If I just lay here...would lie with me and just forget the world...

I think I might have to go to a "Not Blogging Regularly Anonymous" meeting. Good grief a week has gone by and I've not enlightened you, my faithful readers, on what I've been doing.

I'd love to say I've been busy, but I just can't out and out lie to you. I have been doing things, just nothing that should warrant not writing a blog.

Last weekend I spent a good portion of it in the world of photography.  First Saturday was the monthly PhotoGods outing. We went to a local ferry terminal and beach area.  It always amazes me how we all really are shooting the same subject and yet we all have such a different perspective on it. I love that. I get to see what other people see and hopefully that makes me see differently.

Here are some of the things I saw:

We saw Angelica. She was on the beach with her father making a sand castle...then she waded into the water for something. She was awfully cute.

We saw ancient writing prophesying that we'd be there in 2011.

We saw rocks. I think this would make a cool puzzle.

We saw shells from a bugs perspective. And a bright light in the distance.  We begged the shell to not go towards the light.

We saw sea gulls...

And more sea gulls....

And even more sea gulls.  I actually think these are the same two sea gulls. They were messing with us for sure.

Oh and we say ducks.  This particular hen was quite huge and all sorts of comments were made about her being big breasted.

Oh and we saw this guy.  Which one is funnier looking? BigBro? Or Man of Stone? The caption of this "piece of art" - and I use that term loosely - was "Whale sighting" or something like that.

So as you can see, we did take photos and we did practice photography. I'm not sure what I learned on this outing other than my brother needs seriously mental help, but that I already knew.

Saturday afternoon I spent the day learning about Photoshop Elements. I signed up for an online course and was glad I had. It taught me a lot. So much, in fact, I'm in the process of retaking the course because there was so much information.

Friday night I met BigBro and SSIL at the Wilde Rover to watch The Yank's band, Them Blokes.  We met early and had a bite then watched the first set of the band.  I took photos of the band, after The Yank taught me how to use my own stinkin flash. (Note to self: RTFM). (Note to you all...RTFM = Read the F***** Manual).

So the other big thing is BeagleBabe posted the photos I took of that birthday party.  They're all here in case you want to see.

When I ruled the world...

I'm going to start titling my blog posts with song lyrics that are stuck in my noggin. They won't make any sense and will therefore match most of my blogs...not making any sense that is...

This weekend flew by in a blur.  Not sure I'm at all happy about that, cuz here I sit on Monday wondering what on earth happened to the last two days. And let's not discuss the last 3 months. 

Saturday night we were supposed to have a "super" moon here in the Northwest (not sure if it was everywhere, but I suspect it was). After dining with Bluberry at the Keg I high-tailed it to a local park with my camera and tripod in hand.

As I sat there in the very dark and very empty park I kinda freaked myself out.  I started thinking about things like, "Didn't Ted Bundy visit this park?" followed by, "How long would it be before anyone noticed I was gone?"  I can't say that sitting in a dark, empty park was the brightest thing I did all year, but there I sat.

Eventually a couple of other cars started to pull in and it was obvious other folks were there to witness this "super" moon.

It finally rose and I had the camera poised and ready. Suddenly I realized I didn't have a clue how to shoot this moon. So I fussed with the camera and tried a number of combinations and got not one single good shot. Not one. 

I didn't leave empty handed though. I did learn one thing:  when shooting in the dark...bring a flashlight!

Earlier Saturday I spent some time at a local Ford dealership. See it was sunny in Seattle, which doesn't happen all that often this early in the spring. But since it was nice, the sun was shining, I got that itch. That convertible itch.  I will own a convertible some day. Some day soon too.  A few cards have to fall into place, and if they do, I will be driving around town with my top down.

Sunday I spent most the day cleaning the house. I had kept it surprisingly clean last week so I didn't have to do much.  Still on my spring cleaning kick though, I decided to scrub down the grill. What a mess!  But now it's clean, my hands hurt from the scrubbing, but I can now grill again.

Blueberry came by to scrapbook.  She has had some computer problems so what she fussed with her computer...talking to it and herself...I scrapbooked.  She finally got down to scrapbooking several hours AFTER she showed up (though I should mention we took a break for dinner and a break to help her brother get some more things he's storing in my garage out).  In the time she did 2 pages, I completed about 6. She needs to get in a rhythm and then she'll be off to the races.

