Lakeside

I'm still on vacation, and I haven't actually done much in the way of photo sorting or prepping for uploading. The Okanagan Valley is obscenely pretty and I am having the best time here.

Will be back to posting pretty pictures Wednesday, at the latest. If I'm feeling spunky, I might even start tomorrow when we get home.

Speak Up, Bitte!

I'm not sure how much I've told you lately about my laptop, but I'm going to be upfront here. My laptop is teeny tiny. No, seriously. Like itty bitty. Its gorgeous and I love it, but I have a feeling it is screwing with my ability to fix my portrait shots on the blog here so they stop looking all cronky - IT'S A WORD. (now.) (Think creepy, crooked, gross, and wonky all in one word.)

Please let me know if the portrait (oriented) shots in previous posts look funny, pixelated, squashed, or otherwise formatted improperly - but also? Please tell me if they look Okay. Oh and also? Last thing - because my screen is about the size of a calculator screen, can you please tell me how much scrolling is required for you to see the whole portrait (oriented) shots?

Thanks guys!

Maintenance

I'm currently in the middle of resizing everything here, making everything a little bigger. I have always hated the typical blog layout that ignores the left third and right third of the page. I decided to twiddle with the layout a bit and resize everything so that the pictures stand out a bit more than they used to...

Please let me know if you find something that looks funny so I put it on my to fix list.

Update forthcoming

So, I know I was gone and being all vacation-y for several weeks there, but I'm back now and I promise to start uploading some pictures just as soon as I sort through the 4,000 - NOT KIDDING - shots I took over the past couple weeks. They're all gorgeous, of course, so its taking me a while to be picky and choose upload-able ones. (Also, I am being enchanted with all the gorgeous weather in Vancouver, so I accidentally might have something besides sitting in front of a computer to do for a few more days to get re-acquainted with summer in BC. Its really very pretty.)

Sidebar

So I don't keep losing it, there's a link to the Vienna List post in the right sidebar in the Gear section. Please let me know if you come up with an idea of something that should be on the list but isn't yet.

Vienna List

I'm going on vacation! I need to get away from the eerily horrible grey skies of Vancouver, else I will indeed go utterly insane. Plus, I miss Vienna.

So. In Vienna, this is a list of things I want to do and/or shoot:

Schoenbrunn Zoo since I never went there the almost 5 years I lived in Vienna.
Gloriette because it is my favorite-est thing in the city.
Votivkirche at night to replace the blurry Votivkirche shot I already have.
Charlie P's for some drinks downstairs.
Johnny's Pub for a QUIZ night. Maybe Crossroads, too?
MQ to sit outside with some beer and people watch.
Rose Garden because I'm a girl and girls like flowers.
Rathaus - which will hopefully have some kind of night thing happening.
Altes AKH for beer at Stiegl Ambulanz and maybe some gelato in the sun.
Bagel Station because I miss bagels.
Amerling Beisl for brunch.
Siebenstern for ribs and a mass of beer.
Mezzanin for a Singapore Sling.
Benno for a game?
Europa for people watching.
Prater to wander around and maybe even go on some rides!
Shebeens, Merry Monk, Rhiz or another Guertel bar, Schultz or Alcazar, 1516 or Flanagan's and Flex all for drinks, possibly until the very early hours of the morning.
Wachau for a day trip?

Edited to add:

Heurigen! (Thanks, Jurie!)
am Steinhof with The Mels.
Zanoni & Zanoni for eis!
A (not embarassing) game or two of pool at Köö.

Have I missed anything?

My past 24 hours

For 24 hours, straight, I have been packing, unpacking, wrapping things in paper, unwrapping things covered in paper, walking around either apartment, taping boxes, ripping tape off boxes, pushing heavy boxes into a pile for someone else to deal with.... and thousands more things involving moving.

And now I am D.U.N.

I'm on the couch, looking at my new view, under a blanket and looking for some take out on the wifi which I've borrowed from one of my new neighbors because I cannot find the box with the router and I AM SO TIRED OF TOUCHING CARDBOARD.

I hope to be able to post some pictures in a few days.

Trendy; As Muscially Talented As I Get

I recently came across a few new (to me) blogs by digging through most of the nominees for the Bloggies. One of them was Rachel's blog which I tend to check mostly daily now.

So I nicked a meme from her. The CD Cover Meme.

The CD Cover Meme has only three rules: (1) The first article title on this random wiki page is the name of your band, (2) the last four words of the very last quote on this random quote page is the title of your album, and (3) the third picture here, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

My details:

Album Cover: Untitled by lazyoldsun
Band Name: Atelier Method
Album Name: live, if you do
Quote: Illusions are art, for the feeling person, and it is by art that you live, if you do.
Elizabeth Bowen (1899 - 1973)



If you mimic the meme, please leave a comment so I can check it out.

