zoom lens and then again with my macro lens. i didn't go into the stove room with my macro lens because it was so humid and i didn't want it to fog up like my other lens did. so unfortunately all of the butterfly photos from that day are a little clouded over. they would have been better with the macro lens, but i didn't want to risk damaging it. here are some of my favorite pictures:

and my absolute favorite, the cosmos (i want to plant some in my yard next year!):

a brief summary of other things that have happened recently:

i horribly broke the tooth that i had the crown replaced on in december. it's bad. really bad. what's left is going to have to be surgically extracted, but i couldn't get an appointment for weeks. fun.

i left my headlights on in my car in the parking lot at the lab. all day. i made a second call to AAA within a week of the first and waited for almost an hour and a half to get a jump start.

we went to the delmont apple 'n arts festival and it was A-W-E-S-O-M-E! great job mom!!! i know you work really hard on it! erik got stung by a bee for the first time. he whimpered a little but didn't cry. at least we know he's not allergic to bee stings! there was a huge inflatable slide that erik LOVED! he did a great job climbing up and sliding down by himself.

they had a petting zoo where you could feed cute baby animals and give them a bottle.

we ate scrumptious apple dumplings and bought yummy apple cider to take home.

on the way home we stopped at walmart where i put a franklin regional (my high school) hat on erik and asked him to smile. why does he make this face when i ask him to smile?

sadly, later that night when i asked him what his favorite part of the day was, his response was "walmart!" he did get a prius at walmart.

on sunday we made a long overdue trip to the playground. it's been a little chilly, but it was still a beautiful day, and the playground was almost empty. i think erik had fun.

now the end of the week is close at hand and i'm looking forward to(hopefully) doing some fun things over the weekend. yay for friday!

home again

2009-10-04T00:21:00.002-04:00

home again

2009-10-04T00:12:00.000-04:00

halloween interlude

2009-10-02T22:04:00.003-04:00

fall is my favorite time of year and i am so excited for all the fun that comes with the season. it starts tomorrow with the delmont apple n' arts festival which is ALWAYS a great time and it looks like the weather should be just perfect for it this weekend. my mom works really hard year round on the planning and execution of the festival and she does an amazing job!

we've been talking with erik about halloween and reading books about halloween and pumpkins to get ready for the upcoming holiday. i think he's going to really enjoy it this year, although the thought of him getting all that candy is scarier to me than all the ghosts and witches! i've asked him a few times what he would like to dress up as for halloween and he always gives the same answer - "an orange!" i'm not sure if we'll be able to accommodate him. this is one of those times i wish i was crafty and could make him something ... although i guess as far as difficulty goes, an orange would be much easier to construct than a bulldozer or a knight or something. i think maybe i'll take him somewhere that sells costumes and see if anything appeals to him. if not, we'll work on making him an orange!

things erik has been that are not an orange:

relative

2009-10-02T12:47:00.007-04:00

how can the days go by so slowly, but the weeks fly by faster than i ever imagined possible? it's already october 2 yet it feels like it should still be the end of spring! today is friday, but it seems that friday should have arrived days ago. long week, short year. how is that?

there have been many things going on around here lately that i haven't yet had a chance to blog about. my cousin robin was in town for work and stayed with us twice in the past few weeks. i got to go out with my friends for dinner at the cheesecake factory a couple of weeks ago, which was great! the weather was warm and sunny, we had really yummy food and fun conversations, and they surprised me by singing and giving me birthday presents. that was really so thoughtful and sweet. i had some time down there at the southside works before my friends arrived so i wandered into rei, my mom's favorite store that she talks about all the time. i had never been there before so i really wanted to check it out. it's a lot cooler than i thought it would be. i'm not really much of an outdoorsy person like i used to be, but they had so many neat things there. i found a purse that i REALLY liked, which is so odd for me because i tend to be very anti-purse. but i have grown accustomed to carrying around a diaper bag (which also conveniently holds my keys, wallet, gum, phone, etc.), and i realize that when erik is finished with diapers (which will hopefully actually happen someday in the not-too-distant future), it will be nice to have something to carry my stuff around in. long story short (too late!), my mom got the purse for me for my birthday, and i really love it! it's the perfect size for all the things i need to carry with me plus i can also fit a lens for my camera or a bottle of water or something.