I had a weak moment too that will most likely come back to haunt me.  I offered to do her 3Day scrapbook for LAST year's walk. This year's walk will be her 4th year and she'll never EVER get her scrapbooks done for the walks. So with her birthday coming up and me not having any good ideas what to do for her birthday, I caved and offered to do one of her scrapbooks.  I did put a few stipulations on it though, which she agreed to...so we'll see.

And last, but not least, I finished polishing up the photos from the birthday bash photography gig.  I posted them and BeagleBabe informed me that she was pleased with them. So that's good.  I wasn't 100% happy with them, but can say with all certainty that I learned a lot from doing the shoot.  Now just have to get some more experience under my belt and I'll be off and running.  I did do some research into setting up a business in Washington...they must not want people to set up small businesses because the site was REDONKULOUSly confusing.  I'll spend some more time soon...maybe.

And with that... I'm off to rule the world...

If I just lay here...

Last night as I was falling asleep I thought of a really clever opening paragraph for my blog.  I also thought I should get up and write it down.  And I sure wish I had followed that second thought. Instead you'll have to suffer with a just okay opening paragraph. 

Last weekend was a whirlwind of adventure and excitement. Pookie even felt obligated to be awake for more than an hour a day.

Saturday was the birthday party gig at Canlis.  I had been concerned about whether I'd do okay at shooting this party or not...then I got hooked on the fact it was going to be a "Canlis" - which for those out of towners is an EXTREMELY high end restaurant here in Seattle. Easily $150 a person for dinner...easily.

Anyhow, I went with BeagleBabe early to help set up some and to get a feel of the place.  We had a nice room that had a nice long table in it for all the guests.  The room, while light during the day, I knew would be darker that night - ambiance and all.  The new flash worked well. It took several shots for me to figure out the right setting, but eventually I had it down to a fine art.

Before the guests arrived I dinked around and got the lighting, shots, flash, all set up. I was impressed with the staff at Canlis at how exact they had the settings.  Prior to the guests getting there, no less than three different people came in to check the settings. 

I haven't officially looked at all the photos from that night. A part of me is afraid I didn't capture what BeagleBabe was hoping and also afraid that the photos, in general, aren't good.  I know myself well enough to know that I'm sure there are plenty of fine photos.   Candids were hard for me and even though I tried to push myself out of my comfort zone this party, I'm not sure I did it successfully. We shall see.

Sunday was the 3Day Sunday dinner.  All my 3Day buddies in one room ... what a blast! I've never laughed so hard and tried to hold back tears so hard. At one point I sat looking around the room and marveled at the fact I was sitting in a room with people full of strength, commitment, and courage - I felt a bit overwhelmed by them all. And I thought I'm a lucky girl to be in the presence of such greatness.

Yah...did I say greatness?
Left To Right: BigBro, Little Erin, Erin, Packing Laurie, Princess Lori, Blueberry, Suzanne, Seattle Sister in Law, and yours truly.

We ate well. I made my famous Pasta Da Vinci...and if you've ordered a cookbook it's in there. I had a buttload of food left over though. I forget that people aren't eating JUST pasta...instead they had roasted vegetables (thanks Packing Laurie), delicious garlic bread (thanks Blueberry) and appetizers before (thanks Princess Lori and BigBro/Seattle SIL).  Still, even though we were all full, we managed to find room for cake. Let. Them. Eat. Cake!



And last, but certainly not least, I officially signed off on the cover art for the cookbook. It looks beautiful and I can hardly wait to have them in my hot little hands. I am on schedule and should get the books shipped by April 25th.  If you want one and haven't told me yet, let me know and I'll get you on the preorder list! 

Major Slacker Alert

Its hard to believe it's been a week since I last wrote. I assure you its not because I don't love you all and want you to not feel left out of the exciting things that are going on in my life. No. It's not that at all.

Instead its just been laziness on my part.  Let's look at the last week.

This past weekend I spent a good chunk of time cleaning. It is almost spring and I, like many, feel the need to clean. Why is that exactly?  It all started because my shower drain was clogged.  I put on my plumber hat and proceeded to clean the beast out. It was, for lack of a better word, disgusting.  But I cleaned it out and figured while I was down there, I might as well scrub the shower.  Which led to scrubbing the entire bathroom, which led to scrubbing the other two bathrooms, which led to scrubbing the cabinets in the kitchen.  I now have some very sparkly parts of my house, and dry hands. 

