The Photos Speak for Themselves

These are all from our last full day on vacation and were taken in the subalpine region near Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. Lets just say it was a terrific vacation. We probably crammed way too much into one week. Drove 1300 miles. Hiked 36 miles. Had some wildlife encounters (including multiple bears).

Dealing with that first week back to work is always the worst, although a light schedule and my fellow physicists made it easier this time. We had a lot of adventures. Great times!

Brain Fog, and Other Excuses

I haven't been around the blog much during the last few months. There has been other stuff going on. LOTS of other stuff. Here is my list of excuses:

1) Work - busy days, long hours. Frankly, I don't want to look at a computer once I get home some days. Been there, done that all day, too tired to care.

2) Summer is peak gardening season. This year I declared all out war on the monkey grass that we inherited when we bought this place. It might have seemed like a good idea in 1965, but monkey grass spreads all over the place, including our "lawn" which is mostly a collection of stuff that is NOT grass of any sort. So around Memorial Day weekend, I started ripping out huge beds of monkey grass and replacing it with nice plants that mostly stay where you put them. This coincided with the onslaught of perpetual heat waves, so I had to get up early to do this and it was still pure hell. I also upset a bunch of yellow jackets who had an underground nest in one of the monkey grass beds and got stung. They got blasted with Raid. I win.

3) Lots of doctor visits and tests. I've had some hearing loss and tinnitus in one ear since last October, and ignored it until April, when I started getting vertigo. That was scary and demanded immediate attention. The good news is that I don't have a brain tumor (they did an MRI to check). The bad news is that I have something called Meniere's Disease. They don't know what causes it and there is no cure. Awesome. Anyway, the primary method of managing symptoms is a low sodium diet (<2000mg, which is less than one teaspoon of table salt). Which brings me to #4...

4) Learning how to cook all over again. Almost everything in our standard repertoire of meals has too much sodium for me to eat. So we had to start nearly from scratch. Adapting some recipes (with mixed success) and making new stuff from some new low sodium cookbooks takes more time than we used to spend on meal prep. This diet also greatly limits where we can go out to eat, so we are obligated to do more cooking at home, and much more work is involved. Nearly everything we eat now is fresh, frozen, or dried. NOT canned, cured or processed. If we want sausage, we have to make it ourselves. Ditto for pizza - we have to make that from the dough up. Have to use dried beans, not canned (there goes spontaneity). It is really amazing how much sodium there is in EVERYTHING. I have become quite the label reader. Even cheese is a problem! Bacon, sausage, pickles, olives, cheese, salty snacks, canned goods, soups (unless homemade), fast foods (including my beloved chick-fil-A), breads, condiments, soy sauce, and most common snack foods - all on the bad list.

5) Not feeling well - vertigo takes it out of you. Ditto for stress and migraine headaches. Some days I come home and go straight to bed. Most of my symptoms have improved with the low sodium diet (the hearing loss seems permanent), and I am losing weight and feel better overall. But I still need to crash about once a week due to whatever.

6) Other interests - been doing some photography stuff (finally getting my last vacation shots - like the one with this post - processed and posted on Flickr), reading (not as much as I would like), catching up on our backlog of DVR stuff, vacation planning (happening soon, and we are not ready yet), and I've already mentioned the garden projects.

7) Hanging out other places on the internet - I started a separate blog about the new low sodium lifestyle, and also joined Google+ (both as my very own non-anonymous self). So those are dividing my attention. If any of you are on Google+ (other than the two of you I already know about and have in my circles) let me know in comments or email me - I am fermicat at both gmail and yahoo.

8) This is not really an excuse for not blogging, and maybe it is a result of the valium I have to take to "suppress my central nervous system" in an attempt to calm down the vertigo, but I am turning into a complete airhead. Absent minded doesn't even begin to describe some of the stuff I do now. It is almost comical. But also kind of sad. I used to be fairly sharp. Now... not so much. And kind of clutzy as well. Running into walls, falling UP stairs, etc. Not fun, and a bit embarrassing (and bruise-inducing).

So... in a nutshell: work, monkey grass, medical tests, learning to cook from scratch, feeling crappy, doing other stuff, being myself on the internet for a change, and brain fog are my excuses for not doing much blogging. How about you?

Photo info: A flock of seagulls crosses the rising sun at the beach. Amelia Island, Florida. Aperture f/8, 1/400 sec exposure, 55mm focal length. January 3, 2011

Freedom Is A Light For Which Many Men Have Died In Darkness

Have a happy and safe Independence Day.

Take some time out to remember the many souls who sacrificed and died to make our country free.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington Square (Philadelphia) honors those who died in the Revolutionary War. The tomb itself is inscribed with: "Beneath this stone rests a soldier of Washington's army who died to give you liberty."