i had my first thesis committee meeting last week and that went pretty well, although i had to give my presentation twice because one of my committee members was an hour late. his teaching schedule got rearranged because of the G20 so i couldn't really fault him for that, and it was much easier the second time around and i got to skip through most of the background stuff. my project received mostly favorable feedback with a lot of "you should try this" and "you might want to think about/watch out for that." there were a lot of helpful suggestions that will hopefully help to guide me to the successful completion of my dissertation someday (although that day still seems far off in the murky future to me). the worst part of the whole thing was the anticipation of it, and the terror associated with public speaking. i wish i could get over that. actually, the worst part about the whole thing is that my PI really loved the presentation, thought i did an excellent job, and then his wife accused me of copying the presentation from someone else because she had found something similar online. for those of you who know me, you know that i would never intentionally copy someone's work and claim it as my own. when i prepared my presentation, i compiled it almost completely from my own had and data that i took directly from the primary source (papers i downloaded from pubmed). i never looked up anyone else's presentations on the same topic, so i didn't realize the striking similarity of one of my slides to one that queen bitch had downloaded. i admit that it looks very very similar in style and content to mine, although mine is much prettier. however the first time i saw it was a week after i gave my presentation. i suppose it's just my bad luck. i've had a lot of that lately. i don't know if my PI believes that i didn't copy it. i was totally distressed because i don't want to lose credibility. even if he does believe me, that seed of doubt has been planted and it worries me still. and i want to smack queen bitch upside the head for suggesting that, but of course i can't.

aside from my thesis committee meeting last week was a full and *mostly* good week. wednesday my human embryonic stem cells were FINALLY delivered. they arrived in a vapor shipper that looked not unlike r2d2. they are now nestled safely (i hope) in liquid nitrogen storage until we move to our new building in december when i will wake them up to play. wednesday also marked the official start of the G20 craziness (see my earlier post) with the greenpeace protesters unfurling a banner and hanging from the west end bridge. it also marked the beginning of the unrelenting helicopters circling over oakland, schenley park, and my neighborhood where absolutely nothing was happening (other than the storefront for the G20 resistance movement located on murray ave. and right across the street from erik's daycare). thursday was my birthday and lock-down of schenley park for the reception the obamas were having at phipps conservatory for all the dignitaries. i stayed home with erik that day. my mom came in to have a nice breakfast at eat'n park with erik and i. we did a little shopping at the waterfront and then went back to my house. erik played and watched a maisy while mom and i hung out, and a bit later we walked down to rialto to have some pizza for lunch. after my mom left, i got erik to go down for his nap and i watched a movie, awake with hayden christensen. it was ok, full of plot holes, but entertaining enough. during the movie, i got a special delivery of some beautiful flowers from my father-in-law and his wife:

peter came home with a big box of toys for erik from a friend at work, so that kept him entertained for awhile. we fed him some dinner and then let him eat his blue smiley cookie from eat'n park outside. i took this opportunity to take and pose for some pictures:

me being silly, looking at the helicopters buzzing overhead:

peter and i got take out from pf changs for dinner which was really yummy, and i decided that after a busy day with erik, i was going to let him go to daycare on friday and do something nice for myself.

to be continued ...

what next?

2009-10-01T23:48:00.003-04:00

visitors

2009-09-28T14:29:00.002-04:00

we have several visitors right now, including my cousin robin and her daughter anja, and tonight my cousin ryan will be joining us too! but really the title of this post refers to ALIEN visitors. i'm looking forward to the remake of the 80s miniseries 'V' that will be coming out sometime in october i believe. i remember loving it as a child and even playing 'V' on the playground in grade school. that combined with frabel's glass longfellows at phipps conservatory inspired this photoshoppery (the aliens were actually white opaque glass, not green, but i thought this would be a nice take on the classic "little green men").

a couple mosaics

2009-09-27T22:17:00.001-04:00

first major G20 protest in pittsburgh this morning

2009-09-23T16:01:00.005-04:00

this is a photo by starpoint media of some greenpeace protesters and their large banner warning of climate destruction hanging off the west end bridge over the ohio river in pittsburgh. it's really fascinating watching this all unfold.