Okay Fine.

Phil said more cold. Damn.

2008, The Beginning

I had wanted so much to clear out so many pictures and post so many pretty things for you to see. The day after my last post, I packed up the car and drove to another country for a vacation of about 8 days. Of that time, I spent about 4 days alternately driving and sleeping in a hotel. Oregon - Take note, I don't like your snow. Also? Mountain passes covered in lots of slushy snow. I don't like those either. But until the day after Boxing day, I did not know that. Look how much smarter I am than I was this time last year! Yay!

Sadly. Ever. So. Sadly... Since returning from California, just 2 full days into this new year, this photograph fiend here, I mean, you know, me... Well I've been enjoying the night sweats and the sniffles. I've slept for like at least 14 hours every day. There was a dry cough that joined in the chorus of the groans and snorts I was making in a vain attempt to breathe through my nose, but the throat scratching only paid a short visit of two or three days. There's an indentation in my bed, I kid you not. It is shaped like comfy sweats, a hoodie and a handful of semi-used tissues. There is a pile the size of Everest of crumpled tissues on my nightstand. I have watched, I'm so not kidding, the last 4 seasons of Gilmore Girls on DVD, and I've almost finished the first season of Spooks (MI5 to you North Americans), including every single extra feature on every single disc.

Alas! Today is the first day that I did not spend most of it in bed, curled up under a duvet, a chenille blanket, and a handmade blanket. A slight cough has made a comeback, but my sinuses are finally not threatening to explode out of my face. Now if only my ears would stop making that creeking noise when I yawn so I can declare myself in perfect health again!

All of this to say, I'll get some pictures up soon. I've been a tad distracted by trying to keep my face from falling off (or, you know, something equally as fun).

Update for the month

Yes I know, I am being very unreliable. However, things here have taken a few turns and I'm having quite an un-easy time of it at the moment.

I do have some shots of some whales to post, but I will spend some time writing a proper post about it all soon. When things calm down, hopefully in a week or two.

In the meantime, leave me a comment with a funny joke, if you would pretty please? I need the laughs.

Without Time

I have loads of pictures to put up here, but I can never find any time to get it done. Perhaps tonight. Perhaps.

Keeping you apprised of my whereabourts

At the moment, I'm hanging out in the sunshine in a garden in good ole England. I plan to catch at least one good shot of a bird snacking on some seeds, a few of some flowers and then possibly a few shots of people or planes. We shall see how well it all goes.

So, um, sorting pictures is what I do with a 102 (F) temperature

I was in Engerland until this past Monday. And then I've been in bed until I pretty much looked like death warmed over this morning. So now I'm on the couch. I'm sorting through pictures, and will be updating flickr and also putting a number of posts up. It will be a flurry of activity! Just you wait!

It wasn't a typo

Yeah huh. I was really awake before 7 this morning. In fact, I was awake all night long. Why? Because the internet needed reading. And Bill Maher needed watching on YouTube. If I wasn't going to do it, then who would?

See? I had to.

Weather report from Vancouver

Okay so while I was away from Vancouver, someone found the heat switch. Good lordy it gets a tad warm here now! Pictures forthcoming - I must sort and organize and then make a new "upload" directory to flood with pictures.

My arms fell off today

I spent 5 hours of the day - starting at about one o'clock with a few rests in between - moving dirt around. Ten cubic yards of dirt. That's like a whole mountain of dirt, and yes, I did take pictures of the mound of dirt. Then I started with the shoveling. The moving. The hauling. The wheeling. And oh mercy, the raking. TEN CUBIC YARDS OF DIRT. Moved. With a shovel. And a fecking wheelbarrow that I had to assemble before being able to use it.

I can't tell if my arms are still attached. And tomorrow I will sit in the sun and drink beer and wine. Through a fecking straw.

Vay. Cay. Shun.

I got on a plane a couple days ago and now I'm hanging out in California. I've been keeping entertained by shopping for landscaping materials, plotting my shopping trip to the big scary mall, playing peekaboo with my niece, and drinking an unholy amount of wine.

Oh, and taking pictures of course. But I'm not equipped to share them just at the moment. Soon! Like - next week.

Quest for Lord Stanley's Cup IS ON!

Detroit - Let's go fry some Ducks! Okay!?

(Detroit 2 v San Jose NOTHING, A BIG FAT GOOSE EGG So Detroit plays for the conference title. C'MON, Boys!)

Pause

I was away for the weekend. Pictures coming soon.