I very much enjoyed today’s Winter Photography Class at Matthaei. It was taught by Mark O’Brien. We had a little bit of instruction and then all went out and wandered together in the winter woods, playing with exposure, watching our batteries drain exceptionally fast, shivering a bit, and having fun. At the end of the day, it was 11° F, -12° C. Mark has some nice photos from the event on his Flickr, including this one which has me in it so it is my favorite.
Tag: Home & Garden
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Grateful for the little things – gratitude week 2, 2008
This week, I’m grateful for the little things.
- Discovering the google maps “drag to change route” feature that let me ask it to take me to Depot Town via Washtenaw instead of I-94.
- Zingerman’s Bread. Every now and then I have this thought “what would I miss if I moved away from Ann Arbor.” The answer is: Zingerman’s bread. Paesano, rustic Italian, sourdough, sesame semolina. My next thought is typically, “well, go get some then!” Downtown Home & Garden is my most convenient place to pick it up.
- Not 100% so I’m also grateful for the peppermint, ginger, and white tea that I got from Janet for Christmas and that’s warming my throat right now, and I’m grateful for ibuprophen.
- I’m also grateful in advance for the sauna at Ann Arbor Yoga. Anticipating going there in a half hour. Yay!
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Best gift – Silence
I completely got away with something this year. I gave my husband something that will actually improve my own sanity and well being.
Dave and I get along, but we have pretty different leisure pursuits. He likes first person shooter, sports, and car racing computer games. He also watches some movies and TV shows I think are “too violent”. He’s not a bad guy, and you have to appreciate that I am a very sensitive person. The moment when Bambi’s mom dies in the snow is right on the edge for me. I like yoga, reading, writing, and thinking. I do yoga in the room next to the TV. And we have a cat, so closed doors are not tolerated.
So, even when I’m not in the same room, the sounds of his fun disturb me. I realize if I were enlightened, I wouldn’t notice the sniper fire during my savasana, but until I reach nirvana I require quiet to relax. His leisure pursuits give me an unwelcome background soundtrack of revving engines, squealing tires, or, worse, rat-a-tat machine gun fire and endless repetition of stock phrases. It gets to the point where I walk into the study and plead for no more “fire in the hole!”
Every so often I go on a tirade about this, and he responded by asking for some nice wireless surround sound headphones. I should feel bad about giving him something so obviously for me, but he got himself an XBox 360 for Christmas, so there really wasn’t any way I could compete. Today I had the joy of asking him to please put on his fancy new headphones so I didn’t have to partake in whatever loud thing was happening on the game console.
Wow. Silence. Imagine!
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Gift of 2007: Bags
Many gifts under the tree this year at the Higbie-Bondy-Greiling Christmas were bags.
- Canvas shopping bags (be an eco super hero!),
- Reusable “wrapping bags” (felt bags with drawstring closures instead of paper wrapping), and
- Handsewn bags from Etsy’s Little Red Birdie, suitable as a casual purses, a bag to hold knitting in progress, and little zippered pouches. Detailed and well made. I suppose they could be used to hold other bags, too.
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Catalog Choice – Eliminate unwanted catalogs you receive in the mail
Tis the season to purchase gifts. It’s also the season for carrying a pound of catalogs to the recycling bin each day. Those catalog folks do have my number – they know I purchase clothing, and shoes, they know I like wine, like outdoorsy stuff, yoga, and workout gear. I get pounds of catalogs at my house.I feel guilty about the catalogs that do have me pegged, like I somehow asked to be papered in catalogs offering hiking boots, backpacks, and yoga gear. The ones that never fit me, though, simply annoy me. And, for those stores I like, I’d rather let them store “my” catalog on their Internet rather than store a printed copy at my home.
So, I was grateful to read I can rid myself of unwanted catalogs by stopping them at the source, instead of recycling them at the end, after someone has printed, mailed, and then walked them to my door. I signed up for Catalog Choice and entered in this week’s batch of unwanted catalogs. I’ll keep declining catalogs as they come, and then wait for the day I don’t have to toss them (apparently about 10 weeks away).
Catalog Choice – Eliminate unwanted catalogs you receive in the mail
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Gone modular again
My obsession with modular floorcovering continues. After some delay and vacillation, I replaced the 12 year old Pier 1 clearance-special dhurrie rug in our study with Flor Copper Solid Ground. I was tired of kicking out the puckers in the old rug when I was trying to use the room for yoga. I also never liked the “southwestern” color scheme and pattern. This stuff feels great underfoot, cleans like a dream, and can be hand-cut to fit any size or shape. My favorite part about it is how it stair-steps around the file cabinet (lower right) and it also stair-steps under the desk (not shown).I might replace this photo with one taken in daylight – the ones with flash looked weirdly flat and this one is blurry because I was breathing during the exposure.