Apropos of Nothing v.16

Paradise Bar burned down. Yes it is a very early warm area there. I think the Clark Fork brings up southerly winds and the walls of the Glacial Lake Missoula hold and reflect heat.

Yay for bonus tree frogs! :D

I slept for about ten hours. Woke up very stiff and sore, but no rest for the wicked today, I have to get that yard of soil unloaded from my truck. Some will finish filling the new beds, and the rest will go in the back yard for future use.

Soil is all unloaded. Whoof. Gonna rest for a bit, then maybe I'll plant some stuff in the new beds. :)

The air show is going on again today- there are planes buzzing my house every few minutes. One of the fighter jets came over me so low when I was standing in the bed of my truck, I swear I could have reached up and high-fived the pilot. o.0 My right ear went all wonky when that happened, I hope it's temporary!

I feel like suck a dork. I have been trying to build my displays for my photograpy for an upcoming art show. Simple, I thought but I could not get my drill to drill one darn hole into the lumber. I bought 2 new drill bits (for wood) and still could not get the hole to complete. Some smoke too! I did some research on the net to see what I could do with this lumber. It is hemlock and the net says to go slow and steady with your drill and apply steady preasure. Did this ...still could not get a hole through the 1" lumber. Well called Home Depot lumber department to see if they offer hole drilling service. They don't so I asked the guy why I can not get the drill through the lumber. I about died when he said "is it possible your drill is on a reverse setting"? It was!! Well the drill goes through like butter. I can finally complete my project.

This message was edited Jul 18, 2010 11:34 PM

Oh, Beahive, that's hysterical! At least you found out the problem, and maybe the guy won't recognize you next time you're in so you'll be home free.

I was trying to screw the stopper back onto the bathroom sink drain and couldn't get it to bite no matter what I did. I finally realized that it screwed on the opposite from what we're accustomed to. Went on like a dream after that!

What kind of photography do you do?

Oh dear- don't ya feel silly when you do things like that? I do them ALL the time. LOL!

I do feel silly when I do things like this. I have been laughing at myself all afternoon. My daughter will just crack up when I see her tomorrow. She gave it a try last week when she was here and could not get the hole drilled either.
GH Gal- The photography that I do is what you see here mosly on DG. From my better photos I frame them, make greeting cards and fridge magnets. (and try to sell them) I prefer pictures of flowers and frogs.

Don't feel silly. The only reason the guy knew to ask that question of you is because either, 1. He'd done it before, or 2. Many other people had done it before. I think it's common - one of those things that we do because it's too obvious. I'm sure I've done the same thing.

I've seen Bea's cards. They are lovely!

I've done the thing with the drill enough times that it's (finally) become habit to check the direction switch before using it. ;)

Kathy, that's a very good point you made! I've done the same thing with my drill, often enough to know to look. But that's why it was so funny; we can all relate!

That's a great photo of a bullfrog, BeaHive, but around here we get rid of 'em when we find 'em. They are death to the smaller Pinelands species that are native to this area, like the green frog and the southern leopard frog. You must have a wonderful pond, though.

Love that frog photo! It looks almost like he's on a background of fabric.

What kind of camera do you use? Mine recently broke and I'm taking recommendations for a new one!

Love the drill story. I love it when things like that happen because it was an easy fix and didn't cost you any money!

Gwen, you didn't ask me, but I have a Nikon D70 which I really like. However a friend of mine, who's a naturalist, author and photographer, has the Sony Cybershot and here's what she says about it:

Thanks Kathy for the compliment. Gwen I have a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H2. It is not a small pocket camera but I love it and would buy it again if this one broke.(hopefully not) . I have had it almost 4 years and use it almost everyday and have not had any problems with it. Worth the initial investment.
I know bullfrogs are a problem for other species of frogs, but they are so darn cute I could never kill them or any living creature for that matter.(slugs are the exception)

Thanks ghgal. I should have expanded my question to include everyone! I'll definitely look into both of these.

Ohh..20 x zoom. Will need to look at that version when I need a new camera or have extra $$ lying around.

Apropos of nothing, I really, really want to go to this: http://www.chehalisgarlicfest.com/

I've seen my friend's photos; she uses them for her books and for slideshows and presentations. They are great; sharp and clear and the zoom feature allows her to get up close on birds and butterflies without disturbing them. If I weren't so committed to Nikon, with a bunch of lenses, I'd get one of those.

I am still chuckling. Guys do the same thing but the first millisecond of reverse we go oops. The difference in social expectations of what we should learn as children. I would like to have been a fly on the wall at Home Depot after that call.

I am still chuckling, too.

Pony, that Garlic fest sounds like fun.

Gwen, I ordered a Sony Cybershot TX5 from Sony. It should be here today. It is one of the little credit card sized ones that is waterproof and shockproof. I had to go that route because I am too hard on cameras. In fact, I dropped my brand new camera in the water (to retrieve a rock that fell out of my pocket), on our way back from Montana. It was not water proof. Whoops, but I saved the rock! I was bad, and returned the camera to Costco.

I haven't seen the new camera in person, only online. Sony will refund 100% if I do not like it (30 days), and I got a discount ($300 price) and free 3 day shipping. Can you tell that I am excited?

I am making chocolate cookies for my nephews who will be visiting this week. They look more like chocolate chip pancakes!! (57% humidity??) I don't know what is wrong today, but I am famous (among my family) for my cookies. I must have made these 100's of times over the years... hope they are not disapointed. They do still taste gooey and buttery so that will be Ok I guess...they just look funny. The dogs liked them too...minus the chip part.(chocolate..bad is for dogs)

Steve, I'll bet that experience is so common that they don't even talk about it anymore.