Greenpeace Protest West End Bridge
Originally uploaded by StartPoint Media

the start of the G20

2009-09-23T15:51:00.002-04:00

G20 protests turn ugly
Originally uploaded by bigcrustyape

things are really gearing up for the G20 conference today here in pittsburgh. i have made the decision (which has been supported by just about everyone) to stay out of oakland for the next couple of days. i'm not convinced that it will be as bad as london, seattle, etc., but i'm not one to take chances. i just hope that it doesn't become as violent and brutal as this. please click on this excellent photo to see a larger version.

break time

2009-09-22T10:45:00.002-04:00

while i was taking a break on sunday from working on my presentation for my thesis committee meeting, i decided to go for a little walk and look for some things to take pictures of around my neighborhood. here is what i found:

i'm pretty happy with the way they turned out. i love the colors of the sunflowers and the tiny little flowers of the queen anne's lace. sometimes weeds can be truly beautiful.

it's just me

2009-09-22T00:16:00.002-04:00

my most recent self portrait. the main reason i'm posting it here is because i wanted to check it out on a black background.

i loved the frabel glass exhibit at phipps!

2009-09-19T16:01:00.002-04:00

i went last night with my mom and cousin robin to see the frabel glass exhibit at phipps conservatory. it was wonderful, and i am already dying to go back and see it before it's gone. i haven't uploaded many photos yet, but here are two as a preview:

i highly recommend seeing it if you're in the area!

falling behind

2009-09-17T23:21:00.003-04:00

so busy! my birthday is coming up next week ... and my first thesis committee meeting. i am pretty stressed out and as usual have found myself procrastinating and adding to my stress. i have so much to say! i just hope that i can make it sound somewhat intelligent, like it sounds in my head.

my cousin robin is staying with us while she's working here in pittsburgh, and it's been nice to get to spend some time with her again so soon after her last visit. she came in last night and will be staying through next wednesday, then coming back again the following week. maybe she'll bring her daughter anja next time. erik is totally infatuated with robin. it's very sweet, and she's very good at humoring him.

aside from being my birthday next week, it is also the G20 conference (actually ON my birthday) here in pittsburgh. people would have you believe that armageddon is afoot! i hope it won't be that bad and that the protestors can behave themselves. they're going to be gathering in oakland (very near where my lab is) and marching downtown each of the two days. there will be tons of road closures and snipers on rooftops and all that fun stuff. i have no idea what it will be like at school. my parents and peter are urging me to stay home on those days, and while that idea is attractive i just don't know if i will be able to get out of my responsibilities. although i guess it could be nice to take off my birthday and maybe do something fun, especially since it will be AFTER my thesis committee meeting and i might actually be able to enjoy it.

i haven't really had a chance to take many pictures lately. i haven't blogged since last weekend when we went to the ligonier highland games i guess. we had a great time! when i was younger i used to go every year and compete in the highland dance competition, and since we've moved back to the area, peter and i have gone every year but one and we always enjoy it. we both love the pipe bands, and this year erik REALLY enjoyed getting to see (and pet!) all the dogs. he particularly liked a golden retriever named saline (not sure if that's spelled right, it was some sort of gaelic name).

i think erik's favorite part was playing at the playground.

he also loved the fountain.

my favorite part was the pipe bands.

peter was super excited about the highland dancing trophies he won.

it was a great day, and we had a really nice dinner afterward with my mom and judy poellot (an old friend/mother of highland dancer/girl scout leader). here's a little mosaic i made:

i also took a couple pictures of xena this week. i was realizing since erik came along i haven't taken many pictures of her at all, and she's very sweet and photogenic and deserving of pictures, so here they are:

wow. i am even procrastinating going to bed! i better get going. i really really really need to finish up my presentation tomorrow and after school my mom's coming out and we're going to have a picnic in schenley park and then go to phipps conservatory. i think peter will probably bring erik home after we eat though ... i don't think either of them has an interest in going to phipps but i would really love to see the longfellows exhibit! should be fun and exciting!

if you love to read ...

