Monday, September 10, 2007

Back to the Grind

It's Monday!  Why can't we have three day weekends every week?  Let's see... Friday night we had Indian food at Delhi India.  We usually get the pre-made items behind the counter, but we ordered this time from their menu.  It was tasty!  With full bellies, we went over to Target to look at TV stands and audio towers.  We're in the market for a new entertainment setup, so we looked at ole-trusty-Target for the reasonable prices.  We found one we liked, which we bought the next day. 

Saturday was football day.  They added the Big Ten Network to the Dish Network!  Todd was super-excited that we didn't have to get up early to go to Moondoggies again to watch the game.  The Buckeyes soundly beat the Akron Zips 20-2.  Yes, the Zips only scored a safety.  The best part of the day was when Michigan lost to Oregon.  My how the mighty Wolverines have fallen this year!  Poor them (snicker snicker).  We watched college football games on and off all day.  And napped on the couch in between.  Napping is so fun.  As an adult sometimes we forget how fun it is to just nap when we feel like it.  For dinner we ate at Happy's Sushi in Mira Mesa.  We hadn't ever been there before, but it was pretty good.  After dinner we ended up getting a Pomegranate Blueberry iced blended at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf because they shared the same parking lot as the sushi place. 

On Sunday we had lunch at Panera Bread, then I got my hair cut and highlighted by Jay.  Todd also got his haircut before me.  While he was getting beautified, I went next door to read scrapbooking magazines at Borders.  Then we headed to our friends Bart & Denice's house.  We hadn't seen them in over a year!  Got to meet their one year old Max, and Sam now talks up a storm cuz he's almost four.  We had a really fun time with them.  Hopefully it will be sooner next time we see them!

Read More »

Saturday, September 8, 2007

Even bad photos are salvageable

I ran some actions on a really underexposed photo from our North Shore Oahu trip last year... I think the photo improved vastly and is now not a lost cause.

Before:

After:

Read More »

Friday, September 7, 2007

Photoshop Action Fun

I purchased Holly McCaig's Photographers Assistant photoshop actions today! I had it on my "Want" list, but I was waiting for a sale. Today was the day! So I took one of my vacation photos and ran the various actions on them. I'm really happy with the variations achieved!

Original Photo out of camera

Simple Pop

Super Pop

Wash

Urban Wash 1

Contrast B&W

Coffee B&W

B&W Contrast Peachy

Half Sepia

Vintage - Rockstar

Contrast B&W + Urban Wash 1

Super Pop + B&W Contrast Peachy
I like them and can't wait to run the actions on other photos for different looks!
Read More »

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

My Rockstar


I had said I would post pics of Todd's gig with Kim Divine a couple of weeks ago. Here is a layout. I had tried the different modes on my camera to take indoor night pictures, so that no flash was needed. I think it turned out alright. I ran Kim Hill's Photo Pop action on it too.
Read More »

