Life and Flowers In Square

I've posted more photos in my currently favored square format here and here. Hope you like them. I'll be adding more as time and inspiration permit.



I really wish creativity was more of an everyday, planned, timed, slotted, and slated sort of thing. Instead, it's more like the weather, constantly changing, moving, and sometimes difficult to pin down. But it's always beautiful in whatever form it takes. And when I'm able to unfurl my humble kite—whether in the form of a paint brush, pen, or camera—and it's strong enough to withstand the unpredictable turbulence of my creativity, I am truly, truly blessed.

All done

The Hawaii honeymoon pix are all on Flickr now, compiled into a pretty little collection with this cool mosaic cover.



Whew! That was a lot of caption writing... Enjoy!

Secret cat code?

Dollie laying all over my other desk and the PC keyboard



I was writing captions for the billions of pictures I uploaded to Flickr for the honeymoon pix, Day Twelve (will it ever end?) and stopped in the kitchen to grab some more coffee and talk to Pete. When I came back, I surprised Dollie, who was on my keyboard and had written this:

\ bbbbbbbbb

```cvw222222222222222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222

(and so on for a million more 2's)

222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
11111wbv

For this photo:



I'm not sure what it means. Could it be a secret rendezvous place (in Maui, of all places) for her other cat cohorts? She seemed rather suspicious, and quickly tried to hide what she was typing with her furry body. I was on to her though, and shooed her away from the keyboard, hopefully stopping the code from being transmitted to other cats across the country.

Two can play at this game, my feline friend, two can play...



Dollie laying on my closed (and safe, for now) laptop

Days Four and Five of Honeymoon in Hawaii...

Pete in water, talking to a couple on a beach near Hanalei Bay as the sun sets, Kauai, Hawaii



...can now be seen on my Flickr page. More days to come...

UPDATE: Days Six through Ten are now uploaded, only three days to go...

ANOTHER UPDATE: They're all uploaded, so check 'em out!

Me and my Dollie-Cat

Today I decided to use one of my favorite mugs as I uploaded more of my Hawaii pix to Flickr and worked on my freelance project that's due like super soon. What mug, you ask? Why, my Dollie mug, of course! I don't remember where it came from—I think someone gave it to us?—but as you can see, the cat on the mug looks just like Dollie's mug. Ho ho ho, I crack myself up!

Anyhow, of course Dollie happened to appear as I was getting my coffee. I don't like her going on the counters (I usually shoo her off) but I let it go so I could take her picture next to my mug. She seemed rather blasé about being famous enough to appear on a mug, but that's just her, she's very humble like that. And sorry about that crud on the counter—it's the result of living with a messy husband.



What?! Has Dollie taken up smoking too? I don't think I can live with another smoker!

I'm probably very biased, but although I have three cats (Max and Dollie, who live at my house, and Ginger, who lives with my parents), I think Dollie is the absolute cutest cat in the world. Although she is sweet, hyper, friendly, funny, and super affectionate, she is also quite a scrapper. She loves nothing more than climbing and exploring, especially the dirtiest and most dangerous spots in the house—which there are many, since this rental house is old and in ill repair. I will often go in the basement to do a load of laundry and call out to her, only to see her pop up from high above, chortling in her funny little cat talk, face peering out from some duct work, completely covered in spider webs but having a grand old time.

Minutes after the above pix were taken, I heard a commotion in our creepy basement. I went down there and peered below, between the wall by the stairs and a gap near the back of the refrigerator. I saw Dollie hanging from some sort of ventilation and shimmying along a brick column.



She eventually had to let herself fall from this spot, but she calmly walked away and reappeared a second later, ready for some Fancy Feast. You would never think that a cat that is as chubby and short limbed as Dollie would be the adventurer. Max the slender and elegant model cat prefers to lounge around, but Dollie is as hardy and curious as they come.

Okay, gushing over. Back to work...

Oh yeah, check out my first three albums of Hawaii pix here. I'm still writing captions for Day Three, so you might want to check back later to look at that album, but One and Two are ready for viewing. And Days Four through Thirteen are on their way this weekend.

Here comes Hawaii

