and in the middle

of it all, the dryer went out.  I got online to search for a new one and found exactly what I need.  A dryer.  It dries.  We bought our current dryer almost 20 years ago.  I know that's not terribly old in dryer years but it's had a few minor repairs along the way.  After the last repair, we decided that one more repair could've totaled the cost of a new dryer.  So here it is, the day I get a new dryer.

My old dryer is basic.  You pretty much get to decide how long you want the dryer set and whether or not you want to turn it on.  I know there are a lot of cool ones now but I'm pretty practical and I went into this knowing I've done fine with a basic dryer.  So when I started my online search, I found the one.  The price was good, the size was good and it dries clothes.  So we went down to Sears to check it in person and all that flew out the window.  There it was.  The new, modern dryer, sitting there in all its digital glory.  Not only was it the brand I wanted and the size I wanted, it was half off.  HALF.  It was marked to $599.  Anyone who knows me, knows that all of a sudden, that bargain was a contender.  It's so hard for me to pass on a deal.  One catch, no delivery on that one.  We left Sears with a solution.  If we could find a way to get it home, I'd get the fancy one.  Well, I didn't find a way so I went back into Sears Monday morning to get my basic dryer.  I walked by the fancy one and the $599 had been changed to $529.

(Insert Charlie Brown AAUGH! here.)

You know I'm dying inside at this point. I thought of one more option to getting it home but guess what.  It was pouring outside.  (Anyone who knows me, also knows I look for signs.)  The rain was my sign.  Besides, I started reminding myself of the reasons I wanted the basic dryer to begin with.

So, here I am at home waiting on my new plain-Jane dryer to be delivered.  It's crazy how anxious I am to do laundry.

i'm not here to

finish with the stuff we did on the house.  I'm here to discuss me, my camera and my tripod.

Last night was a blue moon.  Here you go, like any of the other moon pics I had to get.

This morning was a different story.  This morning I wanted the stars.  I grabbed the camera and tripod and adjusted my settings.  It was a little frustrating trying to get what I wanted but I later realized why it wasn't working.

You know that moment when you realize it isn't the camera and tripod that are moving but it's actually the planet?  I do.  And guess what.  That's what happens when you're standing there waiting for the shutter to open and close.

In my defense, the picture wasn't this big so all I could tell was that my stars were blurry.

i have a little

free time so I'll write a little about a few of the changes that have been made around here.

It all started with the floors.

A few years ago we tore out our carpet and put wood down.  We never finished.  There were issues.  There were matters of my measures and cuts as well as transition pieces.  When we decided to have a party for my cousin, I knew I had to decide on something and get it done.  So I figured out what I would do.

1. On all the pieces between wood and tile flooring, I would put a wood strip.  (One of the T-shaped things that matches the flooring.)
2. Between the white trim and wood I would put quarter round to paint white.
3. The main issue I had... a tile step-down to the wood, that I decided to use the quarter round that matched the flooring and put it between the white quarter round.  That might be a little hard to understand but you'll see a pic in a minute.

So I called someone to do the job and he measured and told me how much of what to get.  Simple.  Next step, call Lumber Liquidators (where I bought my flooring) for the coordinating trim.  Here's where it gets fun.  While they did have the 6' piece of quarter round I needed at the tile step-down, they didn't have the T pieces I needed for the tile (I don't remember how much it was exactly but I know I needed about 36'.)  The closest store was New Jersey.  Now what?  I decided I couldn't have the matching bamboo but would have to buy the stuff from Home Depot and stain it to match.  Yuck, but okay.  Wrong again.  I couldn't find it anywhere.  Just when I was about to pay WAY too much and have the stuff shipped from New Jersey with Lumber Liquidators, I remembered a carpet store pretty close to my house.  If they offered wood, they probably offered trim.  I went in and not only did they have it but they stained it for me at no extra cost.  I knew it would be different because my floors are bamboo and the trim is not AND I really didn't think the stain was matchable.  (In my house it looks like it has a little mahogany in it but in the store you see definite green and black... it's weird.)

Anyway, I ended up saving more money that way and now my floor is finished.  Here's my solutions.

The T's between the wood and tile

the threshold and quarter round painted white 

and the quarter round at the step-down from the tile.  What was originally going to be a piece of coordinating quarter round put down between the trim's quarter round ended up being one long piece.  I taped off the ending points of the trim and painted white, then did the same with the stain.

This is where a discovery was made.  I might not be the best at painting or any of this home improvement stuff but my stained quarter round matches REALLY well with the bamboo.  Seriously, look at my stain compared to the others.  I might have missed my calling.  Once I realized what a whiz I am at stain matching and blending, I went over some of the stuff they did.  (Not much, just a few touch ups)

And that was most of the flooring situation.  In my next post, if the wounds aren't still too fresh, I'll try to explain how the trim turned into almost everything else being painted.  There really is a good explanation.

so i'm still not

giving a play-by-play of the work on the house.  That's one of those stories where it wears me out just thinking about where to start.  It will happen one day, I'm pretty sure.  For now though, let's talk about some weather we had yesterday.

Cosme stayed a little late at work because he had originally planned on a flying lesson at 7.  Well the email finally came that there was bad weather so it was cancelled.  He waited a little longer, hoping to miss traffic.  Although he got caught in a little on I-10, it was 288 where the biggest problem was.  Rain.  Serious rain.  He said everyone was driving with their hazards on and the people that weren't pulled over were barely moving.  He couldn't believe it wasn't raining here.  He was telling me how bad it looked and finally asked me to look up for any warnings.  There were a few and for the area he was driving through.  I went out to take a few panoramic pics of the clouds coming.  They were grainy and bad but I wanted to get the full effect of those crazy lines of clouds.

After getting the full effect with that view, it only took a few seconds for me to realize I wanted the camera for this.

And after a few of those, I ran to the garage for the tripod because I needed that shutter speed opened more.  There was a lot of lightening in that storm and I was determined to catch some.  This is what I got.  It's not the best or most visible, but I got some.

I thought it was pretty cool too how I couldn't really tell what was going on because it was so dark but when lightening would flash in different areas and light up the sky, I could see where the rain was pouring down.

And after all the lightening passed, cars started shooting laser beams down the street.  Kidding.  It all goes back to the slow shutter speed... I hope.

And of all that nastiness, we got a few sprinkles and some wind.  Good news, bad news I guess.

slowly but

surely I will recover.  Remember when I gave notice a while back about how neglected this blog would  be and how much I would have going on?  It was amplified.  Not only did the blog get neglected but so did the photography workshop I was in the middle of.  And basically, I feel like I've had a hangover for about a week now.  I have been worn out, totally exhausted.  When I mentioned having a lot coming up on my schedule, I hadn't planned on any house remodeling.  That's when I got kicked in the butt.  Everything was leading up to the party we had for my cousin and I barely made it through the party.  Several times I went to my room just to lie on the bed in darkness, wondering if anyone would notice if I was missing.  I mean there were four other hostesses.  Like I said, I barely made it through the party but once I did, I didn't move.  I slept almost all the next day, not moving from my new couch.  It's been crazy and I have been totally zoned out.  If you've talked to me or been around me lately and I've seemed a little spacey or loopy, there was no seeming to that, I have been.

Today's the day when I have to get back on track.  I've done almost no cooking over the last few weeks so today's the day where I have to go to the store to restock and get back to moving.

I will try to post a few pictures tomorrow but for now I'm off.