Monday, September 3, 2007

Beauty of doing nothing

Sometimes I forget how relaxing it is to just do NOTHING. I did a lot of that this weekend! :) Although, I did get some stuff done and did some very fun things. Some of you may wonder, how come she only talks about the fun stuff most of the time? It's just how I choose to remember my days/months/years. I make a conscious choice to remember the good times, and even just reading about it later makes me happy. I've kept a journal since junior high, and I would say 90-95% of the stuff I wrote down is happy stuff. That's how I roll. Last Wednesday we brought dinner to our friends Mike & Barbara. Barbara has been receiving treatment for cancer since January, so the last couple of months we've gone twice to bring them food and eat it together and chat. We enjoy their company a lot. Thursday night we drove down to North Park to meet Sally for dinner. There was lots of traffic because both the Padres and Chargers were playing Thursday night. We had dinner at a Mediterranean/Persian restaurant on Park Blvd across from El Zarape. The food was really yummy and I ended up eating all of it! Then we went next door to Vinblaht's to listen to live music and have dessert. Well, sorry to say the dessert was a total bust and the music wasn't very good either. AND the place was so HOT with no A/C on. We left after a while because we couldn't stand the heat. Also, the guy who works behind the counter there was missing a few marbles. I asked some questions about dessert and he basically could not answer in complete sentences. No, it wasn't a language issue. It just seemed like he took one too many hits of the wacky weed. Friday after work we went to workout at Miramar Lake. Todd rollerbladed and I ran. I wanted to run 5 miles, but it was so hot and humid that I quit after 3.5 miles. Seriously, it was 7 pm and it was still so stuffy outside. The last few days has definitely been the hottest in SD this year. After running we went to Chile Peppers for dinner, where I had a shrimp taco and Todd had a carnitas taco and a chicken taco. Saturday: the start of the college football season (or Todd's Happiest Day of the Year). Todd had been looking forward to college football and the Buckeyes for months now! It finally started and he was so excited. The game vs. Youngstown St. was on the Big Ten Network, which is on DirecTV only, which we don't have. So we got up early and crammed into Moondoggies in Pacific Beach with the rest of the Buckeye Faithfuls. Who knew that that many Buckeyes would show up for an early game??? We had to stand in line to get in. Once in, all the seats were taken, so we had to settle for a table outside with limited/far view of the game. I was pretty disgruntled. We ate breakfast there. I had an egg sandwich with cheddar on sourdough with potatoes and Todd had blueberry pancakes. Mine was supposed to come with bacon and they totally forgot it. The food was mediocre and the service was only ok. The biggest bummer was getting up so early to drive all the way to PB, and not even getting a good seat where we could see the game well. We left at halftime because the Buckeyes were already blowing out the Youngstown St. Penguins, and people were smoking by us since we were seated outside (gross!). Not only that, it had taken us FOREVER to find parking and it was far away! PB stinks. After we went home, we listened to the rest of the Buckeye game on internet radio, and watched other games on TV. The best part of the day? The Michigan Wolverines losing to the division I-AA Appalachian State. Everyone aware of sports is STILL talking about it today, two days later. It was labeled as the biggest upset in college football history! And it couldn't have happened to a better team, ha ha! Sat night our friend AJ's cousin was DJ'ing at Gordon Biersch in Mission Valley, so we met AJ & Meera down there for dessert. It was very fun to hang out with them, plus we got to eat key lime cheesecake and carrot cake, both of which were delicious but super-fattening. :( Sunday we went to TGIFridays for lunch. We hadn't gone there in years. We used to go there on dates in college, so we got nostalgic for it and ordered the same potato skins that we always used to eat in college. But the menu doesn't have Steak-On-A-Stick anymore, so we had to order other foods. Todd had a salad topped with sirloin, and I had Key West Cajun Shrimp. I didn't eat most of my meal cuz I was so full of potato skins already. After lunch we went to Barnes & Noble to hang out, then we went to Aaron Brothers where I bought some Prismacolor Premier color pencils. I've been wanting them but they're expensive. Aaron Brothers was having a sale for 50% off, so I got a set of 24. I love them so far and I've already used it for my coloring books that Todd gave me. They're not like kids' coloring books. I've got coloring books with intricate geometric patterns, classic art pieces, Tiffany glass patterns, etc. After that, we went to see "Transformers". It was the first time that we've gone out to see a movie in the theater since March! This movie's plot was a little lacking, but the humor was funny and the CGI was definitely worth it to see it on the big screen. Todd got the biggest popcorn and Coke, and he got me some gummy bears, which were extra soft. My favs. :) After the movie we went and got a boba at Tea Station, then we went home. Todd made a Louisiana rice, bean, and sausage dinner and it was delicious, as usual. We watched our DVR'ed last episode of "Scott Baio is 45 and Single", and decided that it wasn't really reality TV. We think they already knew how it was going to end, and just kinda filmed everything that way. Today, Labor Day, we basically stayed home because it's too hot! We invited our next door neighbors Fred & Annie over for lunch. Todd made homemade hummus and pita, Mediterranean chicken kabobs on the grill, and Cranberry Nut Chocolate Chip cookies. Fred brought over homemade coffee frauppes, which were delicious. Annie also made a fruit salad. We ate lots and chatted, it was fun. The rest of today, I played with my coloring books and organized my digi-supplies. Well, that's a wrap-up of our last few days. Football has started and we're both very excited about it. I don't have any new photos/scraps to show, but hopefully soon!
Read More »
[feedly mini]