A photo from Day Two of our honeymoon in Hawaii—Pete swimming in Queen's Bath, Princeville, Kauai

I have FINALLY started going through my honeymoon photos and prepping them to upload on my Flickr page. The sheer number of photos has been a bit of a deterrent for me, I must admit. There's about 3,000 photos—yes, you heard right, 3,000—but now that I have figured out how to convert multiple files at once, I am slowly slogging through them and getting them published to my Flickr page. It's slow going, so don't expect them to all pop up overnight. I'm working on the first few days right now, and they'll be posted in albums that focus on each day of the trip. I'm hoping to be done with them during the next several days, but we'll see. I'm working on finishing a freelance project first, which of course takes priority over playing with my honeymoon pix, unfortunately.

P.S. I'll be featuring select photos from each day on vivid as I post the pix to Flickr, so check back often!

Busy bee

The gang at Ravinia

Georgia at the bakery

The bachelorette party ladies

Well, I've been a busy bee in the last three days. What a whirlwind! But it was all totally fun, and I had such a blast at each event. Here's a recap of the weekend's events:

Feist concert at Ravinia—So much fun! Lots of friends and coworkers showed up, and the food was wonderful. We had wine, cheese, fruit, crackers, and these wonderful cookies called Chocolate Rocks that Heather had made. Georgia and I spent half the time taking pictures of each other and our group, which was hilarious. The concert crowd was very laid back and hip, which was a refreshing change from the usual drunk people that harass you at most concerts. We all ogled the fabulous fashions we saw on parade, and pretty sun dresses seemed to be the outfit du jour. Feist sounded awesome and the opening act was pretty good, too.

Shopping with Georgia—This too was delightful, despite the fact we both only got about four hours of sleep and I had a rip roaring migraine. We perused the local shops in Crystal Lake (a sidewalk sale was going on) and found lots of cool and unique stuff. Georgia modeled some lovely dresses for me, and we sampled the goodies at the local bakery. I ended up buying lots of jewelry, knick knacks, and a happy little bright blue chair, which I carried through the streets back to Georgia's place. Georgia bought some really cute dresses and jewelry, and scored some pretty good deals. We seemed to run into someone Georgia knows at every store, all of whom were charming and polite. I had to run off to my parents' house to squeeze in a nap before the bachelorette party (Pete was jamming with his buddies at our house). Because I had to take off early, I missed eating lunch with Georgia, and we didn't have time to go to her favorite handmade purse store, It's My Bag. But we'll have to make up for that the next time we get together, right?

The bachelorette party—Oh lord, this was so crazy! We started out at Lalo's in Schaumburg, and we started ordering their wonderful margaritas right off the bat. Potent! The food was great, and the conversation at the table kept us all in stitches the entire time. I'll never think of Mr. Potato Head in the same way again, that's for sure! After dinner, those of us over 21 headed downtown to an undisclosed location, where we attended an interesting stripper show. There was only one other bachelorette party group there, and the bachelorette herself was rather obnoxious and agressive. Kudos to Nicole for trying to put her in her place—thanks, Nic. The gentlemen there put on a good performance, although I wish we had thought to bring antibacterial wipes...I still feel a little unclean as I write this. There were also some women of questionable character at the corner table that were REALLY getting into it with the dancers. They seemed to enjoy throwing $20's on the floor after getting bent into some rather raunchy positions by the guys, and they didn't seem to mind us watching their explicit interactions. Our group was a bit more reserved, although it got fairly hot and heavy anyhow. I'm so glad everyone was such a good sport, and just went with it and had a good time. It was definitely a memorable experience, I'll say that much.

So there you have it, the weekend wrap up. Today I slept in 'til 10:30 (which is very late for me) and awoke with the same migraine, only more intense. And a dash of nausea is adding a nice touch to my already compromised physical state. As of right now, I'm feeling like total crap, so I'm going to head over to Walgreens to pick up my migraine pills (the pharmacy was closed yesterday when I tried to get them). Fun, fun, fun!

Check out the pix from this weekend's activities on my Flickr page. (Sorry, but the bachelorette party pix are for private viewing only.)