I had several lunch dates last week. Not the "dates" you are thinking. No instead I had lunches with friends. It just happened to work out that last week was Lunch Week.  Lunch with Mrs. Not So Newlywed. Followed by lunch with BeagleBabe and another former co-worker.  Followed by lunch with Texas and Heater. Good times.  The result was getting caught up with many of my favorite people, and spending $$ that didn't need to get spent.

Speaking of that, I am just weeks away from being out of debt (not counting the car). I'm on a strict financial plan trying to get the credit card debt gone and savings started for my 100 days off I have to take starting in July. (If you're not from this area let me explain. Hotel Californiasoft was sued in the 90's by contract workers claiming they were working for Hotel Californiasoft for years with non of the benefits as employees.  So the ruling became that contract workers could only work for 365 days and would then be required to take 100 days off.  Of course that 100 days off means your job may not be available to you. In the end, the complaining contract workers ended up shooting themselves in the foot.) In the end, I'm saving to live for 3 months without employment. I'll get unemployment, but that won't cover everything. I'm actually doing really well and am so happy to see the progress.

This past Saturday we celebrated one of my nieces turning 21. I'm still trying to figure out how she's 21. They grow up so fast.  They start having their own ideas, opinions, and lives.  It's been interesting watching her grow into a young woman. Many decisions she's made I wouldn't have made, but not everyone can be as awesome as me. Still, in the end, right or wrong decisions, she's staying in school and getting her nursing degree and I couldn't be more proud of her.

This weekend I have a "paying" photography gig. BeagleBabe has hired me to shoot her husband's 40th birthday at this fancy pants restaurant in Seattle.  She's not only feeding me (which would be payment enough) but she's also paying me for the actual photography effort.  Excited and nervous at the same time.  It'll be a challenge for me as candids aren't my strong suit.  But I've been reading up on tips for taking candids and surfing the web for examples.  I'll be good to go by Saturday.

That's it. That's all I've got. See not too overly exciting. You haven't missed too much!

Truffles

I wondered how people ever found new things to do before the advent of Living Social and GroupOn.  Brilliant ideas to be sure, in fact, wish I would have thought of it.

Sometime in January I bought, as did ChickenLady, a truffle making class.  I have 21 new things to do and this would be one of the new things.  Last night was said class.

It took me longer to find this place than it should have, but it turns out Dawn's Candies is a small shop that's inside a large party center type shop. They have the whole set up and the heavy lifting done for you.

Blueberry, ChickenLady and I took our seats in the back as Dawn began by explaining the chemistry of chocolate tempering. I had no idea that chocolate had "crystals" that wanted to be separate then together and depending on the temperature of the chocolate will stay together or not. Fascinating stuff. As Dawn went over and over the complexity of tempering chocolate I was struggling to keep up and then realized we wouldn't be tested. Phew!  And that Dawn and her little elves had done all the tempering etc for us.

They handed us these little trays of "pre" molded chocolate molds.  These little molds needed to be filled and then coated.  She left us with a VAT of chocolate ganache - it took every ounce of my being to not just stick a spoon into the VAT O'Chocolate. She showed us how to flavor the ganache and left us to our imagination.

Blueberry shot right out of the gate by mixing peanut butter with caramel.  You'd think the two wouldn't do so well together...but it turns out it was over the top fantastic. 

My first flavor was hazelnut.  I love the smell and flavor of hazelnut. And mixing it with chocolate meant these little gems of goodness would taste a lot like Nutella.  I should have made more hazelnut.

My other flavor combination weren't overly exotic or interesting, but good all the same.  Between the three of us we made orange, amaretto, Kirsch cherry, Tequila/lime/salt combo, Malibu Rum, lemon, raspberry, and coffee! I think that's all of them. We could have chosen from so many other flavors and the combinations were endless.

After we filled our truffles, it was on to sealing them and dipping them.  The sealing them was as easy as swiping over the flat bottom with a finger full of chocolate. Once that was done, it was on to dipping.

They had these nifty forks for dipping.  Blueberry and ChickenLady were doing mostly dark chocolate, where I was all about the milk chocolate.  We had to "temper" our milk chocolate though. They little elves heated it up and at a certain temp, them dumped in these HUGE chunks of chocolate. The heat helped melt part of the bricks of chocolate.  Once the milk chocolate was at the right temp, we pulled out the chocolate chunks and began dipping.

 

After dipping each flavor, and before the chocolate dried, we could decorate the top with misc colored sugars and other things like coffee beans.

In the end, I have 35 beautifully decorated truffles. And someday soon I'll come down off this sugar high. ChickenLady may or may not.