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July 24, 2004

Rainy Day in Leavenworth

It has rained all day long today. Everyone has been staying inside, except for those absolutely necessary visits that the dogs have to take outside. John has mostly flown planes attacking bad guys with his flight simulators. He also vacuumed the kitchen floor for me (yes, we have horrible carpeting in the kitchen, but the vinyl underneath is worse, and replacing the flooring is not yet on the top of our very long list of things to do to this house).

Andy has played with his Play Station 2, watched TV movies and helped me with hauling the never-ending pile of laundry that we have accumulated up and down the stairs.

There are only three humans in this family, and we have way too many clothes, towels, sheets and other washable items. Of course, the main reason that our sheets, pillowcases and bedspreads have to be washed so often is that we have 7 cats and 3 dogs, many of whom want to sleep with us (under the covers if possible) at night.

Wish dogs and cats had opposable thumbs. Maybe they could hang up the laundry for me!

Andy, our college aged son, home for the summer, is bored to death. The rain just finally let up, and he is taking Shadow, our biggest and oldest dog, out for a walk. He doesn't yet know that when he returns, he needs to take Whiskey, our middle-sized and middle-aged dog out for a walk. Houdini (the youngest canine) is acting like a cat and is wrapped around John's shoulders as he flies his WWII plane over an unidentified river. The graphics on these flight Sims are really unbelievable.

I am saving 213 pictures from the past couple of weeks to my hard drive. I'm only up to picture #67. I will be sharing more of these pictures with you than you ever wanted to see, but it will make me feel like my life is worth living (kidding, really, kidding!).

I do not have much in the way of photographic talent, but I truly love playing with the camera and using different settings - what are they - f-stops, aperture settings, etc. When I was in Pennsylvania last week, I took about 20 pictures of the same thing - I just changed the settings for each one, so I could see what happens.

Once upon a time, I fancied myself a photographer - back before Andy was born, and I had a lovely Minolta 35mm SLR camera. Seemed like I had more time back then, and I did take some nice pictures - but I can do so much more with a digital SLR camera using software.

Oh, golly, I'm rambling, aren't I? I'll download more pictures, then I'll upload them with stories.

I saw a pretty reddish colored thing in the pond, and I just walked out there and I'm pleased to report that one of the 1/2 price water lilies I bought at Lowes last month has bloomed, I'll take a picture and post it shortly. Well, at least once all those pictures have downloaded.

In case I have never said anything to you all, it is really quite a thrill that anyone would want to read what I have to say, and I truly appreciate you all. Thanks!

Posted by Beth at July 24, 2004 04:08 PM