2009-09-10T16:50:00.000-04:00

check out this site! it allows you to swap books you've read for ones you want to read, and the only cost is what you pay to ship the books out. the more books you send, the more credits for books you receive. i haven't posted any books yet, but i plan to very soon!!!

http://www.paperbackswap.com/index.php

labor day weekend

2009-09-08T22:27:00.002-04:00

i'm way behind on my blogging again, and the longer i wait, the less likely it is that i'll actually post something worthwhile. this is more of a placeholder than an actual blog, but it's still something i guess!

we had a great long weekend. the highlights were the final first friday at the frick where we saw the mediaeval baebes and had a wonderful picnic dinner and the pitt football game on saturday. who'd have ever thought that i would consider a football game a highlight of my weekend? i guess things change when you have a child. i really enjoy things more by seeing them through erik's eyes than my own. while he wasn't totally jazzed by the game, i think he liked the marching bands and the fact that we let him eat 3 bags of fruit snacks.

there have been other things worthy of a blog ... my mother-in-law visited last week and we had a really nice weekend together. erik sure does love his grandma! i also got to go out with some of my girls and we went mini golfing, go kart driving, and had a nice lunch together. my work in the lab has been going really well in some areas and not so much in others, but that sure beats the not really well in any areas that plagued most of my summer. i'm getting there!

hopefully i'll get back into blogging more soon. i enjoy having these posts to look back on! but for now, i'm calling it a night.

my cute little pitt fan:

end of summer flowers

2009-09-03T11:03:00.000-04:00

dear blog,

2009-09-01T10:55:00.002-04:00

i have not forgotten about you. we have been quite busy as usual. this weekend my mother-in-law came and we had a really nice visit. i took her back to the airport this morning. i will come back soon and post a real entry, ok? right now i really should be getting to work!

love,
lilly

ps. here is a picture i took this weekend. these flowers are at a house across the street from us and are so beautiful! i need to go back and take more pictures.

randomness

2009-08-26T11:44:00.000-04:00

i was looking at my most popular flickr photos again because it's interesting to see how it changes over time. i was surprised to see this one at number 37.

it's a long exposure i took in the dark of one of my nieces' toys ... it was some sort of spongebob squarepants spinning toy that lights up. i think it's kind of cool and am happy to see that other people have thought it is too!

here's the same toy held (mostly) still.

my parents

2009-08-26T11:40:00.000-04:00

i haven't posted in a bit, so here's a picture of my parents at the carnegie museum from a couple weekends ago. i will eventually (maybe) get around to posting more photos from that day, but as usual they're all on my flickr page so please feel free to check them out. namaste!

uploading to youtube

2009-08-25T00:03:00.001-04:00

i have been trying to methodically upload most of the little video snippets i have taken with my cameras over the past couple of years to my youtube page. please feel free to check them out and leave me comments if you like them. almost all of them feature erik, and unfortunately most of them also feature me speaking to him in a really annoying voice, so you may wish to watch them with the sound off. just kidding! it's kind of neat listening to all the little squeals and burbles he made as a baby, at least it is to me anyway! here's one to whet your appetite.

here's a funny

2009-08-24T15:56:00.000-04:00

a nice weekend

2009-08-23T23:30:00.000-04:00

the weather is much cooler this weekend than it has been lately and i am really loving it! unfortunately we had planned on swimming at a friend's house today and it was just too cool and rainy. but i am still thankful that the oppressive heat is letting up and am looking forward to going to bed (soon) with the windows open and fan on. i hope it lasts because i would really like to get outside and do some weeding this week, and i hate to do that when it's super hot and sunny.

i was at the lab for a little while yesterday and today because i have been working on some cloning that is just not going well. i have repeated this step about 5 times over the past 2 weeks, and haven't been having any success. FINALLY when i went in and looked at the plates i had prepared on friday night, i had a bunch of colonies meaning that my ligation (probably) worked. i'll be (hopefully) confirming that tomorrow, but i finally have some hope that i will soon be done with this cassette and can move on. small victory.

