EMPS: It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas - Almost!

When I read the topic for this week's Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot #153: Here Come The Holidays, I immediately took two non-flash photos of the only Christmas item on hand that wasn't buried in a storage bin or closet somewhere:



This fresh wreath is from a St. Michael's Day School fundraiser, and a gift from Father Smith and the church. A week later, it's still on my kitchen table. I thought John was going to put it up. He thought I was. I'll take care of it tomorrow.

I've got more interesting shots now, though, and certainly less grainy ones. Yesterday (Saturday), John took a rare day off to get work done at home. We had lunch together, went browsing at our local Ace Hardware, and spent the afternoon going through our Christmas stuff - most of it, anyway.



We had two huge plastic storage bins and five of the big cardboard ones. To free up storage space for other things, we managed to empty four of the cardboard ones.



We also made a bit of a mess, at least temporarily. It didn't make sense to put away everything we're actually going to use this year! But we did fill our big fallout shelter barrel (once used to store potable water) with trash, twice. We threw out melted candles, old Christmas cards, crumpled paper and broken boxes, among other things. We also filled one of the emptied boxes with stuff to donate to a rummage sale, a gift bag with stocking stuffers for the children of John's co-workers, and a small grocery bag with selected ornaments for a friend. Even after all that, we probably still have enough ornaments left to fill three Christmas trees. Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure we did have three trees up one year: the vintage silver one with the color wheel, a big pink one, and a small live tree that was my small rebellion that year. I've since learned to live without live Christmas trees, albeit reluctantly!



We ended up with two very full plastic bins plus a cardboard one. One problem: John's pretty sure the bins are now too heavy to lift back onto the top shelf in the laundry room!


Karen

EMPS: Fantasy in the Sky

This week's Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot calls for an FX shot of something seen In the Clouds. Going through my photo archives, I soon came across this:



I don't know about you, but I see a baby in the cloud pattern on the left side of the sky. Let's take a second look:



See it?



Getting clearer!



Ah, there she is!



Oops! I hope my neighbor doesn't need his truck while the Sky Baby is around!

(The original baby is from a photo of a 2006 baptism. She had her father's arm around her hips, and no leg showing.) 

For extra credit, Carly wanted a photo of a reflection of an object. The house is pretty dark these days due to cloudy weather and early dusk, so I dug into my archives:



Karen

See also: Round Robin: The Beatles' Fool, Illustrated

EMPS: P.S. - About Thanksgiving

Carly's Extra Credit on the Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot this week was about a favorite Thanksgiving dessert. I've got enough photos in my entry as it is, so let's do a quick entry as a P.S.:

St. Michael's had its annual Thanksgiving pot luck this week, and that's where I bent my diet for a little dessert. As some of you may know, I'm wild about "Pumpkin Anything." From pumpkin pie to pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, from pumpkin soup to pumpkin tea, I'll  try almost anything pumpkin. This year, since I've been working seriously on my weight, low-carbing it, I've had to be very careful, taking my pumpkin in small, occasional doses. So for Thanksgiving, I had a thin slice of pumpkin pie, no crust or topping. As you can see, parishioners came up with apple pie, pecan pie, cream puffs and more in addition to pumpkin pie. So many people brought pumpkin that they didn't all get served on Thursday, and parishioners were urged today to have the leftovers to eat or take home. This time I had about a tablespoon of pumpkin pie filling, no crust.

At home on Thursday I made the most sensible low-carb meal I could without completely depriving us. We shared an individual side of stuffing from Boston Market to go with my mixed white and dark meat turkey roast. The only potato was a single sweet potato with nothing on it, to share between us, and the rutabagas were just a few tablespoons leftover from the pot luck. Instead we filled up on fresh steamed baby carrots with broccoli and fresh steamed green beans with almond slivers. For dessert I got John a single slice of pecan pie - his favorite. I'd already had mine.

Karen

EMPS: Signs of Thankfulness

This week's theme for the Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot was "Thankful." I had my doubts about coming up with anything appropriate until I noticed some papers posted outside classrooms this week at St. Michael's Parish Day School. I walk past some of the classrooms every time I go in to work at the church office.



"I am thankful for...." The kids mention friends and family the most, plus love, food and Earth. God, pets and even school are also mentioned.