This square was used as a mass grave on many occasions beginning in 1706 and continuing through the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793. Paupers, soldiers, common citizens and criminals all lie co-mingled underneath the square. The area was cleaned up and named for George Washington in 1825. In 1956, one soldier was disinterred and placed in the memorial tomb to represent all. The statue, tomb, and memorial were erected to honor both George Washington and the unknown soldier.

An excellent overview of the history of Washington Square can be found here.

Hammock Time

This is the view from our hammock. Rather awesome, no?

Atlanta had such great weekend weather*, I brought the hammock out of storage early and had some well deserved time to rest in it after a whole lot of yard work. It was our annual "chop down the old monkey grass" weekend. Like I always say, if it has "monkey" in the title, it is bound to give you trouble. We also did a bunch of other chores that you don't want to hear about.

Now the smell of charcoal smoke and jerk pork is filling the evening air. I am sipping wine and catching up on internet stuff while my husband cooks. Hope your weekend was equally productive and enjoyable. Smells like it is time to eat - gotta go!


*It isn't all wine and pork aroma. We are paying dearly for the early spring with a very high pollen count - especially considering it is only February. At least we are warm and comfortable while we sneeze and rub our eyes.

Cat and Mouse

Something's been off this year. Finally figured out what it is.

Project 365

I took at least one photograph every day in 2010 as a project to get to know my new DSLR camera. [Except on May 30, when I was busy with party preparations and then the actual party and totally forgot about Project 365 so I didn't take any photos until it was after midnight and too late to fix, dammit.] The project helped me develop as a photographer and I did get to know what all the buttons and knobs on the camera do. I also was driven to learn some new Photoshop techniques to keep things interesting and fresh. I'd say Project 365 was a success!

At approximately one photo per second, it will take six minutes of your time if you wish to watch the Project 365 slideshow all the way through (I think you can also manually click through them faster or slower if you wish). Warning: contains CATS. Also rocks, trees, fungus, bugs, flowers, pollen, astronomical objects, gastronomical objects (i.e. "food"), Tech stuff, vacation photos, abstract artsy shots, more cats, great photos, good photos, a few bad photos that I tried to rescue, and even a piece or two of me.



Project 365 involved a pretty big commitment, so I won't be repeating it in 2011. Hopefully the photography habit that I nurtured this past year will stick around and quality will now take the place of quantity. I remain interested in developing new digital post processing skills and making the most out of what I capture. I'll admit that taking a few days off photography has been refreshing. There will always be inspiration and I plan to take advantage of what I've learned. [Perhaps in a couple of days, when "snowmegeddon" arrives. Yes, Atlanta is due for some sort of big "snow event". Be afraid. Be very afraid.]

Merry, Merry!

Happy Christmas from Fermi and her cats. PDM, too.

Just for Dave: POUNCE!!

Dave wondered about the absence of action in my cat photos last week, so this one is dedicated to him:



That is genuine motion blur on the cat. I did not doctor it up in photoshop.

For the record, Silvio did catch the chipmunk he pounced on. Then let it go and caught it again. And again. And again (FUN!). The game finally stopped when Zima showed up and ate it. And then promptly threw it up.

I won't even go in to how Zima chewed one of its legs off before it was dead and I had to get PDM to come out and humanely kill it. Because that part of cat ownership really sucks.

How Silvio Spends His Friday Nights

Crashed out on the couch.

Not A Cat

A change of pace for today. Happy now, LL?

Silent Roar

One of my photos from the Philly trip. You can see more here.

Hanging in there.

May Showers

We're having a lot of them lately. Typical weather for this time of year in the deep south. The rain didn't stop us from hosting our PDMPMDP* yesterday. It was a lot of fun. You don't have to take my word for it - just ask Dave.

I also had a birthday during the day-before-the-party cooking and cleaning blitz. We took time out to have mimosas in the afternoon, and PDM took me out for a very nice dinner late that evening. He also gave me a new toy for the DSLR. It is lens extension tube that allows you to take macro (close-up) photos using your standard lenses. Pretty cool (the photo above was shot with it). The cats gave me a "I aim to misbehave" t-shirt. They're big fans of Captain Malcolm Reynolds.

*Party Down Marty's Pre-Memorial Day Party!

Afternoon Sun

It's Friday, Here Ya Go.

Rawr

Explorer

Have a great weekend y'all. Zima says go out and play!

Keep Your Claws Sharp

Silvio, stropping his talons of doom.

He'll have more fun outside this weekend. Looks like we're finally going to get a break from winter, with sunny skies and a high near 60F. First decent weekend forecast all year.

Happy Birthday, Mom

Hi Mom! Happy Birthday. Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.

And since it is Friday, here is a portrait of Silvio for your viewing pleasure:



Isn't he handsome?

Green Eyed Girl