maggie and the jack rabbit

2009-08-21T22:24:00.000-04:00

in my family, riding the jack rabbit at kennywood is a rite of passage. i first rode it the summer before my second birthday. erik rode it for the first time just before he was two and a half when we went to kennywood for mother's day. maggie took her first ride on the jack rabbit last saturday, just after her second birthday. by all measurements, she was not quite tall enough to meet the 36 inch requirement, but some tall shoes, a pony tail on the top of her head, and an attendant who didn't pay much attention to measuring her all contributed to her getting to ride.

maggie and her daddy in line

she appears to measure up! notice the shoes :)

they jumped in the back seat, at we were off! this is right at the top of the first dip:

climbing the hill just before the double dip:

raise your hands, little buckaroo!

back at the station. yay!!!

a fun weekend

2009-08-20T22:52:00.000-04:00

here are some highlights from last weekend when my cousin robin visited pittsburgh with her family.

on saturday, we went to kennywood and spent more than 12 hours there! it was hot and crowded, and with 7 children and 7 adults more than a little chaotic. i'm pretty certain everyone had a good time (except maybe robin's daughter anja who doesn't really like rides much, but i think she might have had at least some fun).

erik waiting for his cousins (there was a lot of waiting that day)

in line for the kangaroo, our first ride of the day

on the carousel-

erik and anja

adam, marisa, robin, maggie, and jack

my mom (granny)

erik and maggie share a hug with the water bottle

erik takes a quick hot dog break

maggie took her first ride on the jack rabbit, but i will make a separate post for that. she's such a cutie! i'm not sure that she loved it, but she didn't hate it!

here are some other pictures from that day.

i think erik's favorite thing of the whole day was the sierra mist-er.

robin and justin

stick figures in peril

i like this set of four photos of the first hill of the phantom's revenge

i can't resist another hug picture

i had the chance to take a few long exposures of the lights. some of them came out well, some, not so much.

erik managed to stay awake until about 5 minutes before the park closed. he was so burned out by the end of the night that he didn't even wake up getting into and out of the car, and barely budged when i changed him into his pjs and put him into bed.

up next: maggie's first jack rabbit ride and sunday at the museum and bier garten!

recapitulation

2009-08-19T22:31:00.000-04:00

life has a way of getting really busy all of the sudden. these are the dog days of summer, those hot sweaty days that just can't seem to pass quickly enough. i'll be glad when september arrives because cooler weather will be just around the corner ... and my birthday ... and my thesis committee meeting. but i don't really want to think about that just yet! we've been doing lots of fun things in the past several weeks. a few weeks ago on friday night, we met my mom and her neighbor mrs. rau for first friday at the frick and had a nice picnic dinner and listened to the great reggae band wailing souls. my mom had told us about the concert she'd gone to in july and i thought it sounded like fun so we decided to go, and i think we all had the best time. the weather was perfect, the music was good, and it was so enjoyable. we were set up right next to some trees with mulch around them which made erik very happy. he spent most of the evening driving his cars around in the mulch, playing with a ball we'd brought, and dancing his cute little butt off:

i had never been to the frick mansion and it was a beautiful place. they had a carriage museum that my mom and mrs. rau took erik to and he loved it. they also had lovely grounds and a small conservatory.

later that weekend, we got together with some friends to celebrate my friend kellie's birthday. we met on saturday night to have dinner at the cheesecake factory, but the wait for a table was 2 hours because we had a large party, so we ended up going to the olive garden and were seated pretty much right away. we had a nice dinner there and then my friend jamie invited us over to her house to swim in her pool and hot tub. we had a GREAT time that night! erik LOVED the pool, and even though it was late and he hadn't napped, he was just so happy. he really loved swimming and especially jumping in the pool. peter was also loving jumping into the pool and especially loving the hot tub. we ended up staying until almost 11!

also that weekend we took erik to the library and to schenley plaza to ride the carousel.

i love this one:

they had an arts festival going on in the plaza, but it was so hot and the sun so intense that we didn't stay to check it out. erik requested panera for lunch, and we decided that was a good idea because it was just too hot to be anywhere without air conditioning (like our house).