I suppose as adults we tend to be embarrassed to even think about it, but would our own lists be all that different?



The school just had a canned food drive, which includes a bake sale and raises both food and cash.



The food goes to the church pantry, from which adult volunteers make up bags for the homeless and other needy people. They are always thankful to get something.



No, this isn't food from the food drive. This is my friend Jan, enjoying a deluxe platter of appetizers at our favorite Chinese restaurant (Peking Palace).  Just over a year ago, months after surgery on a broken knee, Jan was hospitalized with an infected leg, the complications from which nearly killed her. It's been a rough year, and Jan found out a week ago that she has breast cancer. Despite all this, she is feeling much, much better. She told me today that this morning, she felt overwhelmed with thankfulness just to have survived the crisis of a year ago, and for how far she's come since then.

Karen

EMPS: The Geese on Barnum Hill

This week's Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot was called "A Walk in he Park." The weather has finally cooled enough, and the dogs' shots are current enough, that I was able to take them to Reid Park for the first time in many months. The tricky part was finding the time. Then my Thursday afternoon computer lesson (teaching, not taking) was postponed, so off we went!



After some fun in the dog park area...



...we headed off for a stroll...



...down by the duck ponds.



The geese at the left of the photo here are coming down from an area called Barnum Hill. They acted as if they ran the place. Cayenne was desperate to show them otherwise, and I had to hold the leashes tight to keep her from getting away as she lunged toward them.



The geese headed down to the second duck pond...



...where a cormorant was already hanging out.

Karen

EMPS: A Harvest of Hangers

Carly's topic this week for the Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot this week was Happy Harvest, and she allowed for metaphorical harvests. That's good, because my photo of John's box of pomegranates would be really boring! Instead let me show you what I've been up to this weekend.

New clothes, one size down.

At the end of July I went on a low carb diet, part of getting my life and health in order while I still have time. For the first time, I had a diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure, which I didn't have when my weight was lower. I've lost 35 pounds since then, and counting. On Friday I decided that I'd earned the right to get a new, smaller pair of pants and get rid of the ones I was wearing. I also bought a few new tops.

Starting to refill the closet after emptying it out.

But what about the clothes I had already? Surely there was something I'd dieted down into. It was time to take a look!

Friday night I started going through my clothes, sorting into too big and/or stained and/or worn out (get rid), too small (box up in boxes labeled Summer 2012) and stuff that fits now or is about to fit (hang up or put in a drawer). Most of the clothes in my closet, it turned out, were in the category "It was too small but now it fits, just about!" But it had been so long since I'd tried them on that they had dust on top of them!

So I pulled them out and started doing lots of laundry. And you know what I ended up with? Piles of clothes, yes...

...but also a harvest of hangers!

It got even more full of hangers later that evening.

Look! A bushel basket of harvested hangers!

Karen

EMPS: Happy Halloween Hangover

For Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot #148: Sweet Halloween Greetings, Carly wants to see a greeting that depicts Halloween treats. I think it's time we celebrate the days after Halloween, when we have all that leftover candy, and Halloween decorations to clean up. Yes, it's time for Halloween Hangover Days!



We had 22 bags left Halloween night, out of 80. John dug into some of the leftovers for Snickers bars. I had one Starburst fruit chew (not one mini-package, but one chew) on the 30th, one mini-Snickers on the 31st and one mini Almond Joy (10 grams of carbs) on the 1st. That was it for me for candy this year, at least until Christmas. I shouldn't have had that much. The rest went to the work room at the Church office, and I ate a limited quantity of grapes that day instead of more candy.



Either a wind came up overnight or a mischievous ghost went around and knocked down our tombstones, and even my raven, who had been perched on the roof of our old New Yorker. But I got it all packed up tonight, ready for next year.

Karen

EMPS: Pepper's Earth Tones

When Carly asked to see Earth Tones for the Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot, I immediately thought of my dog Pepper. Here's why:



Pepper is a digger, especially when she's got a bone or rawhide she can bury, or when she's just been groomed. And there's nothing more earth toned than dirt! Above is John's attempt at a flowerbed. He's added bricks to discourage Pepper's digging and protect the flowers, but that doesn't stop her. At all.



See what I mean? She's incorrigible!



