Thoughts, like fleas, jump from man to man, but they don't bite everybody.

-- Stanislaw Jerzy Lec

HDR Photos

If you enjoyed my previous post of photos from my trip up Mount Lemmon, you might have noticed that a few of the pictures seemed to "pop out" at you more than others. You may also have noticed than some "professional" photos look better than yours, no matter how expensive a digital camera you have. And you might wonder, what are these photographers doing that you aren't? The answer is, they are creating HDR photos, arguably a step above mere digital. And the good news is, they aren't that much harder to create, and with a little extra effort, you can make HDR photos of your own.

Read more-->

Winter in Summerhaven

On a much-needed sanity day, after a thorough house-cleaning and preparation for the carpet and tile guy to clean our carpets and, yes, our tiles, I escaped in the Ford Expedition and headed for a mountain I've wanted to re-visit for the last twenty years, since my first visit there. It's Mount Lemmon, located just outside of Tucson. My first visit was up the mountain's backside; this time I would drive up the more civilized paved road, known as Catalina Highway, to the town called Summerhaven at the very top.

Read more-->

DVD Case

Visitors to our new house have been very kind not to look askance at the boxes of DVDs we have had stacked in our family room. I've been collecting DVDs for years, but of course such a collection is only useful if the DVDs in it can be easily accessed at will. In our old house, we had simply stored them alphabetically in a couple of bookcases. But I had a better solution in mind for the new house.

Read more-->

Our Kitchen

Regular readers may recall we moved into a new house...our own house...in October. I've been posting photos of its rooms as we make changes. This weekend we had our friend Greg come over to help put in some new kitchen lights, as well as a few other things.

Read more-->

Office Space

Many of you know that I work at Toyota Financial Services. (At, not for, as I am a consultant.) Partially since Toyota has been in the news lately, and partially because we can't bring in visitors (for safety reasons), and partially because I just moved to a new desk, I thought I would describe my work environment and, in general terms, what I do here.

Read more-->

Words Apart

Writing a novel constitutes a lot of hard work. Starting a novel is even tougher, because the writer anticipates all that work coming up ahead. It can be even more difficult if the previous novel hasn't yet sold. Still...a writer must write, and I've had a story I've been waiting to tell for the last 14 years. It's about a Deaf lawyer and a chimp that have learned sign language, and how the two of them together come to learn the true meaning of humanity.

Read more-->

Zachary's Second Red Belt

Today was the ceremony for Zachary's receiving his Second Red Belt in Mixed Martial Arts. This is the final belt before he actually achieves Black Belt. The ceremony is not a static affair; the participants got to display their prowess and proud parents got to take action photos.

Read more-->

Michael Starts School

I've mentioned before that Michael intended to get his doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine. That's right...my husband, the doctor! This past Wednesday his classes started. The first three days consists more of orientation than anything else; and today, Friday, spouses were invited on campus to join in the celebration. I had to work in the morning but was able to join Michael in time for the Stethoscope Ceremony, in which Michael and his classmates were formally presented with his stethoscope, blood pressure monitor, and other essentials he'll be using in class for the next four years and, hopefully, for some years after that.

Read more-->

Living With Reincarnation

Many centuries ago reincarnation was a widely accepted belief. Early philosophers and Christian fathers and saints believed in and supported that concept in their writings. There is evidence that Jesus believed in it, too--evidence that remains in the Bible.

Read more-->

Snow Day

It's an ill wind that doesn't blow some good, and an ill storm as well. The weather that just blew through Arizona didn't disappoint; it left behind several feet of snow in Flagstaff as well as bringing us almost to normal water levels in our lakes and dams. That meant that a short, two hour drive was enough to take us to a snowy place to play, which we'd been promising Zach we'd do for a couple months now. So we took it, driving up the Bee Line Highway to Payson and then a little farther, to where there was clean air, clean snow, and space for Zach and his friend, Lane, to play.

Read more-->