i forgot to mention that when i went down to the basement to do my laundry on saturday morning, it was wet and stinky. yes, when peter flushed the toilet, the sewage ended up all over the basement floor. GROSS! major major bummer. major stinky disgusting expensive bummer. oh well. turns out the waste pipe was broken under the floor. the plumbers came back to fix it on tuesday with a jack hammer to break up the concrete floor. i'm just glad it's repaired. peter hauled all the stuff that got ruined to the curb (most of which we would have eventually gotten rid of anyway), but the mess down there remains to be cleaned up. lately doing laundry has been nasty business.

on to happier things ... my cousin robin and her family came to visit on their way home to kentucky from new jersey last weekend. her husband justin was born in hackettstown (where i used to live and work), and grew up very close to where peter's dad lives. they stayed at my brother adam's house for the weekend and we went to kennywood on saturday and to the museum and the hofbrauhaus on sunday. i have tons of photos to share, but it's getting a bit late so i will save them for another day. we had a great time with them ... they're so much fun and their kids anja, jack, and will (11, 6, and 5) are really great. anja made a big impression on erik, who hasn't stopped talking about her since the weekend. i'll try to post again soon!

a day at kennywood

2009-08-16T01:18:00.000-04:00

the jack rabbit was ridden, potato patch fries were eaten, some photos were taken (by me of course). i need to get there one night with my camera and no boy. i could have a lot of fun! i got a couple of interesting shots. i will upload some more when it's not 1:30am, but for now, here's this:

ignored blog

2009-08-14T22:05:00.000-04:00

poor sad blog. i will update you eventually ... kiss kiss!

here's a mobile phone self portrait of me waiting for the shuttle being all emo and shit.

erik at two and a half

2009-08-06T15:20:00.000-04:00

instead of having formal portraits taken, i decided to have prints made from some pictures that i took of erik for his two and a half "birthday." i've been collecting pampers rewards points from erik's diapers since he was first born and have gotten some pretty cool stuff over the years. this time i got a picture package from shutterfly with 25 4x6, 2 5x7, and 1 8x10 prints. i picked a bunch of photos from around mid-july when erik was officially two and a half, and am having those printed. most of the pictures are from ocean city and i think they are really cute. hopefully they turn out nicely ... i'd like to be happy enough with them to send some off to erik's grandparents! by the way, if any grandparents happen to be reading this and would like to have prints of any of my pictures of erik, let me know and i will have them made for you, or i can tell you how to download the highest resolution files from my flickr photos and you can have them made!

this is the picture i chose for the 8x10. the focus isn't super sharp because the light was very low, but i still really like it. i created the vignette look using picnik, a free online photo editing program that is linked up with flickr and is really cool!

these are the two 5x7's:

$8 date night

2009-08-06T15:13:00.000-04:00

peter and i went out for a rare date night last night and it was WONDERFUL! we noticed that angels and demons was playing in west mifflin at the super cheap cinema this weekend, and when i mentioned it to my mom she offered to babysit. yay! we'd been wanting to see it earlier this year when it was first out but never got the opportunity. my mom even gave us a gift card for chilis when i told her we were going there for dinner, so the whole night (including $1.98 for two super cheap movie tickets) only ended up costing us $8. we had both read the book while on vacation many years ago, and we really liked the movie. erik was very excited to spend the evening with his granny, and i think he was pretty good for her too, so i am fairly certain it was a good night for all of us. thanks again, mom!!!

my home

2009-08-03T22:40:00.001-04:00

maggie's bib

2009-08-03T17:21:00.000-04:00

photoshopped, of course!

from the geniuses at the greenfield giant eagle

2009-08-03T13:41:00.001-04:00

and another thing ...

2009-08-02T23:22:00.000-04:00

i was looking through my photostream on flickr for other creations i've made to add to the fd's flickr toys group and i came across a few pictures i took of erik when he was about 8 months old after he ate some baby food prunes that i just love. i'm so lucky to have such a cute little boy!

i also really like his expressions in these two pictures from around time same time:

he's growing up SO fast. here's what he looked like today:

yeah, he's still a messy eater!

daisy

2009-08-02T23:12:00.000-04:00

i haven't been feeling very verbose lately. i just can't seem to find the motivation to think about something to type and put it into a blog. i fear that my blog is becoming very dull, but i have at least been updating it regularly with my latest creations. take this daisy, for instance. i think this new take on it is quite interesting and pretty. it's all i've got for right now. the weekend is pretty much over, and i should be heading to bed soon to recharge. tomorrow: monday. ugh.