This is the fence between us and one of our neighbors. John added the rattan or whatever it is to help hold back the dust Pepper kicks up when the dogs are running back and forth, barking wildly. This happens pretty much every night and every morning, and who knows how many times during the day when we're not here. There! I just heard Pepper out there howling!



Here's the Trouble Dog herself, considering her options. Notice the cement blocks John has placed next to the rattan. I'm not sure whether that's to hold the rattan up or fill in holes that Pepper dug. Probably both!

We have a few theories. One is that Pepper is trying to keep bones and such away from Cayenne, so she can have them later. She's been known to carry the things around for days on end, and even try to bury them in the couch or the bedclothes. Sometimes she gets so anxious about the buried treasure that he asks to go out in the middle of the night to guard it.

The other theory is that, as a furry dog intended to herd reindeer, she likes to make a nest of cool dirt. Both are true, I think.

Karen

EMPS: foregrounds and backgrounds on the grounds

For Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot #146: Foregrounds And Backgrounds, Carly wants to see "an image that shows one or the other in fine detail, while keeping the other in enough focus to tell what it is." I was at St. Michael's today to get photos of the walkway to the church door, which we need for an event flyer or a brochure or something. (I'm not the one doing it, only providing the picture.) I love photographing the church grounds, which can be quite a challenge because it's hard to get the right lighting, and the trees tend to block views of the building. It occurred to me that it was a good subject for this foreground-background thing.









Oh, and for the extra credit, Carly wanted the same subject with the "opposite effect." I'm interpreting that to mean that neither the foreground nor the background is particularly in focus! With a little fudging, I came up with this:



Karen

EMPS: Pumpkins and Scarecrows

Carly wants to see autumn decorations for the Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot, and also wants to know whether we think scarecrows are cute or creepy. Well, I'd say that the ones at St. Michael's are definitely on the cute side!





I also get this shot of "heirloom" pumpkins (old fashioned, non hybridized ones) at Trader Joe's. Taking photos there is not allowed, but I snuck in a shot anyway!



Karen

EMPS: Puppy (and Kitty) Love

This week's Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot topic was "Pick an Emotion," and I was almost certain I'd be photographing doggie emotions, mostly because I'm shy about asking people to let me photograph them. But today was the Blessing of the Animals at St. Michael's, and the emotions most on display were on the faces of the pet owners. Check it out!









The emotion is obvious, isn't it? It's love, the love of a human for a pet. Yes, it's mixed with other emotions, mostly pride and joy. But most of what I saw today, despite the dark church and my shaky camera technique while holding two leashes and looking at a dead battery warning light, was clearly Love.

Oh, and the cat photos were taken just before my dogs started barking at them...!



One last shot, and it represents the photo I didn't get. During the Eucharistic Prayer. John (the teenager walking in front here) was kneeling before the altar, and lifting the candle (torch, in ecclesiastic parlance) at specific moments in the ritual. The crucifer (the person who holds the cross on a pole) held the leash meanwhile, but the dachshund was able to reach John's feet, and at one point climbed onto John's calves. Eventually John completed his torch raising duties with one hand while scratching his dog with the other. The calf jump was the cutest thing I've ever seen at church, but I could never have gotten a decent photo from my vantage point, a good twenty feet away! So instead here's a photo of the walk back to the sacristy after Mass was over.

Karen

EMPS: The Mermaids of Disneyland

Carly asked to see sand sculptures or mermaids, neither of which are a natural fit for life in the desert. So I went to my archives:



First off, here's Ariel, the Little Mermaid herself, photographed at Disneyland on Christmas Day 2005. There's a better than 50-50 chance that John took the photo, but I did the editing, including the framing.



More recent, but definitely my work, is this shot of the ceiling at my local Chuy's Mesquite Broiler, taken a month ago.



Finally, here's a playful composite I made from about five different photos. The scene is the submarine lagoon at Disneyland, now home to the Finding Nemo attraction. There are mermaids on the ride itself, but I got no photos of those. These are, or course, the mermaid Barbie dolls from the ceiling of Chuy's! The two subs are both from other photos taken the same day as the lagoon itself.

Incidentally, back when the original Submarine Voyage attraction first opened, there were live "mermaids" in that lagoon!

Carly also asks whether I'd rather have sand of grass between my toes. Neither would be best, but failing that I'll go for some nice, clean, dry sand. I'm allergic to grass!

Karen