meant to be ideal and suggestive only

But the ice is kinda nice.

Ruthie's latest craze is cutting paper snowflakes. She carries the finished ones around in last year's Easter basket and asks each of us to please choose (for keeps) the one we like best. Periodically, she throws great handfulls into the air and makes it snow in the living room.

Lately during my drive to and from work, the sky has been filled with amazing pastel colors. Last night, not only was there this incredible rose and aqua thing going on, but the full moon was just beginning it's rise. I pulled over into the Miller's lot, (anxiously looking around for their Security Van) and snapped the above shot.

It wasn't until this morning that I discovered just how much moon detail my camera captured on the above shot, despite my ubiquitous shake (this is a blowup of the moon in the first photograph):

...go really fast!

Finale's Allegro is such a cool program.

As part of my church's Worship and Music Committee, I was tasked with getting our Benediction, Go Now In Peace by Don Besig, into a musical form that the congregation could refer to if needed (instead of the words-only form we use currently). After checking to see that we DID actually hold rights to make copies (we do), I put it into Allegro and came out with a pretty darn spiffy, easy-to-read, one-page insert for the hymnal. I thought for the software to just accomplish that was pretty cool.

But then I found the Save as Midi option. It makes recordings without a synthesizer!


Go Now In Peace
Go now in peace.
Never be afraid.
God will go with you
each hour of every day.
Go now in faith
steadfast, strong and true.
Know He will guide you in all you do.
Go now in love,
and show you believe
Reach out to others
so all the world can see.
God will be there,
watching from above.
Go now in peace,
in faith, and in love.

© Harold Flammer Music

A dear friend of mine gave me a book over the Christmas holidays, Everything I Ate: A Year in the Life of my Mouth by Tucker Shaw. In this odd little book, there are pictures of, well, you probably guessed it, everything Tucker ate.

I enjoyed going through his food diary, especially the slightly voyeuristic feeling it gave me.

Tucker likes cold cereal. And he likes it really late at night. Also, what is it with ketchup-flavored potato chips? If I hadn't seen the picture, I would have thought he was pulling my leg.

The book inspired me. No, I'm not going to photograph everything I eat this year because I don't want anyone, including my own husband, to be that close and personal with my digestive tract. Instead, I've decided to record daily gratitudes during 2006. Yeah, I know, I tried to do that last year too. But this time, my gratitudes will be as photographs. And who knows, taking a gratitude accounting has been known to ease the blues... perhaps it will work magic on more than just me.