thanks mom for corn on the cob (and other stuff)

2009-08-02T00:43:00.000-04:00

here's another "warholized" flower creation with a photo of a sunflower i took yesterday in front of rialto. i've been digging the warholizer today:

mom bought us corn from schramms and we had it for dinner last night with bbq chicken - perfect summer dinner. it was DELICIOUS! and we also enjoyed some of the tomatoes today, and will make the green beans and new potatoes either tomorrow or monday. i love locally grown fresh summer produce! i think erik does too. :)

how in the world is it august already?!?

2009-08-02T00:31:00.000-04:00

i mean seriously ... august?!?

highlights from a quick photo trip to phipps this afternoon:

i like shutterfly.com!

2009-07-30T13:16:00.000-04:00

shutterfly.com makes really excellent stuff from your photos. the magnets and notebook for my mom's birthday were from shutterfly, and i have ordered lots of things from them in the past and have always been impressed with the quality of the items they produce. i frequently get emails from them with special offers like free or discounted photo books and free prints. today i got an offer for 12 free 5X7 stationery cards and i just couldn't pass it up. they have a huge amount of designs for either photo or text only cards, and i ordered some with a flower photo on them. i don't write real actual notes very often, but how cool is it that if i want to, now i will have some pretty note cards with a photo on them that i took myself? i think it's going to be fabulous. here's what they're going to look like:

i had such a hard time picking a photo, but i really wanted something "timeless" since i will probably use them so rarely that i will have these for years to come, and i wanted to pick a yellow or orange flower to complement the blue on the note cards i chose. i'm looking forward to getting them in the mail! the cost would have been about $34 with shipping and taxes, but i was charged only $6 and paid that with a gift certificate i got from erik and my hubby for christmas. thanks guys!

happy birthday mom!

2009-07-27T21:33:00.000-04:00

today is the birthday of a most awesome woman - my mom!!! i'm so lucky to have her in my life and hope she had a great day today!

i was so excited that i had my mom's present weeks ago, and it was actually a couple months ago that i spied a field of her favorite flowers in schenley park and took the pictures that i had made into magnets for her:

i also got her a notebook with my favorite picture of her with erik that says "world's greatest granny!"

our family went out yesterday to celebrate her birthday at joe's crab shack in station square (or as erik calls it, "station squarepants." we ate much awesome food - i got a steampot with lots of yummy crab legs and clams and corn and potatoes and sausage. it was SO good. i am kind of drooling thinking about it right now! mom was a good sport and let us have the waiters and waitresses sing to her and make her put on a silly hat.

a short video of the birthday song:

after lunch we let the kids run around by the dancing fountains and erik LOVED it! i got some cute pictures of the four kids.

i hope my mom enjoyed the day as much as we did. it was nice to see everyone again as it has been a little time since we've all been together on our vacation. when we got back home, i spent a little more time cleaning, organizing, and freecycling. we have a TON more to do, but i feel like i am making progress a little bit at a time. one of these days we will have a clean and organized house!!!

dots and loops

2009-07-25T23:02:00.000-04:00

here's a warholized mosaic of an extreme closeup from the childrens museum yesterday:

this weekend so far has been pretty good. friday started out with taking erik to his 2.5 year well visit with his doctor, and he's growing and developing awesomely! he's now 34 pounds and 38 inches tall and perfectly proportional in the 90th percentile for both height and weight (can you tell i'm a super proud mommy?). he's right on target for his physical and cognitive development and is a smart and happy little boy. although he wasn't super cooperative with the weighing and measuring and poking and prodding, he sat and answered all of the doctor's questions perfectly, and didn't freak out too much when his daddy had to hold him down for the hib vaccine. after the doctor, peter and i both decided to skip out on work/school and took erik to the childrens museum. i think he had a really good time there, but sharing (or rather lack of sharing) still remains a frustrating issue for peter and i!