I feel like boys get to play with tools early on and so when they make that mistake it's in high school. We just have to teach ourselves tools later in life without an on-site mentor. :-)

Sofer, I wonder how those tomatoes would travel through the mail? I am totally drooling!

Pony, Sounds like you got a mamouth amount of work done this weekend. At least the mornings were good for hard work! I can't wait to see the final result of all of your efforts.

Bea, I am snickering at your drill incident too, and I honestly don't think that any of us that have picked up a drill haven't had a similar experience. The good part about being a girl, is relating back to Sofer's "difference in social expectations of what we should learn as children", we can get a good chuckle at ourselves when it happens to us, while guys are programmed to "be embarassed". As I always enjoy a good laugh, even if I am at the butt of the joke, it's one of the reasons that I love being a girl!

I have seen Bea's work in person as well, and her photography is just beautiful. I am so torn... I love taking pictures, and I would love to have a camera that could produce that quality of photo, but I really need something for the day to day that I can stick in my pocket. I have tossed around getting a bigger camera to use in certain situations, but I am afraid that I would never use it because I just wouldn't want to haul it around.

I am in love with the Cannon Powershot Digital Elph cameras, although I am not as happy with the one that I got for Christmas this year as I would have been with the model that Mom has. I love being able to stick it in my front pocket when I am gardening, so it is there any time I want it. The picture quality is not as good as Bea's, but it is still very good. Mine is a SD980 IS, and it has widescreen capability. I think the lens that allows for the widescreen distorts (fisheye) the normal shots... especially if you are trying to take a macro shot. If I had it to do over again, I would have bought Mom's model instead (she will have to post what it is because I can't remember for the life of me).

My old camera is not pocket size altho I could cram it into a big purse. I've been borrowing a pocket one and I have to say it's a supremely great feature, that smallness! The ideal thing is to have 2 and I've actually been researching that. I take a lot of 'social' photos. Also a lot of my photos are in low light. So I've been concentrating on those features.

Lynn, can't wait to play with your new camera on Thursday!!!

Julie, here's a good story for you, on the subject at laughing at your own embarrassment. This was many years ago, when I was actually a size where I would be seen in a swimsuit. So I found myself at Penny's or Mervyn's or some such place looking at swimsuits. There was a round rack of them and they had these funny little tags on them. They were kind of like where you'd find your body 'issues,' (large waist, short legs, big bust [I wish], etc.), and then that body feature would be checked next to it on the little tag. So that would supposedly help you find the swimsuit that would make the most of your body type.

But the tags had this little thing you could press on them. Very curious. So I pressed one and immediately a loud voice came out of a speaker (which I had not noticed before this) that was on top of the rack in the center, announcing the feature you had just pressed and going on and one about it and which swimsuit was good. I can't remember what I pressed. It wasn't necessarily any particular thing, I just pressed something to see what would happen. So when this speaker started going on (loudly) about my large whatever it was, I about died. But I also thought it was supremely funny and being alone I was even more embarrassed about the fact that I was absolutely cracking up over this thing. I kept envisioning how much my younger sister would have enjoyed that moment when the voice started up. I had to run into a changing room until I stopped laughing. LOL I'll never forget that. Needless to say, this innovative marketing plan did not have the desired effect of selling swimsuits, but rather had one running from the rack as quickly as possible. I never saw it again after that day.

ROFL! Gwen, that belongs in the "Worst Marketing Gimmicks EVER" files! Wow!

I just planted out all my seedling dahlias, tithonia and marigolds in the smaller of the two new beds. Looks a little sparse, but I think when everything grows, it will be pretty much full. I also moved a couple of small DLs into a pocket bed I built on one side of the new beds- they were smooshed under the daisies that exploded all over the pond bed. I hope they aren't too traumatized.

My little squash plants that I put in the former garlic planter are already starting to make blossoms! Yay! :D

Funny story..Well I was taking a nice walk with my daughter and the dogs and we decided to go up to the nearby lake and see what was going on up there. Somehow I missed the curb and tripped.Talk about another dorkey moment. Well I landed on my knees and the palms of my hands. I had a stack of mail that we had picked up and that flew all over. The dogs were concerned that I was on the cement and my daughter too. All I could do is laugh... got up and thought it best that we go home. Now my wrist hurts. Hope nothing broke...Put on an ice pack right away...

Oh, ouch. I hope there's nothing worse than bruises, Bea. Falling down sucks. :(

Oh, dear, I hope you wrist is okay. I bet you'll be sore all over tomorrow! Sorry that happened.

Gwen, I couldn't stop laughing after reading your bathing suit story! I agree with Pony... NOT a good marketing idea!

Bea...I hope your fall has no lasting effects! Bet you got lots of doggie kisses while you were at their level, checking on Mom and giving her loves.

Both Mom and I have gotten bowled over by the brown tornado (a whirling ball of Phoenix, Ginger and Mocha playing at a dead out run) in the last couple of months. Mom got hit from behind and bruised her tailbone when she fell.... I had my legs knocked out from under me from the front side and had my first skinned knee in years. Both of us were laughing and moaning at the same time. Hard not to laugh when you have a little dog standing on your chest kissing you and five big ones kissing at you from all directions to make sure that you are OK. Needless to say, we both tense up when we hear the thunder coming now.

This was the begining of a brown tornado last weekend. Three way tug that usually ends up going on at full speed...

That looks like a dangerous "weather pattern" alright... hehe.

Just realized we've gone over 300- so it's time for:

*dingdingding* NEW THREAD! *dingdingding* NEW THREAD! *dingdingding*

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1116911/