7 Quick Takes (Vol 188)

Here we are, back together again. Did you miss me? I wasn’t gone all that long. And now you are going to be really sick of me since it is NaBloPoMo. Just remember the rules/regulations/marching orders. When you are done analyzing my extraordinary blather here you need to click on the picture above to be whisked, at the speed of my vastly expanding patookis (Halloween candy consumption), over to Conversion Diary.

Anything worth doing is worth doing with BLATHER.

1.
OK, I have to tell you. Even though sleeping next to Brooklyn the Boa’s Python’s tank was sort of unsettling. She still is really, really cool. We bonded. We are tight. Next time I am in town I get to feed her a live and quivering mouse her food.

Fine! She let me take some pictures of her and she didn’t take a chunk out of me.

I count that as a win since I am not a big fan of snakes.

Remember this little incident?

2.

The sun came out very briefly yesterday, just in time to shine some rays into my office window and then set behind the horizon. I will be honest and say that at first I just didn’t recognize that strange light that was shining onto my computer monitor.

I actually wondered to myself where that light was coming from. I turned around and just stared and it took me a moment before I realized that it was actually the sun….a bright shining orb that we haven’t seen in almost a week.

He was there and then he was gone.

But it was still really, really good.

3.
This is my plumber, Nick, and his lovely wife Cassandra.

I had the joy of photographing their wedding last year. But today Nick is coming to my house with his plumbers hat on. And you know what THAT means. It means that whatever the problem is with the regeneration unit on our water softening system….it will be something that I could have easily diagnosed and fixed myself. There by saving Nick time (he is stopping by at 7a before going to another job) and us money. You know this is true. You know it deep down in your gut. Remember ……..

In which I Make The Electrician Laugh

And Then There Was The Heating Contractor

My Own Private Waterfall

I had better go and get the checkbook out now.

4.
HHBL and I had planned to be in Florida this week for a bit of R&R and baseball.

We are not there. We are here at Chez Knit. It just wasn’t in the cards. And so to help take our minds off that deep and grinding disappointment we are spending several days cleaning out some boxes in the basement and other areas of the house that need a thorough going through.

Oh joy of joys.

My basement looks like a war zone at the moment. And there is one entire box filled with old, dead electronic equipment. Chez Knit is where old electronics go to die. And of course we don’t want to just donate them somewhere. We have to know if we can sell them first. So Ebay here I come.

5.
I finally decided that I needed to upgrade my Photoshop Elements(PSE) to the new version, 11. I am currently running on PSE8, which is OK, but…….

I have to say that I always thought I would switch eventually to Photoshop rather than use PSE which some people view as the poor and orphan stepchild in the CS family. But I really, really like PSE and it does everything that I need as a photographer and so I am sticking with it.

Now if the UPS or USPS person will just ring the doorbell with my package in his hand I will be very, very happy.

But maybe that shouldn’t happen until later in the day because I have a boat load of things that have to be done today and once I have that box in my hot little hands then everything else will come to a grinding halt.

6.
Regarding #2 – because of all the rain that we have gotten a la Hurricane Sandy, HHBL and I have been unable to get out and do the last massive leaf removal that needs to happen this year.

Dang leaves!

And because those leaves are so heavily saturated with water not ever HHBL’s backpack blower is going to be able to make much of a dent in them….and that means that we have to rake an acre of leaves off the grass and out of the beds.

I am going to be honest here and say that I am just going to leave those leaves right in the landscaping beds until next Spring. They will be just fine there. But the leaves on the grass have to go. So you can guess what we will be doing on Saturday.

Sigh.

This time of year leaves are the enemy. And I will prevail!

7.
Just a little Cartoon Girl/Hurricane Sandy update.

She rode out the storm without issue in her apartment in Queens. The winds and rain were wicked but she is up high and away from the shore and thankfully never lost power. However her office, which sits just a couple of blocks from the World Trade Center site, is still without power so she is working from home for the rest of the week and hoping to be back in the office next week where it is much more fun.

And work should always be fun.

We are thankful for her safety.

And HHBL’s sister and her family (SiL, The Viking and nieces) who live right in the city were one block up from where the power died. But living on the 50th floor of a building when a hurricane with 100mph winds arrives is a scary experience according to Niece #1. I can believe it.