(check out the cool ocean city t-shirt!)

and the original of the photo above:

i also stopped for a quick self portrait with the cool "raining letters" light thingy.

after the museum, we had a nice lunch at wendy's where erik totally pigged out and then went home where erik didn't take a nap but i did. we had a quiet friday evening at home and peter weedwacked the front "yard." erik has thanked him repeatedly for doing this because now he can go out into the front "yard" without getting lost.

our saturday was also really nice, kind of lazy but also kind of productive. we slept in a little, had bagels for breakfast, and i did some laundry and started the formidable task of cleaning out our closet while erik and peter played. it was long overdue, and i've actually made enough room for most of our clothes in there. it still needs a lot of work though. we decided to go out for a late lunch (with gift cards for red lobster - YUM) and some shopping at ikea. we are looking for a "big boy bed" for erik and i can't decide between a toddler bed and a twin bed. the toddler bed is attractive because it will take up less space in his room (for now) and we already have the mattress for it, but he'll probably outgrow it in a couple of years and we'll need to get a twin bed anyway. they did have a cute toddler bed with a built-in rail for less than $100, so we're tempted by that. plus when asked, erik said he wants "a little bed," so maybe we will go that route. we'll think about it a little more before committing to one or the other though. they had a couple really neat twin beds as well, and there's also the idea of getting bunk beds which he may like in the future. too many choices!

erik fell asleep on the way home so we stopped by my lab to make sure my shipment arrived yesterday and was placed at the appropriate temperature, and at the library to get peter's book. at home erik played outside while i did more closet cleaning/organizing. then bathtime, yo gabba gabba, dinner and erik's bedtime (aka fun time for peter and me).

yeah, i still need to catch up with blogging about our vacation. it'll happen sometime. for now, it's getting late and i need to figure out what i'm going to get when we go to joe's crab shack tomorrow to celebrate my mom's birthday!

organizing

2009-07-24T00:44:00.000-04:00

i have finally completed just a small bit of organization of my photos on flickr. i have TONS more to do, titling, tagging, etc., but i finally have a complete set with all of my FLOWER photos in it! YAY!

please stop by and look at it if you're interested!

sunflower

2009-07-24T00:34:00.000-04:00

when we got back from the beach, i went down to rialto (the local pizzeria), to pick up a yummy pizza for dinner. i noticed that they had some beautiful sunflowers planted along the building but i didn't have my camera with me. on tuesday night after dinner i decided to take a walk down there to take some pictures. when erik heard me telling peter that i was going for a walk, of course he wanted to go too. so all three of us went down and i took some photos of the pretty flowers. i was hoping for some gorgeous yellow-on-blue shots, but the sky was overcast enough and it was closing in on dusk and the sky ended up looking white in most of the pictures. regardless, i got some nice ones with my macro lens and here they are.

i'll definitely have to go down there again soon when the sky is bright and blue. i'll keep you posted!

not your astronaut

my two little guys at christmastime

afternoon commute

finn at seven months

my boys

death of the point and shoot camera

my how finn's grown

welcome baby finn

pummelvision

this year's carving

18w4d - introducing zanzibar buck buck mcfate!

last day of summer flowers

thinking about halloween already!

exciting times

way behind

hmmm

experimentation

ooh

topaz adjust

some stuff

miniature fakes

A LOT of snow

ominous

snow-rama 2010

the year in flowers

another blue and white

sleepy

entertainment

meh

wordles

the other red squirrel

another erik birthday mosaic

happy 3rd birthday erik!

party!

afternoon in the strip

*yawn*

reflection

thirteenth sunset

my day in pictures

erik, unhappy in the snow

icy

back on the horse

sold out

being there

one of a kind

foray into fisheye

another day

i have fisheye!

sick day/snow day

happy snowy new year

i'm sorry for ignoring you again, blog!

pittsburgh on my mind

calvary

blog behind

NIH roses

tulip

kissing cousins

the waveswinger

photoshoppery

ticking away

home again

home again

halloween interlude

relative

what next?

visitors

a couple mosaics

first major G20 protest in pittsburgh this morning

the start of the G20

break time

it's just me

i loved the frabel glass exhibit at phipps!

falling behind

if you love to read ...

labor day weekend

end of summer flowers

dear blog,

randomness

my parents

uploading to youtube

yawn